BNW News Round-up
BNW
Pride of Africa
Thursday 29 January 2004
North Korea offers
Nigeria
missile technology
North Korea has
agreed to share missile technology with Nigeria, the
federal government said yesterday — a deal that would take the secretive
communist nation's missile business to sub-Saharan Africa. If the
deal goes through, Nigeria would
join Libya, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan and Syria among
countries reported to have received North Korea's help
with either missiles or missile technology. Nigeria, which is not at war or
under any known threat from other countries, said any missile help would be
used for "peacekeeping" and to protect its territory. It said it was
not seeking nuclear technology or weapons of mass destruction.
A Nigerian official said no hardware acquisitions had yet been made or decided.
The government did not say whether Nigeria,
West Africa's military giant, would obtain
missiles or simply receive help making them. North
Korea largely exports "simple,
robust" Scud missile technology — not up-to-date, but useful for countries
with relatively unsophisticated militaries, said Rose Gottemoeller of the
Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Weapons sales are
a major source of revenue for financially strapped North
Korea, but it is unusual for one of
its clients to talk about a transaction publicly.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar reached the accord with Yang Hyong Sop, the
visiting vice president of North
Korea's Presidium of the Supreme
People's Assembly, Abubakar's spokesman, Onukaba Ojo said. The two committed to
a "programme of cooperation that includes missile technology," Ojo
said. A statement from Abubakar's office said the Nigerian "government would
continue to cooperate with the Korean government in the defence sector, an area
in which both Nigeria and North
Korea had cooperated over the
years." The North Korean was in Abuja, on a
bilateral visit from Tuesday to Saturday. The United
States alleges that Pyongyang reaped
about $560 million from missile sales in 2001. The deal made public yesterday
takes the North Koreans well out of their normal selling base, the Mideast,
Gottemoeller said. "What is surprising is that they're so far
afield," she said.
Nigeria would
be North Korea's
first known sub-Saharan partner. Ojo initially said both sides were committed
to the deal, but later said that "nothing was written in stone."
Although North Korean officials had shown their Nigerian military counterparts
a "catalog of what they have, nothing has been finalised and Nigeria has
not taken any concrete steps toward acquiring it yet," Ojo said adding
that he had not seen the catalog and did not know what kinds of missiles
or other weapons were in it. "This is just a memorandum of understanding.
No action has been taken yet," Ojo added.
Nigeria hopes
the United States and
other Western nations opposed to North Korean nuclear and weapons proliferation
would respect the deal, Ojo said. "We are a sovereign nation. We should be
able to cooperate with any nation we wish to cooperate with as long as it is in
the best interests of Nigeria," he added, stressing Nigeria "is not
shopping around for nuclear technology or weapons of mass destruction."
"Whatever we are discussing with them is only to enhance the capability of
our military for peacekeeping and to protect Nigeria's territorial
integrity," Ojo added. Nigeria's
military supplies much of the manpower of regional peace missions. Ojo declined
to say what possible peacekeeping use missiles would have. President Olusegun
Obasanjo and the North Korean official met yesterday on economic matters.
"As far as I know, there was no discussion on defence or military
matters," Obasanjo spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.
US pressures
Nigeria on North
Korea missile offer
The United
States yesterday cautioned Nigeria against
dealing with North
Korea, after an envoy from the
Stalinist state peddled advanced missile technology during a visit to Abuja. The
State Department said it had seen reports of the episode, but also noted Nigeria's hints
that it had no interest in buying ballistic technology from Pyongyang.
Referring to the announcement — as well as press reports that
Nigeria later
turned down the offer — U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said:
"Obviously, this issue of regional stability and military acquisition is
something that we do care about, something that's a regular part of our
dialogue with Nigeria. We'd
welcome a decision to turn down any such offers from North
Korea. We want to stop North
Korea's missile activities. And
we've gone to many countries to try to encourage them not to buy. So that would
be the right decision, if that's indeed the decision they've made." Kim
Jong-Il's regime which US
President George W. Bush has dubbed a member of an "axis of evil"
earns much of its hard currency by selling and swapping missile and weapons
secrets.
Spokesperson for Nigeria's vice
president Onukaba Ojo insisted that Abuja's
talks with Pyongyang should
not give Washington cause
to worry, and promised that Nigeria was
not at all interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction. "I'm sure
that Nigeria is not
dreaming of nuclear weapons at all, just missile technology," he said, adding
that a "multi-use foundry" also discussed at Tuesday's meeting would
be for civilian use. "If you're acquiring technology for peaceful purpose
I don't think that should make our allies uneasy." Ojo said that missiles
would add to Nigeria's
defensive capabilities. "Nigeria has a
very formidable military ... I'm sure it's not out of place to want to fortify
ourselves. Nigeria is not
a belligerent nation, we don't make wars," he said. "Anything we do
is for the defence of our country and peacekeeping in west Africa," he
said.
The
United States, which
considers Nigeria a
friend, would be highly irritated by any decision by Abuja to
acquire North Korean ballistic missiles. Bush visited Abuja last
year and praised Obasanjo for his leadership within Africa. Some
15 percent of the United States' crude
oil needs are supplied by Nigeria's
burgeoning oil industry. Washington is
locked in a bitter political standoff with its Stalinist foe over its nuclear
ambitions and international arms sales. North
Korea has developed missiles capable
of carrying warheads as far as Japan and is
reported to have shared its technology with Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and
Saddam Hussein's former Iraqi regime.
Military aircraft crashes in Kano, 2
feared dead
A military jet crashed into fields near a farming village in
the north of the country yesterday, killing at least one of its pilots,
witnesses and officials said. The aircraft crashed outside Yarkanya at around 12.45 am (2345
GMT Tuesday) after appearing to lose control before clipping a tree and
bursting into flames, 40-year-old farmer Isa Musa told reporters.
No-one was hurt on the ground. "We were terrified when we heard the noise.
We couldn't help. We've never seen this kind of terror before," he said.
"Our luck is that it didn't fall on our houses." Villagers saw
one badly burned corpse dragged from the wreckage by airforce personnel who
arrived later at the scene, 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of the northern city
of Kano.
Airforce personnel had already removed the wreckage from the crash site when
reporters arrived, but a streak of brush had been scorched by the fireball. A
worker at Kano
airport told reporters that two pilots had been killed in the crash. The
Nigerian airforce's French-built Alpha-Jet trainer seats two, although it is
yet to be confirmed what type of 'plane was involved.
"It happened earlier this morning. It is a military trainer aircraft.
There are no details yet," Aviation Minister Isa Yuguda told reporters. An
airforce spokesman also confirmed the incident, but had no further details. On May 4, 2002 a
civilian airliner ploughed into another suburb of Kano after
getting into difficulties after take-off. A total of 148 people were killed in
the plane and on the ground. The worst previous Nigerian plane accident was
also at Kano. In
January 1973, a chartered Boeing 707 carrying pilgrims back from Mecca
skidded off the runway and caught fire, killing 176.
The last major Nigerian air crash occurred in November 1996, when a Nigerian
Boeing 727 flying from Port Harcourt to Lagos crashed, leaving all 142
passengers and nine crew members on board dead. In November 2001, a Boeing
747 cargo plane crashed in Port
Harcourt, killing two crew members and
injuring five others. Air safety standards in Nigeria are
often criticized by passengers while some foreign embassies have forbidden
staff from flying on some domestic airlines. Nigeria
deregulated its airline industry in the mid-1980s and many companies sprang up
to challenge the monopoly of state carrier Nigeria Airways. Concerns have been
raised about the use of older aircraft used by the dozen or so local airline
companies.
Last year the government announced a ban on the use of aircraft older than 22
years, a move that triggered strong protests from private local airline
operators. EAS Airlines is one of several airliners servicing the country's
domestic air routes. Between October 1998 and December 1999, the company took
delivery of four BAC 1-11-500s. Nigeria's
heavily competitive domestic carriers have been locked in a price war in recent
months. Some Nigerians have feared maintenance would suffer as a result.
Justice minister opens debate on death penalty
The federal Government has begun a national debate on
whether or not the death penalty should be abolished. The debate will be taken
to all parts of the country to allow interested individuals and groups to give
their views on the issue. Opinions collated during the debate will form the
government's position on whether or not to abolish the death penalty. Attorney
general and Justice Minister Akin Olujimi has initiated the national debate to
see how Nigerians feel about the issue.
"It is part of my reform agenda to excite a national debate on this issue
to see whether it is possible we can agree on a common approach to this
matter," he said. "We will take the debate around, it would not just
be in Lagos
alone... so that we can take the views of everybody." The first in the
series of national debates on the issue took place in Lagos.
Several interest groups presented conflicting positions on the issue. The
Nigerian prisons service gave its position on the issue by citing the old adage
that those who kill by the sword should die by the sword. But human rights
groups hold a contrary position. Chuma Ubani is head of the Civil Liberties
Organization, Nigeria's
largest human rights group.
"No form of punishment can be more inhuman; can be more unusual than the
death penalty," he said. "One of the arguments we have against the
death penalty is that once the punishment is inflicted it is final and, if it
is found that it was done in error, there can be no remedy." Reactions
from a cross-section of Nigerians show how sharply divided the country is on
the issue. "The death penalty is good for people who have killed because
it will serve as deterrent to other people," one person said. But another
disagreed.
"I am opposed to death penalty. I think it should be removed from our
statues books because it does not actually deter [as shown in] findings, from statistics,"
another Nigerian said. Nigerians are so divided over the death penalty issue
that anger has been expressed in some quarters. Some angry Muslims say the
government intends to abolish the death penalty to prevent them from fully
implementing Islamic law. Islamic, or Sharia law - which is practised in
northern Nigeria -
allows for the death penalty.
Justice Minister Akin Olujimi agrees that, given the divergent views Nigerians
hold, the death penalty issue is a sensitive matter. However he says all views
will be taken into consideration before a decision is taken on the matter.
"Even if you have a strong opposition to abolition of death penalty, the
only thing we expect you to do is to come forward and press your views,"
he said. "We will listen to you, we will consider it. It is not as if
anybody is going to take a decision without considering the views of the
majority of Nigerians." For now, the national debate continues. At
present, 487 people are awaiting execution in Nigerian prisons. If they knew
about the debate at all, they would surely be anxious about its outcome.
Govt to quell Muslim fears & resume polio jabs
The federal government said yesterday that it hoped to restart
a drive to protect millions of children against polio within two weeks, after
reassuring Muslim leaders that the vaccine is safe. Health Minister Eyitayo
Lambo also told reporters that the crippling disease had spread from Nigeria into
neighbouring countries after opposition from radical Muslims halted a mass
immunisation programe. Some clerics in Nigeria's
Islamic north have alleged that the vaccine has been laced with reproductive
hormones as part of a Western-led plot to depopulate Africa, a claim
denied by the World Health Organisation.
Interviewed yesterday, some Muslim leaders and doctors said they still have
concerns, but had agreed to conduct a new round of tests in collaboration with
the government and the WHO. Lambo said he had been in contact with Nigeria's
supreme Islamic body, the Jamatul Nasir Islam (JNI), which last week announced
that its own expert tests had upheld allegations that the oral vaccine was
polluted. "We are in touch with the JNI and we are putting in place
some arrangement whereby, over the next week or two, we will come together,
undertake an arrangement together for once and for all," Lambo said.
"We believe that within the next two weeks, we will be able to come
together and announce to Nigerians that we have to move ahead with the polio
campaign," he said, following a weekly cabinet meeting.
If Lambo's move succeeds, it will come as an immense relief to international
health officials, who had warned that a polio outbreak in Nigeria has
endangered a worldwide drive to eradicate polio this year. An official of Nigeria's own
National Programme of Immunisation told reporters that 328 young people were
infected by polio last year in 23 of 36 states, focused around the
northern city of Kano. And
Eyitayo confirmed that "some countries around us that were hitherto
polio-free for two years have been re-infected by the strains of the polio
virus from Nigeria, namely Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso and Ghana." Last
year the WHO warned that delays in Nigeria's
immunisation drive had put 15 million children in neighbouring countries at
risk and had endangered the success of a worldwide drive to eradicate polio.
But in the northern city of Kano, now
the epicentre of the world's most deadly polio outbreak, the doubts of the
radical clerics have been supported by an expert committee set up to test the
vaccine. Lawal Alassan Bichi, a pharmacologist who headed Kano State's
committee, said that his team had found the reproductive hormones oestrogen and
progesterone in samples of the WHO's oral vaccine. But yesterday he said
that government and the WHO had argued that the amounts of contaminant detected
in Kano's
tests were insignificant, and that his team had therefore agreed to support a
new round of tests. ''A six-man committee has been set up to conduct
another tests on the polio vaccines in and outside Nigeria with the hope that
the outcome of the tests may be the final solution to the controversy," he
said.
"What we want is understanding, because nobody loves our children more than
we do" he said, recalling that similar controversies have erupted during
other vaccination drives around the world. "We are doing this with
the fullest sense of responsibility and knowing fully well the implication of
our statements," he insisted. "Our dilemma is if we vaccinate our
children with adulterated drugs we are doing them harm and if we refuse to
vaccinate them on a false premise we are also doing them harm," he said.
Obasanjo, Biya to meet Annan over Bakassi
The leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon will meet UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan in Geneva on Saturday to review progress on their deal to
end a long-standing boundary dispute, the United Nations announced. The meeting
will be the third between Annan, President Paul Biya of Cameroon and his
Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo since the UN chief stepped in to
encourage both countries to follow an International Court of Justice ruling in
2002, the UN said in a statement Wednesday.
The ICJ awarded Cameroon the
ownership of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, a 1,000 square kilometre (385
square mile) patch of swamp jutting into the Gulf
of Guinea. Nigeria ceded
32 villages in a patch of territory near Lake
Chad to its neighbour last month while Cameroon handed
back one village. The last time the trio met, in Geneva in November 2002, both
presidents agreed to form a joint commission to set out an agreed boundary,
manage the transfer of land, spur development projects and demilitarise the
Bakassi peninsula. "The mixed commission has made significant
progress since its inception," according to a UN briefing note. The
UN-headed commission is due to discuss the maritime border between the two
countries at its next meeting in February.
In Brief
A group of businessmen sponsored the attempted
murder of Dora Akunyili, the Director-General of National Agency for Food and
Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) a prime suspect is reported to have
confessed to policemen. The suspect Nnamdi Nnakwe who surrendered to the police
after being declared wanted said the job would have fetched N10 million.
Violent piracy on the high seas has soared and more ships are being hijacked to
kidnap the crew for ransom, an ocean crime watchdog said yesterday. Bangladesh was
ranked as having the highest number of attacks in 2003 with 58 and Nigeria came
third with 39. Attacks off Nigeria almost
tripled compared to the previous year and the International Maritime Bureau
(IMB) regards it as the most dangerous area in Africa for
piracy and armed robbery. The IMB said the number of reported ship attacks
jumped to 445 in 2003, 20 percent higher than the previous year and the second
highest level since it began compiling statistics in 1991. The number of
seafarers killed also climbed to 21, with another 71 crew or passengers listed
as missing, while 88 were injured. This compared to 10 killed and 38 injured
the previous year.
Libya wants
to organise a special African Union summit on February 27 and 28 to discuss
water, agriculture and common African defense issues, its foreign minister said
Sunday. Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgam said during a visit to Dijbouti
that his north African nation would host the meeting. Shalgam told journalists
that during his visit, he and Djibouti's
President Ismael Omar Guelleh had discussed Libya's
pledge to give up its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, its
evolving relations with Britain and
the United States and Somalia peace
talks ongoing in Kenya.
Shalgam is due to travel Sunday from Djibouti to the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, site
of the African Union headquarters, before returning to Tripoli.
Many of Nigeria's top
players who play in Europe are
now at the African Cup of Nations, but as always there were goals from those
staying in Europe. Former Super Eagles
striker Victor Ikpeba scored his first goal for his new club Charleroi
in Belgium and his Togolese team mate Adekamni Olufade grabbed two as
they helped beat Genk 4-3. Another Nigerian on target was Mohammed Aliyu
Datti for Standard Liege in their 1-1 draw with Lokeren. In Holland
Nigeria's Tosin Dosumnu netted a late winner for Westerlo in their 2-1
victory over Antwerp and in Italy, Nigeria's Ayodele Makinwa scored the
equaliser for Modena against Inter Milan in a 1-1 draw.
Sports
Eagles coach Chukwu wins vote of confidence
Sports minister Musa Mohammed has declared his confidence in
the ability of Super Eagles manager Christian Chukwu, despite the Cup of
Nations defeat to Morocco.
Nigeria, among the favourites for this year's crown, were beaten 1-0 in their
opening game on Tuesday. But Mohammed said "I still have confidence
in Chukwu." He added: "I think that the team Chukwu presented for the
match against Morocco is the
best that the country can present at the moment. It was unfortunate that we
lost, but in football sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I think that if
Chukwu and the players are given a bit of a push, we will be alright in the
next two games," Mohammed said.
But the sports minister insisted that the Super Eagles ultimately require the
services of an expatriate coach, as long as the Nigeria Football Association
(NFA) can raise the funds to pay his salary. "If we are going to have a
foreign coach, the Nigeria Football Association must show that they have the
funds to foot the bill. Unless we change the policy, it is not the
responsibility of the government to pay for a foreign coach," Mohammed
said.
The sports minister denied interfering in the daily running of the NFA, which
would go against Fifa regulations that protect football associations from
governmental interference. But Mohammed said that he reserves the right to
ensure that NFA secretary-general Taiwo Ogunjobi, who is the body's chief
executive, does a proper job of managing Nigerian football. If he [the
secretary-general of the NFA] is doing things wrong we have to put him right.
Don't forget that the ministry appointed the secretary-general."
With immense pressure on Chukwu and NFA officials to earn their passage to the
knockout stages of the Nations Cup, Mohammed did not rule out the dissolution
of the NFA board should they fail to live up to expectations in Tunisia.
"Let's wait and see. For now, all I have in my mind is for Nigeria to win
this cup and I think they are still going to do that," Mohammed said.
Oruma axe baffles coach
Nigeria's
assistant manager Austin Eguavoen believes midfielder Wilson Oruma should have
been given a chance to fight for a place in the squad. Oruma was omitted from
the Super Eagles' Cup of Nations squad, a situation former captain Equavoen was
not happy with. "I feel very bad about Oruma not being given a chance to
fight for a place in this team," Eguavoen said.
"Left to me, Oruma would have a place in this team or at least been given
a chance to fight for a shirt." Eguavoen admitted that Oruma, who plays
for French first division side Sochaux, has been in good form but said he was
unable to persuade manager Christian Chukwu to extend an invitation to Oruma.
"I talked about Oruma's inclusion with the manager, as did Bitrus Bewerang
(Nigeria's
other assistant coach). We discussed this matter before we went to Portugal and he
said that we would talk about it more when we got there. When we raised the
matter in Portugal, he
felt that Oruma, Nwankwo Kanu and Jay-Jay Okocha all played in central midfield
and that there was no room for three central midfielders in the squad, so Oruma
had to be left out. As Chukwu is the manager of this team, the final decision
rests with him," Eguavoen said.
Eguavoen also declared he was surprised by the decision of Kanu to travel from England for a
personal appearance at a promotional event for a milk company in Nigeria.
"I was not aware that Kanu was in Nigeria until
he was in Lagos,"
Eguavoen said. Kanu's colleagues were in Portugal preparing
for the Cup of Nations at the time he made the surprise trip, which was after
the official deadline for reporting for international duty. The midfielder's
conduct has raised questions over the level of discipline amongst national team
members, as the Arsenal player had only been given leave to remain in England to
play Premiership and Cup games. From the outside, people looking in would think
that there is a lack of discipline [in the national team]," Eguavoen said.
"I can understand why people are unhappy with this behaviour. But this is
a matter for the manager," Eguavoen said.
Have Your Say
A sleeping Senate?
January 21 2004
Editorial Opinion The Punch Newspaper
Against the disappointing performance of the upper legislature in the first
term of the present administration, Nigerians had thought that the incumbent
Senate would improve on its dismal record and diminished integrity. The public
had expected that the Adolphus Wabara-led Senate would take up the gauntlet and
embark on people-friendly laws, or review/amend existing ones that can no
longer stand the test of time. Most importantly, Nigerians had hoped that the
Senate would perform its oversight functions without fear or favour and contain
the nation’s overbearing executive arm of government.
Unfortunately, those hopes now seem misplaced as the Senate has relapsed to the
old order. Neither has it weaned itself from the scourge of graft scandals, as
was evident in the 2003 bribery allegation against Senators Ibrahim Mantu and
Jonathan Zwingina by the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir
el-Rufai. Many still levy charges of blackmail and arm-twisting demands from
the executive on the Senate. Perhaps as a means of shielding itself, the
National Assembly had barely assumed office last year when it contemplated a
nine-point code of ethics for the press, with the intent to curtail a free
coverage of its activities. It erected a daylight wedge on press freedom to
further shield the government from probity. The repressive proposal was
withdrawn, however, following public outrage.
Worse still, many Nigerians are quick to dismiss today’s Senate as no more than
the Presidency’s rubber stamp. President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, in a recent press interview, said President Olusegun
Obasanjo told him that much. This, perhaps, explains the complacence of the
Senate in the face of harsh policies foisted on the people by the Federal
Government, which have aggravated poverty and compounded the people’s misery. A
good example is FG’s policy of incessant upward review of fuel prices which has
led to frequent hikes (about five times) in the pump prices of petroleum
products since May
29, 1999.
With each passing day unfolds the reality that Nigerians may not fare better
with this Senate, whose leadership, right from inception, has been battling
more for survival than lawmaking. The entire Senate is currently in a frenzy
with the intrigues of appointing committee chairmen. The 109-member Senate has
as many as 54 committees.
And despite the overwhelming oversight powers granted it by the 1999
Constitution, the Senate remains helpless and appears overwhelmed. The nation’s
efforts to move forward have consistently been sabotaged by its federalist
hypocrisy, ethno-religious violence and instability for many years, with a
strong indication that nothing may work except the system is restructured. Till
date, the Senate is yet to make any significant progress in reviewing the
military constitution the country inherited in 1999, which constitutes part of
the nation’s problem. Nor has it contributed much to redressing the nation’s
unfair revenue sharing formula that has made the centre too powerful and
corrupt.
Besides, several sensitive bills passed by the upper chamber have been denied
assent by the President, without any good challenge by the Senate, despite the
National Assembly’s constitutional power of veto over the President. They
include the 2003 Appropriation Bill, Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy Abolition Bill,
NEPA Reform Bill, etc. Many other bills have been moving back and forth from
the Senate, without proper attention.
Since the controversial N1.50 fuel tax was imposed on the nation, only the
House of Representatives has raised its voice on the side of the people, while
the upper chamber has been sitting on the fence. It appears the House has
assumed the leadership of the legislature at a time the Senate seems to have
compromised its integrity. Indeed, with this kind of docile and lacklustre
Senate, what purpose does it serve the nation to maintain a bicameral
legislature, considering the nation’s dwindling resources? The nation needs a
responsive legislature to check dictatorship and ensure the delivery of
democracy dividend to the people. Democracy loses its direction and benefits in
the absence of a virile legislature.
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