Nigeria to experience uninterrupted power supply from December – Presidency

The Federal Government has assured that the country would soon bid final farewell to power outages beginning from December, 2012 just as it has plans to generate 5,400 mega watts from the current 4,400 mega watts.
Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe told newsmen in Abuja that president Jonathan is no doubt leaving up to expectation on his election promises.
According to Okupe, the 5,400 mega watts target will be actualize following the arrangement by the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, to add 1,000MW the current 4,400 as against the little above 1,900MW before the president assumed office.
He said: “When the President assumed office, the energy capacity of the country at that time ranged between 1,900 megawatts to some 2,200 megawatts. The Independent Power Projects, 10 of them were grounded and nearly moribund, but today Nigeria is generating in excess of 4,400 megawatts of electricity.
“Some cynics have said this is due to high level of water in the hydro generating plants in Shiroro and Kanji. This isn’t true.
“I can tell you authoritatively that why it is true that every year there is a marginal increase in power supply, because of the increased contribution in the hydro plants, that cannot account for the 15 hours or so that is being currently enjoyed in many parts of the country.
Speaking further, Okupe added that: “The reason for this additional increase is coming from the NIPP that are now adding between 600 and 800 megawatts to the national grid. That’s what is responsible for this new improvement and between now and December, we are expecting nearly an additional 1,000 megawatts, because of increase and an arrangement that have been made for purchase and supply of gas to some of these NIPP projects. More areas will enjoy longer hours of electricity supply by December.”
DailyPost.

More former militants demand contracts from Jonathan

Ex-militants from Akwa Ibom who accepted the federal government’s amnesty have protested their exclusion from the NNPC surveillance contracts awarded to ex-militant groups led by Tompolo, Boyloaf, Ateke Tom and Asari Dokubo.
The group under the aegis of “Ex-militants Forum of Akwa Ibom State” in a petition to the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, questioned the rationale for excluding the state from the contracts.
The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan doles out almost $40 million annually to four of Niger Delta’s top former warlords as protection fee for oil pipelines they used to attack in the region.
According to the report tagged “Nigeria’s Former Oil Bandits Now Collect Government Cash”, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pays the warlords a total of $39.5 million annually.
The payment includes the contract awarded to former warlord Government “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo to protect oil pipelines by Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). Dokubo Asari who confirmed receiving $9 million a year to pay his 4,000 “foot soldiers” to guard oil pipelines.
Two other former warlords, “Gen” Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and “Gen” Ateke Tom, get $3.8 million each under the arrangement.
The petition entitled “Letter of Stern Complaint: Exclusion of Akwa Ibom state From NNPC Pipeline Surveillance Contract” and signed by Mr. Ubong Utin and Ex-Gen. Kingsley Umoh on behalf of the group observes that the NNPC had been implementing a pipeline surveillance contract which offers reasonable employment opportunities to oil and gas producing states: “Under the programme, Bayelsa State is offered 3,000, Rivers State 4,000 and Delta 5,000 slots respectively while Akwa Ibom with the highest oil production quantum is deliberately left out.”
“We make bold to state here that the effect of this lopsided decision and deliberate neglect of our people will result in anarchy and revolt,” the group warned, pointing out that they had employed measures to douse rising tension from the ex-militants who were agitating for employment under the NNPC scheme and called on the corporation to address the alleged marginalisation.
The group maintained that their knowledge of the state waterways, estuaries and deep water territories should be of immense advantage to the surveillance contract and argued that their inclusion would discourage a return to criminality.
The forum expressed its readiness not to support oil and gas production and exploration activities in the state because they are excluded from the surveillance contract.
It added that the services of its members would complement the efforts of the security agencies in protecting oil installations in the Niger Delta and that it hoped that their concerns would be addressed within two weeks.
 
Source: Leadership

“You are entitled to your own opinions” – Presidency blasts Obasanjo over comment on N5,000 note

Following his recent assertion that the introduction of N5, 000 note as planned by CBN would cause inflation and kill small businesses, the Presidency has described former president, chief Olusegun Obsanjo as an ordinary Nigerian who has the right to comment on issues of national importance, noting that the Federal Government was not wrong in its approval of the denomination.
According to the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, “Obasanjo, as an “ordinary” individual had the freedom to speak on issues.”

He said: “Obasanjo is an ordinary citizen. He has the right to speak on issues of national importance, but his views are not sacrosanct. But Obasanjo has right to his own opinion.”

While reproving criticisms by opposition parties that the introduction of the higher denomination would cause inflation noted in an  interaction with experts that  it would not have negative effects on the nation’s economy.

He said, “It is a project of the Central Bank of Nigeria and it is also important to carry people along. From my investigation and discussion with experts, there is no assurance that it will lead to inflation.
“There is $1000 bill in the United States and that has not negatively affected the economy there.
“It is not carried by all Americans, but by those who need it. The N5000 note will also be like that. We should not dissipate energy on that.
“We over-politicise issues in this country. This note will not affect the cashless policy of the government as being speculated in some quarters as well.”

The medical doctor turned politician however, assured that the reports of all the committees and sub-committees set up by the president would soon be made known to the public.
DailyPost.

Tinubu Departs US amid Speculation of Possible Investigation over ‘Gold Card’ Invite

FORMER Lagos governor, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have left the United States, hurriedly, at the weekend in order to avoid being questioned by the American authorities for allegedly trumping a false “gold card invitation” to attend the Democratic National Committee’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week.
Tinubu, a two-term governor of Lagos who was also a senator of the failed third republic, allegedly bolted out of the United States and arrived Nigeria on Saturday in order to avoid being questioned, said our sources, for the claims made by an aide who said that Mr. Tinubu was invited in his capacity as the official leader of “opposition in Nigeria,” a claim that has since been rejected by a DNC source.
Tinubu and the said aide, Mr. Sunday Dare, have been challenged by members of the Nigerian immigrant community, both on social media outlets on Facebook where the topic has taken a life of its own, and at the convention ground, to provide invites signed by President Barack Obama to attend the event.
A response has yet to be issued by Mr. Tinubu to the serious allegations.
Instead, obvious attempts are being orchestrated to discredit sharpedgenews.com as the source of the original report published on Saturday, with claims that the report is being sponsored by Dr. Doyin Okupe, the recently appointed special assistant on publicity to President Jonathan.
Mr. Oladimeji Abitogun, the editor-in-chief of sharpedgenews.com, has strongly dispelled such notion as “ruthless, baseless and ill-conceived,” adding that “no one at sharpedgenews.com has any such contacts” with Mr. Okupe.
“While it is not impossible that certain outlets may have been employed to reproduce our initial report on this matter, we are not aware any such request and it would be foolhardy, if not irresponsible, of anyone to attempt to smear us with the charge that Aso Rock dictates story ideas or editorial contents to us,” Mr. Abitogun said.
The conduct of some of Tinubu’s aides originally triggered the irritation of the Nigerian community at the Charlotte convention. The trip was sold to the Nigerian public under the impression that the“gold card invitation” came from President Obama. It was later obvious that key members of the DNC and President Obama did not enjoy any kind of personal relationship with Mr. Tinubu – contrary to the impression given Nigerians.
The Tinubu delegation also did not enjoy the kind of VIP treatment given to the members of the diplomatic community present at the event.
Sharpedgenews.com had reported in the initial edition of this story that anyone who paid over five thousand dollars received the generic invitation to attend the convention. Exactly how much Mr. Tinubu paid or how much was paid on his behalf is not known.
However, sharpedgenews.com learned that Tinubu’s attendance at the event may have been facilitated by his Chicago contacts, contrary to the impression that a personal invitation was issued to Mr. Tinubu by President Obama.
Sharpedgenews.com further learned that it is the norm for American presidents to “minimize interactions with foreign contacts before and immediately after presidential elections,” which is another proof that it was impossible for Mr. Tinubu to have enjoyed the privilege of a personal, high-level invite from Mr. Obama.
According to sharpedgenews.com investigations, the poor handling of what should have been a private self-improving outing for Mr.Tinubu was bungled by his media team, who tried to employ the opportunity to emotionally and politically hoodwink Nigerians in the mold of what is often referred to as a “been to” in Nigeria.
In Charlotte and in London, Nigerians aware of the development could not help expressing disgust at the manner in which Sunday Dare and the publisher of African Abroad, Alex Kabbah, treated Tinubu like a tribal king.
“If the man coughed, Alex Kabbah and Sunday Dare would near of bring down the roof because someone did not make a cup of water available for Asiwaju at the right time,” one of our citizen reporters volunteered, having been assigned to closely watch the role of the Tinubu team. “Sunday Dare wind-surfed as a big suck-up,” said one of the callers who took umbrage on the initial report.
Sharpedgenews.com also observed that Tinubu was as well present at the convention of the US Republican Party which held the previous week in Tampa, Florida.
Accompanying Mr. Tinubu on the trips was Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, who was a lot more restrained and less flamboyant than the ACN leader. Mr. Dele Alake, who also attended the event with Tinubu, was also of restrained comport.
The designation of Mr. Tinubu as the official leader of opposition in Nigeria was also one of the reasons why sharpedgenews.com investigaged the so-called “gold card invitation” allegedly issued to Mr. Tinubu.
Nigeria does not operate a parliamentary system of government where an official opposition leader is recognized. How exactly Mr. Tinubu got the description as leader of opposition, when he is not an elected official remains open to debate.
Sharpedgenews.com

I Have Delivered On My Electoral Promises – Jonathan

The scathing criticism of his administration notwithstanding, President Goodluck Jonathan has scored his administration high, saying he has delivered on his electoral promises.
Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe at the weekend in Abuja, the president said that all the promises made to the electorate in 2011 were being fulfilled and stressed that posterity would vindicate him.
He said one of the promises made was electoral reform and that Nigeria should thumb its chest on the issue because the elections that had been conducted under this administration so far, had been adjudged free and fair.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has delivered on his electoral promises.  He promised electoral reforms and he offered himself as an example by conducting the freest election in the history of this country. He told his party that no one should be involved in election malpractice and that he was prepared to pack his things and go home if he lost the election. He repeatedly told everybody that it was not a do or die affair.
“The general elections conducted in the country in 2011 was the best in the history of Nigeria and you can attest that subsequent elections have also been free and fair. The People’s Democratic Party has lost some elections and the president told people not to make issues of it because he is a true democrat. It has been one man, one vote”, Okupe said.
He also mentioned power supply as another area where the Jonathan administration has recorded a success.
“When this administration came on board, power generation was between 1,900 megawatts and 2,000 megawatts and about 10 National Independent Power Projects (NIPP) were moribund. He caused the hydro power stations to increase their output and raised the contribution from the NIPP projects, taking the level of generation to about 4,400 megawatts and efforts are still on to increase by it 1,000 megawatts before December, this year. This shows that the president is delivering on promises,” he added.
From 247Nigerian news.

Northern phone users may experience six months service disruptions

by Dayo Oketola

Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC

Following last week's attacks on telecommunications infrastructure in some northern states, the operators have said subscribers may experience disruptions to services in the affected areas, DAYO OKETOLA writes

Millions of mobile telephone subscribers in the northern states of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Kano may have to contend with network outages or very poor services for the next six months.

This followed bombings of about 26 telecoms base stations in the states by members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Boko Haram had last week launched an onslaught on telecoms operators' installations, bombing and torching base stations belonging to MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, Multilinks, IHS and Helios Tower.

This development had already negatively affected the quality of telecoms services in the affected areas.

The attacks on the installations came on the heels of a recent threat by the group to attack telecoms operators for their perceived roles in helping security operatives track suspected terrorists and its members.

The telecoms operators affected by the bombings, who spoke with our correspondent, said it could take as long as six months before the affected base stations would be fixed and reconnected to the networks.

The implication of this, according to them, is that subscribers in the affected areas will experience network outages and poor services.

A manager with MTN, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said it could take six months before the damaged base stations were fixed, adding that engineers had yet to fully assess the extent of damage to the installations due to general insecurity.

He acknowledged that though security agencies were already on top of the situation, engineers were still largely afraid to go to the sites due to fear of being attacked.

The Executive Director, Commercial and Business Development, IHS, Mr. Gbenga Onakomaiya, whose company also lost some base stations to the bombings, said repairs could take six months as some of the equipment would have to be imported.

He said, "It could take as much as six months because we have to import the equipment and because of other issues. In our case we can commence restoration immediately as we have access to take equipment from our warehouse and restore between one and two months, depending on the nature of damage.

"However, security concerns and safety of our personnel is of utmost concern, as another attempt was made on another site on Saturday morning."

Onakomaiya said Saturday's attack would have seen his company losing a fourth base station, but said the attack was foiled and damage was minimised.

The President, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, had on Friday informed subscribers of the impending nationwide "consequential congestion" as a result of the bombings

According to him, some of the damaged base stations are hubs that provide services to other base stations in the region.

"If anything happens to a hub, all the subscribers in the vicinity will be adversely affected," he said.

Rising from a crucial meeting on Friday, service providers under the aegis of ALTON had said they would continue to provide unhindered telecoms services to their northern subscribers.

Adebayo said this decision was taken in tandem with the operators' licensing obligations to their subscribers.

He said, "Today, there is no gain saying the fact that telecoms services have become very key to our life. It has become the network that binds other sectors together and it has great potential for our economic growth and development.

"So, shutting down our operations will not be a meaningful measure because such an action will affect millions of people adversely. For instance, such an action, if taken, can pose serious security concerns, especially if people cannot communicate in real-time with one another, especially during emergencies."

The Chief Executive Officer, Main One Cable Company, Ms Funke Opeke, who spoke to our correspondent on the development, said the level of security as evident by last week's bombings of telecoms base stations posed severe threat to foreign direct investments expected to be attracted by the country's burgeoning ICT industry.

She reasoned that the situation could not be left in the hands of the government alone and called on all stakeholders to partner with the Federal Government to forestall future occurrences and improve the security situation in the country.

In view of the fact that telecoms operators might have lost an estimated N1.03bn to the bombings, they called on the Federal Government to increase the protection of their installations in the country.

However, the Boko Haram sect has vowed to continue the attacks on telecoms installations.

PHOTONEWS: The Culture of Waste, Corruption And Mismanagement At The National Stadium Abuja

The main pitch now

2003

The main pitch in 2003.

Saharareporters

Built at the cost of over N54 billion during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Abuja National Stadium was controversially constructed to hold the All Africa Games in 2003.
Like many public institutions the stadium is in terrible shape today as a result of neglect and mismanagement.
As shown in these photos, the National Stadium Abuja has been left to deteriorate over the years just like its counterparts in different parts of Nigeria.
The main pitch of the stadium is slowly turning into a forest while the power supply has been cut off from the facility for some time now. The stadium is currently under the management of Federal Capital Territory.
Femi Ipaye, a popular photo journalist with the News magazine, who was at the commissioning of the facility in 2003 and has been part of different sporting activities that were held there over the years.  Mr. Ipaye visited the stadium and presents the state of the facility before now and its current state by way of this photo documentary.
 Photo credit: Femi Ipaye