Nigeria telecom operators register 11million SIM Cards

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Read Time:1 Minute, 11 Second

TELECOMMUNICATIONS operators in Nigeria have registered 11 million SIM cards, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has announced.

The Nigerian government as part of efforts to enhance security of lives and property ordered telcom operators to register SIM cards of their subscribers.

Telecom experts however stated that the number of registered SIM cards is still a far cry from the number of connected lines in the country.

The number of connected lines in Nigeria is currently put at 110 million with 80 million active subscribers and a teledensity of 53 per cent.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah however said that the commission will in the next few months, enter into a contract with KPMG to commence the full registration of all subscribers, having secured National Assembly approval of the commission’s 2010 budget.

There was widespread condemnation of the NCC’s involvement in the exercise which led to long delays in passing the agency’s 2010 budget- where over N6 billion was earmarked for the registration.

Juwah however ruled out compensation for network operators who had spent their resources registering the 11 million subscribers so far, saying “compensation was not part of the agreement they reached with the NCC and Federal Government.”

The NCC boss also used the occasion to announce that number portability will by May this year be implemented in the country.

SIMEON OGOEGBULEM in Abuja, Nigeria

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Codewit News: Accept PDP or Nigeria is finished — Gbagi

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Read Time:5 Minute, 12 Second

MINISTER of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is a leading personality in the Delta Chapter of the party.

He has been a keen participant in the affairs of the party and is now playing a leading role in efforts at building bridges between the major tendencies in the State.

In an interview with newsmen he articulates the challenges facing the party in the State, argues that something must give way for a lasting peace to come to the State chapter of the party and proffers lasting measures to strengthen the party in the State. Excerpts:

The problem with Delta PDP
As you will agree with me, the election that is coming up in April, the PDP is synonymous with Nigeria, it is either you accept PDP or you accept that Nigeria is finished. Nigeria is PDP, PDP is Nigeria as it is today, we don’t know about tomorrow. So that extent, it will not be wise for us to go public with our strategy, but I said prior to the January 6 re_run, I would bring leaders of the party in the state to a roundtable. Delta state is predominantly a PDP state and we cannot hide away from that fact.

They are aggrieved persons in the state that are members of the PDP and such aggrieved persons will be reached out to, we will find out a way forward, it is not a winner takes all situation, we must as a people work together. A governor’s life span in office is at most eight years, what you do after eight years, we have seen a situation where a governor had come and after eight years, he is neither a friend nor a visitor.

So we cannot continue in that rancor and my own position, as investor in this part of the world, is that this rancor, do not take us anywhere. We are the losers for it, we have lost a lot, this state is like a ramshackle state, because of this rancor, people are playing to the gallery, people are enjoying the divide and rule situation and it is about time we put an end to it and run the state properly.

Uduaghan is not the issue
Governor Uduaghan is not the issue in Delta PDP, the party is bigger than every member, you saw what happened to the national chairman of PDP, Chief Okwesileze Nwodo, not too long ago.

I mean before that day, the man was sure that he was the chairman but the party took a decision and in the interest of the party, we acted. So, that will come to Delta, don’t worry.

A flag bearer of the party today may not be the flag bearer tomorrow, which is PDP for you, the dynamics of PDP are very unique, and we take the best decision at the best time. Uduaghan has the ticket today as the flag bearer, so be it, but what I am saying is that PDP is sacrosanct, PDP is above me, I may have personal interest, anybody may have his own interest, but PDP interest will suppress that of any other person.

PDP is charge of Delta
The result of the last election in the state showed that PDP won the election. Whatever your perception is your perception, but, in the state today, there is a governor and that governor is a PDP governor, which means he won the election. So, until it is proved to the contrary, PDP won the election.

Parallel PDP
For your information, your tongue and your mouth do quarrel. I am sure at your age, you must have bit your tongue over 10,000 times but it is still your tongue and it is still there, so we will resolve our issues beyond your expectations.

Clark deserves  respect
In a situation such as the one we find ourselves, something must give way; it is either the people want to respect leadership, the truth is that respect begets respect, both parties must respect themselves, the most senior Deltan today in politics is Chief Edwin Clark and we must give to him what is due him and we move forward from there.

Chief Clark has a perception and he is our father, he is the leader of the party, by age_ that is the first and living Minister of the Federal Republic, incidentally, from this state. His counterparts in other states of the country, some of them can no longer talk, but, they are still leaders and highly respected. I have asked the governor once, what does Chief Clark need any more in life? Look, it is a life of give and take. The state is not a personal property of Uduaghan, Clark or Kenneth Gbagi, it belongs to all of us equally.

I don’t believe Uduaghan called for my sack
Nigeria is a state of many parts, you hear something, if you take them too strong to your heart at times _ you will get a bit confused. It is interesting to note that the news as to the Governor’s Forum pointed at Governor Uduaghan as having requested the forum that Orubebe and myself be sacked, not even redeployed, while the news was not yet published, as I was boarding the plane to Lagos, Uduaghan had phoned me, saying he just heard rumours that he said Orubebe and myself should be fired and such discussion came up at the Governor’s Forum.

And actually that there was nothing like that and such a thing could not have come from him. In any case, I want to give credence to what Uduaghan had said to me, because he would be a mad man to actually to take such route. So having said to me that he did not say so and that some people were trying to set him up from the media point of view, I believe that it is only a mad man that will take such route and in any way, the Governors’ Forum does not control Mr. President, I work for Mr. President and I want to leave it at that.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Buhari: The president Nigeria desperately need

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Read Time:5 Minute, 20 Second

THE usual predatory political elite mock him, claiming that he is too rigid and fixated to certain moral categories and therefore unamenable to the free bargain of politics or the “scratch my back, I scratch yours” that has dragged our public affairs to the pit.

According to them, General Buhari with his Spartan and incorrigible orientation would not permit the massive returns of investments in securing public office and therefore would render politics unprofitable for “rational” investment.

To them, General Buhari would turn them in one single swoop into Spartan, disciplined and austere lots, with no designer cars, perfumes, wines and massive houses scattered all over the world.

For the ‘honourable’ members and their “distinguished” colleagues, Buhari presidency would mean no “Ghana-must-go” sack will accompany every piece of government legislation and the trumpeted “over-sight functions” of the executive, will not be a little disguised extortion and arm-twisting.  For professional lobbyists for ministerial appointments and other assorted appointments, they will not have profitable returns it now enjoys because to be minister or special adviser under General Buhari will no longer bring returns on the massive scale.

Why are the Nigeria political elite dead scared about the General Buhari presidency? Strangely they have harried their dead scare of the Buhari presidency to the ordinary Nigerian who would admit that none of the hordes of presidential pretenders, especially in the ruling PDP could match General Buhari’s integrity and proven competence, yet in the same breath claims that it is not likely that General Buhari would become president.

Prodded on as to the annoying caveat,the average Nigerian retorts that the “powers that be would not allow him, no matter how Nigerians vote. Yours sincerely, only refrain  to this seemingly mystification of the so-called invisible elite and the powers that be  is, vote General Buhari and let’s see who will stop him”. The Buhari campaign organisation and all those who appreciate the need to rescue the fatally wounded Nigerian project is to mount a proactive campaign to rescue the ordinary Nigerian from the myth that an ‘invisible’ ‘elite’ would stop the general, should Nigerians freely elect him.

Most analysts point that General Buhari roundly beat Obasanjo in 2003 and took his protégées, Yar Adua/Goodluck to the electoral cleaners in 2007, and was twice denied a hard-won national goodwill and nothing happened. Something obviously   happened and that is, in the seven years or so, Nigeria has declined in every aspect of national life as it has never done before in her 50 years of existence as an independent nation.

Today, Nigeria is a paradigm of entrenched corruption, wasted opportunities and easily the most mocked nation on earth. Yet, the majority of Nigerians stand idly while the clique of political predators and their contractor-cum-business allies that passes off as entrepreneurs, continues to vandalize our common patrimony, as they sedate us to slumber with their unique political lexicon that mocks virtue and integrity and glamorizes theft and felonies.

Interestingly, the same clique that mocks General Buhari’s integrity and competence as non-tradable political goods, would ooze crocodile tears, should the General fall, claiming that Nigeria has missed the best president it deserves as they did to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whom they branded the best president Nigeria never had, even when they worked tirelessly to stop him.

Truly, the trajectory of Nigeria’s contemporary history would have been different had Chief Awolowo mounted the saddle. Like General Buhari, Chief Awolowo craved to lead Nigeria, because he has a plan but each time in the past, the country would fell to the reluctant persons who have goodluck and patience as it is today.

Chief Awolowo was diligent, methodical and have clear plan of the direction he wanted to take Nigeria. He identified those critical and very strategic items that could give the country a credible and sustainable jump-start; education and health. These two items are the most solid instrument to create the enabling skilled manpower, which is at the core of the human resources component for any meaningful and sustainable development.

The Mahathier Mohommeds of Malaysia, even highly revered Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Mr. Suharto of Indonesia, all leveraged outstanding development in their respective countries because of enormous investment and focus on this important foundational requirement. Chief Awolowo was very clear and persistent on the criteria, but was obstructed. In our time, the Nigerian project most mortal danger is the grip of a monstrous canker worm called corruption.

Only a man, who is tested and found to be above fray, is capable of confronting the monster. Even the mortal enemies of General Buhari admit that no living Nigerian or even dead ones have attained the high offices, which the elites shamelessly call “plumb offices” and came out with an astounding record of decency as the General. That is why, for lack of any tangible thing to taint him, the political elites and their media hangers-on claimed that he is a religious fundamentalist and ethnic bigot. How, someone who is a religious fundamentalist could serve and reach the pinnacle of a secular and Western-modeled military is a question that this unintelligent theory cannot explain.

And more so, having served as head of state, which policy decision did he initiate to compromise Nigeria’s secularism to buttress the allegation of religious fundamentalism.

The 2011 election is the defining moment for the future of Nigeria and the choice Nigerians face is grim. The puerile show and saber-rattling of the candidates in the ruling PDP is diversionary, but somehow resonate in the Nigeria’s mainstream media as the real contest.

It is time to translate General Buhari’s universally acknowledged credibility, discipline and integrity to potent political instrument of change. No better time is available than now and no investment in this or even prayer is too much. For the avoidance of doubt , no one claims that Gen. Buhari’s presidency is the final solution to what ails Nigeria, but definitely could be a genuine framework to begin the search, because the country’s deeper problems like most other African countries is the false start.

BY CHARLES ONUNAIJU, a  journalist, writes from Abuja

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Greens Farm: Nigerian Student Sean Obi Scores on and off the Court

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Read Time:2 Minute, 26 Second

First of three parts.

Good things come in small packages, the adage goes. Sometimes, they come in big packages, too, like with Greens Farms Academy sophomore Sean Obi. At 6 feet, 9 inches and 235 pounds, the 16-year-old from Nigeria is one of the top players in the Fairchester Athletic Association and in the state. His athletic accomplishments are only part of the story of the young man who has captured the hearts of the Greenwich family with whom he lives and of the GFA community.

“He radiates this joy. He has this calm inner presence about him all the time,” says Bobbi Eggers, whose family, including husband Steve, son Hunter and daughter Maddie, has become Sean’s U.S. family.

Sean’s parents and five siblings live in Nigeria, and he speaks to them regularly. He was born in Kaduna, but the family moved to Anambra in 2000 amid unrest and rioting that left 11,000 people homeless. By age 12, Sean had attracted the interest of elite basketball coaches. He was recruited to play at the Zinix Basketball Academy and attended an elite school in Kaduna, where the educational opportunities were much higher. He excelled in school and the basketball program.

With his family’s approval, Sean’s coaches encouraged him to come to the United States. Steve Eggers, an oil trader, already had some basketball contacts in Nigeria. “His coach said I have the next LeBron James here,” Steve said. “I said they’re all the next LeBron James.”

Steve and Bobbi had considered hosting a player, and GFA coach Doug Scott encouraged them. “I had a sense he’d be a good player,” Scott said. “I had a real good sense it’d be a great experience for a host family.”

Obi has also had a dramatic impact on the GFA basketball team. Entering Wednesday’s game against Masters, the Dragons are 10-3 and riding a school record eight-game winning streak. Obi is averaging nearly 21 points and 16 rebounds per game. Obi also enjoys setting up his teammates with assists, and his defensive influence changes the game as much as anything.

“If you look at our last three or four games, we’ve held teams to their lowest point total of the year,” Scott said. “We’re doing it with our defenses. Having Sean back there unleashes everyone else to be incredibly disruptive. It’s not really about his scoring. He makes us better than that.” What’s the best thing about playing at GFA for Sean? “Having Hunter playing on the same team,” he said.

Obi has attracted Division I coaches, but he’s not looking that far ahead just yet. “I want to play for GFA first,” Sean said. As for the next level, I leave it to God.”

Coming tomorrow: Transitioning to Greens Farms

Have you seen Sean Obi play for Greens Farms Academy? How good is he? Leave a comment below!

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria: Ribadu vows to demystify PDP

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Read Time:1 Minute, 58 Second

The Action Congress of Nigeria presidential flagbearer,Nuhu Ribadu has at the weekend obtained his voters registration card.

Mr Ribadu, who blamed the People’s Democratic Party for the difficulty being encountered by the citizenry, said his party will demystify the power of incumbency. He said the PDP will lose in Nigeria, as is the trend all over Africa “We are going to stop corruption in this country,” Mr Ribadu said this before party supporters.

He sighted examples of countries where incumbents have failed to return to power , countries like , Cote d voire, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana.The presidential candidate assured people of the failure of the imcumbent,‘‘They are going to lose in Nigeria. The difficulty that our people are made to live with and the havoc that the PDP has caused is going to be a thing of the past.” The ACN presidential aspirant, who coincidentally obtained his voters’ registration card at the Aliyu Musdafa primary school centre, the same place he had his early primary education, commended the ongoing voter registration exercise.

Happy with registration

He said the exercise showed the country is beginning to tread on the “right path”. According to him, it signifies the conduct of a free and fair polls is possible if everyone work towards it.

“I’m so happy, I have just been registered by a member of the National Youth Service Corps. It was done very fast and efficiently,” Mr Ribadu said, expressing satisfaction with the registration. Following his registration , he again promised the citizens of his willingness to bring changes which include adequate and stable electricity supply, qualitative education and qualitative medical health service delivery which the PDP government had failed to deliver in its long years of rule.

He was accompanied by the ACN gubernatorial flagbearer of Adamawa State, Markus Natina Gundiri; the state party chairman, Mohammed Abdullahi and other top party stalwarts including a former acting governor of the state, Pithon P. Power who is also the party flagbearer for Demsa, Numan and Lamurde constituency for the Federal House of Representatives.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Kassim Gaidam said the efficiency of the voter registration which Mr Ribadu has confirmed himself in the state is the outcome of the “demonstrable will by the electoral body not to disappoint Nigerians”.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Saint Paul set to release album

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Read Time:1 Minute, 45 Second

Ladies can once again look forward to more serenading on the dance floor as another R&B singer, Saint Paul signed on to Cross Roads Records is set to take the Nigerian music industry by a storm.

Saint Paul whose full name is Osayande Paul Ero was one of the artistes that gave the audience an unforgettable entertainment experience at the Benin version of the last Rhythm unplugged. He hails from Benin in Edo state and has practically lived all his life there. Presently studying Sociology at the University of Benin, Saint Paul says combining music and school has not been easy but his interest in school and passion for music has made things easier.

Saint Paul’s 11 track album featuring various genres of music and songs like ‘fly Boy’, ‘what I know now’, ‘Baby Girl’ and others is set to be released in February in Benin. Also, a video for the song ”What I Know Now” is also expected to be released in February.

The sensational singer and drummer when asked how he intends to make his mark in the busy Nigerian music industry ‘Saint Paul’ said, ‘making a mark is not supposed to be difficult if the artist is good and creative. I think I am good and also very creative; moreover the sky is big enough for all kinds of birds to fly, so I think there is enough room for me.

Orobosa Adetokunbo Ero, MD Cross Roads Records who happens to be the brother of the artiste while speaking on why he chose to sign up Saint Paul on his record label said ‘most people think I signed him only because he is my brother, but that is not true. I have watched him sing all through his life, he lives and breathes music and to top it all he is talented. So what business oriented person would not want to sign up an artiste like that’?

To see Saint Paul’s video, click on this link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSPv4H3GXZk

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nollywood: Omotola Preaches “Give and Let Give”

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Read Time:2 Minute, 27 Second

When at her album launch award-winning actress cum musician, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde promised that twenty percent of proceeds from the sales of her album would go to charity, many thought it was another empty promise from a celebrity to get media attention. But with recent development, one can only say that the Feel Alright exponent meant every word she said as, recently, the star actress and mother of four stormed the Heart of Gold Hospices and SOS children village in Isolo, Lagos to further propagate her Give and Let Give gospel.

The two-day charity visit tour took off with a four-hour visit to the Heart Of Gold Hospices by the actress and members of OYEP (Omotola Youth Empowerment Programme); guided by Mrs. Adedoyin the founder of the orphanage, the star actress whose musical strength has been getting wide accolades in recent times went round the orphanage and showed her sympathy to the children while revealing that she can’t imagine the wickedness that exists in the mind of the parents of some of the children. The most sympathetic part of her visit was her meeting a baby who suffered from a formation malfunction;  at this point, the Gba crooner couldn’t hide her emotional side as she was almost moved to tears at the little boy’s plight, she thereafter moved to other rooms where she motivated and played with the kids before giving out gifts that include toiletries, clothes and products from Chivita.

The next day, the port of call was the SOS children village, Isolo where Omotola and her crew met with the social official in-charge. Thesocial official in charge then showed the crew round the village: to the children’s hostels, classroom, the children were so elated to see the role model pay them a visit as the mother of four advised the children to be focus and be good children. Omotola and her crew then donated, cloths, shoes, food stuff, biscuit, and products from Chivita to SOS village.

Explaining the rationale behind her visit to the orphanage, Omotola disclosed that it is pertinent to give back to the society, “All religions encourage this, it is a sure way to make other people happy
and the sad thing is that these children did not put themselves in that condition they met themselves in that condition because of some people’s mistakes, said Omotola. It will be good to note that all through Omotola’s career that has spanned over 15 years, the actress has in one way or the other being a ‘philanthropist-celebrity’ just last year, she became the first African to step into the shoes of Nicholas Cage and Bono when she was engaged by the biggest non-governmental organization (NGO), Amnesty International in war-torn Sierra Leone to raise awareness for the menace of high maternal mortality rate.

See the Photos of the event

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Oil Hearing to Cast Spotlight on West Africa

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Read Time:6 Minute, 5 Second

WARRI, Nigeria—Olubunmi Akindele mans the shaky front line of West Africa’s losing battle with its oil spills.

Sitting in his small office here on a recent day, Mr. Akindele, a regional head of Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, fielded two calls in 45 minutes from villagers reporting different spills nearby in the oil-rich delta. Finishing one call, he telephoned a Western oil company’s local office to pass word of a leak at its facility, asking them to follow up themselv

Villagers pointing out oil in a river in the Ogoni region of Nigeria’s Niger Delta last summer. Oil firms blame spills on militant groups that divert oil.

With a small budget and access to a single oil-dispersement plane based in another country, his agency has almost no means to respond to near-daily spill reports. “You can’t just go out to the creeks every time someone calls,” Mr. Akindele said.

International environmentalists and lawmakers are looking nervously to West African oil-patch countries including Nigeria and Angola, where watchdog groups say a near epidemic of unaddressed spills is the result of either lax regulation, pipeline vandalization by groups seeking to divert oil for their own profits or an underprepared spill-response effort.

Some of these people fear the situation could worsen as oil exploration moves from the swamps and shallows of places like Nigeria’s Niger Delta. In deeper water, security concerns are lower, replaced by the risks that come with the more complex techniques required for these larger, deeper reservoirs.

On Jan. 26, lawmakers in the Dutch Parliament are preparing to question Royal Dutch Shell PLC about years of spills in the Niger Delta. The exchange is expected to highlight West Africa’s lack of preparedness for almost any kind of spill, much less a huge accident like the one at a BP PLC deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico in April.

“BP has shown a giant spill in the Gulf of Mexico is possible in deep water,” said Joseph Croft, executive director of Nigeria civic rights organization Stakeholder Democracy Network. In West Africa, he said, where “health, safety and the environment are not at the forefront [of government priorities], it is not only possible, but more likely.”

West African countries have some of the world’s least rigorous regulatory schemes, watchdog groups say. In Angola, which has large deep-water reserves, local fishermen complain that companies are left to handle spill oversight. The country, which has had an offshore oil industry since the 1960s, adopted a national response plan two years ago and critics say it hasn’t adapted its regulations in the aftermath of the U.S. Gulf disaster.

Ghana, which just started oil output from its massive offshore Jubilee field, is a relative newcomer with unclear offshore oil and gas regulation, said Alex Vines, head of Africa Program at U.K. research institute Chatham House. “I don’t see that Ghana is ready for production,” he told a recent oil conference.

Angola says it is considering increasing inspections and fines on foreign oil companies. An official with Ghana’s Environmental Protection agency says the country has the capacity to respond to an emergency.

The acting director of Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Minister of Environment in Nigeria, John Odey, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

West Africa’s oil production has historically been from onshore or shallow-water fields that call for exploration methods that have been tested since the oil industry’s early days.

For decades, swamps in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta have been beset by thousands of spills. Last year, the spill-response agency said it had recorded about 2,405 oil spills involving all the major international oil companies operating in Nigeria between 2006 and June 2010.Nigeria doesn’t disclose the overall amount of oil spilled.

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell says the vast majority of the pollution in its Nigeria operations in recent years has been caused by oil theft and militant attacks. For its Nigeria operations, it says an equivalent of 102,000 barrels of oil were spilled into the Niger Delta in 2009 as a direct result of sabotage or theft. That is close to half the equivalent of 257,000 barrels spilled in Alaska’s 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

West Africa’s appeal has grown since BP’s troubles with the Deepwater Horizon, as some rigs idled by last year’s temporary U.S. drilling freeze departed the Gulf of Mexico for Africa.Transocean Ltd.’s Marianas rig—which preceded the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon on BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf—recently moved to offshore Nigeria.

Big regional producers Nigeria and Angola together held 50.7 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of end 2009, nearly twice as much as the U.S. and its 28.4 billion barrels. A large share of those reserves are deep offshore.

While BP says it and the U.S. government marshaled an armada of 6,000 ships and 100 aircraft to battle the Gulf spill, West Africa’s standing response team consists of a single small plane, based in Ghana, and a few boats, according to the Global Initiative for West and Central Africa, an international partnership of oil companies and watch groups.

The plane is positioned to immediately disperse the equivalent of 280 barrels to 560 barrels on each flight, said Archie Smith, chief executive of Oil Spill Response Ltd., an industry body financed by the industry to respond to spills. Mr. Smith added that his own company could mobilize four larger aircraft coming from outside Africa.

In Mr. Akindele’s office in Warri, the oil hub of the Western part of the Niger Delta, one of the calls fielded on a recent day by the official was from a citizen reporting oil pollution from a nearby Chevron Corp. facility. Mr. Akindele replied that the government would send a team “as soon as Chevron does a flyover and confirms it.”

Chevron later said it did reconnaissance flyovers but that spills were issuing from another company’s pipeline.

Fines and penalties for spills in West Africa are relatively modest. In the U.S., any company failing to notify authorities of an oil discharge is given a one-time fine of $500,000, and other penalties may accrue. Egypt levies a one-time fine of at least $52,000 if a spill isn’t disclosed “promptly.” The fine in Nigeria is about 500,000 Nairas ($3,200) per day of delayed disclosure.

Regulators in West Africa are often badly paid, unskilled and unmotivated. The budget for Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, which is in charge of pollution inspections, was $3.39 million in 2007, the latest year available for approved expenditures. That’s roughly 3% of the amount budgeted for audits and inspections at the agency’s U.S. counterpart.

The agency is a “watchdog without teeth,” said Ben Amunwa, a researcher at U.K. environmental group Platform.

“People in Nigeria are outraged that in the U.S. there is such [a comprehensive] response to oil spills,” said Geert Ritsema, the international coordinator at Friends of the Earth Netherlands. “Show me where are an oil spill has been properly cleaned. There is no such place in Nigeria.”

Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@dowjones.com

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria starts road-shows for power sector privatisation

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Read Time:1 Minute, 57 Second

Lagos, Nigeria — Codewit.com — 19 January 2011 – Nigeria has kicked off a series of investor road-shows for the planned multi-billion dollar privatisation of its power sector, in a bid to solicit interest in the country’s electricity distribution companies and power stations.

Reuters reports that the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) ‒ the country’s privatisation agency ‒ has met with investors in the commercial hub of Lagos, and will hold similar meetings in Dubai, London, New York and Johannesburg over the next three weeks.

Africa’s most populous nation, plagued by blackouts, wants to privatise power generation and distribution. Government will continue to own the national grid, but its management will be privatised, Reuters explained.

The investor meetings come ahead of a February 18 deadline for expressions of interest in 11 distribution companies, two thermal generating firms and two hydropower stations.

They also precede presidential and parliamentary elections in April, which have meant the original timetable has fallen behind. Some investors have said they are reluctant to commit until the political uncertainty has cleared.

“The idea of this is that it enables investors to gain some confidence. Even if we don’t complete it before the handover of government, no harm is done,” BPE director-general Bolanle Onagoruwa said.

“From the response you have seen here, power is something that has attracted the interest of most people in Nigeria. I don’t think any administration will come in and not take the issue of reforms in the power sector seriously,” he added.

President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled the privatisation plans last August, and the government estimates it will need US$10 billion a year of investment over the next decade to meet its energy needs.

The 11 distribution companies up for grabs are in the capital Abuja in central Nigeria, the cities of Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ibadan, Ikeja, and Port Harcourt in the south, and those of Jos, Kaduna, Kano, and Yola in the north.
The thermal power stations are Ughelli Power plc, in Delta state in the southern Niger Delta oil region, and Geregu Power plc in Kogi state in north-central Nigeria.

The hydro power companies for which concessionaires are sought are Kainji Power plc comprising power stations in Niger and Kwara states in north-central Nigeria; and Shiroro Power plc, also in Niger state.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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University of Helsinki and University of Nairobi to engage in closer cooperation

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Read Time:1 Minute, 45 Second

The universities have signed an agreement on research and education cooperation. “I hope that the agreement will establish better opportunities for genuine cooperation, particularly in disciplines which may promote societal development and well-being in Kenya through their results,” says Georg A. O. Magoha, Rector of the University of Nairobi, at the signing meeting in Nairobi.

Researchers from the University of Helsinki have conducted research throughout Africa for decades now. In recent years, cooperation with African universities has especially focused on agriculture and forestry, consumer economics, and biosciences.

The University of Helsinki has now established a research station in the Taita Taveta district in Kenya. The opening ceremony of the university’s first station based abroad took place last week. The establishing of the research station was initiated by Petri Pellikka, Professor of Geoinformatics, who has already worked long periods in Taita Taveta in many years.

The Taita research station focuses on multidisciplinary environmental research and offers accommodation and research resources for researchers from the University of Helsinki, Kenyan researchers, and other international researchers working in the region.

At the signing of the cooperation agreement between the University of Nairobi and the University of Helsinki, Rector Georg A. O. Magoha and Rector Thomas Wilhelmsson pointed out that the universities have cooperation opportunities based on both parties in the fields of biosciences, medicine, veterinary medicine, computer science, law, and teacher training.

Kenya is currently facing its most difficult drought in years, and the locals are already forecasting a famine. Technology and research related to water supply and water were also highlighted in the speech given by the Rector of the University of Nairobi.

– The objectives of the University of Nairobi with respect to implementing the agreement in practice are fully consistent with those of the University of Helsinki. According to its strategy, the University of Helsinki actively works to promote the well-being of humanity and a just society, says Rector Wilhelmsson.

The University of Nairobi was formed in 1961 from the Royal Technical College of East Africa. The multidisciplinary university has approximately 40,000 graduate students.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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