One of the major events in the outgoing year is the sale on February 21, 2013 of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, by the Bureau of Public Enterprises on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the 14 Preferred Bidders for 15 of the 17 Companies created out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria executed Share Sale Agreements and Concession Agreements (Transaction Documents). The sale of the only power source of the country was initially resisted by the workers of the government agency.
However, after a lot of talks and subsequent promise by the government to pay them off, the deal was successfully effected. With that done, the Federal Government through the Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has also announced plans to sell off its refineries in line with his privatisation policy.
This, industry watchers claim may finally be the solution to the challenges the country has been facing on its oil sector especially as it concerns the refined products. One issue that bestrode the year is security which snag is represented by the Boko Haram sect. The sect had unleashed untold terror on the country right from the beginning of the year.
Indeed, the onslaught on religious places, schools and military formations was a continuation of what transpired the previous years. Thousands were killed this year alone by the sect’s reign of terror and efforts of the nation’s security agencies to curtail its members.
This led to the declaration of the state of emergency on three states in the northern part of the country in May. President Goodluck Jonathan declared the states of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, the three hardest hit by the insurgency. He said more troops would “immediately” be deployed to the areas.
The President made a similar move in January 2012 following a spate of Boko Haram attacks, but in that case the decree only applied to specific local government areas in four states. In November the emergence rule in the three states was extended for another six months by the National assembly.
However, one of the perpetrators of the heinous acts of bombings, Boko Haram kingpin, Kabiru Umar, alias Kabiru Sokoto, was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Abuja Federal High Court for his role in terrorist activities, including the December 25, 2011 bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State.
He was the governor of Sokoto State in the hierarchy of the Boko Haram group, according to evidence that emerged in the course of his trial, which lasted six months.
Kabiru Sokoto, who was finally apprehended by operatives of the State Security Service in the Borno State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja after escaping from the custody of police officers who initially arrested him, was arraigned by the Federal Government on April 19, 2013 on a two count charge bordering on terrorism.
While the North battles insurgency, one the major sources of insecurity of life and property in the South particularly Lagos is building collapse.
In this outgoing year, the incidence of building collapse rose to a disturbing and alarming in the country. Lagos was worst hit with not less than 20 cases of building collapse were recorded with about 40 lives and properties worth billions of naira lost.
Scores were also rendered homeless each time a case of a collapsed building is recorded. In the midst of such trend, the dilemma of the major cause of such collapses is often inexplicable, especially in cases of buildings constructed less than 10 years ago.
Arguments have tilted towards the quality of building materials used, while some have also pointed accusing fingers on the developers who often, out of greed, defy the original building plan approval to accommodate more tenants.
But while the argument raged, buildings kept collapsing almost at an average of two every month.
Apart from security, another sector that underwent great travail in the year is education. The academic year particularly in the tertiary section was chequered with industrial strife and actions. Virtually all the trade unions in the sector went to the trenches.
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, their colleges of education counterparts went on a warning strike so also were the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU,
Non Academic Staff Union, NASU but the most celebrated and perhaps most devastating was the strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASSUU on July 1. It was finally suspended on December 17 but not before a lot of causalities.
The most notable one of them was a former president of ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi. He died in a car crash on his way to Kano to participate in the association’s National Executive Council Meeting expected to declare an end to the strike.
The vehicle conveying him and three others to Kano was involved in a crash with the convoy of the Kogi State Governor Idris Wada. Prof. Iyayi was president of ASUU from 1986 to 1988.
He was born in 1947, in Ugbegun, Ishan, Edo State. In the health sector, one incident that caught many watchers off guard was the re-emergence of cholera and polio in the land.
There was outbreak of cholera in no fewer than eight states. Hundreds of lives were reportedly lost. But the Federal Government confirmed that 74 persons were killed in the current outbreak of cholera in some parts of the country.
It also said that a total of 373 persons had fallen victim of the disease. Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, blamed the outbreak on Nigerians open defecation and lack of access to clean water. Another troubled sector in the outgoing year is aviation.
And up till the time of filling this report its chief government representative, Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, is still in the eye of the storm.
When a former governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Kokumo Agagu, died on Friday September 13, 2013 his family and well wishers were thrown into mourning.
But no one had the premonition that the morning that would follow his burial would perhaps be greater and graver than the one that herald his passing on.
Less than a month later, the aircraft conveying the body of the former governor to Akure, the state capital for onward transfer to his home town crashed less than a minute after takeoff in Lagos.
The EMBRA plane 120 belonging to Associated Airlines crashed killing the Ondo State Commissioner for Tourism and Culture, Mr Deji Falae, the owner of MIC Undertakers, Mr Olatunji Okusanya, his son Olatunji junior, crew members and others.
It was perhaps the harbinger of worse things to come for the arrow head of the aviation industry Stella Oduah. She was a few weeks later alleged to be involved in the purchase of two BMW armoured cars for her personal use. She later admitted that she used the funds of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to buy the two armoured cars. The vehicles reportedly cost $1.6m (N255m). The episode now is being referred to as Oduahgate.
The albatross of the purchase still dangles on the neck of the honourable minister. Two major air crashes have occurred under Oduah’s watch. These were the Dana Air crash in Lagos on June 3, 2012, in which 163 people died; and the Associated Airlines crash of October 3, 2013, also in Lagos, which claimed 15 lives.
A day after the Associated Airlines’ crash, a Kabo Airlines’ Boeing 747-400 plane carrying 512 pilgrims made an emergency landing at the Sokoto airport with deflated tires and damaged the airport’s Instrument Landing System.
On Sunday, an IRS Airlines Fokker 100 plane carrying 99 passengers also made an emergency landing at the Kaduna airport, after developing hydraulic problems mid-air.
Four days after the tragic crash involving Associated Airlines’ Embraer 120 plane, Oduah described air accidents as God’s will that were inevitable.
While the country was grappling with internal insecurity, she was also being bashed internationally for what they term bias legislatures on child marriage and same sex marriage.
The distinguished senators could not set a higher age for girls to be married off citing religious grounds; they were able to come hard against homosexuality thereby drawing the ire of the western world.
The new law banned gay marriage, public shows of affection and gay rights campaigning. Gay couples who display “public shows” of affection in Nigeria could be imprisoned for 10 years, under the new laws Because of this the UK threatened to stop aid to nations that discriminate against gay people.
Under the proposed law, Nigeria would ban same-sex marriage and those who do marry could face up to 14 years in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps homosexual couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years in jail.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido recently raised the alarm that $49.8 billion was missing from the nation’s oil fund. Expectedly, the reaction was furious and fast. Curiously, days after, the country’s number one banker recanted and put it at $12 billion.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has, however, declared that the missing money has been accounted for. The declaration followed evidence provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which indicated that the alarm raised by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over the “missing” $49.8 billion might have been a ruse.
The development followed the conclusion of a twoday crucial Revenue Reconciliation Meeting, during which the relevant ministries, departments and agencies, took a thorough assessment of their records.
CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, had in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, declared that about $49.8 billion could not be accounted for from crude oil exports by NNPC from January 2012 to July 2013.
However, at a joint press conference in Abuja, Okonjo- Iweala said the preliminary findings of the joint reconciliation exercise reveals that the said missing proceeds were not missing, but intact and in the system. But it was not yet uhuru for Okonjo-Iweala, as days later she had a spat with members of the House of Representatives.
At the end of the day, the lawmakers sent the minister away with 50-question homework. Okonjo-Iweala had appeared before the House Committee on Finance to address members on the state of the nation’s economy.
But, the session, which was chaired by Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, turned stormy shortly after the minister complained that she was indisposed to speak.
About three hours earlier, Okonjo-Iweala had laid the estimates of the 2014 budget before the whole House where she looked excited, smiling and waving at lawmakers in acknowledgement of their cheers. In response to the minister’s complaint of not feeling well to speak, the committee offered to grant her two weeks of rest and to reappear to speak to members at the end of the rest period.
The minister however shouted, “No, no, no,” and accused the committee members of being rude and hasty in dismissing her. She said the tone of the committee chairman was disrespectful to a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
She observed that she had noticed a trend in Jibrin’s conduct, which she said was to harass her and members of her team. The minister consequently changed her mind and said she was ready to entertain questions from the members.
But Jibrin objected, saying, “We will not take you in present state that you say you are not feeling fine. That is why it is the view of the committee that we give you time to come back. We are concerned about your health.”
He argued that it was better to hear from the minister when she was fully fit than allow her to address issues relating to the economy “half-heartedly.” This further infuriated Okonjo-Iweala, who replied that she was not a “slacker.”
The committee insisted on the earlier ruling and dismissed her. But, in doing so, Jibrin handed her a document containing 50 questions, which he said the minister must answer at her next appointment with the committee.
A beacon of hope in the form of Mrs Folorunso Alakija shinned on the country. Alakija, was reported to have become the richest black woman in the world with an estimated fortune of $7.3 billion.
The latest ranking by a pan-African magazine, Ventures Africa, rated Alakija above an American TV queen, Oprah Winfrey, who, according to Forbes magazine ranking was earlier said to be the world’s richest black woman with a net worth of $2.9.
Alakija, a 62-year-old mother-of-four, apart from being a business woman, also has a charity called the Rose of Sharon Foundation that helps widows and orphans by empowering them through scholarships and business grants.
In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting license, which later became OML 127, one of the country’s most prolific oil blocks, by then-President Ibrahim Babangida.
A shocking tremor ran through the religious circle in the year with the resignation of Pope Benedict (XVI) in a move that is unprecedented in modern history of the papacy.
Pope Benedict (XVI) in a letter he sent to the College of Cardinals acknowledged that the recent wave of scandals involving Catholic priests has made it impossible for him to do the job he was elected to do.
“I feel personally responsible for letting paedophilic priests who molested young boys to go free,” the Pope wrote. “Instead of being punished for the atrocities they committed, they got protection from Bishops and other church leaders like me.”
However, the first church has since had another leader, Pope Francis. This is as Methodist Church Nigeria on September 1, 2013 got a new leader in person of His Eminence, Prelate Samuel Chukwuemeka Uche as Dr Sunday Ola Makinde retired on reaching the mandatory age of retirement which is 70 years.
Perhaps one of the greatest upheavals and surprises of the year was the discharge and acquittal of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to the Late Head of State, Sani Abacha, of the conspiracy and murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola by the Lagos division of the Appeal Court.
Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Gen. Abacha was set free by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal. He had been detained since 1998 and was sentenced to hang in 2012 for killing Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola in 1996.
The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal freed Al Mustapha, setting aside a trial court judgment that sentenced him to hang allegedly for the 1996 murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
All three justices of appellate panel concurred in the judgment. The panel, led by Presiding Justice Amina A. Augie, castigated the lower court for allowing itself to be used and “stroked to secure a conviction by all means.”
Pointing to the 329 page judgment of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court, which the appellate panel picked apart, the Court of Appeal basically said the judgment was based on little or no evidence. Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and Lateef Shofolahan, former Personal Assistant to Kudirat Abiola, were sentenced to death on Jan. 30, 2012, by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court.
Both were arraigned in October 1999 on a four-count charge. Major al-Mustapha had testified during his trial in February 2011 that the late MKO Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, was murdered, a testimony that was contrary to claims that Abiola’s death in custody on July 7, 1998 was natural.
Abiola had declared himself president on the strength of the election’s results, and Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s regime cancelled the election. Gen. Babangida was forced out of power in August 1993, and handed over to an interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was toppled by the late Gen. Sani Abacha in November 1993.
The late Gen. Abacha, who ran an iron-fisted regime until he died in office in June, 1998, subsequently incarcerated Abiola. Abiola was in prison when his wife was killed. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar took over from Abacha, and Abiola died during his regime.
As the year struggled on, the world suffered a great loss in the demise of the anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, on December 5. South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95. Mandela led South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison for his political activities.
He had been receiving intensive medical care at home for a lung infection after spending three months in hospital. Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name, Madiba died shortly before 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the world’s most revered statesmen after preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years. He had rarely been seen in public since officially retiring in 2004.
He made his last public appearance in 2010, at the football World Cup in South Africa. His fellow campaigner against apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said he was “not only an amazing gift to humankind, he made South Africans and Africans feel good about being who we are. He made us walk tall. God be praised.” He was buried on December 15.
Source:Daily Mirror
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