Union alleges fresh attack on Nigerians, others in South Africa

The Nigerian Union in South Africa has alleged renewal of xenophobic attack on foreign nationals, including Nigerians, in South Africa.

Many foreigners living in South Africa had, about two months ago, witnessed tremendous xenophobic attacks from South Africans who killed many of their fellow Africans and injured others.

It was learnt that the Nigerian Union in South Africa has reported the new attacks on Nigerians and sother foreigners in Sternkopf, Namakwa Municipality, Northern Cape Province of South Africa. President of the Union, Ikechukwu Anyene, said in Pretoria, South Africa, that the chairman of the Northern Cape Province chapter of the Union reported the incident to its national secretariat.

“The National Secretariat of Nigeria Union has received report of xenophobic attacks from Kennedy Osagie, the Northern Cape Province chapter chairman of the union. The report indicated that South Africans attacked Nigerians.

“Two cars belonging to Nigerians have been reportedly burnt and they have been going from house to house looting and destroying their property,’’ he said.

Anyene, who said that there were 20 Nigerians living in the affected community, added that none had been reported dead in the incident. “Six Nigerians have taken refuge with their families in nearby SpringBok community and they do not know the whereabouts of the other Nigerians.’’ He said the Union has reported the incident to the Nigerian Consulate in South Africa.

Nigeria’s Consul General in South Africa, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke, confirmed the incident, saying the mission has commenced investigations. “The Nigerian Consulate in South Africa has received report of new xenophobic attacks in Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

Nigeria pledges to end proliferation of small arms in West Africa

WORRIED by the ugly trend, the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM) has decried the proliferation of illicit arms along the borders of West African region with a vow to put an end to it.
Speaking at the opening of a two day annual meeting of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NATCOM) yesterday, the Chairman of PRESCOM Mr Emmanuel Imohe described the issue of proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) in West Africa as “a hydra headed monster that must be resolved”.
 Imohe, who was represented by the Programme Manager (PRESCOM) Mr Dickson Orji, pointed out that “the Nigerian Government is sufficiently seized with this problem and is committed to ensuring that we collectively dismantle the template from which the problems of insecurity are drawing support.
He said that, Nigeria is committed to dismantling the proliferation of illicit arms trade along the borders in the West African sub-region as it “has demonstrated this commitment by signing and ratifying the relevant international, regional and sub-regional instruments and legal regimes on the subject of SALW Control.’’

He commended NATCOM for organising the fora, adding that, it was providing a platform for peer review, exchange of ideas and strategies and establishing common grounds and constructive/collective efforts in combatting the menace.
On her part, the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security ECOWAS Commission Mrs. Salamatu Suleiman, said the proliferation of SALW posed a great challenge, especially in the Sahel region and Northern Nigeria.
Suleiman added that the porosity of the borders in the sub region allows easy accessibility of dangerous military-style weapons to non-state actors.

She said, the case of the Sahel region and Northern Nigeria in particular, revealed the deficiency in the enforcement capacity of the security forces, a situation being exploited by criminals to kill, maim and damage properties in our communities.

According to her, “this trend must be stopped by limiting state arms acquisition and continuous advocacy with the international community in order to effectively control arms transfers around the world”.

Nigerian scientists make progress in herbal therapy for cancer

 Isa Marte

• Charge President on attention for science
• NAFDAC, NIPRID pledge support

UNDETERRED by the insecurity in their immediate community due to Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, a team of seven Nigerian scientists from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Maiduguri, has made progress in a groundbreaking research into the use of local herbs for cancer therapy.
The team, led by Professor of Pharmacology at the university, Isa Marte Hussaini, is currently exploring different Nigerian plants for the cancer therapy research.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) has called on the Presidency to create the office of Chief Adviser to Government as a proactive way of promoting research and enhance science funding in the country.

President of the Academy, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, who made this assertion in an interview with The Guardian noted: “The National Conference came up with some very interesting recommendations. It is not everything that was done there that is sensible. But I was really very impressed with what they came up with in the area of science.  We are all asking the government to take a look at that. This government shouldn’t throw the whole report away. Take a look at the report to see if there is anything useful in it and make use of such.”
Already, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID) have applauded the research, promising to work with the scientists to conduct pre-clinical trials.

Prof. Hussaini, who presented the study to the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), told The Guardian yesterday that eight out of the 54 plants so far identified showed more promise than the current drugs used in the treatment of cancer.
He highlighted how three of the plants showed impressive anti-cancer activities against both breast cancer and brain tumour.

He said: “We are working to develop effective cancer therapy using Nigerian medicinal plants. We have characterised and identified some plants. We have tested them and they are very effective. Eight out of the 54 that we have are better than even the current drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer. We are trying to identify some of those active compounds that are responsible for this anti-cancer activity.  Afterwards, in partnership with NAFDAC or NIPRID, we will do animal and even pre-clinical studies.

“The team is made up of medical doctors, surgeons, pharmaceutical chemists and pharmacognosists, and then medicinal herbalist – a consultant. I am a pharmacologist. We have several papers that we have published. We have some papers ready for publication.”

He tasked government to provide adequate support to Nigerian scientists to enable them compete favourably.

“Science should be number one in terms of funding, and we need lots of money, billions really.  For this project, N100 million–N200 million would complete it.  To go to pre-clinical and clinical trial requires money,” he noted.
Hussaini added that his team received institutionalised funding through Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and was trying to secure more funding, especially from the National Institute for Health in the United States.
“If we want Nigeria to move forward, this is the kind of cutting edge research that the present government should fund and it should be a priority,” he noted.

He spoke further: “The first task is to establish a robust database of all possible plants used in the former North Eastern State of Nigeria. We have increased our database to approximately 200 plants. The second phase is to screen these plants for their anticancer properties, using established cancer cell lines, patient cancer specimens, cancer stem cells and animal models of cancers, which will be followed by identification of active principles in the plants using

I encouraged Buhari to run for president – Adesina

Mr. Femi Adesina

In this interview with SAHARA TV monitored by ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, the newly appointed Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who is also the immediate past Managing Director of The SUN and President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, speaks about his appointment

Are you excited about your appointment?

Well, it is a call to service and one should be thankful when called to serve one’s country.

With this appointment will you be switching sides that is, from scrutinising the government to defending the government?

Let me first of all examine what you said, that I will switch sides from scrutinising to defending the government. No. The scrutinising part will still be part of my duty. Before I can speak for the government, I must first scrutinise the decisions and the policies and then make an input before I can then defend. So, it is not a total switch. There must still be a lot of scrutinising because anything I am going to defend, I have got to be able to understand it, agree with it and see the rationale behind it before I can defend it. So, it is not a total switch.

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So, what if you do not agree with a policy? How will you approach it?

If I don’t agree with a policy, I will first ask for an explanation and when I am given the explanation, I will make my input. But then, my input does not have to override what may be in the public interest or what is in the interest of the larger number of people. My opinion might not necessarily be the correct one. So, when such challenges come, you have to weigh it and say, is it in the larger interest of the people, is it in the interest of the country? Will it eventually result in a better standard of living for the people? That is the way to look at it. It doesn’t have to be something I must agree with all the time. I should be able to appraise the decisions that have been made and seek to understand them and then make my contribution as necessary.

There are reports that you know President Muhammadu Buhari very closely. What is your relationship with him?

I will say yes. The President is somebody that I have admired for a long time since he was a military ruler. When he was a military ruler, I was already in my third year in the university. So, I can say I knew him and his style and I liked it. I felt sorry when his government was overthrown. So, when he came back into partisan politics in 2003, it was something that was very exciting for me and since then, I have been supporting him. I am a journalist and I write a weekly column. I have been pointing Nigerians in his direction since 2003. And whenever I wrote anything in his (Buhari’s) support, he would call me on the phone and we would discuss and he would thank me. I remember in 2009 or thereabout when Prof. Tam David-West wrote a book on Buhari and it was to be presented at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. I was the master of ceremony of the occasion so we got to speak and know each other better. That was the first time I would meet him (Buhari) in person. Thereafter, he ran for President in 2011 and I still wrote in my column that I thought he was the best person to rule Nigeria and bring a change. Whenever I wrote those things, he would call me and he would thank me and we would talk.

So, eventually, in August 2013, I lost my mother and we needed to do her funeral. So, I sent Buhari an invitation card. The service was in Lagos and lo and behold, before the service started, he drove in. It was a pleasant surprise. It was a Christian service and he sat through it. Those who had said that he was a religious bigot were shocked. This was a Muslim man that came for a Christian service and attended the full service and yet they were saying he was a religious bigot. So, that act cemented our relationship because after the event, I phoned him the next day and thanked him but he said he was the one that should be grateful because he had never given me a kobo and yet I always gave him all the support. He said there were people that could pay me millions of naira for such support but I had decided to pitch my tent with somebody that could not give me anything. So, that cemented our relationship.

You know, in 2011, he said he would not contest the Presidency again but in the run up to the 2015 election, I felt he should still run and I wrote that the fact that he said in 2011 that he would not run again could not be carved in concrete and he could change his mind if he wanted and the rest, they say, is history. He changed his mind, he ran and he won. Significantly, on the night that he was declared the winner, my phone rang around midnight and one of our leaders in the media called and said, ‘Please hold on for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’. I was shocked and when he spoke to me, he said he appreciated my support throughout the campaigns and now that victory had come his way, he just wanted to say thank you. So, that was how it played out.

How did you get the appointment? Did he call you or were you interviewed?

After he had been declared winner and after he had called me on the telephone, I deliberately stayed away from him for two reasons. The first was because I knew he would be under a lot of pressure. A lot of people would be calling to congratulate him and probably seeking one thing or the other. So, I think from that night, which was March 31, I deliberately stayed away from him because I did not want to add to the pressure that would be on him and secondly, I didn’t want it to be that I was seeking a position in his government. I am a born again Christian and I want anything that happens or comes my way to be what God has ordained. I don’t push anything; I don’t lobby for anything so I kept my distance from him. But then, people around him kept talking to me and kept telling me that they believed I was the best person to be the spokesman for the incoming President. However, I did not give any commitment for two reasons. The first, as I said earlier, was that I didn’t want to lobby and secondly, I have a job that I enjoy doing: Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of one of the leading newspapers in the country, The Sun, and then I was also the President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors. Those are high calibre jobs and responsibilities. So, I wasn’t looking for a job but then people around me kept talking to me till eventually, there was some sort of interview but I would not say it was a direct interview but people singled me out to say, ‘Well, if you are invited to serve in government, will you serve?’. My conviction had always been that I would never serve in a government except one headed by Muhammadu Buhari. So, when they singled me out, I told them I didn’t think I wanted to serve in the government but since it is Muhammadu Buhari, I will consider it. But I also reminded them that I also have a job and I have to consult with my publisher (Orji Uzor Kalu) and I have to seek his blessings. Reluctantly too, my publisher gave his blessings. He told me that they would not know the sacrifice he had made by letting me go but since it is a service to the country, I have his blessings. So, I got back to them and told them yes, that I had sought my publisher’s blessing and the next I heard was the announcement that I had been appointed Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.

You will be going into the job in a changing media landscape. You will grapple with the social media and the traditional media. How do you hope to navigate these two worlds?

I would rather refer to the social media as digital media because the social media is just a variant of the digital media. Nobody can do anything successfully in the media today without factoring in the digital media. The social media, the digital media and every other thing will be used together. You would have seen the role they played in the campaigns. You could feel the pulse of the electorate and could already discern the direction the election would follow by merely following the digital media, particularly the social aspect of that digital media. It played a major role in the campaigns and there is no way you are going to ignore it. The traditional media has its place because there are people who are still glued to it. But the younger generation uses the digital media so you then need to use all the avenues to reach the people.

So far, what do the media headlines regarding Buhari’s administration say to you about what you are going to be dealing with on the job?

I will tell you it is no tea party. It is going to be a hectic work but then it is going to be me working for somebody that I believe in. So, I guess I will have to throw my all into it. I am under no illusion that the job is going to be easy or a picnic. It will not be. But I will throw my all into it and as long as my principal remains who he is: straight, accountable, focused and someone who wants to effect a change in the country, I guess we will get it done. When you have a good product, the marketing is easier.

Have you spoken with previous government spokesmen like Mr. Reuben Abati and Mr. Segun Adeniyi?

I have spoken with Segun Adeniyi (the late President Umaru Yar’adua’s spokesman); I have spoken with Ima Niboro who was former President Goodluck Jonathan’s first spokesman; but I have not spoken to Reuben Abati.

What advice did they give you?

They gave me an insight into how to do the job successfully. I have spoken with Segun more than once but I have spoken with Ima Niboro just once. I will meet with Segun again and we will talk.

APC crisis: State chairmen back Buhari, Odigie-Oyegun

 National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun on Wednesday met behind closed-doors with the chairmen of the 36 state chapters of the party.

The meeting which lasted for a little over four hours is the first of its kind since the party won the Presidential election on March 28.

After the meeting, the Chairmen of the state chapters of the party expressed support for the position taken by President Muhammadu Buhari and Odigie-Oyegun with respect to the emergence of the new leadership of the National Assembly.

The meeting was convened by the Forum of APC State Chairmen to review the challenges that bedevilled the party before, during and after the 2015 general elections.

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The forum declared support for the decision of President Buhari to accept the outcome of the leadership election in the National Assembly even though he would have preferred that the party’s candidates emerged.

President Buhari and Odigie-Oyegun had accepted the new National Assembly leadership, describing it as a constitutional reality.

In a communique issued and signed by the chairman of the Kano State APC, and the acting Chairman of the Forum, Umar Haruna Mohammed, at the end of their meeting in Abuja, the chairmen said, “We totally aligned ourselves with the President’s position regarding the leadership of the National Assembly.”

They urged the party leadership to ensure that funds were made available to state chapters without delay in order to help them defray their liabilities in line with the resolutions of the National Executive Council.

“Chairman sir, we acknowledge the enormity of the responsibilities placed on the office of the chairman and as such we urge you to be alive to the challenges so as to move the party forward.

“You should always see us as partners in progress and your own foot soldiers as we pray for more success in future, “ they said.

One of the chairmen from a state in the North-West explained that he and his colleagues also considered it necessary to meet with the chairman to among other things, express their displeasure at the way they were being left out of the scheme of things.

He said, “As chairmen of the party at the level of states, we worked for the party and we deserve to be carried along now that the victory has been won.

“We are however not happy that we are being kept in the dark about happenings within the party and we told him so.

“We raised this issue because the states are being neglected and since we do not support disunity within our party, we decided to meet with the chairman to work out ways of improving the situation in the interest of the party.

“On his part, the national chairman told us he has been looking for an opportunity to meet with us to share ideas but that the campaigns and the limited time the party had to organise itself before the election made it difficult.”

In a related development, the Deputy National Chairman (South), Segun Oni, also held a separate meeting with the leadership and selected members of the party from Delta State.

The governorship candidate of the party in the last elections, O’tega Emerhor, however, told newsmen after the meeting that there were no factions within the party in Delta State.

He said, “There are only a few of our brothers who are aggrieved but the issues are being sorted out.”

PDP govs condemn relocation of Rivers, A’Ibom election tribunals

 Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike

The Peoples Democratic Party governors have expressed displeasure over the relocation of the Taraba, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states’ election petitions tribunals to Abuja.

The governors said this at the meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum, which held in Abuja on Tuesday night.

At the meeting, which ended in the early hours of Wednesday, the Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was also elected as the chairman of the forum.

Mimiko succeeds ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who is now a senator.

Addressing journalists shortly after the meeting that started at 9:30pm on Tuesday, Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, said his colleagues were not happy about the relocation of the tribunals.

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“We condemn in very strong terms the relocation of election tribunals in Rivers State, Taraba State and Akwa Ibom State to Abuja,” Ikpeazu said.

He also announced that “the PDP governors’ forum unanimously elected Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State as chairman of the forum.”

The governors said they were delighted at the way former President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the outcome of the April 11 election and congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his election.

Ikpeazu said, “We congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari on his election as the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

“We also commend and salute our former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, for his display of peaceful disposition in the 2015 general elections, which has stabilised our political landscape.

“We equally congratulate Senator Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara and Suleiman Lasun on their emergence as the senate president, the speaker, House of Representatives and the deputy speaker respectively.

“We specially congratulate our own Senator Ike Ekweremadu on his emergence as the deputy senate president.”

The PDP governors’ new chairman, Mimiko, who also spoke to journalists, said, “We will do everything that we can do to engage the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress in a very constructive manner. We have also agreed to create formal and informal mechanisms of peer review, all for the development of our nation.”

The governors in attendance at the meeting were, Mimiko, Ikpeazu, Idris Wada (Kogi), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba).

The deputy governor of Bayelsa State, John Jonah, represented his state at the meeting.

The other PDP governors that neither attended nor sent representation were Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State; Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti; Nyesome Wike, Rivers; Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta and Ben Ayade, Cross River.