Stephen Keshi appointed as new Super Eagles coach

Former Super Eagles captain, Stephen Keshi has been appointed as the new coach of the Super Eagles. The Nigeria Football Federation yesterday confirmed the former Togo national team manager as replacement for Samson Siasia who was sacked last week.

The technical committee of the NFF had recommended Keshi ahead of other applicants including a host of European coaches who were ruled out due to the federation's financial constraints.

Details of the contract include that he will qualify the country for the 2013 Nations Cup and the 2014 World Cup. The mandate also includes to guide the Super Eagles to at least the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Keshi has been given free hand to pick his assistants. The Contract will expire at the end of the World Cup but could be renewed upon a satisfactory performance.

Although details of his salary was not available as at press time, it was gathered that he will earn about N3million, which will be reviewed upwards to Samson Siasia's N5million only if and when his contract is eventually confirmed.

A communique from the executive committee of the NFF stated that Keshi's appointment was unanimous.

Like Siasia, Keshi will be allowed to pick his own assistants, according to the NFF. Keshi himself has insisted he would pick his own staff amid speculations that his Super Eagles teammate Sunday Oliseh will be appointed as his number two man.

'Big Boss' will also not be given the full powers that Siasia enjoyed during his 11-month reign as Eagles manager.

It was gathered that these conditions were forwarded by the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after their meeting Wednesday for the executive committee to ratify.

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Nollywood steals the show at Kenya International Film Festival

It was a memorable day for the Nigerian motion picture industry in Kenya, as the presence of Nollywood actress, Genevieve Nnaji, her counterparts; Ramsey Nouah, Tina Mba, Kunle Afolayan and Gideon Okeke brought thousands of their East African fans, who desired to catch a glimpse of the actors, to the Prestige Plaza, venue of the Kenya International Film Festival.

Apart from the youths who could be said to be motivated by the Nollywood stars, older Kenyans, among them, University lecturers, students of literaturte and filmmakers where on hand to interact with professor Wole Soyinka, who was the headline personality for the event tagged; Nollywood Road Show.

Organised by the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), the event presented two of Nigeria's best movies of recent time- Kunle Afolayan's Figurine, which stars Ramsey Nouah and Mahmood Ali-Balogun's Tango with Me, which featured Genevieve Nnaji and Tima Mba. Both movies had won the selection of the NFVCB as tools of strategic marketing window for Nigeria.

The Nollywood Road Show is a part of the agency's Nigeria in the Movie (NIM) project which, Emeka Mba, Director General of NFVCB says is geared towards redefining the identity, influence, character and image of the country.

The International Road Show is therefore premised on creating further investment opportunities into the movie sector through the synergy that may arise from a network created by participating and promoting Nigeria at the KIFF for example.

The involvement of Soyinka, the pride of the black race and the only African Nobel Laurete winner only created the bond expected of the African cinema rather than the competition associated with the seeming dominance of Nollywood movies.

The Professor, who shared the podium with KIFF's Festival Director, Charles Akiba noted among other issues, the need for Africa to synergise as a film industry, same way, that effort are ongoing to create a caucus of African literature.

"There is the need to get businessmen to teach the filmmakers how to market their wealth. I have been on the film jury since the 60s and I know that Africa has a long history of filmmaking."

Soyinka who also answered to the question as to why some of his books have not been adapted into movies, said he is disposed to filmmakers who may be willing to do so as much as they have a good understanding of Africaness that his themes deal with.

He noted that one of the reasons the movie on one of his books; Kongi's Harvest was not successful was because the filmmaker, an African American did not understand well enough the African setting, culture, and mythology.

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Nigerian government moves to restrict British airways flights to Lagos

There appears to be no reprieve for British Airways yet as the Federal Government has taken steps to restrict all British Airways flights to Lagos from next week.

Although the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, cited operational reasons for the restriction, Vanguard gathered that it might be in connection with the current logjam between the Federal Government and its British counterpart over denial of slot allocations to Arik Air at Heathrow Airport in London.

The Federal Government had, Wednesday, reduced British Airways' weekly flight frequencies into the country from seven to three, citing the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, between both countries.

The British authorities said it took the decision to protect its airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways, flying into the country.

It was learnt that the restriction was limited only to British Airways, fuelling speculations that the Federal Government's posture is in retaliation to the shabby treatment meted to Arik on its operations to Heathrow.

Arik Chairman, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, had raised an alarm last week that he was compelled to pay for slots at London Heathrow, explaining that he had to rent landing slots from British Midland International at 14 million Pounds between 2009 and last year, a development which runs counter to the BASA between Nigeria and Britain.

Consequent upon the alarm rasied by Arik, Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, issued a statement, Wednesday, slashing British Airways' weekly frequencies to three.

But reacting to the development, yesterday, British Airways said FAAN's plan amounted to a further muzzle of its operations in Nigeria, wondering why the restriction was limited only to its operations.

he British Airways in a statement last night by

an Petrie, the airline's Regional Commercial Manager for Africa, said: "The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has restricted British Airways flights to Lagos from next week. They have cited operational reasons for this imposition. It appears that British Airways is the only airline to be singled-out by these restrictions."

We are doing all we can to resolve this issue.

"The matter is now in the hands of the British Government which is speaking with the Nigerian authorities.

"The distribution of the slots at Heathrow is managed through an independent organisation, Airport Coordination Ltd (ACL). ACL manage slot allocation in a fair and transparent manner, where all airlines have the opportunity to be involved," British Airways said in a statement issued last night.

Ian Petrie, the airline's Regional Commercial Manager for Africa, said further: 'We remain committed to Nigeria and have had a presence in the country for over 75 years. We want to keep serving Nigeria and hope that the two governments resolve this issue with sensibility and as soon as possible.

"While we have robust contingency plans in place, any disruption will have an impact of travellers to and from Nigeria, as well as local suppliers," he said.

Stakeholders in the nation's aviation industry had always lamented Nigeria's ability to reciprocate the BASA between Nigeria and Britain on the London route, following the absence of a Nigerian carrier on the route until Arik Air emerged on the route.

The BASA gave both countries access to 21 frequencies on the route, which only the British carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, had always exploited, with Nigeria receiving paltry royalties for having no carriers on the route.

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Video - New bus system in Lagos, Nigeria changing millions of lives

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Shell raises concern on unprecedented oil theft in Nigeria

The Shell Petroleum Development of Nigeria (SPDC) has raised  alarm over what it called an unprecedented scale of crude oil theft in the country, saying it has discovered 16 new oil theft points in the “Imo River field alone”.

The oil firm also said 10 additional illegal oil bunkering incidents had been recorded in the Eastern Niger Delta since it shut down production from Imo River field on August 28, following an upsurge of sabotage activities, which had adversely impacted the environment, resulting in deferment of 25,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

Shell’s Vice-President, Health Safety and Environment (HSE) and Corporate Affairs, sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Tony Attah, who made these disclosures in an interactive session with journalists Wednesday, said production from the affected field would “remain suspended until the crude theft and illegal refining activities have stopped”.

He explained that a recent helicopter overfly showed that unknown persons had drilled holes and installed valves to transfer crude to waiting barges and trucks, in the process polluting  farm lands and water bodies.

“We are very disappointed that oil thieves are still at work,” Attah said adding, “This is why we call for concerted efforts to help stop this criminal activity, which not only puts the lives of the perpetrators and the public at risk, but causes severe environmental impact and impacts the communities in the areas. It also wastes badly needed revenue to finance development even in the same areas in which the activities are taking place.”

He restated that more than 75 per cent of all oil spill incidents and more than 70 per cent of all oil spilled from the SPDC facilities in the Niger Delta between 2006 and 2010 were caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refining, adding that since January 1, this year, the company had published data on every spill on the web to further demonstrate the robustness of its oil spill response process.

Attah also revealed that the company was examining ways to bring third party verification to the oil spill investigation process in order to bring further transparency to the assessment of causes and volumes.
To stem the tide, he said the company was deploying new technologies to ensure that new pipelines were buried deeper to prevent vandals from having access to them.

He explained that the deployment of surveillance contract would be maintained to safeguard the existing pipelines.

He said Shell believes in multi-stakeholders approach to the worrisome problem, noting, however, that until sabotage and crude theft spills were stopped or at least curbed, the vast majority of oil spills would continue to impact the environment.

“Nobody else operating in the Niger Delta comes close to this level of transparency. But regardless of how well we run our operations, until sabotage and crude theft spills are stopped or curbed, the vast majority of oil spills will continue to blight large swathes of land and pollute rivers and farm lands,” he said.

He attributed the cause of oil theft to unemployment and poverty, but noted however that these are no excuse for indulging in such sordid acts.

On the report of the study carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) on oil pollution in Ogoniland, Attah said Shell was working with the presidential committee to arrive at a desirable action plan for the area.

Towards this end, he said Shell’s representatives last week met with the government and lawmakers to deliberate on what could be “a starting point”.

Last week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that seven Nigerians and two Ghanaians were last month sentenced to 10 years on each of the nine charges filed against them by the commission for illegally dealing in petroleum products.

Stolen crude and illegally poorly refined petroleum products are often exported and sold on the lucrative black market at neighbouring countries.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Lieu-tenant Colonel Timothy Antigha, had said on Monday that a ship laden with 5,000 tonnes of stolen oil and 30 barges, also laden with unspecified quantities of crude and illegally refined oil were impounded in Bayelsa State.

A leaked United States diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks recently, fingered some unnamed Nigerian political elite and soldiers as among those who profited from large-scale oil theft in the Niger Delta that might have cost the country up to a 10th of its production.

Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but thieves take a sizeable proportion of its output by drilling into pipelines or sometimes hijacking barges loaded with oil.

In the meantime, the SPDC has lifted the force majeure, which it declared on Forcados loadings on October 10, for October, November and December 2011 cargoes as a result of production shutdown due to a sabotage leak on the Trans Forcados pipeline.

Corporate Media Relations Manager, Shell, Mr. Tony Okonedo, said the force majeure, a legal term that frees a company from contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond its control, was lifted effective from 12 noon, November  1, 2011, following completion of repairs of the affected pipeline.

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