NAIJAFEED

Friday, June 4, 2010

Nigeria's growing mobile market

Major internet companies like Microsoft and Google are turning to countries like Nigeria, where new developers are emerging.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Virgin Nigeria changes name to Air Nigeria

Barely 10 months after Virgin Nigeria changed its name to Nigeria Eagle Airlines, the airline has again changed its name to Air Nigeria.

This new name brings to two the number of times the airline has changed its name since it started operations in July 2005 till date.

The new name was made known to aviation journalists by the Chairman of the airline, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, at a media conference in Lagos.

According to the chairman, the new name was effected sequel to the board resolution on May 14, 2010, adding that it (the new name) has already been approved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and that it was registered with a certificate number RC501975.

He said the full name of the company is Air Nigeria Development Limited (ANDL).

"Air Nigeria is born out of the need to have a national carrier that reflects the Nigerian identity and safeguard the integrity of the Nigerian people," he said.

The name, he added, became necessary in order to make the airline fully indigenous, noting that everything about the airline would reflect the Nigerian cultures with integrity show casing that Nigeria, as a nation, can do it.

The chairman also disclosed that the first branded aircraft in the new mane would arrive Nigeria before the end of next week from France and that other air planes in the airline's fleet will follow suit.

He disclosed that by October 1, 2010, a minimum of 10 aircrafts would be launched at a time in Abuja, assuring the staff that there would be no job lost.According to him, "As we increase the number of our fleet, job security is guaranteed as much people will be required to run the airline."

On the diagnose review of the company, Ibrahim said the diagnose review shows an enterprise in financial distress leading to operational delays but with a first class technical services.

Ibrahim assured that in a matter of days financial distress would have been over by 95 per cent, just as he also disclosed that the turn around which he said will last for six months will be limited to financial areas and not engineering department which the chairman described as first class.

On his meeting with Richard Branson, the Chairman of Virgin Atlantic, Ibrahim, said it was fruitful.

Daily Independent recalls that the former Managing Director airlines, Capt Dapo Olumide, on September 17, 2009, announced the changed the name and logo of the airline from Virgin Nigeria to Nigeria Eagle Airlines, a situation that pitched the airline against one of the commercial banks who the airline was indebted to.

The fear of the bank Daily Independent learnt was that the airline may not want to service its debt, as it may agued that it was Virgin Nigeria that owed the bank and not Nigeria Eagle Airlines.

Daily Independent

Related stories: Virgin Nigeria changes to Nigeria Eagle

Virgin Atlantic ending partnership with Nigeria airlines

Dubai set to extradite Ibori

Authorities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday said they were ready to extradite former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, after a British court convicted two of his associates for laundering $20 million on behalf of Ibori.

Daily Champion gathered that the Dubai Police had already written to its United Kingdom (UK) counterpart, asking it to make available relevant documents in the Ibori case.

Ibori's sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie, and an associate, Udoamaka Onuigbo Okoronkwo were each convicted by a jury on three counts of money-laundering at Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday, a court official said yesterday.

The indictment named Ibori as the source and beneficiary of the cash.

The case complicates affairs for the former governor who was arrested last month in Dubai on an Interpol warrant.

"The defendants laundered more than 14 million pounds for James Ibori ... They were deeply involved in his life and financial dealings," said David Williams, reviewing lawyer for the British Crown Prosecution Service's central fraud group.

"This was not a victimless crime. The theft of this money meant Nigerian citizens were effectively robbed of the services they were rightly entitled to expect and their lives left poorer as a consequence," he said in a statement.

The offences took place from 1999 to 2007, the period when Ibori was governor of Delta, one of three major oil-producing states in the impoverished Niger Delta.

The jury also found Ibori-Ibie guilty of five charges of obtaining or attempting to obtain property transfers by deceit.

The indictment said she had dishonestly obtained mortgages to buy properties in and around London, presenting herself on different occasions as oil and gas executive, import-export agent, interior decorator and children's wear merchant.

It will be recalled that authorities in Dubai said on May 13 that Ibori had been released from custody, but his passport had been seized. Police said they were expecting his case file to be sent from London.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said it would "continue to pursue those involved in Ibori's criminal conduct", starting with another trial of three of his associates scheduled to begin on June 14. One of the defendants in that trial will be Theresa Ibori, the politician's wife.

A successful prosecution of Ibori at home or abroad, would be seen as a huge victory in the fight against corruption by President Goodluck Jonathan.

A British court froze $35 million of Ibori's assets in August 2007 on suspicion they were the proceeds of corruption.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) tried to arrest Ibori last month, before his Dubai trip, to question him over allegations that N44 billion ($290 million) was looted from Delta State government coffers during his time in office.

But a crowd of militants prevented police from arresting him in his hometown in Oghara.

Daily Champion

Video interview with James Ibori about corruption charges

Video report on the EFCC crackdown on corruption in Nigeria

Cocaine and politics

For a nation that is apparently obsessed with its own unedifying history, it is very tempting to assume that the future of Nigeria will re-play its past if no serious effort is made to arrest the situation. Campaign for any elective office in Nigeria has become a cash-and-carry auction. Not only does the country understand this obvious menace, but for generations we all have come to accept it.

The reality is that politics is the only thriving business in the country today. A former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, alluded to this fact when he said in 2005 that politics was an investment, and that a politician could sell all his landed property to get elected into an office. The recent case of Mr. Eme Zuru Ayortor, a 52-year-old politician in Edo State, who is eyeing a House of Assembly seat in 2011, illustrates the desperation of many Nigerian politicians.

Ayortor, a United States-trained pharmacist, was arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) while attempting to export 2.129kg of cocaine. He was about to board a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos when he was intercepted at the central screening area with the aid of a scanning machine. Ayortor's confession said it all: "I contested the 2007 House of Assembly election in Edo State and lost," he was quoted as saying. "I also lost all my savings as a practising pharmacist in that election. Now, the coast is clear and I am being favoured to run in 2011 in my party. That was how I got involved in this mess. I needed to reposition myself for the 2011 election financially. I thought that with my position and appearance, there would be no problem at the screening. I do not know where to start, from here."

It is not an isolated case, unfortunately. We recall that last year, Senator Nuhu Aliyu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, raised the alarm on the floor of the Senate that he could identify a handful of his colleagues in the House who had been involved in drug deals and whose cases he had personally investigated as a senior cop. His revelation provoked a furore in the National Assembly. Amidst threats and counter-threats, the senator was forced to eat his words. The rest is now history.

The truth, however, is that not many decent people, earning an honest living, can afford the cost of winning elections in Nigeria today. Given the obvious absence of ideology-based, articulate, issues-oriented campaigns, money is now virtually the only essential ingredient of electoral success in the country. Before the first vote is cast in a presidential or governorship primary election, the nation's moneybags and party financiers would have privately determined which candidate should receive his party's ticket. It is thus unrealistic to expect our elected officials to operate in a system that requires them to raise millions or even billions of naira in campaign financing, without powerful strings being attached to such 'investments'.

The price of sustaining such a blatantly cash-driven electoral process has been a worsening of official corruption in the system, since the return of democratic rule in 1999, and an increase of public skepticism and mistrust towards the government. Disillusionment about politics now runs so deep that the majority of voters no longer participate in the political process. The people now know, from painful experience, that elections in our country are a sordid affair, often involving fraud, robbery, drug pushing, banditry, assassinations, and official deceit. In this mercenary culture, where money is increasingly the sole decisive factor in choosing our leaders, the impression is unmistakable that the government goes to the highest bidder. The security agencies saddled with the job of discreetly screening politicians for moral suitability for public office have been sucked into the money-spinning game.

We urge the NDLEA to dig into the activities of the drug barons who sponsor other desperate Nigerians in this messy trade. Also, the security agencies should show more patriotism in screening prospective candidates for the 2011 general elections. There are so many Ayortors who want to win elections at all costs. The harsh economy also needs to be addressed by the Jonathan administration. A situation whereby credit facilities at low interest rates do not exist for people to set up legitimate businesses and generate employment will continue to breed public office seekers who see politics as the only source of high returns on investment. Besides, a return to the practice of fiscal federalism is required so as to curtail the present entrenched culture of looting 'free money' from crude oil exports.

Daily Independent

Video report on the EFCC crackdown on corruption in Nigeria

Video report on Nigerian woman arrested for smuggling cocaine in stomach

CNN's video report on the Drug War in Nigeria

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Video - Obafemi Martins talks about Eagles chances

Super Eagles striker Obafemi Martins talks about African countries having something to prove at the FIFA 2010 World Cup starting in a few weeks.

Interview with Super Eagles new coach Lars Lagerback

Super Eagles off to South Africa

The World Cup comes to Nigeria