Author: Isah Mukhtar

Attack
By Kola Adeyemi
Lokoja, July 18, 2018 ( NAN) Sen. Dino Melaye on Wednesday condemned the burning down of a block of four classrooms  he donated to  Government Girls Secondary School, Sarki Noma, Lokoja by unknown arsonists.

Melaye,  who spoke with  journalists shortly after inspecting the burnt section of the classroom block at the school premises,  described the incident as barbaric and uncivilised.

He also condemned the vandalisation of a block of four classrooms  he built at UBE Junior Secondary School at Lokongoma area in Lokoja by hoodlums, urging the police to bring the perpetrators to book.

Melaye,  who is representing Kogi West Senatorial District, said that the action of the hoodlums was an embarrassment to the state that was  well respected for its exploits in  education in Northern Nigeria.

He wondered why some people would want to bring down the state for selfish reasons , pleading with the hoodlums and their sponsors to stop smearing the image of the state.

Melaye   promised to rebuild and repair the burnt and damaged blocks of classrooms, saying that no amount of intimidation and harassment would  divert his attention from providing qualitative representation to  the people.

He also said that the incident would  not stop his planned one -week thank you tour of the senatorial district and  inauguration  of some of the 143 projects he had executed in the past three years at a cost of N7 billion.

The senator later inaugurated the two blocks  of four classrooms  be built at LGEA Primary School, Tawari,  and LGEA primary School, Manyare, the 10- kilometre Manyare -Gegu Beki road and the 15-kilometre Orehi – Irovomi road,  all in Kogi Local Government.

He charged the people of the communities where the projects were located to protect them from vandals and make the best use of them.

Melaye,  who also inaugurated a borehole he built at Felele area of Lokoja,  said  other projects to be inaugurated in the next few days  include classroom blocks , rural roads, boreholes, skills  acquisition centres as well as  rural electrification schemes.(NAN)
KKA/OJO
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(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)

NANFeatures/Vol.12/No.88/2018 (July 18)

Rescuing Nigerian children from `crooked’ justice system

An analysis by Chukwudi Ekezie, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

On Friday, July 13, the Supreme Court discharged and acquitted Yusuf Musa who was convicted of murder at the age of 12.

Musa was sentenced to death on Dec. 23, 2008, by Justice Ubale Taura of Jigawa High Court for culpable homicide punishable with death under the Penal Code and applicable in the state.

He was accused of hitting one Muhammed Hamza on the head and other parts of the body with a stick during a fight which led to his death.

Musa pleaded not guilty and said he acted in self-defence but the court applied the full weight of the law and ordered that he be hanged.

The Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division upheld the judgment of the trial court in part, but dismissed the death sentence and ordered his indefinite detention by the governor.

The Supreme Court said both the Jigawa High Court and the Court of Appeal, should have handled the matter better.

It said no legal precedence supported the decision of the Court of Appeal that the accused be held in detention at the pleasure of the state governor.

The court further said sufficient evidence was not adduced to warrant the conviction and sentencing of a minor to death by hanging.

The same day that Musa was freed, a 13-year-old boy was arraigned at an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for beating up a 12-year-old girl and neighbour by pushing her down the stairs.

The boy was alleged to have committed the offence on May 31 at his home.

The prosecutor, ASP Ezekiel Ayorinde, told the court that the boy assaulted the girl by pushing her down and injuring her left hand.

Ayorinde said the accused attacked the girl following a fight between their mothers.

He said the offence contravened Section 173 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes three years jail sentence for offenders.

The Magistrate, Mrs B.O. Osunsanmi, granted the boy bail in the sum of N50, 000 with two sureties in like sum  and adjourned the case  until July 23.

Musa’s and the boy’s cases are among many in which Nigerian children are violated by a `crooked’ justice system.

On Aug. 1, 2017, The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo Atilade, freed 80 juveniles incarcerated at Badagry Prison for sundry offences.

The inmates, who were below 18, were arrested and prosecuted by the Lagos State Task Force on various offences such as hawking and breach of the peace.

They were jailed by mobile courts for terms ranging from six months to two years after they failed to pay fines imposed on them.

The prison facility in which the children were kept had 70 staff and was meant for 320 but at the time of their release it had 584 inmates.

Among the inmates were 389 convicts and 195 others awaiting trial.

Atilade had set out to free 28 children on the occasion but was moved by the dehumanising state of the inmates and added 52 others.

The children, who looked malnourished and clad in blue and green prison uniform, were handed over to Lagos State Ministry of Youths and Social Development.

After the chief judge ordered the release of the children, more than 50 others still remained in jail.

Mr Oye Famuwagun, the Deputy Controller of Prisons of Badagry Prisons, had told the judge that the facility lacked potable water among other inadequacies.

Justice Yetunde Idowu, the Head of Family Court of the Lagos State Judiciary, decried the incarceration of the children in the adult prison.

“The judiciary and the government of Lagos State have zero tolerance for child abuse and we are saying No to children in prison, whether under conviction, trial or otherwise.

“I am pained to be where we are looking at these children.

“If a child under 18 years is brought here, please alert the High Court, Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Ministry of Youths and Social Development and other agencies.

“Anytime a child commits an offence, we want to reform and rehabilitate them, there are correctional facilities available.

“Keeping a child in prison traumatises him or her, we don’t want children in our prisons, no child should be kept in prison for even an hour,” Idowu said.

Mr Yakubu Jubril, a Chief Social Welfare Officer with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, said many children in Lagos Prisons were being held wrongly.

“We have realised that children who are not supposed to be in prison are there today.

“We have found out that some of these children did not actually commit the offences levelled against them.

“Some of them were unduly raided by the Task Force,’’ he noted.

Worried by what looks like a feature of the justice system, UNICEF has embarked on a rehabilitation of children in jail.

The UNICEF Child Justice Consultant, Dr Wilfred Mamah, said many Nigerian children were languishing in prisons across the country.

Mamah said at a Sensitisation Meeting
in Lagos that UNICEF was embarking on a pilot Community Rehabilitation Programme for Children in Conflict.

He said the agency was collaborating with Law and Children at High Risk of Offending, in Lagos State to reduce the number of Nigerian children in   prisons.

“There are currently many children languishing in many Lagos State prisons as well as in other prisons across Nigeria.

“We have, therefore, come up with a Community Rehabilitation Programme  with Grace Springs Rehabilitation Home, to gainfully engage these children and ensure that other children are not sent to prison unnecessarily,’’ he said.

Mamah said UNICEF, as a global children’s protection organisation, would continue to create a situation whereby children were shown better ways of becoming responsible.

“We need to know that no child is born a failure or an offender, but should be corrected and shown love always.

“We are aware that a number of children are still in prison.

“If not for the intervention of the Chief Judge of Lagos State, who recently released about 80 children from the Badagry Prisons, those children would still have been languishing there,’’ he said.

Around the world, children languish behind bars, sometimes for protracted periods and in many cases, they face brutal and inhuman conditions.

The lack of record-keeping means that the number of children in jail is not known, but UNICEF estimates that more than one million children are incarcerated.

Many are held in decrepit, abusive, and demeaning conditions, deprived of education, access to meaningful activities, and regular contact with the outside world. (NANFeatures)

**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

NANFeatures/Vol.12/No.89/2018 (July 18)

Modern Farming, Key to Nigeria’s Food Sufficiency – Lokpobiri

Food
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, July 18, 2018 (NAN) The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, says the only way Nigeria can attain self-sufficiency in food production is for the nation’s farmers to embrace modern farming.

Lokpobiri made this assertion in a statement signed by Mr George Oji, his Special Adviser on Media, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The minister regretted that gap in domestic food production have existed in Nigeria for many years because, the nation depended on rural farmers and their rural farming methods for its food needs.

Lokpobiri, however, expressed delight that recently the Federal Government has been embarking efforts to redress the situation through policies and infrastructural development of the rural communities.

According to him, the only way we can feed ourselves is for us to develop our capacity, embrace modern farming technology and techniques so that we will continue to enjoy high productivity, not the subsistent farming we are used to.

Lokpobiri also stressed the need for the development of the nation’s rural areas to stem urban migration, while receiving a delegation from the Africa-Asia Rural Development Organisation (AARDO) led by Secretary General of the Organisation, Mr Wassfi Hassan El Sreihinin, in his office.

He noted that if urban migration is halted, it would reduce poverty and crime, as well as limit the pressure on the amenities in the urban areas currently being experienced in the country.

”Nigeria is a country where we are basically being fed by the rural dwellers, if rural development is not given priority and already studies have shown that there is urban migration because of lack of development in the rural areas, the cities would soon be over crowded.

“Land to farm is in the rural areas and if those people in the rural areas are empowered through capacity building, technology transfer to be able to stay there and continue to cultivate in agriculture.

“The poverty would be reduced, there will be less crime, and there will be less pressure on the limited amenities that we find in the urban areas,’’ he said.

The minister added that the only difference between the agricultural system in Africa and those of the advanced economies of the world is the use and deployment of technologically advanced equipment by the later.

While comparing the climate between Nigeria and that of the Latin American countries, which he noted are basically the same, the minister regretted that because sometimes we don’t want to be relevant in techniques.

“The yield over there could be 20 tonnes while here it could be 2 tonnes. This is basically because of the way we plan and the way we manage our cropping system.”

Secretary General of AARDO, El Sreihinin, pledged his organisation’s commitment to collaborating with the nation’s rural farmers to grow the sector because of Nigeria’s strategic position in Africa and the West African region.

He said, “We assure you that we will offer our assistance to the country. This is my first official visit to Nigeria since I took over as the Sec Gen in 2011.

“As you know Nigeria is a very important country in this region and the world. We have been collaborating and enhancing the lives of the rural people of Nigeria, neighbouring countries and members of the organisation.

“Since 1999 when Nigeria became a member of the organisation, Nigeria has benefited from our technical work programme, including the human capacity building.

“AARDO offers many hundreds of training programmes and fellowships every year in different countries in Asia and Africa which officials from Nigeria benefits from.”

According to him, in 2007, we financed one project in Nigeria; in 2006, we signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Agriculture and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin.

“The MoU is for collaboration and assistance for international training programmes and I am here to revive the MoU for the benefit of our members,’’ he said. (NAN)
ROK/AFA
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Edited by Felix Ajide

Kogi Gov’t constructs 23 public toilets to curb open defecation

Defecation
Lokoja, July 17, 2018 ( NAN) Kogi State Government said it has constructed 23 public toilets in some major towns across the state as part of efforts to discourage open defecation among residents.

The state’s Commissioner for Environment and Physical Development, Mr Sanusi Yahaya, disclosed this on Tuesday in Lokoja while speaking during an advocacy visit by a team from the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC).

He said that 18 of the toilet facilities were constructed by the previous administrations while the administration of Gov. Yahaya Bello built five in Lokoja, Isanlu, Okene, Ogugu and Ayingba.

He said that, while those located in Lokoja, Isanlu and Ogugu had been inaugurated, works were nearing completion on those located in Okene and Anyigba, saying that the toilets were fitted with boreholes.

Yahaya said adequate provisions had been made in the state’s 2018 budget for the construction of more public toilets in some other major towns to promote hygiene and sanitation among the people.

The Commissioner said that his ministry has held series of meetings with market leaders in Lokoja on the need to stop dumping refuse in River Niger, saying that another public toilet will be constructed at the Kpata market in Lokoja to curb open defection along the bank of the river.

According to him, landlords in major towns in the state are also being encouraged to provide toilet facilities in their houses.

The commissioner explained that the state government will not hesitate to sanction any landlord that fails to comply.

He said that state government was intensifying efforts to complete the ongoing embankment project on the bank of River Niger.

He said that the project when completed will put an end to perennial flooding of Kabawa, Sarki Noma, Galililee and Kpapatankoto areas of Lokoja.

Yahaya disclosed that government had engaged a private firm to handle the cleaning and evacuation of waste in Lokoja to the designated dump site, where a waste recycling plant was being constructed.

The commissioner, however, said that some undesirable elements had embarked on the destruction of waste bins placed in strategic points in Lokoja, asking members of the public and civil society to help curb this.

He lauded the JDPC in Lokoja and Idah dioceses for embarking on an advocacy programme aimed at improving water, hygiene and sanitation in 13 selected communities of the state, expressing government’s readiness to partner with the organisation to achieve its objectives.

Earlier, the Coordinator of JDPC in Lokoja diocese, Rev.Fr. Leonard Odomeja told the commissioner that the advocacy project was aimed at bridging the gap between duty bearers and citizens.

Odomeja, who was represent by the Secretary of the organisation, Mr Simon Enejoh, said that the programme had helped in recording an improvement in sanitation and hygiene of the communities where it is being implemented.

He also said that the advocacy project was being expanded to cover more communities in the state, urging the state to deploy more sanitary inspectors to sustain and improve upon the achievement being recorded. ( NAN)
KKA/AFA
Edited by Felix Ajide

PVCs

By Dada Ahmed

Abuja, July 13, 2018 (NAN)  As the nation warms for the 2019 general elections, the Chief Immam of Area 10, Mosque, Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Yahaya Al-Yolawi has urged Muslims in the territory to obtain their Permanent Voter cards (PVCs) .

The cleric, who gave the advice on Friday in Abuja his Jumat sermon to the congregation, said this was to enable them elect leaders of their choice during the exercise.

He noted that barely one year to the general elections, some Muslims were yet to obtain PVCs as part of their efforts to perform their civic responsibility toward enhancing democracy and ensure political development of the country.

The chief imam, whose sermon dwelt on “Commanding good and forbidding evil is a collective responsibility“, also called on Muslims to shun evil and continue to cherish in their deeds.

“The act of commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong is one of the most important Islamic teachings stressed in the Holy Quran.

“If Muslims fail to do their duty of enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil, wrong doing and corruption will spread throughout the ummah (society),“he said.

He also called on Muslims to see hating evil as part of their responsibilities toward sanitising the country of corruption and other negative tendencies capable of retarding the progress of the country.

Al-Yolawi, who called on the security agents in the country to check the activities of some sects in their fledgling stage in some parts of the country to guard against crisis, prayed for the peace and development of the country.(NAN)

DUA/GY
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Edited by Grace Yussuf

SON gives MANCAP to Dangote Cement products

SON

Lokoja, July 12, 2018 (NAN) The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says products of Dangote Cement Company have successfully passed through its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP).

Its Director-General, Mr Ostia Aboloma, announced this during a partnership facility tour of the Dangote Cement plant at Obajana, Kogi State on Thursday.

Aboloma, who was represented during the tour by the organisation’s Director of Standards Development, Mrs Chinyere Egwuonwu, said that the new certification was an attestation to Dangote Cement’s quality products.

“ It is also a testimony of the company’s capacity to conduct in-process and in-house tests on its raw materials and finished products in conformity with relevant national standards,” a statement signed by Mr Tony Chiejine, Head, Corporate Communication, Dangote Group, said.

“ Through our conformity assessment activities, we have always visited your plants on routine quarterly factory inspections to ensure compliance of your products to relevant national standards.

“ The outcome of these activities is the certification of your products to the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme,” the statement said further.

The SON chief said that the revised standard for cement production in Nigeria, NIS 444-1:2018, had been approved by the Standard Council of Nigeria and now ready for implementation.

He promised SON’s continuous collaboration with Dangote Cement, other private sector operators and stakeholders to ensure availability of the relevant standards for both raw materials and finished products.

Speaking during the facility tour, the Managing Director of Dangote Cement Plc, Mr Joseph Makoju, said that the company had always taken the issue of standard seriously in its production activities.

“ Dangote Cement Plc does not limit itself to the set standards, but usually exceeds standard both in quality of its products and environmental friendliness of its plants operations,” Makoju said.

He advised others in the sector to emulate the  company by adhering to standards so that products from Nigeria could compete favourably with foreign ones.

The managing director said that that the organisation had deliberately invested heavily in machines, equipment and human capital development as so as to ensure that its products quality standard is second to none.

According to him, the decision of Dangote Cement Plc to take lead role in the backward integration policy of the Federal Government has paid off as Nigeria has now become self-sufficient in cement production.

He advocated a replication of the backward integration policy in other sectors of the nation’s economy to reduce over reliance on oil and create jobs for the people.

In his remark, the Obajana Plant Director, Mr. Veeraraghavan Sirinivasan, lauded the management of SON for the facility tour to the cement plant which he described as the largest in Africa. (NAN)
KKA/TA

Edited by Tajudeen Atitebi

Agriculture

By Kudirat Musa

Abuja, July 11, 2018, 2018 (NAN) The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has called for harnessing of agricultural and livestock potential of Nigeria to enhance the foreign exchange and ensure development of the socio-economic prosperity of the nation.

Mr Vincent Isegbe, Coordinating Director, NAQS, made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

‘‘The beauty of this is that during the winter (dry season), we can produce apple, strawberry, vegetable and some other commodities.

‘‘If we put our house in order, we can upscale our production because a lot of demands are coming in everyday.

‘‘Anybody that chooses to go into farming now will make good money and earn the dollar that everybody is running after.

‘‘By the time we have too much dollar in the country; it will improve our liquidity base as a country.

‘‘It will also help reduce hoarding and buying dollar at high rate,’’ he said.

Isegbe noted that NAQS was doing pest risk assessment to ensure that agricultural produce that would be exported meet the international standard.

‘‘We have done this for pigeon pea and that is what enabled the government of India to place an order for it.

‘‘We secured an offer from the Indian government to export pigeon pea worth 100 billion U.S. dollars to the country.

‘‘We want to encourage farmers to produce enough because the market is becoming excessive and wide for India because Indians can consume as more pigeon pea as we can export to them.

‘‘Everything is safe for them to export because we have done the Pest Research Assessment (PRA) and it is safe for them to export the pigeon pea from Nigeria,’’ he said.

Isegbe added that his organisation had met with officials of the government of China on sorghum and guinea corn.

He said their experts had visited all the farms the organisation marked for investigation and verification in the country.

‘‘So many farmers will be engaged, a lot of the commodities will be exported from Nigeria and we will get more dollars from agriculture instead of oil.

‘‘We will continue to do this for as many countries are interested in our commodities.

“This is because it is the mandate of NAQS to conduct survey aimed at giving comfort to any country importing our commodities.

‘‘We did the export certification value chain for 10 crops:sesame, hibiscus, vegetables, ginger, sugarcane, yam, corn, cashew, moringa and tiger nut.

‘‘We also did Export Improvement Initiative (EII) for three of the cash crops involved going to the farmers, interview them and look at crops before harvesting and give advice, Isegbe said.

‘‘We also find out who were the exporters, suppliers, producers and with details of the people involved in the value chain and owners of the warehouses where the crops will be stored.’’

‘‘We need to identify the crops that need to be frozen like vegetables and keep under temperature between 15 degree and 20 degree.

‘‘There is need for revalidation of all value chain so that if there are problems along the value chain, we will know where to fill the gaps because the world is not waiting for us.’’

He said this was also necessary to guard against any problem that may crop up in foreign countries where the crops would be exported to.(NAN)

ROK/MOL/DUA

Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Dada Ahmed

Customers
By Yinusa Ishola
Omu-Aran (Kwara), June 11, 2018 (NAN) Some bank customers in Omu-Aran, Kwara, have heaved a sigh of relief as a commercial bank in the town re-opened three months after shutting down.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports on Wednesday that the bank had remained closed since April, following an armed robbery attack on some commercial banks in Offa.

The bank which only began skeletal services in January 2017, three years after a similar attack on banks in Omu-Aran community, had since the last robbery in Offa remained closed.

The bank’s closure had forced bank customers to engage the services of local money transfer operators in the community.

NAN recalls that some armed bandits had in May 2013, attacked three commercial banks in Omu-Aran, killing three persons and carted away undisclosed amount of money.

One of the banks had to reopen in January 2017, after persistent pressure and appeals from the people of the community.

The community had also donated two Hilux vehicles to the police to aid in combating crime in the area, and to encourage the banks to commence business activities.

Some bank customers told NAN on Wednesday that they had no choice but to travel about 75 kilometres to Ilorin to carry out bank transactions while the closure lasted.

NAN also reports that another bank affected by the May 2013 attack in the community, had embarked on a massive renovation of its building toward commencing banking transactions before the Offa incident.

The bank had since jettisoned the plan of re-opening its branch in the town and remained closed to customers.

The latest re-opening of a bank’s branch in Omu-Aran NAN gathered, may  not be unconnected with the recent massive deployment of detachment of a mobile police unit in the community.

All efforts to speak with the bank officials on the development proved abortive as none of them was ready to volunteer any information.

Mr Dotun Adeyeye, a businessman, described the development as heart-warming and a pleasant development.

“I am very happy that one of the banks has opened its doors to customers, our prayer is for the other banks to follow in that order.

“The bank’s refusal to reopen for business since the Offa attack has dealt a big blow to our business activities,” he said.

Mrs Roseline Adebayo, a civil servant praised members of Omu-Aran Development Association (ODA) and the Olomu-in-Council for ensuring the re-opening of the bank.

Chief Bisi Adeyemi, the ODA President, expressed the association’s appreciation to the bank management for yielding to the request of the community in that regard.

He pledged the association’s readiness to continue to partner with security agents and other stakeholders in ensuring a safe banking environment. (NAN)
ISHO/MOL/EEE
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Ese E. Ekama

Nigerian Law School calls 1,562 candidates to Bar

Bar
By Veronica Dariya
Abuja, July 10, 2018 (NAN) The Nigerian Law School  on Tuesday called to bar 1,550 candidates who were successful in the April 2018 Bar final examination and 12 others from previous bar  final examinations.

The Director- General of the school, Prof. Isa Ciroma, said at the July Call to Bar ceremony for the successful candidates in Abuja that the success rate was 68.6 per cent.

The summary of the examination result showed that two candidates passed in in second class lower division while others had ordinary pass.

Ciroma said the performance was justified by the approval of the Council of Legal Education that re-sit students for the Final Bar Examination must undertake two months revision to be eligible to write the examination.

He said the candidates took the prescribed examination as well as the dining terms and met all required conditions set by the Council.

“I am happy to affirm that they all exhibited good manners and decorum during their training.

“They have also been groomed in the best ethics and ethos of our noble profession,” he said.

The director-general said staff of the school closely monitored the aspiring lawyers during their training,  perused their records and found them worthy to be called to the Bar.

He congratulated the new wigs and urged them to make the best use of the profession and to ensure strict adherence to the norms of practice and ethics.

Also, the Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, called on the graduates to shun all  vices capable of denting the image of the legal profession.

Dalhatu also advised them to always speak the truth, even if it might sound bitter, instead of concealing it which might lead to an offence.

He also admonished the graduates to abide by the rules and provisions of the profession as law was sacrosanct and required strict adherence at all times.

“Where a complaint is made against any practitioner’s conduct, an alleged offence is put side by side with the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, once established, the defaulter is sanctioned accordingly by the disciplinary committee.

“The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee has been carrying out its mandate in a just and fair manner without giving room for compromise, affection or ill-will.

“From January to July 2018, seven lawyers were barred, 12 suspended, ranging from one year to three years while one lawyer was admonished.

“You are, therefore, advised to be of good behaviour and abide by the ethics and traditions of the profession to avoid being brought before the committee,” he advised. (NAN)
DVK/VOE/DUA/JCE

Edited by Dada Ahmed/Chukwudi Ekezie

Football

By Edwin Nwachukwu

Lagos, July 10, 2018 (NAN) Shina Philips, a FIFA licensed agent, on Tuesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the ongoing crises rocking the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Philips told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the crisis which had become a recurring decimal in the country’s football terrain should be addressed.

Chris Giwa and the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF board have been involved in a leadership tussle, after a Jos High Court issued an order stopping the election which brought Pinnick to office in 2014.

The crisis took a new dimension on July 2, when Giwa resumed at the NFF office in Abuja, as the president of the body.

Philips, who is also the initiator of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards said: “if the Federal Government can investigate and discover the problem, then we can save our football life.

“I will say to the President and the Minister of Sports who I believe also shares the ideology of fair play to midwife a fresh election in August.

“Possibly the election should be broadcast live because of our peculiarity.

“As long as we have decided to be of FIFA, let us get the elections right once and for all.’’

He, however, noted that failure to resolve the crisis would bring embarrassment to football in the country and possibly FIFA sanctions.

“This crisis is not new, it has always been before Former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Ibrahim Galadima, Aminu Maigari led board, so its the same old story.

“We can’t kill the politics that often cripples our sporting life, that is why FIFA remains intact because it does not involve itself in any form of national politics.

“We know FIFA is clearly against government interference and this position is made clear when you decide to be part of the body.

“I respect the laws of our land, but it is also proper that the interpretation of FIFA laws be made clear and signatories adhere strictly to FIFA’s rules for resolving conflicts,’’ he said.

On Nigeria’s early exit from the World Cup, Phillips said: “it would be totally unfair of me to say that I was surprised we were edged out of the World Cup quite early.

“Before I travelled to Russia for the games, I didn’t believe we had the team that could win the World Cup.

“My observation overtime is that virtually all African teams do not prepare to win the World Cup, they always prepare to participate in the World Cup; these are two different things: preparation to be at the World Cup and preparation to win the World Cup.

“If preparations are geared toward winning the tournament, then we must look at what those ahead of us did to win the World Cup.

“We do not take stock of these things, we do not look at history and the methodology put in place by those countries’’.  (NAN)
ENN/EEE
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Edited by Ese E. Ekama