NEWS

Isoko South doles
out N11.5m for
WASCE
registration,
notebooks

Nigeria records
1,891 murders,
277 kidnap cases
in 2007 –Police

Special Report
DMCP: The
beginning, the
journey p. 8
Motoring
Toyota

Interview
Lawyers have added advantage in lawmaking –Hon Emeyese

Perspective
What manner of awards?

Education
Dearth of teachers hits Delta

Govt House Watch
South-South plans joint assault on militancy

Fashion
Men on top

Columnist
Ribadu: Can this be his end?

Home and Kitchen
How clean is your kitchen?

Business
The Eco aimed at promoting cross-border payments –Soludo

Low World Trade, big danger to developing countries –World Bank

Health
Tackling the polio challenge

Sports
Nwaneri believes Eagles will qualify early

Man City’s wishlist; transfer gossips

The slim victory recorded by President Umaru Musa Yar Adua and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party at last Friday’s ruling by the nation’s apex court upholding the result of the April 2007 Presidential polls contains within it subtle pressure on the administration to carry on with its promise of electoral reforms, political commentators and judicial watchers have observed.
In arriving at their verdict that President Yar Adua and his Vice, Goodluck Jonathan, remain in office, four of the seven judges of Supreme Court had averred that, all things considered, the duo of Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, candidates for the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Action Congress (AC) had failed to convince them on why the entire results from the disputed polls should be cancelled and a fresh poll ordered.
Responding to the verdict however, many commentators hold that even underlying the fact that President Yar Adua has finally been confirmed in office are the imperatives of initiating and sustaining electoral reforms as well as providing the much needed dividends of democracy to the people.
Said Raymos Guanah, Commissioner for Lands and Survey in Delta State, “I am most impressed by the judgement. It is a welcome development. And with it now, the onus is on Mr. President to perform and deliver the dividends of democracy since there are no more distractions from the courts.
However, the fact that it has taken so long to resolve this issue calls for some adjustment. Our electoral petitions take too long. Now is the time to put in place a time bar within which all petitions must be disposed of. And if you ask me, all of these should be concluded even before the swearing-in of the winners so they can concentrate on the business of governance.

Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (left) with Pro-chancellor and Chairman of Council, DELSU,
Abraka, Justice Francis Tabai (JSC), during the Fund Raising Dinnerfor the building of the Faculty of
Management Sciences Complex in the Anwai Campus, in Asaba

17,385 benefit from
Delta's micro-credit loans

Delta State government has empowered more than 17,000 Deltans under the aegis of its anti-poverty scheme – the Deltan Micro-Credit Programme, (DMCP), which attains one Gregorian Year today.
DMCP, inaugurated by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan on December 14, 2007 in the historic town of Koko, Warri North council area, is meant to enable economically-weak Deltans access credit and other enablements, on a sustainable basis, for micro-businesses.
The programme runs on liberal terms, devoid of the herculean conditionalities often erected by conventional commercial banks for prospective loan seekers.
Particularly, DMCP runs an interest-free module, aside of a three-month repayment moratorium, and specifically, targets the urban poor; the rural population; economically- weak persons and persons infected with HIV and are discriminated against, on that account.
The liberal operational terms have now earned the confidence of the people for the programme from which exactly 17,385 Deltans, have benefited as at the end of November, 2008.
Beneficiaries are grouped into groups (clusters), with symmetrical business interests and are drawn from the three senatorial districts of the state.
The operational office of DMCP, headed by management consultant and development economist, Dr. Antonia Ashiedu’, released the figures relating to beneficiaries profile.
By the data released by the office of Dr. Ashiedu who is also Executive Assistant to the State Governor on Micro-Credit, 1,526 groups (clusters) benefited from the programme during the period under review.
In all, the beneficiaries drew from a collective pool of about N600 million, provided for DMCP for the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years.

Isoko South LG doles out N11.5m for WASCE registration, notebooks

Isoko South Local Government of Delta State has taken two firm measures to boost public sector education in the area, with a vote of N11.5million.

The measures are the payment of the WASCE registration fee for final year students of public secondary schools in the area, and the procurement of N7.5 million worth of exercise books for public primary and junior secondary schools in the council area.

A total of N4 million was committed to the WASCE registration exercise for the 17 public secondary schools in the area.

Disclosing these in Na So We See Am, a vote of Delta, Asaba, pidgin English programme monitored in Ibusa, the Chairman of the council and State Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Chief Askia Ogeah, said the council took the actions in an attempt to ease the burden of parents in meeting the financial cost of buying books and registering their children for the WASCE.

Chief Ogeah, equally, said that the measures, particularly the WASCE registration, was intended to curb the exodus of final year students to the so-called miracle centres outside of the state.

He pledged to continue with the measures, if they prove effective in meeting the intended goals.

The Chairman urged parents to desist from withdrawing their pupils from public primary schools.

Rather, he added, parents and other stakeholders must cooperate to resolve whatever perceived problem that was encouraging parents to withdraw their pupils from the public primary school system.