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The U-17 continued their impressive run with a 2-1 win over Colombia coming back from a goal down.
Catch the highlights from FIFA.

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NNPC is to be broken down into 5 different units namely:

1. National Petroleum Directorate
2. National Oil Company
3. Petroleum Inspectorate Commission
4. Petroleum Products Distribution Authority
5. National Oil and Gas Assets Holding and Management Services

The National Petroleum Directorate would replace the ministry, while the National Oil Company would play the role being played by the NNPC. The Petroleum Inspectorate Commission would replace the current DPR, while the Petroleum Products Distribution Authority would replace the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency. National Oil and Gas Assets Holding and Management Services would manage the assets owned by both the ministry and the NNPC.

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Here is Guardian’s editorial on the Honorable (or should I say, dishonorable) mess:

Cost of renovating the Speaker’s house

IT is the most telling sign of the times, that nothing shocks Nigerians any more. Yet, the widespread condemnation that greeted the latest scandal in the House of Representatives shows just how appalled Nigerians have become at official misdemeanour. The whistle over the scandal was blown the other day by House Deputy Chief Whip, Hon. Suleiman Kawu. He disclosed that contracts worth N628 million had been awarded for the renovation of the official residences of the Speaker, Hon. (Mrs.) Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, and her deputy, Alhaji Babangida Nguroje, and for the purchase of 12 cars, at a time when, and in a country where, poverty and disease are pandemic.

It is even more shocking that this contract award was among the first concrete actions of this session of the House of Representatives. What manner of legislators are these, who have done nothing to alleviate the condition of Nigerians, but have been busy awarding massive contracts to renovate their homes?

If, according to Hon. Eziuche Ubani, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, the contract for the renovation of the two houses was “only N238 million” (or N.24 billion), it means that the balance of N390 million (or N.4 billion) was spent on 12 cars, at a cost of about N32.5 million each! It should be noted that what was allegedly done with the sum of N.24 billion was the renovation of existing buildings, refurbished only in 2003, and not the building of a residential estate or even the construction of two brand new houses.

In a country where the average citizen spends less than $1.00 per day, to expend the stated sum of N.238 billion on the renovation of the residences of only two of the several elected lawmakers in just one of the two chambers of the National Assembly trenches on scandalous prodigality, if not on a crime, and it places a moral burden on the national legislature.

The 1st to 5th sessions of the National Assembly, which held in the last administration, were dominated by bickering and stormy exchanges among “honourable” and “distinguished” members over money sharing, which stood between them and the discharge of their primary responsibility, the duty to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the country. The present scandal, the renovation of two houses and purchase of 12 cars for a colossal and dreadful sum of N628 million, raises a number of gnawing questions: First, shouldn’t the renovation of the Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s residences have been undertaken by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) whose properties those two houses are, in the first place?

Secondly, if the House of Representatives twisted the arms of the FCDA for permission to undertake the renovation exercise and to purchase the 12 cars by itself, was the said sum of N628 million budgeted for in the Capital Vote for the House? Thirdly, if so, did the release of that prodigious amount of money pass through due process in the House? Fourthly, if the official residences of the Speaker and her deputy cost N238,852,192.00 to renovate, for how much was Aso Rock, the seat of Federal power, renovated?

Fifthly, are there no established rules and procedure governing the award of contracts and fixing the maximum amounts in contracts for specific projects? Sixthly, did the alleged award of over N628 million contract to three firms through the notice board of the National Assembly accord with the established House rules and procedure? Seventhly, if the houses in question belonged to Speaker Patricia Etteh and the money for their renovation was to come from her own pocket, would she have endorsed the contract for the refurbishment of two houses that were comprehensively renovated only in 2003, and a N390 million contract for the purchase of 12 cars (i.e. at N32.5 million per car)?

Finally, shall we assume that some people in the lower chamber of the National Assembly are completely bereft of conscience? Surely, such wastage, such recklessness and acts of profligacy, underlie the sub-human existence confronting millions of Nigerians today.

Not a few Nigerians are beginning to wring their hands in utter frustration at a situation in which a massively discredited set of rulers most of whom got into office through a gravely flawed process, is routinely succeeded by a worst set. Only in July, last year, a damning report on Nigeria’s economic growth was released in a collaborative effort of two U.S.-based influential organisations, The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

In the report, the two bodies ranked Nigeria 146th out of the 157 countries on the list. In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, the report rated Nigeria above only one country: Zimbabwe! It can hardly be gainsaid that the bane of rancid corruption, unconscionable wastefulness and misfeasance is at the root of Nigeria’s abysmally low socio-economic growth. This explains why we had argued in previous editorials for the need to intensify the war against corruption, a morbid phenomenon, and to carry it further to the doorsteps of legislators and appointed public officials, at the Federal and state levels, including local government chairmen.

A panel must be instituted forthwith to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the alleged award of N628 million contract(s) for the renovation of two houses and for the purchase of 12 cars ostensibly for some principal officers of the House. For good measure, the probe must be done in the full glare of the public. And the ruling PDP must do nothing to sweep this scandal under the carpet. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, has in the face of the allegations, been busy offering excuses. This is shameful. Her honour and integrity are at stake. If she understands this to be so, she should act honourably by stepping aside, to allow proper investigations to be carried out.

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I weeaaaaaak when I read that N628 million was approved legally (or illegally) to renovate the official quarters of the top senate officials. In an attempt to douse this controversy, Punch reports that they are now claiming it was just N238m and not N628m. They state that:

The contracts were for the renovation of Etteh’s official residence at a whopping cost of N238m, the renovation of the home of the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Babangida Nguroje, and the purchase of 12 cars.

Dem dey mad ni? People never eat and dem dey spend dis kain money to renovate house. Na gold dem use build de house ni? Why are our leaders just crooks? Why is it that they dont have any interest for the nation at hear? All they care about is their own self interest.

This new congress has not passed any noticeable law. They have not done anything substantial in the last 3 or so months. There was first the story that the speaker used public money for a B-day bash in the US and now this? This woman should be ashamed of herself. Ms. Etteh had the honour of being the first female speaker in Nigeria and this is now what she has become known for.

Today, Vanguard reports that she is under pressure to quit. Punch reports that she had a secret meeting with the Senate President in order to come up with a strategy. This Day reports that she is moving to douse the impeachment plot.

This is a bunch of BS. She should be impeached and imprisoned for that matter!

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First, it was the news that the Naira will be revalued. It was then followed by the news that the Federal Government was not informed and that they were caught off-guard by Soludo’s announcements - that he did not inform or consult the President before making the pronouncement. Then the news that the CBN did not have the authority to make such a move. Then the news that Soludo was conspicuosly left off the Economics Team for the nation. All led to the pronouncement by the Justice Minister that the Naira Revaluation Policy had been suspended indefinitely.

I wonder how the FG can justify leaving the CBN head out of the Economics team. Does that make sense to anyone? I believe that there is something fishy about this story. CBN Officials claim that the President was made aware of the move. I will be extremely surprised if he did he made such a pronouncement without the president’s approval. Maybe he stepped on some toes with such a move. If you think of it, it wont pay foreigners. So there is a high likelihood that some people making money from the foreign exchange trading are/were against the move and therefore acted to kill the policy.

If I were Soludo, the honorable thing will be to resign. He does not have anything to prove again to anyone and he is surely guaranteed of some plum job in the World Bank or at the IMF or one of these financial institutions. My fear is that some anti-progress forces will continue to act as obstacles of progress.

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The U-17 continued their impressive run in the U-17 world cup with another win against Japan. Watch the video of their latest win HERE. They have their last game against Haiti tomorrow and I believe that they should do well.

Their is a very good piece on FIFA’s website about the team. I hope they continue the good run.

And in other football news, it seems that it has now been confirmed that Yaks will be going leaving Middlesbro. That will be 3 teams in 3 years. He will become one of the most expensive Nigerian players.

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Read today in Tribune that the MD of the Electricity Managing Company is reporting that interest in PHCN (a.k.a Please Hold Candle Now) has been overwhelming. Who cares if the interest has been overwhelming. All the people want is power. Here is the report as it appeared in Tribune:

400 investors interested in buying PHCN - Agbogun
05.08.2007

Four hundred local and international companies have indicated interest in investing in the PHCN as government hands off the ailing power sector. Dr Sam Agbogun, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Electricity Liabilities Managing Company (NELMCO), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday that the surge followed an advert by the BPE.

“The interests are overwhelming. What we are doing now is to shortlist the genuine investors for further discussions on areas of interests and terms of such investments,” he said. The Managing Director said that the reforms’ strategy was to sell off the Generating Companies (GENCOs) and negotiate concessional agreements on the Distribution Companies (DISCOs).

According to him, the Transmission Companies (TRANSISCOs), will be retained to monitor other sectors. Agbogun, however, said that Nigerians must brace up to pay for services rendered as no investors would sink his money without returns. “What happened in the telecom industry will happen in the power sector too. Tariff must be reviewed so that it becomes cost reflective,” he said.
Agbogun condemned Nigerians’ culture of “not paying for services,” and identified that culture as PHCN’s major problem.

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I am a big proponent of the Japanese practice of Kaizen - continuous improvement.
One thing is certain - it is impossible to learn all what one has to learn in school. A lot of it will be as a result of self-improvement. This will require dedication. On doing some research online today, I came across some very wonderful resources from LifeHacker. Today, you can watch lectures from top universities for free online, read their lecture notes. A lot these will require dedication. But it is achievable.
Here are some of the resources I found:

1. Massive list of resources from Autodidacts
2. Videos of lectures from UC Berkley - Videos are available from all the prominent departments of the school.
3. Free Art Lessons from Drawspace.com
4. Free classes from MIT Opencourseware
5. Free textbooks from Textbook Revolution
6. Another comprehensive list from LifeHacker
7. Open Educational Resources - This site includes classes for primary, secondary and post-secondary levels
8. ArsDigita University (ADU) - An online intensive post-bachelors program in Computer Science based on the undergraduate course at MIT
9. Online videos of science classes at FreeScienceOnline - http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/

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The Nigerian U-17 team have started well in the U-17 championship by winning their first game against France who are one of the tournament favorites. That is a good thing. I just hope that they steadily improve throughout the tournament and win.
Watch the highlights of the game HERE.

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I wonder why some Nigerians in Greece are protesting. It is true that a man died. But is it worth all this protests? While I dont want to sound irrational or mean, this man died after jumping from a building as he attempted to evade immigration officials. There are 2 things wrong with this story - the man was an illegal immigrant (which is partly understandable) and he was selling pirated DVDs. In my opinion, that is the big crime. You know that you are an illegal immigrant. But instead of trying to lay low, he was doing something illegal again.
While it is sad that this young man died, this people are probably hurting themselves. The sad part is that some of these people protesting are probably involved in some illegal activity other than immigration issues. Dont they think they will bring unnecessary attention to themselves?
What about Nigeria’s image? How will this affect how we are viewed in such a nation?

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The CBN head has announced a new Naira policy - the Naira will be redominized. The new plan essentially calls for the chopping off of 2 zeros from the currency. It is to go in to effect August 2008. The N100, N200, N500, and N1000 notes will be scrapped. N20 will now be the highest denomination. And the exchange rate will be adjusted so that N1.25 will now exchange for $1.
He explains that,

“According to him, they are designed to better anchor inflationary expectations, strengthen public confidence in the naira, make for easier conversion to other currencies, reverse tendency for currency substitution, eliminate lower value, reduce cost of production, among others.

Soludo said as necessary complements to the currency redenomination, the apex bank would embark on adoption of inflation targeting framework for the conduct of monetary policy and liberalised current account.”

I just hope that this is totally thought through before implemented. The debate over this new policy will be very interesting.

Here is a copy of Strategic Agenda for the Naira, the speech by Charles Soludo.

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By now, you will have heard that the man referred to as Bush’s brain, Karl Rove has resigned. I am not a fan of Bush so I am glad that the man has left.
Here are some interesting videos on Daily Show:

And more:

Still more:

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