'Africa's first solar bus'

A solar-powered bus described by its Ugandan makers as the first in Africa has been driven in public.

Kiira Motors' Kayoola prototype electric bus was shown off at a stadium in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

One of its two batteries can be charged by solar panels on the roof which increases the vehicle's 80km (50 mile) range.

The makers now hope to attract partners to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.

Kiira Motors' chief executive Paul Isaac Musasizi told BBC News that he had been "humbled" by the large and positive reaction to the test drive.

People have been excited by the idea that Uganda is able to produce the concept vehicle, or prototype, and Mr Musasizi said he wanted it to help the country "champion the automotive, engineering and manufacturing industries" in the region.

He also hopes that it will generate employment, predicting that by 2018, more than 7,000 people could be directly and indirectly employed in the making of the Kayoola.

But backing from international companies, which make vehicle parts, is essential for the project to take off.

The vision is that by 2039 the company will be able to manufacture all the parts and assemble the vehicle in Uganda.

The 35-seat bus is intended for urban areas rather than inter-city use because of the restrictions on how far it can travel.

If it is mass produced, each bus would cost up to $58,000 (£40,000), which Mr Musasizi says is a a competitive price.

Kiira Motors grew out of a project at Uganda's Makerere University, which is now a shareholder in the company, and it has also benefitted from government funding.

Boko Haram crisis: Amnesty condemns reinstatement of Nigeria general

The campaign group named Maj Gen Ahmadu Mohammed and eight other officers in a report last year, accusing the military of killing more than 8,000 detainees.

"It is unthinkable" to recall the officer, who was sacked in 2014, before an inquiry had even begun, it said.

The military is investigating the allegations, a spokesman told the BBC.

"These are just allegations - until proven, no-one should be punished unnecessarily," military spokesman General Rabe Abubakar said, confirming that Gen Mohammed had been reinstated.

Amnesty says Gen Mohammed was "in command of operations when the military executed more than 640 detainees following a Boko Haram attack on the detention centre in Giwa barracks on 14 March 2014".

He was sacked for unrelated reasons before recently being reinstated.

"Major General Mohammed must be investigated for participating in, sanctioning or failing to prevent the deaths of hundreds of people," Amnesty's secretary general Salil Shetty said in a statement.

But Gen Abubakar said the allegations were being investigated.

The London-based group said since March 2011, more than 8,000 young men and boys have been either shot, starved, suffocated or tortured to death in military custody and no-one has been held responsible.

President Muhammad Buhari promised to look into the issue when he came to power last year.

Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than two million people over the past six years.

In the latest incident, at least 65 people were killed and 136 injured when militants attacked the north-eastern Dalori village on Saturday night.

Iwobi is a special player England will miss, says Wenger

ROY Hodgson could have missed out by not moving to secure Alex Iwobi as a full England international, according to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

The 19-year-old, born in Lagos, Nigeria, played for England at youth level before declaring his allegiance for the Super Eagles last year.

Iwobi has made two appearances for his birthland in friendlies against DR Congo and Cameroun, though will remain eligible for England until he makes a competitive appearance for Sunday Oliseh’s side.

Among the most highly-rated of Wenger’s young prospects Iwobi has made a big impression in recent weeks, starting FA Cup ties against Sunderland and Burnley.

Speaking after the 2-1 victory over the Clarets at the Emirates, in which the youngster was among his stand-out performers, Wenger made clear that he believes Iwobi would be good enough to play for England.
“He plays for Nigeria now, and he should play for England,” he said.

“I think he has shown everybody that he is a good football player again. I find him personally very interesting because his decision making is spot on and his awareness is very interesting.

“I like the timing of the decision making and the quality of his decision making. He always turns when you want him to turn and he plays the ball where you want him to play the ball. It is very interesting.”

With The Guardian

Jonathan's $37m gift to Fayose for Ekiti poll

Former President Goodluck Jonathan gave Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose $37 million cash for the June 21, 2014 governorship election, it was learnt yesterday.

A former Secretary of the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Temitope Aluko, a member of the team that prosecuted the election, said Dr. Jonathan gave Fayose $2 million in March 2014 for the primary election. He alleged that the cash was collected at the NNPC Towers in Abuja from businessman Ifeanyi Uba, who last night denied playing any role in the election or giving Fayose any money.

Aluko said the cash was taken to Fayose’s private house in Abuja from where it was moved to Ekiti.

“Immediately after the primary election, we collected another $35 million from Jonathan on June 17, 2014. The money was brought to us by the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.

“We all assembled in front of Spotless Hotel, Ado-Ekiti, owned by Fayose. Thereafter, the cash was taken to a Bureau De Change in Onitsha  where, with the support of Chris Uba, it was converted to N4.7 billion,” Aluko added.

But Fayose dismissed Aluko as a “distraction” and his story “untrue”.

The embattled PDP chief, who fell out with Fayose shortly after the election, disclosed that the governor collected about N3 billion cash from Senator Buruji Kashamu in 2013 to revive the then comatose PDP structure in Ekiti.

But Kashamu’s aide Augustine Oniyokor said: “While it is true that Senator Buruji Kashamu supported PDP candidates, including the Ekiti State governor, as a true party man, I’m not aware of the financial implications.”

Giving an insight into how the military and other security agencies were drafted into the Ekiti State election, Aluko said Fayose insisted that the only way the PDP could win was to use the military.

Said he: “The former President agreed with Fayose and summoned a security meeting at the Presidential Villa for the purpose of the election.

“Those at the meeting were the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, then Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimmah and former PDP National Chairman Adamu Mu’azu.

“Others included Fayose, Senator Iyiola Omisore, then Minister of Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan and Obanikoro.

“At that meeting, the former President made it clear to the ex-Chief of Defence Staff that Fayose would stand for him (as Commander-in-Chief) in terms of providing security for the election.”

According to Aluko, the implication of Jonathan’s directive was that the military chiefs were to take orders from Fayose for the duration of the election.

On the strength of Jonathan’s directive, Aluko said Fayose then approached the former Commander of the Army Brigade in Akure, Brig.-Gen. Dikko, to take charge of the election for the PDP.

“But Gen. Dikko did not give us audience. He stated bluntly that he would not be available for such operation. So Fayose sponsored a petition against him, which led to his replacement with Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh who was amenable to our plans,” Aluko stated.

Giving details of how the military and other security agencies were mobilised to win the election for the PDP, Aluko said four party stalwarts were picked from each of the 16 local government areas.

According to him, the 64 party stalwarts were carefully picked because they knew the terrain in their local governments very well.

“They gave detailed information regarding names and locations of opposition members in all the local governments, the various routes, areas of strength and weaknesses of the PDP in the 16 local government councils.

“Today, most of these 64 men are members of the Senate, House of Representatives, state House of Assembly, commissioners, local government chairmen, special advisers and the rest,” Aluko said.

“We went into the election with 1040 recognised soldiers and another batch of 400 unrecognised soldiers brought from Enugu by Chief Chris Uba.

“In addition, we raised 44 Special Strike teams, brought in Toyota Hilux buses from Abuja and Onitsha. We made special stickers for the vehicles that conveyed members of the Strike Team and black hand bands for each of them.

“Each Strike Team was made up of 10 members headed by a soldier and comprising soldiers, policemen, DSS operatives and Civil Defence Corps. They were detailed to attack and arrest prominent APC chieftains in all the local governments.

“We set up anchorage, mainly residential houses, in every local government where the Strike Team members collected their welfare and other allowances.

“To encourage the Strike Team members, we gave them orders to share money and other valuables they could lay their hands on in the houses of APC chieftains they raided.

“Then we set up detention camps, mainly in primary schools, where most of the APC chieftains were detained. Others were detained in police stations where the DPOs were friendly with us. We let them off after the election was over.

“A day to the election, we used the military to block all routes in the local governments and prevented APC chieftains, including former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, from coming into Ekiti.

“So we ensured that no APC chieftain was in sight on election day. We provided polling agents for the APC in most of the polling units so we had no problem getting them to sign election results in the units.

“All these local and foreign observes that described the election as free and fair only witnessed the voting on election day without knowing what transpired before the voting.”

Aluko, who was the Chief Returning Officer who signed the results for the election, said he was fully involved in the plot with Fayose from the very beginning.

According to him, he was forced to divulge the information because Fayose betrayed him and derailed from the original plan they had for the development of the state after winning the election.

Said he: “Before the election, Fayose, Femi Bamishile and I jointly swore with the Holy Bible on a sharing formula after we must have won the election. We agreed that Fayose would be governor, Bamishile his deputy and I, Chief of Staff.

“But the moment he got into office, Fayose reneged on the agreement and left me in the lurch. More worrisome is the fact that Fayose has derailed from the original Ekiti project we envisaged”.

He also spoke about the Osun election which followed and the inability of the PDP to take the same system they adopted in Ekiti, to Osun State which Governor Rauf Aregbesola resisted.

Aluko, who testified in camera before the military panel that investigated the role of the military in Ekiti and Osun states elections, said he gave the same testimony before the panel.

With The Nation

Obasanjo accuses state governors of diverting LG funds

Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday lambasted some state governors in Nigeria for living like emperors while demanding sacrifice from the citizens for Nigeria to survive the hard times.

Obasanjo disclosed this Monday in his opening remark at the inaugural conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy which was held at the University of Ibadan in the Oyo State capital.

Obasanjo said when he became Nigerian president in 1999; he recognised corruption as a major impediment to the Nigerian state, setting up structures like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to fight the rot. However, he said that after he left, corruption returned to Nigeria with a vengeance, draining billions of dollars from the nation’s economy that could hardly afford to lose even a million dollars.

The former president insisted that chief among the many problems plaguing the presidential system of government in Nigeria is the alleged diversion of funds meant for developmental projects by state governors which consequently renders the 774 local governments impotent. He added that governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant.

“Is there good governance in the 36 states of the federation where some governors have become sole administrators, acting like emperors? These governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant and useless. Is there development work going on in the 774 constitutionally recognized local government councils which are known to have been appropriated as private estates of the governor’s?

“And of course, when governors take their money, the chairmen of the councils take the balance of the money, put it on the table and share it out among council members. In some local governments, has the governors not hijacked most of the resources in them and expended them to serve their whims and caprices instead of using the resources to galvanize growth and development? Have we embraced the principles and values of the presidential system of government such as to enable us to realize our vision of a great country? Instead of the waste that we experience, has the National Assembly been able to live up to its role as an agent of oversight and public accountability?

“When are we going to be able to practice federalism in a way that promotes healthy competition among the states for the benefit of the citizens? When are we going to subordinate partisanship to collective goals and deploy the full potentials of our diversity to advance public causes that serve the aspirations of the teeming masses of our people crying under the cringe of poverty, disease, unemployment and neglect? When shall we all unite around the Nigeria dreaming our quest to be the giant which God has graciously endowed us to be?

“Why is it that every model that has worked elsewhere never seems to work sustainably in Nigeria?  Can go on and on.”

He said, “Leaders who call for sacrifice from the citizenry cannot be living in obscene opulence. We must address these foundational issues to make the economy work, to strengthen our institutions, build public confidence in government and deal with our peace and security challenges.

“We must address the issue of employment for our teeming population particularly for our youths. Leadership must mentor the young, and provide them with hope about their future as part of a process of inter-generational conversation.

“Nigeria is a country where some governors have become sole administrators, acting like emperors. These governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant and useless.

“Is there development work going on in the 774 constitutionally recognised local government councils, which have been merely appropriated as private estates of some governors?

“Some governors have hijacked the resources of the local governments and this has crippled the developments of the local government councils in the country. The National Assembly must also open its budgets to public scrutiny.”

The former president said drastic fall in the price of oil in the international market had exposed the weakness of governance in Nigeria, while also saying that Nigeria was racing towards becoming a nation of debt with its attendant burden on the citizens.

“The drastic fall in the price of oil in the international market has unraveled the weakness of governance in Nigeria. The Minister of Finance has recently announced that the 2016 budget deficit may be increased from the current N2.2 trillion in the draft document before the National Assembly, to N3 trillion due to decline in the price of crude oil.

“If the current fiscal challenge is not creatively addressed, Nigeria may be on its way to another episode of debt overhang which may not be good for the country,” Obasanjo said.

On the establishment of ISGPP in Ibadan, Obasanjo said there was clearly a need for schools of its kind that would focus research and teaching on implementing policy and making the government work well in Africa.

“I hope it will generate ideas that will lead us from thinking to doing. It must not only generate ideas, it must foster a willingness to use those ideas within government and non-government sectors,” he said.

At the conference were the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Alake-Adeyemo; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Prof. Akin Mabogunje, who is the Chairman of the school’s Board of Directors; Prof. Pat Utomi; Prof. Alaba Ogunsanwo; Prof. Jide Osuntokun; former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Abel Olayinka; former Head of Service, Prof. Oladipo Afolabi and Mr Odia Ofeimun.

Others are former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola; Prof. Ostia Ogbu; Dr Yemi Farohunbi and former Minister of Communication, Dr Mrs Omobola Johnson, among others.