President Jonathan celebrates Super Eagles' Victory

PIC 2 PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN CELEBRATING SUPER EAGLES VICTORY AT THE 2013 AFRICAN CUP OF
NATION (AFCON) WITH THE FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN IN LONDON ON SUNDAY (11/2/13).
 
PIC 3. FROM LEFT: WIFE OF THE NIGERIA HIGH COMMISSIONER TO UNITED KINGDOM, MRS SALAMATU TAFILDA; PRESIDENT
GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND THE FIRST LADY DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN WATCHING THE FINALS OF THE 2013 AFRICAN CUP
OF NATIONS MATCH BETWEEN NIGERIA AND BUKINA-FASO IN LONDON ON SUNDAY (11/2/13)
 
PIC 4. PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN ADDRESSING NEWSMEN IN LONDON SHORTLY AFTER NIGERIA EMERGED VICTORY
AT THE 2013 AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS (AFCON) RIGHT IS THE FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN.
 
PIC 5 FROM LEFT: FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN; SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT ON INTER-
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, MRS MARIAM ALI; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN; NIGERIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO
UNITED KINGDOM, AMB DALHATU TAFILDA; CAT. HOSA OKUNBO AND PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT, AMB
HASSAN TUKUR CELEBRATING SUPER EAGLES VICTORY AT THE 2013 AFRICAN CUP OF NATION (AFCON) IN
LONDON ON SUNDAY (11/2/13).
 
STATE HOUSE PHOTO

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PRESIDENT JONATHAN APPLAUDS TRANSFORMATION OF SUPER EAGLES TO AFRICAN CHAMPIONS

President Goodluck Jonathan congratulates the Super Eagles and all Nigerians on the country's inspiring victory in the AFCON 2013 finals this evening in Johannesburg.
President Jonathan thanks Coach Stephen Keshi and all members of the team who have worked very hard and played with great focus, dedication, artistry and patriotism to make Nigeria the proud champions of Africa once again after 19 years of setbacks in the competition.
The President also commends the Minister of Sports, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, the Chairman and members of the Nigerian Football Federation and all others who have contributed to the astonishing transformation of the Super Eagles from underdogs to gallant winners and glorious soccer champions of the African continent.
President Jonathan believes that the team's amazing transformation from rank outsiders to champions is a clear manifestation of the even greater successes the country can achieve in all other fields of human endeavour if all Nigerians come together and devote their immense collective energies and resources to supporting the implementation of his Administration's Agenda for National Transformation.
Therefore, as the entire nation celebrates Nigeria's remarkable triumph in South Africa, President Jonathan urges all Nigerians to imbibe the positive lessons of the Super Eagles' success because the fulfilment of the country's immense potentials for greatness will be more speedily attained if more Nigerians resolve to emulate the team's exemplary unity of purpose, dedication, commitment and devotion to service of the nation.
The President also believes that having conquered Africa, the new Super Eagles can go on to achieve even greater glory at the World Cup in Brazil next year. He assures the team that it will receive every necessary support and encouragement from the Federal Government for that next national assignment.
President Jonathan thanks the Government of South Africa and the Confederation of African Football for a well-organised tournament and looks forward to receiving the victorious Super Eagles in Abuja on Tuesday.
 
Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
February 10, 2013
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PHOTOS: JONATHAN CELEBRATING SUPER EAGLES VICTORY

PIC 1. PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN (2ND L) WITH THE FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN CELEBRATING SUPER EAGLES VICTORY AT THE AFRICAN CUP OF NATION (AFCON) WITH OTHER NIGERIANS IN LONDON ON SUNDAY (11/2/13) NIGERIA WON 1-0
 
STATE HOUSE PHOTO
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PHOTOS: LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON

PIC 1. FROM LEFT: PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA OF GHANA; PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA; PRESIDENT BONI YAYI OF BENIN REPUBLIC; FORMER PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBAANJO; HIS WIFE, BOLA; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND THE FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

PIC 2. FROM LEFT: FORMER PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO; HIS WIFE BOLA; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN AND THE FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

PIC 3. FROM LEFT:  GOV. SERIAKE DICKSON OF BAYELSA STATE; GOV ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE OF EDO STATE AND FORMER GOVERNOR ALAO AKALA OF OYO STATE AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

PIC 4. FROM LEFT: FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN; PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA; PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA OF GHANA AND PRESIDENT BONI YAYI OF BENIN AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

PIC 5. FROM LEFT: PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA OF GHANA; PRESIDENT BONI YAYI OF BENIN REPUBLIC; PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN; PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA AND THE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, THE NEW YORK FORUM AFRICA, MR RICHARDS ATTIAS DURING A PRESIDENTIAL PANEL AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT

PIC 6. FROM LEFT: PRESIDENT BONI YAYI OF BENIN REPUBLIC; FORMER PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO; HIS WIFE BOLA; FIRST LADY, DAME PATIENCE JONATHAN; PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF OF LIBERIA AND PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN CUTTING THE CAKE AT THE LAUNCH OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO FOUNDATION IN LONDON ON FRIDAY NIGHT
 
STATE HOUSE PHOTO
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PRESIDENT JONATHAN's SPEECH AT 12TH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE CAIRO, EGYPT

SPEECH

By

DR GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCON, GCFR

President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces

of the 

Federal Republic of Nigeria

AT THE

12 TH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE

CAIRO, EGYPT

6 TH – 7 TH FEBRUARY 2013

 

Your Excellency, Mohammed Morsi

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and

Chairman of the 12 th Islamic Summit Conference

Your Majesties

Your Excellencies, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Heads of Delegation

Your Excellency, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu

Secretary-General, Organisation of the Islamic Conference

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. On behalf of myself and my Colleagues from the Africa Group, it is an honour for me to address the 12 th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, holding here in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt which is widely acclaimed as the cradle of civilization.

2. I wish to convey my sincere appreciation to President Morsi, the Government and people of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the generous hospitality extended to me and my delegation since our arrival; and for the excellent arrangements made for this Summit. I wish also, to congratulate him on his election as the Chairman of this Summit. We are confident that his acknowledged leadership qualities will go a long way in supporting the active role, which the Organisation has been playing on the global scene.

3. I also wish to place on record my sincere gratitude to President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal for the eminent role played by his country in steering the affairs of the Organisation, since the last Summit Conference in Dakar, in 2008.

4. Mr Chairman, this Summit is taking place at a very crucial moment in the history of our Organisation; given our collective determination to consolidate our solidarity especially in the socio-economic domain. Our deliberations would afford us the opportunity to take stock of what we have accomplished since the adoption of the Ten Year Programme of Action, which provides a credible road-map for the transformation of our respective economies and for the promotion of peace, security and sustainable development in our Member States.

5. The successful implementation of the poverty alleviation programmes is highly commendable. Equally so is the progress made in the domain of expanding intra-OIC trade, which has risen from 14.5% in 2005 to 17.71% in 2011.

6. Nigeria, and indeed Africa, is proud of the achievements realized in the area of trade financing, which recorded a cumulative increase by 63% from US$24.4 billion in 2005 to US$39.9 billion in 2011. It is also noteworthy that the Special Programme for development of Africa (SPDA) has made enormous financial contributions, such that it has increased the human and technical capacity development in African countries. This initiative, in addition to the OIC activities under the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), has assisted the various national efforts at economic recovery in our respective countries.

7. While commending the various OIC institutions for their active contributions to these achievements, I wish to announce Nigeria's support for the proposal to increase the authorized capital of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) from its present US$30 Billion to about US$50. It is our sincere belief that this new increase will assist the Bank, as it seeks to actualize the objectives for which this specialized OIC institution was established.

8. The sharp decline in agricultural productivity in addition to the colossal drop in foreign direct investments and the steady increase in food bills have all created economic hardships, which pushed up the average poverty index in OIC Member States from 25% in 2005 to 38% in 2011.

9. It is due to the interventions deployed under the various OIC poverty alleviation programmes that this Organisation has been able to mobilize collective actions, in order to address the menace posed by these crises.

10. Mr. Chairman, since our last Summit, the global political and economic landscapes have presented additional challenges for which our Organisation has been called upon to address. The global financial and food crises reached their peaks during this period and left their impacts on the economies of our countries.

11. Your Excellencies, on the political plane, many of our Member States are facing grave challenges bordering on terrorism, threat to peace and insecurity. The crises in Syria and the Sahel region have assumed such serious dimensions, requiring concerted efforts to resolve. So far, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union have taken the initiative to find solutions to the problems posed by the activities of armed terrorist groups operating in the region and threatening our collective stability.

12. The endeavours under the African-led Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA), to liberate areas occupied in the Northern part of this Member State of our Organisation by armed extremist groups, would require the full and unflinching support of this Summit. The bulk of the troop contributing nations are African members of the OIC. I therefore appeal to other Member States outside the continent, to actively extend all forms of support, financial and logistics, to ensure the successful implementation of all aspects of the UN Security Council Resolution 2085, which also authorised the deployment of AFISMA in Mali.

13. Mr Chairman and Excellencies, it is in this connection that I convey the utmost appreciation of Africa to this esteemed Organisation for her principled stand, solidarity and support for the ECOWAS/African Union (AU) initiatives on the unfortunate developments in Mali, nearly one year ago. The Declaration on Mali, which will be adopted at this Summit to establish a Contact Group at a Ministerial level to monitor developments in Mali, is a further testimony of the commitment and resolve of the OIC, to remain a valued partner with Africa in search for sustainable stability, peace and development in that country as well as in the Sahel in general.

14. Your Excellencies, as the menace posed by the activities of terrorist groups to the security and stability of our Member States is closely linked to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, we, in Nigeria, have been in the forefront of the campaign for the adoption of the United Nations Plan of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons; due to the realisation that most wars were caused by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. I wish, therefore, to request this Summit to align itself with the evolving global consensus on control of the movement of conventional weapons, in order to make our region a safer place for investment and development.

15. I would like to observe that the OIC, as the umbrella organisation of the Muslim World, provides a unique platform for the forging of cooperation, solidarity and joint actions, based on common values and ideals, which will help to promote the virtues of tolerance and moderation for the achievement of international peace and harmony.

16. Excellencies and dear colleagues, with regards to the reforms of the United Nations (UN), especially its Security Council (SC), Africa wishes to regretfully observe the slow pace and the seeming lack of progress, nearly one decade after the processes were initiated. We in Africa believe strongly, that the calls for democratization worldwide, should not be limited to member states alone but extended to International Organisations such as the UN, especially its Security Council. This is not only central to but imperative to the enthronement of justice, equity and fairness which are badly needed to create a sense of balance in our world. Africa and the OIC need to reinforce the support for each other, to attain this objective in the course of the 68 th Session of the UNGA.

17.Finally, Mr Chairman, I wish to take the opportunity to inform this august body that my country has decided to seek re-election for the 2014 -2015 rotational Non-Permanent seat of the UNSC which will be vacated by Togo in December 2013. In line with our tradition of forging consensus on matters of common interest, Nigeria will be counting on your usual support and solidarity.

18.I thank you for your kind attention.

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PRESIDENT JONATHAN SENDS HIGH-POWERED DELEGATION TO BOOST SUPER EAGLES’ MORALE AHEAD OF AFCON 2013 FINALS

To further boost the morale and spirits of the Super Eagles ahead of the AFCON 2013 finals, President Goodluck Jonathan is sending a high-powered delegation led by the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark  to represent him and the Federal Government at the match in Johannesburg on Sunday.

President Jonathan who, because of urgent official commitments in London and Paris, cannot be physically present in Johannesburg to lead the cheering for the Super Eagles as he would have wished, has charged the delegation to ensure that the members of the team are properly motivated and in the best possible spirits to win a resounding victory for the nation on Sunday.
The President asked the delegation which also includes Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and the Minister of State (Foreign Affairs) Prof. Viola Onwuliri, the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade and the Minister of State (Works), Ambassador Bashir Yuguda to reassure the team of his full support and best wishes for victory.
They are to also inform the team that President Jonathan will host a dinner reception for them at the State House Banquet Hall at 7pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013 to personally thank and honour them for their positively transformed performance in South Africa which has undoubtedly re-established Nigeria as a major power in international soccer.
The President charged the team to go out against Burkina Faso on Sunday with the greatest determination to win a final victory that will bring immense joy and happiness to the millions of Nigerians at home and abroad who have had their pride restored by the triumphs against Ethiopia, Cote D'Ivoire and Mali, and are praying for ultimate success at South Africa's National Stadium.

Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
February 8, 2013

PRESIDENT JONATHAN TO MEET BRITISH PM AND FRENCH PRESIDENT

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will leave Abuja tonight for London and Paris to confer with the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron and the President of France, Mr. Francois Hollande on matters of vital interest to Nigeria, Britain and France.
The President's talks with the British Prime Minister in London are expected to focus on the expansion of trade and economic relations between Nigeria and Britain as well as the enhancement of cooperation between both countries on the war against terrorism.
In Paris, President Jonathan will confer with President Hollande and French Government officials on the ongoing deployment of Nigerian and ECOWAS troops to Mali to support the current military action against insurgents and terrorists in Northern Mali.
On his way to London, President Jonathan will stop over in Cairo, Egypt to participate in the conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) scheduled to open there tomorrow.
He is also scheduled to attend the launching of the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation in London on Friday.
The President who will be accompanied by the First Lady and relevant government officials is due back in Abuja on Monday.

Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
February 5, 2013

The hypocrisy of yesterday’s men By Reuben Abati

A loosely bound group of yesterday's men and women seems to be on the offensive against the Jonathan administration. They pick issues with virtually every effort of the administration, pretending to do so in the public interest; positing that they alone, know it all.

  Arrogantly, they claim to be better and smarter than everyone else in the current government. They are ever so censorious, contrarian and supercilious. They have no original claim to their pretensions other than they were privileged to have been in the corridors of power once upon a time in their lives. They obviously got so engrossed with their own sense of importance they began to imagine themselves indispensable to Nigeria.

 It is dangerous to have such a navel-gazing, narcissistic group inflict themselves with so much ferocity on an otherwise impressionable public. We are in reality dealing with a bunch of hypocrites.

With exceptions so few, they really don't care about Nigeria as a sovereign but the political spoils that accrue from it.

 And so they will stop at nothing to discredit those they think are not as deserving as they imagine themselves to be. President Jonathan has unfairly become the target of their pitiable frustrations.

Underneath their superfluous appearance, lies an unspoken class disdain directed at the person and office of a duly elected president of the country. It is a Nigerian problem, perhaps. In the same advanced societies which these same yesterday men and women often like to refer to, public service is seen and treated as a privilege. People are called upon to serve; they do so with humility and great commitment, and when it is all over, they move on to other things. The quantity surveyor returns to his or her quantity surveying or some other decent work; the lawyer to his or her wig and gown; the university teacher, to the classroom, glad to have been found worthy of national service. When and where necessary, as private citizens they are entitled to use the benefit of this experience to contribute to national development, they speak up on matters of public importance not as a full-time job as is the case in Nigeria currently.

What then, is the problem with us? As part of our governance evolution, most people become public servants by accident, but they soon get so used to the glamour of office that they lose sight of their own ordinariness. They use the system to climb: to become media celebrities, to gain international attention and to morph into self-appointed guardians of the Nigerian estate. They mask self interest motives as public causes and manipulate the public's desire for improvements in their daily struggles as opportunity for power grab.

They are perpetually hanging around, lobbying and hustling for undeserved privileges. They exploit ethnic and religious connections where they can or join political parties and run for political office. They even write books (I, me and myself books, packaged as cerebral stuff); if that still doesn't work, they lobby newspaper houses for columns to write and they become apostolic pundits pontificating on matters ranging from the nebulous to the non-descript. Power blinds them to the reality that we are all in this together and we have a unique opportunity to do well for the taxpayers and hardworking electorate that provide every public official the privilege to serve.

Unsatisfied with the newspaper columns, they open social media accounts and pretend to be voices of wisdom seeking to cultivate an angry crowd which they feed continually with their own brand of negativity. They arrange to give lectures at high profile events where they abuse the government of the day in order to gain attention and steal a few minutes in the sun; hoping to force an audience that may 'open doors' for them, back into the corridors of power. These characters are in different sizes and shapes: small, big; Godfathers, agents, proxies. The tactics of the big figures on this rung of opportunism may be slightly different.  They parade themselves as a Godfather or kingmaker or the better man who should have been king. They suffer of course, from messianic delusions.  The fact that they boast of some followership and the media often treats them as icons, makes their nuisance factor worse.  They and their protégés and proxies are united by one factor though: their hypocrisy.

It is in the larger interest of our country that the point be made that the government of the day welcomes criticism and political activism. This is an aspect of our emergent democracy that expands on the growing freedom of expression, thought and association but there is need for caution and vigilance, lest we get taken hostage by the architects of odious disinformation. Nigerians must not allow any group of individuals to hold this country to ransom and no one alone should appropriate the right to determine what is best for Nigeria. The accidental public servants who have turned that privilege into a life-long obsession and profession must be told to go get a life and find meaningful work to do. 

Those who believe that no one else can run Nigeria without them must be told to stop hallucinating. The former Ministers, former Governors, former DGs, and all sorts who have been busy quoting mischievous figures, spreading cruel propaganda must be reminded that the Jonathan administration is in fact trying to clean up the mess that they created. They want to own the game when the ball is not in their possession. They want to be the referee when nobody has offered them a whistle. They seek to play God, forgetting that the case for God is not in the hands of man. One of the virtues of enlightenment is for persons to have a true perspective of their own location in the order of things. What they do not seem to realise or accept is that the political climate has changed.

When one of them was in charge of this same estate called Nigeria,
 he shut down the Port Harcourt airport and other airports for close to two years under the guise of renovation. The Port Harcourt airport was abandoned for so long it was overgrown with weeds after serving for months as a practice ground for motoring schools. It was reopened without any improvement and with so much money down the drain, and the pervasive suspicion that the reason it was shut down in the first place was to create a market for a new airline that had been allowed the monopoly use of the other airport in the city. Under President Jonathan, airports across the country are being upgraded, rebuilt and modernized; in less than two years, the transformation is self-evident. Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy from our see-no-good commentators comes from the one who superintended over the near-collapse of the aviation sector who is now audacious enough to claim to be a social critic.

For the first time since 1999, the Nigerian Railway Corporation is up and running as a service organization. The rail lines have become functional from Lagos to Kano; Ewekoro to Minna, and very soon, from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, Abuja to Kaduna and Lagos to Ibadan. They couldn't do this in their time, now they are busy looking for money that is not missing with their teeth. When questions are asked, they claim they invented the ideas of due process and accountability. They once promised to solve the crisis of electricity supply in Nigeria. But what did they do? They managed to leave the country in darkness with less than 2,000 MW; abandoned independent power projects, mismanaged power stations, and uncompleted procurement processes. The mess was so bad their immediate successors had to declare an emergency in the power sector. It has taken President Jonathan to make the difference. Today, there is greater coherence in the management of the power sector with power supply in excess of 4, 200 MW; a better conceived power sector road map is running apace, and the administration is determined to make it better. They complain about the state of the roads. Most of the contracts were actually awarded under their watch to the tune of billions! They talk about corruption, yet many of them have thick case files with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the courts and the police on corruption-related charges. One of them was even accused of having awarded choice plots of government land to himself, his wives, his companies and other relations when he was in charge of such allocations! Really, have we forgotten so soon?

These yesterday men and women certainly don't seem to care very much about the Nigerian taxpayer who has had to bear the brunt of the many scandals this administration is exposing in its bid to clear out the Augean stable. They'd rather grandstand with the ex-General this, Chief that, Doctor this and ex-(dis)Honourable Minister who has no record of what he or she did with the funds the nation provided them to deliver results to protect our interest so that we don't end up continuing to make the same wasteful mistakes.

It is enough to make you shudder at the thought of any of them being part of government with access to the public purse; but then we've already seen what some of them are capable of doing when in control of public money, authority and influence; and to that the people have spoken in unison – they have had enough. Nigerians are wiser and are now familiar with the trickery from these persons whose claim to fame and fortune was on the back of their public service.

Our point at the risk of overstating what is by now too obvious: We have too many yesterday men and women behaving too badly. We are dealing with a group of power-point technocrats who have mastered the rhetoric of public grandstanding: carefully crafted emotion-laden sound bites passed off as meaningful engagements. That is all there is to them, after many years of hanging around in relevant places and mingling in the right corridors, all made possible through the use/abuse of Nigeria. Our caveat to their audience is the same old line: let the buyer beware! 

Dr. Abati is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Goodluck Jonathan

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Nigerian Troops Liberate Banamba in Mali

2 February 2013 , By Misbahu Bashir, Source: Daily Trust
Scores of people marched through the streets of Banamba town in northern Mali to welcome the Nigerian troops who liberated the town from militants.

The militants were in control of the town before the deployment of Nigerian soldiers there earlier this week. Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim Thursday, visited the town to assess the performance of the troops.

A military source in Mali said many people have fled the town before the soldiers advanced toward them. The rebels who got the information of the deployment of the troops were the first to abandon their position, the source said. "The troops did not meet any resistance and reclaimed the city without any casualty."

Meanwhile few people living in the town have welcomed the soldiers and sought protection from them against the rebels.

Banamba is one of the seven cities of the Koulikoro Region of Mali. It has an estimated population of close to 10,000 people. It is the first town liberated by Nigerians.
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Nigeria starts dismantling its plane 'graveyard'

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Landing in Nigeria's largest city, one of the first thing visitors see as they peer out of their airplane's windows is the moss-covered metal carcasses of what used to fly in Africa's most populous nation.

Workers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos call it "the graveyard," an overgrown field filled with about a dozen cargo and passenger airplanes long since abandoned and left to rot by insolvent airlines. At least 65 abandoned airplanes, ranging from small commuter jets to one massive Boeing 747, sit at airfields across the country and serve as a haunting reminder of Nigeria's chaotic and disaster-filled aviation history.

Now, however, workers have begun dismantling the planes as part of a government plan to remake Nigeria's aviation industry. While some the federal government's plans seem aspirational at best, the modest goal of simply removing the derelict aircraft represents at least a change in a nation where corruption often ensures things remain exactly the scrambled way they are.

Nigerians "need to fly," said Henry Omeogu, director of airport operations at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. "They need to fly and feel safe in their airplanes."

Not many Nigerians have felt safe flying since June 3, when a Dana Air passenger jet had both of its engines fail and crashed just north of the Lagos airport, killing 163 people. The crash came after a series of other major crashes in the country, where airlines often have shaky financing and rely on aged aircraft.

The graveyard at Murtala Muhammed, at the far north end of the runway where planes come in, is where the derelict planes serve as tombstones for those failed airlines. An airline called Space World has two aircraft there — Hallelujah 1 and Hallelujah 2. Bellview Airlines has two planes there, left after the carrier collapsed following an October 2005 crash that killed 117 people.

Planes sit at airports across the country, partly due to local regulations allowing airlines to park their planes for free at any airport they declare as their base of operations, Omeogu said. Some companies became insolvent and left planes still loaded with first-class china service and large briefcases for captains containing flight manuals.

Other aircraft sit parked on the apron nearby, including one for Air Nigeria, which collapsed last year amid allegations that owner Jimoh Ibrahim hadn't paid staff for at least four months, despite receiving millions of dollars from a government bailout fund. An airplane from Ibrahim's Nicon Airways, which collapsed after one year of operations in 2007, sits in the graveyard as well.

For years, the planes sat, partly out of the inertia that often grips government in Nigeria, an oil-rich nation earning billions that has an ailing state-run power company that can't provide reliable supplies of electricity for the nation's more than 160 million people. But in the last few weeks, government officials decided the planes must go, partly out of security concerns as a radical Islamist sect continues to launch bloody attacks in the country.

Officials decided to offer the planes free to those who applied for them. On Thursday, workers used hammers and saws to tear apart fuselages as landing aircraft roared overhead. Seats rose up in the tall grass, as oxygen masks and paperwork littered the ground. Most of the planes appear to be heading to scrapyards.

The removal of the planes come as Nigeria's federal government is remodeling terminals, some of which haven't seen much work in as many as 50 years. The government also has announced plans to buy planes and begin its own national carrier. However, corruption allegations still lurk. In September, Nigeria's largest carrier, Arik Air, halted its domestic flights and alleged that Aviation Minister Stella Oduah had a financial interest in seeing their business fail. Oduah denied the claims through a spokesman and the airline began flying again days later.

Omeogu, director of airport operations who is a pilot himself, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the government's plans would aid an industry that needs both a safety and a psychological boost.

"When you fly an 'old mama,' an old aircraft, and you run into problems, maybe weather or anything, you're confident about yourself, but when you have to worry about the aircraft you're using, that's double jeopardy," he said.

So, for now, the hammers continue to hit the steel fuselages of the planes, some already opened up like tin cans. Omeogu hopes the airplanes at Lagos will be cleared in several weeks and workers will move onto the nation's other airfields.

However, cynicism about Nigeria lurked even on the remains of an abandoned Douglas DC-8 cargo plane. Someone wrote the following into the dirt coating a moss-covered landing gear: "The cat is dead. The world is good for a rat."