Friday, April 25, 2008

Seven years younger in Ethiopia







Seven years younger in Ethiopia






On a recent trip to Ethiopia, Obo Effanga found a country seven years behind the rest of the world and set to celebrate its millennium, just when memories of the 2000 celebration are fading from the consciousness of people in other parts of the world

Here is a rare and last chance to celebrate the beginning of the third millennium, especially for those who were not born, were too young or otherwise incapable of celebrating seven years ago. But you have to be in Ethiopia or an Ethiopian to do that. For Ethiopians, the turn of the millennium 2000 is coming more than seven whole years behind the rest of the world.

Make no mistakes, rather than see themselves as being seven years behind the world, Ethiopians say they are seven years better in their celebration, having had a much longer period to plan for this event which falls on September 12, 2007, in the Gregorian calendar. That date however is Meskerem 1, 2000, the beginning of the third millennium in the Julian calendar operational in that country.

The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC has 12 months of equal days and a 13th month of five days, (six days in a leap year). Ethiopians are quick to invite you to come enjoy 13 months of sunshine in their country!

Until 1582, the entire Christian world operated the Julian calendar until Pope Gregory XIII introduced the current calendar which did not receive total acceptance by all countries. In fact, Russia only changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1918, while Greece did so in 1923. Ethiopia remains the last country standing on the Julian calendar.

On a recent trip to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital city to attend an ActionAid meeting, I was marvelled by the enthusiasm of every Ethiopian about the “Ethiopian Millennium”, right from the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Lagos. The in-flight magazine, Selamta, (July-September edition) not surprisingly is a special millennium edition and urges you to “catch the Millennium in Ethiopia”!

Public buildings in Ethiopia are bedecked in buntings of the green, yellow and red colours of the country, there are mementos everywhere you turn heralding the Ethiopian Millennium. Almost every piece of gift item you wish to pick is branded Ethiopian; something like “Proudly Ethiopian”, “I belong to Ethiopia”, “I am Ethiopian”, most of them written in Amharic language. I had to raise the issue with one of the shop attendants by telling him they could make more sales if they also offered a wide range of products advertising Africa, not just Ethiopia. He explained to me that this time they were celebrating Ethiopia specifically. The air is simply electrifying, despite its chilly weather and intermittent rain at this time.

To the credit of the citizens, they do not mix up the dates in their Julian calendar with those of the Gregorian calendar, which are both used side-by-side. The part I could not comprehend though was the timing. One of my ActionAid colleagues in Ethiopia told me something about the third hour of the day, supposedly 9:00 a.m and got me confused temporarily.

The planned millennium celebration was not the only noticeable thing about my visit to Ethiopia. There was also the very cold weather, and as I noticed from my hotel room and was later told by an Ethiopian, they do not have need for air-conditioners and fans in their country.

Looking for one of the thickest clusters of beauties (or beauty per capita)? Take a trip to Addis and be stunned with charming sights of shy-looking, svelte women, with dreamy eyes and men whose features could easily sweep the women off their feet. A proviso though, Ethiopians have a way of looking so much alike. Of course there were also the less than beautiful-looking ones too. Broadly speaking therefore you either meet a stunning beauty or a fright!

As the porter checked me into my hotel room, he asked of my nationality. When told I am from Nigeria he got so excited, asking, “you come from Nigeria? You come from Okocha?” Later that evening as I sit at dinner with a Malawian colleague, he raised the issue of the popularity of Nollywood across Africa, via the Africa Magic channel on Dstv. He specifically mentioned Desmond Elliott as a darling of female viewers in Malawi.

Still on Nollywood, other colleagues from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc. demanded a tutorial on the West African, nay Nigerian pidgin so as to be able to enjoy Nigerian movies better. Soon I was explaining the meaning and roots of expressions like ‘abeg’, ‘oga’, ‘make we go chop’, ‘bros’, ‘wetin dey happen?’. Strangely, they admit that Nigeria is re-colonising the rest of Africa with Nollywood. And the fetish scenes in most of Nigerian movies? That was a long discourse better reserved for another piece.

Talking more about Ethiopia, I found communications rather restrictive with just one mobile telephone company and that, owned by the state. Unlike in Nigeria and elsewhere, GSM sim cards are not readily available and so you have to rent a sim at $3 per day and load it with airtime to use while you are in Ethiopia. The snag however is that sms or text messaging is not allowed. Imagine how frustrating that could be.

On a brighter side (compared to the Naira), the Ethiopian currency, the Birr exchanges to the US dollar at 9 birr to the dollar.

We were treated to a wonderful evening of entertainment at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant featuring live music and dance. Most of us non-Ethiopians who were attending the African Governance Team meeting of ActionAid marvelled at the ease with which the locals wriggle their shoulders along with the music. Sophie, from Uganda said put it succinctly that while the Ethiopians dance with their shoulders and neck, most of Africa did so with their waists, legs and backs.

An interesting observation I made in Addis was the Nigerian-like sights I witnessed. In fact the street where we stayed could pass for somewhere in Port Harcourt or Aba. Even the colour of the commercial vehicles are blue and white, like in Port Harcourt. But, were the taxis old? When last did you come across Lada cars and the kinds of Beetle cars we used to have in the early 70s? In Ethiopia, they are still to be found side by side newer cars and jeeps.

Perhaps, like they have successfully operated the Julian and Gregorian calendars in a unique manner, it may take many more years of the ancient and modern cars on Ethiopian roads.

Welcome to the past, as Ethiopia celebrates its third millennium! And as we were told on arrival, visit Ethiopia and feel seven years younger.

• First published in The Nation newspaper September 2007

Unto PDP is crowned a sole administrator

Unto PDP is crowned a sole administrator
By Obo Effanga Jr.

In the build up to the December 16 2006 national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some party stalwarts boasted that the event would be a ‘coronation’! The interpretation by many was that the ‘party leadership’ had already decided who its standard bearer in the 2007 presidential election would be, and so rather than dissipate energy to go through a full-fledged presidential primary, they saw the event as coronation ceremony of the aspirant ‘anointed’ by the ‘party hierarchy’.

Truly, that is what the two-day event turned out to be. Governor Umar Shehu Yar’adua, who until two months before then, was hardly known to be interested in the presidency, was foisted on the PDP as candidate. All other aspirants, especially the governors, who seemed to be the frontrunners, were ‘prevailed upon’ (read forced) to abandon their ambitions, thus providing Yar’adua a one-sided race to the presidential ticket.

But besides the above ‘coronation’, there was a more worrisome ‘coronation’, which though surreptitious in presentation, has far greater implication on Nigeria’s democracy. That coronation was of President Olusegun Obasanjo as the ‘sole administrator’ of PDP, the self-acclaimed biggest party in Africa!

On that occasion, PDP national secretary, Chief Ojo Madueke proposed an amendment to the party’s constitution, which was immediately accepted by voice vote of the more than 5000 delegates. The amendment was to limit the qualification for chairmanship of the party’s Board of Trustees only to a member of the party who has served as president of the country. The implication of that amendment is that by the time Obasanjo leaves office in May 2007, he alone would qualify to chair the party’s board, for at least four years.

Why was it necessary to make that amendment? It is either that the hierarchy of the PDP is bent on lionising Obasanjo (out of true love for the man or due to sycophancy) or that Obasanjo himself wants to cling unto power by all means. It is evident that Obasanjo has a craving for power, and would do everything to get and keep it. We saw it in the attempt to amend the Constitution of Nigeria to enable him continue in office for the so-called ‘third term’. Forget the lie about the man having never told anybody he was interested in the third term thing. I had said in an earlier writing that the argument, after the failure of the bid was the type a young man would make after his attempt to woo a girl fails, by claiming that he never told the girl he wanted to befriend her. We all know there are a hundred and one ways to woo a girl without saying so in words!

Without occupying any known position within his party, Obasanjo had since taken over charge of the party by hijacking its ownership and leadership. He is often referred to loosely as ‘leader of the party’, a designation that is unknown to PDP’s constitution. He takes it upon himself to determine the direction of the party on every issue and at every stage.

About two years ago, Obasanjo sacked the leadership of his party by pressuring the chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh to resign. He then appointed his cronies, Dr. Ahmadu Ali and Chief Ojo Madueke chairman and secretary respectively, without an election. It was not until several months afterwards that the party held what it called an ‘affirmative election’ to endorse Obasanjo’s appointees.

Sometime ago, Obasanjo told his party to allow him “as the leader of the party” to determine which zone of the country should produce the presidential candidate. His decision on such zoning is what played out at the recent PDP convention. But before the convention, he had also as President of the Federal Republic usurped the power to determine for the rest of the country who should succeed him in office. And he did it in such a disdainful manner by summoning the PDP governors and asking them to go and select one of their own and present to him for consideration and ‘anointing’ as successor! He had thus decided that his successor must come from the rank of the governors, no matter what Nigerians thought. That explained why every cowboy of a governor imagined that he must aspire to become the next president, even when some of them had questionable track records in good governance. Some of them even looted their state’s treasuries just to satiate their inordinate desires to be president.

What does the crowning of Obasanjo as the chairman-in-waiting of PDP’s board of trustees portend for the party and Nigeria? Remember the president had recently said that the fortunes of Nigeria were tied to those of PDP? If you excise Obasanjo’s haughtiness from that statement, that assertion still seems to capture the reality on the ground as most of the other parties find it difficult to set Nigeria’s political agenda. The best opportunity for the opposition parties to rally support of Nigerians and set the agenda for our politics was when the third term bid failed. Yet, they allowed the defeated (cabal of) PDP to still benefit from its defeat by regrouping to set the agenda. Today, the opposition is struggling to become relevant such that when Yar’adua emerged the party’s presidential candidate, many Nigerians already saw him as president-in-waiting.

But talking about a post-Obasanjo’s presidency in his new status in the PDP, there is no doubt that the man would become the spiritual head of the party from where he plans to be the power behind the throne of the presidency, if the party wins the presidential election. He hopes to be seen as the sole administrator, whose words shall be the command of all. As president, Obasanjo has converted the office of the Vice President to a unit under his direction, to the extent of appointing, sacking, supervising and pruning the personal staff of his deputy or approving when his deputy should enter the official aircraft attached to that office.

Being an obstinate character, Obasanjo, as board chairman of PDP is likely going to insist that things are done his way or no other way, the way he carries on as the Balogun of his Owu village, to the extent of choosing the monarch for the town or the way he has attempted, though laughable, to remove Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The prospects of an Obasanjo chairmanship of PDP’s board of trustees are grim for the larger society by the fact that the party has ‘grown’ so large in membership, mostly driven by the craving for political lucre, yet undemocratic in its character. What is generally referred to as internal democracy is non-existent in the party. A good pointer to this fact is that, its slogan has since changed from “P-D-P…power to the people” to “P-D-P…power”! Thus PDP is stating it clearly that it does not intend to give power to the people anymore but merely withhold it.

If what Obasanjo plans to have in 2007 and beyond is subtle control of government, he might be disappointed because, like one writer said “when you are out of power, your power turns to powder” Obasanjo should know better, having tasted life out of power from 1979 to 1999. For those years, he was so powerless that he was even hounded into jail. And this is why one thought that he would be more humble with power on his second taste of it from 1999 but that has not been the case. Nigerians should pray that this sole administrator does not have things his way.

• First published in The Nation newspaper January 2007

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I want to be a public official

I want to be a public official
By Obo Effanga Jr.


“Doc. Doc!”
“Eeeh! Tony my man!”
“Old boy, is it true that you are aspiring to get into public office?”
“What a stupid question. Who no like better thing?”
“In other words you have a strong urge to serve the society?”
“Well, you may say so.”
“No. You should be definite in your answer, it is either you want to serve or not.”
“Well, everybody in public office is there to serve after all, so when I get into public office, I also will be there to serve.”
“To serve the public you mean, not your self, your family and your community only?”
“Are you suggesting that when I take up public office I should forget about my family and my community? You can’t be serious. Tell me which public officer ever did that in this country?”
“Oh, really? I thought you wanted to make a difference when you take up public office.”
“I have not said I wouldn’t. There is nothing wrong with the change starting with me? I mean, you don’t imagine that I would get into public office without a positive change to my station in life? Even my family and friends like you would feel disappointed if I don’t come out of public office with something to show for it. Mind you, I won’t be going into public office to display poverty.”
“What amounts to ‘something to show for it’, if I may ask?”
“Pally, you don’t fail to amaze me. Shouldn’t I, as a public official, own choice houses in choice areas? Shouldn’t my children be able to study abroad or at least in private colleges? Are you suggesting that I would return to this job after public service? Ah! My guy, you amaze me.”
“But you have a responsible job at hand. I mean you are a professional in your field and I do not see why you shouldn’t return to your teaching job.”
“You cannot be serious. Come back to this thankless job? God forbid! It is not my portion and I reject it!”
“You are sounding religious there.”
“I am a child of God, mind you.”
“I cannot imagine an egghead like you wasting away in public office and not returning to the classroom”
“Old boy, I won’t be the same. I don’t mind being an ‘AGIP’, any government in power, like other eggheads have been.”
“Like who, if I may ask?”
“Don’t ask me. All I know is that I can also serve as a director today, minister tomorrow and a personal assistant the next day. I don’t care what the designation is, it’s the trappings of government that I care about.”
“That means you won’t mind being reduced from being a federal minister to being a local government councillor.”
“My friend, with government appointments, ‘image is nothing, the lucre is it’.”
“But we still need bright people like you to teach our children in schools.”
“Yes, I agree with you. But I don’t have to be that someone. Or have I not taught enough this past seven years? And what do I gain from it anyway; insults from students and their money-miss-road parents, some of who cannot even make one flawless sentence?”
“You seem to be unhappy with your job Doc?”
“That is why I will jump at any opportunity to take up public office.”
“If I may ask, what is really your attraction in public office?”
“I too want to be invited to come and chop.”
“But I thought you said earlier that you want to serve? You better watch it. Remember what usually happens to those who go to chop rather than go to work?”
“I didn’t particularly say that I want to chop. I will serve and then chop. Look, a prophet eats from the temple.”
“I can see you are already doing well as a potential public official, given the way you can easily change your response to a question.”
“If you can’t beat them join them my brother.”
“Oh, by the way, what will your wife be when you get into public office?”
“Look, e-ma try mi-o! What are you suggesting? She will continue to be my wife of course.”
“You mean she won’t set up one of those bogus pet projects to raise funds from the public and carry on as if she has a constitutional role?”
“And what would be wrong with that? She won’t be the first person to do that. Besides, there are associations these days for wives of public officials. Haven’t you heard of Committee of Wives of Lagos State Government Officials (COWLSGO) or whatever they call it? My wife can as well join any of such clubs in my state and be active”
“What do you mean by ‘active’?”
“She could attend parties and wear aso-ebi.”
“You are already beginning to think like a public official, right?”
“Well, to be a millionaire, think like one.”
“That was a Freudian slip wasn’t is?”
“What?”
“You just alluded to being a millionaire.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“You want to be a millionaire through the public office?”
“Silly you. Show me one public official who is not. Many of them were no better than I am now. Look at all those school dropouts who became local government public officials the other time. In just three years, many of them have permanently kissed goodbye to poverty.”
“Are you sure? I thought some of them were so broke soon after leaving office that they had to sell their personal cars.”
“Why not talk about the ones who invested their stolen funds wisely, building houses and establishing business centres and cyber cafes. My councillor even established a guesthouse and got three chieftaincy titles.”
“So how do you plan to invest your ill-gotten wealth when you get…”
“Point of correction, I will not have ill-gotten wealth.”
“No no no! That point is already settled. After all you will work and chop.”
“Look, you better mind how you talk to a future honourable. I might not forget this insult once I get into office. And I can be quite vindictive you know.”
“Like all of them are anyway. I know you are just joking.”
“Don’t count on it. Public office has a way of turning good people to something else. I might just ask one of my touts or security aides to brush you.”
“So you even plan to go about with touts?”
“Ah! You want my enemies to make mincemeat of me? And besides, I will have to give job to the boys.”
“What boys?”
“Grow up man. I mean the boys that will help me into public office. If I have to take office through an election, I need to compensate the boys who may have helped me on Election Day.”
“You mean those who would vote for you?”
“No, those who would vote on behalf of the registered voters for me.”
“I don’t seem to understand that.”
“You cannot, because you are not a politician or a potential one.”
“Can you just explain that?”
“I mean the boys who will help stuff the ballot boxes to my advantage.”
“Oh-oh! So you plan to do it like the rest of them eh?”
“How else can one get into office. When I get there I can always change things.”
“But you know you cannot build anything worthwhile upon a faulty foundation. That explains why our democracy has remained stunted for the past five years.”
“I will make a difference, with God on my side, I can do all things because greater is he that is in me than that…”
“Oh please stop that crab. Keep God out of it. You cannot plan to get into public through crooked means and hope to claim God’s favour.”
“Look, I will be attending tarry nights, miracle nights and declare days of prayers in my office.”
“But God would rather you obeyed Him than offer sacrifices.”
“Eeeh! Enough of this. It’s time for my lecture. Let me hurry up. The class representative is supposed to bring me the returns for the student’s registration for my course. We will talk later.”
“Doc. Doc!”

This piece was first published in the NewAge newspaper in 2004

CRY, O BAKASSI

In two months’ time, the Bakassi Peninsula will finally go under the full sovereignty of Cameroon, ending a long-drawn battle for its ownership between that country and Nigeria. It will be the culmination of events since the October 10, 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), sitting at The Hague. The ICJ gave sovereignty over the land to Cameroon and denied the claim by Nigeria of long years of customary control over it. It also denied that the traditional title and lordship of the Efik over the area in dispute was enough reason to give the territory to Nigeria, where the rest of the Efik ethnic group belongs.
Rather than rely on the traditional title to the land, or indeed be concerned with the ownership of the land by its current occupants, the ICJ based its judgment mainly on a pre-Independence treaty of 1913, entered into by the United Kingdom and Germany, who were at that time the colonial powers over Nigeria and Cameroon respectively. It also relied on the Thomson-Marchland Declaration of 1929-1930.
ICJ’s interpretation of the two documents above was that title over Bakassi had been transferred to Germany by Britain, and since German interest in the area later devolved on France, who also later handed over power to the independent state of Cameroon, the interest over Bakassi had become vested in Cameroon. The court then stated that Nigeria was obliged to "expeditiously and without condition ... withdraw its administration and its military and police forces from ... the Bakassi Peninsula." Although Nigeria asserted that the judgement did not consider "fundamental facts" about the Nigerian inhabitants of the peninsula, whose "ancestral homes" the ICJ ruled to be in Cameroonian territory, it all the same had to play the responsible member of the international community by taking steps to implement the ruling.
But in deciding to yield sovereignty over Bakassi to Cameroon, Nigerian officials failed to carry the Nigerian indigenes of the peninsula along. This is because soon after the ICJ’s decision, government’s posture indicated to those inhabitants that on no account would the country yield any part of its “territory” or “people” to another country. Rather than discuss with the indigenes about the effect of the judgment and the imperative of obedience to it, government was more involved in raising the hope of indigenes that they and their land would continue to be part of Nigeria. Yet, on the other hand, Nigeria soon entered into an arrangement with Cameroon on the implementation of the judgment.
The unfortunate thing about the upcoming transfer of ownership of Bakassi in September is that even though the loss of the peninsula to Cameroon is coming nearly two years after the ICJ judgment, the impact would still be sudden on the people most affected. Although governments of both countries set up the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission chaired by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, to consider “ways of following up on the ICJ ruling and moving the process forward”, not much seems to have been done to prepare the residents and indigenes of the peninsula for the circumstance that will befall them in September. In fact, it was not until February 13 to 20 this year that, for the first time, a sub-committee of the Mixed Commission visited the Bakassi Peninsula and met with authorities, traditional chiefs and citizens.
The history of Bakassi is a reference point in neglect. Until the 1990s, the name “Bakassi” meant little or nothing to majority of citizens in this country. Even among many people in communities and states in the Niger delta areas, where Bakassi forms part of, that piece of land was still not very well known, nor highly reckoned. The indigenes themselves were “comfortable” with their rural life of squalor which mainly entailed fishing. Perhaps some of them even cared less what country they belonged to, for they were literally torn between the devil and the deep blue sea, especially in the course of their fishing industry. Many residents of the peninsula ran into harassment and extortion from the police, military and gendarmes (from Nigeria and Cameroon) parading the high seas on both sides of the divide, as well as from pirates. But by the turn of the 1990s, the 1,600 kilometre-long peninsula suddenly leapt into national consciousness, having been given the appellation of a “resource-rich” land. This was when everything changed for the worse for the indigenes.
The resource of the land was all that was needed for it to become relevant to authorities in Abuja and Yaoundé. This was when this backward piece of land became hot commodity to both national governments. Until the events of the early 1990s which led to Cameroon finally taking the issue to the ICJ for determination in 1994, infrastructure such as health centres and schools were alien to Bakassi. It was only in the heat of the dispute that the two federal governments, and interestingly the governments of Cross River and Akwa Ibom states rushed in to provide basic infrastructure for the community, just so that they could take a stake of the abundant oil resources said to exist in the peninsula. As an indication of Nigeria’s real interest in Bakassi, when eventually the ICJ ruled in favour of Cameroon, one of the earliest reactions to the ruling by Nigeria was a statement by the then Minister of State for Justice, Musa Elayo that, "the judgement will have no effect on Nigeria's oil and gas reserves." By that statement, Nigeria clearly showed that its interest lay in the resources, not the people. Could that statement have been a Freudian slip?
In 1996, Nigeria eventually constituted the territory in dispute to a local government area, under Cross River State, which was also contesting ownership of the area domestically with its neighbour, Akwa Ibom State. The constitution of Bakassi Local Government Area also brought with it another scenario. It became fashionable for many people who previously came from any of the local government areas around that end (mainly those from Cross River South Senatorial District) to claim that they were now indigenes of the peninsula. Bakassi had then become the place to claim or an Eldorado of unimaginable opportunities of some sort. This was because, having become a local government area, it had to be taken care of in terms of apportionment of political appointments and positions, students bursaries and sundry favours of State. And since much of what amounted to the geographical mass of that local government area was a rural fishing community without basic facilities as school, opportunists cashed in on this by claiming indigene status of the area. As events begin to unfold today and the reality of Nigeria’s loss of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon dawns on all us, these latter day Bakassi indigenes are likely to back a retreat to where they originally belong. In a way, many of them had hijacked the peninsula from the original owners; they rode on their backs to acquisition of political and economic benefits but will soon abandon the real Bakassi indigenes to their fate.
What is still confounding is why, despite the intention by Nigeria to hand over the land to Cameroon in September, it still went ahead to conduct elections, including the last local government election in that area. Even as of this moment, many political office holders and local government staff in Bakassi seem to be oblivious of the fate that awaits them in the next few months. Will they retain their appointments and positions, even when their “constituencies” no longer exist? Will the Bakassi Local Government Council be sitting in the Diaspora or exile?
However, it is not the fate of the latter day Bakassi indigenes that worries me, rather that of the real Bakassi people, those who indeed own the land, those who are going to be separated from their kin in Nigeria, those who are going to have a different citizenship imposed on them, not by their own volition, but based on some spurious 1913 treaty and a declaration of 1929-1930 by people who did not own the land – the colonialists. The decision of the ICJ, based on the said colonial agreements and a failure to even ask the indigenous population, by way of a plebiscite, what they preferred must go down in history as one of the most insensitive decisions of that court.
However, one thought that by now, the two governments would have thoroughly sensitized the Bakassi people about the implications of the ICJ judgment and the legitimate options opened to them. And there are two basic options here. One is for them to hold on to their ancestral land and become citizens of Cameroon. The other is for them to relinquish the land and move over and “settle” down with their kin in Nigeria and therefore still hold on to Nigerian citizenship. But in doing so, they must truly weigh the implications of what a Nigerian citizenship is worth, without a “place of origin”, given the much-touted suggestions of indigenes and settlers in Nigeria’s politics today. Yet, the governments of both countries should support the Bakassi people to guarantee their welfare. After all, in handing down the judgment, the ICJ observed the assurances of Cameroon to ensuring the protection of the welfare of the Bakassi people. Whichever choice these people make individually is nothing but Hobson’s choice, and this is why one really cries for them.
• First published in NewAge newspaper in July 2004, this piece won the writer the Columnist of the Year 2004 award at the Nigerian Media Merit Award held in Bauchi in 2005.