Vanguard - Nigerians are set to face a nationwide electric blackout during the upcoming Christmas/New Year holidays.

According to a report from the Vanguard Newpapers, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the institution responsible for managing electricity in the country has adviced citizens that “as a result of repeated vandalism caused of condensate pipelines by yet to be identified persons engaged in illegal bunkering, gas supply to power stations has been repeatedly disrupted and Egbin power station, the largest power station is losing about 800Mw, while other thermal stations are losing about 350Mw, totalling 1,150Mw reduction from the national grid”

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Abuja - One does not need to be a soothsayer or a prophet to know that it is only a matter of time before current President Musa Yar’Adua and immediate past Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, will end up having a “family meeting” to end the dispute currently in front of the federal election tribunal.

As if the timing could have been better, the Punch Newspaper reported that the two players in the April 2007 presidential election, met behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja last week. The two found it suitable to meet at a time when the Wilbros bribery scandal information involving the former Vice President was leaked to the public.

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Houston TX - Former Vice President during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, may soon be indicted over the bribery scandal involving the American oil service company, Wilbros Group to secure contracts for the eastern gas gathering system (EGGS) in Nigeria. According to court papers from the US Southern District Court of Texas - Houston TX, and made available to the Nigerian high powered delegation led by the controversial Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), Vice President Atiku was shown to have benefited up to the tune of $250, 000 USD (N30million) from the company.

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ThisDay (Abuja) - The Nigerian government has “vowed” to blacklist “non-performing contractors from further federal projects if they (contractors) continue to fail to deliver on assigned projects.

According to the Minister of Finance, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, the finance ministry would restore its budget monitoring and evaluation machinery, with a view to checking the laxity and abuse by contractors and consultants. The minister warned erring contractors to perform according to contractual agreements or have their companies blacklisted from public projects permanently.

The Federal Minister further stated that the government policy will be changing under the Yar’Adua administration. Both the contractors and consultants will suffer the same fate for any uncompleted or abandoned project.

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The Nigerian Police Force no doubt is one of the most corrupt police institution in the world… and there seems to be a justification for this - they also have one of the lowest wage structure.

A typical Police Constable currently earns a meagre N10,000 (less than $85USD) a month (compared to their counterparts in the British Metropolitan Police, whose basic salary ranges from £18,873 to £21,693 (see http://www.metpolicecareers.co.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=38) while a Police Superintendent earns about N40,000 (less than $337USD) a month, excluding accommodation allowance! This is not only unacceptable but a shame on our leadership. The FG spends millions of Naira every day on entertainment (see http://www.naijawire.com/2007/11/19/fg-budgets-n2.3million-daily-for-refreshment/) while legislators renovate single houses for N628 million and N500 million on broadcast contract (See http://www.tribune.com.ng/28112007/edit.html).

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