news

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The Minister, Her Jeweler, and their Sweetheart Deal

When former oil minister, Diezani Allison Madueke, met Christopher Aire, a United States-based Nigerian celebrity jewelry designer in 2010, little did both knew it would be the start of a financially rewarding relationship. Within months, Mr Aire, who knew nothing about the oil industry, had become the biggest lifter of crude oil from Nigeria and his hastily registered companies which had no verifiable addresses were raking in about $11 million a year in profit for doing virtually nothing. Yet, he is just one of several shady companies with which Mrs Allison-Madueke was doing business with in violation of extant rules.

234NEXT.com

VOL. 3 NO. 130

Lagos, Nigeria

Sunday, 26 June 2011

nation

The Osun monarch

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Controversy trails absence of state executive council in Osun State

For about seven months, Osun State has been governed without commissioners or state executive council. While some individuals and groups within and outside the state, especially the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, have criticised the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, for not constituting a cabinet, others have reasoned that the governor is only being smart by exploiting a loophole in the nations Constitution.

IborI Drafts, WazIrI sIgns

NGN200

UK2

arts & culture

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Asa and Yolanda

The singers show contrasting styles at a London concert
European influence and AfroCaribbean rhythm met recently when music divas, Yolanda Brown and Asa, shared the stage at Indigo, O2. While Asas music had the audience singing eagerly along, the voiceless rhythm of Briton Yolanda Brown made them appreciate music of a different genre.

lan / inside

BEHIND THE PHOTO SCENES

photogaphers. After series of energy sapping preparations, countless pose, and never ending clicks, voila, a perfect result ensues!

A blend of hard work, patience and clicktivity produces perfect pictures

The glossy models that adorn our pages are the result of a mesh of activities and professionals ranging from make up artists, to the interns and assistants, to the

metro

The return of the street traders

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CULPABLE
Chairman of Nigerias premier anti-corruption agency, Farida Waziri, has been at pains to assure Nigerians that her agency is determined to sanction corrupt politicians, if the courts allow. However, according to documents seen by NEXT, she was often more than willing to help these politicians cover their tracks even if it means she just signs off on letters drafted by these men to exonerate themselves from corruption charges. Following requests from men such as Buba Marwa, CPC governorship candidate in Adamawa State; Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State; and James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, Mrs Waziri wrote what a source termed get out of jail card letters to absolve these men of wrongdoings.

In a case of not walking the talk, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Farida Waziri, issues a clean bill to public figures who had earlier been indicted for corrupt offences
Full story on page 2

Street vendors are coming back to Balogun after a twoyear hiatus.

The merchants were banned from the busy Central Business District by the Lagos State Government, but thanks to a new Illegal agreement, the hawkers have been allowed to sell their wares before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays for much less than the cost of a kee klamp or store. According to the vendors interviewed by next, the return to Balogun Market comes as great news after being broken by the Central Business Districts decision to ban them two years ago.

Strange

sport/p.50

FalCONS NEED SOmE luCk

in Germany, the Eucharia Uche-led side will need all the good luck they can get. The reigning African champions will need to rediscover their winning touch with some luck in Germany, if they are to stand a chance of progressing to the knockout rounds for the first time since that memorable 1999 tournament.

South African team to pay for rights to own nickname

South Africas Football Association (SAFA) will pay five million rand (453,764 pounds) for the rights to the popular nickname of the countrys football team, Bafana Bafana, ending a long running dispute with a licensing company who first registered it. The sum will be paid over 12 months to Johannesburg-based licensing company Stanton Woodrush, who had registered the nickname almost 20 years ago, SAFA said on Friday. We feel very happy about the acquisition of the Bafana Bafana name which allows us to exploit this great brand for the good of the game, SAFA president Kirtsen Nematandani told reporters. It brings to a close a highly divisive issue which had pitted the association against the licensing company in court and also concludes months of postWorld Cup negotiations. Bafana Bafana was a moniker first attached to the team in 1992 by a newspaper reporter. Loosely translated from Zulu it means our boys and quickly became popular although was shunned at first by the football association. After South Africa won the 1996 African Nations Cup, the nickname became firmly attached to the team and the association sought to embrace it but had already been beaten to the registration of the name as trademark by businessman Stan Smidt, who owned Stanton Woodrush. SAFA lost a court case over the intellectual property rights nine years

The national female team will have to rely on good fortune to experience some measure of success
It has been 12 years since the Super Falcons last won a match at the FIFA Womens World Cup. That was way back at the 1999 tournament in the United States of America when they ran out 2-0 winners over Denmark. Today, as they face France in the opening match of the 2011 FIFA Womens World Cup

ago but later went into a partnership with Stanton Woodrush for apparel and licensing sales using the nickname, worth an estimated 50 million rand. After last years World Cup, SAFA made a renewed bid to gain sole rights to the nickname and held lengthy negotiations, at one time threatening to ditch Bafana Bafana and organise a public poll for a new nickname.
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