ECOWAS leaders elect Jonathan as Chairman

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan was on Tuesday elected as the Chairman of ECOWAS.

Mr. Jonathan in his acceptance speech, expressed gratitude for the action, saying that Nigeria's re-election re-affirmed ECOWAS faith and confidence in the country, in spite of the circumstances facing it.

``Let me therefore, reassure you that Nigerians remain strong and unwavering in their belief in the west african institution, peace, unity and progress.

``I wish to assure of Nigeria's continued commitment to work with the body for the advancement of our common dreams to sustain the regional belief, democracy and development.

``These are the challenges we face and we must confront them as we strive to meet our hopes and aspirations of our people,'' he said.

Mr. Jonathan said in each of these challenges, the region had made some tremendous progress, adding that more needed to be accomplished.

``We must not relent in making our sub-region an oasis of peace and tranquility. Under Nigeria's leadership, we must continue to work for peace and tranquility,''
he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that under the ECOWAS chairmanship, countries are allowed to seek for a second term.

Nigeria would be the fifth among such countries that held the chairmanship position for two terms.

Other countries include Mali under President Alpha
Konare; Ghana, led by President John Kuffour; Niger, led by President Tandja and Burkina Faso, under President Blaise Compaore.

Meanwhile, James Victor Gbeho, Special Adviser to Ghanaian President Attah Mills, was also elected as the President of the ECOWAS Commission.

Written by Taiwo Adisa and Kola Oyelere
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

THE North appears to have moved beyond the era of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, following fresh moves within the geopolitical zone to present a vice-presidential material to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan any moment from now...

Currently, Google has one of the more interesting problems I’ve ever seen. While I’d never tell anyone to slow down their pace of innovation, with Android, I can’t help but wonder if Google might have to do just that — because it’s seriously starting to trip over itself.

This week’s Mobile World Congress is highlighting this exact problem. Yesterday, we saw not one, but two new sexy Android phones announced just by HTC alone. HTC, you may recall, is the manufacturer of the Nexus One, the Android phone that Google felt so comfortable with, it decided to sell itself. Now, just over a month later, at least one of these new phones, the Desire, is simply abetter version of the Nexus One. Consumers must be getting whiplash at this point.

Leading up to the Nexus One launch, I wondered if Google was just eating its own dogfood (as it said) or its own children. After all, the Nexus One was launching just weeks after the Droid, Verizon’s Android phone that was being marketed as the best Android out there. (And yes, an “iPhone killer“.) Plenty of Droid owners were pissed off that they had just laid down their money (and locked themselves into a carrier contract) for a phone that was being upstaged just a few weeks later by Google itself. But now the problem is already getting much worse.

It’s not just Google that is upstaging other barely-released Android phones now, it’s the other Open Handset partners, like HTC, doing it on their own. And while it’s great for consumers to have choices, the problem is that consumers must also now deal with the fear that anything they buy will be upstaged by something better in just a few weeks. Why would I buy a Nexus One if I can get the HTC Desire? And why would I buy an HTC Desire when it will just get upstaged by another new Android device shortly after? And so on…

It some ways, it’s similar to a problem Apple has long had. With iPods in particular, for a while there, Apple was pushing out new ones so quickly that those who bought the last one would groan about the pace of updates. But again, it’s much worse with these phones because (at least in the U.S.) consumers are buying them tied to multi-year contracts that are expensive to get out of. So even if you didn’t mind shelling out another few hundred dollars for the new hardware, you’d also have to pay another few hundred dollar fee for the right to do so.

And there’s another card Apple is better at playing: silence. While the HTC Desire doesn’t yet have a U.S. release date (it will be in Asia in April, and other countries probably soon after that), by pre-announcing it, it already makes it seem like people would be crazy to buy a Nexus One right now. Apple is good at keeping silent until they actually release a product (the iPad is an exception here, but it’s a completely new entry), so they can squeeze a few final sales out of the old products that will soon be obsolete. Sure, if you follow Apple closely, you can usually read the tealeaves and know not to buy a new piece of Apple hardware around a certain time. But most people don’t care enough to read that deeply into rumors, so they happily buy right away. But it’s different when companies are out there touting their own bright new shiny objects that make the old objects in their class much less shiny.

Sure, this isn’t all Google’s fault since it open-sourced Android and created the OHA to let other partners do whatever they want. And again, yes, it’s great to have options. And sure, some of the Android phones compliment each other quite nicely — as in, some have physical keyboards, and some don’t. But plenty of them are simply better versions of recently released Android phones. And while sales of Android phones are gaining momentum (60,000 handsets a day now), I can’t help but wonder if we already have a “too many cooks in the kitchen” problem with Android. One that is only going to get worse with time.

At least with the iPhone, we know that only Apple is going to upstage older versions — and that it will do so once a year.

Here’s all I know about Android: if I were in the market for one of these phones right now, I would need a Xanax.

A consortium involving China Unicom bid $2.5 billion on Tuesday for the former state telecoms monopoly in Nigeria, one of the world's fastest growing markets, the privatization body said.

The National Council on Privatization said New Generation Telecommunications Ltd. had become the preferred bidder for Nitel, which Nigeria has struggled to sell since liberalization in 2001 made it uncompetitive against rivals.

The privatization body said the consortium included China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, Minerva Group of Dubai and local company GiCell Wireless Limited. Their precise holdings in the consortium were not immediately available.

China, Africa's biggest trading partner, has invested billions of dollars in the continent in recent years, going far beyond its initial emphasis on mineral extraction.

Nigeria invited expressions of interest in July for a minimum of a 75 percent stake in the Nitel conglomerate or a stake in one or several of its components, including mobile arm MTEL, the South Atlantic Terminal underwater cable (SAT-3) and its domestic fixed line network.

After the bid is approved by the privatization council, the group will have 10 days to pay 30 percent of the purchase price and a further 50 days to pay the rest. The reserve bidder was Omen International Ltd (BVI) with a bid of $956 million.

"We will pay within the stipulated time. We did not make a hypothetical offer," said Abubakar Usman from New Generation.

South Africa's MTN was among the bidders, but only for a stake in the SAT-3 underwater cable.

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the biggest telecoms market in Africa.

But the government has struggled to sell the firm mainly because of the shambolic state of its fixed line infrastructure.

Its fixed lines have fallen to less than 100,000 from five times that number in 2001 and MTEL subscribers have dropped to a few thousand from over 1 million.

Nigeria ended Nitel's monopoly in 2001 and tried to sell it the same year. But preferred bidders failed to pay the $1.3 billion price tag by the deadline, leaving it in state hands.

Local conglomerate Transcorp later bought a majority state in the firm but the government took back control last June, citing a lack of investment and unpaid debts.

Nigeria came close to selling Nitel in late 2005 to Egypt's Orascom Telecom, but the government rejected the $257 million offer as too low.

When David Beckham arrived in Italy for what, at the time, seemed a novelty excursion some 14 months ago, he received a text message from an old friend. It consisted of just seven words: “David Beckham. Manchester United. Real Madrid. Milan.” The point was being made that, long after he stopped being a footballer, he would have a unique legacy: he has belonged to the three most glamorous clubs from what, in the span of his playing career, have been the three most celebrated leagues.http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/rap_sheet/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/david_beckham1_300_400.jpg">

So storied is the life of David Beckham that there is plenty to insert in between the Manchester chapter, the Madrid episode and the coda in Milan; there are debates to rehearse about the ratio of skill to hard-sell that motivated those who have employed him; arguments to hold about the greatness of the actual sides he played in at each of those clubs. But the sequence United-Real-AC gives Beckham a great deal of pride, not just because it reflects professional peaks set across so sustained a time, but because it also shows a sportsman with the dedication to see out and deliver a grand plan.

What he had never quite planned for, he admits, was the moment when the distinguished line of fabled club names had a kink in it, a meeting of the threads, as it does on Tuesday, when Milan face his “ex” — his most loved ex. “You know, I’ve never had to do this before, play against one of my old teams,” says Beckham, struck by the curiosity of that fact. In Madrid, he used to look forward to Uefa draw ceremonies at least twice a season, and the strong possibility that the names Real and Manchester United would be paired and he would be obliged to stand in a line and shake hands before kick-off with Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and perhaps Roy Keane as they filed past him wearing red while he wore white.

As Beckham spent a third and then a fourth season as a Madrid footballer, always in the Champions League, the chance of playing against United became more probability than possibility. It never happened. Once he joined Milan for the second half of the 2008-9 campaign, his adventures abroad were restricted to the Uefa Cup. When Milan did meet Madrid in the senior competition last autumn, Beckham was at the other end of his transatlantic commute, seeing out his obligations to Los Angeles Galaxy in America.

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And so, 15 years and two months after Beckham made his Champions League debut for United, it is United he faces on his Champions League debut for Milan. The occasion will have an extra drumroll and crash of cymbals because it is Milan’s 100th match in the European Cup to be played at their San Siro site.

As Beckham spoke on Friday evening, it was clear that if he was preparing to put on the professional blinkers to safeguard against a confusion of emotions, those around him were readying themselves for an occasion of gravitas. His children, who have continued their schooling in the US while dad does his five-month stint in Italy, have come over. His head coach at Milan, Leonardo, spoke of “a very special moment in David’s life. For any player to play in the Champions League against an old club is special, but for David it is particularly.”

Leonardo was stressing that this was not just a case of an itinerant professional playing against a former club. Beckham is not a peripatetic Nicolas Anelka or Christian Vieri, he is a Manchester United fan, several of whose contemporaries never left Old Trafford. Beckham still sometimes suggests that he would have been equally happy, in the summer of 2003, had he stayed there rather than joining Madrid.

Will there be a knot in his stomach, a lump in his throat on Tuesday? “Obviously there will be emotions,” he says, “but I don’t think it will be a problem. I’ve played in many big games. There has been so much talk about me going back to Manchester United in the second leg, because it will be my first time playing for a club there in seven years. But this tie is not just about me playing against United, it’s about AC Milan. It’s about two great clubs coming together, and that’s what makes it such a big game, for the teams, for the fans.”

There are plenty of grounds for trepidation besides his own butterflies. “United are just on fire at the moment, which means it’s going to very tough for us.” It goes without saying that Beckham — “I love to watch every United game where possible” — has as precise a gauge of United’s form as anybody at Milan, and the same understanding of where the principal menace comes from: Wayne Rooney.

Beckham, a close witness to Ronaldinho’s recent revival in form, has no hesitation in likening Rooney to the Brazilian in his best form. He sees a Rooney liberated this season, operating at the sharpest point of the attack. “I have always thought,” says Beckham of his England colleague, “that Wayne is one of the best goalscorers in football anywhere. He’s proving that. He’s at a great club and doing what he does best, which is scoring goals. United are playing so well for him, too.” Not least Ryan Giggs, whose absence with injury seems a genuine source of personal regret for his former colleague. “It’s a big shame Giggsy’s out. To have played on the same field as Giggsy, but against him for once, would have been really nice for me. Hopefully he’ll be fixed up soon and maybe he’ll make the second leg.”http://www.sportsagentblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/david_beckham_victoria_beckham_boob.jpg">

As for his own fitness, Beckham, 34, is happy with progress since reaching Italy and with his capacity for taking his season all the way into July, as part of the England World Cup squad. Fabio Capello is expected at San Siro as an observer on Tuesday and the understanding between the England manager and Beckham is that the player needs to show sufficient stamina and competitiveness with Milan to earn his ticket to South Africa. Major League Soccer was not a convincing platform for Capello. Milan is.

“My fitness is good, really good,” insists Beckham. “Obviously being back at Milan and working hard with the medical regime they have here has been great. To be part of an England squad, you have to be playing at the top level. You have to be playing with top players and be at the top of your fitness.” And his form? “Good,” he replies. Up and down, say the Italian media, ranging from a beaming 7.5 out of 10 from Tuttosport for his showing on his first game back, to a grumpy 4.5 from Corriere dello Sport for the Milan derby three weeks ago.

Leonardo, appointed head coach last summer, appears pleased to have Beckham back at Milan. “He arrived in December, he already knew everything he needed to, knew the atmosphere, most of the team, and how we play,” says Leonardo. “All of that’s not been a problem for him.”

Of the new teammates, the strikers were especially welcoming. Marco Boriello, who spent most of last season injured, has already profited from Beckham’s crossing. The Dutch international Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, signed last August but more out of the first XI than in it so far, hopes the combination of his alertness in the penalty box and the Englishman’s passing might prove fruitful. “He’s got a real eye for the assist,” Huntelaar thought immediately. “He’s always looking for the strikers and to swing the ball in, in front of you. It’s nice to play as a striker with him there and with Ronaldinho on the other side.”

“I got a great welcome from everybody, fans and players,” says Beckham. But there was one significant change from the last Milan dressing room he had been a member of. “Obviously Paolo Maldini’s retired and a couple of other characters have gone who were here last time. But the team is similar. There’s a great spirit within the club and that’s definitely not changed. We’re just as strong. When we play well, we’re a very good team.” The “when” is heavily weighed. He acknowledges that Milan have had a horribly inconsistent month.

January started superbly as Beckham seemed to have brought his Golden Balls knack with him into the new year: Milan had finished 2009 with just three points from their past three games. Beckham went straight into the starting line-up and they won the next three matches, racking up 12 goals, including a 3-0 win away at Juventus.

Then came the derby with Inter, a 2-0 defeat, and two subsequent draws, the second of which, against Bologna, Beckham watched entirely from the bench. Is he frustrated at being left out of the XI? “No,” he replies, “because I’ve always said when I came to the club, I never expect to start any games here.”

His return to action in Friday’s 3-2 win over Udinese, albeit as a substitute, suggests he will have a senior role on Tuesday. “We needed that win after the past couple of games,” he says, “and we needed also to get players fit again, like Alex Pato, with the United matches coming up. Both are going to be tough, but I’m looking forward to it.”

FIFTH TIME LUCKY FOR UNITED?

Manchester United have a score to settle with Milan. The teams have met in four previous two-legged European ties — three of them at the semi-final stage — and Milan triumphed each time, twice going on to win the trophy — in 1969 and 2007.

May 1958 European Cup semi-final: Man Utd 2 Milan 1, Milan 4 Man Utd 0.

April/May 1969 European Cup semi-final: Milan 2 Man Utd 0, Man Utd 1 Milan 0.

Feb/Mar 2005 Champions League, 2nd rd: Man Utd 0 Milan 1, Milan 1 Man Utd 0.

Apr/May 2007 Champions League semi-final: Man Utd 3 Milan 2, Milan 3 Man Utd 0.

Wayne Rooney double puts Manchester United in charge and David Beckham in the shade

AC Milan 2 Manchester United 3

Sir Alex Ferguson put the burden of expectation on Wayne Rooney and his England striker did not disappoint, scoring with two superb headers in an eight-minute spell midway through the second half to give Manchester United their first victory over AC Milan in the San Siro.

As if Rooney had not done enough this season, carrying the United attack almost singlehandedly at times, Ferguson again called on him in the pre-match press conference to fill the void left by the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo “the best in the world” to Real Madrid in the summer.

Having been given precious little service for the first hour of this Champions League match, Rooney met a cross by Antonio Valencia, a second-half substitute, with a majestic angled header on 66 minutes and kept his composure to head past Dida again from Darren Fletcher’s centre after Milan’s defence had frozen, expecting an offside flag.

Even a nonchalant back-heel by Clarence Seedorf could temper United's delight. If was the perfect European performance, but once which had seemed unlikely for much of the match with Milan dominating from kick-off and only being pegged back thanks to an incredible piece of luck on the part of the visitors.

David Beckham may have been given the nickname Goldenballs because he could do no wrong, but even he has probably never scored a goal like the one Paul Scholes produced to haul Manchester United back into this Champions League clash in the San Siro.

United were already a goal down and their depleted defence was struggling to cope with the movement of the rossoneri’s attacking talent led by the evergreen Ronaldinho, when Scholes struck nine minutes before the interval.

Darren Fletcher made good ground down the right and crossed for the former England midfielder, who missed the volley with his right foot, only to then see it cannon off the shin off his left, standing leg, and trickle in past Dida via the foot of the post.

United, missing Nemanja Vidic and Ryan Giggs, were second best for so much of this match that Sir Alex Ferguson will have been mightily relieved to have escaped with a point.

All the talk before hand was about Beckham facing his former club for the first time since he left Old Trafford in 2003, but in truth he was never really a factor aside from having an indirect hand in the Milan goal after three minutes.

The England midfielder swung over one of lazy free-kicks from the right, Patrice Evra failed to make proper contact with an overhead kick and the ball dropped to Ronaldinho. The Brazilian may have been a fading force in world football, but he started the game in devastating form and his venomous drive took a deflection off Michael Carrick that gave Edwin van der Sar in the United goal no chance.

United's defence looked like strangers in the early stages and Milan could easily have scored three times in the opening ten minutes. Ronaldinho cut inside to give himself a clear opening, only to curl the ball into the arms of van der Sar, while Luca Antonini was put clean through after a delightful ball inside the full back by Thiago Silva. The Italian really should have done better than drag his shot wide of the upright.

Wayne Rooney, leading the United attack, was forced to live of scraps for most of the opening period and failed to make proper contact with his one half-chance of the first half.

At the other end, Milan was looking threatening almost every time they went forward and Klaas Jan Huntelaar shot wastefully wide after being put through by Massimo Ambrosini.

Scholes then struck with his standing leg and the San Siro was stunned into silence.

Milan continued to carry the game to United in the second half, and Alexandre Pato should at least have tested van der Sar having been allowed a free header 12 yards from goal.

Andrea Pirlo showed what a superb striker of the ball he is with a magnificent 30-yard free-kick that needed all of van der Sar’s experience and goalkeeping excellence to keep United on level terms.

Ferguson replaced Nani with Antonio Valencia and the substitute had an almost immediate impact, delivering a cross from the right that Rooney met with a magnificent soaring header which went across the helpless Dida and dropped in at the far post.

Rooney did it again eight minutes later, giving the hopelessly exposed Dida no chance with another header from Fletcher’s cross.

Exactly three weeks after the murder of Dipo Dina, a former special adviser on mineral resources to the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, was found dead in his Badagary home on Monday, a death suspected to be politically motivated.

Ahmed Onipede, was said to be in the pool of his blood when he was found by his relatives this morning.

The report was confirmed by the Lagos State police commissioner, Marvel Akpoyibo, who promised that the police will unravel the shrouded death of the late engineer. Mr. Akpoyibo however, did not disclose any fact about how Mr. Onipede was killed.

However, it was learnt that Mr. Onipede was murdered shortly after he returned from a political meeting he had attended in Badagary. The meeting was said to have lasted into the early hours of Monday.

Federer States Nadal Lacks Drive & Consistency

World number one tennis player Roger Federer has stated that he has more drive than his main rival, Rafael Nadal. Also mentioning that despite talk of a calendar Grand Slam sweep his main focus for the season was to retain the world number one ranking.

International, the 16^th of February 2010 [PDN]: Since his Australian Open win last month, talk has intensified over the possibility of Federer completing a clean sweep of the Grand Slams this year, especially since his main rival, Nadal, struggles to overcome persistent knee injuries. “I’ll try, that’s for sure,” Federer explained when questioned about the possibility of him completing a sweep of the Grand Slams. “But it’s not even number one on my to-do list. I’ll just try to defend my number one position.”

Federer acknowledged Nadal’s threat to his success, although mentioning that he did not believe the Spaniard had the ambition and drive to be the world number one. “The first moment when I became number one in the world was six years ago now and it was a magical moment in my career,” Federer said. “It was pretty special and I always wanted to get back there. Some people have that drive more than others who’ve been number one. Rafa doesn’t seem like he cares as much for number one, or he doesn’t show it.” Federer stated to an unnamed news agency reporter.

The other players believed to be able to ruin his chances of completing the Grand Slam sweep according to Federer, are: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Porto and Nikolay Davydenko. Federer also mentioned that he thought Briton Murry was now on top of Nadal’s game after the Australian Open failure.