Monday, march 9, 2015 binder1

A media partner of Sanctity Of Truth

NIGERIA’S MOST AUTHORITATIVE NEWSPAPER IN POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Monday, March 9, 2015

/newtelegraph

Vol. 2 No. 383

@newtelegraph1 www.newtelegraphonline.com

12 pages of international new york times

Private jets' owners get fresh ultimatum on operations Wole Shadare and Clem Khena-Ogbena

T

he Ministry of Aviation has given a 90day fresh ultimatum to private jet owners to

come up with their operational preference.

The ultimatum was given at the conclusion of a meeting between the officials of the Ministry of Aviation and the stakeholders in the general avi-

ation sector, which warehouses all the owners and operators of private jets.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Mr. Mohammed Abass, gave the ultimatum after the meeting, which lasted for

several hours in Abuja yesterday.

Just last week, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), threatened to clamp down on all owners of foreign registered privately operated aircraft

that have failed to regularise their documentation in conformity with their operational status.

The agency added that the operators will face severe sanctions.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

N150

}23

19 days to go...

Nigeria Nigeria votes votes

2015

2015}45

March 28: Jega in a fix over card reader lMay cancel use lMeets electoral commissioners Wednesday }5

Quick Read Editorial L-R: Winner of Best Movie of the Year, Mr. Kunle Afolayan; Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. John Ugbe; Regional Director, Africa Magic, Mrs. Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu and Corporate Affairs Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc., Mr. Kufre Ekanem, at the third edition of Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards in Lagos…at the weekend

APC to Jonathan: Your promises to South-West can't save you lWhy North must wait till 2019, by Presidency }5

Rising number of stateless Nigerians }19

PDP accuses Buhari of war crime }8 Travel Advisory

Your guide to local and international flights }44

2

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

3

4

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

News

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

5

March 28: Jega in a fix over card reader Donald Ojogo, Wole Shadare, Adesina Wahab and Adeolu Adeyemo

I

ndependent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, may change his mind on using Smart Card Readers (SCRs) for the forthcoming general elections, New Telegraph gathered at the weekend.

A top INEC official said Jega's review of his stance to use the machine for the elections followed preliminary reports from the trial test of the machine, which held in 12 states at the weekend.

According to him, the INEC chairman may take the final decision on the matter at a meeting with resident electoral commissioners (RECs) from the 36 state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), holding on Wednesday in Abuja, to deliberate on the outcome of the mock election.

During the trial test, some glitches were discovered in how the card readers function, giving concerns to stakeholders, some of who faulted INEC's insistence on using the machine for the elections.

It was learnt that Jega was disturbed by the outcome of the mock election conducted by the electoral body to test the efficacy of the card readers.

The source said the ‘preliminary reports were fraught with technical hitches,’ adding that "the coming elections might witness less than 50 per cent participation of registered voters."

The propriety or otherwise of the use of the machine has been a sore point between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the ruling party championing the campaign to dump the machine.

The source said even though the performance of the card readers was not considered a failure, it fell short of the commission’s expectations.

He said: “We have been under intense pressure as to how best to make the card reader technology more fraud-proof and efficient as we prepare for the polls. But from all indications, the preliminary reports received from some field officers are to the effect that a lot still has to be done; not in relation to the efficiency of the machine, but the issue of certain avoidable technical hitches.

“In some areas, it is either that the battery of the

machine ran down or how to operate it became an issue; all these we are going to consider at Wednesday’s meeting because it is one issue we must get right.

“As far as we are concerned, there can never be trial and error and if these preliminary reports are confirmed to the extent that there are unlikely to be assurances of remediation, we might fall back on non-usage, but as at this time of talking to you now, a decision is yet to be taken on the issue.

“The main reason we need to meet on Wednesday before taking a decision is because if we base our judgement on these early reports, it then means that less than 50 per cent of Nigerians whose eligibility has been confirmed might not vote in

the coming elections; one, because of the errors and technical hitches, and two, the time being spent on the operation of the machine per voter. What this mean is that so many hours will be wasted at the detriment of eligible voters.”

INEC had held the fieldtesting of the card reader technology to hold in 225 polling units and 358 voting points across in 12 states of the federation on Saturday.

Affected areas were Port Harcourt City (Rivers), Abakaliki (Ebonyi), Ado Ekiti (Ekiti), Gassol (Taraba), Kumbotso (Kano), Bunza (Kebbi), Kokona (Nasarawa), Shiroro (Niger), Ikeja (Lagos), Aguata (Anambra), Oshimili South (Delta) and Jama’are (Bauchi).

Reacting to the outcome

of the mock election, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, warned against the use of the card readers for the elections.

He said if the machine developed any fault during any election, it would truncate the electoral process.

Also, Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, said INEC was only looking for ways to mar the general elections by its insistence on using the machine.

Fayose, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Mr. Lere Olayinka, said he was not against the use of any technology to ensure credible elections, but the flaws recorded during last Saturday's test of the machine were too fundamental to be ignored.

He said: "Unless INEC has an agenda that is dif-

ferent from the conduct of free, fair and credible elections, the use of the card readers should be suspended for future elections so as to enable proper test-running of the technology."

But the APC State Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, disagreed with Fayose. He said in a statement that the mock election allayed fears of the failure of the machine during accreditation.

According to him, the result achieved through the technology marked the end of over-voting and impersonation problems that dented the credibility of the nation's electoral process.

Describing the time saved during the exercise as incredible, he said card readers eliminated spend-

ing long hours in the queue, while also removing the fears of health issues that might arise from staying for long hours in the sun.

However, former PDP National Deputy Chairman, Chief Bode George, said the use of the card readers was not full-proof because of the probability of malfunctioning like any other technology.

He told airport reporters in Lagos at the weekend that INEC has to prove to Nigerians that it is ready for hitch-free elections with the use of the card readers.

He said millions of Nigerians would have been disenfranchised if INEC had gone ahead with the earlier dates scheduled for the elections without postponement.

L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan; former South African President, Thabo Mbeki and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, after a meeting with the president in Abuja...yesterday.

Photo: Timothy Ikuomenisan.

APC to Jonathan: Your promises to South-West can't save you Johnchuks Onuanyim and Anule Emmanuel ABUJA

T

he All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday dismissed President Goodluck Jonathan's attempts to woo the South-West to back his reelection bid.

It said the promises of development and improvement of services to the South-West, which the president had been making in his visits to the region, would not save him from defeat in the March 28 presidential election.

The party's stance came just as the presidency stressed the importance of re-electing Jonathan and asked the North to wait till 2019 for its turn.

APC described “as too little, too late” the recent election-propelled acts of governance by Jonathan to

convince Nigerians to vote for him and his party in the forthcoming polls.

The president has in less than one month, made at least three visits to the South-West, spending days meeting stakeholders such as traditional rulers, religious leaders and youths to rally them behind his re-election.

National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement yesterday in Lagos, said: “Mr. President, you cannot undo, in six weeks, the glaring instances of cluelessness, incompetence and near total lack of governance that your administration has exhibited in the past six years, even if you move Aso Rock to the South-West or bribe every Nigerian with the proceeds of corruption.

“Your administrationsanctioned smear campaigns against APC lead-

ers, your obscenity-laden meeting with youths, your offer of jobs to 167 out of over 40 million unemployed youths, and your temporary relocation to the South-West where you believe your naira and dollar rain will translate to votes are all belated and of no effect."

APC said all the president's latter-day efforts were rubbished on Saturday when over one million Nigerians marched through the streets of Lagos in support of change, even as a hurriedly-organised march led by the president in Abuja failed to distract from the success of the Lagos march.

The party said its latest opinion poll on the forthcoming elections showed that Nigerians had already made up their minds regarding which party they would vote for even before the six-week postponement

of the elections.

“Mr. President, you had all of six years to secure the lives and property of Nigerians, provide jobs, improve the economy, give Nigerians constant power supply and curb corruption, but you did none of those things.

“Under your watch, Mr. President, the economy has virtually collapsed with the US dollar now exchanging for over N220, the highest ever; millions of youths are roaming the streets even as your government fleeces them from time to time over phantom jobs; industries are collapsing in droves; Nigerians are more divided than ever; many states and even the Federal Government can't pay workers' salaries and corruption is at an all-time high as the looting of the public treasury has become the order of the day while Nigerians

have never felt so insecure.

“It is amazing, therefore, how you can even think that six weeks of unprecedented bribery of individuals, pretend governance, and cash-induced occult-like 'prayer' sessions, among others, will turn the tide in your favour. Nigerians are not fooled by your antics, Mr. President. Your efforts are too little, too late.

“They thought six weeks constitute an eternity. Well, six weeks are almost over now and Nigerians are ready to give the Jonathan administration the score sheet it deserves because they are more interested in contents than in labels, hence would not be hoodwinked by the contrived acts of governance,” APC said.

However, the presidency yesterday drummed up support for Jonathan's reCONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6

News

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Seven years after, FG yet to renew Shell, others’ oil block licences lChevron secures 20-year lease renewal Adeola Yusuf

T

he onshore and shallow water acreages by some International Oil Companies (IOCs) are still operating without the Federal Government renewing their licences about seven years after the firms have been pushing for 20year leases’ approval.

Checks by New Telegraph revealed that the companies, Shell, Total and Eni (former Agip), with the exception of ExxonMobil and Chevron have, against their wishes, been operating onshore fields with expired licences since 2008 as a result of the government’s delay in renewing their licences.

Chevron, at the weekend, however, confirmed that it had secured its renewal after six years of negotiations with the government.

Spokesperson for the United States (US) oil company, Mr. Deji Haastrup, who confirmed this in a text message to New Telegraph, denied the report that the renewal was enveloped in secrecy.

Describing the claims of secrecy in the oil firm’s

licence renewal “very odd’, he said: “Why do you think we will renew our lease secretly?”

Although the government team, led by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and the representatives of the remaining oil firms, have met on many occasions on the issue, a source said at the weekend that the government was foot-dragging on renewing the leases for the multinationals.

The stalemate in the renewal of the licences of the three IOCs, including

Total, was due to the delay in the passage of the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

“The bottom line is that the government does not want to put the cart before the horse; that is why the government is not optimistic on the renewal of these oil block leases before the passage of the PIB. This process may take longer than expected because you are aware that the National Assembly, on the other hand, is also foot-dragging on passage of the bill.

“Possibility of talks on the renewal before the PIB

passage is very faint and except a miracle happens, there is not going to be concrete negotiations until after the bill is passed,” the source said.

It was gathered that the negotiations between the Federal Government and the four oil majors had broken down several times.

“I can tell you that negotiations and meetings have been held on several occasions at several times in Abuja and elsewhere between representatives of government, led by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani

Alison- Madueke and the representatives of each of the IOCs. “This situation is not good for the business of oil exploration and exploitation and it is the major reason why many are now saying that the licences might not be renewed until after the passage of the PIB – the bill, which is likely to increase royalties and taxes, when it becomes law.

“What this means is that the IOCs are operating onshore and shallow water acreages with expired licences as required by the Petroleum Act, against

their wishes,” the source added.

Efforts to get the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Ohi Alegbe, to explain the government’s position on the oil licences’ renewal were abortive, as he did not reply a text message sent to him, based on his request.

Spokesperson for Shell, Mr. Precious Okolobo, also declined comments on the negotiations.

“I have no comment on that,” he said on the phone.

TODAY’S WEATHER FORECAST LAGOS

32o C 27oC Thunder Storms

ABUJA

28oC

13oC

Mostly Sunny

PORT HARCOURT

19oC

38oC

18oC

Partially Cloudy

ENUGU

38oC

26oC

Partially Cloudy

IBADAN

24o C 17oC Cloudy

CALABAR

33o C 24oC Thunder Storms

MAIDUGURI

ONITSHA

Why North must wait till 2019, by Presidency CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

27oC

Storm

KANO

L-R: President, Women Arise and Campaign for Democracy, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin; Nollywood actress, Mrs. Joke Silva and Founder, Pathfinders Justice Initiative, Ruth Idahosa, at an advocacy campaign in Port Harcourt…at the weekend.

40oC 21oC Mostly Sunny

38o C 24oC Thunder Storms

election with an appeal to the North to support him.

According to it, it is in the nation's interest for the North to wait till 2019 by allowing Jonathan to complete his two terms in order to safeguard the stability of polity.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, told reporters in Abuja that the forthcoming general elections were all about the stability of the country and not the ambition of one man.

He added that the consideration and implication of the polls are beyond Jonathan and his major contender in the presidential race, Major General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to him, when the president completes his second term, the North would have what he described as an "unequivocal" and "indisputable" op-

portunity to rule Nigeria for eight years.

Okupe said the North was far more advanced, in terms of politics and political leadership, than any other section of the country.

He added that the Yoruba were no longer causing trouble because their son had been allowed to rule Nigeria for eight years.

"Why can we not concede this remaining four years (to Jonathan)?" he asked.

Okupe said the North had always been the Nigeria's political stabilising group and it would be wrong for it to rock the boat now.

He said: “The North, since independence, has been the political stabilising group in this country.

The North is far more advanced than any section of this country in terms of politics and political leadership. When MKO (Abiola) died and civilian politics was brought back

for us to vote, the North met and decided that because of the injustice done to the Yoruba people, the Yoruba must present the next president at that time. And they called this nation to accept and buy into a national consensus to patronise Yoruba people.

And that had a salutary effect on the political stability of this country. That is the role the North has always played in the politics of Nigeria.

“The consideration and implication of the general elections for this country go beyond Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. It is beyond both of them. It is about stability of this country. And both the North and the South have always given concessionary consideration to each other. When we went for independence, the North was not ready, the South waited.

"In 1958, the colonial masters had agreed to give Nigeria independence,

but the North said they were not ready. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other southern leadership conceded.

They agreed and said they would wait for their brothers. So, we did not start the concession for peace just now.

“We have always tried to balance the polity and not create problems in this country. Now, Goodluck Jonathan comes from an area that, in perpetuity, has always been the strongest ally of the North."

Okupe explained that the North would be sending a wrong signal if it insisted on taking over the presidency now and deprive the South-South, the nation's egg nest, of the second term that other geopolitical zones had enjoyed.

“And now, the goose that lays the golden eggs was not brought up by anybody, but by God; an act of providence. The man (Jonathan) is doing well, and you are

saying that just because they are in minority, you can chase them out.

"Now that we have allowed Yoruba to rule, Yoruba have kept quiet and they are no longer causing problem. You don’t expect any upheaval from Yoruba land anymore. Why can we not concede this remaining four years? Nobody killed Yar’Adua. For some of us, Yar’Adua was our person, but God knows best. But if this has happened, let us exercise a lot of patience, maturity and understanding. Why do we want to drag this country to a cliff because of the ambition of one man who is supported by some greedy people who don’t even represent their people?

“A country cannot be roasted or derailed purely on the ambition of one person. If Jonathan completes his next four years, the North has a chance; an unequivocal chance, an indisputable chance CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

7

8

News

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

PDP accuses Buhari of war crime lAPC: Attack, act of desperation by president for re-election Igbeaku Orji UMUAHIA

T

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Organisation yesterday accused All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari of committing war crimes.

Director, Media and Publicity of the campaign organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, at a press conference in Umuahia, said Buhari had a lot of explanations to do on his roles during the civil war and the pogrom of Igbo in the North that predated the war.

According to him, questions have been asked about Buhari's roles in the massacre of Igbo in the 1960s and during the civil and he should not be allowed to get away without addressing the issues being raised.

"We came into this beautiful city last night (Saturday) after a tour of some states in the Eastern region over the past three days. During our tour we met with some key Ibo leaders. We attended caucus meetings with them and the questions that kept on coming up on the issue of the presidential election centred on the role General Muhammadu Buhari played in the very sad events of the night of January 29, 1966, when a coup d’état took place in our country and when no less than 300 Igbo army officers, a sitting Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and a serving Governor of the old Western Region, Colonel Fajuyi, were killed in the most brutal fashion in less than 24 hours. It is important for us to look into this today, considering the fact that General Buhari is aspiring to be the next president of Nigeria.

"The Nigerian people

have a right to know the truth about Buhari’s role in the tragic events of that night and they do not deserve to be kept in the dark. We deserve to know who did what, who to and how many times," he said.

Fani-Kayode also said Buhari should defend himself over an allegation that he might have taken part in the shooting of defenceless Igbo civilians in Asaba during the civil war.

He added that Buhari could face prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for his crime against humanity.

He described Buhari

as “nothing but a plague and affliction to the Nigerian people”, adding that part of the job of the PDP campaign organisation “is to help obviate the a catastrophic political future for the Nigeria simply by ensuring that a wrong candidate does not rise on the crest of a crass propaganda to become the president of this country.”

He urged the Igbo to reject the APC candidate because he had nothing to offer.

He also questioned the ability of Buhari to manage the economy if elected, saying that unlike other retired generals he has not

been able to manage any small business since his ouster from power.

But the APC Presidential Campaign Council described as felonious, the allegations against Buhari.

A statement by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the campaign organisation said the PDP statement amounted to questioning the purpose of the continued being of Nigeria as a single entity.

The statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the PDP as questioning the "the continued existence of Nigeria as single en-

tity. This is nothing short of treason. It rocks at the foundation of the oneness of Nigeria, its constitution, its flag and desecrates the blood of fellow citizens who fought on both sides of the war as part of their commitment to one, united nation."

It dismissed the PDP attack on Buhari's illustrious war record and inspiring patriotism as "a grim pointer to the desperation by the president to return even if in the process, he causes a permanent damage to the wellbeing and continued existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

Why North must wait till 2019, by Presidency CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

and an opportunity that cannot be denied to present a candidate they want who will rule the country for another eight years.

"Even if Buhari wins this election, which is impossible, he cannot do a second term. So, when the second term comes, why would other people not contest against him? He is

a Northerner and if he cannot run for election again, then, the thing should go back to the South. So, would the North be satisfied with only four years?

These are the issues. That is why I am saying this 2015 presidential election is beyond Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.

It is a matter of national stability,” he stated.

Private jets' owners get fresh ultimatum on operations CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The Director General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, said yesterday he was ready to commence the regime of stipulated sanctions on the erring operators.

According to him, the sanctions will include grounding of operations, revocation of licences and outright seizure of aircraft forthwith.

The use of these operators’ aircraft for commercial operations is at variance with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation, Nig.CARs 9.1.1.4[a] [b] which is tantamount to gross violation, he stated.

He said as part of the unanimous decisions at the meeting, the blanket ban upon the operators of foreign registered privately operated aircraft had been lifted with conditions attached.

Abass said as earlier indicated, the 90-day ultimatum was one of the conditions to enable all operators to regularise their

documentation to specify their choice of operation.

“However, during this moratorium, it is still subsisting that no private jet owner will be allowed to surreptitiously convert his jet for commercial purposes.

“At the end, it was agreed by all present at the meeting that any violator during the ultimatum and at expiry will be visited with much more stiffer penalties than earlier earmarked,” he added.

However, the private aircraft operators have appealed to the Federal Government to grant them 120-day window to regularise their operations.

Captain Mohammed Joje, who led other operators to visit Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka, in Abuja at the weekend, said: “We ask for 120-day window to make sure all the papers are regularised. In addition, we will offer to pay N200,000 to NCAA."

L-R: Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko; former President Shehu Shagari and All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, during Buhari’s visit to Shagari on his 90th birthday in Sokoto…at the weekend.

Jonathan meets Abdulsalami, Mbeki on polls Anule Emmanuel Abuja

P

resident Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met with former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), and former South African President, Thabo Mbeki at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Sources said the meeting was not unconnected with preparations for the

forthcoming general elections. The meeting was held inside President Jonathan's official residence.

Although none of the visitors spoke with journalists at the end of the meeting, the calibre of dignitaries who attended the meeting indicate that discussions would have centred on the smooth conduct of the general elections devoid of violence.

Those who attended the meeting include the Chief

of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba and leaders of major political parties.

Also in attendance were the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa'ad Abubakar III; Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan; Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah; Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Relations, Senator Ben

Obi and the former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.

New Telegraph gathered that Abdulsalami, who is the chairman of the National Peace Committee for the 2015 general elections, may have put together the meeting to brief the president on the outcome of his engagement with stakeholders regarding preparation for the elections and the mood in the country.

Chad, Niger joint forces attack Boko Haram in Nigeria Emmanuel Onani

C

had and Niger yesterday launched a joint military offensive against Boko Haram in Nigerian territory.

This is the first time such an incursion will be made, as previous military operations by neighbouring countries' forces had been restricted to border towns.

A report by Reuters quoted spokesman for Chad's Army, Colonel Azem Bermandoa, as saying: "We can confirm that Chadian and Nigerien forces launched an offensive this morning (yesterday) from Niger. The offensive is underway."

The report further quoted Niger's military sources as saying: "Troops were attacking militants from the Islamist group in

Nigeria's Borno State, having entered via the country's southeastern region near Diffa."

It said Abuja gave the green light for the operation.

The number of troops that entered Nigeria could however, not be ascertained.

The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Chris Olukolade, however, denied

the report.

Responding to New Telegraph's enquiry yesterday, Olukolade challenged Reuters to mention the location where the purported incursion was made.

He said the campaign against Boko Haram did not accommodate incursion, adding that there may be a careless use of terms by some people who may not understand the implication of such.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

APC petitions ICC, NHRC, others over First Lady’s hate message Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

T

he alleged hate campaign speech of the First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan in Calabar, Cross River State, has attracted negative response from the presidential campaign organization of the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Nigeria Police Force

on what it considers as hate speech of the First Lady against the party.

According to the APC presidential campaign organization, the First Lady had, during a rally in Calabar, Cross River State last week, called on PDP supporters to “stone” anyone who came to the state asking for change.

A statement from Mallam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of APC campaign organization, stated that the letter of complaint, signed by Rivers State Governor and Director General of APCPCO,

Rotimi Amaechi, will on Monday, March 9, be dispatched to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police (IG) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among others.

According to Amaechi, “Change, as the entire country must know by now, is the slogan of the APC - the rallying cry of a political party that wishes to bring hope of greater and better things to come for Nigeria and Nigerians.

By her statement, Mrs. Jonathan was clearly calling on PDP supporters in

Calabar to attack supporters and campaigners of the APC in the state.”

The APCPCO likened some of Mrs. Jonathan’s inciting statements and conduct during this political campaign season, to those of Mrs Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former president of Cote D’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, prior to that country’s 2010 election. The ICC indicted Mrs. Gbagbo for her part in planning to perpetrate brutal attacks - including murder, rape, and sexual violence, on her husband’s political opponents in the wake of the 2010 election.

Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed (right), receiving an award for Agriculture Development from the Chairman, International Tillage Research Organization, Nigeria branch, Prof. Stephen Ojeniyi, during a courtesy visit to the governor in Ilorin...at the weekend

Fashola wants FG to remove National Secretariat from grid Muritala Ayinla

G

over nor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, commissioned the 5th Independent Power Plant, IPP at Lekki with a call on the Federal Government to develop an Independent Power Plant initiative in Abuja to enable it takes National Secretariat off the national grid, the same the Lagos State Government has done.

New Telegraph gathered that the power plant called: Peninsula Integrated Power Project,

PIPP, is a gas-fired power generating facility, which is expected to provide uninterrupted power supply to Lagos State Water Public Corporation in Lekki Phase 1, Oniru Victoria Island and Ikoyi as well as over 25km of public lighting.

Speaking shortly before commissioning the project, Fashola, who accused President Goodluck Jonathan of only coming to Lagos to commission a newly purchased turbine, out of the six turbines at the Egbin Power plant, also commissioned Glover Road at Ikoyi.

Alleging that Peoples Democratic Party-led Fed-

Minister decries infants’ rape in IDPs’ camp Ladi Patrick Abuja

A

s Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women`s Day yesterday, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Zainab Maina, decried the increasing incidents

of rape of infants, minors and older women in the Internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs) camps in the country.

Maina, who stated this while briefing journalists at the weekend, in Abuja, to mark the 2015 International Women’s Day celebration, also condemned all acts of Violence Against Women

News

NATIONAL

eral Government was busy painting the opposition leaders in bad light, he commended the young engineers engaged in the execution of the project, saying their performances had proven that Nigerian youths were ready to take up the challenges in the country.

He boasted that almost all the streetlights on major Lagos Roads are functional except the Third Mainland Bridge, which remained in darkness because the Federal Government refused to allow the state government to manage it.

(VAW) in Nigeria.

She also condemned the act of brutalization and inhuman treatment meted out recently to members of Imo State Widows Association and the press by thugs in Imo State.

The minister further lamented that it was disheartening that women could be subjected to such kind of inhuman treatment while demonstrating peacefully.

9

CNPP threatens to sanction members Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

C

onference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP ) yesterday threatened to sanction members involved in an unethical and undemocratic practices as the nation prepares for the March 28 and April 11 polls.

The Conference in a statement from the National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, said, “the CNPP will eject membership political parties that engage in unethical and undemocratic agitation and embark on Mass Action, if either INEC chairman, Prof, Attahiru Jega is removed, Card Reader deleted or even the Temporary Voters Card added for accreditation”.

The CNPP is making this threat, given the allegations against some political parties calling for the removal of the INEC chairman and the dropping the idea of using card reader for elections.

The Conference said, “We have anxiously noted the nefarious, unethical and undemocratic agitations of some political parties in league with the PDP to either the removal of Professor Attahiru Jega or dumping of Magnetic Reader for no just cause.

“Penultimate week, they canvassed with the PDP for postponement of the February 14 presidential elections and it was granted. Yesterday, they headed for court, asking that Magnetic Card Reader

should be discarded and today they are not only canvassing for another postponement, but querying the technical competence of the Card Reader and Jega’s head”.

The Conference further stated, “It is regrettable that those who few years back, declared that telephone is not for the Nigerian poor are behind the call for the rejection of Magnetic Card Reader technology for accreditation of Nigerian Voters.

“We had thought that the lesson today that both the groundnut seller and the rich are using telephone, is enough lesson on adaptation of new technology to advance our electoral process which in the past was marred by irregularities.

“CNPP concur with the valid evidence that the use of Magnetic Card Reader for accreditation of voters will minimize if not eradicate ballot- box snatching, dumb printing of ballot papers and snatching of result sheets.

“We are therefore at a loss why the largest party in Africa - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - a party that has ruled our dear country for the last 16 years is jittery, and enveloped with hysteria over the use of the Magnetic Card Reader to advance our electoral process.

“To worsen matters, the PDP is desperately recruiting other political parties in this ignoble, undemocratic and unpatriotic onslaught on the nerve of our fledgling democracy.

Four more years for Jonathan in Nigeria’s interest –Obi

F

ormer Governor of Anambra State and the Deputy Director General, South, of the Jonathan’s Campaign Organization, Mr. Peter Obi, has called on Nigerians, for the sake of the unity and progress of the country, to support and vote President Goodluck Jonathan for the second term. He argued that besides the facts that Jonathan has done well to merit a re-election, that the socio economic dynamics of the country demands that “we allow the South-South

exhaust their 8 years.” Obi was speaking at the meeting of the laity of Nigeria at the Pope John Paul 11 Centre, Abuja.

Obi, who recalled the wisdom among the elderly men of Nigeria in allowing a South- Westerner to become the president after the death of Chief Moshood Abiola, said that the same wisdom was needed today, as, according to him, four more years and its benefit to a country was better than four more years of confusion.

Speaking on the benefits

of peace, Obi, who lauded late President Umaru Yar’Adua for the wisdom in packaging the amnesty deal for the Niger Delta militants, said that before the deal, Nigeria produced about 700 million barrels of oil and has been producing about 2.2 Million barrels since after the deal.

While answering questions on the specific qualities that endears Jonathan to Nigerians, Obi said: ‘President Goodluck Jonathan has characteristics required among leaders.

APC Chairmen’s Forum elects new executive In a statement issued was unanimously elected Uwakwe Abugu Enugu

T

he Forum of State Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has elected an executive committee, to pilot its affairs in the next four years. The group said the party was poised to reverse alleged poor political leadership in the country when it takes over the reins of power from the present ruling party.

yesterday in Enugu, the forum of APC state chairmen also vowed to resist any further attempt to postpone the general elections billed to hold on March 28 and April 11.

According to a release issued yesterday in Enugu by the Enugu State chairman of the party, Dr. Ben Nwoye, who is the new Publicity Secretary of the forum, the Lagos State Chairman, Otunba Henry Oladele Ajomale,

pioneer chairman; Umar Haruna Doguwa of Kano, clinched the post of deputy chairman, while Comrade Abba Yaro of Benue State was elected secretary.

Nwoye, who said the election took place in Abuja, disclosed that the forum is made up of the 36 state chairmen of the party, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja just as he spoke of the importance of the group.

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

10

Metro

One killed as robbers disappear with cash Taiwo Jimoh

P

olice in Rivers State Police have shot dead a suspected bank robber, while his accomplices disappeared with unspecified amount of money belonging to a certain bank.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Ahmad Kidaya, said the attack occurred on Friday in Port Harcourt.

He said the police recovered a Toyota Highlander, one Berretta pistol, one scorpion rifle, 11 AK47 magazines, 63 live ammunitions, two objects suspected to be dynamite, a charm and different vehicle number plates from the sus-

Etim flanked by his accomplices

Police arrest suspected killers of Imoke’s cook Clement James Calabar

P

olice in Cross River State at the weekend paraded three young men who allegedly killed the chief cook of Governor Liyel Imoke, identified as Sebastian.

The gang, led by 22-year-old Usen Umoh Etim, an indigene of Akwa Ibom State, reportedly killed Sebastian in February in what was speculated to be a political killing.

But the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Henry Fadairo, at the weekend debunked the speculation, insisting that the three men were mere armed robbers and that the killing had nothing to do with politics.

He said: “Let me correct one impression, people have been saying that the governor’s cook was killed because he refused to poison the governor. This is

not true. Our investigation revealed that these three men operated that night on the street where the cook lived. They had robbed some houses before they saw the cook and shot him maybe, because he knew them and they knew him and that was the only way to stop him from identifying them.”

There were speculations in the state capital, Calabar, that the cook was killed after he rejected the offer of N21 million which was allegedly given to him to poison the governor.

But Fadairo said his men arrested the three young criminals on Tinapa Road with the phone of the late cook and with a gun and cartridges.

According to the commissioner, investigation into the

matter revealed that the gang was in the habit of going from street to street in the night to rob residents of the state capital.

According to him, members of the gang have been operating freely until late last month when they were arrested.

Similarly, Fadairo disclosed that two men have been arrested in connection with the killing of the Assemblies of God Pastor who was going for ‘pulpit rotation’ in January.

The pastor and his usher were abducted on their way to Usumutong at Mkpani but their bodies have not been found.

The commissioner explained that “through scientific investigation,” the phone

Arms, ammunition and number plates recovered from the suspects

Robbers abandon arms, cash Dominic Adewole ASABA

S ABIODUN BELLO FEATURES Editor

abiodun.bello@newtelegraphonline.com

© Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited

of the late pastor was traced to one of the persons in the police custody.

Fadairo said the police were still looking for one Moses Columbus Inah, identified as the main suspect in the murder case.

He added: “Let me use this opportunity to invite Moses Columbus Inah to turn himself to the police or we will have no option to declare him wanted in the next few days.”

The commissioner reiterated his promise that the police would do everything possible to make the state safe for the conduct of the forthcoming elections.

He appealed to the public to provide information to the police for quick action.

pects.

Kidaya said that the police foiled the bank robbery and killed one of the robbers, while others fled with varying degrees of gunshot injuries.

Apparently, those who escaped carted away some unspecified amount of money.

“The robbers laid ambush for the bullion van. As soon as they saw it conveying the money to a bank customer, they swooped on it and engaged the policemen in a gun battle and carted away some of the money,” the PPRO said.

He added that when the armed robbers noticed that the policemen were chasing them, they quickly abandoned the bullion van and escaped with another hijacked vehicle. They also escaped with unspecified amount of money in the van.

Kidaya said there were blood stains inside the robbers’ vehicle, proving that some of them sustained gunshot wounds.

He appealed to the public and hospitals in the state metropolis to report anybody seen with gunshot wounds to the nearest police station or call the 08032003514, 08028915460, 08028915462 or 08160723892.

Kalu

uspected armed robbers who waylaid travellers at the popular Airport Junction, Enerhen, at Water Resources Area (WRA) in Delta State, took to their heels on sighting the police.

The suspects fled while men of the Surveillance Patrol Team attached to Enerhen Division gave them a hot chase.

The robbery suspects abandoned their weapons and their booty.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Celestina Kalu, said at the command headquarters in Asaba yesterday that the robbers fled on seeing the police team.

She said: “On sighting the police, the hoodlums zoomed off in their waiting vehicle.

The team gave them a hot chase but fled into the thick swampy area, abandoning their Golf ‘3’ Volkswagen car with registration number Delta AG 95 BKW. “When the said Golf car was searched, one locallymade cut-to-size double-bar-

relled gun, 10 live cartridges, one expended cartridge, one Tecno handset, six screw drivers and the sum of N450,000, which the criminals earlier snatched at gunpoint from one Agbarah Benawariebi, were recovered.”

Kalu added that the victim said that about 9a.m on the fateful day he withdrew the money from the First Bank branch at Airport Junction, Enerhen, only for him to be robbed by the hoodlums at Water Resources Area.

She said efforts had been intensified to track down the fleeing criminals.

News 11

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Let’s celebrate women’s achievements –Imoke’s wife Clement James Calabar

T

he founder of Partnership Opportunities for Women Empowerment Realisation, (POWER), Mrs Obioma Imoke, has called for the celebration of women’s achievements and the need to galvanise action to address the gaps that still remain in making gender equality a reality.

In a statement to mark this year’s International Women’s Day celebration at the weekend, the wife of Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke, said there was no better time “than now to make women’s achievements

more visible while recognising their peculiar challenges”.

According to her, the celebration with the theme, “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it,” will draw greater attention to women’s rights and gender equality on the global development agenda.

As part of activities to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, Mrs Imoke also disclosed that POWER would be hosting a panel discussion as one of the parallel events at the 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on “Women’s Economic Empowerment: Models & Milestones.”

Wife clubs husband to death in Enugu Uwakwe Abugu Enugu

A

middle-aged man, Mr Elijah Agbo, has been allegedly murdered by his wife, Grace, at Mbu Amonu in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The state Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Ebere Amaraizu, said yesterday that while the deceased hailed from Imilike Agu in Udenu Local Government Area of the state, he was residing at Mbu Amonu with his family.

The PPRO said the incident occurred about 9pm last Thursday, adding that the couple had been married for many years.

He said: “On the fateful day, the

IGP, Sulaiman Abba

deceased was hale and hearty and

so were his wife, Grace Agbo and their daughter, Deborah, a 12-year old girl.”

According to him, the three were together until perhaps after their supper about 9pm before Graced asked Deborah to go to bed.

He said: “It was further gathered that Deborah went into her room only to hear a heavy sound and she came out immediately, she then saw her father lying in a pool of blood as blood was also gushing out from his head.

“It was discovered that the mother used a big stick to hit the father on the head which caused him severe injury and forced him to fall down, became unconscious and later gave up the ghost.

“The body of the deceased has been deposited at the General Hospital mortuary, Ikem, for autopsy.

Suspect has been arrested by police operatives and is helping the operatives in their investigations as they are trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the unfortunate incident.”

Philanthropist donates police station, motorcycle Septuagenarian defiles minor

Amudipe (left), Eke and the state Police Public Relations Officer, Wole Ogodo, during the inauguration of the building

Babatope Okeowo Akure

D

etermined to reduce crime in his area, a philanthro-

pist, Chief Gbenga Amudipe, at the weekend donated a police station and patrol motorcycle to his community in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Amudipe said the need to

Clement James Calabar

develop his immediate environment and people led him to build and donate the structure to state police command.

According to him, development thrives in a situation where security of lives and property is given priority.

This, he said, could only be done by chasing hoodlums away from the area.

Amudipe said government alone could not provide all the necessities of life and called on the rich in society to use their wealth to develop their immediate environment.

He said the station would help to reduce crime and criminal activities in the WESCO Estate and its environs.

The philanthropist pledged to donate a van to the station before the end of the year.

He said the motorcycle donated along with the building

would allow easy patrol of the security agents around the WESCO Estate and other neighbouring communities.

The state Commissioner of Police, Issac Eke, said Amudipe had written his name in gold in dedicating the building to the police.

The commissioner assured the community of adequate protection of lives and property and called on others to emulate the good gesture.

He said: “This is a challenge for others to take a cue in what Chief Amudioe has done and I am sure this will go a long way to develop our community. Police and government cannot do all these things alone.”

The Chairman of the WESCO Estate Landlords’ Association, Olumide Atenidegbe, said the police station would reduce the rate of crime within the community and its environs.

Abakaliki

A

78-year-old man, Oji Nnachi, a native of Nkelu-Ezi, Ogwuma in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has allegedly defiled a six-year-old girl, Uchechi Uduma, from the area.

The father of the victim, Nnachi Ndukwe, told our correspondent that blood was gushing out from his daughter’s private part after the incident.

He urged the police to investigate the matter and ascertain whether the suspect did not transmit Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) to the victim.

Ndukwe blamed the defilement of his daughter on the absence of his wife, Ogechi, who he said left him and married another man.

This, according to him, makes it difficult for him to take proper care of his children as he is always busy looking for money to carter for the children.

Why suspects eat once a day -CP

T

he Cross River State Commissioner of Police, Mr Henry Fadairo, said the command had been overwhelmed by the large number of suspected criminals in police cells, especially at the command headquarters.

The development, according to him, has eaten deep into the budget of the command.

Fadairo said that as a result of this, he could no longer feed the inmates three times a day, but once.

The commissioner also laid the blame at the door-post of the striking court workers.

Fadairo, who expressed his frustration at the weekend while parading 95 suspected criminals at the state Command Headquarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar, said he was even taking responsibility for the medical bills of the inmates as he was not ready to allow any of them to die in the cell.

He said: “I must confess that the situation is really critical. All the cells have been taken over by inmates and there is no more space. Due to the number of inmates, I cannot feed them three times as I have been do-

Uchenna Inya

Some suspected criminals and their guns

ing. What I do is that I feed them once a day. The court workers’ strike is really affecting us because some of them are due for prosecution.”

Among those paraded were Moses

Felix Ogim (21), popularly known as Brown who was alleged to have robbed at 76 Ndidem Usangiso Road, Calabar and Okon Ekpenyong Okon (56) who shot and killed his brother, a

Warrant Officer in the Nigerian Army, over the latter’s decision to take another wife.

Others included Emmanuel Okon Nsugusi (27) who was arrested while on a robbery expedition on January 6, Michael Earnest Johnson (19) and his friend, Emmanuel Umoh Ekanem (19) who both robbed the same person at gunpoint as well as Elijah Bassey Edet (38) who was arrested for unlawfully possessing firearms.

While appealing to the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Cross River State branch, to suspend its strike in the interest of justice, the police boss said despite the huge amount of money the command was spending to feed and cater for suspected criminals in its custody, the police would not shirk in its responsibility of ridding the state of criminal elements.

He added: “The price to pay is enormous. Our problem is for the court workers to resume work so that some of them can be prosecuted.

“But on our part, we are really out for those who are bent on committing crime and no sacrifice will be spared to ensure that we rid the state of these elements.”

12 News

monday, march 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

national

Clark: Jonathan will implement confab report big bait

Ijaw leader uses baits Egba Oba with Confab report implementation Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

E

lder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday said President Goodluck Jonathan would implement the reports of the

National Conference if re-elected.

Clark, who spoke in Abeokuta during his visit to the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, said the president would commence the confab reports' implementation from May 29, this year.

The former Federal Commissioner for Information, who also visited the Ogun State secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), noted that what Nigeria needed to tackle corruption was

true federalism.

He declared that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot restructure Nigeria and find lasting solution to the challenges confronting the country.

He said the rejection of the 2014 National Dialogue by APC indicated that the party lacked the capacity to address the nation's problems.

Clark observed that the type of federalism being operated in the country had concentrated a lot of powers in the centre,

thereby, encouraging massive corruption.

He said: "The Yoruba have always asked for true federalism. So, when we went to the conference in February last year, the conference of nationalities said let us meet to discuss the basis of our living together in this country.

"And we took decisions for a new Nigeria to be born, over 600 (decisions); who is to implement it? Those who call themselves APC today cannot implement it be-

cause they were against it. None of them had the courage to say let us have the National Conference.

Jonathan did and he has the duty to implement it.

"So, I'm saying as you know, this is not the time to preach support Jonathan; he's already part of this community.

I want to say as from May 29, every aspect of

ACPN presidential candidate decries unemployment level Biodun Oyeleye Ilorin

T

L-R: Convener/Executive Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) , Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi; National Conscience Party (NCP), Lagos State governorship candidate, Comrade Ayodele Akele and Vice-President, Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association (NECA), Network of Entrepreneurial Women, Ms. Fayo Williams, at the Lagos gender dialogue on the most critical debate in the 2015 elections in Lagos.

PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

Philip Nyam Abuja

T

he House of Representatives has advised the Presidency to return the country’s Budget Office to the control of the National Planning Commission(NPC).

The House said that is if the nation is to truly achieve effective planning, implementation and proper coordination of its economy.

Chairman of the House Committee on National Planning Commission, Hon. Bethel Amadi,

Buhari restates commitment to empowering women Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

T

he presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in celebration of the World's Women day, restated his commitment to the empowerment of Nigeria women, beginning with ensuring that the rights of women as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution, are protected under his government.

he Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alhaji Gani Galadima, has raised the alarm over the growing rate of unemployment among youths in the country, saying it was like stoking fire for Nigeria's future.

Galadima, who stated this in Ilorin during a Radio Kwara Political programme "Sportslight" promised that the focal point of the government should be on how to attract both local and foreign investors to harness the abundant resources of the nation to create massive employment.

In a statement from the Director of Media and Publicity, APC presidential campaign organization, Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari said, "My plan for Nigerian women has been made clear in 'My Manifesto and Vision for Nigeria. However, I would like to use this special opportunity that the world has set aside to celebrate women, to reiterate my personal commitment to the advancement of Nigerian women in Nigeria and in the Diaspora."

commission with such a large role. We are of the strong belief that you deserve more than the resources being given to you if you are to truly determine the growth pattern of our economy, implement and as well play your monitoring and evaluation role effectively.

“This is why we are of the opinion that budget office should be part and

parcel of the National Planning Commission.

The new way of having the budget office in Finance is not working.

A lot of countries, such as India and South Africa have gone back to the old ways and it is working for them. The National Planning must sign off before finance can pay. We can’t just be paying for projects , many of which are like stop gaps.”

Akeem Nafiu

On March 4, the judge announced that the judgment was not ready, and then fixed the 6th of March for same.

On the 6th of March again, it further occurred that the judgment was still not ready, while a new date of March 16, 2015 was fixed.

Mikevine, who was the National Treasurer in the election that produced another popular actor, Emeka Ike as AGN President, had filed the suit to contest Ibinabo's election as AGN President.

The Ilorin-born politician, while noting that government alone cannot provide employment for the teeming unemployed people, stressed the need for a robust entrepreneurship development to open more opportunities for private investors in the country.

The ACPN candidate noted that as an agrarian, if given the mandate to be the next President of the country, he would focus attention on reviving the agricultural sector because of its huge potentials as he assured that his administration would diversify the country's economy to reduce the over reliance on oil, which price is now nose diving.

Rewane predicts external borrowing, interest rate cut

Return Budget Office to National Tony Chukwunyem Planning Commission, Reps tell FG R gave this advice during the NPC’s budget defence at the weekend in Abuja.

He also stressed the need for the repositioning of the commission to meet the current global realities, emphasising the need to strengthen institutions rather than individuals.

Amadi said: “Many of us here(in the House) are agonised at the amount of resources given to the

the confab will produce a constitution whereby you will have a constitution for Ogun State, you will have a constitution for Delta State and that's what we had in Chief Awolowo's time.

"But today, whether we are practising federalism or we are practising unitary form of government, nobody knows. Every power is concentrated in the centre and that's why we have corruption today. "

enowned economist and Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, has predicted that the rate setting body of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), is likely to reduce interest rate at its meeting later this month.

He also foresaw an increase in the inflation rate from 8.2 per cent in

January to 8.4 per cent in February.

He made these predictions as part of his presentation at the Lagos Business Executive Breakfast meeting in Lagos recently.

Rewane, who noted that the next MPC meeting will take place just four days before the general elections scheduled on 28th of March, stated that the, “MPC (is) likely to reduce Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) and ease markets”

N50m fraud: Court clears Lagos Fiberisima, AGN know fate March 16 trade fair director, four others

J

ustice James Tsoho of a Federal High Court in Lagos has deferred judgment in a suit seeking the sack of Ibinabo Fiberisima-led Executive of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) till March 16.

This will be the second time judgement in the suit filed by an actor, St. Maradona Mikevine will be deferred.

Judgement in the suit had earlier been fixed by the judge for the 4th and the 6th of March, 2015.

Akeem Nafiu

J

ustice Kudirat Jose of an Ikeja High Court, has dismissed a criminal suit brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the executive director, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex Management Board, Bassey Eyamba. It would be recalled that Eyamba and four others were arraigned by the anti-graft agency in 2013 on a 20-counts charge bordering on conspiracy to steal and stealing of over N50

million.

The four other accused persons were; Okafor Eunice, Francis Dajilak, Okocha Lazarus and Kolo Barnabas.

However, in a preliminary objection by their lawyer, John Awa Kalu, the defendants asked the court for an order dismissing or striking out the charge for want of jurisdiction on the ground that it was premature, an abuse of court process, incompetent and ultra vires to the powers of the EFCC.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Presidency

General elections

Ojukwu’s kinsmen root for Jonathan

Card readers’ll throw Nigeria into crisis, says group

45

45

13

Politics Elechi’s fate hangs in the balance liki South state constituency, Hon. Eni Uduma representing Afikpo South West constituency, Hon. Mabel Aleke representing Ohaukwu South state constituency and Hon. Sam Nwali representing Ikwo North state constituency.

But, reacting to the declaration of their seats vacant, Uduma argued that the resolution of the House was illegal, unconstitutional and an effort in futility.

The Chukwuma Nwazunku-led Assembly also declared vacant two other seats: Hon. Oliver Nwachuwku representing Abakaliki North state constituency and the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Blaise Orji representing Afikpo South East.

The number of lawmakers’ seats declared vacant is now six.

The decision of some members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Martin Elechi has altered the political calculation in the state with major political actors in the state up in arms against the governor. CHARLES ONYEKWERE and UCHENNA INYA report

G

overnor Martin Elechi is at a receiving end of the power play currently playing out in Ebonyi State. His quest to produce a successor hit the rocks in December 2014. Even his ambition of contesting for a senatorial seat in the rescheduled March 28 election was also aborted. Now his fate as governor of Ebonyi State hangs in the balance. Elechi’s deputy, Engr. Dave Umahi, is primed to take over from him as the House of Assembly begins impeachment against the governor. The fireworks begin this week.

Why Elechi must go Beyond the allegation of gross misconduct, the main reason for the impeachment plot of Governor Elechi has to do with the forthcoming general elections. It started with the conduct of last year’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries, which the deputy governor, Umahi, won.

Elechi had endorsed the then Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, as the consensus candidate of the party. The governor

AYODELE OJO

DEPUTY Editor, POLITICS ayodele.ojo@newtelegraphonline.com

© Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited

Elechi

even lost his senatorial ambition.

The outcome of the primaries set the stage for political battle between the camp of the governor and that of Umahi led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, and former Governor Sam Egwu.

Out of favour and with loss of PDP structures in the state, Elechi’s supporters took over the structures of Labour Party (LP) and became the candidates of the party for various positions while the governor remains in the PDP. The thinking in anti-Elechi’s camp is that an Elechi in the saddle is injurious to their ambition. As such, the decision of some members of the House of Assembly to impeach the governor is to enable some politicians contesting the forthcoming general elections to have their way especially as the governor is said not to be supporting the candidates of the PDP except President Goodluck Jonathan.

The probe With a polarised legislative and executive arms, a faction of the lawmakers began the probe of the Elechi administration.

Top state and local government

INDEP ELECT ENDENT NAT ORAL C IO OMMIS NAL SION

Very desperate attempts and overtures are being made to induce and intimidate us into yielding... to the plot for the impeachment of our dear governor

officials including the Accountant General, Mr. Edwin Igbele; Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Chief Timothy Odaah; Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Chief Celestine Nwali, and state Auditor-General, Barr. Boniface Ezeagu were summoned to appear before the House to answer questions on corruption charges.

Also summoned were Heads of Personnel Management (HPM) and Treasurers of the 13 local government areas of the state.

The House further threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on any government official who fails to appear before it.

The House had also summoned Governor Elechi, his son, Elechi Elechi, the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Dr. Ben Igwenyi, and others to answer questions over their alleged role in misappropriation of public funds.

Declaration of six lawmakers’ seats vacant Not done yet, the House declared the seats of four members who defected to LP to contest the general elections vacant.

Those affected were: Hon. Helen Nwobashi representing Abaka-

Assembly set ablaze While controversy raged over the declaration of the four lawmakers’ seats vacant, the Assembly was set ablaze by hoodlums, suspected to be agents of government.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Nwazunku, blamed the fire outbreak at the Assembly complex on the state government.

Nwazunku, who expressed shock and disappointment over the development, accused members of Elechi’s cabinet of being the mastermind of the dastardly act.

According to the Speaker, “we were to begin hearing on this matter today only to be told that the account section, media office of the state Assembly complex were gutted by fire. Those responsible were those we invited to answer questions concerning their involvement in the embezzlement of public funds.”

The case against Elechi The lawmakers posited that contrary to and in breach of the express provisions of Sections 7 and 8 of the Ebonyi State Local Government Councils and Development Centres (Amendment) Law No.007 of 2007, Elechi appointed and inaugurated 28 persons as coordinators of the centres without prior screening and confirmation by the simple majority of the state House of Assembly.

The embattled governor was also alleged to have appointed and inaugurated the 13 chairmen of the various local government councils and appointed chairmen and members of the State Independent Electoral CommisCONTINUED ON PAGE 16

14

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

15

16 Politics

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 6

Anyim

Umahi

Secondus

Metuh

Elechi: Anyim, Umahi, Secondus, Metuh behind my travails C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 3

sion (SIEC), Local Government Service Commission, Secondary Education Board, Universal Basic Education Board and others without screening and confirmation by the House.

Elechi was also accused of obtaining a N3 billion loan in August 2014 from First Bank on behalf of the state government without the consent of the House among other allegations. The loan is repayable within 11 months, to be completed in May 2015.

Another allegation was that the state government spent N6,617,000 in incorporating the Ebonyi Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd with 200 million ordinary shares in 2013 and allegedly allocated 100 million controlling shares to Edon (Nig) Ltd, represented by Edward Nkwegu; 25 million shares to Elechi’s son, Elechi Nnanna Elechi; 25, 000, 000 shares to Best Southern Global and “surprisingly given the financier which is the state government a minority shareholding of 50 million.”

The lawmakers were also irked by the allegation that Edon contractor abandoned the Ebonyi International Trade Centre, which Elechi had approved N2, 475, 114, 998.50 and the sum of N790, 221,833.25 was paid to Edon and notwithstanding the purported abandonment, Elechi went ahead to award the construction of the International Market to Edon at a whopping sum of N3, 676,942,825.70.

According to the lawmakers, the governor also allegedly approved the increase of the contract sum by an additional sum of N39, 204, 44.00, yet “the contract remains abysmally performed and is far from completion,” which its completion date was fixed for October 2013.

The other allegation was that the state government spent several millions of naira carrying out exploratory core drilling aimed at ascertaining the quality and quantity of limestone suitable for ce-

ment production and 175, 000, 000 controlling shares were allocated to Edon; one Chief Linus Nwamba got 25, 000, 000 shares while the financier, the state government got the minority shareholding of 50, 000, 000 and “neither Edon nor Nwamba paid for their shares and yet directors thereof.

Impeachment begins The legislators in the eightcount charge signed by 15 out of the 24 members of the House and read on the floor of the House of Assembly by the acting Leader, Ogbonna Nwifuru, said the alleged gross misconduct committed by the governor was a clear violation of the 1999 Constitution.

After reading out the charges, the motion to serve Elechi impeachment notice was moved by the member representing Onicha East Constituency, Odefa Obasi and seconded by his kinsman of Onicha West, Valentine Okike.

Eleven lawmakers attended the sitting and passed the resolution.

Before the impeachment move, the Assembly had received a petition from one Clement Odaah who accused Elechi, his son Nnanna, LP governorship candidate, Edward Nkwegu and some top government officials of financial impropriety and set up probe committee headed by Odefa Obasi to investigate the allegations.

Moving the impeachment motion, Obasi said that Elechi should be served the impeachment notice on ground of gross misconduct through publication in any national daily, local tabloids, and announcement on radio, television including reporting of proceedings, through courier services, through Elechi’s office or pasting the notice at any public notice board in any of the ministries.

Odefa contended that any of the above means can validate the constitutional requirement to serve the governor. The motion was seconded by Frank Onwe, representing Ohaukwu North Constituency.

The Speaker, Nwazunku, further adopted and announced that

he will serve the governor through any of the means and it shall stand that the governor has been duly served.

INDEP ELECT ENDENT NAT ORAL C IO OMMIS NAL SION

I approached Governor Elechi to inform him of my desire to contest for the governorship seat, in line with our mutual agreement.

He declared his opposition to my candidature

Dissenting lawmakers But nine members of the Assembly have disassociated themselves from the impeachment move against the governor. The nine lawmakers are: the Deputy Speaker, Blaise Orji; the Majority Leader, Sam Nwali, Oliver Nwachukwu, Eloy Ogbonna, Helen Nwaobasi, Mabel Aleke, Eni Uduma Chima, Lillian Igwe and Ikechukwu Nwankwo.

Addressing journalists in Abakaliki, the spokesman of the nine legislators and the member representing Afikpo South West Constituency, Eni Uduma Chima said the House of Assembly has completely degenerated to a political party platform for the realisation of the ambition of the state deputy governor, Umahi, who is currently the PDP gubernatorial flag bearer.

Eni said: “Members of the Assembly are consistently roundly beaten, dispossessed of their properties, intimidated and disallowed from participating in the proceedings and activities of the House of Assembly by combined efforts of violent thugs who professed by themselves to be enjoying full police protection. The resolution passed by the Nwazunku-led faction of the Assemblymen to serve Governor Elechi impeachment notice was passed in clear contravention of section 188(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Very desperate attempts and overtures are being made to induce and intimidate us into yielding, against the demand of justice and good conscience, to the plot for the impeachment of our dear governor, a founding father of Ebonyi State.

“We have resolved that none of us shall attempt to go to the House of Assembly complex to forestall breakdown of law and order and to ensure the security of lives of

our people. They have taken the attendance register of the House of Assembly to their principals in Abuja for the purpose of cloning the signatures of members of our faction. We cannot in this life and forever, sign or attempt to sign any document seeking to remove the governor from office.

We shall not even attend any sitting of the House for now, to avoid being forced at gun point to sign anything.”

I know my enemies – Elechi Reacting to the allegations of gross misconduct, Elechi said it is the case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

His words: “It is interesting for Nigerians to know that the decision to impeach me preceded the finding of justifiable reasons to do so. The legislators must be convinced that an impeachment is justifiable before he or she can consent to it. But because there have been no justifiable reasons, many members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly received threat messages to either append their signatures or risk assassina-

Jonathan

Politics 17

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

A group of women protesting against the plot to impeach Governor Martin Elechi.

tion and/or a kidnap of their family members. Others are coerced from the national headquarters of the PDP to give their bank particulars so that money will be paid into them.”

Elechi accused his deputy, Umahi, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh and the Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus of being behind the impeachment move.

Umahi: I’m not responsible for Elechi’s travails Anyim and Umahi have denied being responsible for the plot, saying the governor was crying wolf.

According to Umahi, “the current impeachment move against the governor by the State House of Assembly is a legislative activity and we have nothing to do with it.

The House has its constitutional duties to investigate the executive and where it becomes necessary, those found wanting should face appropriate sanctions in line with the constitution.”

The deputy governor said the House has alleged that the spate of corruption in the state is too high and they have set up a committee to investigate the allegations in the petitions submitted to them.

“As a Deputy Governor, I am part of the executive arm of government and I have no powers to in-

Nwazunku

terfere in the affairs of the legislative arm,” he said.

Umahi revealed that Elechi promised to handover to him in 2015 as the Governor of Ebonyi State. He said: “For the past three and half years as a Deputy Governor, I have remained a loyal party and obedient servant, who always stood by my master and delivered on the duties entrusted to me. I have never relented in helping the PDP in Ebonyi State to deliver on its manifestoes to the people.

My commitment and dedication to duty made Governor Elechi to insist that I should succeed him in office in 2015 and he made this promise in private and public places.

“We kept working together in harmony till the time for party primaries and I approached Governor Elechi to inform him of my desire to contest for the governorship seat, in line with our mutual agreement. He declared his opposition to my candidature and my refusal to allow him stop me from presenting myself for election into the office of the governor of the state was the beginning of the misunderstanding between the governor and I.” Protest, support for Elechi Since the House initiated the impeachment move, there have been series of reactions from different groups including youth organisations. On Monday March 2, thousands of youths took to the streets of Abakaliki, the state capital, warning against the impeachment of Elechi.

The embattled governor mobilised over 10,000 youths across the 13 local government areas of the state on a peaceful demonstration within Abakaliki to protest against his planned impeachment.

Speaking during the protest, which commenced at the Abakaliki Township Stadium, spokespersons of the group, Leonard Igboke, Dr. Mike Okoro, Chief Timothy Odaah and Chibueze Agbo said Governor Elechi has kept faith with his campaign promises and has not committed any impeachable offence.

They called on the lawmakers not to carry out the impeachment, describing it as an attempt to smear the image of the governor and throw the state into crisis.

Addressing the protesters at the Government House, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr.

Youths at a rally in support of the embattled governor.

INDEP ELECT ENDENT NAT ORAL C IO OMMIS NAL SION

Members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly received threat messages to either append their signatures or risk assassination

Boniface Chima, commended the youth on the solidarity show for the governor in his trying moment. He urged them to continue their support for the governor.

One of the spokespersons of the youth, Leonard Igboke said “all that is happening in Ebonyi State today border on the ambition of one man to be governor; that particular ambition has been so overstretched that all known negative tendencies have been employed all over the years to achieve this ambition.

“We can no longer sit with our hands akimbo and watch people, who never knew the bitter days and years of the struggle, to scuttle our collective aspirations, and destroy the hard earned reputation of Governor Elechi.”

The protest which halted human and vehicular movements for some hours came as another group of women staged a peaceful protest in Abakaliki in support of the governor and condemned moves by some members of the Assembly to oust him from office.

Various women groups including market women, Hausa and Yoruba communities in the state attended the pro-Elechi rally.

They were led by the former Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Dorathy Obasi, and Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mary Joy Umoke, who spoke during the rally.

Also, a group known as Ebonyi Integrity Group disassociated itself from a petition against Elechi by one Clement Odaah, who claimed to be a member of the group and accused the governor of financial misappropriation.

In a statement signed by the National Chairman and Secretary, Hon. Ogalagu Amaechi and Paul Ugwuoke respectively, the group said: “Those who think they can use their filthy lucre amassed at the expense of the people to lord it over the same people should realise that the people can only be deceived some of the times, but not all the times. Politics should be played with decorum and decency. The moment desperation overtakes the players, then, the expected harvest becomes unpalatable. Most of the campaigners of calumny were major beneficiaries of the Elechi-led administration who have suddenly become the pot calling the kettle black.”

Another group known as Network for Democratic Vanguard

also kicked against the impeachment plot. The group’s National President, Prince Ndubuisi Chibueze Agbo, said: “The good people of Ebonyi State will not be in a bath and allow foamy soap impair our sight. We want to tell the world that some evil-minded fellows are inflicting our state with terror, turbulence and violence. We are solidly behind our governor in the battle at all cost.

The plot against him, the impeachment notice will not see the light of the day. This is because no one can place something on nothing.

The whole game of the impeachment of our governor is like placing something on nothing and it will manifestly fall and fail.”

Protest to abort First Lady’s visit But the Divine Mandate Campaign Organisation of Dave Umahi accused the Martin Elechi-led state government of inciting the people against the visit of the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to the state which has been put on hold.

The chairman of the Media, Research and Strategic Team of the Organisation, Senator Emmanuel Onwe decried the protests, saying they are not intimidated by the development. He accused the governor of hiding under the Labour Party to create crisis and disrupt the visit of the First Lady.

Court’s intervention Already, an Ebonyi State High Court presided over by Justice John Igboji has restrained the House from serving impeachment notice on the governor. Elechi had approached the court to seek the enforcement of his fundamental human right of fair hearing, adding that he has not been served of any impeachment notice by the members of the House of Assembly who are pushing for his removal.

The court also restrained the State Chief Judge, Alloy Nwankwo, from constituting a seven-man panel to investigate the allegation of financial impropriety levelled against Elechi by the House of Assembly and adjourned hearing on the substantive suit to March 10.

Elechi joined the Speaker of the Assembly, Chukwuma Nwazunku, the Chief Whip of the House, Ikoro Kingsley, the State Commissioner of Police Dikko Maigari, CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

18

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Opinion The fallacy of rally crowds Dominik Umosen

A

s far as the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is concerned, if rave reviews of the opposition party; some commissioned publicity stunts and most creative blend of populist swaggers adopted reliably indicate popularity and acceptance, the party might have already won the re-scheduled March 28, 2015 presidential polls in the country.

Addressing stakeholders at the party’s office in Lagos recently, Tinubu stated categorically that the only barrier to the party’s victory in the polls was if the other side (the Presidency and the ruling party), rig the elections.

Tinubu said May 29, 2015 was sacrosanct as hand-over date to a succeeding administration, stressing that no amount of intimidation and threats from the presidency and the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) would shake APC ahead of the elections.

“We are ready for the elections. They think they are wise by postponing the elections, but they are not. APC has won this election except they rig on the other side. All their intimidation will amount to nothing during the elections.

They tried to intimidate us during last year’s Osun State governorship election but they failed. We will be on the street waiting for them. Since they brought soldiers to my house, I have been sleeping very well because I am not afraid of them.

“We have been working hard in Abuja. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must use the card readers, whether they like it or not. PDP doesn’t want it but we are going to resist their plan. They cannot

rig us out. March 28 is sacrosanct but before then, we are going to ensure we get highest of our voters Permanent Voters’ Cards’.

We have absolutely no axe to grind with Asiwaju Tinubu’s unilateral declaration of victory even before the elections since it is perfectly legitimate politicking to bluster, posture elaborately and make effusive swaggers from the soap box. Tinubu’s unilateral declaration of victory even before the elections could be equated with an individual’s legitimate right to dream and fancy himself favoured by the full possibilities in a free society.

The opposition party is damn right to say that it made a damn good show of itself before the shift in the polls, undoubtedly succeeding in forcing the ruling party to concede that complacency in politics is a dangerous temptation, even for a ruling party. Deploying a creative mix of aggressive propaganda and robust self-marketing technique, this combination left the ruling party gasping and wondering if it was still in the race for the preferences of Nigerians. But to presume that razz matazz alone determines electoral victory would amount to unpardonable naivety.

Running away with an exaggerated assumption of popularity based on the fallacy created by surging crowds recorded at political rallies is a political weakness that is peculiarly associated with under-development. It is a popular response to deprivation and want for victims to migrate to venues of events like rallies, where those so drawn are united in the hope and expectation that crumbs, freebies and mementos would be shared out. Evidently, this has often led to unflattering interpretations of the political reality, including confusing a melting pot of desperate people for political supporters.

In our circumstances, many people are yet to come to grips with the fact that surging crowds at political rallies these days do not necessarily reflect the popularity of political parties but a veritable index of the prevailing economic desperation whereby Nigerians flock to rallies in the hope of receiving the right stomach infrastructure which is a regular fare at such venues. So to confuse this admixture of desperation with political support smacks of unrealistic bragadacio, if not pathetic naivety and ignorance.

Over half of the crowd you find at any political rally is made up of those who are there in the hope of cornering some form of stomach infrastructure in the process, not because of any form of loyalty whatsoever to whatever the party in question. Thus, building confidence of possible electoral victory on this obviously false assumption of popular acceptance is both tragically wrong and downright misleading.

Within the small window of hope permitted by imperfections in our democracy, there is still the possibility that a party that is creatively packaged can still make the desired impression among Nigerians as the APC itself has eloquently demonstrated by giving the ruling party a damn good run for its so-called mega-money. False assumptions carries the ugly potential of inexorably overheating the already turbo-charged polity which, am sure, we do not want to do.

Desperate crowds at political rallies do not, regrettably, translate into support for the party in question. Those people you see are economic desperados deploying uncommon creativity to forage in such venues for the all-important promise of stomach infrastructure that are freely distributed at political venues.

March 28th: A victory for Orji Uzor Kalu is a victory for Ndigbo Eze Peter Ogbonna

T

he great scholar Henrick Clarke, once said that history is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but most importantly what they must be. I am reflective of the past because an understanding of the past provides necessary tools for resolving problems of the present and righting the wrongs for a better tomorrow, a better future that Ndigbo of the Eastern region can not wait to uphold. Since the loss of the civil war in 1970, Ndigbo had been subjected to the most discriminating and brutal treatment than any people who lost a war in modern times. That Ndigbo have continued to survive individually in the face of the evil metted on them can be attributed to the ingenuity, tenacity, will power and creativity of the individual Igbo man. In the affairs of the nation, it is regrettably lugubrious that out of the near 55 years of leadership in Nigeria, the Igbos have been at the helm of affairs for only 6 months, even the Ijaw minority have done more but that is a talk for another day. This led to the highly respected writer and literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe's assertion that "Nigerians of all other ethnic groups will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbos".

Irrespective of all these and for whatsoever reason, the people of the Eastern region seem content remaining at the periphery of the nation's political enterprise.This has even climaxed in the recent political dispensation where the

Igbo people act with reluctance in matters of our own concern. We act as if our historical plight and the precarious political and socio- economic future is no longer a concern. However, March 28th will be another opportunity to make choices that will either keep us in shape or out of shape despite not having a presidential aspirant of Igbo extraction [even if one exists ,not with household support ]. Should we end up marrying the choice of staying out of shape, then the Ndigbo political interest and cause would sooner than latter be a forgotten issue like a picture in an old family album.

These notwithstanding, Ndigbo has produced great leaders like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Emeka Ojukwu, Dr M.I Okpara,Dr. Nwafor Orizu , Dr Akanu Ibiam to mention but a few,who had equally helped to improve the quality of every Igbo man by fighting vigorously for us and giving us near effective representation .The rise of these great men in the Nigerian affairs was due to their self confidence engendered by their love for their people and belief that one man is as good as another and that no condition is permanent. People like Ojukwu had in the midst of political intolerance rose to fill the gap of pan-Igbo representation. He was a captivating demagogue, very expressive, a warlord who had fearlessly looked at power squarely in the face and stood for the interest of the igbos.

But today,all the Igbo giants have gone to sleep. The few ones in authority are only good in making perhaps, occasional fine speeches without commensurate momentum. Today, many who parade themselves as Igbo leaders either have nothing to offer to Ndigbo or fail to rise in defense of Ndigbo when needed. They parade themselves in Abuja, Kano and Lagos under different umbrellas of Igbo groups

as "Igbo leaders". They do so as they have been perambulating and promenading with some of the unpopular Northern and Western creeps who have kept us in bondage. They leap over the stringent hurdles the Igbos have put in place for choosing their leaders. The consequence is that Ndigbo has become pawns in the chessboard of political games in which they ought to have been players and would have drowned endlessly if not for the intervention of few vibrant ones that has sworn never to see it happen in their lifetime .The Igbos notable for being lashed by prejudice and buried half-alive in negligence in the national affairs have encountered much challenges in the recent years. And it is most painful that it was only a handful of our acclaimed leaders that came out and stood aggressively in our defense .Thanks to Chief Alex Ekwueme, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Senator Ike Ekweremmadu, who, at different periods, came to the rescue of Ndigbo. It will remain indelible in the memories of many, the swift action of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu during the Fashola deportation of Igbos . When others were busy protecting their individual friendship ties with some people they considered powerful, Dr Orji Kalu took it upon himself and made sure that Igbos deserved a better treatment at all nooks and crannies of this nation.

His stance on the Apo 6, when Igbos were brutally killed for flimsy reasons, was very conspicuous and highly commendable. His popular encounter with the Sultan of Sokoto on the killings of Igbos in the North, his presentation at the British House of Commons as a Special Guest where he carried the crusade of equal representation in a nation that Igbos seem to be taken for silent majority received laudable commendations at home and diaspora.

Dr Orji Uzor Kalu's bravado in withstanding face-off with any Igbo hater has very much endeared him to a new generation of Ndigbo especially the youths. His example being that no Igbo leader should ever abandon his people in times of adversity, that every igbo man especially those in authority, those whom the Igbos have entrusted with the fate of the entire ethnic group must be ready to make a commensurate sacrifice for the igbo nation. I have come to believe that there will always be true men to lead the Igbos and consequently give voice to the igbo interests and aspirations in accordance with the social and political realities of the time.

That is why amidst the full support of Ndigbo for president Jonathan's re-election bid, Dr Kalu is the only igbo leader who has shown his commitment beyond verbal support of president Jonathan's re-election. He has lived up to his words by putting all his energy and resources to drive the project of making sure that President Jonathan continues, by distributing thousands of customized phones and numerous bags of rice as part of his own individual campaign for President Jonathan. And I am sure that the SouthSouth youths and elders are taking note of that.

I strongly believe more still need to be done to promote the growth and interests of the Igbos in this nation, especially now that the Igbos have no expectation of a Nigerian President from Igbo extraction. I had in the past sampled the opinions of some elites and those who understand that the prize of greatness is responsibility on the political future of the Igbos beyond 2015.

• Ogbonna (ezekingV15@yahoo.com, sirbontux@gmail. com) is the immediate past President of NESA UNN, writes from Enugu

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

19

EDITORIAL

Our VISION To build a newspaper organisation anchored on the sanctity of truth.

A media partner of

Sanctity of Truth

Our MISSION To publish a newspaper of superior value, upholding the fundamental ethics of journalism: balanced reporting, fairness, accuracy and objectivity.

E

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth – Buddha

Nigeria’s most authoritative newspaper in politics and business

Rising number of stateless Nigerians

ven as the country battles to shake off the excruciating weight of aggregate inconveniences imposed by insurgency, there is the more unsettling news that over 60, 000 thousand Nigerians run the risk of being rendererred stateless by this affliction that has so far killed over 10,000 compatriots.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Natyional Human Rights Commission, Prof.

Ben Angwe, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians from the North-East risk being rendered stateless due to the activities of the dreaded Boko Haram fundamentalist Islamic sect which has cut off that part from the rest of the country. Addressing its budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights, Angwe said’ there are some Nigerians that are stateless. With the emerging terrorist activities, many Nigerians are at the risk of being stateless’.

Explaining that citizens displaced in the insurgency often cross over into neighbouring countries, Angwe said when they eventually return to Nigeria, they do not have any form of identification even as they are not recognized in their country of refuge as citizens. He lamented that the nation lacked

accurate data base on migration activities and accurate census figures by the National Population Commission, NPC. ‘There is no data base to detect crime and criminality. The police is incapable of identifying the real culprits’, Angwe said, re-emphasizing that in the level of human rights abuses in the country, 2014 was a bad year for Nigeria in the sense that the country recorded the highest number of human rights violations.

‘In 2014, Nigeria witnessed the highest cases of human rights violations activities.

Children were adopted ; many were killed , many can’t go to school and economic activities came to a stand still. It also witnessed a situation where Nigeria was registered on the map of refugees and IDPs( Internally Displaced Persons), but despite that, the country remains on record of human rights protection.

Angwe said that despite these security challenges, the commission has about 300 monitors of human rights violations in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and the Federal Capital Territory The National Commissioner of the Refugees Commission, Hadiza Sani Kangiwa said based on records, about 968, 229 IDPs were in various camps in the

country while 60,000 Nigerians were seeking asylum in Niger, Chad and Cameroun.

‘We do not have any business establishing camps for IDPs in the country. People should not be kept in a camp for more than a month. When we have that, people will have an idea of having their needs taken care off ’.

She expressed doubts on reported cases of abuses in IDP camps, including rapes which she said were grossly exaggerated.

‘We had allegations of rapes and trafficking. NAPTIP went and conducted preliminary investigations. The reports were highly exaggerated. We are working with the office of the National Security Adviser(NSA), to address these issues’, she said.

The House summoned the chairman of NHRC, Prof Chidi Odinkalu to appear before it and shed light on statements credited to him about the number of IDPs caused by the the insurgency in the North-East.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, Hon Beni Lar(PDP Plateau), described the statement made by the chairman as ‘staggering and inciting’.

The number of Nigerians pushed into statelessness by the madness of insurgency is phenomenal and tear-jerking. It is tragic that this number of com-

patriots have been pushed into this degree of economic desperation but the greater disaster is that in spite of this, reported cases of sordid crimes like rape are still being reported in the IDP camps scattered around the country.

Why has it been impossible for the NHRC to prevent rising cases of statelessness or even dissuade such Nigerians from persuasion by indefensible arguments of fleeting advantages to embrace options that are not in their best interest?

The argument that there is neither enough dabase to detect crime and criminality or that the police is incapable of identifying real culprits is as hollow as the traditional official response to allegations of crime fighting. There is simply no justification for escalating figures of Nigerians pushed into statelessness by the madness of insurgency which derives root from internal complacency.

If 2014 was a notorious year for Nigeria in terms of gross human rights abuses, the admission that over 300 monitors are superintending human rights infractures is reassuring. If the nation lacks database to detect crime and criminality, this realization, in itself, is provides stability in the fact that realization of a shortcoming marks the first step in its resolution.

DAILY TELEGRAPH PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief

Eric Osagie

Editor n Yemi Ajayi

Managing Editor n Suleiman Uba Gaya

Editor, Saturday n Laurence Ani

Editor, Sunday n Emeka Madunagu

Deputy Editor n Emeka Obasi

Deputy Editor n Ayodele Ojo Bureau Chief, Brussels n Leo Cendrowicz

Bureau Chief, Washington DC n Marshall Comins

Editorial Coordinator, Europe n Sam Amsterdam

Ag. Bureau Chief, Abuja n Onwuka Nzeshi

News Editor n Geoffrey Ekenna

Business Development Manager n Taiwo Ahmed

Sales/Circulation Manager n Oyebanji Abiodun

Head, Graphics n Timothy Akinleye

Head, Admin. n Robinson Ezeh

20

Politics

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

the Inspector General of Police as respondents in the application brought before the court.

PDP: Elechi must go Meanwhile, the Ebonyi State chapter of the PDP has thrown its weight behind Elechi’s impeachment.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the Divine Mandate Organisation of the party, Chief Abia Onyeike, said the allegations levelled against Governor Elechi by the Assembly are weighty, challenging the governor to defend himself before the lawmakers.

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

I’ve no hand in Elechi’s impeachment, says Umahi “Elechi should concentrate on how to defend himself on the allegations of gross misconduct rather than renting people to protest. His removal from office is the only way to solve the political problem in the state,” PDP stated.

Onyeike explained that the governor, whom he described as a lone ranger, is working for the LP against the PDP that elected him into power,

adding that if he is not impeached, there will be much violence during the general elections.

LP: Elechi’s impeachment won’t affect our fortunes The state LP has dismissed insinuations that the fortunes of the party and its candidates would be negatively affected if the State House of Assembly succeeds in impeaching the governor.

The Director of Media

and Publicity of Heritage Campaign Organisation of LP, Dr. Chike Onwe, urged supporters of the party and the entire Ebonyi citizens not to panic over the development.

Onwe said that although Governor Elechi is a member of the PDP, LP believes that the attempt to impeach him was politically motivated and instigated by extraneous forces.

He wondered why the lawmakers, especially the leadership, who until recently was singing the praises of Governor Elechi suddenly realised he is a bad man.

“Nobody should panic over the impeachment plot because it will fail, anything placed on nothing will not stand.

“We see politics and ambition in-between; we want to know what has transpired between the

time they were shouting Hosanna and now that the shout of crucify him has taken over the air,” he said.

Insisting that the awaited victory of LP at the polls cannot be affected by impeachment or otherwise of the governor, Onwe said the party and its guber candidate worked so hard and have won the heart of Ebonyians.

He described LP in Ebonyi State as mass movement for the redemption of the state from “mercantile politicians struggling to buy the state.”

He reiterated the position of the party that Ebonyi is not for sale.

According to him, latest frustration and desperation by some elements in the PDP was based on intelligence report that LP would have won the governorship election in the state if it had held on the earlier date, February 28.

He vowed that nothing will change as the latest antics of impeachment gambit by PDP has further exposed the party’s weakness and reinforced the people’s determination to chase PDP out.

Presidency’s intervention With the situation degenerating, President Jonathan, last week intervened in the crisis.

The president had summoned Elechi, Anyim, Umahi and some PDP leaders in the state to the Presidential Villa to resolve the political impasse in Ebonyi State.

Vice-President Namadi Sambo and some PDP governors, led by the chairman of PDP Gover nors’ Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Gabriel Suswam (Benue) were also in attendance at the meeting which lasted for about seven hours.

The meeting did not come out with a final deal among the warring factions. New Telegraph learnt that the Presidency directed the governor to collapse the LP structures which he is funding into the PDP to shelve his impeachment and prosecution of his son, aides and other government officials by the anti-graft agency.

Another source said the governor wants to seal a deal for his son who is contesting the Ebony Central senatorial seat on LP platform.

But LP supporters, who are mainly Elechi’s supporters, are kicking against any deal for a collapse of the opposition party’s structures.

As it is, Elechi’s fate hangs in the balance as fireworks for his removal begin this week.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Insurance

How mobile payments can boost financial inclusion, by Mastercard

Stock Watch

GTBank, Zenith Bank display strengths

35

37

38

Money Line

21

Interview

Risk analysts cut Nigeria’s insurance growth forecast

30% broadband access target in Nigeria achievable – CWG boss

42-43

Business FG’s N11bn intervention What's news

Skye Bank fires top officials of Mainstreet Bank

The disquiet that enveloped Mainstreet Bank Limited after Skye Bank Plc acquired it, has finally reached a crescendo as top management staff of the former have been asked to leave.

fund tears IBEDC apart ALTERCATION

Adeola Yusuf

MD/CEO of IBEDC resigns over alleged differences with owners

T

he Federal Government’s N11 billion power intervention funds have allegedly

Firm debunks ‘rumour’

the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said that from a story of about N2 trillion pension deficits under the defunct Defined Benefit Scheme as at 2004, the CPS had accumulated

of its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Fortunato C. Leynes.

Leynes, a Philippine seasoned professional engineer, New Telegraph gathered, tendered his resignation, which took immediate effect last Monday, March 2, 2015, when the gap of irreconcilable difference between him and the owners widened.

Trouble, a source at the company told this newspaper, started when the owners of IBEDC allegedly withdrew N8 billion out the N11 billion Federal Government refinancing fund, meant for the running of the company.

“The MD was left with just N3 billion for the running of the company and when he complained that the amount would not be sufficient to meet the huge demands of the company, he was said to have been told by the owners to either manage the money or downsize his workforce.

“This man has been complaining that the company is under-staffed to adequately cover its franchise areas in Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara and parts of Ekiti and Kogi states.

This difference is what I think led to his resignation,” the source said.

But IBEDC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mrs Angela Olanrewaju, said there was no truth in the allegation.

According to her, “the former MD, Fortunato Leynes, left the company to join his family, not because there was a disagreement with the board. To show that there was

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

tore apart the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), leading to the exit

p.22

The Business Desk Ayodele Aminu

Deputy Editor (Business)

Bayo Akomolafe

Asst. Editor (Maritime)

Sunday Ojeme

Asst. Editor (Insurance)

Tony Chukwunyem

Asst. Editor (Money Market)

Dele Alao

Industry & Agric Editor

Dayo Ayeyemi Property Editor

Adeola Yusuf Energy Editor

Wole Shadare Aviation Editor

Chris Ugwu

Capital Market Editor

Abdulwahab Isa

L-R: Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Shina Atilola; FRSC’s Assistant Corps Commander & Unit Commander, Lagos Island, Saddiq Abdulrahman and Head, Brand Management, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Chima Nwaokoma, during a curtesy visit of the FRSC officials to Sterling Bank Plc at the weekend.

Pension assets rise by N100bn after Presidential assent he nation’s growing pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has recorded an increase of over N100 billion after President Goodluck Jonathan signed the new bill into law last year.

The assets, which stood at N4.5 trillion as at June, moved to over N4.61 trillion at the end of the last quarter of 2014, New Telegraph has learnt.

President Jonathan signed the bill into law on July 1, 2014.

In one of her public outings last year, Director-General of

INFLATION RATE January 2015...........................8.2% December 2014.........................8% November 2014........................7.9%

LENDING RATE InterBank Rate....................12.57% Prime Lending Rate...........17.93% Maximum Lending Rate...26.83%

Sunday Ojeme

T

Finance Editor

Kunle Azeez

Senior Correspondent

Chuks Onuanyin Energy

Nnamdi Amadi Reporter

Johnson Adebayo

Asst Production Editor

Rates Dashboard EXCHANGE RATE (BDC as at Mar.6)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N226 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N343 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N250

l Foreign Reserves – $30.873bn as at 4/03/2015

Source: CBN

EXCHANGE RATE (Interbank as at Mar. 6)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N198 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N320 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N231

22

Business | News

SPARED Only two top officials from the previous management were spared Tony Chukwunyem

T

he disquiet that enveloped Mainstreet Bank Limited after Skye Bank Plc acquired it, has finally reached a crescendo as top management staff of the former have been asked to leave.

Investigations by New Telegraph revealed that the staff, which include General Managers (GM), Deputy General Managers (DGMs) and Assistant General Managers (AGMs) were hired by the former Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (DGMD/CEO) of Mainstreet Bank, Ms. Faith Tuedor-Matthews.

Also affected in the exercise said to be ongoing are the General Manager/ Chief Risk Officer of the bank, Mr Kevin Ugwuoke, Deputy General Manager/Credit Risk Manager, Mr Patrick Modilim,

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Skye Bank fires top officials of Mainstreet Bank

General Manager/Chief Financial Officer, Mr Ebenezer Kolawole and the Head, Human Resources, Salome Garba.

Only two top officials in Tuedor-Matthews’ team were spared (AGM in charge of IT and GM in charge of Operations) obviously because of the strategic positions they occupy.

Sources within Mainstreet Bank told our correspondent that the manner in which the disengaged staff were informed that their services were no longer needed had made most of the bank’s workers to be worried about the safety of their jobs.

“We knew the takeover

by Skye Bank would lead to job losses, but nobody knew that it would come so soon,” a staff that asked not to be named, told New Telegraph.

According to the source, the fear of most Mainstreet Bank staff is

that they would be sacked and not be paid their full entitlements, explaining that many of them had put in over 22 years of service to the bank. “ You can imagine how they went about the sack.

Those of us that had not gone on leave were asked to proceed and three days before we resumed, we just got email saying that we should no longer resume and that our official emails have been truncated. You can imagine, we got our sack letter thorough yahoo and Gmails.

“This is very sad. We were neither paid our leave bonuses nor our entitlements. Is this the

way to reward handwork given how we had turned around the bank? It’s only the Executive Management that were rewarded.

They have forgotten that it’s we – the second leg of the executives - that did all these good works. We will fight it; we are only waiting for the elections to take place, “ one of the affected staff told New Telegraph.

Besides, it was alleged that Skye Bank transferred all its bad loans, including Mobitel’s N50 billion that had gone bad, to Mainstreet Bank and moved into its vaults Treasury Bills and cash amounting to N250 bil-

lion.

Attempts by New Telegraph to get the reaction of Skye Bank were not successful as the bank’s corporate affairs people neither picked calls made to their phones nor responded to text messages.

Skye Bank acquired Mainstreet Bank from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in 2011 for a reported fee of N126 billion.

The bank, in December last year, appointed an interim management board for Mainstreet, naming Mrs. Amaka Onwughalu as the interim Managing Director and Mr Dotun Ad-

eniyi Executive Director. It said then that the interim board would oversee the affairs of the acquired bank for a period of six months.

It also said that directors of Mainstreet Bank had resigned their appointments on the date the interim board assumed duties.

Besides, it said that the appointments would afford the bank the opportunity to pursue the integration of the operations of the two banks.

Mainstreet Bank assumed the assets and liabilities of the former Afribank Plc in 2011 as part of an arrangement involving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

The bank, which used to be one of the big four banks in Nigeria, started operations in 1959.

Pension assets rise by N100bn CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

a large pool of investible fund of over N4.5 trillion pension assets as at June 2014 with over 6.2 million contributors registered into CPS since inception.

A new report obtained by our correspondent from the commission, however, revealed that the assets had increased by about 2.2 per cent from N4.5 trillion in June to over N4.61 trillion at the end of 2014 financial year.

After the bill was assented to by the president, the director-general recalled that after an extensive review and stakeholder consultations, the bill for the repeal of the 2004 Act and reenactment of a new Pension Reform Act was forwarded by the president to the National Assembly in April 2013.

“The Bill went through legislative consideration and scrutiny after which it was passed by the National Assembly in April 2014. The president assented to the Bill on July 1, 2014, thereby bringing into effect the Pension Reform Act 2014,” she said.

According to the new law, operators who mismanage pension fund will be liable on conviction to not less than 10 years imprisonment or fine of an amount equal to three-times the amount so misappropriated or diverted or both imprisonment and fine.

Among other things,

the new law, which now covers private organisations with at least three or more employees unlike in the past where it covered five employees and above, also makes it mandatory for a refund three times the amount embezzled through any form of infraction.

It also allows PenCom to revoke the licence of erring pension operators, but does not provide for other interim remedial measures that may be taken by PenCom to resolve identified challenges in licensed operators.

Since inception, the commission has been guiding the investment of the funds by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) according to the stipulation of the Act under which it was set up.

Large parts of the funds are invested in domestic and foreign ordinary shares, Federal Government securities, state government securities, corporate debt securities, supra-national bonds, local money market securities, foreign money market securities among others.

Recently, the growing assets have started attracting fund managers and pension experts, some of who are recommending other areas where it can be invested outside the areas provided for by the extant law.

L-R: Group Managing Director/CEO, Union Bank Plc, Mr. Emeka Emuwa; Managing Director/CEO, Digital Jewels, Mrs. Adedoyin Odunfa; Deputy Director, UK Trade and Investment, Mr. Bukola Dosumu and Head, Information Technology, Union Bank Plc, Mr. Lucky Jayaratne, at the presentation of ISO/IEC 27001-2013 certificate in Lagos. PHOTO: SULEIMAN HUSAINI

Intervention fund tears IBEDC apart CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

no disagreement with Leynes or the technical partners, other people seconded to IBEDC by the technical partners are still with IBEDC.” She urged members of the public to disregard the rumour.

Spokesperson for the IBEDC, Frank Williams, neither picked up calls nor respond to SMS sent to his two mobile phones.

His subordinate in one of the Business Units who was contacted also declined immediate comment on the issue when New Telegraph called his number. He however, promised to get back to the newspaper, an assurance that was yet to be fulfilled 24 hours before filling in this story.

The former MD was seconded to IBEDC by one of the most reputable electricity companies, the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) from the Republic of Philippines, which, according to the firm’s website, has over 110 years of electricity distribution and marketing experience, and an extensive knowledge of operat-

ing the electricity business in a privatised and competitive environment.

IBEDC, a company with largest electricity distribution network in Nigeria, was recently acquired under the privatisation programme of the Federal Government by Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited (IEDM), a limited liability company established by seasoned Nigerian technocrats with a track record of success in the private sector.

IEDM was incorporated in 2006, with corporate headquarters in Abuja.

The company, which is licensed to distribute and market electricity in Nigeria also owns majority of the equity share of the Yola Electricity Distribution Company.

IEDM has engaged the services of one of the most reputable electricity companies, the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), from the Republic of Philippines as its technical partner to provide technical and management

services.

MERALCO is expected to give IBEDC the vital impetus to transform into a worldclass organization.

IBEDC has 22 Business Units spread across its franchise area, five of which are in Ogun State. They are Ota, Olumo, Ijeun, Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode. Eight are in Oyo State and they are Akanran, Apata, Dugbe, Molete, Monatan, Ogbomosho, Ojoo and Oyo Business Units. Five Business Units are in Osun State - namely: Ede, Ikirun, Ilesa, Ile-Ife and Osogbo Business Units. The other four are located in Kwara State. They are Baboko, Challenge, Jebba and Omu-Aran Business Units.

The Business Units in turn have service units under them, which are strategically located to bring the services of the company closer to its customers and to promptly attend to customers’ complaints, especially electrical fault clearing.

INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

In collaboration with

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 Copyright © 2015 The New York Times

Sanctity of Truth

Picking Up the Pace of Play Speeding Up Games to Appeal To the Young And Social Media

Strange Times For Banks In Europe

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

By DANNY HAKIM and PETER EAVIS

On a summer evening in Sydney in January, two former Grand Slam champions, John McEnroe and Patrick Rafter, played an abbreviated version of tennis.

Rafter won the exhibition match by the strange and truncated score of 4-3, 4-1.

“It’s whatever the crowd wants; whatever TV wants,” Mr. Rafter said of the new format, called Fast4. “I think the Grand Slams will always stay their way, but for the other events, if this is what the fans want, this is what we should be playing.”

Tennis — be it professional or recreational — is not yet on the brink of abandoning its traditional scoring system. But the market-driven, youth-driven thinking that was behind that January experiment is part of a global trend.

In a world where attention spans are under duress and where TV, phone and other screen options are proliferating, sports are increasingly focused on making their formats more compact and making the most of every second.

FIFA and many soccer leagues have adopted vanishing spray to help do away with much of the interminable stalling and haggling before free kicks. Major League Baseball is trying to pick up the pace of play by trying, among other things, to keep dallying hitters in the batter’s box (a pitch clock could be next). The National Basketball Association has experimented with 11-minute quarters and a 44-minute game instead of its usual

HVIDOVRE, Denmark — At first, Eva Christiansen barely noticed the number. Her bank called to say that Ms. Christiansen, a 36-yearold entrepreneur here, had been approved for a small-business loan.

She whooped. She danced. “I think I was so happy I got the loan, I didn’t hear everything he said,” she recalled.

And then she was told again about her interest rate. It was minus 0.0172 percent — less than zero. While there would be fees to pay, the bank would also pay interest to her. It was just a little over $1 a month, but still.

These are strange times for European borrowers. Investors lent Germany nearly $4 billion during the last week of February, knowing they would not be fully repaid. Bonds issued by the Swiss candy maker Nestlé recently traded in the market for more than they will ever be worth.

S uch t op sy-turvy deals reflect the dark outlook for the region’s economy, as policy makers do whatever they can to revive growth, even taking interest rates below zero to encourage borrowing (and spending).

“This is obviously a once-in-a-lifetime and once-in-history phenomenon,” said Heather L. Loomis of JPMorgan Private Bank, “and it is hard to make sense of it.”

Consumer loans and mortgages with interest rates that are outright negative remain rare, and Ms. Christiansen appears to be one of the few who actually received one. Some other Danes are getting charged to park their money in their bank accounts.

Such financial episodes are taking place all across Europe.

To breathe life into Europe’s economy and stoke inflation, policy makers recently resorted to a drastic measure tried by some other central banks. The European Central Bank, which dictates policy in the 19-member eurozone, announced a plan that involves printing money to buy

Below-zero interest to spur borrowing and spending.

Con­­tin­­ued on Page 27

DEAN MOUHTAROPOULOS/GETTY IMAGES

Vanishing spray has cut time wasted haggling over distances during free kicks in soccer.

ILLUSTRATION BY SAM MANCHESTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Con­­tin­­ued on Page 27

INTELLIGENCE

WORLD TRENDS

MONEY & BUSINESS

AMERICANA

A Russian reformer’s life is cut short. PAGE 24

Kenya’s tourism hurt by travel alerts. PAGE 25

Singapore pushes home prices lower. PAGE 29

Indians say missionary was no saint. PAGE 33

24

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

O P I N I O N & C O M M E N TA RY

ED I T O R I A L S O F T H E T I M ES

The Most Recent Victims of the Islamic State of civilization and deploying civilization’s own technologies against it.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has nurtured this narrative with its claim to be the vanguard of a new caliphate. How much its terrible actions — the beheadings, the threats, the destruction — are rooted in religious zealotry, raw psychopathy or political ideology is hard to determine. In the past, ISIS has been as ready to swap hostages or antiquities for

Reports of atrocities by the Islamic State never cease. Entire villages in northeastern Syria are being emptied of Assyrian Christians, with hundreds taken hostage and others made to pay a religion tax; priceless antiquities are destroyed in Mosul, Iraq, in a symbolic fight against pagan gods; Egyptian Christians are beheaded in Libya.

It seems sometimes as if a band of fanatics has emerged from the Dark Ages to wage war on the present, starting at the cradle

cash as to destroy them.

Still, and perversely, the narrative of evil is the Islamic State’s greatest recruitment tool. The ghoulish videos spread around the world, the ritualized murders, the smashed statues, the British cadences of the spokesman “Jihadi John,” now identified as a Kuwaiti immigrant to England named Mohammed Emwazi — all of this acts as a strong lure for potential fighters and as a challenge to the security and values of the civilized world.

Any response to this threat cannot be to accept the Islamic State’s narrative, to view its actions as a sectarian struggle of Islam versus the West — or, for that matter, as a holy war against the ancient Christians of the Middle East or against small religious sects like the Yazidis.

ISIS is an extremist band of murderers parading as Islamic purists, and does not discriminate in its choice of enemies. It has killed countless Muslims, including Sunnis who purportedly

share its faith but refuse to accept its authority. Its ideology is simple: Anyone who does not accept its commands can be tortured, raped or killed.

The United States and other Western governments are right to insist that their fight against ISIS is not a war against Islam.

At the same time they must make every effort to expose the false claims of the terrorists for what they are: a cover for a sadistic battle for power and plunder.

INTELLIGENCE/SERGE SCHMEMANN

A Reformer Who Didn’t Back Down Eventually they’ll arrest someone for murdering Boris Nemtsov, especially after President Vladimir Putin was said to be giving the case his personal attention. The authorities have already begun to spin conspiracy theories, including the outrageous suggestion that he may have been killed by political allies to create a martyr. What will remain is not a murder case, but the image of the opposition politician who had once personified so many of Russia’s hopes, lying dead within sight of the Kremlin fortress and the whimsical cupolas of St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Tall, handsome, witty and irreverent, Mr. Nemtsov was one of the brilliant young men who burst onto the Russian stage at that exciting moment when Communist rule collapsed and a new era seemed imminent. Only 32 at the time, he was even younger and more impatient than the others.

A physicist by training, he had cut his political teeth opposing the construction of a new nuclear plant in his city. Appointed leader of the province of Nizhny Novgorod by Russia’s new president, Boris Yeltsin, and confirmed in the office by the provincial legislature, Mr. Nemtsov embarked on a whirlwind campaign to transform the region, drawing enthusiastic support from a number of Western agencies.

No matter that the province was a center of the military and nuclear industries that had been closed to foreigners for decades; no matter that there wasn’t Send comments to intelligence@nytimes.com.

Boris Nemtsov pushed for reform in post-Soviet Russia and remained an opposition leader until his murder last month.

even enough paper money for the privatization program. Mr. Nemtsov couldn’t wait for Moscow to get its act together. He pushed ahead on his own, even issuing his own money — chits — to be exchanged eventually for rubles that came to be known as “Nemtsovki.”

This was long before Mr. Putin made the West the enemy again and the scapegoat for all of Russia’s failures. Mr. Nemtsov and the other “boys in pink shorts,” as their detractors called the young reformers — Yegor Gaidar, Grigory Yavlinsky, Anatoly Chubais,

INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY NANCY LEE Executive editor TOM BRADY Editor ALAN MATTINGLY Managing editor The New York Times International Weekly 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018

EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: nytweekly@nytimes.com SALES AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: nytweeklysales@nytimes.com

Boris Fyodorov — looked to the West for their models and hopes.

Mr. Nemtsov proudly adopted the Western title of “governor” instead of the bureaucratic “head of administration” used in Soviet times (and again today). When a friend of mine involved in the early privatization efforts in Nizhny Novgorod, Allen Model, invited Mr. Nemtsov to visit the United States, the young governor promptly rushed over for a couple of weeks, drinking in everything he saw.

I met Mr. Nemtsov in August 1992 in his office in the fortified core, or kremlin, of old Nizhny Novgorod, which had been called Gorky under Soviet rule.

He had recruited Mr. Yavlinsky — at 40 the old man of the young reformers and the author, in the last days of the Soviet Union, of a “500-day” economic reform program that Mikhail Gorbachev regrettably set aside — to design a similar crash program

sors, reeking of gasoline fumes, to continue talking on the drive to Moscow.

Nizhny Novgorod became known as the “laboratory of reform,” and, by 1997, Mr. Yeltsin, the first post-Soviet Russian president, summoned Mr. Nemtsov to Moscow as the first deputy prime minister and, ever yone thought, his successor. But then Russia began heading in a different direction; Mr. Yeltsin tapped Mr. Putin instead, and Mr. ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Nemtsov’s political star steadily sank.

With time he became one of the most outspoken and constant critics of the corrupt autocracy Mr. Putin developed, and, more recently, of Russia’s assault on Ukrainian independence. He received regular death threats and was arrested three times, but, as Mr. Putin steadily dispersed for Nizhny Novgorod. Optimism the opposition with threats and filled the air. arrests, Mr. Nemtsov’s voice beTieless and in yellow trousers, the governor was constantly on came ever more faint. the move. He rushed through But he never stopped. In his groups of supplicants parked at last days, he had been organizing his door; he dissuaded telephone a mass march against the war in operators who hadn’t been paid Ukraine, which turned, instead, in months from going on strike; into a memorial march for him. then, evidently still surprised Some marchers carried placto find himself among the old ards reading, “I am not afraid,” Soviet trappings of power, he and others vowed to carry on jokingly asked if there was anyMr. Nemtsov’s work. But, from afar, it seemed more a memorial one I’d like to call on the special march for the hopes and dreams telephones that connected the that lay alongside Mr. Nemtsov’s top ranks of the nomenklatura. murdered body in the middle of Short of time for an interview, he the night on the bridge to Red bundled me into the old Chaika Square. limousine of his Soviet predeces-

A murder helps kill hopes of ending a corrupt regime.

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE FOLLOWING NEWSPAPERS: CLARÍN, ARGENTINA n DER STANDARD, AUSTRIA n LA RAZÓN, BOLIVIA n FOLHA, GAZETA DO POVO AND JORNAL O POVO, BRAZIL n GUELPH MERCURY, THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR, TORONTO STAR AND WATERLOO REGION RECORD, CANADA n LA SEGUNDA, CHILE n EL ESPECTADOR, COLOMBIA n LISTIN DIARIO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC n SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, GERMANY n PRENSA LIBRE, GUATEMALA n LA REPUBBLICA, ITALY n ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN n DIARIO DE YUCATÁN, EL NORTE, EXPRESO, MURAL, NOVEDADES DE TABASCO, REFORMA AND SÍNTESIS, MEXICO n EL DIARIO, MEXICO AND UNITED STATES n EL NUEVO DIARIO, NICARAGUA n NEW TELEGRAPH, NIGERIA n CORREO, PERU n MANILA BULLETIN, PHILIPPINES n TODAY, SINGAPORE n EL PAÍS, SPAIN n UNITED DAILY NEWS, TAIWAN n THE OBSERVER, UNITED KINGDOM n THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, UNITED STATES

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

25

WORLD TRENDS

One Fertile Ground For Islamic Radicals

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

PHOTOGRAPHS BY IVAN LIEMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Kenyans Say Alerts Fuel Terror

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

MOMBASA, Kenya — Every morning at the Tides Inn, a waiter trudges down to the beach with a huge blackboard advertising the daily specials — deep-fried fish and masala prawns, pepper steak and pizza — listed in chalk and illustrated with cute drawings.

But nobody ever comes by.

Up and down the Kenyan coast, tables sit empty, dance floors are deserted, crates of Tusker beer collect dust. The white sand beaches along Kenya’s perch on the Indian Ocean have become ghost towns with palm trees.

“It’s the worst time anyone can remember,” said Dhiren Shah, the Tides Inn’s owner.

Kenya’s coastal tourism is collapsing, and a big part of the reason, Kenyan officials say, is Western travel warnings issued after a round of violence last summer in a remote coastal area. The American warning bars embassy personnel from setting foot on the coast without permission. It also warns tourists of possible “suicide operations, bombings — to include car bombings — kidnappings, attacks on civil aviation, and attacks on maritime vessels.”

Kenyan officials are incensed, saying that the coast is hardly a raging war zone and that the Western travel warnings amount to “economic sabotage,” scaring away travelers who rely on government advisories to explain which places are safe and which are not.

Worse, many Kenyans contend, and even some diplomats say, these warnings could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

By contributing to the collapse of the tourism industry, the travel warnings may simply be increasing the joblessness, idleness, poverty, drug use and overall desperation in an already depressed slice of Kenya.

Within the legions of young men now out of work on Mombasa’s streets, several acknowledged the temptations of miliReuben Kyama contributed reporting.

the tourist industry, from hotel clerks to maids, chefs, drivers, mechanics and computer engineers. But the perception that the coast is off limits has left that job machine sputtering, with many hotels at 5 percent to 15 percent occupancy and more than 20,000 people laid off.

While Kenya has long had a spotty record on public safety, with a corrupt police force and rampant street crime, it does About 20,000 people lost their jobs not seem that the after tourists were warned to avoid beach towns are any more perilous than the Kenya’s beaches. Some say that capital, Nairobi, where could make the coast more volatile. there are no travel restrictions on American Embassy personnel, except to a tant groups.

Somali neighborhood few expa“They came to me offering work,” recalled Fahmy Omar triates ever visit anyway.

Nassir, a former heroin addict in Kenya’s worst terrorist atMombasa. Heroin is becoming tacks — the bombing of the another serious problem on the American Embassy in 1998 and coast, with tens of thousands the siege of the Westgate mall in now addicted.

2013 — both happened in NairoMr. Nassir said that a few bi. The capital is also considered years ago, a separatist group the most dangerous part of the called the Mombasa Republicountry for muggings, carjackcan Council recruited him to a ings and gangland-style killsecret training camp in the bush ings. under the ruse of giving him But many say all the facmoney for heroin. He stayed a tors are lining up for the ailing month, but after realizing he coast to become more volatile. was not going to be paid much, Already there has been a spike he escaped. in break-ins and holdups, along “If you give me money, I will with some brazen attacks, like follow you,” he said. a machete raid on a military He also said that several of his barracks. And the coast, which unemployed friends had been is predominantly Muslim, has lured into the Shabab, a Somali been historically neglected, ofterrorist group that has killed ten viewed by other Kenyans scores in Kenya. with suspicion and disdain.

American officials said local Out on the beach, it is not uneconomic consequences were common to see a pack of 10 to 15 not part of the travel warning aging beach boys padding after calculus. But other nations — a single tourist, offering boat Italy, France, Britain and Swerides, camel rides or fresh fish.

On a recent afternoon, John den, for instance — have issued Kazungu zeroed in on a heavytravel warnings that highlight only certain hot spots withset mzungu, or foreigner, strollout applying to Kenya’s entire ing down the beach who shook 480-kilometer coast, which is his head at Mr. Kazungu’s ofhome to millions of people. fers.

In normal times, the Kenyan Mr. Kazungu walked away coast offers opportunities for dejected and said, “No mzungu, thousands of young people in no money.”

LONDON — When Mohammed Emwazi went to the mosque, a short walk north from Notting Hill, he would sometimes run into another young Muslim from the housing projects in his neighborhood, Bilal al-Berjawi.

Both men were part of a loose network of young Muslims in the mid-2000s, some with friendships going back to childhood, others with little more in common than a shared Arab and African heritage. Over time, some of the young men — Mr. Emwazi and Mr. Berjawi foremost among them — would become deeply alienated from Britain and Western society.

With the news that Mr. Emwazi is one of the most notorious members of the Islamic State — better known as Jihadi John, the hooded figure featured in videos showing the beheadings of hostages — that loose group of young men has emerged as the latest example of a breeding ground for Islamic radicals in Europe.

The North London Boys, as the network is sometimes called, has sent dozens of young men to fight, first in Somalia and more recently in Syria. Mr. Berjawi, who trained with Al Qaeda in East Africa and then rose through the ranks of the Shabab, its Somali offshoot, was killed by an American drone strike in Somalia in 2012 after being stripped of his British citizenship. So was Mr. Berjawi’s close friend, Mohamed Sakr, the older brother of one of Mr. Emwazi’s classmates.

The list of radicalized militants who grew up in a sliver of northwest London is striking. Two Somali men convicted of plotting to bomb the London public transport system on July 21, 2005; a onetime amateur rapper who posed in Syria with a severed head; a man who skipped bail in 2012, went to Syria and died a year later. They all lived within three kilometers of Mr. Emwazi.

“We don’t know if they are connected,” Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London said in an email. “There are, however, reasonable grounds to suggest that they may have known each other.

Our data clearly shows that individuals who go to Syria do so in clusters, in groups of friends, and are typically from the same geographic areas.”

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura contributed reporting.

Violent gang culture was not uncommon in West London in the 1990s and in some cases was a conveyor belt into jihadism.

As a teenager, Mr. Berjawi was a member of such a gang, according to Raffaello Pantucci, a counterterrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute.

But Mr. Emwazi has no criminal record of that kind.

Mr. Berjawi, whose family came to Britain from Lebanon when he was a baby, and Mr. Emwazi, who spent the first six years of his life in Kuwait, had tried to return to their native countries.

Both were denied entry after coming to the attention of the security services. Mr. Emwazi and Mr. Berjawi, and several others who later became foreign fighters, had complained to Cage, a British advocacy organization, about what they described as harassment at the hands of the British security services.

Researchers estimate that some 100 Britons have attempted to join Shabab in recent years.

But by 2013, after the upheaval

Leaving London for jihad in Somalia and later Syria. of the Arab Spring, Somalia had become less appealing as a jihadi destination, with the emergence of alternative battlefields from Syria to North Africa. One of the first British fighters to be killed in Syria, in November that year, was Mohammed el-Araj, also from northwest London. He had joined the battle in Syria after being sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London that turned violent. Some of his friends told the British news media that the sentence had helped radicalize him.

It was also in 2013 that an amateur rapper left to fight in Syria.

That man, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, is the son of Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges related to Al Qaeda’s bombings in East Africa.

In August last year, his son posted the notorious photo of himself with a severed head, alongside the words “Chillin’ with my other homie, or what’s left of him.”

The militant known as Jihadi John and several others who have joined jihad lived in a section of northwest London.

PETER MACDIARMID/GETTY IMAGES

26

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

WORLD TRENDS

Baby Swap Tests Maternal Love

By MAÏA de la BAUME

GRASSE, France — When Sophie Serrano finally held her daughter, Manon, in her arms after the newborn, suffering from jaundice, had been placed under artificial light, she was surprised by the baby’s full head of glossy hair.

“I hadn’t noticed it before, and it surprised me,” Ms. Serrano said at her home here, not far from the Côte d’Azur.

Ms. Serrano, now 39, was baffled again a year later, when she noticed that her baby’s hair had grown frizzy and that her skin color was darker than hers or her partner’s.

But her love for the child trumped any doubts. Even as her relationship unraveled — in part, she said, over her partner’s suspicions — she looked after the baby until a paternity test more than 10 years later showed that neither she nor her partner was Manon’s biological parent. Ms. Serrano later found out that a nurse had accidentally switched babies and given them to the wrong mothers.

The story made headlines in France last month, when a court ordered the clinic in Cannes where the babies were switched, as well as the clinic’s insurer, to pay a total of 1.88 million euros, or $2.13 million, to be split by the families. The money, Ms. Serrano said, would repair “an invaluable damage” and put an end to a 12-year ordeal.

Ms. Serrano’s love for Manon, she said, grew stronger after she learned that the girl was not her biological daughter. She also

Manon Serrano, near right, with her mother, Sophie, at their home in Grasse, France. Manon and another baby were mixed up and given to the wrong mothers 20 years ago.

REBECCA MARSHALL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

said that after meeting the girl she had given birth to, she felt no particular connection with her.

“It is not the blood that makes a family,” she said. “What makes a family is what we build together, what we tell each other. And I have created a wonderful bond with my nonbiological daughter.”

The court decision ended Ms. Serrano’s long struggle to obtain damages for the nurse’s negligence and it helped silence those who had criticized her.

“After four days, how can you not recognize your baby?” Sophie Chas, the lawyer for the clinic, told the newspaper Le Figaro. “We can believe in it when it’s a second, a day, two days. But 10 years? The mothers may have been involved in creating the damage.”

Ms. Serrano points out that she was 18 at the time and that Manon, now 20, was her first child. “I could never have imagined such a scenario,” she said.

When she gave birth, the baby developed neonatal jaundice and was placed in an incubator.

Because of a shortage of cradles,

‘What makes a family is what we build together.’ a nurse put the baby in a cradle with another baby.

Daniel Verstraete, the lawyer for the other family, said that only one of the two babies was wearing an identification tag, which “may have fallen off.”

When Manon was handed over to Ms. Serrano after the treatment, mother and child had spent very little time together. Ms. Serrano noticed that the baby’s hair was thicker, but she said she was persuaded to put it out of her mind.

“The nurse said that the lights from the phototherapy treatment made the baby’s hair grow,” she said. “I trusted medical people.

I was young; I wouldn’t question their competence.”

The other mother, also 18, asked another nurse why her baby

lacked hair. She was told that phototherapy could also shorten hair.

“My client didn’t ask herself questions,” Mr. Verstraete said.

“A baby swap was unthinkable.

She didn’t react because medical authority told her that she shouldn’t worry.”

Ms. Serrano lived with her partner in a tiny village near Grasse, raising her child while facing growing suspicion that Manon might be the daughter of a different man. The relationship collapsed, in part, Ms. Serrano said, because of her partner’s suspicions. He demanded a paternity test, saying he did not want to pay support for a child he did not consider his own. “I believed that a paternity test would be a relief for both of us,” Ms. Serrano said.

On the contrary, the test revealed that Manon, 10 at the time, was neither his child nor Ms. Serrano’s.

“It had the effect of a tsunami,” Ms. Serrano said. “All of a sudden you learn that you don’t know where the child you have brought

into the world is. I wondered how I could find my child. ” Ms. Serrano filed a civil complaint against the clinic in 2010.

Investigators said Manon’s biological parents were a Creole couple from the island of La Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, now living nearby.

“When I first met them, I noticed how much I looked like them,” Manon said. “But I was sitting in front of complete strangers.”

Her biological parents are modest workers who raised their own daughter, Ms. Serrano’s birth child, “rather strictly,” Mr. Verstraete said. “The mother would wake up every morning thinking that she had never been able to recognize her daughter,” he added. “It is not a physical wound. It is a moral suffering that will never go out.”

The families saw each other several times, and Manon explored her Creole origins. But the parents and daughters had trouble building any rapport, and they stopped seeing each other.

In the end, after some discussion, both families preferred to keep the child they had raised, rather than taking their biological one.

“I realized that we were very different, and we didn’t approach life in the same way,” Ms. Serrano said. “My biological daughter looked like me, but I suddenly realized that I had given birth to a person I didn’t know, and I was no longer the mother of that child.”

Ms. Serrano, who said she was recovering from years of depression, is unemployed and has two other children, from a relationship that began after her separation.

Manon said she dreamed of settling in Britain and of a career in management.

“The story of my birth has made me stronger,” Manon said.

“Now I even try to anticipate the unthinkable.”

So Much for the Photographic Memory Memories can be triggered by sensory experiences: the sound of a particular song; the smell of a dish your grandmother used to cook; photographs of time spent with friends LENS and family.

But there is a difference between the images we keep in our minds, which incorporate the context and interpretation of a situation, and those captured by a camera, which do not. And the latter, research suggests, increasingly shapes what we remember.

A study by Linda Henkel, a professor of psychology at Fairfield University in Connecticut, examined this “photo-taking impairment effect.” Subjects were instructed to photograph certain works during a guided tour of an art museum and to simply observe others. The outcome: Participants recalled fewer details about the works they had photographed, “as they For comments, write to nytweekly@nytimes.com.

effectively outsourced their memory to the camera,” Teddy Wayne wrote in The Times.

In addition to affecting which memories we retain, images also appear to be shaping the way we remember things, Ms. Henkel suggested. “There’s an ‘observer,’ third-person perspective versus a ‘field perspective’ through your own eyes,” she told The Times. “Photos seem to be

Picking up bits of information, but not recalling the source. shifting us to that observer perspective, distancing us in some way, so it’s clearly a reconstructed memory.”

This phenomenon has a particular effect on children, she noted, because a photograph or video of them will show not just an observer’s point of view, but one from a taller adult rather than their own height.

It is also becoming widespread

with the growing ubiquity of smartphones: It is estimated that 80 percent of adults in the world will own a smartphone by 2020, The Economist has reported.

And in addition to our individual recollections, images can also affect our collective memory, particularly in blockbuster films. Consider some of this year’s Academy Award best picture nominees that were based on actual events: “Selma,” “American Sniper,” “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything,” all of which were criticized for altering the truth.

“You might think: Does it really matter? Can’t we keep the film world separate from the real world?” Jeffrey M. Zacks, a professor of psychology and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, wrote in The Times. “Unfortunately, the answer is no.”

One reason, he suggested, is that our minds are good at remembering what we see or hear, but not at recalling the source of the information. So when research subjects were asked to read factual essays about a historical event and then watch a film with inaccuracies about the

Research suggests that images may shape how people remember events.

An image of Martin Luther King Jr. on display in Atlanta.

DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

subject, “the students produced about a third of the fake facts from the movies on a subsequent test,” Mr. Zacks wrote. This was the case even in a study in which the subjects were explicitly asked to look for inaccuracies in the clips. That is not to say that our collective memory is growing deeper, though. On the contrary, the onetime 15 minutes of fame is now more like “15 seconds of nanofame,” thanks to the seemingly infinite number of videos circulating online and their increasing brevity.

“As the medium gets smaller, so does the fame,” Alex Williams wrote in The Times.

This nanofame created by “the one-hit-wonder, famousfor-an-eye-blink Internet netherworld” has given us the likes of Jeremy Meeks (“the handsome felon turned Internet sensation”), Alex From Target (“the Texas checkout heartthrob turned Twitter star”) and Left Shark (“Katy Perry’s awkward, fish-suited Super Bowl backup dancer, who became a social-media sensation”).

Then again, this short-attention-span notoriety may not be entirely a bad thing. If such an image is painful to endure, at least it won’t last for long.

TESS FELDER

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

27

WORLD TRENDS

For European Banks, Topsy-Turvy Times

PAUL CROCK/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES; BELOW, MARTIN BUREAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Sports Shave Seconds to Keep Fans need to see more of, and what I Con­­tin­­ued from Page 23 think a lot of properties are do12-minute quarters and a ing, is looking at the different 48-minute game. Golf continplatforms, the second-screen experience, and looking at conues its fight against slow play: officials and technology track tent in smaller bites that are ulplayers’ progress, and a Japtimately going to drive people back to their core product.” anese player was even penalIn 1998, volleyball altered its ized a stroke at the 2013 British fans enjoy watching players emscoring system to allow teams Open. to score points after every ex“The longer the ball is in play, bracing each other, that doesn’t the more entertainment value help the game.” change instead of only when for the fans,” said Jeff Agoos, Mr. Lima said the goal was to serving. The change was an the vice president for competicut the average time between attempt to make match lengths serves to 15 seconds and thus shorter — and more predictable tion for Major League Soccer reduce the average length of a for television. in the United States. “So we’ve match from about two hours to But Fernando Lima, the first done some analysis on not only about one hour and 45 minutes: secretary general of the Interhow often the ball is in play but an ideal window, in his view, for how we can improve and innational Volleyball Federation, television broadcasts. crease the amount of time “Right now, two hours the ball is in play.” of playing time does not The league’s next oballow for a broadcastjectives? Strict enforcement of the six-second er to do a proper intro limit on a goalkeeper’s and proper ending to handling the ball, and the match in a two-hour cutting down on the dead window,” Mr. Lima said. time before goal kicks and “Today, lots of things are corner kicks. around two hours. Most “I think all sports confilms and movies are two hours. More than that, I stantly have to be looking think, and we are chalat format, particularly pace,” said John Kristick, lenging people’s patience the global chief executive today, because with all of the sports consultanthe new media and all the content that exists right cy GroupM ESP. “I think now, it’s very difficult to the reality is that there’s keep people’s attention.” a lot of sports with tradiTwo hours certainly tion and history that limit works well for the world’s what in fact they can do. I Volleyball is cutting the time between most popular game: socdon’t see soccer ever goserves. Rafael Nadal, top, serving ing to a situation where cer. “I think that’s a huge during a Fast4, where four games win. suddenly the matches are advantage for us,” Mr. no longer 90 minutes, but Agoos said. clearly pace is something It also works for Formueasier to address.” said more change was vital. A la One, the globe’s most popular Cricket has set an example greater focus on long rallies is racing series. with its successful adoption of one strategy, he said.

But the paradox from a North the Twenty20 format in 2003.

“The long rallies are really American perspective is that The format allows matches to be the great moments in volleyball, the undisputed king of televised completed in about three hours and we have been using them sports remains America footinstead of multiple days. and promoting them on social ball, where games routinely “They put their heads tomedia,” he said. exceed three hours and feature Mr. Lima said that volleyball very little actual play during gether and found a way,” Mr. was also focused on its pace of that window.

Kristick said. “For me, that’s a play, particularly the time beWhat American football does step change, and that certainly offer along with cultural heft is is going to speak to a wider and tween serves, which he said plenty of those bite-size bursts newer audience and, by default, used to average about 10 secof action, along with ample time a younger audience.” onds in men’s matches but had for replays, social media comBut reaching youth is not just grown to 25 seconds because of about streamlining the product. the players’ increasing tendency mentary and trips to the kitchen It is about breaking up the meal to commune for celebration and for more snacks. into bite-size portions that can commiseration between points.

“When there is a play, it’s a be easily shared on social me“We estimated that just with quick pace,” said George Pyne the embracing by the players, of the investment firm Bruin dia. we are adding around half Sports Capital. “But I think “Really, the issue with youth an hour to the duration of the with the younger demographic is they consume sports differmatch,” he said. “Half an hour in social media, the pace of play ently and consume content difwithout anything happening. is probably weighted more than ferently,” Mr. Kristick said. “To Our problem is that unless the the length of game.” address their needs, what we

New markets are bringing about changes in play.

Con­­tin­­ued from Page 23 hundreds of billions of euros of government bonds.

Just the anticipation of the program prompted bond prices to soar and the euro to drop in value. Other countries that do not use the euro were then forced to protect the value of their currencies, encourage lending and bolster growth.

Switzerland, for instance, ended its currency’s peg to the euro, shocking markets, and cut interest rates further below zero. Denmark’s central bank has reduced rates four times in a month, to minus 0.75 percent. Sweden followed suit in February.

The most profound changes are taking place in Europe’s bond market, which has been turned into something of a charity, at least for certain borrowers. The latest example came recently, when Germany issued a five-year bond worth nearly $4 billion, with a negative interest rate. Investors were essentially agreeing to be paid back slightly less money than they lent.

Bonds issued by Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Finland and even Italy also have negative yields. Right now, roughly $1.75 trillion in bonds issued by countries in the eurozone are trading with negative yields, which is equivalent to more than a quarter of the total government bonds, according to an analysis

by ABN Amro.

Investors are tolerating such yields because of the relative safety of the bonds, in a weak economy. Traders are betting that the prices of the bonds will keep going up.

Even some corporate bonds, which are generally deemed less creditworthy than government bonds, are falling into the negative territory, including some issued by Nestlé and Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company.

While they did not initially have negative yields, investors bid up their prices after they were issued.

Ms. Christiansen, a sex therapist, took out a loan to finance a website called LoveShack that is part matchmaking site, part soSigne Lene Christiansen and Jakob Binderup contributed reporting.

cial network.

For her, the novelty of her loan didn’t sink in until a spokeswoman for the bank called her back.

“She said, ‘Hi, Eva, they have contacted us from TV 2’ — it’s a big station in Denmark, one of the biggest — ‘and they would like to talk to you because of this loan,’ ” Ms. Christiansen said. “Then I was really like, ‘O.K., this is big.’ ” In January, Ida Mottelson, a 27-year-old student in Denmark, received an email from her bank telling her it would start charging her one-half of 1 percent to hold her money. “At first I thought I had misunderstood this, but I hadn’t,” she said.

Ms. Mottelson is studying for a master’s degree in health sciences, and lives in Odense. She said she had been following the news about the central bank, but called her own bank just to make sure she was correct. “I asked him super-naïvely, ‘Can you explain this to me?’ And he tried, but I got

Banks are charging customers to hold their money deposits. the feeling he was like, come on, just move the money and you’ll be fine.” She does plan to move her money to another bank.

Economists are now pondering some of the odd things that might occur if interest rates stay negative for a long time. Companies and individuals may start to hoard cash outside of ordinary banks if the banks start to effectively charge substantial sums to hold deposits. Large savers, for instance, may choose to put their money in special institutions that do little more than warehouse their cash.

“There is some negative interest rate at which it would become profitable to stockpile cash,” said James McAndrews, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

For most people, it can all seem a bit strange. “I’m not an expert,” Ms. Mottelson said, “but to me it sounds so weird that you have to pay to have your account at a bank.”

SOFIE AMALIE KLOUGART FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Ida Mottelson, a student, received a notice from her bank saying it would start charging her to hold her money.

28

Sanctity of Truth

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

WORLD TRENDS

Civic Groups Face Peril in a More Restrictive China

By ANDREW JACOBS and CHRIS BUCKLEY

BEIJING — First, the police took away the think tank’s former graphic designer, then the young man who organized seminars, and eventually its founder.

Another employee fled China’s capital, fearing he would be forced to testify against his colleagues in rigged trials.

“The anxiety is overwhelming, not knowing if they are coming for you,” said the employee, Yang Zili of the Transition Institute of Social and Economic Research in Beijing, who has been in hiding since November.

These are perilous days for independent civic groups in China, especially those that take on politically contentious causes like workers’ rights, legal advocacy and discrimination against people with AIDS. Patrick Zuo contributed research.

Under President Xi Jinping, however, the Communist Party has forcefully narrowed the bounds of accepted activity, setting off fears that these pockets of greater openness in China’s generally restrictive political landscape may soon disappear.

In recent months, the government has moved against several groups, including one that fights discrimination against people with hepatitis B and even a volunteer network of 22 rural libraries.

“The pressure on grass-roots organizations has never been this intense,” said Zhang Zhiru, who runs a labor rights group in Shenzhen.

In the past year, his car has been vandalized, and police harassment has forced his group to move over 10 times. In December, the last of his five employees quit.

Regulations that took effect recently in Guangzhou have intensified scrutiny of nonprofits that receive foreign donations.

With Chinese philanthropists wary of upsetting the authorities, funding to Mr. Zhang’s group, the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Dispute Service Center, has disappeared, and even Chinese crowdfunding websites refuse to list it.

The campaign has also focused on groups deemed sanctuaries for dissent. The Transition Institute championed a mix of free market economics and support for the downtrodden, conducting research on the Yang exploitation of taxi drivers, school policies that shortchange rural children and the environmental costs of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. But the institute also attracted advocates of democratic reform, some of whom had run-ins with the authorities.

“We always hoped to eke out survival in tough circum-

In Cuba, Economic Divide Widens

ernment recognizes,” he said.

But that tolerance “can be taken away at a moment’s notice.”

The Transition Institute was especially vulnerable, partly because a large share of its annual budget of $480,000 to $650,000 has come from overseas foundations, former employees said.

With his colleagues at the Transition Institute disappearing one by one, Mr. Yang decided to go underground. Meeting with a reporter at a location several hours’ drive from Beijing, he said he missed his wife and son, and he talked about his fear of being returned to prison.

Mr. Yang said he would turn himself in should a warrant be issued for his arrest, but he was not interested in cooperating with what he described as an extralegal persecution of his colleagues.

“I still don’t understand what we did wrong,” Mr. Yang said.

“We were just trying to help improve China.”

DAEJEONG JOURNAL

An Island Wary Of Chinese Visitors

By CHOE SANG-HUN

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

HAVANA — The river where Jonas Echevarria fishes cuts through neighborhoods brimming with the new fine restaurants, spas and boutiques springing up in Cuba’s accelerating push toward private enterprise.

The new restaurants were serving pork tenderloin, filet mignon and orange duck. Mr. Echevarria had a few eggs, some plantains and a handful of rolls in his pantry to make his dinner.

In his neighborhood, a shantytown called El Fanguito (“Little Swamp”) on the fringe of the Rio Almendares, few people have relatives sending money from abroad, food rations barely last the month, and homes made of tin, wood scraps and crumbling concrete fail to keep out floodwaters.

As Cuba opens the door wider to private enterprise, the gap between the haves and have-nots, and between whites and blacks, that the revolution sought to diminish is growing more evident.

That divide is expected to grow with the United States raising the amount of money Americans can send to the island to $8,000 a year from $2,000, as part of President Barack Obama’s thaw with Cuba. Remittances, estimated at $1 billion to $3 billion a year, are already a big source of the capital behind the new businesses.

But Cuban economists say whites are 2.5 times more likely than blacks to receive remittances, leaving many in neigh-

stances,” said Mr. Yang, 43, the researcher now in hiding, who spent eight years in prison for holding informal discussions with friends about multiparty elections and a free press.

The Communist Party says cha rities a nd other grass-roots organizations can offer much-needed social services in a nation strained by poverty and urbanization. But the party is wary of citizen activism that it cannot control.

Zili Groups must be sponsored by a state entity before registering as nonprofits.

Like many others, the Transition Institute registered as a business.

Anthony J. Spires of the Chinese University of Hong Kong estimated there were 3,000 nongovernmental organizations in China. “They help fill a need in Chinese society that the gov-

ELIANA APONTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cuba’s emerging capitalism is not helping shantytowns that socialism failed to eliminate, like El Fanguito. borhoods like Little Swamp nearly invisible in the rise of commerce.

Cuba’s two-tier currency puts residents at a further disadvantage. One currency, known as the convertible peso and used for tourism and foreign trade, is pegged to the dollar. But most Cubans are paid in the local peso, worth a fraction of the other.

Many consumer goods and other amenities from abroad are paid for in convertible pesos, keeping such comforts out of reach for many.

The Cuban government argues that the shift to more private enterprise will allow it to focus its social programs on the neediest. But many poorer Cubans are frustrated by what they see as the deteriorating welfare state.

Many residents mentioned the free education and health care the government has provided but say both seemed better in years past. One resident mentioned a program offering refrigerators for about $300.

But the payments can last for years, “longer than the refrigerator lasts,” he said.

At Starbien restaurant, one of the most popular in Havana, the owner, José Raúl Colomé, said it was not unusual for a majority of the clientele to be Cubans who live on the island, rather than tourists or expatriates.

“Some are artists who are doing well or entrepreneurs who have had luck,” Mr. Colomé said. “A lot are tourists, naturally, but we are getting more Cubans who might be called middle class.”

In neighborhoods like Little Swamp, many describe feeling like foreigners in their own city, watching the emerging economy but unable to participate in it.

Little Swamp residents note the predominance of white Cubans in the new ventures. “I look in those new places and don’t see anybody like me,” said Marylyn Ramirez, who works at a tourist hotel in the Vedado neighborhood.

Asked if she received remittances from abroad, she swept her hand around her small living room, which floods repeatedly.

“If I had that,” she said, “do you think I would be living here?”

Eugenio Azcaly, 61, a cook at a state restaurant, says he has the skills to open or run a paladar, but he has no capital and no support from relatives overseas. He has been wondering about his coming retirement.

“I will have to continue working, but I don’t know where,” he said. Touching his skin, he added, “I don’t know if the new businesses would accept me.”

DAEJEONG, South Korea — Not far from Shin Yong-kyun’s strawberry farm on Jeju Island are the remains of an airfield that Japanese colonialists built in the 1930s, to launch air raids against China, and the coastal caves they gouged to hide their warships.

The Japanese imperial era is long over, but Mr. Shin and other residents of this subtropical resort island say they are worried about what some call a new foreign “invasion” — waves of Chinese tourists and investors sweeping into Jeju, famous for its honeymooners, palm trees and golf courses overlooking a turquoise sea.

The sudden influx of Chinese — and their money — has been driven in part by the Jeju government’s own policies. These included letting foreigners visit without visas and offering permanent-resident status for condominium owners.

Of the 6.1 million Chinese tourists who visited South Korea last year, nearly half visited Jeju, a fivefold increase from 2011. The Chinese have also become Jeju’s biggest foreign investors. They recently broke ground for what was billed as Asia’s largest family theme park and casino.

Jeju used to be a sleepy island dedicated mainly to farming and fishing. So many men left the island for better jobs that the predominance of women was one of the three things the island was most known for. The other two were wind and volcanic rocks.

As South Korea’s economy exploded, the island became a favorite destination of honeymooners and for school trips.

(Most of the 304 people killed in a ferry accident last April were students headed to Jeju.)

For a time, Jeju was especially welcoming to the Chinese. But in the last year or so, local news media and critics began accusing Chinese real estate investors of “encroaching upon” Korean land. They also complained that the Chinese tourists violated some social mores, and often stayed, ate and shopped in Chinese-controlled hotels, restaurants and shopping centers.

In a survey of 1,000 islanders last year, 68 percent said tourists did not help Jeju’s development.

“There are sometimes so many of them crossing a coastal road that you have to stop your car and wait for them to pass like a herd of cattle,” said Kim Honggu, a Jeju businessman. He said

An influx of tourists and investors spurs fear of exploitation. some Chinese spat and smoked on the street.

Mr. Kim accused China of “wielding its big money” to turn Jeju, prized among Koreans for its distinct dialect and traditional customs, into “a Chinatown.”

Mr. Shin said some on Jeju were happy the Chinese-driven investment boom had raised land prices. Others were upset by the rising cost of renting farms and what some see as environmental degradation.

He says his grandfather was one of the islanders conscripted by the Japanese to build their airfield and caves.

“This is a land of pain,” he said. “The sudden sight of so many Chinese adds to that pain.”

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

29

MONEY & BUSINESS

Singapore Cools Real Estate Market

By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON

MATT ROTH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; BELOW LEFT, BRYAN THOMAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Luxury Automakers Go Past the Car

By REBECCA R. RUIZ

Since he was a child, Rodney Foster has coveted all things Bentley. He bought a Continental Flying Spur seven years ago, in cypress green with honey-colored leather seats.

And then, last year, he acquired another Bentley item with hints of wood and leather.

That last purchase was a bottle of Bentley cologne that he bought online for $89, to perfume his vehicle as well as himself.

“Bentley represents a lifestyle,” said Mr. Foster, 48, who also owns polo shirts with the company’s logo. “It makes you feel that you’ve accomplished something.”

Several luxury automakers, including Bentley, have been expanding the lines of goods they sell that have little to do with cars. Bentley, a British brand, recently announced its fifth men’s fragrance in the last two years.

Last fall, it announced a Vertu luxury phone, “swathed in quilted calf leather,” for $17,100.

Bentley also lends its name to furniture, skis and hotel suites.

Ferrari stamps its prancing horse logo on chess sets, Tod’s loafers and Oakley sunglasses, while Lamborghini, Maserati and Tesla offer leather goods.

The brand extensions by luxury automakers help retain customer loyalty between car pur-

chases, and may capture aspirational buyers years before they can afford the cars themselves.

In some cases, this type of merchandise can provide better protection in trademark disputes.

The product lines also capitalize on a booming luxury market, as industry sales have grown considerably alongside the soaring numbers of the ultra-wealthy in the United States and elsewhere. Luxury cars account for 18 percent of total car sales revenue in the United States, amounting to $100 billion, according to Edmunds.com, a car research site.

Porsche was a pioneer in branding this way. Decades ago,

Rodney Foster in his Bentley, top; Porsche Design fashions; a Ferrari die. Below, the Hummer is no longer made but the fragrance lives on. the automaker created a highend clothing line without showy displays of the Porsche Design brand name. Porsche — which, like Lamborghini and Bentley, is owned by the Volkswagen Group — has opened scores of new Porsche Design retail stores, from Paris to Chicago.

These days, more carmakers have been collaborating outside the vehicle in unexpected ways.

“It helps with brand awareness, brand enhancement and, sometimes, brand reinvigoration,” said Neil Saunders of Conlumino, a consulting firm.

Sometimes, the motivation might be even simpler: selling a product under the automaker’s name so that no one else can.

That was General Motors’ thinking when it released a scent for Hummer in 2004. The Hummer fragrance lives on, even if it has been years since the sport utility vehicle was manufactured.

Gene Reamer, a senior manager of licensing operations for G.M., said the fragrance, made

by Elizabeth Arden, allowed the company to keep a trademark on the brand. “There are still people trying to produce products with the Hummer name around the world,” Mr. Reamer said.

Keeping goods exclusive while making them affordable for younger consumers can be tricky. “Maybe a 28-year-old can’t afford a Bentley,” said Julia Marozzi of Bentley. “But they might be able to afford a Breitling Bentley watch, and we hope they’ll graduate to the car.”

Even so, Breitling’s watches for Bentley, advertised as marrying “British chic” with “Swiss excellence,” can cost from $4,000 to $40,000.

Ferrari has 68 licenses — for goods ranging from Lego toys to Puma sneakers — and 30 stores in 14 countries, the company

said. License Global magazine said Bentley has $2.6 billion in annual sales of licensed merchandise and ranks as 23rd among top global licensers, the second automaker behind G.M, which ranks 15th, with $3.5 billion. G.M. has sold a range of goods, including speedboats and Gibson guitars with the Corvette name.

To maintain that special allure, luxury automakers tend to keep prices high and retail outlets limited. Porsche’s designer clothing line sells women’s jeans for $300 and a men’s leather jacket for $2,800. Lamborghini swimming trunks for men go for $168 and gray hoodies for $188.

Bentley put its name on a 160-square-meter suite at the St. Regis hotel in New York that costs $10,500 a night. The décor of the suite, versions of which are planned to open at St. Regis locations in Istanbul and Dubai this year, features wood and leather accents evocative of the cars.

But how to capture the essence of a car in a perfume?

Bentley’s latest fragrance, “Infinite,” flaunts notes of citrus and cedar.

Rob Bailey, a psychologist from Oxford, England, said he laughed when he saw the new scent advertised in the British Airways in-flight magazine.

“My first reaction was to imagine the smell of varnished walnut and engine oil,” Mr. Bailey said.

“Then I read the description and thought, ‘maybe I’m not far off.’ ” Mr. Foster, who lives in Washington, works in commercial real estate and imports German wine, has three unopened bottles of another Bentley scent, “Intense,” lined up for when he runs out.

He said: “I wanted something that no one was going to have.”

SINGAPORE — Lamborghinis, Porsches and Bentleys fill the driveways of multimillion-dollar villas in Sentosa Cove and yachts line the 400-berth marina nearby.

But signs of a slowdown lurk.

At the W Residences, one of the newest condominiums, fewer than half of the units have sold.

As Singapore pitched itself as a place for Asia’s rich, Sentosa Cove attracted wealthy Chinese, Malaysians and Indonesians. But the momentum behind that boom is slowing.

Faced with simmering discontent over rising living and housing costs, the government has executed cooling measures.

A property sales tax of 18 percent for foreigners has reduced buyers’ enthusiasm. Levies are nearly as high for those hoping to flip their properties in the first year.

“So far, Sentosa Cove has been the worst hit because the market frenzy was probably most apparent there,” said Wee Siang Ng, head of research at Maybank Kim Eng Securities.

The value of prime properties rose by 80 percent from 2004 to the market peak in 2013, he said.

The money started flowing around 2004, after the Asian financial crisis and the SARS outbreak. The government promoted itself as a center for global finance and private banking, offering tax incentives and other favorable policies to lure foreign companies.

The government eased rules for foreigners buying land and began to sell reclaimed land on Sentosa, an island just south of Singapore’s main island.

At the Oceanfront, villas rose in all shapes and styles.

One house was built like an Egyptian tomb, with two pharaoh-dog guard statues. Others have palm thatched roofs, evoking tiki huts.

Construction continued unabated for years. “We call it the Monte Carlo of Asia,” said Stephane Fabregoul of the W Singapore hotel in Sentosa Cove. Other parts of Sentosa were being developed, too.

In 2010, a Resorts World casino was opened on the main part of Sentosa. A Universal Studios theme park was also built in a move to attract tourists.

Across Singapore, the prop-

erty market was booming. Interest rates were low, prompting buyers to take on more debt.

Confidence was high. Banks built regional headquarters here and jobs were created.

Singapore’s skyline changed drastically. A new financial district rose and Marina Bay Sands, a three-tower building housing a casino with a boatlike structure on top, was built for a reported $5.4 billion.

But with the government unable to contain the heated market, the growing presence of foreigners and the rising cost of housing became a flash point for discontent.

In the 2011 general election, the People’s Action Party, which has been the ruling party since Singapore’s independence from Malaysia in 1965, won by the narrowest margin in its history.

“There was concern that was aired in the last election that foreigners participating in the property market were con-

In ‘the Monte Carlo of Asia,’ prices went too far. tributing to high prices,” said Christopher Fossick of Jones Lang LaSalle in Southeast Asia.

To slow demand, foreign buyers were charged an additional tax on top of a basic buyer’s stamp duty. And now anyone who wants to resell a property within a year of buying it must pay a 16 percent tax on the sale price. The government’s most effective measure was to cap the amount of debt a borrower was allowed to take as a percentage of their income.

Since then, new property sales across Singapore have fallen sharply; in 2014, the number of properties sold was half what it had been the previous year.

The few recent sales paint a grim picture. At an apartment building called the Turquoise, a unit sold last July for 4 million Singapore dollars. Government data showed the seller bought the residence in 2007 for 7 million Singapore dollars.

EDWIN KOO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Singapore instituted a tax to slow housing demand. Many condominiums at Sentosa Cove now sit empty.

30

Sanctity of Truth

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

MONEY & BUSINESS

Streaming Pays Off For Surf League

By TALYA MINSBERG and NICK CORASANITI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANGELOS TZORTZINIS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Hurdle to Recovery: Greek Bureaucracy Stamatiou Plastics was almost forced to close because it lacked a tax document.

Filippos Stamatiou says lowering employee pay would not be productive.

Below, nets dry on the floor.

By LIZ ALDERMAN

ATHENS — Yannis Stamatiou is one of this country’s many business owners who say Greece’s economic problems are not just about austerity.

Just ask him about the bureaucracy, which the new government has vowed to streamline but is a snarl of rules.

Mr. Stamatiou recalls with disgust his trip last summer to a dingy tax office in Athens. The large plastics factory his family has run for 40 years, which employs 150 workers and is one of the few to survive Greece’s wrenching economic crisis, was poised to get a rare bank loan.

But because of a welter of changes to Greece’s tax rules in recent years, the tax official could not produce a critical document the bank needed.

“We came this close to closing the whole company because the government couldn’t give me a piece of paper,” said Mr. Stamatiou of Stamatiou Plastics.

“Greece is never going to move forward unless this new government tackles the dysfunction, bureaucracy and uncertainty that we have failed to address since the crisis.”

There is no question that Greece is struggling to recover from the austerity cutbacks that its international creditors demanded as conditions for loans totaling 240 billion euros, or $274 billion. But just as harmful are the structural problems inhibiting economic efficiency.

Businesses are stymied by labor rules and tax policies that under the previous government often changed week to week — 2,200 new tax regulations in the last two years alone.

Firms like Mr. Stamatiou’s, as well as investors and start-ups, face high administrative costs and bureaucratic inefficiency that Greek business associations say jeopardize jobs and leach about 14 billion euros a year from the economy. Corruption remains widespread, and vested interests have fought against opening swaths of the economy to competition.

“The removal of austerity is all fine and well,” said Constantine Mihalos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce. “But it will only be the right solution if it is followed by the necessary structural reforms in the public and private sector creating conditions for growth.”

Mr. Stamatiou, who runs the

plastics business with his son, Filippos, 26, is sympathetic to the bid to end austerity. When the crisis hit, they did not cut employee wages, finding other ways to reduce costs.

“When you lower their salary for years, they have no ambition to do new things,” Filippos Stamatiou said of the company’s workers. “It’s not productive for them or for the economy.”

Economists say Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s plans to stoke consumption by eventually rolling back austerity could help. But businesses say growth would come much faster if the government focused on enhancing Greece’s productive capacity, in part by following through immediately on basic changes like cutting red tape and enhancing competition.

Such problems are hardly limited to the old economy, as Tina Kyriakis, 30, well knows.

She created a small business in 2012 giving cultural tours of Athens to tap the one lively sector of the economy: tourism.

“I knew domestic consumption would be dead for at least 10 years, so I decided to focus on income that doesn’t have to do with

the local economy,” Ms. Kyriakis said.

Yet the energy from the startup scene has been no match for the bureaucracy. Because government licensing rules limit competition in the tour guide sector, Ms. Kyriakis’s five freelance employees cannot give tours at the Acropolis.

When someone does work, she must go to the social security office in person to register their hours. If the schedule changes, she must go again to report it. “You spend hours and hours in public offices, not being efficient,” Ms. Kyriakis said. “If you are doing something innovative in Greece, you face a chaos of uncertainty,” she said.

While Mr. Tsipras has pledged to help start-ups become the source of thousands of new jobs, Ms. Kyriakis is not optimistic. “They need to realize that change is only going to come through private initiatives,” she said. “We need the economic and political environment to change in a way that will allow this to flourish.”

Her message to Mr. Tsipras is this: “Just don’t stand in the way.”

Last December, as 21-yearold Gabriel Medina battled to be crowned surfing’s newest champion on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, millions in his native Brazil stayed glued not to their TVs, but to their tablets, laptops and mobile phones.

An average of more than 6.2 million people tuned in live to watch the Billabong Pipe Masters, where Mr. Medina won his first title. Not a second of the surfing competition was shown on traditional live television; instead, it was streamed on YouTube, with 35 percent to 40 percent of its viewers on mobile.

“It was hard for us to realize a direct relationship to linear TV,” Paul Speaker, the chief executive of the World Surf League, said. “We’re a global sport, so there is always a time zone concern, and we have to wait for swells” — suitable wave conditions — “so we don’t have a start time and an end time like other sports.”

The World Surf League’s successful web-first broadcast strategy is at the leading edge of a gradual transformation taking hold in sports television. As more and more viewers move online and audiences become more global, the professional leagues have all adopted streaming as an important way to attract younger fans around the world.

But the purity of surfing’s model — reaching millions of viewers online without being beholden to exclusivity contracts with broadcast and cable networks — demonstrates the power of online audiences for sports big and small.

“It’s one of those things where there’s a lot of fans out there,” explained Matt McLernon, a spokesman for YouTube.

“But they’re not necessarily combined enough into a media market where it makes sense to put this sporting event on TV. But when anyone can watch it online, you open up a whole concept.”

All of the major sports leagues have embraced this.

In the United States, the hockey league has teamed with the camera maker GoPro to bring real-time highlights to Twitter and Facebook. The Profes-

sional Golf Association tour is trying something similar with GoPros and the online network, Skratch TV. The National Basketball Association has the biggest YouTube sports audience with 2.5 billion videos viewed. It also joined with Tencent to stream N.B.A. games live in China.

But the big sports leagues, which still receive billions of dollars in lucrative programming contracts from traditional television networks, still mostly supplement their television broadcasts with online highlight packages and subscription-based web services.

Professional surfing, on the other hand, has adopted an online-first approach. YouTube is its exclusive global digital partner, providing the streaming software to be embedded on the league’s new website, as well as on YouTube’s site and apps. The World Surf League has not jettisoned television the networks

Web-first fits events lacking start and end times. altogether — it has teamed with a few select regional channels like MCS Extreme in Europe for live broadcasts, and a few national networks like ABC for highlight and prepackaged shows.

“Our strategy has been, since the beginning, let’s remove all stop signs and turn them into welcome mats,” Mr. Speaker said. “YouTube has that footprint.”

The World Surf League has solidified its growth in a key demographic: More than 67 percent of its audience is between 25 and 44 years old.

After the World Championship Tour season broke its own audience records in 2014, the league hopes for the same this year.

“We look to other sports for direction and examples, but for us, live streaming is our bread and butter,” Mr. Speaker said.

“I think many people will be looking at us and say, ‘How’d they figure it out?’ ”

KIRSTIN SCHOLTZ/WORLD SURF LEAGUE

Global audiences tune in to surfing on YouTube. From left, Kelly Slater, Peter Mel and John John Florence in Tahiti.

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

31

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Faces, and Cases, Built Using Only DNA Samples

By ANDREW POLLACK

There were no known eyewitnesses to the murder of a young woman and her 3-year-old daughter four years ago.

Nonetheless, the police in Columbia, South Carolina, released a sketch in January of a possible suspect. Rather than an artist’s rendering based on witness descriptions, the face was generated by a computer relying solely on DNA found at the scene.

It may be the first time a suspect’s face has been put before the public in this way, but it will not be the last. Investigators are increasingly able to determine the physical characteristics of suspects from DNA left behind.

Already, genetic sleuths can determine a suspect’s eye and hair color fairly accurately. It is also possible, or might soon be, to predict skin color, freckling, baldness, hair curliness, tooth shape and age.

Computers may eventually be able to match faces generated from DNA to those in a database of mug shots, or at least narrow down the list of suspects.

But forensic DNA phenotyping, as it is called, is also raising concerns. Some scientists question its accuracy, especially in recreating facial images. Others say use of these techniques could exacerbate racial profiling and otherwise take civil liberties into uncharted waters.

“This is another of these areas where the technology is ahead of the popular debate and discussion,” said Erin Murphy, a professor of law at New York University.

DNA, of course, has been used for more than two decades to hunt for suspects or to convict or exonerate people. But until now, that meant matching a suspect’s DNA to that found at the crime scene, or trying to find a match in a government database.

Some real faces bore a resemblance to computergenerated DNA predictions created by Mark D. Shriver, a genetics researcher.

THE NEW YORK TIMES; IMAGES AND RENDERINGS BY MARK D. SHRIVER/PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

DNA phenotyping is different: an attempt to determine physical traits from genetic material left at the scene when no match is found in the conventional way. Though the science is still evolving, small companies like Parabon NanoLabs, which made the image in the South Carolina case, and Identitas have begun offering DNA phenotyping to law enforcement agencies.

The Toronto Police Service has submitted DNA from 29 cases dating from the early 1980s through 2014 to Identitas. In a number of cases, “it’s enabled us to actually change the direction we were focused on originally,” said Detective Sergeant Stacy Gallant, a cold-case homicide investigator. But there have been no arrests or convictions, he said.

Gender has long been ascer-

tained from crime scene DNA. About 15 years ago, some police departments began trying to determine the geographic ancestry of suspects, as well, by using tests like the ones consumers order to learn about their genetic heritage.

And in 2003, DNA information helped redirect the search for a serial killer in Louisiana from a white man to a black one. DNA found at the site of one of the murders indicated the person’s ancestry was 85 percent sub-Saharan African. Eventually, a black man was convicted of the crimes.

Now researchers are closing in on specific physical traits, like eye and hair color. A system called HIrisPlex, developed at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, is about 94 percent accurate in determining if a person has blue or

brown eyes, but less so with colors like green.

Scientists look for genetic variants associated with physical traits the way they look for genes that might cause disease: by studying the genomes of people with or without the trait or the disease, and looking for correlations.

But this can be a complex task.

Many genetic variants may be associated with a trait, but each may make just a small contribution. While one study found about 700 genetic variants linked to height, they explained only about 15 percent of variation from person to person, said Manfred Kayser, a professor of forensic molecular biology at Erasmus.

Eye and hair color have proved relatively easy to ascertain from DNA samples, Dr. Kayser said, because a single gene has a large

influence on these traits. Predicting a suspect’s age is also not out of the question — by analyzing markers that shut off certain genes as people grow older.

But some experts say not enough is known yet about the relationship between genes and facial features. “A bit of science fiction at this point,” said Benedikt Hallgrimsson, the head of cell biology and anatomy at the University of Calgary in Canada.

The critics noted that Parabon, which is based in Reston, Virginia, had not published information in peer-reviewed journals validating its methods.

The company has relied on the work of Mark D. Shriver, a professor of anthropology and genetics at Pennsylvania State University, and Peter Claes of KU Leuven in Belgium. The two researchers have developed a complex mathematical method to represent faces, based on measuring the three-dimensional coordinates of more than 7,000 points on the face. They developed a way to create a sort of generic face based on the person’s sex and ancestry mix, as determined from their DNA. They then adjust that face based on 24 genetic variants in 20 genes shown to be involved in facial variation. Some of the images their method generated look similar to the actual face of the DNA donor, others less so.

In the Columbia, South Carolina, case, the image developed

by Parabon generated a couple of leads, but neither worked out.

Mark Vinson, a police investigator, said, “We thought it was worth a shot.”

With Long Marriage, an Increase in Sex

By JAN HOFFMAN

Yes, there is sex after marriage. Particularly if you make it past your 50th wedding anniversary.

After analyzing interviews with 1,656 married American adults ages 57 to 85, researchers found the expected: Those in the first throes of the passion years had sex more frequently than those whose years had piled up.

But then researchers also found the unexpected: While most long-married individuals reported steady declines in sexual activity, those who passed the 50-year wedded mark began to report a slight increase in their sex lives.

And notably, frequency in the sex lives of long-married couples continued to improve. In the study, published recently in The Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers noted “that an individual married for 50 years will have somewhat less sex than an individual married for 65 years.”

Samuel Stroope, the lead author and an assistant professor at Louisiana State University,

said, “Sexual frequency doesn’t return to two to three times a month, but it moves in that direction.”

To be sure, there are limits to the conclusions. “We don’t know whether being married causes you to have more sex or having more sex causes you to stay married longer,” said Karl Pillemer, a professor at Cornell University

After 50 years, the pace picks up in couples’ bedrooms. in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the study.

In the study, some were not having sex at all. And a few were having sex daily. In the main, the study looked at trends. The average older adult who had been married for a year had a 65 percent chance of having sex two to three times a month or

more. At 25 years of marriage, the likelihood of that frequency dropped to 40 percent. If the marriage lasted 50 years, the likelihood was 35 percent. But if the marriage of the older adults continued, at 65 years of being together, the chance of having sex with that frequency was 42 percent.

Dr. Stroope said that at least two competing forces were at play around sexuality in a long marriage. One is called “habituation,” the dulling of sexual senses as a couple become inured to each other, worn by life’s quotidian and lurching demands.

But long-timers also accumulate what Dr. Stroope calls “relationship capital”: in good marriages, he said, “you’re building up something, accumulating experience and knowledge about your intimate partner over time that builds on itself.”

As adults age, their social circles shrink, they know time is limited, they look around and what do they see? Each other.

“They place intimacy as a high

STUART BRADFORD

priority,” Dr. Pillemer said. “Many people told me that you don’t notice the physical differences in a long marriage. The person still seems the same to you.”

For Jennie B., an 82-year-old widow in New York state, the meaning of intimacy and sexual activity deepened over her long marriage.

“There’s an intimacy that comes later that is staggeringly wonderful,” she said. “You can hold hands with this person you love and adore, and somehow it’s just as passionate as having sex

at an earlier age.”

Indeed what she misses most as a widow, she says, is holding hands.

“Sex was certainly an important and joyful and healing part, but I’m not sure that the connection through holding hands, which elicited such peace, was not a deeper intimacy,” she further reflected in an email. “But of course I would not have known that during the first 30 or 40 years of marriage when sex was of paramount importance — our recreation and solace.”

32

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Indo-European Tongues Traced to Tangled Roots

By NICHOLAS WADE

The peoples of India, Iran and Europe speak tongues descended from an ancient language known as proto-Indo-European.

Many origins have been proposed for the birthplace of the Indo-European languages, but only two are now under discussion, one of which assumes they were spread by the sword, the other by the plow.

From reconstructed vocabulary, the speakers of proto-Indo-European seem to have been pastoralists, familiar with sheep and wheeled vehicles. Archaeologists find that wheeled vehicles emerged around 4000 B.C., suggesting the proto-Indo-European speakers began to flourish 6,500 years ago on the steppe grasslands above the Black and Caspian Seas. This steppe theory holds that proto-Indo-European speakers then spread their language by conquest to Europe, India and western China.

But Colin Renfrew, a Cam-

The basis of many tongues: Spread by force or farming? bridge archaeologist, proposed in 1987 that the languages had been spread by farmers. Under this scenario, the homeland of proto-Indo-European was in Anatolia, now Turkey, and its speakers started migrating 8,000 to 9,500 years ago.

Linguists objected that proto-Indo-European could not have fragmented so early because the wheel wasn’t invented 8,000 years ago, yet many Indo-European languages have related words for wheel. Dr. Renfrew said these languages could all have borrowed the word for wheel along with the invention.

The standoff between the steppe and Anatolian theories of Indo-European origin persisted until 2003, when New Zealand biologists Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland came up with an impressive method of constructing datable trees of language descent. Using statistical methods developed by biologists for

tracking the evolution of genes and proteins, the pair calculated that proto-Indo-European was spoken 7,800 to 9,800 years ago. That conclusion provided striking support for the Anatolian theory. In 2012, they, Remco Bouckaert and others applied a statistical model developed to track the spread of viruses and found “decisive support for an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin.”

But two findings reported in February have tilted toward the steppes. Andrew Garrett at the University of California, Berkeley, and Will Chang, a linguist, and colleagues noticed that in the 2012 article, in eight cases where an ancient language is the widely assumed ancestor of a modern one, the modern language is shown as being descended from a hypothetical cousin of the ancient language.

When they forced the Bouckaert tree to adopt the accepted language ancestries, the tree shrank in age and its root stepped down to 6,500 years old, in agreement with the steppe hypothesis of Indo-European origins.

A second boost for the steppe theory emerged from a study of ancient DNA in Europe, based on analysis of 69 people who lived 3,000 to 8,000 years ago. Patterns in the DNA bear evidence of a migration into Germany 4,500 years ago of people from the Yamnaya culture of the steppes, the first to develop a pastoral economy based on wagons, sheep and horses. Three-quarters of the ancient people sampled in Germany bear Yamnaya-type DNA, says a team led by Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide, Australia, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School, who reported on bioRxiv.

But the case is not yet closed.

Dr. Renfrew, the author of the Anatolian hypothesis, considers it a “strong possibility” that Indo-European could have spread first from Anatolia to the steppes and from there to Europe.

And the biologists who draw up statistically probable language trees do not believe the Garrett team is justified in making the trees conform to ancestry constraints.

“The seemingly innocent assumptions which Garrett introduces,” Dr. Renfrew said, “turn out not to be so uncomplicated.”

ST E P P E THEORY 6,500 years ago

EUROPE

BLACK SEA

CASPIAN SEA

A N AT O L I A N THEORY 8,500 to 9,000 years ago

Researchers place the homeland of the proto-Indo-European language, the ancestor of many modern languages spoken across Europe and Asia, in either the steppes north of the Black Sea or in Anatolia, modern Turkey.

Sources: Wolfgang Haak et al., bioRchiv; “The Horse, the Wheel and Language” by David W. Anthony

N.Y. Times News Service Date: 2/24/15

THE NEW YORK TIMES

DANIELLE BEURTEAUX; BELOW, ANDREAS WIESE/DÜSSELDORF INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Bees Cleared for Landing at Airports With bee colonies collapsing world­wide, airports are offering space for hives.

Bees clustering at a hive at an airport in Quebec.

Left, Walter Klumpp manages a project at Düssel­dorf International Airport.

By DANIELLE BEURTEAUX

MIRABEL, Quebec — A jet taxied down a nearby runway, the roar of its engines merging with the buzz of thousands of wings. His head covered with a beekeeper’s veil, Alexandre Beaudoin lifted a frame out of one of five hives, each housing about 70,000 bees.

The hives had been in place a few months, and Mr. Beaudoin seemed pleased with the results.

“This frame is full of eggs; this is really nice, really good info,” he said. “It tells me my hive is in really good health.”

To find these hives, you would have to travel the warren of back roads at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport, go through a parking lot and onto a grass enclosure. Beyond are the airport’s nearly 2,500 hectares.

Last year, Aeroports de Montreal, which runs both of the city’s airports, Mirabel and Montreal-Trudeau International, approached Miel Montreal, a beekeeping cooperative. As part of its environmental initiative, it wanted to start a project placing beehives in an empty field. The hives were installed in June.

Mirabel is just the latest in what is becoming a common undertaking — keeping beehives on airport green space. For airports, beehives can be an easy way to show their concern for the environment while putting space to work in fields that legally cannot be built on. Hamburg Airport in Germany began such a project in 1999. Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Dresden, Hannover, Leipzig/Halle, Nuremberg and Munich followed. Since then, Malmo Airport in Sweden, Copenhagen, Chicago’s O’Hare, Seattle-Tacoma International and Lambert-St. Louis International have all welcomed beehives.

Bees tend to do well in urban environments where there are people to manage the hives, a diversity of flowers and no pesticides.

Copenhagen Airport’s plans to become a major Scandinavian hub turned into an opportunity for the city’s bees. The airport bought a large plot of land to build on, but a muddy pond on the lot was home to

Airport gift shops are stocked with very local honey. the protected European green toad, according to Oliver Maxwell of the City Bee Association in Copenhagen. “So they were holding this piece of land for the last few years wondering what to do with it, and now it’s overgrown and actually this beautiful meadow with wildflowers,” he said.

Now there are 15 hives on the site, tended by Mr. Maxwell’s group, and some of the honey is sold in the airport’s gift shops.

At European airports, the focus is often on using bee products as biomarkers to detect pollutants. Malmo Airport began testing honey and beeswax from its hives in 2009. The results indicate that levels of heavy metals, volatile organic hydrocarbons and polyaromatic hydrocarbons are well below European Union limits, and have remained consistent from year to year.

For nearly a decade, scientists have been alarmed

by steep drops in honeybee populations. Annual losses of around 30 percent, on average, have been attributed to colony collapse disorder and other pressures, including diseases, pesticides, extreme weather and habitat loss. The toll appeared to ease slightly last year, though researchers cautioned that one year hardly indicated a trend.

While airport hives will have only a limited role in propping up bee populations, Elina Lastro Niño, an apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, said that as long as there was no spraying of pesticides, airports could make great environments for honeybees, and could help educate the public.

“If you have an airport where you’re selling honey that comes from the airport itself,” Dr. Niño said, travelers are likely to become “more aware of issues with honey.”

There is little operational concern about bees interacting with aircraft: If bee and jet meet, the bee will lose. But there have been recent swarming incidents, a natural occurrence when a second queen leaves the hive in search of a new home and around half the hive’s bees follow.

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Sanctity of Truth

33

AMERICANA

A Push to Arm Students to Deter Sexual Assault

By ALAN SCHWARZ

As gun rights advocates push to legalize firearms on college campuses, their argument is taking shape: Arming female students will help reduce sexual assaults.

Support for so-called campus carry laws had been hard to muster despite efforts by proponents to argue that armed students and faculty members could prevent mass shootings like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007. Carrying concealed firearms on college campuses is banned in 41 states.

Carrying guns openly is generally not permitted.

But this year, lawmakers in 10 states who are pushing bills that would permit carrying firearms on campus are hoping that the national spotlight on sexual assault will help them win passage.

The sponsor of a bill in Nevada, Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, said: “If these young, hot little

girls on campus have a firearm, I wonder how many men will want to assault them. The sexual assaults that are occurring would go down once these sexual predators get a bullet in their head.”

Opponents contend that university campuses should remain havens from the gun-related risks, and that college students, with high rates of binge drinking and other recklessness, would be prone to gun accidents.

Some experts in sexual assault said that college women were typically assaulted by someone they knew, so even if they had access to their gun, they would rarely be tempted to use it.

“It reflects a misunderstanding of sexual assaults in general,” said John D. Foubert, an Oklahoma State University professor and president of One in Four, which provides educational programs on sexual assault. “If you have a rape situation, usually it

Some say colleges should be havens from gun risks. starts with some sort of consensual behavior, and by the time it switches to nonconsensual, it would be nearly impossible to run for a gun.”

Other objectors to the bills say that advocates of the campus carry laws, predominantly Republicans with well-established pro-gun stances, are exploiting an emotionally-charged issue.

“The gun lobby has seized on this tactic, this subject of sexual assault,” said Andy Pelosi, the executive director of the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

Colorado, Wisconsin and seven other states allow people

with legal carry permits to take concealed firearms to campus.

Many had bans but lifted them in recent legislative cycles.

Past debates in Colorado, Michigan and Nevada have included testimony from Amanda Collins, who in 2007 was raped on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno. Ms. Collins has said that had she been carrying her licensed gun, she would have averted the attack.

Surveys have estimated that most college presidents and faculty members oppose allowing firearms on campus. Support was higher among students, but 67 percent of men and 86 percent of women disliked the concept.

Many students who support current legislation have joined the lobbying group Students for Concealed Carry. Crayle Vanest, an Indiana University senior, said she should be able to carry her licensed pistol on campus.

“Universities are under a ton of investigation for how they handle sexual assaults,” she said, showing that campuses are not safe.

The most interesting debate could occur in Florida. Florida State University has had high-profile episodes involving sexual assault and a shooting in November in which a 31-year-old gunman wounded two students and an employee before being fatally shot by the police.

The university’s president, John Thrasher, opposes guns on university grounds, in part because of a 2011 death: Ashley Cowie, a sophomore, was shot and killed when another student, showing off his rifle in a fraternity house, did not realize the weapon was loaded.

Mr. Thrasher said, “A college campus is not a place to be carrying guns around; our campus police agree with that, and so does law enforcement.”

Indians Say Preacher Is Unfit for Sainthood

By CAROL POGASH

SAN FRANCISCO — For generations, fourth graders in California’s schools built models of church missions to celebrate the Reverend Junipero Serra and the reCALIFORNIA ligious comSan Francisco munities he estab lished along t he West Coast in the late 1700s.

In January, Pope Francis announced plans to canonize Father Serra, putting “the evangelizer of the West in the United States” closer to sainthood.

But these days, the pious preacher who brought Christianity to the American Indians is viewed in less benevolent terms.

Prominent Native Americans see Father Serra as far from saintly. Indian historians blame Father Serra for the suppression of their culture and the premature deaths at the missions of thousands of their ancestors.

“I had high hopes for this pope, who has been making some very pro-social-justice statements,” said Deborah A. Miranda, an Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Indian. “Serra did not just bring us Christianity. He imposed it, giving us no choice in the matter.

He did incalculable damage to a whole culture.”

Born in Majorca in 1713, Father Serra joined the Franciscan order in 1730. From 1769 to 1835, 90,000 Indians were baptized from San Diego to San Francisco. Once baptized, they were not allowed to leave the missions, and those who did escape were rounded up by soldiers and returned.

The Indians were forced to shed their languages, dress, religion, food and marriage customs.

Thousands died from exposure to European diseases to which they had no immunity.

Native Americans were es-

pecially upset when, in 1986, the Catholic Diocese of Monterey, California, released a report that found no evidence of Indian mistreatment. Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco acknowledged the coercive environment. But missionaries taught school and farming, he said.

“European powers were going to discover this continent and settle here,” he said. “ Were the indigenous people better off with the missionaries or without the missionaries? I would say they were better off with the missionaries.”

Mission Dolores, in San Francisco’s Mission District, was founded by Father Serra in 1776.

In the middle of the courtyard is a statue of a pensive Father Serra.

On a recent day, two cousins, both Ohlone Indians and Catholics, sat nearby. Andrew Galvan, the mission’s curator, said that while he recognized that Indians were mistreated, “my family first became Christian” at the mission.

Father Serra, he added, “remains my inspiration.”

His younger cousin, Vincent Medina, was less forgiving.

Canonizing “the leader of the disastrous, genocidal California mission system is a way that the church further legitimizes the pain and suffering of Ohlone and countless other California Indians,” he said.

Robert M. Senkewicz, a history professor at Santa Clara University, said the history of the missions had been somewhat distorted.

“These were largely Indian communities,” he said. “The way contemporary missions are presented, the Indians are absent.”

Nicole Lim, of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa, said: “When I hear the pope has done this, it makes me think that people aren’t ready to accept the truth we have. It’s disheartening.”

Johnson’s Barn in North Dakota has held dances since 1952, but the owner says it’s time to sell.

ANDREW CULLEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

After Decades, the Barn Dances Stop

By JOSH KUN

ARTHUR, North Dakota — In this town in the pancake-flat heart of eastern North Dakota, Brian Johnson was sipping wine from a canning jar as he watched NORTH DAKOTA 500 peo Arthur ple swing dance in the hayloft of his barn.

T h e band out of Fargo was playing “Take a Little Ride,” Jason Aldean’s ode to driving a truck down a back road after a long day of hauling hay. The men were decked out in deer hunting camouflage shirts, while women in low-slung jeans let their earrings dangle beneath black cowboy hats.

“Farming is cyclical, all ups and downs,” said Mr. Johnson, 63, who has been hosting barn dances amid his 1,000 hectares of wheat and soybeans for nearly three decades. “The ’80s were dry. The ’90s were wet. You never know. The dances, though, are stable. And a whole lot of fun.”

Last month, Mr. Johnson (who is my cousin) was planning the last dance. In 2012, he discovered that he has Parkinson’s disease, and he decided to

put the farmstead up for sale, preferably to someone who will continue the dances. “It’s not so important for me but for the kids who come here,” he said.

It’s not uncommon to find three generations of a family at the same dance. There’s no bar, so you bring your own coolers full of whiskey, beer or soda. Mr. Johnson’s wife, Becky, or their daughter, Adra, will throw a burger on a grill for you for $3.

“You just can’t compare this place to any other,” said Charles Woodard, known as Woody, who is the drummer for Silverado, which plays here nearly every month. “It’s an authentic barn dance. When this place is hopping really good, it feels like an arena show.”

Bigger university towns like Fargo and Grand Forks have bars and theaters, but all-ages clubs and dance halls are hard to find, so throngs of college students will make their way through fields of sugar beet and ethanol plants to spend a Friday night in a hayloft.

Brittany Schneider, 24, a student at North Dakota State University in Fargo, is a Johnson’s Barn regular. “I grew up in a town of 1,800 people where you had bonfires out in the field,”

she said. “This just feels like home to me.”

Brian’s father, Herb, moved the barn to the farm in 1952 and, as custom dictated, held a dance to christen it. He charged 98 cents, with his cows still living on the barn’s bottom floor. It was so popular, he did another a week later. Before long, the dances were a Friday night institution.

By the ’60s, the barn was a must-stop for touring Midwestern rock bands. Its renown even caught the ear of Roy Orbison, who dropped by on his way to a gig in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and jumped onstage to sing.

“The barn was legendary,” said Debra Marquart, an Iowa State University professor whose band Jessica performed at the barn in 1978. “Everybody wanted to play there,” she said, adding that the barn’s real value was in the communion it could provide for young people growing up in rural towns.

“There’s nothing more delicious in life,” she said, “than being outside at night on a farm with all that space around you, all those friends, with music coming out of a lighted space in the dark. It’s exactly all the best things in life coming together.”

34

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

ARTS & DESIGN

Surprising Departure Into Myth

By ALEXANDRA ALTER

CHIPPING CAMPDEN, England — About a decade ago, Kazuo Ishiguro was 50 pages into a new novel when he was paralyzed by doubt. The novel, a mythic tale set roughly 1, 50 0 years ago in a fantastical England populated by ogres, pixies, knights and dragons, was unlike anything Kazuo he’d ever written.

Ishiguro He asked his wife, Lorna, to read the opening pages. Her response was brutal. “She looked at it and said, ‘This will not do,’ ” he recalled. “ ‘I don’t mean you need to tweak it; you need to start from scratch.’ ” He put the book aside and wrote a collection of short stories instead.

Mr. Ishiguro was not prepared for another ego bashing when he returned to the novel in 2011. He started from scratch and did not show her the work until he was done. That novel, “The Buried Giant,” will come out this month, and it is the weirdest, riskiest and most ambitious thing he has published in his 33-year career.

Though it tackles many of Mr. Ishiguro’s hallmark themes — memory and how it fades and gets suppressed and distorted, and our inability to fully face the past — “The Buried Giant” signals a stark departure from his spare, emotionally understated novels like “The Remains of the Day,” and “Never Let Me Go,” an eerie and melancholy dystopian love story.

“The Buried Giant” centers on an old couple, Axl and Beatrice, who travel across a lawless landscape to find their lost son, while hobbled by the fog of forgetfulness that seems to have descended on the land through a curse.

They meet an old knight, Sir Gawain, who is on his own quest and becomes their protector from a host of threats.

In a New York Times review, Michiko Kakutani called the book a “ham-handed fairly tale.”

The fact that “The Buried Giant” is such a departure should not be surprising. Mr. Ishiguro has reinvented himself with each book. “The Buried Giant” is a more pronounced shift.

“As a longtime Ishiguro reader, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, and I got it,” said Lev Grossman, the fantasy novelist and book critic. “A misty Arthurian epic is just about the last thing I would have seen coming.”

Mr. Ishiguro did seek his wife’s advice again when he was casting around for a title. After many false starts, they found a phrase that fit.

It had been buried in the text all along, at the beginning, when Axl and Beatrice begin their journey.

“The giant well buried is now beginning to stir,” Mr. Ishiguro said, referring to the scene late in the novel. “And when it wakes up, there’s going to be mayhem.”

Presidential Pals, Real and on TV

By AMY CHOZICK

Before Kevin Spacey got into character as Francis Underwood, the fictional congressman who by the third season of “House of Cards” has murdered and manipulated his way into the Oval Office, he liked to portray a real-life president: Bill Clinton.

“We, in fact, have spent so much time together that sometimes I even become him,” Mr. Spacey said last fall at an event in Little Rock, Arkansas, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center.

“I’m from a place called Hope,” Mr. Spacey said as he began an impersonation of Mr. Clinton’s Arkansas accent.

Mr. Clinton later joined Mr. Spacey onstage and put his arm around him, grinning, having relished the impersonation.

It was only the latest public display of affection between an actor, who is currently best known for portraying one of the most morally bankrupt presidents ever to come out of Hollywood, and a former president, who ever since he played the saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992, has had a special bond with the small screen.

Mr. Spacey, a Democratic donor, first met Mr. Clinton in the White House during his first term. In two industries — politics and entertainment — known for fleeting friendships of convenience, the men seemed to genuinely bond.

They stayed in touch and grew closer in Mr. Clinton’s post-presidency, talking a couple times a month and collaborating often on philanthropic work. It’s a relationship that is well known to those close to Mr. Clinton.

STAN HONDA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT, PATRICK HARBRON FOR NETFLIX

Left, Kevin Spacey and Bill Clinton in 2002. Right, Mr Spacey, center, with Robin Wright, second from right, and Michael Kelly, right, in ‘‘House of Cards.’’

If you look closely at the décor in Underwood’s office on “House of Cards,” you’ll see a photo of Mr. Spacey and Mr. Clinton at dinner together, plugging away on their BlackBerrys.

The photo is likely to move to the White House with President Underwood in Season 3, which began streaming on Netflix on February 27.

Of all the TV shows for Mr. Clinton to be associated with as Hillary Rodham Clinton apparently prepares for a 2016 presidential campaign, the coldly cynical depiction of Washington in “House of Cards” might not be the best for political purposes.

After all, the second season of “House of Cards” included Underwood pushing a young journalist in front of a train and having a threesome with his wife, Claire, played by Robin Wright, and his eager-to-please secret service agent Edward Meechum.

Not exactly what you would want for a 2016 campaign ad.

Still, the Clintons have not been shy about their ties to “House of Cards.”

Last summer, Mrs. Clinton told People magazine she and Mr. Clinton “totally bingewatched” the first season. After a crushing travel schedule as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton said part of the appeal was, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we can just sit here and do this.”

The connection extends beyond Mr. Spacey and Mr. Clinton’s friendship. Before he became a TV writer and playwright, the “House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon worked as an intern on Mrs. Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign.

Jay Carson, a political consultant on “House of Cards” and a college friend of Mr. Willimon, worked as a press secretary to Mr. Clinton and served as Mrs. Clinton’s traveling press aide during her 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Spacey’s relatively public friendship with Mr. Clinton be-

gan around the time of his 1996 re-election campaign. After he left office, Mr. Clinton brought Mr. Spacey into his global philanthropic work through the Clinton Foundation. The two men went on a five-day swing through Africa together to promote efforts to fight AIDS and joined Nelson Mandela onstage to address a crowd of teenagers about H.I.V. awareness. They were spotted having dinner together at a McDonald’s in London.

Mr. Spacey and Mr. Clinton, both known as expert raconteurs, appear to enjoy candid conversations and debates about politics and books they’ve read.

At the event in Arkansas last fall, still in character as Mr. Clinton, Mr. Spacey said: “Let me tell you one thing. I love that ‘House of Cards’ — it’s so good.

Ninety-nine percent of what they do on that show is real, and the 1 percent they got wrong is that you could never get an education bill passed that fast.”

Recalling a Folk Giant, and His Contradictions

By ALAN LIGHT

In 1980, Bob Dylan stood on a stage in San Francisco and spoke about the folk singer known as Lead Belly. He explained that Lead Belly had been a prisoner in Texas who was discovered by a musicologist.

“At first, he was just doing prison songs and stuff like that,” Mr. Dylan said. “He’d been out of prison for some time when he decided to do children’s songs, and people said, ‘Oh, why did Lead Belly change?’

Some people liked the old ones. Some people liked the new ones. Some people liked both songs.

“But he didn’t change,” Mr. Dylan concluded emphatically.

“He was the same man.”

Lead Belly, who died in 1949, cast a giant shadow on the music that followed him, directly influencing performers from Mr. Dylan to Kurt Cobain with his versatility, his gravelly voice full of power and emotion, and his pioneering 12-string guitar style. His criminal past provided a blueprint for the presentation of hip-hop and rock artists.

Now comes the release of “Lead Belly: The Smithsonian

WILLIAM GOTTLIEB/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, VIA SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS

Lead Belly sang blues, work songs and pop hits and made recordings of traditional material.

Folkways Collection,” a fivedisc set that is the first comprehensive overview of this monumental, sprawling career.

On March 2, “Legend of Lead Belly,” a new documentary that serves as a companion to the collection, had its premiere on the Smithsonian Channel. An all-star Lead Belly tribute concert is planned for April 25 at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Born Huddie Ledbetter in Louisiana in 1888, Lead Belly sang an astonishing range of styles — blues, work songs, pop hits —

based on the day’s headlines or on age-old games and chants.

Songs associated with Lead Belly, either his own compositions or his recordings of traditional material, have been recorded by vocalists as different stylistically as Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits.

Van Morrison, who has repeatedly invoked the singer’s name as a kind of talisman in his lyrics, wrote: “Lead Belly is still a mighty inspiration. Arguably, more relevant today than ever.”

Lead Belly was in and out of prison in his 20s, most notably receiving a 35-year sentence in 1918 for murdering a relative in a fight over a woman. Governor Pat Morris Neff of Texas, who often brought guests to the prison on Sundays to hear Lead Belly perform, pardoned the singer after he served seven years. But in 1930 Lead Belly was sent to prison in Louisiana after stabbing a man during a fight, and that was not his last arrest or conviction.

In 1933, the musicologists John and Alan Lomax came to that prison as part of an effort to collect folk songs, and they recorded

Lead Belly for the first time.

When he was released the following year, he was hired by John Lomax, and by 1940 he was living in New York, performing as part of the folk music scene.

“Lead Belly still represents the ‘American dream’ — that naïve idea we Americans have that anything is possible,” the young blues-rocker Benjamin Booker said. “Sometimes it is.”

But revisiting his story is also a reminder that his image was marketed as a kind of proto-gangster rapper, leaning heavily on the authenticity of his criminal past. He was often asked to perform wearing overalls or even prison stripes.

“Woody Guthrie was the guy from the Dust Bowl who rode the rails, and Lead Belly had that image of the worker, the prisoner, the oppressed black man down South who could share those tales,” said Robert Santelli, director of the Grammy Museum. “He realized the value of that image and often would play to it, but underneath that he disliked it. He much preferred to be photographed and to play in a suit.”

Business | Money Line

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

GROWING Mobile phone penetration to reach 79% by 2020 in Africa

Tony Chukwunyem

M

obile financial services can play a key role in achieving financial inclusion if business and policy-makers collaborate effectively to establish mobile payment ecosystems that provide access to a wider range of financial services including remittances, Vice President of MasterCard’s Global Channels, Middle East and

How mobile payments can boost financial inclusion, by Mastercard Africa, Zahir Khoja, has said.

Khoja, told journalists, that mobile money operators, financial services providers and government also need to work together to educate consumers and other parties to adopt mobile money.

He noted that mobile devices could boost remittances because they provide the platforms necessary for consumers to conduct safe and convenient electronic payments without having to

travel to a bank branch or a physical money transfer location.

He said: “Let’s start with the ubiquity of mobile phones. Africa is the fastest growing mobile money market in the world with mobile phone penetration expected to reach 79 per cent by 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa.

Next, there’s the maturing of mobile money. Researchers estimate that smartphone penetration in Africa will increase from 17 per cent at the end of 2014 to 34 per-

cent at the end of 2018 – doubling in just four years. This enables mobile money providers to meet the demand for services more sophisticated than airtime top-ups and closed-loop person-toperson transfers, already available today.

“If you think about digital convergence, every device is becoming a commerce device. As payment technologies evolve and mobile devices and data become more affordable, the convergence of solutions and platforms

I

lier obtained the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to conclude the divestment.

According to the statement, Vetiva Capital was the Transaction Advisors while the firm of Okagbue and Ikoli were Solicitors to the transaction.

Keystone Bank’s Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Philip Ikeazor, had hinted on the planned divestment from the African subsidiaries last year while fielding questions from journalists at a media parley.

Keystone Bank, formerly known as Bank PHB, was one of the three banks bridged by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

The two others – Mainstreet Limited (erstwhile Afribank Plc) and Enterprise Bank Limited (previously called Spring Bank Plc) were sold to Skye Bank and Heritage Bank last year following the full divestment of their shareholders, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

O

vernight lending rates rose to 11.25 per cent last Friday compared with 8.25 per cent the previous week after naira liquidity tightened following purchases of Treasury bills and foreign exchange, traders said.

Market liquidity dropped to about N260 billion credit by Thursday, compared with N400 billion last Friday, according to dealers.

The Federal Government, according to Reuters, sold a total of N254.96 billion of debt against bids worth N318.58 billion.

The secured Open Buy Back

Economic Indicators As at M2* CPS* INF IBR MPR 91-day NTB DPR PLR Bonny Light Ext Res**

N16,833,244.57 N16,509,472.5m 8.2 0.0000 13 10.899 7.96 17.01 US$61.39 US$30,87bn

Description

TTM

4.00% 23-Apr-2015 13.05% 16-Aug-2016 15.10% 27-Apr-2017 16.00% 29-Jun-2019 16.39% 27-Jan-2022 10.00% 23-Jul-2030

1.21 2.53 3.22 5.39 7.98 16.47

Tenor (Days) Call 7 30 60 90 180 365

Rate (%) 11.9167 12.3333 12.6667 12.9167 13.2167 13.5000 13.7500

NIBOR

Dec, 2014 Dec, 2013 Feb, 2015 2/5/2014 24/2/2015 11/6/2013 Dec, 2013 Dec, 2013 24/2/2015 4/3/2015 Source:CBN

FGN Bonds Bid Price 90.20 99.25 104.10 109.35 114.15 76.60

Bid 12.10 12.10 12.05

E Offer Yield 13.01 13.40 13.47 13.49 13.44 13.59

Price 90.35 99.40 104.40 109.65 114.45 76.90

Tenor (Months) 1 2 3 6 9 12

Rate (%) 12.1827 12.2737 12.3744 12.8521 12.8535 13.8443

FX

Bid Spot ($/N) 163.28 THE FIXINGS –NIBOR,NITTY and NIFEX of February 6,2014

NITTY

Yield 12.86 13.33 13.35 13.42 13.38 13.53

Offer 163.38

(OBB) rose to around 11 percent from eight per cent the previous week.

The secured fund was two percentage points short of the Central Bank’ of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) 13 per cent benchmark interest rate. Overnight placement stood at 11.5 per cent against 8.5 per cent the previous week.

“We anticipate a slight increase in the cost of borrowing among banks this week because of plans to debit banks’ account for Cash Reserves Requirement (CRR) on Thursday and cash outflow to bond issuance,” one dealer said.

Open-Buy-Back (OBB) Overnight (O/N)

U

Rate (%) 11.33 11.63

NIFEX Spot ($/N)

Bid 163.4000

nterprise Bank has introduced another product designed to cater for unions and cooperatives.

In a statement, the bank said that the introduction of the new product is in line with its commitment to continually delight her growing clientele across the country.

The product, named “Union & Cooperative Loan Scheme,” offers credit facilities to employees who belong to the same union or cooperative association in an organisation.

According to the statement, subscribers to the loan, which features a reasonable interest and a group life as-

surance, will access various sums, which are available with repayment tenures of up to three years.

“The ‘Union & Cooperative Loan Scheme,’ is a product that has been carefully crafted for associations and unions in organisations like local governments, government agencies, schools, health institutions and companies, among others. Such organisations are expected to provide the bank with a level of guarantee to ensure monthly deductions from members of the borrowing association throughout the tenor of the facility among others,” the bank stated.

Union Bank wins Mastercard PoS award

Money Market Offer 11.85 11.85 11.80

mittance solutions.

“Remittances also provide an importance source of funds (cash in), which will further drive usage of electronic payments and grow financial inclusion,” Khoja added.

He contended that using mobile devices to send remittances will also reduce the proportion of funds sent informally in cash and thus minimise the risk of loss through theft, corruption and high charges levied for transporting cash between countries.

Enterprise Bank floats loan scheme

Treasury Bills Maturity Date 08-May-14 07-Aug-14 22-Jan-15

means that every device in Africa can become a commerce device.

Consumers will also demand more channels as to where they can spend their digital currency received from abroad.”

He pointed out, that the size of Nigeria’s remittance market, which, according to him, is the fifth largest in the world, provides a good opportunity for mobile money operators and other financial providers to attract new customers through innovative re-

Interbank rates rise on tightening liquidity

Keystone Bank divests from Ugandan subsidiary n a bid to focus on its growing share of the Nigerian market, Keystone Bank Limited has successfully divested from Orient Bank Ltd, its Ugandan Subsidiary.

A statement by Keystone Bank’s Head of Brand and Communications, Omobolanle Osotule, explained that the erstwhile minority shareholders acquired the lender’s 80 percent stake as part of a consortium led by 8Miles LLP, AN Africa- focused Private Equity Fund.

Keystone Bank had ear-

35

Offer 163.5000 Source: FMDQ

nion Bank of Nigeria Plc said it has won the “Cashless POS Activation Champion” award in the MasterCard Cashless Champion Awards for 2014.

In a statement, the lender said it received the award for recording the highest increase in the activation of its Point of Sale (PoS) terminals as recorded by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System’s (NIBSS) Payments Terminal Service

Aggregator (PTSA) report.

According to the statement, the report indicated that by the end of 2014, Union Bank had attained an “active-todeploy” PoS ratio of 98 per cent, against the 56 per cent industry rate. The bank had also deployed the highest number of PoS terminals with over 3,000 PoS points, representing a 116 per cent growth rate when compared to the third quarter of 2014.

36

Business | Movers, Shakers & Careers

FBN Holdings appoints new board members M r. Omatseyin Akene Ayida and Mrs. Bosede Adebola Osibogun have been appointed as nonexecutive directors on the board of FBN Holdings Plc. Their appointments according to a statement, are in tandem with the company’s strategic focus to become the foremost financial services company in sub-Saharan Africa.

The appointments bring the total number of directors in the FBN Holdings Board to nine.

It was revealed that Ayida and Osibogun were chosen to deepen specialisation in the board.

The appointments are, however, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Group Chief Executive Officer, FBN Holdings PLC, Mr. Bello Maccido, said in a statement that the company was created to retain the diversity of the financial services business of the group, making it the one-stop financial supermarket for all financial services solutions.

Ayida is an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria who started his career with Credit Lyonnais France and rose through the ranks to become the deputy managing director of Credit Lyonnais Nigeria. He led the transformation of Credit Lyonnais to Capital Bank

Council re-appoints Emeribe

Emeribe

M

edical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) has re-appointed Prof Anthony Emeribe as the Registrar/CEO by the Governing Board of the council.

Emeribe, a Professor of Laboratory Hematology and Blood Transfusion Science, according to a statement, was appointed the Registrar/CEO of MLSCN in 2010 for a fouryear renewable tenure which ended in 2014.

International Plc and became the pioneer managing director of the bank.

He has over 20 years experience in banking, spanning project finance, corporate finance, trusts and investments, treasury, corporate banking and human resource.

An alumnus of the prestigious University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and

Politics, he is presently the Managing Director of Ruyat Oil Limited.

He had attended executive programmes in top business schools, including Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and had been on the board of several institutions.

Alo, Osibogun is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and Nigerian Institute

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

New MD for National Salt Company

M

r. Paul Edward Farrer has been appointed managing director by the National Salt Company of Nigeria (NASCON).

Already, the company has sent notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over the appointment.

He was the Managing Partner with Oakleigh Investment before this appointment.

Farrer according to a statement, started his career as a manager with TGI Fridays (Americana Group) in 1996 before joining Steers Holdings - Debonairs Pizza - in 1999 as the area manager.

He joined Famous Brands, South Africa, as the company’s Regional Operations Manager

Farrer

in 2002 and was Country Manager with Innscor International Ghana between February 2003 and November 2004. From 2005 to 2007, he was the Group Chief Operating Officer of Food Concepts Plc. He later became the Group Executive Director of the company in 2010.

Business |Stock Watch

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

37

GTBank, Zenith Bank display strengths OUTPERFORM

resilience of our earnings.”

He said the Group has delivered a respectable profit before tax of N116.39billion in spite of all the headwinds the industry experienced in 2014.

He expressed his sincere appreciation to customers for their loyalty and staff for their commitment and hard work.

“We remain committed to maximising shareholder value and delivering superior and sustainable returns. Our objective is to remain a leading player in the financial services sector whilst expanding our franchise in select, high growth African markets where we believe we have competitive advantage, “ he said,

The lenders have weathered the storm Chris Ugwu

T

he regulatory environment governing the Nigerian banking industry has been characterised by policy changes aimed at supporting the fiscal tightening stance adopted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Regulatory headwinds Some of the key changes, which were made include increase in Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for banks on public sector deposits from 50 per cent to 75 per cent and from 12 per cent to 15 per cent on private sector deposits. Also included is reduction in commission on turnover on current account from N2 in 2014 to N1 per mille presently, among others.

The combined effect of these regulatory changes had significant impact on the operating landscape of banks and consequently their bottom-line. The cash reserve ratio hike forced most banks to revisit their portfolio and asset liability management strategies and in certain cases, led to the collapse of discount houses where exposures were significant.

According to financial analysts, the dip in profits of some banks in the 2013 and 2014 financial year results were attributable to regulatory changes in the operating environment, some of which included reduction and removal of a number of fee income lines such as Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and CoT charges as well as increase in the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s (AMCON’s) levy from 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent amongst others.

Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc like any other bank were not insulated to the challenges regulatory headwinds brought to the banking industry. This was evident as the actions, like any other, had the effect of putting downward pressure on the banks’ bottom line.

However, the two banks have weathered the storm going by their 2014 full year results, which showed a strong and positive performance across all financial indices. It also affirms the duo’s position as the most profitable financial services providers in Nigeria.

While GTB maintains number one in the banking sub sector and fourth most capitalised stocks, Zenith Bank ranks number two in the sub-sector and fifth in terms of market capitalisation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The two banks are also noted to be early filers of results to beat the post-listing requirements of the market regulators.

The pair blazed the trail to also be the first to release their earning results on the same day (last

MD, Zenith Bank, Peter Amangbo

Agbaje

Share price movement of GTB

Zenith

2014 April

26.23

22.70

May

29.92

25.40

June

28.75

25.05

July

2.90

25.08

Sept

29.75

24.50

Oct

26.08

21.00

Nov

25.00

20.52

Dec

25.18

18.41

2015 Jan

20.03

16.01

Feb

23.50

17.60

March

24.28

20.94

Thursday).

Market watchers believe that in spite of decline in overall market indices, market sentiment for the shares of banks will be gingered and remain upbeat as bargain hunters will take position on the back of positive results and proposed dividend payments.

Share prices While GTB’s share price, which closed at N26.23 per share in April 30, 2014, dropped by N1.95 or 8.03 per cent to close at N24.28 as at last Friday, Zenith Bank equally declined from N22.70 to N20.94 during the period under review, representing a dip of N1.76 or 8.40 per cent.

Just as other quoted firms in the local bourse are facing depression in share prices, market sentiments for the shares of the banks have dwindled relatively due to challenging operating environment.

GTBank’s financials The Group delivered an im-

The two banks are also noted to be early filers of results

pressive profit before tax of N116.39billion, an increase of 9.30billion or 8.7 per cent over the N107.09billion reported in December 2013, and gross earnings of N278.52billion, representing a surge of 14.8 per cent from the N242.67billion recorded in the same period of 2013. In terms of value creation for its shareholders, the lender recorded pre-tax ROAE of 32.94 per cent and ROAA of 5.22 per cent respectively.

The bank’s balance sheet remained strong with 12.4 per cent growth in total assets, from N2.10trillion in 2013 to N2.36trillion in the year under review. The loan book growth increased by 27.12 per cent to close at N1.28trillion from N1.01trillion in 2013 driven primarily by growth of the foreign currency loan book on the back of the 2013 $400million Eurobond issue. On the back of continued growth of the bank’s retail franchise, customer deposits grew by 13.3 per cent from N1.43 trillion in 2013 to N1.62 trillion in 2014. The bank continued to maintain a disciplined and prudent approach to loan growth in line with its risk management framework.

The bank’s non-performing loans (NPL) ratio remained low at 3.15 per cent, down from 3.58 per cent in the comparative period of 2013. On the backdrop of this result, the lender is proposing total-year dividend of N1.75k per share (inclusive of the 25 kobo interim dividend paid at half year 2014).

Looking ahead Commenting on the financial results, Managing Director/ CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Segun Agbaje, said that the bank’s financial performance in 2014 attested to the inherent soundness of “our strategy and

Zenith Bank’s financials Zenith Bank posted a profit before tax of N119.796 billion for the financial year ended Decembers 31, 2014, up by 12.8 per cent from N106.209 billion during the corresponding period of last year.

According to it’s filing with the Exchange, profit after tax for the period under review, was N99.445 billion, up by 8.6 per cent from N95.312 billion for the same period in 2013. Gross earnings grew by 14.76 per cent y/y to N403.343 billion as against N351.470 recorded a year earlier.

While funding income grew by a modest 3.9 per cent y/y to N63 billion, non-interest income more than doubled y/y to N29.7 billion. The latter explains why profit before provisions was as strong at N92.8 billion (+27% y/y), more than offsetting negatives such as loan loss provision increase of 60 per cent y/y, operating expenses increase of 24 per cent y/y and a reduction to zero of discontinued operations, such that PBT still grew handsomely by 19.7 per cent y/y.

The Board has proposed a final dividend of N1.75, unchanged from the amount paid in 2013FY. Analysts’ opinion Analysts at FBN Capital while reacting to the Zenith Bank results said, “All in all, the results were ahead of expectations. Zenith delivered an ROAE of 19 per cent for 2014. We would expect consensus estimates for 2015 to move up slightly.

“On the back of the results, we would expect the market to react positively, with the caveat that concerns about the impact of the fallout from the decline in oil prices are likely to linger a bit. Zenith shares have outperformed the index this year, gaining 3.2 per cent compared with a loss of -12.4 percent for the ASI. We rate Zenith Bank shares Neutral. Our estimates are under review.”

Conclusion With these positive performance indices, loyalty of investors, which had slowed down following market depression since the third quarter of last year are expected to be reengineered and is hoped that other lenders would weather the storm.

38

CPS: Bauchi to enlist workers p.39

PESSIMISM Underwriting business outlook getting hazy Sunday Ojeme

A

t the twilight of 2014, analysts had resolved that the years ahead would be auspicious for the Nigerian underwriting milieu considering the pace at which foreign investors had raced to partner local insurers.

Potential Putting the fast growing middle class into consideration and the improved economic outlook, especially with the ratings of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and individual analysts, foreign insurers in the last three years have seen Nigeria as a fertile ground for growing the future of their businesses.

Specifically, a report by analysts at Reuters in December 2014 indicated that a growing middle class in sub-Saharan Africa was enticing European and South African insurers to buy local firms, focusing mainly on life insurance and pensions, in the face of mature markets and strong competition at home.

Hazy outlook However, Aon Risk Solutions, a unit of Aon plc, while taking a look at critical events of early 2015, observed that cheap oil and Middle East violence would probably continue to take their toll as the year goes on, according to a new projection of geopolitical hotspots while lower overall prices for commodities may hurt the economies of resource-rich nations.

The report on its annual Political Risk Map is intended to provide the British insurer’s clients with answers to common questions about where it is getting safer and more dangerous, to do business.

According to the report, mining- and energy-heavy nations in Africa — Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Nigeria — all face weaker incomes and likely spending cuts.

Also, the horrors of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, are top threats to regional stability. Porous borders and immature civic institutions in parts of the Middle East and Africa make nations there particularly sensitive to violence.

It said: “There isn’t a lot of good news. Just seven of 163 developing countries reduced their political risk since last year and most of those, like Zimbabwe and Laos, still have plenty of room for improvement. Twelve countries face greater strain this year, including Libya, Haiti and Pakistan.

“The last 12 months have just been catastrophic country-riskwise,” said Curtis Ingram, vice president of the political-risk practice. It’s almost like “a vacuum has opened up and a lot of bad

Insurance

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NAICOM approves 50 broking firms’ 2013 accounts p.39

Risk analysts cut Nigeria’s insurance growth forecast

Shoderu

actors have moved in,” in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, Nigeria, Iraq and elsewhere.

Aon and research partner, Roubini Global Economics, founded by the economist, Nouriel Roubini, evaluate each nation across nine categories of risk, such as foreign currency exchange and capital conditions, law and regulation and political interference and violence.

Aon’s position is also not far from that of the President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Ayodapo Shoderu, who believes that the current crash in the nation’s currency and falling oil prices at the international market will adversely affect the insurance industry, given the fact that insurance thrives when the economy is robust.

Stakeholders’ view Shoderu believes that there is the likelihood of bulls run on the already fragile equities of quoted insurance companies, affecting their solvency while at the level of the common man, the devalued naira will reduce the disposable income of Nigerians, further precluding them to care less about undertaking insurance.

He maintained that the present challenge should make national policy makers to be more ingenious in managing the precarious economic state while the onus is also on practitioners to be more prudent and more resourceful in running their businesses.

“On the part of the political class, my take is that the time has come for Nigeria to break fast the façade of mono economy and develop other latent mineral resources that the

Chairman, NIA, GUS Wiggle

Prior to Aon’s cut into Nigeria’s optimism, previous report had hinged the attraction for foreign investors on the rapid economic growth in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, which increased the number of people with money to spend on insurance

Commissioner for Insurance, Fola Daniel

nation presently has in abundance. We must also continually put in place strategies to promote the nation’s industrial sector so as to transform our nation from consumption-based to production-based nation,” he added.

He noted that the Council was concerned about the inclement economic environment, which Nigeria has found herself in view of the dwindling oil prices in the global market, adding that it was most distressing that the price of the nation’s crude had dropped by about 40 per cent from the initial projected cost of $140 per barrel to about $62.

Shoderu further observed the implication to be of a great pressure on the naira as many foreign investors would feel unsafe in the equity market, making many of them to divest and take out their monies.

“Similarly, our foreign reserves have continued to go down, given the fact that oil is the main revenue earner of government as the nation runs a mono product economy. The only option that is open to the CBN in order to salvage the situation is to embark on devaluation of the naira as already being done,” he said.

Stunted expectation Prior to Aon’s cut into Nigeria’s optimism, previous report had hinged the attraction for foreign investors on the rapid economic growth in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, which increased the number of people with money to spend on insurance to protect their wealth, while regulatory changes were encouraging the growth of domestic savings and

pensions.

It further stated that several major companies, including Swiss Re, Prudential and Sanlam were buying insurers in Africa, with the focus on life and pensions products in the more economically advanced sub-Saharan countries.

Within the same period, precisely in August, a Standard Bank report said that while the size of the ‘middle class’ in sub-Saharan Africa might have been overstated in some studies, growth rates were nevertheless dramatic.

Its study of 11 sub-Saharan economies concluded that the ‘middle class’ had risen from 4.6 million to 15 million since 2000 and would be over 40 million by 2030, with Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, leading the way.

The report said: “Insurance penetration or premiums written as a percentage of gross domestic products was 11.5 per cent in Britain in 2013, but just 0.6 per cent in Nigeria. For life insurance, penetration was 8.8 per cent versus 0.2 per cent, according to Swiss Re data.

“Life insurance premium volume in dollar terms rose 18.6 per cent last year in Kenya, 13.8 in Angola and 13.5 in Nigeria, compared with a 3.9 per cent rise in Britain.

“The level of life products and penetration is very low,” said Davinder Sikand, head of Africa at private equity firm, Abraaj.

“There are a lot of opportunities to develop products to fit the needs of the people.”

One of the latest deals was French insurer, AXA’s $250 million purchase last month of a majority stake in Nigeria’s Mansard Insurance, which offers life and general insurance.

Business | Insurance

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

EASE It is now easier for pensioners to handle their commitments Sunday Ojeme

A

s Bauchi State gover nment grapples with how to pacify its retirees over their N11 billion backlogs of pension arrears, the state’s Head of Service, Abdon Gin, has disclosed the state’s preparedness to register its workers in the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The decision, according to the HOS, is to ensure prompt payment of pension and gratuity entitlements to retirees.

He said that a committee had already been inaugurated to that effect and had been working for the take-off of the scheme.

Gin said that the scheme, if constituted, would solve the problem of gratuity and pension payments which remained a challenge, especially for states that were yet to key into the scheme.

He further said that rapid turnover of retirees and increase in pension

CPS: Bauchi to enlist workers by the governor, Malam Isa Yuguda, grew the liability.

While acknowledging that the state owed its retirees a gratuity backlog of N11 billion, he said that an average of 50 civil servants retired every month from the state’s civil service, stressing that the development led to high number of pensioners in the state, which currently stood at 7,192.

He said: “Also of importance is the fact that workers no longer alter their dates of first appointment or date of birth, as was the case in the past.”

The HoS pointed out that the increasing number of retirees, coupled with the ever-dwindling resources from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, had led to the gratuity backlog, adding that steps were being taken to off-set the backlog.

He said that Yuguda had done a lot for pensioners in the state from the inception of his administration in 2007 to date.

“On assumption of office in 2007, Yuguda paid

NAICOM approves 50 broking firms’ 2013 accounts

T

he National Insurance Commission has approved the 2013 accounts of 50 insurance broking firms out of over 500 registered members of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB).

Disclosing this in Lagos last week, the Director of Supervision, NAICOM, Nicholas Opara, said that not more than 200 broking firms had submitted their accounts to the commission as a result of difficulties they were encountering with adapting to the newly introduced International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

He pointed out that the difficulties encountered by the brokers compelled the commission to organise training on IFRS for them, stressing that the training would help bring the brokers to IFRS standard.

He said several of the accounts submitted failed to meet the required standards, adding that the delay in the approval of accounts is detrimental to the operations of the brokers as it would affect their marketing and renewal of licenses.

He said the training

39

is one more effort by NAICOM to help brokers transit to IFRS. He noted that the training may be the last to be conducted for the brokers, having done several in the past.

“We are worried that each time we do training for brokers, the Chief Executive Officers attend. But for this programme, we insisted that not just the Chief Executive Officers, but their accountants and auditors should attend,” he said.

He noted that the major challenge clogging the easy transition to IFRS by brokers, is that, majority of them do not have competent accountants to prepare their accounts.

Worried by the complaint made by NAICOM on brokers’ accounts, leadership of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance brokers (NCRIB) set up a committee to help address the challenges faced by members. But it seemed the efforts of the committee had not really helped resolved the problems faced by the brokers as the NAICOM said several of them are just cutting and pasting their accounts.

N600 million pension and gratuity arrears he inherited from past administration.

“Also, in November 2008, the governor approved an upward re-

view of pension rates from N4,500 to N7,900 and increased the monthly allocation of Local Government Pension Board from N102 million to N141 million.

“In 2013, the governor further increased the minimum pension from N7,900 to N12,900 for the state and the local government pensioners.

“So far, over N239 mil-

lion is being expended monthly on pensioners and as at today, there is no arrear of pension in the civil service because pensioners are being paid when due,” Gin said.

L-R: Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka; Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore; Chibeze Anyafulu and Alxis Vovx of Total Nigeria Plc, during a visit by delegation of major oil marketers to Chidoka in Abuja.

PTAD begins pensioners’ verification in South-South

T

he Director-General, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Mrs. Nellia Mayshak, has announced the commencement of the verification exercise of Federal Civil Service Pensioners in the South South zone of the country.

Mayshak said in a statement that the verification exercise was aimed at bringing pension administration closer to pensioners in the southsouth states in order to make life easier for them.

She added that PTAD had commenced the monthly payment of 33 per cent pension in-

P

ensioners who retired from NICON Insurance Plc and Nigeria Reinsurance have called on the Federal Government to come to their rescue over non-payment of their benefits 10 years after the two companies were taken over by a private investor.

In a letter addressed to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the pensioners said that they were yet to be paid their pension benefits and urged the minister to intervene.

They expressed disappointment over the minister’s

crease in October 2014 as well as outstanding arrears successfully paid by the Federal Government to all pensioners in December 2014.

Mayshak also restated that the Pension Directorate had commenced the national pensioners’ biometrics verification exercise, starting first with police pensioners throughout the federation, adding that the agency had constantly done follow up on banks on payments and verification status of pensioners account to ensure prompt payment and better pension management system in the country.

The PTAD boss pointed out that since its inception, the directorate had recorded significant payment improvements as a result of the measurers put in place to remove the duplication of names on the same account and clearing of the pension payroll of ghost pensioners.

She noted that PTAD would put good structures in place to sustain the services provided by the organisation and ensure effective pension administration in the country.

Mayshak further called on retired federal civil service pensioners to avail themselves of the opportunities.

NICON, Nigeria-Re pensioners seek audience with FG inability to grant them audience even after two reminder letters to her.

In the letter signed by the Chairman of the pensioners association, Edwin Nwagwu and other executive members, they pleaded with the minister to grant members audience.

They said: “It is our hope and expectation that the minister finds time to grant us audience to enable her

feel our pulse and that of our colleagues, the terrible situations we all are passing through as a result of nonpayment of our pensions benefits for the past 10 years.”

NICON Insurance Plc and the Nigeria-Re insurance Corporation were government institutions privatised respectively by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in 2005 and have been in the control of a private management.

40

Business | Financial Market News

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Business | Financial Market News

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

41

LCCI: Private firms’ listing bills’ll destroy free enterprise MOTIVATION Group seeks creation of an incentive regime for voluntary listing Stories by Chris Ugwu

T

he proposed Private Companies’ Conversion and Listing Bill presently at the National Assembly will destroy the concept of free enterprise in Nigeria, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said.

Besides, the chamber noted that it has the undesirable consequence of disincentivising foreign investment in Nigeria.

These were part of the communiqué issued by the association on the Bill and made available to newsmen at the weekend.

The bill seeks to provide for private companies with shareholders’ funds in excess of N40 billion, annual turnover over N80 billion or its total assets over N80 billion to convert to public liability company and get its shares listed in the stock exchange market, thereby promoting growth for both the com-

pany and the Nigerian capital market.

LCCI, in the communiqué signed by its Director General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said that the bill signified a drastic shift in Nigeria’s policy on foreign direct investment, adding that a lot of companies had come into Nigeria in the belief that Nigeria operates a free enterprise system and guarantees them the right to own and repatriate their hard earned funds.

The association noted that in the face of falling oil prices and the need for government to generate more revenue from taxes, the tax reliefs proposed by the

NSE advocates gender equality

T

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has stressed the importance of advancing gender equality in workplaces.

Executive Director, Business Development, NSE, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, stated this at the weekend during the commemoration of International Women’s Day on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

He said that gender equality was germane to boosting productivity in any economy.

The Exchange, in partnership with United Nations Women, United Nations Global Compact, the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative and Access Bank Plc, hosted a Closing Gong Ceremony last Friday, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and International Women’s Day. This is in line with the

Exchange’s commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

Jalo-Waziri commended the organisers and partners for investing their time and resources in advancing gender equality and celebrating women.

He said: “Achieving gender equality is important for workplaces not only because it is fair and the right thing to do, it is also vitally important to the bottom line of a business and to the productivity of our nation.

“Private sector plays an essential and pivotal role in supporting women’s economic empowerment all around the world. At The Nigerian Stock Exchange, we are making it happen, as we have women filling 32 per cent of the workforce and we are still working at improving that figure.”

Sounding the closing gong of the Exchange, the UN Women Country Programme Director, Dr.

Grace Ongile, said: “As we mark this year’s International Women’s Day, I wish to remind us that it’s time to stimulate national and international government agencies into reframing, reviewing, where applicable, policies that will realise gender equity and equality.

We hope this closing gong ceremony for gender equality will be the starting point of a fast tracked journey to equality in rights and opportunity for Nigerian women.”

Similar events are being held with the SSE partner Exchanges across the globe. On the 10th and 11th of March, 2015, Women Empowerment Principles stakeholders will build on the momentum of these global events by bringing together leaders from business, government, the UN and civil society for the 2015 WEPs event, which is titled Unlimited Potential: Business Partners for Gender Equality.

bill to companies that comply with its mandatory conversion and listing requirements was not desirous at this critical moment, especially in view of the fact that the companies that would benefit from the relief constitute about 32 per cent of diligent tax payers in the country.

It stated that the private companies’ conversion and listing bill 2013 contravened the provisions of existing laws in Nigeria, which encourages the right to own property, movable or immovable, as well as the right against expropriation of private property as contem-

plated by sections 44 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and section 25 of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Act 2004 respectively.

The chamber noted that the bill should be rejected in its entirety and should not be allowed to see the light of day.

It also called on the National Assembly to discard the Bill and take steps to amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004.

The chamber advocated the creation of an incentive regime that would encourage voluntary listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Lafarge Africa removed from 10,000 units’ price movement Chris Ugwu

T

he Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has removed Lafarge Africa Plc from the list of 10,000 units’ market trade price movement equities.

NSE, in its weekly report, noted that the removal was in pursuance to Rules and Regulations governing Dealing Members Amendments and Additions (VI) Article 100: Pricing methodology, which states: “For purposes of calculating price movements and price limits, equity securities traded on the Exchange shall be classified as follows: Group A shall consist of equities with a Primary Market Maker that are not classified in Group B; and Group B shall consist of equities with a Primary Market Maker that are priced above N100.00 per share for at least four of the last six months; or new security listings that are priced above N100.00 at the time of listing on the Exchange’ “WAPCO has traded below

N100 for the past four months within the past six months’ timeframe. Therefore, it has been removed from the list of 10,000 units’ market trade price movement equities,” the Exchange noted.

The company closed at N89.00 per share at the weekend.

Lafarge Africa Plc, formerly Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc, said recently that its unit, Nigerian Cement Holdings B.V. (NCH), had increased its stakes in United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM) to 85 per cent by acquiring another 15 per cent stake.

In an issuer’s announcement obtained from the Exchange’s website, the company said: “That Nigerian Cement Holdings B.V.(NCH), 50 per cent affiliate of Large Africa Plc, has completed the acquisition of the first 15 per cent tranche stake in Unicem. NCH has 70 per cent share interest in Unicem and upon this acquisition, NCH has now increased its stake to 85 per cent.”

42

Business | Interview

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

30% broadband access target in Mr. James Agada is the Chief Technology Officer of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, a fast-growing Information and Communication Technology Conglomerate with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Cameroon. It has a turnover of about $130 million and staff strength of about 650 professionals. In this interview with KUNLE AZEEZ, he speaks on the growth of ICT industry and what the company is doing in the area of deployment of innovative technologies to engender sustainable growth for businesses in Nigeria. Excerpts: What is your assessment of Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology industry in terms of growth in the past year?

It is very difficult to assess the growth of Information and Communications Technology sector because ICT is really an enabler of the economy. By itself, it cannot just grow. It has to grow because the rest of the economy is growing, education is growing, banking is growing, commerce generally is growing; because demand for transparency is growing and also because a lot of things are happening, all of which are being driven by Information Technology in terms of new technologies and new means of interactions. All these things combined are what make IT sector what it is.

For now, we have large push for cashless transaction and it is creating a niche for the banks in terms of the technologies that enable cashless transactions to happen and those transactions are also creating some problems for the players and new technologies are also needed to address such challenges. So, when you put all these together in the last 10 years and you see all that has happened by looking at the explosion in smartphone usage, increase in Internet usage and development in the banking sector and so on, one can say that the ICT sector has been well lifted in the last years.

Agada

it has brought more is the visibility to what the industry is doing.

I would say it has been a result of activities in other sectors, which are being enabled by ICT and as such, ICT has to grow.

Can this growth in the ICT sector be linked to government policy?

You are asking a political question. Well, what the Federal Government, through the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has been able to do has been one, to encourage demand for e-government itself.

When there is an increase in demand for ICT-related products and services, the supply tries to match up. If government, which has a much bigger scope of activities, embraces ICT, then, the industry has to grow to match up in delivering to the level of activities in government circles. In that respect, what the ministry has been doing is to make government understand the importance of ICT in services delivery for governance and its use in the economy has definitely had an impact.

Nigeria has a target of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018.

Do you think the country is on course to achieving this target?

The question I can throw back on our broadband policy is whether it can be done and, for me, I believe strongly that it can be done. In three years, I can tell you that I can achieve 100 per cent broadband penetration, but the question is, who is going to pay for the services because you need to build out the broadband infrastructure. While people say we have six per cent broadband penetration, I don’t get to know what they mean by this because, in many places in Nigeria, we have the 2G. I think achieving the 30 per cent target is doable, I think it is a question of who is trying to build the infrastructure. I believe that sometimes this year, we are going to do something about broadband too, which will positively impact the industry.

Has this become a transformation for the industry?

Well, I wouldn’t say that this alone would be the transformation in the industry. I think what

What is the new business focus of the company in pursuing its ICT development agenda?

I think a company is like a human being - it has to evolve and,

I think achieving the 30 per cent target is doable, I think it is a question of who is trying to build the infrastructure

more so, in the ICT sector, where new things happen every day. If you look at what has happened in our economy and globally in the area of IT, you will find that we have moved from bigger computing devices to smart devices.

But now, it is more personalised. The smartphone that you are walking around with is more powerful than all the computers that were used to direct the space mission to the moon. That your smartphone is powerful, but you have it in your pocket. What we looked for is that overtime, we have interacted with many global IT companies such as Infosys, Microsoft, Dell and so on and what we got to realise, a long time ago, is that there is a difference between a company and an institution. For you to become an institution, you need to exist for a long time.

What we told ourselves at CWG is that we needed to build an institution that can last for a long time.

For you to be able to do that, then you have to define yourself to represent something that transcends making money. So, we were able to define what we are and how we go about our goal. Invariably, we have defined ourselves and said that we are focused on being dynamic in deploying useful technologies that can engender sustainable growth and that becomes the real basis for CWG 2.0 platform, which is cloud technology that we are using to

impact the over 17 million SMEs in the country by helping them to take advantage of innovative technology solutions we offer them to generate more sales and contribute more to the economy.

The typical thing is that SME does not have a lot of money to spend on IT in buying servers and all the paraphernalia that go with that and so, in order to take advantage of technology, the current environment dictates that we should see IT as a Service and you pay for the services as an SME as you use the service.

What are the opportunities inherent in businesses embracing digital opportunities for expanding their market?

The fears people have about online security is understandable because there is a lot of security issue on the Internet, but remember, there is also a lot of security issues on the road. There is a lot of security issue in your market: robbers can attack you. Can’t they?

Yes, they do. At least, they can rob you of your goods. So, if you think because of security issues unleashed by hackers and the likes, you don’t go on the Internet, you are just robbing yourself of the advantages and if I go and talk about the advantages, a big advantage is the ability to scale your business very quickly.

In Nigeria today, people are or-

Business | Interview

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

43

Nigeria achievable – CWG boss B I O D ATA Education: University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Nigeria; MBA, International Graduate School of Management (IESE), Navara, Spain; LBS Certificates: BSc, Electronic Engineering; MSc, Electronic Engineering with specialisation in digital systems; MBA Work Experience: Over 22 years ICT industry experience in consulting, software development, implementation and support; CEO, ExpertEdge; Coordinator, R&D,CWG Plc; protem President, Lagos Chapter, Nigeria Computer Society; CTO, CWG

dering shoes and other goods from Senegal and the manufacturers will come here and deliver to their customers. How do you think those people get to know about the shoes in Senegal? This can only be through the Internet. If you are a small business and you want to grow, the Internet democratises your access to the market. It is no longer the question of ‘I am small, who will know me’.

You can jump well ahead of established companies. Not only will you get known, it also creates a platform for you to have access to areas almost impossible to reach with the traditional means.

So, whatever you are selling, you can, for instance, sell it through email or through SMS on phone and good enough we have over 139 million telephone lines being used by Nigerians. Many of those phones are actually smartphones and nothing stops you from selling to somebody in Sokoto and other far places once they can reach you and you can reach them through the Internet.

So, there are limitless opportunities in the use of digital platforms to expand the scope of your business. It is a question of how creatively you are able to utilise the Internet to achieve your business growth objective.

How do individuals and businesses, as Internet users, navigate their way in the face of increasing cyber-criminal activities so that they are not attacked online?

For me, the issue of cyber security is looked at from this angle: anything you put on the computer, just regard it as something that somebody else can have access to. Cyber security becomes an issue of what can you tolerate.

But if we ask ourselves, take for instance, you build your house, you buy keys, you put the keys. Do you know if the man who made the keys has spare keys? But it is a matter of faith that you lock it up and take the keys away with you in the hope that the house is secure. So, if the man makes the door and makes the key, is it also possible that he can also make a super spare key? Possible, you will

You cannot because of the security issue on the Internet say you will not leverage the huge opportunities available on the Internet to comply with trend in the 21st Century and beyond

Agada

say. But does this stop you from using and locking your doors? No. This same thing applies to the use of the Internet and just as Mark Zukerberg says, ‘if you make anything that you don’t want people to know about, then, don’t put it anywhere, because if you do, it can get online’.

Though recently, we heard of various efforts being made by government to pass Cyber Security Bill into law. This can only specify the punishment for anybody caught perpetrating cybercrimes but the most important thing is for the user of the Internet to protect him or herself from being attacked, deploy advanced security solutions and follow processes. However, cyber security issue is a global phenomenon, as cases of cybercrimes are also rampant in other developed countries. But as I said earlier, you cannot because of the security issue on the Internet say you will not leverage the huge opportunities available on the Internet to comply with trend in the 21st Century and beyond.

What has been the level of traffic on the state-of-the-art data centres CWG launched in 2013?

The traffic is growing, though, it is not very high yet, it is not full.

We actually have two data centres.

One is full and we are starting to fill the second one. The second one is still empty for now, but within this first quarter, we have some customers coming on there.

Can you let us into your share of the market in the area of hardware

and software deployment in the banking sector?

If you start with the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), we probably have between 30 and 35 per cent of installed-base in the country. Then, out of that installed-base, we are supporting about the same figure. If you look at the banking application side, for the big commercial banks, we are probably and slightly above 50 per cent of the market in terms of money deposit banks. If you are to check around and say the number of branches, we are in 70 per cent.

In terms of the hardware, we are providing the big central servers; we are providing that to roughly 30 per cent of the banks. We are also providing the end-user support and probably between 10 and 15 per cent of all banks are getting that kind of service and our services are all over Nigeria.

What value has your being listed as a public company in 2013 had on you as a company?

One immediate value is credibility and visibility. It is one thing to have a company and another thing to have a company on the exchange with local and international shareholders. If somebody wants to research on CWG, the information is public. So, that allows you to also be able to discuss with big companies, partners and investors that can work with the organisation, because you are a known entity and they can pick up your annual reports to see your book and determine if they can do business with you or not.

So, it gives us credibility and vis-

ibility. It also affords us the opportunity to raise funds, provide opportunity for investors to take right investment decisions based on facts and figure, as well as forcing us to comply with corporate governance rules to ensure that company survives for a long time.

Your share price has been going down in recent times, what are you doing about this?

Well, I think it should be true.

The numbers are there, but I’m I worried about it? No! Do I think about it? No! Why? It is because we are focused on building the company; we are not focused on managing the share prices. If you are focused on managing the share price, you end up doing a lot of sharp practices, which are actually short-term. Our belief, which is also shared by a lot of value investors, is that, in the long run, the price of the share will catch up with the value of the company.

So, if you work on increasing the intrinsic value of the company, eventually they would normalise; if you are focused on managing your short-term share prices, you won’t know that it is possible to have a company that does not have anything on ground and the share price is going up. Rather than managing the share prices, we are trying to build and position the business in such a way that, in the next five years, we see a 40 per cent times growth and by then, whatever the stock prices are would be what people coming to the market are willing to buy and pay for by then.

44 Travel Advisory

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

International Flight Schedule Air France

Destination Abuja- Paris Paris-Lagos Paris-PHC PHC-Paris Paris –Abuja Lagos –Paris

Flight No. AF 513 AF 3822 AF514 AF513 AF514 AF3849

Departure 23.55hrs 10.55hrs 11:00hrs 21:20hrs 11:00hrs 23:55hrs

Arrival 6:05hrs 17:15hrs 19:15hrs 6:05hrs 17:00hrs 6:20hrs

Amsterdam-Lagos Lagos-Amsterdam

KL587 KL588

13:15hrs 23:05hrs

20:00hrs 05:50hrs

KLM

ARIK AIRLINES

Lagos-London London-Lagos Lagos-New York

W3 101 W3 102 W3 107 (Mon, Wed , Fri) New York-Lagos W3 108 (Tues,Thurs, Fri) Lagos-Johannesburg W3 103 Johannesburg-Lagos W3 104 Lagos-Douala - (Tues, Wed ,Thur) Douala-Lagos - (Tues, Wed, Thur) Lagos-Accra Accra-Lagos

Abuja-Accra Accra-Abuja Lagos-Freetown Freetown-Lagos Lagos-Banjul Banjul-Lagos Lagos-Dakar Dakar-Lagos

-(Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun) -(Mon, Wed, Fri) -(Daily) - (Wed, Fri, Sun) -(Wed, Fri, Sun) -(Wed, Fri, Sun) -(Wed, Fri, Sun) -(Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri,Sat) -(Tue,Wed, Fri,Sat,Sun)

BRITISH AIRWAYS

London-Lagos Lagos-London Abuja-London Abuja-London

07:00hrs 20:05hrs 20:10hrs 11:45hrs

Lagos-Cairo Cairo-Lagos

MS 876 MS 875

14:25hrs 08:30hrs

22:20hrs 13:30hrs

EGYPT AIR

KENYA AIRWAYS

16:00hrs

Lagos-Kigali

11:15hrs

16:45hrs

10:45hrs 09:35hrs 11:10hrs 13:25hrs 07:20hrs 17:00hrs 08:05hrs 13:35hrs 18:00hrs

hrs 14:44hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs

AWB 201 (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) AWB 202 (Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun)

14:00hrs

17:30hrs

22:35hrs 15:10hrs

06:00hrs 21:20hrs

17:00hrs 06:00hrs 08:00hrs 17:00hrs 08:00hrs 15:20hrs 21:00hrs

hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs

01:00hrs

hrs

3:00hrs 14:00hrs

8:00hrs 19:00hrs

EK 7821 (Sun-Sat) EK 7822 EK 7831 EK 7811 EK 761

21:30hrs 14:40hrs 07:35hrs 14:20hrs 23:55hrs

07:40hrs 01:05hrs 12:50hrs 19:45hrs 10:30hrs

Lagos-Doha Flight Doha-Lagos Flight

QR 1414 (daily) QR 1415

14:55hrs 07:20hrs

23:45hrs 13:35hrs

Lagos-Atlanta Atlanta-Lagos

DL053 DL 054

22:15hrs 5:15hrs

05:32hrs 16:15hrs

Lagos-Houston Houston-Lagos

UA 143 UA 142

10:10hrs 19:10hrs

6:05hrs 15.15hrs

Lagos - Addis Ababa ET900 Addis Ababa - Lagos ET901 Abuja - Addis Ababa ET910 Addis Ababa - Abuja ET911 Enugu - Addis Ababa ET930 Addis Ababa - Enugu ET931 Kano - Addis Ababa ET930 Addis Ababa - Kano ET931

13:15hrs 09:00hrs 13:40hrs 09:40hrs 12:00hrs 09:20hrs 14:05hrs 09:20hrs

20:25hrs 12:15hr 20:10hrs 12:20hrs 20:50hrs 11:15hrs 20:50hrs 13:20hrs

Lagos-Madrid Madrid-Lagos

IB 3337 IB 3336

22:55hrs 16:00hrs

5:25+1hrs 20:20hrs

Lagos-Casablanca Casablanca-Lagos

AT738 AT 737

06:25hrs 02:15hrs

09:55hrs 6:00hrs

air maroc

20.45hrs 09:50hrs 09.20 hrs 06:30hrs

12:30hrs

Lagos-Dubai Lagos-Dubai Dubai-Lagos Dubai-Lagos Abuja-Dubai

IBERIA

Abu Dhabi-Lagos

EY 0672 (Sunday) (Monday) (Saturday) EY 955

19:35hrs 23:45hrs

MEA 571 MEA 572

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

Lagos- Abu Dhabi

ETIHAD AIRWAYS

12:30hrs 18:00hrs

to Lagos)

UNITED AIRLINES

17:00hrs 4:40hrs

KQ 533 KQ 534

11:55hrs 5:50hrs 14:35hrs 06:00hrs

DELTA AIRLINES

11:00hrs 22:40hrs

Lagos-Nairobi Nairobi-Lagos

17:55hrs 00:00hrs 09:00hrs 22:40hrs

QATAR AIRWAYS

VS 652 VS 651

18:30hrs 05:15hrs 05:30hrs

BA075 BA074 BA 082 BA 083

EMIRATES AIRLINES

Lagos-London London-Lagos

12:00hrs 21:30hrs 23:50hrs

Middle East Airlines (Two flights weekly (Tues & Friday)

Lebanon-Lagos Lagos-Lebanon

VIRGIN ATLANTIC

RwandAir

Kigali-Lagos

Turkish Airlines

Lagos-Istanbul Nairobi-Lagos

332 333

Air Côte d'Ivoire Lagos to Abidjan Abidjan to Lagos

HF 851 (Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sun) HF 852 (Mon,Wed, Thurs, Sat)

ASKY AIRLINES

Destination Lome to Abuja Abuja-Lome- Kinshasa Kinshasa-Abuja Abuja-Lome Lome-Lagos Lagos-Libreville Libreville-Kinshasa Kinshasa-Libreville Libreville-Lagos Lagos-Lome Lome-Lagos Lagos-Libreville Libreville-Brazaville Brazaville-Libreville Brazzaville-Lagos Lagos-Lome

10:10hrs

10:50hrs

19:20hrs

21.50hrs

Flight No. KP 032 (Tue-Fri) KP 032 ( Tue-Fri)

Departure Arrival 14:00hrs 15:55hrs 16:30hrs 18:15hrs

KP 033 (Wed-Sat) KP O33 (Wed-Sat) KP O40 (Sun-Sat) KP 040 (Sun-Sat) KP 040 (Sun-Sat) KP041 (Tue-Sat) KP 041 (Tue-Sat) KP 041 (Tue-Sat) KP O44 (Tue-Fri) KP 044 (Tue-Fri) KP 044 (Tue-Fri) KP O45 (Wed-Sat) KP 045 (Wed-Sat) KP 045 (Wed-Sat)

8:20hrs 10:35hrs 13:00hr 14:40hrs 17:00hrs 7:15hrs 9:35hrs 11:55hrs 13:10hrs 14:50hrs 17:10hrs 07:00hrs 09:20hrs 11:40hrs

10:00hrs 12:20hrs 14:00hrs 16:30hrs 18:45hrs 08:55hrs 11:25hrs 12:45hrs 14:10hrs 16:40hrs 18:50hrs 08:40hrs 11:10hrs 12:30hrs

Local FLIGHT SCHEDULE ARIK AIR

LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 07:00; 08:00; 09:00; 11:00 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SAT) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SUN) 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00; 20:00 (SAT) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SUN) 09:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 LAGOS-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI) 07:00; 09:30; 11:00; 13:30; 15:00; 17:30 (SAT) 07:00; 11:00; 15:00 (SUN) 09:30; 11:00; 13:30; 15:00; 17:30 PORT-HARCOURT-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:30; 09:00; 11:30; 13:00; 15:30; 17:00 (SAT) 07:30; 11:30; 09:00; 13:00; 17:00 (SUN) 11:30; 13:00; 15:30; 17:00 ABUJA-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI) 06:45; 10:10; 13:30; 16:50 (SAT/SUN) 06:45; 10:10; 13:30 PORT-HARCOURT-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:30; 11:50; 15:10; 18:30 (SAT/SUN) 08:30; 11:50; 15:10

AZMAN FLIGHT SCHEDULE

WEEKLY SCHEDULE Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Abuja 10:30am Abuja-Lagos 12:40pm

Lagos-Abuja/Kano 4:00pm Abuja-Kano 5:45pm Kaduna-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kan 10:10am Kano-Abuja/Lagos 12:40pm Abuja-Lagos 1:00pm Abuja-Lagos 2:40pm Lagos-Kaduna 5:00pm WEEKEND SCHEDULE SATURDAY Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Abuja 10:30am Abuja-Lagos 1:00pm Lagos-Kano 4:00pm Kaduna-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kano 4:00pm Sunday Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kano 10:30am Kano-Abuja/Lagos 1:20pm Abuja-Lagos 2:40pm Lagos-Kaduna 5:00pm

FIRST NATION AIRWAYS

LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 06.50; 09:30; 11:45; 16:00 (SAT) 06:50; 11:45 (SUN) 11:45; 16:00 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 09:00; 11:30; 13:40;18:30 (SAT) 09:00; 13:40 (SUN) 13:40; 18:30 LAGOS-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI) 14:45

(SAT) 16:15 (SUN) 14:45 PORT-HARCOURT-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 16:50 (SAT) 18:20 (SUN) 16:50

AEROCONTRACTORS

LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 06:50; 13:30; 16:30; 19:45 (SAT/SUN) 12:30; 16:45 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:30; 13:00; 19:00 (SAT) 12:30 (SUN) 15:30

MEDVIEW AIRLINES

LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 07:00; 08:50; 12:00; 15:30 (SAT) 10:00; 15:00 (SUN) 17:30; 18:30 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 09:00; 14:00, 15:00; 18:30

OVERLAND AIRWAYS LAGOS-ILORIN (MON-FRI) 07:15 LAGOS-IBADAN (MON-FRI) 7:00 IBADAN-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:00 IBADAN-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 16:30 ILORIN –ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:30 ILORIN –LAGOS (MON-FRI) 17:00 ABUJA-ASABA (MON-FRI) 10:00 ASABA-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 14:15 ASABA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 11:30 LAGOS-ASABA (MON-FRI) 13:00 ABUJA-ILORIN 16:00 ABUJA-IBADAN 15:00

Politics 45

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Ojukwu’s kinsmen root for Jonathan Tony Okafor Awka

T

he Nnewi kinsmen of late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, in Anambra State, have declared their support for President Goodluck Jonathan.

They stated their resolve to re-elect Jonathan at an awareness campaign held at the country home of first Nigerian Senate President, Senator Nwafor Orizu in Nnewi which attracted government functionaries, APGA stalwarts and business tycoons.

They also promised to vote for the All Progres-

sives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidates in the March 28 and April 11 general elections in the state.

The convener of the meeting, Mr. Nnamsom Nwafor-Orizu, who is the son of Senator Orizu, said the gathering was to sensitise the people on the forthcoming elections.

Nwafor-Orizu, who is also the state chairman of the Committee on Petroleum, said the meeting was also to expose the people to the achievements of President Jonathan and Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State.

“President Jonathan’s stay in office has been a period of excellent leadership, transformational governance, all road devel-

opment across the length and breadth of the country.

“We the people of Nnewi have not been left out in the wind of change that is blowing in the state as we now have more representation in government than ever before under Governor Obiano,” he said.

He said Obiano had so far appointed more than seven indigenes of the area into his administration, and empowered over 500 Nnewi youths.

The state Commission-

INDEP ELECT ENDENT NAT ORAL C IO OMMIS NAL SION

er for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Tony Onyima, described Nnewi as the spiritual home of APGA and a strategic area for the nation’s

industrial growth.

He said: “Nnewi is not only strategic to Anambra but to the entire SouthEast in particular and Nigeria in general.

“It is very important that APGA wins the entire national and state assembly seats 100 per cent because the economic and industrial renaissance of the Igbos starts from Nnewi,” he said.

Also speaking, Chief Emeka Ojukwu (Jnr) recalled that his father made a lot of sacrifices

in championing the Igbo course.

Ojukwu, who is the APGA House of Representatives candidate for Nnewi North, South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency, pledged to make his own sacrifices, if elected.

“I am going to Abuja to leave a life of servitude for the people of the SouthEast wherever they are.

“I am happy we are meeting in the house of late Nwafor-Orizu to renew strength.

PDP leaders sheathe swords Babatope Okeowo Akure

T

o avoid defeat in the forthcoming general elections, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo South Senatorial District area of Ondo State, yesterday agreed to close marks and work as a team.

The leaders including former governorship candidate of the party in the last election, Chief Olusola Oke; Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku; former chairman of the party, Dr. Lucas Gbakinro; former commissioners Ayo Ifayefunmi, John Ola Mafo and Ola Oguntimehin among others resolved to embrace former members of Labour Party (LP) who defected to the PDP in the interest of the party.

At a stakeholders’ meeting held at Igbokoda in Ilaje Local Government Area of the state, the leaders agreed to jointly work

for the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan and other candidates of the party in the March 28 and April 11 elections irrespective of how they emerged.

Also, they agreed to organise unity rallies in all the senatorial districts of the state to show the new found love between old and new members of the party.

In a communiqué read at the end of the meeting, the party members who accepted Governor Olusegun Mimiko as the recognised leader of the party said: “We commend our members who remain in the party despite all the challenges. That we pledge to remain in the party, loyal and committed as members of the party and we will not leave for any other political parties.

Speaking at the meeting, Oke said all members of the party must be brought on board in order to deliver overwhelmingly for the party in the forthcoming election.

L-R: Member, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Chief Awodiran Agboola; National Coordinator, Otunba Gani Adams and Chief Executive Officer, Infogem, Mr. Ayo Olumoko, at media briefing on the general elections …yesterday.

PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

Card readers’ll throw Nigeria into crisis, says group Wale Elegbede

A

civic group, Move on Nigeria, has warned that the Card Readers deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the general elections may throw Nigeria into crisis.

The group said the manner through which INEC is handling the distribution of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) in many parts of the country calls for con-

cern, stating that the electoral body is not obeying its own rules.

In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Clem Aguiyi, the group said the nation can afford to do away with the Smart Card Reader rather than risk having an election that is not credible.

“Everyone appear genuinely concerned about the Card Readers but somehow Prof. Attahiru Jega and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are the least worried. If there are

things they know that the rest of us don’t know they should tell us.

“INEC may have created a monstrosity by introducing a technology that has never been used for the conduct of a major election that will end up in catastrophe except we move back to the very simple clear cut way of verifying and accrediting voters for an election.”

While calling on INEC to take a second look at the use of the Card Readers and make necessary

INEC extends PVC collection by two weeks

PDP candidate forged election report – Police

ABUJA

T

Onyekachi Eze

T

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) by two weeks.

According to a statement by Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, the deadline for PVC is now March 22.

The commission had earlier given Sunday, March 8 as deadline for

the distribution and collection of PVCs. According to the statement, the latest extension offers the last opportunity for duly registered persons to collect their PVCs before the general elections scheduled for March 28th and April 11th.

“INEC hereby calls on registered persons that are yet to collect their PVCs to use this last opportunity in doing so, in order to participate in the forthcoming general elections,” the statement added.

Dominic Adewole ASABA

he Delta State police command yesterday declared as forged the election report being paraded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Aniocha North constituency in the House of Assembly.

Since the primary election was conducted on November 30, 2014, two winners, including Prince Uzoma Idaboh and Engr. Emeka Nwaobi, have emerged as the candidates of the party.

The two candidates have been parading different election reports emanating from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), each claiming to have polled the highest votes count.

But a police investigation report dated March 2, made available from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police in the state, DCP Hafiz M. Inuwa, in Asaba yesterday declared the report being paraded by Nwaobi as forged.

“It is crystal clear that the document titled ‘General Election’ date 30th November 2014, is forged, altered and did not ema-

nate from the Nigeria Police Force, Issele-Uku Division, Delta State Police Command.

“Unknown to the Nwaobi (whom he referred to as a suspect), no DPO is authorised to oblige/ issue such request but Commissioner of Police, Delta State. The policy file number in the report as presented by Nwaobi never existed in the records of Nigeria Police Force, Delta State Command,” Inuwa’s report read in part.

Nwaobi was presented with the party’s flag for the April 11 general elections.

adjustments, the group noted that the performance of those deployed for mock election by INEC last weekend was less than average.

“As things are now, it is no longer sufficient for Jega to ask Nigerians to trust him and expect to be taken by his words especially when it is clear he has lost control or has been compromised to the extent that he can no longer do the right thing.”

The group advised INEC to seriously consider allowing the use of both the Temporary Voters’ Cards (TVCs) and PVCs which can be manually verified.

“Rather than use a technology that will fail and throw the nation into crisis; since the use of the card reader is only for verification and not e-voting, since the card readers have no internet connectivity as claimed, we see no reason why INEC must insist on the use.

“It is only a question of common sense to know that the use of both the TVC and PVC in combination with manual verification remains a better alternative if not the best deal for now.”

46

News

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

SOUTH-WEST

6,000 projects abandoned in Niger Delta — NDDC waste

Several projects initiated at the NDDC are hanging Babatope Okeowo Akure

T

he Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has said that about 6,000 projects worth hundreds of billions have

been abandoned in the Niger Delta region of the country by contractors handling the various jobs.

The special Adviser to the Managing Director of the intervention agency on Youth and Women empowerment, Mr George Turner, said this at the weekend. He stated that the development has prevented the award of new contracts by the current board and management of the agency.

However, he said the agency was working round the clock to make sure

that many of the projects abandoned by the previous board were to be completed in record time.

Turner, who lamented the inability to award new contracts by the present board said, “we have too many abandoned projects littered across the region.

In fact, a Presidential panel looked into some of these issues and came up with a terrifying figure in terms of NDDC projects either abandoned or ongoing but at a snail pace.

“Over 6,000 projects that public funds have

been committed to meant to deliver dividends of democracy to people from the Presidency were either abandoned or are still on-going. So, he felt the NDDC should for the first time, move away from the usual practice of awarding contracts everyday to concentrate on completing some of these projects.”

In order to meet with the new mandate, Turner said the new board has completed hostels that had been under construction for the past 10

years. Some of the hostels he said included that of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Imo State University (IMSU) University of Benin (UNIBEN), Delta State University (DELSU) Abraka among others.

His words. “This present management took a decision to complete the permanent site. If you get there you will give credit to the team that it has focus. Few months from now, we are going to move in. This is one concrete

achievement that would continue to stand for this present management.”

On youth development, Turner said. “We came up with our three point’s agenda on Youth empowerment, Wealth creation and employment generation. We have continued to train youths in various fields. Recently we completed the training of 280 in the Maritime Academy Oron as pre-Seamen. We have also got NIMASA to certify them and they are now hustling to get placements.

Court orders army to pay lawyer N10m for assault Babatope Okeowo Akure

A

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje (left) and President, Lagos Country Club, Mr. Munior Moradayo, during a visit by Jimi Agbaje to members of the club in Lagos...at the weekend

Ogun workers declare three-day warning strike Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

P

ublic servants in Ogun State, will on Tuesday embark on a three-day warning strike to press home their demand for the payment of outstanding unremitted deductions by the state government.

This was sequel to the directive by the state council of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNC) to the workers at the weekend.

Addressing a press conference in Abeokuta, the JNC Secretary, Comrade Modiu Bello, said the union was constrained to embark on the industrial action since the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration had failed to accede to the workers' demands.

Bello decried the refusal of the state government to pay four months deductions made from workers' salaries in October, November, December 2014 and January 2015.

We'll criticise Buhari if he fails — Lawyers for Change Sola Adeyemo Ibadan

A

group of lawyers operating under the aegis of "Lawyers For Change", advocating for success of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the March 28 election, General Muhammadu Buhari, has vowed to criticize him if elected but fail to perform to expectation of Nigerians.

Led by a social crusader and Lagos state publisher of 'Squib' Maga-

zine, Adesina Ogunlana, the lawyers who had a road walk in Oyo town at the weekend, noted that Nigeria must be rescued from the current abysmal governance as shown by the president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

The lawyers including women, declared that they were not partisan but committed to good governance which was lacking in the present, said that Jonathan’s best was not good for Nigerians, urging him to leave the stage for a better person.

Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital has asked the Nigerian Army to pay N10million damages for allegedly assaulting a legal practitioner.

The trial judge, Justice I.M Sani in his judgment delivered after listening to the applicant and defendants at the weekend held that it was wrong for the military to assume the role of the police when it was meant to take care of the territorial borders of the country and protect the citizens from scourge of internal terrorism.

The Court berated the Army officers for the "condemnable act", saying soldiers have no power under the law to beat and detain citizens they ought to protect.

A legal practitioner, Zerubbabel Omoyele, was allegedly detained and assaulted during a bid to sustain evidence of brutal assault meted out to his client, Joseph Omoranmowo In the suit No. FHC/ AK/CS/69/2013 and filed

by Omoyele's counsel, Tope Temokun, the Nigerian Army, the former Nigerian Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika. Com-

manding Officer, 19 Battalion, Naquora Barracks, Okitipupa, Ondo State, Captain M.C Ndubuisi and Hasan Habila, were joined as respondents.

Temokun, in his statement averred that the incident occurred on March 11, 2013 in Okitipupa, He stated that Omoyele's client, Omoranmowo, was unlawfully detained in the military cell and was seriously injured in the head with a bottle after being beaten by one Captain M.C Ndubuisi and Hassan Habila, both military officers at the Military Barracks, Okitipupa local government area of the state.

He explained, that trouble started between the victim and the soldiers when he invited a photographer to take shots of his client Omoranmowo, who had been wounded on the head.

Temokun said for daring to sustain evidence against the military officers he (Omoyele) was forcibly taken to the barracks, detained and beaten from 8:30 a.m to 1pm.

Temokun said the suit was brought pursuant to section 34 (1) of the 1999 constitution, articles V and VI of the African Charter on Human and people's Right and Articile V and III and XI of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

OAU alumni back Osun Adeyeye chides APC over Obanikoro's nomination Adesina Wahab speaker’s re-election Ado-Ekiti

Mojeed Alabi

F

ormer classmates of the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly , Hon. Najeem Salam, at the Awolowo University, OAU, IleIfe, have declared support for his reelection bid, describing him as a good ambassador.

The 1993 graduates of the Political Science Department in the Faculty of Social Sciences, who named their group N-Mates, said the speaker who represents Ejigbo Constituency under the All Progressives Congress, has shown that he can be trusted and deserves to be re-elected.

M

inister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has chided the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its opposition to the appointment of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, as a minister

by President Goodluck Jonathan.

While accusing the party of becoming too

desperate for power, the minister said in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, that Obanikoro, never participated in any rigging as being alleged by the opposition, added that Ekiti people wholeheartedly voted for Governor Ayo Fayose and no amount of falsehood and propaganda could erode that fact.

"Even the United States said the election result reflected the will

of Ekiti voters and that the security forces collaborated effectively and provided a safe and secure environment free of major incidents."

Adeyeye said it was becoming more worrisome the way the APC elements go about trying to pull down any individual or organisation that refused to be coerced.

He said; "Assuming, without conceding that the audio tape they are

talking about was real, there's nothing in it to suggest that soldiers were told to rig the election. What I heard was people showing apprehension on the need to prevent APC thugs from operating and preventing money from being shared at the polling units?

"If one may ask, was it soldiers and Obanikoro that made the APC to lose in more than 80 per cent of the polling units in Ekiti State?"

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Elechi: Kinsmen threaten to recall Ebonyi speaker

Uchenna Inya Abakaliki

A

pparently moving against the current plot to impeach the Governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi, kinsmen of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku, have threatened to commence the process of his recall from the legistature over his involve-

ment in the saga.

Rising from their meeting held at Randa, Ebonyi Local Government Area, the speaker’s kinsmen declared that Nwazunku, has betrayed their confidence.

Former coordinator of the Ozibo Development Centre, Ebonyi LGA and a campaigner against Nwazunku, Mike Nwambam, accused the speaker of not being sensitive to the needs of his people since his election, adding

News 47

SOUTH-EAST

that he has rather lost focus of his responsibilities to his constituency.

According to him, instead of the speaker making laws that would impart positively on the lives of the people, the purpose for which he was elected, he got carried away, to the point of seeking the impeachment of other elected people like him.

Nwambam, accused the speaker of being the mas-

termind to the move that led to the removal of Hon. Ikechukwu Nwankwo, as the Speaker of the House of Assembly, through impeachment.

Also speaking on the issue, a former Ward Councillor of Enyibichiri Ward II, Ekene Nwankwo, said Nwazunku, was ungrateful to Elechi, who saved him from being impeached by members of the Assembly in July, last year.

Ebonyi LP backs Jonathan’s re-election Charles Onyekwere ABAKALIKI

A

bout 2000 Labour Party (LP) members in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, have pledged their total support for the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that they would resist any attempt to drag the name of the State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, in the mud.

The declaration followed the protests carried out by concerned Ebonyi people, which included a

large number of widows against the governor’s impeachment plot by the State House of Assembly.

In a motion by the protesters, moved by Omenannay Orogwu, they passed a vote of confidence on Elechi and also declared support for the re-election of President.

The protesters, however, condemned the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, over his alleged mastermind of the impeachment saga in the state, with a call to President Jonathan to call him to order.

Orji’s government worst in Abia, says Udensi Norman Obinna

T

he Progressive People’s Alliance, (PPA) Abia State gubernatorial candidate, Sir Chikwe Udensi, has described the Abia State government activities as inimical to the people of the state, saying that Gov. Theodore Orji-led PDP’s government was the worst thing that happened to state.

He stated this at the weekend in Aba, during an interaction with residents who pleaded with him to extend his sponsored road rehabilitation project to their areas to save them from what they described as looming epidemic.

Following his inspection of the Ebere-Omuma Road, which the residents said was a major road that leads to Etche, Rivers State and Ehere road at Ogbor Hill, Udensi, expressed concern over the deplorable state of some of the roads and the poor living condition of the residents, branding the Abia State government as a disaster.

According to him, all over the world, government exists and works for the betterment of its people except

in Abia State where the government had only become the problem of the people.

“I am marveled that there was no presence of government in Abia State, especially Aba and the governor is busy receiving awards from irresponsible organizations and individuals. I am yet to understand the purpose of these awards, whether they are for failure or for running the state aground.”

Udensi, further said that it was a shame that Abia State, whose government receives between N4.8 billion to N5.2 billion monthly from the Federal Account, along 13 per cent oil derivation as oil producing state, N2.5 billion accruing Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR) and other differentials such as excess crude oil, NNPC, SURE-P, would leave the state in such a sorry state and ruins.

He noted that the government makes N300 million quarterly from tuition fees while the governor takes home N1 billion security vote monthly, adding that the present Abia State government by not utilizing all the funds for the development of the state simply shows how clueless and visionless the government was.

Obiano dedicates award to less privileged he wife of the Gov- Laity for the recogniT ernor of Anambra tion, stressing that she State, Mrs. Ebelechukwu was not expecting any Obiano, has said that the focus for her as the first lady of the state was to render service to the less privileged of the society . She stated this while dedicating the honour bestowed on her as the Duchess of the Catholic Laity of Nigeria to the less privileged members of the society.

Obiano, who was honoured along her husband on Saturday at the Shanahan Hall Onitsha, expressed gratitude to God and the

recognition because she was merely doing what she considered to be a corporal work of mercy.

She said, “When I am doing what I do, I don’t expect to be rewarded because it is my normal corporal work of mercy.

When am assisting in church projects or helping the less privileged and indigent widows, I do it because I believe it is my duty to my God to lend a helping hand to others in need because we are the same humanity.”

L-R: Prince Tim Ogwuru; Chairman, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and George Tiga, at a press conference on “Questions Gen. Muhammadu Buhari Must Answer” in Umuahia…at the weekend

Abia teacher wants rector jailed Igbeaku Orji Umuahia

F

or his alleged failure to obey a court order on his re-instatement, a lecturer in the Abia State polytechnic, Simon Joseph, has called on the court to commit the Rector of the institution, Mr. Uche Ikonne to prison, as well as ensure his reinstatement as ordered by the court since June 2009.

Joseph, said his suspension was upon an allegation of indictment in the case of leakage of examination papers in August 8, 2008, via a letter, ASP/R/ADM/106/ XV11/161, signed for the Registrar by Chief PBO Aharauka.

He, however, said he challenged his illegal suspension in an Aba High Court presided over by Justice S O E Nwanosike in suit No.A/278/08 and on April 20, 2009 and got judgment in his favour, as the Judge ordered his immediate reinstatement on the grounds that his suspension was illegal null and void and of no effect what-

soever as the actions was set aside.

Following the refusal to obey the order, the court in its Form 48 in a Notice of Consequence of Disobedience to Order of Court, warned the Rector, Registrar and the HOD of the Mathematics Department of the consequence of disobedience to the court order on June 8, 2009.

But he said since then the polytechnic management has refused to either recall him, or pay the arrears of his entitlement despite appeals to several authorities, including the Abia State House of Assembly, the House of Representatives and the new Rector of the Polytechnic, Professor Uche Ikonne.

Although the incident happened during the tenure of the Elder Allwell Onukaogu, the immediate past Rector, Joseph’s appeal to the new Rector, Professor Uche Ikonne has not received favourable response.

In a letter of February 23, 2015 he also appealed to the Public Complaints Commission to intervene on his behalf.

NLC crisis: Abia MHWUN disowns restructuring of delegates Igbeaku Orji

Umuahia

T

he Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) Abia State chapter, has dissociated itself from the purported call by some labour unions in the South-East and South-South zones of the country for equality of delegates in the rescheduled Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) national delegates congress in Abuja this March, saying that such call was aimed to polarise the NLC along tribal and sectional lines.

Addressing journalists on the development in Umuahia, Chairman of Abia State MHWUN, Comrade Uchenna Obigwe, said that neither Comrade Chris Okoro, the Chairman of Abia State Public Service Negotiating Council, nor Christopher Ezekiel, the Chairman of the state’s MHWUM, were given equal number of delegates with other zones, saying that the union

would not be part of such protest.

Obigwe said that the issue of number of delegates was constitutionally based on the financial strength of affiliate councils and not on “equality as ignorantly portrayed by the protesters.”

Exonerating the national Secretariat of any illegality in the selection of delegates, the union’s Chairman stated that the national executive council had conferred on the national secretariat of the union the power to select delegates as it deemed it necessary to the realization of the ambition of the union to clinch the presidency of the NLC. Obigwe said, “If we resort to the constitutional provision, which determines the selections of delegates based on financial contribution, the South-east zone was the least among the six zones and the delegates list would tilt heavily in favour of the zones that are contributing more to the union.”

48 News

mystery Fire at TV station raises tension in Edo Cajetan Mmuta BENIN

W

ith about 19 days to the rescheduled presidential and National Assembly elections, a dangerous political trend may have been added to the growing tension in Edo State as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday raised the alarm over alleged plot by forces within the state opposed to its

south - south

Sabotage suspected in fire at Edo tv station success, to stifle its voice and activities.

This followed a mysterious night fire which completely razed down the broadcast studio section of the Independent Television (ITV) station complex, owned by popular business mogul and a chieftain of the PDP, Chef Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin kingdom.

Chairman of PDP in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, described the attack as a ‘malicious one carried out by agents of the devil.’

He said the incident has further revealed the

Minister tasks FRSC on campaign against auto accident Cajetan Mmuta BENIN

T

he Federal Government yesterday urged officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to step up campaign on road safety rules and regulations, speed limits and other precautions to road users.

The measures are aimed at addressing the incessant, but avoidable auto crashes on the nation’s highways across the nation.

Minister of Works,

T

he Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), at the weekend, threatened to fight the state-owned broadcast media, Delta Broadcasting Service and Delta Rainbow Television, for using the name of UPU to promote other governorship candidates in the state not endorsed by the body.

UPU also alleged a plot by some prominent politicians to incite UPU executive members to form another faction that would endorse Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the Peoples

evil plan of those who have been threatening to deal with the opposition party in the state and their businesses.

Orbih, who was accompanied by top leaders of the PDP during a visit to the scene of the incident said: “Their plan is to cripple our campaign since they know that ITV has given us voice after the state-owned Edo Broadcasting Service categorically told us that they cannot air our views and programmes as a matter of policy.

“ITV’s crime is that they have allowed every voice to be aired and given opportunity to everyone to speak.”

Warri

T

he leadership of Ugbori Itsekiri community in Warri, Delta State, yesterday said it has no problem with some Ijaw youths, who have been taking refuge

as good as won and urged her teeming supporters not to be discouraged by the development.

Orbih said: “Just before Esama travelled out of the country, he told me that he had been receiving threats by some people to attack ITV for exposing the ills of the government of the day.

This attack showed that the threat was real.”

According to him, “There has been a conscious effort on the part of the APC government in Edo State to attack leaders of the PDP and their investments. The first was at the residence of Osagie Ize-Iyamu, where a bomb was detonated. What hap-

pened here yesterday was similar to that.

“They also attacked our party members in the House of Assembly. Now it is the turn of the ITV. They even forgot that ITV is not about a political party, but a medium through which the public is being informed about the real happenings in our state. It is sad that people can take politics to this level.

He added that “The people the state government usually uses for dirty jobs such as this are known to the public.

We asked the law enforcement agencies to investigate the perpetrators of this condemnable act and bring them to book."

Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer in the Delta State governorship election.

At a meeting held at the weekend by the executive body of the union, comprising the President-Generals from the 24 Urhobo kingdoms in Delta Central, the youth wing (Ighele) and the women wing (Ewheya), the UPU President-General Worldwide, Chief Joe Omene, reiterated the union’s commitment to ‘Uvwiamuge Declaration’ and enjoined members to work towards the attainment of the UPU mission.

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio (right) with Dr. Yemi Johnson of Cadiocare Medical Services Limited, after signing an MoU with the Akwa Ibom State government on the management of the Ibom 20th Anniversary Specialist Hospital…at the weekend

Construction firm petitions IG over alleged N250m theft Cajetan Mmuta BENIN

A

n Edo State-based construction firm, Piccol Limited, has petitioned the InspectorGeneral of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, over the refusal of the Imo State police command to arrest the former Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Festus Odimegwu, for alleged conspiracy and stealing.

The petition was filed by the company’s lawyer, Mr. George Igbokwu and

Itsekiri: We have no problem with Ijaw Joe Obende

Others on the sympathy visit included a former deputy governor in the state, Lucky Imasuen, Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign in the state, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, candidates of the party for the March 28 and April 11 polls were among the early callers to condole with the Esama of Benin and the management and staff of the station.

Besides, the daughter of Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ovia federal constituency, Ms. Omosede Igbinedion, said she would not be cowed by the callous act, nor be intimidated out of the race, which she said is

Mike Onolememen, stated this at the weekend when he inspected ongoing federal road projects across Edo State.

The roads included Uromi-Uzea road, Old Uromi-Irrua-Ewu road construction.

He said the degree of auto accidents on the country’s roads are alarming and called on the FRSC staff and management to beef up its enlightenment campaign programmes to further help Nigerians enjoy the billions of naira being spent by government on road networks.

UPU threatens to wage war against media Gabriel Choba and Mary Okpalaume

monday, march 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

in a part of their land around the Old Port area in the city, even when they are doing so illegally.

This illegal occupation, they said, has been on for some time, adding that it dated back to the seven-year period of crisis in Warri.

A statement from Ugbori community Head, Olare-Aja Edwin Igban Omagbemi, said no Ijaw community named Lotiebiri existed in their land in the last 500 years until runaway militant Ijaw youths forcefully occupied that portion of land.

made available to newsmen yesterday in Benin, the Edo State capital.

Igbokwu in the petition titled; “Refusal by the Nigerian Police, Imo State, to arrest, interrogate and prosecute Mr. Eze Festus Odimegwu for conspiracy and stealing,” said he had also copied the office of the Attorney-General of the federation on the matter.

He said the former NPC chairman, “sometime in April 2013, allegedly seized Piccol’s construction equipment valued at over N250 million and sold them off

with callous impunity.”

According to the lawyer, “Our client lodged a report to the police and Odimegwu’s agents and co-conspirators were arrested and they all made confessional statements indicting Eze Festus Odimegwu as the person that instructed them to sell off the equipment.

“To our greatest shock and surprise, the Imo State police command has blatantly failed and refused to effect the arrest of Odimegwu, citing his privilege as the national population chairman as initial reason,

Why I left Akpabio, by Enang Chukwu David Abuja

T

he senator representing Akwa-Ibom North East senatorial district, Senator Ita Enang, has given an insight into why his relationship with Governor Godswill Akpabio went sour as he accused

the governor of running the state in secrecy and leading Akwa-Ibom into alarming financial debts.

In an exclusive interview with New Telegraph in Abuja, Enang lamented that Akpabio had not been transparent in the running of the state’s affairs, a situation he described as worrisome and inimical to the

but later alleged that he had travelled overseas, which we discovered to be false,” he said.

Igbokwu said Odimegwu had “callously refused to honour all police invitations in his usual pride of looking down on everybody, including the Commissioner of Police, Imo State and his officers, who out of frustration, arraigned his co-conspirators at a Chief Magistrates’ court sitting in Awo-Idemile in charge No. MOS/35c/2014 with Odimegwu described as being at large. development of the state.

He said he and other concerned citizens of the state had kept quiet and looked away from the alleged malfeasance going on for a long time, regretting that the situation reached a point where they had no choice but to speak out and take appropriate steps to deliver the state from the purported bondage it has been put by the governor.

NEW TELEGRAPH monday, march 9, 2015

News 49

NORTH

Aliero: We’ll not tolerate another poll shift

Ochekpe: FG won't increase fuel price

Abubakari Mohammed

Jos

Birnin Kebbi

T

he former Minister of the FCT and Kebbi State All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate, Senator Adamu Aliero, has said that his party would no longer tolerate any poll shift this time around, insisting that there must be a new government by May 29.

He stated this at the weekend when fielding questions from newsmen in his country home, adding that the APC will stand by INEC to ensure a free, fair and credible election.

Aliero, who expressed satisfaction over the proposed use of card readers in the general election, said it will make the process free, fair and credible.

“If Kenya, Senegal and Ghana can use card readers and conduct free and fair elections, what about Nigeria, we must conduct free and credible election this time around,” he said.

The senatorial candidate said the APC is ready to accept the use of card readers while those that were saying that the election should be postponed are the enemies of Nigeria and that they don’t want the progress of this country.

Musa Pam

T

he Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, yesterday assured Nigerians, especially motorists that the fuel scarcity currently being experienced in the country will be resolved this week, she also refuted reports that the Federal Government is planning to increase fuel price in the country.

She spoke at the week-

end while monitoring the sale of fuel in some filing stations and the NNPC mega station in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

While commending the management of the fuel stations for selling at the government regulated price of N87 per litre, she assured motorists that the queues experienced in the last two weeks will be over soon.

Ochekpe denied speculations that there are plans by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to increase the price of

fuel, saying it was his administration that reduced fuel price and will not create scarcity in order to increase the price again.

“This fuel scarcity is a temporary issue, it was borne out of the fuel subsidy issue and its payments, but Mr. President has since approved and ordered for such payment and this has been resolved.”

The minister said since President Jonathan came into office, Nigeria has not expe-

Legendary traditional musician, Dr. Dan Maraya (left), exchanging pleasantries with the Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, during the agency’s Patriotic Advocacy Concert tagged “Do the Right Thing, Fall in Love with Nigeria” in Jos, Plateau State …at the weekend

Kaduna

Violence averted in Kaduna town

iolence was averted in Kafanchan, at the weekend following the attack on the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Southern Kaduna senatorial district, Dr. Ishaku Shekarau, at Fadan Kagoma, where 16 vehicles were destroyed.

Shekarau, who was in company of APC stalwarts, went to Kagoma to

attend the annual Gwong Day celebration, when he was attacked by thugs who allegedly chanted PDP slogans at the venue.

In the evening, APC supporters also mobilised and started hunting for branded PDP vehicles to destroy, but for the timely intervention of the Director General of El-Rufai Campaign Organisation, Mr. Ben Kure and the Director of Contact and Mo-

Ibraheem Musa

V

Why I won’t bandy words with Fani-Kayode, by

T

he Media Aide to Governor Kashim Shettima, Malam Isa Gusau, yesterday reacted to a statement issued by the Director, Media of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who said General Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Shettima and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were opposed to the freedom of captured Chibok schoolgirls, adding that they have something to do with the kidnapped

rienced fuel scarcity, “This is not in line with Mr. President’s transformation agenda either in the petroleum sector or in the country.”

She, however, commended Stanel Oil and the NNPC station in Jos for selling to motorists 24 hours at the regulated government price of N87 per litre and also encouraged all filling stations in the state to sell fuel to motorists yesterday to ease the hardship experienced by the people.

girls and the activities of Boko Haram.

Gusau in an interview with journalists in Abuja yesterday, described Fani-Kayode as “one Nigerian that is physically an adult, but mentally an infant,” adding that “We all know that going into exchange with an infant is like having a dialogue with a blind, deaf and dumb, this is why it is thoughtless for any serious minded person to exchange words with him.

bilisation, Mr. Menakaya Takwat.

Speaking to New Telegraph on phone yesterday, Mohammed Abdullahi said: “The situation was very tense in Kafanchan on Saturday, because our supporters were also battle-ready to revenge what happened to our candidate at Fadan Kagoma.

“However, our leaders prevailed on us not to resort to violence, because

if we do so, we will be acting the script of the PDP. The ruling party wants to orchestrate violence, so that there will be a state of emergency in Kaduna State and the election will be held under curfew, so that they will rig,” Mohammed said.

Explaining how he was attacked, Shekarau said: “On getting to the venue, I was subjected to thorough

NLC decries rising cases of maternal mortality in Sokoto Umar Abdullahi Sokoto

T

he Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Sokoto State chapter yesterday observed with concern the rising cases of infant and maternal mortality in the state.

“This ugly trend is attributed to lack of misoprostol and chlorixidine medicines in the various primary health centres and hospital in the state.

Chairperson of the NLC Women Committee on the International Women’s Day, Comrade Aishatu Aliyu Kangiwa, said this while celebrating the World Women's Day in Sokoto yesterday.

She said the unavailability of the misoprostol drug, which is a lifesaving drug that stops women from bleeding to death during childbirth, is a serious source of concern to people in the state.

security check; suddenly hoodlums started attacking me with clubs and dangerous weapons. I escaped, but they destroyed 16 cars belonging to our party and my bulletproof car.

“The security personnel saw all that transpired and none of them tried to repel the hoodlums, who were brought to Southern Kaduna in droves,” he alleged.

According to Shekarua, “It is quite unfortunate and condemnable."

‘Jonathan’s second term’ll guarantee Nigeria’s future’ Sabiu Mustapha JALINGO

A

youth group, the PDP Loyal Group, yesterday said the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election in the country, will guarantee a brighter future for all.

Taraba State Coordinator of the group, Mr. Dennis Shima, disclosed this at a media briefing in Jalingo.

Shima said Jonathan's performance in his first term in areas of education, agriculture, aviation and power, were enough to earn him a second term.

“It is our belief that if Jonathan is given a second term, he would put Nigeria in its rightful place among the comity of nations.

“He has united the country through the national conference and pledged to implement the brilliant recommendations of the conference in his second term,” he said.

Shima said the 2, 655 officials of the group from the state, local government and ward levels, have also unanimously endorsed Mr. Darius Ishaku, the PDP governorship candidate in Taraba for his contributions to the development of the state.

According to him, Ishaku, who has been the group's patron, was a fine gentleman that would bring about the needed peace and development to the state.

The coordinator noted that all the 265, 500 members of the group would vote for Jonathan, Ishaku and all PDP candidates for continued development.

Kwara, LP candidate disagree over empowerment programme Biodun Oyeleye Ilorin

T

he governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Kwara State, Dr. Mike Omotosho, yesterday accused the state government of allegedly intimidating some communities against his nongovernmental organisation, Mike Omotosho Foundation.

According to a statement by the Director-General of Mike Omotosho Campaign Organisation,

Funsho Saad, the state government has allegedly called some community leaders late last week to back out of an empowerment programme organised for some selected women just when they were about to be allocated lands and given equipment.

But the spokesman for the state government, Dr. Femi Akorede, said such claims were untrue as he dissociated the state from any move by any community as claimed by the LP candidate.

50

WORLD | News

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Malaysian PM vows to keep up search for MH370

P

rime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday Malaysia remained committed to the search for the missing MH370 jetliner a year after it vanished without trace, and a report by international investigators offered no new clues as to its fate.

A 584-page interim report into the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200ER provided details on how radars had tracked

the plane going off course to issues concerning the battery of the flight data recorders underwater locator beacon.

However it did not identify a definitive cause for the disappearance, adding there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew.

MH370 vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for

Beijing, early on March 8 last year, becoming one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

Investigators believe the plane, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, was flown thousands of miles off course before eventually crashing into the ocean off Australia. A search for the missing jetliner along a rugged 60,000 sq km patch of sea floor some 1,600 km west of the Australian city of Perth

has found nothing so far. The search in this area, which experts believe is the plane's most likely resting place, will likely be finished by May. "The disappearance of MH370 is without precedent, and so too is the search - by far the most complex and technically challenging in aviation history," Najib said in a statement. "Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found," he said.

The investigation team led

by Malaysia with experts from various countries including the United States, Britain, China, France and Australia confirmed in its interim report that MH370 was spotted making a turnback by Malaysian primary

radars operated by both the military and civil aviation authorities. Thai radars also spotted MH370, but Bangkok’s air traffic controllers “did not pay much attention” to the flight as it did not fall under Thailand's jurisdiction. The Indonesian air traffic control radar in Medan, in the northern tip of Sumatra Island, did not pick up MH370 "for unknown reasons". The aircraft's transponder, which was switched off just before the aircraft made the turn-back, was "operating satisfactorily" until it was lost on the ATC screen, according to the report. The investigation team found that battery powering MH370’s flight data recorder’s underwater locator beacon, which will send a signal if a crash occurs in the water, had expired in December 2012 and was not replaced.

Bloody Sunday commemoration continues in Selma

T President Barrack Obama holding hands with Amelia Boynton Robinson who was beaten during bloody Sunday and others walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for the 50th anniversary.

Deadly attack hits UN base in Mali

A

peacekeeper and two children died yesterday as militants shelled a UN base in northern Mali, heightening security fears as police hunted jihadists who launched a deadly Bamako nightclub assault. The UN's MINUSMA force said more than 30 rockets were fired at its barracks in the rebel bastian of Kidal from 5:40am (0540 GMT). "Once the source of the shooting was established, MINUSMA force soldiers immediately returned fire two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the camp, around 6:00 am," the force said in a statement. "An initial assessment revealed the death of a MINUSMA soldier and that eight soldiers were wounded.

The rockets also hit Kidal citizens outside the camp and two deaths were counted."

The force said in an update on Twitter that the victims were children and that three civilians had also been injured. A MINUSMA source told AFP they were members of the no-

madic Arab Kunta tribe, which is spread across the Saharan regions of Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger. Their encampment near the UN base was hit by stray rockets as the attack got underway, the source said. Sources inside the force also said the slain peacekeeper was Chadian, like the majority of personnel at the base.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible, although Kidal is the cradle of northern Mali's Tuareg separatist movement, which has launched several uprisings from the region since the 1960s. Tuareg and Arab militias loyalist and anti-government have forged a peace agreement with the Malian government formulated earlier this month in Algiers, although several rebel groups are yet to sign. "MINUSMA strongly condemns these heinous acts of terror whose sole purpose is to thwart all ongoing efforts to establish lasting peace in Mali," the force said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic

Maghreb and other jihadist groups also carry out operations in Kidal, including the 2013 murders of French journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon. In Bamako, police in bulletproof vests patrolled the area where a masked gunman had burst into La Terrasse, a popular venue among expats, spraying automatic gunfire and throwing grenades early Saturday. Al-Murabitoun, a jihadist group run by leading Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which left a Frenchman, a Belgian and three Malians dead. It said in an audio recording carried by Mauritanian news agency Al-Akbar the operation was carried out "to avenge our prophet against the unbelieving West which has insulted and mocked him".

Vehicle checks were stepped up on the three bridges over the Niger river as detectives focused on a black four-wheel drive apparently used by the nightclub attacker and an accomplice.

Two charged with Nemtsov killing

R

ussian authorities said yesterday they were holding five men over the killing of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, one of whom served in a police unit in the Russian region of Chechnya, according to a law enforcement official. The five men were frogmarched into a Moscow courtroom on Sunday, forced by masked secu-

rity officers gripping their bound arms to walk doubled over, a Reuters reporter at the court said. They stood in metal cages in the courtroom as television crews were ushered in to film them.

A judge ruled that all five should be held in custody and said that one of them, Zaur Dadayev, had admitted his involvement in the killing

when questioned by investigators.

Dadayev served for a decade in the "Sever" police battalion, part of the interior ministry in Chechnya, Russian news agencies reported. They cited Albert Barakhayev, a senior security official in the neighboring region of Ingushetia, where several of the men were detained.

he Bloody Sunday 50th anniversary commemoration continued yesterday with a series of events in Selma before a group retraces the steps that helped secure equal voting rights 50 years ago. As dawn broke yesterday, a crowd gathered for the Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College.

Other events yesterday included film screenings and a premarch rally at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Police beat and tear-gassed marchers at the foot of the bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965 in an ugly spasm of violence that shocked the nation. The attack on demonstrators preceded the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which occurred two weeks later. Both helped build momentum for congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act later that year.

A march from Selma to Montgomery in remembrance of the journey the demonstrators took is scheduled to begin Monday morning and culminate with a rally at the Alabama state Capitol Friday afternoon. Thousands gathered Saturday in the town of roughly 20,000 to hear

speeches from leaders including President Barack Obama and Georgia Rep. John Lewis — an Alabama native who was among the demonstrators that was attacked by law enforcement on a march for equal voting rights.

Both gave rousing speeches on the work left to be done to achieve equality and Obama also touched on improvements in American race relations. The president mentioned recent high profile clashes between citizens and law enforcement on the circumstances leading to fatal police shootings and law enforcement tactics toward minorities. "We just need to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us," Obama said.

"We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won, and that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character requires admitting as much."

The president also addressed notions that the prejudice that characterized the civil rights era exists in more insidious forms today and little or nothing has changed since then. "Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing's changed.

Zambian president collapses at ceremony

Z

ambia's President Edgar Lungu collapsed on the podium while presiding over a Women's Day celebration in Lusaka Sunday less than two months after taking over from a leader who died in office.

Lungu was rushed to a military hospital, but the presidency later issued a statement saying he had been treated for malaria and there was no need for concern. “I am feeling much better and have been told I have high levels of fatigue and should take some rest," Lungu said in a statement presented by his press office. "There is nothing to worry about.”

Lungu came to power in Jan-

uary after the death in office of President Michael Sata in October. Rumors that Sata was ill had circulated widely before his death, but were always denied by the government. Sata was Zambia's second leader to die in office in six years, sparking calls for presidential aspirants to undergo medical checks to guarantee they are fit. Lungu, who fell after standing for some 20 minutes during the ceremony, is rumored to have diabetes. Presidential spokesman Amos Chanda said doctors at the military hospital had conducted comprehensive medical checks and said Lungu's results were good.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

AYC

International Sport Wenger ready for Man Utd showdown

Musa hits brace for CSKA

Siasia: U-23 Eagles will get better with time

52

53

54

55

Awoniyi’s double inspires Flying Eagles past Senegal

Sport

Football

SPONSORED BY

Charles Ogundiya

51

Did you know?

12TH AFRICAN JUNIOR ATHLETICS

CHAMPIONSHIP REPORTING FROM

Interview

ADDIS ABABA

That Vincent Enyeama has appeared 99 times for Nigeria since making his debut against Kenya on May 4, 2002

AJC 2015: Team Nigeria retains title in Ethiopia

Charles Ogundiya Addis Ababa

T

eam Nigeria on Sunday retained the African Junior Athletics Championship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after winning 12 gold medals.

Divine Oduduru and Ese Brume were the stars of the

Brume

day after adding one gold medal each to the two won on Saturday to end the championship with three gold medals each.

Oduduru won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m for men while Brume won gold medals in Triple Jump, Long Jump and 4x100m for women.

She also won a bronze medal

in the women’s 100m.

On the final day, Team Nigeria won six gold, four silver and three bronze medals, with Brume creating a championship record in the women’s long jump event with a leap of 6.33m.

The 4x100m women relay team also created a championship record of 44.83secs on Saturday.

Temidayo Osinbanjo won gold in the women’s heptathlon as Idamadudu Praise picked the 200m women while Bashiru Abdulahi won the men’s 110m hurdles.

The total medals for Nigeria at the end of the event were 12 gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

already engaged new coaches.

“This does not portray us as a serious country. Getting a coach for the Eagles is the beginning of rebuilding the team but there is no progress so far on this issue and the best solution is to move on, “ he said.

Lokpombiri argued that it was obvious both the NFF and Keshi are not having the best of times and the relationship should not be forced.

“The ministry and the NFF should be professional. Nobody is forcing Keshi on them.

This assumption is going too far and we are saying it’s time we acted in the interest of football loving people of Nigeria,” Lokpombiri said.

This development could put a halt to the ongoing contract talks between the NFF and the embattled former coach of Togo.

Only last week, Keshi confirmed the NFF offered him contract which his lawyer and his brother were looking into.

His contract expired during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

Dump Keshi now!

•Senate tells Danagogo, Pinnick •Fumes over delay in engaging a coach The Sport Team

Nigerian’s Michael Babatunde (middle) in action against Argentina

Adekunle Salami Group Sport Editor

Emmanuel Tobi Assistant Editor, Sport

Ifeanyi Ibeh Sport Correspondent

Ajibade Olusesan Sport Correspondent

Charles Ogundiya Sport Correspondent

© Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited

Adekunle Salami

T

he ongoing impasse over the employment of a coach for the senior national team, the Super Eagles, took a dramatic twist on Friday in Abuja.

Apparently furious over the delay, the senate has ordered the minister of Sports Tammy Danagogo and the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, to forget the idea of engaging out of

contract coach Stephen Keshi.

The directive was given during the budget defence of sports ministry at the National Assembly.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Adamu Gumba, expressed the displeasure of the upper chamber over the delay in the employment of a coach for the Eagles.

Another member and former chairman of the committee, Heineken Lokpombiri, also stated that it was a shame that countries with similar situations had

52

Sport

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Africa Junior Tennis: Team Nigeria departs for Tunisia

Awoniyi brace takes F’Eagles past Senegal

Ajibade Olusesan

N

Awoniyi

Ifeanyi Ibeh

T

he Flying Eagles on Sunday got their Africa Youth Championship quest underway on a delightful note, beating hosts Senegal 3-1 in Dakar with Taiwo Awoniyi grabbing a brace.

All the goals in the encounter played at the Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor were scored in the first half.

The Kalmar FF of Sweden striker grabbed his first of the game on nine minutes with the easiest of tap-ins after an onrushing Senega-

lese goalkeeper Seydou Sy inexplicably failed to sweep Chidera Ezeh’s long ball away from Awoniyi’s path.

Three minutes later, Awoniyi made it 2-0 for Manu Garba’s side after latching onto another long ball, this time from Ifeanyi Matthew.

But he first had to lob the ball over the onrushing Senegalese goalkeeper, shrug off a challenge from a Senegalese defender, before slotting the ball into a gaping net.

But just when it seemed like the Flying Eagles were going to send the Senegalese back with a basketful of goals, a mistake from If-

eanyi Ifeanyi on 25 minutes gifted the home side with a goal scoring opportunity.

Goalkeeper Joshua Enaholo, who was picked ahead of the duo of Dele Alampasu and Ojo Olorunleke, was however on hand to save the midfielder’s blushes, diving low to keep the Senegalese attempt out.

Two minutes later though, the MFM of Lagos star could not prevent Sidy Sarr from pulling a goal back for the home side as the Nigerian defence practically went to sleep in anticipation of a call from the referee that never came.

Saidat eyes GTBank/Lagos Principal’s Cup trophy

Saidat (left) with her coach and a teammate

Emmanuel Tobi

S

tar revelation of the Season Six of the GTBank-Lagos State Principals Cup, Adebiyi Saidat, has expressed

confidence in helping her school, Government Senior College, Agege, retain the women title of the competition.

Saidat who scored three goals when her school walloped Ilado Community High School, Ikoyi, 6-0 during the quarterfinal match at the Agege stadium recently, said that they were poised to give their best when they battle 2013 champions, Ikotun Senior Secondary School, in the semifinal.

“Our target is to retain the trophy which no school has done since GTBank took over the tournament six years ago.

“It’s going to be a tough match against Ikotun Girls but we are up to the task. We are not carried away by our previous successes even though we have been winning our matches with a least with six goals,” she enthused.

And just when it seemed like the Senegalese were going to draw level, Ifeanyi Matthew restored Nigeria’s twogoal advantage with a left foot drive from the edge of the Senegalese penalty area that Sy could only watch sail into the back of his net.

The second half produced no further goals as both sides fluffed a handful of goal scoring opportunities.

And at the final whistle it was the Nigerians who celebrated on the pitch and on the terraces as they get set to take on Congo on Wednesday in their second match of the AYC.

Beach Eagles win bronze at Power Horse tourney Emmanuel Tobi

T

he Beach Eagles restored their pride on Sunday by walloping South Africa 9-3 to win the bronze medal at the Power Horse Invitational Tournament in Durban, South Africa.

The team which lost narrowly 6-5 to eventual winner, Senegal on Saturday, came back strongly into the game after South Africa leveled 2-2 after Nigeria took a 2-0 lead.

Warri Wolves’ forward Abu Azeez was the star of the day

Ihonvbere, others back Ilaboya-led Edo FA

S

ecretary to the Edo State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, and the state’s Commissioner for Sports, Priesley Ediagbonya, have backed the newly-elected members of the state Football Association to move football in Edo to the next level.

Ihonvbere stated this on Friday in Benin City, when the executive members of the Edo FA, led by their chairman, Frank Ilaboya, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

Ilaboya, who introduced his board members to Ihonvbere, thanked the SSG for his support during the election. The respected sports journalist also solicited the cooperation of Ihonvbere “in our activities, particularly on the promotion of Insurance FC to the Premier League.”

Ihonvbere assured the FA board of

his continuous support adding, “Government is ready to ensure that Insurance return to the Premier League.”

On his part, Ediagbonya, who also received the FA members on Friday, expressed delight at the fast rate the new board members started work. He promised that all hands would be on deck to move Edo football to greater heights.

The board held its inaugural meeting on Thursday at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.

Also, Board Chairman, Edo State Sports Council, Harrison Omagbon, said he was ready to work with the new members. He added that he was delighted with the youthful board members and expressed confidence in their ability to change the fortunes of Edo football.

igerian team to the ITF Africa Junior Tennis Championship is expected to depart today for Tunisia, the venue of the tournament.

According to the national junior tennis coach, Mohammed Ubale, the delegation will leave Lagos to Tunis via Morocco without one of the players, Adetayo Adetunji, who will join them from her base in South Africa.

He said the rest of his team which includes Oyinlomo Quadri, Angel McCleod, Blessing Patrick, Timipre Godsgift, Micheal Oshewa, Michael Ayoola and Martins Abamu would leave this morning for Tunis via Morocco.

Meanwhile, Quadri reaffirmed her readiness for a remarkable outing at the African tourney by clinching the top prize at the 1st MP Tennis Championship concluded at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja at the weekend.

Quadri, the Western and Central African U-14 Girls’ champion edged her Tunisia-bound teammate, McCleod, in a thrilling final 4-2, 3-5 10-5 to set off for the clay court tournament in the Mediterranean country on a winning note.

Another member of the AJC team, Abamu, lost to Christopher Bulus 4-1, 2-4, 5-10 in the boys’ U-16 where Michael Oshewa and Ayoola Micheal, both of whom are also in the train to Tunisia, reached the semifinals.

Star-prospect Serena Teluwo was impressive as she recovered from a set down to beat Mary Udofia 1-4, 4-2, 10-8 for the Grils’U-10title while Gabriel Ekundayo clinched the boys’ version.

Abu (right) in action against Senegal

with five goals, while Victor Tale, who scored four in the loss to Senegal and Bartholomew Ibenegbu weighed in with a brace each.

Abu was also voted the highest goal scorer of the championship after coming tops with nine goals.

The team is expected to return to Nigeria on Monday to continue preparations for their African Beach Soccer Championship qualifying fixture against Libya, which first leg comes up on Saturday, March 14, at the Elegusi Beach, Lagos.

International Sport 53

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Messi, Suarez shine as Barca go top L ionel Messi and Luis Suarez fired Barcelona to the top of La Liga by scoring five of their six goals at the Nou Camp on Sunday.

Suarez scored the first and last goals in the 6-1 win. ‘He is giving us more and more with every week that passes’ said Luis Enrique.

Messi scored a 12-minute second-half hat-trick to take him level with Cristiano Ron-

aldo with 30 league goals this season. It was also a record breaking 24th La Liga hattrick taking him one clear of the Portuguese and setting a new domestic record.

Suarez’s fifth-minute opener was all Luis Enrique’s men had to show for a dominant first-half display, during which the striker and Pedro both should have punished Rayo’s high defensive line.

However, Barca found goals

much easier to come by in the second half as they capitalised on Real Madrid’s defeat at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Gerard Pique doubled the hosts’ lead in the 49th minute, before Tito was sent off for a foul on Suarez in the penalty area.

Messi’s re-taken spot-kick put the result beyond doubt and he added two more goals to move past 40 for the sixth successive season and complete his 32nd treble for Barcelona.

Wenger ready for Man Utd showdown

Wenger

M

anchester United take on Arsenal in the quarter finals of the FA Cup on Monday with Arsene Wenger expecting a typically intense clash between the two teams.

Old Trafford will play host to the most successful clubs in the competition’s history, after Arsenal’s win over Hull City last year brought them level with United on 11 FA Cup triumphs apiece.

And Wenger knows that the team to prevail from this tie will strongly fancy their chances of bringing up number 12 at Wem-

bley in May. “It is a game with special intensity because it is between two teams who have a chance to win this competition,” the Arsenal boss (wenger) told his pre-match media conference.

“Both teams will think: ‘If we get over this hurdle, we have a good opportunity to win the competition’.”

The rivalry between United and Arsenal intensified in the modern era as Wenger led a succession of battles for the Premier League title against old nemesis Sir Alex Ferguson.

AC Milan lost their way, says Mexes

A

C Milan defender Philippe Mexes says his side ‘lost their way’ after a last-minute Nicolas Lopez goal saw them slump to a 2-2 draw at home to Verona .

Goals from Jeremy Menez and Panagiotis Tachtsidis put Milan ahead after Luca Toni’s penalty gave Verona an 18th-minute lead. It was not enough though as Lopez’s late equaliser ensured the two sides shared the spoils.

And Mexes has taken responsibility for the late goal after he and Salvatore Bocchetti went for the same ball, leaving Lopez the space to capatalise.

“At the end we lost our way,” said Mexes.

“It’s a shame, because it was important to win at home. To concede a goal in the last minute is not nice… we have dropped two points.”

Milan have now managed just two wins in their last 11 Serie A outings, prompting Filippo Inzaghi to admit that his time as coach of the Rossoneri may well be coming to an end.

Messi (right) dribbling past Keeper

NBA: Rockets beat Denver Nuggets

J

ames Harden scored 28 points, Corey Brewer had 24 and the Houston Rockets snapped a threegame road losing streak by beating the Denver Nuggets 114-100 on Sunday.

Trevor Ariza had 19 points and Donatas Motiejunas added 18 for the Rockets, who began a key four-game road trip with their second straight win in Denver after losing

the previous four.

Wilson Chandler had 26 points to lead Denver, which is 2-2 under interim coach Melvin Hunt. He replaced Brian Shaw, who was fired Tuesday.

Trailing by seven points at halftime, the Nuggets got a pair of 3-pointers and a threepoint play from Randy Foye at the start of the third quarter to surge in front 62-58.

Back came Houston. Ariza

drained a 3 to start a 13-2 run that put the Rockets in front 7164. Later in the third, the Rockets stretched their lead to 85-71, this time with a 12-2 burst that Ariza capped with his third 3-pointer of the game.

Harden converted a threepoint play and the Rockets took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter. Houston opened a 21-point cushion on Harden’s jumper with 6:52 left.

Wozniacki captures title in Malaysia

F

Wozniacki

ormer world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki came from behind to defeat Alexandra Dulgheru in Sunday’s championship match at the Malaysian Open tennis event.

The top-seeded Danish star overcame the Romanian Dulgheru 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in 1 hour, 50 minutes on the hardcourts at Bukit Resort. Wozniacki broke Dulgheru’s serve five times, while the Romanian loser settled for only two breaks on Day 7.

The two-time U.S. Open runner-up played Dulgheru just last week in Doha, with

the Dane posting a secondround victory when Dulgheru retired in the second set after winning just one of 10 games played. Wozniacki also won their first meeting five years ago in straight sets at the French Open.

The 24-year-old Wozniacki improved to 23-16 in her career finals, including 1-1 this year. She lost to Venus Williams at a season-opening tournament in Auckland.

The 25-year-old Dulgheru played in a final for the first time in five years. She is now 2-1 in her WTA title matches.

I almost joined Liverpool – Costa

D

iego Costa has revealed that he almost joined Liverpool a year before signing for Chelsea.

The Brazil-born Spain international signed for the Blues from Atletico Madrid in a 40 million summer deal and has gone on to score 17 goals in 21 Premier League appearances.

However, he has admitted that he could have been lining up alongside Can rather than clashing with him, with Liverpool activating the 29m release clause in his contract in 2013.

“I was close to leaving Atletico,” Costa is quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror.

“Liverpool are a great team, but after fighting so hard and overcoming difficulties to get my place at Atletico, how could I leave?

“I thought it was very important to keep growing with

Costa

Atletico and to play there for many years.”

Costa eventually signed a new contract at Atletico and went on to score 27 league goals as the club beat Barcelona and Real Madrid to the La Liga title before sealing his move to Stamford Bridge.

54

Sport

SPONSORED BY Divine Oduduru (right) and Victor Peka

Charles Ogundiya

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

12TH AFRICAN JUNIOR ATHLETICS

CHAMPIONSHIP REPORTING FROM

ADDIS ABABA

FINAL TABLE (TOP THREE) Team

Gold Sliver

Bronze

Nigeria

12

8

7

S’ Africa

9

7

7

Ethopia

6

12

10

Gold medalist Praise Idamadudu, (right) and bronze medalist Aniekeme Alphonsus in the 200m race

Team Nigeria with their medals

L-R: Tosin Adeloye, Abolaji Omotayo, Aniekeme Alphonsus, Blessing Adekeruwa, celebrating their 4x100m gold

L-R: Tosin Adeloye, Esther Asamu, Praise Idamadudu, and Yinka Ajayi after winning gold in the 4x400 women race

super Eagles round up

Musa hits brace for CSKA Ujah, Aaron, others also on target

Ajibade Olusesan

S

uper Eagles winger, Ahmed Musa, headlines an impressive weekend for Nigerian players abroad after scoring two goals in CSKA Moscow’s 2-1 win against Terek Grozny on Saturday.

Musa struck in the 45 and 76 minutes as the Army club sealed maximum points. The player has now taken his season tally to nine in the league and 10 in all competitions.

Nigeria international, Anthony Ujah, continued his rich vein of form on Sunday when he scored his ninth goal of the season to help his Bundesliga club, Cologne, to a 4-2 win over

visiting Frankfurt.

The striker who has scored three goals in Cologne’s last four matches, hits target in the 82nd minute of the encounter as the club recorded their first victory in six matches.

Earlier on Friday, veteran striker, Kalu Uche, was on the score sheet as his Spanish La Liga side, Levante, defeated Eibar 2-1.

The 32-year-old struck in the 67th minute to take his tally to three in six games, helping Levante climb out of the relegation zone.

Guangzhou R&F forward, Aaron Samuel, scored to help his team to a 2-1 win against Hangzhou Greentown in their first game of the Chinese Su-

Ideye, Yakubu fire blank

W

est Brom striker, Brown Ideye, could not help his side to the semifinal of the English FA Cup as they fell 2-0 to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Ideye was on the pitch for 90 minutes but his profligacy in front of goal contributed to the Baggies

leaving the Villa Park with nothing.

But for Yakubu Aiyegbeni’ Reading, they still have opportunity of progressing in the competition after their goalless draw with Bradford. Aiyegbeni came on in the 82nd minute of the game

per League.

Samuel, heavily linked with a move to CSKA Moscow of Russia, opened the scoring for his team in the 53rd minute before assisting Abderrazak Hamdallah for his team’s second goal in the 78th minute.

Similarly, Derick Chuka Ogbu scored the only goal as his Chinese side, Liaoning Whowin, defeated Guizhou Renhe.

In Turkey, Nigeria U23 striker, Umar Aminu, was among the goals as his second division team Osmalispor thrashed Giresunspor 4-0 on Sunday. The former Samsunspor striker scored his side’s second goal in the 61st minute.

and he is expected to play a role again when they host Bradford in the second leg.

In France, Elderson Echiejiele was rooted to the bench as Monaco recorded a 3-1 win at Evian on Saturday while Vincent Enyeama expectedly played for 90 minutes in Lille’s 1-0 win at Guingamp on Sunday.

Godfrey Oboabona was absent in Rizespor’s 2-2

draw at Balikesirspor in the Turkish league while John Utaka came from the bench for Sivasspor in the 39th minute but could not help his side from going down 1-0 to visiting Besiktas.

In Ukraine, Micael Babatunde bagged a yellow card in Volyn’s 1-1 draw against Chernomorets Odessa.

Musa (left)

Sport 55

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Siasia: U-23 Eagles will get better with time Following their 2-0 win over Gabon on Saturday at the Abuja National Stadium in a 2015 All Africa Games qualifier, which resulted in a 6-1 aggregate win for Nigeria, Nigeria U-23 team coach, Samson Siasia, in this interview with SL10, talks about the team’s next round match against Zambia and how he hopes to raise the standard of the team.

Coach, congratulations on the win over Gabon…

It is a good feeling winning at home. Maybe not a very easy win, but the most important thing was the win and progression which we have made and now we have to look forward.

Your team didn’t play well, what would you attribute that to?

These young players are playing for the first time for Nigeria in Nigeria and you could see they wanted to make those passes but they couldn’t because they were a little jittery. But I think with time they will come through because I’ve seen these boys play and trust me, because even in practice sessions, they’ve been better and they make better passes than what we saw. So it’s all about getting their confidence high, because we couldn’t have played like this and won in Gabon, it’s not possible. There’s a problem we have to fix, the problem we have in Nigeria where the players sometimes think the fans are too hostile, especially when you don’t score on time. But it wasn’t the case because the fans were so calm and I’m happy for that because if they had started singing

against the team, it could have been a problem, but I can assure you that these boys can do better than what they did on Saturday.

pare for them because if you don’t know them, it will be a problem to play against them. So we will get their clips and study them.

Do you also think complacency was a factor because having won 4-1 away maybe the players were a little bit complacent?

No I don’t think that was the problem. It was just a case of us not being able to put those passes together and they most times passed the ball to the Gabonese team and as a result the Gabonese team had better chances than we had. So it started right from the defenders, because getting the ball to the strikers was a bit too difficult for them and I wondered if they were playing for Gabon or Nigeria but all the same we didn’t lose, we won 2-0. We have to improve on making sure that we have a little bit more confidence when we’re playing at home and try to make those passes that will lead to goals.

Should we expect to see new additions to the team?

Well I don’t know because it depends on the additions you’re talking about; if they are better than the ones we have right now.

Of course I keep saying that we haven’t finished yet because we are still a work in progress and if anyone comes in and makes more sense than what we have, we will definitely bring such a player in.

Nigeria play Zambia next, how much information have you gathered about them?

To be honest I can’t say I know much about their U23 team but we will get their videos and pre-

From what you have seen so far of this team, would you say you have seen signs you could have a team as good as that of 2008 or even better?

I can’t see the future but I all I want to do is work very hard and give these guys the confidence to play better than they did on Saturday against Gabon because I don’t think Nigerians are pleased with the way we played (against Gabon), but trust me, these boys will improve. The most important thing is to make sure we qualify and then keep them together for a while. I can assure you that we will improve.

Siasia

Bolt’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen, says Tiffany Porter is right now and so much talent in the event, I would say my greatest rival is whoever is on top. Last year Dawn Harper Nelson was on top. The year before, Brianna (Rollins); the year before that, Sally (Pearson). Whoever is on top of their game, you naturally want to beat.

To be completely honest, I would say my greatest rival is my mind. I tend to overthink and over-complicate things. Sometimes I can be my own worst enemy.

European 100m hurdles champion and World Championships bronze medallist, Tiffany Porter, in this interview with the official site of the IAAF, talks about the best things in her athletics career.

Athletics achievement Winning a bronze medal at the Moscow World Championships was huge. It was a major redemption for me coming off the disappointment of the London Olympic year. That year I suffered injury and wondered if I wanted to carry on in the sport. A close second to winning bronze in Moscow was being top of the podium at the European Championships. There is no feeling like it.

It is addictive.

Best piece of kit I loved the Great Britain Olympic kit in 2012. It looked really cute – a great merge of fashion and sport. I really like the Adidas clothes, they really fit me well. I know I am paid to say that, but they genuinely do.

Best athlete ever seen I’m so torn. There are so many great athletes; Usain Bolt, David Rudisha, Ashton Eaton. I am partial to the sprints, so I will say Usain Bolt. He is something special.

Porter

Best friend in athletics That’s easy: my husband, Jeff Porter. We’ve known each other for 10 years and I met him aged 17. Jeff ’s been there for me every day – he has been my back bone. He was there for me during the year (2012) I wanted to quit. He really motivates me to want to do better.

Best coach I had great success with my old coach, James Henry, who helped me reach all of my goals as a collegiate athlete. Now as a pro I’ve had a lot of

Bolt

Biggest disappointment I know I talk about it a lot, but the 2012 Olympic Games. I had never been injured before, so to pick up an injury before the biggest competition of my life took me a while to bounce back from. I have become a better athlete for the experience.

success with my current coach, Rana Reider. He has helped me win major championship medals and set personal bests, so I’ll say both James and Rana.

Biggest regret I don’t have any major regrets. I do believe the journey and the disappointments along the way form who you are.

Biggest weakness I really like to help people. I like to see the good in people and try to be as kind as possible. Sometimes people take my kindness for weakness.

Best achievement outside of athletics Graduating with my doctorate in pharmacy in 2012 was a huge accomplishment for me. Some people perhaps see you only as an athlete and don’t understand you have other aspects to your life and other passions. I am very passionate about my pharmacy career.

Greatest rival With the hurdles being as deep as it

On Marble

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

World Record

Sanctity of Truth

Rajo Devi Lohan, World’s oldest mother, 74, says giving birth to her daughter, now five, has kept her living longer because she’s determined to live to see her marry.

NIGERIA’S MOST AUTHORITATIVE NEWSPAPER IN POLITICS AND BUSINESS

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

N150

Internally Displaced Persons and Elections GUEST COLUMNIST Adewale Kupoluyi

A

s the dates for the general elections draw nearer, many issues continue to come up for discussion in a bid to ensure that nothing is left to chances in conducting successful polls in the country. The right to vote has been granted by virtue of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

However, some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), such as those incarcerated in prisons and those relocated to other areas of the country, are often excluded from the exercise, thus denying them the right to choose who rules them. Under the democratic rule, voting at elections remains the only way through which citizens can elect their representatives. Section 77 (2) of the 1999 Constitution specifically grants every citizen, who has attained the age of eighteen years and reside in Nigeria at the time of the voter’s registration such privilege while the Electoral Act under Section 12 (1) also stipulates other conditions that allow eligible voters to present themselves for registration and other electoral activities.

A recent and disturbing report informs that with about 3.3 million IDPs, Nigeria has the largest population of persons displaced by conflicts in Africa.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), disclosed that no fewer than 300,000 people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, consisting of 70 percent of children and women, had since fled their homes. In different parts of the country, communal clashes and related violence have made many people to flee their homes and abandoning their properties.

The report showed that 470,500 persons were displaced in Nigeria in 2013 alone, placing it as the third with the highest number of displaced persons in the world, ranking behind Colombia with 5.7 million IDPs and Syria’s 6.5 million.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees also put the figure of IDPs in the North-East at 650,000. It revealed further that there were 258, 252 babies and minors, 207, 583 women and 147, 894 men in the various camps across the federation. However, statistics by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFMIDS), indicated that internal conflicts had displaced about 470, 565 people while 143,164 people were displaced because of natural disasters across the country within the last one year. The statistics, which covered a period of January 2013 to February 2014, pointed to the fact that Borno State leads with 196, 337 persons while Nasarawa followed with 24, 947. The commission added that 24 states already had IDPs; out of which 470, 565 of the IDPs from 21 states arose from conflict situation; while a total of 143, 164 displaced persons in 14 states resulted from nature-induced disasters.

Akwa Ibom and Borno states had the highest number of IDPs for conflict and

Jonathan

Badeh

Jega

Ban Ki-Moon

A recent and disturbing report informs that with about 3.3 million IDPs, Nigeria has the largest population of persons displaced by conflicts in Africa nature-induced situations with a total of 189, 318 and 37, 609, respectively.

Similarly, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) indicated that between January and March 2014, more than three million Nigerians faced humanitarian problems caused by insurgency in three endemic states resulting in many deaths and displacement of about 250, 000 people that are either scat-

tered in various camps or reside with family members outside the highly risky zones. Available statistics from the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) indicate that not all the inmates may have actually committed acts of misdemeanour. For instance, out of the about 56,785 inmates currently in the 239 prisons across the country, only 18,042, representing 32 per cent are convicted prisoners while a larger number of about 38,743 inmates, representing 68 per cent are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP).

The truth is that many imprisoned persons are innocent of what they’re being punished for, making it imperative for proper reformation, rehabilitation and integration. What it means is that this high number of inmates is quite significant to influencing the outcome of elections. Politicians should not be allowed to manipulate the voting power of IDPs to their advantage. Let me also add here that the living conditions of these people, who are victims of circumstances, are precarious. Unfortunately, little has been heard of what becomes of the management of enormous proceeds from the emergency relief funds

specifically raised for the IDPs. Apart from the scourge of insurgency and the devastating effect of natural disasters, a reasonable number of eligible voters have been displaced from their homes and electoral enclaves due to a series of attacks in some North-East states and heavy floods that had affected states along the rivers Niger and Benue.

That is why the assurance given by Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), is soothing when he said IDPs would be allowed, under the current dispensation, to exercise their civic rights.

The INEC boss also promised to do everything humanly possible to ensure that the affected persons were not disenfranchised. As a step forward in realising this goal, a task force was constituted by INEC and the terms of reference of the task force include examining the legal, political, security and administrative challenges in achieving IDPs voting during elections, evaluating the standards and recommendations emerging from conferences and workshops by international and local agencies on voting by IDPs and determining their applicability to Nigeria. It was also expected to review the experiences of other jurisdictions in dealing with the challenges of IDPs voting. The task force was also to evaluate the adequacy of existing electoral legal framework for resolving the challenges of IDPs voting, determine what INEC would do to ensure that IDPs are not disenfranchised, determine the scope of IDPs participation that is practicable in the elections, and submit a comprehensive report that should embody specific recommendations on IDPs at participating in the elections.

The judgment of the Federal High Court in Benin further gives hope to many prison inmates just like what obtains in other nations such as the United States of America whereby inmates are allowed to vote in some of the states, although the voting rights of prison inmates may not be fully exercised, going by the fact that INEC did not capture them during the last registration of voters exercise. It should, however, begin to prepare adequately for subsequent elections. But for the March 28 and April 11 elections, the government should, as a matter of urgency and priority, ensure that the necessary logistics are put in place to enable all eligible IDPs cast their vote without forgetting the aftermath of the 2011 elections, where innocent Youth Corps members were massacred alongside countless other innocent bystanders. These measures should include setting up appropriate designated centres in various locations in each of the endemic states for last minute distribution of permanent voter cards (PVCs), organising voting at safe and accessible centres outside the established camps.

Most importantly, INEC should ensure that adequate security is provided for the conduct of free, fair, transparent and credible elections.

• Kupoluyi writes from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), adewalekupoluyi@yahoo.co.uk, Twitter; @AdewaleKupoluyi, Blog; www.adewalekupoluyi.blogspot.com

Printed and Published by Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Ltd: Head Office: No. 1A, Ajumobi Street, Off ACME Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja-Lagos. Tel: +234 1-2219496, 2219498. Abuja Office: Orji Kalu House, Plot 322,

by Banex Junction, Mabushi, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Advert Hotline: 01-8541248, Email: info@newtelegraphonline.com Website: www.newtelegraphonline.com ISSN 2354-4317 Editor: YEMI AJAYI.