New telegraph thursday, september 17, 2015 binder1 by Newtelegraphonline

Aregbesola orders payment of salary arrears

DMO calls JP Morgan's bluff, says FG bonds remain strong Abdulwahab Isa Abuja

he Debt Management Office (DMO) has called the bluff of J. P Morgan for delisting

Nigeria from the Bond Index for Emerging Markets. Director-General, DMO, Mr. Abraham Nwankwo, at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, said that the nation’s bonds were not affected by the removal.

Nwankwo insisted that the Federal Government's bonds remain strong and robust. J. P Morgan Chase and Co. had delisted Nigeria from its Government Bond Index for Emerging Mar-

kets (GBI-EM) for alleged lack of liquidity for transactions and transparency in the determination of exchange rate. The American bank, which has around $210 billion in assets under man-

agement benchmarked to it, added Nigeria to its index in 2012. On January 16, J. P Morgan, which is the largest financial services holding company in the United CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

}39

Health

Keeping low blood pressure at bay }23

Sanctity Of Truth

NIGERIA’S MOST AUTHORITATIVE NEWSPAPER IN POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Ayade

/newtelegraph

Vol. 2 No. 575

Cross River ready for Buhari's visit, says Ayade }41

Assets: FG slams 13-count charge on Saraki }6

@newtelegraph1 www.newtelegraphonline.com

N150

Ooni: Court restrains Giesi family from producing candidate }39

Saraki

The late Sijuwade

Obasanjo, Tinubu clash over ministerial nominees

lCardoso to replace Wale Edun as Saraki nominates Bolaji Abdullahi lEx-governors, army chief, lawyers, others scale screening }4 'The president's men'

Rotimi Amaechi

Ogbonnaya Onu

Olagunsoye Oyinlola

Rabiu Kwankwaso

Ifueko Omogui-Okauru

Bolaji Abdullahi

Lt. Gen. Abdurahman Dambazzau

Femi Falana

Boss Mustapha

Pat Utomi

Yemi Cardoso

Bode Mustapha

Troops arrest 33 B'Haram food suppliers –Army lGunmen kill 33, raze 150 homes in Plateau, Taraba

}4 & 10

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Obasanjo, Tinubu clash over ministerial nominees Ayodele Ojo

ormer President Olusegun Obasanjo and erstwhile Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, are locked in a war of attrition over the formation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet. Already, former Lagos State Commissioner for Finance and a nominee of Tinubu into the cabinet, Mr. Wale Edun, has become the first casualty of the ego war. Sources told New Telegraph that Edun, who Tinubu had recommended to Buhari to be Minister of Finance, has been dropped despite being screened by the Department of State Services (DSS). He is to be replaced by former Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Yemi Cardoso, as a Lagos representative in the cabinet. Cardoso is the chairman, Citibank Nigeria Limited. In preparation for the

coveted seat, Edun had led the All Progressives Congress (APC) delegation to Washington to attend the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April. Edun’s problem started when a group of influential Lagos indigenes, including traditional rulers and some of his colleagues that served in the Tinubu administration, kicked against his choice as a Lagos State ministerial nominee. The opposition informed the decision of Tinubu to ensure Edun becomes Ogun State nominee. But Obasanjo and the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, also kicked. A source informed New Telegraph that Obasanjo called Tinubu and advised him to desist from pushing Edun as Ogun State nominee. He was said to have warned that Ogun people would not allow Tinubu to fill the slot of the state with

somebody whose work and career were rooted in Lagos State. The former president reportedly cited the example of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, from Ogun State, whom Tinubu nominated as vicepresident, adding that he considered Osinbajo to be more of a Lagosian than an indigene of Ogun State. It was learnt that Obasanjo and Amosun have agreed to give the state’s slot in the cabinet to a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Auditor, Chief Bode Mustapha. Sources said the two recent visits of Obasanjo to Buhari in Abuja was first to submit his ministerial list and for further consultations. A source in the presidency told New Telegraph that Obasanjo’s nominees include: former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun); former Governor of Ekiti State and now the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the APC, Chief Segun Oni (Ekiti); Musta-

pha (Ogun); former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili and erstwhile Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. The source added that the submission of the ministerial list by Obasanjo to the president informed the September 9 visit of Tinubu and former Interim National Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, to Buhari, 24 hours after the former president visited. “Tinubu and Akande’s visit to President Buhari on September 9 was an impromptu meeting. An influential official in the presidency told them of Obasanjo’s surreptitious moves to corner the ministerial nominees from the South-West. This is why the two leaders visited,” the source said. At the meeting with Buhari, Tinubu and Akande reportedly told the president that South-West APC leaders would not accept a situation where Obasanjo would determine those who become ministers. It was learnt that Tinu-

President Muhammadu Buhari (right) being received by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on arrival from France at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja…yesterday. PHOTO: TIMOTHY IKUOMENISAN.

Troops arrest 33 Boko Haram food suppliers –Army Emmanuel Onani

roops of the Nigerian Army have apprehended 33 suspected Boko Haram food suppliers in Damboa, Borno State in the ongoing counter-insurgency war in the North-East. More men, women and children, who were held in captivity by the terrorists, have also been rescued by the troops. This is coming 48 hours after the troops rescued scores of women and children held hostage by suspected insurgents as well as the destruction of four camps hitherto operated by the terrorists at Bolungu 1 and 2, Bula Doye and

Cheehi Dare, Borno State. A statement by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations (DAPR), Colonel Sani Usman, said the suspects, who are now being interrogated, were apprehended with "large quantity of foodstuffs meant for Boko Haram terrorists at Korode." Usaman said: "Intensive patrols and vigilance of troops have continued to yield positive results with the arrest of 33 suspected food suppliers to the Boko Haram terrorists in Damboa axis around Azir-Wajiroko road, Borno State. “The 33 suspected Boko Haram accomplices were arrested with large quantity of foodstuffs meant for

Boko Haram terrorists at Korode. "Nine of the 33 suspects are from Korode, five from Auma, 10 from Geargube, four from Kausautaya, four from Bulbul and one from Dolomi villages. “Although some of the suspects claimed to be traders, they did not however deny buying and selling food items to the terrorists. Interrogation is still ongoing to further unravel the level of involvement of the suspects.” The army spokesman said that during clearance operations of Boko Haram hideouts, troops discovered and successfully destroyed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in

Sandia village, along Korode road. Usman added that more people have been rescued. "More men, women and children were rescued from the terrorists at Buduwa area along Bama axis. The rescued persons were part of those abducted by Boko Haram terrorists at Buduwa general area in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State which was earlier occupied by the terrorists. "It should be noted that the Nigerian Army is trying hard to ensure safety of the rescued persons but not taking anything for granted as some of them are suspected terrorists," he said.

bu and Akande did not oppose the choice of Oyinlola as a minister representing Osun State. “It was a moral issue. Obasanjo is not a member of the APC and cannot appropriate the positions of the zone to himself. The South-West leaders have been meeting for two months on the ministerial nominee, only for Obasanjo to sit in Ota and draw up a ministerial list. That is why the leaders kicked against the idea. “That will be killing the party in the South-West. He can’t be an alternate APC. Obasanjo should be respected as a leader, but he can’t hijack what belongs to the region. “On Obasanjo’s ministerial list, former Governor Oyinlola featured just as his name featured from the list submitted from the state. There was no resistance to Oyinlola’s nominee because that was part of the agreement before his defection from the PDP to the APC. The party has fulfilled one leg of the agreement by ceding the senatorial slot to Senator Isiaka Adeleke who also defected from PDP to the APC,” an influential member of the APC said. The source added that based on Tinubu’s complaint, Buhari reportedly promised to look into the issue. As it is, Obasanjo has been given two ministerial slots of Ogun and Osun – Mustapha and Oyinlola – while Tinubu and SouthWest leaders would fill the four other slots remaining in the geopolitical zone. One of sources said Buhari, who had promised to constitute his cabinet by September 30, would submit the ministerial list to the National Assembly next week either before his trip to New York on Tuesday to attend the United Nations conference, or on his return from the trip. In addition, it was learnt that the DSS had screened ministerial nominees and forwarded its report to the president. Those who failed the integrity test had been replaced. It was learnt that Buhari had settled for former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the nominee from the state; notwithstanding the opposition against his candidacy from top officials of the PDP government in the state. Amaechi, who was the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, lost out in the bid for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). One of the sources also said a former Governor of old Abia State, Dr. Ogban-

naya Onu, had been asked to choose between being a minister and getting an ambassadorial posting. The source said Onu, who also lost out in the SGF race, had settled for the Ebonyi ministerial slot. Former presidential candidate and renowned economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, is the likely nominee of Delta State. A group of professionals of which Vice-President Osinbajo belongs, is rooting for Utomi. Former Governor of Kano State and now a senator, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, is likely going to make the ministerial list. Kwankwaso, who was Minister of Defence in the Obasanjo administration, may retain the position in the Buhari cabinet. Although, a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdurahman Dambazzau, who is being touted as the next Minister of Defence, has been screened, one of the sources said he might be given another portfolio. “The president is considering having a civilian as his Minister of Defence. The basis for this is that there is always a friction between the service chiefs and the minister of defence with a military background. Don’t forget that the president is a retired general. So, if Kwankwaso makes it to the cabinet, he may end up as defence minister having held the portfolio before,” the source said. In Edo State, either former Executive Chairman, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okauru or erstwhile Special Adviser to Obasanjo on Programme and Policy Monitoring, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, may get the state’s slot. Omogui-Okauru, who stepped down as FIRS chairman in April 2012, was recently appointed by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir ElRufai, to head the Kaduna State Tax Reform Committee. Ihonvbere is the Secretary to the Edo State Government (SSG) and believed to be the nominee of Governor Adams Oshiomhole. New Telegraph learnt that the only name submitted for consideration as minister for Kwara State is that of Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, an ally of the Senate President Bukola Saraki. Abdullahi served as Minister of Sports in the Goodluck Jonathan administration and was the Deputy Director, Directorate of Policy and Strategy of the APC Presidential CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Assets: FG slams 13-count charge on Saraki was governor, acquired a property from the Federal Government in the sum of N497, 200, 000; a sum which is not fairly attributable to his income, gift or loan approved by the Code of Conduct for Public Officers and which he wrongly claimed to have acquired from proceeds of sale of rice and sugar commodities. In the charge, Saraki was said to have committed the offences under Section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Cap. C15, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and as incorporated under paragraphs 11(1) and (2) of Part I, Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and punishable under Section 23 (2) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and as incorporated under paragraph 18 of Part I, Fifth Schedule to Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). In addition, Saraki was alleged to have, on June 3, 2011, made a false declaration in the Assets Declaration Form for Public Officers at the end of his tenure as Governor of Kwara State in 2011 by refusing to declare Plot 2A, Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos which he acquired between 2007 and 2008 through his company, Carlisle Properties Limited from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for N325 million. Saraki was also alleged to be operating a foreign bank account while he was the governor of Kwara State.

He was alleged to have transferred $73, 223.28 from his GTB domiciliary account No 441441953210 to the American Express Bank, New York card account No: 374588216836009. The offence is said to be committed contrary to paragraph 3, Part I, Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule. No date has been fixed for trial. Saraki, who spoke with journalists in Abuja yesterday, said that the attacks on

Cardoso to replace Wale Edun as Saraki nominates Bolaji Abdullahi

States and the world's fifth largest bank with total assets of $2.6 trillion, placed Nigeria on a negative index watch and finally delisted Nigeria on September 8. But Nwankwo said Nigeria’s removal from the index “does not amount to a downgrade of Nigeria or FGN Bonds since J. P Morgan is not a credit rating agency.” He said: “It does not have any impact on the quality of the FGN Bonds. They remain risk-free securities that are backed by the full faith and credit of the Federal Government and are charged upon the general assets of Nigeria. It does not imply that the Bonds are no longer liquid.” Nwankwo also said that FGN Bonds were supported by an active secondary market, which allowed investors to buy or sell them on any business day. He said this could be done through any of the 13 primary dealer market makers licensed by the DMO or on the Nigerian

Tunde Oyesina and Chukwu David ABUJA

enate President Bukola Saraki is to face trial in a 13-count charge bordering on false declaration of assets while he was the governor of Kwara State. The charge sheet marked CCT/ABJ/01/15 and dated September 11 was signed by the Deputy Director in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, M.S Hassan. Saraki is only party in the suit filed by the Federal Government before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). But Saraki said that though he has not been served with the court processes, the charge sheet upon which the CCT wants to prosecute him, were outright fabrications and malicious allegations designed by some detractors to discredit him for political reasons. In the charge, Saraki was alleged to have made false declaration in the Assets Declaration Form for Public Officers on assumption of office as Governor of Kwara State in 2003 by making anticipatory declaration of a property, No 15A and 15B McDonald, Ikoyi Lagos, when in actual fact the property was sold to him in 2006 in the sum of N396, 150, 000 by the Implementation Committee on the Federal Government Landed Properties. Saraki was also alleged to have, between October 2006 and May 2007, while he

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

Campaign Organisation. It is not clear if President Buhari will accept Abdullahi’s candidacy. If he does, then the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, may end up as Special Adviser to the President on Aviation. But if the president rejects Abdullahi, then a technocrat or Mohammed may fill the Kwara ministerial slot. In Ekiti, the hope of former Governors Niyi Adebayo, Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi was dashed by the choice of human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN). Vice-President Osinbajo was said to have, in conjunction with Tinubu, pushed for his candidacy as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. It was learnt that General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd) lobbied retired Generals to

have his son, Niyi, as Ekiti nominee. New Telegraph reliably learnt that the APC SouthWest leaders have agreed that the ambassadorial slot for Ekiti is reserved for Fayemi. In Adamawa, Boss Gida Mustapha, a lawyer, has been tipped by the president as minister. Mustapha lost the APC governorship ticket to Senator Bindow Jibrilla, now governor. He was a member of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee set up by the president. He is a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Alhaji Abubakar Malami (SAN), a member of the Ahmed Joda transition committee, has been tapped for the Kebbi ministerial slot. He was with Buhari in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) where he served as National Legal Adviser.

him were masterminded by some persons who were bent on running him down. He, however, said that such actions would not distract him from actualising the responsibilities placed on him by his office. He wondered why his accusers waited for so long after he had declared his assets before coming up with the allegations, describing the action as ridiculous. Saraki said that he would defend the issues raised against him at the appropriate time. A statement issued earlier from the Media Office of the Senate President, said that Saraki would have ignored the charges, but for the fact that he owed

the public a duty to set the records straight. According to the statement, all the claims contained in the charge sheet are false, incorrect and untrue as Saraki had consistently declared his assets as required by law. Saraki noted that contrary to the procedure indicated in the law setting up the CCB, the bureau never wrote to him to complain of any inconsistency in his asset declaration forms. He also denied operating any foreign account throughout his tenure as Governor of Kwara State. Saraki observed that some of the issues contained in the charge sheet were subjects of earlier

decided and ongoing court cases, arguing that those who chose to file the charges at the CCT were engaging in forum-shopping. He accused the CCT of acting under the influence of some external forces, stressing that the tribunal had gone ahead to file charges without following the due process. "We, therefore, conclude that this is not an anticorruption driven case and cannot be part of the moves aimed at fighting corruption. It is simply a pure malicious and politically motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and office of the Senate President," the statement read.

Senate President Bukola Saraki (left) with the Chairman, Public Complaints Commission, Chief Emmanuel Ogbile, after a courtesy visit to Saraki in Abuja …yesterday.

DMO calls JP Morgan's bluff, says FG bonds remain strong CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Stock Exchange (NSE) where the bonds were listed and for which purpose there was a government stockbroker. The DMO boss said that although the Index was a strong tool for attracting foreign investors to invest in the Nigerian Bonds market, it did not mean they would be prevented from doing so. “It does not imply that foreign investors cannot or will not be allowed to invest in FGN Bonds or the Nigerian financial markets as a whole,” he explained. Nwankwo recalled that the Bonds market was resuscitated by the DMO in 2003 and was successful, leading to J. P Morgan listing it on its Index in 2012. He said the Index listing was in recognition that Nigeria was one of the few emerging market countries with a robust domestic market. The Director-General said that investors who had confidence in the potential of Nigeria and the reforms at their realisation should still see Nige-

ria as an attractive investment destination. He, however, said that the government had taken steps to ensure that the economy was stabilised. “We want to say that the Nigerian economy has proved to be resilient. The government has taken initiatives to ensure short-term stabilisation in terms of the physical position of the various governments in the country and efforts are being made to deal with the long-term effects. “The efforts are being made to make sure that this market, in the next three to five years, becomes one of the strongest, one of the most sought after, not only in Africa, but in the whole world and we will continue in that pursuit,” Nwankwo said. He, however, appealed to the media and Nigerians to avoid negative publicity of the Nigerian economy. “We should not join the bandwagon of speculations and negative sentiment building around the Bonds market and the economy.

“They should rather emphasise that the Nigerian Bond market existed before it was listed on the J.P Morgan Index,” he said. Assuring investors to be calm, he stressed: "DMO is convinced that the expected reduction in foreign participation in the FGN bond market due to the phasing out of Nigeria from GBI-EM will not impact the market adversely. Indeed, the share of allotment at the auctions to foreign investors dropped from 15.51 per cent in 2013 to 3.34 per cent in 2014, yet the market remained stable." Admitting that the decision by J.P Morgan to phase out FGN bonds from its index is unwelcome, Nwankwo said: "It does not signify a downturn or the collapse of FGN bonds or the downgrade of the bonds." He said there are other avenues investors can participate in Nigeria’s bonds market, adding that Nigeria still exists on Buckley's capital index apart from JP Morgan.

NEW TELEGRAPH thursday, september 17, 2015

Tribunals: INEC laments cost of legal representation Onyekachi Eze ABUJA

he Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed worry over cost of legal representation at various election tribunals in the country. To this end, the commission, yesterday, set up a committee on the management of election petitions and how to mitigate the cost. Acting Chairman of INEC, Hajia Amina Bala Zakari, who inaugurated the committee, observed that the numerous petitions at the election tribunals where the com-

mission was joined "as a respondent, subpoenaed to testify (and) at the same time ensuring the provision of materials to these tribunals at enormous cost" is taking a toll on the management and staff of the INEC. Zakari noted that the commission, which is expected to defend its role in the conduct of the elections, had to deploy its in-house and external solicitors to appear for and on behalf of the commission. "This informed our desire to ensure better management of the various election petitions involving the commission, thus the setting up of this committee," she said.

News

national

The INEC chairperson enjoined the committee to employ all modalities appropriately necessary, including interviews, visits and reviews in course of its assignment. "This committee is also expected to study the issues surrounding the tribunals, especially as it relates to utilisation of human and material resources, the role of INEC staff, the roles of our external solicitors etc., and advise on the best manner to manage the issues, and come up with recommendations. "The report and recommendations of the committee would be further subjected to wider circulation to our various stake-

holders in the judiciary, civil society organisation to fine tune and incorporate the recommendations in the commission's processes. The recommendation may also be a basis for further review of the electoral laws by the National Assembly. "As veterans and professionals, I'm sure you will bring your experience to bear on this important assignment, cognizant of the fact that the desire of the commission is to significantly factor into every critical phase of the cycle, the needed improvement in the quality of the process, so as to meet the expectations of Nigerians," Zakari added.

TSA: Punitive sanctions await erring MDAs — AGF Abdulwahab Isa Abuja

unitive actions await Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government that failed to comply with the September 15 deadline directing them to migrate to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, said yesterday that erring MDAs will be sanctioned accordingly. Idris was not specific on the nature of sanctions awaiting such erring MDAs. Idris, however, expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance by MDAs. “At the close of business on Tuesday, September 15, almost all MDAs,

especially the revenue yielding ones have all complied with the presidential directive to transit to the TSA,” Idris stated. A statement by Deputy Director (Press), Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), Mrs. Kenechukwu Offie, said that the compliance was an indication that Nigeria was at the threshold of a new era of transparent and accountable management of public finances. The AGF thanked all the MDAs for their cooperation. Idris also commended all the MDAs that had complied with the directive on the transition to the TSA in view of the deadline. President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that all MDAs deposit their remittances into a single account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on or before September 15.

Why Nigeria lags behind in MDGs — NBS boss Abdulwahab Isa Abuja

L-R: Group Deputy Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Obinna Nwosu; Environmental Activist, Desmond Majekodunmi and Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, during a workshop on International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer held at the bank’s Head Office in Lagos …on Tuesday

Buratai tasks Finance Corps 'Corrupt Nigerians should on prudence, accountability be made to return loot' Oluwole Ayodele KADUNA

he Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai has charged members of the Nigerian Army Finance Corps to make prudence, integrity and accountability their guide, and to continuously embrace procedures and practices that would support army to become more professionalised and achieve value for money in its activities. He stated this in his address at the opening ceremony of the 10th biennial training conference of the Nigerian Army Finance Corps yesterday in Kaduna, with the theme: “Impact of Evolving Federal Government Financial Policies on the

Operational Roles of the Nigerian Army amidst Dwindling Budgetary Allocations”. According to Buratai, following the ongoing Federal Government's change mantra that has culminated in the revival of previously dormant financial policies, the training conference is expected to prepare the Army finance corps for the challenges to be posed by the new financial policies that they would encounter in their daily activities. “I believe that the expected benefits the participants will derive from this conference will drive home my vision for the Nigerian Army which is to have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles."

Emmanuel Masha PORT HARCOURT

he Catholic Archbishop of Jos, the Most Rev. Ignatius A. Kaigama has said that Nigerians who corruptly enriched themselves and stashed their loots abroad should be compelled to disclose where they hid such loot, and return it to Nigeria. He described Nigeria’s brand of corruption as crude, inhuman and landed the country in its present state, stressing there was need for Nigerians to join hands to rescue the country by standing against corruption. He said that such loot should be channeled to development objectives in the interest of generality of Nigerians. Kaigama, who made the comment at the Catho-

lic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in Port Harcourt, said that the recovery of Nigeria’s wasted opportunities must not be left to the government alone, but deserves the involvement of all Nigerians. He said there was a growing demand by Nigerians for higher economic and political performance, accompanied with high ethical standards, and that those who landed Nigeria in its present mess must make a comprehensive restitution by returning their loot either within or outside the country. The Archbishop noted that the current mood in the country revolves on nationalism irrespective of ethnic, religious and political divides, stressing that the people were tired of unemployment, decaying infrastructure among others.

s Nigeria prepares to enlist in to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a successor to Millennium Development Goal (MDGs),Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, has identified some obstacles that prevented the country from meeting some of MDGs targets. Amongst obstacles identified yesterday by the NBS boss at a workshop organised for stakeholders included, late start in tracking progress made in meeting the development goals. Kale said that al-

though the country had met some of the goals for 2015, it had yet to meet the targets of eradicating poverty , extreme hunger and provision of adequate health care and sustainable environment. "We are not prepared as a statistical system, as a statistical office or a country. Firstly, we started tracking about four or so years late. Even when we did, questions about are you tracking the right things towards meeting the objectives abound". "So, if you start four years late, how can you even tell if you have made progress towards the MDGs? You can't actually tell whether or not you actually met the target. So it was difficult."

Digitisation: NBC targets 22 million TV households Mojeed Alabi

head of the June 20, 2017 new deadline for digital broadcast migration in Nigeria, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has affirmed its desire to meet up with the new date, just as it expressed hope to penetrate more than 22 million television households through the provision of quality settop boxes and improved infrastructure. This is also as the regulatory body explained the N34 billion sale of 700 MHz spectrum to the nation’s telecommunications giant, MTN. It said the deal

was authorised by relevant government agencies. In a media briefing in Lagos yesterday, the Director-General of the NBC, Emeka Mba, revealed that the sale was an open transactions and that MTN only succeeded as the preferred bidder after meeting up with the set requirements. The DG, who did not state other bidders in the deal, claiming he was not authorised to do so, said the deal was a product of NBC’s creative measures to generate the needed approved N51 billion fund to execute a successive digital change over before the new date set.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Metro

Vandals ambush DSS, kill eight DAREDEVIL Audacious oil pipeline vandals waylay DSS personnel to rescue apprehended colleagues Juliana Francis and Taiwo Jimoh

unmen, believed to be oil pipeline vandals, have reportedly killed eight officials of Department of State Services (DSS), at Ishawo, Agric area of Ikorodu, Lagos State. The hoodlums opened fire on the DSS agents when the latter walked into their ambush about 11pm on Tuesday. This came barely two weeks after oil vandals attacked some policemen at the Owutu area of Ikorodu and killed four policemen. They disappeared with the policemen’s bodies and AK47 rifles. In the Tuesday attack, the vandals also went away with the bodies of the DSS agents and their guns. It was learnt that, apart from those killed, the vandals also took others as hostages. However, the DSS could not be reached on the phone for comment on the attack. As at yesterday, 14 tankers, filled with fuel, were still on Isawo Road, Ikorodu. The attack compelled the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, to

Isawo Road, Ikorodu, yesterday

El-Rufai leads destruction of N133m drugs Juliana Francis

overnor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has taken the lead in the destruction of forfeited drug exhibits, weighing 12,366kgs and valued at over N133 million in Kufena Zaria. El-Rufai, who said that the security of lives and property was a cardinal focus of his government, disclosed that over 100 patrol vehicles would soon be distributed to security

ABIODUN BELLO FEATURES Editor

abiodun.bello@newtelegraphonline.com

agencies in the state. The governor, who attended the event with members of his executive council and heads of security agencies, commended the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for the gains recorded by Nigeria in the fight against drugs. He promised to spearhead anti-drug advocacy in the country. The Chairman of the agency, Ahmadu Giade, said the destruction was symbolic and in line with the NDLEA Act. He added: “NDLEA Act mandates us under Section 3, Subsection 1(i) to take measures for the early destruction or disposal of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances which have been seized, confiscated or forfeited. Public destruction of drugs is therefore

The drugs being set on fire

a continuous exercise in our quest to have a drug-free and secured society in Nigeria and the world at large.” The chairman who was

represented by the Director of Prosecution and Legal Services of the agency, Mr Sunday Joseph, gave the breakdown of the drugs.

direct operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other divisions in Ikorodu to do everything within their power to protect their stations. According to a source, the DSS agents heard about a deal that was going and rushed to the area. They intercepted 14 tankers filled petroleum product and arrested the drivers. They were taking the tankers away when the vandals, in bus, blocked their way and opened fire on them. The agents were taken unawares. Another source said: “None of them escaped. The DSS agents were more than eight that went to Isawo Road. There is blood every.” A resident of the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “One of the drivers called the vandals on the phone, that they had been stopped by ‘policemen.’ The vandals went to the place where the tankers were parked and freed the drivers.” An eyewitness, who gave his name as Mr. Kolawole, who lives in the area, said: “When I was going home on Tuesday night, I saw Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and a team of military men driving towards Isawo Road, the scene of the incident.” “They shot sporadically. Everyone was afraid of being hit by stray bullets. The gunmen carried the dead ‘policemen’ away. The gunshot lasted for about 20 minutes before it stopped. There was serious chaos in the community,” another resident said. Mr Akintunde Lamidi, 75, living in the area, said: “When the gunshots became too much, my family and I had to run to my son’s house at Igbogbo to spend the night. I just came back this morning because of my business in the community.” A source in the Baale’s palace said: “We have written several petitions to the state government and the state police command about the activities of the vandals. They use our roads as transit to the creek, where they siphon fuel. I believe it is only the military that can save us from the vandals.” The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Joe Offor, said no policeman was killed in the attack. He said: “We have checked all our records at the various divisions in Ikorodu; no death of our officers was recorded there. We don’t know the identities of those killed by the vandals. One Sport Utility Vehicle and Toyota Hiace were recovered by the Owutu Police Division.”

Metro

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Camillus Nnaji

olice in Ogun State have arrested four suspected robbers who have been terrorising the residents of Sagamu in Sagamu Local Government Area. The suspects are identified as Abdul Sulaiman, Awonusi Tola, Aliu Sulaiman and Dada Fred. The police also recovered one locally-made gun and motorcycle from them. The suspects were arrested by the Sagamu police Division about 9:30pm on Tuesday. Police detectives, who responded to a distress call from Atoyo residents of Sagamu, caught the suspected armed robbers in the community. Meanwhile, another suspected armed robber was arrested by policemen from Odogbolu Division with the assistance of the local vigilantes. The 30-year-old suspect, Yekini Adesonya, was said to have gained entry into the house of a man (name withheld) at Ayegbe area of the community and injured him. The armed robber was shot when he was trying to escape from the scene. The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the injured landlord was rescued and taken to the hospital by the police and he was responding

Four held for robbery in Ogun to treatment. Adejobi said the Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, had directed that the suspects be transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation and Intelligence at Eleweran, Abeokuta for proper investigation and prosecution. Ali, however, appreciated members of the affected communities who made distress calls to the police for their interest and support in having adequate security in the state.

father of two, Sunday Ewaranwon, has told the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), that he was tricked into joining pipeline vandalism. The 30-year-old suspect said he was desperate to get any job to pay his children’s school fees. However, Ewaranwon, who was arrested by the marine team of the AntiVandal Unit of the NSCDC, Lagos State Command, said he wished he had scrutinised the job offer. The suspect was caught with 154 jerry-cans of 50 li-

City Briefs

No more impunity, GM warns LASTMA officials Taiwo Jimoh

The suspected robbers

I was tricked into pipeline vandalism –Suspect John Edu

tres each of stolen fuel as well as 33 empty kegs of 50 litres loaded into a wooden boat powered by 30-Horsepower Suzuki engine at a creek in Ikorodu. Explaining that his children are 12 and five years old respectively, both in primary schools, Ewaranwon said he used to be a conductor at ‘Tipper Garage,’ Ketu, earning N2,000 per day, but the driver of the bus later fired him for unknown reasons. He said: “Ever since then, I had been depending on my wife for the up keep of the family. Most times I go to motor parks to help passengers carry goods. I also used to beg

my friends for money.” The suspect added that out of desperation, he went to his elder brother in Bariga, to tell how tougher life had become. According to him, his elder brother’s friend, Fidelis, overheard the conversation and decided to lend a helping hand. He said: “Fidelis asked if I could help him in monitoring his fuel business whenever he was given his supplies. I said yes. He asked how much I would like him to be paid as salary. I said N20,000. He said he could only afford N15,000. The money would always be paid whenever fuel is supplied.”

Girl, 3, needs N3m for heart surgery

he General Manager of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Mr Bashir Braimah, has told his officials that the tea party was over in areas of impunity, indiscipline and extortion of motorists. Braimoh, who succeeds Mr Babatunde Edu, was director, Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture before his appointment. He joined the Lagos State Civil Service in 1983 and had served in various capacities. Addressing the senior officials of the agency, Braimoh said: “Gone are the days of impunity, indiscipline and extortion of money from motorists. All negative vices capable of damaging the image of the government should be done away it.” The GM reaffirmed the commitment of the administration to professionalism, through human capacity building. He urged the officials to be focused and device scientific methods of unlocking gridlocks in Lagos. Braimoh charged the officials to stop the old practice of chasing vehicles, stressing that they should rather apply the use of electronic documentation to arrest defaulters. He called on the officers and rank of the agency to be on the same page with the current administration in its effort to reposition LASTMA.

Rape: ICPC will try two lecturers –Nta Emmanuel Onani Abuja

Camillus Nnaji

three-year-old girl, Teniola Bashorun, now lying critically ill at the Paediatric Ward, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, needs N3 million for heart surgery in India. Teniola was threemonth-old when she was diagnosed with a ‘complex cyanotic heart disease pentalogy of fallot’. Other clinical evaluation shows features of Turner’s syndrome. This, according to a medical report dated February 18, 2014, signed by Dr. E. N. Ekure, a consultant paediatric cardiologist, states that the patient requires a cardiac surgery to enable her to survive and have a better quality of life. The report reads in part: “This letter serves as an introduction of the patient for assistance that will facilitate surgical intervention. From cardiovascular standpoint, Teniola requires medical management and cardiac surgery to live and have a better life.” The baby’s father, Mr. Felix Bashorun, a teacher in a private school in Lagos, said the family had incurred debt because he couldn’t go to work regularly again owing to Teniola’s condition.

Teniola on her hospital bed

He said: “At three-monthold, we discovered she was having webbing of the neck, foaming in the mouth, frequent stooling and convulsion. We rushed her to Ifako-Ijaiye General Hospital where it was discovered that she had a hole in the heart. The hospital referred her to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.” According to Bashorun, when he couldn’t afford medical cost required at LUTH, he wrote a request

letter to Lagos Ministry of Health, soliciting support. He added: “The ministry asked us to take her to LASUTH to ascertain whether what we were saying was true. That was how we came to LASUTH. But unfortunately, the ministry has not supported us with a penny since then, even after repeated follow-ups. We had to start borrowing from extended family members and friends to pay for treatment at LASUTH and keep

Teniola alive till date.” The father of three said Teniola had been referred to an Indian hospital, Narayana Health Hospital. The hospital said it needed N3 million to conduct the surgery. He said: “The N3 million is for medical bill and includes flight tickets, hospital stay for the patient and a relative, food, consultation and investigation charges, guest house and hotel accommodation.” Teniola’s mother, Mrs Folashade Bashorun, is also a teacher in a private school. Weeping profusely, she said: “I feel depressed whenever my daughter tells me that she is tired of hospitals. I’m begging all Nigerians to support my little girl with any amount. I want my daughter to live. She is really suffering and in pain.” Account name: Bashorum Kehinde Felix, Eco Bank, Account number: 2961198124 or Bashorun Kehinde Felix, Sky Bank, Account number: 3011593629. Bashorun can be reached on 08138458017 or 08028561402.

he Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) said it had concluded plans to prosecute two lecturers of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) and University of Lagos (UNILAG) for rape. While Dr Akin Baruwa of UNILAG was alleged to have raped a young lady seeking admission into the institution sometime in August, the Dean of Faculty of Law, UNICAL, Prof Cyril Ndifon, allegedly forced himself on a 400-level student of the faculty, leading to his suspension by the authorities of the institution. However, the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta, said at the 2nd Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) Annual Colloquium, which held in Abuja yesterday, that the anti-graft agency would institute separate charges against the two men. According to him, the lecturers will be tried on charges of alleged abuse of office. He said: “The ICPC is getting involved on the basis of abuse of office, because you would not have had access to those (girls), if not because of your office.” Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the ICPC did not make any “deliberate recovery of assets between 2000, when the commission was established, and 2010.”

Holy Trinity Grammar School old boys meet

he national body of the Old Students Association of Holy Trinity Grammar School, Old Ife Road, Ibadan meets in Lagos on Saturday at 11am.

The meeting holds at 2, Mosolashi Crescent (besides Boy Scout Camp), Ogudu Roundabout, Ogudu, Ojota, Lagos.

10 News

thursday, september 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

national

Gunmen kill 19, raze 150 homes in Plateau Musa Pam Jos

o fewer than 19 persons were reported killed in fresh attacks in Kadunung village of Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State by known gunmen. New Telegraph gathered that the gunmen numbering over 100, had at the early hours of Wednesday morning, invaded the village, killing people and injuring several others. Chairman, management committee of Mangu Local Government, Hon Titus Bise, who confirmed the attack, said there were over 150 houses burnt by the attackers. Bise said: "After the attack, I was part of the rescue team that evacuated the victims and so far, we have recovered 11 bodies of people burnt in their houses. "Apart from the 11 bodies, we picked from various places, there is a compound we saw 7 people burnt in their rooms. That makes 18 deaths so far. We are suspecting there are bodies in the bushes, some youths are still searching and more

bodies might be recovered. But for now, we have dead bodies which have been buried already. "The attack has created serious humanitarian problems for government. We are talking of 5,000 residents of the village displaced, their houses were burnt by the attackers. "Though members of the communities are al-

Kaduna

aduna State Police Command has discovered illegal arms manufacturing factories in Kaura and Zango Kataf local government areas in Southern parts of the state, the state Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu has said. Speaking while parading the suspected owners of the illegal arms manufacturing factories at the state police headquarters,

ABUJA

Lagos based lawyer and human rights activist Mr. Festus Keyamo, yesterday wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari alleging maltreatment meted out on a road user by the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura and his security aides. Keyamo, who wrote the open letter on the instruction of one Lois Ngi Iorvihi, stated that on

houses were burnt, residents were displaced. He said, "The troop got the information very late but we have taken over the general areas in search of the gunmen. But we can't confirm the attackers are Berom because we are yet to arrest anyone. We will discover the real attackers after our investigation.”

sal attacks on Tiv people in the community. The Taraba State Commissioner of Police, Ikechukwu Nwodibo, while confirming the incident to Journalists yesterday, at a media briefing in Jalingo, said the number of casualties were nine people. He stressed that the crisis was not an open clash and the people were killed through domicile attacks. "There was not an open clash between any set of persons, but there were secret killings of people who were farming in remote bushes," the CP said.

Chukwu David Abuja

A cross-section of members of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, protesting over alleged unfair labour practices by Chevron Nigeria Limited in Lagos …yesterday.

Commissioner of Police, Shehu Usman, said the suspects were producing arms and ammunitions, as well as supplying arms to criminal gangs terrorizing the Southern senatorial zone of the state. He explained that detectives attached to the Kafanchan Area Commander made the discoveries of the illegal factories following intelligence report. Shehu said during the raid, 37 locally made pistols, 11 revolver pistols, 34 single barrel guns were

Keyamo writes Buhari on Al-Makura Folusho Ogumodede and Tunde Oyesina

leging that the gunmen are from neighbouring villages, that will be subject to confirmation after full investigation, I'm not in the position to confirm that now.” Media officer of operation Safe Haven, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, said, "Its true there was an attack on Kadunung village;

Meanwhile, in Taraba State, at least, 14 persons were reportedly killed in Sarkin Kudu village in Ibi Local Government area of southern Taraba, as a result of ethnic attacks. Reports indicated that trouble started on Monday, when a Fulani herdsman was allegedly killed by a Tiv farmer which triggered the kinsmen of deceased to lunch repri-

Saraki to PCC: Era of impunity over

Police discover illegal arms factories in Kaduna, arrests owners Oluwole Ayodele

l Another 14 killed in Taraba

September 10, the convoy of Al-Makura forcefully edged his client out of the narrow road in Nasarawa Eggon, of which she eventually managed to bring the car to a stop with her car’s right front tyre hanging on the edge of the ditch. He stated that before his client could regain her composure following the incident, about four armed mobile Policemen jumped down from the vehicle and pounced on her car, pounding her car with rifles and forcing her to open the car door.

N160m cars: Oduah, Police, EFCC’s absence stalls proceedings Akeem Nafiu

ollowing the absence of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police yesterday, Justice Mohammed Yunusa of a Federal High Court Lagos has fixed November 16 for hearing in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by a former Minister of Aviation and now Senator, Chief Stella Oduah, over the purchase of two armoured BMW cars which

allegedly gulped N160m. Oduah is seeking the court's protection from any probe over the N160m armoured BMW cars purchased in 2013 by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Oduah had on August 26 secured an interim injunction barring the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from taking any actions against her pending the determination of the suit. However, a check by

New Telegraph revealed that the matter was listed for hearing yesterday as against the October 2 date earlier fixed by Justice Yunusa while granting the interim injunction on August 26. However, at yesterday's proceedings, it was only the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related offences Commission (ICPC) that was represented in court while the trio of Oduah, EFCC and the Inspector General of Police had no representation.

resident of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday tasked the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) to ensure that the era of impunity and administrative injustice in the country was eradicated from the public service. Saraki gave this charge, when he received in audience, the Chairman, Public Complaints Commission, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbile, with other commissioners of the agency, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office at the National Assembly Complex. He lamented that the agency had not lived up to its responsibilities in the last 40 years of its existence, pledging that the 8th Senate would support the Commission to succeed. The politician further stated that the main reason for the establishment of the Public Complaints Commission was to protect the public from gross abuse of office by public servants, while pledging that the 8th Senate would strengthen the commission to enable it perform its constitutional mandate effectively.

EFCC declares former presidential candidate wanted

Ex-Finance Director, four others docked over N715m fraud

Emmanuel Onani

Abuja

he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has declared wanted a former presidential candidate of the defunct African Liberation Party (ALP) and Director-General (DG) of the National Task Force (NATFORCE) to Combat Illegal Importation of Small Arms, Ammunition, and Light Weapons, Mr. Emmanuel Osita Okereke. A statement signed

yesterday by the Commission's Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said Okereke was declared wanted "for (allegedly) jumping bail." It said Okereke was being prosecuted by the EFCC on a six-count charge of alleged impersonation, forgery and obtaining by false pretence. The anti-graft agency further disclosed that the accused person was arrested with several incriminating items, including bullet proof vests.

ormer Director of Finance, Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Yusuf Agabi, was yesterday arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly diverting N715 million. Agabi is standing trial with four others before Justice Husseini-Baba Yusuf of the FCT High Court, Abuja. The other accused persons are: Akpore Okeroghere, Agabi’s for-

mer deputy; Abibu Ayinla; Anthony Adewale and Ntu Ngozi, all staff of the ministry. They were arraigned on a 41-count charge which centred on conspiracy, forgery and fraud. The charge read: “That you, Yusuf Agabi did conspire and presented to your principal, documents which were defective in material and designed to mislead him for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining various sums of money.”

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, September 17, 2015

Interview

Nigerians shouldn’t lay emphasis on probe – Agbakoba

Politics Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), speaks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days in office, the appointments made so far by the president, anti-graft war and the fight against insurgency in the North-East. WALE ELEGBEDE reports

What is your take on President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days in office? The 100-day celebration is an American experience and it was pioneered by the former American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933. The 100-day concept is not an accurate yardstick for gauging the presidential effectiveness because the situation and the Nigerian environment have no comparison to the American experience. Notwithstanding, I understand the importance of examining the president’s achievement in his first 100 days in office because expectations were high. The president’s campaign was run on the promise of ‘Change’. The people voted the president in for ‘Change’. It must be said that the change is not going to be seen in the context of new projects or new buildings or the commissioning of new roads or power plants but the change will be in the minds of the populace. Nigeria can be seen as physically paralysed but Buhari ascension to the presidential office has changed the mindset of the populace. Changing the mindset and the orientation of the people is a great achievement. Power utilities are running better, the petrol queues have virtually disappeared, Apapa traffic is gone.

AYODELE OJO

DEPUTY EDITOR, PoLITICS ayodele.ojo@newtelegraphonline.com

Agbakoba: Buhari didn’t marginalise South-East

Agbakoba

There is order and signs of good governance. All these are still being run by the same people. The question is ‘what changed? Their mindsets have changed. This is the achievement of ‘Change’ as a result of the president. To be successful, one must understand the environment, control it and then begin to make a difference. On that, I am satisfied that the mindsets of people have become more positive, more anti-corruption, and more aligned with doing things in the proper way. Unifying the treasury into a single account is the idea of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, not President Buhari but the president implemented it. So, to that extent, the first 100 days has been successful. But critics decried the delay in constituting the federal cabinet? Buhari has shown that ministers are not demi-gods. In the absence of ministers, how the people view things has changed. It used to be all about the big men, ‘the ministers’. What is important here is,

Marginalisation has been an issue that politicians use to promote themselves

if the president will receive the same accolades he received, when he came into office, after his fouryear tenure comes to an end. That, I think is the challenge. It is too early to judge on the first 100 days but it is off to a very good start. I hope all the expectations resulting from this mindset change can be met. The first task is to create employment; second task is to inform the people of the economic agenda; third, show how the government will create new development outside the oil sector. These are tangible things and I think the error has been to use the tangibles to gauge the first 100 days. I am using the intangibles to determine the success. But do you agree that 100 days is too early to judge the president? No, 100 days is not too early. 100 days is a good length of time to judge a president. But on what parameters? My parameter of judging President Buhari’s 100 days is different from the parameter that

I see in the media. They want to know where the ministers are and what is new. They are judging him on physical parameters while I am gauging his effectiveness on intangible parameters. What I see different is Buhari’s understanding of the Nigerian mindset and tackling it first before addressing other issues. It is the succeeding period that will be judged. First, the people need to be patient for the appointment of his ministers. If the ministers fit the mindset that he has developed, it will be wonderful but if the ministers are the same typical ministers that we see, that will be below the laid down expectations and mindset of the people. I also expect the dismantling of the corporatist government. Nigeria is a corporatist country, meaning that we are interested in corporate wellbeing. The Nigerian society cares for the elites and is not interested in the common man. This was also one of President Barak Obama’s challenges. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

Photo | News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

A book, 50 World Editors, in memory of Pastor Dimgba Igwe, was launched at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday

L-R: Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello; wife of late Dimgba Igwe, Mrs. Oby Igwe; Director, Federal Ministry of Information, Mrs. Oluseyi Abegunde and Former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba

L-R: Late Dimgba Igweâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, Miss Victory Igwe; Director, The Sun Newspaper, Mr. Mike Awoyinfa and Miss Glory Igwe, at the book launch

L-R: Managing Director, Complete Communications, Mr. Mumini Alao; Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Multi Media Department, Mass Communications, University of Lagos, Prof. Raph Akinfeleye and Maj. Gen. (Pastor) Paul Alaowei Toun (rtd.)

L-R: Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello; Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mr. Folarin Adeyemi; Director, Federal Ministry of Information, Mrs. Oluseyi Abegunde; former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba and representative of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Prof. Adebayo Williams

L-R: Former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba (left) and Managing Director, The Sun Newspaper, Mr. Eric Osagie

L-R: Chief Tola Adeniyi; Mallam Maida and Mohammed Haruna

Mrs. Bukky Awoyinfa (left) and wife of late Dimgba Igwe, Mrs. Oby Igwe

L-R: Mr. Martins Oloja; Mr. Soji Akinrinade; Mr. Ray Ekpu and Mr. Richard Ikiebe

PHOTOS: TONY EGUAYE

Politics | Interview 13

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, September 17, 2015

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

President Obama shows interest in the welfare of the common man while the republicans are interested in the corporate wellbeing. Buhari campaigned on the agenda that he shall include the common man. He said that he would identify vulnerable Nigerians. He has set the target at 25 million people and will dedicate finances towards their needs. We have to see that happen. Social issues also have to be addressed, issues such as health, education and what policies the president is going to run on. The problem is that Nigeria is a very sick country and the president’s prescriptions to cure this sickness and ensure its future must be addressed. It is sick because no Nigerian leader has understood how to manage Nigeria’s diverse people. Can Nigeria be governed from Abuja? Is this government going to look at how to decentralise power? We are about six kinds of people in about 300 ethnic groups. Are we going to have these groups empowered in a way that the difference that various groups feel will lead to chaos and civil unrest? Does that mean you support decentralised federalism? Yes, I support decentralised federalism and not central federalism where everything is looking at the top. I want us to deconstruct our top federalism and send power down to the bottom. Like in education, it should not be a federal issue; it should be something for the states. It should be state matter. Roads and hospitals are other examples. There are many things that should actually not be the federal’s purview but the state’s. So, the federal should transfer these responsibilities to the state, so that the federal can concentrate on fewer things that affect all of us? What is your take on the recent appointments made by the president? It is too early to speak on that. The government is at its early stages. I know that it may look as if it is one-sided but I will like to see all the ministers appointed first before I can comment. Because of the appointments, some people are already saying that Ndigbo are being marginalised … I don’t believe in that. This is why I say that that has been the old talk. Marginalisation has been an issue that politicians use to promote themselves. So, I won’t buy that. I will buy it at the end of the president’s appointments. When he has finished making all the appointments and this pattern shows, then I can say there is a problem. But now it is far too early. All I see the president doing now is changing the mindset. All the politicians that are from my town, how have I benefited? Honestly, that is the least of my problems. I don’t care where you come from. We are 170 million Nigerians, I will tell you that 169.5 million Nigerians will not give a hoot where anybody comes from. The few politicians who are looking for opportunities are responsible for winding us up to think like them or to start seeing things which are not there. If we are truly looking forward to a new Nigeria, we have to be patient. If the president, with his eyes open, throws

Nigerians shouldn’t lay emphasis on probe – Agbakoba also be allowed to do their work without fear or favour.

away a massive opportunity to be a great Nigerian leader, I will be surprised and disappointed. So, I am not going to judge him on the 100 days that he has made sectional appointments. Let’s allow him to run his course. Are you convinced that the president is taking the right steps in ending Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East? Buhari is taking the right steps but if I were him, I would not have used three months. Fighting terrorism is not easy. If I were in his shoes, all I would have said would be that I can see a more aggressive strategy to combat Boko Haram but there is no way Boko Haram will be eradicated in three months. Even the Americans have not been able to achieve that in the case of ISIS or Al Qaeda. If it is ended in three months, that would be fantastic. If Boko Haram is not quashed in three months, do you think this can erode the confidence of Nigerians in President Buhari? Yes, that is part of the danger in giving a time limit to something as crucial as this. Even though I think he did it to show the Boko Haram people that we are really going to get them. It is a gamble that he has taken and hopefully, he can achieve it. But if I were to advise him, I would not have put a time frame. I would have said that in three months, Boko Haram would be sufficiently degraded not to do much harm. I would not have said they will disappear in three months. Having said that, he had better do all he can to degrade Boko Haram in three months. How do you see the anti-graft war of the Buhari administration? I was at the National Conference and President Buhari promised to take the issue of corruption very serious. As you can see, he started by changing the mindset and it has worked. The next thing he needs to do is to build institutions to make sure that the mindset does not get derailed. He needs to make sure that the institutions that fight the war against corruption, like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the police are well funded and independent and that no one interferes with their work. They should

Agbakoba

The problem is that Nigeria is a very sick country and the president’s prescriptions to cure this sickness and ensure its future must be addressed

What is the significance of the public declaration of assets done by the president and his vice? If I were in a public office, I will declare my assets too. If you are not afraid, that is when you can declare your assets before you entered office and after you leave office. That is one of the strongest evidence that a man wants to be clean. Since Buhari and his vice, Yemi Osinbajo, have done this, it will come natural for others in government to do the same. This is a good example of leading from the front. Do you subscribe to the view that government should focus on welfare of citizens and not engage in probe? Probing is a blind fold. You probe without fear or favour. If someone is guilty, then the person should get ready to be probed. On the part of laying too much emphasis on probing; in the context of Nigeria being a very corrupt country, you cannot help it. I will wish that the probe issue is not the key highlight of government. It will be good to have it go along with other things, I agree with you there. The president’s function is to deliver a comprehensive package, probing, fighting corruption, development, new energy sources, education, welfare to the poor and so on. Though they came into power with a very lean financial base, I think if the government is looking at targeting 25 million very frail and volatile Nigerians, they should have announced it. It would have helped. Part of the campaign pledge is N5,000 for the very vulnerable like those unemployed, elderly people. It will be good to announce that now. When I chaired the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference that the vice president attended, he said so. He said that the government is going to be very strong on social welfare. I like this government because it agrees with my soul. Just like in the Christian world, there are different kinds of Christians. In the political world also, there are different kinds of politicians. This government is called the left of centre. It is a social democracy government. Former President Jonathan’s government

was right of centre. His was a corporatist government. This present government is saying it will include everybody while the former governments were saying they will only cater for only a few. The government that caters for all is likely to be popular. So, if President Buhari is able to achieve the agenda that he promised, he will be a very popular person. We are waiting to see. This is why I say it is not easy to judge him on 100 days. If he does not achieve what he promised, it will be business as usual. In Nigeria, only very few like Chief Obafemi Awolowo have been able to keep to his promise. Do you think it is right for a government to probe individuals? I will be against probing individuals. I will be against the president probing anybody. That is not his function. The function of the president is to recognise that there is corruption. Next thing is appoint good people to fight this corruption. And not for the president to say “go after Olisa Agbakoba.” It is for those people that have been given the job to, without reference to the president, do what they have been appointed to do, otherwise it will become selective. That was the problem with Obasanjo’s anti-corruption programme because it appeared selective, i.e. it appeared as if it was being targeted at certain people. Nobody should be targeted in the anti-corruption war. It is when you erect the net, if you are corrupt, the net will catch you. But not that you are taking the net to Olisa’s house. You erect the net for everyone and if you are not corrupt, it won’t catch you. I will personally recommend to the president not to mention anybody’s name. Buhari should set up a strong anticorruption framework. You usually canvass the building of a new national order, how can this work in the present administration? The president can build a new national order by recognising our diversity and managing it in an inclusive process that would lead to an agreed constitution by all Nigerians. The president must refrain from calling yet another wasteful National Conference. All that is needed is a comprehensive review of the reports of the National Conferences. It will be a very difficult but not impossible task. The key in arriving at a new constitution is in isolating what Nigerians will agree to immediately. I believe Nigerians will accept the need for a balanced federation. We must strive for a balanced federation and decentralisation of powers from federal to state government. The centre is too strong and can pass responsibility out of the 98 items of power, under its exclusive control, to the states. This will balance up the federation. Creating a new national order will be very difficult but not an impossible task. The effect of a national order will be stabilisation and national rebirth.

Politics | Interview

THURSDAY, September 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Uwazurike

President’s followers’ll begin to think twice – Uwazurike Chief Goddy Uwazurike, a lawyer and president of Aka Ikenga, an Igbo think tank, was a delegate to the 2014 National Conference. In this interview, he speaks on the state of the nation, appointments made so far by President Muhammadu Buhari, anti-graft war and implementation of the National Conference report. FELIX NWANERI reports What is your assessment of the Muhammadu Buhari-led government, especially his pattern of appointments, which some people say is skewed in favour of the North? I am not a politician, so I will speak on non-political issues. But as a lawyer I cannot avoid talking about the constitution. You know when a person is elected president or governor, the person has almost three months to prepare. President Buhari was elected on March 28 and from that time to May 29, he had all the time to prepare, draw up all the list of appointees and get ready to send names to the Senate. And of course, he had promised to hit the ground running. So, I was gladdened when he was sworn in, and he swore to uphold the constitution, which is very clear about certain things. Most especially Section 14 (3), which states that appointments in the state and

Federal Government shall reflect a federal character, in the case of the state, shall reflect state wide character. And the present constitution went far to indicate that military officers, directors, permanent secretaries, public officers, members and management of government agencies shall reflect federal character. Now the question is: Has Mr. President who swore by the constitution to reflect federal character been fair to the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria?

But there is an argument that there are several appointments to be made by the president. When the first set of people were appointed, we shouted but some people said we should wait. We heard a reply also that they were basing all appointments on merit, and we asked ourselves, so on merit, Ndigbo are not qualified? As president of Aka Ikenga, I can speak for Ndigbo. Now, this latest list of appointees, we got the answer recently when the President told BBC Hausa Service that he appointed only those he trusts. So, there are no Igbo among those he trusts. We’ve heard the message and we cannot keep our hands folded and wait, we must speak out because we rely on the same constitution that Mr. President swore to with the Quran to uphold. He is the president of Nigeria and not president of some parts of Nigeria. Once elections are over, you become the property of the people of Nigeria, which was why as soon as Buhari became president-elect, the then President Goodluck Jonathan quickly gave him the Defence House. So, he would be judged by the oath he took for anything he does. The All Progressives Congress (APC)

When we begin to see policy summersault and then promise denials, believe you me, even his hardest followers will begin to think twice

believes that the president has recorded some feats within his first 100 days in office. But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) differs. What is your take on that? I know that 100 days mantra started by one time American President, Theodore Roosevelt for Americans to know that they will survive after the market crash. So, every president since then try to use the 100 days in office to direct the people on the way they are going. Now, start from manufacturing, what is the President’s policy on manufacturing? We don’t know. Import/export business; the decision on foreign exchange has even dealt a serious blow on that one and how traders will survive, I don’t know because the goods we have now, when we exhaust them, we cannot import. If you notice how traders import, they import when they have reached a certain level. So, as at today, importation of essential goods will be a thing of the past soon unless government changes its method of allocating foreign exchange. Nobody is saying that government has to complete a 125-storey building in 100 days, but in 100 days you should have done your work, appointed people, look at ongoing contracts so that contractors can be on sites. Well, like Bola Tinubu said, it is honeymoon, may be the real work will start now. But most people forget that from March to September, we are talking of six months. In other words six months after the election, the president has not appointed his ministers. That is what he should have concluded three months before he was sworn in. The first day he was sworn in, he should have appointed Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), personal

secretary and so on and the security chiefs. Within three weeks, he should have sent the list of his ministers to the Senate, which may take two to three weeks to clear them. I know Mr. President has assured us that before the end of September he will do that. In other words, the ministers may be considered in October, when they are considered in October, they may really get down to work end of October. Ordinarily, what we should be talking about now is the 2016 budget. If the ministers are not there, he is going to rely on the permanent secretaries to help in the budgets? And a minister is supposed to tell you this is my budget, he is the one to defend his budget. So, by now they should have been appearing before the Senate to defend their budgets, but they can’t because they are not there. When the cabinet is constituted, this is where people will know in what direction Mr. President is going. Were you disappointed that the South-East lost out in the appointment of the SGF? I was greatly disappointed because from the description Mr. President gave the other day; those who has been in the party from inception, those he knows very well and those who were not motivated by positions or money. Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu fitted into those things. He has always been with APP, ANPP, by whatever name and he has never left no matter the temptation. As a matter of fact, he was the only leader from the original party, APP who did not jump ship. I know his relationship with President Buhari, and those who know him can attest to his record. Nobody knew him for extravagance

Politics | Interview

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, September 17, 2015

and he has never pretended to be rich. So, when it comes to who Mr. President in real sense should trust, I think Dr. Onu should be the one. I was also greatly disappointed that an Igbo man was not appointed because we have expected that to be the only real position in the executive for an Igbo person. Granted, we supported the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that is not a crime. After all, in 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was not supported by the Yoruba, they voted for Chief Olu Falae, yet Obasanjo still appointed Yoruba. In 2011, the far North, the core Hausa/Fulani did not vote for Jonathan yet he appointed them to various offices including National Security Adviser. He never failed to appoint people based on federal character. So, when somebody begin to tell us only people he can trust, I begin to ask if it means that we do not have trustworthy people in the SouthEast. In other words, APC members who are from the Igbo speaking area should ask that question to themselves. Do you foresee any danger to the polity as a result of this lopsidedness? The danger there is that of trust. You know that nobody has the following which Buhari has in Nigeria. As a matter of fact during the election, all the people needed to say is that Buhari will fix it, and now the trouble has started. First, they have denied the issue of meal a day for school children, social security money for downtrodden and so on and so forth. So many things that were said and I know many of them were done without Buhari’s consent. Now that he is there, the ball is in his court. When we begin to see policy summersault and then promise denials, believe you me, even his hardest followers will begin to think twice. He has not started the war on corruption; he is still posturing. This is not a military government, it is a civilian government, the agencies that are constituted to fight corruption will always be there. So, it is not for Mr. President to say I am here to fight corruption but to say I am here to support the agencies. The biggest problem the agencies have in the fight against corruption is evidence. Most of the times, they address the press and describe what they have achieved and how they will deal with people, but when they get to court, it turns out they have no evidence. In other words, the grandstanding of the agencies will always be their undoing. Governance is Mr. President’s job. Fighting corruption cannot be the policy of the government and this is where the West misleads African. If you are an African leader, when you say I’m fighting corruption, they will say yes you are our man. You spend your four years fighting corruption without making any move towards economic resuscitation. Are you saying that the government should jettison the probe and move on despite claims of whooping sums looted from the treasury? Mr. President is not probing anything yet, he can do an administrative inquiry. Under our constitution, you don’t just get up and start probing. There is a constitutional procedure. When he gets an Attorney General, I am sure he will put him through. Anything he says will pass through the

Attorney General to vet. The president can only work according to the constitution. I know of an APC member who was a former minister who said that Mr. President should jettison the constitution and rule directly. That means they didn’t even do history, philosophy or psychology at all. If you go by the rule of law you survive but you go by the rule of man, you perish. Mr. President is said to be angry about corruption, good, but that should not be the policy of government. It should focus on creating the economic mood that will generate employment and lead to the growth of the nation. First, government is a continuum and secondly, fighting corruption is not the policy of government but it is a process of government. But a lot of officials of the immediate past government have been accused of corruption. You must understand military psychology. When a military man takes over, the first thing he does is to accuse you of looting. I want you to go down to Nigerian history. Tanko Yakasai was on air recently, saying this man overthrew former President Shehu Shagari and accused him of many things, but for almost two years Shagari was in detention, nobody asked him any question. Once a military government takes over, it accuses it predecessor of corruption and sets up a probe panel that is tailored by the answers already written. In other words, it moves from the answer to the question. For President Buhari, accusing Jonathan government of looting should have ended when the election was over. If somebody has stolen, charge him to court. But don’t say ‘I will probe,’ ‘I will fight.’ He said that during his campaign and that’s why people voted for him. He can’t even jail anybody, Mr. President has no power to send anybody to prison. It is only the judiciary that jails and the agencies can only arrest for the purpose of investigation and prosecution. You were a delegate to the 2014 National Conference that came up with several recommendations on how to restructure Nigeria. Do you see the present government implementing those recommendations?

Uwazurike

Mr. President has no power to send anybody to prison. It is only the judiciary that jails

One of the things we recommended was equity; that power must rotate among all the zones in the country and among the three senatorial zones in every state. Those who were at that conference came from virtually every tribe. There are many tribes you haven’t even heard of. It was at the conference I heard that the areas occupied by Boko Haram in the NorthEast were all Christian areas and all those people they arrested and captured were Christians but forcibly converted to Islam. One particular woman, a school principal from Chibok said when we had an executive session that Boko Haram was recruiting women and training them as suicide bombers and that we must watch out. She gave graphic details of what was going on, even the nature of that Sambisa forest. Of course we passed on the message to the relevant agencies but nothing was done. So, it will be the greatest disservice for him to jettison this report. I know that there are two campaigns, those who are saying implement the report and those who are saying throw away the report. At the conference, those who are saying throw away the report came there to say we are not here to restructure anything in Nigeria, as it is we want it to continue, when we get to power we know what to do. Unfortunately for them, majority at the confab said Nigeria must be restructured and worked on it, including finances. We urge Mr. President to take another look at that report, yes he will not implement 100 per cent of the report but he has to look into it. His predecessor sent it to the National Assembly, though towards the end of his tenure. But had he send it earlier, believe you me, the then House of Representatives led by Aminu Tambuwal would have killed it on arrival. So, we urge the present National Assembly to look into it. The members do not have to wait for Mr. President. We even drafted bills for any active member to just lift part of it, put it under his name and present it. We expect a lot but if this government says it will not work, the history is there to record it. What is your take on the controversy over suspension of work on the Sec-

ond Niger Bridge? I smell conspiracy. Remember this was the same bridge Obasanjo visited with some governors to flag off the commencement of its construction in 2007 and everybody was jubilating. As soon as he left, President Yar’Adua came in and there was no file showing that a contract was awarded, it turned out it was a deceit and you know that President Yar’Adua for obvious reasons didn’t do much due to ill health. When President Goodluck came in, the same thing was also presented to him and he made a famous comment that one Azikiwe commissioned the first Niger Bridge and that another Azikiwe will commission the second one and he did with fanfare. I praise the then Minister of Finance for even taking practical steps to get government’s 30 per cent contribution to the project set aside. It was done so that government won’t talk of no money. I can say as president of Aka Ikenga, please Mr. President do not tamper with that contract, that is a public-privateprivate sector project. He should remember that anything he does has international implication. Are you comfortable that the bridge would be tolled after completion? It does not matter whether there is a toll gate for one year or 25 years, all the money will still be in Nigeria. Also, the multiplier effect and economic benefit will simply be fantastic. If the bridge has six lanes, what happens? Traffic will move faster. Believe it or not, that is the road to the economic hub of Nigeria, the bird that lays golden egg. It is the money from the oilproducing areas that Abuja depends on. So, when you see a man from the oil-producing area very angry, don’t blame him, at the end of day he must go home to squalor. On both sides of the River Niger is where the oil is. If you doubt me, pass through there at night, you will see gas flaring going on. So Mr. President must make sure that that bridge goes on as planned. The governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa are fast approaching with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not having a substantive chairman. What are the implications of having the polls under the present arrangement? Today, INEC is comatose because as far as I know, there is only one legitimate member of INEC, the acting chairman is not a member any more, her tenure expired and it has not been renewed. It is only the National Assembly that confirms members of the board and it is only when you are a member of the board that you can be chairman of the board. So, if your membership of the board has expired you are an outsider. So, there are likely to be constitutional issues after the election with Mrs. Amina Zakari in charge. Since they don’t have the relevant people they can’t even form a quorum and can’t hold meetings, who then takes decisions? If somebody says INEC did not take any decision what will INEC say? Yes, I know there is always a 7th clause in every law, notwithstanding any vacancy, but that does not extend to the fundamental vacancy. So, it is an issue for the court to determine. If somebody loses election, he can go to court on the ground that there was no election known to law.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Opinion World Democracy Day and corruption Fred Nwaozor

veryone detests with passion seeing his/her voice or speech swept under the carpet. In the same vein, it’s extremely painful and devastating for one to be deprived of his freedom of speech in any circumstance or arena he found himself. And, this characteristic known as ‘Freedom of Speech’ remains the most distinct feature finds in democracy. According to BBC English Dictionary, democracy is ‘a system of government or organization in which the citizens or members choose leaders or make other important decisions by voting.’ The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines it as ‘a fair and equal treatment of everyone in an organization or any group of persons, and their right to take part in making decisions’. In Political Science, democracy is referred to as ‘the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ Furthermore, democracy could be described as the slogan or anthem of a certain organization that is being cited or sung, and understood by the entire members of the organization or union. Frankly, democracy of any country is the prerogative of the people that make-up the country; therefore it ought to be duly sustained because it is no doubt a welcome development. This implies that any democratic state is expected to be fiercely safeguarded at all cost owing to the fact that any practice that gives peace to those concerned requires adequate sustenance. It is appalling that in most developing nations such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Rwanda, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and what have you, democracy has suffered from enormous maltreatment due to corruption. Without mincing words, corruption has remained a blood-sucking cankerworm in the democratic dispensation of numerous countries in the world to include the aforementioned ones. Corruption has indeed hampered the socio-eco-

nomic and political growth of several nations thereby constituting nuisance to the available human and natural resources of the nations in question. Surely, the questionable attitudes such as personal aggrandizement, nepotism, election rigging, abuse of human rights and rule of law, misappropriation of public funds as well as impunity of most public/political office holders in a country like Nigeria is solely attributed to corruption. In a nutshell, unequivocally, corruption has obviously rendered so many countries incapacitated, all in the name of ‘democracy’. Democracy is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of their lives. On the contrary, Nigeria as a country has failed to uphold this philosophy. This is why the youth are no longer the major part of the country’s political arena as it was during the postcolonial era. In spite of Nigeria’s bureaucratic nature, the youth cannot boast of at least twenty per cent participation in her political strive. Rather, the old men who started the game have vowed to die in service thereby endangering thorough participation of the youth that are regarded as the most productive class, which is purely contrary to the mandate of the United Nations. These and many more factors presently found in the seemingly democratic setting of many nations in the world are products of corruption. Last Tuesday September 15, the world over celebrated the 2015 International Day of Democracy. The Day, which is annually celebrated, was adopted on November 8, 2007 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. In its resolution in 2007, the General Assembly, which believes that human rights and the rule of law are best protected in democratic societies, encouraged governments to strengthen national programmes devoted to the promotion and consolidation of democracy and also decided that 15th of September of each year should be observed as the International Day of Democracy.

The International Day of Democracy was first celebrated in the year 2008. The UN General Assembly recognized that the year 2008 marked the 20th anniversary of the first International Conference of New or Restored Democracies, which gave people a chance to focus on promoting and consolidating democracy worldwide. The event which featured various activities was used to raise public awareness about democracy. As Nigeria followed the global community to commemorate the International Day of Democracy, we are expected to join hands in the ongoing crusade that is targeted towards eradication of corruption, which has eaten deep in our democratic bone marrow, as being led by President Mohammadu Buhari. Similarly, there’s also an urgent need for us to ensure that our young ones are given the opportunity to effectively participate in the country’s democratic dispensation. Thus, we ought to endeavour to highlight the challenges and opportunities of young people engaging in democratic processes. Survey indicates that people between the ages of 18 and 30 constitute a fifth of the world’s population; yet, several studies show declining faith among the said set of people in politics, with decreasing levels of participation in elections, political parties and sociocultural organizations across the globe. This apathy applies to both established and emerging democratic states. To this end, I’m candidly calling on the civil society and all concerned institutions cum individuals for total eradication of corruption in our democratic system through sensitization of the youth as well as promotion of freedom of speech among the electorates; so that, the citizenry of the contemporary Nigerian society shall live to benefit from the real dividend of democracy. Do not forget; for the fight against corruption to be holistic, all hands must be on deck. • Nwaozor ( frednwaozor@gmail.com) is a Public Affairs Analyst & Civil Rights Activist.

Are there Nigerian political saints? Mike Arayuwa Wilkie

n an attempt to do this piece, I intend to give a brief definition of who is a saint within the context of religions and who a Nigerian Saint, ought to look-like in the Governance of Nigeria as a Nation State. To arrive at the answers to this question, I also intend to look deeply into the political strata and to find-out if we have ever produced political saints right from the post colonial era, till date. According to Christian iconography, saints are often depicted as persons who are recognised as having an exceptional degree of holiness, or likeness to God. Saints in some other religions include: the Jewish Tzadik, Islamic Mu’min, Hindu Rish, or Sikh guru, and the Buddhist Arhat or bodhisativa. Saints, according to the sacred scriptures did not denote the deceased who had been recognized as such, but rather the living faithful who had dedicated themselves’ to God. However, the Roman Catholics still cannonise persons who are worthy of veneration for their holiness or sanctity while alive. What I may therefore wish to identify as political saints are Nigerians within the political class who have been privileged to be elected or appointed into the various categories of offices to serve our fatherland. An insight commencing from the First Republic shall

expose those who were saints and its opposites After the January 15, 1966 military coup, Hassan Usman Katsina was the Military Governor of the Northern Region (January 16,1966-May 27, 1967); David Akpode Ejoor served as the Military Governor of the Mid-West Region (January 1966- August 1967); Adekunle Fajuyi was Governor of the Western Region (January 16 - July 29, 1966) and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu as Governor of the Eastern Regional Military Government (1966 and leader of the breakaway Republic of Biafra 1967-1970). General Murtala Mohammed was the Third Military Head of State (July 30, 1975- February 13, 1976) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria followed by General Olusegun Obasanjo after the brutal murder of his predecessor in office by Col. Buka Suka Dimka and other coup plotters on February 13, 1975. Thereafter, Alhaji Shehu Shagari became President amidst the conduct of a flawed presidential election in 1979. In the month of the last day of December 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari terminated the civilian Government of Shehu Shagari in a bloodless military coup. During this military Government in which Buhari became Head of State, it was obvious that Nigerians were in for a turbulent period in the history of military despots. Hence, the major po-

litical actors in the terminated civilian regime were imprisoned due to some alleged sharp financial practices during the erstwhile civilian government. Some of the politicians were even jailed for a period which ranged between 50300 years. However, the same Buhari is now the incumbent President of Nigeria. I am sure that his deft actions at the time influenced him to declare that he is now a born again democrat. From his modus operandi so far, it would appear to me that he meant his declaration of being born-again politically as a repentant Civilian President in comparison with his Military Head of State status, about 30 years ago. The totality of these military regimes was that apart from that of Murtala Mohammed and Muhammadu Buhari there were hardly anytime corrupt politicians were probed or investigated and sentenced to jail via the required due process. At this point, I will only mention the probe of the Mid-West Region which investigated some politicians such as Chief Humphrey Omo-Osagie, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, Edwin Kiagbodo Clarke and a few others who had their properties and assets seized by the Federal or State Military Regimes. The entire Northern Region, East and West were equally not seriously probed. Only the probe of Buhari in 1984 penetrated the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. History is being made and repeated. President Buhari, the man who probed

the politicians of the Second Republic has virtually commenced the probe of ex-president Jonathan’s administration with a view to ascertain whether funds were properly received and expended in accordance with the required due process. Simply put, it is an attempt to findout whether our CommonWealth was looted or not under the close watch of the ex-president. Even before the commencement of the anticipated investigations, the whole of the Jonathan team has been accused of theft by the ruling All Progressives’ Party to the extent that I find it extremely difficult to appreciate that the whole exercise will be fair and just. For now, it should be assumed that they are no thieves until found guilty by a competent court. The core question is: are there saints amongst the Nigerian political class? Concluding from the different probes in the past, there was no politician who was not found guilty of theft and the primitive accumulation of wealth. The idea of President Buhari fishing for saints and Angels for ministerial positions should not even occur in view of the fact that such people do not exist here. Those who claim to be honest with the peoples’ funds will be shocked when investigated after their exit from office(s). Such Nigerians must be seen as thieves of a distinction grade. • Wilkie can be reached at pmikky1950@yahoo.com (08023097251)

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

EDITORIAL

Our VISION

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

To build a newspaper organisation anchored on the sanctity of truth. Sanctity of Truth

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

Nigeria’s most authoritative newspaper in politics and business

Toyin Nwosu: Journalists as target

kota is in the news again wearing negative headlines about one year after attention was on the small Lagos district. On Monday September 14, bandits stormed the home of Steve Nwosu, Deputy Managing Director[DMD] of the Sun Publishing Limited, and in a commando like operation that lasted less than an hour, whisked away his wife, Oluwatoyin. This abduction downed the celebrations that followed the release of Vanguard columnist, Donu Kogbara, by his captors in Port- Harcourt. Kogbara had been taken away from her home right in the presence of her aged mother, paddled to the creeks of Niger Delta and released in good health after massive chase by security agents. Mrs. Nwosu, according to reports, was taken away in a boat as the robbers came through the Amuwo Odofin Canal. Her husband could not understand why the mother of four would have to be kidnapped simply because the couple did not have cash at home to offer. The criminals, having observed that she was in her night gown ordered her to go and change. The burden is now on the young Executive who has been asked to part with 100 million Naira to secure his wife’s release. “ So far,” Nwosu said,

“ they have made contact with me demanding a ransom of N 100 million. They should realise that journalists don’t have money. I am appealing to them to release my wife unconditionally. I wonder what is often attracting robbers to my home. My house is not the finest in the area. I’m increasingly getting frustrated.” Lagos state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni ,does not see the kidnap dimension yet. He dismissed the case as armed robbery. “ The hoodlums robbed two other flats in the neighbourhood. They probably did not come specifically for Mr. Nwosu. But all the same, it was a worrisome situation that robbers will now abduct people if they don’t get anything to steal. It is another dimension which we are now studying,” the police chief told newsmen. As the police battle to free Mrs Nwosu from her abductors, there should be less showmanship. Since Owoseni has promised to fish out the criminals, the only news that will make sense to the family and compatriots is that the woman has been freed and reunited with her children who are yet to come to terms with the fate of their beloved mother. There seems to be a lot of misconception about journalists. They are not among the best paid workers in the country. Maybe, because some of their faces appear across newspaper pages, some crooks

believe they are as loaded as the big names they write about. Steve Nwosu, is one gentleman of a journalist whose bank account can only take care of his small family. This man can also not hurt a fly. Now putting him through this agonizing period is more than enough torture for a great writer who has used his pen to help the society severally. Toyin, his easy going wife, would not be going through this if she was not married to a journalist. How they expect the husband to raise 100 million naira will be another puzzle worrying her mind. She would be feeling for her husband as well as for the kids. Steve is devastated. If he had a billion naira to give to have the woman back in his arms he would do that. From the little available to him, so many have benefitted, some even without asking. How sad that one that gives freely and willingly, is being asked to pay what he does not have. The Lagos state government should take a second look at Okota. It is becoming notorious. On September 6, 2014, Dimgba Igwe, a former DMD of the same Sun Publishing Limited, was killed by a hit and run driver, while jogging. It was a huge tragedy that attracted many prominent Nigerians including President Muhammadu Buhari, who was at the time campaigning to rule the country and Senator Bola Tinubu. Governor Babatunde Fashola was also there to condole with the Igwes.

Till this moment, the killers of the journalist have not been found. Okota roads are bad suggesting that like so many parts of the metropolis, government is not doing enough. What a coincidence that the Sun will be talking about insecurity a year after the Dimgba Igwe loss. Same area, same month of September and just as they were preparing for his Anniversary Book Launch at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs[NIIA], Victoria Island ,Lagos on September 15. The Inspector General of Police[IGP], Solomon Arase, must order his men to get to the root of this abduction which is coming shortly after a grand Security Summit which the force organized in conjuction with the Sun Newspapers. President Buhari personally graced the event and will soon ask questions if these kidnappers are not grabbed from their hide out. Nwosu has a long tale to tell. In 2012, he escaped death when armed robbers attacked him in the Maza Maza area of Mile Two , Lagos. In December 2014, thieves also invaded his Okota home. This time, they came, they robbed and they abducted. We expect the police to do a thorough job by tracking down these criminals. All eyes are on Owoseni and his men to prove that yes we can really rely on our cops to make all believe in the system especially now that change is all over us.

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

Funke Egbemode

Editor n Yemi Ajayi

Editor, Saturday n Laurence Ani

Editor, Sunday n Emeka Madunagu

Deputy Editor n Emeka Obasi

Deputy Editor n Ayodele Ojo

News Editor n Geoffrey Ekenna

Bureau Chief, Brussels n Leo Cendrowicz

Bureau Chief, Washington DC n Marshall Comins

Editorial Coordinator, Europe n Sam Amsterdam

Bureau Chief, Abuja n Onwuka Nzeshi

Business Development Manager n Taiwo Ahmed

Sales/Circulation Manager n Oyebanji Abiodun

Head, Graphics n Timothy Akinleye

Head, Admin. n Robinson Ezeh

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH thursday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

South East Focus

News

Kola nut, a revered fruit in Igbo culture

Aba shoesmakers grind their teeth in agony

South South Focus 50 best graduating agric students to get yearly lifeline

with starter-packs to take off a small-scale enterprise under strict supervision of the state government, and in-turn creating employment for teeming others”, the governor assured. A new lease of life was, however, added to the feat when the governor played host to the second convocation ceremony for 2013/2014 graduates of the state-owned polytechnic in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area of the state recently, where he offered a yearly lifeline that would commence from January 2016 for 50 best graduating students of the state origin in agriculture – an offer he vowed, would run throughout his tenure in office. “This administration will establish 50 best graduating students in agriculture from institutions of higher learning in the state as from January 2016 after their youth service programme, so that they will be entrepreneurs and employers of labour. We will be monitoring their progress”, he said. While the governor lauded the management of the institution at the event for ensuring that about 28 courses A section of Students during the convocation ceremony have been accredited by the between 2013 to date. National Board for TechniDominic Adewole “6,000 jobs will be created cal Education (NBTE), he edged the tremendous poten- tion and Processing Support Asaba in every six months in the stressed that polytechnics tials in agriculture, within the Programme (PPSP), the Tracstate, following my work in the state should be respace of three months after torisation, Extension of Microplan on job creation scheme. structured and refocused combination of stratformer Governor Emmanuel credit and Agricultural Loans This will translate into 48,000 for appropriate specializaegy and character is Uduaghan handed over to him, and Development of Agro-injobs in the next four years of the key to a successful tion to complement the regsets up six new schemes to grow dustries, to boost the strategy. my administration. I shall ular skills and training proenterprise. the agro-industrial sector of STEP, YEGEP and PPSP, engage the youth in farming grammes of the institution. Delta state Governor Ifeanyi the state’s economy and estab- which were designed to accomby encouraging cluster farm- He also advised the NBTE Okowa is fully in tune with this lished the Youth Agricultural modate 600,000 youths, have so ing, supporting and promot- to institute mechanism for philosophy and has, henceforth, Entrepreneurial Programme far employed 6,000 youths from ing out-growers associations. effective monitoring and declared his administration’s (YEGEP), the Skill Training across the three senatorial disUpon successful completion, supervision of polytechnics commitment to empowering and Entrepreneurship Pro- tricts of the state after the govparticipants will be assisted to excel in their respective any youth, who considers his gramme (STEP), the Produc- ernor sacked those employed SMART agenda in agriculture areas of specialization. (a wealth strategy he designed Hear him: “NBTE should at the inception of his adminput the necessary machinistration to diversify the state’s ery in motion for Nigerian economy from over-dependence polytechnics to run Post on oil and shift the mindset of Graduate Diploma and Masteeming youths from white-colter’s Degree programmes, lar jobs) a worthwhile venture especially in their respecto invest in. tive areas of specialization, To make do his words, the this will help to elevate the Governor has devised another status of polytechnics in the catch-them-young means by apcountry.” proving lifeline for 50 best gradHe expressed satisfaction uating students in Agriculture with the level of infrastrucfrom any institution of higher tural development in the learning in the state to become institution, adding that the entrepreneurs. management of the school The Governor, who acknowlhas made judicious use of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the growth and development of humanity. “I PAde olAPoju am quite impressed with the coordinaTor level of development and efpade.olapoju@newtelegraphonline.com fort put in by the Rector and his management. When a From Right. HRM Anthony Ogbogbo, Ibuka 1, the Ovie of Ozoro Kindom; HRM Okpuzo Inana 1 (JP), the Odiologbo of Owhe Kindom

and HRM. Murphy Urugbezi, Ogwara 1, the Ovie of Ellu Kindom

CO NTINUED O N PAGE20

20 SouthSouthFocus

thursday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Gunmen abduct UNIPORT VC’s son Emmanuel Masha, Port Harcourt

unmen, in the late hours of Monday, abducted Ejire Lale, the son of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Ndowa Lale in Agbeta Ebubu, Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State. Ejire, who had travelled from Port Harcourt to Agbeta Ebebu Eleme, was inspecting his fishpond when the gunmen circled and forced him into a vehicle. The incident occurred barely 48 hours after Ms Dornu Kogbara, a columnist of Vanguard Newspaper was freed by kidnappers after being held for 12 days. The gunmen were said to have robbed some neighbours before targeting Ejire in an environment where curfew is not uncommon due to intercult clashes. Reports say that since the abduction, the kidnappers had not made any contact with the family, while the police have not been able to track their whereabouts. In July 2015, cult members riding on motorbikes opened fire on innocent civilians in the area and surrounding communities, leading to the death of five persons, leading to the arrest of 10 persons, including a notorious cultist that had been terrorizing the area. The Dean of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Archbishop of the Province of Niger Delta, Most Rev. Ignatius Kattey was abducted alongside his wife,

The kidnappers had not made any contact with the family, while the police have not been able to track their whereabouts

File picture of masked gunmen

Beatrice in the same local government in 2013 before he regained freedom. Agbeta Ebubu is in the same local government (Eleme) that hosts Eleme Petrochemical, along the road that leads to the Onne Sea Port and an entry point to

Commissioner for Power and Energy, New-world Safugha (right) and Mr. Jude Sinebe, Commissioner designate at the event.

Graduating students to get lifeline C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 9

man dreams big and remains committed to the dream, nothing can stop the dream from materializing. It takes a man of courage to use IGR to start infrastructural projects like the ones in this school.”

While Gover nor Okowa advised the graduating students to be creative, optimistic, bold and embrace entrepreneurial spirit and make a difference in the society despite the economic challenge of youth unemployment in the country, he hinted

that his administration would soon commence the payment of 2013/2014 bursary, assuring: “My Government is interested in making the payments, but have not commenced payment because of the inconsistency on the list of beneficiaries.”

the three local governments in Ogoniland. The spokesman of Rivers State police command, Ahmad Mohammed said he was out of town and could not make categorical comment on the incident, just as the spokesman of Uniport, Dr. Wil-

Corroborating her boss, the Media Assistant to the Governor, Miss Weyinmi Ufuoma Onovuorakpo, disclosed the governor’s desire to encourage and create the enabling environment for commercial farming to thrive through the private sector and public-private-partnership, maintaining that since the governor assumed office, he has ensured active participation of the local government areas in the development of agriculture. “By this, the revenue of the state will improve and more jobless youths would not only have been out of the streets, but be employers of labour”, Onovuorakpo said. The highly elated Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Jacob Oboreh, appreciated government’s support for the school, explaining that his vision was to make the polytechnic a world-class institution to compete with in Nigeria. He explained that the institution was faced with the challenge of teaching staff and solicited the support of government to this effect.

liam Wordi did not pick his call when contacted on the incident. After about two weeks of boardroom intrigues, the governing council of the University of Port Harcourt, announced Professor Ndowa Lale as the new Vice Chancellor in May 2015.

Youths charged to embrace agriculture Joe Obende, Warri

igerian youths have been charged to embrace agriculture for economic freedom, job and wealth creation in line with the current economy diversification mantra going on across the country, This call was made by the National President, Association for the Enhancement of Developed and Responsible Leadership (ASDARL), Mr. Emeka Omoku, while declaring a two-week National Agric-Business Training Programme in Effurun, Delta State. Omoku said that the training currently going on in Effurun in Uvwie Local Government Area was to empower people with the relevant skills to be responsible, independent and be able to contribute their quota to nation building.

He added that the essence of the programme was to expose participants’ hidden potentials in agriculture and equip them with relevant skills that would make them job creators and remove others from the unemployment market. The ASDARL president told the enthusiastic participants drawn from different parts of the state to benefit from the empowerment scheme pointing out that entrepreneurship does not require huge capital as people were made to believe but that one could make enough money out of the least expected. While charging participants to maximize the opportunity provided by the training programme, Omoku said, “As you adhere to all the teachings of this great programme, all your business initiatives and opportunities will be made real”.

NEW TELEGRAPH thursday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

South East Focus In the olden days, kola nut is used to bless the arrival of a new baby and during early morning greetings to the ancestors, which is usually done by the head of the family

Kola nuts

Pamela Eboh Awka

ola nut, though small in size, is a revered fruit in Igbo cultural lifestyle. The fruit, which comes with nature’s design of between two and eight lines, stands out in every traditional Igbo occasion as the first in roll call after prayers are said. The reverence of the small, but mighty, piece of meal starts with the removal of caps from the heads of the men whether titled or not, followed by the washing of the hands and then the removal of the coating before final breaking of the kola by the traditional ruler present at the occasion. However, in an occasion where a traditional ruler is not available, the kola is

PAde olAPoju coordinaTor pade.olapoju@newtelegraphonline.com

Kola nut, a revered fruit in Igbo culture then broken by the oldest person present because he is seen as the custodian of truth and closer to the ancestors before it is passed on to the male elders to also bless and eat. Because of the sacredness allured to it, women are neither allowed to break the kola, nor partake in the eating at any gathering. They are only served with garden egg. There are no occasions in Igbo land that can be done without the breaking of kola nut and such occasions include New Yam Festival, traditional wine carrying, white wedding, local village ceremonies and masquerades’ outings. In fact, every Igbo occasion starts with kola nut, even during ordinary exchange of visits amongst men as it is seen as a door opener to ancestral presence. Kola nut is notably culti-

vated commercially, mostly in the southern part of Nigeria; mostly consumed by the northerners and revered by the south easterners. However, there is the Igbo kola which is known in Igbo dialect as ‘Oji Igbo” while the Hausa kola is referred to as “gworo’. History has it that in the olden days, kola nut is used to bless the arrival of a new baby and during early morning greetings to the ancestors, which is usually done by the head of the family. This morning ancestral exercise is usually done by the side of a plantain plantation with a small stool for sitting down and a bottle of dry gin drink which is gaggled in the mouth and spat out for the ancestors to partake in while the kola nuts are broken and thrown out to them to eat as a way of welcoming them to continue

in their duty of keeping watch over the family. According to Rev Fr. John Ofoegbu Ukaegbu, there is a popular, but cheap etymology of the kola nut, which is further explained thus; Oji: O representing Omenala (custom); J – Jikotara (that unites); ! (Igbo). Hence, Oji (kola nut) means “Omenala jikotara Igbo”, that is, “Custom that unites the lgbo”. Also, in the revealing research of Eze Silver Nnanyere Ugo Ibeme Ugbala, Eze Ugo III of Okporo in Orlu on some aspects of lgbo culture with kola nut symbolism featuring prominently in the exercise, he classified kola nut and the tree as the first tree and fruit on earth. The sacredness of the kola is by nature, for example, the dry wood of the tree is not used as firewood. “Kola is a symbol of life

and, for this reason, many profound and mysterious interpretations and formalities are accorded it. The Igbo kola is always accompanied by wine or drink because the Igbo say that “Onye nyere agbara Oji ga enye ya mmiri o ga eji elofe ya” -“One who gives kola to a deity has to give him water with which to assist him swallow it. “Kola with one cotyledon is a dumb kola or Ojiogbu. It is called Oji mmuo, that is, kola of the spirits. It is not eaten. Kola with two cotyledons is equally a dumb kola and it is not eaten. This is the main reason why the Igbo do not use the gworo or cola nitida for rituals or in serious traditional celebrations. “Kola with three cotyledons is called Oji ike, Oji ikenga, CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

22 SouthEastFocus

thursday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Aba shoesmakers grind their teeth in agony Victor Mba Aba

ugustine Chibuzo, a shoemaker, has been in the profession of coupling leather and soles, making shoes of various shapes and sizes at Shoe Plaza; a section of Ariaria International Market for the past 20 years. This profession has given him both fame and wealth with which he married his wife and trains his children in school. Augustine, through shoe making has trained many, installed youths who worked for him as apprentice, some on their own while many are still working for him. Despite these achievements, Augustine has many tales of woes to tell on the profession that brought him fame and wealth. Chibuzo stated that for the Shoes being produced past 10 years, shoemakers at the commercial nerve centre of the state have been so neglected by past administrations that it has resulted in total infrastructural decay at the shoe section of the Ariaria International Market. The utter neglect of the shoe section has made it difficult to realize the much talked about technological breakthrough and industrialization. He asked: “How can we talk of technological or industrial development when all the paradigm for the development are nonexistent?” He confirmed the assertion that Aba can be the Japan of Africa; especially in the area A shoemaker at work C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 2 1

that is, kola of the valiant. Only warriors or brave men and consecrated or ordained persons are permitted to eat this kola, as a matter of principle. “Kola with four cotyledons is called “oji udo na ngozi”, that is, “kola of peace and blessing”. It is the normal kola. The number four is very sacred among the lgbo. “Kola with five cotyledons is “oji ubara mmadu, omumu na ukwuoma that symbolizes increase in procreation, protection and good luck. “Kola with six cotyledons indicates communion with our ancestors, that is, “oji ndi mmuo na ndi mmadu jiri gbaa ndu”. The smallest part of cotyledon is not eaten, but is thrown away for the ancestors to eat. In like manner, kola with one cotyledon is not eaten by man, that means that it is not broken during ceremonies because it belongs to the ancestors, an attitude reminiscent of the direct link between the living and the dead in Igboland”, he stated. For Eze Ugo III of Okporo, “The kola nut is the ‘bread’ of Igbo Sacramental communion and must, therefore, be specially presented, broken, shared and partaken by all the parties and families in every marriage ceremony as the final consummation and blessing.” The traditional ruler of Naw-

of ruling the world through shoe making, but added that on the part of the shoemakers, the will is there, but the way is still a mirage. He stressed that the volume of business transactions in shoes and slippers at the Shoe Plaza, Bakassi and Power Line section of Ariaria Market had sustained the internally generated revenue of the state. According to him, shoes produced here find their way into sub-Saharan Africa markets. The shoes, which are durable and affordable, receive patronage from businessmen across the federation and some neighbouring countries. Shoes pro-

duced in Aba play an important role because they help to reduce the volume of import and increase export. Shoemakers in Aba produce shoes that cut across class. There are shoes for the low-income earners. He lamented that despite this effort to boost made in Nigeria products by shoemakers in Aba, the country still allows the importation of shoes from Dubai and our neighbour, Togo. Another shoemaker who spoke on the plight of shoemakers in Aba, at first was not friendly. When New Telegraph approached him, he demanded to know if the re-

porter was from the government. After several minutes of conviction, he decided to open up and gave his name as Ignatus Nkwo. It was at this stage that he said he was sick and worried to hear anything about government, who he said had treated shoemakers at Ariaria International Market as second-class citizens. Nkwo said they have, in the past, formed cooperative societies on the orders of government, but nothing happened after all. Rather, the government brought out policies on daily basis that discouraged them. Nkwo said apart from roads inside the market that are inaccessible and are near death traps, main access roads to the market like Faulks Road, Samek Road and Old-Express Road, apart from the gullies in some cases, have become “cull-de-sac” of some sort. “Can you imagine how our prospective customers can get to the market to buy our finished goods?” He further said that traders who manage to trek to the market are made to carry on their head purchased goods and trek many kilometres to get transport at exorbitant prizes and, as a result of these hardships; the volume of transaction has drastically reduced. To make matters worse, the shoemakers are made to pay taxes to both state and local government councils. He queried where all the monies collected from the market are channeled.

Kola nut, a revered fruit in Igbo culture

Kola nut pods

fia in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State, Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo, Osuofia 2, on his part, said that without the kola nut, there would be no Igbo tradition. “Kola nut presentation to the ancestors of our land is what I wake up every morning to do first before I start receiving visitors. He said, “Oji is the first thing served in every function or ceremony in Igbo land, whether it is personal or communal agreements, welcoming of a visitor to an Igbo home, and settlement of family disputes. “Presentation of kola nut in Igbo is so much revered that not

only one kola nut is put in a serving plate at a time and when it is presented by one of the wives of the man, that is in the olden days, then the presenter will take one of the nuts as a symbol of peace and a heart free of malice and bitterness. That is why we have the popular saying in Igbo land; He who brings kola brings life. “In the kola nut prayers, the elder in addition to his wise sayings, normally requests for peace, prosperity, long life, happiness and protection from all ill fortunes. Not only do the Igbo say prayers before the breaking of the kola nut, no traditional

Igbo would drink or eat without sharing at least, with the ancestors. Thus writes E. Elochukwu Uzukwu; “The kola nut, a symbol of life and commensality which is never omitted in the morning cult, is broken”. The kola libation or blessing is employed in all occasions, formal and informal. Thus, we now present a case of an old man who called his sons to give them his final blessings before he would join the ancestors. The man in question is Akpuobi, the father and founder of the town of Enyiogwugwu in Mbaise. The meeting opened with the normal blessing of kola when they were all seated. He took one kola nut and said to his dead father: “These are the sons, the sons Eke kereuwa (the God that created the world) gave me, and to whom I am now giving my blessings as you my father once gave to me”. He raised the kola and said. Eke kereuwa is one of the lgbo names for God; in this case it means “the One who made the world”. lyiafo is a local deity to whom the town’s market, Afo Enyiogwugwu is dedicated. A brief analysis of this kolaprayer shows that all beings, spiritual and human are invited to partake of the kola and

therefore ac-company this family meeting. But ultimately the blessings to the sons come from Eke kereuwa (God) through the deities and the ancestors. This cosmic meeting is made possible, thanks to the kola symbolism of commensality. Here the kola symbolism unites man, the ancestors, cosmic forces, the deities and God. As a symbol of life, the kola libation makes clear this truth whenever it is celebrated. Why is the kola preferably broken by knife rather than by hand? Many of the answers received from the questionnaire indicate that it is due to health reasons, that is, for hygienic reasons as the immediate motive. Some people say it is because the kola is sacred and, as much should be treated holily – “Sanctae sanctae tractata sunt”. The popular reason is that ‘the kola is broken with a knife as a mark of honour to it because it is not up to the size of a piece of yam which people bite and chew’. The remote reason is essentially religious, for people who have shed blood develop a “strong hand” -”aka ike” and may not break the Sacred Kola for others using the soiled or profaned hand or bloody hand.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Health Features

Health News

Why you should donate your eyes

Benefits of blood donation

Health

Smokers face increased tooth loss risk

Keeping low blood pressure at bay Hypertension is a very common health condition affecting many Nigerians, but some people present with low blood pressure as well. In this report, YEMISI ADEJORO writes on the severity of low blood pressure, risk factors and lifestyles to prevent it

or six consecutive months, Mr. Wale Cooker, a banker has not been feeling very well. As a result of the health challenge, he visited the nearby primary healthcare centre (PHC) in Oyingbo, Lagos from where he was referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for specialist attention. He was finally diagnosed with low blood pressure while the doctors continued with his treatment. However, despite the specialist care he got, rather than improve Cooker’s health deteriorated by the day until he died. The worsening outcome of Cooker’s condition set tongues wagging: ‘’Why did his condition get more severe? Why did he not respond positively to treatment accessed from the tertiary health institution with renowned specialists?’’ The answer most curious people got was that low blood pressure is a more severe health condition. Low blood pressure, also called hypotension is theoretically, blood pressure that is below 120/80 mmHg. Practically however, hypotension is regarded as a blood pressure of 90/60 mmHg or less. Highlighting what makes low blood pressure an ailment that is more severe than hypertension, Dr. Benedict Anisiuba a cardiologist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu, said in mild cases, low blood pressure may give rise to symptoms such as dizziness and fainting. In extreme cases, it can cause convulsions and death. “These are due to the deprivation of blood to the brain. Depending on the cause and severity of the hypotension, death can occur rapidly.”

Appolonia Adeyemi Health Editor

appolonia.adeyemi@newtelegraphonline.com

Blood pressure measurement

On the other hand, low blood pressure usually causes symptoms and propels the patient to seek treatment early unlike high blood pressure which is a silent killer. Furthermore, the cardiologist said most of the causes of low blood pressure are identifiable, and therefore are amenable to treatment and cure. This is unlike high blood pressure which in most cases has no identifiable cause. Cure is not available in most cases of high blood pressure; survival therefore, depends on life-long medications. On his part, a Professor of Community Medicine and Public Health at the College of Medicine University of Lagos (CMUL)/Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Bayo Onajole while confirming that low blood pressure is not as common as high blood pressure, said so many things can make it to happen. Such factors include sudden shock; blood pressure going up due to the fact that the blood vessels dehydrate which increases the speed and then the blood pressure will fall. However, Onajole said hypertensive drugs could also drop the blood pressure so low that one could become hypotensive. Highlighting the causes, Anisiuba said low blood pressure

PHOTO: bloodpressuresolutions.com.au

Excessive alcohol intake which may lead to heart failure could cause low blood pressure

is caused by a wide variety of factors. The most straightforward among them is blood loss; either externally through injury or surgery, or internally when blood loss complicates certain disease conditions such as peptic ulcer, leukaemia or the use of certain drugs including some pain relieving drugs and blood thinners. “Low blood pressure can also result from massive fluid losses from the body that can occur in cases of diarrhoea or vomiting, or excessive urination caused by overdose of drugs that provoke urination (diuretics). “Diabetes mellitus and other diseases that cause excessive fluid loss through the urine can also cause low blood pressure.” Listing more causes of this condition, Anisiuba said starvation and prolonged fasting can cause low blood pressure through fluid deprivation. Of course heart failure, heart attack, irregular heartbeat cause low blood pressure by reducing the pumping activity of the heart. A large majority of factors that cause low blood pressure are not lifestyle factors but excessive alcohol intake which may lead to heart failure could cause low blood pressure. “Over whelming infections

and poisonous snake bites can lead to low blood pressure.” He, however added that some causes of low blood pressure such as alcohol and drug abuse, road traffic accident and some cases of diarrhoea are preventable or treatable. Others such as brain and spinal cord disease are not preventable in most cases. According to Anusiuba, low blood pressure is an utmost emergency when there are features of circulatory shock (excessive sweating, impaired consciousness and convulsions). If a hypotensive patient collapses, Onajole advised that people around should ensure he maintains that lying down position as it will increase enough supply of blood to the brain. Similarly, he urged those giving first aid to raise the leg of the person so that more blood will go up to the brain. Human beings by nature, maintain an upright posture. It means that blood preferentially is drawn to the lower parts of the body due to the law of gravity. The brain therefore suffers more when there is low blood pressure. A patient with symptomatic hypotension should preferentially lie flat on the bed to encourage blood flow to the brain.

Health Features

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Roche unveils Health Journalists Academy to tackle disease burden

Blood products in a blood bank

PHOTO: www.englishforpharmacists.com

Benefits of blood donation lAs Rotary boosts Lagos bank with 400 pints Stories by Appolonia Adeyemi

he practice of voluntary blood donation in the Nigerian environment remains an uphill task in the 21st Century even when evidence abounds to show that it is a life-saving measure. In spite of the overwhelming advantages for both the donor and receiver, social and cultural practices continue to hinder this humanitarian activity. To key into the programme with a view to boost the Lagos State Blood Bank, the Rotary Club of Lagos, Palm Groove Estate recently embarked on a blood donation programme during which its members trooped out to do the needful so as to help humanity. Speaking at the occasion, President of Rotary Club of Lagos, Palm Groove Estate, Pradeep Pahalwani said voluntary blood transfusion is a lifesaving measure for patients in whom the blood is transfused while also being of benefit to the donor. “If you are still in two thoughts as to whether you should donate blood or not, Pahalwani said donors should consider doing so. He added that it doesn’t only help people in need of it, the blood donor is equally doing something of benefit for himself. According to the president of the Rotary Club, most people are not properly informed about the process of blood donation, and they assume that it is dangerous to their health. However, he noted that it is necessary to change their perspective while getting the right education on the benefit of voluntary blood donation. “The minute a person donates blood, within the next forty eight hours fresh blood is formed, and through that process the fellow will always have fresh blood his body. Besides, through that process also, the immune system of the person is boosted while the person will be less prone to diseases. Basically, he noted that donating a pint of blood can save three lives in that sometimes, the blood is broken down into different components which are given to different people. In that sense, the donor is saving more than one life. Explaining why such donations need to be sustained, Pahalwani said “accidents keep on happening resulting to casualties. Hence, hospitals will be in need of blood to save lives. In addition, the donated blood is tested to make sure it is free of all diseases and

in that process, the donors are similarly screened on various health checks and if any negative health condition is detected such awareness will help the donor follow up on prompt medications. “Blood collection from voluntary, unpaid donors, whose blood are screened for infections, is the cornerstone of a safe and sufficient blood supply in all countries,” said Dr. Hernan Montenegro, Coordinator for Services Organisation and Clinical Interventions Unit in the Department of Service Delivery and Safety at the World Health Organisation (WHO). “More voluntary blood donors are needed to meet the increasing needs and to improve access to this lifesaving therapy,” he added. A World Health Assembly resolution adopted in 2010 highlighted that a secure supply of safe blood components, based on voluntary, unpaid blood donation, is an important national goal to prevent blood shortages. “Safe blood transfusion is one of the key life-saving interventions that should be available for patients in need,” said Dr. Edward Kelley, Director of Service Delivery and Safety at the WHO. “Yet, equitable access to safe blood still remains a major challenge in many countries including Nigeria. How to meet the year 2020 WHO set goal that 100 percent of all blood for transfusion should be from voluntary blood donors, is a challenge. Blood shortage is still recorded in the nation’s blood banks and many people are shying away from blood donation because of perceived reasons, said Dr. Moruf Adekunle Abdulsalam, a surgeon at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). According to Abdulsalam, anyone within the age of 18 and 55 years can donate blood. Besides, a man or woman donor whose pax cell volume (PCV) is 40 percent is fit to donate blood. On the average, most people have PCV that is between 30 to 45. PCV explains the oxygen carrying capacity in the blood of an individual. However, if the PCV of an intending donor is low, he will be encouraged to see a doctor for the administration of medications to boost his PCV. “The total amount of blood in a human body is about five litres and those donating give about 500 mills, which is about one tenth of the blood in their body. Thereafter, the donor’s body regenerates that blood.”

owards deepening its involvement in the regeneration of Nigeria’s health sector with a view to reduce the current high disease burden in the country, the Swiss healthcare company, Roche Products Limited has launched Nigeria’s foremost Health Journalists Academy. The Health Journalists Academy is aimed at enriching health reportage and coverage in the country by sharpening the skills of 15 health journalists through exposure to the latest trends and techniques for specialized reporting. Organised in partnership with the School of Media and Communication (SMC) at the Pan-Atlantic University, the Academy will see the leading pharmaceutical company funding the training of 15 Nigeria health journalists drawn from the Print, Broadcast and New Media whose work will heighten awareness of health-related issues and promote healthy living among Nigerians. Announcing the initiative at the unveiling ceremony of the first set of 15 beneficiaries at Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, the Country Manager, Nigeria, at Roche, Herman Addae, disclosed that the Health Journalists Academy will contribute significantly to improving awareness of health issues among Nigerians. Addae said, “We are convinced that our duty as a responsible corporate citizen goes beyond manufacturing and selling medication and medical devices. We have

therefore decided to explore a new way to improve healthcare delivery in Nigeria.” He added, “Recent studies indicate that Nigerians view good health as the absence of medical symptoms instead of a holistic reflection of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. This is typically demonstrated by late presentation of diseases and eventual high mortality from preventable deaths. Generally, there is poor public awareness about disease burden in Nigeria. Although, there are areas in the country where healthcare facilities could be seen as improving, there is poor public awareness about health and diseases. There is the need therefore to engage journalists; who are positioned by virtue of their professional calling to advance the cause of the nation’s health through their reportage and coverage of health sector” Commending Roche on the initiative, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute who was represented by Dr Ngozi Azodoh, Director of Health Planning at the Federal Ministry of Health, encouraged the 15 participants to be change agents for the Nigerian health sector and make good use of the knowledge they will acquire at the Academy. Mr. Awute stated, “I believe this Academy will infuse new energy into health reporting in Nigeria. I applaud the vision and sense of commitment of the Roche team.

L-R: Country Manager, Nigeria, Roche, Herman Addae; President, Cancer Education and Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CEAFON), Professor Durosinmi-Etti; Representative, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Ngozi Azodo, and Deputy Head of Mission, Swiss Embassy, Daniel Cavegn, at the Launch of the Health Journalists Academy powered by Roche, held at Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Thursday, 3rd September, 2015.

Nestlé promotes vegetable consumption through garden initiative

uoyed by the need to encourage consumption of vegetables as part of a healthy diet, Nestlé, through the Maggi brand, has engaged over 15,000 Nigerian women through its home garden initiative in 2015. The scheme is an integral part of the yearly Maggi Women’s Forum, which is held in different parts of Nigeria in partnership with various women’s groups, including the Governors’ Wives and Association Presidents. At each forum, participants are taught about the importance of nutrition, health and wellness, shown how to raise a home garden and are given a vegetable garden starter pack containing iron-rich fluted pumpkin vegetable (an indigenous vegetable grown in southern Nigeria), and a leaflet. Over the past five years, women in 18 Nigerian states have received vegetable seeds. Commenting on the Maggi home garden initiative, Nordine Meguini, Category Business Manager Culinary, Nestlé Nigeria, “Maggi helps families to prepare balanced menus, based on nutritious ingredients. The home garden ini-

tiative is a simple and sustainable way to promote home cooking with vegetables. The seeds offered are easily grown and do not require specific skills.” Speaking on the response to the home garden initiative, Imabong Martins, Regional Consumer Services Manager said, “It has been very positive and encouraging. Women have called in to report on the progress of their home gardens. Some women have even taken this a step further and are now selling the vegetables they grow on a commercial basis.” In 2015, women are encouraged to cultivate and send pictures of full grown-harvest ready plants. The first five women to send their pictures from each association will be visited and presented with a Maggi gift. This initiative is part of Nestlé’s global commitments to encourage consumption of vegetables as evidence suggests that many people do not reach the recommended level of consumption. The Maggi Women Forum is expected to reach an additional 15,000 Nigerian women by the end of 2015.

Health Features 25

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Why you should donate your eyes lAs group begins N550 million hospital to address vision problems Wole Shadare

Ophthalmologists track eye defects

ered that bringing of medical personnel from India every year would not suffice, hence assistance was sought from Indian Community, prominent Nigerians who responded positively and Rotary International that gave grants with a view to establishing a charitable hospital that would address the problems of millions of Nigerians with sight infections. He gave kudos to the Lagos State Government and Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Aremu Akiolu for their immense support to actualise the dream through provision of land. Patel who lamented the state of many hospitals in Nigeria with no modern equipment to carry out successful surgeries, assured that arrangement has been concluded to equip the hospital with sophisticated and latest equipment in nine months time within 12 months projected time that the hospital would be completed. The philanthropist, an industrialist

PHOTO Ophthalmology

was pathetic about children within the age bracket of two to five with fully ripped cataract and commented that denying them surgery within three months of infection could make them completely blind. He said priority would be given to children, the future of tomorrow who have a long life to live. While lamenting the emptiness of eye bank, Patel urged “Nigerians to follow the example of the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu who has willed that his eyes be donated to the eye bank after his demise. “After one’s passage, eyes are the only organ in the body that are preserved for the next six hours which could be removed and deposited in the eye bank for the use of any eye victims. Instead of wasting them away, this habit could be cultivated by Nigerians to help the living since they would not need the eyes any more.

Ezekewsili advocates girl-child empowerment Vanessa Okwara and John Edu

he need to invest in women entrepreneurs and educating the girl-child has been emphasised as the solution to tackle underdevelopment and economic decline in Africa countries. Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Vice President Africa Region, World Bank and Senior Economic Advisor, Open Society Foundations (OSF), Nigeria, made this assertion while speaking at the inaugural edition of the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF), tagged “Investing in women entrepreneurs: unleashing Africa’s economic growth” on Tuesday at the Oriental hotel, Lagos. While presenting the key note address titled: securing the future and empowering the girl child,” Ezekwesili stated that Africa women must collectively and conscientiously determine to fight for the liberation of the girl-child from the cradle to maturity so as to gain her equal right and privileges to that of the male. She also said this is the reason why she will never give up on fighting for the Chibok girls. ‘’Empowering the girl-child is the reason why I have not given up on our Chibok girls. A society that will underrate

Mojeed Alabi

he pillar behind Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate and Past President, Naranbhai Patel has underscored the importance of Nigerians including, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, among others cultivating the habit of donating eyes so as to boost eye banks in the country. Patel made the call in Lagos recently at the laying foundation ceremony of a Charitable Eye Hospital put at a cost of about N550 million where surgery on eye infections would be frequently carried out and eyes transplants would also be conducted. The Charitable Eye Hospital is being build by Indo Eye Foundation in collaboration with Indian Community under the auspices of Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate with grants from Rotary International and some prominent Nigerians. Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony, Patel said with the establishment of the eye hospital, infections like cataract, pterygium and glaucoma may go into extinction in Nigeria. According to him, the eye hospital programme aimed to assist less privileged Nigerians to regain their sight problem is tagged: “Mission for Vision” actually commenced in 2005. He disclosed that since then, doctors and para-medical personnel have been brought every year from India to Nigeria to carry out surgeries with lives massively touched in Lagos, Abeokuta, Kaduna, Kano, Yola and Abakaliki with no cost from the beneficiaries. Patel added that it was discov-

Ondo clamps down on fake drug sellers

the disappearance of 292 girls that went to school to develop their intellectual capacity is a decayed society. We look more at our oil blocks than in developing our human capital. We should stop looking at oil prices whether it is going up or down and start looking at empowering the people to become entrepreneurs. We must develop a society where the empowerment of the girl child becomes the epicentre of development and inclusive of gender equality” She added, “A nation can only make progress if she acknowledges that its citizens both male and female are the premium of success and not on material things. In order to foster the economy growth of any nation, the woman or girl child should be allowed the right to look at the pattern of economy growth she can fit in or get involved in rather than concentrating only on the male child.” However, Mrs. Irene Ochem, the chief organiser of the event and founder (AWIEF) in her opening remark mentioned that the conference is aimed at focusing on issues that contribute to hinder many African women from achieving their full potential. “As you collectively ponder on these constraints and proffer practicable solutions to the challenges, I have no doubts that the fruits and outcomes of your collective wisdom will incentivise

and spur other women to greater achievement and lead to the critical mass of successful women necessary to move the African woman further forward.” Speaking also at the conference, Mrs. Adjaratou Ndiaye, Deputy United Nations Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS stated that statistics has shown that in the rural area, 75 per cent of jobs operate formally while 25 per cent operate informally and they are all run by women but unfortunately, it has not been recognised like that been run by the men. “Women shouldn’t be over burdened with the responsibility of just taking care of the home alone and unnecessary issues that add no value to her; instead they should be given the platform to showcase their skills in the national growth and development of the country. African political Independence was accompanied by a clarion call to eradicate poverty; illiteracy and justice to all human no matter the gender and protocols are put in place to see this vision a reality. But how many of these protocols have been allowed to take its course?” She said. AWIEF was born out of the global clamour for women’s economic empowerment and entreprenuership as imperatives for sustainable and progressive socio-economic transformation of Africa’s development.

any pharmaceutical shops were at the weekend closed down by the Ondo State Government for selling fake drugs. The raid, according to the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, was part of the measures to completely sanitise the state’s health sector and ensure that avoidable deaths no longer occur. Adeyanju, who began the campaign by testing drugs dispensed by the stateowned hospitals through the aid of the newly acquired anti-fake drug machine, moved to private stores where many substandard drugs were identified. It would be recalled that following the increasing reports of counterfeited drugs in circulation in the state, the state government set up a task force to put in place measures to address the challenge. Adeyanju said the state would not fold its arms and watch the people consumed by fake drugs. One of the shops closed down by the task force was the Tesy Patent Medicine Store along Hospital Road, Akure, the state capital. Adeyanju said; “We have invested heavily in the health sector in this state and we cannot fold our arms and let some bad eggs constitute clogs in our wheels of progress. We did not arrive at our conclusion by mere looking at the drugs but by using the tru-drug scan machine to conduct the test. There are also lots of injectibles on sales here without authorization. We will not take it.” Also speaking, the Ondo State Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr. Wole Ojo said apart from shutting down their shops, the culprits will also face the wrath of the law. He added that many innocent Nigerians have died as a result of fake drugs, and commended the state government for supporting the war against the practice.

Physiotherapists task FG on model rehabilitation centers Fejiro Ugbune

he Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy (NSP) has called on the Federal Government to establish world model rehabilitation centers in six geo-political zones of the country. Also, the NSP in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer of NSP, Mr. Taiwo Oyewunmi has cried out over the dearth of physiotherapists in the country, saying out of about 42,000 physiotherapists required to care for the populace in the country, only about one thousand physiotherapists are gainfully employed. Oyewunmi lamented the dearth of physiotherapy equipment required for diagnosis and intervention in Nigeria, stressing the need for the creation of the Directorate of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH). It will boost decision and policy making regarding physiotherapy and medical rehabilitation issues, he added. The statement was issued

to mark the World Physiotherapy Day that was commemorated on September 8. According to Oyewunmi, the call to establish the model rehabilitation centers should be treated as urgent, following the recent global upsurge of noncommunicable and lifestyle diseases in the country. Meanwhile, he declared the readiness of NSP members to drive medical tourism in Nigeria if more Physiotherapists are employed and right equipment is provided for by the government. “This in turn will impact positively on the health status of Nigerians and safe a lot of monies being spent on medical expenses outside Nigeria. “The NSP is ready to make available to government its human resource capital both in Nigeria and in the diaspora to provide expertise in strategic planning for optimal physiotherapy care to the good people of Nigeria.” Apart from working in the hospitals physiotherapists work in the academic settings, sports facilities, primary health care centers, military setting, among others.”

Health News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

FG inaugurates stroke reference group Appolonia Adeyemi

Smoking ruins teeth and gums

PHOTO: www.knightnews.com

Smokers face increased tooth loss risk

ale smokers are up to 3.6 times more likely to lose their teeth than non-smokers, whereas female smokers were found to be 2.5 times more likely. The research, published in the Journal of Dental Research, is the output of a long-term longitudinal study of the EPIC Potsdam cohort in Germany carried out by researchers at the University of Birmingham and the German Institute of Human Nutrition. Tooth loss remains a major public health problem worldwide. In the United Kingdom (UK), 15 percent of 65-74 year olds and over 30 percent of 75+ year olds are edentate (have lost all of their natural teeth). Globally, the figure is closer to 30 percent for 65-74 year olds. Lead author Professor Thomas

Dietrich, from the University of Birmingham, explained, “Most teeth are lost as a result of either caries (tooth decay) or chronic periodontitis (gum disease). We know that smoking is a strong risk factor for periodontitis, so that may go a long way towards explaining the higher rate of tooth loss in smokers.” Smoking can mask gum bleeding, a key symptom of periodontitis. As a result, the gums of a smoker can appear to be healthier than they actually are. Professor Dietrich added, “It’s really unfortunate that smoking can hide the effects of gum disease as people often don’t see the problem until it is quite far down the line. The good news is that quitting smoking can reduce the risk fairly

quickly. Eventually, an ex-smoker would have the same risk for tooth loss as someone who had never smoked, although this can take more than ten years.” Kolade Oluwagbemigun, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, said, “Gum disease and consequential tooth loss may be the first noticeable effect on a smoker’s health. Therefore, it might give people the motivation to quit before the potential onset of a life-threatening condition such as lung disease or lung cancer.” The findings were independent of other risk factors such as diabetes, and are based on data from 23,376 participants which aimed to evaluate the associations between smoking, smoking cessation and tooth loss in three different age groups.

oved by the need to ensure an improved stroke prevention and care in the country, the Federal Government has inaugurated the first Nigeria Stroke Reference Group (NSRG) at the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja . Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Mr. Linus Awute inaugurated the group in Abuja on Tuesday. In a statement, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Stroke Action Nigeria Mrs. Rita Melifonwu said the composition of the NSRG is made up stroke management experts in Nigeria and in the diaspora; a stroke survivor and key stakeholders in the management of stroke and its effects. Stroke afflicts one in every six people across the world saying that the incidence in Nigeria, though estimatewd to be about 168,000 cases per annum, may be higher. Melifonwu said the inauguration of NSRG would augur well for the development and sustenance of quality stroke care in Nigeria in line with the Federal Government’s strategy on “Diaspora and Nigeria Change Agenda” which is aimed at engaging Nigerians in diaspora as important

stakeholders in national development. NSRG was convened as part of the Stroke Action Alliance partnership between the Medical Association of Nigerians Across Great Britain (MANSAG), Stroke Action UK and Nigeria and is expected to develop and implement a stroke strategy for Nigeria as contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Stroke Action Nigeria (SAN) and the Federal Ministry of Health. On his own part, Mr. Jacob A Akoh, President of the Medical Association of Nigerians across Great Britain (MANSAG) welcomed the formation of the group saying it is a key development in the fight against stroke in Nigeria. In his words: “The Joint Technical Committee (overseeing an MoU between MANSAG, Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas, Canadian Association of Nigerian Physicians and Dentists and FMOH) is in support of this development as it is in line with MANSAG’s strategy for improving healthcare delivery in Nigeria.” “No one has adequate information about the prevalence or economic and social ramifications of this non communicable disease in Nigeria,” she added.

Healing properties of avocado pear (2)

vocado pear is an excellent replacement for butter. Spread it on your bread, relax and enjoy yourself naturally. The seed of avocado pear is now a well-known remedy for hypertension. From our experiments and research at PAX HERBAL CLINIC & RESEARCH LABORATORIES, avocado seed is among the most consistently efficacious herbal remedies for hypertension. In 80 per cent of cases, avocado-seed therapy successfully normalised the blood pressure. I am not going to lavish precious time on arguing whether hypertension is curable or not. In fact, there is no need for such arguments. The facts should be allowed to speak for themselves. I testify to the fact that very many hypertensive patients have had their blood pressure normalised after taking herbal remedies. I am not saying that all herbal preparations for hypertension always work. In fact, many of them do not work while some temporarily suppress the blood pressure. But then, you can say the same for all western allopathic drugs. There are two methods of pre-

Nature Power Anselm Adodo

naturepower@paxherbals.net; twitter: @anselmadodo paring avocado pear solution. The first method involves boiling 20 avocado seeds in 10 liters of water. Boil until the seeds become very soft. Then strain the water and sieve. Drink a glass every morning and night for two months. Those with mild hypertension should check their blood pressure every day to avoid the other extreme, which is low blood pressure. The second involves cutting the pear seeds into pieces and allowing them to dry. Then grind into powder. One teaspoonful is added to a glass of hot water and allowed to stand for 10 minutes before drinking. Dosage is two cups daily. In many parts of the world, medicinal plants are not so common, and they have to import most of their herbs to their country. But in Tropical Africa, especially in Nigeria, most medicinal plants are easily available and they grow so close to

our habitation that we even take them for granted. Consider how common avocado pear plant is. It grows all over our country, and many times we don’t even give it a second look as we pass it by. Africa has many of the most potent herbs growing on her soil, and yet Africa is ravaged by epidemics, famine, hunger, starvation and HIV/AIDS. We spend so much money photo: vrijst.png importing foreign herbs when Avocado peers we are surrounded by the best and most potent herbs, which we It used to be a well-kept secret among mistakenly call weeds. Indeed, natural medicine practitioners. as the prophet says: My people It’s a simple process. Keep 15 maare perish for lack of knowledge. tured avocado pears until it became Africa has many Are you one of those people over-ripe and is showing sign of rotof the most tenness. Mash the pears in a pot and who spend so much money buypour one liter of coconut oil, olive oil, ing hair creams for dandruff, potent herbs palm-kernel oil or any of your favouconditioning of your hair, or for growing on her a healthy and natural hair? Well, rite oils; even palm oil is good. Heat the you have no need to go and buy solution on fire for 10 minutes and stir soil, and yet dandruff oil or hair creams from to ensure proper mixture. Then pour Africa is ravaged the market. Avocado oil can help the mixture into a sieve to allow the oil you. In this write-up I will explain to drain into a cup. That is avocado oil by epidemics to you how to make avocado oil. for you, free of charge.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, September 17, 2015

Industry

ICT

How to revive manufacturing, by LCCI

Perfecting the Cybercrime law

Business What's news

Broadband: Spectrum shortage hinders FDIs The apparent lack of necessary spectrum needed to deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE)/ fourth generation (4G) services is impeding broadband foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria, New Telegraph has learnt.

p.28

Presidency intervenes in Discos, power consumers’ row The Presidency has intervened in the face-off between electricity distribution companies and their customers over the planned tariff hike.

L-R: Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Ms. Nonny Ugboma; Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Michael Ikpoki; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation, Lagos State, Nike Oduwole; former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Director, MTN Foundation, Akinwale Goodluck, at the MTN Foundation’s 10th year Anniversary CSR Conference in Lagos. PHOTO: SULEIMAN HUSAINI.

Bayo Akomolafe

Demotion scare rocks NIMASA top brass

neasy calm has pervaded the top officials of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) over their imminent demotion by four steps, if the report of the committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMOT) is released next week. It was learnt that some officers on grade levels 15 and 16 may have their employment reversed to grade level 10 and 12. The committee was given two weeks to review all employments at the agency between 2010 and 2014. For this initiative to succeed, sources at the agency said that President Muhammadu Buhari needs to monitor the committee saddled with the responsibility, as some of the top officials are

bent on halting the exercise. The affected staff are those engaged and single handedly upgraded by the former Director-General of the agency, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, “without following the civil service’s procedures and rules.” It was learnt that apart from years of experience and requisite qualifications, some of the embattled staff lack expertise to discharge their responsibilities. One of our sources explained that when the former directorgeneral was executing the exercise, he did not consider qualified and career officers within the agency. The source noted that those who were recruited were upgraded from level 12 to 15 and 16, above their principals, with impunity, contrary to the

JUSTICE FG moves to sanitise apex maritime regulatory body

p.28

The Business Desk Ayodele Aminu

Deputy Editor (Business)

Bayo Akomolafe

Asst. Editor (Maritime)

Sunday Ojeme

Asst. Editor (Insurance)

Tony Chukwunyem

Asst. Editor (Money Market)

Dayo Ayeyemi Property Editor

Adeola Yusuf Energy Editor

Wole Shadare Aviation Editor

Chris Ugwu

Capital Market Editor

Abdulwahab Isa Finance Editor

Kunle Azeez

Senior Correspondent

Chuks Onuanyin Energy

Nnamdi Amadi Reporter

Johnson Adebayo

Asst Production Editor

Federal Government circular that stopped all upgrading of appointments after accepting offers. He said: “We have some officers in the agency who are well qualified to be promoted to another grade level. We have some senior workers that have stayed in one post for between five and 13 years without promotion. The director-general just brought in some nonprofessionals into the agency without considering the implication.

N20 billion The amount spent by NIMASA in training seafarers between 2011 and 2015

“Apart from breaching the civil service rules, the employments contradicted the International Maritime Oganisation (IMO) procedures of hiring qualified mariners into agency such as NIMASA. “By IMO standard and requirements, those engaged by the former director-general were not qualified to be employed as surveyors because they don’t have appropriate qualifications from a marine or nautical institution and relevant seagoing experience like certificated ship’s officers who have held valid management level with certificates of competency.” The source said that IMO had specified that personnel qualified to perform the jobs of surCONTINUED ON PAGE 28

Rates Dashboard INFLATION RATE August 2015 ...........................9.3% June 2015.................................9.2% May 2015.................................9%

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

EXCHANGE RATE (BDC as at Sept 11)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N225 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N344 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N244

l Foreign Reserves – $30.944bn as at 08/09/2015

Source: CBN

EXCHANGE RATE (Interbank as at Sept 11)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N199 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N307.65 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N223.50

News

MULTIPLIER EFFECTS Growth in broadband needed to stimulate growth in economy

Kunle Azeez

he apparent lack of necessary spectrum needed to deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE)/ fourth generation (4G) services is impeding broadband foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria, New Telegraph has learnt. Nigeria is home to Africa’s largest mobile market and, based on statistics from the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in July 2015, there were over 150.7 million active subscribers. The telecoms industry’s teledensity has also increased to over 107 per cent, according to the NCC data. However, broadband penetration in the country is still very low at 10 per cent, having stood at about six per cent two years ago when the National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2013-2015 was approved by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. Broadband penetration, according to official figure from the Ministry of Communication Technology, stood at just eight per cent in 2014. To achieve the 2018 broadband goal, experts say there should be at least 21 per cent national penetration by end-2015. In a recent interview with New Telegraph, President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajaye, undertook an assessment of the ability of Nigeria to meet up with the 2018 broadband penetration target. Ajayi, while expressing doubt as to the ability of the telecoms industry to achieve the remaining 20 per cent broadband penetration target within the next three years, identified spectrum as one area that should be looked into by the regulator. “Currently, we are not doing well in the area of broadband as we have done in the voice segment. In the voice segment, we keep meeting and surpassing forecasts. “So, at the rate at which we are going in the area of broadband growth, I am afraid we may not be able to meet the 30 per cent penetration by 2018,” he said. “The wireless broadband objectives have been largely unmet due to lack of access to sufficient

THURSDAY, September 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Broadband: Spectrum shortage hinders FDIs spectrum frequencies. Improved availability of the LTE/4G spectrum is required to attract investment,” according to FBN Capital Limited, a research firm. According to the research firm, in the second quarter of 2015, the telecoms segment grew

by 5.4 year-on-year and contributed 8.3 per cent to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Industry experts estimate that a 10 percentage point increase in broadband service penetration could add 1.4 point to GDP. In March 2014, the

NCC successfully auctioned a single-slot wholesale license within the 2.3GHz frequency. The regulator, in a move to accelerate broadband penetration and attract the projected $10 billion needed to build a robust national broadband network in the next

five years, planned to auction two slots of the 70MHz spectrum in the 2.6GHz band. However, the plans have been postponed with the regulator citing administrative constraints as reason for the postponement. “This could jeop-

ardise the official target of achieving broadband penetration of 30 per cent by 2018,” FBN Capital Limited said. A Digital Readiness Index (DRI) ranked Nigeria at 133 out of 144 countries in 2014. It measures the availability of Internet access, mobile phone subscriptions and the societal and economic impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The World Economic Forum (WEF) and INSEAD, the international business school, prepare the DRI index.

L-R: Executive Head of Department, International Products, Enterprise Business Unit, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mr. Wale Odeyemi; Executive Head of Department, Commercial, Mr. Solomon Ogufere; Head of Content, Com World Series, Mr. Adam Thompson and Executive Head of Department, Business Development, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mr. Zakari Usman, at the Chief Information Officers’ (CIO) forum, during the 6th annual NigeriaCom 2015 Conference and Exhibition in Lagos. PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE.

Demotion scare in NIMASA CO NT INU E D FRO M PAGE 2 8

veyors, ship inspectors and auditors should have served for a period of not less than three years at sea with appropriate qualification from marine or nautical institution. Based on IMO requirements, it was revealed that some of those engaged as flag surveyors lacked the IMO and Federal Government requirements on-job training. “In the past, people who had worked in the agency as surveyor were engaged in line with IMO standard and were placed on grade level 12. These are people who had taken command at sea,” the source stressed. IMASA had spent N20 billion between 2011 and January 2015 for the training of 2,500 cadets in various maritime institutions overseas under the Nigeria Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), which is under the supervision of the agency.

Presidency intervenes in Discos, power consumers’ row EXPOSED MD, Ikeja Electric, discloses what transpired at the meeting

Adeola Yusuf

he Presidency has intervened in the face-off between electricity distribution companies and their customers over the planned tariff hike. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ikeja Electric, Mr. Abiodun Ajifobaje, disclosed this at a forum in Lagos. He said that the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, met with investors and owners of assets in the power distribution subsector. In a statement made available to New Telegraph, he insisted that Nigeria “do not have a cost reflective tariff.” The distribution companies and their customers had earlier been locking horns in litigation

over the plan to increase electricity tariff. Ajifobaje said: “Due to crisis of litigation against the proposed tariff review, we have met with the Vice President, Mr. Yemi Osibajo, on the issue. The Vice President has called on Discos to go and negotiate with consumers and come back with good reasons for the tariff review. The Ikeja Electric helmsman stated that the forum was designed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to determine new tariff structure. “Instead of NERC to fix the new tariff for electricity consumers, the distribution companies (Discos) now consult consumers and come back for approval,” he said. He described the Discos as daily collectors, adding that the bulk of the monies collected went to Generating Companies (Gencos) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). Ajifobaje said: “Out of every N100 collected from our consumers, only N15 goes to our pocket. “We pay N65 to Genco and N15 goes to TCN, while others

like NERC will share N10; we are only left with N15 out of which we pay our workers’ salary and replace faulty equipment. “Because we do not have a cost reflective tariff, most of the Discos have not even paid the other chain.” He urged consumers within the zone to be objective in dealing with the issue, adding that it would be difficult for the company to obtain loan from banks if they did not have cost reflective tariff. The statement said that the Director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr Olurotimi Oduntan, noted at the forum that energy was being subsidised by the Federal Government before it was privatised. It said that there were gaps in the business because they were still operating the last tariff based on exchange rate of N158 per dollar while a dollar was around N200. It said that due to the current tariff structure, Discos were not making any profit and if things continued, the power business might collapse.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

SON DG seeks jail term for inferior products’ importers p.30

Industry

How to revive manufacturing, by LCCI FOREX Biggest challenge is the CBN forex policy Taiwo Hassan

Challenges The LCCI said that the biggest challenge facing manufacturers in this current business clime is the misplacement of priority caused by the recent foreign exchange policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It would be recalled that the CBN announced the following policy measures: . Denial of access to foreign exchange market for imports of 41 broad categories of products, including critical inputs needed in manufacturing and service sectors; . Restrictions on the use of export proceeds, and; . Prohibition of cash lodgments into domiciliary accounts. NBS’ position on economy The President of LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello, said that there was need for industry operators and the CBN to parley and look at how to review the recent policies for the purpose of reviving the country’s manufacturing sector. Bello said that the impact of the CBN policies on manufacturers of products have been worrisome, adding that industry stakeholders want a review of the policies. According to him, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its latest publication on the Nigeria’s economy, pointed out that Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell to 2.35 per cent in the second quarter of 2015, compared to 6.54 per cent in the same period last year. The country’s economic growth rate for the second quarter represents a 40 per cent decline from

Some factory workers in Nigeria

Source: IMF

ast week, the Organised Private Sector (OPS) under the aegis of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), gathered in Lagos to brainstorm on the way forward for the country’s comatose manufacturing sector. The event, which was the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)’s 2015 third quarter press conference on Nigeria’s economy, was meant to look into the challenges manufacturers of products in the country were facing and how to resolve them. Specifically, the LCCI had raised the alarm over the harsh business clime they were currently operating in and drew attention to the urgent need for the Federal Government to review some of the economic policies hindering development to business and the industry as a whole. They identified three key challenges that needed urgent review in the industry.

the 3.96 per cent recorded in the first quarter of this year. The LCCI president, however, said that the manufacturing and service have now entered recession after recording successive decline over the last two quarters. He added that it was believed that the manufacturing sector decline in the first half 2015 is partly because of tight forex policies by the CBN, which made it difficult for manufacturers to acquire imported inputs, among other factors. Crude oil prices The LCCI’s helmsman said that the international price of crude oil is currently trending at a six-year low of $40 per barrel. According to him, prices may crash further when Iran begins to enjoy its international pardon by pumping more oil into the already saturated market. He added that this may further heighten the fiscal challenges presently facing the country.

CBN foreign exchange policy needs to be urgently reviewed to encourage the inflow of autonomous funds

With this development, he said: “We are expecting further downwards adjustments in the budgetary benchmark of oil price, which is pegged at $53 per barrel in the 2015 budget. “Further pressure on the value of Naira is expected as the development weakens the supply side of the foreign exchange market. “The vulnerability of the Nigerian economy to external shocks is beginning to manifest with the collapse of crude oil price.” Bello added: “The naira exchange rate is under pressure, so is the foreign reserve; fiscal stability of the federal and state governments is at risk, as reflected in the inability of many public sector institutions to meet their financial obligations to contractors and civil servants.” Way Forward The LCCI decided that the solution to the country’s manufacturing sectors are of two dimensions -Revenue and Cost.

Optimising Revenue Consequently, they proposed the following: . Review of the tax regime to make the tax system more progressive in character, especially with regard to consumption tax. VAT on luxury items and services should be reviewed; . Tax administration needs to be strengthened for effectiveness and reduction of leakages in tax revenue. The issue here is not about increase tax rates, but making the system more efficient; . The introduction of the Treasury Single Account [TSA] is a welcome development. Before now, most revenue generating MDAs are not remitting the appropriate revenues to the federation account; . Boosting revenue through the curbing of oil theft. . Need to review some Trade Policy measures to boost customs revenue. Already the Nigeria Customs Service is experiencing sharp declines in revenue as a result of the new tariff on vehicles and the forex restriction measures by the CBN. This needs to be reviewed in the light of the revenue backlash; . CBN foreign exchange policy needs to be urgently reviewed to encourage the inflow of autonomous funds into the foreign exchange market; . The current tight exchange controls is a major disincentive to the inflow of diaspora funds, export proceeds and other autonomous funds into the economy, thus worsening the foreign exchange crisis; . The CBN needs to be creative in its fight against money laundering in order to minimise disruptions to economic activities. Managing cost They also stressed the need to: . Reduce the cost of governance at the Executive, Legislature especially; . Tackling corruption to stem the looting of the treasury; . Regular value-for-money audit in the MDAs to reduce wastage; . Greater vigilance on fiscal leakages from ghost workers, ghost pensioners, ghost institutions etc; . Need to put a stop to the fuel subsidy regime to save the country an estimated N1 trillion annually. There is in fact no reason for the current administration to retain kerosene subsidy for one day. . Acceleration of oil and gas sector reforms to optimize investment and revenue potentials from the sector; . Public Private Partnership options for the funding of infrastructure projects should be urgently activated to bridge financing gaps. Trucks/tankers on highways The LCCI said the menace of trucks and tankers on Lagos roads has assumed an intolerable dimension. CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Business | Industry

POWER Regulator seeks more powers Stories by Taiwo Hassan

irector-General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu, has decried the continued importation of substandard goods into the country. He said that the agency was canvassing jail term for offenders. Odumodu said in Lagos that despite the agency being conferred with the power to prosecute offenders of sub-

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

SON DG seeks jail term for inferior products’ importers standard goods, there is still importation of substandard products. He said that the only way out is for the National Assembly to give more powers through legislation to SON, especially the Act to jail people involved in importation of substandard products. “I promise you that before the end of this year, we may be celebrating the jailing of, at least, one major substandard kingpin in Nigeria,’’ Odumodu

said. The SON DG said that the organisation was doing everything possible to ensure that the importation of substandard products into the country was reduced to 10 per cent by the end of the year. He said: “My target is before the end of this year, the organisation will reduce substandard products from its current 40 per cent level to 10 per cent. “We have killed our indus-

Textile industry

Sugar imports: Council demands sanction for defaulters

he National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to penalise local sugar refineries and producers who are not complying with the Federal Government’s regulation on quota allocation of sugar importation into the country. In a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of NSDC, Dr Latif Busari, and made available to New Telegraph, the group said that the inability to track down the defaulting sugar companies will derail the attainment of Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) that is already in its implementation stage. Busari said that the council was committed to the full implementation of the NSMP and other national industrial objectives. He also restated the Council’s readiness to partner with other relevant government agencies to end the illicit act going on in the industry. The Executive Secretary pointed out that the apex bank has a crucial role to play to instill confidence in the key stakeholders in the sugar industry. While soliciting for the cooperation of the apex bank in its

effort to ensure that local sugar refineries comply strictly with the approved presidential quota allocation and other sectoral regulations, he said the NSDC wants the bank to henceforth “deny foreign exchange facility to any refinery/company for any consignment in excess of the approved presidential quota allocation.” In addition, the Council wants the CBN to also, “deny foreign exchange facility for refined sugar importation not approved by the President,” as well as “deny foreign exchange facility for the importation of any sugar in retail packs.” However, the statement listed Dangote Sugar Refinery, BUA Sugar and Golden Sugar Company as the only local companies captured in the 2015 raw sugar allocation and utilisation. According to the statement, Messrs Guinness Nigeria also got quota approval to import refined sugar-beet sugar, currently not produced in the country. The council berated the move by Messrs Meditarion Nigeria Limited/Milan Group for their continued importation of sugar in retail packs even when government had already banned such importation.

tries because they are competing with substandard products. “ We need to do things that will make a lot of difference to us. “When I started the journey in 2011, we had a level of substandard products with over 80 per cent in all the sectors. “Today we are around 40 per cent to 45 per cent; in this new dispensation we will reduce it further by 90 per cent,’’ Odumodu said. Speaking on the agency’s activities, he said that the agency seized substandard products worth N4 billion, since the beginning of the year. According to him, in September, the agency seized substandard telephone sets worth N350 million. “In the last three days, we had confiscated over N350 million worth of telephone sets that are substandard. “If I add that to the number I have earlier, we have a number of about N4 billion this year alone. “I tell you that is not a thing of joy because all these products were imported, paid for with genuine dollars and would be destroyed and they are Nigerian money,’’ he said. The SON boss said the target would be achieved through the integration of SON’s certification programme with the Nigeria Integrated Custom Information System (NICIS). The director-general said

the computerisation of SON’s services and the integration of SON’s e-product certificate into NICIS platform would aid trade facilitation. He said with the introduction of the platform, importers would find it easy to import goods. Odumodu said: “Right now if you want to bring in any product that are regulated by us you do not need to come to SON’, you just deal with people we call international and credited firms. “They will give you what we call product certificate, with it you can open your form M and when the products come, they will also issue you the after testing aboard. “They will give you certificate with which you can clear but the certificates are at the electronic level,’’ Odumodu said. According to him, the importation of substandard products has caused the closure of many industries in Nigeria. He said: “When they bring substandard products, they are stopping Nigerian companies from producing, employing people and making those products available for Nigerians. “Statistically, Nigerian made products account for less than five per cent of substandard goods while imported products account for over 90 per cent of substandard products in terms of quantity.”

SON, importers parley on SONCAP/MANCAP he Standards Organisa- gage importers and clearing standard of imported prodT tion of Nigeria (SON) agents at the ports to adhere ucts. has urged importers to get to SONCAP and MANCAP. “This, we believe is the the SONCAP/MANCAP ecertificates, saying that this is the only way to prevent importation of sub-standard products into the country. Director-General, SON, Joseph Odumodu, said this at stakeholders’ meeting on SONCAP and MANCAP regime in Nigeria in Lagos. He appealed to importers to explore the online platform initiated by the agency for proper registration of SONCAP. He said SONCAP operation was meant to ensure stability in the system and remove the stigma of Nigeria being heaven for dumping ground of fake products. Odumodu said that the agency will continue to en-

He recalled that in 2012, the agency decided to “review its SONCAP operation, adopt proactive off-shore quality testing and issue online certification linked to Customs ASYCUDA.” Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting, the founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam tasked Nigerian freight forwarders, particularly the NAGAFF members need to strictly adhere to trade regulations of SON. Aniebonam noted that adherence actually amounts to a demonstration of patriotism, in support of SON, in its efforts to ensure quality

minimum requirement expected of us as patriotic citizens, of Nigeria and in conformity with the new ‘change’ philosophy of the current Government in Nigeria. The earlier we embrace change and add value to the rules of engagement the more secured our investments. “For us, at NAGAFF, we shall continue to encourage SON to increase its awareness campaign on matters of quality assurance and control over SONCAP and MANCAP regime in Nigeria. At the same time we urge SON to continue to evolve an approach that shall stop the idea of arresting containers on our city high ways,” he said.

Reviving manufacturing sector CO N TI N U ED F RO M PAGE 2 9

According to the association, they have become a major safety hazard on the country’s roads. The LCCI’s president said: “We commend the move by the Lagos State Governor to take decisive action on the matter. It is anomalous to be moving

cargo and petroleum products by road with such intensity as we do in this country.” He, however, appealed that the restoration of the rail system should be done as a matter of utmost urgency. “Too many lives have been lost as a result of accidents and fire outbreak because of the movement of cargo and

petroleum products within the country. It is most inefficient and hazardous. “We also urge the government to accelerate reforms in the oil and gas sector to facilitate private investment in refineries to boost local refining capacity and reduce the need to haulage over long distances.”

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

ICT

NCS to FG: Create 774 digital centres p.32

Perfecting the Cybercrime law Stakeholders have insisted that the Cyber Security law recently enacted lacks essential provisions needed to effectively secure the country’s cyber space, writes KUNLE AZEEZ

issues regarding the legal aspects of information technology in Nigeria. Basically, we try to put in place a legal environment so that information technology will be properly developed in Nigeria.’’ He, however, noted that with the new law in place, which spells out various degrees of punishment for cybercrime offenders, Nigerians will be fully-protected and be able to freely transact online businesses without further fear or intimidation.”

Key to ICT growth On his part, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Proshare Nigeria Limited, Mr. Olufemi Awoyemi, noted that with an estimated improved Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution, it is obvious that the ICT industry is a key growth industry and, as such, deserves the design and execution of a well articulated cyber security law. He said: “If we are talking about cyber security, it should be regarded as our way of life, which means by implication that what is happening offline is also obtainable online.” Awoyemi explained: “The core competence of Nigeria is not oil and gas, not banking; it is the ICT sector, because if we look critically into it, the ICT sector has the highest employers of labour in the country. “I believe that the cyber crime law is not what we play semantics with. It is our life as a nation.” Awoyemi believes that a lot of things are still missing from the law, including issues of online publishing frauds. “I have served as the President of Online Publishers Association of Nigeria. This law has nothing to do with online publishing, people commit this crime, which can’t be covered under the cyber crime law, but are covered within the larger ITU definition,” he said.

fter many years of delay, the National Assembly under former President Goodluck Jonathan finally passed the cybercrime bill in the law. Though, the quick presidential assent to the bill has been hailed as laudable, some industry analysts, however, have called attention to the hurried nature with which the bill was passed into law. Experts’ assessment Some industry experts have reacted to the Nigeria Cybercrimes Act 2015, the new law enacted to contain the growing spate of Internet offences by seeking to arrest, prosecute and sentence anyone found guilty of committing cybercrime and allied offences. Though they commended the new law for eventually coming to make the Internet a safer place, many of them, also seek an improvement to the new legislation to complement efforts at combating Internet offences in Nigeria. The experts spoke at the Technology Times Outlook Review of Nigeria Cybercrimes Act 2015, the thought leadership series that attracted various professionals, including legal, the media and leaders in industry and government. Speaking at the forum, the Managing Partner of Technology Advisors LLP, Mr. Basil Udotai, who delivered the thought leadership keynote presentation, said that the new law was a welcome development for Nigeria. Udotai noted that having a new legislation is a major step forward in the nation’s attempt to make cyberspace a safer place to live, work and play for the Nigeria Internet community. “For years, the Nigerian digital economy had carried on with the absence of a legal framework for cybercrime/cybersecurity; a glaring gap in law enforcement/ national security framework as well as a debilitating weak link in our digital economy value chain,” he told attendees at the forum. Udotai believes that the enactment of the legislation was an attempt to bring Nigeria in line with global best practices and modern trends in the justice sector. He said, “it is a truly ground-

Illustration: A hacker downloading information from a computer

breaking law with a potential to greatly impact jurisprudence and legal development; governance (eGovt); businesses and commercial activities; law enforcement and national security; foreign direct investment and economic growth.” Udotai added: “The Cybercrimes Act, though long in coming and beset with certain challenging components, may be applied to effectively tackle Nigeria’s cybercrime and cyber security challenges. But deliberate efforts have to be made by the key players; Office of National Security Adviser and the Office of Accountant General of the Federation working with stakeholders to make this a reality.’’ In his submission, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Technology Times, Mr. Shina Badaru, said that the forum was organised to refocus technology issues, policy and market trends that will foster innovation, job creation and overall economic growth for Nigeria. “In today’s connected world, the Internet, which he described as the new domain after land, air and sea, it has imperative for Nigeria to keep the Internet a safer domain to live, work and play. “We have always fought wars on the land, air and sea domains, but we now have a new domain in which warfare is fought, that is the cyberspace domain. Therefore, it has become imperative that we understand this legislation that protects us as we live, work and play in this connected world,” he said. Note of caution Meanwhile, Head, Legal Ser-

It has become imperative that we understand this legislation that protects

COURTESY: GOOGLE.COM

vices & Board Matter Unit, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Emmanuel Edet, who also commended the enactment of the law, cautioned that the definitions provided in the Act are “too specific” and may give room for offenders to devise other means of committing crimes outside the specific definitions of the law. Edet, a member of the Technology Times Outlook Panel, said: “One of the major challenges we had when going through the law was definitions. There is a danger of confusion when we use specific definitions.’’ According to him: “Definition of terms may be a problem in enacting this law. For example, if we say someone commits a crime with an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and in the future we have another machine that is not called ATM to commit fraudulent act, that means by definition the person has not committed any offence or done anything wrong.’’ He also raised the issue of the Cyber Security Fund provided for in the new law, saying, “there is nothing that defines what those funds are used for.” He added that “There is need for government to fully articulate all these issues and collaborate with the citizens to have a proper framework as to the workings of the Act.” Edet noted that the law is, no doubt, a welcome development, but more needs to be put in place if we must win the war against cyber attacks in Nigeria. “It is a good law, but it has fundamental flaws, which should be addressed to comply with international standard,” Edet said. “We (NITDA) have dealt with so many

Consumer protection President of Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CAFON), Ms Sola Salako, who was also at the event, acknowledged the situation of Nigerian consumers and called for a united front in the fight for rights of consumers in the face of poor services by some technology companies. She particularly urged the legislators to clarify areas where there could be problems that would affect the take-off of the law while listing concerns such as ATM fraud, illiteracy and lack of awareness of the law. Conclusion Though the new cybercrime law took many years before coming into life, a review of the law, as suggested by experts, may be the way to go in order to ensure its robustness.

Business | ICT

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

NCS to FG: Create 774 digital centres ACCESS The move is aimed at deepening access to IT in the rural communities

Stories by Kunle Azeez

he Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) has tasked the Federal Government to create modern digital centres in each of the nation’s 774 local government areas in order to deepen access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

President, NCS, Prof. Adesola Aderounmu, made the call when he led a delegation of NCS officials to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal. Speaking on Information Technology (IT) penetration, Aderounmu said: “For us to move forward as country in the digital age, we call for an urgent push for comprehensive broadband access all over the country as well as the implementation and monitoring of local content policy to encourage MDAs to patronise indigenous software and hardware.” He also called for “the establishment of IT parks, using public-private-partnership models and the establishment of digital

Cyberoam plans more support for partners

ne of the leading global provider of network security appliances, Cyberoam, has expressed readiness to offer more support to its business partners in Nigeria. The company has, therefore, appointed Mr. David Sodeinde as its locally-stationed Pre-sales Manager to assist the partner network in Nigeria. African cyber security market is registering a phenomenal growth, with some reports pegging it at around 20 per cent. The market, according to a statement, is expected to be worth $2.3 billion by 2020. Being Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria will be driving majority of this growth, making it central to Cyberoam’s market plans. Thus, Cyberoam has given a larger impetus to partner appointment and empowerment activities in the region. Sodeinde said of the appointment: “I am excited to be a part of Cyberoam. The company is making rapid strides with its value proposition for the SMB segment. Hence, in emerging economies like Ni-

geria, the company has a huge potential for growth. “I have worked closely with organisations in Nigeria and can easily see how Cyberoam can bring the security transformation and make these organisations compete at global levels.” Sodeinde will be working closely with Cyberoam Country Manager, Mr. Jimi Falaiye, to capitalise on the opportunities in the Nigerian network security market. Cyberoam constantly engages with the end customers and partners in the region via its security seminars. After this appointment, David will take charge of such seminars, product awareness programmes, assisting partner skill development, delivering product certification trainings, solution presentations and product updates. He would also be involved in handling comparison discussions, assisting tender responses and compliance discussions, as well as assisting product deployments and technology, where needed.

Samsung unveils ‘Palm Selfie’ contest

amsung Electronics West Africa has launched a new brand theme, Dream Your Dream, which seeks to nurture the aspiration of young Nigerians who have great dreams with the potential to impact the country positively. Speaking on the new theme and forthcoming campaign, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Brovo Kim, in a statement, said that the company understands that the desire of people to succeed in the pursuit of their dreams is enhanced by their ability to access the needed resources. “Samsung’s culture of innovation is reaching beyond products, helping people realise their dreams by drawing on our entrepreneurial spirit to provide our customers a window to the world. Our commitment to the success of the country has led to the launch of our new theme, ‘Dream Your Dream,’” Kim said.

“Dream Your Dream” tends to inspire progress and spur dreams to success. Nursing a dream is one thing, seeing it to fruition is another, said Director, Information Technology and Mobile, Emmanouil Revmatas. “Samsung is on a mission to provide the required tools needed to propel the future of our customers by delivering solutions that enrich their lives. We are expanding the boundaries of technology, helping our customers succeed in their daily lives, encouraging them to take the required steps to becoming the change the country has been waiting for,” Revmatas said. The company stated that it would kick-off the new theme campaign with the launch of the Samsung J7 device, which is being launched with the slogan, “Picture Your Dream”. The slogan will drive a palm selfie competition with one lucky Nigerian having his dream actualised.

centres in all the 774 local government areas in collaboration with state governments.” On security, the NCS president said that the society agreed with President Mohammadu Buhari on the harmonisation of the national database for the country. “In addition, we call for urgent deployment of IT to tackle Boko Haram and terrorism in Nigeria (NCS is ready to provide practical solutions, using IT to solve the problem), and collaboration of critical stakeholders with NCS in pushing the details and implications of the cybercrime Act into the public domain, and begin full implementation,” he said. Aderounmu told the SGF that the Communication Technology Ministry, with other IT agencies in Nigeria, if well

managed, is able to resolve Nigeria’s job crises and further create wealth for the nation similar to the IT revolution going on in India. “Hence, there is the urgent need for the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the appointment of seasoned IT professionals from registered members of NCS and Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) to head the Ministry of Communication Technology and other IT agencies in the country. “We, as a nation, also need to give priority to the use of registered local IT professionals and registered local IT companies to execute IT jobs; appoint seasoned IT professionals on the boards of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to

maximise and deepen the benefits of electronic governance and digital transformation in Nigeria,” he said. He also urged government to direct the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to amend the pre-qualification requirements for IT projects to include evidence of registration with CPN and NCS in addition to the newly introduced pre-qualification requirements such as evidence of registration with Pension Commission. Aderounmu tasked government to mandate MDAs “to appoint IT professionals as directors of IT, direct all MDAs to establish IT career structure if not yet in place, implement the use of CPN registration as a condition to employ IT professional staff in MDAs to level 10 as approved and gazetted by the Federal Government.”

L-R: Board member, International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and past President, ICAN, Gen. Sebastian Owuama (rtd); MD/CEO eTranzact, Mr. Valentine Obi with MD/CEO, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, during the 45th Annual Accountants Conference, in Abuja.

FG affirms confidence in DEMO Africa 2015

he Federal Government, through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has affirmed its confidence in the ability of the DEMO Africa forum, a pan-African launchpad for technology start-up companies, to become the continent’s rallying ground to discover technology leaders and entrepreneurs. The DEMO Africa event, according to a statement, is scheduled to hold from September 21 to 25 in Lagos and will showcase 30 technology start-up companies from across Africa. Nigeria leads the table with eight startups. They are: PoshRite, Oga Venue, TalkingBookz, iKon Tracker, Mavis Computel, CarpartsNigeria, Zuvaa, and SmartEdu. Kenya, increasingly gaining global spot as tech-startup haven, has six, namely: Bitsoko, BambaPOS, Shield Finance, InsureAfrika, LipaPlus, ENT-Mobile, Abacus, and SimbaPay. South Africa has three star-up representatives: Edge Books, Bozza and Eco-

mc2. Ghana has two: Ghana’s Zeepay and Flippy Campus. Egypt also has two: LockName and Raye7. Cameroon features two: Koomza and Feem Wi-Fi; and Zimbabwe also has two startups: IPC eProductivity and RoadRules. Uganda, Tanzania and Ivory Coast each have one start-up in this order respectively: Roundbob, Tango TV, and Airshop. Francophone Ivory Coast with its Airshop start-up company will feature in the event for the first time and underscores the expanding ecosystem for Africa’s technology startups. “Africa is growing in strength and its youths are pointing to the direction of things to come. NITDA is committed to Demo Africa as part of its mandate to youth development from the perspective of IT as well as its belief that a large population of highly exposed and trained youths will be the driver of Nigeria’s new economy,” said NITDA’s Director General, Mr. Peter Jack. NITDA, with the Nigerian Ministry of Communication Technology, is a co-host of

DEMO Africa in collaboration with LIONS@FRICA and VC4Africa. NITDA is already promoting eight Nigerian start-ups at this year’s GITEX Expo and Conference taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). DEMO Africa also has the support of private sector technology giants, including Microsoft, under the 4Afrika Initiative. The software company is encouraged by the support of public institutions such as the NITDA for the DEMO Africa forum. “It is actions by different players that will see technology entrepreneurship effectively bringing sustainability to entrepreneurship across Africa,” said Executive Producer of DEMO Africa, Mr. Harry Hare, while commending on Microsoft’s support for the event. One of the highpoints of DEMO Africa 2015 is the newly introduced knowledge streams to delve into critical topics, including Business Modeling, Scaling Businesses, Creating an Unfair Advantage, and Raising Capital.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Mom&Parenting A

lmost on daily basis in Nigeria, there is a report of a child being molested somewhere. Child molestation has become a dilemma that is being reported on the pages of newspapers. Worrisome to the public is the modules operandi of this pervasion. When the culprits finished raping the underage kids, they give them annoying token of money like, N10, N20, the highest so far is N70 which members of the public suspect to be for rituals! For most parents now, it has become a constant nightmare about the safety of their innocent children as some of these acts of perversion are committed by fathers and close family members Usually, the culprits blame it on devil or claimed ignorant of their actions, saying, “I didn’t know what came over me when I did it.” Again, the judiciary system of Nigeria seems to be treating the issues with kids’ glove. There are no tough punishing measures for the culprits; hence, the act is being perpetrated the more. Last week Monday, an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court, remanded 40-year-old businessman, Emeka Oguzie, in prison custody for allegedly defiling his 7-year-old daughter. The accused, a resident of Suite 37, Ojokoro Housing Estate, Meiran, a suburb of Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of defilement and causing breach of peace. Though the accused pleaded not guilty, the Chief Magistrate, Mr. Tajudeen Elias, remanded him in prison and adjourned the case till Sept. 29 for ruling on bail application. According to the prosecutor, Sgt. Jimah Iseghede, the accused allegedly fingered his daughter, but was caught by his elder son, who reported to the mother. On interrogation, the little girl said her father had been doing that for some time now. The offence, according to the prosecutor, contravened Sections 135 and 166(d) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. Recently, a factory worker, Mohammed Ahmed confessed to sleeping with his daughter only six times! Ahmed, who was paraded by officials of the Osun State Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps said he started having sex with his 14-year-old daughter ( name withheld) April, 2015. “I have two wives. The first had left and she gave birth to three chil-

Mom&Parenting

Oluwatosin Omoniyi City Editor

A nine year old groom marries 62 year-old wife again PHOTO:WWW.360TOPGIST.COM

Abuse me not! In those old days when values were values and were held sacrosanct, child rape, incest or sexual pervasion of any sort was considered a taboo. But now, sexual pervasion, especially between parents and children are shockingly alarming, SHALEWA PEDRO reports dren. The second wife gave birth to two children before she died. This one is the first child of my first wife. I don’t know what came over me when I started having sex with my daughter. I had sex with her only six times since April 2015.” Another man simply named Oluwaseyi, raped two of his daughters, 6 and 4 year old plus his 15 years old stepdaughter somewhere in Lekki, area of Lagos, very recently. It was learnt that Oluwaseyi, who worked as a Lotto agent, had separated from his wife, December 2014. He was said to have taken the two girls from his wife, leaving her with a baby and allegedly convinced his stepdaughter to stay with him. It was learnt that the stepdaughter had allegedly been raped many times before she opened up to a neighbour, who reported the matter to the mother who went to a nongovernmental organisation to report the sexual abuse of her daughter. “When I heard about the rape, I confronted my ex-husband on the matter. He boasted that nothing would happen to him. He broke bottles, and said he would kill me. Later on when I sat my first daughter down, she confessed to me that she was truly raped, and that it had occurred on several occasions. Also, two weeks ago, a nine year old was raped by a lawyer.

He committed the act when the little girl went to the court with her grandmother. The above cases are just the few out of the many perpetrated and currently going on. Luckily, there are NGOs looking into it and fighting for the right and protection of these children. Perhaps, they are overwhelmed with the alarming rate, this abuse is increasing and braking out daily. On factors responsible for child molestation in the country, Victoria Ekhomu, managing director, Trans-World Security Systems Limited, attributed it to economic factors where both parents will have to work, thereby making the children A child sex abuse victim PHOTO:WWW.CRIMEVICTIMLAWYERUSA.COM vulnerable to sexual dangers, “I think part of the things re- time to be sure that something prosecute offenders. sponsible for this is that these like that is not going on,” she She said that lack of forensic days we have a home with both advised. evidence, inability of parents to the parents working and the Recently, three Lagos based allow their wards to testify and children are left to the domes- human rights groups raised social stigma were the major tic helps, who have freedom to alarm over the increasing constrains in prosecuting ofdo whatever with them,” she rate in child sexual abuse in fenders. said. Ekhomu however advised Nigeria. They advocated that She also identified other conparents to device a means to sexual abuse of minors should straints as lack of facilities for monitor the home at their ab- be a cause for concern to us all, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) sence and to create quality time thereby called for collaborative tests. with the children when they are efforts to curb the menace. “Although, we do not have ofback from work. But in situaMrs. Ifeyinwa Awagu, Sec- ficial national statistics on how tion whereby parents are the retary, Foundation for African many children have been raped very culprits, Ekhomu advised Cultural Heritage,FACH, de- or sexually abused. mothers to be at alert because scribed child sexual abuse as But the daily reports from some men are actually sick. a form of child abuse in which the media should keep us on “Mothers shouldn’t look away, an adult used a child for sexual our toes and keep us aware that we have an epidemic on they should be watchful because stimulation. Awagu said that the law did some men are sick. They should CONTINUED ON PAGE 34 at least just check from time to not provide adequate time to

34 Mom&Parenting

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

MOM’S ALERT with

Grace Essen

grace.essen@gmail.com

Struggling for her life with her parent CO NTINUED FROM PAG E 3 3

PHOTO:IRWELLESREPORT.WORDPRESS.COM

Don’t abuse me I

our hands,” she said. Mrs Jessica Ndupu, President, Society for Support and Welfare for the Under- Privileged, said child sexual abuse had a lifetime effect on victims. Ndupu outlined some of the effects as severe distress, fear, shame, stigmatisation, discrimination and other physical and psychological health issues.“Do you know that up to one-third of adolescent girls report their first sexual experience as being forced? Sadly enough, tradition and culture have prevented such cases from being appropriately ad-

Can your child’s school fees buy a plot of land?

photo: www.SABC.co.za

dressed and ultimately taken seriously. Sexual abuse of children is a public health issue which has long term negative effects on the victims,’’ she said. Mrs Hope Okoye, Executive Director of Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking and Community Development Initiative (INTACOM- Africa) identified communication and massive awareness as a major tool in eliminating child and sexual abuse. Okoye said that it was essential to sensitise market men and women on the need to be more informed and educate their children to prevent such ugly situations. According to her, it is better to prevent a happening than seek a cure for it. Parents are primarily the custodians of the children. They should help prevent the child from sexual abuse. According to a recent survey by the Federal Government of Nigeria led by the National Population Commission, NPC, with the support of United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and US Centers for Disease Control; sexual abuse, emotional and physical violence amongst children are on the rise in Nigeria Ms .Jeam Gough, Country representative, UNICEF, said, “approximately six out of every 10

children experience some form of violence before they reach the age of 18 years. One in every two children experience physical violence and one in four girls and one in ten boys experience sexual violence,” she said. She continues that, “one in six girls and one in five boys experience emotional violence. Most

children, who experience violence, will be subjected to violence again and again during childhood. Perpetrators are generally not strangers, but people that the children know and children are most likely to suffer violence where they should be safe – at home, at school and to and from school. According to her, children suffer in silence. Less than 50 per cent of children will ever tell anyone that they have suffered physical violence, with an even lower disclosure rate if they have experienced sexual violence. Most children do not know where to get help and even if they know, only five per cent of children ever receive the help they need to recover. According to the survey, sexual, physical and emotional violence have significant negative impacts on the mental and physical wellbeing of children while they are under 18 years and into their adulthood. The survey found significantly higher levels of mental distress, suicidal thoughts, self-harming, sexual and other risk taking behaviour (e.g. substance abuse), and sexually transmitted infections compared to people who had never experienced violence. One in seven children who experienced sexual violence had become pregnant. Critically, adults who had experienced sexual or physical violence were also found to be more likely to be perpetrators of intimate partner violence themselves. Sexual molestation among children, she point-

When the child becomes the spouse

photo: themedicalblog.net

ed out should be a collateral effort. “It requires a multi-sectoral approach involving social welfare, education, health, justice etc. It also requires the collaboration of religious leaders, communities, parents and the media,” she said. Also reacting to the prevalence of sexual molestation of children in the country, especially by family members, former Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lagos, Professor Omololu Soyombo, blamed it on the level of degeneration in the society. “It is a function of psychological and sociological problems. Otherwise, no sane father will sexually molest his daughters. So many things have gone very bad in recent times and many fathers have lost their sense of responsibility,” he said. Suggesting ways out of the problem, he stated the need for strong emphasis of family values, re-arrangement of parental social lives, ensuring that mothers are more at home to take care of the children. “We need to put in place a kind of family security to ensure that no female child is at home alone with her father. There should be two or more people at home. This should be complemented with strict enforcement of existing laws on child molestation to ensure that culprits are sent to prison to serve as deterrence to others,” Soyombo said.

t is the beginning of yet another school session and right in the middle of all the excitement and joy of having your child start school, go to a new level of education or just move from one class to another is the anxiety of how much money we will have to cough up. At least the majority of us. Last September, just at the start of the new session, I overheard my neighbour whose first child had just gained admission into a private secondary school in Lagos giving her son some ‘words of advice’ without realizing she was so loud people living close by could hear her. “… Read your books o!” she yelled, “the money we are paying for your school fees can buy a plot of land o…” I couldn’t help but burst into laughter as I imagined the boy probably staring at his mom and wondering what she was screaming about. The woman on the other hand must have been saying that with all seriousness, and probably sticking out her neck and pulling her ear as she drummed her words right into the boy’s ears. I don’t blame her; if I were in her shoes maybe my scream would have been heard further down the street. Who wants his/her money to go to waste? Wouldn’t it be better to just buy the plot of land and watch it appreciate in value? But really that got me thinking. We all must have, maybe not in my neighbour’s style, but in one way or the other made our children realize we spend so much to afford them the ‘luxury’ of going to good schools at times like this. But again, when we spend amounts that can buy plots of land as school fees for only a term, what is the guarantee that the quality of education our children get in return will be commensurate to the amount paid? How do we measure that? By our children’s report sheets? Little wonder positions are no longer stated in report sheet these days, and at the end of the session every child comes home with ‘excellent’ result and promoted to the next class. At least our money is talking! We are motivated to put together about the same amount after three months. And before you say ‘jack’ it is another school session when you have to pay for extra stuffs like books (old books cannot be used by a sibling any longer), end-of-year party, developmental levy (what is that anyway?), in addition to school fees and of course with a ‘little increment in line with the economic realities in the coun-

try.’ Do we have a choice? Could it be that we are paying so much for the failure of our government to provide quality education for her citizens at more affordable cost? But is there any hope for the future? No one can say for sure. And if we go by past events in our society, we know that prices of goods and services hardly or should I say, never come down, well except for the price of fuel in the recent past. So what that means is that the amount we pay currently as school fees will only continue to rise, and if that is the case, where does that leave us - a society where only the extremely rich can afford quality education for their children? Can we then say ours is a society with equal opportunity for everyone? As always, we adjust to whatever conditions we find ourselves. We have seen over time the emergence of different categories of schools based on the earning power of the target markets. There are those whose fees can buy a plot of land, the ones that can buy a quarter of a plot, and those that can afford only per square meter. You might say it all depends on the area where the land is located. That is a different matter altogether. This has become something to brag about as moms talk about how much money they spend each term on their children’s school fees with so much pride, those who cannot afford such luxury are left feeling sorry for themselves and their children. We hear of parents approaching private school proprietors and suggesting that the school fees be raised in order to flush out some kinds of people from the school and making it more befitting for their status. As it is, when you say the name of the school your child attends, immediately people can tell where you belong. We also hear of school management shutting their doors to parents who in reality cannot meet up with their financial obligations, but have remained because they too want to belong. When they get kicked out from one, they move to another. And while all these go on, school owners continue to smile to the bank. But seriously, are the huge amounts we pay as school fees worth it? Or is it just another way of stroking our oversized egos? What is your thought? Grace Essen is the author of ‘Successful Working Mom’, president and founder of Mum

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

L-R: Wife of Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Nnenna Igwe; Deputy Governor, Kelechi Igwe; Governor David Umahi; his wife, Rachael and the Co-coordinator, Afikpo North Development Centre, Mrs. Ugochukwu Okoh, a physically challenged that was appointed by the governor, during the swearing in of 64 coordinators of development centres in Abakaliki.

L-R: Member of Panel of Assessors, Nigeria Media Merit Awards (NMMA), Mr. Dele Adetiba; Chairman, Board of Trustees, Mr. Vincent Maduka and Chief Admin, Mr. Yemi Akeju, during the inauguration ceremony of NMMA 2015 Panel of Assessors, in Lagos.

L-R: Company Secretary, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Mrs. Yetunde Martins; Chairman, Dr. Ephraim Faloughi; Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Wale Onaolapo and Vice Chairman, Mr. Oluseun Ajayi at the Company’s 20th Annual General Meeting in Lagos . PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

L-R: Nollywood Actress, Bimbo Akintola; Keppy Ekpenyong Bassey; Head Marketing and Corporate Communications, UBA Plc, Mr. Charles Aigbe; American Actor, Tim Reid and Legendary Hollywood Actor, Danny Glover, at the world conference organised for the unveiling of the cast of 93 Days in Lagos.

Photo | News

L-R: Secretary to the Managing Director, Mrs. Nnenna Odizia; Administrative Officer, Mrs. Sanusi Aishat; Ilorin Airport Manager, Alhaji Abubakar M. Bibi; veteran television broadcaster, presenter and Nollywood actor, Mallam Sadiq Daba; Managing Director Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Saleh Dunoma; and Mallam Dahir Maázu, during Daba’s courtesy visit to the Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos.

L-R: Deputy Registrar, Academics, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Dr. Salami Sule; Registrar, Prof. Oluwole A. Atoyebi; President, Prof. Rasheed A. Arogundade and Treasurer, Prof. Opubo B. da LillyTariah, during the annual pre-convocation press conference, at the school’s boardroom at Ijanikin, Lagos. PHOTO: TONY EGUAYE

L-R: Past President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria(CIBN), Mr. Femi Ekundaya; Director General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Dr. Sally Mbanefo and Director-General, Institute of Directors Nigeria, Mr. Victor Banjo, during the 9th Annual Banking & Finance Conference in Abuja.

Glo ambassadors, Odunlade Adekola (second right) and Reekado Banks, with On Air Personality, Wale Dada and wife, son, at the Laffta Fest show organised by Glo in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Features The Federal Government is trying, with a measure of success, to rehabilitate both former Boko Haram fighters and their victims, report DREW HINSHAW and PATRICK MCGROARTY

From jihad to jewellery-making: Ex-Boko Haram fighters’ story

sman Balami once commanded hundreds of Boko Haram jihadists in attacks on police stations and banks. Now serving time at a prison complex in northern Nigeria, he says he is a changed man. “In the past, I would have loved to die as a martyr,” said the 34-year-old, after changing out of a yellow goaltender’s jersey following a morning soccer match. In a nearby room, a group of former insurgents strung together beaded necklaces in a jewellery-making class. About 100 miles away in another government facility, Fatima Bukar prayed that she can move on as well. Each day at midnight, the hour in which she believes God is listening most intently, she rises in the hostel where soldiers are keeping watch over hundreds of women rescued from Boko Haram. The group held Ms Bukar and her daughter hostage in a forest clearing for nearly five months. “I pray that Allah can turn them back into good people,” said the 27-year-old. “If not, Allah should destroy them.” Boko Haram has become Nigeria’s collective trauma. The insurgency has swept thousands of boys and men into its ranks, often at gunpoint. It has snatched several thousand more girls and women, many of them raped nightly for months. Continued fighting has left more than 25,000 people dead and more than one million people without homes, Ms Bukar among them. Now, in these two high-walled camps, survivors from both sides of the conflict are coming to terms with the scars of the six-year insurgency that has redefined their lives. It is the start of a long reckoning for Nigeria. The conflict rumbles on across the country’s North-East, with suicide

ABIODUN BELLO FEATURES Editor

abiodun. bello@newtelegraphonline.com

Suspected Boko Haram fighters at a secret government rehabilitation camp playing soccer

PHOTO: Patrick McGroarty/The Wall Street Journal

bombings killing scores each week. But there are tentative signs of a healing and a shift in government policy. Thousands of hostages have escaped or been freed after the Nigerian Army raided the forests where Boko Haram once held sway. Two months ago, meanwhile, Nigeria began to offer weary Boko Haram fighters safe passage in exchange for prison sentences with the kind of psychosocial counselling Balami attends. The question for the government of newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari is what to do with this mass of young people who have either been failed by the state, or at war with it. Already, hundreds of Boko Haram members are in detention, said Fatima Akilu, the director of behavioural analysis at the office of Nigeria’s national security adviser. Fortyseven more have taken up the government’s safe-passage offer. “They get tired,” she said. “More and more of them want to defect. So this is actually prime time.” Ms Akilu was a London psychologist, counselling homeless teens and writing children’s books, until a Nigerian counterterrorism general, impressed with a newspaper editorial she had written, called to ask her to design a programme to draw Nigerian terrorists back into society. For two years, she travelled to countries including Algeria and Saudi Arabia with similar programmes. Most of those nations had more money to spend. Nigeria’s caseload is particularly grim. In Ms Bukar’s camp, some women have become psychotic or mute. Loud noises put several on edge. Many have lost children or husbands. Several saw the deaths occur. None of the 309 former hostages in this camp report being raped, but women in other camps testify

to that horror. Many gave birth to captors’ children. Balami’s fellow inmates are battling their own demons. Some of them built suicide bombs, the programme’s imam said: “Quite a number of them regret their actions.” Many spent years bouncing between teeming, choleric military jails, where allegations of humanrights abuses have sparked an investigation by the new government. Balami recalled soldiers executing five cellmates at another prison. “It was unimaginable,” he said, a remark that prompted his new prison guards to lead him away, ending the interview. These days, the state is trying to repurpose Balami and 40 other confessed and suspected terrorists as ambassadors for peace. Since March, Nigeria’s national security adviser has put these men through a daily regimen of jogging, counselling, computer classes and art therapy. They enjoy volleyball and badminton lessons from a national ping pong champion. When prison guards recently played former Boko Haram members in a friendly soccer match, they let the insurgents score two goals to tie the match. It is an expensive and controversial way to treat fighters of a war that has brutalised Nigeria. Even in Balami’s prison, other inmates, booked on criminal charges, say they have lost family to the group. One recent morning, more than 100 prisoners erupted into protest, livid over the preferential treatment: “My mom died (in) a bomb blast! My father died!” one inmate screamed, as he blocked a prison guard from clearing a soccer field for the Boko Haram team. “My whole family!” A few hours away, in Ms Bukar’s camp, the state is equally

stretched making amends to the women it failed to protect. Women there attend therapy sessions. They take soap-making and culinary classes. Many have been prescribed antidepressants to soothe nightmares. They may be stuck here: “Every time we’re ready to take them back to so-and-so community, that community is attacked once more,” said camp manager, Usman Sadiq. Balami knows he could spend many years behind bars. In 2000, he joined a houseful of Nigerians trying to travel to Afghanistan to join al Qaeda, he said. Instead, they fell in with Boko Haram. For eight years, he travelled village to village recruiting young men to jihad, he said. In 2009, Boko Haram appointed him commander of a cell in the North-East. His stint ended in 2011, when Nigerian soldiers arrested him at a checkpoint. Faced with multiple terrorism charges, he spent the next four years in five crowded military prisons. In March, the government moved him into a new prison annex, staffed with social workers, psychologists, teachers, athletic coaches and an imam. Jail guards cleared a small garden for Boko Haram suspects to grow their own okra. A few dozen Boko Haram suspects became some of the besttreated inmates in the Nigerian prison system. Balami began daily conversations with the prison imam. One morning as they discussed the value of life, he broke down weeping. He says he broke then with radicalism. While Balami was learning to tend goal, Ms Bukar was stuck in a forest clearing with more than 200 other women and children, cooking for Boko Haram. Her husband, Adam, had run into the bush during her December kidnapping. Since then, she had been feeding their two-year-old on scavenged leaves. One day, Nigeria’s military rushed in. Soldiers trucked the captives through a series of locations, before settling them in this secret camp. Here, Ms Bukar began to revisit her faith, she says, poring over flimsy cardboard books of Islamic theology. Now, she believes her ordeal was destiny, ordained at birth. At night, she leads a prayer group of women who forgive Boko Haram. “It was a trial from Allah,” she said, working her fingers through a chain of green plastic prayer beads. “I don’t blame them.” One recent afternoon, their daughter, Maryam, her strength back, was scrambling with other children over plastic playground slides. Ms Bukar had just finished a culinary class and was on her way to a course on the Arabic alphabet. • Culled from The Wall Street Journal

Business | Money Line

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, September 17, 2015

Buhari backs CBN, rebuffs calls for Naira devaluation

definitive

President backs Apex bank’s stance

Tony Chukwunyem

‘Nigerian firms may struggle to repay debt’

with agency report

‘

resident Muhammadu Buhari has thrown his weight behind the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) decision not to

devalued again. “I don’t think it is healthy for us to have the naira devalued further. That’s why we are getting the central bank to make

further devalue the naira. He said on Wednesday in an interview with France 24 that he does not think the naira should be

modifications in terms of making foreign exchange available to essential services, industries, spare parts, essential raw materials and so on -- but

Interbank trading halted again on forex rule change Stories by Tony Chukwunyem

Foreign reserves fall to $30.69b

aid transparency. Reuters quoted a dealer as saying, “The market is not trading yet. What we have is an indicative rate from some banks because of the instruction from the central bank to provide funding for forex intervention. “We only have people quoting about 50 per cent as indicative rate for overnight placement,” another dealer said. The apex bank in August directed commercial banks to pay for their dollar purchases 48 hours in advance, in a bid to curb speculations at the forex market and drain liquidity from the banking system. Dealers said there was minimal trading in the interbank money market at

nterbank money market was halted for a second day yesterday after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told Deposit Money Banks (DMB) to provide cash backing for foreign exchange purchases at its proposed intervention tomorrow. Trading on the interbank market was also halted last Tuesday, as banks complied with a directive to transfer government revenues into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the apex bank. President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered that all revenues be paid into the TSA from last Tuesday, as part of a drive to fight corruption and

20 per cent for overnight lending on Tuesday, after the CBN released a market figure showing N486 billion in cash balances for commercial lenders. The Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, predicted that JP Morgan’s announcement last week that it will phase out Nigeria from its Emerging Market Government Bond Index (GBI-EM) by the end of October would trigger more naira volatility. He said: “With the battle to stay on the index having been lost, there is less urgency to devalue the currency and remove forex restrictions. Further forex restrictions may even

be imposed in the near term, as the CBN tries to conserve foreign reserves. Nevertheless, we believe a devaluation has become even more imminent considering the need to boost investor confidence in an economy heavily reliant on dwindling oil revenues.” Indeed, 24 hours after the JPMorgan action, the CBN reduced the time limit for funding currency purchases to 24 hours from 48 hours as part of efforts to stem the surge in demand for dollars. Reuters reported the Head of Research at Afrinvest, Ayodeji Ebo, as saying that investors were increasingly concerned over whether the $31.5 billion in foreign reserves was enough to allow the bank to meet rising dollar demand.

As at Mar, 2015 Mar, 2015 Aug, 2015 4/6/2015 Mar 2015 31/8/2015 1/9/2015

N19,142,526.05m N18,579,219.49m 9.3 13 10.77 US$47.96 US$31,013,097,329

Source:CBN

Description 15.10 27-APR-2017 16.00 29-JUN-2019 15.54 13-FEB-2020 16.39 27-JAN-2022 14.20 14-MAR-2024 10.00 23-JUL-2030 12.1493 18-JUL-2034

FGN Bonds

TTM

Price 98.75 100.21 98.55 102.52 92.65 68.00 77.73

1.61 3.78 4.41 6.37 8.49 14.85 18.84

NIBOR

Tenor (Days) Call 30 90 180

Rate (%) 47.6250 17.1087 17.1861 17.6106

Bid Yield 15.97 15.90 16.00 15.73 15.80 15.58 15.89

Change (%) -43.38 ▼ 0.83 ▲ 0.39 ▲ -0.28 ▼

Change (%) 0.01 ▲ -0.05 ▼ -0.01 ▼ -0.10 ▼ -0.17 ▼ 0.00 ↔ -0.14 ▼

Price 99.75 101.21 99.55 103.52 93.65 69.00 78.73

Tenor (Months)

Offer Yield 15.25 15.54 15.67 15.49 15.57 15.35 15.68

NITTY

1 2 3 6 9 12

Treasury Bills

Rate (%) 13.9128 14.4415 14.6751 14.8681 16.1568 16.8394

Change (%) 0.01 ▲ -0.05 ▼ -0.01▼ -0.10 ▼ -0.16 ▼ 0.00 ↔ -0.14 ▼ Change (%) 0.67 ▲ 0.54 ▲ -0.98 ▼ -1.21 ▼ -1.12 ▼ -0.65 ▼

Money Market

Maturity Date Discount Bid Yield Change (%) Discount Offer Yield Change (%) Rate (%) Change (%) Open-Buy-Back (OBB) 15.17 -34.00 ▼ 9.91 10.16 -1.21 ▼ 17-Dec-15 10.91 11.22 -1.22 ▼ Overnight (O/N) 15.58 -35.33 ▼ 17-Mar-16 13.23 12.23 13.02 -0.66 ▼ 14.17 -0.67 ▼ 01-Sep-16 14.08 13.08 14.96 -0.01 ▼ 16.29 -0.01 ▼

Spot($/N)

Bid 198.95

Offer 199.05

Change (%) 0.00 ↔

NIFEX

Spot($/N)

Bid 199.0000

Offer 199.1000

Change (%) 0.00 ↔

CBN Clearing Rates of September 16, 2015 Spot($/N)

196.00

197.00

0.00 ↔ Source: FMDQ

The stringent restrictions have not gone down well with investors, who have called for a relaxation. JP Morgan stated that to stay in the index, Nigeria would have to restore liquidity to its currency market in a way that allowed foreign investors tracking the index to conduct transactions with minimal hurdles. Analysts point out that for the CBN to meet this requirement, it would have to devalue the naira. However, having already devalued the naira in November 2014 and February this year, the CBN, citing declining oil prices and rising demand for foreign exchange, has argued that it would be unwise for it to carry out another devaluation at this time, as it would lead to an “indeterminate depreciation of the naira.” In a joint reaction to the JP Morgan action, the CBN, the Federal Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office (DMO) stated that Nigeria and the interest of Nigerians were paramount, and will continue to take economic decisions that will impact positively on the lives of all citizens.

NDIC: TSA’ll boost banks’ deposit mobilisation sources Tony Chukwunyem

Economic Indicators M2* CPS* INF MPR 91-day NTB Bonny Light Ext Res**

things like toothpicks and rice, Nigeria can produce enough of those,” Buhari, who was on a threeday state visit to France, said. The President’s remarks came a week after JP Morgan said it would remove Nigeria from its influential emerging markets bond index by the end of October because of what the American bank said is a lack of liquidity and the CBN’s currency restrictions. The apex bank has imposed progressively tighter restrictions on access to foreign exchange in an effort to prop up the naira, which has been sliding since the slump in global crude prices last year. In June, it restricted access to foreign exchange for the import of 41 items ranging from rice and toothpicks to steel products and glass.

he full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has presented banks with an opportunity to diversify their sources of deposit mobilisation, The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, has said. He spoke while responding to reporters’ questions at the commissioning ceremony of the Directorate of Research building complex that the NDIC donated to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru Jos. He noted that the full implementation of the TSA was a signal that the era of arm-chair banking in Nigeria was over. He emphasised that

the implementation of the policy should not be strange to the banks, because, they (the banks) had been warned about three years ago to take steps that would make them not to over rely on government deposits. Commenting on the rumour of mass retrenchment in the banking system due to the TSA policy, the NDIC boss said that the rumour was unfounded. He emphasised that organisational renewal was a continuous exercise whereby banks not only rationalise their branches and entire operations to enhance efficiency but also undertake recruitment to renew their human capital. Meanwhile, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has commended the NDIC for donating the Directorate of Research building complex to the NIPSS.

CBN to issue N100.8bn in Treasury bills

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday announced that it plans to raise 100.88 billion in treasury bills with maturities between three months and one year at an auction on September 23. The apex bank said it would issue new 91-day paper worth N31.19 billion, N10.61 billion in

182-day bills, and N59.08 billion in 1-year debt, using the Dutch Auction System. Results of the auction are expected to be released the following day. The CBN issues treasury bills twice-monthly to fund the government budget deficit and manage liquidity in the banking system

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

4,971.02

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

4,485.99

Rating/Agency

Description

Issuer

Issue Date

Coupon (%)

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

Maturity Date

Avg. Life/TTM (Yrs)

# Risk Premium (%)

Valuation Yield (%)

Modelled Price

03-Apr-12 09-Dec-11 20-Apr-12 06-Jul-12

17.25 0.00/16.00 0.00/16.50 0.00/16.50

1.80 112.22 116.70 66.49

03-Apr-17 08-Dec-16 19-Apr-17 06-Jul-17

0.67 1.23 1.59 1.80

2.94 1.00 2.66 1.00

17.62 16.85 18.65 17.00

99.73 99.01 103.86 102.39

Agency Bonds 17.25 FMB II 03-APR-2017 0.00/16.00 LCRM 08-DEC-2016 0.00/16.50 LCRM II 19-APR-2017 0.00/16.50 LCRM III 06-JUL-2017

FMBN ***LCRM

Business | Financial Market News

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

297.22

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

302.19

Stock market gains N16bn

Sub-National Bonds

POSITVE

A-/Agusto

*EBONYI

BBB+/Agusto

*BENUE

A/Agusto

*IMO

Equities show signs A+/Agusto; ‡ /GCR LAGOS ‡ /Agusto *BAYELSA of recovery A-/Agusto EDO

13.00 EBONYI 30-SEP-2015

30-Sep-10

13.00

2.16

14.00 BENUE 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-11

14.00

2.60

15.50 IMO 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-09

15.50

3.96

10.00 LAGOS 19-APR-2017

19-Apr-10

10.00

57.00

13.75 BAYELSA 30-JUN-2017

30-Jun-10

13.75

21.24

30-Dec-10 Consequently , the All- 57.6 million shares worth 14.00 EDO 31-DEC-2017 30-Sep-11 DELTA 30-SEP-2018 Share Index14.00 gained 47.7 N424.9 million exchanged 04-Oct-11 14.00 NIGER II 4-OCT-2018 A-/Agusto; A-/GCR NIGER basis points or 0.15 per by investors in 876 deals. 09-Dec-11 14.50 EKITI 09-DEC-2018 ‡ /Agusto; A-/GCR† *EKITI Stories by Chris Ugwu A-/Agusto *NIGER 14.00 NIGER III 12-DEC-2018 cent to close at 30.359.47 as Volume in the 12-Dec-13 sub14-Feb-12 A-/Agusto; A-/GCR *ONDO 15.50 ONDO 14-FEB-2019 against 30,311.77 recorded sector was largely driven 02-Oct-12 BBB+/Agusto; A-/GCR *GOMBE 15.50 GOMBE 02-OCT-2019 Aa-/Agusto;rading ‡ /GCR LAGOS 14.50 LAGOS 22-NOV-2019 by activities in the shares 22-Nov-12 on the floor the previous day , while 12-Dec-12 BBB-/Agusto; BBB+/GCR *OSUN 14.75 OSUN 12-DEC-2019 of GTB Plc and Diamond of the Nigerian the market capitalisation 10-Oct-13 BBB-/Agusto *OSUN 14.75 OSUN II 10-OCT-2020 Exchange of equities appreciated by Bank Plc. 27-Nov-13 Aa-/Agusto;Stock ‡ /GCR LAGOS 13.50 LAGOS 27-NOV-2020 31-Dec-13 A-/Agusto; (NSE) BBB+/DataPro KOGI KOGI 31-DEC-2020 Other financial servicyesterday N16 billion or15.00 0.15 per cent 31-Dec-13 ‡ /Agusto *EKITI 14.50 EKITI II 31-DEC-2020 closed northwards, as the to close at N10.433 trillion es sub-sector also of the 06-Jan-14 A-/GCR *NASARAWA 15.00 NASARAWA 06-JAN-2021 27-Feb-15 Bbb-/Agusto *BENUE BENUE 27-FEB-2022 financial services sector, from N10.41716.50 trillion. bulls regained their grip TOTAL VALUE on the OUTSTANDING market activities Meanwhile, a turnover boosted by activities in TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION of 169.8 million shares after a day’s loss. the shares of UBA CapiThe key market perfor- worth N1.4 billion in 3,512 tal Plc followed with a Corporate Bonds 12.00 FLOURMILLS 9-DEC-2015 BBB-/Agusto 09-Dec-10 *FLOURMILLS mance measures, the NSE deals was recorded in the turnover of 26.06 million 14.00 CHELLARAMS 06-JAN-2016 BB/GCR 06-Jan-11 *CHELLARAMS day’s trading. All Share Index and marshares valued at N52.9 13.00 NAHCO 29-SEP-2016 A+/Agusto; A-/GCR 29-Sep-11 NAHCO ket capitalisation, rose by Banking services submillion in 177 deals. 14.25 FSDH 25-OCT-2016 A-/Agusto 25-Oct-13 FSDH 13.00 UBA 30-SEP-2017 A/GCR 30-Sep-10 UBA 0.15 per cent, as bargain sector of the financial The number of gainers 18.00 C&I LEASING 30-NOV-2017 BBB-/GCR 30-Nov-12 *C & I LEASING was the at the close of trading hunters jostled for *DANA the services sector sesMPR+7.00 DANA 9-APR-2018 09-Apr-11 Nil TOWER 9-SEP-2018 most activeMPR+7.00 (measured shares ofB+/GCR blue chip comsion was 26, while declin09-Sep-11 A-/DataPro†; *TOWER MPR+5.25 TOWER 9-SEP-2018 09-Sep-11 AAA/DataPro†; A/GCR *TOWER panies. by turnover volume) with ers closed at 21. ‡ /Agusto; A+/GCR

*DELTA

#{r}

14.00 UBA II 30-SEP-2018

A+/Agusto; A/GCR

UBA

BBB+/Agusto; BBB+/GCR

*LA CASERA

30-Sep-11

#{r}

B-/S&P

8.75 AUG 14, 2021

ECOBANK NIG. LTD

14.00

15.75

18.00

0.32

01-Apr-14

16.00

4.50

14-Nov-13

15.25

2.05

20-Nov-14

14.25

26.00

30-Dec-14

16.45

30.50

16.48

30.00

30-Sep-14

16.29

0.10

14-Aug-14

8.75

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

0.04

3.23

17.25

99.81

30-Jun-16

0.54

4.46

18.71

97.63

30-Jun-16

0.55

3.48

17.76

98.80

19-Apr-17

1.59

1.00

16.99

90.57

30-Jun-17

1.08

1.00

16.77

97.12

31-Dec-17

2.29

1.79

17.78

93.06

30-Sep-18

1.67

1.00

17.00

14-Aug-21

12.32

11.75

84.63

2.10

13-May-15

30-Sep-15

95.95 lose95.90 value he Board1.68of the 1.00 yield and/or 04-Oct-18 17.00 International Orand comprises a range of 09-Dec-18 1.87 1.00 17.00 96.20 12-Dec-18 1.87 of Se- 4.78 underlying 20.78 factors. 90.25 ganisation 14-Feb-19 2.06 1.00 17.01 97.51 curities Commissions “Risk related 95.63 to in02-Oct-19 2.29 2.02 18.01 22-Nov-19 has published 4.18 1.00 vestment 16.98 fraud, 92.71 (IOSCO) an as2.45 1.00 16.98 95.77 its12-Dec-19 final report on sound 1.82 sessment of mandatory 10-Oct-20 2.89 17.78 93.61 practices for investment 27-Nov-20 5.20 1.00 disclosure 16.89 requirements, 88.52 31-Dec-20 1.00 financial 16.87 product 93.56 adrisk education. 5.29 31-Dec-20 3.13 1.00 16.94 94.45 The study identifies a vertising and the use of 06-Jan-21 3.16 1.00 16.94 95.54 27-Feb-22 of sound 3.99 16.95advisors 98.75 were number prac- 1.00 financial tices for investment risk beyond the scope of this education initiatives, project.” based on an analysis The report examines 0.23 99.81 of 09-Dec-15 the approaches and 1.00 the role 12.66 of securities regu06-Jan-16 0.31 2.63 14.66 99.69 practices adopted by the lators in investment risk 29-Sep-16 1.04 1.00 16.75 96.55 members of the chal25-Oct-16 1.11IOSCO 1.34 education 17.13 and the 97.16 30-Sep-17 2.04 inves- 1.00 lenges 17.01 committee on retail they face.93.31 It also 30-Nov-17 1.27 1.88 17.75 100.97 tors in designing and deconsiders some 99.01 of the 09-Apr-18 1.31 1.00 16.89 livering approaches 09-Sep-18 their investment 1.73 1.00 different 17.00 101.42 and 09-Sep-18 1.73 17.00 98.61 risk initiatives, as well as 1.00 practices that securities 30-Sep-18 3.04 3.00 18.95 88.93 regulators adopt. a review of literature on 18-Oct-18 1.59 2.29 18.28 96.73 1.92 6.11 94.04 the17-Feb-19 topic. The 22.12 sound practices 01-Apr-19 18.15 In a report 2.29 obtained 2.16 identified in the 96.17 report 14-Nov-20 5.16 2.76 18.65 88.95 from IOSCO’s website, include focus on90.73 influ20-Nov-21 6.18 1.00 16.70 6.29regula- 1.00 encing 16.68 99.04 the30-Dec-21 international retail investor 6.66 18.58 92.07 tor13-May-22 said it had long recog- 2.92 attitudes and behaviour, 30-Sep-24 9.04 1.00 16.74 97.90 nised investor education as knowledge 30-Sep-24 9.04 1.00 as well 16.74 83.99 as a key strategy for en- develop initiatives that hancing investor protec- take an evidence-based tion, promoting investor approach in response to confidence and 2.41 fostering 1.00 the needs inves11-Feb-18 14.97of retail 90.64 01-Feb-21 engagement 3.63 16.93 included 85.36 are investor in 1.00 tors. Also financial planning and test initiatives with the decision-making. target audience; develop Investor education is initiatives that reach Maturity Date Bid Yield (%) Offer Yield (%) Bid Price Offer Price complementary to other people close in time to Yields the&making of investtools such as regulation, Prices supervision and7.63enforce- 7.35 ment decisions that 28-Jan-21 96.17 97.37 are ment, and is recognised promoted in a variety 6.29 in 12-Jul-18 IOSCO´s guiding prin- 5.82 of ways97.02 to expand98.21 reach 12-Jul-23 7.91 91.18 92.33 ciples for securities regu- 7.70 and interaction. lation. In 2013, IOSCO Some of the identified created Committee 8 to sound practices includes conduct its policy work sending clear messages on retail investor educa- that are adapted for 19-May-16 5.92 5.92 101.00 101.00 target groups tion and financial literacy. 8.88 different 25-Jul-17 8.88 97.25 97.25 It said: “For16.22 the pur-14.98(e.g. beginner and more 02-May-18 80.57 82.86 08-Nov-18 8.78 92.50 92.50 for and pose of this report, in- 8.78 savvy investors) 22-Apr-19 92.50 vestment risk 8.72 is gener- 8.72 the different ways92.50 people 21-May-19 12.34 11.70 89.61 91.37 ally defined as the risk access information; and 07-Aug-20 9.73 9.73 93.70 93.70 that an investment will12.67use engaging content 24-Jun-21 13.11 84.76 86.34 and not23-Jul-21 deliver the13.67 expected13.67delivery77.00 styles. 77.00

35.00

18-Oct-13

17-Feb-12

the capital market and enhance 15.44 30-Sep-14 13.25 investor protection,” he said. 204.86 Shobanjo explained that the 190.89 Exchange had undergone tremendous transformation in the 12.00 11-Feb-13 10.20 10-Jul-14 11.25 last few years and intended to 12.95 extend these “forward-moving 24.95 traits to the market operators.” 21.93 He said: “We intend to ensure Outstanding Value Issue Date Coupon (%) that the broker dealers, brokers ($mm) and dealers have very robust controls, strong governance 07-Oct-11 6.75 500.00 framework and sustainable op12-Jul-13 5.13 500.00 erations that will enable them to 12-Jul-13 6.38 for the 500.00 compete on a global scale benefit of the investors and the 1,500.00 Nigerian capital market. 1,421.88 “The capital market is very dynamic with a diverse mix of 19-May-11 7.50 500.00 local and foreign investors who 350.00 25-Jul-12 7.25 can invest with the confidence 09-May-13 6.88 300.00 08-Nov-13 6.00 that the dealing members oper- 400.00 22-Apr-14 6.25 ate pursuant to clearly defined 500.00 21-May-14 8.75 200.00 standards that are comparable 07-Aug-13 8.25 300.00 to those to which broker deal- 400.00 24-Jun-14 9.25 23-Jul-14 8.00 450.00 ers in other climes operate.” 250.00

FMDQ Daily Quotations List

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

IOSCO’s final report on investment risk education out

14.00 Oil Plc led 25.00the Eterna 14.00 30.81 gainers’ table with 9.41 per 14.00 9.00 cent to14.50 close at N1.86 12.40per 9.21 share,14.00 while e-Transact 15.50 24.44 Plc followed with an ap15.50 15.09 14.50 of 4.98 per 80.00 preciation cent 14.75 23.75 each to close at N2.11 per 14.75 10.46 share.13.50 Cadbury Nigeria 87.50 15.00 4.97 per cent 5.00 to Plc added 14.50 4.30 close at N24.07 per share. 15.00 4.31 16.50 other hand, 4.75 On the Unity Bank Plc led the432.97 price 402.51by losers’ table, dropping 8.09 per cent to close at 9.38 N1.25 12.00 per share. FCMB 14.00 0.22 Plc trailed with 4.45 per 13.00 15.00 cent each N2.36 14.25 to close at 5.53 13.00 while Guinness 20.00 per share, 18.00 0.56 Nigeria Plc followed with 16.00 5.40 a loss 18.00 of 4.44 per cent 2.18 to 16.00 0.60 close at N155.23 per share.

‘Minimum operating standards’ll enhance regulation’ 15.75 LA CASERA 18-OCT-2018

MPR+5.00 CHELLARAMS II 17-FEB-2019 *CHELLARAMS he minimum operating 16.00 DANA II 1-APR-2019 Nil *DANA standard initiated by the 15.25 NAHCO II 14-NOV-2020 A+/Agusto; A-/GCR NAHCO Nigerian Stock Exchange 14.25 FCMB I 20-NOV-2021 BBB/GCR FCMB 16.45 UBA I 30-DEC-2021 A/GCR would boost regulations UBA (NSE) 16.48 FIDELITY 13-MAY-2022 BBB/GCR FIDELITY and build strong operational 182D T.bills+1.20 STANBIC IA 30-SEP-2024 A/GCR STANBIC IBTC structure that would STANBIC help mitimitigate risk IBand strengthen 13.25 STANBIC 30-SEP-2024 A/GCR IBTC gate risk in the stock market, the market. TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE the local bourse has said. He noted that the decision TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION Among these standards are was in line with efforts to augSupranational Bond infrastructural/informational ment 10.20 long-term protection for IFC 11-FEB-2018 AAA/S&P IFC 11.25 AFDB 1-FEB-2021 Aaa/Moody's; AAA/S&Pfor operators AfDB requirements in investors and stakeholders in TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE the market and personnel/board the capital market TOTAL MARKET requirements. CAPITALISATION management The standards, according to Head, Broker Dealer Regula- Shobanjo, would address the Description Rating/Agency Issuer tion, NSE, Olufemi Shobanjo, five broad areas of manpower FGN Eurobonds while addressing journalists on and equipment; organisational the minimum operating stan- structure and governance; 6.75 JAN 28, 2021 effecBB-/Fitch; B+/S&P dards and recapitalisation of tive processes; global competiBB-/Fitch; FGN 5.13 JUL 12, 2018 BB-/S&P stockbroking firms, said the tiveness and technology. BB-/Fitch; 6.38 JUL 12,and 2023 well policy He said: “Healthy BB-/S&P was developed in the year 2011 by the Capital established firms are in a better TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE Market Committee toCAPITALISATION forestall some of position to manage and absorb TOTAL MARKET the challenges that led to the any shocks that may be expeCorporate Eurobonds 2008 recession in the nation’s rienced in the capital market. 7.50 MAY 19, 2016 B+/Fitch; B+/S&P GTBANK PLC I capital market. This approach 7.25 is JUL in 25, line with 2017 B+/S&P ACCESS BANK PLC TheB/S&P Exchange, according 6.88 MAY employed 09, 2018 B/Fitch; FIDELITY BANK PLC the regulatory tools 6.00 NOV 08, 2018 GTBANK PLC toB+/Fitch; him,B+/S&P has taken the position globally to manage risks in the 6.25 APR 22, 2019 B+/Fitch; BB-/S&P ZENITH BANK PLC that it is imperative for broker activities of capital market op8.75 May 21, 2019 B/Fitch; B/S&P DIAMOND BANK PLC dealers to build strong corpo- erators. 8.25 AUG 07, 2020 B-/Fitch; B/S&P FIRST BANK PLC rate and operational structures The minimum standards 9.25/6M USD LIBOR+7.677 JUNalso 24, 2021 B-/Fitch; B/S&P ACCESS BANK PLC II 8.00/2Y USD SWAP+6.488 JUL 23 2021 B-/Fitch; B/S&P FIRST BANK LTD for their operations in order to aim to nurture confidence in BBB-/DataPro†; BB/GCR

THURSDAY, September 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

3,650.00

86.75

16-Sep-15

3,276.99

The DQL contains data relating to, amongst other things, market and model prices, rates of foreign exchange products, fixed income securities and instruments in the financial market (the “Information”). The Information does not constitute **Treasury Bills^ FIXINGS Money Market Exchange (Spot & Forwards) professional, financial or investment advice. We attempt to ensure the Information is accurate; however, the Information is provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE” basis and may not be accurateForeign or up to date. We do not guarantee DTM Maturity Bid Discount (%) Offer Discount (%) Bid Yield (%) Tenor Rate (%) NIBOR the accuracy,8timeliness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of any of the Information, neither do we accept liability for the results of any action taken on the basis of the Information. 24-Sep-15 13.39 12.39 13.43 15 29 36 FGN Bonds 43 50 57 Rating/Agency 71 78 85 92 99 113 120 127 134 141 148 NA 155 162 169 183 190 197 204 211 218 225 TOTAL OUTSTANDING 232

VALUE

253

1-Oct-15 15-Oct-15 22-Oct-15 29-Oct-15 5-Nov-15 12-Nov-15 Issuer 26-Nov-15 3-Dec-15 10-Dec-15 17-Dec-15 24-Dec-15 7-Jan-16 14-Jan-16 21-Jan-16 28-Jan-16 4-Feb-16 11-Feb-16 NA 18-Feb-16 25-Feb-16 3-Mar-16 17-Mar-16 24-Mar-16 31-Mar-16 7-Apr-16 14-Apr-16 21-Apr-16 28-Apr-16 5-May-16

12.95 13.00 13.06 13.14 12.62 13.55 Description 13.86 11.57 13.07 13.05 16-AUG-2016 10.91 ^15.10 27-APR-2017 13.20 9.85 27-JUL-2017 13.22 9.35 31-AUG-2017 13.71 10.70 30-MAY-2018 12.63 13.92 ^16.00 29-JUN-2019 13.74 7.00 23-OCT-2019 14.55 ^15.54 13-FEB-2020 13.79 ^16.39 27-JAN-2022 14.10 14.45 ^14.20 14-MAR-2024 13.23 15.00 28-NOV-2028 13.40 12.49 22-MAY-2029 14.37 8.50 20-NOV-2029 13.59 14.22 ^10.00 23-JUL-2030 14.45 ^12.1493 18-JUL-2034 14.08 13.47

11.95 12.00 12.06 12.14 11.62 12.55 Issue Date 12.86 10.57 12.07 16-Aug-13 9.91 27-Apr-12 12.20 27-Jul-07 12.22 31-Aug-07 12.71 30-May-08 11.63 12.92 29-Jun-12 12.74 23-Oct-09 13.55 13-Feb-15 12.79 27-Jan-12 13.10 13.45 14-Mar-14 12.23 28-Nov-08 12.40 22-May-09 13.37 20-Nov-09 12.59 13.22 23-Jul-10 13.45 18-Jul-14 13.08 12.47

13.01 13.13 13.23 13.35 12.84 13.84 Coupon (%) 14.24 11.86 13.48 13.05 11.22 15.10 13.69 9.85 13.78 9.35 14.35 10.70 13.21 14.66 16.00 14.51 7.00 15.46 15.54 14.64 16.39 15.05 15.49 14.20 14.17 15.00 14.40 12.49 15.58 8.50 14.71 15.49 10.00 15.81 12.1493 15.41 14.73

26-May-16

13.97

12.97

15.47

2-Jun-16

13.78

12.78

15.28

302 14-Jul-16 13.69 323 4-Aug-16 13.40 351 1-Sep-16 14.08 Rating/Agency Issuer *for the Amortising bonds, the average life is calculated and not the duration

12.69 12.40 13.08

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION 260

Description

Tenor O/N 1M 3M 6M

Bonds

OBB

Rate (%) 47.6250 17.1087 17.1861 17.6106

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

15.17

O/N Tenor Call

Maturity Date

TTM (Yrs) 1M 3M 6M 0.92

NITTY

581.39 16-Aug-16 Tenor Rate (%) 480.13 27-Apr-17 1M 13.9128 20.00 27-Jul-17 2M 14.4415 100.00 31-Aug-17 3M 14.6751 300.00 30-May-18 6M 14.8681 9M 16.1568 351.30 29-Jun-19 12M 16.8394 233.90 23-Oct-19 311.93 13-Feb-20 605.31 27-Jan-22 NIFEX 599.99 14-Mar-24 Current Price ($/N) 75.00 28-Nov-28 BID($/N) 199.0000 150.00 22-May-29 OFFER ($/N) 199.1000 200.00 20-Nov-29 591.57 23-Jul-30 370.50 18-Jul-34

15.58

REPO

Rate (%) 13.00

Bid15.50 Yield (%) 16.90 19.20 15.47

FMBN

1.61 15.97 15.25 1.86 16.00 15.32 1.96 16.01 15.35 :Benchmarks 2.70Bond 15.97 15.46 * :Amortising µ :Convertible 3.78 Bond 15.90 15.54 AMCON: Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria 4.10 15.97 15.56 FGN: Federal Government of Nigeria 4.41 16.00 15.67 FMBN: Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria 6.37 15.73 15.49 IFC: International Finance Corporation LCRM: Local Management 8.49Contractors Receivables 15.80 15.57 NAHCO: Nigerian 13.20 Aviation Handling 15.42 Company 15.24 O/N: Overnight 13.68 15.37 15.17 UPDC: UAC Property Development Company 14.18Africa Portland 15.33 15.07 WAPCO:West Cement Company 14.85 15.58 15.35 18.84 15.89 15.68

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE Modified Duration Buckets

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

Sub-National Bonds

3<5

Porfolio Market Value(Bn)

Offer ($/N)

198.95 199.05 199.44 199.81 Price 201.47 201.04 201.62 201.96 203.08 203.51 Bid Price Offer Price 208.22 208.78 216.75 217.81 230.48 232.81 97.97 98.97

98.75 99.75 90.38 91.38 90.17 NA :Not89.17 Applicable 88.74 89.74 ^ : Market Prices # : Floating Rate Bond 101.21 100.21 ***: Deferred coupon bonds 73.72 74.72 98.55 99.55 ‡ : Bond rating under review †: Bond102.52 rating expired 103.52 N/A :Not92.65 Available 93.65 {r} :Issuer in receivership98.60 97.60 83.66 84.66 NGC: Nigeria-German Company 60.91Bank for Africa 61.91 UBA: United 68.00 69.00 77.73 78.73

4,485.99 Coupon (%)

03-Apr-12 09-Dec-11 20-Apr-12 06-Jul-12 FMDQ

Total Outstanding Volume(Bn)

Bid ($/N)

4,971.02

15.43 15.20 16.29 Issue Date

17.25 FMB II 03-APR-2017 0.00/16.00 LCRM 08-DEC-2016 0.00/16.50 LCRM II 19-APR-2017 0.00/16.50 LCRM III 06-JUL-2017

Spot 7D 14D 1M Offer 2M Yield 3M (%) 6M 1Y 14.25

NOTE:

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

Maturity Date

Avg. Life/TTM (Yrs)

# Risk Premium (%)

Valuation Yield (%)

Modelled Price

03-Apr-17 08-Dec-16 19-Apr-17 06-Jul-17

0.67 1.23 1.59 1.80

2.94 1.00 2.66 1.00

17.62 16.85 18.65 17.00

99.73 99.01 103.86 102.39

# Risk Premium is a combination of credit risk and liquidity risk premiums Agency Bonds **Exclusive of non-trading t.bills

***LCRM

Tenor

Weighting by Outstanding Vol

17.25 0.00/16.00 0.00/16.50 FGN BOND 0.00/16.50

Weighting by Mkt Value

1.80 112.22 116.70 INDEX66.49

297.22 Bucket Weighting

302.19

% Exposure_ Mod_Duration

Implied Yield

Implied Portfolio Price

INDEX

YTD Return (%)

826.18

831.43

25.11

27.54

0.25

11.71

15.93

129.7558

1,180.48

1,483.84

1,517.23

45.83

49.46

0.46

45.06

15.81

124.1206

1,076.05

15.71

92.0281

1,109.49

116.2100

1,106.62

97.63 4.8748

30-Sep-10

13.00

0.04

30-Jun-11 100.00

14.00100.00 15.50

2.60 1.00 3.96

30-Jun-16 100.00

0.54 15.78

19-Apr-10

10.00

57.00

19-Apr-17

1.59

1.00

16.99

90.57

13.75 BAYELSA 30-JUN-2017 14.00 EDO 31-DEC-2017

30-Jun-10

13.75

21.24

30-Jun-17

1.08

1.00

16.77

97.12

30-Dec-10

14.00

25.00

31-Dec-17

2.29

1.79

17.78

*DELTA

14.00 DELTA 30-SEP-2018

93.06

30-Sep-11

14.00

30.81

30-Sep-18

1.67

1.00

17.00

A-/Agusto; A-/GCR

NIGER

95.95

14.00 NIGER II 4-OCT-2018

04-Oct-11

14.00

9.00

04-Oct-18

1.68

1.00

17.00

95.90

‡ /Agusto; A-/GCR† A-/Agusto

*EKITI

14.50 EKITI 09-DEC-2018

09-Dec-11

14.50

12.40

09-Dec-18

1.87

1.00

17.00

96.20

*NIGER

14.00 NIGER III 12-DEC-2018

12-Dec-13

14.00

9.21

12-Dec-18

1.87

4.78

20.78

90.25

A-/Agusto; A-/GCR

*ONDO

15.50 ONDO 14-FEB-2019

14-Feb-12

15.50

24.44

14-Feb-19

2.06

1.00

17.01

97.51

BBB+/Agusto; A-/GCR Aa-/Agusto; ‡ /GCR

*GOMBE LAGOS

15.50 GOMBE 02-OCT-2019 14.50 LAGOS 22-NOV-2019

02-Oct-12 22-Nov-12

15.50 14.50

15.09 80.00

02-Oct-19 22-Nov-19

2.29 4.18

2.02 1.00

18.01 16.98

95.63 92.71

*EBONYI

BBB+/Agusto

*BENUE

A/Agusto

*IMO

A+/Agusto; ‡ /GCR

LAGOS

10.00 LAGOS 19-APR-2017

‡ /Agusto

*BAYELSA

A-/Agusto

EDO

‡ /Agusto; A+/GCR

>5 Market

13.00 EBONYI 30-SEP-2015 690.27 14.00 BENUE 30-JUN-2016 3,000.29 15.50 IMO 30-JUN-2016

962.07 3,310.74

29.06

30-Jun-09

23.01

0.29

43.23

30-Jun-16

0.55

3.23 4.46 3.48

17.25

6.2691

30-Sep-15

A-/Agusto

2.16

6.5557

18.71 17.76

99.81

10.1763

98.80

News 39

SOUTH-WEST

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Tribunal issues bench warrant against INEC official Babatope Okeowo Akure

Ogun State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga (left), being decorated by Iyalode Alaba Lawson as the Matron of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in Abeokuta …yesterday.

Aregbesola orders payment of salaries Adeolu Adeyemo Osogbo

sun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola yesterday agreed to offset the state workers’ outstanding salaries as he approved the full payment of the accrued March, April and May 2015 salaries to workers in the state. The governor made a Uturn to his earlier decision conveyed to the workers by the state Head of Service,

Mr. Sunday Owoeye, that the government was only willing to pay a month salary to the workers. The government latest decision, was however, made known in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the government and the committee inaugurated on the disbursement of the bailout funds in a release made available to newsmen in Osogbo The governor also ordered that local government workers in the state

Ooni: Court restrains Giesi from producing candidate Mojeed Alabi

ollowing the formal announcement by the kingmakers in Ile-Ife requesting nomination of candidates from the Giesi Ruling House for the selection process of the new Ooni of Ife, the Lafogido Ruling House has been granted injunction by an Osogbo High Court of Justice. The injunction, which was granted yesterday afternoon by Justice A. A. Aderibigbe was sequel to a suit filed by the Lafogido ruling house seeking the restraining order against the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola; the Obalufe of Ife, Oba Solomon Omisakin and the Lowa of Ile-Ife, Chief Joseph Ijaduola, pending the determination of the matter before the court. The matter, with suit number, HOS/16/2015, was filed on behalf of the Lafogido family by Sooko Bunmi Adegoke, Prince Marcus Adebola Akinmoyero as plaintiffs and Governor Aregbeso-

la, Omisakin and Ijaduola as defendants. The injunction, a copy of which was made available to New Telegraph, reads in part; “An order of interim injunction is granted restraining the defendants from accepting nomination, selecting candidates or taking any steps whatsoever in the process of selecting the new Ooni of Ife to fill the vacant stool pending the determination of the motion on notice dated September 15, 2015. Returns date shall be Thursday, September 23, 2015.” It would be recalled that the kingmakers had on Tuesday addressed a briefing announcing the resolution of the 16-member kingmakers’ council, conceding the nomination of candidates to the Giesi Royal House, insisting that the 1980 declaration on the selection of the Ooni of Ife as gazetted by the old Oyo State remains valid. According to Chief Omisakin, the other three ruling houses of Ogboru, Osinkola and Lafogido should wait for their turn.

be paid their first installment from the bailout funds to cover the payment of the balance of March and April 2015 salaries, as well as full payment of the May and June 2015 salaries; He equally approved the payment of salaries to workers on level 1-4 and above be paid immediately, assuring that the second phase of payment to the state workers will cover payment of the local government workers and primary school teachers’

salaries for the months of June, July and August, in October. The governor stressed that the outstanding leave allowances for 2013 and 2014 of state workers will be paid from the bailout funds in November. Responding to the development, the state chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Jacob Adekomi said, “the payment covers arrears of March, April and May salaries for state workers and April, May, June for local

government workers and primary school teachers”. He noted further that” the deductions from September and December salary as well as balance of January and February salaries will also be paid.” “State pensioners will receive balance of December 2014 pensions and full payment of January to March 2015 pensions, while their counterparts in the local government and primary schools will be paid up to June”, he submitted.”

NUJ, groups condemn journalists’ detention Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

he Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and Movement Against Corruption and Injustice (MACI) yesterday condemned the detention of seven journalists by an Ogun State High Court judge, Justice N.I. Agbelu. The judge had on Tuesday ordered the arrest and detention of the journalists who reportedly planned to cover the trial of a murder suspect at the Ota High Court 1 in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area

of the state. He claimed that “a court is not a public place” and ordered policemen to detain the journalists who were later left off the hook after spending three hours. The journalists include Daud Olatunji (Vanguard), Samuel Awoyinfa (The Punch), Ernest Nwokolo (The Nation), Abiodun Taiwo (Daily Times), Sulaiman Fasasi (Nigerian Pilot), Wale Adelaja (TVC) and Johnson Akinpelu (Alaroye). But in a statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Wole Shokunbi and Secretary, Comrade Soji Amosun, the Ogun State Council of the NUJ, described the detention of

the journalists as ‘impunity of the highest order’. The union said the journalists were not criminals and lamented the illtreatment meted out to its members. The NUJ, which stated that such act could raise suspicion about the court proceedings, described the court as a public place where journalists could go to source for news without any restriction. The statement read in part, “The journalists are not criminals, they have only gone to perform their assigned roles to the society; what then could have been responsible for such ill-treatment of our members?”

Ekiti sets up committee on airport project Adesina Wahab Ado-Ekiti

kiti State Government has set up a five-man committee with a view to ensuring the commencement of the Ado-Ekiti Airport project in the next few weeks. The naming of the committee, followed a meeting held by the State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, with stake-

holders involved in the project at the governor’s office, Ado-Ekiti. In a statement yesterday by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the committee would start with the marking out of the 2,000 hectares out of the 6,000 hectares of land earmarked for the project. The committee is being headed by Mr. Kayode Osho, who is the Commissioner

for Works. Governor Fayose, said during the meeting that the state government might start with the construction of a standard air strip and that it could be improved upon in the future, stating that with the prevailing financial constraint currently being experienced, it would be fool hardy to embark on any grandiose project.

he election petition tribunal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital yesterday issued a bench warrant against the returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr. James Adewuyi for failure to honour the invitation of the tribunal. Adewuyi was the returning officer for the April 11 House of Assembly election in the oil rich Ilaje constituency 2 controversial election which returned Mr. Coker Malachi of the People’ Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner. But Adewuyi failed to appear before the tribunal, give evidence in the petition filled by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its Candidate, Gbenga Edema against Malachi, and the PDP The tribunal had issued a subpoena on DAdewuyi to appear and give evidence in the case. In the bench warrant issued yesterady, Justice G. O Imadegeelo, ordered the arrest of Adewuyi, for refusing to honour the tribunal’s subpoena to appear before it.

Ambode promises women-oriented policies

agos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday pledged that his administration will pursue programmes and policies that will empower women to be self-reliant, especially through the provision of financial facilities and capacity building. The governor made the pledge at the opening ceremony of the 2015 National Women Conference, organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) with the theme, ‘Relevance in Economic Turbulence’. The Governor said his government has embarked on a five-year maternal mortality rate reduction programme and an integrated maternal new born and child health strategy as part of efforts to revitalize the public healthcare system with a view to providing free maternal healthcare in all the communities in the state. Declaring the conference open, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state, commended Mrs. Bolanle Ambode on her assumption of the leadership of COWLSO.

News

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

SOUTH-EAST

Kalu calls for review of Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway

he former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has commended the Rivers State Government for taking a decisive measure on the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway. Kalu said this in a statement issued by his media centre in Abuja and signed by Mrs. Rub-

by Obinna. The business mongul said that Governor Nyesom Wike, was focused in his decision to rescue of road users motorists from the two dangerous spots that had hindered vehicular movement on the road for several years, particularly in the Oyigbo and Imo Bridge area of the state.

Kalu called for the total review of the roads, saying that it’s not only the areas that Wike should focus attention, as the Oyigbo LGA of the state also requires attention. Kalu said that there were areas on the expressways that should be should accorded attention in the reconstruction exercise.

He said that Nigerians were presently yearning for total overhauling of the system, stating that it would be out of place for anybody to trade blames over the government which ensured the rehabilitation of the road. He lamented that the deplorable state of the road has had negative implication like high cost

of transport fares on the people, adding that what the people need was not a temporary measure to assuage of their suffering but permanent solutions. The business mogul highlighted the importance of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressways to the economy of the country, stating that the former Minister of Works, Mike Onolameme once attested that, “The Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriage way is an

important North-South arterial highway route connecting so many important cities in the country.” Kalu also noted that while rehabilitating the roads may be good, total reconstruction was always better, expressing delight on the progress of work on section one and three of the expressways, from Lokpanta to Aba, and from Enugu to Lopkanta awarded in 2013.

Okorocha decries corruption in Imo civil service Steve Uzoechi OWERRI

Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (right), acknowledging greetings from Abia State University community on his arrival for his investiture as the university’s visitor at ABSU Pavilion….yesterday. With him is the Acting Pro-Chancellor/ Chairman, ABSU, Chief Chukwu.

Delegates hail Ugwuanyi’s conduct Enugu Assembly holds public hearing ward Ubosi, said the public of Kogi guber primary election Charles Onyekwere hearing would take place at

ome delegates to the just concluded Kogi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship primaries have commended the Chairman of the electoral panel, Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and his members for the peaceful and transparent conduct of the exercise in the state, saying that it was a mark of a new dawn for the PDP. Ugwuanyi had on Monday led a five-man electoral panel appointed by the national leadership of the PDP to Kogi State to supervise the state primary election which was won by the incumbent governor of the state, Capt. Idris Ichalla Wada. Wada scored 709 votes out of the 858 votes cast to defeat his main challenger, Alhaji Jibrin Isah, who scored 139 votes. The delegates who unanimously reacted to the outcome of the primaries noted that it ended peacefully, devoid of rancor or any form of manipulation due to the commitment of members of the electoral panel led by Gov. Ugwuanyi, who ensured that the exercise was transparent in line with the dictates of the electoral guidelines of the PDP. They said that the guber primary election was a true reflection of the wishes of the delegates and the PDP family in the state, adding

that where the loser, midway into the counting of votes, embraced the winner and pledged to work for the party’s victory at the general election was a rare show of sportsmanship in the annals of party politics in the country. Speaking to journalists after the declaration of the result, one of the delegates, Mohammed Ade, said that “if not for the proper coordination of the primaries and the uncommon disposition of the Chairman of the electoral panel, Gov. Ugwuanyi, who painstakingly stood under the sun here with us to monitor the entire process till the result was announced, the story would have changed by now”.

ENUGU

he Enugu State House of Assembly joint Committee on Commerce and Industry, Economic Development and Judiciary has fixed tomorrow, for public hearing on the State Investment and Human Development Authority and Other Ralated Matters bill before it. Making the announcement on the floor of the House, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Donatus Uzogbado, urged the general public to avail themselves the opportunity to participate in the debate. Uzogbado who presided over the proceedings in absence of the Speaker, Ed-

the Main Chamber of the Assembly Complex, Independence Layout Enugu. Prospective participants who may wish to make inputs to the bill were also urged to submit their written contribution at Room 10 in the Assembly Complex for further legislative attention. Already, the bill has passed first and second readings at a plenary session on the floor of the House. House members who contributed to the debate on the bill, said when accented, the bill would attract investors to the state, because enabling environment for investments would have been created.

Ikpeazu sets October deadline for payment of salary arrears Igbeaku Orji Umuahia

head of the receipt of the Federal Government bailout for the payment of the state workers outstanding salries, amounting to N14.215 billion, the Abia state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has set October as deadline for clearing of all salary arrears owed workers in the state. This is even as the Governor revealed that his administration has

recovered N300 million, hitherto paid to ghost workers, through the workers’ biometric verification exercise and urged civil servants to assist in fighting the ghost workers syndrome. Ikpeazu who revealed this at the flag-off the 2015 budget defence in Umuahia also said the measures adopted by his administration so far to put the state back on the path of recovery and growth were paying off. He assured that government will monitor the per-

formance of ministries, agencies and parastatals in the implementation of the state budget. He said his administration was committed to the improvement of infrastructure to attract investors to the state warned those he alleged to be sabotaging the efforts of the state government to repent. He urged civil servants to focus on their duties, just as he noted that those who worked diligently would be rewarded at the appropriate time.

overnor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State yesterday decried the high level corruption, which he described as pervading the state civil service. The governor also revealed that many civil servants in the state benefit unduly from different forms of graft, a development he alleged had resulted to one person drawing salaries and wages seven times in a month with seven different names. Briefing journalists at the State Government House, Owerri, following his return from Turkey on a business and investment promotion trip, Okorocha, vowed to block all revenue leakages in the state, declaring war on ghost workers and ghost pensioners in the state. He noted that based on the verification his administration had carried out, he was shocked to discover that non civil servants were collecting more salaries and pensions than civil servants and pensioners. According to him, after the ongoing verification,

permanent secretaries, directors and accountants found culpable would be summarily dismissed and made to refund all the money deemed to have been embezzled. He stated that the financial sleaze in ministries and parastatals was responsible for the state spending 90 percent of its monthly allocations on salaries of workers and political appointees, who he said only constitute about one percent of the state’s population. He also maintained his stance on privatization of some of the governmentowned parastatals and agencies, saying “I don’t any reason to be paying staff of Water Board and yet no single person in Owerri or Imo State drinks water from there. The governor disclosed however that his administration was reviewing the activities of the companies granted the concessions to manage Adapalm and the Imo Transport Company (ITC) to see whether they could be allowed to continue to enjoy the concession or not, lamenting that the concessioning of the companies had not truly yielded needed results.

Candidates write Ikoku college exam with candle light Steve Uzoechi OWERRI

pplicants for academic admission into the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education (AIFCE), Owerri yesterday nearly take laws into their hands, following the poor handling of the institutions aptitude test by the institution’s authority. Some angry candidates who sat for the test on Tuesday told our correspondent that the conduct of the examination forced them to use candle lights and mobile phone lights to write their papers. The test, our correspondent gathered was held in three separate halls at the

Educational Research Centre of the institution with over 1500 applicants sitting for the exam. The one hour test which was originally scheduled for 9 am, was for reasons not explained to the candidates, commenced at about 5.15pm without visibility in the hall, forcing the candidates to use candle and lights from their mobile phones. Consequently, the situation almost degenerated into crisis as candidates alleged that invigilators unfairly hastened the one hour test to an end long before time allocated for the examination, apparently fearing it may be too dark to complete the exercise if the time allocated was allowed.

NEW TELEGRAPH thursday, september 17, 2015

News 41

south-south

APC committee decries insecurity in Bayelsa Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

embers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) committee for the Bayelsa State governorship primaries yesterday expressed fear over the activities of militants in the state. Their concern was expressed as the APC inaugurates the committee that would conduct the governorship primaries on Saturday. Nineteen aspirants are contesting the governorship ticket on the platform of the party in the state. Hon. Chinedu Eluemunoh, a member of the seven-man committee headed by Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, raised the issue of volatility of the state and the impeding violence that may mar the electoral process on Saturday. He said: “We are worried about the volatile environment in the state, where the primary election will take place, we are of the hope that adequate security will be provided in the course of discharging our duties.”

Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade (right), with service commanders at a portion of the 260km super highway where work was ongoing ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit for the ground breaking ceremony.

Cross River ready for Buhari’s visit, says Ayade

ross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, yesterday said the state was ready for the visit, next week, of President Muhammadu Buhari, to the state. President Buhari is to perform the groundbreaking ceremony of the 260-kilometre Calabar-Kasina-Ala highway being undertaken by the state government.

While inspecting a portion of the highway where work has already commenced at Nsan village, Akamkpa Local Government Area, the governor said the state was ready to play host to the President. He said he was humbled and challenged that the President believes and shares in his vision of embarking on the project, with the aim of boosting

the state's economy. Ayade said: “I am excited, challenged and fulfilled that somebody as high as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could understand and share in my dreams and aspiration to create a super highway that will also create that harmony between the northern and southern part of Nigeria,” he stated. The governor said

because of the great premium his administration places on the signature project, work is ongoing in spite of the consistent rainfall being experienced in the state. Governor Ayade, who was accompanied on the inspection by officials of the government said: “We have started work on the road already. Given the amount of rainfall we are experiencing, what

we have achieved so far is fantastic. We expect that the President would be impressed when he gets here.” The governor also inspected the ongoing finishing work at the Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC). The state government is embarking on a 260-kilometre super highway and a deep seaport expected to cost about N700 billion.

We’ll deal with erring staff found Okowa responsible for cases of over voting, Ogboru tells tribunal culpable, says INEC Dominic Adewole ASABA

he Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) in Delta State yesterday said it will deal with any erring member of its staff found culpable in the handling of the last governorship election in Delta State. The body expressed displeasure over the misconception that staff of the commission has fraudulently handled elections in the state since the advent of democracy. It threatened to expel

any staff that is verified to be dishonest, and similarly, compensate those with outstanding character. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Abasi Ikoiwak, spoke in Asaba during a meeting with all the staff of the commission in the state. He lamented how the commission was being misrepresented across the state as a corrupt institution despite that some dishonest members of staff were recently suspended from the commission. Ikoiwak said the new auditorium being built

by the commission in Asaba, which would serve as a distribution centre for election materials, unlike in past when they were kept in the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), would prevent unwarranted alterations. The REC, who wondered why some staff of the commission dishonestly undermined the reputation of the commission by helping some politicians facilitate the stealing of 117 result sheets from the commission’s office in Asaba, vowed not to shield anyone caught in the fraudulent act.

Edo court remands two over traditional stool Cajetan Mmuta BENIN

redo Magistrate Court 1, sitting in Benin, the Edo State capital, yesterday remanded two persons, Messrs. Rich Arisco Osemwingie and Patrick Osabuohien in Oko minimum prison for their involvement in the ‘unlawful coronation of His Royal Majesty Ogia-

mien of Utantan,’ without the approval of the executive council of Edo State. New Telegraph gathered yesterday that the Benin Traditional Council, comprising of members of the inner chamber of the ancient kingdom, are to converge on the royal palace to take far reaching measures over the controversial matter. Osemwengie, who is a chieftain of the Peoples

Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and from Ogiamen family in the kingdom, was remanded for an unlawful coronation of Ogiamen of Utantan, Benin. The fate of the second accused, Osabuohien, also followed his alleged involvement in the installation of Osemwengie. Both Osemwingie and Osabuohien pleaded not guilty in the six-count charge brought against them.

Gabriel Choba Ughelli

he Labour Party (LP) candidate in the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Delta State, Chief Great Ogboru, yesterday told the state governorship election petitions tribunal sitting in Asaba that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election and Governor of the state, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, was responsible for cases of over-voting during the election. The LP and its gubernatorial candidate in the election is challenging the vic-

tory of Okowa at the polls. Closing his case yesterday after calling his last two witnesses, Mr. Tuner Ogboru and Mr. Efe Duku, the lead counsel to the petitioner, Mr. Dele Adesina (SAN), noted that after calling 16 witnesses, they are very sure that justice will be done in the case. Addressing newsmen outside the tribunal venue, Adesina said: “We are very confident that justice will be done on this matter, because we believe we have put our facts across to the tribunal. Our case is very simple; the petitioner’s case is that there was over voting in the gover-

norship election of April 11, 2015 in Delta State. “There were also cases of non-compliance of principle of the Electoral Act, the manual and approved guidelines and this noncompliance substantially affected the result of the election. “We have pushed in the voters’ register and the list of total number of accredited voters in Delta State; we have also put in the result of that election which in any event has been admitted by the respondents so the task is very simple, you compare the results received and the number of the accredited voters."

Group condemns arrest, detention of journalists Dominic Adewole ASABA

group, the Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy (VATLAD), yesterday condemned the incessant arrest and detention of journalists while carrying out their legitimate duties in the country. The group said the new trend of arresting and

detaining journalists on frivolous allegations is a calculated attempt by some institutions to instill fear in the media in order to frustrate the current war on corruption being championed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. While the group maintained that the trend has long died with “the dark and retrogressive era of military dictatorship,” it described the allegation

against the journalists as “the agents of threat to Nigeria’s aspiration and determination to enthroning democracy as the only form of governance.” The group, which traced the ugly development to the recent arrest and detention of two journalists, namely, Chris Kehinde Nwandu and Seun Oloketuyi, over a publication, said drastic measure must be taken to nip the trend in the bud.

42 News

north

thursday, september 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Kano accused of engaging consultants for revenue collection Muhammad Kabir Kano

ome members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State yesterday accused the state government of engaging the services of consultancy firms to boost the collection of internally generated revenue in the state at a time when the Federal Government is disengaging them for doing a similar job. But the state Commissioner for Finance, Prof. Kabiru Isa Dandago, yesterday denied the allegation, saying the government has not engaged the services of any consulting firm to collect revenue in the state. He told newsmen that what the state has done was to bring technical advisers to critically advise government on ways that will increase revenue generation in the state. It will be recalled that an APC member, Abdulmajid Danbilki Kwamanda, had accused the government of Ganduje of trying to allegedly create means by which it will shortchange the state through the engagement of consulting firms in revenue

No plan to sack civil servants, says Yobe SSG Hassan Jirgi Damaturu

he Secretary to the Yobe State Government, Alhaji Baba Mallam Wali, has dismissed the allegation that the state government was planning to sack civil servants, saying that such allegation was unfounded and untrue. Sparking with New Telegraph in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, shortly after he was inaugurated, he said only God gives power to whosoever he so wishes irrespective of political differences and affiliation. According to him, Yobe State government has no plan or mission to victimise or sack any civil servant on account of political differences after the April governorship election. He said the All Progressives Congress (APC) government said civil servants are not politicians and as such have the right to vote for any party of their choice, but insisted that APC is a party of the masses.

l No, they are technical advisers, says govt collection at a time when the present management of the board deserves commendation for moving the monthly revenue collection from N400 million to almost N2 billion. Kwamanda alleged that the only reason why the government is trying to sack the present management is because they exhibited prudent management of state revenue and refused to allow pilferage of total collection as was the case under the former

government of Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankawso. He warned that any attempt to sack the management will incur wrath of the general public, who are following events as they unfold, adding that Governor Ganduje should instead boost their morale by creating special packages for them rather than doing away with them. But the Commissioner of Finance told newsmen that they are not sacking anybody; that what they

are doing is to bring in technical advisers not consultants as been speculated, to offer professional advice on how to give Kano more money than what they are currently getting. He said they are not satisfied with what they are generating now and that they knew with serious technical advice from professionals, they would get more money than what they are getting now. According to him, the

government is also giving the revenue board autonomy to generate money without due interference from any quarter and at the end government will give them commission as well as allowing them to pay their salaries. Dandago said the technical advisers were brought from places like Sokoto, Katsina, Lagos and Kaduna States and that they have a time limit when their services would be reviewed to see whether they will continue or not.

Divorce rate worries Ganduje Muhammad Kabir Kano

ano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, yesterday said he was worried by the divorce rate among marriage couples in the state, which he says often leads to broken homes. He said something urgently needed to be done to arrest the situation if the society is to be free from social vices and other acts of criminality arising from broken homes. The governor advocated for a blueprint that would provide sustainability framework for the development of the womenfolk in the state. Ganduje spoke when he declared open the first Kano Women Development and Strategic Empowerment Forum, organised by the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, held at the Government House, Kano.

Plane crash averted in Kebbi Abubakar Abdul Birnin Kebbi

T L-R: GOC 1 Div., Maj.-Gen. Adeniyi Oyebade; Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai and Acting Army Chief of Accounting and Budget, Brig.-Gen. Adeyemi Adetayo, at the 10th Biennial Conference of Nigerian Army Finance Corps, in Kaduna …yesterday.

Ahmed Miriga Maiduguri

orno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, yesterday vowed to summarily dismiss any of his newly appointed commissioners and caretaker local government chairmen if they divert foodstuffs meant for the more than 1.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the state. Shettima gave the warning at the Government House, Maiduguri, at the inauguration of the

Shettima warns commissioners, others against foodstuff diversion 21 commissioners and 27 local government chairmen and one permanent secretary in the state. The governor also created the Ministry of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Resettlement to be headed by a commissioner to take charge of post insurgency re-reconstruction and resettlement of affected communities, despite the scraping of four

LG boss summoned over comment on deputy gov Cephas Iorhemen MAKURDI

or alleging that the Deputy Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. James Okefe and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Value ReOrientation, Dr. Godwin Idoko, are meddling in the finances of the local

government, the Assembly yesterday summoned the Chairman and members of Okpokwu Local Government Caretaker Committee to appear before it next Tuesday. The Assembly also summoned the owner of Ati Blog, Mr. Terkula Ati, to appear and explain the source of the information published on his blog titled; “Okpokwu

ministries to reduce cost. He directed the chairmen of three local government areas of Ngala, Kalabalge and Gwoza, to immediately relocate to Yola, the Adamawa State capital, to help in the return of 10, 000 Borno IDPS recently sent packing from the Republic of Cameroon. According to him, “Hunger is the main probLocal Government Crisis: The Untold story,” where it was alleged that the Deputy Speaker and the Special Adviser are arm-twisting the council to divert the monthly allocation of the council. The House took the decision following a debate on a motion of urgent public importance moved by the member representing Kwande West, Hon. Benjamin Nungwa, who drew the attention of the House to the said publication.

lem of our IDPs, whose communities have been destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents; we must do all we can to alleviate their sufferings and give them a new lease of life, he stated. He continued: “Let me warn all of you, I will not even think twice before removing any chairman and commissioner found wanting in the discharge of his or her duties. If anybody, be it a commissioner, a local government chairman or a member of the state House of Assembly or any government official, tampers with the foodstuffs meant for the poor, such will be made to face the full wrath of the law. “Let me make it abundantly clear, that I will involve the officials of the Department of State Services (DSS), the police and military intelligence, to monitor the distribution of these foodstuffs and ensure they report back to me,” Governor Shettima said.

ragedy was averted yesterday when the aircraft carrying over five hundred intending pilgrims of Kebbi State to the holy land developed a technical problem before its take-off, which compelled the pilot to abort the trip after attempting to take off three times. New Telegraph gathered that the intending pilgrims were in high spirit as no causality was recorded except for some minor illness attended to by health officials. Confirming the incident, the Press Secretary to the Governor, Muazu Dakingari, said arrangement has been made by the state government to provide the pilgrims with another airline that would evacuate them to Saudi Arabia before the closure of Jedda Airport. Meanwhile, Kebbi State Governor, Abubakari Atiku Bagudu, has ordered the arrest of four hajj officials who were accused of diverting the pilgrims’ Basic Travelling Allowance (PTA). In a press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Abubakari Muazu Dakingari, and made available to newsmen yesterday, the governor gave the order when he received complaints from the affected pilgrims.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Anxiety over Osun Deputy Governor’s health, whereabouts Adeolu Adeyemo Osogbo

he whereabouts of the Osun State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Titi Laoye Tomori is now a major concern of every citizen of the state. Rumours spread round Osogbo,the state capital and its environs yesterday that she was in a bad state of health. The rumour of her bad health which has spread across the length and breadth of the state caused fear and anxiety in many quarters in the state. New Telegraph’s investigations revealed that,

in the last few months now, the deputy governor has not surfaced in any public function of the state government. At any public function, if the governor was not around, he would rather be represented by his Chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola or the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti. However, in a release made available by the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations at the Deputy Governor’s Office, Mr. Gboyega Labiran, he explained “she officially secured an approval to proceed on annual leave for the very first time since the

WORLD | News 43

News

inception of the Ogbeni Aregbesola political administration.” Labiran maintained that “ Osun Deputy Governor is in good state of health and I am in a regular telephone contact with her and she would soon be back on her beat as the number two citizen in the state of the virtuous.”  Labiran thanked all the people in the state, who showed concerns about the state of health of Tomori and advised rumour peddlers to desist from promoting unfounded pieces of information which he described as a wind that blows no one any good.

Burkina Faso President, PM held by presidential guard

oldiers from Burkina Faso’s powerful presidential guard interrupted a cabinet meeting yesterday and detained the ministers, the prime minister and interim President Michel Kafando, military sources said. The move came two days after a commission charged with drafting reforms for Burkina Faso’s transitional government proposed dismantling the elite unit. The presidential

guard, known as the RSP, was a key pillar of President Blaise Compaore’s regime before he was toppled by demonstrations in October after 27 years in power. “It is the whole of the government, including the prime minister and the president, taken by a group of soldiers from the presidential guard,” said one senior military source. “They have not asked for anything for the time being.” Journalists from state

television, who had gone to film the cabinet meeting, confirmed that the cabinet had been detained by soldiers. Civil society activist Souleymane Ouedraogo said on his Facebook page that the soldiers were demanding the resignation of President Kafando. It was not possible to confirm this. Burkina Faso is due to go to the polls on October 11 to elect a new president from a field dominated by former members of Compaore’s regime.

NAHCON commends compensation for victims of Saudi crane accident Yekeen Nurudeen

Makkah, Saudi Arabia

he National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has commended the Saudi Arabia authority for announcing compensations for victims of the Friday crane crash in the Grand Mosque of Ka’aba, Makkah where over one hundred pilgrims died and several others injured. Public Relations Officer of NAHCON, Alhaji Uba Mana, said on the

telephone yesterday that the Saudi authority’s gesture was a welcome development. King Salman on Tuesday night announced huge compensations for the dead and injured of the crash. “We are happy for the compensation though we lost our citizens and no money or compensation can bring them back. It shows the Saudi authority is following the tenets of Islam on such matter as it is their responsibility as hosts to ensure the

welfare of their guests. Also the offer to sponsor two of the relatives of the victims for hajj is another way apart from the money to appease the family who feel the loss of their loved ones more than others,” Mana said. He also said the announcement that those who were not satisfied with the compensation can go to court for more redress shows that the Saudi government shares the pains of the families and countries of those affected by the incident.

Group urges Nigerians to support Buhari’s fight against corruption Tony Okuyeme

non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Buhari Youth Organisation (BYO) has called on Nigerians, especially, the Senate, House of Representatives and all the state governors to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption, saying that it is for the good of the country. The group noted that the Nigeria is blessed

with human and natural resources but corruption is the reason the country is where it is today. Speaking during a mass rally last Friday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Coordinator and South West PRO of BYO, Prince Adejuwon Adeleye David (ACAD) Olukoga, while calling on Nigerians to support President Buhari, said, “Corruption has pushed us where we are today; corruption is the reason why we have so many people that are

involved in menial jobs; corruption is the reason why we discover people with focus in the society as leaders. And that is the reason why we as youth have decided to come out to let the people know that we have things in our heart and we are supporting President Buhari in his fight against corruption, because what he is doing will give us a future that we are requesting for, that we are aspiring for. That is why we are supporting him.

NCAA sacks eight officials Wole Shadare

gale of retrenchment has swept through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), leading to the removal of eight officials. Spokesman for NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, in a statement yesterday, said the agency has carried out some levels of restructuring within the agency, adding that this was done

with a view to enhance efficiency in service delivery and safe flight operations in and out of the nation airspace. Adurogboye said the exercise involved the termination forthwith of the contract appointments of eight officers whose contract were to run consecutively for four years contrary to the provision of the rules of tenure on contract appointment. His words, “Consequently, competent and skilled

officers from the affected Directorates /Departments have accordingly been reassigned to fill the affected positions”. “Also terminated were the appointments of three Special Assistants to the erstwhile Minster of Aviation who were domiciled with NCAA. Their appointment ceased with the end of the tenure of the Minister who engaged their services as stipulated by the rules”, he added.

Palestinians throwing stones near Jerusalem.

Israel PM vows ‘war’ on stone throwers after riots end

sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “war” on stone throwers yesterday while pushing for tougher penalties and changes in rules for when to open fire, as calm returned to a Jerusalem holy site after days of riots. Netanyahu spoke of his plans to crack down on Palestinian protesters who throw stones and firebombs as he visited the site of a car accident that killed a Jewish man at the weekend. Police have said the accident may have been caused by stone throwing, the latest in a number of such incidents in

and around Jerusalem. “This stone is one too many,” Netanyahu said, according to his office. “We are declaring war on those who throw stones and bottles, and rioters.” The prime minister also held an emergency meeting with security officials on Tuesday night where he discussed minimum sentences for those who throw stones or petrol bombs as well as his plan to alter rules of engagement. He also said authorities planned to “massively increase fines for minors and their families” involved in such activity. He has not said how rules of

engagement could be altered. The statements, while mainly referring to street protests and rioting, followed three days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Rioting erupted at the site sacred to both faiths as Jews celebrated their new year between Sunday evening and Tuesday evening. Police carried out raids over the three days to stop Muslim youths who had barricaded themselves inside the mosque from harassing visiting Jews, according to the Israeli authorities.

South African court rejects government’s bid to appeal Bashir ruling

South African court yesterday rejected the state’s bid to appeal a ruling that authorities had erred in letting Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir leave the country despite a court order barring him from doing so, a radio station said. Judge Hans Fabricius, supported by two other judges, said Bashir did not enjoy diplomatic immunity against a

global arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Talk Radio 702 reported. A South African court yesterday rejected the state’s bid to appeal a ruling that authorities had erred in letting Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir leave the country despite a court order barring him from doing so, a radio station said. Judge Hans Fabricius,

supported by two other judges, said Bashir did not enjoy diplomatic immunity against a global arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Talk Radio 702 reported. Bashir, who was in South Africa for an African Union (AU) summit in June, was allowed to depart for Khartoum even though a Pretoria court had issued an order banning him from leaving.

44 Right of reply

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

Lessons Oshiomhole is teaching Nigerians Kassim Afegbua

find it very ridiculously funny these days reading the views of some writers who would rather want to wear the garb of being columnists, some of these opinions end up falsifying facts. Of particular reference is the opinion of Dominik Umosen published in New Telegraph of Monday, September 14, 2015, page 16 to be precise, entitled “Lesson Solarin taught Oshiomhole”. I would have ignored the write-up but for the misinformation of facts, this response becomes unavoidably instructive. I wasn’t expecting any classic from a Dominik Umosen. As a Nigerian who is still imprisoned by this noxious thought of a dismembered entity, I can understand why the contents of his diatribe flourished in so many inaccuracies. I am yet to see any country in the entire wide world that does not possess one form of contradiction or the other. First, there was never a time that the Comrade Governor refused to pay workers’ salaries contrary to the authorial verdict of Dominik Umosen. We have always been upto-date with salary payment and this could be confirmed from Edo State workers. The state government pays salaries as at when due because the Comrade Governor believes very strongly that the pay day is sacrosanct to the wage earner. But because Umosen has a mindset, he gladly misfired and yet wants to be celebrated. That is error number one. Secondly, reading Umosen’s opinion piece reveals the fact that he was clearly absent-minded when he was undertaking the hatchet job. How can a writer, who should ordinarily be a researcher, state that “Oshiomhole hollered at a petrified Benin widow for daring to return to her makeshift shop which had been demolished by the Edo State government”. How ridiculous! The altercation between the Benin Widow and the Comrade Governor has nothing to do with any demolished shop. In fact, the said widow had no shop of her own. She was in the market to buy items for her petty trading when she turned the walkways and part of the road to her temporary warehouse and thus prevented other traders and motorists a free flow of traffic. Alarmed by the fact that this appeared unhealthy for a City that was wearing a new look, with the monumental infrastructural development that the Comrade Gover nor had unleashed on the state, that statement of anger filtered out of the Comrade Governor’s mouth. Once he realized that it was a faus pax, as the hallmark of sound leadership orientation, he apologized and proceeded to rehabilitate the widow by making her part of a larger group to sanitize the market. Even though the markets have not attained the Eldorado status that pricks Oshiomhole’s mindset, they are far better than what we met on ground as the routine practice. Twenty-first Century Leadership is driven on the basis of love for mankind, ability to own up when mistakes are made and the uncommon courage to claim responsibility for any action or inaction. It is this realization of modern leadership essentials that has been prodding the

Oshiomhole

Okonjo-Iweala

Akinwumi Adesina

Comrade Governor in asking Umosen’s paymasters to claim responsibilities for the foibles and frailties of the last administration presided over by a phlegmatic and rudderless leadership. We would have moved on if the former Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe had claimed responsibility for the vandalization instead of rehabilitation, of our East-West road and other important roads in the South-South zone, that of Edo state inclusive. We would have moved on if the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, a “respected economist” Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had been courageous enough to claim responsibility for the mismanagement of our economy for which we are paying dearly as we speak. Leaders who cannot own up to their actions and inactions are best known as pretenders and looters who try to cover up their inactions by indulging the services of hirelings and coupon clippers to mis-represent the truth and distort the facts of history. Another misrepresentation has to do with Umosen’s query of Comrade Governor’s tongue-lashing of the former Minister of Agriculture, and now African Development Bank Chief Executive on the so-called “revolution” in the Agriculture sector. The logic of Comrade Oshiomhole’s position is simple. If the so-called revolution has produced the touted results, we would not be importing all manners of items and products, and go a further step to grant fraudulent waivers to all manners of persons. If the former Minister of Agriculture was cock-sure of his revolution, he would have provided damning statistics to permanently shut our mouths. Aside from reeling

out theoretical statistics, he kept an ominous silence on the issue of waivers he fraudulently granted. He could not address the hiatus between theory and practice. For example, what is the logic in granting waivers to people to import Rice, when you boast of having improved local production of Rice? With waivers already granted, it is obvious that the selling price of imported Rice would drop, while cost of production by local producers will go up as a result of poor facilities, yet both the locally produced rice and the cheaply imported and sometimes expired, unfit-for-consumption rice are expected to compete in the same market. So much for voodoo economics; such soporific enumeration that underscores his impaired understanding of governance! If the muchtouted revolution is anything to go by, how come we still depend on foreign imports to feed our population? How much of local rice do we have in our markets today and at what cost? Can Umosen name the fertilizer factories built by the last administration as part of our deliberate intervention in the Agriculture sector to arrest the craze for fertilizer import? In Edo State, the Leventis Group used to have huge rice plantation and rice mill in Agenebode area of the State. As a government, we also attracted Vietnamese Rice Farmers to Anegbette, in Edo North Senatorial District. No sooner had they settled down to do business of Rice production than they left the country. When asked what could have been the sudden reason for their action, they queried why will the country be talking about rice production on the one hand, when the waivers they were granting some persons to import rice could sustain the country for more than two years; some kind of policy summersault of the Jonathan era. Yet, Umosen would not have us discuss such rigmarole policy emanation. What a country. As far as Nigerians are concerned, Okonjo-Iweala, Umosen’s “respected economist” still has questions to answer on the mismanagement of the Nigerian Economy under her watch. Despite Oshiomhole’s probing into the financial halitosis of that regime, Okonjo-Iweala has not been able to offer any reasonable response. All we hear are monologues verbalized around self-serving communal idiosyncrasies like, na-him-sister, na-

we-south-south, my-ethnic-sister or brother, such Munchausen syndrome that do not address the real issues. Okonjo-Iweala did not preside over South-South economy. She did not preside over ethnic economy. She presided over the economy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Edo state is an integral part of the Federation. Comrade Oshiomhole is the Governor of Edo state who is answerable to the four million people in the state. As a result of Okonjo-Iweala’s poor management of the economy, Edo State lost several billions of naira, yet lazy-minded hack writers like Umosen wouldn’t want us raise query, but to celebrate failures. That certainly is not the Edo spirit. An average Edo mind is trained to derive courage to interrogate power and those who preside over them. If Okonjo-Iweala were to be transparent in the management of the national resources, states would not owe salaries of workers or complain about liquidity. The $75m World Bank infrastructural facility we got as a state Gover nment recently was the second tranche from the $225m facility approved under the PDP gover nment. Only uninformed minds like Umosen’s ilk would see this in the opposite without caring a hoot to know the facts. If Okonjo-Iweala were diligent in ensuring that states got what was due to them, there would not have been any attraction to seek help elsewhere. So much financial irregularities took place under her watch and now she is shouting witch-hunt as a facesaving indulgence. Despite the attempts by some hirelings and paid writers to present Comrade Oshiomhole as one Mikado who seems to have conquered his people, he is more like the needed protagonist in our conscious and deliberate effort to kill corruption before it kills us. Just like every anti-corruption crusade known in history, it is not a route travelled by the weak and faint-hearted. Comrade Oshiomhole is definitely not a coward to be cowed by the write-ups of hungry paid writers like Umosen, if he has more facts on the sleaze and malfeasance of the past Coordinating minister to reveal, he will expose them.

As far as Nigerians are concerned, Okonjo-Iweala, Umosen’s “respected economist” still has questions to answer

•Prince Afegbua is Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs to Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

International

Shaw to stay in Dutch hospital after surgery

All Africa Games

AAG: NSC to strategise for three sports

Sport News

Junior Ajayi joins CS Sfaxien

Sport

Did you know? That the taekwondo uniform is called the ‘Dobok’. A white belt is included upon the first rank, and the belt colour would change as one advanced in their ranks.

Rio 2016: Siasia raises the alarm

• To axe players, searches for new inputs • Blames strikers, defenders for loss to B’Faso Ifeanyi Ibeh

ead Coach of Nigeria’s U-23 National Team, Samson Siasia, has expressed worry over his team’s chances of securing one of the available tickets to the football event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the upcoming CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations following the country’s loss to Burkina Faso at the ongoing All Africa Games. Nigeria’s U-23 side lost 3-1 to their Burkinabe counterparts on Tuesday to crash out of the All Africa Games’ gold medal chase. It was the first loss in a competitive fixture for the side under Siasia and the manner of the defeat at the hands of Burkina Faso appears to have raised doubts in Siasia’s head regarding his team’s chances at the Cup of Nations taking place in Senegal from November 28 to December 12. Siasia, in an interview posted

The Sport Team Adekunle Salami Group Sport Editor

Emmanuel Tobi Assistant Sport Editor

Ifeanyi Ibeh Sport Correspondent

Ajibade Olusesan Sport Correspondent

Charles Ogundiya Sport Correspondent

on the official website of the Nigeria Football Federation, said: “I never imagined losing to Burkina Faso. My midfielders played so well, but my defenders and attackers let me down. Can you imagine my attackers not being able to convert about eight chances that came their way? “To make matters worse, the defenders were asleep on a day they should have been up and doing. Who told the central defenders to keep offside traps the way they did? I am totally disappointed; we can’t play like this in Senegal and expect to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. No way! “We were so bad that anytime the ball beat the defenders, even my goalkeeper could not stop any of the shots fired at him. Football is a team work where errors are bound to occur, but it’s the ability team mates to cover for one another that makes a team great, that I didn’t see today.” Nigeria’s U-23 team will play out of Group B at the eightteam tournament alongside Algeria, Egypt and Mali while Senegal, Tunisia, Zambia and South Africa are in Group A. But only the top three teams at the end of the two-week tournament will qualify automatically for the Rio Olympics. Siasia is desirous of taking his team to the Rio Games and, with the core of the side that qualified Nigeria for the U-23 championship unavoidably absent at the AAG due to club commitments, the former Nigeria international has set his sights on having his best legs in Senegal. “We will make corrections after the All Africa Games,” he continued. “I plan to travel to talk to some players I have al-

ready pencilled down, then hopefully, the team should assemble in the first week of October to prepare for the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations. “Certainly, some of the players I brought to Congo Brazzaville will have to give way,” added Siasia, who also tendered an apology to Nigerians for not bringing home a title the country last won at home at the 1973 AAG. “I am not a man of excuses. I take all the blame for this collapse and will certainly make amends before the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations,” said Siasia, who scored 17 times for Nigeria in 49 games.

Oke

Imoh slams AFN over neglect of ex-athletes Susan Udeh

Sokari

for mer Nigerian sprinter, Chidi Imoh, has criticised the Athletic Federation of Nigeria over the declining fortunes of athletics in the country. Imoh, who spoke during a Brilla FM programme on Wednesday, said it was unfortunate that the country’s cream of ex-internationals in the golden generation were being neglected while Nigerians lament and agonise over poor results. Nigeria failed to win medal in the women sprint event for the first time in 50 years at the ongoing All African Games in Brazzaville, Congo Imoh stressed that the country had many talented athletes but that there were no deliberate efforts to bring them to limelight. He said: ‘’I feel very bad. Ni-

geria is my country and people that are ready to serve the country are not given an opportunity to contribute their quota. ‘’In football, ex internationals are given the opportunity to head the national teams. The present Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, was an ex- international, so was his predecessor, Stephen Keshi and that is why i love Nigeria football. ‘’In athletics, it is not so and that is why I love Nigerian football’’ The former sprinter urged the AFN to re-strategise to bring out the best in Nigerian athletes. “Those who made Jamaica to be what they are today are former athletes of the country. I am still surprised that somebody like Innocent Egbunike offered to help and he was sent out of the system. It is a shame,” he added.

All Africa Games: Osazuwa, Amadi, Uke win gold

}47

Sport

THURSDAY SETEMBER 17, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH

anchester United have confirmed that Luke Shaw will stay in hospital in Eindhoven to begin his recovery after undergoing surgery on a broken leg. The England full-back was stretchered off in the first half of United’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to PSV on Tuesday following a challenge from Hector Moreno. It was later confirmed that Shaw had suffered a double leg fracture and the former Southampton man underwent surgery later on after being taken to hospital. United have since released an update on the 20-year-old’s condition and paid tribute to the care he is receiving in the Netherlands. “Luke Shaw underwent surgery on his injury on Tuesday night and will remain in hospital in Eindhoven to continue his early recovery,” a statement released by the club on Wednesday said. “Manchester United are grateful for the excellent care he is receiving and would like to thank everyone who has sent

Shaw to stay in Dutch hospital after surgery

The African Games and FIFA Presidency(1)

Shaw being tacked by Moreno on Tuesday

messages of support. “A further update will be provided in due course.” Moreno apologised for the

eal Madrid head coach Rafael Benitez says “there is no debate” over whether or not Cristiano Ronaldo is the best footballer in the world. The Portugal star, who scored five against Espanyol on Saturday to become Real’s top scorer in La Liga history, took his tally to eight in two matches with a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar

challenge after the match, insisting the unfortunate contact with Shaw’s leg was entirely accidental.

Donetsk. Though Benitez has admitted in recent days that he cannot say for certain if Ronaldo is the best he has ever coached, he has no doubt that no player currently comes close to his phenomenal standards. “There is no debate - he is the best in the world. I hold him in the highest regard,” he said. “I’m surprised that so much attention is paid to what people say about Cristiano and not to what happens on the field.”

PSG target European final – Di Maria

ngel di Maria said Paris SaintGermain have set their sights on the Champions League final after opening their European campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Malmo on Tuesday. The Argentina international was at his brilliant best, putting his Manchester United nightmare firmly to bed with a curled effort beyond goalkeeper Johan Wiland with four minutes gone, before Edinson Cavani doubled the lead just past the hour-mark in

the French capital. It was the perfect start for PSG, who have been ousted in the quarter-finals of the competition on three consecutive occasions, and Di Maria said the in-form French champions are aiming to go all the way this term. “We have to take each step at a time. PSG are in a great momentum,” Di Maria told reporters. “They reached [the] late stages of the competition in previous years so the goal will be surpassing the quarter-finals and playing the final. “We have to keep working, step by step, and hopefully things will work out.”

‘Man City will never be as big as Man United’

ormer Manchester United chief executive David Gill believes Manchester City will never have the international appeal of the Old Trafford club. “I’m not being arrogant here but it will never be as big as Manchester United in Asia and certain markets,” Gill was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. “Look at Liverpool, the club haven’t won the league for so many years, but they are very popular in Asia. “The big teams with history and heritage, like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid, have that.”

on Thursday

md_muyiwa@yahoo.com 08023525087 (sms only)

Ronaldo better than everyone else – Benitez

Ronaldo

Muyiwa Daniel

Nevertheless, Gill was quick to praise Sheikh Mansour for the way he has made an impact at City and he feels the club is very well run. “They made mistakes but they now have a very good team and you can’t argue with that,” he added. “I think you also have to give credit to their vision, so to speak. What they’ve done in conjunction with the Manchester city council in east Manchester is fantastic. If Sheikh Mansour decided he wanted to sell the club tomorrow, what he’s left there, in terms of the development of that whole area, is un-

believable and is great testament to what they have done.”

Gill

must confess that I’m old school. I enjoy my time seeking for information on the internet but abhor the social media. That is why I’m not really too particular about Facebook despite all attempts by kids, friends and colleagues. One, I believe that as a reporter some of the news we ape and jump on are prepared by fellow reporters who most of the time don’t really dig deep and are mostly on their prejudices and mindsets. That is why I still wish for the days when reporters will be daring enough to report from the frontline like former icon Jide Odusanya who had to strip off his shirts and trousers just to report on the Soldiers from Abalti Barracks storming of Fela Anikulapo’s Kalakuta Republic after the release of that album- “zombie”. Odusanya’s reportage – led to the Punch newspapers becoming a daily transmuting from a weekly tabloid. That was the experience we shared after fifteen years of seeking for other pastures at the Oranmiyan Hall of the Lagos Airport Hotel where members of the “rested” Concord group of newspapers gathered for a re-union and it was all back-slapping all around as the Abiola family identified with the gathering with the presence of Kola and Deji supporting our Managing Director/Editor-in-chief, Dr Doyin who revealed her status as a grandmother despite a failing eyesight. We had on the podium, Tunji Bello, Femi Adeshina, Ohi Alegbe, Waheed Odusile, Jide Orintunsin, Sani Zorro, Eric Osagie as our face in government, publishing and leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ). The banters and experiences were shared led by our former deputy editor-in-chief who led the business tabloid Stanley Egbochukwu and Michael Awoyinfa who had the busy task of Nigeria’s weekend tabloid. My sister and a “girl” who we all had a crush on at the Punch, Patience Akpan-Obong, also a grandmum, came all the way from her teaching duties in the United States. Then Olu Akerele, Alhaji Liad Tella, Louis Odion and Gboyega Amonboye engaged the sports crew of Kunle Solaja, myself, Niyi Adesina, Simon Ekpe, Patrick Omorodion and Gbolahan Dada in current happenings in Nigerian sports especially the All-Africa Games and the FIFA presidency being sought by former Abia state gover-

nor, Orji Uzor Kalu and international, Segun Odegbami. Edo state information commissioner, Louis Odion –soon joined where I was put on the spot with regards to the eligibility of the two Nigerians. That was after we had reviewed the All-Africa Gamesnow African Games-according to the African Union(AU) and the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa(SCSA) at the competition currently on in Congo. It was so simple, I posited. The conditions of being backed by their various states Football Associations, the NFF, Nigeria and the Confederation of African Football(CAF) was very important. I know Kalu can get a breadth ahead of Odegbami with his relationship of football chiefs, notably Issa Hayatou and Dr Amos Adamu. He can also get Abia and the NFF’s nod. Also they can also muster the support of five African FAs for his bid. On Facebook, however, I have monitored the “faceoffs” between Odegbami and some colleagues and I dare state that issues have been put in the backburner instead of realities on ground that I believe the “mathematical” should remove the log from his eyes before attempting to get the strands off his neighbours. The FIFA presidency is more of subtle “politicking” in soccer’s “United Nations” than the exchange on the social media. At the re-union, we all believed Kola when he said bringing back the Concord group online and in print form will assist the struggle in getting Abiola his deserved place in our nation’s history and psyche. Conveners of the “party”Aliu Mohammed, “Chapel” Chairman, Goke Odeyinka and Asu Beks(a later day militant) were at the Lagos Council of the NUJ Media Games event the following day at the Legacy Pitch of the Lagos National Stadium and the topic continued with the consensus, I believe with Ben Alaiya and Tony Ubani, that Kalu fits the cap more than Odegbami. Pure and simple!. With Ayo Agbesanwa, now Director General of the Lagos State Sports Commission as a former sports reporter and head of Lagos Radio/Television and his successor, Deji Balogun, we moved to the games where Nigeria has dominated in tabletennis, boxing and are likely to claim more in athletics. TO BE CONT INU E D

Sport News 47

NEW TELEGRAPH THURSDAY SETEMBER 17, 2015

Junior Ajayi joins CS Sfaxien

unisian side CS Sfaxien have announced the signing of Nigerian striker Junior Oluwafemi Ajayi. The striker, who is in Congo with the Nigerian under-23s, has penned a three-year contract with the Sfaxien club that will keep him in Tunisia until 2018. CS Sfaxien pulled off the transfer at the last moment of the transfer window in Tunisia. “Ajayi Junior Oluwafemi

has put pen to paper in a three-year contract in the final moments in the transfer window in Tunisia,” CS Sfaxien stated on their website. Ajayi was a target of a number of clubs in North Africa like Zamalek and Tunisian giants Esperance before CS Sfaxien surprisingly snapped up the striker. CS Sfaxien ended the last season in fourth place in the Tunisian league. They are now aiming to win the title in the current season.

MLMTP promises bigger tennis tourney Charles Ogundiya

fter a successful first edition of Scheme 4 Tennis Club Junior Open Championships, the organisers have promised a better event in 2016. Captain of Members LSDPC Medium Tennis Club, Mr. Pelumi Adeniran, said the plan would be to make it bigger and better next year as they look forward to having more sponsors. “Sport generally in Nigeria is underrated especially when it comes to

tennis,” he said. “In Nigeria, we have few programmes that encourage the kids and that is not supposed to be the case. We want to give the kids an opportunity where they can showcase their talent and hope some people can come around, see them and possibly sponsor them by giving the kids scholarships and so on.” According to Mrs. Ugonwa Precious, the National Sales Manager, Greenlife Pharmaceuticals Ltd, sponsor of the championships, “Apart from the fact

AAG: NSC to strategise for three sports

that I am a member of the club, my company is an organisation that love to sponsor a good cause, whenever there is a good cause, they are there.” In her own words, tournament coordinator, Olajumoke Yakubu, cited example of some of the players that have come out from the club. According to her, the winner of the Girls 10 and under, Yakubu Oiza, has shown great potential and she called on well-meaning Nigerians to sponsor some of the players from the club.

SNEPCo Junior Tennis tourney starts October 12 Ajibade Olusesan

rganisers of the SNEPCo Junior Tennis Championship have announced that the 2015 edition of the tournament will take place from Monday October 12 to Saturday October 17 at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club. A statement from International Tennis Academy stated that the tournament would feature five categories - boys and girls 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. ITA Director, Godwin Kienka, said that no first

IfeanyiUbah Uncertainty over Amokachi’s exit Charles Ogundiya

here are clouds of uncertainty surrounding the exit of Daniel Amokachi as the Technical Adviser of Nigerian Professional Football League side, FC IfeanyiUbah. It was reported that the former Super Eagles coach resigned his appointment as the club’s Technical Adviser on Sunday night shortly after his team’s 1-0 loss to

Sharks FC in league game played in Port Harcourt. In a purported text message from the former Nigeria international read on Sports Tonight, a Channels Television programme on Monday, Amokachi stated: “I have no ill feeling leaving FC IfeanyiUbah and the owner of the club still remains my very good friend, one that I can return to whenever I am broke. “It is only if I approach

ALL AFRICA GAMES

Yakmut

Adekunle Salami

he Director General of the National Sports Commission, Alhaji Alhassan Yakmut, on Wednesday said that Nigeria would strategise on three sports to boost the country’s overall performance at major games. Yakmut, speaking to our correspondent on the telephone from Congo, noted that the country would have to intensify its

him for financial assistance and he doesn’t answer me that I will know that he is angry with me.” The chairman of the club, Chuma Ubah, however informed New Telegraph that he was yet to receive any letter to that effect from the former FC Brugge, Everton and Besiktas star. “To me, the coach absconded from his duty because I am yet to get his resignation letter,” he said.

Ulonna grabs silver in powerlifting

• Swimming, gymnastics fencing under focus

efforts to compete keenly in sports like swimming, gymnastics and Fencing. The NSC DG stated that Egypt and South Africa benefitted from these sports to lead in the overall medals table of the ongoing AAG. He said: “Egypt won 13 gold medals in fencing alone while South Africa recorded over 20 in swimming alone. We have to challenge in these sports keenly to reduce this advantage especially because we are also being challenged in our areas of strength. “There is need to strategise for these sports with a long term plan to bring out some youthful athletes who can represent the country in the next two to three AAG’s and the Olympics Games.” Yakmut stressed that Team Nigeria athletes had generally performed well at the ongoing continental meet but had been unlucky with results.

timers would be allowed in the 18s. “We are looking forward to having a great tournament because we have a large base of junior players across the country from various training program and the states and clubs have been urged to conduct trials with a view to bringing the best to the championship,” he said. He added that “As usual all the competitors will be fed three square meals and all competitors from outside Lagos will be accommodated.”

Osazuwa runing the 100m hurdles

Charles Ogundiya

sazuwa Uhunoma on Wednesday added to Team Nigeria’s gold medals collection after winning the Heptathlon with 5892 points. The national champion was trailing Benin Republic’s Ahouanwanou Odile with 36 points going to the last event, 800m but was able to overturn the advantage with victory in the last event. Also Chinazom Amadi leaped 6.31 metres to win gold in the women long jump event, as Claire Uke also won gold in the women

igeria’s Tony Ulonna won a silver medal in the 59kg category of the Powerlifting event at the All Africa Games in Congo on Wednesday. Ulonna lifted 190kg in his third attempt after initial 177kg and 185kg lifts in his first and second attempts. His silver medal adds to the two gold and two silver medals Nigeria earlier won in the powerlifting event which started on Tuesday. The gold medal was won by Egypt’s world record holder, Othman Sherif who lifted 210.5kg to set a new world and African record in that event. The bronze medal went to Atangana Conrat of Cameroon.

Osazuwa, Amadi, Uke win gold • As Metu, Oduduru, Odele make 200m final discus throwing 54.24 metres. African champions in Long Jump, Ese Brume, failed to replicate the form that won her the Commonwealth and African Games gold medal last year as she finished fifth with a 6.24 metre jump. Also, the trio of Obinna Metu, Divine Oduduru and Tega Odele qualified for the final of the men 200m race slated for Thursday. Metu won his semifinal race in

20.55 seconds with African Junior Champion, Oduduru, winning his own race too in 20.51 seconds while Odele placed second in his race with a time of 20.98 seconds to book their place in the finals. Similarly, Lawrette Ozoh and Onwumere Ngozi qualified for the 200m women final with a timing of 23.47 seconds and 23.53 seconds respectively, while Regina George failed to show up for her race.

On Marble

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.

World Record

Sanctity of Truth

1832-1839: Scottish inventor Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.

NIGERIA’S MOST AUTHORITATIVE NEWSPAPER IN POLITICS AND BUSINESS

– Henry Louis Mencken

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

N150

Fayose: L’Enfant Terrible of our democracy?

very situation produces some characters that stand out whether positively or negatively depending on which angle you stand to access it. In the last 17 years, this democracy has not failed in this wise to throw up some unique characters that have contributed significantly in enriching our democratic evolution. One of such characters for our discussion today is the Governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, who has come to symbolize the Peoples’ power in politics. It may be easy to dislike Governor Fayose. His style may appear very exasperating to many, but it is also not easy to ignore or wave him aside as a mere attention seeker, not after he successfully utilized the peoples’ power the way he did in 2003 and 2014. My first contact with Governor Fayose was in April 2005, during his first term as Governor of Ekiti state. As the Group Political Editor of THISDAY Newspaper I was anxious to meet a young politician who came from nowhere to defeat the incumbent Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor and son of a highly respected Yoruba retired General, Niyi Adebayo. This man Fayose had no known rich family background, no enviable educational qualification; in fact, his Higher National Diploma HND was being disputed, as the AD propaganda machine made most Nigerians believe that he had no classmate in Ibadan Polytechnic, where he went. I was longing to interview this young politician who, against all odds, pushed his way into Ekiti Government House. The opportunity came when one of Fayose’s friend, Collins Edomaruse my colleague and friend in the THISDAY family suggested I visit Ekiti state to see what he did ahead of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s visit to the state. The visit was to be the first by any Nigerian leader, whether military or civilian since the creation of the state by late dictator General Sani Abacha in 1996, a feat made possible by Governor Fayose. At the interview, he bared his mind on his two years in office, particularly what he was going to showcase to the visiting President. Before the interview on my arrival at Ado Ekiti the state capital, I was kept at the anteroom of the Governor waiting to be ushered in, but within 15 minutes, Fayose came out wearing a T-shirt, looking smart like someone going for golf or Lawn Tennis training. That was strange to me because it was on a Monday. “Where is the editor from Lagos?” he asked. I stood up because there were about eight people at the waiting room. “Editor, I know you have no time but I want you to accompany me to one or two functions before the interview”. I obliged thinking we were heading to the vehicle but he hit the road trekking to inspect two projects, a township road and main market all under construction in Ado Ekiti the state capital. Along the way, he stopped to greet, young, old, male, female, enquiring

Political Musings IKE ABONYI

igwebuike2001@yahoo.com 08024024029 (sms only)

Man of the people -Fayose joins motorbike to town

from them about their families and businesses, and he waited patiently to listen to their responses. He bought ‘akara’ and groundnuts and dropped money as he matched along but never asked for change. As he moved, the crowd followed him in a visible ecstasy, dropping small complaints, which he never ignored. He never failed to reprimand some overzealous security operatives who tried to be harsh on some surging youths. “Be careful with them, without them me and you won’t be here” he admonished the operatives. After the interview in his office, he insisted that we take lunch together in his house before returning to Lagos. At his house, there was no official, only the wife and a little maid dished the food. All the paraphernalia of office was missing “Editor, manage whatever madam brings, this is how we live, she owns here and I don’t challenge her, we live like this so that when we leave here nothing will change in us” he explained apologetically. Few months after my trip and after the Presidential visit, where Obasanjo poured encomium on him for his achievements, trouble ensued between him and the President, resulting in his bizarre impeachment. Rumour mill then had it that the laudable poultry project by Fayose, which the visiting Obasanjo found threatening to Ota farm, actually laid foundation for the spat between them. Having been booted out in the polemic impeachment, he did not chicken out. Rather he tried to keep himself relevant, moving between political parties, but kept himself close to the people. When he showed interest to return to the government house to complete his second term, few took him serious.

Precisely the road and the speed with which he swept the AD incumbent governor in 2003, was what he applied and swept away another gentleman, the incumbent Dr. Kayode Fayemi of APC in 2014, using his now famous stomach infrastructure technique. Since then, the visibly angry and discoloured APC leadership under the command of the Bourdillon political war horse Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, have been applying all means to disconcert him, but he remained firm, relying heavily on the power of the people upon whose mandate he rode to power twice. To his people, he lives the words he preaches and for that they are ready to die for him. When they came for Fayose using federal might, the people stood, when they used security apparatus, the people stood, when they arm twisted the court to get questionable justice, the people stood, when they used media propaganda to run him down, the people responded swiftly, when they used the legislature to get another questionable impeachment on him, the people still stood and frustrated it. When Fayose and his people threw stones at a mad dog that has the capacity to bite, the dog feared the crowd and ignored the stone. During the last Presidential campaign, Governor Fayose, more than any other Nigerian politician made more provocative statements and has continued to make, yet in the realm of politics, he remains safer than any other because of the power of the people he enjoys. He has indubitably become the politician who is sometimes stunning and does things in a way that is very different from normal. His often offensive behaviour and strikingly heretical re-

marks have somewhat qualified him to wear the garb of L’Enfant Terrible of our democracy. But what goes for him is that while he governs the most elitist state in Nigeria with his downtrodden masses, using his informal method, being with the Okada riders, the disabled, the aged, he never fails to provide those things that even the elite cherish. Why not if one of the most strategic elite leaders in the state, the founder of Afe Babalola University, AdoEkiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola noted that the Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has and is showing the zeal to re-position education in the state and restore its lost glory. The renowned lawyer, who commented on the Education Summit organized by the state government, said a similar one organized during Fayose’s first term, really improved the standard of education in the state and catapulted it to be among the best in the country. Chief Afe Babalola was said to have recalled that the governor organized a summit 12 years ago, which yielded fruits as shown by the performance of students from the state in public examinations. According to the astute lawyer, “Fayose is a man of action. I love him because he’s a realistic man. He’s dynamic, fearless and when he says yes it is yes, when he says no it is no. He is energetic and you need an energetic person to carry out anything you want to do” In the new political dispensation, Governor Fayose has become an enigma of sort when style and method are put in the political laboratory for analysis. He has more than any political actor in recent time demonstrated the fact that in a democracy, power really belongs to the people. Political watchers have seen that even in his shortcomings, he has survived because a body clothed by the people in politics, is sure safe from the pneumonia of the game.

HIGH CHIEF

EIU RANKS LAGOS AMONG WORLD’S WORST PLACES TO LIVE –News

- Yet, we ‘re the happiest people on earth!

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 Hotlines: (Lagos 0902 928 1425), (Abuja 0805 5118488) Email: info@newtelegraphonline.com Website: www.newtelegraphonline.com ISSN 2354-4317 Editor: YEMI AJAYI.