Thursday, November 24, 2016 Edition

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N150 Vol. 23 No. 174

The nation awaits rescue of the remaining abducted Chibok schoolgirls

Reps raise Buhari’s N180bn virement request by N28bn As president submits 2017 budget to NASS Dec 1

pAGE 5

Ganduje okays life sentence for kidnappers From Edwin Olofu, Kano

K

Cont. on page 3

Ondo guber: Jimoh Ibrahim challenges Jegede’s victory at S’ Court Army launches fresh offensive to rescue Chibok girls

page 10

FG to ASUU: N284bn allowances not feasible

page 3

Police rescue 41 kidnapped persons in Zamfara

page 2

Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (middle), Deputy Governor of Kano, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar (right) and Speaker Kano state House of Assembly, Hon. Kabiru Rurum (left), after Ganduje presented the 2017 Budget Proposal before the Kano House of Assembly Members, yesterday in Kano.

ano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has signed the state Kidnapping, Abduction and Forced Labour Bill and the state Supplementary Budget into law.

Speaking during the signing of the bills into law in kano state Government House yesterday, the governor explained that the law became necessary in view of the spate of kidnappings in the state, particularly in local government areas neighboring Falgore forest.

“The law provide for death sentence for kidnappers who abduct and kill their victim, while kidnappers who abduct but did not kill their victim, if apprehended and found culpable, would be jailed for life”, the governor announced.

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

News

CONTENTS

Reps raise Buhari’s N180bn virement request by N28bn

News 2-10

By Umar Muhammad Puma, Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Christiana Nathaniel

Editorial 11 Op.Ed 12 Letters 13 Politics 15-17 Business Stockwatch

19-20 18

Kogi raises IGR to N600m per month Page 8

Int’l 23-24 Metro

21-22

Feture 26 Sports 27-28 Columnist 32

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T

he House of Representatives has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request of N180 billion with an additional N28 billion bringing the total amount to N208 billion.

President Buhari had sent a virement proposal of N180 billion to the House, but the House increased it to N208.821, 671,494 and passed it without debating the proposal and laying the report for consideration at the committee of the whole House.

The motion which was sponsored by the chairman House committee to on appropriation Rep Mustapha Bala Dawaki (APC, Kano), which was passed without a single debate for or against.

When the House first received and read the document on October 25th, it kept it for weeks until after some interface between National Assembly leadership and the presidency before it was presented and referred on November 16th.

The breakdown of the passed version shows that recurrent for Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA) under Service Wide Vote would take the sum of N71, 800,215,270. Contingency is to take N1.2billion, Margin for Increase in Cost (MIC) to take N2billion, Ministry of Interior Cadet Feeding in police academy Wudil, Kano to take N932.4million.

Others under the same Service Wide Vote are: Amnesty Programme which would take N35billion, internal operations of the armed forces to take

•Buhari submits 2017 budget to NASS Dec 1

N5,205,930,270billion, Operation Lafiya Dole to gulp N13,933,093,000billion, NYSC under Ministry of Sports and Youth Development to getN19,792,018,400billion and Foriegn Missions to get N16,349,647,078billion.

The Augmentation of Meal Subsidy/ Direct Teaching and Lab Cost under the Federal Ministry of Education will take N900million with a sub total of N167,113, 304, 018billion.

Under statutory transfer, the Public Complaints Commission will get N2.5billion bringing the Special Intervention (Recurrent) subtotal to N169, 613,304,018billion.

Under Capital expenditure: the Nigerian Air Force under the Ministry of Defence will get N12, 708,367,476billion.

The Presidential Initiative for the North-east under Capital Supplementation will get N1.5billion, payment of local contractors debts and other liabilities will take N25billion bringing the sub-total of the Special Intervention (Capital) to N39,208,367,476billion; with a grand total of N208,821,671,494billion.

The motion approving the virement also touched on the request for N300million appropriated in the 2016 budget under the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for the construction of a 13KVA substation in Gwaram, Jigawa state to be vired for the reconstruction of fallen towers, replacement of glass insulators for Gagarawa, Jigawa State.

However, in the explanation given by the Appropriation Committee Chairman, Mustapha Dawaki suggested that the Senate is in sync with House on the N28billion increase as Dawaki told the House that his motion was an outcome of meetings held with counterparts in the Senate where all alterations were agreed and adopted.

The motion/report which was not even listed for debate at the Senate was read and passed by Speaker Yakubu Dogara who put the question without subjecting it to debate.

The lawmaker, while moving the motion had explained that the affected MDAs justified the need for intervention and approval of the virement for their respective agencies.

He further explained that there are other areas of critical needs with potentials for development and stimulating the economy and for which additional funds could be provided through virement from the Special Intervention Programme.

Meanwhile, indications emerged yesterday that President Mohammadu Buhari will on December 1st submit the 2017 budget estimates to a joint session of the National Assembly, which is in compliance with the constitutional requirement that the President must present the budget for the following year before the end of the preceding financial year.

This is even the Senate yesterday

debated the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), on which the 2017 budget parameters are based and referred it to its committees on Finance, Appropriations and National Planning for further legislative works.

The Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, gave the indication that the President will submit the budget December 1st when he was seconding the motion for the Senate to consider and approve the 2017, 2018 and 2019 MTEF and FSP, which was presented before the Senate few weeks ago.

He urged his colleagues to allow the document be referred to the relevant committees to enable them come up with realistic indices for the budget estimates, based on the submissions that would be made by the various government agencies, ministries and departments that may be invited by the committee.

Akpabio reminded the lawmakers that the National Assembly will not be able to receive the 2017 budget estimates from President Mohammadu Buhari on Thursday except the Senate passed the FSP and MTEF for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, while ruling on the debate which lasted for more than two hours; with lawmakers speaking for and against the framework, reminded his colleagues that the assumptions in the documents were done based on the best capacity of the executive arm.

Ondo guber: Jimoh Ibrahim challenges Jegede’s victory at S/Court

By Paschal Njoku, Abuja

B

arrister Jimoh Ibrahim has said he would contest the judgement of the Court of Appeal replacing him with Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as the authentic flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Saturday Ondo governorship election.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had yesterday set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court Abuja, which had recognized Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim as the authentic flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming Ondo state governorship election, having emerged from the Alhaji Modu Sheriff faction of the party.

Sequel to the judgement delivered

by Justice Okon Abang on October 14, the Independent National Electoral Commission had to replace Tayo Jegede SAN, the initial flagbearer of the party with Ibrahim.

Apparently miffed by the verdict of the trial court, Jegede headed to the appellate court to seek redress with the

• Appeal Court sacks Sheriff as PDP chair aim of reclaiming his mandate.

However, delivering judgement, the three man panel presided over

by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa, said the appeal filed by Jegede “is grossly meritorious and is therefore allowed”.

The appellate panel resolved all seven issues distilled from the appellant’s brief for determination in favour of the appellant.

Consequently, the panel set aside the judgement of Justice Abang, saying the court below erred in law by turning itself to a Father Christmas, as it granted reliefs not sought by the respondents.

Justice Salauwa said it was wrong for the lower court to announce Jimoh Ibrahim as governorship candidate of the PDP in Ondo state, when he was not a party at the suit before the lower court.

Similarly, the appellate panel dismissed and set aside Justice Abang’s

OUR MISSION “To be the market place of ideas and the leading player in the industry by putting the people first, upholding the truth, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards while delivering value to our stakeholders”

judgment of June 26, 2016, wherein he held that Ali Modu Sheriff was the authentic National Chairman of the PDP. His reason was that there was an order of the Lagos division of the Federal High Court that restrained PDP from holding the convention where Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ben Obi emerged as National Chairman and National Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee respectively, having purportedly dissolved the Ali Modu Sheriff leadership.

The Judgment of Justice Abang had compelled INEC to remove the name of Eyitayo Jegede as PDP governorship candidate in the November 26 governorship election on the ground that he (Jegede) emerged from an illegal faction of PDP leadership.

But reacting to the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Ibrahim Jimoh said he was certain of getting justice at the

OUR PEOPLE Chairman Malam Wada Maida, OON, Fnge Chief Operating Officer Ali M. Ali Editor, Daily Hameed M. Bello Manager, administration Hassan Hammanyaji

Supreme Court.

He boasted that the incumbent Governor of the state, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was not capable of imposing Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) as his successor.

Hs words; “I have read the decision of the Court of Appeal delivered today (Wednesday). We have nothing to lose, as the Supreme Court sits on the same case tomorrow.

“We shall get justice at the Supreme Court and if PDP wins Saturday election, we shall have our four-year mandate to rule Ondo State.

“Let me advise you not to abuse anyone or fight over this one day ruling. Mimiko will not succeed himself with Jegede. This is too sure.

“We continue with our work and remain in our great party, PDP. I love the great people of Ondo state and I thank you all for continuous support.”

OUR VISION “To be a reputable, profitable, innovative and technologically reliant media company offering world class services and products”

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

News Ag News Editor Ese Awhotu Recession: FG raises hope of We can’t pay N284bn allowances, improvement in economy by FG tells ASUU 4th quarter

By Lawrence Olaoye

T

he Federal Government has assured Nigerians that the economy will improve in the fourth quarter.

Senator Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning, gave the assurance yesterday while addressing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting.

Udoma said the FEC examined the reports recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

“As you know, from these numbers, the economy is still in recession. The performance in the third quarter is slightly worse than the second quarter and this was attributable to the performance of the oil sector which performed worse in the third quarter than the second quarter and that was for reasons you all know.

“However, the good news is that the non-oil sector is improving in the direction that is most encouraging to the government. Agriculture continues to growth at 12.5 percent, solid minerals continues to grow at seven percent.

“We are encouraged by the direction that the non-oil sector is moving.

“With regards to the fourth quarter, we believe that the fourth quarter will be better than the third quarter even for the oil sector because oil production has started moving up as a result of a lot of initiatives that this government has been taking.

“We are looking forward to a fourth quarter that is much better than the third quarter. We are encouraged by that,” the minister said.

By Lawrence Olaoye

C

onsidering the current economic situation of the country, the Federal Government has told the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that it could not afford the N284bn earned allowances being demanded by the union.

Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said this yesterday after the Federal Executive Council meeting.

He said out of the eight ASUU damands, the earned allowances could not be trashed out “because everybody knows and agrees that we are in recession.

“If we are in a recession, and you are asking us to pay you N284

billion, nobody will pay it because the money is not there.

“So, they agreed and the National Assembly also agreed, but the government offered them some amounts pending when we finish auditing of the first tranche of money that has been given to them in that same area of earned allowances.

“That tranche of money that they collected is being audited, but the auditing process is very slow because some people, for some strange reasons, are not allowing auditing to take place.

So, a time frame has been fixed, of six months, within which the auditing will be done.

“Within those six months, the government has offered

something that it’ll be paying on a monthly basis, and ASUU has also made a counter proposal to government.

“So, both parties have gone back to their principals; ASUU has a principal which is the national executive body and the government has come back to look at our finances vis-a-vis with the National Assembly which will appropriate that particular fund because for 2016, there is nothing in the budget for it. It will be done and appropriated as at when due.

Next week, they will come back with their counter proposal.”

The minister also explained that the federal government conceded to ASUU, the right to exclude endowment funds

accrrueable to universities from the Treasury Single Account.

“TSA makes for accountability.

You pay in whatever you derive from government funds, ask for it back and you get it. The only thing is that you must do the paper work for the accountability aspect of it to be there and for any institution, they should be able to look at first glance, see the monies they have in account A, B or C at the CBN add up and know what they have.

“Government agrees to ASUU’s demand but limited it to only endowment funds. But that doesn’t also mean that at the end of the day, the university councils will not have the right to audit such an account. That is really the only area that is still contentious.”

L-R: President Muhammadu Buhari; President of Equatorial Guinea H.E. Teodoro Mbasogo, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mrs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Secretary General of Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit as he arrives for the Programme of Opening Ceremony and Working Session of the 4th Africa-Arab Summit in Malabo Equatorial Guinea, yesterday PHOTO BY STATE HOUSE

Ganduje signs death sentence bill for kidnappers into law

Continued from cover Governor Ganduje, therefore advised to kidnappers to repent and hand over their weapons to security agencies, explaining that those who do so would be considered for rehabilitation, to enable them re-integrate into the society.

In the same vein, the governor equally signed the state Supplementary Budget bill 2016 into law, in the sum of N20, 121, 581, 000. 86.

Shortly before signing the bill, the governor explained at it is to allow the government to formalize its expenditure for the remaining period of the 2016 fiscal year.

Dogara calls for review of DSS laws

By Umar Muhammad Puma

T

he Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has called for a review of the laws that established the Department of Security Services (DSS) to ensure that it operations are in accordance with the provisions of the constitutions and for better collaboration with other agencies.

Declaring a two- day investigative public hearing by an Ad-hoc committee constituted to investigate all cases of property and arrest of persons for reasons outside the general duties of the DSS at the National Assembly Complex, Dogara

said the recent operations of the DSS leaves the legislature call for immediate review of the laws establishing security agencies for the interest of the nation just as he charged the committee to ensure that the come out with resolutions that will ensure better operations of security agencies and better synergy among all the agencies.

“As a critical part of the Federal legislature responsible for making laws for the Federation, it is imperative that we periodically and in a detached and objective way inspired only by the national interest, re-examine our laws against the background of unfolding events to establish that they have indeed being complied with

and where this is not the case, to navigate a course that rectifies the errors and forestalls against future errors. It is also very critical that any investigation of this nature must have a legislative purpose as required by S. 88 of the Constitution.

“It is in this regard that I enjoin this Committee to make relevant findings of fact that will enable the National Assembly initiate the necessary amendments to the National Security Agencies Act and even the Constitution where necessary to ensure conformity with the constitutional design and framework that envisages that federal legislative power should be domiciled in the National Assembly and not shared

with the Executive in the manner provided under the Act” he said.

The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Mohammed Datti was emphatic that the committee will escew all sentiments and ensures that the investigations are carried out according to rules of engagements of security agencies.

The investigations was sequel to the controversy generated by the invasion of the residence of some Supreme Court, Appeal Court and High Court judges by members of the DSS at unholy hours leading to plethora of petitions to the National Assembly.

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR OF KANO STATE DR. ABDULLAHI UMAR GANDUJE (OFR) ON THE OCCASION OF PRESENTATION OF THE YEAR 2017 BUDGET TO KANO STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ON 23RD, NOVEMBER 2016 COURTESIES

ally important areas and provide access to educational institutions, health and recreational facilities.

• Office Complex at Government House to accommodate Research and Documentation Directorate, Policy Coordination Department and Press Directorate. The project is expected to be completed in six months; • Road network at Deputy Governor’s Office; • Gwarmai – Kofa - Babeji Road • Maiduguri road – CBN Quarters road – Zaria road • Madobi Junction – Panshekara road • Gidan Boss – Katsina road • Madobi Bridge – Kiru – KafinMaiyaki • Janguza Barrack – TasharBala – Pantasha – Gangare road • Dungurawa – D/Tofa • Flood and Erosion control at Gaida, Kumbotso LGA • Construction of roads in some of the urban centres covering: a) Batayya – Faragai, b) Katsako – Illa – Halimbe (Bauchi State Boarder), c) Provision of Hydraulic Structures along Magami - Dagora Road d) Construction of PRP Bus stop – Airport road by (Kabo Air), e) Construction of Gidan Sarki, Dorayi – Tunga – Gwazaye Byepass road, f) Construction of Culvert bridge along Kano Free Trade Zone, g) Construction of Dorayi – Unguwar Bello – Amare Road, h) Construction Zawaciki Housing Estate Inland Dry Port

ASSALAMU ALAIKUM.

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

May the Peace and Blessings of Allah (SWT) be upon our Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), His Noble Family and His Upright Companions.

I consider it paramount to start this 2017 Budget presentation by submitting our gratitude to Allah (SWT), the Best Planner with Whose grace, we are gathered here today to mark another annual tradition of Budget presentation. We, therefore, thank Him very profoundly and pray for His continuous Guidance and Grace upon all our actions.

Mr. Speaker, the year 2016 has been economically challenging, primarily due to the fall in oil price which had been the major earner of our National income thereby affecting adversely trade and investment in the country, and also equally affected the states monthly receipt allocation from the Federation Account. However, this has awakened our drive in diversifying our sources of revenue

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, we shall not forget the devastating market infernos that befell our market places at several parts of this country, in this year. In Kano, we had such infernos that gutted Kurmi, Singer, Abubakar Rimi, GSM Market His Excellency, Farm Center and Na’ibawa ’Yankatako Markets. You could recall that prominent among the infernos was that in the month of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (OFR) March, which gutted Abubakar Rimi Market, Kano, razing over Executive Governor Of Kano State 4000 shops, representing almost 75% of the market and left property worth billions of naira burnt to ashes. As faithfuls guided by Road, divine doctrine, we considered and embraced these as tests from God. Construction of Janguza – Lengel – Dansudu road I would also like to register my gratitude to the good people of Kano State for the understanding and i) Construction of Sabuwar Gandu – Dan Maliki – Kumbotso road cooperation they always accord this Government at this trying period of economic recession facing j) Construction of Box culvert along Tamburawa, Hausawa road on Tatsawarki river the entire country. I am confident, with the dogged commitment of our beloved President Muham- k) madu Buhari at the helm of affairs of the nation and ours at State level, the challenges are surmount- crossing, l) Expansion of Shimar Bridge at Danhassan Kura LGA, able.

Construction of Magami – Kwajale road,

Distinguished Members, I am delighted to be with you for the second time as Governor m) Construction of access road in Tarauni LGA, of Kano State to account for our stewardship of the State over the last one year and to present before n) Construction of Kwanar Kanye – Kano Road, Kabo – Dubagau Road, you, the 2017 Proposed Appropriation Bill. The Proposal is a product of experience and wide-ranging o) Construction of Minjibir – Layin Dan Dake – Sarbi Road, consultations we had with relevant stakeholders that would translate our development plans into con- p) q) Construction of Minjibir – Tsakuwa – Laraba Road, crete actions.

Construction of Gwarmai – Kofa – Babeji Road, It could be recalled that the fundamental direction of this Administration would be predicated on r) Construction of8-Cell Box culvert along Ungogo-Minjibir Road, Continuation, Consolidation and Fine Tuning of projects inherited from previous administrations s) irrespective of the time they were started as well as the initiation and execution of additional people • Others are:Construction of Zaria road – Kano line terminal, oriented policies and programmes. In this respect I dare say that we are on course, if one could look a) b) Rehabilitation of Abdullahi Bayero road, and assess the activities of this government from the time we assumed office to date.

Rehabilitation of Farm Centre/Marhaba Road,

Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members, permit me to review our modest accomplishments in c) d) Construction of Gidan Zakka Aminu Kano way – Kofar Waika – Tudun Rubudi – the past year.

Gadan – Dango – GarinIya – Danguguwa – Karas - Haga road, e) Construction of Panda – Hamdullahi – Duje – Albasu road, THE YEAR 2016 APPROVED BUDGET PERFORMANCE Construction of KwanarTattarawa-zaura-Barguma-Zango Mata-DanfamiTofa- Gan

Mr. Speaker, the 2016 Budget, which was tagged “Budget of Self Reliance,” afforded us op- f) portunity to diversify the State sources of revenue in order to effectively achieve socio-economic de- duje-Dan Itace-Jemomi-KwanarZira road, In order to further boost the transport sector of the State, this administration has awarded velopment initiatives to raise the state economy. As a government, we realized that without aggressive reforms to lift our internal revenue inflows, all our programmes and projects would remain sheer a contract for the construction of Modern Light Rail Transit project along four major routes in Kano dreams. It is for this, and, the need to ease our dependency on the federation account that we adopted Metropolis to a Chinese Company. Further negotiations to actualize this project are currently in a revenue-driven budgetary frame where all MDAs were directed to review their revenue collection progress as it affects funding, with Chinese Development Bank while other requirements such as Enmechanisms to make them effective towards achieving sustainable internally generated revenue. In vironmental Impact Assessment are been undertaken. Similarly, Technical and Financial Consultants addition, we have restructured the operations of the State Internal Revenue Service through the en- have since been engaged and they are Dar-al-Handasah and Buraq Consultants respectively.

In the power/energy sub-sector, the construction of the hydroelectricity power stations in gagement of experienced Technical Advisers, versed in revenue matters. With this effort, our revenue Tiga and Challawa is in advanced stage. The present administration is committed to seeing the project base rose from N500 million in 2015 to more than N3 billion as at September, 2016.

With a budget size of N274,824,600,378 (Two Hundred and Seventy-Four Billion, Eight to its logical conclusion.

Furthermore, the Street lightning project is extended to cover about 85% of the MetropoliHundred and Twenty-Four Million, Six Hundred Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Eight Naira only), the 2016 budget sought to boost agriculture/food security, healthcare services, and other sec- tan roads, which has not only enhanced the security situation in the metropolis, but also beautifies the tors of the economy, which had direct bearing on infrastructural growth and job creation in the State. environment.

Also, the 2016 budget focused on completing major on-going capital projects and sustaining the existURBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ing ones.

Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members, this administration placed this sector amongst its priorLet me give the highlights of the capital projects and programmes executed in the year 2016 according ity areas and this explained why in this outgoing year, government allocated the sum N44.41 billion to sectors: for the projects and programmes under this sector. Some of these projects include: Infrastructure

In our bid to lay infrastructure as a vital base for the socio-economic transformation of the • Continuation of Murtala Muhammed road Flyover, state economy, Government allocated the sum of N64.39 billion to this sector. Out of this allocation, • Construction of road network at Kantin Kwari Market, N40.9 billion was for the construction and rehabilitation of various roads and bridges across the State, • Construction of Hotoron Arewa road and drainage network; minor and major works, Constituency Projects, renovation of Audu Bako Secretariat, establishment • Dualization of Dakata – Bela Phase II (K/Inusawa – Bela); • Rehabilitation of Babban Kwari – Badawa(A); of ultra-modern integrated Skills Acquisition Center in the State, etc.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, government has in the last one year embarked on • Rehabilitation of Lamido Road; • Construction/dualization of Kings Garden – Tudun Murtala road; the construction of: • Construction/dualization of Dan Dinshe – Kwanar Madugu Road; • A flyover at Bukavu Barracks Junction, Katsina Road/Kofar Ruwa – Kabuga Road; • Construction/Dualization of Court Road (now Rochas Okorocha) Sabon Gari; • Underpass at Bukavu Barrack Junction, Aminu Kano Way – Katsina Road Junction • Construction of Rumfar Shehu road network.

• Sheik Jafar Road – Panshekara by Madobi Junction underpass with clovers • Urban roads and those that link local government headquarters that would open up agricultur- Continued on the next page

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Continued from the previous page Mr. Speaker, our efforts in this regard extended to some limited repairs of some selected roads within the metropolitan area. Alhamdulillahi, a lot has been achieved in this sector over the last one year.

Education A total sum of N23.65 billion was allocated for the programmes and projects in the education subsector during the period under review. The achievements in this sub-sector are highlighted below: • Completion of outstanding works at Saleh Muhd Mai Lemo, GGSS Rijiyar Lemo; • Repairs/renovation of fire damaged hostel block and supply of 400 sets of double decker beds at GSS Kwankwaso; • Conversion of GSS Gaya into Tahfiz Boarding Secondary School (Second Phase); • Installation/Equipping of 9No. Science Labs in 3No. Schools at GSS Ganduje, GSS Gaya and Salamatu Garba GSS Aisami i.e one from each Senatorial District; • Construction of 348No. new Classrooms including provision of 6,960 sets of equipment across the State; • Conversion of SIS Rogo into GGASS Boarding school; • Repairs and renovation works and provision of 1,800 sets of equipment at 45 Schools; • Repairs and renovation of dilapidated Classrooms at GGASS Albasu; • Repairs and renovation of fire damaged structures in 8 affected Schools, such as Jogana GGSS, D/Tofa Science, Kwankwaso Senior Secondary School, GSS Gwarzo, etc; • Mass literacy campaign programmes in order to widen access to all segments of the society; • Approval of N22,500,000=00 for accreditation of degree courses at Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education in affiliation with Bayero University, Kano; • Accreditation of all courses run by the Northwest University; • Accreditation and re-accreditation of courses at Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil and the Kano Polytechnic respectively.

• Payment of N440,000,000.00 to Education Promotion Committees.

HEALTH Kano State is committed to providing access to healthcare services from the primary to the tertiary level for all citizens. The budgetary allocation for this sector in this outgoing year was N13.7 billion.

May I inform the Honorable Members that in the last one year, we were able to record the following successes: • Continuation of construction works at abandoned Paediatric Hospital Zoo Road • Continuation of construction works at abandoned Giginyu General Hospital • Completion and commissioning of Renovated Dambatta General Hospital, • Upgrading D/Tofa cottage Hospital to General Hospital; • Upgrading S/Gari middle road primary health centre (PHC) to Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCHC); • Upgrading Rimin Gado Comprehensive Health Centre to Cottage hospital; • Renovation of Yadakunya Leprosy Hospital; • Completion of Goron Dutse Community Hospital. This hospital was started by the Community but abandoned due to lack of funds but is now being completed by the government, • Renovation/Upgrading Chidari Basic Health Centre (BHC) to comprehensive health centre (CHC); • Upgrading Getso Comprehensive Health Centre to Cottage Hospital; • Renovation of existing structures and construction of additional structures at Filin Mushe Maternal Child Health Clinic, Gwale LGA, • Upgrading Makoda Model PHC to Cottage Hospital; • Renovation and construction works at School of Health Technology, Kano; • Renovation and construction at School of Health Technology, Bebeji: • Renovation of School of Nursing temporary hostel; • Revalidation and continuation HSDP II project at School of Technology, and Ministry of Health headquarters, Kano.

• Renovation of 105 PHCs in collaboration with MNCH2, a DFID • Procurement of specialized equipment for Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital (MAWSH) and Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital (MMSH) including CT – Scan, Mammography machine, anesthetic machine etc.

• Procurement of equipment for 11 PHCs built by Dangote Foundation at Sabon Sara and Imam Halliru PHCs • Government conducted Free Eye Care Programme in which 44,000 patients benefitted, 51,200 collected drugs, 10,000 received eye medicated glasses, 541 underwent Trachoma surgery and 2,504 had cataract surgery.

• Distribution of equipment to 137 Health facilities in the State in collaboration with MNCH2 • Procurement of 20no. SSDs for 20 selected PHCs in 20 selected wards in Kano • Procurement of equipment in collaboration with VSF (Oxygen concentrator, multi parameter cardiac monitor, suction machine, ambu bags, operating table, artery forceps, gallipots, kidney dishes etc.

Just of recent Mr. Speaker, you have cleared the names and members of the Board of the newly established Contributory Healthcare Management Agency whose primary role is to cater for the health care needs of public servants. It is also pertinent to state that we have employed over 400 critical staff, over 70 medical Doctors, over 120 nurses and a considerable number of Pharmacists and Laboratory Scientists. This is in addition to continuation of sponsorship of training of healthcare workers for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, within and outside the country.

COMMERCE, INDUSTRY, COOPERATIVES AND TOURISM Mr. Speaker could recall that the budgetary allocation for this sector in the outgoing year was in the sum of N647million. Some of the achievements recorded in the sector include: • Facilitating the conversion of Tiga IDC into a World Class Leather Processing cluster in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Industry under 60-40 arrangement. The Cluster is expected to provide more than 5000 direct and indirect jobs to indigenes of Kano, • Facilitating the establishment of Tie and Dye Cluster at Kwachiri, • Sponsorship of 1,250 youth for entrepreneurship training under a special arrangement of Entrepreneurship Development Centre Northwest funded by Central Bank of Nigeria, • Conducted promotion campaign in respect of made in Kano products and services, • Conducted sensitization workshop for 900 cooperative leaders in the State; • Inauguration of Kano State Tourism Master Plan (2014-2020) AGRICULTURE Mr. Speaker, the performance of the agricultural sector during the period under focus was satisfactory owing to our effort to enhance food sufficiency cum farmers’ commitment. I am pleased to inform this august House that this year, Kano State alone is expected to produce 1.2 million tons of rice, which represents one sixth of our country’s rice demand. This is an indication that our resolve to allocate the sum of N7.5 billionto the sector has yielded the desired result.

It is also imperative to further state some other commitments in this vital sector over the last one year.

Some of these include: • The establishment of 2 permanent Artificial Insemination Centers at Kadawa and Dambatta,

• • • •

• • • • •

Procurement of 2No Combine Harvesters Sponsorship of 60 No. children of Fulani Herdsmen to undergo artificial insemination training at Turkey; Provided the sum of N100 million soft loan to rice/wheat farmers to acquire seeds for improved production; Resuscitation of KASCO to sufficiently meet farmers’ fertilizer demand. KASCO has started producing fertilizer for internal consumption of our farmers and other states. A total 600 trucks of fertilizer were produced for Kebbi State and other customers, while an extra line of production is the process of been installed.

Employed 729 women and youth as Agricultural Extension Workers, Distribution of 5000 water pumps for irrigation farmers, Construction of 1000No tube wells across Fadama sites in the State, Support to the Food Security Situation Analysis Project(CADRE HARMONIZE) through provision of office/project vehicle; Kano State Participated in the 2016 National Agricultural Show and won the first position in Nassarawa State

WOMEN DEVELOPMENT

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, may recall that our budgetary allocation to this sector was in the sum of N937 million. This was meant for Women Empowerment Programmes, Upgrade and Expansion of Kiru Reformatory School, flagged off of KAL-KAL refuse disposal vehicles where 500 women were engaged for the disposal of refuse through the (Scheme) scheme, provision of loans to women through the Micro Credit Scheme disbursed by our Micro Finance Banks; improvement of women in our Commercial Agriculture Scheme etc; I am also glad to state that all of these projects and programmes were carried out as planned.

INFORMATION, SPORTS AND CULTURE

Mr. Speaker, within the period under review, the Ministry of Information sustained the publication of the weekly State Executive Council Resolutions in national dailies in line with the government cherished principle of ensuring transparency and accountability in governance. Other achievements in the sector include: • Publication of the 2016 calendar and Diaries; • Establishment of Sports Commission in the State • Rehabilitation of Data Bank to facilitate storage and retrieval of information/data about all MDAs and LGAs in the state • Payment of up to 95 percent contract sum for the supply and installation of Digital Broadcast Equipment at Abubakar Rimi Television Corporation (ARTV) where the project has reached 95 percent completion stage and will soon be ready for commissioning, • Rehabilitation of buildings and offices at Kano State Radio Corporation, Gidan Bello Dandago; • Contract has been awarded for the digitization of Radio Kano AM/FM; • Preparations have reached advanced stage for the reintroduction of the online edition Triumph newspaper and hard editions of Albishir and Alfijir Hausa and Ajami newspapers, respectively • Continuation of the production of the ministry’s monthly magazines (Kano State Today and Jihar Kano AYau) aimed at fully sensitizing the public on government programmes, policies and activities as well as generate feedback from the public on same.

To further enhance the activities of the Kano State Censorship Board, particularly regarding regulation of production and marketing of the thriving Hausa Films industry, popularly known as Kannywood, the State Government has approved the construction of Film Market and Cottage Cinema in the State.

WATER SUPPLY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Mr. Speaker, in 2016, our administration has recorded a significant headway in this sector.

Some of these include: • Approved the sum of N45,548,662.50 for utilizing abundant ground water in the State • Awarded contract for the procurement and installation of Raw Water and High lift Pumps at various water works; • Supply and installation of filter media at Challawa and Tamburawa; • Procurement of Water Chemical, • Laying of 1000mm diameter D.I. Pipes from Tamburawa to Hadejia Road (23.1km) • Rehabilitation and Construction of 3no. each Tube Wells at Wudil Water Treatment Plant; • Completion of Lagoon at Challawa Water Intake; • On-going construction of New Minor Water works (Tube Wells at Ganduje) • On-going construction of New 7no. Borehole Based Water Supply at Albasu, Minjibir, Bunkure, Tofa, Falgore, Makoda and Gadanya; • On-going construction of 88no. Solar Powered Boreholes, 2no. each within 44 Local Government Areas.

• On-going rehabilitation of Bagauda Dam; • On-going completion of development of 100Ha at Magaga Irrigation Project; ENVIRONMENT Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, our administration accords this sector a high consideration and this explained why in the 2016 budget, a total sum of N2.18 billion was allocated to the sector with a view to constructing drainages and controlling erosion across the state. Accordingly, Government has in the outgoing year embarked on various activities geared towards safeguarding/protecting the environment. Some of these efforts include: • Construction of drainages at Giginyu quarters • Construction of drainages at Tudun Wazirchi, Kabara and Chiranchi quarters • Gully erosion control at Cutar Buki Village, Tasharna Lumi in Bebeji LGA • Gully erosion control at Tsamiya Brigade, Nassarawa LGA • Construction of drainage at Ja’en Kumbotso LGA • Construction of drainage at link 67 Albarka, Dorayi Babba, behind Forestry in Gwale LGA • Construction of drainage with cover slabs and interlock at Sharadar Malam B Municipal LGA • Construction of drainage at Makoda Cikin Gari in Makoda LGA • Construction of Multi-Cell Box culvert at Yakiji village in Makoda LGA • Construction of drainage at Wailare town at Makoda LGA • Construction of drainage at Tsamiya village in Makoda LGA • Construction of drainage at Barebari town in Mokoda LGA • Gully erosion control at Tudun Murtala Graveyard in Nassarawa LGA • Construction of Filling Station and Office at REMASAB Office • Gully erosion control at Gayawa graveyard in Ungogo LGA • Measured to avert imminent collapse of Zungero road • Provision of sanitation equipment to 8 Metropolitan LGAs • Sensitization workshop for Community Base Organization • Procurement of additional 4No. waste disposal dump Trucks • Procurement of 4No. brands of new loader • Procurement 10No. Trucks

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PAGE 6 Continued from the previous page • Procurement of 20 NTM Trucks • Contractual engagement on waste collection and disposal • Procurement of 18No. new brand Truck (Tipper) • Procurement of 2No. pay loaders

Moreover, ecological and Forestry programme, urban landscaping, pollution control, NEWMAP Project (A World Bank Assisted Project), Kano Afforestation Programme (KNAP), Kano State Sustainable Project and other various activities that will safeguard our environment have all been aggressively pursued.

JUDICIARY

Mr. Speaker, this administration has in the outgoing year allocated the sum of N1.25 billion for building new 4nos Divisional High Courts, 12nos Magistrate courts, general renovation of High court of Justice building, construction of more court rooms and office complex for Sharia court department and general renovation of old court room building.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

The Government recognizes the strategic role the General Administration plays in the socio-economic development of the State. In this regard, the workers’ salaries were promptly paid despite the current financial predicament in the country. The State Government is also committed to human development and as such several workshops, seminars and induction courses to train and re-train the civil servants during the year under review were organized.

Furthermore, the State Government made sure that all office materials/equipment and infrastructure are available for efficient discharge of work. In addition, the sum of N1.5 billion and N19.4 million were spent on purchase of motor vehicles and specialized security equipment respectively.

It is also worth noting that Government has paid the sum of N3.4 billion to cover gratuities, death benefits and pension arrears for both State and Local Government employees. Similarly, the voluntary retirees had their gratuities paid i.e. those who responded to Government Circular offering maximum retirement benefits for all employees who exited service on clocking 30years.

2017 BUDGET PROFILE:

Mr. Speaker, I now present the budget for 2017 which is tagged as “Sustainable Self Reliance”. The 2017 proposed Budget has a total size of N209, 857,330,488. Out of this amount, the sum of N 130,486,682,677 is dedicated for Capital Expenditure while another sum of N79, 370,647,811 is for Recurrent Expenditure.

Mr. Speaker, Hon Members, let me highlight on the policies and detail budget allocations: RECURRENT REVENUE

Mr. Speaker, the total projected Recurrent Revenue for the year is estimated at the sum of N143,700,520,027 which consist of N46,010,415,132 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N97,690,104,895 Revenue from the Federation Account (FAAC). The total recurrent revenue is higher than that of year 2016 by N774, 385,794 representing 0.79%. It is important to note that the projected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is lower than that of year 2016 by N13, 215,199,074 representing 8.4% increase and the reason for the decrease is based on the current economic realities.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

Mr. Speaker, the proposed capital expenditure for the 2017 fiscal year is N130,486,682,677 which is less than that of 2016 by N59,861,393,873 and it is to be financed by N64,329,872,216 expected Recurrent revenue surplus and total capital receipts of N66,156,810,461. The Capital Receipt is made up of N7,190,528,060 expected Internal and External loans drawdown, N26,202,301,276 estimated Grants, N32,563,981,125 Miscellaneous receipts and Treasury opening balance of N200 million

Mr. Speaker and Honourable members, having highlighted on the resource profile for the implementation of policies and programmes of our Administration for the 2017 fiscal year, the funds allocation to MDAs across the sectors are as follows: EDUCATION SECTOR

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, in our determination to sustain the successes achieved in the education sector, this administration has remained steadfast in funding the activities of this vital sector. In furtherance with these efforts, we planned to spend the sum of N17.5 billion in the 2017 fiscal year. Out of this amount, the sum of N500 million is allocated for the construction of 720 classrooms including the provision of desks and chairs across the State. Also, another sum of N640 million is allocated for the completion of 1,000 classrooms, construction of 120 Pit toilets in Senior Secondary Schools, rehabilitation and furnishing of staff houses and completion of the general rehabilitation of 8No. selected schools. This is intended to provide additional accommodation for conducive learning atmosphere in our primary and secondary schools.

Similarly, another sum of N1 billion is slated for the completion of some of abandoned technical Colleges and schools for Islamic studies in various LGAs across the State. Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, as part of our commitment to promote Science and Technical Education in the State, another sum of N265 million is being allocated for the furnishing and supply of Science equipment to 50 laboratories in our existing science secondary schools.

Furthermore, in our bid to elevate the standard of our higher institutions, we are proposing to expend the sum of N8 billion for capital projects in these institutions. Out of this provision, the sum of N3.9 billion is set aside for the renovation/ rehabilitation of libraries and laboratories, completion of faculty of engineering complex, construction and procurement of Sport facilities and provision of other critical infrastructural requirements at the Kano State University of Science and Technology Wudil.

Similarly, the sum of N2.4 billion is set aside for the development of Northwest University, which will be utilized for the completion of faculty complex site A & B, payment of retention for main entrance gate and senate building, completion of library complex and other vital structures in the University. In addition, the sum of N750 million is earmarked for the procurement of laboratories equipment, Accreditation Programmes, furnishing and equipping departmental libraries in the University.

Similarly, another sum of N195 million is allocated for the construction of 4 blocks of Hostel, Sick Bay, road network and drainages at Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso College of Basic and Remedial Studies, Tudun Wada.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, another sum of N298 million is earmarked for the construction of 1No. Students Centre, access road, Standard School clinic and accreditation of courses at Aminu Kano School of Islamic and Legal Studies.

WATER SECTOR

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, improving water supply sector has remained one of the cardinal principles of our Administration since we assumed office in 2015.

In view of this therefore, the sum of N13.5 billion is proposed in the 2017 fiscal year. Out of this amount, the sum of N6.5 billion is set aside for the procurement of 500 metric tones of Alum and polymer for Challawa, Watari, Tamburawa and other Regional schemes, reinforcement of existing networks and expansion of the reticulation system, rehabilitation of Bagauda dam, purchase of Generator sets and other vital equipments.

In furtherance of our commitment to boosting irrigation activities in the State, the sum of

PEOPLES DAILY, Thursday, november 24, 2016 N2.3 billion is allocated for the rehabilitation of existing Dams, rehabilitation and development of irrigation schemes, construction of small earth Dams and construction of Hydrological electrical power station. In addition, the sum of N1.58 billion is allocated for the construction of rural access roads to enhance easy communication within rural areas in the State through feeder roads and rural access mobility project.

In line with our policy of providing accessible water in the State, the sum of N1.44 billion is earmarked for the rehabilitation/maintenance of water complex, replacement of equipment as well as purchase of machines and equipment for the improvement of water supply in the nook and crannies of the State.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, RUWASA is one of the formidable Agency under the Ministry of Water Resources, that is saddled with the responsibility of providing small towns and rural villages with portable drinking water. To support this Agency and as well to consolidate on our effort of ensuring rural areas access portable drinking water, the sum of N1.042 billion is allocated for the construction of hand-pump, boreholes, mechanized boreholes and solar powered boreholes across the State.

On the rural electrification, the sum of N420 million is earmarked for the procurement of transformers, repairs of the Agency’s operational equipment, rehabilitation of the existing power networks and other materials for community assistance in the state.

RURAL ACCESS AND MOBILITY PROJECT (RAMP)

In order to ensure accessibility into our remote rural areas, Government established a Directorate called Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) under which the following roads will be constructed. They are:• Kachako – Jirago – Kadage – Wuro – Tsangaya (13km); • Bebeji – Tariwa (8km); • Ganduje – Yatsi – Babban Gida – Saye (9km); • Maitsiday – Zago – Tangaji – Wajila (10); • Garun Mallam – Kwiwa – Agalawa (12km); • Jogana – Hayin Jama’a – Yafata – Nahuce road (8).

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, since we came into office we have continuously shown utmost concern towards the sustenance of healthy environment. Kano State with a population of over 12 million people and a harsh terrain, environmental protection remains a key challenge for Kano State Government.

Addressing all these challenges, require huge amount of money that the State Government alone cannot afford, nevertheless we are proposing to spend the sum of N1.7 billion on various activities in the sector for the coming fiscal year. Out of the amount, the sum of N278 million is being allocated to REMASAB for the procurement of specialized sanitation equipment, micro composting plant for leda jari scheme, vector control and other incidental works necessary for promoting a clean and safe environment. Similarly, the sum of N1.1 billion is set aside for the construction/ rehabilitation of drainages and flood control across the State under new map project. In our continuing drive to combat the threats of desertification, the sum of N111 million is allocated to raise nurseries, establish shelter belts and wood-lots to maintain the necessary balance between the environment and basic human needs for survivals.

HEALTH

Mr. Speaker, in our effort to provide health service delivery to all citizens, we propose to spend the sum of N10.74 billion on the health sector. Out of this, the sum of N2.5 billion is earmarked for general expansion/rehabilitation works at Murtala Muhd Specialist Hospital and procurement of speciliazed medical equipment. Similarly the sum of N1.1 billion is proposed for upgrading of 12 Primary Health Centres to a standard Cottage and General Hospitals at Kiru, Takai, Tsanyawa, Ungogo, Garko, K/Dangora, Madobi, Walawar Sarari, Sharada, Tariwa, Rikadawa and Tofa. In addition, the sum of N350 million is allocated towards completion and equiping of construction works at Giginyu General Hospital, Paediatric Hospital at Zoo road, Gezawa post Midwifery College and College of Nursing Madobi.

In our determination to promote preventive health care side by side with curative intervention in collaboration with our development partners, we propose to spend the sum of N3.4 billion to strengthen the control of HIV/AIDs and Tuberculosis, Polio eradication, Malaria control, cholera, measles control and other child killer diseases.

Furthermore, we intend to expend the sum of N258.6 million for the general development of our various Health Institutions of learning in the State.

JUDICIARY

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, in our effort to ensure the security of life and property in the State, the sum of N702 million is set aside for various programmes and projects under this sector. Out of this provision, the sum of N495 million is allocated to the High Court of Justice for the fencing of newly constructed Magistrate Divisional Courts, construction of Special Court (Ceremonial), general renovation and purchase of security gadgets for the entire courts across the State.

Furthermore, to sustain the achievements recorded in this sector, the sum of N177 million has been earmarked to Sharia Court of Appeal for the construction of Sharia court department, office complex, procurement of books and periodicals, purchase of electronic equipment as well as general renovation of the Sharia Court of Appeal at Audu Bako Secretariat.

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURING

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I’m very delighted to inform this Honourable House that, this administration has maintained a dedicated commitment towards improving commercial activities in the State. In Furtherance towards the uplifting of this vital sector, the sum of N1.7 billion is reserved for the 2017 fiscal year. Out of this provision, the sum of N500 Million is set aside for the partnership arrangement between Kano State and Bank of Industry towards maintaining the success in supporting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the State.

Similarly, in our effort towards improving commercial activities through the development of Various Infrastructures in Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi Market which experienced an extraordinary fire outbreak where wealth worth billions of Naira were lost, the sum of N400 Million is earmarked for the development of road networks and drainage in the Market.

Similarly, the sum of N39 Million is set aside for the general rehabilitation of 1500 capacity theaters and 12No. toilets at Kano State Tourism Board. This is envisioned to uphold our obligation in improving tourism in Kano State. Another N60 Million is set aside for the establishment of Tie and Dye at Kwaciri in Fagge Local Government.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, In our determination to create self-employment and to support informal sector to address crucial capacity gap that exists among the informal sector group, the sum of N20 Million is set aside for the supporting Enterprise Development Initiatives and Informal Sector Projects.

WORKS AND HOUSING

Mr. Speaker, our commitment towards ensuring Socio-economic Development of Kano

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Continued from the previous page State informed the decision for the huge investment strategy in the provision and improvement of infrastructure in the State.

To accomplish this, the sum of N43.72 billion is allocated, out of which N2.6 billion is for the execution of major and minor works, constituency projects and renovation of Deputy Governor’s residence. In addition, another sum of N3.7 billion is earmarked for the construction of modern abattoir, integrated skills acquisition centre and poultry park at Dakatsalle. Furthermore, the sum of N800 million is for the construction of Hisbah Academy and manpower Development Institute.

In a similar vein, the sum of N26.37 billion is set aside for the completion and construction of various roads in the State. Some of these roads and bridges slated for completion include:• Construction of Karaye – Rogo Makarfi road • Janguza - Durum-Kabo-Karaye road • Dualization of Kano - Sani Abacha youth centre-Madobi bridge • Kwarin Gogau – Jakara channelization road-Wuju-wuju.

• Construction of K/Jaba-R/Kebe road.

• Dualization of Sharada junction-Panshekara road.

• Karfi – Bunkure – Rano – Kibiya – Sumaila road; • Construction of Rano-Rurum-Tiga road.

• Construction of Tukuntawa-S/Gandu-Dan maliki-Kumbotso ; • Dungurawa – Zaura – Barguma – Domfamin Tofa – Ganduje – Dan’itace – Jemomi – Roba – Konar Zira road; • Gwarmai – Kofa – Bebeji road; • Dandinshe road; • Kings Garden road; • Triumph – Sabon Gari Fly-over

Furthermore, the allocation is also to cover for the take-off of construction works on the following roads:• Bunkure – Tsanbaki – Gwanneri Barkum road • Dawakin Kudu – Ladin Makole road • Kwanar Garin Ali – Dareji - Dal road • Lambu – D/Tofa road • Tsanyawa – Dunbulum road • Hawan Ganji – Kadare Road in Gwarzo L.G.A • Bataiya – Faragai road • Expansion of Shimar Bridge at Dahassan in Kura L.G.A and, • Construction of Box culvert along Tamburawa – Hausawa - Tatsawarki road • Burum-Burum – Baburi – Rufan – Dariya – Dalawa – Saya Saya – Janguza – Durum – Kabo – Karaye road.

In addition the sum of N3.6 billion is allocated for the completion of construction of Underpass ways and Fly over bridges in the state at the following locations:• K/Mata - K/kwari -Singer Murtala Muhd way Fly over.

• Bukavu Barracks junction Aminu Kano way-Katsina road under pass.

• Gadon kaya under pass way.

• Kabuga under pass way.

• Sharada/Panshekara road junction under pass way.

Mr. Speaker and Honourable members, you are aware that as part of our resolve to provide Kano as a mega city with all the facilities required, we have signed a contract for the construction of Light Rail in Kano Metropolis. The project which is to be co-financed by China Development Bank Corporation is appropriated the sum of N567,000,000.00 in the 2017 Budget proposal to start the project.

In our resolve to strengthen KAROTA and make it more functional, the sum of N61.8 million is allocated for procurement of additional turning trucks with a view to reducing traffic congestion, supply and installation of road sign and purchase of 10No. Toyota Hilux.

Mr. Speaker, due to our commitment to complete all inherited projects no matter how long they were abandoned, we are determined to continue with the construction of the following road projects. They are:i.

Danja – Zakirai road ii.

Bachirawa – Kwanar Jajira; iii.

Doka – Tofa; iv.

Kwanar Madugu – Zangon Bare Bari; v.

Tofa – Dawakin Tofa; vi.

Gayawa – Dankunkuru – Badam road; vii.

Dawakin Tofa – Kiyawa; viii.

Rano – Barnawa – Garin Babba; ix.

Warawa – Gogel; x.

Gano – Gogel – Naira xi.

Dal – Gani – Sitti xii.

Madobi – Tashar Maza; xiii.

Kura – Kubarachi – Madobi; xiv.

Wudil – Dagumawa – Garko; xv.

Ungogo – Minjibir road; xvi.

Garin Ali junction – Garin Ali Dundumawa road

Mr. Speaker all these roads were abandoned for a period of not less than six years.

Another allocation of N727 million is set aside for KARMA. The amount is for the maintenance of roads and drainage in the state by KARMA. While the sum of N270 million is allocated for establishment of fire stations purchase of additional radio communication equipment and procurement of essential fire/fighting equipment among others.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, in line with our policy of reducing housing deficit in the state an allocation of 10.4(Ha) has been made for the construction of different categories of houses under the National Housing Programme,. Equally the sum N1.1 billion is budgeted to Kano State Housing Corporation for the provision of site and services, plots development, renovation/development of dilapidated properties at Warri road, construction of 100No 2 bedroom houses, and construction of 100 low cost Houses of 1 bedroom at various places in the State.

WOMEN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, we will strive to continue to give this important sector the attention it deserves through the creation of more opportunities for women development in the State. In view of this, the sum of N854 million is set aside for various programmes and projects in the Ministry. This includes, Agric loan for women farmers, Women empowerment programmes, completion and renovation of lost and found Hostel at Sabuwar Gandu, Remand Home G/Dutse and reactivation of women vocational centres across the State.

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION

In our drive to ensure efficient information management and dissemination, the sum of N1.25 billion is earmarked to this sector.

PAGE 7

It is the determination of this government to implement policies that will empower our youth and have direct bearing on their lives, hence the sum of N400 million is allocated for youth empowerment programmes, job creation, skills acquisition programmes such as ICT/Telecommunication training.

Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, our administration will continue to support and encourage Sports to ensure that the State is represented at National and International Sports competitions. In achieving this noble objective, Kano State Sports Commission was created and charged with responsibility of conducting and coordinating all sporting activities in the state. In this regard the sum of N300 million is slated for the development of sporting activities in the State.

Furthermore, the sum of N328.42 million is provided for the Digitalization of the state owned Abubakar Rimi Television and Radio Kano to facilitate timely packaging, dissemination of public information and news in line with the current global trend.

AGRICULTURE

Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, in our effort to provide food security, sufficiency and employment to our rural populace, the sum of N6.6 billion is earmarked to the various Agricultural programs and projects in the state.

Out of this provision, the sum of N2.2 billion earmarked is for various agricultural development programs including our new initiatives of construction of new Fulani model villages at Gaya, Gwarzo, Kunchi, Kiru and Doguwa as well as implementation of a new programme known as Hanyar Kiwo a Saukake. The provision also includes the establishment of 10No. farm clusters at suitable locations in the State.

Similarly, another sum of N3.6 billion is allocated for the continuation of Commercial Agricultural Development Project, Third National Fadama Development Progam and other Agric extension services implemented by KNARDA.

Based on our resolve aimed at ensuring Kano Agric Supply Company Produces at an optimal level of production capacity, the sum of N513 million is appropriated in order to supply fertilizer to our farmers and other customers from different parts of the country.

MINISTRY OF LAND & PHYSICAL PLANNING/KNUPDA

Mr. Speaker, Honourable members, provision of Urban and Rural Roads is a major requisite to attaining economic growth and development as provided in our Development Plan. The on-going program of rehabilitation and renewal of major urban roads and infrastructure, construction of new roads and under pass bridges are a testimony of our commitment in that direction.

To further consolidate our investment in the infrastructure development, we propose to spend the sum of N16.8 billion in the 2017 fiscal year, out of which, N300 million is earmarked for the review of Kano Master Plan to ensure sustainable and planned development. As part of the efforts towards the construction/rehabilitation of various roads in the Metropolis, the sum of N4 billion is slated for the completion and commissioning of 45 No. roads, namely i.

Provision of infrastructure at Sheikh Khalifa Isyaka rabiu, Sheikh Nasiru Kabara and

Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam Cities; ii.

Completion of expansion/street lightening of Zaria road; iii.

Completion of dualization of Hadejia road – Dakata Kawaji – Kwanar Inusawa in

cluding provision of service lanes; iv.

Completion of dualization of new court road Gyadi Gyadi (‘Yantsaki roundabout) and v.

Re-construction of Yansango – Rijiyar Gwan Gwan – Katsina road just to mention a few. vi.

Construction of Freedom Radio road at Sharada phase I.

Similarly, we propose to spend another N4 billion for the construction of various roads across the State. Moreover, in our efforts to safe guard the huge investment in the road construction, the sum of N300 million is earmarked for the routine rehabilitation and maintenance of the metropolitan roads as well as the provision of service lane to create more openings in the major urban roads. We also propose to spend N400 million to complete the dualization works at Kabuga - Kofar Dawanau-Kofar Ruwa, Dan Agundi-Sharada-Sani Abacha Youth Centre and Independence road.

In the same vein, the sum of N1.5 billion is earmarked for the construction of barricades and interlocking tiles across the State, so as to enhance and upgrade the street planning and urban beautification. To meet the aspirations of metropolitan teeming populace, a new concept of “LUNGU KAL-KAL” was introduced to improve on the sanitation and to add value especially to the dwellers of Kano ancient city and its immediate outskirts. This scheme is also intended to address some health challenges particularly malaria because with the re-construction of the drainages, the breeding ground of mosquitoes will be covered. The project will therefore include construction of drainages with cover slabs and interlocking tiles as well as street lightning in the following locations: • Dala LGA: Bulukiya, Gidan Sunusi Dantata, Gobirawa, Kududdufin Dutsen Dala, Sharutu Dala and Tsamiyar Zibau.

• Fagge LGA: Kwarin Akuya and Layin Dan rimi.

• Gwale LGA: Diso to Aminu Kano Way, Dan Sarari Link Road, Veternary to BUK road, Professor Hafeez Street,Dr. Masa’ud Kazaure Street, Adamu Aliyu Kiyawa Street, Second Gate Bus Stop, Farouk Muhd Yola street and umar Sulaiman street.

• Kumbotso LGA: Unguwar Rimi Bye pass, Farawa Babban Layi and Zawaciki Layin Alh. Yau. • Municipal LGA: Ali Yamani Street, Bala Borodo Road, Hon. Mutari Ishaq Yakasai, Layin Makabarta and Sarkin Adamu street to Ali Yamani.

• Nassarawa LGA: Layin Gawon Gailo, Layin Gidan Dorawa, Layin Alh. Yahaya Mai Mai and Layin Yan Kwalla.

• Tarauni LGA: Balarabe Gaya road, Sheikh Umar Kabo Road, Tarauni Grave Yard Throgh Daurawa Quarters and Yan Tsaki Road.

• Ungoggo LGA: Ungogo Town from Police Station to Gandu, Rijiyar Zaki to Dorawar Yan kifi and Malam Inusa Danbazau to Masassaka Road.

• In line with our commitment to urbanization, the sum of N5billion is being earmarked for the continuation of the construction works of 5KM roads in the LGAs. CONCLUSION Mr. Speaker, Honorable Members, our administration remains appreciative of your support, cooperation and good sense of judgment, particularly at this trying moment of our history. Your usual swift consideration of all our requests is highly acknowledged and pray that this Budget proposal will be accorded the same treatment. I am convinced that you have Kano at heart and you are partners in the progress of our dear state. No doubt, you have today become true defenders of democracy and be rest assured that this generation and indeed future generations will be proud of you.

Let me at this juncture reiterate our administration’s commitment to our people and our stand for justice, equity and fair play. We are grateful also to all who made this Budget Presentation possible.

Mr. Speaker I am humbled and honoured to present to you the 2017 Budget proposal to you for the consideration of this honourable House and subsequent passage into law.

Mr. Speaker, other Honourable members please accept the assurances of my highest esteem and best wishes. Thank you all and God bless you for listening.

Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Ta’ala Wabarakatuhu!

PAGE 8

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

News Rainstorm wreaks havoc at Enugu airport

From Suleiman Idris, Lagos

A

n early morning rainstorm yesterday destroyed parts of the Akanu Ibiam airport building in Enugu, leaving critical equipment and facilities exposed.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) listed affected portions to include some parts of

the airport terminal building and pilot lounge as well the general aviation terminal.

Electric power lines to the airport, FAAN staff secondary and primary school buildings and private residential buildings were also touched by the thunderstorm. “ A very heavy thunder storm occurred at Akanu Ibiam

International Airport, Enugu in the early hours of November 23, 2016, destroying some parts of the Airport Terminal Building and Pilot Lounge and General Aviation Terminal.”

“It also affected Electric Power Lines to the Airport, FAAN Staff Secondary and Primary School Buildings and Private Residential

Buildings”, a statement by Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, FAAN Manager, Public Affairs told journalists.

The electronic mail said FAAN management took immediate remedial action which allowed flight operations in and out of the airport affirming that FAAN is doing her best to restore

normalcy.

According to Mrs. Herientta, no loss of life or injury was recorded while flight operations went on as scheduled.

FAAN said it regrets the inconveniences caused by the incident to airport users and the general public.

Gov. AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara (M); Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Wakkala (by his right); Speaker of the House of Assembly, Alhaji Sanusi Rikiji (by his left); Emir of Dansadau, Alhaji Husaini Umar and other dignitaries with rescued 41 people who were kidnapped by bandits, yesterday in Maru Local Government Area of the state.

Kogi raises IGR to N600m per month

T

he Kogi State Government says it has raised its monthly internally generated revenue, IGR, from N350 million to N600 million.

The state Commissioner of Finance, Idris Ashiru-Asiwaju, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lokoja on Wednesday.

He said that the feat was achieved by plugging of loopholes and bringing more people into the tax net.

Mr. Ashiru-Asiwaju confirmed that the state Board of Internal Revenue Service had just been restructured and reorganized for effective performance.

According to him, about 400 new staff had been recruited into the Board as part of the reorganization.

The commissioner said that only 46 out of the 292 former staff of the Board were retained while the rest would be redeployed by the state Head of Service.

Mr. Ashiru-Asiwaju said that the Board is now in good stead for aggressive revenue drive with the reorganization and injection of fresh blood.(NAN)

IPCR partners musician, Bongos Ikwue on peace promotion

By Ochiaka Ugwu

T

o avert mediocrity that has generally brainwashed the youths to imbibe extraterrestrial and culture of hostility, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and the legendary songwriter, music producer and singer, Bongos Ikwue have gone into collaboration to package rhymes and chants entitled ‘Nigeria Has Come To Stay’ to rekindle the flame of love and peaceful coexistence which seem to have eluded youths in Nigeria and beyond.

The IPCR team consisting of the Director General, Professor Oshita O. Oshita, Director of internal Conflict Prevention and Resolution, Mr. Peter Opara, a Researcher/Personnel Aid of the Director General, Prince Chaimang Mang and the Media Assistant to the Director General, Abu I. Michael were hosted by the music icon in his KK. Resorts, Otukpo.

While exchanging views with the IPCR team, Bongos argued that the decadence and other social vices being perpetrated by youth in Nigeria and other African countries were as a result of the bad

information that they have been fed with over the years.

He said we need to begin to correct the wrong information being fed through tawdry songs/ music, films/movies, books among other works of art which may help to build characters.

Bongos said IPCR would remain a worthy partner for collaboration hence its works which were all built around peace-building, peace promotion, mediation, and resolution of violent conflicts are commendable.

In his remarks during the meet, Mr. Sam Abraham who developed

the concept disclosed that the idea sparked from a message of peace that was delivered by Professor Oshita on September 17 during a press briefing for the 2016 United Nations (UN) International Day of Peace.

Mr. Abraham expressed the need for corporate organizations and well-to-do and well meaning individuals to collaborate with IPCR and especially the joint project with Bongos, the Mustapha and Christopher Foundation for the production and launch of the peace and love songs being workout by the music icon and IPCR.

StarTimes boosts DSO with Integrated Digital TV Set

By Paul Efiong

S

tarTimes Nigeria, a foremost pay-tv and technology company has unveiled its newest innovation and smart option for Nigerians, the integrated HD digital TV set.

The new television product which comes in three sizes and already available in the market is designed with in-built decoders integrated with the television thereby saving users the stress of buying TV and decoder separately as well as clumsy wiring connections.

The smart product which comes permanently with over 100 pay TV and free-to-air channels will grant end users instant access to join the digital TV train as currently being promoted by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The new StarTimes integrated digital TV set comes with upgradeable operating system, full HD LED screen category, 2 HDMI ports, 5MM Bezel, 1920*1080 resolution, 8W*2 digital noise filter system, and 100-240V, 75W Voltage with 12 months’ warranty.

Speaking at the official

unveiling ceremony in Lagos, StarTimes Nigeria Chief Operating Officer, TundeAina stated that as a pay TV industry leader StarTimes is committed to new innovations and technologies that can enhance digital TV experience for Nigerians and Africans and rally the people to enjoy maximum dtv entertainment at very affordable rates.

Aina said StarTimes commits itself to providing customers with the most endurable Digital LED TVs and the most splendid viewing experience, integrated with the cutting-edge technologies

and exquisite craftsmanship.

StarTimes Digital TV will boost viewing pleasure and offer credible, quality and outstanding entertainment experience at a quite competitive price.

The TV comes with 60% Lower Energy Consumption than CRT TV, designed for decorating a more fashionable space with its maximum thickness of 70mm and the minimum thickness of 13mm and Offer boundless viewing pleasure with 5mm ultra-slim bezel and silver skating blade stand which uplifts your viewing, he noted.

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

50,000 houses burnt in Kaduna Christian communities - CAN

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

T

he Christian Association Nigeria(CAN),said the 50,000 houses were burnt in 25 Christian community in kaduna in state space of six month.

The disclosure was made yesterday at a newsmen press conference yesterday in Abuja The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr. Samson Supo Ayokunle said the killings by Fulani Herdsmen in Christian community has become unbearable and we cannot continue to be quiet silent, all those killed are human beings not animals; we have putting our lives in the hands of governments and they must act accordingly .

We are appealing to the government of the day, the Inspector General of Police, all security agencies and the Governor of kaduna state, to do their work and let us see it crystal clear, people are still been killed in those communities.

He emphasised that Southern Kaduna is a predominant Christian community, also wondering what the security agencies are doing to address the issues of foreigns coming in through our boarders . « this is the moment of truth, it is not about politics, ethnicity or religious ,there has been systematic killing in Godogodo, Ninte Gida waya among others.

The president who lamented that that are they telling us that people should carry guns, why are they unknown, when they are known. « this religious cleanser must stop among us, whether Christian or Muslim no one should be a victims of herdsman. We are also soliciting for support from government to meet the needs of those affected community»,Dr. Ayokunle said.

Page 9

Shippers Council urges N/east farmers to export to Europe, US From Umar Dankano,Yola

T

he location of Yola International Airport has been viewed as strategic for producers of vegetables and other perishable farm products to be exporting to foreign countries for commercial purposes from north eastern part of the country.

Nigerian Shippers Council made the observation in Yola,Adamawa state capital at a seminar for vegetables farmer with the theme “Exploring the opportunities of Yola Interna-

tional Cargo Airport identifying air freight as viable export solution for agricultural producers of perishable goods in the war ravaged North Eastern Nigeria.

Director of Inland Transport Services of the Council, Mr.A.N. Makinde stated that producers of vegetables, fruits, flowers and dairy products can take advantage of air transport to export their commodities to European markets.

Makinde stated that perishable goods grown in the sub region could attract the foreign

exchange for Nigeria, saying countries like Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania had seized the advantages of the air transportation sector to export perishable agricultural products to Europe and America.

«Participant›s, you are also aware that the North East zone is blessed with a lot of non oil exportable products including perishable agricultural produce,hence, the need to encourage export from the zone to assist producers and marketers to break new market which will

in turn increase foreign exchange earnings», he stated.

Earlier in his address,the North East Zonal Coordinator of the Council, Samson Iliya Makama said farmers suffered huge losses due to poor storage and packaging facility, poor market structure,poor marketing information and under utilisation of international cargo freight facilities.

He therefore expressed optimism that the seminar would address the problems affecting exports

Governor of Nasarawa state, Alhaji Umar Tanko Almakura in a group photograph with officers of senior course 39 of Armed Forces Command and Staff College Jaji, during their visit to Nasarawa state on a study tour, yesterday in Lafia.

NYSC begs Niger govt to complete orientation camp From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna.

T

he Niger state Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), Mrs. Bolade

Loto has urged the Niger state government to fulfill its pledge of completing the NYSC permanent orientation camp situated in Paiko.

Recall that the State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani

Bello had during the passing out of the 2015 Batch A NYSC members posted to the state, ordered the immediate repair of facilities in the camp so as to make it more habitable.

Loto made the disclosure in Paiko yesterday while inspecting minor repair works on some facilities in the camp ahead the commencement of orientation exercise for the 2016 Batch B corp members

expected in the camp today (Thursday) nationwide.

He said the appeal has become necessary in view of the hardship being faced by the corp members during orientation camp.

Police rescue officer, 40 others kidnapped in Zamfara From Ibrahim Sidi Muh’d, Gusau

T

he Zamfara state Police Command yesterday announced that the 41 people including a Police Inspector abducted by armed bandits on the 18th of this month and held on a mission for exchange of over five hundred cows recovered by the Nigerian army in their possession were successfully rescued around 3:00am of yesterday.

This was heralded by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shaba Alkali saying, the rescue operation by the Police was successful following secret communication with the abducted Police Inspector who guided the steps towards the great achievement.

“Since the abduction, Police did not hesitate to embark upon strategies on how to rescue the abducted people alive and unharmed, and at the end of the day, the abducted regained free-

dom, they will reunite with their loving ones”, the informed.

The Commissioner further assured that, the Command has only seven days to get armed bandits dislodged from the state, although, it still needs adequate and usual cooperation especially from the affected communities and even the general populace across the state as security agencies alone cannot make it.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the rescue committee set up by the state government, the dep-

uty governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala while handing over the rescued people at government house Gusau, the state capital yesterday said, no money was involved or any other valuable to facilitate the release of the abducted people.

“We used every diplomatic weapons to have our abducted people released, and that has added to my knowledge that, even though, the armed bandits are not on legitimate platform but, dialogue has taken over all

efforts, no bullet, no Police, no army or any aggressive measure for the rescue committee to come up with the result that makes this day”, Wakkala stated.

Receiving the list of the 40 rescued victims, Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar has commended the rescue committee and the security agencies in the state, adding that, the state government would continue doing its best to ensure the state is crime free.

PAGE 10

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

News

Army launches fresh offensive to rescue Chibok girls … Raises alarm over planned amnesty report on MASSOB/IPOB

From Mustapha Isah Kwaru, Maiduguri and Mashe Umaru Gwamna Abuja

T

he Nigerian Army yesterday said it devised a new strategy aimed at rescuing all the remaining Chibok girls being held by Boko Haram insurgents, with launching an assault tagged ‘Operation Rescue Finale’.

Theater Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major Gen. Leo Irabor, dropped the hint in Maiduguri, at press conference on the successes recorded by the troops in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in past one month.

Major Gen Irabor notrd that the new operation which commenced early this month, was a continuation of Operation Crack Down, with a sole target of rescuing all the Chibok School Girls and other hostages being held by the terrorists in Sambisa forest.

According to him, the operation has so far started yielding fruitful results as

a total of 5,232 persons, hitherto under the custody of Boko Haram militants were rescued within the past one month.

“Preliminary bombardment of selected targets by own Artillery and Air Component is in progress. The subsidiary operations allied to Operation Rescue Finale, are ongoing and would be touched subsequently», he added.

The theater commander also noted that the troops are determined to unveil aggressive modalities to stem the recurrence of the recent suicide bombings in Maiduguri and environs, saying effctive surveillence and intelligence gathering were being put in place to trace the hide-outs of the bombers.

He explained that the recent arrest of a supposed female suicide bomber, who failed to detonate the explosive strapped on her body, helped the troops to have a clue on the hide-outs of the terrorists, who are coordinating the suicide missions.

Also yesterday, the Nigerian Army said alerted of a planned release of a report by Amnesty International on an unfounded storyline of mass killings of MASSOB/IPOB protesters by the military between August 2015 and August 2016.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Acting Director Army Public Relations ,Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman.

He said, “ We wishful to debunk the insinuation that our troops perpetrated the killing of defenceless agitators. This is an outright attempt to tarnish the reputation of the security forces in general and the Nigerian Army in particular, for whatever inexplicable parochial reasons.

“For umpteenth times, the Nigerian Army has informed the public about the heinous intent of this Non-Governmental Organisation which is never relenting in dabbling into our national security in manners that obliterate objectivity, fairness and simple logic.

“The evidence of MASSOB/IPOB violent secessionist agitations is widely known across the national and international domains. Their modus operandi has continued to relish violence that threatens national security. Indeed between August 2015 and August 2016, the groups’ violent protests have manifested unimaginable atrocities to unhinge the reign of peace, security and stability in several parts of the South East Nigeria..”

The statement further said that the strategic Niger Bridge at Onitsha came under threat thus leading to disruption of socio-economic activities. “In the aftermath of the encounter that ensued between security agencies and MASSOB/ IPOB militants many of own troops sustained varying degrees of injury. In addition, the MASSOB/IPOB recurrent use of firearms, crude weapons as well as other cocktails such as acid and dynamites to cause mayhem remain a huge security threat across the Region.”

L-R: Olusegun Awolowo Executive Director/CEO of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Maureen Ideozu Technical Advisor to the CEO, HE (Dr.) Bernhard Schlagheck German Ambassador to Nigeria & Mr. Sidi-Aliyu Director Policy & Strategy during the Ambassador’s official visit to NEPC Head Office, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo

NAFDAC burns N89m fake drugs in Plateau From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

I

n its effort to do away with fake drugs and regulate products within the society, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has burnt down fake drugs including expired and unregulated products amounting to N89m.

This was made known

yesterday by the agency in a remark by its Acting Director General, Mrs. Yetunde Oni who was represented by the agency’s Director Special Duties, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh during the destruction exercise of fake drugs

by NAFDAC at Ratt Village of Barikin Ladi Local Government, Area of Plateau State.

According to her, some of the products were voluntarily submitted to NAFDAC by

various government and nongovernmental organizations while others were mopped up from open market via enforcement activities and surveillance system of the agency.

She said she was happy the figure was down to N89m in 2016 as it was N100m last year, which was an indication that the agency has strengthened its enforcement and surveillance system.

Oni, however, expressed her

optimism that in near future the agency would have little or nothing to destroy as its staff would work towards ensuring availability of good quality, safe and affordable medicines and wholesome products to the Nigerian populace.

Oni further promised to employ strategies to ensure that those violated the rules and regulation of the agency are not only arrested but also face the full wrath of the laws.

Nigeria UNIDO emerges largest cooperation in Africa

By Abbanobi-Eku Onyekachi

A

s the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) marks 50 years of existence, it

has emerged that the institution has its largest cooperation in Africa in Nigeria, with over thirty projects and financial portfolio of over $30m With over thirty projects and

financial portfolio of over $30m, it has emerged that UNIDO has the largest cooperation in Africa with Nigeria.

This was made known to this medium in a release from the

Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) signed by Constance C. Ikokwu, the Strategic Communications Adviser to the Minister on Tuesday

Why we visited UniAbuja- Rep Amina

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

R

ep Amina Suleiman, Chairman House committee on education, has said the committee visit to the University of Abuja is one of the critical aspect of the duty of a law maker.

The law maker made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja at the end of the committee›s over sight function to the University.

He said the committee has not been able to form any impression from the visit until it receive report from the management of the school on the observations made and the issues raised concerning the operation of the school.

He said the visit by the committee also serve as a corrective measure and stimulant to ensure that public office holders discharge their duties to the best of their abilities.

Of course, it is expected that at the end of the visit we say weather we are satisfied or not with what we saw or what we were presented with.

From the papers presented to us, we have noticed some mistakes and have encouraged the management of the institution to correct the anomalies noticed and get back to us in one week time after which we will form a 3 man committee to come to the school for inspection”, he said.

Some of the issues raised by the committee during its interaction with the University management, are the over reliance of the University management on its governing Council.

He also querred why the council is duplicating the responsibilities of the management.

According to him, the Council are to meet periodically to assist in managing crisis in the school and to proffer solutions.

The committee also asked the management to furnish it with explanation on the number of times committees and Sub committees meet, their composition, how they settle crisis in the school and what each of the member is paid for each sitting.

The University management is expected to submit it›s report on the issue raised within one week.

Earlier in his welcome remark, Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Micheal Udikwu, said the University is making great effort to overcome some of the obstacles in its way to realising its full potentials.

He said the university›s land is being encroached on massively by some of the communities around it adding that the Gwagwalada Area Council is providing amenities like roads, boreholes, electricity, schools and health facilities in the villages thereby attracting more settlers.

He appealed to members of the committee to help in that direction through fencing the University land and compensation for the original inhabitants already enumerated by the FCDA which he said may stem the tide of encroachment.

Page 11

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

Feature

Towards effective public transport sector in Nigeria

By Paul Efiong

T

he critical role played by the transport sector to the socio-economic development of any country cannot be over-emphasized. Road transport plays an important role in the economy such as ours where other modes of transportation are underdeveloped.

It is no longer news that the Nigerian transport sector is continually in shambles despite its enormous contribution to the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

No wonder the sorry state of this crucial sector even as several efforts in the past and present have yielded not much result probably due to government lack of interest and substantial support hence its continuous struggle for survival from one government to another.

An urgent need for support to this key sector has become imperative as government, corporate bodies and spirited Nigerians must rise above board to ensure a collective support for the transport sector in the country because such a move is not just timely but also necessary for the sector to move forward as well as live up to its established mandate in order to salvage most of the problems associated with poor management in the country.

It will be recalled that before the advent of long buses in Abuja popularly known as El-Rufai, most commuters in the FCT used to pay heavily to greedy transporters and vehicle owners who regularly extort money from members of the public as they had no alternative but to patronize the locally called Kabu-Kabu taxis and their bus counterparts that delight in fare inconsistency coupled with lack of harmonized fare regulations.

In 2006, when the first batch of Urban Mass Transit buses arrived the F CT, most residents were happy as their transport fare were drastically reduced for the common interest of the ordinary and common people in the city..

However, there is still a lot for government at all levels to do regarding transport management in the country and in the FCT in particular. For instance, analysts argue that our transport managers should endeavour to peep through records of other countries of the world to see how such developed countries manage and run this very important sector not just for profit but more importantly to ensuring an efficient day to day operation of the city in addition to the fulfillment of their state given mandate to the people especially the ordinary man on the streets.

Findings have proven that in the developed world, premium is being placed on transport systems for its role in the movement of people, goods and services to areas of critical need. One of such is an effective, efficient and scheduled mass transit system which should be properly arranged to cover all parts of the city and should be accessible to all and sundry be they mighty and the low in the society, and must be meaningfully subsidized to ensure affordability and convenience among others.

For instance, in Nigeria our road transport sector which is the most

Saraki

Chris Ngige

Amaechi, Minister of Transport accessible mode of transportation is left in the hands of private operators who oppress the poor masses through exorbitant transport fares with no one regulating such prices. This has greatly affected free flow of transport system as most operators regularly hike their transport fares at will with the attendant risk to quality services as money is often placed by these operators above effectiveness, efficiency, human comfort and convenience.

Again, this has impacted negatively on the ordinary or common man with low income unlike those of the advanced countries of the world where government makes policies such as subsidies on transport systems to accommodate people of low income.

It is interesting to know too, that in some advanced and developed countries of the world, mass transits is being subsidized as well as scheduled so that it becomes extremely attractive to even those who operate private cars thereby causing them to cut down their use of cars thereby

reducing unnecessary congestion.

Let’s take the case of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for instance, this body which is commonly known as ‘WMATA’ or Metro is a trijurisdictional government agency authorized by the congress in that country.

According to findings, WMATA operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area including the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. The agency operates as a public corporation that covers the whole of circulator bus system in that state with its own police agency under the Metro Transit Police Department.

According to available data, while fares and advertising cover the majority of metro’s annual budget, significant funding is contributed by each jurisdiction that it serves as well as by the states of Maryland, Virginia and the United States.

Fares and other revenue fund 57.6% of daily operations while states and local government fund the remaining 42.4%.

Again in England for example

“

Simple common sense should convince us that a single Urban mass transport vehicle here in the territory can convey a total of 60 persons at a go, ten of such long buses may as well convey a total of about 600 persons conveniently which may reduce the negative effect of gridlock, go slow and general congestion among our roads specially during the rush hours.

passengers pay less for their fare, this is so because government pays subsidy per passenger journey which means easy access for the public. However according to investigations, this could increase as a result of reductions in population density in the most heavily subsidized services many of which are in rural areas which would be unserviceable without public subsidy.

The current Minister of FCT, Mohammed Bello is highly commended for maintaining the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company as this agency has brought a lot of succor to FCT residents who commute from their suburb to the central business district for business transaction of one form or another as well as journey from their place of abode to offices.

While advising the Federal Government to encourage scheduled and efficient mass transit services in the whole country that might serve as palliative as well as additional fare cut, this may affect most people positively as they definitely will see this as divine gesture from the government to the ordinary man.

The opportunity availed itself when the Federal Government decided to remove oil subsidy which did not benefit the ordinary Nigerian but the high and the mighty in the society hence it was necessary for government to have a coordinated approach which when fully implemented could benefit all Nigerians particularly the under-privileged.

Money accrued for subsidy removal should therefore be used to improve transport system as well as improve the health care sector for the common good of all Nigerians. This remains particularly important now than ever even as the whole country is facing hard economic times that have continued to bite harder.

Simple common sense should convince us that a single Urban mass transport vehicle here in the territory can convey a total of 60 persons at a go, ten of such long buses may as well convey a total of about 600 persons conveniently which may reduce the negative effect of gridlock, go slow and general congestion among our roads specially during the rush hours.

It would be recalled that the Abuja Urban Mass transit recently went off road because of the strike action in the establishment, during this period many commuters had to contend with several hike in transport fares by private vehicle owners who consistently and regularly hiked transport fares subjecting ordinary Nigerians to what they did not bargain for, while greater number of people who were not able to cope or cough out such money owing to exorbitant transport fares had no alternative than to resort to footing transport service.

Again, the minister must be commended for his swift response to the outcry of most FCT residents thereby taking all the necessary steps to ensuring that the high capacity vehicles returned to their different routes in order to ameliorate the already suffering plight of the common man who were already fed up by the unregulated transport system by private vehicle owners in the territory.

PAGE 12

Opinion

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Ibrahim Agboola Gambari: A Scholar-Diplomat @ 72 Moses Ohaegbuchi,

T

oday, 24th November, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari celebrates his 72nd birthday. For many others, and me he is certainly a bridge-builder, a mentor, a guru and a golden man with a golden heart worth celebrating. I have known him as a selfless, compassionate, faith-filled, highly focused, patriotic and detribalized Nigerian. It is not for nothing that a philosopher of great repute, G.W.F Hegel came out with the proposition that the world revolves around the figures of great men.

Gambari absolutely belongs to this category of personages. I am proud to be associated with this rare gem whose wisdom has been of profit to many individuals, nations, our continent and indeed the international community.

I feel honoured to have had the privilege of learning directly from the foot of the master.

Professor Ibrahim Gambari’s humble mien shields a granite interior and quiet determination that may give the first impression of a softspoken and self-effacing man. A man of many parts who chose to remain simple and accessible despite being decorated with many accolades including being a prince from the royal family of the Sulu Gambari’s. He would simply wish to be introduced as teacher by training and diplomat by accident. His simplicity is as challenging as his towering academic profile.

In Professor Gambari we behold the embodiment of a philosopher whose actions are directed by reason and with virtuous mind that concurs to moral principles not as a parttime concord but as a consistent way of life. An encounter with Professor Gambari leaves you with no doubt, that he is a man of substance, a perfect gentleman, a sage, a rare gem, an enigmatic hero and icon of the highest repute who cares much about the welfare and interest of this nation Nigeria and the African continent at large.

One of his key contributions to our understanding of Nigeria’s foreign policy is the theory concentric circles, which he developed. It’s an approach that places the interests of Nigeria first. The centre of the circles has Nigeria’s security, territorial integrity and political independence. The second circle embraces the West African region with the ECOWAS countries

and the third circle is Africa while the final one is the rest of the world. No wonder Dele Giwa once opined, “Emotions have no place in diplomacy.

It is the stuff of the cunning and the amoral and even the intensely intellectual. The timid don’t get involved in diplomacy. When they do, their countries suffer” The game of diplomacy is for the initiated, the hard, and the cunning. The game of diplomacy is played for the broke. You don’t mess around with morality. You strike out for national interest first even if that means that your neighbour will not get food on his table. You sit down and plan your strategy and take your risk. You win, if you plan well. You lose, if you are a fool.

A little retrospect into Professor Gambari’s life demonstrates a life of service, both in Nigeria and the in¬ternational arena and his reasoned interven¬tions that seek to end conflicts in Nigeria, Af¬rica and the rest of the world. His exemplary lifestyle, scholarship, integrity, diplomacy and knowledge-based efforts to groom the youth who represent the fu¬ture are worthy of emulation. He is a teacher, diplomat and scholar of highest standing. Leverag¬ing on these triple strengths he has touched humanity and helped to demonstrate that faced with challenges, leaders could deploy with certainty the power of thought to solve the problems of mankind.

This Magister Magnus turns 72 today having been born on the 24thNovember 1944 in Ilorin, Kwara State Nigeria. Young Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. He sub¬sequently attended the London School of Economics where he obtained his BSc. (Econs) degree in 1968, with specialization in International Relations. He later obtained his M.A (1970) and Ph.D (1974) degrees from Columbia University, New York, USA, in Political Science/International Relations.

Gambari began his teaching career in 1969, at City University of New York, before working at University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello Uni-versity, in Zaria. From 1986 to 1989, he was visiting Professor at three universi¬ties in Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Stud¬ies, Georgetown University and Howard University. He has authored several books and published widely in both local and international journals.

He has also been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and

a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Centre, the Rockefeller Foundationrun centre in Italy. Professor Gambari has received several academic and national honours, including the “Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” (CFR), and the “Order of the Companion of Oliver R. Tambo” (OCORT) of South Africa. He was accorded, honoris causa, the title of Doctor of Humane Let¬ters (D.Hum. Litt.) from the University of Bridgeport. He is a deserving member of the Johns Hopkins University’s Society of Scholars.

Gambari has served Nigeria in different capacities. First as Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985 under the then Military Head of state; General Muhammadu Buhari, and subsequently Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations. He was also a delegate at the 2014 National Conference on restructuring and promotion of national unity in Nigeria. At the International level, Gambari held numerous UN positions including Chairman of UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and the UNSG’s Under SecretaryGeneral and Special Advisor on Africa.

Other important assignments carried out

by Professor Gambari include - the joint AU/ UN Special Representative in Darfur and Head of UNAMID, then the largest international peacekeeping operation in the world and the first hybrid mission. He was the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and other Issues for the Secretary-Gen¬eral of the United Nations. He co-chaired with former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance. Currently, Professor Gambari is the Chairman and Founder of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, a non-governmental think-tank on research and policy studies focused on the challenges of conflict prevention and resolution as well as democratization and development in Africa.

Through this NGO, he has been able to use his experience over the years to make positive interventions on peace and security in Nigeria especially during the last General elections.

The essence of Professor Gambari is his simplicity in scholarship, diplomacy and

Morality: The lost symbol of Nigerians

By Abba Auwalu Issa

T

he law is indispensable for the stability and continuity of a nation. But laws are not always the final tool to maintain discipline in a country. Sometimes people showed lack of regard for anything called law in their countries.

What happened in Rwanda, in the last two decades and two years ago, which claimed the lives of several thousand Rwandans was not showing absence of law in Rwanda; but lack of respect for the law. The Sierra-Leone Civil War which reigned for eleven years did not mean that the country had no established law. Rather, it meant that some people in the country at that time had no respect for the country’s law. The Liberian Civil War is a similar example.

What started in Nigeria, sixteen years ago, under the guise of democracy and turned out to be inhumane exploitation of the country’s treasury by those ‘polio-ticians’ indicates total lack of respect for the Nigerian law by those people.

Before we say something, we must try to understand who is to blame for the people’s lack of respect for law. Is it the government?

Is it the people themselves? Or is it related to other external forces?

I bet you, it has nothing to do with any external force. It all depends on the

government. The government is responsible for law making and making the people to obey the law.

In Nigeria, the law is there: and there are sanctions against violations. However, it appears as if the law and the sanctions do not exist. And as if some ‘polio-ticians’ are more powerful than the law. It baffles me to see the court trials of the alleged looters running out of one year without any tangible effect.

It is right for judges to claim the grant of fair hearing to the accused. But, is it ethically right for lawyers to device means of prolonging the trials in favour of such clients? No. If the law cannot provide limit to trial periods of such cases, if the law cannot put limit to the actions of lawyers handling such cases, if the law seems unwilling to convict looters of national treasury; the law proves insufficient.

And such law needs urgent redress.

While no one can emphasise the negativity of the law, Nigerian government need to consider other way of instilling discipline in the citizens. Morality.

Law and morality are two guiding principles that shape human conduct. The law alone, cannot play the role of morality. If our government discards moral enforcement, I am afraid, public conduct may not be well channeled. The law has minimum effect on our feeling. This function, however, may be well played by our moral conduct. Steven

Shavell of Harvard Law School wrote: ‘morality too involves incentives: bad acts may result in guilt and disapprobation, and good acts may result in virtuous feelings and praise’.

Our government needs to work hard to make people have zeal for virtue and contentment.

Let the people be made to detest illegal ways of making money.

It is difficult to get rid of corruption without changing people’s way of thinking about wealth, dignity and honour. To be honest, we should never expect Nigerian people to be right-thinking about fraud, looting, cheating and corruption if the current will continue.

Aniebo Nwamu wrote in his Sunday column of 22nd May, 2016, that: ‘each year plagues of honour are awarded to thieves and charlatans, while hardworking, honest but poor Nigerians are not noticed. Nigeria will not recover until moral values are re-instilled in Nigerians’.

But the government looks indifferent to the statement of this sage.

Today, a detained suspect, accused of stealing from the national treasury is living more comfortable life than an innocent average Nigerian. The law makes it easy to elect politicians into power but difficult to bring down thieves among them. I wonder the source of law that shields and gives privilege to a criminal. Whatever the basis of such law, it is not sufficient.

If the government must end corruption in

relations with others. As he often puts it, the articulation of a coherent foreign policy is not “dogon turanchi” (long grammar); it’s simply an external projection of our values as a nation, the promotion of our national interests and our worldview. His consistent focus has been developing strategies that are designed to win friends, influence actions of other foreign nations in the international community and establish appropriate status within it. He is a beacon of justice, equity and peace. This Apostle of inclusivity in government would often enthuse; how are we engaging NGOs, Civil Society Groups and ‘non-state” actors in this change mantra?

Indeed, where is the national conversation in reducing the huge and growing costs of governance at the Local, State and Federal levels?

This patriot has at different fora advocated for a wholesale attitudinal change combined with new codes of leadership and followership to be embraced across different segments of society so that we can take our country back from the enemies of the Nigerian state. These are the looters and destroyers of our national resources and the professional defenders of ethnic interests by whatever name - Hausa, Yoruba and Igbos— who thrive on what divides us rather than what unites us. His core belief is that a new compact will need to be established between rulers and citizens that will serve as a basis for our collective audit of the performance of those to whom we entrust our national destiny. Indeed, his key principle is that we should only place in authority people that have shown consistent commitment to the Nation and its interests.

Professor Gambari has deep religious beliefs and values; excellent interpersonal relationships, administrative sagacity and intellectual fecundity gelled together to produce an Institution in his person. He will often say; one thousand friends are not enough but one enemy is one too many. His teams of friends are experts in their chosen professions and cut across boundaries.

May the Almighty Allah whom he fears and worshipscontinue to bless him and grant him more years and good health?

Happy birthday Your Excellency.

Moses Ohaegbuchi, Writes from the Savannah Centre, Abuja. ugomoses@yahoo.com

Nigeria, it must first make adjustment to the law; andcreate a medium of re-establishing moral values in the people.

Looking back at the history of precolonial Nigerian societies, today, we are no longer ourselves. Our virtuous identity; our morality, is lost. In the North, for example, a typical Hausa man would hate his death not more than he would hate to be called a thief. Today, I see youth who long to attain the positions of power in order to steal from the government accounts.

In order to be called thieves. Compare the two and you will see lack of morality in the latter. In those days, there were no law in form of what we have today. But, morality was their guiding principle in attitude and behavior.

It is time for the government of Nigeria to make move and revive the morals; the lost symbol of our people. It is time for the religions to do the same.

‘War against indiscipline’? No. it sounds so military and we are political people. The government may have a subtle slogan for its campaign of moral restoration, because it is a moral virtue to treat people with lenience. And this will tell us that our government is morally good. lost symbol of Nigerians

By Abba Auwalu Issa is of the department of Mass Communication of Bayero University, Kano.

PAGE 13

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Comment

Niger Delta Avengers: Peace is cheaper than war

By Umar Sa’ad Hassan

H

istory will forever remember late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s handling of the Niger Delta Militancy when he was President. He vigorously pursued peace by dangling the amnesty programme and establishment of the Niger Delta ministry. Government ‘Tompolo’ controlled one of the most vicious groups then and he was the very last to drop arms and meet the President. I admired Yar’adua for meeting him personally and smiling through it all for the Cameras.Tompolo on the other hand, appeared shy and some what overcome. It was obvious a lot had been put into getting the much dreaded ‘Government’ to sit on that table in the mood he was in and President Yar’adua deserved very much to reap the reward of his hard work.That was crisis management at its finest.

The Niger Delta avengers is at the fore front of a recent bid to establish a Sovereign nation of the Niger Delta and it has promised to cripple Nigeria’s oil producing capacity to zero level till it wards off all resistance.The group has been on a crazy spree over the last few days, bombing two Chevron oil wellsRMP 23 and RMP 24 because the company embarked on repairs of installations it had bombed earlier and then a Shell oil facility on June 3rd to round up an unprecedented attack of key oil installations in a matter of days that had affected almost everyone from NNPC to Agip.

I seriously doubt if President Buhari can handle this crisis in the manner President Yar’adua did then judging from how he has gone about things. The attack on Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta state by the Nigerian military was irrational to say the least. The only thing it succeeded in doing was raising human rights questions in the international community and if one also considers the army’s massacre of innocent shi’ite members in Zaria along with the destruction of the sect’s properties and the continued detention without trial of its leader, I wouldn’t be surprised if the US and its cronies refuse to sell us arms on grounds of human rights violations. Like they did the Jonathan government when he sought to buy some to fight boko haram, such refusal could just be when we need the weapons most.

There are reports of how innocent people were harrased, maimed and intimidated in Gbaramatu and it is hard to figure out what the Commander-in-Chief and his troops were hoping to achieve.

Even if it had succeeded in arresting some members of the militant group, there was always the possibility of that inciting the others to increase the spate of attacks so as not to appear defeated as is common with such elements.

Well, shortly after the army’s visit, they bombed three key installations in quick succession to further buttress their readiness to see out their cause.

These happened after the deployment of about 100 gunboats and numerous warships to tackle the militants. That is a clear pointer to the fact that the government has adopted the wrong approach. Dialogue remains the government’s best option in this. There must be a tactical and ‘respectful’ wooing of the militants to the discussion table.

Whether or not we can defeat the Niger Delta avengers is not what is important, the paramount consideration should be the damage they are capable of causing before they are subdued (that is if they are subdued). The country’s oil production has been cut down by more than 40,000 barrels per day and Delta state is already reporting a N2.6 billion loss in revenue due to the activities of vandals. Peace is cheaper than war and this war is quite expensive if you ask me.

The British high commissioner, Paul Ackright has lent his voice to the call for the government to tow the path of reason.

There couldn’t possibly be a better way of resolving this crisis. It would heal the wounds the pathetic handling by the Buhari administration has already caused. A lot of regrettable comments have been made by key members of his administration before the militants increased the heat and it is advisable to watch whose help he enlists because of the heightened sensitivity involved at this stage.

People like Brig.Gen Paul Boroh (Rtd) the Presidential Amnesty co-ordinator

must be immediately removed from the fore front.The man claimed to have practically relocated to the creeks to help get the militants to the table and went on to convene a meeting with 50 militant leaders at the Transcorp Hilton without those of the Avengers (the real threat).He not only dashed a lot of expectations but wasted precious time and resources as well.Such power should no longer be afforded such a man as his exercise of it could be counterproductive and outright wasteful.We have heard how millions of dollars were reportedly squandered by the Jonathan administration all in the name of negotiations. It is best to have only those who can reach out directly to the targets and no one else.

Furthermore, Boroh came out to categorically state that the government will not dialogue with the Niger Delta avengers and that has automatically made him a bad choice of go-between as it would be highly unwise to entrust him with the duty of luring them to the table.The government must avoid getting unnecessarily confrontational this stage.

All hands must be on deck to ensure the Niger Delta avengers give up their cause without further damage being done.

If the government can’t guarantee the security of our installations, then at least it must guarantee us that.

Umar Sa’ad Hassan is a lawyer based in Kano.

Franchising electricity distribution for improved service delivery

By Odion Omonfoman

M

ore than two years after the conclusion of the power sector privatisation process, the sector seems to have gotten much worse. Generation is at an abysmal low level; system collapses are now more frequent, and the much-touted investments and efficiency in the power sector are yet to materialise. Even worse, the sector is faced with huge liabilities that require urgent government intervention to avert a financial collapse of the sector. Under the CBN-Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility (CBNNEMSF), the CBN has injected over $1billion (N197/$) just to cover liabilities in the power sector from November 2013 to December 2014, as well as legacy liabilities to the gas sector.

The CBN is looking at an additional injection of over $600 million to cover further liabilities from January 2015 to February 2016. The CBNNEMSF financing to the power sector is at an interest rate of 10 percent per annum and will cost electricity consumers over N124 billion in interest payments alone, over the next 10 years. In addition, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) seeks to raise a minimum of $1.5 billion debt financing in long-term bonds to finance future liabilities in the power sector.

Without any significant improvement in power supply in the near horizon, electricity customers have to pay back these huge loans that have already been factored into their electricity tariffs!

The irony of the privatisation exercise is that the power sector has received far more funding from government post-privatisation than when the power sector was wholly owned and controlled by the government. It is a big irony not lost on members of the House of Representatives, who are opposed to further government bailout of the power sector.

To be fair to the Buhari government, it is worth stating that prior to February 2016, power generation had peaked to a new level of 5,070MW never before attained. The unexpected resurgence of militancy resulting in large-scale sabotage of oil and gas facilities

in the Ijaw areas of the Niger Delta is largely responsible for the low generation levels experienced from February 2016 till date.

Clearly the issue of militancy and pipeline sabotage may not be addressed any time soon except the militant groups responsible for the bombings toe the path of peace and halt further sabotage to oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.

On the other hand, efforts to add the much needed generation capacity have been constrained by the poor financial condition of the DISCOs to service such investments.

DISCOs are faced with huge challenges, which are clearly visible in their operations and service delivery. Some of these challenges include a lack of sufficient energy supply from grid, high technical and non-technical losses, obsolete networks, lack of maintenance of network equipment, poorly trained manpower, poor customer data, low metre penetration, health, safety and environmental issues and a near absence of investments due to poor revenues, inadequate tariffs, huge liabilities, particularly from MDAs and external funding constraints.

It is important to state that these challenges were precisely the reason why the privatisation of the power sector was done in the first place.

It was believed that the privatisation of DISCOs would solve these challenges. Two years after, DISCOs are yet to deliver the supposed gains/ benefits of the privatisation. Notwithstanding, we must emphatically state that this is not a rush to judgment about the power sector privatisation. The privatisation process was legally carried out, even though the outcomes have been disappointing so far.

DISCOs need to do more to improve their operational efficiencies in order to improve their revenue profile. Indeed, beyond the inherited challenges enumerated above, DISCOs are faced with self-inflicted problems as well. A few of these include the rapid reduction and downsizing of experienced workforce, such that the remaining workforce is insufficient and relatively unskilled. Other self-inflicted challenges were the reluctance to commence

their metering programmes early enough and perhaps, more difficult to understand, their inability to properly enumerate their customers so far within the first two years of operations.

Geographical Coverage Areas of DISCOs A factor not usually considered in the poor service delivery of DISCOs is their geographical coverage areas. There were two schools of thought at the onset of the unbundling and privatisation of PHCN Successor Distribution Companies. One school believed that DISCOs should be unbundled according to geographical states. The other school of thought preferred their unbundling in line with existing PHCN regional centres. In the end, we’ve ended up with privatised DISCOs whose geographical coverage areas are quite extensive for efficient management. All DISCOs, with the exception of Eko and Ikeja DISCOs, cover a minimum of four states. Lagos State has the unique advantage of having two DISCOs. Enugu DISCO operations cover the five states of the South-East.

In our view, the current geographical coverage of DISCOs is unsustainable to allow for efficient operations and customer service delivery. Had the companies been unbundled along geographical state coverage i.e. one DISCO per state, we would have had at least 36 DISCOs, with the resources of each DISCOs serving a state dedicatedly as opposed to being spread too thinly across four states to provide efficient customer services. We also would have had the opportunity of individual state governments to actually partner with the DISCOs to improve electricity access to its people. For instance, the current structure of DISCOs hinders a state like Akwa Ibom State from partnering with Port Harcourt DISCO in providing electricity to rural communities in the State.

In addition, while not readily admitted, business districts of DISCOs that are located outside of the city or state wherein their headquarters are located, struggle to receive funding and materials to efficiently carry out their operations. They often have to escalate and wait for decisions and even minor issues to be resolved at headquarter levels.

The Concept of Electricity Distribution Franchise Electricity Distribution Franchise is an emerging PPP model pioneered in the Indian electricity distribution sector. Under the electricity distribution franchisee arrangement, specific functions for a demarcated area within the total licensed area of distribution is franchised out by the distribution utility to a private sector entity, while the Distribution Company retains the ownership of assets.

The appointed Distribution Franchisee provides certain services to consumers in the service area on behalf of a Distribution Company, including the corrective and preventive maintenance of network, breakdown rectification and other routine operation and maintenance of the distribution system, attending complaints, metre reading and bills distribution, as well as attending to the commercial complaints of the consumers within the service area as set out by the main agency.

The Distribution Franchisee is responsible for the collection of money in the service area and commits to reduce the collection and distribution losses as per terms and conditions of franchise agreement between both parties.

Initially, such an arrangement was restricted to the outsourcing of basic functions such as billing, collection and repair and maintenance (R&M) of transformers. Over time, it evolved into incentive-based arrangements for the private sector to invest in the distribution network and be responsible for all functions after receiving energy from the utility right up to collection of revenues from consumers.

In India, Distribution Franchise is a middle ground between government ownership and full privatisation of electricity distribution networks (please see “The Bhiwandi Electricity Distribution Franchisee Model: A Resolute Step in Distribution Reforms”, IDFC Policy Group Quarterly, 2009).

Odion Omonfoman is an energy consultant and can be reached on orionomon@outlook.com

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

PAGE 14

News

By Edwin Olofu, Kano

G

overnor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state yesterday presented an appropriation bill of N209, 857,330,488 for the 2017 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for ratification.

Tagged “Sustainable Self Reliance” budget, it consists of N 130,486,682,677 for capital expenditure while the sum of N79, 370,647,811 is for recurrent undertakings.

“The proposed capital expenditure for the 2017 fiscal year is N130,486,682,677 which is less than that of 2016 by N59,861,393,873 and it is to be

Okowa salutes resource control advocate, Prof.

Darah at 69 From Osakhare Erese Asaba

D

elta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has congratulated literary giant, academic odessy, politician and elder statesman, Prof. Godini Gabriel Darah as he clocks 69.

Governor Okowa in a statement on Monday in Asaba by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Charles Aniagwu extolled the virtues of the literary icon and described him as one of Nigeria’s literary encyclopedia.

According to Aniagwu, Governor Okowa recalled with joy the radical and intellectual contributions of Prof G.G. Darah to the Niger Delta struggle where he remains the famed intellectual of resource control and fiscal federalism in Nigeria.

“On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, I congratulate Prof. Godini Gabriel Darah on the occasion of his 69th birthday.

“Prof. Darah’s contribution to resource control and fiscal federalism in Nigeria remains indelible in the Sands of time.” the Governor stated.

The statement added that Prof Darah was nicknamed “Professor of Resource Control” in recognition of his contributions to the Niger Delta struggle which he enunciated by his numerous public lectures, keynote speeches, interviews and essays.

“As Chairman of the Editorial Board of Daily times and Guardian Newspapers, Prof. G.G. Darah contributed immensely to the shaping of the journalism profession through his fiery, thought-provoking articles and editorials on the state of the nation.

“As a Delta State delegate at the 2014 National Conference, you made Deltans proud by your didactic and insightful contributions at the conference.

“May the Almighty God grant you more fulfilling years as an eminent professor and statesman to continue to lend your experience, knowledge and wisdom to our dear nation as it seeks to make progress in all facets of national development.” The Governor added.

Gov. Ganduje earmarks N209.

8bn for 2017 fiscal year financed by N64,329,872,216 expected Recurrent revenue surplus and total capital receipts of N66,156,810,461”, Governor Ganduje explained.

According to the governor, in a statement by Salihu Tanko Yakasai, DG Media & Communications, Government House Kano yesterday, the Capital Receipt is made up of N7,190,528,060 expected Internal and External loans drawdown, N26,202,301,276 estimated

Grants, N32,563,981,125 Miscellaneous receipts and Treasury opening balance of N200 million.

The total projected Recurrent Revenue for the year is estimated at the sum of N143,700,520,027 which consist of N46,010,415,132 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N97,690,104,895 Revenue from the Federation Account (FAAC).

He explained that the total recurrent revenue is higher than

that of year 2016 by N774, 385,794 representing 0.79%”, adding that the projected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is lower than that of year 2016 by N13, 215,199,074 representing 8.4% increase highlighting that the decrease is based on the current economic realities in the country.

Further breakdown of the budget, as given by the governor, shows that the Public works and housing sector got the lion

share, receiving an allocation of N43.72 billion for construction of several municipality and urban roads, bridges, a modern abattoir in Kano city, completion of some underpass roads and commencement of the city light rail project, among others.

Education got the second largest share of N17. 5 billion, Land and Physical Planning, N16.

8 billion, Water Resources has N13. 5 billion, even as Health got an allocation of N10. 74 billion.

2,200 NYSC members to begin orientation in Kaduna From Femi Oyelola, kaduna

2

,200 BATCh ‘B’ (stream I) members of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) deployed to Kaduna State are expected to resume at Black Gold orientation camp, Kilometer 16, Kaduna-Abuja highway, Sabon Gaya, Chikun local government area of Kaduna state tomorrow (Thursday) for their 21-day orientation course.

This was contained in a statement signed by Coordinator

of the scheme in the state, Muhammed Momoh and make available to media in Kaduna on Tuesday.

The statement read, “this is to inform the general public that the 2016 Batch ‘B’ Orientation Course has been scheduled to hold nationwide from Thursday, 24th November to Wednesday, 14th December 2016.

“In Kaduna State, two thousand two hundred (2,200) prospective corps members are expected to take part in the induction

programme at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp.

“The Swearing-in Ceremony for the course participants will take place on Monday, 28th November, 2016 by 10:00am.

“Employers who desire the services of corps members should apply now stating clearly the number of corps members, course/discipline required and the welfare provision put in place for them”.

However, the State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai is expected

to preside over the event as the Special Guest of Honour, while the Honourable Chief Judge of Kaduna State, Justice Tanimu Zailani will administer the Oath of Allegiance on the prospective Corps members.

The orientation course is one of the four cardinal points of NYSC, in it, corps members are exposed to dos and donts of the scheme among others as they begin the one year mandatory service to their mother land.

Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje laying the 2017 Budget Proposal before the Kano House of Assembly Members, yesterday in Kano.

CITAD to FG: Arrest Fani Kayode for saying Buhari will die in office From Edwin Olufu

T

he Centre For Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called for the immediate arrest of a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani Kayode for saying, “President Muhammadu Buhari will either die in power or be impeached before the end of his tenure”.

CITAD said in statement signed by its team leader, Hate

Speech Countering Unit, Sagir Ado Abubakar, that the statement made by Kayode was capable of truncating peace in the Country.

The statement said for a former minister and elder statesman like Kayode to say openly that President Buhari would die in office or be impeached, the Nigerian security should not take it lightly.

CITAD noted in the statement that the Kayode’s utterences was

aimed not only at attacking the President alone but also indirectly or even directly intended to provoke the Northerners and instigate them against the people of the other region in the country. “we urge the relevant security agencies in the country to discourage this kind of statement by tracking any statement considered inflammatory and take the necessary action in accordance with the law of the land”. The

statement said The Non Governmental Organisation also called on the general public, more specifically Northerners not to take the statement serious and allow security to do their job.

“We are compiling all these kind of inflammatory statements and soon our position on them would be know because there is the urgent need to give legal purview on them”. Said the statement

PAGE 15

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Countdown To Ondo Guber

I am the next governor – Jegede says after Appeal Court judgment *As INEC says it’s ready to replace Ibrahim’s name with his

By Ali Alkali

T Jegede

he People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede has described the judgment of the Appeal Court as victory for the people of the state.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja Wednesday set aside the verdict of the Federal High Court which ordered the replacement of the name of Eyitayo Jegede with that of Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP candidate.

Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel in its ruling affirmed that replacing Jegede with Ibrahim without hearing Jegede’s side was breach of fair hearing, adding that the lower court erred in its judgment.

Reacting to the judgment, Jegede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the judgment was indeed victory for the people of the Sunshine State.

He said: “I thank the people of the state for believing in me. In fact, I spoke with one of our supporters today who is in a very critical condition.

He said he would stay alive to vote for me, even if that is the only thing he could do before he joins his maker. I dedicate this victory also to him.

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Wednesday said factional governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the Saturday’s Ondo election, Jimoh Ibrahim will be replaced with Eyitayo Jegede.

INEC had earlier replaced Jegede’s name with Ibrahim following the ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the commission, Rotimi Oyekannmi, said the electoral umpire will obey the ruling of the Appeal court which

set aside the Justice Okon Abang’s ruling which ordered the initial replacement of Jegede’s name with Ibrahim.

According to Oyekanmi, the ruling of the appellate court should be served on the commission before Friday.

Oyekanmi said, “Yes, the judgment as we followed, it shows that we must replace the name of Ibrahim with that of Jegede. We will obey the judgment because this is an order coming from a superior court. We will abide by that decision.

“However, we will expect that the judgment be served on us before Friday to enable us comply.

When we are served, we will comply immediately.

But we are not going to shift the date of the election.

We have passed that stage. The election is going to hold on Saturday, November 24 as scheduled.”

Judgment is a major setback for us – Fayose

A

s Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led Appeal panel, on Wednesday declared Eyitayo Jegede as the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo Governorship poll, the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose has commended the verdict, but pointed out that the time was against its party to be able to make headway in the poll.

“This judgment coming at this time is a major setback for our party, which I believe can only be cured if this election is postponed,” Fayose concluded.

Fayose , who craved for the postponement of the poll as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did in Edo State Governorship election, added that INEC in cahoots with the All Progressives Congress(APC) had succeeded in undermining the strength of the party through this unwarranted judicial impediment.

According to DAILY POST report, the governor, who reacted to the judgment delivered in Abuja setting aside the earlier judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court,

which had earlier ordered INEC to substitute Jegede’s name, said the postponement remains the best option, if INEC is truly an unbiased umpire.

Justice Abang had a couple of weeks ago ordered the electoral commission to enlist the name of a business mogul, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, as the candidate of

the PDP in replacement for Jegede.

Fayose said: “The judgment shouldn’t have been otherwise, because you can’t cover the truth. I have said it ab initio that charlatans in the PDP are colluding with INEC and APC to undermine our party.

“INEC has no reason in the first

instance to change Jegede’s name.

So, this mistake was caused by INEC. It was an INEC making; and the best way to for it is for the election to be postponed. This is not the best of time for us in the PDP and the good people of Ondo State. This is not the best time this judgment should have come.

“But we are still looking for Nigeria of our own, I mean Nigeria where there will be fairness and equity. It is regrettable that some charlatans can be colluding with INEC and APC to destroy our party. This is very regrettable and unfortunate. But they will still be defeated.

Factional People Democratic Party Gubernatorial Candidate, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede addressing Journalists after the court of appeal ruled in his favour as substantial PDP Governorship Candidate for Ondo State Election, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

APC faults public opinion poll tipping Oke as winner

A

head of the November 26 governorship election, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo State has stated that the report of a recent opinion poll on the forthcoming election in the state is fraudulent and misleading.

The APC said the report of the poll, which was reported in a national newspaper, was purportedly conducted by an unknown company in Lagos and that the newspaper failed to provide the details of the organization that allegedly

conducted the “fake opinion poll”.

The APC Publicity Secretary in Ondo State, Mr Abayomi Adesanya, who made this known in a statement in Akure on Wednesday, stated that the result of the poll reported in the newspaper edition of November 19 with the caption “Opinion poll tips Oke to win” was aimed at misleading members of the public.

According to Adesanya, “It was fictitious as there was no opinion poll conducted anywhere in Ondo State as

reported by the newspaper.

“It is not the true reflection of the wishes of Ondo State people, but the opinion of a few individuals who are promoters and financiers of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate, Chief Olusola Oke. “It is unfortunate that the newspaper could be used for an unprofessional job.

“In any case, in the recent past, the newspaper’s opinions have largely been incorrect and inconsistent with the

reality and the wishes of the people.

“It is on records that the newspaper’s opinion was that Hilary Clinton will defeat Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America.

“That Pastor Ize Iyamu will defeat Godwin Obaseki to become the Governor of Edo State and also that Dr Segun Abraham will emerge in the Ondo APC Party’s primary held on September 3.

“None of these and many others

came to reality. “We are not perturbed by whatever induced opinion written by a few hands that is portrayed as the Ondo State peoples’ opinions.

“The fake and conjured media prediction is to satisfy ownership interest.

“It is the people of Ondo State that will decide who will be their next governor and not subjective opinion poll or prediction done in Lagos to justify the huge financial investment of some people,” the statement added.

PAGE 16

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Politics

Timi Frank has technically expelled himself – APC

By Umar Muhammad Puma

T

HE All Progressives Congress yesterday disclosed that the embattled Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Timi Frank has technically expelled himself when he took the party to court in contravention of the party’s constitution.

Recall that the Frank was accused of making disparaging comments to the media about the party the high point of which was his call for the sack of the party’s Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun for incompetence.

The south-south zonal executive chaired by Hilliard Eta, earlier investigated the matter but Frank shunned the invitations extended to him to come and clarify himself after which he was

suspended and recommendation for his sack forwarded to the National Working Committee (NWC) Briefing the press on outcome of an emergency meeting by the NWC, the party’s Deputy National Secretary, Oji Ngofa said that by taking the party to court, Frank has contravened section 13(5) of the party’s constitution which states that any body that drags the party (APC) to court shall be expelled.

Hear him, “The position of the National Working Committee of the party on the issue of Timi Frank, is that we have accepted the recommendation of the zonal committee that sat on it after reviewing the report they gave to us yesterday.

“Timi Frank did not appear at any of the sittings he has rather

gone to court, so the position is that we will not jeopardise the matter that is in court now as a law abiding political party, we will wait until the court decides.

But technically by Article 13 (5) of our Constitution, he is no longer a member of the party until the court decides otherwise because it is stated clearly that the party will expel any member that takes the party to court.

“So, we’ve taken a decision to hold on with the report of the zonal committee and await the decision of the court. Meanwhile the party will have not dealing with him in line with Article 35 of our Constitution.

Ngofa maintains that the Zonal executives of the party have already informed Frank of his suspension while his sack was as a

result of his action and not even as a result of the recommendations of the South-South Executives.

“By our Constitution, the zonal committee has powers to look into such issues and take decisions. The NWC is just to take the decision to NEC for ratification. The powers to ratify is not with the NWC, it is with NEC we have acknowledged receipt of the court documents everything is with the courts. It is not in our position to write him, the zonal committee had done that. Any attempt for us to do so now will be over reaching the court process. By virtue of the action he has taken (by going to court), he has expelled himself by virtue of Article 13(5) of our Constitution we will not take further action until we hear from the court.

R-L: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SGF Engr. Babachir David Lawal, Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari and Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, during Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: State House

Jegede’s reinstatement is tonic for PDP’s victory - Ekweremadu

By Christiana Nathaniel

T

he Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has described the decision of the Court of Appeal, which reinstated Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, the candidate of the

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2016 Ondo State governorship election, as good tonic for ultimate victory for PDP and Ekweremadu, who said the decision as “just, courageous, and expeditious”, commended the Supreme Court and the Court of

Appeal for their promptness in handling the matter, noting that democracy could only thrive where there is respect for the rule of law.

He added: “The freeness, fairness, and credibility of an election, go beyond what happens on an election day.

“The process, especially the right of the party faithful to choose a flag bearer of their own freewill unhindered by subterfuge, manipulation, intimidation, and abuse of any form, are equally as important and indeed foundational to the soundness of the election

AD charges INEC, security agents for free, fair election

By Abbanobi-Eku Abuja.

A

Onyeka,

head of Saturday the 26th November, 2016 governorship election in Ondo State, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agents to ensure that the election is free and fair. It also urged the people of Ondo State to come out en masse and vote for the party’s candidate, Chief Olusola Oke based on what the party sees as credibility in him.

This was contained in a release from the party signed by

one Ishmail Ayodele Wednesday the 23rd November, 2016.

According to the release, Chief Oke is the only governorship candidate that will fulfill his campaign promises in tandem with the progressive manifesto of the party and deliver dividends of democracy to the longsuffering masses, reiterating on the need for the people to take their destiny in their hands and vote for a credible, people-oriented candidate with what it sees as clear vision and mission to rescue the state from poor leadership and reactionary forces that have impoverished the populace.

A vote for AD, the release

went on is a vote for progress, development, transparency, equity and better life, adding that Ondo State people desire and deserve a strong democratic leadership to steer the state to the path of economic growth, wealth creation, infrastructural development and employment.

In the role of INEC, AD therefore said that the commission should provide a level playing field to all the political parties participating in the election, just as it reiterated on the need for the security agents to be awake to their constitutional responsibilities and ensure a violence-free election. AD, the

release went on condemned in strong terms the plot by desperate politicians to use security agents to harass, detain and frustrate their opponents particularly its members. This nonsense must stop forthwith.

Electoral contest, the release added was the beauty of democracy and gives the people a chance to choose their governor.

Any attempt to thwart the will of the people must be resisted by all lovers of democracy in Nigeria, just as it enjoins politicians to carry out issue-based campaigns and eschew politics of bitterness that has impeded our frail democracy.

Okowa hails Appeal Court ruling on Jegede ▪Lauds Supreme Court Justices on timely intervention From Osakhare Erese, Asaba

D

elta State Governor Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has hailed the court of appeal ruling which declared Eyitayo Jegede, SAN as the authentic gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) for the November 26, 2016 Governorship election in Ondo State.

Governor Okowa described the decision of the Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa, which on Wednesday upheld Eyitayo Jegede, the candidate of the Makarfi led PDP as a triumph of good over political bitterness aided by selfish interests.

Reacting to the unanimous judgment of the appellate court that Jegede was duly nominated as the authentic candidate of the party, Okowa in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu in Asaba on Wednesday, urged the Sheriff led faction of the party and its candidate, Jimoh Ibrahim to stop distracting the party and support Jegede to deliver for the party in the Ondo election.

He said: “i commend the Court of Appeal in Abuja for their unanimous judgment which restored Eyitayo Jegede as the candidate of our party. This ruling is very significant because the will of the people, clearly expressed, cannot be thwarted by a clique being propelled by political bitterness and selfish interests they want to promote.

Buhari urges INEC to conduct free, fair poll *Charges Ondo people to vote Akeredolu

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has called on all the people of Ondo State to go out to the polling units on Saturday, November 26, and cast their vote for CHANGE. ”The right to vote is not only a civic responsibility, but the opportunity to determine the course of our lives as a people,” Buhari said in a statement issued

by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) He said,”A vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State is a vote for progressive and people-oriented policies. ”Since the creation of Ondo State in 1976, the people of the state have contributed immensely to the growth and development of Nigeria, especially in the domain of agriculture and education.

A vote for Rotimi Akeredolu, a renowned lawyer of guileless reputation who rose to the peak of his profession as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, is a vote for the continued development of Ondo State. ” The statement said, ”President Buhari looks forward to a free and fair election and true representation for the good people of Ondo State.”

PAGE 17

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Politics

Anambra election: APC inaugurates electoral committee

A

s part of the efforts geared towards galvanizing supports for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State, the Senator Benjamin Uwajumoguled Electoral Committee has set out a machinery to ensure the overall success of the ruling party in Anambra next year.

At its inaugural meeting held yesterday in Abuja, the committee vowed to work assiduously in initiating strategies that will help deliver Anambra State to the APC. DAILY POST reports that part of the resolutions reached by the

members of the committee at the meeting include: deploying a better platform to interface with the leadership of the party and major stakeholders in Anambra state; strategising towards achieving a seamless gubernatorial campaign; among others.

The committee also resolved to convene ward, local government and state stakeholders meetings, as well as, interface with various grassroots structures, such as youths and women groups, relevant political associations, Town Unions, and Non-governmental organizations with a view to mobilizing support for the party.

It further resolved to launch an enlightenment campaign in all nooks and crannies of the state, so as to educate prospective voters of the need to align the politics of the state to the centre.

Addressing reporters at the end of the meeting, Chairman of the committee, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu assured party faithful in the state that his committee would do everything within its powers to deliver Anambra to the APC. The Senator who recently won his rerun election in Imo North further assured all aspirants within APC of a level playing field, adding

that the task before the committee was a serious one which would not be handled with levity.

He appealed to Anambrarians to help hook up the state to the national politics for more democracy dividends, by supporting the party in the forthcoming guber poll, adding that Ndigbo has much to benefit from the APC, as against remaining in the opposition.

He thanked members of his committee for their favorable dispositions in ensuring that Anambra is welcomed to the league of APC states for more progressive development.

Members of the group later

paid a courtesy visit to the Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha who is the only APC Governor in the South East, with a promise to deploy their strategies to ensure that the party wins the forthcoming poll.

The Anambra gubernatorial election is billed for early 2017 with Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu as Chairman of the Electoral Committee and Dr. Mrs. Dorothy Nwodo as Secretary.

Other members of the committee include Sen. Chris Nwankwo; Sen. Anthony Agbo; Dr. Anyim Nyerere; Dr. Chris Akomas and Hon. Tony One Week.

Gov. Bello swears in Suleja LG interim Chairman From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

T

he Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has sworn in Abdullahi Abubakar as the interim Chairman for Suleja local government area This was sequel to the suspension of the Chairman, Honorable Ahmed Dikko and his Vice on allegations of financial misappropriation, acts of misdeeds and high handedness.

Bello stated that the interim Chairman who is the Leader of the House in suleja local government council will act pending the outcome of the investigation of the committee.

The Governor also inaugurated a three man committee to investigate the allegations against the suspended Chairman giving them three weeks to submit their report.

“Following the suspension of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Suleja local government area, we cannot allow a vacuum, this is why we are appointing the Leader of the House to act pending the outcome of the Committee’s investigation.”

He urged the committee to be fair and objective while carrying out their duty .

It will be recalled the Speaker of the Suleja Legislative Council, Abdullahi Abubakar had earlier notified the Niger state House of Assembly of the decision of the Council to suspend the Chairman and Vice Chairman for three months until they are cleared of the allegations leveled on them.

Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (middle) with students of Key Science Academy (KSA) Masaka Nasarawa state, when the students visited the National Assembly, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Mahmud Isa

Buhari should not allow aggrieved APC chieftains defect – Mbachu

A

Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Jude Mbachu, in Imo State has appealed to President Muhammadu Buahri to intervene in the crises affecting the party, stressing that top shots of the party should not be allowed to defect from the party.

Addressing reporters in Owerri, the state capital, Mbachu said Buhari’s intervention in

the crises rocking APC will help prevent the party from collapse.

According to Mbachu, the internal crisis in the ruling party was similar to the problem that destabilised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, before the 2015 general elections.

“I am sad with the current state of affairs in APC because if the founding fathers of APC fail to tackle the problems, it may

spell doom for the party in future elections.

“Because of the in-fighting in PDP before the 2015 elections, the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar pulled out of PDP with five governors to APC and that move brought down PDP. “The leadership of APC may be making a big mistake if all that we are hearing and reading in the papers concerning plans by some

APC top brass to pull out of the party is allowed to happen.

“I expect that as men of honour, agreement reached during the fight that led to the political struggle that led to the defeat of PDP should be respected.’’

Recall that there have been reports claiming that Tinubu is plotting to float another political party ahead of 2019 general elections.

Tinubu not sick, he went for medical check-up – Afikuyomi

S

enator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, a staunch loyalist of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has refuted the claim by the Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong, that the former governor of Lagos is sick.

Lalong said it was the reason that stopped Tinubu from attending last Saturday’s Ondo State APC governorship rally.

Afikuyomi said Lalong’s claim was false.

In press release, Afikuyomi, who claimed that he travelled to the United States of America with Tinubu to witness the recent US elections, said that the former governor “Is in a remarkable state of mental and physical wellness.”

He said, “It is therefore absolutely incorrect and most embarrassing for anyone to

attempt to invent such a laughable reason for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s absence at the rally. The fact that somebody went for medical checkup does not mean he is ill.

“In the likely event that Asiwaju, like all mortals, was ill at all, I doubt if Mr. Lalong would be the first to know by reason of relationship, proximity and trust.

“Prominent politicians like the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle

Amosun, have been speaking with Tinubu. Governor Amosun particularly communicated with him a day before the Ondo rally and he can never claim not to have spoken with him.

“I have also remained in constant touch with Asiwaju Tinubu since my arrival in Nigeria.

We speak daily as a matter of fact,” Afikuyomi added.

PAGE 18

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Stock Watch: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 Company

7UP

Previous Closing Price Opening Price High

185.06

184.5

184.5

Low

184.5

Close

184.5

Change Trades Volume Value

-0.56 25

233,796

Company

Previous Closing Price Opening Price High

Low

Close

Change Trades Volume Value

43,137,315.02 MAYBAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ABCTRANS 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 4 505,000 252,500.00

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

ACADEMY 0.59 - - - 0.59 0 - ACCESS

4.46

4.46

4.64

4.46

4.5

0.04 321

28,060,764

126,589,999.78

ADSWITCH 1.63 - - - 1.63 0 - AFRIK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - AFRINSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18 MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

AFRIPRUD 2.65 2.7 2.7 2.61 2.61 -0.04 35 553,581 1,479,349.55 MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 AFROMEDIA 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 550,000 275,000.00

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

AFRPAINTS 2.59 - - - 2.59 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

AGLEVENT 1.02 0.97 -

-

1.02

8 48,971 46,330.44

AIICO 0.9 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.91 0.01 18 983,972 898,207.23 AIRSERVICE 1.91 - - - 1.91 3 1,505 2,918.35 ALEX 9.84 - - - 9.84 0 - ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00 ANINO 0.25 - - - 0.25 0 - ARBICO 5.04 - - - 5.04 0 - -

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19 NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

ASHAKACEM 22.5 - - - 22.5 16 55,698 1,233,876.58 NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

AUSTINLAZ 2.09 - - - 2.09 0 - -

NPFMCRFBK

AVONCROWN 1.52 - - - 1.52 0 - BECOPETRO 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - BERGER 9.6 9.61 9.61 9.61 9.61 0.01 9 379,696 3,674,398.56 BETAGLAS 48.51 - - - 48.51 0 - -

0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0

6

174,000 170,510.00

NSLTECH 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OANDO 8.5 8.92 8.92 8.48 8.48 -0.02 364 7,671,197 65,761,034.51 OKOMUOIL 28.82 - - - 28.82 21 108,772 3,056,214.60 OMATEK 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

BOCGAS 4.18 - - - 4.18 0 - PAINTCOM 1.14 - - - 1.14 0 - CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64 PHARMDEKO 2.14 - - - 2.14 1 5,000 10,850.00 CAP 38 39 39 39 39 1 16 166,666 6,492,031.87 PORTPAINT 3.53 - - - 3.53 0 - CAPHOTEL 4.07 - - - 4.07 0 - -

PREMBREW 2.95 - - - 2.95 0 - -

CAPOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

PREMPAINTS 10.93 - - - 10.93 0 - -

CAVERTON 2.63 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 -0.13 7 145,913 366,122.50 CCNN 8.73 9.16 -

-

8.73

7 51,560 458,087.60

CHAMPION 4.17 4.17 -

-

4.17

11 146,282 587,170.36

CHAMS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CHELLARAM 3.76 - - - 3.76 0 - -

PRESCO 30.5 - - - 30.5 6 32,910 1,045,950.40 PRESTIGE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - PZ 25.5 25 25 25 25 -0.5 33 567,539 14,195,538.05 RAKUNITY 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - REDSTAREX 4.2 - - - 4.2 2 19,785 83,097.00 REGALINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CILEASING 0.5 - - - 0.5 2 4,000 2,000.00

RESORTSAL 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 100,000 50,000.00

CONOIL 27.41 26.04 -

ROADS 6.6 - - - 6.6 0 - -

-

27.41

8

13,350 330,799.00

0.6 - - - 0.6 0 - 1.06 1.01 1.06 1.01 1.06 0 11 3,520,635 3,661,166.09 ROKANA ROYALEX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CORNERST 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - RTBRISCOE 0.5 - - - 0.5 3 78,164 39,082.00 COSTAIN 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 5,000 2,500.00 CONTINSURE

COURTVILLE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - CUSTODYINS 4.1 - - - 4.1 6 16,101 64,845.03 CUTIX 1.45 - - - 1.45 1 26,666 38,665.70 CWG 2.67 - - - 2.67 0 - DAARCOMM 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 4,000 2,000.00

SCOA 4.16 - - - 4.16 0 - -

SEPLAT 230.04 225 225 225 225 -5.04 20 77,862 17,490,790.00 SIMCAPVAL 103.24 - - - 103.24 0 - SKYEBANK 1.9 1.9 1.99 1.9 1.99 0.09 75 2,020,105 3,920,083.45 SKYESHELT 100 - - - 100 0 - SMURFIT 0.98 - - - 0.98 0 - -MAY-

DANGCEM 162 163 163 163 163 1 33 156,759 25,532,904.96

BAKER 1.26 - - - 1.26 5 26,078 32,955.18

DANGFLOUR 2.31 - - - 2.31 16 31,484 75,328.68

MBENEFIT 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

DANGSUGAR

- - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62 6.52 6.32 6.51 6.32 6.51 -0.01 26 343,221 2,210,542.55 MCNICHOLS 1.2 MOBIL 138.99 - - - 138.99 20 6,378 854,115.18

DEAPCAP 0.58 - - - 0.58 0 - -

DIAMONDBNK 2.87 2.8 2.8 2.74 2.74 -0.13 43 1,315,800 3,645,250.00 IPWA 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - JAPAULOIL 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00 JBERGER 39.5 - - - 39.5 4 1,180 44,879.00 JOHNHOLT 0.96 - - - 0.96 0 - -

MORISON 1.73 - - - 1.73 0 - MRS 49.66 - - - 49.66 1 500 23,590.00 MTECH 0.91 - - - 0.91 0 - MTI 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

JOSBREW 1.51 - - - 1.51 0 - -

NAHCO 4.38 4.17 4.17 4.17 4.17 -0.21 19 203,175 850,145.97

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

NASCON 7.18 7.5 7.3 7.16 7.3 0.12 26 1,031,170 7,479,398.60

LASACO 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 1 300,000 150,000.00

NB 135 135.2 135.2 129.51 129.51 -5.49 105 1,220,085 161,842,702.19

LAWUNION 0.54 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.52 -0.02 14 910,610 481,548.30

NCR 11.02 - - - 11.02 0 - -

LEARNAFRCA

0.68 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 -0.03 10 1,074,871 699,416.15

LENNARDS 3.15 - - - 3.15 0 - LINKASSURE 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - LIVESTOCK 1.4 1.41 1.41 1.41 1.41 0.01 9 134,400 192,410.51 MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - MANSARD 2.62 2.55 -

-

2.62

8 37,850 99,859.50

Top Gainers Company

Previous Closing Price Opening Price High

NEIMETH 1.03 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 -0.05 6

126,800 124,264.00

NEM 0.69 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.01 16 1,774,600 1,241,859.00 NESF 552.2 - - - 552.2 0 - NESTLE 814

822.99 822.99 822.99 822.99 8.99 73

115,282 94,401,035.72

NIG-GERMAN 4.91 - - - 4.91 0 - NIGERINS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - NIGROPES 7.46 - - - 7.46 0 - -

Top Losers Low

Close

Change Trades Volume Value

Company

Previous Closing Price Opening Price High

Low

Close

Change Trades Volume Value

ALUMACO 7.75 - - - 7.75 1 200 1,474.00

MULTITREX 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

FORTISMFB 5.42 - - - 5.42 0 - -

NNFM 8.99 - - - 8.99 0 - -

UNHOMES 5.23 - - - 5.23 1 3,750 18,637.50

MCNICHOLS 1.2 - - - 1.2 5 154,383 176,896.62

INFINITY 1.42 - - - 1.42 0 - -

UTC 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

OMOSAVBNK 0.92 - - - 0.92 0 - -

UNIONDICON 11.84 - - - 11.84 0 - -

MULTIVERSE 0.5 - - - 0.5 1 10,000 5,000.00

MANDRID 5.35 - - - 5.35 0 - -

ASOSAVINGS 0.5 - - - 0.5 0 - -

CADBURY 20.1 - - - 20.1 15 82,240 1,655,764.64

ABBEYBDS 1.25 - - - 1.25 0 - -

JULI 1.75 - - - 1.75 0 - -

Page 19

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

By Lawrence Olaoye

N

igeria and other African countries has received above of 2 billion dollars from Kuwaiti authorities to fund key development initiatives in agriculture, youth empowerment, education and support to fight terrorism.

This pledge was made by the Arab country at the 4th Africa-Arab Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea yesterday.

At the Summit, jointly organized by the African Union Commission and the League of Arab States, the Kuwaiti government said the amount would be released to African countries as soft loans to promote the development of the continent.

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) will release $1 billion for the support of the fight against terrorism, youth empowerment and boosting agriculture, while another $1billion will be for strengthening educational systems in Africa.

Kuwait had in 2013 made similar facilities available to some African countries to diversify their economies, particularly in sectors that directly impact the lives of citizens.

President Muhammadu Buhari led the Nigerian delegation to the summit, which was attended

by African Heads of State, and prominent leaders from the gulf.

L-R: Commissioners of Finance, Enugu State, Mrs. Offor Eucharia Uche; acting Chairman, Commissioners of Finance Forum and Commissioners of Finance, Imo State, Obinna Mbata; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa Dutse, and Head of Efficiency, FMOF, Patience Oniha during a workshop on Cost Management for state governments, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-owo

Nigeria, others to benefit from Kuwaiti dev’t funds

Navy raids illegal refineries in Niger Delta

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

I

n continuation of the anti-crude oil theft operations of the Nigerian Navy in the Niger Delta, patrol teams deployed by the Service have raided and destroyed more illegal bunkering and refinery sites.

The Nigerian Navy has intensified patrol of the maritime areas of the country in order to deter any form of

security beaches and threats.

On 16 November 2016, the patrol team deployed by Forward Operating Base (FOB) Formoso in Bayelsa State arrested MV MIDES 2 and 2 other Cotonou boats for alleged illegal bunkering activities at Sonikiri Community in Nembe LGA of Bayelsa State. MV MIDES 2 was while arrested carrying out transfer of suspected illegally refined AGO to the Cotonou

boats.

A statement signed by the Commodore Director of Information Christian Ezekobe said another raid took place on 18 Nov 2016, the patrol team deployed by NNS PATHFINDER in Rivers State destroyed an illegal refinery site containing about 70,000 litres of stolen crude oil and 40,000 litres of illegally refined AGO at Bille Creek in Rivers State.

Similarly the patrol team deployed

by NNS DELTA arrested 4 persons onboard a Cotonou boat laden with suspected stolen crude oil on the Forcados River. This feat is in addition to an earlier raids conducted by the operatives in which a Cotonou boat laden with about 15 metric tones (MT) of product suspected to be crude oil was destroyed at Benneth Island in Delta State.

We didn’t receive N27bn insurance deal for staff of PHCN -BPE clarifies

By Etuka Sunday

T

he Acting Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Vincent Akpotaire, has clarified that the Bureau did not initiate nor receive the much publicized N27billion Insurance deal for the staff of the defunct Power Holding of Nigeria (PHCN).

The BPE Boss also reiterated that the agency had no official knowledge an investigation into the N27 billion Power Holding Company of Nigeria insurance payment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Dr. Akpotaire made these clarifications during the follow-up meeting with Members of the House of Representatives Investigative Panel on alleged insurance

fraud in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Monday, November 21, 2016.

The Bureau in its submission further clarified that the request for payment of the Insurance Premium was submitted by the Ministry of Power to National Council on Privatisation (NCP), of which the Bureau is its secretariat to deliberate on. The payment was approved by relevant organs and paid by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) in 2014.

A statement by the Head, Public Communications, BPE, Alex E. Okoh, the Bureau categorically stated that though the payment was considered a transaction related expense for staff of PHCN, it was not for staff or properties of

the Bureau.

The BPE also explained that there was no requirement that propels an agency to liaise with NAICOM in the appointment of Underwriters and Brokers, though the Bureau as a matter of policy ensure that all companies it shortlists have valid operating licenses based on NAICOM’s releases and website.

The Bureau also clarified that it evolved a system of retaining the lead brokers and underwriters over the years in order to enjoy the 50% Long Term Account Discount for long term relationships, as this helped the Bureau build its insurance history.

After the submission of the Bureau, the Ad-Hoc Investigative Committee Chairman, Honourable Adekunle

Akinlade,. advised that while there was no requirement that propels the Bureau or any agency to liaise with NAICOM in the appointment of underwriters and brokers, it was pertinent, going forward, for the Bureau to liaise with NAICOM to verify the insurance companies it has selected to transact business with.

The committee stated that it was the intention of the House of Representatives to strengthen government institutions.

The Chairman enjoined the BPE, and indeed all government agencies to always ensure that new entrants into businesses in any sector are given equal opportunity to display their expertise and capabilities.

He said members would review the new submission and make appropriate recommendation to the House.

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Page 20

Business

FG, states, LGC’s share N420, 000bn for October, 2016

By Abbanobi-Eku Onyeka,

A

total of N420billion has been shared as Federal Allocation for the month of October 2016 by the Federal Government, State governments and Local Government Councils after the monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) According to the figures released by

Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the gross statutory revenue of N238.716 billion received for the month was lower than the N279.746 billion received in the previous month by N 41.030 billion. Crude Oil export volume decreased while the average price of Crude Oil dropped, resulting in revenue loss of about $51million in Federation export Sales.

Force Majeure was declared at Qua Iboe

Terminal and the NGL lifting programmes with the Force Majeure at Forcados Terminal still in place.

Shut-in and Shut-down of Pipelines for repairs and maintenance due to attacks on delivery pipelines also contributed to the low revenue.

Also, there were decreases in volume of import duty and Companies Income Tax (CIT) while PPT and Oil Royalty recorded

marginal increases.

The distributable Statutory Revenue for the month is N 203.952 billion. The sum of N 6.330 billion was refunded by NNPC to FGN. There is a proposed distribution of N 109.108 billion from Excess PPT Account.

Also, exchange gain of N 37.319 billion is proposed for distribution.

This brings the total revenue distributable for the current month (including VAT) to N 420.000 billion.

Consequently, from statutory revenue, Federal Government received N96.674 billion (52.68%); States received N49.035 billion (26.72%); Local Government Councils received N37.804 billion (20.60%); while the Oil Producing States received N13.548 billion as 13% derivation revenue.

Unlicensed contractors banned from electrical installations, says NEMSA From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

T

L-R: Chief Executive Officer, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema and Chief Investment Officer, Kuramo Capital Management and Representative Member of Verod Capital Growth, Fund II Limited Partners Advisory Committee ,Wale Adeosun, at the Closing Gong Ceremony at the Exchange, yesterday in Lagos. Photo: NAN

Kaduna launches new perishables railway logistics system

By Femi Oyelola Kaduna

T

he Kaduna State Commissioner of Agriculture, Dr Manzo Daniel Maigarion has commissioned a new fresh perishables railway logistics system and tomato aggregation center at Dutsen Wai in Kubau local government area of Kaduna state.

This new system which is the result of partnership between GEMS4 AND Connect Rail Services Limited (CRSL) shall see the transportation of fresh perishables especially tomatoes using returnable plastic crates (RPCs) in temperature controlled rail cabins, initially from pack houses built in aggregation centres and ultimately from refrigerated cold chain storage facilities in Northern Nigeria to wholesale markets in the south by railway.

It was designed; keeping GEMS4’S good handling practices initiative in view.

In his speech, the commissioner said that they were “working closely with DFID’s GEMS4 on cooperative administration in and the management of post-harvest losses’’, as they could not “continue to farm and harvest only for our produce to get spoilt even before we got to the market”.

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Agriculture who was represented by mrAdeyemiAbioye, Regional Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture stated that the launch was a good initiative that keyed into the federal government efforts in agricultural development.

This development will not only improve the quality of tomatoes and other fresh perishables supplied from the north to the south but it is also expected to increase incomes for small holder farms due to the reduction of post-harvest losses.

With an annual output of 1.8 million

metric tons, which accounts for 10.79% of Africa’s tomato production and approximately 1.2 % of total global output? Nigeria is the 14th largest producer of tomatoes in the world!

Unfortunately, 45% of this total output is wasted as a result of poor handling practices, lack of adequate storage and packing materials for transit.

According to GEMS4 Group Intervention Manager, Mr Richard Ogundele “this is a national game changer that will lead to massive systemic changes, as the utilization of Returnable Plastic Crates (RPCs) in the supply chain will ensure quality produce and increased incomes hence sustaining the gains of early harvesting”. He further added that “because the railway system being employed is state of the art, transit times will not only be less but traders will be able to transport more harvest in a produce friendly environment thus getting more value for their efforts”

he Zonal Inspecting Engineer, Nigeria Electricity Management and Services Agency (NEMSA), Kano Inspectorate Field Office, Engr.

Muhammad Gony Konduga, has said that no unlicensed contractor should be allowed to handle electrical installations in Nigeria.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the National Conference of the Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN) at Royal Tropicana Hotel in Kano State yesterday, Konduga said that any electrical installation should only be carried out by licensed contractors, calling on all the stakeholders to comply with the directive.

“NEMSA has already taken the bull by the horn to ensure that no electrical installation should be done in Nigeria without any License. Letters have been circulating to all organisations. Here in Kano, we have distributed the letters that no electrical installation should be done by any unlicensed contractor.” He said He called on the states chairmen of the LECAN to speed up the re-validation exercise of the members of the association, lamenting that the exercise was slow.

Earlier in his speech, the LECAN National President, Otunba Dele Akintola labelled members of the association who are yet to obtain its national membership certificate and National identification card as impostors and have no business with the association.

Akintola said the association would no longer accept any member who negligently lost his license as a result of inability to revalidate it before the closing date of the revalidation exercise.

According to him, the issue of revalidation of the LECAN members should not be taken lightly, adding that he would not make too much emphasis on that in view of the level of awareness created by the association.

He explained that the re-validation exercise was directed by the federal government, adding that NEMSA was the body saddled with the responsibility of the re-validation exercise.

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Anchor borrowers: FCT-Agric Secretariat moves to deepen farmers’ involvement

By Stanley Onyekwere

at the FCT Agric Secretariat, Zakari Aliyu, said the success of the programme depends on submissions made to CBN by interested farmers, the meeting was vital, as it will help equip staff with usable information to aid enquiring farmers and farmer groups.

According to the statement, Acting Secretary of FCT-ARDS, Dr. Musa Aliyu urged every staff to key into it, particularly as ARDS is FCT’s Ministry through which the Territory is participating in the laudable programme.

He reminded them that rice and soya beans are the two products where FCT has comparative advantage, hence its participation in ABP was anchored on both.

The ARDS boss said a desk officer has been designated by the Secretariat for the programme, and also named Mr. Abdullahi Salami, Deputy Director and Chairman, FCT ABP as the Secretariat’s link with the public while Mr. Yahaya Hussein, Head of the Planning Research and Statistics will handle enquiries from within.

Tracing the history of ABP, the Chairman, FCT-ABP, Abdullahi Salami, recalled that it was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in Kebbi with an initial 70,000 farmers on the list.

He disclosed that a small committee has been raised to implement the processing of expressions of interest. The committee,

he added, was inaugurated last month, and was followed by a stakeholders’ meeting in early November, effectively kick starting the n a bid to ensure effective participation of programme in FCT. Federal Capital Territory (FCT) farmers Salami listed some of the stakeholders in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)/ to include involved banks, input dealersAnchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), FCT fertilizer dealers, agro chain operators, Administration, through the Agriculture industry, farmers’ groups etc. and Rural Development Secretariat (ARDS) He emphasized that ABP arose because has drilled key officers on how to pilot the Federal Government felt a need to reduce programme. import-dependence on certain items which In particular, the officers were thoroughly can be produced locally, generate income sensitized on every aspect of the programme for small holder farmers and boost food and empower them with adequate security. information for onward transmission to According to him, the product is called staff members and the public on demand. ‘anchor’ because there has to be an industry A statement by Head of Public Relations needing to obtain materials for processing and a market. States with comparative advantage in crops are encouraged with persons involved identified, listed and their names sent to CBN, which will in turn enable the farmer with cash.

Revealing the modalities to access the CBN loans, he said: “‘Farmers have to open an account with identified commercial banks- Sterling and Stanbic IBTC, as well as Bank of Agriculture (BOA), -where CBN will pay in the cash; and money will be disbursed according to cultivating calendar. ‘’For the first year of the programme, farmers will need to have one hectare to qualify for the credit facility. Farmers are encouraged to be in cooperatives of no more than 25 for easy inter-personal recognition.

“And farmers who use service providers, example tractor hiring, the farmer and provider should sign an agreement to be taken to CBN. Cost of insurance is 2% cost of production. Natural disasters like floods, disease, are covered but not cattle eating up a farmer’s crops.”

Salami added that banks are mandated to credit individual farmer’s accounts within 10 days of the money leaving CBN, and tasked all staff to be part of ARDS’s mobilizing effort.

He further explained that the participating banks have dedicated branches across FCT for the programme, adding that two of the banks have mobile facilities to capture farmers.

The Ag Director, FCT Secondary education Board (SEB), Hajiya Maryam Hassan and officials of the board pose in a group He also revealed that there will be a photograph with Sauka Community leaders, when the Aguma of Sauka Community visited the Board, in Abuja. town hall meeting where these issues will be Photo: Stanley Onyekwere thrown open to a larger audience.

I

Police to deploy 600 personnel for Dec.3 by-election in Garki Ward

By Sani Abubakar

T

he Nigeria Police Force Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command has said it will deploy about 600 personnel for the December 3rd by election in Garki Ward.

This was disclosed yesterday by DCP Garba MD, who represented the Commissioner of Police at the stakeholders

meeting, in Abuja.

“In terms of security, we are deploying not less than 600 personnel because each polling unit is going to be manned by two police men,” he revealed.

Speaking earlier, the Resident electoral commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Jacob Jatau said that meeting was held to discuss the security of voters and iron out ways to

achieve a peaceful, free and fair election.

Jatau said the commission aim to have a 100 percent success in the election process, in Garki ward, which has 60,318 registered voters with 36 polling units and settlement 126 voting points.

He said that the peaceful conduct of the by election depends on the cooperation of party leaders and stakeholders.

“The commission enjoins all the

stakeholders, especially the political class to play by the rules and work to ensure a peaceful election.

“Educate your voters on the right voting process, only those with Permanent Voters Card are legible to vote,” he said Jatau reiterated that card readers and PVCs will be used for the by election, adding that accreditation and voting will take place simultaneously.

world news

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Page 22

international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

Eritrean refugees in Israel sent to Uganda and Rwanda A

analysis

By Ryan Brown

T

he sky was still an inky black when the flight from Cairo touched down at Entebbe Airport near Kampala, the capital of Uganda, one morning in mid-January, the fluorescent glow spilling from the small terminal providing the only source of light.

It had been 15 hours since MusgunGebar left Tel Aviv, and the journey staggered him in its brevity.

Four years earlier, when he had travelled the other way - from Eritrea in East Africa to Israel - he had done so on foot, a punishing journey across the Sahara and the Sinai that took more than a month.

Kidnappers stalked the route, food was scarce, and half of the people with whom he had travelled didn’t survive.

But this time, he simply sat down in a small cushioned seat and waited, snapping selfies and eating salty meals from aluminum tins until, suddenly, he had arrived.

Gebar had no visa to enter Uganda.

He wasn’t carrying an invitation letter or an application form. In fact, he didn’t even have a passport. Though he had crossed many borders in his life, he had never done it through the official channel of queues and customs officials and dated stamps.

He only carried $3,500 in clean, hundred dollar bills in his wallet, a temporary travel document called a “laissez passer”, and a creased letter from the Israeli government.

“Passengers are asked to follow instructions and regulations to ensure a safe and pleasant departure from Israel,” it read, with a signature from the Voluntary Departures Unit.

From friends who had come before him, Gebar already knew what would happen next. The man emerged as he stepped inside the terminal, wordlessly ushering him and the nine other Eritreans on the flight away from the passport control line.

Without a glance from the border patrol officers, he led them around the queue, to the baggage claim where their luggage awaited, and then out of the airport’s sliding-glass doors. In the car park, a van waited to drive them to a hotel.

After that, they were on their own.

No choice uman rights organisations have reported that over the past three years this scene has played out hundreds of times in Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda, where more than 3,000 Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers from Israel have been “voluntarily” resettled as of 2015.

Often, those who were resettled dispute whether they truly had a choice.

Gebar, for instance, says that he was being held in an immigration

H

Holot detention facility in the Negev Desert, in Israel housing some 2,500 asylum seekers mainly detention camp in the Negev Desert called Holot, when, he claims, officials there informed him that he had three options. If he liked, he could stay indefinitely in the camp. A second option was to go back to Eritrea, the country he had fled five years before.

Or, he could agree to take $3,500 and depart for a third country of the Israeli government’s choosing.

Gebar didn’t hesitate. He took the third option.

AndieLambe, executive director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI), an NGO that has conducted extensive research into the departure of East African refugees from Israel, also questions just how much choice these refugees have.

“What does it mean when an unknown third country is someone’s best option?” he asks. “To me that says they never really had a choice at all.”

Sabine Haddad, Israeli population and immigration authority spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that Israel does have an agreement with two African countries - which she did not name - for the relocation of unwanted asylum seekers. She did not offer a response regarding the weapons exchange part of the agreement.

Both Uganda and Rwanda, on the other hand, deny they have signed any agreement with Israel. Furthermore, neither country has afforded refugee status to any refugees arriving from Israel.

Ugandan government spokesman OfwonoOpondo told Al Jazeera earlier this year that the reports of a deal were “a rumour circulated by Israeli intelligence”.

“I have disputed that we have received these individuals,” he said.

No rights ike others around the world, refugees leaving Israel for Rwanda and Uganda find themselves in a precarious position. Their lives

L

straddle two countries, and movement either forwards or backward is nearly impossible.

TedrosAbrahe, an Eritrean midwife who also left Israel under the “voluntary departures” programme earlier this year, says he is “just waiting to be a legal refugee somewhere”.

Like most of the estimated 5,000 Eritreans who flee their country each month, Abrahe first left home in 2011 to escape the country’s mandatory and indefinite national service programme.

After a brief stay in Sudan, he paid smugglers $3,000 to take him to Israel, where he figured opportunities would be better and life easier.

But when he arrived, he found that his Eritrean midwifery qualifications were not recognised in Israel, and that the only work available to him as an asylum seeker was an under-the-table job cleaning the kitchen of a Tel Aviv shawarma restaurant.

Israel did not consider him a refugee. Rather, like nearly all of the approximately 42,000Eritrean and Sudanese refugees in Israel, he was labelled an “infiltrator” - a labelpreviously used to categorise Palestinians entering Israel. The only status Abrahe was allowed was a permit granting him temporary

reprieve from being deported, which, he says, he had to renew in person every 60 days.

She thinks that “the whole structure is meant to make people’s lives miserable, so eventually, perhaps, they won’t want to stay any more”.

Between 2009 and 2016, Israel grantedofficial refugee status to 0.07 percent of all its Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers - a total of four people.

When, in late 2015, Abrahe went to refresh his Israeli permit, he was informed that it would not be renewed.

Instead, he says, he was told that he had 30 days to either report to an immigration detention centre or leave the country for Eritrea or a location of the government’s choosing.

Believing that he would not be safe in Eritrea, Abrahe chose the latter option.

By the time he boarded a flight for East Africa in January 2016, thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese refugees had already followed the same path.

According to Interior Minister GiladErdan, the voluntary resettlement plan had “encourage[d] infiltrators to leave the borders of the state of Israel honourably and safely”.

But just how safe is it really?

“

But when he arrived, he found that his Eritrean midwifery qualifications were not recognised in Israel, and that the only work available to him as an asylum seeker was an under-the-table job cleaning the kitchen of a Tel Aviv shawarma restaurant.

ccording to research by Hotline and IRRI in Rwanda, most of the refugees who arrive in Rwanda are immediately smuggled over the border to Uganda.

Abrahe says that he spent just two days in the country - waiting in a house near Kigali under an armed guard before being forcibly taken to Kampala.

Those arriving in Uganda are not afforded any further rights. Uganda’s Department of Refugees says there is no deal to accept refugees coming from Israel. Douglas Asiimwe, the department’s principal protection officer, told Al Jazeera that any refugees arriving from Israel were assessed on the individual merits of their cases.

They shouldn’t need Uganda’s protection, he explained, because they weren’t coming from a war zone, but from a “safe” country that had promised under international law to uphold the rights of refugees.

Haddad, the Israeli population and immigration spokeswoman, insists that Israel “ensures that the process of relocation is conducted according to the agreements and in line with international law”.

In late 2015, a coalition of NGOs and human rights lawyers challenged the legality of Israel’s third-country deportations before the Israeli Supreme Court. But a decision is still pending and Israel’s “voluntary departures” continue.

No jobs ven without legal status, life in Kampala was initially a marked improvement over Israel for both Gebar and Abrahe.

Ugandans were more welcoming than Israelis, they said, and the two melted easily into the city’s large Eritrean population.

Abrahe had spent some of the money the Israeli government gave him on an iPhone, which he used to send smiling selfies to family and friends in Eritrea, Israel, and Europe.

But the $3,500 wouldn’t last forever, and there were few jobs to be had in Uganda, even for someone with medical training like Abrahe. By September, both men had run out of money and were living on handouts from friends and family.

“Time just passes itself,” Gebar said. “You just sit home all day waiting, doing nothing.”

In late October, however, Abrahe decided that he couldn’t wait any longer. He borrowed a passport from a Ugandan friend and flew to Turkey.

From there, he made the dangerous journey by boat to Greece, where he is now living in a refugee camp.

“It’s better to take a risk than to live this way for my whole life,” he says.

“This year, I want to be a legal person somewhere.”

Ryan Lenora Brown was a fellow of the International Women’s Media Foundation in Uganda.

Source: Al Jazeera

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Page 23

News From Africa

South Sudanese Flee One of Country’s Last Peaceful Towns O nce a safe haven for those trying to escape South Sudan’s conflict, Yei is the latest town to be engulfed by violence in the country’s civil war.

In Yei, the population often falls asleep to gunfire and wakes up to soldiers patrolling the streets. The army, made up primarily of soldiers belonging to the Dinka ethnic group of President SalvaKiir, controls all roads leading out of town.

One hundred thousand people are believed to be trapped inside the city. Another 150,000 have fled, with many heading across the border for Uganda, to the south.

Civilians who have fled Yei and arrived in the Ugandan refugee camps tell of kidnappings, abuses and disappearances taking place inside Yei and along the road between South Sudan and the Ugandan border.

In Yei, “people are dying like insects,” says Michael Ayume, a newly arrived refugee in Uganda, and the leader of a Yei merchants’ organization.

In September, 75 bodaboda drivers from Yei were arrested by government troops, he says. A boda is a small motorbike and a common form of transportation in South Sudan.

“These guys, they were just young men doing their business,” says Ayume. “Twenty-one were later released. The others? We never saw them again.”

Until the middle of this year, Yei was largely spared the violence that has ravaged South Sudan since December 2013, when fighting erupted between supporters of President Kiir and his former

Refugees load their belongings into a UNHCR truck at Ocea Reception Center. According to UNHCR, new refugee sites may have to be opened shortly, with teams already on the ground assessing land suitability. (N. Jidovanu/VOA) deputy, RiekMachar.

Then, in August, government forces -- soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) -- entered Yei, a town surround by farmland in the country’s south.

The soldiers were looking for rebels -- members of the the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-inOpposition (the “IO”).

They didn’t find any SPLM-IO members, but did encounter local forces that resisted the offensive.

Soon, Yei was witness to heavy fighting and attacks on civilians in Yei and the surrounding villages intensified.

A report by Human Rights Watch this week says that both sides have committed serious abuses, including arbitrary arrests,

torture and sexual abuse, against civilians in and around Yei. A spokesperson for South Sudan’s armed forces, LulRuaiKoang, denied the SPLA is responsible for any abuses against civilians in Yei. The local forces do not have a spokesperson and have not issued any statement.

In recent weeks, 2,000 people per day have crossed the border into northern Uganda, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. Many of the refugees are women and children.

One of those women is Joy, a 28-year-old who left Yei for Uganda with her daughter in August.

Only a few kilometers from the border, the car carrying Joy

and several others fleeing Yei was stopped by government soldiers.

“The Dinka men stopped the car and asked us to get out. They would not allow us to leave. We had to abandon the car and hide in the bush,” she says.

Joy was able to get across the border, but on foot.

“My husband is still in Yei,” she says. “He can’t move anywhere.

The roads are blocked. I don’t know when I will see him again.”

Prospects for peace in Yei and the rest of South Sudan are looking grim at the moment.

Efforts to end the civil war appear to be making no progress.

A power sharing agreement signed in Ethiopia in August 2015 has been violated numerous times.

Egypt’s Sissi: Supporting Syrian Government Is ‘Our Priority’

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gyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said Wednesday his country’s support of the Syrian regime against what he called “extremists” is necessary for the stability of the region.

“Our priority is to support national armies, for example in Libya to assert control over Libyan territories and deal with extremist elements,” he said during an interview with Portuguese broadcaster RTP. “The same with Syria and Iraq.”

The reporter then asked Sissi if he was referring to the National Army in Syria, to which Sissi replied: “Yes.” Sissi’s response could create tension between Egypt and other Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia, that back the rebels trying to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Sissi took power in Egypt after a 2013 military coup that saw the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood-backed Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi. Since then, Sissi’s crackdown on Islamists and support for the Syrian regime has led to a cooling of relations with Saudi Arabia.

In October, Saudi Arabia stopped shipping oil to Egypt because Sissi supported a Russianbacked U.N. resolution that called for a cease-fire in Syria, but ignored Russian bombings in civilian areas of the city of Aleppo.

Sissi said the solution to the conflict in Syria must be “political.”

“Our stance in Egypt is to respect the will of the Syrian people, and that a political solution to the Syrian crisis is the most suitable way, and to seriously deal with terrorist groups and disarm them,” he said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi says Nov. 23, 2016, his country’s support of the Syrian regime against what he called “extremists” is necessary for the stability of the region.

Kenyan Student Leaders Say Universities Prime Target for Radicalization

F

or Kenyan college students, the university experience involves more than just term papers, final exams and all-night study sessions. A group of university leaders is meeting in Nairobi this week to discuss issues affecting college students, including violence, organized crime, radicalization and violent extremism.

“It’s not mad people who become radicalized; it’s people like yourselves.

People who dress neatly every day like I have dressed, are the people who get radicalized. It is not those people who you think, for example, have not gone to school. It is people like us who get radicalized,” said Linda Ochiel, Commissioner of Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission.

Ochiel was speaking to about 60 university leaders from around Kenya who assembled at the University of Nairobi Wednesday, to discuss issues affecting college students.

Radicalization and violent youth extremism were key topics.

“Radicalization is a result of the disappointment that young people are going through,” said Victor Uhuru, founder and president of the Youth Advancement Initiative, the group organizing the three-day event.

“That’s why they are vulnerable to these violent groups. So we feel that if these young people are also helped, because the economic opportunity has also become so small, we want them to learn other ways of survival.”

Delegate Susan Mwangi said that in Kenya, university students have felt the effects of terrorism firsthand, citing the April 2015 Garissa University College attack that killed 147 students; but, she said there are other implications of such terror.

“Yeah, if you lose a loved one, it affects us,” said Mwangi. “It also affects our economy, it affects the image of our country, to the rest of the world. When every television news [program], is talking about Kenyans, terrorism attacks, it affects us. Even more when we lose our friends.”

Ochiel urged university students to remain vigilant against propaganda, the exploitation of religious teachings, and ethnocentrism.

“Some of the targets of radicalization and violent extremism... these people, recruiters, they go to institutions, formal institutions like universities,” said Ochiel. “And you know what they are doing right now?

They’re looking for the brightest students. So you guys are actually a target.”

Ochiel said radicalization does not just happen with terrorist groups like al-Shabab and Islamic State.

Politicians and others incite young people to violence against different ethnic groups when it suits their political purposes, especially during election periods, she said.

Kenya’s elections are scheduled for August 2017.

Page 24

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Asia&Middle-east

Trump names Nikki Haley as UN ambassador P resident-elect Donald Trump has named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the UN, praising his former critic as “a proven dealmaker”.

She is the first non-white female cabinet-level official appointed to the incoming Trump administration.

Mrs Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was a vocal critic of Mr Trump on the campaign trail.

A rising star in the Republican party, the 44-year-old is the youngest governor in the US. Mr Trump said in a press release: “Governor Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation to move critical policies forward for the betterment of her state and our country.

“She is also a proven dealmaker, and we look to be making plenty of deals. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage.”

Later on Wednesday, Mr Trump named his second female cabinet member - Betsy DeVos, as education secretary.

The Republican-controlled Senate will need to confirm both appointments before they officially

Pakistan: Cross-Border Indian Fire Kills 11 Civilians, 3 Troops

Mrs Haley has been elected as vice chair of the Republican Governors Association

take office.

In a statement, Mrs Haley said she was “moved” to accept the assignment and would remain the South Carolina governor, pending her congressional confirmation.

During the Republican primaries, she backed Florida Senator Marco Rubio and then Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Although Mrs Haley eventually

voted for Mr Trump, the governor said she was “not a fan” of either him or the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Eye-catching though her political career has been, little is known about Nikki Haley’s views on foreign affairs and the United Nations. Diplomats here have been Googling her to find out more. When her nomination was announced

I was with a senior diplomat, who had expected President-elect Trump to downgrade the job of UN ambassador so that it was no longer a cabinet-level position.

He was heartened that Mr Trump had selected a “political heavyweight”, and viewed it as an early indication than the incoming administration will take the UN more seriously than he’d supposed.

Arab-Kurd tensions simmer in shadow of Mosul campaign

P

akistan says cross-border firing by India Wednesday killed at least 11 civilians and three soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region.

The military claimed retaliatory fire by Pakistani troops also killed at least seven Indian soldiers. But it did not cite sources for giving the toll for the other side and India has not yet responded to the claims.

The Pakistani civilian casualties occurred in the Neelam Valley near the Line of Control, or LoC, which divides the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.

Officials said that the Indian fire struck a passenger bus and the death toll was likely to increase.

Pakistan military’s media wing alleged Indian troops also targeted an ambulance that was sent for evacuation. Residents in Neelam told VOA they were forced to flee to take refuge in bunkers around their villages shortly after the early morning clashes erupted.

The latest skirmishes came a day after the Indian Army vowed retribution for killing three of its soldiers by Pakistani troops across the de facto Kashmir border.

Analysts warn that tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad could fuel a proxy war between regional powers [Carl Court/Getty Images]

T

he Kurdistan Regional Government has changed course, declaring its commitment to Baghdad to retreat from territory that Kurdish forces have taken from ISIL. On November 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said in a press conference that his soldiers would not retreat from the land “liberated with their blood” from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIL or ISIS. “There will be no negotiations

about the territories liberated

by Peshmerga before the Mosul offensive,” Barzani declared. “This is a new chapter. ISIS is on the path to defeat. Peshmerga shed their blood to free Kurdistan’s land and end the suffering of our people.”

But the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, later retracted Barazani remarks, saying that his comments, originally made in Kurdish, were taken out of context and “mistranslated”.

Nevertheless, Barzani’s comments revived long-standing fears among

many Iraqis that the country’s Kurds are using the Mosul battle to seize land to incorporate into a future independent state.

Last September, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked Barzani not to exploit the war on ISIL to expand the Kurds’ territory.

A former Iraqi army officer, who preferred not to be named because he lives in Iraq’s Kurdish region, told Al Jazeera that Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, were taking advantage of the fight against ISIL to fulfil ambitions of statehood.

White supremacist guilty of killing British MP Jo Cox

A

British court has found a far-right activist guilty of killing British MP Jo Cox in the run-up to June’s referendum on the country’s membership of the EU. Thomas Mair shot and stabbed the Labour Party politician in her constituency office in Birstall near the northern city of Leeds.

It took a jury at London’s Old Bailey on Wednesday just under an hour to find Mair guilty of the murder.

The judge presiding over the case said the attack encompassed the “definition of terrorism” and was “done to advance the political cause of violent white supremacism”.

Mair was given a life sentence for the killing and an assault on another man who came to the MP’s defence.

British MP murder suspect shouted ‘Death to traitors’ In a statement on his Twitter account, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the attack an “assault on democracy”.

“The single biggest tribute we can pay to Jo and her life will be to confront those who wish to promote the hatred and division that led to her murder,” Corbyn said.

EU campaign Cox was killed just a week before Britons voted to leave the European Union in a campaign that was marred by anti-immigration and refugee rhetoric.

The Labour MP was an campaigner for Syrian refugees and supported attempts to give child refugees sanctuary in the UK. “Those children have been exposed to things no child should ever witness, and I know I would risk life and limb to get my two precious babies out of that hellhole,” Cox told MPs during a debate in parliament just months before she was slain.

Her killer was a decades-long supporter of far-right causes, and was associated with neoNazi groups in the United States and South Africa, as well as the United Kingdom.

Witnesses recalled Mair shouting “Britain first” during the attack.

The murder was the first assasination of a British MP since the IRA’s killing of Conservative Party MP Ian Gow in 1990.

Not an ‘anomaly’ Northampton University’s Paul Jackson, an expert on farright activism, said it was wrong to consider the attack anomalous.

“This was not ‘anomalous’, but actually highly typical of far-right, solo-actor attacks.”

Jackson said.

PAGE 25

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, November 24, 2016

Environment

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

FG: EPR for enforcement Mid-Next Year

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

T

he Federal government said all is now set for the enforcement of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Programme in the country by mid next year.

The Director General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA, Dr. Lawrence Chidi Anukam disclosed this recently in Abuja during an Executive Session with Chief Executives in the Electrical and Electronics sector.

Dr. Anukam who told the

stakeholders that, “It has been a long time we expected compliance with the EPR from 2011 till date and we will not wait any longer. We need to get this started. The bigger companies will take the lead. They have the bigger market share and have more impact on the environment.”

The Director General went further to remind the key sector players of the Federal Government commitment in Paris which was further reinforced in Marrakech and that the Government is looking for ways to reduce waste as it has link with climate change. The way

to go according to the Director-General is the implementation of the EPR. In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary Sule Oyofo, for Director-General/CEO,the NESREA boss who listed the benefits of EPR implementation to include job creation, waste reduction as well as tackling other related problems stressing that “we are creating wealth form the waste”. He added that a lot still has to be done.

He said the Federal Government will give the necessary support for the smooth running of the programme and also ensure compliance and urged the

manufacturers, dealers and importers to abide by the guidelines of the programme.

The statement further explained that the Extended Producer Responsibility ( EPR) is a programme that compels producers to take care of the waste from their products at the end of their life cycle.

The interactive session was held at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja which was at the instance of NESREA,gave direction for the EPR programme implementation in the Electrical & Electronic Sector.

Nigeria local toilet

World Toilet Day: Makurdi decries inadequate facility, WaterAid paints

A

s the world observed this year’s edition of the World Toilet Day on Saturday, 19th November, 2016, residents of Makurdi in Benue State have decried the lack of maintenance of toileting facilities and inadequate provision of latrines in the urban area.

A floating public toilet on the Amassoma River in Bayelsa State. The World Toilet Day 2016 was observed on Saturday, November 19.

Photo credit: Jack Jackson Speaking to this writer on Monday in Makurdi, Executive Director of First Step Action for Children Initiative, Mrs Rosemary Hua, stated that there is dearth in the proper usage of toilets due to lack of awareness, lack of maintenance of toilet facilities as well as bad attitude.

According to her, even in public places, there are toilets but the maintenance is poor like in most schools, adding that it encourages open defecation as people readily use surroundings of unkempt public toilets for convenience.

“Public toilets are neglected even in local government areas where Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is been implemented due to non-availability of running water among others,” she said.

“The attitude of people is so bad that most don’t feel it is their responsibility cleanings toilets or using them properly and believe someone else should clean their mess.”

She maintained that the change in behaviour of citizens, government and other stakeholders to knowing the benefits of the proper use of toilets and sticking to the practice, constant awareness campaigns and follow up and the enforcement of sanitation laws would greatly help improve the use of toilets in urban areas.

In another interview, a health worker, Mr Andyar Kuma, noted that people still defecate indiscriminately in the open in urban areas, citing example of the environs of the popular

IBB Square and J.S Tarka Foundation in the heart of Makurdi metropolis.

“People’s mentality towards use of toilet is poor and, coupled with lack of maintenance of public toilets, achieving complete Open Defecation Free (ODF) may be difficult except Urban CLTS is aggressively implemented,” he said.

Also speaking, a resident of Wadata area of Makurdi town and housewife, Mrs Mary Agbo, lamented the poor state of the two toilets they have to share in a compound housing five households of not less than five persons per household.

She stated that it is difficult to conveniently use the toilet, especially in the mornings when there is rush by co-tenants to access them and virtually little water to flush except they buy water.

According to her, her husband’s income as a security guard in one of the government offices cannot afford them the luxury of relocating to a more habitable residence with good toilet facilities.

She called on government to make the concerned agency to enforce sanitation laws which she believed would compel landlords like theirs to provide more and better toilet facilities for them.

In his submission, a truck pusher at the Wurukum Market who identified himself simply as Terfa stated that he knows there is a public toilet nearby but doesn’t use it. Asked why he doesn’t use the toilet, he said it is not properly maintained to his taste, adding that he also has to part with money before usage so he prefers to use a nearby bush which is free early in the morning when very few people are around.

He however feigned ignorance on the ills associated with the practice of Open Defecation stating that rain would wash his faeces away into the river, so he doesn’t care.

A caretaker at a residence along Belta Street, High Level, Makurdi, Mr Liambee Achir, stated that he knows the benefits of proper toilet use, hence he went out of his way to seek the permission of the landlord to construct a personal toilet for his family use on an open space in the compound.

“I spent my money to construct the toilet as the available two are usually miss-used and inadequate to serve us all. Now, I have the comfort of adhering to good sanitation by maintaining my toilet to the best of my ability,” he noted. “I don’t regret constructing the toilet as the benefits are beyond what I spent for the project.”

To observe the World Toilet Day, information provided by WaterAid Nigeria in a press statement endorsed by the Communications and Campaigns Manager, Oluseyi Abdulmalik, and made available to this writer, stated that, following the release of new analysis showing Nigeria ranking third in the world and the worst in sub-Saharan Africa for having the most urban-dwellers living without a safe, private toilet, WaterAid Nigeria is calling on government to keep its promise to deliver universal access to sanitation.

It quoted WaterAid Nigeria Country Director, Dr. Michael Ojo, as saying: “For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population is now living in towns and cities.

By 2050, that’s expected to rise to twothirds. But for many, particularly the poor, they’re arriving or being born in overcrowded and rapidly expanding slums which lack safe, private toilets and clean water sources.

Diseases like cholera or Ebola can spread further and faster without sanitation and hygiene practices to block their path and an outbreak found in a slum can quickly become a city-wide, national or international epidemic.

This World Toilet Day, we are calling on our leaders to deliver on their promises to meet the UN’s Global Goal 6 to bring water and sanitation to all, because everyone – no matter where they live – deserves affordable access to these life essentials.

“Our analysis shows just how many nations in the world are failing to give sanitation the political prioritisation and financing required – with Nigeria featuring strongly at the top of that list.

The dirty issue of sanitation is too often neglected. But good sanitation is the bedrock of public health.

The Federal Government recently launched the Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH), a national multi-sectoral collaboration for the improvement of rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

This is a great start tackling lack of access in rural areas, but with the recognition of this as a growing urban problem, there is a need to quickly focus on measures, with government leadership, to address this scourge in our towns and cities.

Every town and city in the world needs to prioritise providing safe sanitation services to all the population in order to create a healthier, more sustainable future,” added Ojo. The press statement also says WaterAid’s Overflowing Cities: The State of the World Toilets report looks at the problem of urban sanitation and the health threats to our world, as the UN predicts by 2050 two-thirds of the global population will live in towns and cities. Nigeria too has a huge population and extremely rapid rural – urban migration; however, economic development and urban planning have not kept pace with the sheer volumes of people arriving – and being born – every day in its towns and cities.

PAGE 26

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Feature

Why Nigerians melt their gold jewellery in Dubai

Gold is found in large quantity in Dubai.

D

ubai likes to describe itself as the city of gold - but many, including Nigerians, don’t just come here to buy new jewellery, they also bring their old necklaces and bracelets to be melted down and restyled.

Rows of 22-carat gold chains and bracelets twinkle in the shops at Dubai’s main airport, one of the busiest in the world. Waiting by the gate for the 14:25 flight to Lagos in Nigeria, is the Esochaghi family, who are returning home after a shopping trip.

“My favourite pieces are these necklaces,” says Ugochi Esochaghi, gesturing towards a small butterfly bobbing on a chain round her neck. “I got one for my daughter too, spelling out her name,” she smiles, as toddler Valeria sucks her thumb.

“For me and my family, gold is a really treasured thing. I was brought up with it, I love it.”

Esochaghi’s gold butterfly sparkles under the bright airport lighting as she describes her latest visit to Dubai’s famous gold souk. “We brought some of our old jewellery and it was weighed. We were then given some designs to choose from and the ones we wanted were created by melting down the gold we already had.

“It took around two days from start to finish. The product is good and it’s also cheaper here than in Nigeria.”

Husband Enyioha, who has been anxiously watching the airport clock, agrees to pose for a photo with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Gold Label whisky he bought in duty free. Esochaghi can’t hide her glee. “You don’t see this everywhere, it’s a special thing so we’re giving it to a good friend as a gift.”

As people become increasingly connected and more mobile, the BBC is exploring how identities are changing.

The Esochaghis’ story is part of a series

about travellers passing through Dubai International - one of the biggest airports on Earth.

But is it normal for Nigerian families to travel to Dubai to buy gold?

“Yes,” says Ugochi, as she heads for the departure gate. “A lot of my friends come here. It’s a popular thing to do.”

One of seven Emirates, for years Dubai has been furiously marketing itself as a tourist hub - last year it attracted more than 14 million visitors who stayed for at least one night. And gold tourism has been carefully cultivated.

Although there are other global centres for the gold trade - India and China being two of the biggest - according to the World Gold Council (WGC) about 30-40% of the world’s gold flows through tiny Dubai.

“Ten to 15 years ago Dubai became famous as a gold souk. Since then it’s developed as a commodities centre, and a trading business has emerged,” says John Mulligan, the WGC’s head of member investor relations.

Not having a sales tax is key, Mulligan

says, as is the quality of the gold on sale, which makes it an attractive investment.

“It’s generally high caratage, which means it’s relatively pure. If you’re buying jewellery, the gold will have high intrinsic value. Because of this it will be easy to work out how much it’s worth.”

Ugochi Akwiwu, a travel blogger, tells me more about her love of gold from her home in Benin City, Nigeria. “Nigerians in general love gold and in my part of the country it’s a show of wealth,” she says.

“My roots are with the Igbo community in south-east Nigeria and it’s traditional for mothers to hand down their gold to their daughters. Men get property and land, women inherit gold and Hollandais - traditional patterned fabric wraps.”

•Haggle, haggle, haggle - it’s expected and the only way to get the best price •Take your passport as this will be required by gold merchants and when you’ve bought your jewellery, don’t forget to collect your receipt •Only buy from a reputable shop - you might be approached in the street by men offering to sell you jewellery but don’t be

“

With fluctuating exchange rates, the price disparity can be even greater and there are opportunities for serious buyers. Lagos-based Talutu Ahmed Olulana, for example, is a self-made woman who trades in gold. “We buy around 5kg of gold a year and the source depends of what it’s used for,” she says. “I get raw gold from Africa but for finished gold I’ll go to Italy, India and Dubai.

tempted •Check the current price of gold on the day of your planned purchase Akwiwu travels to Dubai once a year, invariably coming back with gold, often in the form of earrings. These are just for herself and her family but others have turned shopping trips into a business.

“When I was at school some of my classmates made money by buying gold in Dubai and selling it in Nigeria.

“A few managed to put themselves through university with the profit. Gold is roughly $5 (£3.60; 4.50 euros) a gram cheaper over in Dubai and who doesn’t like a bargain?”

With fluctuating exchange rates, the price disparity can be even greater and there are opportunities for serious buyers.

Lagos-based Talutu Ahmed Olulana, for example, is a self-made woman who trades in gold. “We buy around 5kg of gold a year and the source depends of what it’s used for,” she says. “I get raw gold from Africa but for finished gold I’ll go to Italy, India and Dubai.

“Gold is a store of value, it is movable, divisible, it appreciates and it provides a hedge against inflation. It’s really a true measure of wealth.”

Yet, like Akwiwu, she does not only regard gold as a commodity to be bought and sold. “It’s symbol of royalty.

Traditionally kings, queens and chiefs would be adorned with what we call the king of metals - gold,” she says.

“I’m from Kogi state in north-central Nigeria and culturally we ascribe a lot of importance to owning it. In most parts of my state owning gold is a prerequisite of marriage.”

Fast cars and flashy jets may come and go, but - for Nigerians in particular there will always be gold.

Source: BBC

PEOPLES DAILY

Sports

MONday, november 24, 2016

Page

27

sports@peoplesdailyng.com, SMS- 08142929046

NFF gets Senegal friendly for Eagles ahead of Cameroon clash

Super Eagles

N

igerian football Federation has revealed that the Super Eagles will play two friendly matches against two African teams in their preparation of the crucial 2018 Fifa World Cup Russia qualifier against Cameroon in August.

Despite maintaining a 100 percent record in Group B, the football house is geared up to give the 2013 Afcon champions the perfect preparation as they face the Indomitable Lions in their next game.

NFF President, Amaju Pinnick disclosed that the international friendlies will be against teams that play same style of football with Cameroon so as to get the team accustomed with the style.

We have reasoned that it won’t make sense playing Germany or Wales when the Super Eagles would face a physical side like Cameroon,” Amaju said.

“So, as we speak, we have secured a friendly against Senegal and we are working on playing Cote d’Ivoire.

“These are two games that would adequately prepare us

for the Cameroon games since they both play the same style of football with Cameroon.

“Our aim is to ensure that we keep the players on their toes with the two available Fifa windows.

“We had gotten two top teams in the world but we had to tell them to relax because we cannot be playing against Germany or Wales when we are preparing against Cameroon.

We need to play teams that are physical and combative side as Cameroon.”

“The technical committee has put their heads together and reported to me and I have to give them go ahead. We are ensuring that everything we need to do is perfected. The qualifier is not a sprint but marathon.

“It needs endurance and persistence. We need to secure the maximum point to qualify. Agreed, we have started on very good and solid footing but we must have to look beyond that and consolidate.

“I held over an hour discussion with the coach, Rohr, on

NPFL kick-off new season on December 13

>>Pg 28

Monday and he revealed some new things he wants to do. At the end of the discussion, he told me to go and relax as he would get the job done.”

Meanwhile, Former Vfl Wolfsburg striker and ex Nigeria International, Jonathan Akpoborie has defended the invitation of the Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Zambia and Algeria, stating there are no players around, with similar qualities to fill in the Midfielder’s boots.

The 29-year-old star has yet to feature for his EPL club, Chelsea FC, this season but Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr deems it necessary to include the player in his plans.

Akpoborie said that Mikel’s importance to the Eagles was evident in the team’s victories against Zambia and Algeria, in the World Cup qualifying matches.

According to Akpoborie, though his game play may slow his mates down, Mikel plays his role well.

Ibe set to represent Nigeria in upcoming friendly games

>>Pg 30

Sport

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Page 28

NPFL kickT off new season on December 13

he 2016/17 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season would start on the 13th of December as confirmed by the League Management Company (LMC) chairman,.

Speaking on the plans for the new season, Dikko said: “Our target now is to start December 18 and end July 9, while our Super 4 will be between December 5 and 11. We also plan to start the 2018 season by the end of August 2017.

“All the clubs already have the schedule and planning.

We want to align our calendar to Europe by the end of the 2017 season, which would be hugely beneficial for us both in terms of organization, planning and even finances.

“This will get our clubs going in CAF competitions as they will play at least 13 to 15 games before the start of CAF competitions in February 2017,” he concluded. The past season was concluded on October 2.

Shehu Dikko

IfeanyiUbah get Gov. Falcons play draw with Ghana Black Queens Obiano’s N10m

P

layers and officials of FC IfeanyiUbah have been rewarded with a sum of N10m by the Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, for winning the 2016 edition of the Nigeria Federation Cup. The governor announced the reward when he received the victorious players and their officials at the Governor’s Lodge in Amawbia, Awka on Wednesday during their trophy parade.

The financier of the club, Patrick Ifeanyi

Ubah, few weeks ago also gave out the same amount to the players for their success in the competition.

The Anambra Warriors beat Nasarawa United 5-4 on penalities in the final at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos to lift the trophy for the first time.

They will compete in the CAF Confederation Cup for the first time next year.

Super Falcons against Ghana

D

efending champions Nigeria yesterday in Limbe could only draw 1-1 with rivals Ghana at the 2016 African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Cameroon.

The result left both sides with four points each after two matches, but it also brightened their chances of semifinals qualification.

It was however a setback to the Super Falcons who had been expected to advance to the semi-finals with a win, no matter how close.

The Falcons are tournament favourites with seven title wins from the competition’s past nine editions, and had started their campaign with a 6-0 mauling of Mali on Sunday.

FC IfeanyiUbah

With Ghana having struggled to beat Kenya 3-1 on Sunday, the Falcons expectedly took the lead after 22 minutes through competition’s leading goal scorer Asisat Oshoala.

But the Black Queens stood up to them to draw level in the 44th minute, and then went on to dominate the second half.

Nigeria will now meet Kenya on Saturday in their final group phase game, while Ghana take on Mali, with both Nigeria and Ghana needing only draws to advance.

If both sides draw their matches on Saturday, group leaders Nigeria will top to face Group A runners-up in the semi-finals.

FIFA retains Mba as Technical Adviser

W

orld football governing body, FIFA, has retained Nigeria’s Linus Mba as its Technical Adviser in Africa for Refereeing.

Mba is one of the finest ‘Gentlemen of the Whistle’ to have come out of Nigeria.

The former FIFA referee is also the NFF Consultant on Refereeing and one of only two Africans retained in that position.

The other is the former Tunisian FIFA

referee, Neiji Jouini.

Both men have been involved in FIFA development activities for close to two decades now.

Mba had been a member of the CAF Referees Committee for 10 years and had continued to serve as Referee Instructor for FIFA and CAF. He had trained referees in virtually all English –speaking National Associations

on the African continent.

Mba also serves as Referee Assessor in top grade FIFA World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches and is involved in general referee instruction programmes for CAF. Jouini has a long –term contract with the Qatar Football Association and works for CAF during a number of championships.

Both men are in the company of the likes of Pierluigi Collina (Italy), Barry Neale (England); Batta Marc (France), Vicar Donald (Scotland) and David Elleray (England) as FIFA Technical Advisers.

The world body works through three Referees Development Officers in Africa–Carlos Henriques (South Africa), El Shenawy (Egypt) and Megassa Sidi Bekaye (Mali).

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

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PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

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Sport

Ibe set to represent Nigeria in upcoming friendly games

B

ournemouth forward Jordon Ibe won’t be making an immediate international switch to the Super Eagles of Nigeria due to restrictions by FIFA on player’s switch of nationality.

Ibe has made a u-turn from initially turning down Nigeria to accepting to meet with the coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr to discuss a possible switch.

However, even if he finally decides to represent Nigeria instead of England, his switch won’t be done until at least four months due to the paper works involved.

Firstly Nigeria need to convince him during

talks later this week, before the player will now apply to FIFA requesting to pledge his international future to Nigeria, since he has represented England at youth level.

FIFA will then communicate to England about his wish, and the English FA will have to write back to the World Soccer governing body accepting his switch before he is eligible to represent Nigeria.

The whole process could take four months, which means he won’t be able to play in the upcoming friendlies against Egypt and Senegal, planned for January and March respectively.

Jordon Ibe

Aubameyang battles Mahrez, Mane, for African Footballer of the Year

Warri Wolves will be back to T premier league, Okowa assures Osakhare Erese, Asaba

T

he Chairman, Delta State Commission, Chief Tonobok Okowa has asserted that the relegated Warri wolves Football Club will become premier league as efforts to gain promotion in the next season are being put in place by the sports commission and the management of the club.

Chief Okowa said this yesterday at Asaba while speaking with journalists on the development of assumes offices as the Chairman of the Commission.

He said that the Warri Wolves lost 16 key players at the beginning of last season and this affected their performance adversely as the Club could not win as they have been seriously depleted to the point that they could not do well enough to retain the premier league position.

The Chairman said that it is always so, in sports as you either win or lose as the case may be but assured that Warri Wolves will rise again considering the effort being put in place to have the teams with Warri Wolves at the Premier League; Delta Queen in Female League; Delta Force in National League and Delta Star in Amateur and the commission hopes to add more two clubs.

He said that all the clubs did well as the other three came second in their categories but will be motivated to secure first positions in subsequent seasons.

He observed that the State have done creditably in virtually all the sports activities in the country within the last one year since he assumed office.

“We did well in the last youth Games in Illorin where we came first as well as the Chief of Naval Staff Swimming Competition. For the period Delta has won 97 gold, 62 silver and about 38 bronze medals and this is quite encouraging.

The Chairman revealed that the State will be organizing State Sports Festival in the first quota of 2017 before the National Sports Festival. This is to enable them fish out burden athletes in the various localities in the State and utilize their talents in the National games.

he three finalists for the 2016 African Footballer of the Year Award will be named in December before the award ceremony in Abuja on January 5, media reports said yesterday.

Reigning African Footballer of the Year, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was named on Tuesday on a shortlist of five candidates for the 2016 award.

The Gabon captain, whose goals for Borussia Dortmund have made him one of Europe’s most prolific strikers, is up against Algerians Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani, who play for English champions Leicester City.

Senegal and Liverpool forward Sadio Mane and AS Roma’s Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah were also nominated.

Votes from the national team Coaches or Technical Directors of the Confederation of African Football’s 54 members, plus a specially appointed panel of 10 experts, will determine the winner.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

PUBLIC NOTICE

rilwanu

EBIRA YOUTHS ELITE OF NIGERIA

I, formerly known as rilwanu ishaku now wish to be known and addressed as rilwanu ishaq. All former documents remain valid. All authorities concerned and the general public should please take note.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED ASSOCIATION HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART “C” OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT OF 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE : 1.Isa Justice Abdulwahab 2.Sadiq Yusuf Abubakar 3.Abdulmumeen Gomina 4.Ahmad Tijani Mubarak 5.Abubakar Kamaru Ahmed THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE : 1. To establish vocational training centres for Ebira youths.

2. To award scholarship to indigent students of Ebira Origin.

3. To Empower and train Ebira youths for economic self reliance.

ANY OBJECTION TO THIS REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR GENERAL CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, PLOT 420, TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION. SIGNED : Management

GRACE I, FORMERLY KNOWN AS GRACE PHILIPS AZIAKPOBE NOW WISH TO BE KNOWN AND ADDRESSED AS GRACE BLESSING AVRE MACAULAY. ALL FORMER DOCUMENTS REMAIN VALID. ALL AUTHORITIES CONCERNED AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD PLEASE TAKE NOTE.

PEOPLES DAILY, thursday, november 24, 2016

Some Interesting Facts 1. Benin Kingdom: The high quality and highly sophisticated bronze work of the Benin Kingdom dating as far back as the 13th century is a world wonder.

Great works in iron, wood, ivory, and terra cotta products also highlight the empire’s history.

2. Benin Kingdom: Lourenco Pinto, captain of a ship that carried missionaries to Warri in 1619, described Benin kingdom, ‘Great Benin where the king resides is larger than Lisbon, all the streets run straight and as far as the eyes can see….’

3. Rivers/AkwaIbom: King Jaja of Opobo,

hottest puzzle book kakuro 17

puzzle 17

Page 31

Leisure

(1821–1891) JuboJubogha, an Igbo from Imo state founded Opobo city-state in 1867 and shipped palm oil to Britain independently of British middle men.

4. Ancient Greeks appear to have Nigerian roots as supported by the Benin Haplogroup or Haplogroup 19. According to JideUwechia, ‘The Benin Haplotype (which originates from Nigeria, West Africa) accounts for HbS associated chromosomes in Sicily Northern Greece.’

5. Ilorin’s ‘Oba’ Afonja utilized Fulani warriors to help rebel against the Oyo Empire. The warriors after defeating Oyo took over Ilorin and Sheikh Alimi, their leader became the first Emir.

6. Much of north Nigeria was part of the Songhai Empire.

Muhammad Kanta annexed Kebbi and other states between 1512 and 1517.

7. The Obasanjo military regime converted Nigeria from a Parliamentary system to a Presidential system of government.

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SPORTS Niger: My poor orphaned state latest

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Drogba bids farewell to Montreal

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triker Didier Drogba has indicated he will not return to Montreal Impact next season with Major League Soccer club releasing a video yesterday Twitter thanking him for service.

The 38-year-old former Chelsea striker played his last home game for the club after he came on as a second-half substitute in Impact’s 3-2 win over Toronto FC in the first leg of the MLS Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday.

“Everyone knows that it was my last game here,” Drogba said when asked after the match if he would be back next season.

“There is still one, maybe two games to go. Let’s think about next week’s game. I think that is more important than if it’s finished or not.”

Montreal travel to Toronto for the second leg on Nov. 30, knowing either a win or a draw will see them advance to the MLS Cup final in either Seattle or Colorado on Dec. 10.

Drogba joined Montreal in July 2015 and has scored 21 regular season goals in 33 appearances across two seasons.

Injuries resulted in him losing his place in the starting lineup to Italian Matteo Mancosu.

Again, a subsequent feud over playing time with manager Mauro Biello extended his spell on the sidelines.

The prolific former Ivory Coast international spent nine seasons with Chelsea before moving to the U.S., scoring 164 goals across all competitions and leading the Premier League club to their first ever Champions League title.

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s I was on that jaggedly potholed Abuja-Minna road last Sunday driving home and musing over what subject next to write on, I received a text message from a fellow Nigerlite and erstwhile Newsline colleague of mine, Khadijah Umar Mashegu. And although we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in a long time, it appeared my sister was still her usual ‘cut-the-crap-and-get-straight-to-thepoint kind of communicator’ I had always known her to be: “Salam” she said, “Do you have any thoughts on what can help Niger State move forward?” Hhhmmm! Who would not heave a sigh? By the way, aside the media matters, Khadija I understand is now involved in development issues, especially at the grassroots.

And for a moment my ordeal with potholes -some the sizes of craters and mini gorges- almost got me into soliloquized road-rage as I said aloud to myself ‘what else do you need to move Niger State forward Khadijah than fix this tragedy of a road that is the gateway to the so called ‘Power State’?’ Yes, I was virtually taking it personal. In truth there is more to moving Niger State forward than merely fixing her potholed gateway road to Minna. Maybe we should even start by fixing this terribly masochismic mentality of Nigerlites –who are always ready to take the short end of the stick from our selfish politicians. We have continued, it seems, to be left more abjectly poor with every passing government.

Former Governor Abdulkadir Kure and his immediate successor Babangida Aliyu both had humongous amounts of State funds at their disposal, but they were either bereft of the ideas to move the State forward or their severely itchy fingers simply would not let them. Even when we thought that no government could ever be as bad as Kure’s, Babangida Aliyu still came to angelize Kure by taking governance to the lowliest low.

And now our current APC government, like a happy-go-lucky moth-butterfly, borne cheaply on the wings of populist Buharism, is presently caught in the wax and flux either of paucity of funds or of ideas; or of both.

In fact it is unfortunate that already a three-word sobriquet ‘One Term Only’ is now snidely hauled at the new Government by impatient youths who see it as the proverbial ‘kyanwan lami’ which, as the saying goes, ‘ba ki cizo, ba kya yaqushi’ – meaning ‘the ineffectual cat that neither paws nor catches any mouse at all’. This certainly is a cause for worry for our princely Governor Abu Lolo, pampered son of onetime Military Governor of Kano State, Col. Sani Bello and the doted son-in-law of the Abdulsalamis.

By the way even if he desires to probe his immediate predecessor Aliyu to raise the crucial funds needed to buoy his insolvent government, Abu may be constrained by both filial consanguinity and affinity not be able to do so. Because his mother-in-law Fati Abdussalam herself is a blood niece to Aliyu who is thus a grand-uncle-in-law to the new Governor. In the sixteen years that PDP had conquered and despoiled my beloved Niger State, I had written one too many titles either passionately importuning good governance, or in moments of personal outrage, reprimanding the brazen lack of it.

And until Khadijah’s last Sunday’s text I had thought that I am done with the goings-on in Niger. But you just never say never!

First, we may ask: ‘is Niger State viable?’ That I had answered in a piece I once wrote, titled ‘Niger: Cry the beloved power State’.

Niger State is famed for ‘Power’ on

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dankande2@gmail.com account of two inherently contradistinctive sources of ‘power’. And she is noted also for ‘history’ on account of two mutually opposing causes of ‘history’. As a ‘Power State’, Niger is both the metaphorical and the existential source of two high voltages, one ‘political’ –being the birth place of two former Military heads of State, Generals Babangida and Abdussalami; and the other ‘hydro-electrical’ -being home to the nation’s two major hydro dams, Kainji and Shiroro.

And of ‘history’ Niger State is noted for an interesting dual apposite: namely being home to Nigeria’s first colonial seat of Power, Zungeru; -and which town was itself also the birth-place of two Eastern great personages: one, Nigeria’s foremost nationalists and her first President, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the other, the very agent provocateur of Nigeria’s Civil war himself, Odumegwu Ojukwu. Thus Zungeru alone is quite a piece of tourist laboratory for any serious minded governor with the gift of fertile imagination. But Niger State is all these and even more.

Of note also are the State’s enormous agricultural potentials in virtually all of the sectors of it; the ‘expanse’ and the ‘fecundity’ of her soil types; the multi variegation of her crop and plant varieties; the wide range of her irrigable land locations; the existence of largely untapped ecosystems; her numerous fish sources and diverse species; a plenitude of an immensely provident graze-able plains for animal husbandry and an agriculturally clement weather conducive for a variety of all-year farming systems, Niger State is preeminently nonpareil - except perhaps for a contentious Benue State that also lays claim to being the ‘food basket of the nation’.

Nor is the State any less endowed in other exploitable but regrettably untapped treasures such as her huge deposits of gold and other precious metals; or yet her many tourist destinations like the Shiroro and Kainji dams, the waterfalls of Gurara, the Borgu Games Reserve; the first colonial Capital and Zik’s cum Ojukwu’s birth place Zungeru; the famous Ladi Kwali Pottery; the potentially exploitable Zuma Rock, -which is a natural landmark-mystic of national significance both in its touristic value and its symbolic uniting force.

Neither Kure nor Aliyu could discern the potentials of this landmark.

Once, Governor Aliyu in his typical, do-nothing populist stunts, had arranged to be physically launched on top of Zuma Rock for the titillation of his own ego and for the amusement of political hangerson. In fact typically for Aliyu this Zumaclimbing event would’ve been enough to form the fulcrum of governance discourse with himself as the trail-blazing star who had done what no governor had ever done.

Ironically right beneath the Zuma Rock itself was a 30-year-old abandoned and uncompleted State-owned five-star hotel.

Talba the star-Rock-climber took the shine off of this derelict five-star metaphor of

waste and misplaced priority.

In fact it was to the credit of the ‘heroics’ of another do-nothing Governor, Kure that the battle to get the Federal Government remove Zuma Rock from the five naira note was won, because Niger State had insisted that the landmark exclusively belonged to it and that the Federal Government’s use of it on our national currency was tantamount to a violation of landmark rights. Interestingly since then apart from the historic landing of Governor Aliyu on it, the State has done nothing to exploit the tourist potentials of Zuma Rock other than lend the use of ‘Zuma’ ironically to a federal agency, the Nigeria Police on its State crime patrol vehicles. ‘ba cinyar ba’ the Hausas would say, ‘kafar baya!’ –‘not the hind but the foreleg’.

Again to Niger State belongs a strategically positioned Suleja (originally Abuja) town that is a virtual entrepot to the Federal Capital and an ancient city readily exploit-able in its Real-estate potentials both on account of its Gateway location to the nation’s capital and its enviable history as the baptismal precursor to the present day ‘Abuja’. By the way Suleja as the veritable historical surrogate mother to Abuja, is a national monument of some sort deserving of special funding by the federal government. No governors had ever put forth this legitimate claim; the same way neither has fought for HYPERDEC to cushion the effect of perennial flooding of the major dams suffered by various communities.

To any discerning Governor, Suleja by now should’ve been a veritable alter-ego of Abuja with choice property and especially star-studded hotels that operate low-flying helicopters offering customized shuttle services daily to and from Abuja’s Central Business District for those who may want to stay on the outskirts as they deal with the bureaucracy in Abuja. Or maybe even a little less ‘crazier’, an FCT-Niger State owned light-rail by now could daily be ferrying passengers who work in Abuja but live in Suleja or any of the numerous connected settlements through which the rail would traverse. In Suleja alone a veritable potpourri of investables abide and from which a world of infinite commercial possibilities lie. But where is the Governor?

By the way Niger State is home to some of the best species of yam anywhere in the country; and in fact our hard-working, agrarian Gbagyi population cultivates about the largest share –admittedly in contention with Benue’s Tiv farmers- of the nation’s annual yam production. Yet no Governor of Niger State has ever deemed it desirable to transform this raw yam resource by the addition of value which will compensate our poor local farmers for their investment of capital and for the drudgery put in annual to bring that produce to us at a street value that sometimes amounts literally to robbing the farmer.

Truckloads after truckloads of yam exit the State, purchased at abysmally low glut-rate prices and transported down to

the industrial suburbs of Lagos and Ogun states to be processed into ‘poundo-yam flour’ which now sells in supermarkets at about a thousand naira per single-meal sachet. Ironically, at the peak of yam glut in my State a thousand naira sometimes can give you a boot-full of yams bought off a street-hawking, often-child-nestling gbagyi mother who would sell not because the price is right, but because she needs to free her neck from the weight of the commodity.

As with the Niger State yam, so it is with the Niger State ‘stoned fadama rice’ that neither Governor Kure nor Aliyu ever deemed it necessary to work to un-stone –by gradually setting a milling process in motion either through the empowerment of our predominantly Nupe local rice farmers or even the direct involvement of Government in improving and adding value to this commodity so that farmers get equitable value for their drudgery and the nation is gradually weaned from its overdependence on foreign rice. None of our governors cared.

One can go on and on from the uniquely palatable diverse fish species either from Shiroro, Kainji or in fact the exceptionally salt-sweet fadama fishes of the ricefarming communities of Nupe land who are left too at the mercy of the vagaries of a cruel informal market; and then even to the numerous varieties of fruits especially mangoes sold at glut-street price sometimes of one-penny-to-the-dozens, while streetsmart juice-making factories from SangoOtta sneak in annually to cart truckload after truckload literally at no cost from local Gbagyi communities who may only be too happy to be rid of it EPILOGUE Yet critics would say ‘Mohammed, this is preposterous. The current Governor is battling to pay salaries, and you are talking about big time projects. Even previous governors who had brimming treasuries at their disposal couldn’t execute such projects’. No! It was not that previous governors COULDN’T . In truth they simply WOULDN’T. Yet just because projects were not executed when there was money, does not mean that projects cannot now be executed because there is no money. Governor Abu Lolo just has to look inwards and create ‘wealth’. The Einstein peach of genuine exertion in the art of governance is all about creating ‘something’, -sometimes even from ‘nothing’!

DAN GAYE

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