THEWILL AUG 29 - SEPT 4 EDITION

We’ll Keep Deepening Use of Technology in Electoral Process -Okoye – PAGE 11

Q2 ’2021 GDP: Anxiety Over Agric Sector Decline Amid 5.01% Growth

Pretty Mike: Controversy Personified

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AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 • VOL . 1 NO. 29

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STATE OF THE STATES

This special publication of THEWILL x-rays the potentials of the 36 states and the FCT to achieve a quantum leap in development through investment and job creation. The prevailing cash crunch in the country makes the project more compelling for policy-makers, investors and other stakeholders.

Fear of The Taliban in Nigeria FG Must Stop ‘Repentant Boko Haram’ Policy Now – ACF Buhari Must Assure Nigerians Of Safety – Kaduna Group Attack On NDA is Joke Taken Too Far – Ex-Defence Minister Nigerians Must Put Up Resistance – Mailafia

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Fear of The Taliban in Nigeria

BY AMOS ESELE or many Nigerians at the receiving end of the worsening insecurity, the daring invasion of the country’s foremost military institution, the Nigerian Defence Academy, Afaka, Kaduna, by audacious bandits early Tuesday morning, which led to the death of two officers and abduction of one, barely a few weeks after an alpha jet aircraft belonging to the Nigeria Airforce was shot down in Kaduna through “intense enemy fire from bandits,” the last hope of overcoming the outlaws appear to be fading by the day.

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During the attack, Lieutenant-Commodore Wulah and Flight-Lieutenant C.M. Okoronwo were shot dead, while Major Datong was abducted. When the Air force jet was shot down over the killing field that has become Kaduna State, many wondered whether those who fired the shots were actually bandits. Many weeks later, there is no way of knowing as the outcome of the probe set up by the authorities was never made public and no press conference held.

The similarity of the events hinted at in the video evokes memories of a similar policy by the immediate past President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who enrolled “repentant Taliban” in the regular army.

Others making similar conclusions are the former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Obadiah Mailafia and Luka Binniyat, spokesperson for the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOPAKU, who have been battling the state and the Federal Government over the condemnable bloodbath in the former seat of the Northern Region.

The fall of Afghanistan to the Talibans appears to have ignited a frightening scenario among Nigerians, just like many around the world who are reacting to the events.

For the United States of America, the epicentre of the occurrence, it came with mixed feelings from different segments of its populace despite President Joe Biden’s insistence that his administration did what it needed to do to save American lives, money and pledge. Allies and foes alike either justified the action in support or condemned it as hypocrisy. As an earth shaking global event, persons from different parts of the world were expected to respond to the Taliban victory, accordingly.

CAN IT HAPPEN HERE? “Why not!” Obadiah told THEWILL in a brief interview on Thursday. “The Taliban have reportedly said they are going to spread Sharia to other parts of the third world, especially Africa. The thing with dictators is that they always say in advance what they are going to do. As a student of history, I have learnt not to disbelieve what they say.”

Obadiah, the candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2019 presidential election, added that global dynamics have collapsed the world into a village where things happen fast. “The world has become a global village and ideas, weapons, everything is travelling fast. The Taliban have amassed weapons from the Americans. What will stop them?” For Binniyat, “Yes, if you watched and listened to reports of how the Afghan forces refused to fight, how the army was infiltrated and compromised despite receiving first-class training from the Americans, you would understand what we have been talking about our country.”

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Even a retired Navy Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, believed so. In an interview with Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily, last Tuesday, he claimed, among other things, that “terrorists financiers want to turn Nigeria to a Taliban type of country.”

SOURCE OF FEAR Apart from the downing of the Airforce fighter jet in Kaduna recently and the recent invasion of the NDA, another clear evidence that tends to sustain the fear of local ‘Taliban’ is the definition of terror through data. For three years running now, 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Global Terrorism Index, states that Nigeria is the third-most dangerous country after Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan has fallen and Iraq is in shambles since the civil war sparked by America’s overthrow of former Head of State, Sadaam Hussein’s regime. According to the GTI, in 2019, Afghanistan was the country most impacted by terrorism.

“In Nigeria, political, economic and social grievances are causing violence and deaths. Several militant groups are active in the country, leading to attacks on both civil and military targets. Boko Haram, an affiliate of the Islamic State, is the deadliest terrorist group. Over the years, GTI noted, the terrorism index which measure the direct and indirect impact of terrorism on a scale of 0 (no impact) to 10 (highest impact), Nigerian is one of the countries that has experienced an increase. As of 2019 the indicator stood at 8.3. That year, a total of 5,725 fatalities were caused by terrorism. The second most fatalities as a result of terrorism were in Nigeria, amounting to 1,245 deaths,” the GTI said.

Mailafia

Coming at a period when Afghanistan fell to the Talibans, many Nigerians are drawing a parallel with that event in that Central Asian country. Already, a viral video, using the ‘repentant Boko Haram,’ policy of the government to paint a likelihood of a similar takeover in the country, has gone viral.

Ogbeh

The NDA attack by yet-to-be identified gunmen who, in comparison to the country’s elite corps at the most secure military academy in the country, are inferior, speaks volumes. Worse still, the daredevils are even audacious enough to demand a ransom, first put at N400 million and then reduced to N200 million, though the defence academy has expressed unwillingness to enter any negotiation with the bandits.

Sokoto States. In other northern states, there are so many ungovernable spaces, because of lack of access roads and other basic amenities.

“This crisis (Boko Haram) may not end in 20 years’ time.

We have achieved a lot of success, but we cannot continue to use the same tactics and achieve different results.”

More worrisome is the fact that Boko Haram shares a similar ideology of Islamisation with the Taliban and they are ready to maim, kill, rape and cripple to achieve it.

Alongside hapless Nigerians, now at the mercy of bandits, the military have increasingly come under attacks too, fueling the view that the future is hopeless if bandits with no formal military training can be so daring in their attacks and thereby expose the weaknesses of the military. Also, they have reportedly captured and occupied many territories in north-eastern and north-central Nigeria and converted them into operational bases, collecting taxes and imposing fines on the citizens.

Since April when the Nigerian Army reportedly buried 12 soldiers killed by bandits in Konshisha Local Government of troubled Benue State through to July when suspected bandits attacked and killed seven soldiers during an ambush of troops of the Forward Operational Base and Special Operational Command based in Kebbi State, the insecurity in the country has created a huge vacuum in the security architecture of the country.

A further example of the dangerous situation confronting Nigerians was painted by the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Buratai, during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for screening as non- career ambassador-designate. Buratai, now Nigeria’s ambassador to Benin Republic, had disclosed during his screening appearance that Boko Haram may last for the next 20 years.

“As a former journalist, what came to my mind when I heard of the NDA attack was that we are finished as a country; if bandits can penetrate the NDA, nowhere in Nigeria is safe. I had covered that academy as a journalist.

Everywhere you turn there, there are soldiers who ask you all kinds of questions and things are properly coordinated.

For somebody else to think of going into that place, he or she must have something beyond banditry driving him or her,’ said Binniyat, “It shows that anything you can imagine in Nigeria is possible.”

He said, “Only the military cannot solve this problem. There are socio-economic factors that need to be addressed. There should be basic amenities, but they are missing. “I can count five local government areas in Borno State without a good road. The same thing is in Zamfara, Katsina and the

Stressing a point made earlier, Mailafia referred to an article he had written on the subject; “Ashraf Ghani should never have allowed so-called “repentant Taliban” to be enrolled in the regular army; a mistake we are already making with Boko Haram in Nigeria. The so-called “repentant Taliban” THEWILLNIGERIA

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COVER benefited not only from better training with the regular army, but also as insiders who under-studied the weakness of the regular army, they were in a better position to defeat it. And now they will inherit the massive arsenals left behind by the fleeing Americans.” said Mailafia, referencing an article he had written of the Taliban when he was reminded that the situation in the Central Asian country was different from the scenario in Nigeria with different ethnic nationalities capable of resisting the other in the event of clear, open threat or danger to their existence.

As a former lecturer in London who taught relatives of some of the Taliban, Mailafia said he knows how characters like the Taliban operate, those who have an agenda, an ideology grows in proportion to every victory achieved in its pursuit coupled with the weak institutions and leadership. For him, Nigeria’s parallel with Afghanistan is eye-opening.

Although Lt Gen Buratai did not expatiate on what he meant by acting with ‘the same tactics and expecting results at the Senate ambassadorial screening, it is certain that one of his initiatives to tackle the lingering insurgency, which bore the mark of a real and clear danger that can compromise the army, like it happened in Afghanistan, is the controversial plan to rehabilitate ‘repentant Boko Haram’ terrorists. Since the government started the programme, prominent Nigerian organisations have criticised it, urging the government to scrap it and allow those that surrendered face trial.

REPENTANT BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS AS TALIBAN? Worried that Nigerians were drawing what it considered an unreasonable parallel with the ‘repentant Boko Haram insurgents’, policy with the Afghan Talibans, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, on Tuesday in Abuja reacted to an online video circulated in the social media by one Young Elder and produced by Anthony Jay, which attempts to relate the collapse of the Afghan military to the ongoing surrender by the Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in Nigeria. He said it was over the top.

Nwachukwu said, “While it is understood that the situation in Afghanistan calls for concern by any right thinking person or organisation, the manner in which the comic Young Elder presented it shows his lack of basic knowledge on the subject he hurriedly delved into.

“The amateurish production conjured some unfounded and baseless claims that only exist in the figment of their imagination, claiming that surrendered terrorists were going to be absorbed into the Nigerian army.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the NA does not have any repentant terrorist joining its ranks and does not have any plan for that.

“There are teaming able-bodied Nigerians that are willing to join the NA to genuinely help in the fight against terrorism and other violent crimes,” he said.

The Army spokesperson said the Nigerian Army was not desperate for prospective recruits to stoop so low to engage the services of former terrorists.

He explained that it was not recommended to absorb former fighters into the services of a regular military as a general rule.

Nonetheless, this policy which operates under the Operation Safe Corridor that was started by the Nigerian Defence Council in 2015 and launched in 2016, is still giving Nigerians cause for concern.

The Federal Government uses the plan to equip repentant terrorists with relevant skills, as well as de-radicalise them, with the aim of eventually returning them to the society as transformed and law-abiding citizens. Nigerians have watched and criticised viral videos of many beneficiaries, dressed up in khaki shorts and sleeves, wining and dining in manners that would make over 900 Internally Displaced Persons, IDS, the surviving victims of their dare-devilry in various make-shift camps in Borno State, green with envy.

Yet, a few weeks ago, Operation Hadin Kai in the northern part of the country got new entrants after it witnessed the surrender of 1,081 Boko Haram members to the Nigerian Army. Among them were some top commanders within the terrorist organisation, as well as women and children. It was reported that they would undergo a process of rehabilitation, after which they would be subsequently reintroduced into the society. Governor Babagan Zulum and the traditional ruler in the state, Shehu of Borno and Senator Ali Udume, warned against re-introducing the ‘repentant’ terrorists into the immediate society as the move would further increase the pains and wounds of many victims and possibly unleash another round of killings.

Reacting, Brig -Gen. Nwachukwu, the army spokesperson, said the repentant terrorists, especially the bomb experts, would be handed over to the appropriate government agency. He then mentioned Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), saying that it is an organisation run by the government and not the army.

Incensed by this development last Tuesday, the National Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum and former Minister for Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, said that repentant Boko Haram members should be prosecuted for crimes committed against fellow Nigerians, if Sunday Igboho, Yoruba self-determination activist or Eastern Security Network members can be prosecuted.

Ogbeh stated this in a statement he signed and released through the National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, in Kaduna on Tuesday.

Speaking on a piece entitled, ‘On repentant Boko Haram Terrorists and the Principle of Equity and Justice,’ Ogbeh said, “We are currently witnessing a large-scale surrender of Boko Haram insurgents, among whom are bomb makers,

commanders, arsonists, rapists, and child snatchers.

“Do we have a good reason to cheer and hope for an end to this decade-old insanity? Is ‘I am sorry’ enough to bring relief to Nigerians and the thousands of dead and maimed?

What of those victims bombed in churches, mosques, schools and markets? What of all the men and women in uniform murdered by them?

“Who can count the thousands of widows and orphans they have created? And what is the difference between them and the Igbohos or ESN of Nigeria? None. So what do we do with them? Should we just embrace them and trust them wholesale? Are their moves informed by altruistic repentance? We seriously doubt it.

“We join the Governor of Borno, the Shehu of Borno, Senator Ndume and millions of Nigerians in pondering over this development and our simple advice is: Bring them to trial or free all others currently in custody anywhere, while we Nigerians plead guilty of naivety and gullibility in the extreme, punishable by more insurrection and anarchy.”

WAY FORWARD Mailafia has said it is up to Nigerians who are on the receiving end of the worsening insecurity to put up resistance, saying, “They (bandits, terrorists and the Taliban) will not succeed if we resist their imposition. The world has become a global village and ideas, weapons and everything is travelling very fast.” Pressed further, he said many Nigerian leaders are “unbearably deaf and undependable.

THEY ARE UNTEACHABLE.” For SOKAPU spokesperson, Binniyat, there are three points his organisation has recommended as an immediate answer to the festering crisis. “First, there are thousands of agile, young Nigerian boys and girls ready to volunteer into vigilante groups in their localities to confront the outlaws, all they need is minimum training in arms handling. In this situation, number matters, no matter the sophistication of arms.

“Secondly, President Muhammadu Buhari has to reassure us that his administration has no agenda against our safety and sense of belonging by respecting the diversity of Nigeria in his appointments, policy implementation and formulation.

Thirdly, the country’s armed forces should be properly equipped and cared for. Many are highly demoralised, that I know for a fact.”

Explaining further on his Chairman’s position, spokesperson of ACF, Emmanuel Yawe told THEWILL that the government needs the political will to tackle the crises tearing the country apart.

“Some of the people causing these problems are known to the government. Why treat them as sacred cows? Some time ago, presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, told us the government had a list of these people. Why not prosecute them like Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu? What about those now called repentant Boko Haram? How can you welcome them back with a pat on the back? They should be taken to court and prosecuted. Government also has to be firm in intelligence gathering. The bandits usually come in hundreds on motorcycles, carry people and vanish into thin air. Why can’t security personnel mobilise and stop them?

THESE THINGS ARE AVOIDABLE.” A former Minister of State for Defence, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, Friday described Tuesday’s attack at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, by bandits as a joke taken too far. He urged the government to seek international help.

Speaking in Akure, Ondo State, he said that although the attack at the NDA was very unfortunate and embarrassing, “Security challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria and Africa; they are all over the world but this (the attack at the NDA) is going too far. Government must rethink its strategy about how to tackle this as it has gone too far and I believe that something has to be done because the NDA is a very sacred place for us.

“The international community must rally round Nigeria to give us support and although we cannot do it alone, we must do our best.”

The Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen Lucky Irabor, has set up a committee to probe the NDA incident. Nigerians are waiting to hear how the nation’s foremost military academy was violated.

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IMAGES

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Chieftancy Title Conferment

RH, Oba Saburee Babajide Bakre, the Agura of Gbaguraland on August 21, 2021, conferred businessman, Chief Francis O.

Momoh with the chieftaincy title of Aare Babalaje of Gbaguraland, Abeokuta, Ogun State. After his installation, reception followed

The Conferment.

at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in the capital city.

Image Credit: Peace Udugba/THEWILL

R-L: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo & Aare Babalaje of Gbaguraland, Chief Francis Momoh.

R-L: HRH, Oba Saburee Babajide Bakre, the Agura of Gbaguraland & newly installed Aare Babalaje, Chief Francis O. Momoh. L-R: Prince Robert Bakre, Tife Bakre, Mrs. Linda Bakre & Aare Babalaje.

Aare Babalaje, Chief Francis Momoh (middle) with Mr & Mrs Olufemi Olufowobi.

L-R: Onochie Mordi, Osi Oshogwe, Victor Enosogbe & Chunky Chinke.

L-R: Mayowa Ogunnusi, Nnamdi Akabuno, Aare Babalaje & Tsola Barrow.

Friends celebrating with the new Aare Babalaje at the occasion.

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NEWS Youth Day of Service: Sterling One Foundation Partners LEAP Africa, African

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terling One Foundation has announced partnership with LEAP Africa to provide funding opportunities for individuals and groups who are championing projects on the International Youth Day of Service via a series of over 300 community-based social impact projects. Other core partners of the project are the Ford Foundation, Giving.ng and the African Union.

The Pan-African ‘Youth Day of Service’ (YDoS) 2021 campaign is a youth-led social impact campaign with the theme, Youthful and Useful. It will involve social impact projects scheduled for execution in various African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameron, Uganda, Senegal, Rwanda, Zambia, Mail, Liberia, and Gambia. The week-long campaign is designed to ignite the agency and creativity of young people across Africa towards sustainable development, and promote a culture of taking responsibility and youth leadership for community development while fostering the spirit of volunteerism.

L-R: Ekiti State Governor/Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong; Sultan of Sokoto/Co-Chair , Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, during the 2021 third quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja on 27/8/2021.

Insecurity: Plateau Lawmakers Give Lalong Two-Week Ultimatum

FROM UKANDI ODEY, JOS he Plateau State House of Assembly has issued Governor Simon Bako Lalong a two-week ultimatum to implement its recommendations to the executive on the subsisting killings in different parts of the state or face impeachment proceedings.

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The House used the occasion to call on the people of Plateau to “practically stand up and defend themselves and the communities, as conventional security design is no longer guaranteeing our safety as a people.”

The lawmakers challenged Governor Lalong to be decisive and bold about the fate and preservation of the Plateau heritage. “We call on the Executive Governor, Simon Bako Lalong, to come up with a statement defending us as a people and to bring back renewed commitment to the cause of Plateau.”

“We are still expecting with high hopes, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to also come up with a statement about the killings in Yelwa Zangam, just as he did in the killing of travellers on Rukuba Road and to also indicate a sign of justice or we will see him as being reflexive about the killings in Plateau,” Chairman of the House Committee

on Information, Dasan Phillip Peter, said on the silence of the Presidency since the massacre of 36 souls in Yelwa Zangam, in Jos North, last Tuesday night.

They called on traditional rulers in the state to “look inward and release the local security design to protect Plateau people, as well as reinforcing the vigilante” and similarly directed all local government chairmen to “suspend their planned recruitment of ad hoc staff, and instead recruit 200 vigilante personnel in each of the local government areas to boost security and local intelligence gathering”.

With a call to the agents of state security to trail and arrest and punish perpetrators of the killings so far, the House also commended the conduct and resilience of the youths in the “sustained and coordinated and organised campaigns against the killings”, including the “display of the corpses in the House of Assembly.

The Simon Lalong administration has been at the lowest rating in the opinion polls since last Wednesday, following persistent killings and failure of the governor to return to the state to take control and commiserate with the grieving population. Many have dismissed him as “incompetent”, a “betrayal”, and are calling for his summary impeachment for being indifferent to the plight of the people.

Residents Desert Rivers Community as Gunmen Kill Vigilante, Son R

FROM SAMPSON ITODE, PORT HARCOURT

esidents of Ibaa community in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers state on Thursday fled their homes, following the gruesome murder of a member of the local vigilante group, identified as Amobi Oguzo, and his son, Prince Oguzo, by unknown gunmen suspected to be cultists.

THE WILL gathered that the gunmen shot and killed Prince Oguzo at his country home on Wednesday night after a frantic search for his father proved abortive. The gunmen, who were determined to kill their target, laid siege to Amobi’s residence where they rounded him up and killed him.

The General Commander of the local vigilance group, known as Onelga Security Planning and Advisory Committee better known by its acronym OSPAC, Emeka Wori, who confirmed the development to our correspondent, described the killing of his colleague and his son as disheartening.

Wori said that preliminary investigation revealed that relatives of the suspected gunmen left the village, ahead of the attacks, implying that they had foreknowledge of what was about to happen.

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yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) where some criminals killed the son of our member and later killed the man himself. We thought that crime had ceased in Ibaa community, but right now the killings are becoming a different thing. These boys entered the community and nobody gave information to the security.

“Yesterday, I left Ibaa around 5 to 6pm and when I got to Port Harcourt around 9 pm I was informed that they (the gunmen) had killed Amobi.

“The few places we went to in the community, the people who are close to the killers have all ran away as if they knew that this would happen. We will not condone this anymore.”

It would be recalled that in April, some repentant cultists in the community accused the vigilante group of killing six of their members, an accusation the leaders of the group denied.

Speaking on the partnership, Chief Executive Officer, Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe noted that this partnership is poised to strengthen communities, support social impact innovators, and trigger collective action in Nigeria and across the continent.

“We have prioritized partnerships for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals across our focus sectors as we believe effective collaboration is the only sustainable strategy for holistic social impact at this time. In line with this, we are glad to partner with LEAP Africa on the Youth Day of Service and look forward to the various innovative projects that will be executed across different communities by young people in Africa.” She added.

The Youth Day of Service initiative seeks to inspire, engage and empower more young people to take leading roles in driving the sustainable development of their communities through service and action. Community projects range from Child Rights Awareness to Skills Development training, Clean-up exercises and Food Drives as shared by project leads. The overall goal is to reach 1,000,000 people in at least 20 countries working with 5000 volunteers across Africa.

“No N41bn For Basic Education in Anambra”

FROM CHARLES OKEKE, AWKA

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he Anambra State Government has refuted a story circulating on social media that the sum of N41 billion is available for its collection from the Office of the Universal Basic Education Commission in Abuja for the development of basic education and junior secondary education in the state.

Speaking on behalf of the state government, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C.Don Adinuba, in a statement signed by the Chairman of the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, Patrick Ugboaja, dismissed the story as untrue.

Also, Ugboaja stressed that Anambra State had long accessed all the money accruing to it from UBEC up to 2018.

Throwing more light on the subject, he said, ’’About a week ago, we saw a story on the social media claiming that there is the sum of N41 billion waiting for collection by Anambra State Government for the development of basic education, that is, primary education and the first three years of post-primary education.

“The report claimed that the state government had not been able to claim this money because it had yet to pay its counterpart funding for the construction and renovation of basic schools owned by the government and voluntary agencies, as well as for the furnishing of these schools and the training of the school teachers.

In a related development, unknown gunmen on Wednesday night shot an estate agent identified as Alex Frank on Akwuzu/ Abakilaka Street in the Mile 1 Diobu area of Port Harcourt.

“We have all along ignored this story because the claim that a whole sum of N41 billion is due to any state in the Federation for basic education development is too wild for any critically thinking Nigerian to believe.

A source told our correspondent, on the condition of anonymity, that four gunmen who pretended to be customers at a pub in the area shot at the realtor upon sighting him before fleeing from the scene.

“However, the sensational story has now become a subject of commentary by politicians contesting the November 6 governorship election in the state. What is more, one or two wellmeaning persons have called to find out the true situation.

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GLOBAL NEWS

UN:Kabul Bomb Attacks A Hideous Assault STORIES FROM ZACHEAUS SOMORIN IN TORONTO

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he United Nations has called for those responsible for the “hideous assault on desperate civilians” in Kabul to be “caught and brought to justice”. The deadly attacks targeting people queuing at the airport in the Afghan capital were “clearly calculated to kill and maim as many people as possible: civilians - children, women, fathers, mothers,” Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

“Humanitarian Catastrophe Unfolding In Ethiopia’’

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N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the Security Council the conflict in Ethiopia has spread beyond the Tigray region and “a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes”.

“It was an attack specifically designed to cause carnage and it has caused carnage,” he added. US President Joe Biden has promised to hunt down the jihadists behind an attack in Kabul which killed at least 90 people - including 13 American troops.

The Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has paid tribute to the “courage and bravery” of those still working on the final UK evacuations from Kabul, adding that it is “a dark day for those in Afghanistan”. “The immediate concern is those who have been left behind who urgently need that protection, that support, right now,” he said.

He described the events of the last fortnight as “a huge setback regionally and globally”. “In due course there are going to be some searing questions for the government about the lack of preparation,” he added. Asked if he would put more pressure on US President Joe Biden, he said he wanted “global leadership on this issue” going forward.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says his government is in direct talks with the Taliban about helping run Kabul Airport, after the departure of international forces at the end of this month. President Erdogan says Turkish officials held talks with the Taliban for three and half hours – suggesting the group is open to Turkey running the airport – but crucially with the Taliban in charge of its security.

The question of how Kabul Airport is run and secured is crucial for the country’s future; the US has already said it must function for Afghanistan to have “some semblance” of a relationship with the world.

Turkey is a member of NATO and has been part of the alliance’s forces in the country. It has secured the airport for the last six years.

But the Taliban wants Turkish troops, along with all international forces, out. President Erdogan says despite the talks there is no decision yet about maintaining a presence at the airport, warning of getting “sucked in” to a dangerous situation in light of Thursday’s attacks.

“Inflammatory rhetoric and ethnic profiling are tearing apart the social fabric of the country,” he told the 15-member council on Thursday. “All parties must immediately end hostilities without preconditions and seize that opportunity to negotiate a lasting ceasefire.”

Guterres said more than two million people have been displaced from their homes and millions more are in immediate need of life-saving humanitarian assistance – including food, water, shelter and healthcare.

“The human price of this war is mounting by the day … At least 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions,” the UN chief said. Meanwhile, Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of Tigray forces that the government attacked in November, expressed his group’s commitment to a “negotiated end” to the nine-month war.

In a letter to Guterres, Debretsion said the Tigray side requires an impartial mediator, among other conditions. “The aim is to exterminate Tigrayans by starving them to death,” his letter alleged.

He warned the African Union, whose headquarters is in Ethiopia, “cannot provide any solution to the war” that the continental body “endorsed” early in the fighting. That complicates the AU initiative announced on Thursday to appoint former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as its special representative to the Horn of Africa.

Mali Ex-PM Arrested Over Corruption Claims

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ali’s former Prime Minister, Boubeye Maiga, has been arrested for his role in the purchase of a presidential plane during the rule of deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, his lawyer has said.

The exact reason for the arrest was not clear, but it was related to Mali’s purchase of a jet in 2014 for $40m, his lawyer, Kassoum Tapo, told the Reuters news agency by phone on Thursday, without giving further detail.

“We have not seen the case file and until then we cannot speak further,” he said. The Justice Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Critics at the time claimed that the Keita administration overpaid and that the deal was corrupt. It led to a political scandal that hurt Keita’s presidency and spooked lenders. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank froze financing to the West African country as a result.

It was not clear what evidence prosecutors have against Maiga or why he was arrested now. He served as prime minister from 2017-2019 and is seen as a possible candidate in the presidential vote that interim authorities promise to hold next year, following Keita’s removal as president last August. The transition is being led by Assimi Goita, the Malian colonel who led the coup and is now interim president.

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Taliban Planning ‘Inclusive Caretaker Govt’ in Afghanistan

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he Taliban says it is planning an inclusive caretaker government in Afghanistan after the group toppled the Western-backed administration in a stunning sweep earlier this month. Taliban sources told Al Jazeera that the caretaker government will include leaders from all ethnicities and tribal backgrounds in the country.

government, including the sons of Tajik and Uzbek tribal leaders.

Nearly a dozen names are being considered to be part of the new government, sources said. The duration of the caretaker government is unclear at the moment. Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity has been at the centre of politics and conflict in the country, with no single ethnic group enjoying a decisive majority in the country of 40 million people.

The details about the formation of the caretaker government in Afghanistan came as the war-torn country is reeling from deadly attacks outside Kabul Airport on Thursday evening. The twin attacks claimed by ISIL-K, an ISIL affiliate in Afghanistan, killed at least 110 people, including 28 Taliban members and 13 US troops.

The Pashtuns are Afghanistan’s biggest ethnic group, making up more than 42 percent of the population. The predominantly Sunni Muslim community speaks the Pashto language and has dominated Afghan politics since the 18th century.

Another Taliban source told Al Jazeera that the group remains committed to the 2020 Doha accord it signed with the US, including not allowing Afghan soil to be used to launch terror attacks. The source said it was “unfair that the focus is on a few thousand people at the airport” and that “millions of Afghans enjoying security in Kabul are being ignored”.

Taliban sources also told Al Jazeera the caretaker government will have an “amir-ul momineen” (commander of the faithful) to lead the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They said a supreme leadership council has been convened to decide the form of the future government and nominate ministers.

Key ministries up for nominations include the judiciary, internal security, defence, foreign affairs, finance, information and a special assignment for Kabul’s affairs. Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar is in the capital, Kabul, while Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, has travelled from Kandahar for the initial consultations on government formation, the sources said.

The sources added that the group wants to bring new faces in to the

They said the United States has been insisting on bringing in some members of the older governments, including former President Hamid Karzai and former Head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah.

On women’s rights, the source said women will be allowed to work in various government bodies as they did in the previous government, mainly in the health and education sectors. The source said special courts will be set up at local levels to fight corruption and make examples of corrupt officials.

The Taliban source said efforts are under way to remove barricades and “unnecessary” roadblocks in the cities and that its forces at checkpoints have been asked to be “polite and courteous.” The source said the Taliban caretaker government is planning a single tariff to be applicable for bringing goods into the country, from the point of entry to destination.

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POLITICS

Wike vs Secondus: The Battle Rages on It was gathered that the role played by Secondus in the emergence of former Vice President and Turaki of Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar, as the presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019 surprised Wike.

Wike openly told Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State during the primaries and he believed Secondus should pay him back by supporting his candidate. But he realised that the chairman he had helped enthroned didn’t back him, but supported Abubakar.

THEWILL gathered that Wike from that time refused to fund the party as he was doing before the primaries.

It was further gathered that since then there has been no love lost between Wike and Secondus.

Then the crisis that triggered Secondus’ current predicament began on August 3, 2021, when seven members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP resigned from their positions.

Wike

Secondus

The officials resigned in separate letters written to the National Secretary of the party, Umar Tsauri, saying they could no longer work with Secondus. Those who resigned are the Deputy National Financial Secretary, Gerald Irona; Deputy National Organising Secretary, Hassan Yakubu; Deputy National Legal Adviser, Ahmed Liman, and Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Diran Odeyemi.

BY AYO ESAN

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he political crisis rocking the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued to rear its ugly head, no thanks to the relentless efforts of the two gladiators in the crisis – embattled National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus and his erstwhile jolly friend and godfather, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

Political watchers and members of the party believed the crisis had been settled, following the intervention of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

After resolving the crisis, the Board of Trustees and the PDP Governors Forum shifted the date of the party’s convention from December to October and said Secondus should be allowed to be in office till the end of the convention when a new executive would emerge.

But the situation changed last week, following a Rivers state court order, which restrained Secondus from parading himself as the chairman of the PDP, pending the determination of a suit before it.

After the initial power tussle, which led to the emergence of two acting national chairmen in the persons of the National Deputy Chairman (South ), Chief Yemi Akinwonmi and Deputy National Chairman (North), Suleman Nazif, the PDP governors Forum picked Akinwonmi as the Acting National Chairman of the party last Thursday.

The action of the Governors Forum showed that it obeyed the court order, which stopped Secondus from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

As it is looking as if Wike has achieved what he couldn’t achieve a few weeks ago, which is the immediate removal of Secondus from his position as the National Chairman of the PDP, Secondus shocked the party when he also obtained a Kebbi State High Court injunction reinstating him as chairman last Thursday.

In a move that clearly showed his mastery of the game of politics, Wike seemed to have struck quickly and at the right time too by using a court order to achieve his aim.

A master strategist, Wike, it was gathered, was shocked two weeks ago when Secondus visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his Abeokuta hill-top mansion.

that nobody can force him out of office until he completes his tenure in December. Political watchers believe his move to reject the earlier decision of the NEC meeting after his surprise visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo might have led to a new trick by Wike to exploit a judicial option to deal with him .

On August 23, 2021, four members of the PDP in Rivers State namely, Ibeawuchi Ernest Alex; Dennis Nna Amadi; Emanuel Stephen and Umezirike Onuche approached a Rivers State High Court holden at Degema to seek an interim injunction restraining Uche Secondus from parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP and as a member of the PDP. Justice O. Gbasam granted the injunction and restrained Secondus from parading himself as PDP chairman.

But Secondus was unrelenting as he also secured a court injunction which reinstated him after the party’s BOT and the Governorship Forum had replaced him with Akinwonmi on Thursday.

The order granted by Justice Nusirat I. Umar of a High Court in Kebbi instructed Secondus to resume immediately in a suit filed by some members of the PDP in Kebbi.

The claimants in the suit, which has Secondus and the PDP as the first and second respondents, are Messrs Yahaya Usman, Abubakar Muhammad and Bashar Suleiman.

The order reads, “An order of interim injunction staying the purported suspension of the first respondent, pending the determination of the substantive motion on notice no: KB/HC/M.170/2021, now pending before this honourable court.

“An order of this honourable court granting leave to the first respondent (Uche Secondus) to continue exercising the constitutional powers of the Office of the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party ( Second Defendant) as enshrined in both the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended and the People’s Democratic Party Constitution, pending the hearing and determination of the applicant’s motion on notice.”

Secondus on Friday took over the affairs of the party when the Deputy National Chairman South, Elder Yemi Akinwomi, who held forth in his absence upon receipt of the Court order handed over the affairs of the party to him.

At the brief handover, Prince Secondus pledged to continue providing astute leadership to the party.

Although the visit was given wide media coverage, nobody knew the subject of the discussion between Secondus and Obasanjo as the meeting was held behind closed doors.

Will the Kebbi Court injunction save the Andoni prince, who braced all odds to emerge as the PDP top helmsman in December 2017, having been backed by Governor Nyesom Wike and the then Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Ayodele Fayose? No one can say definitely as the two gladiators try to outsmart each other.

However, it was gathered that after the meeting Secondus boasted

What then caused the rift between two jolly friends?

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Others are the Deputy National Woman Leader, Hadizat Umoru; Deputy National Auditor, Divine Arong, and another official who could not be identified at the time of filing this report.

The intrigue that led to the ousting of Secondus reached its peak when some support groups within the party called for his removal.

The groups, acting under the aegis of Save PDP Group and Coalition of PDP Youth Groups, made the call during a protest at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.

The leader of the groups, Tamunotonye Inioribo, while addressing journalists, said the protest was organised by a coalition of different PDP support groups, that were dissatisfied with the leadership of Secondus.

Mr Inioribo accused Secondus of polarising the party for his own selfish interest, while also alleging that he was responsible for the defection of three governors and some senators from the party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Under Secondus, the PDP Governors Forum, National Working Committee and other organs are divided.”

Mr Inioribo also alleged that no department of the PDP was functioning under Mr Secondus, and he was also creating factions within the party.

Political analysts however believe that Secondus is just a victim of power play, ahead of the 2023 presidency.

THEWILL gathered that the Southern PDP governors, including Wike, who are interested in the 2023 presidency believe the surest way of getting the ticket is to remove Secondus from the PDP Chairmanship position and also forestall his second term ambition.

Speaking with THEWILL, Lagos-based Public Affairs Commentator, Yinka Junaid, expressed the opinion that Wike is becoming too powerful in the PDP and needs to be cautioned.

“A single person should not be allowed to be dictating to the party.

It is Secondus today, it may be another person tomorrow. The party should reposition itself to avoid the dominance of one person’s interest in its affairs,” Junaid said.

He said all the noise that Secondus did not perform well as PDP chairman was just about giving a dog a bad name to hang it.

He said, “It is to be noted that PDP as a party was at a low ebb when Secondus assumed office. It had just lost the presidential election for the first time since1999. It was a very hard beginning, having lost power after possessing it for 16 years at a stretch.

“Secondus spearheaded the repackaging of the party and he put it on a sound footing. To say he allowed PDP governors to defect to the ruling APC can’t be true. There was nothing he could have done to retain the governors who were enticed by the ruling party”.

Will this be the end of the crisis? This is the question that cannot be answered immediately.

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW

We’ll Keep Deepening Use of Technology in Electoral Process – Okoye Barrister Festus Okoye is the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Information. In this interview with AYO ESAN, he speaks on the forthcoming Anambra governorship election, among other issues. Excerpts:

How is INEC coping with pre-election litigations and conflicting court orders on the candidacy of the parties in the election?

You know the commission is not a court of law.

So what we do is that under Section 287 of the Constitution, we are bound to give respect to the decisions of the court and we are also bound to implement such decisions. And that is exactly what we have done. We have adopted the principle of the latest in time. And so we obey the latest in respect of court judgement, even if they are conflicting because we are not permitted to interpret the law. Also we are not permitted to adjudicate or even disagree with the judgements given by various courts of law.

Ours really is to obey and we have always done that.

We can only appeal if we feel really aggrieved by a particular decision or if a particular decision is so fundamental to the electoral process, then we can appeal to such decision. But we believe that with the special panel set up by the Court of Appeal on the decisions of these conflicting judgements, that very soon, the coast will be clear. Then the commission can get on much more properly and let the people know who these candidates are in relation to this coming election.

Last year INEC conducted two governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States. The commission received kudos from Nigerians on its performance in the two elections. What is the PAGE 10

commission doing to improve on its performance in the forthcoming Anambra governorship election?

We keep improving with every election and we are also going to improve with the Anambra governorship election. We have brought the polling units nearer to the ordinary people. We have expanded the polling units nearer to the ordinary people. Voters will vote more easily and persons with disabilities can vote more easily and people who are elderly can vote more easily because the polling units are near to their houses and the polling units are also close to their places of work.

Secondly, we have started the registration of voters online throughout the federation. And we are going to deploy more equipment and more resources to the Anambra election to make sure that we register as many people as possible. We are also going to get the supplementary voters register integrated with the main register and issue voter cards before the election. After the election, we will recommence the voter registration exercise in Anambra.

So we are on top of the situation and we believe we are going to conduct a good election in Anambra.

The online registration exercise is very novel.

How successful has the online registration exercise been throughout the country?

Well, the online registration exercise has been on for quite some time. At the last count, we have recorded a lot of success, in terms of the number of people who are using our online registration portal to register. If you look at the online portals, you will see that as of Monday, August 16, 2021, a total of 1,963,725 people have been registered. But in terms of those who have completed the online registration, we have a total of 315,791. Now in terms of the figure of completion, you can see that out of 315,791, youths between the ages of 18 and 34 make up 225,995. So you can see that the online registration exercise has been very well received, especially by the younger generation of Nigerians.

And we hope that Nigerians will embrace technology more. This is because technology is the way to go.

Okoye

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he Anambra governorship election is coming up on November 6, 2021. How is INEC preparing to make it a free and fair election?

We are prepared for the election. As you know, we have released the time-table of the activities for the conduct of the election scheduled for November 6, this year. And out of the 11 items on our timetable, we have already met eight. All the political parties have conducted their primaries. We have also published all the personal particulars of the candidates in the election. Political parties have started their campaigns. So we believe we are on top of the situation and our plan of activities is going on well.

We also learnt that the issue of double registration is the main feature of the current online registration of voters. How will the commission resolve this?

You know those who are doing online registration must go to INEC’s state or local governments offices to capture their biometrics. Aside the registration, we will still display the voters register for claims and objections. At the of end of the processes, we will do what we call due unification to remove double registration and remove those who are not eligible to be registered in the first place.

What is the commission doing to bring an end to attacks on its facilities, especially in the SouthEast?

You know we are not law enforcement agents.

What we have been able to do is to report to the law enforcement agencies. And we have also taken proactive measures to move away our sensitive materials from some of these facilities. But as you can see, we have started our continuous voter registration exercise, even in most of these places.

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW Section 93 of the 1999 Constitution instructed political parties to render accounts of their campaigns, not later than three months after the release of election results. We have discovered that many political parties are not following this directive by the constitution. What is INEC doing to enforce this law?

I think the electorate and INEC should hold political parties accountable in terms of their own processes and in terms of their own procedures. They don’t have to wait for the commission to push them around before they do what is right in relation to the electoral process. But within the ambits of our own power, we are going to activate the machinery of law to get the political parties to comply because we have the responsibility to enforce the law and we are going to enforce the law to get those who have not complied to obey the constitution.

Some people believe that INEC is being saddled with too many responsibilities, including the task of conducting election, monitoring even party primaries and prosecuting election offenders, among others. Don’t you think INEC should be unbundled by relieving it of some of these tasks?

We don’t have any objection to INEC being unbundled. We are even the one that has canvassed that we should have Electoral Offences Tribunal that should handle the issue of investigation, arrest and prosecution of electoral offenders. And if that is removed from the Commission, that will be part of the unbundling that you are talking about. So we don’t have an issue with that. Let us take them one after the other. Create the Electoral Offences Tribunal and hand over the issue of investigation, arrest and prosecution of electoral offenders to it as a different agency. Then we would see whether there are other tasks that can be removed from the control of the commission.

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Well, technology is the way to go. Technology reduces human interference in electoral process. It also makes the conduct of election much more transparent and much more accountable.

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We do hope that as the situation improves, we will continue to review our situation and deploy further to the registration areas, depending on the feedback we receive.

What assurances did you get from the security agencies, regarding the safety of these facilities?

The security agencies are doing their best. You know the situation in all the parts of the country. But within the ambits of their power and the facilities available to them, I think they are doing their best. We have the assurance that they will continue to make sure nothing bad happens to our facilities.

What is the position of INEC on the electronic transmission of election results? Is the commission capable of transmitting election results electronically?

We have said yes, we have the capacity. We have the will and we have what it takes to partake in the transfer of election results electronically. The only thing we are now awaiting is the amendment to the legal framework that will enable us to abide with the laws.

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Nigerians are full of praises for what INEC is doing, especially the deepening of the use of technology. What improvement is in the offing as we move towards 2023 general election?

Well, technology is the way to go. Technology reduces human interference in electoral process.

It also makes the conduct of election much more transparent and much more accountable. So we apply technology, in terms of party ‘s nomination process.

We are applying technology, in terms of application of election observers and of the media. We will apply technology, in terms of electoral processes because that is the way to go. We will keep on deepening the use of technology in the electoral process.

What is your advice to politicians and the electorate?

I believe politicians should embrace democratic ideals. When they embrace democratic ideals, they will operate within the confines of rule of law and due process. They will conduct themselves and their campaigns in such a manner that benefits the electoral process. Party nomination processes must also be done as accountable and transparent as possible. And only validated nominated persons must be presented to the election management body as the candidates by different political parties.

On the part of the electorate, democracy is a work-inprogress and we must continue to grow it, we must cultivate it, nurture it and we must continue to protect it. We must also continue to guard it because if we don’t do that, anti-democratic forces will be in the ascendancy. I believe all the stakeholders must stand firm with democracy for it to succeed.

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AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

POLITICS Is it true that the state has no agenda?

I listen to people when they write on Facebook or other social media platforms. I listen to Tiv elite, Idoma elite, Igede elite when we meet in various places. People say Benue people have no agenda; Tiv people have no agenda. They say the fact that we don’t have an agenda is the reason why we are holding ourselves back. That is not true! We have always had an agenda. We are failing because of leadership.

Shija

Why I’m in Benue Governorship Race – Shija

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Prof Terhemba Shija is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State. In this interview with AUSTINE JOR, he speaks on his ambition to govern the state. Excerpts:

ou are aspiring to govern Benue State. How prepared are you for this job?

I am prepared. There is no doubt about it. I have been running two careers in my life. I finished from the university in 1985. I came out as the best graduating student in my department. And I was to start my academic career immediately, but I went on to study for a Master’s degree and finished in 1988. Instead of starting an academic career, I came back to start a career in the civil service here. Within a year, I was discovered as a good writer. The then Military Governor appointed me, without solicitation, as his Special Assistant on Speech Writing. I worked for less than two years, then it was time to start politics. So, I got attracted to it. I helped a governorship candidate. He didn’t win, but he encouraged me to run for the House of Representatives. So, I ran.

tenure was coming to an end in 2003. I resigned and then went and completed my PhD. I finished my PhD in April 2005 and went back to my first love, which is academics.

By 1992, when I was 32 years-old, I got elected into the Federal House of Representatives. I had a career in mind.

I wanted to go into academics, but circumstance made me to end up in politics. The politics of that time was highly experimental because the transition between the military and civilians was in phases. Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu was the Governor of Benue State at the time. Shortly afterwards, there were elections into the Senate and House of Reps and I got elected. One year down the line, there was a military coup and we were thrown out. That was after the June 12 debacle.

We went back again to the wider society. I was lucky. I was appointed the Director-General of the Benue State Liaison office in Lagos. Then, all liaison activities were in Lagos, not Abuja. So, I was the person that was mandated to move the Benue office from Lagos to Abuja. Afterwards, it was time again to start another round of politicking.

Why do you want to be Governor in 2023?

I have always loved to serve. I know that anybody who loves this state must think about the state first before himself. I agree that we haven’t got the best yet. I am going to run for one reason: Having been involved in the Benue project, I know what the people want.

By 1998, I came in and I wanted to be governor of Benue. But then Jechira people took a decision that we should concede that position to Jemgbagh and I was unanimously chosen to be the Director-General of George Akume’s campaign in 1998. By December of that year, elections were held and we won. Akume was sworn in on May 29, 1999. Two months later, my name was announced as Commissioner. So, I became his Commissioner for Information and Culture. One year and a half afterwards, I became the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. By the time his

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For 16 years, I have been teaching at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. I began from the scratch as Lecturer II, moved to Lecturer I, moved to Senior Lecturer, moved to Associate Professor and full Professor. I didn’t cut corners.

I don’t believe in cutting corners. In my chosen career – academics – I am a thorough -bred professional. I am published both nationally and internationally. Having reached that level and in the course of doing my academics, I have been popping in and out of politics. I served, as I told you, as the DG of the re-election of Governor Gabriel Suswam. And I even nursed the ambition of becoming a senator. But then, I was overruled by the then governor. So I had to go back.

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The leadership of the state has been unable to use the free oil money that comes here to establish the Benue of our dream. Rather, they use this money for themselves, believing that it will come again

The agenda of the Benue person person; the Tiv, Idoma and others, has always been “let’s have our own place and develop our own people.” That was the basis upon which the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) was formed. JS Tarka at that time said, “Look, everybody has his own place.

The Sardauna of Sokoto has sat in Kaduna and he has put his feet on the stool of the Middle Belt people. Let us grab that stool and have our own place.” His own aspiration was to be the Prime Minister of Middle Belt State or Middle Belt Region. The people of Edo and Delta got their own Midwest State, from the West. We were unable to get it from the First Republic. But thank God, there was a military coup in 1966 and by 1967, we started getting our own place. We got Benue-Plateau State. Later on, in 1976, we got Benue State.

So, if we have got our own place, it means we are going somewhere.

Why were we looking for our own state? We want a state that we will be proud of. A state where there will be another ABU, where there will be sky scrapers, good roads, potable water; where you can sit and say this is my place. But all along, we have pushed in the kind of leadership that has not given us that assurance. All along, we have looked at Benue with great disappointment. We are ashamed of calling this place our own. Why is it so? It is because most of the people who were opportune to be part of the leadership didn’t have this vision. Now, they think that to make a state like this great is first to make themselves great. This is western capitalist philosophy. People will come to your gate and you will give them peanuts: that is a capitalist philosophy. So, there is a wide gap of difference. The rich continue to be rich. The Yoruba can afford to do that because their terrain allowed their forefathers to plant cocoa, oil palms, rubber, and for generations they are reaping the money.

The leadership of the state has been unable to use the free oil money that comes here to establish the Benue of our dream.

Rather, they use this money for themselves, believing that it will come again. Policies are not done in such a way that you will be empowered. Are you surprised that if there were any industries at all in the 45 year-old history of Benue State, there is none now? Are you surprised, that if there was any industry at all in the name of Benue State, it now belongs to someone else? There is something wrong. Somebody has missed the vision somewhere, to get all for himself.

Sometimes you look at it and you don’t want to blame them so much because the society is getting more and more complex. So, it takes a bit of intelligence to know what is going on in society. It takes some understanding to know that this society is not as simplistic as it used to be. Before now, the society was straight forward. It was either federal troops against the Igbo or other clear cut battle lines. Today, there is no clear cut battle line. Are you fighting the Fulani herdsmen? Are you fighting bandits? Are you fighting Boko Haram? It is jumbled up. It is a much more complex society.

It takes somebody with brains to go beyond these complexities to know how to solve the problems. Are you surprised that our governor has been isolated, even though he is not the only person who has been bombarded by the herdsmen? The others are smart enough; they are fighting in groups: South-East governors; South-South governors; North-East governors. They have a strategy. Now, they push you to go and talk and then you are isolated and your state is being punished. And they are busy clapping for you - that is our saviour. It takes some intelligence to know the complex nature of this society. And if you comment, they tell you that you are being sponsored by Fulani people. It doesn’t make sense. We have to move and for us to move, we have to think.

It’s a more complex society; it is now a cosmopolitan society.

We are living with 35 other states and a federal capital territory. If you become a pariah state, 35 states are going ahead and they will leave you behind.

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FEATURES

8-Year-old Relishes First Earning from Handball

Nigeria. I want to explore handball as a means of alternative livelihood to at least, assist my family.

FROM ADENIYI OLUGBEMI

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ight-year-old Aondona Comfort Msurshima is relatively new to handball, barely ten months old in the game of handball, but, thanks to her daring saves, she was the cynosure of all eyes at the just concluded National U-12, U-15 boys and girls handball championship held in Sokoto.

“I recall how my mother, a farmer who is solely responsible for the upkeep of my siblings and I (I am the third child), showered me with prayers when I handed the N1,000 I earned to her,” she said.

Not until she appeared on the podium, with her braided hair style, to receive the U-12 girls first runners-up trophy on behalf of her team at the closing ceremony of the weeklong age grade handball fiesta, in which 25 teams participated, that doubts on her gender was put to rest.

A cross section of spectators, who followed her outstanding performances that finally earned her team, Gboko Dream Girls, the U-12 girls category second position at the championship mistook her for a male because of her athletic, tom- boyish look throughout the competition.

Asked how and why she chose handball, Aondona, currently a primary three pupil of Hope Academy, Jato Aka in Benue State, attributed her journey into the game to fate. According to her, she had naively set out to exercise the youthful energy in her when, incidentally, her gender threw her into the handball court.

“Like every bubbling and energetic child, my desire was to explore alongside my mates on the playground until fate caught up with me and other girls when the boys started discriminating against us by not allowing us to play football. They would tell us to go and play handball, which they assumed to be a sport for the girl-child.

Incidentally, there is a handball court close to my school.

We maximised the proximity of the handball court and here we are today, some of us taking part in a competition we were pushed into barely 10 months ago.

“This is how destiny entrusted us into the waiting hands of Coach Godwin Tondo, who bought for me my first kits when he saw my seriousness and the determination of other girls in the game. Within a short while, handball fetched me my first earning of N1,000 during the All Primary Schools Game held in Kwande Local Government Area in November 2020.

“Now that handball had given me my first earning, my first trip outside Benue State and through many states, trophy and medal, including publicity and exposure, I can confidently say there is no going back on handball. I intend to pursue a career in handball alongside my education.

I wish to play at the international level, representing

The youthful shot-stopper looked downcast when she was asked about her father. It took her a while to gather enough strength after fighting back tears to respond, “He died five years ago when some herdsmen invaded our village in Jato Aka.” In an emotion-laden tone, Aondona recalled how her father, who was a farmer, struggled to cater to the needs of his family with earnings from his farm produce. Unfortunately, he took ill and died due to his inability to access healthcare.

But for insecurity, he would have been able to receive treatment. She described his death as painful.

“My father died of sickness five years ago, as he could not access medicare at the health facility due to insecurity caused by herdsmen invasion of our village, where health workers who survived the onslaught deserted the health facility in the village,” she said.

‘Imokoli’: New ‘Wonder’ Fruit Used In Traditional African Medicine A

BY JOY ONUORAH

traditional African medical practitioner, Adeyinka Adebayo, in an interview with THEWILL, was full of praises for the curative power of ‘Imokoli,’ a wonder fruit he claims can treat various ailments, which might be difficult to treat with orthodox medicine.

According to him, the fruit is indeed one of the wonders of traditional African medicine (ATR). The latter is deeply rooted in the treatment of ailments with herbs known to only to the practitioner, who is often locally referred to as a herbalist.

Adebayo also argues that while it is a question of what to put together for a particular ailment, herbal materials, herbal preparations and finished herbal products all contain parts of plants or other plant materials as active ingredients.

For instance, those string-like things that come out with maize that many people remove while eating the maize, according to Doctor Banji Filani of Sound Health Centre, possess curative properties and they are used to treat hypertension, diabetes and even oedema.

These plant materials include seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark or flowers. Many drugs used in conventional medicine were originally derived from plants.

In orthodox medicines, salicylic acid is known to be a precursor of aspirin that was originally derived from white willow bark and the meadowsweet plant (Filipendula ulmaria (L.).

But Dr Adebayo, as he prefers to be addressed, has a different opinion of what traditional medical practice in present-day Africa entails. He says, “A traditional medical practitioner is a person who prepares local herbs with a mix of modern medical standards. He or she uses plants and other natural substances to improve health, promote healing and prevent and treat ailments.”

Contrary to what some Nigerians think, he adds, herbal medicine is neither dangerous nor fetish. Unknown to them, herbal medicine, also called herbalism, botanical medicine or phytomedicine has been used for thousands of years.

China, South Korea and some other Asian countries are practical examples of nations who have long lived on traditional or herbal medicines. Ranging from food to cosmetic products and preventive/curative treatments, in particular China and Korea, they all consist of one herb or the other.

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Filani, during one of his speeches on the safety of herbal concoctions, said that bitter leaf, a common and highly despised plant, can cure diabetes and cleanse the blood.

Dr Adebayo, whose experience in traditional African medicine spans 18 years, claims he has been able to successfully cure infertility, fibroid, leucorrhea, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and epilepsy with ‘Imokoli’, a plant he discovered in Guinea to have the capacity to cure diabetes, stroke, HIV/AIDS and able to control hypertension to the barest minimum.

Like most other herbalists, Adebayo acquired the knowledge of ATR from his father who also learnt from his own father. While speaking with THEWILL on the effectiveness of traditional medicine, he noted that the benefits of natural extracts cannot be overemphasised as that was what our ancestors lived on in the past.

He said while the importance of orthodox medication should not be downplayed, natural extracts from herbs and traditional treatments have over the centuries proven to be safer, effective and less expensive.

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EDITORIAL

Masari’s Open Invitation to Anarchy G

overnor Aminu Masari of Katsina State recently called on residents of the state, especially those living in areas that are prone to attacks by bandits and kidnappers, to acquire arms and defend themselves.

He urged the residents to rise up to the challenge posed by insecurity in the state by fighting back to free themselves from the siege laid by bandits, who have virtually turned Katsina State into hell on earth.

Masari had argued that it was ‘morally’ wrong on the part of the people to submit themselves to the terrorists without a fight. Stressing that security should not be the sole responsibility of the government; he encouraged the residents to wake up to reality, go out, buy guns and defend themselves.

The governor’s call has since been received with mixed reactions from different people and groups across the country. While some, like the Coalition of Northern Group, have condemned it, describing it as absurd and demanded his immediate resignation, others see it as nothing but an admission of the reality on the ground.

Rising in defence of his boss, the Director of Media to the Governor, Abdullabaran Malumfashi, in a statement dismissed the calls for Masari’s resignation, describing them as ridiculous. Arguing that the fact that security is on the Exclusive list of the 1999 Constitution makes it exclusively a Federal Government affair, Malumfashi seemed to affirm the governor’s earlier claim that he is the chief security officer of Katsina State only in name and not, in reality, in control of security in the state.

We are of the opinion that the governor’s aide and his boss are both wrong, at least constitutionally. It is wrong for Masari to assume that matters relating to the provision of security in Katsina are the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government and President Muhammadu Buhari. On the contrary, Section 215, sub-section 4 of the 1999 Constitution clearly gives state governors the power to direct security agencies to act in a given security situation without having to consult the Federal Government.

It states, “Subject to the provisions of this section, the Governor of a State or such Commissioner of the Government of the State as he may authorise in that behalf, may give to the Commissioner of Police of that State such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the State as he may consider necessary, and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with.”

There is no indication that the governor has exploited this provision of the constitution in his effort to ensure the security of lives and property. And there is no record to show that at the onset of banditry in Katsina he gave specific instructions to the Commissioner of Police that were not carried out. How then could he claim to be helpless and powerless to act to check the activities of the bandits currently terrorising the state?

The truth, we strongly believe, is that Masari took a wrong step towards solving the problem of insecurity in Katsina when he embarked on a muchpublicised and extensive drive to negotiate with the bandits in 2019. The move was ill-advised and a blunder viewed by many Nigerians as an open

demonstration of helplessness, totally unbecoming of the chief executive of a state, which clearly exposed his cluelessness and ineptitude.

Everywhere in the world, no leader worth his salt negotiates with terrorists, especially when the unlawful activities of the latter are not driven by a recognisable ideology but motivated by pure criminality. It was not surprising then that 2019 attempt at negotiating peace with the criminals kidnapping and killing the residents of Katsina failed. It was bound to fail and so did another attempt at negotiating with the bandits who kidnapped 333 pupils of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara.

Coming shortly after he informed the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Farouk Yahaya, then on a courtesy visit to the state, that 10 out of the 34 local government areas in Katsina State were constantly under attacks by bandits, Masari’s call smacks of frustration, desperation and a total lack of capacity by his administration to contain the violence and criminality unleashed on the state by these terrorists.

By asking residents of Katsina to take up arms and defend themselves against rampaging terrorists, the governor has not only admitted the failure of his government to safeguard lives and properties, but also handed an open invitation to anarchy in the state. While we sympathise with him, given the festering insecurity across the country, we urge him to mind his utterances in the future as they are capable of worsening the prevailing insecurity in the state. We wish to remind him that it will not be in the best interest of the state to abdicate his primary responsibility, which is the provision of security, especially at this sensitive period in its history.

AUSTYN OGANNAH

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Editor – Olaolu Olusina Deputy Editor – Amos Esele Politics Editor – Ayo Esan Business Editor – Sam Diala News Editor (Online) – Felix Oboagwina Copy Editor – Chux Ohai Cartoon Editor – Victor Asowata Entertainment/Society Editor – Ivory Ukonu Photo Editor – Peace Udugba Head, Graphics – Tosin Yusuph Circulation Manager – Victor Nwokoh Nigeria Bureau: 36AA Remi Fani-Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja. Lagos, Nigeria. info@thewillnigeria.com / @THEWILLNG +234 810 345 2286, +234 913 333 3888. EDITOR: Olaolu Olusina @OLUSINA [Letters/Opinions: opinion.letters@thewillnigeria.com] PAGE 14

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OPINION Governor Fayemi And The Bonding Ideal

BY UZOR MAXIM UZOATU

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he hot button in Nigeria today is to crow of scession. It does not matter if the jumped-up secessionist leader can in truth tell the boundaries of his dream nation. The really appalling aspect of the matter is that some of Nigeria’s so-called leading politicians have joined the bandwagon of preaching hate and violence in the promotion of ethnic and religious cleavages.

It is remarkable for me that Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State as the incumbent chairman of the Governors’ Forum is espousing the bonding ideal against all odds from the diverse divisive domains.

The need for me to do this piece arose following the criticisms directed at Governor Fayemi after he felicitated with former Military President General Ibrahim Babangida on the recent celebration of his 80 th birthday. The burden Governor Fayemi bears today as “the governor of governors” transcends the hotheadedness of quondam activism. Against the background of dangerous divisions across the country, Governor Fayemi cannot but accommodate all interests within a potentially combustible nation.

At this time that the nation is being fecklessly torn apart by mundane ethnic concerns, bigotry, hate and terrorism, politicians in the mold of Governor Fayemi owe it as a duty to take charge of the central unifying role of bringing all together through shared values.

There is no gainsaying that the bonds established by Nigerians across ethnic and religious borders in the inte vening years from amalgamation to independence and the civil war have grown beyond the flimsiness of a whimsical breakup.

The point is that the need for a restructuring of Nigeria must be undertaken by a focused leader, and not by fly-by-night

ethnic warlords no matter how well-intentioned. Governor Fayemi can stand to be counted as a champion of dialogue who would not be found wanting in getting Nigerians to talk across ethnic and religious lines towards finding a workable future for the beleaguered country.

Nigeria can in no way be singled out as the only diverse nation in the world. India, for instance, had its share of diversities and even mutinies, but it still holds aloft the torch of democracy.

Nigeria is now obviously saddled with a troubled democracy which some have even termed a dictatorship, but the future can better managed through leaders who can get together by ensuring that the country’s destiny is determined through conference and not by force of arms.

Past leaders of stature all over the world such as Pandit Nehru of India and Nelson Mandela of South Africa are ready examples for new Nigerian leaders to emulate. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore boldly made the mark of taking his then fledging nation from the Third to First world status. Dr Mahathir of Malaysia repeated the feat.

This shows that it is possible for Nigeria to defeat all debacles and shoot well ahead in the comity of nations, without bending the knee to defeatism, if the current parochialism and prebendalism are put aside. The problems of the country ought to be seen as challenges that can be mastered by a committed leader, and followers who believe in the cause.

It needs to be stressed that it is not necessarily the law that makes the people to survive but the spirit. It is the willingness of the people to bond together based on shared values that strengthens the commonwealth. This way, the people who have been made to believe can always douse the evil seeds of discord. The lesson of course is to readily subjugate

self in favour of the general good. Governor Fayemi stands in good stead to get his brother governors to gravitate towards the common touch.

The railway track that travels all the way from Sokoto up North down to the South through Eha- Amufu, Umuahia and Port Harcourt must have over the years established so much binding mores amongst the diverse Nigerians. The migration of Nigerians to all nooks and crannies of the nation even before the amalgamation has built together uncountable Nigerians who call anywhere they reside in the country home.

There was the case of the man who left a Southeastern town just after the Second World War to settle in a village in the Southwest. When his people from the Southeast came to take him “home” to the East in his grand old age he refused to be relocated, stressing that moving him from the land where he was known as “Baba Ode” amounted to lifting the land! Nigeria urgently needs men now. It’s all so cheap and cool believing that one could easily withdraw to one’s ethnic enclave. These matters are easier said than done. Once division starts, there is really no end to division. History cannot account for all the fatalities begotten from wars that ordinary dialogue could have stemmed in the first instance.

In the rousing words of Governor Fayemi, “Another Nigeria, a better Nigeria, a more united Nigeria that we can all stand up for and be proud of, is ahead of us. We all play a critical role for the ties we all have; we still have a long way to go, it is a journey not a destination. And in that journey, we will always find undulating lands, valleys, hills and potholes, but ultimately, what is important is to just continue on the journey. I know that God, in His infinite mercy will help us overcome these challenging times; we must continue to strengthen the ties that bind our country and these are ties that predated colonialism. In spite of the challenges, Nigeria will triumph.” This is the way to go.

Issues in Highway Concessions

BY SALISU NA’INNA AMBATTA

T

he Federal Government has released a Ministerial notice for the commencement of the process of concessions or leasing 12 highways in the six geopolitical zones to private sector operators. It is under the Highway Development Management Initiative (HDMI), being driven by the Minister of Works and Housing, Alhaji Babatunde Raji Fashola, to ensure that financial constraints do not stop the development of good highways to support the economy.

The need to overcome the perennial financing constraints and ensure the provision of durable motorable highways informed the option of involving private sector financing in road development and management. It was however made clear that even in the face of existing financing constraints, the Federal Government is currently implementing 700 contracts for roads reconstruction and maintenance, and building new bridges on 13,000 kilometres of Federal Highways.

Already the Federal Executive Council has been notified of the concession plan, which Fashola said was endorsed by the National Assembly, while a template on how to actualise it was issued to the Ministry by the Infrastructure Concession Commission. Eager potential investors have inundated the Ministry of Works and Housing with inquiries on the process of participating in the potentially profitable project.

Works and Housing Minister Fashola explained further that, the intended leasing out of the 12 Highways, totalling 1,963.24 kilometres to private sector operators will bring investments to highways development: “The initial capital investments that we foresee is something in the order of N1,134,690,048,000.76 and the employment potentials are an estimated 50,000 direct jobs and 200,000 indirect jobs”.

The Minister gave additional reasons for the concession: “There is also the need to finance other complementary services like weigh bridges, rest houses, towing vehicles and road furniture which seem better suited for the commercial initiative of the private sector. In the interim, government is THEWILLNIGERIA

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constrained to borrow, offer tax credit, increase her revenue mobilization capacities, in order to sustain this massive infrastructure renaissance.”

The 12 roads selected for concession are Benin–Asaba (125KM); Abuja–Lokoja (193KM); Kano– Katsina (150KM); Onitsha–Owerri–Aba (161KM); Shagamu–Benin (258KM); Abuja– Keffi–Awanga (122KM); Kano–Maiduguri (lot 1 Kano-Shuwarin 100KM ; ) ( lot 2 PotiskumDamaturu 96.24K ); Lokoja–Benin (270KM); Enugu–Port Harcourt (200KM); Ilorin–Jebba (129KM); Lagos–Ota– Abekouta (80KM) and Lagos–Badagary (79KM).

The HDMI is of two types, the Value-added Concessions (VAC) and the Unbundled Assets Approvals (UAA). Under the VAC, the road pavement and entire Right Of Way (ROW) is concession for development and management by the concessionaire. The UAA on the other hand, provides opportunities for small businesses to take advantage of the commercial opportunities that are available along the ROW. While it is true that Highways concession to private companies to manage is practiced in Africa and around the world for varied reasons, and different outcomes and impact on road users who pay tolls, certain peculiarities around the Right Of Way should be recognised, appreciated and tackled to avoid misunderstanding.

The peculiarities include using the pits and burrows along the ROW for watering livestock by herders and using the waters for irrigation farming. A way out may be evolved right from the onset to ensure that herders, irrigation farmers and others drawing water from such ponds will continue to do so freely. The ponds and farmlands are presumed to belong to the communities along the ROW. What will be the future of markets and other structures in settlements the highways passed through? Will they belong to the companies that win the concessions as Unbundled Assets Approvals? These issues and more that will become obvious as the concessionary process reaches specific stages of implementation need to be factored and properly addressed in the con-

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cessionary arrangement.

To pre-empt any potential crisis, the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing should engage in a long-term, frank, appropriate and adequate public awareness campaign to sensitise the citizenry on the entire implications of leasing the roads to private operators, an action that will impact on their daily, practical life. One-off sound bites are not enough.

An observation in an analysis by Ashurst at ashurst.com titled ‘Road Infrastructure in Africa’ says: “Certain legal and institutional issues must be identified and addressed to ensure the successful implementation of road PPPs in Africa.

Most of them are, of course, no different from those encountered when developing and financing roads in other parts of the world; the solutions in Africa will, however, sometimes significantly differ from those which apply elsewhere.” The principle fits the Nigerian environment.

Concession of roads and other infrastructure is widely practiced around the world among both rich and developing countries. In Africa, South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Morocco and Algeria have done it. The Ashurst report noted, “There has been an increasing number of privately-financed road projects in various parts of Africa – some already completed, some currently under development – indicating that private financing can – and will – play an increasing role in the financing and development of the African roads network.”

In Europe, France has the most number of leased roads.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia and Poland, among others, have concessional highways and user-charges are paid. In some countries the road charges are embedded in high fuel costs.

There are sources of lessons for Nigeria on the best highways concessionary model to adopt. There are at least 10 African countries that have done it successfully or managed their highways effectively that can be under-studied by the Giant of Africa.

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Growing Air Cargo Value Chain in Nigeria’s Aviation Sector PAGE 33

NARTO, Dangote Refinery Collaborate on Efficient Products DistributionPAGE 34

Zenith Bank Posts N106bn Half-Year Profit, Declares Interim Dividend PAGE 34

Q2 ’2021 GDP: Anxiety Over Agric Sector Decline Amid 5.01% Growth

BY SAM DIALA

N

otwithstanding the 5.01 percent growth attained by the Nigerian economy in the second quarter of 2021 (Q2 ’21), the continued shrink in the agricultural sector has created serious concern among those who believe that the trend could erode any gains that the GDP ‘growth’ might have created.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in a report released last Thursday, (August 26) said the economy recorded a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.01 per cent (year-onyear) in Q2 ’21. This marks three consecutive quarters of growth following the negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020. The report shows that the Q2 ’21 growth rate was higher than the -6.10 percent growth rate recorded in Q2 ’20 and the 0.51 percent recorded in Q1 2021.

According to the bureau, the report indicates the return of business and economic activity near levels seen prior to the nationwide implementation of COVID-19-related restrictions.

“The steady recovery observed since the end of 2020, with the gradual return of commercial activity, as well as local and international travel, accounted for the significant increase in growth performance relative to the second quarter of 2020 when nationwide restrictions took effect,” the report stated.

Year-to-date, real GDP grew 2.70 per cent in 2021, compared to -2.0 percent for the first half of 2020. Further analysis of the report showed that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, real GDP grew at -0.79 percent in Q2 ’21, compared to Q1 ’21, reflecting slightly slower economic activity than the preceding quarter due largely to seasonality.

But the continued decline in the agricultural sector is creating a serious worry among Nigerians who see the trend as portending an unpleasant omen for the economy as the sector hit an all-time low in Q2 ’21.

In the review period (Q2 ’21), the agricultural sector grew by 1.30 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms, a decrease of -0.28 percent points from the corresponding period of 2020, and a decrease of -0.97 percent points from the preceding quarter, which recorded a growth rate of 2.28 percent. On a half-year basis, the sector grew 1.77 percent in 2021, compared to 1.88 percent for Q1 ’20. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the sector grew at 5.55 percent.

By contribution, the sector accounted for 23.78 per cent of overall GDP in real terms in Q2 ’21, lower than the contribution in Q2 ’20, which stood at 24.65 percent, but higher than Q1 ’21 which recorded 22.35 percent.

Further study of the report showed that the Q2 ’21 figure was the lowest since 2012 published, as published by NBS when the sector recorded a growth of 6.7 percent followed by 2.94 percent in 2013. In the following year, 2014, the agricultural sector grew by 4.27 percent and dropped 3.72 percent in 2015.

in five years, between September 2015 and September 2020.

“A comparison of the Composite Food Index within the period under review indicated that food inflation rose from 181.8 index points to 382.7 index points. This means that the price of food items has not only increased, but more than doubled in the last five years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration,” the report said.

Following the continued rise in food prices, the World Bank recently observed that high food prices have sent an estimated seven millions of Nigerian citizens into poverty, thus worsening the worrisome situation of about 87 million people living on less than $1.87 a day, according to the World Poverty Clock.

Although the inflation rate has been on a downward trend in the past four consecutive months, after hitting an all-time high of 18,17 percent in March, the figure still remains worrisomely high at 17.38 percent in July 2021.

*Continues online at www. thewillnigeria.com

On food inflation, the report revealed that the composite food index rose 21.03 percent in July 2021 compared to 21.83 percent in June 2021, reflecting the continued rise in food prices in June, but at a slightly slower speed than it did in June which is still high.

Commenting on the declining fortune of the agricultural sector as shown in the Q2 ’21 GDP report, the Managing Director of Cowry Asset Management Limited, an investment banking firm, Mr Johnson Chukwu, observed that the consistent decline in agriculture should be a source of concern to Nigerians because of the impact on the economy.

The figures for the following years were 4.11 percent, 3.45 percent and 2.12 percent in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The sector recorded 2.36 percent and 2.17 percent in 2019 and 2020 respectively, before nose-diving to 1.3 percent in Q2 ’21.

“The poor performance of the agric sector has a huge impact on inflation because of its significant place in the economy. Until there is a real growth in agriculture we are not likely to feel the impact of the GDP growth”, he said on national television while analysing the NBS report.

The shrink in the performance of the agricultural sector reflects in the high cost of food, which has been the trend for a long time. A report by Nairametrics (an online business platform) in 2020 showed that Nigeria’s food inflation rose by 110.5 percent

He added, “We are seeing a slowdown in a sector that accounts for about a quarter of our GDP. If we do not arrest it, it has the capacity of pulling the economy back into negative and that might push the economy into another recession.”

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In another television conversation, Dr Bunmi Bajemo, Group Head, Corporate Banking Manufacturing Group at First Bank, noted that the 5.01 percent GDP growth reflects the trend in the economy following the full recovery of activities after COVID-19 restrictions when virtually every sector was shut down.

However, the full return to activities in the air and land transport, manufacturing, trade and others pushed the GDP from 0.51 percent in the Q1 ’21 to 5.01 percent in Q1 ’21 (year-on-year).

“But if you compare the GDP growth between Q1 ’21 and Q2 ’21, you see a growth of 2.7 percent, that is not something to celebrate because there is still a significant slowdown,” she said.

• Source: NBS

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AVIATION However, Adewale warned that clean air (and eco-friendly environment) around and within the airport should be a concern to all.

He said the carbon emission level of the various aircraft handling equipment operating within our airports ought to be investigated, so as to enable the country contribute its quota to the global carbon emission reduction drive.

“The Federal Government could institute a task force to manage this important aspect of our livelihood as a nation and join the global conversation regarding a safer and more secured air space.”

Incentives could be given to cargo airlines and handling companies who have a robust plan to reduce their carbon emission. This is a major value contribution to the whole of society and it must not be trivialised.”

Another air cargo booster, according to him, is the need to create, build and develop many export processing zones/ centres (EPZ) across the country that are proximate to the respective international airport.

Growing Air Cargo Value Chain in Nigeria’s Aviation Sector

Airport cargo

ANTHONY AWUNOR writes on ways to improve air cargo business for economic growth

A

ir cargo is a trade facilitator that contributes to global economic development and creates millions of jobs. The global economy depends on the ability to deliver highquality products at competitive prices to consumers worldwide.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), air cargo transports over US $6 trillion worth of goods, accounting for approximately 35 per cent of world trade by value.

Following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 2.5 million lives are saved every year by vaccines. This is made possible because of supply chain solutions, as vaccines can reach their destination in time to be effective.

The World Health Organisation estimates that immunisation programmes prevent up to 3 million child deaths per year.

Air cargo is critical in flying these temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals in the best conditions, using cutting-edge technologies and procedures.

In a survey, IATA had estimated that 7.4 billion parcels are sent every year, while 328 billion letters and 7.4 billion postal parcels are sent every year and airmail plays an essential role in their delivery.

While the emergence of electronic communications caused a dramatic decrease in the number of letters sent, more and more parcels are delivered daily thanks to e-commerce.

Due to the importance of air Cargo, IATA recently launched the ‘Air cargo makes it happen’ campaign to raise awareness on the importance of air cargo to commerce, economies and the global community.

Domestic cargo Experts have drawn a wide gap between domestic air cargo and international air cargo in aviation business.

In his presentation at the Aviation and Cargo Conference 2021 organised by ATQ Magazine at the Lagos Marriott Hotel, the CEO, Mainstream Cargo Limited, Seyi Adewale, observed that domestic airports in Nigeria are at different stages of growth, sophistication and air cargo volumes.

He said that state governments understood the need to build legacy projects and capitalise embedded opportunities, and this has recently been a defining moment for the interested state governors.

Applauding efforts made by the Ogun and Kogi State Governments to establish cargo airports, Adewale noted that THEWILLNIGERIA

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“

I wish to draw attention to the need for standardisation of the various elements of the air cargo business, as this will enable the actualisation of the desired air- cargo industry in Nigeria.

I pray that the government and stakeholders would work together to create a better operating environment and an effective framework to support cargo export so that the planes would stop flying from Nigeria empty

since airports are a critical need for the movement of air cargo, connecting-the-dots in moving mostly agricultural produce is a veritable need.

He said, “As at date, many agricultural products or farm produce are moved via road transport, particularly from the North and the Middle-Belt to the South whereas finished or manufactured goods, equipment and material resources move in the direction of the North and Middle-Belt.”

He therefore concluded that there is a need to encourage and support state governments to build infrastructure in order to grow their economies, generate IGR and create jobs, noting that supply creates its own demand.

To support the needs of the domestic airports, Adewale advised that Nigeria needs good and effective cargo warehouses within and around these airports.

He lamented that as of today, the countrydoes not have dedicated air cargo airlines operating within the domestic airports, adding that Allied Air appears to be the only cargo airline attempting to bridge this gap.

International air cargo Most stakeholders believe that international air cargo is the more developed aspect of the air cargo business in Nigeria.

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He equally advised that the states and Federal Government must develop more export development programmes that encourage investments from multinational companies.

“Another value-add is its linkage to backward integration that was assured by some businesses like BUA and Dangote Group in the production of cement, sugar etc.

Within the airport, it is observed that there are more modern warehouses under construction and this is very valuable,” he added.

Warehousing as a major challenge Globally, warehousing of goods is never an easy task. It requires equipment for specific purposes and for effective warehousing to be in place, ground handling companies should invest heavily in the purchase of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) ranging from scanning machines, ETD, forklifts, tow tractors, trained and experienced manpower, space for storage of cargo, effective CCTV with good storage capacity, dollies, racks and pallets.

These require foreign exchange.

Listing some of the challenges of warehousing goods for export at the Aviation and Cargo Conference 2021, the Managing Director of Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO), Mr Basil Agboarumi, said electricity, high cost of forex, tariff/ charges, duplications of duties by government agencies, double taxation and limited space for expansion and cargo procession.

Proffering way forward so that export can be encouraged, Agboarumi advised that elimination of bureaucratic bottlenecks and the need to encourage ground handling companies. The government needs to encourage ground handling companies by making forex available for the purchase of Ground Support Equipment. Increasing availability of credit and provision of space for ground handlers will go a long way to encourage exports.

Corroborating Agboarumi, the GMD/CEO of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, Mrs. Olatokunbo Fagbemi, in her presentation, titled, ‘The Role of a Handling Company in Air Cargo Business’ at the conference, said that despite their critical and vital role in the air cargo ecosystem, the ground handling companies are not being accorded their dues.

According to her, ground handlers are underpaid by airlines and they get blamed for any challenge within their warehouses, whether it is due to airline or government agencies, etc.

“We look to the government for support with our persistent calls for duty waivers, just as it applies to airlines. This is yet to be acceded to.

“I wish to draw attention to the need for standardisation of the various elements of the air cargo business, as this will enable the actualisation of the desired air- cargo industry in Nigeria. I pray that the government and stakeholders would work together to create a better operating environment and an effective framework to support cargo export so that the planes would stop flying from Nigeria empty,” Fagbemi said.

Exports to the rescue Stakeholders in the nation’s aviation industry strongly believe that exports play a lot of positive roles in a country’s economy as they contributes immensely to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in various ways. They, therefore, advise that governments at all levels should do everything humanly possible to encourage the sector. Some of the economic benefits of exports to the economy, as disclosed by Agboarumi, include the fact that they strengthen currency, establish relationships, create employment and encourage farming.

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BUSINESS NEWS Zenith Bank Posts N106bn Half-Year Profit, Declares Interim Dividend

BY SAM DIALA

Z

enith Bank has reported an after-tax profit of N106.1 billion for the half-year period ended June 2021. The figure is 2.2 percent higher than what it reported in the same period of last year. By this, Zenith becomes the first of the Big 5 banks to release its mid-year earnings scorecard.

According to the audited financials of the Tier 1 bank, the moderate profit rise derived from a 42.3 percent increase in net income on fees and commission, which helped to reduce the pressure arising from a N13 billion slump in interest and similar income.

The figures were achieved against a background of weaker gross earnings, which at N345.6 billion compares with the N346.1 billion recorded at half-year 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic which forced Nigerian banks to resort to restructuring the loans in their books.

L-R: None Executive Director, Total Nigeria Plc. Tejiro Ibru; Acting Chairman, Engr. Rufai Sirajo; Managing Director, Mr. Imrane Barry; and the Company Secretary, Olubumi Popoola at the Unveiling of new Total Energies Marketing Nigeria Plc, Logo held in Lagos yesterday.

NARTO, Dangote Refinery Collaborate on Efficient Products Distribution R

BY SAM DIALA

oad Transport owners across Nigeria have expressed optimism that the 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery would deepen the downstream sector and positively impact their businesses.

The transporters, under the aegis of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) after a guided tour of the refinery Plant in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, said they had no doubt that the project would generally accelerate the development of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector; just as they also expressed the willingness to play a good role in the distribution of refined products from Dangote refinery when it starts operations.

The NARTO leaders commended the President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote for his huge investment in petroleum refining and making the country one of the potential top refiners of petroleum in the world.

Speaking after a tour of the refinery project, President of NARTO, Alhaji Lawal Yusuf Othman, described Aliko Dangote as a trailblazer in the nation’s industrial development, whose contributions to economic development of the nation have helped in reducing unemployment and alleviating poverty.

Othman expressed satisfaction over the quality of construction materials being used for the refinery, saying; “We are impressed with the massive project which has been regarded

as the largest single train refinery in the world. The quality of the machines, the size of the refinery, and the quality of the work is of international standard. We are also very happy that there is a plan to construct the road from the refinery down to around Ijebu-Ode. The road construction is going to decongest the roads and make it easy for us to do our business,” he added.

To encourage more players in the downstream sector, the NARTO President emphasised the need for the government to deregulate the downstream oil and gas sector fast.

“Many people are not refining because the sector is still regulated. It is difficult to invest billions of dollars into a sector, where prices are determined by the government. Deregulation will encourage more players into the downstream sector. When there is full deregulation, the government does not neved to force anybody to invest in the sector. Deregulation will attract foreign and local investment in the sector,” he added.

Othman said members of NARTO have been given the necessary assurance that their businesses are going to be protected when the refinery comes on-stream under the Petroleum Industry Act. He stated, “We came on a tour of Dangote Refinery to assess the level of construction work going on at the site and also to reassure our members that the refinery is going to have a positive impact on their business, most especially with the signing into law of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

FMDQ Exchange Admits FSDH Merchant Bank, United Capital Instruments

BY SAM DIALA MDQ Securities Exchange Limited has announce the approval for the quotation of the FSDH Merchant Bank Limited (“FSDH”) ₦2.28 billion Series 3, ₦1.79 billion Series 4, and ₦15.53 billion Series 5 CPs under its ₦40.00 billion CP Issuance Programme on its platform. This is in FMDQ’s commitment to collaborate with market stakeholders to align the nation’s debt capital market (DCM) to international standards. This, it says, is also to ensure that growth and development opportunities that abound for the markets under its purview are explored.

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According to FMDQ, the facility will boost the operations of FSDH, a leading licensed merchant bank in Nigeria with subsidiaries in asset management, pension funds management and securities. It stated further that the net proceeds from the quotation of the FSDH Series 3 – 5 CPs, which is sponsored on FMDQ Exchange by

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Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited – a Registration Member (Quotations) of FMDQ Exchange, will be utilised to support FSDH’s short term financing requirements.

FMDQ Exchange has also approved the quotation of the United Capital PLC ₦1.56 billion Series 5, ₦13.99 billion Series 6 and ₦4.17 billion Series 7 CPs under its ₦50.00 billion CP Issuance Programme on the Exchange.

United Capital PLC is a leading financial services Group focused on leveraging technology to empower businesses, individuals and governments with excellent financial services. The proceeds from the quotation of these CPs, which are co-sponsored by FSDH Capital Limited and UCML Capital PLC – Registration Member (Quotations) of FMDQ Exchange, will enable the company to provide a wider range of wholesale financing solutions to its clients as well as complement its funding base and support the growth of the overall business.

“I don’t think that we can expect any dramatic increase in performance … from banks. For one, the performance wasn’t that bad in H1 last year, so I don’t see that they are coming from a very low base point. You also have the constraints on interest income, which is the key source of revenue for banks,” Timchang Gwatau, senior research analyst at Meristem Securities Limited, a broker and investment bank, was quoted as telling CNBC Africa last Friday.

Zenith Bank’s profit before tax was up 2.6 percent at N117.1 billion, just as earnings per share rose 2.4 per cent to N3.38.

The bank has said it will pay shareholders an interim dividend of N0.30 per share totaling N9.4 billion for the period under review.

VDT Offers Seamless NIN Registration Process

BY ANTHONY AWUNOR

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ith the appointment of VDT Communications

by National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as one of the ISPs selected as an agent for NIN registration, the company has put everything in place to offer easy NIN registration for members of the public.

In an official statement issued Thursday and signed by the Marketing Communications Manager of the company, VDT assured that its personnel assigned to handle the NIN registration have undergone the necessary training with NIMC. It further added that the company has also acquired the necessary equipment for the registration and retraining of the assigned personnel.

“VDT Communications has also established a number registration centres across Nigeria”, it stated.

Moreover, the company is combining both off-line and on-line strategies to ensure that members of the public enjoy seamless and easy NIN registration experiences through VDT platforms.

Several online requests have already been received from members of the public to be scheduled for registration.

The appointment of VDT by NIMC as one of the NIN registration agents is in recognition of the great job the company has been doing and her leadership role in the Nigerian telecoms/ ICT sector.

VDT Communications operates one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in the country. The company’s Network infrastructure design is structured towards providing a broad range of end-to-end efficient and reliable IP-based (data and voice communications) services while building a long term, trusted partnership with its clients.

VDT, an ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 20000:2018 internationally certified for excellent IT service management is also very passionate about consistently offering to her customers the highest possible quality of services such as Digital Leased Circuit, Metro Wireless Access, Metro Fibre, Corporate Internet, ATM solutions, Wifi Hotspot and Cloud services.

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PRETTY MIKE: CONTROVERSY PERSONIFIED

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I Have Learnt To Ignore What People Say – Pretty Mike Mike Eze Nwalie Nwogu, also known as Pretty Mike, is often misunderstood because of his shocking actions at public functions. But behind the facade is a personality who loves to entertain and empower humanity. In this interview with SHADE METIBOGUN, he speaks about the controversies surrounding his person and why he is often misunderstood.

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ou received a Master’s degree a few weeks ago, how does it feel and what informed the decision to go back to school?

I think we should all strive to increase our level of education daily. We should all strive to learn more, irrespective of the knowledge we may have acquired. These days, people have put education on the back burner. We keep forgetting that as humans, we need to keep increasing our knowledge. I am passionate about increasing my knowledge as much as I can, despite my busy schedule and the celebrity lifestyle I live. I try as much as possible to improve on myself. Now that education has been made easy, you can easily go online and apply to study. It was a short online course and it was at my own pace.

Recently, you attended Sandra Iheuwa’s wedding in the company of a traditional medicine man. What informed the decision to do such a thing?

People who know me know that I enjoy attention. If I had gone to the wedding with a pastor or an Imam, nobody would have said anything.

Are we now saying that our traditional herbalists are not normal? Are we saying they are bad or evil? People see this traditional herbalist as juju men. They are even perceived as evil, but in the real sense, they are our traditional herbalists, people who practice traditional medicine.

Our society has put them in a negative perspective and I want us to stop doing that. We have good pastors and we have the bad ones. We also have traditional medicine men that are good and some that are bad. It does not automatically mean that they are all bad.

Also you were seen at Williams Uchemba’s wedding in the company of some pregnant ladies. Can you tell us why you had to do that?

I always tell people that it is important to have a voice and be able to catch people’s attention so that you can pass a particular message at the end of the day. The message I was trying to convey is that people should stop stigmatising pregnant women. In our society, pregnant women are not given opportunities to work and fend for themselves.

If a pregnant woman comes here for assistance now, you will send her back to her husband. Even if she is over qualified for the job, once that stomach is shooting out, you will not want to listen to anything again. All you would be thinking is that she should go and give birth

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and then come back later. So, how will they work and fend for themselves?

It shows that you are discriminating against her without knowing if her husband abandoned her when she was pregnant or maybe she was a rape victim. Her boyfriend might have even left her when she was pregnant.

We just see pregnancy and jump into conclusion. We tend to discriminate against them. The truth of the matter is that there are so many pregnant women who have been abandoned by their husbands. For some, their husband lost their jobs. Who looks out for people like that? So, for me, I just want to create awareness, to kick start a foundation solely for pregnant women, to empower them and help them. Because we have forgotten that these people need to be empowered.

That is why we have abandoned babies.

You may be wondering why a lady would carry a baby for nine months and throw the baby away in the gutter. The question we should be asking is under what condition did she carry the baby for nine months? Was it through tears and agony? If such is the case, then the lady will see the baby as an agony or a curse.

A lot of people have a misconception of some of the things you do. Would you say that the way and manner you portray some of these things makes it easy for people to misunderstand you?

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People are quick to judge without wanting to hear facts and figures or making necessary inquiries. That is why I am trying to portray those parts clearly to them. You see a particular thing, but you don’t want to sit down and ask questions. You just jump into conclusion. Anybody that does that is not a normal human being. Such a person is not mature.

Once you are thinking in that direction, it shows that you don’t have leadership qualities or skills. That is the difference between white and black people. In the developed countries, if someone comes into a gathering with a traditional medicine man, they would ask questions and make inquiries. They will first think of the positive aspect of it.

But our society is different. You will think that our society is filled with intelligent people, but for lack of a better word, let me say there are many dumb people. They are quick to judge, but not quick to ask for facts and figures.

Don’t you think your messages would be best conveyed through a Non-Governmental Organisation, instead of making controversial statements at some public functions?

The thing is that there are so many foundations out there. How much attention have they got? Nigerians generally like controversy first before they can listen to you. If I had started a foundation earlier, they may even ask if I am the only one into a Non-Governmental Organisation.

They like drama, chaos and anything that stands out to get their attention.

Why use women for most of your ‘drama’ and not other fascinating objects or men?

I am a big supporter of women. I am a guy. I like women a lot and I like having them around me. Using the male specie doesn’t usually convey my messages for most of my entrances. I have had one or two occasions where guys worked with me, but I use women most of the time. It is also a job opportunity for them. Everyone who has worked with me was well paid. They are happy at the end of the day. I see it as an opportunity to create employment for them. I have a lot of people who send messages that they want to use my platforms to showcase themselves. I see it as an avenue for empowerment.

Some people don’t see it that way. They believe you enjoy degrading women. For instance, there was a time you had two ladies with dog collars on their necks. What was the point?

People always talk about it or try to bring it up. That was my first stunt.

It happened about four years ago. There are several messages that I try to convey. That is why I said there is nothing you do that someone wouldn’t say something negative about. Nobody would want to maltreat another person and do it openly. I do these things in the open. How do you become a ritualist and do it in public? Nobody does that in the open. It was only during the slave trade that people were maltreated openly. People should give it a benefit of doubt. They should ask questions; what is the concept, what is the idea? We are in an era where new concepts and ideas are being born every day, but if we are in a sane society, they should ask questions. Instead, people prefer to pick on something and blow it out of proportion. If it is the negative aspect, they will hold on to it. They said a lot of things then, but I tried to explain to them that it was only a show. I was vindicated eventually and they understood that it was a show. Why did it have to get to that point? People always want to look for something negative because it is what sells.

It’s obvious you love attention a lot, judging by the statements you have made over time. Don’t you think this is vain, especially for a man?

I am a child of God. God my father is the king of attention. He loves attention a lot and I am His son. So I should love attention too. Yes, that is true, I enjoy the attention. Some people think it is too much, but I don’t think it is enough. In all sincerity, it is not about the attention. What does attention do for me at the end of the day? It’s the entertainment for me. Everybody has different ways of making themselves happy. If I can come up with a concept that makes me happy, I am good. For instance, if you want to interview a personality now and the person grants you audience, it will surely make you feel good. It will make you feel like you have accomplished something that is good. As for me, the things that make me happy give me a sense of accomplishment, too. I try to find something that makes me excited. I love to wow people. It is entertainment business. You just have to learn how to entertain people on a different level. These ideas don’t come cheap. You have to sit down and be creative about it.

How do you get the boldness and courage to play all your stunts and how do you feel when you see and read what people say about you?

I am one of the people that got into social media early and I have learnt not to pay attention to what people say. One of the factors that will make you lose concentration is when you take your time and read people’s comments. I don’t do that. Even some of those people typing those things are trying to get your attention. It is the negative comments that breed attention. I also ensure I have the courage to execute what I want.

If you are not bold, your creative ideas will not see the light of day.

You named your dog ‘Toke Makinwa.’ Why give a pet a THEWILLNIGERIA

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human name?

When I chose that name, I told people that there are many people who bear the name. So there was nothing to it. I also checked to see if it has been copyrighted. At that time it wasn’t. So I ensured that I had the copy right to the name.

There was a time you said you are not what people see on Instagram and you are not what most people have interpreted your actions to be. So can you tell us who Pretty Mike really is?

Pretty Mike is a normal guy. I am ambivalent. I have both introverted and extroverted tendencies. I like being alone, but because of the kind of business that I do, I have to go out and mix with people. I am a funloving person. I like to make people happy. I like to stand out in a crowd.

Are you still nursing the idea of marrying up to five women?

Yes, sure. Is there anywhere it is written that polygamy is a bad thing? I used to tell people that it can be done. It can be accomplished.

It is something I can handle psychologically, physically and financially. So why not?

Can you describe your ideal lady?

I want someone who is not too aggressive. I don’t like it when ladies talk back at me. I think it is not ladylike to shout, quarrel and talk back at people. Generally, I don’t like the aggressive type.

You run a night club, Club Uno. How challenging is it?

It can be very challenging. Let us put it this way, you are dealing with a high percentage of a set of people who are not in their full senses at a particular time because they may be drunk. At the same time, you have to be able to create a fan base of loyalty among them. Another challenging thing is the staff. Having people you can trust to work for you. Because I have been in the business for 14 years, I have been able to master the situation. Customer service is very important. You have to pay attention to people, listen to them. For any introvert that acts like an extrovert, it is because of the money involved. If it is what pays your bills, you keep your temperament and get to work. It is like wearing a particular personality at a given time. So I have been able to master the situation well.

For a person who runs a night club, can you tell us what your typical day is like?

I go to sleep at about 7 am in the morning and get up around 10 am.

I sleep for like three hours every day. Even in the night time business, there are some work that has to be done in the daytime. For instance, purchasing and restocking products are done in the daytime. Planning an event must be done in the daytime. For a successful night club business, you have to get down to work in the daytime. Technically, a major amount of work for a successful night must be done in the daytime. Over the years, my body has been conditioned to cope with that lifestyle.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a night club business?

I will tell the person to learn to tolerate people. He must learn how to deal with people. Those are the key words. When I mean people, I mean your customers and workers, it is very important for you not to be a hot-tempered person. You must be able to listen to people. You must be able to make tentative decisions all the time.

You are also a car freak. But don’t you think that spending

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so much money on luxury cars in Nigeria can be pretty expensive, since we don’t have good roads?

We do have bad roads, but our roads are not the worst in Nigeria. We can’t say because our roads are bad we wouldn’t enjoy the good things of life. The essence of working hard is not just to have money in the bank or give them away, there should be a time to give yourself a treat.

There are certain cars to buy and there are certain places you should go.

That being said, I can’t drive my luxury cars to certain places. It is only one life you have to live. I think we should do our best to enjoy it.

You also love designer clothes. Can you tell us the maximum you have spent on a fashion item?

There is really no limit to what I think I have spent on a particular outfit.

I have jackets that cost 5, 6, 7 million naira. If business is good, why not? There is nothing wrong in treating yourself to something nice and decent. After all they were made for people to purchase. I believe I am one of the people it was made for. So I should enjoy it as well.

If not night club business, which other business would you have been interested in?

I am going into real estate now, buying and selling of properties. It is a business I recently started just to expand my horizon and hopefully try to make more money.

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AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

BY IVORY UKONU

Biodun Laja’s Sons at War Over Lekki British School

WOSILAT OKOYA-SERIKI CLOCKS 60 IN MADRID

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osilat Okoya, the only sister of wealthy industrialist, Chief Razaq Akanni Okoya and wife to Demola Seriki, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain and former Minister of Defence, recently clocked 60. To usher in her new age, she chose to celebrate with literaily all the members of the Okoya clan and a few close friends in far away Madrid, Spain.

Wosilat’s only brother couldn’t miss the birthday for anything

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The Serikis in the world as he was fully on ground with his youngest wife, Folashade Okoya, alongside most of his children. Wosilat’s close friends, such as Terry Waya and Demola Oniru, among others, were equally on ground to celebrate with her at the birthday dinner.

Her husband and daughter, Bisola Tokan, were the quintessential host and hostess and Demola particularly ensured everyone had a swell time.

Despite being married to two other

women, an older and a much younger one, there is no denying that Demola’s love for Wosilat has remained unwavering.

Obviously he never stopped loving her even when she left him after they had a little disagreement. No sooner was she back in her brother’s expansive estate that Demola quickly swooped in to reclaim her. They have remained together ever since and this time, Demola is not letting go of his grip on her.

Pastor Joseph Agboli of Victorious Army Ministries Dies at 58

hristian and Francis Idehen, sons of Biodun Laja, the late founder of Lekki British International school, are at daggers drawn over the control of Lekki British International school. Both are currently battling this out using legal means. Upset that his brother, Christian, is running the school without consulting him amid other allegations, Francis has filed a petition at the Federal High Court in Lagos against his brother. He claims that after the death of their mother in 2019, Christian relocated his family to Nigeria and immediately took over the running of the schools by appointing himself as the de facto Chief Executive Officer without conferring with him and against his express objection.

that he requested a meeting with the Board of Directors of the school to discuss the implementation of appropriate legal framework to regulate the governance and the affairs of the school. He also requested that he and Christian apply for letter of administration at the Lagos High Court to legally administer the estate of their mother, particularly as it relates to her majority shares in the school.

However, he said Christian refused to accede to any of his requests and has continued to run the school without regard to him and the board of Governors in an autocratic manner with his wife, Olufunke, whom he carved a role for in the school despite not being a director, a shareholder or employee of the school. This, he stressed, has led to a toxic work environment for the staff of the school.

Francis also claims that as a lawyer, their mother asked him, before her demise, to look for international investors who would run the school after her retirement, as he and Christian had no requisite experience or qualification to run an educational institution.

In addition, Christian, he adds, refused to give account of all expenditure made by him despite repeated demands to him to do so.

Francis also alleges in his affidavit

Francis therefore urged the court

to restrain Christian from parading himself as the Chief Executive Officer of the school while also asking the court to appoint a Board of Governors as interim administrators of the school with exclusive control over their affairs, including the bank accounts, cash and any other assets pending the hearing and final determination of the substantive suit.

In a counter affidavit, Christian denied ever being served with a notice of the suit, but he accused his brother of making unilateral withdrawals from the bank accounts of the school and making payment to third parties from the funds of the school without his consent and approval.

The presiding Judge, Nicholas Oweibo, in his pronouncement not only restrained both brothers from dealing with the bank accounts, cash and any other assets of the school without the express written consent of the other party pending the final determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction, but also adjourned the case till October 5, 2021 for hearing to commence.

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Agboli

merging feelers from the Acme road, Ogba/Ikeja, headquarters of the popular Pentecostal church, Victorious Army Ministries, indicate that the General Overseer of the church, Joseph Agboli, has died. Agboli, who was reportedly ill, gave up the ghost after his health took a downward turn. He was aged 58.

Agboli founded the Victorious Armies Ministries in 1995 after many years of being a trusted lieutenant of controversial pastor, Patrick Anwuzia of Zoe Ministries. A native of Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, Agboli left behind his wife, Blessing, who is his co-labourer in the ministry, and children.

Sanusi Celebrates 60th Birthday With Book Launch, Fundraiser

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n Wednesday, August 25, 2021 some of Nigeria’s business and political elites gathered at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, to felicitate with deposed Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on the occasion of his 60th birthday celebration. Although his birthday was July 30, he obviously chose to celebrate the event almost a month later when he felt the most important people within the business and political community would be readily available to grace the occasion.

The event also served as a platform to launch his new book, For The Good Of The Nation, a collection of essays and perspectives, following an indepth review of it. According to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the proceeds of the book launch will be channeled to his cause of educating the girl-child in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).

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To make this happen, the incumbent governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, led a fund-raising initiative and launch of this SDG challenge. Emefiele promised, on behalf of the bankers’ committee, to raise more than the required $2 million for this project.

The celebrant didn’t fail to use the opportunity of his birthday party to condemn the Federal Government’s reckless borrowing culture, while also dismissing secessionist groups. Some of the high-profile individuals who attended the event are Governors Babajide SanwoOlu, Nasir El-Rufai, Kayode Fayemi and Rotimi Akeredolu of Lagos, Kaduna, Ekiti and Ondo States, respectively; business mogul, Aliko Dangote; MD, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe; Bola Shagaya: Tunde Folawiyo; Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi; and former deputy governor of Lagos State, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, among others.

Idehen

Laja

Idehen

Femi Gbajabiamila, Folly Coker Bag Chieftaincy Titles

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is Royal Majesty, Oba Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, the Alara of Ilara about two weeks ago, honoured a few prominent Nigerians with chieftaincy titles, in commemoration of his first anniversary celebrations. The new chiefs are: the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt.Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who was honoured as the Agba Akin of Ilara Kingdom; the Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Folarin Coker, who was honoured as the Baba Eto of Ilara Kingdom; Chief (Mrs) Folake Okeowo, who bagged the title of Yeye Bobaseye of Ilara Kingdom and several others. After a very colourful

traditional ceremony, the new chiefs were decorated as is the custom and then handed their certificates and showered

with royal blessings. While other recipients were present to receive their certificates, Gbajabiamila was unavoidably absent.

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BY IVORY UKONU AND SHADE METIBOGUN

Dikeh & Kpokpogri

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few days ago, a voice note allegedly belonging to Prince Kpokpogri, the new man rocking actress Tonto Dikeh’s world and an unnamed lady surfaced online. In the viral audio recording, the two were heard bad-mouthing the actress. They were discussing the actress’ smoking and drinking habits.

The two alleged that Tonto Dikeh’s drinking and smoking habits had become worrisome.

They also stated that the habits contributed to the collapse of her first marriage to Olakunle Churchill about four years ago.

In the course of their discussion,

the politician also allegedly stated that he was not in good terms with the actress because of those habits. He also alleged that the mother of one was always sending away the people around him out of jealousy.

He further stated that since the two of them became an item, he no longer enjoyed his freedom. According to him, all eyes are always on him and he is constantly in the news as the new man in Tonto’s life.

In the audio recording, Prince Kpokpogri is heard acknowledging the fact that he is a womaniser and has allegedly slept with almost all

As expected, the Delta Prince reacted to the audio recording.

He verbally sent those expecting clarification from him to the gallows. According to him, he has no business defending what happens on Instagram and he would prefer going to London to enjoy the Premier league. He also labeled the audio a fake one.

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apphire Scent boss, Adewale Aladejana, also known as Wale Jana, seems unperturbed by the problems and setbacks that have befallen his business.

The businessman has resumed work, despite the drama that took place in his Lekki office a few weeks ago. A few days after the Nigerian police seized his office properties worth millions of naira, the Bowen University graduate is still seeking more investors to partner with in his business.

As expected, the post generated mixed reactions from fans who told him to pay up the return on investment to partners he is owing in his investment scheme, who are crying over THEWILLNIGERIA

Aladejana their deals that have gone sour.

THEWILL earlier reported that the police stormed Wale Jana’s Lekki office a few weeks ago and carted away most of his valuables. The police came with no fewer than 10 youths to seize his properties after he failed to redeem his pledge of refunding money invested in his business.

He also suffered harassment from distributors and investors THEWILLNG

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the beautiful female celebrities and Instagram queens in the country. He is rumoured to be dating one Chioma, who has become a constant visitor at his residence in Nigeria, despite the fact that he is in a relationship with Tonto Dikeh.

Despite Losing Properties, Wale Jana Calls For More Investors

The social media evangelist made a post calling for distributors willing to do business with him and ready to deposit the sum of N600, 000 in exchange for goods (perfumes, wristwatches) worth N1 million.

According to him, his company is still welcoming distributors across the 36 states. He also stated that with N600,000, such people would be entitled to earn N2 million within a year as members of the company’s cooperative.

Sikirat Sindodo Rekindles Romance With Mc Oluomo

PRINCE KPOKPOGRI REFUTES VIRAL AUDIO BADMOUTHING TONTO DIKEH

who cried endlessly on social media for their entitlements.

It was reported that Wale Jana’s predicament was caused by a careless decision to sign brand ambassadors whom he paid with his investors’ hardearned money. The embattled businessman also stated that poor decision and poor business strategy triggered his business challenges.

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Okoye

HOW INTERIOR DECORATOR, MONALISA OKOYE DIED OF COVID-19 AT 38

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opular interior decorator, Monalisa and boss of the Throne of Grace interiors, one of the most sought after interior decor shop situated on Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Victoria Island in Lagos, is dead.

Monalisa Whyte, as she is fondly called, died of Covid-19 complications at the age of 38.

Her death was reportedly painful and slow. A widow and a single mother of two young girls at the time of her death, she has been described by close friends as a dogged entrepreneur who did well for herself in her short time on earth. Many of her friends have taken to social media to pay tribute to her. In her lifetime, Monalisa wasn’t without her own share of controversy.

few years ago, Nollywood actress, Tayo Odueke, more popularly known as Sikirat Sindodo, and National Union of Road Transport Workers boss, Musilu Ayinde Akinsanya, also known as Mc Oluomo, were madly in love. The two were an item and Mc had a traditional wedding with the actress. She was referred to as the fourth wife of the NURTW boss. Their romance was one of the most talked about in the industry and Oluomo treated the actress well. He spoilt her silly with Hajj trips and the good things of life.

Most of her movies were also bankrolled by him. In 2008, he gifted her a Murano jeep with a customised registration number, ‘Mc Baby’. She was even welcomed by Mc Oluomo’s other three wives.

They made her part of their family and treated her like their sister. She became the envy of many actresses who wished they would also enjoy the largesse the NURTW boss was doling out to her. She even lost a five month-old pregnancy while the going was good for both of them.

Things, however, fell apart when it was discovered that the beautiful actress was seeing someone else while married to Mc Oluomo.

According to reports, Sindodo was secretly dating her colleague, Akin Olaiya.

Although Oluomo was aware of their friendship, he never knew they were secret lovers until Koko Zaria, one of his loyalists, exposed the two of them. Koko Zaria was said to have visited Akin Olaiya in his London hotel where he saw Sindodo in a compromised position on his bed and reported his findings to his

boss.

Sindodo was also said to have stolen Oluomo’s gold. She was asked to sell the gold, but she told her husband that it was stolen from her. That event eventually crumbled the beautiful relationship they both shared and the two drifted apart. Not long after breaking up with Mc Oluomo, Sindodo was said to have jumped into another relationship with Fuji musician, Alao Malaika. But the relationship didn’t last.

Despite the fact that Mc Oluomo and Sindodo were not together for a long time, the Lagos NURTW boss still extended his generosity to her at a period she fell seriously ill and almost died. He footed her bills. Now, the two are reportedly back together.

They allegedly renewed their relationship after attending actor, Taiwo Hassan’s 60th birthday party in 2019. They both exchanged pleasantries and chatted for a while before leaving the party. Gradually, they were able to rekindle their love affair again and they are finally back in each other’s arms. Ironically, despite rekindling his love affair with Sindodo, Oluomo has had a publicised relationship with popular interior decorator, Ehizogie Ogbebor. Their love affair fizzled out after Oluomo married a US-based divorcée, who is a mother of three and a guardian to his children from other women who live and school abroad.

He has, however, tried to remain friendly with Ehi who prefers to keep him at an arm’s length. Obviously Sindodo doesn’t seem to mind his infidelity and the arrangement seems to work for both parties.

In 2018, she was involved in a little misunderstanding with a client, Emmanuel Olabode over N122 million for the supply of interior furniture. This prompted men of Force Criminal intelligence and Investigation department, FCIID, to get involved. But the matter was eventually resolved as it was all a misunderstanding. Monalisa is survived by her mother, brothers and two daughters.

Akinsanya & Odueke

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BY SHADE METIBOGUN

Bukunmi Adeagba-Ilori Calls Out Fraudulent Hair Brand

THREE YEARS AFTER, BIDEMI KOSOKO FORMALISES WEDDING I

t is a season of celebration for seasoned actor, Prince Jide Kosoko, as his beautiful thespian daughter, Bidemi Kosoko, finally formaliseed her union with her heartthrob. The mother of one said ‘I do’ to her best friend, Daniel Bankole, a about two weeks ago. The union was made official at the Ministry of Interior, Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi, Lagos State in the presence of family and friends. The elated bride took to her social media space to celebrate her special day while she was preparing for the ceremony. Likewise, her father also expressed his

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excitement at the fact that his daughter finally made her marriage official.

Bidemi Kosoko and Daniel had their introduction ceremony in an elaborate party in December, 2018 at the Kosoko’s family residence in Lagos.

The couple welcomed their first child, a boy, Iretomiwa Jeremiah The Bankoles Bankole, in May, check on his family and also to attend 2019. Daniel is based to business. He was a fashion designer in Bethesda, Maryland in Nigeria before leaving for America in in the United States, but search of greener pastures. he comes to Nigeria to

Late Hosa Okunbo to be Buried in Benin City

Okunbo

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he family of late Capt. (Dr) Idahosa Wells Okunbo has dispelled any rumour concerning where he will be laid to rest. The family has revealed that contrary to insinuations and rumors that he will be buried in London where he died, the late businessman will be buried in his home town of Benin City, the Edo State Capital and in strict compliance with the instructions he left behind concerning his burial arrangements.

While thanking Nigerians for the show of love, sympathy, empathy and global goodwill in PAGE 40

the wake of the philanthropist’s passing, the family added that details of his burial arrangement would be made public in due course.

Hosa Wells Okunbor passed on in a London hospital on 8th August, 2021 at the age of 63 after a one-year battle with pancreatic cancer. His health had reportedly improved and he planned to return to the country just in time for his son in-law, Utieyinoritsetsola Emiko’s coronation as the Ogiame Atuwatse III, 21st Olu of Warri. A trained commercial pilot, the late Okunbo served as either chairman or director on numerous company boards in Nigeria, spanning multiple business sectors such as the agro-allied, petroleum, telecommunications, power, real estate, and banking industries. He was chairman, CMES-OMS Petroleum Development Company (CPDC), the Wells Carlton Hotel and Apartments and several other business endeavours.

he once rosy relationship between popular Instagram influencer and actress, Bukunmi Adeagba-Ilori, popularly known as KieKie, and a hair brand, HairbyTCN has gone sour.

The beautiful actress called out the company some days ago after she was tagged by some aggrieved customers who made payment for some products and couldn’t get them. She also made a disclaimer in one of her social media posts. She said she would not want to associate with a brand perceived to be fraudulent Ilori & Ozioma in its dealings with its customers. It was gathered that some customers of the hair on social media. She also brand tagged Kiekie in their promised to sort out orders and post because she was once the make delivery at a particular brand ambassador and face of date. She advised some the company. Owned by Oswald customers whose products Ozioma, it was also alleged were no longer available to that the company organised make extra payment so that crowd funding, collected a different product can be money for non-existent delivered to them. However, investment schemes without she failed to fulfill her pledge. delivering on its promise to It was gathered that most customers. However Ozioma customers, who requested for a has apologised to her customers refund on some hair products

since March, didn’t get their refund. And those who made extra payment didn’t get the products they ordered for since March when the company had its sales promo.

Professionally known as Kiekie, Bukumi came into the limelight when she started working with Goldmyne TV as a producer and fashion show host. She is also the brain behind Kiekie TV on YouTube.

Olymax’s Girlfriend Returns Stolen Valuables To Singer

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few weeks ago, the social media was agog with excitement, following a rift between fast rising singer, Temitope Olamide, popularly known as Olymax and his girlfriend, Abimbola Omotosho. It all started after the singer took to his social media space to call her out. According to Olymax, he dated the lady in secondary school after which they lost contact and reconnected in December, 2020 when she was very sick. He said Abimbola had ovarian cyst and he paid almost N1.5 million for her surgery. He claimed that he proposed to her in February, 2021, she accepted his proposal and they started dating. However, he added, Abimbola absconded with his Lexus E350, Iphone 12 and his ATM card and emptied his bank account.

Olymax also stated that Abimbola made away with his properties while he was fast asleep in their Ikotun apartment. Before leaving, she told their gateman that he sent her on errand. He reported her actions at a police station and she was invited for interrogation, but she refused to honour the

Olamide & Omotoso invitation. Instead, she took to social media to narrate her side of the story. According to her, she made that move after sighting her under-wear in a wardrobe the singer warned her never to open.

Abimbola alleged that her lover, Olymax was a ritualist and an Internet fraudster. She also posted a video showing the moment she retrieved her underwear from the wardrobe filled with different concoctions. She also admitted making away with his prized possession.

In a counter post, the singer refuted the claims made by his fiancée. According to him, the THEWILLNIGERIA

bottles his fiancée found in his wardrobe were for herbal drinks, while the other bottle in his wardrobe had honey in it. He even took a sip of the drink in the video he posted on social media. He also said that his girlfriend planted her pink pant on the bottles to make him look like a ritualist. After a lot of going back and forth, the girlfriend, who is a Corps member serving in Abeokuta, returned everything that she took away from her boyfriend. The embittered couple posted a video where they both acknowledged that their issue has been settled amicably. Abimbola also made it known that Olymax is not a ritualist as she earlier stated.

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TOURISM

Culture, Tourism as Drivers of Economic Diversification

Nigerians to drive the economic diversification process by using the rich resources in the arts, culture and tourism.

Historically, Runsewe pointed out that the pre-oil Nigerian economy was based on agriculture. During the 19th century when Great Britain was transiting from an agriculture-based economy to industrialisation, Nigeria thrived on its strong agriculture-based economy. In the 1950s and early 1960s, agriculture retained its position as the biggest contributor to the Nigerian economy. By 1959, cocoa had become Nigeria’s biggest single foreign exchange earner. Nigeria was also one of the three largest producers of groundnut in the world at that time. There was a high production of cash and subsistence crops, such as rubber, which accounted for about six percent of the total exports in the late 1950s; coffee, cotton, guinea corn, beans, yam, maize, cassava and rice. The mining, manufacturing, commerce, trade and the services sector accounted for about 25 per cent.

JANEFRANCES CHIBUZOR examines the critical issues raised at the meeting convened by the Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe on the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy

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n the wake of the current economic meltdown and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations of the world are exploring various means of growing their economies.

With the rich and diverse cultural resources of Nigeria and given abundant tourism resources, it stands to reason that if Nigerians must diversify their economy, the people have to look outside crude oil, which is the current major foreign exchange earner, and focus on arts, culture and tourism as one of the key players in our economic development.

The near total dependence on crude oil exports as the source of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings has greatly slowed down the pace of development in other sub-sectors of the economy, such as agro-allied industry, manufacturing, solid minerals and the service industry, among others.

The progressive fall in prices of petroleum products and its attendant shock on the economy of Nigeria has made it highly imperative for Nigeria to pursue a sustained process of economic diversification, if we must attain the much needed economic stability and development.

It is now clear to all that Nigeria can no longer continue to depend solely on crude oil exports.

It is in the light of the above that stakeholders in the arts, culture and tourism sector gathered to interact and exchange ideas, opinions and knowledge on the possible way forward and how the sector can be strengthened as a vehicle for creating wealth and driving sustainable economic development in Nigeria.

Earlier, the convener of the meeting, Otunba Runsewe, who is also President of the World Craft Council (WWC), African Region, noted that the meeting was to avail stakeholders the THEWILLNIGERIA

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opportunity to discuss the way forward for the next four years and beyond.

According to Runsewe, the platform was expected to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to re-strategise and set a new agenda for the arts, culture and tourism sector.

This meeting is highly desirable as a platform for engendering national discourse on the options available to Nigeria as the citizens seek to attain national development.

During the stakeholders meeting, it was expressed that Runsewe had alerted Nigeria a long time ago on the danger of over-dependence on oil. Recalling that while serving as the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation between 2006 and 2013, his policy thrust was encapsulated in the slogan ‘Oil is good, but tourism is better’ because oil was exhaustible and tourism seemed sustainable and environment friendly.

Following up on the outcomes of that meeting, at the subsequent leadership conference held at the International Conference Centre on April 28, 2009, Runsewe had the privilege of speaking on the topic, ‘Beyond Oil: Diversification Options.’ In that paper apparently, he drew attention to the need for Nigeria to look outside oil in her quest for development. Also, he shared these thoughts at the ECOWAS Congress on Sports Development in West Africa, held in Abuja between August 10 and 11, 2011.

During the stakeholders meeting recently held at Airport Hotel, Lagos, he re-echoed the views on the need for for

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My policy thrust was encapsulated in the slogan ‘oil is good, but tourism is better’ because oil is exhaustible while tourism is sustainable and environment friendly

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Continuing, before 1970, agriculture contributed more than 75 per cent of Nigeria’s export earnings. Since then, however, agriculture has stagnated, partly due to government neglect, poor investment and ecological factors, such as drought, flooding, disease and reduction in soil fertility. By the mid-1990s, agriculture’s share of the nation’s export had declined to less than five per cent, thus giving way to crude oil as the mainstay of the economy.

However, the 1950s can generally be regarded as the decade of major petroleum discoveries, nonetheless discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in 1956 was a major economic breakthrough for Nigeria. From a modest beginning in the 1950s, oil production accelerated rapidly in the 1950s. The increase in demand for oil was a great boost to Nigeria’s economy at a time when its traditional cash crop income was decreasing due to a fall in World Market price.

Furthermore, in 1974, after first oil price increase, Nigeria was producing 2.2 million barrels of oil per day. The 1970s was a period of significant boost in the nation’s economy arising from oil boom. While the prices and production of oil dropped dramatically in 80s, Nigeria again experienced a windfall in crude oil exportation during Gulf War. Ever since, the nation’s economy has remained largely crude oil dependent.

As if that was not enough, for about five decades or more, crude oil exploration and exportation have dominated Nigeria’s economy. While in most other oil producing countries, crude oil exportation provides the needed revenue for developing and strengthening other sectors of the economy, it would appear that the discovery of oil in Nigeria has come with its attendant problems.

In buttressing this source, Nigeria’s oil wealth has tended to becloud our sense of initiative and economic vision, while promoting a national culture of unbridled corruption, laziness, opportunism and primitive acquisitive tendency.

Apart from the effect of near total neglect that the oil economy has had on other critical sectors, the fluctuation in the global prices of petroleum products has continued to pose a serious threat to the stability of our economy, thus making effective planning on a sustainable basis extremely difficult. For example, while the international price of crude oil rose to over a 100 dollars per barrel in 2013, it came down to as low as 28 dollars per barrel in 2016, which is far below the $38 per barrel budgetary benchmark for the 2016. Today, the current price of crude oil stands at $64.90 per barrel, which is ahead of the 2021 budgetary benchmark of 40 dollar.

The forgoing goes to underscore the compelling need for diversification as the only way for a sustainable economic development in Nigeria.

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STATE OF THE STATES

BY SAM DIALA & OLAYEMI SHABA

Introduction:

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here are concerns that Nigeria’s deepening revenue challenge may escalate into a financial implosion, with the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (sub-nationals), being the worst hit. The situation is aggravated by the nation’s escalating public debt stock (standing at N33.107 trillion as of March 31, 2021), consuming a huge amount of money for debt servicing.

The debt stock comprises domestic and external loan obligations of the Federal Government and the subnationals.

With over 70 percent of the nation’s revenue committed to debt servicing annually, governments at all levels are struggling to survive. There is little left for capital budget,

pay salaries and undertake other priorities to grow the economy. Moreover, there is a limit to which the people and corporates could be taxed. Yet, profligacy takes the centre of our governance space while frugality assumes the back seat.

As such, the sub-nationals are hemorrhaging huge resources in paying salaries and other emoluments of a bloated bureaucracy. To survive, they are urged to diversify their resource base, embark on aggressive internally generated revenue (IGR) and depend less on shrinking federal allocations.

The purpose of the State of the States project, is to present evidence-based alternatives. These include avenues for the sub-nationals to become more viable and less dependent on the proceeds of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) – referred to as Abuja handout.

Furthermore, State of the States will examine existing realities that hinge on sector-specific competitive advantage – Agriculture, Tourism, Transportation, Education & Skill Acquisition, Wellbeing and MSMEs. Ultimately, the project seeks to create the desired spotlight on the sub-nationals to motivate them into something different for better results. We have featured Lagos and Ogun, Kwara and Kogi State, Anambra and Enugu.

This week periscopes Benue and Taraba.

Benue river

BENUE

State of the States, a bi-weekly publication, will periscope two states per edition. It endeavours to unearth hidden treasures in each state and ascertain, through consultations and evidence-based survey, areas of comparative advantages and economies of scale. The publication will show-case, in no exaggerated terms, the socio-economic status of each state and highlights the opportunities and threats.

Benue was carved from the former Benue-Plateau State in 1976. It lies in the wooden Savanna region of North-Central Nigeria on a land mass of 13,150 Sq km with a population of 5,55 million people. Markurdi is the capital.

Natural Resources Popularly referred to as the food basket of the nation, the people of Benue mostly engage in farming as their major occupation. The state is said to be responsible for 70% of the nation’s soybean productions. Agricultural produce in the state include yam, rice, maize, cassava, cotton, sesame seed, shea nuts, ground nut, sorghum, millet , cocoyam and sweet potatoes.The state has one of the longest stretch of rivers giving room for fish farming and dry season farming through irrigation.

The vegetation of the southern parts of the state is characterized by forests, which yield trees for timber and provide a suitable habitat for rare animals. The state thus possesses potential for the development of viable forest and wildlife reserves.

Benue is known to be rich in mineral resources. South of Benue River near Akwana is reported to have lead deposits, limestone near Yandev, Saline spring North of the river in Benue valley, tin, niobium and marble.

Tourism The state is endowed with various tourist site such as: •The Enumabia Warm Spring in Orokam Local Government Area.

•Benue River and Katsina-Ala River falls, Ikyogen hill, also known as the Leiv Mountain located in Mbabegh Ikyogen.

•The Enumabia Warm Spring, at Epwa-Ibilla, Andi-Ibilla, Uchenyum-Ibilla, Okochi-Uwokwu, Irachi-Uwokwu, EtteUda-Uwokwu, Odepa-Uwokwu, Igbegi-Ipinu-Uwokwu, Edde-Ibilla-Uwokwu, and Ohuma-Uwokwu of Oju springs.

•The Anwase-Abande ranges.

•Montane game reserve •Dajo Pottery.

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Air Transport Benue State has one airport in Makurdi for public and sometimes for military use. The government under public private partnership with Aerotropolis Development Company Ltd plans to construct a new cargo airport - Benue Cargo, to promote investment opportunity.

FACT-FILE No. of LGAs: 23 Registered businesses: 315 Registered vehicles: Public primary schools: 4,486 @ 2009 Public secondary schools Private secondary schools: 438 @ 2009 Universities: Four - 2 Federal, 1 state, 1 private Polytechnics: Five - 1 federal, 1 state, 3 private School of Nursing - Three Colleges of Education: Three - 2 state, 1 private Unemployment rate: 43.5% @ 2020 Literacy rate: 45.1% Total Revenue: FAAC @ 2020: N47.213bn @ 2020 IGR: N10.46bn @ 2020 (0.80%) Total Tax: N8.17bn Domestic debt: N126.12bn Foreign debt: $32.50m THEWILLNIGERIA

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STATE OF THE STATES

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‘We Are Building a Viable Economy For The Common Good of All’

espite mounting insecurity, Benue state government is driving the development of Agriculture on a fast lane.

The government is sourcing means to help the farmers increase production through training, provision of modern infrastructure, financing, and other essentials means.

government areas under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In collaboration with organisations such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), we have improved productivity in the state through training, demonstration and the use of improved seedlings.

The governor, Samuel Ortom, said recently, “Agriculture is the main driver of the Benue economy, and our administration has placed the sector on the priority list of development. It is for that reason that in five cropping seasons, we have given 40 per cent subsidy on fertiliser to Benue farmers. Last year, we acquired and sold 50 tractors at 60 per cent subsidy to the farmers.

“More civil servants have become farmers through our threemonth scheme that makes Fridays work-free during planting and harvesting seasons. The fertiliser blending plant has been revived and now supplies part of the people’s needs.’’

“We have built agro processing factories in six local

In the blueprint for the development of the State entitled, “Our Collective Vision For a New Benue State” Ortom articulated the vision and mission statement of his administration with specifics in a method that showed objectives, goals and

action steps with measurable standards. He argued that past development initiatives have recorded little success in harnessing the resources of the State into a vibrant economy for the common good of the people.

‘Our Collective Vision for a New Benue State’, seeks to break that jinx with a paradigm shift in our development initiatives.

The driving big-picture of the paradigm shift is encapsulated in the Vision Statement, which inspires our people: ‘to build a Model New State, anchored on the fear of God, that is economically and socially viable for the common good of all.”

Challenging Factors: Insecurity, poor electricity supply, bad state of roads, extortion by revenue officials.

ENDOWNMENT AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Mechanized Farming: Leveraging on the state government’s scheme will facilitate achievement of this objective

Fertilizer Production: This is a vital need to develop agriculture.

It could be established as a PPP initiative

Yam Flour Process: This facility will boost revenue, employment and productivity.

Transportation: Movement of people and farm produce requires effective transportation system – land and water.

Agent/Mobile Banking: Taking advantage of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, alternative payment systems will boost business in the area.

Private Security Service: The high level of insecurity in the state requires effective security network to protect life and business.

Restaurants: Taking advantage of the vast agricultural produce and relatively lower cost of food items will help to create a successful venture in this area.

Tomatoes Processing: There is huge potential in this area to halt post-harvest waste which runs into billions of Naira.

Silos and Preservation: Off-take of huge post-harvest produce for storage and preservation is a potential cash-spinning venture.

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STATE OF THE STATES

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araba in the North East Nigeria was created on August 27, 1991 from old Gongola State its capital is Jalingo. Covering 21,032sq mi. land area, it has 16 local government areas and a population of 2.9 million. The state is within the tropical zone of low forest vegetation in the Southern part and grass land in the Northern part.

The Mambilla Plateau with an altitude of 1,800 meters (6000 ft) above sea level has a temperate climate all year round.

Taraba major occupation is agriculture. Cash crops produced in the state include coffee, tea, groundnuts and cotton. Crops such as sugar cane, maize, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava, and yam are major source of income earning. They are also into animal farming which include cattle, sheep and goats in commercial quantity especially on the Manbilla Plateau, and along the Benue and Taraba valleys.

Similarly, other livestock activities like poultry production, rabbit breeding and pig farming in fairly large scale.

Taraba State has over the years recorded success being a leading state in dairy farms and livestock production within Jalingo, Gembu and Nguorje dairy farms.

fishing all year round. Crafts such as pottery, clothweaving, dyeing, mat-making, carving, embroidery and blacksmithing are also carried out in various parts of the State.

Efforts are made by the government to attract foreign investors to harness the huge natural resources that abound in the state. The mineral resources include barite, bauxites, graphite, limestone, uranium and gem stones.

Festivals like the Purma of the Chamba in Donga, Takum and Bali, the Puje of Jukuns, Kuchecheb of Kutebs in Takum and Ussa, Kati of the Mambilla and host of others can be organised to boost tourism.

Taraba is called “Nature’s gift to the nation” as the state is rich and have many ethnic groups, including Chamba, Mumuyes, Mambila, Wurkums, Fulanis, Jukun, Jenjo Kuteb, Ichen,Tiv and Ndoro.

Public primary schools:1,514 @ 2019 Students in public secondary schools: 51,415 @ 2019 Polytechnic: 1 State College of Agric: 1 Federal Technical School: 1 Colleges of Education: Two – 1 state, one private Numbers of companies - 74 Total Revenue: N51.94bn Total Tax: N5.24bn IGR: N8.11bn @ 2020 (15.62% of total revenue)

The state has an airport: Danbaba Danfulani Suntai Airport in Jalingo, for both commercial and private flights.

FACT-FILE

FAAC: N43.82bn @ 2020 (84.38% of total revenue)

Local Govt Areas: 16

External Debt: $20.79m @ 2020

Registered businesses: 74

Unemployment rate: 24.7%

Registered vehicles

Population: 2.9 million

Domestic Debt: N106.04bn @ 2020

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Cultural dance

Agric commodity

Road network

Other agricultural activities in communities living on the banks of Rivers Benue, Taraba, Donga and Ibi are

TARABA

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STATE OF THE STATES

Taraba is Diversifying Its Revenue Sources

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The government has promised to improve on the state tourism industry through public private partnership to create job opportunities and make more earnings.

Taraba State is no doubt endowed with potentials for the development of tourism, and mineral resources. There was also recently discovery of uranium in huge quantities in the state. The government has however made concerted efforts to improve areas of tourist attractions like Mambilla Tourist Center, Gumpti and game reserve in Gashaka including the annual Nwunyu Fishing festival in Ibi with activities such as canoe racing, swimming competition and cultural dances.

The federal government in a bid to secure tourism and natural resources frowns at deforestation and mining activities in national parks across the country. Representative of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Conservation General National Park Service Ibrahim Musa-Goni at the Gashaka Gumti National Park, Taraba state declared that the Park is the largest in Nigeria with a land mass of 6,400sqm with rare species of animals.

“In a deliberate effort to make the park tourist heaven, a thirty-year partnership agreement was signed to enable the

he state government in its effort to boost agricultural production recently commenced the distribution of farm input and sales of fertilizer at a highly discounted rate to farmers from 2021 through to 2022. In addition various types of seeds were procured and distributed to farmers for free.

Africa Nature Investors ANI to provide technical. financial and management support to the park.”

“Based on the agreement, a number of state of the earth facilities have been provided and installed amounting to over seven hundred million naira.”

“These includes the provision of anti-poaching patrol vehicles, satellite phones, radio equipment’s, V-SAT facilities among many others.”

Ibrahim however notes that the first batch of forty-three rangers was trained inline with the international best practices and armed with modern sophisticated weapons to protect themselves and animals from incessant attacks.

He used the forum to call on other non-governmental organizations and wealthy individuals to join the course of making national parks the best resorts in the country for tourism.

Challenging Factors: Insecurity, poor electricity supply, bad state of roads, extortion by revenue officials.

ENDOWNMENT AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Agriculture: Commercial farming and crop cultivation has huge revenue potential in the state.

Mining: Investment in this area will create wealth and jobs.

Tourism: The state has a lot of potential for tourism that can be developed in partnership with the government.

Private Security Services: This is necessary to protect lives and properties and attract investors.

Crafts and Textile: With the appropriate expertise, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can be created for this sector.

Fertilizer Production and Supply: This will feed the vast demand in the agric sector.

Grain Processing: Well-equipped and with adequate delivery system, this has huge potential for intra- and inter-state supplies.

Transportation: This will facilitate food supply within and across the states.

Medical Facilities: The interior nature of the place calls for adequate healthcare.

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SportsLive

Navigating International Football Amid Global Pandemic

BY JUDE OBAFEMI

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head of the international break in football for footballers to report for international duty and begin or continue their country’s qualifying series for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the hydra-headed issue of health and safety protocols around the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic returned to throw a wrench in the plans of Football governing bodies across the world.

The most recent bottleneck began with the insistence of the Government of the United Kingdom to discourage travel to countries where the COVID-19 virus was prevalent and which it categorised as a “Red List”.

Anyone who necessarily needed to travel to a country on the list, according to the UK’s operative guidelines, was obliged to quarantine for a period of 10 days upon re-entry to the UK.

Others are Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Football teams across England, Scotland and Wales were wont to avoid a forced 10-day quarantine, given that some of their players were bound to engage in international football during the break, which necessitated their journey to one or some of these countries as their home nations or as one of the countries to host an international fixture they are scheduled to play.

Reacting swiftly, the English Premier League (EPL), rather than lose their first team players to extended quarantine periods, made a concerted effort to keep them by issuing a statement that illustrates their determination to withhold their players and keep them in tact rather than release them to make them available for their countries during September’s international break.

The statement from the Premier League provided the rationale for the decision. It reads in part, “Premier League clubs have today reluctantly, but unanimously decided not to release players for international matches played in red-list countries next month. The clubs’ decision, which is strongly supported by the Premier League, will apply to nearly 60 players from 19 Premier League clubs who are due to travel to 26 red-list countries in the September international window.

“This follows FIFA’s current position not to extend its temporary release exception for players required to quarantine on their return from international duty.

Extensive discussions have taken place with both the FA and the Government to find a solution, but due to ongoing public health concerns relating to incoming travellers from red-list countries, no exemption has been granted.

“If required to quarantine on return from red list countries, not only would players’ welfare and fitness be significantly impacted, but they would also be unavailable to prepare for and play in two Premier League match rounds, a UEFA club competition match day and the third round of the EFL Cup. This period takes into consideration 10 days of hotel quarantine on return to England, but does not include any additional time that would be required for players to regain match fitness.”

This immediately placed several countries at a disadvantage, especially Nigeria as far as THEWILL is concerned. This is because one of Nigeria’s opponents in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers for this international window is Cape Verde and the match has been billed for Tuesday, September 7. However, with Cape Verde on the UK’S list of coronavirus affected countries impacted by the decision, Nigeria’s Super Eagles players across the UK are not going to be available for Gernot Rohr’s squad in that Tuesday tie at the Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde.

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The extended list of the countries in the UK’s dreaded “Red List” included, in alphabetical order: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo (Democratic Republic), Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Georgia and Guyana. Others are Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique and Myanmar.

With even more players of the Eagles squad in the EPL this season than before, that will leave out a sizeable selection of the country’s first team players from contention in the fixture.

That means no fewer than seven players, such as Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi, Frank Onyeka, Oghenekaro Etebo, Emmanuel Dennis and William Troost-Ekong, will be unavailable for selection. Also, because Scottish football operates under the UK guidelines, this leaves Semi Ajayi, Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun out of contention next month for the three-time African champions, bringing the total to 10.

This dicey matter is a tough subject to litigate as it is perched delicately on the merits and demerits of how best to approach international sports, while preventing the migration of an infectious virus that is still causing deaths across the globe, in a fluid situation where contact tracing may not be as effective as possible because of how quickly the matches come and go.

Therefore, it is understandable that the clubs have risen as one to stand in opposition to the freedom of their players to meet up with their international obligations.

Yet, it must be highlighted that the football governing body, FIFA, working in collaboration with their continental counterpart, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is directly involved in moving the world cup qualifiers from their initial dates in the June international break to dates in September. As THEWILL reported on Thursday, May 6, in conjunction with CAF and taking into consideration the prevalent disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to ensure optimal playing conditions for all teams, FIFA decided to postpone the African qualifiers for Qatar 2022.

The rationale was that with the progress being made in the fight against the virus, accompanied by signs that showed improvements in vaccine administration globally, there will be less need for cautionary measures by September and most of the applicable health and safety precautions at that time in May will have been relaxed for sports events to hold in packed stadiums across the football playing world. However, the reality has not panned out exactly as hoped, a fact demonstrated by the existence of the “red list”.

In an attempt to avoid the crises that will result for many an African team without their star players for the very crucial world cup qualifiers in September, CAF reached out directly to the Government of the UK with a formal request to grant an exemption to African players for the international window as it

will enable their countries compete favourably to book their place deservedly in the roster for the next world cup. The statement from CAF reads: “CAF has noted the current circumstances in place in Britain, regarding the lack of sporting exemptions for players returning from several African countries after the international window next week. CAF, acting on behalf of all African MemberAssociations, African players and fans, has urged the British Government to urgently provide the required exemptions.”

Arguing its point further, CAF noted that “similar exemptions were granted by the British Government to enable the attendance of delegations and officials, amongst others,” at the finals of the Euro 2020 held less than two months ago. The football body stressed that the circumstances in the African countries on the red-list in many cases “are in fact less severe than other countries not currently on this list or for which exemptions were previously provided” while reiterating that the upcoming matches would be organised under the strict protocols developed by FIFA and applied across the world.

The continental football body concluded, “These protocols have now proven beyond doubt that they mitigate the risks involved, reflecting the success of commensurate protocols applied domestically in England and other parts of the world,” with the appeal that, as a matter of urgency, the Football Association (FA) and the Government of the UK ought to extend “the same treatment previously applied to Europe” to Africa.

The appeal from CAF came on the same day that Spain’s La Liga blocked South American players from joining up with their countries for World Cup qualifiers over the next few months in a protest move against the scheduling of matches. THEWILL had reported in March that CONMEBOL, the continent’s football governing body, had created a 12-day window for a maximum of three fixtures to be fulfilled in September and October, but La Liga believes such an arrangement was a “clear detriment to the integrity of La Liga and its competition” while blaming FIFA for allowing it.

However, just as the agreement to postpone CAF qualifiers to September, it was an arrangement of convenience and caution to prevent the transmigration of the corona virus during international football, given all the logistics and travel involved. There remains no easy way to navigate the problems these restrictions will place on countries that need their footballers for a good shot at qualifying for the Qatar World Cup as COVID-19 continues to interrupt the excitement of international football, even with the best guidelines in place.

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