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VAT War Sparks Restructuring, Fiscal Federalism Southern Governors Forum Pledges Support ● All Eyes On Supreme Court ●

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COVER

VAT War Sparks Restructuring, Fiscal Federalism

BY SAM DIALA

for revenue in a manner that suggests the federating units have offered to be taken hostage by the centre. The trend, which can be traced to the economic crisis of 1979-1980, was reinforced by the enactment of the 1999 Constitution, which launched Nigeria back to democracy after 16 years of unbroken military rule.

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n Thursday, September 16, 2021, what has come to be known as the ‘VAT war’ assumed a larger dimension and achieved a significant mileage forward since Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State legally took on the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over the right of his state to collect Value Added Tax and passed an enabling law.

That day the Southern Governors’ Forum met in Enugu and issued a communique, read by its Chairman and Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN.

The civilian governments inherited 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory from the military. The Centre had over the years appropriated to itself the lion’s share of the resources meant for the federating units to cater for their needs and adequately address the grassroots development.

It was a ruinous process that had its origin in the Nigerian Civil War years.

Among other resolutions that dealt with their renewed call for the presidency to be zoned to the region in 2023, the encouraging response by member states to the directive to pass anti-open grazing law and developments surrounding the Petroleum Industry Act, Akeredolu said with firmness that the Forum “reaffirmed its earlier commitment to fiscal federalism as resolved at the inaugural meeting of the Forum held on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at Asaba, Delta State and emphasized the need for the southern states to leverage the legislative competence of their respective State Houses of Assembly, as well as representation in the National Assembly to pursue its inclusion in the Nigerian Constitution through the ongoing constitutional amendment.”

The structure of the 1999 Constitution empowered the Federal Government in a manner that aggravates the urge to deal with the states like fiefdoms, especially in the aspect of resource control. The Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual legislative lists of the 1999 Constitution, which set the roles of the different tiers of government, exist in the most lopsided manner against the states.

Then he added, “The meeting resolved to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the states.”

Commitment to fiscal federalism and resolution to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the states, is an open declaration that the pace set by Governor Wike would trend and achieve a life of its own until most member states own proprietary rights to VAT collection.

Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria should know the possible outcome of the ongoing litigation on VAT and its implication for fiscal federalism.

THEWILL recalls that Lagos State, the commercial nerve of the country and neighbouring Ogun state, one of the three most viable states in the country, in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) had passed the VAT law in tandem with Rivers, while the former had expressed its readiness to join Rivers in the FIRS suit at the Appeal Court.

The Appeal Court had on September 9, 2021 ordered the Rivers State and Lagos State governments, which had then passed VAT Law in their respective states, to maintain the status quo over VAT collection. The appellate court had also granted the prayer of FIRS for a stay of execution of the Port Harcourt Federal High Court judgment. But Rivers has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the Appeal Court ruling.

OLD WINE IN NEW SKIN The VAT matter is not entirely new. On the heels of the current ‘VAT war’, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) recalled that there had been previous judgments nullifying the VAT Act or part of it. It issued a statement signed by its Registrar/ Chief Executive, Adefisayo Awogbade. CITN said it was waiting for the appellate courts to take a definite position on the matter before making their comments.

Similarly, Professor of Finance and Accounts at Nasarawa State University and immediate past President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Mohammed Mainoma, told THEWILL that it was the economy of collection of the VAT that made the states allow the FIRS to play that role.

“The case has been determined before when Lagos went to court to insist that consumption tax falls within the jurisdiction of states and a court ruled in their favour. Maybe the Rivers State Government felt short-changed and they want to collect themselves,” he said.

note to THEWILL,” he added.

Explaining further, a legal practitioner and tax expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his assignments from the government, said the claim that FIRS assumed the responsibility of collecting VAT on behalf of the states to save the states the cost of engaging in the exercise was false.

He told this newspaper that the issue for determination was the constitutionality of the VAT Act. “The Constitution is the grundnorm. Its provisions on taxes are clear and well spelt out.

The VAT Act is also there with its provisions on taxes well spelt out. The issue at stake is whether the VAT Law should override the Constitution or whether its provisions contradict the Constitution which is the supreme document,” the tax expert explained.

He agreed, like many others, that the parties involved will not let go because of the volume of revenue generated through VAT over the years.

For Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PwC, an international professional advisory service firm, enforcement of the judgment has wider fiscal implications, which is the import of Wike’s move, actively supported by Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State who have passed the law and the wider body of the Southern Governors’ Forum.

According to Mainoma, the judgment has not said anything new.

It was the ease of collecting the VAT that made FIRS to be the collecting agency for the states and the proceeds are distributed to the states in accordance to how it accrued from the state.

According to him, in a published note he referred THEWILL to when he was contacted for comments; “If the judgment is enforced or upheld on appeal, it will apply to other states and not just Rivers State. This means each state would administer VAT within their territory. By implication, FIRS will administer VAT within the FCT and non-import foreign VAT, while the Nigeria Customs Service will continue to collect import VAT on international trade.”

“If every state were to collect, the cost of collection to the states would have been higher. It is the economy of collection that made the states to allow FIRS play that role, Mainoma said in a

BACKGROUND Contrary to the tenets of true fiscal federalism, Nigeria’s states have grown increasingly dependent on the Federal Government

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The Exclusive List comprises 68 items, aside from 30 others in the Concurrent List on which the Federal Government can also make laws, thereby creating 98 legislative areas for the Federal Government.

It is this structure that produced the notoriously skewed revenue formula that the states are now demanding for a review in their favour: 52.68 per cent, 26.72 per cent and 20.60 per cent for the federal, state and local governments, respectively; 13 per cent derivative is approved for oil-producing states.

ENTER THE VAT WAR While the nation awaits the new revenue sharing formula, the Value Added Tax (VAT) has entered the arena of a prolonged legal battle up to the Supreme Court. A Port Harcourt Federal High Court had outlawed the Value Added Tax Law and declared the Rivers State Government, and any other state, the rightful entity to collect VAT in their jurisdiction.

The FIRS has appealed the judgment delivered by Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division, Rivers State, in August 2021. In the judgment, it was held that the Rivers State Government, not the Federal Government, is empowered by the Constitution to collect VAT and Personal Income Tax (PIT) in the state. The ruling that the Rivers State Government (and not the FIRS) is entitled to collect VAT in the state was based on the premise that only the state is constitutionally entitled to impose taxes in its territory of the nature of consumption or sales tax.

The court held that there was no constitutional provision backing the collection of VAT, Withholding Tax, Education Tax and Technology Levy in Rivers State or any other state in the federation by the FIRS. This was based on the fact that the Federal Government is restricted by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to taxation of incomes, profits and capital gains. The court held that the (aforementioned) taxes do not in any way include VAT or any other levy other than those specifically mentioned in Items 58 and 59 of the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution.

Incidentally, the Lagos State Government has said it will go ahead with the implementation of the state’s VAT Law, notwithstanding the Appeal Court’s order of stay of execution. Rivers State has gone to the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal that ordered it to maintain the status quo on the collection of VAT, pending the determination of an appeal that was lodged by the FIRS. THEWILLNIGERIA

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COVER The riverine state, in a 10-ground appeal, prayed the apex court to order that the substantive appeal by the FIRS and all other processes be heard and determined by a new panel of the Court of Appeal.

It maintained, among other grounds, that the three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, had in the ruling erred in law when they relied on the provisions of Section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution and the inherent jurisdiction of the appellate court, to order all the parties to maintain the status quo on the VAT dispute. Stakeholders consider the development as a peaceful way of achieving restructuring.

VAT: WHO GETS WHAT? In a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the states’ shares of VAT allocation from January 2020 to February 2021 showed that the 36 states received a total of N1.09 trillion VAT revenue from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.

According to NBS, five northern states, two south-western states, two south-south states, and one south-eastern state collected a total of N373.84bn of the N836.51bn VAT proceeds in 14 months.

The top 10 states were Lagos (N153.94bn), Kano (N32.48bn), Oyo (N29.85bn), Rivers (N28.43bn), Kaduna (N24.75bn), Katsina (N22.72bn), Delta (N20.91bn), Bauchi (N20.49bn), Anambra (N20.14bn), and Jigawa (N20.13bn).

Lagos got the largest share of VAT revenue in the period under review (N153.94bn), while Nasarawa got the least allocation of N15.36bn.

Based on the regions, the South-West region received the highest VAT allocation (N256.21bn), followed by the North-West (N154.41bn), South-South (N119.88bn), North-East (107.43bn), North-Central (N106.58bn). The South-East received the least from the VAT allocations (N91.99bn).

The bottom 10 states were Nasarawa (N15.36bn), Bayelsa (N15.79bn), Taraba (N16.23bn), Gombe (N16.33bn), Kwara (N16.35bn), Ekiti (N16.46bn), Yobe (N16.90bn), Abia (N17.03bn), Ebonyi (N17.04bn), and Cross River (N17.17bn).

Based on the country’s revenue sharing formula, the Federal Government gets 15 percent of VAT, while states share 50 per cent and local government areas share 35 per cent. In the period under review, the Federal Government got N251.55bn from VAT. In 2020, the total internally generated revenue of the 36 states in Nigeria was N1.21tn. Based on this indication, in 2020, Lagos may have contributed N419.65bn. In the same year, however, it received N130.97bn.

According to THEWILL investigation, VAT has been climbing higher as Nigeria generated a total of N6.78 trillion in the past five years up to the first half of 2021 (2016-June 2021). The sums of N982.27 billion, N955.73 and N1.108 trillion were generated in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. Figures for 2019 and 2020 were N1.88 trillion and N1.53 trillion, respectively, while N1.09 trillion was achieved in the first half of 2021, following the increase of VAT from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent in 2020. The money, experts say, should be deployed for infrastructural development in the respective states that generate them.

VAT AS PRECURSOR TO DEVOLUTION OF POWER The ‘VAT war’ can be labelled the Battle for Equity. At the centre of the ‘war’ is the search for equity, financial autonomy and devolution of more powers to demographic entities like the states.

It is the meat of the clamour for restructuring.

This is the new chapter that the ‘VAT war’ has opened up in the evasive and amorphous restructuring debate. In recent times, ‘Restructuring’ has assumed the status of a political albatross and a millstone around the neck of Nigeria. It has also become the journey to a visible island without a defined route.

THEWILL further recalls that ‘Restructuring’ was a major campaign focus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the build-up to the 2015 elections which eventually ushered in the APC/Buhari-led government. It was a chorus sung in unison and at a feverish pitch by members of the party as they laboured to wrestle power from the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government, prior to the May 2015 general election.

Succumbing to public pressure, ahead of the 2019 general election, the ruling APC set up a Governor Nasri el-Rufai-led Committee on Restructuring. But it ended up as another political gimmick.

The truth of the matter, as it latter emerges, is that President Muhammadu Buhari and his top advisers are against restructuring.

As recent as June 11 while playing host to members of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), led by the Co-Chairmen, the THEWILLNIGERIA

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Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Dr. Samson Supo Ayokunle, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the President said that demands for restructuring, state police should be directed to the National Assembly.

“On the contentious issue of restructuring or true federalism or devolution of powers, like you all know, this is a constitutional matter which only the National Assembly can deal,” he said later in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.

A few days earlier, the President, was quoted as saying, “there is nothing to restructure,” describing those agitating for restructuring as “naïve and mischievously dangerous.” The President, spoke through the Executive Secretary of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFC), Alhaji Mohammed Bello Shehu, in Zaria, Kaduna State, during the inauguration of the Kudirat Abiola Sabon Gari Peace Foundation. Such a posture is on the same wavelength with that of Gombe State whose government’s immediate reaction to the ongoing VAT war begged Rivers and Lagos States to be their brothers keeper.

Thus, the decision of the Rivers State Government to go as far as the Supreme Court in its pursuit of the ‘VAT war’ and the full support of the Southern Governors’ Forum has once again raised the question about how a federation becomes operational to the benefit for all the federating units.

A professor of Comparative Politics and former Vice-Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Eghosa Osaghae, provides an insight in a newspaper interview.

According to him, everywhere you have a federal system, it is recognised as a system of bargain and negotiations – continuous bargains and negotiations.

“You don’t finalise your federal instrumentalities/configurations because in the course of time, human societies demand change.

You have the global economy that can make you poor tonight and tomorrow you become a rich country.

“These things have a way of precipitating different demands and once you have those demands, they can lead to changes in power holding that may demand a review of jurisdictions. In Nigeria today, we have about 68 items in the Exclusive List and about sixteen in the concurrent list. In the balance of scale, that means the Federal Government is very powerful. But you don’t have a federal system when you don’t have constituent units that are legal units that can challenge the Federal Government by its own actions and activities and in the event of jurisdictional conflict, we go to the Supreme Court,” he said.

He cited the action of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State in 2006 when he fought the federal government all the way to the Supreme Court over his decision to exercise his powers to create local council development areas. He won the case. The Federal Government’s only reaction was to illegally withhold the allocation to the state’s joint state/local government account. That money, however, accumulated to N10 billion and was eventually paid in 2009 by the President Umaru Yar’Adua administration, the successor to Olusegun Obasanjo’s government. By then both combatants had left office, but the case became a landmark judgment that other states later capitalised upon to create development areas.

“Restructuring cannot only be done at the legal unit through

“

Restructuring cannot only be done at the legal unit through judicial interpretations and reviews; it can be done through actions. All over the world, federations have restructured in this diverse manner. If the states were not dysfunctional, they also will be in the thick for the demand for restructuring

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judicial interpretations and reviews; it can be done through actions.

All over the world, federations have restructured in this diverse manner. If the states were not dysfunctional, they also will be in the thick for the demand for restructuring.” said Prof Osaghae.

Backing this position, a member of the Lagos House of Assembly, Setonji David, said in his reaction to the enacted VAT law by Lagos: “In Lagos State, we have always clamoured for true federalism.

This is a consumption tax from the people of Lagos and it should be domiciled in Lagos and used for the people of Lagos. There are so many hassles that have to do with federalism that we are practising.

“We generate over 55 per cent of the VAT in Nigeria and we get a paltry sum of 10 per cent. Is that fair for a population of over 24 million? We are happy that the Rivers State Government went to court and the court was very clear that VAT was supposed to be a state affair. We have no choice but to follow suit.”

THE WAY FORWARD More state governments have joined Lagos and Rivers to enact VAT laws in their jurisdiction. The southern governors at their just concluded meeting in Enugu have given their backing to the states being responsible for the collection of VAT in their jurisdictions.

This development could serve as a starting point in achieving true fiscal federalism in Nigeria, at last, and without war. It will lead to fiscal federalism, which demands that each level of government adequately finances its operations without recourse to the central government. The states have huge potential for revenue generation, yet a majority are fiscally constrained because they look up to the handouts that trickle down from the purse of the federal government.

The lack of equity in the sharing of the VAT revenue is why states are now pushing for the first time to enact laws that give them the right to collect the taxes within their jurisdiction. For instance, while Lagos is estimated to contribute about 55 percent to local VAT, reports show that it is only allocated 15 per cent of the total collected revenue from VAT. Many states, especially those that contribute most to VAT, believe that being in charge of the tax collection would lead to an increase in revenue and an increase in infrastructure development in their jurisdictions.

According to Governor Wike, Rivers generates an average of N15bn in VAT every month but gets a paltry 25 per cent from the Federal Government as a monthly allocation.

The Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, has said it was time for Nigerian politics to be refocused to tap into the productive potential of each state, instead of the current debate on revenue sharing.

Lukman, who delivered a paper titled, ‘Retrogressive Politics of Value Added Tax in Nigeria,’ in Abuja, on Friday, September 17, said, “There is no reason why any state in the country, including Zamfara, Yobe, Osun, Ekiti, Abia and Ebonyi States, should not aspire to generate at least N10 – 15 billion monthly as Internally Generated Revenue.

“To be caught in the backward debate about whether they should have the little they currently receive from the federation account is retrogressive. As a nation, our politics and democracy must be refocused towards nurturing the productive potentials of every state.”

Lukman said that Nigeria’s politics would do better when politicians and public commentators rise above sentiments.

He reiterated, “Nigerian democracy and politics must functionally rise above sentiment. Instead of debating how to consume the little resources that are so far available, Nigerian political leaders should be debating how to increase available resources.

“Even within the limit of the debate about increased available resources, the question of what government needs to do, policy measures required, including issues of tax, its administration and orientation, in terms of whether it should favour the low or high-income groups, should not be issues that would be blindly considered.”

Some experts argue that the states may not be better off if the Supreme Court takes VAT collection from the FIRS and states are allowed to collect it in their jurisdictions. However, the point being stressed is that Nigeria is practising constitutional democracy and doing what the constitution says is the kernel of the matter. And that is what the advocates of the new order believe will pave the way to true fiscal federalism and attaining the desired restructuring without real war.

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GLOBAL NEWS

Aukus: US, UK Face Backlash Over Australia Defence Deal STORIES FROM ZACHEAUS SOMORIN IN TORONTO

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he United States and United Kingdom are facing growing international criticism over a new security pact signed with Australia. The deal, seen as an effort to counter China, will see the US and UK give Australia the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

But the move angered France, which said it had been “stabbed in the back”, while China accused the three powers of having a “Cold War mentality”. And the pact has raised fears that it could provoke China into a war.

The alliance, known as Aukus, was announced by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, on Wednesday.

While they did not mention China, Aukus is being widely viewed as an effort to counter Beijing’s influence in the contested South China Sea. Mr Johnson later told MPs that the agreement was “not intended to be adversarial” to China.But the prime minister was questioned by his predecessor, Theresa May, about whether the deal could lead to Britain being dragged into war with China.

She asked the prime minister about the “implications” of the partnership in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Mr Johnson replied: “The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law and that is the strong advice we would give to our friends across the world, and the

strong advice that we would give to the government in Beijing.

“Democratic Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state, but Beijing has increased pressure on the island which it views as a breakaway province.”

Meanwhile Washington has sought to quell anger in Paris at the pact, which has scuppered a multibillion-dollar submarine deal France had signed with Australia.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the announcement a “stab in the back”.

He called it a “brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision” that reminded him of former US President Donald Trump.

French diplomats in Washington cancelled a gala to celebrate ties between the US and France in retaliation.

Court Rejects Zuma’s Bid to Overturn Sentence

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outh Africa’s top court has ruled that former President Jacob Zuma had failed in his bid to have his 15-month jail sentence for failing to attend a corruption inquiry overturned.

“The application for rescission is dismissed,” Justice Sisi Khampepe said as she read the majority decision, which included an order for Zuma to pay costs.

It was the latest legal setback for the 79-year-old anti-apartheid veteran from the ruling African National Congress, whose presidency between 2009 and 2018 was marred by widespread allegations of corruption and malfeasance. He denies wrongdoing.

“Obviously the foundation is disappointed with this judgement,” Mzwanele Manyi, spokesman for the JG Zuma Foundation, said in response.

Zuma’s jailing on July 7, after handing himself over to police at the last minute, led to violent riots, looting and vandalism in South Africa, killing more than 300 people and costing businesses billions of South African rand.

Russian Election: Opposition Smart App Removed as Vote Begins

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Smart Voting app devised by jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been removed from Apple and Google stores on the day Russians start voting in parliamentary elections.

The Russian authorities had threatened to fine the two companies if they refused to drop the app, which told users who could unseat ruling party candidates.Parliamentary and local elections began on Friday and will last three days.

President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is expected to win.

Although a total of 14 parties are taking part in the vote, many

Cuba Begins Vaccinating Children S

itting on her mother’s lap, two-year-old Lucia looked at the illustrations in her book while around her several children watched the doctors in white coats and nurses with thermometers in amazement.

In an adjoining room, Danielito, also two, sniffled while getting a shot as a clown tried to distract him.

On Thursday, Cuba began a massive vaccination campaign for children between the ages of two and 10, becoming one of the first nations to do so. Health officials in the country say Cuba’s homegrown vaccines have been found safe for young children.

“Our country would not put [infants] even at a minimal risk if the vaccines were not proven save and highly effective when put into children,” Aurolis Otano, director of the Vedado Polyclinic University, told The Associated Press news agency in a vaccination room.

Otano said the circulation of the Delta variant led to an

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Johnson

Zuma, recuperating in hospital after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed illness, asked the court in July to revoke its sentence for contempt arguing it was excessive, and that jail would endanger his health and life.In a majority decision on Friday, the Constitutional Court rejected his arguments.

Biden

The sentence was handed down in June after Zuma failed to testify at an inquiry probing corruption during his nine-year rule, seen as a test of post-apartheid South Africa’s ability to enforce the rule of law, particularly against powerful politicians.

candidates seen as anti-Putin are barred from running, including anyone associated with Navalny’s opposition movement. Some prominent Kremlin opponents have been forced to leave Russia.

Voters are electing 450 MPs for the Duma (parliament) in Moscow and a number of cities have introduced electronic voting. For the first time since 1993, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will not be present due to “limitations” imposed by Russian authorities.

The Smart Voting app was not available for download on the Google and Apple stores in Russia on Friday.On the eve of the election, senior officials at the communications regulator threatened big fines for any companies that “systematically violate” its demands. IT companies had been warned that refusing to remove the app would be seen as illegal interference in the vote.

increase in infections among the youngest, so Cuba’s scientific community decided to “take the vaccine to clinical trial” and it was approved for children.

On Thursday night, Google Docs went down in some regions and the Smart Voting-bot on the Telegram platform came under a powerful attack aimed at taking it offline.

Polyclinic expects to vaccinate about 300 children between two and five. Those between five and 10 are receiving their first shot at their schools.

Google and Apple representatives met a Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) commission on Thursday.

Lucia’s mother, Denisse Gonzalez, watched the children in the vaccination room while waiting the hour that her daughter had to be under observation after being vaccinated.

“I was very doubtful and worried at first, really, but I informed myself,” she said.

“Our children’s health is first and foremost, which is the main thing and [contagion] is a risk because young children are always playing on the floor,” added Gonzalez, a 36-year-old engineer.

Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said the two companies were making a big mistake.

He linked to an Apple statement that explained the Smart Voting app had been removed because it was illegal in Russia and that Navalny’s FBK anti-corruption organisation had been designated as extremist.

Russia’s communications watchdog blocked the Smart Voting website earlier this month, and a Moscow court banned search engines from any mention of it.

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NEWS

CSR Initiative: El-Rufai Applauds NIMASA Management

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aduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el Rufai today commended the Management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA for initiating a corporate Social responsibility project mainly targeted at empowering internally displaced persons across the country.

L-R: Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni; President Muhammadu Buhari and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, during the presentation of Fani-Kayode as a new member of the APC in Abuja on 16/9/2021.

2023: Benue Needs Total Rehabilitation – Byuan FROM AUSTINE JOR, MAKURDI r Mathias Byuan is a business man, politician and philanthropist who owns Byuan Resources, a conglomorate with its headquarters In Abuja.

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Speaking on the need to alleviate poverty, hunger and starvation in the state, the governorship aspirant said, “A lot will be done in that regard, I shall not only do physical infrastructure, but also pay attention to what we call “stomach infrastructure” as well” “I have never in my political life enjoyed politics money, as insinuated in certain quarters. Instead, I have over the years pulled my personal resources to invest into politics by way of assisting people individually and by embarking on projects that will impact positively on the people. It is the same thing I shall be doing if graciously given the nod by Benue people to pilot their affairs as governor. “ Goodwill messages were delivered at the event by those who came to identify with the aspirant. An APC chieftain, journalist and former Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel in BenueState, Mr Tersoo Kula, acknowledged that Byuan was the right person to govern the state in 2023, having proven to be a pacesetter and a philanthropist.

Kula noted with pleasure the glamour the aspirant brought into politics in the state as one who blazed the trail in terms of distributing vehicles to his campaign coordinators, while he vied for a seat in the Senate in 2011.

The Acting Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Benue State Chapter, Comrade Martins Kajo, assured Byuan of adequate publicity to enable him fulfill his dreams.

The APC Publicity Secretary in Benue State, James Ornguga, appealed to the aspirant not to renege on his campaign promises when he emerges victorious in the governorship race. He added that such would go a long way in giving the party a good image in the state.

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Byuan

In an interactive session with journalists in Makurdi, he explained why he is joining the governorship race, saying he is out to add value to governance in Benue State.

Byuan stated further, “Let me assure you that Benue has all it takes to grow economically. I have a serious agenda for the state, which will be unveiled in my blueprint on the official flag-off of my campaign that will come up in no distant time.”

He noted that investment by NIMASA in the educational sector through its CSR initiative is considered an investment in the future of Kaduna State.

“We in kaduna State are very glad for this intervention

by NIMASA and your continuous effort to support us particularly in the educational sector . We recognize your role in assisting our administration to deliver quality Governance to kaduna state. We in kaduna have a worthy ambassador. Dr jamoh have shown real commitment to the growth of Kaduna State and Nigeria at large. He is an asset to the Nigerian nation.

Byuan ran for the Benue North-East Senatorial election in 2011 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but he was unsuccessful. He ran for the same position under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in 2019.

“Benue State needs total rehabilitation and a serious-minded person as a leader to salvage it. If given the mandate to rule the state, I will not just blow the sirens as governor but bring unprecedented development to the good people of the state,” he said.

Governor el Rufai stated this today while receiving the Agency’s Management team led by the Director General, Dr Bashir Jamoh who were in the state to present some relief and empowerment materials from NIMASA to assist internally displaced persons ease their resettlement process into the society.

According to the APC spokesman, the governorship aspirant had given the APC a sense of belonging, having appointed one of its members, Mr Alfred Berger, to head his campaign’s media directorate. According to him, it is an indication that he will carry them along in governance as well.

In separate comments, Messrs Terungwa Nunde, Dan Morgan Ihonun and Alechenu AB, who spoke on behalf of zones A, B and C, respectively, promised their unflinching support for Byuan’s governorship ambition.

On his part, Mr. Jacob Jande pointed out some factors that qualified the senator for Benue’s number one seat, revealing that the aspirant was also favoured by zoning. “He doesn’t give up easily and he hails from the same area with a former governor of the state, late Reverend Father Moses Adasu, who was a monumental achiever within a very short space of time,” he said.

A well grounded politician, Byuan, according to political observers, has never been a push-over in any electoral contest.

He battled the then incumbent Chairman of the PDP, Barnabas Gemade almost to the ground before tables were said to have turned against him through “national connections” in 2011.

His entrance in the governorship race, pundits claim, will alter the political permutations and calculations as one who, it is widely held, has a financial war chest to execute his ambition.

Relatively young, Byuan’s’ strength largely lies in his generosity. His ability to oil his campaign each time has always been his major selling point.

Political analysts and watchers of political developments in Benue believe that if Byuan is handed the APC governorship ticket by 2023, the party’s chances of crushing the ruling PDP in the state would have been greatly brightened.

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Speaking earlier, the Director General of NIMASA Dr Bashir Jamoh noted that the quest to support the efforts of Government in re integrating Internally Displaced Persons into the society was the driving force behind the Agency’s intervention.

“As a responsible Agency of Government, we decided to heed the call for support to state governments to re integrate internally displaced persons into the society. So far, 26 states have benefitted from the scheme and kaduna is the 27th.

Our aim is to ensure that displaced persons in various states in Nigeria are assisted to regain normal life and attain self-reliance without being a burden on the Government”. He said.

In his words “Our intervention are in 3 categories, income generating palliatives to facilitate means of livelihood via self-employment for direct and indirect employment, food items and educational materials. We acknowledge the fact that education is key to capacity development and nation building”.

In a related development, NIMASA also donated relief and empowerment materials to displaced persons in Gombe State. The Chairman, Senate Committee on marine transport, His Excellency Senator Danjuma Goje commended NIMASA Management whileacknowledging the timeliness of the intervention.

The empowerment materials donated by NIMASA include tri cycles, sewing machines, grinding machines, sugar cane extractors, vulcanizing andwelding machines amongst others. Household and food items were also included in the CSR intervention by NIMASA in both Kaduna and Gombe States.

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NEWS Police Commissioner Pledges To Tackle Security Challenges Facing Anambra

BY CHARLES OKEKE, AWKA

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he new Commissioner of Police in charge of Anambra State, Mr Tony Olofu, has promised the readiness of the Command to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the State.

CP Olofu, who replaced CP Chris Owolabi as the 31st Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, recently, identified the security challenges facing Anambra State to include armed robbery kidnapping, cultism, land disputes, kingship tussles, boundary issues, public disturbances, farmers/herders clashes and other sundry offences.

Addressing journalists at the Command Headquarters in Awka, Thursday as the 31st Commissioner of Police in the state, Olofu gave thanks to the Almighty God for His favour and mercies and the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, fór finding him worthy to serve as the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Police Command at this critical period of Nigeria’s history.

Igbo Youth Organisations Pledge Support to EFCC’s Anti-graft Campaign A group of youth organisations in the South-East comprising the National Association of Nigerian Student (NANS) National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) and the Ohaneze Ndigbo Youths, at the weekend pledged their support for the fight against economic and financial crimes in the country. They made the pledge during a visit to the Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The leader of the delegation and Vice-President of the NYCN, Comrade Innocent Nduanya, who thanked the Zonal Commander, Oshodi Johnson, for receiving them at short notice, said the groups were in Enugu to deliberate on issues affecting the welfare of youths in the South-East and thought it wise to visit the EFCC to pledge their support. “You are a young man like us and one of our own. We are well meaning Nigerian youths who hate corruption and are trying our best to see that it ends in Nigeria. Our reason for coming to Enugu is to deliberate on issues pertaining to the welfare of the youths in the South-East,” he said.

Comrade Darlington Ugwuegbe, the State Secretary of NYCN and coordinator of NANS Zone B, as well as convener of

the Gburus Care Initiative, reiterated the groups’ willingness to fight corruption and other social vices in the South-East.

“I am at the forefront of moral rejuvenation among youths. I believe that the youths must know that corruption will lead the nation nowhere. We are law abiding citizens. We hate fraud and related offences and can never be a party to it,” he said.

Johnson thanked the groups for embracing the fight against economic and financial crimes. “On behalf of the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, I want to appreciate you for coming to see us this evening. I see your passion in trying to see that corruption is reduced to its lowest in your lifetime. I congratulate you on your integrity because it takes an innocent person to boldly visit the EFCC. You are representing the conscience of your people and I want to thank you for your willingness to own this anti-corruption fight. Indeed, if we allow corruption to keep gaining grounds in our nation today, there will be no sane society to bequeath to our children,” Oshodi said.

He urged the delegates to key into the whistle blowing policy of the Federal Government as a means of checking corruption, assuring them that their identities would be protected.

He stated that upon his assumption of duty within the last few days, he was briefed on a number of security challenges facing the state, while expressing joy that the command has been bold in confronting these security challenges and indeed, recorded several successes in curbing some of the crimes.

He acknowledged the immense support of Governor Willie Obiano, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the state and wished to appreciate them for supporting the Police in the noble course of enforcing law and order.

He promised that, in keeping with the vision of the InspectorGeneral of Police, he would rejig and stabilise the security architecture of the state in order to fully reclaim the public space across the country, as well as maintain law and order. The new CP also said the Command would take drastic measures to combat crime across the state under his watch.

Lions Club Flags Off Construction of Ultra-Modern Diabetes Screening Centre BASSEY ANIEKAN

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he Lions Club International District 404 A2 Nigeria has flagged off the construction of an Ultra-Modern Diabetes Screening and Treatment Centre at the General Hospital in Ogoja, Cross River State.

The N150 million facility is expected to serve residents of the northern district of Cross River, adjourning states and some communities in Cameroon. It will be fully equipped and also provided with an ambulance.

Speaking during the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the facility, the District Governor Lions District 404 A2, Lion Lady Lynda Odu-Okpeseyi said the need to improve the quality of lives of the people informed the construction of the project.

“Studies have shown that on the average, 40 people die every day from diabetes related ailments in Nigeria.

“This informed the need for this facility, which will cater to the health needs of those living in surrounding communities, while providing a point of care for screening and treatment to help avert the looming numbers recorded nationwide.

She said,“Lessprivileged families in these communities can confidently walk into a modern facility without the fear of huge financial cost to seek screening and help in diabetes related ailments.

“This will in effect encourage a drop in the prevalent death records due to diabetes related issues.

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L-R: Governor of Lagos State Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Special Guest of Honour, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN, and Founder/General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Bible Church, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, during a book launch of Pastor W F. Kumuyi, (Titled: Kumuyi, The Defender of the faith), at Eko Hotel in Lagos on 17/9/2021.

Cleric Charges Media on Patriotism UKANDI ODEY, JOS rophet Isa El Buba of the Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministries International, EBOMI, has called on mass media practitioners in Nigeria to stand by the truth and exhibit uncommon courage as the country relies on the patriotism of critical stakeholders like the media to survive the trials and turbulent times it is passing through.

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In a meeting with journalists recently in Jos, El Buba, who is also the Vice President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, urged the media to continue on the path of truth and doggedness that it has exhibited so far or destroy itself and the future of Nigeria if it attempts or accepts to compromise its ideals and constitutional responsibilities.

“I want to encourage and strengthen the Nigerian press to stand on the path of truth. There is no amount of money you can ever be bought with. Your profession is one of the most unique professions on earth. We are proud of you as a Nigerian journalist and it is time you speak out the truth,” El Buba said.

The Cleric, who also used the occasion to take a swipe on the Northern elite, blamed them for the underdevelopment and backwardness of the region and the social maladies plaguing its people.

He accused the northern elite of manipulating religion and

using same to confuse and control the masses region and particularly carpeted the Hisbah Islamic doctrine in Kano which the elite use to denounce and chase the masses and deny them their livelihood, while the same authorities look the other way when the elites indulge in the same practices condemned

by Hisbah.

El Buba also denounced the habit and tendency by these elite to brand any attack or face-off with any Fulani as an attack on Islam, noting that it is not true that any attack on a Fulani man is an attack on Islam. He said, “It is not! Any attack on a Fulani man is not Islamic in any way. No one should try to combine and confuse that with the evil that is on-going. We must try to separate religion from the wickedness that is going on.

The Christians and Muslims must exist together. We cannot, as Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria afford to live without and away from each other”.

On how the North can continue to forge ahead as one, El Buba said, “We must believe in each other and one another for us to live as one”.

He admonished the northern elite to the effect that their time is winding up. “The masses will revolt against you and it will become impossible for you to continue your deceit and manipulation”. On the other hand, El Buba charged the Northern masses “to protect the glory of the North, and give peace a chance. ”

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POLITICS

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2021 Anambra Governorship Election Hots Up

BY AYO ESAN

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he preparation for the 2021 Anambra Governorship election is in top gear. Parties and candidates in the election are already campaigning for votes across the nooks and crannies of the state. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also given all the stakeholders the assurance of its readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible election on November 6, 2021.

In an interview with THEWILL, the INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Voters Education and Chairman Publicity Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye, said INEC was well prepared to conduct 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. 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 keep on 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, persons with disabilities and the elderly can vote more easily because the polling units are close to their houses and workplace.

“Secondly, we have started the registration of voters online throughout the federation. And we are going to deploy more equipment and more resources to t Anambra to make sure that we registered as many people as possible. We are also going to get the supplementary voter 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,” Okoye said.

The incumbent Governor Willie Obiano’s tenure will end on March 17, 2022 and the 17 political parties who had earlier conducted their primaries, most of which were dogged with controversies leading to litigations, have thrown up candidates to succeed him in Government House.

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The parties that met the July 1, 2021 deadline set by INEC for the primaries include APGA, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA), Young Progressive Party (YPP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord (A) and Action People’s Party (APP).Others are the Nation Rescue Movement (NRM), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Labour Party (LP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the African Action Congress (AAC) One feature of the coming election is the agitation by the people of Anambra South Senatorial District, which consists of seven local government areas, namely, Akwusigo, Aguata; Orumba North, Orumba South, Nnewi North, Ihiala and Nnewi South, to produce the next governor of the state.

Anambra Central, which comprises seven LGAs, namely, Anaocha, Awka North, Awka South, Dunukofia, Idemili North, Idemili South, and Njikoka, had former governors Chris Ngige (2003 to 2006) and Peter Obi (2006 to 2014).

Also, Anambra North is where the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano hails from.

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We keep on 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

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Interestingly most of the candidates in the election come from the Anambra South and so there is hope that the zone may produce the next governor.

THE MAIN CONTENDERS Political analysts, watchers of political developments and political commentators in Anambra State unanimously agree that there are four major contenders in the coming Anambra governorship election. They are Prof Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Peoples Party (YPP). It is clear that one of the four candidates will succeed Obiano.

CHUKWUMA SOLUDO (APGA) Charles Chukwuma Soludo was born on July 28, 1960.

A professor of Economics, he was appointed Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria on May 29, 2004. He is also a member of the British Department for International Development’s Advisory Group.

Soludo has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the University of Cambridge, the Brookings Institution, the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford, as well as a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College (USA). He has also worked as a consultant for a number of international organisations, including The World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme.

He is a core professional in the business of macroeconomics, who obtained his three degrees and professorship at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State.

Soludo graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1984, an MSc Economics in 1987, and a PhD in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.

He has been trained and involved in research, teaching and auditing in such disciplines as multi-country macroeconometric modelling, techniques of computable general equilibrium modelling, survey methodology, and panel data econometrics, among others. He studied and taught these courses at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick University. *Continues on Page 13

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW

Every Nigerian Must Be Involved In Fighting Insecurity – Amb. Jika The immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Hassan Ardo Jika, speaks with CHRISTIANA BABAYO about insecurity and other issues affecting the country and his home state, Taraba. Excerpts:

We are not training our children to live together as one.

We continue to polarise this country by politicising every issue along ethno-religious lines. We have people making huge sums of money out of these crises and they continue to take advantage of our soft spot for religion. Some people feel the government is not showing equal energy in fighting insurgents and bandits in the North as it is tackling the IPOB and other dissident voices in the South. The question is which group do bandits belong? We know that we have Boko Haram and IPOB as organised groups that you can proscribe. We are all aware and worried that we have bandits operating in parts of the North.

But how do you proscribe bandits when they are not organised into a group? That is the challenge here.

What is your take on the security situation in the country?

It is very unfortunate that a group of individuals have decided to play politics with the security of the lives and properties of law-abiding Nigerians. They have decided to politicise the security of the country. There PAGE 10

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any Nigerians have expressed the opinion that the Federal Government is expending so much energy, time and resources in dealing with the Indigenous People of Biafra and other dissident groups in the South, while little is being done to halt the activities of insurgents, kidnappers, bandits and killer herdsmen in the North. What is your reaction to this?

It is very wrong for us to start treating issues with tribal and religious sentiments. We have criminals across board and wherever they are, we should all be happy that they are dealt with. It is a great feat for us all. Why are we not referring to the Kanuri in Borno as terrorists because most of the Boko Haram insurgents are Kanuri? Yet when a Fulani man commits a crime, he is not treated as an individual but profiled on the basis of his tribe. It is unfortunate that we are not behaving like nationalists.

are scavengers who are feeding fat on insecurity. They try to analyse issues based on their personal interests.

We need to know that we have no other country than Nigeria, even though I know that some people have dual citizenship and will jet out of the country at the first sign of trouble. We failed as a nation when we refused to sit down and look at ourselves as Nigerians.

We need to sit down and look at ourselves as Nigerians, not ethnic and religious nationalists. In a way, we are all responsible for the pervasive insecurity in the country to the extent that we fold our arms and wait on the Federal Government and the security agencies to do it all. That is not correct. We all have a role to play.

Another angle to this situation is that there are some corrupt individuals who know that they could go to jail for looting public funds and so they are deliberately manipulating the security situation to distract attention as much as possible. These people, who have amassed a lot of wealth, go all out to make sure nothing works well. Unfortunately, we are all responsible for this too.

We celebrate criminality in our various communities and by so doing, encourage others to take to crime.

In our various communities, some people are up to no good and everyone knows them. Then suddenly, they start building mansions and throwing money around

and nobody questions them. Deep down we all know that these are products of criminality and they come in the form of collected ransom, stolen money, proceeds from armed robbery, fraud and embezzlement of public funds, etc, but we celebrate the criminals all the same so that we can also get peanuts from them.

You remember the case of Wadume here in Taraba some time ago. This is someone everyone knew was a criminal, but even the state governor, Darius Ishaku, was alleged to have been patronising him and even giving him money. So how will criminality not fester when criminals are idolised even by the people charged to fight insecurity? And once you begin to celebrate such pervasive criminality, the security situation is bound to deteriorate terribly.

People try to give this religious colouration, tagging it as a move to Islamise the country and I laugh when I listen to such arguments. I ask what is the percentage of Christians in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Zamfara and other Northern states where the insecurity is worsthit? These are predominantly Muslims states and that is where people are being killed massively. It takes common sense to know that majority of the people killed are Muslims.

The question is do you need to kill your fellow THEWILLNIGERIA

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POLITICS/INTERVIEW Muslims in order to Islamise other people? No. The Holy Quran is very explicit about allowing people to practice the religion of their choice. So what we have is just pure criminality that has become a very lucrative job for some people and a way of distracting the government for political reasons.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s determination to reintroduce grazing routes and reserves across the country is generating a lot of controversy. What is your take on that?

Like I said earlier, we don’t want to tell ourselves the truth. These reserves have been designated way back because cattle contribute a lot to our Gross Domestic Product. We need each other in every sphere of life.

The whole fuss about herdsmen and grazing and all of this is just political. Let me give you a typical example. When they wanted to introduce RUGA, my state governor, Darius Ishaku, said he had no land for grazing, same way most of the governors are talking now. This is a governor that has no budget for livestock development as an aspect of agriculture. Governor Ishaku said he had no land, but when the Central Bank of Nigeria gave Governor Aminu Massari of Katsina State N6.5 billion for giving land to the project, Ishaku suddenly realised that he had land in Ardo Kola Local Government Area to give for the project.

Mind you that there are designated grazing reserves in that local government. When he could not get the money, he went and applied for N2billion from the CBN. When he got it, he moved the project to Takum where he is working hard to drive the Tiv people there out and to use their lands for the project. The people rejected it. Now there is no money and no land. It is very terrible. That is why I tell you that this is all about politics. These leaders are only pursuing their personal interests.

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I don’t think the situation in Afghanistan has anything to do with Nigeria. It may not affect Nigeria in any way whatsoever. In fact it has nothing to do with Africa. We all know that this is a creation of some powers for selfish interests

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Do you think the current development in Afghanistan will affect Nigeria?

I don’t think the situation in Afghanistan has anything to do with Nigeria. It may not affect Nigeria in any way whatsoever. In fact it has nothing to do with Africa. We all know that this is a creation of some powers for selfish interests. We were told that Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction in Irag. Where are the weapons? That did not stop them from destroying him. I mean we all know how these things work for the good of those who control power, irrespective the number of people whose lives are wasted in the process. How do you create confusion just because you want to sell arms? I can tell you that we are suffering the worst slavery, which is slavery of the mind. Do we have Talibans in Nigeria? We must be able to manage our country. If we manage our country well, we would have peace. But if as a leader you decide to create confusion or allow instruments from outside to come in, then there will be a problem.

Countries must be allowed to manage their internal issues their own way.

What is your assessment of Taraba State at 30?

I will say that it has been a bumpy ride. We spent much of the time under military rule and during these years, there was not much to talk about. Then came 1999 when the present democracy was ushered in. We had Governor Jolly Nyame who did very well during his eight-year tenure. He built hospitals, the stadium, Taraba Motel and a host of other projects. Governor Suntai of blessed memory came on board and built roads, thereby opening up the state for development.

He built the university, the airport and a host of other projects. There is this general belief that although things were not as they should have been, we were making steady progress.

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Unfortunately the last six years or so have been a major disaster for the state. Not only have we not recorded any meaningful development, but also most of the infrastructure that was put in place has been allowed to waste away. The stadium is in ruins, the hospitals are in deplorable conditions and the motel now houses rodents and reptiles. Perhaps the worst thing that has happened to the state in the last few years is the division of the state along ethnic and religious lines. Yes, we have a lot of ethnic groups in the state, probably more than anywhere else in the country.

But these were no issues until very recently. Now everything is on the basis of religion and ethnicity.

So for me, we were doing well until Governor Darius Ishaku came on board and took us several years backward. He has planted a terrible seed that may as well consume us all. It will take a really good leader to correct this. Otherwise, we are all doomed. We have government without governance in the state. Ministries are running without running costs. In fact, apart from the state owned radio and television stations, I doubt if there is any ministry or agency that gets running costs.

No. We are not where we are supposed to be. If only this government was able to build on the foundation laid by the last two governments, we would have gone far. Instead, we have gone badly backwards.

You need to know that Taraba state is richly blessed with enormous resources and potentials in Agriculture where you can cultivate any crop, including apples, Irish potatoes, tea and avocadoes, on the Mambila Plateau; cocoa, palm kernel, plantain, bananas and timber in Kurmi; rice and vegetables in Lau and yam, cassava, sweet potatoes and all kinds of grains in Karim Lamido, as well as in nearly every part of the state. The state also has the highest concentration of cattle in the country on the plateau. It has major tourism potentials and mineral resources. So if we had a serious government, we would have done a lot better than what we have today.

You seem to put much blame on the Dariye Ishaku administration in the state. Do you think this is fair?

I am just being very honest. Go to the Jolly Nyame Stadium and see things for yourself. Apart from the Green House project which is a monumental waste of resources, there is no single project that the government in the state conceived and has successfully completed it. How can a governor drill a borehole or buy transformer for a community through CSDP and will go around shouting that he has completed projects in these areas? These are projects that local government councilors should be doing.

Sadly, rather than admit its failure, the government believes so much in telling lies. It tells lies blatantly.

Recently the government said it constructed about 600 kilometres of roads across the state. Go to any of the projects they mentioned and see things for yourself. The Jalingo Flyover and dualisation project, which they claimed cost N34 billion, has been going on for years now without any tangible results. In fact, they are already patching portions of the road that is still under construction. The Green House that they also claimed cost N2 billion and promised would employ thousands of youths is as dead as a corpse in the morgue.

What do you think about the call to zone the Presidency to the South-East in 2023?

I don’t believe in zoning. I have always advocated competence instead. It doesn’t matter where the President comes from. What matters is having somebody with the political will and capacity to deliver. That is all.

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POLITICS his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said that, “contrary to insinuations, the state has an anti-open grazing law which became operative since 2006. The law provides for areas that are restricted from open grazing and herders have been abiding by it. The MoU the farmers and herders signed was to strengthen the existing law and it is working very well.”

Further investigation shows that Imo State has such a law.

Named Law No.9, 2006, it was signed by Chief Achike Udenwa, a former governor of the state, on January 19, 2007.

Obaseki

Obiano

According to the law, a herder who takes his cattle into cultivated land within Imo State is deemed to contravene section 3 and some of these laws and thereby liable to a fine of N50, 000. Section 4 of the law gives room for the payment of compensation to the owner of the farm to cover the total cost of crops destroyed by the cattle, in addition to a fine which may be prescribed by the magistrate court.

Anambra, Edo, Imo Failing Test on Anti-Open Grazing Law

BY AMOS ESELE

grazing, although not all of them met the September deadline.

ast Thursday’s meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum in Enugu was an eye-opener, in respect of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law they all committed to passing before the September 1, 2021 deadline.

On the September 1 2021 deadline, the ban was in place in seven states, namely, Ebonyi, Abia, Bayelsa, Rivers, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo States.

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Coming after their second meeting in Lagos on July 5, where the September 1 deadline was set for the 17-member states to enact the anti-open grazing law, three renegade states, namely, Edo, Imo and Anambra showed their true colours.

Edo and Imo sent representatives to the meeting, while Anambra stayed away. There was no representative from the gateway state of the South-East.

Nine Governors and seven deputies attended the meeting held at Enugu Government Lodge. They were Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State; Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos State; Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State; Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.

Others were Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and his Akwa Ibom State counterpart, Emmanuel Udom.

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State was represented by his deputy, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, while Seyi Makinde of Oyo State was also represented by his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan.

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State was represented by his deputy, Philip Shuaibu, while Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state sent his deputy, Prof Placid Njoku, to represent him at the meeting.

While Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, however, attended the Lagos and the first meeting held in Asaba in May 25 and Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra appeared only in Asaba, their Imo counterpart had always sent a representative in the person of Prof Njoku.

Two of them have made no motion at all, not to talk of movement, with regard to enacting the law.

At least, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State and the host governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, made a last minute face-saving move by signing their bills into law on the eve of the Thursday meeting in Enugu.

As at the time of the governors’ third meeting, all the states, except Edo, Imo and Anambra, have enacted the law on open

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On that day, it was still in the legislative process in four states: Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Lagos, while the houses of assembly in Cross River, Osun and Ogun States, had passed the bill, awaiting their governors’ assent. The trio have now signed it.

The governors’ move to enact the law followed conflicts between farmers and herders, as well as attacks on farmers by criminal herders, leading to the death of at least 215 persons in southern Nigeria between January 2019 and August 2021, according to figures issued by the Nigerian Security Tracker (NST) of the Council of Foreign Affairs.

According to the data, among the states in the region, Ebonyi State has the highest number of deaths resulting from attacks by criminal herders between January 2019 and August, 2021, with 56 lives lost while one death was recorded each in Imo and Abia States.

Delta State follows Ebonyi with 40 deaths, while 32 and 29 deaths were recorded in Edo and Enugu States, respectively.

The number of persons killed by herders in other southern states are as follows: Ogun 27, Oyo 19, Ondo 10, Ekiti 27, Osun 4, Akwa Ibom 3 and Anambra 6.

So the governors were not being alarmist in their position, particularly with the ongoing scenario in the Middle-Belt region of the country where 3,640 Nigerians have died from herders/farmers conflict between 2016 and 2018, according to the NST data, Investigation by THEWILL shows that states which have defaulted on the anti-open grazing law are yoked by the same considerations: Political correctness and lack of the political will to enforce the law if enacted.

Until he clarified his position on the law on request by THEWILL, Imo State governor, Uzodinma, was made to appear as opposing it.

Mr Ogwuike Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, forwarded a most recent statement on the issue when contacted. In the statement Uzodinma, through

Even so, the citizens still harbour suspicion of every government move on the issue so much so that its recent effort to acquire land for the purposes of an Integrated Agricultural Project in Oguta Local Government Area of the state, is “highly suspected to be a subterfuge for the implementation of the widely rejected “Rural Grazing Area” (RUGA) in Nigeria designed to forcefully allocate people’s lands to Fulani herdsmen for their cattle businesses, thereby “ forcing traditional rulers, town union executives, the clergy, the elites and Agwa sons and daughters living at home and in the Diaspora to denounce the government during a zoom conference held on September 6 and 8, 2021.

They agreed that, “Should the government insist on the forceful takeover of the said land or any other land within the Agwa territory for the highly vexatious RUGA policy in any garb whatsoever it may be clothed, a legal team of all Agwa lawyers to be coordinated by Barr (Dr) Dom Akabuiro should initiate immediate legal proceedings to forestall such and/or seek appropriate redress in Court.”

While trouble brews in Imo, pending how the Imo State Government commits to the MoU that it facilitated with farmers and herders, Edo youths last week erupted in protest over their state government’s failure to enact an anti-open grazing law.

Last Tuesday, a group known as the New Nigeria Initiative, led by its chairman, Uwadiae Odigie, protested in Benin City, the state capital, and carried placards with various inscriptions, such as ‘The South-South Governors’ Forum on anti-opengrazing law will stand’ and ‘September 1, 2021 antiopen grazing law agreement must be enforced.’

Odigie had asked, “Now that many states within the SouthSouth have responded to the September 1, 2021 deadline and the herdsmen are still ravaging our forests and highways with the fiercest brand of terrorism ever, with its attendant catastrophic consequences on our psyche, what is Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State waiting for?”

He said the group and stakeholders have mounted pressure without success on Marcus Onobun, the Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, on the urgent need to pass the bill on the ban of open grazing in Edo State.

The governor’s hand, THEWILL found out, is tied. His heart is with his counterparts’ decision on the bill, but he will rock the boat if he passes such a law because certain powerful interests who run cattle business in the state will not allow it.

“The owners who are movers and shakers of Edo politics hire the herders to do the rearing business and think the current arrangement of the government will do the job,” a dependable source told this newspaper.

Attempts to reach the media aide to the governor, Mr Crusoe Osagie, failed as he failed to answer calls put through to his phone.

Recently Obaseki told journalists that the state government had set up a three-man committee across all the local governments in the state to address the incessant clashes between farmers and herders. He said, “We have set up systems in Edo State to check this. We are just going to reactivate those systems.

“Every local government area must have a committee to deal with herders and farmers crises. This committee must have a minimum of three representatives from Arewa community, Fulani and other dominant communities in the local government.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

POLITICS

...Anambra Governorship Election Hots Up Okechukwu said, “President Buhari had received the APC gubernatorial flagbearer for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra, Senator Uba, assuring him that he was optimistic about his success in the election. The gesture, acceptance and support by the President is a signal of other good and correct political possibilities for the state, the SouthEast geopolitical zone and Ndigbo in general.

“With President Buhari’s endorsement of Senator Andy Uba, it is now left to Anambra voters to endorse Uba, so as to facilitate Ndigbo’s quest to produce Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction in 2023.

“My humble appeal to my in-laws, Ndi Anambra, especially the electorate, is to kindly consider the strategic underpinnings of electing Senator Andy Uba, now that President Buhari has graciously endorsed him.”

Ubah

Ozigbo

“We should not forget that the defection of state lawmakers from the All Progressives Grand Alliance and two amazons – Senators Stella Oduah and Joy Emordi – are the icing on the victory cake.”

*Continued from Page 9

Soludo has co-authored, co-edited, and authored a number of books on this subject matter. In 1998, he was appointed professor of economics at the University of Nigeria; the next year he became a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA. Soludo joined the Federal Government in 2003. Prior to his May 2004 appointment to the bank chairmanship, he held the positions of Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission of Nigeria Soludo stands a big chance in the election because of Obiano’s strong backing. Another major factor that may count for him is that his party, APGA, appears to be more grassroots oriented.

Also 24 political support groups have declared support for him, drummed and canvassed support for his election across the length and breadth of the state.

ANDY UBA (APC) Uba was born on December 14, 1958 in Enugu and attended the Boys High School in Awkunanaw. Based in the United States, he returned to Nigeria, following the 1999 general election, and was appointed Special Assistant on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

In 2007, Uba contested in the PDP primaries for the Anambra State governorship election and was elected in the April 14, 2007 elections. However, the former governor, Peter Obi, challenged the election, arguing that because the court had only accepted that he won in the April 2003 election on March 15, 2006, he still had three more years of his four-year term to serve. The court accepted this argument and on June 14, 2007 nullified Andy Uba’s election.

VALENTINE OZIGBO (PDP) Valentine Chineto “Val” Ozigbo born July 20, 1970 is a politician and business executive. He is the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), a diversified conglomerate with strategic investments and core interests in the hospitality, agribusiness and energy sectors. He was appointed to the position in 2019.

He won the 2021 APC primaries, but following the primaries that saw his emergence as the candidate, some had predicted that the other 11 aggrieved aspirants would work against him and the party in protest against their alleged exclusion from the primaries conducted by the Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State on June 26, 2021.

Previously, Ozigbo worked as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria-based hospitality company, Transcorp Hotels Plc. Transcorp Hotels is the hospitality subsidiary of Nigerian conglomerate Transcorp.

He also worked in the banking sector, gaining over 17 years of experience with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.

Uba represented the people of Anambra South at the Senate between 2011 and 2019. The only advantages going for him is his stint as a governor, who ruled the state for just 17 days in 2007, and the support of the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC).

Speaking with THEWILL, a member of the APC Campaign Council for Anambra Governorship Election, Mr Osita Okechukwu said President Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement of Uba’s governorship ambition had a very wide implication for Anambra State and Ndigbo in general.

... Anti-Open Grazing Law

*Continued from Page 12

“On the other side, you will have representatives of traditional institutions and the security agencies, who are supposed to intervene whenever there is a crisis in those areas,” he said. That was before the forum’s decision on the law at the Asaba meeting, which he attended.

The Commissioner for Information in Anambra State, Mr C. Don Adinuba, thinks the state does not need the law because it has an arrangement in place that works perfectly.

He denied talk about pressure from Abuja, considering the upcoming governorship election where the ruling party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA) had to tread carefully after it was factionalised and had to settle its governorship candidacy through the law court, as well as a brush with the presidency when a traditional ruler was reportedly suspended for paying a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in the Villa. That ruler was shot dead along with his driver by gunmen in Awka, the state capital a fortnight ago.

When contacted, he told THEWILL, “There is no truth THEWILLNIGERIA

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“These are positive signs that Senator Andy Uba’s victory in the November 6, 2021 governorship election will strengthen our collective bargain for Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction in 2023. Coming barely three days after I urged APGA leaders to see the bigger picture, I am convinced that our people are prepared to vote right.”

about pressure from anywhere. We have a standard in Anambra from what they have elsewhere. Over 80 per cent of cattle in Anambra are owned by indigenes under a system called ‘agabata ekee ‘. It is a form of joint business where you share profit on an agreed ratio, according to the financial input in the business. We also had a Cattle Management Committee in place before I became Commissioner in March 2018. It comprises the Commissioner of Police, the Director of DSS and members of other security outfits. They can levy a fine, depending on the extent of damage to crops by cattle.”

As Imo has cleared its position on the law, Edo and Anambra remain the only states that have defaulted on carrying out the Southern Governors’ Forum decision on open grazing.

According to the Chairman of the forum, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, who read the communique at the end of their Enugu meeting on Thursday, the anti-open grazing law aligns with the uniform template and aspiration of the southern governors. “We encouraged the states that are yet to enact this law to do so expeditiously,” he said.

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Ozigbo is believed to have recorded some modest achievements since his journey to govern Anambra State began early in 2020, in terms of rehabilitation of schools in some rural communities across the three senatorial districts of the state and the building of houses for poor widows, among others. He will surely make a strong showing in the coming election. His only weakness is that he is a first timer in Anambra politics and election.

IFEANYI UBAH (YPP) Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah was born in 1971. He hails from Umuanuka in Anambra State. He is the CEO of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, one of the significant parts of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria working in downstream tasks.

He is also the proprietor of Ifeanyi Ubah F.C, a local football club.

Ubah had to drop out of school to learn a trade. He has since gone on to attend several business courses and gatherings, which have helped in nurturing his pioneering interests.

Upon finishing his apprenticeship, Ifeanyi began exchanging automobile spare parts and later broadened into tire supplies.

Scarcely three years into this business, he started trading in tyres from Nigeria to Ghana and later expanded the business to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Ubah established The Authority Newspaper on 0ctober 19, 2015.

He is currently a member of the Senate, having won the 2019 Anambra South Senatorial election on the platform of Young People’s Party (YPP).

Many see him as a candidate to watch out for in the November 6, 2021 election, based on his personal popularity in the state.

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EDITORIAL Ominous Decline In Investment Inflow T

he deepening slump in foreign investment currently witnessed in the Nigerian economy is a bad omen for the country. The inauspicious trend should evoke sincere concerns among those in a position to address it. Aside from its pernicious impact, it is inexorably linked to every sector and touches every facet of our lives. Data from various reports show that investment inflow has sharply dwindled since the beginning of 2021, culminating in a negative status in the first half of the year. Not only do the data convey deepening effects, they show situations that could frustrate the enabling environment towards achieving a healthy economy.

The first wailing voice was raised by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), a government establishment created to encourage, promote and co-ordinate investments in the Nigerian economy. The agency, in a report published in July 2021, revealed that investment announcements in Nigeria declined by a whopping 80 per cent in the second quarter.

According to NIPC, investment inflow fell to $1.69 billion in the second quarter from $8.41bn in the first quarter. The report also revealed that the total value of investment interests in the first half of the year fell by $1.57 billion to $10.11 billion, compared with the value recorded in the second half of the previous year.

In another report, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that investment in Nigeria slumped to the lowest level in four years as of the first six months of 2021. The bureau, in its report entitled, ‘Nigerian Capital Importation (Q1 & Q2 2021),’which was released on July 28, 2021, showed that the total amount of foreign investment in the nation’s economy was $2.78 billion in the review period. This was against $7.15 billion recorded in the corresponding period (second half) of 2020, a shortfall of 62 per cent.

While the first quarter of 2021 recorded total invest-

ment inflow of $1.905 billion, the figure dropped to mere $875 million in the second quarter, representing a decrease of 54.06 per cent when compared with the first quarter of 2021. It also represents 32.38 per cent decrease as against the second quarter of 2020 when $1.29 billion investment came to the economy.

Although the picture of total investment inflow has been painted in gloomy colours, of greater concern is the deepening slump in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which has a greater impact on the economy to propel growth and expand job opportunities. This is against the comparatively limited impact of Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI). The latter largely comprises investments in stocks and shares that naturally have limited linkage to job creation. Over the years, FPI has dominated investment inflow and this gives a false picture of a healthy economy.

According to the NBS recent report, the largest amount of capital importation by type was received through portfolio investment, which accounted for 62.97 per cent ($551.37m) of total capital importation. This was followed by other investments that accounted for 28.13 per cent ($246.27m) of total capital imported. Conversely, FDI accounted for 8.90 per cent ($77.97m) of total capital imported in Q2 2021, the lowest figure.

The FDI figure of a mere $78 million in Q2 from $148.59 in Q1, a decline of 47.53 per cent, has a direct link with job losses and low income which impacts negatively on tax revenue. For instance, the unemployment rate jumped from 13.4 per cent in 2016 when FDI was a key investment inflow, to 33.1 per cent in 2020, an increase of 197 basis points.

The NBS report also revealed a sharp decline in the sectors that mostly attract FDI and which have the propensity to create jobs and boost economic growth. These include agriculture, production, oil and gas, telecommunications, construction and IT services.

FDI in agriculture in Q2 2021 decreased to $28.9 million from $66.40 million in the previous period of Q1, a decline of 56.47 per cent, while production which recorded $182.19 million in Q1 2021 nosedived to $68.03 million, representing a 62.66 per cent drop. In the same sliding trajectory, the oil and gas sector attracted a total FDI of $57.25 million in Q1 2021 only to drop by 80.22 per cent to $11.32 million in Q2 2021.

The telecommunications sector received FDI totaling $56.28 million in Q1 2021, but dropped to a terrible level of $.34 million or 99.4 per cent. FDI in construction recorded zero inflow in Q1 2021 as against $1.50 million in Q2 2021. Similarly, FDI in IT services trickled to $0.03 million in Q1 2021, compared with $1.60 million in Q1 2021.

The scenario suggests that foreign investors have decided to look the other way because they are losing confidence in the economy. The sharp decline in foreign investment inflow witnessed in the first six months of 2021, could scuttle policies meant to boost the economy.

This is because an investment deficit has implications for development, employment, revenue and income growth with ultimate effect on the GDP. It is investors’ confidence that drives investment, whether domestic or foreign. The Federal Government should address all aspects of the unfriendly investment climate plaguing the economy. These include insecurity, infrastructure deficit, diverse institutional and regulatory and structural challenges, which erode investors’ confidence in the economy. Our institutions must be strong.

The private sector should be strengthened to create jobs and drive the economy.

Investors are generally very cautious and painstaking in taking decisions with respect to FDI. The country must be conducive for investment as no one would be willing to invest in a hostile environment.

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 Ghana-Must-Go Bags of Mass Destruction T

BY UZOR MAXIM UZOATU he bag named Ghana-Must-Go is at the very root of all the evils afflicting our dear country Nigeria.

All the funds voted for the cure of diseases such as malaria, polio, AIDS, even COVID end up being stashed away in Ghana-Must-Go bags by these politicians.

This way, the Ghana-Must-Go bag has been turned into a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) by the hustlers of the dominant brand known as “Agbata-Ekee” politics of Nigeria, to wit, politicians who raid the commonwealth and share the loot amongst themselves without caring a hoot about the welfare of the masses.

Raid-and-share: that is the “Agbata-Ekee” political ideology in my understanding of the Igbo expression.

General Yakubu Gowon shook up the world when he said in the years after the civil war that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it.

It was against the background of not knowing what to do with the overdose of Nigerian money that the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and President Shehu Shagari swept into power in 1979, launching forth the Second Republic of sybaritic consumption. It took just four years for the politicians of the ill-fated republic to lick the pot of the economy dry.

Then Shagari and his NPN think-tank came up with the wacky idea that the only way to save the wobbling economy was by sending away one million or so hardworking Ghanaians who had settled in Nigeria.

The departing Ghanaians needed very big and sturdy bags to cart their belongings back to Ghana and this marked the birth of the name of the bag “Ghana-Must-Go”.

Whilst the bags may have served the very useful needs of the Ghanaians in taking their property back to their country, the devil-may-care Nigerian politicians have found a different use for these bags – the capacious means of direct stealing of

government money.

A boomerang has thus been unleashed on Nigeria in relation to our Ghanaian brethren. Now Nigerians are the ones making the pilgrimage to Ghana to eke out meager living.

It is today a major Nigerian achievement to send our children to Ghanaian schools to get proper education.

It is estimated that close to a million Nigerians are currently studying in Ghana, from primary through secondary to tertiary education, spending about N250 billion annually on tuition and boarding fees.

What a measure of poetic justice that Nigerians are somewhat bonded to grow the Ghanaian economy with money stolen from the government coffers via Ghana-Must-Go bags!

The heavy challenge facing the country is of course the monster of corruption wrought through Ghana-Must-Go bags.

The coming to power of General Ibrahim Babangida after the “Essenco” regime of General Muhammadu Buhari raised the stakes of the “settlement” culture in the “Agbata-Ekee” politics of dolling out Ghana-Must-Go bags of filthy lucre.

Traditional rulers made a singsong of gong to Abuja to mouth anthems of wealth, especially in the heady days of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election won by Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

When the direct-stealing General Sani Abacha eventually took over, a traditional ruler who travelled to Abuja from a state I would not name reportedly died of over-joy in his hotel room after being offered Ghana-Must-Go cash baggage!

The return of democracy in 1999 and the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo put the Ghana-Must-Go nightmare on public display when on November 5, 2000, a total of N4 million cash, denominated in N500 and N200 notes, was shockingly showcased on the dais bearing the Mace by some

Honourable Members who claimed that the money was part of the bribe given to them by the Presidency to remove the then Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba!

You guessed right that the strange exhibit was brought out from three Ghana-Must-Go bags!

Not even the Mace, the every symbol of authority of the House, was spared the Ghana-Must-Go invasion in “AgbataEkee” politics!

Yes, nothing is sacred once cash has been stuffed into GhanaMust-Go bags.

The poor masses keep dying of measles, kwashiorkor, cholera, hunger, corona virus, etc, even as “Agbata-Ekee” politicians are only preoccupied with stuffing cash in Ghana-MustGo bags.

The danger, though, is that the Ghana-Must-Go bag is having the last laugh as a weapon of mass destruction on these “Agbata-Ekee” politicians by deforming them from humanity before our very eyes.

Haven’t you seen it that so much damage has been done such that any politician who goes to Abuja for the “Agbata-Ekee” raiding suddenly turns inhumanly rotund in his agbada and ends up looking like two overstuffed Ghana-Must-Go bags, one on top of the other?

Even as Buhari deigns to be fighting corruption, I can see some “Agbata-Ekee” raiders clutching at very heavy GhanaMust-Go bags in the corridors of power and buying fake professorships to boot.

I have just been informed that it was due to a bad misapplication of Ghana-Must-Go bags that the funny presidential costume in Owerri, Imo State got sewed!

For me to investigate and get to the bottom of the story, I need only one booster: a Ghana-Must-Go bag filled with dollars, not the valueless naira!

As Democracy Enters A Slippery Slope In Nigeria

BY MAGNUS ONYIBE

I

n Nigeria, democracy is in turmoil. Although it has been long in coming, the exodus of governors from the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, to the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, which has been steering the ship of state at a time that a vast majority of the population is experiencing crushing poverty, unprecedented insecurity of lives and properties, as well as the deepest ethnic and religious divisions; the gale of defections by opposition party stalwarts into the ruling party tend to suggest that the fortunes of the APC is growing in leaps and bounds.

And it is a phenomenon that is stranger than fiction, simply because if a ruling party’s scorecard is nothing more than a misery index of colossal misfortune that has befallen the electorate as opposed to a celebration of positive dividends of democracy which the masses should be enjoying, what qualifies the party to be attracting members like butterflies to nectar? By this time during the 2015 election circle, opposition parties were busy combining forces with a view to ousting the ruling party. But the opposite is the case today as the ruling party seems to have a magnetic force pulling opposition politicians into its orbit.

At present, the reason for the strange phenomenon of PDP party members cross carpeting in droves into the APC has been difficult to phantom by not only ordinary Nigerians, but also pundits. My goal is to figure out the piece of the missing puzzle in this intervention by scrutinising the cause and effect of such phenomenon in the past, if it ever occurred, with the hope of unraveling the political development that seems as complex as the famous Bermuda or Devil’s Triangle.

While the erstwhile PDP chairman Uche Secondus boiled it down to intimidation by the APC, which controls the THEWILLNIGERIA

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instruments of coercion-DSS, EFCC, NIA, Police and armed forces, etc, that are allegedly being used to clobber opponents in the head, President Mohammadu Buhari, in a recent whimsical comment, apparently believes that the exodus of opposition politicians into the party that he leads is a reflection of the love that Nigerians have for him.

That allusion was made in his speech while receiving the report from the summit on security conducted by the House of Representatives and presented by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila. And the narrative about the great love that Nigerians have for President Buhari, which is responsible for the good fortune of the APC has been reiterated

by Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesman who made a comment to that effect during Sallah celebrations in Daura, Mr President’s homestead in Katsina State.

In my view, the conclusions reached by both Secondus and President Buhari, as well as the latter’s image maker, Garba Shehu, are ephemeral and only skin deep.

The real reasons for the strange political developments in Nigeria are yet to be fathomed. l would like to argue that the shifting of the political tide in the opposite direction or against the run of play in Nigeria is simply a symptom of the fact that democracy, as we are practising it today, has lost its values, fervor and bearing.

In other words, like a meal without salt and pepper which is usually tasteless, politics in Nigeria is now clearly bereft of philosophies or principles, hence the traditional or natural lines between the conservatives and the progressives no longer exist.

It is the underpinning reason that a majority of Nigerians have the mindset that the former ruling party , PDP (19992015) is fundamentally the same as the current ruling party, APC(2015-2021 and counting).

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In fact, whenever APC leaders call out their PDP counterparts by labeling them as corrupt or inept, l instinctively wince or grimace. That is because it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black since Nigerian masses generally believe that politicians of both the ruling and opposition hues and persuasions are the architects of their misfortune since nothing differentiates them.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hamid Ali, who is the leader of the vociferous Buhari support group, had in the past lamented loudly that the former members of the PDP have taken over the APC. And apart from the splinter group of the PDP led by a former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku and a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki that merged with the APC during its formation stages, the continued exodus may be linked to the exhortation by the immediate past Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomole and the presumed unwritten code of the ruling party, to the effect that those who join the APC would have their “sins forgiven.”

In plain language, the current ruling party dangled a carrot to politicians from the former ruling party that if they join the APC, the probes/ investigations into their period of stewardship, would be dropped. Since it is a claim that has not been denied by the ruling party and in fact, for those who have taken advantage of the offer the promise has been kept, it goes without saying that the third arm of government is most likely being complicit in killing democracy via a sleight of hand.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing scenario, it is not difficult to see why the ranks of the APC would swell and reflect more of the identity of the former ruling party PDP, which triggered Hamid Ali’s lamentation about the apparent blending of the APC and PDP. •Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com

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Nigerian Farmers Rake In N292.43bn From Agric Exports

BY SAM DIALA

N

otwithstanding the continued decline in the agricultural sector as shown in the quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reports in recent times, a section of Nigerian farmers are recording huge returns on their investments in agriculture through commodity exports. Many are also accessing the various intervention funds created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to boost their productivity and earn foreign exchange.

The recent National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quarterly report on “Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q2 2021)” revealed that Nigerian farmers earned a total of N292.43 billion in the first half of 2021). These proceeds exceed the N205.11 billion value recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 by N82.32 billion or 42.5 per cent.

According to the report, the farmers earned a total of N165.26 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2021 as against N127.17 billion achieved in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, representing a 30 per cent increase during the period. The items include raw, processed and semi-processed commodities available in huge quantities in various parts of the country.

that earned above N700 million during the period, with four recording over N10 billion and two yielding returns of above N5 billion. Cocoa and cashew nuts were in two categories: ‘Good fermented Nigerian cocoa beans’ and ‘superior quality raw cocoa beans’; ‘cashew nuts in shell’ and ‘cashew nuts, shelled’.

They all had different export destinations mainly in Europe, South East Asia and the United States of America.

“Topmost of these exported agricultural products were good fermented Nigerian cocoa beans exported mainly to the Netherlands (N16.48 billion), Malaysia (N9.32billion) and United States (N8.41billion). The next leading product was cashew nut in shells exported to Vietnam (N33.54billion) and India (N3.24billion). Other major exports under this sector include Sesamum seeds, whether or not broken, exported to Japan in the value worth N7.28billion, China N7.14 billion and coconuts N9.94 billion respectively,” the NBS stated in the Q2 2021 report.

Among the exported agricultural commodities, also, were ‘Brasil nuts in shell’, ‘Other frozen shrimps and prawns’’, Natural cocoa butter’, ‘Palm nuts and kernels’, ‘Ginger neither crushed nor ground’, and ‘Other coconuts – fresh or dried, whether or not shelled or peeled’.

The report captured 18 various agricultural commodities

Why Domestic Airlines Are Springing Up In Nigeria – NCAA

BY ANTHONY AWUNOR

T

he number of airline startups in Nigeria increased in the last five years. At present, about 10 commercial airlines are operating in the country. They include Aero Contractors, Air Peace, Arik Air, Azman Air, Dana Air, Ibom Air, Max Air, Overland Airways,

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United Nigeria Airlines and Green Africa Airlines. A few other carriers are warming up to join them.

THEWILL investigation shows that as of August 2021, there were no fewer than 25 airlines seeking AOCs from the NCAA, notwithstanding the impact of Continued Next Page

MORE INSIDE Emefiele to Speak at FICAN’s Annual Conference, 30th Anniversary

Continued Next Page

CBN Retains Benchmark Rate, Approves N798.09bn For Farmers

BY ANTHONY AWUNOR

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained its benchmark rate at 11.5 per cent, and other key monetary policy parameters, as approved by its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced this

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Green Bond Issuance: FMDQ Group, FSD Africa Sign MoU With Lagos PAGE 35

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AVIATION Why Domestic Airlines Are Springing Up In Nigeria – NCAA

Nigerian Farmers Rake In N292.43bn From Agric Exports

Continued from previous page

Continued from previous page

The farmers also exported ‘frozen rock lobster and other sea crawfish’, ‘sesame oil and its fractions’, ‘Cassia tora’, ‘Shea cake’, ‘Ginset roots – fresh or dried used in perfumery and in pharmacy or for insecticidal,’ as well as ‘soya beans (excluding seeds)’.

L-R: Mrs Carol Adekotujo, AGM PR, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA; Captain Elisha Bahago, Director, Operations, Licensing and Training Standard, NCAA; Captain Musa Nuhu, DG/CEO, NCAA and Mr Olusegun Koiki, Chairman, League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents at an interactive meeting between LAAC members and DG, NCAA in Lagos recently.

the COVID-19 pandemic that has seen many countries lose viable airlines. For example, a new entrant, Nigeria Eagle Airlines, is said to have gone far with the processing of its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC). With a minimum of three aircraft, it was gathered, the airline will resume operations any moment from now.

An AOC is the approval granted by a national aviation authority (NAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes.

This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and systems in place to ensure the safety of its employees and the general public.

Similarly, Chanchangi Airlines is also trying to make a comeback having gone far in its AOC procurement with the NCAA. THEWILL, however, gathered that the airline wants to come back with an aircraft fleet of ATR, possibly this year or early in 2022.

Speaking on the growth of the aviation industry over the years, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt Musa Nuhu, said that, although the COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the global industry in all ways, Nigeria’s aviation industry is growing rapidly.

In a meeting with journalists recently, Capt Nuhu confirmed that more airlines are coming up and the existing domestic airlines are expanding their operations by ordering more aircraft and linking all sorts of routes.

He said, “The connectivity of the country has improved significantly and it is going to get much better as you can almost travel from any part of the country to another. We are almost at that point. Like the days of Nigerian Airways, when you can go from anywhere to anywhere, it is even getting better. I can travel from Asaba to Kano and from Port Harcourt to Kano. I can travel to Sokoto, Bauchi and Gombe. It is really amazing.”

On airports, Nuhu pointed out that Nigeria also has more airports now as many state governments are currently building airports, adding, “Airports are popping up all over the place. So that has increased the span of activities and the responsibilities of the NCAA as the regulator of the industry.”

The DG noted that such changes in the growing number of airline operations and their activities have increased NCAA duties over time. “Our THEWILLNIGERIA

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surveillance programme has increased. It has put a lot of demand on us. The workload has significantly increased and this might get worse as time goes. That has put a lot of pressure on us,” he said.

To ensure that the airports, which are also springing up, meet global standards, Nuhu said the Lagos and Abuja airports were certified a few years ago and currently undergoing recertification.

“There has been some progress. We have a few gaps that are to be closed. Some have been closed, others, we are in the process of closing them and new gaps have come,” he disclosed.

The DG added that the NCAA is working closely with the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to close those gaps so that the recertification process can be completed as soon as possible.

“Apart from that, we are also talking about initial certification for Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano Airports. All the international airports have to be certified. It is quite a big project to certificate five airports: two initials and three re-certifications. It is quite a heavy load to be done, but hopefully, we will get them done as soon as possible,” he said.

Confirming those domestic airlines that are processing their AOCs, Capt Nuhu said, “I know about three or four intending airlines are in the process. Some of them have gone far, while others are initiating. The domestic industry in Nigeria is growing. People don’t feel comfortable going on the road, so they prefer to travel by air.

Also, the interconnectivity is growing between all facets of the corners of the country.

“Nigeria Eagle Airlines have gone far. They said they have the three minimum aircraft to start operation. Once I get the file, I can brief you, but I know they have gone far.”

On the other hand, the business prospects of private jet operators are said to be declining due to economic setbacks.

Capt Nuhu, who confirmed the development in the past five years, also said, “I think in the last five years, the number of private jets we have has reduced. We all can understand why – the economy has not been buoyant. It takes a lot of money to run a private jet, depending on the type you have.”

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The value of agricultural exports increased by 29.95 percent in Q2 2021, compared with Q1 2021, and 111.8 percent compared with Q2 2020. The NBS report released in August 2021 showed that the economy recorded a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.01 percent (year-on-year) in Q2 ’21. However, the agricultural sector maintained a declining trajectory over time. In the review period (Q2 ’21), the sector grew by 1.30 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms. This represented a decrease of -0.28 per cent 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 per cent for Q1 ’20. On a quarter-onquarter basis, the sector grew at 5.55 per cent.

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

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

The figures for the following years were 4.11 per cent, 3.45 per cent and 2.12 per cent in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. The sector recorded 2.36 per cent and 2.17 per cent in 2019 and 2020, respectively, before nose-diving to 1.3 per cent in Q2 ’21.

The CBN intervention funds have helped to boost productivity, create jobs, make the SME sector more viable and support commodity export. The funds include the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS); Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL); Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS); the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Fund; the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the Small Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Scheme (SMECGS), among others.

In its bid to ensure that businesses across all sectors of the economy sustained their operations after

“

The CBN intervention funds have helped to boost productivity, create jobs, make the SME sector more viable and support commodity export.

the COVID-19 pandemic, the apex bank introduced several loan opportunities under its intervention arrangement which favour agriculture. These include the AGSMEIS Loan for SME’S and Agricultural Businesses Without Collateral; Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) Intervention For Agriculture; Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS Loan); MSMEDF Loan – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.

To achieve the objectives of the intervention programme, some major challenges must be addressed.

The worsening spate of insecurity has a serious effect on agriculture because farmers also face the challenge of flooding and famine, which affects their ability to plant and harvest. Post-harvest challenges also persist. This leaves the farmers to contend with middlemen, transportation, storage and extortion by government revenue officials across the states and local government areas. The chaotic environment at the Lagos ports, coupled with extortion by security agents and intractable traffic congestion, creates a nightmare for farmers that engage in export.

Another challenge concerns quality. The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, recently expressed concern over the frequent rejection of exported food and agricultural products from Nigeria by the United States (US) and the European Union (UN) member countries due to poor quality. She called on all the regulatory agencies at the port saddled with the responsibility of ensuring high quality of imports and exports to find urgent and lasting solutions to Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Border Rejection Notifications from the European Commission on products originating from Nigeria.

The World Bank has also urged the Federal Government to invest in its people through education, skill acquisition and health.

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MONEY MARKET

$34bn Untapped Remittances: Why BDCs Should Get Involved

premium.

Adedipe said, “Anytime that premium is greater than five per cent, it then becomes an incentive for round tripping. This means that the foreign currency becomes now attractive for those who want to speculate to go and buy, sell and then, they generate more money in naira. So they can return to the official market and buy even more dollars, then go back and convert the dollar and get even more naira. That’s why it’s called round tripping. There is no currency anywhere in the world that can survive such an arrangement.”

BY CANDID BALOGUN

W

ith the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stoppage of foreign exchange sales to Bureaux De Change (BDCs), economists and financial sector analysts have advised the apex bank to allow the BDCs receive Diaspora remittances as is done in other economies of the world. The estimated annual remittance by Nigerians in the Diaspora is $34 billion and a large part of it never makes it into the country.

Financial pundits have therefore advised the CBN to institute a framework that will allow BDCs, which have automated their operations, to receive these funds into the economy to boost dollar reserves and save the naira.

Nigeria is on the side of those that have many migrant workers in other parts of the world and therefore earn foreign currencies they want to remit home.

But there is a huge problem that limits the funds from getting home.

In a media report, renowned economist and chief consultant at B. Adedipe Associates Limited, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, explained that if Nigeria is able to manage that remittance effectively, it will add 0.4 per cent to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth annually.

He disclosed that a lot of the dollars don’t come into the FX market in Nigeria. The receiver gets the naira equivalent of the fund even when the funds never got to Nigeria, denying Nigeria the full benefit of Diaspora remittances, despite the country being at the top in terms of benefitting from migrant workers.

“So what then happens is that instead of bringing it into the FX market in Nigeria, they keep it outside. That also becomes a leg that supports speculations that we talked about earlier on. I believe that was part of the reason why the CBN introduced the $1 for N5 incentive. The idea now is to see if the country can harness the most of the remittances.

“That now is a policy I think we need to interrogate more. How can we make it more attractive for those foreign currencies generated by migrant Nigerian workers to be remitted home, and become a part of our national supply to our market here? That now is a space for the BDCs,” Adedipe said.

Analysts said that what is needed is implementation of laws that stipulated that oil companies and other multinational companies bring dollars into the economy instead of keeping them in their home countries.

This will ensure that what is kept outside

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But ordinarily, in the interplay of demand and supply, what CBN has done is not to reduce the supply of FX to the market.

What they have done is to shift the supply from one segment of the market to another and even double the volume, which means the response of the rate is not to the supply coming to the market, which in fact has doubled.

the market would come into Nigeria to boost supply. CBN already has the tools, but they need to enforce it.

ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said that globally BDCs remain one of the channels through which the Diaspora remittance funds come into countries.

He said that the BDCs remain at the centre of economic development and have the capacity to attract needed capital for the development of the Nigerian economy and deepening of the forex market.

Findings have also shown that forex remittances from Nigerians in the Diaspora far exceeded the country’s earnings from crude oil export last year.

Since many transactions are unrecorded or take place through informal channels, the actual amount of remittance that flows into the country is arguably higher. The estimation is that migrant remittances to Nigeria could grow to $25.5 billion, $29.8 billion and $34.8 billion in 2019, 2021 and 2023, respectively.

Gwadabe said Diaspora remittances remain a cheap source of fund, because they are not to be paid back with interest but go directly into the construction of houses, payment of school fees, medicals and a lot of things that are adding value to the weak economy.

Again, BDCs are supposed to buy from travelers coming into Nigeria, whether they are foreigners or they are Nigerians who did some things offshore and were able to make some money and bring back those foreign currencies.

BDCs are also expected to operate at a two-way rate. Then in response to what they have told you, you will now disclose whether you want to buy from them or sell to them. The operators are also expected to be in tune with market dynamics, be able to fix their own rates within the recommended commission rate in such a way that is competitive in that market.

Equally, what could have been the concern is access. The CBN has also dealt with that by not only telling the participatory banks to have desks designated for forex, where members of the public in need of foreign currencies for defined purposes can have access to the foreign currencies required, which you can now also give to them either in cash or as a credit in their domiciliary accounts or dollar cards.

Gwadabe

Globally, Nigeria is one of the few countries that concisely attract funds from migrant workers. Others are Pakistan, Canada, USA, Australia and Vietnam.

Adedipe also said that the question that needs to be answered is what drives the exchange value of the naira. If you are able to answer that question, it will bring us to the understanding of what is happening today.

Emefiele

There are many things working in favour of Nigeria that are hardly noticed. Top on the list is the $34 billion estimated annual remittance by Nigerians in the Diaspora that are barely touched because of nonexistent channels to attract the funds into the economy.

MORE FOREX SUPPLY NOT SOLUTION

“

There are many things working in favour of Nigeria that are hardly noticed. Top on the list is the $34 billion estimated annual remittance

by Nigerians in diaspora that are barely touched because of non-existence channels to attract the funds into the economy Other issues include customer service, relationship management and commission, which must be within the market range.

IMPORT PRESSURE ON FOREX But because we were net importers, that brought pressure on the FX market.

And like we have also argued overtime, the major worry for the CBN or anyone considering the management of the FX market is the premium.

Premium is the difference between the official rates of the FX rate you get in other segments of the FX market. The other segments will mean the parallel market and the BDCs. Of course, in those days we used to talk about export proceeds and all kinds of different arrangements.

Today, the idea simply is that any other market outside of the CBN is an alternative. So what is the rate there? How is it compared to the official rate? So, the difference between these rates is called THEWILLNIGERIA

This means the issue is not supply on one hand and on the other hand, access is not the problem. It means the real issue is that the speculators knew that this position of the CBN is not something sustainable, which means that it’s not institutionalised.

This means, therefore, that if another Governor assumes office after the expiration of Emefiele’s term, there is the likelihood that he or she may go back to the old way of doing things. So we have to come back to look at those factors that cause exchange rates to move. There are about 12 of them in economics.

“One of them is the interplay between demand and supply, which, as of today, does not support what we see happening in that market. That is the depreciation of the naira in the market, as we see now, is not supported by the interplay between demand and supply.”

“That is why I say ultimately that the only reason we can admit this is speculation, which is based on the fact that the CBN will not be able to sustain this. So, the question now will be, why can’t they sustain it? If we look at our external reserves, there are two ways to interpret that in this connection.”

DIASPORA REMITTANCES AND BDCS The BDCs have for years supported Nigeria’s growth agenda and CBN’s commitment to exchange rate stability. To continue to play these roles creditably, the BDCs need improved access to forex.

The ABCON believes the success of BDCs goes beyond favourable rates but access to multiple streams of forex earnings to deepen the market, keep the naira stable and boost BDCs operations.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com THEWILLNG

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

BUSINESS NEWS Green Bond Issuance: FMDQ Group, FSD Africa Sign MoU with Lagos

BY SAM DIALA

F

MDQ Holdings Plc and Financial Sector Deepening Africa have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lagos State Government to facilitate the issuance of the maiden ₦25 billion Lagos State Green Bond and other sustainabilitylinked debt securities towards achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Among those present at the remarkable signing ceremony held at the Lagos State House, Marina, Lagos, were the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Commissioner of Finance, Lagos State, Dr Rabiu Onaolapo Olowo; Special Adviser, Office of Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Lagos State, Mrs. Solape Hammond; and other members of the Lagos State Executive Council; as well as representatives of the NGBMDP Implementing Partners, including Mr Koko Bola Onadele, Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ Group and Mr. Mark Napier, Chief Executive Officer, FSD Africa.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Governor Sanwo-Olu stated, “I strongly believe that the Green Bond Programme will open the doors of deep sustainable funds for infrastructure and social development for Lagos State, being the biggest player in the sub-national capital markets and therefore open new doors overall for lots of others.

“As a state, we embrace the transparency and commitment that comes with a Green Finance Framework. We believe it sends an important signal to investors in the market about who we are - a state that is fiscally responsible, prudent and disciplined. It is our intention to continue to validate this reality, as well as our commitment to building a Greater, Circular, Climateresilient and Prosperous Lagos State which is unwavering”.

In his remarks, Mr Onadele stated, “FMDQ Group is proud and honoured to be part of this momentous signing ceremony.

The dynamism of Lagos State as a hub for commerce and financial market activities, as well as its incredible potential for catalysing broad-based sustainable development, calls for the need to unlock and attract capital to fund key projects in the state.

“This will stimulate economic growth, enhance job creation and align the state’s THEMES (Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Entertainment and Tourism), as well as the security and governance agenda towards transitioning the state to a greener and more sustainable economy in line with the United Nations SDGs. “This iconic MoU signing is timely and FMDQ Group, as the local partner to the NGBMDP and an agent of change empowering markets for economic progress towards delivering prosperity, is excited about this opportunity to support the developmental aspirations of Lagos State ‘’.

Furthermore, another of the Implementing Partners to the Programme, FSD Africa, represented by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mark Napier, commented, “FSD Africa is pleased to offer its support to Lagos State as it moves towards issuing its first green bond.

R-L: Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ Group, Mr. Bola Onadele Koko, at the MoU signing ceremony between the Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Green Bond Market Development Programme, held in Lagos on 14/9/2021.

Photo: Peace Udugba.

CBN Retains Benchmark Rate, Approves N798.09bn For Farmers Continued from page 16

Friday after the MPC meeting that began Thursday. The policy rate is the rate at which the central banks lends to banks, which therefore determines the rate at which commercial banks lend money to businesses and individuals.

Addressing journalists at the end of the 2-day meeting of the MPC meeting in Abuja, Mr Emefiele said the committee voted to keep the policy rate at 11.5 per cent, with the assymetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR. The committee also voted to retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 per cent as well as the Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent.

The committee noted Nigeria’s impressive 5.01 per cent GDP growth in the second quarter, and decelerating inflation that fell in August for the fifth straight month, and argued that holding the parameters will be a balance between boosting further growth and checking inflation.

Mr Emefiele, however, noted that headline inflation remained above the CBN’s target range of between six and nine per cent.

It noted the gradual recovery in economic output growth, and hoped the second quarter growth will be better.

Emefiele also announced that the sum of N798.09 billion has been released to 3.9 million smallholder farmers cultivating 4.9 million hectares of land across the country.

Out of this for the 2021 wet season

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In the statement signed by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the Bank stated that, while harvesting for the 2020 dry season under the Programme is rounding up, harvesting activities have commenced for the 2021 wet season cultivation.

It explained that the Strategic Maize Reserve Programme of the CBN has been useful in moderating maize prices by directly targeting large feed mill producers.

“To support MSMEs across the country, the Bank disbursed N134.57 billion to 38,140 beneficiaries under the Agribusiness/Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS), and for the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF), the sum of N343.21 billion has been released to 726,198 beneficiaries, comprising 602,730 households and 123,468 Small and Medium Enterprises”.

“Under the Real Sector Facility, the Bank released the sum of N1.00 trillion to 269 real sector projects, of which 140 are in light manufacturing, 71 in agro-based industry, 47 in services and 11 in mining. Under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), N103.02 billion has been disbursed for 110 healthcare projects, of which 27 are pharmaceutical, 77 hospitals and 6 other healthcare service projects”.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com THEWILLNIGERIA

farming, the Bank released the sum of 161.18 billion to 770,000 smallholder farmers cultivating seven commodities on 1.10 million hectares across the country.

THEWILLNIGERIA

Emefiele To Speak At FICAN’s Annual Conference, 30th Anniversary

BY SAM DIALA

T

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, is expected to deliver the keynote address at the 2021 Annual Conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), which also features activities marking the 30th anniversary of the group.

The Managing Director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Mr Uche Orji, will be the guest speaker at the conference, while the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, is expected to give opening remarks.

A statement from the association said the conference, which is scheduled to hold on September 25 and 26, 2021 at Ikeja, Lagos is themed: ‘Financing Infrastructure and SMEs for Inclusive Growth in Post-COVID-19 Economy.’

The event will bring together stakeholders in the banking, technology and SMEs fields, including regulators and government agencies as they explore areas where Nigeria can mobilise patient funds for infrastructure development and upgrade.

Infrastructure is critical to Nigeria’s sustainable economic growth as it is the pivot on which the wheel of other economic activities rotate. But, over the years, its financing has been a challenge. Incidentally, financing the SMEs sector is also a challenge, thereby highlighting the fact that almost every sector of the Nigerian economy is in dire need of adequate infrastructure.

The statement further revealed that seasoned experts and leaders in the financial services sector will serve as panelists in the media interactive session with sub-themes: ‘Synergising monetary and fiscal policy for economic sustainability’; ‘Filling infrastructure gap in face of rising debts’; ‘Financing SMEs in the new normal’; ‘Mobilising funds from the capital market’ and ‘Financing Nigeria health sector in post Covid-19 economy.’

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SHOTS OF THE WEEK PHOTO EDITOR: PEACE UDUGBA [08033050729]

L-R: Deputy Governors – Prof. Ivara Esu (Cross River); Engr. Rauf Olaniyan (Oyo); Rt. Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu (Abia); Prof. Placid Njoku (Imo); Governors - Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola (Osun); Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); Mr. Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Mr. Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN (Ondo); Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Mr. Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom); Prince Dapo Abiodun (Ogun); Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta); Sen. Douye Diri (Bayelsa); other Deputy Governors are- Mr. Philip Shaibu, (Edo); Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi (Ekiti); and Dr. Eric Igwe (Ebonyi), during the Southern Governors’ Forum meeting held in Enugu on 16/9/2021.

President Muhammadu Buhari (M); receives football from President of Federation of International Football Association (L-R) SuperTV Chief Technology Officer, Rahman Saliu; General Manager, Digital Services MTN, Aisha (FIFA), Mr. Gianni Infantino (R); and President of Confederation of African Football, Dr. Patrice Motsepe (L), during a Mumuni; SuperTV Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ijeoma Onah; Chief Marketing Officer MTN, Adia Sowho; courtesy visit to State House, Abuja on 16/9/2021.

SuperTV Chairman, Adedotun Sulaiman; and the Marketing Director, Bolajoko Bayo-Ajayi, during the official launch of SuperTV, in partnership with MTN, in Lagos on 15/9/2021.

L-R: Sir Patrick Onyema Amaechi; Sir Cyril Oluwatoyin Pinheiro; Chief Sena Donata Anthony; His Grace, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, (M); Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele (4th L); Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins; Sir Anthony Ikemefuna Idigbe; and Sir Patrick Okwudili Igwilo, during an President /Chairman of Council of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr Bayo Olugbemi (R); and award ceremony in recognition of their meritorious services to the Church, held at the Holy Cross Cathedral, other dignitaries, during the Annual Banking Conference held in Abuja on 14/9/2021.

Lagos on 12/9/2021.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

DIVORCED, BACK IN SINGLES CLUB 2

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Nollywood Actresses Who Were Once Married But Are Now Single Sequel to the piece on Nollywood actors returning to the singles club after years of marriage, SHADE METIBOGUN writes on Nollywood actresses who were once married but are now back in the singles club.

Ayo Adesanya

N

ollywood actress, Ayo Adesanya and her colleague, Goriola Hassan, fell head over heels in love with each other and were live-in-lovers for a long time before they secretly got married in 2000. The now estranged couple wore matching tattoos throughout the period that their union lasted. They both had a son, Ireayomide Adeniyi, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States in 2004. Things later fell apart between Ayo and her husband, forcing the actress to move out of their home in 2008. She was in tears when she packed her things hurriedly from her matrimonial home, while her husband went clubbing that night. She left her marriage because Hassan wasn’t mature enough to handle the success of her career. Much later, she fell in love with Fuji musician, Wasiu Alabi Odetola, also known as Pasuma. She however denied ever falling for him. While Goriola, who is currently the paramount ruler of Imobi in Ogun State, remarried and moved on, the beautiful mother of one is yet to find Mr Right.

Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha

C

hioma Chukwuka-Akpotha got married to her best friend, Franklin Akpotha, in 2006. The beautiful actress is one of those who successively shielded her marriage from the attention of the media and nosy members of the public. She was married for 15 years before the marriage packed up and she moved out of her matrimonial home into a rented apartment with her children in 2020. She started living happily and focused on her acting career and her business. She however tried to salvage the situation as best as she could before giving up. They were said to have parted ways due to irreconcilable differences. Both Chioma and Frank are said to be co-parenting their children together. Since she moved out of her marriage, the actress has not been linked with any man as she is busy facing her career and business.

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Lola Alao

Shaffy Bello

L

ight-skinned Shaffy Bello hasn’t had it good with marriage.

She got married to a US-based Nigerian named Akinrimisi in 1995. The actress juggled her marriage, music and acting career for 25 years before giving up on her marriage, even though her husband loved her dearly and supported her as best as he could. He also allowed her to shuttle between Nigeria and the United States so that her acting career would not suffer. Apparently these were not enough to keep her in the marriage. The actress, who somewhat succeeded in keeping her marriage away from prying eyes, revealed that she divorced her husband in 2020. It is alleged that her appearance in a telenovela series titled, Taste of love sometime in 2014 and her role as a lady who dated a father and his son, was the beginning of the end of her marriage. The 50 year-old actress, who has two beautiful children, Ashton and Ashley, has not been linked with any man. Perhaps, she has made up her mind to concentrate on her career and her two children.

T

he Kogi State-born actress has been married twice and both marriages were short-lived. Lola first got married in June 2002 to Dare Ogunsanya, who is an international car dealer. The union was fraught with controversies before it finally packed up.

Dare accused Lola of being diabolical, claiming that he was forced into the marriage. He also pointed out that the actress had many incisions on her waist and that she took him to several herbalists under the guise of looking for ways to make his business prosper.

He also accused Lola of infidelity. The union produced a baby girl, Omowumi.

Not long after the marriage crashed, Lola fell in love with an Information Technology expert based in the United States, Wale Ajibola. The two got married in Atlanta, Georgia in 2013, but one year later, they broke up. Lola caught Wale having an affair with her friend, Becky. He was said to have packed his things from the house and absconded with Becky.

Chika Ike

C

hika Ike and Tony Eberiri met while the actress was still an undergraduate of the University of Lagos. The two were an item before they decided to get married in 2006. Chika was young and relatively new in the film industry. Tony, who was a banker, ensured his wife was well taken care of as he had the financial muscle to meet her needs. He also showered Chika with love, but this was not sufficient to keep their marriage going. A few years after their union, the beautiful actress started complaining of maltreatment and domestic abuse.

Kate Henshaw

N

ollywood actress and fitness enthusiast, Kate Henshaw, married British-born Roderick James Nuttal in 1999. They both enjoyed their marriage for 12 years till it hit the rocks. The reason for their separation was infidelity. Her husband, who was the Managing Director of Ledrop Nigeria Limited, was romancing his secretary, Angela Gordon. The news of their romance was brought to Kate’s notice and she paid a surprise visit to the company. She met Angela and her husband in a compromising position and all hell broke loose. A few months after the drama, the couple announced their separation. Kate had a daughter, Gabrielle, with her Roderick before they parted ways.

She lost a pregnancy as a result of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. During one of their heated arguments, Tony was said to have thrown a glass jug at her face. That incident led to the final breakup of their marriage.

In July 2013, Chika heaved a sigh of relief after her marriage was finally dissolved in an Abuja court. Apart from the domestic violence she suffered, the actress also blamed the failure of the marriage on her naivety and inability to understand some things. But her husband accused her of being solely responsible for the divorce. He said she made false claims just to shift the blame on him.

In 2020, a wedding picture showing the actress and Ned Nwoko, her younger colleague, Regina Daniel’s husband, surfaced online. But the actress denied having an affair with him and stressed that she was not interested in being his seventh wife. It seems that Chika Ike is comfortable in the singles club as she has not given marriage a second thought.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

Iyabo Ojo

Damilola Adegbite

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Uche Elendu

amilola Adegbite and Ghanaian actor, Chris Attoh, met in the line of duty. They were both on the cast of popular television drama series, Tinsel, when they started dating. In August, 2014, they got engaged and eventually had a private wedding ceremony in Accra, Ghana on February 24, 2015. Their union lasted two years before hitting the rocks. Damilola seemed to drop early hints of an impending breakup when she deleted Chris Attoh’s name from all her social media accounts.

She unfollowed him and deleted all his pictures as well.

Damilola later admitted that 2017 was a tough year for her because her trust was betrayed in heartbreaking ways.

It was reported that the actor was cheating on her, but he denied ever being a cheat. Their marriage was blessed with a son, Brian, who was born on September 14, 2014.

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yabo Ojo got married at the age of 21 to a Lagos-based movie marketer in 1998. But she stayed in the marriage for only three years. The actress became pregnant for her lover three months into dating him. The unplanned pregnancy led to their marriage.

It was said that she didn’t marry for love, but because she didn’t want to give birth to her children outside wedlock. Although her movie marketer husband introduced her to the movie industry and helped her find her footing as an actress, the mother of two still left him a few years after making a name in Nollywood. She would later attribute her marriage break-up to marrying too young. The union was blessed with two children, Felix and Priscilla before it crumbled.

Iyabo has since been linked with several men after she left her husband. She was rumoured to have dated her colleague, Muka Ray, Wasiu Alabi Odetola, also known as Pasuma and Senator Dino Melaye. But it seems she is still having fun and not yet ready to give marriage another try.

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che Elendu got married to the love of her life, Prince Walter Ogochukwu Igweanyinmba, in January, 2012. The wedding took place in Owerri, Imo state.

It was love at first sight for the beautiful actress as she and her husband got engaged just six months after they met.

But trouble started in their paradise three years after their union. At first, Uche denied claims that her marriage was troubled and insisted that all was well. Not long afterwards, the actress was sent packing from her matrimonial home on an allegation of infidelity. Her billionaire businessman husband was also said to be dating Sandra Chichi Ekwosi Obi, a former beauty queen while he was still legally married to the actress. Uche and Walter eventually parted ways and the actress took custody of their two daughters, Chizuterem and Zutty. Nine years after, the talented actress has not looked back. But she recently admitted that she is willing to settle down again once she finds a God-fearing man.

Angela Okorie Eucharia Anunobi

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ight-skinned Angela Okorie was married before she became famous. She married her handsome friend of many years, Chukwuma Orizu, in 2006. Their marriage lasted 10 years before they both called it quits.

The actress ensured that her married life was kept away from the prying eyes of the public. Many did not know her husband Chukwuma until 2015 when he publicly defended her after she was accused of theft by her colleague, Prince Ekeh. Fans were therefore shocked when the actress announced that she was divorced in 2016.

A few years after walking away from her marriage, Angela said that her ex-husband was a faithful and good man.

She dismissed the insinuation that she quit the marriage because her husband used her as a punching bag when they were living together. The marriage produced a son, Chamberlain, in 2011.

The real problem Angela had in the marriage bordered on the fact that Chukwuma was too possessive. He wasn’t comfortable with the fact that she was a celebrity. He also had a problem with her dress sense and outspoken nature.

Now, the beautiful mother of one seems to have finally pitched her tent with the singles club. She once revealed that she has no plan of remarrying because she is scared of being labeled a divorcee for the second time.

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Juliet Ibrahim

r Eucharia Anunobi got married to London-based businessman, Charles Ekwu, at the Ikoyi Marriage Registry in 2000. The marriage crumbled under pressure in 2006. Eucharia filed for divorce in 2009 after accusing Charles of abandonment, lack of responsibility to their only child and assault. She demanded the sum of N100 million as compensation from him. Before falling apart, the couple had a son named Raymond in 2002.

Unfortunately he died in August, 2017 due to sickle cell anemia complications.

After recovering from the unfortunate demise of her only child, the actress revealed that she was ready to give love a second chance. However, she stated some conditions for accepting another man into a life: He must be a good, educated, God-fearing and romantic man who understands her assignment on earth and must be willing to support her.

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eautiful Ghanaian actress, Juliet Ibrahim found love in the arms of a wealthy Ghanaian businessman, Kwadwo Safo junior, the Chief Executive Officer of Kanlanka group, the first car manufacturing company in Ghana. Kwadwo is also a commercial pilot. He acquired his licence at the age of 19.

The curvy actress and Kwadwo met at a strip club before they started dating. Their friendship blossomed into a romantic relationship and the actress became pregnant. The unplanned pregnancy led to their decision to get married.

The two lovebirds got married in 2010, but the marriage was not accepted by Kwadwo’s family. The family did not even attend their wedding. They also openly showed their disapproval and lack of support to the union.

However, the union produced a son, Jayden, who was born in December 2010. Kwadwo’s alleged infidelity and the fact that Juliet wasn’t accepted by his family led to the collapse of their marriage. Years after the break-up, the beautiful actress has been linked to several men, but she has remained single.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY IVORY UKONU

FANIKAYODE’S NEW LOVER LAUNCHES NEW BUSINESS N

erita Ezenwa, the new love interest of former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani Kayode, more popularly known as FFK, is determined not to play in the small league. She has expanded her business to include oil and gas, specifically the sale of refined petroleum products. The leggy young lady recently held a party with only her close friends in attendance to announce her arrival to the

big league.

The graduate of Economics from ISM Adonai University, Cotonou in the Republic of Benin also runs Nerita Luxury, a company that deals in beddings, perfumes, accessories and clothing. She is also into interior decoration as her company, Nerita Homes and Interiors provides unique interiors for both residential and commercial spaces.

KWAM1 adds Another Stunning Beauty To His Harem

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Ezenwa Nerita and Fani-Kayode became an item shortly after his marriage to another former beauty queen, Precious Chikwendu, hit the rocks due to allegations of domestic violence on the part of the former minister and infidelity on the part of Chikwendu. The marriage produced four sons.

The estranged couple is in court fighting for the custody of the boys.

How Mercy Aigbe’s ExHusband Leased Out Hotel to Fund Wedding

The Gentrys

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t is no longer news that Lanre Gentry, ex-husband to Nollywood actres, Mercy Aigbe, has taken a new wife.

The union is his third attempt at marriage. THEWIlLL had exclusively reported this about two months ago. The hotelier, who is fond of engaging his ex-wife in one social media war or the other over issues that

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could have easily been resolved off social media, married his much younger wife, Busayo in a traditional ceremony that took place on Saturday, September 11, 2021, in the Abule Egba area of Lagos.

What most people do not know is that Gentry, who hasn’t stopped eulogising his new wife, had to lease out his

Oregun-based Veronique hotel, allegedly, to enable him finance the wedding, take care of his new bride and revive some side hustles, one of which is his car sales business, Larrygent Motors Nig Ltd, for a constant flow of income.

Long before he met Mercy and married her, Gentry was a well known and successful businessman. While the marriage lasted, he spared no cost to ensure that the actress, her daughter from a previous marriage and their son were comfortable and well cared for.

Unfortunately, just before their marriage began to show signs of crisis, Gentry made some bad decisions that affected his business. After Mercy moved out of their home due to domestic violence, his business further declined so much that he found it difficult to shoulder his responsibilities as a father. Mercy confirmed this during their last altercation on social media. With his new marriage, one can only hope that the constant social media squabbles will come to an end and the proceeds from the alleged leased hotel will be put to judicious use.

ike most entertainers, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal 1 makes no pretence about his love for women, most of who willingly throw themselves at him. The urge to resist these women, who are mostly very beautiful, is always as weak as a faulty foundation that is bound to collapse. And like the mere mortal that he is, the Maiyegun of Yorubaland embraces openly anyone that catches his fancy.

Of course, he is financially capable of taking care of these women and the about 40 children sired through his relationships with them.

However, KWAM1’s philandering nature must have been too much for Yewande, his only legal wife at a certain period in his life, to bear, prompting her to relocate to Canada.

In no time, KWAM1 quickly found her replacement in Nigeria and formalised his relationship with socialite and fabric merchant, Titi Masha.

Prior to hooking up with KWAM1, Titi was married to businessman Tunde Bashua.

The union produced three children before Titi dumped him for a Lagos-based socialite, Gbenga Islander, a friend and a benefactor to KWAM1, before she finally made a beeline for KWAM1.

With the way they both carried on in public, KWAM1 eulogising her at every given opportunity and Titi being overly protective, it came as a

Ropo

The Marshals

surprise when the Fuji musician decided to displace her with Emmanuella Ropo as the apple of his eyes.

Tall, light-skinned and extremely beautiful, Emmanuella is a businesswoman who runs Party Dreams, a children’s supply store at Omole Phase 1 in Ojodu, Lagos. Like Titi, Emmanuella is a mother of four children from different fathers. But that is the least of Maiyegun’s problems. He is smitten by her and his friends and close associates have quickly aligned with him as it concerns her.

But Titi is heartbroken. She feels shortchanged. She had thought that at over 60, KWAM1

would have lost his appetite for beautiful women and she would remain the apple of his eyes forever. Unfortunately, her hope has been shattered.

Ironically, her heartbroken state is nothing compared to the disappointment emanating from KWAM1’s numerous concubines, who have resorted to denigrating Emmanuella for coming to take the spotlight and outshine them. They have vowed to do everything possible within their power to ruin her relationship with KWAM1. But will they succeed? Will the Fuji musician prove them wrong by putting an end to his skirt chasing prowess? Your guess is as good as mine.

Family Releases Burial Arrangement For Monalisa Okoye

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he family of late interior decorator, Maureen Nkiruka OkoyeEze, popularly known as

Monalisa Okoye or Monalisa Whyte, have released a programme of events for her funeral. A service of songs

Okoye THEWILLNIGERIA

has been scheduled to hold at the St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 1004, Victoria Island on Friday, September 24, 2021 by 5pm. Her funeral mass will hold the following day on Saturday September 25 at 9.30am at the same venue. Her remains will be interred shortly after the funeral mass at Ebony Vaults and Gardens, Ikoyi, Lagos at 11am.

All guests are expected to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 protocol.

Monalisa, who was the boss of the Throne of Grace interiors, one of the most sought after interior decor shops situated on Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Victoria Island in Lagos, died of the corona virus on August 19, 2021 at the age of 38. Her death was reportedly painful and slow.

A widow and 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.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY IVORY UKONU

MARY AKPOBOME BERTHS AT IMPERIUM CAPITAL PARTNERS

Akpobome

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espite the issues she has had to put up with in her marriage with seasoned standup comedian, Atunyota Allelua Akpobome, otherwise known as Alibaba, (as exclusively reported by THEWILL), it hasn’t stopped Mary Akpobome from forging ahead in her career. The cerebral banker has now found a new home with Imperium Capital Partners, formerly known as HBCL Investment Services Plc, an investment house that is on

a rescue mission for drowning financial institutions through acquisition. She is the Chief Operating Officer of the firm, which was founded in 2013.

The choice of Mary as the COO of the firm is, no doubt, akin to putting a round peg in a round hole, having proved her mettle in the financial sector in a 30-year career that traversed Citizens International Bank, Platinum/Habib Bank and later, Heritage Bank where she was the Executive Director,

Business Banking overseeing all corporate, commercial, special projects, intervention schemes, multilateral, agriculture and export businesses. She would later become the Acting Managing Director of Enterprise Bank after it was acquired by Heritage Bank.

An alumnus of Lagos Business School, London Business School and INSEAD, Mary’s experience in the management of people and resources will no doubt find positive expression in her new role.

What’s Up With Mo Abudu And Her Bestie, Marian Omatsone?

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edia entrepreneur, Mo Abudu and one of her best friends, businesswoman, Marian Essien, (Omatsone) are currently not on speaking terms. This was further amplified by Marian’s conspicuous absence at Mo Abudu’s recent 57th birthday party. While some defended her absence because she was not in town, others felt there was more to it than meets the eye, especially because they always made out time to be together in the past, regardless of how tight their schedules were. Besides, Marian didn’t celebrate Mo on her birthday nor did she congratulate her on the opening of her Chinese restaurant, Jinja, which coincided with her birthday.

While the last public post made

by Mo Abudu was in February, on Valentine’s day precisely, where she appreciated ‘her bestos’ in a post and wished them Happy Valentines day, Marian’s last post was six days ago where she took a dig at her erstwhile bestie and her birthday party. In the post, she wrote, “Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown, blame yourself for going to the circus. I got wise. I ain’t going to the circus no more. #lagosisfullofactors.”

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Abudu & Omatsone In the past, the former best friends who suffocated their social media followers with the ‘uniqueness’ of their friendship, both shared a lot of things in common. Their first offspring are married, they are both prosperous grandmothers – Mo Abudu as an entertainment entrepreneur via her Ebony Life Place and movie productions and Marian as a successful dealer in office furniture via THEWILLNG

her Madisonjay Furniture and fashion business. They have also been quite supportive of each other, celebrating each other’s milestones. But today, all that has gone with the wind. So deep is their quarrel that many speculate that it could be as a result of a business deal gone wrong or about a suitor. All efforts by their famous friends to get them to reconcile with each other has proved abortive.

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Linda Edozien and Tony Anenih Jnr’s Enduring Love

T Nkumah

NWANNEKA NKUMAH SPLURGES ON HER LOOKS

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t is beginning to look like one of the hallmarks of a broken marriage in Nigeria is the female splurging out cash on her looks to compliment her new status as a single lady who is ready to mingle. Popular businesswoman, Nwanneka Nkumah won’t be caught slacking in this regard. The very enterprising hair vendor behind Mizwanneka hair brand and one of the biggest hair vendors in Nigeria and Ghana allegedly coughed out several millions of naira to get her petite body fixed to perfection in a South American country recently. Every aspect she fixed looks beautifully done and nothing is out of proportion, just the right measure of nips and tucks to get you noticing her. However, unlike Nollywood actress Tonto Dike and former Big Brother Naija reality star, Maryann Ahneeka Iwuchukwu, both of who were gracious enough to name their surgeons, the beautiful mother of three has refused to disclose the name of the doctor or the hospital where she acquired her luxury body, at least for the benefit of those who may desire to patronise him after a job well done. All she has been interested in doing is flaunting her body at every given opportunity.

Nwanneka walked out of her marriage in 2019, a year after she welcomed her last child with her husband, Williams, but pretended that all was well with her marriage. Unknown to many, she was a victim of domestic abuse and most of the gifts she flaunted on social media, supposedly from her husband, were actually purchased with her hard-earned money. Sources allege that her husband couldn’t be bothered about her welfare and the progress of her business while the marriage lasted.

he love between stunning 51-year-old businesswoman Linda Edozien and Tony Anenih jnr, a scion of the Anenih family, doesn’t look like it will wane soon. On the contrary, it is waxing stronger by the day. The couple has continued to prove naysayers wrong, particularly those who predicted that their relationship would crash like a pack of badly arranged cards in no distant time.

These naysayers had cited the circumstances that nurtured their relationship and concluded that nothing good would ever come out of it.

Only recently, the duo got another opportunity to debunk these negative predictions and show the world how enduring their love has been, with every intention to keep at it for a very long time. It was at the 57th birthday party of media entrepreneur, Mo Abudu.

The duo were all loved up all while the party lasted. They couldn’t stay apart from each other, to the envy of other guests. Unfortunately while they bask in the warmth of their love, Anenih’s wife, Esosa, continues to suffer

in silence. Esosa, who has since resigned herself to fate, has tried in vain, for almost 10 years, to break the bond between her husband and Linda.

The affair began shortly after Linda ended her fairy tale marriage to Dean Priddy, much to the consternation of family and friends who considered them a model couple. The marriage produced a child and both moved on with their lives. Not long afterwards, Anenih jnr, who was reportedly having some challenges in his home, met Linda, became entranced by her beauty and chose to be with her despite repeated pleas from his wife to rescind his decision.

While many blame Esosa for pushing Tony into the arms of another woman with her attitude, others think that Esosa who recently clocked 50, is undeserving of the treatment she has received from her husband of 19 years.

Perhaps Tony Anenih’s tenacity, focus and determination in love, should be studied by men who desire to emulate him but are unable to summon the courage to do so.

Edozien & Anenih

Florence Ajimobi Loses Mother

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ormer first lady, Florence Ajimobi, is in a mournful mood. Barely a few months after holding the memorial

Amudoaghan

anniversary of her late husband and former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, she is now mourning her mother, Victoria Amudoaghan, who died on Thursday September 9, reportedly of old age.

Born on April 10, 1943 at Kwale in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, the late Mrs Amudoaghan as a young Lady, moved to Lagos, settled there and married her husband, the late Erasmus Amudoaghan. Florence’s husband, Ajimobi died on June 25, 2020 of COVID-19 complications.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

STORIES BY SHADE METIBOGUN

FRIENDS SOLICIT FINANCIAL AID FOR AILING GBENGA RICHARDS N

ollywood actor, Gbenga Richards, is not enjoying the best of health right now. The once vibrant actor, who was a force to reckon with in the 1990s and early 2000s, is suffering from a series of ailments and raising money for his treatment has become difficult because he has fallen on hard times.

Richards is reportedly suffering from diabetes and other related ailments. Some of his colleagues and friends have been soliciting funds to cater for his welfare. Comic actor,

Ime Bishop Umoh, also known as Okon, and Emmanuel Ehumadu, popularly known as Labista, have taken to social media to seek financial assistance for him.

The actor’s old friends and some of his fans recently joined in the campaign to help him.

Reputed to be a ladies’ man, Gbenga lived life to its fullness while the going was good.

Although he was married to one of his colleagues, Florence, for well over 15 years, one day he absconded from home and never returned. He left his wife

Nkiru Anumudu Returns To Social Scene

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Richards and children under the guise of going on location and never returned to his marriage.

Florence had to move on and relocate from their once peaceful matrimonial home.

The first appearance Richards made as an actor was to represent Nigeria with Hubert Ogunde at the Second World Black and African Festival of African Culture (FESTAC) in 1977. He also featured in the blockbuster movies like Sango, Mirror in the Sun, Betrayal by Love, Fighting Machine and a host of others.

How Old Age-Related Ailment Killed Baba Sala’s Wife

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t is no longer news that Bolanle Adejumo, one of the wives of late comic actor, Moses Olaiya Adejumo, better known by his stage name, Baba Sala, has passed on. The talented actress died on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, at her residence in Ibadan, Oyo State, of an ailment believed to have been triggered by old age. She was sick for over two months, although her children took care of her and ensured that she lacked nothing.

A few months ago, precisely in July, her children celebrated her

Adejumo

78th birthday, not knowing it would be her last.

Bolanle Adejumo started Alawada Comedy Group with her late husband, Moses Olaiya Adejumo in 1965. She played the role of Iya Sala in the popular Alawada series on the then Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) now known as Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).

She played the role for almost 15 years before a younger wife of the late actor took over. Until her death, Madam Bolane was the eighth wife of the comic actor and the oldest person in the family.

ociety woman, Nkiru Anumudu, has recovered from the rude shock of her husband’s untimely death. The ever stylish mother of four has gradually moved on and has gotten over her grief. She has started making appearances at social gatherings after staying away from the social scene for more than a year.

The elegant woman was the most hit by Sir Willie Anumudu’s death in 2020. She was not only heartbroken, but also depressed. She shaved her hair and remained indoors, wearing only black for one year to mourn her husband.

Before her husband’s demise, the two were usually the cynosure of all eyes at parties and other social events. Her fashionable dresses and signature accessories were always a sight to behold.

The woman of style seems to have forgotten her travails and moved on. She was spotted recently at Mo

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Baba Ijesha

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some months ago. The alleged child rapist has moved on and is gradually bouncing back. The actor cum comedian returned to location recently and is currently working on a movie location in Ile-Ife, Osun State. The actor made this known in an interview he granted to Kolawole Azeez of Oodua FM, Ile-Ife. In the course of the interview, the comic actor also stated that he has veered into music and has just released two songs titled, Eleda Mi and Very Soon. However, he avoided questions concerning his court case. Omiyinka urged his fans to

support his music career as his two singles are inspiring and soul lifting.

Baba Ijesha was allegedly accused of molesting Damilola Adekoya’s foster child in April, 2021. He was arrested and later granted a bail of N2 million.

During his trial at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja, the thespian employed two senior advocates of Nigeria, Dada Awosika and Babatunde Ogala and other lawyers to defend him as he faced a six -count charge of sexual assault by penetration, indecent treatment of a child and sexual assault which contravenes sections 259,135 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 as well as 135,263 and 262 Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

His case was later adjourned to September 27 after judges went on retreat.

Abudu’s birthday party held in Victoria Island, Lagos in company with Toke Makinwa and Ruth Osime. She sat quietly and savoured the glitz and fun that characterised the party before exchanging pleasantries with a few friends and eventually taking her leave.

Nkiru Anumudu lost her husband, who was the chairman of Globe Motors Limited on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. The automobile magnate suffered some health challenges a few days to his death. He was to be flown to Germany before he died. He was 68 years-old.

Meet Blessing Obasi, Stan Nze’s Beautiful Bride

Baba Ijesha Returns to Movie Location, Unveils Two Songs larenwaju Alabi Omiyinka, also known as Baba Ijesha, seems to have forgotten his travails and the fracas which landed him in Police custody

Anumudu

The Nzediegwus

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n September 11, 2021, Nollywood actor, Stanley Ebuka Nzediegwu, otherwise known as Stan Nze and colleague, Blessing Jessica

have succeeded in keeping their romantic relationship a top secret till pictures of their pre-wedding shoot surfaced on the Internet.

The duo have worked together at movie locations but ensured they maintained an official relationship while at work. They also carefully refrained from posting messages that might ignite suspicion among their fans.

Stan Nze and Blessing Obasi have been an item for about five years now. They met in the line of duty and kicked off their friendship which later blossomed to a love relationship. The beautiful plus size lady is an actor, producer and entrepreneur. As a movie producer, she has featured Stan Nze who is now her husband in most of her movies. She is the Chief Executive officer of D’Esparanza Media production.

She has a couple of movies to her credit such as The Recipient, Dirt Dirtier, Binta Kolonko etc. And she has featured in blockbuster movies too like, Elevator Baby, Prophetess, Game of Chess while Fractured launched her into the limelight. From Abia state in the south eastern part of Nigeria, the ebony skinned thespian attended Obasi, walked down the aisle Federal Government Girls College, in a glamorous ceremony witnessed by family and friends. Umuahia before proceeding to Many were surprised to discover study Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from that the two shared more than a working relationship. As they University of Lagos.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

PERSPECTIVE The Incredible Fani-Kayode !

Southwest, Nigerians are asking if he knows what he “has got into.”

The social media has been awash with FFK’s most recent defection, putting him once again in the public limelight but not the way he would have preferred.

When news first seeped through of FFK’s intended crossover, he swiftly denied it, insisting that will only happen “over my dead body.”

Nor was that the first of the former minister’s unguarded utterances. Nigerians were somewhat shocked, particularly Igbos, when he made a public declaration of his alleged dalliance with Bianca Onoh, wife of late warlord Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. It was in bad taste, FFK’s critic charged.

Sometime last year, too, during his tour of selected states in the South east, FFK publicly dressed down a journalist who wanted to know who was bankrolling his look-around.

It was an underwhelming performance typical of what had come to be known as FFK style: angry and spontaneous outbursts like a senior neighbourhood bully would a much younger person or a less privileged person.

There is hardly any Nigerian who has not heard of Femi Fani-Kayode, scion of first and second Republic politician, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode. Ever since he emerged into public consciousness as Minister of Aviation under OBJ, FFK as he is often called, has had yards and yards of print lavished on him. His frequent appearances on television makes for riveted viewing. To begin with, he is good to look at, almost like a first-rate film star. If you missed his handsome visage, you were almost certain to be hooked by his elocution.

HRH Nasiru Ado Bayero.

BY MICHAEL JIMOH

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here is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,” the great Irish wit, Oscar Wilde, once mused, “and that is not being talked about.”

A publicity freak himself, Wilde remembered for his immortal play, The Importance of Being Earnest and novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, took every opportunity to show his genius or disrespect for the conventional just “about anywhere - in Europe or America.

Arriving in America for the first time in 1882 in the course of a lecture tour at Hudson River Dock, Wilde told his audience: “I have nothing to declare but my genius.”

Wilde got noticed. His publicity mileage got a good traction from then on. Whether for good or ill, the Irish playwright reckoned that publicity pays. In other words, he felt and knew that rather than remain in relative obscurity, it is better to be mentioned either at dinner tables of genteel American hostesses, literary soirees or the Times.

Though not a writer or a bon vivant in the class of the Irish poet, a Nigerian politician, former Minister of Aviation under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and cossetted progeny of a popular family in the Southwest, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode has taken to heart Wilde’s quip about remaining in the public eye, of being a public spectacle – for good or bad.

The latest publicity glitz for Femi Fani-Kayode is his recent defection to the ruling party All Progressives Congress just last week. In case you were in doubt, the man made an appearance with President Muhammadu Buhari himself right in the Presidential Villa.

Rumours had been rife of his intended crossover from the Peoples Democratic Party which he joined from APC in 2015. Before the Abuja photo-op with PMB, FFK was sighted in Kano at the wedding of the president’s son Yusuf Buhari to Zahra Ado Bayero daughter of Emir of Bichi, THEWILLNIGERIA

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If there was any truth to FFK’s imminent crossover, his presence in Kano was it. It was, as they say, pregnant with meanings. He also met and posed with cabinet members in Buhari’s administration that FFK himself almost hung on the noose of his visceral criticism, notably Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

Last April, FFK had cause to denounce the minister whom he called “a homicidal, sociopathic and psychotic individual…Who is a hater of Christians and nonMuslims. He is a religious bigot, an ethnic supremacist, an unrepentant jihadist, a lover of bloodshed, carnage and terror and a psychopathic and clearly insane individual who may well have been responsible for the slaughter of many innocent Christians over the years as a consequence of his inflammatory rhetoric and reckless actions.”

Even PMB himself has been a recipient of the former minister’s vitriol. After PMB fell ill in 2018, FFK was one of the first Nigerians to pronounce him dead, insisting that “Buhari is dead and he never came back from London.

Only his body did. They invoked the spirit of Jubril and placed it in the body of Buhari. It is a common ritual among Satanists.”

In politics, there is a common saying that there are no permanent friends and no permanent foes, which is to say that a friend today might become a fiend tomorrow and the foe today might become your best friend tomorrow.

Even so, there is a certain level of decency and decorum expected of even political gladiators. In that regard, Nigerians are now asking if FFK has gone too far in his political prostitution, as one commentator said in the wake of his defection to a party he once described as propped up on “Janjaweed ideology.” The APC, he went on, “is a Boko Haramite party reserved for Muslim extremists and a handful of Christians who really don’t know what to do with it, what they got into.”

Now that he has joined the party and a Christian from the

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Years down the line after his tenure in OBJ’s cabinet, FFK would find more national assignment under former President Goodluck Jonathan as his Director of Media and Advertising during the 2015 general elections. At the time, FFK left nothing to chance to pull or put down the opposition.

Those who know the man closely, OBJ, for example, have long seen through the FFK façade, telling subordinates and fat cat politicos once that FFK “is my boy. If you give him food, he will dance and sing for you.”

As for the man at the centre of it all, his defection to the APC “was divine,” FFK has said, continuing that he was “led by the spirit of God in my decision and I joined the APC for the unity of the country.”

Not many of FFK’s new party members as sanguine about his defection. “This is the saddest day of my political career,” Babafemi Ojudu said soon after FFK’s crossover.

In a Facebook post, Ojudu who is PMB’s aide on Political Matters recalled a post in 2019 when FFK said he would rather die than join the APC. As for Sheik Mohammed Gumi, the Islamic cleric who has earned national fame as a negotiator with insurgent groups, FFK is the “Judas of Oduduwa.” The cleric wrote that “I have for long neglected the ranting of the Judas of Oduduwa attacking me knowing full well that he is fake and a traitor.

Time has caught up with him and thanks to Allah, all his vituperations are cast in the dustbin of history.”

To be sure, Nigerian politicians are notorious for leaving one party for another. FFK’s isn’t the first and will certainly not be the last. The phenomenon is as old as the first republic – depending on the sea of change in the political climate or the lure of possible plum political appointments just waiting in the wings.

Whatever the motive, especially in FFK’s case, one thing is for sure: the man manages to be the talk of the town for the unenviable or edifying reasons – depending on which side of the divide you are - proving Wilde right once again that it is better to be talked about that been consigned to political obscurity.

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PERISCOPE

Guinness Nigeria: Quick Recovery From ‘Baffling Deal’

BY SAM DIALA igeria’s major Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) firms listed on The Exchange recorded significantly impressive performances in their half year (H1 2021) operations and the results were far beyond industry expectations. But Guinness Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Diageo and a key player in that sector, is not among them, as the company’s annual report for the year, which ended on June 30, 2021, has shown.

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In the past five years, the brewing giant has been battling severe operational and environmental challenges emanating from its internal dynamics and those created by extraneous circumstances beyond its control. But most of the shareholders who interacted with THEWILL expressed optimism that the over two centuries-old firm, operating in over 50 countries and available in over 120, is still strong enough to weather the storm. However, they still nurse the injuries sustained in what they call a ‘baffling deal’ by the company about five years ago.

The company’s 2021 annual report shows moderate improvement in key fundamentals, compared to last year’s result. Analysts have used the firm’s 110 per cent rise in profit after tax (PAT) to N1.25 billion from the loss of a whopping sum of N12.57 billion in 2020 in their banner headlines, yet the numbers show prospects of a firm that must go the extra mile to return close to the comfort zone it once occupied when it declared a dividend of N1,000 per share (in 2011).

The 54 per cent revenue increase to N160.41 billion from N104.37 billion in 2020 has a flipside in the 246 per cent jump in the cost of sales, which leapt to N114.70 billion from N71.04 billion in the preceding year.

The fate of marketing and distribution expenses also deteriorated during the period as the firm witnessed a rise

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from N18.51 billion in 2020 to N26.06 billion in 2021.

EVENTS OF 2016 Guinness Nigeria recorded a loss of N2.015 billion in 2016, the first loss in 30 years, due to several factors that militate against the company that year. This ranged from Nigeria’s worst recession in 25 years to the sharp devaluation of the naira. These are inexorably linked to the purchasing power of the consumers whose response was as expected – a drop in patronage.

But the company also had a serious challenge with the investing public, following what shareholders called a “baffling deal”. Guinness Overseas Limited, Diageo, the parent company had in September 2015 informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange of its intention to make an offer to increase Diageo’s equity stake in Guinness Nigeria from 54.3 per cent to a maximum of 70 per cent.

The excited local investors and traders ‘plunged’ into the company’s stock and invested heavily in it. The rush pushed the share price from about N125 before the announcement to a peak of about N160. By the terms of the offer, Diageo was to launch a partial tender offer at a price not higher than N175 per share in cash to acquire up to 236,176,604 ordinary shares in Guinness Nigeria.

The offer gave Nigerian shareholders willing to sell their shares in Guinness at a significantly higher than market price an opportunity to do so. The offer price at the time represented a premium of 40 percent in the closing share price of Guinness Nigeria on Tuesday September 8, 2015, the day the announcement was made. The total value of the transactions at the intended offer price was approximately N41.3 billion. Guinness Nigeria then had 1,505,888,188 ordinary shares in issue.

Investors and traders took advantage of the premium and invested heavily in Guinness stock at the time with the intention of offloading their stock during the tender offer, which was expected to happen soon. However, the ‘soon’ became 15 months of silence, distributing massive losses in place of profit to Nigerian traders and investors.

In the midst of the losses, Diageo announced a cancellation of the tender offer and the planned equity raise in Guinness Nigeria altogether, citing the tough economic environment.

This finally dashed the hopes of Guinness’ shareholders to ever reclaim their huge losses.

When the market did not hear from them again, the price started dropping until it came below N100. It was at that point after over a year of silence that they announced that they were no longer doing the offer. Panic ensued and the price nosedived to as low as N60 level at the time.

Breaking the sad news, Reuters said, “Diageo has scrapped plans to lift the share in Guinness Nigeria due to tough conditions in one of its biggest markets for the worldfamous stout, the drinks company said on Wednesday. The decision by Diageo, which makes Johnnie Walker Scotch and Smirnoff vodka, is another blow to Africa’s biggest economy, which is headed for its first full-year recession in a quarter of a century following a plunge in oil prices.

“Diageo said last year it planned to buy 15.7 per cent of Guinness Nigeria for up to N41.37 billion, which would have taken Diageo’s stake to 70 per cent. While the naira has since slumped after the Central Bank lof Nigeria lifted a currency peg in June, Guinness Nigeria shares have also fallen to trade well below the price Diageo offered last year,” said Reuters on October 6, 2016.

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PERISCOPE The question coming from vexed traders and investors was why it had to take Diageo over a year to realise it could not carry on the investment plan. The company announced its intention to raise its stake in Nigeria in September 2015. It took them over a year to announce a retreat and close to a year to effect a rights issue.

million in 2016 to N455,300 million in 2017 and N962,571 million in 2018. The figure for 2019 was N488,929 million, and N607,888 million for 2020. In 2021, the firm’s directors received N589, 855 million.

Commenting on the 2021 result, Guinness Nigeria Plc Managing Director/CEO, Mr Baker Magunda said, “The performance of fiscal 2021 showed that the business delivered growth despite the challenging external environment characterised by COVID-19 restrictions and high inflation.

IMAGE CRISIS The travails of Guinness earned it a status downgrade in the Nigerian Stock Exchange early April, 2017, when the exchange announced that it had downgraded Guinness Nigeria from its special pricing status category, following the deprecation in its share price. Of course, this was a pointer to a drop in investors’ confidence in the stock of the firm.

Magunda

“We bring to your notice that Guinness Nigeria Plc has qualified to be reclassified from a high-price stock to a medium-priced stock, as the company’s shares hit below the N100 mark on 21 September, 2016 and it trades below N100 up till the close of business on March 28, 2017. This indicates that Guinness Nigeria Plc has traded below N100 in the last six months,” the Exchange announced in a circular dated April 3, 2017.

“Revenues grew double-digit across all key categories, particularly our strategic focus brands Guinness, Malta Guinness as well as our local and imported spirits. This was supported by improved product mix and headline price increases in key brands. Gross margins declined by 3 per cent driven by inflationary pressure, a shift towards more expensive can products given at-home consumption trends, and forex devaluation impacting some materials.”

Guinness Nigeria eventually secured additional N37.7 billion new equity funds through its rights issue concluded in August 2017. The company had offered 684.49 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N58 per share to existing shareholders on the back of five new shares for every 11 shares held as at the close of business on March 15, 2017.

“Tax was impacted by a one-off historic charge. Profit before tax increased to N5,8billion, a 134 per cent growth versus same period last year; and distribution expenses increased by 22 per cent versus last year behind volume growth due to efficiency improvements across distribution channels.

“Going into the new fiscal year, we are conscious of the continued challenging operating environment with doubledigit inflation and pressured consumer income spending.

However, we will continue to focus on our strategy – optimising our route to consumers, innovating at scale to satisfy our consumers and improving cost control – as we continue to emerge stronger from the current crisis. We remain confident about the execution and resilience of our Total Beverage Alcohol strategy as a key driver of sustainable growth in the market”, Magunda added.

According to analysts, the multinational had acquired the shares at N58 per share that Nigerian investors bought for N160 each. Diageo had granted Guinness Nigeria a $95 million loan facility to help it cope with dollar shortages at the peak of Nigeria’s foreign exchange crisis. It apparently converted the loan to mop up shares at lower prices; the gains of naira depreciation facilitated debt-equity convertibility.

In the whole deal, retail investors had their fingers burnt.

Aside from Guinness, other multinationals and big firms were said to have been involved in a similar game of crowding out the small investors. Lafarge Africa Plc offered rights issues twice in 14 months. In November 2017, the cement producing company sold rights of about 3.1 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N42.50 per share.

The Chair of the Board of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Dr. Omobola Johnson assured that “the Board will continue to support Management in its efforts to sustain global best practices aimed at consistently delivering business growth for stakeholders.

In February 2019, it raised N89.21 billion in new equity funds again through rights issued at N12 per share. The rights issues were structured into convertible deals that allowed the majority core investor, LafargeHolcim, to convert its debts into equities.

We remain confident that the strategy is comprehensive and robust, and that we are making the right investments in the company to ensure our long-term competitiveness” she said Firms in the FMCG sector were badly hit at the peak of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. The 15-months land border closure also had its toll on these companies as many could not distribute or export their products. Procurement of raw materials was also severely challenged. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Guinness Nigeria will bounce back and achieve sustainable growth in the years ahead.

Fourteen companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange then raised N340.6 billion via rights issues in 2017. Industry experts maintained that the plethora of rights issues that happened in the stock market then were mainly triggered by big companies which used the advantage of their size and assets to crowd out retail investors and smaller companies listed on the exchange. The result was a crash in earnings and dividend per share to the dismay of small investors but to the gain of large-volume shareholders.

Did the Nigerian regulator fail to protect the investors in the case of Guinness’ botched tender offer? No. The Nigerian Stock Exchange had at the time the deal was announced, issued a notice signed by Josephine Igbinosun, the then Head of Listings Regulation Department, advising the investing public not to misconstrue Diageo’s planned tender offer as a commitment to do so. In its Market Bulletin coded NSE/LARD/LRD/MB06/15/09/0909 September 2015, the NSE conveyed Diageo’s declared intention to increase its stake in Guinness Nigeria Plc from 54.3 per cent to a maximum of 70 per cent with a caveat: “Please note that today’s announcement is of Guinness Overseas’ intention and does not constitute the announcement of an offer itself and creates no obligation on Guinness Overseas or Diageo to make an offer. Accordingly, we wish to advise Guinness Nigeria’s shareholders that there can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the price or terms of any offer that may be made.

“Further developments will be communicated to shareholders in due course. The proposed partial tender offer will be subject to requisite regulatory approvals, including those of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The formal offer documentation will be posted to shareholders as soon as these approvals are obtained.”

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The company however revealed that its net finance costs remained on a similar level as last year despite the lower debt position, due to the devaluation of Naira impacting the foreign currency-denominated trading balances.

HEALED WOUNDS The “baffling deal” of 2016 seems to have been forgotten and the firm and the shareholders have moved ahead. The shares of Guinness Overseas Limited grew from 699,892,739 in 2016 constituting 46.48 per cent to 1,099,230,804 translating to 50.18 percent after the rights issue that replaced botched partial tender offer. That has remained till date.

Dividend payout in 2016 was 320 kobo per share, dropped to 64 kobo in 2017, but rose to 184 kobo in 2018. The figure dividend for 2019 was 152 kobo, nil for 2020 and 46 kobo in 2021.

The firm recorded a loss of N2.015 billion in 2016 and a negative Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 134k, which bounced back to a positive EPS of 128k and a PAT of N1.923 billion in 2017, PAT of N6.71 billion and EPS of 134k. For 2019, the figures were N5.48 billion PAT and 250 EPS, then a loss of N12.57 billion and negative EPS of 574k in 2020. As life begins to return to the large FMCG firm, it recorded N1.25 billion PAT in 2021 and EPS of 57k.

The firm’s directors’ remuneration rose from N274,141

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Doyen of the Nigerian Stockbrokers, Sam Ndata, said while the botched tender offer could be part of Guinness Nigeria’s problems, it has nothing to do with their reduced turnover. He attributed the downturn in the firm’s fortunes to challenges of the harsh operating environment. “The investors’ confidence is still in the company, hence the levels of subscription recorded during the rights issue”, he said in a note to THEWILL. The National Co-ordinator, Pragmatic Shareholders Association, Mrs Bisi Bakare, said the COVID-19, prolonged land board closure, foreign exchange scarcity, inflation and the general insecurity in the country combined to weigh against the company. She noted that Guinness’ parent company came to the Nigerian subsidiary’s aid during the challenging times of forex scarcity. “As an investor, I appreciate the company’s management for ensuring that the firm comes back to profitability from its loss position last well. We just hope that the trend will continue in the years to come,” she told THEWILL in a note.

Mr Paul Uzum, Stockbroker at Golden Securities Limited had said the botched Guinness tender offer is now a thing of the past, and that investors have moved on.

The mail sent to the Guinness Corporate Communications Agency was not responded to at the time of going to press.

Notwithstanding the challenges, Guinness has maintained its robust corporate social responsibility. It paid N14.93 billion company income tax from 2016-2021.

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SEPTEMBER 19 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

TOURISM Flexibility in Fixing Travel Businesses Amid Challenges

BY JANEFRANCES CHIBUZOR

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“The ability of Hospitality and Tourism industry to generate new employment opportunities especially for low-skilled and unskilled groups (predominantly populated by women and children) makes the sector a critical component in development agenda of this country.

he Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), may not have been able to promote Nigerian tourism globally these days, but certainly it has been reengineering the nation’s tourism businesses in order to be at par with their counterparts across the globe.

“In this age of technology, the international tourism industry has adopted a third “T” (Technology) to drive “Travel and Tourism.”

Little wonder key players in the sector are readying for yet another boom of domestic tourism in the coming months. Practitioners therefore emphasised the need for digital technology in rebuilding the sector amid covid-19 pandemic and security challenges across states.

“The evolution of technology is fostering big changes in the travel and tourism industry. We are currently in an era where technology is the major fulcrum that creates momentum in the leisure-travel space and indeed in all facets of human living,” he said.

This was part of the resolutions reached during the South-South tourism stakeholders’ interactive meeting held recently in Calabar, Cross River State with the theme Use of Digital Technology to Revamp the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Amid COVID-19 and Security Challenges In Nigeria.

He further disclosed that “the pandemic created a unique opportunity for mankind’s advancement by accelerating the deployment of disruptive technologies to make work and living easier in a contactless word occasioned by the virus.” He added: development of digital tools and smart apps continue to disrupt and drive change within the tourism sector in recent times and these technological advancements are already transforming the tourism value chain.

They noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic brought huge challenges to all sectors of Nigerian economy but with tourism sector being the worst hit. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that ‘the choice of theme for stakeholders meeting could not have come at a better time when at the helm of this endeavour is Mr Technology himself (DG NTDC). It is therefore certain that stakeholders and all the sector professionals will take advantage of this meeting to come out with workable and practicable solutions at the end of the day.’

The minister revealed the commitment of the ministry to “providing plain and enabling working environment for all agencies under its purview for optimum performance.”

He advised that inter-agency collaborations in both private and public sectors such as the one that produced this meeting should be strengthened rather than engaging in divisive personal pursuits which are unprofitable.

Cross Rivers State Commissioner of Culture and Tourism Development Eric Anderson emphasised the need to embrace the use of digital technology to enable us to revamp the tourism and hospitality industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic and security challenges in Nigeria.

Anderson remarked that the transformation to use digital technology as an innovation in the tourism sector has opened up new opportunities for tourism businesses to compete in global markets.

Folarin-Coker

He noted that gathering stakeholders in forum that offers the opportunity to seek options like this is most relevant and highly commendable. “It will certainly allow making some postulations as to how best to cope with the situation through identification of sound and workable strategies for a post COVID-19 engagement.”

“At the NTDC, we have been at the frontline of marketing the wonders of the Nigerian world as a particular destination through vital collaborations with technology giants like Facebook, Google and Wikimedia.

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We believe that developing our domestic tourism market is key to attracting foreign tourists.

We need to grow what we have before it can be attractive for tourists and investors

“Digital technology is helping the tourism/travel industry to improve on their day to day operations, modify business models while also improving the customer experience and patronage.”

since early 2020 is stating the obvious, as the advent of the virus disrupted, in a fundamental way, the traditional modes of human convergence, whether around economic, social or other forms of activity.”

He disclosed that with the introduction of digital technology, highvalue services are being delivered in the industry. He pointed out that reports from the global tourism and travels, in 2019 shows a drop to $4.7 trillion after suffering a loss of almost $4.5 trillion in 2020 with a significant drop in GDP by a staggering 49.1%, compared to 2019.

He remarked that “the UNWTO recognized the year 2020 as the worst in Tourism’s recorded history with Tourism arrivals falling back to the year 1990 levels. The National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria recorded a trade deficit of N7.38 trillion in the year 2020. The highest we have recorded since 1981.”

“In 2020, 62 million jobs were lost across the sector globally and until the sector experiences a full recovery, the likelihood of more job losses may still be looming. It is therefore imperative to recreate the sector deliberate for a viable outcome.

Coker commended the resilience of Tourism and Hospitality businessmen and stakeholders while expressing admiration for their steadfast commitment to grow the sector even in the face of huge economic and social challenges.

“Accordingly, the Nigeria Tourism Sector is not laid back but coming to grips with the adaptation to product and service enhancing technologies such as online transport solutions (bolt, online ticketing, etc), destination marketing on social media catalogues (Instagram etc) and others,” he submitted.

He revealed that “part of why we are here today is to collectively develop proactive and sustainable ideas that will properly organize the sector and accelerate its recovery in our country and the SouthSouth geo-political zone. As stakeholders, we need to consider and deploy innovative recovery solutions that are homegrown and practical, tailor-made for our specific environment and people.”

The Director-General Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mr Folorunsho Coker corroborating the submission of Alhaji Mohammed and the Cross River State Commissioner for Tourism on the effect of COVID-19 on Tourism said: “To say that tourism is one of the sectors worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic

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He described Tourism as a powerful and beneficial agent of economic and social change, with significant positive contributions to the balance of payment in many countries throughout the world.

“Through this, a global online audience has been availed the opportunity to Tour Nigeria and witness the stories and cultural treasures of Nigeria. From our festivals to museums, renowned locations, and iconic landmarks, the images and online stories, as offered on our digital channels, unfold a rich tapestry that equally documents Nigeria for posterity.

“Tour Nigeria” is about exploring Nigeria virtually in a manner that will awaken adventurers, taking them on a journey into an authentic national experience that showcases the true spirit and essence of the country, encompassing historic, cultural and heritage sites, to sun-kissed coastlines, beaches, breath-taking waterfalls, natural springs, the grandeur of festivals, wildlife and magnificent plateaus.

“With the success of the protocols of safety and the coming of vaccines and other novel therapies that are lifting the climate of fear that coronavirus has cast across globe, we are gradually closing in to reap a bountiful harvest from digitalising the wonders of the Nigerian world. This will be in terms of motivating a huge volume of physical visits, as our planet makes greater strides towards recovery and heals. There will be a post-pandemic economic boom and tourism will be at its crest. It will be packaged, domestic and Nigerian for Nigerians, he said.

Coker disclosed that Domestic Tourism is six times bigger than international Tourism, hence, Tour Nigeria™️, and the economic revival which it is set on becoming a part of, signposts healing for the country, our ways of life, destinations and livelihoods.

“In its online manifestation, the Tour Nigeria brand is leveraged to become a premier destination for authentic Nigeria content, in a way that deploys creativity, arts and culture, all driven by technology, to advance the new national agenda.

“We believe that developing our domestic tourism market is key to attracting foreign tourists. We need to grow what we have before it can be attractive for tourists and investors.

“We also believe that it can only be achieved when the tourism laws are reviewed, standards are unified, manpower is properly trained, stakeholders collaborate, investments are attracted, and proper marketing and promotion are done.”

On his part, Chairman Akwa Ibom State Hotels Management and Tourism Board, Mr. Ini Akpabio revealed some of the factors militating against utilizing digital technology to revamp the Nigerian Hospitality and Tourism industries amid COVID-19 and security challenges.

Some of the factors, according to him, included “Lack of electricity and were available, low of a voltage; poor internet network; high cost of digital technology equipment; poorly trained owners of hotels and managerial staff of hospitality and tourism businesses.

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SportsLive

Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk’s High Stakes Challenge

BY JUDE OBAFEMI

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n Saturday, September 25, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, Britain’s unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will put his World Boxing Organisation (WBO), World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight titles on the line against former undisputed cruiserweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk, in furtherance of Joshua’s determined quest to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Without losing sight of the importance of waiting to see who he would potentially face after Wilder and Fury have had their dramatic and long-winded trilogy of bouts over and done with, Joshua was immediately faced with the need to prepare for an equally significant fight with the mandatory challenger of his WBO belt in the form of a dangerous, yet capable, southpaw opponent, Usyk the Ukrainian. The latter had set his challenge aside, out of respect for the unification bout between Joshua and Fury, but was now ready to take on the Brit after the August 14 bout was called off.

The Ukrainian poses an unmitigated threat against Joshua, based on his antecedents and the long-suffering endurance bracket that he has demonstrated he can surmount in fight after fight. The boxing qualities that the 34-year-old Usyk possess have seen him remain undefeated in all of his 18 fights so far. Of that record, the boxer, appropriately nicknamed “The Cat”, has notched up 13 knockouts to earn a tidy reputation as one Ukrainian to avoid at all costs, when you can, or to prepare against seriously, when you cannot.

Usyk’s pedigree saw the highly decorated champion claim an Olympic gold in the Summer Games in London in 2012 before turning professional the following year. He carried on his amazing record of feline slyness all the way to becoming only the fourth male boxer in history to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF titles, but in the cruiserweight class. These accolades have seen him consistently ranked on multiple pound-for-pound lists. In 2018, having conquered the cruiserweight category and as the undisputed cruiserweight champion, Usyk made the jump to the heavyweight category to carry on his legacy.

The Ukrainian still has not fought an opponent he did not defeat. In the heavyweight division, he triumphed over Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora to have come, one fight after another and one victory over the previous, to become the mandatory challenger for the WBO title of the heavyweight champion that is Joshua. However, the impact of his challenge puts not just the single WBO belt on the line, but all three of Joshua’s titles, including the WBA and IBF belts that have made the Brit the unified heavyweight champion that he is today.

That reason makes the September 25 bout all the most important for both boxers. It will be unlike any other fight Usyk has ever experienced as not only will it be on the scale of a heavyweight class fight, the Ukrainian will be going not just against a fellow London 2012 Olympic Games gold medalist, who just so happens to be one of the best heavyweight boxers in the world, but also against a champion who had not too long ago tasted the very bitter bile of defeat, when in June 1, 2019 Joshua lost his belts to Andy Ruiz Jr via a seventh-round technical knockout and would do everything possible to not have to experience that again.

There was no clearer sign of this than the fact that Joshua’s last fight ended with a devastating knockout of Kubrat “The Cobra” Pulev, the Bulgarian mandatory IBF challenger, who some pundits thought was going to be a solid test of Joshua’s THEWILLNIGERIA

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Joshua & Usyk

On the other side of the September bout lies the long anticipated opportunity for the epic showdown between Joshua and fellow British World Boxing Council (WBC) champion, Tyson Fury, to determine the undisputed champion, if all goes well with their respective next fights.

Just as plans for that epic fight were finalised and an August 14 date fixed, an arbitrator ruled in favour of former WBC champion,n Deontay Wilder, to get his third fight with Fury before the British boxer can face any other challenger.

resolve to not take chances with any and all challengers. That victory last December clearly showed where Joshua’s mind is concerning the defence of his titles. Against Usyk, he will hold the advantages of significant height, reach and power points.

All of this put together, with Joshua’s recognition as one of the game’s best finishers, make it an overly uphill stretch for even a boxer of Usyk’s repute and he may end up being another big name to fall to Joshua’s drive towards his goal to unite all four heavyweight belts under his name. Joshua will enter the ring to see to that at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London where both boxers will be fighting for the first time in a bout that has been billed as “Dare to Do” in some of the promotional materials and as “The Perfect Storm” in some others.

The absence complacency, which has become the hallmark of Joshua’s preparations for fights, especially since that 2019 loss to Ruiz Jr, has seen the champion drop some pounds in weight to reach a set target that will give him a better stance against a boxer like Usyk, who came from the cruiserweight class undefeated and is taking the heavyweight by storm.

Joshua shared a picture of his new physique with his fans on social media to let them in on how he was getting himself set for the all-important fight.

His transformation was eye-popping. The usually fleshy boxer was looking menacingly trimmer and more muscular.

The comments on the picture said that much with almost all those who commented remarking on his trimming regime.

Questioned about the wisdom behind it, as he was supposed to be a heavyweight boxer and the weight was a functional part of the division, Joshua revealed that there was a very calculated and purposeful objective to the regime. He said, “I do look at my weight, but I’m not trying to make weight because I’m a heavyweight.

“I tailor my training. I am getting a lot of experience. I’ve been fighting good fighters for a long time. I’ve studied them and learned about their training camps. I’ve learned how to condition my body for specific fights. I’m looking trim for this fight. I’m fighting a guy who is a 12-round fighter. So it would be silly of me to go in there bulky with my muscles screaming for oxygen. I’ve been training like a 15-round fighter in this camp. I will be well-conditioned to fight. That is key. What happens when I train that way? My body adapts and takes its natural form. This is the form it has taken.”

However, this training regime has been knocked by Alexander Krassyuk, Usyk’s promoter. Krassyuk claims that Joshua is making a mistake by cutting down his weight for their upcoming bout, going as far as suggesting that Usyk

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may have been given a leg-up by AJ’s own strategy, ahead of the fight.

The promoter’s response to Joshua’s slimming down was, “We accept this news as good news because formerly a lot of experts gave his weight as an advantage. Now AJ is reducing his advantage.

“I’m not sure how he’s going to be on the scale and what kind of figure he will show, but he looks slimmer than he was in any of his previous fights. And that makes me think that AJ wants to present some boxing tactics for Usyk,” he said.

Yet, Joshua is a professional with a camp of professionals, all of whom have followed the rise of Usyk and will have studied him enough to be keenly aware that this bout against the Ukrainian could go the distance. There is little to support thinking that Usyk will have what it takes to claim a big, dirty knockout, as Joshua suffered against Ruiz Jr. But if Joshua’s camp knows anything about the former cruiserweight undisputed champion, they must be aware of and prepared to outbox a very shrewd boxer and resilient opponent that will fight all 12 Rounds if it goes that far.

When Joshua takes to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ring, he will have the prayers and best wishes of the Akarigbo and Paramount Ruler of Remoland in Ogun State, Oba Babatunde Ajayi, in his corner supporting him against the wiles of Usyk.

The traditional ruler called on residents and people of Remo across the world to engage in “fervent prayers” in support of the Remo-born Joshua ahead of their September 25 bout.

In the statement to this effect, Akarigbo noted: “It is not a mean feat for anyone to chest out and represent his country.

It is indeed a huge challenge for Anthony Joshua while his victory would be a great pride for us all and Nigeria. By God’s grace, he would come out triumphant against Usyk in the name that is above all names. Amen.

“Indubitably, the stake is really high for us all. Therefore, moments like this call for every support we can render our own, and most importantly, since we can not all be at the ringside to cheer up Anthony Joshua, please let us support him in fervent prayer and by God’s grace, we shall together celebrate another Anthony Joshua’s victory on the 25th September 2021. I thank you all in the solidarity and as you are being there for one of us, the good Lord shall be there for you also all seasons.”

It is now left for Joshua to put Usyk in the column of those who tried and failed against his resolve to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world come September 25.

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