Sunday 19th June 2016

Senate Panel Adopts Speakers’ Bid for Same Removal Process as Govs

Approves life pension for N'Assembly presiding officers, removal of presidential assent in constitution review, LG autonomy, independent candidacy

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja The Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution yesterday in Lagos approved a proposal to amend Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution with the intention to adopt

the same process of removing governors for speakers of state Houses of Assembly.

The decision was arrived at, on the second day of the two-day retreat of the committee which began on Friday at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria

Island.

The resolution followed the submission of speakers of state Houses of Assembly present at the session that in view of the facile way of removing speakers, the presiding officers at the state levels had become

endangered species arbitrarily thrown out of office.

The proposal was overwhelmingly adopted by the committee members in expression of their solidarity for their counterparts at the state level. The decision was

also adopted in the spirit of sportsmanship as some senators said it was only right for them to encourage the speakers whose co-operation would be needed to pass amendments proposed by the National Assembly.

Section 188 (1-11) of the constitution spells out the process of removing governors.

Specifically, sub-section 2 (a,b) of the provision states that the process of removing governors Continued on page 8

Next Week: The Governorship Dashboard - A Special Editorial Appraisal of Nigeria's 36 Governors Sunday 19 June, 2016 Vol 21. No 7725

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Sex Scandal: Accused Lawmakers Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Says Dogara House to collaborate with US embassy on investigation

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has urged Nigerians to refrain from passing judgement on the three lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct while on

a trip to the United States, as they are innocent until proven guilty.

He added that while no evidence had been provided, asides the petition accusing them of misconduct, the House would collaborate with the US Embassy in Ni-

geria to get to the root of the matter.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, in a June 9 letter to Speaker Yakubu Dogara accused the three lawmakers of attempted rape and solicitation for sex, when they visit-

Edo APC Picks Obaseki, as Uncertainty Beclouds PDP's Guber Nomination

Cleveland police ‘unaware’ of incident

ed Cleveland, Ohio in April 2016, as part of the International Visitor Leadership Programme.

The accused lawmakers are Hon. Mohammed Garba Gololo (Bauchi APC), Hon. Samuel Ikon (Akwa Ibom PDP) and Hon. Mark Gbil-

lah (Benue APC). Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper cleaning his hotel room and solicited for sex, while Gbillah and Ikon allegedly asked hotel parking attendants to help them find prostitutes.

The three lawmakers have

denied the allegations.

Speaker Dogara, according to a statement issued Saturday by his spokesman, Mr. Turaki Hassan, assured that the House would conduct a thorough investigation into the scandal.

Continued on page 8

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WEEKLY PULL-OUT

19.06.2016

INEC yet to recognise any faction in PDP national leadership tussle Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja Mr. Godwin Obaseki yesterday emerged the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress in Edo State ahead of the September 10 election to choose a successor to Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Obaseki beat 11 other contestants to pick the ticket of the state’s ruling party in the governorship primaries whose run-up was mostly tense.

But in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, there was considerable uncertainty at the weekend about the party’s participation in the governorship election. This followed an escalation of the

party’s leadership crisis, as the two men who laid claim to its headship readied to send different electoral panels to the state for the party’s governorship primaries scheduled to hold tomorrow.

And the Independent National Electoral Commission said yesterday that it had “not recognised any of the factions” or taken a position on the PDP crisis.

Obaseki polled 1,608 votes.

The other aspirants that took part in the APC governorship primaries were Dr. Pius Odubu (the deputy governor), Dr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, Kenneth Imansuangbon, Prof. Oserhiemen Osunbor, Prof. Ebegue Amadasun, Austin Emua, Comrade Peter Esele, Justina Agbara, Blessing AgbomContinued on page 8

TAMPIRI IRIMAGHA-AKEMU

DOING IT HER WAY

Obaseki

EDITOR: Due to technical hitches, THISDAY Style is not in this edition.

Your favourite magazine resumes next week.

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T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016

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SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016 T H I S D AY

The love of a father goes beyond words. It finds expression in the little things that often go unnoticed everyday.

That’s why we have picked today to wish all the special Dads who make things happen a very Happy Fathers Day.

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016

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SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2016 • T H I S D AY T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

PAGE EIGHT EDO APC PICKS OBASEKI, AS UNCERTAINTY BECLOUDS PDP'S GUBER NOMINATION here, Gen. Charles Airhiavbere, and Arigbe Osula A total of 2,582 delegates were accredited to vote at the primary election that was conducted by an electoral committee constituted by the national headquarters of APC, headed by Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari.

There was a frenetic pitch of activity in the camps of the various aspirants as they jostled for the endorsement of the delegates till the very last moment before the primary election. As early as 5:30am yesterday, heavily armed security operatives, made up of riot police, men of the Department of State Security, and officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, were deployed at strategic routes leading to the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, venue of the delegates election. Motorists were diverted to other routes.

The delegates queued at different locations according to the three senatorial districts in the state and were accredited before the commencement of voting. The delegates from Edo Central

senatorial zone were accredited at the George Idah Primary School on Ihama Road, Government Reservation, and their counterparts from Edo North did theirs at Imaguero Secondary School on Sapele road. The Edo South delegates did their accreditation at Agbado Primary School along Akpakpva road.

Security was tight at the three accreditation centres.

But as at 8.30am, when THISDAY visited George Idah Primary School, venue for Edo Central delegates, officials for the accreditation were yet to arrive with the materials.

However, the exercise commenced early at Agbado Primary School.

It was gathered that the Masari-led committee adopted the scattered process for easy control of the crowds and to save time.

Accredited delegates were conveyed from the accreditation centres to the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium where the voting commenced about 5.15pm following the arrival of the electoral committee members about 4.59pm.

Speaking before the commencement of the election,

Masari said his team arrived Edo State on Friday and had met with all the aspirants, the APC National Working Committee, and the state executive committee members of the party. The guidelines for the primary election were formally read out to all the stakeholders.

Masari stated, "We promised to be fair and just to all as umpires. The interest of the state should be the motive for the contest. We have advised the contestants.”

Meanwhile, INEC said it was yet to decide on the crisis rocking PDP. Chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, told THISDAY last night that the commission was still observing the situation and will at the appropriate time make its position known.

"The truth of the matter is that INEC has not taken any position,” Oyekanmi said by telephone. “INEC has not recognised any of the factions as at today. When we do, we will issue a public statement and we will state why we are recognising any of the factions. But as of today, INEC has not recognised any PDP group. Our prayer is that the

warring parties will reconcile as soon as possible."

The PDP crisis worsened last week when the ousted national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi – leaders of the two warring factions in the party – set up separate electoral committees to conduct the governorship primaries in Edo State. Sheriff continued to lay claim to the chairmanship of the party, despite the dissolution of the National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee, which he led, during the May 21 national convention of the party in Port Harcourt. The Port Harcourt convention, which held amid a parallel meeting of some PDP leaders in Abuja, constituted a national caretaker committee headed

by Makarfi.

As part of preparations for the Edo State governorship poll, the Makarfi committee set up an electoral panel to conduct the primaries. The committee advertised the nomination forms for sale at the cost of N16 million. The electoral panel, which has former Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswan, as chair-

man, had already conducted ad-hoc congresses to choose delegates for the governorship primaries.

Suswan said three aspirants had indicated interest in contesting for the PDP governorship ticket and had already signed an undertaken to abide by the outcome of the primary election scheduled for tomorrow in Benin City.

The Sheriff camp has also gone ahead to set up a committee headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma to oversee the Edo State governorship primary and congresses for the forthcoming election.

Sheriff announced the membership of the election committee last Monday when he launched a comeback at the national secretariat after initially being denied entry by security agents. He insisted that the only people that will be screened by the committee were those with evidence of N10 million payment for nomination.

"We have also asked all interested PDP members to come and purchase nomination forms for the Edo State governorship primary. The forms for the primary elec-

tion is N10 million and N16 million as was announced by the Makarfi-led caretaker committee"," he said.

Spokesman of the PDP national caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, had alleged that the APC federal government was sponsoring Sheriff to weaken the former ruling party ahead of the Edo State election.

According to Adeyeye, "The APC has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship election. We have credible intelligence that sheriff had a meeting on Sunday night with an APC governor from North-west, where it was finalised that he would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in the PDP with the objective of preventing the PDP from presenting a candidate for the Edo governorship elections, or in the very least, to prevent the PDP from offering a serious challenge to APC whose electoral fortunes have continued to nose- dive.”

See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com

rigorous.

The overall intention is to make the act of removing speakers difficult so that the move will no longer be attractive to their colleagues in the Houses of Assembly.

The committee also reopened the amendments passed by the seventh National Assembly which were vetoed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Prominent among the proposals was the move to remove presidential assent on constitution amendments.

This decision was arrived at after a heated debate with some senators who argued that having secured the two-thirds majority support of members of each house of the National Assembly as well as state Houses of Assembly, the assent of the president is no longer necessary.

But opponents of the move said the principle of checks and balances would be defeated if the president is outrightly barred from assenting to constitutional amendments.

They also argued that in as much as no bill can become a law unless it is assented to by the president, it is only normal to retain presidential assent on constitution amendments.

However, when the issue was put to vote, majority supported the removal of presidential assent on amendments and the resolution was passed.

The committee also approved autonomy for local governments. Before arriving at the decision, members of the committee elaborately brainstormed on the plights of Nigerians at the grassroots especially teachers who are owed several months of salary arrears.

They blamed the trend on the inability of council chairmen to independently control finances due to them and therefore resolved that the only way to put paid to the trend is to make financial autonomy of local councils a constitutional affair.

The committee also approved the incorporation of

independent candidacy into the constitution with the belief that the move would provide a platform for individuals who are shut out of their parties’ nomination to test their popularity on the ballot box.

The review committee resolved to recommend immunity from prosecution for senate president, deputy senate president, speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. It also agreed to remove "force" from the "Nigeria Police Force" and consequently rename it Nigeria Police.

In the same vein, it resolved to recommend for Senate approval, pension for presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Members of the committee had argued that if the president, vice president, governors and deputy governors are entitled to life pensions, the presiding officers in the legislature do not deserve anything less.

However, the committee dropped proposals such as the introduction of indigeneship into the constitution with the intention to confer indigeneship of a particular area on anyone who has resided in that area for 10 years and above. It also dropped the proposal to include education as a fundamental right.

Advocates of this proposal had argued that it would compel young lads who wander on the streets especially in Northern Nigeria to go to school. But the proposal failed to sail through.

The committee also dropped the move to inculcate electoral offence in the constitution. The proposal was meant to ban anyone convicted of electoral offence for not less than 10 years.

In his final remark, chairman of the committee and Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, reminded participants that resolutions at the retreat were mere proposals and subject to the approval of two-thirds majority of both houses of the National Assembly as well as houses of assembly before they can eventually be passed.

SENATE PANEL ADOPTS SPEAKERS’ BID FOR SAME REMOVAL PROCESS AS GOVS begins with "a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the House of Assembly stating that the holder of such office is guilty of gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office, detailed particulars of which shall be specified."

Once this is done, "the speaker of the House of Assembly shall, within seven days of the receipt of the notice, cause a copy of the notice to be served on the holder of the office and on each member of the House of Assembly, and shall also cause any statement made in reply to the allegation by the holder of the office, to be served on each member of the House of Assembly."

The section further provides that "within 14 days of the presentation of the notice to the speaker of the House of Assembly (whether or not any statement was made by the holder of the office in reply

to the allegation contained in the notice, the House of Assembly shall resolve by motion, without any debate whether or not the allegation shall be investigated."

Sub-section 4 of the provision further stipulates that "a motion of the House of Assembly that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed unless it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of the House of Assembly."

The process further provides that "within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions of this section, the chief judge of the state shall at the request of the speaker of the House of Assembly, appoint a panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation

as provided in this section.

"The holder of an office whose conduct is being investigated under this section shall have the right to defend himself in person or be represented before the panel by a legal practitioner of his own choice. A Panel appointed under this section shall (a) have such powers and exercise its functions in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly; and (b) within three months of its appointment, report its findings to the House of Assembly.

"Where the Panel reports to the House of Assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter. Where the report of the Panel is that the allegation against the holder of the office has been proved, then within fourteen days of the receipt of the report, the house of Assembly shall consider the report, and if by

a resolution of the House of Assembly supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all its members, the report of the Panel is adopted, then the holder of the office shall stand removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report.

"No proceedings or determination of the Panel or of the House of Assembly or any matter relating to such proceedings or determination shall be entertained or questioned in any court. In this section, 'gross misconduct' means a grave violation or breach of the provisions of this Constitution or a misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion in the House of Assembly to gross misconduct."

In coming up with this proposal, the speakers said the 36 presiding officers of the state Houses of Assembly had met and collectively adopted the proposal which is meant to make the process of removing speakers more complex and

SEX SCANDAL: ACCUSED LAWMAKERS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, SAYS DOGARA The speaker, in his first public reaction to the allegations in a series of tweets earlier yesterday urged Nigerians to wait for the outcome of the investigation by the House. “...as ambassadors of the House and indeed, the entire country, the members in the middle of the scandal would have known not to bring dishonour to the institution they represent,” he said.

Dogara also disclosed that the accused lawmakers had expressed readiness to defend themselves at their own cost. He also noted that no allusion was made to attempted rape in the petition.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Police Friday said they were unaware of the incident when they were contacted

by THISDAY on Friday night.

An officer who answered the call to the telephone number +1-216-623-5300 however noted there were five police units in Cleveland and suggested the Sex Crime Unit would normally

handle such investigations.

He connected our reporter to the Sex Crime unit, and the detective who picked the call also said he was unaware of the incident.

He further transferred the call the to the record unit which should be aware of any such development if it was reported, an automatic prompter asked our reporter to leave a message and contact details which would be responded to.

THISDAY left a message, and called back several times, but there was no callback as at 8.10pm Friday night.

THISDAY also contacted the Residence Inn hotel where the lawmakers stayed at 527 Prospect Avenue E, OH 44115 with telephone number +1-216-443-9043.

The lady who answered the call said the hotel management was aware of the incident involving the lawmakers.

She however noted that she was not competent to speak on the matter, and

transferred the call to the officer who she said was competent to respond to enquiries.

The officer was not on his seat to pick the call, and the call was not returned as at press time.

When THISDAY repeated the call on Saturday, a man who picked the phone declined to comment on the matter maintaining that only the GM could comment on it. He later transferred the call to the GM’s line. Again, the senior hotel official was not on seat and a voice mail left by THISDAY was not responded to. An email sent to the hotel yesterday to find out whether the hotel accosted the lawmakers when the allegations were leveled and whether a report was made to law enforcement agency was also not replied.

THISDAY also reached out to the United States Mission in Abuja on Friday to enquire why the attempted rape and solicitation for sex, were not reported to Cleveland Police when the law-

makers were still there participating in the programme.

It also sought to know what form of evidence indicting the lawmakers exists, such as CCTV footage, and why their visas were revoked instead of giving them the opportunity to return to Cleveland to clear their names through the court system.

The spokesperson of the Embassy, Mr. Sean McIntosh, declined to respond to the queries or to comment.

In an email, he said: “As far as your questions are concerned, it is our policy to not comment on private diplomatic correspondence.

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us.”

A follow up mail sent by THISDAY to the embassy on Saturday was responded to

by McIntosh thus: “As I told your editor last night, the United States does not comment on the details of its private diplomatic correspondence. That is all we have to say on this matter. Thank you for understanding.”

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

SUNDAY COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

POST-UTME: BEYOND THE GRANDSTANDING Government should stop playing games with Nigeria’s future

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n complete disregard for the inclusive process that led to the introduction of the Post-Universities Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) examinations in 2003, the federal government recently announced that no tertiary institution may conduct any such examinations in future. “As far as I am concerned, the nation has confidence in what JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) is doing.

The universities should not be holding another examination and if the universities have any complaint against JAMB let them bring it and then we address it. If JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted tests, then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission,” said the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

We consider the minister`s declaration presumptuUnlike JAMB, the ous and not guided by a post-UTME has full understanding of the become one of the issues involved. Besides, nation’s most reliable it is against the spirit of means of aborting university autonomy, the presumed gains especially given that of examination majority of the instituirregularities tions concerned are not through which even owned by the federal unscrupulous government. But there are persons create other more fundamental ‘special centres’ issues. to aid and abet First, the minister is cheating and other wrong in assuming that a forms of unethical unilateral declaration that examination is not backed by a modipractices cum of evidence is enough to displace the postUTME that was agreed upon through a process that involved the committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian universities and other critical stakeholders. Second, the minister assumes that by saying that “the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing” he is indeed speaking for all Nigerians. Third, if the fiasco of the last examination, among other scandalous shortcomings, is part of “what JAMB is doing”, we fail to understand the basis for any vote of confidence.

It is obvious that the minister arrived at the latest position without consultations with the very Nigerians he claims to be speaking for. A recent anecdote by Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, bears out the continued

Letters to the Editor

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relevance of the post-UTME examinations. Babalola related the case of a law candidate with very impressive results, but who failed one of the simplest tests administered. “Since English Literature was and is still central to the admission of students to study Law, he was asked if he knew a novel called “Things Fall Apart” and he answered in the affirmative. We then asked him if he knew the author. The hall was filled with consternation when the young man named the late General Sani Abacha as the author of ‘Things Fall Apart’”, said Babalola.

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S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR TOKUNBO ADEDOJA DEPUTY EDITORS VINCENT OBIA, FESTUS AKANBI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, EMMANUEL EFENI, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR OLUFEMI ABOROWA DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS PETER IWEGBU, FIDELIS ELEMA, MBAYILAN ANDOAKA, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS HENRY NWACHOKOR, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI GENERAL MANAGER PATRICK EIMIUHI GROUP HEAD FEMI TOLUFASHE ART DIRECTOR OCHI OGBUAKU II DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

n case the minister is not aware, the introduction of the post-UTME has enabled our tertiary institutions to do a further and better sifting of candidates.

The number of students that our universities and polytechnics have asked to withdraw because of their inability to defend their high SSCE grades, or cope academically upon admission, has also dropped dramatically. Unlike JAMB, the post-UTME has become one of the nation’s most reliable means of aborting the presumed gains of examination irregularities through which unscrupulous persons create “special centres” to aid and abet cheating and other forms of unethical examination practices.

Besides, the vote of confidence in JAMB is grossly misplaced. As we observed in a recent editorial, their last examinations were so incompetently organised and supervised that the names of some candidates appeared in states they did not apply to. Marks were also jumbled, with some candidates receiving results even before writing the examination.

JAMB was established to eliminate multiple applications, to provide a one-glance update on the various skills set developed across several disciplines by our tertiary institutions over the years and to also help monitor and enforce the recommended 60/40 ratio for science and arts courses in our tertiary institutions. It has however performed less than creditably in these respects, in addition to not having done very well in strengthening national unity. And as the examination body’s relevance and performance has declined over the years the nation must ask whether JAMB is a success story when viewed against the background of the vision that led to its establishment All factors considered, we believe the directive to stop post-UTME was not well thought out and it should not stand.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

THE STAGGERED STRIKE BY OGUN DOCTORS

ermit me a space in your widely read newspaper to comment on the staggered strike embarked upon by the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, Ogun chapter, as reported in the papers.

The reason stated for the industrial action, according to the reports, is that “general hospitals in the state lacked basic equipment, adequate drugs and enough health workers.”

This, to say the least, is the most ridiculous reason for any union to embark on strike. I sincerely believe there are ulterior motives for the so-called

weekly (Mondays and Tuesdays) strike. And don’t be surprised if you meet these doctors in the private hospitals scattered across the state on those strike days attending to patients who otherwise should have gone to public hospitals but for the strike.

Of course, the system in our country permits anything. Government is to pay your monthly salary, yet you spend your time on private practice in private hospitals and thereafter turn round to blame the government for not caring for patients.

If the reason given by the Ogun doctors is as reported in the papers, then all doctors in the federal and

state hospitals in Nigeria should be on strike because everywhere there is lack of this or that. Or is there any government hospital in Nigeria that does not suffer from the “lack” for which only Ogun doctors are now on staggered strike?

I believe the doctors are over pampered by the Ogun State Government.

Their action at this time in Nigeria is the height of insensitivity.

At least these doctors have not denied the reports in the papers that Ogun government employed hundreds of qualified medical personnel, imported and distributed drugs and equipment, reconstructed and renovated health

facilities, including OOUTH at Sagamu. The state has also enjoyed the support of multilateral agencies due to its sticking to global health practices in the industry.

All these facts are in the public domain.

I think Ogun should be among the top states in Nigeria that are doing well on health. The health indices support this assertion. Of course, we still have a long way to go in the country not just in health but in all sectors of the economy.

It is not my place to speak for the Ibikunle Amosunled government. Those in charge of health matters or government should do that.

However, as a resident of the state, I can state what I

have experienced, seen and read in the papers.

And the timing of the strike raises a pertinent question: do these workers have human feelings? Niger Delta Avengers in the South South, Boko Haram in the North East, Indigenous People of Biafra in the East, in the midst of economic downturn aggravated by attacks on oil facilities.

Is there a money-making factory in Ogun State?

The doctors should state the real reason for the strike rather than hide under the worn-out and much abused cliché, “lack of this, lack of that!”

–Johnson Adetayo, Sagamu, Ogun State

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

SUNDAYNEWS

News Editor Abimbola Akosile E-mail: abimbola.akosile@thisdaylive.com, 08023117639 (sms only)

Herdsmen Kill Village Head, Five Others in Benue George Okoh in Makurdi Suspected herdsmen weekend killed a village head and five others at Dusa Villages in Turan council ward of Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, in a renewed attack in the area.

It was gathered that the communities were attacked in the early hours of yesterday by the marauders who stormed the area shooting sporadically and chanting war songs.

According to an eyewitness “After the killings, they took their time to raze several houses and huts in the affected communities after which they retreated.”

Confirming the attack in a text message, the representative of

the area at the Benue State House of Assembly, Dr. Terna-Kester Kyenge, said he had visited the affected persons and community leaders. Condemning the attack, Kyenge appealed to relevant agencies to take immediate steps to secure the area and also send relief materials to the hundreds of displaced persons in the affected communities who fled their homes for fear of being killed.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Assistant Superintendent (ASP), Moses Yamu confirmed the attack, stressing that the Police were able to recover five bodies from the attacked communities. He added further that one person was still missing at the time of this report.

...Tension in Bayelsa over Attacks SCHOLARLY VISIT L-R: Managing Director of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency (LASAA), Mobolaji Sanusi, and renowned Journalism scholar and Editorial Adviser of The Nation newspapers, Prof. Olatunji Dare, during the latter’s visit to the agency in Lagos...recently

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

Court Restrains NERC from Escrowing Discos’ Accounts

There was tension in Bayelsa state yesterday over alleged herdsmen attacks on farmers in the state.

To douse the growing anger, an advocacy group, the Nigeria Reconciliation and Stability Project of the British Council and the Bayelsa State Peace and Conflict Management Alliance met yesterday with herdsmen and farmers in the state. Specifically, the cattle breeders were said to have attacked farmers in Biogbolo, Yenuzie-Epie, Okutukutu and Epie in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

A farmer and victim of the herders’ attack, Mrs. Margaret Samuel, said during the attack, she was given a knife cut on her hand. She urged the government to protect the farmers against cruel attacks by herdsmen through an enabling law.

“My hands were nearly cut

Ejiofor Alike

Two Federal High Courts sitting in Abuja have granted separate injunctions at the instance of eight electricity distribution companies, restraining the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from implementing its directive for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to escrow the accounts of the distribution companies, who cannot meet their monthly payment obligations to the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET).

NERC and other connected persons were also restrained from compelling the distribution companies from entering into Promissory Note arrangement with NBET, as well as from calling on the Letters of Credit (LC) placed by the Discos with NBET through certain commercial banks, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.

The distribution companies had alleged that despite the cash flow problems they faced as a result of NERC’s bad management of the power sector, the regulatory agency had

vide a directive with reference No. NERC/MC &R/16/098 of March 30, 2016, directed the apex bank to escrow the accounts of Discos who cannot meet their monthly payment obligations under the vesting contracts and who are yet to place their LC with NBET in accordance with the escrow directive.

The Discos had instituted two lawsuits at the Federal High Court (FHC) – suits No. FHC/ABJ/CS/387/2016 and FHC/ABJ/CS/386/2016 to seek redress for the lingering problems.

At a hearing before Justice Ademola J of the Federal High Court of the FCT, Abuja on June 14, the Discos got an injunction restraining NERC and connected persons from “(i) giving effect to the Escrow Directive and Guidelines; (ii) calling on the Letters of Credit placed by the Discos with NBET through certain commercial banks; and (iii) compelling the Discos to enter into any Promissory Note arrangement, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.”

Also, in the second Suit No.

FHC/ABJ/CS/386/2016 before Justice Abang J of the Federal High Court of the FCT, Abuja, the court ordered that NERC and NBET be put on notice.

Justice Abang also directed that NERC and NBET must refrain from taking any action capable of frustrating the hearing of the Discos’ motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions, until the hearing of the motion on notice on June 20, 2016.

While the suit before Justice Abang was instituted by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc and four others, the suit before Justice Ademola was filed by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc and two others, which has been adjourned to June 28, 2016.

Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), Prof. Konyin Ajayi and Mr. Oluseye Opasanya led Prosper Akubue for the applicants/plaintiffs in Justice Abang’s court.

The Discos have argued that the federal government and NERC have reneged on government’s statutory obligation to the power sector and electricity consumers.

According to them, the

Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) in Part VIII obligates the federal government, through NERC to provide funds to subsidise indigent electricity consumers, who cannot pay electricity bills.

“Such subsidy and other obligations of the federal government has not been satisfied, hence the difficulty in improving the power sector, as the Discos are unable to collect payments for electricity supplied, the price of which keeps rising, even though, there is no commensurate power generation to be distributed by the Discos,” the Discos argued.

The Discos also accused NERC of introducing unwholesome regulations and undue interference in the management of the business of the Discos in a manner that frustrates the efforts of the private investors.

According to the Discos, the electricity market has been badly managed by NERC, such that the Discos are not able to meet their obligations under the various industry contracts entered into with various counterparties to facilitate their activities in the power sector.

Flexible FX Policy Long-awaited, Say LCCI, WAFIEM Olaseni Durojaiye

Director-Generals of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, and that of the West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Prof. Akpan Ekpo, have described the new flexible foreign exchange framework as not surprising, even as the duo disagreed on how the new policy would impact the nation’s economy.

Yusuf commended the policy, noting that it was a position that the organised private sector had canvassed for over a year. Similarly, Ekpo stated that it was not surprising given that the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, had earlier hinted at

the policy shift.

In a statement made available to THISDAY, Yusuf explained that the new policy would benefit the economy as it would improve liquidity in the forex market, which would boost investor confidence.

“There will be a significant improvement in the allocative efficiency of foreign exchange, supply of forex to the forex market will be enhanced as confidence improves, especially from capital importation, export proceeds and Diaspora remittances,” he stated.

According to Yusuf, the new framework would ensure that “there will be a considerable moderation in exchange rate as supply of forex improves, the federation account will benefit from better revenue

inflows from the CBN as sale of subsidised forex comes to an end, the policy is a major incentive to exporters as they will have unfettered access to their export proceeds”.

Furthermore, in his reaction, Ekpo, who traced the foreign exchange crisis to scarcity of foreign currency, which is not Nigeria’s currency argued that “the new forex regime is assuming that the Nigerian economy is productive and manufacturing or adding value to the production chain – exporting such commodities to earn forex which is then ploughed back into the economy. The Nigerian economy is not that sophisticated to implement the type of forex market mechanism regime enunciated by the CBN. “If the economy is produc-

tive and manufactures for exports, then the forex market would operate like any other market in the economy. But this is not the case. It is important to create an environment which favours production and manufacture for export before allowing the market to take control of the forex market implying depreciation of the Naira. Perhaps the intervention fund of the CBN to boost export is to create such an enabling environment. However, what is the track record of such fund?

Has it been implemented?” he wondered.

Ekpo, who welcomed the idea of the CBN playing the role of moderator explaining that the ability to intervene when the need arises will influence the direction of the market, how-

off by the herdsmen during a recent attack. The attack was cruel and it must not be allowed to continue. I was surprised when I saw a group of herdsmen in my farm on that fateful day and before I could say a word, they started beating me,” Samuel alleged. But one of the herdsmen, Suleman Abubakar, said those fueling the attack were not herdsmen based in Bayelsa.

Abubakar said, “I do not know where the attacks are coming from because I have never been part of it.”

“I move my cows from place to place and do not find people’s trouble. I can tell you emphatically that we (herdsmen) in Bayelsa don’t know who is causing the problem in the state.

“Those causing the trouble in Bayelsa are not herdsmen based here. We suggest that the relevant authorities should carry out more investigation to unravel those behind the dastardly act.”

Delta Holds Economic Summit, Moves to Close Investment Gap Clement Danhutor

The Delta Economic Summit Group (DESG) is set to host its maiden economic discourse themed ‘Bridging the Investment Gap in Delta State’. In line with the group’s vision to become the principal private sector-led think tank and advocacy group in economic development, DESG has said it aims to promote improved collaboration between the State government and the private sector through the event, which holds on June 30 this year.

The event, which will take place in Lagos, has an impressive list of confirmed guests, investors and speakers. Confirmed participants include the Governor, Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; Chairman, Diamond Bank Plc, Dr. Chris Ogbechie; CEO, Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane; MD, BEDC, Mrs. Funke Osibodu; Delta State Commissioner, Economic Planning, Dr. Kingsley Emu; CEO, Hiccupuray, Mr. Ali Akpobome (Alibaba); and more.

Canada, Cross River Sign MoU on Education The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) and the Cross River State Government recentlyinOttawa,Canadasigneda Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on education.

The MoU signing came barely 24 hours after the Canadian Government and Cross River State concluded deal on trade and investment. The President of CBIE, Kate McBride, signed on behalf of her bureau while Governor Ben AyadesignedforCrossRiverState Government.

Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Ayade said the intent of the MoU “is to create a new cel-

ebration for the Cross River State Government to ensure that all citizens and indeed, all Nigerians have quality education that is akin to the Canadian standard.”

Recall that during this year’s Children Day celebration, the governor had announced plans by his administration to build a model school of Canadian standard in each of the three senatorial districts in the state. He said the signing of the MoU was therefore, an opportunity to expand “the scope to include the builders’ school, a reconstruction of academia of some sort to improve hands on experience learning.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

NEWS Powerful Politicians out to Bring Me Down, Shettima Alleges Michael Olugbode

KALU HOSPITALITY L-R: The US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, Olivia Kalu; former Abia governor Orji Kalu, Nicole Kalu, Zina Kalu, the Ambassador’s wife, Mrs. Pam Entwistle and Mrs. Ifunanya Uzor Kalu during a dinner party at Kalu’s residence in honour of US Ambassador…recently

‘Forgery Suit against Saraki, Ekweremadu Aimed at Crippling Senate’ Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu The forgery suit initiated by the Federal Government against Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has described as a witch-hunt with the intention of not only embarrassing the National Assembly leaders but to also silence the opposition, and cripple the institution of the Senate.

A pro-democracy group, Centre for the Advancement of Literacy and Leadership (CALL) in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mazi Bismarck Oji and made available to newsmen in Enugu also described the recently reported letter by the Police inviting Ekweremadu and some leaders of the Senate for interrogation over alleged forgery of Senate Standing Orders 2011 as mischievous.

The group recalled that the Assistant Force Public Relations Officer (AFPRO), Mr. Abayomi Shogunle, told newsmen at the Force Headquarters on July 6, 2015 that although the police team met

with the ex-Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, they neither invited nor interrogated Ekweremadu.

It therefore noted that since the police had earlier denied inviting or interrogating Ekweremadu, while the federal government also backed its charges against the duo with an Affidavit of Completion of Investigation deposed to at the Federal High Court Registry, Abuja and dated June 10, 2016, it was “a clear case of witch-hunt, mischief, and a legal contradiction” to want to purport to invite Ekweremadu and other persons for interrogation when the Federal Government had already filed charges based on the Police Report. “The most annoying part of the whole thing is the reported recent letter to the CNA tagged ‘reminder’ and also referring to a purported letter of July 2015. You can only remind what has been earlier attempted or requested; and if you said you did not invite them, what then are you reminding?” the Centre queried.

Wondering the difficulty in sending an invitation to Saraki,

Ekweremadu, Senator David Mark and others directly instead of pretending to invite them through the Clerk, the Centre contended that it was untoward to file criminal charges against people on serious allegation as forgery without any active attempt to extract statements from them.

“It is even worse to try to obtain from the back door a statement after you have filed charges, because it shows somebody is desperate to nail somebody”, Oji further said.

“From what they have filed at the court and the police report, there is no statement that Saraki or Ekweremadu made on the alleged forgery; there is no particular role those interrogated accused Saraki or Ekweremadu of playing in the alleged forgery.

Even the Senate unity Forum did not mention them in their petition. So, how did the Office of the Attorney-General of the zero in on Saraki and Ekweremadu?

“And if you are talking about the leadership of the 7th Senate, Ekweremadu was not the Senate President or the Senate Majority

Leader or Chairman of the Committee on Business and Rules. So, why is every other member of the leadership of the 7th Senate missing? Again, was Saraki a member of the leadership of the 7th Senate?” the Centre queried.

Mazi insisted that it was evident the Federal Government was desperate to put Ekweremadu in the dock in order to cripple the senate, noting that “each time Saraki goes to attend to his case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Ekweremadu presides. Now there is no way Ekweremadu will be facing trial alongside Saraki that the Senate will function.

“It is therefore a ploy to destabilize the Senate and compel Senators to do away with Saraki and Ekweremadu to avoid a

vacuum or shut down. But, as a matter of common sense, if Senators feel their Standing Rules were amended irregularly or that its current leadership was fraudulently elected, it is up to them to impeach their leaders, not for the executive or the courts to meddle in Senate’s internal affairs.

TI: Nigeria Must Strengthen Anti-corruption Bodies Abimbola Akosile

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, has urged Nigeria to strengthen her anti-corruption bodies and also increase transparency on assets recovery.

The call was made by the Director of Africa for Transparency International (TI), Chantal Uwimana, in a recent workshop tofollowuponthecommitments the government of Nigeria made at the Anti-Corruption Summit in London in May on fighting corruption in the country and international cooperation.

The Nigerian government has announced that more than $10 billion in looted cash and assets have been recovered, the agency acknowledged in a release, but urged the government to do much more to empower the people.

“The people of Nigeria are suffering from the economic downturn. They need to know

that the government is using all of its resources to benefit public services. This requires a serious crackdown on corruption, as well as transparency when it comes to how recovered stolen assets will be used. Words are not enough,” said Uwimana.

“We need to know who stole the money and when they will be brought to justice. There should be no impunity for the corrupt,” she said.

According to the release, the anti-corruption agencies were urged to speed up the process of investigations so that the suspects can be formally charged and their identities made public.

Thereafter the judicial process should be expedited so that the funds can be released and made available for public spending.

In London, Nigeria committed to the transparent and accountable management of stolen assets and greater cooperation to uncover and stop international enablers of corruption in the

global financial system.

“We want to see progress on this in Nigeria and with the law enforcement authorities in other countries. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. The global financial system has to tackle this by holding the enablers of corruption – the lawyers, bankers, accountants for example – to account,” said Uwimana.

Nigeria also committed to signing on to the Open Government Partnership as a means of increasing openness, transparency and accountability in government. Transparency International called on the government to follow through with this commitment without delay.

The agency also called for the government to commit to a timetable for introducing legislation to strengthen the Proceeds of Crime Bill, currently in draft, and enact whistleblower protection legislation.

“Greater transparency would send a strong signal to

citizens about the seriousness of government in terms of translating these commitments into concrete action. 75 per cent of Nigerians surveyed recently felt that corruption had increased in the period 2014 – 2015 while 78 per cent felt their government was doing badly in the fight against corruption, and this points to very low levels of public trust in government”, the release noted.

TI also sought the adoption of a national anti-corruption strategy with a clear vision for change and targets to guide and ensure the sustainability of the current anti-corruption drive.

This, according to the watchdog, will provide a much needed framework for coordinated action between State and non-State actors both nationally and internationally in the fight against corruption. It will also help ensure that the country’s anti-corruption agencies are adequately resourced to carry out their mandate.

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has alleged that some powerful politicians in the state are out to bring his government down.

The governor said the powerful politicians, who though hail from the state, are presently resident in Abuja and have sworn to use whichever means to bring his administration down.

The governor made the allegation while ordering investigation into alleged diversion of food items meant for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the state.

It can be reported that the mass media is awash with video clips showing food items donated by the National Emergency Management Agency to IDPs being re-bagged and meant to be sold at the market.

The directive of the governor to the Borno State Command of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of

State Security (DSS) to investigate and arrest anyone found culpable in alleged diversion of the foodstuffs was given on Friday night when he hosted heads of all security and paramilitary organisations in the state to Ramadan Iftar (breaking of fast) at the Government House.

The governor said while he would await the outcome of the investigation and subsequent arrest of the culprits, he was aware that a group of Abuja-based politicians who hail from Borno State have sworn to bring down his administration using all kinds of mischief.

He said one of the mischiefs in their long list included the one of May 29, 2016 when hundreds of his posters were dubiously produced and pasted along strategic points in Abuja and Kaduna claiming that he was aspiring for President in 2019 with the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha as his running mate.

NHIS, NigCOMSAT Partner for Data Services Paul Obi in Abuja Confronted with the challenges of low speed, accuracy, integrity and safetyofitsdatabase,whicharefundamental to effective registration and administration components of its operations, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigCOMSAT) are to partnerinordertoenthroneefficient database and registration process in the health insurance scheme.

This move was made known when the NHIS acting Executive Secretary Mr. ‘Femi Akingbade, led a high-powered technical delegation to the Director-General of NigCOMSAT, Ms. Abimbola Alale. Akingbade, who described

communication as crucial to the operations of NHIS, expressed the commitment of the Scheme to take advantage of every opportunity in the country to make things easy in that critical area of its operations.

Referring to the nationwide spread of the services of the scheme as its beneficiaries are found everywhere, the NHIS boss stressed the “need for NHIS to be able to communicate with its various stakeholders real time around the clock.

Akingbade stated that “the agency requires to monitor and receive feedback from beneficiaries and service providers under its watch to be able to discharge creditably, its regulatory roles in the industry.

IkpeazuPledgesJudiciousDisbursement of N1bn CBN Agric Loan Blessing Abah

The Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has assured farmers in the state of judicious disbursement of the N1 billion Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme loan, which the state recently obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He gave the assurance while rendering his one year stewardship in the state to the people of Abia Central Senatorial District, as part of the ongoing town hall meetings in the state.

According to a release by his Chief Press Secretary, Enyinnaya Appolos, Ikpeazu spoke yesterday at Umuahia South and Isiala Ngwa North local government headquarters.

The governor decried the declining federal allocations to the state, but assured that his government will ensure that the current economic crisis will not affect his infrastructural development programme and payment of workers’ salaries

in the state.

He however told the people of the state that he should not be pitied, over the harsh economic situation, stressing that he believes God has reasons for whatever circumstance He (God) allows.

“I want you to understand that we are in tough times in the state. I am sure you’re aware of the economic hard times in the country that has occasioned the drastic drop in our monthly allocation to as low as N1.7bn. Our monthly allocation as at today cannot support payment of workers’ salaries, not to talk of executing other projects. This has also impacted on our IGR as a state.

“Don’t pity me because of the tough times. I know that my God is able to handle the situation. But let me assure you that amidst this obvious challenge, our government will continue to improve on our infrastructure and also pay salaries as we can, but I ask for your understanding and support in this hard time.

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SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016 T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016

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JUNE 19, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

OPINION The Bureaucratisation of Misery

Government must take urgent steps to stem the misery and poverty in the country, argues Emmanuel Ojeifo “One man in misery can disrupt the peace of an entire city” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), French writer, aristocrat, journalist

I

have stopped saying that there is poverty in the land. The right word is misery. Misery is poverty plus hopelessness mixed together. When people live without food to eat, without water to drink, without a home to lay their heads, without medication when they are sick, and without hope of a better tomorrow, life becomes unbearable. In the last couple of weeks, I have had a real bruise with the situation of millions of Nigerians. Day in, day out, a countless number of people besiege our residence requesting for help. A few days ago, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, told me that he could hardly keep pace with the tonnes of text messages and calls that flood his mobile phone from unknown people begging for alms to survive.

For a man who has devoted all his life to the selfless service of humankind to bring up such matter shows the extent to which the elasticity of his charity has been stretched. I can personally attest to the huge resources that he commits on a weekly basis to help people.

When senior government officials tell Nigerians to be patient, I sincerely laugh at them. Sometimes I am filled with righteous indignation because I believe that these politicians do not know what is happening in Nigeria. They tell us that they know that times are hard, but they really don’t know. A man who is able to eat three meals a day can hardly understand what hunger is. A man who does not pay for petrol in his official car does not know what suffering is. A man who does not know what it is to live without electricity for a day can hardly say he knows what Nigerians are undergoing. A man whose children are schooling in the best universities in Europe and America cannot feel the pulse of the suffering Nigerian woman who has to almost sweat blood to keep her children in our battered public schools. Until misery meets you at home, unable to explain to your kids why they have not had any meal, you can hardly say you know what

Nigerians are facing.

Extreme poverty is a reality in Nigeria. I don’t know how to explain it to the men of privilege and patronage who occupy the rungs of the leadership ladder in our nation. Behind every statistic, there is the face of a Nigerian who is suffering and losing hope at the same time. Poverty has a face; it is not just numbers. It has the face of a weeping child who goes to bed hungry, unable to understand why there is no food at home.

It has the face of a father of the family who is jobless and has nowhere to seek refuge. It has the face of a mother of the family who, amidst all her petty trading, is unable to guarantee a full day’s meal for her husband and children. It has the face of the young graduate who has suffered to pass out from the university only to find himself stranded on the highway of life.

It has the face of millions of people who lack the basic opportunities to make sense of their lives. It has the face of millions of Nigerians forced to flee their ancestral homes as a result of violence and bloodshed. Poverty has the face of families that have been deprived of their breadwinners through the failure of the Nigerian state.

Advanced communication today is able to inform us of the tragedy of poverty and misery around us, but it has also resulted in spreading a desensitised culture that has turned

When people live without food to eat, without water to drink, without a home to lay their heads, without medication when they are sick, and without hope of a better tomorrow, life becomes unbearable

the real sufferings of people into statistics. Many people are growing immune to and untouched by the tragedies of people. We are tempted to see the misery of people as something natural. Government has a department that calculates the numbers of people who are poor and suffering, and this runs the risk of bureaucratising human suffering. They are unable to connect the numbers with real human faces. Sadly, they end up turning the circumstances of the hungry, the sick, and those battered by life’s unbearable challenges into one more news story. If the people behind these statistics are not recognised, our country can yield to the temptation of discussing hunger, food and violence as concepts without reference to the real people knocking on our doors for help.

We are bombarded on a daily basis with many images of pain, but hardly do we touch them. We hear weeping and groaning on our streets, but hardly do we stop to offer solace and comfort. We see thirst but hardly do we satisfy it. While the headlines may change and move on to capture new items of journalistic sensationalism, the pain, the hunger and the thirst of those who suffer remain. This is the lot of millions of Nigerians.

In the gospel story of the last judgment, Jesus Christ gives us a hint of the basic questions God will ask us. They all border on charity: “When I was hungry did you give me food? When I was thirsty did you give me drink? When I was naked did you clothe me? When I was homeless, sick, and in prison did you come to my aid?” (Matthew 25).

Independent of creeds and convictions, these words can serve as a golden rule for our political leaders in their work for justice and human sustenance. After persistently reading the story of the last judgment, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an Albanian missionary who devoted her entire life to the service of the poor and destitute, wrote these searching words: “In the evening of our lives, we will all be judged on love.” The government must take urgent steps to stem the further descent of millions of Nigerians into the den of hopelessness.

––Ojeifo is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja (emmaojeifo@yahoo.com).

Buhari and The Social Safety Net Programme Gerald Adewole challenges all to ensure the social intervention programmes are well implemented

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of leadership of Nigeria on May 29, 2015, with a clear agenda to curb corruption, fight insecurity, reposition the economy and tackle the pervasive poverty in the land.

These critical issues were central and dominant in his campaign promises as well as his compact with all Nigerians when he took the oath of office a little over a year ago.

In keeping with his determination to immediately tackle the menace of insurgency and restore law and order in the North-Eastern Nigeria, he ordered the immediate relocation of the command and control centre of the Nigerian military to Maiduguri. Today, Boko Haram insurgency has continued to suffer a crushing defeat in the hands of our gallant military.

This is evident in the recovery of all territories hitherto captured by the insurgent group, including the Sambisa Forest, the epicentre of the battle. Also of triumphant significance is the liberation of thousands of victims that were held hostage by the insurgents, including Amina Ali, one of the over 200 Chibok School Girls abducted in 2014. The freedom of Amina is a symbolic indication that all the abducted schools girls and others in the captivity of Boko Harm are on their journey to freedom. From all sides, the Boko Haram walls are falling.

On the fight against corruption, it is now clear to all that the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom. The anti-corruption search-light is uncovering all rots and previous cans of worms, with the high and the mighty scurrying for cover. With presidential courage, commitment and consistency, some rotten eggs are being hurled into the dragnet, while many more are surrendering the national loot with sobering trepidation.

Thanks to Mr. President, the anti-corruption czar.

At the economic front, the battle is no less fierce. From the background of decades of economic misdirection, made worse by a social system that institutionalised corruption and riddled our commonwealth in the vault of oil, the Buhari administration has ignited a conflagration in all directions. The plummeting prices of petroleum products at the international market, with the crippling effects on our foreign exchange earnings, have made economic diversification a national imperative.

Here again, Mr. President is blazing the trail in agriculture, agro-allied industries, solid minerals, mining and mineral prospecting, culture and tourism and several other sectors. The productive base of the economy has been unlocked to ventilate

the economy and provide entry visa for Nigerian made products into the international market.

While working hard to reposition Nigeria for accelerated growth and development, this administration is not unaware of the challenges of poverty and unemployment in the land and the need to evolve measures to cushion the effects of the social squalor of the vast majority of our people. Accordingly, the federal government has rolled out a comprehensive social safety net programme, to address unemployment and better the condition of living of the extremely poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

It is pertinent to point out that the sum of N500 billion has already been approved in the 2016 Appropriation Act to finance this social intervention programme. Specific schemes under this programme include the creation of 500,000 teaching assistance for qualified teachers for a period of 12 to 24 months in the first instance; the training of 100,000 artisans and the provision of soft loans for them to commence business activities; and conditional cash transfer which is intended to pay the sum of N5,000.00 to one million Nigerians across the country. Others are micro credit scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians and N50,000 education support grant for 100,000 students in tertiary institutions who are undergoing courses in Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education.

Another key component of this programme is the National Home Grown School Feeding Scheme targeted at 24 million pupils in 18 pilot states in 2016. The food for the programme, which will run till 2020 would be sourced from local farmers and prepared by qualified caterers within the host communities. This is to benefit the pupils, the farmers and the local communities alike. It is projected that this scheme would create 1.4 million jobs for community caterers, support caterers and small house-hold farmers across Nigeria.

The overall objectives of this programme are to reduce poverty and unemployment, empower the people economically, encourage school enrolment, build capacity, equip the less educated people with the skills to be self-employed and promote scholarship in the areas of Science and Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education.

Indeed, there is no doubt that these policy measures would go a long way in making life more tolerable to ordinary Nigerians who constitute a larger percentage of the population. For the first time, the less privileged Nigerians at

the grassroots shall begin to feel the impact of governance directly.

As the federal government commences full implementation of this programme, all hands must be on deck to ensure that it meets the desired objective of empowering the indigent members of our society. The programme must be massively publicised to raise public awareness on its various components so that the targeted Nigerians can benefit from it.

The process of enrolment into these schemes should be open, transparent and not subjected to the manipulation of some unscrupulous members of our society. Accordingly, government should note that those who have criticised this project as a white elephant programme and have sentenced it to death even before arrival would do everything possible to scuttle it. All measures must be deployed to counter their devices.

The political class must ensure that this programme is not hijacked for political patronage or to fill personal pockets. It is a programme meant for the poor and those who would sit on the welfare of the poor shall certainly have their judgment.

The masses must police the implementation of this programme to ensure that due process is followed. This is why the idea of Grievance Redress System is a welcome innovation that would facilitate speedy report and redress on issues that may violate due process in the implementation of the scheme. This is where the grassroots reach and capacity of the National Orientation Agency are very critical. The agency should be empowered and strengthened to mount intensive public education campaign on the programme, as well as drive its implementation at the grassroots, to ensure that it is carried out to specification.

The Freedom of Information Act empowers all Nigerians to ask questions or demand explanation on issues that appear hazy to them. Nigerians must rely on the provisions of this act to keep under close watch, the activities of all those that are saddled with the implementation of this programme. It is by so doing that the laudable vision and intentions of government in embarking on this programme are not subverted by a few self-serving Nigerians.

––Dr. Adewole is the director, Public Education and Mass Mobilisation at the National Orientation Agency, Abuja

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

LETTERS

O

APPOINTMENTS IN THE BROADCAST INDUSTRY

f all appointments made by the one-year old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the ones recently made in the country’s broadcast industry are, to me, most apt and less controversies. For long, the industry was denied the needed professionalism by a system that places political considerations above expertise, experience and merit.

Without prejudice to the intermittent engagement of some professionals, who acquitted themselves well within extant socio-political climates, the industry has largely been led by those with tangential knowledge of the nuances and operations of broadcasting, especially as a development arena, in a peculiar Nigerian environment. To a large extent, the industry and its organs, have, in the past, been made to serve governments rather than citizens. And this was due to a pervasive misunderstanding of what the role of broadcasting should be in the society.

The appointments of Yakubu Mohammed as Director General of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the largest network in Africa; Isa Moddibo Kawu as Director-General, Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC); and Mansur Liman as Director-General, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), suggest President Muhammadu Buhari will give priority to professionalism in the management of public affairs, in course of his government of change.

Yakubu Mohammed,

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed

the new DG of NTA, is a thoroughbred broadcast professional.

Born on November 11, 1953, Mohammed attended the Ahmadu Bello University where he earned a degree in Social Sciences. He joined the services of the NTA Jos in 1977 as Current Affairs Producer. He also delved into sports reportage, producing many sports programmes and covering several national and international sport championships including the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and Athletic Meets. His expertise and commitment to assignments and responsibilities earned him several senior management positions including Controller News and Current Affairs, General Manager, NTA Jos; General Manager, NTA

Bauchi; Director News, NTA Headquarters, Abuja and Executive Director, Special Duties, NTA Headquarters, Abuja, before his retirement in 2012.

He was, until his new appointment, Special Adviser (Media and Communication) to the Bauchi State Governor.

As an astute manager of men and resources, Yakubu Mohammed is not one that abandons his staff in the ocean of professional, and even, personal challenges. As Director News, NTA Headquarters in 2003, this writer, who worked under him as Judicial Correspondent, had, in the company of two reporters from other news organisations, drew the ire of Honourable Justice Stephen Adah, then of the Federal High Court, Abuja, by misinterpreting a ruling given by the judge, on a political matter, in our

reports. On getting to court the following day to continue our coverage of the case, the judge summoned all three reporters and issued an order for senior management staff of the reporters’ organisations to appear before him, to explain why his ruling of the previous day was misinterpreted by their reporters, in their bulletins and reports. Oblivious of the import of this order, the reporters had, naively, thought they could explain the matter away and it would end there.

But the honourable judge insisted and gave another order, this time, carrying the probability of docking the reporters should the management staff fail to appear within a stipulated time frame.

At that point, Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, who was familiar with this writer, and was in court, appealed to the judge on our behalf, and pleaded for time to enable him get in touch with the NTA management on the development. The learned SAN put a call across to Richard Azoro, another eminent professional and good boss, who was Assistant Director News and Head Editorial Desk of NTA at that time. The two must have conferred on the development, but instead of sending a management staff, who could have been lower to him in rank, Yakubu Mohammed, the Director News, appeared in person, apologised to the judge not only on behalf of NTA and its ‘erring’ reporter, but also on behalf of the other two organisations, whose reporters were, apparently left to their

THE SHAME OF OSUN RELIGIOUS CRISIS

T

he uncontrolled display of barbarism and lack of “intellecto-scientific” reasoning that the Osun State Government, Christian Association of Nigeria and Muslim bodies in Osun State have put up recently is one that should bring right thinking on-looker to nothing short of disgust.

The aftermath of the court ruling on the wearing of hijab in Osun State schools has been the catalyst of the current academic carnival going on in the state. Although the intentions of the parties involved in this display of “uncivility” is scarcely known to many, we cannot but assert that all parties involved are

interested in nothing but their selfish religious gains. It is baffling to know that while the governor of a neighbouring state is launching and celebrating with its students the purchase of new school buses to ease transporting school children to their different schools, Osun State is battling with religious issues in academic institutions.

What should be the paramount concern of the government, court, stakeholders and religious institutions on this matter which is the resultant effect of uncalled for quest for religious supremacy on relationship among students with different religious beliefs, has however been brushed

aside. Although a popular newspaper stated that relationship among the students remained as cordial as it has been, but is it not too short a time for the aftermath to begin to manifest?

The students have been in cordial relationship for years because there has never been a physical differentiation in their religious practices as regarding manner of dressing (the current shameful display of robes).

What we should be wary of is how violently the parties have gone with their agitations as reports made the rounds that a particular sect wanted to invade one of the schools if not for the timely intervention

of a monarch and a sister sect. A school is supposed to be a shrine where civilised people are nurtured and taught how to positively influence their society rather than a mercenary to help score religious points.

This is a call on the government, stakeholders, religious institutions and “ever non-functioning NANS” to sit together and have a rethink on the current situation in Osun State so that the only institution which unites children of different religious beliefs would not be destroyed by some religious extremists.

––Oduneye Oluwatosin, beambor993@ gmail.com

fate as no one appeared to speak for them. He, thereafter, counselled the writer on the need to be more circumspect in the course of one’s duty, and especially, in the coverage of judicial and legal matters, a beat that is as technical as it is sensitive. That is Yakubu Mohammed, the manager, the motivator, the teacher, the defender.

Yakubu Mohammed is also a media and social intellectual. As Executive Director, Special Duties, this writer had discussed the dearth of indigenous publications on television with him, suggesting the possibility of NTA collaborating with some media scholars to edit a book on aspects of Nigerian television. Not only did he buy into the idea, he facilitated and hosted the meetings of editors and contributors in his office on many occasions. The publication had suffered from several hiccups, including lack of managerial continuity following Mohammed’s retirement and personal challenges of some of the editors, inflicted on them by a system that is largely anti-intellectual.

The emergence of

Yakubu Mohammed as DG of NTA, therefore, carries a big bag of hopes for an organisation that is a powerful instrument for social development, but rendered powerless, over time, by pedestrian intra- politicking, inadequate funding, leadership challenges, poor remuneration, hollow professionalism and asthmatic intellectual breath. My prayer is for government to give the new DG the needed ambience to operate, professionally and optimally, for the good of the industry. It is quite refreshing for those of us who believe the intellectual dimension of broadcasting should be maintained with the professional aspect, to welcome Yakubu Mohammed back to the industry’s mainstream, and, to once more, have another intellectual and confident professional at the helm of affairs at the NTA, years after another, in the person of Dr. Tonnie Iredia, raised standards. I, like many others, believe Yakubu Mohammed will raise them, even higher.

–Dr. Taiwo Oladokun, Abuja

ANOTHER AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY IN LAGOS

O

ver the Easter holidays a tragedy befell two families in one of the Lagos suburbs. A petrol retail outlet, located at Ojodu, Berger, engaged the services of an unauthorised petroleum product tank cleaner to carry out routine maintenance on their PMS tanks as stipulated in the guidelines by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

One of the cleaners shouted for help whilst in the tank and the supervisor, against all entreaties went in to attempt a rescue.

Unfortunately both men inhaled toxic fumes and lost their lives in the early hours of 26th March 2016.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.

There have been several such tragic incidents that have gone largely unreported due to the shadowy, exploitative and illegal nature of the activity.

In a bid to cut corners and costs, operators of petrol stations and depots (Tank Farms) routinely violate Health, Safety & Environmental

regulations with oftentragic consequences.

Moreover, part of the reasons why this illegal practice has been in the shadows is because the waste product recovered from the tanks are not disposed of according to DPR regulations.

In most cases, the waste is emptied directly into public sewage, streams and waterways with the attendant degradation of the environment and danger to public health.

The relevant regulatory body, the DPR, sadly has been silent in the face of these frequent tragedies and flagrant violation of it’s own regulations.

There is an urgent need to bring this matter to the fore of public attention, as some of the biggest companies in our richest industrial sector are willfully culpable.

Some of these companies are multinationals and probably as a result of Nigeria’s weak regulatory enforcement, do not live up to the international best practices they adhere to in other climes.

––Xavier Mukoro, 47, Oskar Ibru way, Apapa, Lagos.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER • JUNE 19, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Challenges and International Implications of Deepening Militancy

D

ay after day, Nigeria is increasingly killed softly by galloping corruption, get-rich- quickly mentality, non-sustainable development policies, and inefficient public service bureaucracy that consciously aid and abet indiscipline and gross misconduct, poor economic growth, unending power outage and growing anti-Nigerian sentiments.

But more than softly, Nigeria is currently being killed by adoption of centrifugal policies, which are capable of over-killing Nigeria to the extent of becoming a permanent death for the country. For instance, the Minister of Education,AdamuAdamu, has announced Government’s decision to cancel the post-JAMB (JointAdmissions Matriculation Board) UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination). When the JAMB was established, its cardinal objective was not only to facilitate through examinations the admission of very qualified candidates into tertiary institutions, but also to lay a solid foundation for the production of sound graduates.

However, on graduation, it was discovered that many graduates with very good results could not live up to expectation. This led to the introduction of the UTME by the universities. The virus that prevented the JAMB from producing sound graduates also managed to creep into the organs of the UTME to the extent that the Government also had to cancel it.

Whatever may be the reason for the poor performances of the JAMB and whatever may also be responsible for the setbacks of the UTME, there is no disputing the fact that good education is the first and most important factor of national development in any part of the world. Education is critical to industrialization and technological development. In Nigeria, politics is played with education. For instance, in some universities, the required minimum entry point is 200 points.

In some others, it is only 180 and yet, on graduation, all graduates are competing in the same market place for employment, but many graduates are not employable because they lack the educational skills required for business life after graduation. This partly but largely explains the ‘illness’ and ‘sickness’ that now characterize the polity.

In fact, religious intolerance has also taken a new dimension.

In Osun State of Nigeria, the ChristianAssociation of Nigeria, in its Communiqué issued at the end of its meeting at the National Christian Centre inAbuja on Thursday, 16th June, 2016, ‘noted with concern the recent High Court judgment in Osun State on the use of hijab in all schools, including missionary schools. This development is unfortunate and may send a very wrong signal that Osun State Government is clearly favouring one religion over the other. The Osun State Government is hereby advised to be sensitive to religious matters of this nature for peaceful co-existence.’

Today, the Muslim pupils have started using their hijabs in their schools since Tuesday, 14th June, 2016. In light of this, the Christian parents have asked their wards to also either wear their choir gowns or other church garments to their schools. Governor RaufAregbesola of Osun State reportedly declared on the same Tuesday that any pupil or student wearing Christian garments to schools would be expelled. He considered that his government was not responsible for the decision for the wearing of hijabs to the school. It was a resultant of a court decision.

The viewpoint of the Vice Chairman of the CAN in Osun State, Pastor Moses Ogundeji, was quite militant: ‘the Governor should be ready to expel all students in the State. He should be ready to expel those wearing hijab because hijab was never part of the school uniform. If the Governor is fighting for the rights of the Muslims, we will also fight for the rights of the Christians.’ The implications of this position are not far-fetched: a religious war is in the making; Nigeria is gradually being killed. The CAN has complained about a ‘situation where a Christian brother is beaten to a state of coma for eating in the afternoon during Ramadan fast.’ For the CAN, this is a ‘clear evidence of the degree of intolerance of Christianity in some parts of the country, especially where Sharia law is given prominence.’ The CAN has also drawn attention to the case of an elderly Christian woman (who was) murdered in cold blood for complaining against the blocking of her shop.’

The current major concern is that Nigeria is being killed more than softly. The hitherto religious tolerance is now giving way to intolerance. Militancy is also on the increase and gaining the upper hand.

In fact, Nigeria is currently fighting many battles simultaneously in different battle fields, including social, political, economic, and military battles. The fact that all the battles are being fought at the same time, by different people, in different places, and for different reasons and purposes cannot but weaken the Government and its security apparati.

Killing Nigeria Hardly

Killing Nigeria hardly can be in two ways: unconsciously and consciously. Unconscious killing is essentially at the perception level. For instance, the perception of Nigeria as a country of 419s, or of fantastically corrupt people, or armed banditry and terrorism, or political unrest necessarily shape the attitudinal disposition towards Nigeria as a country and as a people. The way Nigerians behave outside of Nigeria is particularly another dimension.

In fact, on Thursday, 16th June, 2016 the House of Representatives reportedly probed the allegation of sexual misconduct brought against three Nigerian legislators by the USAmbassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Enwistle, in a letter dated June 9. The three lawmakers were among the ten legislators who went on official trip to participate in an International Visitor Leadership Programme in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The three lawmakers were alleged to have solicited for

VIE INTERNATIONALE with

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

Minister of Education, Adamu and Adamu sex from prostitutes (The Nation, Friday, June 17, 2016, p.37).

Without doubt, the three legislators have denied the accusation and have reportedly taken necessary measures to protect their good name. This is good enough but it does not address the more critical issues involved. On the side of the US, why would Mr. Enwistle come out to tell lies against a particular group of representatives? Have they offended theAmerican system before and the US authorities would now want to avenge? Was the USAmbassador given wrong information or mistaken identity? It is also quite possible if the US is investigating a completely different matter to deliberately accuse wrongly with the ultimate objective of apologising later under the pretext of mistaken identity. In fact, would the US ambassador have accused anyone bearing in mind that his person could not be assaulted or violated by virtue of his diplomatic privileges and immunities?

But perhaps more interestingly, why would the US want to do so knowing well the implications at the individual and official levels?

Are the three Nigerian legislators unaware of the great sophistication of theAmerican technological system which might have enabled the USAmbassador to have a secret video recording of the alleged sexual misconduct? In other words, what justification had the ambassador that prompted him to have the audacity to challenge the integrity of the legislators? Whatever is the case, it is Nigeria’s name, integrity, and in fact, her total personality that has been soiled on the altar of allegation of sexual misconduct. Even if the legislators are cleared, the perception of them and of their being Nigerians will still remain there to be contended with for a long time to come. This is killing Nigeria indirectly and hardly.

Another example of indirect killing of Nigeria is the perception by deduction of the intention of the Fulani herdsmen in the southern part of Nigeria. Chief Funsho Ologunde, the Chieftain ofAll Progressives Congress, Lagos State, has noted that since 1914, the fact of the Fulani people being predominantly nomadic, ‘a culture that perfectly fits into their tradition of cattle rearing, ..., had never brought them into conflict with their host communities in other parts of Nigeria, the way that we now experience it, which is very unfortunate.’

Recalling with nostalgia his experiences, Chief Ologunde, said that in the past, ‘he and other young school children would visit the Fulani abodes in their communities to view cows at close range, especially when they were being milked in gaas (Fulani settlements). Such young ‘tourist visitors’ were usually entertained with fura (boiled coagulated cow milk). We were never attacked by the Fulani hosts in those days. Neither did our parents and our ancestors confront them in their trade, because there was mutual respect in the prevailing symbiotic hegemony.’

Additionally, ‘in the pre- and early post-independence times, the herdsmen would go about with only anchored arrows, sheathed swords and double-faced knives against rustlers and attackers.

Nowadays, these crude arms have been replaced with sophisticated weapons likeAK-47 rifles and pump action guns, as well as petrol in jerry cans not for defence but for assault and arson. Where herders whose cattle destroyed farms were arrested and paid compensation, the herders soon staged reprisals by kidnapping such victims to extort multiple of fines as compensation’ (ibid., p.20). This submission is self-explanatory: belief that the Fulani herdsmen now have an unexplained hidden agenda, especially in light of their engagement in terrorism while grazing on farm land that is not theirs. This develop-

ment is a pointer to dangers that have the potential to undermine national security and unity in the future.

The first and new way of killing Nigeria directly and hardly is the non-prevention by Government of the hardening of the Boko Haram group. While it is generally reported that the Boko Haram is on the run, it is also being reported that the group has always succeeded in re-strategising. For instance, the Boko Haram, as reported by the Hausa Service of the Voice ofAmerica, has set up a 96.8 Frequency Modulation (FM) radio station around the village of Tolkomari in the far north of Cameroon.

The 96.8 FM Station has been disseminating Boko Haram propaganda, and particularly challenging Nigeria’s claims of winning the war against the group. Even though the spreading of the propaganda is done within the scope of FM, it is also reported that the radio station is broadcasting Boko Haram activities in Cameroon, Niger and other parts ofAfrica. The challenge of the Boko Haram without the setting up of a radio for propaganda has been difficult to contain. The main theatre of boko haramism has remained mainly in the North East but its manifestations go beyond the region in Nigeria.

Asecond hard way of killing Nigeria is the establishment of new militant groups. Last week Thursday, a new militant group, the Utorogu Liberation Movement was established. The Movement, which supports the Niger DeltaAvengers, has threatened to attack the Utorogu Gas Plant in Udu and Ughelli South CouncilAreas of Delta State. The plant, which is said to be Nigeria’s biggest fielding the Egbin Power Station in Lagos and other parts in the country, is also the biggest in WestAfrica.

What is particularly disturbing about this new group is not the threats to attack the gas plant but its declared ‘collaboration with outgas force’ and its intention to secede. In the words of the Movement, ‘it is a secessionist move. The awareness of things happening in our environment is a means to outline our course of action. The awareness is an agitation for economic balance. We have a common enemy, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, and ND Western who hate your progress and wish you die in poverty.’

If the Utorogu Liberation Movement has secession as an objective and is therefore in solidarity with the Niger DeltaAvengers, which also has sympathy for the MASSOB, the challenge of how to nip in the bud the objective of secession must be seriously first addressed.

Should the use of force be encouraged? Should it be the use of dialogue? If the militants are destroyed in the battle field, will such destruction also imply the end of the quest for a separate ideology and the jettisoning of the idea of secession?

What about the 14-day ultimatum issued by a group of former Niger Delta militants (Ekpeye Liberation Group) to the oil companies in Ekpeyeland? The ultimatum to the oil companies (NigerianAgip Oil Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas and the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources) is that they should all leave the area within 14 days commencing from Thursday, 16th June or be faced with the ‘vandalisation of their assets.

Astitch in time saves nine.’ One reason given for the issuance of the ultimatum is the ‘nonchalant attitude to the massive killings and kidnappings of the Ekpeye people. In whichever way the threats and ultimatum are seen, Nigeria’s national unity is again increasingly under preventable threats. This is gradually killing Nigeria more than softly.

The issue of grazing by the Fulani herdsmen has also become more critical than ever before. The initial problem raised at the level of the Fulani herdsmen was the destruction by them of agricultural goods, as well as their unprovoked assaults on the host farmers, raping and killing their people, all of which are taken as individual cases. Today, it is being suggested that the strategic aim of the Fulani herdsmen is to either further the cause of the Boko Haram or to also destabilize the southern states of Nigeria. In this regard, the problem of the Fulani herdsmen is not only generating much hostility between the herdsmen and their host community, on the one hand, but also much destabilizing hostility at the level of the host communities and the various governments, on the other hand.

Put differently, the Federal Government has decided to create grazing reserve for herdsmen in all the states of the Federation. But for various reasons, many states and organizations have strongly objected to the implementation of the decision. In the eyes of the CAN, government’s decision is seen as an indirect attempt to Islamise Nigeria. Some have argued that there is no more terra nullius (no land is without title). This is another way of saying that Government should not rob Peter to pay Paul. The issue of the Fulani herdsmen is therefore a major problem that must be most carefully handled.

Challenges and International Implications

The killing of Nigeria either softly or hardly necessarily creates challenges for national unity and nation building at the domestic level, and Nigeria’s image, as well as respect for, and trust in, Nigeria.

With the little and non-serious attention being paid to the killing of Nigeria, there is no way Nigeria will not be carelessly allowed to be dismantled. The main challenge therefore is how to prevent the deepening militancy and dismantlement of Nigeria in the future.

To avoid a careless approach, the restructuring of the country on the basis of the six geo-political zones should be taken as a desideratum if national unity is to be sustainable. If Nigeria disintegrates, the Central and WestAfrican regions will also be destabilized and troubled. The two regions may be ridden with extreme terrorism, and by so doing, become new theatres for ideological wars.Africa will become more of a threat to the maintenance of international peace and security and therefore a new burden for the UN Security Council.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS

Editor Festus Akanbi Email festus.akanbi@thisdaylive.com

QUICK TAKES Lagos Airport

The operational efficiency of the 10 The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed that it is on the verge of certifying the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

This is in line with the recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO),whichauditedthe four major airports in the country in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt recently. Nigeria passed the audit, which paved the way for NCAA certification process.When certified, the Lagos airport would be rated among thebest in theworld in terms ofsafety and security.The Director-General of NCAA, Captain Murhktar Usman, who confirmedthistoTHISDAY,notedthat duringtheaudit,therewereopenitems whichwererecommendedtobeclosed

by ICAO and the regulatory body has gonefarinclosingtheitems,hencethe certification of the airport.

“The areas of shortfall we had we are developing the corrective action plan to ensure that we recover them. Part of it was the none-certification of our international airports. And I am also happytoannouncethatwehavealmost completed it, in fact we are at the last stage of certifying Lagos airport.

Non-oil Export

Broad street, Lagos

Stock Market Maintains Upward Streak, Rallies 8% in 3 Days Kunle Aderinokun

In response to the release of the flexible foreign exchange framework last Wednesday, the Nigerian stock market continued its rally last Friday as the Nigeria Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE-ASI) recorded a total of 7.97 per cent increase in three days.

But when juxtaposed with the loss which the market witnessed since the previous Friday, the NSE-ASI recorded a week-on-week appreciation of 7.40 per cent.

The NSE-ASI has appreciated, also in anticipation of the implementation of the new forex regime which would commence tomorrow, following the release of the guidelines.

The new guidelines came after weeks of consultations with stakeholders including the banks on the need for a more flexible forex market, to among other things, reduce pressure on the local currency and attract foreign investors.

Specifically, the NSE-ASI at the weekend increased by 2.66 per cent to close at 29,247.27

ECONOMY

from the 28,489.87 it closed on Thursday.

Just like the previous day, the market capitalisation consolidated with about N260 billion to N10.044 trillion at the weekend, from N9.75 billion.

The market rally has been consistent since the release of the new guidelines. In fact, on the day of the release , the NSE-ASI, which had been recording losses since the Friday before, rose by 3.17 per cent to close at 27,891.96, up from 27,034.05 of the the previous day, while market capitalisation added N279 billion to close higher at N9.579 trillion.

To close the week under review, the market capitalisation improved by N691.93billion.

Market activities also increased in the review week as value of traded equities on the bourse rose by 159.11 per cent. Further analysis showed that the banking sector gain remarkable strength, which increased its 2016 gain to 11.91 per cent.

The consumer goods sector

with 6.14 per cent was among the best performers, but ending below industrial goods sector, which increased by 7.63 per cent, following strong gains from Dangote Cement. Overall, 44 stocks recorded gains while 21 stocks recorded a decline during the week.

Champion Breweries emerged as the best-performing stock In all, the week saw momentum trading, taking positive cue from the CBN’s new foreign exchange policy

rising by 27.31 per cent to close the week at N3.45.

Last Friday’s performance was particularly driven by Nigerian Breweries, which gained 5.01 per cent to close at N148.86 per share; Dangote Cement which gained 5.00 per cent to close at N183.81 per share; FBN Holdings, which gained 4.52 per cent to close at N4.39 per share; GTBank, which gained 4.40 per cent to close N21.61 per share; , UBA,

which gained 2.35 per cent to close at N4.80 per share; Guinness, which gained 1.46 per cent to close N104.00 per share; Lafarge Africa, which gained 1.34 per cent to close at N75.00 per share, and ETI which gained 1.13 per cent to close at N17.00 per share.

Analysts at DLM Asset Management Ltd, said “In all, the week saw momentum trading, taking positive cue from the CBN’s new foreign exchange policy.”

According to them, “We highlight that speculation and expectations remain integral parts of the trading strategies of many investors. With these factors creating short- term fluctuations in equities, it is important to understand how all these fundamentals and government economic policies will come together to create trends.

While the CBN’s FX policy guidelines hold much sway over the market, however, what is uncertain in the near term is the sustainability of the current rally as business and economic fundamentals remain unchanged.”

As part of efforts to boost activities in the non-oil sector of the economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday unveiled a N500 billion lowinterestratenon-oilexportfacility.

The banking sector regulator in the guidelines of the: “The Non-oil Export Stimulation Facility (ESF), said the fund was established to support the diversification of the economy away from oil and to expedite the growth anddevelopmentofthenon-oilexport sector.

Accordingtotheguidelinesforoperating the fund , the CBN will invest in a N500billiondebenturetobeissuedby NigerianExport-ImportBank(NEXIM) in line with section 31 of CBN Act. It further stated that the facility was essentially designed to redress the declining export credit and reposition the sector to increase its contribution to revenue generation and economic development. It will improve export financing, increase access of exporters to low interest credit and offer additional opportunities for them to upscale and expand their businesses in addition to improving their competiveness.

The Nigerian Export – Import Bank (NEXIM) shall be the Managing Agent of the Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility (ESF).

Oil Price

World oil prices rebounded Friday from six straight sessions of losses, as investors eyed rising global equities and increasing risk appetite on recedingBrexitconcerns,dealerssaid.

At about 1100 GMT, Brent North Sea crudefor delivery in August was up 99 cents at $48.18 a barrel.

USbenchmarkWestTexas Intermediate for July delivery won 73 cents to $46.94 a barrel compared withThursday’s close. “Oil prices are bouncing back… after falling for six straight days,andalsobecauseofthesmallbut generalimprovementinrisksentiment sinceThursday afternoon in response to receding Brexit concerns,” said City Index analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

The market was also buoyed by a softergreenback,whichmakesdollardenominated commodities cheaper for buyers using rival currencies.

Crude futures had tumbled onThursday as fears mounted about next week’s vote in Britain on membership of European Union, sending investors fleeing to the safety of the dollar.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/MONEY

With the new forex regime, market forces will now determine exchange rate

The Dawn of a New Forex Regime

The introduction of a flexible foreign exchange framework by the Central Bank of Nigeria has opened a new vista of opportunities in the economy, but not without the initial pains, write Kunle Aderinokun, James Emejo and Olaseni Durojaiye

E

xpectations of a possible reflation of the economy was rekindled as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the much-anticipated flexible foreign exchange policy believed to be crucial in bringing stability to the troubled naira as well as incentivising foreign investors who had stayed away over concerns that the local currency may be “over-valued”.

In its bid to reset the foreign exchange landscape to reflect current realities, the apex in the new forex framework decided to among other things allow the local currency to float freely in order to find its true value through the activities of market forces of demand and supply, although the CBN also made it clear that it would intervene in the market whenever appropriate.

The release of the new framework came after three weeks of due diligence and consultations with stakeholders particularly the banks on the need for a more flexible forex market to among other things to reduce pressure on the local currency and incentivise foreign investors as concerns mount over the deteriorating development in the macroeconomy.

Amid galloping inflation, the country economic fortunes have plummeted as GDP growth rate in the first quarter of the year came out negative, signalling a trajectory into a possible recession.

Also, unemployment had also been on the rise while foreign trade further recorded a negative balance in the first quarter.

Nevertheless, the new forex framework

which comes into effect tomorrow will allow a single market structure through the inter-bank/ autonomous window, while the exchange rate would be purely market-driven using the Thomson-Reuters Order Matching System as well as the Conversational Dealing Book.

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, further announced that forex trading will now be undertaken by forex primary and non-primary dealers only distinguished by the volume of foreign exchange deals they transact while a single forex widow will be maintained.

Also, a significant aspect of the new policy is the re-emergence of the foreign exchange futures platform where forex seekers could front load their demands at a specified rate instead of a practice whereby forex is obtained and hoarded for future use because of fear of uncertainty, a development that continued to exert undue pressure on the local currency.

According to Emefiele: “I know a couple of people, particularly those who have matured letters of credit, who expect that they want to buy their foreign exchange would say what happens to the matured transactions? The important thing is that all backlog of transactions will be taken to the market for the clearance. And let me say this, the CBN has foreign reserve of close to about $26.5/26.7 billion-this is certainly substantially higher than the level of any demand that is in the market.

“And we are making efforts at the supply of forex in the market and we are also optimistic that the steps that we have taken today will

help to further deepen the market and also get foreign exchange into the market. We are very hopeful that this will work. We are saying independently, the CBN is working to even ensure that we improve the level of supply

There’s no need for everybody to rush at the same time into the market: indeed, you may find yourself losing money when you rush into the market and take some emergency decision that will hurt you, hurt your profit, hurt your balance sheet and ultimately, if you are taking a bank loan, hurt your interest charges on your bank loans. We need to be very careful

on its own into the market. So those demand would be met at the market.”

Continuing, he added: “There’s no need for everybody to rush at the same time into the market: indeed, you may find yourself losing money when you rush into the market and take some emergency decision that will hurt you, hurt your profit, hurt your balance sheet and ultimately, if you are taking a bank loan, hurt your interest charges on your bank loans.

We need to be very careful.

“And that’s the reason we’ve provided for you to go to the futures-take it easy, I repeat, take it easy, if you are not too sure, go to the futures, commit yourself to a rate, you’ll find a deal-all the bank’s will provide you with fx futures rate whether from one to nine months... so with that, you are able to go about business without necessarily bothering.

“We’ve committed ourselves to the level of guarantees to say, it’s like a bet-if the rate that you get eventually at the of your futures maturing is higher than the deal date, we will pay you the difference. But if the rate on that day is lower than the deal date rate, you’ll pay us the naira. We are just trying to say be calm, no need to worry, everything is well.”

However, the new flexible exchange regime is expected to rouse the appetite of foreign investors to put their funds in the economy as the naira finds it true value through market forces.

Analysts, Stakeholders React…

Expectedly, diverse reactions have been pour-

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

19

BUSINESS/MONEY The Dawn of a New Forex Regime Cont’d from Pg. 18 ing in from operators in the economy. While majority hailed the new policy as impressive and opined that the CBN should be commended, the others plead for caution and argued that the policy was not a guarantee for inflow of FX through foreign investors.

Reacting to the new development in the forex market, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Jacobs, said the new policy was a welcome development and praised the fact that “It will enable manufacturers, traders and exporters buy foreign exchange at the same single rate.”

According to Jacobs, The new flexible foreign exchange policy is good. Going forward, there will be no more unnecessary fluctuations in the market. Besides, “It manufacturers, traders and exporters buy foreign exchange at the same single rate and I think the CBN should be commended for coming up with the policy,” he stated.

Likewise, applauding the latest development, Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Bismark Rewane, noted that, “it is a move towards equilibrium pricing… it is good for the market, it is good for the economy.”

Specifically, Rewane pointed out that the new policy “reduces distortion in allocation of resources in the economy,” enthusing that “it will lead to greater productivity, lower inflation and higher growth.”

Similarly, in his own reaction on CNBC Africa programme immediately after Emefiele announced the new forex policy, Head of Markets and Country Treasurer, Citi Nigeria, Bayo Adeyemo, stated that, “I am actually very delighted by most of the actions taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria; they are very positive for the market and very positive for the economy. I am not sure that investor could have asked for more actually.”

“Having said that, a lot of the actions will be hinged on exact execution because in the initial stage the banks will depend on the CBN for supply so the issue of backlog is very critical for the inter-bank to work very effectively until a substantial part of the backlog is cleared then the market will take its key from there. Essentially the intervention by the CBN at the initial will be very critical to the success of this new FX policy,” he however added.

Aligning with Adeyemo, Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Bukar Kyari, who also spoke on the CNBC Africa programme, stated: “It’s all good. For the first time in Nigeria, the CBN and we all are clear on issues of FX policy; we are more focused on the fact that we are going to have more liquidity rather than devaluation. Heritages such as FMDQs have been there for quite some time and they have been playing in that part of derivatives market and it is something that we should allow to grow and mature.

“The second thing is that , liquidity is going to be there for the market, people who have been holding off are now going to appear. I do see that this is the right move; there will be transparency because there were people who were talking about allocations and what is the basis of the allocations; all those discussions will be mute now.”

Speaking along the same line,Macroeconomics and Fixed Incomes Analyst of FBNQuest, Chinwe Egwim, noted that, “we expect the FX policy will provide liquidity to the market,” saying “This is a bold move by the CBN. It seems this will allow the interbank market come back properly.”

On the CBN governor’s assurance that the FX reserves, which stood at $26.5billion, could cover existing demands, Egwim said “the CBN’s willingness to fully participate by supplying dollars will be tested.”

To the Managing Director, Global Analytics Consulting Ltd, Tope Fasua, “this is perhaps the best option open to the CBN. Some have been clamouring for devaluation. The problem with a simple devaluation would be its arbitrariness.

If the government had simply devalued the naira officially to say, N300 to the Dollar, we will soon discover that the pressure will return and they will have to devalue again.The approach they have chosen is to try and get out of the retail market.”

Also, an economist and former acting Unity Bank Managing Director, Mr. Muhammed Rislanudenn, was excited that the new framework will help foreign investors take positive decision on the economy.

Emefiele

Minister of Finance , Kemi Adeosun

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma

According to him, “This policy pronouncement effectively means naira will be traded on a single exchange rate at market determined rate while CBN intervenes from time to time, albeit with weak reserve that can only finance five months of imports. Naira will no longer be pegged at artificial rate of 197 to a dollar.

“Open and transparent two way quote will help in dealing with speculators and rent seekers . Three months Forward non deliverable contracts have already surged to N333 per dollar according to Bloomberg. The policy is more like free floating currency. It will hopefully help foreign investors take positive decision and bring in liquidity into the market with medium to long term effect of bringing down the rates and also dealing with imported inflation.”

He said: “Note however that CBN have not committed themselves to any exchange rate.

The new market will take effect June 20. One wonders why the economy was allowed to be so badly bruised for a whole year leading to stagflation and near recession before taking a right decision.”

In the same vein, an economist and research Analysts with a foremost economic advocacy group, Rotimi Oyelere, commended the apex bank for overcoming the blunders and pressures of not pegging naira at a particular rate (N280-N290) as anticipated by some stakeholders because it would have been extremely difficult if not impossible to defend such decision.

Sharing his thoughts with THISDAY, he said: “CBN has carefully dodged official devaluation of the naira but rather introduced more flexibility (not total) into the FX market. CBN intends to promote liquidity by boosting supply and equally promote financial security in the market. We cannot sacrifice security on the altar of promoting liquidity because in the long run we stand the chances of losing both,” he stated.

Continuing, Oyelere, however noted that, “There are few concerns that may require further clarifications. Like on what conditions would “CBN Interventions be, directly in the inter-bank market or through dynamic “Secondary Market Intervention Mechanisms” be based?”

He further predicted that investors may be a little cautious in the short run which may result in marginal rate increase at the parallel market and insisted that as the interbank market receives more liquidity, demand pressure on the parallel market will reduce thereby closing the gaps between the interbank market and the parallel market.

However, Managing Director and Chief Economist Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, Razia Khan, highlighted the implications of the new forex policy.

She said while the CBN’s apparent embrace of currency flexibility was positive, “macroeconomic concerns are likely to persist.” According to her, “How Nigeria’s accumulated backlog of FX demand will be settled is not yet clear. The risk is that if all of this demand is brought to the newly established interbank market at the outset, the USD-NGN FX rate would come under significant pressure.

“By establishing guidelines for a futures market, the authorities may hope to settle some of this backlog gradually over time. With May inflation reaching 15.6 per cent y/y, there is likely to be limited desire for further significant FX volatility, even as the CBN embraces currency flexibility.”

Similarly, Khan pointed out that, “a second concern is the lack of monetary tightening accompanying the move towards FX flexibility.”

“With Nigeria’s FX reserves already pressured by deteriorating fundamentals, and oil output threatened by a new wave of Niger Delta militancy, raising the policy rate and sterilising excess liquidity in the money market may have provided a better defence of the currency. As things stand, Nigeria’s entire bond yield curve is currently negative with respect to headline inflation. This may make it more difficult for Nigeria to attract meaningful offshore portfolio inflows. It may also weaken domestic confidence in policy, eroding trust in the NGN. In the absence of accompanying tightening of monetary conditions, the move to FX flexibility – with a properly market-determined FX rate – might risk further currency overshooting.”

Furthermore, Khan posited: “A weaker FX rate will likely boost Nigeria’s receipts from oil revenue, and help contain the overall fiscal deficit. However, there are potentially negative implications. The foreign exchange exposure of the Nigerian banking system, given the preference for USD-lending in previous years, remains a key concern. A much weaker FX rate may initially bring loan deterioration, with higher system NPLs. Even in the presence of accommodative

monetary policy, appetite for new bank lending may take some time to recover. The benefits of this policy accommodation, and hopes for an imminent resurgence in lending, may not be realised.”

In conclusion, the chief economist noted that, “Our projection is for Nigeria’s current account (C/A) deficit to widen further near-term. Falling oil output will be a key source of stress on C/A receipts. Even with currency flexibility, this is unlikely to be fully compensated for by other inflows, at least in the near term. Nigerian FX reserves will likely remain pressured. More will be needed to boost confidence in the new FX regime, ensuring its workability.”

Also, criticising the new policy, Executive Director, Corporate Finance, BGL Capital Limited, Femi Ademola, said the stringent requirements set before end users to access the fx market as well as the continued ban on the 41 items could limit intended success of the policy.

Otherwise, he said: “The new fx policy is very apt and in line with practicable monetary policy.

It would help to reduce speculative activities and round tripping. Since the currency is not artificially supported (at least not visibly), it allows creativity in hedging against volatility and would be attractive to foreign investors.

“No deliberate devaluation is expected going forward hence investment planning and exiting has been significantly improved. However, the issue of stringent requirements to access the market by end users and the ban on some 41 products from accessing the market could lead to continued patronage of the black market.”

Furthermore, an Associate Professor of Finance and Head, Banking & Finance, Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr. Uche Uwaleke, noted that as commendable as the forex policy appeared, it could further fuel inflation and cause the naira to further weaken in the short run.

According to him, “The value of the naira is likely to weaken in the short run since it is going to be determined by market forces in an import dependent economy with a shallow export base. Also, a further spike in headline inflation from the current 15.6 per cent should be expected to result from imported inflation.

Again, the policy may hurt deposit money banks with a large portfolio of dollar-denominated risk assets as their non-performing loans may shoot up affecting their bottom lines and possibly leading to further retrenchment of staff. On the flip side, the flexible forex policy is likely to shore up forex reserve arising from possible increase in Diaspora remittances and foreign portfolio investments (FPI).

“An increase in FPI will bouy activities in the stock market. Some foreign companies/airlines that exited on account of capital controls may consider returning now that the controls are being relaxed. Similarly, Nigeria may get readmitted into the JP Morgan bond index. Also, the wide gap between the interbank and parallel market rates is likely to close reducing opportunities for round tripping and similar abuses in the forex market.”

Having said that, a lot of the actions will be hinged on exact execution because in the initial stage the banks will depend on the CBN for supply so the issue of backlog is very critical for the inter-bank to work very effectively until a substantial part of the backlog is cleared then the market will take its key from there. Essentially the intervention by the CBN at the initial will be very critical to the success of this new FX policy

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

As States Await N90bn Budget Support Loan...

The request for bailout by states has become a recurring decimal. The trend may yet, not abate, given some states’ precarious situation, writes Kunle Aderinokun

R

ealising the prevailing economic crisis is still affecting most of the 36 states, the Federal Government, last Tuesday, offered to bail them out. The bailout fund, which, this time, totals N90 billion, is not a grant but a loan, called conditional Budget Support Facility (BSF). According to the Ministry of Finance, the affected states could only access the loan after conforming to the stringent 22-point reform agenda called the Fiscal Sustainability Plan (FSP), which was unanimously agreed by the 36 states at the National Economic Council meeting on May 19, 2016.

Five states have so far completed the process of borrowing from the Federal Government’s facilitated N90 billion budget support loan from the private sector, the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, said on Thursday, quoting Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun.

The FSP is a framework of reform measures including the requirement to publish audited financial statements and budgets, biometric and BVN payroll review exercises to sanitise payroll costs, as well as limits on recurrent expenditure levels.

Other reforms will see States required to set and meet targets to enhance Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the establishment of Efficiency Units to reduce overhead costs, privatisation of State Owned Enterprises, domestication of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and limitations on securing further bank loans.

On its part the Federal Government has agreed to develop IPSAS compliant software for States to use, and to develop new Bond Issuance guidelines to ease access to the Capital Market for States wishing to fund developmental projects.

Disbursements will be conditional upon States meeting their agreed targets and will be subject to monitoring and evaluation

by Independent Monitoring Agents. States that fail to meet the agreed reform targets will be excluded from further funding.

The FSP mirrors the public financial management reforms currently being pursued at the Federal Government level and is expected to set the States on a path towards long term-fiscal sustainability.

Essentially, the N90 billion is a relief to the state governments to enable them pay workers’ salaries as well as put them in good financial standings, thereafter.

According to the terms of the loan, a tranche of N50 billion, which will be repaid in three months, would be shared among the affected states and the remaining N40 billion would be paid in nine months.

This is not the first time the federal government would be coming to the rescue of the states. Just few months into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, precisely in July 2015, the federal government bailed out 19 of the 27 distressed states with N400 billion. But sometimes in February, just six months after the initial bailout, some of the states were seeking another bailout. They had been hit by another cash crunch as a result of the prevailing economic realities.

THISDAY checks revealed that most of the states that benefitted from the N400 billion intervention fund, in the form of loans offered by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had approached the presidency and the CBN for another bailout.

However, investigation revealed that the

Buhari

Lagos State government had refused to join the states seeking bailout, an obvious indication of the buoyant finances of the state, which generates about N23 billion monthly.

Apart from the CBN intervention, there were other reliefs endorsed by President Muhammadu Buhari and shared to the states, which included the $2.1 billion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) proceeds that accrued to the Federation Account.

Following the CBN intervention fund the distressed states received in July 2015, which attracted repayment with interest, deductions were being made in earnest. However, given the dwindled revenue accruing to states from the federation account occasioned by the crash in the prices of crude oil at the international market coupled with the fact most of them are already neck deep in debt to commercial banks, what remains, after all deductions, amount to almost nothing. States were seeking more concessions.

Succour has, however, come for them with federal government offering to support them with loan facility to the tune of N90 billion. Last Tuesday, while announcing another relief for the states, Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, explained that the loan, which would be through the Federal Government bonds, must be repaid with a price.

Stating that the state governors had been briefed on the FSP, she noted that the aim of the FSP was to assist the states to overcome current fiscal challenges while reforming financial management to ensure their long-term viability.

“The first thing to say is that this is not a bailout. It is very important everybody understands this. It is definitely not a bailout.

The bailout was done last year July and there were no conditions attached. This is a loan we have secured from the private sector and it has conditions attached to it.

So it is actually a loan to be repaid and

Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdul Aziz Yari

not a bailout. What I mean by paying the price is that when you want to borrow money, the lender sets some conditions and these conditions are very stringent.

There are 22 of them and I think all of you have the fiscal sustainability plan,” she noted.

“Governments unanimously approved the plan and you know it is going to involve a lot of work. They have to clean up the ghost workers, set up efficiency units, reduce the recurrent expenditure, publish accounts and their budgets. A lot of very tough conditions. But what I mean by paying the price is that governors and commissioners believe that these reforms are necessary if they want the reforms to be fiscally sustainable. Every state must be viable. We cannot have a situation where states are solely dependent on the Federation Account. Once the Federation Account is down, they cannot survive,” she added.

But since the affected states have been bleeding since and are already haemorrhaged, the ability of the states to repay the loan has been questioned by analysts.

One of them, an economist and Chief Executive Officer, Global Analytics Consulting Limited, Tope Fasua, berated the states for always asking for bailout and yet their condition still remain the same.

He believed the distressed states are weak debtors and they may not be able to repay the loan, especially with the stringent conditions which will attract higher interest rates.

Besides, he expressed the belief that the states only want to collect the loan, enjoy the liquidity and go back to penury.

“Some states look ‘brain-dead’ and on permanent life support. They collected bailouts before and their conditions did not improve. Now they will collect loans, which I read has very stringent conditions.

In the realm of credits, the higher the risk, the higher the interest rates and the more stringent the conditions of a loan. But

that too, is why loans to weak debtors go wrong. They are weak because they have little capacity to repay, and when they get these stringent conditions, they enjoy the liquidity for a while only to revert into penury,” he said, Fasua who said, “I have a bad feeling about the loan and nothing in our polity today tells me that we will come out at the end of it all, smelling like roses,” pointed out that, “the issue is about the structure of Nigeria - the creation of ‘too many’ states, and more fundamentally, the mentality that state governors acquired along the line, as Lords of the Manor.”

To him, “very few, if any of them have changed their lifestyles and spending patterns. It is all about politics. The bigger issue is that the whole of Nigeria has not started thinking outside the box in terms of how we generate our revenues and how we increase productivity.”

Going forward, Fasua advised: “Our revenues should be linked with productivity, and states will only get rich if they can increase per capita productivity among their able populace. It sound ridiculous when some of them say they want to go after taxes (in a depressed economy and in states with no productive base and no prospects of productivity in the near future), or they want to go and get solid minerals.”

“I particularly detest the solid minerals argument because it’s the same mentality of digging the ground, despoiling the environment and selling whatever we get there for cheap. This is what got Nigeria to this point - with petroleum. I call it ‘junkie economics’,” he added.

With the current economic realities and the states’ appetite for hand-outs from the centre, one could only hope for a reversal of fortunes for them, in the shortest time possible. Anything short of this, it would be miraculous for the affected states not to request future bailout.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Stimulating Economy to Tackle Rising Inflation

The unabated rising inflation is currently a serious concern for economic analysts and stakeholders, who, however, see hope on the horizon, if the federal government could immediately stimulate economic activities in the country, write Kunle Aderinokun and James Emejo

T

he country’s economic tribulation was compounded by a further rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) (which measures inflation) to 15.6 per cent in May from the previous month’s figures of 13.7 per cent, seemingly defying all measures to tame it.

The galloping inflation further dashed hopes about the possibilities of prices of food and other commodities normalising after more than doubling for over four months since the headline index had been on the upward trajectory.

It also means Nigerians will have to endure higher lending rate from commercial banks because interest rates are usually higher than the inflation rate, a situation that would further constitute real threat to the development of the real sector.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the 1.9 per cent increase in the rates in May largely reflected an overall increase in general price level across the economy as all divisions that contribute to inflation increased at a faster pace in May. Specifically, it noted that electricity rates as well as other energy prices continued to manifest as key drivers of the core component of the CPI as imported foods as well as a drawdown of inventories across the country continue to push food prices higher.

The CPI figures for May also showed that the highest increase in rates were seen in the Passenger Transport by Road, Liquid Fuel (kerosene), Fuels and Lubricants for Personal Transport Equipment (Premium Motor Spirit) and Vehicle Spare Parts groups while all major food groups that contribute to the Food sub-index increased at a faster pace driven by higher food prices in Fish, Bread and Cereals, and Vegetables groups for the second consecutive month.

It was however, the fourth consecutive month that the headline index would increase relatively strong.

Analysts who spoke to THISDAY painted a gloomy picture for the economy although they also believed that the unfavourable situation could be reversed if government, as a matter of urgency, releases the capital budget to stimulate economic activities across the country.

An economist and former acting Unity Bank Managing Director, Mr. Muhammed Rislanudenn, expressed the hope that the new foreign exchange policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) might cushion inflation going forward.

He lamented that, “monetary instrument available to CBN to attack inflation is jerking up interest rate and trading off growth. That has not played the magic and the problem gets further accentuated due in large part to CBN demand management forex policy that has for a whole year distorted the market, created a huge gap between parallel and official rates thereby inducing imported inflation.”

“The economy is already one leg in recession with a recorded negative Q1 GDP growth rate. Meanwhile there seem to be no synergy between 2016 expansionary fiscal and monetary policy.

Hopefully the new forex policy will help improve liquidity and transparency in the system thereby aligning prices down in the medium to long term. Government need to fast track its capital spending to stimulate the economy and draw it away from recession,” he added.

Prices of food items are on the rise with galloping inflation

Also, Executive Director, Corporate Finance, BGL Capital Limited, Mr. Femi Ademola, believed an improvement in current liquidity condition as well as lower cost of funds could moderate inflation in future.

According to him, “The high inflation is a reflection of the current economic realities. With the liquidity squeeze that affect both the public and private sector the cost of production has just become very high which can only be reflected in the price of commodities.

“In addition, the very low purchasing power of customers resulted in the cut in supply (production) hence the disproportionate high demand for the few available supply makes the prices of commodities to be high. However, once there is an improvement in liquidity and the cost of accessing financing is brought down, inflation will also moderate. I need to add that the exchange rate and fuel price are also significant factors that contributed to the high inflation.”

Further commenting on concerns over the rising inflation, an Associate Professor of Finance and Head, Banking & Finance, Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr. Uche Uwaleke, said food inflation might likely reduce during the harvest season while the proposed execution of capital projects could also cause the core index to decline.

“I do not see any quick fix or magic because the economy is experiencing stagflation which is a situation of rising prices and rising unemployment. Monetary policy tools designed to tame inflation tend to stoke unemployment. This is so as the pass through effect of raising the benchmark rate (MPR), cash reserve and liquidity ratios in order to tackle inflation work to contract the economy,” he posited.

Uwaleke also said:” It would appear

that monetary policy tools alone are handicapped especially in view of the fact that the current inflation is cost-push rather than demand-pull related. The National Bureau of Statistics has blamed the rise in Consumer Price Index largely on cost of electricity, fuel, transport and forex scarcity/imported inflation. What is required, in my view, is the use of the right fiscal policies to complement existing monetary policies.”

The galloping inflation further dashed hopes about the possibilities of prices of food and other commodities normalising after more than doubling for over four months since the headline index had been on the upward trajectory.

It also means Nigerians will have to endure higher lending rate from commercial banks because interest rates are usually higher than the inflation rate, a situation that would further constitute real threat to the development of the real sector

“For example, subsidies and other incentives to agriculture will go a long way in bringing down food prices. I also see food inflation declining as the harvest season approaches. As for core inflation, the execution of capital projects in the 2016 budget will help to bring down transport and electricity costs and moderate core inflation. So, my prediction is that headline inflation will begin a gradual descent by Q4 of 2016,” he pointed out.

However, in their assessment, analysts at FBNQuest, an investment banking and asset management arm of FBN Holdings Plc, predicted that as things stands, “it is clear that, with or without a more flexible exchange-rate policy, there will be another steep rise in inflation in June.”

The analysts expressed the belief that, “the fx impact is discernible in the fact that the y/y rise in the urban index in May was running over four percentage points ahead of its rural equivalent.”

According to the FBNQuest analysts, “the latest shocking inflation report from the NBS shows an acceleration in the headline rate to 15.6 per cent y/y in May from 13.7 per cent the previous month.

This compares with the average forecast of 14.7 per cent y/y in a wire service poll of analysts, and our own contribution, based on positive base effects, of 14.1 per cent. There were sharp increases for both the core and food measures to 15.1 per cent y/y and 14.9 per cent y/y from 13.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.

The m/m headline rate was the highest since January 2012 when the FGN last sought to deregulate fuel prices. “ The category for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels surged by 22.0 per cent y/y in May. We detect another inflationary push in the NBS comment that it saw “a drawdown of inventories across the country.”

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/ENERGY

Kachikwu’s Funding Options for $7bn Unpaid JV Cash Calls

Nigeria’s crude oil production from the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with the international oil companies (IOCs) is known to have grown by over 700 per cent in the last 10 years due to federal government’s non-involvement in funding PSCs. In contrast, the country has lost over 50 per cent of crude oil production from the joint venture (JV) operations during the same period as a result of government’s inability to provide its JV cash calls, which has accumulated to $7 billion. Ejiofor Alike writes that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, should pursue vigorously his proposed funding models to liquidate this outstanding obligation

S

hortly after assumption of office as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had unveiled plans to explore alternative funding models to pay the outstanding arrears of NNPC’s obligations to the joint venture companies with the international oil companies (IOCs), which currently stand at about $7 billion.

Before entrenched interests mounted spirited opposition against his reform at the NNPC, Kachikwu’s target was to pay all the arrears, which was then around $6 billion, by the end of December 2015.

As at that time, the reform was already yielding dividends with the corporation already saving $150 million monthly from the cancellation of certain contracts, while he focused on transparency for the NNPC to get back its credibility.

In the joint venture between the NNPC and the IOCs, each of the partners contribute funding, otherwise called Cash Call, according to their equity holdings in the joint venture company and also lifts crude oil in that proportion.

Under current JV arrangements between the NNPC and the IOCs, the NNPC contributes about 55 per cent of the funding requirement, while the foreign firms provide the remaining 45 per cent.

But the federal government, through the NNPC has over the last 10 years demonstrated lack of financial capacity to fund the JV projects between the NNPC and the IOCs. In contrast, production from projects under the PSC arrangement, which are solely funded by the IOCs, has risen by about 700 per cent over the same period.

In fact, Nigeria’s crude oil exports are sustained today by huge production from prolific deep offshore fields such as Shell’s Bonga, ExxonMobil’s Erha, Total’s Akpo and Usan; and Chevron’s Agbami, which are all under PSCs. The IOCs, on the other hand, are selling their stakes in JVs to local entities due partly to government’s inability to provide its own funding to boost investments in JVs. So, a major challenge of the joint venture system is the inability of the NNPC to meet its cash-call obligations.

This development led to the establishment of a new fiscal regime – PSC, modelled after Indonesia’s Production Sharing Agreement.

Under a PSC, the NNPC does not contribute any fund as the PSC contractor (IOC) provides 100 per cent of the risk capital, as well as technical and manpower requirements.

However, the contractor recoups the investment outlay when it starts the export of crude oil.

But the grave danger in the Nigerian PSC is that the IOC is not refunded the exploration cost if oil is not found in a commercial quantity.

Following the National Assembly’s failure to allocate enough money as cash calls for the NNPC in the country’s budget over the years, the arrears of JV cash calls have accumulated to about $7 billion.

“If you ask for $4 billion; they (National Assembly) will give you $1.5 billion,” Kachikwu had told THISDAY. For the first time in a very long time, Kachikwu had on assumption of office, introduced a raft of measures to open up the oil and gas sector and enthrone a regime of transparency, due process and accountability in an industry that was run in an opaque and secret nature.

restore probity and transparency to the process of generation, collection and remittance of crude oil proceeds.

He encouraged the other IOCs to come up with funding models that would be favourable to the joint venture partners.

Kachikwu

Due to inadequate funding of the JVs by the NNPC, crude oil production by the NNPC JV with Shell, Chevron, Total and ExxonMobil has dropped by 50 per cent in the last 10 years.

According to statistics obtained by THISDAY, the country should have been producing between 500,000 barrels per day and 1 million bpd more than it is producing today if the government had been providing adequate funding.

Kachikwu’s new funding models Kachikwu achieved a major feat for the JV when he secured$1.2 billion multi-year drilling financing package for 36 offshore/onshore oil wells under the NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Limited Joint Venture as one of the funding models he proposed.

With the restoration of the confidence of local and foreign investors in the sector, a landmark achievement was recorded when the $1.2 billion multi-year drilling financing package was secured in 2015.

The funding package, which is being financed by a consortium of Nigerian and international lenders, is an integral part of the Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme initiated by Kachikwu to address the perennial challenge experienced by the federal government in providing its counter-part funding of JV upstream activities.

A breakdown of the NNPC/ Chevron JV deal, which was executed at a signing-ceremony in London, showed that the $1.2 billion is to

be channelled into the development of 23 onshore and 13 offshore wells on Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 49, 90 and 95 in two stages over 2015- 2018.

Stage one, comprising 19 wells is projected to deliver 21, 000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside 120 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscf/d, over 2015 and 2016.

Stage two, comprising 17 wells is projected to yield 20, 000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside gas production of seven mmscf/d of gas between 2016 and 2018.

It is envisaged that both stages of the project would generate $2 billion to $5 billion of incremental revenue to the Federation Account.

Beyond the contribution to the national treasury, the projected peak incremental gas production of 127 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d), which is the electricity equivalent of 400 megawatts, would help boost the Federal Government’s domestic gas aspirations with expectant positive effect on power supply.

Kachikwu had described the new alternative funding arrangement as the new contractual model in upstream financing which would serve as a template for future initiative to supplement the federal government’s joint venture Cash Call commitment.

While commending the NNPC/ Chevron Joint Finance Team and the consortium of local and international lenders led by Standard Chartered Bank and UBA, the minister had noted that NNPC would not relent in the renewed effort to

Exploring Funding Options The minister has consistently restated that rather than waiting for the federal government’s budgetary allocations, there are viable alternative funding options for the JV projects if the government and the IOCs could sit on a negotiating table.

As the then Executive Vice Chairman and General Counsel of ExxonMobil (Africa), Kachikwu had prepared the legal framework for the successful raising of about $15 billion in recent years by the joint venture between the NNPC and Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).

As the Minister of State for Petroleum, he should therefore be allowed by entrenched political interests to implement his vision for alternative funding options such as External Financing (EF); and Alternative Funding (AF) or Modify Carry Agreement (MCA).

Having been given a free hand by President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the Change Agenda in the oil and gas industry, he should not be distracted in implementing the administration’s dreams. As a global business run in line with global best practices, Nigeria’s oil and gas business should not be mixed with local politics.

“I am grateful to be working with the President, who has done everything that you would expect in terms of giving you the latitude to bring the issues on the table; discuss with him; and reach decisions that will be fruitful to this industry.

So, if you see the speed with which we are moving, it is because he has given me the free hand and is willing to work with me to sanitise the company. The President is very emotional about the poor people,” Kachikwu had explained.

External financing will relieve the federal government of its obligations to the JVs. In external financing, commercial banks provide funding for approved JV work programmes at cost-effective and market-driven borrowing rates.

External financing is structured in a way that the lenders have no recourse to the JV assets, as the loan is secured from forward sale of incremental volumes.

Under Alternative Funding or Modified Carry Arrangement, the IOC funds the NNPC share of the approved JV work programme.

The IOC receives agreed after-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR), while the loan is repaid via tax relief and crude oil liftings.

As pointed out earlier, the joint venture between the NNPC and Mobil Producing Nigeria had successfully raised $15 billion through these alternative funding options in recent years.

Shell has also raised billions of dollars under Modified Carry Arrangement to fund NNPC’s share of JV work programmes.

The federal government should therefore provide all the enablers for the IOCs to use alternative funding options to finance NNPC cash calls, so as to solve the problem of the inability of the corporation to fund the JV, which has constrained Nigeria’s overall oil production growth.

Alternative funding has provided viable options for funding JV projects, especially during this period of plummeting crude oil price.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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BUSINESS/AGRICULTURE

Bridging the Gap in Food Sufficiency As stakeholders in the Nigeria project continue to make case for agriculture as a major sector that could help navigate the country out of the current economic entanglement, some farmers are already extending their frontiers to help the country achieve her food sufficiency, Kunle Aderinokun and Raheem Akingbolu report

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ince the sudden slide in oil prices at the global market started ruffling the Nigeria economy, experts within and outside the country have consistently recommended diversification to save the economy.

Looking through the historical development of Nigeria, it is easy to identify agriculture as one of the major areas that could be explored to bounce back.

In the last few months, many revelations have emerged on how over-dependence on imported foods contributed to the nation’s economic mess.

At a media tour organised by the management of natnudO Foods on its process and farms in Awe, Afijio Local Government, Oyo State, the Managing Director of the company, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, urged government and other stakeholders to first find a way to boost local food production.

Before then, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, while expressing worry over the over-dependence of Nigerians on foreign foods, said the country spent $20 billion on food importation yearly. In a related development, the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, was reported to have said in another forum that Nigeria annually spent $11 billion on importation of wheat, rice, sugar and fish alone.

However, at the Awe tour where reporters were taken round facilities at Amo Byng Nigeria Limited and Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Limited, the natnudO Foods boss explained that if properly harnessed, the poultry value chain has the capacity to absorb millions of people and make them economically productive.

Oduntan, a veterinary doctor, who is also the President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, (PAN), said the local poultry sector has the capacity to produce and meet the poultry demands that will arise from the new government policy of home-grown school feeding programme.

“We advocated for the inclusion of eggs and poultry foods in the meals to be given the school children and I can assure you that, if given the needed support in terms of fund and materials we will meet the demands “Meeting local consumption demand is achievable in two years at the rate we are growing; we only need patience and support, but if we are denied such, it might take up to another four years before we can attain that level” According to him, the amount of money spent by entrepreneurs in providing infrastructure and facilities to keep business running is huge and diversionary.

“We are here because as producers of natnudO chicken, we want to show Nigeria and Nigerians that with a little bit of support and patience, Nigeria can be sufficient in the production of poultry produce.

“We are a Nigerian company and we can lead the way for other poultry farmers to produce enough that will be sufficient for Nigerians and save our people from the hazards of smuggled poultry products into the country. Our target as a company is to make at least 10 per cent of total poultry production for the Nigerian market in the next five years” Speaking on what motivates him and his team despite the harsh infrastructural environment, he stated that their motivation had been to create jobs for the people and bring something out from nothing, adding that farmers needed the banks to believe in them more and support them with funds to run the sector.

“We are here because we want to show that with a little bit of patience and support, Nigeria can be self-sufficient in the production of chicken. And natnudO is willing and able to spearhead this drive. We are a Nigerian company, we have all our investment here, and we are totally committed to the industry. I have done poultry for 25 years and we have nowhere else to run to. We are willing to help Nigeria on its part to self-sufficiently in agriculture. We have

One of the factory workers bagging the feeds

Chicken in their pens

everything to gain by supporting local production by a Nigerian company.

“Brazil is a ready example. And if you look at the map of the world, you would see that South America and Africa must have been joined together at one point or the other. So you can replicate the kind of weather we have here to what they have. If Brazil in the space of 20 years could become the largest exporter of chicken in the world; generating billions of dollars for the country in revenue, why can’t we at least satisfy our local demand? We are committed to make this happen, but we need stakeholders’ support. natnudO Foods is a division of Amo Foods Sieberer Hatchery.”

If Nigerians are able to increase their consumption of local chicken, Oduntan believed that poultry farmers would be able to increase their businesses three or four folds. He made a stunning revelation of how about 1.2 million tonnes of chicken were smuggled into this country every year. He pointed out that Nigeria total local production is about a quarter of that; that is, about three hundred thousand.

“So imagine what would happen if we increase our output to five hundred thousand. That means we would all have to double our current production.

So there’s still a lot of room for growth in this business,” he said.

However, if there is any challenge militating against the growth of the agricultural sector, it is infrastructural problem, which has in many ways, made the cost of production of farmers unimaginable. Dr. Oduntan admitted that the country is a difficult one to run business. He claimed to have travelled wide around the world but yet to see what happen in Nigeria in any country.

“Agriculture is not easy in Nigeria. It requires consistency and commitment. For instance, our company was moribund when we took over and we are Nigerians in Nigeria. We saw the potential. I was a young man then. I didn’t dwell more on the negatives; I focused more on the positives. In the end, the reason why I went to study veterinary medicine still prevailed. In this country we can generate jobs and bring prosperity from nothing. That was how we started. We

started very small.

“It amazes me now when I receive phone calls from bankers. I have shed tears in a bank before.

It was so bad that a banker called me and said “you have a proposal in Agric, it would not fly because the very day you brought that proposal, somebody put it in the bottom of the drawer.”

“So we had the challenges of the banks and infrastructure. In our farms in Awe and its environs, a lot of the power lines you see were built by our company. Also, all the roads here were built by us,” The fact that Agricultural is a low margin business notwithstanding, the management of natnundO Foods is not deterred. To Oduntan, Nigerian farmers are yet to scratch the surface, because they are not competing against Nigerians. For the chicken business, he explained that players in Nigeria are competing against influx, which he described as ‘smuggled poison’ from different parts of the world.

The company was said to have been reestablished following the bankruptcy of a French Group call Amo Sanders. By 2002, promoters of Amo Sanders, which was then owned by a French multinational, were tired of Nigeria and they decided to sell these companies. Oduntan had the opportunity to be there at the time and he bought what was left of it.

Today, as part of the measures put in place to encourage new prospects in poultry, the natnundO management is making effort to create a scenario where different categories of people will get involved in the poultry business.

To this end, the company has instituted what is called natnuPreneur Scheme, through which it intends to provide inputs, trainings and market for poultry farmers the campaign, which is currently being taken to major cities is meant to awake farmers and revive moribund poultry farms.

According to Ayoola, farmers who participate in the scheme will be empowered by natnundO, from the production end to the selling point. “It will help them grow their businesses faster. We have a pilot programme of 250 farmers now and about to expand to 1,500 farmers nationwide. The other part on seller end, we want to empower young and new entrepreneurs into selling poultry products. What they need is basic investment of about three to five thousand naira. The major idea is to bring the moribund farms back to functioning,” he said.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/MARITIME

Towards Safety on Waterways in a Congested City

With ever-increasing population and road traffic gridlock, ferry transport services appear to be in high demand in Lagos State. While both federal and state agencies have issued new guidelines on safety to operators to ensure safety of life at sea, their adherence to these regulations leaves much to be desired, writes Francis Ugwoke

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he state of the water transportation industry is one currently enjoying high demand in Lagos State despite the risks involved. In the state, many would wish to drop their cars or avoid road transport to get to their workplaces each morning. For those, who work in Apapa, Lagos Island and Ikorodu, ferry services would do them a lot of good. Depending on where one lives, going to these places characterised by perennial traffic gridlock, ferry services would be better. It will save a lot of time wasted on the road and the risk factor involved. It will also save passengers some high fares spent on buses or taxis as the case may be. For those who live in Badagry or along the Badagry Expressway, like Trade fair, Satellite town, Okokomaiko, Festac Town down to Mile 2, and work on the Lagos Island, Ikorodu or Apapa, the best transportation option is definitely ferry. This is the same for residents of Ikorodu and environs or anywhere near the water where ferry or boat services could be deployed.

But over the years, the situation has been one of complete lack of reliable ferry services in these places. Although, there is a high demand, those operating the services, mainly private investors cannot meet up. Even where there are such services, the passengers are at risk because of the disorderliness of the operators and their non-adherence to safety standards. It is only in cases where the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) enforce strict standards that one can be sure of some level of orderliness and safety regulations.

Boat Operation and Mishaps In many riverine communities, particularly the Niger Delta, some parts of the North, boat or ferry services have remained major means of transportation. But in these places, safety measures are not at best for the operators who are mainly drawn from the private sector. In most cases, the boats used in these areas are rickety, not seaworthy and therefore very risky for passengers. Despite this risk, the passengers are left with no choice than to use them. There are even many cases where live-jackets are not offered to passengers not to talk of the state of health of the boat. This explains why from time to time, accidents occur and so many people lose their lives. Between last year and this year, no fewer than 20 persons were believed to have lost their lives in various boat mishaps that occurred in Jigawa and Lagos.

The issue has always been capsizing of boats in which passengers are thrown overboard. The passengers who lost their lives were not provided with safety gadgets as they boarded the ferries.

At Mile 2, Ikorodu, CMS Lagos Island, Apapa and other parts of Lagos, boat transportation is also in high demand apparently because of the high population of workers . At some points in Lagos, safety regulations are being observed. For instance, ferry services at designated official places run by any government agency and accredited operators usually give passengers information on safety. The passengers are also given life jackets.

However, what one cannot guarantee is the sea worthiness of the boats being deployed for this service.

Enforcement of Safety Standards To ensure that boats are safe for passengers, both federal government and Lagos state government have been collaborating . They do this through their two agencies, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA). The two had had conflicting roles but now resolved. Worried about boat mishaps in Lagos for instance, LASWA had introduced

boat must have minimum internal dimension of 7.3m length, 2.2m width, 0.6m distance between seats and double hull and bottom design, apparently as required by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). This requirement which also applies to indigenous ship-owners involved in affreightment of petroleum products within the territorial waters is yet to be met. Part of the regulations by NIWA and LASWA include navigational aids, cabin lighting systems, life jackets, fire extinguishers, paddle, life buoys, shore to sea communication gadgets, key starter and alarm systems for all commercial boats. The guidelines stipulate four minimum emergency exits, toilet and waste treatment facilities for bigger boats. Other requirements include adherence to a speed limit of 6 knots around jetties and a maximum of 15 knots as service speed and provision manifest of passengers on board.

The agencies also directed that boat operators must submit comprehensive insurance cover every year. The agencies which demanded that boat drivers must be certified for competence said they will carry out a bi-annual inspection for standards. Sambo said,“We cannot continue to fold our hands and not uplift our standards, otherwise we will remain behind. Our priority is to ensure safety on waterways” However, he explained that the guideline was not intended to force small operators out of business but for safety of the passengers, adding that the nation has lost many people in boat mishaps.

As part of the efforts for safety, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, recently said his administration was committed to channelisation of designated routes on waterways in order to aid commercial activities. Ambode said this measure will end all “interference and risks posed by loggers, dredgers and fishermen”, to commercial boat operations. “We are trying to improve on the quality and safety of water transportation in Lagos State so as to encourage more people to use water transport. The government is doing a lot to improve on water infrastructure,’’he added.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dayo Mobereola, had explained that the state government was interested in “safe, secure, accessible and affordable transport systems.’’

A ferry on a trip

Passengers on board a ferry

strident regulations which ferry operators must meet as they go into the business. Yet, the smaller ones, it was gathered have continued to flout the rules. For instance, in Badagry, Ibeshe – Ikorodu, Kirikiri and port areas, many of these boats operate without live jackets in an open boat.

While many of the operators have been arrested as LASWA official told THISDAY last week, it was gathered that this has not stopped them from committing the same offence. An official of LASWA, who did not want to be quoted, said the agency has often advised passengers not to patronise any ferry service provider that does not offer them safety gadgets as they are boarding any of their ferries. “We have always cautioned against passengers patronising any boat without live jacket. Any passenger doing so is at his own risk”, he said. But despite the warning, many passengers especially those not going to far places still patronise operators that do not offer them safety gadgets. Specifically, the management of

LASWA had early this year summoned all the boat operators to an emergency meeting. This was following increasing boat mishaps attributed to contravention of safety regulations by the operators. The Managing Director of LASWA, Abisola Kamson, had during the meeting stressed the need for strict compliance with safety standards by all boat operators in the state.

She said:“Despite efforts by the state government to enforce the safety standards on the waterways, some boat operators still flout the rules and regulations thereby putting the lives of innocent citizens at risk.”

About a month ago, both NIWA and LASWA had issued guidelines, specifying a minimum of 30- passenger capacity commercial boats on Lagos waterways.

NIWA’s Area Manager, Alhaji Mu’azu Sambo, and Kamson said all commercial boats must be fitted with two engines and a functional speedometer. According to them, any commercial

Boosting Water Transport In order to boost water transport, the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, said recently that the federal government would partner the Lagos State Government on improving water transportation in the state. The Minister said the state government needed to embrace water transportation in the face of gridlocks in the state, adding that roads alone could not address the needs of the people.

The minister said the National Transport Commission and the Nigerian Railway Corporation bills have been forwarded to the National Assembly, noting that when passed, they will enhance regulation and open opportunities for private sector investment in transport infrastructure.

NIWA Invests in More Boats In a bid to improve on the demand for ferry services for Lagos State, NIWA, recently took delivery of two 47-seater water buses in Lagos for ferry services that will take care of the transport needs of residents in Trade Fair, Satellite and FESTAC Towns, and Mile 2.

Sambo explained that water buses would ease the difficult transport situations, which many Lagosians suffer while going to their businesses.

He said the target were mass passengers resident in Trade fair, Satellite town, Okokomaiko, Festac down to Mile 2. “If we deploy these buses on the Ijegun, Mile 2, CMS route, we are hopeful it will ameliorate the travelling situation of Lagosians living in those environs.”

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

BUSINESS/ MEDIA

Is ‘Old Mutual’ the Next Big Thing?

Stories by Raheem Akingbolu

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hree years after the Old Mutual brand entered Nigeria, the brand has started entrenching itself into the insurance market. As at the time it was entering the market, top brands like IGI, Mansard, AICO and Mutual Benefit were already making waves and this was a challenge for the promoters of Old Mutual. Its first strategic move was the acquisition of the Oceanic Life, which was used as a lunch pad into the market. Since then, the 171 year- old brand has built on its global experience and local resources to navigate the market.

In a fresh attempt to capture the market, promoters of the Old Mutual Nigeria and its two subsidiaries -Old Mutual Life Nigeria Assurance Company and Old Mutual General Insurance Company, have been consistent in the last few months in its positioning drive. To build a robust profile in the market, the brand has successfully leveraged sponsorship and partnership to warm itself into the hearts of patrons in the insurance market. Another thing that has worked for Old Mutual is the way its handlers have guided its heritage and brand promise for decades.

At a time when many service providers and manufacturers appear to be cutting cost in response to the harsh economic reality in the country, Old Mutual still see the need to engage stakeholders in the industry. To this end, pundits are wondering if the brand’s recent approach will not unsettle the market and possibly swing things in its favour.

The first approach in recent times was the sponsorship of the Nigeria - South Africa Chamber of Commerce Breakfast meeting in Lagos last month, where the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Economic matters, Dr. Yemi Dipeolu, rolled out the country’s economic strategic plan.

Considering the current economic situation in the country and the choice of the speaker, the event attracted the needed attention. Also, Dipeolu dexterity in dissecting government’s plan to reinvigorate the economy was mind-boggling. Expectedly, the chamber and its sponsor, the Old Mutual brand, took the credit.

Though an event that was put together to examine economic issues, as it related to the two countries, the Old Mutual involvement was viewed as both patriotic and developmental. Dipeolu, who delivered a paper titled; “It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint” stated that the present administration is keen on embarking on strategic plan to take Nigeria out of her present economic quagmire. He said while the nation tries to keep the short term, it must also keep an eye on the long term.

The economic adviser stated that given the strategic location of Nigeria on the continent, whatever happens in the country impacts the rest of Africa, therefore, Nigeria must devise a means to survive the present economic hardship.

One week after, in what industry players described

L-R: President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr. Kayode Okunoren; Commissioner for Insurance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari; Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual General Insurance Company, Mrs. Rachel Emenike; and Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual Life Nigeria Assurance Company, Mr. Keith Alford during the 2016 CEO’s Retreat of NCRIB in Ilesa, Osun State…recently

as a pragmatic move to add value to its customers and the banking public, the insurance company announced the partnership between Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group, and Old Mutual Emerging Markets (OMEM).

Before the euphoria over the two companies’ strategic agreement could go down, it was announced that Old Mutual would sponsor the 2016 CEOs’ Retreat of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) in Osun State.

The enhanced strategic agreement between the company and Ecobank is expected to strengthen existing ties between the leading pan-African bank and the insurance and asset management giant. Old Mutual Emerging Markets currently has a bancassurance partnership with the Ecobank Group. This latest agreement will grow the existing strategic alliance by offering seamless insurance services to Ecobank clients across selected countries where the two groups have operations.

A statement issued by the company indicated that clients will benefit mutually though access to a range of financial services that include life insurance, savings and short-term insurance solutions across a greater network on the African continent.

The statement quoted the bank’s Group Chief

Executive Officer, Ade Ayeyemi, as saying that plans for the integrated model include providing access to Old Mutual solutions for Ecobank’s banking operations across selected countries.

According to a source closed to the insurance company, the sponsorship of the NCRIB retreat was informed by the need to strengthen professionalism and deepen awareness among stakeholders in the insurance sector.

The theme of the retreat which was held in Ilesa Osun State, was ‘Growing Insurance Amidst Regulation’.

Speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Insurance, Alhaji Muhammed Kari, emphasised the need for practitioners to adhere strictly to the ethics of the insurance profession. He pointed out that rules and regulations are important to drive professionalism, adding that the regulatory body was prepared to be more flexible in its approach to the industry. The commissioner also called for the rebranding of the industry to appeal to the consuming in public.

On why Old Mutual Nigeria threw its weight behind the retreat, at a time many organizations are cutting corner, the Chief Executive Officer of Old Mutual General Insurance Company, Rachel Emenike, said the 171 year-old brand has consistently supported platforms that could promote professionalism. She described brokers as major stakeholders in the insurance

industry that could not be dismissed, especially for the role they are playing in the economy.

“As an association of brokers, NCRIB is a major stakeholder not only to the insurance industry but also to the economy. Over the years, brokers have redefined the industry through effective practice and sensitization of the public on the importance of insurance. Who else can we partner to take the industry to the next level if not NCRIB?,” she said.

Earlier, the President of NCRIB, Mr. Kayode Okunoren, had described the annual retreat as a programme put together to review activities of brokers as well as providing networking platform for players in the insurance industry.

Old Mutual began in Cape Town in 1845 as South Africa’s first mutual life insurance company, offering financial security in uncertain times. Today, 171 years on, the Group is made up of four strong businesses operating successfully in their respective markets and enabling positive futures for their stakeholders.

Having been listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges, among others, since 1999, the company is moving towards becoming a household name in Nigeria. However, whether it will succeed in the market or not will depend on how focused its handlers are and the response of its competitors in the market.

Awonaike: Nigeria Needs to Embrace Culture of Outsourcing

Tunde Bodunrin

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he manufacturing sector of the economy has over the years experienced serious setbacks and consequently failed to live up to its expectation of creating employments and contributing to the growth of the economy. In view of the significance of this sector to the economy, outsourcing has been identified as a very necessary system that must be fully embraced in order to revamp the sector and save it from total collapse.

The Chief Operating Officer of Resource Intermediaries Limited (RIL), Mr. Ademolasoye Awonaike, who gave this revelation recently in Lagos in a chat with journalist disclosed that though outsourcing firms are currently working with a quite number of manufacturing firms, there are still many more out there that need to embrace this culture. He emphasized that outsourcing will help in reducing cost which can then be ploughed back into the manufacturing companies to generate more revenues.

Resource Intermediaries Limited is a foremost Lagos based outsourcing firm in Nigeria and it boasts of a very good name with clients in diverse industries nationwide and staff spread all over the country in about 34 states of the federation including FCT. Mr Awonaike who lamented how the manufacturing sector of the economy has had its own share of the economic downturn and infrastructural deficiency, lamented that with the nation’s abundant human

capital and natural resources, the industry ought to be contributing more to the GDP than it is doing currently. He however expressed hope that the industry will take its place as a catalyst for economy development with the new government in place and its promise to invest heavily in infrastructural development.

The RIL COO reiterated that there are numerous opportunities for outsourcing in the manufacturing sector which ranges from personnel, process and distribution adding that major parts of the manufacturing workforce are unskilled and semiskilled personnel who can be better managed on an outsourced basis for better efficiency rather than on the casual and contractual basis which is the major practice. “Manufacturing companies will derive more value from personnel outsourced because the outsourced personnel will be better managed and motivated for increased job commitments”.

He noted that a total production line process could also be outsourced as it is already common practice in Europe and America while also disclosing that manufacturing plants are already outsourcing distribution in Nigeria but better efficiency would be recorded with government’s plans to invest in better infrastructure like rail.

Speaking about the existing relationships between outsourcing firms and the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, Mr Awonaike stated that outsourcing firms have been able to get a few manufacturing companies to start using outsourcing services in the areas of personnel management and the experience has been encouraging with more processes being outsourced based on the experiences garnered from

previously outsourced process.

His words “A few manufacturing companies in Nigeria are currently using outsourcing services in the area of personnel management which has helped them with the flexibility of upscaling and downscaling personnel requirement for production at will. This has helped the manufacturing concerns to manage cost of personnel when production is low or when they need to close a line of production”. He however decried the habit of quite a number of manufacturing companies that still make use of unskilled personnel that are not properly documented which is against the Nigerian Labor Law on casualisation.

Mr Awonaike charged manufacturing firms not to look at personnel outsourcing from the angle of cost saving alone but rather see more of the benefits from the increased efficiency and personnel dedication.

While identifying Pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, steel, cable and metal manufacturing, plastic manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, etc as other aspect of manufacturing where outsourcing could make positive impacts, he highlighted the benefits of outsourcing to include but not limited to support increased demand, which he described as a wonderful step “for addressing an uptick in demand for different types of products. He said companies may experience a sudden surge in orders for a particular product and may require additional resources to keep up with demand and, “ability to Upscale and Downscale staff when necessary.’’

He also explained that outsourcing guarantees lower cost of production and enable organization to

focus its resources, both human and financial, on the areas that increase revenue and profit. “Where we have a lot of investors and outsourcing partners are contracted, the cost of manufacturing and production will drop on the long run and this will make products more available at a cheaper rate in the market. This will encourage the unemployed to go into entrepreneurship as goods will be readily available and affordable”.

While mentioning that the world is now a global village with global competitiveness at its peak, Awonaike argued that if national businesses were so survive, they need to start paying serious attention to smart, 21st century business strategies like outsourcing.

Speaking on the strength of the British outsourcing companies over the past decades, Awonaike called on the Nigerian Government to support and encourage the outsourcing course adding that there must be an accrediting body/umbrella that must endorse any new outsourcing firm.

“Outsourcing firms in Nigeria should come together with a voice that speaks the same language which is Corporate Governance i.e do Outsourcing the right way. How it should be done according to international best practice. It has being observed that a lot of Outsourcing firms are at the mercy of the client therefore taking anything the client throws at them in terms of contract”.

“Advisors are also lacking in the outsourcing sphere. Advisors are professionals who come between the outsourcing firms and clients to ensure both parties are satisfied with the contract signed between both parties”.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

NIGERIA’S TOP 50 STOCKS BASED ON MARKET FUNDAMENTALS

CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED PLC: Investment income and gross premium income greatly drive earnings

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austodian and Allied Plc (Custodian) recently released its financial statement for full year ended, 31st December, 2015 and first quarter results for March 31st 2016 showing an impressive growth in gross revenue and a stable 3% rise in profitability for both periods respectively.

Custodian delights its investors by consistently paying dividend every year; usually paid at the end of the financial year. For the full year ended December 2015, the Custodian has paid a total dividend per share (DPS) of N823m (on the basis of N0.14 per share) for every 50 kobo share.

Custodian and Allied Plc is the ultimate holding company that resulted from the successful merger of Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc and Crusader (Nigeria) Plc in 2012. Custodian and Allied Plc was incorporated in 1991 as a Private Limited Liability Company under the name, Accident and General Insurance Company Limited which was changed to Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited in 1993, and later converted to a Public Limited Liability Company (PLC) in 2006. Again, by a Special Resolution the Company’s name was now changed to Custodian and Allied Plc, approved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on March 20, 2013.

SIGNIFICANTGROWTH IN GROSS REVENUE For full year ended, December 31st, 2015, Custodian grew gross revenue by an impressive 18.24% to N29.79 billion from N25.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2014. The rise in revenue was largely on the back of significant rise in gross premium income which increased by 26.48% to N23.60billion from N18.66 billion recorded in the full year of 2014 and a 27.92% rise in investment income to N2.83 billion from 2.21 billion over the same period. Also, interest income and fees and commission also grew by 79.4% to N382m from N213m and by 2.01% to N2.43 billion from N2.39 billion respectively during the period under review.

The company’s strict adherence to prudent underwriting guidelines led to successful bolstered relationships with existing and new clients which drove the growth in premium income over the period. The insurance company continues to leverage on its trusted brand, responsive service to clients, and development of mutually beneficial partnerships to deliver quality insurance services to clients.

The Company’s other operating income, retainership income and profit on investment contracts declined by 77.11%, 29.57% and 32.63% respectively. Other

WE EXPECT THAT CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED PLC AS A HOLDING COMPANY HAS AN OPPORTUNITY WHERE THE COMPANY CAN DELIVER HIGH LEVEL OF VARIOUS PRODUCT INNOVATIONS, OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND CREATE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXPANSION TO DEEPEN ITS MARKET WHICH WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY BOOST PERFORMANCE BEYOND CURRENT RESULTS

operating income declined was mainly due to the decrease in foreign exchange gains, sundry income and rental income However, the impact of these decreases on the Company’s earnings was abated by an extraordinary increase of 19447.04% growth in net realised gain from financial assets which climbed on the backed of profit generated from disposal of investment in associate.

With respect to insurance benefits and claims paid out, the reinsurer’s insurance claims, net claims and underwriting expenses for the period form the operating expenses which increased by 22.88% to N20.39 billion from N16.6 billion reported in the corresponding period of 2014.

Further scrutiny in the financial statement shows net insurance claims grew significantly by 98.16% to N9.27 billion in December 2015 from N4.68 billion in December 2014. Consequently, underwriting expenses increased by 13.10% to N2.23 billion from N1.8 billion; while reinsurance expenses decline by 10.58% to N8.89 billion from N9.94 billion over the period.

INCREASED FINANCIAL ASSETS GAIN IMPEDES IMPACT OF INCREASED EXPENSES Finance cost for the year ended

December 2015 increased by 21.16% to N173m from N143m recorded in the corresponding period of 2014. This is as a direct outcome of the Company’s total borrowings which increased by 20.91% to N2.5 billion in December 2015 from N2.07 billion in December 2014 leading to growth in interest payments during the financial year.

Due to the extraordinary rise in financial assets’ net realised gain which was able to cushion the effect on growing expenses, the Company’s profitability increased during the period under review as pre-tax profit rose by 12.45% to N5.73 billion in December 2015 from N5.1 billion in December 2014.

Taxes for the 2015 year ended rose substantially by 44.72%, to N1.53 billion from N1.06 billion in the corresponding period of 2014. Despite the significant rise in taxes, net income grew moderately by 3.99% to N4.2 billion in December 2015 from N4.04 billion in December 2014.

ASSETQUALITY REFLECTS EARNINGS GROWTH The Company’s balance sheet shows sizable positive changes in total assets, net assets and total liabilities as at December 2015, when compared to year ended December 2014. Total assets grew by 16.28% to N57.39 billion from N49.35 billion in December 2014.

The key drivers of the Company’s total assets includes a 53.87% increase in cash balances to N24.42 billion from N15.87; 19.47% increase in financial assets to N14.28 billion from N11.95 billion and a 11.82% rise in property, plant and equipment (PPE) to N2.76 from N2.47 as at December 2014.

In terms of obligations, the Company’s total liabilities recorded a notable growth of 18.61% to N31.3 billion as at year ended December 2015 from N26.39 billion as at December 2014.

Liabilities key drivers entails insurance contract liabilities which increased of 19.02% to N18.81 billion from N15.81 billion; trades payable which rose by a significant 51.66% to N2.59 billion from N1.71 and a 20.91% rise in borrowings to N2.5 billion from N2.07 in December 2014. Expectedly, the company’s net assets grew by a notable 13.52% to N26.07 billion from N22.97 billion year on year.

Moreover, with respect to returns, the company’s return on average equity (ROAE) stood at 17.13% from 19.02% as at December 2014 while return on average assets (ROAA) followed suit as it reduced to 7.87% from 8.50% as at December 2014.

WE PLACE A BUY RECOMMENDATION AS POTENTIAL REMAINS VAST We expect that Custodian and Allied

Valuation Metrics 16-Jun-16 Recommendation

BUY

Target Price

4.18

Current Price (N)

3.67

Outstanding Shares (m) Market Cap (N'm)

5,881.86 21,586.44

EPS (N)

0.71

PE Ratio

5.14x

Forward EPS

0.81

Forward PE Ratio

4.52x Source: BGL Research

FYE December 2015 Audited Results Turnover (N’m)

29,793

Profit Before Tax (N’m)

5,732

Profit After Tax (N’m) Pre-tax Margin (%)

4,200 19.24%

Source: Company Data 2015, BGL Research

FYE December 2014 Audited Results Turnover (N’m)

25,198

Profit Before Tax (N’m) Profit After Tax (N’m) Pre-tax Margin (%)

5,097 4,039 20.23%

Source: Company Data 2014, BGL Research

Shareholding Information Shareholders

% Holding

Shareholders

% Holding

Chief Michael Ade Ojo

18.01%

Mr Wole Oshin

15.75%

Mr Ravi Sharma

5.92%

Stanbic Nominees Nigeria Ltd

5.21%

Free Float

55.11% Source: Company Data 2015, BGL Research

Plc as a holding company has an opportunity where the company can deliver high level of various product innovations, operational excellence and create an opportunity for expansion to deepen its market which would significantly boost performance beyond current results. Also, the Company’s management must effectively manage its growing expenses to curtail such impact on further earnings towards a better shareholders return.

Based on our review of the Company’s financials, we project gross earnings of N39.08 billion and net earnings of N6.01 billion for financial year end December 2016. Using a relative Price to Earnings Valuation (PE) and Net Assets Valuation method, we arrive at a 12 month target price of N4.18. Since this represents an upside potential of 13.77% on the current price, we therefore place a BUY recommendation on the shares of Custodian and Allied Plc.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

NIGERIA’S TOP 50 STOCKS BASED ON MARKET FUNDAMENTALS

FBN HOLDINGS PLC – Increase in expenses impacts on earnings

F

BN Holdings Plc (FBNH) recently released its full year results for the financial year ended December 2015 showing a moderate increase of 4.99% in gross earnings to N505.19 billion from N481.17 billion in the corresponding period of 2014.

The growth in revenue was driven by the increase in interest income, net insurance premium revenue, dividend income and other operating Income. FBNH was able to grow its revenue base despite a 14.12% decline in loans and advances to customers, and decline of 16.30% in loans and advances to bank.

FBN Holdings Plc has kept up with its regular dividend payment, and has paid a total dividend payment of N5.38 billion (on the basis of 15 kobo per share) for every 50 kobo share, which is higher than 10 kobo per share paid in the previous year.

EARNINGS DECLINE ON THE BACK OF RISING EXPENSES AND LOW NON-INTEREST INCOME The bank for the full year ended, December 2015 recorded a growth of 4.99% in gross earnings to N505.19 billion from N481.17 billion in the corresponding period of 2014; attributable to the growths in interest income and insurance premium revenue.

Interest income increased by 9.27% to N396.19 billion in December 2015 from N362.57 billion recorded in the corresponding period while interest expense rose by 10.48% year on year to N131.17 billion from N118.73 billion. Hence, net interest income increased in tandem by 8.68% to N265.02 billion from N243.85 billion during the period under review.

Conversely, net interest income could not manage further interest expenses as it dropped to N145.69 billion by a substantial 33.14% from N217.91 billion in December 2014 due to significant 360% growth in impairment charges for credit losses to N119.3 billion from N25.9 billion over the same period.

On the other hand, non-interest income dropped by 12.04% to N99.4 billion in December 2015 from N113 billion in December 2014 as a result of changing and stringent regulatory directives which impacted noninterest income and led to massive decline in foreign exchange income to N22.2 billion from N44.9 billion in 2014. Fees and commission income and commission on turnover also recorded significant decline.

DESPITE REGULATORY POLICIES IN THE BANKING SECTOR WHICH THREATEN THE BANK’S INCOME GENERATING CAPACITY, WE BELIEVE THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BANK WILL CONTINUE TO FOCUS ITS EFFORTS TOWARDS STRENGTHENING INCOME GENERATION FROM ITS CORE BUSINESSES AND BETTER MANAGE ITS EXPENSES

This was further highlighted by the increase in cost of risk to 5.7% from 1.3% driven largely by the recognition of impairment on some specific accounts in commercial real estate, finance and Insurance, construction, Oil& gas sectors.

Moreover, fee and commission income declined by 4.37% to N64.06 billion from N51.22 billion, which is attributable to reduction in commission on turn over (COT) by 16.99%.

GROWING OPERATING EXPENSES IMPACTS FURTHER ON EARNINGS The bank recorded an operating income of N364.4 billion for the year ended December 2015; representing an increase of 2.3% year on year from N356.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2014. On the other hand, total operating expenses decreased by 5.6% year on year to N223.6 billion in December 2015 from N236.8 billion.

Further analysis of the Company’s total operating expenses figure revealed that regulatory costs accounts for total operating expenses major

increase as it rose by an extraordinary figure of 383.72% in the year under review mainly due imposed fines and penalties by the regulatory authorities.

Thus, profit before tax declined by a massive 77.13% to N21.51 billion in December 2015 from N94.06 billion in the corresponding period. Similarly, net income also followed suit with 81.97% decline to N15.15 billion from N84.01 billion reported in full year 2014. The decline in bottom-line earnings could not be cushioned by a massive drop of 36.65% in income tax expense to N6.36 billion from N10.05 billion over the same period. Thus earnings per share (EPS) declined to N0.11 from the full year ended, December 2014 figure of N0.62.

MODERATE DECREASE IN ASSETS QUALITY Total assets decreased moderately by 4.08% to N4.17 trillion as at December 2015 from N4.34 trillion recorded as at December 2014. Assets decline was occasioned by the decline in total loans and advances which dropped by a notable 16.55% to N2.20 trillion from N2.64 trillion as at December 2014; thus, reflecting the tough operating environment encountered by most financial institutions during the past 12 months financial period. Consequently, the Bank’s total liabilities also declined by 6.08% to N3.59 trillion as at December 2015 from N3.82 trillion as at December 2014, largely driven by reduced borrowings by 30.72% to N256.12 billion from N369.71 billion year on year.

However, the FBN Holdings Plc shareholders’ equity grew by 10.44% to N578.80 billion from N524.06 billion as at December 2014; essentially driven by retained earnings of 41.74% to N153.98 billion.

Return on average equity (ROAE) declined to 2.7% as at December 2015 from 16.9% as at the corresponding period of 2014, while return on average assets (ROAA) followed suit as it declined to 0.4% from 2%; while cost-to-income ratio stood at 61.4% from 2014 full year figure of 66.5%.

At 58.6%, the Bank’s liquidity ratio remains above the minimum regulatory requirements of 30% while capital adequacy ratio remains strong at 17.1% well above the regulatory requirement of 15%.

WE PLACE A HOLD RECOMMENDATION Despite regulatory policies in the banking sector which threaten the Bank’s income generating capacity, we believe the management of the Bank will continue to focus its efforts

Valuation Metrics 16-Jun-16 Recommendation

HOLD

Target Price (N)

3.88

Current Price (N)

4.20

Outstanding Shares (m)

35,859.29

Market Cap (N'm)

150,760.22

EPS (N)

0.42

PE Ratio

9.95x

Forward EPS

0.39

Forward PE Ratio

10.78x Source: BGL Research

FYE December 2015 Audited Results Turnover (N'm)

505,190

Profit Before Tax (N'm)

21,512

Profit After Tax (N'm)

15,148

Pre-tax Margin (%)

4.26%

Source: Company Report 2015, BGL Research

FYE December 2014 Audited Results Turnover (N'm)

481,174

Profit Before Tax (N'm) Profit After Tax (N'm) Pre-tax Margin (%)

94,056 84,011 19.55%

Source: Company Report 2014, BGL Research

Shareholding Information Shareholders

% Holding

Retail

53.91%

Domestic Institutional

29.47%

Foreign Institutional

14.73%

Govt.-Related Holdings Outstanding Shares (m)

1.88% 35,895.29

Source: Company Report 2015, BGL Research

towards strengthening income generation from its core businesses and better manage its expenses.

The strong liquidity position of the Bank and potential profitability from increased focus on lending would cushion the effect of the liquidity withdrawals on the performance.

Considering the above, we project gross earnings of N590.98 billion for the year ended December 2016; this translates to a forward EPS of N0.39.

With a PE multiple of 9.95x combined with the net asset valuation (NAV) method, we arrived at a 6-month target price of N3.88 for FBN Holdings Plc. Since this represents a downside potential of 7.67% on the current share price, we place a HOLD recommendation on shares of FBN Holdings Plc.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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Edited by Demola Ojo Email demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com

Japan: Shiny Skyscrapers, Live Robot Dances and Ancient Temples

Kemi Onabanjo

F

or years, I had been craving an Asian experience (and no, Dubai is not in Asia according to me) but justifying the long travel time from Nigeria to Asia had been tough. I also told myself that the language difference could be a barrier (this is the same person who has been to France multiple times o!) and so I kept postponing the day of ‘glory’.

I finally got the opportunity to join a group of 30 classmates on a trek/culture trip to Japan in February, and to date, it has been both the highlight of all my travel experiences, and my MBA experience at the same time. It was a nine-day trip covering 5 cities – Tokyo, Kyoto, Takayama, Nara and Hiroshima – as well as a quick stop at Japan’s highest mountain, Mount Fuji and several UNESCO World Heritage Sites spread across the country.

Visas As a Nigerian, I need a visa for almost everywhere. Japan was not an exception. Thankfully, it is one of those countries where you don’t have to be in your home country to apply for a visa, so I could apply from France where I am currently completing my MBA degree.

The application process was fairly straightforward and they didn’t need too many documents. I downloaded the form online, completed it and went to submit at their consulate in Paris. Trust me, I have applied for many visas in my life, and this one was relatively easier than a lot of other places. One interesting document I was asked to complete was a form asking for a detailed itinerary of my trip, including information on which city and where I would sleep each day of the trip. Be prepared to have that info ready so you don’t have to go twice or reduce your chances of getting the visa.

The visa was free for most countries except for about 10 countries for which the cost was €21(N7,875). You can be sure that Nigeria was on that list and so I paid the fee.

Flights I am a sucker for direct flights, as they are fastest way to get to my final destination. Although I love to travel, I don’t exactly enjoy being confined in a box for many hours, except of course, there’s an interesting person sitting next to me. Although it is slightly more expensive to take direct flights, the joy and benefit of arriving at my desired destination ‘sharply’ and starting my adventure quickly (while avoiding the tempting trap called duty free) always outweighs the cost of lost time spent playing the waiting game at airports during layovers.

Flying Japan Airlines from Paris to Tokyo was a delightful 13-hour experience. Best believe me when I say that the Asian hospitality experience begins in their aircraft’s. I mean, how many airlines serve Haagen Dazs ice-cream as part of snacks? Have I just exposed my sweet tooth? The in-flight entertainment was also very up to date and the crew provided exceptional service. I was nursing a cold and the air hostess kept coming to check up on me, offered me a mask to help manage the dry air and was very nice to me.

These things matter, especially when you are not getting any pepper soup medication from your mama for the cold.

Oops, I digress!

Accommodation Given that we covered five cities in nine days, we moved a lot. Airbnbs were not a good option for us as we were a large group, so we stayed at a combination of boutique hotels and hostels. I found the hostels in Japan to be more comfortable and better managed than hostels in Europe.

Our hosts were savvy enough to negotiate group discounts for us, and ensured we usually stayed on the same floor in the hotels so room-sharing was much easier. All our rates were also bed and breakfast rates, which was great and cost-effective. On average, we spent about €50-65 (N 18,750- N 24,375) per person on daily accommodation.

Food/Drinks I was not a sushi lover but Japan converted me for sure!

Every meal was a hit back-to-back! Whether it was sushi, miso soup, udon or soba noodles, ‘okonomi-yaki” (a type of pancake that’s an Osaka or Hiroshima delicacy), rice noodles or vegetables, every meal was freshly made and bursting with flavor. I am usually watching something, either my weight, height, complexion or hair texture, but on this trip, I didn’t have to watch anything.

The meal portions were adequate and I felt nourished (not stuffed) after every meal. In Japan, there is no going wrong with food, and that’s coming from a picky eater like me. You have the option of keeping it local or being fancy

The Golden Pavillion at Kinakuji Temple, Kyoto

Sanjusangendo Temple, home to a thousand Buddhas in several Michelin star restaurants, depending on your wallet size or color of your credit card. On average, I spent about 25-40 Euros on my main meals.

On beverages, there are two must-drinks when in Japan – matcha which is green tea and sake which is the Japanese rice wine. Matcha is served hot, cold, unsweetened, sweetened, concentrated, and diluted and so on. There are dedicated matcha houses that serve just green tea – absolutely beautiful.

Now, I have been told that sake is special. As I am a teetotaler, I can only speak about what I have been told. Sake is usually served warm, so it’s easy on the throat and stomach. Although the impact creeps up on you subtly, when you start manifesting, it’s not so subtle. Don’t say I did not warn you! There are a few other fun drinks for team teetotaler such as Calpis, lemon+vit C rich ramune and so on. And if all else fails, coke and water will always be available. There is no Chapman in Japan, thank you.

Things to Do Japan is the land of ancient and modern, and so there is a wide variety of things to do. Regardless of what your interests or preferences are, there is an abundance of sites and activities to keep you engaged.

The beautiful thing about Japan is that every city has

its own history and appeal, and you will enjoy each city differently.

Tokyo is home to the big, shiny, skyscrapers and there are several restaurants that have live robot dance shows after dinner – spectacular! There are also a lot of themed cafes that are better experienced than described. Karaoke bars are on another level and if you like to hear your horrible singing voice like I do, it’s more fun hearing it on hi-tech sound systems. There is also a beautiful bay area in Tokyo that’s great for day or night cruises. Anime and Manga lovers will be excited to know that Tokyo is also home to the center of the geek universe, located in a district called Akihabara.

Kyoto is a different story – temples and more temples and even more temples! There is a lot of history curated in each temple, and as museums are to France, so are temples to Japan. A few must-sees include the golden Kinkakuji temple, the Sanjusangendo temple which is home to a thousand buddhas, and the Toei Uzumasa, which is the Japanese Universal Studios and home to most Samurai productions.

Hiroshima is popular for the peace memorial commiserating the 1945 atomic bombing, and Nara is home to deers which are seen to be holy animals and hang around temples a lot. In addition to these big cities, there are a good number of smaller villages that have been commissioned as UNESCO World Heritage sites, and are special in their own way.

Getting Around Public transportation is very efficient for getting around within and between cities. There are also cabs on almost every corner, just waiting for you to get in. The bullet train which goes between the major cities is extremely fast and more spacious than the Eurostar. It’s very comfortable and you feel like you’re flying. If you are staying for about a week or an extended period, I recommend that you get the PASSMO (equivalent of the UK’s Oyster travel card) as you can use it on multiple trains/metros and it reduces time spent at the station trying to buy a ticket. Besides, if you are a JIT (just-in-time) girl like me, you definitely don’t want to risk missing the train because Japanese trains are on time, always!

In summary, Japan is a delight, a fusion of old and new, the past and the future, tradition and sophistication, and an all-round amazing place that kept blowing my mind every day of my trip, and even till now. Japanese people are another breed, for sure. They cannot be described in just a few words – that would be doing them injustice.

I hope with these few points of mine, I have been able to convince you to visit and get your own dose of Japanese awesomeness – its better experienced than described.

From www.naijanomads.com

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

TRAVEL

FG to Revive Argungu Fishing Festival From OlawaleAjimotokan in Abuja

T

he Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that government is placing priority on the revival of the Argungu Fishing Festival.

The four-day yearly festival held in Kebbi State is one of Nigeria’s internationally recognised tourism attractions. But unfortunately it has not been held since the last edition in 2009, posing a huge revenue loss for the local economy and the country.

Mohammed told the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs which paid him a visit during the week, that federal government was considering reviving the Argungu Festival as a national tourist asset.

He said the ministry had requested all states of the federation to provide a list of all their festivals, adding that their cooperation was needed in the resuscitation of the Presidential Council on Tourism.

Mohammed said that government has mapped out four states for tourism pilot development while the British Council has offered to give support on capacity building, infrastructure and assess to the market. He noted that culture which is pro-poor and pro-rural area is neglected in Nigeria arising from lack of infrastructure, lack of market, resulting in lack of synergy between culture and capital market.

The Minister said that tourism and culture cannot be separated adding that factors like visa, security, hotel, aviation and local transport must be addressed.

Senator Aliu Abdulahi, who led the

The Argungun festival was first held in 1934

senate committee, frowned at the neglect which all elements of Nigeria’s culture from all divides, including respect for elders have suffered. He said the senate would not like to see culture backslide.

He therefore asked that budget must be prepared for culture next year.

Wakanow Unveils ‘Pay Small Small’ Summer Deals

A

frica’s leading online travel portal Wakanow has launched new and exciting summer deals that offer both old and new customers an opportunity to enjoy various travel packages with the “Pay Small Small” option.

The Pay Small Small scheme, which is one of the many products in Wakanow’s rapidly expanding portfolio, gives the travelling public savings as much as 150 per cent on their travel expenses with a flexible payment plan.

It is designed to allow customers lock down choice travel deals by making only a 25% down payment of the travel cost and paying the balance in convenient installments before the travel date.

Chief Marketing Officer of Wakanow, Mrs. Victoria Onwubiko, said the new payment scheme reflects the company’s commitment to continually exceeding customer expectations with custom-made solutions.

“At Wakanow, the interest and satisfaction of our customers remain key drivers of our business processes and culture. As Africa’s leading online travel platform, we take pride in proactively creating innovative solutions that deliver the most memorable experiences for our customers, leveraging very heavily on technology to ensure seamless operations and customer convenience.”

Commenting on the rationale behind the scheme, the Executive Director of Strategy, Mrs. Toyin Odutayo, said the new product is targeted at travellers who require flexible payment options to take advantage of their choice travel destinations.

“Financial constraint is one of the major challenges when it comes to planning for your vacation. We are aware that there thousands of people who love to enjoy

Wakanow CEO, Obinna Ekezie the thrill and excitement of travel but are constrained to limited options because they do not have the money to pay for the travel package at once. Wakanow decided to provide a lasting solution to these travel challenges with the introduction of Pay Small Small scheme,” she stated.

“With Pay Small Small, Wakanow customers can now enjoy the rare privilege of locking down highly affordable travel packages, thereby enjoying the early bird advantages.“ The Pay Small Small scheme is applicable to all Wakanow product packages, including flights, hotels, and tours. Every Wakanow booking earns loyalty points that can be redeemed at known and popular outlets in Nigeria.

His view was corroborated by Senator Sani Sani Umar, who wondered that information has overshadowed culture.

Umar said that culture defines our identity and should not be relegated to background.

“Culture is our sole and identity as

Africans and it must not be relegated.

Unfortunately, information has taken the shine off culture. People without culture are people without sole. Any request for culture next year in the budget will be captured to enable you to function,’’ he said.

La Palm Royal Hosts West African Tourism Leaders at Accra Weizo

La Palm Royal Beach Ghana

P

rivate Tourism stakeholders in West Africa will be meeting in Accra, Ghana next month at the Accra Weizo tourism event which holds July 15. Accra Weizo is an event put together by the organizers of Akwaaba African Travel Market with the support of Ghana Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts.

The 2016 edition themed: “Seamless Travels in West Africa” will host a discussion session on West Africa as a single destination.

The session will have discussants from the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators

(NATOP), Tour Operators Union of Ghana (TOUGHA), National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), and heads of the Tourism Associations from Benin and Togo. It will be moderated by a leading Ghanaian Journalist.

Accra Weizo is hosted by La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, supported by Ethiopian Airlines and Accra City Hotel. Mr. Ikechi Uko, the organizer of Weizo, stated the objectives which include improving travel and tourism growth in West Africa through easy access to towns and cities in West Africa.

Over 150 Travel Professionals are expected from all over West-Africa, with tours to Cape Coast for the 14th and 16th.

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INFOGRAPHIC

JUNE 19, 2016

• THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

TAMPIRI IRIMAGHA-AKEMU

DOING IT HER WAY

19.06.2016

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T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

covEr

Tampiri Irimagha-Akemu

TAMPIRI IRIMAGHA-AKEMU

DOING IT HER WAY With an impressive background which includes stints with Total E &P Nigeria, Orlean Invest West Africa and a UNDP Regional Project that she had to account for 13 African countries, Tampiri Irimagha-Akemu is settling into the role of running Sesema PR, following the demise of its founder, Alima Atta. In an encounter with Funke Olaode, she speaks about her career and family

T

ampiri IrimaghaAkemu, managing director of Sesema PR wouldn’t want to be addressed as an accomplished woman yet because she sees the sky as just her beginning.

Describing her as a boardroom diva with a magic wand won’t be an understatement. She parades both an impressive academic and career pedigree that can make the best of her peers green with envy. In less than four decades of her existence, she has covered so much ground.

A large portrait of the late founder of Sesema PR, Alima Atta stares down from its vantage position like an ethereal sentinel.

That Thursday morning, Tampiri chose a black pencil gown which accentuated her cute and trim figure. Her friendly disposition was apparent in the warm reception.

Without doubt she enjoys a chummy relationship with her staff members as evident in the way

they relate. The company’s official orange is obvious in the painting and furniture.

It is one year since Alima Atta passed on after running the company for 13 years. Now Tampiri who previously operated behind the scene since 2014 has assumed full responsibility, following Alima’s demise.

Her working experience of over two decades spanning many sectors prepared her for this big role. Her multi-sector experience and outstanding track record is matched by her creativity and resilience. Her experience includes organisational development, capacity development, and public relations and communications for various organisations.

She has worked in Oil and Gas, Logistics, Non Profit Management and SMEs across Africa. Her first major work experience was with Total E &P Nigeria. Thereafter, she moved to Orlean Invest West Africa where she successfully

supervised over 20,000 people. The UNDP Regional Project and other portfolios placed on her a huge responsibility of overseeing over 13 countries across the African continent.

Tampiri has successfully managed executive broad-based consulting projects. She recently concluded an EMBA from CEIBS (ranked among top 10 international Business schools by Financial Times) specialising in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Languages and Literature, and Certificate from GIBS Gordon Institute of Business Science. She is a global Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), and has several professional certifications in HR – ACIPM, SHRI, Quality (ACQI) and management (CMI).

She has piloted several executive management leadership programmes and established a corporate Learning Academy

where she mentors young entrepreneurs. She is a board committee member of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), and a non-governmental organisation that focuses on developing women to build a better nation and mentor for W.I.N with WISCAR mentoring programme.

Attributing her success to the upbringing under her late electrical engineer turned businessman father, Tampiri admitted that she and her siblings lived in comfort.

Standing on the shoulder of that giant, she attained success. It was a tough upbringing within strict parameters. For instance, she and her siblings were forbidden from wearing jeans. Her father believed in academic and intellectual prowess. Later in life, she adopted her father ’s template.

Joggling motherhood with career wasn’t a problem with Tampiri who used her early career years to groom her two young boys. By the time she embraced

T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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Irimagha-Akemu

Irimagha-Akemu with husband, Piusw

Irimagha-Akemu

her career wholeheartedly, the boys were already in the boarding house.

Having worked in multinationals across the continent, coming to manage Sesema PR was very easy because her career had revolved around communications.

Eulogising the late founder, Tampiri said Sesema PR had about 16 active clients before she came onboard but has added 10 more clients in the last one year. More than anything else, the integrity of the founder has really helped and they are just building on the platform.

It is instructive that she was able to ease herself into the control saddle at Sesema and the unhindered transition was made possible because she had always been a friendly shadow, lurking in the background. Now is the time for her to step out and do it her way!

“I definitely would have taken more risks. I knew that I had to make a change early on but the fear of the unknown always held me back. I spent many years in the corporate world with a firm belief that patience and steadfastness will move me up the corporate ladder; I doubted my ability to make it as an entrepreneur and felt I wasn’t cut out for it. My turning point was my encounter with Alima Atta, she believed in me and the rest as they say is history.

“I would have pursued my dream and passion early enough if I had the opportunity to do anything differently. I can confidently say, ‘failure is not a

setback it just builds you up for greater successes’. Today, I am a creative entrepreneur surrounded by think-tanks. What is gold to me is not money, contacts or products.

If I lose all of these things, I would consider it a blessing as it would provide a blank canvass to draw new ideas, concepts and free flowing creativity.

For Tampiri, being at the helm of affairs of any organisation certainly comes with its hassles and, of course, perks. Taking over the rein of affairs at Sesema has been humbling and the biggest responsibility so far in her journey.

Lessons have been learnt with lots of accomplishments. Like any other growing or established business in Nigeria, the company faces numerous external challenges, which include but is not limited to high cost of maintaining and running the facility. This is outside hiring and maintaining good quality personnel. As a committed team, they have banked on their many successes and improved on their shortcomings.

Tampiri together with the team recently joined the Atta family at a solemn one year remembrance service for the repose of Alima’s soul. While a foundation in her name has not been officially launched, Alima’s existing fund has been put to good use with the launch of the Corporate Communication Pitch Competition project; the first of its kind in Nigeria aimed at identifying bright communications graduates and availing them a platform to build a career in Public Relations

I WOULD HAVE PURSUED MY DREAM AND PASSION EARLY ENOUGH IF I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY. I CAN CONFIDENTLY SAY, ‘FAILURE IS NOT A SETBACK IT JUST BUILDS YOU UP FOR GREATER SUCCESSES’. TODAY, I AM A CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR SURROUNDED BY THINK-TANKS. WHAT IS GOLD TO ME IS NOT MONEY, CONTACTS OR PRODUCTS. IF I LOSE ALL OF THESE THINGS, I WOULD CONSIDER IT A BLESSING AS IT WOULD PROVIDE A BLANK CANVASS TO DRAW NEW IDEAS, CONCEPTS AND FREE FLOWING CREATIVITY

and Digital Communication. The competition was launched last April 1 to mark the company’s 14th anniversary. Through the process of this pitch competition, it has employed four young bright graduates including a First Class graduate.

“The foundation of our business is promotion of brands and individuals, churning out tactics and the next big idea. It’s a Godgiven talent and gift and does not require money to deliver on.

Friends and clients consult us with just a fragment of a concept or an idea but with focused deliberations and research we churn out world class campaigns. This is evident in our achievements.

“In the course of our 14 years in business, we have spearheaded successful reputation management campaigns for a variety of local and international clients, our portfolio boasts of over 100 happy clients; with projects excellently executed, several recognition awards, two international partnerships for global reach and countless advisory and partnership ventures.”

There are three men in Tampiri’s life: Her supportive husband and her two amazing teenage sons.

As this reporter was set to leave, she quickly hinted on her company’s future. Diversification and expansion is in the works as it transforms into a fullfledged integrated marketing communications company with the establishment of sister companies for digital campaigns and advertising.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

ENtErtaiNmENt

with NsEoboNg okoN-EkoNg 08114495324, nseobong.okonekong@thisdaylive.com

Dazzling Performance at Rhyme and Reason Concert

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xpectations soared high last Saturday at the second edition of Rhyme and Reason Concert as different artistes came on stage to carry out surgical cut of words into provocative rhymes.

From all corners of The Dome, Lekki, Lagos where the event held, lovers of rap, poetry, spoken word and even curious minds failed woefully in trying to contain their excitement. From the loudly applauded Preston and Jackie HillPerry performance of ‘The Fall’ to Ezekiel Azonwu’s performance of ‘The Letter’, audience members were greatly awed.

True to the promise of the organisers at the press conference held the previous day, the concert lived up to its billing.

The organisers had unveiled the line-up of artistes including returnees like Janette…ikz. Others included top local and international artistes like Jackie Hill-Perry, Preston Perry, Ezekiel Azonwu, Atilola, Plumbline, Or-Raw-Day, Gaise, IBK Spaceship Boi and DJ Mordu, who had etched their names in the golden hall of fame of rap, poetry and spoken word artistry.

Convened by Atilola Moronfolu and Awele Chiedu, Rhyme and Reason kicked off in December, 2014 as part of a Rap and Spoken Word Tour in South Africa. It has since found acclaim as the only event that provides a platform for aspiring poets, rap and spoken word artistes in the country. Its first edition recorded a staggering attendance of 1,500 from different parts of the city of Lagos. This year, it attracted thousands from within and outside the country.

According to Atilola, also a wellcelebrated Spoken Word artiste, the concert is a platform to use words as a tool of self-expression as well as an instrument for social change.

“Rhyme and Reason is focused on continually creating new innovative ideas and platforms through which people, especially youths can come THE UNBROKEN PENCIL SHOW

Multi-talented comedian, and AY Open Mic Comedy Challenge winner, Ogechi Nwanevu Cyril, popularly known as Pencil, is set to stage the maiden edition of his highly anticipated comedy show tagged, Pencil Unbroken (The First Assignment) The show billed to hold on June 26 at the Muson Centre, Onikan will witness an impressive lineup of comedians and musicians who will be thrilling guest with rib-cracking jokes and mind-blowing musical performances on the evening.

Comedians billed to thrill on what we will be an intense night of laughter include Alibaba, AY, Gordons, Ushbebe, Shakara, Teju Babyface, Romeo, Kenny Blaq, Okey Bakassi, Ajebo Dan d Humorous, Senator, MC Shakara, Wofai Fada, Funnybone, Seyi Law, and will be hosted by Caroline Hutchings.

The night will also witness legendary Dj Jimmy Jatt on the turntables and musical performances from Iyanya, Phyno, Ice Prince, KCEE, Seyi Shay, Harrysong, Praiz, Oritsefemi, Yemi Sax, Reekado Banks, Yemi Alade, YCEE, Orezi, Vector, Mr. 2kay, Humblesmith, Sean Tizzle, Tjan, Rayce, Reminisce, and Bracket.

Preston Perry and Janette...ikz at the press conference

together and creatively express themselves, highlighting issues and challenges that affect their lives, with the view to proposing solutions by creating a positive narrative that resonates through the entire society and create meaningful impact,” she said.

Waxing lyrical, she further stated that love is the central thing that drives every human being. “Love for our country, our youths, the arts and our fellow man, to name a few. To see our next generation empowered, edified and positively charged with taking the frontiers of this great nation beyond our imagination.

Therefore, we all rhyme and reason.”

This assertion was clearly demonstrated by the different acts displayed on stage. However, the most memorable moment of the night was when Ezekiel led a typical Nigerian worship session in which he literally stole the heart of his fellow Nigerians.

TOWARDS A POSITIVE FUJI BRAND

Participants at the maiden edition of the Fuji Roundtable, powered by Goldberg Lager Beer, from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, have described Fuji music as the only Nigerian music brand that is devoid of foreign contamination.

Atilola and Plumbline on stage

They therefore identified the genre of music as a unifying factor for Yorubas living in the western part of Nigeria and beyond. As a result, they agreed that the music deserves due attention and concerted efforts towards taking it to the next level.

The convergence of stakeholders,

(L-R) Sikiru Ayinde Agboola (a.k.a SK Sensation), Emmanuel Agu, and Olawale Obadeyi, at the maiden Fuji Roundtable, powered by Goldberg Lager Beer, an event held at the headquarters of NB in Lagos on Monday

which took place at the headquarters of Nigerian Breweries, included: Sikiru Ayinde Agboola (a.k.a SK Sensation), Chairman, National Project Committee of the Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria; Akogun Gani Balogun, cousin to the late Fuji Legend, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister; Olasoju Adebayo, General Manager, K1 De Ultimate Band; and Olawale Obadeyi, a Fuji analyst.

They unanimously agreed that Fuji music has, over the years, contributed to the socio-cultural development of Yorubas in the region and beyond.

In his keynote address, Olawale Obadeyi, traced the origin of this genre of music to the period when Were, the local brand of music was in vogue among the Muslim faithful. He acknowledged that the music has grown astronomically over the years featuring different artistes who have contributed in different dimensions to its development.

He said the innovations brought into Fuji by those artistes have deepened ties across boundaries in the region. “Each Fuji artiste, evidently, is pushing the limits of creativity. The horizon of Fuji music has been astoundingly widened,” he stated.

Sikiru Agboola, who corroborated

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

ENTERTAINMENT

F

BETWEEN INDIA ARIE AND MIKE AREMU

our times he has organised an entertainment event that is second to none, in terms of its peculiar appeal.

As the finer details of the fifth edition of this signature event, Sax Appeal, put together by award-winning Jazz saxophonist, Mike Aremu are being concluded, fans are eager to share in the promises of this year’s edition.

Billed to hold on Sunday June 26, at the Expo Centre Eko Hotel & Suites Victoria

India Arie on stage

India Arie

him, advised Fuji musicians and other stakeholders in the country to take the music to the next level. According to him, it is the only surviving genre of music that has its origin in Nigeria and deserves concerted efforts from stakeholders to proffer possible ways through which it could be developed. His words: “It is the duty of all stakeholders to take the music to the next level.”

JIRE GOES PLACES WITH KOKO

Promising singer, Jire has seized the moment with the release of his debut single, ‘Koko’ to embark on a tour of radio stations, even as the song receives massive airplay.

In the last three weeks, ‘Koko’ has become a staple on many radio stations.

On one of the programmes with popular OAP, Ossam on Naija FM, Jire promised that he is in music for the long haul, saying that his intention is to give afro pop fresh dimension. Osam opined that “there is a lot of promise in this young artiste and

Jire

Island-Lagos, the concert has chart topping, Grammy winner, India Arie as headline act.

For good company, the American singer-songwriter, actress, musician, and record producer will perform alongside excellent Nigerian musicians including Timi Dakolo and Praiz.

An accomplished four-time Grammy Award winner from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album, India has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide.

Her debut album ‘A coustic Soul’ released on March 27, 2001 was met with positive

his age represents the future of Nigerian music.”

In another development, the 16 year-old artiste, came tops in a contest for new songs decided by fans. The programme was moderated by OAP Douglas Jenkan.

Jire’s ‘Koko’ was adjudged the best fresh beat for the month of May, shoving aside tracks like ‘Yetunde’ by LAX, ‘Susanna’ by Harrysong and ‘Orekelewa’ by Jumbo.

Jire’s ‘Koko’ got the top mark with 64 votes, followed by LAX with 55 votes.

Voting was done on Twitter. Listeners were encouraged to vote their choice artiste and their preferred song. His performance at a recent Indomie Media was captivating.

His string of live shows continues to grow as he has been booked to perform at the Naija/BeatFM NYSC Camp show scheduled for June 24. Jire’s second single is expected in July to commemorate his birthday.

Banjul+ 10 celebration will be presented to the STC-YCS2 for consideration, adoption and implementation by AU Member States.”

“The Charter for African Cultural Renaissance adopted by the 6th Assembly of the African Union held in Khartoum, Sudan in January 2016 is the guiding policy tool for the promotion of the cultural and heritage sector in the continent. However, the Charter has only been ratified by eight AU Member States even though thirty one have signed it.

“When it comes into force effectively the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance will enable that the sector takes its rightful place and contribute significantly to the development of the continent through heritage and its cultural and creative industries sector,” she concluded.

Dada who is also the Chief Brand Strategist of PRM Africa Marketing and Communications stated that AFRIMA is on the right path of communicating the true narrative of Africa to the world through music, art and culture.

AFRIMA MEETS AFRICAN CULTURE MINISTERS

The President and Executive Producer of All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Mike Dada recently addressed a meeting of the Ministers of Youths, Culture and Sports in Africa at the African Union 2nd Ordinary Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Youth, Culture and Sports (STC-YCS2) at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the theme ‘African Year of Human Rights: Promoting Ethics and Cultural Diversity as an Essential Right for the People of Africa’.

According to the Head of Culture, Department of Social Affairs, African Union Commission (AUC) Angela Martins “The 2nd session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Youth, Culture and Sport is holding a few days after the celebration marking the 10th Anniversary of the African Union Youth Charter (the Banjul+10) which was an opportunity to advance the agenda for youth empowerment and development in all member states. The outcome documents of the

2BABA, ALI BABA, SAUTI SOL, VANESSA MDEE DRINK CAMPARI

According to Kenyan comedian, MC Jessy, Buckwyld and Breathless concert is undoubtedly the Kenyan concert of the year and would not be forgotten in a while as Campari Senator, 2Baba, alongside King of Nigerian Comedy, Ali Baba, Kenyan Comedian, Mwalim Churchill, Sauti Sol, Vanessa MDee among many others gave fans and lovers of Campari the ultimate experience in African music, comedy and dance.

The event which held at the Carnivore Simba Saloon in Nairobi, Kenya, was graced by numerous beautiful Kenyan men and women who were excited to spend an evening with the line-up of entertainers and also mingle with other Nigerians present.

With rib-cracking sessions from Ali Baba and Churchill alongside pulsating performances from Sauti Sol, Vanessa MDee, Della among other acts got guests fired up for more excitement. Campari ambassador, 2Baba later took over the stage and made

reviews and commercial success. ‘A coustic Soul’ debuted at number 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and Number Three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Within months ‘A coustic Soul’ was certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). guests sing along to every song he performed.

The Campari team, which accommodated fans in an all-expense paid Safari trip to Kenya was led by Head of Marketing, Brian Munro Limited, Abayomi Ajao.

A PERSONAL PERSON CALLED ELDORADO

A young Nigerian act, Awoluyi Henry Edowmonyi better known as Eldorado, who only recently released his hit single, ‘Personal Person’, says he aims to play in the top league in the near future.

To guide his vision, he has decided to follow the footsteps of industry leader, 2Baba. Like Tuface, he wants to stand head and shoulder above others by being tireless and always playing new music He also admires Tuface’s humble disposition, and sense of style. Personal Person which is released on Prince James Efosa Aghedo’s Efoski label is the followup to his debut, ‘Overload’.

Eldorado

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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Grammy Extends Deal with CBS, Tune Up Award Process Vanessa Obioha

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istory was made last Wednesday when the Recording Academy announced that it has extended its partnership with CBS Television Network to broadcast the awards show till 2026. Since 1973, the TV network has been the home of the biggest music show.

The deal sets new record as the longest continuous relationship between an awards show and a broadcaster in TV history. The network will continue to air the annual Grammy specials as well as additional programmes.

Following this deal, Grammy also made major changes in the 2017 awards. It will now accept recordings that are released through streaming platforms. The recordings however must have been released between Oct 1, 2015 and Sept 30, 2016.

“The GRAMMYs® aren’t just peerawarded, they’re peer-driven. Throughout the year, members of the music community come to us asking to make changes to the Awards process, and we work with them to figure out how those changes might work,” said Bill Freimuth, Senior Vice President of Awards for The Recording Academy.

Other changes include the decrease in number of voting categories from 20 to 15, plus the four General Field categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist).

This change, according to the Recording Academy, will help members to vote only in those categories in which they are most knowledgeable, passionate, and qualified.

Also the Best New artist was tweaked to allow artists who have at least released five tracks unlike in the past when only artists who have an album are eligible.

The Blues category is now divided into two: Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album, while Best Rap/Sung Collaboration is renamed Best Rap/Sung Performance. The 59th Grammy Award will hold on February 12, 2017.

DEPP AND HEARD COURT HEARING GETS NEW DATE

A spokesman for Los Angeles Superior Court where domestic violence case against actor Johnny Depp by his estranged wife Amber Heard was to hold last Friday said that the case has been postponed following a phone conversation between the lawyers of both parties.

The delay will allow Depp to provide more witnesses while extending the restraining order for Heard.

On May 23, Heard filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and also acquired a restraining order for Depp to stay at least 100 yards away from her.

She said her four-year relationship with the 53 year-old actor has been a turbulent one, claiming that he has a history of drug and alcohol use. She provided pictures as evidence that the actor has physically abused her. The court hearing will now take place on 15 and 16 August.

VIACOM INC. REPLACES FIVE MEMBERS OF ITS GOVERNING BOARD

In what many considered as a conspiratorial move, media mogul Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari announced that they were replacing five members of its governing board. Among those affected

Johnny Depp

Sumner Redstone

The Defunct Shield

is the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Phillipe Dauman.

Aggrieved members are claiming that the move is deliberately planned by Shari, Dauman’s greatest critic. She owns 20 per cent of the family firm and is the vice-chair of Viacom. They argued that the ailing Sumner has been arm-twisted by her daughter since the father expressed his desire to have professional managers to run his company rather than his daughter.

“Now, when Mr. Redstone’s physical and mental conditions have dramatically declined and he is unable to fend for himself, Shari has moved into his home, taken over his life, isolated him from contact with others, and purports to speak for him,” said Viacom’s aggrieved lead independent board member, Frederic Salerno, in a statement.

However, Sumner’s representatives countered by saying that the mogul has the mental capacity to make legal decisions, striking one of the claims in the legal filings by the company’s board members that its owner does not possess his full mental faculties.

Although, the change does not take effect immediately, the members are ready to fight the decision in court.

Other members affected by the brazen

move include George S. Abrams, Blythe J. McGarvie and William Schwartz. They will be replaced by BuzzFeed Chairman Kenneth Lerer, Nicole Seligman, Thomas May, Judith McHale and Ronald Nelson.

The media empire owns Paramount Pictures and cable channels Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.

ALL EYEZ ON ME GETS NOVEMBER RELEASE

After series of setbacks in the past few years, the first trailer of the Tupac Shakur Biopic was released on Thursday to mark the rapper’s 45th birthday.

Starring Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira, Kat Graham, Hill Harper, Lauren Cohan and Jamie Hector, the film began with Tupac being arrested in mid-performance in front of thousands of fans, being in jail and a glimpse of the black BMW that he will ride in that would be smashed with bullets in a drive-in shooting that took his life almost 20 years ago.

Shot earlier this year in Atlanta, the film will be the first biopic on the rapper. Previous documentaries on his rivalry with Notorious B.I.G include ‘Tupac: Resurrection’ and ‘Biggie and Tupac’.

The film was titled after the rapper’s fourth album and will be tentatively

released in November.

WILL SHIELD BE SHREDDED AT MONEY IN THE BANK MATCH TODAY?

The once brotherhood cult, Shied will have its members tearing each other at today’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

A glimpse of this was seen in last Monday Night’s Raw when Dean Ambrose hosted his former buddies Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in his Ambrose Asylum show.

Seth, who made a stunning comeback at WWE Extreme Rules didn’t mince words in challenging the current WWE World heavyweight Champion for his title. He claimed Roman Reign has never defeated him.

While the two went back and forth on their main event match, the maniac Ambrose shocked them by announcing that he will also be contending for the title, that is if he is able defeat Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Cesaro in the ladder match today.

Ambrose has grown to become a crowd’s favourite and winning tonight’s match will boost his career in WWE. Depending on the outcome of the match today, the once bonded Shield may finally be laid to rest.

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Onoshe

airtimeplus98@gmail.com

Nwabuikwu

Out of Lagos Comes ‘Gidi Blues’

Gidi Blues Director and Cast

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idi Blues…Straight Out Of Lagos’ would’ve sounded more familiar?

Anyway, ‘Gidi Blues Out Of Lagos’ or ‘Gidi Blues Straight Out Of Lagos’ mean the same thing. Any version would be tautology. Lagos is Gidi. Just as Gidi is Lagos. Gidi is from Las Gidi, the fond name Lagosians prefer to use for their beloved city of Lagos.

Nonetheless the relationship between Gidi Blues, the Femi Odugbemi movie and Lagos the city is much more organic than just the name that binds them. There’s something new and refreshing about the movie in its take on romance and social consciousness. Do we call that ‘socio-romanticism’? In Gidi Blues, activism meets tourism meets cupid meets real life. I call it ‘Gidi-ness’. I’m sure, come June 24th when Gidi Blues hits the cinemas, movie goers will coin their own slogans/nicknames.

But we’ll leave the Gidi Bluesreview for another time.

Today, I want to talk about the Gidi Blues premiere on June 4th, 2016 in the warm embrace of the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I haven’t been to that many premieres in Nigeria but from the little I’ve seen of them in the (entertainment) news, they seemed very pretentious. And not very exciting, especially the movie watching part.

So as I got on the brilliantly red carpet, I felt like one of the expected celebrities, for one moment. The atmosphere was relaxed but there was a certain energy in the air. We could’ve been standing right in front of the Grand Theatre Lumiere, Cannes, France in all its resplendence.

Yet the real treat was inside the elegant yet intimate setting for the premiere itself.

There was music. And after that came the talk. After which guests were shown five minutes of the documentary on Makoko also shot

by Femi Odugbemi which actually provided the inspiration for ‘Gidi

Blues’. Then guests were treated to the full movie.

Clicheic or not, the only way to describe audience reaction was that they watched in rapt attention. Or you can call it ‘engaged involvement’.

Everyone was involved with the story as it unfolded onscreen. At the end of the film, there were no sighs of relief. Instead, so engrossed were some guests that they were not prepared for when the end came.

They were more interested in the story continuing.

The Gidi Blues premiere was one sparkling night with equally sparkling stars in attendance.

You had the stars of the movie in attendance. From Gideon Okeke and Hauwa Allahbura (lead actor/ actress), Bukky Wright, the now truly Lepacious Bose (Bose Ogunboye), Daniel Lloyd, Lepa Shandy (Folashade Omoniyi-Adewale).

Banky W, who had a cameo role was in attendance. Representing Africa Magic who are also involved was Regional Director, M-Net West Africa, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu.

And there were the other stars like Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Tunde Kelani, Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva, Bimbo Akintola, The musical family was represented

by Yeni Kuti, X3M’s Steve Babaeko, his wife Yetunde and others.

•Presenting…Gideon Okeke (Akin, Gidi Blues) By now audiences should be familiar with Gideon Okeke, who has since 2008 been playing ‘Philip Ade-Williams’ in MNET’s Tinsel on the Africa Magic Showcase, dstv channel 151. Gideon got thrust into our consciousness when he appeared on the one and only season of the Big Brother Nigeria, BBN, in 2006.

Back then, you either loved him and he had his fans. Or you disliked him because like some people, you thought he was arrogant.

As far as BBN was concerned, Gideon seemed like he didn’t need anybody’s approval. He certainly didn’t get into any desperate alliances just to ‘play the game’. He appeared

very sure of himself. My household was definitely Team Gideon.

Out of the fishbowl that’s reality TV, people are no longer polarized about Gideon into love or hate camp.

That’s because as far as he’s being a talented actor is concerned, there is no argument. Projecting himself and his immense talent in roles for TV like he does on Tinsel to the big screen in little seen Relentless by Andy Okorafor (2010), to When Love Happens (2014), to A Place In The Stars (2014) to Gbomo Gbomo Express (2015). And now as Akin in Gidi Blues (2016), Gideon is hitting the mark.

Gideon’s (growing) success has not been accidental. I hear he is a very hard worker who is ever ready to push and give that extra.

•Presenting…Hauwa Allahbura (Nkem, Gidi Blues) You can’t but notice Hauwa Allahbura in her interpretation of Maro, an ambitious scriptwriter in Tinsel. Hauwa does a whole lot of acting with minimal movements. She lets her face and body language do the ‘talking’. Just based on what the viewers sees of Hauwa onscreen, it’s difficult to box her into one category.

For one, she acts like she has far more experience than her bio states. She is not overtly recognisable as belonging to a specific tribe. It’s a surprise when you see in the credits that she’s a Hauwa Allahbura. And eventually you get the news that she is from northern Nigeria (Plateau State).

Anyhow, playing the lead female role in Gidi Blues, a movie with talented actresses like Bukky Wright and Tina Mba; and giving a good account of herself is no mean feat. Yes, there are always going to be moments when we’ll be reminded that she once was a beauty queen (Miss FCT, 2012), Hauwa is now an actress to be reckoned with. She’s in our homes, in our faces, showcasing her talent on TV, every weekday as Maro in Tinsel.

Yet, like Maro, Hauwa is not satisfied to just being the beautiful Northern Star. ‘Gidi Blues’ is another step in the ladder of success for her.

The Voice Nigeria

Chike ‘Ranking’ Goes to Battle His must rank as the most awaited battle as the Battle Round of The Voice Nigeria enters episode 4 later today. I’m talking about Team Pato Ranking’s Chike Osebuka Ezekpeazu or Chike ‘Ranking’ as he was ‘rechristened’ by none other than his coach Pato Ranking himself. Chike blew everyone away during the Blind Auditions (April 24) with his rendition of ‘Roses’

by James Arthur. All four coaches turned and if that had been the finale and viewers were required to vote, there is little doubt that Chike would’ve won the grand prize. At just 23 years old, Chike is not new to singing competitions. He contested on Project Fame, Season 8 (2015) but didn’t make the final 4.

Mercifully at this stage of the competition, the person Chike has to impress is his coach Pato Ranking.

Mind you, the battle begins way before two battling contestants from the same team come to duet and duel it out on stage. The first hurdle is your ‘opponent’. Some contestants ‘lose’ the battle even before they get on stage either because they think the other person is too good and has won it already. On the flip of course are those confident in themselves, sometimes bothering on overconfidence or cockiness which Coach Tubaba likes to cut down to size. Then there’s the ‘battle’ song.

That could favour one person more than the other. I like the fact that Nigerian songs are getting deserved prominence especially in the Battle Rounds. Last week’s performance

by TeamTimi’s Cornel and Obass of their coach’s award winning song ‘Wish Me Well’ deserves a crown and a consolatory prize.

Which brings us back to Chike ‘Ranking.’ Who is going to be his battle ‘partner’? Will they get a song that’s ‘good’ for Chike? Will he come out victorious? If no, does any of the coaches still have a slot so one of them can ‘steal’ him? Questions and more questions.

All will be revealed later today 7pm on Africa Magic Showcase, dstv channel 151.

Chike

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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focUs

Guaranty Stands for Food and Drink GT Bank recently stepped out of its traditional banking services to pull off a stunning experience anchored on a food and drink fair. Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Vanessa Obioha report

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here was no mistaking the pride in his eyes as he accepted a handshake here and acknowledge a smile of admiration there, after one of the Masterclass sessions with Nigerian-born international chef, Raphael Duntoye. It was the second and last day of the GT Bank Food and Drink Fair. And that was when accolades started pouring in. Raphael whose visit to Nigeria was, hitherto, mostly dewy couldn’t refrain from lauding the brain behind the fair, Segun Agbaje, Managing Director of the bank.

The turn-out was beyond expectation and he was impressed by the knowledge of the participants. He even got the participants to give a standing ovation to Agbaje.

Agbaje was quickly besieged by many who sought to have a word with him. To do so meant one had to penetrate the thick wall of his subordinates who protected the helmsman with their lives. Cautiously, they sought his permission to talk with persons of interest. During those defining moments, one could catch the eloquence of the Managing Director of GT Bank throwing his head back in laughter in response to AA joke or listening attentively to what was being said.

There was hardly a moment that he was not smiling.

Although, the vendors and all other participants were visibly elated, arguably, one could say that Segun Agbaje was definitely the happiest man at the fair. To those who recognized him, he was one of the major cynosure at the event that attracted food connoisseurs and enthusiasts to the sprawling grounds at the Water Corporation Drive, Oniru-Lagos.

For two days, the fair held guests spellbound with its thoroughly-planned activities. From the exhibitor stands to the outdoor restaurants, even the children were included by the organisers who created a fun-play playground for them. There was no dull moment for guests.

Being a public holiday weekend, the weekend of the Workers’ Day Holiday, the turn-out was magnanimous. Advertorials on social and traditional media had heightened excitement. Therefore, people left the comfort of their homes to revel in the fascinating fair. Although, there was ample parking space, it could not accommodate the large number of cars which doubled towards the evening sessions, causing a nasty traffic gridlock on the entire stretch of Ligali Ayorinde Street.

The organisers can take a hint from Ayo Animashaun, the organiser of The Headies whose event also pools a mighty crowd to the same venue. To save guests from being stuck in traffic, Animashaun provided a bus that took them to the venue from designated spots where they had to park their cars.

Apart from that, every other activity in the fair was clinically executed. Right from the gate, one could tell the scientific precision. Everyone who entered the arena was countered. The security guards carried out their security checks politely. Everyone was handed a branded GTB fan which had codes for mobile banking, airtime purchase and other online services.

The spacious open ground had thatched huts occupied by restaurateurs. Guests had the chance to sample different tastes from the grills and ovens here. The main fair-ground itself was an ultra large tent, neatly delineated into exhibition booths.

GT Bank Food and Drink Fair

Guests were free to visit everywhere else, except the Master Class rooms and the VIP Reception area to which entry was restricted.

A spot for relaxation was created highlighted by its cozy setting enhanced by a lush green carpet. It created a unique restaurant feeling. Guests also had the opportunity to sign on the big sign wall and take selfies in front of the bold attractive signage of the fair.

In order to avoid misdirection, a map of the event ground was pasted on the wall, right at the entrance. This gave a big helping hand to anyone who had a need to locate anything at the fair.

Inside the main fair-ground, orderliness was at its best. There were two entrances and one exit and the GT Bank men in white ensured that nobody took the wrong turn.

The air inside was more bubbling and frenzied as exhibitors tried to woo visitors to their stand. Household items companies like Philips, Adam and Eve had on display different innovating cooking equipment, while organic product retailers flourishly advertised their products to consumers.

Eateries like Tastee Fried Chicken were also there to attend to their teeming customers.

Not to be outdone, the beverage section boasted of cocktails, lemonades, green juices, exotic wines and what have you.

And for those who have a sweet tooth, there were enough bakeries and ice-cream stands to have a lick or take a bite.

One of the thrilling innovations at the fair was the mini-broadcast studio which performed the normal functions of the traditional media-inform, educate and entertain. A steady stream of music filled the hall, but it would have been nice if the sound was kept at a decibel or two lower in order to entertain and not to add to the din. Intermittently, a public service announcement was made by someone who lost an item or another. There was even the announcement of a missing child. The studio also served exhibitors who came on air to educate guests about their products and services. Certain experts in their field were also given a chance to talk about their specialty. They also had the opportunity to greet to loved ones.

Next door to the broadcast studio stood what was supposed to function as the Media Room. Ostensibly created for

journalists, as it’s often the case large fairs, there was an expectation to see information bulletins and a battery of internet ready computers from which reporters could work. This was, perhaps, the only aspect of the fair a finger was placed on, but not fully realized.

Down the orange coloured carpet on the left side, an elevated platform was built. It was here that the VIPs lounged and talked business. Right beside it was the Masterclass hall. This was where top chefs like Tiyan Alile, Alex Oke, and others including the international guest Chef Marcus Samuelsson taught aspiring chefs and foodies new skills and thrills in the culinary world. It was here that Duntoye wowed his audience with his lively charisma. And when they (participants) insisted Duntoye should return for the next edition, he threw the question back to Agbaje and he subtly obliged.

The Master class sessions which were not open to all witnessed great attendance.

People scurried to enter the hall where a make-up kitchen stood between two giant screens that captured all the actions in the hall. Those who couldn’t go in felt somewhat content to catching glimpses from the glass doors.

There was no doubt that this inaugural show was a huge success to the bank.

Capitalising on its entrepreneur forum called SMEs Market Hub, GT Bank created a fair that focused on the burgeoning food and beverage industry. Surely, great time and efforts were invested as well as a feasibility study carried out to determine the success or otherwise of such project before embarking on it.

But if you ask Agbaje, he would say, “I just went with my guts. Unfortunately, I’m not as smart as most people, so I don’t always work with numbers, I work with my guts, my heart, and if I feel there’s something working, then we will do the proof of concept after and not before.

Sometimes, if you only do things based on statistics, it will never get going, but if your guts and spirit tell you to go, then you go.”

Indeed, his proof of concept paid off well and good.

With almost five years as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the bank, he has reached enviable milestones. With the creation of the SMEs

Barbecue stand

Market Hub, Agbaje’s trained eyes like a hawk has been able to unlock untapped potentials in the SMEs. “The market hub is about creating a platform for SMEs to have another delivery channel other than their shops and offices and ultimately some industries. Everyone is focusing on all these ones, you know, schools, distributors, professionals but like the food industry which is big, if you look at it, whether in supermarket or elsewhere, people book cakes that the market hub is already made for.”

He disclosed that the food and drink fair was a way of rewarding the SMEs who had continually given to the bank.

He hinted that it won’t be the only reward coming their way. The upper crust banker has another game up his sleeve.

Moreover, he is already dreaming big. In the next three years, Agbaje will probably take GT Bank to greater heights by being the dominant food bank in the country. “I think my competitors may not be happy. There is another sector, which I can’t tell you yet until we showcase them, that is also tailor-made and ready to be showcased. We will do one more this year in another sector.”

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

High Life S

39 with LANRE ALFRED 08076885752

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous

Pastors Paul and Ifeanyi Adefarasin Celebrate 21st Wedding Anniversary

pirituality meets bliss in the Holy matrimony of Pastor Paul Adefarasin and Ifeanyi, his wife, like heaven’s breath on the lives of God’s chosen, every minute. Every blessed hour of their wedlock pulsates with memorable and delightful anecdotes for hordes of their penitents and other Christian faithful wishing for bliss in their respective marriages.

Pastor Adefarasin whose church, House On The Rock, is one of the high profile churches in Lekki, Lagos marked his 21st wedding anniversary with his wife Pastor Ifeanyi in style on June 3, 2016. The top cleric got married to his wife in 1995 and they are blessed with three wonderful children. On their 21st anniversary, the couple wore similar aso-ebi and radiated joy as they celebrated with their congregation.

Unlike most wives, Ifeanyi hardly reminds her husband “of an orangutan trying to play

the violin.” And unlike the late French writer, Honoré de Balzac, she has no reason to doubt or disdainfully analyse the character and depth of her husband’s love for her in such manner.

And the reason is never far-fetched; Pastor Paul does not only deploy great tact and ingenuity to making her happy but also ensures that the whole family lives at peace with one another at all times. He spared nothing in his boundless reservoir of goodwill and resources to celebrate his eternal soulmate, the woman who continually invigorates his soul and makes his heart quiver and flutter.

That’s Pastor Paul for you! It would be recalled that Pastor Adefarasin’s yearly church crusade has become a Mecca of sort for Christians and non-Christians. While he is the senior pastor of House On The Rock, his elder brother, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, is the senior pastor of Guiding Light Assembly in Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Tayo Aderinokun

LATE TAYO ADERINOKUN…FIVE YEARS AFTER •Family and Friends mourn the great banker

The flowers blow coolly with the wind to assert his place above the earth, although he lies sixfeet underground, where sand granules mingle with bones and flesh of the interred. It’s the fifth year since corporate titan, Tayo Aderinokun, departed mother earth and

his family, friends and business associates are still grieving his untimely death. Until his sad departure, Tayo lived to see the dawn and sunset glow richly amid life’s pressing concerns. He lived to give and feel love generously and without inhibitions.

Yes, it’s been five years since death invaded the world of the Aderinokuns and bludgeoned the family’s shining star, Tayo Aderinokun, to death, like a gladiator from an ancient age.

It was exactly five years last Tuesday, June 14, that Tayo, a co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) fell to the bloody blades of cancer.

Aderinokun, who had been on medical leave, passed on June 14, 2011, in the United Kingdom. Tayo Aderinokun co-founded Guaranty Trust Bank Plc in 1990 and served as the bank’s Deputy Managing Director (DMD) for 12 years, between 1990 and 2002. Afterwards, he became the Managing Director (MD), of the bank, a position he held until his passing. A jolly good guy, Tayo was responsible for the ascent of a lot of people in the banking

Paul and Ifeanyi Adefarasin

industry. He made a lot of people in the business world. However, only a paltry few among his close aides and beneficiaries remembered him on the fifth anniversary of his death. Such is life. The world forgets you as soon as you stop breathing.

Notwithstanding, his family members and some friends did remember.

FROM LAGOS TO YEWA, WHO IS SENATOR LEKAN ‘YAYI’ ADEOLA REPRESENTING?

candidate in Ogun State at the forthcoming gubernatorial elections.

Recently, he expressed his confidence in Yewa people of the state claiming he was sure that they would unquestioningly accept his candidacy soon after his anointment for the role by his party’s hierarchy.

Senator Olamilekan Yayi stated that he was confident that the Yewa people will overcome

•lawmaker vies For ogun governorship seat to the detriment oF his lagos constituency

Something is seriously wrong with Senator Olamilekan Adeola aka Yayi. The Senator representing Lagos West at the National Assembly probably suffers a bad case of amnesia. Maybe not. Maybe he has simply chosen to treat the lives and destinies of the Lagos West electorate with contempt just because they are helpless to curtail him. As you read, Yayi has launched a desperate and ill-advised campaign to emerge the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship

Olamilekan Adeola

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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HIGHLIFE

The Nomadic Monarch! Divergent Views Trail Ooni Ogunwusi’s Frequent Desertion of His Throne

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obody knows why Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, chooses to desert his palace.

But many are of the view that the newly crowned monarch and paramount ruler of Ile Ife, has chosen the path of the itinerant monarch. Ooni Ogunwusi is no doubt ignorant of the fact that his penchant for deserting his throne to embark on what many of his subjects consider ‘frivolous royal missions’ is impacting negatively on his image, the Ooni royal stool and the entire ruling clan from which he emerged. Since the new Ooni of Ife got crowned in a colourful ceremony, he has not been spending quality time with his subjects and on his throne. He has persistently embarked on frequent trips out of Ile Ife for one courtesy visit or the other. If he is not visiting his royal colleagues, the Alaafin of Oyo, the Alake of Egba land to mention a few, he is engaged in one farfetched royal activity several miles away from his kingdom.

Recently, Ooni Ogunwusi stunned his subjects and admirers from other kingdoms as he embarked on one such unexplainable visit to the their long years of marginalisation, stunted growth and untold suffering in Ogun State when he becomes the Ogun state governor in 2019. Yayi is indeed a funny man.

He seems to forget that he is currently representing the Lagos West Senatorial District, where he is yet to deliver on his campaign promises. It is therefore baffling and mortifying to see him campaign for the Ogun State governorship seat in such a brazen manner. In a nutshell, Yayi is getting paid for representing Lagos and using the money to pursue his governorship ambition in Ogun State. The senator who made his controversial slip at the weekend, as a special guest of the Ninth Synod of the Diocese of Yewa at St. Paul Church, Owode-Yewa, Ogun State, said he is committed to the “emancipation” of his people and the state. Yayi is no doubt another pawn in the designs and schemes of higher powers within the APC’s increasingly porous and tainted political powerhouse. It is unclear how he and his benefactors will actualise his highly ridiculous political ambition. However, 2019 is just a few years away.

WHO IS AFRAID OF BOLA SHAGAYA?

home of Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, in Lagos.

Few weeks ago, the Ooni visited the home of Skye Bank chairman, Tunde Ayeni, Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki and some other people. While his critics and loyal subjects struggled to digest and forget his visit to the politicians, they were struck and mystified by his recent visit to the home of the Nigerian soccer star. It is unclear what benefits can be derived from his frequent trips out of Ife kingdom. Admirers of the monarch argue that he has only set out to build bridges and establish lines of favourable liaisons with persons capable of making progressive forays into Ife kingdom in the nearest future.

They are quick to cite his background in the private sector and the investment opportunities which his frequent trips could bring to his kingdom. His current tour of the United States where he was honoured by the New Jersey Congress and the Philadelphia Congress is viewed as a positive development that would further boost the image of the manarch and the imperial stool of Ife Kingdom.

•Mischief Makers fingered fashionable hajia in controversial abuja land swap

Bola Shagaya

The world of politics is a jungle echoing to the calls of vicious jealousies and ruthless maneuverings. In this callous world, tendrils of iniquity and weeds of calumny break out to shunt the growth of many a promising seed. In this jungle of weeds and ill will, Bola Shagaya towers like an elm. There is no gainsaying the oil magnate and bosom friend of former Nigerian First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has been walking in the jungles of politics and business all her life thus her capacity to

Ooni and wife

ride the tide of malicious gossips and unfavourable clime had been effectively honed over the years.

However, it is unclear if Shagaya can summon the brilliance and the nerve to ride the storm of malice and political assault currently launched against her person as you read.

Recently, rumour broke out that the CEO of Bolmus International Limited, was fingered in the illicit land swap deal currently being investigated by the nation’s House of Representatives. The House of Representatives made shocking revelations as it unveiled malpractices in the award and allocation of 7,600 hectares of land to companies and individuals under the land swap programme.

There were cases of unpaid dues and noncompliance with the requirements of the programme. Shagaya’s Bolmus Nigeria Limited was listed among investor firms that defaulted in transactions and due process in the controversial land swap. But while the social space obsesses about Shagaya’s alleged complicity in the land swap deal, loyalists and friends of the oil magnate have dismissed the allegations against her, describing it as the figment of imagination

of her detractors and enemies in the political arena. Mischief makers, please leave Shagaya alone!

BUHARI DECIDES...NIGERIA WAITS, AS RACE INTENSIFIES FOR POLICE IG, SOLOMON ARASE’S SUCCESSOR IN 48HRS Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul. Thus no matter how charming outgoing Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, was at his appointment, Nigeria would remember him for his diligence or otherwise at his job. In 48 hours, June 21, to be precise,

Solomon Arase

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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HIGHLIFE

Mr. Modesty! Governor Ambode’s Very Strange 53rd Anniversary •How Lagos governor turned birthday to a master class in humility

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ndeed, we must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up. Many a governor, giddy with power, carry themselves with a false sense of modesty but Governor Akinwumi Ambode is remarkably different.

The amiable governor of Lagos clocked 53 last Tuesday and contrary to the norm and expectations within the political circuit, he did not roll out a marching band or host a celebritystyled soiree to celebrate the coming of age. Rather Governor Ambode, invited Nigeria’s banking czars, Aig Imoukhuede, Jim Ovia and Zenith Bank Managing Director, Peter Amangbo, among others to a special luncheon to raise funds for the provision of three Mobile Cancer Centres (MCCs) across the three Senatorial Districts of Lagos State.

At the very low profile event, Governor Ambode Arase will retire from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). He will probably do so with mixed feelings.

Until his retirement, Arase has just two days to right whatever wrong perceptions the citizenry nurture about him. But if that were possible, Arase, unlike several IGPs before him, would ride the tides of history and command the random tributaries of his fate amid the gulf of public opinion.

It would be recalled that Arase took over as new Acting Inspector General of Police soon after the removal of former IGP, Suleiman Abba, in controversial circumstances. Until his appointment, Arase served as the Head of the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department – the apex intelligence gathering arm of the Nigerian police; the Force CID is the only arm of the police that provides intelligence on crime and national security. There are strong indications however, that two senior police officers from the North-central and Southeast geo-political zones are being considered for the post of the Inspector General of Police, which will become vacant in June at Arase’s retirement from the force. HighLife findings

urged Nigerians home and abroad to join hands together to wage war against the cancer scourge. Interestingly, at the very least, everybody seems to love Ambode.

The same things that draw folks to their most treasured daydreams lure them to him. The primary difference is that subtle and blatant idolatry takes a front seat in the flurry of emotion and perpetual elocution of the rare civility and bounteousness of spirit accorded them by the governor. Yet Ambode is forever quick to counsel folks about his ordinariness and thus prevent them from dressing him in what he considers spurious cloaks of a ‘saviour’, ‘messiah’, ‘deity’ or ‘tin god.’ Yeah, Ambode, for all his extraordinariness tirelessly seeks to be viewed as ordinary - which makes unlocking his core both a boon and conundrum to anyone. revealed that the position of the nation’s top police officer has been zoned to the two regions, given that none of the zones is currently represented in the appointment of the nation’s security chiefs.

WITHER PETER OBAFEMI?

•The defuncT RiTeTime AiRwAys boss goes inTo Anonymous cocoon

Money and the good life travel as luxury in the hands of the recipient.

They are as transient as the early dew on a grazing field. But Peter Obafemi,

Peter Obafemi and Lolade

Akinwunmi Ambode

owner of defunct Ritetime Airways did not know that.

This is why he is finding the transient nature of his fortune a very bitter pill to swallow. Before he fell to the wiles of unforgiving fate, Peter wined and dined in the company of Nigeria’s filthy rich. He hobnobbed with political tin gods and industry titans within and outside the country but no sooner did fate begin to taunt him than he became a pariah to fortune and his circle of superrich friends cum associates.

As you read, the once fortunate aviation big gun has been reduced to a minion in the scheme of things. He is not seen in front with the fortunate neither is he visible at the back with the luckless and ill-fated. The once ubiquitous darling of high society has faded off the social firmament without a bang or whimper at his exit.

As if this is not enough, his first marriage to his America based wife, has hit an iceberg, like a distressed ship captained by a seawary sailor. While the social firmament struggled to deal with his misfortune in his first marriage, Peter fell in love again, this time around with Lolade Iruka.

So smitten was he with Lolade that he hastened down the altar with her in a heartbeat. But few months after they welcomed their baby boy, Obafemi’s second marriage also crumbled.

While smarted from the pains of his dead son and marriage, he lost the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)’s primary election in Ekiti State to Governor Ayo Fayose, causing his political career to nose-dive before it had the chance to soar. Peter Obafemi is in anonymous cocoon as you read but he is doing his best to resuscitate his comatose political career.

Love and marriage may however, have to wait.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

EVENT

Dance and Magic as Stella Maris Enters 20 Vanessa Obioha

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t’s not often that the students of Stella Maris Schools, Abuja, are privileged to display their creative talents to the public. They are more revered for their academic prowess. When it comes to academic competitions such as the Spelling Bee, essay or mathematical competitions or internal examinations such as the National Examination Council, they always emerge on top.

For instance, in 2002, the school was given an award of excellence for producing the best overall student in NECO nation-wide. It is also the first school to claim the first, second and third positions in the TIC/FCT Mathematics competition.

All these are testimonies to the integrity of the school which humble beginning dates back to September 1996 with only two students in a mud house at Mpape. Today, the mud house is replaced by a sprawling edifice and in addition, three schools to cater to the nursery and primary and college (day and boarding) students in Garki and Life Camp areas of the Federal Capital Territory. The school boasts of a staggering population of over 2,000. Plans are also underway to build two more schools to accommodate its teeming students.

It is no wonder then that the school is a mecca of some sorts to parents and guardians who prioritise their child’s education. Having climbed a few rungs up the ladder to occupy the third best school in the Federal Capital Territory, the school is committed to grooming children through the best teaching practices to become responsible adults in the society.

However, their academic activities do not deprive them from engaging in extra-curricular activities. You will be shocked at the amazing dexterity which young children bounce and jump in the basketball court. The football pitch is all green and clean for young feet to kick and run around. In fact, as much as they learn hard, they also play hard.

Therefore, on the few occasions where they are expected to display their creativity, they never fail to impress.

Such was the aura in the schools recently as they marked their 20th anniversary. From Area 1, Garki to Life Camp, the students bubbled with excitement. It was indeed a special occasion.

Unlike previous social activities which are limited to a day, they had one week of celebration. What’s more, a UK production company OHTV was invited to coordinate the programme, dance instructors from Spirit of David would groom them in choreography and of course the gala night where celebrity artiste 2Baba and Ycee would perform.

They could hardly hide their elation.

Up and down they ran to their various rehearsal grounds, listened to their instructors with rapt attention, as they displayed their various skills with the hope of being among the selected ones.

They were careful not to draw the ire of their teachers or the Executive Director of the school Chineze Anyaene (Nollywood producer) as she moved around tirelessly, ensuring that everything ran smoothly.

The choreographers had a difficult task. About 64 of them had been chosen from different classes to perform different dance steps at the gala night, some of which they were not familiar with.

Their instructor Vincent Harrison with

Cultural displays by children

his partner subjected them to hours of rehearsals.

“It is a different routine from what they are used to. They have to pay attention to rhythm, tempo and sound”, Harrison said.

If the students were wearied by the intense drilling, they did a great job at masking it. Rather, they pushed beyond the limits, eager to impress their teachers as well as the audience on the D-Day. Inside the school auditorium, the songbirds were also having the same challenge. Their voice coach was taking them on a rollercoaster ride with timeless Disney songs. Nevertheless, it didn’t kill the euphoria in the air.

The celebration kicked off with the clubs on Monday, followed by cultural activities on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Looking radiant and colourful in their different ethnic costumes, the dancers marched out excitedly to the open arena and performed cultural dances from the Yoruba, Edo, Gbagyi, Ibo, and other tribes, to the delight of their parents and other invited guests. The cultural celebrations provided an opportunity for the institution to preach cultural diversity to the parents.

The Academic Adviser, Stella Maris Nursery and Primary School, Mr. James Arllo emphasised the importance of culture during a language game where parents were asked to translate an English sentence in their native tongue.

He bemoaned the shocking reality that many students can’t speak their native tongue while subtly blaming parents for the flaw. He urged the parents to ensure that they communicate more with their children in their native tongue as well as educate them on the various elements of their culture. Debates, sporting events and other events were also part of the activities.

By Thursday evening, alumni of the school were treated to a cocktail party where the camaraderie was infectious. A nostalgic wave of reconnection spread across the International Conference Centre, Abuja as screams of surprise rent the air. Old classmates reunite in between drinks and meals, while uploading selfies and wefies on social media. The teachers were also immersed in reunion. Their eyes glowed with pride listening to the achievement

L-R: Ramsey Nouah, Chairman of Board of Directors Afoma Onyeanusi, Uti Nwachukwu, and Chinese Anyaene

of the old students.

Interestingly, the oldest student of the academy, Patrick Anyaene is now a director of the school. During the party, the Managing Director, Emeka Anyaene, in a bid to distract Chineze from working herself into exhaustion as well as appreciate all her efforts, invited her to the dance floor. Amidst cheers and claps, she displayed one or two moves before disappearing through the back door.

Friday night came with heavy expectations. It was the peak of the celebration: the gala night. A large crowd pooled at the International Conference Centre to witness the grand ceremony.

Some of the guests were forced to look for alternate parking lots as security guards turned back cars from entering the premises. The show also attracted celebrities like Ramsey Nouah, Uti Nwachukwu, former Director-General of Nigerian Broadcasting Company Emeka Mba, Charles Novia and others.

Once inside, guests were serenaded by artworks done by students to raise funds for orphanages. Every now and then, a student approaches a guest to inquire if they were comfortable while waiting for the show to kick off. They also directed them upstairs where food and drinks flowed freely.

Delayed by an hour, the show finally kicked off at 7 pm with an acrobatic dance accompanied by fireworks that clearly complemented the aesthetics of the hall. This was followed by more choreography from the students who sampled different dance moves like Olamide’s ‘Bobo’, Azonto, and others with a round-off performance from one of Fela’s golden tunes.

• See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com

assistant editor nseobong okon-ekong senior correspondent funke olaode correspondent vanessa obioha designer ibirogba ibidapo CONTRIBUTORS onoshe nwabuikwu, temilolu okeowo, kelechi nduka THISDAY ON SUNDAY editor adetokunbo adedoja deputy editor vincent obia STUDIO art director ochi ogbuaku jnr THISDAY NEWSPAPERS editor-in-chief & chairman nduka obaigbena managing director eniola bello deputy managing director kayode komolafe

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

ON PACA DAK’ART OFF 2016 OUTING...

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19.06.2016

NEWTON ADUAKA A PAN-AFRICAN FILMMAKER’S HOME-COMING Aduaka

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

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JUNE 19, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

ARTS & REVIEW\\REEL WORLD

NEWTON ADUAKA: A FILMMAKER’S HOME

Yinka Olatunbosun reports on the homecoming of the England-based master cinematographer, Newton Aduaka, whose real world cinema held the Lagos audience spell-bound at the Nigerian Film Society’s screening of the award-winning movie, Ezra

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A scene from Ezra

smile played around this reporter’s lips while reading the caution at the entrance to the cinema hall: “Do not enter if the light is red”. But there was no bulb, by the way. The engulfing darkness leading into the screening hall at the Nigerian Film Corporation, Ikoyi always served as a reminder for footlights that should illuminate our paths between the chairs.

In retrospect, the Lagos cinema audience watched in awe and appreciation as Newton Aduaka, described as one of the most invisible film makers from Nigeria, evoked emotions and tugged at our collective conscience with the screening of a collection of his works. Born in 1966, a year before the Nigerian civil war, it is quite incidental that a lot of Aduaka’s works reflect the themes of war, apathy, humanity and existentialism.

With support from the GoetheInstitut Nigeria, the screening series spread across the weekend beginning from Saturday June 11.

On June 12, Lagos saw his feature film, the pan-African movie, Ezra which earned him the grand prize at the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film and Television Festival in 2007.

The movie had been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, an annual American film festival in Utah which is considered as the largest indepen-

dent film festival in the US. Ezra was the last movie to be screened last Sunday at the venue and it was worth the wait for that was the first time it would be screened in Nigeria.

Described as harrowing by reviewers, it began as a fast-paced movie. The budget for the movie written by Aduaka and Alan Michel-Blanc is £ 1.6 million and the most difficult part is in categorising the movie. It can be classified under crime, war or psychological drama depending on the aspect of the movie that best resonates with a critic. What is very gratifying was the fact that Aduaka was present to field questions from the viewers whose interest rose with each movie screened.

But whatever impression the director made with each work, the story stays the same. The lead character whose name is the title of the movie, Ezra is a young Sierra-Leonean former fighter recruited as a child soldier along with his friends at school in broad day light.

They were abducted in large numbers by heavily armed militants who took away their innocence and prepped them for blood-shed. It was everyday horror for the young ones as they watched the militants kill the school mates for refusing to take orders from the triggerhappy men. After the rigorous process of indoctrination, they were taught some rudiments of military routines including shooting sprees. With minds and bodies polluted, these children formed a large army that committed some of the worst crimes against humanity.

The technique of narration and

editing is episodic with bouts of flashbacks to recount the central figure’s experiences. Ezra, who receives treatment at a psychological rehabilitation centre is required to appear daily before the national reconciliation tribunal to explain his involvement in the mass killings and destruction of properties in his home town. Sadly, he can’t remember anything. His sister, whose tongue was cut by the avengers, has all the details but can only scribble down the words for others to read.

She is a key witness to all the crimes and has testified against her brother earlier in the tribunal.

Ezra is a hard nut to crack both at the rehab and the tribunal. Medically, he is found to be a victim of post-traumatic stress and has a violent temper. Before the tribunal, he seems to be covering up something. In the end, he explains that he was under the influence of the drugs called bubbles which distorts the mind and blanks the memory.

During the interactive session, Aduaka revealed more about the aesthetics of his cinematography.

“What caught me in film school is the real world cinema. I was influenced by new realism and social realism. I am interested in telling relevant stories, Russian cinema as well as American Independent cinema,” he began.

Aduaka does not mind if he is called a tragedist. For him, it’s legitimate art. Tragedies happen

every day in various parts of the world and he won’t see turn his back on them to provide escapism for viewers. And the worst tragedy for any African film maker is to allow non-Africans to tell our own story in their own way.

“It’s a classic case of getting others to see your own story. If you want to stick to your own voice, you will have to pay for it. If not, you will compromise,’’ he observed.

Getting funds for such high-budget movie with strong global statements had been very difficult. Corporate brands often dodge war drama productions and most countries would prefer if the story is recounted to make the country look good, ultimately.

For Aduaka, it is a continuous and frustrating wrestle to do war themes consistently in movies like he did.

“I wanted to stop making movies after producing Ezra,” he explained.

There were things to say and I needed support to tell the stories. War movies are too damaging psychologically.

Between 2002 and 2003, child soldier was a recurring theme in the media.

There were lots of wars in Africa.

And all the mechanism behind child soldier is beyond these puppets and puns put behind the bigger game. So, I gave voice to the black characters.

When you sit with the children, it is heartbreaking. I can’t rehash that again because it is too painful.”

In the making of Ezra, Aduaka plunged into the sea of discoveries through his dogged research. He studied about Angola, Mozambique,

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER • JUNE 19, 2016

ARTS & REVIEW\\REEL WORLD

APAN-AFRICAN E-COMING T

Art Logue

Recession Proof of Nigerian Art: Myth or reality?

Mufu Onifade

Nigerian-British actor, Wale Ojo Uganda, Sierra Leone and other war-torn countries and found out that their war patterns are identical.

Beneath the rubble of fighters often lay a common article of interest causing dispute, later snowballing into war. In the movie, it was diamond.

“I met child soldiers, psychiatrists and people at the criminal court at Hague. Altogether, the pre-production process took two years before the shoot,’’ he recalled.

Some in the audience wondered why the characters have different accents. It was not a particular concern for the director to hide the background of each actor since they were drawn from different backgrounds.

“Everyone is articulate in his own language,’’ was Aduaka’s argument when he examined the tendency for Africans to look down on their own indigenous languages. But as being a pan-African movie, English was selected as the language of

expression.

“I didn’t want to say this is Sierra Leone. I wanted to show the picture of all the commonalities in African countries. My camera is chasing emotional truth. I don’t do cut-aways. If the rhythm works for me, I leave it that way. I am in a stage in my career where there’s no rule. The rest is intuition and work.

“People should know what wars are. If people know war is about, they would not even mention war or Biafra anymore.’’

Shot in Rwanda, Aduaka assembled the cast from different parts. Ezra, the lead character is from Sierra-Leone, his sister is French-Malian, while Mariam is from London. Nigerian-British actor, Wale Ojo also acted as one of the militants, although his only claim to lines was a few chants in a scene. The interactive session was moderated by the film maker and critic, Didi Cheeka.

he month of May 2016 was interesting for Nigerian Art, as several world sale records were broken within a span of two weeks.

The most expensive price ever paid for an oil painting was achieved at a Lagos auction when a collector paid N46m for a Ben Enwonwu painting. A few weeks later at the London Bonhams auction, that world record was broken again as an oil painting by the same artist achieved 218,000 GBP. This is an equivalent of over N100m (using the current parallel market rate).Similar records have been achieved by renown artists like Prof Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko and other Masters who established their reputations in the 1960’s and 70’s. These are the highest prices achieved in the history of Nigerian art sales occurring at one of the most challenging economic periods experienced by the Country in recent times.

So what exactly is driving the prices to such great heights? Well, a few trends are consistent when analysing the sale records. Firstly, the art buyer of today is increasingly discerning and collecting mainly first generation Nigerian/ African artists with proven quality and pedigree.

These include first generation names like Enwonwu, Onobrakpeya, Nwoko, El Anatsui, Barber, Okeke, Emokpae, Wenger and a host of others.

This is simply because this generation fall into the category that have produced fantastic pieces of impeccable quality over the last four decades, have a very limited supply of works available and are sought after by an insatiable group of global collectors.

Secondly, serious art collectors are driven by a passion that outweighs normal market forces.

Standard economic models cannot always be applied when it comes to passion-driven investment in art. The same applies on a global scale when traditional Masters like Picassos and Rembrandt set sale records during economically challenging times.

Finally, many collectors have successfully turned their passion into a viable alternative investment portfolio. Many art investors have enjoyed stronger percentage returns from investments than they have from equity or mutual fund investments. So the need for art as an alternative investment is driving up demand and prices for most first generation artists.

As a result of this growing interest in art investment there has been an increase in historic exhibitions by Nigerian Masters who had not previously exhibited for decades. The Iconic Yusuf Grillo decided to hold his first exhibition in decades last year in Lagos. The exhibition was a resounding success with strong interest from local and global investors.

Similarly one of Nigeria’s most sought after but reclusive artists; Olu Spencer decided to hold his first solo exhibition in over 40 years at the Red Door Gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos. The show was successfully opened yesterday and will run till 1st of July, 2016. The show is already showing flicks of great success. Spencer shot to fame in the 1970’s as one of the most collectable artists from the famous Abayomi Barber School at the University of Lagos. He has exhibited in group shows globally but this will be his first major solo exhibition in Nigeria. According to Dunni Abdul, Gallery Manager at Red Door, the gallery was very humbled to be exhibiting “Mr Spencer’s collection of 24 very special pieces”. She said, “The oldest piece is stunning and was painted almost twenty years ago and would be an absolute gem for any major collector”. Ms Abdul explained that most of the interest they have had during the build up to the exhibition has been mainly from serious Nigerian collectors who had never thought they would witness a Spencer exhibition and also significant interest from collectors outside Nigeria who are making enquires online and by telephone.

So, the notion of Nigerian art recession proof, is it myth or reality? The answer depends on the quality and pedigree of art and the artist in question. Today, the younger generation of artists may be finding the economic realities challenging, but works by the first generation masters are proving to be recession proof. However for true art collectors the joy is not always in the market value but rather in the ownership of these beautiful works of art that were created by some of most skilled artists in Africa.

-Onifade, the founder of Araism Art Movement, writes from Abuja

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JUNE 19, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

ARTS & REVIEW\\FICTION

THE ACTIVIST Daniel Chado

I

met Jay at school, aged eight or so, when he took a punch for me. I still don’t know why he did it—we’ve not spoken about it and neither does he—but from that day we became best friends. We had our first beers together, went on holiday together.

We even went to the same university. It was no surprise then that we both became involved in activism.

Over the years, side-by-side, we marched against illegal wars and student fees, corporate greed and corrupt politicians. I thought we cared about people, society, the railroading tactics of government, standing up for those who can’t protect themselves. I was proud of our friendship, our principles, our shared vision. I assumed we’d always be friends.

It’s hard to pinpoint when the problems began. I’m not saying Jay was violent, but at some point he started adopting the more militant folderol to do with activism, masking his face, graffiting glass-fronted offices, cosying up to the jackboot brigade. I always asked him why he couldn’t just embrace a cause for what it was, and his stock response—there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of fun—never sat well with me.

But it wasn’t until that that day in October that I realised just how far Jay was prepared to go.

We were picketing an oil depot in Lagos, The energy company was exceeding carbon emission limits, and the regulators were struggling to be heard from their place in the CEO’s back pocket. A dull and drizzly morning, the high pressure in the atmosphere matched the tension on the ground, and news had come the heavies were on their way to clear us. For me, this was the time to go, to leave the hooligan element to partake in their tedious fights. I wasn’t expecting Jay to come with me. He liked to stick around— but what I didn’t expect was for him to lift up his denim jacket and show me the knife slotted in his belt.

I asked him, in no uncertain terms, if he was out of his mind.

“For show,” Jay said. “You know these people.”

“I don’t. Neither do you.”

I grabbed his sleeve to pull him away, but he shrugged me off. “Head down your allotment,” he said. “Water your spuds. Leave the real stuff for the real men.”

As Jay lifted his skull and crossbones bandana

over his nose, some battered transit vans pulled up and spilled out grim-faced goons.

I couldn’t leave Jay—I wanted to make sure he didn’t pull that knife.

As the rain came down, the standoff turned ugly. Within minutes the macho grunts became shoves, and it wouldn’t be long before punches were thrown. No one noticed the white Fiesta pull up, or the pale, slight man holding a clipboard and wearing an orange high-visibility jacket who climbed out; later we would find out a utility company sent him over to check some insulation. He tried to speak to one of the lads at the gate, to see if he could get in the depot. When the fighting started, he was dragged into the middle. I saw him slump against Jay. Afterwards, sitting on the floor of Jay’s flat, the curtains closed, a bottle of vodka and an overflowing ashtray between us, he said, “It was an accident. Someone pushed him into me.”

“Why did you have it out?”

“How was I supposed to know he wasn’t one of them?”

“Does it matter who you stabbed?”

Jay shrugged and downed his drink. His expression became tight, as if he were struggling to decide how he should feel. When he offered me a coy smile, I shook my head and told him he was a joke. He poured another round. I got up and left.

The man’s name was Thomas Morgan. He left a wife called Nancy and three-year-old twin girls.

All week the news repeated the same interview from their home where his wife sobbed while the girls read at the table, as if their lives were as normal as before. Their home looked warm and inviting. Family photos lined the walls. Across the bottom of the screen ran a number to call if you had any information.

I asked Jay to meet me in Gani Fawehinmi park. He came in a heavy green sweatshirt with hood that hung over his face.

“Sentimentality is your weakness,” he said.

“Good,” I replied. “I’ll be weak.”

“There’ll always be collateral damage.”

“He wasn’t involved.”

“The whole world is involved!”

“Rubbish! You killed an innocent man.”

A jogger sped past.

“Keep it down,” Jay hissed. “It was an accident.”

“Wait,” I said, and put my hand on Jay’s arm.

We stopped. “I think… I think you should turn yourself in.”

Jay dipped his head so I couldn’t see his eyes

Location shot from a Moloko project from under the hood. “No chance.” Behind him, the sky was grey. Spots of rain came down.

“It’s the right thing to do,” I said.

“Do you want me to go to prison?”

“Tell them what happened, how it was an accident. You never meant—” “What kind of friend are you?” His face became tight and I flinched.

Jay pushed past me. He headed over the grass towards the Abiola Garden exit.

“Please,” I called after him. “Think about it. It’s the right thing to do.”

On the occasions when I managed to sleep, Thomas Morgan starred in my dreams. The mob surrounded him as I screamed myself hoarse.

Then I’d wake before dawn and think about his sobbing wife, their lovely home, his two girls reading at the table.

I thought about my twenty year friendship with Jay. I remembered one time the headmaster found a stolen ipod in my locker. Even when his mother came into the classroom and slapped him in front of everyone, even when he had to sit through weeks of suspension, to attend counselling, his record blotted by my mistake, Jay never gave me away.

But it was no good. This wasn’t a case of a stolen ipod. He had killed an innocent man. He had destroyed an innocent family.

A week later, I met Jay in his apartment hunched over a table at the back, he looked tired, tense. He drained a double vodka. Staring at the glass he said, “What about me? Where do I fit in to your precious ideals.”

“What about the two girls whose father will never come home?”

“Keep your sob story,” he snapped.

In my pocket, my phone felt like a dead weight. I asked Jay what he intended to do.

“Keep things in perspective,” he said.

I got up. “I need some air.”

Jay grabbed my forearm. “Through this whole time you’ve not once asked how I am. All you care about is some bloke you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t need to know him. He was the kind of person we’re fighting for—a normal person trying to lead a decent life.”

He shoved me away. “You’ve never fought a day in your life.”

I put on my coat.

Jay glanced up at me. “Please, Simon,” he said, “don’t.” The look on his face brought tears to my eyes.

“Don’t worry,” I said, and then, after a pause, held out my hand.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he said.

But he took my hand anyway, and we said goodbye.

-Chado is a Lagos-based writer

Introducing... the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature Judges!

Olaseni Durojaiye

I

n recent times, creative works: literature, music, dance, drama, photography and visual art are gaining more global attention and recognition as potential platforms for raising creativity.

Etisalat Nigeria has been at the forefront of corporate organisations that promote creativity and talent development through various initiatives notable among which is the Etisalat Prize for Literature, the prestigious Pan-African prize that celebrates first time writers of published fiction books. Launched in 2013, the Prize is aimed at discovering new creative talent out of the continent as well as promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa.

Year on year, the literary prize has attained international acclaim as a result of the high quality of writers/book titles and the qualitative adjudication process that has guided the emergence of Africa’s best as winners of the prestigious Etisalat Prize, in the last three editions. The past winners were Zimbabwean female writer NoViolet Bulawayo (2013);South African novelist Songeziwe Mahlangu (2014) and Fiston Mwanza Mujila from Democratic Republic of Congo (2015).

The race for the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature contest has begun in earnest and the global community is without a doubt already expressing interest on how the entire process: the call for entries, announcement of judges, closing of entry, review of the titles, the longlist, the shortlist and the grand finale, will go in producing the prize winner.

It is important to state that the task of selecting the best authors from hundreds of titles won’t be an easy job, but some ‘three wise persons’ have been tasked to do the job. They are: Helon Habila (Nigeria), Edwige-Renée Dro (Cote d’Ivoire), and Elinor Sisulu (South Africa). As the popular saying goes, ‘you cannot judge a good book by its cover’, therefore underscores the enormous responsibility before the three-member judging panel whose

Habila

names were announced recently at a press conference to announce the commencement of the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2016 edition.

It is against this backdrop that Etisalat Nigeria has carefully picked a panel of three eminent scholars, teachers and writers who possess the right capability to correctly analyse, appraise and judge the books understrict adjudication process that participants in the previous editions of the Etisalat Prize for Literature were also subjected to.

The judging process must be based on intellectual depth, sound reasoning, integrity and honesty, transparency, openness, thoroughness and attention to details amongst other virtues. This way the reputation that the Etisalat Prize has attained amongst different stakeholders will be sustained.

The line-up of the high profile judges is as follows:

Helon Habila

Multiple-awards winning Nigerian-born Helon Habila is the Chair of Judges for the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature. Accomplished author, poet, teacher and journalist, he is currently an Associate Professor of creative writing at George Mason University, United States. His novels include Waiting for an Angel (2002), Measuring Time (2007),

Sisulu

and Oil on Water (2010). He is the editor of the Granta Book of African Short Story (2011).

Habila’s novels, poems, and short stories have won many honours and awards, including the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel (Africa Section), the Caine Prize, the Virginia Library Foundation Prize for fiction and most recently the Windham-Campbell Prize. Habila has been a contributing editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review since 2004, and he is a regular reviewer for the Guardian, United Kingdom.

Edwige-Renée Dro

Edwige-Renée Dro is an Ivorian writer and a translator. She is one of the 39 most promising voices under 40 from Africa, south of the Sahara as decided by the Africa39 project. She was the 2015 PEN International New Voices award judge.

Edwige-Renée currently works as the director of Danbé Collection, a new imprint of l’Harmattan Editions with a focus on the promotion of Ivorian literature in Abidjan. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and literary journals.

Elinor Sisulu

Elinor Sisulu is a Zimbabwean-born South Africa writer and human rights activist. She combines

Renee Dro

training in history, English literature, development studies and feminist theory from institutions in Zimbabwe, Senegal and the Netherlands. She is the author of the award-winning children’s book, The Day Gogo Went to Vote. Her biography on her parents-in-law, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime secured her the prestigious 2003 Noma Award for publishing in Africa.

Elinor’s involvement in book promotion and literary development efforts for many years has culminated in her work with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation. She has been a judge for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, the Sanlam Youth Literature Prize and the Penguin Africa Writer’s Competition.

Certainly, the pedigree of these eminent judges clearly shows that that the stake is poised to go higher for the 2016 edition of the Etisalat Prize for Literature. Needless to say however that writers, literary scholars, book lovers, publishers and literature enthusiasts would take more than a passing interest in the final outcome of the judges’ assignment. And, in the spirit of excellent adjudication process that had seen the best of African writers stand on the dais to receive their prizes in the three consecutive seasons, all eyes are on the judges, just as the writers.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER •JUNE 19, 2016

ARTS & REVIEW\\ART-LOGUE

ON PACA DAK’ART OFF 2016 OUTING...

Ayo Adewunmi and Frank Ugiomoh

T

he Pan African Circle of Artists (PACA) made its fourth appearance at the Dak’Art Biennale with the Exhibition and Roundtable under the theme “Africa before Our Very Eyes”. The exhibition which took place at the Boribana Museum, 109 Ngor Road, Dakar, Senegal from the May 3 to 17, was opened by the Minister for Culture and Communications, Mr Magnick Ndiaye who attended the event in company of the Minister of Culture, Cote d ‘Ivoire. 19 artists from 6 countries participated at the PACA Dak’Art Off 2016. Mr Ndiaye declaring the exhibition open, on the May 7immediately after the roundtable, commended PACA for its effort at bringing African artists together. The curator of Boribana Museum, Mme Hawa Mara, remarked that she was happy with the collaboration. She thanked all the sponsors of the exhibition and praised the efforts of Mor Faye in curating the exhibition. Mor Faye, the Senegalese artist, who curated the exhibition commented that PACA Dak’Art Off which began in 2010 at Leopold Sedar Senghor’ Cultural Centre, Pikine has witnessed steady growth in number of participating countries and also in the quality of exhibition.

He commended PACA’s determination in promoting and propagating African art and artists, he added that PACA has always used the opportunity of its Dak’Art Off to hold roundtable on crucial issues bordering on the development of Africa.

In 2012, PACA held its exhibition and roundtable with the theme “Africa and the Politics of Postcoloniality at the Monument of the African Renaissance”. The 2014 theme was “Africa: Plurality In Uniqueness.

The exhibition and roundtable took place at the Blaise Senghor’s Regional Cultural Centre. Commenting on the exhibition, the Secretary General of Dak’Art Biennale Mr Rassoul Seydy congratulated PACA for its 4thDak’artOff exhibition and commended participating artists from other countries for sponsoring themselves to Dakar.

Nigerian artists who participated in PACA Dak’Art Off include Kent Onah, Dr. Krydz Ikwuemesi, Prof. Cliff Nwanna, Ayo Adewunmi, Izuchukwu Muoneme, Mbadimma Chinemelum Nduoma, Okechukwu Eze, Sir Joseph Ejiamike and Emeka Egwuibe. According to the Secretary of PACA-Nigeria, Kent Onah, having participants from six countries is symbolic and indicative of the fruits of PACA’s Overcoming Maps (the PACA Study Tour of Africa) which took PACA on road tours of 11 African countries between 2001 and 2010. He noted that the last tour in 2010 was in Gambia and Senegal, and that the same year PACA had its first Dak’Art Off. Dr. Ikwuemesi states in his introductory text in the exhibition catalogue “that the present exhibition is located at the crossroads of Africa’s history, where the will for development is wrestled by the reality of underdevelopment. In vivid colours and clear elegant forms, the collection captures our place as captives of history and politics on that crossroads. The works then become totems of hope and tend to renew our faith in a fateful but seemingly failing journey of a people who should have so much to offer the modern world”.

PACA Roundtable

The Pan-African Circle of Artists’ roundtable held at the Boribana Museum on May 7 of was directed by Frank Ugiomoh, the Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Professor of Fine Art and Design and Professor of history of Art and theory, University of Port Harcourt, who also gave a lead presentation

Some of the exhibits at the Whitespace Gallery

Some of the exhibits at the Whitespace Gallery on the theme, “Africa Before Our Very Eyes: Globalisation And Change”. The theme of the 2016 biennial “Re-enchantments” informed the topic and trajectory of the roundtable.

Re-enchantment as a theme by the biennial curator calls for an African gaze, the way other cultures have come to embrace global cultural politics arising from the Enlightenment ideology, which has impacted on the way other cultures engage cultural production as well as the definition of their art world require reconsideration.

Africa before our eyes began by recognising the cartographic boundary of Africa and all that is contained in it as the focal point of discourse. The position foreclosed earlier efforts to culturally balkanise the continent and its people. The continent, no doubt presents a heterogeneity in its cultural definitions.

However, such occurrence is the norm and not the exception. Within the framework of contemporary globalisation and hiked intercultural dialogue and negotiations should be nothing other than change. Referencing the truth encapsulated in the words of the

African philosopher and sage, the late President Leopold Sedar Senghor that we are all products of “cultural half castes,” Professor Ugiomoh emphasised the need to embrace on-going realities of cultural change. He made allusion to the depth of civilisation in Africa put conservatively at 70,000 BC, and asked rhetorically if anyone living today had the privilege of knowing that past. By implication, then, for those who mourn changes in culture can they reconstruct the past they were never part and of which knowledge they lacked. In other words, our cultural trappings were never the same since 70,000 years ago definitely. That reality informed President Senghor’s thoughts that we are all cultural half castes.

Art in Senghor’s thoughts was one of the great agents of change monitoring. In this direction, Professor Ugiomoh referenced the German philosopher Gadamer who talks of the effectiveness of art as a change element.

Art according to him always excites play and festivity. It does this by the nature of metaphor’ familiarity with the human being.

No individual person plays or engages festival alone. Such activities are never exclusive hence they are occasions that foster change. Because the work of art is about the beautiful, beauty enchants as it continuously re-enchants.

General responses and reflections on the topic of discussion acknowledged that change is not anything to hold in disdain, since to live after all is to change. Various contributors to the debate all harped on the value of positive change. They noted that change like ideology occurs not by sitting on a roundtable.

Rather change creeps into culture through non-negotiated agreement within every age.

Guests at the roundtable included,Dr. Massamba Gueye Cultural Adviser to the President of Senegal, Mr. Magueye Toure, the Director of Francophony, Mr. Root Senghor, the Administrator of the Monument of the African Renaissance, Mr. Abdoulaye Koundoul Arts Director, Alioune Badara Beye, President of the Association of Writers of Senegal, students and art enthusiasts.

- Adewunmi and Prof Ugiomoh are reputable art lecturers

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

IMAGES

H

ussey College Warri Old Students Association, Lagos branch, recently marked the 69th Founder’s Day anniversary of the famous school with a Dinner/Awards ceremony at the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island. Mr. Lawrence Ayanfulu, a former Vice-President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria chaired the occasion while Oba Tijani Akinloye, the Ojomu of Ajiran Land, Lekki Penninsula, an old student of the school was the royal father of the day. The dinner was spiced with a lecture on Restoring Lost Glory: The Role of Old Students in the Education Sector delivered by Prof. Hope Eghagha, the immediate past commissioner for higher education in Delta State. Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to some old students who have made their marks in different fields of human endeavour, including Brig-Gen. Mobolaji Johnson (rtd.), the first military governor of Lagos State, Rear-Admiral Festus Porbeni (rtd.),former Minister of Transport and Mrs Elizabeth Omeresan Adegite, a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) . Dr Alex Ekwueme, former Vice -President of Nigeria, who was a science teacher at the school between 1950 and 1952 was bestowed with The Famous Teacher Award Photos: Kola Alli

Oba Tijani Akinloye (right) and Professor Hope Eghagha

R-L: Former Military Governor of Lagos State, Brig. Gen. Mobolaji Johnson (rtd) and Mr. Raheem Olaleye

Mr. Renato Awani (left) and Mr. Ewos Dare Mabiaku

Asiwaju Olumide Osunsina; and his wife, Desinee

L-R: Mrs. Helen Ekwueme; former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and President, Hussey College Old Students Association, Lagos Branch, Dr. Evelyn Omawumi Urhobo

L-R: Chief Lawrence O. Anyafulu; Abalujiyan of Warri, Chief Kofi Kartey and The Owa-Olusan of Warri, Chief Brown Mene

Rear Admiral Festus Porbeni (right) and Chief Elizabeth Omiresan Adegite

L-R: Executive Director, THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Emmanuel Efeni; and Ms Grace Itsewa

L-R: Ms. Rita Begho; Mr. Joseph Velly Awala; and Mrs. Pat Imomoh

L-R: Mrs. Cynthia Ani; and Mrs. Rose Erewa- Danmole

Brig.-Gen. Felix Efe Edafioghor (right); and Prince Charles Obi

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO

Editor Vincent Obia Email vincent.obia@thisdaylive.com

IN THE ARENA

Federal Government’s Tough Conditions for Saving Bankrupt States

After a spate of insolvency among states, the federal government has responded with bailout conditions that show it wants the states to think more fiscal autonomy. But the federal government needs to back the federating units with a truly federal structure to achieve the fiscal stability plan it desires. Vincent Obia writes

T

he federal government has sent an important message to the 36 states of the federation following a rather embarrassing wave of bankruptcy and pressure for bailout.It has compiled a set of tough conditions that states must fulfil to access a federal government bailout.Special adviser to the president on political matters,Mr.Babafemi Ojudu, announced onWednesday that the federal government was earmarking N90 billion as a special loan package for states that have serious financial problems.But to be eligible to draw from the fund,Ojodu listed 22 stringent conditions to be satisfied.

The conditions focus on efficient and transparent revenue mobilisation,expenditure,and budgeting methods in line with international best practice.They include that a state must,“Set realistic and achievable targets to improve independently generated revenue (from all revenue generating activities of the state in addition to tax collections) and ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure,”and,“Quarterly financial reconciliation meetings between federal and state governments to coverVAT,PAYE remittances,refunds on government projects,Paris Club,and other accounts.”

There must also be sharing of the“database of companies within each state with the Federal Inland Revenue Service.The objective is to improveVAT and PAYE collection,”and review of“all revenue related laws and update of obsolete rates/tariffs.”The federal government has,certainly,recognised this period as a time to focus on the fiscal potentials of the states,to see what they are doing and what they can do. This,indeed,is the time to think again about the laws and the political structure that have prevented the country from practising true federalism and hindered competitiveness and progress on virtually all fronts.The main culprit here is section 44 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, which states,“Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section,the entire property in and control of all minerals,mineral oils and natural gas in,under or upon any land in Nigeria or in,under or upon the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria shall vest in the Government of the Federation and shall be managed in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.”

It has become apparent that the ultra-centralisation of resources under a pseudo-federal system can no longer feed the craving of the federating units.It has obstructed national development.The states need to be statutorily empowered to develop their full potential for collective national progress.

In July last year,the Central Bank of Nigeria packaged a special intervention fund of about N300 billion,which was given in the form of soft loans to states to enable them settle a backlog of salaries.The states have also enjoyed a debt relief programme designed by the Debt Management Office to enable them restructure their commercial loans of over N660 billion and extend the life span of the loans while reducing the debt-service burden.

Still unable to lift the largely unviable and federal-dependent states out of bankruptcy,the federal government last month designed a fiscal sustainability plan to help the states.This was in the face of dwindling federal financial allocations occasioned by the drastic fall in crude oil prices.The emphasis was also on more proactive revenue mobilisation and prudent management of resources.All these point to an increasing pressure to move from the current restrictive quasifederal structure to a truly federal system that would help to unlock the potentials of the states.

True federalism or fiscal federalism is the antidote to the incessant

ezeibe.aguwa@thisdaylive.com 08093842953

insolvency in states.The country must move away from the present excessive focus on the central pool,to the deliberate development of the fiscal economies of the federating units.This can only be achieved through aggressive diversification and devolution of power from the centre.Virtually every Nigerian who can speak and be heard has said this.Elder statesman and Second Republic vice president,Dr.Alex Ekwueme,reiterated the call for true federalism last Sunday in Enugu at the 17th annual convention of the IgboYouth Movement,which had the theme,“Nigeria,still in pursuit of true fiscal federalism.”Calling for the structuring of the country into viable fiscal units and resource control by the federating units,Ekwueme said,“The British colonial masters divided the country in such a way that every region will operate within its constitution.”Former information minister,Professor Jerry Gana,who was guest speaker at the occasion,spoke in a similar vein.Gana stated,“True fiscal federalism is the only form of association that will allow peace and stability in the country and each region should be allowed to manage its resources the way they want it.” He criticised the current resource ownership and allocation structure that makes the federal government richer while the states operate like beggars.“States should be allowed to manage their resources to enable them govern their people the way they want and allocate some percentage to the federal government,”Gana said.

Several studies have confirmed that every state in Nigeria is so richly endowed that if allowed to exploit their resources,they would not only be economically viable,but also buoyant.It was on the basis of such a structure,which recognised the capability and right of the component units to develop and survive independently,that the various peoples that make up Nigeria were brought together to form a country in 1914.It was on that basis that Nigeria attained independence in 1960.And it was on that basis that the regions,the former federating units,achieved the excellent socio-economic development that made Nigeria the pride of the black race.

That was when the constitution,the 1963 Republican Constitution, provided,“There shall be paid by the Federation to each region a sum equal to 50 per cent of (a) the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that region; and (b) any mining rent derived by the Federation from within that region.”

The aberrational federalism that followed from 1966 has been a terrible drawback to development. Rather than thinking of how to deepen bailout for states under the current system,President Muhammadu Buhari should devise approaches to return the country to fiscal federalism and resource control by the federating units.This is especially important now that the National Assembly is in the process of amending the 1999 Constitution.

P O L I T I CA L N OT E S

Fayose, APC and the Needless Argument over Finance

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Fayose

kiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has been involved in a heated exchange with the All Progressives Congress in the state over who is to blame for the non-payment of workers’ salaries. While Fayose attributes his administration’s inability to pay salaries to a huge debt burden inherited from the past APC government, the party says if anyone is to blame, it is the governor and his lack of imagination.

Elected political leaders in the country are wont to use the activities of their predecessors as a convenient excuse for failure, but they never allow such reasons to deter them during the fierce contests for office. The

truth is that Fayose is at liberty to bring to justice any past leader he has evidence of financial misconduct against – just like the APC federal government is doing. If he is not prosecuting anybody in connection with the government’s failure to pay workers, then trying to link his predecessor with the salary issue can only be a lame excuse for non-performance.

Besides, finding creative alternatives to the problems associated with dwindling federal allocations and paucity of internally generated revenue was Fayose’s main grounds for seeking office as governor. If he is confessing inability to fulfil that promise, then he has no good reason to remain in office.

– Vincent Obia

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

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CICERO/REPORT

PDP Leadership Crisis: The Sheriff Challenge Onyebuchi Ezigbo looks at the twists and turns of the PDP crisis

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he uncertainty over the legitimate leadership of the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has continued nearly one month after the party’s ill-fated national convention in Port Harcourt. Since the National Caretaker Committee headed by former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was appointed at the convention, things have never settled for the party.

Makarfi and his committee has continued with consultations and have not been able to really function at the national secretariat of the party.

Insistence

The ousted national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has also continued to lay claim to the headship of the party. The latest of such challenge came when Sheriff and his two allies, the former national secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, and former national auditor, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, stormed the national secretariat of the PDP and forced their way to occupy their offices, insisting that they are still the authentic leaders of the party. While addressing a press conference inside the party’s NWC Hall, Sheriff said he was back on the national chairmanship seat following a Lagos High Court order and that his tenure will run till 2018.

Sherrif drove to the party’s headquarters at Wadata Plaza in Wuse as early as 7am Monday morning in a long convoy with hundreds of his supporters. He attempted to gain entry into the premises but was stopped by men of the Nigeria Police. The embattled former governor of Borno State made two further attempts to gain access to his office at the Wadatta Plaza and the party’s Office Annex known as Legacy House in Maitama but it was only his third attempt that paid off.

It was about 11.58am, when Sheriff came back to meet with the leader of the police team that an order was issued for the PDP gates to be opened. The police asked Sheriff to first disperse his army of supporters before he could be allowed to enter the premises. Following a directive from the police authorities and after a mild drama between Sheriff’s aides and the security personnel over the continued blockade at the gate, a Divisional Police Officer stepped forward and ordered the policemen to throw the gate open. Sheriff finally gained entry into the party’s national secretariat to address journalists about 1.23pm.

Subsisting Mandate

When asked to respond to views by many party leaders that his coming as chairman had further divided the party and created more crisis, Sheriff said he never campaigned to be the PDP chairman. He said he was persuaded by the PDP national caucus to take up the job. Looking infuriated, Sheriff said having staked his reputation to work for PDP, “Nobody has the right to rubbish me or stain my long-standing political record.

“The National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, is here with me. He knows that both the NWC members and all the PDP governors begged me to come to become chairman. All the NWC, BoT and governor’s forum supported my being chairman and when it came to voting, I got 69 votes to emerge the winner over other contenders.”

While commenting on the processes that led to his sack during the last convention, Sheriff said he was not part of what happened at the convention ground in Port Harcourt, adding that he and members of the NWC met at a hotel to formally postpone the convention in deference to a court order. He quoted a Lagos court ruling which barred the party from conducting election for the three positions, the chairman, secretary and national auditor during the convention.

Senator Ali Modu Sherrif (middle) at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Headquarters with his supporters addressing the press, during a protest in Abuja...recently According to Sheriff, since he as the national chairman did not approved of the convention, anything arising from it remained null and void. He said it was public knowledge that there was an order by the Federal High Court in Lagos declaring him as the authentic national chairman of PDP. Sheriff stated, “I have kept away from taking steps that could jeopardise the law following an ex parte order from the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, which had given a contradictory order restraining me from operating as the chairman of our party, notwithstanding some further orders from the Federal High Court Lagos, specifically directing the inspector General of Police to provide me with adequate security to enable me carry out my duties.”

Now that the ex parte order given in Port Harcourt has since elapsed on June 9 and has not been renewed, Sheriff said he had come fully armed with all the necessary court orders to resume as the national chairman, as directed by the court.

He said, “We have to this effect served the necessary court orders on the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is the impartial arbiter in matters like this; the police, as custodians of the law, and we will make same available to you gentlemen of the press, so that you can make informed analysis of the issues involved.”

Counter Protest

However, less than two days after Sheriff stormed the national secretariat of PDP with his loyalists, aggrieved youths of the party also stormed the secretariat to sack him and his allies from their offices.

The group operating under the aegis of PDP National Rebirth Group and PDP Concerned Rescue Group invaded the party premises on Wednesday morning. They sealed off the party’s national headquarters and handed the keys over to the chairman of the (BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin. In what looked like the highpoint of over five hours of demonstration at the PDP headquarters by the protesting youths who threw their support behind the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, all those that came with Sheriff to occupy the place were sacked. Also following allegations made by the Makarfi committee accusing the State

Security Services of providing the ousted chairman, Sheriff, security to storm the PDP secretariat, the department promptly withdrew its men from the secretariat. Even the police presence was very light compared to when the security agents were deployed in the wake of the latest leadership crisis.

Though Sheriff was not at the secretariat when the demonstrators arrived, Oladipo and Adeyanju, who were at the head office, barely escaped attack by the mob. There was a report that Sheriff had gone to Maiduguri to honour an invitation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in connection with PDP campaign funds. The protesting youths forced their way into the premises after moments of solidarity chants and went in search of Sheriff and others. They vowed to physically drag out any of them found occupying any of the offices. It was in the process that security personnel posted to the PDP headquarters hurriedly whisked the former national secretary and nation auditor away through the back entrance.

The youths locked up the secretariat and sent for the chairman of the BoT. Walid arrived shortly after and was handed over the keys by Comrade Franklyne Edede, leader of one of the groups who had earlier accused Sheriff of being hired to destroy PDP. The groups, numbering over 200, had defied the early morning rain to arrive the PDP secretariat as early as 6. 30am. They carried placards with different inscriptions that read: “Sheriff is not a PDP member;” “Sheriff must Go;” “Enough is Enough;” and “Makarfi is real,” among others.

There was also a counter group in support of Sheriff led by Comrade Solomon Azobie.

This group however, did not make much impact and had retreated soon after their arrival. One of the groups, the Concerned Rescue Group, had also joined the fray when in a press conference on Tuesday they gave the party leadership seven days to resolve the crisis in the party or they would take over the running of the affairs of the party.

Sheriff Camp Hits Back

Soon after the fracas at the secretariat, Oladipo issued a statement refuting reports that he was chased out of the head off of the party. He said he actually resumed

duty at the party secretariat in the morning alongside Adeyanju. According to him, he witnessed the activities of some “miscreants” who invaded the party secretariat to cause trouble. He insisted that he left the office after he was done with his work.

Meanwhile, Sheriff has said the allegation by the Makarfi faction that he was being sponsored by APC and the presidency to destroy the opposition party was ridiculous and an attempt to cast him in bad light.

Sheriff said it was sad that at a press conference, “one Dayo Adeyeye, speaking on behalf of Makarfi,” alleged that he (Sheriff) was being sponsored by the presidency and APC, and that there was no court order granting him leave to operate his office. In a statement issued through his spokesman, Inuwa Bwala, the former governor said: “Ridiculous as it may sound, given the fact that right thinking Nigerians know that Makarfi and the cabal that have been sponsoring him are merely crying wolf, where there was none, having come face to face with the truth, law and reality, it is imperative to state some facts, for the records.

Makarfi and his sponsors want to create the wrong impression that Sheriff is not reliable, whereas it is an open secret that Sheriff has given credible and honest leadership to his state, to Nigeria and to the PDP, even for the short period he has been in the saddle of leadership than Makarfi.

“Be that as it may, we wish to challenge Makarfi to name the date, venue and names of those in attendance at the so-called meeting Sheriff allegedly had with some governors from the APC. Again, how could Sheriff have been a stooge when he remains the only PDP stalwart that speaks out against the APC since the party lost the 2015 elections?”

National Caucus, BoT and the Governors’ Forum Meeting A meeting of the national caucus, BoT and the PDP Governors’ Forum was convened Wednesday night in Abuja to try to find a lasting solution to the leadership problem.

How the issues would play out remains unclear. But many fear that the current crisis may spell doom for PDP, especially, ahead of the imminent elections in Edo and Ondo states.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO/INTERVIEW

Bajoga: President Buhari Should Fight Corruption with Institutions, Not Whim Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga is the immediate past deputy governor of Kaduna State. In this interview with John Shiklam, Bajoga says the President Muhammadu Buhari government is fighting corruption with a passing impulse that would not yield meaningful benefits for the country. He recommends a more systematic approach that strengthens the institutions of the state to make it difficult for people to perpetrate corruption. Bajoga also speaks on other political issues. Excerpts:

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hat is your assessment of President Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign?

He is fighting it wrongly. That will not give us the results. Assuming people cannot steal now, if he goes tomorrow, he has done nothing to end corruption. But if the institutions he will leave behind are strengthened such that it makes corruption difficult, then we shall know that he is fighting corruption. But he is not fighting it that way, he just believes in taking you to the prison and squeezing your neck to bring back the money you had taken and many people have come and they have given the money and they have gone. They are not even prosecuted for it. I know of some people who returned some money. That is why they are saying they recovered over N70 billion. If that same person finds himself back in government he will still steal and the person you put there is just waiting for you, the slightest chance he gets, he will steal because the system has not changed. Sometimes when people are pushed to the wall they steal. You have not paid somebody for six or seven months and he has a family to cater for. If such a person has the opportunity to collect some revenue for the government, do you think he will remit that revenue to the government when you have not paid him for these months?

Our actions are not even helping in fighting corruption. You cannot beat somebody and stop him from carrying. So what I am saying is that you have to be able to have a just government, rule with the fear of God, let people have what is due to them. According to the Bible, even before the sweat dries from your body, you should be paid your wages. So corruption has to be approached more pragmatically than what it is today, not just catching and sending people to jail and squeezing their neck to bring back some money and you allow him to go. That has not addressed the issue. Where he stole this money has not been repaired, anybody there will still steal that money tomorrow. Once you don’t put the checks and balances that will make it difficult to steal, people will still steal. The approach should be focused more at the system and the institutions.

What have you been doing since you left office last year?

Really, I have not been doing much since I left office. I had many options of what to do or what I thought I would do when I leave office, but with what is happening in the country today, it becomes impossible for one to do any of those things I was thinking of.

I thought of farming, I even went to Jere (in Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State) where we have a vast land, prepared for both dry and rainy season farming by the federal government. There are many hectares, you can think of 200 hectares at a time and farm. I surveyed it, but again you have to pay some money to the federal government so that the land is leased to you because they provide the irrigation facilities and everything. When I put my pen to paper to see how much I will put into the farm, I was thinking of how much I will reap after the harvesting. I found out that if one goes into that type of farming without subsidy from the government, nobody will be able to large make profit.

You find out that you have to buy the tractors because to farm on that large scale, you have to go mechanised. You have to buy

of being the cause, but is the PDP still the cause of it now?

Bajoga planters, if possible, you have to buy even combine harvester, which costs about N10 million. A tractor costs over N4 million and so many things put together. Come to think of it, Kaduna State is not subsidising anything. Even fertiliser, which at one time we got free from the government, this year, government is not putting one kobo into fertiliser. They didn’t buy any anyway. So to go into that type of farming, it is going to be a disaster.

What would you consider the major discouraging factor for people like you who want to go into large scale farming?

The main discouraging factor about farming for people like us is insecurity. Take your Jeep today, go to anywhere on Abuja road to Jere, you may not come back home, you may be kidnapped at the end of the day. So nobody can risk it. Even the smaller farmers are not safe. Our bushes now have become no-go areas and you are afraid to farm because you may be kidnapped or something may happen to you.

Even in the villages, you find out that people go to farm together in a large number to avoid such things. You don’t dare go to the farm alone these days.

Another option I had in mind was mining, since the federal government is thinking that we have to diversify to mining. I was thinking of going into mining. I got some foreign partners. I can at least mortgage my property to finance the mining activities. We were told that there was gold in Birnin Gwari, not as much as South Africa anyway, as the governor was claiming. We found some quantity of gold there and there are small local miners trying to do mining. We wanted to do full scale mining, we were able to secure large machinery with my foreign partners, they are here in Kaduna.

We had gone into agreement with the owners of the area and we secured the license, but we cannot go into Birnin Gwari bush now because

of insecurity. There are criminals wielding AK47 rifles all over that area. Even the indigenes of that area now are deserting the whole place.

That one is also being delayed because you don’t have the courage to go into that bush.

So all options opened are closed because there is no security to execute my plans. I ended up whiling away, sleeping. I have been praying to God to bring something for me to do because I cannot think of what to do and politics is not a profession. We find time to go into it, it is giving us a livelihood, it is helping us but it is not something that you will depend on, especially now that you are not in government.

Many Nigerians blame your party, the Peoples Democratic Party, which governed the country for 16 years, for much of the insecurity in the land today. What is your reaction to this?

That is what they have said and we, the PDP, have said that it is caused by the All Progressives Congress government because right from the beginning when PDP won the elections, we were warned that they will make the country ungovernable. The insecurity at that time persisted, and the security challenge that time was Boko Haram. We lived through it and they are taking the credit now to have brought it to an end or bringing it to an end. But if you noticed, before former President Goodluck Jonathan left office, it was very much contained and it was a matter of time. So there is no magic they have done to bring it to an end.

But all the same, because of their bad policies, they have opened other fronts of insecurity. You find the Fulani attacks, call them by any name, these things are real. It started like a joke from Plateau State, came to Southern Kaduna – you remember the massacres in Bondom, Kaura Local Government Area and Sanga Local Government Area. People were having running battles with them. It is true that they accused us

What are some of the bad policies you can associate with the APC federal government?

The bad policy is that they have not even accepted that these things are happening. The northern governors said some time ago that there was nothing like that and they could not contain it. How can these people keep on doing this in Agatu, Taraba and now it has been extended to the eastern states and nobody has been arrested. Just some few days ago, I heard that a group of young men were arrested; I hope they are the Fulani that are causing the havoc.

Another form of insecurity that is brewing now is emergence of the Biafran agitators, which is becoming violent with clashes with security agencies. In the South-south, it is a different thing. The boys in the creeks now have a field day. They wake up and decide which gas pipeline to blow, we can see it happening everyday because the government came with a bad policy as far as they (Niger Delta militants) are concerned.

Let’s take the South-south, for example, immediately the government came in, it banned many ships and badges from lifting oil. The owners, what will they do than to go back to where they started.

The people who were mining the pipelines were being called criminals. So you can see that there is nobody that is securing anything in the South-south today. These boys came up and said if that is the case, they own the oil and nobody can get it, they want everybody to lose.

So the insecurity now has changed from that of Boko Haram to other dimensions. Before, kidnapping was not prevalent in the North, but even in Kaduna here, we have had cases of kidnapping. Even the killing in the villages keeps going on. Recently in Gwantu, a district head and one other young person were just murdered. If you have a government with good the policies, I don’t think we should have criminals having a field day as they are having today.

Are you not worried that the current crisis in PDP may spell the end of the party?

As far as I am concerned the party is on the right direction. The situation has been doused and we have one leadership with a mandate to hold a convention in three months to conduct elections. What is the state of the PDP in Kaduna? There used to be various factions within the party in the state and it was said that these factions were responsible for the defeat of the party in the state during the 2015 general elections. We don’t have factions anymore; we have one party now, headed by Hon Hassan Felix Hyet. We recently inaugurated the leadership of the party at the local government level. So I am not aware of any faction of PDP in Kaduna State. It is only in the APC that I am told they are into two now. They called themselves names, but I am not surprised. But in PDP we are together and the party is even stronger than before. Our grassroots contact is still intact. Because of the misrule and lack of focus of this government, they have virtually pushed more people back to us, even their own (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO/ISSUE

Aregbesola and the Hue and Cry over Religious Clothing in Schools Shola Oyeyipo writes on how Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s needless religious predisposition has raised a dangerous acrimony among the Osun public

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here are so many questions begging for answers after the June 3 ruling by Justice Jide Falola of the Osun State High Court on a case instituted in February 2013 by the Osun State Muslim Community and the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria.

The ruling granted the plaintiffs’ prayer to allow female Muslim students wear the hijab in all public primary and secondary schools in Osun State.

Controversy

Delivering the judgement in Osogbo, the state capital, Falola held that the use of hijab by female Muslims was part of their fundamental human right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought as enshrined in Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But Governor Rauf Aregbesola stated the following Tuesday while commissioning the ultra-modern St Michael’s RCM Government Middle School, Ibokun, that students found disobeying the rules on school clothing in the state risked expulsion.

Peoples are querying the rationale behind Aregbesola’s grandstanding.

The Hijab

From the Quranic point of view, the hijab is fashionable. It is related to modesty, which Islam promotes. It represents a woman’s submission to her Creator and her connection with the faith. So committed Muslim students may want to have it on, which is no crime, but it has remained a sensitive issue, which recently received a great deal of attention due to legislation and proposed legislation in several European countries (e.g., France, Germany) that banned its use in government institutions as well as educational institutions.

But for those who wear hijab out of religious conviction, the truth is obvious and indisputable. For others with limited knowledge or understanding of hijab, it can be confusing and it is such confusion that the Osun State governor should have tried to avoid.

Osun Baptist students in Church garments infront of the school

Alleged Islamisation Plot

The Christian Association of Nigeria in Osun State has been opposed to the idea of wearing the hijab in schools since the debate on the issue started and they have continued to accuse Aregbesola of having an Islamisation agenda. It was on this basis that CAN, its chairman, and others voluntarily joined as respondents in the case.

CAN, through its General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, had hinged its allegation of islamisation of Osun State by Aregbesola on a security report by the Department of State Services, which indicted the governor. According to CAN, DSS had in the report addressed to the Chief of Army Staff and dated March 19, 2012, stated, “There are indications that Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State is nursing the ambition of islamising the state.

“Already, he has taken control of the Jama’atu Ta’awunil Muslimeen Society of Nigeria (TA’AWUN), now spearheading the use of hijab in public schools in the state and serving as bodyguards to the governor and making frantic efforts to dislodge conventional security operatives from the Government House.”

Such suspicion was aggravated when the CAN chairman in Osun State, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya, said the judge “deeply violated the principle of fair hearing when he refused and/ or failed to hear, let alone rule, one way or the other, on the application for a joinder in the case properly filed and brought to his attention in open court by the interested parties whose schools were taken over forcefully by the government and stood to be affected by the judgement he later proceeded to deliver.”

CAN has now mandated Christian pupils to wear Church garments to school if the judgement is implemented by the governor and it has advised adherents of other religions to brace up and decide what their own followers will wear to school. But Aregbesola has advised aggrieved persons to seek redress at the Court of Appeal.

Students in the classroom Questions

But for watchers of the development, the questions are, is Osun State now practicing theocracy or Ecclesiology, where all authority derives from deities.

If not, why mandate the pupils to wear the religious attire? What script is Aregbesola acting? And very importantly, what impacts could the obnoxious ruling have on the academic performance of the children?

Besides, is the governor oblivious of the positions of great philosophers on the need to separate politics from religion as encapsulated in the quotes of three American former presidents who spoke on the topic at different times in the history of the country?

The first American president, George Washington, in letter to an Irish politician, Sir Edward Newenham, on October 20, 1792 wrote, “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear

to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”

The fourth president of the United States, James Madison, in a letter dated 1822 also wrote, “Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.”

Likewise, when he was governor of Ohio in 1875, the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford Hayes, in his memorable quote said: “We all agree that neither the government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the government or with political parties. We believe

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO/TRIBUTE/ISSUE

Mohammed Ali : Of Being Great and Attaining Greatness Chris Gyang

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henever you take a closer look, you realise that the passing away of a fellow human being often jolts you out of the drudgeries of daily living to the certainty of your own, and indeed every human being’s, ultimate mortality. It does not matter whether the dead person is a very close relative or an individual you have never met in your life. The tragedy of death often confers on you and the deceased a bond that fate has, willy-nilly, forced upon mankind. Then you suddenly realize that, surely, your own day shall also come, sooner or later. The demise of the legendary Mohammed Ali had this and sundry effects on me, some of which form the germ of this piece.

Now, can a man be great without attaining greatness?

This rather nonsensical thought viciously assailed my mind since the news of the death of Ali broke. After agonizing over this quandary for days, I came to the realisation that there were too many realities of this life that we choose to ignore or simply gloss over in our daily rush and splendours of living – all because we assume them to be infinitely trite and of no consequence to our immediate and material wellbeing. Notwithstanding his claim that he was ‘the greatest’, could we say that, considering the sum total of his sojourn here on earth, Ali truly attained greatness?

Perhaps it was the consistent allusion to this cliché about greatness in the days after his death that triggered those thoughts in me. In my ruminations, which are of course neither perfect nor fault-proof, as I hold no pretentions to being a philosopher, I nevertheless discovered that there are many factors that make individuals great.

For instance, we crave limitless power, stupendous wealth, pervasive influence, extraordinary skills, intimidating physical size and strength, etc, and daily toil and aspire to attain these. Sometimes we even kill, steal from the poor and state, tell lies, sell our consciences and betray loved ones and country, simply to be rich, affluent and powerful - all because we believe they make us great men and women. And as great men, we see ourselves as standing above ordinary folk and assume positions that make us their leading lights.

Look around you and you will see many such great people. In Nigeria today, they are typically politicians with a few businessmen who have also become great by doing contracts doled out by these same politicians.

The other great men of our society are still the few who have also ‘made it’ from the crumbs that have dropped from the tables of the two groups above and very few technocrats and professionals who have, by dint of sheer hard work, attained wealth and position in society. But, on the whole, there are so many of these great men in our communities and country that you wonder why there is so much misery, hunger, disease, poverty all round us. Shouldn’t these great men that are so powerful, rich, affluent have used these gargantuan resources to

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assuage these horrid conditions that prevail all round us?

Anyway, it is in this irony of so much misery sitting side by side so many great individuals that we must extract the answer to our paradoxical question: can a man be great and not be able to attain greatness?

A few hours after the passing away of Mohammed Ali, George Foreman, the man whom Ali humiliated in the epochal 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight, tearfully eulogized his opponent, who had later become a bosom friend, to the high heavens in a BBC interview.

He captured their epic battle in the ring thus: ‘’I got beat up in the jungle. I hit him [Ali] with everything I got.’’

However, ‘’I was in the ring with the greatest human being I knew in my life.... A part of me died when he passed away.’’ To further buttress Foreman’s assertions, which emphasized the pervasive views of almost all the people who eulogized the late boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (a boxing legend in his own right), had this to say: ‘’There will never be another Mohammed Ali.’’ Of course.

In almost all of the outpourings of adoration for Ali, a recurring decimal was the consistent reference to this quintessential attribute that I find most relevant to our purpose here which Foreman captured most eloquently: ‘’He [Ali] was beautiful and pretty.’’ Now, Ali was a very

handsome man. But most of the people who remarked about this were rather unconsciously alluding to a sublime beauty that radiated from the very core of his humanity. That was the essence of Mohammed Ali. That elemental beauty compounded from pity, compassion for fellow human beings, self-abnegation and, above all, love.

Although unusual to find this mixture in a man who lived by the brutal sport of boxing, these awesome forces sat perfectly well in Ali and found profound expression in his eventful life, both within and outside the ring. Hear him: ‘’I learned something from people everywhere. There’s truth in Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, all religions. The only religion that matters is the real religion – love.’’

I have come to the conclusion that it was that love that nurtured that inner beauty which ultimately gave Ali that drive toward greatness which set him apart from those others that will remain great but wallow as tin gods to be celebrated by mediocres. It is not enough for a man to simply be great. A great man should, like Ali, aspire to the pinnacle in human attainments – greatness. Furthermore, wealth, position, power, etc, do not in themselves necessarily and automatically confer greatness on man. If that were not so, the great men in our midst would have long since ameliorated the misery, want and disease that persist in our society. It is the way, manner and mind set with which he applies power and wealth that determine a great man’s ascendancy to greatness.

The wealthy that erect monuments and help the underprivileged but are conceited and still dismiss the poor as vile and lazy cannot attain greatness for they merely hanker after the adulation of men. How many great men would have gladly swapped places with Mother Theresa of Calcutta? None, I wager. But it is through acts of selfsacrifice, empathy, love, which were at the heart of the life and work of the beautiful Mother Theresa, that elevate great people unto greatness.

Ali sacrificed his life and career when he took the unpopular decision to reject being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War in 1967. As a result, he was stripped of his world heavyweight title and banned from fighting for five years. For a young champion of 25 who was at the peak of his career, this was a most foolhardy stand. But he damned the consequences in deference to his conscience.

This, coupled with his struggle against racism, has put him in the class of all time greats like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, etc; and says lots more about the strength of that inner beauty, fired by love and self-sacrifice, that has given hope to the down-trodden and inspired many others like him to greatness. ‘’I found him to be one of the greatest human beings I ever met in my life. He brought out something you call greatness in every person,’’ said Foremen. Likewise Obama: ‘’The incredible gesture of love and support that he showed me was one of the greatest blessings of my life.’’

I wonder how many great men out there can dare, like Ali, take the narrow path to greatness by showing a little love and compassion to our people buffeted by poverty, disease and hopelessness.

––Gyang writes from Jos (1chrispere@gmail.com).

• AregbesolA And the hue And Cry over religious Clothing in sChools • that the cause of good government and the cause of religion suffer by all such interference.”

While Aregbesola has gleefully gone about tweeting and retweeting issues relating to the debate on his twitter handle, many have reminded him that it is only in places where theocracy thrives that the religious obligations of the people become a prime issue in governance. Without interference, Christians and Muslims in Osun State have coexisted peacefully for several years.

Apart from that, for many Nigerians, conspicuous religious segregation is abnormal because young people easily cohabit without any apparent display of the religious fault lines in school environments. People learn Quranic verses and Biblical recitations in schools.

It is therefore surprising why Aregbesola seems bent on fanning the embers of religious segregation by going the extra mile to highlight the factors that separate Nigerians instead of those that unite them. And this will ultimately give birth to strife, rivalry, intolerance and all other negative tendencies, if not well managed.

Reaction

Criticising the Aregbesola education policy, his main challenger at the 2014 election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, said,

“Aregbesola seeks to cook tomatoes and oranges in one pot! The end-result of this confused policy has been mass protests by parents and students, several litigations by stakeholders in the state, religious crises within the newly classified schools, general instability and increased level of indiscipline in many of the newly merged schools.

“There have been rampant cases of clashes among students of different religious persuasions. The case of what happened in the Baptist High School is still fresh in our memories. The question we need to ask the Aregbesola-led administration is the reason for this ill-thought-out and poorly-conceived policy which has yielded a harvest of confusion and hardship for students and pupils.”

But justifying his policy in the education sector and underscoring some of the positive impacts they have had on the state, Aregbesola said the education policy of his administration is not a haphazard or impressionistic voyage but a holistic response to a scandalous educational rot, which he found when he took over the mantle of leadership in the state.

He stated, “Our policy therefore seeks an integrative approach to the education of our children and youth. This spans: Education Infrastructure in O’Schools: massive building of new school structures to replace the present dilapidated

ones, within the framework of our schools reclassification system; standardised school uniforms in O’Uniform: to rebrand Osun public schools as well as create employment for designers, tailors and allied artisans, as employed

by Omoluabi Garments Factory, the biggest of its type in the whole of West Africa; innovative teaching materials and learning aids, which clear showpiece is the award-winning Opon Imo, the computer tablet that captures all the textbooks in the school curriculum for high schools; good nutrition to fully develop the physical and mental readiness of our children for life-long learning: in O’Meals, the schools feeding system for the elementary cadre, in the first four years of school life.

“Our education policy is tailored towards making the Osun public schools system to produce the complete child, to become the complete youth and grow up to become the complete citizen, empowered in learning and in character, in the best tradition of the Yoruba Omoluabi. That way, they would be equipped, culturally and academically, anywhere they find themselves in the world, aside from becoming patriots, to take care of their state and country that had earlier taken care of them.”

According to Aregbesola, the Osun State education policy has been designed after the communiqué that

emanated from the Osun Education Summit, held February 7-8, 2011, at the University Auditorium, Osun State University, Osogbo. The summit, chaired by Professor Wole Soyinka, had the theme, “Resolving the Education Crisis in Osun State: Bridging Analysis and Implementation Gaps.”

He said the reforms have had tremendous impacts on the Osun educational competitiveness. He said, “To start with, Osun, from a 34th placing among Nigeria’s 36 states in 2010, moved to 18th position in 2011 and 8th position in 2012, in performance rankings in the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE). Pupils from the state have also chalked up improved performances in national and international competitions, according to compilations by the Osun Ministry of Education. Also, the reforms have earned a partnership with UNESCO to build a regional teacher training institute in the state, and a fresh programme in the area of adult education.”

Dangerous Meddlenesomeness

Good as the educational achievements Aregbesola has ascribed to his administration may sound, many believe the undue religious interference in educational issues, which has been associated with his government since 2010, is the bane of the state that may rubbish all his effort.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO/TRIBUTE

Remembering Shadrach Adelegan: A Selfless Patriot, Humanist, Silent Hero Femi Adelegan

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ate Chief Shadrach Titus Adelegan, Deputy-Speaker, Western Region House of Assembly (1960-1965) educationist, B.A (London) 1951, obtained from the University College, Ibadan, community leader, and politician, is still being remembered for his patriotic and selfless services to humanity in different capacities, and for his unquantifiable sense of humanism and patriotism. Adelegan combined the ingenuity of an educator with the humility and fellow-feeling of a well bred Nigerian. Space will not permit his contributions to be fully accommodated here. Adelegan abandoned a lucrative public service career as Education Secretary in Ibadan in 1957, and turned his back to all the comforts of the city, and the prospects of a bright future to return to lpetu-Ijesha in 1957, to establish Ipetu-Ijesha Grammar School, at a period when no university graduate was willing to reside or work in lpetu-ljesha, a rural community in today’s Oriade Local Government area of Osun State that then lacked all basic social services. In his autobiography: ‘The Part To Play’, Adelegan disclosed that he made huge personal sacrifices that affected the future and comfort of his family, so that children of other people in Ijeshaland and other places, could also acquire education and progress in life. Little wonder, many people, including Adelegan’s admirers often described him as an over-patriotic Nigerian. His children who speak so fondly about his contributions to national development say Adelegan has quietly made history as a silent hero and one of the greatest Nigerians that ever lived.

Born on May 19, 1921, to a humble family of Pa. Joseph Fatusa, a carpenter, and Madam Esther Fatusa, an itinerant trader, late Chief Shadrach Titus Adelegan, politician, educationist, community leader, patriot and great humanist remained until his death, one of the few silent heroes in Nigeria, whose contributions to the development of man and the society remain eloquent testimonies to selfless service, hinged simply on humanitarian and patriotic considerations. For the better part of the post-emergency Western region during which Adelegan served as the Hon. Speaker of the Western House of Assembly; S.T., as he was fondly called by his associates was a man of integrity that was highly regarded as an honest community leader and politician, who commanded the trust, respect, and confidence of his colleagues, both on Government and Opposition BenchesS, who both openly commended him on the floor of the House, for brilliantly conducting proceedings of the Western Region Legislature, impartially, thus stabilizing the polity.

Excerpts from the Hansard – (Official Bulletin) of the Western Region House of Assembly of 6th April, 1965. (With Hon. S.T. Adelegan presiding) indicate the following Tributes to Hon. S.T. Adelegan for being an impartial Hon. Speaker: DEPUTY SPEAKER – TRIBUTE ‘’Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (Premier): ‘’Perhaps I may express the sentiments of both Sides of the House. We pay you, Sir, (S.T. Adelegan) the commendation that is due to you for the efficient manner in which you have been able to carry on and discharge the duties of the Speaker of this honourable House. (Cheers). It is unfortunate that ill-health prevented the Hon. Speaker of this House from attending this important Budget Meeting but, in spite of the short notice, you came to our rescue as an experienced Deputy Speaker, who has been able to assimilate and acquire a great deal of practical knowledge. For this, we are very much indebted to you for the successful completion of this Budget

Adelegan

Meeting, and I think that your performance on this occasion augurs well for the future, because you have discharged your duties remarkably well, so efficiently and so charmingly, that the Members of the Opposition will always like to see you on the Chair.’’ (cheers) Alhaji Dauda Soroye Adegbenro: (Leader of Opposition) ‘’Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I like to associate myself with the views and sentiments expressed by the hon. Premier. When the appointment of Mr. Speaker was proposed, I was consulted, and I argued that you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, ought to have been promoted to the post of the substantive Speaker. I was informed that there were some difficulties in the rank and file of the NNDP, and I had to agree that you still hold your post as Deputy Speaker; and in spite of the fact that you happen to be the Deputy Speaker, you have discharged your duties impartially and you deserve our commendation as well. There is only one request I will like to make and I wish that you give this your serious consideration.

I hope you will not fall into the trap of preventing Hansard to be distributed to hon. Members as was done during the closing days of your predecessor in office.

This is very important and I will wish that you do not allow yourself to be used for that type of funny business. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we congratulate you for being an efficient and impartial Speaker.’’

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Adelegan): ‘’I thank the hon. Premier and the hon.

Leader of Opposition for their compliments, and I wish fervently, that the hon.

Speaker will be well in time to take up his duties. Thank you very much.’’

Indeed, Pa Adelegan’s contributions are worthy of being recorded in Nigeria’s positive pages of history for demonstrating virtues of honesty, integrity, uprightness, selfless service, patriotism, dedication and commitment to his chosen goals, and in national interest. S.T. Adelegan demonstrated his patriotism and brilliance while representing Nigeria at the 1964 Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in the House of Commons, London, where

he and the late Olubadan (then Hon. S.O. Lana – the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) spoke vehemently against the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in the then Southern Rhodesia (now South Africa) by the apartheid regime of Ian Smith. Records show that Hon. Lana and Hon. Adelegan argued so eloquently, forcefully and brilliantly on the floor of the British Parliament against the continued British occupation of South-Africa that they were almost accused of encouraging insurrection against the Queen of England. Some of Pa Adelegan’s strongest virtues were his simplicity, humility, forthrightness and ‘’say it as it is’’ policy. He was a very sincere person who remained very free from destructive biases and never engaged in speaking illadvisedly about anybody; including those who might have offended him in anyway.

He hated acts of vanity with passion and refrained from engaging in the mad rush and propensity for the acquisition of wealth, even in the exalted positions he held. Those who knew Adelegan often described him as a philanthropist and humanist with a difference.

He was a neat and complete gentleman.

He lived a simple life, devoid of ostentatious display of wealth. When I complained to him that he was not awarded a national honour for his contributions as recommended by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola on three occasions, he wondered why I was bothering myself.

After his death, the children rejected an offer by his Ipetu-Ijesha community for them to pay a certain amount so that a street could be named after S.T. Adelegan in the town. We knew he would have turned in disapproval in his grave if we did that.

Shadrach Adelegan, fondly called “S.T.” by his peers and admirers grew up in his Ipetu-Ijesha hometown, in the Oriade Local Government of Osun State, with a pronounced zeal of patriotism, resulting in Adelegan’s deep involvement in the formation of the Ipetu-Ijesha Improvement Union in 1937; a society which he served as General Secretary, when he was barely 17 years old. Interestingly, that love for

his community and humanity at large continued to reflect in Shadrach Adelegan’s interactions with people until his death in 2007. He enrolled at the famous St. Andrews College, Oyo, in 1940. A brilliant student, he emerged the only candidate that succeeded in the admission tests of all the applicants from ljesha Division of the then Western-Region, and completed the Grade II Teachers Certificate in 1944. He equally distinguished himself as a brilliant scholar and sportsman at the Teachers College. By private studies, he passed his London Matriculation course in record time. Adelegan obtained the Intermediate Bachelor of Arts Degree of the University of London in 1949, by private studies.

He then proceeded to the University College, Ibadan, to spend only two years to acquire a degree. He was one of the first graduates of the University College, Ibadan, in 1951; graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (London) Degree in English, Latin and History. He was the first University graduate produced by Ipetu-Ijesha, with late Prof. Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, and Chief C.O. Komolafe, a former Federal Minister in the first Republic following suit.

Pa Adelegan was the Ijesha Divisional Secretary of the Action Group from 1957 to 1960, with late Canon J.A. Akinyemi (Professor Bolaji Akinyemi’s father) as the Chairman. Pa Shadrach Adelegan contested the shadow election in 1959, defeating Mr. Osunloye, Sir Dele Ige and Mr. Olamijulo to become the Action Group’s candidate for the then Ijesha Rural North Constituency, comprising today’s Oriade, Obokun and parts of Atakunmosa Local Government areas. Pa Adelegan was elected into the then Western-Region House of Assembly as the first Action Group Member from Ijeshaland to be elected into the Western Region House of Assembly on the platform of the party.

Revd Canon Akinyemi had been elected into the Federal House of Representatives, also on the platform of the Action Group in Ijeshaland then dominated by Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC. When the Action Group crises occured in 1962, he took it upon himself move round, visiting the party’s leaders, including those restricted to certain localities, in order to find amicable solutions to the political crises.

In his autobiography, ‘’The Part To Play,’’ (Important because History and Civics are no longer taught in our primary and secondary schools) Adelegan narrated how he, late Chief Lawrence Omole, and late Pa J.O Lawanson (then National Organising Secretary of the Action Group) patriotically moved to influence the location of the then University of Ife in Ilesha; but didn’t succeed because of the impenetrable influence of the then Ooni of Ife, late Oba Adesoji Aderemi who was Governor of the Western Region. Pa Adelegan retired from active partisan politics in 1965, following the turbulent period, and continued to serve Ipetu-Ijesha Grammar School which he regarded as his baby. Pa S.T. Adelegan’s imparted to his students his versatility in International Relations, Current Affairs and world politics, which he taught every day at the morning assemblies, and this encouraged a considerable number of his students to become successful politicians, educationists, bureaucrats and technocrats.

Shadrach Adelegan was a devoted and committed member of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Ipetu-ljesa, and at a time served as the Vice-President of Nigeria’s chapter of the Young Men’s Christian Association.

Chief Shadrach Adelegan was particularly noted as a very forthright personality, and his preference for fair play, and justice in all situations, no matter whose ox was gored. Now that our schools no longer offer History and Civics, what happens to the contributions of people to societal development? It is well.

-Femi Adelegan sent in this piece from Abuja.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

CICERO/REPORT

Bumpy Road to a New CAN Leadership After much power tussle and hullabaloo about the emergence of a new Christian Association of Nigeria president, the body finally elected Rev. Supo Ayokunle as president last week. Paul Obi writes on the intrigues that went on behind the scenes

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fter much power tussle and hullabaloo about the emergence of a new Christian Association of Nigeria president, the body finally elected Rev. Supo Ayokunle as president last week. Paul Obi writes on the intrigues that went on behind the scenes A constructive appraisal of the Christian Association of Nigeria will place the body as the voice and defender of all Christians in Nigeria. An organisation entrusted with the task of championing the cause of Christians and Christianity generally. But beyond the basic objectives, leaders of CAN have also subtly delved into politics, but with some sense of caution.

There has been the temptation to go over board and even engage in an overdose of politics. That has been the bane of CAN, as a Christian association. CAN has been enmeshed in one controversy or another over the alleged politicisation of its activities.

Zoning

To end the perennial controversies, many envisaged that with the new elections for the post of CAN president and other elective posts, the association will do well to spare itself some scandals. Relatively, it ushered in another dimension to the game of politics and intrigues within the Christian body. It first started with the constitution of the Electoral College (committee) and zoning of positions to different blocks.

CAN is made up of five blocks – the Catholic Church, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, the Organisation of African Instituted Churches, the Tarayya Ekklesiyoyin Kristi A Nigeria (TEKAN) and Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) block, and the Christian Council of Nigeria.

While three of the blocks have produced CAN presidents from the days of Anthony Cardinal Okogie to Dr Sunday Mbang, Rev Peter Akinola, John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the CCN and TEKAN/ECWA blocks were yet to produce president of the association.

It was in that light that the chance was given to the two blocks to have a shot at the CAN presidency.

TEKAN/ECWA Block

Having been given the nod to produce a consensus candidate who will run for CAN president, the TEKAN/ ECWA block was expected to ensure decorum and unity among their ranks. Instead, crisis started brewing once the nomination process commenced. First, was the case of an alleged premeditated kidnapping of Dr Emmanuel Dziggau, who had expressed interest to run for CAN presidency. Many alleged that Dziggau’s kidnap might have been orchestrated to pave the way for another candidate to emerge the consensus nominee. Besides, CAN gave the blocks two timelines to forward the consensus nominee, but the groups were unable to stick to the plan. When they finally presented Dr Jeremiah Gado, the Electoral College had already gone ahead with the process.

But speaking to journalists then, ECWA representative at CAN, Pastor Wakili Kadima, said, “We have called you to let you know that the process is flawed with irregularity, the exclusion of a candidate who was duly nominated, so much impunity, so much violation of very clear constitutional provisions.

“And we not only reject what has happened but will certainly use every legal/constitutional means within CAN and if possibly outside of CAN to challenge the illegality and urge that the right thing be done to save CAN from embarrassment and the perpetuation of impunity and illegality that is threatening to tear CAN into pieces.”

He maintained that ECWA decided to kick against the exclusion “because the process came out with a minority report of members of the electoral college that didn’t agree with what went on and have even suggested that the present national officials of CAN should hand over to a caretaker team, for a body that is impartial to conduct election for the new leadership of CAN to emerge.”

Conversely, the national director of Christ Redeemers Union, Dr. Ebenezer Olusola Abednego, on his part debunked the allegation, stating, “It is lies from the pit of hell.” Abednego stated that the people making such allegation were being sponsored by those with vested interests, who also want to plant a puppet as CAN president, stressing, “when that happens Christians are doomed.”

He said, “That is another lie from the pit of hell; nobody should take them serious because we know their antecedents and sponsors. The leadership of CAN does not interfere in the election of its president because such actions are ungodly. But Nigerians, especially Christians, must know that those who are interested in planting their stooge as CAN president have not rested. They are the

Ayokunle

people behind these spurious allegations. But our determination to resist them is a battle of no retreat, no surrender.

We say no to imposition of CAN president who will be loyal to the establishment.”

Alleged Government Interference

Even before the elections, there were allegations that the federal government was trying to infiltrate the ranks of CAN, to plant a pro-establishment candidate who will be a puppet to the government. According to reports, a senior cabinet member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government from the North had earlier pledged to support and work for the emergence of Gado as CAN president. It was even alleged that resources were mobilised to deliver Gado as the Christian body’s leader.

The alleged interference by government in CAN election was said to have triggered opposition against Gado’s candidature for the coveted office. President of Patriotic Christian Youth of Nigeria (PCYN), an arm of CAN, Evangelist Simon Nasso, who briefed the press, explained that there were plans to thwart CAN’s effort and install a stooge. Nasso said, “You will recall that since the commencement of the election process, we had raised alarm to the fact that a particular candidate is been sponsored by the government through the influence of a top cabinet member of the federal government.”

Nasso observed, “Though there were denials initially but the candidate as you would have witnessed, acknowledged the fact that the government official being a member of ECWA church has every reason to use his office and influence to project and sponsor the particular candidate.”

He said “anybody deceiving the public that beside the vested government interest, there is any law in CAN that gives rights to Gado’s candidature is wrong. It is so strange to note the level of political manipulations and attempt to forcefully impose a candidate before and during the selection process at the TEKAN/ECWA bloc level.”

It was this perceived sponsorship of Gado by government that emboldened the Electoral College to go ahead with Prof. Joseph Otubu of African Churches and Rev Supo Ayokunle of CCN as the two candidates, without the participation of Gado.

The Election, the Winner

Prior to the elections, a report had said, “The Electoral College met on Thursday May 26, 2016 and each member of the college was given the opportunity to speak on the way forward. After careful deliberations, nine members agreed that the Electoral College should conclude, vote and send her report to the national secretariat while six members differed. The number came down to two candidates, till the actual day for elections.”

Announcing the results, outgoing CAN president, Oritsejafor said, “After the election, Reverend Dr. Supo Samson Ayokunle from CCN scored eight votes while Elder Prof. Joseph Otubu scored two votes. Members of the

Electoral College agreed to have autonomy and this should be taken care of in the new constitution.”

Though, Ayokunle emerged the winner, the election was not devoid of some controversies. It was reported that the Catholic Church, the biggest block in CAN, abstained from voting in the election.

But Nasso of PCYN cleared the air, stating, “On the news that the Catholic bloc pulled out of CAN and did not participate in the elections because a particular candidate was denied participation. It is true that the Catholic Secretariat bloc through the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria wrote a letter to the CAN president demanding for a meeting to be held and some issues regarding the elections are resolved before election. The leadership of CAN, understanding the need for peaceful resolution of issues and appreciating the importance of the Catholic bloc’s participation, agreed that the CAN NEC will sit and resolve the grievances of the Catholic bloc before the commencement of the election. Unfortunately, the representative came with a standing order that they were free to participate in the meeting but must abstain from voting if election will be conducted.”

There were also reports of a court order stopping the CAN elections. THISDAY investigation revealed that in a suit filed on June 9 by Gado and Pastor Kadima against CAN, Oritsejafor and Dziggau with file number: FCT/ HC/CV/18622 and motion number: M/72852016, the duo sort an interim injunction to stop the elections. The court in hearing the motion ex parte for an order of injunction refused to grant the order but rather demanded the appearance of all the parties involved. Abreast with the fact that there was no court injunction, the Electoral College and NEC decided to hold the elections a day earlier than the scheduled date of June 15.

There were also reports that security operatives were trailing Oritsejafor and other senior CAN officials to arrest them over some allegations. But with the change of date for the polls, and taking cognisance of the fact that the court order stopping the elections was only a mere rumour, CAN NEC decided to go on with the elections, which later produced Ayokunle as the winner.

Troubled Exit

At the centre of the intrigues among CAN’s blocks is the outgoing president, Pastor Oritsejafor, who many tend to dislike due his tough stance on the protection and defence of Christians across the country. Since his emergence in 2010, Oritsejaor has attracted more controversy than any other former CAN president. During his tenure, observers believed that Oritsejafor was not accessible. His closeness to former President Goodluck Jonathan also did not help matters.

However, the preacher thoroughly gave account of his stewardship as a defender of Christians in the country. He will be remembered for standing tall and speaking truth to authority, especially, with regard TO the persecution and killing of northern Christians in the Boko Haram insurgency. For a day, he was not afraid of confronting the powers that be, including the current administration on the alienation of Christians. But his alleged involvement in the 2015 general elections might have dented his achievements.

As he bows out in the coming weeks, Oritsejafor will be exiting in a not very friendly atmosphere.

Enter Ayokunle

As Ayokunle steps in, CAN is in dire need of transformation. Ayokunle will be stepping in at a time Christians in the country from North and South are facing stiff persecution from all corners. From Boko Haram, to Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s religious bill, herdsmen maiming and killing of locals in the North and South, to the Osun State hijab saga and aggrieved CAN members, the new president certainly has his hands full.

To succeed, Ayokunle would have to learn from his predecessors’ weak points and chart a new course for the better. He would have to avoid the alleged complacency in the face of intimidation and brutalisation of Christians that ended John Cardinal Onaiyekan’s tenure. And also pick some pieces of advice on how not to meddle too much in politics, a style that earned Oritsejafor more condemnation than applause.

Ayokunle would also need to look at the porous intervention and charity programmes of CAN. For instance, many Christians who have been destitute and refugees have not been properly attended to by CAN or the Church.

They have been left at the mercy of a disoriented government intervention project. Many believe this is the time to set up a fund for such purposes.

The day is still young for Ayokunle. But much lies on his style and approach.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

PERSPECTIVE

Olusegun Obasanjo: Ideas, Politics and the Love for Country II Tunji Olaopa

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alter Lipmann, the legendary writer, once remarked that “Politician tend to live in character.” One way to read this statement is that in most cases, a politician’s temperament colours his politics and relationship.

And there is no one that is as characteristic as OBJ. His historical match would probably be the irrepressible SLA himself—Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, though a product of an entirely different dynamic. But I will take OBJ over SLA for the simple reason that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has national and global credentials that captures the whole of Nigeria as its geopolitical space. And of course, there is always a steep price to pay for any patriotic endeavour that takes on the whole of Nigeria.

What parameters could enable a balanced perspective on Obasanjo and his sojourn so far on the Nigerian political terrain? Let me outline the answer to the question in the form of three significant questions. First: Is Olusegun Obasanjo a patriotic leader? This question is only logical to the extent that true leadership derives from a patriotic love of country and the willingness to pursue a sacrificial path towards its greatness. Second: Does OBJ possess the ideational, intellectual, moral and political capacity to transform Nigeria? Again, this is only logical. Leadership transcends charisma to the examination of those capacities which makes any individual suitable for any specific position.

Third: Is OBJ human? A leader could only do and achieve what his humanity allows him to achieve. Angels do not govern. These three are issues around which one cannot ever hope for any consensus. Obasanjo is not the kind of man that would evoke a sanitized and seamless unanimity.

“A politician,” says Adlai Stevenson, the US statesman, “is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.” Obasanjo perfectly fits this mould. He is acerbic but deep; deep enough to understand the dynamics of nation building, and acerbic enough to verbally lash out at those who stand in his way. It is this streetwise, no-nonsense but courageous profile that stays most firmly in people’s assessment of his personality. And all the more so—Obasanjo is only human, and his personality comes with its own peculiar vanity.

Beyond the tantrums and the verbal fencing, no one should deny that here is a man with an acute understanding of Nigeria’s national question. Odia Ofeimun, that fiery scourge of Nigerian leadership,

Obasanjo describes him as an irredeemable partisan in an almost occult pursuit of Nigeria.

So, maybe he turned Machiavelli himself on his head in his attempt at ensuring that Nigeria becomes better. In the understanding of Nigeria, OBJ brings the love of ideas and a passionate temperament to bear on the question of how Nigeria can be fashioned into a strong nation with a complete development profile in a continental and global context. I am not sure but apart from Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obasanjo seems to be by far the most cerebral of all Nigerian presidents. It is definitely true of him that the quality of a president is known by the kind of books he reads and the type of people he moves with. Obasanjo could consult Professor Adebayo Adedeji, hold intelligent discussions with Professors Akin Mabogunje and Oladipo Akinkugbe, verbally fence with Professor Wole Soyinka and throw certain spoken punches at Professor Ojetunji Aboyade. It would be a good dissertation to investigate how, for instance, OBJ’s intellectual associates influenced or failed to influence his political worldview. Consider this: his landmark Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) derived from an almost intuitive understanding, by a consummate farmer, of the role of agriculture as a viable and sustainable economic growth variable for Nigeria.

And at his second coming, OBJ hit on the critical nature of the civil service as a veritable complement to democratic governance. The Civil Service Renewal Programme launched in 1999, more than twenty years after OFN, is a testament to OBJ’s grasp of the fundamentals of governance. And finally, the birth of the African Leadership Forum (ACF) in 1988 consolidated Obasanjo’s pan-African legacy as a leader who sees Nigeria’s success as a firm part of a larger continental development. The ACF is brilliant because it invokes a generational framework that raises a crucial concern about the quality of future African leadership by focusing on the present generation of African leaders while ensuring a constant dialogue between the old and the incoming.

But then, temperament matters in governance.

It is one thing to be ideational; it is by far another to possess the composed disposition that would methodically unravel the complexities of ideas.

Obasanjo comes in the mould of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), Singapore’s dynamic leader, especially with regard to the compelling force of a singular vision of progress that dictates strict disciplinary and often undemocratic measures that pushes for obedience and compliance in the quest for national development. However, Obasanjo is too far away from the military ambience of the 70s and the 80s.

I have not studied LKY’s psychosocial temperament sufficiently to make comparative analogies, but it seems to me that OBJ’s inflexibility often undermine critical interpersonal advantages that fires up rather than stabilises the polity. One crucial question in this regard is: What essential content does the notorious Obasanjo-Soyinka animosity add to the potential greatness of Nigeria?

Obasanjo’s transactional competence and strong administrative capacity are necessary but not sufficient qualities to push a sustainable governance dynamics that would be viable enough to translate brilliant ideas to workable policies. Governance and government require critical elements in balanced equation to deliver on appreciable democratic results. For example, while there is often the paranoia which demands the recruitment of loyal officers with the appropriate organisational chemistry to facilitate the achievement of governance objectives, it is also often the case that loyalty does not often square with competency. The result is therefore that incompetence cannot be mitigated in the selection of critical teams that would deliver the high-end goods of governance. And in Obasanjo’s case, when competence is however placed above loyalty, there is no framework that would dissuade these competences from being watered down into bureaucratic technocracy that is

arrogant, insular and dismissive of those very ideas that recruited them in the first place. And when OBJ discovers such aberration, his temperament, most often than not, prescribes beheading as the cure for a headache. And this is a major governance flaw—the inability to dissociate a fiery temperament and an impatient ego from the vagaries of governance dynamics, I argue, considerably constrained OBJ’s capacity to dispassionately harness available 21st century competences and expert knowledge as the framework for delivering on his noble objectives of democratic governance. I was intimately involved in Obasanjo’s administration and I could give a line by line critique of why the brilliant Civil Service Renewal Programme did not work, even if it still remains the benchmark for leaders since 2007 to match.

In this wise, Goethe, the German writer and statesman, chastises OBJ: “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”

One could lament this profound statement since Chief Obasanjo is no longer in government. But that would translate into a gross misunderstanding of what Goethe intends. Goethe’s statement is not time bound. On the contrary, it provides a framework within which we can still appreciate the greatness of Obasanjo as a patriotic Octogenarian with an unquenchable love for Nigeria that translates into building bridges and crafting institutional capacities that hold people together in one huge national bond that works feverishly to realise OBJ’s vision of a better, democratic and developed Nigeria which he began forming as back as the 70s when he took his first step into government and into the task of contributing to making Nigeria work.

This is the same Nigeria Obasanjo fought a gruelling civil war to preserve; this is the same Nigeria that OBJ must spent the rest of his vibrant life fighting to restore to sanity and stability. Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo is a man that has been immensely blessed. Providence has also added long life to the list of elements that places OBJ right at the center of Nigerian politics at the moment. I may not be Providence’s spokesman, but I am certain that one of the reasons why Olusegun Obasanjo is still energetic is that there are still great national virtues left in him that could translate into national greatness for Nigeria. If a man in his eighties, sorry, late seventies, is pregnant, then that becomes a wonder we all must wait patiently to see what comes forth.

––Dr. Olaopa is the Executive Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) [tolaopa2003@gmail. com; tolaopa2003@yahoo.com; tolaopa@ ibsgpp.com]

Deconstructing Ugwuanyi’s Governance Style

Uche Anichukwu

I

departed.

Although Ugwuanyi reiterated to the mammoth crowd at the Michael Okpara Square, venue of his was with Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi till inauguration, on the need for belt-tightening on the at about 1am on May 29, 2015, just a few part of government and the masses, he nevertheless hours to his inauguration as the fourth civilian Governor of Enugu State, and the defied realities as he promised to pursue his four-point agenda, namely, employment generation, third in this dispensation. I had a burden enhanced social services and good governance, on my mind- the state was in very huge rural development, and Security and Justice. He debt; there was industrial disharmony also vowed to “deploy government services to over unpaid wages; oil revenue was on create fair and equal opportunity for every willing steady, drastic decline; with too little businesses, coupled with comatose and decrepit state-owned citizen to make a living and create wealth, educate our children, and enjoy life in a peaceful and secure enterprises, Enugu remains fantastically poor in environment”. terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); 365 days down the line, I cannot but totally agree political acrimony was palpable; and developthat the miracle in which Jesus Christ fed over ment challenges were nevertheless myriad and 12,000 persons with only five loaves and two fish is on steady rise. Yet, expectations were as high as at work and that Enugu is, as Ugwuanyi coined it, the heavens for a man who rode to power on tremendous and popular support unprecedented truly in the hands of God. First, I think the greatest achievement of the since the creation of the state.

Governor in the last 365 days is the restoration of “Your Excellency, congratulations in advance, political peace and harmony in the State. Since 1999, but to be honest, I do not envy you because this godfathers on one hand have tried to assert their is a wrong time to be Governor of this state”, presumed larger-than-life status of a kingmaker, I quipped as I made to leave. There was dead while each sitting governor, on the other hand, had silence as we walked to the door. Then, he always tried to assert himself as the new political broke the silence at the doorstep. In between his characteristic optimistic smile, he said: “Uche, don’t lord, leading to clashes of ‘overlords’ and ‘ingrates’, depending on which side of the divide you belong. worry, I believe in the miracle of five loaves and The other dimension was kill-and-whack two fish”. I nodded. “Lord, pardon my unbelief”, contestation between Abuja and Lion Building, I muttered to myself as I entered the car and

wherein sitting governors sought to undermine/or cut federal lawmakers, especially presiding officers of Enugu origin, to size, while the later battled to survive.

However, Ugwuanyi has so far tried to manage the power dynamics and contending interests.

Although it appears too early to judge, the last Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congresses in the State point to a new thinking in managing political relationships and interests. Thanks to Ugwuanyi’s unassuming, democratic, and team-player dispositions.

The result is that there is less distraction for himself and those in Abuja as he galvanizes energies towards piloting the state through these difficult times and delivering on campaign promises.

A few years ago, it would have been stupid to think of payment of salaries as an achievement, but, certainly not now. Nigeria is in crisis and 27 states are in dire distress over crash in oil revenue.

Workers are on indefinite strike in several states over arrears running into multiple months.

Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State recently confessed that hisstate had incurred N3 billion debt since January when it started borrowing from banks to pay salaries and that the debt could hit N10 billion by December if he did not stop borrowing. His words: “The truth of the matter is that I cannot give what we don’t have”.

On the contrary, Ugwuanyi has not only cleared

the humongous arrears he inherited, Enugu workers smile to the bank before the end of every month.

Ugwuanyi believes that a worker deserves his/her wages and that being a civil service state, Enugu’s economy will virtually collapse if workers are unable to inject their salaries into it.

In 2015, the administration paid 30% Equity Contribution for Enugu State Civil Servants, between Grade Level 01-10 to enable them purchase 100 units of one bedroom flats at Elim Estate, Ibagwa Nike, Enugu. The workers collected their keys last year. Little wonder he is the toast of labour. Also, on 3rd June 2016, the Trade Union Congress conferred on him the “Most Labour Friendly Governor” Award at its Triennial National Conference and Awards Night.

At the same time massive infrastructural works are ongoing or completed. The administration has taken care of the the Amaeke-Ngwo-Nsude- 9TH Mile By Pass; Airport Roundabout-Orie Emene-St. Patrick’s College-Eke-Obinagu Road project; Holy Trinity Street and Bishop Michael Eneje Street, Independence Layout, Enugu; Nawfia Street, Independence Layout; Mbanefo Street, New Haven; Secretariat road by G.R.A;Court Avenue road by New State Secretariat, etc.

––Anichukwu writes from Abuja (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

JUNE 19, 2016 • THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

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PERSPECTIVE

Money Laundering: Interrogating Current Framework to Regulate Legal, Accounting, Property,Trust and Company Sector Services Femi Falana

M

oney laundering is a global phenomenon.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the scale of money laundering is between 2% and 5% of the global Gross Domestic Product i.e between USD590 billion and USD 1.5 trillion per annum. The Thabo Mbeki High Level Panel report on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa adopted on Sunday February 1, 2015 by African Union Heads of State and Government at their summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia said about $40.9billion (about N6.87trillion) of an estimated $60billion (about N10.08trillion) lost through such transfers from Africa in a decade (2001-2010) are traced to Nigeria. The funds are stolen through corruption, tax evasion and illegal transfer of profits by multinationals, the AU said. (Premium Times, February 2, 2015.)

In the very many cases of politically exposed persons who have been charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering, a number of lawyers, accountants, bankers, estate agents have been indicted. Even though such professionals were not prosecuted in the past not a few have been charged to court for aiding and abetting the commission of money laundering offences in the renewed war against corruption and impunity under the current political dispensation in the country. While the other relevant professional bodies have seen the wisdom in sensitizing their members to fight the scourge of money laundering and terrorism financing the Nigerian Bar Association has continued to insist that lawyers are immune from the prosecution under the Money Laundering Act. National Campaign against Money Laundering Money laundering means exchanging money or assets which were obtained criminally for money or assets that are clean. The clean money or asset is then delinked from any criminal activity.

Money laundering also includes money that is used to fund terrorism. There are various instances where money laundering can occur.

The common feature is the transfer or conversion of funds either Malami, Attorney General of the Federation within or outside the country. To recover the bulk of the money lost Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, through money laundering and corruption, Nigeria requires the 2004, Advance Fee Fraud And Other Fraud Related Offences Act, collaboration of relevant professionals. That was not forthcoming in the past because of the lack of the commitment of the government in 2006, etc.

While the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission combating money laundering.

(EFCC) is the major coordinating body for the prevention and To combat the menace of money laundering and terrorism prosecution of money laundering offences in Nigeria, sister instifinancing majority of countries have enacted laws, formulated tutions and agencies such as: the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), policies and established various framework. Notwithstanding that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and Nigeria enacted the first anti money laundering legislation in 1995 the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML), the menace of money laundering has deprived the nation of huge etc, also have important roles to play in the fight against money financial resources which would have been properly deployed to laundering. Regrettably, all attention has been concentrated on execute needed infrastructures for the benefit of the people. The the prosecution of politically exposed persons. Not much has Money Laundering Act has since been amended in 2003, 2004, 2011 been done in dealing with cases of money laundering through and 2012. The amendments were all designed to strengthen the drug abuse and human trafficking. capacity of the relevant agencies of the Government to deal with money laundering and terrorism in the country.

Duties imposed on lawyers, accountants, financial instituIn spite of the existence of the anti money laundering laws it tions and companies e.t.c. is common knowledge that cases of money laundering are still The Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended very prevalent due to a number of factors. Instead of addressing

by Money Laundering Act, 2012 (subsequently referred to as the challenges encountered in dealing with the menace of money ‘the MLA’) has imposed certain obligations on “Designated laundering the federal government has submitted the Money Non-Financial Institutions”, and “Financial Institutions” in Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016. In view of the Nigeria. It is instructive to note that Section 25 of the MLA Act serious objections to certain provisions of the proposed Bill by the defines ‘Designated Non-Financial Institutions’ to include: legal EFCC the national assembly is urged to conduct a public hearing with a view to ensuring that the limited success recorded in the fight practitioners, chartered accountants, audit firms, tax consultants, against money laundering is not sacrificed on account of expediency. clearing and settlement companies, hotels, casinos, supermarkets, dealers in Jewellery, cars, luxury goods, or such other business The people involved in money laundering are notorious for the acquisition of assets in different places and countries with illicit funds as the Federal Ministry of Commerce or appropriate regulatory authorities may from time to time designate. either directly or by proxy - usually through the aid and assistance Similarly, ‘Financial Institution’ is defined by the same of professionals who may be lawyers, accountants and or companies whose objectives range from property transactions, financial transfers provision to include: banks, body, association or group of persons, whether corporate or incorporate which carries on the business of and even trust. Some of the illegal sources of laundered funds are: investment and securities, discount house, insurance institutions, debts factorization and conversion firms, bureau de change, etc.

1.

Corruption; Lawyers, accountants and other persons or bodies that fall within 2.

Drug trafficking; the above definition are required by the law, that is, the Money 3.

Human trafficking; Laundering (Prohibition) Act) 2011, MPL, to comply with certain 4.

Robbery; obligations which are specifically enshrined in the Act. I shall 5.

Fraud; now examine some of these duties or obligations.

6.

Smuggling; and 7.

Tax evasion, etc.

1. Limitation to make or accept cash payments: By the provisions of Section 1 of the MLA, “No person or Money laundering can take place in various organizations body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial and professions including the following: institution, make or accept cash payment as a sum exceeding 1.

Legal profession/law firms; (a) N5.000.000.00 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual; 2.

Accounting firms; or 3.

Banks; (b) N10.000.000.00 or its equivalent in the case of a body 4.

Bureau De Change; corporate.

5.

Securities firms/Insurance companies; and 6.

Cash intensive business and transactions. Etc. 2. Duty to report international transfer of funds or securities: The current legal regime It is common knowledge that hundreds of millions of dollars Under the current legal regime in Nigeria, various laws and have been transferred from and to Nigeria. These transfers are framework have been put in place to regulate and effectively supervise the Legal, Accounting, Property, Trust and Company sector often shrouded in secrecy and perfected in a manner that makes traces by the EFCC and other relevant law enforcement agencies services in Nigeria in relation to money laundering. The principal difficult, if not impossible. Lawyers in particular have aided legislation on money laundering is the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended. Other relevant laws on the subject are the their clients in transferring money (whose sources they rarely

know) out of the country for various purposes and in different guises.

Accountants, banks and financial institutions are equally culpable.

To arrest these illicit capital flights, Section 2 of the MLA requires that a transfer to or from a foreign country of funds or securities of a sum exceeding $10,000 or its equivalent shall be reported to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in writing within 7 days of the transfer. It further states that the report shall indicate the nature and amount of the transfer, and the names and addresses of the sender and receiver of the funds or securities.

3. Identification of customers/clients: The law prohibits lawyers, accountants, banks, property and trust companies, etc, from having or engaging in any financial transaction with any customer (or client), except the identity and address of the customer has been established. Specifically, Section 3 of the MLA imposes a duty on a financial institution and a designated nonfinancial institution to verify its customer’s identity and address before opening an account for, issuing a passbook to, entering into a fiduciary transaction with, renting a safe deposit box to or establishing any business relationship with the customer.

An individual shall be required to provide proof of his- (a) identity, by presenting a valid original copy of an official document bearing his names and photograph; (b) address, by presenting originals of receipts issued within the previous three months before the transaction while a corporate body is required to present its certificate of incorporation and other relevant documents. For example, legal practitioners must as a matter of course ascertain the identity and address of their client before accepting or depositing funds in the Client’s Account for the benefit of a client.

4. Preservation of Records: Accountants, lawyers, banks, trust and property companies have a duty to keep and preserve records of the identify and transactions with their customers. This is not only morally and logically imperative, but also legally necessary given the importance of such records to any criminal investigation involving the customer that may arise subsequent to any transaction. By the combined effect of Sections 7 and 8 of the MLA. Record reviewed by MTN of identification and transactions shall be preserved and kept and made available on demand to the authorities (which includes the EFCC, NDLEA, judicial persons, CBN, etc) for a period of at least 5 years after the closure of the accounts or 5 years after severance of relations with ‘the customer.

5. Prohibition of Numbered and Anonymous Accounts: By virtue of Section 11 of the MLA, the opening and operation of numbered and anonymous accounts by persons, financial institutions and corporate bodies are illegal. Where an individual is the culprit, the law prescribes a term imprisonment of not less than 2 years but not more than 5 years. In the case of a financial institution or corporate body, the law provides for a fine of not less than N10.000.000.00 but not more than N50.000.000.00 upon conviction.

Failure or refusal to comply with any of the above anti-money laundering obligations and requirements is illegal. Any legal practitioner or other professional that is found culpable by the court is liable to be prosecuted and if convicted may be either be imprisoned or a ordered to pay fine as the case may be. While the EFCC has targeted politically exposed persons involved in money laundering offences the professionals who aid and encourage their clients to breach the law have been spared from prosecution. For instance, several properties worth billions of Naira which have been seized on the orders of courts have been traced to retired military officers and other public officers.

But the real estate and law firms which facilitated the acquisition and preparation of the title deeds in respect of such properties have been spared from prosecution.

It was the same attitude that was adopted by the federal government with respect to the loss of N2 trillion to fuel subsidy scam in 2011. Through the investigation conducted by the House, the EFCC and the committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance it was established that the auditors, Akintola Williams & Adekanola engaged by the government had aided the fuel importers to perpetrate fraud by verifying fake importation documents. While the fraudulent importers were charged to court for money laundering the appointment of the auditors was terminated without any sanction.

Compliance and Challenges Any profession, trade or company that is susceptible to being used for money laundering by criminals should be strictly regulated to reduce or totally eradicate money laundering in Nigeria. However, professional bodies have demonstrated different dispositions to the fight against corruption and money laundering. This conflicting dispositions is exemplified by the positions taken by two notable professional bodies in the country. Namely; the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). While the former has taken a bold and patriotic action towards ensuring that her members comply with the provisions of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, the latter has strongly resisted the subjection of her members (lawyers) to the anti-money laundering framework enshrined in the MLA. –(Being the Text of a Paper Presented by Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) at a Workshop on the Roles of Professionals in the fight against Corruption organized by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption last week) (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

PERSPECTIVE

Wike and the Building of a New Rivers State Simeon Nwakaudu

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rior to May 29 last year, Rivers State was in the news for the wrong reasons. The state was dragged into a dark era of crisis.

Development was crippled by corruption and executive recklessness.

For two years, the courts were shut and access to justice was denied the people of Rivers State. The closure of the courts led to the total collapse of security and the rule of law in the state. Inhabitants of the state suffered untold hardship.

The executive recklessness did not end with the state judiciary. The state House of Assembly was also crippled. The Assembly was ruinously factionalised and the faction loyal to the then governor, Chibuike Amaechi, relocated to the dining hall of the Government House, Port Harcourt, from where they operated and rubberstamped virtually everything the governor presented to them.

The economy of the state was not spared.

Civil servants were owed for four months and pensioners were owed for eight months. Athletes were also owed.

The poor performance and misapplication of resources by the immediate past administration in the state led to decayed infrastructure in all the 23 local government areas, high rate of unemployment, and general insecurity.

Faced with these developmental challenges and a bleak future, the leaders and people of Rivers State resolved to look inwards for a well prepared leader to rebuild the state and set it on the path of growth. For the first time in the history of the state, stakeholders from all parts of the state, irrespective of their ethnicity, approached a seasoned administrator, politician and lawyer, in the person of Nyesom Wike, to lead the state.

The stakeholders pooled their resources together and bought the expression of interest and nomination forms of the Peoples Democratic Party for Wike. That was the beginning of the road to the creation of a new Rivers State.

Armed with the endorsement of the key stakeholders of Rivers State, Wike returned to a rousing welcome after his meritorious service to the nation as Minister of State for Education. He embarked on the most extensive consultation in the political history of the state. He consulted social, political, traditional, economic, women and youth groups across the 23 local government areas of the state. The consultations paid off, as PDP delegates voted Wike as their candidate for the governorship election.

Wike assumed the reins of governance at a time when the morale of the people was at an all-time low. This was the premise upon which 1, 029,102 Rivers people, representing 87.77 per cent of the total votes cast on April 11, 2015, resolved that Wikeshould lead the state out of the doldrums of underdevelopment and enthrone the values of a New Rivers State. The victory of Wike led to wild jubilation across the state.

From the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, venue of the inauguration, Wike, accompanied by his wife, Justice Suzzette Eberechi Wike, and the deputy governor, flagged off the Operation Zero Potholes Programme, an iconic road rehabilitation scheme that has revived the Garden City.

One year into the journey, this has proved to be the most valuable decision made by the Rivers people, as the state has metamorphosed into a huge construction site where the virtues of good and accountable governance have been elevated as the pillars of government.

In the last one year, Wike has lived up to the expectations of the people, emerging as Nigeria’s best governor in terms of projects initiation and execution, staff welfare, empowerment of the less privileged, enhanced security architecture, sports, education, and employment generation. It has been a compelling love story between Wike and his constituents because the governor continues to deliver, despite dwindling resources.

Wike set up an outstanding team to help him deliver on the development goals spelt out in his New Rivers Development Blueprint. His heads of Statutory Boards and Commissions, Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Special Advisers, Local Government Caretaker Committees were appointed on merit and with the vision to revive the state.

Wike One of the most outstanding areas of performance of Wike in the last one year is the area of developing new road infrastructure in the urban centres of the state for the purpose of jump-starting the collapsed economy he met upon the assumption of office on May 29 last year.

The Operation Zero Potholes programme launched by the governor to address the dilapidated road infrastructure in the state capital and its environs is handled by two construction giants, Julius Berger and CCECC. He also started the completion of several roads abandoned by the immediate past administration.

The governor’s urban renewal efforts have led to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of over 120 kilometres of roads in seven local government areas. They include Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor, Ikwerre, Eleme, Etche, Oyigbo, and Akuku-Toru local government areas.

Residents of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas are appreciative of Wike’s urban roads renewal programme in the last one year. Amaechi, who had lived at Okarki Street (Mile 1), Chigbu Street (Mile 3 Diobu), and Anozie in Diobu and also stayed at Oro-Igwe road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area failed to construct the roads in these communities after serving as governor for eight years. Today, the roads in Diobu are wearing a new look with the economy properly refocused.

Some of the prominent roads are Abonnema/ Obonnema Link Road/Bridge (commissioned), Eagle Island/Iloabuchi Road/Bridge (commissioned), Abuluoma-Woji Link Road/Bridge (commissioned), Oyigbo Market Road (commissioned), and Nkpogu-NLNG Road/Bridge (commissioned). Others are reconstruction of 33 kilometres of township roads under Operation Zero Potholes (handled by Julius Berger and CCECC), reconstruction of Igwuruta-Chokocho road, reconstruction of Eleme Junction to Onne Junction of the East-West Road, reconstruction of the Rumualogu/Alakahiah Road, and rehabilitation of the road under Mile 1 Bridge.

Yet others are reconstruction of the Rumuolumini-Iwofe road, rehabilitation of Obi Wali Road, reconstruction of Elioparanwo road, reconstruction of Oro-Igwe road.

As residents of the major urban centres celebrate Wike’s superlative road renewal scheme, those who stay in Diobu and Borikiri, two densely populated suburbs, are most grateful. Their roads were completely abandoned and they suffered untold hardship. Today, they are singing a new song.

Going forward, Wike has started the process of fulfilling some key pledges he made on road

construction. The governor, in fulfilment of his pledge to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on the completion of the Obiri-Ikwerre Road to the airport, has flagged off the reconstruction of the road.

The governor has flagged off the dualisation of the Saakpenwa-Bori road in line with his campaign promise to the people of Ogoni.

In line with his commitment to the welfare of children in the state, Wike flagged off the construction of an ultramodern recreation centre near the Bori Camp axis on Aba Road, Port Harcourt.

His commitment to the revival of the Rivers economy led to the governor initiating the reconstruction of the federal government -owned Eleme Junction to Onne Junction of the East-West Road to boost movement to the Onne Seaport. This project was funded in conjunction with private stakeholders in the area. The governor also initiated the reconstruction of the federal government-owned NPA-Industry road to the Port Harcourt port to improve the economy of the area.

One of the highpoints of the road development scheme by Wike in the last one year is the revival of the Rivers State Road Rehabilitation Agency. Wike boosted the technical, financial and equipment capacity of the agency to engage in regular maintenance of roads across the state.

Some of the roads rehabilitated by the agency include Bodo Road, Woji Road, Evo Crescent, Birabi by Presidential Hotels Andrew Uchendu Crescent, and Abacha Link Road.

The governor has also commenced the revival of all dysfunctional street lights across Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt local government areas.

Wike inherited a state that was bedevilled by security challenges. The governor has adopted a comprehensive approach to address the problem.

To enhance security in the course of the last one year, Wike’s administration donated 66 security vans fitted with communication gadgets to security agencies operating in the state. The governor also liaised with the 23 local government areas to donate another 46 vans fitted with communication gadgets to security agencies. He has enhanced statutory financial support and relevant logistics for security agencies, thereby strengthening the State Security Council.

Most importantly, the governor in concert with the House of Assembly strengthened the Rivers State Anti-Kidnapping and Anti-Cultism law empowering the state to demolish houses from proceeds of crime and also confiscate resources earned through crime by criminals. To encourage

security agents to make sacrifices for the people, Wike outlined incentives that are being doled out to those who suffer while fighting crime.

Wike has taken practical steps to ensure that the state enjoys relative peace for economic activities to thrive. One of such practical efforts was the stakeholders meeting held in Omoku to address security concerns in the Orashi region. The security initiatives of the governor and his committed funding of security programmes have been appreciated and commended by security chiefs.

Provision of potable water has received unprecedented attention under the leadership of Wike. He has taken bold steps and launched the state urban water sector reform, the Port Harcourt Water Supply Scheme, and the Sanitation Project. This project will create women entrepreneurs, youth employment as well as provide safe drinking water for the inhabitants of the state. Under the new Urban Sector Water Reforms, the state government will be supplying water to two million people in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas after laying 400 kilometres of water-pipes in strategic locations.

Symbolic to his first year in office, Wike launched the potable water scheme in Akuku-Toru, commissioned the design and conceptualisation of water laboratories for the three senatorial districts, and is rehabilitating 10 old water schemes across the state. The administration has enhanced the expansion of water reticulation in Eleme and Okrika local government areas, with the construction of eight new water schemes already being executed for the people of the state.

To most Nigerians and the international community, Wike’s most outstanding achievement in the last one year is his restoration of the rule of law and the rebuilding of the judiciary. Upon being sworn-in as the governor of Rivers State, Wike announced the appointment of the Acting Chief Judge, Justice Daisy Okocha, and the Acting President, Christy Gabriel-Nwankwo. About one year down the road, Wike has further stabilised the state judiciary. Immediate past Chief Judge of the State, Justice Daisy Okocha (rtd), emerged as the first substantive Chief Judge of the State, while Justice Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra, incumbent Chief Judge of the State, even while she was considered a non-indigene, succeeded her.

Today, Justice Christy Gabriel-Nwankwo is also a substantive President, Court of Appeal.

Wike took very fundamental steps to revive the state’s judiciary as one of the first states to implement financial autonomy for the judiciary and has commenced the construction of an ultramodern Law Centre for lawyers in the state. The governor donated six Coaster buses to the Five Nigerian Bar Association branches and FIDA. Over the last one year the administration has released over N700 million for capital projects to the judiciary, while the state government is constructing additional courtrooms for the State High Court and Customary Court of Appeal. The state government is also constricting additional courtrooms at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt. The governor’s efforts are targeted towards enhancing access to justice for the people of the state.

In the course of his first year in office, Wike faced a lengthy battle to defend the mandate he holds in trust for the people of Rivers State.

From the Rivers State Election Tribunal which sat in Abuja, through to the Court of Appeal, up to the Supreme Court, he displayed unequalled faith in the capacity of the judiciary to do justice according to the tenets of the Electoral Act and the Constitution. Though, the governor lost at the Election Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, he held thanksgiving services and met with stakeholders urging them to remain calm, as he had confidence in the Supreme Court.

On January 27 this year, the governor’s faith in the judiciary paid off, as his election was upheld by the Supreme Court. This development led to unprecedented celebration across Rivers State.

The governor himself was on the streets to celebrate with the people.

––Nwakaudu is Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor, Electronic Media.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R • JUNE 19, 2016

GAVEL TO GAVEL

Edited by Vincent Obia Email vincent.obia@thisdaylive.com

After a Trip to US, National Assembly in Image Crisis

The National Assembly is currently battling an image crisis following accusation by United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, that three honourable members of the House of Representatives were involved in attempted rape and soliciting for prostitutes during a recent trip to US, writes Zacheaus Somorin

M

any Nigerians were shocked last week when the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, three honourable members of the House of Representatives of attempted rape and soliciting for prostitutes during a recent trip of some members of the House to Cleveland, US, for the International Visitor Leadership Program.

To many, the shock was not about the allegations, but the damage such could have on the image of the National Assembly and the nation.

Ambassador Entwistle had made the allegation in a letter sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on June 9, in which three lawmakers – Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom), Mohammed Gololo (APC, Bauchi) and Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) - were accused of illicit sexual act.

With an already battered image of those who make laws for the Nigerian state following various allegations of corruption in the parliament and huge emoluments received by lawmakers, the petition which contained the allegations, has further dented the image of the parliament, despite the fact that the fact that the allegations are yet to be proven.

Entwistle’s petition alleged that Hon. Gololo, in desperate sexual move, physically grabbed a hotel house keeper and sought to have sex with her.

The petition reads: “It is with regret that I must bring to your attention the following situation. Ten members of the Nigerian National Assembly recently travelled to Cleveland, Ohio as participants in the International Visitor Leadership Programme on good governance.

We received troubling allegations regarding the behaviour of three members of the delegation to the U.S. Government’s flagship professional exchange programme.

“The U.S. Department of State and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs received reports from employees of the Cleveland hotel where the representatives stayed, alleging the representatives engaged in the following behaviour: “Mohammed Garba Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. While the housekeeper reported this to her management, this incident could have involved local law enforcement and resulted in legal consequences for Representative Gololo. Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon allegedly requested hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes’’.

In further depicting the action of the lawmakers, the ambassador pointed out that the conduct gives a very negative impression of Nigeria, casting a shadow on Nigeria’s National Assembly, the International Visitor Leadership Program, and to the American hosts’ impression of Nigeria as a whole; saying such conduct could affect some participants’ ability to travel to the United States in the future.

“While the majority of Nigerian visitors to the United States do behave appropriately, even a few Nigerians demonstrating poor judgement leads to a poor impression of the Nigerian people generally, though it is far from accurate. Such incidents jeopardise the ability of future programming and make host institutions and organisations less likely to welcome similar visits in the future,” the envoy added.

But the accused lawmakers have dismissed the allegations as a puerile attempt by the ambassador to tanish their ‘image’’. They

National Assembly Complex, Abuja

pointed out that the whole sex story was a ‘’calculated attempt at rubbishing the National Assembly’’; promising to demand compensation from the U.S. for defamation of character.

Gbillah, one of the accused, while speaking to a national newspaper, was quick to add that they did not speak to park attendants hence how would they have sought for commercial sex workers’ service.

“So, at Cleveland Renaissance where we were, opposite the Quicken Loan Arena, the Cleveland Cavalier Basketball team played a match and many people came to lodge at the same hotel, and they claimed that we spoke with car park attendants. We didn’t go with cars, so how could we have spoken with attendants?” I saw the ambassador (Entwistle) and went to greet him and he told me how a few of us tarnished the image of the House. I advised him to make it formal so that we can know who was involved and what actually happened’’, he added.

Having denied all the allegations, the House of Representatives has launched an investigation into the matter. ‘’as a matter of responsibility, the House has commenced investigations into the allegations. We are doing our investigations…they remain allegations until otherwise proven. We have our laws and when investigations are concluded, we will brief you further,’’ Spokesperson of the House, Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, said in acknowledging the receipt of the ambassador’s letter. He stated also that none of the accused is before any law court, harping that the letter just alleged the development.

Gbillah has also threatened to formally institute a legal action to clear his name and

Speaker Dogara has launched investigation into the allegation save his ‘’political career’.

“It has come to my attention that via correspondence from your good self to His Excellency, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (a copy of which I also received), you made very serious allegations against me and other members of the House of Representatives

group that visited the United States in April 2016 as part of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP).

“In your letter you claimed that I was identified as one of the members of the aforementioned group who asked for the assistance of a hotel parking attendant to solicit for prostitutes at the Residence Inn Downtown Cleveland Ohio.

“I am extremely shocked, upset, irked and embarrassed by your letter and want to categorically state that these allegations are completely false, unfounded, malicious and a calculated attempt to malign and cast aspersion on my reputation and character as a Nigerian citizen and Honourable Member of the House of Representatives and to bring disrepute to the hallowed institution of the National Assembly and the entire nation of Nigeria’’, he said in a response letter to US ambassador.

Ikom, another House member, who was accused of asking the hotel parking attendant to find him a prostitute, has refuted the allegation, saying that he would appeal all actions possible to clear his name.

“I wish to state unequivocally that this is false and definitely not me. This to me is a case of mistaken identity and I have already instituted measures both legally and diplomatically to clear my name and the institution I represent. I call for patience and God’s abiding wisdom at this time,” he said in a statement.

While the investigations of the House of Representatives continue, The Unites Embassy has revoked the lawmakers visas. The action was taken in a letter written to the three lawmakers by the embassy.

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T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016

LET'S USE THE POWER OF IDEAS TO CHANGE THE GAME. Global music star Akon joined Shell to shine a light on the power of innovative options for access to smarter energy by unveiling Africa’s first human and solar powered football pitch. The new pitch, at the Federal College of Education Lagos, was developed by the Shell #makethefuture programme, which puts bright energy ideas into action to bring benefits to local communities around the world.

Learn more at www.shellnigeria.com.

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T H I S D AY, T H e S u n D AY n e w S pA p e r • JUNE 19, 2016

SUNDAYSPORTS

Edited by Demola Ojo Email demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com

Top Spot for Grabs as France Play Switzerland

P

aul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann are set to return to the starting line-up for France as they face Switzerland today to see who will finish top of Group A at Euro 2016. The tournament hosts have already qualified for the last-16, and know a point against the Swiss will guarantee first place.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for France so far, however, needing last-gasp goals in both their games so far to record victories over Romania and Albania.

Switzerland, meanwhile, need at least a point to finish in the top two in Group A and guarantee progression to the next round.

Switzerland could be without midfielder Valon Behrami due to a knee injury. Elsewhere, striker Haris Seferovic could miss out in favour of Breel Embolo with Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic looking at the possibility of freshening things up.

With Pogba and Griezmann expected to

return to the starting line-up for France, Anthony Martial and Kingsley Coman could drop out with Didier Deschamps possibly sending out the same XI that started the opening game against Romania.

This will be the 38th meeting between these sides; France have won 16 of the previous 37, with Switzerland winning 12 (D9).

France and Switzerland are in the same group for the fourth time in the last seven major tournaments (Euro 2004, World Cup 2006, World Cup 2014, Euro 2016).

The hosts are unbeaten in their three previous meetings with Switzerland in major tournaments, winning against the Swiss at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2014, and drawing in the 2006 World Cup. There were seven goals between the teams in their last meeting at the 2014 World Cup (France 5-2 Switzerland), more than there had been in the four meetings prior (six goals).

The seven goals all came from different players.

Ronaldo Misses Penalty as Portugal, Austria Fire Blanks Cristiano Ronaldo missed a second-half penalty as Portugal stumbled to a second straight draw at Euro 2016 yesterday after a frustrating 0-0 stalemate against Group F rivals Austria in Paris.

Ronaldo set a new Portuguese record with his 128th international cap, surpassing the mark previously shared with Luis Figo, but the occasion will be better remembered for the Real Madrid superstar hitting the post with a 79th-minute penalty. Hungary, who salvaged a point in a 1-1 draw with Iceland, are the surprise group leaders with a game to play, while Austria must win their final match to avoid exiting prematurely.

Coach Fernando Santos sought to reinvigorate his team after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Iceland, drafting in Ricardo Quaresma to form an attacking trident with Ronaldo and Nani.

William Carvalho was handed a start in

central midfield, while Austria coach Marcel Koller made three changes, two enforced, with Sebastian Prodl, Stefan Ilsanker and Marcel Sabitzer all coming into the side beaten 2-0 by Hungary on Tuesday.

Austria showed early signs of promise, much like in their opener against Hungary, carving out a chance when a leaping Martin Harnik nodded Sabitzer’s whipped cross just wide.

But Portugal settled quickly, with Nani denied his second goal of the tournament by the outstretched leg of Austria goalkeeper Robert Almer after breaking in behind centre-back Prodl.

Almer tipped a long-range strike from Vieirinha behind, while Ronaldo spurned a glorious opportunity to write his name into the history books on 22 minutes as he steered wide from Raphael Guerreiro’s cut-back inside the area. Portugal remained the dominant side and nearly reaped their reward just before the half-hour, only for Nani’s header from Andre Gomes’ left-wing cross to crash back off the post with Joao Moutinho drilling the rebound over.

Ronaldo then helped on a Quaresma header straight at Almer and Vieirinha needed to make an important clearance to keep David Alaba’s driven free-kick from finding Harnik at the far post.

Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio parried away a stinging drive from Ilsanker within seconds of the restart, but Portugal soon reasserted their authority with Ronaldo leading the charge.

His thunderous left-footed strike from the edge of the area was turned behind by Almer, and the ensuing corner produced a similar result with the Austria keeper beating away Ronaldo’s downward header.

Then with 11 minutes to go it appeared Portugal would get the goal their display merited when they were awarded a penalty after Martin Hinteregger wrestled Ronaldo to the ground.

EURO 2016 RESULTS & FIXTURES

Ronaldo reacts after failing to score a penalty kick against Austria yestreday

Belgium Hungary Portugal

3-0 1-1 0-0

Ireland Iceland Austria

France Romania

v v

Switzerland 8pm Albania 8pm

Greizemann and Pogba should return to the starting XI for France today

Lukaku Double Helps Belgium Sink Ireland AbdRomelu Lukaku scored twice as Belgium recorded their first win at Euro 2016 and damaged the Republic of Ireland’s chances of reaching the last 16. After a goalless opening half, Lukaku scored the Belgians’ first goal at the tournament with a neat finish from the edge of the area. Axel Witsel headed in a second in the 61st minute, before Lukaku sidefooted home after a quick counter.

Ireland did not force goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois into a single save. It means Martin O’Neill’s side, who are bottom of their section with one point, will probably have to beat Italy

Belgium’s goalscorers Lukaku and Witsel

in their final Group E game on Wednesday to qualify. Belgium, meanwhile, are second on three points and next face Sweden.

It was a disappointing performance from Ireland after a promising display in their opening fixture, when they drew 1-1 with Sweden.

Belgium boast a wealth of individual talent and had topped the Fifa rankings within the last year, making them one of the favourites to go far in France. However, they looked nothing like a team capable of winning the tournament against Italy, against whom they lost 2-0 last Monday. But it was a different story against Ireland.

They dominated possession throughout, with Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne proving much more effective at stretching their opponent’s defence than they were against the Italians. Both finished with an assist each.

The win means they are in a strong position to finish second in the group and, while they will face opponents much more attack-minded than Ireland, the victory will undoubtedly boost a side that had appeared lacking in confidence at the start of the tournament.

Greensprings Win GTBank Masters’ Cup Debutants, Greensprings School, Lekki, Lagos on Friday at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, defeated defending champions, St. Gregory’s College, Obalende, 3-1, to emerge winners of the 2016 edition of the GTBank Masters’ Cup. In the female category, Queens College, Yaba walloped neighbours, Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba 4-0 in a one -sided match.

Greensprings School made known their intention as early as the first minute when they capitalized on a defensive error by “Gregs” to

score the first goal. Two more goals in the half was enough to seal victory for Green Springs.

The defending Champions however scored a consolatory goal in the final minute of the game.

Some of the dignitaries that graced the occasion include the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Amaju Pinnick, his first vice, Seyi Akinwumi, former Nigerian International and national team coach, Joe Erico among others. This year’s edition was the fifth seasonof the competition.

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 19, 2016

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Sunday June 19, 2016

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Price: N400

MISSILE

Magu to Extractive Industry Operators

“I have heard people say that NEITI has no teeth to bite, but today I assure you that by our renewed joint collaboration, the EFCC will provide NEITI with the required teeth to bite.”

– Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Ibrahim Magu on the resolve of the commission to prosecute perpetrators of the infractions contained in the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report that was released recently.

SIMONKOLAWOLE SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE!

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

There Remaineth One More Thing

T

he naira has just been effectively devalued — so why are some people jubilating? The way economists, financial experts, bankers and analysts were celebrating on Wednesday would make you think crude oil price had just hit $120 per barrel and Nigeria’s production level has risen to 2.5mbpd. But no. The CBN had just told us the exchange rate would no longer be fixed; in fact, there would be no official rate again. It would be determined by market forces. That means the naira could go as high as N350/$1 in the interbank market in the next few days, starting from tomorrow.

Can somebody please explain to me why this calls for champagne?

I would hazard a guess. I would imagine the dollar to be a tuber of yam. And I would imagine CBN as the biggest, if not the sole, official seller of yam in Nigeria. So CBN says every tuber is N197. Sellers demand for 1,000 tubers and CBN can hardly supply 100 because — come to think of it — the central bank itself does not have enough tubers in its yam reserves. You don’t have enough of a thing and you fix the price so low? What happened to the law of demand and supply? Who on earth does that? As a result, traders at markets in Bodija, Ariara and Birni Kebbi start selling yam at N222, having received their own yams elsewhere — including through the back door.

Knowing fully well that CBN’s N197 price is unsustainable because the bank itself is not getting more supply of yam and can therefore not meet the demand, the markets go into serious speculation, turning yam into kalo-kalo, stockpiling tubers and making quick profit. Yam soon starts selling for N250 across the fence. The president keeps saying he will not “kill” yam by increasing the price. The central bank now comes up with guidelines to manage “demand” for yam: if you weigh more than 100kg, no yam for you; if you have more than four wives, no yam for you; if you don’t wear glasses, no yam for you; if you’re too dark, no yam for you.

What happened next? The price of yam across the fence goes crazy. The sellers and buyers are no fools. They know CBN does not have enough yams and can therefore not meet the demand. So the market keeps going into frenetic mode, and soon yam is selling for N300. CBN even says it will sell yam to you if you are going to eat it with only palm oil and garden egg, but even those who are qualified are crying that they ask CBN for 1,000 tubers and get only 50, so they have to head for Bodija to buy the balance — at N350 per tuber! Who exactly is benefiting from CBN’s yam then? It becomes very clear that something has to give.

And only one thing will give: CBN’s N197.

So Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, finally tells the world that the CBN is tired of selling what it does not have. We are now going to create a new market where yam sellers and yam buyers will meet over coffee, agree on the price, shake hands and go home smiling. Here comes the interbank market! Having held on to the N197 price for 16 months — during which the gap between the official “fake” price and the Bodija “real” price had gone miles apart — the CBN has finally given up. Now if the “real” price at Bodija is N350, doesn’t that mean the

Emefiele new market price will be around N350? And some people are celebrating?

You see, while the CBN and the president were busy saying yam must sell for N197, those who had plenty yams to bring into Nigeria simply sat back. Why should I sell my yam to CBN at N197 when I can get N350 at Ariara?

Tufiakwa! God forbid! I didn’t come to count bridges in Lagos. I would rather go to Ariara and do good business with my yams. In the process, so many people that could have brought yam into the country either refused to do so, or took it quietly to Ariara and made serious money. Some kept their yams abroad and started selling to Nigerians who were ready to pay the equivalent of N350. CBN’s yam stock cannot grow like this. Simple.

By freeing the yam market so that the seller and the buyer can reach a price, the CBN is opening doors for possibilities. The first is that those who have been hiding their yam can now bring it out into the open, since nobody is forcing them to sell at N197 anymore. That means more yams. Those who have refused to send yam to Nigeria can now change their minds. That means more and more yams.

Those selling at Sabongari market are now less disposed to speculation, since there will now be more supply of yam to the market.

The best case, therefore, is that more yams will make the price stable, or even bring it down to as low as N250, and stop the crazy speculation.

Let’s stop talking yam and start talking dollars now. Raw dollars. The decision of the CBN to liberalise the currency market is generating excitement, and rightly so, but still, nobody can accurately predict the outcome. The immediate positive impact is that investor confidence in the economy will be renewed, as we are already seeing in the stock market which achieved its best results for the year after Emefiele’s press conference. Those holding on to dollar assets will start to let go, knowing also that there is now a more stable way of making money through investment. Foreign investors could become our friends again: we badly need their capital to breathe life into the economy.

But the consumer will not be laughing in the short run. The market may open tomorrow at exactly the black market rate — N350/$1.

It may be less. So the rate is still high. But what am I even saying? We have been buying goods and services at N350/$1 for long! The inflation we were running away from was already upon us! Only NNPC was getting its full dollar demand from CBN at N197, but as soon as the central bank said it was no longer possible, the government adjusted petrol price to N145 per litre at an exchange rate band of N285-N300/$1. Therefore, we have been paying the price all along. That is why inflation is 15.6% — the highest since February 2010.

What has happened in the last one year is that we have been suffering the effects of FX-inspired inflation — without enjoying the benefits of it.

We suffered for nothing, for one year. The three tiers of government were sharing oil revenue at N197/$1 and buying goods and services at over N300/$1. Meanwhile, states are unable to pay salaries. With the naira now “floating”, they can now get bigger revenue. Call a worker and ask her: we have two options — to retain naira at N197/$1 and sack you, or to devalue the naira to N300/$1, have bigger allocation to pay you, but your salary will now be worth 15.6% less because of inflation. What option do you think the worker will pick?

Nevertheless, it is not all that straightforward.

The cup may end up half-full or half-empty, nobody knows. By liberalising the market, we expect more inflow of FX. What if it does not happen? This has been my worry all along. It takes more than monetary policy to attract good investment. Investors have plenty options, not just Nigeria. They will examine the environment. Are the fiscal policies good enough? Are contracts respected? Are court orders obeyed? Is there infrastructure? Is there security? Any country that is going to attract massive (not marginal) investment must answer these questions satisfactorily. Exchange rate is just one factor in investment decisions.

And there remaineth one more thing. I’m worried that the CBN has retained the exclusion of 41 items from the “liberalised” forex market.

I want to state, yet again, that it is not monetary policy that will boost local industry. It is policies and incentives. Retaining the FX ban means these importers will continue to patronise the black market; therefore, the pressure on the black market will remain high. That will create two problems: one, the interbank rate and parallel rate will not converge anytime soon, but will instead continue to go apart; two, and consequently, the door to arbitrage will remain wide open. We could end up not achieving the desired results.

You can “ban” the 41 items in different ways without offending the almighty World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Western powers. As I have written previously, President Muhammadu Buhari can borrow a leaf from ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. The “backward integration” policy worked magic in the cement industry: you could only import if you were already setting up the factory in Nigeria. Today, we don’t import cement again. Buhari too can say: you can only import toothpicks, etc, if you are already setting up the factory in Nigeria. All in all, I’m happy that the government is finally showing some flexibility. We needed it badly.

Now I’m eating roasted yam and celebrating like crude oil is $120 again...

And Four Other Things...

PDP MELTDOWN I regularly shake my head, in pity, whenever I see APC members celebrating the dilapidation of PDP. Every lover of democracy should be genuinely worried. What we call democracy thrives when there is competition, when there are options, when ideas are contending against each other. PDP sat arrogantly in power for 16 years because the opposition could not get its act together — and we saw what happened last year when opposition finally managed to forge an alliance. Now APC is in danger of becoming another arrogant bunch in the absence of formidable opposition to put them on their toes. Disturbing.

OSUN SCARVES There is something about the hijab controversy in Osun state that I don’t understand. Did the court rule that all students should wear the head scarf? Or did it say Muslim students only? Now if it is Muslim girls only, how is that a problem for Christians? Also, are the schools set up by Christian missionaries still owned by them or by government? I attended a Christian mission school and Muslims were allowed to express their faith without trouble.

In addition, Deeper Lifers wore their scarves and it was not a problem for us.

I’m worried, though, that Governor Rauf Aregbesola inherited a state that used to be known for religious tolerance, but the story has changed. Unfortunate.

STATE OF ORIGIN My niece, Bisola, applied to study medicine at the Kaduna State University last year. With a score of 262 in UME, she more than met the cut-off mark. But there was a problem: they said she was not a Kaduna “indigene” and that KSU medicine was for “indigenes only”. You know what? Bisola was born in Kaduna. She did her primary and secondary schools in Kaduna. She never stepped out of Kaduna for one day until she clocked 18 — and that was last year after she lost her mother (my sister).

This “state of origin” thing is backward thinking. For once, #IAmWithDinoMelaye.

Reform.

‘BRITAIN FIRST’ On Thursday, June 23, Britons will vote in a referendum to determine whether to leave or remain in the European Union. Labour MP, Jo Cox, a pro-Remain campaigner, was stabbed and shot dead on Thursday by a man reportedly shouting “put Britain first” — the language of those who want to leave the EU. And that is the trouble with the referendum. It is not exactly a rational debate about economics, politics and international co-operation. Rather, it is turning out to be an anti-immigration campaign. It is nothing but raw xenophobic emotions, which expectedly becloud reasoning based on facts and figures.

Tragic.

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