Monday 10th October 2016

Fayemi Negotiates $500m Mining Investment Fund with NSIA Secures presidential approval to access Natural Resource Fund Chineme Okafor in Abuja The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has disclosed that he is currently

negotiating a $500 million investment fund with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), managers of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund,

to support a long term development plan for the country’s mining sector.

Speaking with THISDAY in an exclusive interview at the weekend in Abuja, Fayemi

W’Bank to also support transactions in mining sector

said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in August approved a new roadmap for the development of the mining sector, adding that with a proactive execution

of the roadmap, the sector was expected to contribute up to $27 billion to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) ratio by 2025.

He said it was based on

the targets of the roadmap that the discussion with the NSIA was initiated, an approval by President Continued on page 52

FG Tells Lagos to Refund Billions of Naira Collected in Wharf Landing Fees… Page 56 Monday 10 October, 2016 Vol 21. No 7844. Price: N250

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NJC Meets As More Supreme Court Justices Face Imminent Arrest Eight more judges under investigation, seven still in detention Suspects may be suspended APC, PDP disagree over SSS modus operandi Presidency reassures judiciary of its independence

Iyobosa Uwugiaren, Tobi Soniyi and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The sting operations carried out by the Department of State Services (DSS) against some judges across the country are not over yet, as more judges

will be arrested and likely prosecuted for bribe taking in the next few days or weeks, a senior intelligence officer told THISDAY in Abuja last night.

Continued on page 52

Nigeria is Failing, Says Anyaoku Warns that current structure leads to nowhere

Paul Obi in Abuja Former Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, yesterday said Nigeria was failing and

warned that the country’s federal structure as currently composed would not help Nigeria to attain nationhood.

Continued on page 52

Kaduna Government Orders Arrest and DANGOTE IN FRANCE Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and the President of France, François Hollande, discussing after a Prosecution of Shiite Spokesman… Page 54 President/CEO, private meeting on trade partnership between France and Africa at Champs-Élysées, France… Friday

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY OCTOBER 10, 2016

COMMENT

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

BENEFITS OF UNCONVENTIONAL BANKING

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Nana Aisha Salaudeen argues the need to sensitise the public to the many benefits of Islamic banking in Nigeria

banking system is a crucial component for any developing financial system and economy. An appropriate system of banking is important in creating a proficient society. Banks help apportion saver’s funds to borrowers effectively and give out concentrated financial services. A major source of income for the conventional banking system is the difference in the rate of interest rates paid to depositors and the rate lent to individuals and businesses.

Islamic/unconventional banking is a banking system that is steered by the principles of Shariah (Islamic law) and guided by Islamic economics. Financial transactions based on Islamic principles are different from conventional and or commercial transactions. For example, investments based on interest, alcohol, pork, gambling and speculation are prohibited in Islamic finance. Under Islamic finance, the returns from deposits are managed by the size of the bank’s return on investment and not by a fixed rate of interest.

When giving out loans for investments, the banks do not charge interest but practice a profit and loss sharing system whereby the bank has a share in both the loss and profit of the investment. With conventional banking, the interest on the loan is simply received whether or not the investment yields a loss or profit.

The introduction of Islamic Banking by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2011 was part of its initiative to boost the economy and promote financial enclosure/create diversity through the insertion of substitute products. Unlike what is assumed by many, its operation in the country is not restricted to Islamic banking alone but incorporates other forms of non interest banking that are not based on the principles of Islamic finance. The CBN is to issue a licence (according to the banks and other financial institutions act, 1991) for any group or individual that intends to operate unconventional banking with rules aside Islamic finance.

In the long run, unconventional banking will improve the growth of the Nigerian economy. One of the features of the

WHEN GIVING OUT LOANS FOR INVESTMENTS, THE BANKS DO NOT CHARGE INTEREST BUT PRACTICE A PROFIT AND LOSS SHARING SYSTEM WHEREBY THE BANK HAS A SHARE IN BOTH THE LOSS AND PROFIT OF THE INVESTMENT

system is that it is based on a profit and loss sharing principle, whereby the customer and the bank share risk from an investment. In other words, its ideologies are geared towards investments that will benefit Nigerians at all stages of wealth. The mode of banking also incites long-term investment. A principle of the structure is to avoid investing in groups or persons that can cause harm to the society or people. Every unconventional fund puts in extra effort in its screening process whereby organisations with risky financial practices are weeded out; this goes a long way in creating investment stability. Additionally, an interest free structure will instinctively appeal to investors, investment flourishes effectively in a climate where there is no stern circumstance attached to deriving the funds to finance investment. This means that Islamic finance has the ability to enable the advancement of infrastructure that Nigeria has been longing for. Finally, the system is less disposed to inflation and not as susceptible to speculation as other banking systems, which are presently being fuelled by the existence of large debt instruments in the market.

Despite the benefits that could sprout from continuous growth and implementation of Islamic finance in the country, the banking system is still plagued by low awareness. There is a need to elaborate on the principles of the system to all participants. Nigeria is a secular state and many are still of the notion that Islamic finance is an agenda to ‘Islamise’ the country. The government alongside noninterest banks needs to sensitise individuals and groups on the ideology to prevent non-Muslims from misunderstanding the concept. The CBN also needs to modify regulations governing the operations of Islamic banking in the country.

In other words, the policy context needs to be such that Islamic banks can properly compete with their conventional colleagues.

Nana Aisha Salaudeen, an economist and accountant, is an advocate of good governance

NEW STRATEGY NEEDED FOR THE PIB There are real advantages in passing the Petroleum Industry Bill, writes Godwin Okpene

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y December this year, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would have clocked 16 years and eight months in the making, and more than eight and half years since it was first presented to the National Assembly. That would have been 200 months of several committees constituted for the purpose, of countless stakeholder consultations and engagements, of endless back and forth between the executive and the legislature.

By then, according to a Policy Brief recently published by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the PIB would have gone through four presidents, five presidential terms and five legislative tenures without resulting in an overarching petroleum industry law.

Given the importance of the petroleum sector to Nigeria’s economy and the enormity of the problems that has plagued the country’s oil and gas industry over the years, there can be no justifiable excuse for the embarrassing impasse on the PIB. Add to these the fact that Nigeria’s oil industry does not exist in isolation but operates in a global environment that is constantly shifting in favour of countries with the most competitive instruments, it becomes obvious that the country has continued to wallow in the kind of luxury that it can ill-afford, especially at a time like this.

The global market is changing rapidly, exacerbating old threats and creating new ones. The world’s largest consumers have become top producers and top importers have begun to export.

But the new threats do not however lie only in far away Alaska or the South China Sea. They are also showing up on our very door step. Two months ago, Ghana passed its Petroleum Production and Exploration law.

According to Ghana’s energy minister, “the new law would create an attractive environment for potential investors by providing certainty and transparency in the ground rules for operations”.

If the pool of investment dollars was limitless, such development would hardly merit a glance. But it is not. According the

NEITI Policy Brief (titled The Urgency of a New Petroleum Sector Law), international oil companies are increasingly channelling investment funds to “other viable oil and gas projects across Africa including Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, etc.”

The sad tale around the PIB rigmarole is not just the 16 years that it has languished in limbo. The real story is that every additional year of waffling on the bill compounds the losses and worsens the problems of the sector and Nigeria’s economy. NEITI estimates that more than $200 billion has been lost in planned investment and projected returns on investment in the last eight years of delay on the PIB, as well as thousands of jobs. These figures appear very conservative. Other estimates, including a recent study conducted by the Natural Resource Charter, a policy think-tank, put the losses at more than twice the figure.

Whatever the numbers, there is no question that Nigeria’s current economic problems would have been avoided if the opportunities were taken in the relevant sectors of the economy, including (and especially) the oil and gas sector. Most estimates of loss of investment due to the delay in enacting a petroleum industry law relate to the upstream sector. But the volume of domestic economic activity lies in the downstream and midstream subsectors. According to OPEC data quoted

by NEITI, Nigeria has the least contribution of oil to total GDP ratio among OPEC member countries. This corresponds with data on the country’s refining activity as a ratio of total crude production. Only 3% of Nigeria’s oil is refined domestically.

Appropriate legislation to incentivise midstream and downstream investment would have reversed this massive imbalance.

The fact that legislation did not happen has produced huge consequences. In five years alone (2011 – 2015), Nigeria spent more than $26 billion importing refined products. The double effect of lost domestic production and acute import dependency forms a significant part of the explanation for the country’s

current economic troubles.

Swift action on the PIB would undoubtedly catalyse Nigeria’s recovery. Continuing to delay the passage of the PIB not only robs the country of this important opportunity, it would ensure that the bleeding continues.

The comparative swiftness with which Ghana produced its petroleum industry legislation should serve as both reminder and a warning. In less than two years after the bill was presented to the Ghanaian parliament, it was signed into law. Ghana became an oil producing nation in 2010, one whole decade after Nigeria initiated the process that produced the PIB. Ghana may be a relatively less complicated case, but a petroleum industry law is not the genome project. It is simply a political process. Politics is supposed to be about negotiation and consensus, not about endless stalemate.

Nigeria’s weakening global competiveness and the current recession should provoke a sense of urgency and rouse the political actors to action. So far, it has not.

The lack of progress on the PIB has been attributed largely to differences over issues like the host community benefits, the powers of the minister, the fiscal provisions, etc. But the fact that these disagreements have been allowed to weigh down the PIB is because there has been lack of political leadership to moderate these differences and to drive the bill from conception through legislation. Due to the absence of political leadership, the different political actors have engaged in a manifestly unproductive contest over control of the process. Rather than focus on the core objective of petroleum industry reforms, the actors have resorted to endless political gamesmanship to secure the greatest advantage for their respective constituencies.

These were never the objectives of petroleum industry reforms. In the end both the nation and its constituent parts have suffered the consequence of stalemate. The zero-sum approach has yielded no winners.

Current attempts to revive the PIB do not look promising. For one it is not clear who is leading the process, or even that the executive

and legislature are working in concert, with several bills being mentioned. It is hard to see how this enhances the chance of success.

Fortunately, everyone agrees that the petroleum sector in is desperate need of reforms, and that the PIB is a crucial piece of legislation. But, experience has shown that this is not sufficient. A more important consensus at this point would be to agree on what should be done differently this time.

According to the NEITI policy brief, all actors first need to remember that corruption, lack of transparency and accountability and general poor governance of the sector were the main reasons for reforms in the first place. Secondly, precious time is being needlessly expended on starting the process from the scratch every time a new regime decides to revive the process.

But most importantly, the president should take charge of the process, not just because his position confers on him the responsibility to do so, but because his political mandate, secured on the platform of transparency and accountability, stands him in good stead to rally stakeholders around the core objectives of the PIB. There can be little contention in this regard.

NEITI proposes a formal instrument for facilitating this consensus. The publication also called for a clear road map and a communication strategy.

But the strategy is not the only thing that needs to change. The process has to be conducted with greater haste. The costs are mounting, and the impact increasingly more severe.

Price volatility in the oil market is an ever present reality. But this up-and-down swing needs not always translate into a boom and bust cycle for the economy. A petroleum industry law, complemented with relevant reforms in the management of oil revenue, can And the law does not need to be perfect, or a panacea. It just needs to be passed, and with the urgency that it demands.

Okpene is the SA to the Executive Secretary of NEITI

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T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY OCTOBER 10, 2016

EDITORIAL BEYOND THE REINTRODUCTION OF HISTORY There is need to address the rot in our schools

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ollowing the criticisms that have for years trailed the suspension of the teaching of history in Nigerian schools, the federal government recently ordered the reintroduction of the subject in basic schools across the country. The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who called for the dis-articulation of social studies in the current curriculum of basic schools and reintroduction of history as a subject, said this has become imperative given the critical nature of history to the nation’s socio-political development. “It is only the study of history, our own history, that can explain and give meaning to our very humanity and that is why we must study it and teach our little ones”, said Adamu, adding that our history would give the Nigerian child a self identity of who they really are.

While we commend the minister for the decision, we nonetheless call for a structured approach to addressing the rot in the educational sector in our country beyond tokenism. Today, there is an urgent need to come up with policies that would offer the Nigerian child a good learning environment, THERE IS AN URGENT guarantee quality education and ensure NEED TO COME UP globally acceptable WITH POLICIES THAT learning outcomes.

WOULD OFFER THE That, we believe, NIGERIAN CHILD A GOOD will necessitate creatLEARNING ENVIRONMENT, ing a credible process GUARANTEE QUALITY whereby the most EDUCATION AND ENSURE debilitating problems of Nigeria’s human GLOBALLY ACCEPTABLE capital development LEARNING OUTCOMES can be easily identified, resolved or managed in a sustainable manner. The objective, of course, is to enhance the global competitiveness of all products of the Nigerian educational system. That is the challenge we would want Adamu to begin to tackle.

For a country in a hurry to develop, and in dire need to catch up with today’s knowledge economy, Nigeria is too far behind in education. From the primary to

Letters to the Editor

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secondary and the tertiary levels, the educational system is in a shambles, plagued by outdated and poorly- equipped libraries, poor teaching facilities, inadequate teachers, decaying infrastructure, poor student/teacher ratio, absence of internet facilities, and non-conducive learning environment.

T T H I S DAY

EDITOR IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU DEPUTY EDITORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI, JOSEPH USHIGIALE MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATIONí 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 DIRECTOR 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

oday, students find it increasingly difficult to access good libraries, decent research laboratories and modern technological gadgets which facilitate teaching and learning. The continuing drop in funding has also adversely affected the quality of academic staff while many of the products of our educational system are barely literate. The functionally literate ones are considered non-creative and unproductive which then explains why the corporate labour market shuns most of them. The challenge is more at the tertiary level.

While inadequate funding has been one of the major problems of the education sector, policymakers have not demonstrated the will to devise a way of addressing this challenge. For instance, a 2012 World Bank table of the annual budgetary allocation to education by some selected countries placed Nigeria at the bottom, occupying the 20th position out of 20 countries selected. Rather than address this problem of funding, government has been preoccupied with establishing new universities to ensure federal character and sometimes for purely political reasons.

As we have consistently stated on this page, there is the need for more private and public investments in education at all levels. Therefore, better ways of funding our tertiary institutions must be found because the world’s best universities have enormous cash with which they attract the best to their communities - from the latest technologies to the brightest professors.

Given the foregoing, we invite the attention of the Federal Ministry of Education to the challenges facing the educational sector in our country today. It bears repeating for us to say that “for as long as education is in the doldrums, for so long shall the future of the nation and that of the leaders of tomorrow, be there with it”.

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WHY BUHARI NEEDS TINUBU’S SUPPORT

have been reading about the supposed disagreement between President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu, including the proxy wars that seem to have been started on several fronts as part of this fight between the two. It’s beginning to get annoying now because large sections of those in charge of our country seem to have forgotten what leadership is about.

Here’s the thing: Forget whatever your opinion is of President Buhari, the All Progressives Congress presented him and he did what was asked of him, which was to win them the presidency against all odds. We can accuse him of not preparing to govern properly as we continue to look at his government’s policies to support our view. True, the buck stops at his desk, but does that mean his party and their leaders have no responsibility?

The first thing everyone in the APC ought to have taken to heart is the fact that this is and has to be a collective leadership. They all govern with the president and fall and rise together. There can never be the excuse that the president is being ‘tribalistic’ in his appointments or that he is not carrying other leaders along barely a year after taking office. Why this public display of disagreement with the president? Are the leaders of the APC so petty that they cannot find a way of resolving their internal differences within the party away from the press? Why is every Salako, Chike, Abdullahi and Osaze in the APC running to the press to show

support for this or that leader within the same party? Why are some people now shouting wolf about some ethnic hegemony and calling on all of us to support Tinubu to stop the Armageddon they see coming? Why is everyone talking about divisions already at a time the nation needs a united front in its leadership to see us through these hard times?

I’m not discussing here the merit or otherwise of any accusation against Buhari or Tinubu; neither should this be considered a support of one side against the other. I’m concerned here about Nigeria and the fact that the APC is today running the nation as service to the Nigerian people.

President Buhari is the elected leader and true, we cannot expect him to get things right all the time. But leaders of the APC would not be helping by openly showing disagreement with him and raising factions within the party opposed to him, not on ideological or policy levels, but simply for the sake of grabbing power or serving the selfish interests of personalities.

Already, we see them fighting over 2019 when the first term isn’t halfway yet.

I think Tinubu, being the lightning rod of most of these controversies, has to play the role of a statesman. He needs to call his troops to order and let them understand what is at stake. Whatever the situation, he cannot afford to publicly disagree with the president or raise surrogates who go out there to indicate there is a disagreement between them. He has to understand that he was the biggest surrogate of the president before and

during the election and his party’s biggest guarantor amongst voters, even though he wasn’t on the ballot. Nigeria is suffering economically, politically and socially. If he has any ideas for the president, he knows he has access to him. He should boldly go to him and have a frank talk about things.

He must call off his hounds because destroying the APC just because he cannot get his way or because of some assumption that some ethnic hegemonists are taking the party away from its supposed progressive and centrist roots will not give him any credibility with Nigerians. True leadership means he douses this fire now; true leadership means he should be rallying his people to help his party and the president and his government to find solutions to the problems facing the nation now.

Of course, I get the point that it might be a case of the president or the leadership of the APC not listening to Tinubu anymore, but there is nothing in public space to indicate that this is the case apart from tittle-tattles we get in the press. I mean, what we have in public space are all these stories of disagreements over his attempt to garner more influence than he already has. Nigerians need to see him talking policies with members of his party and its leadership in government with the aim of finding governance solutions to our problems as a nation. Tinubu must do more than anybody now to hold his party together and help deliver on the electoral promises they made to Nigerians.

Kennedy Emetulu, kemetulu@googlemail.com

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

POLITICS

Group Politics Editor Olawale Olaleye Email wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com 08116759819 SMS ONLY

T H E M O N D AY D I S C O U R S E

The Absence of Practical Leadership

Last week, three major events evidenced the absence of pragmatic leadership in President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency.

Shola Oyeyipo and Segun James write

Buhari...signs of a failing leadership

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ield Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, a senior British Army officer, who fought in both the first world and second world wars, said “The definition of leadership is this: the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence”.

In Nigeria today, only one thing signify the way forward: government must do away with those actions that will potentially dissuade Nigerians from the huge trust and the hope they had reposed in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, particularly its ability to rally men and women as a way to inspire the citizenry to continue to believe in the administration Whereas its actions and inactions continue to show inconsistency, it is quite easy for the people to begin to assume that the leader may not actually have anything to offer the nation. That was the fatal fate that befell the immediate past government of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Expectation was high on this government to change the fortunes of the country and as soon as possible, but the people appear to have lost that trust because he appears unable to rally the people for the common good of all.

Even where the Buhari administration may justify the rather slow nature of his government to the failure of the previous administration, the president is oblivious of the fact that some of his actions are gradually shaping the public perception of his administration and persona.

Thus, three developments, last week, confirmed fears that the government may have lost it as it were.

First, the federal government withdrew the

charge of criminal conspiracy and forgery brought against Senate President Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu through the Ministry of Justice.

Good or bad, it does not project the

Whereas its actions and inactions continue to show inconsistency, it is quite easy for the people to begin to assume that the leader may not actually have anything to offer the nation. That was the fatal fate that befell the immediate past government of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Expectation was high on this government to change the fortunes of the country and as soon as possible, but the people appear to have lost that trust

government as a serious one and the reason is simply because the accused persons have persistently insisted that their trial was a form of political persecution attributable to the way and manner they emerged as leaders of the National Assembly against the wish of some forces within the party. This is in addition to the fact that eminent jurists on the country had told the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami that he outstepped his bounds by meddling in matters of the legislature.

Aside that, the scuffle between the executive and the legislative arms of a government dominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to have negative toll on the Nigerian people, who voted for the party because it promised it was on a rescue mission, only to become puns in the hands of political gladiators under the Buhari government.

Saraki and Ekweremadu already said they have been vindicated. They had maintained that the case was “politically-induced distraction”, stressing that rather than distract Nigerians all hands should be on deck to solve the economic recession that is biting hard on homes and creating severe social disorientation in communities.

Then the question to ask is: with the likes of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay and several other leading legal luminaries at the disposal of the federal government, why embark on a fruitless journey of prosecuting the duo, when the charges would later be dropped apparently because it lacked merit. After all, “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well”.

Besides, the government had been warned

by the likes of Mr. Jackson Lekan Ojo, a security expert, who earlier in the year noted that any attempt to sanction Senator Saraki over how he became the Senate President would cause an implosion in the APC? However, if one or two more people are left off in similar manner without any major convictions, especially among those alleged to have stolen from the country, soon Nigerians will lose complete hope in government’s anti-corruption war.

Although by opting to drop the forgery charges against the duo of Saraki and Ekweremadu, the government has received some accolades from people, who consider the action as a positive development and a contrary action as waste of precious time.

The Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, was of the view that the withdrawal of the charges was proper, necessary and timely.

“The withdrawal provides a vista of opportunity for national cohesion as distraction in the process of national development could be halted from the widely considered politics induced litigation.”

To him, all other litigation before either tribunals or courts should also be withdrawn appropriately so that all hands could be on deck in the task of moving Nigeria forward.

That was the same position taken by a former vice-president and chieftain of the APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who also commended the federal government, particularly President Buhari for the withdrawal of criminal charges against Saraki and Ekweremadu, which he says would pave the way for the resolution of the impasse between both arms of government.

CONT’D ON NEXT PAGE

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

POLITICS/ THE MONDAY DISCOURSE THE ABSENCE OF PRACTICAL LEADERSHIP

Saraki, Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo during last year’s Independebce Day celebration

According to him, it is “a wise and timely move”.

One instructive message in Atiku’s commendation, however, was that the move by the federal government is an indication that the government values the much-needed cordial relationship between the executive and legislature, adding that the government should have known this long before now that such actions come with negative implications.

Not only Governor Ahmed and Atiku are of these positive views, many of the lawmakers have also hailed the decision. Saraki and Ekweremadu have both stated that the action of the federal government has vindicated them while some of their other colleagues have given kudos for the choice embraced by the government.

Another problem with the current administration is that while the leadership of the party rests solely on the president, no such synergy has been established between President Buhari and APC. Aside the purported endorsement of an aspirant of the party in Ondo State, which is currently causing ripples in the party, the APC has hardly earned its victory in last year’s general election before plunging into series of crises, many of which are still rocking it till now.

As at today, the situation is not stable in the ruling party. Some powerful forces have taken over the party machinery under the president’s watch and the major concern over how to marry the interests of all the contending power brokers that formed the party is becoming increasing impossible by the day.

That is exactly the question some of those conversant with the dynamics of politics in Nigeria have persistently asked. How does the APC intend to keep its house in order till the 2019 general election? In fact, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has never refrained from tagging members of the ruling party “strange bedfellows”, and that is not unconnected with events in the ruling party since it took over power.

Truth is, either the president likes it or not, as far as the rancor in the APC is concerned, the bulk stops at his table. For instance, it is easy to trace the beginning of the crisis of confidence in the party to when he announced his appointments.

Not only were the recommendations of those, who played major roles in his emergence jettisoned, in about 30 of the appointments made, only five were not from the North.

It must be noted that the issue of the appointments sent a very wrong signal to many APC members, particularly those from the South-west region, especially when the fact that the South-west played a major role in Buhari’s victory is factored in.

Some leaders from the region are yet to recover from the shock of the betrayal. Even now that one of the APC national leaders and former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu is being generally perceived as a victim of witchhunt, does it not send a signal of bad leadership on the part of the president?

President Buhari, observers reckon, needs to know that his public perception as a leader also includes how he manages the affairs of the APC because the forces within the party need to align with a leader that has no ulterior motives.

While it is good to continue to commend the government for fighting terrorism and corruption, another action of the Buhari-led federal government that could query his place as a leader is the issue of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, who has been kept in detention for many months against several court orders for his release.

Despite the deluge of public outcries that the rule of law should be allowed to prevail in the Dasuki matter and which fell on deaf ears, the Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), last Tuesday intervened in the matter and declared that Dasuki’s arrest and detention was “unlawful and arbitrary”.

The court held that the further detention of Dasuki by government on November 4, after he was granted bail by a court of law, amounts to a mockery of democracy and the rule of law.

Dasuki is facing multiple trials for alleged diversion of $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms in the immediate past administration and he was also accused of illegal possession of fire arms, which ordinarily Nigerians are not happy about and they would want the case followed to a logical conclusion – prosecuted if found guilty – but that is not a justification to turn the law on its head.

Convinced that his suffering has political undertones, Dasuki approached the ECOWAS court after he was rearrested by men of the Department of State Security (SSS) shortly after meeting his bail conditions in November last year. He has remained in the custody of the

DSS since his arrest.

But on Tuesday, a three-member panel led by Justice Friday Nwoke said Nigeria’s government was wrong in arresting Mr. Dasuki without a search warrant, adding that the pattern of arrest negates the provisions of Section 28 of the Nigerian Police Act. According to the said section, a superior police officer may authorise the search of a resident belonging to a suspect assumed to be in illegal possession of an item, if the officer so authorised has a search warrant.

The court therefore gave an order instructing the government to pay Dasuki N15 million, though the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on Wednesday, October 5, reacted to the ECOWAS order through his media aide, Salihu Isah stating, “We cannot just react. We will first of all study the judgment to understand its content before taking a stand.” But government has been receiving as much counsel that it must

Another problem with the current administration is that while the leadership of the party rests solely on the president, no such synergy has been established between President Buhari and APC. Aside the purported endorsement of an aspirant of the party in Ondo State, which is currently causing ripples in the party, the APC has hardly earned its victory in last year’s general election before plunging into series of crises

heed the court order.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Alhaji Ahmed Raji was one of the first to advise government on the need to respect and obey the judgment by ECOWAS Court, warning that failure to do this could scare foreign investors away.

According to Raji, Nigeria as a respected member of ECOWAS and the international community is expected to honour its obligations to the protocols establishing the court by complying with its order, adding that the spirit that was at play in the acceptance of the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the disputed oil rich Bakassi land is required to obey the decision of the ECOWAS Court.

“I am appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to facilitate immediate compliance with the ECOWAS Court decision. I am also appealing to the Presidential aides especially the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, Mallam Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the heads of the intelligence units to advise the president properly.

“The order of the court cannot be ridiculed and Nigeria as a democratic nation cannot afford to ridicule the court order in the interest of the corporate image of the country,” Raji stated.

The lawyer was particularly elated that allegations of coup plot and waging war against Nigerians brought against Dasuki at the court by government to justify his unlawful detention was not sustained since Dasuki is not facing treason charge anywhere in the country.

And also, the allegation of non-purchase of arms and ammunition against Dasuki was not substantiated because there were records that several towns and local governments were liberated from the Boko Harram sect in the North-east during the Dasuki tenure.

“In fact, records are there that some of the ammunitions being used by the current government were part of those ordered during the regime of the former NSA according to information he made available to his legal team. It is under the leadership of Dasuki as NSA that the country security forces liberated several towns and cities under Boko Haram in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno”, the lawyer said.

Raji, therefore, emphasised that: “I am also appealing to the presidential aides especially the chief law officer of the federation, Malami, and the heads of the intelligence units to advise the president properly”.

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

PERSPECTIVE

Tinubu and Buhari as the Modern Day Afonja and Alimi The feud between President Muhammadu Buhari and Senator Bola Tinubu is not only foretold but appears a repeat history in the making, reckons Reno Omokri

T

he present trials of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the colossus of the Southwest is not surprising to those who have vision.

I saw it coming and that was why over two years ago, precisely on Tuesday, May 27, 2014, I wrote a back page op-ed in THISDAY newspaper titled: ‘From Battleground to Common Ground’ and in that piece, I said inter alia as follows: “A comrade is not for what you are for neither does he share the same interests as you; a comrade is simply one, who is against what you are against. In other words, you are bound by a common enemy.

“The All Progressives Congress is a party founded on this premise. Those who are enemies of the President (Goodluck Jonathan) and the PDP gathered together to form a party whose foundation is their common enemy.

They share no ideological connection, neither are they friends. In actual fact, they may even hate each other, only that they hate the President and the PDP more and are willing to temporarily suppress their hatred for each other in other to gang up against their common enemy.

“In my experience, it is better to have a party built on common interests than to have one built on a common enemy. This is because as even a political novice will tell you, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies only permanent interests.”

Now, if the above is true, what would happen to a party that is built on a common enemy? Parties built on this foundation lasts only as long as the enemy is in power. Once their enemy is no longer in power, the party disintegrates.

It does not matter if you hate Reno Omokri’s guts, but ask yourself if what I said has not turned out to be the truth.

In the space of just a month, Bola Tinubu has been deliberately mystified and treated with such contempt that even those he considered his worst enemies find themselves feeling sorry for him.

But he should have seen it coming!

The unraveling of Bola Tinubu actually began on the 3rd of June 2016, when President Muhammadu Buhari publicly and right in Tinubu’s face told him at a reception the President held for members of the National Assembly at the Presidential Villa that the All Progressives Congress had no such position as a National Leader.

I know this because a Senator, who attended the function, called me almost immediately after the event and told me about how the hall descended into almost pin drop silence after the president made that assertion.

I can assure my readers that President Muhammadu Buhari would never have made such a remark prior to the

Buhari with Tinubu...the beginning of the end

2015 elections. But who needs a piece of toilet paper after it has done its job!

That remark was the signal that sleeper agents within the APC were waiting for to begin the unraveling of the masquerade.

Teaching him a lesson in Ondo State is only the beginning. Bola Tinubu’s comeuppance is not yet complete in the eyes of his traducers. And then look at the way he is portrayed in Professor John Paden’s biography of the president. Paden portrays Tinubu as a desperate power monger, who kept throwing himself at Buhari only to be rejected at each instance. Tinubu, see how low you have fallen?

I do not know why Bola Tinubu is angry at Paden. Did he not read that this was an official biography? Paden was not there during the horse trading. The book was written with the cooperation of President Buhari. The things he wrote about Tinubu were the accounts he was given by the President. So, Tinubu should call a spade a spade. President Buhari merely told the world what he really thinks of Tinubu.

And look at all the men around President Buhari, who got to where they are on the back of Tinubu. Has anyone of them come out to speak in his defence?

Where is Vice-President Osinbajo? He can blame Jonathan but cannot defend his benefactor. Where is Fashola? He can come up with excuses for giving Nigerians darkness but cannot speak up for his oga? Lai Mohammed is nowhere to be found. Perhaps he is too busy dressing up masquerades or looking for

a parastatal under him to loan him some money!

At the end of the day, after all the terrible things the propaganda wing of APC said and did to Ayo Fayose and Femi Fani Kayode, who came to the help of Tinubu but the two men demonised by the very same propaganda machinery that Tinubu helped set up.

And as for Tinubu, I cannot imagine why someone will write a book and

And look at all the men around President Buhari, who got to where they are on the back of Tinubu. Has anyone of them come out to speak in his defence?

Where is Vice-President Osinbajo? He can blame Jonathan but cannot defend his benefactor.

Where is Fashola? He can come up with excuses for giving Nigerians darkness but cannot speak up for his oga? Lai Mohammed is nowhere to be found.

Perhaps he is too busy dressing up masquerades or looking for a parastatal under him to loan him some money

insult you in it and still invite you to the launch and you agree to go simply because he is a president.

Even worse, they asked you to write a review for the book and you did! Is this the same Tinubu that was so mouthy under Jonathan? Look at how he has become a chihuahua today. Lord, have mercy! Tinubu! Your Afonja too much!

Did you not see what ex-President Goodluck Jonathan did with the so called Leadership Award? You do not honour a gathering designed to reduce you with your presence. As the late kakanfo MKO Abiola would say, “A man who allows his head to be used to break a coconut may not live to eat it!”

Even the well-respected Pastor Osinbajo cannot even publicly come to your defence and tell the truth of how you helped him secure his exalted office.

Yet, he is the chief beneficiary of your generosity.

My advice to you, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is this: a woman who continues to make herself available to a man that only remembers her when he needs her services to satisfy his lustfulness should not be surprised when her own children deny that she is their mother!

Finally, going forward, before labeling people like Ayo Fayose and Femi FaniKayode as enemies, remember that it is better to be insulted with the truth than flattered with a lie.

-Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in California, and the host, Transformation with Reno Omokri

T H I S D AY MONDAY OCTOBER 10, 2016

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MONDAY, october 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

FEATURES

Acting Features Editor Charles Ajunwa Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

The 104 beneficiaries of the barracks empowerment scheme and NAF senior officers

Empowering Barracks’ Youths Chiemelie Ezeobi writes on the effort by the Nigerian Air Force to engage its youths in the barracks through empowerment in agricultural entrepreneurship

F

or years, the seeming perception of barracks’ youths has always been one riddled with negativity.

This has often been attributed to idleness and unemployment of the youths living in either military or paramilitary barracks.

However, to change that narrative, especially for the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) bases, the Youth Empowerment Scheme was born, which later gave rise to the Barrack Youths Empowerment Through Agriculture (BYETA), an initiative of the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, whose key drivers have always been hinged on welfare of personnel and capacity building.

Under this scheme, the youths living in NAF bases nationwide are to be engaged in agricultural empowerment in the sense that they are trained on food and livestock farming, and loans are made accessible to them through a cooperative, so that they can be useful to themselves and the society at large. With this, it is intended that they stop being job seekers and translate to job

creators and providers.

At the inauguration of the scheme, which took place at NAF Logistics Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos, the Air Officer Commanding, Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal Sani Ahmed said, “You may recall

The main objective is to promote socio-economic development of members through modern and globally acceptable training in poultry, fish farming, food and cash crops farming and livestock farming such as piggery, animal fattening etc

that early this year, a set of youths from this command successfully completed the first batch of the CAS Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) that was aimed at improving the lives of our youths in the barracks. Today marks yet another milestone in the lives of our youths through the CAS directives which transformed into a cooperative society.

“The main objective is to promote socioeconomic development of members through modern and globally acceptable training in poultry, fish farming, food and cash crops farming and livestock farming such as piggery, animal fattening etc. The cooperative would also maintain centrally owned machinery and tools for processing of farm products.

Furthermore, it would facilitate the supply of farm equipment, seeds fertiliser etc and technical know-how for members of the cooperative society. These are just a few of the numerous benefits of this initiative that we launched.

“To our dear youths, please take this golden opportunity that the CAS is offering you to improve your livelihood as you are all aware

of the current economic recession our dear country is passing through. It is my prayer that as a result of today’s exercise, your lives will never remain the same again. I congratulate each one of you on this historic moment.

“I also thank CAS, who is the driving force behind this programme. I believe under his tenure, the NAF and indeed its personnel and their families have recorded tremendous progress in all facets of endeavours. It is my fervent prayer that God Almighty rewards him.”

The Barracks Youth Initiative While inaugurating the scheme, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, who was represented by the Chief of Administration, Air Vice Marshal Ajibola Jekennu, said the 104 youths who are beneficiaries of this scheme will not be left unguided but would rather be supervised by the Commander, 435 Base Services Group (BSG), Air Commodore Paul Masiyer.

He said, “The youths are the most active elements that stimulate rapid economic

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

FEATURES

The senior officers with the executives of the scheme

L-R: Commander 435 BSG, Air Commodore Paul Masiyer; the Chief of Administration, Air Vice Marshal Ajibola Jekennu and Air Officer Commanding, Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal Sani Ahmed, at the inauguration of the Barrack Youths Empowerment Through Agriculture

growth and technological development of any nation. According to the National Bureau of Statistics in its 2012 national youth survey report, ‘youths of working age, in the bracket of 15 to 35 years area nearly 70 million persons in a population of 166 million Nigerians; out of this number, 54 per cent are unemployed’.

“At present, Nigeria is ranked amongst the poorest nations with serious economic challenges partly due to the global economic recession compounded by declining oil revenue, insecurity, inadequate infrastructure and youth employment. As part of concerted efforts to revamp the economy, the Federal Government embarked on economic diversification of different sectors especially in the areas of solid minerals development, tourism and agriculture.

“In pursuance of the economic diversification policy, the Federal Government recently launched the agricultural sector roadmap known as ‘The Green Alternative’. The programme to be run from 2016 to 2020, aims to boost food production nationwide and create job opportunities. In order to key into this laudable programme of President Muhammadu Buhari, the NAF decided to introduce the BYETA.” According to the road map of the CAS, the BYETA is intended to provide employment through agriculture for the teeming youths across all the NAF bases nationwide.

Air Marshal Abubakar said, “This strategic initiative is in consolidation of the Youth Empowerment Programme we started earlier this year in which a total of 86 persons trained in various fields graduated from our Lagos and Kaduna skills acquisition centres. These noble efforts aimed at assisting the children

of our personnel to become independent is in conformity with a key driver of my vision for NAF, which is ‘human capacity development through robust and result-oriented training for enhanced professional performance’.

“Different types of cooperatives exist with the motive of helping individuals to get financial support to obtain their basic needs of life. Study has confirmed that most developed nations have continued to engage the agricultural cooperatives to boost economies of their countries and the well-being of their citizens.

“In this country, the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria provides funds for enhancing local food production and guaranteeing food security. Every year, through the Bank of Agriculture and some other commercial banks, the CBN releases about N200 billion in agricultural loans to help solve the problem of capital in farming business. The grants are supposed to cover many aspects of agriculture such as fishing, farming, snail, cotton, cassava and rice farming.

Study has confirmed that most developed nations have continued to engage the agricultural cooperatives to boost economies of their countries and the wellbeing of their citizens

“These funds are accessible to large scale mechanised farmers. However, the funds could also be easily accessed by small scale farmers through agricultural cooperative societies. It is therefore highly necessary for interested youths to come together to form cooperatives.

Let me add that the association formed by the youths of the NAF in Lagos area titled ‘Headquarters Logistics Command Ikeja Cooperative Agricultural Multipurpose Society Limited’ is a step in the right direction.

“The cooperative, being a special form of business ownership, enjoys certain advantages which are not available to other organisations.

The benefits of a cooperative include saving production costs of essential commodities, provision of employment opportunities, availability of loan facilities for the purchase of equipment and construction of needed infrastructure. This, the environment created by cooperatives are very helpful for the special and economic progress of the country particularly in raising the standard of living of its citizens.

“I therefore urge every unemployed youth living on the base to join the headquarters Logistics Command in order to benefit from the programme. The NAF would assist you in accessing loans from the federal and state governments and guide you in the implementation of your choice of agricultural project.

In the near future, it is expected that the beneficiaries of this youth empowerment programme would become chief executive officers of factories, companies and job providers rather than job seekers.

“I encourage you to develop positive mindset in agriculture and take good advantage of the scheme designed to mould you into successful entrepreneurs. We extend our profound gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his visionary leadership and immense

support for the NAF. On a final note, I urge the various youth organisations in the base to continue to guide the youths to ensure the programme is a success.”

The Cooperative Scheme Under this scheme, the beneficiaries will under the cooperative, access soft loans from the federal and state governments to enable them fund their agricultural business enterprises.

While addressing the beneficiaries, Mrs. Bola Olaniyon of the Lagos State Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives, said the scheme was a step in the right direction. She said, “There is a lot of diversity from oil and people are heading towards agriculture. If you choose agriculture, you have chosen equality.

“Cooperatives provide socio-economic development of ourselves because we can’t totally depend on government and banks. In cooperatives, we put our resources together to move forward. There are also so many benefits attached as you can take loans to finance your business activities. Agric cooperatives have opportunities to get grants from World Bank, as well as the federal and state government. “ The Chief Registrar of the Lagos State Cooperatives, Mr. Dibi Bakare, said, “This is one of the cardinal agenda of the Federal Government. Even though we are not under the Ministry of Finance, we can help recipients to access whatever they want from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This means that we are going to use the cooperative to help you access agricultural grants.”

While commending the CAS for considering them worthy of the scheme, the president of the youth group said, “We appreciate the Airforce because it is not easy to help people.

With this, now we can help our families in the future.”

22

IMAGES

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OctOber 10, 2016

Photo Editor Abiodun Ajala Email abiodun.ajala@thisdaylive.com

L-R: Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume; President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki; and Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Baba Kaka Garbai, at the opening of a two-day public hearing on the activities of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in Abuja...recently JULIUS ATOI

L-R: Speaker, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN); discussant, Funke Aboyade (SAN); discussant/representative of Human Resources and Corporate Service Executive, MTN Nigeria Communication Limited, Mr. Durojaye Aderemi; Chairman, NBA Law Week Committee, Mr. Oluwakemi Balogun (SAN); discussant, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN); and discussant, Mr. Tunde Busari (SAN), during the Nigerian Bar Association (Lagos branch) 2016 Annual Law Week, with the theme: ‘Judicial Independence and the Democratic process’ in Lagos...recently

L-R: Project Coordinator, the Legend Edition, Chee Okebalama, Timi Dakolo and Chioma Omeruah during the legend edition youth football clinic and celebrity match in Lagos...recently

L-R: General Manager, Marketing and Sales, MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho; General Manager, GOtv, Akinola Salu; and the GOtv Ambassador, Daddy Showkey, during a GOtv @5 press conference, at Ikeja GRA, Lagos...recently KOLA OLASUPO

Legendary guitarist and Juju music maestro, King Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye(left) with his ‘musical son’, Oluwadare Olateju of Ludare Band, during his performance at King Sunny Ade’s 70th birthday party at Ikeja GRA Lagos...recently

L-R: CHAIRMAN, NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC) KADUNA STATE, MR. ADAMU ANGO; NATIONAL TREASURER, NUTGTWN, MR. LAWAL HARUNA; AND THE DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY, NUTGTWN, MR. DELE OJO, AT A PRESS BRIEFING TO MARK THE DECENT WORK DAY IN KADUNA...RECENTLY IDRIS EGAJI

L-R: New President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Haruna Kadiri; President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba; and a former deputy governor of Plateau State, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, during the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected national executive members of NANS at the University of Abuja... recently ENOCK REUBEN

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo(left) and Senior Pastor, House of Freedom, Dr. Tony Rapu, after the vicepresident’s ministration at the Freedom Rally themed ‘One Nation, No Shaking’ in Lagos...recently

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD NIBOR OVERNIGHT 1-MONTH

R A T E S 8.9465 17.1896

3-MONTH 6-MONTH

A S 18.1410 19.6778

A T

NITTY 1-MONTH 2-MONTH 3-MONTH

Group Business Editor Chika Amanze-Nwachuku Email chika.amanzenwachukwu@thisdaylive.com 08033294157

O C T O B E R 16.4901 16.8370 16.8736

6-MONTH 9-MONTH 12-MONTH

7 ,

2 0 1 6

18.6920 20.7858 22.1072

EXCHANGE RATE N306.75 / 1 US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes Conoil Forsees Bright Economy

As Nigerians continue to rejoice on the 56th Independence anniversary of their great country, oil marketer, Conoil Plc, has predicted a brighter future for the country and urged Nigerians not to despair even in the face of the current economic downturn in the country.

The company implored Nigerians to, instead, remain optimistic and give the government maximum support, as it works relentlessly to make Nigeria great again.

The fuel marketing company in a statement, said it would, on its part, continue to oil the country’s wheels of progress by providing world-class services to meet the energy needs of Nigerians.

According to the statement, “Considering the fact that the nation has surmounted several obstacles in the last 56 years, the major challenge for the citizens is to remain strong and indivisible, and for the government to formulate creative policies to guide the country through the current turbulence and recession.

“As we celebrate this historic occasion, it is our belief that with unity of purpose, our country’s future is assured,” the company affirmed.

Conoil further enjoined Nigerians to consolidate the gains of the past 17 years of democratic rule by remaining focused and resilient.

Sterling Bank Supports NESG

WELL DESERVED AWARD

L-R: Managing Director, SystemSpecs Limited, Mr. John Obaro; President Muhammadu Buhari, and Former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (rtd) after SystemSpecs received the Leadership Award for ICT/Telecom company of the year in Abuja… recently.

How Erisco Foods Received Huge Commercial Agric Credit Intervention Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Obinna Chima Findings have showed that contrary to the recent claim by the Chairman of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, that his firm has not been receiving support from the federal government, the company has got support of about N3 billion from the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) between 2014 and 2016.

Umeofia recently alleged that his company had been frustrated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But documents seen by THISDAY at the weekend showed that in January 2014, Erisco Foods was given a total of N500 million

ECONOMY for the importation and installation of four addition tomato processing lines to the existing three lines it had, as well as for stockpiling of raw materials needs for the operational efficiency of the company. The company received the intervention fund which had a tenor of 32 months through Stanbic IBTC Bank.

Also, in May 2014, it received another N400 million which was for working capital, for the purchase of diesel, gas, salaries and local raw material such as sugar, salt, potassium, solvent, cartons and other packaging materials. The fund which the document showed was also disbursed through Stanbic IBTC had a tenor of 30 months. The document also showed thereafter

the firm got N300 million.

In the same vein, in December 2014, same Erisco Foods got a total of N800 million which was for the procurement of raw materials- 240,000 metric tonnes/year tomato paste into sachet and cans. The fund given to the firm also had a separate tenor of 36 months. Similarly, in April this year, Erisco Food got another N1 billion to finance the procurement of processing machinery for fresh tomatoes into concentrate. The fund which had 84 months tenor was received by the bank through Keystone Bank Limited.

“The N2 billion facilities given to the company were intended for capital importation, while the extra N1 billion was advanced to the company on the company on the premise that it was going to be used

for the purposes of starting primary production through backward integration, using locally produced tomatoes from indigenous farmers.

“As at today, this has not been achieved. Erisco is only importing and packaging tomato paste concentrates into fina, products,” the document also indicated.

Furthermore, the source at one of the Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), through which the CBN disbursed the funds to Erisco and other beneficiaries, disclosed that the company, between June 2014 and April 2016, received various sums for the importation and installation of tomato processing lines and the stockpiling of raw materials for operational efficiency. The source, who alleged that the loans Continued on page 24

Investment Experts: Listed Nigerian Banks Trading at Huge Discounts Goddy Egene Financial and investment experts have said listed Nigerian banks are trading at huge discount relative to their emerging counterparts.

The economic and financial headwinds in the country affected the performance of some banks for the 2015 financial year and six months to June30, 2016.

But in their Its Banking Industry Report, FSDH Research said out of the 13 banks analysed based on their audited 2015 results, 10 have upside potential for equity investors.

THISDAY checks showed that most of the banks are trading

STOCK MARKET significantly below their opening prices. Apart from Access Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank, the rest banks are trading below their opening prices.

For instance, Diamond Bank is 44 per cent lower that its opening price, ETI (33 per cent); Fidelity Bank (37 per cent); Sterling Bank (42 per cent); Union Bank (23 per cent); Unity Bank (33 per cent); Wema Bank (37 per cent); FCMB (31 per cent); FBN Holding (39 per cent).

But FSDH Research said: ”Our analysis of the Nigerian

banks listed on the floors of the NSE shows that they are trading at huge discount relative to their emerging market counterparts.

We analysed 13 banks based on their latest audited financial results as at December 2015 and adjusted for half year, 2016. Our valuation results show that 10 banks have upside potential for equity investors. We placed a hold rating on one bank and sell ratings on two banks.”

The experts said despite the recent challenges, there are huge banking opportunities in the Nigerian economy.

“Nigerian banks need to develop more constructive strategies to increase their share

of the non-oil sector in their loan portfolios. We recognise that the current foreign exchange shortage in the country is a major problem facing the manufacturing and trading, sectors. However, lending to sectors that have local and export contents may be viable alternatives,” they said.

In their analysis of the banking sector, FSDH Research said as at December 2015, the total assets of the banking industry in Nigeria stood at N27.04 trillion, a decrease of 1.77 per cent from N27.53 trillion as at December 2014.

“The bank with the largest assets Continued on page 24

Sterling Bank Plc has renewed its commitment to the promotion of made-in-Nigeria goods and services as it supports the 2016 edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#22). The summit themed ‘Made in Nigeria’ is scheduled to hold from October 10 to 12, 2016 in Abuja.

Sterling Bank in a statement made available in Lagos at the weekend assured that it would continue to invest in and partner with like minds to promote the production and consumption of locally made goods and services adding that its sponsorship is also hinged on the fact that the event would provide a platform for public-private dialogue (PPD) to fashion out the right economic agenda to take the nation out of the current economic downturn.

The bank has remained consistent in the promotion of madein-Nigeria products. Recently, it sponsored the made-In-Nigeria week held in Lagos. The bank is also in partnership with Innoson Motors Limited to finance the purchase of locally made vehicles produced by the company. In addition, Sterling Bank financed Labana Rice, one of the largest rice mill in the country and also bought large quantity for staff and stakeholders in the bank.

Driving this initiative down to her staff, the bank has instituted a ‘Made - in- Nigeria Week’ when staff come to the office dressed in locally made attires.

Held annually, NES attracts over a thousand delegates including chief executives, opinion leaders and policy level managers from the public and private sectors to interact and share thoughts on issues of national importance.

The bank in the statement explained that its strategic support for the promotion of was informed by the current economic headwinds and exchange rate volatility fueled by the fall in oil price which brought to the fore, the need to diversify the nation’s revenue base and support the manufacturing sector through the patronage and use of locally made products and services.

STBollywood Offers English, Yoruba Programmes

StarTimes subscribers across Africa who love Indian movies, music and lifestyle can now enjoy their favourite Indian programmes more in English, Yoruba and six other languages from October.

This is as the digital TV network has refreshed its ST Bollywood channel to wear a new look and enhanced the language menu hitherto inHindutoofferEnglishaudiotoviewers.ItwillalsolaunchanewIndian channel called Bollywood Africa across the African market in October The company’s Head of Public Relations, Mr. Israel Bolaji said while ST Bollywood has seven audio options, including English, Yoruba, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Luganda and Hindu with subtitles in English, French and Chinese, ST Bollywood Africa has audio options for Yoruba, Swahili and Luganda with subtitles in English.

According to the company, both channels are available to subscribers on DTT channels (500, 501) and DTH channels (550, 551) on Basic, Classic, Unique, Smart and Super bouquets.

“For us to take Africa out of its current economic situation, we need to have all hands on deck; the executive, legislature alongside international partners and the private sector” Chairman, United Bank for Africa,

Tony Elumelu

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD HOW ERISCO FOODS RECEIVED HUGE COMMERCIAL AGRIC CREDIT INTERVENTION

received by Erisco were expected to be repaid within a period ranging from two and a half years to seven years, wondered why the industrialist opted to accuse various government agencies when indeed his company had benefitted immensely from interventions of government and funding from the banks.

Furthermore, the source alleged that the company might not have kept to existing rules of engagement by importing tomato paste and repacking the item instead of boosting local tomato paste production in line with the aspirations of government.

“When contacted, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the central bank does not allocate forex anymore.

“By practice, we do not join issues with individuals on matters of this nature. All I can tell you is that the CBN does not allocate foreign exchange. All business persons, manufacturers, traders, among others are expected to approach their respective banks to bid for and obtain foreign exchange. Whether they succeed or not is their business. No amount of blackmail through paid advertorial or sponsored reports could make the CBN change its policy.”

INVESTMENT EXPERTS: LISTED NIGERIAN BANKS TRADING AT HUGE DISCOUNTS

remains FBN Holdings with total assets of N4.17 trillion accounting for 15.41 per cent of the industry total assets. This was followed

by Zenith Bank with total assets of N4.01 trillion and accounted for about 14.82 per cent of the industry size,” they said.

According to them, the five largest banks by assets size, FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank, UBA, Access Bank and GT Bank accounted for 59.33 per cent of the industry total assets size. The largest contributor to the industry total assets was loan and advances which stood at N12.56 trillion and accounted for 46.45 per cent of the total assets. The total customer deposits liabilities which represent depositors’ confidence in the banking industry stood at N18.07 trillion as at December 31, 2015.

Group Business Editor

Chika Amanze-Nwachuku AgriBusiness/Industry Editor

Crusoe Osagie

Comms/e-Business Editor

Emma Okonji

Capital Market Editor

Goddy Egene

Senior Correspondent

Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents

Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Linda Eroke (Labour) Eromosele Abiodun (Maritime) Ejiofor Alike (Energy) James Emejo (Nation’s Capital) Obinna Chima (Money Mkt) Reporters

Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (AgriBusiness)

NEWS

New PTAD Boss Vows Zero Tolerance for Corruption James Emejo in Abuja The newly appointed Executive Secretary, Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD), Sharon Ikeazor has vowed to enthrone a regime of zero tolerance for corruption in the agency.

She said though the agency had been burdened by various challenges in the past, every staff member and stakeholder must help put measures in place to turn things around and ensure PTAD’s targets are realised.

She said while the primary duty of the agency was to ensure timely payment of benefits and other entitlements, as and when due, under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS), the inadequate and untimely release of funds had often resulted in delays and accumulated arrears of pension rights.

The new PTAD boss also expressed regret that retirees had lost their lives as a result of delays of pension payment for months-even years.

In her acceptance speech, however, Ikeazor said to carry out its responsibility diligently, the agency will be equipped and enabled to expeditiously update and populate it’s database through verification and effective management of pension records.

She also promised to establish a regime of efficient pensions and gratuities administration and payments.

She expressed gratitude

to President Muhammadu Buhari for the opportunity given her to make a positive difference in the lives of millions of Nigerians who have arduously served their country with dedication over the decades.

She said:” No pension or retiree, after serving their fatherland should ever be

forced into the indignity and painful uncertainty of delayed pensions.

“We owe them that, from the most junior rank to the highest rank. No one should ever be left behind. Pension payment shall be a pleasure rather than a pain.”

Earlier, the elstwhile acting Executive Secretary, Mr.

Domestic airlines have said some of the charges they pay to aviation agencies, estimated at N10 billion per annum, are arbitrary and illegal, saying they should be stopped immediately.

The airlines alleged that the agencies did not secure the approval from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) before introducing the charges, as stipulated in the 2006 Civil Aviation Act. A senior official of one of the major domestic carriers told THISDAY that those charges that did not get the approval of NCAA ought not to be paid by the airlines because they are illegal charges.

“All charges have to be approved by NCAA. There should be discussion with all stakeholders before charges are introduced but nothing like that has occurred. This regulation is contained in 2006 Civil Aviation Act. When Fidelia Njeze was the Minister of Aviation she directed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency

He said the prompt payment of monthly pension and payment of 12 months arrears out of the 42 months outstanding of 33 percent arrears have won back confidence of pensioners in PTAD. According to him, staff attitude and that of the regulator-PenCom had been positive.

MTN UNVEILS 4GLTE SERVICES

R-L: Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria, Rahul De; Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Senator Isa Galauda; MTN Executive , Amina Oyagbola, and Senator Chairman Senate Committee on Communications, Gilbert Nnaji, during the official launch of MTN’s 4G LTE services in Abuja… recently

Airlines Accuse Aviation Agencies of Illegal Charges Chinedu Eze

Murtala Musa Oluwatoyin during his handover remarks said there are several issues in the civil service pension which needed to be tackled by his successor.

He commended the staff for their cooperation while he superintended over the affairs of the agency in the past nine months.

(NAMA) to present their charges to the then DirectorGeneral of NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren for approval but the management of FAAN then said they were not answerable to NCAA. “This is enshrined in the Civil Aviation Act and if they make a law they should abide by the law, so why is FAAN and NAMA refusing to do so? They ought to call the meeting of airlines and discuss with them on the charges from NAMA and FAAN. The charges are even discriminatory because it is alleged that some airlines are exempted from paying some charges leveled on others,” the official told THISDAY. The source also urged the Minister of State, Aviation to invite an independent body to reconcile accounts between the agencies and the airlines, noting that the high charges leveled on the airlines are threatening their existence.

“As at June this year we paid the agencies N20.1 billion and this can be verified.

The agencies have to sit down and reconcile with us.

Government should set up a committee of independent

people to look into the matter,” the official said.

Also the Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison confirmed that arbitrary charges are levied on the airlines, adding that the charges are outrageous and that is why the existence of the airlines is being threatened.

“All charges have to be approved by NCAA. There should be discussion with all stakeholders but nothing like that has occurred,” an official of Arik Air told THISDAY. But an NCAA source said that there is conflicting issue about the autonomy of FAAN, which was being deliberated and was expected to be rectified by the National Assembly, adding that technically the Act that established FAAN designated it as autonomous but NCAA is the regulator of the industry, which automatically makes FAAN subordinate to its rules until the Act is repealed, FAAN officials would always argue on its autonomy, especially in areas that do not have to do with safety and security of flight operations.

Tincan Island Port Generates N25.6bn in September Eromosele Abiodun The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Tincan Island Port has announced that the various strategic plans aimed at enhancing revenue collecting capacity of the command have continued to show positive signals with the collection of N25.6 billion as revenue in the month of September 2016.

The measures, it added, include but not limited to strengthening and rejuvenating the competence of the critical areas particularly with regards to identifying and blocking all areas of revenue leakages, capacity building, in areas of modern customs operations as well as extracting the commitment of officers/men in the discharge of their statutory responsibilities.

The Area Controller, Comptroller Bashar Yusuf said Tincan Island Port as a benchmark Command is determined to making the Port a hub, with the entrenchment of due diligence/process in all areas of its operations.

He stated further that the place of customs in national development cannot be overemphasised, and pointed out that his command will not renege on it is entrenched function of revenue collection/ generation irrespective of the present global economic challenge being faced by nations all over

the world.

The Controller is optimistic that the latest innovation of involving stakeholders in the training programme will restore sanity in the system and as well as change the orientation of those who believe in circumventing the process.

He called for stronger relations between the command and stakeholders for the actualisation of expected results.

“Beyond the fact that we have regular meetings with the critical stakeholders, I have always given the terminal/sectional heads a marching order to ensure that all importers/and their agents are compelled to comply with the extant laws on international trade, “he said.

He commanded those he tagged as compliant importers/agents for their deep sense of patriotism which he noted has helped the command in achieving its Revenue targets.

The controller further assured that compliant importers/and/ or their agents will continue to receive the support of the command and will do everything possible to ensure that they enjoy the full benefit of compliance.

He added, “We will always make them feel obligated to follow due diligence/process in their transactions.”

25

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

MARKET REPORT

Stock Market Reverses Gains to Close in the Red Goddy Egene and Nosa Alekhuogie

for the decline on the last day of the week. The total value of stocks traded on was N921.57 million shares staked on 200.84 million shares in 3,048 deals.

The stock market closed in the red last week pulling back from four weeks of positive performance.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index went down by 1.77 per cent to close at 27,835.22 compared with a growth of 2.7 per cent the previous week.

Market analysts at Cordros Capital said they were not surprised at the negative close last week following broad-based profit-taking after gains which were not supported by a significant positive catalyst. According to them, the macroeconomic landscape remains strained while unimpressive earnings continued to hit the market.

Besides the NSE ASI that declined, the volume and value of trading also declined. The market capitalisation also shed N172.5 billion to close at N9.561 trillion. Similarly, all other Indices finished lower during the week with the exception of the NSE ASeM Index that closed flat. The NSE Industrial Goods recorded the highest decline of 5.3 per cent on the back of price declines in Lafarge Africa Plc (-13.87 per cent) and Ashaka Cement Plc (-7.62 per cent).

Sell-offs in Zenith Bank Plc(-6.44 per cent), Access Bank Plc (-2.70 per cent), GTBank (-2.29 per cent), and FBN Holdings Plc (-1.90 per cent), dragged both the NSE Banking (-2.88 per cent). Similarly, PZ (-9.95 per cent) , whose first quarter (Q1) earnings failed to impress investors, Guinness Nigeria (-9.74 per cent), Nigerian Breweries (-2.80 per cent) and Nestle Nigeria Plc led to a decline of 2.69 per cent in the NSE Consumer Goods Index.

Also, the NSE Oil & Gas Index closed the week 1.16 per cent lower.

Daily Market Performance Summary Trading at the stock market resumed last Tuesday as Monday was declared a public holiday to mark the 56th independence anniversary of Nigeria. However, the market opened on a bearish note with the NSE ASI depreciating by 0.20 per cent to close at 28,277.93. The depreciation recorded in the share prices of United Bank for Africa, Nigerian Breweries Plc Access Bank Plc , Nestle Nigeria Plc and FBN Holdings Plc were responsible for the decline in the NSE ASI. Apart from the decline in the benchmark index, the total value of stocks traded on the first trading day also went down to N1.32 billion shares, from N2.39 billion the previous trading day. The total volume of stocks traded was 198.10 million shares exchanged in 2,806 deals.

The three most actively traded stocks were: Access Bank (41.09 million shares), FCMB (37.66 million shares) and UBA (23.92 million shares).

Performance across sectors was mixed on Tuesday as the NSE Banking Index advanced 1.4 per cent on the back of buying interest in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (+4.1 per cent) and Zenith Bank Plc (+2.4 per cent). Similarly, the NSE Oil & Gas Index gained 0.1 per cent boosted by appreciation in the shares of Oando Plc(+1.3 per cent).

Conversely, the NSE Consumer Goods Index fell by 1.7 per cent as losses in Nigerian Breweries Plc (-2.8 per cent) and Nestle Nigeria Plc (-1.2 per cent) impacted sector performance. The NSE Insurance Index declined marginally by 0.1 per cent.

The bears sustained their hold on the market on Wednesday, pushing the NSE ASI down by 1.0 per cent to close at 28,009.40. Market capitalisation also decreased N94.3

billion to settle at N9.6 trillion. The negative performance was influenced by sell pressures on Dangote Cement Plc(-1.1 per cent),GTBank (-3.6 per cent), Zenith Bank (-3.7 per cent) and Forte Oil Plc (-4.5 per cent).

Analysis of the sectoral performance indicated that all sector indices close in red except the insurance index that rose by0.7 per cent on account of gains in AIICO Insurance (+1.2 per cent).

The NSE Banking Index contracted the most, shedding 2.3 per cent following depreciation in GTBank(-3.6 per cent) and Zenith Bank (-3.7 per cent). The NSE Oil & Gas Index followed closely with a fall of 1.4 per cent as Forte Oil and Conoil Plc shed 4.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent in that order.

The total value of stocks traded on the second day rose by 11.7 per cent to N1.47 billion, from N1.32 billion recorded the previous day.

The most actively traded sectors were: Financial Services (162.13 million shares), Conglomerates (7.85 million shares) and Consumer Goods (6.50 million shares).

However, the market rebounded on Thursday, appreciating by 0.08 per cent. The NSE ASI closed higher at 28,031.90, while market capitalisation added N7.7 billion to be at N9.6 trillion. Gains in Dangote Cement Plc (+1.1 per cent), UBA Plc (+3.0 per cent) and Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc (+4.3 per cent) bolstered the rebound.

The NSE Consumer Goods Index emerged the lone price gainer, rising by 0.4 per cent on account of gains in Seven-Up and Flour Mills Nigeria Plc. Despite positive sentiment in Dangote Cement, the NSE Industrial Goods Index contracted the most, losing

3.1 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index followed, declining 0.4 per cent as Continental Reinsurance Plc and AIICO Insurance shed 4.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

The NSE Banking Index and NSE Oil & Gas indices shed 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent in that order as losses in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (-2.3 per cent), FCMB (-1.7 per cent), Oando (-5.0 per cent)

TOP TEN BROKERS(BY VALUE)

and Total Nigeria (-2.7 per cent) impacted both indices.

The market could not sustain the rebound recorded the previous day as the NSE ASI depreciated by 0.70 per cent to close lower at 27,835.22, while market capitalisation declined to N9.56 trillion. The depreciation recorded in the share prices of Guinness, Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Nestle and GTBank were responsible

AS AT LAST FRIDAY

BROKER

VALUE % VALUE

STANBIC IBTC STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

2,703,268,292.01

21.23

RENCAP SECURITIES (NIG) LIMITED

1,302,589,124.98

10.23

CORONATION SECURITIES LIMITED CORDROS CAPITAL LIMITED - BRD

846,224,534.44 764,856,987.40

6.65 6.01

CHAPEL HILL DENHAM SECURITIES LTD - BRD

728,896,402.18

5.73

A.R.M SECURITIES LIMITED - BRD

521,464,358.15

4.10

EFCP LIMITED

458,913,922.41

3.60

FBN SECURITIES LIMITED READINGS INVESTMENTS LIMITED - BDR CSL STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

TOP TEN BROKERS

(BY VOLUME)

407,181,547.83

3.20

278,025,897.72

2.18

237,496,354.88 8,248,917,422.00

1.87 64.79

AS LAST FRIDAY VOLUME

%VOLUME

CORONATION SECURITIES LIMITED

201,241,487

10.76

FBN SECURITIES LIMITED

198,035,904

4.64

BROKER

STANBIC IBTC STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

179,635,574

9.61

RENCAP SECURITIES (NIG) LIMITED CARDINALSTONE SECURITIES LIMITED

117,569,558 86,616,037

6.29 4.63

MORGAN CAPITAL SECURITIES LIMITED

65,218,574

3.49

CHAPEL HILL DENHAM SECURITIES LTD - BRD

59,631,510

3.19

REWARD INVESTMENT AND SERVICES LIMITED

58,598,783

3.13

CSL STOCKBROKERS LIMITED

54,690,386

2.92

READINGS INVESTMENTS LIMITED - BDR

48,341,033

2.59

1,069,578,846

57.20

Market Turnover Meanwhile, total volume traded fell by 27.35 per cent to 934.90 million shares, worth N6.36 billion and traded in 12,352 deals, compared to the 1.29 billion shares, valued at N9.30 billion that exchanged hands in 15,258 deals the previous week.

The financial services industry led the activity chart with 817.195 million shares valued at N4.081 billion traded in 7,268 deals, thus contributing 87.41 per cent and 64.19 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The conglomerates industry followed with 46.366 million shares worth N86.730 million in 514 deals. The third place was occupied by the oil and gas industry with a turnover of 21.539 million shares worth N465.820 million in 1,310 deals.

Trading in the top three equities– Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc and FCMB Group Plc-accounted for 364.682 million shares worth N1.074 billion in 1,359 deals, contributing 39.01 per cent and 16.90 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. Also traded during the week were a total of 184 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N2,077.37 executed in 16 deals, compared with a total of 4.761 million units valued at N25.821 million transacted the previous week in 45 deals. Similarly, a total of 580 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N576, 723.03 were traded in two deals compared to a total of 2,023 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N1.925 million transacted the preceding week in four deals.

Also traded during the week were a total of 4.761 million units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N25.821 million executed in 45 deals, compared with a total of 615 units valued at N6,070.20 transacted a week earlier in 21 deals. Similarly, total of 2,023 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N1.925 million were traded in four deals compared to a total of 3,994 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N3.263 million transacted two weeks ago in five deals.

Gainers and Losers In terms of price movement, 22 equities appreciated in price last week, lower than 35 equities of the previous week. A total of 35 equities depreciated in price, 32 equities of the previous week, while 123 equities remained unchanged higher than one hundred and 113 equities recorded in the preceding week. Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc led the price gainers with 13.6 per cent, followed by FCMB Group Plc with 8.4 per cent, just as Champion Breweries Plc gained 8.3 per cent.

United Capital Plc garnered 7.2 per cent, while Fidelity Bank Plc went up by 6.8 per cent.

Other top price gainers include: AIICO Insurance Plc (6.5 per cent); Diamond Bank Plc (5.8 per cent); Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (5.7 per cent);Okomu Oil Palm Plc (5.5 per cent)and Transcorp Hotel Plc (4.9 per cent).

Conversely, Lafarge Africa Plc led the price losers, shedding 13.8 per cent to close at N54.80 per share. Wema Bank Plc followed with a decline of 12.5 per cent, while Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc went down by 11.8 per cent among others.

26

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INSIDE BROAD STREET STATUS REPORT

Interbank Rates Rise as CBN Sells Treasury Bills

L-R: Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde; Chairman Colombia’s minister of finance Mauricio Cardenas; and World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, prior to speaking at the Governors from 189 countries during a plenary session at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, DC..recently

Causes, Cures for Inequality Lie in Policies, Say Experts Obinna Chima Inequality within countries is on the rise and policymakers can combat the economic, social, and political impact with a mixture of tax policy, income transfers, and education—which is often difficult to achieve.

In a seminar on inequality, globalisation and technology during the just concluded IMFWorld Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C, panelists agreed that globalisation has brought huge gains across countries, lifting millions out of poverty. Countries now must meet the challenge of putting their own houses in order, as incomes stagnate and social mobility—the ability to move up the income ladder—dissipates.

“The big differences between countries has nothing to do with globalisation, but with the use and misuse of domestic policy,” Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Minister for Economic and Social Policies, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said.

“What makes inequality toxic is the combination of stagnation of incomes, and the fact that [people’s] children seem to be trapped in the same position,” he said.

While inequality between countries has declined over the past 20 years, inequality within countries is on the rise.

What economists call pre-distribution policies—education, access to health care, and financial inclusion—can provide equality of opportunity and help level the playing field.

“In Colombia, what we have found is the most effective, and produces the most significant impact on distribution, but also take the longest to mature, are policies targeted to

MARKET INDICATOR early childhood programs to make sure kids have identical opportunity,” Finance Minister of Colombia, Mauricio Cárdenas said.

Cardenas also said that redistribution is a “must” to address inequality.

Redistribution policies, such as taxes and programs that transfer benefits, address inequality and do not hurt growth. IMF research had shown that there is little evidence that countries’ redistribution policies hinder growth, unless they were extreme. The IMF also advised governments on the trade-offs between efficiency and equity when it comes to a country’s choices for the right mixture of policies to address inequality.

Technology has changed and disrupted work and employment, with gains in wages in the top incomes and the erosion of middle-income jobs.

“That means machines are replacing brawn, and replacing brains,” a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Laura Tyson said.

In response, countries need policies that “train people over a lifetime and give them the tools and the capabilities to complement the technology, rather than being substituted out by the technology.”

In a press conference during the annual meetings, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the world needs inclusive globalisation—one that actually benefits all players, not one that only reduces inequality between countries, but one that also allocates fairly within countries and pays attention to

those that are at risk of losing out.

“We still think countries benefit from globalisation,” Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Tao Zhang.

“But we have to pay more attention to those left behind.” Advanced economies are seeing the effects of inequality play out in the social and political arenas. Many people in the United States are not satisfied with the income inequality gap, and also the social mobility gap,” a financier and founder of The Carlyle Group, a private equity investment company based in Washington, D.C, David Rubenstein said.

“Increasingly, people in our society feel they can’t get to the top, and that may be a bigger problem than income inequality.”

The lack of mobility has political repercussions, as people fail to advance and look to globalization, trade, and immigration as the source of their struggle.

“We may not have social unrest in the United States right now, but we clearly are having deep, deep divisions about what is fair, and what can be done to make the outcome more even, and that is tied in many circles with an anti-immigration and anti-trade perspective,” said Tyson.

With advanced economies now confronting rising inequality, the debate about what countries should do has become global.

“The downside is that the reaction of the advanced economies to inequality is building walls,” said Cardenas. “Making sure that we solve the problems of inequality [in the United States] by ensuring there is no immigration, or through protectionism—all of that just makes things worse for a region like Latin America.”

Fidelity Bank, Ogoja Road, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State Nume Ekeghe This branch is situated in the heart of the state capital and surrounded by both old and new generation banks. But this branch stands out from the others.

For instance, this reporter who visited the state capital needed to pay for flight tickets but was told by some other banks close by that they could not carry out this transaction. The Fidelity Bank branch executed this

INSIDE BANKING HALL transaction seamlessly.

But inside this branch, which is big and has a spacious banking hall, there were four tellers stationed on the right once you enter hall, three customer service personnel on the left and further left the room for bulk payments. The services at this branch were good. The tellers were fast in attending to customers and one of the tellers Mr. Onwuka

stood out from others.

He was very polite to customers, he made an extra effort in being friendly and generally ensured the customers he attended to had a pleasant banking experience. However, the customer service was just fair. They were not as friendly as the tellers. Also observed was three out of four ATM machines were walking. This branch is well functioning branch and should be emulated by others.

The management of this branch should keep up the good work.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold about N283 billion ($877.11 million) worth of treasury bills to mop up liquidity, driving up interbank lending rates, traders said on Friday.

Overnight lending rates rose to 20 per cent after the bills was sold but later dropped to 16 per cent towards the market close because the banking system was still in credit to the tune of around N17.44 billion, Reuters reported.

“We expect the market to open in the negative this week, given the volume of OMO bills sold, while the interbank lending rate is seen within the 18-20 per cent range,” one dealer said.

The bank had earlier repaid N160.64 billion worth of matured bills but sold a higher amount to drain liquidity, traders said. It sold the oneyear bill on Friday at a rate of 18.5 percent.

In September, the central bank sold Open Market Operations (OMO) bills to soak up about 1.2 trillion naira, in a bid to curb speculation against the currency and shore up fixed income yields to attract investors.

The central bank has said it will keep interest rates tight to attract foreign currency and resolve a chronic dollar shortage brought on by a slump in oil prices.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele recently said the ank will pursue price stability as an anchor for economic growth as well as to attract foreign investors as the country battles recession and rising inflation. Emefiele said in an interview with The Banker Magazine.

“The CBN does not reckon that curbing inflation, attracting foreign investors and supporting growth are mutually exclusive objectives. Rather, the monetary policy committee’s decision reflects the (central bank’s) prioritisation of its core mandate of pursuing price stability as an anchor and enabler for economic growth.

“As we have consistently said, the bank will continue to ensure that its decisions not only consider price and financial system stability, but also issues of employment and growth.”

He reiterated that the reintroduction of a flexible exchange rate system has helped increase transparency in the FX market, cleared an estimated $4 billion backlog in FX demand, reduce arbitrage and speculative opportunities, and create a more predictable structure for businesses to prioritise their FX demand, we believe that this policy has been beneficial to the economy.

“This policy has led to a gradual but steady inflow of new FX into the market. All of these have largely met the bank’s expectations in the short term. We believe that these benefits will become magnified as the policy’s sustenance improves the credibility of the CBN and investors trust us more to return more forcefully as active participants in Nigeria’s FX market.

“Obviously, the reintroduction of the flexible exchange rate system immediately led to a depreciation of the naira in the interbank market, and helped close the significant spread with the parallel market. Also, this policy encouraged movement of FX demand from the parallel to the interbank market, which also brought the two rates closer.

“Finally, new foreign portfolio inflows into the interbank market and our recent policy of allowing commercial banks to transfer some share of diaspora remittances to bureaux de change have also helped moderate rates in both markets.”

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

27

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Soludo: I Warned Nigeria About This Economic Crisis Soludo: I Warned Nigeria About This Economic Crisis Former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who made a presentation to the Commonwealth Central Bank Governors at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington D.C, strongly believes that there are a lot of uncertainties and risks in the global economy that may snowball into another economic crisis.

However, Soludo who spoke in an interview, stressed the need for countries to put in place contingency plans to avert a looming global economic crisis. Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Obinna Chima present the excerpts:

Soludo You just made a presentation to Central Bank governors in Commonwealth nations which the media was not allowed to cover.

Can you just give us the highlights of your presentation?

The focus of the presentation was actually on monetary policy under uncertainty and they asked me to speak on the Brexit because among governors of central bank of the 53 Commonwealth countries. The concern was about the possible implications of the Brexit on the economies of the Commonwealth and being governors of central bank, what this could mean for monetary policy. The major hypothesis there was that Brexit can only be seen as just one of the many sources of uncertainties in the global economy today. If the worst case scenario happens, Brexit can only heighten the state of uncertainties. But the global economy itself is almost in reset button mood. There is an uptick in the level of uncertainties in the global economy. We haven’t gotten over the legacy issues as a result of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

You can see that Europe and America still have tepid and sluggish recovery. There is a potential of China having a hard landing

and there are fears about that, which could unravel quite a lot of things in the global

In 2010, I was warning Nigeria that these oil price thing would soon come down. After that my publication, they had a Federal Executive Council meeting and I remember it was Labaran Maku who addressed the media after that, and I was the subject matter. I was berated, abused and I was described as someone who is out of office and is unhappy. Well, the rest is history

economy. You can see the price shocks on primary commodities dependent economies, such as Nigeria and so on. Several of them are in trouble. And they are in trouble as a result of the oil price shock as well as wrong policy choices to respond to the shock. As a result of the old shock, many countries have reached the limit of the policy squeeze that they have. Many have accumulated huge public debts because they ran excessive deficits. For monetary policy, interest rates are almost at very low end and many of these countries now have negative real interest rates. So, there isn’t much. Where again are you going to go to stimulate these economies? Some have raised interest rates in order to attract portfolio flows, but how far are you going to raise it without compromising growth?

So, they have reached much of the policy handles. So, the emphasis of my message to these governors is that this is the time to take preemptive, proactive contingency planning, in anticipation of the next global crisis. The latest global financial stability report 2006, talks about the uptick of uncertainties and vulnerabilities and the potential risks that the global economic system faces. Therefore,

even though Brexit is unlikely going to have any major adverse impact on the global economy, it would have impact on Britain, but we still don’t know the magnitude and duration of such effect, whether positive or negative. I also discussed the opportunities of Brexit. But, the key thing for central banks and policy makers over the world to be concerned about is the state of affair of the global economy and the financial system.

There is a whole lot of uncertainties and risks everywhere. It just takes one major crisis in some place and it will snowball inpatient another crisis. So, what are the contingency plans that countries are putting in place?

Otherwise, what you find is that people are going to be perennially reacting to the shocks as if they were not anticipated. Just like in the case of Nigeria, in 2010, I wrote a piece, exclusively published by THISDAY, in which I drew attention to the fact that we were having an unprecedented oil boom and we were actually saving nothing. We , were actually depleting the reserves even at the peak of the oil boom. Like I always CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

28

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

SOLUDO: I WARNED NIGERIA ABOUT THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS say, I met $10 billion when oil prices was around $30 per barrel. By the end of the year, oil prices was still around $30 per barrel, but we grew reserves by more than 50 per cent and kept growing it until we reached about $60 billion. I had an average monthly oil price of $59 per barrel throughout my 60 months in office and we were building reserves, almost doubling it every year.

And we had to do the consolidation of the banks before the world crisis came.

So, it is this kind of preemptive policies.

You do it before it comes, you don’t do it when it comes. You need to anticipate that the global economic and financial system, given the globalisation, is inherently unstable and it is inherently crisis prone. Therefore, periodically, you will be having cycles of crisis and shocks. So, when policy makers react as if they didn’t know it was because of the shock, I say, but they knew it was coming. It is like someone say oh, the rains have come. Of course, you know the rains would come after the dry reason. During the dry season, you knew the rains would follow the dry season. In 2010, I was warning Nigeria that these oil price thing would soon come down. After that my publication, they had a Federal Executive Council meeting and I remember it was Labaran Maku who addressed the media after that, and I was the subject matter. I was berated, abused and I was described as someone who is out of office and is unhappy. Well, the rest is history. Of course in the paper, I discussed quite a number of other things, about how the ministers of finance, the governors of central banks and the ministers of trade and investments, need to come together and develop what I called alternative scenario buildings. What if this happens, how are we going to react? What if this happens, how should we react? So, you have menu of options. I said then that what we did when oil price was rising in Nigeria has not been replicated in most parts of the world when they are having commodity and export boom. And that is to maintain an undervalued real effective exchange rate.

What you have is that when you have an export boom, countries have overvalued real exchange rate. But we have a singular record of having maintained an undervalued real effective exchange rate regime even during an export boom. We deliberately did not allow the naira to appreciate as it should have, otherwise we could have had the naira below N100 to the dollar and that would have been catastrophic. You wouldn’t have been able to accumulate the reserves. People think it was because oil price was rising, that that is how you accumulate reserves, no! Even at that time, it was still expensive to bring in goods relative to what it should be. It made better sense for people to bring in money into the country, change it into naira and do business. And because of that inflow, there was a time when the central bank could not sell more than $20 million per auction. We would offer $200 million, and the banks could not take up to $20 million.

That was because the system was awash with private flows. So, the CBN at some point became a minor player on the foreign exchange market. Anyway, I don’t want to speak beyond that. But the significant point to leave you with is that, I know people are pre-occupied with today’s crisis, but, what they are facing today is like, take the Huricane Mathew in some parts of America today, it is like some parts of the house facing leakage, and you are busy fixing it, but the huricane that might actually take out the entire house is fast approaching.

So, it is how you prepare for all of these uncertainties that matters. As I said, it is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the next global crisis would hit the world.

So, you foresee a global crisis? For several countries facing commodity price shocks, in the short run, what did you advise them to do?

In the short run, I have told many of them that this is the time to rethink some of their policy instruments. Some of those countries have fixed or quasi-fixed exchange rate systems. That in theory and in practice, in a time when you have negative terms of trade

Soludo shocks, is a no brainer. If you fix prices, if you fix the nominal variables, the real economy would adjust. Something must adjust. You cannot fix price and fix quantity. I said this in a lecture that I gave in November last year, when I was commenting on the exchange rate regime that we were operating, and to some extent, still doing now. The mismatch of what we have today, we call it flexible exchange rate regime. Of course, it is a quasi flexible exchange rate regime, creating all manner of distortions in the system. I did make the argument forcefully, that if we are fixing the exchange rate, then in the real economy, the quantities would adjust, and that is output and employment. So, when you see unemployment escalating and the economy going into recession, that is what we should expect. You can’t eat your cake and have it. So the major message I left with them as Central Bankers, when you talk about the short term, is to look at the menu of policies handles that they have.

The Managing Director of the IMF has said the Fund will start giving zero interest loans to countries facing challenges. Are you in support that these countries should go for this form of loan?

Well, the IMF has all kinds of concessionary lending facilities. You can give, whether it is

We haven’t gotten over the legacy issues as a result of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. You can see that Europe and America still have tepid and sluggish recovery. There is a potential of China having a hard landing and there are fears about that, which could unravel quite a lot of things in the global economy. You can see the price shocks on primary commodities dependent economies, such as Nigeria and so on

zero or it is at whatever interest. But what does that really mean for many of these countries? The fundamental thing is to have a healthy balance sheet, that is sustainable.

Otherwise, if you are in an unsustainable path, whether it is zero or whatever thing, it is unsustainable, you get one today, you need it tomorrow, because you still have to pay back the principal. So, if you are in an unsustainable path, you can’t even pay back the principal. So the point is some form of adjustments that get these countries to be on a sustainable path, that you’ll even be in a position. The IMF does not give grants, it is still a loan. That means, it still has to be repaid. The interest thing is on the margin as it were. It is still a loan; a loan is still a loan, whether there is interest or not, you still have to repay the principal. So, it could help some countries and some highly distressed economies tidy over their circumstances, but that is not the way. People must think of those as short term. The fundamental thing is the adjustment that gets you on a sustainable path, and that is where I think the central banks need to re-examine their instruments. I’m talking about the Central Banks of the Commonwealth countries.

We talked about the instruments that they are using, and also called on the need for supra-national coordination of what needs to happen at the G-20, group of 20 countries that account for about 80 percent of the world GDP. Coordination of monetary and fiscal stimulus package in these countries could actually help to avert or at least postpone the crisis that we are talking about. That’s what we did, that’s what happened in 2008 and 2009 as it were. The global economy is already in some huge risks, everywhere. It hasn’t turned into a global recession. We are out of it, but still wobbling. Everything is still in a wobbling mode, and that is why everything else is going down. Commodity prices have crashed, America is not growing fast, the European Union is not growing pretty fast. You have the Brexit. China is slowing, its cooling off, and so on and so forth. These are the sources of uncertainty and anxieties around the world.

A lot of currencies are under pressure around the world. You once proposed naira denomination, looking at low income countries like Nigeria, would you advise us to redenominate our currency?

I am sure you are looking for your headline (laughs..) Let me tell you, like I told you, I didn’t want to come to start doing interview about what Nigeria should do,

or what Nigeria is not going to do. I told you, if it is about the annual meetings, fair enough. It is a gentleman agreement to focus on the annual meetings, because if we are going into Nigeria, we have a saying in my place, it is not the kind of talk you get into without having a breakfast. Nigeria’s thing is not the kind of conversation you get into anyhow. You have to have good breakfast. So let’s leave that one.

Yes, you have reservations talking about Nigeria. But let’s say President Buhari contacts you privately for advice in the area of the economy, will you be willing to offer him such assistance?

(Laughs...) Did you see my reaction? It is only baba (former President Obasanjo) who laughs, me I’m just smiling at what you’re saying. I do my own citizen duty as a citizen of Nigeria. I love Nigeria, and I have also done my own beat in public service. Those six intensive, intense years; we were almost running it 24 hours, I mean, doing what you should do in 72 hours or 96 hours in just 24 hours as it were. Public sector is like a revolving door, you enter, it turns the other side and you continue to work, others enter. We have almost 200 million people in the country, largely endowed country, and I believe that there are enough people, even within the government and outside of government. There are enough people with all the ideas. There are people, there are Nigerians, who can do this, so leave me, let us not talk about me in this conversation.

Nigeria is a big country.

When you left office as CBN governor, you attempted to become a state governor.

If you had become a state governor then, with what is happening in the economy presently, how would you have coped?

We would have coped, extremely very well, I can tell you that. Even though at the state level, much of what you have, people get to face the same shock, it ripples back. The federal government in Nigeria is a major constraint to the states, and that is why some of us believe that the current structure that we have is for a time we no longer live in. The current structure was designed to share and consume the oil rent, and I have argued that a structure that is designed for consumption, cannot be efficient for production. So we know that it would have its own ripple effect. But probably, if that had happened, by now, I should be finishing my second term. So that CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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INTERVIEW

SOLUDO: I WARNED NIGERIA ABOUT THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS

Soludo first term thing, when things were still going, I’m sure we would have. We did it at the aggregate level, we would have been able to do it back in my own state because we prepared Nigeria to weather through the worst financial and economic crisis since the great depression. Nigerians took it for granted, thinking that was how it was supposed to be. But we still recorded over six per cent growth at the end of the year. People took it for granted – that is how it is supposed to be. We did it at the national level, we would also have done it at my state, and that is the message passed on to this government. The key word is seeing beyond today. When we were doing consolidation, people said impossible, why? how? Then, when the global crisis came, every country was then recapitalising, but we had done that several years before. The key thing is that we should be able to see beyond today, and that is the message I delivered to the governors of the central banks. While they are pre-occupied with today, running in circles, the major thing is coming. That contingency planning or futures mapping, what if this happens this is how we react, what if this happens, this is how we react. It is those kind of things that help you stress test the system, and you then know how. If this one crystallises, it doesn’t come to you as a shock, because you had anticipated it, and you have prepared the instrument to respond. You don’t wait until it hits you, otherwise, you’d be going in circles.

Do you see the central bank governors you spoke to preparing for the future?

After my presentation, many of them responded by actually sharing experiences of what they are doing in their individual countries, and some actually reacted in anticipation. For example, I was impressed at what the governor of Mauritius responded in terms of the reserves, because I told them to see the depreciation of the pounds sterling as an opportunity in terms of diversification of reserves. It is down now at 30-year low, but it could also rebound tomorrow. So if you take a position today in pound sterling, from dollar, you get a lot of pounds sterling and then tomorrow, when it appreciates, you can also get more dollars. For every bad thing, there is an opportunity. He (Mauritius central bank governor) said once the debate on Brexit started, they took the position that it would happen, and so they did the adjustment in anticipation of the worst case scenario and they got it all right.

In Nigeria, do you see us preparing for the future?

(Laughs..) You are still taking me back to that. Like I said, for me, as a Nigerian, I have tried to intervene on this matter, doing my own duty as a patriotic citizen who loves that country. Also, as somebody, who with every sense of modesty, has also paid his own dues. To put it on an even kill, when we were debating the exchange rate thing.

When you spend one year trying to rewrite the most basic thing about macroeconomics, we had to go back again to the debate that we finished in the early eighties. We were just having the same debate again. I have never seen a thing like that before. The so called 41 items, we have gone pass that stage. It is a road again to nowhere. So far as there is that policy, the divergence between the parallel market and official rate would continue to be so huge. And if you have that, nothing else will happen. I have said that before and it is on record. There is this philosopher that people were going to for advice. He would advise the first step and people would come for the second time

For instance, where a bag of rice is produced at a cost of N5000 and somebody sells it at between N10,000 and N15,000, while the imported one is going for N20,000, nobody will teach the basic economics here that people will go for the locally produced one.

You will see huge demand and you will notice that because this ones are producing at N5000 and selling at that margin, they would massively expand domestic production.

with another problem, and expectedly he would offer advice. But the third time that people came, he asked: Have you done the first and second that I told you and the they replied No. He now concluded that the third advice was not necessary because the first and second, which are the basics for the third have not been followed. There are fundamental basis that you will see and you know you don’t need to be an economist, but common sense. If you are a foreign investor, or even a local investor and you have $1 million to invest in the country, and but when you bring it into the country, you get maybe N312 million if you bring it through a bank. But then, five meters across the road, you can get N480 to the dollar, that is an extra N160 million, would you do so? This is just basic logic. You say you want to diversify the economy with that, it doesn’t happen anywhere. Those you are trying to help will even know that it is more profitable to deal on foreign exchange than the real manufacturing. You can make 40 to 50 per cent profit in a week, but you may not get 30 per cent in two years from manufacturing. For me therefore, I have done my own citizen duty and I hate repeating myself. I don’t play to the gallery as it were.

We just get to it, make the point and leave it there. I think I have a responsibility to do that. What I just said, I had said in writing. This is because you need to go from low-hanging fruits to the other ones. If you have a tree that is filled with fruits and there are some just close, you get those ones first. You are leaving those fruits close by and going for the ones topmost. There are immediate elementary things that need to be fixed and for me, it is just the application of common sense. When I find the need to intervene, I do so. Like on the proposal for the sale of national assets, when I read the argument, I was in a plane going back to the country and I put on my laptop and wrote my response immediately because I thought it was urgent I do that.

Some have suggested that government should re-think the Treasury Single Account policy, what is your take on that?

You are going deeper and deeper in your questions, but I won’t go beyond what I have said.

But some of the items that were excluded from accessing forex in the interbank market, such as rice, tomato paste, the federal

government has said they are now being produced in the country, don’t you think the move by the CBN was appropriate?

Let me tell you, what will make those items not to come in is not that they are tagged ineligible for access to official foreign exchange. If it is cheaper to import them, no matter what you do, they will come in. That is why we use two things- exchange rate and tariff, not ineligible or eligible for. If you import under market determined exchange rate and it is not feasible in price consideration, then it will be obvious that the importer will switch over to the locally produced one.

But if the domestic cost structure is such that producers can produce at far cheaper price relative to the imported one then it goes that way. For instance, where a bag of rice is produced at a cost of N5000 and somebody sells it at between N10,000 and N15,000, while the imported one is going for N20,000, nobody will teach the basic economics here that people will go for the locally produced one. You will see huge demand and you will notice that because this ones are producing at N5000 and selling at that margin, they would massively expand domestic production. This is not a preaching matter. Go and check the history of banning things in Nigeria and see what has been the outcome.

But it was expected that with the exclusion by the CBN, the fiscal authorities would have followed that with policies that would make the importation of these items more expensive and difficult?

No! The first one is patently wrong, because once you have put that prohibition list, what you then do is that the exchange becomes misaligned and that distortion of the premium between the official and the parallel market is going to drive everything else in the macroeconomy. The harm that it has causes, through the premium is more than anything you are going to gain from any other thing. Nothing else will happen when you have that level of distortion in the macroeconomy. It stops everything, because even the man you are giving incentive to produce is finding it better to trade in foreign exchange. What is the fiscal incentive that will create more than 30 or 40 per cent return in a week? What fiscal allocation will you give? This is why you have greater demand at the official window because everybody wants to get huge allocation so that you can round-trip some.

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Abubakar: National Quality Infrastructure to Support Growth of SMEs

Skye Bank CEO Commends Teachers’ Contribution to Knowledge Economy

James Emejo in Abuja

Group Managing Director/ CEO, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, has lauded Nigerian teachers for their invaluable contributions, not only to the Nigerian economy, but also the global economy.

Abiru stated this in a goodwill message to mark this year’s The World Teachers’ Day an event observed around the world on October 5th every year.

The theme for this year’s edition is: “Valuing teachers, improving their Status.”

According to Abiru, “education is one of the building blocks of society and most educated individuals are happier and healthier” stating that “an educated citizenry is the foundation for a strong and virile economy, fostered by teachers whose contributions are impossible to ignore.”

He added: “We are all products of teachers, who are torch bearers that sacrificed their all and toiled relentlessly for us to succeed. The Skye Bank boss called on governments and Institutions at all levels – including corporations and organisations to do more, in concrete terms, to elevate the

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar has said the federal government is working to establish a robust National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) to help transform industrial processes and systems to make locally manufactured goods and services competitive enough for the international market.

She said this would help to fully diversify the economy from oil and provide the requisite infrastructure to support the growth of over 37 million Small and medium enterprises by enhancing their productive capacities and processes.

To this end, she said the National Accreditation Body (NAB) would soon come into force to effectively help to

manage the Nigeria Accreditation National Service (NINAS) which had also been registered and deploying the structure in accordance with the West African accreditation system as agreed upon by member states of ECOWAS in 2013.

“One of the major challenges for the growth of small businesses had been their inability to produce products that are internationally certified for exports-part of the reasons being that there’s currently no accreditation body to facilitate such approvals,” she said.

Speaking in Abuja at the opening of the 7th African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC)’s General Assembly and Meetings, which is being hosted by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the minister noted that the benefits of the availability of

the services to SMEs could not be over stated as it would enhance the competitiveness of their products, thereby availing them unfettered access to both domestic and international markets.

She said:” This is the surest way the speedy economic development of the country can be guaranteed given the fact that SMEs form the bedrock of the economic development of most countries.”

Also speaking at the occasion, the erstwhile acting Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Paul Angya said the meeting aimed to chart a new course for Africa through the establishment of bodies that will endorse the competences of regulatory processes through accreditation.

He said SON, being the national standard body, had

continued to provide technical competence and support for the implementation of the NQI programme in order to surmount the challenges that hindered business engagements with other countries.

He said: “We had issues of consignment rejection, under developed metrology laboratory among others. It is important to note that SON has midwifed the establishment of the NINAS and the Nigeria Metrology Institute (NMI) in Nigeria and is providing the technical support and other resources.”

He said when fully functional, NINAS will help Nigerian businesses gain the relevant knowledge in accreditation processes and its importance to trade as well as reduce the high incidences of rejection of goods in the international market.

status of teachers for the good of our communities, nation and the world at large.”

Abiru further noted that teachers play a major role in developing the nation’s human capital from which Skye Bank as an employer of choice has significantly benefitted.

“We have worthy partnership with Teachers, especially those in the public sector across Nigeria, where we advance them soft loans, give financial advisory and help make their working environment conducive through our corporate social responsibility intervention; by improving infrastructure and providing learning tools and aids in educational institutions across Nigeria. We have partnered and impacted over 15 public schools across over 8 states in all the geo-political zones of Nigeria.

We have also provided financial literacy education; renovation works, provided fully equipped ICT laboratories; equipped libraries with modern books; sunk boreholes and provided modern convenience and toilet facilities at different schools,” he said.

Unity Bank Partners Women Group on Entrepreneurship Devt.

WARM RECEPTION

L-R: The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta; MD/CEO, VDT Communications, Mr. Biodun Omoniyi and CEO, Phase 3 Telecoms, Mr. Stanley Jegede, at a special reception for Danbatta, organised by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in Lagos...recently

The need to create wealth through conscious financial management skills was the crux of the paper presented by the Head, SME Banking of Unity Bank, Mr. Opeyemi Ojesina, at the’ Lagos and The Women Conference’ held in Lagos recently.

Ojesina, who spoke on ‘The Place of the Women Entrepreneur’ enjoined women to shift from mere buying and selling to creating businesses that fulfill needs on a longer term.

He charged women to strive to have a clear understanding of the concepts of the businesses they engage in as a guarantee for attracting the funding support they seek from banks.

Ojesina, who noted that good business ideas are as important as finance for budding entrepreneurs, urged women to be open to sharing creative business ideas that could be the leverage upon which funding support could be found.

“Believe that you can start small and shelve the idea that you must have all the money or materials to take off. Existing businesses attract funding easier than yet-to-take-off ones” Ojesina said.

He commended the Amazing Amazons, the organisers of ‘The Lagos and The Women Conference’ for the support and awareness for wealth creation through entrepreneurship development.

LADOL to Partner Norwegian Firms to Drive Investments Eromosele Abiodun The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), an indigenous logistic service organisation, has commenced strategic partnership with multiple Norwegian companies towards oil and gas business development in the country.

The plan was revealed in Lagos when a delegation of the Nigerian/Norwegian Chamber of Commerce (NNCC), visited the LADOL base.

The team was received by the Executive Director of LADOL, Mr. Jide Jadesimi, who conducted them round the base where LADOL is currently playing host as the local content partner to Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in the fabrication of a $3.8 billion oil platform.

Jide, who represented the Managing Director, Dr. Amy

Jadesimi, said the base was developed as a Greenfield swamp by indigenous players about a decade ago, and that over a $104 million dollars had been invested even before the company got its first contract.

According to him, the base is unique in its mode of operations in it strives to save capital flight, minimize delivery time that usually inhibit such projects when handled abroad, as well as its drive to increase efficiency in the system.

He said the company has been able to effectively manage the success story of its operations considering its location which guarantees industrial peace as against the worrisome security challenges at the Niger Delta region of the country.

Assuring the visiting team of the readiness of the base to do business with the Norwegian companies, Jadesimi said the

base is well fortified with all necessary government agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service, Immigration Services, the Nigerian Navy, Ports Authority officials and a host of others who oversee due diligence in its operations.

“I can assure you that the future here is bright for direct foreign investments(DFI), even though we have a few challenges which borders on bureaucracy and red tape, but these are issues that government is vigorously addressing” he said.

Responding, head of the Norwegian team, Dr. Gulbrand Wangen, said the Chamber was representing over 200 Norwegian oil and gas companies that were desirous of partnering with Nigerian companies for business development.

He called on the National Assembly to urgently pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)

so as to attract Norwegian companies investment in oil and gas.

Expressing delight at the operations in LADOL, he said the companies under his group were focused on oil and gas business development in five major countries of the world in which Nigeria is one of them.

“To do this successfully, we are working with the Nigerian/ Norwegian Chamber of Commerce which was established in May this year. We are here because we have heard about LADOL and I must say we are impressed by what we have seen.

“We are confident that we could open a lot of companies here as what we have seen will enable us to properly advise those companies back home as to what is going on here,” he said.

He, however, noted that government needs to encourage

the quick passage of the PIB, in order to encourage investors who will be adequately guided by the terms of engaging in such businesses in the country.

According to him, with companies such as LADOL, there was no doubting the capability of Nigeria to play the role of West African hub in oil and gas operations, if only government would demonstrate its readiness to make the industry more transparent with the enactment of the necessary legislature.

Also speaking, Chairman of the NNCC, Chijioke Igwe, noted that the establishment of the Chamber earlier in the year was informed partly by the need to attract foreign investors into the Nigerian Oil and gas industry in order to secure the nation’s hub status in the sub region.

According to him, “there is the need to bring these two

countries together in building the industry. Norway has built an impressive track record in the oil and gas sector…and the two countries bear a lot of similarities.

“We have a population of about 170 million people while Norway has five million people which are the major difference in the two countries. However, there is a lot of opportunities for Nigerian and Norwegian companies to collaborate if the enabling environment is there.

“We are determined to foster this enabling environment through dialogue, and engagement with the relevant organs of the national Assembly on the need to pass the PIB. The opportunity that exists in having the Norwegian companies doing business in the oil and gas industry is huge and will be beneficial to both countries,” he added.

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NEWS

Rosabon Financial Services Launches Promo to Boost Financial Access Nume Ekeghe Financial services provider, Rosabon has announced a reward scheme to further boost access to its financial services, especially its personal loan scheme.

From October 3 to December 31, 2016, new and old loan customers of the financial services provider will stand a chance to win an all expense luxurious hotel stay and a dinner for two coupled with a Spa treat.

The reward is open to Rosabon customers in Lagos,

Port Harcourt and Abuja.

To be a part of this promo, interested customers have to, among other things, apply for a personal loan of up to N1million) and above from Rosabon Financial Services, provide necessary documentation including; two passport photographs, valid identification, current utility bill etc. Upon approval of the loan and disbursal, you get a chance to enter the raffle draw for the month and stand a chance to win the prize.

Speaking on the promo, in Lagos recently, the Head

Strategy & Marketing, Chidimma Onyeokoro, said: “At Rosabon, we understand and appreciate the mutual relationship that exists between us and our customers. For a long time, our customers have trusted us as a strong partner in meeting their financial obligations and this is one of those ways we can truly let them know we appreciate them. More so, as the year winds down, it is just fair that we provide this opportunity to our customers as a sign of our commitment to this partnership.”

She added: “Over the past two decades, Rosabon has established a reputation for its relentless pursuit of financial inclusion and deepening access to finance among corporate organisations and individuals in Nigeria. This is one of the ways we are championing access to finance. We not only wish to encourage people to trust us for their financial empowerment but we also wish to use this opportunity to reward all those who continue to use our platform to meet their financial obligations.”

Lagos State Connects with Communities through Market Activation Raheem Akingbolu The Lagos State Government has announced plans to engage communities in its developmental activities by connecting with traders and buyers through road shows and interactive sessions at selected markets in Lagos.

Special Adviser to Lagos State governor on Community and Communications, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, who disclosed this during the Independence Day celebration

in Lagos said the initiative is in line with Governor Akinwumi Ambode’s pledge to run an inclusive government in the state.

He explained that the market place is usually a convergence of different opinion, ideas and belief.

Hence the state government has decided to use the platform to connect with its citizens by engaging them in a two-way communication system; informing them about governor Ambode’s activities

and eliciting response on the view and demands from the state government.

His words: “This is an innovative market activation by the Ambode-led government of Lagos State which is also part of the governor’s commitment to the pledge he made to the people of the state that community development would be the beginning and the end of his government projects.

“The market is a very important aspect of our daily

lives as Africans. It’s not just a place of buying and selling, it is also a place for trading of ideas and opinion. We have decided to make use of below the line communication method on this platform provided by the market to engage the communities in a constructive dialogue about the state affairs and derive response from them.

“This initiative would also drive home the seriousness of the No Street Hawking advocacy of Governor Ambode’s government by appreciating traders who have embraced the market places with gift items.

“We would also use the platform to inform citizens on state provisions such as N6.2bilion set aside for five per cent interest loan assistance for SMEs. And also educate them on their responsibilities as citizens such as payment of tax which would assist the state to achieve its aims. “ According to him, the first phase of the market activation would hold between October 11th and 22nd across selected markets at Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Ikeja and LagosIsland.

MTN Launches Revolutionary 4G LTE Service James Emejo in Abuja Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria has launched the much-anticipated Fourth Generation (4G) broadband technology, believed to be 10 times faster than the existing third generation (3G) service.

The unveiling the service over the weekend, drew an immediate commendation from Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who said the roll out of the technology will further give impetus to the National Assembly’s drive to provide legislature that will leverage technology to accelerate the growth of businesses in the country.

Represented at the launch in Abuja by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, the senate president said: “MTN is a trail blazer and today we celebrate you. The 4G LTE network is a forbearer of the new emerging Nigerian economy based on diversification and modernisation. We are excited because today’s launch is leveraging on our avowed legislative agenda which the National Assembly would soon conclude based on leveraging technology to enable businesses cut costs and speed up their processes.”

MTN Chief Executive, Ferdi Moolman, who was represented by MTN’s Chief Operating Officer, Mohammed Siddiqui, said the deployment of MTN 4G LTE will not only enhance browsing experience across Nigeria, but will also accelerate the achievement of the country’s targeted broadband penetration by 2018.

He said: “We are excited to officially roll-out MTN 4G LTE services to our esteemed customers. By leveraging on our network, it promises to be the widest LTE coverage in Nigeria. With the acquisition of the 2.6GHZ spectrum

earlier this year, our objective was clear: to build capacity to accommodate 4G LTE for the benefit of Nigerians because it is the fastest wireless internet connection available today.

In fulfilling that objective, we have embarked on aggressive optimization of our sites to beef up our capacity for 4G LTE.” With the launch of the service, MTN subscribers can now enjoy optimised wireless 4G broadband and high-speed browsing experience which is currently the fastest and most futuristic mobile internet access available in the country.

Also, Corporate Services Executive, MTN, Amina Oyagbola, said the 4G LTE service is presently available in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, adding that plans were underway to expand the 4G LTE service to other parts of the country.

She further called on subscribers to visit the nearest MTN customer service centre in the three cities to upgrade their SIMs to U-SIMs to enable them enjoy the 4G service. She added that switching to the 4G LTE service would not attract additional tariffs for subscribers.

While maintaining that MTN subscribers who preferred to remain on the 3G platform were free to do so, she nevertheless stressed that the roll-out of 4G in these cities would decongest the 3G space and make it more efficient in providing digital services.

She said: “While we encourage subscribers to step up to 4G LTE, we will not discontinue the existing 3G Broadband service. Basically, as more people migrate to 4G in the areas it is available, it will free up space for 3G users to enjoy better experience. Ultimately, both 4G and 3G will enhance Broadband experience.”

Recession: APBN Offers to Partner Government for Economic Revival Raheem Akingbolu Nigeria economy will bounce back if all stakeholders contribute their quotas to the system, the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), has said.

The association’s outgoingPresident and Chairman in Council, Mr. Gabriel Fasoto, said the economic recession in the country was not bad as it was being painted.

According to the group, all government needs to do is to focus on governance with attendant needs of the citizenry. The group also called on government to engage professionals to put the economy on the right track.

Fasoto, who made the remark at the 32nd annual

general assembly (AGA), of the association, said Nigeria had the resources to move out of recession as quickly as possible.

He said: “It is only the harmonisation of these resources that we (Nigeria) need and only the professionals can assist government to quickly get out of the current situation.

We have everything it requires to get out of this mess.

“It was recently we discovered that government was not taking us seriously, we then felt the need to come together as a united front and then proffer suggestions to government. It took time before government realised that they are supposed to take professionals more seriously. I want to assure you that they have increased the number of

professionals in the country’s affairs. We are partnering with them, and we believe that they will take our advices more seriously than ever before.”

The president, who stated that the anti-corruption war waged by Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is already yielding positive results, noted that implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), had provided greater visibility of government revenues and cash flow between June 2015 and April 2016, with total collected hitting N3 trillion.

He urged government at all levels to endeavour to translate the success recorded to good governance, restating the APBN’s commitment to the development of the country by offering its services to the government and its agencies.

34

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2016

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

Digital Migration: FG Reassures Nigeria on June 2017 Deadline Raheem Akingbolu The federal government has said it has the political will to meet the June 2017 deadline for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Speaking at the International Summit on Advertising in Nigeria held recently in Lagos, the Minister of Information & Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed affirmed the commitment and determination of the federal government to ensure that Nigeria complies with the International Telecommunictions Union (ITU) decision on the digitisation of broadcasting.

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) organised the summit in collaboration with BSP Media International sponsored by Beer Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.

Supporting organisations include The Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria and the Advertisers Association of Nigeria.

The minister remarked that one of the biggest challenges of the current administration is to create employment to a large number of youths in the

country. He urged the summit to adopt a template for more responsible communication and come out with actionable outcomes which can inspire policies that are beneficial to the people, assuring that the federal government will partner stakeholders to ensure a speedy implementation of the Summit’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, in a communiqué issued and signed by all the head of sectoral bodies, it was noted that the participants identified the growing importance of digital as the platform of choice for advertising as well as the impact of technology and changes in consumer behaviour in transforming the global advertising industry.

The summit also identified the key role of the Internet in the future of advertising and that the industry is moving into a future of fragmentation, disruption, and highly disruptive campaigns.

Participants also observed the interdependence of broadcast media and advertising for survival as well as the need for stronger alignment between APCON and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission.

They also observed, the necessity of enhanced ca-

pacity of regulators given changes in the advertising ecosystem. In addition, they noted that video downloads would continue to increase and dominate to the tune of 82% of all downloads by 2020.

To this end, they said there is need for agencies to evolve into gatekeepers for knowledge of client brands with the ability to integrate all the competencies necessary to enable clients to win.

In their recommendation after the summit, they stressed the need for increasing selfregulation by professionals in all areas of the advertising value chain. They also call for better monitoring and measurement as a basis for regulation of advertising.

To stand tall globally, professionals in advertising were charged to commit to the highest level of compliance with the advertising and broadcasting codes.

For effective operation, the body urged government to empower and enhance capacity in the Monitoring Unit of APCON regarding personnel, technology, among others, to enable it function effectively in the changing communication ecosystem.

HP Reinvents Technology, Launches Lifestyle PC Emma Okonji Hewlett Packard (HP), has reinvented technology with the launch of its premium personal computer (PC) laptop that combines lifestyle with workplace, in such a manner that consumers could conveniently use the laptop for workplace and for their fashionable lifestyles.

The PC, known as HP Spectre, brings performance and style together in an exclusive design, and it comes as the thinnest laptop with very light weight that makes it very convenient to carry about. It has a weight of 1.1kg, and a width of less than 1.5cm.

The laptop was unveiled in Lagos, introducing a new dimension to design technology. The Spectre’s design is certainly an eye-catcher, drawing interest with its high gloss copper accents - proof that PCs can be an expression of style.

Introducing the HP Spectre, the Nigeria Managing Director, HP, Mrs. Ify Afe, said the HP Spectre is the perfect illustration of how the company not only reacts to trends, but also embraces change.

“A large part of our business philosophy is to reinvent who we are, what our customers

want, how we can provide that and how we anticipate that.

We aspire to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere and in the HP Spectre we see innovation at its best – advanced and progressive technology that is geared to optimum productivity and a style and design that defines class,” Afe said.

The HP Spectre comes with embedded Intel Core i5 and i7 models. It features a superb entertainment experience with full HD 13.3” (33.8cm) diagonal edge-to-edge display and Bang &Olufsen sound.

Unveiled as the one of the thinnest laptop the world has ever seen the new HP Spectre has an aluminium chassis as thin as an AAA-battery and is powered by Windows 10.

Speaking at the launch, Partner Channel Marketing Manager, Consumer Channel Group, Microsoft Nigeria, Bunmi Bialose, said: “Windows 10 empowers people to do great things. In a mobile world, Windows 10 moves with you seamlessly and easily across your devices, making interacting with technology as natural as interacting with people. It’s more personal and productive. It’s safer and more secure. It’s familiar, easy to use and automatically up to

date.”

The HP’s Regional Marketing Manager, Tolulope Lawani, stated that “Every feature on this piece was well thought-out. At the point of conceptualising the design of the new HP Spectre, care was taken to combine the best user experience with maximum performance in the masterpiece. The new HP Spectre is a combination of aesthetics and functionality and I dare say ‘power’ has never been this slim.”

The new HP Spectre unveiling event included a selection of fashion pieces on display, each created taking inspiration from the Spectre laptop. The exclusive pieces were created by two of Nigerians finest designers Mai Atafo and Toju Foyeh who put together outfits that captured the essence of the luxurious laptop.

Increasingly, consumers are capturing content in 4K resolution and want technology that can handle this raw footage.

They want large, high resolution displays that allow them to edit photos and videos and also to experience immersive video in their down-time.

To address these market shifts, HP reinvented devices that create personal and work pride, allowing experiences that help customers to do better.

35

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Experts Call for Increased Corporate Governance Culture Ugo Aliogo, Abdulkareem Azeezat and Saheed Sakariyah Experts have called for increased corporate governance culture and ethical values to enhance as part of measures to improve service delivery in the financial service sector and strengthen organisational output.

The experts disclosed this in Lagos recently at the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) and the Financial Institution Training and Consulting (FITC) as part of measures to improve business collaboration between two organisations. The partnership is also focused on improving capacity building and adding value to the sector.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of ACCA, Helen Brand, said the mission of ACCA was to provide people with talent and ability in order to qualify as professional accountants, adding that they have seen a wide range of skills needed by business employees

that can be harnessed.

“The partnership with FITC will provide greater opportunities which will contribute to capacity building within the Nigeria environment,” she added.

On her part, Country Head of ACCA, Mrs. Toyin Ademola said both organisations are interested not only in the development of financial skills, but also in ethnics and corporate governance, adding that they are also concerned about student and staff members delivering values to their employers, “the vision of FITC aligns with us as well. The main focus of the MOU is mainly to partner and deliver value to their members.”

Ademola affirmed that in ACCA, there are professional ethics which every member must pass before becoming professional members of the organisation, stressing that the partnership would create the platform for student members and staff members to understand the need to adhere strictly to ethics and governance in the discharge of their duties.

“FITC on its parts adheres strictly to governance and

ethics. It is also an avenue for upgrading capability and skills.

Therefore, this would help our members and stakeholders that to understand that these core values are requirement to deliver value to the institute and the employers. We are hoping to work with the federal Government very soon. Recently, we were with the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo with our developed insight and research on anti-corruption,” Ademola said.

Also, the Associate Director of FITC, Mr. Tunji Ajiboye, expressed hope that the partnership with ACCA would bring the much desired value to the financial sector in Nigeria, while leveraging on the capacity of ACCA in order to deliver significance in the areas of training, consulting, and research to the financial service sector.

He said the focus of FITC on governance was well-known amongst stakeholders in the sector, noting that since they began training directors in 1985 on corporate governance, they have trained over 7000 directors in that area.

ANAN Boss Proffers Solution to Nigeria’s Economic Crisis The President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Mr. Anthony Nzom has advised the federal government to ensure that the looted funds recovered so far are effectively redistributed to all sectors of the economy and citizenry to alleviate economic hardship.

Nzom gave the advice in Abuja in a welcome address at the opening of the 21st Annual Conference of Certified National Accountants.

He said the redistribution of looted funds would alleviate the current economic hardship the nation is currently facing.

According to him, the federal government’s strides in tackling the abuse of public office are highly commendable coupled with the recovery of looted funds.

“The signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the government of Ni-

geria and the United Kingdom on the modalities for the return of stolen assets will help instill discipline and decency in public officers’ conduct.

“The economic realities of the present time calls for critical evaluation of the past and present as means of pursuing future goals and aspirations to create a sustainable economic pathways for a developing nation like ours. As the nation battles with the realities of economic recession, it is logical that a pragmatic plan is carefully designed in addressing them.

“That is why in our official capacity as professional Accountants, we are converging to rub minds and contribute to the discourse on how the nation can get out of the economic recessions,” a statement quoted Nzom to have said.

He said that this was what informed the theme for this year’s conference: “Nigeria’s

Economic Management: Accountants’ Perspective.”

He said the major thing among the challenges the nation contends with today is the decline in the global price of crude oil, a startling reality buffeting our economy with crude oil as the mainstay and sole source of revenue which has exposed it to enormous risks.

To boost the economy, he suggested that urgent policy decisions must be made through support for foreign direct investments (FDIs) by promoting a friendly business environment and granting of tax incentives or holiday to investors.

Nzom said that government should also remove bottleneck in visa procurement for serious investors as well as encouraging industrialisation through development of local industries to reduce the craving for foreign goods.

Heritage Bank Set For CBN-YIEDP Loan Disbursement Heritage Bank Plc said it has concluded arrangement for a pre-disbursement of loan to beneficiaries of Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) -Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP).

The CBN-YIEDP fund is a N3 billion fund set aside by the central bank for serving NYSC members and ex-NYSC members who have concluded their service since 2010. An individual beneficiary can have access to N3 million.

It has a tenor of three years at an interest rate of nine per cent.

In recognition of Heritage Bank’s commitment to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Youth development, the bank had been adopted by the CBN as the

sole pilot bank for the YIEDP. The programme is aimed at harnessing the latent entrepreneurial spirit among the teeming youths by providing timely and affordable loans to implement their business ideas.

In addition, the major objective of the scheme is to provide a sustainable mechanism to stimulate employment, contribute to the non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as address the challenge of youth restiveness in the country.

The scheme is opened to serving youth corps members and non-NYSC members (not more than five years post NYSC) within the age bracket of 18 to 35.

A statement by the Di-

visional Head, Corporate Communications of the bank, Olusola Longe-Okenimkpe, explained, that “In a bid to get the scheme off ground, Heritage Bank has organised a pre-disbursement training programme for select members of its staff across the country that will implement the scheme. The workshop was held simultaneously in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja recently.

“Also as part of the strategies, Heritage Bank is partnering with Background Check International to cross check the documents of the applicants, partnering with food processors to act as anchor for the beneficiaries as well as with Small and Medium Size Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN).”

Broad street

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JUNE 2016 Broad Money (M2)

21,684,965.22

-- Narrow Money (M1)

9,125,933.16

---- Currency Outside Banks

1,379,187.93

---- Demand Deposits

7,746,745.22

-- Quasi Money

12,559,032.07

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,105,663.47

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

14,579,301.76

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

24,318,143.03

---- Credit to Government (Net)

2,893,190.01

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

5,004,677.26

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

-2,111,487.25

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

21,424,953.01

--Other Assets Net

-9,738,841.27

Reserve Money (Base Money)

5,370,199.87

--Currency in Circulation

1,684,725.89

--Banks Reserves

3,685,473.98 • Source - CBN

MANAGED FUNDS Initial Price (N)

Buying Price(N) 1,660.29

1,685.29

1,000.00

11,002.32

11,326.67.11

Stanbic Balanced Fund Stanbic IBTC NEF

Selling Price

Stanbic SIBond

20

120.47

120.47

Stanbic IBTC Ethical

1

1.10

1.13

Stanbic IBTC GIF

142.90

143.38

UBA Balanced Fund

1.2563

1.2493

UBA Bond Fund

1.3443

1.3443

UBA Equity Fund

0.8205

0.8074

UBA Money Market Fund

1.1510

1.1510

ARM Aggressive Growth Fund

N13.0544

N13.4480

ARM Discovery Fund

N288.2515

N296.9425

ARM Ethical Fund

N22.5268

N23.2060

ARM Money Market Fund

13.1030 (Yield % ) • Monetary Policy Rate - 13%

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT 6 OCTOBER 2016 The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $47.84 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $47.74 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Rabi Light (Gabon), Minas (Indonesia), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

36

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

Mutual Benefits Boss Sees Growth Opportunities in Insurance Ebere Nwoji and Nosa Alekhuogie Chairman of Mutual Benefit Assurance Plc, Akin Ogunbiyi has said in spite of the economic challenges facing Nigeria as a country, there are numerous growth opportunities in insurance for the existing and potential operators.

Ogunbiyi, who stated this

at the 20th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company in Lagos, listed these opportunities to include focus of the federal government on infrastructural development, diversification of the economy from oil revenues, anti- corruption crusade and the expansionary budget.

“Our company is set to take advantage of these op-

T H E

portunities for growth through utilisation and expansion of information and communication technology (ICT), massive use of telecommunication facilities and further penetration of the retail sector which is relatively untapped. Our constant innovations in terms of product development are unmatched,” he stated.

Ogunbiyi, noted that the

N I G E R I A N

Nigerian insurance market has remained at an embryonic stage of development with the combined assets of the country’s insurers comprising only a tiny percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and total premiums lagging behind more developed markets.

He said given the challenges in the environment which affected many businesses

STO C K

during the year, Mutual Benefit Assurance, has developed a new strategic direction which focuses on developing innovative customer- centric products, increasing market share and concentration on core insurance business within the Mutual Benefit group through gradual divestment from non- core insurance businesses.

E XC H A N G E

He said this has allowed the company to grow its businesses, manage its profitability in a difficult business environment and advance key strategic initiatives.

Speaking about the performance of the of the company for 2015, he said Mutual Benefits grew its assets base by five per cent to N46.1 billion, from N44.1 billion in 2014.

37

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

MARKET NEWS

United Capital’s PBT Rises by 65% to N4bn in Nine Months Goddy Egene United Capital Plc, one of the Nigeria’s leading investment banking firms, has continued its impressive financial performance despite the challenging operating environment. The company, which released its nine months ended September 30, 2016, last Friday, recorded growth in all major performance indicators. Gross earnings and profit after tax (PAT) rose by 39 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

An analysis of the results showed that gross earnings stood at N5.689 billion in 2016, up from N4.088 billion in the corresponding period of 2015.

Investment income soared from N491 million to N2.612 billion, while net operating income settled at N5.132 billion compared with N3.722 billion in 2015.

In spite of the inflationary trend, the management of United Capital adopted a cost reduction strategy that led to a decline of 2.7 per cent in total

A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

expenses, reducing from N1.774 billion to N1.726 billion.

Consequently, profit before tax grew by 65 per cent to N3.962 billion in 2016 from N2.397 billon, while PAT rose from N1.910 billion to N3.170 billion.

The investment banking firm had last year recorded an impressive performance and rewarded shareholders with a dividend of 35 kobo per share.

It followed that with a highly impressive performance for the half year to June 30, 2016, growing PBT by 47 per cent.

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 06-Oct-2016, unless otherwise stated.

Although there are several economic headwinds, the Group Chief Executive Officer of United Capital Plc, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni had told shareholders that she was confident in company’s ability to consistently deliver value to all stakeholders in the current year.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the strategies we have put in place in light of our expectations of market scenarios in the coming year will prove effective in

delivering much better results.

I must thank all of you for your constant support in our task of building a leading financial services firm in Africa. I am confident that with the dedication of our resourceful staff and your unalloyed support, we will continue to delight you with superior return in every line of business we are involved,” Sanni said.

She said recently that the company has advanced its Pan- African strategy

to generate revenues from beyond the shores of Nigeria by executing on key mandates, and also deepened its play in fixed income services to meet the clear needs of investors to “flee to safety.”

“We continued to play a dominant role in providing critical advisory and capital raising and trustee services to sub-sovereign and corporate issuers as our contribution to helping them navigate the stormy economic conditions,” she said.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 1 270 1680 Fund Name Bid Price Afrinvest Equity Fund 124.02 Nigeria International Debt Fund 216.28 ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price ACAP Canary Growth Fund 0.67 AIICO CAPITAL LTD Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price AIICO Money Market Fund ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name ARM Aggressive Growth Fund ARM Discovery Fund ARM Ethical Fund ARM Money Market Fund AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name AXA Mansard Equity Market Fund AXA Mansard Money Market Fund CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Nigeria Global Investment Fund Paramount Equity Fund Women's Investment Fund FBN CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fbnquest.com; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name FBN Fixed Income Fund FBN Heritage Fund FBN Money Market Fund FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund FIRST CITY ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fcamltd.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Equity Fund Legacy Short Maturity (NGN) Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Growth Fund

100.00

aaml@afrinvest.com Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 124.62 10.99% 217.09 8.04% info@acapng.com Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.68 9.59% ammf@aiicocapital.com Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

100.00

14.33%

enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Bid Price 12.84 294.10 22.90

Offer Price 13.22 302.97 23.59

Yield / T-Rtn 5.33% 5.23% 3.84%

1.00

1.00

11.88%

investmentcare@axamansard.com Bid Price 100.82

Offer Price 101.46

Yield / T-Rtn 1.14%

1.00 1.00 11.36% investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Bid Price 2.10 9.39

Offer Price 2.15 9.63

Yield / T-Rtn 3.16% -4.71%

82.38

84.49

1.56%

invest@fbnquest.com Bid Price 1,062.79 114.71 100.00 $105.13 $105.05 112.31

Offer Price 1,063.77 115.22 100.00 $105.93 $105.86

Yield / T-Rtn -1.79% 5.48% 10.91% 5.53% 5.45%

113.83

13.07%

fcamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Bid Price 0.94 2.51

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.95 3.85% 2.51 7.75% coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price 2,232.70

Offer Price 2,260.73

Coral Income Fund 2,034.01 INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price

Yield / T-Rtn 2.67%

2,034.01 7.53% enquiries@investment-one.com Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund

1.00

1.00

11.10%

Vantage Balanced Fund

1.64

1.66

0.53%

LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 0.99 1.00 11.08% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 983.40 983.40 -1.66% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: www.meristemwealth.com ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 9.88 9.97 1.01% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 13.44% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.02 1.04 -2.63% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 107.02 107.90 5.12% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.22 1.22 7.64% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 1,811.01 1,821.81 7.85% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 150.73 150.73 2.48% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.80 0.81 7.33% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 179.23 179.23 5.62% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 136.67 138.34 0.99% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 15.05% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,784.30 7,888.05 8.31% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.17 1.17 8.79% United Capital Bond Fund 1.26 1.25 16.11% United Capital Equity Fund 0.77 0.77 0.74% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.00% ZENITH ASSETS MANAGEMENT LTD info@zenith-funds.com Web: www.zenith-funds.com; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 9.93 10.11 3.98% Zenith Ethical Fund 11.46 11.57 0.00% Zenith Income Fund 16.48 16.48 2.75%

REITS

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

11.43 122.18

2.69% 5.46%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

9.05 79.58

9.15 81.08

-5.50% -4.38%

Fund Name FSDH UPDC Real Estate Investment Fund SFS Skye Shelter Fund

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS

Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697

Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

2.70 7.38 12.70 18.13 -

2.74 7.46 12.84 18.33 -

16.74% 15.40% 1.35% -5.59% -

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

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CITYSTRINGS

Acting Features Editor Charles Ajunwa Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

‘How I Connived with Armed Bandits to Rob My Mother’ Through the efforts of the Rapid Response Squad, a member of a two-man armed robbery gang, Segun Taiwo, was apprehended shortly after it robbed an aged woman in her late 70s. Femi Ogbonnikan who interviewed the two suspects in the custody of the police, reveals the roles each individual played in the attack

L

ooking up and down confused and begging for God’s forgiveness each and every time for her participatory role in conniving with armed bandits to rob her mother, a 45-year-old woman who is currently singing like a canary in the detention of the operatives attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Alausa, Ikeja, a security outfit of the Lagos State Government, has attributed her current travail to greed.

The female accomplice, Funmilayo Awoyale, while she was narrating how she came in contact with the two members of the gang, said she met the kingpin one Demola, about four months ago. Demola, who is at large, is said to be a herbalist.

According to Funmilayo, a single parent of two children, said Demola, who had been treating her of a blister on her left leg nail, wasintroduced to her by a friend. “ Demola is a trade - medical healer. He was introduced to me by a friend. And he has been helping me to treat a blister on my left leg nail. But one day, he claimed he went into a trance and noticed that my aged mother was keeping a huge amount of money, especially foreign currencies at home. I asked him how he got to know of it, but he claimed he was blessed with the power of seeing things.

“The next thing, he approached and told me, that we should arrange on how to rob my mother of these monies and her trinkets.

Initially, declined vehemently, but after a while I didn’t know what came of me and I had to dance to his tune and I accepted to be part of it.

He was disturbing me oftentimes when they should come, but when the pressure was too much on me, I had to bow to it,” said Mama Adeola.

Funmilayo, who claimed, she sells sewing threads at Idumagbo Market, Lagos Island, said she and her husband whom she had two children for, had separated long time ago, prompting her to relocate to her mother, an Alhaja, who is in her late 70s and stays around Oduduwa Street, Kilo, Surulere.

“Alhaja gave birth to eight of us. I am number three among her children. Our father is still alive, but he has separated from our mother. He now stays in Badagry with another wife. But now Alhaja no longer works, but she often travels to United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) to visit my younger siblings there. At times, she spends between three and four months there and my younger siblings use to send foreign currencies to her for her upkeep.

Yesterday when Demola and his boy, Segun Taiwo, wanted to invade, he was calling and disturbing me, where I was and I told him, I was outside the gate of our house where Alhaja had sent me to go and check whether an hairdressing salon operator who is our tenant, had closed for the day or not. It was from there, they met me and I led them to our apartment at the ground floor of the two storey - building. I opened the door and they accosted Alhaja and asked to surrender her Quran, where she kept 500 dollars, a bag containing her trinkets and a sum of N100, 000. Demola and Segun Taiwo struck around 7:30pm yesterday, Wednesday, August 17, 2016. It

It was the daughter of the Alhaja who called us to come and rob her mother. She had given us the time we could successfully invade. She asked us to strike before 8:00pm, because anytime after Alhaja had observed her 8:00pm prayer, she would lock the gate of her apartment. Her daughter quickly excused herself from home to buy a recharge card outside and called us. Her daughter used the key on her and opened the door for us to enter

Robbery suspect, Segun Taiwo

Lagos State CP, Fatai Owoseni... smokes out criminals out frome their hideouts

was late yesterday, I was picked up and whisked away to Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, the headquarters of the RRS. It was Segun Taiwo, who mentioned my name, that I was

an accomplice,” added Funmilayo, who is a native of Omupo, Kwara State.

In his confession, Segun Taiwo, 30 years old, said, he and Demola were armed with a cutlass and an axe when they attacked the aged woman.

According to the Ijebu - Igbo suspect, “it was the daughter of the Alhaja who called us to come and rob her mother. She had given us the time we could successfully invade. She asked us to strike before 8:00pm, because anytime after Alhaja had observed her 8:00pm prayer, she would lock the gate of her apartment. Her daughter quickly excused herself from home to buy a recharge card outside and called us. Her daughter used the key on her and opened the door for us to enter.

Demola went straight to the old woman and asked her to surrender her Quran where her daughter had hinted us where Alhaja had kept foreign currencies and her handbag containing her trinkets. I was asked to position myself at the passage to monitor who might want to disturb us. Demola collected the 500 dollars, while he gave me N100, 000 and a gold ear ring to keep”.

On how he was arrested, “the operation was successful and we were about taking our leave when we suddenly bumped into one of their tenants who was driving in. He noticed our strange movement and accosted us. We didn’t answer him and took an available commercial motorcycle popularly called,

“Okada”, and escaped through the second street. But the shout of “ole”, attracted the attention of an irate mob who gave us a hot chase. We were caught up with and took a refuge in a nearby house. Demola took cover inside the kitchen of one of the flat in that building, while I hid myself under the staircase. I was arrested, while Demola escaped, because he has a mystique power to disappear. I was arrested, with the aid of the RRS operatives, who were on a routine patrol within the neighbourhood. From there, I was taken to this office (RRS Headquarters, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja ).

He is a herbalist. Even if he doesn’t use operational weapon and he has a power of command, just to say a word of command and that person will surrender whatever he or she has in him or her. I could remember sometime last year when we went to Okota, in Isolo to operate. We did not use any weapon. When we got there, we sighted and accosted a woman and Demola asked her to surrender the amount on her. We collected N200, 000 from the woman. If a man or woman has money on him or her, Demola would know. I don’t know where he has got that power. And that was my first attempt and this very one, that I was caught, was my second time,” said the painter, who stays at No. 11, Ogunfehinti Street, Itire, Lagos.

RRS Commander, ACP Tunji Disu, however, said investigation had intensified into the matter. Besides, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Dolapo Badmus, a Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed the incident and said, that the two suspects would soon be transfered to the detectives attached to the Special Anti - Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, for further probe into the matter.

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PERSPECTIVE

Politics of Hair Tunji Olaopa One of the few delights of public intellection is such an opportunity as this to weave seemingly disparate ideas and events together into coherent patterns of thoughts and actions that continually feed into my ongoing reform passion. And beyond constant reflection on the civil service, cultural matters and specifically Yoruba culture fascinates me a great deal.

I have written about the cosmopolitan and accommodationist intersection of the triple heritage, a la Mazrui, which my growing up at Aáwé instilled in me. I was therefore in my elements when I listened to four incredible expositions in one week: the first three speakers addressed the Yoruba Academy Ibadan Conference that marked the September 23, 1886 end of Kiriji war. Two of them were historical scholars, Professors Banji Akintoye and Olutayo Adeshina, and the third, a Premium Times columnist, Ms. Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, presented an extremely refreshing narrative that revised the localised conception of ‘aiye’ or the universe in Yoruba cosmology in a prospective view of the Yoruba of the future that we should aspire to build, which I sure will reflect on some other time.

I met the fourth speaker at the recent 9th annual lecture in honour of Professor Bolanle Awe, an icon, whom I have had reason to celebrate in commentaries. Prof.

Awe is not only a Yoruba intellectual but her discourses on gender reforms bristle with cultural insights. I needed no second thought to be at any event in her honour.

But I had more than I bargained for at the occasion. My train of thought was set on fire by the presentation of a young and brilliant scholar, Dr. Sharon Omotoso of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. The title of her lecture was “The Philosophy and Politics of Hair.”

This intriguing title was the lecturer’s way of intervening in the critical issues of human rights, economic crisis as well as sundry family issues. Of course, many in the august audience, including me, were rightly intrigued. What has hair got to do with anything?

But as the lecture picked up, I was reminded of Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, and the significance of hairdo in that brilliant novel. She sums up this significance in an interview she granted Channel 4 news in August.

According to her, if Michele Obama had worn her natural hair in the run off to the presidential election, her husband, the then Senator Barack Obama, would have lost the presidential election. Why? This is because, according to her, “hair is political.” Michele Obama’s natural hair, for Adichie, would have conveyed a frightening, anti-establishment metaphor of militant Black power whose stereotypical symbolism would have been damning. The hair of a grown up, black American woman projects strong political feelings about political correctness or incorrectness.

For me, hair is more than political; hair is cultural. Indeed, as I sat and listened to the guest lecturer at the Bolanle Awe event, it was not too difficult to see how the modern configuration of hair styles and hair-dos have become symptomatic of almost everything that is culturally wrong with us as a people. Beyond the politics of wearing certain hair styles; beyond the economics of how much of foreign exchange goes into hair importation; I see hair as a symbolic context for lamenting all that is fast diminishing in what we can call our culture of being. Human culture plays a significant part in defining who we are and what we can ever hope to become. Culture, in other words, is a constant dynamics of being and becoming.

Yorùbá constitutes my own culture of being, just as Igbo or Hausa or Nupe or Itshekiri or Edo constitutes the culture of being for others too in Nigeria. But

President Muhammadu Buhari

anywhere we look today, we see a disturbing diminution of what is cultural, and hence significant in our cultures.

Take hair for instance. It is not difficult to risk the empirical claim that over 90 per cent of female youths in Nigeria now adorn their hairs with European style wigs and Asian weave-on. The days of traditional hairstyles have been swallowed by the modernity of fashion!

That would really not constitute a huge fundamental problem if the wigs were to be essentially a pragmatic intervention in fashion. What is really problematic is that European modernity brings with it the rejection and abhorrence of all things that enables culturally. Thus, any woman with the traditional style of hair is, by that very fact, unfashionable; someone who has lost touch with modernity. To become modern therefore, we pay the costly price of identity dislocation. “People who live on borrowed culture,” says Varindra Vittachi, the Sri Lankan writer, “often go to extremes that their models and mentors had never intended.” On the contrary, colonialism intended just this cultural amnesia, and we are all still playing out the script.

In the final analysis, the real issue boils down to that of a genuine reflection on who we are and what we want to be.

The social anomie which Wole Soyinka lamented as one of the fundamental roots of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, it seems to me, arises out of a grievous cultural dislocation which prevents a conscious retrieval and celebration of all that is best in one’s culture. And in the gap in between, we are witnessing today all that is abhorrent in our youths’ understanding of the modern: nudity and all forms of crazy fashion sense, the frightening loss of the mother tongue (which has become “vernacular” in the presence of sweet English language!), the terrible dismissal, until few days ago, of History from the school curriculum (and hence the prevention of

a dynamic retrieval of the usable past), and finally there is a great and yawning absence of moral values and norms which feed the possibility of social harmony in Nigeria. There is therefore little wonder that Nigeria’s economic and development woes have become a combustible predicament when squared with cultural anomie amongst the youth and everyone else.

Among the Yorùbá, a cultural adage, paraphrased, says: Rather than steal, I will become a servant. This adage projects the significant value placed on the integrity that defines who a person is as an Omolúàbí. All these and more, which constitute fundamental cultural capital, seem to have gone with the wind. Africa seems to have been swept into the whirling and confusing vortex of global cultural fusion. And it seems we are the worst for it. Look all over Africa; look critically at Nigeria: we have not only been left perplexed in terms of development; our cultural beingness is unhinged at its very centre. We have refused to ground our progress in the context of our internal cultural dynamics; we have refused to search inward within our vast cultural frameworks for development insights that can drive national development in Nigeria. Scholars have talked about the strong tie between cultural attitudes and development. But we have not taken deliberate notice. For instance, the Washington Consensus still holds us in its economic grip while other culturally wiser nations are searching and ransacking their cultural capital for internal mechanism that will drive their future.

Recently, Nigeria’s economic imbalance has forced us all into a deep rethink of the dynamics of development and progress. One of such rethink is the “Made-in-Nigeria” imperative which the Buhari administration has embarked upon.

This is a right move in the right direction if Nigeria’s economy would become

buoyant enough to sustain the change slogan as well as the national project. I have written enough about reforming Nigeria’s institutional framework to know how change would not translate into any formidable transformation if care is not taken. Nigeria’s bid for an economic reform that targets the internal framework of development becomes immediately lopsided against the myriad of sociocultural anomie already emasculating our social fabric. For example, it looks quite trivial, but it is really a significant issue that hair has become part of the “essentials” that Nigeria has to import. And this points not at the abdication of economic potential which the country can yield even in terms of internal creativity. Rather, this crass importation of hair points at a deep sense of cultural loss. The long European hair types are, in the eyes of all and sundry now, much better than the natural hair which could be made up into several aesthetically appealing styles consonant with our cultural being.

It is at this point of confronting cultural loss of our sense of who we are that the economic dynamics of “Made in Nigeria” unfailingly breaks down. The Chinese Beijing Consensus is an economic experiment driven by a deep investment in the Chinese cultural identity. In fact, the entire Asian Tigers economic transformation is founded on a deep appreciation of the role of culture in national development. Edward Blyden, the Liberian pan-Africanist, sums up the challenge clearly: “If you are not yourself, if you surrender your personality, you have nothing left to give the world.” Once we fail to understand the essence of the dissonance between cultural self-definition and economic well-being, then there is no doubt that something is fundamentally wrong with us as Nigerians. . Dr. Olaopa, Executive Vice Chairman Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy Email tolaopa2003@gmail.com

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INTERNATIONAL

email:foreigndesk@thisdaylive.com

Flood, Power Outages as Weakened Matthew Hits North Carolina, Virginia Matthew was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone yesterday as it struck North Carolina and Virginia with a diminished yet still potent punch, causing flooding and widespread power outages along the U.S. Atlantic coast after killing hundreds in Haiti.

The most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007 unleashed torrential rains and powerful winds as it churned slowly north after pummeling the southeastern coast of the United States, killing at least 11 people in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina since Thursday and leaving more than two million businesses and homes without power.

Damage in the United States, however, was much less than in Haiti, where Matthew took nearly 900 lives. At least 13 people on the Caribbean island have also died from outbreaks of cholera since the storm, and around 61,500 people were in shelters, officials said.

Matthew continued to threaten coastal communities in North Carolina and Virginia, where flash flood warnings were in effect and

gusts of 75 miles per hour (120 kph) were recorded.

“The wind is bending the trees to a 90 degree angle in my backyard, I’ve lost electrical power in my home and the rain is blowing sideways,” Frank Gianinni, a 59-year-old occupational therapist, said in an email from his home in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Forecasters said widespread flooding was possible from heavy rain - 20 inches (50 cm) was expected to fall in some areas - along with storm surges and high tides.

“We are looking at very significant flooding. Almost every road in the city is impassable,”Virginia Beach spokeswoman Erin Sutton told the Weather Channel from the city of almost 500,000 people between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Media showed footage from across the region of motorists and passengers sitting and standing on vehicles stuck in rushing flood waters as crews used swift water boats to rescue the stranded. In Cumberland County, North Carolina

Western-backed Coalition under Pressure over Yemen Raids An air strike on a funeral wake, widely blamed on Saudi-led warplanes, poses more trouble for a Western-backed Arab campaign against Yemen’s Houthis that has long been criticized for civilian losses.

The White House announced an immediate review of Washington’s support for the 18-month-old military push after planes hit mourners at a community hall in the capital Sanaa on Saturday, killing 140 people according to one U.N. estimate and 82 according to the Houthis.

The statement from Riyadh’s main ally, noting for the second time in as many months that U.S. support was not“a blank check”, sets up an awkward test of a Saudi-U.S. partnership already strained by differences over wars in other Arab lands.

The reproach also indirectly hands a propaganda win to Riyadh’s arch rival Tehran, a Houthi ally that has long seen the Sunni kingdom as a corrupt and domineering influence on its impoverished southern neighbor, diplomats say.

Sources in the Saudi-led coalition denied any role in the attack, but Riyadh later promised an investigation of the“regrettable and painful” incident, with U.S. expert advice.

The move was apparently aimed at heading off further criticism of a military campaign already under fire for causing hundreds of civilian deaths in apparently indiscriminate attacks.

“There will be pressure on the campaign,” said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst close to Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry. While the coalition followed very careful rules and understood human rights concerns,“there will now be pressure to end the whole operation, or to restrict the operation”.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the war and the United Nations blames coalition strikes for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since they began in March 2015.

The outcry over civilian casualties has led some lawmakers in the United States and Britain as well as rights activists to push for curbs on arms sales to Riyadh, so far without success.

The coalition denies deliberately targeting civilians and says it goes to great lengths to ensure its raids are precisely targeted, with explosive loads calibrated to limit the risk of causing damage beyond the immediate target area.

The coalition accuses the Houthis, who seized much of the north in a series of military advances since 2014, of placing military targets in civilian areas.

The Houthis deny this.

Fury in Sanaa at Saturday’s raid was echoed internationally.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said any deliberate attack against civilians was utterly unacceptable.

Ban called for “a prompt and impartial investigation of this incident.

alone, more than 500 people were rescued by crews, the Weather Channel reported.

At 5:00 a.m. EST on Sunday, the storm was about 50 miles (80 km) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. The center of the storm was set to move south of the North Carolina

coast early on Sunday and well east of the state later in the day as it weakens.

Matthew, which days ago briefly topped out as a ferocious Category 5 storm, made U.S. landfall on Saturday near McClellanville, South Carolina, a village 30 miles (48 km) north of Charleston that was devastated by a Category

4 hurricane in 1989.

The storm was blamed for at least 11 deaths in the United States - five in Florida, three in North Carolina and three in Georgia. More than 2 million households and businesses were without power, most in Florida and South Carolina.

The storm-stricken stretch of the Atlantic Coast from

Miami to Charleston, a nearly 600-mile drive, encompasses some of the most well-known beaches, resorts and historical towns in the southeastern United States. Parts of Interstate 95, the main north-south thoroughfare on the East Coast, were closed due to flooding and fallen trees, state officials said.

FATAL DAMAGE

Onlookers view a washed out portion of State Highway in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Flagler Beach, FloridaÖ yesterday

Ethiopia Declares State of Emergency to Restore Order Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, declared a six-month state of emergency on Sunday, saying it was to restore order after weeks of protests that have resulted in deaths and damage to mostly foreign-owned factories and flower farms.

Last week, protesters also destroyed scores of vehicles, adding economic casualties to a rising death toll in a wave of unrest over land grabs and rights.

“A state of emergency has been declared because the situation posed a threat against the people of the country,” Hailemariam said on state-run television.

“The state of emergency is vital. It is essential to restore peace and stability over a short period of time,” he said, adding the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition was also looking at reforms, and planning to hold talks with

opposition parties.

Hailemariam said the state of emergency was effective from October 8. The violence has put a shadow over a nation where a state-led industrial drive has created one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, but where the government has also faced rising international criticism and popular opposition to its authoritarian approach to development.

Last Sunday, at least 55 people were killed in

a stampede in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region that was triggered when police used teargas and shot in the air to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival.

That has added the toll to more than 450 the number of people rights groups and opponents say have been killed in unrest since 2015.

A U.S. researcher was killed on Tuesday when her car was attacked by stone-throwers near Addis Ababa.

UN: Niger Must Reinforce Refugee Camps after Attack U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon urged Niger’s government to reinforce security around refugee camps after gunmen killed 22 soldiers stationed at a camp for 4,000 Malian refugees. Thursday’s attackers also burned an ambulance and looted a health center at the Tazalit camp in Niger’s western Tahoua region, bordering Mali, a U.N. statement said on Friday.

The Malian refugees were unharmed, the United Nations

refugee agency UNHCR said.

The camp shelters Malians who have fled to Niger since Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda, seized Mali’s desert north in 2012.

A French-led military intervention pushed back the insurgents a year later but clashes with rebels and Islamist attacks have led more people to flee. More than 60,000 Malian refugees now live in Niger.

Last month, a Malian woman

and child were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a security post at another refugee camp in Niger, the United Nations said.

Niger’s government said it had launched an investigation into the Tazalit attack and declared two days of national mourning.“The president of the republic (and) the government present, in the name of the devastated Nigerien people, their condolences to the families

of the victims,”said a statement read on national radio.

Niger’s small army is not only seeking to prevent armed groups and bandits entering from Mali to the west, but also fighting Boko Haram militants launching raids from Nigeria in the south. There are also concerns that Islamic State fighters could be pushed into Niger by a government offensive in Libya to the northeast.

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MONDAY OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

INTERNATIONAL

Two Killed in Jerusalem Terror Attack

A Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israelis as he drove through the streets of Jerusalem, police yesterday, in what Israeli authorities described as a terror attack.

Israeli police shot dead the 39-year-old assailant less than five minutes after the spree started, chasing him on motorcycles and engaging in a short gunbattle, police said. Two officers were wounded in the exchange of fire.

The assailant shot five Israelis, including the dead, before being stopped by police. Another two people were involved in a car accident in the midst of the rampage, Israel’s ambulance service said.

A 60-year-old woman and a 30-year old man were rushed to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and later died from their wounds, a hospital spokeswoman said. Several other Israelis had wounded limbs, the ambulance service added.

The attacker began his spree near a light rail station in the city’s north before moving to the neigh-

borhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, police said. He was a resident of East Jerusalem, the holy city’s predominantly Arab sector.

A court in Jerusalem issued a ban on media publishing further details about the names of the victims and the attacker, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear why the order had been requested.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuwished the victims a speedy recovery and commended the fast response from security personnel at a weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, didn’t claim responsibility for the attack, but issued a statement calling the shooting “heroic” and “a normal reply to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”

Hamas has called on young Palestinians to carry out so-called lone wolf attacks against Israelis.

The shooting is the latest incident in a year-long spate of violence by Palestinians

against Israelis. It came amid heightened security measures enacted for the

Jewish holidays. Israeli Jews last week celebrated the Jewish New Year of Rosh

Hashana, and will this week mark Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

I Do Not Encourage Coup Plotting, Says Gulen Islamic Scholar and Social Advocate, Fethulah Gulen has denounced the rumour of a second coup attempt in Turkey.

This was contained in a statement made available to journalists at the weekend.

According to him, “Once again, the Turkish media, under government control or government pressure, is circulating horrific rumours, this time about a supposed second coup attempt in the works, supposedly prepared by my sympathisers with the backing of the United States.

Such rumours are unfounded and irresponsible.”The statement read.

“As a victim of four military coups in the past, I reiterate my conviction that democracy cannot be achieved or protected through military interventions.

Gulen Even if elected political leaders persecute me and the participants of Hizmet movement by trampling over fundamental human rights, I never approve their removal through anti-

democratic means.”

The statement further added that “I believe that the rumors of a second coup attempt are being circulated in Turkish media deliberately to set a trap against our citizens, and especially against Hizmet participants. Already, declarations appeared in media by irresponsible individuals who suggest moving prisoners to solitary confinement in order to make it easier to execute them.

The spread of these horrific rumors and suggestions by pro-government mass media generate an atmosphere of hate that paves the way for further atrocities.

Mr Gulen also disassociated himself from the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, stating that the attempt to potray him as the architect of the coup was

in bad taste and defeats every sense of reasoning.

“I strongly condemn the efforts to portray me as the architect of the treacherous July 15 coup attempt, despite the fact that I condemned it in the strongest terms while it was in progress and I repeatedly and clearly have denied playing any role in it.

If some people who appear to be sympathizers of Hizmet were involved in the treacherous coup attempt, they betray my ideals and should face justice.” “ Once again, I condemn the failed coup, any attempt to stage a coup and even the consideration of such action.

I also condemn spreading rumors to defame a peaceful social movement to justify ongoing persecution of its participants.”

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

Nigeria’s top 50 stocks based on market fundamentals

6-Oct-16

5-Oct-16

% Change

Capitalisation

EPS

P/E

P/S

Div. Yld

Price/ Book Value

Table 1 Market Statistics Mkt Indicators

Open 5-Oct-16

NSE All Share Index NSE Market Cap (N'Trillion)

28,009.40 9.62

28,031.90 9.63

0.08% 0.08%

116.35 9.06

116.45 9.07

0.08% 0.08%

Close 6-Oct-16

Change %

01 Dangote Cement Plc

183.00

181.01

1.10%

3,118,412,855,115.00

9.56

19.03

5.73

4.40%

4.56

02 Nigerian Breweries Plc

145.98

145.80

0.12%

1,157,490,147,630.24

4.50

32.70

3.89

2.45%

7.16

03 Guaranty Trust Bank Plc

23.86

24.10

-1.00%

702,227,936,284.64

4.20

5.93

2.04

7.11%

1.62

815.00

815.00

0.00%

646,014,845,380.00

19.41

42.00

3.90

3.56%

18.37

Thisday BGL 50 Index Thisday BGL 50 Market Cap (N'Trillion)

05 Zenith Bank Plc

14.95

15.21

-1.71%

469,377,582,100.70

3.10

5.09

1.18

11.41%

0.80

Table 3 Top 5 Gainers

06 Lafarge Africa Plc

49.60

54.80

-9.49%

225,923,129,776.00

-6.71

-8.18

1.12

5.47%

1.79

Stock

159.90

158.50

0.88%

208,266,728,369.70

4.22

37.91

1.41

2.16%

4.86

11.14

11.40

-2.28%

204,414,000,535.10

0.23

50.05

0.39

5.39%

0.35

350.00

346.50

1.01%

193,658,609,550.00 -14.43

-22.87

1.95

4.82%

0.48

10 Unilever Nigeria Plc

45.90

45.90

0.00%

173,653,297,875.00

0.46

98.44

2.83

0.11%

19.33

11 Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc

17.05

17.05

0.00%

170,500,000,000.00

2.04

8.48

1.46

0.58%

1.54

Table 4 Top 5 Losers

12 Presco Plc

40.00

40.00

0.00%

158,819,081,800.00

0.54

74.57

2.28

3.25%

3.88

Stock

13 Access Bank Plc

5.40

5.40

0.00%

156,211,046,807.40

2.56

2.13

0.46

10.07%

0.37

14 United Bank for Africa Plc

4.15

4.03

2.98%

150,560,034,236.30

1.66

2.53

0.48

14.29%

0.37

15 Guinness Nig Plc

97.99

97.99

0.00%

147,561,983,542.12

-1.34

-72.46

1.43

3.30%

3.51

16 FBN Holdings Plc

3.07

3.10

-0.97%

110,198,548,871.44

0.30

10.43

0.23

4.72%

0.19

17 7-Up Bottling Comp. Plc

158.00

145.80

8.37%

101,213,277,354.00

3.75

38.02

1.02

1.54%

3.54

18 Total Nigeria Plc

287.00

295.00

-2.71%

97,442,767,219.00

31.13

9.35

0.41

4.81%

4.68

6.41

6.50

-1.38%

76,920,000,000.00

1.05

6.19

0.65

7.69%

1.31

191.72

191.72

0.00%

69,133,323,630.64

17.69

10.66

0.82

3.82%

3.96

19.95

19.95

0.00%

65,720,273,136.00

0.17

114.65

2.64

1.25%

5.34

5.32

5.60

-5.00%

64,024,172,516.08

-3.46

-1.42

0.32

15.27%

0.43

23 Flour Mills Nig. Plc

21.05

20.05

4.99%

55,240,192,786.35

6.81

3.23

0.15

9.09%

0.58

24 Julius Berger Nig. Plc

40.00

40.00

0.00%

52,800,000,000.00

0.24

161.09

0.50

3.85%

2.29

25 U A C N Plc

21.00

20.80

0.96%

40,338,152,127.00

2.44

8.81

0.57

4.65%

0.56

1.01

1.04

-2.88%

39,108,207,399.25

-0.37

-2.90

0.92

0.00%

0.55

27 Okomu Oil Palm Plc

39.90

39.90

0.00%

38,061,009,000.00

4.60

8.27

2.95

0.26%

2.33

28 Cadbury Nigeria Plc

16.49

16.49

0.00%

30,971,551,639.60

0.83

19.97

1.12

7.88%

2.49

29 Sterling Bank Plc

1.06

1.05

0.95%

30,517,843,213.56

0.31

3.34

0.28

8.74%

0.35

30 Diamond Bank Plc

1.27

1.26

0.79%

29,413,693,989.36

0.11

11.06

0.13

0.00%

0.12

31 Fidelity Bank Plc

0.95

0.92

3.26%

27,514,456,407.40

0.39

2.31

0.18

17.78%

0.14

32 Wema Bank Plc

0.63

0.64

-1.56%

24,301,913,631.03

0.06

10.46

0.52

0.00%

0.54

33 Custodian And Allied Insurance Plc

4.00

4.00

0.00%

23,527,456,780.00

0.76

5.32

0.71

3.47%

0.85

33.25

33.25

0.00%

23,275,000,000.00

2.36

14.10

3.35

3.46%

15.94

1.16

1.18

-1.69%

22,971,144,505.96

0.61

1.75

0.13

9.35%

0.12

19.00

19.00

0.00%

22,721,653,272.00

-2.54

-8.07

0.84

1.46%

2.69

37 National Salt Co. Nig. Plc

8.10

8.01

1.12%

21,460,450,861.80

0.89

9.03

1.17

6.88%

3.07

38 Mansard Insurance Plc

2.00

2.00

0.00%

21,000,000,000.00

0.27

7.55

1.12

2.44%

1.02

39 PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc

18.64

18.69

-0.27%

18,640,000,000.00

4.14

5.00

1.56

0.48%

0.62

40 Honeywell Flour Mill Plc

1.31

1.37

-4.38%

10,388,558,931.98

-0.40

-3.29

0.22

12.03%

0.64

41 Continental Reinsurance Plc

1.00

1.05

-4.76%

10,372,744,312.00

0.33

3.04

0.50

12.00%

0.54

42 Skye Bank Plc

0.65

0.66

-1.52%

9,022,195,916.50

-2.93

-0.22

0.06

46.15%

0.09

43 Unity Bank Plc

0.74

0.74

0.00%

8,650,110,077.08

0.54

1.35

0.13

0.00%

0.10

44 Cement Co. Of North.Nig. Plc

6.00

6.00

0.00%

7,540,066,596.00

0.44

13.54

0.68

1.67%

0.70

45 UACN Property Development Co. Limited

3.95

3.95

0.00%

6,789,062,480.25

-0.05

-71.73

1.91

18.72%

0.18

46 Wapic Insurance Plc

0.50

0.50

0.00%

6,691,369,126.00

0.11

4.72

0.90

5.88%

0.44

47 Resort Savings & Loans Plc

0.50

0.50

0.00%

5,664,866,202.00

4.68

0.11

0.02

0.00%

1.89

48 Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc

3.25

3.29

-1.22%

5,278,710,937.50

0.15

22.05

0.69

5.88%

0.89

49 AIICO Insurance Plc

0.63

0.64

-1.56%

4,366,028,822.40

0.26

2.42

0.14

7.94%

0.46

50 Fidson Healthcare Plc

1.66

1.66

0.00%

2,490,000,000.00

0.31

5.45

0.37

2.99%

0.39

04 Nestle Nigeria Plc

07 Forte Oil Plc. 08 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated 09 Seplat Petroleum Dev. Co. Ltd

19 Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc 20 Mobil Oil Nig Plc 21 International Breweries Plc 22 Oando Plc

26 Transnational Corporation Of Nigeria Plc

34 Cap Plc 35 FCMB Group Plc 36 Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nig. Plc

TOTAL

9,066,860,080,744.38

TOTAL MARKET CAP

9,628,405,903,737.04

% OF MARKET CAP Annotation - MA* = Simple Moving Average

94.17%

Close 6-Oct-16

Open 5-Oct-16

7-Up Bottling Comp. Plc Flour Mills Nig. Plc Fidelity Bank Plc United Bank for Africa Plc National Salt Co. Nig. Plc

145.80 20.05 0.92 4.03 8.01 Open 5-Oct-16

Lafarge Africa Plc Oando Plc Continental Reinsurance Plc Honeywell Flour Mill Plc Transnational Corporation Of Nigeria Plc

54.80 5.60 1.05 1.37 1.04

Change %

158.00 21.05 0.95 4.15 8.10 Close 6-Oct-16

8.37% 4.99% 3.26% 2.98% 1.12% Change %

49.60 5.32 1.00 1.31 1.01

-9.49% -5.00% -4.76% -4.38% -2.88%

Bargain hunting resumes as ASI gains 0.08% Market pulse on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today – Thursday, October 6th, 2016 ended on a bullish note as the stock market closed green today due to renewed optimism. This was further highlighted by positive performances from the NSE Sub sectors: Banking, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas (Save Insurance). Trading activities increased in volume as 348.80 million shares worth of N2.65 billion in 3,366 deals exchanged hands today. This is an increase from the 187.16 million shares worth of N1.47 billion in 3,132 deals which exchanged on Wednesday.

Topping in volume terms was Access Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Zenith Bank Plc, while Zenith Bank Plc and GTB Plc ended trading as the most active stocks in value terms.

The All Share Index (NSEASI) closed positive with 0.08% (+22.50) increase to close at 28,031.90 from 28,009.40 the previous trading day. Market Capitalization appreciated in tandem to N9.62 trillion from N9.71 trillion of prior trading day. Similarly, the Thisday BGL 50 Index followed suit with an increase of 0.08% to close at 116.45 from 116.35 recorded at the end of the previous trading day, while its market capitalization stood at 9.07 trillion from 9.06 trillion of the previous trading day.

A total number of 20 stocks gained on the bourse today while 22 stocks declined, 49 leaving stocks unchanged. 7-Up Bottling Comp. Plc emerged as the day’s toast of investors as it topped the Thisday BGL 50 Index gainers’ list with a gain of 8.37% to close at N158.00 per share. It was followed by Flour Mills Nig. Plc with a gain of 4.99% to close at N21.05 per share. Others on the gainers list include: Fidelity Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and National Salt Co. Nig. Plc; while on the decliners’ list, Lafarge Africa Plc led with a loss of 9.49% to close at N49.60 per share.

It was followed by Oando Plc with a loss of 5.00% to close at N5.32 per share. Others on the decliners list include: Continental Reinsurance Plc, Honeywell Flour Mill Plc and Transnational Corporation Of Nigeria Plc.

REQUIRED DISCLOSURE This report has been prepared by BGL Plc. BGL Plc does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should use this report as one of many other factors in making their investment decisions.

For more details go to www.thisdaylive.com

52

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

PAGE FIFTY-TWO NJC MEETS AS MORE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FACE IMMINENT ARREST The DSS had on Friday night carried out sting operations in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe and Kano, hauling in two justices of the Supreme Court, one justice of the Court of Appeal and four other judges of the Federal High Court, suspected to have engaged in bribery and large scale corruption.

The operations, however, attracted angry reactions from the public, particularly the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), which declared a state of emergency in the judicial sector, saying the rule of law was under siege even as the National Judicial Council (NJC) meets today to deliberate on the development.

THISDAY checks close to the NJC, the body responsible for the appointment and discipline of judicial officers, suggested that the suspected judicial officers under investigation might be suspended pending the determination of the accusations against them.

Yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) joined the fray on the side of the embattled judicial officers, accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of preparing the ground for fascism by ordering the arrests of the judges.

But the Presidency in its reaction gave assurances that President Buhari reserved his highest respect for the judiciary as the third arm of government.

A statement yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said the president would not do anything to undermine its independence.

Shehu said: "Buhari remains a committed democrat, in words and in his actions, and will not take any action in violation of the constitution.

"The recent surgical operation against some judicial officers is specifically targeted at corruption and not at the judiciary as an institution.

"In a robust democracy such as ours, there is bound to be a plurality of opinions on any given issue, but there is a convergence of views that the country has a corruption problem that needs to be corrected.”

The Presidency regretted that reports by a section of the media were giving it cause for concern.

According to it, "In undertaking the task of reporting, the media should be careful about the fault lines they open. It is wrong to present this incident as a confrontation between the executive and judicial arms of government.

"The presidency has received assurances from the DSS that all due processes of the law, including the possession of search and arrest warrants were obtained before the searches.

"To suggest that the government is acting outside the law in a dictatorial manner is to breach the interest of the state."

THISDAY intelligence source, however, said apart from those being detained and interrogated, another eight judges, including two justices of the Supreme Court, are also being investigated for mind-boggling corruption cases.

He said a total of seven judges, including two

justices of the Supreme Court — Justice John Inyang Okoro and Justice Sylvanus Ngwunta — are still being interrogated by the security services at its headquarters in Abuja and might be charged to court anytime from today.

"A total of 15 judges are being investigated by the Department of State Services and other security agencies.

Seven of them are currently being interrogated at the DSS headquarters in Abuja and may be charged to court as from Monday,’’ the source stated, adding: "While another eight including one or two from the Supreme Court are still being investigated and more of the judges will be arrested in the next few days or weeks.’’

The judges being detained include: Justice Muhammad Ladan Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal; Justice Kabiru Auta in Kano; Justice Muazu Pindiga who was arrested in Gombe; the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Auta, and Justice Adeniyi Ademola.

The intelligence source said that none of the judges arrested during the DSS’ sting operations between Friday and the early hours of Saturday had been released.

"The seven judges being detained and interrogated have not been released; their statements are still being taken; they are cooperating with the interrogators. The interrogation is taking more time than expected because of the many questions the arrested judges need to answer,’’ the source said.

THISDAY gathered that the sting operations carried out against the suspects were the

accumulation of many events, linked to "mind-boggling corrupt practices and the willingness, determination and desire by the security agents to fight corruption head-on".

Justifying the operations of the DSS, the source said: "If not DSS who else? There is nothing unusual about the DSS’ actions; it is normal.

The security institution acted within the law guarding its operations.

"The actions of the suspected judges border on national security. We are talking about huge corrupt practices and national security that are beyond the mandate of the EFCC and the ICPC. "If we talk about democracy — from the conduct of election to election rigging; issues of foreign investments; economy and other issues that have to do with our national security, they all end up in courts. So anybody or institution that tries to undermine that institution is toying with the national security of our dear nation.’’

In the eyes of the law, the intelligence officer said, the suspects were not above the law and didn’t have immunity from being investigated or prosecuted, explaining that they were ordinary people like every other citizen.

He said the DSS acted based on petitions it received against the judges. "We have a situation where one of the judges was so foolish that he entered a departmental store to collect a bribe from a litigant. We have the evidence including video recording,’’ the source stated.

Reacting to several criticisms against the DSS’

was the reflection of the bonds of power and influence between the centre and the region.

"And the Western Region, the Northern Region, Eastern Region and the Mid-Western Region of the country were developing faster than the states created since the military intervened in governance.”

Former Minister of External Affairs and Under Secretary of the United Nations, Prof.

Ibrahim Gambari, who was one of the discussants at the occasion, praised the author of the book for his contribution to knowledge, noting that the publication was timely, coming at a time the nation was facing one of its most difficult challenges.

Saying the author blamed the country's poor performance on ethnicity, greed and corruption, but explaining that those were the effects rather than the causes of the challenges of nation building. Gambari said Orjiakor’s position still provided food for thought "for Nigeria’s overly exuberant antipodeans".

The author, Orjiakor, explained that the book was about the need to restructure the country. “My thesis is that if we do not restructure, we could muddle along for another 20 or 50 years. We have been running round and round in a circle,” he said.

He argued: "We have to redesign the structure of our

country, make it stronger and then it will take off. It's not all the answers, Nigeria's problem is not restructuring but it is the fundamental basis for change.

"As a matter of fact, it's only a challenge, it's not a problem because when you have a challenge, you tackle it by going to the source to give them the information they need. Many people are either deliberately or ignorantly misunderstanding the concept of restructuring.

"Restructuring in no way suggests dismembering the country, no. As a matter of fact, it means the opposite, it means strengthening our unity and mutual understanding and giving people the opportunity to pursue their own lives with everything God has given them as talents.

“What we are doing now is suppressing both individual and collective talents by exposing everybody to wait for federal government to bring bread and butter at the end of every month.

"How long is that going to work, especially now that the oil revenue, the oil rent we were all depending on is beginning to deplete? How long can we continue to feed ourselves from one centre? That is what the quest is. So, if we bring the message home to the electorate in every part of this country, I promise you a majority of Nigerians will begin to clamour for restructuring."

NIGERIA IS FAILING, SAYS ANYAOKU The former diplomat, therefore, joined many other Nigerians clamouring for the restructuring of the country along a more flexible fiscal federal state that would replace the present federal structure, which retains more power and resources at the centre.

Speaking in Abuja during the launch of a book, 'Nigeria: The Forsaken Road to Nationhood and Development'

by Ambassador Humphrey Orjiakor, he argued that for Nigeria to develop and stay united, the country must be restructured.

Anyaoku said because of the dominance of the centre over the constituent states, the country was fast failing to meet the expectations of its founding fathers and admonished those opposed to restructuring to have a rethink.

He said: "I think that the Nigeria we have with 36 federating units now is not working. The country continues to under-perform because of the 36 states we have now.

No less than 27 of them can no longer pay the salaries of their workers.

"The planning of economic development is less efficient on the basis of these non-viable states. If we had six federating units, you would have more viable basis for planning economic development and those who fear that it would

mean disintegration of the country are wrong, because the country was doing a lot better at the time of its independence.”

Reminding his audience that the country did better when it was governed along four regions, Anyaoku argued that the current structure, which was initiated by the military from 1966 was defective.

“What we are doing now will lead us nowhere in terms of development, and in terms of building nationhood to which Nigerians will be proud of to belong," he said.

On the opposition against restructuring, Anyaoku said: "We are failing and that is the only argument to present to those who are opposed to restructuring. I think we need to persuade those with hardening positions against restructuring because this country is living in denial of the basic facts of its under-performance."

He explained that the overcentralisation of power at the centre following the intervention of the military in politics led the country to its present woes.

According to him, "The centre was not that powerful, we have the example of the then leader of the biggest political party in the country, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), Sir Ahmadu Bello, who chose to remain as the Premier of the North and sent his lieutenant to be the prime minister of the federation. That

action, the intelligence source added that the agency was ready to defend its action in competent court of law, challenging whoever felt aggrieved to take the DSS to court.

"During the sting operations, huge amount of monies, some in foreign currencies, were collected from some of the judges and they all signed the exhibits recovered in their houses. The DSS has strong evidence to charge them to court and that will be done as soon as the interrogation is concluded,’’ the source added.

Responding to the press statement by the leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), which some observers said might create tension in the country, the senior intelligence officer said: “There is no tension at all.

Whoever threatens national security of the nation will be dealt with.

"Gone are the days where those on the wrong side will turn around to intimidate us.

That will never happen again in this country.’’

Apparently responding to the acclaimed illegality of the action of the DSS, the source said that a search warrant was obtained before the sting operations were carried out in the affected places, adding that "a warrant signed by a magistrate court can be executed even in the villa".

PDP Condemns Arrests of Judges Reacting to the development, the opposition PDP accused the President Buhari-led administration of displaying total disregard for the rule of law by ordering the arrests of the judicial officers.

"This invasion is the latest in a series of actions taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration which reveal its disregard for the rule of law and its abject disdain for the Principles Continued on page 53

FAYEMI NEGOTIATES $500M MINING INVESTMENT FUND WITH NSIA Muhammadu Buhari for the sector to access funds in the Natural Resource Fund obtained, and other funding supports gotten.

The minister stated that as part of the other funding supports for the development of the mining industry, the World Bank has indicated its willingness to provide funding to help the sector’s transactional activities.

“Yes, it is hugely capital intensive and if we are going to make a significant headway in the manner that the president has often spoken about, we need to put a lot more weight on access to finance by serious players in the sector and we have gone about this in a multipronged manner,” said Fayemi.

He stated: “The first is that for the first time, the president is granting us access to benefit from the Natural Resource Fund which is 1.6 per cent of the Federation Account, similar to the Ecological Fund, UBEC Fund and it is there primarily for the use of agriculture, mining and water resources.

“I don’t know how much is there now but it is automatically deducted and it is not small money. Depending on what we approach the federal executive council to release to us from there based on our work, we have decided that it should go for exploration because that is the most capital-intensive part of mining.

“We are also in discussion with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority to put together a mining investment fund. About $500 million, and it is looking good even though we are in discussion and have not finalised yet. They are getting a lot of interest from private capital, equity funds venture capital and I believe this will complement whatever will come from the Natural Resource Fund.”

He added that: “Outside of that, we are also talking with

the World Bank to support actual transaction activities - those who are already in exploration and just about to move into production but don’t have enough funds, and this will be like a support fund for such activity across the sector.”

“We believe because we are starting from below zero, the major miners will come in once they see that things are beginning to be discovered, they will begin to refocus their interest on Nigeria,” he added.

The Natural Resource Fund, which was reportedly set up by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in 2001 for the development of alternative natural resources outside oil and gas, is domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Fayemi said the roadmap would first focus on reestablishing an accurate geological survey of Nigeria’s mineral potentials to enable for bankable investment decisions, reform the sector’s regulatory and licensing regimes, then push for in-country mining and processing of solid minerals to meet local demands, before launching out to the global market as a standard mineral mining and processing country.

TOP GAINERS NGN NGN UNIONBANK 0.23 4.80 NEM 0.04 0.85 AFRIPRUD 0.13 2.83 AIICO 0.02 0.65 UNITEDCAP 0.05 2.51 TOP LOSERS NGN NGN GUINNESS 9.54 88.45 CAPITALHOTEL 0.19 3.68 LAFARGEAFRICA 2.40 47.20 ZENITHBANK 0.72 14.23 NEIMETH 0.04 0.86 HPE Nestle Nig Plc ₦800.00 Volume: 200.842 million shares Value: N922 billion Deals: 3,048 As at 7/10/16 See details on Page 36

% 5.0 4.9 4.8 3.1 2.0 % 9.7 4.9 4.8 4.8 4.4

53

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

PAGE FIFTY-THREE

Tension in Osun Schools over Mass Failure in WAEC Qualifying Examination Security agencies put on alert Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo Tight security is expected at the premises of most secondary schools in Osun State, especially in Osogbo, the state capital today, following the alleged plot by some students to protest their failure in an examination organised to select public school students that would sit for the next West African Examination Council (WAEC) school certificate examinations

on the bill of the state government.

The unified examination was held in all public high schools across the state between Monday, August 23 and Friday, August 27 with over 35,000 students participating.

However, a source at the Ministry of Education said only 7,000 students made the cut-off marks for the state government’s sponsorship.

Consequently, as the results

of the examinations arrived schools last Thursday, there was growing tension among students because of the high rate of failure and the belief that those who failed might not be allowed to write the WAEC examinations.

Students of Anglican High School, Kola Balogun area of Osogbo started the protest on Friday when news filtered in that nearly all that sat for the qualifying examination in the school failed.

Also a reliable source in the school said officers and men of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were alerted and the students were hurriedly dismissed as the school closed early for the day.

Security sources yesterday said that some students were planning to foment trouble in schools and that the security agencies had been put on alert in case of any eventuality.

Students, who spoke

with THISDAY on the issue, however, expressed reservation over the outcome of the qualifying examination, blaming the high rate of failure on an alleged plot to limit the number of students that would benefit from the government’s sponsorship.

Efforts to get the government’s spokesperson, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, to speak on the development was abortive as calls to his phone were not answered.

Education Minister Adamu Adamu

Nigeria Misses Out As Pope Francis Appoints 17 New Cardinals Paul Obi in Abuja with agency report Nigeria was again omitted as Pope Francis I yesterday appointed 17 new cardinals across the world, 14 of which are likely successors to the Papal throne.

Announcing the new cardinals at the Vatican yesterday, Pope Francis harped on the need for the church

to restore mercy, particularly in the southern hemisphere; where the Catholic Church is expanding exponentially.

The Catholic pontiff explained that the new promotion of Archbishops to the rank of cardinals would in the long run show “the universality of the Church which proclaims and bears witness to the Good News of God's Mercy in every corner

of the earth”.

The 17 new cardinals have 13 electors who are under 80 years and eligible to participate in the election of a new Pope, while four are above 80 and not eligible to vote in the selection process of a new Pope.

Out of the 17 new cardinals, only Archbishop Dieudonne’ Nzapalainga of Central Africa Republic and Archbishop

Sebastian Koto Khoarai of Lesotho made the list from Africa. Nzapalainga at 49 will now be the youngest cardinal in the Catholic conclave.

Before the Pope’s announcement, there were insinuations that President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and Archbishop of Jos Ignatius Kaigama and the Archbishop of Lagos Adewale Martins

were likely candidates for the rank of cardinal.

Commanding one of the highest growing numbers of Catholics, it was hoped that the new appointment would include Nigeria, given its strength and support base to the Vatican.

The expectation was that Nigeria was ripe for another cardinal given that only the Archbishop

of Abuja Metropolitan See, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, is an active member of the conclave, considering that the Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos Archdiocese, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, has retired from service.

All efforts by THISDAY to speak to both Onaiyekan and Kaigama proved abortive as they were not available for comments.

first given orderly room trial, sacked and then appropriately prosecuted.

For judicial officers, the DSS has no role," he said.

Wike added: "This impunity must stop. I am not in support of any judicial officer being involved in corruption. What we are saying is that the right things must be done. We must not do things that will jeopardise our hard earned democracy.”

of judges across the country by the DSS. While we fully support the government’s efforts to eradicate judicial corruption, we cannot accept anti-corruption strategies and methods which patently offend the rule of law and undermine the authority, integrity, sanctity and independence of the judiciary.”

Meanwhile, a lawyer and former National Secretary of the Labour Party, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, has also condemned the arrests of some judges.

Ajulo in a statement yesterday said the SSS should have followed the judicial procedures for dealing with erring judges.

"I have canvassed several times the need to overhaul our judiciary; I recall my twin letters to the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on same. However, I believe that in cleansing the judiciary of corrupt judges, proper procedures must be followed,” he said.

He added: "Yes, judges have no immunity from prosecution and discipline but I have been privileged to take part in the disciplinary procedures of some judges at the National Judicial Council to know the importance of the unique procedures.

"It is pertinent to state this: no arm of government has reviewed itself more than the judiciary and this ought to be encouraged. I believe there are procedures to be followed for any disciplinary measure against serving judges."

NJC MEETS AS MORE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FACE IMMINENT ARREST of Separation of Powers,” it said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

The party said by the arrests, the president had shown that he had no desire to respect the pillars of our democracy, warning that Nigerians could no longer afford to stand aside and watch the administration destroy the foundations of the country's democracy.

The PDP alleged that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike was assaulted by the men of the DSS during his intervention, causing him to sustain injuries on his arm.

The party warned that the nation might be witnessing a descent into fascism. "This inexorable slide into fascism began with the invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Government House by the same SSS, the continued detention of several people despite courts ordering their release, the invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and detention of Hon. Akanni Afolabi and the invasion of the Zamfara State House of Assembly,” it said.

The PDP accused the federal government of disobeying court orders, saying it was further evidence that the Buhari administration was unwilling to be guided by law.

According to the party, "The government has no regard for the rule of law.

They do not care about court orders. This government has disregarded the orders of the ECOWAS Court and every other court in the land and

continues to detain (Col Sambo) Dasuki illegally.

They continue to detain hundreds of Nigerians without bringing them to trial and against valid court orders.”

The party argued that the proper way to treat the suspected judges was to report them to the NJC for disciplinary actions if they had erred.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the Constitution in Section 153(1)(i) and Part 1 of the Third Schedule thereto establishes the National Judicial Council (NJC) and empowers same to regulate and discipline judges across the country. The proper path to follow to discipline erring judges will be to forward a petition containing any wrong doing to the NJC along with any evidence in support thereof,” it said.

APC Disagrees with PDP The All Progressives Congress (APC) said last night that the desperation of the PDP and some of its governors to drag Buhari into the circumstances surrounding the arrests of the judges was unfortunate.

"The President Muhammadu Buhari APCled administration strictly respects the principles of the rule of law and also adheres to the constitutional provisions of separation of powers between the three arms of government," the APC stated in a statement by its national secretary, Mr.

Mai Buni.

"While the party calls on all security agencies to respect and be guided by the rule of law in carrying out its constitutional duties, the APC finds the actions of some PDP governors and the reckless unsubstantiated allegations levelled by the PDP on the president fingering him as the architect of the SSS raids curious and suspicious," it said.

The APC said it suspected that the PDP and the Ekiti and Rivers State governors, Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike, had something to hide, saying it was a red flag that security agencies must not ignore.

The ruling party added: "Meanwhile, the APC will not join issues on matters before the courts because it will be subjudice. We advise the PDP to tow the same line and allow judicial processes run their normal and legitimate course.”

Wike Picks Holes in SSS' Allegations against Judges Rivers State Governor Wike berated the DSS for resorting to deliberate misinformation and concocted stories to justify its “unconstitutional assault on the nation’s judiciary”.

The governor said the DSS lacked the constitutional powers to be involved in the legal process to discipline a serving judicial official, pointing out that there was a legal process that must be followed.

Addressing the people of Rivers State on Saturday night during a special dinner for the management and players of Rivers United at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Wike said: “The weak blackmail of the SSS will not lessen the crime they have committed against the Nigerian State by assaulting the judiciary,” noting that nobody was deceived by the concocted figures being circulated by the SSS. He said: "Their blackmail stories will not move me.

They will concoct all kinds of stories to justify this undemocratic illegality perpetrated against the judiciary.

"It is really unfortunate that DSS would concoct a false defence that $2 million (that is N900 million) was found in the house of the judge. It is unfortunate that the DSS is coming up with flimsy excuses.”

The governor noted that while he would not condone corruption, he would also not support any process that was targeted at ruining the nation’s judiciary.

He stated that the NJC had the responsibility to discipline erring and corrupt judges, after which indicted judicial officers were handed over to the relevant law enforcement agency for prosecution.

The governor said the police, army and other para-military agencies had their respective processes for the discipline of erring and corrupt officers.

"In the police, erring and corrupt policemen are

SERAP Calls for Release of Arrested Judges The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to President Buhari requesting him to use his “good offices and leadership to urgently instruct the DSS to immediately and unconditionally release all the judges arrested by them and end the continuing intimidation and harassment of the judiciary”.

It said: “If following the receipt and/or publication of this letter, your government fails or refuses to immediately and unconditionally release the judges as requested, SERAP would promptly consider appropriate legal options nationally and internationally to ensure the full and effective implementation of our requests.”

SERAP’s letter dated 9 October, 2016 and signed by its Executive Director, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, said: “We are seriously concerned about the wave of arrests, intimidation and harassment

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NEWS

News Editor Davidson Iriekpen Email davidson.iriekpen@thisdaylive.com, 08111813081

Nigeria’s Development Bank Set to Commence asFGWorld Bank Releases $1.3bn Take-Off Fund updates rating agencies on steps to revive the economy Says 13% disbursement of funds on World Bank projects too low flexible forex policy to bring out its best

Emefiele: CBN will continue to fine-tune

Chika Amanze-Nwachuku, Obinna Chima and Zacchaeus Somorin in Washington D.C

of disbursement of funds on Nigerian projects.

“Indeed, the rate is 13 per cent at the moment which is unacceptably low.

We agreed on a number of measures to reverse this, and these include, we would review process of originating projects, project designs and implementation issues to understand why certain projects are performing at such a low rate. We would consider restructuring, reallocating or even canceling irredeemable project components. We would strengthen our implementation capacity including our capacity

In line with its determination to revive the Nigerian economy, the federal government yesterday revealed that the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), a financial institution that would bridge the gap between the Bank of Industry (BoI) and other commercial banks as well as meet the funding needs of the micro, small medium enterprises (MSME) would soon become operational.

In fact, the recruitment exercise for the DBN has been finalised and a total of $1.3 billion would soon be released for the take-off of the institution.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Washington D.C, on the outcome of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meetings, said agreement on the DBN was reached at the meetings.

This is just as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele who was also at the briefing, assured Nigerians that the central bank would continue to look at how to fine-tune the flexible exchange rate regime so as to ensure exchange rate convergence.

The DBN is being supported by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.

However, checks by THISDAY yesterday showed that a website has already been created for the institution, which is expected to go live soon.

“Agreement was also reached on the final steps for the take off of the Development Bank of Nigeria which had been stopped due to some issues, we have resolved all those issues, the recruitment process has now been finalised

with management team put in place and this will release $1.3 billion which is aimed at supporting our SMEs and SMEs are part of the engine that will spur the growth of our economy, SME lending at low rates will now be facilitated through the DBN and we are ready to resolve the outstanding issues,” she said.

She also disclosed that the Nigerian delegation at the meetings met with the three biggest rating agencies - Fitch, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s in order to update them on developments in the Nigerian economy.

“We met with the rating agencies. As you know they recently had some rating actions on Nigeria. We met with Moody, Fitch and S&P had interactive session with them updated on our economic plans and giving them the picture of what we are doing, overall , it was very positive engagement we have some takeaway and we remain very confident that that the strategy we are pursuing will result in some quick recovery to the Nigerian economy.

“We had validation of our economic strategy. That is, our strategy to transform Nigeria from consumption driven to and investment driven model and while in the short term, there has been some pain and some dislocation, the long term economic outlook for Nigeria remains confident.

“We had a number of specific bilateral meetings with UK Department for International Development, the US treasury and other partners,” she revealed.

Furthermore, the finance minister disclosed that based on the federal government’s commitment to reverse the trend of illicit financial flows which had seen significant money flow out of Nigeria, some high level agreements on a number of initiatives, which she declined to disclose, were

Oba of Benin Ascension Rites: Edaiken Arrives Eko–Ohae The rites for the ascension of the new Oba of Benin, Ehenende Erediauwa, began yesterday, after he left Eguae Edaiken (Uselu) for Oredo.

The 70th ruler of Benin Kingdom from Ogiso and the 30th Oba of Benin in the second millennium stopped at Sacred Palm Tree (Udin), from where he proceeded to Iya-Akpan where Uselu chiefs took leave of him and Oredo chiefs took over.

He will remain in Eko-Ohae until Monday. A statement from the palace said the rites continue tomorrow.

According to the

programme, today, the Edaiken will leave Eko-Ohae for Usama Palace where the coronation rituals would continue.

On October 18, the Edaiken will go to Use village for the major ceremony of choosing a name and returns to Usama, The statement added that while October 19 is rest day, on October 20, the Edaiken would leave Usama for Benin; goes through Isekherhe to Urho-Okpota and coronation ceremony at Urho-Okpota.

On October 23 is Omo N’Oba’s thanksgiving worship at Holy Aruosa.

reached at the meeting.

Adeosun explained: “This, we believe can bring significant repatriation of money into the Nigerian economy, particularly money that has flown out as a result of tax evasion. And we would be briefing Mr president on specifics and I would be able to provide you with more detailed information when I have Mr President’s final and formal approval.

“The key attainments from this trip - we met with the World Bank and the country team as a group and one of the discussions was that there was an unacceptable low level

for monitoring and evaluation.

Continuing, she said: “We would have regular monthly meetings now with the World Bank Group and there would be regular briefings of Federal Executive Council and the National Economic Council on the performance of Nigeria’s portfolios. And that’s because some of these projects are at state governments’ level.

“So its very important to bring to the attention of the governors failing World Bank projects in their states so that we can actually access this money which ofcourse is concessional money and is aligned to our

development goals. We believe it is unacceptable that Nigeria should be drawing down on such a low rate especially at time like this when we really need these investments.”

In addition, she said the federal government has made counterpart funding on the $500 million irrigation project covering Bakalori, Kano River and Hadeja valley, which would enable the immediate take-off of the project, adding that agreement was also reached to expedite action for the take-of the $500 million North-east social safety net project.

GOUNDBREAKING CEREMONY

Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd); Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, his wife, Linda; and Mrs. Onari Duke, during the foundation laying ceremony for Oncology Centre in Calabar...weekend

Kaduna Government Orders Arrest, Prosecution of Shiite Spokesman John Shiklam in Kaduna

Saturday, the spokesman of the movement, Musa, had described The Kaduna State Government the ban as an infringement on has ordered the arrest and their fundamental human rights, prosecution of Ibrahim Musa, vowing that the group would the spokesman of the Islamic challenge it in court.

But Aruwan said yesterday Movement in Nigeria (IMN), that Musa had identified otherwise known as Shiite.

The state government in a himself as a spokesman of statement by the spokesman of an illegal group and should Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Mr. be arrested and prosecuted.

According to the statement Samuel Aruwan, said: “All security agencies in “One Ibrahim Musa who the state have been directed has owned up to being the to vigorously enforce the law, spokesperson of an unlawful and demonstrate clear resolve society IMN,” noting that a by arresting the said Ibrahim few hours after the IMN was Musa, who is further advised outlawed, Musa admitted to to report himself to the nearest the membership of an unlawful police station or any of the society and identified himself as its spokesman in widely security agencies.”

The state government last publicised statements.

“An order declaring the Friday issued a declaration outlawing the IMN, saying IMN as an unlawful society in Kaduna State went into it is an illegal organisation.

However, in a reaction last effect on Friday, October 7,

2016. Violation of this order attracts penalty of imprisonment for seven years or a fine or both, according to sections 97a and 97b of the Penal Code.”

The statement noted: “The state Commissioner of Police has been directed to ensure the arrest to enable prompt prosecution by the state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice.

“All security agencies in the state have been directed to vigorously enforce the law, and demonstrate clear resolve by arresting the said Musa, who is further advised to report himself to the nearest police station or any of the security agencies.

“Government cannot allow the laws of the state to be wantonly tested and confronted by any one or group who might have the mistaken belief that

they are above the law.”

The state statement reiterated that government fully respects freedom of religion and other rights as guaranteed by Sections 38 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution, pointing out however that the same Constitution imposes an obligation on government to secure the state and protect every citizen against infringement of their rights by others.

“Drawing on powers vested by Section 45(1) of the Constitution, and Section 97a of the Penal Code, the governor signed an order declaring the IMN as an unlawful society in the interest of public order and to protect the rights and freedoms of all persons in Kaduna State,” the statement explained.

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NEWSXTRA

FG Still Dialoguing with Niger Delta, Says Kachikwu Amnesty office begs militants to come out of creeks, embrace programme Tobi Soniyi in Abuja The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said it is not true that the federal government is working against the people of the Niger Delta region.

He also said the dialogue between the federal government and the people of the region to find lasting solutions to the lingering violence and pipeline vandalism in the region was on-going.

The minister made the clarification at the weekend in an interview at the end of the 2016 convocation ceremony of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State.

He said the president was very supportive of the project of ensuring that government reached an agreement with the people through dialogue by ensuring that the old model which failed was restructured.

“The dialogue with the militants has not collapsed, I have laid that process and the president is very supporting of that process.

“But what the president does not want to do is to put in place same model that failed after four months and militants are back to the creeks.

“We are looking at a long term model and I have presented to Mr. President a road-map and it encompasses short, long term solutions, engagement and inclusiveness of the communities.

“We absolutely believe that the Niger Delta is key to the country, the people have contributed so much in very many ways but the society has failed them “And I use the word, society, not necessarily government because if you look at what has been provided over the

years, it’s a lot and some of them have not got it right for certain reasons like corruption at different levels.

“We need to begin to look on how these benefits will get to them; so, let everybody be calm, as destruction doesn’t lead you anywhere.

“I am from here and every money that the state loses because of militancy is lack of development in the state.

“I went to the creeks and I talked with some of the militants and we dialogued and some of the results you are seeing today are the results of those dialogues.

“But I do agree that we must have a robust, permanent, aggressive, inclusive dialogue on the table,” he said.

Kachikwu, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said PTI and its management team were the right answer to bridging the gap in producing the local manpower in the oil and gas industry.

He said government would do all it could to expand the role of PTI in providing needed facilities in the sector as a means of cutting cost in the sector.

The minister said Nigeria imported fuel from any country, including Ghana, to meet its daily needs, adding that it was cheaper to import from closer countries.

“But the reality is that the quantity we import from Ghana is small, the closer they are around us, the cheaper, so we mop everything around us before we look outside.

“But we are the one powering Ghana, all the gas we produce is used in Ghana but we are reengineering our facilities and soon we shall take over the production

Olojo: Ooni Starts Five Days Seclusion, Unveils ‘Ade Are’ Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, yesterday moved into Iledi, a seclusion where he is going to spend the next five days as a result of Olojo festival.

Olojo festival is a major annual event in Ile Ife, meant to celebrate creation of universe and the week long event will climax with the wearing of Are Crown, a special crown worn once annually by Ooni and the symbolic walk from Ile Oodua, Ooni’s palace to Oke Mogun.

THISDAY yesterday evening at the Ooni’s palace noted that the road leading to Ooni’s palace from Moore was closed to traffic as Oba Ogunwusi moved into Iledi, his first port of call when he started the rites for installation as Ooni last year November.

Speaking on what the royal

father would be doing during his seclusion, the spokesperson for Ooni’s palace, Moses Olafare, said Ogunwusi is celebrating his first Olojo as Ooni and as such, he is leaving no stone unturned to make the festival a memorable one.

Olafare said Ooni will, during the seclusion, pray for the country and her leadership at all levels.

“Ooni Ogunwusi will also spend time praying for Yoruba race and her people.

Ooni would also seek support of ancestors for peace and progress of Ile Ife and its people. His duties during the period basically is to pray,” Olafare said.

Before the Ooni began his seclusion, he earlier unveiled replica of “Are” crown mounted at Enuwa junction and called on Nigerians to seek peace and ensure they coexist in peace wherever they find themselves.

of petroleum products,” Kachikwu He said the government was presently looking on how to cut cost, find other financing models and improve infrastructure in the oil and refining sector to produce for domestic consumption.

The minister said the hard times in the country were temporary and appealed for understanding of Nigerians.

He, however, said solutions to the present challenges could take some time.

Meanwhile, the Special

Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General, Paul Boroh (rtd), has appealed to members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and other militants in the region to leave the creeks and enlist in the Amnesty programme for a better future.

Boroh spoke in Abuja while welcoming four ex-agitators from the region who were successfully trained in electrical transformer repairs, maintenance and establishment.

They were trained by Brainbox Matrix Services Limited, a vendor to the amnesty office.

The Special Adviser, who could not hide his excitement seeing the former freedom fighters become qualified electrical engineers, stated that the intention of President Muhammadu Buhari was to stabilise the Niger Delta region through human capacity development as well as infrastructural development.

He said: “First, I appreciate the president for sustaining this

programme because if he had not given us the go ahead to continue the training, it would have been difficult for us to achieve this great feat today.

“You can imagine a group of persons who have transformed from militancy to be electrical engineers, obviously I’m very proud of it because it has been a success story.

And my appreciation goes to the president who is determined and committed in stabilising the Niger Delta region through human capacity development as well as infrastructural development.

DONE DEAL

Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka (left), and Vice President of the European Investment Bank, Ambrose Fayolle, during the agreement signing ceremony for 60 million euros facility from Europe International Bank (EIB) for on-lending to Nigerian businesses in Washington DC, during the World Bank/IMF meeting....weekend.

Forgery: FG Has No Case against Saraki, Ekweremadu, Says PDP Waku: Trial was just a persecution Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and George Okoh in Makurdi The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) has no basis to have instituted a law suit against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, respectively.

The party which was reacting to last week’s withdrawal of the forgery case against the two National Assembly leaders, said the action has justified its earlier charge that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration is on a vendetta mission and not to govern.

“We are amused by this sudden realisation of the federal government that the so-called ‘Rule-Forgery Case’ was a shadow chase from the beginning. It was complete nothingness! More so, the claim through the lead counsel, Aliyu Umar (SAN),

that the withdrawal was on grounds of respect for the rule of law and hierarchy of the judiciary demonstrates more of comedy on the side of this federal government that has penchant for legal disobedience and abuse of court processes.

“Notwithstanding, this act of withdrawal justifies our earlier position that the APC-led administration is on a vendetta mission and not to govern.

“The PDP is worried with the frequent interference on other arms of government by the APC-led administration, and this must be curtailed as a matter of urgency if Nigeria is to practice democracy like other democratic systems across the world, and live as one indivisible nation.

The PDP said the principle of separation of powers as propagated in every democratic setting is to allow for checks and balances among the different arms of government in order to prevent excessive or cohesive use of power by any of the organs of government. In this

context, “It was clear to us and other well-meaning Nigerians from the outset that this case of forgery instituted against the presiding officers of the National Assembly was just another bad politics of the APC because the federal government under the Penal Code law has no business with the standing rules of the National Assembly as alleged.

“We therefore further call on the executive arm of government in the country to maintain the sanctity of this principle, and desist from unnecessary distractions with acts of impunity against persons, groups for organisations. We are in a democracy and not anarchy,” it said.

Also, former senator, Chief Joseph Waku, has described the withdrawal of a lawsuit against Saraki and his deputy, Ekweremadu, by the federal government as the most appropriate thing to do in the face of no-case issue.

According to Waku, the whole issue was a mere witch-hunt to tarnish Saraki’s image as a result

of his emergence as the senate president.

“There is no justification whatsoever to drag the Senate president and his deputy to court for criminal case as there were neither the author of the said document nor the management of the assembly prior to when they were elected.

“Until they went into that chamber, they were senators-elect so they couldn’t have forged documents to elect them. So, in the first place, going to court was witch-hunting; they have no legal backing to take them to court because they were not in the position to doctor or forge the documents,” he stated.

The former lawmaker said he was baffled the way the whole saga went, adding that as a former member of the Senate, there was no way a member of the senate could doctor a rule.

“The federal government was witch hunting the Senate president but they have done the right thing by withdrawing the case of forgery against him and his deputy,” Waku added.

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NCC: Broadband Penetration Now More than 20% Dele Ogbodo in Abuja With 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has revealed that Nigeria has achieved more than 20 per cent penetration as recently disclosed by the International

Telecommunications Union (ITU).

While underscoring the resilience of the telecom sector, Danbatta said the active total subscribers in the network has surpassed 152 million, with Internet penetration of more than 97 million.

Speaking at the 2016 Abuja International Trade Fair, Danbatta, said the

Shell Appoints New Vice-president for Nigeria, Gabon Mr. Peter Costello has been appointed as the new VicePresident for Shell in Nigeria and Gabon. He succeeds Markus Droll who assumes a new role of Executive VicePresident, Projects in Shell International based in Rijswijk, The Netherlands.

In a statement by Shell’s spokesperson, Bamidele Olugbenga Odugbesan, the firm said Costello, an engineer by background had spent over three decades in the oil and gas industry, starting his career in British Gas and working in the UK, India, The Philippines, Thailand and Kazakhstan. He transferred to Shell following the combination with BG in June 2016.

Costello, who has assumed duty in Lagos, said: “I come to Nigeria with high hopes of what we can do to build on the excellent work that I’ve met on the ground. Shell Companies in Nigeria are major contributors to the economy, not only through the energy they produce and the revenues they generate for the country, but also via their supply chains, local content and social investment.

“Given the exceptional talent here and the huge resource base of the country, I’m confident we can address the challenges in our operating environment, and continue to deliver real value to all stakeholders. My sentiments for Gabon are similar as we work to reposition our business and take advantage of new opportunities.”

According to the statement, Droll, also an engineer by background, joined Shell in 1985 and had held a variety of

roles in Projects and Front-End Engineering in The Netherlands, Oman and Brunei.

He first came to Nigeria in 2006, where he led the Corporate and Commercial Directorate, and then in 2007, became Vice-President Technical Africa. From 2009 to 2012, he was Vice-President Technical Asia, Upstream International. He was appointed Vice-President Nigeria and Gabon in January 2013.

Droll said: “The last four years have been exciting as they have been challenging in what can easily pass as my most satisfying job in my career so far. Nigeria and Gabon continue to be fertile ground in our portfolio, and it has been a privilege working with staff and other stakeholders to deliver the kind of value that we can all be proud of both in the onshore and offshore oil and gas production.

“I leave with fond memories of the energy and resourcefulness of the staff in Nigeria and Gabon and the genuine friendliness of the people, which goes even for the climate.”

Osagie Okunbor, Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), said: “We are sad to see Markus go. He has been a partner and friend of Nigeria using the experience from his first Nigeria posting. We also welcome Peter to Nigeria. His vast networks and experience will be very helpful in further consolidating and improving the Shell presence in Nigeria.”

penetration level signifies that the country is getting nearer its target of 30 per cent by 2018 as set by the National Broadband Strategy Report.

The EVC who was represented by the Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Reuben Muoka, averred that NCC’s robust broadband deployment programme through the open access model of fibre infrastructure provision licensing and auctioning of broadband spectrum licenses are yielding results.

The EVC said: “These are to show that the telecom industry will continue

to add value to our lives and economy. A lot of solutions are available with the availability of telecom services. Internet banking and online bookings are prevalent.

“The Nigerian social media is alive and thriving. We have a full dose of social media interactions going on across the length and breath of the country.”

Danbatta urged telecom consumers to take advantage of the Do-Not-Disturb Code: 2442, to combat the menace of unsolicited text messages, adding that NCC has now empowered the consumers

to determine which text messages to receive.

He said service providers have been mandated to ensure that they do not only provide this solution to the consumers, but should create awareness so that consumers will be able to take advantage of it.

According to him, preregistered SIM cards are constituting concern to the commission, adding that directives have been sent to service providers to ensure that their agents are not used to perpetrate this fraud. He advised consumers to desist from buying or using pre-

registered SIM cards.

The EVC said, use of substandard and counterfeits devices worsen the quality of service, adding that the devices fall short of international standard and therefore pose risk to users.

Danbatta called on Nigerians to help in preventing vandalisation of telecom infrastructure and denial of right of way to service providers, adding: “The commission is requesting partnership with the public to prevail on some communities and individuals who bar service providers from maintaining their sites.”

SWEET VICTORY

Edo State Governor-elect, Mr. Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and his deputy, Hon. Philip Shaibu, on an eight-kilometre road show after collecting their Certificates of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin City...weekend

Udoma: Economic Summit will Revamp Nigerian Economy Emma Okonji The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has assured Nigerians that the 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit, which opens today in Abuja, will address issues and generate debates targeted at revamping the Nigerian economy.

According to him, the summit would begin with presidential dialogue at the opening ceremony, followed by a roundtable with the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and would be attended by top industry players.

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to declare NES#22 open and lead a presidential policy dialogue which will focus on key strategic elements required to drive global competitiveness and sustenance for Madein-Nigeria products and services and strengthen Nigeria’s economy via plenary sessions, Osinbajo

will lead the roundtable session on job creation, skills acquisition and development at the summit.

Other high level dignitaries expected at the summit include Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; MD/CEO, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Subsidiaries, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan; MD, FBN Merchant Bank Limited, Kayode Akinkugbe, among others.

The summit is also a veritable platform that will facilitate stakeholders’ discussions/agreements on the practical issues, opportunities that abound, policies and regulations needed to make “Made In Nigeria” a success in the country.

The Nigerian Economic Summit with the theme ‘Made in Nigeria’, is in line with the Buhari administration’s commitment to diversify the productive base of the economy away from oil.

The summit, which is being organised by the

Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) is targeted at unlocking the economic potentials of the non-oil and high-employment sectors, so as to achieve a sustainable inclusive growth that will ensure that the majority of Nigerians become more productive, thereby reducing poverty.

We are deliberately working towards diversifying the Nigerian economy by ensuring that non-oil sector drives the economy because this is the sector that contributes the most to GDP, and has more capacity to employ, Udoma said.

“The basic strategy is to reflate the economy through fiscal stimulus and strategic implementation of annual budgets. What this means is that we are geared to strategically spend our way out of recession.

Unfortunately, we have not met all our planned expenditures for 2016 due to low revenue out-turns.

However, we have ensured that the resources that

we release are targeted at priorities that will stimulate activities in the economy,” Udoma added.

According to the organisers, the summit is designed to encourage more production and consumption of ‘Made -in-Nigeria Goods and Services.’

Past summits have made recommendations on selfsufficiency in local production and an export-driven economy. With our current economic realities, this is the perfect opportunities to articulate a national discussion on ‘Made-in -Nigeria’ to promote the goods and services that are already up to standards for consumption, encourage exports and increase opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” the organisers said.

Director, NESG, Mrs. Wonu Adetayo, also assured Nigerians that the summit would implement resolutions that would be reached at the summit, for the good of the country.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

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NEWSXTRA

FG Asks Lagos to Refund Billions of Naira Collected in Wharf Landing Fees Case coming up today at Supreme Court

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja

The federal government has asked the Supreme Court to declare the Lagos State Wharf Landing Fees Law No 5 of 2009 unconstitutional and to order the state to refund all the monies collected through the law.

The law was passed in 2009 when Babatunde Fashola, now the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, was the state governor. It imposes levies which vary from N1,000 to N3,000 on consignments transported from Lagos ports into the local government areas of the state.

In an originating summons filed on behalf of the federal government by Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation asked the court to declare that the state has no power to make law on any maritime, shipping and navigation matter including ‘Wharf Landing’ which are exclusively reserved for the federal government in item 36 of the Exclusive Legislative List, Part 1 of the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.

The federal government also asked for an order directing Lagos State to account, refund and pay to it all the sums it has charged, received and collected pursuant to the implementation of the Wharf Landing Fees Law. It put the refunds at billions of naira.

The federal government also wants the apex court to authorise it to deduct the accounted sum from the statutory allocation due to the state from the Federation Account.

In a brief filed in support

of the originating summons, Agbakoba argued that the intent and purpose of the Wharf Landing Fees Law, “is very clear from the nature of the law itself; which is to levy taxes and tariffs on goods and consignment imported from overseas through the sea ports in the state.”

According to him, the law encroaches on the powers of the federal government to collect import duties and customs duties.

The case was filed during the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan and it will come up today at the Supreme Court for hearing. Giving the relationship between the present leadership of the federal government and the state government, it is not clear yet if the case will go ahead or be discontinued.

However, in a counteraffidavit deposed to by Olanrewaju Akinsola who was then the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Lagos State on Justice Sector Reform, Lagos said it had the power to authorise relevant local government councils to collect the fees in areas outside the jurisdiction of the ports authority, pursuant to Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution.

The state also said the law was aimed at stopping the incidence of multiple and illegal taxes in Lagos, adding that prior to the enactment of the law, several local government areas engaged in indiscriminate imposition of levies on vehicles carrying goods and equipment in a bid to ameliorate the damage caused to their infrastructure by heavy traffics, especially those coming from the ports.

It stated that the Joint Tax Board approved the collection of the fees by Apapa Local Government Area of the state from 2002, and exhibited the letter of approval in its defence.

The state also said: “The Federal Ministry of Finance, by its letter dated 16 January, 2002 also approved the recommendation of the Joint Tax Board empowering Apapa Local Government to change and administer wharf landing fees.” It also attached a copy of the approval letter from the finance ministry.

In a letter to the then AGF, Mr, Bello Adoke (SAN), Lagos State explained that the law did not seek to regulate any activity within federal ports.

The letter which was written

by Olasupo Shasore (SAN), who was then the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, read in part: “The Wharf Landing Fee was enacted pursuant to paragraphs 9-10 of the Concurrent Legislative List, Part II of the Second Schedule to the Constitution.

“Apart from the issue of constitutionality, it is also important to draw your attention to the inappropriateness of your solicitors, Olisa Agbakoba and Associates acting as counsel to the AGF in the matter at the Supreme Court. The law firm is a counsel to Hermonfield Limited, a sub-contractor of the collecting agent appointed by the state government to collect wharf landing fees.

The bona fide of the law firm is suspect as this case appears to have been filed after failure of an attempt to foist the sub-contractor on the state government.”

THISDAY Correspondent Wins PwC Media Excellence Awards Eromosele Abiodun THISDAY correspondent, Eromosele Abiodun, last Friday in Lagos emerged winner in the maiden edition of the PriceWaterCooper (PwC) Nigeria, Media Excellence Award.

A total of 55 entries were submitted by journalists in four categories, namely, Tax Reporting, Capital Market Reporting, SME Reporting and Business & Economy Reporting.

Winners in each of the categories went home with N500,000 each while consolation prizes of N50,000 each went to the other nominees that made top three.

Of the 55 entries received, 29 were for Business andEconomy Reporting; 16 for SME Reporting; eight for Capital Market Reporting and two for Tax Reporting.

Stanley Opara of Punch Newspapers; Collins Nwaeze of The Nation Newspapers

and Eromosele Abiodun of THISDAY Newspapers were the finalists in the Capital Market Category. Eromosele won the first prize with his article titled: ‘Of The Exchange Rate and Devaluation.”

Eromo Egbejule of the Ventures Africa won the first prize in the SME Reporting Category with his article titled: ‘Walk in these shoes: Aba’s very own leather manufacturing plant.’ Hannah Ojo of The Nation Newspapers and Oluwamayowa Tijani of The CableNG made top three.

The Editor of The CableNG, Fisayo Soyombo; Emmanuel Ogunsola of TechpointNG and Isaac Anyaogu of BusinessDay Newspaper were the finalists in the Business and Economy category of which Soyombo’s article, ‘Undercover Investigation: Nigeria’s Customs of Corruption, Bribery and Forgery’, came tops.

The two entries in the tTx category were from Anthony

Matuluko of Tax Matters on TV and Oluwamayowa Tijani of the CableNG. Matuluko won the first prize with interview of secondary school students at the Society for Women in Taxation (SWIT) seminar.

Commenting on the award, the Deputy Senior Country Partner, PwC Nigeria, Mr. Tola Ogundipe, said the effort was in a bid to celebrate and reward excellence in business reporting in Nigeria.

He said journalists have important role to play in the society as information carriers.

According to him, good governance and economic independence can be achieved if the journalists ensure excellence reportage of issues that are well researched.

He urged the Nigerian journalists to always leverage on technology, adding that the award was instituted to celebrate and reward excellence in business reporting.

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APC Deputy Spokesman, Timi Frank Faults Oyegun on Ondo Crisis Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has challenged the National Chairman of his party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to publish the original minutes of the meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) where it was agreed to throw away the reports of the Ondo State primary election appeal panel.

The APC spokesman also faulted statements credited to Oyegun against the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, asking the chairman “why it took him two weeks to prepare lies as responses.”

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, Frank said the current crisis has gotten to a stage where Oyegun must publish the undoctored minutes of the meeting if he does not have any skeleton in his cupboard.

“Unknown to the national chairman, the last two NWC meetings were properly recorded and the record shows the contributions of every members of the NWC present at the meetings.

“Oyegun should tell the world why he brushed aside the suggestion of the National

Youth Leader, Hon. Dasuki Jalo, who suggested that the party should submit an interim name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pending the time a political solution will be found to the matter.

“But Oyegun and few others who benefitted from the corruption that produced Rotimi Akeredolu as the governorship candidate of our party did not see wisdom in what Jalo said.

“Oyegun’s few responses to the many of allegations raised by our leader, Tinubu, can never hold water. For example, the chairman and his cohort contradicted themselves when Oyegun said there was no voting at all but he forgot that the party National Vice Chairman, Hilliard Eta, told journalists that there was voting, which is in agreement with the position of the party’s South-west National Vice Chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, who also said the NWC members actually voted in the Ondo State Governorship Appeal Panel report.

“After that, we mandated our national chairman and secretary to go out and do wider consultations so that we can have a political solution to the heated environment the

situation has caused the party.”

According to Frank, “Now, who is deceiving who? In another clime, Oyegun would have voluntarily resigned as the national chairman of APC to allow someone else correct the damage he has done to the ruling party.

“But it is not too late. Our

national leader, Tinubu, has said Oyegun should step aside, and that is the opinion of larger percentage of the leaders and members of APC. It is expected of our national chairman to do the needful before the evidence of many evils done to the party are made public.”

According to the APC

chieftain, all lovers of APC should disregard Oyegun’s lies because the true position of what transpired at the NWC meeting had been truly revealed by the National Vice Chairman (South-west), Akinyelure.

“It is surprising that Oyegun made mentioned

of party constitution in the process of removing the national chairman, but the same Oyegun has never obeyed the party’s constitution to call for NEC meeting as expected and by allowing the Deputy National Officers to act in absence of their bosses.

My case is a perfect example.”

Report: Four-star General Earns over N20m Annually The annual salary of a four-star General in the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy (Admiral) and Nigerian Air Force (Air-Chief Marshal) is estimated at about N20.69 million or N1.72 million monthly.

The report by Economic Confidential yesterday and obtained by the economic intelligence magazine revealed the Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS) of all the rank and file of the armed forces.

The CONAFSS ranges from a recruit or trainee to the General, Admiral and Air Chief Marshal “A recruit or trainee goes home with N122,848 annually, a Private, Ordinary Seaman and Aircraftsman/Woman N639,990, while lance Corporal and Seaman also go home annually with

N661,732.

According to the report, the take-home-pay does not include allowances on special assignments, military operations, foreign missions, duty tours and estacode.

However, from the investigations and eventual computations, there is a great disparity between the annual salary of a recruit and a private with a difference of about N500,000.00 or half a million naira, while the difference between a private and a lance Corporal is merely over N21,000.

Further analysis reveals that Corporal, Able Seaman and its equivalent in the Air-force takehome N693,426.00, annually, while a Sergeant both in the army and Air Force and Leading Seaman in the Navy goes home annually with N809,327 with a great gap

of N115,000.

On that of Staff Sergeant and its equivalent in the navy and the air force, their take home pay per annum is N1,019,226, while the Warrant Officers across the board is put at N1,192,499 with a difference of N173,000.

The Master Warrant Officer in the three arms of the forces go home with annual salaries of N1,962,697, while army warrant officer, Navy warrant officer and that of the Air-force Warrant officer take home N2,061,520 with a gap of about N98,000. Meanwhile, those in training as cadet officers go home with a paltry N534,773.

As for commissioned officers starting with second lieutenant in the army, Mid-shipman in the navy and Pilot Officer in the air-force, their annual salary is

N2,245,909, while the next senior rank of Lieutenant, Sub-lieutenant and Flying Officer has an annual salary of N2,620,801 with a disparity of N374,000!

Meanwhile, a captain in the army, Lieutenant in the navy and Flight Lieutenant in the air-force go home with N2,789,818, while Major, Lieutenant Commander and Wing Commander has N2,976,052 annually with a difference of about N186,000.

A Lieutenant Colonel, Commander or Wing Commander has an annual salary of N3,895,033, and when compared with that of a Major has a huge gap of N918,000. The gap also exists between Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel, whose annual salary is N4,231,579 with a difference of N336,546.

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NEWSEXTRA

APC Clears Ogun LG Election Sheriff Balogun in Abeokutai

Petition Tribunal which will soon be set up.

The Ogun State Independent Meanwhile, the South-west National Electoral Commission zone of the PDP has described (OGSIEC) yesterday declared the conduct of the election as that the All Progressives condemnable, irresponsible and Congress (APC) won all the unacceptable for alleged height 57 local government and local of irregularities and violence. council development areas Addressing a press chairmanship seats in the state. conference yesterday in While announcing the result the state capital, the Zonal on behalf of the commission, Secretary of the party, Rev. a commissioner, Mr. Mutiu Bunmi Banjo, alleged that Agboke, said the APC also violence was masterminded won 346 councillorship seats by the APC due to its imminent out of 349 available seats. loss to PDP. He said Unity Party of Banjo further described Nigeria, (UPN ) however the action of the ruling party won two councillorship seats as barbaric, primitive and of Oke-Odan in Ifekowajo ridiculous adding that it was LCDA and Omu Ward in becoming clearer that PDP was Leguru LCDA while Peoples winning the election.

Democratic Party, PDP won a However, the state Chairman councillorship seat of Igbogila of Committee for the Defence ward in Yewa South Local of Democracy (CDHR), Government Area.

Comrade Yinka Folarin, also Agboke however described described the process as near the exercise as successful, perfection. saying the simultaneous He said, “To a very large accreditation and voting extent, and away from the assisted the process seriously. usual, the election was credible, While reacting to calls for free and fair. There’s a room for the cancellation of the result improvement but this process by some opposition parties, is near perfection.”

Agboke advised all aggrieved While commenting on the parties to approach the Election conduct of the election, the

state Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC said as the result as announced by

OGSIEC was a true reflection of performances of each political parties.

IPAC Chairman, Moshood Adesina said the process was transparent and all inclusive,

declaring that the process as free, fair, transparent and devoid of irregularities.

CHANGE OF BATON

Outgoing Vice President, Shell Nigeria and Gabon, Mr. Markus Droll (left), welcoming his successor, Mr. Peter Costello in Lagos....weekend

Ofala Festival: Veritable Vehicle for Social Stop Giving Insurgents Generous Publicity, Aremu Integration, Says Adenuga Appeals to Nigerian Media The Chairman of Globacom Limited, Mr. Mike Adenuga Jnr., has described the annual Onitsha Ofala Festival as a veritable vehicle for social integration and an instrument for promoting peace and community development.

Adenuga who made the remarks in Onitsha on Saturday in his goodwill message at the 2016 Ofala Festival celebrations held at the Ime Obi, Onitsha, noted that the festival had over the years fulfilled the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) purpose for cultural initiatives.

For the last six years, Globacom, a telecommunications outfit founded and nurtured by the business mogul, has been the major sponsor of the Ofala Festival since 2011.

According to him, “Ofala Festival, for us in Globacom, is an important vehicle which has been used to drive social integration, promote peace and community development. But more importantly, the festival immortalises a lofty heirloom of the Onitsha people.”

The Globacom Chairman disclosed that the company’s support for Ofala “is also in line with our vision to identify with initiatives that empower us as a nation and raise future leaders who will not only be exceptional in their professional endeavours but will also be worthy ambassadors of our cultures and traditions. This was why we instituted the Glo Heritage Series to support festivals that help the realisation of this noble cause.”

He paid glowing tribute to the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, Agbogidi, whom he said had introduced

unique initiatives to the festival by expanding its scope and scale.

One of the innovations is the Oraeze Arts Exhibition, which he said had over the years enabled exhibitors to “use their works to focus Nigerians’ attention on momentous national issues and shaped narratives on how we could build a bigger and better society. “Through their creativity, the outstanding artists who have been showcased on the platform have shown that, truly, arts is life,” he said.

“Globacom is proud of the interventionist roles it has played in the promotion of arts by investing in our budding and established talents. Our latest contribution in this sphere is a television satire, Professor Johnbull. Produced in the Eastern part of Nigeria and shown weekly on the NTA Network, the television drama series is not just entertaining but also didactic. Its objective is to make people learn and laugh as they relish the drama played by top Nollywood stars to call attention to various challenges facing the nation and how we can smash our obstacles into smithereens,” Adenuga added.

In his Ofala speech, the Onitsha Monarch said that Adenuga had made personal commitments towards the success of Ofala Festival and prayed for more grace for him to be able to impact more positively on humanity.

“We are particularly thankful for the personal commitment of the Executive Chairman of Globacom, Adenuga, towards the success of Ofala Onitsha for the past six years. We pray that God continues to bless him to enable him to continue to serve humanity,” the Agbogidi prayed.

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin Former Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), Issa Aremu, has appealed to the Nigerian media to stop giving generous publicity to the insurgents’ activities in the country.

He said their continued support and coverage of insurgents’ activities posed a tendency of glorifying criminality.

Aremu also said media professionals must not in the name of “fair reporting” and agitation for “Muslim presence in the media” promote criminals by reproducing divisive sinister reports as being practiced by the Western media against the Nigerian nation.

Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), stated this a paper he presented at the maiden national conference of Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria which ended in Ilorin yesterday.

The labour leader who was represented by Dr. Abdul Adamu, said: “I had cause several times to complain to my friends in trust management about how they give front pages to insurgents\criminals in the name of “fair reporting” who criminally murder women and children in the name of the great religion of peace, Islam.

“I think we should not be romantic about “Muslim presence” in the media, rather, let us ask for professional presence in the media with respect to truth which is not

divisible. There is no Muslim or Christian truth, truth is truth! Nigerian media must return back to the basics of the ethics of the profession especially with respect to report of crises in diverse society like Nigeria.

“Much violence has been perpetrated and spread due to unprofessional reportage and sheer disrespect for the truth. I was shocked how all Nigerian media recently reported the so-called change of leadership in Boko Haram sect. They all attributed their source to BBC which in turn never told us if its journalists were at the conference where the insurgents decided the change.

“Throughout the war of attrition in Northern Island in United Kingdom, BBC dared not carry news attributed to IRA terrorist the way it dubiously gives generous coverage to Boko Haram in Nigeria.

“But if BBC can afford the luxury of misinformation why should our own journalists, including Muslim journalists, be so unfair to the nation under local and international attack? CNN used to report Nigeria in terms of ‘Muslim North’ and ‘Christian South’, but must Nigerian media reproduce this divisive sinister report? Are we saying no Christians in the North, or no Muslims in the South? Of course our constitution never defines us as such-Muslim North and Christian South.

We are citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria regardless of faiths and language.”

Aremu who was a member of the 2014 National Conference, called on President Muhammadu Buhari

to revisit the conference report in the archive and implement all especially with respect to recommendations on the media.

Some of the recommendations resolved by the conference, according

him, is that: “The provisions of Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution should be made justiciable to enable the media discharge their constitutional obligations more effectively.”

IndustriAll Seeks Action against Precarious Work Conditions Nigerian workers under the aegis of IndustriAll Council of Nigeria have called for concrete action against precarious work conditions to which workers in the country have been subjected.

Precarious work, according to the global union, refers to work relationship with no distinct terms of employment such as letter of employment stating the terms and conditions of the employment relationship with the result that the workmen are hired, supervised and remunerated by a contractor.

Lamenting what they described as increasingly precarious work conditions, the workers urged for concrete economic, political, and institutional framework and policies that will bring about decent work for the working class.

Leading the call during activities to commemorate this year’s World Day for Decent Work, the Chairman, Nigeria Council of IndustriAll Global Union, Comrade Igwe Achese, said all over the world, particularly in Nigeria, workers are becoming increasingly precarious and endangered.

Achese said: “One of the strategic action axes of IndustriAll Global Union and of course Nigeria Labour Congress, is to fight against precarious work through joint actions of the affiliates to reduce or limit the use of precarious work and to ensure labour rights to precarious workers.

“To ensure that government and employers do the needful in making sure that workers rights are guaranteed, and that workers are giving their due rights,” adding that poverty level is rising sharply, and that workers are at the receiving end as cost of living continues to skyrocket almost on daily basis.

Achese who led the workers’ solemn procession in Lagos from Jibowu head office of NUPENG through Ojuelegba and Yaba and back to Jibowu in solidarity with the plight of workers in precarious conditions lamented that Nigerian workers in all sectors of the economy have been subjected to precarious work conditions marked by widespread casualisation, widening poverty circle and increasing inequality.

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APC Set to Counter PDP’s Protest over Outcome of Edo Guber Election Adibe Emenyonu in Benincity The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State has said it is ready for counter protest against the weeks-long rallies staged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the September 28 governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu, over the outcome of the poll in which Godwin Obaseki was declared governor-elect in the state.

The state APC Chairman, Anselm Ojezua, who disclosed this while briefing the media at the weekend in Benincity, taunted Ize-Iyamu for leading what he tagged ‘A contrived protest’ against the APC’s victory and the governor-elect, Obaseki, saying the apparent show of shame by the PDP and its candidate was to justify the huge sums of money made available to them by the PDP governors from the South-south geo-political zone for the election in the state.

Ojezua who said the counter protest is expected to commence today across the major cities and towns in the state, added that the APC and its teeming supporters have celebrated the party’s victory in the governorship contest contrary to the claims and assumption by the opposition that the ruling party and its members did not celebrate the feat.

“Immediately after the results were declared, we went with Godwin to his

office to make an acceptance speech and thereafter, we went round the city, jubilating with the people. Even when we went to collect the certificate of return two days ago, I am sure those of you who went with us saw market women from Oregbeni and Agbado market on our way to Ring Road jubilating. We had a musical concert at Ring road.

What other kind of jubilation are they expecting; do they want us to go and break our heads?” He queried.

The APC state chairman also expressed dismay over what he described as “very unfortunate that people who otherwise would have been described as experienced politicians are behaving like school children from whom ice cream has been taken.”

He further pointed out that the reaction of the PDP and its candidate in the just concluded election was “completely off point, undeserved and unjustifiable” in the face of law.

According to him, “Looking at the processes, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released its programme, it had its own guidelines and targets in all ramifications, and they met with their timeline.

Everything was done within the timeline and in restricted and professional manner.

“At every point in time that I have had to make a comment on the INEC handling of its electoral process, I have said the same thing. On the two or three

Kaduna Electric to Meter CAPMI Customers, Launch Meters Today Kaduna Electric is set to provide meters for customers who have since paid for CAPMI meters even as it said it is set to launch its new prepaid smart meters today.

In a notice by its management, Kaduna Electric said in compliance with the directive of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on the suspension of Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI), it “wishes to inform its esteemed customers that it has stopped the scheme with immediate effect and has begun the winding down process of the scheme to meet the November 1, 2016 deadline set by NERC. “We assure all customers that have already paid for the CAPMI meters that arrangement have been concluded between Kaduna Electric and the accredited CAPMI meter providers to provide them with the meters they paid for on or before October 31, 2016.”

According to the notice, “Our esteemed customers are therefore advised not to make

any payment at any Kaduna Electric office or cash centre or any staff for that purpose It further said: “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience the delay in installing the meters may have caused those who have paid for them. We have also concluded arrangements for the launch of the first batch of our new prepaid smart meters in furtherance of our commitment to all our customers.”

The Head, Corporate Communication, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, said the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in company of Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, is scheduled to launch the meters in Sokoto on October 10.

He said customers that would be provided with the free smart meters have been identified and the meters would be installed soon after the launch, adding that customers have been identified from the company’s Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi franchise states.

occasions that we have met at the instance of INEC, I have also made comments to this effect that INEC’s handling of the 2016 governorship election was efficient.”

Ojezua said: “What you now find one week after is contrived protests reminiscent of student protest over feeding allowances. That cannot be

a political reaction to the election that was conducted on September 28.”

“What is their (PDP) problem, yesterday I watched a television station and I saw a gentleman who claimed that election did not take place in the riverine areas; I am not from those areas but I know that person. His name

is Dennis. He is not an Edo State indigene neither is he resident in the state. He is from Koko in Delta State. So when I look at the boy and see him on a TV documentary, he reminds me of the concerns that the security agencies mentioned earlier that militants were being imported from neighbouring states.”

“Let’s say we forgive Chief Dan Orbih perhaps because he is a serial failure, how would you forgive the candidate himself, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a man I have worked with in the past who is a lawyer, he understands the electoral process, he knows when he is beaten and he knows when to accept defeat?”

ABUJA BUSINESS ICONS

L-R: Former President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mines and Agriculture (ABUCCIMA), Mr. Dele Oye, incumbent President of ABUCCIMA, Mr. Tony Ejinkonye; and Delta State Commissioner of Industry, Mrs. Mary Iyasere, at the closing ceremony of 11th Abuja International Trade Fair in Abuja...yesterday

Orji Commended on Abia Charter of Equity Sunday Okobi The senator representing Abia Central in the National Assembly, Chief Theodore Orji, has been lauded for the formulation and implementation of the ‘Charter of Equity’ when he was the Governor of Abia State, a policy which resulted in the Abia South senatorial district producing the current govenor.

The National President Coalition of Civil Society and Media Executives for Policy Stability (COCMEP), Innocent Okadigbo, who made this commendation in a chat with journalists in Abuja recently, stated that the implementation of the ‘Charter of Equity’ has integrated justice, equity and fair play in the politics of the state.

He further stated that the ‘Charter of Equity’ has given the people of Abia South a sense of belonging and recognition in the state, thus proving Orji as a core democrat, broad minded, progressive, liberal and undisputable leader of the state.

“The ‘Charter of Equity’ has made the three senatorial zones in the state to enjoy the governorship seat and this political virtue has promoted love and understanding as well as reduced suspicion, mistrust, tension and acrimony in the

state, a gesture and legacy of Orji which Abians should always reciprocate,” Okadigbo emphasised.

The Abuja-based media practitioner and civil society activist, however blasted Uche Ogah and his followers for allegedly pursuing ignorant, mischievous, frivolous and time wasting litigation against the state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, over tax matters “because Ikpeazu as a civil servant could not have evaded tax or forged tax documents as he, like other civil servants, receive their salaries after their taxes might have been deducted at source monthly and the system is such that Inland Revenue Board does not issue tax receipts to civil servants unless on request, and it is such that tax receipts of civil servants for 10 years or more could be dated same day or period.”

While drawing the attention of Abia people to Imo State, a sister and neighbouring state where one zone has monopolised power against the other two zones, he noted that “Imo State lacks leaders like Senator Orji,” warning Ogah from Abia North and his co-travellers to desist from tampering or truncating Abia’s ‘Charter of Equity.’”

Boko Haram: World Bank Donates $50m to States Affected by Insurgency Daji Sani in Yola The World Bank has donated the sum of $50 million Dollars to assist six states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe affected by Insurgency under the FADAMA programme.

The leader of the World Bank delegation, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, who stated this to Journalists in Yola, Adamawa State, said the reason for carrying out such project is to deal with the negative impact of insurgency that have affected the people of the North-eastern states.

Oredipe further explained that the project is a combined effort of the federal government and international community to revive livelihood in the North-east due to losses incurred as a result of the activities of insurgents.

According to him, the world Bank has targeted 600 communities and 24000 households in the North-east region of Nigeria.

“Our idea is to work with 600 communities in the six states and we have agreed to do more in the directly affected states: Borno, Yobe , Adamawa and do a little in Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe who are the receivers of the displaced people,”Oredipe

stated.

“For us as World Bank, you know we are not into humanitarian programme, but we support activities based on needs,” he added He explained that the purpose of the project was not just to reach out to the six affected states but to bring all key stakeholders and team players on the same page on what the project intends to achieve and how to go about the implementation and approach exercise.

When asked why the project is being implemented under FADAMA 3, he replied that they saw FADAMA 3 as a good platform “that has established links in the rural areas to run the initiative that is why we use such platform to reach out to farmers affected by insurgency in rural communities.”

On how they tend to reach out to the exact beneficiaries, he said there would be an open and transparent process where people would meet at the village square in the presence of all the traditional rulers and key actors of the community, who would be there to identify 40 households that are basically agricultural households and the assistance would be disbursed.

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CRIME&PUNISHMENT School Kidnap: Ambode Pledges to Rescue Victim Very Soon

Pledges to reviews laws to address kidnapping

Gboyega Akinsanmi

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday said the state government and security agencies “are working together to rescue the victims kidnapped in Lagos Senior and Junior Model College, Igbonla-Epe.” Ambode also pledged that the state government would comprehensively review all its laws with a view to effectively curbing and punishing all perpetrators of kidnapping within the territory of Lagos State.

He made the pledge yesterday shortly after inspecting different ongoing projects across the state alongside some members of the State Executive Council and contractors handling the projects.

The kidnappers had last

Thursday invaded the school premises at 8a.m. when students were having a special session at the hall and shot sporadically into the air before kidnapping the victims, which included a vice principal and head teacher.

Consequently, a joint military taskforce comprising the police, air force, navy and the army had launched manhunt to rescue students, principal and a teacher of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla-Epe. At a session with journalists yesterday, Ambode promised that the state government in collaboration with security agencies would soon rescue victims, who were abducted at the school.

He said kidnappers, suspected militants and criminally minded persons often “seek refuge in such shanties close

to the waterfront, from where they perpetrate their heinous crimes and then make use of the waterways to ferry their victims to another location, in most cases to another state.

“Most of the issues that we have with kidnappings are actually being brought up by those who are illegal settlers by the waterfront. We will commence demolition of all the shanties around the creeks in Lagos State and also around our waterways in the next seven days.

“I have given directives to that effect to the appropriate agencies. The safety of our children and all Lagosians is paramount to us. We will not allow a few set of people who come into Lagos and stay on our waterfront illegally and then use it as opportunity to kidnap

our people.

“I also want to assure our people that government is seriously on the issue of the children and the teachers that were kidnapped in the Igbonla Model College and very soon, we will get the victims back.”

He expressed optimism that his administration would nip all acts of kidnapping in the bud, noting that he strongly believed that the era of abduction and kidnapping “has come to an end.”

He therefore said the state government “will commence a comprehensive review of our laws. I can tell you sincerely that we will deal with kidnappers squarely in Lagos from this moment onwards. We will review our laws and make sure that there is no room for kidnappers in this state.”

In Brief

UAE Stops Issuing Visa to Nigerians Indications have emerged that the authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stopped issuing visas to Nigerians, following the stabbing of a police officer by a group of six boys. The incident which took place in Deira, the hub of business in Dubai, resulted in the massive arrest of blacks irrespective of their nationalities.

The officer was said to have died immediately from the injuries he sustained from the incident. A source who in the region during the incident, warned Nigerians to careful in order to avoid arrest.

“Those of you have relatives in Dubai should be warned. The atmosphere is so hot especially for those without permit,” he said.

Kidnapped BUK Lecturer Regains Freedom

The authorities of Bayero University, Kano, have confirmed the release of its lecturer, Mr. Saminu Aliyu-Kiri, who was kidnapped in Kaduna State last Thursday. The kidnapped lecturer who regained his freedom on Friday, had since been reunited with his family in Kano. The Director, Public Affairs of Bayero University Kano, Mr. Ahmed Shehu, confirmed the release of the abducted lecturer yesterday to reporters. Shehu said “As I am talking to you now, the lecturer has regained his freedom since on Friday and reunited with his family.” The university spokesman who did not state whether ransom was paid before his release, said it was by the miracle of God that the lecturer regained his freedom. THISDAY correspondent in Kano recalled that Aliyu-Kiri of faculty of computer science was kidnapped along with two other persons in Kaduna State while he was returning from an official assignment in Shaki, Oyo State.

Staff of Ajaokuta Steel Kidnapped in Kogi

TRANSFORMING LAGOS

L-R: Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde; Special Adviser on Lagos Global, Prof. Ademola Abass; Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and C.E.O, Quattro Alchemy, Mr. Aderoju Ademoroti, and others, during an inspection tour to the Ultra Modern Bus Terminal, at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) ... yesterday

A nurse with the Ajaokuta Steel Company, Roland Omosegbon, was at the weekend kidnapped along the Kabba-Obajana road in Kogi State by unknown gunmen. According to reports made available to THISDAY by family sources, Omosegbon was abducted while returning to Ajaokuta from Odo Ape with Pastor John Ige in a Toyota Corolla metallic ash colour. The report also said Ige successfully escaped from the hands of the gunmen, but was injured with a machete, adding that the kidnappers are demanding N2 million for the release of the nurse. “The kidnappers demanded N2 million and rejected N150,000 the family raised for Omosegbon’s release,” the source said. Omosegbon’s kidnap has further exposed the rate at which people are being kidnapped in the state. Sources said this has increased fear in the state especially among indigenes and discourages them from travelling home for engagements or to see their loved ones. Meanwhile, the state police command has said it has arrested 30 suspected kidnappers terrorising the state.

The 30 suspects, mostly Fulanis, were arrested across the state following a tip off from members of the public. It said the suspects were arrested at their various hideouts in the state, stressing that dangerous weapons were recovered from them. The state Police Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr. William Ayah, said the special squad put in place was working round the clock to flush out kidnappers from the state. On the alleged kidnapping of some staff of Ajaokuta Steel, Ayah said the command had not been briefed of the incident.

Lagos Earmarks Criminal Spots, Brothels in Ikoyi,VI for Crackdown Results, Unmarked Exams Scripts, Others Razed in Lists 12 major streets for massive clean-up Gboyega Akinsanmi Obalende LCDA, Mrs. Aderemi miscreants and undesirable people or recalcitrant traders Unijos Inferno Adebowale and Mr. Felix elements that masquerades do not return.”

The Lagos State Government yesterday disclosed that it had earmarked all known criminal spots and abandoned buildings that served as brothels in Ikoyi, Lekki and Victoria Island for clampdown.

The state government had equally identified 12 major streets, which it said, had been taken over by hawkers, street traders, shanties and abandoned buildings in the areas for massive clean-up.

The Chairman of Lagos State Task Force on Clean-up of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki, Mr. Tunji Bello, in a statement though his Public Affairs Officers, Mr. Adekunle Adeshina, issued after Bello paid an unscheduled visit to the areas yesterday.

Bello, also the Secretary to the State Government, visited the blighted areas alongside the Sole Administrators of Iru-Victoria Island and Ikoyi-

Ona- Olawale, among others.

He listed 12 major streets for clean-up on Victoria Island to include Water Corporation Drive, Ahmadu Bello Way, Adetokunboh Ademola, Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Ajose Adeogun, Ligali Ayorinde Street, Ozumba Mbadiwe.

Likewise, the chairman of the taskforce named the streets that would be affected in Ikoyi to include Awolowo Road, Falomo Roundabout, Kingsway Road, Glover Road and Bourdillon Road among others.

He cited the Eko Atlantic City end of Ahmadu Bello Way and Ligali Ayorinde on Victoria Island among areas where criminal spots, brothels and drinking joints would be removed and cleaned up for safety and security.

Bello said the Eko Atlantic City end of Ahmadu Bello Way “has been taken over by

as religious worshippers who sleep and defecate on the stretch of the fence.

“The exercise has provided an avenue for security agencies to dislodge criminally minded people who reside in several abandoned land spaces and buildings in areas like Ligali Ayorinde that served as brothels and drinking joints.”

The chairman, also, noted that vegetal nuisances that come with overgrown weeds and shrubs that dot many frontages and properties at Lugard Avenue, Kingsway Road and Bourdillon Road “are continually being cleared to ensure an aesthetically beautiful environment.”

He said the taskforce “has ensured that for each of the areas where street traders were dislodged or shanties demolished, operatives of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) were positioned to ensure that such

For setbacks where horticulturists harbouring street traders, especially in Awolowo Road and Ajose Adeogun Street, Bello explained that they “have been dislodged with the men of the State Parks and Gardens Agency on ground to secure such areas for greening.

“On Ahmadu Bello Way, we have a lot of infractions such as illegal parking of tricycles and conversion of median walkways to parking space and setbacks by yellow taxis, car hires services, companies without parking lots.

“All such vehicles which were not removed after due notices, have been towed away to ensure free flow of traffic. Even on the same Ahmadu Bello Way, all those who have turned the road to a major depot for charcoal have been removed and the spaces secured with motorized KAI patrol vehicles.”

Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Professor Sebastain Maimako, has lamented the outbreak of fire in the permanent site of the university that razed the Faculty of Management Science and the library complex, noting that books, results and several unmarked examination scripts were destroyed by the fire. The fire outbreak, which occurred on Saturday night, could not be immediately controlled my men of the fire service thereby leaving the structure in ruins. Conducting on-the-spot assessment on the burnt building yesterday morning, the vice-chancellor said “the first floor, which was completely razed, has the departments of Psychology, Political Sciences, Economics, and Accounting, including the office of dean of Management Sciences and Multi-National Library.”

Maimako, who expressed shock over the incident lamented that the building which was officially opened in 1997, also had materials from the faculties of education, Arts and Department of Geology. But he added that sabotage in the incident cannot be suspected now until the full reports into it are out. He also told the journalists that there was no human casualty in the incident, adding that “we received a report that a certain wing of the University was being gutted by fire. He said the library complex, has the computer lab, a reading section for the post graduate students, a serial section and also another section call e-library. “In the departments where we have this inferno, we have the departmental libraries, we also have the departmental results, results both bound copies and other results that are being processed. Even the Head of Departments (HOD’s) have given testament that even for the ongoing examinations in the university, some papers have been written and they are being checked waiting for marking.

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MONDAY, october 10, 2016 • T H I S D AY

MONDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

WORLD CUP 2018 QUALIFIER

S’Eagles Breaks ‘Ambitious’ Zambia in Ndola Algeria flops against Cameroun in Algiers

Duro Ikhazuagbe in Ndola The Super Eagles yesterday claimed the first three points of Group B as the race to the 2018 FIFA World Cup got underway, leaving hosts Zambia rueing a poor start to the campaign in a difficult group. The win gives Nigeria a comfortable lead in the group after host Algeria and Cameroun played 1-1 in the other group match late lastnight. it was the country’s first away win since November 2014, when goals by Ikechukwu Uche and Aaron Samuel earned Nigeria a 2-1 win over Congo in Pointe Noire, in a 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Super Eagles took their chances in the first half with two goals, but after the interval Zambia fought back to pull a goal back, but it was too little, too late for the home side.

The capacity crowd including Zambian President Edgar Lungu, saw the home team almost got the openner in the third minute but goalkeeper Carl Ikeme parried the ball against the post. The shape of what was in the offing came to bear when Arsenal youngster Iwobi puts Nigeria in front from inside the box after poor defending by the home team.

After the initial efforts by the host, Skipper Mikel Obi took charge of matters in midfield, and Moses Simon, Alex Iwobi

GROUP B

Team Nigeria Cameroon Algeria Zambia

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Goal scorers, Iheanacho (14) and Iwobi (18) celebrating the second goal with other players in Ndola yesterday. and Kelechi Iheanacho combined well to put the Zambia defence on its toes.

Ageless Collins Mbesuma, as well as Rainford Kalaba, Fwayo Tembo and Jackson Mwanza made Nigeria sweat on occasions, but after Iwobi swung a volley into the net for Nigeria’s opener in the 34th minute and Iheanacho sprang past Kennedy Nweene to score Nigeria’s second in the 45th minute, it was as good as over as a contest.

Although Mbesuma pulled one back for the Zambians in the 71st minute, the Super Eagles contained the opposition well and finished strongly.

It meant Franco-German

16th Governor’s Cup Tennis Gets Underway In Lagos Hostilities begin at the 16th Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship with the players battle in the first round of the Main Draws of Futures 5 of the tournament in both the singles and doubles events of men and women’s categories.

Players whose points could not make it to the Main Draws played their qualifying matches on Saturday and yesterday at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan at the end of which winners now join other players in the round of 32 in the Main Draws which begin this morning.

Some Nigerians qualified and they will be joining eight others who were given Wildcards by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), to play in the Main Draws.

These set of players who made their through the qualifiers include Henry Atseye, Nonso Madueke, Aanu Ayegbusi,

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Osariemen Airhunmwunde, Edward Christopher Anefu and Ikechukwu Iloputa.

The players, who came from 39 countries of the world, will be fighting for ranking points and 50, 000 dollars prize money in the men and women’s events.

The finals of the first leg will hold on Saturday, 15 October.

Enrique Lopez - Perez from Spain is the top seed in the men’s category, while Valetini Grammatikopoulou from Greece is the number one seed in the women’s event.

Men’s event has the likes of Nigeria’s Christian Paul, Umaru Balami, Moses Michael, Sylvester Emmanuel who all make the Main Draws.

Others are Boy Westerhof from The Netherlands, France’s Calvin Hemerdon and KarimMohamed Maamoun from Egypt.

Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr has won his two matches in charge of Nigeria since his appointment in August.

The President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick said: “We commend the efforts of the players and the technical crew, and we thank the Minister of Sports for his words of encouragement before the match. We are happy with the three points but it is a marathon, not a sprint.

“We still have five matches to play. We will take it one match at a time. Next stop is ‘Operation Beat Algeria.’”

In a related development, the victorious team aside the result of the match had cause to smile as all their outstading financial obligation were met by the NFF. They received their flight ticket refunds, match bonus for the AFCON qualifier against Tanzania last month as well as appearance fees for two friendlies in May against Mali and Luxembourg.

It is estimated that a player

who was involved in all three matches would have received close to $8,000.

The win bonus for yesterday World Cup qualifier in Ndola is now the only payment outstanding for the Eagles.

Next month, Nigeria will welcome Algeria to Uyo in continuation of the World Cup qualifying series.

Zambia: Kennedy Mweene, Kabaso Chongo, Stopilla Sunzu, Adrian Chama (Kondwani Mtongo 48), Fackson Kapumbu – Nathan Sinkala, Fwayo Tembo (Roger Kola 81), Chisamba Lungu, Rainford Kalaba (skipper) – Collins Mbesuma, Winston Kalengo (Jackson Mwanza 56) Nigeria: Carl Ikeme – Wilfred Ndidi, Elderson Echiejile, Kenneth Omeruo, William Troost-Ekong – Ogenyi Onazi (Shehu Abdullahi 90+2), Mikel Obi (captain) – Moses Simon (Ahmed Musa 83), Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho – Brown Ideye (Anderson Esiti 73)

R AT I N G O F S ’ E AG L E S ’ P L AY E R S

• Carl Ikeme: 8/10 -No doubt the ‘Man of the Match after several saves before and after Nigeria took the lead.

• Wilfred Ndidi: 5/10-I was the weak pawn especially in the second half. He made the left side of Nigerian defense line too vunerable to attack .

• Kenneth Omeruo: 6/10 -He struggled to deal with Collins Mbesuma, and could be exposed for good against Cameroon and, particularly, Algeria.

• William Troost-Ekong: 8/10 - Another star player of the match. A reliable bullet proof protection for goalkepper Ikeme.

• Elderson Echiejile: 6/10 - Not at his best. Appeared short of match fitness and looked lethargic in offensive moves.

• John Obi Mikel: 7/10 -Almost on the score sheet for the third goal in the first half. A steady presence in the midfield.

• Ogenyi Onazi: 7/10 -The energy remains as bountiful as ever, but Onazi still doesn’t offer too much else.

• Alex Iwobi: 8/10- Got the opener and a big relief to the team.

Iwobi demonstrated his intelligence with his movement and passing, and is a magnificent asset to this young and exciting Eagles team.

• Moses Simon: 7/10 -Didn’t always appear on the same wavelength as his offensive partners after being given the nod-somewhat surprisingly-ahead of Ahmed Musa.

• Brown Ideye: 7/10 -A direct replacement for Odion Ighalo and was able to fill the gap.

• Kelechi Iheanacho: 8.5/10 - His sublime first-half goal was ultimately the winner.

NFPL

Wike Rewards Rivers Utd with Cash and Trip to Madrid The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has rewarded players and officials of Rivers United FC following their impressive feat in the just concluded Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

United finished the season in second place with 60 points from 36 matches as they secured a place in the 2017 CAF Champions League.

Impressed with the feat, Governor Wike announced that players and members of the management will receive financial rewards for a good display in their maiden season with the club in the Nigerian top flight.

“You have done well and we (the Rivers State Government) would have done more if you had won the league title.

“Each of the players and every member of the management team will receive N500,000 while the technical manager, Stanley Eguma will receive N1million ,,” Governor Wike said at a grand reception/dinner at the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt to honour the team.

The Governor said the financial reward was aimed at appreciating the effort of the team and also motivating them ahead of the upcoming season.

Governor Wike also approved

for immediate release, a brand new Luxurious Bus for the club while members of the Rivers United will receive a brand new Coaster Bus. The Governor also announced that the team will prepare for the 2017 CAF Champions League in Madrid, Spain.

Governor Wike, a Real Madrid CF fan, explained that the move was geared towards exposing the team to state-of-the-art facilities and international exposure ahead of their maiden expedition in Africa’s premier club competition.

“I want Rivers United to win the 2017 CAF Champions League title and to facilitate this, I want

to see that our boys are exposed by going for their training outside the country.

“The team will go to Madrid because Real Madrid has a culture of winning titles on a consistent basis.

“We are proud of you and will do everything to equip you for the CAF Champions League,” Governor Wike said at a grand reception/dinner in honour of the team at the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt.

Rivers United finished in second place in last season’s NPFL with 60 points from 36 matches.

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T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016

MONDAYSPORTS

Pharaohs Sink Congo to Lead Group Egypt moved to the top of Group E after a 2-1 win over Congo yesterday away in Kintele.

Mohamed Salah and Abdallah Saied scored in either half, making Ferebory Dore’s opener count for little.

The Pharaohs have three points, two more than Uganda and Ghana who played out a barren draw last Friday in Tamale, with Congo at the bottom of the standings pointless.

The victory comes as a huge boost to the seven-time African champions, eyeing their first ever participation at the Mundial since 1990.

Backed by the home fans, ‘Les Diables Rouges’ started on a positive note and the partnership of Dore and Thievy Bifouma kept the Egyptian backline on their toes.

The pair teamed up for the opener on 24 minutes when a Bifouma cross from the right was met by Dore, leaving Egyptian 43-year old goalkeeper Essam El Hadary with no option.

The Pharaohs had to wait for four minutes before the break to level through a Salah header after left-back Mohamed Abdel-Shafy tailormeasured pass found him.

Both teams resumed stronger but it was the Egyptians who made their presence felt with the second goal on 58 minutes which turned out to be the winner. Tarek Hamed’s long searching pass found Salah deep in the Congolese half, and Salah squared Saied, who bundled home past Congo goalie Gildas Kiwoko.

The Congolese pressed for the equalizer which remained elusive whilst Kiwoko denied Saied his second of the game with a superb save on the stroke of full time.

Egypt host Ghana in November in Alexandria whilst Uganda battles Congo in Kampala.

Super Eagles players savoring the victory in the dressing room after the match yesterday against host, Zambia in Ndola

CIV Shocks Mali with First Half Display Cote d’Ivoire came from behind to beat Mali 3-1 on Saturday in Bouake and move to the top of Group C. The victory sees the Elephants’ lead the pack with three points after Gabon and Morocco settled for a barren draw in group’s other fixture earlier in Franceville.

The African champions, eyeing a fourth successive World Cup appearance overcame Sambou Yatabare opener before levelling through new kid on the block, Jonathan Kodjia. An own goal by ‘Les Aigles’

defender Salif Coulibaly gave the host into lead midway before captain Gervinho sealed victory with the third before half time.

The new generation Elephants squad gave their fans a reason to believe in their abilities to deliver, with a performance that takes them to the summit of the standings after the First Day of matches.

The visitors stunned the home crowd with the first goal on 18 minutes courtesy Yatabare, who got the better of Eric Bailly before sliding

past onrushing Sylvain Gbohouo.

The Elephants responded in style eight minutes later when a Franck Kessie pass found Kodjia, who controlled nicely before firing past Mali goalkeeper Oumar Sissoko.

The equalizer was what the Ivorians needed as they pressed further in search of more goals. On the half-hour mark, right-back Serge Aurier during one of surges upfront laid a cross into the Malian area and Coulibaly in his bid to clear the ball safety shot into his own net.

1960Bet Set to Revolutionize Sports Betting Foremost betting firm, 1960Bet, is set to launch Cash Out (Full and Partial), a game-changing innovation expected to revolutionize sports betting in Nigeria.

According to CEO 1960Bet, Dotun Adegbile, Cash Out is a crucial product that the modern day bettor needs to have access to, as it puts the decision-making power firmly in the hands of the punters, giving them the power to settle their bets before the games are ended.

“What this means is that if their bet is going well they

can through Cash Out take their profit there and then.

If things aren’t quite going according to their plan they can equally use Cash Out and limit their losses,” Adegbile said.

“These Cash Out offers will be available for all sports and betting options types.

Singles and accumulator bets are also eligible for Cash Out and it will be available online, on mobiles and customers can still Cash Out in-shop. Cash Out offers cut across Pre-Game and Live Games, with no qualifying odds conditions attached.

Adegbile also explained how the new innovation would benefit punters.

“Let’s assume that a punter makes a five-team accumulator bet of N500 for the weekend’s football matches: two Premier League games on Saturday, two La Liga games on Sunday and one Bundesliga game on Monday night. If all five selections win, I stand to win N50,000.

“If the first two selections are successful and the Sunday bets also come in, the punter is left with his Monday night selection. If the team the punter backed takes an early 1-0 lead

in the game, then a few minutes later, they concede a penalty, have their goalkeeper sent off as a result and the opposition team converts the penalty to level 1-1.

“With the game poised all square, he is now at a significant disadvantage. Now would be a great time for the punter to consider cashing out his bet. By doing this, he will be giving himself a return on the bet, whereas if he leaves the bet to run to a natural conclusion, the odds are that his Monday night selection might lose and he will be left with nothing.”

Four minutes later, Gervinho made his experience count with a superb volley on the turn from his left that Sissoko had no answers to.

The second half was a balanced game with both teams failing to find the net amidst series of substitutions from either side.

The Ivorians next travel to Marrakech to face Morocco

GROUP A

Team Congo DR Tunisia Guinea Libya

GROUP C

Team Ivory Coast Gabon Morocco Mali

GROUP D

Team Senegal B’Faso S’Africa C’Verde

GROUP E

Team Egypt Ghana Uganda Congo

on Match Day Two on 12 November 2016, whilst Mali battles Gabon same day in Bamako.

Elsewhere in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso left it late to hold visiting South Africa 1-1 in Group D. Dean Furman fired the South Africans into the lead on 80 minutes before Banou Diawara levelled in stoppage time.

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Monday October 10, 2016

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Price: N250

MISSILE Oyegun to Tinubu “The party’s NWC’s decision to reject the 2016 Ondo State APC Governorship Primary Appeal Committee Report was taken on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 in an executive session after careful and exhaustive deliberations. The minutes and rejection were confirmed by the NWC on Thursday, September 22, 2016. The NWC, in its four-point resolution, rejected the appeal committee’s recommendation on the grounds that the report was fundamentally and fatally flawed.”– The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, describing the accusation by the party’s National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, that he had derailed from the party’s ethos as baseless.

ABRAHAMNWANKWO GUEST COLUMNIST

Domestic Debt and Market Sovereignty

F

recommended this solution. This strategy will be implemented with a clear guide against unsustainable foreign exchange exposure.

or a shared understanding of Nigeria’s domestic debt, it could be useful to organize a discussion along the following dimensions: (1) size and sustainability; (2) effectiveness of use; (3) strategic value; (4) relevance in recession.

Effectiveness of Use

Size and Sustainability A major source of concern is that Nigeria’s public domestic debt has experienced rapid growth over the past ten years and that debt service outlay is quite high. The domestic debt-GDP ratio is only about 10%; the total public debt-GDP ratio is 12.25%, and compares favourably with the peer group threshold of 56%. Although the debt service-revenue ratio is high, the problem needs to be unbundled so we can all agree on the appropriate solution path. Indeed, following the rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP in 2010, the DMO observed that the increase in the GDP did not enhance the country’s ability to service its debts. Nigeria’s tax revenue-GDP ratio is still below 6% compared to the average for the country’s peer group, which is 18%. Essentially, therefore, from this perspective, what is being experienced is a revenue problem which impacts the debt service-revenue ratio.

What measures are being taken to address the high domestic debt service-revenue ratio? First, in the short-run and continuing into the medium-term, the government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, is significantly improving tax collection, particularly through capturing hundreds of thousands of existing tax-dodging individuals and companies into the tax net. Progress in this reform will cause the debt service-revenue ratio to trend towards lower levels.

Second, the other weak link in the debt service-revenue relationship is high cost of funds in the domestic debt market.

There could be many factors to blame for the high domestic interest rates but a major one is the high rate of inflation.

While not neglecting other macroeconomic objectives, monetary authorities or central banks all over the world tend to ensure that policy interest rates are set high enough in an attempt to ensure that there is a positive real interest rate. When inflation is high, the monetary authorities would generally encourage high interest rates.

So, the challenge is to understand what causes high rate of inflation, which in turn induces high interest rates.

For Nigeria, while not neglecting the inflationary impacts of money supply and exchange rate shocks on rising price level, there is reason to believe that a major and sustained source of inflationary impulse is structural. Acute deficiencies, in power supply, transportation infrastructure and ICT infrastructure, guarantee high cost of production, which transmit into high cost of goods and services. As the deterioration

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun

of the quality of the country’s infrastructure assets accelerates, so does inflation accelerate.

How is government tackling this challenge? First, for the near-term solution, the present administration has speedily introduced well-programmed initiatives to ensure bountiful harvest. This will bring down food prices and significantly dampen the overall inflation momentum; food is a dominant item in the basket of items that determine the average price level. Post harvest preservation, for example, through activation of the grain silos is also being given priority. Beyond optimizing on the existing revivable production capacity, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Central Bank of Nigeria are collaborating effectively to stimulate more agro-businesses – cooperatives, clusters, as well as mega-scale investments.

In the medium-to-long-term, inflation will also be further tamed by improvements in power supply and infrastructure. With the ongoing initiatives aimed at addressing challenges in energy supply and other physical infrastructure, cost of production and prices of final products and services will fall; inflation and interest rates will consequently fall.

A direct measure for reducing the high domestic debt service is to refinance maturing domestic debt with cheaper external debt instead of with domestic debt. The Federal Executive Council has approved the Debt Management Strategy (2016−2019), which

Irrespective of the size of the public debt, achieving maximum value-for-money must remain the objective of borrowed funds, as well as of revenues. It is in line with the pursuit of this objective that: the anti-corruption agenda of government is being implemented; the Federal Ministry of Finance established the Efficiency Unit to block leakages, identify and eliminate wastes; the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and other cash management reforms targeting more optimal resource management are progressing. Zero Base budgeting approach introduced in the 2016 Budget will also contribute to effectiveness.

Strategic Value: Market Sovereignty Ability to borrow from a domestic debt market also has some strategic value. “Debt Market Sovereignty” should be considered an essential attribute of overall sovereignty. A sovereign nation should have a debt market within its jurisdiction, where it can raise money if needed, without being subjected to the legal system of other sovereigns.

Domestic debt reduces the exposure of the country to exchange rate risks and the limitations of size of foreign reserves. The

independence lies in the country having the option to exercise the choice to borrow from internal sources, from external sources, or from a mixture of both.

Moreover, sovereign borrowing from the domestic debt market encourages the development of a functional bond market, with the scope to introduce different instruments which will encourage the habit of domestic saving, intermediation and investment. Such a functional domestic bond market will be tapped by the private sector to raise long-term funds for investment in real sector and infrastructure projects.

Nigeria has developed a deep and liquid domestic bond market where funds of up to 20 years tenor can be raised.

Relevance in Recession Historically, countries caught in global, regional or national economic recessions or depressions, invariably, depend on borrowing to spend their economies out of the slump. If the country has not developed a dependable domestic debt market, it would be constrained to borrow from external sources. However, a country with a functional bond market, it can take advantage of the greater flexibility and speed which domestic borrowing offers.

And, for a country facing recession such as Nigeria is currently, flexibility and speed are invaluable assets.

• Dr. Nwankwo is the Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Nigeria

For Nigeria, while not neglecting the inflationary impacts of money supply and exchange rate shocks on rising price level, there is reason to believe that a major and sustained source of inflationary impulse is structural

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