Saturday 1st July 2017

Patience Oniha Replaces Nwankwo As DMO’s D-G Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja The federal government has appointed Ms. Patience Oniha as the new Director-General, Debt Management Office (DMO) following the retirement of Dr. Abraham Nwankwo yesterday after serving his full term of ten

years.

An unsigned statement from the DMO said the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo approved Oniha's appointment, which was announced by the Minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun in Abuja.

Oniha, who hails from Edo

State, takes over from Nwankwo who retired after serving for two terms of five years each.

A highly experienced banker and chartered accountant, the new DG with over 30 years experience in financial sector had worked with Ecobank Nigeria, Standard Chartered Bank, and

KPMG, among others.

The handover formalities between her and Nwankwo took place in a brief ceremony at the DMO headquarters in Abuja yesterday, the statement said.

Oniha retired as a director in the agency, served in the Efficiency Unit of the Ministry

its operational efforts to manage the country’s debt profile. These include the establishment of 37 sub-national Debt Management Departments for the 36 states and the FCT, culminating in the construction of the first-ever

of Finance before her latest appointment as the DMO chief executive.

The statement described her as part of the success story the DMO recorded in the past 10 years.

It noted: "During that period, DMO scored a number of firsts in

Continued on page 8

AFREXIM Signs $1.1bn Loans with Dangote, Elumelu's Heirs Holdings ... Page 46 Saturday 01 July, 2017 Vol 22. No 8108. Price: N250

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Adewole: Road Accident, 2nd Highest Source of Violent Deaths after Boko Haram 1 in every 4 road crash deaths in Africa occur in Nigeria, kills more than malaria

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Minister of Heath, Prof.

Isaac Adewole yesterday in Abuja raised the alarm about

the high rate of road accidents in the country, saying that it is now the 2nd highest source of violent death in the country after Boko Haram insurgency.

The minister, who spoke while taking delivery of 31 Nissan Jeep Ambulances donated by the Japanese government to the Federal Ministry of Heath,

backed his assertion with statistics from the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, that puts Nigeria among countries with the highest rate of road

accidents in the world, with 5,400 deaths in 12,077 road crashes in 2015.

He also said that the 2015 World Health Organisation

report revealed that one in every four deaths from road crashes in Africa occurred in Continued on page 8

Igbos Won't Leave North, Says South East Traditional Rulers’ Chairman APC: We are working to check agitations PDP: Restructuring can no longer be wished away Delta royal fathers back calls for reform

Amby Uneze in Owerri, Alex Enumah and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba The Chairman of the South East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya yesterday vowed that the Igbos would not leave the northern part of the country insisting that every Nigerian is free to live and do legitimate business in any part of the country he wishes.

In a related development, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday said it was taking measures to check the spread of agitations and other activities that threaten Nigeria’s unity, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remarked that the clamour for restructuring could no longer be wished away .

Eze Ilomuanya spoke in Owerri, Imo State, at two different events while receiving Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC), Imo State branch and Association for Media Communication Development, which conferred Continued on page 8

graduating the best...

L-R: Executive Director, Bridge House College, Mrs Foluke Abdul-Razaq; Chairperson/Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Unilag, Dr. Taibat Lawanson; Overall Best Outstanding Student, Daniel; his mother, Mrs Abioye Oluwalana and Marketing Consultant, BHC, Mrs Mowunmi Fatodu during Abiodun Ajala the 13th Annual Graduation Ceremony of Bridge House College at Muson Centre, Lagos.....yesterday

Nigerian-born Doctor Kills One, Injures Six, Commits Suicide in New York ...Page 10

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T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

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T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

Put your business first

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saturDAY, July 01, 2017 • THISDAY

page EIGHT

Weekend Photo

at the pan-atlantic university lecture...

L–R: Paschal Dozie, Founder, Diamond Bank Plc; Prof. Chris Ogbechie, Chairman Diamond Bank Plc; Rose Ogbechie; and Prof. Juan Elegido, Vice Chancellor, Pan Atlantic University at the university's 8th Inaugural Lecture held at the Lagos Business School, Ajah, Lagos recently. ....yesterday

Quit Notice: Igbos Won't Leave North, Says S’East Traditional Rulers’ Chairman on him, “Distinguished Royal Father-Award” for exemplary conduct and leadership.

He cautioned youths in the North against threatening the unity of the country by inflammatory and divisive utterances to avoid igniting ethnic conflagration.

“Nigerians are one irrespective of our ethnic-religious, linguistic and tribal diversities.

We must preach peace and unity as a way out of any serious problem or challenge facing us as a nation,” he said.

He stressed that anybody advocating for anything that would lead to disunity is unpatriotic.

“The socio-economic and political setback associated with disintegration is too enormous to be ignored,” he cautioned.

Eze Ilomuanya praised Nigerians who had spoken in condemnation of the eviction threat.

He said Igbos had contributed to the socio-economic and political development of Nigeria and “cannot be treated as second class citizens anywhere in the country.”

APC: We Are Working to Check Agitations Meanwhile, the APC says it is taking measures to check the spread of agitations and other activities that threaten Nigeria’s unity.

The party said it views the wave of agitations across the nation as an ill-wind and must be stopped.

Speaking to journalists late Thursday night shortly after a meeting of the party leadership and governors elected on the APC platform, the National Chairman, Chief John OdigieOyegun said the leaders also passed a vote of confidence on the ailing President Muhammed Buhari, describing his state of health as encouraging.

“We discussed issues affecting the nation and the impact of the current agitations across the country. On each of these, we decided to strengthen the party. We decided that the kind verbiage and incendiary

statements by different groups are not good for the health of the nation and we decided that it had to stop," he said.

On what the party and the federal government intends to do to stop the agitations, Oyegun said: "We will take certain measures, which I will not disclose here to ensure that the basic and fundamental unity of this country is preserved while at the same time listening to whatever grievances anybody has to say."

On the party's position over the continued absence of the President due to ill-health, Oyegun said they are optimistic that the President would soon be back to assume duties.

"We are glad to inform you that he (Buhari) is recovering in a very robust manner. We hope he takes it easy when he comes back.”

Delta Royal Fathers Back Calls for Restructuring In a related development, the calls for restructuring of Nigeria by some people received a boost yesterday, with members of the Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers expressing support for the proposition.

The royal fathers in an-eight point communiqué at the end of their meeting in Asaba, urged the federal government to dust up reports and recommendations of past National Conferences in order to draw up modalities for the restructuring within the shortest time possible.

The communiqué read by the Chairman of the Council, who is the Obi of Owa Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor II, noted that restructuring remained the panacea to the various agitations from different parts of the country, stressing that the strength of the nation remains in her diversity.

The Delta State royal fathers appealed to Nigerians to preach peace and engage in acts capable of promoting unity and indivisibility of the country.

They commended the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for his peace overtures to certain aggrieved Nigerians, calling

on the people to support the federal government in the effort to achieve cohesion among the diverse ethnic Nationalities in the country.

Dialogue on Restructuring Inevitable, Says PDP The Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP yesterday said that the current agitation for restructuring of the country could no longer be wished away.

Speaking on a television programme, Makarfi said what needed to be done, and urgently too, is to bring the various entities that make up the country to a dialogue table to define the form and terms of the restructuring.

He said the PDP viewed the current agitations as something that could be resolved through dialogue, by identifying the real issues in contention.

"There is nothing wrong with restructuring but it means different things to different people.

You don't sit on the table and decide things. You need to seek a common basis and understanding on restructuring, what is it that you need to restructure, Makarfi said.

Nigeria’s strength lies in her diversity, US tells separatists Apparently responding to the wave of agitations for the fragmentation of the country, the United States Ambassador Stuart Symington has called on all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and region to do everything possible to preserve the nation’s unity stressing that “Nigeria’s strength lies in its diversity”.

Symington, who made the call for Nigeria’s unity to be sustained on Thursday evening in Abuja, at an event held to commemorate the 241st anniversary of the independence of the United States said Nigeria “is blessed with visionary and dedicated leaders” and expressed confidence that the country was capable of facing and overcoming her challenges.

While stating that both the United States and Nigeria share incredible diversity as nations, he admonished Nigerians to see their differences and diversity

as sources of strength and a reason for pride.

Reflecting on how the U. S was able to use her diversity in preserving her unity, Symington gave credit to foremost American leaders, whom he described as resilient, visionary and committed to ensuring justice for all, adding that with such leaders and equal commitment from the citizenry, Nigeria was capable of achieving the same feat.

“Today, Nigeria is fortunate to have such leaders and citizens.

Together, they are dedicated to keeping Nigeria united and to ensuring every Nigerian is heard and taken into account and treated fairly,” he said. The ambassador said that the anniversary was an opportunity to underscore how much Americans shared with Nigerians.

“We share families, friends, interests, and principles. All across this land, from Birnin Kebbi to Calabar, from Maiduguri to Badagry, Nigerians have welcomed me warmly and showed me the wonders of this country and its people.

“In almost every place, I have also met Americans whose lives are dedicated to their work with and for Nigerians. Private sector employees and public servants alike, they work here in business and IT, agriculture and energy, health and education and civil society and justice, and they work to conserve Nigeria’s iconic natural beauty and stunning biodiversity," he said.

In his response, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama commended the smooth relations between the two countries, noting that the United States had been supportive in implementing policies and programmes that had impacted positively on the lives of Nigerians.

Onyeama, who was represented by Ambassador Vivian Okeke, Director, American and Caribbean Division in the ministry, said: "We are encouraged by the U.S. and wished to also reaffirm our strong commitment to the promotion of strong democratic values such as good governance, rule of law, freedom

of expression and promotion of justice, to which U.S. remained a strong advocate."

He expressed confidence that the long existing relationship between Nigeria and U.S. would be sustained, adding that the strong bonds of relationship between the two countries was evident in the broad-based cooperation as well as enduring private partnership founded on the shared values of democracy,

respect for human rights and rule of law.

“It is therefore heartwarming that our bilateral relations have transcended political relations into strong economic and social partners. Today, Nigeria is a major trading partner of America in Sub Saharan Africa and America has continued to play its role as a trusted and reliable friend of Nigeria,” he said.

Adewole: Road Accident, 2nd Highest Source of Violent Deaths after B' Haram Nigeria, saying it was a higher death toll than malaria.

The minister said in response to this ugly trend, the Ministry, for the first time in 2016, produced a robust policy on Emergency Medical Services including the use of Ambulance.

He said: “The policy links emergency services personnel, trauma pathways, Integrated National Ambulance Service System, and the toll-free 3-digit number 112 to government agencies in the business of emergency services. This is to be coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Health. The policy

further delineates roles and responsibilities of agencies involved in emergency response to eliminate interagency rivalry and ensure interoperability and synergy among agencies.

“The private sector will participate in driving the implementation of ambulance services.

The effective implementation of this policy will ensure an improved healthcare system that is needed for economic and social development. We shall leverage on Universal Health Coverage for access to EMS services.”

Continued on page 47

Patience Oniha replaces Nwankwo comprehensive and reliable Domestic Debt Database for all the states and the FCT in 2012."

It also said other achievements included "putting in place Primary Dealing-Market Making (PDMM) system for the FGN Bonds, enabling two-way quotes in the trading of FGN Bonds and, therefore, the introduction of a vibrant and liquid Secondary Market for FGN Bonds; listing of FGN Bonds on the Nigerian Stock Exchange."

Others are the inclusion of Nigeria's Sovereign Bond in Global Market Indices, the JP Morgan Index and the Barclays Capital Index; issuing of Nigeria's Eurobond in the International Capital Market and its listing and trading on the London Stock Exchange; issuing of Nigeria's Sovereign Retail Bonds, the FGN Savings Bond and listing on the

Nigerian Stock Exchange and on the FMDQ OTC Exchange.

The achievements also included issuing of Nigeria's Diaspora Bond and the first-ever registration of Nigeria to access the United States financial market under the stringent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations; designing and implementing Nigeria's National Debt Management Framework; introducing the soon-to-be launched first-ever Nigeria's Sovereign Non-Interest Bearing Bond: the Sukuk as well as exporting of Public Debt Management services through capacity-building support to other African countries, including the Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.

Oniha is expected to consolidate on these achievements, the statement added.

9

July 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

RingTrue

07013940521 yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com

Yemi

Adebowale

Maiyetti Allah Leaders Embolden Prickly Fulani Herdsmen

T

he reactions of the Maiyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria to the raging killings by Fulani herdsmen across the nation have been most disgraceful and irresponsible. Just recently in Taraba State, Maiyetti Allah members came out forcefully in Jalingo to protest against a proposed bill to prohibit open rearing and grazing of livestock, demanding the stoppage of action on the plan. They even stormed the state’s House of Assembly in Jalingo with arms, threatening everybody. I still can’t understand why anyone should continue to insist that nomadic cattle rearing must continue in this 21st century. Open grazing is an aberration in any modern society and Nigeria should not be an exception. Maiyetti Allah leaders are clearly unperturbed by the rampant killings and destruction of property across the nation as a result of persistent herdsmen and farmers’ clashes. This is obvious from the opposition of the group to state governments that introduced laws curbing open grazing.

I watched the Maiyetti Allah protest in Jalingo on television and I was so depressed. The utterances of the Maiyetti Allah leaders were provocative, disheartening and preposterous. I heard some of them saying that they have a right to roam anywhere with their cattle, settle anywhere and eat anything they liked. Reading the protest speech, the Chairman, Maiyetti Allah, Taraba State Chapter, Sahabi Tukur, said the bill against open grazing was inimical, ill-intended, discriminatory and a misplaced priority, adding that the association rejected the bill in its entirety.

He also threatened that there would be breakdown of law and order in Taraba if the bill is passed into law. Tukur added: “Grazing, like any other occupation, is cultural which, in the case of Nigeria and Taraba State in particular, is carried out substantially by the Fulani people.

There will be no red meat, no cow in

Our law enforcements agents must be very firm in enforcing anti-open grazing laws in states that have passed them. Benue and Ekiti states have done very well in this regard.

All other states should do same, accompanied with a very proactive arrangement for ranching.

Government at all levels must send a very strong message to herdsmen that we are no longer living in a jungle

and Control Agency. Yet, Maiyetti Allah members have declared war on this governor and his bill. This is in spite of the fact that herdsmen and farmers’ clashes in Taraba State had claimed no fewer than 2,000 lives in the last few years. Fighting in Mambilla area of the state between the herdsmen and the Mambila farmers raged for several days last week, with dozens of people killed.

Maiyetti Allah supporters should sheath their swords and attend the impending public hearing on the Taraba Open Grazing Prohibition bill so that they can, together with other stakeholders, clear the grey areas and brainstorm on how to make the proposed law work. I believe that areas the Executive failed to capture in the bill would be addressed in the course of the deliberations. To say that they are totally opposed to the bill limiting cattle rearing to ranches is confrontational, inhuman and an affront to other people. These rampaging herdsmen must be told in very clear language that nomadic the market and all butchers will boycott cattle rearing is an abnormality in any market activities for seven days should modern society. Cattle must be reared the House fail to listen to our demand.” in ranches. This is the standard in sane Haba! Why must Maiyetti Allah mem- societies. bers continue to threaten everybody?

Our law enforcements agents must Why must they continue to insist that be very firm in enforcing anti-open nomadic cattle rearing should continue grazing laws in states that have passed in this modern era? What about the them. Benue and Ekiti states have rights of the farmers? I knew quite done very well in this regard. All other alright that we still have a large number states should do same, accompanied of stone-age people in this country, but with a very proactive arrangement I did not know that it was this bad. The for ranching. Government at all levels rascality of the Maiyetti Allah members must send a very strong message to must be curbed. The intentions of the herdsmen that we are no longer living Taraba State government are genuine. in a jungle. This persistent bloodshed Governor Darius Ishaku wanted a last- by these herdsmen must be cogently ing solution to the mayhem persistently stopped. created by the herdsmen. He is not just On the flip side, security agents aiming to stop open rearing and grazing must dig into the sources of arms of of livestock, Ishaku is also planning to these killer herdsmen. In the last two help the herdsmen establish ranches. years, it is common to see them roamThis will be facilitated by a proposed ing with AK-47 assault rifles. Some agency to be known as the Taraba State highly-placed Nigerians must have Livestock and Ranches Administration supplied these guns. Those respon-

Water Challenge in Bauchi State Households in Bauchi State are going through hell due to inadequate public water supply. The last few months have been harrowing, with many areas in the Bauchi metropolis going without water for days. An estimated 95 per cent of the inhabitants of this state lack access to public water supply. The rich dig boreholes while many others who can’t afford this, source for water from so many unhealthy sources. The water crisis in this state has been on for years.

Many thought things would change with the emergence of Mohammed Abubakar as governor. Unfortunately, the water crisis moved from bad to worse. Governor Abubakar has in the last two years failed to improve public water in this state. In fact, he has not

shown any seriousness about tackling the problem. It is heart-warming that the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu has joined the team putting pressure on Governor Abubakar to decisively tackle the water supply crisis. The Emir, during his Sallah visit to Abubakar last week appealed to him to look into the acute water scarcity encumbering residents of Bauchi metropolis. He noted that the acute water shortage had defied successive administrations in the state.

I sincerely hope that this governor will act appropriately. He has less than two years to make an impact. History will not forgive him if he leaves the Bauchi Government House without making any positive impact on water supply in the state.

Governor Abubakar

sible must be apprehended and punished according to the laws of our land. I am glad that the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, has joined the clamour for the probe of the source of herdsmen’s arms. The Sultan added: “Real herdsmen do not carry guns.

They only move with their cows and sticks.

Agreed, there are bad eggs among the Fulani, but those carrying arms and perpetrating heinous killings are not herdsmen.

Those carrying arms are criminals and they should be treated as such. The government should therefore probe the sources of these weapons and take appropriate action; they should face the wrath of the law.”

As at press time, some killer herdsmen were hibernating at Ileyo village, Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State. They have destroyed crops and chased farmers away from the village.

The kind of weapons they are wielding is frightening. Security agents in the state have failed to protect the hapless farmers of Ileyo village. The herdsmen allegedly killed one Linus Ogbee who resisted the invasion of his farm. Because of their superior weapon, Ondo State policemen have been hesitant to intervene. Last week, the fear-struck villagers staged a protest along the Igbatoro-Akure Road. For how long must this country continue like this?

For how long must herdsmen continue to shed the blood of innocent people because of their cattle? Things have just got to change.

Older People Should Retire Early to Reduce Unemployment

Older people should retire early to reduce youth unemployment. Yes, that was the advice of Pope Francis to the world on Wednesday as a strategy for reducing joblessness across the world. This theory should be applied in Nigeria because our dear nation is facing an unprecedented unemployment crisis. There is hardly any home without a youth seeking for job. Just look around you. Youth unemployment is a time bomb waiting to explode in our country. As a first step, I am suggesting that retirement age in ministries, departments and agencies (at all government levels)should be slashed to 55 years or a maximum of 25 years in service, whichever one comes first. There should be a massive clear-out of those that have attained this age with immediate effect. Of course, our medical doctors, nurses and teachers should be exempted. Just as Pope Francis in the renewed call for social justice said, “Older people should be made to work less or retire early to create employment for younger generations. He added: “There is urgency for a new human social pact, a new social pact for work that should reduce working hours for those at the end of their working lives, to create work for the young, who have a right and a duty to work. A society that forces old people to work for too long and forces an entire generation of young people not to work is stupid and short-sighted.” This is food for thought for all of us today.

What’s Governor Obaseki Doing with 246 Assistants?

Obaseki

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo has added 192 special assistants and 54 senior special assistants to the already bloated wage bill of the government. He said these 246 appointees would serve as representatives of the government at the grassroots. Conservatively, Obaseki would spend about N1 billion of taxpayers’ money annually to take care of these

absolutely unnecessary appointees. This is just jobs for the boys. I really can’t fathom why this should be taking place in a state with huge pension arrears. Some Edo State departments and agencies also have backlog of unpaid salaries. Why this profligacy, amidst financial challenges?

I thought Obaseki would represent something different. I never knew that he

would continue in the ways of his godfather, Adams Oshiomhole. At a point, Oshiomhole had almost 1000 assistants. My dear Obaseki, let good projects represent you all over Edo State. Give more people access to public water supply, quality healthcare, quality education in public schools and good roads. This is the only genuine way to ensure that he is represented all over the state.

10

NEWS

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JULy 1, 2017

News Editor Ahamefula Ogbu 08116759810 (sms only) Email ahamefula.ogbu@thisdaylive.com

Strengthening Education...

L-R: Principal, Regent Secondary, Dr. George Hichman; PGCEI Course Facilitator, Akif Naqvi; Regional Coordinator of the Nottingham University, Dr. Jenny Elliot; the Proprietor, Mrs. Amsa AbdulRasaq and the Headmaster, Regent Primary School, Graham Horton during the graduation ceremony of Regent schools teachers from the Nottingham University’s Post Graduate Certificate in Education International in Abuja…recently

World Bank Satisfied with Nigeria’s Implementation of $215m Community Development Projects Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The World Bank has expressed satisfaction over the implementation of $215 million Additional Financing (AF) of the Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP) in Nigeria.

World Bank Lead Specialist, Social Protection and Labour, Abuja, Mr. Foluso Okunmadewa made this known in Abuja at a two-day retreat organised for supervisory ministries and Board of Directors of the Community and Social Development Agencies.

According to him, "the World Bank is excited on the implementation of the initial project in the 26 States where it was implemented and now on the continuity of

the community development projects and poverty eradication programmes by the states.

"We are also happy with the handlers and supervisors of the projects and the World Bank is sustaining the projects due to the conviction of the successes recorded.

This can be improved upon to make it better and be beneficial to larger numbers of people. The managers of the project should be up and doing to ensure the success of the project.”

The additional $215m brings the total World Bank project to $415m after the initial $200m spent for the first phase of the project between 2009 and 2015.

Earlier, the National Coordinator, CSDA, Dr. Abdulkarim Obaje,

decried the non-adherence to the use of approved poverty map by Local governments in the implementation of community development projects.

He revealed that CDSP commenced in 2009 and had recorded remarkable successes and challenges, stressing that the positive effects and influences on the participating communities in all the participating States had culminated in the Additional Finance (AF) and expression of interest to participate in the project by more States.

According to him, "the challenges of bridging inequalities in the country remain a major puzzle for policy makers. Nigeria has 774 local governments and 9572 political wards with hundreds of community settlements requiring

one type of social and natural resource infrastructure service or another.

Our capacity as a nation to satisfy these communities has been undermined by the declining revenue from the government at all levels. This calls for strategic partnership between all the tiers of government with the development partners."

He explained that, "original CSDP commenced in 2009 and closed in 2015. 98% of the total credit of $200 million was drawn-down from the implementing States and federal government.

"2,729 out of 3,220 Community Development Plans (CDPs)representing about 84% of the total CDPs reviewed by the Local Government

Review Committees (LGRCs) were approved and funded from the credit.

"Also, out of 7,954 Micro Projects (MPs) contained in the approved CDPs, 6,554 representing about 82% were fully completed while 6,456, representing about 99% of the completed MPs were made functional as at the time of the formal project closure of the original CSDP on 30th September, 2015," Obaje added.

He stated that some challenges facing CSDA include; slow pace of implementation of 2017 budget across the States, delay in government contribution by some States, delay in constitution of Boards of the agencies, frequent shufflement of local government executives

among others.

Obaje suggested among others that, "States should demonstrate greater commitment to the project by timely payment of the government contribution and setting up the boards in line with law setting up the agencies.

"The use of the approved poverty map should be prioritised and the board should ensure that the Special Assistants are implementing community development projects based on map and in the Focal local government areas."

The retreat was meant to update participants on the status of project implementation under the CSDP-AF, the implementation challenges and ways of strengthening the CSDP system nationally.

Nigerian Born Doctor Kills 1, Injures Power: Abuja Disco Adds 60,000 6, Commits Suicuide in New York Meters worth N2.4bn A Nigerian born doctor with a rifle hidden under a lab coat opened fire Friday at the Bronx hospital where he used to work, killing one physician and leaving several other doctors fighting for their lives, authorities said.

The gunman fatally shot himself after first trying to set himself on fire, they said.

According to AFP, Authorities described a chaotic scene at Bronx Lebanon Hospital as gunfire erupted at around 2:50 p.m., spreading terror throughout the hospital as employees locked themselves inside rooms and patients feared for their lives.

"I thought I was going to die," said Renaldo Del Villar, a 55-year-old patient who was in the third-floor emergency room getting treatment for a lower back injury.

Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Dr. Henry Bello, who

was described on the hospital website as a family medicine physician. He resigned from the hospital in 2015 after some sort of dispute, according to one law enforcement official, who said Bello used an AR-15 in the attack.

The officials were not authorised to discuss the still-unfolding investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ultimately, one female doctor was killed and six others wounded, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

"This was a horrible situation unfolding in a place that people associated with care and comfort, a situation that came out of nowhere," de Blasio said.

The FBI tweeted that they had found "no nexus to terrorism" so far.

Shortly after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter, police officers went floor by floor, their guns drawn, looking for the gunman. They learned

just before 4 p.m. he was dead inside the building.

De Blasio confirmed that the Bello killed himself, while Police commissioner James O'Neill said he tried to set himself on fire.

Employees and their loved ones described the horrifying moments as they scrambled for information.

Garry Trimble said his wife, hospital employee Denise Brown, called him from inside the hospital shortly after 3 p.m. "She woke me up and told me there was a situation, somebody's out there shooting people," Trimble said as he waited for his wife to come out. "I could hear in her voice she was shaking and about to cry."

Gonzalo Carazo described the scary scene to WCBS-TV. "I saw one of the doctors and he had a gunshot wound to his hand," Carazo said.

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) on Friday moved closer to ending its practice of estimated billing to electricity consumers in its network when it signed an agreement with indigenous Nigerian meter manufacturing outfit - Mojec Nigeria, to procure and install 60,000 units of electricity meters at the premises of its residential consumers.

The agreement which was signed by the Managing Director of Abuja Disco, Mr. Ernest Mupwaya, and Chairman of Mojec, Mrs. Mojisola Abdul, at the Disco’s corporate headquarter in Abuja, was worth N2.4 billion, and would reportedly bring the Disco closer to accomplishing its plan to provide 120,000 meters to its customers in its 2017 business year.

Already, the Disco had earlier in the year deployed 30,000 meters to residential consumers in its network, in addition to the volumes it deployed to its maximum demand consumers as initially directed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

It also disclosed that it would sign another fresh agreement for the manufacture and supply of an additional 30,000 meters with an undisclosed metering firm next week, to bring its meter deployment target for 2017 to fulfillment.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mupwaya, explained that so far, the Discos had invested $2 million and N3.6 billion on meter procurement and installation across its network.

He also noted that a total of $150 million had however been spent on metering and other infrastructure

by the Disco.

Mupwaya, equally stated that with the Disco’s advancement of its metering plan, it was looking forward to closing down on repeated revenue losses to estimated customers and energy theft.

He explained that the Disco was more comfortable with providing meters to its customers as against reports that it was more at an advantage keeping with estimated billing. He however said that funding the meter deployment was still demanding.

According to him, most Discos in the country’s power market were going through various operational challenges which he said included tariffs that were not cost reflective; systemic thefts of energy by consumers; and vandalism of distribution assets across their networks.

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JULY 1 17, 2017• THISDAY, The SATURDAY Newspaper

commentary

Why Buhari’s Anti-Corruption Agenda Is Crumbling

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Radical reforms of the anti-corruption laws and institutions are overdue, argues Kolawole Olaniyan

t’s often said that one person with a belief and courage is a social power equal to 99 who have only interests. Nigeria would seem to have produced such person when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office on Friday, 29 May 29, 2015, at least judging by his perceived anti-corruption credentials during his stint as a military head of state in the mid-80s.

But the famous dictum that Buhari is ‘Mr Integrity’ personified that could take on the corrupt system in the country may after all not be wholly true, if the corruption crisis, and apparent lack of capacity or will by his government to end the prevailing impunity of perpetrators are anything to go by.

On assumption of office, Buhari put fighting grand corruption, sending high-ranking officials and politicians to jail and recovering stolen public funds at the top of his list of priorities and political agenda, something the public overwhelmingly supported. But over two years after, his supposed anti-corruption agenda would seem to be falling apart. The Nigerian democratic project still looks very much like a system run on a basis of self-interest and profit. The simple truth of the matter is that the Buhari/Professor Yemi Osinbajo government is neither “frying big fish” (sending top officials and politicians to jail) nor promoting the much-needed reform in the justice system that could hold corrupt leaders to account, serve as a robust protection against systemic corruption and allow access to effective remedies by those affected by corruption.

Corruption remains in full public view. A handful of Buhari’s friends have come under criticism for their apparent mixing of official position and business interests, but no charges have been brought against them.

Much of the noise has been on the opposition camp.

The Bukola Saraki’s case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal is just the latest in a series of major corruption cases that the Buhari/Osinbajo government has lost in recent times.

The increasing level of corruption in the public sphere, and the abject failure of the criminal justice system and anti-corruption agencies to secure convictions in clearly simple corruption cases, have battered public trust and confidence, and strengthened the perception that corruption is unavoidable.

Apart from the cosmetic sacking of some officials in the Budget Office, those leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives accused of ‘padding’ the 2016 budget or tampering with our commonwealth are allowed to walk free; the president and acting president couldn’t even respond to the letter of the whistle-blower Abdulmumin Jibrin urging the government to do justice in the matter.

Several lawmakers and former governors under corruption investigation are getting away with their alleged crimes. Former first lady Patience Jonathan and some of the judges accused of corruption have also been set free, due to a combination of factors, ranging from incompetence of the criminal justice system to political expediency.

The leadership of the National Assembly and many of their members, top politicians, and state governors (who have refused to pay workers’ salaries for several months despite the so-called bailout funds they got from Buhari) are taking full advantage of the president’s absence (away in London for medical treatment) to exploit the system for financial and other benefits, and position themselves for the 2019 general elections.

The government doesn’t seem to have the capacity or will to end the growing evidence of intense inter-agency rivalry and conflicts within the security and anti-corruption agencies.

The justice system and key anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Code of Conduct

The tragedy of the country’s criminal justice system is that it’s quick to impose maximum punishment on petty criminals while curiously reluctant to get tough with top officials and politicians who confuse their private accounts with the public treasury

Tribunal, you name it—that are supposed to provide accountability— seem overwhelmed and overpowered by Aso Rock power brokers, the leadership of the National Assembly, state governors, and no match for a small but powerful group of politicians, a coterie of elite bureaucrats, and those in their inner circle.

The tragedy of the country’s criminal justice system is that it’s quick to impose maximum punishment on petty criminals while curiously reluctant to get tough with top officials and politicians who confuse their private accounts with the public treasury.

A government’s role, especially in a democracy, is first and foremost to uphold the rule of law but under Buhari/Osinbajo’s watch, the judiciary and operation of the rule of law have weakened considerably, to the point that orders of properly constituted courts are now routinely disobeyed by the government.

A landmark judgment by Justice Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos ordering the government to publish and account for the spending of recovered stolen public funds since the return of democracy in 1999, and another by Justice Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordering the release of the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem Elzakzaky and his wife, Zeinab, remain ignored.

Yet, persistent disobedience of court orders is a recipe for state tyranny and corruption to grow and take even deeper root.

The country is dropping deeper into a pattern of corruption, impunity, insecurity, and instability; with Nigerians still feeling a complete disconnect between what’s happening down in Aso Rock, and what’s happening on their doorstep.

This isn’t the ‘change’ that Nigerians apparently voted for.

It’s rather unfortunate that Nigerian politicians seem more concerned with their personal gratification than the relief of poverty and suffering of their own people. The love for public treasury and personal aggrandisement has in effect dried up in them the milk of human kindness. Systemic corruption has caused majority of the citizens to fall below an unacceptable level of well-being while corrupt officials are taking care of their own families, relatives and associates.

Let there be no mistake: Nigerians won’t buy into the Buhari and Osinbajo’s anti-corruption agenda if they can’t even challenge corrupt behaviours within their own government.

It’s true that corruption cannot be eradicated overnight but combating the problem requires a fundamental change of direction, and not more of the same. Radical reforms of the anti-corruption laws and institutions are overdue, and must begin to happen now, if the country’s anti-corruption agencies are to become more independent and free from the whims and caprices of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

The fight against corruption has to be backed by firm and fair enforcement of the laws, and effective sanctions if top officials and politicians are not to continue to get away with their crimes. The judiciary and anticorruption agencies themselves would need to break free of the corrupt system to hold corrupt leaders to account, challenge the political elite and spoil their efforts to protect themselves.

Until Buhari and Osinbajo restore public trust in the criminal justice system and the credibility and legitimacy of anticorruption agencies, the corruption crisis would get even worst. If Buhari and Osinbajo are sincere about ‘rooting out corruption and jailing top officials’, the time is now for them to show courage and political will, and seize the initiative to revitalise the government’s crumbing anti-corruption agenda.

Dr. Olaniyan is the author of ‘Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa’

Digital Switch-Over And Deconstruction Of Journalism

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Bonaventure Melah argues that the social media should endeavour to balance their information

o underscore the place of credibility in reporting, earlier practitioners of journalism insisted that for news to be credible and believable, it must have six clear elements which are summed up as the Five W’s and one H. Credible news must therefore state clearly Who said that something happened? What exactly happened?

When did it happen? Why? Where? And then How was it said or How did it happen?

Over the years, media practitioners, especially reporters have tried their best to see that these important questions are asked and that answers are provided before dishing out reports to the consuming public. It was because of the strategic role of the media as the estate that shapes or moulds societal opinion that such strict requirements are demanded of those practicing the profession.

Today, however, things have really changed.

The advent of social media has made journalism an all-comers’ vocation, so much so that illiterate housekeepers, roadside mechanics and barbers among others who have no basic training on reporting, can post materials on the internet and draw thousands of readers within minutes, no matter how senseless the post may be. Therefore, much as social media has helped in information sharing, it has continued to cast aspersion on journalism, otherwise a very noble profession.

If it is not so, how would a so-called blogger use his platform to write and post to the public, more

than three pages of blatant lies, fabrications and innuendos, making allegations and disparaging remarks against the person of the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed over a recent payment of legitimate entitlement to Pinnacle Communications Limited for services the company rendered and still rendering to the nation?

Pinnacle Communications in 2014 won the bid for the second broadcast signal distribution to provide services towards Nigeria’s Digital Broadcast Switch-over project. ITS, a subsidiary of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was also licensed for the same purpose.

According to a federal government Whitepaper on the Digital Switch-over (DSO), companies that were licensed to provide “technical infrastructure services that would be used to distribute digital terrestrial television signals across the country,” are to receive grants of various sums from the federal government (which were clearly spelt out). This was to serve as federal government’s contribution to the huge sums of money needed for the DSO project. Former President Goodluck Jonathan duly approved the release of the grants.

Subsequently, the government without wasting time, released N1.9 billion to ITS as its own grant but did not release anything to Pinnacle Communications Limited in spite of several assurances to effect the release, due largely to a reason only known to the then Director General of the National

Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Mr. Emeka Mba. As if that was not injustice enough, Mba’s NBC balkanised the signal distribution license by giving smaller pieces as licenses to various companies to carry out assignments that were hitherto contained in the agreement with signal distributors, a development that seriously affected the smooth operations of the DSO project and on the basis of which Pinnacle dragged the federal government to court as far back as 2014.

In spite of these offensive actions of NBC against signal distributors, Pinnacle has provided first-rate infrastructure in Abuja which led to the successful activation of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) plank of the switch-over November, 2016, in a ceremony that the Vice- President represented President Muhammadu Buhari. There are 30 channels connected to the Abuja infrastructure alone.

The one in Kaduna has reached near completion and is billed for switch-over in July 2017 while five others located in different states are on-going, all by the same company.

Another curious issue raised by the blogger is why Pinnacles should be paid N2.5 billion while ITS was paid N1.9bn. Again, if the writer had taken time to research and to ask the relevant questions, he would have been told that the grant was scheduled to be paid in dollars since procurement of equipment and other facilities for the DSO was to come from international markets. Therefore

paying ITS N1.9bn in 2015 when naira exchanged at N160 to a dollar is far higher than N2.5bn currently, with the naira exchanging for about N390 to the dollar.

Is this blogger aware that all the so-called players in the DSO engaged mainly by Emeka Mba have been paid at one time or the other? Is he aware that Set-Top-box manufacturers (though the best anyone of them has is two assembly lines, and only three of them have assembly lines) that have been paid to date N15bn?

If the blogger was not fed half-truth by his so-called “source(s),” he would have been canvassing that all players in the DSO should come out to the public domain and show what each of them have done to merit any money(s) collected from NBC rather than attempting to mislead the public with obviously biased and jaundiced report that is clearly laced with prejudice.

To further expose the tardiness, the writer self-contradicted when he carelessly alleged that the Minister of Information and Culture unilaterally approved the payment of the N2.5bn to Pinnacle when his approval power stops at N50 million. In another paragraph the report stated that “in this case, it is understood that the approval for the payment allegedly came from the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari,” with a most laughable imputation that the payment was “made in secret,” as if it should be advertised worldwide.

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JULY 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The SATURDAY Newspaper

insight

Again, caught unwares?

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What Biafra Stands For

n May 30, 1967, the Biafra Republic was born. The three-year period that followed is the bloodiest in Nigerian history and contributed to (or might even be said to be directly responsible for) the incredible amount of mistrust and political volatility that exists in this present Fourth Republic.

Fifty years on and the clamour for separation (still) seems as loud as ever. What has gone wrong? Nigeria, they say, is an immiscible cauldron of oil and water. Apparently, we must separate from each other so that we can flourish individually. The idea that we cannot live together is quite lazy and accepted by the unthinking and myopic. Are our differences so irreconcilable? Will our separation lead to amazing prosperity? Hardly.

On first viewing, it appears that the Biafran war was fought for the right to secede but this is not necessarily the case. Biafra was fought for fairness and good governance, both of which Nigeria lacked in 1967. The Aburi Accord sought to give the states the “almighty” federalism we currently hail as the solution to our malaise but was soundly rejected by the North (even though they proposed very much the same thing in 1953 but ostensibly rejected it because of the oil that resided in the eastern region, but I digress). Biafra is not about secession. What if I told you, that the American democracy that we hold in the highest regard had been on the brink of destruction many times before (and after) their Civil War of 1861? Or that the United Kingdom has not always been (and is arguably still not) united? The European Union was founded in 1993 and countries have tried to leave before the 2016 Brexit. Integration is never easy, nations that are centuries old have found it difficult and so we should not be surprised that our 57- year- old nation is having a hard time of it.

Democracy has always been natural to the Igbo people, evident when the British tried to rule by proxy (i.e. with the warrant chiefs) and it partly caused the 1929 Aba riots (that was, in hindsight, a precursor for the civil war). The Igbos will not go along with anything that they have not been consulted on and Nigeria was being particularly segregationist of the East. Biafra is the result of this mindset and the situation in 1967 Nigeria was seemingly untenable for the Igbos.

Now, you might disagree with the manner that Biafran leaders chose to exercise their grievance; should they have gone the political route as opposed to the military route? You might also hate the method of battle; starvation of the Biafran civilians, the wanton killing of easterners in Nigeria particularly infuriates me but what you must

respect is the essence of what Biafra stands for.

Biafra is about inclusive and representative government, integration and democracy. The Biafran ideal is about you and I fighting for the very essence of our national existence for the right to be included in the national conversation as equals. Today, Biafra still elicits painful memories for Igbos and Biafrans that were part of the war and the vestiges of this hatred is very much still part of the political discourse today. Northerners are still terrified of an Igbo Presidency and this need not be so; for this is clearly because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what Biafra is.

Biafra is NOT about secession, we must rid ourselves of this notion and see it for what it truly is: a call for fairness, equality and integration.

Our parents’ generation might be lost in the current political noise that focuses on tribalism above nationalism but we must really rise above this rhetoric. The South must stop viewing the North as the uneducated bald land and instead view her as a partner for economic and national growth. That means working to quell suspicion and mistrust amongst the people. For the love of democracy, we should all be Biafrans.

Jachimike Jeffrey, jachimike@outlook.com

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Africa’s Stagnant Development

n Africa, development continues to remain stagnant even amidst vast abundance of natural resources, foreign aids, and even technological advancement.

It’s said that stagnant development is due to unfavourable government policies, corruption, improper utilisation of natural resources, vast amount of inequality, the continuous existence of personal rule, disregard for the rule of law and the lack of good governance. The popular image of Africa seems to be that of immense corrupt heads of government who super-see over fractious populations. The personal rule paradigm and patrimonialism can be used in this same context, which refers to a political system that its military and administrative staff is considered to be the personal retainers of the head of government. The key features of this kind of political systems are that positions are dependent on one’s loyalty to superiors and political office are treated as a personal property and source for private gains. The personal rule system allows public resources to be used for private purposes which ultimately results in a lack of public investments. The government purveys private accumulation thereby not planning for the common good. Development is neglected in this political system, and the focus is using public resources as a tool for personal enrichment by the public office holder to the detriment of

TH E S AT U R DAY N E W S PA P E R

editor SHAKA MOMODU Deputy Editor YEMI ADEBOWALE Managing Director Eniola Bello Deputy Managing Director Kayode Komolafe Chairman Editorial Board Olusegun Adeniyi EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN

the development of the state.

Extreme poverty becomes an issue when the state neglects both human and capital development.

Poverty often leads to other problems like disease and hunger. One of the overwhelming aspects of poverty is the blatant willingness to surrender one’s freedom. Excessive poverty often forces decent citizens in tolerating bad governance. Economic stability or viability and favourable government policies are factors in driving a stagnant economy in relation to development into a progressing economy. Some may argue that Africa is experiencing favourable growth and development due to rise in Gross Domestic Product. Nigeria, for example, became the largest economy in Africa after its rebasing but that does not negate the existence of abject poverty, infrastructural backwardness, and under-development.

The Young African Leaders Economic Summit Group (YALESG) conducted a survey and asked the populace what could be the reason behind the continued stagnation of the African state? Some 28% blamed the people, 61% blamed the leaders, 0% blamed multinationals while 11% blamed foreign governments. With the above study, we could agree that leadership plays a key role in moving Africa into a progressing economy. Africa is the home of the world riches from precious metals such as gold, silver, diamond, copper as well as natural resources such as fossil fuels and all other forms of resources known to mankind as well as vast agricultural produce. Africa needs to become more organised, more inclusive and identify intellectually driven leaders who are progress driven and corruption must be eradicated to the barest minimum.

Dr.Folawiyo Olajoku, Lagos

The Challenge of Gwagwalada Area Council

THIS DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M IT E D

Editor-in-Chief/Chairman Nduka Obaigbena Group Executive Directors Eniola Bello, Kayode Komolafe, Israel Iwegbu, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU Group FINANCE DIRECTOR oLUFEMI ABOROWA Divisional Directors PETER IWEGBU, FIDELIS ELEMA, 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 DIRECTOR, printing production CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND Email: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

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ardly can one get motor bike or a car that can move one from one point to another in Gwagwalada metropolis in the Federal Capital Territory. It was worse during the Ramadan Fasting. And this has impacted on all form of commercial activities in the council area. It affects economic activities, the agricultural sector, educational, hospitality as well as church activities. People find it difficult to move their goods and services.

And this has led to high cost of transportation and subsequently high cost of living. It is high time the local government council did something about the problem.

Michael. A. Oke, Founder, Michael Adedotun Oke Foundation

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

super saturday

Serena Bares It All ‘I Don’t Think My Story is Over Yet!’

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n the August 2017 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine, world tennis champion, Serena Williams shares how she met her fiancé Alexis Ohanian, their love story, her pregnancy, and how she still had to play a tournament while seven weeks pregnant.

According to Vanity Fair, Serena and Alexis will be married this Fall after the birth of the baby.

The magazine describes Serena as “the best tennis player in history, with an aggregate winning percentage of 85.76 percent and 72 tournaments won on the Women’s Tennis Association tour (including the 23 grand-slam victories in 29 singles finals, not to mention 14 doubles finals with sister Venus).”

The tennis star reveals she will return to pro tennis as soon as January because “I don’t think my story is over yet.”

Alexis and Serena met the way two people do in the best love stories: by chance. Actually, it runs a little deeper than that because, let’s face it, Alexis was initially considered by Serena and the others, she was with to be an irritant they were hoping would just get the hint and go away.

The location was the Cavalieri hotel, in Rome, on May 12, 2015. That night Serena was about to play her first match in the Italian Open. She is not a morning person and usually doesn’t eat breakfast, but the buffet offering at the Cavalieri was beyond extravagant and Jessica was champing at the bit, so they went to try it along with longtime agent Jill Smoller, of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, and Zane Haupt, who handles some business-development opportunities for Serena.

The buffet had closed down five minutes before the group got there, so their only recourse was to go to the pool area and sit at a table for four and order breakfast. Other people on Serena’s team were expected at an adjoining table.

The night before, Alexis had stayed up until one or two in the morning drinking at a café with Kristen Wiig and friends—Wiig was in Rome shooting Zoolander 2, and he knew her cousin, so he introduced himself.

He passed out when he got back to the hotel, where he was staying for the Festival of Media Global conference, and was slightly hungover when he came down to breakfast.

He too headed out to the pool area. Which is when he decided without thinking about it to sit at the table next to Serena, his only interest to get coffee and food and put on his headphones and work on his laptop. Which struck Serena and the others as a pain in the neck, since Alexis had a choice of other empty tables.

On Alexis attraction to Serena

Alexis knew then he wanted to marry her, not simply out of happiness or compatibility.

She was helping him become the best version of himself because of her own work ethic and focus, with millions watching and the expectation of the public that she should win every time, what Serena herself described as carrying “three pyramids” on her shoulder.

He thought he worked hard—it is part of the romance of high tech that everyone works 18 hours a day and then curls up under the desk for a few hours’ sleep with their laptop as teddy bear and pacifier—but he realized it was nothing compared with Serena.

“I felt like a door had been opened to a person who made me want to be my best self. . . . I find myself just wanting to be better by simply being around her because of the standard she holds.”

The proposal:

Serena

… Serena wasn’t happy. Actually, she was livid. But after she got on the plane, she realized that he was flying her out for only one reason. “I knew it was coming. I was like, ‘Serena, you’re 35, you’re ready. This is what you want.’ ”

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

saturday I Don’t Think My Story Is Over Yet!

Alexis knew then he wanted to marry her, not simply out of happiness or compatibility. She was helping him become the best version of himself because of her own work ethic and focus, with millions watching and the expectation of the public that she should win every time, what Serena herself described as carrying “three pyramids” on her shoulder.

Serena with hubby, Alexis Alexis picked the same room they had shared a year earlier, the hotel at his instruction filling it with flowers. He took her downstairs to the same table by the pool area where they had first met. No one else was there, since the hotel, also at his instruction, had cleared everyone else out. He retold the story of how he had met her for the first time at this exact spot two years earlier. On the table was a little plastic rat.

Alexis got on one knee and proposed.

Finding Out About the Pregnancy

… But she felt a little different physically.

She had unexpectedly thrown up at one point and her breasts had enlarged. She thought it might be hormonal. But her friend Jessica Steindorff immediately suspected something else and suggested a pregnancy test. Serena thought it was ludicrous.

Jessica worked on her for two days until Serena relented, and so Jessica went to a pharmacy and bought a pregnancy kit.

“I’ll take it just because (a) to prove you wrong and (b) because it’s fun, whatever. It’s like a joke. Why not?” … Test No. 2: Positive. Test No. 3: Positive.

Test No. 4: Positive. Test No. 5: Positive. Test No. 6: Positive.

How she told Alexis about the baby

Once Serena knew she was pregnant, she called Alexis and told him he needed to come to Melbourne earlier than planned.

She did not give him the reason, but Alexis thought it was likely health-related and immediately got a United flight out of San Francisco. When she saw him, not a word was said.

She handed him a paper bag with the six positive pregnancy tests.

He was as shocked as Serena. But there wasn’t time to dwell.

She played The Australian Open while pregnant

The Australian Open was about to begin, and an immediate medical determination had to be made on what risk there might be in playing. The doctor who examined her thought she was about three or four weeks pregnant—it was almost impossibly hard to tell because the fetus was so small—and said there was no risk whatsoever. When Serena returned to the States and had a subsequent exam, it was discovered that she had actually been more advanced, about seven to eight weeks, but she said she still would have played. There were only five people who knew during the tournament: Alexis, Jessica, Jill, Venus, and the doctor. Not even Serena’s coach knew. Nor did tournament officials.

Serena is now a little more than seven months pregnant. “It just doesn’t seem real.

I don’t know why. Am I having a baby?” she says.

“If you would have told me last year in October or November that I would have a baby, not be pregnant but have a baby, I would have thought you were the biggest liar in the world. This is kind of how I am right now. This is happening sooner than later, and it’s going by so fast,” she added.

--Source: Vanity Fair Magazine

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Polscope

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

with Eddy Odivwri eddy.odivwri@thisdaylive.com 08053069356

Why are They Afraid of Restructuring?

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he buzz word around town now is restructuring. Suddenly, there seems to be a general acclamation to having found the solution to our age-long problems as a nation. And the solution is restructuring! While almost everybody echoes and parrots the word, there is no consensus on either what it really means or what it really entails.

What is not in doubt is that there is the belief that restructuring holds the key to both our development and peaceful co-existence. No doubt, the twin issues of the crave for secession championed by the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) and the recent quit notice issued to the Igbos in the north by a coalition of Arewa youths has reopened the inquisition into the Terms and Conditions binding the Nigerian entity.

As recently said by the Sultan of Sokoto, sa’Ad Abubakar III, the fact that there are pockets of agitations here and there across the country means there is something fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian federation. What is wrong is not only a feeling of inequality but overwhelming evidence of inequality, where the odds and aces of the federation are verily skewed in favour of a section of the country. That, in a nut shell, has generated the endless whine about marginalization and oppression from various sections of the country.

A careful examination of the parameters of governance and government clearly support the fact that the country is suffering from gross imbalance.

First, in the simple geographic classification of the Nigerian federation wherein there are 19 states in the space described as Northern Nigeria and 17 states in the space described as Southern Nigeria. It is fundamental to note that states have always been created by military governments, often headed by people from northern Nigeria.

Although there is the broad classification of the federation into six geo-political zones, three in the north and three in the south, it is noteworthy that while almost all the geo-political zones have six states each, the south east has five states while the north west has seven. It smells like robbing Peter to pay Paul. I have heard such banal issues of land mass as one of the reasons for the creation of states. How narrow minded!

Related to the issue of number of states is the issue of number of Local Government Areas. While the north has 419 (what a figure!) LGAs, the entire south has 357 LGAs. At this, there will surely be a skew in the delineation of constituencies. Little wonder that in the House of Representatives, for instance, while the entire South south and South East zones have a total number of 98 representatives, and the South west, 71 members, whereas the North west zone alone has 92 members, with the North east having 48, North Central 49 and FCT having two members, Every thing put together, the entire south has 169 representatives, while the North has 191 representatives.

Are we still wondering why the North East Development Commission (NEDC) sailed through at the House f Representatives with a fiat, while

Osinbajo

the same type of commission targeted at addressing infrastructural challenges in the South East failed woefully at the lower House, what with the overwhelming voice vote of the representatives from the north.

Those who bicker about the glaring cases of what is perceived as injustice note that while Bayelsa State, for instance, which produces oil has just eight LGAs, Kano which does not produce oil and no significant contribution to the nation’s treasury has 44 LGAs. The simple interpretation of this is that if Nigeria baked a big cake which was sliced into 774 slices, while Kano will take home 44 slices of the “national cake”, Bayelsa will just do with a measly eight slices, whereas while the former contributes almost nothing to the treasury, the latter is a major contributor.

It is the redress of these and many other cases of inequality is what constitutes restructuring. No section should be allowed to lord over the other. No section should parade itself as the main tree and the others are mere supportive branches.

Or shall we refer to the vexatious issue of Federal Character/ quota system? How can it be explained that in the one and same country with a uniform curriculum, school calendar, same payment for teachers, same standard for hiring of teachers etc, certain children are grouped as being from “educationally disadvantaged states” and the others from “educationally advantaged state”. And following this dichotomy a child who scored 250 in a National Common Entrance is denied admission into a Federal Government College, because he/she is from an educationally advantaged state, whereas another child who scored 180 is offered admission because he/she is from educationally disadvantaged state.

And as a rule, it governs even the hiring system into government jobs. One country, but two standards.

How unfair can a system be!

It is the sustenance of such skewed paradigms over the years that has fuelled the various agitations in the land and fed the feelings and experiences of injustice and oppression.

I am certain that as soon as these issues are addressed, the quantum of agitation in the land will subside significantly.

But rife as the call for restructuring is, it is not new.

I recall that as a reporter, I had covered and monitored closely the works of the Devolution of Powers Committee set up by late Gen Sani Abacha and headed by (also late) Abdulrahman Okene . The entire brief and mandate of that committee is how to restructure the power architecture in Nigeria. It was a committee set up in the wake of the June 12 annulment, and it is now clear that it was Abacha’s own gimmick to douse tension and give the impression that government is interested in devolution of powers. Till date, the centre has remained as powerful as ever. The call for the reduction of the power is at the heart of the call for restructuring.

Indeed, many ethnic nationalities, except those in the north have called for fiscal federalism, wherein states and regions can explore/exploit the natural resources and endowments in their lands, sell same make profit and pay tax to the central government, as it was in the First Republic. This way, not only will there be healthy inter-regional competitions, there will be less national friction and tension.

But some people like Ibrahim Coomasie, Ango Abdullahi, Balarabe Musa are sore afraid of restructuring because they fear that their regions will be left bare and stranded. That cannot be. Why are they scared? The mass of untapped wealth lying beneath the ground in form of solid minerals have the great potential of turning around the economy of northern states. No region is expected to have the short end of the national stick.

And if super capitalists like Ibrahim Babangida and Atiku Abubakar, erstwhile promoters of northern oligarchy have joined the crusade for restructuring, it will just be a matter of time for the dream to come true. As said, it is the panacea to ethnic and regional tensions. Ignoring the call and imperativeness of restructuring is like resolving to live with cancer. No matter how long it takes, cancer will soon kill the patient. Now is the accepted time.

The acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo should have the courage tpo respond to this demand.

To claim that it is not a priority top this government is to miss the point. Nothing else seems as urgent as dousing the tension in ht eland. To hold all the dialogues in the land and avoid the real issue of restructuring will be like treating leprosy with the drug for headache.

Canticles...

Chai, Even Evans is Talking About Rights

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an you imagine his impudence! He has the effrontery to sue the Inspector General of Police for illegal detention. What a gut!

Who? Who is getting you this worked up? Who sued the IG? Is it not that notorious kidnapper called (scratching the head) em…em … the thingamabob called Chukwudi Onwumadike Oh, You mean Evans the kingpin of Kidnappers?

Yes, that notorious executive criminal. He sued the IG claiming N300million for the infringement on his fundamental human rights. Can you just imagine! A notorious killer kidnapper saying he is being detained illegally and so demanding to be paid damages But don’t forget he has a right too. Don’t forget he is merely a suspect in the eyes of the law. Don’t forget even a condemned criminal yet has right. Don’t forget he also… (cuts in) Please stop those annoying legal shenanigans.Which eye of the law does not know that he is a criminal. If the Law does not see him as one, then they should call for Tinubu’s glasses.What stupid right are you talking about?

Here was a man who admitted kidnapping scores of people, demanding and collecting his ransom in hard currency. One who kept his victims for as long as six or even seven months. One who killed some of his victims even after they had paid ransom. Such a person will foul-mouthedly come out to demand for his fundamental rights. So if he knows about people and their rights, why was he kidnapping people and torturing them for months? Didn’t those victims have rights to freedom and even life? He is just being given a fore taste of his own medicine and he is claiming to have right. Look, such a one deserves no mercy , not even before the law.

Well, Evans has not denied that he did not kidnap. He is saying he should be charged to court if there is any accusation against him, otherwise he should be released unconditionally. Those are his prayers.

Stupid prayers that will never be answered! I don’t blame him. I blame the hungry lawyer who will even accept to take up the case of such a killer criminal. Is this a call to professional duty or a quest for blood money? How can a normal lawyer Evans take up such a Mind your tongue. Everybody deserves to be defended. It has nothing to do with hunger or craving for any blood money. It is the right of any accused person, no matter the crime, to be defended. And for all you care, the law can set Evans free with a team of brilliant lawyers. (spitting out in defiance) God forbid! Which judge will set Evans free? Such a judge will be his next victim. He is a danger to society, QED! So why have the police not charged him to court since his arrest?

Investigation is still going on. Have you not been hearing of his wonderful tales and escapades? After the notorious Lawrence Anini case of the 80’s, have you had any entertaining and chilling story like that of this Evans?

Don’t you know that when the matter gets to court, we can no longer comment on it again? Then it will be come subjudice?

Nobody should pressure the police. Let them take time to conclude investigation before arraigning him. After all, this criminal was terrorizing Nigerians for over seven years.Why is he in a hurry to regain his freedom when he has not even spent seven weeks? Look, I can tell you that taking him to court is merely to fulfill all righteousness. He does not deserve to live. He is even asking to be paid N300 million! Imagine the lawyer-imbued guts!

Thank God the Lagos State government had signed a Bill into law few months ago that any such kidnapper who killed his victims will also be killed.

So he will go beyond and ask for his right from Devil when he gets to hell.

But Evans said he has never killed?

Rubbish! Smelling lie! Didn’t you read about the ex- Super Eagles’ footballer, Chikelue Iloenyosi’s whose 86-year old father was kidnapped, murdered and buried by Evans and his gang even after they had paid N15 million. Didn’t he say one of the members of the gang (Nonso) took them to the shallow grave they buried his father? How do you even explain that a man who ran such a complex web of crime wouldn’t have killed severally to remain the Capone that he is?

Look, I am telling you that that fellow was callous and demonic.

But the #FreeEvans campaigners are mounting pressure and really reaching out., hinging their plea on the life and fate of his innocent children It is a weird world.Were it not so, who should stick out his neck and name for such a notorious robber, kidnapper and killer?

Only the inherently wicked will join the campaign for the release of such a social misfit.Thank God the law is not sentimental.You talk about the lives of his innocent children.What about the lives of children he had ruined by killing their parents? Ehn, my friend, if you want us to remain friends, just detach yourself from this ungodly group campaigning for Evans. He deserves the gallows That cannot separate us my friend. Don’t forget your religion preaches forgiveness

Plus

Loud Whispers pg. 20 Alternative pg. 24 AUTO pg. 26 Global Soccer pg. 29 Fashion File pg. 41 Interview pg. 50

Demola Adedoyin I’m Working to Stay Top in Nollywood

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper July 1, 2017

PLUS

Coming from a Rich Home Doesn’t Make One Rich Young, enterprising Demola Adedoyin is making headway in his business and acting career, writes Ferdinand Ekechukwu

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istening to Demola Adedoyin talk reminds you of the voice heard watching him play Prince Aderopo, the lead character in Kunle Afolayan’s 2014 sensational movie October 1.

Charismatic, suave and passionate about his craft, the actor, musician and model says, “There are certain kinds of films I want to do. I can’t play every type of role. Every actor can’t play every type of role. So I would want to limit it to certain kind of script’s quality production values.”

Could that be the reason he has maintained a particular pace regardless of the breakthrough given by the movie? He had felt that in order to leverage on it, he would have had to do a lot of things he would not want to do. More so, that “God’s time is the best I believe. Maybe I did turn down too many offers but to me, it’s about quality over quantity.” He adds, “I just want to keep working, at the moment it’s about the journey, not the destination. I won’t worry about keeping score for now. I just want to dig my heels in the industry.”

Besides acting, he is engaged in other businesses. “Ironically when October 1 happened, it increased demand on other areas of my work simply by name association”, he reveals. Adedoyin runs Yin Media, a multimedia company with related services interest across wide range of industry sectors, delivering marketing campaigns and operations content and information. “Because it’s almost as if being in the public eye helps you to pass some kind of security check.

People trust you more. My business really moved. And then I realised that if it’s not by frequency and volume you might be left behind.

“I have started working a lot more to keep in line with the industry and this year, the offers just came through.

I think this keeps me safe. It’s my passion there’s no way I will hide away from it. No matter what else I’m doing I will still fall to it. I have had four productions this year.” So far, Adedoyin is on a good ride on the movie scene at the moment working with versatile directors like Tope Oshin, Tolu Lord Tanner, and Uduak Patrick Obong.

The 2015 Africa Movie Academy Awards nominee for Most Promising Young Actor has starred in films like Couple of Days, Ever After, A Perfect Christmas, and The Island, directed by Tola Odunsi. Just recently he starred alongside songstress Chidinma in Stella and Oba, directed by Kunle

Afolayan. In the movie, he played the role of a soft-hearted farmer hopelessly in love. His latest appearance being Africa Magic’s Jemeji. “I just finished ‘Stella and Oba’, a Kunle Afolayan film produced by Lasun Ray Productions.

I am currently on Africa Magic’s 250 episodes TV series called JEMEJI, which is grabbing up viewers fast and doing well ratings-wise. Of course, I’m fired up for whatever the future holds,” he noted.

Adedoyin’s acting career started without much to it; just young then doing impersonations and monologues, he memorized from films. And then school and work “suppressed that side of me for a long time,” he said.

“The desire was always there but I just felt I had to secure certain things like my education and revenue streams.

I started acting literally on autopilot, going to workshops and auditions with practically no experience at doing it. I got picked for a role in London after my very first audition, shot my first film over there, then came back right after”.

Within the period abroad he had bagged a masters’ degree in Media and Communication from the Metropolitan University of London. Following a film course in movie directing, he also trained at the Central Film School, London where he studied Film Directing. Technically, he’s more grounded in directing and production than as an actor. “I needed to learn the technical aspects because I know it’s much more complicated than acting,” he adds. “And I’ve always wanted to tell stories, not just be a part of stories.”

He has plans on getting involved fully in production.

Growing up Adedoyin had dreamt of creating and helping to create spectacle and commerce. He had also dreamt of doing business and creating artistic works. “I used to write stories and draw comics when I was a child. Of course I didn’t think of it like that at the time. I was just having fun with creativity and trying to make money doing other things but what goes around comes around. My childhood dreams went away for a while but caught up with me eventually.”

Ordinarily, the thought that the actor should toe the path of his father, Chief Samuel Adedoyin, often arises. But he shares a different view, that “We are not each other. We are here for slightly different journeys. He didn’t have the childhood experiences I had, so the conditioning is different. The paths are different.”

He recollects, “I was abroad for about

On set of the movie Stella and Oba

10 years, but I came back constantly for long and short periods. I think the overall purpose was to expose me to so much that I didn’t know and was mostly unaware of,” he explained.

“It broadened my horizons and smoothed a few rough edges I guess.

At the same time it taught me about my own people, I studied them in a way I hadn’t before, because that’s all I knew. We don’t always want to put a microscope on something we’re supposedly familiar with, we always want to study the ‘other’. In my case being with the ‘other’, experiencing all the differences helped me further define my roots.”

Not being able to receive the support of his father initially wasn’t really a challenge. With time and success he was able to. “For a leader like himself, compromise is difficult. I understand this. He has started showing moral support since acting is a very noble profession,” he pointed out. “It is mostly about representing the average person in their true form. Where you see all their flaws and nuances, answering certain questions about why we’re here, and what the possible consequences of different courses of action could be.”

As a creative person he’s inspired by literary works from visionary creatives.

He’s also inspired by poetry. According to him, poetry is like a search for truth, which is what most artistic work is about. Prayer and visualisation are the form of creative ritual he observes.

In terms of people in the industry, he holds much respect for Afolayan. Aside giving him the big break, his work ethic and ability to organise people are inspiring. And too, Mo Abudu for

Adedoyin’s acting career started without much to it, just young then doing impersonations and monologues, he memorized from films.

And then school and work “suppressed that side of me for a long time,” he said. “The desire was always there but I just felt I had to secure certain things like my education and revenue streams. I started acting literally on autopilot, going to workshops and auditions with practically no experience at doing it. I got picked for a role in London after my very first audition, shot my first film over there, then came back right after

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July 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

PLUS

… with Chidima in Stella and Oba

In terms of people in the industry, he holds much respect for Afolayan. Aside giving him the big break, his work ethic and ability to organise people are inspiring. And too, Mo Abudu for braving the odds to get to her present position. Another influential figure to him is his father. “He stressed the importance of realising this being our primary function here on earth. To love, to breed, to play; these are secondary to your life’s work How October 1 Movie Changed My Brand braving the odds to get to her present position. Another influential figure to him is his father. “He stressed the importance of realising this being our primary function here on earth. To love, to breed, to play; these are secondary to your life’s work,” he says.

“He has a particular obsession with the quality of any product.

Whatever one creates for the service or consumption of other people should be created to the best possible quality.

He has very good taste. He is also extremely private and likes to live below the radar despite his success, which is something I’d like to emulate.”

On being the son of a billionaire in a make-believe world of acting, he said he had no idea really of what perception that must have cast on him, but have heard people ask about it as there may be a fantasy that it’s easier for him in the profession. He rather chose to remain focused and mindful of his business as such perception and believe could even make it more difficult and challenging.

To further buttress his point, and on his social status, he explained, “I don’t think coming from a rich home makes you rich yourself, especially in my family where my father teaches us to be self-sufficient and not rely on him at all. My mother was the same, always encouraging enterprise and the spirit of doing your own thing. I am single, and looking forward to a good marriage with a strong and supportive woman in the near future. My relationship with women, I’ll say its fluid but not totally consuming.”

On location

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • July 1, 2017 with Joseph Edgar (09095325791)

Loud Whispers

Adamu Adamu, Education Minister

Queen’s College : Three Deaths Too Many You know I did not quite follow this tragedy but sometime last week I found a news story about it and it caught my imagination. Three young children just lost their lives needlessly as a result of negligence and outright wickedness on the part of the authorities of the school. This Queen’s college na wa. Is it not the same school where a male teacher was accused of sexual harassment? What has gone wrong with this school sef? It used to be a great citadel of learning which produced great Nigerians like my best friend, Ebiere Ibekwe. Ebiere is a proud alumnus of the school and can never stop talking about her days in that school. Me, I can only thank God for not letting me take my daughter to the place.

While running from the exorbitant school fees these private schools charge, I had considered going to the school. I went in, met some teachers but the sex scandal chased me away. I really was not interested if the teacher was guilty or not. You know there is no smoke without fire and as I no go get power to fly go Abuja to attend one government panel or the other to determine if the man do the thing or not, I just quietly leave the school to their rubbish. As if that is not enough, they have caused the death of three innocent girls and as I have read, the principal, one woman like that, has not deemed it fit to pay condolence visit to the bereaved families. This level of callousness can only be imagined. Let me send my condolences to these families even as I wonder what the remaining children are still doing in that place. The place should be shut down and the students shared out to more serious schools and all implicated officials prosecuted for their roles in the death of these children who had done nothing wrong except try to secure their future and in the process loose their lives. I will soon kneel down and curse these people and you know my curse can be deadly. What kind of life is this?

Senator Nnamdi Kanu Yes, you read it right! Your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, I have looked at the whole Biafran thing very critically and have come to the conclusion that this Nnamdi Kanu is nothing but a great mobiliser and a strong leader of people. He has succeeded in galvanising national attention towards the perceived plight of his people and his mission. Without any serious structure he has built a powerful momentum that has forced the Nigerian system to sit up and listen to him. The fact that his mission is misguided and infantile does not remove the fact that this man has with just pure passion, conviction, oratorical skill laced with threats, galvanised a people, woken up their consciousness and attempted a rethink of the Nigerian situation. You can now imagine if this person was properly guided what he would do in our quest to make Nigeria great again. Our problem is that of selfish leadership and not tribal in nature. The poverty shared amongst us due to poor leadership and corruption do not know tribe or religion. It is ever so widespread that a true and concise push at the level of grassroots, the type designed and implemented by Kanu although in a bigoted and shallow style but better spread with a veritable national coverage would surely uproot this system of endemic avarice and enthrone real purpose-built system of democratic leadership geared towards making life more purposeful for the masses.

Nnamdi Kanu

Ibrahim Babangida

Babatunde Fashola: it is N45,000 !!!!!!!!!!

My Lord that is my monthly Power Bill o. I am sorry to disturb you with this small matter considering the fact that you are controlling three big ministries and also are currently battling the National Assembly on things that have to do with your budget. But you will agree with me that it is the one that concerns me that I will talk about and not the one that concerns you. You see, I live in a modest apartment in Yaba. I had just moved into the apartment just across the border of Shomolu where I was born and lived all my life hence my title as the Duke of Shomolu. Immediately I moved into the new estate, I noticed that nobody had pre paid meters despite the continued announcement that the meters were readily available and free. My daddy, as we speak we have not been able to get this meters o and as such, we are saddled with this post paid system that seems to have a life of its own. Four days into my existence in this new abode, I was given a bill of N13,000 for just four days of usage. I should have shouted at that point o, but I kept quiet only for me to be given N47,000 after 30 days. Meaning that in 34 days, I have spent N60,000 on just PHCN. If I continue at this rate, I would be spending about N600,000 at the end of the year thereby effectively

castrating myself. So you see this my plea to you. Do not vex that I am carrying this little matter to you but the truth is that we are plenty, running into millions who are suffering like this and lest I forget, we did not see power for more than one week during this month o. Your people say it is usage, they ask me how many TV sets I have in the house and how many wives. I wonder how the number of wives will affect my power bill. But anyway, I am now living in fear, because I have finally paid the money, thanks to my Esusu and would simply jump into the lagoon if the same amount is charged me next month. Since they say it is usage, I have decided to move my family into one room, leaving the other four rooms vacant. So now we use only the appliances in that one room in a bid to put in check this errant power bill. Dear Sir, is there anything you can do on this matter, I would be very grateful if you could set up a small committee headed by your predecessor in office to look critically at this matter with a view to submitting its findings to you for onward implementation of its resolution before you are distracted by the budget padding wahala. Try to resolve this matter before the thing make me go join the call for Biafra o.

Evans

We need a Kanu-type leadership at all levels of administration, a leadership that cares about the people; a leadership that can see vision and work towards conceptualising the vision without fear of personal safety .

Kanu, you can still achieve this your goal within a greater Nigerian structure. Please don’t go, seek election to the Senate as a first step. That place needs a fighter like you. My own two pence .

Ibrahim Babangida: A Latter-Day Saint Old age has a way of showing you things you did not see before. This elder statesman has just come out to root for more devolution of power to the states in his old age.

This was the same person who gave no-go areas during his reign and who fought seriously for the continued entrenchment of a system that favoured only a select few during his reign. Today, as he sits in his Minna mansion, reminiscing about the Nigeria he helped entrench; he has begun to feel the need to pull back. He led a military junta that further entrenched this distortion. How can you have a military government at the centre with its central command structure ruling a federating system of states? The military ruined this nation totally and IBB was the star of that parade. He created most of these moribund states in a whim while not allowing them to run independently as it should in a federation. He chose military administrators and gave them instructions from the centre. The state under his reign were mere appendages to the centre while putting his so called boys, the ones who could go to war blindfolded to run them like bank branches managers run branches who depend and rely on the head office for sustenance. Today, he is singing another song. I thank God that this is happening now . We are happy but should we take him seriously? I’ll say no abeg. Na just go join the train as usual. Wait and see o another one of them will soon talk him own.

Evans : A Scary Visit You know as the Duke of Shomolu, busybody is part of my mandate. That is how having nothing to do last Sunday, I took my self to look at Evans the great kidnapping suspect’s house in highbrow Magodo. To me that is the greatest tourist attraction. I wanted to see how he lived while allegedly masterminding the greatest rape of our people by a private citizen. A man who became lord unto himself and made life a misery for so many families. As I drove into his own part of Magodo, I stumbled on a gate. I asked the gateman that I wanted to visit someone on the street. He asked me to call the person so he can speak with the person. Realising that I may have hit a brick wall, I confessed to the guy.’my brother, no vex abeg I want see that Evans house’. The guy smiled and said,’you for talk na’. He pointed out the house to me and I drove near. It was a very beautiful house, in an equally beautiful street. Quiet and very well apportioned, the neighborhood reeked of unalloyed wealth. It was eerie and scary at the same time, I felt my head swell as I looked at the house belonging to this evil genius. Suddenly, I felt a tinge of sadness and pity. All I could do was to say a prayer for him and his victims plus his family.

Only God knows why he allowed these things to happen. As I drove off, all I could think of was the torture in the heart of his children as this whole thing unfolds. Really sad, what kind of society could have bred this person? Really, really sad.

T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

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T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

the alternative with Reno Omokri

The Lesson Ndi’Igbo Taught Jonathan and Future Leaders

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y now, I am sure my readers have read the very disparaging comments against former President Goodluck Jonathan which were credited to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

So pedestrian are those comments that I will not repeat them here. You can Google them on your own if you have not read them but I will not stain my writing space by republishing them.

Ndi’Igbo needs friends and support. No one can win in life if the person walks solo. Ecclesiastes 4:11 says, ‘If two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?’

It was for lack of friends that Ndi’Igbo were defeated between 1967-1970. Is history about to repeat itself? You do not alienate the few friends you have and expect to attract more friends.

This is the advantage the North has over Ndi’Igbo. They know their friends. If with all Jonathan did for Ndi’Igbo someone can dismiss him with the wave of the hand so casually and accuse him of doing nothing for Ndi’Igbo and Ndi’Igbo would applaud such a person instead of calling him to order, then do not expect those who are watching Ndi’Igbo acquiesce to this mistreatment of Jonathan to do anything for Ndi’Igbo when or if they get into power.

If Jonathan can be so treated, then who is sacrosanct?

There are those who have said Jonathan lost the 2015 elections because his fondness for Ndi’Igbo alienated him from other sections of Nigeria. Today, people who hold such opinions are laughing at Jonathan.

The fact that not even one prominent leader amongst Ndi’Igbo has stood up to condemn the hate speech against Jonathan is telling.

This is a man who was the first person since the end of the civil war to make Ndi’Igbo Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chief of Army Staff. For 41 years before Jonathan, not one Ndi’Igbo came near such positions.

Alas, none of the many Ndi’Igbo who benefited from appointments under Jonathan could stand up to defend him against those very mean words from Nnamdi Kanu.

What a lesson to anyone who may be planning to toe the path of Jonathan! What a lesson.

My advice to you and the Igbo race, go and learn diplomacy. It will help you more than physical strength and academic intelligence.

Only a month ago, in my widely published article, ‘Hegemony: What the Igbo can learn from Yoruba and Fulani about power’, I advised Ndi’Igbo, saying that the Igbo often mistake discretion for weakness.

Nnamdi Kanu proves my point! Calling Dr. Goodluck Jonathan weak is just a manifestation of what I wrote about.

Nnamdi Kanu needs to understand something about leadership.

But just like President Buhari has squandered whatever goodwill he had left by choosing to give his national Sallah message to Nigerians in a sectional language, so too has Nnamdi Kanu wasted away the considerable adulation he had outside Igboland by his Igbo supremacy tendencies.

I hope with Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB does not end up with a case of me and Ndi’Igbo against Nigeria, me and Abia State against Ndi’Igbo, me and Isiama Afara against Abia State and finally, me and my father’s house against Isiama Afara.

From what we are seeing, the omens are not encouraging at all!

Jonathan

Kanu

Leadership is a platform that gives you the opportunity to increase your influence or reduce it until it is eliminated.

Upon his release, public sympathy for him increased his influence.

The successful sit at home further increased it. However, his utterances since then have been steadily reducing his influence.

I know Chief Femi Fani-Kayode very well. He will soon hear the things Nnamdi Kanu said about the Yoruba. He has already heard about the things Nnamdi Kanu said about Jonathan. It will not be very long before Nnamdi Kanu loses one of his most valiant non-Igbo supporters. Apparently, what the Nigerian government couldn’t do to Nnamdi Kanu, Nnamdi Kanu is using his own mouth to do to himself!

Why does this keep reoccurring? Anytime I read or hear about Madiba Nelson Mandela, I have bitter-sweet memories. Why? Because we could have had our own Mandela in another Nnamdi!

Nnamdi Azikiwe was at one time known all over Africa as Zik of Africa. It was a thing of pride and joy to pre-independent Nigeria. Everyone was proud of Zik including Northerners. This is a fact.

But the story ended tragically. No matter what might have happened to him through his political choices and alliances, it was a very great disappointment that a man who reached the peak of his political career as Zik of Africa ended up allowing himself to be known as the Owelle of Onitsha, not even of Nigeria, or Igboland or even Anambra, but of Onitsha.

The new Nnamdi ought to learn from this tragedy. When he was released, believe it or not, he was hailed and celebrated far beyond the borders of Igboland.

On social media, every Wale, Dakolo and Nosa sang his praises.

He was Nnamdi Kanu, the hero of the oppressed. But the more he talked, the more the Wales had a rethink and shrunk away from him, leaving only the Dakolos and Nosas.

Then he talked some more and both the Dakolos and the Nosas felt unwelcome and beat a hasty retreat. Today, it is only Chukwuma and Ikechukwu that are singing his praises.

Nnamdi Kanu was created by President Muhammadu Buhari because before he was arrested, I had heard nothing about him.

Absolutely nothing.

But just like President Buhari has squandered whatever goodwill he had left by choosing to give his national Sallah message to Nigerians in a sectional language, so too has Nnamdi Kanu wasted away the considerable adulation he had outside Igboland by his Igbo supremacy tendencies.

I hope with Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB does not end up with a case of me and Ndi’Igbo against Nigeria, me and Abia State against Ndi’Igbo, me and Isiama Afara against Abia State and finally, me and my father’s house against Isiama Afara. From what we are seeing, the omens are not encouraging at all!

Shaka Momodu, an editor with THISDAY newspapers, taught me a lesson 26 years ago. We both had a mutual friend who turned out to be something of a nasty piece of work. When I discovered this, I quite naturally withdrew from this person and although almost all our other friends badmouthed this individual, Shaka would not.

One day, I asked Shaka why he refrained from talking down this man. Shaka’s response was telling and has stuck with me for decades

He said Reno, one day I had nowhere to sleep and ........allowed me sleep in his room for that day. I cannot find it in me to fight someone who accommodated me even if it was for just one day.

From that day till the day I die, and even when I am in God’s kingdom after death, I will respect Shaka Momodu for having such sterling principles. I can only wish that Nnamdi Kanu had such high principles.

Ndi’Igbo should remember the proverb: If you want to walk fast, walk alone.

But if you want to walk far, walk with friends.

And now let me address the issue of President Muhammadu Buhari’s unwise decision to address the nation in a sectional language.

In a country whose official language is English, President Muhammadu Buhari broadcasts his Sallah message in Hausa!

Would Trump (whose origin is German) address America in German?

So what about all those Nigerians who can’t speak Hausa?

Ideally, the President should have spoken in English first, then if he feels like it, he may also speak in Hausa.

The way he has now spoken only in Hausa makes it seem as if he is only concerned with those who gave him 97% of the votes while those who have him 5% can take a hike!

How would the rest of the country have felt if President Olusegun Obasanjo had released a Christmas broadcast to Nigerians in Yoruba, or if President Goodluck Jonathan has done so in Ogbia?

How can a NATIONAL leader address Nigerians in a SECTIONAL language? Nigeria has never had a leader as divisive as Buhari! There is no difference between President Buhari and Nnamdi Kanu.

President Buhari is the President of all Nigerians. He is not the President of only those who can speak Hausa! This is an outrage!

President Yar’adua also spoke to the BBC News by phone. He is Fulani, like President Buhari. Yet he spoke in English because he was President of all of us!

At this stage, permit time to digress and say something about a loss I suffered.

Eight years ago I cried as if I had lost my own brother. You gave me so much joy from my childhood to now. I thank God for giving the world the opportunity to benefit from your creative genius, Michael Jackson! You were the most consistently brilliant music star the world ever knew. Your dedication to your craft was matchless. You outshone Elvis, The Beatles, and even in death you continue to outshine contemporary stars. I love you Michael. Rest in the bosom of The Lord!

Reno’s Nuggets:

If you knew how quickly your boss will replace you if you die, you will pay more attention to your family rather than your job. How many burials have you been to? Do you ever see the dead man’s boss there? Yet most men slave away at their work and prioritise it over their family who will be the one to bury them, mourn over them and carry on their legacies. Remember, your company has its own name, but your children bear your own name forever. Be wise. You are replaceable at work. You are irreplaceable to your family. Don’t work for your salary. Work for your family #RenosNuggets.

25

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

Expression

MEDIAGAFFES by

Between ‘Onset’ and ‘Outset’

“L

ET’S not point fingers over the issue…..” (Classic 97.3 FM Newspaper Review and Analysis, 7-730 a.m., June 28, 2017) Fixed expression; point the finger “Like (As) I said earlier….” (Source: as above) “The seven bank chief executives currently being investigated by the EFCC for their alleged racketeering roles in the current pension fund scam have been placed under security watch to forestall them escaping outside the country.” A rewrite to save time and space: The seven bank chief executives being investigated by the EFCC for their alleged racketeering roles in the current pension fund scam have been placed under security watch to forestall their escape from the country. The copious blunders in the extract remind me of inflectional Middle English!

“Assailant, vigilante member die in gun duel” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, June 7) Get it right: vigilance member. Alternatively: Assailant, vigilante die in gun duel.

“INEC official arrested over ‘missing’ ballot papers” (THE NATION, June 7) Truth in defence of freedom: ‘arrest’ takes ‘for’—not ‘over’!

“Woman arrested with AK-47, 148 live ammunitions” (THISDAY, June 7) The last word in the extract is uncountable. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period is gone!

“This will remove the possibility of passing the bulk (buck)” (THE PUNCH, June 7) No

pedestrian English.

“The organized private sector took the bull by the horn recently….” For a better society: take the bull by the horns.

“Britain handed over the reigns of power to the politicians.” (THE GUARDIAN, June 7) Modern English: reins of government.

“One even wonders why government did not adopt that method from the onset (outset).” (Vanguard, June 7) “This is true given the restricted and guarded comments from those who have been priviledged to view the clips.” (Leadership, June 4) Spellings count: privileged.

“Government needs to put (get) its acts together and prosecute the kidnappers.”

(Vanguard, June 4) My own comment: get its act (not acts) together.

“Vigilante group accused of murder“ Get it right: vigilance group.

“Apart from all these, the debt recovery (a hyphen confirms class) level of the banks have not been any issue of interest to NDIC.” (THISDAY, June 7) Question CBN has to answer, debt recovery has (not have).

“It is believed in some quarters that the Nigerian Police has….” (THE NATION, June 2) Get it right: the Nigerian Police have.

The next five blunders are from Daily Trust of June 2: “And the leaders, being new on the saddle of political leadership (another comma) were.…” The challenges of good grammar: in the saddle.

“Efforts by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his group to remove Akintola from office was (were) fiercely resisted.” Why the discord?

“As a new democracy, there was (were)

bound to be problems.”

“In the course of the crisis, Awo and some of his lieutenants were arrested and charged for (with)….”

“The ethnic colouration of the coup led to a counter coup (a hyphen) in July 1966.”

Spell-check: coloration.

“Have the previous exercises impacted meaningfully on the lives (life) of the average Nigerian?”

“This could not have been possible if they had been outrightly liquidated.” (Source: as above) ‘Outrightly’ is a Nigerian creation! The right word ‘outright’ functions as an adverb and an adjective. Therefore, it does not require any inflexion. In other words: This could not have been possible if they had been liquidated outright. Even at that, ‘liquidation’ does not need any qualification because of its causative finality. So, if they had been liquidated.

‘Reopening’ abhors hyphenation. It is not automatic that any word with a prefix must go with a hyphen, except where there is a vowel replication. For instance: re-entry, but readmit, readjust, etcetera.

“Legislators, oil chiefs parley on industry enhancing issues” (DAILY SUN, June 2) Imagine the classical excellence a hyphen between ‘industry’ and ‘enhancing’ would have conferred on the headline.

“I said these are (were) beggars and I told my wife I better (I had better) get money ready for them.” (DAILY INDEPENDENT, June 2) “The remains of the Ovie, sources in the town revealed, was (were) later tied….”

“And just last Friday, it was reported that the police has (had) arrested the….” (THE

Ebere Wabara

ewabara@yahoo.com, 08055001948

GUARDIAN, June 2) “The meetings were about some developments alright....” (THE PUNCH, June 2) ‘Alright’ (non-standard) is unacceptable for ‘all right’ in formal settings.

“My suggestion, therefore, is that our National Assembly members should tow (toe) the line of reason.” (THE PUNCH, June 2) “This is because of the numerous restraints, both social and economical, which is (are) associated with the day to day (day-to-day) life of a convict.” ”…especially those public officers who remain suspect with regards (regard) to their qualifications and credibility to hold public offices.” (Nigerian Tribune, June 2) Alternatively, as regards their qualifications….

“The nation has (had) in the past pardoned and forgiven it’s (sic) past leaders and “Infact (In fact) every (all) loving parents....”

Alternatively, each loving parent “In the agricultural sector, the two countries can learn a lot from one another (each other).”

(Nigerian Tribune, June 3) “Such citizens had since been integrated back (reintegrated) into the system.” (Source: as above) “A recent summit in Kaduna on education in the northern states provided the appropriate forum to revisit, once again….” (THE PUNCH, June 2) ‘Revisit’ cannot co-function with ‘again’.

“Gone are the days when government can (could) go it alone.” (THE GUARDIAN, June 2)

INSIGHT

Lagos: More than Just a State (II) Tony Monye

Q

uite like the introductory anecdote of the ill-starred eagle, Lagos, at various intervals, views itself as a chicken when in fact it is supposed to be like the king of all feathery fellows. It’s the tale of my dear Lagos - a country that views itself more from the booth of a state.

It is a plain fact that looking through a particular mirror for some sustained period of time only increases the likelihood of suffering the fates allied with our views.

Beliefs and views enjoy cyclicality in association; and, he who doesn’t suffer belief in a specific view suffers great, only of it. I am a bit soaked in wonderment, bothering if Lagos does grasp this, especially given views’ extensive impact on plans, policies, vision and actions etc. Views define many spectacles and phenomena, shaping and strengthening them also. Oftentimes, the state lousily swings between contrasting philosophies and actions, resulting in unsteadiness in character and stirring up questions and fears, possibly about its intentions and path and, its assumed competitive amphitheatre. Lagos wavers between two poles, ‘enjoying’ and displaying duality in personality – between the short-winged, inelegant chicken and the broad-feathered imperial eagle. More often, the state exhibits manners more readily clasped in the world of the chickens but at other times, the Centre of Excellence (as Lagos is fittingly dubbed – hereafter as CoE) stunningly spreads its wings, presenting itself as the eagle, enamoured in its fullest glory.

As the short-winged unsophisticated fowl, Lagos seeks and straightforwardly finds un-alluring and disturbing comfort residing amongst ‘beautiful’ chickens.

The CoE cuddles the preference of being seen dancing, singing, playing and hobnobbing with so many states that are more or less like the chickens [in total (e) valuation], especially in the context of key economic metrics, potential etc and even in composition. Lagos still thinks Abeokuta, honks about like Asaba, Port Harcourt or even Yenagoa when

Ambode

in deed the CoE should quickly shift aside these much smaller but growing cities. Ill-advisedly, Lagos instinctively plays tone-deaf to the challenging and quixotic loud calls coming from capitals like London, Berlin, Paris and Tokyo etc.

Such backward-gazing, in defiance of the venerable accepted growth logics, creates a photo of Lagos attempting to smartly drive forward but strongly and cheekily staring at its rear-view mirror. Sadly and worryingly, Lagos is still to grasp that its unexplored night economy is theoretically larger than the day transactions of most of the states in the Nigerian federation. As the striking eagle, Lagos is incredibly huge.

Its economic and demographic figures are amazingly staggering and numbing and, without difficulty, provoking intense feeling of jealousy, within the country and from other parts of the continent. Under the torchlight of appraisal, none of the other states in Nigeria are like Lagos. Not even Kano, Rivers and Delta. Or Abuja. Lagos

compares beyond them all, for the state represents the country in its best miniature form. Continentally, the feeling still walks up the same alley. Nairobi daydreams Lagos; Accra hallucinates about Lagos, Kampala is delirious about Lagos and even Johannesburg arguably fantasizes about Lagos.

Obviously, Lagos is unique. The ebullience, the energy and the sparkle of living in Lagos are, perhaps, not found in any part of the globe. Most well-travelled Lagosians appreciate this and foreigners who have visited the state easily admitted it. Lagos is the dreamt destination of most non-Lagosian Nigerians and many West Africans, leading to the rapid, undisturbed growth in the city’s population, year in and year out. The CoE presents boundless opportunities to all and many, needing no special acumen to see. Viewed in the shape of a human, Lagos reveals and revels itself either in the form of a man that’s so close to his prime or she is that lass that’s about to bloom, with countless (most) eligible suitors waiting in the annexes.

As the awkward chicken, Lagos oftentimes invents, sustains and retains programmes that are so significantly of less value to its residents. For instance, the recently scrubbed environmental sanitation day was unbelievably with us for over three decades. With the threehours movement restriction in place every last Saturday of the month, the exercise abundantly succeeded in impoverishing the residents of the state. If we assume a hypothetical figure of 1million active adult men and women that were, against their will, forced to remain indoors for the duration of the exercise, it meant a loss of 3million man-hours. But you know the figure is by far much larger, don’t you? Not a problem. Let’s advance. And, if we further assume the returns of five Naira per hour (N5/hr), it meant that for each environmental sanitation exercise, readily unfilled opportunities for raking in N15million were lost. This figure has both tax and wealth implications. One wonders why the Thursday exercise for traders is still being sustained! Is it really about cleanliness in the market environment or who exactly does it reward?

Adjacent to wealth-making, cancellation of the Thursday exercise presents easy

prospect for job creation, as professional cleaning companies can be hired. And, yet, as an unpolished fowl, instead of quickly welcoming its anticipated more rewarding, megacity multi-culturalistic future, Lagos behaves like the rain-beaten mother-hen that attempts to shelter only but a few of her residents. Driven by its leaders, Lagos strives and thrives on pettiness, erecting structures and nourishing ideas that only help in splitting residents of the state, as indigenes (omo oniles) and non-indigenes possibly in tribute to its mono-ethnic past. Naturally, yours sincerely was less than amazed when a former Governor of the state, without shame, ‘deported’ some notional ‘illegal immigrants’ to their respective states of origin on some very frivolous charges.

One wonders if these ‘illegal immigrants’ ever sought for and got entry permissions in the form of visas around the statue of the Three Wise Men (Lagos Port of Entry)!

Besides, the various governments’ slogans have remained disappointingly and grossly tribal, in spite of the greater wisdom, which should disclose, and revel in more inclusiveness. The challenge isn’t because it’s tribal. No, it’s some goodish distance away. Slogans, generally, have their target audiences. Local slogans will appeal to only those with the understanding, thereby, neglecting the larger majority of residents.

No one is harping on ignoring Lagos’ tribal beginning or ethnic past but it’s more rewarding to nippily embrace the state as a growing cosmopolitan centre. Adopting multiculturalism as Lagos’ dominant paradigm (in dictating and shaping thoughts, policies, plans and visions) can only be for the good of the city in the shape of larger vision, broader plans and policies etc. A message only to the minority is certain to hurt the sensibilities of the majority whilst depriving itself of their patronage. The government should not be in some haste to forget that variety is not just about spicing life, it is un-debatably another source of growth - the growth of the state. In assessment, endlessly suffering the belief that Lagos is a tribal enclave circa bears very little berries.

––To be concluded next week.

–Tony Monye, Managing Partner Rham Durham Consulting Ltd

26

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JUly 1, 2017

auto Essential Skills with Stephen Dieseruvwe (Director General, Delta State Traffic Management Authority (DESTMA)

Approaching Junction toTurn Left

T

The new BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo

BMW 6 Series, Gran Turismo, Debuts Stories by Bennett Oghifo

T

he all-new BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo is the perfect amalgamation of everything that makes a BMW ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’. It will make its world premiere at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany in September.

The machine is distinct for its drive of a Saloon, the roofline of a Coupé and the space of a Touring, with its superior driving dynamics, exceptional interior comfort and cutting-edge technology.

The new BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo’s market launch will take place on November 11, 2017. Taking over from the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo, the all-new model in the 6 Series line-up is a major

step-upfromitspredecessor,havingvastlyimproved upon the combined characteristics that it was famed for: comfort, elegance and practicality.

A lighter car with added power...

Thanks to the use of aluminium in the chassis, high strength steel in the body and ultra-modern magnesium alloys in the engine, the new BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo has lost 115kg over the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. This forms part of BMW’s EfficientLightweight strategy to increase power yet reduce weight and fuel consumption.

The optional Executive Drive – offered in combination with Integral Active Steering – guarantees supreme cornering capability. The active anti-roll stabilisation compensates for the inclination of the vehicle during cornering to increase driving dynamics and provide greater agility.

Also helping to reduce fuel consumption is the

addition of the active rear spoiler, which extends automatically beyond speeds of 75mph. Drag is reduced, roadholding is optimised and lift on the rear axles is decreased. The rear spoiler then retracts once the speed returns to below 50mph.

A fresh perspective with added convenience...

Optionally available on SE models and as standard on M Sport models, the panoramic glass roof provides fascinating views for passengers and creates a much more open atmosphere in the interior.

The BMW IconAdaptive LED headlights with Selective Beam – BMW’s top specification headlights – are included as standard across the model line-up. The Selective Beam function of the hexagonal-shaped headlights cleverly monitors the presence of both vehicles in front and oncoming vehicles, and adjusts the high-beam lights to avoid dazzling other road users.

PAN Unveils Peugeot 301 Midlife Series

P

AN Nigeria Limited has unveiled Peugeot 301 Midlife, the latest generation of the Peugeot 301 sedan.

At the official unveiling at PAN drive at Kakuri Industrial Estate in Kaduna were customers, top government functionaries including representatives from Nigerian Customs Services, Nigerian Prisons, Peugeot dealers and other stakeholders.

The Managing Director of PAN Nigeria Limited, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi said the auto firm has recovered its customers and market share since announcement of the 301 series, saying it had improved from 6% in 2015 to 8% in 2016.

He gave the price of the new 301 as N5.6 million, saying it was the cheapest in its class, and that there are a large number of Nigerians who like a simple functional vehicle like 301.

Listing ground clearance, safety features, space, reliability and comfort as some of the unique advantages of Peugeot 301 Midlife, Boyi said “The new Peugeot 301 reinforces it’s qualities with new assets. The body is dressed in the latest stylistic codes of the brand. The vertical grille, body set spotlight and neat adjustments embody the sturdiness of the car. The luminous signatures, incorporating LEDs at the front are expressions of the technological content.”

Boyi said PAN wants to reconnect with the emotions and heritage of the brand that covers all age groups, saying it had strong emotional connection.

The Yerima Zazzau, Alhaji Munir Ja’Afaru said

L-R. Non-Executive Director, Board of PAN, Tajjudeen Ahmed; Chairman Board, PAN, Alh. Munir Ja’afaru; MD/CEO, PAN, Ibrahim Boyi; Executive Director, Finance, Alh. Jumat Alli-Oluwafuyi; and ASD, Shehu Sani Dauda, at the unveiling of Peugeot 301 Midlife... recently

the 301 is a fantastic vehicle, and urged Nigerians to patronize made-in-Nigeria vehicles.

Hon Nasiru Babale of the Federal House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Services, representing Tarauni Federal Constituency, Kano applauded PAN, saying that “the new Peugeot is a good one and that Nigerians should patronize the product.”

He, however, noted that the House had decided to buy Peugeot for their members for their over-

sight functions due to the unique attributes of the brand.

General Manager, Sales and Marketing Mr. Omagbitse Bawo said that the new car is loaded with sophisticated features.

According to the GM, the body is dressed in the latest stylistic codes of the brand, laced with striking vertical grille, body-set spotlights even as neat adjustments embody the sturdiness of the car.

Road Junctions his is when you are leaving a main road to turn into a side road, gateways, or other entrances on your left. When turning left, you will have to give priority to oncoming or approaching traffic and to pedestrians crossing the road you are turning into. You must not cross the path of oncoming or approaching traffic if doing so will cause the vehicles to change speed or direction..

In approaching junction to turn left, use the MSPSL or hazard routine as follows: Mirrors – After identifying the road you want to turn into, the first thing to do is to check your mirrors. Check the interior and left door mirrors (in that order). The interior mirror gives you a picture of what is happening well behind, whilst the right door mirror will tell you whether there is any immediate problem close behind and to the left. You are doing this to make sure that it is safe to slow down and turn.

Signal – After checking your mirrors and you have ascertained that it is safe to turn, give a left indicator signal. Signal in good time, but not too early, so you do not mislead or confuse other road users. You are signalling for other road users to recognise your intentions.

Remember that you will be affecting people more due to needing to change position before turning and you may need to stop.

Position –After signalling, move into position.

For left turn, steer to take up a position just to the right of the centre line, to leave room for following traffic to overtake on your right.

Speed – Once in position to turn, you will need to adjust your speed and when travelling slowlyenough,selectthegearmostappropriate for the speed you are travelling.

Look – Finally, make sure it is safe to turn.

Move up to the point of turn and look into the new road to assess how clear the junction is, and look out for parked vehicles or pedestrians who could be crossing the road, to decide whether it is safe or not to proceed. The point at which you should start to steer is called the ‘point of turn’ and can be judged by the front of your vehicle being approximately level with the centerline of the road you are joining. Avoid cutting the corner by turning too soon, as this could endanger you and others by putting yourselfintothepathofanapproachingvehicle.

To help you to decide whether or not to make the turn, you can draw on your experience as a pedestrian. If you could safely cross the road in front of the approaching car on foot, then there will be enough time to drive across. If you find that you have to wait for oncoming traffic before turning into a side road on the left, stop just before the point of turn and select first gear, ready to move. If you have to wait for a while, apply your handbrake. At this point, you are looking for a safe gap in the oncoming traffic stream and prepare the car to move as the safe gap approaches to commence the turn After turning, make sure that your signal is cancelled and check your mirrors again to check the new situation behind you before increasing speed and making progress. You need to ensure that no one is trying to overtake.

In next week’s article we shall be discussing emerging at T-junctions, that is, turning from a minor road to a major road using the Mirror, Signal, Position, Speed and Look routine (M-S-P-S-L routine). For further explanations or clarification on the articles in the Essential Skills of Driving column, consult the author.

Stephen K. Dieseruvwe

Director General, Delta State Traffic Management Authority (DESTMA) **Driver Trainer and Road Safety Consultant **Email: sdieseruvwe@gmail.com **Tel: +2348167814928

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JUly 1, 2017

27

auto Kia CEO Advises NADDC Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

T

Brand new 2018 Mercedes Benz E class coupe

2018 Mercedes‑Benz E‑Class Coupe Packs Modern Technology Stories by Bennett Oghifo

W

ith its 2017 sedan and wagon models, the E-Class family raised the benchmark for automotive intelligence. Now, up-to-the-minute intelligence meets a newfound sportiness with the all-new 2018 E-Class Coupe, available in both E400 and E400 4MATIC versions.

Using the sedan as a point of departure, the coupe

pares back E-Class design to its elements, with reduced lines and sensual forms emphasizing performance and luxury above all else. From its low grille and seductively long hood to its muscular rear and smoldering tail lamps, the E-Class promises a nimble and sporty drive.

Fulfilling that promise is a powerful 3.0 V6 biturbo engine, capable of 329 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque*.A 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission allows for rapid shifting at lower engine speeds.A lowered suspension with selective damping adds to a sense of pure comfort in handling every curve.

Within, the E-Class Coupe signals its sporty take on intelligent driving, with a 12.3-inch highresolution COMAND display, turbine-inspired air vents, and Touch Control Buttons. In addition, the vehicle has a significantly larger footprint than its predecessor, creating greater space and comfort — and an unmistakable sense that we have entered new territory altogether.

The all-new 2018 E-Class Coupe will be available in abundant configurations in summer 2017.

Catch its World Premiere at the North American International Auto Show in January.

he Managing Director of KIA Motors Nigeria, Jacky Hathiramani, has joined in commending the appointment of Mr. Aliyu Jelani as the new DirectorGeneralofNationalAutomotiveDesign and Development Council (NADDC).

Hathiramani lauded the federal government “for bringing in experts with track record of excellent contributions to the automobile design and manufacturing in the world to strengthen the policy framework that will institutionalise local production of automobiles in Nigeria.”

According to Jacky, “The outstanding resume of Mr. Jelani points to the fact that the federal government is committed towards the development of automotive manufacturing in Nigeria.

With Mr. Jelani’s international experience, we are confident that he will charge the council to fully realise its objectives of providing a policy framework that will set the industry on the path of development and help it contribute its quota towards the industrialisation of Nigeria economy as evident in other economies.”

Stakeholders have, however, charged the new DG to take a critical look at the present state of the industry, and advised him to build on the gains of the auto policy, as well as take its implementation as a priority.

Hathiramani said, “The auto policy has reeled in some appreciable gains, bringing to the fore local production of automobiles in the country, as many a new car sold in Nigeria today are locally assembled. Consequently, we need to further strengthen the policy by reviewing it to meet the current realities and position the locally produced cars as one of Nigeria’s best export to sub-Saharan Africa. ”

MG Enthusiasts Show Collection at Carnival

E

veryyear,MGenthusiastsgatherinSilverstone to show their collection. This year at the arena, from 17th to 18th June, MG Live! passionately presented a carnival of MG enthusiasts. MG Live!– arguably the biggest car event both in UK and in the world. It is no exaggeration to say that it is evenly matched with Goodwood Revival.

You will find MGs of all ages by categories. When you go to the showcase of various MG collections, you will see the peerless classics of MG vintage cars.

MG fans in MG Live! are enthusiasts of various ages and from various countries. They communicate with other MG fans, they chat with other die-hard fans who understand MG culture, and they compete with other MG owners who also have amazing

driving skills. Because they are all-MG enthusiasts.

MGCC is one of the largest single brand car clubs in the world. MG fans have a collection of various MG vintage cars since the foundation of MG. Celebrities are deeply fond of MG. Some of the MG enthusiasts even do not hesitate to sell their other car brands only to set aside more budgets to maintain their MG car.

When the racers are with unique skill, when the engine roars, when the race cars are racing at high speeds in the track, it brings not only the cheers of the audience, but also the best interpretation of MG car culture. Agray-haired grandpa- the MG driver who drove the MG car just like “sliding over the water”, demonstrated to the world what a superb driving skills MG owners possess and showcase what the MG cars can achieve.

MG enthusiast display collection in Silverstone

Is Phoning Behind The Wheels Insanity?

T

he use of phone while driving is one of the traffic infractions listed by the Federal Road Safety Corps formental/psychologicalevaluation expected to have commenced July 1, 2017.Our traffic lexicon defines phoning behind the wheels as driving or riding a vehicle while making use of phone even at traffic hold up. This also applies to use of hands free devices. This infraction carries five penalty points and a fine of N4, 000.

I promised to run through these infractions weekly looking at their implications and that is why I have chosen to run this piece I wrote almost three years ago even before the present Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, took over the mantle of leadership as the pilot of the Corps.

I trust it will make a good reading - I know that driving behind the wheels is insanity. I think it is madness. I don’t know what you think but I maintain that it is pure madness to step on the wheels and accelerate above the approve speed limit like a good number do. It is even madder, if you will allow the use, to indulge on excessive speeding, dialing, texting, browsing and pinging among some other vices, maiming, killing and injuring innocent souls. These driving traits are mostlyresponsibleforourroadtrafficcrashprofile.

I know some readers would dismiss my view as unfounded. I know I, not a psychiatrist.

Some would even ask me for scientific proofs

Safe driving with

Jonas Agwu

amnipr, mcipr,mprsa,arpa (Corps Commander) Corps Public Education Officer Federal Road Safety Corps. + 2348033026491

to conclude that motorists who drive and phone are insane or mad as if that would change their irresponsible driving. For such people, they can rest on the findings of the Transport Laboratories in the United Kingdom, which says that a man phoning behind the wheels is worse than one who has taken alcohol above the approve limit. I just hope that my former boss, Osita Chidoka, the immediate past Corps Marshal of the FRSC and Minister of the Aviation Ministry, still shares my take, I recall sometime in 2007 just shortly after his firstappointment,whenIapproachedhimtosound him out on my plans to compel some motorists to psychiatrist test at the National Hospital here in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory to check the increasing cases of distracted driving in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as Sector Commander, FCT. That encounter remains ever fresh in my memory as it afforded me an opportunity to know my new boss well. In his usual mein, when I

approached on the subject, to get his buy in on the need for this novel strategy, he merely buried his head in the files on his table. Since time was of the essence, I fired straight like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez would for Arsenal my favorite team in the UK Premiership League, saying that I believe strongly that people who commit such insanity are insane. My joy knew no bounds when he replied in his usual style of listening and not talking that he shares my views.Aweek later when I went to him for confirmation, I was still overwhelmed when he quietly said, please Jonas, go on and do what you plan to as I still share your views.

Thatsingulardiscussionledtotheover316motorists in the FCT who were arrested and compelled to go for psychiatric test or evaluation at the National Hospital,Abuja.Ofthatnumber,16werefoundtobe mentallyunstable;meaningsomethingthatneeded some further testing was missing. Even though further test or review done three weeks after found them clean, it did not and has not changed my views on these set of motorists. And if we allow the wisdom of defensive driving to guide us in this discussion, it simply sums up that every motorist on the road is mad and that your safety should depend on you and not on the madman. Merriam –Webster defines madness as behavior or thinking that is very foolish or dangerous; a state of severe mental illness. Wikipedia says insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal metal or behavioral patterns.

Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person becoming a danger to themselves or others, though not all acts are considered insanity; likewise, not all acts showing indifference towards societal norms are acts of insanity. Madness, according to the Cambridge dictionary is stupid or dangerous behavior. Like my learned colleagues would say, I put it to you that phoning behind the wheels is mad, it is stupid and it is dangerous. -,it then follows that we must always guard against such drivers for our own safely. What is texting while driving? According to WIKIPEDIA, texting while driving is the act of composing, sending reading texting massages, and email or making other similar use of web on the mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle.

This act is dangerous and has caused fatal crashes globally, the act has outlawed in some part of the world or restricted. In the United Kingdom, the use of a hand-held mobile or similar the device while driving or supervising a leaner is illegal. This include when stop at traffic light the only expecting are emergency calls testing while driving has been out been Lawed in good number of state in the Unite State such as Arisoma, Alaska, Alaeama, Arkansas,California,Colorado,Georgia,Louisiana and Maryland, among others the state of Texas prohibit school bus drivers from testing while transporting a child under 17 years on October 2009 the United state department of transportation announce president Barak Obama signing of an executive order directing federal employee not to engagedintextmassagewhiledrivinggovernment owned vehicle.

28

T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

GLOBAL SOCCER

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JUNE 16, 2011

A

weekly pull-out

Kenneth Ezaga Dreaming Big for Tennis

CHile, Germany Go for broke

01.07.2017

Page. 29

30

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • july 1, 2017

GLOBAL SOCCER Former Nigeria Tennis Federation, President Chuka Momah, TMCL CEO, Kenneth Ezaga, TMCL Chairman, Anire Kanyi

Dreaming Big for Tennis If the Tennis Management Company Limited lives up to its word, Nigerian tennis players can dream of earning millions of naira competing at home. That sort of prize money is unheard of in local individual sports, but Kenneth Ezaga CEO of TMCL, the company that recently launched the Nigerian Tennis Majors, notes that a rich purse is fundamental to achieving the success that has so far eluded local sports. A marketing professional with a long-time strategic interest in sports, Ezaga believes the majors would be a game changer, in sports investments. Kunle Adewale, examines the picture of the majors painted by Ezaga

K

enneth Ezaga's passion for sports and sport development has never been in doubt. In his attempt to take tennis to an unprecedented level, his pet project - Tennis Management Company Limited, launched the Nigeria Tennis Majors, an avenue for ensuring Nigeria's tennis players could boast of a package that would take them above poverty level and make the game a tourism value.

Asked what the Nigerian Tennis Majors is all about, Ezaga said, “Simply put, it is four major local tournaments in four cities around Nigeria every year. For now we have identified Lagos and Abuja as two host cities, while two

other cities will be decided by soft bids. Any city interested in hosting any of the other two majors must come up with plans to provide decent facilities and security, as well as tourism value.”

In spite of Nigeria already boasting of a lot of tennis tournaments, Ezaga believes there is the room to accommodate many more.

“Sportsmen will tell you that regular high-level competition is essential for constant improvement, but we think the number of top local tournaments is few. Even worse is that prize monies are way too low to support the players, and certainly too insignificant to capture public imagination. We want to change that by providing a platform for regular high-stakes, highpaying competition.

“Also new is that we will be packaging the tournaments for export. Given that much of sports success is driven by television rights, we want to reach the rest of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora with top quality TV content. Nigerians in the Diaspora are in the millions and well off enough to represent a significant opportunity for TV revenue. Think about it, in 2016 they remitted $21 billion to this country. Add Diaspora Africans and do the mathematics.”

On whether the Nigerian economy can support this, he reacted thus: “Nigeria is probably the only country in Africa with the dynamics to pull off a massive project like this. It is however important to note that, properly executed, the money to run these majors would ultimately

31

july 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

GLOBAL SOCCER

Mary Love...can earn as much as 10 million naira playing in Nigeria

come from overseas. We’re the most populous country in Africa. We have significant economic potential and we’ve got rich sports history.

We also have huge entertainment pedigree in Africa - If it succeeds in Nigeria, it is wanted by much of Africa. How about our vast land area and stunning natural beauty, which means we can host several majors in exciting places across the country.”

Ezaga indeed accepted the fact that the country may not boast of world-class facilities, but with some upgrade, the facilities already in existence should serve in the shortterm.

“Over the next few years, we are optimistic that interested states will see the economic value in building bigger and better arenas. Every tournament will focus attention on their states from around the world.

Beyond that is the boost to local business, with thousands of visitors checking into local hotels, patronising local transportation, bars, restaurants, traders, buying artifacts

and so much more.”

He is however of the opinion that the majors will give more to Nigeria than it will take from it.

“Without a doubt, we’re talking about the creation of thousands of new direct and ancillary jobs across the country. Wimbledon, the least employing of the global slams, for instance, employs over 6,000 people.

We also have a big and beautiful country, let’s show it to the world and attract international interest, sponsorship, and investments. Our champions will be obligated to promote all that’s beautiful about Nigeria, especially our many wonderful tourism destinations.

Socio-culturally, the stars will offer a healthy new way to unity, hard work, fair competition, merit, compassion and wealth for our young.”

He also has a strong conviction that since sports was huge entertainment; it should be competing with music, movies, and comedy for the minds of consumers. “We won’t stand a chance without stars that can go toe to toe with the likes of Whizkid, Basketmouth and Tiwa Savage. While fans love sports, it is the stars they follow. If you don’t have stars, you cannot have a sports business. Rewarding our champions highly is as much a reward for their efforts and career development as it is a business strategy to get fans and sponsors. An entire economy is created around that prize money.

“The stars can live in highbrow areas, date movie and music stars and generally live well. So they attract fans and constant media attention. They are on red carpets and wherever they go talk is about them and the majors. Financial comfort also means they can afford to focus on their training in the type of tennis resorts that presently don’t exist in Nigeria, and this opens up a whole new kind of business in sports hospitality. They can then hire top coaches, nutritionists, physiothera-

Good time awaits Nigeria's tennis players

pists, psychologists and lawyers. In addition, different sectors of society begin to invest around this development.

“Parents will increase investments in the children’s tennis careers; secondary and tertiary schools will invest in tennis courts and facilities not to miss out on tennis-passionate students, while at grassroots level people will organise themselves to raise their own talents as they aim for the prizes in the majors knowing their wards can now lead wealthy and fulfilling lives playing tennis in Nigeria. Some Nigerians abroad may even relocate to the country to play in the majors.”

On how much the organisers are looking at in terms of prize money, Ezaga stated that at least there would be N10 million in champion’s purse per major. “Don’t forget that winning the majors will inevitably attract brand endorsement deals, so if a player wins the grand slam in a given year, say all four opens, and gets a major brand endorsement, we are probably talking of well over N100 million in earnings in a year.

I would advise any tennis player to start training like hell.

“On our board are tested professionals. We are also forging key partnerships ahead of the maiden tournament – the Abuja Open - in May next year. We are currently talking with the Nigerian Tennis Federation, NTF, and major tennis clubs. The NTF under outgoing President Sani Ndanusa was extremely supportive, while the incoming president, Dayo Akindoju, is open to constructive talks," he noted.

The CEO of TMCL however urged the media to propagate it to the tennis world that the Nigerians were coming. “It is our goal to have five Nigerians in the ATP Top 100 in 20 years, and to tell you how difficult that is, there is none in the ATP Top 1000 presently,” he said

Without a doubt, we’re talking about the creation of thousands of new direct and ancillary jobs across the country. Wimbledon, the least employing of the global slams, for instance, employs over 6,000 people. We also have a big and beautiful country, let’s show it to the world and attract international interest, G LO B A L SOCCER Assistant editor kunle adewale Wahab Akintunde Thisday on Saturday Editor Shaka Momodu Deputy Editor yemi adebowale Thisday Newspapers Editor-in-Chief/Chairman Nduka Obaigbena Managing Director Eniola Bello Deputy Managing Director Kayode Komolafe

32

july 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

GLOBAL SOCCER

Chile's Alexis Sanchez tries to waltze his way past the Germans

Chile, Germany Seek First Confederations Cup Win Regardless of what happens in the FIFA Confederation Cup 2017 final in St. Petersburg on Sunday, one thing is sure-. a new name on the trophy. After Brazil, France, Argentina, Mexico and Denmark, there will be a new name on the trophy, as both Germany and Chile are in the final of this tournament for the first time

M

eanwhile, Joachim Loew hailed Germany's "brilliant" 4-1 win over Mexico in the Confederations Cup semifinal and said his youthful squad are ambitious enough to beat Chile in the final.

Loew opted not to bring his World Cup winning stars to the Confederations Cup, but Germany's young guns booked their place in Sunday's final in St Petersburg after a devastating opening spell in Sochi.

"From the beginning, we did exactly what we set out to do -- we were very dominant and brilliant in the opening stages," said Germany's head coach Loew.

"They pushed us back a bit in the second phase of the first half, which was to be expected, and we gave up a lot of ball. All in all, 4-1 is a great result. We wanted to go far, but this is nothing that we could have expected at the start of the tournament."

After Germany drew 1-1 with Chile in the group stages last Thursday, Loew says his team is hungry enough to beat the Copa America champions in the final.

"Chile is the most powerful opponent in this tournament, we know them pretty well and we expect them to go for it in the final. They will be trying flat out to pull it off, as they are coming to the end of their season, and we will have to try and counter that," said Loew.

"A lot of work has gone into our wins.

We couldn’t pre-empt this (reaching the final) as some players had little experience and you couldn’t calculate how they'd react. We’ve become a team over the last

few weeks. There's fun in the dressing room, but they aren’t over the top. They know there is work ahead and they are ambitious enough to beat Chile."

Goretzka and Werner are now the tournament's joint top-scorers with three goals each.

After scoring twice in Sochi, Goretzka says the Germans have a score to settle against Chile.

"I was really happy to help the team with the two goals, our single-minded goal was to reach the final so we’re delighted," said Goretzka.

"There is only one match to go. We’re looking forward to playing Chile again, because in the second half (of the group stage match) we had the feeling the draw was not enough.

"Now we have another chance against this top flight team.

"In the first few minutes, we didn’t do so well against Chile, so (against Mexico) we really wanted to get down to brass tacks and the two quick goals really calmed the team. We now need to reward ourselves for our hard work and we want to get the title."

The Mexicans play Portugal in Sunday's third-place play-off in Moscow.

Players to look out for: Leon Goretzka – Germany The 22-year-old Schalke central midfielder was die Mannschaft’s shining light on Monday night versus Australia.

Omnipresent throughout the fixture, he had the composure to draw in a challenge,

leading to a penalty, late on in the first half.

Goretzka then smashed an unstoppable shot past Maty Ryan to earn him his first senior goal for the national side four minutes into the second half. Having only played competitively on two prior occasions for Löw, both versus San Marino, his display against Australia should have cemented him a guaranteed start against Chile. Playing 41 times for Schalke last season, both domestically and in the Europa League, the central midfielder scored eight times, assisting six—a good return in an overwhelmingly disappointing season for the Royal Blues. His hold up play and defensive contributions allow him to play centrally or as a defensive midfielder.

However, with an ability to cut inside and link up well with those around him, he can be relied upon to play further up the field and build the attack.

Arturo Vidal – Chile Vidal will be all too familiar to his German opponents on Thursday night; the Bayern München midfielder is well versed in winning competitions, carrying a significant threat to any side he faces.

Scoring La Roja’s opening goal on Sunday, Vidal rose to head home from six yards following a cross by Alexis Sanchez — a powerful header typifying the strength he carries on the pitch. Vidal has the tag as one of the best midfielders in the world for a very good reason—his all-round game is almost perfect. Short or long range passing brings little concern, his ability to hold up the ball, or drive and strike the finish,

allows the 30-year-old to play centrally, defensively or as the attacking midfielder.

The only Achilles heel to his game is his tendency to be caught up in a ‘hotheaded moment’. With this game coming in the group stages, and not having the pressure of knock out football, there should be no reason for Vidal to be caught up in any descending red mist. His experience at the very highest levels of competitive football brings a danger that could undo a young German midfield.

Past Winners

Year Winner 1997 - Brazil 1999 - Mexico 2001 - France 2003 - France 2005 - Brazil 2009 - Brazil 2013 - Brazil 2017

-

???

Match Stats

Germany have a perfect competitive fixture record against Chile – P3 W3 Overall the teams have faced each other seven times – GER W5, CHI W2 Both teams won their opening games in this years’ Confederations Cup They last faced off in a friendly fixture in 2014 – GER winning 1:0 in Stuttgart This will be the first-time Chile coach Juan Antonio Pizzi has faced Germany as a head coach.

33

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • july 1, 2017

GLOBAL SOCCER\\OTHER SPORTS

Ding-dong affair during the GTBank Masters Cup Final between St. Finbarr's College, Akoka and Anwar-UI-Islam College, Agege at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos...recently

From left, Assistant Director of FIRS in Ogun State, Mr. Kolawole Olalekan who represented the FIRS Chairman at the presentation of the Match Day 22 VAT Wonder Goal award to Remo Stars Salefu Ochowechi in Shagamu, right is LMC Head of Special Projects, Harry Iwuala

Pacquiao Keeps Low Profile Ahead of Horn Showdown Manny Pacquiao kept a low profile, apparently at the insistence of local police, leaving opponent Jeff Horn to entertain a bigger crowd at his downtown practice session than he's attracted for previous fights.

Pacquiao, the 11-time world champion, is putting his WBO welterweight world title belt on the line on Sunday at Suncorp Stadium, where he's a hot favorite to register his 60th professional win.

On a previous visit to promote the "Battle of Brisbane," Pacquiao was mobbed by adoring fans in an unexpected rush at an impromptu public appearance.

So local organizers said they took advice from Queensland state police to give the senator from the Philippines time off from promotional activities Thursday while Horn appeared for a light practice session in a makeshift ring near the Queens Street Mall, reveling in the attention of hundreds of spectators enjoying a sunny lunch break.

"For safety purposes, Manny won't be here today," Duco Events director Dean Lonergan said. "We took that on advice from Queensland police."

Pacquiao's camp got his point across to local fans on Wednesday, anyway, when his legendary long-time trainer Freddie Roach predicted the fight would be "short and sweet" and that somebody would get knocked out.

Pacquiao (59-6-2) had the last of his 38 knockout wins in 2009, but he said he's been working harder in preparation for this fight than he has in years. He has knocked down sparring partners, Roach said, and had to be forced to stop in some sessions because he was working too much.

Horn's promotors have accused Pacquiao's backers of not taking the fight seriously enough, accusing the 38-year-old Filipino of already talking about a potential rematch with Floyd Mayweather and of being disrespectful during a news conference by texting on his cell phone.

But Pacquiao is used to the pre-match games, and says he likes nothing better than to take on an opponent on their home soil and in front of a big crowd.

They'll have that for the afternoon, outdoor fight. Lonergan said more than 47,000 tickets had already been sold — already almost 10,000 more than the Australian record for boxing — and they were on track to top 50,000. The fight is also tracking to sell more pay per views than any other in the Australian market, and the live ESPN broadcast could reach an estimated 95 million U.S. homes on Saturday night.

The odds-makers aren't giving Horn, a 29-year-old former schoolteacher who is unbeaten in 17 professional fights, much of a chance against a seasoned, eight-division world champion.

But in and around his public skipping and shadow boxing sessions, Horn said he was bigger (he still needs to shed 3 kilograms to — 6.6 pounds — make the weight), younger and had what it takes to beat Pacquiao.

Since losing the megafight to Mayweather in April 2015, Pacquiao has rebounded to beat highly rated Tim Bradley and — after briefly flirting with retirement — Jessie Vargas.

Horn said he moves better than Vargas and will be a tougher option for Pacquiao.

"I haven't pictured what punch ... is going to happen," Horn said. "All I've pictured for myself is my hand raised and that belt around my waist.

"I'm not going to say I'm going to knock him out, but I can win this."

Horn has had 10 wins over top 15 world-rated opponents and his 16-0-1 record includes 11 knockouts. But none of those rivals have been anywhere close to Pacquiao's caliber.

Still, when asked if he had the punch to knock out Pacquiao, Horn didn't miss a beat.

"Definitely," he said. "If I can land the right shot on Manny Pacquiao.

He will go to sleep.

"I don't say that disrespectfully as in 'I'm definitely going to knock Manny Pacquioa out.' But if I land that shot, he's going to go down.

Joshua, Klitschko Agree on Las Vegas for Rematch Promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that Las Vegas has become the "frontrunner" to stage Anthony Joshua's proposed rematch with Wladimir Klitschko.

Joshua is expected to face Klitschko again after his thrilling stoppage victory at Wembley in April, and is waiting for a final decision from the Ukrainian about their planned second fight, which is likely to take place in November.

Promoter Hearn held recent negotiations with Klitschko's manager Bernd Boente and believes the 41-year-old could be tempted by a world title fight in Las Vegas.

"I have been in talks with Bernd Boente and the team," Hearn told Sky Sports News HQ. "We're getting close now to identifying the real options in terms of

venues and locations.

"Vegas has taken a little bit of a frontrunner in those. I know the British fans would love to do a trip out there for Joshua-Klitschko.

"Nigeria is still in the mix, Dubai as well, and of course Cardiff. But like I said, Vegas has probably got its nose in front at the moment.

"I think in the next week, we're looking to present all those opportunities to Wladimir Klitschko and his team. Speaking to Bernd Boente this morning, I feel like it's going to take that special event to make this fight."

Hearn hopes a final decision will be made in the next fortnight about the venue for the fight.

"I would like to keep it in Britain," said Hearn. "The fans have been incredible to Anthony Joshua, but if it means travelling to make sure this fight happens for world boxing, and it means taking a few plane loads to Las Vegas for a night and an experience they won't forget.

"Anthony Joshua is the world heavyweight champion, he's not the British heavyweight champion. He wants to break boundaries and so do we.

"To see Anthony Joshua's name up in lights on the Las Vegas strip is certainly something that appeals to us all.

"Yes, I would say the next couple of weeks, we'll be looking to make a decision in terms of the venue and location."

Peller Unity Cup Berths in Oyo State As part of activities marking the 20 years remembrance of the late Moshood Abiola Peller, a football competition, tagged-Peller Unity Cup will berth among clubs in OkeOgun area of Oyo State.

The competition which is aim at discovering talents among the youth in the region is scheduled for July 18 to August 3 at the Iseyin District Grammar School, Iseyin, Oyo state.

Speaking at a press conference, held at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Ibadan, the sponsor of the tournament, Shina Peller of

Aquila Group said about 300 will compete for the trophy where the winner will represent the region at the proposed Oyo State league.

The competition will played across 10 local government axis of Oke-Ogun and will involve 300 players.

He said, "this is the maiden edition of the Peller football Unity Cup among our youths in Oke-Ogun area, my passion is for football and that is why we choose football ahead of other sports.

The winner will go home with N500,000,

the second and third position will share N450,000 while both MVP and top scorers will share N100,000.

Meanwhile, Oyo state commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Yomi Oke applauded the conviction of the sponsor to give back to his community.

He said, "Sports is no longer business of government alone but we need individuals to promote the game of sports. What Peller is doing today would go a long way in the mind of our youth.”

Oyo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Yomi Oke and son of late Professor Peller, Mr. Shina Peller join in the display of Jerseys for teams during the press conference of Peller Unity Cup

Murray Feeling Good Ahead of Wimbledon Britain's Andy Murray said he was feeling "good" after practising three times on Friday as he recovers from a hip injury which saw him pull out of his final Wimbledon warm-up match.

Murray, 30, pulled out of an exhibition match in London on Friday, three days before he begins his Wimbledon defence.

BBC Sport's David Ornstein said Murray "grimaced" at times during practice but was "comfortable" in his final session.

Ivan Lendl, the world number one's coach, said: "Practice has gone well."

A two-time Wimbledon champion, Murray will face Kazakhstan's world number 134 Alexander Bublik on Centre Court on Monday.

It will be only the Scot's second competitive match on grass this summer as he lost in the first round of the Aegon Championships.

Prior to Friday, Murray had not been able to practice since Tuesday.

BBC Sport's David Ornstein said: "The decision to practise three times in a day this close to a tournament is unusual.

"At about 9:30, Lendl told us that Murray was 'doing great', and after 10 the defending champion began hitting with Belgium's Steve Darcis on the Aorangi Park practice courts.

"The pair then moved over match court nine, in full view of the media and groundstaff. Murray looked reasonably comfortable as he and Darcis exchanged groundstrokes, but in between he limped heavily, bent over and grimaced.

"The world number one then took part in some volleying and serving drills, appearing to reach close to full intensity. He continued to move gingerly and grimace, but he did not hold back.

"Between serves he was seen joking and smiling with Lendl, who also spent a period in deep conversation with Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis. Murray left without taking any questions from the written or broadcast media.

"He then hit with 17-year-old Scottish junior Aidan McHugh and looked fairly comfortable and relaxed, with his team looking relaxed too."

Finbarr's, Queens College Win GTBank Masters Cup St. Finbarr’s College, Akoka, on Thursday at the Onikan Stadium defeated, Anwar-Ul-Islam College, Agege by two goals to one in the final of the Masters Cup. Two first half strikes from Augustin Ikechukwu and Tijani Rafiu were enough to see St. Finbarr's through, while a late second half goal from Sodiq Giwa via the penalty spot ensured the game finished on a tensed note but could not help the Agege side avoid defeat.

In the female category played earlier, Queens College, Yaba defended the trophy with an emphatic 2-0 win against Ansar-Ud-Deen Girls High School, Itire.

Chioma Mblonwu scored twice to help the Yaba side retain the GTBank Masters Cup in an exciting encounter.

34

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • JULY 1, 2017

INSIGHT

Edo’s ‘Wake and See’ Governor Marks Birthday Today Crusoe Osagie

S

ince Governor Godwin Obaseki kicked-off the implementation of his governance blueprint in Edo State, indigenes are faced with an intriguing uncertainty of what they are going to wake up to every morning when dusk turns to dawn.

Today, you drive through Edebiri Street and have to wade through two huge craters on that road just before emerging at Joromi Street,

by Garrick Memorial Secondary School, on the way to Idumwun Ogieka area. But the next day, you are rushing out of your house to get on with your activities of the day and you set out on the same route but behold, two huge earth-moving equipment are on the site to cordon off the same Edebiri Street on which the only impediment to movement the previous day were the failed portions of the road.

Miffed by the seeming interruption of your journey, you get down from your vehicle to see the cause of the obstruction, it is Obaseki again, his road builders have completely cleaned up the dilapidated portions of Edebiri you had struggled with the day before, fixed it and cordoned it off with construction equipment stamped with reflective signs saying: ‘road temporarily closed’, awaiting the remediation materials to dry up, so that the road will be ready for public use again.

This real scenario painted about Edebiri Street is only a mirror image of numerous other infrastructure rehabilitation and construction work going on through out the state.

Go to Ben Oni Street, Gappiona, Second Ugbor, Ikokpan, Lucky Way, Oba Market Road; Agbonma Street, Goodwill Street, Erediauwa Street, Asabor Avenue, Ogbeifun Street, and several others, the story of reconstruction and repair of infrastructure is the same.

Like is the case with the average Nigerian, we are quick to find a fitting name to portray the characteristics exhibited by people around us. For Obaseki, the ordinary man in the state has fondly named him the ‘Wake and See’ Governor. In other words, when you go to bed each night, you are certain to wake up to one new development initiative or the other being implemented the next day.

The list of these initiatives to which the Edo people have daily woken up to is endless. One, worthy of mention is the Clean Up Edo project which has left Ring Road, the centre of the city in the sanest state that it has ever been in the last three decades.

To achieve this sanity in the city centre, illegal structures standing in unauthorised positions and impeding the smooth movement of people and vehicles have been brought down, in some cases overnight, in the same manner that has resulted in the appellation of ‘Wake and See’ governor which is the way Edo people now fondly refer to their beloved governor.

Land-grabbing is History

Land grabbing and violent tussle over land which had unfortunately become part of life in Edo State, resulting in serious oppression, harassment, killings and depriva-

The states that may not survive without the Federation Account due to poor internal revenue generation according to the report include Borno which realised a meagre N2.6bn compared to a total of N73.8bn it received from the FAA in 2016 representing about 4 per cent. Others are: Ebonyi with IGR of N2.3bn compared to FAA of N46.6bn representing 5 per cent; Kebbi N3.1bn compared to FAA of N60.88bn representing 5.14 per cent; Jigawa with N3.5bn compared to N68.52bn of FAA representing 5.15 per cent andYobe with IGR of N3.24nn compared to N53.93bn of FAA representing 6.0 per cent within the period under review

Obaseki

tion of rights to develop landed properties that were legally acquired have been banished by Obaseki through the Community Development Association (CDA) law which is being vehemently enforced by a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, through the Private Property Protection Law also introduced by the governor.

Eyes on Sustainable Power Supply

In the next four years or so, of every unit of electricity generated in Nigeria, 25 per cent of it will be generated in Edo State.

If you think this is mere wishful thinking then you need to pay a visit to the Azura-Edo Independent Power Project (IPP), a 450MW Open Cycle Gas Turbine power station being constructed near Benin City. It is Phase one of a 1,500MW IPP facility located on a 100 hectare site, large enough to accommodate future expansion of the power plant.

There is also an arrangement with Siemens Power and Gas Limited, which has reached an advanced stage to generate 1000MW of electricity in the state over the next four years, as well as the Ossiomo Power project that will yield 5MW to power mostly government offices and establishments.

The projection is that in four years, one in every four Mega Watts of power produced in Nigeria will be generated in Edo State.

Considering that Edo is not one of those receiving massive amounts of revenue from the federal government due to hydrocarbon derivation, these achievements and accomplishments are simply the product of vision borne out of a beautiful mind sharpened by vast global business experience which is rare to come by but Edo State is most fortunate to have in the person of Governor Obaseki.

An Economically Viable State

The question of the economic viability of most states in Nigeria has more or less received only passive consideration.

This issue which is invariably of critical significance, certainly deserves more pragmatic and fact-based analysis.

A recent report brought an often trivialised topic to the

fore, getting discerning minds to spare a thought at least for the sustainability of around 80 per cent of the nation’s federating states and Nigeria in general.

The report published by Economic Confidential, focused on what it termed the Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) which showed that 14 states in the country are insolvent as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) in 2016 were far below 10 per cent of their Federation Account Allocations (FAA) in the same year.

The index, carefully and painstakingly computed proved that without the monthly disbursement from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), many states remain unviable and cannot survive.

The IGR are generated by states through Pay-As-YouEarn Tax (PAYE), Direct Assessment, Road Taxes and revenues from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA)s.

The report further indicated that the IGR of Lagos State of N302bn was higher than that of 30 States put together excluding Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Edo, Kwara and Delta States whose IGRs were very impressive at more than 30 per cent of their FAA each. The 30 other states merely generated a total of N258bn in 2016.

Recently, Economic Confidential also published the total allocation received by each state in Nigeria from the Federation Account Allocation (FAA) between January to December 2016, revealing that only Lagos and Ogun States generated more revenue than their allocations from the Federation Account by 169 per cent and 127 per cent respectively and no other state had up to 100 per cent of IGR to revenue from the federal government.

The IGR of the 36 states of the federation totalled N801.95 billion in 2016 as compared to N682.67 billion in 2015, an increase of N119.28 billion.

The report also provides shocking discoveries to the effect that 14 states which have less than 10 per cent IGR may not stay afloat outside the Federation Account Allocation due to socio-political crises including insurgency, militancy and herdsmen attacks, as well as lack foresight in revenue generation drive coupled with arm-chair governance.

The states that may not survive without the Federation Account due to poor internal revenue generation according to the report include Borno which realised a meagre N2.6bn compared to a total of N73.8bn it received from the FAA in 2016 representing about 4 per cent. Others are: Ebonyi with IGR of N2.3bn compared to FAA of N46.6bn representing 5 per cent; Kebbi N3.1bn compared to FAA of N60.88bn representing 5.14 per cent; Jigawa with N3.5bn compared to N68.52bn of FAA representing 5.15 per cent and Yobe with IGR of N3.24nn compared to N53.93bn of FAA representing 6.0 per cent within the period under review.

Other poor internal revenue earners are Gombe which generated N2.94bn compared to FAA of N46bn representing 6.26 per cent; Ekiti N2.99bn compared to FAA of N47.56bn representing 6.28 per cent; Katsina N5.54bn compared to FAA of N83bn representing 6.65 per cent and Sokoto N4.54bn compared to FAA of N65.97bn representing 6.88 per cent.

Meanwhile Lagos State remained steadfast in its number one position in IGR with a total revenue generation of N302bn compared to FAA of N178bn which translate to 169 per cent in the twelve months of 2016. It is followed

by Ogun State which generated IGR of N72.98bn compared to FAA of N57bn representing 127 per cent.

Others with impressive IGR include Rivers with N85bn compared to FAA of N134bn representing 63 per cent; Edo with IGR of N23bn compared to FAA of N59bn representing 38 per cent. Kwara State however with low receipt from the Federation Account greatly improved in its IGR with N17bn compared to FAA of N49bn representing 35 per cent, while Delta posted IGR of N44bn compared to FAA of N126bn representing 36.88 per cent.

Meanwhile, the report noted that the IGR of the respective states can be improved through aggressive diversification of the economy to productive sectors rather than relying on the monthly Federation Account revenue that largely comes from the oil sector.

Obaseki Deserves Accolades

Having reviewed these figures from Economic Confidential, it is necessary to connect the dots and recall that for the most part of 2016 which the report examined, Governor Obaseki was the head of the economic management team of Edo State. He had held this position for some years. During his tenure as the Chairman of the Economic and Strategic Team of the state, he designed and implemented the template that propelled Edo State to the league of states with very high efficiency in internal revenue generation, resulting in the feat that has placed Edo among the likes of Lagos, Ogun and Rivers in economic viability.

Therefore, as the talented yet, humble global leader, Edo son and dynamic governor adds another year today, even though he has advised that no adverts be placed in newspapers to honour him due to the huge cost, rather that such funds be donated to charities, it is only fair to draw the peoples attention to his uncommon commitment to the task of governance towards transforming the lives of Edo people.

Hearty congratulations to Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the unassuming ‘Wake and See’ Edo State governor.

––Osagie is the Special Adviser, Media and Communication Strategy to the Edo State Governor.

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T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

All progressives grAnd AlliAnce Motto: Be Your Brother and Sister’s Keeper

National Secretariat: 41B, Libreville Crescent, Opp. Tulip Press, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja.

Tel: 0803-3256706, 0803-5897127, 0803-6431576, E-mail: apga.national@yahoo.com

COMMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE MEETING BETWEEN THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF APGA, DR. VICTOR IKE OYE AND ALL THE 36 STATES CHAPTER CHAIRMEN OF APGA INCLUDING THE FCT, HELD AT AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE THIS 28TH DAY OF JUNE 2017.

Following the meeting between the National Chairman of APGA, Dr. Victor Ike Oye with all the 36 states Chapter chairmen and the FCT, the state chairmen reaffirmed their commitment towards repositioning the Party under the leadership of Dr. Victor Ike Oye as the National Chairman to meet the challenges attendant with the party’s new position as the credible alternative platform whose activities must reflect true democratic principles and ideals.

The meeting condemned the activities of some expelled members of the Party who had clandestinely deceived the High Court in Enugu to make spurious rulings against the leadership of the Party.

Consequently, all the 36 states chairmen and the FCT gave full support to the National Chairman’s application of the Court to set aside its judgment obtained by deceit, misrepresentation of facts and fraudulent concealment.

The highlights of the meeting include:

The meeting resolved to set up a Monitoring Committee to be headed by each zonal Vice Chairman of the Party, to monitor, supervise and ensure that credible State Party office accommodation is acquired and fully furnished and equipped in each state capital of the Federation.

The meeting reiterated its total loyalty to the leadership of Dr. Victor Ike Oye as the National Chairman of the Party. To this end, the meeting resolved to continue to back and support the National Chairman, Dr. Victor Ike Oye in taking appropriate disciplinary sanctions against erring officers and members of the Party in line with the provisions of the Party Constitution.

All the 36 states and the FCT Chairmen were enjoined to acquire befitting accommodation in all the state capitals, including the FCT in order to ensure the Party sustains visible presence and identity in all the states of the Federation, including the FCT. The meeting pledged total support to the re-election of Governor Willie Obiano for a second term in office, come November 18, 2017, in view of his credibility and laudable performance as Governor in critical sectors of infrastructural and economic development of Anambra State.

At the end, all the State Chairmen and Chairman of the Party in the FCT pledged to continue to work assiduously towards the progress and development of the Party in tandem with the Constitution of the Party. All the States’ Chairmen expressed their gratitude to the leader of the Party and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, His Excellency, Governor Willie Obiano, for his unwavering support to the growth and rebuilding of the Party.

Sgd:

Hon. (Sir) Ifeatu Obiokoye National Publicity Secretary APGA.

ATTENDANCE LIST FOr THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL CHAIrMAN, NATIONAL SECrETAry, DEPuTy NATIONAL CHAIrMEN NOrTH AND SOuTH, SIx NATIONAL VICE CHAIrMEN AND THIrTy-SEVEN STATES CHAIrMEN INCLuDING FCT AT GEOGOLD HOTEL, AWKA, ANAMBrA STATE ON juNE 28, 2017

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JUly 1, 2017

FAIRGROUND

‘10 Days in Sun City’

A

fter a successful Nigeria release of 30 Days In Atlanta and A trip To Jamaica, popular comedian and award-winning actor AY, is set to release of his third movie ‘10 Days in Sun City’to the delight of movie lovers in Nigeria.

The movie which will be released simultaneously in cinemas in Nigeria on June 23 was heralded by a star-studded red carpet premiere which took place at the Bamoral Marquee located at the prestigious Federal Palace Hotel.

The star-studded movie which was supported by Sun International, Sun City, South Africa Tourism, Peak Milk and Naira Bet features talented actors from Nollywood, Hollywood and the South African movie industry including AY, Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD), Adesua Etomi, Mercy Johnson, Falz the Bahd Guy, Miguel Nunez Jr., Thenjiwe Moseley, Amanda Du Pont, Celeste Ntuli, to name a few.

The steamy action-packed romantic comedy which was produced

by Corporate World Entertainment Limited was written by Keni Ogunlola and directed by award winning director, Adze Ugah.

According to Ay, ‘10 Days In Sun City’ is a movie loaded with excitement and that movie enthusiast should brace up for a thrilling experience in the cinemas. He urged all lovers of the AY brand to check out the movie and share the word so others could also watch.

with

Azuka Ogujiuba

azuka.ogujiuba@thisdaylive.com

Richard Mofe-Damijo

Tiwa-savage

Ayo Makun on stage performing

IK Ogbonna and wife Sonia

Mohammed Tanko, Ayo Makun , Jennifer Awoh, Hloni Pitzo (Regional Manager South African Tourism at the 10 days in Sun City premiere)

Gordons

Adesuwa Etomi

Osas and Gbenro

Abounce and wife Yvonne Jegede Fawole

Chika Ike

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JUly 1, 2017

FAIRGROUND

“No Shame in My Pain”

T

he #1in3 Africa campaign against sexual and domestic violence a further call to action against the endemic scourge that woman suffer from unique voice was borne out of the need to treat the root cause of the menacedespitenumerouscampaigns and extensive awareness. The charge is to spread theseeducationalandempoweringmessagesacross the continent. It is spearheaded by HM Wuraola Zaynab Otiti Ogunwusi,Yeyeluwa of Ife the Olori tohisimperialmajesty,AlayeluwaOONIAdeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, the 51st OONI of of Ile-Ife, Arole Oduduwa.

“Daily, there are reports of women beaten, killed andemotionallyabusedbymentheythoughtwould protect them, men they believed will love them and keep them safe. My heart breaks as I read these stories and hear news of incidents across Nigeria of women who have lost their lives, will to live and confidence whilst in these very unhealthy and destructive relationships. Domestic violence is fast becoming a trend with little or no consequence considering the seriousness of the crime. UN statistics show that 1 in 3 women are abused daily this is a rather sad ratio. So I ask myself, “How can I help”? “How can I impact on the lives of these women?The#1in3Africacampaignisamovement to help put a STOP TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

AGAINST WOMEN it is a cry for help against the injustice these women have to endure for fear of being shamed, ridiculed and alone.

I,alongsidethreeamazing,strongandcourageous women have come together to be that voice for the helpless woman- there is no shame in your pain, it’s not your fault, you are beautiful, strong and powerful. We look forward to going this life changing journey with you and giving you a chance to rise again. HM Olori Wuraola Zaynab Otiti Ogunwusi. – Yeyeluwa of Ife. The United Nations statistics are staggering! The UNestimatesthat70%ofwomenhaveexperienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partnerintheirlifetime.Thismeansthataround120 Million girls worldwide have experienced forced sexualactsatsomepointintheirlives.Sadly,themost common perpetrators of this sexual violence are currentorformerhusbands,partnersorboyfriends.

• 1 in 3 Women have either been beaten or experienced sexual violence.

• 1 in 3 women will die as a result of that violence.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! Join us on our mission to end violence against womenbyprovidingmuchneededawarenessand support to the girls and women in need, beginning with our awareness walk.

The #1in3Africa Campaign is supported by the

Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi

Emir of Kano, Tonto Dikeh, Mercy Aigbe, Kate Henshaw, Ini Edo, Monalisa Chinda, Uche Jumbo, FunkeAkindele,AdunniAde,Annie Idibia, Seyi

Shay, Ndidi Obioha (Enthyst), HRH Queen Chika Acholonu, Mrs Onari Duke, DareArtAlade, Mrs Ifeoma Williams, MrsYutee Rone and many more.

Women in Journalism (WJ2017): Pioneers, Innovators and the Brave New World

I

n just a few days, leading women journalists and media professionals from across the continent will gather to highlight next generation thinking and storytelling in a digitized world, while supporting new endeavors that inform and entertain in imaginative ways.

WiJAfrica will award and recognize a few who have stood out by being the forerunners to introduce innovations that have brought novelty to storytelling.

Some of them are; Lady Maiden Ibru and the Guardian, Mo Abudu and Ebony Life TV, Toun Okewale Shonaiya and WFM, Collete Otusheso and Accelerate TV, among others.

Mo abudu

Adesuwa-Onyenokwe

KWAM1, Shina Peters, Puffy Tee Mentor Participants at Ariya Repete Academy King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM1), Sir Shina Peters and Puffy Tee are among music veterans that will mentor the 40 Ariya Repete quarter finalists at the Ariya Repete Academy scheduled for July 3 at the Conference Hotel, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

This is part of the ongoing Ariya Repete initiative, an expanded music talent hunt for Fuji and Juju artistes organised by Goldberg, from the stables of Nigerian Breweries Plc. Other mentors include members of the Performers Musicians of Nigeria (PMAN), Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria and the Association of Juju Musicians of Nigeria (AJUMN).

The mentoring programme with the theme “Understanding Traditional Music” is for artistes selected from auditions held in Akure, Ibadan, Ilorin, Ijebu Ode, Osogbo, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti and Sango-Ota. The veteran artistes will make presentations on fundamentals relating to appearance, composure, creativity, vocalisation, stage craft as well as other aspects of Fuji and Juju music.

It will be an opportunity for the participants to enhance their skills as they prepare for the quarterfinals on July 7, 2017 in Akure; the semi-finals on July 14 in

Abeokuta and the grand finale on July 21 in Ibadan, where the cash prize of N1 million would be won in each category as well as a recording deal each.

KWAM1, a renowned Fuji artiste, released his first solo album Abode Mecca in 1979 and his most successful album Talazo 84 in 1984. He is known for introducing the sounds of keyboards, saxophones and guitars into Fuji music genre.

Sir Shina Peters, a frontline Juju musician, is well known for his Afro-Beat and intense Fuji-style percussion. He came to limelight in 1989 with his electrifying debut album Afro-Juju Series 1, and has received numerous recognitions for his unparalleled prowess in the art of writing, composition, choreography and musical ability.

Also, Temidayo Babatope Joseph, whose stage name is Puffy Tee, is a renowned music producer who has been in the industry for 21 years. He is the producer behind hit songs like Eleko by Davido‘s new act Mayorkun; Yahooze by Olu Maintain; Lorile by X-Project; Away by VIP; Aiye by 9ice and many more.

Commenting on the performance of artistes during the auditions, the Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager and Stout Brands, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Emmanuel

Kwam 1

Agu said he was delighted at the abundance of musical talent in the southwest region and “through Ariya Repete there is the tendency that more can be discovered and nurtured.”

Shina peters

He stated that Ariya Repete Academy is an opportunity to learn new techniques applicable to both music genres from renowned musicians, for the competition and future endeavours.

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • July 2, 2017

July 2 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • July 1, 2017

The Edenlifestyle corner

Fitness File

with

Take Charge Of Your Own Health

Maje Ayida

majeayida@edenlifenigeria.com www.edenlifenigeria.com, 07062614551

W

e are all a little guilty of procrastination when it comes to staying healthy.

People want results, but when it comes to actual application then the excuses start rolling in. Losing weight and being healthy is not just about hitting the gym or the odd healthy meal here and there, it’s about a complete lifestyle overhaul. This can happen by making regular healthy choices, even before you pick up a dumbbell. Here’s how: Drink a Pint of Water as Soon as you Wake Up We all know the importance of water, right? We evolved from water. Our body is made up of approximately 70% water. We are basically a walking, talking, big mass of mostly water (got that from an episode of Star Trek).

First thing in the morning your body is dehydrated from 7+ hours of no water, basically a fast. Drinking a pint of water before you do anything else will give your body the top up it needs to start the day. Often we are not hungry but thirsty as the body can sometimes confuse signals for water.

Drinking 2 litres of water per day is a good starting point for most adults.

Diminished performance, poor concentration and sickness are all symptoms of dehydration. Your intestines will also squeeze and extract water from your feces if you are really dehydrated and nobody wants their body made up of that type of water, do they?

Start a Workout Habit of 10 Minutes a Day It doesn’t take long to form a new habit, usually in less than 30 days.

Don’t try to do too much too soon.

Start by just developing an exercise habit rather than killing yourself at the gym. Using a Daily 10 Minute Workout is a great start: 1. Choose one movement pattern for each day of the week (Monday Friday) 2. Movement Patterns include: Squatting, Pulling, Lunging, Pushing, Bending.

3. Try to perform as many of that movement pattern as you can in 10 minutes.

My advice would be to run through your 10 minute workout nice and early before breakfast. Early workouts work in tune with your hormonal system and leave you not thinking about exercise for the rest of the day. Start this workout habit today and before long it will feel as natural as brushing your teeth!

Ditch the Table Salt and Start Eating Real Sea Salt The majority of people are still overloading themselves with processed salt. Salt isn’t actually the problem, it’s the type of salt that matters. Did you know that human blood has the same salt content as sea salt? Table salt is highly processed, often using chemicals that leave it clean, white and absent of all those precious trace minerals. Most table salt resembles something you would find in a science lab rather than in nature.

Start to Breathe Deeply Through Your Belly Again!

Stress causes shallow breathing

through the upper chest and neck. The more shallow you breathe, the more of a stress response you get. Have you ever watched a baby breathe? They breathe deeply through their bellies right? As we get older and stress starts to creep into our lives we start to take that breathing from the belly and shift up and into the chest and neck.

Shallow breathing causes headaches, upper back and neck tension! Learn to slow down your breathing and take your breath to your belly.

1. Try taking 10 deep breaths counting to 5 on the IN breath and 5 on the OUT breathe 2. Push your belly OUT as you breathe IN and pull the belly IN as you breathe OUT 3. Two-thirds of your breath should come from your belly and one-third from your chest Take some time each day and learn to breathe deeply. It’s a wonderful stress reliever!

Re-Assess Your Medication and Make Some Changes Many people are far too easily convinced to take drugs based on television adverts or a doctor’s recommendations. The truth is, ALL drugs are poison to the body. It takes a lot of energy for the body to process drugs and most drugs have side effects. If you are suffering from a sickness or disease then start to question what may be out of balance in your life. Are you stressed out, eating dead foods, dehydrated, lacking in quality sleep? If you have been taking medication for a long time then book an appointment with your doctor to reassess your situation.

Don’t just reach for the drugs every time you have a headache, backache, constipation etc. Start to question the source of the problem rather than addressing the symptoms every time.

Get to Bed by 10:30pm, it’s When, Not How Much Sleep that Counts We evolved from nature and have always been influenced by the fall and rise of the sun. In the mornings the hormone Cortisol is stimulated, this prepares the body for action. In the evenings Cortisol levels should be reduced and Anabolic hormones are released to stimulate tissue regrowth and repair during sleep.

If you go to bed too late then you miss out a large portion of the Growth and Repair cycle, which usually runs from around 10-2am. From 2am to 6am most repair is mental rather than physical. We are creatures of the earth and need to work with our hormones rather than against them. It’s not necessarily how much sleep you get that matters but more when you sleep that counts!

Take Your Shoes off and Start Earthing How often do you touch your bare feet on the grass or earth? Earthing is based on the principle that we have lost our connection with the earth.

If you think about it, do you ever walk around in bare feet anymore?

Our ancestors used to have constant connection with the earth and this is something that has been lost today.

There is lots of research coming out now that shows positive reasons why we should all get out there and dance on the grass or paddle in streams. Just connecting your body to the earth will give you lots of natural energy. So get out there today for 5 minutes and get connected back with nature.

Avoid Wheat for the Day, You Won’t Regret It Wheat is a major problem and probably the most influential food action you could take today. It’s not actually the wheat that is the problem but the wheat’s protein, Gluten, that is the real

nasty. The sticky protein Gluten is a big irritant to most peoples’ gut.

Being Gluten intolerant doesn’t just mean having gut problems like wind and a bloated stomach. Gluten can also cause an auto immune response from Leaky Gut Syndrome resulting in: Arthritis, Headaches, Back Pains, Depression and more. Gluten is everywhere so be careful. Common foods include: Breads, Pasta, Sauces, fillers in Sausages, and Cereals. You can take a food sensitivity test to find out if you are Gluten sensitive or you can avoid Gluten for 30 days and see just how amazing you feel without it.

Free Your Mind With 5 Minutes of Meditation Stress is the number one killer.

Meditation offers you a chance to take your mind away from the daily grind and be with yourself for a few minutes.

There are many ways to meditate, here are 2 methods: 1. Sit quietly and breathe deeply through your belly. Concentrate on your breath as you breathe through your nose. Count each breath and see how high you can count.

2. Again sit or lie quietly and breathe through your belly. Concentrate your vision on an object about 10 feet in front of you. Keep your eyes relaxed and focus on that object ONLY. If you do start to think about your worries and problems don’t give up just accept them and refocus on your meditation. Start with 5 minutes and work up to 30 minutes per day.

You have one body and one shot at this life, give yourself the best chance possible before you end up in the doctor’s office. Your personal wellness is extremely important and tantamount to preventative healthcare. Be good to yourself.

July 1 , 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

41

Fashion file

Fashpa S/S 17 Collection

42

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • July 1, 2017

By Azuka Ogujiuba azuka.ogujiuba@thisdaylive.com

Fashion file

Fashpa S/S 17 Collection

W

e are super-excited to share with you our S/S 17 collection : Ophelia shot by Laah Photography. The campaign showcases fashpa’s signature clean shapes and lines but this time with a romantic feel playing with bright colours , movement and easy, un-tortured fabrics

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • july 1, 2017

Market Place with Omolabake Fashogbon... 08033621009

From Left: Public Relations Manager;Power Oil, Omotayo Azeez ;Bayegun Toyin Known as Woli Arole;Brand Communication Manager,Power Oil, Ijeoma Opara;Afonja Olaniyi known as Sanyeri and Social Media Manager,Power Oil , Kenneth Iruonagbe at the media parley to announce the kick off of the firm’s walkhearton 3.0 in Lagos recently

Winner, 2017 Lagos State Spelling Bee Competition,Zuffon Bukola flanked by one of the finalists representing Lagos education district V ,Ambode Faith Ayotola and colleagues at the Lagos State 2017 Spelling Bee Competition held in the state’s capital recently

Inside Palms Shopping Mall, Ota Since it opened for business in December 2016, the Palms Shopping Mall, Ota, Ogun State has been the toast of shoppers in Abule Egba, Meiran, Ijaiye Ojokoro, Alagbado, Sango Ota, Ifo and other neighbouring communities.

The first of its kind in the state was declared open by Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State amidst fanfare and excitement.

The mall is situated within the Ogun and Lagos State border and by estimation, is expected to serve a combined population of nearly 5 million within the area.

As expected, shoppers visit the facility in group, individually, family, couples and friends for different objectives ranging from actual shopping, window shopping, lovers rendezvous, relaxation and selfie taking amongst others.

Like other sophisticated malls in the heart of Lagos, the commercial nerve of Nigeria, the mall flaunts a soothing ambience, colourful

architecture and an ample free parking space as it charges no toll yet.

Nothwithstanding, the experience with the shop attendants is heartwarming.

A stroll to max store for instance presents a homely feeling. Max deals in corporate, casual and children clothing. The warm attention, welcome smile and the friendly gesture of the attendants all combine to rate its customers service a B. Even though the prices of its wares would have been far accepted in the super-rich and posh areas like Lekki, Banana Island and Ikeja in Lagos, customers may still manage to succumb to the executive bill considering the warmth reception of the attendants.

Right inside Shoprite, the centre of attraction and glamour of the mall is this frenzy for freshly baked bread.

The place wears the look of a bus stop going by the long queue formed in three

lines comparable to the queue at the BRT park. One needs not take an extra effort to figure oh the “oh my God” expression on the faces of customers curiously waiting for their turn. ‘I would rather not eat Shoprite bread’ whispered a customer in Yoruba language as she passes buy from another section in the store. However, the queue could have been tolerated if the attendants were forward and friendly.

A first time or a confused shopper may need to exercise patience and carefully comb the sections for choice products because the ‘ask me ‘porters are not too neighbourly to help a confused customer.

The restaurant section brings no differ experience. save for the appearance of the attendant which is enticing, his Para-language, gesture and expression would not delight a customer to come again. A patronising and luscious appearance, the taste in the food has

FG Partners Arla Foods to Improve Multibilliondollar Dairy Market

Power Oil Begins Fitness Campaign in Five States

The Federal Government has concluded arrangements with a Denmark-based dairy company, Arla Foods, to address myriads challenges confronting the nation’s dairy industry.

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Hon. Heineken Lokpobiri, in company of other officials of the ministry reached an agreement with the firm at the official opening of its global innovation centre in Denmark.

According to the company, the innovation centre will serve Nigeria and other economies in delivering nutritious, tasty, safe and affordable food products that would be beneficial to the physical and economic health of nations.

It will also strive to find lasting solutions to global challenges related to obesity, undernutrition, environment and climate through research and other relevant instruments.

Speaking further on the centre, Chief Executive Officer of Arla Foods, Peder Tuborgh explained that the latest was created to facilitate cutting-edge innovation in food processing by bringing all the key players into play: consumers, customers, small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and their students, suppliers, technical institutions and professional associations, amongst others.

“The centre was conceived as part of our vision to create the future of dairy to bring health and inspiration to the world, naturally.

“To be at the very forefront of the industry, it will require investments in research and innovation and for us, we aim to bring not only innovation, but also to bring the global dairy industry into a new era,” he said Tuborgh observed that there was still knowledge gap in the industry as not too many had the understanding of combating global challenges such as lifestyle diseases and under-nourishment through Milk.

Moreso, there is still more to learn about sustainable production and packaging of dairy.

In its tradition of promoting healthy hearts, leading vegetable cooking oil brand, Power Oil, has rounded off preparations for its annual fitness campaign tagged ‘Power Oil Walkhearton 3.0’ to be held in five states of the federation.

The initiative which started off three years ago is a heart health awareness programme that encourages every Nigerian to lead and maintain a healthy lifestyle by taking a minimum of 30 minutes-walk daily.

According to the company in a recent research, Nigerians, especially mothers do not take fitness as part of their daily routine despite the fact the American Heart Association, AHA, recommends a 30 minutes daily walk to improve healthy heart, blood pressure and reduce the risk of coronary heart diseases, stroke, breast and colon cancer amongst others.

Brand Communications Manager of the organisation, Ijeoma Opara, stated that the company’s interest to invest in the project was not only to mobilise people to take a five-kilometer walk on the chosen date but to raise a strong and lasting awareness such that would make Nigerians see fitness as a lifestyle that needed to be adopted.

“This is why we have involved some notable artistes like MC Bonus, Funnybone, Sound Sultan, Woli Arole, Sanyari, Mr. Raw and Nice. Their presence we believe will strengthen the effect of the message we are trying to pass across,” Opara

said.

At a media parley organised at the company’s corporate headquarters in Surulere, Lagos to announce the 2017 edition of the campaign, Public Relations Manager of the firm ,Miss.

Omotayo Azeez identified the host states to be Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Abuja Unveiling the time table for the July event, Azeez said that the Lagos walk was scheduled for July 8; Enugu and Port Harcourt, July 15; Ibadan and Abuja for July 22 with two artistes each to anchor the activity in different states.

Opara stated further that plans had been concluded in-house to accommodate no fewer than 4000 participants in each state who would also be privileged to have access to free basic medical checks, including blood pressure, BMI and general medical consultation from the company’s health team.

She said, “More to enjoy is light refreshment that will be prepared on the spot with Power Oil being a major ingredient. Provisions have also been made for water and glucose to replenish lost energy.”

The artistes also commended the initiative and expressed appreciation for being considered worthy to be part of the exercise targeted at good health and longevity of life.

The event will also be graced by representatives from the Nigerian Heart Foundation and some state ministries in the different states.

not justified it, maybe because it was served cold along with the burnt crumbs underneath the pot.

Then ,the fast moving consumers good sections are neatly arranged, filled with varieties and pleasing to the eyes that one could swallow one’s salary at a glance with or without a shop list.

Finally at the cashier stands, customers maintain different expressions, sighs and gesture as they anxiously wait for their turn on the long queue. Initially, it was one cashier attending to almost a hundred customers but the anxiety break when other cashiers were on break but still occupied their stands leaving customers to jostle for the front position.

But how could all the cashiers except for one go on break at the same time?

A not too good and not too bad experience, Ota mall still needs to take a cue from other senior colleagues to reach the fair haven.

Japan to Explore Nigerian Mobile Market With countless number of smartphone brands in the market, the Japanese have also indicated interest to enter the market as it announced plans to launch its product in Nigeria.

The phone brand, is yet to be unveiled, is expected to serve millions of Nigerians with quality and unique features.

Information from the product’s headquarters in Japan showed that preparations had already hit top gear to roll out the smartphone brand in 20 countries with Nigeria as the hub of its expansion in Africa.

Industry experts have however expressed optimism on the wide acceptance of the products as a result of Japan’s credibility in the market place.

Culturally conservative with an uncompromising eye for quality and a time-honoured tradition of reliability, Japanese brands are renowned world over for their sheer ability to deliver great value for money.

Mega brands such as Toyota, Datsun, Casio, Ajinomoto, Canon Inc., Bridgestone, ASICS, Fujifilm, Konami, General Air conditioners, Hitachi and Kenwood Corporation, amongst others, are familiar and popular among Nigerians, having not only expanded their spheres of operations to the country but constantly delivering great products and services over the years.

It is therefore not surprising that made by Japan, has come to be seen as the word for world-class and genuine products.

Besides, Nigeria being a fertile ground for technology based investment considering the impact of Information Communication Technology ,ICT to the Gross Domestic Product, technology savvy youth population, increased government earnings as well as the record spending expected in the recently passed N7.298tn budget for 2017, Japan may be in for a life changing fortune.

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JULy 1, 2017

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SHOWBIZFLAIR

Tosin Clegg

07062816737 e-mail: tosinclegg@hotmail.com

Wale Adenuga Jr

I Love Playing Video Games Chief Executive Officer of Wale Adenuga Productions, Wale Adenuga Jr, in the interview with Tosin Clegg, talks about his work and the entertainment industry Winning the USAID award was a wonderful experience t is a wonderful feeling to be recognized by the United States Agency for International Development. The award was for one of our programmes on Super Story and it was for a programme we did with Society for Family Health that is aimed mainly at curbing the spread of malaria. So, it was an anti-malaria campaign with 13 episodes and it featured a lot of stars. We got the unsolicited recognition because they saw the impact we were having. The award was really a big one for us since it was from USAID, the same organisation that did ‘we are the world’ campaign back in the days. It is good to be recognised as part of the people trying to kick the menace out of the country is good.

we see technology taking it to another level. So, in preparation for this shift, we have to be in the forefront of content production in five years on all platforms. So, we see ourselves providing contents on all sorts of platforms. So, whenever you want to watch anything you will see a WAP programme.

I

My dad inspires One thing I tell people is that there is one person that you know and that knowing someone that inspires you in person is different.

But there is someone I know since I was born, which is my dad. If you are talking about anyone in my line of business, then it’s my dad. I know where he came from, battles he fought. He came to Lagos for a business people did not see as viable or which people felt was done by others, but he was able to make a breakthrough.

At that time you could get discouraged, but now it’s different with social media because anyone can come up with anything and people will say try it and it might trend. But back then, the odds were much, but he took some big risks which most of our young people have been lucky not to go through, because everything is more flexible and trending these days. So, I think for somebody, during that time, to go through all that, make certain decisions, and succeed, then that’s the person that inspires me.

Wale Adenuga Productions is always up to something We are still fanning the flames in our TV station, that’s WAP TV, which is on DSTV, Star Times and other platforms, bringing in new contents daily. We just wrapped up the recording of Papa Ajasco Reloaded. And that’s the major project we are working on right now vis a vis our pro TV programmes. We have taken Papa Ajasco and we repackaged it. We have changed some characters and that’s the latest project we are working on and it would hit your TV screens soon. It’s bigger, better and very modern. Shot just this year, it features most of the reigning stars aside from the major crew. The only new faces are Miss Pepeye and a new Ajasco. It’s Papa Ajasco Reloaded Season One and in it we have Frank Donga, Eniola Badmus, Ronke Oshodi Oke, Ijebu, Ese Erieta, Emeka Okoye and some other major acts.

It’s a good package and it’s going to crack your skull and jaw when you laugh.

Recession is affecting everybody I keep saying that anybody who is doing legitimate business in this country will feel this recession, unless otherwise, but again I do know that there are some businesses that profit when other businesses are having big issues, but I won’t mention them. We happen to be on the other side where the cost of production, accommodation for actors and feeding affects us. But I think one upside of the recession is that you get more creative ways to achieve things without dropping quality.

But even if there is no recession in Nigeria, there are times there is recession in your pocket too.

Our family-oriented ap-

Adenuga Jnr

proach We have this holistic family approach to our programmes, as we do something the whole family can really enjoy. You know they say charity begins at home and if everyone in the family is happy, then it resonates in the society.

Wale Adenuga is more than just entertainment, it’s educative too.

We have this reputation that if you are watching our programmes, then you don’t have to be worried about seeing too much violence,

or something too extreme. So, we always play safe with our productions, but not to a boring level.

We scale up sometimes, but it’s something a parent can lead their kids through and have no fear; so that’s basically our strong point.

In the next five years We are content producers and over the last few years the platforms people use to watch content are radically changing very fast.

People are viewing contents from all sorts of platforms now, and

I love what I do I don’t see it as a job per se. I actually love it. But as Wale, I play video games, I love swimming, I watch movies a lot, and not just our own movies. So, everything I do still revolves around what I do, anyway, and when I’m seeing a movie I see what I like I take notes of it.

I’m a simple person and I keep my private life. I know these days people would rather show off the latest watches they have or something, but I would rather show off things I have going on in relation to my productions. But what you can only do as a producer is not to close your eyes to trends. People may show off life, you don’t have to do it but you can still infuse it into your works.

I want my brand to be in the public glare 24/7 That’s what I know my brand should be based on. I would not say because I don’t want to be in the public glare I would not push you there. So that’s Wale Adenuga Jnr and that’s how most of us are in the family; very private people.

I would spend 24 hours trying to push my brand out than myself.

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SHOWBIZFLAIR

My Story The Basement Gig Lights Up Lagos The 6th edition of The Basement Gig had a great turn out as music lovers came out in good numbers. The event held for the first time on the mainland, at the Cielo Lounge in Ikeja G.R.A, Lagos on June 22, 2017.

Performers at the event were some of the finest emerging artistes, who did not fall short of expectations, as they thrilled the audience with electrifying performances.

Rapper, Triq kicked things off by performing songs off his recently released mixtape titled ‘While You Were Sleeping’. Next up was Afro-Pop act, King Perry, who came all the way from Owerri and got everyone on their feet with his performance. Kayode thrilled the audience next and he was followed by an enchanting performance by Bella, as she got the house singing along to her single titled ‘Radio’. Tolani brought the event to a close as he performed with his 3-man band.

City FM’s DJ, Six7even, got the audience singing and dancing with sensational mixes as well. The event was hosted by Cool FM’s Kemi Smallzz and co-hosted by Khlo.

Olola

I Try to Be Free with My Music Oluwanifemi Feola Famuyibo, popularly known as Olola, is a blend of good music, positive energy and mastery of afro pop. Currently signed to Grind Records, he shares his ideas with Tosin Clegg

Taiwo Clegg Drops new Song Ahead of Album Release Taiwo is a Lagos-based dexterous trumpeter. He has worked with notable artistes like Tee Mac, Mike Aremu, Muma Gee, Yinka Davies, the late Steve Rhodes, Orlando Julius, Sunny Neji, Imoleayo Balogun, Ron Kenoly to mention a few and he has appeared and performed at different venues and festivals around the globe. Taiwo is working on his debut album called “Navigation” and just did a world wide release of a single off the album titled “Kpoya Omemma”. He also leads a brass group filled with passionate and distinct players and they have re-arranged master pieces like Hallelujah Chorus, And the Glory and Worthy is the Lamb to suit brassy conceptions.

Kpoya Omemma is a call to praise song he released to give people a feel of good gospel music, soul lifting delivery and a spice to Christian living.

Meet Laolu Gbenjo, Nigeria’s Leading Contemporary African Highlife Act Laolu Gbenjo is one of the leading acts in the Nigerian gospel scene today. He kicked off his career several years back and grew gradually to become a key player in the game. With three albums to his credit and several sold-out concerts, he is undoubtedly a master of his craft.

His style of music is a blend of gospel with highlife tempo to serve nothing but the best feel to his listeners. Gbenjo is planning to release a new song with Music Legend, Wole Oni which he calls, ‘Jesus Did It’. It promises to be of good vibes and drive.

H

ow did you come about ‘Feola’?

It came from my real name Feola. When I was born my dad was a very big fan of Fela so he named me Feola after the late Fela. At first my stage name was Fela but I was getting too much comparison to Fela which I didn’t like at that stage so I changed it to Feola.

What kind of music do you play?

I do afro pop. I have a wide range of musical influences, as I listen to a lot of artistes. My old school influences are Tupac, Fela, Michael Jackson and Bob Marley, based on the kind of people they were. My new school influences are Wizkid, Wande Coal, Kiss Daniel and Kendrick Lamar.

What are the messages in your music?

It depends actually on my concentration. My first song, Bless Me, done two years ago, was about me talking to God. At times I like to put myself in people’s situation like mine and I don’t box music so I try to be free with my music. I do every kind of music basically and that depends on my mood.

What should we expect from you in a few weeks?

I dropping a song, ‘Adore You’ and is being produced by TY Mix. It would be coming out very soon and also I have a lot of music on ground. For now I will just keep dropping singles till the fans request for an album.

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In Brief

Bill for Recovery of Public Funds

A Bill for an Act seeking to address the abuse of the whistle –blowing Policy, taxevasionandlossesaswellasaddressthedisturbingtendencyofdifferent securityagenciesstorminghomes,officesandplacesofeconomicactivities torecoverstashedfundsisintheworks.Partoftheprovisionsofthebillisto grantamnestytoformerpublicofficerswhohadlootedNigeria’streasuryand quick recovery of hidden funds, provides appropriate punishment through prosecutionofthosewhoaidtransferringillicitfundsoutofNigeria.Thesponsor ofthebillandmemberRepresentingOhaozara/Onicha/IvoConstituency,Hon. LinusOkorienotedthatNigeriaurgentlyrequiredamoreeffectivemeansof securingthereturnofillicitfinancialflowstoNigeriatobeinvestedindevelopment. Henotedthatthebillwouldfaceominouslegalitychallengesingranting prosecutorialamnestytodeclarantswithoutfirstputtingadefinitelegislative frameworkinplace.

C’River Retrieves Ita-Giwa's Jeep

Thereareindicationsthattheface-offbetweentheCrossRiverStateGovernor, ProfessorBenAyade,andtheformerSpecialAdvisertothePresidentonNational AssemblyMatters,SenatorFlorenceIta-Giwa,isassuminganalarmingdimension followingtheallegedwithdrawalofaToyotaLandcruiserJeepgiventoherwhen shecelebratedher70birthdaylastyear.Face-offbetweentheduocametothe forerecentlywhentheIta-Giwaraisedthealarmthatreliefmaterialsmeant for the internally displaced people of Atai Ema, Bakassi Local Government Areaweredivertedbysomepoliticianswiththeaidofsomestategovernment officials. Commenting on the development, Ita-Giwa told journalists at her Calabar resident yesterday that agents of the state government allegedly stormedherresidencewhileshewasoutoftownandcarriedthevehiclefrom thecompound whereit wasparked.

partnership that works...

L-R; Co- Partner, NEXUS Nigeria Outreach Ambassador, Funke Shonekan; Guest Speaker, Mrs. Ndidi Nwuneli; and Co-Partner, NEXUS Nigeria Outreach Ambassador, Tutu Adebiyi, at the Launch of NEXUS Nigeria, held in Ikoyi, Lagos

SUNDAY ADIGUN

Afrexim Signs $1.1bn Loans with Dangote, Elumelu's Heirs Holdings Ebere Nwoji

The African Export Import (AFREXIM) Bank, has signed a memorandum ( MOU)of understanding with both the Dangote Group of Companies and Tony Elumelu's Heirs Holdings Foundation for a loan of 1$billion and $.1billion respectively.

The two deals, were signed at one of the sessions at the 24th Annual General Meeting of the bank holding in Kigali, Rwanda.

At the signing ceremony, AFREXIM Bank's president, Dr. Paul Oramah, said the deal was part of the bank's bid to expand businesses in Africa through disbursement of N9 trillion ( $25 ) billion in the next five years.

He said the bank, had set for itself

target of strengthening businesses in various sectors of the economy within the region to bring a major change in the prevailing situation whereby once there was crash in commodity prices, it would send economies of most countries into recession.

He said the regional bank, which was currently focusing its core strategy on promoting intra-African trade, promoting industrialisation and export of manufactured goods as well as maintaining trade financing leadership in Africa, was already making its business supportive and promotion impact in many countries within the continent.

The AFREXIM Bank boss, commended the president of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote for his

business efforts describing him as pride of Africa.

Listing Dangote group among the African business Champions, the continent could boast of Oromah, stated, "A number of African champions have emerged creating manufacturing capacities and fostering the emergence of regional and continental supply chains. For instance: "The Dangote Group has cement plants in about 14 African countries and is now the largest supplier of cement in Africa. The Group will by 2018 open one of the largest refineries in the world. The refinery, with capacity of about 650,000 bpd, can supply the total refining requirements of West Africa."

Speaking, Dangote thanked the

bank for the loan saying it would be judiciously utilised in expansion of the group's investment. He said the group had investments in 14 African countries adding that its main business in those countries was cement.

He said in its effort to expand its business frontiers, the group had to contend with competition, some of which comes from top government officials of the host countries.

He said the group, had relied on legal appeals to surmount such problem.

The group, according to him, surmounts problem of high production cost in most of the African countries by generating its own power directly from the national grid.

Suspected Badoo Cultist Four Die in Youths,Vigilante Lynched, Set Ablaze in Ikorodu Clash in Kontagora Femi Ogbonnikan

Angry residents of Ikorodu on Friday morning went berserk as they apprehended a member of a notorious 'badoo' cult group which has been responsible for the serial killings of family members in the ancient town and its environs, lynched and set him ablaze.

The incident happened at IgboOluwo community, Oke-Oriya, Lagos Road, Ikorodu, at about 2:00am on Friday.

It was gathered that trouble started in the early hours on Friday when security-conscious residents of IgboOluwo community had suspected strange movement of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV), dropping some young men within the neighbourhood at midnights in the recent past but with no specific mission and had to beef up security to ward off threats to lives and property.

On sighting a black jeep which had dropped six men within the community at about 2:00am on Friday, it was learnt that residents monitored them and as they attempted to attack their targets (a home).

Residents who had formed themselves into a vigilante group quickly swung into action and apprehended one of the six suspects and lynched him before setting him ablaze. His charred remains were taken to, and displayed at the designated BRT lane at Haruna bus terminal, Ikorodu, a development which caused traffic gridlock for almost an hour before it was cleared, on arrival of armed policemen attached to Owutu Division.

According to eyewitness accounts, the suspect, despite the severe beatings declined to confess those that sent them on the mission. Before he gave up the ghost, the suspect allegedly vomited two kola nuts (big and small in sizes) and a bottle of goya oil which were displayed beside his charred remains at the designated BRT lane.

It would be recalled that the traditional institutions in Ikorodu, worried by the spate of wanton killings in the recent past, had on Thursday night, at about 10:00am, carried out a traditional procession with charms across the nooks and crannies, begun a three-day Oro rituals aimed at cleansing the Ikorodu community and its environs.

Laleye Dipo in Minna

A clash between some youths and men of the vigilante in the Angwan yanma area of Kontagora town in Niger State has led to the death of four people.

Two vehicles, one of them the patrol van of the vigilante group were burnt.

However the police confirmed only two deaths.

The clash followed the death of a 17 year old boy who was arrested and reportedly tortured by men of the vigilante while in detention.

The arrest of the boy took place during the last Ramadan when he was accused of loitering late at night.

After the boy was released to his parents he reportedly developed complications as a result of the torture he went through while in detention and later died in the Kontagora general hospital.

The report of the death of the boy angered the youths in the town resulting in their invading the Kontagora office of the vigilante group.

It was learnt that the youths doused the vehicles with fuel and

set them ablaze. They attempted to burn the secretariat but for the quick intervention of mobile policemen.

An eyewitness said men of the vigilante shot into the air to scare the youths but in the process stray bullets were said to have hit three people resulting in their instant death.

Among those killed were two members of the vigilante group the eye witness said.

Police Public Relation Officer DSP Bala Elkana who confirmed the incident however said only two people died while three others one of them a female were injured.

Elkana said anti-riot Policemen drafted to the scene saved the headquarters of the vigilante from being burnt, adding that two members of the vigilante group had been arrested in connection with the torture of the deceased.

"Vigilantes have no power and there is no law authorising them to detain anybody talk less of torturing any person. They only have the power to arrest anyone who commits an offence in their presence and hand over such suspect to the police.

Council Workers Rally for Ugwuanyi

HundredsoflocalgovernmentworkersundertheaegisoftheNigeriaUnionof LocalGovernmentEmployees(NULGE),Enugustatechapter,onFridayliterally groundedbusinessactivitiesinUniversitytownofNsukkaastheyembarkedon solidarityrallyinsupportoftheadministrationofGovernorIfeanyiUgwuanyi.

Theyalsousedtheopportunitytoexpressappreciationtothegovernorforthe judiciousutilisationofParisClubrefundinpaymentofsalariesofcouncilworkers andpensionofretirees.NULGEmembersfromthe17localgovernmentareas of the state In their thousands gathered at Government Field, Nsukka, from wheretheymatchedroundtheuniversitytownsingingpraisesofthegovernor.

TheStatePresidentofNULGEinthestate,ComradeKennethEmekaUgwueze told journalists that NULGE members were celebrating their ‘ebullient and amiablegovernor,Ugwuanyi for hislandmarkachievements”.

Gombe Teachers Protest over Salary

Teachers in Gombe State have protested the continuous handling of their welfarebythelocalgovernmentauthorities,sayingtheydidnotwantarepeat ofpastexperiences.DaudaUsman,ChairmanNigeriaUnionofTeachers(NUT), GombeStatestatedthisFriday inhisofficeafteraprotestrallytotheoffice of the Head of Service.The NUTChairman said the Kogi State example and their1994experienceinthedefunctBauchistatewereenougheye-openers for them, hence the protest. To this end, he said they would rather prefer to have their salaries and welfare issues transferred to the state government orpaiddirectly.Earlier,theGombebranchofNUTinaspeechoftheNational President read before the state Head of Service threw their weight behind thecallforlocalgovernmentautonomy.Theyhoweversaidtheirconcernwas thesalaryofprimaryschoolteachersasthepoorhandlingofthisstratumof educationhad anoverall effect onqualityand standard.

Ikeja Agog for Glo Mega Music Tour

Ikeja, the capital city of Lagos State, will tomorrow take its turn to host Glo Mega Music NationwideTour, the on-going flagship show of Globacom. AnnouncingtheIkejaeditionofthepopularshowinLagosonThursday,Globacom, in a statement issued from its head office, said that the event would be held at10DegreesEventCentre,Oregun,at4.00p.m.Accordingtothestatement, the major A-Listers who had been part of the show since its inception three months ago were expected to be on hand to entertain guests at the Ikeja edition of the show. Some of the artistes include Tuface, PSquare, Flavour, Timaya,Runtown,ReekadoBanksandKatch. "ThattheGloMegaMusicTour isreturningtoLagosbarelytwoweeksafterweheldablockbustereditionof the show inVictoria Island underscores the pride of place Lagos occupies in our hearts. Ikeja is set to experience the kind of complete and undiluted fun andentertainmentthatwasunleashedattheshowsinVictoriaIsland,Ibadan and other venues",Globacomstated.

Ekiti Anglican Communion Gets New Bishop

AnewAnglicanBishopforEkitiWestDioceseoftheChurchofNigeria(Anglican Communion), the Rt. Rev. Rufus Adepoju, was yesterday enthroned, with a messagethatNigeriawouldovercomeherchallengesandbecomestronger withunityofpurpose.SpeakingathisenthronementattheCathedralChurch of Christ in Ijero-Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Adepoju predicted boom for the country in site of her hydraheaded social political and economic malaise. Adepoju was installed by the ArchbishopofOndoProvince,whoalsodoublesastheDeanoftheChurchof Nigeria(AnglicanCommunion),theMostRev.GeorgeLatunjiLasebikan.The new Bishop said the country would surmount all the challenges facing her if Nigeriansput their trust inGod.

N36m Zakat, Sadaqat

NASFATAgencyforZakatandSadaqat(NAZAS),anon-governmentalorganisationfoundedtotakecareoftheneedyinthesocietyhasreceivedthesumof N36millionasZakatandSadaqat.TheChairman,BoardofTrustees,AlhajiNiyi Yusufsaidthisinastatementaftertheagency’ssecondannualgeneralmeeting, duringtheweek,whereheenumeratedtheiractivitiesduringtheyear.Hesaid outofthemoneyreceived,N21millionwasdistributedtobeneficiaries,including thepoorandneedy,Zakatworkers,converts,relievingofdebtors,payingfor scholarships, relief for victims of insurgent attacks, provision of free public healthoutreachprogrammesandsettlingofemergencymedicalbills.Atthe meeting, attended by other board members at the corporate headquarters oftheagencyinMagodo,Lagos,Yusufextolledthedonorsforupholdingtheir religiousobligationthroughtheagency.

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Obasanjo Challenges AU Leaders on Corruption, Impunity Ebere Nwoji

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has challenged leaders of the African Union member countries to shun every act of impunity and corruption in governance; enthrone the regime of good governance and critically define their interest in the global scheme of things, insisting that they were panacea to the development and advancement of the continent.

Obasanjo, who stated this while addressing a gathering of African media at the 24th Annual General Meeting of the African Export Import(AFREXIM) Bank, holding in Kigali, Rwanda, also appealed to the leaders to liaise with regional Financial institutions like the African Development Bank (ADB), African Import Export (AFREXIM) Bank and a body like Economic Commission For Africa(ECA). That, he said, would enable acquainting themselves with their activities, plans and programmes so as to advance their individual countries' mission, and vision for regional economic integration.

"African leaders should embrace good governance, shun act of impunity in governance, remove prevailing corruption among them for these cannot help us to move forward, it will retrogress development and provision of basic infrastructure that are supposed to enhance trade. With good governance, some of the basic things that we lack will be there, we will have basic amenities like transport without which trade cannot thrive," he stated.

He said for Africa to achieve economic integration, transform its current low level of trade growth

recognised for excellence...

L – R: General Manager, Healthcare West & Central Africa, General Electronics Eyong Ebai; Branch Manager, Ademola Oshodi; Head, Liabilities, Emerging Businesses, Diamond Bank Plc Chizoba Iheme; and Asset manager, Emerging Businesses, Chioma Ogwo, at the Nigeria Health Excellence Awards (NHEA) held in Lagos recently where Diamond Bank clinched the award of the ‘Most Healthcare Friendly Financial Institution of the Year 2017, held in Lagos which he put at 15 per cent and be able to in the next few years, achieve at least 10 per cent growth in intra- regional trade, the private sector, the public sector, regional financial institutions and the civil

society organisations must come together and unanimously agree on where to take the continent to in their struggle to meet their western neighbours in terms of political and economic advancement.

He said African people, must agree to grow together by first realising where they are, what they have achieved, what need to be achieved and what needed to be done to get to their desired destination.

He advised the AU leaders to say no to western pressures, study all their partnership agreement offers, define their own interest and see if such agreements were in their favour or not before signing them.

He noted that Africans were not as weak as they presumed, adding that there was need to change their present mentality that tend to tell them that they were nobody before their western neighbours.

Adewole: Road Accident, 2nd Highest Source NIMASA Trains 2,259 Nigerians of Violent Deaths after B' Haram Cont’d from Pg.1 in Maritime Studies Furthermore, he said the ministry under his leadership had developed a comprehensive guideline for effective coordination of ambulance services among all first responders such as Federal Hospitals, SMOHs, NEMA, FRSC, FFS, NPF, NSCDC, NCC, Nigeria Armed Forces, Private and Voluntary organisations in the country.

Expressing sincere gratitude to the Japanese Government, Adewole said the donation was an outcome of the note-verbal agreement signed by the federal government, represented by the National Planning Commission now Ministry of Budget & National Planning and the Japanese Government, represented by the Japanese Embassy on the 30th September 2014.

“Though the process started over

four years ago, I am glad that it is being concluded in my time. I am aware that the 31 Ambulances that are being handed is the first phase, as an additional 12 ambulances will be handed over to us by 2018, as the second phase. We are highly appreciative of the Japanese Government for its benevolent gesture to the Federal Ministry of Health and indeed, the health sector in Nigeria.

“This move by the Japanese government has provided the opportunity to strengthen greater collaboration and partnership between our two countries. With this kind gesture, our bilateral tie is further deepened.

This gesture will contribute immensely in supporting the Federal Government’s efforts in strengthening

the National Emergency Response Programme (NERP) of the Federal Ministry of Health.

“I understand that the Japanese Government will be providing not only the ambulances but also the training on the effective management of the ambulances. We are optimistic that the knowledge gained from the exercise will enhance the performance of the trained nurses and drivers for effective emergency service delivery,” he added.

The Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Sadanobu Kusaoke said the ambulances were the latest example of a series of Japanese Government’s aid projects in the health sector, which he said was a follow-up to the TICAD VI declaration last year.

AVM Atawodi not on Trial for Fraud Contrary to reports in a national daily, former Chairman, Presidential implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security (PICOMSS), Air Vice- Marshal Saliu Atawodi (Rtd) is not on trial for any offence as falsely reported.

In the report, AVM Atawodi was listed amongst 12 other military generals currently undergoing various court trials in the country bothering on alleged multibillion Naira fraud. The report claimed that AVM Atawodi was still undergoing trial for alleged N600 million fraud.

However, a statement by his

media consultant, Hon Duro Meseko debunked the publication as a tissue of lies, adding that were the publishers of the said false story diligent in their report, they would have discovered that his client was not undergoing any trial.

“We hereby make haste to say that AVM Atawodi is not undergoing any trial for fraud as mischievously claimed. Had the Newspaper done its homework well, it would have realised that the Appeal Court had on June 7, 2017 discharged and acquitted AVM Atawodi of any wrong doing in the alleged N600 million Fraud

case instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against him.

“The judgment of the court was lavishly used as news item by several national dailies, radio and television Stations.

“The question is: What does the Newspaper stand to gain with this false and malicious publication?

Else, how can the photograph and name of a citizen that has been discharged and acquitted by a competent Court of law be prominently displayed on the front page of a national daily still being accused of standing trial for fraud?

Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has said it had facilitated the training of 2,259 young Nigerians in various fields of maritime studies in reputable institutions around the world.

The agency also said the Cabotage Act was undergoing review by the National Assembly to take care of grey areas in the application, processing and granting of waivers in order to give advantage to Nigerian seafarers.

The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, made the

disclosure yesterday at the Oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne, Rivers State during the celebration of this year’s Day of the Seafarers with theme: Seafarers Matter.

He said the reputable maritime institutions where Nigerians were being trained were located in United Kingdom, Egypt, Romania, India and the Philippines.

Peterside also disclosed that the agency had concluded arrangements for the placement of 943 cadets of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) on board vessels for their mandatory sea time.

He said the agency had also maintained consistency in its policy

of training and retraining of seafarers for relevant skills acquisition and upgrade.

“The purpose is to ensure that the country has adequate skilled manpower for the maritime industry, especially in meeting demands of the cabotage regime.

“In this regard, the agency in March this year facilitated the training of 428 seafarers on mandatory courses and other specific areas of specialisation for career progression,” he said.

He listed as part of the sustainable efforts of NIMASA towards building the requisite capacity of the industry to include the establishment of the

Bayelsa, Navy Mourn Ikoli Emmanuel Addeh inYenagoa

It was a flurry of emotions on Friday at the Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha Banquet Hall in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State , where the funeral service of Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli, who died in mysterious circumstances at his residence in Lagos, held.

The Bayelsa State government, family and friends of the deceased who took turns to eulogise him, described the late senior naval officer as a man of “strong character” who would always insist on doing the right thing no matter the pressure.

Ikoli died in April this year, in controversial circumstances

at his official abode on No. 8B Roycroft Street, Apapa GRA, Lagos, just seven months after he was promoted from the rank of a navy commodore to that of a rear admiral.

Rear Admiral John Jonah (Rtd), Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, who represented the Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson during the event, termed Ikoli’s death as “tragic and a surprise”.

The Deputy Governor recalled working with the late naval officer, noting that he was a man with so much potential.

“I had many opportunities of serving with him aboard the same ship like some officers here. I recall

that he was posted here to Central Naval Command (in Bayelsa). I think he spent just one week.

“We had that tradition to point out officers with potential and follow them through. I knew his father in the service and I followed his career when he joined. The impression we had of him has also been attested to here today”, Jonah said.

He added : “He was an uncle to one of my daughters. My daughter was the second person that called me after a naval source informed me of his death. His death was tragic and a surprise. We talked a lot. Then this happened. It’s painful to the family and his course mates here”.

THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •JULy 1, 2017

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IPAC: Young Voters in S’East Risk Disenfranchisement over Shoddy CVR

Governor Emmanuel, Others Mourn Late Ikot Ekpene Monarch

Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia

The serene community of Ikot Abia Idem in Ikot Ekpene local government of Akwa Ibom State was Friday ignited as dignitaries from all walks of life gathered to bid farewell to the departed paramount ruler of the area, Okuku, Engr. Augustus Assiak, who passed on at 85.

Governor Udom Emmanuel and wife, Martha, were among dignitaries and stakeholders who assembled at the Methodist Primary School, Ikot Abia Idem for the funeral rites.

Mr. Emmanuel described the Late Assiak as a peaceful patriot who committed his life to meritorious service to his people, the state and country.

Assiak, he maintained was a consummate telecommunications and media practitioner and paramount ruler of international recognition, lamenting that his loss had left several Akwa Ibom people in a sad mode.

“He was indeed a colossus who would be missed dearly, and I implore all of us to honour his memory by

The Southeast caucus of the Interparty Advisory Council (IPAC) has raised the alarm over possible disenfranchisement of huge number of prospective young voters in the Southeast zone following the shoddy manner the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise was being implemented.

Speaking with THISDAY in Umuahia the chairman of IPAC, Southeast caucus, Chief Emeka Okafor said that the Council was not satisfied at the level of logistics put in place by INEC to capture the expected number of young persons who have come of age of voting.

He said that having gone round the registration centres with his team IPAC had observed that a huge number

of prospective voters were losing interest in the registration exercise after being subjected to wait endlessly for hours without being captured in the voters register.

The IPAC chairman said that the very slow pace of the registration exercise made the prospective young voters to get frustrated and abandon the idea of obtaining voter’s card hence the urgent need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make the exercise less cumbersome.

“INEC should ensure that young persons who have attained the required age for voting are given the opportunity to register to participate in future elections,” he said.

The IPAC chairman stated that it has become most pertinent for INEC to take urgent action now

and remove the logjam in the registration exercise, especially in Anambra State where governorship election would hold in a few months’ time.

“People are not really happy at the slow pace of registering of voters in all the states of the Southeast,” he said, adding that “INEC must do something to ensure that all eligible voters are captured.”

Chief Okafor noted that the national electoral body should have shown more seriousness in the continuous voter registration by decentralisng the registration centres instead of concentrating them in the local government headquarters and also made more machines available.

He lamented that shoddy jobs arising from inadequate logistics by INEC had in the past resulted in low registration

of voters in the Southeast zone thereby reducing their voting population hence the need to correct the anomaly.

The IPAC chairman therefore called on the governors of the Southeast zone to take up the challenge of ensuing that every legible voter was registered, adding that the state chief executives should not only mount intensive mobilization campaign in their respective states but also assist INEC with logistics where necessary to make the registration exercise smooth.

He reminded the governors that without voters there could be no credible poll and democracy would be imperiled hence the need do everything possible to ensure that no eligible voter was denied the opportunity to be added to the nation’s voting population.

following the path of peace.

“You needed to see this man in the traditional rulers’ chambers with other paramount rulers when they wanted to flare, he will always be the one to calm situations down, we will miss him greatly,” the governor said.

Mr. Emmanuel however said the state was consoled by the distinctions Assiak made in public service, which stood him out as “a great repository of knowledge, compassion, profound sense of wisdom and inspiration to all of us.”

Others who spoke included the immediate past Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio who described Assiak as a man of justice who believed strongly in justice and equity in the Akwa Ibom polity.

Akpabio said the deceased rallied with other royal fathers to advocate the doctrines of power shifts, so that all the three senatorial districts could be equal participants in the Akwa Ibom.

Lagos Moves to Attain Safe, Flood-free Environment

Two Good Heads...

L-R: Governor of Anambra State Chief Willie Obiano and State Commander, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mr. Sule Momoh during a state function on security matters... recently

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Friday launched the new environmental management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), expressing optimism that the development would drive the State to achieving clean, hygienic and flood-free environment.

Speaking at the soft launch of the CLI held at Agege Stadium, Governor Ambode said the initiative was an enduring solution carefully designed to address the shortcomings in the management of the environment, as well as accelerate seamless cleaning of the State.

The Governor, who was represented by the State’s Deputy Governor, Mrs. Idiat Adebule, said since the inception of his administration, sanitation had been given priority as it was important for maintaining a secure and more prosperous State.

While recalling the signing of the Environmental Management Protection Law which he performed in March 2017, Governor Ambode said deliberate reforms to revolutionise the solid waste management sector in line with international best practices

had been put in place through the CLI, and urged the people to support government in its bid to transform the sector.

“To roll back sanitation shortcomings and accelerate seamless cleaning of our environment, the Lagos megacity was in dire need of an enduring solution that would match the needed technology with the massive investment required for its attainment.

“It is this void that the CLI has come to fill by creating an environment for the private sector to harness international best practices in the vital area of solid waste management and consequently free public funds for other beneficial uses.

“As a result, residential waste collection and processing which is concessioned to a reputable and competent multinational Waste Services Company is being given a new lease of life with 600 brand new compactors and 900,000 electronically tracked bins, while wastes generated by the commercial sector would be handled by licensed waste management operators (PSP),”he assured.

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The first National Chairman the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande has asserted that money-politics would soon kill Nigerian politicians and political system if not curtailed.

According to Akande, moneypolitics had eroded the core values of politics which was to serve the people, saying that Nigerian politicians were sitting on a time bomb with the practice and growing of monetisation of politics.

Akande stated this on Friday in his opening remarks at the meeting of Osun APC Elders Forum tagged ‘Agba Osun’ held at his country home in Ila. The former governor of Osun State who said he could not think of a step to take to curtail the practice, maintained that the introduction of money politics into the political system was detrimental to the development and progress of Nigerian political system.

He warned the APC leadership not deviate from the politics of service to the people, no matter the pressure being promoted by the general outlook of corruption that formed the foundation of the country’s problems.

In the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the APC elders also frowned at what they described as ‘strange political practices being imported to the South West especially, politics of stomach infrastructure, money politics and politics of self-aggrandisements.

The APC elders stated that the ‘alien political practices’ were already eroding the core value of progressive politics to almost non-existence.

The communiqué signed by Engineer Sola Akinwumi, the chairman of the group, reads: The leaders frowned at strange political practices being imported to the South West especially, i.e. politics of stomach infrastructure, money politics and politics of self-aggrandisements.

Secession Threat: Group Blames Elites APC Will Decide my Ambition for over Delayed Restructuring of Nigeria 2019, Says Dakuku Peterside 'Money‘ll Kill Nigerian Political System' Anayo Okolie

The Concerned Niger Delta Youths Initiative has blamed the heightened threats of secession in the country on the Nigerian political elites for orchestrating the delay in restructuring Nigeria.

A statement made available by the group after an emergency meeting in Port Harcourt on the current upsurge in secession threats and clamours for restructuring of the country, the group believes that with a restructured federalism, Nigeria was bound to return to its path of greatness and leadership of Africa.

The group however, asserted that now that all sections of the country had seen reasons with its earlier avowed position, a thorough job should be made of the return to true federalism encompassing resource control.

The statement which indicted the political elite for the unpleasant state of the country, also observed that subsequent executive and legislative

arms of the federal government were engaged in endless reluctance and procrastination against correcting the structural imbalance of Nigeria’s federalism.

According to the founder of the peace advocacy group, Comrade Ebis Orubebe, this organisation welcomed the growing support from various quarters across the country for its earlier position for restructuring and resolved with renewed vigour and determination at this daunting period of diminishing patriotism and national productivity to pursue urgent and far-reaching reforms of the current structures of the country’s federalism to serve as effective discouragement for the pervading discontent and raging agitations for secession by ethnic groups.

He added that restructuring the country remained the reliable, potent and cost-effective approach to dealing with the current magnitude of corruption and underdevelopment of the country.

Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt

The All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State during the 2015 general elections, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said the decision to run or not in the 2019 election would be made by his party.

Peterside, who is the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), spoke to journalists yesterday at the side-lines of the celebration of this year’s Day of the Seafarers at the Oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne, Rivers State.

He spoke at the background of calls for him to run again for the governorship of Rivers State in 2019.

“That decision (to run) will be made by my party and the people of Rivers State. We have not made that decision yet,” he said.

There has been speculations of divisions in the Rivers State chapter of the APC following alleged gubernatorial ambition

of the senator representing Rivers South East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe. Indeed, the Minister of Transportation and Leader of the APC in Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, removed local government caucus leaders of the party who were suspected to be supporting Abe’s ambition.

Some of the caucus leaders who were relieved of their positions confirmed that they were sacked because of their support for the gubernatorial ambitions of Abe. But Peterside said there was no rift within the party but mere disagreements that were normal in any organisation.

His words: “There is absolutely no rift within the Rivers State chapter of the APC. The party is united under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.

In various families, from time to time, you see people see things from different perspectives. But over time, there is an internal mechanism to solve those issues.

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • july 1, 2017

Maritime bits with John Iwori.... 08057763164

L-R: Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Gambo Ahmed, Director General, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, General Manager, INTELS L-R: Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Customs Area Controller (CAC), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Comptroller Nigeria Limited, Mr. Silvano Bellinato, Assistant General Manager INTELS, Mr. Chibuike Oyebuike, and Deputy Mohammed Garba Uba and the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Zonal Coordinator, West, Sir Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Nigeria Shippers’ Council, Mr. Chukwuemeka Agu, at the John Ofobike when the latter led chapters’ executives in the zone on a courtesy visit to FOU A, Lagos…recently celebration of the Day of the Seafarer in Onne...recently

Dakuku’s Input to Maritime Development The management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) led by the Director General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside has proved right the aphorism “it is not how long but how well”. This is sequel to the meaningful contributions it has made to the development of the agency and the maritime industry since it was appointed over a year ago.

The general belief in the maritime industry is that Peterside has to a large extent delivered on his promise on assumption of office to harness Nigeria’s vast potentials and make her a maritime hub in the West and Central Africa sub-region.

Stakeholders have averred that he has reasonably succeeded at promoting the development of indigenous capacity in international and coastal shipping besides effectively regulating the maritime industry through a three-year medium

Stakeholders Want Girls to Embrace Maritime Stakeholders in the maritime industry have urged women to play active roles in the shipping sector of the economy.

They argued that if more women embrace the maritime industry, they would be in a vantage position to redress the present poor presence of the female folk in the shipping sector.

According to these stakeholders, when more women, especially young girl, they would help in no small way to redress the present imbalance between the number of men and women actively involved in the maritime industry.

They stated this in Lagos recently at a sensitisation programme to some secondary school girls on career opportunities in the nation’s maritime industry.

The programme was organised under the auspices of the Girls Go-To-Sea Campaign (GGOTSEC), a pet-project of Face of Maritime International (FOMI).

The stakeholders who spoke at the event that attracted several maritime experts include the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman and the DirectorGeneral of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside and the Secretary General, Abuja MoU, Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro.

Speaking in a lecture titled, “What a Man Can Do, a Woman Can Do Even Better”, Usman informed the students that there were spaces for women in the maritime industry, adding that even if there was no space, they should create the space themselves. She maintained that gone were the days when the maritime industry was looked upon as men’s world.

Usman reminded them that when they strive to create space for themselves in the maritime industry, they were not doing that only for themselves but for those coming after them just like those were currently on the stage were doing for young girls who are going to take over from them tomorrow.

term strategic growth plan of reformation, restructuring and repositioning of the agency.

The blueprint was in line with the ‘change’ agenda of the President Buhari’s administration aimed at diversifying the economy. This was confirmed when Buhari recently acknowledged the agency’s performance under Peterside, especially his fight against sea piracy through inter-agency co-operation.

Besides Buhari, maritime experts agreed that the modest contributions Peterside has made to the development of the agency and the maritime industry informed Nigeria’s hosting of the Association of Africa’s Maritime Administrators (AAMA) conference in Abuja.

His election to head the association was an affirmation of his achievements.

While the rebranding of the agency through

the unveiling of its new logo by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has infused a new dose of energy into the NIMASA brand, the hosting has also contributed in enhancing Nigeria’s chances to return to Council at IMO in Category C. The Presidency has given nod to NIMASA to seek election into IMO. Despite Peterside’s appointment at a time when the number of vessels and volume of cargoes have dropped due to recession and fiscal policies, he has been able to administer the agency effectively by drawing from his wealth of experience in politics and the legislature.

This explained his successes in the areas of human capacity building, the implementation of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP),Search and Rescue (SAR), the development of shipping, maritime security

Why NCS Exceeded Its Revenue Target in Q1 Lagos base veteran licensed customs agent, Prince Olusegun Ologbese has given an insight into the reasons why the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) exceeded its revenue target in the first quarter of the year.

NCS which has Colonel Ibrahim Hameed Ali (retired) as the Comptroller General had in a public statement said it had not only met its revenue target for the first quarter of the year but also exceeded it.

While commending the NCS for the feat, Ologbese who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Ogbese Maritime Services Limited attributed it to the blocking of the numerous revenue leakages in the system.

According to the veteran licensed customs agent who is popularly called “Alaye” for his rich experience and vast knowledge of the freight forwarding business said the measures put in place by NCS management team has started yielding results. On assumption of office over a year ago, the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) put this revenue blocking mechanism in place but it is only now they have started manifesting the desired results.

He stated that the feat was no surprise to those who have been following developments in the NCS High Command since President Mohammadu Buhari appointed the retired military officer as the NCS boss.

“The steadfastness of the CGC and his officers, particularly the Customs Area Controllers (CAC) who oversee NCS formations across the country also contributed immensely to these achievements”, he said.

Speaking to THISDAY in an exclusive interview in Lagos, Ologbese who is also the Life Patron of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ),

Ondo and Ekiti Councils said: “As far as I am concerned, it is not a surprise that Customs did not only meet its revenue target in the first quarter of 2017 but also exceeded it. Since last year, the service has put in place a lot of mechanisms in place to block the loopholes where revenue often leak in the system.

“I strongly believed that it is now these measures put in place by the CGC and his management team have started yielding the results we are witnessing now. There is no doubt that we are going to witness more good results in terms of higher revenue generation by the service in the months ahead. Again, this increase in revenue can be attributed to the fact that officers and men have doubled up their efforts in three core functions of the NCS in line with the charge of the CGC. These include revenue generation, anti-smuggling campaign, and trade facilitation”.

Ologbese expressed delight that the increase in the revenue collected by the NCS is coming at a time that there was not much expectations due to the downturn in the economy.

He also noted that the NCS was achieving the feat at a time the initiatives of the service was biting harder on port users, especially importers and licensed customs agents.

The maritime expert enjoined the NCS, especially Ali and his management team not to rest on their oars as there was still room for improvement in the service delivery in the months ahead.

“They can only do this if they continue to maintain the hard work as well as ensure trade facilitation for port users, especially genuine importers and licensed customs agents”, he added.

and safety, anti-piracy, implementation of the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code and the Cabotage Act. The management has been able to control and prevent maritime pollution, carried out certification, employment and welfare of maritime labour, perform port and flag state duties, established the procedure for the implementation of international conventions on maritime labour, security and safety, as well as discharge its air and coastal surveillance effectively.

On assumption of office, he had introduced a new work ethics, focused on the training and retraining of personnel, the improvement of their welfare across board and the promotion of workers. Promotions last took place 10 years ago. These have impacted positively on the agency’s contributions to the maritime industry.

20,000 Jobs at Risk as NPA, INTELS Rift Deepens No fewer than 20, 000 jobs in the oil and gas rich Niger Delta region are at risk as the rift between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigeria’s premier concessionaire and logistics giant, INTELS Nigeria Limited deepens.

Decrying a situation where a simple matter between the two organisations would have resolved through dialogue was now degenerating into face-off with thousands of jobs at risk, importers under the auspices of the Nigerian Importers Integrity Association (NIIA) called for Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s intervention.

President of NIIA, Mr. Godwin Onyekazi in a statement in Lagos said it was unfortunate that a simple business disagreement, which could have been amicably resolved “at the coffee table”, was allowed to degenerate to the point where more than 20,000 jobs are on the line.

His words: “INTELS is a major operator in oil and gas, maritime and real estate industries. It is one of the largest employers of labour in the country and in the Niger Delta region. It should therefore concern any well-meaning Nigerian that NPA is unable to amicably resolve and manage its differences with such organization. We have also read that INTELS is being persecuted because of its perceived links to a top politician in the country. This political dimension to the entire saga makes the intervention of His Excellency Acting President Yemi Osinbajo imperative.

“We do not think that companies operating in the country should be subjected to political persecution especially at this time when the Federal Government is pushing hard for peace to reign in the Niger Delta region. It is an exercise in delusion to think that there is any other facility in-country that can provide the type of services INTELS is providing to the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas majors will simply move to Angola, Sao Tome and Principe or South Africa to enjoy the kind of services they enjoy at INTELS if INTELS is no longer in position to provide such service. The implication of this is huge revenue loss to the country and loss of jobs in the Niger Delta region.”

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •July 1, 2017

Interview

‘Ikpeazu Will Deliver His Electoral Promises’ Kingsley Megwara PDP chieftain in Abia State and General Manager Abia State Passengers Integrated Manifest Scheme (ASPIMS) spoke on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s recent court victory validating his mandate and why he is bent on delivering his electoral promises, the setbacks notwithstanding. The former Special Adviser on Diaspora Affairs under Governor Theodore Orji also talked on Made in Aba products and why they are gaining global acceptance, all thanks to Ikpeazu, the chief marketing officer. He spoke with Nduka Nwosu

O

Aasia especially with the popularity of the Southeast created caftan, now a national dress?

It will interest you to know that the nationally accepted caftan from the Southeast has also gone global with large exports going to such Asian countries as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia. In China, there was an impressive acceptance of the leather products considered to be of a very high standard. This is the game plan of the chief marketing officer and brand manager Okezie Ikpeazu, which is to make Aba the Japan of Africa. The net effect is that such surrounding towns of Arochukwu, Ohafia, Umunneochi, Igbere, Abiriba and Umuahia will be rejuvenated businesswise. Sociologists will tell you there is a correlation between increased business activity and a fall in crime.

When industrial activity is re-activated there is a multiplier effect that affects one form of business or the other. I am very impressed with the way this governor and his government are going in reactivating business activity in Aba, which is to place high premium on infrastructure development with emphasis on roads and electricity.

kezie Ikpeazu’s recent Supreme Court victory was widely celebrated in Abia State. Why? The celebration was the natural expectation of truth over falsehood.

Anything to the contrary would have been a slap on democracy. It would have amounted to de-legitimisation of the wishes of the people. The majority of Abians who registered for the election went out en masse to vote for Okezie Ikpeazu and the result was decisive.

Anything other than what the court ruled would have been a rape on democracy.

The positive ruling of the court called for jubilation because democracy had been vindicated. It was a celebration of justice and fair play. We want to continue the peaceful co-existence of the three Senatorial districts of Abia State and this partly is what Okezie Ikpeazu’s mandate represents.

How has this whole thing impacted negatively the business of governance in Abia?

In spite of the distractions he may have been caused, Ikpeazu was largely focused in the business of governance.

Aba the commercial nerve centre of Abia is a veritable evidence of his performance profile with its new look and work in progress. The expectation is that as we move forward into the future, electoral cases should be quickly dispensed with so that those involved would have time to face the business of governance.

Moving forward what are the expectations of the people?

There are expectations in every facet of our development of the state. The governor has pledged to re-double his efforts in tackling the problems of the state especially in those areas that were most affected by the distractions of the last two years.

Our primary goal is to the people who are expecting so much to be done. This governor has already re-pledged his loyalty to the people and total commitment to efforts geared at improving their standard of living. There are efforts to upgrade the infrastructure of the commercial city of Aba and the result so far is very impressive so much that the opposition cannot but commend Ikpeazu for the transformation Aba is witnessing.

Aba is on its way to compete with other industrialised cities of the world enjoying high profile infrastructure development.

How would you rate Ikpeazu’s campaign for Made in Aba products?

Here in Abia State Georgio Armani and Beverly Hill suits are no longer in vogue.

The brand name now is made in Aba because we are proud of the unique selling point of Aba made products-clothes, bags, shoes, high quality leather materials, et al.

We are thinking inward and the responses as well as the results are amazing. Our shoes, bags, belts and other clothing accessories are made in Aba with the governor as the chief marketing officer and brands manager. He is working on his fellow governors to buy into Aba products as a way of promoting made in Nigeria products. This campaign extends to the Armed Forces-the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Defence, NYSC, Customs & Excise and the Immigration. The message is the same-patronise made in Aba products

Megwara

which have become even a more attractive imperative given their high quality and our foreign exchange constraints. It will interest you to know that these products receive very high ratings outside the country and with quality control adjustments that will add value to the marketability. Aba makes better shoes now than China and Malaysia.

Governor Ikpeazu was recently in China to bring in more sophisticated equipment for manufacturers of Aba made products while the artisans are being exposed to such countries as China, Malaysia and Korea to broaden their skill and knowledge of what is happening elsewhere. The Governor’s vision is to re-position Aba on a global standard as the emerging Japan of Africa. When this happens, businesses would be reactivated, jobs would be available and the crime rate would diminish.

This is already happening and this is Ikpeazu’s game plan as he markets made in Aba products in different parts of the world, the US inclusive later this year.

What is the state government doing to regain Aba market’s hold on the sub-regional market?

If the federal government can curb the volume of importation and smuggled goods competing with Aba made products, Aba market will go a long way regaining its hold on the sub-regional market.

Government can do this the same way it restricted the quantity of rice imported into the country.

Boosting the infrastructure in the Southeast will be a sure way the FG can attract the ECOWAS member countries to the Aba International market. Our roads are in a dilapidated state and electricity supply is epileptic.

What happened and what attempts are being made to reactivate the traffic of Aba made garments to

Is there a PPP arrangement to help fast-track development projects in the state, in particular Aba? The PPP arrangement is part of the development process embraced by the governor and it encompasses most key projects in the state Aba inclusive. If you recall the Acting President visited Abia State recently and opened the Investment House in the state capital Umuahia.

The Investment House is a one talk shop where all you need to do business in the state can be packaged. In the past it was a cumbersome arrangement that would have taken you to different parts of the state but now under one roof the ease of doing business in Abia has been guaranteed. This is part of what the Ikpeazu administration has been doing in the past two years- to erect the right foundation for the effective take-off of a modern Abia State. Here too the immediate past governor, Senator Theodore Orji deserves commendation for his ability to erect a foundational structure, which Governor Ikpeazu is consolidating.

Under Ikpeazu our state has been in a better shape moving forward than it has ever been. That is why those of us who are here believe in equity and fairness.

The founding fathers of Abia and the PDP said the governorship slot of Abia would rotate among the three senatorial zones starting from Abia North Senatorial Zone to Abia Central Senatorial Zone and now to the South. Six years from now, it will return to the North in the spirit of fairness and equity. Again Senator Theodore Orji deserves a pat on the back for fighting tirelessly by assembling men of goodwill who along with him insisted the governorship must move to the South because we want to live in peace and harmony. This is the only arrangement that guarantees the future of a greater Abia State under Governor Ikpeazu.

How has ASPIMS, the emergency response unit of Abia State fared till date?

ASPIMS is here to complement the efforts of the state government. At inception, ASPMS was set up to cater for the interest of commercial motorists but now extends

to all motorists in Abia. If you remember ASPMS was set up 17 years ago, today it has grown to be the only emergency response unit that operates 24 hours with our ambulances strategically located within reach of a few minutes an emergency call is made. The state government has generously continued to increase ASPIM’s fleet of ambulances to a total of eight, which makes response very convenient and lifesaving. This is a remarkable achievement and you will agree with me the number one priority of any government is not only to save and preserve life but to add quality to it. This is exactly what goes on here. We are empowered to hire and re-train our para-medical personnel so as to provide quality services to the people.

How is the state coping with such security issues arising from the activities of Fulani herdsmen, kidnapping, internet fraud, armed robbery and the like?

The issue of Fulani herdsmen has become a national issue that should concern every well-meaning Nigerian because one problem in one part of the country can create a chain reaction in other parts of the country.

Freedom of movement and free enterprise anywhere in the country are constitutionally guaranteed but that does not translate to trampling into other people’s rights and property. Abia remains one of the safest places in the country to do business. The issue of security loomed large under Governor Orji’s administration when kidnappers and people with other criminal tendencies became a menace to the state.

These criminals were effectively routed and since then Abia State has remained a reference point for other states that want peace and orderliness to attract investors.

Under Ikpeazu Abia has gained the status of an investment haven and security is guaranteed with the armed forces and local vigilante, our own form of homeland security, effectively in-charge.

How strong is Abia PDP as 2019 approaches?

Abia PDP is totally intact and there has not been any incident of cross-carpeting especially with the promising policies of the Ikpeazu administration. The PDP remains the viable party that appeals to the Southeast because of its spread as a national party. In this part of the country we have always embraced the party with a national spread just like we embraced the National Party of Nigeria because of its geographical appeal. PDP remains Nigeria’s only national party and it has a track record people can connect with.

Nigerians are in a position to respond to the question whether we are better today than we were yesterday. Where is the change we were promised? Let me restate that Abia PDP under the Ikpeazu administration is one hundred percent intact. What matters to the people or the electorate is not the party but what each party in power is capable of delivering to the people. Our democratic space now is such that the electorate can vote out a party for non-performance. Yet we need INEC to perfect this new order because in spite of the fact that the days of ballot snatching are coming to an end there are politicians who feel they can do without the people’s votes through rigging.

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July 1, 2017 • THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper

Features

Widows being offered medical healthcare during the programme

Putting Smile on the Faces of Widows

T

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

he outpouring of love and testimonies that rent the air at Rose Of Sharon Glorious Ministry auditorium on June 23, was unprecedented.It was on the occasion of the International Widows’ Day, a day set aside and recognised by the United Nations to celebrate widows globally. Widows, young and old, had gathered in their hundreds. These widows were beneficiaries of the Rose Of Sharon Foundation, an NGO focused on alleviating the plight of widows and orphans.

The atmosphere at the event locates the purpose of the occasion which was meant to draw public’s attention to their challenges. In so doing, they will draw many more positive influencers in one way or the other in fighting for the widows and their children all over the nation while providing for their needs. These needs include but not limited to free medical healthcare, scholarship and sponsorships, free interest loans to enable them start up businesses, and provision of free legal services to support other agencies.

Tagged, the Rose of Sharon International Widows’ Day, the organisers noted that the event marked the 4th celebration by the foundation since inception in line with United Nations mandate to celebrate the course of widows. Ironically, the same international agency had described widows all over the world as: “absent in statistics, unnoticed by researchers, neglected by national and local authorities and mostly overlooked by civil society”. It is of utmost concern then that their travails and challenges have gone almost unnoticed by the generality of the society.

The widows have different kinds of challenges from time to time, many of which are not immediately met. However, the Rose of Sharon Foundation which is strongly believed to be spiritually mandated and committed not to allow their plights to go unnoticed are more so, determined to fight for their rights and provide succour to them as best as possible. Hence the need to celebrate them regularly, especially on the day globally recognised.

The founder of Rose of Sharon, Mrs. FolorunsoAlakija, whom the women described as their pillar and source of strength, encouragement and inspiration, had amongst other distinguished personalities graced the occasion. The personalities include Her Excellency, The First Lady of Lagos State Mrs. BolanleAmbode, represented by Dr. Folashade Onanuga, Director General, Lagos State Pension Commission; and Mrs. AyodejiMegbope (CEO No Left Overs Nigeria Limited). Others are Mrs. Aisha Imeh-James of Ample Food Venture; Mr. Adewumi Oni (Head, Micro Enterprise Unit of the Lagos State Employability Trust Fund); and the Medical Doctors and their team led by Dr. Martina Agberien.

The guests had by their various offerings impacted on the widows one way or the other through either medical and health services provided during the course of the day, to cash donation made by the First Lady of Lagos State, on to the healthtalk delivered

L-R: Folashade Onanuga, Folorunso Alakija and Ayodeji Megbope during the Rose of Sharon International Widows’ Day celebration

by Dr. Friday Oke of Vision Spring on eye maintenance and care treatment.

The offerings include a special medical outreach session where the women were given medical treatments, such as checking up their blood pressure to finding out if any one of them had any form of ailment. Ranging from diabetes and high blood pressure tests, this had preceded other programmes of the day, leading up to the main conference of the event.

Health workers including doctors and nurses attended to the widows, drugs were prescribed and dispensed to them after various assessments on them. Those with ailments such as high BP and low sugar level based on the result of the tests carried out, got drugs prescribed to them in turn.

In her capacity as the Grand Matron of The Rose of Sharon Foundation, the First Lady of Lagos State, Mrs. BolanleAmbode, donated N1,000,000 to support and advance the cause of the widows. The money was allocated equally amongst the widows present at the occasion.

One of the high points of the day was the amazingly inspiring story of the guest speaker Mrs. Megbope, whose ‘moimoi’ business she started with just a thousand naira has grown into a full scale catering company.

According to Mrs. Alakija, “This year, we have with us a seasoned entrepreneur as our guest speaker in the person of Mrs. Ayodeji Megbope, the CEO of No Left Overs Nigeria Limited, a full-scale catering company. She started with a take-off capital of N1000 but today has an annual turn-over that runs into millions of naira.” She took the widows on a roller coaster of her grass to grace journey just to encourage and empower them towards economic liberation.

“This same business has taken her to the

White House in America. We hope that her story will inspire and encourage many of our widows and others today, to believe in themselves and realise that with hard work and tenacity, no amount is too small to start the journey towards economic freedom,” Mrs. Alakija added.

With the theme of this year’s celebration being “Economic Empowerment of Widows: A Call To Reach Out And Touch”, the foundation believes that the greatest need for widows is economic empowerment. “This is because most of them are stripped of their husband’s financial and material resources at the demise of their spouse. The result is that widowed mothers would have to support their families alone.

“Without help and support, they are forced to withdraw their children from school and to rely on their labour. Moreover, the daughters of these widows may suffer multiple deprivations, increasing their vulnerability to abuse.

The sons may get into bad company and so on and so forth.”

Speaking on the journey and success so far recorded by the foundation, Mrs. Alakija said: “Initially we had just three widows for a year and half and we cried to the Lord, saying ‘there ought to be widows in this state and in this country, where are they?”Eventually God spoke to me to go on air. Three words, ‘go on air’. I did just that and in one day, having gone on air, we had a hall full of 250 widows,” “That’s how we started. And we ended up empowering up to 900 widows to date, including sending two of their children or as the case maybe later on, one of their children to school on scholarship from whichever level they came to ask, to university and now we have extended that level to masters’ degrees amongst those who excelled exceptionally.

And we give glory to God.” She however called for the enforcement of various laws that forbid barbaric acts against widows and those that were vulnerable in the society, of which category children and orphans fall into. She also used the occasion to charge the government at all levels to support and provide specifically for the widows and not only women who were being maltreated and bartered as is the case in some states of the federation.

On her part, the First Lady of Lagos State Mrs. Ambode noted that “in our society, the public unfortunately despise the widows.

We sometimes even punish them rather than sympathise and empathise with them on the death of their beloved husbands.

“We all appear to forget that death is inevitable and hence we cannot but have widows, widowers, and orphans in our midst. ”The issue is what is our responsibility towards this vulnerable group? Should we care for them and their children? Should we give them a sense of belonging or should we abandon them and give them treatment given to lepers?”

She added that the plight of widows as an ostracised group was a human rights catastrophe.

“Depending on the part of the world you come from, the treatments meted out to widows differ but one thing is sure – widowhood makes the woman vulnerable. The loss of a husband is the first traumatic step in a long term ordeal.”

Mrs. Ambode expressed her desire that the widows in our immediate environment and in Nigeria at large live a life free of stigmatisation and rejection by the society, adding that widows should have the right to peace of mind and their self esteem should in no way be diminished.

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper • july 1, 2017

polity

2019: Gov. Ugwuanyi and Enugu Traders’ Endorsement

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Louis Amoke here is no doubt that the indices of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s popularity and acceptance by the people of Enugu State are gathering momentum by the day, with gales of endorsements for his re-election in 2019 from different strata of the society .

For instance, while the members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu West and North Senatorial Districts of the state had unanimously endorsed him for second term because of his unprecedented achievements in just two years in office despite the severe economic challenges in the country, the state’s workers, during a one-day symposium organised by the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Enugu State Council, passed a vote of confidence in the governor and asked him to “carry go”.

The most recent was the endorsement by the state’s traders under the auspices of Enugu State Amalgamated Market Traders Association (ESAMATA). The traders at a solidarity rally they organised in appreciation of Governor Ugwuanyi’s entrenchment of good governance and initiation of a unique traders’ empowerment programme, also unanimously endorsed his re-election in 2019, saying that he had “performed creditably in just two years in office despite the daunting economic challenges in the country”.

The traders in a display of their appreciation and support, shut all the markets in the state and mobilised en masse to the venue of the rally to honour the governor. They were full of gratitude for good governance and his uncommon empowerment initiatives to give traders in the state a sense of belonging and bring them closer to the government as the true heroes of democracy. These outpouring endorsements, which are in recognition of the governor’s people-oriented programmes aimed at impacting positively on the lives of the people, have gone a long way to give credence to the overwhelming support and goodwill he enjoys from the people of the state.

Announcing the decision to shut the markets, the President General of the associa-

Gov. Ugwuanyi tion, Hon. Temple Ude, stated that “the plan to shut down the markets to celebrate Ugwuanyi was a unanimous decision of the traders in the state”.

Ude had added that traders will converge to appreciate and celebrate our traders-friendly governor for his support and good governance.

He said the rally would offer the traders a unique opportunity to interact with the governor and take far reaching decisions that would further improve their fortunes as well as sustain the progress of the state.

He stated that the governor’s empowerment programme tagged “Enugu State Traders Empowerment Scheme”, flagged off on February 21, 2017, is one of the policy thrusts of the present administration carefully designed to assist the traders to grow their various businesses for the socio-economic stimulation of the state. It has a package of

N60 million annually for 100 lucky winners monthly at N50,000 each through an open raffle draw.

Consequently, 1,200 traders in the state will be empowered annually and 400 traders have so far benefited.

The governor’s vision has remained that winners of the lottery would invest the money into their various businesses to help promote all round economic growth in the state.

It would be recalled that Ugwuanyi’s administration had organised a similar open lottery programme for civil servants in the state from grade levels 1-10, where 100 lucky winners won one unit of one bedroom apartment each at Elim Estate, Enugu, with the state government paying over 50 per cent equity contribution – a landmark feat that saw 100 lucky civil servants become proud landlords in the state.

At the rally, immediately Ugwuanyi arrived the venue, the traders burst into dance steps praising and cheering as he walked round with other dignitaries to appreciate and acknowledge the cheers from them.

It was indeed an enduring encounter between “a governor and his people”, as the excitement that exuded from the jubilant crowd was a reality of the governor’s swelling popularity and acceptance.

The rally was also a demonstration of unwavering support, love, goodwill and solidarity as the traders could not hide their enthusiasm for the governor’s good works in the state and his kind thoughts for them, saying that his administration “is most favourable to traders doing business in Enugu State”.

In his address, Ude stated that the traders were very happy and at home with Ugwuanyi for his visionary leadership and the empowerment programme initiated by his administration, adding that “the idea was to stimulate the economy of the state as well as alleviate the sufferings of the people”.

The President General applauded the cordial relationship between the governor and traders in the state, saying that “it is equal to none when compared to other states in Nigeria, especially in the south east states”.

Expressing their desire for him to govern

the state beyond 2023, Ude said, “Your Excellency, no government in the past has ever attempted to establish the existing relationship between traders and government. Traders in Enugu State have resolved that if tenure elongation is democratic, they will sponsor a bill that Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi should be cleared for third term in office. Sir, we are committed to showing loyalty and sacrifice to your government, hence you have done much to traders in Enugu State”.

On security and workers’ welfare, he noted that Ugwuanyi had created “an enviable security outreach in the 17 local government areas with the establishment and equipping of the Neighbourhood Watch associations in all the nooks and crannies of the state, and has equally remained regular in the payment of workers’ salaries, disclosing that such feat has gone a long way in encouraging traders to do business in the state.

“We are convinced that even with the current economic hardship you still positively navigate the affairs of the state for the betterment of the people of Enugu State. We have unanimously endorsed your re-election come 2019”.

The traders equally commended the state’s Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Sam Ogbu-Nwobodo, for his accessibility to them, disclosing that this is the first time since the inception of democracy in the state traders’ complaints are being “treated promptly without any iota of nepotism”.

Responding, Ugwuanyi thanked the visibly jubilant traders for the gesture, love, goodwill, solidarity, enthusiasm and support, adding that he felt highly honoured that they shut down the markets in the state to gather in their numbers “to show appreciation for the empowerment scheme that we launched for traders in Enugu State last February”.

Ugwuanyi explained that the Traders’ Empowerment Scheme, carefully designed to boost economic activities in the state and improve the lives of the ordinary members of the society, was “in line with our promise to deploy government resources and services to create fair and equal opportunity for every citizen to make a living, create wealth and enjoy life in a peaceful and secure environment”.

Photo news

L-R; Chairman, Continental Reinsurance Plc, Chief Ajibola Ogunsola; former Chairman/Gust Speaker, Mr. Akin Laguda; and Managing Director/ CEO, Dr. Femi Oyetunji; at the 30th Anniversary/Dinner of Continental Reinsurance Plc, held in Lagos...recently

L-R: Elujobade Tolulope, Taiwo Ojo, Peter Okoye of PSquare, a Glo subscriber, Bimbo Bakare, Nollywood legend, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Paul Okoye also of PSquare and Kehinde Ojo at the Ibadan edition of the Glo Mega Music Nationwide Tour held at the University of Ibadan International Conference, yesterday

L-R: Deputy Manager, Training, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Coutroupis Constantine; Acting General Manager, Methods / Procedures, Mr. Adebakin Tajudeen; Managing Consultant, Al-Lawal Jafaru Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Jafaru Lawal; and Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Mr. Lawal Itopa Lamidi, during a workshop on Strategic Financial Management for NNPC staff, in Lagos…recently

R-L: Second Vice District Governor elect, Lion Wesley O. Kafidiya; former Minister of Aviation, Lion (AVM) Anthony Okpere (rtd); Wife of District Governor 404B2, Lion Ololade Adewunmi; District Governor 404B2 Nigeria, LionTaiwo Adewunmi and Chairperson award committee, Lion Mariam Kareem, during Centennial District Governor’s Report of stewardship and awrds of excellence by the International Association of Lions Clubs District 404B-2 Nigeria in Lagos...recently PHOTO: KOLAWOLE ALLI

T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

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THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper •july 1, 2017

Perspective.

Etisalat: A Promising Dream in Search of a Saviour Its entrance eight years ago was a game changer in the nation’s telecoms industry. But for Etisalat Nigeria, these are not the best of times, as it battles to avoid a take-over from banks it is indebted to. Labake Fashogbon writes that while the telecoms giant indeed owes, ensuring its survival is in all stakeholders’ interest, and that includes competition.

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The Birth of a Dream… hen it arrived in 2008, it simply told Nigerians: ‘now you are talking’. That was its advertising pay-off.

And it stuck as Etisalat, the fourth global service for mobile (GSM) telecommunication service provider to be licensed in the country, took off with a bang. While it did not totally revolutionise the industry, it put existing service providers on their toes. And one area Etisalat succeeded in making a bold statement was in provision of data. Knowing fully-well that it could not upstage the likes of MTN and Glo, pushers of the Etisalat brand focused on one area they knew they would make an impact. And they succeeded. Today, many believe when it comes to internet data, Etisalat is arguably first among equals.

The Loan, the threat and NCC’s intervention…

However, every dream has its threats, and Etisalat’s is not different. About two and half years ago, apparently in an attempt to broaden its operations and enhance its performance, the telecoms company had approached a couple of banks, which included Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, as well as Zenith Bank for a loan, totaling $1.72 billion. By the exchange rate when the loan was acquired, it totaled just about N280 billion. But that was then. Today, that same loan has gone up to N514 billion.

And that is why Etisalat is in deep trouble.

Earlier this year, in March to be precise, the National Communications Commission, NCC, offered to intervene in the impasse between Etisalat and its creditors. The NCC director of public affairs, Tony Ojobo said then that “after a meeting in Abuja between the Executive ViceChairman of NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, and the CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and team, a decision was reached to intervene in the loan issue between Etisalat Nigeria and consortium of banks.”

Ojobo continued that “the meeting which was held at the CBN in Abuja was convened by the financial regulator at the instance of the NCC and the telecom regulator to further deliberate on how best to stop the attempt by the banks to take over Etisalat.”

He added that at the end of the meeting, the CBN agreed to invite Etisalat management and the banks to a meeting the following day.

He explained that the NCC, as a regulator, had moved quickly to intervene by reaching out to the CBN because it (NCC) was convinced of the negative impact such takeover move would have on the telecoms industry.

It was not known if the meeting the NCC promised to broker eventually held. But suffice to say that the troubled telecoms operator is still in dire straits with its creditors claiming that they too were under immense pressure from the Asset Management Corporation, AMCON, to recover non-performing loans.

The company, while admitting its indebtedness to the banks, said shareholders may yet emerge the biggest losers in the current situation unless a resolution was urgently reached. The most vulnerable are private equity holders from Nigeria.

“All of the infrastructure investment and services for which the loan was secured were paid through our banks and these are verifiable,” Dikko added.

Hakeem Bello Unfortunately, the loan to Etisalat happens to be one of such. Therefore, to the creditors, it is either the telecoms giant pays its debts or a forceful takeover takes place. And that is where the morality or otherwise of such comes in. ‘ The baby and the bath water’…

In whose interest is the takeover of Etisalat?

That is the one million dollar question that is being asked within the telecoms industry.

Naturally, competition will not lose sleep if the company is taken over. That may be unfair but that is how acceptable business behaviour goes. What happens to the thousands of workers? What of hundreds of contractors and suppliers? What of those whose lives indirectly revolve round the fortunes of the telecom giant?

Mallam Moyo Jaji, public affairs analyst, politician and former banker, told THISDAY during the week that since the country is operating a capitalist economy, there are no sentiments in business. He averred that Etisalat should try to pay. However, Jaji said he was vehemently against any hostile takeover of the telecom company.

“What usually happens with this type of takeover is that assets are knocked down and sold,” Jaji said. “I agree that Etisalat has to meet

its loan obligations to its creditors but going by current exchange rates, there is need for renegotiation about time and terms of repayment. If they are asking for more time, I think the company should be granted such extension. Jobs will be lost, businesses will go under and many routines will be disrupted, should the company suffer any hostile takeover. While the competition will be happy that Etisalat is in trouble, the larger society will be the loser.”

‘We owe’, Etisalat admits, but…

Prior to this time, Etisalat claimed it had consistently and conscientiously met with its payment obligations. It said it had, in fact, paid about 42 per cent of its original loan taken from the consortium of banks.

Ibrahim Dikko, the company’s vice-president of corporate affairs, said in a statement: “as of today, we can categorically state that the outstanding loan sum to the consortium stands at $227m and N113bn, a total of about $574m if the naira portion is converted to US Dollars. This in essence means almost half of the original loan of $1.2bn has been repaid.

Etisalat continued to service the loan up until February 2017, when discussions with the banks regarding the repayment restructuring commenced.”

Survival is in everyone’s favour…

Statistics show clearly that it might not really be in the interest of the larger society should the company go under. Check these: the company currently has about 2,000 workers, 115 Permanent Experience centres, 10 Temporary Experience centres, 90 kiosks at Total filling stations, and spread across the nation. In addition, thousands of more Nigerians are connected with the company either as vendors, sub-contractors, ancillary support services, and many indirect businesses have been built around the company’s service offerings.

A subscriber, Adeola Adewunmi, told THISDAY that it was a Catch-22 dilemma for both the banks and the telecoms company.

She, however, admitted that should Etisalat go under, many would feel the impact.

“If the company goes under, Nigeria’s economy will take a big hit. However, if the loan deal is not resolved, the banks will see their bottom lines severely affected with implications for their own operations, shareholders and the economy.

And indeed, it is a catch-22 situation. As earlier stated, the NCC and the CBN have played critical roles to resolve the loan crisis.

NCC’s Ojobo also reminded the lender banks to take note of relevant provision of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, as well as relevant provisions of the laws guiding the transfer of licences issued operators by the telecoms regulator.

Section 38(1) of the NCA says: “The grant of a license shall be personal to the licensee and the license shall not be operated by, assigned, sub licensed or transferred to another party unless the prior written approval of the commission has been granted.”

Sub Section 2 of the same provision equally states that, “a licensee shall at all times comply by the terms and condition of the license and the provision of this act and its subsidiary legislation.”

It must also be noted that perhaps, to compete favourably with the competition, Etisalat may have taken this loan for purposes that were not to immediately add value to its operations. But even at that, that does not mean that banks are not entitled to recovering their monies to balance their books. But for the creditors and the debtor, it is going to be a win-win situation if Etisalat survives: banks get their money back, employees retain their jobs and subscribers continue to enjoy the network’s services.

Private Sector and Nutrition Communication Segun James

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lobally, an estimated 165 million children under the age of five years are stunted while 52 million are wasted and deficient in key vitamins and minerals. With the increase in the use of the internet and the social media, especially on information relating to food and nutritional products, it has become imperative to strengthen nutrition education through communication tools and strategies.

At a recent workshop on “Nutrition Communication and Social Media Marketing” by the SUN Business Network, a private initiative geared towards improving nutrition in over 29 nations in the world, the country coordinator, Uduak Igbeka said the need to support businesses to better communicate nutrition to

consumers and also to sensitize them on how to maximize the social media for better marketing of nutritious foods had become more imperative.

According to her, delivering the right nutrition messages has become necessary, as the average consumer is inquisitive about the nutritional value of any product, which can be easily accessed from the comfort of their smart phones. Thus, she urged them to know and understand the challenges of transacting business online, social enterprise and the barriers to effective social marketing communication today.

Igbeka stressed that behavioural patterns in food purchase and food trends had changed among consumers in recent years, “a situation which, to a large extent, is caused by socio-environmental influences on consumer choices.” She said that people involved in food

and related activities must get themselves introduced to different social media platforms in order to get their product across to the desired consumers and recommended that it should include crafting message that that fit not only the platform to use, but the kind of consumer bring targeted.

She stressed that SUN should network with other companies that have an interest in nutrition, while contributing to a collective voice and community for nutrition in Nigeria’s private sector, which does not currently exist.

The workshop also had in attendance officials from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and Federal Ministry of Health who provided regulatory perspectives on food related policies including the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (BMS). The regulators

also provided clarity to participants on the expectations of the government from product development to product registration as well as communication to consumers.

The lead speaker, Mrs. Iquo Ukoh, CEO of Entod Marketing/1Q Food Platter, engaged the participants on the various behavioural patterns in food purchase and food trends that have changed among consumers in recent years; a situation which she said was caused to a large extent by socio-environmental influences on consumer choices.

The SUN Business Network in Nigeria, convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is committed to supporting and strengthening the private sector’s contribution towards improving nutrition in Nigeria, through increased demand for nutritious foods and improved nutrition sensitivity along the agricultural value chain.

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T H I S D AY SATURDAY JULY 1, 2017

CHANGE OF NAME I formerly known and I formerly known and addressed addressed as ochiba Gabriel adekole, now wish as ochiba Gabriel adekole, to be known and addressed as now wish to be known and ochiba Gabriel Solomon. addressed as ochiba Gabriel All former All former documents remain Solomon. valid. The general public should documents remain valid. The take note. general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as Mba akudo chinwe, now wish to be known and addressed as Uchidiuno. Akudo chinwe.

All former documents remain valid.

NIMASA and the general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as NONSO PEACE MGBAKOR, now wish to be known and addressed as JOHN PAUL NNAJI. All former documents remain valid. The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed as MISS KAYODE RUTH FUNMILAYO, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS BABATUNDE RUTH FUNMILAYO. All former documents remain valid. The general public should take note.

I formerly known and addressed OKOGBUO as MONDAY IROANYA, now wish to be known and addressed as MONDAY OKOGBUO. All former documents remain valid.

The general public should take note.

TR

Saturday, July 01, 2017

UT H

& RE A S O

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Price: N250

MISSILE Onaiyekan to Nigerians

“We on the ground too, we should remember that when the thing gets hot, there are certain people up there who always find a way out. They pack their family on board, fly abroad and leave the poor people on the ground to suffer. We better think that seriously and not allow anybody to push us into a situation, where there is chaos.”

– The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Metropolitan See, John Cardinal Onaiyekan warning against agitation and tension in the country.

PENDULUM Dele Momodu

dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

What Exactly are We Restructuring?

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ellow Nigerians, let me say categorically that I’ve never seen a country where the citizens like to argue over every miniscule issue like Nigeria. We are a country of absolutism. Every now and then we just enjoy coming up with highfalutin theories out of the blues and everyone begins to recycle and regurgitate the mantra. Once upon a time, TRUE FEDERALISM was the swansong.

Half, if not most, of those shouting the phrase had little or no idea of what it meant. It seems we just love to hear the cacophony of our own voices and prefer to join whatever is in season or in vogue.

I vividly recollect how a SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE became the only panacea for a united Nigeria after the satanic annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election. If you asked the exponents of that discordant idea how to activate and actualise such event, they always drew a blank. For example, who would represent each zone? How would the representatives be selected to the general acceptance and acclaim of the people? How binding would the deliberations and conclusions be on the generality of Nigerians? Would the outcome replace our Constitution? If the Conference goes ahead and by whatever stroke of luck or miracle Nigerians for once agree that the present Presidential system is bunkum and we need to return to Regionalism and Parliamentary system, how would the current beneficiaries like Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Senators, House of Reps members, Local Government Chairmen, Councillors and a long retinue of political jobbers, agree to effect this unpleasant decision that would render them impotent and ultimately sack most of them? Answers: BLANK! The latest craze in Nigeria now is RESTRUCTURING. Everywhere you turn, someone must tell you Nigeria needs to restructure fast. Everyone, including those who have controlled power the longest, is crying and lamenting, like the Biblical Jeremiah, that they’ve been MARGINALISED. You begin to wonder what is wrong with us. The renewed agitation for BIAFRA is borne out of that supposed persecution complex of the Igbo people by, as always theoretically, the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy.

Surprisingly, geography is not a popular subject in Nigeria. Many of those tribal jingoists often lump the whole of Northern Nigeria together as a monolithic entity. They studiously forget that the North has its own majority/minority brouhaha. Indeed, there is not one Igbo nation as the agitators may want us to believe.

The arguments of those seeking justice by fire by force thus falls flat on closer examination because there is no one North or one South, or one Igbo, One Yoruba, one Hausa. New and uglier problems would instantly emerge as soon as we break Nigeria up into pieces. I’m reasonably assured that fresh complaints of marginalisation would resume. In the State of Osun, where I spent half of my present age, the people of Ile-Ife are already grumbling aloud that no Ife son or daughter has ever been a Governor even though Ile-Ife is the ancestral home of the Yoruba race. And that is the tale and litany of woes everywhere. Whatever we see happening now is nothing short of marriage of convenience.

Let’s get down to brass tacks and tackle the matter of restructuring. The word itself suggests that there is something faulty about the present structure and configuration of Nigeria. That has never been in doubt. However, the problem in my view is largely political and less economic in nature. Those who have controlled Nigeria politically in the last 57 years have shown no

Buhari capacity to exploit their humongous power to the overall benefit of their people. All they’ve succeeded in doing is empower a few of their cronies who become demigods during their reign. Most end up frittering the loot they make away with like prodigal sons and soon return to irrelevance and infamy.

I’ve asked many of those saying they feel cheated in Nigeria to explain what they mean and I’ve concluded from their answers that it is more of politics than anything else. None could answer me when I asked why a strong and highly educated Dr Alex Ekwueme could not do much as Vice President under President Shehu Shagari from 1979 to 1983? I asked a similar question of why at least five Igbos were Senate Presidents, one Deputy Senate President, one Deputy Speaker and none has been able to seek and cede more power to the Igbo people in the last 18 years? If the Igbos argue that they want the Presidency as a matter of legitimate right, then the answer is they must keep working like others. The example of Chief Moshood Abiola has demonstrated clearly that for anyone to win the race, he must build consensus everywhere. He showed that it is a game of mathematical numbers and it is never a gift to anyone. Out of the old six regions in Nigeria, a Presidential candidate must lock down about four to realise his dream. The point is that you should never become Nigeria’s leader simply by virtue of where you come from but by what you have to offer in nation building. Rotation and zoning are largely responsible for proliferation of poor and preposterous leadership in Nigeria.

Let’s highlight some permutations. Had the Igbos worked well with the South West and the North Central, it might have been easier for an Igbo Presidency to materialise. Just imagine if they could lock down the entire South where majority are Christians and the Southern Muslims even marry Christians, the next job would be to align with the so-called minorities scattered across the Northern belts. I’m certain many of our youths are unaware that Chief Obafemi Awolowo once performed such experiment when he chose an Igbo man, Phillip Umeadi, as his running mate.

He would probably have succeeded if he had secured massive votes from the South East and South South. All he would have needed was to poach from mostly North East and North Central.

Alas, the audacious experiment failed woefully.

Since then no Southern candidate of note has ever dared to pick a running mate from the South.

There is an enduring lesson to learn from the people of South West Nigeria. In 1981, Chief

Moshood Abiola was frustrated out of a political party in which he invested so much time, energy and resources, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

He went back home quietly to lick his wounds. He had enough cash to try and destabilise the polity at the time but he opted to up his philanthropic work. He reached out to every nook and cranny of Nigeria helping the needy, contributing to schools, churches, mosques, creating jobs, investing in agriculture, sports and so on. From being one of the most hated Nigerians, he became one of the most loved. It was only a matter of time before his chickens came home to roost. By the time he launched his Presidential bid in 1993, even his most vociferous critics knew he was unstoppable. Chief Abiola won the election, but lost the mandate freely given to him by every part of Nigeria. The Nigerian Mafia, connived and conspired to rob him of his hard-fought victory. Every effort to regain his mandate was rebuffed and frustrated. The strategy was simple and effective. Reduce Abiola’s victory to a Yoruba affair, repeat all kinds of lies till they become believable, and a pan-Nigerian mandate was burnt into ashes. Abiola was abandoned and left in the lurch. Still the Yoruba people did not seek revenge or retaliation. They fought and without firing a shot extracted a form of justice as payback. The destroyers of June 12 could not believe the resilience of the people. In frustration and desperation, they sought and found a perfect ally to dump the stolen mandate on since they didn’t want Abiola by all means. General Olusegun Obasanjo served this purpose and it was a coronation of sorts when he reincarnated as civilian President.

It is important to note that the people of the South West were not over-excited about the re-emergence of Obasanjo. As a matter of fact, they became his most ardent opponents. In anger, Obasanjo turned his war against Yoruba leaders like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Lagos State was deprived of its statutory allocations, even after the Supreme Court ruled in its favour.

Interestingly, the current Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, was the Lagos State Attorney General that fought spiritedly against the Federal Government at the time. The lesson I wish to draw from this is that, sometimes, it is better, and safer, to fight a battle of wits than a duel of brawn. The use of force can never guarantee a meaningful victorious end.

Another example is Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s emergence as President of Nigeria. When President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s cabal was going to stop him from acting as President in the face of obvious incapacitation of the President, some Yoruba leaders, including Professor Wole Soyinka, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade, Bola Tinubu, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Femi Falana, mobilised other Nigerians to fight for the Nigerian Constitution to be respected. Afterwards, it would have been tougher for Jonathan to defeat Muhammadu Buhari in 2011 but for the superlative support he got from the South West.

The same Yoruba people may have felt marginalised under Jonathan but only retaliated with their votes in 2015. This principle should be borrowed and adopted by other tribes of Nigeria.

Your greatest weapon is your vote and not how many guns you can acquire and fire. The calculated support for Buhari paid up handsomely when Osinbajo became the Vice President of Nigeria.

Osinbajo is Acting President today because of the principle laid and nurtured by the Yoruba in 2010 when they supported an Ijawman as Acting President. It has become almost impossible for anyone to go against our Constitution. The Igbos enjoyed no special infrastructure privileges under Jonathan but had a quasi-Prime Minister

in Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. They threw their full weight behind him in 2015. Unfortunately, Jonathan was sacked from power.

Let’s now fast forward. Nigeria is in big trouble.

Suddenly, everyone is talking blah blah blah and crying wolf where there is none. The virulent, violent agitators will not consider dialogue or compromise. They are fixated about breaking away from Nigeria. All well and good. The liberals feel that is not the way to go. They want Nigeria restructured fast and now. I support the latter and I have two fundamental suggestions to make...

The Presidential system we miscopied from America has become too convoluted and expensive.

Nigeria can no longer sustain 36 States plus Abuja and the attendant political operatives. Any call for the creation of more States is therefore reckless and irresponsible. I know it is impracticable to collapse some of the existing States and return to the six Regions or 12 states but this must be considered. The resources of Nigeria are being carelessly wasted on less than five percent of the population. If we truly love ourselves, we must bury our foolish pride and do the needful.

The principle of federal character was adopted to give every part of Nigeria a sense of belonging.

The born to rule mentality of some people must be discouraged and curtailed immediately. Such puerile and nauseating statements credited to some Arewa youths that they donated power to Abiola, and later to Obasanjo, should be totally disregarded, dismissed and kept where it rightly belongs, the dustbin.

Democracy is a game of numbers and whosoever can mobilise enough Nigerians is the leader.

The principle of rotation is unconstitutional. It is left to the political parties to accept or not.

Any Nigerian is free to contest his popularity at the polls and should never be threatened into abandoning his dreams. That is why Nigeria is not a one-party state. Anyone who threatens the peace of Nigeria should be sanctioned and disciplined.

A powerful Sultan Dasuki was dethroned and banished from Sokoto for whatever reasons. His son, Sambo, a once powerful National Security Adviser, has since been in indefinite detention, under whatever guise. A popular Shiite leader has been incarcerated without trial all this while.

Why should some pseudo-cultural leaders feel they are above the law and that they can insult fellow citizens to the bargain? Enough of that crap. The law should take its course within the confines of the Constitution.

The Buhari government should declare a state of Emergency on Education. The reason our youths are easily brainwashed is because of the preponderance of ignorance and poverty in our country. The comments spewing out of some people are just too jejune and disgraceful at this time and age. Educational pre-requisites should be brought to par in all States. Never again should we breed sub-standard students under the guise of educationally disadvantaged zones.

Education is education and those who cannot meet the requirements should stay longer in classes to catch up on their studies. I wrote my WAEC exams thrice in 1976, 1977 and 1978 before I made my credits. No one should be admitted into a university if they can’t meet the cut-off marks.

We’ve damaged our education almost irreparably by condoning mediocrity in the past. Our myopic and sectional leaders obviously did not know they were sowing seeds of backwardness (or did so deliberately to clone a nation of morons) and the result is the bountiful harvest of mass illiteracy and dangerous brigandage we have in our hands today…

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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