Sunday 13th August 2017

With a Successful Convention, PDP Ready to Take on APC in 2019 Affirms Makarfi's leadership, tenure to end in December Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Wale Ajimotokan,JamesEmejoinAbuja and Bassey Inyang in Calabar Smarting from a prolonged leadership tussle that was

resolved by the Supreme Court, the Peoples Democratic Party yesterday held its nonelective National Convention, signaling its readiness to take on the ruling All Progressive

Congress (APC) in 2019.

The convention, held at Eagle Square Abuja, attracted a huge crowd of party supporters from all the states.

Most of the prominent

leaders of the party who spoke at the convention expressed optimism that PDP was on its way back to power.

The gathering was also an opportunity for some party

leaders to hint members of their presidential bids.

From one speaker to the other, their speeches were greeted with loud ovation from an enthusiastic crowd

made up of delegates and party stakeholders that thronged the Eagles Square for the convention.

Continued on page 9

First Northern Female Aeronautic Engineer Bags First Class in UK… Page 83 Sunday 13 August, 2017 Vol 22. No 8151

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Buhari: I Think I’m Fit to Return Home, But My Doctors Will Give the Go-ahead

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

In an emotional meeting yesterday in London with his media team, led by Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, President Muhammadu Buhari said he feels he could return to Nigeria, but added that he was waiting for his doctors to give the final go-ahead.

He explained that he had recuperated tremendously and was longing to come back home.

The meeting came amid growing media hysteria about the president’s medical vacation since May 7, which marked the second time he would be transmitting power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to travel abroad for medical treatment.

Buhari had left Nigeria on January 19 for London on medical vacation and was initially scheduled to return to work on February 6, but he eventually returned on March 10.

Following his latest medical trip, some groups and individuals have been calling for his return or resignation if he is unfit to govern. They have persistently called on the Federal Executive Council to declare the president incapacitated.

However, ministers, governors and other officials of the government have paid him visits in London, in apparent moves to try to calm the fears about his health.

But during the meeting at Abuja House, in London, yesterday, Buhari said he was in London because he

had to abide by his doctors’ instruction.

A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina quoted Buhari as saying, “I've learnt to obey my doctor's orders, rather than be the one issuing the orders. Here, the doctor is absolutely in charge.”

According to Adesina, Buhari made the statement in response to an expression of excitement at his improved health by the visitors. The president added, “I feel I could go home, but the doctors are in charge. I've now learnt to obey orders, rather than being obeyed,” lightening up the mood at the meeting.

Continued on page 15

Banana Island Ghost Rakes in N35m in First Week… Page 81

READY TO RUN… President Buhari at the forecourt lawn of the Abuja House in London when he received his media team, with Femi Adesina (left), Lai Mohammed (2nd left) and Garba Shehu (right)… yesterday (More pictures on pages 9&15)

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͹ͻ˜ ͺ͸͹Ϳ ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R

PAGE NINE

GET WELL SOON, MR. PRESIDENT… President Muhammadu Buhari looking at a get-well card presented to him by his media team during a visit yesterday at the Abuja House, London where he is currently recuperating. In the photograph are (left to right) Personal Assistant Digital/Online Media, Lauretta Onochie; Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; President Buhari; Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina; Senior Special Assistant Media & Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, and Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa. (See more pictures on page 15)

Three LUTH Doctors Infected with Lassa Fever, Investigation Reveals Those infected to be discharged this week, says Lagos govt Ogun confirms one case, says 66 others under surveillance AbimbolaAkosileandMartinsIfijeh inLagos,SheriffBaloguninAbeokuta andYinkaKolawoleinOsogbo Contrary to recent media reports that only one medical doctor, alongside two other health workers were infected with Lassa fever at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, investigations

by THISDAY have revealed that all three infected are resident doctors from the same department, (Department of Anatomy and Molecular Pathology).

The resident doctor earlier reported in the media, was said to be the first person to be infected following the autopsy on the index case, a 32-year old pregnant woman who died of bleeding disorder following a still birth.

THISDAY also gathered that the infected doctor was initially not among those who treated the pregnant woman before she died, but the corpse was brought to the

female doctor’s department where she was the key person involved in the post-mortem examination.

It was after the autopsy that her Lassa fever status was eventually suspected and confirmed.

A source who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity, said, “The other two resident doctors got infected from the first one after she had come down with the fever.

The doctor was the first to start treatment. The other two joined after they started feeling the signs and symptoms of the hemorrhagic fever. The three doctors are all now under treatment in the surveillance unit of the hospital,” he said.

But the Director of Disease Control, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Eniola Eniosho, speaking with THISDAY yesterday, said the three people infected were responding to treatment, adding that they would be discharged this week following their recovery.

“Their case was captured early,

so they are responding well to treatment.”

He said in a few days the 100 health workers in LUTH and the 22 persons from Ikorodu (including some family members of the index case from Imota) who are under 21 days surveillance would be certified free “since none of them has so far come down with fever”. “We are very close to containing the fever. By Monday or Tuesday we will call a press conference to give updates,” he added.

Eniosho explained that Lagos State has done a proper burial for the second victim who died in LUTH, adding that his family was only informed, and that they did not participate in the burial as part of precautionary measure by the State to stop the spread of the virus.

On the status of the index case whose corpse was taken from LUTH by her family, he said, “when we confirmed her Lassa

fever status, we had to inform the Epidemiology Unit in Osun State, and they have done the needful.

“The State took over her burial.

Her family members who were in contact with her are among those under surveillance, and so far, none has come down with the virus,” he explained.

On the two cases who were in the surveillance unit of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Eniosho said their results came out negative.

“We initially took that step as a standard procedure, but their results came out negative. So they don’t have Lassa fever,” he said.

The Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, last week said there was no need for panic as everything was under control. He said there were relevant drugs and resources to prevent an outbreak or spread of the disease within the health facility.

According to him, the State and Federal Ministry of Health had

sent personnel and experts to assist with the tracing and follow-up of contacts in addition to managing suspected cases.

Prof. Bode said: “There are adequate materials for containing the disease while drugs have been made available to treat anyone confirmed with it. The Centre for Disease Control in Nigeria has also been contacted. LUTH has always worked closely with officials of the State Ministry of Health in handling a number of diseases of public concern such as rabies, cholera, Lassa fever and the recent diarrhoea disease at Queen’s College.”

He said: “Nigeria overcame the dreaded Ebola virus, a viral disease that is 100 times deadlier than Lassa fever. So there is no reason for anyone to panic. However, we are taking the treatment of the suspected cases seriously. We even brought in a psychologist to talk to them.”

Meanwhile, the 2o-year-old male patient who was under medical observation for alleged Lassa fever at the Ogun State General Hospital, Ijaiye, Abeokuta has been confirmed positive, the state government has said. He was said to have tested positive after he travelled back to the state from Lagos.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babtunde Ipaye, made this known while addressing Journalists in his office, Abeokuta, on Friday.

He said that the boy had been isolated at one of its isolation centres, Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba in Abeokuta. He added that 66 persons who had direct contact with the patient were presently under surveillance.

Dr. Ipaye added that the patient was responding to treatment as his temperature had reduced to 38 Degree Celsius compare to 39.

8 Degree Celsius when he was admitted.

right is all that we need to build the strength to recapture power,” he said.

Meanwhile, the race for the presidency might have taken off with the successful outcome of yesterday’s PDP convention as presidential hopefuls thronged the venue with their supporters.

Among them were former Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido; his Sokoto and Kano State counterparts, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa and Mallam Ibrahim Shakaru, as well as the Gombe State governor, Dr. Hassan Ibrahim Dankwambo. Also, some youths were sighted dancing round the convention ground with posters of Makarfi.

In his short remark, former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, said the gathering was a statement to all Nigerians that PDP was back and alive.

Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, said the gathering was a testimony of what is happening in Nigeria at the moment.

He said the APC-led government could be described as "power miss road" for their inability to get a grasp of governance and to deliver on their campaign promises to the people.

"PDP is now a religion in Nigeria. PDP made a mistake and it is ready to correct it. This party will overcome its challenges," Fayose stated.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi was more forceful in his criticism, when he said "PDP has a Board of Trustees (BoT) but

APC has no Board of Trustees, cannot hold NEC meeting nor convention."

One of the founding fathers of the party and former governor of the old Gongola State, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, also said the party had the ability and capacity to win the 2019 general election and form a government without alliance with any political party.

He said as the largest political party in Africa, which had ruled the country for 16 years, and with former and present elected members at both national and state levels, the PDP had the ability to wrest power from the APC almost unaided.

"It's our duty now to try to reshape the party and form a new PDP in a way by trying to do away with some of the shortcomings that brought our downfall and to make sure we have a party for a good future so that we recapture government again and that's what we are doing."

Meanwhile, some of the key resolutions passed at the convention included the extension of the tenure of its National Caretaker Committee by four months. By this arrangement, the tenure of the Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee would now end on December 12.

Also, the party ratified the dissolution of its executive committees in Anambra, Adamawa, Borno, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun and Osun States.

The dissolution of the executive committees, according to the party, was informed by the failure of the different warring camps to agree and have one executive committee in each of the states.

WITH A SUCCESSFUL CONVENTION, PDP READY TO TAKE ON APC IN 2019 At the convention, the Senator Ahmed Makarfi committee was affirmed as the national leadership of the party for another four months, when an elective convention would be held in December.

In what seemed like a calculated attempt to remind Nigerians of what live was like under PDP government, former President Goodluck Jonathan, reeled out key achievements of his party in the period it was in charge of affairs of Nigeria and called on party faithful and delegates to brace up to reclaim power in 2019, when general elections will hold.

Responding specifically to claims by the APC that the economy would have been worse if PDP had remained in office, Jonathan, who spoke for about 20 minutes, said it was not true and couldn’t have been the case. He said, "We had a sound economic team in place managing the economy. Let us not forget that the great floods of 2012 were a major calamity that damaged homes and farmlands on the plains of River Niger and Benue. But despite the devastating effect of this natural disaster, there were no food shortages or arbitrary increase in prices, because of what we were able to accomplish with our Agriculture Transformation Agenda, which considerably boosted food production.

"If we say that we rekindled hope in our people and regained international goodwill, it is because we pursued a number of policies and programmes that were not only richly rewarding for our people, but were also being copied by many

countries across the globe, a few of which I will mention here,” he boasted.

He said the PDP administration provided focused leadership through institutional and sectoral reforms, which impacted positively on the fundamentals for growth, especially in the last four years that he was in power.

According to him, the result was that, "The administration was able to keep inflation at a single digit, maintained price stability, grew the economy to become the largest in Africa with a GDP of over half a trillion US dollars, and the number one foreign direct investment destination on the continent".

Specifically talking about the exploits of his administration in agricultural transformation, he claimed the initiative rapidly transformed key agricultural value chains, boosted local production, and created a new generation of young commercial farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs.

He said one of the very remarkable achievements of the reform in the Agricultural sector was the end to decades of fertiliser corruption, which it achieved through electronic wallet system, adding that the initiative has continued to resonate outside the shores of Nigeria and that it was not only being scaled up by the African Development Bank, but it’s already being replicated in close to 20 African countries.

Jonathan also said the PDP government introduced an entrepreneur scheme known as You-Win, which he said has won the admiration and acceptability of

other countries around the world.

On corruption, Jonathan said though the approach adopted by his administration to fight the hydra-headed problem may not have plugged all the leakages in the system, it no doubt laid a sustainable foundation for tackling the scourge.

"But we went about it in a sustainable and measurable manner, among other measures, creating institutional tools like bank verification number (BVN), the treasury single account (TSA) designed to block leakages, as well as the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS), which eliminated tens of thousands of ghost workers, during our time.”

The former President said Nigerians were in a better position to compare what the PDP and the APC had been able to do to improve their well-being.

"We should always celebrate the fact that the PDP introduced key policies that improved governance, enhanced welfare, boosted and stabilised the economy of our great country, and above all, gave our people hope.”

Against this backdrop, the former president declared: "Let it be known, in all nooks and crannies of our country, that the PDP is back to claim its rightful place in the affairs of the nation.

As we have always done, we are ready to return Nigeria to the path of unity, peace and prosperity."

In his speech, Makarfi commended the patriotic zeal displayed by party faithful whom he said had sacrificed a lot in the ongoing efforts to reposition the

PDP after its protracted leadership crisis.

On PDP’s resolve to win back the presidency in 2019, he said they would work hard to replace the APC government come 2019 election.

"We wish our president well and will continue to pray for his full recovery. We want him to be fit and well when we’ll defeat the APC in the next general election.

We will continue to pray for him, but that does not mean we will go to sleep. We will work hard to replace the APC government come 2019 election,” he said.

Makarfi, who dedicated the convention to the youths of the country, also assured them that one of the things PDP would consider if it regained power was to see how to institute students’ loan scheme that would enable indigent students attain their ambition in education.

Chairman of the Convention Planning Committee and Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, said there was no doubt that the last two years had been the greatest test PDP had faced. He however noted that the fact that the party survived its baptism of fire was a testimony to the resilience of its grassroots structure, organisation and appeal.

“Let it be known, today, to all Nigerians, who prayed for us during our time of travail that the PDP is back with a bang.

We shall not disappoint you.

We are back. We must realise that there is a champion in each and everyone of us in the party, and that a collective leadership and partnership, resolve to do things

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AUGUST 13, 2017 ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

SUNDAY COMMENT

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

BEYOND THE OZUBULU CHURCH TRAGEDY The security agencies could have done more to avert the tragedy

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ast Sunday’s tragic massacre during an early morning mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Ozubulu community, Anambra State, pointed to a worrying tendency that does not augur well for our national security. The brazen manner in which about 12 innocent worshippers were murdered inside a church, which has all the imprints of organised crime, is simply unacceptable; especially since the security agencies could not claim ignorance of the brewing trouble.

From all accounts, a young man was said to have gone to South Africa after his secondary school education and within four months, he returned as a multimillionaire to recruit former friends to join him in what is believed to be high stake drug trafficking.

Not long after, as it is with this sort of dark business, mysterious killings started taking place. Now, over deaths were The casual execution of 40 reported to have fellow citizens inside a occurred under this church for the simple nefarious platform. reason that they may Last Sunday’s tragedy was believed have some association to be a revenge assaswith a gangster is the for which beginning of something sination the kingpin, whose more frightening as father was gunned the accounts smell like down among other Sicily in the heydays of worshippers, was the Mafia, a place where the primary target.

That much has organised crime had been corroborated permeated every sphere by the Anambra of life, including religion State Governor, Mr. Willie Obiano, who described the incident as “a tragic dimension of a long battle between two business partners who are from the same town.” While promising that the perpetrators would be brought to book, Obiano added: “What happened in Ozubulu was neither a terror attack as we know it, nor a violent action by some agitators. We are dealing with a dangerous gang war that has spilled over to Anambra State from another African country. The people directly and remotely involved in this crime are known to the law enforcement agencies.”

While we commiserate with the families who lost loved ones and wish the injured speedy recovery, there

are worries that the security agencies, especially the Police, are either complicit or too incompetent to avert the tragedy. From available reports, including that rendered by Governor Obiano, the gangsters were known to the authorities while the violence has been going on for some years now. The question therefore remains: What has been done to bring the culprits to book until they had to kill scores of innocent worshippers inside a church?

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

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, 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, PATRICK EIMIUHI ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS HENRY NWACHOKOR, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI GROUP HEAD FEMI TOLUFASHE ART DIRECTOR OCHI OGBUAKU II DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

ragically, the vital requirement of any civilised democracy - protecting lives - is lacking in our country today. That explains why none of the killings we have witnessed in recent years has attracted any consequences for their perpetrators. Yet to the extent that crime is inherent in every society, what deters perpetrators is the certainty of consequences.

In condemning the killings, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said “such barbaric act constitutes an affront to our common humanity, and challenges, but will not overwhelm our collective resolve to rid our communities of all forms of violent crimes and criminality.”

We are yet to see that resolve, especially at a time our society is getting increasingly more complex and subject to the influences of our citizens around the world. We now need more of human intelligencebased security arrangements in local communities to monitor the activities and influences of both foreignbased and local criminal gangs. In this regard, the simplest formula is the old dictum: follow the money, especially when what we deal with is questionable money that poses great danger to the society.

The casual execution of fellow citizens inside a church for the simple reason that they may have some association with a gangster is the beginning of something more frightening as the accounts smell like Sicily in the heydays of the Mafia, a place where organised crime had permeated every sphere of life, including religion. That the Ozubulu people were left at the mercy of drug warlords operating from South Africa is therefore quite worrisome. The Nigerian state, even with all its imperfections, remains the ultimate guarantor of our individual and collective security. If, by any act of omission or commission, it fails in that regard, then anarchy is the clear and present danger.

SUNDAY PHOTO

L-R:Former Vice-President,NamadiSambo,formerPresident Goodluck Jonathan,NationalChairmanofPDP, SenatorAhmedMakarfi,and ChairmanoftheConventionCommittee,DeltaIfeanyiOkowa,atthe2017Non-Elective National Convention of PDP held yesterday in Abuja Photo:JuliusAtoi/THISDAYIMAGES

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͹ͻ˜ ͺ͸͹Ϳ ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R

THE MEDIA TEAM'S VISIT TO THE PRESIDENT…

L-R: Personal Assistant Digital/Online Media, Lauretta Onochie; Senior Special Assistant Media & Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu; Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; President Muhammadu Buhari; Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina; and Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, at the Abuja House in London

L-R: Onochie, Adesina, Mohammed, Buhari; Shehu and Dabiri-Erewa, laughing at a joke by the president at the the forecourt lawn of Abuja House in London

L-R: Onochie, Mohammed and President Buhari admiring the get-well card presented to the president by his media team

BUHARI: I THINK I’M FIT TO RETURN HOME, BUT MY DOCTORS WILL GIVE THE GO-AHEAD Adesina said Buhari told the team how he had followed events at home very closely and praised the Nigerian television stations and the media, in general, for keeping him informed about happenings in the country. He also said Buhari thanked those praying for him, recalling how his role in the ouster of former Gambian President, Yahaya Jameh, in January brought him a huge goodwill.

"What we did in The Gambia early this year fetched us a lot of goodwill on the African continent.

It gave us a lot of latitude. I thank all those who are praying. May God reward them," he was quoted as saying.

The president's chief spokesman added that Buhari sent his appreciation to all Nigerians and was optimistic that he would join them soon.

In the team that visited Buhari were, besides Adesina and Mohammed, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu, Personal Assistant to the President on Digital/Online Media Lauretta Onochie, and

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Matters Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Like the previous meetings the President had with some leaders of his party and seven governors, photographs of the meeting were released to the press. In the photographs released yesterday, the president was seen smiling as he looked at a get-well-soon card presented to him by his media aides. In another photograph, they were all smiles as the president took a stroll on the forecourt lawn.

Apart from the photographs, a video clip of the media team’s visit to the President was shown on the Nigerian Television Authority Saturday night. In the video, Buhari, stood up to receive his visitors. In a handshake with the information minister, the president said, “Lai, good afternoon. You are all over the place.”

“Thank you sir,” the minister responded.

Buhari then said: “I see you every evening in the press. It is very good. Going by the press, you are working very hard.”

Throughout the week, a

group of protesters led by rights activist, Dele Adeyanju, and maverick entertainer, Charles Oputa, caused a stir in Abuja with demonstrations calling for Buhari's return or resignation on moral grounds. The protesters anchored their agitation on the theme expressed in Pidgin English, "Our Mumu Don Do," which being translated means "we have been foolish enough."

However, on Thursday, another group of protesters commenced a pro-Buhari protest in the country's capital, dismissing the protest for his resignation as unnecessary. The pro-Buhari group insisted he had complied with the constitutional provisions by transferring power to his deputy and had not fouled any law, the same position held by the Senate.

But whereas anti-Buhari protesters were brutalised by the police with some of them hospitalised, the pro-Buhari protesters enjoyed police protection. The law enforcement agents gladly led them through with horses to the Presidential Villa into the waiting hands of officials.

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ͯͱ˜ Ͱͮ͹Ϳ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

OPINION Writers and Governance in Africa Okello Oculi argues that the continent is afflicted with a new virus which disrupts the social order

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ne school of history advises that the occurrences of bizarre social activities are signals that a society is nearing convulsive changes.

Such events are jumping at us through the media. In London, a man who, on August 8, 2017, was jogging run past a man without an incident but five steps later turned to his right and violently pushed a woman walking in the opposite direction. She fell and rolled across the pedestrian walkway. A bus driver saved her life by swerving the front tire of the bus away from her head. The man who pushed her did not look back to see the impact of his act of hostility. Passengers in the bus did not rush out to effect a citizens’ arrest.

The following day in Paris, France’s capital, a person drove his car into a group of soldiers, in an act of “terrorism.’’ On that same day in eastern Afghanistan over 50 people – labelled as “Shiites’’ were allegedly slaughtered

by ISIS and Al Qaeda. About the same period Al Shabaab exploded a car bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.

Likewise, at Ozubulu village, Anambra State of Nigeria, a man walked with a gun into a Catholic Church and murdered over 11 worshippers. The victims were caught up in a war between two “sons of the soil’’ who make their millions of naira from operations in far-away South Africa and North America.

In India came the revolting story of a man who had repeatedly raped a 10-year- old girl and made her pregnant; while in another corner of Nigeria a man raped a sixmonth-old baby to death. In South Africa, angry rallies of women protest against a pandemic of killings of women.

Men who had existed under intense humiliations since 1948 - when a virulent “crime against humanity’’ became official policy in the hands of European tribe of immigrants – woke up to regain their long suspended “manhood’’ by murdering and violently raping their women and girls.

Several leading African writers had offered clues to this crisis in losses of humaneness. Nadine Gordimer had penned the following lines: “Hah! So Brotherhood is only the condition of suffering. Doesn’t apply when you have choice, and the choice is the big cheque and the company car, the nice perks of Minister’’. She had seen wealth

shatter solidarity and caring among a people. As a white South African, she had looked past skin-colour and fingered the poison of money in social relations.

The Senegalese writer and famous film-maker, Ousmane Sembene, had written that: “It’s easier to pray when you’re sure of having a full belly. Rage possessed him, and he ran off like a madman into the desert, his torn boubou flapping in the wind. He had just realised that there is no need to believe in Allah in order to be a thief!’’ Those religious “Men of God’’ who are making millions from selling blessings to corrupt officials and drug traffickers would recognise the false prophet that Sembene writes about here. The loss of moral restraint is a key to their bad wealth.

Wole Soyinka wrote about the power of sex appeal in a woman desecrating the sense of duty to the welfare of a people by a King’s Horseman who decided to dodge the ritual of being buried together with his dead master. Chinua Achebe set up Okonkwo as a man who violated the moral power of being a father to a child who had made the transition from being an object of communal ritual murder to one who “calls his father’’. His fear and dread of being seen as a “weak man’’ – his blind vanity – made him shatter the restraining power of collective social morality.

Evans Pritchard concluded that social order among the Nuer people of Southern Sudan was censured by what he called “balanced antagonism’’. Children are taught to push back any attempt to use insult and physical assault as a tool for another person to accumulate power over them. This

Drug trade, Internet-based fraud, and corrupt practices in public and private institutions create access to wealth which upsets traditional ‘balanced antagonism’ as the basis of respect and equal human dignity

form of social engineering is widespread in Africa, with the Balante (in Guinea Bissau, Casamance and Gambia); Tiv and Igbo (in Nigeria) and the Nuer (in Sudan) being the most reported about. This makes it a matter for urgent and deep analytical attention.

The power of the gun has, however, repeatedly upset this balanced antagonism for defenceless worshippers in churches in Ozubulu (in Nigeria), Wei (in South Sudan) and Kigali (in Rwanda during the genocide). There have been persistent reports of discrimination against persons who own cheap personal vehicles. They are forced away from attending community meetings where drug barons arrive with convoys of jeeps and flashy vehicles. Drug trade, Internet-based fraud, and corrupt practices in public and private institutions create access to wealth which upsets traditional “balanced antagonism’’ as the basis of respect and equal human dignity.

We are faced with a new virus which disrupts social order and pillars of ancient social engineering. Colonial officials unleashed anthropologists on African societies in search of areas for strategic attack and disorientation. Those who insist that colonial rule was “a mere incident’’ only scratched and did not fatally wound ancient social tools of order, survival and reproduction, must face the challenges to the moral integrity of communities arising from unequal access to guns, drugs, election rigging and corrupt wealth, as viruses.

In South Sudan the Nuer have married guns to their ancient code of “balanced antagonism’’. The notion of “political consensus’’ may be drowned by fears of accepting submission to the numerically larger Dinka and their ethnic allies. In Nigeria, the resort to “kidnapping for ransom’’ may be feeding on the virus that afflicted Achebe’s Okonkwo. This problem demands as much creative counter-measures as the “restructuring’’ of political boundaries and access to economic resources.

Africa’s writers must move from counting wounds on the Continent to returning to ancient challenges of inventing and planting new seeds; smelting new pillars for holding up shelters, and weaving new baskets for bringing harvests to homesteads.

--Prof. Oculi is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board

Wobbling Tripod and Doctrine of Trinity The government may do well by implementing the 2014 National Conference report, writes Jerome-Mario Utomi

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ne of the most challenging riddles I grappled with during my formative years was the doctrine of Trinity. It was during my catechism class as a Catholic Christian and the topic of Trinity posed a huge task to me. This doctrine is a dogma which teaches that God, the Supreme Being, is actually three persons in one. These three persons, as I was later told, are God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit coexisting as one entity, sharing equality in substance, essence and divinity.

As a young lad, this teaching which I had considered strange and untenable logic left me lost in the maze of high voltage confusion as I laboured to fathom how possible it was to compress three persons into one. Though I was totally disoriented by the logic of Trinity I tried not to betray my disconnect with the topic. Alas! I could not pretend for too long that I was flowing with the class for my teacher soon observed the utter confusion and frustration raging in my mind. And to douse the nagging helplessness enveloping me as regard comprehending what he was dishing out, he quickly declared, ‘Trinity is a mystery’.

However, rather than clear my confusion, his declaration further left me crestfallen. What is a mystery, Sir? I found myself asking.

He then went ahead to define mystery as “a revealed truth that is beyond human understanding but guided by the Holy Spirit.”

Each time I ruminate over the marriage of two unwilling brides who had no say in their forceful and ill-fated unionamalgamation of the northern and the southern protectorates on February 14, 1914, a day set aside to celebrate love all over the world, by Sir Lord Luggard- as well as the pre and post independence political structure of Nigeria, memories of my catechism class Trinity confusion come flooding.

The British colonial overlords probably intended the protectorates to operate in a symmetrical manner with no part of the amalgam claiming superiority over the other. This arrangement conferred on the fledgling country the form of the Biblical trinity explained above. And at independence in 1960, Nigeria became a federation, resting firmly on a tripod of three federating regionsNorthern, Eastern and Western Regions. Each of the regions was economically and politically viable to steer its own ship, yet mutual suspicion among them was rife. In fact, regional loyalty surpassed nationalistic fervor with each of the three regions at a juncture threatening secession.

The late Premier of the Western Region once described Nigeria

as ‘mere geographical expression’ and later threatened “we (Western Region) shall proclaim self-government and proceed to assert it”, an euphemism for secession.

In the same vein, the Northern Region under the Premiership of the late Ahmadu Bello never hid its desire for separate identity. Just before independence, the region threatened to pull out of Nigeria if it was not allocated more parliamentary seats than the south. The departing British colonial masters, desirous of one big entity, quickly succumbed to the threat. In fact, the North at that time did pretend it never wanted to have anything to do with Nigeria. For example, the motto of the ruling party in that region at that time was ‘One North, One People, One Destiny’. And name of the party itself ‘Northern People’s Congress (NPC) was suggestive of separatist fervor, distinct identity. It has also been said in several publications-which no one from the north has refuted till today-that the primary reason for the July 29, 1966 bloody revenge coup carried out by young soldiers of Northern Nigerian extraction which led to the massacre of thousands of Igbo soldiers and civilians, including Nigeria’s first military Head of State, General Thomas Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was primarily to pull that region out of Nigeria.

This explained the massive ARABA (secession) protests that rocked the region shortly after the coup and Lt.Col Yakubu Gowon’s badly edited maiden broadcast proclaiming himself as the new military ruler in which he declared that the basis for Nigeria’s unity was not there. The speech was the original secession speech of the coupists where they had intended to announce the break way of Northern Region from Nigeria.

The speech was however, later hurriedly edited to remove the secession content of it after the British High Commissioner to Nigeria at that time and some prominent federal civil servants had intervened by informing the secession-seeking Northern soldiers the implication of Northern Nigeria standing on its own as a country.

However, of all the secession threats since independence it was the one issued by the Eastern Region in 1966-67 following the bloody counter coup of July 1966 and subsequent genocide in which thousands of Easterners living in the North lost their lives or maimed, and the failure of Gowon to implement the Aburi Accord aimed at settling the crisis, that was much more potent because it was actually carried out. The result was the declaration of Eastern Region independent country with the name, “Biafra” on May 30, 1967 by the then Military Governor

of the Region, the late General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Currently, wave of secessionist sentiments are sweeping across the country with restive youths in the North and South East as the main gladiators. Some groups in the South West and South-South have also joined the fray to demand the marriage of 1914 be ended as the basis for its continued existence had severely been weakened. However, the very vociferous agitation for Biafra’s restoration by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by youthful Nnamdi Kanu has been the loudest of the separatist movements.

Though separatist bug has also caught some sections of the country, there is no denying the fact that even with defeat of the Igbo in the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, majority of the people, especially those born after the war harbour immense sentiment for separate political and cultural identity for the Igbo nation in the mould of restoration of the short–lived Republic of Biafra.

For example, at the return of democracy in 1999, Ralph Uwazurike, an Indian-trained lawyer, from Imo State ignited a passion for Biafra among South east youths via his separatist platform “Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra’’ (MASSOB). MASSOB and its founder enjoyed tremendous following and respect among mostly youths of the region that it almost became alternative government in the South east. The group’s sit-at- home orders were religiously obeyed just as the one declared by IPOB on May 30.

Uwazuruike’s support base has since drastically weaned following dissent in MASSOB. But from the ashes of MASSOB’s bye-gone years of strident pro- Biafra agitation came Kanu and IPOB, a much more vitriolic but charming personality and organisation.

Kanu happened on the national and international limelight through a pirate radio Biafra which he used as a vehicle to promote the agitation to actualise the IPOB quest for independence. Two factors have so far worked for Kanu in his separatist agenda: his long incarceration by the Buhari government over Biafra and the recent quit notice given to the Igbo residing in the North by Arewa youths. Both factors, apparently unknown to President Buhari’s handlers, have helped and still helping IPOB and Kanu’s cause. One, his incarceration for almost two years helped to project him to his supporters, a mass of Igbo youths, and the international community as a prisoner of conscience and freedom fighter.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

LETTERS Population, Education and Nigeria’s Cycle of Poverty

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igeria’s population today is ranked seventh in the world at over 192 million and is projected to grow exponentially to over 233 million by 2025. This should be of grave concern to everyone, especially in view of absence of national economic plans that could provide jobs for the new addition.

We are already confronted with a large numbers of idle hands.

Basic knowledge of population growth teaches that population increase is only desirable when accompanied with increase in human capital development, economic activity and good governance. Nigeria’s population is already creating a myriad of social issues. Taking development indicators such as literacy rates, poverty rates, quality environment, social justice, gender equality, etc., into account, one cannot but conclude that our population growth is presently more of a liability rather than asset.

Contrary to China which manufactures and sells its products to every other part of the world, ours is a consuming population. Thus, our increasing population is a liability with pervasive poverty, high illiteracy rate, high unemployment and the consequent

Ghaji-Bello, DG NPC

insecurity in the country.

Except sincere national planning that adequately addresses the country’s population explosion, and an education sector that can groom entrepreneurs and inventors is urgently activated and implemented, poverty and various crimes currently plaguing the country will continue to be a major impediment to socio-economic growth.

Among the many assumptions as to why people commit

crimes, the one that really stands out is the connection with uncontrolled population growth, education and poverty.

With our huge population, lack of education is driving poverty rates, thus causing those same impoverished and uneducated people to commit crimes.

Unfortunately, what various tiers of governments are doing in the education sector is not dominating our headlines as much as corruption does.

Now in the light of recently

released statistics of numbers of out-of-school children in the country, there is no convincing indication that changes would come as regard issue of poverty-induced-crimes. In addition to 54 million illiterates which put Nigeria at the bottom in the global literacy index, out –of- school children are today a ticking time bomb.

In what is clearly a national scandal for a country that is the world’s eighth largest oil producer, the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EAGMR) says Nigeria holds the world record of having the highest number of its young people who are out of school. According to the shocking report, approximately 10.5 million kids which translate to one out of every five Nigerian children are out of school.

Though this issue has been prominent for a long while, it is now about time adverse cultural practices including forced/ misguided early marriages, Almajiris phenomenon, poverty and child labour were accorded urgent national attention.

The situation provides an answer to why people are easily manipulated by ethnic and religious bigots for selfish agenda. It explains why people sheepishly get into the recruitment net of Boko Haram. With the current

THE CALABAR TANK FARM FIRE TRAGEDY

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ragedy, like war is what nobody prays for. Discussing or mere talking about it is even tough for some as they feel awful or scared at the mention of it. However, the two are realities of life. They happen whether one likes it or not. Life, itself is even described as a war. It is a thing we live with, day in day out.

Human beings encounter tragedies or wars in different ways. For some, it is nagging domestic issues while in extreme cases, humans are faced with loss of precious ones and invaluable materials.

Nobody prepares for it and none could predict its consequences. No matter how careful, one’s level of safety and security consciousness notwithstanding, they just happen, leaving behind tales of woes, sadness and catastrophes.

For LINC Tank Farm Limited, Calabar, it was a tragedy too many on the July 16 when its farm went up in flames as a result of an oil spillage. The inferno which occurred at about 3.40am claimed lives including those of a key worker of the farm, two in the opposite company, DOZZY Oil and Gas Tank Farm and some security personnel. The neighbouring community also shared from the tragedy as the inferno which erupted while people were scooping petrol (PMS)killed a number of the villagers.

I n addition, properties worth

millions of naira were also destroyed in LINC, DOZZY and other adjacent organisations. The environment was not spared too, as it suffered debilitating damage; the flora and fauna seriously hit.

Three weeks after this sad incident, the whole of Calabar Free Trade Zone is still in gloom as noticed when the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (downstream) paid an on the spot assessment to the farms last Thursday.

From the entrance of the CFTZ to the LINC Farm, the adverse effects of the disaster were still palpable.

Right inside the farm, one can only pity and empathise with the organisation, as its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Patrick Ifeanyi Oramah conducted the team round the erstwhile functional and robust depot now characterised with charred structures, burnt facilities and dim-looking workers. It was a pitiable sight that left most of the legislators feeling very concerned.

Chief Oramah told the lawmakers that he was travelling out of the country when he got the most destabilising call that an oil spillage in their tank farm ignited and resulted in loss of lives. “The tragedy,” Oramah said, “ensued consequence of spillage of petroleum (PMS) into the drains while it was being pumped from Dozzy Jetty, through pumps run via our farm, to Dozzy Depot, another tank farm located opposite

us. The spilled petroleum later got ignited while people were scooping it outside our premises.”

He told the lawmakers that his company did not have any product in any of its tanks as at the time of the incident as the tanks had remained empty since January.

Mr. Oramah however became emotional as he revealed to the legislators that his company was expecting delivery of products to the tank farm in the week before the unfortunate incident occurred.

“LINC Nigeria Limited is terribly saddened over this disaster, particularly, the loss of human lives. We commiserate with the families of the bereaved and the entire Esuk Utan Community. Our heartfelt sympathies go to DOZZY Tank Farm Limited and all our neighbours over their monumental losses” said Chief Oramah in an emotion-laden voice.

He however disclosed to the visiting legislators that the management of Calabar Export Free Zone handled the tragedy with deft and utmost sense of responsibility as he also praised the Fire Service, the Nigeria Police and other security and safety agencies for their promptness in combating the fire.

The instantaneous display of concern and conscientiousness by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and its regulatory agency, Department of Petroleum

Resources (DPR) to the disaster was also praiseworthy.

Chief Oramah said that LINC has always been in total compliance with safety and security measures in and around its premises and in all its operations. He however added that investigations were ongoing and that his company was cooperating fully with the various agencies. The Chairman of the committee on Petroleum (downstream), Hon. Joseph Akinlaja Iranola condoled the management of LINC, DOZZY, and the entire community over the unfortunate incident.

Honorable Akinlaja said the committee was impressed with the effective management of the disaster by the Export Free Zone, the security and safety agencies of Cross River State and the federal government.

He said with such exhibition of effectiveness in combating this tragedy, Nigeria was genuinely making progress in disaster management. The chairman assured that the National Assembly would continue to see to the protection and safety of lives and property of citizens in its legislative functions.

As tragic as the incident was, it however provided some positives. Chief Patrick Ifeanyi Oramah remarked that the display of capacity, competence and care by all the concerned authorities and agencies of government was something to crow about.

--Kehinde Olaosebikan, Abuja

economic challenges in the country, children that lack basic education will struggle to live a decent life.

When people descend into poverty in that way, they naturally turn to criminal activities in an attempt to make ends meet. Such criminal tendencies can take many forms. It can be something as simple as petty theft or it can escalate into money rituals and other severe crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping.

Sadly, when people find themselves in such situations, they are rarely able to get out of it which is why it becomes a vicious cycle.

The difficulty or inability of the average Nigerian parent to cope with the requirements of basic education of the child is at variance with Article 2 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that no child, irrespective of the parentage, circumstance or status should be discriminated against with respect to access to education.

In addition, Article 4 of the Convention states that governments should make every effort to ensure that all children have access to education.

To break the cycle of poverty and crimes in the country, the large number of illiterates, out-of-school children and the jobless should be viewed by all Nigerians as an indictment of our collective humanism more than the failure of government alone. We must accept that all of us are duty bearers (as individuals, religious bodies, media, NGOs) who must

accept to play role to ensure that the future of many more children are not put at the risk of illiteracy and social esteem.

Having assented to and ratified the recommendations of the Convention in addition to affirming such right in Chapter 2; Section 18 of Nigeria’s Constitution, the onus therefore is on the government at all levels to review existing policies and funding towards reversing the ugly trend of growing population of out-of-schoolchildren and illiterate adults.

As this is a national imperative, a series of federal initiatives must emerge as the country might not be able to actualize its change agenda without making literacy a fundamental right of its citizens.

This becomes imperative as research has clearly shown that the higher the rate of literacy, the better the potential to succeed and the easier for government to fight poverty, crime as well as reducing social injustice.

Indeed, poverty not only lies at the heart of the factors that hinder access to education but continues to be the main obstacle to achieving the goal of universal education in the country. For government to successfully enforce compulsory elementary education, there must be assurances that access to educational facilities as well as provisions of the basic needs, most especially feeding, clothing and educational materials of the children at that level, are guaranteed.

--Rasak Musbau, Alausa, Lagos.

T HE POLICE AND T HE OZUBULU M ASSACRE

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n recent history, the Nigeria Police has proven to be a weak force in terms of professionalism and the capacity of the personnel to effectively combat crimes and enforce the law.

Few years back, the police, due to the archaic policing standards, foisted on the nation one of the most devastating threats to national security and indeed the corporate existence of Nigeria Boko Haram terrorism.

It was precisely the extra-legal execution of a hitherto unknown quantity called Sheikh Mohamed Yusuf whilst in police detention sometimes in the year 2009 under then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that the almost five –year- old bombing campaign started.

The extrajudicial killing of the ideological founder of the deadly Islamic sect precipitated the launching of full blown violent armed attacks against public and private institutions by the Islamic extremists which has so far led to the death of over 20,000 innocent Nigerians.

Apart from cases of extra-legal executions of suspects in the custody of the police which are documented by the office of the United Nations High Commis-

sioner on human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch amongst others, the Nigeria police lacks most of the basic skills, facilities and 21st century compliant trainings necessary for proper, effective, efficient and comprehensive policing to comply with global best practices.

To compound the institutional inefficiency of the police is the clear lack of up-to -date enabling laws on the strategic engagement of the police in modern day crime prevention, detection and enforcement of laws.

Perhaps, the backwardness of the police in effectively combating criminality was displayed clearly in the attack at the Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Anambra State, in which the police were caught napping and scampering for excuses. This is because the police arrived at the scene of the shooting clearly one hour after the shooters who killed dozens of Nigerians had disappeared.

To even add salt to injury, the police made no attempt to deploy modern techniques to secure the crimes scene or to collect critical ingredients of forensic evidence from the scene of the crime.

–--Emmanuel Onwubiko, www.huriwa@blogspot.com

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͱ˜ Ͱͮͯ͵

INTERNATIONAL

How to Address Recidivist Corruption in Nigeria

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n the basis of the 1987 report of the Political Bureau chaired by Professor J.S. Cookey, institutionalised corruption can be dated back to 1967.

This means that, out of the 57 years of sovereign existence so far, Nigeria and Nigerians have had a chronic corruption lifestyle for 50 years. It can also be rightly argued that chronic corruption began with the outbreak of Nigeria’s war of national unity but the extent to which corruption was a major dynamic of the war is yet to be scientifically determined. However, there is no disputing the fact that fears of unfairness, injustice, domination, and regional interests contributed in no small measure to the outbreak of the war and the emergence of corruption in national life.

Put differently, the critical problem since 1967 has been the unending corruption, which has now grown to the extent of seriously threatening the main foundations of a united and virile Nigeria. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), was set up on September 29, 2000 to deal precisely with all the problems associated with corruption and indiscipline in the society. But the Commission had several inadequacies, which prompted the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2004.

The mandate of the EFCC, as provided in its 2004Act establishing it, is that the EFCC should investigate, prevent, prosecute and penalise economic and financial crimes, including Money Laundering andAdvance Fee Fraud (419). In the same vein, the ICPC is to receive and investigate public complaints on corrupt practices and prosecute offenders; examine corrupt practices; to assist governmental agencies in reducing fraud and corrupt practices; advise heads of public institutions on changes in practice; educate the public on and against bribery, corruption and related offences; and to enlist and foster public support in combating corruption. In essence, the ICPC is required to prohibit and prescribe punishment for corrupt practices and other related offences.

From the foregoing, impression is given that economic and financial crimes are necessarily different from corruption offences.

If they are not considered differently, there would not have been the need to have different bodies dealing with them. What would have been simply required is to further empower the ICPC, rather than putting in place the EFCC. The problem about the existence of the two bodies is not only rivalry but also the belief that the ICPC has not been up and doing to the extent that the editorial of The Punch of lastAugust 8 on “ICPC: Why Owasanoye Must Not Fail,” has to note that ‘in the 17 years since the creation of the ICPC as a specialised law enforcement agency with sweeping powers to investigate graft, prosecute offenders and engage in public enlightenment, corruption has grown exponentially and brought the country to its knees... The ICPC story demonstrates a baffling incoherence by the Muhammadu Buhari government and a lack of strategic thinking.’

In this regard, the editorial not only argued that the anti-corruption war urgently needs a formidable strategy that may draw from the experience of Singapore, whose anti-corruption strategy ‘focuses on four pillars: effective anti-corruption law; effective adjudication to punish and deter those, who are prone to corruption; effective administration to reduce opportunities for corruption; and effective enforcement agency.’ The editorial also advised that the ICPC ‘needs a massive shake-up: Owasanoye should leverage the confidence reposed in him by Buhari and Osinbajo to root out inefficiency, corruption and indolence, and transform it into a nimble and effective law enforcement agency.’

What is particularly interesting and noteworthy about the advice of the editorial is that ‘the Buhari government should back the anti-graft war with strong political will by providing adequate funds and granting operational autonomy to the main anti-graft agencies.’

This advice is interesting from the perspective of the need for a ‘strong political will:’ where will the ‘political will’, not to talk of a ‘strong political will,’ will come from? Can it be rightly argued that, because the government is currently running after or prosecuting some corruption suspects that there is political will to do or not to do?

In the context of scientific arguments, it is not right to predicate a theory on just one empirical case study. However, in the context of an anti-graft fight, one case study can help in understanding the direction of a policy attitude. We do not believe that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has any sincere political will to nip corruption and financial crimes in the bud on a permanent basis. If it has political will, its implementation strategy cannot but be very faulty.And if the strategy is not faulty, there cannot but be an urgent need for a special national review of the strategic efforts so far, especially in the light of the experiences of other countries, to determine how best to address corruption as a national challenge. The foregoing observation is largely informed by the experiences from the Nigerian Institute of InternationalAffairs

VIE INTERNATIONALE with

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

most corrupt region in the world, the least developed and the most backward.’As observed by the UN Secretary General, Ban-KI Moon on 2nd September, 2010, ‘chaque année, plus de un trillion de dollar américain est volé ou perdu - argent nécessaire à la réalisation des objectifs du millénaire pour le développement... Bien qu’elle soit un phénomène mondial, l’impact de la corruption se fait plus sentir au niveau des pays pauvres et moins développés où les ressources destinées au développement sont indûment détournées par des individus, ce qui aggrave la pauvreté’(every year, more than a US 1 trillion dollars is stolen or lost – money required for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals... Even though it is a global phenomenon, the impact of corruption is felt more at the level of the poor and the less developed countries, where resources meant for development are unduly diverted by individuals, and which aggravates poverty).

In this context, how do we explain the fact thatAfrica is the most corrupt region of the world? Why isAfrica the most backward region of the world? Is colonialism again responsible for this? In the specific context of Nigeria, how do we explain the fact that, only seven years after the independence of Nigeria, corruption began to rear its ugly head, and yet, as at today, the problem of corruption still cannot be given any meaningful solution?

One possible explanation is that Nigeria has become a country where room is no longer given to sincerity and objectivity of purpose, where it is quite dangerous to be patriotic and seek to defend the truth, and perhaps most disturbingly, where those who are officially required to defend the truth, discipline, patriotism, honour and dignity of the nation, are the very people also militating against societal values. For as long as this type of situation continues to exist, there is very little, not to say nothing, any head of the ICPC can do to nip corruption in the bud, especially that there is nothing the Nigerian cannot acquiesce to in the absence of direct threats to his interest.

NIIA Experience and Way Forward

Buhari

(NIIA), Lagos.

But before the exegesis of the NIIAcase, two points are noteworthy at this juncture. First, corruption, as a virus is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. It also runs in the blood vessels of most countries of the world.

The difference between corruption in Nigeria and elsewhere is that the leaders in other countries fight corruption tooth and nail and at all levels. In Nigeria, corruption is only fought at the level of the elite.

The bottom level of corruption is neglected, consciously or otherwise, thus allowing corruption to continue to grow, and by so doing, also waiting for it to be addressed at the time the young corrupt people will become members of the elite to be identified and prosecuted.

Without a jot of doubt, the seriousness of corruption as a problem in international relations has prompted the adoption of an anticorruption regional programme, an initiative of the United Nations Economic Commission forAfrica. The programme was prepared in collaboration with theAfrican Union Consultative Council on Corruption (AUCCC). TheAUCCC was given the mandate to step up the fight against corruption inAfrica and make the continent free from corruption, better governed, and prosperous at the economic level.

Additionally, the programme was largely predicated on the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption and the 2003African Union Convention on the Prevention and FightAgainst Corruption.

The Convention is aimed at strengthening political stability and good governance in fighting corruption. The programme currently covers the period from 2011 to 2016.

As explained in a document by the UNECAand the Governance and PublicAdministration (GPAD), the programme adopts a strategic methodology at different levels, which includes strategic research and analyses, training and capacity building, information exchange and peer review, political dialogue and anti-corruption activities. In essence, at the national, sub-regional, and regional levels, the programme is designed to assist national institutions in fighting against corruption and, in this regard, non-governmental actors of the civil society, the media, and the private sector are integrated in the programme.

As the UNECAfurther explained it, corruption remains the most ‘indisputable challenge to good governance, enduring economic growth, peace, stability and development ofAfrica.According to various enquiries and corruption indicators,Africa is seen as the

We do not believe that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has any sincere political will to nip corruption and financial crimes in the bud on a permanent basis.

If it has political will, its implementation strategy cannot but be very faulty.And if the strategy is not faulty, there cannot but be an urgent need for a special national review of the strategic efforts so far, especially in light of the experiences of other countries, to determine how best to address corruption as a national challenge

The experience of the NIIAclearly suggests that the PMB administration is not likely to eliminate corruption in whatever manner mainly, because corruption has a systemic character. The Governing Council of the NIIAlends much credence to the thrust of our argument. It is important to note here that the Council is believably comprised of men and women of professional integrity. In fact, well respected senior citizens were members. It is therefore very difficult to understand how such a Council would have been accused of aiding and abetting serious acts of misconduct in the institute.

But true, as I noted in my handover note as Director General to the Government, I not only thanked GodAlmighty that I never stole any government money but also that the Council had bastardised the renowned international institute inAfrica,African institute in Nigeria, and the Nigerian Institute in Lagos beyond repairs. For the first time in the academic history of the institute since its foundation in 1961, professorship became a market commodity that has to be purchased or lobbied for. The Council tried to compel me to promote twoAssociate Research Professors, one on the basis of only two years of experience; the other with more than two years but without proven contribution to existing knowledge. I resisted the pressure because professorship is not for sale. The NIIA, when I joined it, had an internationally recognised academic integrity.

The Council, under various pretexts, claimed that I had not followed the normal process, and therefore dictated to me the content of a new letter to be sent to the assessors. The Council collected the particulars of the assessors and forwarded the letters to them directly.

Identities of assessors are never made known. In fact, one of the Council members spoke with one of the assessors but said his discussion was not on the issue of assessment. Now, there are two categories of professors at the NIIA: Professors by merit and Council-Assisted Professors.

What is most unfortunate about the professorial assessments, as related to corruption is that, the professorial candidates were against sending their papers outside of Nigeria, erroneously positing that it was not the normal practice. The Council, even with the professors amongst it, most unfortunately believed. The Council compelled me to send their papers to Nigerian assessors. I sent the records of past assessments of papers send abroad, including my own, to the Council.

The Council simply followed a different, but anti-NIIAdirection.

Additionally, a Director of Research and Studies, whose own papers were sent abroad, not only misinformed the Council, but also revealed the names of assessors to the professorial candidates. This matter was referred to the Council. The Council only kept silent over it.

There was also the serious case of misconduct of a Director of Administration and Finance. She altered the promotion examination results. She removed the various queries in her confidential file. She aided and abetted the changing of dates of birth of some staff in their records. In my then capacity as the statutory Chairman ofAppointments and Promotions Committee of the Governing Council, I referred the matter to the Council in plenary. The decision of the Council was that theAppointment and Promotion Committee had resolved the matter. When, where and by who? I was the complainant. Decision was taken when I was asked to go out to look for some documents.

Perhaps, more disturbingly, in the face of increasing cases of serious acts of misconduct, I tried to bring the situation under control but the Council consciously frustrated my efforts. For instance, there was a review of global events with implications for Nigeria’s foreign policy on daily basis at 9am. The research fellows complained that the regularity needed to be reviewed. I responded that the work at the NIIA must take priority over all others as many of them were lecturing at the Open University, Lagos State University, and University of Lagos.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

BUSINESS

Editor Vincent Obia Email vincent.obia@thisdaylive.com (08054681757)

LAST WEEK WEEK

CBN Incontinuationofitsinterventioninthe foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria Monday boosted the market by $195 million in the three segments. Acting Director, Corporate CommunicationsDepartmentofCBN, IsaacOkorafor,saidthisinastatement.

Okorafor stated, “In the wholesale segment of the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the bank auctioned $100 million and also intervened in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with $50 million.The invisible segment was also offered $45 million intervention. The intervention in the new week followed the major interventionlastweekof462,336,426.74 million dollars.”

Tax The federal government on Monday announced the lifting of the administrative suspension on the processing of pioneer status incentives applications for prospective investors in the country.TheMinistryofIndustry,Trade and Investment said the decision to lift the suspension followed the conclusion of critical reforms to the incentive regime aimed at promoting investment in the country.

Construction workers busy at a project site

PHOTO CREDIT: World Bank Group

Africa’s Working-age Population to Grow by 450m in 20years Only 100m to have access to stable employment GDP to pick up in 2018, but will remain below 4% for few years Kunle Aderinokun The working-age population in Africa is projected to grow by about 70 per cent or 450 million over a period of 20 years, spanning 2015 to 2035, said the Africa Competitiveness Report 2017. To date, Africa, which has Nigeria as one of the most populated, is inhabited by 1.246 billion people.

The population had grown by about 550 million, nearly doubled to 1.2 billion over 30 years, from 1985 to 2015, and now to the current level.

The recently released ACR 2017, which was prepared by the Africa Development Bank, World Economic Forum and World Bank, noted that, going by the current trends, only about 100 million of the 450 million increased population would be able to find stable employment opportunities by 2035.

According to the report, “Countries that are able to enact policies conducive to job creation are likely to reap significant benefits from this rapid population growth. Those that fail to implement such policies are likely to suffer demographic vulnerabilities resulting from large numbers of unemployed and/ or underemployed youth. New research is providing governments in the region with insights into how they can address the coming rise in the working-age populations.”

In its analysis, the ACR

LABOUR noted: “From 2004 to 2014, employment grew by only 1.7 percent in total—an average of less than 0.2 percent a year. This level of job creation has been barely sufficient to absorb the approximately 100 million additional African workers aged 20–59 who entered the job market in this period, which meant that the formal unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged amid continuing high rates of informal and vulnerable employment.

“Over the next decade, both GDP and the working-age population are expected to increase by about 3 percent per year. If it was possible to increase employment by only 1 per cent in the past decade, when GDP growth was higher, it could be harder to add jobs over the next few years when economic performance is expected to be softer. Looking ahead, the main question for Africa will be how to improve its competitiveness while absorbing a continuously expanding labor force in a scenario of lower growth.”

The report posited that, it was imperative for African countries to find ways to expand aggregate demand for labor and improve supply-side factors at the same time. “Beyond the traditional prescriptions—such as stable macroeconomic policy, a supportive investment climate, and

improving the quality of human and physical capital—countries can facilitate more rapid and better job creation as well as accelerate the development of their manufacturing sector by implementing policies suited to their specific circumstances.”

It added: “Since almost all new jobs in Africa today are in agriculture and microenterprises, improving the business environment in these sectors is a high priority. Fragile countries can create Countries that are able to enact policies conducive to job creation are likely to reap significant benefits from this rapid population growth. Those that fail to implement such policies are likely to suffer demographic vulnerabilities

jobs as well as promote growth and stability through targeted support to vulnerable regions and/or populations. Open trade policies and developing value chain links to extractive sectors are crucial for encouraging diversification and job creation in resource-rich countries.

Finally, policies that foster regional trade and integration can be a major source of new jobs as well as improve firm-level productivity and economic competitiveness.”

Pointing out that this edition of the Africa Competitiveness Report came at a time of reduced enthusiasm about African growth prospects, the ACR expressed re-

gret that, “The robust expansion experienced by the region over the past two decades may not continue over the next few years, reducing expectations about the continent’s employment outlook.”

“Since the publication of the last Africa Competitiveness Report in 2015, the region’s growth prospects have been affected by multiple external shocks: for example, oil exporters such as Nigeria have begun to be affected by lower oil prices over the past few years, and other mineral exporters, such as South Africa, have been hit by the slowdown of emerging economies, especially China,” the report pointed out.

Stating that, “Growth is expected to pick up in 2018 but will most likely remain below 4 per cent over the next few years,” the ACR 2017 recalled that, from 2004 to 2014, the region as a whole averaged a growth above 5 per cent a year, but it is now about 2.2 percent.

“Over that same period, growth of GDP per capita, however—the main indicator of economic development—was well above 5 per cent only between 2004 and 2007. Relatively few jobs have been added to African economies over almost 20 years of strong output expansion, mainly because of an overreliance on the primary sector (mineral extraction and agricultural products), little diversification, and low productivity,” it added.

NNPC The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said its four most recent investments with key upstream joint venture partners could increase Nigeria’s revenue by over $30 billion in the next decade. Group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said in a statement, “These four projects alone are going to raise incremental revenues to Nigeriaofover $30 billion overthelifeoftheprojectsinlessthan 10 years. The $1.2 billion multi-year drilling for 36 offshore/onshore oil wellsundertheNNPC/ChevronNigeria Limited,codenamedprojectCheetah, and the NNPC/First E and P JV and Schlumberger tripartite $800 million alternative funding agreement for the development of the Anyalu and Madu fields in the Niger Delta, were listed by the GMD as the critical Joint Venture alternative financing Upstream Investment.”

Reserves Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose to $31.22 billion, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The country’s reserves have been affected by the ripple effects of the economic challenges being faced by Africa’s largest economy, including low oil prices, crumbling naira value and high foreign exchange demands.

The last time the reserves peaked at such level was July 2015, shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari took office. The CBN data indicated appreciation in reserves amid forex intervention in the various exchange markets by the apex bank.The CBN is believedtohaveinjectedacumulative sumof$3.61billionbetweenFebruary and April 2017.

Naira The naira appreciated against the dollar at the parallel market, exchanging at N363 to the dollar, from the N364.

The pound sterling and the Euro closed at N477 and N428 to the naira, respectively. At the Bureau De Change window, the naira was traded at N363 to the dollar, while the pound sterling and the Euro closed at N477 and N428, respectively.

Trading at the investors’ window saw the naira closing at N367.50 to the dollar. Traders expressed optimism that the interventions by the CBN at the market were capable of closing the gap further between the rates at the parallel market and the other segments.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

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BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Renewed Investor Confidence as Stock Market Hits N13 Trillion The stock market rally that lifted the equities capitalisation to N13 trillion signals gains for investors and may have restored the requisite investor confidence, writes Goddy Egene

A

t the beginning of this year, many stock market operators expressed optimism that the market would witness positive performance. Their optimism is not misplaced, as events have shown. Firstly, the market had recorded three consecutive years of decline, falling in 2014, 2015 and 2016. It was, therefore, a bit certain that the bulls would return in 2017. Secondly, operators were upbeat because of efforts being made by the federal government to ensure that the economy was out of recession, a development that was expected to impact positively on the market.

Positive Prospects Consequently, market stakeholders had envisaged that a recovery was possible this year. However, the high rate of recovery, which the market has attained so far, was unexpected. By the close of trade on Tuesday, August 8, the market had hit a three-year high, with the Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation standing at N13.1 trillion for the first time since October 2014, while the NSE All-Share Index closed at 37,999.56.

An analysis of the market performance showed that it rose by 23.2 per cent in the first half of the year and has improved on that growth, rising by another 18.7 per cent within the first few days of the second half (H2) of the year.

The market had started the year on a bearish note with a decline of 3.1 per cent in January, 2.7 per cent in February. It recorded a marginal gain of 0.7 per cent in March and 0.9 per cent in April before surging by 14.5 per cent in May. Chief Executive Officer of the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, some operators and market analysts had expressed optimism that investors should expect a positive performance this year. According to him, the capital market is a subsector of the Nigerian economy and since it had been projected that the economy would recover from its recession and record a growth this year, the stock market should also recover.

Investors’ Confidence The road to the rally that has been sustained till now was actually opened with the introduction of the new foreign exchange window for investors and exporters by the Central Bank of Nigeria towards the end of April. That policy reinforced the demand by foreign investors, who were later followed by domestic investors. The better-than-expected results for half year to June 30 by some companies also bolstered investors’ positive sentiments.

Assessing the prospects of the market, analysts at FSDH Research expected the bull run to be sustained in June. They said, “We expect to see a continued uptick in investors’ appetite for equity investment in June 2017. The following factors may drive performance: the stability in the macroeconomic environment; the return of foreign investors into the equity market as a result of the increased supply of foreign exchange, especially through the I&E forex window; improved confidence on the outlook of the Nigerian economy; rebalancing of portfolio occasioned by the increase in the weights of some of the NSE quoted companies on the Morgan Stanley Composite Index.”

According to the FSDH Research analysts, the performance of the equity market in the last five years shows that the market recorded negative performances between May and June, except in 2014 and 2016.

“However, we expect the equity market to appreciate in the month of June 2017, as the economic outlook becomes increasingly positive,” they said.

The Ayodeji Ebo Afrinvest West, an investment banking group, had said despite the performance witnessed between the last week of April and end of May, Nigerian stocks were still trading cheap. According to him, a review of banks’ price to book (P/BV) and earnings multiples reveal that banks’ earnings remained upbeat in the

Trading floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange

past three years, notwithstanding the decline in share prices.

Ebo said, “In the past, foreign investors looked beyond cheap valuation and focused on FX illiquidity and economic challenges as it damped investor confidence. For instance, in 2014, GTBank traded around 2.6x and 9.4x P/ BV and P/E, respectively. Average P/BV and P/E for Tier-1 Banks at the time were 1.3x and 8.0x, respectively. However, in 2016, GTBank’s P/BV and P/E dipped to 1.3x and 5.4x apiece on the above aforementioned factors.

“Now, with the improvement in FX supply as well as the creation of the I &E window, I have observed improved mandates from FPIs. The market determined rates at the I &E window has translated into the FPIs receiving more naira value for every dollar inflow, giving them the ability to acquire more financial assets. As highlighted by the CBN, activity level at the window has been impressive, as over $1.0 billion in transactions have been carried out, with the CBN supplying only about 30 per cent of FX at the window. The impact of the success recorded at the window has been evident in the performance of the NSE, as a number of stocks have rallied on the back of bullish sentiments and I believe there is further room for upside in some stocks.”

Investors have reaped significantly from the rally as indicated by the sectoral that have pointed northward. For instance, NSE Banking Index gained 65.9 per cent, while the NSE Industrial Goods Index has chalked up 41.6 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index gained 25.2 per cent, just as the NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 13.4 per cent.

Looking at the sustainability of the bull run, analysts at Cordros Capital Limited, an investment banking firm, have said the equities market would remain bullish for the most part of the second

half (H2) of 2017.

“The gains will be supported by consistency and sustainability of policies that speak to near term macroeconomic recovery, in addition to better-than-2016 corporate earnings,” they said.

They acknowledge downside risks from around the globe, notably rising geopolitical tensions, higher interest rates in the United States, and most profoundly, hazy outlook for oil prices – which could particularly threaten forex stability and consequently spark capital flow reversal.

Cordros Capital, however, stated that developments in the domestic economy signal recovery in

The road to the rally that has been sustained till now was actually opened with the introduction of the new foreign exchange window for investors and exporters by the Central Bank of Nigeria towards the end of April. That policy reinforced the demand by foreign investors, who were later followed by domestic investors

the near term, which will further strengthen investor appetite. They added,“We look for the economy exiting recession in Q2-2017 (we project output to expand by 1.80 per cent during the quarter and 0.97 per cent for the full year). As a leading indication, manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities expanded in the second quarter of the year, as revealed by the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which averaged 52.2 and 52.1 points, respectively, during the three months period. We expect that to be consolidated by fiscal spending related gains from the 2017 budget.”

The analysts noted that further supporting the argument for a bullish run on the domestic bourse, the CBN’s Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing (NAFEX) window had the potential to further buoy foreign portfolio investment inflows over H2. Still on expected increased participation in the equities space, according to them, the likely implementation of the amended Regulation on Investment of Pension Fund Assets, particularly the introduction of the multi-fund structure released by the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) on April 18, will further bolster local pension funds’ exposure to equities.

They added,“The impact of this on pension fund managers exposure to risky asset will be positive for dealers who are already taking advantage of cheap valuation in local proprietary positions.

Compared to 2016, most listed companies appear better positioned to deliver better-than-anticipated results over the remaining part of the year. Drilling on activities in the consumer goods space, we hinge our optimism on notable upside factors, including improved access to the dollar (potentially limiting finance cost), moderately recovering consumer confidence, easing energy challenges, balance sheet deleveraging, rebounding aggregate demand (amid expected fiscal stimulus), and cost-reflective pricing.”

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R Ëž AUGUST 13, 2017

BUSINESS/TELECOMS

Mounting Concerns over Dwindling Activities of ISPs The continuous drop in the number of active Internet Service Providers in the country has become a source of worry to industry stakeholders and the regulator, writes Emma Okonji

T

he role of Internet Service Providers in the provision of internet services to people across cities, rural communities and underserved communities, is key to internet and broadband penetration in the country. Over the years, ISPs have been involved in taking affordable internet services from the shores of the country to the hinterlands where demand for internet service is high. But recently their business has been challenged by harsh market competition, involving under-pricing, bandwidth costs, vertical integration of mobile network operators, as well as the growing uptake of leased line services by corporates.

Concern Available data indicates a downward slide in the number of active ISPs present in the market and the scope of services they offer, a situation that has raised serious concerns among industry stakeholders and the regulator. In order to address the situation, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the industry regulator, organised a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos last week, where the challenges of ISPs were highlighted.

NCC said the sharp decline in the number of active ISPs in the country had become worrisome, stressing that the situation poses an economic threat, especially in the area of broadband rollout. Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management at NCC, Mr. Sunday Dare, represented the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, at the ISP Stakeholders’Forum. Dare said The ISPs were faced with series of challenges that needed to be addressed through collaborative efforts.

At the forum, a roll call was taken and it was discovered that among the 50 registered ISPs for the stakeholders’ forum, only 13 were active and still providing services to customers.

Awful Statistics Between 2001 and 2010, Nigeria had over 200 registered ISPs in the records of NCC. But the number kept diminishing year-in-year-out, such that as at today the number is less than 50, with only about 13 active and still providing services.

The current 13 active ISPs were made known after a roll call was taken on the number of ISPs that registered for the ISP forum organized by NCC in Lagos, recently.

The active ISPs include the big five GSM operators – MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9mobile, and ntel. Although the GSM operators were licensed to provide voice service, they decided to play as ISPs by providing data services because their universal licence allows them to do so.

Other active ISPs include Spectranet, Swift Network, Smile Communications, MainOne, IPNX, and eStream, among few others.

The inactive ISPs include Pinnet Technologies, Linkserve Network, Direct On PC (DOPC), Cobranet, Syscomptech, Tedata Limited, Bio Links, Datatell, Netmax, Simbanet Nigeria, Cue Net, and Blue Fox Media, among many others that have gone under.

While some went under for lack of funds, others failed as a result of harsh market competition occasioned by imbalance in regulation, under-pricing and sharp practices by the bigger operators.

Dare said, “As we all know, the larger telecoms industry, of which ISPs are an integral part, is beset with numerous challenges. The issues with power, accessibility of foreign exchange, multiple taxation/ regulation, infrastructure vandalisation, as well as high cost and long delays in obtaining rights of way and permits not only degrade the quality of services provided by our licensees, they also negatively affect the attainment of critical national objectives on the speedy rollout of broadband networks to power socio-economic growth and the enhancement of our industry’s contribution to national GDP.�

He said taking affordable internet services to the last mile required a healthy and robust ISP sector.

Dare expressed worry at the huge decline in the

A telecoms masts number of active ISPs in the market as well as the scope of their services.“The commission sees this gap as a major risk to the Nigerian economy in attaining ubiquitous broadband for every Nigerian, hence the essence of the stakeholders’ forum, in order to chat the way forward,�he stated.

The ISPs and stakeholders present at the forum blamed the situation on regulatory lapses, undue market competition, under-pricing, and sharp practices carried out by the bigger operators, especially the GSM operators that also offer data services to customers.

Challenges Head of Post Licensing at NCC, Mr. Philip Eretan, who was represented by the commission’s Senior Manager, Licensing and Authorisation, Mr. Solomon Igbayue, in his presentation at the forum, identified the challenges the ISPs faced to include harsh operating environment, inadequate infrastructure, multiple taxation, and tough approval process.

Regarding the operating environment, Eretan said the big service providers were operating in both the wholesale and retail segments of the market, thereby pricing out the smaller operators and taking their customers.

Other identified challenges included disparity between advertised internet speeds and actual speed obtainable on networks; inadequate provision of redundancy by ISPs to handle network downtime; lack of compensation for downtime; dedicated internet access users mostly offered shared internet access; service rollover of unused data; auto renewal of service; poor service quality; and compliance with regulatory obligations only during renewals.

It was suggested that NCC should manage the prices for internet services, to avoid under-pricing and ensure that all vendors have uniform prices given to the end users.

Tips Eretan, in his presentation, gave useful information that could help ISPs remain in business, despite stiff market competition. He reminded ISPs of the Internet

Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) notification on the upcoming changes to Root Zone DNS Security Extensions, scheduled to take place on October 11. He talked about other issues, like awareness on Internet code of practice to aid Internet governance functions, as well as the need for ISPs to standardise their operations by migrating from Internet Protocol version 4 to version 6 (IPv4 to IPv6).

Stakeholders called for the deployment of more telecoms infrastructure and the need for allocation of more frequencies to expedite deployment of data services.

Survival Strategies In order to address the myriad challenges threatening the survival of ISPs, NCC challenged them to develop new business models in line with current market trends that would help them remain in business. NCC said the need to develop new business models became necessary following the challenges confronting ISPs. NCC said the decline in the number of ISPs would continue to affect broadband penetration and growth in the country if not addressed.

The Director, Licensing and Authorisation at NCC, Ms. Funlola Akiode, in her presentation at the forum, said between 1996 and 2001, NCC licensed over

170 ISPs to provide internet services to Nigerians.

But Akiode said from 2002 to date, the number of ISPs issued licences had dropped drastically and the number of renewal of licences had also dropped heavily, a situation, she said, raised serious concern among the regulator and the industry stakeholders.

According to Akiode, “NCC has witnessed a tremendous decline in the number of applications for the ISP licence. The renewal rate of the licence category also dropped drastically. In the past five years, the commission has licensed a total number of 103 ISPs nationwide, but only about 10 per cent have applied for renewal of the licence. “That is one of the reasons why we decided to hold a stakeholders’ forum to find out why about 90 per cent of licensed ISPs are out of business, and why some ISPs have not rolled out services in accordance with the condition of their licences. “After listening to ISPs and industry stakeholders, NCC feels moved to advise the ISPs to develop a new business model that will help sustain their business and remain competitive in the market.�

She said as a responsive regulator, the sustainability of ISPs in the telecommunications business in Nigeria remained the primary interest of NCC. (see concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

INTERVIEW

Ugbe

Ugbe: Multichoice is a Nigerian Company, We’re Going Nowhere Before he became the Managing Director of Multichoice Nigeria, the practice was to have expatriates’ from other African countries head the company. Today, John Ugbe has held that position for almost six years. In this interview with journalists, he discusses the company’s business model, its unwavering confidence in the economy despite the impact of the nation’s last recession on its business as well as the company’s various interventions in different sphere of the nation’s life. Olaseni Durojaiye was there and brings excerpts.

I

t’s been six years since you took over the reigns of Multichoice Nigeria, how has it been running the company?

As with every business, definitely there are challenges, but as you rightly put it.

Nigeria is a very dynamic country, so I guess being Nigerian is very helpful. But I think the principle of business is the same everywhere, you have to adapt to your environment and try to provide the best service.

It’s been an exciting time running the company.

There have been a lot of changes. We all know the economy has changed greatly in the last few years, being able to adapt the company in order to stay alive has been part of the challenges; it has been an interesting time.

Talking about the changes in the economy, how has the economy impacted on your business, particularly during the recession?

Obviously the impact of the scarcity of foreign exchange was very big on our business because we have a lot of foreign costs; satellite cost, content cost that come in United State dollars. We also have to import equipment. These had quite an impact on our operations. We’ve tried to as much as possible to absorb and continue to provide an excellent service to our customers by adding new and fresh

contents; we have also had to re-jig our services.

We have been investing because we believe that on the long run the economy should fix.

It is no secret that in the business of media entertainment, content is key even as the cost of content continues to rise. This means that we tend to pay a lot. And it is no secret that the movement of the dollar against the naira, officially has increased, unofficially, it is even more than what it was two years ago, which means cost of our business had to double in a two year period. For any company to have cost of business double automatically it could do a lot of damage to it. The foreign exchange challenge affect the ability of your company to procure US dollars denominated content?

The fact that the exchange rate doubled doesn’t mean salary is increased and that was why we refused to do price increases until after a year.

Inflation has been double digit, 16 to 17 per cent in the last few years. We try to re-jig the business and continue to provide excellent service with minimal 5% increase in the last year and continue to keep in touch with whatever is happening in the market.

A recent report by the Nigerian Economic Summit group Business Confidence Monitor indicated a show of optimism in the Nigerian economy despite the recession and the many

challenges that businesses operating in the country are faced with, do share such optimism?

Like we have always said, we are Multichoice Nigeria; we have nowhere to go to, so we are very optimistic about the Nigerian economy.

The economy appears to be stabilising, inflation is not moving up anymore and the economy is beginning to record some positive growth; so definitely we’re very optimistic about the economy recovering and even recording growth.

The price of oil is a bit stable and we are back to exporting oil quite a bit too and the budget is also ready and government is implementing it.

However, even with that optimism, we must face the reality on ground and the reality would mean we have to do business in an unusual way, we have to stabilise, grow, take baby steps and hope that these indices continue to grow over time, and there is no big shock to the system again.

As part of government effort to improve the ease of doing business in the country, a presidential committee to the effect was inaugurated some months back and many believe it has since gone to work, has your sector been impacted by the committee’s work in any way?

I think it’s quite early in the day for that but

we’ve seen quite a number of announcements and changes. I will say it is as simple as even traveling through the airports, it’s a lot easier now, and a lot of multiple checks have been removed. I recall that the Vice President was there sometime back; we’re quite optimistic that if this continues we will see more improvement as regards ease of doing business in the country because I think it pays us as a country to make it very easy to do business here because, obviously, a lot of companies that want to come in and do business here will probably take that into consideration. Of course you will agree with me that the more foreign investments we get into the country the more the benefits for the country and its people.

You talked about your company’s optimism in the Nigerian economy and insinuated that the company is a Nigerian company that is here for the long haul; in concrete terms, what new investment is your company planning to demonstrate that confidence in the economy?

It is continuous investments from us. I think it is also important to make it known that a lot of times we invest not from the profit taking point of view; a lot of the investments that we do are also in form of interventions.

If you take Boxing for instance, when we re-started

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

INTERVIEW

Ugbe: Multichoice is a Nigerian Company, We’re Going Nowhere boxing it wasn’t getting sponsorship but we still went ahead and invested in the sport and things have since been getting better; the brand is built, we’ve been able to attract other sponsors into it; we’ve also attracted viewership.

When we started the Boxing fiesta two years ago in 2014, the indoor sports hall at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, had not been used for any sporting event for a long time outside of the Basket Ball League that we hold there and I know what we went through trying to just clean the place and get it ready for boxing; by the last boxing event that we had there before we took it to Ibadan, Oyo State, the place was packed full with boxing fans.

We had people like Joe Lasisi and Jeremiah Okorodudu in attendance, sitting there beside each other, remembering their old bout when they had their rivalry.

They said the place had never been this filled but for boxing bout in a long time. That is part of some of our investments and we will continue to generate interest around the boxing and other sports.

Besides, we want to continue to create jobs in the country and I think that entertainment and the sports hold a very big opportunity for us and, for us it is how do we develop and how do we create jobs for people.

We always tell people that when you hear a movie or a series people tend to think of actors and actresses, but that’s probably the smallest set of people.

If you talk of a series or a movie where you have the set designers, the costumiers, people that make clothes, make-up artistes and the likes, there is an entire spectrum of jobs that are available from just one movie and we need to understand that and see how we can ensure that we create those jobs. I think the US has done that very well and have been able to create a very big employment out of entertainment and sports.

The annual boxing competition is yet to hold this year, how soon are we expecting this year’s competition?

It will hold very soon; in the next two months at most. It is probably going to be bigger. After each competition, we always go back to the drawing board so that we can plan something much bigger. I believe we are coming with a much bigger competition this year.

Going back to content, what is the rationale behind your company’s acquisition of the rights to WWW, the wrestling championship?

Like I said earlier, we are not fixed on one thing. For us we will continue to improve and add more fresh content and it reflects in the number of channels that we have. In the last two weeks we have been showing a lot of athletics, some live, and we look forward to seeing like minds locally come in and sponsor athletics so that we can build the sport. In our glory days in athletics we had three people out of the eight people in the finals of the Olympics 100 meters race. Wrestling is also very popular in Nigeria. As a kid, I remember that the American wrestlers used to tour Nigeria, the likes of Mighty Igor and the rest of them; and we are saying why not a Nigerian in the WWWE. The same way we have been shown international boxing matches. We look forward to showing live wrestling matches, we’ve shown live boxing matches, and that is what we always say, when we acquire international rights to contents and we bring it down here it is not for the profit taking, it is also an opportunity for us to learn and to see how we can also develop the games in the country; to think that those people used to tour Nigeria, maybe we can get that happening again, may be some of the young people will be inspired to take to wrestling. But we are very excited about the acquisition, we can’t wait to start, we will be showing WWW live as they are happening in the US in the night.

Are we seeing the Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor fight?

Absolutely, please mark that date so that you would see when real boxing take place.

What has been the impact since your company introduced the Igbo movie Channel on Africa Magic? Is there a mechanism in place to measure impact of such intervention?

One of the ways to measure the impact is through the number of content that are being churned out, so that tells you that there are a lot of producers out there. Again, if you look at the awards, if you

Cont’d from Pg. 24

Ugbe look at the movies that were nominated you will see a great improvement over the year; what that mean is that there are more, and people are trying to outdo themselves which means that there are improvements.

With everything that we do we always try to see whether we can measure. One of the things that we did with the resource centers was that we have to go and look for some of the students that went to the school 10 years ago when we introduced the resource centers, we were able to pick out some who are almost medical doctors now, we just asked them what impact did it have on them and you can see their enthusiastic nature because I think it is very different for you to learn from the textbook and when you can actually sit down and watch surgery being done.

One of the most powerful endorsements for me actually came from a medical doctor who called and said he wanted to have it in his alma mater, and I said no we don’t sell it and he said no he wants to pay for it.

I asked him why are you so interested in it so much that you want to pay for it, and he said he went to a missionary school, he is a medical doctor, he said I knew what it was like studying the way he did, he said he actually studied from a photocopied text. Do you know that until I cut somebody open I didn’t know what I will find? He said he was just watching and he realised that he had watched a whole surgery on the programme.

For me that kind of feedback tells you that you are going the in the right direction.

Should your customers expect a price hike now that you have added some more contents?

In the past, we don’t add channels and increase tariffs. It has never been the company’s business model, it is an aggregate service, and that takes me back to investment in the local market. We believe in our movies, entertainment generally.

That is the model of the business for the future, we pioneered the African magic channels which is very popular not just in Nigeria but around the continent and the world. Why, because we believe in our stories. We need to rely on our own stories; we can’t continue to rely on people to tell our stories. We also believe there is a lot of creativity and big opportunity in doing so.

We needed someone to believe in the investment and the growth of our entertainment and that is why the contribution of the entertainment sector to the nation’s GDP has risen from nothing to about 13%. And we believe the opportunities in that sector are even a lot more than that. However, it will take collective investment. It is not just putting in money there is a lot of capacity building, equipment,

studios. We have built lot of studios locally. First of all, you need to have a market in place, and then you will have willing buyers and sellers.

When we introduced the African Magic Igbo, there was that question but gradually you have had a lot of people investing in Igbo movie making.

We have continued to improve on content. We are producing more local content than we have ever done. We recently acquired rights of the famous WWE Wrestling, if you look at it critically, we are adding content.

We have launched quite a few channels in the last 18 months, such that there have been additions to the channels. Our business is over a long period, not a business that you start today and take profit tomorrow. We always look very far ahead. We have been in the country for twenty-four years.

There’re very few companies in Nigeria that have been here for that long. So, we would continue to improve in terms of content while trying to minimise cost.

The world is moving Digital Television Broadcasting but it appears Nigeria is slow in joining the train … (cuts in) Digital is a very popular word for us, because DSTV itself is digital. We pioneered digital television very early in this country. It would interest you to know that Africa was the second continent, the second operator in the world to launch digital television, even before America and Europe.

I think we are contributing our quota. First, we introduced digital on satellite and then, digital on terrestrial with GOTV, offering which is what our sister company offers. Even before that, we had the mobile offering which the digital TV until it was phased out. We have been pioneering digital because we understand digital and to a large extent, there is digital TV in Nigeria. Of courses, the regulators and the government would make statement on the progression of how much courage that exists.

Another issue that has continued to trail your services has to do with the problem of signal degeneration during bad weather condition.

Critics of your company continue to insist that this does not happen in other markets and expected that your company would have found a lasting solution to this and reduce broadcast downtime.

As with any satellite communication, is it C-Band which was the big dish to Ku-Band which is the small dish with precise and correct signal, the signal can be interrupted. It happens everywhere in the world.

There is something we have been pushing for a while. It’s like your car being taken for repairs at the mechanic workshop. If you are in Lagos for, instance, where the wind is very strong like

the beach very close to us here, there is tendency for the dish to fall out of line.

However, it will continue to work but if you check the signal strength, it would be fluctuating; it could be 50% signal strength. So, it will continue to work. What actually interrupts signal is cloud, thick cloud; you remember that you get interruption just before it begins to rain. But what we have always canvass is that from time to time people should call in our certified installers to come in and carry out a check on their dishes, the same way that people take their cars for servicing periodically.

Your organisation is big in sports especially in the acquisition of major European football leagues, would you say football is the mainstay of the company?

We don’t really emphasise on football because it is just one of the many rights we acquired. There was a time we didn’t have access to these rights and business was moving on just fine. Our business is not built around one property which was why when we were talking about investments in movies and studios, I didn’t bother to mention football.

We tried to bring in the best as much as we can.

May be we are not even looking at the positive perspective of bringing these rights to the country.

There is a lot that we can learn from these rights.

At a time, we had partnership with the Nigerian Football League and we brought the league to the viewing public and everyone agreed that it was good.

This was the same thing that we did with the Nigerian Basketball league, not only did we sponsor it, we also televised it. I think we don’t even usually see the effects of such rights, apart from watching on television. Did you know that shortly after putting the basketball league on television, Nigeria qualified twice in a roll, for the Olympic Games? Apart from that, did you know we also beat Angola for the first time? Until then, we had never beaten Angola. But it is essentially because the boys were able to play regularly as there was a lot of development. It is the same thing that we did with boxing. Now, we now have a regular boxing show every year.

The talk about Pay per view just won’t go away even after so much explanation from you and your company. However, the new twist to it borders on whether or not pay as you watch is feasible in Nigeria?

Would you rather pay your subscription then pay another extra for the Mayweather fight or would you rather have it as part of your subscription.

CONT’D ON PG . 28

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

NIGERIA’S TOP 50 STOCKS BASED ON MARKET FUNDAMENTALS

CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED PLC: Impressive performance as economy stabilises

C

ustodian and Allied Plc (Custodian) recently released its financial statement for period ended, 30th June, 2017 which shows an impressive growth in gross revenue and profitability for the period.

Custodian and Allied Plc is the ultimate holding company that resulted from the successful merger of Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc and Crusader (Nigeria) Plc in 2012. Custodian and Allied Plc was incorporated in 1991 as a Private Limited Liability Company under the name, Accident and General Insurance Company Limited which was changed to Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited in 1993, and later converted to a Public Limited Liability Company (PLC) in 2006.

Again, by a Special Resolution the Company’s name was now changed to Custodian and Allied Plc, approved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on March 20, 2013.

Custodian delights its investors by consistently paying dividend every year; usually paid at the end of the financial year. For the full year ended, December 2016, Custodian paid a total dividend per share (DPS) of N1.47 billion (on the basis of N0.25 per share) for every 50 kobo share.

NOTABLE GROWTH IN GROSS REVENUE

For the period ended, June 30th 2017, Custodian grew gross revenue by an impressive 15.60% to N19.80 billion from N17.13 billion in the corresponding period of 2016. The rise in revenue was largely on the back of 5.35% rise in gross premium income to N14.19 billion from N13.47 billion recorded in the preceding period ended, June 2016. Gross revenue also reflects massive rise of 93.14% rise in investment income to N3.11 billion from N1.61 billion over the same period; while fees and commission which grew by 27.73% to N1.61 billion from N1.25 billion during the period under review.

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

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

beneficial partnerships to deliver quality insurance services to clients.

The Company’s earnings was further buoyed by an increase of 38.58% in net fair value gains/ (losses) from financial assets which climbed on the backed of positive changes in fair value of quoted investments. Also, disposal of equity securities reverses its N25m compared to the corresponding period of 2016. With respect to insurance benefits and claims paid out, the reinsurer’s insurance claims, net claims and underwriting expenses for the period form the operating expenses which increased by 14.69% to N12.80 billion from N11.16 billion reported in the corresponding period of 2016.

PROFITABILITY SURGES ON THE BACK OF OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

Finance cost for the period ended, June 2017 increased erodes its N71m loss recorded in the corresponding period of 2016. Impressive growth in gross earnings and other assets over general cost upsurge led to rise in the Company’s profitability as pre-tax profit rose by 30.15% to N4.73 billion in June 2017 from N3.63 billion in June 2016. Income

tax deduction for the period ended rose moderately by 23.67%, to N920m from N744m in the corresponding period of 2016.

Hence, a spike in net income as it records 31.82% growth to N3.81 billion from N2.89 billion over the same period.

ASSET QUALITY REFLECTS PROFITABILITY GROWTH

The Company’s balance sheet shows sizable positive changes in total assets, net assets and total liabilities as at June 2017, when compared to year ended December 2016. Total assets grew by 11.54% to N75.62 billion from N67.79 billion in December 2017. The key drivers of the Company’s total assets includes an extraordinary 2863.86% increase in trade receivables to N1.83 billion from N62m; 66.60% increase in deferred acquisition costs to N741m from N444m and a 49.23% rise in other receivables and prepayments to N1.09 billion from N730m as at December 2016.

In terms of obligations, the Company’s total liabilities recorded a notable growth of 13.133% to N42.65 billion for the period ended, June 2017 from N37.70 billion as at December 2016. Liabilities key drivers entails insurance contract liabilities which increased by 14.69% to N30.51 billion from N26.60 billion and trades payable which rose by a significant 39.85% to N3.89 billion from N2.79. Expectedly, the company’s net assets grew by moderately 9.55% to N32.97 billion from N30.09 billion during the peiod under review.

Moreover, with respect to returns, the company’s return on average equity (ROAE) stood at 12.07% while return on average assets (ROAA) followed suit as it rose slightly to 1.33%.

WE PLACE A BUY RECOMMENDATION AS POTENTIAL REMAINS VAST

We expect that Custodian and Allied Plc as a holding company has an opportunity to deliver high level of product innovations, operational excellence and create an opportunity for expansion to deepen its market which would significantly boost performance beyond current results. Also, the Company’s management has shown effectiveness in managing its

Valuation Metrics 11-Aug-17 Recommendation

BUY

Target Price

4.29

Current Price (N)

3.70

Outstanding Shares (m)

5,881.86

Market Cap (N'm)

20,586.52

Rolling EPS (N)

1.09

Rolling PE Ratio

3.20x

Forward EPS

1.52

Forward PE Ratio

2.31x Source: BGL Research, NSE Data

Half-Year June 2017 Unaudited Results Turnover (N’m)

19,798

Profit Before Tax (N’m)

4,726

Profit After Tax (N’m)

3,806

Pre-tax Margin (%)

23.87% Source: Company Data 2017, BGL Research

FYE December 2016 Audited Results Turnover (N’m)

38,554

Profit Before Tax (N’m)

7,390

Profit After Tax (N’m)

5,331

Pre-tax Margin (%)

19.17%

Source: Company Report 2017, BGL Research

Shareholding Information Shareholders

% Holding

Mikeade Investment Limited

15.72%

Rocknet Nigeria Limited

6.51%

Abraaj Nig. Advisers Limited

5.92%

Stanbic Nominees Nigeria Ltd

6.59%

Free Float

65.26% Source: Company Report 2017, BGL Research

expenses to curtail such impact on further earnings towards a better shareholders return.

Based on our review of the Company’s financials, we revise both our projected gross earnings to N53.94 billion and net earnings to N7.41 billion for financial year end, December 2017. This leads to a forward EPS of N1.52. Using a relative Price to Earnings Valuation (PE) and Net Assets Valuation method, we arrive at a 6-month target price of N4.06.

Since this represents an upside potential of 16.08% on the current price, we therefore place a BUY recommendation on the shares of Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

NIGERIA’S TOP 50 STOCKS BASED ON MARKET FUNDAMENTALS

NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC: Remarkable earnings as operating business environment stabilises

N

igerian Breweries (NB) Plc, the largest brewing company in Nigeria by market capitalization and operational scale, is a renowned name in the consumer goods segment.The brewer has a robust brand portfolio which includes names such as: Maltina, Star Lager Beer, Gulder Lager Beer and Heineken Lager Beer.The company has eight operational breweries across Nigeria, and ultra-modern malting plants in Aba and Kaduna.

The company recently released its half-year result for the period ended, June 2017 showing a notable rise in performance as top-line and bottomline increases.

ECONOMIC STABILITY IN THE COUNTRY BOOST NB GROWTH POTENTIALS The brewing company in its released unaudited half-year result for June 2017 showed a notable growth of 15.02% in revenue to N181.01 billion from N157.37 billion in June 2016, while net income grew by a remarkable figure of 24.57% to N23.75 billion from N19.07 billion in corresponding year of 2016.The performance of the brewing company can be attributed to a better business environment than the parallel period of 2016 which witnessed a more difficult operating environment due to instability caused by the unstable foreign exchange terrain, increased unemployment and fuel scarcity which impacted purchasing power and businesses. Moreover, the importance of the Nigerian beer market cannot be overemphasised in the company’s operations, as sales in Nigeria continue to account for more than 97% of total revenue.

Furthermore ,the company’s cost of sales grew by 19.53% to N99.68 billion in June 2017 from N83.39 billion in June 2016 due to increase in cost of raw materials, especially sorghum which the company uses in the production of beer. Cost of sales moved upward to 55% from 51% as it consumes more than half of the company’s total revenue. The company’s gross profit increased by 9.94% to N81.33 billion from N73.98 billion year on year, while its gross profit margin decreased to 44.93% as at half-year 2017 from 47.01% as at half-year 2016.

SIGNIFICANT DECREASE IN FINANCIAL CHARGES STIMULATES GROWTH IN NET INCOME Operationally, Nigerian Breweries Plc recorded a rise of 15.84% in operating profit to N39.32 billion June 2017 from N33.94 billion in June 2016. The company was able to grow

REPORTS SHOW THAT AFRICA, ESPECIALLY NIGERIA HAS THE FASTEST GROWING BEER MARKET FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. NIGERIA BREWERIES IS BETTER POSITIONED TO BENEFIT FROM SUCH GROWTH AS IT CONTROLS THE LARGEST MARKET SHARE IN NIGERIA. THUS, THERE IS A POSITIVE OUTLOOK IN TOP-LINE AND BOTTOMLINE EARNING FOR THE CURRENT FINANCIAL YEAR.

its operating profit in spite of 9.92% rise in total expenses to N39.32 billion from N33.94 billion recorded in June 2016.The reason for the spike in total operating profit was due to enormous growth in other income which grew by 540.31% to N1.82 billion from N283m in the corresponding period of 2016.

Costs associated with distribution and marketing expenses rose by 13.31% to N33.40 billion from N29.48 billion in June 2016. Administrative expenses on the other hand grew by 3.81% in halfyear 2017 to N10.44 billion from N10.85 billion year on year.

The company recorded a significant drop of 65.54% in finance income to N87m in June 2017 from N252m reported in June 2016. It can be assumed as a result of reduction due to fall in price of or no sale of obsolete assets, which may generate income; and an unfavourable movement in

foreign exchange rate.

Furthermore, the company incurred financial charges to N5.35 billion from N8.64 billion year on year, reflecting a negative change of 38.16% driven mainly by decreased interest expense on net pension liability despite the current challenging operating environment leading to consumer down-trading, rising inflation, increased cost of financing, higher foreign exchange cost and increasing input cost amongst other.The company was able to grow its pre-tax earnings by a significant 33.31% to N34.06 billion from N25.55 billion during the period under review while its net income grew by 24.57% to N23.75 billion from N19.07 billion year-on-year.

ASSET QUALITY The company’s key performance metrics remains strong as positive change was witnessed in profit margins as reported. Pre-tax profit margin grew to 18.82% from 16.23%. Current ratio rose to 64.35% as at June 2017 from 51.69% as at December 2016. Return on average equity (ROAE) currently stands 13.81% and return on average asset at 6.28%. The company’s borrowings notably declined to N13.00 billion in June 2017 from N17.00 billion as at December 2016.

GEARED TO BENEFIT FROM INCREASED LOCAL CONTENT With more raw materials sourced locally by the brewery giant to 99 percent of packaging materials, 100 percent of sorghum and 60 percent cassava starch, the Company has achieved 57% local content therefore positioned to enjoy reduced cost of production.

The Nigerian brewing space is controlled by two major players accounting for about 90% of the total market value, while other fringe players control the remaining share.

Nigerian Breweries is the biggest player in the sector with a total installed capacity of 15.4mhl. Guinness Nigeria Plc is the second biggest player with 5.5mhl installed brewing capacity.

Other players are International Breweries Plc, Champion Breweries Plc and Jos Breweries Plc which among themselves control a limited of market share.

WE PLACE A HOLD RECOMMENDATION IN view of market share capacity of NB Plc The performance of Nigeria Breweries Plc in the first half-year 2017 was better compared to the corresponding period of 2016 as economy stabilizes. Reports show that Africa, especially Nigeria has the fastest growing beer market for the next five years. Nigeria Breweries

Valuation Metrics 11-Aug-1727.77 Recommendation

HOLD

Target Price (N)

184.80

Current Price (N)

190.00

Market Cap (N'm)

1,506,529

Outstanding Shares (m) Rolling EPS

7,929 4.17

Rolling PE Ratio

45.54x

Forward EPS

4.03

Forward PE

47.16x Source: NSE Data 2017, BGL Research

Half-year 2017 Unaudited Results Turnover (N'm)

181,010

Profit Before Tax (N'm)

34,059

Profit After Tax (N'm)

123,751

Pre-tax Margin (%)

8.82% Source: Company Data 2017, BGL Research

Audited Full Year 2016 Results Turnover (N'm)

313,743

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

39622 328,397 12.63%

Source: Company Data 2016, BGL Research

Shareholding Information Shareholders

% Holding

Heineken Brouwerijen B.V.

37.07%

Distilled Trading Intl B.V.

15.61%

Stanbic Nominees Nig. Ltd

12.94%

Public Float

34.38% Source: Company Report 2017, BGL Research

is better positioned to benefit from such growth as it controls the largest market share in Nigeria.Thus, there is a positive outlook in top-line and bottomline earning for the current financial year.

Based on historical year-ended financial performance and in conjunction with the findings of our analysis of the current operating landscape, we achieve a forward earning per share of N45.54 . Using the PE (Price to Earnings) method of valuation, we arrived at an average 6-month target price of N182.66.

Since the target price represents an downside potential of 2.74% on the current stock price of N184.80, we maintain our HOLD recommendation on Nigerian Breweries Plc.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

TRAVEL

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

THe Eko Tag Site

Eko Tag: Enhancing Lagos with Urban Art Demola Ojo

A

long the Ozumba Mbadiwe road in Victoria Island, Lagos, a striking mural stands out.

Painted on the wall of the Lagos Law School, the 13ft by 108ft artwork incorporates iconic images of Lagos in different shapes, sizes and colours. Yellow –the colour most associated with the city due to its taxis and minibuses– dominates.

The mission: to beautify the environs, tell Lagos’ stories and recount its history through the medium of graffiti, an art form that has steadily progressed from being described as “illegal” and “vandalism”, to a much-appreciated expression that now draws tourists to cities famous for their street art; New York, London, Lisbon, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Rio… For example, the Berlin Wall that divided Germany into West and East was a major tourist attraction, not only because of its political significance but also because of the narrative captured in its graffiti.

However, unlike other cities that have had to transition into accepting the outrageous talent exhibited by street artists, Lagos – through its state government – has consciously decided to encourage this art form by commissioning Nigeria’s leading graffiti artist, Osa Okunkpolor, popularly known as Osa Seven, to not only beautify parts of the city but also tell the Lagos story through

his depictions.

Armed with his stencils, spray paint, varnish, paper and boards, Okunkpolor disrupts spaces that allow him express his creativity, with his works ranging from portraits of iconic characters to scenic images, brand designs, abstract art and more.

Apart from being the only African artist to be featured in a Microsoft global advert campaign earlier this year, he has worked with numerous global brands and has been featured on CNN African Voices, BBC Afrique and ARISE News. The Eko Tag site has also been visited by Anthony Bordain and will be featured on his show, Parts Unknown.

Already, the Eko Tag site has become an attraction, with many – including a host of A-list celebrities – stopping by to take pictures and selfies against the backdrop which features images of the National Theatre, the statues of the three capped chiefs that welcome commuters to Lagos via the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the graffiti tag that says“LAGOS”and the installation of yellow auto rickshaws (locally known as Keke Napep).

The attendant exposure on social media has helped project these images of Lagos to different parts of the globe.

Speaking with THISDAY, Okunkpolor threw further light on the Eko Tag project. “The Eko Tag artwork is a story within a story, to remind us as a people to never forget our heritage and the great moments that shaped Lagos. It creates a platform where the old does not only intersect

Osa Seven at work with the new, but provides base narratives from which the future will emerge from,” he said.

“The very colorful pattern is descriptive of Lagos as a thriving city. As you know, the National Theatre and the Three Wise Chiefs are very popular elements of Lagos state.

“It’s been a very humbling experience having an opportunity to make history. People have fallen in love with Eko Tag, and the interaction with the artwork has been overwhelming. It’s also aesthetically

Ugbe: Multichoice is a Nigerian Company, We’re Going Nowhere The promoters of Mayweather are doing a great job in promoting the fight. The fight would be on pay per view in the US. And in addition to their television subscription, you will pay to watch that fight. The channel for the fight will be opened for the match and after the match, it would be shut down. The last time that Floyd Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao, the pay per view subscription was about 100 dollars. If you change it to naira it is about N31, 000.000 (thousand naira). That was what subscribers who wanted to watch the match had to pay to see it.

That is why we try to educate people that the business model does not allow for pay as you go here in Nigeria, because that would mean that you want to remove your smart card and when you return you slot it in and continues to watch. The way you buy content is not for me to come to you with your movie and say I will take your movie and I will put it on between 8

and 10 pm then I will count how many people are watching and then, I will pay you based on this number of people. That is not how it works.

If you are content supplier, you will not agree to sell your movie that way.

Again, the satellite is one way communication.

On satellite, your decoder never talks. It is not telephone. We have no way of knowing if your decoder is on at home or not. With the phone I can tell if you have picked your call. But with decoder, it receives, it does not transmit.

Check how many movies there are on the channels and imagine what it actually takes to create one channel on the platform. So, the business model is very different. And it is like that everywhere in the world. It is easy to argue that how about the volume of subscribers we have? Ok, but how about in the early days when we had 30 subscribers and more than 100 channels? It is like a restaurant, you cannot say

pleasing, and can be used for brand messaging in the advertising world.”

Okunkpolor further stated his desire to continue on the path of projecting Lagos through his rare talents. “Graffiti has previously been viewed as vandalism, but I am focused on using it as a tool to drive positive impact and promote social causes.

We are looking to the government to give us more public spaces to work with so we can further help project Lagos and tell its stories to a global audience.”

Cont’d from Pg. 25

when I enter into a restaurant, if I eat half the rice, and a plate is N3000, I will then pay N1, 500. You can as well stretch it further by saying I take a bottle of Coca cola, if I take half, I will only pay for half.

What sort of partnership do you have with Nollywood Nollywood is a name of an industry and we have lots of producers who are collectively known as Nollywood. We partner with a lot of producers inside Nollywood. Our sister company, African Magic, has its own production, acquires or commissions. These are the three different models by which we continuously engage with the industry.

We also engage in a lot of capacity building and training. We have the biggest movie awards in Africa, the AMVCA, because in everything, if you provide reward for excellence, people tend to work harder. So you have to create a market

so that there would be opportunity for that.

In what area is your company impacting the society by way of corporate social responsibility initiatives?

We’ve been giving back to the society in a few different ways? One of our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives is our partnership with the Sickle Cell Foundation. Two months ago, we had an outreach in Lagos with the foundation, where tests were carried out on people at no cost.

We have a great passion for the sickle cell issue because with test, you can easily detect who has it or not. Nigeria is one of the countries where it is quite endemic. So we throw our weight behind such initiatives.

We also have our school initiative. They are used as resource centers. We train teachers so that they can be able to use video to teach their students. The Discovery Channels which have a lot of content for learning are there in the decoder.

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͹ͻ˜ ͺ͸͹Ϳ ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R

MARKET NEWS

Chams Access Grows Total Equity, Strengthens Portfolio Chams Access Limited, a

subsidiary of Chams Plc, has assured shareholders of improved returns on investment in the 2017 financial year on the back of improving macroeconomic stability. The Chairman of the company, Dr. Evans Woherem, gave the assurance company’s inaugural annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos last week.

According to him, although the significant decline in economic activities for a better part of 2016 affected the

company with the country exiting recession, there is an obvious turnaround in the fortunes of Chams Access going forward.

“With improved macroeconomic stability, there has been a demonstrable turnaround in business and ChamsAccess is on the path of profitability in the 2017 accounting year. That means when we come for the next AGM, we would now see a greatly improved company of ours,” Woherem remarked.

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

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

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

Also speaking at the AGM, Managing Director, ChamsAccess Limited, Mrs. Funke Alomo Oluwa, stated that the company’s strong market positioning and industry leadership accounts for its resilience despite the external and domestic economic headwinds which unsettled Nigerian economy in 2016. The company grew its total equity to N1.081 billion in 2016, as against N960 million for the year 2015.

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

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

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

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 10-Aug-2017, unless otherwise stated.

“After a resilient 2016 financial year, ChamsAccess is on growth trajectory and has returned to profitability in 2017 as evident in our first and second quarter results respectively. Supported by a strong board of directors, the company is breaking new grounds in high growth areas such as the telecommunications and microfinance sectors and are further strengthening our product base.”

She cited boosting operational profit, product diversification,

market share growth and improved return to shareholders as the company’s focus in the 2017 financial year.

Also at the AGM, Mr. Olufemi Williams, Group Managing Director, Chams Plc and Ms. Adetomi Aladekomo, a television/movie producer and Founder, Heels in the Kitchen, were both elected to the Board of Directors of ChamsAccess Limited as non-executive directors.

ChamsAccess Limited is a

leading access and technology solutions company with a vision to be the go-to company for solutions in the markets it serves. The company’s core focus is the sale, deployment and support of automated solutions in the area of Instant Card Issuance, Biometric Data capture solutions, Customer Life Cycle Management solutions, Access Control and Time and Attendance solutions to serve both financial and non-financial needs of the society.

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

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

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

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 1 270 1680 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 175.61 175.61 175.61 Nigeria International Debt Fund 232.19 232.19 232.19 ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund 0.80 0.81 14.38% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 18.73% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 17.67 18.20 43.12% ARM Discovery Fund 369.03 380.15 28.50% ARM Ethical Fund 26.22 27.04 17.44% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 18.16% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 143.54 144.55 36.47% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 17.91% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 19.60% Paramount Equity Fund 11.50 11.80 22.89% Women's Investment Fund 93.23 95.62 10.21% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 18.80% FBN CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,107.83 1,108.93 9.37% FBN Heritage Fund 142.38 143.65 27.74% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 18.25% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional $109.53 $110.48 6.50% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail $108.89 $109.84 6.61% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 157.30 159.55 39.69% FIRST CITY ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD fcamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcamltd.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Equity Fund 1.36 1.39 46.28% Legacy Short Maturity (NGN) Fund 2.82 2.82 9.79% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund 2,908.12 2,961.44 32.07% Coral Income Fund 2,319.13 2,319.13 10.21% GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 14.29% INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 18.26% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.09 2.12 24.58% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 18.36%

LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.12 1.14 13.47% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,036.49 1,036.49 7.82% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 13.37 13.47 38.26% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 19.10% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.15 1.17 15.74% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 10.71 10.76 3.03% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 17.50% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 124.44 130.09 24.49% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.34 1.34 7.97% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 2,170.50 2,182.81 18.53% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 161.69 161.69 5.02% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.99 1.00 29.22% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 205.76 205.76 10.10% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 177.72 180.09 36.91% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 18.53% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 9,613.11 9,723.09 26.75% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.28 1.30 14.83% United Capital Bond Fund 1.37 1.37 12.26% United Capital Equity Fund 0.81 0.83 20.94% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.14 1.14 3.51% ZENITH ASSETS MANAGEMENT LTD info@zenith-funds.com Web: www.zenith-funds.com; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.61 12.83 29.87% Zenith Ethical Fund 13.23 13.23 20.14% Zenith Income Fund 18.46 18.46 11.64%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

11.41 129.43

1.01% 4.40%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

11.39 109.38

11.49 111.45

31.82% 44.35%

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

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

4.53 9.71 17.80 22.60 131.81

4.57 9.79 17.90 22.80 133.81

63.57% 37.91% 48.77% 41.43% 2.24%

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

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

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UT H

& RE A S O

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LIFE LESSONS WITH AYO AROWOLO

ayo.arowolo@thisdaylive.com

09067059433 (SMS only)

a number of very good friends, many of them dating back to my secondary school and University days. I don’t have many friends.

In fact, I can count my good friends on my fingers. For me it is more about quality than about number.

Also important is you must invest in relationships. You do that through service to your community, building goodwill, what you may call an emotional bank account where you are always depositing. You may need to withdraw from time to time, but you must always be in credit so that if and when you need it, it is there.

LESSON

6 FOCUS ON THE LONG TERM

–Adedotun Sulaiman There are many paths to career success. Some believe that you would rise faster and garner experiences quickly if you switch jobs, especially when they are not in related sectors. Adedotun Sulaiman, Chairman of Interswitch, typifies the other path, building a career around a single organisation. With the help of a mentor, Dick Kramer, Sulaiman stayed glued to Arthur Andersen/Andersen Consulting/Accenture for 32 years, and, in the process, he has become a force to reckon with in the consulting business in Africa. You would enjoy his notes on the journey and his life lessons. specialized, and is not in my area of expertise, good comes easy. If it is too easy it is probably I just won’t go there. I invest in things that I not real and will not last or endure.

Career: Hard work pays.

I worked in a professional services know at least a little about. My motivation firm that attracted very bright people for investment has never really been about LESSON Attitude to money: I am not driven which provided very good training and the money. I am motivated more by a desire by money. only reasonably well-paid. The firm was a to use my knowledge, experience, contacts I never spend all my money. Never. I veritable hunting ground for talents; many and relationships to help a younger person organisations paid a premium to lure people to get ahead. It is, therefore, not an accident also live within my means and away from Arthur Andersen. But I never got that most of my investments are with young don’t indulge in consumption distracted or tempted to leave. The result was entrepreneurs and start ups. I will give them patterns or lifestyle I cannot that I had my entire career with one entity a bit of money, but more valuable than the sustain. Consequently, I don’t from 1978 to 2010. What I learnt, therefore, is money I give them are my time, access to me know what it is like to be broke. that if you do one thing and you do it very and my network, hand-holding them, and While I will continue to invest, I do have a few indulgences, well you will get very good at it and be hard mentoring them. like my investment in a fairly to beat. Another thing which I learnt from substantial art collection of Dick Kramer, my boss then, is that hard work LESSON mostly Nigerian and African pays. It always does. We were lucky to work Business Principles: There are no Art. But basically, money in an environment that was based purely on shortcuts to success in business. merit.

In business there are things I call doesn’t mean that much to me.

Focus on the long term. universal truths. Number one is that hard Money, for me, is a measure The other thing I learnt from Dick is focus on work pays. The second is that there are no of the reward that you get if the long term. Dick would always tell us that shortcuts; if you try to short circuit it you miss you do something right. What life is not a 100-metre dash, but a marathon. It something. One of the things I learnt growing it does for me basically apart from meeting is not how you started, but how you finished. up under Dick is that growing up in life is like basic needs, is the confidence it provides that So, in everything you do, think of the end. climbing a ladder, you have to go through you can meet your needs and a few luxuries What that teaches you is having much every rung of the ladder. If you skip any within reasonable limits, and of course, the patience, perseverance and doggedness. Once step, you can’t come back to climb it. It is the absence of anxiety about not being able to you are focused on your objectives and goals, same thing with business; it doesn’t happen meet them. The more money you have, the even when all kinds of challenges come, that in a hurry. You learn, make mistakes, apply more you should realise that you don’t really focus on your objective is what keeps you lessons from your mistakes, get better, and need that much to live a decent life. Beyond going. So, you are mission-driven, and that you keep getting better and better. Nothing that, money should be used to do good, to touch lives of the less-privileged sets the agenda for all other things or less- endowed. I believe I will you do in life. do well with a lot of money, but LIFE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS(LCSF) Again, something we learnt from will also do as well, be happy, Dick is that there is always a MAX MY

BY PRIORand content with very little S/N KEY AREA SCORE GUESS ITY trade off between being an ‘inch money. I don’t think money can wide and a mile deep’ and being 1 Academics/Education 10 7 9th ever change my essence. a ‘mile wide and an inch deep’. It 2 Career/Business/Investment 10 8 8th is a tradeoff between breadth and 3 Friendship/Networking Skills 10 7 10th width. I chose depth.

LESSON 4 Mentoring 10 8 3rd Relationship: I don’t 5 ϐ Ȁ

10 8 1st have former friends.

LESSON 6 Parenting 10 7 2nd Friendship for me is very Money & investment: 7 Health 10 8 6th easy. I will not call myself Don’t invest in what you a particularly friendly or 8 Marriage 10 6 7th don’t know. outgoing person. I tend to be One of my golden rules for 9 Ȁ ϐ 10 8 4th reserved and quite shy; I am investment is that I don’t invest 10 Ȁ

10 8 5th not the natural cocktail party or in anything I don’t know TOTAL 100 86 life-of-the-party type. I do have much about. If it is too esoteric,

LESSON

1

4

3

2

5

Health: Moderation does it.

My principle is moderation in all things. There is nothing I don’t do; there is nothing I don’t eat, but everything in moderation. I am a social drinker; l don’t drink hard liquor or spirits. Occasionally, I take a glass or two mostly shared with a friend or friends. Even if I have a house full of wines, I will never open a bottle and drink on my own. It has to be when I have guests or friends to share it with. I tend to have the bad habit to not eat breakfast, not because I don’t like it but because I sleep late and wake up late. Usually there is not enough time for me to eat a hearty breakfast. So, I just take a glass of yogurt or mixed fruits. I generally don’t eat lunch. Hence my major meal is dinner usually around 7p.m at home. I hardly sleep before midnight.

In terms of health I will say I have been blessed and lucky. I have never had any health issue. The only medicine I take are my daily vitamin supplements and baby aspirin.

I also actively watch my weight; I keep my weight at between 64 and 66 kilos. I try to be very active and avoid a sedentary lifestyle.

LESSON

7

Spirituality: Focus on doing good.

For me I will describe myself as a spiritual person but not religious. First of all, I believe there is God. I don’t believe that we are completely in charge of our fate or fully responsible for our destiny so that whatever we do or become, we cannot take the full credit for it. I believe we are all here for a purpose. I think the trick of life and success is to find one’s purpose, that ‘thing’ for which we are here and to fulfill that purpose in one’s lifetime. A lot of the great religions, especially Christianity and Islam, put much emphasis on the hereafter. For me I don’t dwell on or worry too much about the hereafter. I don’t know whether there is, indeed, a hereafter or not but my fundamental belief is that the best qualification for any hereafter is how we live the here and now. Therefore, I cannot believe that anyone who does well here will not gain admittance to the hereafter, into that paradise.

For me religion is meant to be lived every day and should reflect or manifest in the way you relate to your fellow man and other God’s creations. For me the best way to serve God is to serve man. I have tried to live my fundamental beliefs as best as I can. We are all human; we have our failings and frailties. My driving and abiding principle is that you should do as much good as possible in your lifetime so that when your balance sheet is drawn by God, the good that we did will far outweigh the bad and the notso-good things that we will necessarily do because of our humanness.

BEST ADVICE I will say I have been lucky. One of the best things that have happened to me is working for Dick Kramer. One of the things he used to tell us in those days was that the harder you work, the luckier you become. He believes that what we call luck is actually not luck, but being prepared, working for it, and being ready to grab it when the opportunity comes.

BOOKS 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

13.08.2017

ONOS ARIYO STICKING TO HER PASSION

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ONOS ARIYO

STICKING TO HER PASSION It was her album launch concert, but Vanessa Obioha reports that Onos Ariyo could not be easily singled out as she was very much part of the morass that needed some smoothening to set the stage for a captivating show

S

he can easily be mistaken for another face in the teeming audience at one of the halls at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. She is sitting at the back, watching the performances on stage. Despite her regal outfit, Onos Ariyo, manages not to pull everyone’s attention to herself even if the event is about her. Of course, she is not plain looking; her high cheek-bone which accentuated her smiles and her captivating eyes can easily melt anyone’s heart. Perhaps, the dimness of the hall helps to conceal her.

The expression on her face is very rapt.

Often times when her attention is needed, she answers swiftly and immediately returns her eyes to the stage. She showed this uncanny trait earlier when we were in the dressing room. We had just left the red carpet, making our way through the sea of photographers and fans who couldn’t get enough of her. Her assistant is about to shut the door when Onos stops her.

“Who is singing?” she asks no one in particular, and then peeks, her ears are perched in that familiar manner of curiosity. After a few seconds, she concludes that someone is not performing her set. Next thing, she is adjusting her dress and smiling at the reporter. The outfit is made by Ayo Van Elmar and Goziri Afrique Couture. This act of thoroughness speaks volumes to her professionalism.

Little wonder that she is able to attract huge fame within seven years of her music career. A good pointer to this is the number of awards she has accumulated. She won the Best Female Vocalist at the Nigeria Gospel Music Awards 2012 and Crystal Awards 2013. She also won the Wise Women Awards 2015 in the Woman in Music category and Female Gospel Artist of the Year Eloy Awards 2015.

Another indicator is the turnout of celebrities at the event. They include gospel music big-weights like Frank Edwards, Nikki Laoye, Segun Obe, Nosa, as well as Lolo of Wazobia FM, Ufoma McDermott, Diekko, Emma oh my God, Chidinma ‘Chee’, Comedian Ushbebe and Pastor Ifeanyi Adefarasin of House On The Rock who is very proud of Onos for she is the lead vocalist and psalmist of the church’s choir.

We are at her third album launch concert, just nine days after her mindblowing performance at the Rock Cathedral’s The African Praise Experience.

The ambience is very charged with a motley crowd of worshippers belting out songs to the lined-up artistes on stage.

Most of them are Onos’ friends and colleagues like Freke Umoh who doubles as the compere of the event. There is also Soulchy, a gospel songstress from Abuja. Her choice of worship songs and prayers moved the crowd so much that her presence was still felt minutes after her performance. Olumide Iyun mounted the stage next, turning the atmosphere to a rock affair. With his song ‘There’s a Shout’, he urged the audience to jump and they obeyed with delight. By the time Sammie Okposo came on stage, the handkerchiefs were out and everyone was ready to dance to one of his evergreen songs ‘Good God’.

A loud ovation greeted Onos when she finally performed. Her performance of ‘Jehovah Ebenezer’ from the new album evokes a worship mood that engulfed the audience.

Titled ‘Songs from the Place of Prayer’, the album comes on the heels of Onos’ sophomore body of works, ‘No Limits’ which had the popular song ‘Alagbara’.

Onos revealed she had been working on the album since 2015.

“That’s when I started recording songs for this particular album. I was not recording in 2016; I decided to put it out this year because I thought I will be very ready for everything that comes with releasing an album.” What she means by this statement is that she will be ready physically, emotionally and spiritually for the album release. It has become a signature of hers to launch an album with a concert. Times like these require her utmost attention. Yet there are some things that are beyond her control. For instance, she is always changing the password of her social media accounts because she can hardly remember them all. At the moment, she has given few suggestions to one of her assistants for one of her social media accounts that needs live updates on the concert. It’s simply beyond her to keep track of them all.

While she is busy paying attention to the affairs on the stage, her husband, Kunmi Ariyo, who is also her manager is backstage ensuring that the evening segues seamlessly. One minute he is seen talking to the ushers and protocol officers, the next minute, he is keeping tabs on the production team. The couple is blessed with two children.

Her album title is quite intriguing and definitely instigates a desire to know more.

She sighs, then explains the muse behind the concept: “Why I pick that title for the album was because…before I started recording the album, usually I do this fasting programme at the beginning of the

LITTLE WONDER THAT SHE IS ABLE TO ATTRACT HUGE FAME WITHIN SEVEN YEARS OF HER MUSIC CAREER. A GOOD POINTER TO THIS IS THE NUMBER OF AWARDS SHE HAS ACCUMULATED. SHE WON THE BEST FEMALE VOCALIST AT THE NIGERIA GOSPEL MUSIC AWARDS 2012 AND CRYSTAL AWARDS 2013.

SHE ALSO WON THE WISE WOMEN AWARDS 2015 IN THE WOMAN IN MUSIC CATEGORY AND FEMALE GOSPEL ARTIST OF THE YEAR ELOY AWARDS 2015.ANOTHER INDICATOR IS THE TURNOUT OF CELEBRITIES AT THE EVENT

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Ariyo on stage

year for God’s direction. I have always had that kind of moments at different times. I pray more and seek God’s face. I noticed that, I developed the habit of doing so because I noticed that I sing a lot of songs that are not my songs or written by anyone during my prayer session. I got inspired mostly during prayers. When I play back after prayers, I realised that I have sang many unknown songs. That’s where I discovered ‘Have Your Way’, ‘Oghene Me’, and ‘Jehovah Ebenezer’. I hear them in bits so I go back to create beats, write verses and all that. As at 2015, I had about 80 per cent of the songs for the album.

So looking at the songs and the way they came, I can’t really say I sat down and wrote any of the songs on this album, that’s why I called it ‘Songs from the Place of Prayer.”

Like many successful Niger Deltans in the gospel music industry, Onos has carved a niche for herself with her voice and charisma. Some call her the diva of gospel music but she modestly declines to be addressed as one. The songstress from Isaba-a small town of Ijaw people located in the south of Warri, Delta state - rather thinks that the main goal is spreading the good news.

“I don’t think there is any such thing as the diva of Nigerian gospel music because the truth is we are all gifted differently and our expressions are quite different.

My colleagues are doing amazing jobs as well and I think the main goal is spreading the good news we have with the world with our songs which is actually the most important part of what we do and not really trying to be a diva.”

Although she is from a small tribe in Delta State, Onos prides herself as a true daughter of the soil. There is no famous gospel musician from her place yet. She thinks highly of Niger Deltans in the entertainment industry. For her, they were born for the role.

Arguably, there is an element of truth in her assertion. Most popular comedians hail from that part of the country. There are also gospel artistes like Sammie Okposo, the late Kefee, who have helped in popularising the waving of white handkerchiefs while dancing. She adds that another unique trait of Niger Delta songs is the infusion of vernacular in the lyrics.

Born into a family of eight, Onos fell in love with music at a tender age. One of her most cherished childhood moments was when she learnt how to play the piano at her primary school, NNPC Staff School in

Warri. It was her first introduction to the complex world of music. She was six years old when she started singing in choirs and different groups. Since then, music has never left her. At that young age, Onos knew that she could only sing for and about God. Nothing else comes close. She is aware of the quick fame and wealth that accompanies secular music, yet she will not be swayed. It is either gospel or nothing.

“I’m passionate about God. I love doing what I’m passionate about because I realise that there is this ease you experience when you are doing what you are passionate about. For me, it’s not about how I’m going to make money. The truth is the God that has given me the gift will open doors and bring the money my way. I love to sing about the God that I serve. I’m not ashamed at all. It’s easy. I’m proud to be a gospel artiste.”

Interestingly, she is not deterred by the slow pace of her industry. When she started out in 2010, things were done differently. Musicians back them depended on CD sales, coupled with the issue of piracy. Moreover, there were few gospel artistes who could boast of fame and wealth.

“A lot has changed since I launched my first album ‘Keep Moving’ in 2010. People are receiving music differently. The gospel music industry is getting more grants unlike before, there are more gospel blogs than before. Back in 2009, the social media platform wasn’t as strong as it is now. CDs were not selling as much. I think that has also affected the way people receive music, unlike when people felt that gospel music is staggering. Give it a few more years and you will see everything will definitely change.”

Despite this obvious wind of change, Onos is still leaning on the benefits of CDs. She understands that a segment of her target audience enjoy CDs’ physicality.

These ones, according to her, love to play the tracks while driving to work, home or an occasion. However, the digital form which can be bought on iTunes has an extended play of 16 tracks. Of the 15 songs, she picks ‘Jehovah Ebenezer’ as the most outstanding one. The song which was released earlier turned out to be a hit and an anthem of some sorts in households. Onos nonetheless anticipates that the new album will be globally recognised and be a blessing to many that listen to it. Some of the artistes featured on the album include Preye Odede and Victor Atenega.

Kunmi and Onos Ariyo

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he wedding Nikkah of Rasheedat, the daughter of Alhaji Deji Mustapha, the former Finance Director of THISDAY Newspaper, with her heart throb, Qasim Adetunji Adeboye, took place at the Marquee Tent, Radio Lagos/Eko FM Complex, Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos on Saturday, 5th August, 2017 . The reception which was chaired by the CEO of lstabaraqim Ltd/Chairman of lbeji Foundation, Alhaji Rafiu Ebiti, took place immediately after the Nikkah ceremony at the same venue. Here are the faces of some of the personalities that attended the party.

Photographs by Abiodun Ajala

The couple, Qasim Adetunji Adeboye and his wife, Rasheedat

Bride’s Parents, Alhaji Deji Mustapha and his wife, ldiat Mofolake

Groom’s Mother, Ayisat Odejayi, Mrs Nurat Adetunji and her husband, Muftau

L-R: Mr. Victor Ifijeh and MD, THISDAY Newspaper, Mr. Eniola Bello

L-R: Musiliu Olalekan and Feyi Folajin

L-R: Mr. Lanre Kareem and his wife, Adenike

L-R: Mr. Oyinlola Morebise and his wife, Olayinka

L-R: Alhaja Kehinde Tejidino and Alhaja Lamlat Shoyomi

L-R: Alhaji Mobolaji Lawal and his wife, Adefunke

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R Ëž AUGUST 13, 2017

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EVENTS

L-R: Mr. Kayode Komolafe and Mr. Gbayode Somuyiwa

L-R: Alhaja HMM Aderohunmu; Alhaji Raheem Kolawole Mustapha and Alhaja Falilat Olorunnisola

L-R: Chairman of the Wedding Reception, Alhaji Rafiu Ebiti and wife, Mrs Ebiti

L-R: Dr. Saheed Oseni and Evangelist (Mrs) Nihinlolamiwa Otunbogun

L-R: Mr. Yushau Dindi and Alhaji Abdulateef Shoyomi

L-R; Prince Clement Oyegbami, Mr. Damola Mabawonku and Mr. Yinka Jeje

L-R; Alhaji Razak Jaiyeola and Alhaji Abdulganiyu Adekunle

L-R: Damilola Tokosi, Sola Ogundimu and Barakat Mustapha

L-R: Yinka Adagun, Mr Taiwo Abimbola and Mr. Segun Adebayo

L-R: Mr. Shamsideen Balogun and Mr. Leke Adeleye

AUGUST 13, 2017 ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Is Online Streaming Services War Brewing?

Vanessa Obioha Maybe, maybe not. But what is certain is that Netflix clout over the online platform is being threatened by Walt Disney’s recent move to launch two streaming platforms.

The entertainment company said it will end its movie distribution agreement with Netfllix and launch two Netflix-like streaming services — one for sports and another for films and television shows.

No doubt, Netflix expansion into streaming media in 2007 changed the media landscape, particularly consuming habits of audience. Traditional media found themselves grappling to keep their younger audiences glued to their electronic box instead of digital platforms. While some studios had no qualms licensing their television shows and movies to Netflix, others sought for a more aggressive approach to avoid the monotony. Studios like HBO, CBS, now have their streaming services including Amazon.com which is now setting its eyes on the television business.

Disney however has continued working with Netflix to distribute its content, with over $75 billion distribution deal until now.

The decision to own its streaming services is said to be influenced by the weak fiscal third-quarter earnings. It reported a profit of $2.37 billion, down 9% from a year earlier.

The two platforms which will be a stand-alone subscription services will be developed by Bamtech, a streaming video company. For their services, Disney is paying $1.58 billion for a greater stake and will own 75% of Bamtech.

The ESPN service, which would be available next year, is expected to feature 10,000 sporting events annually, among them Major League Baseball games and NFL, while the Disney-branded film and TV offering, set to debut in 2019, would include original content developed by Walt Disney Studios. Disney-branded product would include exclusive films and TV shows. By doing so, it is making the competition very stiff for Netflix who still source content from Disney’s productions, especially

popular franchises such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Avengers’.

“The launch of our direct-to-consumer services marks an entirely new strategy for the company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great brands. No one is better positioned to lead the industry into this dynamic new era, and we’re accelerating our strategy to be at the forefront of this transformation,” Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said during a conference call with analysts.

Nonetheless, it is the not the first time Disney is experimenting with its own streaming services. In 2015, it launched Disney Life in the UK, priced at £9.99 a month. The service focused on kids’ and family content from Bambi and The Jungle Book to Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, as well as modern blockbusters such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series.But Netflix will not be the only one hit by Disney’s drastic move. Other Pay-TV operators operating in sporting services have always harboured the fear of a stand-alone ESPN service because it would give some consumers more reason to ditch their TV subscriptions.

It is likely that other big studios may want to take Disney’s actions as well and have their own streaming services.

Despite this move, some of Disney’s franchises like Marvel will still be home to Netflix for now until it comes up with a concrete plan.

While more studios are gravitating towards the digital platforms, some are closing shops. Comedy streaming service Seeso revealed that it will be shutting down after less than two years in a Facebook Post. The service was launched in 2016 by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, offering comedy originals, stand-up videos and library content for $3.99 a month. But despite material from popular comedy personalities including Dan Harmon and Jonah Ray, classic bits from Monty Python and next-day streams of NBC late-night programming, the subscription service never took off.

Taylor Swift Brings Out Her Claws in the Courtroom The ‘Shake it Off’ singer is not keeping her cool as she testified in court recently over the countersuit she filed against a Denver DJ who groped her in 2013 at an event. The DJ, David Mueller who was formerly a radio host at Denver radio station KYGO filed a suit against Taylor Swift in 2015, accusing her of making his employer fire him after she reported that he grabbed her buttocks during a photograph session. He further accused her of costing him his career in the entertainment industry. But the fiery singer will not have any of his sentiments.

“I’m being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are a product of his decisions. Not mine,” she told the jury during a hearing.

In her countersuit, she accused Mueller of battery and assault. She said that Mueller and his girlfriend at the time had been drinking because he was talking loudly and she was laughing often. The next thing she realized Mueller grabbed her buttocks. She tried to push him away but he held on and she couldn’t act violently because it was a meet-and-greet with her fans.

Mueller denied and said he had merely touched her ribs but Swift maintained her position that he had grabbed her buttocks.

“He did not touch my ribs. He did not touch my arm. He did not touch my hand. He grabbed my bare ass.”

When asked by Mueller’s lawyer Mc Farland why the hem of her skirt does not appear to be pushed up in the front a photograph she took with Mueller, she replied, “Because my ass is located on the back of my body.”

The hearing is still ongoing.

Prince William, Prince Harry will feature in Princess Diana Documentary For the first time, the sons of late Princess Diana will be featured in a new documentary about her tragic death. Titled ‘Diana, 7 Days’, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry will sit down on camera to discuss the days following their mother’s death.

“Part of the reason why Harry and I want to do this is because we feel we owe it to her. I think an element of it is feeling like we let her down when we were younger. We couldn’t protect her. We feel we at least owe her 20 years on to stand up for her name and remind everybody of the character and person that she was. Do our duties as sons in protecting her,” said Prince William in a statement released by NBC. The network will air a two hour examination of the tumultuous week following the death of Diana, specifically how it impacted her sons and the role they played in helping their country mourn in the aftermath. The documentary is set to air in September in commemoration of 20 year anniversary of her death. The documentary will also feature interviews with family, close friends, political figures and journalists.

FOX UNVEILS PLANS FOR NEW MUSIC REALITY SHOW In response to filling the void created by American Idol, Fox Television is planning a new singing competition series slated for next year. Titled ‘The Four’, the show begins with the finalists. Each week, four singers selected from their auditions from a panel of music experts will sing against challengers, which could include viewers, to keep their spot on the show. The panel of music experts--not yet cast--will guide the winner’s career. Rob Wade, Fox’s head of alternative programming, described ‘The Four’ as ‘Game of Thrones’ with better singing and less nudity. The series is based on an Israeli format and will have a shorter run than most singing competitions. The winner will be rewarded with a unique prize that is designed to discover and build the career of a new music star making.

A premiere date has not been announced, but the series is expected to launch next year.

JOHN BAILEY IS THE NEW ACADEMY PRESIDENT John Bailey, a veteran cinematographer emerged the34th president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an unpredictable evening. He became the better candidate after actress Laura Dern declined her nomination. Her last minute withdrawal placed Bailey against casting director David Rubin in a two-person race.

Bailey was first elected to the board in 1996 is famous for some of his works such as 1980’s Ordinary People, 1983’s The Big Chill and 1993’s Groundhog Day. He was re-elected in 1999, serving until 2002; he then was re-elected to the board in 2010, again in 2013 and once more in 2016. He has two more years on the board before he is forced, by term limits, to leave the board for at least one year. He will work closely with Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.

WWE NETWORK IS COMING TO CHINA WWE recently signed an exclusive deal with a Chinese PPTV, Suning Sports Media to offer a subscription video-on-demand service including all live pay-per-view events. For the first time, the network will be available in the country, starting from August 18. The service will include an array of WWE content, live pay-per-view events including Wrestlemania and Summerslam. The China deal brought the number of countries with access to the WWE Network up to 180.

Arundhati Roy

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Making Dreams Turn Reality Yinka Olatunbosun

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ictoria Adeyemi, the CEO Bovicaria Consulting, has good reasons to smile to bed every night. First, she dreamt of starting a travel service company that takes care of people’s travel needs. Now, she makes others’ dreams of exploring other climes for work, study or leisure a reality. Sometimes, in her bedroom, she’d work all night securing flights schedules, hotel accommodation, international schools and work opportunities in select companies. For her growing knowledge of the travel industry, she has earned some client’s confidence but not all. For the new clients who didn’t see a physical office for Bovicaria Consulting, it was difficult to convince quite a number of that the company exists as a legal entity.

Recently, Adeyemi opened her office along Lekki-Epe expressway after running the company effectively for five years. Literarily, she built the business and the office from the scratch, plowing her earnings into the permanent office space.

A recent tour of her office was an eye-opener on the dream she had for travel services. Asides the enchanting coffee-room, the office has a seminar room that accommodates international schools’ representatives who facilitate seminars to educate potential applicants.

After hosting one in the series of seminars, this reporter sought out Adeyemi who began her story with why it became imperative to have a physical presence for a business that thrives on the virtual world. “Due to the fraudulent people we have around these days, it’s difficult for people to entrust others with their

L-R: Emmanuel Adeyemi, Justin Kohlman, Victoria Adeyemi and Folusho Awogbami at the recent seminar organised by Bovicaria

money. The office gives us the chance to interact with our customers and the client base is getting bigger,� said Adeyemi who did not meet some of her clients face-to-face until they were ready to leave the Nigerian shore.

Adeyemi puts a personal touch to how she attends to some younger clients. On several occasions, she had assisted some clients in pre-travel shopping, follow-ups, pre- departure briefing, post-arrival monitoring till the client arrives safely at the actual destination. This is how she has carved her niche. “People are scared of using agents when it comes to travelling. I have received great testimonials from those

who have gone abroad for their studies.

For us, the service we render to each client depends on the package. We run study, work and visit,� she said.

Adeyemi started off with this travel services in River State shortly after her post-graduate programme at the University of Port-Harcourt. She got her first set of clients from the region and through referrals, her clientele extends to different parts of the country including Lagos where she was born and bred.

The seminar she organised in June was initiated by one of the company’s partner institutions in Canada, specifically North West Community College to educate people more about

the course they are offering and the benefits of studying in Canada.

One of the drawbacks for a travel agency is the devaluation of naira. It reduced the number of international students that apply for travel documents but recently, the narrative is changing for good.

The graduate of Microbiology surmounted the fear of running a startup, determined to make the best use of her various work experiences.

She advised intending entrepreneurs not to be narrow-minded in making career choices. She cited her vacation jobs in her undergraduate years as very pivotal in her later life as a travel resource person.

Touching Lives Through Education David-Chyddy Eleke captures the happy moments of students of Queen of the Rosary College who recently completed secondary education with from Chike Okagbue Foundation, COF

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ut of the over 85 beautifully dressed and visibly happy students of Queen of the Rosary College (QRC), Eziowelle, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State that were celebrating their graduation, nine of them seemed to express more happiness than the others. They were students on the scholarship of Chike Okagbue Foundation (COF). The charity was established in memory of late Chief Chike Okagbue in 2008.

Okagbue, a powerful businessman and founder and first Chief Executive officer of Bessoy Group died in 2004.

His conglomerate, Bessoy Group was into oil, scientific equipment, cement and textile. He was an accomplished businessman and an illustrious son of Umunachi in Dunkofia local government area of Anambra State. Though he did not have formal education, Okagbue’s love for education was legendary. Unable to achieve his dream of being formally educated, he ensured that his children and other less privileged persons enjoyed what he did not have.

Bob-Osamor

The business guru was known to have a very rich library; with works of some of the best philosophers, politicians and historians on his shelves. To honour his memory, his first child, Chinelo

Bob-Osamor, set up the Chike Okagbue Foundation ( COF) with the hope of having their father fulfill his dream of having as many indigent children as possible acquire formal education. The

foundation operates with the motto ‘Touching lives’.

This dream was recently fulfilled as; Ezennia Cynthia, Isiuzo Chidiebele, Eke Adaobi, Okoye Chinenye, Nwankwo Chinedu, Ofuonye Obalum, Ogbuka Uzoma, Ogalagu Francis and Odoh Ikechukwu completed secondary education on the scholarship of COF. Chief RKC Chinyelugo, the principal of the school, said that the school generally maintains a high level of discipline.

He commended the COF scholars for behaving like they are from same parents.

He said this may stem from an orientation they were given. He added that they were never engaged in untoward activities.

Bob-Osamor said, “The Foundation awards scholarship on merit to students who have excelled in Common Entrance Examinations. The Foundation currently has 60 students, and offers full scholarships, covering junior and senior secondary schools. Three sets of students have graduated from the secondary school through the foundation since 2015. We have plans to start the tertiary phase of the Foundation.�

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ON THE COUCH

MRS. ADEYOYIN ADESINA (EDUCATIONIST)

‘I Derive Pleasure Being a Teacher’ Interviewed by Funke Olaode What is your background?

Community service is one of our core values.

There was a time we invited primary six pupils to our school just to give them a renewed sense of belonging, to aspire to greater things beyond where they are. All our schools have an adopted school. It is done to a greater level at the secondary school because they are older and they are able to take initiatives. So we had our students build a block of classroom in the community school they have adopted, we had them roofing the whole school and buying musical instruments, donating books and even building public toilets for the community. There was a time when there was cholera outbreak in Agbara, they went round the market to clean the public toilets. When I was in Lekki, we went as far as a school in Ibeju Lekki, it wasn’t just enough that we took things to them, we roofed their classrooms and donated so many things. We have had parents partner with us, we got them a generator. This gesture made a positive impact on our students and taught them not to throw things away, to enjoy the privilege that God has given rather than taking it for granted.

I was born in Ibadan but grew up in Lagos. I hold a degree in English Studies from the University of Ife, a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Lagos and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (International) from the University of Nottingham. I am married to an Anglican Priest and blessed with three grown up children. I am presently the Chief Executive Officer of Corona Schools’ Trust Council.

How did your path cross with an Anglican priest?

He wasn’t an Anglican Priest when we got married. We have been married for 28 years.

After eight years of marriage, my husband went into the priesthood. It is not a full time job.

At what stage did you go into teaching?

Ironically, I veered from banking to teaching. I studied English but was invited by my brother-in-law to work in a bank. From there, I made my way into teaching. It actually started in church as a counsellor and having found it was my calling, I embraced teaching 18 years ago. In 2002, I joined the CSTC as a teacher of English Language and later a class teacher at Corona School, Victoria Island. I moved through various ranks and became the Principal of Corona Secondary School, Agbara in 2014. I was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Corona Schools Trust Council on April 1, 2017.

What was your childhood aspiration?

I had always wanted to be a lawyer but when I got into university of Ife I was offered English with the hope of changing into law.

But I never changed into law. I was ruminating on to do with my life. I didn’t have a clear direction though I got a job in a bank.

What are the challenges in running a conglomerate like Corona?

The challenges are the same you find in any organization where you are dealing with people. You are nurturing children from the

If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10, how you would rate yourself? cradle to secondary school. You are dealing with adults as well. For instance, we have a staff strength of about 600. Managing people is a huge business but the beauty of it is their positive contribution to the lives of the children. In the education industry, there are no two days that are the same. You are not bored, you are not caught in the routine of doing the same thing the same way day-inday-out.

When are your best moments as an educationist?

I have also witnessed the success story of Corona over the years through combined efforts of the council, the teachers, principal and the stakeholders. Recently, the school became a member of New England Association of Schools and Colleges, an international body founded in 1885 and based in the United States. . It is a body that accredits

schools across the world. The emphasis for the association is not to introduce American Curriculum but every school that they accredit must be operating at certain standard that meet international levels. This has led to a lot of improvement in the way we run the schools. We are the only school in Nigeria and second in West Africa and one of the first schools in Africa. In the just released 2017 WAEC, the school has a total of 562 distinctions, that is, 86 per cent of the total grades and 100 per cent in Mathematics and English. This makes me proud.

I am very grateful to God. I have three children. The first two are graduates and my daughter is in the university now studying education. I am healthy and I have not done badly. I have enjoyed the ride and still hope for a better future because I believe I am still on a journey.

As an elitist school, how does Corona help to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich in giving back?

How do you take time off your busy schedule?

Corona school is a not-for-profit institution but we are mindful of the community. All of our schools give back to the community.

What lesson has life taught you?

Never take anything and people around you for granted. And in whatever you do, make every moment your best moment by putting your best into it.

By virtue of my profession I still have children that I am nurturing. I derive pleasure in my job. I enjoy reading and traveling. I am a very homouros person and I take time off to relax with my friends.

ENCOUNTER

Chidi, Tailor to Nigerian Senators Tony Amadi

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ower dressers in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are a small breed of distinguished senators who go the extra mile to mind how they look in the eyes of the discerning public whose task it is to vote them in or out of the National Assembly every four years.

Late Senator Uche Chukwumerije was certainly one of them along with his Abia counterpart Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who not long ago masterminded a successful Aba Fashion festival in Abuja. Also the charismatic Senator Chuba Okadigbo was a leading fashionista. His dressing always exuded power in all its ramifications.

Chukwumerije, once the spin doctor to the military President Ibrahim Babangida’s government leading up to June 12, 1993 election wore an all-white sparkling Chinese tunic all the time.

Even historically, the first Nigerian Senate President, Rt. Hon Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a power dresser just like his Northern counterpart Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. It is a fact that Nigerian

politicians don’t joke with their dressing as they always mind their image and celebrity status.

Ogun state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun makes a fashion statement regularly with his Yoruba dress and the sometimes outrageous cap that has shaped his politics.

The obvious beneficiary of this high fashion awareness, are the tailors to the lawmakers who have made a fortune. One of these visible stylists is Chidi the Tailor. He found his way into the National Assembly right from the very beginning of the Okadigbo senate presidency. A super salesman in his own right, Chidi moves through the corridors of power, armed with his tools of trade, measuring powerful men in the upper chamber as well as the House of Representatives to give them the feel good factor.

Born 38 years ago, Chidiebere Ogbonna hails from Isikwuato in Abia State, just a few kilometres to his key customer in the Upper Chamber, Uche Chukwumerije. ‘’I was his tailor for many years, right from his entry to the senate in 2003’’ says Chidi. At that time in the 5th Senate, Chidi was making frequent trips to Aba to purchase material for his work, but

now with his own factory in the POWA Plaza in Nyanya in the FCT suburb, his output has increased tremendously.

In the process, the young man has built an enviable clientele which include fashion conscious senators like Senator James Manager from the Delta South Senatorial district, his Ogun counterpart Senator Tejuosho and the former governor of Plateau, Senator Joshua Dariye. What drove him into the world of fashion? ‘’I have always been fashion conscious’’, he said. ‘’I have always toyed with making clothes in my early years, but the interest grew to the point that I started making my clothes.’’

What does the future hold for this young man? Chudi is in the process of opening a study account with the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, to study Business Administration and he is already in talks with a foreign partner to distribute abroad, especially in the UK and USA, where many Nigerians are waiting to patronize his brand. The hard work coupled with his stylish designs and aggressive to marketing is obviously witnessing growth in the trade.

Sen Abaribe

I will be least surprised if he spreads his wings outside the country and still maintains his growing brand into the international market place.

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13.08.2017

LAGOS AND ONE PHOTOGRAPHER’S PARTING SHOTS Maria Ocherbauer

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

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LAGOS AND ONE PHOTO GRAPHER’S PARTING SH

A photography workshop not only elicits the enthusiasm of Lagos-based photographers, but a talents, its Austrian-born facilitator Eva Maria Ocherbauer tells Okechukwu Uwaezuoke

Above and below: Participants at the workshop

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sense of exultation trails this year’s FotoFactory Lagos.

One good reason for this is that, even on its second edition which concluded on Friday, July 28, the annual workshop – founded and developed by Germanybased Eva Maria Ocherbauer and US-based Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie – was welcomed with wide open arms among Lagos photographers.

Whatever expectations the organisers had about the just concluded workshop seemed to have been exceeded. “This year, everything was better prepared,” Ocherbauer enthused.

“We had set up our website before the second edition started (as we had materials from the first edition) so we’ve got extended

possibilities for communicating the programme in advance. I have received so many kind responses to my announcements, as people are getting aware that we are serious and... in enhancing FotoFactory Lagos. This is highly encouraging!”

The workshop, which was supported by The Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection and Aachron Incorporated, hosted twice as many participants this year. In addition, the master classes had two guest lecturers instead of one while the workshop experience was extended by an extra day. Ocherbauer also disclosed that there was an upgrade in this year’s curriculum, which emphasised so much on high technical standards.

To this end, one-on-one interactions with the participants and special focus on technical issues like post-productions were delved into.

Before her involvement with FotoFactory Lagos, the Austrian-born photographer and lecturer at the

Neue Schule für Fotografie had previously worked with several among the participants of this workshop at the LagosPhoto Summer School, which started in 2013.

“A few are already with me since then,” she explained. “Some came in 2014 and it was most rewarding to see them grow and succeed. I suppose this was the most satisfying experience: to notice the actual impact of the teaching.”

Take Rahima Gambo, who joined her class in 2014 for instance. She has since scaled up to become one of the most promising Nigerian photographers of her generation. There are still others like Aisha Adeyemi, Obuh Christopher Nelson, Ralph Eluehike and Anthony Monday, who have been working on personal projects over a sustained period of time and have moved up their professional ladder.

Also, four FotoFactory Lagos participants are hoping to feature at the maiden edition of the Lagos Biennial, coming up later this year. “This is a clear sign in which direction our programme is going and succeeding,” Ocherbauer continued. Of course, some new faces did show up at the workshop this year. Among them are quite proficient photographers involved in commercial practices, who came to hone their creative skills. One of these is Omololu Omolayo, who has had a long stint working in the fashion industry and hopes to combine his studio skills with his personal projects. Perhaps, another interesting aspect of this year’s workshop is the organisers’ special emphasis on documentation. This is besides having parts of the master classes recorded.

Yet, for all the crowing about its successes, Ocherbauer believes that the workshop still has a lot of room for improvement. “Firstly

I’m doing nearly everything by myself,” she pointed out.

This was not meant literally. For she acknowledges Professor Ogbechie’s impact, which is crucial for the success of the programme and Helene Mildenberger’s assistance in not just coordinating the students’ registrations but in also jointly managing the website with her. “I need somebody on my side who overlooks organisational processes, who takes care of social media regularly and last not least watches over the financial affairs. My focus should be on the actual teaching programme, all the imagery involved and the artistic direction of the programme. I guess this is the biggest challenge for now: not to get exploited and remaining exhausted at the end, simply because there is too much to do on too many different levels, all at the same time and not sufficiently covered by funds.”

But there are plans to change all that in the future. And talking bringing about more guest lecturers, Ocherbauer thinks it will be beneficial.

More so, given her acquaintance with “so many wonderful photographers” on the continent.

“The exchange between our participants and established artists is so important, to provide role models. I wish to be able to invite them to lecture in our programme. Even inviting photographers from other parts of the world to teach will be fantastic! But this requires funds and we are working on improving in this area.

I’m confident this will increase with time.”

Implied in the theme of this second edition, Visual Identity (jointly facilitated by Abraham Oghobase and Andrew Esiebo) is the understanding that every photograph is a reflection of one’s own sensitivity, the meeting point between a moment and an emotion. Indeed, as Ocherbauer later explained: “The photographs we take, the selection process and the final form

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ËÖÝÙ ßØÏËÜÞÒÝ ÞÒÏÓÜ ÖËÞÏØÞ of presentation are all elements expressing our own subjectivity and accordingly defining our personality.”

On this springboard, the workshop is propelled by the ultimate vision of launching its photographers into the international limelight. Through exchange programmes with other institutions worldwide, it hopes to burnish the professional credentials of its products.

There are also plans to launch a publishing platform for releasing books and zines as well as to expand online presentations on an extensive website and social media platforms like Instagram. This is in addition to plans of organising exhibitions, aimed at furthering the career of the workshop participants and associates within its network.

“A dream is to compile a photography collection, in print and database primarily on the participants’ works stored in our base in Lagos. Yes, a base in Lagos will be fantastic, a permanent space, with classrooms, digital facilities like computers and printers, as well as studio equipment and a library with main focus on African photography…

Aren’t dreams made to become true? We will definitely work on that!” With the imminent increase of participants, the possibility of the workshop becoming a bi-annual affair is now on the table. This, Ocherbauer hopes, will consolidate on its gains. “I’m supervising long-term projects via internet already, but it is such a difference to talk in person. Also from the networking aspect, the programme implies not only the actual teaching, it is also important to keep up a platform where photographers can meet and exchange ideas.

We do this now via the social media, but again, personal experiences are making such a difference. I cannot predict how fast things are moving but we are already working in this direction.” An exhilarating two-week stay in Lagos made leaving the mega-city difficult for Ocherbauer. She misses the glut of talents, creative energy and ambition, which she thinks are “all wonderful and needed ingredients for a vibrant cultural scene”.

She added: “Everybody seems to know everybody... This of course encourages all kinds of gossip, as is always the case when there is not much space given to escape into alternative scenes.

My friends, who do fantastic work here, are interacting internationally. They are travelling abroad, which I think is crucial for survival as an artist these days. Every artist, no matter where he or she is based, has to participate in global discussions, has to open up her or his horizon to make a significant statement. But still, Lagos-based artists I know highly acknowledge the unique inspiration given by their home town, stressing the advantages of the African heritage at present times…”

Ocherbauer hopes to see more galleries – especially the less commercial ones – and independent art spaces spring up in Lagos.

“There is a lot of wealth in the country. Let’s open the eyes for the arts and find support for all kinds of cultural approaches. The commercial side, poison for every artistic expression, will then become less important.

Culture is what remains at the end…” Her advice to young photographers? “Find something you are passionate about, shoot your way through this obsession with bravery and you will have a potential great project. Follow your instincts more than any advices, and above all, believe in yourself.”

The Inverted Pyramid; Adapted from a novel by Emeka Dike

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A TOAST TO A THOROUGHBRED PROFESSIONAL Oji Onoko

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f he wanted to shock me, the effect was even more devastating.

“I nearly did not mark your paper,” the bespectacled and smartly dressed lecturer announced as soon as I entered his office.

We had just resumed from the first semester break in my very first year in the university when I was summoned. I cannot now recall the exact words he used but it was to the effect that my handwriting was atrocious. I braced up for worse.

“Your writing had good stuff,” he then said, betraying a smile.

The relief that swept over me was overwhelming.

The year was 1982. It was on that ambivalent note that a bond developed between us, which flourished with the passing years. In 2009, it turned full cycle when my daughter had to stay two nights at his house to attend University of Benin post-UME test. Though she studied sociology, Prof. Muyiwa Peter Awodiya monitored her progress and when she graduated, he would always ask after her any time we spoke reminding me: “Your daughter is very intelligent, make sure she comes back to Benin for her post graduate studies! The university needs people like her…”

I used to wonder why he devoted so much attention to me in spite of his busy schedule but when I reached out to some former students while working on this material, I discovered to my surprise and admiration, that caring for his students – past and present – is second nature to him.

Their impression of the man range from the sentimental to downright hero-worship! To some like Hajia Hauwa Sodiq (1988 set), he was more than just a teacher while her contemporary Bridget Russel said he treated them as though they were his children. To many others he was a great mentor, a brother, a role model and a thoroughbred professional.

And asked why he bothers so much about his former students, the Professor of Theatre Arts said:“I have always been very confident about the products we put out to the community and to the world in general. I am very interested in monitoring the performances of the ex-students of our department in the outside world. And I have not been disappointed.”

A good feeling, no doubt, for a man whose dreams like a budding plant denied of nitrogen

Prof. Awodiya almost withered before getting to full bloom. He lost his father soon after his secondary school and barely one year after he gained admission to the University of Ibadan with his mother picking the bills, she also passed on! Inconsolable but resolute, he fell back on stipends he got working part time with Radio Nigeria and NTA Lagos. Later, he took a students’ loan from the federal government which he recalled made “me survive those gruelling times in the University of Ibadan.”

For his post-graduate studies in the United States, he secured a scholarship from his state government, the old Oyo State. Midway into the programme, however, his allowances were stopped by the embassy officials for his temerity to protest their questionable practice of delaying the release

of funds to the students while putting the money in fixed deposits to mature for pecuniary purposes.

Talk of a rebel with a cause. Left high and dry in a foreign land, he took to menial jobs to survive. He washed plates in hotels, did security service job as a security guard at a toy factory, drove taxi for a taxi company and at a point withdrew completely from the university. After working for three months night and day he was able to save for school fees that he needed to pay to complete his studies.

Once done, he strutted to the Nigerian embassy in youthful bravado to taunt the officials and show off his treasured certificate. But a new Sheriff as it were had taken charge-Ambassador Kazuare -who was not only sympathetic to his cause but directed that all his withheld allowances be paid to him in cash…

He worked briefly at the University of Ibadan before he moved to the University of Benin where he has spent his entire working career as a scholar, researcher, theatre manager and author moulding generations of students who are today his proud ambassadors A firm believer in theory laced with practice, his appointment as General Manager, MUSON Centre, Lagos in the mid-90s, gave him an ample opportunity to prove the notion making year on year profit for the owners throughout his tenure.

By the time he returned to UNIBEN his teaching technique changed buoyed by his practical experience. Still, he is bothered about the management of our public art institutions such as the National Theatre, Lagos and Oba Akenzua Theatre, Benin among others which today are in parlous state. He believes these places can be properly managed to make profit for the federal or state governments that built them. Indeed, his Inaugural lecture, Managing our Culture; Securing our Future is a blue-print to turn around the culture sector in Nigeria…

On his post retirement plans, Awodiya with eight books to his credit and 65 journal articles who clocks 70 on August 14 this year, 2017 waxed philosophical with a tinge of pragmatism: “My post-retirement plans are in the hand of the Lord. However, I have alternative plans to aid the youths of Nigeria to imbibe our culture. To pass to the young generations what we inherited from our parents so that our culture will not perish. The other plan is to aid our Arts Managers to be able to run our Arts Institutions which unfortunately have not been run professionally and profitably too. Benin City has now become my second home while Ilesa still remains my first city of abode.”

-Onoko writes from Abuja

EVENT

Art X to Showcase Africa's Leading Art Masters Yinka Olatunbosun Forthissecondeditionoftheannualinternationalartfair,ArtX,artenthusiastsandcollectorswillconvergeontheCivicCentre,Victoria IslandfromNovember3till5.Thethree-day event,whichisfastbecomingamassiveart traditioninLagosfeaturessomeofthemost sought-afterartistsaswellastheemergingartistswhosepiecesnaturallycommandattention.

Gallerieswilltakeupspacesatthevenue,which isopentointernationalparticipantstoo.

Lastyearatthedebutofthemegashow,Art Xsaw65artistsdrawnfrom10countriesin Africa.Theseartistsparadedworksranging frompaintingtosculptureaswellasillustrations andphotography.Nofewerthan5000visitors attendedthelasteditionofthefairwhichalso drewsomeinternationalobservers.

Hingingonthissuccessstoryofitsfirst edition,ArtX,createdtoshowcasethebest andmostinnovativecontemporaryartfrom theAfricancontinentandthediasporawillhost prestigiousgalleriessuchasArtHouse,The Space,SMOContemporary,StevensonGallery (SouthAfrica),Gallery1957(Ghana)andTafeta (UnitedKingdom),amongstothers.

Ifyouarewonderinghowthesegalleries wereselectedforthefair,theansweristhata selectioncommitteeusuallyledbytheadvisory boardmembersdrawnfromNigeria’snotableart collectorsandleadingcommerciallawyershave ensuredthatthebestpiecesarefeatured.

Thiseditionwillalsofeaturecuratedprojects andtalksprogramme,curatedbyMissla Libsekal,anindependentculturalproducerand thefounderof“AnotherAfrica”.Inaddition,there willbelivepaintingsandmusicperformances.

TokiniPeterside,Founder,ArtXanddirector ofTPCollectiveexpressedhergratitudeforthe supportandsponsorshipreceivedlastyearand hopesthatthiseditionsustainsthesametempo ofaspiritedarttradition.

“Ourdebutartfairin2016wasanexciting andexhilaratingexperiencethatvalidatedour decisiontocreatethisvitalplatformforthe growthandincreasedvisibilityofAfricanartists andgalleries,”shesaid.

“Injustfourmonths'time,wewillbeopening thedoorstotheArtXLagosArtfairandwelook forwardonceagaintowelcomingavastand variedlocalandinternationalaudienceaswe seektoreinforceLagos’positionasanemergent culturalcapitalinthecontinent.”

RBC Beams the Spotlight on Alakija’s Book, ReviewsAdeniyi’sAgainsttheRunofPlay University of Marriage by the world’s richest black woman, Folorunso Alakija, was the Rainbow Book Club Book-of-themonth for June. Single and married folks gathered at the monthly reading at Le Meridien, Ogeyi Place, Port Harcourt, gave their candid opinion of the book relating the author’s points to real life experiences.

The moderator, Mrs. Amie Georgewill, spoke on the benefits of trust in every marriage and the roles of men and women

Participants at the Rainbow book club reviews Against the Run of Play by segun adeniyi

in a home. Debate on the positive and negative effects of the western way of life to marriages was extensive. An important aspect of the 21st century marriage, which was broadly dwelt upon, was the fact that today’s woman strives to be financially comfortable thereby reducing her dependence on her husband and consequently, shifting the dynamics of the relationship.

Singles present weighed in on the discussion, speaking on their understanding of marriage, the concept of true love and the roles of both spouses in the family.

The book reading not only created an environment for productive discussion on the marriage relationship but exposed attendees to useful tips on how to apply and survive in a university from where no one ever graduates – MARRIAGE. The July book reading at the same venue last Saturday discussed Segun Adeniyi’s Against the Run of Play, a book on how the ruling PDP party was defeated by the opposing APC party. As is usually the case when Nigerian discuss the politics of their country, the conversation was animated.

Amongst the factors posited in the book that caused the defeat of the incumbent was the role of wives of office-holders in the tenure of the serving husband. Mrs Goodluck Jonathan and Mrs Michelle Obama came under scrutiny at this point.

Another point widely dwelt on was the need for Nigerian leaders to think of the far reaching effect of their decisions and for citizens to think of our collective advancement above personal gain. The saga of the Chibok Girls was also passionately discussed.

The moderator, Mrs Bimbo Aigbedion, skilfully guided the discussion through the 12 chapters of this topical book. "The RBC's book of the month for August is Okey Ndibe's Don't Look an American in the Eye.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ G ͯͱ˜ Ͱͮͯ͵

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ʶ ˺˺ 8

ALL EYES ON THE PRIZE Yinka Olatunbosun

O

nce again, Lagos partied with the books, bookworms and book sellers at Terra Kulture Arena, Victoria Island, Lagos when the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) in partnership with the Nigeria LNG organised a book party that featured 11 poets on the long list for the 2017 edition of the Nigeria Literature Prize.

Annually, this literary prize, the most prestigious in Africa, honours a writer in any of four genres namely prose, poetry, drama and children’s literature. This year, the poets are to be honoured. Introduced by the MC and culture activist, Jahman Anikulapo, the moderator for the book party, Akeem Lasisi, a poet and veteran journalist, set the tone for the discussions which a lot of people found both interesting and protracted.

Select actors including Bimbo Manuel and Toyin Oshinaike were accompanied with strings from Eda Oto as they took turns in reading excerpts from the collections. On the shortlist are Obari Gomba's For Every Homeland; Ogaga Ifowodo's A Good Mourning; Tanure Ojaide's Songs of Myself Quartet; Abubakar Othman's Bloodstreams in the desert; Jumoke Verissimo's The Birth of Illusion; Ikeogu Oke's The Heresiad; Humphrey Ogu's Echoes of Neglect; Seun Lari-Williams' Garri for Breakfast; Ebi Yeibo's Of Waters and the Wild; Peter Akinlabi's Iconography and finally, the longest titled collection, One Day I'll Dare to Raise My Middle Finger At the Stork and the Reaper by Hyginus Ekwuazi.

As expected, the shortlist is a roll call of the lettered, previous winners and finalists in other literary prizes and academics.

But the youngest of the lot, Seun Lari-Williams has shattered the norms with his collection, Garri for Breakfast, one of the most sought-after at the book stand at the venue. A graduate of law at the University of Lagos, Lari-Williams' new voice in poetry is laced with humour, accessible language and snatches of our imaginations. Raised by a poet father and weaned on poetry from the generation of Homer and Shakespeare, this young poet is determined to crystallise everyday reality in poetic form to bridge the gap between his generation and poetic tradition. While many men in his age group favour frivolities, wrapped up in silly conversations on the internet and imposing their presence in ladies' “DMs” (that is, direct messages), Lari-Williams is changing the narrative for his generation with his 53-poem collection that is “curating drama in the mind of readers”.

Ikeogu Oke, arrived on stage with such dramatic costume.

This internationally published poet explored themes of extreme religious fundamentalism, nature of scepticism and other philosophical leanings.

Ojaide, on his part, has won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize

T

he German Cultural Centre, Goethe Institut, Lagos has got a new director, Friederike Moschel.

She is the official successor to former director, Marc-Andre Schmachtel who left Nigeria last year for Germany, having spent six years holding the position. He had left a large shoe to be filled with his record of activating several cultural events and supporting a host of others.

But in his absence, the cultural centre introduced to Nigeria Mr. Alfons Hug, a curator and critic. Of course, his brief stay as an interim director did not give enough room for year-long projects.

The good news is that Moschel, the new director loves literature and may well be what the Nigerian literary space yearns for.

Born in Munich, Moschel grew up in Hamburg, Bonn and completed studies in German and English literature. She later taught at the German Embassy School in China for two years. Subsequently, she worked for four years in the education sector in Hamburg before joining the Goethe-Institut.

The new director arrives in Lagos after a five-year term at the Institut's Dubai office, as one of the founding staff. She spent another two and a half years as director of the language department, Goethe-InstitutTashkent/Uzbekistan and the same number of years in Kiev/Ukraine where she was in charge of the regional co-ordination of the Eastern Partnership Fund and the implementation of cultural projects in Ukraine.

Moschel, who has been with Goethe-Institut for a decade, revealed that she looks forward to an exciting stay in Nigeria while picking up from where her predecessors left off.The new director is an avid reader of Nigerian writers such as Chimamanda Adichie, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe but needs time to feel the groove of our other cultural trends such as movie culture.

She had been dragged into the “jollof war” but diplomatically responded, “Jollof rice is spicy! And I love spice.”

for the Africa Region (1987) amongst other prizes and Verissimo's first collection has won AWF/ Carlos Idizia Ahmad first book prize for Poetry 2009. It is only natural for these leading poets to thirst for more recognition.

The big question is: Who wins the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2017? By next month, the 11 contestants for the $100,000 prize will be pruned down to a shortlist of three. And for the last three standing, the prize draws closer….

One Way to Immortalise a Lover of Photography

Fola Davis during live painting at City Hall, Lagos

T

he City Hall in Lagos Island was a beehive of sorts. Guests boisterously exchanged pleasantries and clinked wineglasses at the formal launch of the Fashola Photographic Foundation.

Friends, family and associates of former Lagos State Governor and Minister of Power, Works and Infrastructure, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN gathered at the venue to witness the long-anticipated exhibition of photography as well as the establishment of a non-profit organisation that trains budding

Goethe-Institut Lagos Gets New Director Yinka Olatunbosun

ARTLOGUE

Yinka Olatunbosun

Culture

photographers in honour of his late father,Alhaji Ademola Fashola. The elderly Fashola was a lover of photography through out his lifetime and left behind a generation of both amateur and professional photographers.

The occasion took off on a cheery note when a past Project Fame Winner, JeffreyAkoh sang the NationalAnthem and earned some applause for it.

Ms. Yinka Fashola, overwhelmed by the rising noise in the hall filled with excited people, read the citation of the late Fashola patriarch and shortly after, her brother and Minister, Babatunde Fashola recalled how he lost his father three days before the latter’s 80th birthday and how his legacy his lived beyond him four years on.

“He touched so many lives beyond what we can

contemplate,” the former governor said. “Family was very first to him. Somehow, we all agreed that photography is a deep passion for him. I have uncles who were into photography mostly as hobby. In fact, I got my first camera at 14; it was a professional camera which I took to Germany.”

Fashola also enjoined photographers in Nigeria to practise the profession with dignity and honour.

He observed that many photographers shy away from public view at events most times because of their appearance. His views mirrored the sentiments expressed by the keynote speaker at the event, Tam Fiofori who described photography as a noble profession which is important in the preservation of history, culture and the image of the nation. He emphasised the need for proper training since photography is both an academic discipline and a skill.

For the CEO of the curating company, Temple Management Company, Idris Olorunnimbe, the Fashola Photographic Foundation will produce photographers to be proud of. This is a safe expectation since the formal launch was preceded by a workshop for select amateur photographers, facilitated by world-class photographers such as SolaAnimashaun, Yetunde Babaeko, TY Bello and personal photographer to Fashola SAN, Lukman Olanipekun.

The talk sessions was punctuated by various performances including one from a Sakara music group, and Nigeria’s pop sensation, 9ice. While the performance was in progress, a live painting ofAlhaji Fashola was executed in few minutes by an artist, Fola Davis. Out of the 12 participants at the workshop, two winners emerged. Vivian Nwobi and Kehinde Yusuf were selected as the overall winner and first runner-up respectively with the grand prize of a two-week training at the New York FilmAcademy in January, 2018.

This workshop will be an annual fiesta for young talents irrespective of their professional background. For instance, this edition's winner, Vivian Nwobi is a lawyer who was thrilled at the outcome of the training.

A Voice for Womanhood Chineme Okafor

T

here is virtually no section of the Nigerian society that is not guilty of ill-treating its women and young girls.The average Nigerian woman or girl child is often subjected many travails. It is as though the society is up in arms against her as she strives towards fulfilling her destiny. In an increasingly secular, the odds are even more stacked against women and girls committed to the virtues of Christianity.

Sarah Ndukwu’s book Winning the Battle for Destiny seeks to draw attention to this anomaly.

Ndukwu, a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, has fought through all odds to build an enviable legal career in the oil and gas industry.

Committed to her Christian faith, Ndukwu, also coordinates a Christian women group, the Celebration of Women in Christ Outreach (CWIC) which is dedicated to finding and promoting women who are immensely committed to integrity in pursuit of their destinies.

The group is equally committed to helping women and girl children lead successful Christian lives irrespective of the society’s challenges.

Through her many years of working with CWIC, women and girls, Ndukwu offers credible options in her 56-page book.These are both spiritual and psychological.

With a foreword written by a leading cleric, Dr. Daniel Kayode Olukoya, the book is situated within the context of both intellectual and spiritual relevance, making it beneficial to every woman and girl-child of every religious persuasion.

According to Olukoya, no nation whose women are oppressed can ever develop. In book’s chapters, there are references to the Creator’s commitment to truth and justice for all people in the Bible.

Ndukwu argues that women and girl children like male and boy children have destinies and decries they are denied their rights by the society. She also urges women and girl children to stand out in the destiny battle and offers them strategies they should adopt in this regard.

An easy-read, the book is designed and published in Nigeria by Pesther Brands and is a must-read for women and young girls determined to stay on track in their bid to fulfilling their destinies.

68

AUGUST 13, 2017 ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

CICERO

Editor Olawale Olaleye Email wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com, SMS: 08116759819

IN THE ARENA

An Ugly Twist in Terror War The decision by some parents in the North eastern part of the country to donate their daughters to the cause of Boko Haram as suicide bombers is sad and a dangerous trend in the ongoing war against terror, writes Olawale Olaleye

J

ust when the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks had disproved claims by the federal government that it had technically defeated the Boko Haram sect, the alarm raised penultimate weekend by the Nigerian Army that some parents in the North-east region of Nigeria had begun to donate their daughters out of freewill to the cause of the Boko Haram sect presented an entirely new debate in the terror war. Although the Army believed that this new disposition was equally responsible for the renewed attacks in recent weeks, it speaks more, both to the management of the war on terror and the communications of truth thereof.

Director of Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Sani Usman, who informed the public about the development in the North-east, however appealed to religious, traditional and community leaders in the zone to help dissuade parents from donating their wards and daughters as suicide bombers to the Boko Haram sect.

“The Nigerian Army wishes to appeal to religious, traditional and community leaders, as well as all well-meaning Nigerians especially in the North-east of our country, to help dissuade people from donating their daughters or wards, to Boko Haram terrorists for indoctrination and suicide bombing missions.

“This appeal became expedient in view of recent revelations by some intercepted female suicide bombers during interrogations. It was discovered that most of these hapless minors were ‘donated’ to the terrorist sect by their heartless and misguided parents and guardians, as part of their contribution to the perpetuation of the Boko Haram terrorists’ dastardly acts against the Nigerian society and humanity.

“The acts of these parents and guardians are not only barbaric, but condemnable and unacceptable. Nigerians have a responsibility and obligation to collectively mould our children and wards and define a better future for them rather than condemning them to death by the criminal Boko Haram terrorists and their sympathisers through suicide bombings.

Consequently, the public are kindly requested to be more vigilant, security conscious and report any suspicious persons or those whose daughters or female wards are missing or have not been seen recently.

Clearly, something is amiss and it requires serious probing.

First, it is important to inquire what narrative the Boko Haram members sold to those parents to think it was a worthy cause to donate their own kids to such an inhuman project. Is it possible that such parents, out of their desperate state, offered their wards in exchange for money or other things to make life better for them? Or was it an involvement triggered by threats from the sect in one form or the other? Perhaps, these parents too are undercover agents of the sect, who feel to be under an obligation to enhance the cause of terrorism through ideological leanings?

Indeed, there are many dimensions to ponder over such a

creepy decision that would warrant parents willingly goading their daughters unto their early grave. This, notwithstanding, one thing still stands out and it is the poor management of the terror war by the federal government. More of an ideological war, which has festered over the years since 2009, government has not been seen as having strategically improved its approach to containing the war, even when it is trite to admit that the war on terror is difficult to win unlike the conventional war.

For one, the use of force has proven to be ineffective, even whilst government has not properly managed the various openings for dialogue with the now factionalised leadership of the sect. Also, the failure of government to effectively engage respected Muslim clerics to undo the inane brainwashing of the recruits is a testament to the fact that the failure to effectually contain the war on terror is more about the approach by government than the fact that its efforts are not yielding results as planned.

The other downside is the use of propaganda in the fight against terror by the information machine of the government.

This idea has seen government relish more in sheer ‘lies’ than the opportunity to confront the realities based on facts as presented by the prevailing circumstances. But while this

propaganda is tailored to give false hope on the one hand, what the people deal with in terms of the reality is a far cry from the image being presented.

The resurgence of attacks by the terrorist group is proof that the war is far from being over and if anything is more certain, it is the fact that the ambushing and killing of the Nigerian soldiers are evidence that the terrorists might have returned to the turf better equipped and mobilised than they were.

Government must see this reality in the frame it is and bounce off counter-strategy from the pedestal of higher thinking.

The idea by parents to donate their wards, in which case the children do not have a say or cannot decline, is worrisome and is not acceptable. Government must infiltrate the areas where this practice is beginning to take root in the North-east, involve the traditional and religious leaders to help defuse the tide, otherwise, what this means is that the terrorists would remain at an advantage in terms of delivering on their evil and deadly mission, which is not only bad for the security agencies, but puts the country in bad spot, globally.

Intelligence gathering has long taken flight and this must be brought back, enhanced with better remuneration as part of the incentives to encourage the security forces as well as better place them in this onerous mission.

P O L I T I CA L N OT E S

Saraki’s Exemplary Sacrifice

T

he President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, recently renounced his pension as a former governor of Kwara State.

This move, he said, was in response to allegations from certain quarters about former governors, who are currently serving in this dispensation and are receiving pensions.

“No, I’m not collecting pension. The moment I saw that allegation, I wrote to my state to stop my pension. So, I speak for myself on that part. I’m not doing that, I am not receiving pension from my state.

Morally, if you have got another job, you should give it up until when you are truly a pensioner.

“Some of these oversights are not addressing the issues. What the states should do is to go and amend

their laws to say that if you have another appointment, then, you are not entitled to that benefit. With this, we will just simplify the matter.”

What Saraki has shown by his action is the sensitivity of leadership to protest by the governed.

It has also shown that leaders too are human and may sometimes not be aware of their inadequacies, but amenable to superior debates when presented.

Since the news, however, there have been calls, naturally, for other former governors, who are in the Senate and those currently serving in the President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet to follow suit. Importantly, Saraki, like former governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, who claimed he had never received pension at all, has shown a clear direction to his peers.

Saraki

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

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BRIEFINGNOTES Dissecting the Ozubulu Massacre Last Sunday’s attack on St. Phillips Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State, resulting in the death of many people is unfortunate and condemnable. Anayo Okolie writes

T

he bloodbath that took place last Sunday at St. Phillips Catholic Church in Ozubulu community of Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State is a sad commentary on the security situation in the country.

The carnage, which left not less than 13 worshippers dead and several others injured, according to reports, started at about 6:45am on Sunday, August 6, when unidentified gunmen drove into the church premises in a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) Lexus, one of whom entered the church and shot at an elderly man identified as Pa Ikegwuono, the father of Chief Aloysius Ikegwuono, who contributed hugely to the building of the church.

The wife of Chief Aloysius Ikegwuono was also shot in the arm. The gunmen were said to be looking for Aloysius, who according to report, returned to Ozubulu, a day before the incident took place but left the same day. It is, however, believed to be the fallout of a rivalry war between two drug lords from Ozubulu.

Initially, there were speculations on the number of persons killed in the attack, but to lay to rest speculations about casualty figures, the Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, where the incident took place, recently released the names of victims of the attack.

A statement by Hilary Odili Okeke, Bishop of the diocese, listed 22 surviving victims as Ikegwuonu Caroline, Nwakile Anthonia, Okoye Odinaka, Okoye Patriciam Isaac Chinedu, Oramadike Chinagorom, Oramadike Chinecherem, Udegbunam Chidimma, Ndulue Samuel, Udegbunam Obiageli, Ugochi Obiajulu, Chukwueloka Chineze, Oramadike Chioma, Azuka Basil, Oramadike Chiamaka, Uchechukwu Chukwueloka, Nwanya Ngozi, Ngwuta Chinemelum, Asomba Chukwudum, Nnudule Leonard, Muomah Michael and Oramadike Favour.

The dead, according to the church, included Cyprian Ikegwuonu, Hyacinth Oramadike, Cecilia Ewin, Eunice Akanigbo, Rose Okoye, Anulika Obunadike, Uchenna Obunadike, Anthonia Ufondu, Oluchukwu Uhelu, Christiana Igbeja, Udeze Pauline, Victoria Uzokwe and Florence Nweke.

The Diocese described the attack on worshippers as regrettable and ungodly and added that the act was a sign of loss of what is sacred. The church also disclosed that the Parish Priest, Rev Fr. Jude Onwuaso, escaped unhurt.

According to the church, “It is regrettable that our people are more and more losing a sense of what is sacred. What on earth would make people open fire on innocent unarmed worshippers including children and women on a Sunday morning?

“We condemn this ungodly act in its totality. We pray Almighty God to console the families affected and assure them that our hearts are with them as we pray for the quick recovery of the wounded. For the entire parishioners, we call on them not to be discouraged in their usual practice of faith. It is when the forces of darkness attempt to overshadow goodness that the light of God shines even brighter than ever just as it happened on Easter Sunday.”

Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, who visited the Church later, revealed that preliminary security investigations showed that the shooting was caused by a feud between two brothers from the community living outside Nigeria.

“It is tragic that these two people had to bring their quarrel abroad to the village and to the church, where innocent people

Governor Willie Obiano meeting with some Bishops in the Church, when he visited some of the victims of the Sunday attack recently

had to be killed and injured. We are not going to relax until those who perpetrated this heinous crime are apprehended. That I can assure you!

“It was so bad that the gunmen went round the church to ascertain that the car belonging to the person they were after was there before they entered the church and started shooting, not knowing that it was his parents that came in the car.”

An apparently saddened governor asked the people to go about their businesses without fear or panic saying the isolated case must be followed to the root and that all the perpetrators would be brought to book. He also assured the families of the victims that all their medical bills would be taken care of by the state government.

Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Garba Umar, while reacting, said the act was carried out by a lone wolf gunman, who is an indigene of the area.

“From our findings, it is very clear that the person, who carried out the attack must be an indigene of the area. We gathered that worshippers for 6 o’clock Sunday mass at St. Philip Ozobulu were in the service when a gunman dressed in black attire covering his face with a cap entered the church and moved straight to a particular direction and opened fire. The man, after shooting at his targeted victims still went on a shooting spree, killing and wounding other worshippers,” he added.

The police already learnt that the attack followed a quarrel between two natives of Ozubulu residing overseas, precisely in South Africa, saying it was wrong for the perpetrators to extend their quarrel into the church. Such conduct, Umar said, showed the people behind the act do not fear God. He said the police had launched a manhunt on those behind the act and gave an assurance that everybody behind the act would be brought to justice.

National Auditor of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief George Moghalu, described the gruesome attack and murder of innocent worshippers as devilish act

and a crime of unimaginable description.

In a condolence message made public at his Nnewi residence, Moghalu stated that the dastardly act was evil, saying ‘’I’m shocked beyond words that a normal person will invade a holy place of worship and when there is a congregation at a Sunday Mass to commit a murder of this proportion. This is evil and the perpetrators must be found and brought to book, as soon as it is possible.”

The governorship hopeful therefore called on the government and the Police authorities to do everything within its powers and act with dispatch to arrest the perpetrators of this horrifying crime and bring them to justice.

Moghalu also called on both the federal and state governments to as a matter of priority promptly address the rising issues of insecurity in Anambra State, especially now that the elections are around the corner.

It is incomprehensible that two sons of the same community could descend so low to turn the house of God into a killing field. But particularly disturbing is that the police even after almost a week that the attack took place and in spite of the promises by the authority to unmask the faces behind it have been unable to record any breakthrough.

And coming 16 months after the massacre of over 50 people at Ukpabi/Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, incidences such as these may have reignited the debate for a multi-level police system. With increasing insecurity in all spheres and ramification, the idea of multi-level police is becoming the way to go, whatever the reservations about it.

A pro-democracy and non-governmental organization, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), while condemning last week attack, said it was absolutely unacceptable that humongous budgetary releases were made towards maintaining armed security forces but “when the occasion calls for the opera-

tives to exercise their lawful obligations, they are not only found wanting but also scampering for lazy excuses.”

HURIWA accused the federally controlled security forces in Anambra State of abysmal failure in their constitutional responsibility and duty to the citizenry by the clear lack of coordinated security operations in that part of the state, which made it much easier for hoodlums that are well-armed to drive straight to an important place of worship on a solemn day and commit horrendous mass murder.

HURIWA said the inability of Nigeria’s federal police to secure Nigerians all across the length and breadth of the country gives urgency to the need to bring about a multi-level police system, composed of well-trained, well-motivated and wellmobilised police operatives to secure all parts of Nigeria.

It was against his backdrop that the group demanded the sack of the Anambra State Police commissioner and the Director, Department of State Services (DSS) for sleeping on their constitutional duties, which allowed armed freelance killers to embark on their despicable rampage with far-reaching damage to the precious lives of worshippers.

The group also asked state houses of assembly and governors to set up armed vigilante groups to be stationed in communities and made up of well-trained, motivated and paid volunteers from the communities to bridge the apparent lacuna noticed in the modus operandi of existing security forces, which are centrally located only in major cities or attached to politicians as bodyguards.

With rising and overwhelming crime rate, an efficient security system is required to not only protect life and property, but also to help stimulate the economy and ensure sustainable national growth. This is why a multilevel police system may have become unavoidable.

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Kusamotu: There’s Corruption in Judiciary, But It is Not Unexpected Mr. Ayodele Musibau Kusamotu, a legal practitioner, is the Chairman and Principal Counsel at Kusamotu & Kusamotu Law firm in Lagos and Abuja. He spoke with Jonathan Eze on the fight against corruption and was of the view that the presidency must be more transparent in this task. Excerpts:

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look at the loud clamour for the restructuring of the country.

Only recently, former Military President Ibrahim Babangida also confessed that the country needs to be restructured. He made this call against the back drop of hatred and conflict going on in the various parts of the country.

However, Mallam El Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, rather than address the issue at hand in his press briefing chose to attack the individuals calling for restructuring of the country. In the light of these issues, I do not think that the people in government are really in touch with what is going on now in Nigeria.

Two years after, Nigerians seem disappointed. Recently conducted Twitter poll revealed that 54% of the voters rated the Buhari administration’s performance as poor. Also, on 29 May 2017, BusinessDay published the results of another survey, conducted by the respected NOI Polls. According to the NOI Polls, only 47% of Nigerians scored the government well on security, 45% on corruption, 23% on infrastructure, 19% on education, 14% on the economy, 13% on job creation and 9% on poverty alleviation.

he fight against corruption is one of the focal points of this government. Would you say the fight has been a success?

Well, in fairness, it has brought the issue to the consciousness of Nigerians. In relation to where we were coming from, we are in a better place. At least, everybody now knows that if you steal from government, there could be a comeback, prosecution, and punishment. It is not easy to fight corruption and this government has been the first with all sorts of innovative techniques to fish out ill-gotten wealth including the dreaded whistleblowers and even the raid on Judges.

The Executive should also handle allegations of corruption with transparency when it involves its own members. There is a need for the law enforcement agencies and prosecution to be thoroughly trained and meticulous in their investigations. When government said it would not publish the names of the alleged looters, the war on corruption started taking a downhill journey. A non-governmental body just obtained a court order under the Freedom of Information Act to publish the names. Let us see if government will obey this order.

There are cases of distressing situations especially in the financial sector and other private and corporate establishments that had resulted in their takeovers. Do you see a need to reform the nation’s insolvency laws?

Government should reform our insolvency laws. There is now a desperate need for this as you can see from the ongoing distress in the economy, which has taken down two telecommunication companies – NTEL and Etisalat. The problem is that the regulatory authorities seem to be acting arbitrarily and it sends shivers down the spine of prospective investors. For instance, NCC is saying that Skye Bank cannot take over NTEL but then the funds that have been lent to NTEL are depositors’ funds. Likewise, the Central Bank of Nigeria recently appointed one of its own to the reconstituted Board of Etisalat or 9mobile as it were. Again, I cannot see the justification for this.

Recently, the acting president signed executive orders to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria. As someone in the private sector, what is your take on this?

Essentially, these orders are designed to improve the way government business and operations are conducted in the country. These orders can only be described as superlative.

This is what I expect from the brilliant Professor of Law. I, however, think that the Executive Orders surrounding VAIDS should be amended. I would advise that government should borrow from the principle behind former President Jonathan’s amnesty programme in the Niger Delta.

There should be a robust dialogue with business owners in Nigeria and then the right policy can be crafted.

The executive orders giving specific instructions on a number of policy issues affecting the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment designed to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country, timely submission of annual budgetary estimates by all statutory and non-statutory agencies, including companies owned by the federal government and support for local contents in public procurement by the federal government are indeed essential orders that will impact on the economy.

What is your assessment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the last two years?

The election of President Muhammadu Buhari was heralded with the promise of change and high expectations from Nigerians who had been governed by the PDP for about 16 years. The current administration has however

Kusamotu...Government must fight corruption transparently

been plagued with inflation; fall in oil prices, fall of the naira and a harsh economic recession. It is reported that the level of inflation currently stands at 17.24% as against 9.5% at the time the government came into power. However, the government seems committed to economic diversification through the promotion of locally manufactured goods in order to ensure economic recovery and development.

Unemployment also seems to be at an all-time high under the current administration as there has been mass sack in the banking sector and other sectors of the economy. The N-Power initiative, a tool of youth empowerment and employment was developed by the current administration; however, its impact is yet to be felt in the country. The educational, health and power sectors are very much the same, with no noticeable improvements. It should be noted that the health of the President has also generated a lot of controversy.

Though the government has been fighting corruption, the bickering between the Executive and Legislature as well as the insistence of the Presidency on retaining the head of the most important anti-corruption agency, EFCC when its most sensitive spy agency, DSS had indicted him needs to be examined in the context of leading by example.

The government has also been applauded for its effort in curbing terrorism and restoring some level of security in the country as some of the Chibok girls have been returned and the activities of Boko Haram /bombings have drastically reduced. Unfortunately, the military has not been able to hold recaptured territory.

In all, so much more is expected from the current government as a lot of its campaign promises have been unfulfilled.

The most explosive issue now is about the restructuring of Nigeria. So far the APC has done nothing to assess and

I am a Nigerian before being a lawyer. I don’t think it is just a perception. There is corruption in the judiciary and our legal profession. But it is not unexpected, because we are part and parcel of the society. We are not immune from the ills of the society. As you know in our society, our morals have gone down the drain. It is naive to think that the legal profession or judges hold a special place; we are all like the average Nigerian

The government has been criticised for its record of disobeying court orders. Are you also worried about this trend?

Compliance and obedience to orders of court is incidental and a component of the doctrine of rule of law and any well-developed democracy or any nation that professes democracy as a system of government must obey court rulings. The orders of court are sacred and should be duly respected by all.

Nigeria, over the years has failed in this basic democratic component. The federal government under the current administration has flouted court orders. It would appear that the President is still much influenced by his military background and does not pay much attention to the rule of law. However, Nigeria was ranked at 96 out of 113 countries in 2016 for compliance with rule of law by the World Justice Project, rising eleven positions from the previous ranking in 2015. It is the job of the Attorney General of the Federation to advise the president.

However, the principle of rule of law basically states that the law is binding on everyone and no one is above the law.

It is deeply embedded in and is the bedrock of any democratic system. Rule of law is the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws. The core of the concept of rule of law is established under the following: that the government and its officials and agents as well as individuals and private entities are accountable under the law. That the laws are clear, publicised, stable, and just and are applied evenly; and the protection of fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property and certain core human rights among others.

What will you say is responsible for the widespread perception of corruption among members of the judiciary?

I am a Nigerian before being a lawyer. I don’t think it is just a perception. There is corruption in the judiciary and our legal profession. But it is not unexpected, because we are part and parcel of the society. We are not immune from the ills of the society. As you know in our society, our morals have gone down the drain. It is naive to think that the legal profession or judges hold a special place; we are all like the average Nigerian. I think it is a human occurrence, which can be curbed. We should do more self-introspection as a profession to tackle this issue.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria recently set up a committee to suggest some reforms for the judiciary. As a member of the profession, what areas do you wish to see changes and what suggestions would you give to the committee?

This is a welcome development, which has all the key actors in place that can carry out these reforms. These actors know where the clog in the wheel of change is. However, I think it should include members of the civil society. They should hold public hearings around the country and make their findings public. The National Judicial Policy, which bars petitioners to the National Judicial Council from publicising their petitions, should be rescinded. A key ingredient of justice is that it should be public. I don’t see why such information should be kept secret. Really, the Judiciary and legal profession need a complete overhauling. We also need to invite outsiders, who can give us an assessment of the service delivery and how it can be improved.

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Gen. Eneche

Eneche:GettingInformationfromLocalsisOur Major Challenge in War AgainstBoko Haram Major General John Enenche, Director of Defence Information at the Defence Headquarters, in this interview with ARISE TV, a sister company of THISDAY, spoke extensively on military operations against Boko Haram in the North East, the recent US report, and the ambush of NNPC and University of Maidugiri staff on oil exploration mission in the Lake Chad Basin, among others. Paul Obi, who monitored the interview, brings excerpts

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he military recorded some commended success in decimating Boko Haram, so what actually went wrong with the recent ambush?

Nothing really went wrong, that’s what the public see and tend to believe. Why am I saying so? Where did we start from with the whole of this problem, when you talk about Boko Haram insurgency? Insurgency is now at the level of terrorism, Abuja was affected, Kaduna was affected, Kano was affected, Okene was affected, Jos was affected, Potiskum was affected. But where are we now? It got narrow down to the epicentre in Maidugiri and the surroundings. If you analyse it, realistically, factually, statistically, Boko Haram is not on the rise. Nothing has gone wrong; it is because, if you permit me, the man who is not trained in war will not understand the dynamics of what has happened. What has happened is that their centre has been busted, and that was what happened December last year at Sambisa Forest, Camp Zero. There was a concentration there, it

got busted and they are spread now. What are the Armed Forces doing after that? We called Clearance Operation and of course to show relevance, an enemy must seek relevance. But be that as it may, the general public will look at it as if something has gone wrong. Nothing has gone wrong.

Perhaps, we can tolerate the comments of the general public due to the fact that at a point in time we were told that as a terrorist group, they had been technically defeated?

They were insurgents, they took territories to themselves, they had command and control over particular places, particularly Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States, They were collecting taxes, in Borno State, they had control about 21 local governments that were under their total control and with their flags hoisted. But now it’s not so. So, they were technically defeated, the Commander-In-Chief was right. Are they holding any territories now, the answer is obviously no.

But there are a lot of questions that are supposed to be asked?

That’s the way it goes, how many Nigerians were monitoring terrorism outside this country?

Virtually none. But we monitor it; we study it, from Afghanistan, from Iran and Iraq and all over the world. Even when we talk about the problem they had in the United Kingdom, Irish problem, that was how it happened. There is a pattern. I am telling you and assuring the general public sooner than later, by the time the Clearance Operation is cleared, you won’t see this happen, this is the tail of it.

The Presidency is dispatching the Commanders and Service Chiefs back to the North East, what is the situation?

Yes, I was there, we were there on Tuesday to review the situation, what that translates to is to review the strategy and the operational plan, and the strategy had been reviewed and we have put in place ways and means on how to achieve our operational objective. The operation is being reviewed, that is why the Chief of Army Staff is there, you will also begin to see

the Chief Air Staff more in Yola where we have concentration of our air assets.

Will it be fair to say you have waited for the Presidency to have this reviewed and then actually return back?

You see, people will not understand, there is nowhere in the world where you have ever seen the Service Chiefs in the war front, right from the history of the world; let’s go back to the World War I and World War II, Nigeria is an exceptional case, and that is what I want people to know. You don’t even have the Service Chiefs sitting in the war front, no. Here is an exceptional case; it was not that they waited until they were ordered back. When they say take command and control right to the theatre, most times in history, it was even done from the rear headquarters. Now, what it translates is that there is a forward headquarters that is where they are, and that is where they would be going from time to time. It is not even to go and sit down there, no, that is not the interpretation.

Some days ago, our sister media outfit,

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CICERO/INTERVIEW t US REPORT WAS MISINTERPRETED TO DISCREDIT THE MILITARY t Continued on Pg. 72 THISDAY, broke that story about the US Intelligence Agency and its report about the military not being very capably equipped to retain control territories?

I got that report, a 19 page report on four countries of the Lake Chad Basin, it was a report to review the actions of the four countries, each country was captured. Now, the particular sentence that was misinterpreted to cause misinformation to the public was that, the Nigerian military, ‘having done this so far’ I’m just paraphrasing, ‘are not able to hold cleared territories.’ It is not the job of the military to hold cleared territories. If you interpret it, military will clear; there are other agencies of government in the coalition, in the whole centre that we hold ground, and they are there. So, the statement was interpreted to discredit the military.

But in the same report, they said the Nigerian military has done so much to secure lives and properties of American citizens, Nigerian citizens. Can the report contradict itself? Obviously no.

So it was done by people who wanted to misinform the public to discredit the Armed Forces of Nigeria, which is wrong.

Would you say the military is over stretched, talking about you being in the theatre and then also having the responsibility of controlling these territories?

No, we are not over stretched, it’s because you are not in the theatre. I was there, I fought there 18 years ago, I know what is happening there. I monitor there, the Defence Headquarters monitor there. Somebody outside would say they are over stretched, I believe we will get to a point when I will tell you what the real problem on the ground there is, as it is now, what we called problem or challenge. We are not over stretched at all.

What are the specific challenges right now, talking about overcoming Boko Haram?

The major challenge, if overcome Boko Haram will become a thing of the past in a jiffy, is getting information from the locals themselves. We have a high level of connivance, a high level of mischief; they are not coming out with information. Otherwise, tell me how, that right within Maiduguri, the suburbs that you see how people, who can even make IEDs and nobody comes out. When they see you are there, we are there, they will be looking at you, they would not even give you information. It takes a lot, the few that can give information, they are threatened, we know it, we know that. The challenge now is how to de-indoctrinate the people from what they believed for over 20 years ago. Some of them still believe in this ideology, but they would not come out. So, the challenge is information, getting information from the locals particularly, because they are high level collaborators.

Is that an indictment on the military intelligence and other security agencies?

No, it’s not the military intelligence. Any efforts in war, any effort in a situation like this, particularly asymmetrical war; it involves a lot of stakeholders, the people, the locals and the whole country, they need to come up. It’s part of it.

What is your relationship like with other agencies?

For the security agencies, yes, there is no challenge, we don’t have problems with them, but for the locals to come up, to be convinced. There is no total conviction on their part. That is what we have discovered, that is what is on the ground. We believe that with the efforts like that of the Borno State government and other opinion leaders, who are staking out their lives, who are churning out narratives and messages to the people, we believe that it will work. But we need to make more efforts as a people not the military alone.

You have done so much about communication and the gap and lacuna, one of them you said from the military, the people, how deep is the situation?

You talked about NNPC explorers and University of Maiduguri staff and all that who went on exploration. It was not a one day thing, it was not a two day thing, it was not a three day thing. No, it took over 15 days, I think close to about 20 days and it was on the last day. You don’t take any intelligence analysis to interpret, to know that, look; somebody gave them information, a local. 54 kilometres from Maiduguri, from University of Maiduguri, they saw them going every day, going round, doing the geological mapping and all. How do you talk about that? The reports by a self-acclaimed eyewitness that the people who gathered and attacked our troops are between 50 and 100; nobody saw them, now local saw them, within a few seconds?

High level of connivance!

24 hours after the incident, we were taken aback when we received information that the military didn’t get the information right, was it a communication gap from your own part about the ambush?

No, it was not a communication gap. What happened was that, the normal procedure we have in the military or any operation is, there are six stages of reporting. First is the contact reporting, and that contact reporting act as what; what, where did it happen? What has happened? Then you start compiling the report. Then, you have the situation report. That one may even take hours, several hours, up to 12 to 24 hours, because there could be exchange of fire, combat for that period of time.

It is that point that, you the commander, we call them friendly and enemy forces, we are now the friendly forces, supposed to have now counted, head count of your own casualties, those you can evacuate medically, you now evacuate them. Then, you now count your enemy casualties, and then you now give the situation report; that situation report was not supposed to be given to the public yet, in a situation where the public are highly interested. You now wait for the after action report, which will normally be after 24 hours. My dear, people are not patient. The main problem that caused this was that, unfortunately for us, the Force Commander was killed, who was supposed to give the contact report and even the situation report. Immediately we lost the Commander of that patrol group, and then about eight other soldiers. The second in command also went, so who would give this report? It was now left for an eyewitness, the Civilian JTF who just gave out whatever must have happened, that was what happened, and there was pressure on the Director of Army Public Relations. In the midst of that, that was why he now came out and apologised. If you talk about our own chain of communication, really there was no communication gap. Yes, because the person that was supposed to give communication was not there and it was not a deliberate operation. Of course, we are embarrassed, if not, why we would we come to apologise for that?

The US has just approved the sales of aircraft to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. Let’s look at it, putting it side-byside, a couple of years ago, Nigeria was not able to get military wares, how soon will we start feeling the impact?

It was because of the influence, the work of Boko Haram

They took territories, they had command and control over particular places, particularly Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States. They were collecting taxes, in Borno State, they had control of about 21 local governments that were under their total control and with their flags hoisted. But now it’s not so.

So, they were technically defeated, the Commander-in-Chief was right. Are they holding any territories now? The answer is obviously no

sympathisers, this time around, it didn’t work, that was why they did not sell the aircraft to us. False accusations of human rights and all manners of things. Just like this one now, you hear people saying the Army is corrupt, without any substance, that was what happened. Now, I want you to take a look at this. Last week, on Sunday, they released a report, somebody misinformed the whole world. Of course, there is no gap in time now; it must have been heard in the US, in the Congress and all, that we are not able to clear space in the North East. It was enough, if not because we came out, then, they saw the clear picture, that it was not so, it was not true. And immediately it followed, approval came, by the information you have and I have. So it is going to impact seriously on the operations by every standard. Of course, if for nothing, the psychological effect and the actual actions in the field. But for us to get it, of course it takes some time to produce.

Once the order is placed, it is not a one week thing; it is not a two weeks thing and it’s not even a three months thing. The design is already on the ground, they would start the building and the construction, that I am very sure of. It takes some time, sometimes months for them to churn them out. The moment they churn them out, the technical staff trained, actions start.

Just to land on this one, what about human rights abuses in the North East, particularly in IDPs camps, what is the military actually doing about this?

Well, if anybody is found wanting, found culpable, he will be prosecuted. Nobody has been found wanting, to the best of my knowledge, I was in touch with the Army, and I’m in touch with the Air Force, the personnel that are there. Most of these accusations sometimes are false. Why am I saying so? I have been a Force Commander, I have been Troops Commander in Liberia, where it was false. People that even come to get stipends, they will accuse you of sexual abuse, such things are very difficult to prove. Sometimes, you begin to wonder, but I assure you, the Chief of Army Staff set up Complaint Desk, Human Rights Desk all over the divisions in the theatre. Once any case is reported, they would be investigated and we have been investigating them.

It will also be unfair to unduly begin to punish, sanction our troops for what they are not culpable of. But we seek fairness to both parties, and that is what the Army Chief is doing and that is what the military is doing.

But just a final one, with the international cooperation across the world, are we seeing the extinction of Boko Haram soon?

That is it. You cannot put a time limit, even if you have all the arsenals, I will want to say that we need to de-indoctrinate the indigenes and the people around that side who harbour these people. You recalled, about 700 of them volunteered, they sent messages across through various means, we got the information, ‘we want to surrender’, we got 96 out of them, those ones that had been profiled and now they are in Operation Safe Corridor camp in Gombe, but they read what has happened, information gets to them. So, I want to appeal to the general public, particularly people in the epicenter and in that general area, to cooporate with us, give us information, expose collaborators, expose all the people that sympathise with them, because, it does nobody good and for the whole country in general.

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Buhari...time to rethink the future of APC

The Many Gaffes of APC Not a few concerns can explain the All Progressives Congress’ diminishing goodwill, writes Olawale Olaleye

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here is an existential debate on the state of the nation. The debate is no longer on whether the staggering goodwill or the messianic perception that brought the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power is fast declining or the obvious inability to hold down its promises; it is one that tends to x-ray some of the factors responsible for the obvious and sudden turn in the tide for the ruling party and in such a short time.

Even niggling too, is the fast vanishing mystique of President Muhammadu Buhari (remember the famous body language theory), whose larger than life image was believed to have consumed a sitting president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, even though the eventual vote difference at the presidential election didn’t attest to the staggering hype that preceded the election.

However, in situating what could have or still be wrong to the extent that a party so demonised with allegations of corruption, gross incompetence and being completely anti-people suddenly had a rebound and had been doing very well at each electoral opportunity, despite the leadership crisis that almost tore it apart since it lost power in 2015.

Perhaps, some of the factors below could be helpful in trying to locate where and how the APC missed it.

truth of its unpreparedness is self-evident.

The Jonathan Must Go Narrative

For reasons many people were and still unable to fathom, President Buhari started off his presidency by de-marketing the country and her citizenry before the world. An example that stood out was when the president was in London sometime last year for the global anti-corruption summit, hosted by a former British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron. The former British PM, while joking with the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, had described Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt nation. This had elicited the rage of many Nigerians both home and abroad and had expected a ‘brilliant response’ from their leader.

Later on in the day, when asked during a session with Sky News Diplomatic Editor, Dominic Waghorn, the president would rather give credence to the words of Cameron and admitted that Nigeria was corrupt. Buhari, who did not even realise he was giving the country away very cheaply, said he would not demand any apology from Cameron or anyone at that for stating the obvious. Rather, his concern was for them to help with looted funds.

Unsurprisingly though, two years after assuming office and in spite of his many trips abroad soliciting international cooperation and understanding about the stolen funds, not

One thing that was clear from the result of the 2015 elections and some of the developments afterwards is that the election was essentially not between the APC and the PDP; it was one between the former president, Jonathan and the people of Nigeria, albeit the PDP was the willing vehicle that conveyed Jonathan to the losing destination. All that the people wanted was for Jonathan to go, because he was believed, not only to have lost it but unable to show leadership, whilst the political will required to make hard choices was evidently absent. Jonathan was the one Nigerian leader, who was in government but not in power.

Thus, this swirling perception then paved the way for the change mantra, which in spite of its seeming inauspiciousness, had its way through for Jonathan’s sake. Nothing, however, confirms this position than some of the events that started playing out shortly after the 2015 elections, the results of some of the rerun polls especially. APC seems to be keen more about grabbing power, but not prepared to effectively use the power for the collective good of the people through profound delivery of good governance. It rather wallowed in the tweaked narrative of Jonathan must go and today, the

It’s the Economy, Stupid!

In the lead up to the 2015 general election, there was no debating President Buhari’s obvious lack of understanding of the economy. From some of his interviews (both local and international) to speeches delivered at rallies and on the state of the nation, Buhari could not hide the fact that he lacked the intellectual capacity to tame a troubled economy like Nigeria’s. Perhaps, it was the reason his handlers and party claimed then that his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, would be in charge of the economy while Buhari would face corruption and insecurity, his perceived areas of strength.

But whatever result that arrangement has been able to birth, the economy is still the issue today. It was no surprise too that Professor Wole Soyinka once admonished on the need to convoke an emergency conference on the state of the economy.

Although the situation has improved a bit, the economy was for a long time in a very bad shape. Even then, there is still inflation; the deficient foreign exchange policy has done a lot of hurt to manufacturers and small businesses, a majority of which had shut down, resulting in gross loss of jobs and ultimately, exacerbating the poverty level in the country.

Unwarranted De-marketing of Nigeria

a dime of the looted funds had been repatriated to Nigeria, yet, the image blight sticks like a leach on the country as a sovereign state and on individual Nigerians, many of them going about their legit businesses but had to share of the collective blacklisting as much as bear the indignation of this undeserving stigma, courtesy of the president’s apparent indiscretion.

Avoidable Budget Blues Back to back, the two budgets so far presented by this government were fraught with avoidable mess and needless muscle-flexing between the executive and the legislature. First off, nothing really could explain the fact that the first budget that was presented by President Buhari as a civilian leader was a serious embarrassment to everything that the change mantra sought to represent. It started with reports that the budget was missing and then, two copies of the budget with differing contents in some areas surfaced. It went a notch up the obnoxious following alleged padding of the figures from ministry to ministry and then, the irregularities contained therein.

It didn’t stop there. It was later revealed in the course of the many inquests into the budget that it was no longer going to be zero-based. That was the first budget. And, aside the controversy on the over-bloated and replicated sub-heads, there were issues of unrealistic assumptions in the budget too.

For instance, the budget was then based on an oil price benchmark of $38 per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day, coupled with the terrible exchange rate and inflation. Then, the second budget was no better.

Apart from coming late, there were allegations of unintended alterations believed to have messed up the estimates of some ministries, causing disaffection between the executive and the legislature.

Coming from this experience, which apart from exposing the apparent failure of leadership, also to a very large extent, showed the administration’s weakness on matters of the economy and the budgeting process, a shortcoming that was seemingly inexcusable in view of what was and still at stake.

Buhari’s Tardiness, Junketing and Health Challenge President Buhari is believed to have since assuming office shown his inability to hold down some of the demands of his office, considerably. First, it took him about five months to submit a list of his prospective team to the National Assembly, changing dates as if he planned to bring onboard people from a different planet. This is aside the fact that he

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R-L: Chief Tom Ikimi, Governor Rochas Okorocha, Senator Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Dr. Chris Ngige, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and other APC leaders at a campaign rally was alleged to have put up the final list without consulting the party leadership, an action responsible for the crisis of mistrust in the party as the place of caucuses had been demystified.

To compound this was the fact that, before his health situation took its toll, the president did not sit back at home for two months at a stretch without travelling abroad, even when the situation back home kept deteriorating each passing day. From the time he assumed office till the point his health matter manifested, Buhari had travelled to no fewer than 25 countries in the alleged search for bilateral relationship and some of the countries, he visited two or three times. Results of these trips, Nigerians are yet to see manifest.

But his health finally caved in, resulting in his having to be away from his desk for so long. The first time he traveled to London for medical check-up, he spent about 50 days.

This second trip is nearing 100 days since he left the shores of the country, although he fulfilled all constitutional demands before travelling.

Whilst there has been anxiety on the state of his health, the information management of his team has shown a rather arrogant government, whose head is treated more like a private citizen as against the public person that he is. And despite the ongoing protest against his long absence from work, protesters have been dispersed with tear gas by the police.

‘Selective’ Anti-corruption War Another critical factor that may have shaped and still shaping the perception and disposition of Nigerians to the Buhari presidency is the approach to the fight against corruption. The feeling is pervasive that Buhari is prosecuting a selective antigraft war against carefully identified persons perceived as enemies of his administration and others he is believed to have personal axe to grind with. There is no doubting the fact that the war has opened a lot of can of worms since it was launched, in what could pass as having recorded success. But sadly, it has been more of a distraction and an albatross than posting impressive progress reports, when analysed as a whole.

The tendency to arrive at this mindset stemmed from the fact that whilst the PDP was in power, it prosecuted its own people more, setting personal examples in the fight against graft from within, even though the degree of rot that was recorded in that era did not justify its efforts in the containment of graft. But despite the petitions and allegations against some persons in the APC, the government has continued to look away

President Buhari (right) in a chat with APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as if those allegations do not matter.

And where the argument was that the PDP descended on its people because it felt they were corrupt as against what appears the position of the APC, the counter-argument is that the APC is mostly populated by former members of the PDP, and so, what difference does it really make?

The other argument is that it was the PDP that was in power for 16 years and so key players at that time are those that would be asked to account for their stewardship. But the APC government, it was expected, could have done more beyond the typical media trial of persons to prove that the fight was not selective and personal in some instances.

95% Versus 5% Entitlement Theory During one of his early visits to the United States of America shortly after the elections, President Buhari was asked during a session with international journalists how he planned to contain some of the agitations in the Niger Delta region of the country and he glibly said the basis for addressing their needs would be based on the kind of support he

received from them. There, he mooted the theory of not according the same attention to people who gave 95 per cent support and those who grudgingly gave five per cent.

The president was quick to forget that immediately the elections were over and he emerged president, he had become the president of Nigeria and no longer the candidate of the APC or any part of the country. Even if he planned to pay any part of the country back in their own coin, should the president of any country travel that route verbally? Maybe no! Immediately former US President Barack Obama won his re-election in 2012, he forbade that the American people were seen along the blue and the red states demarcation, which is usually the political way of distinguishing states during electoral contest in the US. That, of course, is living true to expectation as a leader of all. But Buhari failed that simple and cheap test and the results of that are some of the agitations going on in some parts of the country.

Boko Haram and the ‘Technical Victory’ Propaganda Perhaps, it might be safe to assume that no

civilian government in contemporary Nigerian history has dwelt in sheer propaganda as much as the Buhari government and one of the ways it is quick to give itself away is the often contradictory situation report on the Boko Haram insurgency.

Often tagged “technical victory”, a language many Nigerians are unable to relate or identify with, the government has continued to use propaganda in the fight against insurgency. Whilst government has consistently claimed that there is no Nigerian territory under the grip of the insurgents, and even demonstrated its technical victory over the sect with the presentation of Boko Haram flag recovered in Sambisa Forest to the president, the Senator representing Borno Central, Senator Baba Kaka Garbai, said not too long ago that nearly half of Borno was still under the sect. But with Boko Haram’s violent resurgence in recent time, nothing puts more lie to government’s crude propaganda.

What more, Cameroonian forces months back came to the rescue of Nigeria, when they stormed the territories of Boko Haram,

Continued on Pg.76

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L-R: Senate President Bukola Saraki, President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, shortly before the president left for his medical check-up the second time routed them, killed about 167 insurgents and also freed about 300 hostages and towns said to have been under the caliphate of the sect. To many people, that amounted to dishonesty in leadership and might have created a rather damning impression altogether, even though government has not stopped to provide ‘alternative facts’ in the fight against insurgency.

A Divided Presidency A certain development that has exposed the character of this government about power and its management is the lack of unity of purpose right in the presidency. Before Buhari embarked on his medical trip, the truth about the division in the presidency had become public knowledge. But more than any other incidences, nothing confirmed this than the controversial nomination of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, who was discredited twice by the Department of State Services (DSS) in its report, the basis of which he was rejected the two times by the Senate.

Now, pause for a moment and ask: on what grounds would a critical agency of government write a report twice on a nominee of the president to another arm of government and the report would be dismissed by separate interests?

Curiously, in all of this, the president did not only stay away from the fray, he acted as if he was helpless, and watched the hawks take over control of the government. That has made the headship of a critical anti-corruption agency to continue to hang in the balance. It is yet again a failure of leadership for which the APC must admit responsibility.

Disobedience to Court Orders Another interesting feature of the Buhari administration is that it is notorious for disobeying court orders. And whenever this debate comes up, two people are usually in mind: former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and the leader of the Shiite Muslim group, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, both of whom have been kept in detention for two years running. And whenever government is constrained to speak about this, its comments are always at variance with the principles of rule of law. There is no way the people will not assess the APC on this account and of course, it is part of factors responsible for the party’s declining rating.

Also, the government’s failure to exercise caution in certain sensitive cases was generally believed to be responsible for the needless arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of

Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, whose arrest is more expedient now than ever, having even flouted practically all his bail conditions. But again, it stands to reason that had the government not picked him up then and detained him for several months, there would not have been a reason for the latest call for his arrest or the messianic posturing he suddenly landed overnight. It is a simple result of the government’s incautiousness.

The Restructuring Debate Just another issue that has exposed the hypocrisy of the APC government is its seemingly ambivalent position on the ongoing debate about the restructuring of the country.

Before the Buhari presidency came onboard, the party and its members were proponents of restructuring, ostensibly in the interest of peace and unity.

Naturally, therefore, anyone would have expected that upon assuming office, it would be an agenda on the front burner. But now that even people who did not believe in the idea have started coming out to lend their voices to the need for a restructuring of the system, the party and government failed to lead the discourse, thus making it a free for all.

Interestingly, when the party was going to save face by setting up a committee to examine the issue, it appointed the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as its chair, a man who had openly dismissed the idea of restructuring and chided its proponents. No wonder the rising number of self determination groups and the growing call for secession. The APC and its government haven’t fared well here.

Executive/Legislative Rivalry The crisis and mistrust between the executive and legislature following the inauguration of the leadership of the National Assembly in June of 2015, have portrayed the APC led government in bad light. Although executive/legislative rivalry is largely seen as one of the attributes of any promising democracy the world over, it however becomes dangerous when either of the arms seeks to deliberately undermine the other or prevent it from carrying out its constitutionally stipulated functions. For over a year after the inauguration of the National Assembly leadership, the parliament was a theatre of intrigues between the executive and the legislature. Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara won their respective positions against the wish of the party, with the support of PDP legislators - a development which ignited a face-off

For over a year after the inauguration of the National Assembly leadership, the parliament was a theatre of intrigues between the executive and the legislature. Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara won their respective positions against the wish of the party, with the support of PDP legislators - a development which ignited a faceoff between the presidency and the lawmakers who insisted on exercising their powers to elect their preferred leaders

between the presidency and the lawmakers who insisted on exercising their powers to elect their preferred leaders.

Shortly after his emergence as Senate President, Saraki was arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over assets declaration forms he filed several years ago. As he was facing the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Saraki was dragged, with the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu (elected on the platform of PDP), before another court on allegations of forgery of Senate Rules, that enabled them to emerge as presiding officers. While all this lasted, the presidency had little interface with the presiding officers of the Senate while the party did not engage its parliamentary caucus to push its manifesto into legislative agenda. The result was the midterm scorecard of the government which many believed was below average. However, whilst the relationship between the president and leaders of the National Assembly, particularly Senate President Saraki, might have improved significantly, the one between the two institutions is far from being cordial as both continue to flex muscles over their constitutional powers.

The Absence of a Strong Party Caucus Although the place of caucuses has featured in a few of the factors aforementioned, it remains one of the biggest challenges confronting the APC. Since the APC came to power in May 2015, the party has been gradually and subtly reduced into irrelevance in the scheme of things, particularly in the area of political appointments. Although attempts were made few times to create an impression that the party was consulted before decisions were made, that had turned out to be mere formality as its input did not shape executive decisions. The absence of strong party caucuses remains a major and in fact, the most critical undoing of this government. Two years after gaining control of power at the centre, the APC has not been able to constitute its Board of Trustees and at the same time still struggling with holding a proper national convention. The outcome of its recent non-elective congresses was a reminder of the ugly past. Too many things are not right with the ruling party, and this is compounded by the fact that in Nigeria as it is in some part of the world, the president or governor is the automatic leader of the party at their respective levels but unfortunately, Buhari has not provided the much needed leadership, hence, the party is avoidably adrift.

Moving Forward…

While the APC is still in search of ways to assert its influence as the ruling party two years after its victory at the poll, what its members and leadership have and which helps to allay temporary fears is that there is a government in place. For now, many believe APC has failed to live up to expectations in many respects and the goodwill that heralded its coming to power has greatly diminished.

Although not an impossible issue to fix, the situation may have been further compounded now by the lack of a rally point as a result of the absence of leadership occasioned by the president’s long medical vacation. However, how they are able to fix this is not the issue, but how it would not affect the balance of power in the elections of 2019 without making a mess of the entire political and electoral calculus, because with this plethora of gaffes by the ruling party, the future doesn’t look any good, either for the party or its government.

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PERSPECTIVE

President Muhammadu Buhari and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Working Session of The G7 Outreach Programme In Schloss Elmau, Germany in 2015

Re-establishing Nigeria’s Leadership Position in the World Emeka Anyaoku Introduction

L

et me first of all express my appreciation to the Akintola Williams Foundation for the invitation to not only participate in this second annual Akintola Williams Distinguished Lecture Series, but also to actually deliver the lecture myself.

I remember that I was the Chairman of the first annual lecture in 2015 which was very ably delivered by the former Governor of Ekiti State and now Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. I am glad to be speaking under the chairmanship of my friend and one of our country’s most outstanding and cerebral diplomats, Ambassador Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

It is a testimony to how seriously Mr Akintola Williams has dedicated his life to public policy issues in the economy and politics that the organizers of the Akintola Williams Distinguished lectures have never failed to be eclectic in their choice of topics.

I would like to begin by commending the Akintola Williams Foundation for instituting this lecture series in honour of a true Nigerian iconic son, Mr Akintola Williams, a man of many parts. One of the briefest summations of him is aptly captured in his description as the doyen of Nigerian, nay, African Accountancy; a respected elder statesman and philanthropist one of whose most cherished legacies is this venue, the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) center.

The fact that Mr Akintola Williams was

the first African to qualify as a Chartered Accountant cannot be a surprise given that he is a scion of an eminent and industrious family. His grandfather was a successful merchant, while his father had a thriving legal firm way back in colonial Nigeria. So, it is no surprise that Mr Akintola Williams has continued in his family tradition of professionalism and industry by being the first indigenous Chartered Accountant in Africa, carrying on with such a professional integrity that enabled him to have a commanding influence in accountancy on Nigeria’s private and public companies hitherto dominated by foreign firms.

He had also built a conglomerate of accounting firms which as I recalled at the 2015 edition of this lecture series had fanned out to many other African countries, including Cameroun, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Swaziland, Kenya and Egypt confirming the man as a colossal accountant that straddled the entire African landscape, mentoring and encouraging the development and growth of other indigenous chartered accountancy firms. There is no doubt that Mr Akintola Williams has served humanity in many profound ways, both in the private and public sector.

Apart from being one of the leading figures in the establishment of accounting organizations like the Association of Accountants in Nigeria (AAN) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Mr Akintola Williams also played a leading role in the establishment of the Nigeria Stock Exchange. His mark was also made in the public sphere when he was Chairman of the Federal Income Tax Appeal Commissioners

and member of the Coker Commission of Inquiry.

He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Commonwealth Foundation; as Chairman of the Public Service Review Panel on the Udoji Salary Review Commission; as President of the Metropolitan Club and, of course, as Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustee of the MUSON Center. It was for these and many other accomplishments that our honouree here has garnered many local and international awards including the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) and Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

But even in retirement and at the glorious age of 98 which he attained only yesterday, Mr Akintola Williams is still availing himself for consultation in the great task of the Nigerian nation-building project. Let me now come to the subject of today’s lecture.

It is common knowledge that is evident in our daily media which are read by, among others, all foreign diplomatic representatives in Abuja, that currently all is not well with Nigeria both at home and in its standing in the comity of nations, hence the theme of this lecture: how to re-establish Nigeria’s leadership position in the world.

The Golden Age of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Those of us who were of discerning age in the early years of Nigeria’s independence would, I am sure, readily agree that our country experienced what can truly be described as the golden age of Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa and in the wider world. I would like briefly to reminisce on

the string of foreign policy successes that underscored the country’s leadership position in the international community during that period.

As John Campbell, a former American Ambassador to Nigeria reminded us in his book, “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink”, the vision of Nigeria at independence by both the departing colonial authorities and Nigeria’s emergent political elites, was a great one. It was the vision “of a huge nation of numerous ethnic groups and religions united by democracy, pursuit of economic development, governance according to the rule of law, and the occupation of an important place on the world stage; … a friendly Nigeria to provide Africans with a seat at the table with other great powers”.

Flowing from this great vision, Nigeria was at its independence in 1960, rapturously welcomed in the comity of nations in a manner that was consistent with the confidence and hope of its founding fathers. On October 7, 1960 when the country was admitted into the United Nations, the event elicited widespread jubilation in Africa, in Africa’s Diaspora, and generally among the black race in the wider international community. This enthusiasm was clearly animated by the fact that Nigeria’s demographics, its human and abundant natural resources were adequate indices of national power that would enable it to be an asset, not just for Africa, but also for the international community represented at the United Nations.

On that occasion of its admission to the United Nations, Nigeria’s Prime Minister, Sir

Cont’d on Pg. 78

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PERSPECTIVE t Re-establishing Nigeria’s Leadership Position in the World t Continued from Page 77 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in his speech to the General Assembly, pledged the country’s commitment to multilateralism and as such to making its due contribution to the promotion of peace and development of the international community through the auspices of the United Nations.

Inspired by awareness of the fact that Nigeria is the one country with the largest population of black people in the world, its governments following independence actively sought to champion Africa’s and black peoples’ causes. This was why for example, just weeks after independence the Nigerian government notwithstanding the predictable potential economic and other costs, pitted itself in opposition to the French government’s atomic tests in the Sahara desert which had occurred in February 1960 and seemed likely to be repeated.

Nigeria’s Africa activism was the kernel of the evolution of the doctrines of its foreign policy for many years after independence namely, Afro-centrism and Concentricism.

Under these doctrines, Nigeria prioritized the pursuit of its national interest in a concentric circle, beginning with her immediate neighbours in the first inner circle, through the rest of Africa in the second circle, to the rest of the world in the outer circle. It was these doctrines that critically fostered the country’s leadership position in the world for years and enabled it to ride the crest of very favourable international opinion and reckoning.

Some of the highlights of this golden age in Nigeria’s foreign policy included the fact that the country soon after its admission into the United Nations became the backbone of the organization’s Africanization of solutions to African problems as evidenced by Dag Hammarskjold, the then United Nations Secretary-General requesting Nigeria to send a peace keeping military contingent to the Congo. And it was because of Nigeria’s pre-eminent position at the time that one of its own military officers, Brigadier-General J. T. U Aguiyi Ironsi, was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the first African to command the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo.

For over two decades, Nigeria chaired the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid. The country was also active in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) where it played veritable roles in asserting the sovereignty of the developing countries as well as giving them voice while using the neutrality of the NAM to steer the world away from the possibility of an armed confrontation between the Western countries led by United States and the Eastern countries led by the defunct Soviet Union.

It was as a NAM leader that Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Chief Simeon Adebo, played a leading role in resolving the crisis that paralysed the UN General Assembly in 1964 when the Western countries, invoking article 19 of the UN charter, sought to deny the Soviet Union voting rights in the controversy that arose from the Soviet Union’s refusal to contribute to the budget for the cost of UN operations in the Congo.

Nigeria also played a leading role in the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which has now metamorphosed into the African Union (AU). Nigeria had led the Monrovian Group of 22 African countries to merge with the Casablanca Group of 5 to successfully form the OAU in May 1963.

And in the Commonwealth, Nigeria was a prominent member and became the first member country to host the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State and Governments outside of London in Lagos in January 1966. Also in 1986 Nigeria’s General Obasanjo co-chaired the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group that went to South Africa in an usuccessful attempt to promote negotiations for the ending of apartheid.

And three years later in 1989, a Nigerian, my humble self, was appointed by Commonwealth Heads of Government at their meeting in Kualalumpur the first (and so far only) African Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.

Nigeria was also a critical mass in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

President Buhari with South African President Jacob Zuma and in the liberation of the Southern African nations of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe from the clutches of colonialism and white racist minority regimes. It was in recognition of Nigeria’s role and commitment to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and the de-colonization of Southern Africa that it was designated a “frontline state” in the struggle, even though it was geographically far apart from the region.

Other indications of Nigeria’s leadership role in international affairs during this period include the leading role it played in the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Beyond the founding of ECOWAS, Nigeria was to remain critical in the financial sustenance of the organization and for ECOWAS’s ability to function as one of the most viable African regional blocs.

There were also the successful negotiation of relief from the Paris Club of Nigeria’s debilitating foreign debt burden by President Obasanjo and his Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the creation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development by President Obasanjo and his South African colleague, President Thabo Mbeki.

Signs of decline in Nigeria’s leadership position Unfortunately, Nigeria’s leadership role in the world began to decline initially in the wake of the successive military intervention in the country’s governance beginning in January 1966. I would like to mention some of the signs of the decline.

Nigeria does not have a seat in the leadership organ of the AU, the ten-member Commission. It was a matter of national embarrassment that the Nigerian candidate lost out in the election of the AU Commissioners during the AU summit meeting in February 2017.

Secondly, a growing number of Nigerian citizens are now commonly badly treated and deported from many countries of the world including even African countries such as Libya and South Africa. And only last week, Nigerian athletes who were due to participate in a Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas could not attend because they were denied transit visas by the governments of the UK and the USA. The decline in Nigeria’s standing in the world prompted another former American Ambassador to Nigeria, who many believe to be a good friend of Nigeria, at a colloquium in Brown University USA to lament the de-industrialization of the country and to warn that “Nigeria was fast becoming irrelevant in continental and global affairs owing to its unfocussed leadership and

wrong choice of assessment parameters” (Vanguard January 18 2017). Ambassador Lyman went on to say that Nigeria’s habit of predicating its geopolitical relevance on its oil wealth and population is fast fading away not just because oil is losing its strategic relevance, but also because many countries in the West African sub-region have struck oil in commercial quantity.

The plight of Nigerians in the waves of Afrophobia in South Africa is particularly regrettable because, as observed earlier, Nigeria had played a very active and prominent role in the struggle that led to the dismantling of apartheid in that country.

Another regrettable sign is Nigeria’s declining grip on its immediate West African subregion, particularly in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional organization it helped to found and which it has nourished for the past 42 years, diplomatically, economically, financially and militarily when it led at huge financial and human cost to itself the ECOMOG military forces that were involved in peace making in the Mano River Basin countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone during their internecine civil wars.

Although the ECOWAS is hugely bankrolled by Nigeria, the organization’s bureaucracy seems to have been virtually taken over by the Francophone countries who have gone ahead to establish a parallel French version of the ECOWAS – the Communate Economique d’Afrique de L’Ouest – that now confronts and constrains the ECOWAS. Nigeria’s loss of grip in ECOWAS was dramatized by its inability to veto the ECOWAS’s decision in principle to admit into its fold Morocco, a North African nation and member of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU).

With the prospect of Morocco joining the ECOWAS, Nigeria would be risking a diminished influence in the sub-region; it would also be opening itself up to Morocco’s inevitable determination to get its pound of flesh following Nigeria’s role in the admission of Western Sahara into the OAU/AU. And this is not to talk about the adverse economic consequences for Nigeria from Morocco’s membership of ECOWAS. I believe that for its effectiveness and the benefits of the future integration of its members, ECOWAS must remain a strictly geopolitical regional organization whose membership should be limited to only countries in the West Africa geographic space.

Besides, extending ECOWAS membership to the Mediterranean Sea will inevitably dilute the organization’s integration movement.

Measures for Re-establishing Nigeria’s Leadership Position I now turn to my recommendations of what should be done if Nigeria is to return to a leadership position in international affairs especially now that we live in an increasingly globalizing world.

For every country, there is a nexus between foreign policy and domestic politics.

Thus, no country can maintain a credible leadership position regionally, continentally or globally without a politically stable and sound socio-economic domestic background. And so for any country to be able to exert a credible influence and maintain a leadership position to be reckoned with in world affairs, it must achieve a reasonable balance between its domestic and foreign policies.

In his book, “Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America’s House in Order”, Richard N. Haass, President of the United States’ Council on Foreign Relations, reiterated this symbiotic relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy when he wrote that the United States needed a new approach to both domestic and foreign policy because “the two are intimately intertwined: Americans will not enjoy the standard of living or quality of life they aspire to at home amid chaos abroad; and the United States will not be in a position to limit chaos abroad unless it rebuilds the foundations of its strength at home”.

Accordingly, every country’s standing in the world is to a large extent determined by its domestic situation. If Nigeria is to return to the golden age of the country’s foreign policy achievements and high global standing, its domestic situation must be fixed.

Fixing Nigeria’s domestic situation requires that the challenge of political stability as well as its economy and the socio-economic welfare of its citizens must be tackled.

Ensuring the welfare of Nigerian citizens will, I believe, fundamentally lessen their temptation to migrate abroad and subject themselves to death in the Mediterranean Sea as well as to unacceptable treatment in the countries of their destination.

I have consistently expressed the view that to achieve greater political stability and deserving socio-economic development in the country thereby tackling the worsening challenges it currently faces in many sectors, Nigeria must restructure its present “unitarist” governance architecture by returning to the true federalism which our founding fathers negotiated and wisely agreed in the 1960/63 constitutions to be the most suitable structure for the stability and development of our multi-ethnic and

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RIGHT OF REPLY/PERSPECTIVE

Re:Abe’s Uncalculated Risk

Abidemi Adeyinka

I

read with bemusement an article titled “Abe’s uncalculated Risk” credited to Olawale Olaleye and published on page sixty eight of THISDAY Newspaper of Sunday 6August, 2017. It didn’t take any extra reasoning to fathom that the whole objective of the mercenary article was to make a horrible attempt at demonising Senator Magnus and to mischievously rewrite his political history just to prove how much of a god Rt. Hon Chibuike RotimiAmaechi has been to him and why he must always freeze whenever that god sneezes. But as with all merchant writers detailed to smear and blackmail people they hardly know, the long and winding article ended up becoming a classic exposition of nothingness replete with bile and disgusting concoction of non-existent facts.

If anything, the said article only showed how low people are prepared to go to splatter mud on the character and reputation of others just to earn a living and massage the ego of their paymasters. As a man who has consistently followed Rivers politics and its principal actors for close to two decades now, I was shocked that people could turn fact on it’s head and create such a fallacious scenario as depicted in that article against a man like Senator Abe. It’s therefore with every fiber of my being that I condemn that villainous article which signposts the ongoing smear campaign against the person of the Senator representing Rivers South-East. And I am forced to ask, what exactly is the unrelenting blackmail of Senator Abe designed to achieve, and how does the campaign of calumny against him help the building of Rivers APC? The issues in Rivers APC today have nothing whatsoever to do with the blurred pictures of falsehood dishonestly painted by the article of Olawale Olaleye that Amaechi “mooted the idea that everyone should come together, put away their personal ambitions and converge as a family to confront the challenges that were to come...But Abe, of all, was said not to have believed in the mindset.

He thought it was a ploy to weaken and make him more vulnerable while at the same time positioning Peterside. As far as he was concerned, Amaechi still had a thing for Peterside and might have resolved

to field him again in 2019”. That is false and far from the challenges bedeviling the party.

As a matter of fact, the issues in Rivers APC today are also not entirely about the governorship ticket of party in 2019, although that is of course very much part of it. The real issues are that many leaders of the party have insisted on internal democracy in the conduct of party affairs. They have also maintained that Amaechi who is leader of the party should listen to the voices of the people and respect the wishes of others in taking critical decisions that affect the party as well as aligning with the realities that are on ground as far as Rivers politics is concerned. The matter is by no means personal to Senator Abe, even though most notable leaders of the party are on the same page with him in his principled stand for internal democracy.

It’s also important to note that the impression being bandied about that Hon Rotimi Amaechi is the god of Senator Abe and others in Rivers APC is not correct in point of fact. Indeed, many of those who are presently involved in the struggle to institutionalise internal democracy in Rivers APC and who the minister is currently fighting with everything are actually his contemporaries who have added value to the career of Amaechi at one point on the other.

For example, it’s known to everybody in Rivers State that in 1999, it was late Tonye Harry, Hon Marcus Nle Eji, Hon Otelemaba Dan Amachree, Hon Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja, Hon George Tolofari and others who invited Hon Amaechi to Senator Abe’s house to lead them in Amaechi’s quest to become the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. All these men worked assiduously to install Amaechi as Speaker, and that is the foundation of his present career.

At various critical points during his political life, these men and others worked hard and risked everything to support Amaechi’s growth.

To therefore paint the picture that Amaechi is the benevolent god who has done so much for others without any corresponding value from those people to him is to take sycophancy, which is at the very root of Amaechi’s problem, to bizarre and unacceptable proportions.

Yes, Senator Magnus Abe did say that he was the biggest investment of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi

in the politics of Nigeria, but to be candid, he could also easily have said that he is one of the biggest investors in Amaechi’s politics and that would still be unimpeachably valid. The river has actually flowed both ways. It has never been a one-way traffic as Olawale Olaleye falsely stated.

As earlier stated, it was Abe who first added value to the politics of Amaechi when they first met as elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly in 1999, a value that culminated in Amaechi’s speakership of the assembly. Ever since then, Abe has not looked back in his dedicated and single-minded support of the growth of his friend, the Minister of Transportation. As minority leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Abe was voted the best legislator and it was only natural that the ruling PDP would have their searchlight beamed on the budding talent to lure him into its fold. And if Amaechi recommended Abe to be Commissioner of Information in Odili’s second term, it was in reciprocation of Abe’s value and hope in the quality service he was going to offer to the Odili government.

In 2007, Abe’s appointment as Secretary to Rivers State Government together with that of Barr. Wike as Chief of Staff to the governor were the first appointments Amaechi announced in recognition of their relentless support and exertions which manifested in the unprecedented victory of the former governor at the Supreme Court. These were not unearned favours done to people who were idling around and that should be noted.

By 2011 when Amaechi was going for his second term in office, Abe got the ticket of the PDP to go to the Senate. Whatever value there was flowed back and forth between these two men for mutual benefit.

If Olawale has conveniently forgotten, many Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry the monumental support that Magnus Abe and many others gave to Amaechi when all the instruments of the federal government were unleashed against him during the Jonathan presidency. That Amaechi survived the onslaught was largely due to the valiant resistance put up by Senator Abe and many leaders of the party that Amaechi has vowed to destroy today.

The story of the protracted 2015 elections in Rivers State has been well told, and I don’t have to belabour readers with it. But suffice to say that Olawale was simply mischievous when he incredulously

insinuated that after Amaechi handed the guber ticket to Dakuku Peterside, while others “played along” (whatever that means) “Senator Abe didn’t let go as he wanted to be on the ticket”. Pray, how could Abe who already picked the senatorial ticket and was canvassing for votes to go back to the senate have also wanted to be on the guber ticket which had already been given to Dakuku?

Abe vigorously campaigned for all candidates of his party in 2015 and so it was that the only LGA that the party won in the guber election was in his senatorial district. In the reruns after the Appeal Court nullified most of the elections, all other candidates of the party got the same support that Abe was given, but it was Abe who made the biggest impression by winning back not only his senate seat, but also galvanised support for the APC to win all other contested legislative seats in his Senatorial district except for the Assembly and House of Reps seats in Andoni/Opobo Federal constituency where the governorship candidate of the party came from in 2015.

The unwieldy charge that Abe and others in the Rivers APC are “betraying” Amaechi is as lame as it is untrue. Those who are betraying Amaechi are those telling him yes when everybody knows that the answer is no.

Rivers people, and indeed the APC victims of the 2015 election have already seen the Part One of this current movie playing out in the party before, and now, they are simply rising up to say no to the part two because the Part One has been uninteresting. No former governor of Rivers State has succeeded in becoming a third term governor by proxy, and if this unwarranted fight against Senator Abe is all about the desires of Amaechi to continue to govern Rivers State by proxy, then he must check up his history books and he will see that nothing can validate what he is attempting to do.

Those who are seeking to demonise Abe and others within the Rivers APC because of their principled stand of insisting on internal democracy have already failed because Rivers people know the truth. They may succeed in deceiving those who are outside, but in Rivers State, the facts are very clear and will bear out at the end.

Adeyinka is a political analyst

t Re-establishing Nigeria’s Leadership Position in the World t Continued from Page 78 multi-religious country.

With the number and nature of the ongoing agitations in several parts of the country our present leadership, including especially the Senate which two weeks ago rejected a motion for devolution of powers, seem to be indifferent to the fact that Nigeria is currently sleepwalking to a national disaster.

Restructuring will enable us create fewer and more viable federating units for planning and pursuit of economic development and, with more powers devolved to them, deal with the issue of “do-or-die” political competition for the control of the all-powerful center which by exacerbating the inherent divisive tendencies in our citizenry is largely responsible for the country’s political instability and many of its socio-economic ills including the evil of massive corruption.

And we can only fix our economy by diversifying it and making it less dependent

on revenue from the export of crude oil. This is especially so now that more and more crude oil importing countries are announcing plans for facing out their reliance on fossil fuel. We must industrialize the country by embarking more vigorously on policies that support the local manufacturing of our needs. The diversification of the Nigerian economy must also entail focusing much more actively on the development of the agricultural and solid mineral sectors.

Besides, fixing the home front must include the leaders in our government, in our corporate sector, and in all our governmental and non-governmental institutions becoming more concerned with tackling the factors that have earned for Nigeria abroad such adverse national reputation as being on the list of the most corrupt countries and the list of fragile states ie potential failed states.

Against the continuing changes in African and global circumstances, Nigeria must from time to time review the strategic objectives and operation of its

Presdient Buhari addressing the UN General Assembly

foreign policy. The strategic objectives should, in my view, be: first, to raise Nigeria’s international position and influence by becoming in the global reckoning an acknowledged Middle Power and member of the groups of G20 and BRICS; secondly, to pursue its external economic relations especially with the view of promoting its exports and importation of foreign direct investments; thirdly, to render whenever necessary appropriate care to Nigerian citizens abroad; and, of course, fourthly to maintain cordial relations with all our diplomatic partner countries.

To achieve these objectives, it is important that the Nigerian government should pay greater attention to the adequate maintenance of the two principal machineries for the formulation and execution of the country’s foreign policy namely, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian diplomatic Missions abroad.

It is regrettable that our diplomatic missions abroad have continued to be inadequately funded with results that undermine the image of the country and the efficiency of the missions themselves. The conduct of foreign policy is never cheap in any country and so I urge the Government to ensure adequate budgeting for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all the diplomatic missions that it decides to sustain abroad after a careful review.

There is also the need for Nigeria always to articulate an effective campaign strategy whenever its candidates are vying for positions in international organizations.

For this is what is done by every country that is successful in winning desired international positions for its citizens.

Nigeria should also endeavour to reclaim its place and influence in the West Africa sub-region. ECOWAS is critical to Nigeria for economic and security reasons, and also because it is the country’s primary sphere of influence. And Nigeria must work to ensure that ECOWAS dwells more actively on inter-state infrastructural development, especially in the areas of transport and power in order to promote greater cohesion and integration of the sub-region.

So also should Nigeria similarly, for security and economic reasons, pay greater attention to promoting cooperation in its other sub-regional associations namely, the Gulf of Guinea Commission and the River Niger and Lake Chad Basin Commissions.

Finally to this list of recommendations I should add that our three past Presidents (President Obasanjo, President Yar’Adua and President Jonathan) respectively acknowledged that the existence of the Presidential Advisory Council on International Affairs (PAC), which I chaired for fourteen years was helpful to their administrations.

There is therefore an inherent benefit in having a Council of a small team (there were only six of us) of suitable retired senior Ambassadors and academics in the field of international relations being available to meet periodically and advise the President on the strategic objectives and execution of Nigeria’s foreign policy.

I would say from my experience, that it is important that such a Council should offer its advice directly and in non-public ways to the President since it must not be seen to be interfering in the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is rightly the public agent for expressing and conducting Nigeria’s foreign policy. This was why in all my fourteen years as Chairman of the PAC, I very seldom spoke to the press about the issues covered in the Council’s advice to the President.

Conclusion In conclusion, I want to say that if truth be told, there is now a growing number of sceptics of the description of Nigeria as the giant of Africa, a description that was universally considered credible for a long time since the country’s independence.

The scepticism is largely because of the existence of unresolved serious challenges in Nigeria’s domestic affairs. However, I am confident that endowed as it is with such rich human and material resources, provided its leaders acknowledge the seriousness of the internal challenges currently confronting the country and proceed to successfully tackle them, Nigeria will surely not only achieve political stability and development at home, but also will return to playing a leadership role in the sub-region, in Africa, and in the wider international community.

--Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Commonwealth Secretary-General from 1990 to 2000, delivered this lecture in honour of Mr. Akintola Williams at 98

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T H I S D AY SUNDAY AUGUST 13, 2017

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ UGUST 13, 2017

SUNDAYNEWS

81 News Editor ÌÓ×ÌÙÖË ÕÙÝÓÖÏ E-mail: ËÌÓ×ÌÙÖ˲ËÕÙÝÓÖÏ̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט ͸΀͸ͺͻ͹͹Ϳ;ͻ΁ ̙Ý×Ý ÙØÖã̚

A VISIT TO THE CJN L-R: Council members Mr. Okorie Kalu; Chief Chris Okunowo, Mr. Sola Oyetayo; Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen; Ayodele Akintunde SAN; and Chimezie V.C. Ihekweazu, at a meeting between the Council Members of the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN) and the CJN at the Supreme Court in Abuja…recently

For Producing Excess 470,000bd, OPEC, Allies Fail in Output Pact

t Output from Nigeria, two others drove July increase, says cartel Chineme Okafor ÓØ ÌßÔË

Member countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-OPEC allies led by the Russian Federation in a crude oil production freeze agreement to rebalance oil prices were failing in their commitments to the pact, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has disclosed.

Together, the IEA, which just released its latest Oil Market Report (OMR), said the 14 OPEC member countries, and their eight non-OPEC members, were producing 470,000 barrels of oil per day in excess of the commitment they reached in December 2016, and renewed in July 2017, to take out up to 1.8mbd of oil from the market to rebalance it.

IEA, however, noted in the OMR that OPEC’s commitment rate to the output cut fell in July to a new low of 75 per cent from 77 per cent that was

recorded in June, 2017, while that of non-OPEC countries acting in support of the output freeze was 67 per cent.

In a somewhat agreement with IEA, OPEC, however reported in the August 2017 edition of its Monthly OMR that its crude oil production increased to a daily rate of 32.869 million barrels, up by 172,600bpd.

It explained that Nigeria; Libya; and Saudi Arabia were the main drivers behind its July production increase, adding that Libya raised its output by 154,300bpd; Nigerian by 34,300bpd to 1.748mbd; and Saudi Arabia up by 31,800bpd to 10.067mbd.

“According to five secondary sources, total OPEC-14 crude oil production averaged 32.87mbd in July, an increase of 173,000bd over the previous month.

Crude oil output increased mostly in Libya, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, while production

showed declines in Iraq, Angola and Venezuela,” said the OPEC MOMR. The IEA, in its separate report, said: “The compliance rate with OPEC’s output cut fell again in July to a new low of 75 per cent from June’s revised figure of 77 per cent. For those non-OPEC countries acting in support, their compliance rate in July was 67 per cent.”

“Together, the twenty-two countries are producing about 470kb/d in excess of their commitment. Some of them are clearly determined that the output agreements will succeed: Saudi Arabia has indicated that export levels in August will fall to 6.6mb/d, and, according to recent reports, it will cut customer allocations in September.

“Other countries currently have very low compliance rates, although this can change. In passing, we must note that the current situation in Venezuela

is being monitored closely with respect to any market impact should oil production and exports fall significantly,” it added.

In its further assessment of the oil market vis-à-vis efforts

by OPEC and its allies, the IEA’s OMR stated: “The re-balancing of the oil market desired by the leading producers has been a stubborn process and it takes time for the numbers to confirm what many observers instinctively feel has already happened.

“Sure enough, new data suggests that in 2Q17 global stocks fell by 0.5mb/d and preliminary data for July, particularly in the United States where stocks fell by 790kb/d, is supportive. Even so, we must not forget that they are falling from a very great height in volume terms.”

“There would be more confidence that re-balancing is here to stay if some producers party to the output agreements were not, just as they are gaining the upper

How Falana’s Letter to Kachikwu Exposed Nigeria’s Huge Losses in Deep Offshore PSCs Ejiofor Alike

Indications have emerged that a letter written by a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, when he was the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Corporation (NNPC), exposed Nigeria’s huge losses in the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) signed with the international oil companies (IOCs) on the deep offshore oil fields.

THISDAY had reported that the country lost close to $60 billion to the non-enforcement of the terms of the PSCs signed between the federal government and the IOCs in 1993, quoting the minister, who had disclosed this at the 2017 conference of the Nigerian Council of the Society of

Petroleum Engineers (SPE) held recently in Lagos.

The federal government had in 1993, awarded some oil blocks in the deep water to the IOCs under PSCs, which provide that theroyaltiestobepaidbytheIOCs woulddependonthedepthofthe water where oil is found.

The 1993 PSC also provides that royalties paid by the IOCs on oil blocks located in deep water should be reviewed upward when crude oil price exceeds $20 per barrel.

Nigeria lost out in the PSCs as oil was discovered in water depths above 1,000 metres in all the five deep-water oilfields that came on stream between 2005 and 2010, as the contracts stipulate thatroyaltyiszeroinwaterdepths exceeding 1,000 metres.

Though the terms of the PSC also stipulate that the agreements

would be reviewed when oil price exceeded $20 per barrel, the federal government did not enforce this provision.

In a letter dated August 5, 2015 written by Falana to Kachikwu when he was the group managing director of the NNPC, the constitutional lawyer had called on the National Assembly to repeal the provision of the PSCs, which stipulates that royalty on crude oil production in water depths exceeding 1,000 metres is zero.

Falana’s letter titled “Re: Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act,” which was obtained by THISDAY, also recalled how the military administrationof Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999 enacted “the Deep Offshore and Inland Sharing Contracts Act Decree in order to give effect to certain fiscal incentives for the oil and gas

companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin under production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other companies holding oil prospective licences or mining licences and various petroleum exploration and production companies”. Falana noted that by virtue of section 5 of the Act, the payment of royalty in respect of the Deep Offshore production sharing contracts shall range from 4 to 12 per cent while no royalty shall be paid whatsoever in areas in excess of 1000 metres depth.

According to him, since a large quantity of the oil and gas produced by Nigeria is located beyond 1000 metres depth, the multinational oil companies have taken advantage of the Act to avoid the payment of royalties to the Federation Account.

hand, showing signs of weakening their resolve. Producers should find encouragement

from demand, which is growing year-on-year more strongly than first thought,” it added.

Banana Island Ghost Rakes in N35m in First Week Nseobong Okon-Ekong

Rave-of-the-moment Nigerian action-comedy movie, Banana Island Ghost, BIG, lived up to the expectation of its producers in its first week at the cinemas, grossing N35 million at the box office. This amount includes monies from private screening.

A statement by its executive producer, Biola Alabi, indicated that cinema going Nigerians preferred to experience Nollywood films over Hollywood epics. In an opening week that also witnessed the release of two Hollywood blockbusters: ‘Dark Tower’ - a Steven King bestseller, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, and ‘Girls Trip’ starring Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah; audiences around the country still overwhelmingly chose to see the Nollywood fantasy, Banana Island Ghost.

The movie also did well against other top contending Nigerian films like ‘Alter Ego’ starring Nollywood superstar Omotala Jalade Ekeinde and ‘Hakkunde’ that were also facing the pressure of new films in their first week or two at the cinemas.

Nigeria has 130 cinemas across the country. Seven of the high-grossing cinemas are in the commercial city of Lagos. Other cities with a great number of cinema-goers include Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan. Cinema tickets are not uniformly priced across the country and every cinema has different offers for their customers. Expectations are

high that Banana Island Ghost will continue to attract good patronage and remain the preferred movie through the coming Sallah holiday at the end of August and well into September.

Banana Island Ghost is expected to complete an eight-week run in the cinemas at the end of September, by which time it is projected to gross about N400 million. The action-comedy film is produced by BAMNEMSIA Pictures, a co-production partnership between Biola Alabi Media and Nemsia Films. It is a movie about a ghost who is scared to go to heaven because he doesn’t have a soul-mate, and a lady who will do anything to save her father’s house in Banana Island - the two are paired by God and they have three days to do what they must do.

Alabi said, “We are extremely proud of the audience response thus far. Convincing people to leave their homes and give you their hard earned money is never easy. There’s still a lot to do in order to make our investors happy.”

The Writer/Director B.B. Sasore also commented on the impressive results. He said, “Frankly, thirty-five million naira is humbling. To see so many people respond well to something you created is satisfying. I know how hard my cast and crew worked to achieve the quality we did, and I think that is what Nigerians are reacting to. Picture quality, visual effects, and great comedy, all tied up in a Nigerian story made by Nigerians.”

CORRIGENDUM In an interview published in our August 6, 2017 edition, the name of the former CEO of ntel was wrongly spelt as Kamal Abass. The correct spelling is Kamar Abass. The error is regretted.

Editor

82

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R Ëž ͚͝Ë&#x153; ͺ͸͚Ϳ

NEWSXTRA Buhari Lucky to have Osinbajo as Vice President, Says Okorocha Amby Uneze in Owerri

WELCOME TO OWERRIâ&#x20AC;Ś

Daughter of Imo State governor, Mrs. Uloma Nwosu, welcoming the wife of the Acting President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, when she arrived at Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri for the oďŹ&#x192;cial opening of ELFREEDA Foundation, a non-governmental organisation founded by Nwosu to cater for the less privilegedâ&#x20AC;ŚÂ Friday

Osinbajo Sends Delegation to Anambra, Orders Security Agencies to Fish out Killers Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja, David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka, and Bassey Inyang in Calabar Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday sent a five-man federal government delegation to Anambra State to condole with the government and people of the state over last Sundayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s killing at St. Philips Catholic Church in Ofufe-Amakwa, Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of the State.

He also ordered security operatives to fish out perpetrators of the heinous crime and bring them to book.

The attack resulted in the loss of a number of lives and injuries to several others.

In the delegation were the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of

State for Environment, Mallam Ibrahim Usman Jibril; and the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka.

A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said on arrival, the delegation would present a condolence letter from the acting president on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria to Governor Willie Obiano.

He also said the delegation would visit Bishop Hillary Okeke of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, also in Nnewi, to meet with some of the victims of the attack still in the hospital.

According to him, Osinbajo sent deep condolences to the families, friends of the victims, and the entire Ozubulu community on the death of their sons and daughters and prayed for

speedy recovery of the injured who are still in the hospital.

The statement added that the acting president condemned in very strong terms what he described as the atrocious and dastardly act which has brought sorrow to many innocent families and, has rightly provoked widespread condemnation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Such barbaric act constitutes an affront to our common humanity, and it challenges, but will not overwhelm our collective resolve to rid our communities of all forms of violent crimes and criminality,â&#x20AC;? Osinbajo was quoted as saying. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Professor Osinbajo said the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari remains undeterred and will continually commit to deploying all available resources towards ensuring adequate security of lives and property in Anambra State and across the entire coun-

try. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Acting President noted that he has instructed law enforcement agencies to bring perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice without any delay. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He said he would remain engaged with Governor Obiano, the Police authorities and other security agencies to ensure that the lives and property of citizens of Anambra State and indeed all Nigerians are well protected anywhere they may live,â&#x20AC;? the statement added.

In a related development, the federal government has promised to beef up security in all the churches in the South East to forestall further attacks on churches.

Ngige stated this yesterday when he led a delegation from the federal government to Ozubulu community in Anambra State, scene of the killing of about 13 worshippers by a gunman last Sunday.

Military Reassures UN of Continuous Support Senator Iroegbu and Paul Obi in Abuja Following complaints by the United Nations (UN) over the search of its property in Maiduguri, Borno State, the Nigerian Army yesterday said it would continue to support the UN across the board.

The search of the property by troops last week, which was widely reported in the media, had caused uproar and misgivings between the military and the UN. Lt. Col. Kingsley Samuel of the Theatre Command of Operation Lafiya Dole explained that the assurance became necessary given that the military â&#x20AC;&#x153;has been drawn to some negative rumour against the United Nations Agencies operations in the North East following our cordon and search operations in Pompomari Byepass of Maiduguri.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The operation was never intended to undermine the integrity of the UN or any other humanitarian agencies that have been working tirelessly to alleviate the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable group in the North-east. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is pertinent to state that one of the mandates of the Nigerian Military in the North-east theatre of operation is to provide security and support to the UN and other humanitarian agencies in the discharge of their duties. Indeed, their roles have been complementing the efforts of the Federal Government in the restoring normalcy in the region.â&#x20AC;?

Samuel said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Following the incident of 10 August 2017, mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that the incident that led to the peddling of misleading information in the social media does not occur again. The Nigerian

military therefore wishes to reassure the UN agencies in the North East of their safety at all times. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will continue to provide all necessary support and the conducive environment for the discharge of their humanitarian activities.â&#x20AC;?

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed concern that Boko Haram terrorists are far from being defeated.

The civil rights body with specific focus on good governance, constitutionalism, stability and security of lives and property of Nigerians, said the terror groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resurgence is on the upswing.

The National Coordinator, HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in response to THISDAY enquiries yesterday, said they â&#x20AC;&#x153;are of the conviction that the armed Islamists known as Boko Haram terrorists in the North

East of Nigeria are far from being defeated.â&#x20AC;?

According to Onwubiko, the well-armed terror gangs are on consistent and well-coordinated suicide attacks targeting several governmental institutions such as the university of Maiduguri, and places of worship resulting in the killing of dozens of Nigerians.

He stressed the fact that dozens of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have been bombed to their early graves by suicide bombers.

He said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is a sad fact that government at the centre sought to play political goal by announcing the defeat of the terrorists because this claim by different top officials of the federal government is far from the truth and the existential, empirical and practical facts on ground in the North East show that Boko Haram is far from being defeated decisively.

Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha has said President Muhammadu Buhari is lucky to have Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as his deputy hence he (Osinbajo) has ensured that there was no vacuum in governance since the president left for his medical check-up .

Also, the wife of the Acting President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo has applauded Governor Okorochaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter, Mrs. Uloma Nwosu for establishing a foundation purposely to cater for homeless women and children in the society.

Okorocha, who stated this during the official unveiling of his daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pet project, ELFREEDA Foundation, maintained that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prof. Osinbajo is the best thing that has happened to the Buhari Administration because he has continued to administer the affairs of the country without any hitch in his absence.â&#x20AC;?

According to him, â&#x20AC;&#x153;with the president out of the country for a medical vacation Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who has been acting on his behalf has ensured that there is no vacuum as he has continued to see to it that the country runs smoothly. And I must say that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the best thing that has happened to the APC government at the centre.â&#x20AC;?

He continued â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just recently, the First Ladies of Nigeria were gathered in Imo State including the First lady of Nigeria, Hajia Aisha Buhari to attend my wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s August Meeting. Today again, the wife of the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs. Dolapo Osibanjo is here, we are really gratefulâ&#x20AC;?.

He added â&#x20AC;&#x153;Over the years of my struggles in life, I have not so much been at home or stayed with my children for long, but we have always been there to impart the necessary discipline in our children.

Today, Uloma, you have made us proudâ&#x20AC;?.

He thanked Mrs. Osinbajo for finding time to attend the launching of his daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foundation and enjoined her to extend his warmest regard to the Acting President, saying that he has been doing well.

Mrs. Osinbajo who was the special guest of honour at the official launching of the ElFREEDA Foundation in Owerri, the Imo state capital, commended the founder for her passion for the less privileged especially homeless women and children.

She said â&#x20AC;&#x153;I congratulate the state for what is happening today. The ElFREEDA Foundation was once a dream but today it has become a reality. If we dare to dream it will always come to pass. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know the parents of Mrs. Nwosu who themselves are deeply involved in humanitarian organisations that have been helping the less privileged in the society, so I am not surprised that their first daughter has also followed their footstepsâ&#x20AC;?, she stated, adding that this act of generosity should also be passed over to their next generation.

Mrs. Osinbajo said Nigeria as a nation needs love now more than anything else and therefore asked Nigerians to show love for one another.

According to her, â&#x20AC;&#x153;our nation needs love now more than anything else. I encourage the people of Imo to show example of this love which I see in them to the rest of the country. This is not my first time in Imo State and each time I come I see peace everywhere. This state is like a house full of many people and I say to this house, peace be upon itâ&#x20AC;?.

She added â&#x20AC;&#x153;Love never fails, I have a request that is deeply rooted in the bible, love your neighbour as you love yourself. It is a selfish request because it entails loving everybody irrespective of religion or tribe. And this is what Nigerians should be doing nowâ&#x20AC;?.

Speaking earlier, founder Mrs. Nwosu and wife of the Chief of Staff disclosed that the purpose of the foundation was primarily to provide temporary shelters for homeless women and children as well as provide with clothing and food, adding â&#x20AC;&#x153;the foundation is to help the less-privileged, and not to dramatise wealth but the dramatisation of concern for the widows, orphans, disabled and others in the societyâ&#x20AC;?.

According to her, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we already have a 100-bed facility where homeless women and children are welcomed to and cared for at least for a maximum of 30 days .We also have counseling Centre, Food bank and thrift store to enable us to adequately care of the peopleâ&#x20AC;?.

The governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife Nneoma and the husband of the owner of the Foundation and Chief of Staff Government House, Chief Uche Nwosu expressed gratitude to the Acting Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife for coming to perform the opening ceremony.

Pa Adebayo Thomas Passes On

Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019; Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x;Ă&#x17D;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x17E;ĂŁË&#x153; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x2122;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;ĂŁ Ă&#x2122;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x153; Ă&#x152;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;Ă Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x153; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁ Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁĂ&#x2122; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ë&#x153; ĂĄĂ&#x2019;Ă&#x2122; Ă?Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x161;Ă?Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă&#x;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC; Í°ÍłĂ&#x17E;Ă&#x2019; Ă&#x2122;Ă? Ă&#x;Ă&#x2013;ĂŁË&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍŻÍľË&#x203A; Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2039;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E; Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x2122;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x201C;Ă Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013; Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ë&#x203A; Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x2018; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; Ă&#x2039; Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E; Ă?Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x152;ĂŁ Ă&#x153;Ă?Ë&#x203A; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2122;ĂŁĂ?Ë&#x153; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? ĂĄĂ&#x2039;Ă&#x2022;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x152;Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2DC; Ă?Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x;Ă&#x2013;Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁË&#x153; Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x152;Ă?Ă&#x153; ͯͲ Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E; ͲĚ&#x2039;Í´Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2014; ĂĄĂ&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2013; Ă?Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă? ĂĄĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x2039;ĂŁË&#x153; Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x152;Ă?Ă&#x153; ÍŻÍł Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E; ÍŻÍŽĂ&#x2039;Ă&#x2014;Ë&#x203A; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019; Ă?Ă Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă? ĂĄĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E; Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă? Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă? Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x153;ĂŁ Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17D;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2039;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2122;Ă?Ë&#x203A; Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17E; Ă?Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;ĂĄĂ? Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x2013;ĂŁ Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x17E;

Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x2122;ĂŁĂ&#x201C; Ă?Ă&#x2014;Ă?Ă&#x17E;Ă?Ă&#x153;ĂŁË&#x203A; Ă&#x2039; Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă? Ă&#x201C;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x;Ă&#x153;Ă Ă&#x201C;Ă Ă?Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x152;ĂŁ Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă? Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D;Ă?Ă&#x2019;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019;Ă?Ă&#x153;Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2DC;Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2019;Ă?ĂĄĂ?Ë&#x153; Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x201C;Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC;Ă&#x17D; Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC;Ě&#x2039;Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2039;ĂĄĂ?Ë&#x203A;

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

83

NEWS First Northern Female Aeronautic Engineer Bags First Class in UK Senator Iroegbu in Abuja A Nigerian student of northern extraction, Ms. Hauwa Umar Usman has bagged a First Class (Honours) degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Brighton in United Kingdom (UK).

Hauwa Usman is the first Northern lady to have studied Aeronautical Engineering, making her among the very few females in Nigeria to study such a discipline. Reports from an online medium, Global Sentinel, revealed that she was among the few to have bagged First Class in the history of the school and the first Nigerian female to achieve such feat.

Hauwa is the daughter of a respected former Nigerian Army Chief of Transport and Logistics, Maj-Gen. Umar T. Usman (rtd.).

The elated father said “Hauwa has made us proud and she truly deserves to be celebrated.”

Hauwa was born in Kano.

She attended Crescent International School in Kano from primary to junior secondary; she spent most of her childhood in Kano, at the age of 14 her family moved to Abuja, where she completed her secondary school education from year 10 to year 12 at Lead British International School, after which she moved to England for further education.

Her education in England began at the EF Language school in Cambridge, where she studied Engineering for her University foundation preparation year 2012-2013. Hauwa was

accepted to study Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Brighton in 2013. She is the third daughter of Maj-Gen UT Usman (rtd).

Hauwa said her curiosity for an aircraft’s ability to remain airborne, flight control systems and related aviation safety issues in the country led her to choose Aeronautical engineering.

She shared her story, saying: “My choice to study Aeronautical Engineering was one out of curiosity for aircrafts at a young age. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into due to how challenging and demanding the male dominated course could be.

“My father has been very supportive since day one of my academic journey. He had always taught me to be patient, learn from my mistakes and always do my best, because ‘my best is enough.”

“Despite the odds, I was determined that I would not let myself down and most especially my father. Because, I knew he had sacrificed so much to make sure I have the best education.

“During my studies in England, I experienced some challenges, which a British friend noticed were signs of dyslexia and suggested that I take a dyslexia test. I had never heard of dyslexia ever in my life.

I contacted the dyslexia team at the University and they were very helpful in explaining the disability and I was told that even the smartest scientist like Albert Einstein had this disability.” According to Hauwa, dyslexia is a “specific learning

difficulty” that can cause certain problems with the ability used for learning, such as reading, writing, understanding a task etc. She however, stressed that her intelligence was not affected as she undertook the stages of assessment for dyslexia “and it was discovered that I had a certain level of learning difficulty.

The most important thing at that stage in my life was how to manage and develop a strategic way to understand where my difficulties affected me more”.

She further said: “While studying, I had my ups and downs and at the edge of wanting to give up, I always remembered my father’s words ‘it’s a challenge studying Aeronautical and yet you have come this far and I am so proud of you’. My mother had taught me to never lose hope in anything I do and that my hard work won’t go in vain and Allah’s mercy will always be with me.”

She stressed that her “success in Aeronautical Engineering has been through hard work, stepping out of my comfort zone, understanding strategic ways to manage my learning difficulties, having a positive mind set and most importantly the encouragement from my family and friends during my most challenging times, allowed me to be amongst the very few with a first class degree in Aeronautical Engineering”.

Hauwa had some words of advice for young Nigerians, saying: “Verily with hardship comes ease” Quran (94:6) “The need to diagnose dyslexia in individuals especially at a younger age by both parents and teaching staff members in Nigeria needs to be emphasised more.”

She urged that “no child should be hit or beaten because they do not understand a task”.

Hauwa on her graduation day

Globacom-sponsored Trump Speaks with France, Professor Johnbull Preaches Anambra: APC Clears 12 Acceptable Family Lifestyle Aspirants for Guber Primary China amid Mounting This week’s edition of the reality”.

The episode offers Profespopular TV Drama Series, Tensions with N/Korea He also commended the Professor Johnbull, sponsored sor Johnbull, acted by the Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has screened and cleared all the twelve aspirants who have shown interest in the governorship ticket of the party.

Ondo State Deputy Governor and the chairman of the screening panel, Agboola Ajayi, said yesterday in Abuja that all the 12 aspirants were eligible to contest the governorship primary.

While presenting the report of his committee, he commended all the aspirants saying the party “is one in Anambra state.”

He said all the aspirants complied with the guidelines and all signed an undertaking assuring the party that they would all support whoever eventually emerges the candidate of the party.

The National Organising Secretary, Osita Izunaso, who congratulated all the aspirants for being competent to stand for the primary, added that the next phase will be that of appeal panel if need be.

aspirants saying “so far we have not received any report of violence among all the aspirants. We urge you to carry on and we are very hopeful that one of you will eventually emerge as the next governor of Anambra state.”

Speaking with newsmen shortly after he received his clearance certificate, Senator Andy Uba, assured that he would stand with APC whether he eventually wins the party’s ticket or not, adding that the incumbent governor of the state “must pack his load and go because APC must win Anambra.”

Meanwhile, the APC in Bayelsa yesterday said it would not quit the disputed secretariat of the party in Yenagoa, the state capital, as directed by the state government.

A statement by the party’s Spokesman in Bayelsa, Mr. Fortune Panebi, said the timing of the quit notice was suspicious, but did not directly address the question of whether the party were legal occupants of the building.

Demola Ojo with agency reports

US President Donald Trump called the French President yesterday amid mounting tensions with North Korea the day after he said he was considering further economic sanctions against the nation. Trump has also contacted the leader of China and the governor of Guam. Japan, meanwhile, deployed the PAC-3 land-based missile interception system to four different locations.

In a call Trump had with President Emmanuel Macron of France, the two discussed the need to confront the increasingly dangerous situation associated with North Korea’s destabilising and escalatory behaviour, according to a White House readout of the call.

During the call, both leaders discussed working with allies to enforce United Nations sanctions and denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, the statement said.

However, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for restraint during a phone call yesterday with Trump over the escalating

tensions. Trump has urged the Chinese government to exert more pressure on the North Korean regime, with little success.

During the call, Trump also informed Xi that he plans to direct his administration to investigate Chinese trade practices tomorrow.

Earlier yesterday, Macron had issued a statement voicing his concern at the ballistic and nuclear threat coming from North Korea, adding that the international community should work with Pyongyang to “resume the path of dialogue without conditions.”

Macron said France and other UN Security Council members want North Korea to “proceed with the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear and ballistic programmes.”

In a related development, Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo, said he spoke with Trump and chief of staff John Kelly, and he posted the audio of the call on Facebook. Guam is a US territory in an area of the Pacific that North Korea has threatened to strike with missiles.

by telecommunications giant, Globacom, is devoted to promoting acceptable family life style.

The episode, entitled ‘Married to the Family’ enunciates African values and peculiarities as they relate to the institution of marriage. In Africa, a marriage goes beyond the two individuals involved and extends to the families of the couple.

In a statement, Globacom said: “The tensions in many homes today are caused by the African man’s concept of marriage and its requirements. Africa’s world view about marriage, is no doubt fantastic. However, there are some inherent excesses in the world and these excesses are to a greater extent, inimical to the peace in many homes.

The roles of in-laws in making or marring homes cannot be wished away. This is why every individual desirous of a tensionfree home should book a date with Married to the Family.”

Globacom said the episode highlights the pitfalls in Africans’ view of “what the institution of marriage is and how to avoid making ‘our wife syndrome’ become our slave

Nollywood veteran, Kanayo O. Kanayo, an opportunity to define a healthy marriage while adjudicating on the issues of in-laws’ interference in the marriages of his neighbours.

The fresh episode features Nollywood star, Kenneth Okonkwo (Chijioke in the episode) and a youth influencer, Dominic Elujiofo, aka Jay Kolo, who invented the alingo dance steps in the nation’s music industry.

The regulars, such as Olaniyi (Yomi Fash-Lanso) and Etuk (Imeh Bishop), also feature in the new episode.

The episode will provide answers to some questions, such as what spouses can do about depressing demands from inlaws and whether there is any merit in a spouse seeking to please in-laws at the expense of family peace.

The new episode of Professor Johnbull will air on Tuesday at 8.30 p.m. on NTA Network, NTA International on DSTV Channel 251 and NTA on StarTimes on Tuesday with a repeat broadcast on the same channels on Friday also at 8.30 p.m.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 13, 2017

SUNDAYSPORTS

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

Britain Win 4x100m Gold as Bolt Pulls Fails to Finish Final Race

G

reat Britain’s men claimed a stunning 4x100m relay gold at the World Championships as Usain Bolt pulled up injured in his final ever race. Never before has a British team won a world sprint gold, but the quartet of CJ Ujah, Adam Gemili, Danny Talbot and Nethaneel MitchellBlake ran a near-perfect race to hold off the fancied US team, with Japan taking bronze as Bolt collapsed halfway down the home straight.

It was a horrible way for Bolt to end his career, his hamstring appearing to go as he attempted to chase down the two men in front of him.

A wheelchair was brought to his side before he was helped to his feet and managed to limp away, but it means he leaves his final championship with only a bronze from the individual 100m to show.

Britain’s men had looked smooth in qualification yesterday morning, and they then produced their best to shock the American favourites and light up the London Stadium. Ujah got out of the blocks brilliantly, his reaction time to the gun of 0.124 secs the best in the field, before Gemili - who only a few weeks ago at the national trials looked a shadow of the athlete who finished fourth over 200m in Rio - powered down the back straight.

With each baton change exemplary, Talbot backed up the personal best

Bolt (3rd from left) pulls up injured in final race

he ran in the individual 200m with a fine bend, before Mitchell-Blake held his nerve and form to keep 100m silver medallist Christian

Coleman at bay.

Not since GB’s team won gold at the Athens Olympics 13 years ago have they delivered in such glori-

ous style, the display a vindication for both the practice the team have put in and the closeness between the individual components

Premier League: Chelsea Stunned, City Win, Liverpool Held

S

am Vokes scored twice as Burnley torpedoed defending champions Chelsea 3-2 at Stamford Bridge yesterday in one of the most sensational opening-weekend results in English top-flight history. Chelsea had captain Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas sent off and Burnley took full advantage through Vokes’s brace and a superb Stephen Ward effort, with goals from Alvaro Morata and David Luiz coming in vain.

Leicester City lost 2-1 at Hull City on the first day last season, but given the unexpected nature of their title win, this was the biggest opening-day shock since Manchester United’s 3-1 loss at Aston Villa in 1995.

“It was a pity because our fight in the second half was very good,” said Chelsea manager Antonio Conte. “But our first half, we kept losing our heads.

After the red card we lost our heads, conceded two goals and then it’s very difficult to change the final result.”

Big-spending Manchester City won 2-0 at promoted Brighton and Hove Albion, while Huddersfield Town marked their top-flight return with a fine 3-0 win at Crystal Palace that sent them top of the table.

Burnley’s win, their first at Chelsea since 1971, further blackened the mood around Stamford Bridge after a close season during which Conte has grown frustrated by his club’s lack of transfer activity. Conte was without the injured Eden Hazard and out-of-favour striker Diego Costa, while £58 million signing Morata started on the bench.

Youth-team graduate Jeremie Boga made his debut, but was hauled off in the reshuffle that followed Cahill’s 14th-minute dismissal for a studs-up foul on Steven Defour. Ward doubled the visitors’ advantage in the 39th minute with a blistering left-foot strike from Jack Cork’s lofted pass and Vokes added a third before half-time, heading in Defour’s cross.

Half-time substitute Morata and Luiz reduced the arrears in the second half, either side of Fabregas’s 81st-minute dismissal for a second yellow card, but Burnley hung on for a famous victory.

“Did we expect this situation? No, if we’re hon-

est,” said Burnley manager Sean Dyche. “It was a fantastic three points and the referee, I just want to say, was fantastic today.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had some £150 million of new recruits on display at Brighton, but it took the pre-season favourites until the 70th minute to take the lead. David Silva fed Sergio Aguero to run through and beat goalkeeper Mathew Ryan and five minutes later Lewis Dunk headed Fernandinho’s cross into his own net.

“We controlled the counter-attacks and we didn’t concede one chance,” Guardiola told BBC Sport.

“I was very happy with the new players. I want to say thank you to the club. We have huge players with lots of talent. Big congratulations to all the people in Manchester City -- we are a strong club.”

Liverpool were denied a winning start as Miguel Britos claimed a contentious stoppage-time leveller to earn Watford a 3-3 draw at Vicarage Road.

Watford twice went in front through Stefano Okaka and Abdoulaye Doucoure, but Liverpool equalised each time via Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, who then teed up new boy Mohamed Salah to put the visitors 3-2 up.

In the third minute of injury time, a shot from Richarlison was pushed against the bar by Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and Britos, who appeared to be offside, nodded the ball over the line.

“The equaliser was offside. It’s obvious because

Messi and Ramos will renew rivalries today the linesman is on the line. He needs to see it,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

Frank de Boer made a losing start as Palace manager after a Joel Ward own goal and a Steve Mounie double earned Huddersfield a 3-0 win on their

return to the top flight after an absence of 45 years.

Mounie’s goals were the first repayments on his club-record £11.4 million transfer from Montpellier and sent the Yorkshire club to the top of the fledgling standings.

Italian Super Cup: Juve, Lazio Live on StarTimes

I

talian Scudetto winners, Juventus FC, will be the centre of attraction today as popular pay TV company, StarTimes, brings live coverage of the Italian Super Cup encounter with Lazio at the Stadia Olympico.

Being the 30th editions of the cup, the question on the lips of many Italian football fans is: Can Juventus win their fifth Super Cup in seven years or will the Simone Inzaghi team finally get

the better of them in this annual curtain-raiser?

Lazio qualified for this match because they were beaten by Juventus in last season’s Coppa Italia Final and they are no strangers to facing the Italian champions in this curtain-raiser.

This is the third time they will have to meet in the Super Cup in five years and Coach Massimiliano Allegri side seems ever prepared to have antidotes for Lazio.

Juventus last two Super Cup victories have

both come against Lazio. Lazio have won the Super Cup three times before in their history, the most recent victory was in 2009. This weekend encounter looks like a tough one for them especially against Juventus in top form right now.

Though Lazio finished fifth place in Serie A last season they were 21 points behind winners Juventus. However, experts believe Lazio is pretty potent in attack but didn’t have a defence to withstand stand much pressure.

85

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R Ëž ÍŻÍąË&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍŻÍľ

High Life

͎͎͜;ʹ͜͜ͳ;ͳͰ

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rich and famous

L-R: Chief Chris Oladipo Ogunbanjo; former Defence Minister, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd); his wife and celebrant, Daisy; Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, his wife Olufunso, during Daisy's 65th birthday party in Lagosâ&#x20AC;Ś recently mubo peters

When Daisy Danjuma Celebrated Her 65th Birthday

W

ith Senator Daisy Danjuma, wife of retired General,TY Danjuma, beauty subsists like eternal grace from above.

Therefore, her 65th birthday last weekend was star-studded. Fame met fortune and ďŹ&#x201A;amboyance as some of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prominent and powerful thronged the grand ball held last Sunday at the Eko Hotel, Lagos, to celebrate the former Senatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 65th birthday. And she didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just have a birthday party to show oďŹ&#x20AC; how wealthy her husband is; it was more a celebration of her dazzling

life, her dedication to friends and family and commitment to the uplift of humanity. And everywhere around the sprawling premises of the hotel, the pervasive smell of power and money hovered in the air as Femi Otedola, Folorunsho Alakija, Oba Otudeko, Nduka Obaigbena, Tony Elumelu and political heavyweights like Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, and former Governor Segun Osoba and his ageless wife, Derin, were all in attendance.

Not missing were the Oba of Lagos, HRM

Rilwan Akiolu, socialite extraordinaire, Terry Wayas, and the matriarchs of high society like Hajia Bola Shagaya, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa and Sisi Abbah Folawiyo among others.

Looking radiant and regal in her green ensemble, dainty Daisy was a sight as she danced with her husband. She swayed and shuďŹ&#x201E;ed eďŹ&#x20AC;ortlessly underlying her age and reminding guests of her enviable life. It was one party that allowed many of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money men to unwind and reconnect in an atmosphere of uninhibited revelry and merriment.

Save the Last Dance!!! Billionaires Femi Otedola, Folorunsho Alakija Dig It Out on the Dance Floor

B

illionaires are a rare sight. You know them but hardly ever see them at close quarters. It is understandable therefore that not a few Nigerians are still gawking and gasping at the viral video of colleagues in the Forbes billionairesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; class, Femi Otedola and Folorunsho Alakija, who were seen dancing like excited teenagers at their ďŹ rst prom.

Venue was the Eko Hotel where they had come to felicitate with Senator Daisy Danjuma on her 65th birthday. Yes, Alakija was the cynosure of all eyes as she slugged it out with the Forte Oil chairman.

And they were circled and cheered on by fellow billionaires that populated the party. Not for them, that moment, were the worries of a spasmodic economy or crashing prices of oil; both billionaires who are two of the biggest players in the oil sector danced away to the admiration and applause of all present.

Femi Otedola and Folorunsho Alakija dancing at Daisy Danjumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday

86

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ ͯͱ˜ Ͱͮͯ͵

It’s a Family Affair...As Bianca’s Sister, Lilian Onoh, Becomes Nigeria’s Ambassador to Namibia

F

or the influential Onoh family of Anambra, there is cause to celebrate again. About two years after Bianca Ojukwu was recalled as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, her immediate younger sister, the equally stunning Lilian Onoh has been named Nigeria’s Ambassador to Namibia. She was received in Windhoek, the Namibian capital by the President last Thursday.

Unbeknownst to many, the fourth daughter of former Anambra governor, Late C.C Onoh, is no new comer to diplomatic postings.

She had once served as the Ambassador to Jamaica. Growing up, Bianca and Lilian have always been

close. They are each other’s cheerleader and confidante.

When Bianca, then a beauty queen, decided to marry her father’s friend, the late warlord, Dim OdumegwuOjukwu, Lilian, sources said, was one of her earliest converts.

When the marriage was consecrated, the new ambassador played a key role.

She was also there when Ojukwu died, offering her beloved sister her shoulders to cry on. Since her exit from public office, the former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria has however kept a low profile. Even when she clocked 50 August 5th, she did not roll out the drums. Certainly, she would be on the sidelines cheering Lilian on.

Oba Enitan Ogunwusi

WOULD OONI OF IFE SUCCUMB TO PRESSURE TO TAKE A NEW WIFE? WHY OLORI WURAOLA RAN TO A FORMER PRESIDENT FOR QUICK INTERVENTION Forget the onomatopoeia, monarchy and polygamy are like two peas in a pod; they, almost always, go together. When the monarch in question now happens to be a very young man, yet, gregarious and genial, the pressure to have as many wives to fill the rooms in the palace becomes even more overbearing.

This, sources close to the youthful Oba Enitan Ogunwusi,

the Ooni of Ife, say, is the major battle he is being confronted with. And those who are mounting the pressure do have good grounds for doing so. In his 40s, the tall, dark and handsome monarch has always been a hit with women on account of his smouldering good looks and deep pocket even long before he was enthroned. Women now worship the ground he treads.

Though married to beautiful Olori Wuraola, the pressure to get the Ooni, a jolly good man, to marry another wife is predicated on is impressionable age, his level of power, influence and street cred attracting beautiful females to him.

There are rumours that surreptitious moves are being made to get the respectable king to bring in more women into his multi-million naira palace in order to shield him from becoming a subject of wild speculations and avert a situation that can rubbish the traditional institution he represents.

In Africa, especially in this part, kings enjoy massive royal influence so much that if they chose to teem their palaces with as many women as they so wish, they are not expected to be questioned by any human, rather, they should be given all the support to make their wishes come to fruition; this overriding influence is so pronounced in the South West that the Yorubas call kings ‘Kabiyesi,’ which literally translates to ‘he whose actions cannot be questioned. But his beautiful wife is not having any of these traditional postulations.

On arrival from a trip recently, Olori Wuraola was said to have scurried to the home of a former

Lilian Onoh

President to intervene and probably advise her husband not to be influenced to get another wife, after all their marriage is just a year and few months old.

Olori Wuraola is, no doubt, still basking in the stratospheric adulation that comes with being the apple of the Ooni’s eyes.

Pray, who wouldn’t? According to a source, so besotted with Olori Wuraola is the Ooni that he doesn’t let her out of his sight for too long else he would be lovelorn and forlorn. Whether the former President would intervene or the Ooni succumbs to taking another wife remains to be seen.

PREPARATIONS PEAK FOR NEW YORK LEG OF FORMER GOVERNOR NIYI ADEBAYO SON’S WEDDING Preparations have peaked in the home of Otunba Niyi Adebayo and his beautiful wife, Erelu Angela, for the New York City leg of the wedding of their lawyer-son, Richard, and his wife, Rennie Young.

About three weeks from now, precisely September 3, the influential couple would ferry their wealthy friends and associates to the Big Apple, that boisterous and bubbling American city that never sleeps.

There, the Adebayos, in the cheery and convivial presence of Nigeria’s rich and famous, would formally welcome their daughter-in-law. And the guests know what to expect anyway.

Last Saturday, the first leg of the wedding ceremony held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, as the former first family in Ekiti State hosted high society to a jaw-dropping ceremony in a way only few

families know how to. Their friends trooped out in their fineries the same way they did when they buried their patriarch, the former Governor of the old Western Region, Major General Adeyinka Adebayo, in May. For the new couple, it was a day to record and recollect with relish. As they walked down the aisle, hand-in-hand, whispering into each other’s ears and giggling and shuffling, the couple must have been unable to keep up with the number of influential Nigerians that came to witness them take the bold steps into matrimony. The New York leg promises to be even more glamorous.

Richard Adebayo

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Ë&#x153; Ëž AUGUST 13, 2017

HIGHLIFE A WILD GOOSE CHASE? IFEANYI UBA SETS TO CONTEST FOR ANAMBRA GOVERNORSHIP TICKET

Ifeanyi Ubah

Ambition in a private man is a vice but in a prince, a virtue.

Were oil mogul, Ifeanyi Ubah, a crown prince of some political monarch, he would probably be the governor of Anambra State today. But he isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, and that makes all the difference in his bid. Still smarting from a twoweek detention he was clamped into for allegedly tampering with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation N11billion worth of petrol kept in his tank farm and having to refund N2billion out of the money, the controversial businessman has tossed his hat into the ring for the Anambra governorship ticket of the Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Democratic Party once again. It is not the first time the founder of Capital Oil and Gas would be contesting for the governorship ticket. He did it in 2014. And now that the oil and gas industry is no longer what it used to be, sources close to him are wondering how he intends to fund the election considering again the many strong forces he has to contend with and, importantly, the debt overhang. Early last week, the caretaker committee of the party named the seven aspirants that had obtained the partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nomination and expression of interest forms for the election scheduled for November 28.

They include former Minister of Aviation, Senator Stella Oduah, former Miss Nigeria and former member of House of Representatives, Lynda Ikpeazu, Alex Obiogolu, Oseloka Obaze, Okechukwu Emeka and Ubah.

The rambunctious, self-styled billionaire however seems unfazed by the formidable opposition as he continues to tour the length and breadth of Anambra State in his quest.

DEATH BE THY NOT PROUDâ&#x20AC;Ś AS BANK TAKES OVER LATE FLORENCE SERIKIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ASSETS The fluid had hardly dried off the deceased body of Florence Seriki, Founder Of Omatek Computers, when the Bank of Industry to which she was reportedly hugely indebted, moved in, confiscating her assets. Mrs Seriki had battled pancreatic cancer till her last days and eventually succumbed

When Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Turned Prayer Warrior in Banana Islandâ&#x20AC;Ś Loathe or love him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo remains an enigma. Beyond his chequered military background, his tough-talking, brash, confrontational ways, there is a prayerful, God-fearing side that not many know about. A devout Baptist who once said his only mission after being freed from prison in 1997 was just to spread the gospel and concentrate on his farms. Fate, however, rewrote the script of his life by thrusting him to the presidency.

But that ecclesiastical part of him remains very much alive.

And he has even authored a number of Christian books. Some select Nigerians experienced this part of him last weekend when his younger cousin, Princess Abiodun Omotade, threw open the doors of her Banana Island home to celebrate her 55th birthday. When Baba was told to pray, he started off typically by cracking jokes in his guttural voice before launching into a robust praying session that lasted minutes leaving many in awe of his mastery of the bible. The guests forgot that just last January, Baba bagged a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in Christian Theology from the National Open University of Nigeria. And he has said he is not done yet as a PhD in the same discipline is within sight.

A veteran socialite, the celebrant is the widow of Deji Omotade, ex-permanent secretary in the

Olusegun Obasanjo

Federal Ministry of Industries and Federal Capital Territory who died in the ill-fated Bellview Air crash of October 2005. In her early 40s when she lost her husband, the Abeokuta, Ogun State princess was down but not out. She knew she could not mourn for too long as her husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estate and businesses needed her physical supervision. Connected and branch in Singapore later. And the business grew so much that it was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Beneath her exterior of prosperity however laid the pains of her ailment and the pangs of loans she took to expand her business. With her demise, the banks have taken over her most valuable earthly possessions.

Florence Seriki

in March. Sadly, some of the assets she laboured for all her life have now been confiscated by the BOI as Omatek Computers which she founded about 20 years ago could no longer discharge its outstanding indebtedness to the bank. Her life was an endless struggle. A chemical engineering graduating of the Obafemi Awolowo University, she started out as a vendor of computer parts before setting up Omatek Ventures in 1987, as a local computer assembling plant in Lagos. In 1993, she launched the Omatek brand of computers. She later expanded the business by opening a branch of Omatek in Ghana and another

ABOUT NASIRU DANUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WONDROUS WEDDING...

Three months after the turbaning ceremony of Nasiru Danu, an Abujabased businessman and founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the first Dan Amana Dutse, guests have not stopped ululating and gushing about how he gave everybody both the royals and peasant presents the time of their life. Held in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, the young multimillionaire turned the Royal Golf Course in Dutse into a sprawling cabaret. Some of the guests at the ceremony were the Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Minister of Aviation, Rotimi Amaechi and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi. That was in May. One wonders for how long those who attended his wedding last weekend in Abuja would talk about the sheer display of opulence and premium hospitality. Nasiru, whose company, Casiva Limited, is into construction, procurement, logistics, security

enterprising, Princess Omotade has always been a regular face in the corridors of power, an access she utilised optimally o grow her businesses which span oil and gas, manufacturing and banking.

Though a private affair, the 55th birthday party was very well attended. Even Baba did not leave without dancing with a couple of the more than eager guests. services, as well as an active player in the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry, got married to his heartthrob, Amne Ken Salem, and made the federal capital territory to burst at the seams. All the power brokers in Abuja set everything aside to celebrate with Nasiru. Though in his early 40s, the polo buff is an adopted son of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He was the number two-man in the Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation. Thus, favour seekers and oil moguls, politicians and businessmen stormed his wedding to show solidarity and to usher him into the gentlemenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s club.

Nasiru Danu

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Sunday August 13, 2017

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Price: N400

MISSILE FG to Anti Buhari Protesters “On the issue of whether the President should resign or disclose or whatever, I think they are stepping outside the laws of this country; anyone conversant with the constitution of this country will have noticed or seen that Mr President has complied 100 per cent with the requirements of the constitution of this country.” – The federal government telling protesters calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently on medical vacation in London, to resume work or resign, that they are acting outside the laws of Nigeria.

SIMONKOLAWOLE SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE!

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

If Nigeria Finally Breaks up…

I

hate divorce. I have been using an Airtel mobile line since 2001 when GSM services were launched in Nigeria. And even though they have changed their name from the original Econet to Vodacom (for about five minutes) to Vmobile to Celtel to Zain and finally to Airtel, I did not consider “porting” for one day. In fact, I still have my original Econet SIM card in my locker. I reluctantly changed it when I bought a smart phone and needed all this nano stuff.

I have suffered a lot of discomfort with my 0802 in 16 years — poor network, dropped call, overbilling, failed roaming and slow data.

But through it all, I remained committed to my choice. Such is my attachment to relationships.

Let me now contradict myself. Recently, I walked into a branch of Access Bank Plc to close my account. As I completed the formalities, left the banking hall and the door closed itself behind me, I was broken-hearted. I had been banking with them since 2004. I used to love the bank and their services so much that I became an unpaid marketer. But after struggling in the last one year to resolve issues on my account without luck, I painfully told myself divorce was inevitable. I believed I had done all within my power and, for my sanity, I needed to move on. And so it is for many relationships — they collapse because divorce is about the only option left.

So here you have my dilemma: if indeed I hate divorce, why did I end my 13-yearold relationship with the bank? Why am I enduring one relationship and discarding the other? Double standards? Hypocrisy? These two experiences will come handy in today’s discussion, which is on Nigeria’s strained nationhood. Many of my friends have often challenged me — and even mocked me — over my opinion that Nigeria can work and that we should remain one. They say that I’m being naïve, that I’m playing to the gallery, that I’m trying to be “politically correct”. I doubt if these categorisations describe me well. I write out of personal conviction. And, well, I hate divorce.

There are ongoing calls to dismantle the Nigerian federation, ongoing for decades actually. These calls are presented in different formats and with different motives. There are those who genuinely believe that for Nigeria to make progress, it needs to balkanise. I have come across people who argue sincerely that Nigerians don’t belong together and our differences are too sharp for us to forge a workable nationhood. But there are also those making these calls purely for political gain — not out of any authentic conviction. I’m also super convinced that some opportunists are riding on the back of these agitations to fight back at President Muhammadu Buhari.

My argument against balkanisation, or divorce, is based on my relationship with Airtel. Even though things get bad at times, I have not ported to another network because I am not sure I will be better off. Telecom operators in Nigeria face similar challenges: high capital replacement costs, poor power supply, unnecessary expenditure on infrastructure, lack of security for equipment and facilities, persistent fibre cuts, multiple taxation, inability to raise tariffs to defray increasing costs, and so on. All these hamper their operations. Changing from one network to another guarantees nothing.

President Muhammadu Buhari I would rather stick with the devil I know than the angel I don’t know.

The same thing applies to Nigeria. Most Nigerians suffer from the same challenges: no water, no power, no security, as well as inept and corrupt leadership, starting from our local government areas. But we have been programmed to think our problem is someone from another part of the country — hence the campaign for divorce. I have randomly asked ordinary Nigerians from all “tribes and tongues” about their most urgent needs and their answers are so similar. They all complain about bad roads, bad schools, bad medical care, bad electricity supply, bad everything!

People complain about their council chairmen as much as they complain about their governors.

I do not know of any state in Nigeria where the children of a governor or a minister attend public primary and secondary schools. I do not know of any governor that receives treatment from a primary health care centre closest to their mansion. North or south, Yoruba or Fulani, Muslim or Christian! The leaders take good care of themselves. In the national assembly, the lawmakers are sharing money and cars like kolanuts — and I am yet to hear that a Muslim senator or a Christian house member rejected his own. What this tells me is that it is not one part of the country or one religion that is the problem — it is the human beings we call leaders. How does divorce resolve this?

There seems to be an assumption, or a settled notion, that the moment we break up, the people formerly known as Nigerians will, like magic, start enjoying abundant flow of water, 24/7 security, excellent primary and secondary education, great medical care, unspeakable infrastructural development and all that make human beings feel like human beings. I wish I could share in this optimism. There seems to be this prevalent logic that balkanisation is the magic formula to the inept and corrupt leadership pillaging Nigeria at every level. I wish I were this optimistic. The Nigeria I see is under attack by political vultures, regardless of their ethnic and religious identities.

Most Nigerian politicians, I dare say, are genetically and endemically of the similar quality. If Nigeria finally breaks up and we are still ruled by the same hardened criminals

who rejoice in oppression — their greed and wickedness undiluted — the gory tale of the latter house will be worse than the former.

It will only lead to the restructuring of our suffering. It will only lead to the multiplication of the sorrows of our people. I know many people who have ported from one mobile network to another only to regret it shortly thereafter. You would hear them say: “This one is even worse!” Just as the telcos are alike, so are our problems alike across the 36 states and 774 LGAs. It was very easy for me to close my account with one bank because I knew I could enjoy better services elsewhere. This is no counter factual. I have accounts with other banks and I have been enjoying better services, so I was not leaving the known for the unknown.

Rather, I was moving from a known bad service to a known better service. I had tasted and seen before taking my decision. If I have this assurance with balkanisation, if I have tasted another part of Nigeria and I am sure things can only get better when we break up, I will certainly stop being naïve, stop playing to the gallery, and stop trying to be politically correct. I will wake up and smell the Utopia.

I will like to say something though. Some things happen in this country that get me angry and make feel maybe balkanisation is the way out. I hate it when some people think they own the country and their wishes must always prevail. At such times, thoughts of balkanisation cross my mind. But then I realise that as it is in Abuja, so it is in the states and local governments. There is hardly any part of Nigeria where some people don’t behave arrogantly and leave others feeling marginalised. My fear then is that the more you break up Nigeria, the more you magnify local differences and awaken latent conflicts.

What was not a big issue before sudden erupts and gets a life of its own.

I have many examples to cite. In Oyo state, Oke Ogun are complaining about being relegated in the power equation. In Ogun state, the Ijebu want their own state. In Lagos, the Awori have been grumbling. Funny enough, someone once told me that when Awo was premier of the Western Region, he was busy developing Ibadan with cocoa revenue from Ondo! For years, Nsukka people complained of marginalisation in Enugu state, the same with Ukwa/Ngwa people in Abia state. In core northern states, Christians complain that they are denied state sponsorship of pilgrimage as well as appointments and land to build churches. Balkanisation hardly eradicates conflicts.

For those who genuinely believe breaking up Nigeria will suddenly lead to competent and patriotic leadership, where is the evidence?

What is fuelling this ecstasy? As I had no hesitation in closing my bank account because I knew I was moving to a better place, I will also have no hesitation in changing camps if better leadership is assured in a balkanised Nigeria. No sane human being will want to live in a country full of rancour and tension if he has the assurance of living in peace and prosperity in another. But what is that assurance? And why should divorce always be the first option in marital conflict? What is the guarantee that your next spouse will be better than the current one?

And Four Other Things…

LIKE BBOG… When the police fired teargas at a peaceful rally by the “Return or Resign” agitators in Abuja on Wednesday, I said to myself once again: “Nothing ever changes.” This was the same attitude the last administration had towards the Bring Back Our Girls agitators in 2014 — something I believe did irreparable damage to President Goodluck Jonathan.

When will the police realise we live in a democracy and every citizen has the right to protest and be protected? If some citizens are calling on President Buhari to return to Nigeria or resign, it’s their right. I would advise the police to focus more on kidnappers and armed robbers and leave the protesters alone.

Change.

UNHEALTHY POLITICS I recently got a WhatsApp message asking us to imagine what would have happened if it was President Jonathan, and not President Buhari, that was out of the country for over two months for medical purposes. The writer asked us to imagine how activists and APC in particular would have organised media wars and public protests. While I agree with the writer, I would hasten to say that this was why I criticised the way President Yar’Adua was being ridiculed when he fell terminally ill in 2010. I still insist that sickness should not be politicised. I insist that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has all the presidential powers.

Nobody can stop him from exercising them.

Period.

OZUBULU MASSACRE What is Nigeria turning into? Sunday last week, a gunman invaded the morning mass at St. Philip’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Anambra state, and killed 12 people. The story is that he was on a reprisal mission to take out one “Bishop”, allegedly a drug dealer based in South Africa who was said to have murdered one “Giniyee” reportedly for double-crossing him in a drug deal. Of course, the predictable politicised narrative that Buhari’s “jihadi army” (Boko Haram) carried out the attack was already trending on social media before the true story finally emerged. The saddest thing for me is the ease with which criminals operate in this society. We are losing it. Scary.

ADIEU, MUSTAPHA In May, I exchanged emails with Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha, an associate professor of African Politics at Oxford University, UK, on my upcoming book. I sent him a synopsis containing my core arguments. He promptly replied, drawing my attention to certain developments that would help my work.

He ended his email with: “I think the core arguments need to be sharpened more.” In another mail, he pointed my attention to several reference materials that could be of help. It was a week after our exchange that I learnt he was battling with stomach cancer. On Tuesday, August 8, he died. What a loss. Such a deep intellectual and fantastic human being!

What a loss. What a loss. Painful.

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