Wednesday 14th March 2018

With Earnings of N745bn, Assets of N5.6tn, Zenith Asserts Status as Largest Tier 1 Bank Goddy Egene Zenith Bank Plc on Monday released its full year 2017 results with numbers that clearly affirmed its position as the largest Tier-1 bank in the country.

The bank’s audited

accounts, presented to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed that its gross earnings rose by 47 per cent from N508 billion in 2016 to N745.19 billion in 2017.

The results further revealed that Zenith’s profit before tax (PBT) and profit after tax (PAT)

witnessed an impressive growth of 30 per cent and 37 per cent year-on-year respectively, to N203.46 billion and N177.93 billion, up from NN156.75 billion and N129.7 billion respectively.

Zenith Bank also demonstrated its ability to take

the right actions and make the right choices in its assets and liability management strategies culminating in a 23 per cent increase in interest income from N384.6 billion in 2016 to N474.6 billion for the year ending December 31, 2017.

Its audited results also

showed that the bank posted an asset base of N5.6 trillion, an increase of 18 per cent over the N4.74 trillion recorded for the same period in 2016.

A careful analysis of the results showed that the bank was able to strategically switch assets in favour of high

yielding asset classes and was also able to optimally price its assets and liabilities in a high yield environment.

Accordingly, non-interest income also jumped by 119 per cent from N123.4 billion Continued on page 10

Shell, Eni Explain Malabu Oil Block Acquisition to US Authorities… Page 49 Wednesday 14 March, 2018 Vol 23. No 8364. Price: N250

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2019 Polls Take Centre Stage, Buhari Vetoes Electoral Act Amendment N’Assembly moves to override veto Legislature has no business changing order of polls, insists Senator Adamu Senate makes concession, to screen CBN D’Governors, MPC nominees Tobi Soniyi in Lagos, Damilola Oyedele and James Emejo in Abuja With an eye on the 2019 elections, President Muhammadu Buhari has communicated his decision to the National Assembly to

withhold his assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill, 2018, which is proposing a change to the sequencing of elections in the country.

Buhari conveyed his decision to veto the bill in separate letters addressed to Senate Continued on page 10

Another 25 Persons Killed in Fresh Attack on Plateau Village House to probe killings, begins investigation of Dapchi abduction Seriki Adinoyi in Jos and James Emejo in Abuja There appears to be no let up in the gruesome bloodletting in the Benue-Plateau region in North-central Nigeria, as yet another 25 persons were reportedly killed in the wee hours of yesterday in an attack on Dundu village in the Kwal District of Bassa

Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Confirming the attack, the President of Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Hon. Sunday Abdu, said the suspected Fulani herdsmen swooped on the community last night and raided it for hours, leaving Continued on page 10

PAT ON THE BACK FOR RICE FARMERS… Trump Sacks Tillerson PRESIDENTIAL L-R: President Muhammadu Buhari; Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu; President, Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Abubakar; and Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru, when the association met with the president at the After Africa Visit… Page 47 Mohammed the State House, Abuja… yesterday godwin omoigui

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PAGE TEN 2 0 1 9 P OLLS TAKE CENT R E STAGE, BU H AR I VETOE S EL ECTOR AL ACT AM E N D M E N T President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, following which both leaders of the National Assembly read the letter at their respective plenaries yesterday.

But as the news made the rounds of the president’s veto, lawmakers in both chambers immediately set in motion plans to override the veto.

A two-third vote of the National Assembly will be required to override the president’s veto.

Should two-thirds of the legislature vote in favour of the amendment bill, it will become law and binding on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which has the responsibility of determining timetables for elections in the country.

However, it was not all bad news for the executive arm of government, as the Senate yesterday made a concession to suspend the consideration

of nominees of the president, as it resolved to screen the deputy governors-designate and members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The senate said it decided to make the concession in order to ensure that the MPC forms the required quorum at its next meeting scheduled for March 19 and 20, having considered the importance of the body to the national economy.

In his letter to withhold his assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Buhari informed the legislature that the amendment to Section 25 of the Principal Act, which changes the order of general elections, might infringe on the discretion of INEC to organise and supervise elections.

Section 25 of the Principal Act was amended and substituted with a new Section 25(1) which provides that the elections shall be held in the following order: (a) National Assembly elections

(b) State Houses of Assembly and Governorship elections (c) Presidential election.

The amendment is expected to whittle down the bandwagon effect of the presidential election on other elections.

THISAY had exclusively reported that the amendment did not go down well with the presidency, as there were concerns that the amendment was targeted at weakening Buhari at the 2019 polls.

The amendment has also caused discomfort at INEC, as the electoral body had already scheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for February 16, 2019 while the state assemblies and governorship elections had been slated for March 2, 2019.

Accordingly, Buhari, in his letter dated March 8, 2018, said: “Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the Senate, my decision, on

3rd March 2018, to decline Presidential Assent to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly. “Some of my reasons include the following: the amendment to the sequence of elections in Section 25 of the Principal Act, may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission to organise, undertake and supervise elections provided in Section 15(A) of the third statue to the Constitution; “The amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates, unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process; and “The amendment to Section 152(3)-(5) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to

legislate over local government elections.�

But THISDAY gathered that several lawmakers were already aware of the presidential veto by the early hours of yesterday, and commenced in earnest to ensure that they get the necessary votes to override the veto.

At a 30-minute closed-door session of the senate before plenary, it was learnt that the senators discussed their next line of action, after Saraki informed them of the letter notifying the Senate of the veto.

The senators resolved at the meeting to get further legal advise on the bill, while also individually perusing the amendments with more thoroughness.

The arrowheads of the push to override the bill are believed to be loyal to Saraki and are working along party lines to garner more support.

A source disclosed that there are at least 65 senators

comprising 43 from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 22 from the ruling All Progressives Congresss (APC), who are ready to vote to override Buhari’s veto.

The arrowheads, the source explained, are, however not leaving anything to chance and are lobbying to get more support from among the president’s loyalists in the Senate, as 73 senators will be needed in the upper legislative chamber to override the veto. “In line with Section 58(5) of the 1999 Constitution, we need 73 votes of our 109 seats here. We are assured with PDP members, but you know we have many in our party (APC) that are yet to make up their minds. “So we are trying to appeal to those we know are sympathetic to this issue from within the APC also. We need to work to Continued on page 47

W I T H EARNINGS OF N 74 5 BN , ASSET S OF N 5.6 T N , ZEN I T H ASSERT S STAT U S AS L A RG E ST TI E R 1 BA N K as at December 2016 to N270.6 billion driven by the bank’s ability to take advantage of its strong foreign currency liquidity to generate income.

Commenting on the results, market analysts said this was a show of resilience and demonstration of the ability of the bank to innovate and

create impressive value from the resources available to it. “We note further that Zenith achieved this excellent financial performance, despite adopting a very conservative approach to recognising potential losses in its risk asset portfolio,� one analyst said.

Zenith Bank has continued

to maintain a solid and highquality capital position with a capital adequacy ratio at 27 per cent, well above the statutory requirement of 15 per cent, effectively providing room for further growth and strong and consistent dividend payout.

The bank has also maintained an excellent liquidity position

with a liquidity ratio of 70 per cent, remaining strong and well above the regulatory requirement of 30 per cent.

Consistent with this performance and in recognition of its track record of consistent performance, the bank was recently honoured with The Bank of the Year Award by

BusinessDay and Best Bank in Customer Service in a KPMG Survey.

Recognition has also come the way of the bank from outside the shores of Nigeria, as it was recently recognised as the Best Corporate Governance Bank in Nigeria by The World Finance for the fifth time, just as Ethical

Boardroom, a European based boardroom watchdog, reaffirmed this recognition by naming Zenith the Best Bank in Corporate Governance in 2017.

In similar fashion, The Banker Magazine ranked Zenith Bank as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in 2017.

by Hon. Solomon Bulus (PDP, Plateau) on the urgent need to arrest the wanton incessant killing/attacks in Bokkos Local Government Area, while the motion calling on NEMA to provide relief materials to BassaKwomu and Ebira People of Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi was sponsored by Hon. Benjamin Ikani Okolo (APC, Kogi).

Bulus said the wanton destruction of innocent lives and property as perpetrated by herdsmen across the country was barbaric, inhuman, disgraceful and unacceptable.

According to him, “Herdsmen’s attacks on innocent citizens have remained a recurrent decimal. Regrettably, this has been treated with kid’s gloves by the authorities concerned. “I am worried that if such heinous acts are allowed unabated, they may escalate and could lead to a total collapse of peace and security in the areas.�

He said there had been little or no deliberate measures taken to either stop further attacks or bring the perpetrators of the mayhem to book.

Okolo, in his motion, said government had not done much to ameliorate the situation that has resulted in confusion, fear, frustration and agony, with a view to averting a recurrence of the incident in the Kogi communities.

He further recalled that on November 28 2016, a violent crisis erupted at Kpanche in the Ozongolo ward in Bassa Kwomu district of the local government area, which disrupted the peace and harmony between the two districts and consequently led to destruction of lives and property.

Having heard their motions, the House resolved to probe the attacks and destructions of lives and property in the two local government areas in Plateau and Kogi States.

Also, yesterday, the chairman

of the House ad-hoc committee mandated to investigate the abduction of 110 schoolgirls

by Boko Haram terrorists from a secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe State, Hon. Buba Yusuf Yakub said his committee would visit Dapchi and interact with stakeholders in the town.

He said during a briefing: “We shall meet with the state governor, parents of the abducted school girls, military commanders and other security personnel in the area.�

Among other things, he said the committee would also seek to determine the interface between the top military commanders and the state government.

Yakub said the committee will undertake the assignment with the highest sense of responsibility, adding that the investigation will determine the level of hot pursuit and the blockades set up by the Nigerian Army and Air Force immediately after the abduction, as well as examine ongoing rescue efforts.

He said no stone will be left unturned in the exercise, noting that the committee will apportion blame where necessary at the end of its investigation.

A N OTH ER 2 5 PER SONS KILLED IN FR E SH AT TAC K ON PL AT EAU VI L L AGE at least 25 persons dead in the aftermath.

While the 25 were being buried in a mass grave in the village, Abdu said the search for bodies was still ongoing since some of the residents who tried to escape the bloody raid were killed in the surrounding bushes and may not have been discovered yet.

Also confirming the killings, the state Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), Mr Tyopev Terna, placed the death toll from the latest attack at 25, adding that his men were drafted to the village to take charge of the situation.

But the spokesman of the military Special Task Force (STF) on Security in the state, Major Umar had initially said eight persons were shot at, adding that seven died on the spot while the eighth victim who was rushed to the hospital eventually died, bringing the fatalities to eight.

Umar, however, called back yesterday to say that the death toll had risen from eight to 21.

He also said that when the STF received a distress call concerning the attack, they quickly drafted soldiers to rescue the villagers, but the assailants had fled before they got there.

He added that the Dundu terrain was a very difficult one, spanning over 11 kilometres from the village.

Rev. Jerry Datim, a local cleric who conducted the mass burial, said the bodies brought for burial were 25, and lamented that the state government had abandoned the villagers to their fate.

He was critical of the state governor, Simon Lalong, saying that while the latter was making merry with President Muhammadu Buhari during the president’s visit, suspected Fulani raiders were killing more people in the villages.

He called on the state government to stop giving false reports on the existing peace in the state when the reverse

was the case.

Meanwhile, a mass burial for about 10 other persons who were recently slain in Miango village had been slated for yesterday before the latest killings. Miango is a stone throw from Dundu.

At the burial in Miango, Abdu, who was grief-stricken, lamented that no one had come to the villagers’ aid.

He said: “In continuation of their avowed determination to eliminate the Irigwe race, the Fulani herdsmen have continuously unleashed mayhem on communities, killing, maiming, burning, and destroying farmlands. “Since January this year, we have picked the corpses of our loved ones, some burnt beyond recognition from night attacks by militia Fulani herdsmen; some killed in their homes, some on their farms, and others on their way home from places of leisure or business.�

Abdu said the murders, which have continued unhindered, have left in their wake sorrow, tears and despair in Irigwe land.

He said it has also left the people homeless and hopeless, as they leave in droves daily to seek refuge in Jos, the state capital, and its environs.

He went on to excoriate Lalong, the Plateau State Government and other stakeholders for downplaying the menace of herdsmen in the state. “We have cried to our security agencies to rise to the occasion, but it will interest you to know that some of the attacks occurred just a few meters from security checkpoints, but the soldiers would rather stay glued to these checkpoints even with distress calls and offer of intelligence by our people. “We have noted with dismay certain releases from custody and comments in the mainstream and social media by the Miyetti Allah group, and we have had cause to debunk some of them

as outright lies to justify an orgy of killings by their militia. “Our situation and the seeming lacklustre pro-activeness on the part of the federal government to arrest the menace may have been compounded by the frequent claims by the Plateau State Government that peace has returned to the state. “This stance of government officials is indeed an insult on the innocent rural dwellers who have not known sleep in a long time, nor been able to carry out their farming activities. “This propaganda was reiterated glaringly during the recent presidential visit when Plateau State should have used the long-awaited visit to tell the president the true situation of things, but our leaders have sold us out by claiming that Plateau is at peace. “What responsible government turns its back on its people as they face daily attacks? What do they want to achieve by taking such a wicked stance? “Even worse was the comment by the CAN chairman during the guided presidential town hall meeting where instead of telling the president how the church was losing its population daily to the senseless attacks by the Fulani herdsmen, he chose to eulogise the state government for the payment of salaries which has made the church richer,� he said.

But in reaction to the incessant killings in the state, the governor yesterday sacked the Chairman of the Management Committee of Bokkos Local Government Area of the state over the incessant killings in his locality, reported the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Lalong made this known through a letter sent to the state House of Assembly and was read at plenary by its Speaker, Mr. Peter Azi. Angyol was one of 16 other persons appointed by the governor in July 2017 to

manage the affairs of the 17 local governments areas in Plateau State.

The local council Angyol headed as well as neighbouring Bassa were both attacked by suspected herdsmen at the weekend, a few days after Buhari visited the state. The attacks led to the deaths of 32 persons. “Following certain unpleasant developments in the management of Bokkos Local Government Council, I wish to seek approval for the removal of Mr. Simon Angyol as the Management Committee Chairman of the Council. “I also wish to seek your approval to appoint Mr. Tamai Simon as the new Management Committee Chairman of the Council,� Lalong stated in his letter to the Plateau assembly.

Members of the assembly, in a voice vote, approved the removal of Angyol and the subsequent appointment of Simon.

House to Probe Killings Also reacting to the killings in the state, the House of Representatives yesterday passed a motion setting up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the killings and attacks in Bokkos Local Government, as well as the destruction of property in a Kogi ethnic crisis.

The lower chamber also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to embark on an on-the-spot assessment to ascertain the level of destruction and provide relief materials to the people of Bokkos and the Bassa-Kwomu and Ebira communities of Bassa Council in Kogi State.

The lawmakers also urged the federal government to direct all the relevant security agencies to deploy men to the Bokkos area to forestall a breakdown of law and order.

The resolution of the House followed a motion sponsored

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COMMENT

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

HOW JOBS, STRONGER ECONOMY CAN UNITE NIGERIANS To build a united nation, we must address the issues which lead to insecurity at their roots, writes Atiku Abubakar

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ver the last few months, our nation has had to reopen a fresh chapter in the conversation on internal security, peace and unity in the wake of renewed violence in the North Central and North East of our country. These sad episodes have not only led to questions by Nigerians (and Nigerians as a whole) around the effectiveness of our security structure, but also questions about the integrity of Nigeria’s unity. Unity is not something we just have because we are Nigerians, or because someone like me or any other weighs in asking Nigerians to be united. Unity is something we must deliberately work for. In order to unite Nigeria, me must consciously define the fundamentals of our nationhood, to ensure everyone feels safe, secure and carried along.

To build a truly united nation, we must address the issues which lead to insecurity at their roots. We must pay more than lip service to “poverty alleviation�, and truly get Nigerians working again. A person who has a job has less time for ethnic bickering.

Let truth be told, the people in the upper classes of our country rarely engage with each other with ethnicity in mind. When people have food to eat, they are less suspicious of each other and begin to focus on creating value. People who have food to eat and good homes to live in do not worry about the ethnicity of their business partners or co-workers.

They are more worried about what value their business partners bring, rather than where those partners come from.

There is this joke which I get to hear often – when a small car hits another small car, the drivers come out to shout, because they don’t know which of them has money to fix the damage, but when two big cars hit themselves, the big men come out, shake hands and exchange cards. As people get better quality of life, they begin to place more value on life and wellbeing of others. This obviously means that if our people have better lives all-round, there will be fewer suspicion and confrontations between groups of people.

Now let me share a bit of experience with building unity. I come from Adamawa State, made up of almost an equal number of Christians and Muslims, Fulani and disparate peoples collectively called Chamba. In many ways, Adamawa is like Nigeria. I grew up as a Fulani boy. My grandmother and uncle were tradespeople, so it was not uncommon to have a lot of Christians and people of different ethnicities and religions in our home. Our neighbours were Christian and Muslim, so I grew up really not exposed to tribalism until I went to secondary school. There were two sociopolitical organisations then, one for Chamba people and the other for Fulani. I was a popular student, so was promptly invited to join the Fulani organisation.

But privately I had been speaking with both my Fulani and Chamba friends about unifying both organisations before the invitation came, so it was difficult for me to go and join the Fulani organisation. I publicly refused to join the organisation, and instead worked with both sides to create the Adamawa Students Union, an umbrella union which collapsed both the Chamba and Fulani organisations into one.

This was the inspiration which would later lead to the creation of the Adamawa Peace Initiative, a non-governmental organisation which brings together all the stakeholders in our state to work for peaceful coexistence. The API brings together scholars, clerics, youth, market women, businesspeople (many of whom are of Igbo extraction),

UNITY IS SOMETHING WE MUST DELIBERATELY WORK FOR. IN ORDER TO UNITE NIGERIA, ME MUST CONSCIOUSLY DEFINE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR NATIONHOOD, TO ENSURE EVERYONE FEELS SAFE, SECURE AND CARRIED ALONG

representatives of security organisations, and co-chaired by Muslim and Christian leaders. This organisation helps defuse conflicts in Adamawa communities, organises entrepreneurship classes and sports events for young people, as well as coordinates relief projects whenever and wherever the need arises in Adamawa. API was the first organisation to coordinate the absorption of internal displaced people from around the North East into Yola and surrounding towns.

A few years ago, the API heard rumours that certain groups were spreading fake news that another group was planning attacks on the other from out of state. The organisation quickly got together, assembled both Christian and Muslim leaders to address the issue.

That Friday, the imams around the state had been briefed to speak about the issue to reduce tension, while the Christian churches did same on Sunday. Crisis was averted. This has been the template with which API has addressed issues since then.

The experience here shows that building peace and unity goes beyond goodwill messages. We should not be in denial about the weaknesses in our communities. We must actively pursue peace and unity by coordinating grassroots organisations. Fake news did not begin on the internet – rumours have led to unfortunate incidents of bloodshed in our communities around Nigeria. Inter-group grassroots organisations can provide a trustworthy partner in keeping everyone assured of their safety.

But the tasks of NGOs like API are only secondary. The primary needs of Nigerian communities are jobs and opportunities to build sustainable ventures. Our economy needs to grow to accommodate the population which has been growing faster than our GDP. I was having a conversation about Nigeria’s population growth rate, and a friend of mine joked that I am probably not the right person to have this conversation with, seeing as I have a really large family. This is true in many ways. Many people in my generation grew up in large families, it was all we knew, but must we continue in what we knew, in the face of new information and reality? It is also often the case that the elite families can afford to train their children, so large families become a resource, but the reverse is the case with poorer families.

It is easy to see how income inequality will grow even wider as our population grows further, especially in rural communities.

For the avoidance of doubt, there’s nothing wrong with huge population. It can indeed be an asset if properly harnessed, especially in situations where the citizens are exposed to good education and skills, ensuring that they get a head start in life, like it is the case with China. The challenge however is where population growth far outstrips GDP growth as is currently the case with our country. In this instance population becomes a liability by default.

It is important that we grow our economy at a rate to cope with our population growth. Our current population growth of 3 per cent when compared with our GDP growth of 1 per cent in 2017 and the expected 2.5 per cent in 2018, will see us ending up with a lower per capita income and becoming even poorer at the end of 2018. Our GDP growth needs to outpace our population growth to make the latter an asset and not a liability.

Atiku Abubakar is a former Vice President of Nigeria and PDP chieftain

EMERGENCY IN THE HEALTH SECTOR (1) Sonnie Ekwowusi argues that the health sector needs urgent attention

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t last the Senate has spoken. It has bared its mind on Nigeria’s nauseating health situation. It has called on the federal government to immediately declare a state of emergence in the country’s health sector. Following the motion moved by Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi (APC, Kaduna North), the upper legislative House had at its plenary last Tuesday urged the executive “to provide special funding for the overhaul of at least one government-owned medical facility in each of the six geo-political zones of the country�. Peeved by the increasing number of Nigerians dying every day especially the shocking statistics that Nigeria loses 2,300 infants below the age of five and 145 pregnant women per day, the Senate has now mandated the Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Health to liaise with the Federal Ministries of Women Affairs and Health to devise ways of stemming the ugly tide.

The intervention of the Senate is indeed praiseworthy. Even though there are many critical issues competing for space in Nigeria today one runs the risk of forgetting that health is the most critical issue that requires urgent attention. Health is wealth. By virtue of section 17 of our Constitution, the government is obliged to improve the welfare of Nigerian citizens by ensuring that they have access to adequate medical and health facilities as well as improve the medical facilities in our hospitals. But unfortunately Nigeria now has the worst health system in the world. Therefore the first anchor in our strategy to improve the wellbeing of the average Nigerian is to provide the citizenry with an unimpeded access to functional primary health

care system. The basic objective of all developments is to get the people to enjoy healthy and creative lives. It is no use sermonising on corruption when the people lack access to basic primary health care.

The WHO and UNICEF records show Nigeria as having the third worst infant mortality rate in the world. Nigeria is the second country in the world with the highest maternal mortality rate. Nigeria is the second country in the world with the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Nigeria is the first country in the world with the highest number of malnourished children. Nigeria is the first country in the world with the highest number of people lacking access to basic primary health care. Cancer epidemic is out in Nigeria. The life expectancy in Nigeria is 53.

Ordinary primary health care system for prevention of diseases such as polio, cholera and measles is virtually non-existent in different parts of Nigeria. Medical infrastructure and equipment are in a shambles. The best medical diagnostic centres in Lagos and other cities patronised by everybody including government hospitals and teaching hospitals are the diagnostic centres set up and run by the Indians and probably the Chinese.

It is baffling that government keeps on patronising these diagnostic centres set up and managed by foreigners instead of repairing the broken government medical infrastructure. The impression being conveyed is that government in Nigeria is irresponsible and that anything the government touches instantly becomes a disaster. The other day I visited a patient at the Female Ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos. As I stood in front of the patient trying to console her, she was bitterly complaining that rats

had invaded the Ward and were making it difficult for patients to sleep at night. I did not ask the patient if the LUTH rats were also swallowing up the monies paid by LUTH patients. If I may ask, what will it cost the LUTH Management to rid the LUTH Female Wards of rats? I also noticed that the tattered bedspreads on the beds had turned brown, an indication that they were up to 30 years ago.

Again, I ask: what will it cost LUTH to replace the worn-out bedspreads? Worst still, the 20% duty slammed on imported drugs by the federal government is yet to be removed. Consequently imported essential drugs for treatment of preventable diseases are no longer affordable. As a consequence, our chemist shops are now littered with many fake drugs that kill instantly.

The regrettable aspect is that funds budgeted for the purchase of hospital equipment and upgrading of public hospitals in Nigeria are routinely embezzled. For example, one of the scams that rocked the Obasanjo civilian administration was the embezzlement of monies budgeted for the supply of medical equipment to Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria including LUTH. Another big scandal is that the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja has been hobnobbing with the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) and other foreign agencies and promoting abortion, contraceptives, sterilisation of women which are in fact damaging to the health of the Nigerian people. In the last 10 years, three successive Nigerian health Ministers-late Prof.

Babatunde Osotimehim, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu and the current Health Minster Prof. Isaac Adewolehad abandoned the real health challenges of the Nigerian people with preference for promotion of abortion, teen ‘safe-sex’ and use of contraceptives.

For example, in the publication entitled: More Family Planning Investments will save Nigeria, others $11 billion yearly (THISDAY, November 22, 2012, page 36), Osotimehim was quoted as saying that increased access to contraceptives had proved to be a sound economic investment leading to increased productivity and economic development.

He was also quoted in the aforesaid piece as saying that women who had more access to contraceptives were better educated. In August 2012 federal government said it was spending a total of $11.3 million to purchase condoms for ‘safe-sex’. You will recall that in April 2011, Prof. Chukwu flagged off an aggressive free distribution of contraceptives (including hormone and injectable contraceptives) in all public health centres and institutions in Nigeria. In 2017, the federal government planned to spend N915m on procurement of contraceptive commodities for ‘safe-sex’. In July 2017 Professor Isaac Adewole announced that in collaboration with its partners and the private sector Nigeria would be spending additional $4.3 million for procurement of contraceptives in order to achieve a modern contraceptive distribution rate of 27% among all women by 2020. He also said that Nigeria was committed to increasing its annual allocation for contraceptives to $4 million in each of the states. At the behest of Prof. Adewole, the federal government announced in January 2018 that it has released $1m for free distribution of contraceptives for the enhancement of quality of ‘safe-sex’ among Nigeria adults and teenagers.

The preceding reveals the huge amount of money spent in promoting ‘safe-sex’ at the expense of the real health challenges of the people. Why do we fail to get our priorities right in Nigeria?

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EDITORIAL BEFORE THE LONDON PRISONERS ARRIVE The UK effort is a wake-up call on the imperative of reforming our prisons

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n a not-so-subtle vote of no conďŹ dence in the Nigerian prison system, the United Kingdom is planning the construction of a ÂŁ700,000 jail in our country so as to deport some criminals and free up places in British jails. The 112-bed wing at the Maximum Security KiriKiri Prison in Lagos will be built as part of the compulsory prisoner transfer deal signed with Nigeria in 2014, according to Foreign Secretary, Mr. Boris Johnson. “As part of this agreement, eligible prisoners serving criminal sentences in Nigeria and the UK can be returned to complete their sentences in their respective countries,â€? he said.

The decision came in the wake of the amendment to the Transfer of Convicted Offenders (Enactment and Enforcement) Act Cap T16 2004. Signed into law in 2014

by President Goodluck Jonathan, the consent of convicted Nigerians serving various jail sentences in the UK is no longer required before they are repatriated home to continue to serve their respective jail terms. But, as we pointed out in the past, the law could be deployed to send away our nationals who may be legal residents in the United Kingdom THE ESTABLISHMENT OF where they may also A SPECIAL PRISON FOR have immediate family ‘DIASPORA CRIMINALS’ members. Besides, as WOULD CREATE A CLASS we also observed before DIMENSION TO THE the bill was passed into CRISIS OF THE NIGERIAN law in 2014, there are PRISONS WHICH LACK serious implications for THE MINIMUM FACILITIES some of our nationals SUITABLE FOR HUMAN who could now be HABITATION easily criminalised on grounds of immigration status and repatriated to the country without due process.

However, the issue that should be of immediate concern to the authorities is that the establishment of a special prison for “Diaspora criminals� would create a class dimension to the crisis of the Nigerian prisons which lack the minimum facilities suitable for human habitation.

Many of the prisons were built during the colonial era and

Letters to the Editor

since then no efforts have been made to renovate them.

Consequently the worn-out facilities and infrastructure are unable to cater for the increasing population of prisoners. The result is outbreak of diseases in the prison environment. It is therefore no surprise that whereas the prison systems in most countries are meant to reform the prisoners, the Nigerian prison system hardens them.

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t is unfortunate that despite the high-level rhetoric on prison reforms by successive Nigerian governments, no concrete actions have been taken to massively decongest our prisons and ameliorate the inhuman condition under which many prisoners live and even work. For example, the Olusegun Obasanjo government set up a National Working Group on Prison Reform and Congestion to audit the state of the country’s prisons and make recommendations to the government. Successive justice ministers have equally been making recommendations to the government on how to reform our prisons. Unfortunately, nothing fruitful has come out of these seemingly lofty initiatives.

The main obstacle to the reforms is the gross overpopulation of the Nigerian prisons. According to many Amnesty International reports, about 70 per cent of the people in Nigerian prisons have never been convicted of any crime. What that suggests is that efforts to decongest our prisons or ameliorate the plight of inmates would come to naught without a complete overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system. Just last week, the Minister of Interior, Lt General Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) visited the Port Harcourt prison which was built for 804 prisoners but now currently accommodates 4204 inmates. The situation is similar, or perhaps even worse, in other prisons across the country.

The news that the UK authorities will bringing back convicted Nigerian prisoners abroad to come and complete their jail terms at home should be a wake-up call on the imperative of reforming our prison system. The prison that the British would build will be different from what currently obtains in Nigeria. We hope there will be sufďŹ cient lessons to learn from that.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to speciďŹ c publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

FG-NASU FACE-OFF: TIME FOR TRUCE

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ommunication, in the words of Grunig and Hunt, is the biggest tool mankind has as a potential way of overcoming difficulties. But in most cases, we have it abandoned and embrace travelling the circumference of chaos before coming to access this powerful instrument.

A fitting example is the current/protracted industrial action embarked on by the Non-Academic Staff Union of the Nigerian universities (NASU) to press home their demand for ‘Earned Allowance’, an exercise that has lasted for over three months with the group staging a peaceful protest on Thursday, March 8, 2018 in Abuja.

Mundane and inoffensive as the demand may appear, it has become a worrying development that strikes in our educational turf have become not just incessant but regular trademark to the extent that before the dust raised by an ASUU strike goes down, that of the NASU is up.

Also revealing is the fact that this current strike has since morphed from a conventional action to an emblematic pulpit that sermonises on two cardinal messages; first, that federal government has become a self-declared enemy of education in Nigeria with neglect and underfunding as a formidable tool. NASU on its part has resolved via its rigid posturing to suffer the children they were hired to protect, desecrate the originally respected citadel of knowledge as well as ensure the sustained downward ‘progress’ of our educational sector.

This fear as expressed cannot be regarded as unfounded, as FG has barefacedly disregarded the Memorandum of

Understanding [MoU] recently entered with NASU. The Joint Action Committee (JAC), the umbrella body of the nonacademic staff unions on the other hands, has been unable to articulate, and comprehensively communicate their demands before taking to industrial action. Their recent statement bears eloquent testimony to this fact.

Adding context, the said statement by JAC among other things stated that ‘the Earned Allowance, they received from the federal government was too meagre compared to what ASUU received’, while calling the government to explain the rationale behind the disparity.

Arguably a well-chiseled remark, but, it has again necessitated the question as to what exactly NASU is fighting for; merited allowance or a fight propelled by envy that ASUU got the lion share of the earned allowance?

Regrettably, the ultimate result of what the federal government and NASU are doing currently is in the womb of the future. An occurrence that the result may not be palatable if the trend is allowed to complete its gestation without something dramatic done to have it aborted.

According to what the people are saying, no matter how reasonable the decision of the government or that of NASU maybe, they need to urgently get the fears of the masses allayed, as a visit to these universities will present that they share but a common denominator - pain.

While the returning students now wear a forlorn courage, the new intakes have frustration/despair painted all over.

Their parents are not left out in this mood, as they bemoan

the present fate of their children in their sorrows and hardship.

If you are in doubt of the magnitude of this harsh impact, then, check out a development where academic activities have since resumed without the usual support of the non-teaching staff. New students that ought to be adequately guided are now allowed to wallow in cluelessness even as some schools are conducting examination without the supervisory assistance of the non-academic staff.

Aside the above, Nigerians are saying that the whole arrangement appears discomforting to the fresh students that have paid the hostel fees without any hostel allocated to them.

Again, what becomes the fate of the hostel fees paid since many are writing their first semester examinations without the hostel accommodation they paid for? Is the part of the money paid going to be refunded to them?

However noble the demands of NASU may be, the global watchers feel that their action is likened to the decision of a father refusing to send his son to school simply because his own father failed to train him. What these students are suffering at the hands of NASU is, but a transferred aggression orchestrated by the FG inability to meet their demands.

This sorry story has understandably raised worries among the students, their parent as well as irked the sensibility of the critical stakeholders; with many wondering what the future holds for our educational sector while others now query why the government cannot take its policies on education seriously.

Jerome-Mario Utomi, jeromeutomi@yahoo.com.

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T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018

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MIDWEEKPOLITICS

Group Politics Editor Tobi Soniyi Email tobi.soniyi@thisdaylive.com 07054786260 SMS ONLY

THE NEWSMAKER

Push for Lulu-Briggs to Join Rivers Guber Race While the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and his predecessor, RotimiAmaechi, continue to polarise opinions in Rivers, many are pushing for Dumo Lulu-Briggs to become the new face of Rivers State’s politics, reports Shola Oyeyipo

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f the calculation of some concerned persons in Rivers State is anything to go by, the state is on the verge of experiencing a breath of fresh air.

Whereas attention has remained on major gladiators in the Rivers State political turf in persons of former governor and current Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the incumbent governor, Nyesom Wike, opinion leaders are already shopping for a new breed of politician to lead the state in future elections.

Indigenes and residents of the oil-rich Rivers State, who have followed the political trends are fed up with the waste of human lives that usually characterised conduct of elections in the state in the past and earnestly want a change.

The people are generally miffed at the level of poverty among the people despite the riches for which the state is known globally, hence the emerging consensus that only a new breed of politician can reinvent the wheel.

Though, it is yet unclear how the people hope to actualise their intended political paradigm shift, but THISDAY can authoritatively confirm that there is already a mapped out plan to introduce a candidate that will not only be acceptable to majority of the people but that has the requisite knowledge and understanding needed to move the state forward.

According to sources close to the handlers of the movement, which they plan to make public any time soon, considering that Wike is most likely to pick the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) ticket to run for a second term, the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform becomes the most veritable alternative to present the preferred candidate to the electorate.

Already, it is no news that Amaechi and the senator who representing Rivers South-east Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Magnus Abe, are on a collision course over the 2019 governorship race in the APC, whereas Amaechi is the leader of the party in the state.

Their no-love-lost relation deteriorated further earlier in February at a meeting with the Ikwerre Chiefs and Elders Forum, where Amaechi maintained that though there was no infighting within the APC in Rivers State, but that he would not n support Abe’s governorship ambition.

“I am not in any way stopping Abe from running for the governorship, but what I know is that I will not support him. Abe is daring me, an Ikwerre son. He is abusing me every day. I will ensure I use Ikwerre vote on him,” Amaechi said underscoring that his Ikwerre ethnic group has about 1.1 million votes out of the 2.5 million eligible voters in the state.

His argument is that governorship in the state is rotated among the various ethnic groups, and that it would be greedy for his Ikwerre kinsmen to hold on to power for more than 12 years in a state where there are other ethnic groups. So his position is that he would rather support a person from the riverine area to rule the state for eight years before power will move to Ogoni.

Many, in Rivers agree with Amaechi that it is inequitable, unfair and an injustice for one ethnic group to hold on to power for years in a state that has other ethnic groups. That is oppression. Even though, some don’t like the messenger, (Amaechi) they agree with his position On his part, Abe too has said with or without Amaechi’s support, he would go ahead with his ambition and this has further raised the hope of those considering the APC platform to actualise their agenda of charting a new political course for the state.

In trying to look away from those who had held the state to ransom, opinion leaders

Dumo Lulu -Briggs

and some youths in the state have arrived at the decision to bring in a well known legal practitioner, technocrat, politician and grassroots mobiliser, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, popularly known as DLB, as a new face of Rivers State politics.

Though yet to officially declare his readiness to contest in the race, indications abound that he is favourably disposed to the calls coming from across all the political divides. Apparently, out of personal conviction, he recently dumped the ruling PDP in Rivers for the APC and he has been helping to reposition the party for victory in future elections.

Already, some socio-cultural groups, youth groups and others who believe DLB is capable of repositioning the state, are already canvassing support for the soft spoken, young and successful business mogul to actively join the Rivers governorship race.

Many of his supporters are not pretending about their support for him. So, just as Briggs

Many people in Rivers agree with Amaechi that it is inequitable, unfair and amounts to injustice for one ethnic group to hold on to power for years in a state that has other ethnic groups

joined the APC from the PDP, they also joined the APC on his request and vowed to give him all the necessary support on the platform if he declares for governorship.

Those encouraging the lawyer-turned politician to vie for governorship are of the views that the Wike-led administration has failed Rivers State.

To them, the administration has underplayed the importance of education and denied the people adequate security and peace.

Born to the philanthropist family of revered elder statesman O.B Lulu-Briggs, founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration and production company, which was awarded its first oil block in 1992 during the Ibrahim Babangida era, when he was encouraging indigenous participation in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, DLB himself a renowned philanthropist, youth friendly and easy going personality, has enjoyed huge love from his people over the years.

Some commentators have said he is capable of positively changing the political and developmental history of Rivers State, and also make the state a global player if given the opportunity to serve.

In a post on Briggs facebook page, a Rivers State indigene, Komi Leesi described him as “A man with a very large heart. One who understands his people. I pray Rivers State and Nigeria give you a chance to lead us.

The ‘Messiah’ of the common man. We love you. We are forever grateful.”

Another person who simply identified himself as Ammonia also wrote: “Chief Dumo LuluBriggs is one man that is an untapped blessing to the people of Rivers State and Nigeria at large. He is an enigma; a living legend.”

Someone else wrote: “Absolutely the best hands. We need to be led in the right direction.

Enough of uncivilised forces that impose their will on us. We need a man like DLB.” The strong support he is getting among his people is basically because he is considered as a quintessential leader and a gentleman. To them, he is the embodiment of cerebral articulation, the essence of unparalleled philanthropy, and simplicity, the personification of undiluted humanness, the perfect example of a good leader, the paragon of idealism. Simply put, he is seen as a perfect gentleman.

During his 53 birthday celebration, Briggs said: “The true worth of a man is in the way he treats people who are absolutely in need. If you care about people in need, you are actually making a contribution to the development of the nation.

“We need to give life back to the people; democracy is important in governance. We need to see how we can use the available resources for everybody; create opportunities for all and care, especially for those who are truly in need. The gap between the rich and the poor should be bridged. Those of us blessed with material resources need to share with others. We must strike a balance with our resources”.

Though he did not give a definite answer on his highly anticipated governorship ambition, facts on the ground and the expectations among the people show that his name will be on the ballot paper when the state goes for another election next year and if permutations and his support base are anything to go by, the possibility that he would be the people’s choice next year is very high.

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POLITICS

MIDWEEKPOLITICS

Why PDP Remains Divided in Kwara Peoples Democratic Party factions in Kwara State have refused to sheathe their swords despite efforts by the national leadership of the party to reconcile them.

Hammed Shittu explains why

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he last state congress of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Kwara state, has come and gone but the political intrigues that characterized the the congress are yet to abate.

The two factions of the party that participated in the congress have refused to sheathe their swords. They would also not allow one leadership to take control of the party.

Even, the positive effect of the last councils election in which the party was believed to have exceeded expectation did not last longer. The council election proved that if the party put its house in order, it would be able to come out stronger. As instructive as this is, the two factions still refused to work together.

Many stakeholders believe that the two major warring factions should have come together after winners emerged from the congress to forge ahead and ensure the electoral success of the party but the reverse has remained the case.

There is no doubt that the faction led by Chief Iyiola Oyedepo had taken over the leadership of the PDP in the state but the other group led by Sunday Fagbemi has vowed not to recognise Oyedepo’s leadership of the party citing unresolved issues that continued to cause disaffection within members of the party in the state.

As this is yet to be resolved, the new leadership recently announced plans to hold ward congress for the wards in the five local government councils that were exempted from the state congress of the party that took place on November 17, 2017. However, the Fagbemi group rejected the idea and described the plan as an aberration which should not be allowed to happen.

The crisis within the party took a turn for the worse in 2015 when Oyedeo and Fagbemi held different congresses in the state to elect new executives. While Oyedepo held its state congress at the Stella Obasanjo Multi Purpose Hall along Ajase-Ipo road, Ilorin, the Fagbemi-led faction held it state congress at the Bekamds Hotel, Tanke, along University of Ilorin road during the period. This resulted in the emergence of two factions with both claiming to be the authentic exco.

Since then, the two factions had locked horns over the leadership. This struggle eventually led the former national caretaker committee of the PDP led by Senator Ahmed Markafi to put in place a caretaker committee headed

by Chief Tunde Akindehin with a mandate to to reconcile the two warring factions and to conduct a free and fair state congress to elect new leaders for the party in Kwara.

It is recalled that there are wards and local governments that did not participate in the last state congress of the party in November 2017.

Oyedepo, the new state chairman that emerged from the congress of November 17, 2017 had purportedly slated the ward/ local government congresses for February this year but the other faction led by Fagbemi has vowed to reject.

A statement signed by the PDP factional state Publicity Secretary, loyal to Fagbemi, Alhaji Ganiyu Alawo, and made available to journalists in Ilorin, urged PDP supporters in the state not to participate in the congresses, saying the conduct of such congress by anyone now was illegal and would be null and void.

The statement, which said that some leaders of the party had met with the national secretary and some members of the national working committee of the party in Abuja last week, added that the meeting had resolved that the issue of Kwara PDP’s conflicts would be reviewed.

The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the plan by the Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo- led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state to conduct ward and local government congresses in five local government areas of Kwara state.

“These are the wards and local govern-

National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus

ment that did not participate in the last state congress of our party. The congresses have been purportedly slated for February 3 and 10 respectively.

“We want to urge our supporters not to participate in these congresses because the conduct of such congress by anyone now is illegal and will be null and void.

“Some leaders of our party last week met with the national secretary and some members of the national working committee of our party in Abuja and the resolutions we reached at that meeting are as follows: “That the issue of Kwara PDP’s conflicts will be reviewed. That all pending issues concerning the party in the state should be resolved before any congress could be held.

“That each faction within the party should sheathe its swords to allow peace reign.

“It’s on this premise that we are saying that anyone bends on conducting any congress at this moment will be fanning the ember of disunity among party members.

“We urge all PDP members in the state to remain calm but should discountenance any information concerning congresses. We are calling on the security agencies in the state to take note of this development so that there would be no breach of security in the state.”

What is important for PDP in Kwara is to resolve its crisis ahead of the 2019 general elections rather than fighting over unsubstantiated claim that Saraki and his supporters planned to return to the party

In his reaction, Oyedepo said that it was not his executive members that had planned the congresses, adding that it was the responsibility of the national leadership of the party to conduct ward and local government congresses.

“It’s the responsibility of the national leadership to do the congresses and it’s the national leadership that is doing it. If they are aggrieved or against the congresses one way or the other, they should approach the national leadership. It’s not within our power in the state to stop it. It’s not planned by us. If they are against it and may be they want another date, they can approach the national leadership”, he said.

While the dispute over whether the congresses should hold in the five local government areas or not was pending, Oyedepo recently paid a visit to the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja to inform the national leadership of alleged plan by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to return to the PDP. He advised the party leaders not to allow Saraki to take over the structure of the party from the newly elected state PDP leaders.

Sources close to the party in the state told journalists in Ilorin that the party was aware of frantic moves by the Senate President to come back into the PDP. Saraki political structure, which is said to have been in existence since over 40 years, is also seen as cohesive, large and on ground.

Those in PDP fear that if Saraki is allowed to return to PDP, he would take over the party’s structure in the state.

A chieftain of the PDP in Kwara state, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who was one time governorship aspirant of the party in the state, said that the Senate President was not welcomed in the party.

He also said that positions and offices in the state chapter of the party should not be conceded to Saraki if he returns to the party.

The PDP chieftain, who said that the party did not need the Senate President to win elections in Kwara state, added that the recent

local government elections in the state was a testament to that.

“The people of Kwara State are tired of poor service delivery, nonpayment of salaries and absence of governance. Saraki constitutes an albatross that will sink our ship”, he said.

In a statement, Abdulrazaq said: “Our attention has been drawn to the misguided position of the self serving factional chairman of PDP in Kwara state in which he is not only groveling to welcome Saraki into PDP in Kwara state but is also seeking to undemocratically concede positions and offices to him.

“The factional chairman has little understanding of the dynamics of Kwara politics today. For his information, the dynamics have changed.

“PDP does not need Saraki to win elections in Kwara state. The recent local government elections in the state in which PDP won overwhelmingly is a testament to that. The people of Kwara state are tired of poor service delivery, nonpayment of salaries and absence of governance. Saraki constitutes an albatross that will sink our ship.

“While the doors of the party are opened to those that want to join the party, there will be no red carpet treatment for anyone.”

But, the state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed has debunked claims that he or the Senate President planned to return to the PDP, which he said they left with some other chieftains of the party prior to the 2015 general elections.

Ahmed, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Dr. Femi Akorede , said that he, Saraki and other political leaders in Kwara have no reason to return to the PDP. Ahmed clarified that the insinuations, which emerged from his recent interview with a newspaper, did not suggest that he was planning to leave. Rather, he was stating the conditions under which he and other political stakeholders in the state left the PDP. The governor emphasized that he, Saraki and other governors left the PDP due to impunity, disregard for the rule of law and lack of inclusiveness in the party at the time and following extensive consultations with stakeholders and supporters.

He, therefore, declared that they were committed to the APC and have no intention to join the PDP. He also advised disgruntled elements within the APC that were urging him and Saraki to hasten their exit from the party to educate themselves with that interview and be appropriately informed instead of making misguided comments on issues they have no knowledge of.

He affirmed his full support for the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari and commended him for his strides in governing the country and for the unprecedented federal projects in Kwara State, which he added, were aided by the intervention of the Senate President.

Also, the APC in Kwara State has dismissed the fear expressed by the PDP that Saraki might likely take over the structure of the PDP in Kwara State as unfounded and baseless.

In a statement issued by the publicity secretary of the APC, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, the party warned the Kwara State chapter of the PDP to stop clutching to the personality and influence of the Senate President for political relevance in Kwara State.

Excerpts from the statement read: “The party has observed that most of the times Kwara PDP has appeared in the press in recent times, the name of the Senate President has been deployed as a recurring factor. We have strong reasons and convictions to believe that it is a deliberate strategy of the PDP in order to remain relevant in politics of Kwara State.”

What is important for PDP in Kwara is to resolve its crisis ahead of the 2019 general elections rather than fighting over unsubstantiated claim that Saraki and his supporters planned to return to the party.

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FEATURES

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

Tackling Borno’s Health Sector Even before the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency, healthcare in Borno State has been appalling to say the least. In a bid to turn it around, WHO, UNICEF and all other stakeholders in the health sector have swung into action. Michael Olugbode reports

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any preventable diseases have become common in Borno State. The state, even before the insurgency crept in about nine years ago was a permanent feature on the list of states affected by such diseases as poliomyelitis, Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM), malaria, measles, cholera. The state even has a permanent name on the disease ladder that it has sold to the rest of the world in Lassa fever as Lassa is a town in Borno State where the deadly disease was first discovered. It was not only this that has made the state notorious but also poliomyelitis, when the world had almost succeeded in finally kicking this disease out, it kept glued to this geographical location and vaccination has to begin all over again and the world has to bear another huge cost of kicking polio out.

Borno has become a familiar name on the list of World Health Organisation (WHO) and all international agencies seeking the well-being of the globe, no wonder when yellow fever epidemic was recorded in Nigeria late last year and early part of this year, though with Borno not having any incident, preventing it in the state could not just be wished away because the world knows if it crept into the state, it may find an abode where it can fester and may not want to leave!

Yellow fever is a deadly disease, it is tropical viral affecting the liver and kidneys, causing fever and jaundice and often fatal. It is transmitted by mosquitoes. It is a viral hemorrhagic infection transmitted by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus.

The yellow fever virus is a single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the Flavivirus genus. After transmission of the virus occurs, it replicates in regional lymph nodes and subsequently spreads via the bloodstream.

In severe cases yellow fever causes a high fever, bleeding into the skin and the death of cells in the liver and kidneys. Liver damage results in severe jaundice yellowing of the skin hence the name (yellow fever). One can catch this disease if bitten by a mosquito infected with the virus.

Anyone can get yellow fever, the elderly have a higher risk of severe infection.

It has the same symptoms as tropical diseases such as malaria and typhoid, it has three stages; infection, acute phase and toxic phase. The first stage has symptoms such as fever, flushing, headache, jaundice, joint aches, loss of appetite, muscle aches and vomiting. In the second stage

With the insurgency that has ravaged Borno State and has created camps which have compromised the health of many and a breeding ground for diseases, and with cases of outbreak of yellow fever in some parts of the country like; Kwara, Kogi and Zamfara states, the federal and Borno State governments in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children’s Fund alongside other partners, put in place plans to ensure preventive mass vaccination campaign across the country in general and in Borno State in particular

The immunisation of children at one of the IDPs camp within Maiduguri...recently

usually lasting for three and three to four days are such symptoms as backaches, fever, flushing, headaches, joint aches, loss of appetite, muscle aches and shivers. Symptoms in the final stage include abdominal pain, bleeding from the nose, mouth and eyes, decreased urination, delirium, heart rhythm problems, seizures and vomiting sometimes with blood.

Complications of yellow fever includes jaundice, hemorrhage, blood clotting disorders, gastrointestinal bleeding, delirium, nausea and vomiting, sinus bradycardia, headache, convulsions, coma and death.

With the insurgency that has ravaged Borno State and has created camps which have compromised the health of many and a breeding ground for diseases, and with cases of outbreak of yellow fever in some parts of the country like; Kwara, Kogi and Zamfara states, the federal and Borno State governments in conjunction with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) alongside other partners, put in place plans to ensure preventive mass vaccination campaign across the country in general

and in Borno State in particular.

In order not to allow the disease to have a breeding ground in Borno State, a 10-day vaccination campaign was flagged off on 5th February and ended 14th February and over 1.2 million IDPs were vaccinated across 57 wards in 25 local government areas of the troubled state.

The vaccination, exercise led by WHO not only recorded huge success as majority of the IDPs trooped out with their families to be vaccinated, it offered the stakeholders opportunities to have deeper understanding of the other challenges faced by the IDPs, challenges such as hunger and inhabitable living condition.

Narrating what he knew about the disease, Isa Mohammed, 41 years old, an IDP from Baga, said: “I suffered from the ailment for 39 days, it almost blinded my eyes. I was frequently vomiting and I was without strength and was without appetite for food. I was admitted in the hospital for 39 days and when I came back from the hospital I had to use local herbs before I was fully healed.

When I was in the hospital I saw a woman die from the ailment and that shook me and made

me to abandon the treatment and go for local herbs which helped me to regain full healing.

People should embrace vaccination for it is a way of promoting good health and shielding one from suffering.�

Bukar Abba Kaka, 28 years old from Baga, met at one of the IDPs camps in Maiduguri where he queued to be vaccinated, said: “I have seen a patient of yellow fever 16 years ago. He had yellow eyes and was emaciated as if wind would blow him off.�

He said: “We, in this part of the world, only believe that it is herbs that can cure this, the guy was eventually cured with herbs,� but “I will appeal to people to come out for the vaccination so as not to even suffer from the disease in the first place,�

For Falmata Bukar, a 22-year-old, who was employed as a mobiliser by WHO to persuade people to come out and get vaccinated, she said her main words to the people she has spoken to, is that the vaccination “is beneficial to them, even more important than food, and that it is only when they are healthy that they can eat food.�

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FEATURES

These efforts are part of a larger yellow fever vaccination campaign that seeks to vaccinate more than 25 million people throughout 2018, in the largest yellow fever vaccination drive in Nigeria’s history. This ďŹ ts into a wider public health goal to eliminate yellow fever epidemics globally by 2026 through the Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics (EYE) Strategy, steered

by WHO, Gavi and UNICEF Health oďŹƒcials carrying out immunisation of IDPs at a camp within Maidugur

Dr. Terna Nomhwange, a National Surveillance Officer, World Health Organisation, Country Office Nigeria and the focal person for Accelerated Disease Control, who was on hand to supervise the exercise in Borno, explained that as part of the high strategy, which is basically eliminating yellow fever epidemics globally by the year 2026, the government of Nigeria supported by WHO and other partners has put in place plans to ensure preventive mass vaccination campaign across the country in order for protection and prevent further spread as well.

He said the exercise was targeted at people in age nine months to 45 years, so as to ensure that this persons get the yellow fever vaccination, “this vaccination is given once and provide lifelong protection against the yellow fever virus and the disease. Like you know is most transmitted by the mosquito the aedes eagypti type which we know that within our environment we've confirmed that this vector, this mosquito actually is.

He said: “We have discovered this and we did some studies in Zamfara and Kwara states where we actually found these mosquitoes. So we know that the chances of transmission are pretty high and the government of Nigeria is ensuring that all Nigerians are protected by having these vaccines done and of course in the general goal of reducing mortality in women, children and vulnerables. “We are in Borno, because Borno also comes with its peculiarity and a lot of vulnerability here, for the first phase where we are now, which we are calling phase two, we are targeting the IDPs camps and its host communities and for this particular phase we are targeting 1.2million persons, who will be vaccinated across the 10-day schedule. “You will find out that we have teams across these LGAs, where we are currently at is the Bakassi camp, it is the camp that many of you know about is a bit easy because we are all in the centre, in the next couple of days, by tomorrow we are hoping to have teams who will be in the Gwoza axis, where it’s a bit more difficult accessing and all of that. But working with the state team and with all the support provided, we are ensuring that all the persons we have targeted within this period will be vaccinated."

He added that: “We want to use this opportunity to sensitise persons. Any persons that have symptoms of yellowness of the eye within a two-week onset of fever, should present himself or herself to the nearest health facility.

He lamented that: "We have very high mortality rate, for the numbers we have for the current outbreak at the moment we are having mortality rate in the range of about 26 per cent for the cases that we have within this period, but because there is no treatment, this is the disease that actually can kill and this is why the federal government of Nigeria is working with its partners in ensuring that it vaccinate people to protect them from the disease. “In a situation where we are, what we have as a guide line for a mass vaccination campaign during campaign where you have emergencies, we weigh risk versus benefit. So in an outbreak situation we want to actually vaccinate everybody, but on a routine in places where you don’t have outbreak, you actually say let us weigh those risks, and in outbreak

Immunisation taking place at one of the IDPs camp within Maiduguri

The immunisation of IDPs at a community in Jere

situation, the benefit outweighs the risk," he said.

Earlier, in a joint statement made available to newsmen in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, the WHO Health Communication and Promotion Officer, Dr. Chima Onuekwe and the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall said more than 3,000 WHO-trained volunteers, including senior supervisors, monitors, healthcare workers and community leaders including mobilisers were deployed for the exercise.

The statement said to ensure vaccine availability and uptake, UNICEF supported the Borno State Government with logistics for vaccine distribution and social mobilisation, adding that through the deployment of over 2,000 community volunteers and key influencers, UNICEF enhanced community engagement for yellow fever preventive vaccination and ensured that community is aware of the campaign and yellow fever risks. “If we miss out on children of Borno, often living in very difficult conditions, we deprive

large number of children of lifesaving vaccines.

It is not only their right but our collective duty to ensure that they survive and thrive,� said Mohammed Fall, UNICEF Nigeria Representative, the statement read.

The statement further said that to ensure a high-quality campaign, WHO worked with the Borno State Ministry of Health to coordinate and facilitate the training of healthcare workers at all levels, arrange logistics for vaccine distribution and deliver messages on health risks to communities. “Although Borno State has not reported an outbreak of yellow fever this year, vaccinating internally displaced persons is an exercise of high public health importance to protect most-at-risk populations living in high-risk conditions and prevent the spread of yellow fever, if an outbreak occurs,� said Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, WHO Nigeria Representative.

The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia, emphasised the importance of

vaccinating IDPs in camps and host communities. “The vulnerable living conditions of millions of people in Borno State and the tide of outbreaks across 16 states in Nigeria makes it imperative to target the most at-risk people with yellow fever vaccination in the state. “These efforts are part of a larger yellow fever vaccination campaign that seeks to vaccinate more than 25 million people throughout 2018, in the largest yellow fever vaccination drive in Nigeria’s history. This fits into a wider public health goal to eliminate yellow fever epidemics globally by 2026 through the Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics (EYE) Strategy, steered by WHO, Gavi and UNICEF," the statement read.

It would have been a disaster had yellow fever been allowed to berth at IDPs camps in Borno State, as that would have been further disgrace to Nigeria and Nigerians. All thanks to WHO, UNICEF and other stakeholders in the health sector, this was not allowed.

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IMAGES

L-R; Executive Director, Real Estate Development, Alpha Mead Group, Damola Akindolire;, 5 Star Selling Champion, Mr. Kelechi Nwaorgu; and Group Managing Director, Alpha Mead, Mr. Femi Akintunde, during the presentation of a car to the Champion in Lagos... recently

L-R; Permanent Secretary Youth and Social Development Lagos State Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Lagos State, Mr Agboola Dabiri and Lagos State Commissioner of Police Imohimi Oluwole Edgal During A Visit By Dabiri To Edgal In Lagos...Recently adeyanju olowojoba

L-R: GOtv Marketing Manager, Chidozie Bede-Nwokoye; Winner of One Million Naira and Big Brother Naija Head of House, Chair Kelechi Ibe Dimgba and Divisional Head, Corporate Communications, Heritage Bank Fela Ibidapo, during the presentation ceremony in the ongoing upgrade promo by MultiChoice Nigeria, in Lagos...recently

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Photo Editor ĂŒĂ“Ă™ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă˜ ÔËÖË Email Ă‹ĂŒĂ“Ă™ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă˜Ë›Ă‹Ă”Ă‹Ă–Ă‹ĚśĂžĂ’Ă“Ă?ĂŽĂ‹ĂŁĂ–Ă“Ă Ă?Ë›Ă?Ù×

L-R. Chairman House Committee on Healthcare Services, Hon. Chike John Okafor receiving the most dedicated Committee Chairman Award from Representative of Clerk of the National Assembly , Alhaji Adamu Abdulkadir Dibal. during the House of Representative Press Corps Maiden Annual Dinner/Award of Excellence in Abuja... recently

L-R; Director, National Library of Nigeria, B.O. Osiagwu; Principal Partner Omokhoje Sam-Jegede and Co, Sam Jeged and, Director, Center for Management Development, Mike A. Onodje during the ATTITUDINAL CHANGE & ETHICAL CONDUCT training workshop organised for EXECUTIVE Directors of the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) in Lagos...recently

L-R; Marketing Visa West Africa, Ushie Ayotunde; Yinka Junaid, Winner Visa Shop & Win SPAR shopping spree, Yinka Junaid, Winner Visa Shop & Win SPAR shopping spree and, Corporate Communications Manager Visa West Africa, Adebiyi Adeniyi at the launch of Visa FIFA shop & Win 2018 promo in Lagos....recently

L-R: Head of Culture and information, Japan Embassy Mr Hideki Sakamoto; Director, Pace Setters Academy, Mrs Kate Imansuagbon; Chairman Pace Setters Academy Barr. Kenneth Imansuagbon;Chief Judge FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello and Public Diplomacy oďŹƒcer, US Embassy Mr. Lawrence Socha during the Pace Setters’ 2018 Cultural Festival in Abuja...recently julius atoi

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍ˛Ëœ Í°ÍŽÍŻÍś

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

A S

A T

REPO 9.75 % 6.58 %

CALL 1-MONTH 3-MONTH

11% 11.63 % 12.38%

M A R C H S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY MONTH-TO-DATE

Group Business Editor Chika Amanze-Nwachuku

Email chika.amanzenwachukwu@thisdaylive.com 08033294157

2 , 2 0 1 8 342.24 % -0.11 % -0.11%

S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

3.88 % 3.88 %

EXCHANGE RATE N305.85/1US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes CIBN Begins Computer-based Testing

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

L-R: Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr. Yinka Sanni; Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Trustees Limited, Binta Max-Gbinije; Head, Credit, Corporate and Transactional Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr Kola Lawal; and Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Dr. Demola Sogunle, at the launch of Stanbic IBTC Blue Women Network Magazine in Lagos ... recently

Investors Trade N11.7tn Securities on FMDQ OTC Exchange Goddy Egene Investors staked N11.7 trillion on securities at the Fixed Income and Currencies (FIC) markets in the first month of 2018. The FIC markets run on the platform provided by FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange. Trading data released by the exchange on Monday showed that transactions in January 2018 amounted to N11.71 trillion. This indicates a marginal decline of 1.2 per cent compared with N11.86 trillion traded in December 2017 but an increase of 28.2 per cent from N9.13 trillion traded in January of 2017.

A breakdown of the January 2018 figures showed that activi-

CAPITAL MARKET ties in the Treasury Bills (T.bills) market accounted for 39.24 per cent, while the Foreign Exchange (FX) market accounted for 37.50 per cent of the total turnover.

The Money Market (Repurchase Agreements (Repos)/Buy-Backs & Unsecured Placements/ Takings) accounted for 16.90 per cent.

Turnover in the fixed income market for the month under review settled at N5.33 trillion, an increase of 7.16 per cent compared with December’s performance. Transactions in the T.bills market accounted for 86.11 per cent of the overall fixed income market. Outstanding

T.bills at the end of the month stood at N11.47 trillion, while FGN bonds outstanding value stood at N7.64 trillion.

Trading intensity in the fixed income market for the month under review settled at 0.40 and 0.10 for T.bills and FGN bonds, respectively, from 0.38 and 0.11 recorded the previous month respectively.

According to the data, T.bills between the six and 12 months maturity buckets became the most actively traded, accounting for a turnover of N2.52 trillion in January 2018.

Transactions in the FX market settled at $14.01 billion in January 2018, an increase of 8.91 per cent when compared with the $12.86 billion recorded in December

2017.

In the month under review, the naira appreciated slightly at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) FX Window closing at $/N360.00 (from $/N360.33 as at December 29, 2017) whilst also trading at a discount to the parallel market which closed at $/N364.00 (from $/N363.00 as at January 2, 2018).

The official spot rate appreciated slightly, gaining N0.30 to close at $/N305.70 (from $/N306 as at December 29, 2017) Inter-member trades recorded $1.10 billion in January 2018, an increase of 11.67 per cent relative to the trades recorded in December 2017. Member-client trades stood at $8.72 billion, an Continued on page 24

How to Double Nigeria’s Rice Production Obinna Chima Increasing the mechanisation rate of rice cultivation in Nigeria from 0.3horsepower per hectare (hp/ha) to 0.8hp/ ha in the next five years, can double the production of the crop in the country to 7.2 million tonnes, a report has stated.

One of the leading professional services firms in the country, PwC stated this in a report obtained on Monday.

In order to achieve this, PwC estimated that Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period.

Rice is one of the most consumed staples in Nigeria, with consumption per capita of 32kg. In the past decade, consumption has increased 4.7 per cent, almost four times the global consumption growth, and reached 6.4 million tonnes in

ECONOMY 2017 – accounting for about 20 per cent of Africa’s consumption.

As at 2011, rice accounted for 10 per cent of household food spending, and 6.6 per cent of total household spending.

Therefore, given the importance of rice as a staple food in Nigeria, boosting its production has been accorded high priority by the government in the past seven years. Nonetheless, significant progress has been recorded as rice production in Nigeria reached a peak of 3.7 million tonnes in 2017.

Despite this improvement, comparatively, Nigeria’s rice statistics suggest there is an enormous potential to raise productivity and increase production.

Yields have remained at two tonne per hectare, which is about half of the average achieved

in Asia.

In addition, as population increases, along with rural to urban migration, ensuring food security in key staples becomes critical. However, food security cannot be achieved by a system that depends almost entirely on human muscle power and other manual methods.

Globally, rice production has grown at an annual average of one per cent over the past decade, reaching 486.7 million tonnes in 2017.

Most of this growth came from Asia, accounting for 89 per cent of global output. China and India are the largest producers, each with a share of 29.6per cent and 22.6 per cent of global production respectively.

In the rest of the world (exAsia),rice production has risen steadily over the past decades, accounting for 15 per cent of total production by 2017, a marginal increase from 12 per

cent in the last two decades.

Global rice consumption remains strong, driven by both population and economic growth in Asia and Africa.

Over the past two decades, rice demand increased at an annual average of 1.2 per cent to reach 481.6 4 million tonnes in 2017.

Therefore, the PwC report added: “Nigeria’s mechanisation gap provides numerous opportunities for investment across the agricultural value chain. “To attract the required investment, the government needs to create an enabling environment that ensures mechanisation is profitable. “In terms of priorities, the government should concentrate on: addressing challenges around land tenure and ownership, providing rural infrastructure Continued on page 24

The Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) Professional Examinations has upgraded from traditional paper-based to Computer Based Testing (CBT) platform for its students.

In a statement, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said the pilot phase of the CBT, which takes eect from April 2018, was carried out in October 2017 with the CertiďŹ ed Risk Managers (CRM) CertiďŹ cation Examinations in Lagos and Abuja centres.The Institute said the exercise was adjudged successful as the students described the platform as simple, easy to learn and user-friendly. “Students are assured that the transition to CBT platform will not aect their mode of study as they are expected to use the same materials to prepare for the examinations as they currently do. The only dierence would be that the structure of questions would change to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and Short Answer Questions (SAQ),â€? the Institute said.

It said that courses like the International Trade & Finance, Banking Law, Ethics & Corporate Governance, Bank Lending & Credit Administration and Practice of Banking would have the hybrid of theory of MCQs and SAQs. It stated that an online tutorial platform for practice questions would be made available in advance of the real examinations to enable students to practice and get acquainted with the application to aid their preparation.

AFC Wins Award

The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has been named the winner of the ‘Africa Power Deal of the Year’ in the Infrastructure Journal (IJ) Global Awards 2017 for its 80MW peat to power project in Rwanda. The project is expected to improve access to electricity for three quarters of the country’s population that is currently o the grid. AFC was the Mandated Lead Arranger for the project debt, and successfully arranged total senior debt facilities of US$245 million, contributing US$75 million of its funding to the facilities. Despite its status as one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, only 25 per cent of Rwanda’s population currently has access to reliable electricity. The US$350 million power plant is expected to increase Rwanda’s installed capacity by 40 per cent. Scheduled for completion within three years, theproject is located in the Gisagara District, one of the most remote areas of Rwanda. A statement revealed that the project is sponsored by HakanMadencilik A.S, a Turkish energy company, and Quantum Power, a power and energy infrastructure investment platform.

Apart from AFC, other members of the lending consortium included Finnfund(which served as the lead arranger for total mezzanine debt facilities of US$35 million for the Project), Trade and Development Bank (TDB), African Export-Import Bank, and the Development Bank of Rwanda.

Afreximbank, Devt Bank Seal Deal

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to harmonise their eorts in the promotion of trade and regional integration. President of Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah, who spoke during the signing of the MOU at the Bank’s Cairo headquarters recently, said the two institutions would collaborate in the identiďŹ cation, preparation and ďŹ nancing of projects and trade transactions in African states that are members of both entities. Through co-ďŹ nancing, knowledge-sharing and capacity-building work, Afreximbank and BDEAC will join eorts to intensify industrialisation, expand exports and promote intraregional trade across countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), he said. In his remarks, the President of BDEAC, Fortunato-Ofa Mbo Nchama, said his institution’s decision to partner with Afreximbank was based on the strong alignment that existed between the strategic objectives of the two entities.

“Once everybody comes in and we build a credible tax database and the economy starts to boom, every individual, every corporate organisation would be paying their taxes�

Executive Chairman, FIRS

Mr. Babatunde Fowler

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INVESTORS TRADE N11.7TN SECURITIES ON FMDQ OTC EXCHANGE increase of 4.72 per cent from the previous month.

Member-CBN trades recorded $4.18 billion in January 2018, representing an increase of 17.98 per cent compared with $3.54 billion recorded in December 2017).

Meanwhile, activities in the secured Money Market (Repos/Buy-Backs) settled at N1.86 trillion in January 2018, which is 32.23 less than the N2.74 trillion in December.

Unsecured Placements/Takings closed the month with a turnover of N120.61 billion, a 14.69 per cent decrease from the N141.37 billion recorded in December 2017.

HOW TO DOUBLE NIGERIA’S RICE PRODUCTION and extension services, and ensuring incentives are transparent and accessible to all investors.�

The revolution of rice production in the country was triggered by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP).

The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh had described the ABP introduced by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele as revolutionary.

According to Ogbeh, with the ABP, rice revolution has started in the country.

Ogbe had noted that the ABP on rice remains one of the greatest achievements by the CBN in the last 50 years.

The minister disclosed that there had been tremendous pressure on the government to import rice in order to meet the demand for the commodity, which was an indication that those mounting such pressure never believed that the ABP was working.

Ogbeh said that it does not make any economic sense to continue to spend scare foreign exchange resources on rice importation, when the country had huge potential to grow rice in commercial quantity, noting that each ship load of rice imported into the country displaces 12, 000 farmers from employment.

FAAN Earns N38bn from Passenger Service Charge in 2017 Hosts 59th ACI-Africa Conference in Lagos

r

Chinedu Eze The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it generated about N38 billion from passenger service charge (PSC) in 2017, attributing it to increase in inbound passenger movement.

Managing Director of the agency, Saleh Dunoma, disclosed this at a press conference to announce the hosting of 59th Airports Council International (ACI), Africa Board Regional Committees Meetings, Regional Conference and Exhibition in Lagos between April 14 and 20, 2018. Dunoma said the ease of doing business introduced by the federal government, which led to the introduction of visa on arrival policy increase the number of visitors into the country and removed the hindrances that existed in the past that forestalled investors who visit the country.

According to him, airports around the world rely on non-aeronautical revenues (NAR) such as retail concessions, car parking property and real estate, adding that global NAR accounts for 40 percent of airports income.

He disclosed that during the conference, an entire session would dwell on the challenges and future of tax-free retail

shopping, a major source of non-aeronautical revenue.

Dunoma said: “FAAN generated 38 billion from Passenger Service Charges in 2017, although passenger traffic dropped. The automated car park at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport increased FAAN revenue by 68 per cent. “African airports must position for increased pas-

senger volume, particularly business travellers and tourists. Last year, the continent saw a nine percent increase in tourism, the highest increase in any region.�

Speaking on the forthcoming conference which would be held for the first time in Nigeria, Dunoma, who is also the President, ACI-Africa, said the theme of the conference, “Business Transformation for

Sustainable Development of African Airports�, was timely, adding that among other things, the conference would push for a change in the perception of business in African airports.

According to him, there should be a change in how the business of African airports is viewed, for the region to realise the vaunted benefits of Single African Air Transport Market

(SAATM)’ agenda. “The 59th ACI-Africa Board and Committees Meetings and Regional Conference and Exhibition is holding just after 23 African countries signed the Single African Air Travel Market (SAATM) last January in Addis Ababa. SAATM has the potential to transform/ revolutionise aviation business on the continent.

GOOD TO HAVE YOU HERE

L-R: Big Brother evicted housemate- Kelvin Broulette (K-brule), Princess Onyekwe (Princess), Bitto Arunum (Bitto), Group Head, Corporate Communications, Heritage Bank, Fela Ibidapo, Abiri Oluwabusayo (Khloe) Vanessa Williams (Vandora) and Martin Aderombi (Dee One), during their visit to the Corporate Head Office of Heritage Bank in Lagos...recently

Power Gencos Give Conditions to Withdraw Legal Action against FG, Others Chineme Okafor in Abuja The power generation companies (Gencos) that recently filed a court case against the federal government, some of its agencies and two other private operators in Nigeria’s power sector, for alleged non-payment of their monthly invoices for power generated and transmitted to the national grid, have indicated their willingness to withdraw their lawsuit against the government if it would meet certain demands.

In a suit no: FHC/ABJ/ CS/180/2018, filed at the Federal High Court (FHC) Abuja Division, and presided over

by Justice Binta Nyako, four Gencos - Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, Transcorp Power Limited, Egbin Power Plc, and North-South Power Company Limited, filed a court case against the government for alleged preferential treatments of operators in the sector.

They reportedly filed the case on behalf of other Gencos in the country. The FGN, Central

Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), Azura Power West Africa Limited, and Accugas Limited, were cited as defendants in the suit.

In their complaints also, they claimed the government was giving preferential treatments to Accugas and Azura, by granting them sovereign and partial risks guarantees over payment failures to them for services they render to the sector, in addition to giving them

priority payments schedules in the N701 billion payment guarantee facility the CBN approved for the NBET to meet its obligations to them.

The first hearing on the case was reportedly heard by the court on March 1, 2018, and a note on the development was obtained by THISDAY in Abuja. But irrespective of the legal action, THISDAY learnt that the Gencos have made demands on the government, and upon which they could stepdown their law suit.

They equivocally stated that they were in a dire situation and that the government not addressing the issues they have raised in their letter as well as their demands would inevitably affect their operations and capacities to continue to generate electricity.

In this regards, they asked the government to confirm it plans to pay them 100 per cent of all outstanding indebtedness and interests due to them for electricity they supplied and ancillary services.

Youths Urged to See ICT as Money SpinningVenture Okon Bassey in Uyo Group Business Editor

Ă’Ă“Ă•Ă‹ Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă¤Ă?Ě‹ ĂĄĂ‹Ă?Ă’Ă&#x;Ă•Ă&#x; AgriBusiness/Industry Editor

Ă™Ă˜Ă‹ĂžĂ’Ă‹Ă˜ äĂ?

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Senior Correspondent

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Youths in the country have been urged to build their career around the Information Communication Technology (ICT) environment now seen as another money spinning venture second to oil and gas business globally.

The Director- General, Information Technology Development Agency (NTIDA), Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami made the call while unveiling the South-south version of the Startup Friday (SUF) programme of the agency in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The project, an initiative of the NITDA executed by its subsidiary office, the Office for ICT Innovation and Entreprenuership (OIIE) is aimed at identifying and

developing indigenous talent in the sector.

Pantami stressed that in an attempt to strengthen and diversify the economy, the alternative area we have now in the country was the ICT sector, saying “we have a very good economy and population. These are the advantages Nigeria has over many countries of the world�.

He explained that the essence of the Startup Friday by the agency expected to be launched in every states of the federation was an innovation to motivate and encourage young Nigerians to build their careers in the ICT environment. “Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship was established by the Agency to drive programs and policies that support ICT development,

develop, establish and support ICT innovation hubs, Information Technology parks and community enterprise hubs across Nigeria while, collaborating with the private and public sectors at both federal and state levels on programs that support entrepreneurship and commercialization. “NITDA is determined to ensure that all Nigerians, especially the youths are carried along in its empowerment agenda. That is the idea behind the Startup Friday moving from one state to another to identify brilliant Nigerians that need our support�, he stated.

According to him, with strong and literate ICT society, solutions could be proffer to any area of challenges in the country either in

the education, health, agriculture or oil and gas sector.

The NITDA boss said it was amazing and worrisome to note that millions of dollars were being spent outside the country in an attempt to fine ICT solution to the nation’s challenges arguing that it wasn’t enough to import ICT solution from other countries to solve our problems.

Pantami maintained that the presidential orders or directives to deepen indigenous or local content in the ICT industry further gave impetus to the Agency to strengthen its resolve to bridge the digital divide, establish, facilitate and support the Nigerian ICT Startup ecosystem.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel expressed delight over the choice

of the state as the first in the South-South geo-political zone to benefit from the developmental event of its magnitude.

Represented by the State Commissioner of Science and Technology, Professor Nse Essien, the Governor said: “The choice of Akwa Ibom state by NITDA for such an important project is an attestation that NITDA, and indeed the present administration, exists to serve all Nigerians regardless of geographical locations or any challenges. “Information Technology is the guarantee to a secure future and we are proud to be a part of this epoch making event. We are immensely grateful to the DG for spreading the dragnet to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria�, he said.

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NotYet Uhuru for Nestle Nigeria Goddy Egene writes that having reported improved results and declaring a higher dividend payout for 2017, sustaining that performance by Nestle Nigeria would be constrained by competition from import substitutes

Shareholders of Nestle Nigeria Plc have every reason to smile given the fact that the company has ended 2017 financial with higher profit and dividend. Nestle Nigeria’s profit after tax (PAT) fell to N7.92 billion in 2016, from N23.7 billion in 2015. The reduction in profit made the directors to cut the dividend per share from N29.00 in 2015 to N10.00 in 2016.

However, the story is different for 2017 as shareholders are to receive higher dividend.

This follows a rebound in its bottom-line for the 2017 financial year. In specific terms, the shareholders are to receive a total dividend of N42.50 per share, up from N10.00 the previous year.

Financial performance According to the audited results, Nestle Nigeria Plc reported gross revenue of N244.2 billion, up 34.2 per cent, from N181.9 billion recorded in 2016. Cost of sales went up 34.4 per cent to N143.3 billion, from N106.6 billion, making the firm to close with a gross profit of N100.9 billion, which was 33.9 per cent higher than the N75.3 billion recorded in 2016. Marketing and distribution expenses rose from N28.77 billion to N35.15 billion, while administrative expenses rose from N8.33 billion to N10 billion in 2017. Net finance costs fell by 46.8 per cent from N16.7 billion to N8.9 billion. Profit before tax settled at N46.8 billion, showing a growth of 117 per cent compared with N21.5 billion recorded in 2016. Profit after tax grew faster by 325 per cent from N7.9 billion to N33.7 billion in 2017.

Hence, the directors recommended a total dividend of N42.50, which is 325 per cent higher than the N10.00 paid in respect of 2016 financial year.

A further look at the revenue of the company showed that Nestle continued to leverage on its staple products in the food and beverage categories as its food segment posted a revenue growth of 36 per cent while the beverage

segment grew by 31 per cent. .Commenting on the 2017 results, Nestle Nigeria said it was pleased with the growth, which it attributed to multiple factors such as continued loyalty and trust of its consumers in its brands, the dedication of its people and the efficiency of its distribution network. “In line with our strategic roadmap, we will continue to invest behind brands and route-tomarket activities while proactively managing input cost pressures to stay on the growth path. We will continue delivering value to our shareholders with our commitment to provide high quality nutritious products to meet the needs and preference of our consumers,� the company said.

Robust top line growth on price effect Assessing the results, analysts at WSTC Financial Services Limited, an investment banking firm, said the remarkable topline performance of N244.1 billion in from N181.9 billion in 2016 was largely driven by the food segment which accounts for 61 per cent of revenue and higher product pricing. Cost of sales grew in line with revenue to N143.3 billion from N106.6 billion in and supported gross profit margin which remained flat at 41 per cent.

According to them, Nestle also recorded significant gains in operating efficiency as operating profit increased markedly by 46 per cent to N55.7 billion in from N38.2 billion in 2016. “Operating margins expanded by 23 per cent in 2017 from 21 per cent in 2016. In addition, net finance cost declined markedly by 47 per cent to N8.9 billion in from N16.7 billion, supported by significant decline in interest expense and foreign exchange loss on foreign denominated loans which reduced from N16.3 billion in 2016 to N11.2 billion in 2017 given the relative stability in FX during the period.

Accordingly, profit before tax surged by

117 per cent to N48.6 billion in 2017 from N21.5 billion in 2016. Profit after tax increased remarkably by 326 per cent to N33.7 billion in 2017 from N7.9 billion in 2016 as a result of lower effective tax rate due to changes in pioneer tax status, tax credit & incentives and prior year tax over provisioning.

Constrained volume In their opinion, the WSTC analysts said growth in volume will be constrained by higher competition from import substitutes given the improvement in FX liquidity. “And we do not expect any significant price increase. Thus, we believe growth in revenue will moderate significantly to seven per cent in full year of 2018. We have a fair value estimate of N1, 197.14 for the stock. At the current market price of N1,380 Nestle is trading at a 15 per cent premium to our fair value estimate,� they said.

On their part, analysts at FBN Quest maintained their underperform rating despite the improved performance of the food/beverages firm.

Underperform rating maintained Commenting on the fourth quarter (Q4) results, FBN Quest said sales were the weakest in 2017 and showed a quarter on quarter (q/q) decline for the first time in a decade. “Compared with our forecast, sales missed by 11 per cent. We believe that topline growth was driven primarily by unit volume growth unlike in the previous three quarters when higher pricing spurred growth. We estimate that Nestle raised prices by 35-40 per cent in second half (H2) 2016. Looking ahead, we do not expect Nestle to raise prices aggressively in 2018 given growing competition from imported products. As such, we have cut our sales growth estimate for 2018 by 500bps to 10 per cent year-on-year(y/y) and anticipate that gross margin contraction would persist,� they said.

However, looking at the profit and loss (P&L) of the company, the analysts said Nestle significantly deleveraged its balance sheet in 2017. “Total debt declined by around 50 per cent to N24 billion while cost of debt fell by 200bps to 8 per cent. As such we do not anticipate any significant negative impact on the P&L coming from this line as seen in prior years.

We note that Nestle has drawn down only $15.2 million out of a seven-year $30 million loan which Nestle S.A.( its parent firm)approved in 2017. Additionally, we have lowered our tax rate to 28 per cent, recognising the potential tax relief which may be realised from the newly commissioned Milo ready-to-drink plant at Agbara Industrial Estate, Ogun State.

They said their new price target for Nestle is N985, which implies a potential downside of 28 per cent from current levels. “Consequently, we retain our underperform rating on the stock. At current levels, Nestle shares are trading on a 2018 P/E multiple of 26.4x for 10 per cent EPS growth in 2019E. Benefits from tax relief reversed y/y PBT decline Nestle’s posted sales growth of 12 per cent y/y to N58.9 billion while PBT declined by -23 per cent y/y to N12.4 billion in Q4 2017. However, PAT grew 44 per cent y/y to N10.7bn on the back of a relatively low tax rate of 13 per cent compared with 54 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2016. On a segmental basis, topline growth was driven by a 21 per cent y/y rise in beverage sales to N22 billion,� they said.

According to FBN Quest, unlike in Q2 and Q3, gross margin contracted by -220bps y/y to 42.4 per cent. “The major downside to this set of numbers was a double-digit y/y rise in operating expenses to N12.4 billion. The combined impact of the gross margin decline and opex growth led to a PBT decline of 23 per cent y/y. Compared with our forecasts, Q4 sales and PBT came in behind our estimates by around 11 per cent and eight per cent respectively,� they said.

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ntel to Launch National Roaming Plan Next Month Emma Okonji In order to expand its ongoing drive for subscriber acquisition and brand visibility, ntel, the fifth entrant into the Nigerian GSM space, which acquired NITEL and MTel, has said it will launch its national roaming plan across the country by April this year.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ntel, Mr. Ernest Debo Akinlola who made the disclosure at the weekend in Lagos, during a breakfast meeting organised by Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA), said ntel has successfully concluded the proof of concept, which is the trial testing of its national roaming plan with the 9mobile network, and witnessed by the telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Having successfully carried out the trial testing of our national roaming plan, the NCC has given approval for ntel to carry out trial launch with MTN and as soon as that is done, we hope to extend it to other GSM networks in the country, Akinlola said.

In technical parlance, national

roaming is the ability for a network operator to provide a platform where its customers could automatically make and receive telephone calls, send and receive data, or access other services while travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network, by means of using a network of another operator. “We are looking at launching our national roaming plan in April this year, which will give us the opportunity to have services everywhere and our customers could access our services from any part of the country where there is telecoms presence,� Akinlola told journalists at the breakfast meeting.

Explaining the level of development it has reached with its national roaming plan, Akinlola said: “We have reached advanced stage with 9mobile in our national roaming plan, we have carried out a proof of concept, which is a trial test, and which the NCC witnessed and it was very successful. Mobile terminating calls and SMS were successfully delivered in the trial test that we carried out. We are just finalising the pricing in terms of national terminating call rates.�

Speaking on the expected value that the roaming plan will bring to the ntel brand, he said it would give the ntel brand, the opportunity to rollout and acquire more customers across the country. We just got approval from NCC to do a trial launch with MTN, and we will do same with other networks as soon as NCC gives us the approval to do so, he added.

Head of Marketing at ntel, Mr. Jide Mafolabomi said the telecoms company currently has presence in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, with 72 per cent coverage of the entire Lagos and 60 per cent coverage in Port Harcourt, and that ntel has plans to be in 18 states of the federation in the next one year.

He also said ntel would be launching its recharge card denominations by next week across all its coverage areas.

We have plans to go beyond virtual airtime, to recharge cards, through which everybody will have access to ntel. “We are introducing recharge cards next week and we are beginning with N500 recharge card and above, but with time, our dealers can print smaller denominations through ePIN,� Mafolabomi said.

Continental Re Rated High on Corporate Governance Ebere Nwoji Continental Reinsurance Plc, has been recognised as one of the listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rated high on Corporate Governance Rating System.

The company received the award during the CGRS certification ceremony held in Lagos recently.

A statement from the company said six of the directors of the company were also recognised for passing the Fiduciary Awareness Certification Test during the event.

The directors are Dr. Olufemi Oyetunji, Ahlam Bennani, Paul Kokoricha, Foluso Laguda, Lawrence Nazare, Merrick Oeschger, David Sobanjo and Ian Tofield.

Speaking during the award ceremony, Chief Executive Officer, The NSE, Oscar Onyema, congratulated the recipients of the awards.

He said that their success was a testament that they were promoting the CGRS and that good corporate governance will improve their profitability.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive, the Convention on Business Integrity, Soji Apampa, said the organisations were honouring companies and individual directors that distinguished themselves by their efforts despite the particularly difficult business environment to demonstrate their preparedness to do the right things and do things right.

He said: “This is worthy

of celebration because for decades, those who habitually did the wrong things and did things wrong seems to have got away with it and even prospered than those who have been right in the dilemma, who refused to join them and risk appearing uncompetitive or joined them and risk damaging your business in the long run.�

According to him, the CGRS certification is based on standards set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), the Code of Corporate Governance by the Security and Exchange Commission, and the Corporate Affairs Commission, regulation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Anti-corruption principles of the United Nations Global Compact.

Sovereign Trust Insurance Hosts Golfers in Nigeria Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc said it is set to host the sixth edition of the Open Golf Tournament in conjunction with Ibadan Golf Club in Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to the company, the tournament, which will hold between March 23 and 25, 2018 is part of its contribution to the development of the game of golf and sports generally in the country.

Sovereign Trust Insurance Spokesperson, Mr. Segun Bankole, said the company devoted itself to sponsorship of the annual tournament because Sovereign Trust Brand has been very unique and dynamic qualities as an underwriting firm, which is worth showcasing to the golfing community and golfers alike during the three-day event

and beyond.

He said the company has evolved over time, having been established over two decades ago and today has become a very vibrant, youthful, eclectic and upwardly mobile brand which has kept up with pacesetting initiatives in the insurance industry in Nigeria over the years.

Bankole added that the company has set in motion the necessary machinery that will ensure that every participant will have an unforgettable experience at the end of the competition.

One of the Patrons of Ibadan Golf Club and an ardent golfer, Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja of Boff & Co. Insurance Brokers, expressed profound gratitude to the management of Sovereign Trust Insurance for staying

true and showing avowed commitment to sponsoring the tournament in the last six years of its commencement.

According to him, “Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has consistently shown unwavering commitment to the promotion of sporting activities and the development of young talents in different areas of human endeavour in the country over a period of time now�.

He appealed to the management of the company not to relent in its effort at ensuring that the country’s human capacity is developed to the fullest through the various corporate social responsibility platforms and other sporting engagements that have been identified by the company.

ELEVATING TO THE NEXT LEVEL Marie-Therese Phido

Why A Brand Plan is More Important Than a Business Plan Areva Martin, in her article “Why Your Brand Plan is More Important Than Your Business Plan has asked the question, �Why should you care about branding?� She goes on to say, it is because these days, everyone will Google you before they visit your restaurant, buy your products, hire you to perform a service, loan money to you or invest capital in your new or existing venture. Any time you interact with people -- online or off -- your brand will matter.

We used to live in simpler times. The only brands most of us knew about were managed by big corporations: IBM, Coca-Cola, BMW. If you wanted to build a business, you wrote a comprehensive business plan that focused on the numbers: cash flow, revenue, expenses and profit. In most circumstances, that plan would include a substantial line item for traditional print and maybe radio and television advertisement. Branding wasn’t on the radar for most companies.

If that sounds like a better world to you, you’re mistaken. The advantages available to us in the last decade are so much greater than anything that’s ever been possible, the two worlds can’t even be compared. Never before have you had the chance to build a brand like you can today, then leverage it to expand your business, increase your sales, and enhance your credibility and your bottom line. Despite these tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs, many are oblivious to them and cling to a by-gone era where time-honored business plans and approaches to promoting a business focused on advertising and not engagement.

Those customary plans may have been adequate for those “simpler times.� But, for today’s internet and social media driven world, a business misses the mark without a sophisticated “brand plan� that specifically conveys what it represents, the value it brings to its customers and strategies about how to keep a conversation going, otherwise known as engagement, with thousands of strangers online.

What goes into a brand plan Specifically, a well-written brand plan focuses an organization’s brain-trust, resources and tactics in the direction they need to go in order for a brand to achieve its goals.

The brand plan acts as an umbrella under which functions such as marketing, sales and product development are united, detailing what each group needs to do for the brand to be successful, while setting objectives that operations and finance need to support.

A successful brand plan starts with a vision -- ideas about what the brand should represent or symbolize. The plan should also include a mission -- a specific plan-of-attack that helps launch the brand.

Next are goals, things you want the brand to achieve, followed by strategies that provide a road map on how to get there. A successful brand plan must identify consumer targets, the demographic a business needs to support its brand. To entice these consumers to buy the product, a brand must have a main message, which explains why the company and its products can do things that others cannot. Lastly, a brand plan should include strategies for promotion that gets its targeted consumers to take action.

Most importantly, branding is about emotions and how your customers and clients feel about you and your products. Marketing is about numbers. Both are important, but in today’s climate, how you make people feel can make or break your business.

Lessons from Elon Musk’s expert branding One person today who understands the emotional aspect of branding better than most is Elon Musk. With his Tesla Motors, Space X rockets and Solar City Energy Company, Musk -- it’s been said -- doesn’t have customers, he has followers.

Known as a maverick and creative genius, Musk has successfully branded himself as a globe-trotting entrepreneur who’s out to save the world by inventing brilliant products and machines that are environmentally friendly.

Thus, Musk’s customers not only admire his creativity and business acumen, but also his ideology. For many of his followers, Tesla automobiles are a seamless extension of the man, himself -- cool looking vehicles that simultaneously combat global warming.

What’s also attractive to consumers is that Musk takes personal responsibility for his brand. In 2013, when the company was hit with a wave of bad publicity after several Tesla automobiles caught on fire, Musk personally authored a blog post that made a strong defense of Tesla’s product and consequently of his own brand identity. Consumers rewarded Musk for his honesty and sincerity by making the company’s Model S the world’s bestselling plug-in electric car in 2015 and 2016.

As Musk has shown, a business’ success depends on authenticity, transparency and sincere actions. A positive brand that ignites enthusiasm and drives millions in profits isn’t something you leave to chance or expect to create without much consideration and planning. Why leave it to chance? The more time, effort and resources you spend on your brand plan, the more likely you are to create a sustainable positive brand that resonates with your customer base, grows your influence and impacts your bottom line.

Those customary plans may have been adequate for those “simpler times.â€?But, for today’s internet and social media driven world, a business misses the mark without a sophisticated “brand planâ€?that speciďŹ cally conveys what it represents, the value it brings to its customers and strategies about how to keep a conversation .– Marie-Therese Phido is Sales & going, otherwise known Market Strategist and Business Coach as engagement, with Email: mphido@elevato.com.ng thousands of strangers tweeter handle @osat2012 TeL: 08090158156 (text only) online

T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY MARCH 14, 2018

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As Fintechs Encroach into the Banking Space Obinna Chima examines the growing influence financial technology companies are having on commercial banks In recent months, there has been a surge in financial technology (fintech) companies, which continue to steal traditional banks’ businesses, right under their noses.

Clearly, banks are worried about this development and are daily working out ways to remain ahead of the industry and maintain their market share.

For instance, a recent report showed that some fintech firms have started targeting the deposit and loans segments of traditional banks, with a view to taking part of the market share of the financial institutions.

The report by Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), cited an example of PiggyBank, which uses recurring card payments to allow its customers create and fund a savings account on their mobile phone. This, according to the report, has proven popular among working class Nigerian youths as it offers an alternative to a traditional fixed deposit account which requires a number of visits to a physical branch to set up.

Fintech refers to an evolving range of start-ups and companies leveraging technology to provide financial services. Fintech models provide consumers the convenience that banks cannot yet match. For example, you can request a loan from ‘Paylater’ and receive a credit alert in two hours.

One can also get a new dollar debit card from ‘Get Barter’ and open a fixed deposit account with PiggyBank “A logical next step for Piggybank would be to start offering loans. In the same vein, technology can prove an advantage, as algorithms have enabled start-ups to assess credit worthiness and deliver loans quicker than traditional banks. “Even if a fintech firm does not successfully disrupt the banking industry, it has created cost-effective models that also provide quality financial services,� the report added.

Indeed, in the last couple of years, there has been a rise of many fintech platforms; from payment solutions to online lending applications, while the older fintech players like Square, Ant Financial and Sofi continue to hold strong.

But traditional banks have so far, remained resilient to this disruption, mainly due to advantages built up through their branch networks and expertise in providing credit.

The resilience also comes from their consumer base, which have been slow to adopt fintech their financial services partly due to a lack of urgency and a lack of awareness about the strategic benefits of the new tools, and partly due to concerns about privacy and security.

No doubt, fintechs present a threat to traditional banks as their platforms tend to broaden the scope of available financing, offer customers bespoke services at a lower cost and reach previously unbanked populations.

As technologies evolve, customer taste and lifestyles also change, prompting the development of technology solutions that will meet customers’ needs and lifestyles, as they relate to financial transactions.

The emergence of fintechs changed the whole narrative in the banking sector as the fintechs continue to come up with disruptive technology solutions that have changed the face of baking globally.

The new trend is that customers are gradually shifting from the physical banks, to operate outside the banks, using their mobile devices, enabled by apps designed and develop byfintechs.

In short, fintech platforms offer customers a superior service, at a lower cost, through the efficiencies of technology.

On the other hand, commercial banks are financial intermediaries: they take money from people looking to save (deposits) and give to people looking to borrow (loans).

They generate interest on loans, and they collect fees and commissions on numerous

value added services to the depositors, for example: money transfers, foreign exchange transactions, and bill payments. A significant portion of bank revenues come from net interest income – the difference between interest accrued and interest paid out.

Banks Reposition for Survival According to PwC’s 2017 Global fintech Report, mainstream financial institutions are rapidly embracing the disruptive nature of FinTech and forging partnerships in efforts to sharpen operational efficiency and respond to customer demands for more innovative services.

In fact, funding is moving from a venture capitalist dominated field towards more mainstream investments. According to research based on data from PwC’s DeNovo platform, funding of FinTech start-ups has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 per cent over the last four years, with over US$40 billion in cumulative investment.

It noted that cutting-edge fintech companies and financial innovation are changing the

No doubt, ďŹ ntechs present a threat to traditional banks as their platforms tend to broaden the scope of available ďŹ nancing, offer customers bespoke services at a lower cost and reach previously unbanked populations

competitive landscape and are redrawing the lines of the financial services industry.

The report further showed that financial institutions are putting disruption at the heart of their strategy with 56 per cent of respondents agreeing with this.

To the Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), Mr. Segun Agbaje, who acknowledged the incursion of fintechs into banks’ business, there is need for banks to embrace digital transformation to create an entirely new banking experience that meet the demands and expectations of today’s millennials.

He pointed out that one of the things that keep him awake most nights is to ensure that his bank remains ahead of the rapid transformation in the digital banking space.

He urged banks to be innovative so as not to lose their market share to competitors in the digital banking space. According to him, GTBank has developed platforms to continuously engage its customers.

For him, the relationship between banks and fintechs today is collaboration, pointing out that “it would eventually become competition.�

He added: “That is because once the fintechs become big enough and have enough of your customer base, you will become competitors. I think it is collaboration, but it would migrate to competition.�

Therefore, he urged commercial banks to build business models and create platforms to meet the needs of their customers always. “So, if as a customer, you come into our ecosystem, you can just buy anything, you can do your banking business, you can buy your tickets, you can buy insurance, you can travel, if you want to get a 10-day loan, you can come in and do it. “So, really, we want you to come into our ecosystem, maybe five times a day to do something more than banking,� he added.

On his part, the Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, said his bank is developing products and platforms to meet the ever-changing needs of its 21 century customers.

According to Okonkwo, in order to provide financial services for the millennials, which are majorly the target of the fintechs, banks need to understand their needs and preferences.

He added: “More importantly, a lot of youths actually live on the social media. So, if we’re going to engage them, you have to understand what they actually need.�

He noted that the bank had over the years proven itself as a youth inclined financial institution, explaining that, that resulted in growth being witnessed in its digital banking space.

The bank chief disclosed that the bank would strengthening its digital banking team so as to stay on top of changes and work closely with the millennials. “So it’s just one of the ways we’re responding to the transformation going on in the banking industry driven by needs of millennials.�

Therefore, PwC urged financial institutions to disrupt their own operations or processes by introducing culture and mindset challenges.

The report also pointed out that adopting effective growth strategies and integrating withfintech would be essential to partner for innovation. “In all countries, a large majority of participants, with 82 per cent on average, expect to increase partnerships with fintech companies over the next three to five years.“Partnering with innovators will allow incumbents to outsource part of their research and development and bring solutions to the market quickly. “Fintech companies also benefit from these partnerships. As they develop new theories and models, in order to test them, they need access to large data sets that incumbents already have. “Partnering also gives them access to an existing and large customer base. This is further emphasised by fintech segments that are starting to transition from purely business to customers to business to business,� it added.

Therefore, for traditional retail banks to overcome looming vulnerability issues like declining deposits due to multiple alternative investment options and innovation around products and services, the need to change their business model as the greater threat from fintech would come in the medium to long term.

Another way banks can respond to this competitive threat would be by learning from and adopting best practices from the same firms that are challenging their very existence.

Clearly, the new wave of digital banking is upon us and those that fail to embrace new technology and keep up with the pace of the new digital age will simply go out of business.

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Financial Inclusion and Place of the Unbanked Ugo Aliogo examines the efforts of First Bank of Nigeria in financial inclusion, an issue that formed the focal point of the bank’s discourse at the just concluded Social Media Week held in Lagos Policy makers and regulators have identified financial inclusion as one of the key growth drivers needed to speed up economic prosperity in the financial sector of any economy. As a concept, financial inclusion ensures that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs such as transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance. The World Bank Group considers financial inclusion as a key enabler to reduce poverty and boost shared progress and has put forward an ambitious global goal to reach Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020.

A study revealed that since 2010, more than 55 countries have made commitments to financial inclusion, and more than 30 have either launched or are developing a national strategy. Countries that have achieved the most progress toward financial inclusion have put in place an enabling regulatory and policy environment, and have encouraged competition allowing banks and non-banks to innovate and expand access to financial services.

However, creating this innovative and competitive space, have to be accompanied by appropriate consumer protection measures and regulations to ensure responsible provision of financial services.

As financial service institutions work to achieve full financial inclusion, one key area which stakeholders have pointed to be important in this campaign is the Digital Financial Services (DFS) because it can expand the delivery of basic financial services to the poor through innovative technologies such as mobile-phone enabled solutions, electronic money models and digital payment platforms. It has been observed that digital channels can reduce cost customers and service providers, open the door for the underserved populations.

In 2016, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said that DFS has the potential to add about 46 million Nigerians into the formal financial system by 2025.

He also stated that agencies of government would immensely gain by digitising cash payments, which would in turn, reduce leakages and enhance transparency in financial transactions. He remarked that the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) had identified long distance to financial services as a key barrier to financial inclusion.

Emefiele explained that DFS transcend physical barriers through the use of ubiquitous electronic channels to particularly reach underserved rural areas; while stating that the enhanced collaboration with the telecommunication sector towards deepening uptake of DFS in the country, and urged industry players to scale up innovations that leverage the mobile platform for financial inclusion of excluded population in the country.

To address the country’s financial inclusion challenges, the apex bank has continued to implement various initiatives geared towards achieving growth in this direction. The initiatives are designed in form of financial services such as credit, savings, payments, remittances, pensions, capital markets and insurance services.

From the financial service sector, key players’ especially banking institutions have continued to make frantic efforts to ensure that the financial inclusion drive is achieved. One of such players is First Bank of Nigeria (FBN). The bank has been on this path for a long period and has recorded tremendous progress. They have also incorporated the DFS in their campaign efforts because they have realised the enormous impacts of technology in advancing the growth of banking.

At the just concluded social media week in Lagos, where the bank had panel discussion with the theme: ‘Financial Inclusion: The Unbanked, the issue was once again brought to the front burner of debate, but this time the focus was to explain the bank’s role in charting a course for the unbanked especially through the use of technology and banking services which would bring about ease, convenience and trust for customers. It also presented the bank an opportunity to reach more customers with the numerous packages which the bank has on offer and continue to spread

MD/CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan

the message of financial inclusion.

Speaking at the event, the Team Lead, Product Design and Conceptualisation, First Bank of Nigeria, Digital Laboratory, Munachi Duru, said the role of the bank at the event is to reach customers that can be reached especially the younger generation.

He also stated that the social media week is a platform for the bank to reach more persons, stressing that they may not see any impact directly in the next few weeks or months, but we have gotten a level of exposure from; therefore the impression is how you are able to follow up this effort.

Duru explained that in the area of online banking, customers are doing well considering the bank’s mobile application which has been downloaded over a million times by subscribers, “we have the highest of customers satisfaction rate. I think about 4.4 to 4.3, which speaks to how well people perceive our application.�

He emphasised that the bank has a lot of work to do especially in the online banking platform, adding that when considering a client base of 10 million, but with just about a million downloads it implies that lots of efforts needs to be put in place to ensure that they are able to onboard more

To address the country’s ďŹ nancial inclusion challenges, the apex bank has continued to implement various initiatives geared towards achieving growth in this direction.

The initiatives are designed in form of ďŹ nancial services such as credit, savings, payments, remittances, pensions, capital markets and insurance services

people especially in the number of downloads.

According to him, “I think we are doing very well. Our online platform is one of the leading platforms in terms of bank transfers, cash transactions and other banking activities.

But more broadly we want to go beyond these especially approach of just paying bills, and buying airtime to something that customers would love. We want to meet the customer at the point of need. “We have our online banking platform called First Online; we just recently launched an improved version of it in November, 2017 that seems so level of success. But there is growth to be achieved. You are aware that more people are moving to the mobile platforms because you have a situation where people are more mobile and our mobile market seems to be growing better than First Online. But you have to consider that more people are on their mobile phone, so that find out that our USSD has a record of 4 million customers already that is one of the largest base in Nigeria. “Our first online platform is doing practically very well. In terms of customer engagement we are doing some work in that respect, but there is still more to be done. If we want to attract customers, it requires us to build the product that they will want to use, so the onus is on us to build products that are more relevant to the market and which we want to serve and build them so well that the customers can serve as ambassadors for those platforms. “It is quite unfortunate that a number of startups are focusing on people with internet connections only. I think more people have feature phones than those who have smart phones, therefore in terms of numbers, there are more people in that sector to be served. You will also find out that there is a proliferation of numbers of products that do similar things on the same applications.

Therefore, we are trying to go away from an application based approach to a customer based approach let meet people with what they are comfortable using. “If they don’t have a smart phone doesn’t mean they can’t be served or if they have an Automated Teller Machine card (ATM) does mean they cannot withdraw money from an ATM. Let go beyond the regular things. For us as a bank, we have made necessary provisions to ensure that our platforms are strong and secured. “We have acquired the required certifications from information security bodies which make sure that our platforms are quite secured. We want

to go deeper; we are using artificial intelligence to make people more secured. We want to go beyond user name and password and token, to actually looking at certain salient things that people will not consider in terms of consumer and transactional behaviour, even activities online, therefore generally, we trying to be more proactive about securing people’s funds rather than giving them tools to secure their funds. “Going forward regarding the future of online banking, I think we are going to be developing more products are that more artificial and that has immense performance to drive future intelligence. Banking platforms are going from the regular platforms that you have to phones and desktops and more tablet based tools. It will become more personal and digital than we see today, but I think for now we may see very similar trends happening. More open banking systems will be introduced. We will move away from just making profits to serving customers.�

In the 21st century, bank transactions are gradually moving beyond the conventional banking hall activities to a more technology driven process. It ensures that the process is quicker, efficient and result oriented. One of the key drivers in this transformation process in the financial sector is the financial technology (Fintechs) solutions.

Although, it has been reported by PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) in a 2017 survey that the country’s retail banking and payments sectors would be the most disrupted by a group of new companies building financial technology (FinTech) solutions, however, the industry is composed of companies that use new technology and innovation with available resources to compete in the marketplace of traditional financial institutions and intermediaries in the delivery of services.

The survey claimed that retail banking and funds transfer have the highest likelihood of disruption at 92 per cent and 85 per cent respectively, stating that FinTechs are redrawing the competitive financial services landscape and blurring the lines that define players in the sector.

Despite these fears, fintechs are still supporting businesses in the financial service sector. One of such is Fint.ng. The fintech is loan based market; therefore their focus is merge borrowers who are looking for consumers and side hustlers, people who are in paid employment and have a side business.

The Chief Executive Officer, Fin.Ng, Chiwete John-Njokanma, who was part of the panel discussion said they merged borrowers with lenders who are either written investors (every day) or high networth individuals or institutions who would lend money to those borrowers, adding thatthey are the cheapest loan market place in the country and “their goal is to democratise access to credit in Africa. We want to offer our lenders new learning opportunities and strong patterns.� He said their role in the social media week is to build user engagement by ensuring that they understand their users a lot more, connect with them and try to make sure that they are still on track and on board to know some of the problems their users are facing.

He said: “We will also make sure we are providing accurate solutions and creating awareness to people who fall under the same target market. Our goal is to make sure we create enough awareness, and engage our users in a productive ways so we can build products that we can impact positive mindset on them. I think that there are strong payment companies that are really revolutionising the way a lot of companies do business today and mobile penetration has increased internet usage and it has increased transaction volume online. “Companies such as Paystack and Flutterwave are determined to make sure that they are creating values for their customers, the system is not perfect and our industries are relatively new.

The Fintech industries are relatively new, they are going to make mistakes, however the focus should be that any time we make mistake as an industry, we should recognise that mistake and we correct it so that we are providing a power that is stronger, safer and more trustworthy.�

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BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Adekoya: Businesses Must Collaborate with Private Security Managing Director of PR 24, a category ‘A’ licensed security company in Nigeria, Onyekachi Adekoya, in this interview with Eromosele Abiodun, spoke on the security private sector in Nigeria and the value proposition that sets his firm apart from others Can you tell us about your company and the business you do?

PR 24 Nigeria, means ‘Protection Round The Clock’. Basically, we are a category ‘A’ licensed security company and in our approach to the business, we see ourselves more as a professional services provider. We believe that the service we render should impact on the customer to whom we serve, so, security service can either be an enabler of business, a promoter of business or at least, should give some level of strategic advantage to people who have right emphasis on security.

In the new paradigm where we are now, we are going into a space where you can now begin to see more strategic importance of security. If we look at Lagos State, for example, you will see the level of investment the government is making in the area of security, because of its strategy to make Lagos a tourism destination.

You cannot do tourism without security and so you cannot achieve some level of security without the right investment.

So, in strategic investment, security is not the end point. Security is just an enabler that is why you see the repositioning of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). You have seen lightening of parts of Lagos, you are seeing heavy investments, now you have seen LASEMA and other groups.

It’s targeting an environment where people can work day and night and not feel threatened.

So, I think we are looking at security in that perspective. About the company, like I said, we are a category ‘A’ licensed security company.

Our vision statement is very clear, we want to become the foremost and preferred solutions provider in our space; our mission is to provide active services to our customers and to support their profitability. So, we value everything we do as a company, with the customer in mind, not just security only, but how to partner with clients to enable them take advantage of opportunities in their business and also have some advantage over your competitors. Security is quite verse, our industry don’t really focus on it as we should, and sadly in this part of the world, we don’t really find companies with a security director, instead what you find is the chief security officer (CSO), who doesn’t talk strategy, who doesn’t talk about this whole thing, who doesn’t have the best idea on how the business works and see where security is important. I think this is part of the issue we set out to try and address, and also change the paradigm when it comes to security.

How can businesses take advantage of your expertise or knowledge of security to provide the kind of steps you highlighted?

I think it is partnership and interestingly, security is everybody’s business. Firstly, companies must have a collaborative approach to security, not a servant –master approach, as a matter of fact. The chief executive officer (CEO) must know the truth about their roles, they are the chief security officer of the company, and they are the chief safety officer. The law holds them responsible for the life and property of the people who work within their space, so it starts from the CEO. They must understand that they cannot do without security and they must begin to look for where security can give them advantage in their business, and that mindset must be there. Once the emphasis is right, then you can talk about collaboration. How do you get the right partners?, not just the right partners, but the partners who understand the language of the business, and who can show you where the advantage is. For example, a company is coming to Nigeria for oil in the North East and there is Boko Haram there. A particular CEO will say, there is insurgency there, don’t let us go, another CEO who understands will ask the right question, how can we go to the North East, come out securely, safely and profitably. That question is where a true security partner will come in. Collaboration is the answer. You asked, how companies can get value from our services, it’s through

critical role in intelligence and support services.

A lot of discussion is coming up, just like state policing. You know we started with community policing, so there is a lot to talk about it.

When was PR 24 established, and who are your major clients?

You know we work in a sensitive space, so we may not be able to divulge details of our clients. The company was incorporated in 2010 and we commenced operations in 2012, so I can say that we have been in operation for about six years. Our areas of focus are financial services, hospitality sector, oil and gas, construction and then foreign missions.We currently have a number of clients, discerning client as we call them. Except you ask me how do I qualify my customers like that. There are some services you can provide for everybody, and there are some services that need specific requirement, so we were set out really not to provide a general sense of service as it were, we are specialist providers of security, be it physical or electronic. When we say solution, it means that a service or innovation must provide a need and solve a problem in such a way that it must create an enablement of some sought. So, that is where we take service from and we have discerning customers and those are the people we serve in our business.

Adekoya

collaboration. If I am not dwelling too far, the problem with our sector and industry is that the curriculum of the present industry players does not really afford them the exposure of how business works, so whether you need an army or the police or any of those paramilitary or military institutions, their curriculum is tinted so much toward state function. Community police is even an issue in the country. We have not even started talking about the state police, yes the discussion is going on now, even when we begin to implement it, it will also take us a phase at one time to get to Eldorado.

So, the curriculum itself is a problem. If you don’t have currently a wealth of knowledge of that understanding of how business works and how security can support the pursuit of business, then, something is missing. But there are some very few companies and some very few professionals who understand how this things work and how we can take advantage of proper partnership and collaboration, but the emphasis must start with the company seeking value to know that yes, there is this need for collaboration or partnership.

What is your industry not doing right that makes it difďŹ cult for the federal government to look at you as a partner for security? The United States government, for example, gives a lot of security contracts to Blackwater Security Company owned by a former CIA agent You asked a very tough question, with a very simple answer. You talk about Blackwater, they also have their own down side. You have a government contractor whose is licensed to carry arms, and is working under his licence but for the interest of his principal, and since the principal is a mining company in a community and there is tendency for security breakdown.

Those agents in pursuit of the interest of their principal, they must protect the life of their principal and in the process shoot down 15

people because he has been contracted to save life and protect the properties of his client, he has no commitment obligation whatsoever to the community. However, it is agreed, there is a principle of force continuous, you must apply force when it became complex, but when there is clear danger to life and property, these contractors will lose this opportunity first, which is also why Blackwater has a lot of cases to answer. But that said, we will not throw away the baby with the bath water. There are enormous advantages to private security, and that is collaboration and partnership. I have colleagues who are strong proponents of private security carrying arms. I am also a proponent of it but we are also saying that there will have to be a lot of control. Sadly, our regular police and army are still struggling with arms they are bearing and how to comport themselves with arms. Not that, it cannot be managed, but it has to be properly structured. There is clear need for security because we are grossly under policed. I think somebody said almost 60 per cent of the police force has been assigned to class of individuals and V.I.P’s, so what we then have to contain a population between 180-200 million people are a small fraction.

Yes, there is a need, and there is opportunity for private arm guards.

Do you think you are not doing right as an industry presently?

I don’t think there is anybody to blame. The market is a problem; the industry is also a problem. Remember, we have come from a long history of military rule where brute force was the other of the day. We are now in a nascent democracy, talking about 4th-5th republics, and some of the processes have not been entrenched because it is still evolving. There are lots of pushes now from the association of licensed security practitioners, working hand in hand with our regulators, where private companies that reach a certain criteria can begin to play a

Why should a company engage you, and what sets you apart from competitors?

You asked a very good question. I was in another press parley where they asked how we are coping with competition in Nigeria. The answer is simple. Competition is good, very good. Once upon a time, we had NITEL and of course you know how service was. Since Airtel, MTN, GLO and the rest came you know how it has changed. You can now port from one provider to another provider if you are not happy in a general sense of service. Don’t forget that we are the most populist black country on earth with very robust and dynamic huge population. So, Nigeria is green space and everything is growing, so the many the merrier.

Competition can only help you improve and bring out the best in you and it will get to a point where we move beyond competition to co-epitation, which is a now, the catch phrase where we now compete for common good. As an industry, what we should be thinking is how we move the industry forward. So, let’s collaborate and there I will like to commend the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the body that regulates all private security companies. The NSCDC, I think in line with the strategy of government, is seeking to enable businesses really work. So, what set us apart from competition, I think is our value proposition.

What we stand for, like I said earlier is to provide decent services. We are bespoke provider of services, and our approach starts with us understanding your business, understanding what sets you apart from your competitors, understanding your long term strategy, then, we can come in to say this is how security can partner with you and enable you achieve your objectives.

As a security company, how has the environment impacted your business and what would you be expecting government to do in terms of supporting the industry?

I think that the problem that we face really is not unique or peculiar to security industry.

Doing business in Nigeria has been interesting generally. Fortunately for us, we have moved up in world ranking of ease of doing business and I can tell you that we are feeling the positive impact. What we would like to see is more support. Whatever government is trying to do or put in place to support business, they should do it quickly. Like Oliver Twist, we will continue to ask for more. I think the greatest challenge any business faces really in Nigeria is that of stable power and then cost of funds.

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Demystifying the Lagos Land Use Charge In this article, Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade, explains that the land use charge is a levy that applies to properties in Lagos and was not arbitrarily introduced by the state to exploit anyone There must be very few people in Lagos today, who have not heard the term “Land Use Charge.�

In contemporary lingo, Land Use Charge can be said to be “trending.� Unfortunately, it’s been trending for the wrong reasons, many of which I will attempt to clarify and correct in this write-up.

Land Use Charge is a tax that applies to properties in Lagos. It is an aggregated tax that has combined three erstwhile separate taxes namely tenement rate, ground rent and neighbourhood improvement levy, respectively, into one. So instead of paying three different taxes, the tax payer pays just one consolidated tax.

Land Use Charge is not new in Lagos, neither has it been arbitrarily introduced to the state.

Rather, it emanated from a long process of deliberation, consultation and engagement, all of which typically precede law-making. Indeed, implementation of this particular tax was sequel to the passage of the Land Use Charge Law of 2001 as promulgated by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The law has therefore, been operational since 2001. Its stipulations are also fairly simple. It essentially applies to defined categories of properties which are in turn required to pay taxes that vary in accordance with the categories. In calculating the Land Use Charge payable on a property, a simple formula is applied: the estimated value of the property is multiplied by relief rate and further multiplied by the appropriate “charge rate.� While the estimated value of a property is self explanatory, I will explain each of the other two terms in more detail.

The “charge rate� is a relatively small percentage charge that is applied to different categories of property depending on their categorization. A property that is occupied by the owner for instance, enjoys the lowest charge rate. A property that is used for industrial or manufacturing activity is categorized as “industrial� and is charged higher than owner-occupied properties but considerably lower than “commercial� properties. Commercial properties are those properties that are deemed to be fully utilized for commercial activity – a bank branch for instance. There are a few categories in-between.

There is also the “relief rate� which refers to a discount on the calculated charge. I will address this in more detail shortly.

Whereas the Land Use Charge Law of 2001 stipulated that reviews of the charges payable be made on a five-year basis, for some reason this did not happen. So in 2017 for instance, properties were paying charges based on rates that were last determined in 2001. Clearly, after 16 years, those charges had largely become obsolete.

In addition, property valuation did not appear to always follow a uniform standard. There were often stark variations in property valuation that were inequitable. Furthermore, property enumeration did not appear to be proceeding as fast as it ought to and a considerable chunk of properties was actually not paying this charge.

These were some of the inefficiencies in the old Land Use Charge regime that prompted the Lagos State House of Assembly to repeal the old law and promulgate a new one.

In the course of today’s “trending� debate on Land Use Charge, some commentators have tried to create the impression that the Lagos State Government arbitrarily, without engaging or consulting different stakeholders, increased the Land Use Charge rates payable in Lagos. This is not true. The process of the review of the old law and promulgation of the new Land Use Charge Law by the Lagos State House of Assembly was elaborate and painstaking. We must remember that the LSHA which comprises democratically elected representatives of the people is constitutionally vested with the responsibility of making laws for the state. As Finance Commissioner I was invited several times to make presentations and clarifications to the ad hoc committee of LSHA which oversaw the review. The draft legislation was rigorously interrogated and debated at the Assembly not only at committee level but over two separate hearings. Memoranda were invited from dozens of stakeholder groups including civil society groups, community development

Ashade

associations, leadership of local government councils and local council development areas, etc. A well-publicized public hearing was also held at which sundry stakeholders freely aired their views on the draft bill. I trust that the diverse views and opinions must have considerably shaped the revised bill.

The revised bill was eventually signed into law last February by His Excellency, Governor Ambode. The new Land Use Charge law is different from the old law in some respects which I will detail hereunder.

First, in the valuation of property, the new law prescribes that this should be done using prevailing market rates. While I admit that this has expectedly increased the charges that property owners are expected to pay, I should add that it has helped to standardize the Land Use Charge regime, eliminating the opacity that was associated with the older law wherein calculation of property value was sometimes based on the whims and disposition of the assessor.

It is important to remember too, that with the Land Use Charge regime not undergoing any review for 16 years, as at 2017 before the repeal of the old law, rates payable had become significantly obsolete. So when some people complain that their rates have gone up by 300 percent over last year’s rates, the truth is that the rates have actually gone up for the first time since 2001.

In adjusting the bill of a property owner from the N1,200 which he paid annually between 2002 and 2017 to N5,000 annually for instance, the new regime has simply tried to bring the charge up-to-date and in line with present day realities, regardless of the percentage increase.

This is not to say, however, that the entire Land Use Charge administration is working perfectly. It isn’t. Like all systems which employ human intermediaries, there are occasional errors especially where “Best of Judgement� has been employed in determining the scope and size of a property and the exact use to which it is put. This typically happens where property enumerators are denied access to these properties. I would therefore like to implore Lagosians to kindly avail our enumerators of as much cooperation as possible when they visit your properties. This is to help ensure that ultimately accurate variables are used in determining the rates chargeable on each property.

This is one of the reasons why His Excellency Governor Ambode stated clearly at his engagement with the organised private sector recently, that the government is open to dialogue. The Land Use Charge bills are on paper demand notices, not etched in stone. Property owners who find their bills contestable are encouraged to contact the Land Use Charge Office Help Desk at Alausa or indeed any of our offices spread across Lagos.

There are also provisions for mediation. If after all of this, a citizen remains unsatisfied, he may proceed to the Appeal Tribunal.

In addition even though the law clearly stipulates that upon receiving a demand notice, payment must be made within 14 days, failure of which different penalties of up to 200 percent of the original bill begin to apply, the reality is that the state government is making key concessions in this area. We appreciate that the economic situation has impacted everyone significantly and that the increases are steeper for some property owners than others. Property owners who are unable to pay the full charge up front can engage the Land Use Charge officials and jointly agree on a staggered payment plan. So the argument that government expects everyone to pay this charge in full upfront, regardless of your economic circumstances, is not correct.

The new Land Use Charge regime also has several “reliefs� or discounts that are designed to cushion the impact of the charge on property owners. Pensioners who are aged 70 years and above and who live in their own houses, for instance, are not expected to pay Land Use Charge.

Every property enjoys a general 40 percent discount on the calculated market value. Where a property owner goes ahead to pay his bill promptly upon receiving the demand notice, he enjoys an additional discount of 15 percent.

A person living with disability and occupying his own property enjoys a further discount of 5 percent.

So I can confidently say that property owners need not be alarmed at what they may have heard or read regarding this new Land Use Charge regime. Land Use Charge does not seek to punish anyone. Where the charge is considered outrageous for instance, we have provided ample room for engagement with the Land Use Charge officials for possible review.

And of course, we recognize that the law has

been made for us and not vice versa. In for instance providing an option for property owners to stagger their payments, you will find that we are very disposed to implementing this law intelligently and in such a manner that it does not portend an inordinate economic burden on our people. Currently, the state government is working on a proposal to be submitted to the LSHA for additional reliefs for widows and other vulnerable groups in the state.

Very importantly, Land Use Charge is being implemented in an asymmetric manner. What this means is that it impacts considerably less on the less-wealthy or poor than the wealthy. In our ongoing enumeration of properties in Lagos for instance, we realize that the vast majority of properties across the state – close to 75 percent, are valued below 10 million. A building that is valued at under N10 million is required to pay annual land use charge of N5,000 (up from N1,200 which they were expected to pay in the old regime). Simply put therefore, majority of properties in Lagos will be required to pay N5,000 annual Land Use Charge which translates to N417 every month.

A building that is valued at N20 million for instance, only pays N9,120 annually where it is occupied by its owner. If that building is being used commercially, it pays N91,200 annually. If on the other hand it is partly occupied by the owner and partly used for commercial activities, then the annual charge is N30,720.

It is a relatively small fraction of properties that are valued between N10 million and N100 million and even much smaller fractions for higher valuations. What this means, therefore, is that the poorer segments of our population will be considerably less impacted than the relatively wealthier segments, by this reviewed Land Use Charge law.

I should also remind Lagosians of the horrifying conditions of physical and social infrastructure across the state. From roads to drainages, from power to bridges, from education to healthcare, the story is the same. Many of us are products of the public school system, but today on account of severe under-funding there is such a lack of confidence in the public school system that everyone who can afford it, takes his child to a private school. This need not be so. Is it decent to have Lagosians spend 7 to 8 hours in traffic everyday? But this is what we have been condemned to in the absence of a functional mass transit system and the inadequacies of our road and transportation infrastructure. Should we be relying on rickety “danfo� buses to convey human beings in the 21st century?

It is against the backdrop of decades of under-investment in infrastructure in the face of our rapidly exploding population, that we came to the realization that we must embark on aggressive infrastructure renewal across Lagos or brace up for total infrastructure collapse.

Internally generated revenue is our best hope for redressing this humongous infrastructure deficit. Thankfully, the evidence of effort in this regard, stares us in the face everyday. From completed and ongoing construction works at Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu, Ajah, Abule-Egba, Ojodu, Pen Cinema in Agege, Airport Road, Oshodi, Oworoshonki and others, to the sundry road infrastructure projects planned in this year’s budget including the BRT lane from Oshodi to Abule Egba and the 8 Kilometer alternative road to be constructed to link VGC with Freedom Road in Lekki Phase One; from the enhanced security across the state and the major streets which are all lit up at night to the planned investments in education, healthcare and others, clearly the Ambode administration is putting your taxes to good use.

Our pledge is that even in the midst of our anxiety to work as frenetically as possible to deliver the infrastructure that Lagos requires, we will continue to engage Lagosians to ensure that the there is understanding, appreciation and buy-in by our people and that implementation of our IGR regime remains as humane as possible. t"TIBEF JT UIF -BHPT 4UBUF $PNNJTTJPOFS GPS 'JOBODF

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EDUCATION Impacting Nigeria’s Building Sector through Graduates’ Training Determined to churn out graduates that can hold their heads high in their respective fields, but are currently undergoing training in vocations like site engineering, block fabrication, carpentry, domestic plumbing among others, the Universal Learn Direct Academia Limited is partnering Bosch Nigeria and UPSKILL, UK to impact lives and the building and construction sector in the country. Funmi Ogundare reports

Some trainees in a session with a Bosch expert

The need to train and retrain graduates particularly in the building and construction industry has become imperative as this would guarantee the successful and safe completion of a specific project for a given period.

Aside this, they would have acquired the requisite skills to perform optimally with minimal or no supervision to stand on their own in the world of work.

In the last four months, the Universal Learn Direct Academia (ULDA) Limited, a consortium of professionals which facilitates skills training in the field of carpentry, plumbing, site engineering, domestic electrical steel fixing, finishes and concreting, among others, has been training polytechnic and university graduates, as well as artisans to be proficient in these areas.

They were required to spend three months for practical class and another three months on project site.

The institution recently entered into an agreement with Bosch Nigeria, a global supplier of technology and services to introduce and teach the trainees how to use modern technologies and tools used in the building and construction industry. When THISDAY visited the institution in Ikeja, the trainees were being taught how to identify different modern tools and their uses on project site.

The Dean, Mr. Babatunde Faleye, who explained the partnership with Bosch Group, said it had to recall trainees who are already on project sites to the class to have a feel of how to use precision tools at the training programme organised for them by the organisation. “They are going to train them in new and sophisticated equipment and the use of the old ones that they have so that they can be proficient in the use and they don’t hurt themselves or destroy the tools while using them.�

He said the institution had to extend the duration of the training from six to nine months because it discovered that the three months practical on the field is not adequate.

According to him, “they will have three months in-house theoretical training and practices at the workshop within the facility. They will then go to the field and get better. One of the reasons why we had to extend the site practice was because they were spending three days of the week at the training institute. “When they got to the field, we insisted that they have to do six days of the week just like every construction outfit does but they were constrained because already they were doing it there days in those three months. “So they pleaded that they should continue with their three days period for practical on their field which will now be six days in a week. We have done this so that they can have more hours practicing on site.�

So far, he said the initiative has been challenging and fascinating at the same time, adding that some of the trainees were hand-picked by companies’ project managers and have expressed optimism that they would work with them after their programme in ULDA. “We are already a month into the practical site training programme, the managers are from Alpha Seven Construction company in Lekki.

There are four site engineers with our trainees that we streamlined into two and they are willing to take them on as their permanent staff after their programme. We also have a facility management company that has come to us requesting that they need two site engineers and three plumbers for their facility business,� Faleye said.

Asked about the future of the project, the dean said, “I see it giving birth to a lot of professionals for the construction industry. Right now, we have a new course introduced; we added steel fixing and iron bending into the system. It is looking up positively. “We have had many construction companies wanting to know about us because they have seen the difference in some of the projects they have been doing from the average street trades people to the trainees that we have brought out who can

now read drawings and measure better. They are health and safety conscious and can perform better to task on site with minimal supervision.

So our trainees are better to work with.�

The Sales Manager, Bosch Nigeria, Mr. Nurudeen Abduallahi, who is in charge of sales of the tools and training on their use, said it is the first training the organisation would be having with the institution to add value to the trainees, adding that training would be done on a quarterly basis. “Most of the artisans that we have today make use of hand tools which are the old ones, but now technology has grown beyond that so we need to start introducing new technologies. For instance, we have the laser measuring tape which can be used to measure for instant results. It makes life easy and these are some of the things we are introducing to ULDA so that the trainees can get used to modern technologies when they are out there. Some of them have never seen the tools before, but we are bringing it to them to see and know what the tools look like.

On where he sees the partnership going, he said “I see ULDA growing fast every day, we still have a lot of milestones to cover, we will always be there for them as long as they want us to.�

The President, Chief Olawumi Gasper, who emphasised on the partnership with UPSKILL, noted that it would be assessment, verification and certification based, adding, “ULDA is strategically positioning to take the country’s building and construction training to a new level. The initiative would avail the trainees (site supervisors and artisans) the opportunity to acquire industry required skills to be globally recognised and for well acclaimed industry practice certifications.�

He said the partnership would lead to the award of NVQ5 and NVQ7 in construction management and prospective of the soon to be inaugurated Dubai Train2build Training Institute, and that candidates that are graduates in the built environment, experienced site supervisors

and construction technicians will have the unique training and exposure to high end construction sites, as well as mentoring for relevant global professional certification as chartered builders.

Some of the trainees in different programmes who spoke to THISDAY expressed satisfaction with the project, saying that apart from the knowledge they gained from it, there can be no gain without pain.

A Business Administration graduate of Lagos State Polytechnic, Mr. Ayodele Ogunbodede, who is a site engineer at the institution said, “I was motivated in what I learnt in class before the field training. We had lectures that are up to date. The way the theory was explained in class, was what we did as practical on the field. I don’t have any regret, no pain, no gain.�

A Mechanical Engineering graduate from the same polytechnic, but studying steel fixing, said the classes at ULDA have been worthwhile. He expressed concern about the country’s higher education curriculum, which does not align with practical experiences, saying that graduates are more theory based than practical. “We have been trained on how to use Bosch tools which we have never seen before and other things that would make the job easier for engineers. It is an empowerment programme.

At the end of the day, I can establish my own workshop instead of running after white collar jobs,� he said.

A Political and Administrative graduate of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Ms. Wealth Sogunro, who is handling brick and block, said she was drawn into the building and construction industry because of her love for it.

She said she believes that what a man can do, a woman can do better. “Having studied Administration while in the polytechnic, I can work anywhere and as a bricklayer, I can also work anywhere. My vision is to be the best female contractor in Nigeria. I really love the course and believe that I have made the right choice.�

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EDUCATION

El-Rufai: No Going Back on Sacked Teachers, Reforms Senator Iroegbu in Abuja The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has vowed to sustain the sack of over 22,000 teachers and the ongoing reforms in the state education sector.

He stated this in Abuja at DAI’s Governance Roundtable on the role of Nigeria in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with special focus on education and health.

Development Alternatives (DAI), a non-governmental

organisation committed to supporting a more prosperous, healthier and well governed Nigeria.

He had early this year explained that the affected teachers were dismissed from their jobs because they were unqualified based on the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) report he received, which showed that 83 per cent of the teachers scored less than 25 per cent in maths and literacy exams. El-Rufai attributed the challenges confronting the state

education sector to self-interest, adding that he would rather lose his re-election bid than compromise the future of the younger generation. “They told us that we are going to lose the election if we continue with what we were doing but we said, it is better to lose the election because until we fix this problem, we do not have a future. Nobody should blame the federal government for poor education and healthcare, the state government should be blamed because it is the responsibility

of the state. “It is unfortunate that the products of public schools gave up on public schools. They have allowed unqualified people to be employed in public schools because there children are part of these schools.� The governor added: “About 58% of the of the teachers they presented to us that were qualified had some contents of fake certificates. Out of the 36,000 teachers that sat for the promotion examination, 2,000 failed. We want to set a standard for our children in Kaduna State and there is no

going back on our reforms.�

The Country Director, DAI, Dr. Joe Abah said the roundtable with the theme ‘The Role of Governance in Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ expects the speakers to come out with solutions that will assist in strengthening the key sectors in the country. “We intend that this roundtable will yield tangible, pragmatic and achievable recommendations that government at all levels- federal, state and local- can advocate for

and implement to improve governance, ultimately service delivery for the Nigerian people.� He said DAI’s ‘Governance Matters’ roundtable is the first of several events planned for its ‘Development Matters’ series, which will seek to strengthen the nexus between central governance institutions (such as planning, budgeting, and human resources) and service delivery performance at the state level in key sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, trade and investment.

Stop Taxing Schools, Obi Tells States, FG A former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has called on government at the federal, state and local levels to stop all forms of taxations and levies on voluntary agencies and privately-owned primary and secondary schools across the country that render services for the common good.

He made the call during his visit to Christ the King College (CKC) Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, which is the best school in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in 2017.

Obi, who noted that education is a foundation and most critical component of development in any society, called on government at all levels to pursue progress and development anchored on education since the level of growth among nations is directly proportional to their investment in education. He said one of the major problems facing Nigeria is the low level of educational penetration in some states.

Making a case for free basic education, he said “since Nigeria is a signatory to free Universal

Basic Education and claims that education at basic level is free, it should give support to all institutions providing basic education, irrespective of ownership as is obtainable in other nations today. Since no level of government gives any form of support to these schools in the form of finances or provision of educational equipment, the least they can do is to stop bothering them with all manner of taxes and levies.� He thanked voluntary agencies and private school owners for their contributions to basic education in Nigeria and urged them to continue to improve the quality of their teaching and facilities.

While thanking the students and teachers of the school, Obi called on other owners of schools to emulate them by supporting their schools through the provision of first class facilities.

The highpoint of the visit was the presentation of a cheque of N1 million to the school for continued infrastructure improvement.

Gombe Launches School Feeding Programme for 286,000 Pupils Segun Awofadeji in Gombe The Federal Government National Home Grown School Feeding Programme has been launched in Gombe State for 286,000 primary school pupils across the state.

The Focal Person, Gombe State Social Investment Project, Hajiya Maryam Isah Mele stated on Monday during the official launch of the programme that it is part of the N500 billion funded social investment programme announced by the federal government to tackle poverty and improve the health and education of children in the country.

In Gombe State, she said vendors have been sufficiently trained on health, sanitation and hygiene programme before the implementation of the programme. “A total of N197 million was paid to 2,809 duly verified vendors to provide services for 286,000 pupils at

N70 each. “The vendors are to cook meals using a timetable agreed by stakeholders in the programme while ensuring that the budget is pocket friendly. An aggregating system will ensure provision of food products at discounted prices to ensure equality, standard and compliance with unnecessary price increase in the market,� she said. In her remarks, the wife of the Governor, Hajiya Adama Dankwambo commended the federal government for initiating the programme, saying, “it is a known fact that education is the bedrock of any development and to be able to attain the standard of education required, we must be able to surmount all obstacles militating against education. “I believe this historic event is one of such areas where milestone efforts and results will be achieved in our quest for educational development.�

R-L:The EY Nigeria Country Leader, Henry Egbiki with theTutor-General/Permanent Secretary, representing Lagos State Ministry of Education, Titilayo Margaret Solarin, at the inauguration of a newly refurbished library at Elegbata Senior Secondary School, Olowogboro, Lagos, by EY Nigeria‌ recently

Lagos Goes Tough on Schools Caught in Exam Malpractices Funmi Ogundare The Lagos State Government and proprietors of private schools have reached an accord to shut down any school indicted by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) for examination malpractice in three consecutive years.

The Deputy Governor, Dr. Oluranti Adebule had expressed her concern about the indictment of schools by WAEC. She

revealed that some schools are serial offenders whose names appeared on the list of 66, 61 and 56 schools indicted in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. Such schools she vowed will not be allowed to register students for this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Adebule intimated the school owners of the education policy review which the state is working on, while urging them to

prepare a position paper and submit to the ministry for consideration before the proposed stakeholders’ meeting schedule to hold soon.

She implored the various proprietor associations to mobilise, sensitise and enlighten their members to take advantage of the seamless schools registration policy to come forward and do the needful to guard against the imminent shut down of non-compliant schools. “The

deadline of the moratorium is July 2018 as no school will be allowed to operate in September without being duly registered.�

Adebule also used the opportunity of the meeting to educate the proprietors on the implementation of the Yoruba Language Promotion and Preservation Law, while stressing the need for them to ensure compliance with the provisions of the law.

Girl Guides Calls for Enhanced Security in Schools Uchechukwu Nnaike The Nigerian Girl Guides Association has appealed to the federal government to pay more attention to security in schools, so as to protect students, especially girls from all forms of danger.

Briefing journalists in Lagos during the unveiling of activities that will lead up to the centenary celebration of the guides next year, the Deputy Chief Commissioner, Dr. Nene Iroakasi, noted that the maximum violation in the country such as kidnap, rape, trafficking, among others is against the girl-child.

Iroakasi, who was reacting to the recent abduction of some school girls in Dapchi, Yobe

State said: “Let us build up the security in this country; I think the security in this country is not it. After the Chibok incident, I would have thought that anywhere around that area will have well-armed security men in schools, how long shall we continue to expose these girls to such ridicule? I will appeal to the government to pay more attention to security.

The government should have a rethink about protecting the citizens.�

A member of the trustees, Mrs. Olayinka Olaniyan, who stated that the association emphasis is on the welfare of the girl-child, said when some of the Chibok girls returned, the association reached out and supported them.

She said the guides also provided some items for the internally displaced persons especially those in Abuja.

She added that the Girl Guides will stand up for the abducted girls and support them, and that the association will intensify efforts on its campaign tagged ‘Voices against Violence’.

On the achievements of the association in the country these 99 years, the Chief Commissioner, Mrs. Maria Goretti Sule said it has recorded a lot of achievements in terms of training and developing the girl child. “Girls have been trained to be responsible, obedient to even their husbands; to help many people, render services and be responsible housewives, as well

as people that can be relied on.�

She added that the older members have been passing the knowledge they received from guiding unto the younger generation. “By September 2019, we will clock 100 years and we are still determined to help the girls. It is our responsibility to look into areas or problems or things they need to know to educate them on how to live their lives and do their best in the society where they find themselves.�

Some of the activities marking the centenary celebration with the theme ‘100 Years of Inspiring Girls’ include local, state and zonal jamborees this year, while the international jamboree will hold next year.

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Belemaoil Awards N45m Yearly Scholarship to Children of Fallen Heroes Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt An indigenous oil company in the Niger Delta, Belemaoil Producing Ltd has announced the award of annual scholarship worth over N45 million to 300 children of fallen heroes of the Nigerian Army in the Niger Delta and the north-east.

The founder/President, Mr. Jack-Rich Tein Jr. announced the scholarship at the ground breaking ceremony for the building of 16 Brigade Command of the Nigerian Army, named Camp Buratai in Yenagoa Bayelsa State.

He explained that the 300 children of the fallen heroes of the Nigerian Army would benefit N150,000 each annually within the duration of the scholarship scheme, adding that the gesture was in appreciation of the effort of the soldiers who laid down their lives for the security, peace and unity of Nigeria.

Tein pointed out that it is important for the company and the corporate community to be part of projects that would motivate and encourage the Nigerian Army. “It is a great honour for our humble selves to be here today with us and this is the second project that Belemaoil is being part of with the 16 Brigade; the last was a 100-bed hostel space at Elele. My mission here today will not be complete until I be part of those appreciating the efforts of the fallen heroes and fortunately I heard him (Commander of 16 Brigade) talked about programme for the widows. “I thought it is important for Belemaoil and the corporate community of this great country to be part of this project that will

motivate and encourage the Nigerian Army. I, on behalf of my company hereby pronounce the award of 300 scholarships at N150,000 each amounting to N45 million per annum for the service men and women that paid the ultimate price in the north-east and in the Niger Delta. I will be very happy to have all the details worked out to make sure this project goes.�

He said Belemaoil has also taken over the construction of 30 units Corporal Below Quarters at the site of the 16 Brigade Army Command, Yenagoa, adding that the initiative was in appreciation of the excellent security services being rendered by the Nigerian Army especially the Joint Military Taskforce in the company’s areas of operation. “Belemaoil has decided to take over the construction of 30 units Corporal Below quarters for the Camp Buratai and to demonstrate the love that has brought us together within Bayelsa and Rivers State, and also the super-excellent services that have been rendered by the Nigerian Army, especially the JTF in our area of operations, we make sure that before today and Friday, the cash amounting to N116.3 is paid into the account so this project can start tomorrow. “I want to use this window to say to all the corporate players in this great country and also in this part of the world, Bayelsa State, not to take their eyes off in supporting the Nigerian military. And I believe strongly that the military are here for you all Bayelsans to network, for you to have access to relationship and to have new friends.

“I want to thank the Governor of Bayelsa State for taking the bold step by making this parcel of land available for this historic project. Our door is open to more support and partnerships between Bayelsa State, projects for the military and other government functionaries,� he said.

He described the Chief of Army Staff as a hardworking, humble and compassionate man that is committed to tackling insecurity in the country. “I also want to thank the service men and women that paid the ultimate price in north eastern part of this country for the unification and security of this great country.�

In his remarks, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai thanked Tein for donating a block of 30 flats at the site of the 16 Brigade Command as residential area for the families of soldiers.

He said the housing project by Belemaoil would assist in addressing part of the immediate accommodation needs of the brigade. The state Governor, Seriake Dickson acknowledged the role of the founder/ president in promoting communal peace and stability, as well as his sustained support for the Nigerian military. He said the state government needs more captains of industry to do what Belemaoil is doing in the state. “Let me appreciate the president of Belemaoil who has been doing big businesses and making good money in this state and around this area. You have done very well for the military. I have heard the good works about the way you are running your company and promoting communal peace and stability.

Is Your Child’s Learning Environment Drab? Ă™Ă&#x; Ă—Ă‹ĂŁ Ă?ĂœĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă?Ă–ĂŁ ĂŒĂ?Ă–Ă“Ă?Ă Ă? ÞÒËÞ Ă?ĂžĂœĂ&#x;Ă?ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ?ĂŽ Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă? Ă™Ă&#x;ĂžĂ?Ă“ĂŽĂ? ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ Ă™Ăœ Ă?Ă–Ă‹Ă?Ă?ĂœĂ™Ă™Ă— Ă?Ă˜Ă Ă“ĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă™Ă? Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ă’ Ă“Ă—ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ë› Ă™Ă&#x; Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽĂ˜ËŞĂž ĂŒĂ? Ă—Ă™ĂœĂ? ĂĄĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ?Ă’ Ă?Ă&#x;Ă‘Ă‘Ă?Ă?ĂžĂ? ÞÒËÞ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ÚÓĂ?Ă• Ă&#x;Ăš Ă?Ù×Ă? Ă™Ă? ÞÒĂ?Ă“Ăœ Ă—Ă™Ă?Ăž Ă“Ă—ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă•Ă“Ă–Ă–Ă? Ă?ĂœĂ™Ă— ĂšĂœĂ™Ă‘ĂœĂ‹Ă—Ă—Ă?Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă? Ă™Ă&#x;ĂžĂ?Ă“ĂŽĂ? Ă‹ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ˪Ă? ĂšĂ?ÎËÑÙÑÓĂ?Ă‹Ă– Ă?Ă˜Ă Ă“ĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜ĂžË› Ă’Ă‹Ăž Ă“Ă? ĂĄĂ’ĂŁ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ĂĄĂ’Ă™ ĂŽĂ™ Ă˜Ă™Ăž ĂšĂ‹ĂœĂžĂ“Ă?ÓÚËÞĂ? Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŁ Ă?Ă˘ĂžĂœĂ‹Ă?Ă&#x;ĂœĂœĂ“Ă?Ă&#x;Ă–Ă‹Ăœ Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă? Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‘Ă?Ă˜Ă?ĂœĂ‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă?ÖÙå Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă–Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă Ă“ĂŒĂœĂ‹Ă˜ĂžË› Ă’Ă? Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ă˜Ă Ă“ĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž ÞÒËÞ ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x; Ă?Ă˜ĂœĂ™Ă–Ă– ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽ Ă“Ă˜ Ă™Ă&#x;ĂžĂ?Ă“ĂŽĂ? Ă™Ă? Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă™Ăœ Ă’Ă?Ăœ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ˪Ă? Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă? Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ăž ÒÙåĂ?Ă Ă?Ăœ Ă?Ă™Ă˜ĂžĂœĂ“ĂŒĂ&#x;ĂžĂ? ÞÙ ÞÒĂ? Ùà Ă?ĂœĂ‹Ă–Ă– ĂŽĂ?Ă Ă?ÖÙÚ×Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă™Ă? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽË› Ăž Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ăž ĂŒĂ? Ă‹Ă? ĂŽĂ“Ă?Ă?Ă“ĂšĂ–Ă“Ă˜Ă?ĂŽ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă? Ă?Ă&#x;Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă– Ă‹Ă? ÞÒËÞ Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;Ă˜ĂŽ ĂĄĂ“ĂžĂ’Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ˛ Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă“Ă? Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ ĂžĂœĂ&#x;Ă? Ă™Ă? Ă?ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă?ËÞÓà Ă? Ă™Ă&#x;Þ̋ÙĂ?Ě‹Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ ĂšĂœĂ™Ă‘ĂœĂ‹Ă—Ă—Ă?Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă?Ë› ĂĄĂ?Ă–Ă–Ě‹ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂŽ ÚÖËĂ?Ă? Ă™Ă? ÞÒÓĂ? Ă˜Ă‹ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽ Ă“Ă—ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă•Ă“Ă–Ă–Ă? Ă–Ă“Ă•Ă? ÞÓ×Ă?Ě‹Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă‹Ă‘Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÑÙËÖ Ă?Ă?ĘľĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă“Ă—Ă?Ě‹Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă‹Ă‘Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă‹ à ÓÞËÖ Ă?Ă•Ă“Ă–Ă–Ëœ ĂŒĂ&#x;Ăž Ă“Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă Ă?ĂŽ Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă“Ă–ĂŁË› Ă“Ă—Ă? Ă—Ă‹Ă˜Ă‹Ă‘Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă‹ Ă?Ă•Ă“Ă–Ă– ÞÒËÞ Ă“Ă? Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ăž Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă“Ă—ĂŒĂ“ĂŒĂ?ĂŽ Ùà Ă?Ăœ Ă‹ Ă–Ă?Ă˜Ă‘ĂžĂ’ Ă™Ă? ÞÓ×Ă?Ëž Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ Ă˜Ă?Ă?ĂŽ ÞÙ Ă?âÚĂ?ĂœĂ“Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă? ÞÒĂ? ĂŽĂ“Ă?Ă?Ă“ĂšĂ–Ă“Ă˜Ă? ÞÒËÞ Ă“Ă? Ă˜Ă?Ă?ĂŽĂ?ĂŽ ÞÙ Ę¨Ă˜Ă“Ă?Ă’ Ă‹ ÞËĂ?Ă• Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÒĂ? Ă’Ă‹ĂšĂšĂ“Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă™Ă? Ę¨Ă˜Ă“Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ ÞÒĂ? ËÖÖÙʾĂ?ĂŽ ĂĄĂ™ĂœĂ•Ëœ ĂĄĂ“ĂžĂ’Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹ Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?ÓʨĂ? ÞÓ×Ă? Ă?ĂšĂ‹Ă˜Ë› Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ÖÙÙÕ Ă?Ă™Ăœ ĂŽĂ“ĘĽĂ?ĂœĂ?Ă˜Ăž ĂžĂ’Ă“Ă˜Ă‘Ă? Ă“Ă˜ Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ă?ĘľĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ă?Ëœ ĂŒĂ? Ă“Ăž Ă?Ă™ĂœĂ—Ă‹Ă– Ă™Ăœ ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă–Ë› Ă™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă?Ă?Ă˜ Ă?Ă˜Ă Ă“ĂœĂ™Ă˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜Ăž Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂŒĂ? Ă‹ĘľĂœĂ‹Ă?ÞÓà Ă?Ëœ Ă?Ă™Ă–Ă™ĂœĂ?Ă&#x;Ă– Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă™ĂœĂ—Ă‹ĂžĂ“Ă Ă?Ë› Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă™Ăœ Ă™ĂœĂ‘Ă‹Ă˜Ă“Ă?Ă?ĂœĂ? Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ăž Ă&#x;Ă?Ă? Ă?Ă’Ă‹ĂœĂžĂ?Ëœ ÚÓĂ?ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă?Ëœ ÚÙĂ?ĂžĂ?ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂŽĂœĂ‹ĂĄĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ă? ÞÙ Ă–Ă“Ă Ă?Ă˜ Ă&#x;Ăš Ă‹ Ă?Ă–Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ë› Ă‘Ă? Ă‹ĂšĂšĂœĂ™ĂšĂœĂ“Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ă‹Ă&#x;ÎÓÙ̋à ÓĂ?Ă&#x;Ă‹Ă– Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÙÞÒĂ?Ăœ Ă?Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă™ĂœĂŁ Ă‹Ă“ĂŽĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ Ă‹Ă–Ă?Ă™ Ă?Ù×Ă? Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ™ ÚÖËã˛ ĂŽĂŽĂ“ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă– ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă?Ă? ÞÒËÞ Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă˜Ă™Ăž Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă“Ă–ĂŁ Ă‹Ă Ă‹Ă“Ă–Ă‹ĂŒĂ–Ă? Ă“Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ Ă—Ă‹ĂŁ Ă—Ă‹Ă•Ă? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă“Ă™Ă˜Ă? Ă‹ĂœĂœĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ?ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă™Ăœ Ă“Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ëœ ĂĄĂ’Ă?Ă˜ ĂžĂ?Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă‹ ĂŒĂ“Ă™Ă–Ă™Ă‘ĂŁ Ă–Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ëœ ËÖÖÙå ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽ ĂžĂ™Ëœ Ă?Ă™Ăœ Ă“Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ë? Ă?Ă?Ă? ĂžĂ’ĂœĂ™Ă&#x;Ă‘Ă’ Ă‹ Ă—Ă“Ă?ĂœĂ™Ă?Ă?ÙÚĂ?Ëœ Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă?Ă–Ă“ĂŽĂ?Ă? Ă™Ă? ĂŒĂ‹Ă?ĂžĂ?ĂœĂ“Ă‹Ëœ Ă?Ă?Ă? Ă–Ă“Ă Ă? Ă“Ă˜Ă?Ă?Ă?ĂžĂ? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă˜Ă“Ă—Ă‹Ă–Ă? Ě™Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă?Öã̚˛ Ă’Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĂœĂ?Ă?Ăž Ă?âÚĂ?ĂœĂ“Ă?Ă˜Ă?Ă? åÓÞÒ Ă˜Ă‹ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ? Ă‹ĂŽĂŽĂ? ÞÙ Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă•Ă˜Ă™ĂĄĂ–Ă?ĂŽĂ‘Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă‹Ă–Ă?Ă™ Ă—Ă‹Ă•Ă?Ă? Ă’Ă“Ă— Ă—Ă™ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ’Ă&#x;Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă?ÞÓĂ? Ă‹ĂŒĂ™Ă&#x;Ăž Ă’Ă“Ă? Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă“Ă?Ă?Ă“ĂšĂ–Ă“Ă˜Ă? Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂŒĂ? Ă&#x;ÚÒĂ?Ă–ĂŽ Ă‹Ă? Ă‹ Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ăž Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă?ÒÙÙÖ Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ĂœĂ?Ă?ĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă– Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă?Ë› Ă˜ Ă?Ă&#x;Ă˜ Ă™Ăœ Ă?ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĚ‹ĂŒĂ‹Ă?Ă?ĂŽ Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă?Ëœ Ă“Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă?Ă‹Ă?ĂŁ Ă?Ă™Ăœ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ÞÙ Ă?ĂžĂ?Ăš Ă™Ă&#x;Ăž Ă™Ă? Ă–Ă“Ă˜Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?ĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ă’Ă‹Ă Ă™Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă“Ă–Ă? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂŒĂ? ËÖÖÙåĂ?ĂŽ ÞÙ Ă’Ă‹Ă Ă? Ă?Ă&#x;Ă˜Ëœ ÞÒĂ?ĂŁ Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ ĂŒĂ? Ă?Ă&#x;ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă“Ă–Ă?ĂŽ Ă?ĂœĂ™Ă— ĂŽĂ“Ă?ĂšĂ–Ă‹ĂŁĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă&#x;Ă˜Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ă?ĂšĂžĂ‹ĂŒĂ–Ă? ĂŒĂ?Ă’Ă‹Ă Ă“Ă™ĂœË› Ă’Ă? ĂŒĂ?Ă?Ăž ĂĄĂ‹ĂŁ ÞÙ ĂšĂœĂ‹Ă?ÞÓĂ?Ă? ĂŽĂ“Ă?Ă?Ă“ĂšĂ–Ă“Ă˜Ă? Ă“Ă? ÞÙ Ă–Ă‹ĂŁ ĂŽĂ™ĂĄĂ˜ ÞÒĂ? ĂœĂ&#x;Ă–Ă?Ă? Ă‹Ăž ÞÒĂ? Ă Ă?ĂœĂŁ ĂŒĂ?Ă‘Ă“Ă˜Ě‹ Ă˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă?Ăž ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ĂšĂ‹ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă•Ă? Ă“Ă˜ Ă–Ă“Ă?ĂžĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă™Ă&#x;Ăž ĂĄĂ’Ă‹Ăž Ă“Ă? Ă&#x;Ă˜Ă‹Ă?Ă?Ă?ĂšĂžĂ‹ĂŒĂ–Ă?Ëœ ĂœĂ“Ă‘Ă’Ăž Ă‹Ăž ÞÒĂ? ĂŒĂ?Ă‘Ă“Ă˜Ă˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘Ë› Ă’Ă?ĂŁ Ă?Ă’Ă™Ă&#x;Ă–ĂŽ Ă‹Ă–Ă?Ă™ ĂŽĂ?Ă—Ă™Ă?ĂœĂ‹ĂžĂ“Ă?Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ Ă–Ă“Ă?Ăž Ă™Ă&#x;Ăž ĂšĂ?Ă˜Ă‹Ă–ĂžĂ“Ă?Ă? Ă?Ă™Ăœ ĂŽĂ?ĂœĂ‹Ă“Ă–Ă—Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ?Ë› Ă?ĂĄĂ‹ĂœĂŽĂ? Ă‹ĂœĂ? Ă‹Ă˜ Ă“Ă—ĂšĂ™ĂœĂžĂ‹Ă˜Ăž Ă‹Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?Ăž Ă™Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŁ Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ ĂšĂœĂ™Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă? ĂœĂ?ĂĄĂ‹ĂœĂŽ Ă?Ă‹Ă˜ ĂŒĂ? Ă‹ Ă?Ó×ÚÖĂ? ÚËÞ Ă™Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? ĂŒĂ‹Ă?Ă• Ă™Ăœ Ă‹ ÞÙÕĂ?Ă˜ Ă™Ă? Ă‹ĂšĂšĂœĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ě‹ ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ë› ÙÞÓà ËÞĂ? ĂŁĂ™Ă&#x;Ăœ Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ÞÙ Ă‹Ă?ĂšĂ“ĂœĂ? Ă?Ă™Ăœ Ă’Ă“Ă‘Ă’Ă?Ăœ Ă‹ĘľĂ‹Ă“Ă˜Ă—Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ? ĂŒĂŁ ĂœĂ?ĂĄĂ‹ĂœĂŽĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ ÞÒĂ?Ă“Ăœ Ă‹Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă˜ĂžĂ?Ë› Ă™Ă–ĂŽĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?Ù×ÚĂ?ĂžĂ“ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă? Ă™Ăœ Ă?ĂšĂ™ĂœĂž Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞÓĂ?Ă? ĂĄĂ’Ă?ĂœĂ? ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ Ă?Ă‹Ă˜ Ă?ÒÙå ÞÒĂ?Ă“Ăœ ĂšĂœĂ™Ę¨Ă?Ă“Ă?Ă˜Ă?ĂŁ Ă“Ă? Ă‹ ĂœĂ?ĂĄĂ‹ĂœĂŽ Ă“Ă˜ Ă“ĂžĂ?Ă?Ă–Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽĂœĂ?Ă˜ ĂŽĂ™ Ă‘Ă?Ăž ĂŒĂ™ĂœĂ?ĂŽ Ă?Ă‹Ă?Ă“Ă–ĂŁËœ ĂŽĂ&#x;ĂœĂ“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă?Ă‹ĂžĂ“Ă™Ă˜Ă‹Ă– Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ Ă?ĂžĂœĂ&#x;Ă?ĂžĂ&#x;ĂœĂ?ĂŽ ĂšĂœĂ™Ă‘ĂœĂ‹Ă—Ă—Ă?Ă?Ë› Ă’Ă? Ă—Ă‹Ă“Ă˜ ĂžĂ’ĂœĂ&#x;Ă?Ăž Ă™Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ Ă‹Ă?Ă‹ĂŽĂ?Ă—Ă“Ă? ĂšĂœĂ™Ă‘ĂœĂ‹Ă—Ă—Ă? Ă“Ă? ÞÙ ĂœĂ?ĂšĂ?Ă‹Ăž ĂĄĂ’Ă‹Ăž Ă’Ă‹Ă? ĂŒĂ?Ă?Ă˜ ÞËĂ&#x;Ă‘Ă’Ăž Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă–Ă‹Ă?Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÙ ËÖÖÙå ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽ ÞÙ Ă–Ă?Ă‹ĂœĂ˜ Ă“Ăž Ă›Ă&#x;Ă“Ă?Ă•Ă–ĂŁË› Ăž Ă“Ă? ĂŽĂ“ĘŠĂ?Ă&#x;Ă–Ăž ÞÙ ÚÓÛĂ&#x;Ă? ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽËŞĂ? Ă“Ă˜ĂžĂ?ĂœĂ?Ă?Ăž Ă‹ Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜ĂŽ ÞÓ×Ă?Ëœ Ă?Ă?ĂšĂ?Ă?Ă“Ă‹Ă–Ă–ĂŁ ĂĄĂ’Ă?Ă˜ ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă–ĂŽ Ă“Ă? Ă‹Ă–ĂœĂ?Ă‹ĂŽĂŁ ĂžĂ“ĂœĂ?ĂŽ Ă™Ă? Ă™Ă˜Ă? ĂŽĂ™Ă?Ă? Ă™Ă? ÞÒĂ? Ă?Ă‹Ă—Ă? Ă–Ă?Ă?Ă?Ă™Ă˜Ë› Ă™Ă&#x; Ă—Ă&#x;Ă?Ăž Ă›Ă&#x;Ă“Ă?Ă•Ă–ĂŁ ÞåĂ?Ă‹Ă• ĂŒĂ™ĂœĂ?ÎÙ× ĂŒĂŁ Ă&#x;Ă?Ă“Ă˜Ă‘ Ă?ĂœĂ?ËÞÓà Ă? ĂžĂ?Ă?Ă’Ă˜Ă“Ă›Ă&#x;Ă?Ă? Ă–Ă“Ă•Ă? Ă‹Ă˜ Ă“Ă—ĂšĂœĂ™Ă—ĂšĂžĂ&#x; Ă‹Ă?ÞÓà ÓÞã Ă–Ă“Ă•Ă?Ë? Ă‹ Ă›Ă&#x;Óä˞ Ă‹ Ă?Ă–Ă“ĂŽĂ?Ă?ÒÙå Ă™Ăœ Ă‹ Ă‘Ă‹Ă—Ă?Ë›

A cross-section of the pioneer students of the Technical University, Ibadan during their matriculation ceremony‌ recently

Beware of Social Media Danger, Oyo-Ita Warns Parents The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita has admonished parents to be mindful of ways and manners their children socialise through the social media, saying that the dangers have outweighed the benefits.

Oyo-Ita, who spoke in Lagos at the 2018 Commonwealth Day celebration organised by Queen’s College, said social media has turned to tool used in committing different atrocity of which girls are the major victims.

She pointed out that parents need to be extra vigilant and diplomatic in guiding their children on the right part. “Almost on a daily basis, we hear frightening stories of girls being kidnapped, raped, drugged, sexually abused, among others. When such acts are investigated, it turns out to be someone they met on social media. “In many occasions they lied to them that once they joined an online club, they will be earning money and few

months later they will send an invitation to them to come to Europe for holiday, the little girl will lie to parent and go. “Slavery has come back to Africa, not all Nigerians you see being brought back from Libya went with their two legs, some of them were young girls who were kidnapped, drugged, put in cargo and sent to Europe for prostitution.�

Oyo-Ita noted that the social media has some good parts, but the negative has outweighed the good parts, “one of such negative aspects is that it doesn’t really allow people to make intimate friends.� She expressed concern over the promotion of sectionalism in different quarters of the country, saying that such attitude needs to be discouraged. “When we were growing up, there was nothing like sectionalism, we don’t really know the state people came from, although you can know whether the person is Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. It is so sad the way Nigeria has gone, in

a situation whereby the moment you say anything the first thing people ask is where is he or she from. “In our days Muslims enjoy Christmas with Christians, and also enjoy Salah celebration with them. Things have changed but we need to bring back the culture of unity. Unity schools and NYSC are good initiatives and more of such need to be encourage.

Oyo-Ita, who graduated from Queen’s College in 1979, urged the students to be God fearing, disciplined, neat, well domesticated, excellent in their chosen career path, wonderful mothers and wives, and pillars of strength to family and the nation at large. “For the teachers, I am here to assure you that your reward is not only in heaven, but also on this earth. Reward is not just material and physical cash; reward is in so many dimensions which include good health, peace of mind, joy, among other things.�

Ě‹ Omoru writes from the UK

C’River to Establish Farms for School Feeding Programme Bassey Inyang in Calabar The Cross River State Government has announced a partnership with Akwa Prime Hatchery and Poultry to establish farms in five locations across the state for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP).

The Special Adviser to the Governor on HGSFP, Mr. Gabriel Okulaja, and State Desk Officer disclosed this in Calabar while providing an update on the implementation of the programme in the state.

Okulaja said the programme is a multi-sectoral approach with a value chain system with children as the end beneficiaries, adding that the implementation of the project is in line with the local content policy of the programme.

He said most eggs and chickens currently used by vendors were being brought from outside the state. “In order to meet the local content policy of the programme, we have commenced partnership with Akwa Prime to set up farms in five locations in the three senatorial districts of the state. “Our target is to raise 100,000 broilers between now and July from these locations so that we can produce eggs and birds for the programme in the state. “Already, the one in Calabar is set to begin production with 30,000 birds with Akwa Prime having cleared the location.

Other locations include Akpabuyo, Ikom, Ogoja and Obudu,� Okulaja said.

He stated that the programme has begun to achieve results in the state, especially in the area of increased primary school pupils’ enrolment.

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍ˛Ëœ Í°ÍŽÍŻÍś

AAUA, Students on Collision Course over Proposed Fee Hike James Sowole in Akure Crisis is brewing between the Ondo State Government and the students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, AkungbaAkoko (AAUA) over the delay in their resumption for the new academic session.

The students, who are yet to resume since December 2017 when the 2016/2017 academic session ended, alleged that the government intentionally delayed their resumption over plans to increase the tuition.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had at the university’s seventh convocation ceremony last December, announced that his government will carry out an upward review of the tuition fees in line with current realities.

However, the students called on the governor “to immediately shelve the plan to increase the fees suspecting that the delay in their resump-

tion was due to the proposed tuition hike. They criticised the university authority’s refusal to state the reason for the delay in resumption of academic activities. The Students’ Union President, ljanusi Olawale said the students have resolved to resist the hike in fees.

Speaking during a radio programme monitored in Akure, Olawale said the only thing they heard from the commissioner for education was that the tuition would be decided by the governing council of the institution. “Increasing the tuition should not be an idea that should come at this time. That is the reason we will say no to that because we believe education is our right and not a choice. Our parents are paying their taxes and we understand Ondo State is dominated by civil servants. “The government is not increasing the salaries of our

parents, so why are they saying they want to increase fees,�

Olawale said.

Reacting to the situation, the institution’s spokesman, Sola Imoru in a statement, said the management is using the protracted break period to restructure sections of the institution. “The university is using the period of the break to put in place all necessary structures, including repair of facilities, especially at this period of a paradigm shift in the state’s education sector, to ensure a conducive campus and a serene learning environment on resumption. “We assure our stakeholders that management is as concerned as the parents and students about the issue of resumption and would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the university resumes for a new session very soon,� he said.

‘I Embarked on Read Aloud Marathon to Inspire Youths’ Forty-year-old Olubayode Treasures Olawunmi, who recently set a new Guinness World Record after reading aloud for 120 hours, has revealed that he took the bold step to raise the consciousness of the youths on the importance of reading and to help change the narrative that making money and being famous can only come from entertainment and sports.

Olawunmi, who participated in the Read Aloud Marathon Session, organised by the YouREAD Initiative, a corporate social responsibility programme of Guaranty Trust Bank, said “those two are great, but so too is excelling in education and hopefully the younger generation will find

in my Guinness World Record attempt the inspiration to read and study more.�

He read aloud 23 published books within five days and two hours to break the previous World Record of 113 hours and 15 minutes held by Deepak Sharma Bajaan from Nepal.

Reacting to Olawunmi’s feat, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of GTBank, Segun Agbaje said: “We are proud to have sponsored Olawunmi’s stunning feat and attempt to make history through one of the most positive human activities- reading. “His brave attempt will not only put Nigeria on the global map as a nation that is passionate about books, it will also serve as a source of

inspiration to everyone in the country and beyond to adopt and maintain an active reading culture.� He said the bank is passionate about rekindling the interest of young Nigerians in reading and would continue to create and support innovative ways to promote an active reading culture within and outside the academic environment.

According to Agbaje, the bank’s footprints in corporate social responsibility are guided strategically by its decision to operate on four major pillars: education, community development, arts and the environment, which it believes are essential building blocks for the society and prerequisites for economic growth and societal development.

Commonwealth Scholars to Present Education Roadmap to FG Hammed Shittu in Ilorin The Commonwealth Scholars and Fellows Alumni Association of Nigeria (COSFAN) has disclosed that it has set up a committee of education professionals that would fashion out a new roadmap proposal to the federal government on how to enhance the quality and standard of education in the country. It said the development would also assist the country to change the current narrative associated with its education sector and proffer a new approach that would bring positive educational advancement.

The association is a nonprofit organisation consisting of eminent Nigerians who have enjoyed the sponsorship of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC), United Kingdom in their respective postgraduate pursuits between 1960 and present.

Addressing journalists in Ilorin on the annual Commonwealth Day 2018 tagged ‘Towards a Common Future’,

the Kwara State chapter of the association said the attainment of the new roadmap for the country’s education sector would prepare students to have a great future since they are the leaders of tomorrow.

The General Secretary, Mrs. Biola Adimula, who spoke on behalf of the association, said “we met recently on how to improve on the education of Nigeria because the present situation calls for urgent attention. “And we have to take it upon ourselves and we also engaged professionals from UK to come and talk to us on this education issue in Nigeria. We discovered that we have a lot of skilled people, experienced people, people that are competent to work for the educational services of the country. “These are the categories of people of like professionals, professors, professors emeritus, past vice-chancellors of nation’s universities and we spoke with ourselves at length that this is the time to have a new roadmap for the education sector in Nigeria so as to provide a new

lease of life for the upcoming students of the country. “I want to say that we have set up a committee of these professionals that would give proposal on the new road map on education sector to the federal government through the Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu for consideration in order to have a sustainable educational development in the country.�

On this year’s celebration, Adimula said there would be debate, spelling bee competition, exhibition, speeches on Commonwealth and future of education in Nigeria, among others. She said the event that will hold at Borstal Institution, Ilorin will be attended by the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed and top government functionaries in the state.

She added that the association would continue to embark on programmes that would improve the future of students to enable them excel in their academics.

Be Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Ajimobi Tells Pioneer Students Uchechukwu Nnaike The Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi has admonished pioneer students of the Technical University, Ibadan to take advantage of the quality of teaching at the university to acquire degrees and skills that will make them innovators and entrepreneurs that will change the landscape upon graduation.

The governor, said this at the matriculation ceremony for the pioneer students of the institution recently, stated that the university would not only emphasise academic excellence, but also good character and a sense of patriotism.

The event also featured the installation of the pioneer Chancellor, Chief Tunde Afolabi, a geologist and a major player in the oil industry.

Speaking at the installation ceremony, Ajimobi congratulated the chancellor and thanked him for being gracious in accepting the assignment which is a call to service.

He said when the vicechancellor approached him to discuss the need to appoint a pioneer chancellor, he began to consider some personalities but among them Afolabi’s name stood out.

“I had no iota of skepticism in my mind. He has all the requirements for this appointment; his professional background, his passion for service as well as his extensive international connections which I am sure the Technical University will leverage on to give the institution a smooth take-off and also help in stabilising in no time. “With the wealth of experience of the chancellor and the support of the pro-chancellor and the vice-chancellor, I have no doubt in my mind that this university will succeed. I can see the university taking its pride of place, not only in Nigeria but in international circles.�

In his remarks, the ViceChancellor, Prof. Ayobami Salami said the university was conceived and birthed by the governor to fill a yearning vacuum despite that there are several universities in the country out of which thousands of graduates are being turned out yearly. “But as the number of universities and of graduates they produce are increasing, so is the gap between the suitability of the graduates and the requirements of the potential employers. “This schism has been attrib-

uted to lack of entrepreneurial orientation and employability focus of the academic programmes on the one hand and rigidity of the academic managers in responding to the needs of the employers in particular and the larger society at large. This gap is what the Technical University was established and is growing to fill.�

Salami stressed that the institution strives to provide educational training that balances theoretical knowledge requirements with practical, hands-on experiences and skills in different academic disciplines, as well as vocations of interest to the students.

He said the university’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Vocational Studies within its short time of existence has already identified at least 10 inherent vocational skills among the current set of students to hone the skills in addition to and as a complement to their academic degree programmes. “The students have also commenced their French Language programme and within the short period they have resumed studies, all of them can at least undertake basic communication in French Language.�

T H I S D AY Ëž DAY, MARCH 14, 2018

36

CITYSTRINGS

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

Imo State CP, Chris Ezike (right) receiving a gift from the wife of Imo State governor, Nneoma Nkechi Rochas Okorocha.

Promoting Effective Policing An effective security network does not only come through improved equipment and tools alone, but also by encouragement and support, Amby Uneze writes

A

t his assumption of office on April 3, 2017 as the 32nd substantive Commissioner of Police of Imo State, Mr. Chris Ezike came with the mindset to re-enact and re-emphasised the fundamental imperatives of the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris’ administration which include robust fight against violent crime, focus on intelligence led policing, quick and timely response to distress calls and community engagement.

Ezike, who did not waste any time to give kudos to his predecessor, CP Taiwo Fredrick Lakanu, fdc now Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Federal Operations, FHQ Abuja through his friendship and leadership that facilitated a smooth handover ceremony and commended him for the professional service he rendered to the people of Imo State while promising to build on his (Lakanu) legacies.

In his maiden meeting with officers and men of the Imo State Police Command, the new CP said “As a Police officer, I have in the course of my service to the nation functioned in various capacities in different Commands and formations. I intend to explore the prospects and experiences of the past to bring about good policing services to the people of Imo State. I have therefore come to Imo State with tremendous goodwill, open hands and mind, willingness to work, partner with all Imo citizens/residents to ensure we make Imo State safer, more secure, better and prosperous.�

Ezike in his avowed belief and convic-

tion to succeed went into action to achieve excellent policing of the state. On April 10, 2017, he held a meeting with all the heads of Departments, Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Tactical Team Commanders in Imo State Command. At the meeting, it was collectively resolved that “our mission in this new journey shall be “to reduce crime and enhance safety and security in Imo State.� They maintained not only to provide security to Imolites and also to go about their lawful businesses without fear of any molestation but also to enable the business of government and private sector thrive without security encumbrances.

Determined to make a mark in ensuring that the state was adequately secured in terms of human and material resources,

I have therefore come to Imo State with tremendous goodwill, open hands and mind, willingness to work, partner with all Imo citizens/residents to ensure we make Imo State safer, more secure, better and prosperous

Ezike showed his prowess by drawing the support of his men, government, community leaders, the press and in fact the generality of Imo people.

Due to his zeal to excel in a complex state like Imo with divergent potential and sophisticated people and characters, the action Police officer vowed to: provide qualitative police service to the people of Imo State; fight serious crimes of armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and other violent social disorders with renewed vigour, strength and commitment; partner with other security agencies and non-state actors in a professional and transparent manner in this journey.

His promise to build a positive bridge between the Police and traditional rulers, local government administrators, Imo Security Network, Imo Community Watch and Community Vigilante Groups, respect the rights of the citizens, and abhor corruption and corrupt tendencies had been observed with excellent result.

Ezike’s operational method which revolves around adoption of high visibility policing to the extent that Policemen are not only being on patrol but are being seen to be on patrol are highly commendable. He has not only developed and implemented a Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) that enhances coordination to distress management and consequently reduce response time, his belief on high visibility policing has succeeded in giving the citizenry psychological assurances besides the physical certainty.

To strengthen the peaceful, cordial and harmonious relationship that exists between

the indigenes of the state and cattle herders, the Imo State Police Command periodically holds meetings with different groups to brainstorm on various steps. The existing mechanism at the local government level made up of the Transitional Committee chairmen, traditional rulers, the Divisional Police Officers (DPO), the DSS, community farmers and cattle herders were improved to address complaints emanating from destruction of farm crops and cattle rustling.

Again, efforts were made to identify herders from unknown origin who operate within the state and cause destruction of farm crops, and justice and fair play were embraced in addressing conflicts between community farmers and cattle herders. With such arrangement, traditional rulers, the Miyetti Allah, the community farmers, the cattle herders and the Hausa/Fulani community in the state had been living on the promise to continue with the existing harmonious living relationship amongst the parties.

However, in order to maintain the tempo of low crime wave devoid of kidnapping and other heinous crimes in 2018, the Commissioner of Police directed all Police officers to be on red alert and has charged them to adopt such crime preventing strategies, including, all Divisional Police Officer’s (DPO’s) to be available at their bases at all times most especially during night time, they should provide water tight security around all financial institutions and ATM points in their areas of responsibility, police visibility to be conspicuous at all strategic points around the state, DPOs to carry out

T H I S D AY Ëž DAY, MARCH 14, 2018

37

CITYSTRINGS

Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha (spotted in white), men and oďŹƒcers of the Imo State Police Command, at the award ceremony held at the Police Command...recently

robust patrols both day and night, and to embark on intelligence-led raid of all known criminal hideouts and black spots in their jurisdiction.

One of the major breakthroughs of criminal investigation made by the Command was the arrest of dare-devil suspected criminals, recovery of exhibits and dismantling of the various criminal gangs/cells, including those that abducted and murdered Rev. Fr Cyriacus Onunkwo of Umuotuasi Village, Osina in Ideato North LGA of Imo State on 1st September, 2017 at Banana Junction Orlu, Imo State. “On the September 1, 2017 at about 2035hrs, Police received a report that four armed men using a Toyota Avalon car double-crossed Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo who was driving in his Toyota Corrolla car with Registration No. IMO KED 290 AA, grey in colour, abducted him into their Avalon car and sped off to an unknown destination. The incident was said to have happened at Banana Junction, Orlu.

The Police subsequently declared a search and on September 2, 2017, the Divisional Police Officer, Omuma reported that an unidentified corpse of a man was seen in his area of jurisdiction and recovered to the mortuary. In furtherance thereof, Rev. Fr. Kenneth Obialisi and DPO Orlu were alerted and they rushed to Omuma and identified the corpse as that of the kidnapped Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo. “It became a sad moment for the Command because of the unusual nature of the incident and the speed with which events unfolded leading to his death. The Inspector General of Police Ibrahim K. Idris saddened by this development ordered a full scale investigation. He directed that I should place all assets of the Command at the disposal of the investigation team to solve the problem. “In compliance with the Inspector General’s directive, I visited the Bishop of Orlu His Lordship Bishop Augustine Ukwuoma, the native Parish of the deceased Reverend St. Mary’s Parish Osina and the family of the Onunkwo’s at Osina on Monday 4th September, 2017. I ended the visit with a stopover on the Arch Bishop of Owerri Arch Bishop Anthony J. Obina. The visit was to express the condolences of the IGP and the Command and also enable me cultivate/ build confidence in the investigative journey ahead. It paid off. “The investigating team using forensic technology and backed up by hard work, commitment, passion and hunger for success arrested Ex-Cpl Jude Madu who was found in

possession of late Rev. Fr. Onunkwo’s Infinix telephone handset. Through a process of Intelligence/Investigative reconstruction, the following suspects were thereafter arrested: Izuchukwu Okafor (28 years) arrested at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt where he fled after the incident. He hails from Ukwukwa Village in Azia of Anambra State but resident at Rukpoku, Port Harcourt Rivers State, Onyema Cyril (29 years) arrested at Control Post Owerri.

He hails from Umuaro Village, Okwelle in Onuimo LGA of Imo State, Emmanuel Ozuigbo (29 years) arrested at NNPC Mega Station by Control Post area in Owerri. He holds WASC. He hails from Mgbagbuowa in Ezeagu, Ezeagu LGA of Enugu State. He resides at Ama Hausa in Owerri. “Others are Victor Ikechukwu Irokansi (33 years), he hails from Umuchukwu Umuagu, Obowo in Obowo LGA and was arrested at Mpama Egbu. He holds a B.Sc in Management Technology from Federal University of Technology Owerri. He is the owner of the Toyota Avalon car used in the commission of the crime, Ifechukwu Nwosu (28 years) arrested and hails from Azia in Ihialla LGA of Anambra State, and Ex-Cpl Jude Madu (32 years) and hails from Umukishi Amuzi Ahiara in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA of Imo State. He is a member of the armed robbery/kidnapping syndicate and took part in the operation. He holds a National Diploma from Abia State Polytechnic Aba and was arrested at Control Post Owerri in possession of the deceased’s phone. He confessed to the crime,� the CP stated.

In the area of cultism, the Commissioner of Police has not rested on his oars as he in joint efforts with the 34 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Obinze, restored peace, law and order in the cult core communities of Assa, Obile, Awara and other neighboring communities in Ohaji/ Egbema LGA of Imo State

Because of his desire to ensure that such degree of crime was not swept under the carpet, he and his Command took less than five days to traverse three states of Anambra, Imo and Rivers to achieve great results. “Though Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo died, his spirit lives on and will obviously teach the lesson that criminal impunity has a price.

The investigators have continuously kept awake for five days now and I am happy that their efforts were not in vain. I salute the courage and tenacity of the men of SARS Imo State Command and assure them that their hard work shall be rewarded,� he said.

The CP also observed that in one of the operations, the operatives of the Command Anti Kidnapping Squad in the course of investigation using forensic technology arrested five kidnap and robbery suspects who were involved in the kidnap of the popular gospel singer, Prince Chinedu Nwadike and robbed him of his red coloured Honda CRV Jeep Reg. No. ABN 492 TS along World Bank Road near Great Gospel Liberation International Church, New Owerri. The suspects collected a ransom of N4 million from the victim’s relatives before he was released.

The suspects who also have confessed to the crime included, Chibuike Owen, male, 26 years of Umuogele Isiala Ngwa, Abia State; Obinna Onye, male, 36 years of Umueze Amaimo in Ikeduru LGA of Imo State; Chiagoziem Okoye, male, 36 years of Ukwulu Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State; Chukwuemeka Daniel, male, 28 years of Ogwa Mbaitoli LGA of Imo State; and Anyanwu Odinakachi, male, 40 years of Umuobia Olokoro in Umuahia South LGA of Abia State.

Ezike has continued to appreciate the citizens of the state for patronising their whistle blowing policy and assured Imolites of their readiness considering their capacity, capability and determination to continue to make Imo State safe and secure, adding that “criminal impunity has a price and with our renewed vigour and zeal, criminals may pay the price sooner than expected.�

In the area of cultism, the Commissioner of Police has not rested on his oars as he in joint efforts with the 34 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Obinze, restored peace, law and order in the cult core communities of Assa, Obile, Awara and other neighboring communities in Ohaji/ Egbema LGA of Imo State. The worrisome incidence of cultism, brigandage, kidnapping and general youth restiveness associated with armed robbery and unprecedented violence forced these communities to flee for their

dear lives in the last 20 months.

He said: “In our efforts to curb violence, stop the killings, restore law and order, arrest the perpetrators of the dastardly act, show, shame and prosecute them, the Command in conjunction with the Military has made several arrests and recovered exhibits. A stabilisation team of both Police and the Military have taken absolute charge and the cultists are being given a run for their money. Some pictorial evidence available to the investigating team revealed gory escapades of these sons and daughters of devil and how their mindless and inhuman but avoidable activities sent humanity to their early graves. We are determined to ensure that cultists are not allowed a field day anymore.�

In recognition of the feats recorded by the CP and his officers and men of the Command, the Imo State House of Assembly moved a motion to honour the CP and his Command which was accompanied with a “Vote of Confidence and Commendation Letter� on September 19, 2017. This honour was followed by Anambra State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) for finding CP Chris Okey Ezike worthy of honour as the Winner of NUJ 2017 Annual Excellence Service Award conferred on 13th October, 2017. Not done yet, the Security Watch Africa team nominated him, the Imo State Police Command, the Officer in charge of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SP Victor Godfrey Ogbeide, the Command Police Public Relations Officer, SP Andrew Enwerem worthy for Regional Awards/Honours which took place in Kigali Rwanda in December, 2017.

To begin the 2018, seeking the face of God in the service to humanity, the Command held a New Year luncheon, party and award ceremony which started with an inter-faith programme tagged ‘Intercessory Prayer and Thanksgiving Service’ on February 8, 2018 at the Command premises with the wife of the governor, Nneoma Nkechi Rochas Okorocha as a special guest. This wrapped up with the luncheon and award ceremony held at the Imo Trade and Investment Centre, Owerri, on the February 10, 2018 that was graced by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, South-east, DIG Valentine Ntomchukwu; AIG Hosea Karma, AIG Incharge of Zone 9, Umuahia, Governor Rochas Okorocha, the Brigade Commander of 34 Brigade Nigerian Army Obinze, and a host of other dignitaries.

The awards were presented to all cadre of the Police and friends of the Command, thereby giving them hope and support.

T H I S D AY Ëž , MARCH 14, 2018

38

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Olam Invests $1bn to Boost Nigeria’s Agric Sector The Vice-President of Olam, Reji George has disclosed that Olam Nigeria Limited had invested about $1 billion (about N306billion) to boost Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

George made this known yesterday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. He said the investment was done within its 26 years of existence in the country. He said Olam was working towards enhancing Nigeria’s food security, boosting the country’s self-sufficiency in food production and helping it to realise its goal of becoming a global exporter of rice.

George said as part of efforts to realise its goals, Olam Nigeria Limited has set up a multimillion dollar integrated rice mill, which have the capacity to produce 36,000 tonnes of rice per annum, in Nasarawa State.

“The 3,000 hectares of land under cultivation on the 6,000-hectare paddy farm, where the rice mill is located, is being increased to 10,000 hectares and will become the largest rice farm in Africa. “The mill has given direct employment to 1,000 people from the surrounding communities. The total investment in the integrated farm, the mill and other facilities amounts to 111 million dollars (about N40 billion),’’ he said.

George said that the farm was also supporting an “out-grower programme’’, through which adjacent rice-growing communities were supported with training, pre-finance support, fertiliser and seeds so as to boost their productivity. “More than 3,500 rice-growing farmers are currently engaged in training, pre-finance support and inputs supplies in order to improve

their own paddy yields, and the target is the production of 16,000 tonnes of rice by 2018,’’ he said. George said that as part of strategies to ensure that those involved in the rice value chain did not record or suffer losses, rice farmers were motivated with the provision of rice mills, while domestic markets were sought for the milled rice.

He said that in efforts to boost food production, support the farmers and make Nigeria the agricultural hub of Africa, close to 120 million dollars was spent on the poultry and animal feeds business in Kaduna and Ilorin in 2017.“We are determined to make Nigeria the agricultural hub on the continent; we are, therefore, sourcing, procuring, grading, processing and exporting other agricultural products such as cocoa, cashew, sesame and cotton,’’ he said.

FBN Holdings Announces Appointments into FBNQuest Capital, FBNQuestTrustees Boards FBN Holdings has announced the appointment of Mr. Olawale Ariyibi as Chairman of the Board, FBNQuest Capital Limited.

Also, the holding company also announced the appointment of Mr. Tijanni Borodo as Chairman of the Board, FBNQuest Trustees Limited.

This comes after the recent renaming of all entities under the investment banking and asset management subsidiary group in line with the objectives to deliver a consistent customer experience and drive increased stakeholder value.

FBNQuest Trustees is a subsidiary of FBNQuest Capital and acts as a custodian of assets, offering Corporate, Private and Public Trust services.

The appointed Chairmen, according to a statement yesterday, comes with a wealth of experience, following the confirmation of all regulatory approvals.

Ariyibi brings a combined 23 years’ experience in banking and allied financial services, business assurance, tax management, business process review and consulting across several institutions.

Ariyibi is currently the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) at FBN Holdings Plc. Before this appointment, he was CFO at Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) and Country Financial Controller at Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria. His core competencies include

financial accounting and reporting, capital raising, tax planning and cost management, operational risk management, strategic and corporate planning, compliance and business assurance amongst others.

On the other hand, Borodo joined the Board of FBNQuest Trustees with over 24 years’ experience in the legal and financial services industry.

He is a seasoned solicitor who honed his expertise by participating in various professional courses both locally and internationally, including Company Direction Seminar

by Lagos Business School, Making Corporate Boards More Effective and Leadership Best Practice both at Harvard Business School, Boston, U.S.A.

Heritage Bank Introduces Digital Banking Platform Heritage Bank Plc has introduced an advanced intelligent digital experience known as Octopus.

The solution, which is full-fledged digital bank was described as an innovation that is poised to connect all a customer’s bank accounts with your Debit Card details or account holder information.

According to a statement, ‘Octopus’ by Heritage Bank represents an omni-channel multi-platform experience squarely targeted at the cus-

tomers of tomorrow; young, smart, professional, tech savvy pioneers of the new digital economy.

Bank agnostic, ‘Octopus’ is expected to provide all customers of any Nigerian Bank the opportunity to access a platform that consolidates and connects all their Bank accounts delivering convenience and ease of access on an innovative platform and digital community The bank further stated that the platform was designed to deliver omni-channel user expe-

rience across multiple devices; where most of customer’s daily city activities (banking, cinemas, stock markets, social interactions, churches, universities, meetings, restaurants, utility [e.g. DSTV, PHCN], fans clubs, associations and any other communities) have been digitized and consolidated.

It serves as a single window into several players of the same industry and it is embedded in the same social media platforms where people are such as Facebook and Telegram.

PoS Innovation Summit Holds in Lagos The third edition of the Point of Sale (PoS) Innovation Summit, a quarterly event aimed at reinforcing acceptance of PoS as an alternative means of payment in Nigeria is scheduled to hold in Lagos on March, 27, 2018.

The PoS Innovation summit, which is fast becoming an agenda-setting platform for the PoS payment sector, brings together stakeholders in the PoS value chain to discuss and strategize in a bid to explore opportunities and improve service delivery in the PoS business sector of the Nigerian payment system.

It is focused on advancing a

cashless payment system in the country through insights, shared wisdom and experiences.

The theme for this year’s edition: “Deepening Financial Inclusion Through Agency Banking,� is expected to highlight the roles and contributions of agency banking in breaking the financial inclusion challenge, using PoS terminals as a platform.

Keynote speakers and participants that will bring their wealth of experience to bear to chart a way forward in the financial inclusion initiative include the Executive Director, Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems, Mr. Niyi Ajao; COO,

Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program, MarketMoni, Bank of Industry, Uzoma Nwagba; the Head, Financial Inclusion, Central Bank of Nigeria, Temitope Akin-Fadeyi; and the Managing Director, Global Accelerex Limited, Tunde Ogungbade.

A statement from the organisers pointed out that majority of Nigerians in rural areas lack access to financial services. “Traditional banks are also handicapped in expanding their operations as vast nonurban regions often lack the legacy infrastructure to enable fast deployment of financial products and services.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

AUGUST 2017 Broad Money (M2)

21,851,454.31

-- Narrow Money (M1)

9,890,813.10

---- Currency Outside Banks

1,523,239.91

---- Demand Deposits

8,367,573.19

-- Quasi Money

11,960,641.22

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

9,732,990.89

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

12,118,463.42

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

26,821,446.81

---- Credit to Government (Net)

4,824,226.22

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

7,834,536.74

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

-3,010,310.52

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

21,997,220.59

--Other Assets Net

-14,702,983.39

Reserve Money (Base Money)

5,486,804.65

--Currency in Circulation

1,868,735.07

--Banks Reserves

3,268,266.17 Ëž Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ě‹

MANAGED FUNDS Month Inter-Bank Call Rate

AUGUST 2017 22.63

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

13.35

Savings Deposit Rate

4.08

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.86

3 Months Deposit Rate

10.14

6 Months Deposit Rate

11.51

12 Months Deposit Rate

11.40

Prime Lending rate

17.69

Maximum Lending Rate

31.20 Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂœĂŁ ÙÖÓĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ě‹ ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT, MON, MARCH 12, 2018 The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $62.53 a barrel on Monday, compared with $61.95 the previous Friday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), ZaďŹ ro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

T H I S D AY ˾ , MARCH 14, 2018

39

MARKET NEWS

Japual,Glaxosmithkline, Unity Kapital, Lead Price Losers on Profit Taking Goddy Egene and Nosa Alekhuogie

with Milost Global Inc., an American private equity firm to inject $350 million into its operations.

Japual had disclosed to market operators, shareholders and other stakeholders that the $350 million capital injection by the United States based firm was in line with the mandate received from the company’s shareholders at the annual general meeting held

The share price of Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc yesterday suffered the first major decline after a bull run that lasted for days. Japaul had last week appreciated by 53 per cent following renewed demand by investors who were reacting to news that it had entered into a binding commitment

on Thursday the 30th day of June, 2016.

According to Japual, the facility is in form of $250 million equity injection and $100 million Convertible Notes and it is expected to bail help to bail out the company from the present financial situation.

Based on this information, many investors renewed their demand for the stock, which led to a jump of over 50 per cent

to close at 97 kobo per share.

However, profit taking by some investors yesterday reversed the gaining streak and made it to close as the highest price loser. It shed 8.3 per cent to be at 88 kobo per share.

In all, 39 stocks depreciated while 26 others appreciated.

FTN Cocoa Processors closed as the second highest price loser with 6.4 per cent. Unity

PRICES FOR SECURITIES TRADED AS OF

per cent. Linkage Assurance Plc and NEM Insurance Plc appreciated by 4.8 per cent apiece. Continental Reinsurance Plc and C & I Leasing Plc chalked up 4.6 per cent each among others.

However, the market closed with a marginal growth as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index appreciated by 0.04 per cent to close at 43,073.42.

Kapital Insurance Plc shed 6.0 per cent, while Glaxosmithkline Consumer Nigeria Plc and Interlinked Technologies Plc went down 5.0 per cent apiece. Unilever Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc and United Capital Plc shed 4.9 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 4.8 per cent in that order among others.

On the positive side, Cutix Plc led with 6.1 per cent, trailed

by Double One Plc with 4.9

A S AT 1 3 / 0 3 / 2 0 1 8

Price List (Equities) PRICES FOR PREMIUM BOARD SECURITIES FINANCIAL SERVICES

S/N 1 BANKING S/N 2 OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRIAL GOODS S/N 3 BUILDING MATERIALS INDUSTRIAL GOODS PREMIUM BOARD TOTALS Price List (Equities) PRICES FOR MAIN BOARD SECURITIES AGRICULTURE S/N 4 5 6 CROP PRODUCTION S/N 7 FISHING/HUNTING/ TRAPPING S/N 8 LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES AGRICULTURE CONGLOMERATES S/N 9 10 11 12 13 DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES CONGLOMERATES CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE S/N 14 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION S/N 15 16 INFRASTRUCTURE/ HEAVY CONSTRUCTION S/N 17 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT S/N 18 19 20 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE CONSUMER GOODS S/N 21 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO PARTS S/N 22 23 24 25 26 BEVERAGES--BREWERS/DISTILLERS S/N

BANKING ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK PLC

MARKET CAP(Nm) 956,023.24

OTHER FINANCIAL MARKET CAP(Nm) INSTITUTIONS FBN HOLDINGS PLC 407,411.57

BUILDING MATERIALS MARKET CAP(Nm) DANGOTE CEMENT 4,573,672.19 PLC

CROP PRODUCTION MARKET CAP(Nm) FTN COCOA PROCES638.00 SORS PLC OKOMU OIL PALM 68,681.52 PLC. PRESCO PLC 74,350.00 FISHING/HUNTING/ TRAPPING ELLAH LAKES PLC. LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL SPECIALTIES LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC.

MARKET CAP(Nm) 511.20 MARKET CAP(Nm) 3,000.00

DIVERSIFIED INDUSMARKET CAP(Nm) TRIES A.G. LEVENTIS NIGE1,694.27 RIA PLC. JOHN HOLT PLC. 194.58 S C O A NIG. PLC. 2,111.93 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION OF 77,231.18 NIGERIA PLC U A C N PLC. 51,575.21

BUILDING CONSTRUCMARKET CAP(Nm) TION ARBICO PLC. 711.32 INFRASTRUCTURE/ HEAVY CONSTRUC- MARKET CAP(Nm) TION JULIUS BERGER NIG. 32,736.00 PLC. ROADS NIG PLC. 165.00 REAL ESTATE DEVELMARKET CAP(Nm) OPMENT UACN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CO. 7,795.19 LIMITED REAL ESTATE INVESTMARKET CAP(Nm) MENT TRUSTS (REITS) SKYE SHELTER FUND 2,000.00 PLC UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT 11,300.89 TRUST (REIT) UPDC REAL ESTATE 26,682.70 INVESTMENT TRUST

VOLUME

27

756

70,262,625

28

756

70,262,625

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

30.45

-1.77

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

11.35

-0.44

409

53,021,761

29 30

409

53,021,761

31

1,165

123,284,386

32

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

33

268.40

1.28

67

292,939

34

67 67

292,939 292,939

FOOD PRODUCTS

1,232

123,577,325

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

0.29

-6.45

4

399,400

72.00

-

9

38,500

74.35

-

9 22

5,211 443,111

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

4.26

-

0

0

0

0

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

1.00

-

13

355,999

13

355,999

35

799,110

TRADES

VOLUME

PRICE

%CHANGE

0.64

-

8

195,127

0.50 3.25

4.17 -

11 1

447,497 3,500

1.90

-4.52

132

12,318,440

17.90

-0.28

54

3,052,113

206

16,016,677

206

16,016,677

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

4.79

-

0

0

0

0

TRADES

VOLUME

PRICE

%CHANGE

S/N 35 36 FOOD PRODUCTS-DIVERSIFIED S/N 37 38 HOUSEHOLD DURABLES S/N 39 40 PERSONAL/HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS CONSUMER GOODS FINANCIAL SERVICES S/N 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 BANKING S/N 53 54 55

24.80

-0.20

17

669,617

6.60

-

0

0

17

669,617

TRADES

VOLUME

PRICE

%CHANGE

56 57 58 59

3.00

-

14

125,710

14

125,710

61

60

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

62

100.00

-

1

84

63

45.20

-

0

0

64

0

0

65

1

84

66

32

795,411

67

10.00

-

68 AUTOMOBILES/AUTO MARKET CAP(Nm) PARTS DN TYRE & RUBBER 1,718.16 PLC BEVERAGES--BREWMARKET CAP(Nm) ERS/DISTILLERS CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 22,314.06 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. 242.22 PLC. GUINNESS NIG PLC 218,600.21 INTERNATIONAL 489,964.13 BREWERIES PLC. NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 1,039,597.27 FOOD PRODUCTS MARKET CAP(Nm)

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

69

0.36

-

3

106,993

70

3

106,993

TRADES

VOLUME

PRICE

%CHANGE

71

2.85

-

6

39,190

72

0.89

-

0

0

73

99.80

0.81

57

1,375,498

57.00

-0.18

29

3,264,469

130.00

0.15

PRICE

%CHANGE

74 75

159

4,828,210

251

9,507,367

76

TRADES

VOLUME

77 78

DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. NASCON ALLIED INDUSTRIES PLC UNION DICON SALT PLC.

82,500.00

16.50

0.61

133

3,635,336

267,600.00

22.30

-4.50

65

1,357,666

99,721.01

38.00

1.88

194

5,636,131

19,984.10

2.52

-4.91

110

5,534,700

1,861.25

0.50

-

0

0

1,060.29

5.95

-

3

15,200

58,287.64

22.00

-4.35

65

425,324

3,676.41

13.45

-

FOOD PRODUCTSMARKET CAP(Nm) PRICE -DIVERSIFIED CADBURY NIGERIA 33,713.73 17.95 PLC. NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,109,718.75 1,400.00 HOUSEHOLD DUMARKET CAP(Nm) RABLES NIGERIAN ENAMEL1,680.31 WARE PLC. VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 3,127.11 PERSONAL/HOUSEMARKET CAP(Nm) HOLD PRODUCTS P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA 91,320.97 PLC. UNILEVER NIGERIA 332,061.31 PLC.

BANKING MARKET CAP(Nm) ACCESS BANK PLC. 370,278.04 DIAMOND BANK PLC 50,489.65 ECOBANK TRANSNA363,321.11 TIONAL INCORPORATED FIDELITY BANK PLC 85,475.65 GUARANTY TRUST 1,392,094.78 BANK PLC. JAIZ BANK PLC 29,169.61 SKYE BANK PLC 12,353.47 STERLING BANK PLC. 51,822.75 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 200,933.19 UNITED BANK FOR 415,522.97 AFRICA PLC UNITY BANK PLC 18,235.37 WEMA BANK PLC. 35,874.25 INSURANCE CARRIERS, BROKERS AND MARKET CAP(Nm) SERVICES AFRICAN ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY 5,969.65 PLC AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 4,781.84 AXAMANSARD INSUR28,665.00 ANCE PLC CONSOLIDATED HALL2,940.00 MARK INSURANCE PLC CONTINENTAL REINSUR18,567.21 ANCE PLC CORNERSTONE INSUR5,744.51 ANCE COMPANY PLC. EQUITY ASSURANCE 5,040.00 PLC. GOLDLINK INSURANCE 2,411.47 PLC GREAT NIGERIAN INSUR1,913.74 ANCE PLC GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 2,578.80 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INSURANCE 642.04 COMPANY PLC LASACO ASSURANCE 3,075.84 PLC. LAW UNION AND ROCK 3,222.25 INS. PLC. LINKAGE ASSURANCE 6,880.00 PLC MUTUAL BENEFITS AS3,680.00 SURANCE PLC. N.E.M INSURANCE CO 13,834.92 (NIG) PLC. NIGER INSURANCE CO. 3,405.37 PLC. PRESTIGE ASSURANCE 2,593.60 CO. PLC. REGENCY ALLIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY 2,134.00 PLC SOVEREIGN TRUST 2,585.66 INSURANCE PLC STANDARD ALLIANCE 5,680.85 INSURANCE PLC. STANDARD TRUST 4,670.54 ASSURANCE PLC UNIC DIVERSIFIED 593.93 HOLDINGS PLC. UNITY KAPITAL AS4,298.67 SURANCE PLC UNIVERSAL INSUR8,000.00 ANCE COMPANY PLC WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 8,029.64

0

0

570

16,604,357

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

1.99

40

341,145

1.45

68

207,046

108

548,191 VOLUME

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

22.10

-

0

0

3.00

1.35

17

300,374

17

300,374

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

23.00

-

44

267,581

57.80

-4.93

92

551,031

136

818,612

1,085

27,885,894

TRADES 176 140

VOLUME 7,173,560 18,585,845

PRICE 12.80 2.18

%CHANGE -0.39 1.40

19.80

-1.00

61

991,189

2.95

-1.01

138

6,266,909

47.30

-0.53

189

8,151,363

0.99 0.89 1.80 6.90

-1.11 2.27 1.47

20 138 160 49

341,195 19,074,886 6,386,130 1,864,974

12.15

-1.22

227

27,377,243

1.56 0.93

-4.88 -4.12

7 55 1,360

241,400 5,606,744 102,061,438

PRICE

%CHANGE

TRADES

VOLUME

0.29

-3.33

5

217,147

0.69

1.47

31

1,593,308

2.73

1.11

13

50,355,000

0.42

9.52

36

2,789,313

1.79

4.68

10

376,000

0.39

-4.88

15

511,500

0.36

-

0

0

0.53

-

0

0

0.50

-

0

0

0.42

-

0

0

0.50

-

0

0

0.42

-4.55

13

1,344,767

0.75

4.17

20

1,368,480

0.86

4.88

8

760,510

0.46

-4.17

5

374,600

2.62

4.80

42

5,141,370

0.44

-

0

0

0.47

-

4

28,083

0.32

-3.03

25

16,689,711

0.31

-3.12

4

513,916

0.44

-

0

0

0.50

-

0

0

0.23

-4.35

47

4,731,370

0.31

-6.06

10

2,058,000

0.50

-

0

0

0.60

-1.64

43

1,352,135

WEDNESDAY, ͯͲ˜ ͺ͸͹Ͷ ˾ T H I S D AY

40

Nigeria Daily Stock Market Report: dŚŝƐ ĂLJ ĨƌŝŶǀĞƐƚ /ŶĚĞdž ƐŚĞĚƐ Ϭ͘ϰй

THISDAY AFRINVEST 40 INDEX

dŚĞ dŚŝƐ ĂLJ ĨƌŝŶǀĞƐƚ ŝŶĚĞdž ĞdžƚĞŶĚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŶĞŐĂƟǀĞ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƉƌĞǀŝŽƵƐ ƐĞƐƐŝŽŶ͕ ƐŚĞĚĚŝŶŐ Ϭ͘ϰй ƚŽ ĐůŽƐĞ Ăƚ ϭ͕ϳϱϴ͘ϲϮ ƉŽŝŶƚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ zd ƌĞƚƵƌŶ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ŵŽĚĞƌĂƚĞĚ ƚŽ ϭϰ͘Ϭй͘ zĞƐƚĞƌĚĂLJ͛Ɛ ŶĞŐĂƟǀĞ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ůŽƐƐĞƐ ŝŶ 'h Z Edz ;ͲϬ͘ϱйͿ͕ E/d, ;Ͳϭ͘ϴйͿ ĂŶĚ & E, ;Ͳϭ͘ϯйͿ ǁŚŝĐŚ ĐƵŵƵůĂƟǀĞůLJ ĂĐĐŽƵŶƚ ĨŽƌ ϰϭ͘ϲй ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚĞdž͘

Fundamental Performance Metrics for THISDAY AFRINVEST 40 Index

Ticker

DĂƌŬĞƚ ůŽƐĞƐ &ůĂƫƐŚ ĂƐ 'ĂŝŶƐ ŝŶ E' D ŽīƐĞƚ ^ĞůůͲŽīƐ͙ E^ ^/ ƵƉ ϰďƉƐ dŚĞ ĞƋƵŝƟĞƐ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŐƌĞĞŶ ĂůƚŚŽƵŐŚ ŇĂƫƐŚ ĂƐ ŐĂŝŶƐ ŝŶ E' D ƉƵůůĞĚ ƚŚĞ ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ /ŶĚĞdž ; ^/Ϳ ϰďƉƐ ůŽǁĞƌ ƚŽ ϰϯ͕Ϭϳϯ͘ϰϮ ƉŽŝŶƚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ zd ƌĞƚƵƌŶ ƐƚŽŽĚ Ăƚ ϭϮ͘ϲй͘ ĐĐŽƌĚŝŶŐůLJ͕ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐĂƉŝƚĂůŝnjĂƟŽŶ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ďLJ Eϲ͘ϬďŶ ƚŽ Eϭϱ͘ϰƚŶ͘ dŽĚĂLJ͛Ɛ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ůĂƌŐĞůLJ ĚƌŝǀĞŶ ďLJ ƉƌŝĐĞ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƟŽŶ ŝŶ E' D ;нϭ͘ϯйͿ ǁŚŝĐŚ ŽīƐĞƚ ůŽƐƐĞƐ ŝŶ E/d, ;Ͳϭ͘ϴйͿ͕ hE/> s Z ;Ͳϰ͘ϵйͿ ĂŶĚ E'^h' Z ;Ͳ ϰ͘ϱйͿ͖ ĞdžͲ E' D ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ǁŽƵůĚ ŚĂǀĞ ƐŚĞĚ ϰϴďƉƐ͘ ĐƟǀŝƚLJ ůĞǀĞů ǁĂƐ ŚŽǁĞǀĞƌ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ĨĞůů ϱ͘ϰй ƚŽ ϰϬϳ͘ϴŵ ƵŶŝƚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ ǀĂůƵĞ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ŝŶĐŚĞĚ ϵ͘ϵй ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ƚŽ Eϲ͘ϬďŶ͘ dŚĞ ƚŽƉ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ďLJ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ƚŽĚĂLJ ǁĞƌĞ E/d, ;ϳϬ͘ϮŵͿ͕ & E, ;ϱϯ͘ϬŵͿ ĂŶĚ D E^ Z ;ϱϬ͘ϰŵͿ ǁŚŝůĞ E/d, ;EϮ͘ϭďŶͿ͕ E/' Z/ E Z t Z/ ^ ;EϬ͘ϲďŶͿ ĂŶĚ & E, ;EϬ͘ϲďŶͿ͘ Kŝů Θ 'ĂƐ /ŶĚĞdž >ĞĂĚƐ 'ĂŝŶĞƌƐ WĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ ϯ ŽĨ ϱ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ŶŽƌƚŚǁĂƌĚƐ͘ dŚĞ /ŶƐƵƌĂŶĐĞ ŝŶĚĞdž ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ͕ ƵƉ ϭ͘ϯй ĂƐ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŽƌƐ ƚŽŽŬ ƉŽƐŝƟŽŶ ŝŶ E D ;нϭ͘ϳйͿ͕ >/E< ^^hZ ;нϬ͘ϵйͿ ĂŶĚ D E^ Z ;нϬ͘ϵйͿ͘ dŚĞ Kŝů Θ 'ĂƐ ĂŶĚ /ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů 'ŽŽĚƐ ŝŶĚĞdž ƚƌĂŝůĞĚ ƵƉ Ϭ͘ϵй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘ϳй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ŐĂŝŶƐ ŝŶ DK /> ;нϱ͘ϬйͿ͕ dKd > ;нϭ͘ϮйͿ ĂŶĚ E' D ;нϭ͘ϯйͿ͘ KŶ ƚŚĞ ŇŝƉ ƐŝĚĞ͕ ƚŚĞ ĂŶŬŝŶŐ ŝŶĚĞdž ƐŚĞĚ Ϭ͘ϴй ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ďĂĐŬ ŽĨ ƐĞůů ŽīƐ ŝŶ ďĞůůǁĞƚŚĞƌƐ Ͳ E/d, ;Ͳϭ͘ϴйͿ͕ 'h Z Edz ;ͲϬ͘ϱйͿ ĂŶĚ d/ ;Ͳϭ͘ϬйͿ͘ dŚĞ ůŽƐƐĞƐ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ŝŶ E/d, ƚŽĚĂLJ ŝƐ ƐƵƌƉƌŝƐŝŶŐ ĂƐ ǁĞ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĞĚ Ă ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞ ƌĞĂĐƟŽŶ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƌĞůĞĂƐĞ ŽĨ ĂŶ ŝŵƉƌĞƐƐŝǀĞ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ƌĞƐƵůƚ͘ ůƐŽ͕ ƚŚĞ ŽŶƐƵŵĞƌ 'ŽŽĚƐ ŝŶĚĞdž ĨĞůů Ϭ͘ϰй ĂƐ hE/> s Z ;Ͳϰ͘ϵйͿ ĂŶĚ E'^h' Z ;Ͳϰ͘ϱйͿ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ůŽƐƐĞƐ͘ /ŶǀĞƐƚŽƌ ^ĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ /ŵƉƌŽǀĞƐ /ŶǀĞƐƚŽƌ ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ ŵĞĂƐƵƌĞĚ ďLJ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ďƌĞĂĚƚŚ ;ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞͬĚĞĐůŝŶĞ ƌĂƟŽͿ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞĚ ĂůďĞŝƚ ƐƟůů ŶĞŐĂƟǀĞ ƚŽ Ϭ͘ϳdž ĨƌŽŵ Ϭ͘ϱdž ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ LJĞƐƚĞƌĚĂLJ ĐŽŶƐĞƋƵĞŶƚ ŽŶ Ϯϲ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ƚŚĂƚ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞĚ ƌĞůĂƟǀĞ ƚŽ ϯϳ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞƌƐ͘ dŚĞ ďĞƐƚ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵŝŶŐ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ǁĞƌĞ hd/y ;нϲ͘ϭйͿ͕ DK /> ;нϱ͘ϬйͿ ĂŶĚ >/E< ^^hZ ;нϰ͘ϵйͿ ǁŚŝůĞ : W h> K/> ;Ͳϴ͘ϯйͿ͕ &dE K K ;Ͳϲ͘ϱйͿ ĂŶĚ hE/dz W ;Ͳϴ͘ϯйͿ ůĞĚ ůĂŐŐĂƌĚƐ͘ ůƚŚŽƵŐŚ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ůĂƌŐĞůLJ ŇĂƫƐŚ͕ ǁĞ ĞdžƉĞĐƚ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŽƌƐ ƚŽ ƚĂŬĞ ƉŽƐŝƟŽŶ ŝŶ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĂǀĞ ƐŚŽǁŶ ŝŵƉƌĞƐƐŝǀĞ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ŐŽŝŶŐ ĨŽƌǁĂƌĚ͘

/ŶŝƟĂů ZĞĂĐƟŽŶͮ ĞŶŝƚŚ ĂŶŬ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ͗ ZĞƐŝůŝĞŶƚ WĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ͘​͘​͘ ůĞĂƌ ĂƐĞ ŽĨ hŶĚĞƌǀĂůƵĂƟŽŶ ĞŶŝƚŚ ĂŶŬ WůĐ ;͞ ĞŶŝƚŚ͟ Žƌ ͞ƚŚĞ ĂŶŬ͟Ϳ ƌĞůĞĂƐĞĚ ŝƚƐ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ƌĞƐƵůƚ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ŇŽŽƌ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĞdžĐŚĂŶŐĞ ŽŶ DŽŶĚĂLJ ;ϭϮͬϬϯͬϮϬϭϴͿ ĂŶĚ ŝŶ ůŝŶĞ ǁŝƚŚ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĂƟŽŶ͕ ĞŶŝƚŚ͛Ɛ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ůĂƌŐĞůLJ ŝŵƉƌĞƐƐŝǀĞ͘ 'ƌŽƐƐ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ƐƵƌŐĞĚ ϰϲ͘ϳй zͲŽͲz ƚŽ Eϳϰϱ͘ϮďŶ͘ dŚĞ ĂŶŬ͛Ɛ /ŶƚĞƌĞƐƚ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ƌŽƐĞ Ϯϯ͘ϰй zͲŽͲz ĨƌŽŵ Eϯϴϰ͘ϲďŶ ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϲ ƚŽ Eϰϳϰ͘ϲďŶ ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ LJŝĞůĚ ŽŶ ůŽĂŶƐ ĂŶĚ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞƐ ;ĨƌŽŵ ϭϬ͘ϵй ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϲ ƚŽ ϭϭ͘ϴй ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϳͿ ǁŚŝůĞ EŽŶͲŝŶƚĞƌĞƐƚ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ƐƵƌŐĞĚ ϭϭϵ͘Ϯй zͲŽͲz ƚŽ EϮϳϬ͘ϲďŶ ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ĨƌŽŵ EϭϮϯ͘ϰďŶ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŝŽƌ LJĞĂƌ͕ ŵĂũŽƌůLJ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐŝŐŶŝĮĐĂŶƚ ŐĂŝŶƐ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ĂĐƟǀŝƟĞƐ ;ĞƐƉĞĐŝĂůůLJ dƌĞĂƐƵƌLJ ŝůůƐ ĂŶĚ ĞƌŝǀĂƟǀĞƐ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐͿ͘ Ɛ ŶŽƟĐĞĚ ŝŶ ϮϬϭϳ͕ ŵŽƌĞ ĂŶŬƐ ƐĞĞŵ ƚŽ ďĞ ĨŽĐƵƐŝŶŐ ŽŶ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ĂĐƟǀŝƟĞƐ ƚŽ Ɛƚ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ŐŝǀĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĂƩƌĂĐƟǀĞ LJŝĞůĚ ĞŶǀŝƌŽŶŵĞŶƚ͘ dŚŝƐ ŚĂƐ ďĞĞŶ ƉĂƌƟĐƵůĂƌůLJ ƚƌƵĞ ĨŽƌ ĞŶŝƚŚ ǁŚŝĐŚ ĐŽŶƐŝƐƚĞŶƚůLJ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞ ƋƵĂƌƚĞƌůLJ ƚƌĂĚŝŶŐ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ŽĨ Eϯϵ͘ϵďŶ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ Yϭ͗ϮϬϭϳ ƚŽ Yϰ͗ϮϬϭϳ ĨƌŽŵ ϮϬϭϲ ĐŽƌƌĞƐƉŽŶĚŝŶŐ ƋƵĂƌƚĞƌůLJ ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞ ŽĨ Eϳ͘ϭďŶ͘ tĞ ďĞůŝĞǀĞ ƚŚŝƐ ŝƐ ĂŶ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ůŝŶĞ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĂƐ ĐŽŵĞ ƚŽ ƐƚĂLJ ĂƐ ƚŚĞ ĂŶŬ ƚĂŬĞƐ ĂĚǀĂŶƚĂŐĞ ŽĨ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƟĞƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘ ĞŶŝƚŚ ǁĂƐ ĂůƐŽ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ ŵĂŝŶƚĂŝŶ ŝƚƐ ĚƌŝǀĞ ƚŽ ŽƉƟŵŝnjĞ ĐŽƐƚ ĂƐ ŽƐƚ ƚŽ /ŶĐŽŵĞ ZĂƟŽ ; /ZͿ ŵŽĚĞƌĂƚĞĚ ƚŽ ϰϮ͘ϵй ĨƌŽŵ ϰϴ͘Ϭй ŝŶ &z͗ϮϬϭϲ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ Ă ϯϬ͘Ϭй ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞ ŝŶ KW y ;ĨƌŽŵ Eϭϳϰ͘ϱďŶ ƚŽ EϮϮϲ͘ϵďŶͿ͘ ĐĐŽƌĚŝŶŐůLJ͕ W d ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞĚ ϯϳ͘Ϯй zͲŽͲz ƚŽ Eϭϳϳ͘ϵďŶ ĨƌŽŵ EϭϮϵ͘ϳďŶ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŝŽƌ LJĞĂƌ ǁŚŝůĞ ZŽ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞĚ ƚŽ Ϯϯ͘ϰй ĨƌŽŵ ϮϬ͘Ϭй ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŝŽƌ LJĞĂƌ͘ ĮŶĂů ĚŝǀŝĚĞŶĚ ŽĨ EϮ͘ϰϱ ;EϬ͘Ϯϱ ƉĂŝĚ ĨŽƌ ,ϭ͗ϮϬϭϳͿ ǁĂƐ ƉƌŽƉŽƐĞĚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ƉĞƌŝŽĚ͕ ƚƌĂŶƐůĂƟŶŐ ƚŽ ĂŶ ŝŵƉůŝĞĚ ĚŝǀŝĚĞŶĚ LJŝĞůĚ ŽĨ ϳ͘ϵй͘

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

THISDAY AFRINVEST 40

Current Price

Previous Current Price Weighting Change

Price Change YTD

Price Change Index to Date

ROE

ROA

P/E

P/BV

Divinden Earnings d Yield Yield

1,758.62

-0.42%

14.0%

75.9%

26.1%

8.5%

8.1x

1.1x

3.6%

1

Guaranty Trust Bank PLC

47.30

-0.5%

21.8%

16.1%

16.6%

26.0%

4.3%

9.8x

2.4x

4.3%

11.0% 10.2%

2

Zenith Bank PLC

30.45

-1.8%

13.6%

18.8%

17.4%

23.3%

3.4%

5.4x

1.2x

9.7%

18.6%

3

Nigerian Brew eries PLC

4

Nestle Nigeria PLC

130.00

0.0%

7.6%

-3.6%

-3.7%

19.2%

8.8%

31.3x

5.8x

3.2%

3.2%

1,400.00

1.4%

6.4%

-10.0%

-10.0%

89.0%

21.3%

32.9x

24.7x

3.0%

3.0%

268.40

1.3%

5.4%

5

Dangote Cement PLC

6.4%

16.7%

16.7%

30.4%

15.7%

18.5x

5.3x

3.2%

6

FBN Holdings Plc

11.35

-0.4%

6.2%

29.0%

29.1%

2.6%

0.3%

18.5x

0.6x

1.8%

5.4%

7

Access Bank PLC

12.80

-0.4%

4.8%

22.5%

20.8%

15.1%

2.0%

5.2x

0.7x

5.1%

19.3%

8

United Bank for Africa PLC

12.15

-1.2%

4.5%

18.0%

16.7%

17.2%

2.2%

5.3x

0.9x

6.2%

18.8%

Ecobank Transnational Inc

19.80

-1.0%

3.4%

16.5%

21.7%

-14.6%

-1.3%

0.7x

3.1%

-17.5%

9 10

SEPLAT Petroleum Development C

785.00

0.0%

3.4%

25.4%

25.4%

19.4%

11.1%

4.6x

0.8x

11

Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC

48.60

-0.1%

3.0%

17.1%

18.8%

28.7%

3.4%

11.2x

2.9x

12

Guinness Nigeria PLC

99.80

0.8%

2.1%

6.2%

6.2%

14.6%

5.6%

18.7x

2.6x

0.6%

5.3%

13

Lafarge Africa PLC

53.00

0.0%

1.7%

18.1%

18.1%

47.1%

9.8%

4.7x

8.0x

1.9%

21.1%

14

Fidelity Bank PLC

2.95

-1.0%

1.3%

19.9%

14.3%

8.0%

1.1%

2.6x

0.4x

4.7%

38.8%

15

Oando PLC

5.99

0.0%

1.2%

0.0%

0.0%

40.7%

4.2%

2.7x

0.6x

16

Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC

22.30

-4.5%

1.1%

11.5%

9.5%

43.2%

19.8%

8.7x

3.4x

2.3%

11.5%

17

Okomu Oil Palm PLC

72.00

0.0%

1.0%

6.4%

6.4%

37.4%

25.9%

9.6x

3.1x

2.1%

10.4%

18

Unilever Nigeria PLC

57.80

-4.9%

1.4%

41.0%

43.7%

50.3%

8.4%

35.6x

13.6x

0.2%

2.8%

19

International Brew eries PLC

57.00

-0.2%

0.7%

4.6%

3.7%

24.6%

7.4%

59.7x

13.6x

20

Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC

38.00

1.9%

0.7%

31.0%

31.0%

13.1%

3.0%

7.9x

0.9x

2.4%

12.6%

21

Transnational Corp of Nigeria

1.90

-4.5%

0.7%

30.1%

28.4%

19.6%

4.1%

7.6x

1.3x

-0.3%

0.5%

5.9%

5.9%

6.3%

2.2%

11.5x

0.8x

22

UAC of Nigeria PLC

17.90

23

Diamond Bank PLC

2.18

1.4%

0.7%

45.3%

38.9%

2.5%

0.3%

8.8x

0.2x

24

Total Nigeria PLC

249.00

1.2%

0.5%

8.3%

8.3%

31.0%

6.5%

10.5x

3.0x

2.65

1.5%

0.7%

183.70

5.0%

0.4%

25

FCMB Group Plc

26

11 PLC

27

Forte Oil PLC

44.00

0.0%

28

PZ Cussons Nigeria PLC

23.00

0.0%

29

Cadbury Nigeria PLC

17.95

30

Presco PLC

31

21.5% 1.2%

8.9%

37.0%

1.7%

13.2% 5.5%

8.7% 11.4%

6.8%

9.5%

67.7%

3.8%

0.6%

7.7x

0.3x

3.8%

13.0%

-5.6%

-5.6%

32.6%

12.0%

9.8x

2.7x

4.4%

10.3%

0.4%

1.2%

4.8%

44.3%

3.7%

11.1x

4.9x

0.4%

11.7%

8.7%

10.7%

5.0%

21.8x

2.2x

2.0%

0.4%

14.6%

15.1%

4.5%

1.6%

51.2x

3.0x

74.35

0.0%

0.4%

8.5%

8.5%

42.9%

25.9%

3.7x

NASCON Allied Industries PLC

22.00

-4.3%

0.3%

18.9%

14.5%

54.6%

19.5%

32

UPDC Real Estate Investment Tr

10.00

0.0%

0.3%

0.0%

0.0%

33

Union Bank of Nigeria PLC

6.90

1.5%

0.3%

-11.5%

-8.1%

5.6%

1.2%

34

Julius Berger Nigeria PLC

24.80

-0.2%

0.2%

-11.4%

-11.4%

-12.2%

-1.2%

35

Sterling Bank PLC

1.80

2.3%

0.4%

66.7%

59.3%

6.1%

0.6%

9.0% 2.2%

4.6%

1.3x

2.0%

27.3%

10.9x

5.1x

6.8%

9.2%

0.8x

7.2%

8.8x

0.4x

9.5x

2.0%

11.3%

1.3x

-9.2%

0.5x

10.6%

36

Dangote Flour Mills Plc

16.50

0.0%

0.3%

35.8%

35.8%

61.6%

15.8%

5.3x

2.3x

37

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Niger

20.90

-5.0%

0.2%

-3.3%

-3.3%

61.2%

23.6%

4.3x

1.6x

1.4%

23.1%

38

Chemical and Allied Products P

38.75

2.0%

0.2%

14.0%

8.5%

84.3%

38.5%

16.9x

11.9x

5.7%

5.9%

39

Beta Glass PLC

75.70

0.0%

0.1%

47.5%

47.5%

18.4%

11.9%

10.7x

1.8x

1.3%

9.4%

40

Transcorp Hotels Plc

7.45

0.0%

0.1%

3.3%

3.3%

4.7%

2.8%

21.2x

1.0x

1.8%

4.7%

T o p 10 G a i n e r s T ic k er

T o p 10 T r a d e s b y V o l u m e

P ric e

P ric e C hg %

T ic k er

Vo lum e

P ric e C hg %

2.60

6.1%

Z EN IT H B A N K

70.3

-1.8%

183.70

5.0%

FB NH

53.0

-0.4%

LIN KA SSUR E

0.86

4.9%

M A N SA R D

50.4

1.1%

N EM

2.62

4.8%

UB A

27.4

-1.2%

C ON T IN SUR E

1.79

4.7%

SKYEB A N K

19.1

-1.1%

C ILEA SIN G

1.80

4.7%

D IA M ON D B N K

18.6

1.4%

A B CTRA NS

0.46

4.5%

R EGA LIN S

16.7

-3.0%

LA WUN ION

0.75

4.2%

T R A N SC OR P

12.3

-4.5%

KƵƌ ŽŵƉĞůůŝŶŐ /ŶǀĞƐƚŵĞŶƚ dŚĞƐŝƐ ĨŽƌ ĞŶŝƚŚ

J OH N H OLT

0.50

4.2%

FCM B

11.3

1.5%

dŚĞ ƌĞƐŝůŝĞŶĐĞ ŽĨ ĞŶŝƚŚ ŝƐ ĐůĞĂƌůLJ ĚĞŵŽŶƐƚƌĂƚĞĚ ŝŶ ŝƚƐ &z͗ϮϬϭϳ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ĂŶĚ ǁĞ ŚĂǀĞ Ă ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞ ŽƵƚůŽŽŬ ŽŶ ĨƵƚƵƌĞ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ŝŶ ϮϬϭϴ ĂŶĚ ďĞLJŽŶĚ͘ /Ŷ ŽƵƌ ǀŝĞǁ͕ ƚŚĞ ĚŝǀŝĚĞŶĚ LJŝĞůĚ ;ϳ͘ϵйͿ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽĐŬ ŝƐ ƋƵŝƚĞ ĂƩƌĂĐƟǀĞ ŐŝǀĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ƌĞĂůŝƟĞƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĂŶĚ ƚŚŝƐ ƉƌĞƐĞŶƚƐ Ă ŐŽŽĚ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ ĨŽƌ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŽƌƐ ŝŶƚĞƌĞƐƚĞĚ ŝŶ ĚŝǀŝĚĞŶĚ ƉĂLJŝŶŐ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ͘ &ƵƌƚŚĞƌŵŽƌĞ͕ ŽŶ Ă ǀĂůƵĂƟŽŶ ďĂƐŝƐ͕ ĐŽŶƐŝĚĞƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ƉƌĞͲĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ĂŶŶŽƵŶĐĞŵĞŶƚ Wͬ s ŽĨ ϭ͘ϱdž ĂŶĚ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ Wͬ s ŵƵůƟƉůĞ ŽĨ ϭ͘Ϯdž͕ ǁĞ ďĞůŝĞǀĞ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽĐŬ ŝƐ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚůLJ ƵŶĚĞƌǀĂůƵĞĚ ĂŶĚ ƉƌĞƐĞŶƚƐ ĂŶ ĂƩƌĂĐƟǀĞ ĞŶƚƌLJ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ͘ /Ŷ Ă ƐĐĞŶĂƌŝŽ ŝŶ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽĐŬ ƚƌĂĚĞƐ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ƉƌĞͲ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ ƌĞůĞĂƐĞ Wͬ s͕ ǁĞ ĞŶǀŝƐĂŐĞ ĂŶ ŝŵƉůŝĞĚ ƉƌŝĐĞ ŽĨ Eϯϵ͘Ϯϱ ŽŶ E/d, ǁŚŝĐŚ ƉƌĞƐĞŶƚƐ ĂŶ ƵƉƐŝĚĞ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ ŽĨ Ϯϲ͘ϴй ĂŐĂŝŶƐƚ Ă ƉƌŝĐĞ ŽĨ Eϯϭ͘ϬϬ ;ϭϯͬϬϯͬϮϬϭϴͿ͘ ŐĂŝŶƐƚ ƚŚĞ ďĂĐŬĚƌŽƉ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ŝŶ ϮϬϭϴ ĂƐ ǁĞůů ĂƐ ƚŚĞ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ĂƩƌĂĐƟǀĞ ƉƌŝĐŝŶŐ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽĐŬ͕ ǁĞ ďĞůŝĞǀĞ ŝƚ ŝƐ KƉĞŶ ^ĞĂƐŽŶ ŽŶ E/d,͊ ĂŶĚ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŽƌƐ ƐŚŽƵůĚ ďĞ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ŚƵŶƚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ^ƚŽĐŬ͘

ET ER N A

6.30

3.8%

UC A P

9.9

-4.9%

P ric e

P ric e C hg %

T ic k er

Value

P ric e C hg %

J A P A ULOIL

0.88

-8.3%

Z EN IT H B A N K

2189.0

-1.8%

F T N C OC OA

0.29

-6.5%

NB

627.0

0.0%

605.3

-0.4%

Afrinvest Securities Limited (RC 603 315) (A Dealing Member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange)

C UT IX

18.7%

M OB IL

T o p 10 T r a d e s b y V a l u e

T o p 10 L o s e r s T ic k er

UN IT YKA P

0.31

-6.1%

FB NH

IN T ER LIN K

3.61

-5.0%

GUA R A N T Y

387.8

-0.5%

GLA XOSM IT H

20.90

-5.0%

UB A

336.2

-1.2%

UN ILEVER

57.80

-4.9%

N EST LE

277.7

1.4%

2.52

-4.9%

SEP LA T

217.2

0.0%

H ON YF LOUR UN IT YB N K

1.56

-4.9%

F LOUR M ILL

210.1

1.9%

UC A P

3.51

-4.9%

IN T B R EW

186.1

-0.2%

C OR N ER ST

0.39

-4.9%

M A N SA R D

137.5

1.1%

Investment Research

Brokerage Ayodeji Ebo | aebo@afrinvest.com

Robert Omotunde | romotunde@afrinvest.com

Bolaji Fajenyo | bfajenyo@afrinvest.com

Omotola Abimbola | oabimbola@afrinvest.com

41

˾ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018

MARKET NEWS

Seplat Successfully Refinances $300 Million Credit Facility Goddy Egene Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, an Nigerian oil and gas company listed on both the Nigeria Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, yesterday announced that it has successfully refinanced its existing $300 million revolving credit facility (RCF) due December 2018 with a new four year $300 million revolving credit facility due June 2022.

The RCF carries initial

interest of Libor +6 per cent payable semi-annually.

Seplat explained in a notification to the NSE that in conjunction with the issuance of the $350 million 9.25 per cent senior notes due 2023, it envisages its pro forma gross debt post-closing of both the Notes and RCF(expected to occur on 21 March2018)will be $550 million.

According to the company, the proceeds from the Notes and RCF will be used to repay and cancel existing

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

indebtedness.

Commenting on the development, Chief Financial Officer, Seplat, Roger Brown, said:“This successful re-financing reflects the confidence that the market has continued to show in our business and ability to proactively manage our balance sheet even through challenging times. Our debut bond issuance further diversifies our capital base and along with the new RCF strengthens

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 12-Mar-2018, unless otherwise stated.

our liquidity position which will allow us to scale up our work programme and focus on delivering our growth strategy.”

Although the share price of Seplat stagnated at N784 at the end of trading yesterday, market operators said the development is good for the future of the company.

Seplat recently announced from a loss of N45 billion in 2016 to a profit of N81 billion in 2017. While the oil and gas firm ended 2017 with a

profit before tax of N13.45 billion, deferred tax credit of N67 billion lifted its profit after tax to N81.1 billion for the year.

The company posted a revenue of N138.28 billion in 2017, up from N63.38 billion in 2016. Cost of sale rose from N47.08 billion to N73.41 billion, making the firm to end with gross profit of N64.87 billion, up from N16.31 billion in 2016. Finance charges went up to N22.25 billion compared with N18.27

billion in 2016. Profit before tax stood at N13.45 billion, as against a loss before tax of N47.4 billion, while profit after tax is N81.11 billion, a major recovery from a loss of N45.4 billion in 2016.

Seplat had said that going forward, it is looking to deliver on its gas ambitions while final investment decision on the ANOH gas and condensate development within OML 53 is expected to be made in the coming months.

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 N/A N/A N/A Nigeria International Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 0.86 0.87 5.07% ACAP Income Funds 0.63 0.63 4.41% 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 15.80% 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 N/A N/A N/A ARM Discovery Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Ethical Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 166.03 167.20 9.45% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 15.68% 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 14.95% Paramount Equity Fund 12.83 13.16 3.79% Women's Investment Fund 103.56 106.24 2.92% 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 15.52% CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 15.10% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.11 1.13 5.79% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.09 1.13 5.65% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,188.07 1,189.24 3.50% FBN Heritage Fund 150.24 151.64 7.80% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 14.70% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional $114.60 $115.20 1.52% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail $114.57 $115.17 1.59% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 185.94 188.96 15.34% 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 1.41 1.44 8.04% Legacy Debt Fund 2.96 2.96 2.66% 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 3,187.86 3,227.99 6.89% Coral Income Fund 2,539.94 2,539.94 3.82% 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 14.46% 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 14.93% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.20 2.23 4.33% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 17.98% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 117.94 118.29 2.54%

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 1.17 1.19 1.71% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,057.63 1,057.63 2.57% 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 16.89 17.06 19.89% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 14.19% 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 1.30 1.32 9.36% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.40 11.50 3.44% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 13.02% 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 143.33 145.57 11.18% 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 1.53 1.53 3.05% 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 2,404.95 2,424.48 7.21% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 179.25 179.25 1.59% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 1.12 1.13 11.39% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 228.60 228.70 3.81% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 197.15 199.40 10.09% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 14.93% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 10,612.71 10,758.96 9.76% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.08 1.08 1.89% 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 1.34 1.36 0.73% United Capital Bond Fund 1.61 1.61 2.64% United Capital Equity Fund 1.02 1.05 11.98% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.63% United Capital Eurobond Fund 104.78 104.78 1.83% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.13 1.14 3.83% 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 13.46 13.66 7.45% Zenith Ethical Fund 14.19 14.36 7.38% Zenith Income Fund 19.60 19.60 3.59% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.40%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

10.00 134.07

-11.35% 1.22%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

12.79 166.24 122.91

12.88 169.81 125.22

5.46% 16.40% 12.51%

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

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 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

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

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.

42

T H I S D AY ˾ ͯͲË&#x153; ͰͮͯͶ

T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY MARCH 14, 2018

43

44

T H I S D AY ˾ ͯͲË&#x153; ͰͮͯͶ

T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY MARCH 14, 2018

45

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018˾ T H I S D AY

46

INTERNATIONAL

email:foreigndesk@thisdaylive.com

Russia Says ‘Not Guilty’ of Ex-Spy Poisoning as UK Deadline Looms Moscow on Tuesday denied it was behind the poisoning of a former double agent in Britain as a midnight deadline loomed to explain how a suspected Russian-made nerve agent was used in the attack, AFP repsorted.

“Russia is not guilty,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in an English city on March 4.

The United States, NATO

and the European Union have all backed Britain in the deepening diplomatic crisis.

Lavrov said Russia was “ready to cooperate”, but complained Britain had rejected its requests for “access” to the nerve agent samples.

British Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament it was “highly likely” Russia was behind the poisoning,

Sick and Injured Start Leaving Syria’s Besieged Ghouta Sick and injured civilians left a rebel enclave in Syria’s eastern Ghouta on Tuesday under the first medical evacuation since one of the deadliest assaults of the seven-year war began nearly a month ago, Reuters reported.

In another sign of success in the government’s mission to retake all rebel-held territory near the capital, the army also evacuated hundreds of fighters and their families from a separate small rebel-held pocket south of Damascus.

In the north of the country, on another main front, Turkey’s military said it had encircled the town of Afrin, a big advance in its offensive against Kurdish fighters. Government forces also pounded a rebel-held area in the south for a second straight day, potentially reopening yet another front.

The developments show how the map of control in Syria has been changing in recent weeks, with Turkey and Russia both pressing their advantages since the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State jihadist group largely collapsed last year.

International attention has been focused in recent weeks mainly on the plight of civilians in eastern Ghouta, where the United Nations believes 400,000 people have been trapped under punishing bombardment, deprived of food and medicine.

Women carrying infants, men hobbling on crutches and an old man in a wheelchair waited at a school near the al-Wafideen crossing, along with dozens who exited the enclave through it, a witness said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said more than 150 civilians left eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, as air strikes and shelling of the area continued.

During the army’s offensive, more than 1,100 civilians have died, the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs says. President Bashar

al-Assad, whose forces have recaptured most towns and cities in Syria’s heavily populated west, has vowed to reassert his control over every inch of the country.

The government assault on eastern Ghouta has become one of the bloodiest of the war, with rebels on course for their worst defeat since the battle of Aleppo in 2016. The U.N. Security Council has demanded a 30-day ceasefire, but Moscow and Damascus say it does not apply to banned terrorist groups in Ghouta.

They have offered to evacuate civilians and rebels who agree to withdraw from the area, but so far the main insurgent groups have said they intend to stay and fight to the end.

giving Moscow until the end of Tuesday to respond.

In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, she called the attack “reckless, indiscriminate and despicable”, adding she would inform MPs of her response on Wednesday.

Ahead of the announcement, Britain’s National Security Council will meet “to discuss the response from Russia, whatever that may be,” said May’s spokesman.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson vowed that Britain’s

response, if it concludes Russia was responsible, would be “commensurate”.

May has said that her government was considering a British version of the US “Magnitsky Act”, which was adopted in 2012 to punish Russian officials accused of human rights violations.

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has also warned Russian state-owned news channel RT that its licence in Britain could be reviewed.

British police and intel-

ligence services are also to revisit the deaths of 14 people on its soil that may be linked to Russia, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Tuesday.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in a critical condition in hospital after being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southwestern city of Salisbury.

Emergency workers in biohazard suits have been

deployed in the normally sleepy city, while about 500 people who may have come into minimal contact with the nerve agent were urged to wash clothes and belongings as a precaution.

May told British lawmakers that Moscow had previously used a group of nerve agents known as Novichok, had a history of state-sponsored assassinations and viewed defectors such as Skripal as legitimate targets.

Time to Turn Brexit Speeches into Treaties, Juncker Tells May Britain must “translate speeches into treaties” and come up with a detailed plan for its post-Brexit ties with the EU, AFP reported European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker as saying Tuesday.

EU leaders have been pressing British Prime Minister Theresa May to clarify what she wants before they agree their position on the future economic partnership at a summit later this month.

A series of speeches by May and her senior ministers have done little to satisfy Brussels, and Juncker warned it was particularly crucial for London to clarify its plans for the sensitive issue of the Irish border.

Heckled by eurosceptic British MEPs while he was speaking, Juncker told them a

time would come when “you will regret your decision” to leave the bloc.

“As the clock counts down with one year to go, it is now time to translate speeches into treaties, to turn commitments into agreements, broad suggestions and wishes on the future relationship into specific workable solutions,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He said it was “especially important” that Britain comes up with concrete proposals for

the border between Britishruled Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which is staying in the EU. Both Britain and the EU have vowed to avoid the return of customs checks to the border and an interim deal in December left some flexibility on the issue, but an EU text putting the agreement into law has sparked a fresh row with London.

The draft EU text published last month says Northern Ireland must stay in a

customs union with the rest of the bloc if no better way is found to avoid a hard Irish border -- which Britain rejects.

Juncker told MEPs the draft text simply translated the December accord into legal language and “should not come as a shock”.

And the former Luxembourg PM warned London the EU institutions and member states stood squarely in support of Ireland on the issue.

47

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PAGE FORTY-SEVEN

Trump Sacks Tillerson After Africa Visit Okechukwu Uwaezuoke with agency report U.S. President Donald Trump has sacked the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and immediately replaced him with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mike Pompeo.

The president also nominated Gina Haspel to become the first woman director of the CIA. Tillerson’s sack was announced less than 24 hours after he departed Nigeria’s capital Abuja, following his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

His meeting with Buhari was the final leg of his five-nation African tour that saw him visit Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria.

Thanking Tillerson for his service on Twitter yesterday, Trump said the new secretary

would do “a fantastic job”.

“Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!

Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen.

Congratulations to all!” Trump said on Twitter.

Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago.

Trump sacked Tillerson when he had barely touched down in the U.S. after his tour of Africa, in which he pledged U.S. support for nations, such as Nigeria and Chad, fighting terrorism.

His sack was linked to his recent criticism of Russia and a series of public rifts with Trump.

Reporters for U.S. media outlets, including the Washington

Post and CNN, however, said yesterday that Tillerson was actually fired on Friday - the day he visited Djibouti and Kenya.

He then cancelled some of his activities in Kenya the following day, saying he felt unwell.

On Monday, Tillerson said he agreed with Britain’s assessment that Russia was likely to be responsible for the poisoning in Britain of a Russian double agent and that those involved must be punished.

But his words weren’t matched by the White House.

In recent months, Trump and Tillerson have had several public disagreements, specifically over how to deal with North Korea.

In one instance, Tillerson pointedly refused to deny calling his boss a moron.

Tillerson also appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would meet with

Tillerson North Korea’s leader and become the first sitting U.S. president to do so.

Tillerson’s departure represents the biggest staff change in the Trump cabinet so far and caps months of tensions between the Republican president and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive.

A senior White House official

said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but he did not want to announce it while he was on a trip to Africa.

The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who is seen as a loyalist within the administration, and wanted him in place before the U.S. president’s planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations.

Tillerson, the AFP also reported, did not speak to Trump before he was sacked yesterday and has not been given a reason for his ouster, a top aide said.

“The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted,” Undersecretary of

State Steve Goldstein said.

Tillerson arrived back in Washington before dawn yesterday after departing Nigeria on Monday.

The former secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues.

“He established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts,” Goldstein said.

“The secretary will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and enjoyed working together with the Department of Defense in an uncommonly robust relationship,” he added, in a nod to Tillerson’s close working relationship with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

U.S. stock index futures pared their gains and the dollar also trimmed gains versus the yen while extending losses versus the euro amid the news.

of the executive arm of government.

Accordingly, it has decided to screen the deputy governors-designate and members of the MPC of the central bank.

The senate said its decision to make the concession, was to ensure the MPC forms the required quorum at its next meeting scheduled for March 19 and 20, having considered the importance of the body to the economy.

The nominees for the deputy governorship positions of the CBN – Mrs. Aisha Ahmad and Mr. Edward Adamu – would be considered because they are part of the MPC. The nomination of four members of the MPC whose names had been previously announced on the floor of the Senate are Professor Adeola Festus Adenikinju, Dr. Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi, Dr. Robert Chikwendu Asogwa and Dr. Asheikh A. Maidugu.

The nominations into the Governing Board of the central bank would however not be considered alongside the others.

Yesterday’s resolution followed a half-hour closeddoor session ahead of plenary.

At the commencement of the day’s business, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim made the appeal for the concession, citing the inability of the MPC to sit in January.

“The inability of the MPC to hold its meeting is already having some adverse effects on the economy,” Ibrahim said.

The Senate and the executive have been engaged in a faceoff, following the president’s inaction on the rejection of the nomination of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, twice by the upper legislative chamber.

It was made worse when Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had said last year that since the EFCC was not listed in the 1999 Constitution, Magu’s nomination should not have been sent to the Senate in the first instance.

His comment caused the Senate to resolve to suspend further screening processes for all nominees whose agencies are not specifically cited in the Constitution, pending the legal determination of its power of confirmation.

Some nominees affected by the July 2017 resolution include Mr. Tony Ojukwu, who was nominated Executive Secretary of the National Human

Rights Commission, Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila (DirectorGeneral of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission), Mr. Funso Doherty (DirectorGeneral, National Pension Commission), Mr. Muhammad Isah (Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau), and Prof.

Bolaji Owasanoye (Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission).

The Senate also suspended confirmation processes into the boards of the agencies and forbade them from operating in an acting capacity.

However, Senator Ibrahim, making the case for the MPC, said the Senate has been known to be pro-economy and pro-foreign direct investment.

“I rise to ask that the Senate does consider the possibility of us taking the very important aspect of the economy which is the Monetary Policy Committee.

The MPC is made up of 12 members; about seven from the private sector and five from inside the central bank.

“As of today, only three of them are valid. Almost all other members’ tenures expired in December last year and that culminated in the MPC meeting not being held on January 22nd and 23rd and the next meeting is March 19 and 20,” he said.

Ibrahim explained that the MPC is a creation of the CBN Act which is autonomous.

“It is not run by the Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria but each meeting of the MPC every two months borders on the economy. As it is today, it is already affecting foreign direct investment inflows into Nigeria.

“Some foreign portfolio investments are already leaving, some that are supposed to come, are not coming,” he said.

Ibrahim therefore urged that the Senate considers the aspect of the nominations that affects the MPC so that the body can hold its meetings and steer the affairs of the economy.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’allah, lent their voices to support Ibrahim’s prayers, arguing that the nominations should be considered to prevent the collapse of the economy.

Presiding, Saraki reiterated the commitment of the Senate to ensure the growth of the economy and directed the Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions to begin the process of confirming the nominees.

2 0 19 PO LLS TAKE CEN T R E STAGE, BU H AR I VE TOE S EL ECTOR AL ACT AM E N D M E N T get more than 73, because of those who could change their minds at the last minute,” the source said.

Section 58(5) of the Constitution states: “Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.”

Also in the House, said the source, lawmakers in the lower chamber are eager at a chance to get back at Buhari over his attitude toward the National Assembly.

The House lawmakers, particularly the first timers, are miffed at the attempts by the executive to paint the legislature in a bad light and present them to the public as corrupt.

They are also angry that since the inception of the Buhari administration, the release of their constituency project funds has always been an afterthought, or used as a bargaining tool between both arms of government.

The development has jeopardised their electoral fortunes in their constituencies, with most expressing fears that they might not be able to return to the legislature in 2019 owing to their inability to deliver on any of the promises they made to their people.

A House member who also spoke with THISDAY, but preferred to remain unnamed, said that overriding the veto would scale through easily in the lower chamber.

“Remember that the amendment, which the president does not like, emanated from here. So we would use this vote to show him our true position.

“It would also be a vote against his poor governance which is setting Nigeria back,” the lawmaker said.

Adamu Maintains Stance Prior to presidential veto, the amendment to the Electoral Act had caused ripples in the upper chamber last month when some senators staged a walkout during its adoption.

Led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nassarawa, APC) and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta, APC), they had cited irregularities in the adoption of the harmonised report of the Conference Committee on the Electoral Act Amendment by the Senate.

They also accused their colleagues of passing the amendment with a pre-

determined motive.

But in a fallout of their vocal opposition, Adamu was removed as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF), while Omo-Agege was directed to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions over his comment that Buhari was the target of the amendment to Section 25.

Adamu was accused by his colleagues in the NSF of financial mismanagement and not being able to account for N70 million left in the coffers of the forum.

One of his colleagues, Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna, ACP) had said that when Adamu was asked to account for the N70 million, he had informed them that the money was carted away by monkeys on his farm.

However, Adamu who has not said much since his removal as chairman of the NSF, yesterday reiterated his opposition to the amendment of the bill and addressed the allegation that he had attempted to spearhead a plot, with the support of the presidency, to impeach Saraki.

In a lengthy statement issued yesterday, Abdullahi said he was being persecuted by the Senate over his stance that National Assembly has no business changing the sequencing of the elections.

He also accused his colleagues in the APC-led Senate of sabotaging the efforts of the executive.

“It is important for the public to know that I have committed no crime against the Senate and/or its leadership.

I have done nothing to bring the revered upper legislative House to ridicule intentionally or inadvertently,” he said.

Abdullahi said he was also being persecuted for his decision to caution, at a “raucous” plenary session, against the increasing show of disrespect for the president, which he noted had become the pattern.

“The National Assembly is the second arm of this administration. We cannot undermine the executive without undermining the government of which we are a part,” he added in the statement.

It stated further: “Part of my crime is my stand on the amendment to the Electoral Act. In that controversial amendment, the Senate seeks to change the order of the elections decided by the electoral umpire, INEC, for the 2019 general election.

“I and some of my colleagues were opposed to this

amendment on the grounds that it is not the duty of the Senate to determine the order of elections. It had never been part of the Electoral Act and there is no need to deny the commission the right to do its duty as it deems fit.

“Happily, I am not alone in taking this stand. Some of my colleagues are opposed to it too. We addressed a press conference to that effect. Our intention was not to insult the Senate but to register our principled stand on a matter that concerns all Nigerians.

“Our party, the APC, has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, yet we hold the executive a prisoner of politics; that is unhealthy for the polity.

“It is such a terrible irony that we sabotage our own government by refusing to do our part in support of the executive. Appointments requiring Senate approval are held up. The consequence is that the public has nicknamed the president and his administration ‘go-slow’.

“The people gave us the mandate as a party to deliver. With our control of the executive and the National Assembly, there is no reason why the government cannot acquit itself and fulfil the yearnings of the people.

“Perhaps, while we are consumed with sabotaging the administration and stabbing one another in the back, we forget that in less than a year from now, we shall be required to seek the people’s revalidation of our mandate to sit in these hallowed chambers. What shall we tell them?”

He also refuted allegations that he was working to oust Saraki, saying he could have contested for the Senate presidency in 2015.

“I have also heard what I consider to be rumours to the effect that the Senate plans to suspend me. I hope it is a mere rumour bandied around in the current climate of mutual recrimination.

“However, I would not be surprised if such an extreme form of punishment is being contemplated by the Senate leadership. In the history of mankind, dissent as a matter of principle, has always been punished rather than rewarded.

“I would caution against the decision, if indeed such a decision is on the cards to suspend me because it would serve no purpose other than to demonstrate the exercise of power in a manner that results in its abuse.

“I am in the Senate primarily to represent the interest of my

people in the South-western Senatorial District of Nasarawa State.

“My voice is the voice of my people; my stand on critical national issues that agitate us is the stand of my people. To suspend me on the basis of baseless allegations that do not amount to the infraction of Senate rules, is to deny them my voice and my representation.

“The power to suspend a senator must be exercised with a grave sense of responsibility, in order to protect the integrity of the Senate as an important democratic institution and of individual senators,” Abdullahi said.

PDP Chides Buhari However, in reaction to the presidential veto, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it was not surprised that the president had withheld his assent to the legislation by the National Assembly, given the tendencies he has continued to display as a politician.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it believes in democracy and subscribes to all its tenets, including the respect for the powers of the National Assembly to make laws and to amend such laws as the occasion demands.

The party said like all wellmeaning Nigerians, it would wait for the final decision of the National Assembly on the amendment.

The statement said: “As a party, we are not afraid of the 2019 general election because we know that Nigerians have already rejected President Buhari and his dysfunctional All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Against this backdrop, the PDP is assuring that it will provide all the members of our great party a level playing field to choose a presidential candidate in a National Convention that promises to be open, free, fair, credible and transparent.

“We know that with the support of Nigerians, any candidate that emerges on our platform ahead of 2019 will clinically defeat President Buhari at the polls and lead our nation back to the path of progress, national cohesion and a vibrant economy.”

CBN Nominees for Confirmation Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday made a concession on its resolution to suspend the consideration of nominees

48

T H I S D AY ˾ ͯͲË&#x153; ͰͮͯͶ

49

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018Ëž T H I S D AY

NEWS

Ă?ĂĄĂ? Ă&#x17D;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153; Davidson Iriekpen Ă&#x2014;Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2013; davidson.iriekpen@thisdaylive.com, 08111813081

Shell, Eni Preempt Possible US Probe over Malabu Deal with Filings FG to ban sulphur fuels in July Refinery overhaul to begin second quarter Ejiofor Alike ĂĄĂ&#x201C;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2019; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2018;Ă?Ă&#x2DC;Ă?ĂŁ Ă&#x153;Ă?Ă&#x161;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x17E; Royal Dutch Shell and Eni have voluntarily filed to the United States authorities internal probes into how they acquired Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245 in Nigeria, as the companies seek to fight corruption allegations in Europe and Nigeria.

This is just as the federal government said yesterday it will begin cutting the sulphur levels allowed in imported fuels from July, a year after West African countries promised higher quality fuels by July 2017, as part of a United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) campaign that only Ghana has met.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) also announced yesterday that it will start the overhaul of the refineries in the second quarter of 2018, having reached the final stages of talks with consortia including top traders, energy majors and oil services companies on the revamp of its long-neglected oil refineries.

Though Shell and Eniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filings to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do not mean that American authorities are investigating Shell or Eni, the move shows the companies are trying to preempt questions from the United States.

The two oil giants are facing one of the oil industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggestever graft trials in Italy, to begin in May in Milan, a pending trial

in Nigeria and an investigation in the Netherlands.

The case revolves around the $1.3 billion purchase of the giant OPL 245 from Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, which holds an estimated 9 billion barrels in reserves.

Italian prosecutors allege that bribes were paid in an effort to secure rights to the block in 2011.

A number of top executives from both companies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including Eniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi and former Shell Foundation Chairman, Malcolm Brinded â&#x20AC;&#x201C; will face trial.

Under Italian law, a company can be held responsible if it is deemed to have failed to prevent, or attempt to prevent, a crime by an employee that benefited the company.

Both companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shares are traded on U.S. stock exchanges, putting their foreign dealings in the scope of U.S. authorities.

Shell and Eni, on behalf of subsidiaries, in 2010 had entered deferred prosecution agreements with the DOJ over separate Nigerian corruption allegations.

Those pacts dismissed charges after a certain period in exchange for fines and an agreement to fulfil a number of requirements.

They concluded in 2013 and 2012, respectively. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disclosure of alleged foreign corruption to both the SEC and the DOJ in the U.S. typically means the company believed U.S. authorities needed to be made aware of this, and both agencies have the authority to prosecute under the (Foreign

House Okays Jibrinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resumption from Suspension James Emejo Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039;

Hon. Abdulrazaq Namdas, over the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comments on his The House of Representatives expected date of return from has finally pardoned the his suspension. former Chairman of the House The embattled lawmaker was Committee on Appropriation, reportedly angered by Namdasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, who comment that he was yet to was suspended for 180 legislative complete his suspension and that days over the budget padding he would have to apologise to controversy which rocked the the lower chamber as a condition lower chamber in 2016. for his return to the chamber.

The Speaker of the House, In a statement issued by Hon. Yakubu Dogara, yesterday his media aide, Godwin said Jibrin can now resume at Onyeacholem, the lawmaker the chamber, having satisfied berated Namdas for making all the conditions set out for his comments which are â&#x20AC;&#x153;insensitive re-admission into the House. and insulting to the people of One of the key conditions his constituency, coming on a was that he should tender a day Kiru/Bebeji constituents written apology to the House. gathered to further deepen Jibrin had severally indicated their protests and mark a one that he would not apologise. year of brazen impunity and However, Dogara who held injustice meted on them and a letter of apology purportedly the member representing them written by the embattled (who it is a public knowledge lawmaker but which he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t committed no offence).â&#x20AC;? read out, said he is now free Nevertheless, the Speaker said to return to the chambers- after Jibrin can now return â&#x20AC;&#x153;unless meeting all the demands. there are new developments.â&#x20AC;? Yet, his actual date of By implication, he is not resumption had been another expected to make disparaging controversy. comments capable of further Last year, Jibrin had chided escalating the existing tension the spokesman of the House, between him and the House.Â

Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA),â&#x20AC;? said Pablo QuiĂąones, executive director of the New York University School of Law programme on corporate compliance and enforcement.

QuiĂąones previously worked as chief of strategy, policy and training at the DOJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s criminal fraud section, a role that included helping to develop FCPA enforcement policy.

According to Reuters, the U.S. SEC and the DOJ declined to comment on the company disclosures or whether they were looking into any allegations

surrounding the block.

Eni noted its disclosure in a SEC filing, in which it said â&#x20AC;&#x153;no evidence of wrongdoing on Eni side were detectedâ&#x20AC;?.

Shell has said publicly that it submitted the investigation to U.S. authorities and to Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Serious Fraud Office.

Shell and Eni deny any wrongdoing, insisting that their payments for the block were transparent, legal and went directly into an escrow account controlled by the Nigerian government.

The companies and legal

experts said the trial would likely last more than a year, with potential appeals stretching several years beyond that.

The Milan prosecutor charges that roughly $1 billion of the payments were funnelled to Malabu Oil and Gas, which had a disputed claim on the block, and former petroleum minister, Dan Etete, who British and U.S. courts have said controlled Malabu.

Shell has since said it knew some of the money would go to Malabu to settle its claim, though its own due diligence

could not confirm who controlled the company.

Eni said it never dealt with Etete or knew he controlled the company, but that the Nigerian government promised to settle all other claims on the block as part of their deal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If the evidence ultimately proves that improper payments were made by Malabu or others to then current government officials in exchange for improper conduct relating to the 2011 settlement of the long

Contâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d on Pg 52

ECONOMIC THINK-TANK

L-R: Chairman,Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler; Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Center Coordinator, Afritac West2/International Monetary Fund (IMF), Oral Williams; and Director General, Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, during the sixth steering committee meeting of Afritac West 2-IMF in Abuja.... yesterday

Buhari Sacks Boroh, Names Dokubo Amnesty Programme Coordinator To chair National Food Security Council Omololu Ogunmade Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x152;Ă&#x;Ă&#x201D;Ă&#x2039; President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday sacked BrigadierGeneral Paul Boroh (rtd) as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and replaced him with Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo.

A statement by Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, said Dokubo is currently the Director of Research and Studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

Adesina who said Dokubo obtained PhD in Strategic Studies from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, added that the academic hailed from Abonema, Akuku-Toru Local Government of Rivers State.

He also said the president had instructed the National Security Adviser (NSA) to carry out a thorough investigation into the activities of the Amnesty Programme from 2015 till date, especially allegations of financial impropriety and other acts which he said were alleged to be detrimental to the objectives

of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

Also yesterday, the president announced his plan to inaugurate National Food Security Council to be chaired by him and listed other prospective members of the council to include ministers, governors, members of security agencies and key stakeholders in agriculture.

Buhari who made this disclosure while addressing stakeholders in rice value chain in the Presidential Villa, added that the recurrent clashes between herders and farmers had shown that Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food security had a direct link with its security objectives.

Pledging that the administration was committed to ensuring that Nigeria feeds itself, the president added that he would await proposal from the stakeholders and wished all farmers what he described as fruitful wet season. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I will be inaugurating a National Food Security Council that I will personally chair. The council will include governors, ministers, security agencies and key stakeholders across the entire agricultural segments of farming,

fisheries and livestock management. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our experiences today of clashes between farmers and herdsmen or the challenges fishermen face due to global warming and other environmental factors clearly demonstrates that our quest for food security has a direct link to our national security objectives. The Food Security Council will ensure alignment and bring efficiencies.   â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to assure all Nigerians that this administration is committed to Nigeria feeding itself.  And from what I have heard today, this can happen in not too distant future.  As I look forward to receiving your joint proposal, I wish all Nigerian farmers, a very successful 2018 wet season. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to thank the Governor of Kebbi State for his unwavering commitment to the rice value chain and indeed, aAgriculture as a whole.  He has become a true ambassador for rural economic development,â&#x20AC;? he said.

In a related development, the president expressed satisfaction over the increasing role of agriculture as a strategy for job creation among young Nigerians.

He stated this while receiving Mr. Boukekri Rmilli, Foreign Minister of Tunisia in the State House, saying his administration would increase its support for agriculture as a mechanism for jobs creation.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are trying very hard to provide jobs, for our youths.  We are investing heavily in agriculture. Following the uncertainty in the oil market and the huge unemployment situation in the country, we chose to put our fate in agriculture.  I am glad that our young people are accepting agriculture instead of waiting for white-collar jobs.  They are out there sweating it out in the sun, making a living.  Agriculture is the way to go, even when we are realising this almost belatedly,â&#x20AC;? the President said.

In a statement, Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, said the president told the minister that his administration recognised the progress Tunisia had made in agriculture, tourism and medical health, and would consequently raise a team to visit the country to identify sectors in which the two countries could work together.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018Ëž T H I S D AY

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NEWSXTRA

BPP Rejects PenComâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Move to Cancel PAS Project Tobi Soniyi Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2018;Ă&#x2122;Ă?

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Â has rejected the plan by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to cancel the procurement process for the building of a Pension Administration System (PAS) estimated to cost N3.9 billion.

BPP has also warned the commission to be prepared to bear the consequences of further delaying the commencement of the PAS project.

PenCom under the leadership of Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu had selected a United States company, Dell, after BPP had issued a certificate of no objection, to handle the project.

However, the acting Director General of the commission, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, appeared uncomfortable with the contract and has therefore written to the BPP seeking to cancel the contract citing lack of funds and national interest.

However, BPP faulted the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excuses, saying t there was enough budgetary allocation for the project.

The delay in carrying out the project has implication for the growth of the pension industry as projects such as micro pension and transfer window critical to the development of the industry would remain stalled.

For instance, 14 years after the Pension Reforms Act came into effect, aggrieved pension contributors are unable to change their Pension Fund

Administrators even when the contributors feel that they are being unfairly treated.

The Pension Reforms Act of 2014 (as amended) states that a contributor would be allowed to move his or her Retirement Savings Accounts from one PFA to another in not more than one in a year.

However, contributors having been denied the advantage of this provision because the necessary infrastructure that would enable this to happen has not been put in place.

While many industry watchers expected the new leadership of PenCom to take a memo to the Federal Executive Council for approval of the contract, they were shocked to see the commission raising baseless and flimsy excuses to truncate the project.

In a letter to the BPP, the commission said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The National Pension Commission (the commission) refers to your letter referenced BPP/S.1/SP/17/Vol. I/636 of November 2, 2017 on the above subject matter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The commission has noted your reference to its earlier correspondence and concerns on the viability of the PAS project.

Indeed, it is the concerns of viability and affordability that necessitated the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recent request to cancel the PAS procurement process in the public interest. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The BPP may wish to know that before the request for cancellation was submitted, the current management of the commission was compelled to

re-evaluate the viability of the PAS project, demanded for a confirmation of the adequacy of budgetary provision for the project and whether the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revenue profile would be sufficient to meet the current and future obligations of the project as approved. The response from the Accounts Department of the commission indicated that although there was an initial effort to provide for the project in the budget, the inability of the commission to meet its proposed revenue target made it impossible to provide for the sum required in the 2017 budget. Indeed, it was further explained that the sum of N3.9 billion required for the PAS project constitutes about 30 per cent of the total internally-generated revenue (IGR) of the commission and its inclusion would cripple the other core activities of the commission. This information informed our letter of October 17, 2017 to the BPP. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The commission would, therefore, like to confirm to the BPP that although there is a provision for IT software

in the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget, the amount cannot fund the PAS project, which is contrary to the requirements of Section 16(1) (b) of the Public Procurement Act 2007. Accordingly, we attach herewith a copy of the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 budget for your review and confirmation of this position. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The commission, therefore reiterates its request that the BPP kindly approves the cancellation of the procurement process for the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PAS project due to lack of funds and in the public interest, pursuant to the provision of Section 28 of the Public Procurement Act 2017.â&#x20AC;?

But in its response dated December 6, 2017, the BPP said the provisions of the PPP Act relied upon by the commission in seeking a cancellation of the project did not support the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case.

BPP said since there was a provision of N2.7 billion for IT software and communication in the 2017 budget of  the commission, â&#x20AC;&#x153;that is an indication that there is no reason for the cancellation as doing so will delay the utilisation

of the appropriated fund and subsequently adversely affect budget performance.â&#x20AC;?

The bureau also stated: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is important at this juncture to correct the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding on the provision of Section 16(1)(b) of PPA 2007.

For the avoidance of doubt, Section 16(1)(b) of the PPA states interalia that; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;no procurement proceedings shall be formalised until the procuring entity has ensured that funds are available to meet the obligationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This is further explained by the Procurement Procedure Manual precisely section 62.1, which states that; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;In addition to any other regulations as may be prescribed by the Bureau, a mobilisation fee of no more than 15 per cent may be paid to a supplier or contractor TVQQPSUFE CZ UIF GPMMPXJOH r*O the case of national competitive bidding -an unconditional bank guarantee issued by an institution acceptable to UIF QSPDVSJOH FOUJUZ r*O UIF case of international competitive bidding- an unconditional bank guarantee issued by a banking institution acceptable to the

procuring entity.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x153;This means that the commission must not have the complete funds to embark on the project but rather, the availability of 15 per cent  of the contract sum (mobilisation fee) is the minimum fund required to embark on this project. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It should be noted that 15 per cent mobilisation  fee is neither mandatory nor compulsory, hence a contractor may decide to commence the works without requesting to collect any mobilisation feestherefore, claims of insufficient funds are eroded, and hence, reasons for cancellation of this completed procurement process can not be justified. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In view of the foregoing, the bureau regrets to decline the commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s request; the BPPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earlier position is hereby sustained.â&#x20AC;?

BPP also accused PenCom of causing avoidable delays in the implementation of the procurement, and reminded it that it â&#x20AC;&#x153;will account for any negative adverse implication that may arise as a result of this delay.â&#x20AC;?

17% of Private Candidates Get Five Credits in 2018 WASSCE Funmi Ogundare The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday released the results of the 2018 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates, first in the series where it recorded a total of 1,937 candidates, representing 17.13 per cent, obtaining the minimum credit in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

Out of a total of 11,721 that sat for the examination, 2,110 representing 17.78 per cent, obtained credit and above in six subjects.

Of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination, 6,370 were male and 4,937 were female, representing 56.34 per cent and 43.66 per cent, respectively. The Head of Nigerian National Office of the council, Mr. Olu Adenipekun, who briefed journalists on the breakdown, said 3,263 candidates representing 28.86 per cent obtained credit and above in five subjects, and that 4,762 candidates representing 42.12 per cent obtained credit and above in four subjects.

He added that 6,375 candidates, representing 56.38 per cent, obtained credit and above

in three subjects, while 8,113 candidates representing 71.75 per cent obtained credit and above in two subjects.

Adenipekun said the results of 1,021 candidates representing 9.03 per cent of the total candidature for the examination were withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cases are being investigated and reports of the investigation will be presented to the appropriate committee of the council in due course for consideration,â&#x20AC;? he said.

He noted that the diet was part of the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan to expand its examination in the education sector, adding that it was impressed with the response of candidates to the examination approved in November 15, 2017. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are hoping that in the next five years, more candidates will participate in this examination,â&#x20AC;? he added.

Candidates who sat for the examination are free to check the details of their performance  on the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s result website:www. waecdirect.org.

The result checker PIN and serial number needed by them to check their results online are contained on the candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photo card obtained during the registration for the examination.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

L-R: Secretary to the Ogun State Government (SSG), Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa; Governor Ibikunle Amosun; Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Ms. Adenrele Adesina; Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Bimbo Ashiru, during the unveiling of the theme of the state investorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;forum 2018 in Abeokuta...yesterday

Kwara Gov Signs Amended Pension Bill for Ex-Governors, Deputies into Law Hammed Shittu Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x2013;Ă&#x2122;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2DC; Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, yesterday signed into law an amended bill stopping payment of pension to former governors and deputy governors during any period they hold political or public office.

The bill forwarded to the state House of Assembly by Ahmed, sought review of the existing law where payment of pension would be suspended for erstwhile governors and deputy governors holding political or public offices after their tenures.

The passage of the amendment bill followed the

consideration of the report of the Assembly Committee on Establishment and Public Service on the public hearing on the legislative framework at the committee of the whole assembly.

Stakeholders at the public hearing on the amendment bill unanimously voted that payment of pension for the former governors and deputy governors be halted if such persons are still holding political or public offices.

Section â&#x20AC;&#x153;6A (3) of the amendment bill says:, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Where pension and other benefits are suspended under subsection (1) in respect of any person, such

pension and other benefits shall be resumed from the date the person ceases to hold any political or public office.

Consequently, the state assembly recently passed the bill into law.

However, a Government House statement issued in Ilorin yesterday and signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Communications, Dr. Femi Akorede, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the signing of the amended law

by Ahmed, former governors and their deputies shall not be entitled to pension and other benefits whenever they hold a political or public office.â&#x20AC;?

Similarly, the governor gave his assent to the Ilorin Township (Prohibition Against the Production, Sale and Consumption of Liquor in Certain Areas) Law, 2018 as also passed by the state assembly.

Under the law, no person would be allowed to produce, sell, store or openly consume alcohol within specified areas in the metropolis.

Any person who contravenes the provision of this law shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N100,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six month or both.

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NBA Holds Protest, Demands Review of Land Use Charge Govt pledges to address public grievances Denies increasing levies for vehicle licenses Gboyega Akinsanmi A sizable number of legal practitioners from the Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) yesterday protested the decision of the Lagos State Government to increase land use charge between 200 and 400 per cent.

The protest, which started at the Ikeja High Court and terminated Lagos House, was supported by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR),National Conscience Party (NCP) and Joint Action Committee (JAC), among others.

The legal practitioners who flooded the streets singing songs of protests and displaying placards with inscriptions: ‘Stop killing justice in Lagos. We say no to hike in Land Use Charge.

Nigeria is hard enough. Do not add to it. We say no to taxes without consultation.

Lagosians commit suicide daily. Stop this hardship.”

In a letter of protest addressed to the state Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the legal practitioners demanded a review of the state Land Use Charge Law, 2018, noting that the law “was passed without adequate and proper consultations. Little wonder the reason for the wide furore

over it.”

The letter, which was signed by Chairman of Ikeja Branch of the NBA, Adeshina Ogunlana, and its Secretary, Muna Esegine, read in part: “We are calling for a review of the Land Use Charge Law and other excessive taxes levied on residents of Lagos State.

“Our disagreement with the law is on three fundamental bases. The legislation lacks legality to the extent of its apparent usurpation of the power of local government vis-à-vis the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The law provides for the delegation of powers and duties of the local government to the state, a situation in dissonance with the ground norm of the land, that extent of inconsistency void. The third reason for our action is on economy.

“The whole purpose of the law is to achieve a phenomenal increment in property use tax in Lagos State to fund development projects and programmes in Lagos.

Despite the mathematics of your government, the truth is that the populace lacks the capacity to bear the tax burden now imposed.

“Lagos State is an expensive place to live. Only the elite

rich considered it a comfortable zone of existence. Likewise, it is hard to find and expensive for most masses who remain tenant. Therefore, stiff tax on property, will only worsen the already bad situation for tenant, either residential or commercial, in the state.”

The letter said the bandwagon effect of land use charge “will create hyper-inflation in food, transportation and accommodation.

It will equally lead to incapacitation of entrepreneurship, leading to crime increase, job loss and social insecurity.”

The association also expressed opposition to various levies of strange dimension and extraction, which it alleged the state government had introduced in the recent times, specifically citing a borehole levy of N65,000 permits.

In a swift response, the state government denied speculation that it had also increased the cost of processing motor vehicle particulars and application for number plates by 1,600 per cent, noting that the rates remained the same across the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, debunked this in a statement yesterday, noting that it became necessary in response to enquiries by members of the public who are genuinely concerned about the speculation.

Bamigbetan said anyone with evidence of any increase in motor registration rates from any of the official centres managed by the Lagos State Motor Vehicle Administration Authority (MVAA) should report to the agency or the

Ministry of Transportation.

After receiving the letter of protest on behalf of the governor yesterday,Bamigbetan specifically assured the protesters that the state government would address the demand of the NBA and public concern about the land use charge.

Just on Monday, Bamigbetan explained that the state government “is open to dialogue.

Ambode is someone that does not renege on his promises. I want you to remain patient. You will receive positive response from the governor soon.”

Also at the protest, the Majority Leader of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, urged the legal practitioners to be patient with the state government, noting that all their concerns and grievances would be positively addressed.

He said: “Ambode is a listening person. All that you have read out cannot be addressed here. But the lawmakers will look into it and respond. When people become conscious of the activities in their state, it helps democracy to function effectively.”

Globally, the lawmaker explained that peaceful protest “is legitimate. It is our duty to receive you whenever you come to the House. This is why we have clamoured for proper relationship between the lawyers and the lawmakers in Lagos.

“This is to ensure that whenever bills are about to be passed into law, everyone has input. That is why we often invite everyone to come and make input into the bill before it becomes law in the state.”

Okorocha to Conduct LG Polls in June to Garner Support for Son-in-Law Amby Uneze ÓØ áÏÜÜÓ For the first time in seven years, Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has decided to conduct local government elections in June this year to elect chairmen and councillors to shore up support for the governorship ambition of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu.

This came just as the governor directed the state House of Assembly to tidy up the local government laws for the supposed election.

The governor spoke at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport yesterday on arrival from a foreign trip.

He, however, expressed displeasure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is weak in the South-east and promised to take steps to strengthen the party in the zone and also inject life into the President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign structures in the region.

The governor stated that the endorsement of President Buhari remains unchanged even as he noted that those criticising his endorsement should present their own aspirant “if they feel that what they have is better than what we have endorsed so that the people can look at the whole of them and make their choice.”

He added: “You don’t criticise an action you do not have a better option.”

“The APC primary in Imo State would be very transparent.

It is going to be open. The world will be made to watch it. There will be no short-cut. Anybody who wins the primary becomes the candidate of the party.”

The governor reiterated: “The “Rescue Mission” government in the state is on course. I have no apologies endorsing President Buhari for the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. My joy will be to see a capable hand, a leader who will continue from where I stopped. It is obvious that people have misrepresented facts in this part of the world. If democracy is to remain democracy in Imo State and Nigeria, there is nothing unconstitutional that we have done in the course of our endorsement.”

He further stated: “The constitution is very clear, and it is a guiding principle upon which all democratic activities rotate. Our endorsement is not unconstitutional as the constitution has stipulated what a candidate must possess. Our candidate or aspirant possesses those qualities; so there is nothing unconstitutional in what we are doing in rescue mission of Imo State.”

EXECUTIVE STUDENTS

L-R: UN Representative in Nigeria, Edward Kallo; Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima; stateDeputy Governor, Usman Durkwa in one of the classrooms built by UN in Ngwom in Borno State....yesterday

El-Rufai Directs Security Beef up over Border Clash between Kaduna, Plateau Communities John Shiklam ÓØ ËÎßØË

in the past one week.

It was learnt that the bloody The Kaduna State Government clash erupted following has directed that security allegations by the Plateau be beefed up at the border community that the herdsmen between Kaduna and Plateau attacking and killing them were States following clashes between allegedly being harboured by border communities in the two the Kaduna community. states.

The Kaduna State government Several people were reported said every step should be taken killed and houses burnt when to bring those behind the crisis fighting broke out between to justice.

Kigam village in Kauru Local The statement said the clashes Government Area of Kaduna were between Kigam village in State and a neighbouring Kauru Local Government Area community in Bassa Local of the state and a community in Government Area of Plateau Bassa Local Government Area State where there had been of Plateau State. persistent attacks and killings The statement signed by by gunmen suspected to be Samuel Aruwan, spokesman herdsmen. to Governor Nasir el-Rufai, About 30 people have been lamented: “Lives and property reported killed in communities were lost in the clashes, in Bassa Local Government Area especially in Kigam village of

Kauru Local Government Area and a community in Bassa Local Government Area of nearby Plateau State.”

Aruwan said el-Rufai has directed security agencies in Kaduna to work with their counterparts in Plateau State to contain the crisis along the border between the two states.

The statement regretted that certain elements in the border communities succumbed to the tragic cycle of attack and reprisal.

It condoled with the families who lost their loved ones and property, adding that the state emergency authorities have been mobilised to provide relief.

Aruwan said: “The Governor of Kaduna State, el-Rufai, has received reports of communal clashes in the border area with Plateau State...

“The governor is saddened by this unfortunate incidence, and he has since condoled families of the victims and has directed that urgent security measures be taken around the border with Plateau State to secure lives and property.

“The governor directed security agencies operating in Kaduna State to liaise with their counterparts in Plateau State and ensure that Kaduna State citizens are adequately protected, communities secured and that there be no escalation of the mayhem.

“The state governor further directed security agencies to work hand in hand with their Plateau State counterparts to ensure that those that killed our citizens are arrested and brought to justice.”

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IG’s Disobedience: Buhari Has Admitted Leading Inept Govt, Say PDP, Omokri BBOG blames president for Dapchi kidnap Iyobosa Uwugiaren ÓØ ÌßÔË The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday derided President Muhammadu Buhari for saying he was unaware that the Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, did not carry out his orders regarding the security situation in Benue State, hinting that the president by the statement had directly admitted running an incompetent, disorganised and uncoordinated administration.

On its part, the BringBackOurGirls group yesterday also accused the president of “incompetence and carelessness” over the seizure of 110 girls by Boko Haram from their hostel in the restive northeast.

The advocacy movement has been at the forefront of the campaign to free the 276 Chibok girls seized in a similar fashion in April 2014.

In a statement by the PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said Buhari’s explanation on the IG was also an admission that he had handed over power to a cabal that neither sought votes nor elected by Nigerians.

The party said the president had irredeemably indicted himself, adding that such unpardonable slipshod attitude to governance was directly responsible for his government’s wrecking of the country’s once robust economy as well as other woes that have befallen the country’s in his almost three years in office.

The PDP urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and supporters of the president to take their minds off the Aso Villa ahead of 2019 election now that their leader and sole candidate had practically admitted his incompetence to run an effective government as desired by Nigerians.

The party criticised the

president for trying to pass the buck to the IG, a development which it said further exposed his lack of direct commitment and concern toward the wellbeing and security of Nigerians.

According to the major opposition party, “Nigerians have completely lost hope in President Buhari and his incompetent administration. By stating that he was unaware that the IG only spent 24 hours in Benue State, the president has confirmed that he has not been effectively monitoring the handling of the security situation of our country.

“This places a huge question mark on the regular assurances issued from the presidency on security. For our party, PDP, the expression of President Buhari has once again vindicated our position that our country has been placed on autopilot cruise with a cabal pretending to be managing our affairs.

“Indeed, Nigerians need to know; what exactly did President Buhari, as the Commander-inChief, do when he realised that the IG did not carry out his orders? We demand a direct answer from the presidency.’’

PDP added that there was no sense of remorse by the government as the president himself spent only two hours in Benue State without visiting the victims or even making any direct policy statement on those behind the killings and how to forestall future bloodletting.

The party continued: “Rather, in the character of this government, the President engaged in yet another blame game instead of facing issues.

“If the presidency is not committed to monitoring critical issues such as security, then Nigerians are no longer in doubt as to why other sectors, particularly our once robust economy, had gone comatose under the Buhari administration.

“Moreover, Nigerians are

miffed that while the wailings over these daily bloodletting are yet to abate, President Buhari is busy announcing his plans to return to Benue State to seek another round of votes.

This shows clinically that the president is truly not aware that Nigerians have since abandoned him in his state of unawareness.’’

On its part, the BringBackOurGirls group accused Buhari of “incompetence and carelessness” over the seizure of 110 girls by Boko Haram from their hostel in the restive Northeast, giving the government a seven-day deadline to free the remaining 112 Chibok girls and the 110 seized in Dapchi last month, or face a lawsuit on the grounds of criminal negligence.

“How terribly embarrassing

it is that within four years since the abduction of 276 Chibok girls in April 2014, our country is again in the news for tragic reasons.

“The abduction of 110 girls of Government Girls Science and Technical Secondary School, Dapchi in Yobe State on February 19, 2018 is the worst form of a deja vu that our movement could have ever imagined at this time in our nearly four-year-old advocacy,” the group said in statement.

The advocacy group said it was “infuriated by the blunders that led to this latest abduction, blaming the kidnap on the “incompetence and carelessness of our government,” and urged the authorities to do everything possible to free the girls.

Also, activist and former

Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Social Media, Reno Omokri, has called President Buhari a weakling for expressing ignorance over the failure of Idris to obey his directive to relocate to Benue to stop further killings after about 95 indigenes from the state were killed by suspected herdsmen.

Quoting what the president was reported to have said: “I never knew the IG moved to Nasarawa after I sent him to Benue,” Omokri said: “These were the words of President Buhari, a man sold to Nigeria as a strongman leader.”

Omokri quoted the statement of the president again where he was reported to have said: “I did not know that the IG did not stay in the state. I am getting to know this at this meeting. I

am quite surprised,” the activist noted that this has vindicated the president’s wife, Aisha Buhari, who in 2016 revealed that the president had lost control of his government.

“What type of Commanderin-Chief gives an order and does not have processes in place to verify that such orders have been carried out? A weak leader that is who? President Buhari and his APC sold a lie that former President Jonathan was weak, however, if an IG had disobeyed President Jonathan’s orders two things would have happened; Jonathan would have known because he had a practice of verifying that his orders had been obeyed, and ex-President Jonathan would have sacked such an IG before you could say Jack Robinson.” Omokri said.

CEMENTING DIPLOMATIC TIES

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (second left), in a handshake with the Tunisian Minister of Foriegn Affairs, Mr. Khemales Jhinaoui. With them are the Tunisian Ambassador to Nigeria, Jalel Trabelsi (left), and the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, when the envoy visited the senate president in Abuja ....yesterday.

SHELL, ENI PREEMPT POSSIBLE US PROBE OVER MALABU DEAL WITH FILINGS standing legal disputes, it is Shell’s position that none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorisation or on its behalf,” Shell said in a statement.

The proceedings have also brought together investigators in several countries, with authorities in Nigeria and the Netherlands sending information to Milan.

A Dutch anti-fraud team in 2016 raided Shell offices as part of the investigation, and a Dutch law firm has asked prosecutors to consider launching a criminal case in the Netherlands.

“I’m not aware of many cases where this many jurisdictions have been at work for so long helping each other out. The amount of cooperation is very unusual,” said Aaron Sayne of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises countries on how to manage oil, gas and

mineral resources.

A case by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against defendants including the former Nigerian Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, Etete, and various senior managers, current and former, from Shell and Eni, will continue in June.

Eni intends to make a final investment decision this year on developing the block and said in corporate filings that the asset has a book value of 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion).

The Italian court does not have the ability to rescind rights to the block, and Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resourses, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has said the companies should continue to develop it.

However, the Nigerian government has also described the agreement that facilitated Shell and Eni purchase as

“unlawful and void”, in a lawsuit filed by the federal government against JP Morgan in London for the U.S. bank’s role in transferring money from the deal.

A JP Morgan spokeswoman previously said the firm “considers the allegations made in the claim to be unsubstantiated and without merit”.

Additionally, a Nigerian court last year briefly ordered the seizure of the block.

That decision was later overturned, and Shell and Eni said they were not worried about losing the asset. But the ruling and the language in the government’s suit against JPMorgan underscore the risk.

“It’s a nice, stable asset that could produce a lot of oil for a long time,” Sayne said.

Sulphur Fuel Ban Meanwhile, in other developments in the industry,

NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer in charge of Refineries and Petrochemicals, Mr. Anibor O. Kragha has stated that Nigeria will lower the top level of sulphur in diesel to 50 parts per million (ppm), from 3,000 ppm, by July 1, 2018.

In a presentation to the African Refiners Association (ARA) yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, Kragha said that the Ministries of Environment, Health, Petroleum Resources and Industry and Trade were working together to finalise rules that would be distributed to importers at some point in the second quarter.

Kragha said that while Nigeria was committed to cleaner fuel standards, “significant costs” had complicated efforts to meet the deadline.

In his presentation, he noted that the first shift to

cleaner petrol would cost $11.7 million per month, and the second $15.7 million per month. The diesel reduction would cost $2.8 million per month.

Nigeria imports roughly 900,000 tonnes of petrol every month, accounting for 60 per cent of West African imports of the fuel, meaning its choices on fuel quality are likely to impact the entire region.

Petrol sulphur level cuts, a cost that will be borne largely by the government due to capped prices for the fuel, will start in October, moving to 300 ppm from 1,000 ppm.

Kragha said Nigeria was targeting a cut to 150 ppm

by October 1, 2019.

UNEP, the ARA and health campaigners, have been pushing West African nations to ban fuels that have been illegal in Europe and the U.S. for years due to what they have said are significant health problems associated

with sulphur emissions – particularly in dense urban areas such as Lagos.

Kragha added that refinery overhaul projects will begin in the second quarter, stating that the NNPC was in the final stages of talks with consortia including top traders, energy majors and oil services companies to revamp its longneglected oil refineries in an effort to reduce its reliance on imported fuel.

“We believe that by the second quarter of this year we will ...start getting the ball rolling on the refurbishment and rehabilitation exercise and believe this will run to the end of next year,” he said.

“We are working with consortia right now, negotiating terms, trying to finalise the time sheets so that we can access the money... through the end of 2019 when we believe we will have the minimum 90 per cent capacity utilisation in place,” he added.

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Buhari Launches ERGP Focused Labs Says Nigeria’s labour force outgrowing population growth Omololu Ogunmade ÓØ ÌßÔË President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja appraised Nigeria’s economic growth rate, stating that the country’s labour force is currently outgrowing the country’s population growth.

Buhari who made this remark at the launch of focused labs for Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in the Presidential Villa, said the government was duty bound to sustain the growth initiative to attract foreign investment with a view to expanding the frontiers of the country’s economy and create jobs.

The president who reeled out the benefits accruable from the labs, disclosed that he had instructed ministers and heads of agencies to make themselves available at the labs for those who want to make enquiries.

Promising that his government would not relent its commitment until improvement in the economic indices result in improvement in the living standards of the people, Buhari said he looked forward to regular updates on the labs.

“However, we are not relenting on our efforts until these improvements in economic indices translate to visible improvements in the lives of our citizens. Our labour force growth rate exceeds our population growth. We must therefore

continue working to attract both local and foreign investments to ensure we continue expanding economic activities thereby creating additional jobs for our people.

“The Labs will also enable pre-screened private sector investors to have access to senior government officials, regulators, and cabinet ministers.

The goal is to efficiently and effectively resolve the most pressing bottlenecks delaying their proposed investments. Accordingly, I have directed the relevant Ministers and heads of government agencies to be available to the participants at the labs to respond to their inquiries and issues. “ Let me commend the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and other relevant agencies for piloting this process, which is being used for the first time in Nigeria. I am confident that the Labs will open up new investments to complement our existing efforts in agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructural development across the country.

“I look forward to receiving regular updates on the progress of the Labs. On this note, I am pleased to launch the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan Focus Labs formally,” he said.

Describing the labs as

one of the strategies for the implementation of ERGP, the president listed the goals of ERGP to include achieving sustainable, diversified and inclusive growth, becoming selfsufficient in basic commodities to curtail food imports; diversifying economic base from crude oil dependence, empowering local businesses to create thousands of jobs and improving the general wellbeing of our people.

He said the labs had been successfully used in other countries, pointing out that in Nigeria, they “are designed as closed-door investment platforms to identify and accelerate high-impact projects with significant impact on GDP and job creation.”

According to him, in the last 10 months since the launch of ERGP, the country’s economy had recorded notable growth which he said culminated in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.92 per cent in the

fourth quarter of 2017..

He also said the foreign exchange market had been stable while foreign reserve had grown from $24 billion in 2016to $46 billion in mid-February adding that the country had also made notable improvement in ease of doing business initiative with its rating as one of the top ten improved economies of the world.

The president also stated that huge sums of money are being invested in infrastructure while significant progress had also been made in agriculture adding that the government would continue to build on its success in fertilizer supply, among other areas of growth he listed.

“In the past ten months, we have achieved several noteworthy milestones. As you are aware, economic growth returned in second quarter of 2017 due to a clear follow-through of some of the

economic initiatives we set out to implement. Since then, we have consolidated on the recovery path reaching a Real GDP growth of 1.92% by the fourth quarter of 2017.

“We have also restored stability in foreign exchange market and have recorded improvements in our foreign reserves which have grown from 24 billion US dollars in September 2016 to 42 billion US dollars by mid-February 2018 and now 46 billion US dollars. This has been achieved partially because of the recovery of oil prices on the international market.

“We have made remarkable strides in creating a conducive business environment for investors, earning the World Bank’s ranking as one of the Top 10 most improved economies in 2017. This has encouraged both local and foreign investments in the last few months We remain

committed to working hard to attain our target of moving up in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings by 2020.

“We are also investing billions of naira in fixing infrastructures across the country. Significant progress has also been made in the Agricultural sector with the expansion of the Anchor Borrower’s program to more beneficiaries to boost our local production.

“We plan to build upon the success of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative to double the 500,000 metric tons of fertilizer delivered to States, agro-dealers and farmers in 2017, by achieving production output of 1 million metric tons in 2018. “ Today, our local food production, particularly rice, has witnessed a remarkable growth and has saved the nation millions of dollars of foreign exchange,” the president submitted.

Appeal Court Affirms Olafeso Group as Authentic PDP S’ West Leaders Victor Ogunje ÓØ ÎÙ ÕÓÞÓ The Court of Appeal sitting in Ado Ekiti, yesterday set aside a ruling of the Federal High Court ina matter instituted by Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe against the executive of the party in the South-west zone.

The Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti had ruled in a matter brought before it

by Ogundipe that he was still the National Vice Chairman (South-west) of the PDP but the executive led by Olafeso challenged the ruling.

In the suit number CA/ EK/72/2017 between PDP and others as appellants and Makanjuola Ogundipe and 21 others as respondents, on the one hand and CA/ EK/72A/2017 between Dr Eddy Olafeso and 10 others as appellants and Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe and 13 others as respondents, the Appeal Court allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment.

Commenting on the judgment, Olafeso’s counsel, Mr. Sunday Olowolafe, who held brief for Dr. Yomi Oke, said: “Our appeal was allowed because owing to the fact that all the issues we raised are valid.”

Olowolafe, who is the Legal Adviser of the PDP in the state, said the Appeal Court ruling which set aside the high court ruling, had confirmed Eddy Olafeso-led executive of the PDP as the authentic in the

South-eest.

The counsel said the Appeal Court judgment had laid the matter to rest finally and expressed the hope that the matter had finally come to an end.

He decried the high court which he said “expanded the life of an ex-parte motion, which should have been a maximum of 14 days, to God knows when.

“Also speaking on the ruling, counsel for the first –fifth respondents, Ayodeji Makanjuola Esan, said: “It’s an appeal, they have given their judgment. That is why there are grades of courts. ”We will study the judgement and I will consult with my clients. Then we will decide on the next line of action.”

Also reacting to the judgment, Chief Sunday Ojo-Williams, who is the South-west Legal Adviser of the PDP, said it was a good thing that the matter had come to a head, and commended the judges.

Ojo-Williams said: “It’s a good thing to come out successful, but we must also appeal to those our members who are still out there to come back to the family.”

He said eight of the members of the Ogundipe group “had already returned and we have begun to work together. So Ogundipe and the remaining others should follow suit because not all our matter should be settled in a court of law.”

COURTESY VISIT

L-R: Hon. Bade Ayorinde; President/Chairman of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Segun Ajibola; Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara; Vice President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr. Uche Olowu; and Hon. Babangida Ibrahim, during a courtesy visit to the Speaker by a delegation from the institute at the National Assembly....yesterday

Contempt Charge: Court Adjourns Trial of IG Till April 17 Alex Enumah ÓØ ÌßÔË An Abuja court seeking to commit Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, to two years imprisonment for persistent violation of court order issued in 2014 has shifted to April 17 for the hearing.

An Abuja High Court which adjourned the matter to the date, however, imposed a fine of N5,000 on the IG for filing his counter affidavit out of time and which caused the adjournment of the hearing of the charge.

At the resumed hearing of the charge yesterday, counsel to the police chief, Seidu Jubril, told Justice Silvanus Oriji that he had disengaged with a counsel, O.M. Atoyebi.

Jubril further told the court that the Commissioner of Police in charge of Legal Services, Mr. David Igbodo, is to henceforth represent the IG and that he

had last Monday filed a counter affidavit against the originating summon.

A drama however ensued when Justice Oriji demanded the whereabouts of the IG, Idris, who was ordered to personally appear before the court.

The counsel, who was taken aback on the demand, informed the judge that the IG was out of Abuja at the time he was leaving office.

The judge, who was not pleased with the explanation of the counsel, threw up another question as to whether the IG was not aware that he ought to be in court today (yesterday), but the counsel promised to convey the court’s feeling to the appropriate authority.

Counsel to the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Nweze Okechukwu, who initiated the contempt charge against the IG, faulted the police chief for failure

to obtain leave of the court to regularise the counter affidavit that was filed out of time.

At this stage, counsel to the IG agreed that he needed leave of the court and applied to the court for an adjournment which the court granted with a fine of N5,000.

Justice Oriji subsequently adjourned till April 17 for hearing of the matter.

The Judge had in a ruling at the last sitting ordered the IG to be in court yesterday to show cause why he should not be committed to prison for his disobedience to the lawful order of the court made on March 26, 2014, stopping the police from interfering with the activities of the PCN. In his preliminary objection against the contempt charge argued by his counsel Mr. David Igbodo, the IG claimed that he was not personally served

with form 48 in relation to the contempt charge.

He prayed the court to void the contempt charge and set it aside on the ground that the form 48 summoning him to appear in court was served on the commissioner of Police in charge of legal matters at the Force Headquarters.

But Justice Oriji, in his ruling, slammed the IG for employing technicality and delay tactics to frustrate the charge against him.

The Justice imposed a fine of N25,000 on the police chief and ordered him to personally appear in court on the adjourned date.

The Peace Corps of Nigeria, through its counsel, Dr. Joshua Yakubu Musa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had approached the Abuja High Court, praying it to commit the police IG to prison for two years for flouting the judgment of the court delivered on March 26, 2014.

54

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018˾ T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

House C’ttee Demands Funding Sources for Fuel Subsidy Withdrawal of N10bn from NHIS for probe James Emejo ÓØ ÌßÔË The Chairman, House Joint Committees on Finance and Petroleum Downstream, Hon. Babangida Ibrahim (APC, Katsina), yesterday said it had established that there’s an existing fuel subsidy regime which is unknown to the National Assembly.

As a result, he said a

full-blown investigation into the sources of funding for the subsidy scheme had commenced.

The House had on January 17 tasked the committee to find out what sources of funding were being used to operate the subsidy regime when there’s no proposal for it in the 2018 budget.

He said the pricing template

FG Negotiating Release of Nigerians in Libyan Slave Camps The federal government has said it is working with Libyan authorities to negotiate the release of all Nigerians in Libya slave camps and ensure their repatriation safely to the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, said yesterday in Abuja that negotiations were ongoing with some of the militia groups controlling some camps who were demanding money to allow access to their camps.

The minister said he had a meeting with the outgoing Libyan Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Attai Alkhoder, who promised his country’s cooperation to ensure the release of Nigerians in the slave camps.

He said the federal government was working relentlessly to ensure that all Nigerians in Libya slave camps were repatriated safely to the country.

“I met with the Libyan ambassador who promised to cooperate on the issue of migrants; I let him know that we appreciate what the Libya is doing.

“We agreed on way forward, that the Libya government will continue to help us to access those camps where there are still Nigerians outside the control of the Libyan government,” he said.

Onyeama, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) stressed that the efforts required negotiations with the militia groups who were in control of

the camps.

“We have been given some amount that we have to pay to those rebels before we can get our people out, but it has not been easy.

“There is an instance that it has to be negotiated down to 2,500 dollars per camp to get Nigerians out. There is another camp that we have to negotiate around that figure also,’’ he said.

The minister, however, said that not all Nigerians in Libya were irregular migrants, adding that there were some who were living legally in Libya.

“There are Nigerians who are actually in Libya legally and are doing their legitimate jobs and we have some of them who are actually useful in helping us to look for Nigerians in the country,” he said.

The minister said that Nigeria would want to work towards ensuring that peace returned to Libya by ensuring that that country has a central government and police central authority.

“When a central authority is in control that is when it will be easier to relate with the country and address some of the problems they are having with regards to irregular migrants,’’ he said.

Onyeama said the outgoing ambassador assured that he would support Nigeria in ensuring that irregular migrants were safely repatriated.

He said the envoy also stressed on the need for improved bilateral relations between both countries.

Nwokedi for Burial on April 6 Dr. Godwin Ikechukwu Chike Nwokedi, a former Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, has passed on. He died on February 3, 2018.

Born on August 18, 1938 in Onitsha, Anambra State, he was an alumnus of Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha; University of Ibadan; and Loughborough University in Leicester, England.

Nwokedi’s remains would be interred on Friday, April 6, 2018 at his residence at Amaeze Village, Oraukwu, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

A statement by the family said there would be a Christian wake at his residence on April 5, 2018. There would also be a Service of Songs on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at St. Andrews Church, TransEkulu, Enugu.

made available to it by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) already indicated landing cost for petrol is between N160/ N170 per litre while the official price remains N145 per litre.

Speaking at the maiden investigative hearing with relevant agencies, he noted that there exists wide difference which is being funded by the government.

However, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachiku; Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, and Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, as well as the Executive Secretary of PPPRA all failed to honour the committees’ invitation.

The committee therefore, resolved to write the heads of agencies again to give them another opportunity to appear

before it.

Ibrahim said it’s evidently clear that there is a gap between official and landing costs.

He suspended the interactive section to write agencies for a full-blown public hearing on the matter.

Also yesterday, the House passed a motion mandating its Committees on Healthcare Services, Finance and AntiCorruption to investigate the withdrawal of N10 billion from the account of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

The resolution followed a motion moved by Hon. Chike Okafor on the need to investigate the illegal withdrawal of the sum of N10 billion from the ‘Insured Persons’ Fund of the NHIS. He noted that the fund made up of five per cent

contribution by each insured person is maintained with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy for the administration of the scheme.

He added that withdrawal of monies from such designated accounts under the TSA at the CBN by any government agency is based on the request of the Chief Accounting Officer of the agency.

Okafor said a recent oversight inspection of the agency by the Committee on Healthcare Services revealed that two suspicious withdrawals of N5 billion each, totaling N10 billion were made from the ‘Insured Persons’ Funds account with the CBN on December 28, 2016, and January 11, 2018, respectively when the Executive Secretary of the scheme was still under suspension.

He said upon inquiry, the Executive Secretary informed the committee that neither him or any staff of the agency made any request for either of the two withdrawals, stating that the withdrawals were authorised by Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, without the input of the agency and in contravention of the laws and regulations governing such actions.

He argued that such practices, if not checked, would erode public and international confidence in the scheme and make a mockery of the anti-corruption stance of the present government.

Lawmakers frowned at the withdrawal and called for thorough investigations as well as bring the culprit to book.

Okafor had already summoned relevant heads of agencies to appear before his committee on the issue.

SME RESOURCE PERSONS L-R: CEO, Mix ‘n’ Bake Confectionery, Mrs. IKeolu Biobaku; Managing Partner, Brandzone Consulting LLC, Chizor Malize; Executive Director, Operations and IT, Access Bank Plc, Mrs. Ojinika Olaghere; and CEO, The Wedding World, Mrs. Afoke Osubor, at the Brandzone SME DIY BRAND workshop in Lagos.... recently

Former DMO DG Advises African Countries on Economic Transformation Through Debt Financing The immediate past Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO) Dr Abraham Nwankwo, has admonished African leaders to initiate robust macro-economic, transformation plans to drive debt-financed sustainable economic growth and prosperity.

Speaking on the topic ‘Sapping Africa’s Debt Financing Strategy: Removing Some Mental Cobwebs’, at the Fourth London Stock Exchange LSEG Africa Advisory Group (LAAG) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Nwankwo said such a transformation plan is needed as a formal policy document, “narrating how debt financing will be applied to launch economy unto a trajectory of self-sustaining prosperity; with

credible macroeconomic figures at the beginning, intermediate and concluding stages: GDP figures, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, reserve position, among other.”

Nwankwo, who holds a PhD in economics, said debt financing, particularly external debt financing from the international capital market, appears to be the most predictable source of financing and refinancing Africa’s economic and social transformation over the next decade.

However, he stated that the real job for governments, particularly officials in charge of planning, finance and central banking is “to demonstrate with detailed credible macro-economic plan, how this prospect can be

safely actualised.”

He stressed that many African countries have failed to initiate credible transformation plan thereby squandering the opportunity to grow their economies through debt financing.

“The government may be keen on debt financing but lazy to articulate a credible implementation plan, with macroeconomic deliverables, around debt financing.”

Added to this intellectual laziness on the part of economic planners is also what he called the “Rigid, non-imaginative advice from the IMF in particular, which encourages policy timidity, instead of planned boldness.”

He said the IMF usually relies on past and present deficiencies

to preach against the possibility of future progress instead of focusing on how to cage or degrade those deficiencies to create a new trajectory of efficiency and prosperity.

He said: “Much of IMF advice on Africa’s debt financing misleads countries to commit what I first referred to in a 2017 publication as the “sinof-avoiding-a-sin’(SAS)” He further stressed that African countries would continue to rely on debt financing from the international capital market due to acute fiscal constraints, huge infrastructure deficit and huge reserves of exploitable opportunities in agriculture and agro-processing, manufacturing, solid minerals, tourism and other sectors.

T H I S D AY ˾ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018

55

WEDNESDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

U E FA C H A M P I O N S L E A G U E

Sevilla Knocks out Manchester United!

Manchester United was knocked out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage by Sevilla after an awful performance ended in a 2-1 home defeat.

Substitute Wissam Ben Yedder was the match-winner for the Spanish side, stroking in from inside the area just two minutes after coming on and heading in at the back post from a corner.

After posing little threat in the 0-0 first-leg draw, United again looked second best against the La Liga side, though Marouane Fellaini’s thumping strike did draw Sergio Rico into a save and the away goalkeeper kept out Jesse Lingard’s low strike.

Romelu Lukaku lashed home from close range with seven minutes remaining, but it proved to be merely a consolation.

United exit the competition along with Tottenham, but Premier League leaders Manchester City and Liverpool progressed to Friday’s quarterfinal draw. Chelsea can join them if they beat Barcelona today at Camp Nou. Elsewhere, a second-half Edin Dzeko strike earned Roma a 1-0 Champions League last-16 second-leg win over Shakhtar Donetsk, enough to narrowly progress on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate draw.

RESULTS

Roma 1 - 0 Shakhtar Man Utd 1 - 2 Sevilla

TODAY

Besiktas v B’ Munich Barca v Chelsea

Sevilla players celebrating the 2-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford… last night

Chelsea Dreaming Upset at Camp Nou As Conte goes head-to-head with Valverde to survive been ‘chopped’

Valverde (left) and Conte

Antonio Conte has said he will consult his players ahead of Chelsea´s Champions League clash with Barcelona on Wednesday and after the game he might do better to seek out Ernesto Valverde.

Both coaches faced chaotic starting points this season but only Valverde heads into this last 16 second leg at the Camp

Nou with his domestic campaign still very much intact.

Each began the campaign at the end of a frenzied summer, in which key players were sold, less wanted ones bought and with the feeling overall of a squad weakened rather than bolstered.

Asked in September to reflect on the club´s transfer dealings, Conte said: “This question is very

difficult to answer. I think we have to wait until the end of the season and then we’ll see.”

Valverde was even less diplomatic. “The best thing about this window is that it is now closed,” he said.

Each had unexpectedly found a gaping hole in attack as Neymar was lured by Paris Saint-Germain while Conte was

only too happy to let Diego Costa leave, but then watched Manchester United walk off with Romelu Lukaku, the intended replacement.

Barcelona bought Ousmane Dembele, the club´s most expensive signing, who limped off 55 minutes into his debut and would not return until January.

Ike Diogu Leads D’Tigers’ 12-man Squad to Commonwealth Games The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has released its official team roster for the XXI Commonwealth Games.

The team list compiled by the Technical Crew led by Coach Alex Nwora following months of camping in Lagos for the competition, was made public yesterday by NBBF Secretary, Chimezie Asiegbu.

The team made up of six home-based players and six foreign-based players is to be captained by Ike Diogu who plies his trade with Henan in the Chinese league.

Diogu who captained the team to the 2017 Afrobasket silver medal finish was also influential in the team’s run of three straight wins in the second window of the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers with an average of 17.7 points made per game.

From the home front, Azuoma Dike of Kano Pillars will be leading the Nigerian legion comprising his fellow Kano Pillars team mates Abdul Yahaya

and Dung Eli Abraham.

Mark Mentors of Abuja player, Musa Usman will also be on the train to Australia.

Musa who is one of the best ball rebounders in the Nigerian Premier League after missing the World Cup qualifiers in Mali was selected for the Commonwealth Games.

The duo of Abdulwahab Yakubu and Istifanus Sylvanus who played major roles in Gombe Bulls’ first ever qualification for the FIBA Africa Club Championship in 2017 also made the final cut.

After a sterling performance for Stony Brooks in the 2016-2017 NCAA season, Uchenna Iroegbu will be making his national team debut for Nigeria in Australia.

Orizu Prince Ifeanyi plying his trade with the Far Eastern University, Philipines also made the Commonwealth Games team.

The trio of Olatunji Olalekan Graham, Ofoegbu Uchechi Chima and Achiuwa Godsgift Onyekachi will also be joining

NNL Boss Plaudits for Siasia Stadium Turf

Chairman of the nation’s second tier league, NNL, Offor Okenwa has described the Samson Siasia Stadium turf in Yenagoa as simply magnificent.

Okenwa who was in the Glory Land to inspect the 10,000 capacity arena ahead of the new season said he was impressed with what he saw.

“The pitch in Yenagoa is simply magnificent. It is world-class and I just hope other states would do what Gov Seriake Dickson has done. The contractor that did the job Monimichelle deserves a pat on the back. I am particularly happy that the pitch which is not only lush green but a FIFA approved geo-technology grass was done by

an indigenous contractor.”

Okenwa was however quick to add that the state government must put other facilities in place at the arena insisting that a few things are still lacking.

“I have made my observations known to the authorities. There are a few other facilities that should be provided to make the stadium complete and ready for local and international matches,” Okenwa said.

Bayelsa teams campaigning in the male and female leagues have over the years been playing away from home. But with the Samson Siasia Stadium now ready for use, the teams would stage a return home.

the team in Australia from their base in the USA. With pre-games camping expected to end on March 22, the team will depart for Brisbane on March 23, 2018 ahead of their first game against New Zealand on Friday, April 6.

Nigeria is in Group B

alongside host- Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Coach Nwora is to be assisted by Aderemi Adewunmi and Mohammed Abdulrahman.

TEAM LIST Ike Diogu (Henan, China) Uchenna Ireogbu (Stony

Brooks, NCAA, USA) Dung Eli Abraham- (Kano Pillars (Nigeria) Azuoma Dike – (Kano Pillars, Nigeria) Olantunji Olalekan Graham(Unattached, USA) Ofoegbu Uchechi Chima – (Unattached, USA) Musa Usman (Mark Mentors,

Nigeria) Abdulwahab Yakubu (Gombe Bulls, Nigeria) Istifanus Sylvanus (Gombe Bulls, Nigeria) Abdul Yahaya (Kano Pillars) Achiuwa God’sgift Onyekachi (Unattached, USA) Orizu Prince Ifeanyi (Far Eastern University, Philippines).

Duke Udi Sacked from Sunshine Stars

James Sowole in Akure

Barely 24 hours after Kwara United eased out influential John Obuh from the dug out of the Ilorin club for poor performance, Ondo State-owned Sunshine Stars have also dumped exinternational Duke Udi. Instead of blaming Sunshine Stars’ 17th position on the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) log on Udi, the management of the Akure Gunners insisted his sack is due to his alleged misconduct and insubordination.

Sunshine has only earned 13 points from the 12-week old topflight and is scheduled to

play Yobe Deserts on Sunday in Akure.

A former coach of the team, Henry Abiodun, was asked to step into the saddle as Udi’s replacement.

Ondo State’s Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Saka YusufOgunleye who announced Udi’s sack yesterday said his ministry took the decision following letters received from the Ondo State Football Agency over the act of insubordination and gross misconduct of the Delta born coach.

“Following a letter received from the management board of Ondo State Football

Agency on misconduct and insubordination of the Head Coach of the Sunshine Stars, Duke Udi had been asked to step aside.

“The management, board and the Ministry of Youth and Sports management at a joint meeting yesterday agreed that coach Duke Udi should step aside with effect from today March 13 and the Technical Director of the team, Coach Henry Abiodun with a CAF ‘A’ Licence should lead the team,” the statement from the commissioner’s office announced.

While reacting to his sack, Udi told journalists on

telephone that he had not be contacted on the matter stressing that he just left the team’s training for his residence.

“If it is so, that is no problem. I have a one-year contract with the team and if anybody is asking me to leave, they must respect my contract and pay me my money.

“Leaving is not a problem.

I just left training and nobody told me anything like that but if stepping aside is the next thing, they have to pay me because I have a one- year contract running,” the coach told THISDAY later yesterday evening.

NDDC to Collaborate with NFF for Football Academies in Niger Delta Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has called for partnership with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in its plans to set up two football academies in the Niger Delta region.

The NDDC Managing Director, Mr Nsima Ekere, made the proposal when the NFF President, Mr Amaju Pinnick, led a delegation of the federation to pay him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.

He declared: “I want to

invite the NFF to collaborate with the NDDC to support the game of football in the Niger Delta. We are in the process of setting up football academies in the Niger Delta region. The NDDC Board has already approved it and we want to start with two football academies.

“We believe that it is one of the ways of taking our youths off militancy and getting them meaningfully engaged.

We hope to give them the opportunity to develop their talents and empower them because football is now big

business and a good source of employment.”

Ekere said the NDDC would encourage Niger Delta youths to take to football as a profession and that was the essence of setting up the football academy.

According to him, “that is why we need the technical support of the NFF so that the venture will become a success. There will also be need to link up the beneficiaries of the academies to international opportunities.”

The NDDC boss said that there was every reason for

Nigerians to celebrate the current NFF leadership under Pinnick, noting that there was a time when Nigerian football made everyone happy and proud.

Unfortunately, he said, a few years ago, we nose-dived and nobody was hearing about Nigeria again in the international arena. “This was until God blessed our football administration with Amaju Pinnick, a proud son of the Niger Delta,” Ekere eulogized the NFF chief who is also an elected CAF Executive committee member.

Wednesday March 14, 2018

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& RE A SO

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Price: N250

MISSILE Atiku to FG

â&#x20AC;&#x153;If I had my way, I would have recalled all of those 150,000 policemen who are not performing core police duties and send them to provide security for every schools in the North-east region. That to me would be a better use of theirtimeandservices.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar advising the federal government on how to deploy the police to better use.

BIODUNJEYIFO GUEST COLUMNIST

Land Use Charge: Plaudits and Posers for Ambode

F

irst, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deal with the praise, the plaudits, before ending this piece with the questions, the posers.

Before I watched and heard him on television conduct an extraordinary â&#x20AC;&#x153;town meetingâ&#x20AC;? with the business community in Lagos this last Monday, I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t known much about Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State. As a matter of fact, the very little that I knew about him was not exactly flattering, to say the least: the razor-thin margin of only 150,000 votes - out of over 2 million votes cast - in his electoral victory over his PDP opponent in the gubernatorial race of 2015; and in 2016, the ugly spats between Ambodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife, the First Lady of Lagos State, and a stateemployed chaplain of a church that had led to the rather highhanded sacking of that man of the cloth. Moreover, when the Governor had come to Harvard last year to give a talk, I had been absent from my â&#x20AC;&#x153;duty postâ&#x20AC;? at the time and thus missed the talk. All of which serves as the background to the pleasant surprise of the following things that I now report about Ambodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s televised meeting with the leaders of the business community this past week.

It is a well-known secret that most of the governors and high officeholders in Nigeria do not write the speeches they deliver in public. In addition, in general, once a speech is delivered, most of our rulers and politicians do not, indeed cannot, effectively field questions arising from speeches they deliver. This is one aspect of the foul underbelly of democratic governance in our country, this fact that our rulers are in general incapable of conducting meaningful public dialogue with the citizenry, especially in the English language. As this is a huge subject, we cannot deal with it in this piece. Coming back to Ambode, I do not know if his speech on Monday was written by speechwriters; what I do know is that from his passionate and eloquent delivery, one can conjecture that he must have had a hand in writing the speech â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if in fact he did not himself write it in its entirety. The speech was masterful in its combination of technocratic prowess with social vision. Within five minutes into the speech, I recognized that I was watching and hearing something extraordinary and I immediately started taking mental notes. This essay is written entirely from those notes.

The formal delivery of the speech was followed by â&#x20AC;&#x153;Question Timeâ&#x20AC;?. Again, Ambode acquitted himself brilliantly on this point. The proof of this came from the extraordinarily impressive manner in which the governor dealt with all the questions posed to him, questions that went to the heart of the problems, challenges and crises confronting Lagos as one of the buoyant but festering megacities of the world. Here, I place emphasis on the word all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that is to say, all the questions without exception.

As the questions were posed, Ambode took notes, copiously.There were two sets of questions. The first set of questions were over a dozen in number; the second set had slightly fewer questions.In any case, as questioner after questioner after questioner had his or her say, Ambode did not stop taking notes. After the number reached 12in the first set of questions and the questions did not stop but continued, the teacher in me became attentive and I asked of no one in particular, â&#x20AC;&#x153;why doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the official directing the programme limit the questions to one or two at a time and how is the governor going to be able to respond meaningfully to all these questionsâ&#x20AC;?? Needlessly and wordlessly, I answered my own question: â&#x20AC;&#x153;of course, he is

Ambode not going to answer all the questions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; he is a politicianâ&#x20AC;?! But Ambode did answer every question - and painstakingly so!

Please bear in mind, dear reader, that although all the questioners were from the business community as a very influential social group, the assembled audience of the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance at the â&#x20AC;&#x153;town meetingâ&#x20AC;? came from an impressive diversity of interests and loyalties. Permit me to identify the ones that I remember. Representatives of the big transnational corporations were there, but they were completely silent; they could be recognized or identified only by their white skins and by their silent but hegemonic embodiment of the vast economic and ideological muscle that runs planet earth in the name and interests of benign capitalism.The Nigerian-owned big companies were there also in the persons of their MDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or CEOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s; they addressed the Governor and were in turn addressed by Ambode with rather exaggerated politeness or even deference. Media and communications moguls were also present; and they posed questions pertaining to their own interests. The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce was also present, represented by my old friend and hallmate at Kuti Hall UI, Bintan Famutimu, who put in a spirited plug for closer ties and links between the Lagos State government and major cabinet members and representatives of the American government.

And then, there were the women who spoke on behalf of SMEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, the small-scale enterprises.

Please note, dear reader, that I say women.

A there were only two of them, this made their under-representation at the forum rather coincident with the gender inequality that is so prevalent, so constitutive of economic and social power in our country and our continent.

Significantly, both women spoke about industrial activities linked with the recycling of waste products and the training and retraining of our unemployed and putatively â&#x20AC;&#x153;unemployableâ&#x20AC;? youths. In other words, of all the business people who posed questions to the governor, these women were the most upfront, indeed the most insistent on the social good that their industrial and business activities and products entail.

For this reason, I admit that I watched the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s response to them with much greater attention than I did with his answers to the others.I can report that the governor did not condescend to them and that his response to these two women, these two representatives of SMEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, was of the same passion and eloquence

with which he engaged all his interlocutors at the forum.

An astonishing feat then, that Ambode responded fully and robustly to all these interlocutors equally. Having been a teacher and a speaker at public forums for large segments of my adult life, I know what this implies: only she or he who is filled with passion, focus and dedication can respond to more than a dozen interlocutors with diverse interests, constituencies and loyalties as if every issue matters and everybody counts.

But every experienced teacher, every gifted public speaker knows that although all pupils and all issues and their representatives matter and count, they do so differentially. I saw this knowledge, this intuition play out astutely in Ambodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses to a good number of his interlocutors.

For instance, to the CEO of a company who posed a question about her and her companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;tax fatigueâ&#x20AC;?, Ambode was respectful while slyly justifying the crucial importance of taxes and even more taxes for a state like Lagos. To big entrepreneurs who wondered about the logic behind the bloated number and scope of workers on the public payroll in the state, Ambode was polite, even deferential in his endorsement of the logic of rationalization on which big companies are run; however, he insisted that governments cannot, indeeds hould not, be run exclusively or even primarily on the same logic; human and social interests, the governor argued, should override logics of rationalization and profit maximization that drive the activities of big corporations.

I have stressed the fact that the interests, perspectives and constituencies represented by the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interlocutors were quite diverse.

I must now observe that it seemed to me as I took in the whole performance that Ambode felt that as diverse as these interests and forces were they not conflicting and whatever tensions and conflicts might exist between and among them could be reconciled to the advancement of the progress and development of Lagos state. The old Marxist term for this idea is â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-antagonistic contradictionsâ&#x20AC;? as opposed to and in contrast with antagonistic contradictions.

Ambode did not use these terms, but I was deeply moved by two particular instances when he expressed a passionate advocacy for contradictions especially characteristic of the city of Lagos in the apparent belief that they are non-antagonistic contradictions. Permit me to briefly relate these two cases.

People think that one of the worst present and future nightmares of life in Lagos pertains to the number of cars plying the roads, relative to how many cars the roads, the streets, can take. Not so, argued Ambode passionately; the worst problem of street life, the governor argued, is the number of people on the streets with absolutely no provision for them to be on the streets in safety and comfort. No pavements, no sidewalks, no margins at the edges of the asphalt for people to walk on in safety, relaxation and even leisure. You hear talk about cars and congestion all the time, Ambode declared, but who speaks for people without cars, people that happen to be the overwhelming majority of Lagosians? As a columnist who has in the past both humorously and seriously argued for a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pedestriansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bill of Rightsâ&#x20AC;? in our cities, I was particularly moved by Ambodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eloquent and impassioned restatement of this issue.

Even more moved was I by the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playfully ironic joke that serves as the title of this piece: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll keep them off the streets

so that we can sleep at Banana Island!â&#x20AC;? The â&#x20AC;&#x153;weâ&#x20AC;? here apparently refers to Ambode and his audience, his interlocutors at the â&#x20AC;&#x153;town meetingâ&#x20AC;?, the crème de la crème of Lagosian society, the economic, social and political elites of the city and the state of Lagos. What of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;themâ&#x20AC;? that are to be kept off the streets? These are the talakawa, the denizens of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Other Lagosâ&#x20AC;? none of whom was present, indeed could be present at that encounter between the Governor and the business elites. Of the 25 million that constitutes the population of the city and the state, â&#x20AC;&#x153;theyâ&#x20AC;?happen to be the vast human and demographic majority whose internal majority is a whopping 65% that are under the age of 35. If we can find gainful employment for â&#x20AC;&#x153;themâ&#x20AC;?, if we can keep â&#x20AC;&#x153;themâ&#x20AC;? busy and engaged in productive activities that keep â&#x20AC;&#x153;themâ&#x20AC;? off the streets, Ambode was in effect saying, then we, the elites, can sleep at night without being haunted by the specter of their invasion of our homes, our rest, our peace, our security, our conscience. I do not think I have heard or read of a more powerful expression of the social contract between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless from any of our rulers and politicians in a long, long time, in fact since the days of Obafemi Awolowo and thePeopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Redemption Party.

In conclusion, I now go, briefly and succinctly, to my questions for Governor Ambode and indeed forall of us. I have only two posers.

The first one pertains to the forces and interests involved in the realization of the social contract.

Basically, I ask: who is present and who is absent, who is included and who excluded in the adjudication of struggles over the social contract?

At the â&#x20AC;&#x153;town meetingâ&#x20AC;? of the Governor with the business elites, the poor, the talakawa,together with their representatives, were absent. Would it have made a difference if they had been present and had also been vocal about their interests? Please note that as I stated at the start of this essay, Ambodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electoral victory was about 150,000 votes out of over 2 million votes cast. The two million was itself only a fraction of the population of the state, which is 25 million. Will Governor Ambode correct this massive disenfranchisement of the majority of the people of his state? Will he bring the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Other Lagosâ&#x20AC;? directly to the table and not only raise their presence as a specter that to disturb the peace and the good conscience of the rich?

Second poser: In the 1990 and 1999 Constitutions, Second Chapter titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;FundamentalObjectives and Directives of State Policyâ&#x20AC;? it is clearly stated that it is unfair, as all previous Nigerian Constitutions had assumed, thatthe goals of development and social justice cannot be pursued simultaneously and indivisibly, that â&#x20AC;&#x153;developmentâ&#x20AC;? must take place first before economic redistribution can take place. Both Constitutions made it mandatory for the Nigerian state to pursue both goals together; however, this was made non-justiciable meaning that the Nigerian state and its functionaries cannot be legally forced to observe or actualize this provision, this clause in the Constitution. From his speech last Monday, especially in the segment wherein he fielded all those questions, I conjecture that Ambode is on the side of this constitutional clause. Will he step forward now and say so? More to the point, will he state what forces, what allies, what coalitions he, his administration and his political party intend to mobilize to realize this objective? r 1SPG +FZJGP XSJUFT GSPN -BHPT

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