FG Secures $500m EXIM Bank Loan for Modular Refineries
James Emejo in Abuja
The Federal Government has secured a $500 million loan facility from the Export Import Bank of China (CEXIM), through the Bank of Industry (BoI), to establish modular refineries and implement
the Flare Gas Recovery Programme. The establishment of modular refineries is part of the federal government's strategy for ending importation of petroleum products and discouraging illegal oil bunkering, especially in the Niger Delta.
The government said the credit arrangement reinforced its determination to stimulate economic growth, drive investment, and provide jobs for Nigerians. Speaking at the signing ceremony in Beijing, Chief Executive of BoI, Mr.
Olukayode Pitan, said highlighted the job creation potentials of the partnership. Pitan said, “I am delighted to begin the next chapter of a long-term trading relationship with China through CEXIM. This agreement is set to create over 100,000 jobs in Nigeria’s
oil and gas sector—a decisive move that will advance the Federal Government’s Modular Refineries and Flare Gas Recovery Programme.” Essentially, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BOI and CEXIM stipulated that the
loan facility will be utilised to finance the purchase of equipment and machinery from China by investors and project owners of modular refineries in the country. The federal said the Continued on page 8
Reports against Abba Kyari, Cooked Up Lies, Says Presidency… Page 8 Sunday 9 September, 2018 Vol 23. No 8544
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Alpha Beta: I Hope EFCC’ll have the Nerve to Unravel It, Says Bode George Apara’s lawyer: We'll expose more things soon Bayo Akinloye Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State and former Deputy National Chairman
of the party, Chief Olabode George, yesterday reacted to the raging allegations of money laundering, fraud and tax evasion against Alpha Beta Consulting, a
firm with exclusive right to collect taxes on behalf of Lagos State Government since 2002, saying he hopes the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
would have the courage to find out the truth. George said it was unfortunate that "those who called others thieves were the biggest criminals of all time."
The PDP chieftain’s reaction came just as Adetunji Adegboyega, who is the lawyer to the man behind the revelations, the former managing director of Alpha
Beta, Dapo Apara, said more disclosures would be made available to the public concerning the alleged Continued on page 8
Atiku: For Nigeria’s Progress, We Must Change APC in 2019 We have the highest record of unemployment, highest inflation, highest level of insecurity since 1999 Makarfi: I am not averse to Atiku becoming the party's candidate, just as he is not also averse to me John Shiklam in Kaduna Former Vice President and presidential aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday in Kaduna that Nigeria cannot make progress under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, stressing that for the country to move forward, there must be a change of leadership in 2019. Atiku stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who is also a PDP presidential aspirant, at his residence in Kaduna. The former vice president said Nigeria was currently “at a crossroads” and having its worst experience in virtually all spheres of its existence since the return to democracy in
1999. “You can definitely acknowledge that since the return of democracy, we have not had a worst period than now, whether in terms of economy, whether in terms of unity, whether in terms of security, this is the worst time since 1999,” Atiku told journalists after his meeting with Makarfi. “The misadministration of the APC government is very evident. We have the highest record of unemployment since 1999, we have the highest inflation, we have multiple exchange rates that discourage foreign investment. We have the highest level of insecurity since 1999,” he added. He said Nigeria under Continued on page 8
Ogun APC Leaders Present Akinlade to Amosun as Candidate... Page 8
BEHOLD OGUN CONSENSUS CANDIDATES... R-L: Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, consensus governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Hon. Abdulkabir Akinlade, Ogun APC Chairman, Chief Derin Adebiyi, and deputy governorship candidate, Mrs. Adepeju Adebajo, incumbent Commissioner for Agriculture, when Adebiyi presented Adebajo to party faithful across the three senatorial districts of the state, at Government House, Abeokuta... yesterday
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PAGE EIGHT
Reports against Abba Kyari, Cooked Up Lies, Says Presidency Chief of Staff threatens to sue Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja and Olaseni Durojaiye in Lagos The presidency last night reacted with dismay to an allegation published by a national daily that Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, collected N29 million bribe for the award of a contract for the supply of 15 Hilux vehicles. Reacting to the allegation in a statement, presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, described the allegation as offensive, saying Kyari never had any private meeting with those making the allegation. Shehu said the allegation appeared to be coming from certain persons whose interest was to blackmail the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari as 2019 drew closer. In his own reaction, Kyari stated, “There is no iota of truth whatsoever, even in dreamland, in this malicious story. No amount of mud will stick, or stain my integrity. I have instructed my lawyers to take legal action against all those who have peddled this falsehood. “We cannot allow reasoned and reasonable debate to be hijacked by the frenzied fantasies of a cynical and dishonest minority. A lie becomes no less of a lie simply by repetition. I will continue to ensure that business-as-usual is unsustainable, ask questions and question answers - in the interest of our country, above any other consideration.�
Shehu also described the allegation as a fiction, saying the contract did not exist in 2016/2017 budgets. Arguing that N29 million bribe allegation against a man who turned down N200 million imprest accrued to the office in the past was misplaced, Shehu cautioned the media against hastening to the press without verification and threatened the newspaper with legal action. He stated, "The Presidency takes strong offence to the improbable and outlandish publication by a Newspaper on Saturday (not THISDAY) and reports that circulated in Whatsapp in a dig at presidential aide Abba Kyari who was alleged to have collected a 29 million naira bribe for the
awarding of a contract. "We wish to state with full authority that the allegation is wrong and the Chief of Staff did not have any private meetings with the person making those allegations. "What is even more surprising is the decision by the newspaper to run the cooked up lies despite obvious loopholes in the story, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement’s denial that a major source for the story was a member of their staff. “With a slew of crucial elections ahead, some politicians and their media agents appear to be working together to build pressure on the Buhari administration by wielding non-existent scandals against it.
"We equally note that the supply of 15 Hilux vehicles for the Presidency was an unlikely contract to have been awarded, as it did not exist anywhere in the 2016 and 2017 budgets. "Checking the appropriation for 2016 and 2017, that request is not even there. How could Abba Kyari have asked for money to award a contract that did not exist anywhere at all? "In addition to that, the amount allegedly given in bribe was also suspicious, as the office of the presidential aide had been known in the past to receive imprest of 200 million naira and above every month, with no one expected to give account. "It was only since Abba Kyari occupied that position that
things changed. In blunt terms, it is difficult to make a case of N29 million bribery against an official who spurned a monthly payment of N200 million to his office, money for which he didn’t need to account to anyone. "Once again, we wish to caution against the media's haste to publish unverified accusations against government officials simply for the sensationalism value, without journalists doing the due diligence required of them by their profession. "The newspaper was notified of the various falsehoods contained in the allegations but still went ahead to publish the weak accusations. They should be prepared to face Abba Kyari in court."
Ogun APC Leaders Present Akinlade to Amosun as Candidate Nominate Agric Commissioner as running mate 38 other consensus candidates unveiled Olawale Olaleye Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, yesterday, formally presented the party’s consensus governorship candidate, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, at an expanded meeting witnessed by major stakeholders from the three senatorial districts of the state. APC also seized the opportunity to nominate the Commissioner for Agriculture, Adepeju Adebajo, as deputy governorship candidate. It unveiled 38 other consensus candidates for elective offices, including Ogun Central senatorial seat, which Amosun is aspiring to occupy. Adebajo, who was Managing Director of Lafarge Africa PLC
before her appointment as a commissioner in 2016, is from both Ikenne and Sagamu local government areas of the state. While addressing the party leaders from the three senatorial districts, who had come to present Akinlade as the party’s consensus governorship candidate and Adebajo as his running mate after unanimously adopting them, Amosun said APC in the state had embraced the consensus arrangement to select all 40 candidates. He said arrangement was the smartest option, noting, however, that the party will not rule out direct primaries if there were persons opposed to the consensus option. Akinlade’s official unveiling followed the announcement of Adebajo by the APC chairman
in the state, Chief Derin Adebiyi, saying the elders of the party from Ogun East had met with the state party leaders to take the decision. Apart from Adebiyi, other APC leaders present at the meeting were the National Financial Secretary, Alhaji Tajudeen Bello; Ogun East senatorial chairman, Bayo Yakubu, and his Ogun Central counterpart, Yomi Ademefun, among others. Commending the consensus option adopted by the party, Amosun said, “In all our positions, we are going to have consensus candidates. We are going to make available our list, including our deputy governor. All our leaders are aware, we have sat, we are going to announce and anybody that wants to do any other thing
is free to do so. “On the day the national body of the APC has set for the primaries, we will be waiting for them. Let them come. So, we will do the primaries. We have said we are having consensus. We have done the consensus, we have arrived at the candidates, not just for the governorship, we have arrived at all the 40 candidates in Ogun State.� Breaking down the 40 elective offices, Amosun said, “We have 26 Assembly members, nine House of Reps members, three senatorial members, deputy governor and the governor. We are going to display the names of the 40. If anybody is not in agreement, we are not going to say he is not a member of our party, they will come and try and that is the
beauty of democracy.� The governor advised members of the party to work hard for the party’s victory, reminding them that failure is an orphan whom no one desires to associate with, even as he maintained that there was no disagreement in Ogun APC, otherwise, it would have been difficult to pick consensus candidates. The governor said the party would campaign vigorously and not take the people for granted, noting that he laboured hard to grow a party that was in tatters. “We know ourselves,� he said repeatedly, urging members not to fight anyone, because “it is not our style in Ogun State.� Speaking earlier on behalf of Ogun East, Yakub said the leaders and members of the
senatorial district agreed with the zoning arrangement and were ready to support Akinlade as the governorship candidate. He hinted that Akinlade had been endorsed by members of the senatorial district through a motion moved by Tunde Oladunjoye, a former chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area, and was supported by Majority Leader in the Ogun State House of Assembly, Yinka Mafe, who represents Sagamu Constituency I. On the fate of other governorship aspirants from Ogun East, Yakub said the “disgruntled aspirants� who had collected the nomination forms for governorship from the Ogun East were not “genuine members of the party and they are on their own.�
of illegality is going in Alpha Beta and he wouldn't want to be identified first and foremost with these things. This is the reason he is coming out as a whistle-blower in line with the anti-corruption policy of the present administration. “It is time for the necessary agency to look into this company and look at what is happening. Our client has made some allegations, let them look into that and find out whether these things are true or not. And most important, he doesn't want to be associated with it because if you know him, he is not that kind of a person that can be involved in such a fraud. “As the MD, he had always spoken against some things, insisting that things should be done properly. He is known for his principles and rule of law. All those things are on record and documented. There were times he spoke against certain
things and still found that those things were done through whatever means, you know. “So, he has come out at this time and this is the appropriate time. Let the authorities look into this company. Let there be an investigation. We are going to call a press conference and lay out these things for everybody to know what is going on.� The lawyer also refuted claims in some quarters that Apara was part of the fraud and that he only spoke out when things were no longer going his way. “No, he did not help to perpetuate all the illegalities,� Adegboyega said. He explained, “You can be the MD of a company and a lot of things can be going on without your knowledge. And then the point is this: at any point in time. We know that the issue of criminality is not time-bound. So, if one decided that this is the time that I will speak and he can
come out and blow the whistle, I don't think there's anything wrong in that. It is better being done at any time rather than not being done at all. That is what is happening now. “If you see the tax notice given to him by Lagos government, you won't believe he had paid N80 million to the government. I am not sure Alpha Beta has paid as much as that at all. The records are there. You can all find out what is going on. He is a stickler to rule of law. So, it is not because of that. Rather than refuse to pay, he would rather go to court and challenge the tax assessment you are giving him. But he had already paid the N80 million to the government.� Adegboyega also clarified the N45 billion owed Apara, saying it includes his entitlements as a shareholder controlling 30 per cent of Alpha Beta’s shares.
this country to the path of peace, progress and development.� Commenting on his chances in the presidential primaries, Atiku said he will support anyone that picked the ticket. "I am a democrat and I have always worked with anyone that emerged. So I am ready to work with anyone that emerges through credible elections,� he said. In his remarks, Makarfi recalled various struggles in the PDP with Atiku, adding that he has nothing to lose if Atiku picks the party's presidential ticket. "I am ready to work with any of the fellow aspirants that emerges, that is why I even said that because I am willing to work
with some of them, I won't even step into their states,� Makarfi said. "I am not averse to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar becoming the party's candidate, just like he is
not also averse to me becoming the party's candidate. It is a family issue, we are talking and we will keep on talking," he added.
ALPHA BETA: I HOPE EFCC’LL HAVE THE NERVE TO UNRAVEL IT, SAYS BODE GEORGE N160 billion Lagos taxpayers monies allegedly cornered by the company. George further told THISDAY, “The chickens have come home to roost. How can someone be raping a state so mercilessly since 1999 and he is still doing it? His time is coming to an end. "I hope the EFCC will have the nerve to unravel it. It will be the biggest scandal that Nigeria has ever seen. It is mindboggling and heart-breaking. "How can anyone come from Osun and be raping Lagos like this? The authorities must get to the end of this. Imagine the kind of money involved? I'm angry with the whole system, because APC now harbours thieves.� He said how the matter would pan out depended on the disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari and his readiness to fight corruption. "All of them who had shared
of the rot must be exposed. It will redeem the credibility of the EFCC. But first, they must shut the place down and a law enacted that no one must collect revenue on behalf of the state again and everyone involved must be exposed," George stated. During an exclusive interview with THISDAY at the weekend, Adegboyega spoke, among other things, on the ownership of Alpha Beta and who fired Apara. He said, “I wouldn't want to make any comment on that. But the records are there. The CAC documents are there. They will show you who the directors and owners of the company are. “But what I can confirm to you is that our client, Dapo Apara, owns 30 per cent of the company and it is on record. There are certain things I wouldn't want to go into details of.� Regarding the allegations of fraud and money laundering made against the company, he
said, “We will organise a press conference and make further comments on ownership of Alpha Beta. Our allegations are against the company and we believe that the federal government is determined in tackling corruption, encouraging people to blow the whistle. That's what Apara is doing right now. All I can confirm to you is that he is no longer the managing director of the company. His process of removal and whoever removed, I can't talk about that. All I know is that he is no longer the MD.� Speaking on why Apara had to blow the whistle only after he was given the boot as Alpha Beta CEO, his lawyer explained, “As a former managing director of a company, you will agree with me that he is privy to a lot of information about things that are going on in the company. He was removed late last year...early this year. A lot
Continued on page 10
ATIKU: FOR NIGERIA’S PROGRESS, WE MUST CHANGE APC IN 2019 Buhari was more divided than any other time in its history. “People are more angry, people are poorer more than at any time. Nigeria is rated as the headquarters of poverty in the world,� the former vice president stated. According to him, “This is unthinkable for a country that is endowed with human and natural resources like ours, just because of lack of clear headed leadership and direction, this is where we find ourselves "So, it is obvious that we just have to change the leadership of this country.� Speaking earlier, before going into a private meeting with Makarfi, Atiku explained
that he was in Kaduna on a campaign, stressing that the visit is significant and special. “I came for campaign train and I feel it is absolutely necessary, being a colleague and former national caretaker chairman of the PDP who brought the current party structures and leadership into existence, we should pay you this courtesy visit and first of all to put it on record and also commend your leadership,� he Makarfi. He commended Makarfi for steering the affairs of PDP democratically and overseeing the emergence of the current leadership of the party. “I will continue to hold you in very high regards and esteem.
The fact that you were able to bring our party back to live clearly indicate that you have a lot of potential to offer to this country that cannot be taken away from you,� Atiku stated. He added, “Fortunately, having belonged to the same political set that ushered in our democracy in 1999, I believe that since we are still active and healthy, we still have a responsibility to make sure that this democratic process which we brought back to this country should be sustained in a manner that brings about progress, development and unity of this country... “So I think and I believe that if we work together, we will return
FG SECURES $500M EXIM BANK LOAN FOR MODULAR REFINERIES purpose of the loan was to ensure availability of refined petroleum products within the country, monetise gas flare, reduce cost of products in the mid-term and provide employment for Nigerians. The facility can be accessed via letters of credit issued for the delivery of specified modular refineries and gas processing equipment to qualified
Nigerian companies establishing petrochemical facilities under the modular refineries and gas flare recovery programme. To date, a total of 38 operating licenses have been granted by the federal government for the establishment of modular refineries in the Niger Delta, according to a statement issued yesterday by the development finance institution.
T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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SUNDAY COMMENT
Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com
ISSUES IN CAMPAIGN FINANCES There is need for independent audits of campaign finances of candidates to ensure they operate within the law
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t a period in history when the President of the United States of America, regarded globally as the bastion of democracy, says “campaign-finance violations are considered not a big deal”, there is a temptation to dismiss the manner in which the laws governing elections in Nigeria are being cynically violated by our politicians. But the neglect of the relevant campaign financing limits and what candidates do with such donated monies even after elections has deepened the impression that what obtains in Nigeria is a transactional political culture with inbuilt ethos for corruption. At issue is the way some shadowy groups are paying, on behalf of prominent presidential aspirants, the prohibitive nomination costs in both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples In a milieu where Democratic Party political godfathers (PDP). Section 91 (9) of sponsor candidates the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended) states: for executive “No individual or other offices as business entity shall donate more than one million investments for which they expect naira to any candidate” prescribing a bountiful rewards, a while punishment for those who N1 million donation violate this provision in cap was considered Section 91 (10) (a) thus: “A candidate who knowingly a way to reduce acts in contravention of the corrupting this section commits an influence of offence and on convictions anonymous money shall be liable – (a) in case of presidential election to a maximum fine of N1,000,000.00 or imprisonment of 12 months or both.” Interestingly, while politicians who violate the law would, upon conviction, be given lenient sentences with options of paying some ridiculous out-of-pocket fines, “an accountant who falsifies, conspires or aids a candidate to forge or falsify a document relating to his expenditure at an election or receipt or donation for the election or in any way aids and abets the breach of the provision of this section of this Act commits an offence and is liable on conviction for imprisonment for a term of 10 years.” So in typical Nigerian fashion, the responsibil-
Letters to the Editor
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ity for such crimes has already been shifted from the office seekers concerned to their accountants!
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S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS OLAWALE OLALEYE, TOBI SONIYI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE
T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI , PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ERIC OJEH, PATRICK EIMIUHI ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com
he rationale behind the finance campaign laws may be many but two stand out. One, to prevent office seekers from being captured by special interest groups should they win. Sadly, nobody knows the memberships of these shadowy groups, their main objectives and how they came about the money they are donating to these aspirants as well as their own expectations. Two, in a milieu where political godfathers sponsor candidates for executive offices as business investments for which they expect bountiful rewards, a N1 million donation cap was considered a way to reduce the corrupting influence of anonymous money. Unfortunately, the law on campaign finances has always been treated with contempt by practically all our politicians and the big parties in our country. For instance, the electoral act prescribes limits to how much candidates can spend on their elections but there is neither a way to monitor such expenses nor a method to enforce compliance. According to the electoral act, a presidential candidate can spend a maximum amount of N1 billion while the spending limit for a governorship candidate is N200 million. A senatorial candidate can spend only a maximum amount of N40 million while the limit for a House of Representatives candidate is N20 million. For state assembly election, the limit is N10 million; chairmanship, N10 million and councillorship, N1 million. However, not only has the law been observed in the breach with elections more or less a bazaar where stupendous amounts of money are spent, the whole issue of campaign expenses in Nigeria is riddled with unwholesome practices. Besides, in almost all instances where an incumbent president or governor is seeking re-election, it is public money that is used for such purpose. Far more worrisome is what the accumulated funds are most often used for: to buy consumables which are distributed at campaign rallies, pay off some local operatives, procure the services of muscle men, compromise electoral and security officials and then buy votes on election days. To the extent that this anomaly has alienated many Nigerians from participation in politics which looks more like a cult of the wealthy, there needs to be a provision for independent audits of campaign finances to aid accountability. If our democracy is to make any meaning, donations to political campaign organisations by corporate bodies and voluntary organisations should come under the purview of such an audit requirement.
TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.
Poor Power Supply And The SMEs
ccess to power expands the number and variety of business and job opportunities available. Small businesses such as barbing shops, hair dressing salons, welding, etc., rely on energy to function. Energy leads to the creation of new markets and job openings and provides more opportunities for individuals to earn income and lift their families and their communities out of poverty. A consistent lack of access to reliable power is injurious to businesses and the economy as a whole. Even with access to energy, unreliable power makes operating a business more challenging. Nigerian business and manufacturing enterprises experience power outages on a daily basis.
As a result, firms lose sales revenues. Where back-up generators are limited, losses can be higher. These losses have severe consequences for the health and growth of the wider economy, not to mention the dramatic impact in achieving other development objectives outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Owners of small businesses in Nigeria seem to have adapted to the poor power and epileptic power supply in the country as they have resorted to alternative forms of getting electricity to power their businesses. Those that suffer most now are the SMEs and the micro-operators that rely on generators. With a remarkable increase in operational cost and poor purchasing power of
consumers, the manufacturing companies have had to lay off thousands in the last six months, with about three million still to go. A 2015 report of the Good Governance Initiative (GGI), a non-governmental organisation advocating uninterrupted power supply in the country, says Nigerians spend N3.5 trillion on fuelling their generators annually. The rough business climate has forced many companies to close shops, while the surviving ones are retrenching workers daily. Owners and operators of small businesses and large corporations in various sectors of the economy whom I was able to speak with said that the worsened power supply had further worsened the ease of doing business.
The development of renewable energy is the key to the development of any nation. Since energy has been regarded by many economists and researchers as the engine that drives the economy of a nation, investment in renewable energy is paramount. There are solar power advantages worth noting. In no particular order, here are some top advantages: solar power helps to slow/stop global warming. Global warming threatens the survival of human society as well as the survival of countless species. Luckily, researches have led to solar panels that create electricity without producing global warming pollution. Solar power will save SMEs billions of naira. Within the coming decades, global warming is projected to cost society so much money if left unabated. So, even ignoring the very long-term threat, fighting global warming with
solar power will likely save Nigeria’s SMEs millions of naira monthly. Solar power saves money. The installation may be expensive but at the end it is cheaper. Solar power provides energy reliability. The rising and setting of the sun is extremely consistent all across the world. Solar power provides energy independence. Again, the “fuel” for solar panels cannot be bought or monopolised. It is free for all to use. It is with no doubt that the only solution to Nigeria’s epileptic power problem. The way forward for both SMEs and the government is for the government to invest in pay-as-you-go solar option which enables al business owners to have 24 hours uninterrupted power supply which in turn will increase productivity and raise living standards. ––Jonathan Emmanuel, jonathan.ugbede@Climatters.org
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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
NEWS Fresh Attack Kills Three Soldiers in Plateau Boko Haram attacks military base in Borno
Seriki Adinoyi in Jos The Military Special Task Force (STF) in charge of security in Plateau State yesterday disclosed that it lost three soldiers to attacks in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. Also in Borno State, Boko Haram struck another military base shortly after the terrorist
group killed about 40 soldiers in an ambush in the state. The Commander of the task force, Maj.-Gen. Augustine Chris Agundu and the Borno State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Usman Durkwa confirmed the two incidents yesterday at separate sessions with journalists respectively in Jos and Maiduguri.
Briefing journalists in Jos yesterday, the commander pledged to bring those who killed the soldiers to book, noting that the perpetrators would not escape justice. Agundu lamented that the situation on ground “is becoming more precarious than expected. Since the unfortunate incident of June 2018, the
situation is rather getting out of hand. “For the umpteenth time, we are having a lot of crises, deliberate crises, well planned, organised against the innocent people in such that the peace on the Plateau had been disrupted into a situation that is no longer acceptable.” However, he noted that he
EMPOWERING TRADERS
L-R: Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Executive Director, Bank of Industry, Mrs. Toyin Adeniji; Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi; and Chief Executive Officer, GDM Group, Mr. Victor Afolabi, during the inauguration of TraderMoni in Iwo, Osun State... recently
had been engaging all strata of leadership including community leaders, district leaders, religious leaders and political leaders, among other, to ensure peace and security across the state. Unfortunately, he noted that a lot of persons “are maximizing the ignorance of these less privileged to foment trouble on the Plateau and that will no longer be acceptable. “I lost some men yesterday because certain persons decided to take laws into their hands and let me repeat again. There is no nation where you use crime to fight crime. There are constructive ways of engaging, no matter what the situation is. “I have declared enough is enough. I have lost three men; they were killed in action as a result of this circle of violence that has resurfaced in the state. The worst of it is that the proliferation of arms in Plateau is out of magnitude. “I have locked down BarkinLadi. This act will never repeat itself. We have made efforts to reconcile the warring factions. But they have remained adamant. My troops have resolved to end the ongoing hostilities in Ryiom, Barkin-Ladi and Bassa LGAs. “The message I am sending to all levels of leadership is to get their youths to decorum and civility so that the ordinary man and woman in the community could live peacefully. We are determined to return Plateau to its slogan of Home of Peace and Tourism.” In Borno State, Durkwa confirmed that there was Boko
Haram attack on a Military Base located in Gudumbali, the Headquarters of Guzamala Local Government Area of the state. He, however, said he was yet to get the actual number of casualties from security forces, after he had conversation with the Police Commissioner, Mr. Damian Chukwu and the Brigade Commander of the Joint Military Forces in Monguno. The deputy governor said it was unfortunate “to confirm to you that there was an attack by Boko Haram extremists on a Military Base and other communities of Gudumbali. “Thousands of the people, who were displaced and spent some years in a resettlement camps in Maiduguri, have returned back recently after the liberation of those surrounding communities by our gallant security forces. “I regret to inform you that there was another attack by insurgents in Gudumbali. But I am yet to get the number of casualties. I just spoke with the Borno State Police Commissioner, Mr. Damian Chukwu and the Brigade Commander in Monguno, both confirmed to me that the attack actually took place, and our security forces were on top of the situation.” He, however, called on the people of the state not to panic, assuring that the state government in collaboration with security operatives and members of Civilian Joint Task Force were doing everything possible to restore peace in the affected area and the state as a whole.
Bamidele: Gunshot Won’t Deter Me from Seeking Public Office Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti Former National Publicity Secretary of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele yesterday shared experience after he was shot during a political rally in AdoEkiti on June 1, noting that gun attack would not deter him from contesting elections. Despite his gory experience after the gunshot, Bamidele disclosed that he would continue to seek elective positions to give the people effective representation. He shared his experience with some journalists in his country
home, Iyin Ekiti, noting that he was hospitalized for 96 days bother in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Bamidele, a member of the seventh House of Representatives and erstwhile governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, was shot during a reception organised for the governorship candidate of the party, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. After his condition was stabilised in a state-owned teaching hospital, Bamidele was referred to a Lagos hospital due to the dearth of appropriate medical equipment to handle his current condition. He was subsequently
moved to the UK after some days. He returned home penultimate Thursday after medical treatment in the United Kingdom, noting that he was grateful to God for saving his life after stray bullets hit him in the buildup to the election. He said he had a covenant with God to serve the people of Ekiti State and Nigeria throughout his life, describing the shooting as a challenge he had put behind him but will form part of his travails while navigating political path to save his people from poverty.
Bamidele, who has declared intention to contest senatorial election in Ekiti Central in 2019, said he would continue to seek political offices in spite of the harrowing experiences associated with the shooting caused by accidental discharge from a policeman. Hesaid:“IhaveavowwithGod. I will continue to serve my people. Even, our Lord Jesus Christ experienced challenges in his quest to propagate Christianity. So, I see that as a mere challenge I have overcome through prayers of all Nigerians. “I am a determined person,
Alpha Beta: I Hope EFCC’ll have the Nerve to Unravel It, Says Bode George “The records of the company’s earnings are there. There is also an entitlement he is due to receive as a shareholder of the company. You see, that is by the way. Like I said, it’s not about the money. It’s about doing things the right way, which is why he is saying, let me come out. Let me blow the whistle on what’s going on. If he didn’t do that now, later, when the issue is exposed, he would be counted as one of the perpetrators. He doesn’t want to be seen that way. That’s the major thing,” the lawyer stated. On the motive for Apara’s decision to publicise his allegations, his lawyer insisted that the revelations were
made in good faith and not out of any grievances. Adegboyega said, “There’s no issue of grievance here. He is a whistle-blower.” Meanwhile, EFCC has acknowledged receipt of the petition written against Alpha Beta by Apara. It stated that it was under going processing and evaluation just like other petitions before deciding the next step. Apara had accused the company of tax fraud allegedly amounting to N160 billion. In a petition to the EFCC, Apara claimed Alpha Beta, the firm with exclusive rights to monitor and collect internally generated revenue on behalf of the Lagos State “had been involved in
fraud and money laundering.” The petition read in part: “Over the years the company has been protected and shielded by some powerful politicians and people in the society which made them to always boast of being untouchable, but our client, feeling the need not to keep quiet again and strengthened by his belief in the fact that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on fighting corruption, which has been the bane of our country, is of the firm belief that it’s time to expose and open the can of worms called Alpha Beta Consulting.”
In a series of tweets, Apara had called on the EFCC to carry out “a simple investigation”, saying that will reveal the fraud being perpetrated by the company. According to documents sighted by THISDAY, the petition was written in July this year. “The EFCC investigation should be simple and straight forward. Not rocket science. Alpha Beta has been IGR consultants to the Lagos State Government since 2002, earning about 10 per cent and has generated IGR of about N1.5tn (yes trillion), excluding FAAC and loans,” the petition stated.
particularly when it has to do with banishing poverty among the people of Ekiti State and make them live a good life. I am not deterred. I will continue to forge ahead in politics. “Although I have not declared formally, I am still consulting. But let me say that I will contest for Senate in 2019 to represent Ekiti Central. That confirms to you that I will not quit politics because I was shot on June 1”, he said. Bamidele arrived Ado Ekiti from Lagos on Friday being the first time he would come to Ekiti after he was shot. Before entering the state capital in a convoy of over
50 vehicles, Bamidele had visited Efon, Ijero, Aramoko, Igede to thank the people for their prayers during his travail. Addressing the party supporters in the state capital, Bamidele said: “Even the London Doctors told me clearly that I got my healing through miracle. “I want to say that it was not money that saved me, but I received the grace of God. Many of the Doctors that treated me in London who were not Godly became born again because of me, while those who believed in God became more dedicated.
Bloggers’ Guild Holds Annual Lecture on Fake News The Guild of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria at the weekend unveiled a plan to hold its first lecture which would address the problem associated with fake news. The president of the guild, Mr. Chris Nwandu said this in a statement, noting that it had concluded arrangement towards holding the guild’s first annual lecture. The statement said the lecture slated for October 13 would hold at Raddison Blu Hotel, Ikeja GRA under the theme, “Combating Fake News in Cyberspace.” It noted that the lecture would be attended by Nigerians from all walks of life including online media, bloggers, main stream
media, those in politics, economy and other stakeholders According to the statement, it will afford the participants the opportunity to rub minds on critical issues relating to online communication and publication especially at this critical moment when the country is preparing for another general election in 2019. It said major keynote speakers “are being penciled down to deliver papers at the occasion, the first of its kind by bloggers in Nigeria. The guild is an association of professional bloggers set up to streamline the practice of blogging in the country.
T H I S D AY ˾ SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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OPINION Change: Josephine’s Example The citizens are often as good as the country makes them through its institutions, argues Frank Onyezili
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t is now two years since the present Nigerian government, terrified by the burden of expectations, launched the “Change begins with meâ€? slogan which has remained largely empty, nothing better than a rattling cymbal. Declared our President: “Our citizens must realise that the change they want to see begins with them‌ Before you ask ‘where is the change they promised us’, you must first ask how far have I changed my waysâ€Śâ€˜what have I done to be part of the change for the greater good of society’â€?. That bit of exercise in propaganda done, that uncreative quoting of an exceptional American who also came to power using the “changeâ€? mantra executed, our government then went back to business as usual, remaining a government that says one thing but does another. Our leaders expect us to change our ways without bothering to change their own ways as an example for us to emulate. Government promised what it has failed to deliver and, not surprisingly, has found it nearly impossible to convince any neutral and objective observer that it means well for anyone but itself. Where are the three million jobs it promised our youths, where are the social welfare programmes to cater for the poor, and free maternal/children healthcare services, and where is the security, to mention but four failed promises? Part of the problem is that our government does not seem to understand that change at the different strata of society connotes different things, including at the level of the individual where, unfortunately, our common experience as a people has hardened our conscience, preoccupied as we are with our own survival. There are various levels of the change dogma and there should be no contradictions. Our president should know that he has all but squandered the massive goodwill that heralded his second coming as a leader of over 180 million needy people. He has lost the rare advantage of respect mixed with fear which he once enjoyed. Civil servants who, out of fear/respect of Buhari mended their ways, changing from a habit of absenteeism to suddenly reporting for duty every day, on time, police officers and customs officials who momentarily stopped demanding bribes have all gone back to their old ways. We expected but Buhari has failed to lead us by his own example. Buhari, who marketed himself as an ascetic no-nonsense reformer has not lived up to his billing and has taken many segments of our diverse society for a ride. The leader of our nation, the anti-corruption crusader was expecting change while unwittingly spawning corruption. For just one example, his fiscal policy that tried to keep the naira artificially low and restricted access succeeded only in ballooning black market rates and fuelling domestic inflation, unemployment and down-spiraling economic indices. Yet our leader expects change from us. How? How do you expect change from the same people your policies short-change? How do
you expect change when, clearly, our leader has not handled deeply-ingrained sensibilities of the led (refer to his disengaged stance, his tone-deaf attitude, in handling the Fulani herdsmen/ farmers crisis in the middle belt, where hundreds of innocent villagers were hunted down and murdered, their farmlands sacked and their homes razed), without any semblance of sensitivity or exemplary statesmanship? Buhari’s insensitivity to the feelings of those he is leading continues to make his chant of “change� hollow and vain. Change is wrought at different institutional and system levels, yes by individuals whose collective enterprise adds value and makes for incremental development. The led has the right to demand that change, beginning from the very government that promised it, the change they demanded and voted for. It is institutions that change people, not the other way round (strong institution is the reason why the same Nigerian that mindlessly beats traffic lights in Lagos, for fun, would not dare to do same anywhere in the UK). The citizens, generally speaking, are often only as good (and incorruptible) as the country makes them through its strong institutions. And it is the responsibility of a good government to earnestly address institutional lapses, refuse to condone nepotism, and stop blaming Nigerians for what government should have done but failed, and is still failing, to do. Government owes it a duty to inspire the citizenry through changing for better the conditions in which they live: provide reliable power supply, equip and upgrade hospitals, develop road infrastructure, rehabilitate schools, say no to crony capitalism, among others. Psychological propaganda, which is what this government is presently preoccupied with, won’t do. For an administration that has expended much of its tenure blaming the ills of the nation on its predecessors, it is hardly surprising that it has resorted to cheap and tainted blackmail of Nigerians, demanding change it has not itself demonstrated, change without a clear political direction or desired objectives.
Her brief exposure to the Nigerian public came because she resisted the temptation to hold on to a stash of $30,000 cash she had happened on while performing her cleaning job at the Murtala Muhammed Airport
All this from a leadership that takes fancy trips abroad to insult the same people that elected it to serve the nation. A leadership that has anchored the change it preaches on virtually nothing. This is not to say that individual Nigerians have no need to mend their ways. Not for a minute. When the mind-boggling story of Diezani Alison-Madueke unfolded in 2016 it was like an awful dream, certainly the wrong example of the change we need at the individual level. Never again should a system allow one individual, male or female, to rip a nation the way this unrepentant lady did. What, if not decadent civilisation, is in the psyche of this reprobate former Nigerian Petroleum Minister, called to serve, who opted to amass property (including a $18 million mansion) and jewelry of unquantifiable proportions with taxpayers’ money? Plain stealing with impunity. And to think that Mrs. AlisonMadueke was educated in the UK, including at Cambridge, where standards of morality and sense of public good are prioritised. For her defence, the cynical sadist and predatory opportunist that she obviously is, she conscripted the tomato seller at Bodija into her script (at a time tomato sellers across the country were experiencing a downturn in their sales due to pest invasion, Mrs. Madueke didn’t think they didn’t have as much jewelry as her!). In the Nigeria of our dream, surely, change must be such that the preoccupation of our ladies would not be jewelry, mansions and leasing private jets for themselves. Still, we have examples that Nigeria’s Presidency should have rewarded, as incentive to others, and from a lady too. Sometime ago, hidden inside the pages of one or two national newspapers, was the story of a commoner, Josephine Ugwu. Like a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground, she has no comeliness of her own. She was despised by her co-workers for daring to be honest and esteemed as stricken/insane by some of her countrymen. Yet by her singular action, without sloganeering, this extraordinary cleaner quietly laid down a distinct marker for change at the individual level in our nation. Her brief exposure to the Nigerian public came because she resisted the temptation to hold on to a stash of $30,000 cash she had happened on while performing her cleaning job at the Murtala Muhammed Airport. It was not the first time Josephine was finding and returning lost monies to the security post at the airport, much to the consternation of some Nigerians, who would have simply thanked ‘providence’ and kept back the windfall. For demonstrating the change we need as individuals, Josephine got no kobo for her exemplary conduct, received no national award and, presumably, is still working her shifts as a cleaner at the airport. But may the tribe of such Josephines increase. ––Onyezili, a retired professor of Biochemistry, wrote from Makurdi.
Now That The Ember Months Are Here Tayo Ogunbiyi argues the need for people to be cautious
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n our clime, a myth has for long been woven around the so called ‘ember’ months, which refers to the last four months of the year, September to December, as naturally tragic periods. This belief has become so entrenched in the consciousness of the people that various religious groups and other institutions regularly organise special prayer sessions with a view to warding-off perceived ‘dangers’ associated with the months. So, it not unusual to see faithful of the various religions engage in fervent spiritual warfare in a bid to dislodge blood sucking devils that are allegedly on the prowl during these months. The reality, however, is that the so-called ‘embers’ months are not really spiritually jinxed as many might want to swear they are. Tragedy occurs in ‘ember’ months just as it does in every other month of the year. Ascribing needless spiritual and mythical undertones to tragic happenings during the ‘ember’ months could just be the usual Nigerian way of trivialising issues. Rather than clothing the ‘ember’ months in a garb of gratuitous mystery, the pragmatic way of explaining dreadful events during these months is more human than mythological. The truth is that there is usually an increase in the tempo of public, private and corporate activities during this period. Religious bodies are equally not left out of the frenzy of the season as they organise various events during the period. The ‘ember’ months are always the busiest on our roads for obvious reasons and the tumultuous air of festivity do not really help matter. It is a period when people are in so much haste to make all the money they have not made since the beginning of the year. Hence, commercial drivers, who usually embark on five trips per day, capitalise on the aura of festivity to do 10 trips. This, naturally, comes with its fatal consequences. It is only logical that when there is a mass exodus of people from one place to
the other, there is bound to be a measure of uncertainty and disorder. The bottom line, therefore, is that tragic occurrences are bound to happen during the ‘ember’ season because of the intensity of human activities. In a bid to be part of the various end-of-year activities slated for the period, a lot of people throw caution into the wind by disregarding critical safety issues. Vehicles are driven irresponsibly. Alcoholic drinks are consumed with reckless abandon while social outings are organised as if tomorrow will not come. The atmosphere, during the season, is often filled with unusual allure and jollity. It is in the midst of this hilarity that avoidable human blunders that result into diverse kinds of misfortunes usually occur. Hence, it is imperative for everyone to, first and foremost, have a changed perception of the ‘ember’ months. Hence, conscious efforts must be made to disrobe the months of every garb of unfounded mysticism. It is only when we are convinced that the dangers associated with the months are human rather than mythical that we could really make considerable progress in averting disasters during the months. Therefore, enforcement of existing laws and attitudinal change is central to making any progress. Sadly, law enforcement agents are also involved in the mad ‘ember’ months’ rat- race. In a bid to make some ‘extra’ buck to furnish special festive ‘necessities’ , they usually engage in treacherous compromise that encourages law breakers to go un-punished. The result, of course, is the continuation of avoidable circle of pandemonium and sorrow. Consequently, as we march towards the end of the year, we must modify our views on the ‘ember’ months. We must not get involved in any pointless extra-ordinary end of
the year ‘rush’ that could endanger our lives and, indeed, those of others. Those who have to organise social events to correspond with this period should do so bearing all safety precautions in mind. Commercial drivers and other road users must respect the sanctity of the human life by observing required road safety measures. Perhaps, more importantly, relevant government agencies must step up enlightenment campaigns as well as enforcement strategies to guarantee that ‘ember’ months’ crashes and other related tragedies are reduced to the barest minimum. In this respect, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) should be commended for their various ‘ember’ months’ safety strategies, in Lagos and adjoining states. However, there is a need for them to intensify efforts in this direction while more appropriate government agencies should also come on board the ‘ember’ months’ re-orientation and re-awareness project. Presently, the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy is embarking on an ‘ember’ months’ responsiveness campaign across the state. The objective is to change the attitude of the people towards these months and offer key safety tips. As it has been previously affirmed, it is critical to re- affirm that tragic happenings during ‘ember’ months are promoted by reckless human actions. It is only in living modestly and responsibly that we could avoid the dangers and hiccups that are generally associated with ember months. If only we could rid ourselves of our usual ‘ember months’ excesses, we would discover that nothing is actually wrong with the months. ––Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
LETTERS KATSINA BYE- ELECTION: FACTS BEHIND THE FIGURES
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he recent statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that the results of the bye elections in Katsina, Bauchi and Kogi States where the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial and House of Representatives candidates won were indications that the party would be victorious in the 2019 general elections was reassuring for some of us who are supporters of the party and its indisputable presidential standard bearer. That statement to some of us who are Buhari’s supporters is an elixir that will ginger us up and make us look at the positive sides to the coming elections in the face of the mounting opposition from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which seems to have really reorganised to give the APC a run for its money. Having stated the positive interpretations to our victory in those byeelections, I owe it a duty to the president to let him know the real and naked truth. President Buhari was not in the country when the August 11 bye-election took place and did not even vote. He was not around
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INEC Chairman, Yakubu
to see how the voting went on in his Senatorial district and to properly evaluate whether the result is one that he can celebrate or rejoice over. First, let us look at the figures before interrogating the facts behind them. In that election held in 1,825 polling stations of the 128 wards spread across 12 local government
areas constituting Katsina North Senatorial District, otherwise called Daura Zone of the state, the APC candidate, Ahmed Baba Kaita secured about 224,000 votes to defeat his brother, Kabir Baba Kaita of the PDP who got about 59,000 votes. This means that the APC got three out of every four votes cast in the election while the PDP candidate
got one. Second, these figures show that only about 290,000 voters came out to cast their ballot. This is less than 33 per cent of the about 900,000 votes secured by the late Senator Bukar Mustapha who was elected in 2015 from the same district. This means that about 70 per cent of the voters have either disappeared or did not show any interest in the election. Or is that these were voters who never existed in the first place? Third, the implication is that if the above points are extrapolated further, the figures show that in the 2019 elections, President Buhari will not score the jumbo votes as he did in 2015, in his senatorial district, the place that he often calls his "constituency". What this also means is that a key, safe ground is under serious threat. More importantly, the president should note that the APC victory in the bye-election was recorded under a pale of massive vote-buying in that election. There were videos showing active participation of electoral officials and leaders of the APC in
Okorocha, APC And The South East
irst, let us start by where Rochas Okorocha began: He came into Douglas House, Owerri on the wings of the APGA, following a populist revolt at the polls in Imo state that threw out the PDP government of Mr. Ikedi Ohakim in 2011. Ohakim was perceived as brash and alienated in the views of most people, and could not connect with the electorate at the very popular level and so they rebelled at the poll. The upsurge of the faith the Igbo always had in Emeka Ojukwu, propelled Rochas Okorocha to the Government House. On the strength of a party supposedly backed by Ojukwu, on one hand, and on a capacity for populist demagoguery on the other, Rochas Okorocha was swept into office as Governor of Imo State. Perhaps, it is one of the greatest mistakes the APGA as a party made in 2011. So, in a terrible misjudgment, APGA handed Rochas Okorocha, a bird of flight in that party, the slot for governor. Aside from his personal capacity for street drama, Okorocha’s politics of course derives not from solid or fundamental ideas, but on simple notions of power and the drama on which power is sometimes staged. And so, he presented an alternative face to the Imo people, and for a very brief moment, the Imo electorate, normally informed and discerning, bought into his melodrama. He even put up a great show at the debate organised that year by the Catholic Church
for gubernatorial candidates in Imo State. Some who knew a little about Rochas’ background cried out against a great mistake that was about to be made in electing Okorocha. He had promised a great load of bullshit. Among these, “free education” for Imo children up to the tertiary level. Imo does not need “free education;” what Ndi Imo needs is “quality education” which prepares people with new sets of skills, expands their horizons, and updates their learning environments in ways that would make them compete with their peers all over the world. Throughout his reign, the governor has achieved one thing that has eluded every of his predecessors - his government has finally brought a resilient state like Imo to her knees. He has destroyed the school system, and the system of public service on which Imo had established a long tradition. Teachers are not paid. Civil servants are not paid. Retirees are not paid, and yet, no one knows exactly what Imo State’s revenue is used for. Okorocha’s tenure has not registered a single investment in any industry. He has built third-rate roads and enriched his family dynasty! Over and over again, Rochas Okorocha has demonstrated that he has no respect for Imo people, he has no regard for the highest public interest, and he has no interest in public opinion. He is playing an endgame with Imo and has committed
all kinds of impeachable offences against Imo State, yet the Imo Assembly remains on perpetual vacation. Not done with the damage wrecked on Imo State and its people, the governor has now turned over to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where he wants to destroy the party especially in the South-East. Thus, the strategy by the APC to make serious inroad to the South-east is now threatened as Okorocha has personalised and appropriated the party to the detriment of other relevant stakeholders in the zone which if not checked would spell doom for the APC in the 2019 elections. Genuine efforts by other stakeholders like Senator Hope Uzodimma who have been toying day and night to sell the party and the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2019 election are being frustrated by the governor who has assumed the role of an ‘Emperor’ in the party in the zone. Other party stalwarts like Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and Senator Osita Izuanso, the erstwhile National Organising Secretary of the APC have because of the overbearing attitude of the Imo Governor, defected from the APC and are seeking refuge in either the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Many more are threatening to leave if the excesses of the governor are not curtailed. The damage he has caused to the party is very obvious and can be seen by even the
blind. People cannot pretend, even at the presidency that they don’t know what’s happening. The president is privileged to have security reports from the different security agencies and if he is not being fed with the right reports on the happenings in Imo State and the entire South east, then there is the need for a review of the national security architecture. The major stakeholders of the party in the state and indeed, the South-east zone are in total disagreement with Rochas on the management of his government and his decision to impose candidates on the party and in the forthcoming elections. As it is today, he has a list of candidates for all the 42 positions in Imo State, mainly the 27 house of assembly members, three senators, 10 federal House of Representatives, the governor and deputy which he has reserved for his son-in-law and other persons. Little wonder that the 2011 governorship candidate of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and old Buhari follower, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, lamented that Okorocha has become an emperor after winning a second term. According to him, the core objective of any politician is to access power. However, the only difference in the Southeast is that “our hitherto leader, Okorocha, personalised power, played God, alienated party members and even cronies, except his blood relations.” ––Nnnocherem Agwu, Owerri.
this illegal activity. And the president should know that this is not an empty claim or false information. The Daily Trust, a credible medium to some of us here in the north, and I believe, across the country, wrote as follows in its editorial on the election: "Even in Katsina State, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, vote-buying defaced APC's victory in the August 11 bye-election into Katsina North Senatorial District seat in the National Assembly. It was alleged that the APC distributed N200,000 to voters in each of the 1,825 polling units". This actually is the fact behind the figures. Nobody can contemplate that the APC, the party to which President Buhari belongs will have to resort to votebuying before it can win a senatorial seat. There are suggestions that as much as N5,000 was paid per vote by our party leaders. What it means is that the loyalty, devotion and dedicated support which have always been the strength of the APC are no longer there, or if they are there, they are no longer very potent and have lost their electoral value. These developments are worrisome but they are so hidden that the declaration of Baba Kaita as winner of that Senatorial bye-election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will not make them visible. They are the facts behind the figures. The strategists of President Buhari need to look beyond the figures and make a thorough analysis of the situation and have a broad understanding of what may await the president in his re-election bid. There is a danger in a situation where the
votes are thinning out or gradually reducing, in key strongholds of the president. Also, the strong showing of the opposition PDP and other smaller parties which may team up to face APC in 2019 have two implications. It may embolden the opposition and encourage them to see the APC as beatable and a spent force which has lost its pre-2015 invincibility. It may also dampen the morale of the APC supporters. Now, instead of the confidence they exude in these strong areas, our party's supporters may resort to pressing the panic mode. This may lead to the kind of desperation that will now make the supporters to adopt the do-or-die attitude. And this will make the election become violent. Also, the legitimacy of the mandate that may result from an election in which the outcome is based on fraudulent purchase of votes and upscale occurrence of violence may be called into question. Already, the opposition which has been raising the accusation of vote buying will seek to beat the APC in their game and we may end up having a free-forall, vote-buying spree in the 2019 election. That is why I believe the president should know the true situation of things, beyond the election result figures and the INEC declaration of a winner. Beyond what the party chieftains tell the president, he should try to get information from independent sources. Similarly, a more objective, scientific and critical analysis of all the election results should be done to give broader meaning to them. ––Abdullahi Dass , Bauchi.
APC, State Police And Cattle Ranches
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or us in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria, the twin issue of state police and cattle ranches, whereby states are empowered by constitution to inaugurate their own police forces and cattle ranches are duly established where they truly ought to be, is at the forefront of political discussions everywhere in this region. Actually, it does not make sense to propose establishing a petroleum refining plant at Daura in Katsina State and also propose to establish a federally-funded cattle ranch somewhere in Edo State because this sort of priority disorientation is the hallmark of a dysfunctional government. Industries should be situated where there are capacities for smooth-flow operations with special
consideration for cultural sensibilities as in the case for cattle ranches. Basically, do not transplant a Fulani family from Katsina to Edo State. The present All Progressives Congress government of Muhammadu Buhari is playing smart with the aspirations of the people of the Middle Belt and other likeminded regions which desire so much to have working institutions in place to reduce the overall crime profile and ensure comprehensive peace. In truth, the APC does not support the inauguration of state policing systems and the establishment of cattle ranches in the far northern reaches of Nigeria. –Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State
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ÍˇËœ Í°ÍŽÍŻÍś Ëž THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
INTERNATIONAL Ike Nwachukwu’s Quest ‘For a Better Nigeria’ and the Challenge of Elite Dishonesty: Quo Vadis?
“F
or a Better Nigeria� was the title of an interesting article authored by Major General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, a two-time former Minister of External Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and published in the Vanguard of Monday, 3rd September, 2018, p.37. The article is interesting from many perspectives. First, it is an advocacy, seeking ‘a better Nigeria.’ This objective means that the situation is already good, and therefore, there is the need to improve on the extent of the existing goodness. The objective can also imply that the situational reality on the ground is not good, and there is the need to make it good, in which case, a movement from a worst to a worse situation still implies an improvement, and hence, the worse scenario can still be considered as better. Secondly, it is interesting because it was published under the newspaper’s ‘Discourse Column,’ meaning that the topic is presented to the general public for further debate. It is written to share ideas with other citizens of Nigeria. Thirdly, and more importantly, it is written to coincide with General Nwachukwu’s 80th Birthday Anniversary. Besides, the article is a primary source of information for scientific research, given the pedigree of the author. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the thrust of the article is that ‘the present structure of Nigeria inhibits the development of the country.’ Consequently, ‘it is imperative that we restructure to what it was before the 1966 military coup.’ Put differently, General Ike Nwachukwu surely belongs to the restructuring school of thought to which very serious-minded senior citizens of Nigeria belong. In this school are Professor Ben Nwabueze, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, etc. Without scintilla of doubt, General Nwachukwu, also former Minister of Labour and Productivity and former Military Governor of the Old Imo State, had reasons to justify the call for restructuring. In the past almost one year, he has been speaking on the need for restructuring in Nigeria. For instance, in 2017, he told Nigerians at the retreat of the Southern Senators Forum in Calabar that it would be unjust not to have the recommendations of the report of the 2014 National Conference implemented, because most of the agitations by Nigerians have been covered. As he put it then, he ‘had the privilege in 2005 of serving as a member of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s political reform conference and it rolled into 2014 National Conference... [T] he mount of work put into the 2014 conference, of course, building on the outcome of the 2005 conference, produced fantastic report. It will be total injustice to Nigeria if the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference are jettisoned. Most of what we are talking about today were raised there, and after several weeks of grinding discussions, the report was drafted.’ What should be noted at this juncture is the question raised by General Nwachukwu himself: what would he say he had bequeathed to Nigeria if he gets called by God? This is an important question because of the fear of God intrinsic in it. But what really is the fear of God in political governance? It is probably in an attempt to answer this question that he advised his ‘Senior Colleague, President Muhammadu Buhari,’ to take advantage of the opportunity ‘to bequeath to the generation coming after us a country on the path of unity, better understanding and love for one another.’ Again, what are the dynamics of love for one another? Christian and Muslim leaders always preach the need for love for one another, and yet, the more they preach for love, the more the existence of animosity for one another in Nigeria. How do we explain this situation? General Nwachukwu also attended the summit on restructuring, with the theme, ‘Yoruba Stand Point,’ held on Thursday 7th September, 2017 at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan . In the same vein, on Saturday, April 16, 2018, General Nwachukwu presided over the Vanguard Newspapers Award Night. At the event, he made ‘the call for the restructuring of our country, to remain united as a nation under God. We need to devolve the over-concentration of powers at the centre, whilst allowing the federating units more autonomy. And just as we are seeking devolution of powers to the state governments, as federating units, from the centre, so should the state governments guarantee the autonomy of the Local Governments under them.’
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the trust deficit among our people.’ The main challenge of General Nwachukwu’s ideological standpoint is how to make Nigeria a better country. His solution is political restructuring. It is restructuring that can unite Nigeria and this can only be attained if the trust deficit among Nigerians is removed, if attitudinal tolerance is developed, if there is better understanding of one another, and if there is love for one another. But true, there can never be better understanding in the absence of love for one another. But how can love be generated for one another in the face of reckless elite dishonesty and political chicanery that is generally acquiesced to by the people? Since General Nwachukwu’s article is written for the purposes of public discourse, we contend here that it is not possible to make Nigeria better through restructuring unless those seeking restructuring are first restructured. The example of the supervision of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs not only serves as a reference point but clearly shows the contradiction in preaching goodness but doing the contrary at the same time. It was Sir Victor Uwaifor who said in one of his songs that ‘do what I say but not what I do.’ But why do you command others to do what is said when the person saying it does not even believe in it? This is the juncture where acts of serious misconduct and Nigeria’s main problem are located.
Protection of Serious Misconduct
Nwachukwu
From the foregoing, there is no disputing Ike Nwachukwu’s sagacious undertones of the various calls for restructuring for the purposes of a better Nigeria. But can mere declaratory calls for a better Nigeria be sufficient as a solution? How does the political elite behave? What really is Nigeria’s main problem? General Nwachukwu believes that there is the need for a true federal system in which no one is oppressed. In other words, it can be deductively argued that he detests the oppression of any Nigerian. In his own words, ‘it behoves on Nigerians and our politicians to deliver on the restructuring of this country in order to have a true federation, in which no one is oppressed... It is only when we achieve this that our country will be stable, its security guaranteed and its economy thriving for the betterment of all.’ Can a true federation be ensured without true Nigerians? Who are Nigerians and who are true Nigerians? On May 4, 2017, in his interview with journalists at the meeting between the Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communication) and other prominent Anglicans in Abuja, General Nwachukwu said whoever does not want the implementation of the 2014 National Conference report cannot but be requesting Nigerians ‘to vent out their feelings’ in an unfair manner. Also strongly believing in the demilitarisation of the polity, General Nwachukwu noted in an address entitled ‘Safeguarding Nigeria’s Unity and Sovereignty: APatriotic and Constitutional Imperative for the Nigerian Army,’ that Nigeria has faced several challenges threatening her unity since 1960. As further explained by the General, ‘the military did certain things that can be adjudged just as good. Some of these are the militarisation of our society and, to a large extent, our democracy. It will not be untrue that, the military experiment at nation building has not worked for the better in Nigeria... To achieve the spirit of oneness, we need a mind-set which allows for tolerance and better understanding which will remove, in large measure,
What really are we trying to suggest with the case of the NIIA in the context of General Ike Nwachukwu’s quest for restructuring?The suggestion is that if General Ike Nwachukwu could aid and abet serious misconduct, if he could condone and promote corruption at the NIIA,if the various government agencies which reportedly had not investigated my complaints to the Council or complaints against me but took decisions on the basis of a one-sided investigation, and if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President himself can afford the luxury of keeping silent over cases of injustice and unfairness referred to them, General Ike Nwachukwu cannot be qualiďŹ ed to be preaching any sermon on restructuring.To do so cannot but be an engagement in double speak and this cannot be a good way forward. As such, what then is the quo vadis?
Speaking grosso modo first, Nigeria is a special terra cognita for official and officious protection of acts of serious misconduct, and yet its people will be asking for divine blessings. Government officials always tell the people of Nigeria that corruption is the main problem militating against the development of the country. However, they are not able to address the root cause of the problem. What they succeed in always doing well is to arrest Nigerians suspected to have engaged in corruption and prosecuting them. That, in itself, is good but it does not address the root cause, the institutional agent of corruption which is the Federal Government and State Government, as well as its agencies at the official level, and the financial and socio-educational institutions at the officious level. The people of Nigeria who acquiesce to various societal ills are all agents of corruption at the private sector level. How is the Federal Government an agent of serious misconduct? In April 1994, that is, more than 24 years ago, the Minister of Works and Housing, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, placed a public advert inviting interested Nigerians to apply for houses to be built and allocated by end of December 1994. I was one of the tens of thousands Nigerians who applied in Lagos. I made payment for the required choice of house I wanted. More than 24 years now, the Federal Government has not allocated any house. It has not issued any letter of allocation. It is not even talking about it. Yet, it is fighting corruption, the genesis of which the Professor J.S. Cookey-led Political Bureau traced back to 1967. In other words, corruption as the bane of the Nigerian society has remained a critical issue for almost fifty years without any solution in sight. Government is seeking solution at the level of the people while it is covering up the atrocities at the level of the Governmental agencies. In other words, at the level of the State Government and the Federal Capital Territory, the situation is not different. At the level of the Lagos State Government, for instance, l was allocated land under the Isheri North Housing Project when Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, then military governor of Lagos State then. For alleged reasons of force majeure, especially flood, no allocation letter has been made meaningful. Again, no one in the government is talking about it. The FCT dimension is, perhaps, more disturbing. It is not about allocating land. It is more about houses already built and sold to public servants and incumbent occupants of the houses and flats. It is about blocks of flats, official houses sold under the monetisation programme under President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR. I had the opportunity of buying a flat, fully paid for, and yet, the FCT authority has not been able to issue the relevant Certificate of Occupation after more than a decade. The important point here is that inefficiency is a major catalytic dynamic of corruption in Nigeria. In the face of inefficiency, and wrong belief of the people that if you want your Certificate of Occupation urgently, or your letter of allocation from government, you will need to go and settle the officials in the Nigerian fashion. This is consistent with the people’s saying that ‘if you cannot beat them, join them.’ Under normal circumstance, a reasonable and patriotic person should not join any bandwagon. As majority of Nigerians are reasonable, they simply keep quiet and prefer to be on-lookers, a situation that is also most unfortunate. Most unfortunate, because, institutional corruption is very critical in Nigeria. Banks cautiously defraud the Government of its entitlements. Electricity generating and distributing companies defraud their clients through estimated bills and Government remains a silent observer. Telecommunications service providers defraud their customers with impunity. In Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, traffic indiscipline is at its crescendo: motorcyclists, Keke Marwa, etc, not only drive against traffic but are also claiming priority of passage, even with the assistance of the traffic wardens. The problem is first with the people of Nigeria. The problem is the attitudinal outlook of the Nigerian placed in a position of trust. (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
BUSINESS
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ÎÓÞÙÜ˝ Kunle Aderinokun ×ËÓÖ˝ kunle.aderinokun@thisdaylive.com
A view of Marina, Lagos
FMDQ: Investors Splash N99.5tn on Short-term Instruments Bamidele Famoofo
Investors desirous of quick gains from their investments have invested about N99.50trillion in short-term money market instruments in seven months on the platform of the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange market. According to figures provided by the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange in August, total turnover for the January to July 2018 period amounted to N99.49 trillion. As usual, trading activities in treasury bills contributed the largest to overall turnover, accounting for 40.4 percent of the market. The foreign exchange market transactions (Spot FX and FX Derivatives) accounted for 37.0 per cent whilst the Repos/Buy-Backs product category accounted for 15.39 percent of overall market turnover. Bonds and Unsecured Placements & Takings, which contributed the least to overall market turnover, accounted for 6.65 per cent and 0.54 per cent respectively. Further breakdown of trading activities in the market in the review period showed that investors splashed about N40.19trillion ($111.41billion) on treasury bills while FX attracted about N23.77trillion or $65.88billion. Repurchase Agreement/BuyBacks got N15.31trillion ($42.44billion). Foreign exchange derivatives attracted N13.04trillion or $36.15billion from investors. Investment in the federal government bond stood at N6.49trillion or $17.98billion in seven months. Average daily turnover in the market in the review period was N681.47billion or $1.89billion. Top 10 banks, which include Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, United Bank for
Africa Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, accounted for 76.23 percent (N75.85 trillion) of the overall turnover in the market. Other dealing banks in the top 10 category include Citibank Nigeria limited, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Limited. Meanwhile, the top three dealing banks accounted for 58.13 per cent (N44.90 trillion) of this sub-section of the market. Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc were the leaders in the value traded for the overall over-the-counter (OTC) market, ranking first, second and third respectively. Managing Director/CEO of FMDQ, Mr. Bola Onadele.Koko, disclosed that FMDQ had accomplished a full and clear revival of the Commercial Paper (CP) market with registered CP Programmes on the FMDQ Platform now well above N1.0 trillion. “The month of August saw key activities in the CP quotations space on the OTC Exchange, wherein the N100.0 billion CP Programmes of Union Bank of Nigeria PLC and Flour Mills of Nigeria of PLC respectively, were registered on the OTC Exchange’s platform,” he added. Onadele.Koko noted that as these institutions and a host of others continued to effectively and sustainably meet their funding needs, as well as contribute to the development of the nation’s debt markets, FMDQ continued to take crucial steps, in collaboration with market stakeholders, towards promoting transparency, governance, integrity and efficiency in the Nigerian CP market.
Also in August, the Board Listings, Markets and Technology Committee of FMDQ granted the approval of the C & I Leasing Plc N7.00 billion 5-Year 16.54 percent Series 1 Fixed Rate Senior Secured Bond (the “C & I Leasing Bond”) under a N20.0 billion Debt Issuance Programme on its platform. “In streamlining the efficiency of its processes and delivering value to both corporate and commercial businesses desirous of accessing the debt capital markets (DCM), FMDQ has continued to avail its credible platform as well as tailor its Listings, Quotations and Notings services to suit the needs of issuers. The proceeds from the C & I Leasing Bond will largely be used to boost C & I Leasing PLC’s business expansion exercise and to restructure the company’s debts over a period of five (5) years”, the report disclosed. Onadele-Koko disclosed that by listing its bond on FMDQ, C & I Leasing Plc enjoyed exceptional benefits, which included, but were not limited to, enhanced investor confidence in the issuer, transparent/relevant information disclosure on the issue, effective price formation and global visibility. Beyond the activities of investors in the market in the review month, the visit of British Prime Minister, Ms. Theresa May, to the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange in August marked a high point of events since the creation of the market. May visited Nigeria as part of her Africa tour to improve trade and investment relations between the United Kingdom and Africa. The British Prime Minister, on her first official visit to Lagos State, was welcomed by the FMDQ Board Chairman, Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnanna, ably represented by the
Vice Chairman of the Board, Mr. Jibril Aku, and the Managing Director/CEO of FMDQ, Mr. Bola Onadele. Koko to Exchange Place. This deliberate effort to strengthen bilateral relations between Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, with the UK is indeed commendable and most welcome. “The Nigerian financial markets play a crucial role in promoting and supporting sustainable economic development over time, therefore, the choice of FMDQ for the hosting and reception of the British Prime Minister, UK and Nigeria business sector leaders and other executives from the British High and Deputy High Commissions in Nigeria, among others, was in no way far-fetched”, the FMDQ CEO disclosed. He disclosed that chief amongst the attractions for the British PM at FMDQ’s offices, Exchange Place, was the FMDQ Next Generation Empowerment Programme (FMDQ-Next) - a learning and development initiative which promotes financial market education among students across all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary), as well as fresh graduates, within the country. “The British PM met with the FMDQ-Next 2018 Summer Camp participants who were being taught principles of financial markets and how to trade various financial markets securities in a simulated trading environment - the FMDQ Q-Hub”, he added. Also, of interest to May and the UK delegation was the depiction of the evolution of FMDQ from its launch onto the Nigerian financial markets landscape up until date vis-à-vis the achievements made by the OTC Exchange so far in its quest to transform the Nigerian financial markets to be globally competitive.
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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A Look at World Bank’s Verdict on Nigeria Customs Service The World Bank ranking of Nigeria among the 15 lowest-performing countries in the world, as regards the efficiency of its customs service and border management processes, shows that the leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service may have abandoned its duty for politics, writes Eromosele Abiodun “Customs’ job is about procedure and there are many procedures that are not complied with in terms of convention and agreement. For instance in Ghana, they have the satellite tracking system and they are also meeting up the challenges of the single window. But what do we have here in Nigeria? “The CG is a stranger as far as customs is concerned. He cannot reform customs because most of the tools are not there and the procedures he does not know. He is not a seasoned officer. In terms of revenue, are we really having the cargo coming in? What customs is doing is imposing value and killing the industry because most of the cargoes are leaving the country.”
Lagos port
O
n the 27th of August 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of Col. Hameed IbrahimAli (rtd) as the new comptrollergeneral of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). He replaced Dikko Inde Abdullahi, who retired from the NCS on August 18. Ali was appointed to transform the NCS, eliminate corruption and ensure transparency and efficiency. Rather than focus on processes that will engender efficiency, the leadership of the NCS embarked on a war of attrition with stakeholders in the name of meeting revenue target. In a bid to meet such targets, analysts believe, forced the NCS leadership to employ measures it thought would help it achieve success. Apart from its fight with the National Association of Auctioneers (NAA), the NCS has also clashed with the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), with both bodies threatening to shut down the ports over unfriendly policies by the NCS. That is not all; since he assumed office as the customs boss, Ali has consistently promised to acquire scanners to ease clearance of cargo and enhance trade facilitation. That has not happened. The customs still do physical examination, a procedure that delays cargo clearance and aid corruption. Bureaucracy and corruption in customs clearance processes have long posed significant challenges to the trading community in Nigeria. Operationally, clearing agents are facing a lot of hiccups. Also, the level of compliance on customs-related matter is quite low; that is why customs don’t facilitate trade.
For the West African subregion, Cote d’Ivoire clinched the top position as the best-performing country in trade logistics with a global ranking of 50. Benin Republic was next at 76th position; Ghana, 106th; Nigeria, 110th; Togo, 118th; Gambia, 127th; Liberia, 143; and Sierra Leone, 156th. The report said, “The six LPI indicators are divided into two main categories: areas for policy regulation which indicates main inputs to the supply chain, which includes customs, infrastructure, and services; as well as supply chain performance outcomes, which corresponds to LPI indicators of time, cost, and reliability — timeliness, international shipments, and tracking and tracing. “Because operators on the ground can best assess the vital aspects of logistics performance, the LPI relies on an online survey of logistics professionals from the companies responsible for moving goods around the world: multinational freight forwarders and the main express carriers. “Freight forwarders and express carriers are best positioned to assess how countries perform. Their views matter because they directly affect the choice of shipping routes and gateways, thereby influencing the decisions of firms to locate production, chooses suppliers, and select target markets.” The report listed the bottom 10 countries in the world to include Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Libya, Haiti, Zimbabwe and Central African Republic. “These are either fragile economies affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, and political unrest or landlocked countries naturally challenged by geography or economies of scale in connecting to global supply chains,” it said.
Ranking It was therefore not a surprise when the World Bank in its report described the NCS as inefficient. The World Bank in its report ranked Nigeria among the 15 lowest-performing countries in the world as regards the efficiency of its customs service and border management processes. The ranking is contained in a World Bank Connecting to Compete Report 2018 on trade logistics in the global economy, which evaluated the logistic performance of 160 countries, using data gathered through a worldwide survey of logistics professionals on how easy or difficult they experienced trade logistics along six generic dimensions. The dimensions were customs efficiency and border management clearance, quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure; ease of arranging competitively priced international shipments; competence and quality of logistics services; ability to track and trace consignments; and the frequency with which shipments reach consignees within the scheduled time. Across all the indicators, Nigeria took the 110th place out of the 160 countries, one of the bottom 50 performers in the world. The report stated that Nigeria has a level of logistics constraints typical of low- and middle-income countries. In terms of customs efficiency, Nigeria emerged 147th, logistics infrastructure, 78th; international shipments, 110th; logistics competence, 112th; tracking and tracing, 92nd; and timeliness, 92nd position.
Blame It is not just the World Bank that is not happy with the NCS. Last week, customs agents in the country accused Hameed Ali of favouring officers of northern origin in postings to head most of the customs commands across the country. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licenced Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, accused the customs boss of lopsidedness in the promotion of officers. On Ali’s three years in office, he said, “Although there have been some improvement in terms of promotion but it is as if the (Nigeria) Customs Service is just for the northerners. Almost all the area commands you go, you see northern officers. This is not too good for a government agency. There is need to redesign the (Nigeria Customs) Service such that it will not be a northern service whereby northerners are placed in certain positions. Promotion has to be redistributed to comply with the procedure. What is happening in customs should be redirected so that people can be placed properly.” Amiwero also scored Ali low on performance after three years, saying that the ex-military officer has failed to carry out much-needed reforms in the NCS. He said, “Reforming customs is not just posting people from one place to the other. I don’t think customs has been reformed because the tools for reformation are not there; no scanners at the ports, procedures are still archaic, and containers spend more time at the port because of complex alert.
Ease of Doing Business On his part, Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, scored the customs boss low on the Ease of Doing Business and facilitation of trade. According to him, “On the business climate perspective, things have not been easy for us at all because the focus of customs is too much on revenue. They are too relegated in the Ease of Doing Business to the background. Particularly on the issue of arbitrary valuation, issues of classification and the problem of Customs operatives intercepting containers on the road. All these make things very difficult for business people. “Trade facilitation is almost not on the agenda of customs. Main agenda and the key performance indicator for Customs have always been revenue generation which is why not more attention is being given to Ease of Doing Business and trade facilitation. There is too much focus on revenue generation and it is coming at a great cost to businesses,” he said. The LCCI boss is also of the opinion that reformation of the service under Ali has not recorded any remarkable progress as envisaged, noting that it will be easier for an insider who has knowledge of customs operations to reform it than “an outsider” like Ali. A retired customs officer, who pleaded anonymity said Ali had not achieved much in terms of discipline within the rank and file while corruption in the service has risen to a larger scale. “Discipline has been shored up, but it is not yet uhuru when we talk about discipline in the service. Corruption is still what it is, even at a larger scale. The fight against corruption in the service shares the same fence with the fight against corruption in Nigeria and impunity is still the order of the day in the service. “In terms of restructuring, the CG has tried to align the service with military structure by the establishment of the Customs police. The intelligence unit has also been given a more professional touch. In terms of revenue generation, we saw a remarkable increase, but the argument was that what was the difference in exchange rate during the former CG’s tenure and the present administration? The CG may have tried in some aspects within available resources, but he has to put more effort in making government provide tools for the service. For example, none of the scanning machines we have at the port is functioning,” he said. The Founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Boniface Aniebonam, also said “high-level corruption” still existed in the service. He, however, argued that Ali had been doing his best within available resources to achieve the mandate handed to him by the President. “We all know he has good intentions in line with the mandate given to him by the President, but the port is extremely corrupt. But every stakeholder has a role to play for the NCS mandate to be achieved. He cannot succeed unless everybody joins hands with him. “For example, on matters of compliance to regulation, the level of compliance on customs-related matter is quite low and that is why customs don’t facilitate trade. So sometimes, when people bring up the issue of trade facilitation, I believe they are only misinterpreting it because customs cannot facilitate illegitimate trade or trade that is in breach of the law. In terms of promotion, a lot has happened and these are things that spur the willingness of an officer to do the job,” he said. Beginning Ali was appointed at a time the NCS’s reputation was marred by corrupt practices and allegations of fraud against its former management. Ali’s anti-corruption posture was reportedly one of the reasons Buhari considered him best fit for the customs top job. Considering his military background and being an outsider , Ali’s appointment was however criticised by stakeholders, including customs agents and legal practitioners, who unanimously voiced their opposition to the appointment, which they described as a retrogressive step; as they said Ali might not have what it takes to steer the NCS to modernisation. On September 10, 2015 when Ali assumed duty, he stated that his mission was to undertake reforms and restructuring that would strengthen the capacity of the NCS to generate more revenue for the nation. In his maiden meeting with the Customs management, Ali had stated the mandate given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari. He said, “The mandate he has given me are three basic things: Go to Customs, reform Customs, restructure Customs and increase the revenue generation, simple. I don’t think that is ambiguous, I don’t think that is cumbersome.”
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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
BUSINESS/MONEY
With Weak Appetite for Bonds, Foreign Investors Embrace Treasury Bills Nigeria’s investment climate recorded a mixed performance in the month of August in line with global trends. A review of the different segments of the markets where investors staked their funds showed that foreign investors have continued to dump the FGN Bond as a result of persisting risk-off sentiments across emerging markets. Nevertheless, the best investment option in August was treasury bills where a reasonable gain was made by investors while outright losses were recorded in the equities market. Bamidele Famoofo reports Global
R
eturns across global markets in the eighth month were mixed with the US market posting solid gains. Investors in the Euro area recorded losses, and mixed returns emanated from Asia. Cordros Research review of the month indicated that US benchmark indices – DJIA (+2.16 per cent) and S&P 500 (+3.03 per cent) – closed the month positive, as investor sentiment was broadly positive during the period. Positive economic data, such as the revised estimates of US GDP – which showed that a higher than expected annual growth of 4.2 per cent was recorded in Q2-18, vs. 4.1 per cent previously estimated -- contributed positively to market sentiment. Also, earlier optimism on the resolution of the US-China trade rifts earlier in the month, although short-lived, contributed to positive sentiments. Furthermore, on trade, progress was made by the Trump administration on its intention to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, following talks with Mexico and optimism surrounding Canada. These offset the impact of selloffs which ensued, following commentary by Fed’s Powell on coming rate hikes. While investments in the US were upbeat, proceedings turned negative in the Euro area, with the FTSE 100 and the Euro Stoxx 50 indices dropping by 4.08 per cent and 3.76 per cent, respectively. The FTSE 100 closed the two halves of the month negative (H1: -2.45 per cent; H2: -0.85 per cent) while the Euro Stoxx 50 closed negative in the first half (-4.33 per cent) and was up marginally in the second by 0.48 per cent. Jitters surrounding trade talks, worries over the likely contagion effect of Turkey’s currency (lira) meltdown, as well as the hike in interest rates by the Bank of England, weighed on investor sentiment and outweighed the impact of positive economic data, as well as optimism of around positive outcome of Brexit talks. Losses resurfaced in the emerging market, as China, Brazil, Nigeria, Morocco had their share of the pains. India and Kenya however registered gains at 2.76 per cent and 1.07 percent respectively.
Equities Market Investors in the equities market recorded losses in August, as the benchmark index dropped 5.86 per cent to 34,848.45 points, resulting in a year-to-date loss of 8.88 per cent. The ASI dropped below the 35,000- mark for the first time since September 2017, following significant sell-offs by foreign investors, absence of positive market triggers and disappointing economic data release (particularly in the GDP data, wherein a contraction in the oil sector led to slower pace of growth). Other factors identified by analysts that influenced performance of the economy in the review period include improved yields in fixed income market (which created a more attractive alternative investment for investors), and news of the apex bank’s fine on four banks for “illegally” repatriating funds on behalf of telecommunications company MTN Nigeria, which led to sell pressure in the listed banks. Similar to the previous month, all sectors indices closed in the red, with the Banking
Nigerian Stock Exchange Building
(-8.64 per cent) index posting the largest loss, followed by the Consumer Goods (-6.84per cent), Industrial Goods (-6.35per cent), Insurance (-5.99per cent), and Oil Gas (-5.69per cent) indices. Further on the negatives, total volume and value of trades in the month was 19.16per cent and 8.35per cent lower than the previous month, at 5.40 billion units and N66.92 billion respectively. Also, market breadth was negative, by a wide margin, with 78 losers and 17 gainers, led by NSLTECH (-50.00per cent) and NIGERINS (+69.23per cent) respectively. Foreign Portfolio The NSE’s recent foreign portfolio investor activity report for July showed that the total transactions done by foreign investors dropped by 64.68 percent to N36.17 billion as against N102.41 billion in the previous month. Also, foreign players’ proportion of total trades on the exchange dropped to 24.76 per cent, from 54.54 per cent in the previous month, which is also well-below the monthly average of 50.47 per cent (ex-August) recorded so far this year. However, it is worth stating that inflow of N19.83 billion was recorded during the review period, against N16.34 billion worth of outflows recorded in June. Analysts have attributed the declining performance of foreign players in the local market to the meltdown in emerging markets, global trade war concerns, and political risks surrounding the upcoming 2019 election in Nigeria. Money Market In line with experts’ expectation, the overnight lending rate in the money market fell by 275 basis points to close the month at 6.83 percent, as banking system liquidity remained buoyant (averaging N389.23 billion in August as against N267.63 billion in July) throughout the month. Inflows from matured OMO bills were valued at N2.02 trillion, while bond coupon payments, which stood at N62.15 billion
boosted liquidity in the period. Demand was generally weak at the CBN’s weekly OMO auctions, with the apex bank only selling a total of N991.46 billion compared to N1.40 trillion in July. Other outflows include FX sales worth USD1.49 billion. “We expect current buoyant liquidity to persist on the back of inflows from maturing OMO bills (N1.01 trillion), bond coupon payments (N146.83 billion), and the budgetary allocations (c. N326.06 billion) to state and local governments. In effect, a contraction in the overnight rate is likely”, Cordros Research said. Treasury Bills The eighth month of the year saw treasury bill yields expand by 39 basis points on average to 12.20 percent, as market players reacted to higher than expected primary auction stop rates. Buoyant liquidity drove demand for the major part of the month, however, a 158 bps increase in stop rates on average, at the final auction of the month, led to major selloffs across the market, paring earlier gains. Consequently, average yield expanded by 39 bps month on month to 12.20 per cent. Experts said the expectation of a healthy liquidity position in the coming month suggested likelihood of high demand in the NTB secondary market. Bond The bearish trend persisted in the FGN Bond market, with sustained sell-offs from foreign players due to heightened currency pressures in Argentina & Turkey, as well as increased political uncertainty in the domestic space, ahead of the 2019 general elections. In addition, higher primary market rates in both the bond and treasury bills secondary markets weighed on investor sentiments, driving yields at the mid and long ends of the curve past the 15 per cent mark for the first time since end-October 2017, despite
lower inflation rate (11.14per cent in July) and stronger oil prices. Foreign Exchange The foreign reserves recorded significant decline in August, decreasing by $1.28 billion to $45.84 billion. The decline is 1.92x more than the $668.83 million shortfall recorded in the previous month, and is despite the 3.11 percent decrease in the apex bank’s conventional intervention ($1.49 billion) into the FX market in the month. This contradicts expectations of reduced pressure on the reserves, following the Bilateral Currency Swap Agreement (BCWA) signed with the People’s Bank of China in April. On the BCWA, CNY132.92 million was sold to the FX market, as against USD69.86 million in the previous month. It is also worth stating that although the CBN’s inflow of FX into the I&E FX window in the month was a tad lower at $1.117 billion, compared to $1.83 billion in the previous month, the apex bank’s proportion of total inflows into the window increased to 48.52 per cent compared to 39.52 per cent in the previous month. Total inflows into the window dropped sharply by 47.73 per cent (the highest so far this month) to $2.41 billion, following 61.36 percent and 42.50 percent drop in international and local sources to $494.9 million and $1.92 billion respectively. However, the naira remained relatively stable during the month, as it weakened marginally against the dollar by 0.28 percent and 0.07 percent to N361 and N362.64 in the parallel market and I&E FX window, respectively. “Despite continued decline in the foreign reserves, our outlook for the FX market remains stable, as oil prices continue to rise and production remains fairly supportive, aiding inflow of oil revenues, which provide the apex bank sufficient legroom to sustain its interventions in the currency space”, Cordros Research posited.
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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R t SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
VIEWS FROM ABROAD/DAILY MAIL
How London’s Streets are Paved with Dirty Money... and this Anonymous Door on Harley Street is Home to 2,159 Shadowy Shell Companies t Shell companies help dirty money come out clean in London’s laundering racket By Oliver Bullough for The Daily Mail
L
ooking up on an autumn evening at the windows of Britain’s most expensive and desirable apartment block, One Hyde Park, it is hard not to notice an odd anomaly. Very few of the lights are burning. At the top of this modernist block, built as a joint venture between its developers, the Candy Brothers, and a firm belonging to Qatar’s former prime minister, is a penthouse. In 2010, it sold for £140 million — making it at the time the most expensive flat in the world. The development is owned offshore, beyond the reach of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or other British authorities, as are most of the flats within. It is hard to say exactly how much living here would cost or who the inhabitants are. But whoever lives at One Hyde Park, most of them don’t appear to spend much time at home. This is not unusual. With a group of friends, I help run trips called the London Kleptocracy Tours: we fill up a bus with 50 sightseers, rather as if we were taking them round Hollywood to see where Clark Gable used to live or Scarlett Johansson gets her hair cut. Instead of showing them stars, however, we show them more dubious characters. Across central and west London, our guides point out properties owned by ex-Soviet oligarchs, the scions of Middle Eastern political dynasties, Nigerian regional governors and all the other people who are hiding fortunes. On the route is Eaton Square in Belgravia, now perhaps London’s most prestigious address — a magnificent oblong of grand, cream-painted, four-square houses behind shoulder-height black railings. No. 29 Harley Street in London is a stone-fronted terrace house, barely five minutes walk from the Royal Society of Medicine, One of the cheapest at a mere £15 million was with a dark-stained wooden front door. As of April 2016, it was the legal address of 2,159 shell companies recently commandeered by anarchist squatters. It belongs to Andrei Goncharenko, a manager at a subsidiary of the passports of many nations are for sale. And yet British laws Russian gas giant Gazprom, who bought a string of properties in to tell who owns them, since they’re typically set up in one can be made to apply, when convenient: our libel laws can be the capital between 2011 and 2014. country — for example, the Bahamas — and then wrapped in invoked to silence reporters, for example. In Moneyland, you Goncharenko’s temptingly empty mansion was just one of another bag or company, set up somewhere else entirely — for really can pick and choose the rules. 86 properties on Eaton Square alone that is held via the kind of instance, the Isle of Man. Repeat this process until not even an The offshore model is too lucrative to be ignored. Any anonymous financial constructs that prevent anyone, including army of forensic accountants could unwrap all the bags and autonomous island, such as Jersey in the Channel Islands, can the taxman, from finding out who the true owners are. find the dirty money. Any one of these properties could be owned by a crook, but it’s take advantage of its natural offshore status to alter its laws and That’s the sleight of hand that makes Moneyland so attract the Moneyland wealth. impossible to say which ones. One apartment stretches across a impenetrable to tax collectors and banking regulators. Because Jersey, now a financial centre in its own right, began helping single floor of two adjoining buildings, and cost £13m: it is owned it doesn’t exist on any map, no government can declare war Britons to hide their money in the Sixties. Its speciality is the by Cane Garden Services Ltd, a British Virgin Islands company on Moneyland and send in an army, implement sanctions or trust, a tool that allowed families to pass down property that is registered in London at a betting shop on the Caledonian despatch diplomats for talks. But there are physical doorways through the generations without paying tax on it. Road — a part of North London where you’d be more likely to into Moneyland, like rabbitholes, if you know where to look. You might live in a Mayfair penthouse, for example, worth find takeaways. One of these is No. 29 Harley Street, on the tree-lined millions –— but if it was owned by a trust based in Jersey, with Is this a red flag? Perhaps, or perhaps not. When you start road running north from Oxford Street, the home of private a legal arrangement to pass it to your grandchildren on your looking for red flags, you see them everywhere. healthcare. death, you could sidestep death duties. Two houses, Nos. 85 and 102, are both owned by companies No. 29 is a stone-fronted terrace house, barely five minutes Jersey is a very wealthy community, thanks to the offshore registered in Hong Kong. The Liberian company that owns No. walk from the Royal Society of Medicine, with a dark-stained business. Not everywhere fares so well. The Caribbean island 73 is registered in Monaco. wooden front door. As of April 2016, it was the legal address of of Nevis, where there is no corporate tax levied on companies One flat in No. 86 is owned by the Panoceanic Trading 2,159 shell companies. registered there, is the legal base of 18,000 companies. Corporation, a Panama company whose name appears to belong One, Blythe (Europe) Ltd, was registered on Harley Street Far fewer people actually live on the island — and many of in a Sixties spy thriller by Len Deighton or Ian Fleming. but owned by P&A Corporate Services Trust Reg, of Vaduz, those who do earn subsistence wages as cooks and cleaners for Surely a crook wouldn’t be that obvious? Or is this a double Liechtenstein — a central European micro-principality which those operating the international businesses. bluff? has mysteriously survived into the modern age, and which Billions of dollars from Russia alone have been funnelled Faceless companies based in the British Virgin Islands in the does not reveal who owns its companies. through Nevis. Who controlled them, and who profits, cannot Caribbean own some 30 of these properties. Thirteen more are Blythe owned an Austrian company, which owned a be said: the island has a strict policy of secrecy around all in Guernsey, 16 in Jersey. Others are in Panama, Liechtenstein, Ukrainian company called Tantalit, and that owned a five-storey business matters. All questions are met with a wall of silence. the Isle of Man, Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Liberia, the luxury log-built palace outside Kiev called Mezhyhirya. In 2014 Moneyland is a recent invention. Once upon a time, if a corrupt it was seized by Ukrainian rebels, who overthrew the country’s Seychelles, Mauritius and St Vincent and the Grenadines. official stole millions, there wasn’t much he could do with it. Goncharenko himself preferred Gibraltar as home for his deeply corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovich. He could buy himself a nice car or build himself a new company MCA Shipping. At a time when the economy of Ukraine was stagnant and house, or give it to friends and relatives, but his appetites And Eaton Square is just one example. Just as many properties its people were destitute, President Yanukovich had amassed a were limited by the fact that the local market could not absorb in the adjoining streets are owned offshore, all intermeshed in a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars. His obscene wealth endless sums of embezzled money. The banknotes would just great web of confusion and deceit that extends as far as Britain was no secret, but when rebels burst into the palace grounds pile up in his house until they were eaten by mice. does and then much further. The rich businessmen, corrupt they were staggered by what they discovered. Two things changed the economics of illegal cash: the arrival politicians, larcenous public officials and drug traffickers hiding in An ostrich collection inhabited a private zoo, amid water of offshore finance, and shell companies. Some people call the web are able to pick and choose what laws they obey. gardens, a golf course, a nouveau-Grecian temple, a marble shell companies ‘getaway cars for dodgy money’ but, when British law requires people to publicly declare their company horse and an enclosure for shooting wild boar. Inside the cabin combined with electronic financial systems, they are more like ownership. The law in Mauritius does not. Those who can afford were waterfalls, fountains and statues. It was a cathedral of magical teleporter boxes: stash your stolen funds in a shell to base their companies offshore are granted a privacy that is kitsch — which also featured an oriental temple carved from company, press a button and it is spirited away out of your denied to everyone else. elephants’ tusks, a Picasso vase, antique rifles and swords, country to any destination you choose. The rich have set up a new global nation, an invisible country corridors lined with portraits of the president, and a flayed The best way to think of a shell company is like a bag for that I call Moneyland. It has no geographical borders, and its crocodile pinned to a wall. dog’s mess. The embezzled money or untaxed income is the financial regulations are as flexible as smoke. All this, remember, was owned not by Yanukovich but by It exists solely to enable the wealthy and corrupt to hide money dirty stuff that no one wants to touch. Blythe (Europe) Ltd, which was to be found in the highly Once it’s inside a bag, it’s easier to handle. Pop that bag into and avoid taxes. By some estimates, a fifth of all the world’s cash respectable confines of No. 29 Harley Street. It’s like discovering another bag, and slip that bag inside another, and now nobody is currently secreted in Moneyland, where governments cannot that the New Jersey mob was operating out of a Quaker can even tell that the mess in the middle ever existed. see it, let alone levy taxes on it. meeting house. Shell companies are just empty bags. It’s almost impossible Borders are for the little people. Moneyland is a place where The appeal of No. 29 to a greed-drunk thug like Yanukovich
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER t SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
23
VIEWS FROM ABROAD/DAILY MAIL ‘HOW LONDON’S STREETS ARE PAVED WITH DIRTY MONEY’
Continued from Page 22
At the top of this modernist block, built as a joint venture between its developers, the Candy Brothers, and a firm belonging to Qatar’s former prime minister, is a penthouse. In 2010, it sold for £140 million — making it at the time the most expensive flat in the world is obvious: it gave a respectable gloss to what was essentially an act of identity fraud. Of course Blythe had no physical presence in Harley Street — like the 2,158 other companies registered there, it had no need of filing cabinets or conference rooms. They just needed the address, a sort of posh postbox. The real tenant, since 2001, has been a company called Formations House: its role is to create new companies. A standard limited company costs just £95. According to the website of Formations House, more than 10 million companies have been conjured into existence at the address in the past 16 years. For a monthly fee, these businesses can pretend that No. 29 Harley Street is their physical home. Receptionists will answer the phone in any company’s name, and forward mail, thus conferring glamour and respectability. It isn’t only money that can be laundered. Reputations can be cleaned up in Moneyland too. There is an established pathway for rich foreigners to enhance their respectability, by using the UK’s libel laws to their advantage. They hire a PR agency to put them in touch with useful parliamentarians, either MPs or lords, who agree to act as patrons of the billionaire’s charitable foundation. This generous institution launches amid much razzamatazz in London, promising to educate children or promote sport for the disabled. The billionaire hosts conferences with minor royals and former politicians among the speakers. He invites ministers for working holidays aboard his yacht. Now he has a media profile and a reputation as a philanthropist to protect. If any journalist, anywhere in the world, makes hints or accusations about the shady sources of his billions, he can sue for defamation — in the British courts. The claims don’t even have to appear in British publications: it’s enough that the billionaire’s lawyers can prove that, because of the internet, the allegations spread to the UK. Libel cases in this country can end in multi-million pound settlements — enough to bankrupt just about any journalist. London has been at the heart of Moneyland since the beginning. After World War II, Allied economists drew up worldwide financial safeguards, such as the International Monetary Fund, to prevent dictators from manipulating the money supply and stoking wars by ruining their neighbours. To prevent speculators from trying to attack this system of fixed currencies, cross-border money flow was severely constrained. That was why, as recently as the late Seventies, strict limits were imposed on how much cash British tourists could take when holidaying abroad. The system started to come apart at the seams in the Sixties, with the invention by bankers of so called ‘eurobonds’ — pieces of paper that represented cash held in Swiss banks and other hidden places. When the bonds reached their maturity date, they paid out with interest, to whoever was holding them. There was no signature required, no log-book, no deed of ownership, and because they stemmed from offshore funds — beyond the British and every other major government’s reach — they attracted no tax. Eurobonds were developed by banker Siegmund Warburg, and the bond issue was led by one of his most brilliant fixers, a Scottish war hero-turned-journalist turned banker called Ian
The development is owned offshore, beyond the reach of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or other British authorities, as are most of the flats within. It is hard to say exactly how much living here would cost or who the inhabitants are Fraser. To avoid paying British taxes on the bonds, Fraser formally issued them at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands and arranged for interest to be paid in Luxembourg where it attracted negligible tax. Despite these contortions, he persuaded the London Stock Exchange to list the bonds. Bingo: a highly convenient bond that paid good interest, attracted no tax and could be turned into cash anywhere in the world. Unsurprisingly, eurobonds were very attractive to military dictators in Africa and South America, looking for some means of stashing away loot quickly. This was a lot more practical than a mansion full of banknotes. But warlords and corrupt politicians made up only 20 per cent of the investors: four-fifths of eurobonds were bought by ordinary, law-abiding people, wealthy upper-middle class Europeans who disliked giving so much of their hard-earned salaries to the national treasury — ‘Belgian dentists’, in banking parlance. This is the tip of Moneyland’s most powerful secret. It does not exist only for the organised criminals, the drug dealers and industrial-scale embezzlers. Anyone with cash to hide from the government can take advantage of its systems, and that means Moneyland is
protected by the complicity of huge numbers of wealthy people. Just because most of Moneyland’s wealth does not stem directly from corruption and crime, that doesn’t make it harmless. The damage goes far deeper than Belgian dentists avoiding tax. When such practices become more accepted among certain wealthy groups, the attitude spread downwards, until it affected much more of society. That’s why Moneyland brings double standards — and sometimes corruption — right to our doorstep. We cannot ignore it, yet there’s a prevalent attitude in the UK that, as long as this dirty money is flowing into our economy and not out, we can afford to turn a blind eye. Britain is a friendly place for Moneylanders: there’s a reason why so many Russian oligarchs have homes in London, and it’s not the weather. But violence and lawlessness is only the push of a button on a bank’s computer screen away from here now. The misery in distant countries will become our misery, too, if we don’t act to stop it. Adapted from Moneyland: Why Thieves And Crooks Now Rule The World And How To Take It Back by Oliver Bullough, published by Profile on September 6 at £20. © Oliver Bullough 2018.
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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
INTERVIEW
Oshoma
LIBOROUS OSHOMA
Adjusting Figures of Unresponsive Bid to Make it Responsive is Breach of BPP Act Liborous Oshoma, is the legal adviser to Dredging Atlantic Nigeria, a company at war with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) whom it claimed manipulated the figures it quoted for a contract for the dredging of Warri Channel to favour its rival, Dredging International Nigeria. After a public hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Procurement and Petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has failed to whip the NPA into line, he tells Eromosele Abiodun that government at the highest level must investigate the matter to save the anti-corruption of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
R
ecently, there were advertorial in the papers alleging infraction in a contract you bided for. I will start by asking you to tell us about Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited?
Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited is an indigenous company, completely owned by Nigerians, the Company has been around for some years now. We have done series of jobs in the Niger-Delta, Ondo and Lagos. Recently, in conjunction with our technical partners we are doing dredging works for Dangote; Even the Iyano-Oworo dredging that you saw at the beginning of third mainland bridge, on your way here, it is our job. We are in partnershi.
Recently, there were advertorial in the papers alleging infraction in a contract you bided for. I will start by asking you to tell us about Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited?
Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited is an indigenous company, completely owned by Nigerians, the Company has been around for some years now. We have done series of jobs in the Niger-Delta, Ondo and Lagos. Recently, in conjunction with our technical partners we are doing dredging works for Dangote; Even the Iyano-Oworo dredging that you saw at the beginning of third mainland bridge, on your way here, it is our job. We are in partnership with Westminster Dredging that has been around for more than 50 years in Nigeria and also our competence is not in doubt, as NPA rated us the best technically during evaluation for the dredging of the Warri Channel. The good part is that we are domiciled here and our funds are domiciled here and not repatriated abroad. This is apart from the fact that we are enhancing local content and the economy.
You talked about working for Dangote. Can you throw more light on what specific job you did for Dangote, was it the refinery? Yes, the job is at Dangote refinery and its one of the biggest in Africa and like I said, we are doing that job in collaboration with our technical partner Westminster Dredging, whom have been around for more than 50years. Infract, they originally dredged the Warri Channel. The advertorials specifically accused the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) of corruption. Can you tell me your relationship with the NPA? Neither we nor our partners have done jobs directly for NPA recently, but as you are aware our partners as a household name in the dredging industry in Nigeria, In recent time, they have indirectly been involved in jobs related to NPA, like the Calabar Channel Dredging that was sub-contracted to them by a company named Niger Global Ltd for which they have not been paid till date even after the execution of some part of the job. NPA is also aware of that as there were some correspondences they were copied in. In the said advertorials, we understand you bided for a contract with the NPA for the dredging of the Warri Channel. It was said that you won the bid and there were underhand moves to take the contract from you. Can you tell us what happened to that bid? The contract was publicly advertised by NPA as required by law, we bidded for it alongside about 21 companies. After submission of tenders, a technical evaluation was done by NPA to ascertain the technical competence of the bidders, only two companies scaled through the technical evaluation and were thus pre-qualified. We were adjudged the best with a sore of 89% while Dredging International (a foreign owned company) came a distant second with 75% At the bid opening, we were also adjudged the lowest responsive bid, with a total figure of ($44.880, 348.21) N5,865,490,314.69 & $25,649,232.21 as instructed by
client to submit dual currency and 16weeks work duration; however, when the figure is converted to Naira at (N305 to a $1) only become N13,688,506,138.74 Dredging International was the highest bidder with a single currency quote in the sum of after USD $44,998,053.76 for 17weeks work duration period. And you know in procurement, the bid with the lowest responsive quote wins the bid, of cause after evaluation to check for purely arithmetic errors. So as expected, NPA was to check the bids for arithmetic errors and correct same after informing the bidders in strict compliance with S. 35(1) of the Public Procurement Act. After a month, when we didn’t get any response from the NPA, we wrote a letter, requesting to know the position of the evaluation, they responded that they are not obliged to volunteer information to us. Whilst still waiting for the evaluation to be concluded, NPA wrote to us requesting us to re-submit soft copies of our bids as requested by the Bureau of Public Procurement, as, according to them, the original copies were missing. Even though we re-submitted the requested bids, we immediately became suspicious as the only ground for which the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) could have requested for our bids was in consideration of a request of a Certificate of No Objection by the Ministerial Tender Board. So we immediately, wrote to the Bureau requesting for an Administrative Review on various grounds, like Refusal to allow us DAW sign all four (4) pages of the BEME/ Bid documents at the bid opening,; Acts of falsifications, bid-rigging and non-compliance with the requirements of the Public Procurement Acts by the NPA; The Evaluation Committee, whilst pretending to correct arithmetic
Continued on Pg. 25
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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
INTERVIEW t ‘ADJUSTING FIGURES OF UNRESPONSIVE BID TO MAKE IT RESPONSIVE IS BREACH OF BPP ACT‘ tContinued from Pg. 24 errors, forged, falsified and manipulated the publicly announced figures, as follows; DIS - $44,861,596.81 as against $44,998,053.76, while giving DAW - $44,918,741.22 as against $44,880,348.21, We raised questions like, how come the lowest bidder as publicly announced (DAW) had “errors” and or additional figures (increase) of N11,709,932.84 ($38,393.23) to arrive at $44,918,741.22 as against $44,880,348.21, while the highest bidder (DIS) had “errors” and or subtracted figures (a reduction) of $136,456.95 (N41,619,369.75) to arrive at $44,861,596.81 as against $44,998,053.76 from their announced figures? In violation of S. 54 (4) (a) (5) of the Public Procurement Act (2007) ‘PPA’ the Bureau refused to either extend any invitation to us to make representations to substantiate our Claims or suspend the procurement process, as demanded by the Act and the Convention of the Bureau laid out in the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and the Public Procurement Regulations for Goods and Works. We are not only shocked and overwhelmed, that the Bureau like NPA also bluntly refused to comply with the provisions S. 31(5) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 by failing to either notify us of any arithmetic corrections or invite us to either adopt or defend/deny same, but just reprimanded NPA, and went ahead to unfortunately misdirect itself by holding thus;“…….This procedural lapses has already been communicated to the NPA to ensure compliance in subsequent procurements……” Also the Bureau in arriving at her second conclusion wrongly held that;“…….Considering that the Bureau has not observed this as a persistent breach by NPA, this procedural lapse is not sufficient to warrant cancellation of the entire procurement proceeding” The Bureau reached this hurried conclusion inspite of NPA’s admission to the contrary that “The usual practice is for Bidders to endorse the Bid submission’s summary page. It will be an exercise in time wasting if many Bidders are to embark on signing Bid documents with several pages…….” This admission by the NPA was in answer to the quarries raised in our protest letters to NPA and the Bureau, wherein we asked thus; “In Appendix 5 the “solicitation document” mail titled “Clarification on SBD for Remedial Works at Escravos Channel – PN 4012 sent out to Bidders on the 30th of October, 2017 by the Procurement Department, (a copy is herein attached as Appendix 6) it was stated clearly in the attached document to the said mail (which forms part of the solicitation documents to the bid) in No. 1, titled Vol 1:1.4.8, Vol 3:3 Topic – Tender Currency. Clarification: BEME to be in USD and Naira. Also, in No. 3 titled Vol 3:3, bill no 1, Topic - Bill of Quantities. Clarification – Tender currency in USD and Naira. Also, pages 22-24 of the Tender Document: Volume 5 (Scope of Works, Specifications and Bill of Quantities document (a copy is attached herewith as Appendix 6) prepared by the Directorate of Engineering & Technical Services of the Nigeria Ports Authority clearly states where Naira shall apply as it relates to Bill No. 1 General Preliminary Bill” As provided for in S.31 of the Act, all bids must not only meet the minimum eligibility requirements stipulated in the Act, but also in the solicitation document and must be duly signed. And as stated copiously above and admitted by NPA and the Bureau, refusal to allow us to append our signature in all pages of the Bid Documents leaves room for manipulations. Whilst the Bureau arrived at a total figure of N987,679,845.65 for Bill No. 3 for and a grand total of N13,696,905,225.81 for DAW, and a grand total of N13,682,826,712.09 for DISN. NPA’s gave contradictory figures of N13,700,216,071.58 for DAW and N13,682,787,022.09 for DISN as against the original publicly announced figures of DISN = USD $44,998,053.76 for 17weeks. and DAW = N5,865,490,314.69 & $25,649,232.21 as instructed by client to submit dual currency for 16weeks duration; however, when converted to Naira at (N305 to a $1) only become N13,688,506,138.74 The sum quoted was $44,998,053.76 being Forty-Four Million, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Eight Thousand, Fifty-Three Dollars, Seventy-Six Cent only. In disputing the conclusions reached by the Bureau above, we state that there is no provision(s) either in the Public Procurement Act, 2007 The Public Procurement Regulations for Goods & Services, or known to Law that empowers the Evaluation Committee to “….. in the cause of evaluation, adopted Messrs DAW’s lump sum prices into the Bill of Messrs DISL to bring the tender to parity” as doing so will amount to change in price, change in substance in the bid and making an unresponsive bid responsive which is forbidden by S. 31((a)(b) & (c) of the Act Assuming, but without conceding that NPA has powers to “…..in the cause of evaluation, adopted Messrrs DAW’s lump sum prices into the Bill of Messrs DISN to bring the tender to parity” We submit that, once NPA did that by adding Item 3.01 & item 3.02 to bring the Bid to parity then DISN publicly announced Bid figure ought to have increased by $426,229.61 (or N130,000,000.00 One Hundred and Thirty Million Naira) to $45,424,283.23 multiplied by N305 would be N13,854,406,385.10 This arithmetic being a major issue ought to have been so resolved to reflect in the Bureau’s analysis. Furtherance to item 3.01 and Item 3,02: we also noticed that our figures as submitted in our Bid were incorrectly captured in the Bureau’s analysis to give an edge to DISL. As instructed by the client in the Bid Solicitation Document, our Bid is split in Naira and US Dollars as shown in the table below, thus: Item 3.0.1 N55,000,000 as against actual figures quoted in Naira N20,708,780.55 and $101,846.46 quoted in Dollars. While for item 3.0.2 N75,000,000 as against actual figures quoted in Naira N28,239,246.21 and $138,881.54 quoted in Dollars. This analysis only captured Items Nos 3.0,1 & 3.0.2 in Dredging Atlantic Bid total value in Naira without splitting same in Naira and US Dollars, thus increasing the Naira component of Dredging Atlantic Bid whilst decreasing the US Dollars component of the same Bid thereby arriving at a wrong conclusion. The above is explained arithmetically thus, the sum in Naira and US Dollar assigned to the items are incorrect (wrong). The Bureau Inputted N987,679,845.65 & $1,759,081.21 as against the actual original quoted figures of N906,627,872.42 & $1,999,809.21 in DAW’s submitted Bid. Also, in the same item 3.01 & 3.0.2 we observed that the Bureau imputed a unit rate of N41,216.22 Naira and $135.14 US Dollars, also N82,432.35 Naira and $270.27 Dollars respectively for DISN even when it was stated clearly and obvious from the procuring entity’s Solicitation document that the item has no Unit/Quantity. One begins to wonder where NPA and or the Bureau got the said Unit price they multiplied by Quantity in their analysis from. This further confirm our suspicion of Bid rigging against us. Lastly, on the issues, assuming Dredging International sought clarification from NPA as inferred by the Bureau in their conclusions, then correspondingly by virtue of S.23(6) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 NPA ought to have communicated any response to such request to Bidders as is the practice in Bid Tendering globally. Most importantly, a prime and major Item 3.07 which as stated in the Bid Solicitation Document thus; ”Additional work and services order by the client” It must be noted that There is no where in the Solicitation Document where this item is tag LOT in the solicitation
Oshoma document is tagged TBC, so we wonder where NPA and the Bureau got the TBC they imputed for Dredging International in their analysis from? This Item being (Additional work and services ordered by the client) which is expected to be priced since it has Quantity was suddenly left blank in the Bureau’s analysis of Dredging International Bid, how and why is this so? This Item LOT (Estimated Value/ Contingency) is an unforeseeable cost likely to be incurred during the contract and where money can be allocated to any item within the BOQ as an additional works to be undertaken by the contractor at the request of the Contract Administrator – NPA. This Bill is usually approximated by the Bidder, being a Global Standard Practice found in BOQ to aid proper project/contract management. Therefore, LOT being an estimated value/contingency fund) cannot be left unpriced, because once budgeted sum is released and the item is not captured in the sum calculated, it then means that contractor would have to seek variation which the Federal Government and the Bureau frowns against as it encourages corruption, project delay and abandonment and would therefore defeat the whole essence of Bid/Tender which is to give Client Budgetary information, as any item unpriced by the bidder defeat the aim of Client’s budgeting and open to corruption. Consequently, if according to the NPA, “…..in the cause of evaluation, adopted Messrs DAL’s lump sum prices into the Bill of Messrs DISL to bring the tender to parity”, flowing from the above paragraph and to meet the equity of the case, NPA ought to have adopted/applied the same approach they used in Item 3.01 & 3.02 to Item 3.0.7 being unforeseeable cost likely to be incurred during contract which is usually approximated by the Bidder. Or in the alternative, expunge the figures if it does not bring economic advantage to either Bidder from DAW’s Bid or input it into DISN Bid, in the spirit of “bringing both bids to parity” Therefore, NPA reaching such mischievous conclusion of adding quoted figures in Items 3.0.1 & 3.0.2 of Dredging Atlantic’s figures to Dredging International unpriced figures in the same Items 3.01 & 3.0.2 without a corresponding addition to Item 3.0.7 gave ‘economic advantage’ to Dredging International to the disadvantage of Dredging Atlantic. We also complained that Dredging International Nigeria is a sister company to Dredging International Cyprus and Dredging International Cyprus has been involved in the dredging of Bonny channel and by the virtue of the court judgments, which the MD of NPA in an interview with Thisday Newspaper said she was aware of, and the fact that both members of Dredging International Services Ltd and NPA sits together on the board of Bonny Channel Company Ltd, there would be favoritism and conflict of interest in the award of the contract in favour of DISN as, Hadiza Bala-Usman (MD of NPA), Koko and Prof Abubarka who are members of NPA Parastatal Tenders Board Committee and also Board Members of Bonny Channel Company together with two Directors of Dredging International, Bert Wille and Steven Poppe. This is contrary to the Item 8 of the Expression of Interest Document of the bid released by NPA and Sections 57(9)a, (9) b and 57(12)b of the PPA Act. Section 57(12)b clearly further supports the inappropriateness of the MD of NPA being on the same Board with Wille Bart and Steven Poppe who are Directors of Dredging International Services Nigeria Limited and also all Directors of Bonny Channel Company Limited currently executing NPA job at Bonny. Yet all NPA required from them was to submitted an affidavit to the contrary and went further to argue that the companies were different despite the obvious facts.
Was it the Dredging International Nigeria that its officials were prosecuted in Switzerland for bribing Nigeria officials for a contract in Nigeria that was awarded this contract by the NPA?
Dredging International Cyprus and Dredging International Nigeria are both owned by Deme Group in Belgium. Mr. Bert Wille, Mr. Bart Vandemeulebroucke and Mr. Steven Poppe are all Directors in Dredging International Services, Cyprus and also Directors of Dredging International Services Nigeria. Mr. Wille Bert is the Managing Director of Dredging International Services Cyprus, and also doubles as the Area Manager, (West Africa) Dredging International Services Nigeria, he also publicly admitted that position when the question was put to him during the House of Representative Public Hearing on the matter. All the documents are here with me.
At the time of the conviction by the Swiss authority were they Directors in Dredging International Nigeria?
Yes. Steven Poppe has been a Director at Dredging International Cyrus since 2008 and the documents are there. He also has been a Director in Dredging International Nigeria since then. In their tax annual report, what they have there as companies that contributed to the financial figures of Dredging International Nigeria are Dredging International Cyprus, Dredging and Environmental Services Nigeria, (parent company of dredging international Nigeria). So you begin to wonder how come the NPA is telling us that these two companies are different and all they simply did was to collect an affidavit from them to state that they are not the same company. The Managing Director of NPA recently in an interview admitted that she is aware that Dredging International Cyprus is convicted and that she has forwarded a copy of the judgement to the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and she is waiting for his legal opinion or advice on the matter and as I speak to you that contract for which Dredging International Cyprus was convicted that is the Bonny channel is still ongoing. However, at the Public Hearing at the House of Rep, the same Managing Director of NPA stated publicly under oath that she doesn’t know dredging International Nigeria before now. That she never met them before. They bided for a job and they pre-qualified them and have awarded the job to them, on the contrary, Bert Wille openly admitted at the same venue, that these two companies are the same. And NPA failed to disclosed also that, from these incorporation documents of Bonny Channel Company, you will see that Managing Director of NPA, M/s. Hadiza Bala Usman is Chairman of BCC, while Bert Wille is Managing Director, you have Poppe Steven, Mohammed Bello-Koko, and Idris Abubakar as Directors. While Hadiza Bala Usman, Mohammed Bello-Koko, and Idris Abubakar represents NPA’s interest on the said BCC (Bonny Channel Company Limited) board, Bert Wille and Poppe Steven, represents the interest of Dredging International Services Cyprus (whose current holding Company is The Channel Management Company TCMC) and all these companies have the same offices in Alfred Rewane, Lagos Nigeria. Bonny Channel Company (BCC), is a special purpose vehicle established by NPA and Dredging International Cyprus to execute the dredging of the Bonny Channel. S. 57(9)(a)(b) & (12)(b) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 frowns at this. Also, by virtue of Section 16 subsection 8 (e) & (f) of BPP Act, Dredging International Services ought not to have been pre-qualified at all. We feel something is wrong somewhere and there is need for Nigerians to know and for the government to know that there is something wrong there. Also while the Nigerian House of Representatives Committee had asked parties to stay action pending the conclusion of their oversight on the matter, and while the NPA has informed Nigerians that they are waiting for advice from the Ministry of Justice on what to do with the ongoing Bonny Channel, even while EFCC investigation is still ongoing in the matter, the same NPA has gone ahead to mobilize the company and they have moved to site, whose interest is this hurried approach and none compliance with the rule of law serving?
What do you want the federal government to do now?
We request an independent judicial inquiry to be conducted publicly into the matter vis-a-vis the contract award processes of NPA and BPP to determine the extent of the compromises in contract award processes in these Agencies. If we must fight corruption in government circle we must start from contract award/procurement processes, let justice prevail, even if the heavens will fall, “look at the position of the law, and look at the processes if they are transparent enough and see if we have been treated fairly and equally in our own country, and prosecute anybody found to have circumvented the process.
Have you considered taking legal action?
We are seriously working on that, but we had to wait because we would not want to be re-litigating issues after submitting to the oversight jurisdiction of the House of Representatives as provided under S. 88 & 89 of the Constitution.
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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Germany’s Business Success Keys Revealed During Chancellor Merkel’s Visit
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s President Muhammadu Buhari met with Chancellor Angela Merkel behind closed doors last week, a lively business roundtable was holding in The Brown Room, one of the many meeting rooms in the Aso Rock Villa. It was there the secret behind the success of German businesses was revealed by the visitors. It could not be ignored; it dominated the talks for several minutes. “Size is not why our businesses are successful; we are successful because we are mostly family businesses, not just small-scale enterprises,” a member of the German delegation, who is a founder and CEO of a company, said. “German businessmen are extremely focused, extremely serious, and we also focus on communication.” Some other members of the 16-member business delegation, led by Dr Ulrich Nussbaum, Secretary of State, Federal Ministry for Economy and Energy spoke in the same vein. These founders and/or CEOs of successful German brands spoke passionately about Mittelstand, said to be the backbone of the German economy. The Mittelstand are a core of small and medium-sized firms, many of which have existed for generations and noted for their durability and resilience. According to Wikipedia, Mittelstand companies are “highly focused, achieving unprecedented efficiencies by designing a business model with a razor-thin focus and learning to do the one thing really well”; then to “compensate for their razor-thin focus, they diversify internationally and enjoy great economies of scale”. Although the term could be more loosely applied, Mittelstand companies share the following features: Family ownership or family-like corporate culture, generational continuity, long-term focus, emotional attachment, flexibility, and lean hierarchies. Among other things, the German delegation was also apprised of the strength of the Nigerian economy as well as opportunities for investments and partnerships. On the Nigerian side were Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah, who chaired the talks; Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun; CEO of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo, and members of the private sector, among others. In his opening remarks, Enelamah enjoined participants of the round table to take advantage of the Forum to partner with the government to build synergies that will translate to increased trade and investment flows between Nigeria and Germany, help establish and strengthen business relationships, and provide practical lessons. He explained the objectives of the forum as: “presenting the case for why we believe that Nigeria is the investment destination of choice. And we believe the German business community will continue to take advantage of the massive investment opportunity that Nigeria represents. Nigeria remains the number one investment destination in Africa, with announced investments of US$66.36 Billion in 2017. Apart from our domestic market of over 180 million, the
The federal government delegation led by President Muhammadu Buhari meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel-led German team during the visit
largest in Africa, we are also the main gateway to the regional West African consumer market that is about as large as ours. “Discussing and learning about two underlying strengths of the German Economy – the small and medium scale businesses (SMEs) and technical training. “It is a well known fact that Germany enjoys a leading position among the world’s exporting nations because of your successful SMEs. Germany boasts an exceptional number of ‘hidden champions’ - companies which rank among the top three on the global market or are European leaders but are little known to the public. It is estimated that SMEs in Germany constitute more than 3.6 million companies and provide more than 60 percent of all jobs in your country.” In a presentation, Awolowo, Executive Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, highlighted Nigeria’s economic performance under the Buhari administration and outlined foreign investment opportunities and incentives in Nigeria. He said Nigeria’s zero-oil plan was aimed at generating “ an extra US$25-30 billion from non-oil exports, and eliminate the country’s over dependence on crude oil prices.” “Germany is expected to play a significant role in providing foreign investments to boost the Nigerian exports agenda,” he added. Towards the end of the forum, President Buhari and his guest, Chancellor Merkel, joined in from an adjoining room. It was interesting to behold
the two powerful leaders draped in simplicity, and as they took their seats on their respective sides of the aisle, their optics showed contentment about the success of the day. After a briefing of the two leaders by Dr, Enelamah, they commended the outcome of the deliberations. The forum had started earlier in the meeting room of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with the signing of Memorandums of Understanding between the two countries. Speaking after signing the MOUs, Enelamah said the agreements would increase collaboration between Nigeria and Germany to grow small and medium enterprises in Nigeria. Theresa May A few days before the visit of the Germans, British Prime Minister Theresa May led a delegation to Nigeria. Both in Abuja and Lagos, where they visited trade and investment featured prominently in his meetings. “I was in Abuja and also in Lagos to see the thriving business community here. We want to see increased trade between Nigeria and UK, increased investment, bringing jobs here in Nigeria, jobs in the UK.” FOCAC in China In China where President Buhari attended the 7th Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) shortly after the visit of the Germans, trade and investment also got prime attention.
Indeed about 100 Nigerian businesses and 300 Chinese firms participated in the Nigeria-China business forum which took place a day after President Buhari began his visit, President Buhari expressed satisfaction with the fruitfulness of FOCAC, disclosing that Nigeria has gained from China the execution of infrastructure projects worth $5bn across the country in the last three years Conclusion So in less than two weeks, Nigeria had highprofile engagements with three of the world’s leading economies. Industry, Trade and Investment Minister unpacks the implications for Nigeria: “Naturally, these are strong stimuli to trigger excitement. The leaders of those powerful nations demonstrated belief in the potentials of the Nigerian economy; and endorsement of our efforts in exploiting the potentials in the various sectors of the economy for the benefit of all Nigerians. “They also see in the economy investment opportunities for their nationals, which they didn’t mince words about. “For sure, Nigeria is a strong economic force for partnerships in trade and investment. The several MoUs signed in the last few days testify to this. “The ministry, and the federal government in general, is committed to ensuring that the country derives maximum benefits from the engagements and continue to improve the investment climate.”
Sahara Group’s Shonubi Joins African ‘Energy Coalition’ in Cape Town
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ahara Group Co-Founder and Executive Director, Temitope Shonubi, was one of the speakers at this year’s Africa Oil and Power conference, which held in Cape Town recently. The theme for this year’s conference was “Energy Coalitions” focusing on the importance of greater collaboration and partnerships within and across oil and power sub-sectors. High level stakeholders including oil ministers, regulators and CEOs from international and indigenous oil and gas companies deliberated on the best way to drive Africa’s energy sector forward ‘through energy coalitions, from regional cooperation at government level and private companies coordinating on development and financing deals to how the private and public sectors can collaborate to transform the sector. Shonubi spoke on oil trading trends within West Africa on a panel which also featured CEO, Gunvor, Torbjorn Tornqvist, and Group CEO, Vitol, Russel Hardy. The panel addressed topics such as price volatility in oil trading and the peculiarities
of market forces from one trading hub to another. They also discussed how financial models are being reexamined to suit the new business paradigm. Describing stakeholder collaboration as the “lifeline of oil and power in Africa”, Temitope said this would boost capacity and intra-African trade in light of untapped opportunities on the continent. “This was a great opportunity to discuss new frontiers for the future of oil and gas trading in Africa. Among others, we need harmonisation of petroleum product specifications amongst countries to drive growth in intra-African trade. The domestic policies for oil and gas infrastructure as well as trade should be aligned with a more regional and global objective.” Shonubi explained that oil and gas traders in Africa would also need to address the dearth of experienced traders to boost the continent’s human capital profile ahead of the projected future growth in the sector. “Africa needs to invest more in capacity building in line with global standards. We are spearheading this narrative on the continent through various mentorship and specialised training programmes for our people at Sahara and other beneficiaries at
our trading hubs in Geneva and Singapore.” Speaking further, Shonubi noted that the midstream and downstream infrastructure deficit could be addressed through incentives/policies by governments to ensure sustainable infrastructural growth that may be funded in partnership or solely by producers/traders. Whilst oil traders were one of very few groups which were thought to have benefited from the oil price crash of 2014, the underlying effect of the crash was that the global oil and gas related economy shrunk. Future prospects within trading arena were also central to the conversation. The panel discussed the opportunities that still exist for trading professionals especially after the shocks of the last three years. Natural gas production was a topical issue at the forum as West Africa is expected to dominate natural gas production in SubSaharan Africa in the long term, accounting for 81 per cent of the region’s natural gas growth from 2010 to 2040. East Africa’s natural gas production is projected to rise by an annual average of 6 per cent from 2010 to 2040.
Shonubi
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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TRAVEL
Edited by Demola Ojo Email demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com
Google Trips: Tech Aid for the Savvy Traveller
Demola Ojo
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his week, Cape Town will host the Airbnb Africa Travel Summit which will bring together close to 150 innovators in tourism and technology to share, discuss and debate how technology can be used to accelerate inclusive and sustainable economic growth through tourism on the African continent. The summit is one more pointer to the importance of technology in changing the face of travel in the 21st century and how to further harness it. One example of the many ways technology has improved the travel experience is the Google Trips app. The planning part of a vacation is probably the least fun part for most people; a study by Good Think found out that 74% of travellers considered it the stressful most part. However, Google Trips’ features make it the perfect travel partner, due its easy-to-use interface which is also available offline. Not only does this save data, especially while on international roaming, it also makes sure that you aren’t stuck anywhere remote just because you lost internet connectivity. By virtue of being a search engine behemoth, Google has used the infinite collective wisdom of the internet to answer virtually every possible question you may have with Google Trips. Questions like: Are tips expected? Do they take dollars (and the exchange rate)? Are there any delicious and affordable dining spots? Best of all, it helps with a realistic itinerary for fitting in all the sights you want to see into a day. The simple and easy to use interface proactively offers just about anything you might be looking for, from the visual home screen. It helps with reservation details, restaurant recommendations, day plans, or currency questions and more. Being a Google app, it is obvious that having a Gmail ID makes things easier. Google Trips first asks you to sign-in using this and once you’re in, it will pull reservation details — like flight details or
hotel details — from the mailbox and keep it ready for you. When you need to find that confirmation number, or prove to immigration authorities that you have a valid reservation, there’s nothing better than having all travel bookings organized in one place. There’s even a direct link to the original email. If you have Gmail, Google will automatically sync trip data. However, reservations can also be added manually. All you need do is type in the hotel name or flight number and Google will take care of the rest. Google Trips also has in-depth lists for every possible food craving, from fine dining to local food and anything in between. You’ll also get detailed reviews and user feedback. Restaurant reviews are available offline as long as you download the city guide. Google Trips also helps with emergency numbers in your destination city. Simply press “need to know” and you’ll have just about everything you need to know, including how to get tax free shopping in most cities. Trip Plan It’s easy to look up a city’s top attractions, but it’s far more difficult to plan the order in which to visit, or the time it will take between. Google Trips has got your back, offering detailed options for the perfect day trip, including how long it takes to get in between each place, what people are saying about the sights and what kind of transportation is available at each juncture. Once you’ve used the tools to find the perfect restaurant, best attractions and trendiest bars, you surely don’t want to find them all over again. You can easily drop any of the places that interest you into a “Saved Places” folder. The folder keeps all the contact info, addresses and anything else you might need for each place. Google Trips has been around for a few years but its latest update has increased its utility, permitting users to track public transport such as a bus and train which might not have email confirmation. The ‘+’ tab on the bottom right enables users to make manual changes in their schedules such as car rentals and restaurant reservations. Moreover, free-form notes are an important addition in this version of Trips.
Google Trips App interface
Google Trips helps with periodic reminders about your travel schedule and a recent update is the sharing option that allows users to share itinerary with others through
email. The app is certainly a prime example of how technology is aiding travel for savvy 21st century tourist.
Lagos, Dubai, Ghana, Others to Exhibit as Akwaaba Expo
FCMB Reiterates Commitment to Ojude Oba Festival
est Africa’s leading travel fair, the Akwaaba Africa Travel Market will kick-off it’s 14th edition today in Lagos. The three-day event billed for Eko Hotel will have exhibitors in the travel and hospitality sector from across Africa, and a special delegation from the UAE led by Dubai’s department for Trade and Commerce Marketing. The Ghana Tourism Authority is one of those expected in Lagos with a team that includes famous actor Van Vicker who has starred in numerous Nollywood movies. Included in the Ghanaian team are members of the Ghana Tourism Federation and members of the Ghana Chef Association who will participate in the second edition of the Jollof Rice war with Nigeria and Gambia. Ghana will also be hosting a special Ghana Day today immediately after the Jollof Rice competition. Lagos State will also be hosting a special day at Akwaaba tomorrow. Lagos Day will see special cultural and artistic presentations to showcase the best of Lagos. Lagos State has promised the organisers all needed institutional support to make the event not only remarkable
ollowing another successful edition of the annual Ojude Oba festival last month in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, First City Monument Bank has restated its commitment to one of the state’s leading cultural exports, and urged Nigerians to sustain the country’s cultural heritage in order to boost tourism and its associated benefits. This will go a long way to educate and inspire generations about the history of Nigeria, the people and values, while also fast-tracking the ongoing efforts of the government to diversify the economy, the bank said. FCMB has over the years been a major sponsor of the festival and has continued to play a significant role in ensuring its success. The Ojude Oba (which in Ijebu dialect means, the king’s fore-court) is a major festival in Nigeria that began over 100 years ago. It brings together all sons and daughters of Ijebuland in Nigeria and diaspora for a carnival-like celebration of the traditional, cultural, spiritual accomplishments and other values of the Ijebu nation. During the Festival, various age groups (popularly known as the Regberegbes), indigenes, their friends and associates from far and near - all in their colourful costumes and riding on horses - throng the palace of the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland to pay homage to him amidst prayers and other fun-filled activities. In a goodwill message to the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba (Dr.) SikiruAdetona on the occasion
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but successful and at the same time memorable. City tours will be provided for visiting tour operators to know the city better in order to market its attraction to their clients. Lagos will have a special pavilion for the duration of the event and visitors can sample traditional Lagos cuisine during this period. Akwaaba starts with a Nigeria Day event put together by the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), and will feature exhibitions by leading tourism and travel companies across Africa, an aviation conference, a ‘Youth in Tourism’ conference, Gambia Day, Ethiopia Day, Africa Top 100 tour operators conference and awards, performances by the Carnival Calabar dance troupe, and exhibitors from Namibia, South Africa and other African countries. Fifteen travel and hospitality outfits from Dubai are already as the leading tourism destination in the Middle East sees Nigeria as a priority market. About 300,000 Nigerians pass through Dubai every year. The 15 companies attending Akwaaba this year include; Jumeirah, Red Apple, Khimji, Sun and Sand and Alpha Tours. Rayna Tourism, Arabian Adventures and the Ritz Carton Dubai are also billed to exhibit, as well as the Dubai Health Authority.
F
Rider on horseback at Ojude Oba
of this year’s festival, the founder of FCMB, who is also the the Olori Omo-Oba AkileIjebu, Otunba (Dr) Olasubomi Balogun, expressed his gratitude to the Awujale of Ijebuland, especially considering the paramount ruler’s selflessness in attending to the different requests and yearnings of the people of Ijebuland. In the same vein, the Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc, Mr. Ladi Balogun, congratulated the monarch for upholding the values of Ijebuland and raising the status of the event over the years. He reiterated the commitment of the financial institution to the longevity of the Ojude Oba Festival. ‘’For all true sons and daughters of Ijebuland, the Ojude Oba festival is more than an event for us. It has become a long-standing yearly tradition we look forward to as a unifying platform and a tourist attraction. For over a century, the festival has become an internationally acclaimed event that has gone a long way to promote our cultural heritage and further unify humanity,” he said.
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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Q2:2018 Merchandise Trade Report: Oil Exports and Lower Imports Drive Sustained Expansion in Trade Balance Q2:2018 Merchandise Trade Report: Oil Exports and Lower Imports Drive Sustained Expansion in Trade Balance The merchandise trade report for Q2:2018 was published by the Na onal ureau of Sta s cs N S durin the wee with the data showin sustained momentum in the trade balance which increased 8.3% to N2.4tn Y o Y, its seventh consecu ve e pansion. This performance was driven by a fast paced rowth in e ports which in creased 43.8% Y o Y to N4.5tn as oil prices advanced 48.2% to US$74.4/b, o se n the contrac on of 1. % in oil output due to the closure of the Trans Forcados e port terminal for repairs. On the other hand, imports moderated, contrac n 19.9% to N2.1tn, the bi est drop based on data from 2008 when ad usted for mul ple de valua ons of the currency. This re ected lower imports of fuels and lubricants 19.3% of total imports which sharply contracted 44.4% Y o Y while food & bevera e 15.8% and industrial supplies 29.4% both con tracted 24.8% and 21.2% Y o Y respec vely. Total trade the sum of e ports and im ports however, improved 14. % to N . tn Y o Y althou h it declined 8.9% Q o Q due to lower import ures. On a quarterly basis, merchandise trade was unimpressive in Q2:2018. E ports re duced by 4.9%, mainly due to a sharp re duc on in non oil e ports. n addi on, im ports contracted 1 .3%, par cularly re ec n lower imports of petroleum prod ucts. Surprisin ly, this contradicts the N S͛ report of a 54. % increase in petroleum products importa on to 1 5.7 million litres e chan e rate transla on may have ac counted for this. Generally, the perfor mance in Q2:2018 is consistent with recent trends with oil & as e ports bein the bi est driver and wea consumer spendin restrainin imports. Non Oil Exports Consolidate Improvements Non oil e ports con nued to e pand in Q2:2018, increasin 32.0% Y o Y to reach N218.4bn. However, on a quarterly basis, there was a mar ed reduc on of 2.2% in non oil e ports, althou h this is e plained by the unusual performance of N577. bn in Q1:2018 – the hi hest since Q4:2014 even when unad usted for currency devalua on. Analysis of the composi on of non oil e ports shows that a riculture, raw materi al and manufactured oods, which account ed for 80.7% of total non oil e ports, rec orded con nued improvements. Nonethe less, we note that it is important to view this performance with cau on, considerin the tradi onally low base, which ives room for stron rowth. Ad usted for currency devalua on, the non oil sector and its con s tuents have consistently underperformed since 2015. H2:2018 Outlook Continued Growth in Trade Balance An cipated We e pect sustained performance in trade balance over H2:2018, althou h a modera on in the pace of increase could occur, re ec n a recovery in imports iven the prospect for increased consumer spendin . Our op mism of con nued e pansion in the trade balance is based on two suppor ve and related factors. The rst is the prospect
for a fast paced increase in oil produc on, as the E ina eld is e pected to add 0.2mb/ d to oil produc on in Q4:2018 althou h we note that there is li le room for rowth Y o Y in Q3:2018 due to a hi h base in the cor respondin period of 2017. Secondly, oil prices will also be suppor ve as we e pect a double di it rowth over the avera e of US$5 .5/b recorded in H2:2017. However, quarterly performance in oil prices is li ely to moderate, amid the easin of output curbs by O EC and its allies. n view of these, we e pect stability in the current account balance, which reached a 21 quarter hi h of 4.7% of G in Q1:2018. This is much needed to support e ternal reserves and in turn stability in the forei n e chan e mar et, considerin forei n por olio ou lows which have re ected wanin investor con dence in emer in mar ets and in the local economy due to poli cal ris s. Global Markets Review: Bearish Sen ment Persists on Trade War Woes and Emerging Market Risks On oin protec onist sen ments amon lar e economies pressured lobal mar ets durin the wee , as investors awaited the United States͛ decision re ardin the pro posed addi onal tari s on Chinese oods worth US$200.0bn. Althou h the White House was eventually silent as the deadline for public comment passed on Thursday, China reiterated its plans to retaliate. These events follow the brea down of trade ne o a ons between the United State and Chi na, as resident Trump see s to reduce the US$375.0bn trade de cit between both countries, enhance mar et access & protect ntellectual roperty of US companies in China. Also, the US con nued trade tal s with Canada followin the US– e ico trade deal announced in the prior wee , with resident Trump su es n the end of NAFTA if ne o a ons are unsuccessful. n the lobal oil mar et, rent Crude rallied to US$78.17/b on Tuesday but declined to US$7 .72/b by Thursday as reports of risin inventories in the United States ltered into the mar et.
ased on these developments, investor sen ment across lobal equi es mar ets was lar ely bearish as 19 of 23 mar ets under our covera e closed lower W o W. n the devel oped mar ets the U FTSE All Share, US S& 500 and NAS AQ fell 2.4%, 1.0% and 2.1% respec vely W o W iven increased appre hension re ardin the possibility of the be innin of trade war between the US and China. The NAS AQ was speci cally dra ed by technolo y stoc s – Faceboo , Twi er, Alphabet and Snap – which have ta en a hit on the bac of parliamentary inves a ons, while reports that wee ly obless claims reached a 49 year low in Au ust 2018 provid ed no reprieve. n the U , pro t ta in was supported by a stron er pound which rallied followin the European Union͛s promise of concessions post re it. erformance across the Eurasia re ion was equally bearish as Germany͛s ETRA A and Hon on ͛s Han Sen fell 3.5% and 3.3% respec vely W o W, dra ed by investor e its followin trade war fears. Similarly, France͛s CAC 40 and Japan͛s Ni ei 225 de clined 3.0% and 2.4% respec vely W o W, driven by mar et reac on to trade disputes. Only Thailand͛s SET inde rose 1. % W o W, due to bar ain hun n by local investors durin the wee .
All mar ets under our R CS cate ory depre ciated W o W as Russia͛s RTS, South Africa͛s FTSE, China͛s Shan hai Comp, ndia͛s SE Sens and ra il͛s bovespa lost 3.5%, 2.9%, 0.8%, 0.7% and 0.3% respec vely W o W. These losses were ma orly due to pro t ta in as ra il con nued to be troubled by re ional economic crises in Ar en na , while South Africa slipped into a technical reces sion in Q2:2018 a er a second consecu ve quarterly decline in G . The Chinese mar et 18.3% YT retained its posi on as the worst performin inde followin the threat of further trade restric ons. n Africa, all mar ets under our covera e fell W o W with the lar est decline recorded in enya͛s NSE 20, which closed 3.2% lower W o W. Ni eria͛s All Share nde and oroc co͛s Casablanca AS declined 2.3% and 2.2% W o W respec vely followin sustained
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n the iddle East, Saudi Arabia͛s Tadawul AS , UAE͛s A General nde and Qatar͛s S 20 rose 3.4%, 1.4% and 0. % respec ve ly W o W followin bar ain hun n on cheap and a rac ve stoc s durin the wee . On the ipside, ebanon͛s eirut lom Stoc nde fell 1.4% as sustained sello s persisted across the mar et. Domes c Equi es: Sustained Sell o s Drag Index Lower The bearish sen ment in the domes c bourse was sustained this wee as investors con nued to sell o on mar et bellwethers. The downtrend remains lar ely driven by the lin erin uncertain es around the 2019 en eral elec ons which we e pect to be sus tained. Nevertheless, we maintain that the current trend is not necessarily a true re ec on of the fundamentals of companies and we believe that opportuni es s ll remain in the mar et. Consequently, despite the over all ne a ve performance, there were periods of intraday ains durin the wee . The benchmar inde declined on 4 of 5 trad in days in the wee , with the lar est loss recorded on Wednesday 1.5% , while the only ain in the wee was on Tuesday 0.3% . On a W o W basis, the All Share nde fell 2.3% to 34,037.91 points while YT loss worsened to 11.0%. i ewise, mar et capitalisa on reduced N295.9bn to se le at N12.4tn. n the same vein, ac vity level wea ened as avera e volume and value con tracted 41.7% and 43.1% to 178.5m units and N2. bn respec vely. The ma or dra s to per formance in the wee were NIGERIAN BREWERIES 5.1% , DANGCEM 2.2% and GUARANTY 2.8% . The top traded stoc s by value were GUARANTY N1.7bn , ACCESS N429.8m AN SEPLAT N2 0.8m while GUARANTY 4 .9m units , ACCESS 4 .1m units and AIICO 33.2m units were the top traded by volume. Sector performance was also bearish as all indices closed in the red W o W. The Oil & Gas inde depreciated the most, down 3.7% W o W followin losses in SEPLAT 7.2% and OANDO 0.9% while sustained sell o s in NIGERIAN BREWERIES 5.1% and UNILEVER .4% dra ed the Consumer Goods inde 2.7% southwards. Similarly, the an in and ndustrial Goods indices fell 2.4% and 1.9% followin price deprecia ons in GUARANTY 2.8% and DANGCEM 2.2% respec vely. The nsurance inde closed out the ne a ve performance with a 0.1% decline W o W.
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sell pressures. Furthermore, forei n investors too pro ts on the E yp an EG 30, down 1.3% W o W, followin its massive rally in previous wee s. Ghana͛s GSE Composite and auri us͛ SE E equally lost 1.7% and 0.5% respec vely W o W, in line with the bearish sen ment pressurin Sub Saharan and fron er mar ets.
nvestor sen ment so ened in the wee as mar et breadth advancer/ decliner ra o fell to 0.8 from 1.0 in the prior wee , followin 32 stoc s that advanced rela ve to 38 that declined. The top ainers for the wee were HMARKINS 2 .7% , CONTINSURE 1 .8% and CILEASING 1 .0% while LAWUNION 2 .0% , STDINSURE 23.7% and UNIVINSURE 17.5% were the worst performers. As noted earlier, we maintain that the current
29
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
bearish performance will be sustained as elec ons draw closer, however we e pect a resur ence as the elec on euphoria se les. Hence, iven current pricin in the mar et, we envisa e opportuni es for investors to ta e advanta e of, albeit with a minimum investment hori on of a year. Money Market: Rates Slide on Liquidity Impact Supply De cit Propels Bullish Senment in T Bills Given the Ape an ͛s commitment to sus tain the stability of nancial system and eep the forei n e chan e mar et steady a ainst the bac drop of fears of capital re versals, the overall system liquidity, in line with recent trend, remained stron . Finan cial system liquidity closed the prior wee at N1.2tn but opened onday at N422.2bn however, an improvement to N794.9bn on Tuesday, resul n from FAAC in ow to States and GAs es mated at N445.0bn e cludin the FGN͛s share of N2 9.8bn , forced the C N to oat O O auc ons total lin N 00.0bn of 77 day and 198 day instru ments. Appe te for the instruments was wea as the C N only successfully raised a total of N171.3bn at stop rates of 11.1% 77 day instrument and 12.2% 198 day instru ment . y Thursday, O O maturi es of N294.5bn also hit the system to sum open in nancial system liquidity to N89 .1bn. n line with liquidity dynamics, O and O N rates con nuously trended downward durin the wee , sheddin 3.2% and 3.4% W o W to close at 2.8% and 3.4% from .0% and .8%respec vely. n the wee , the treasury bills mar et trad ed lar ely bullish across benchmar instru ments with discount rates modera n 22bps and 57bps for 91 day and 3 4 day instruments respec vely while the 182 day recorded 1. % increase in rate. Currently,
the 3 month and 12 month instruments seem the most ac ve on a comparable discount rate basis iven a parabolic discount rate shape across benchmar s. From the avera e T bills rate of 12.1% in the previous Friday, the mar et opened somewhat a sh on onday but sustained a downward trend for the rest of the wee before turnin posi ve on Friday to close at 12.4%. The 12 month instrument was the most ac ve, recordin a discount rate modera on of 57bps W o W. n the absence of the fourth quarter calendar from the C N, we e pect a Treasury bills auc on to be conducted ne t wee Wednesday across the 91 day, 182 day and 3 4 day benchmar s. This will lar ely shape the direc on of rates as investor appe te for hi her yieldin instruments, amid emer in and fron er mar et routs, con nue to shape the demand and supply dynamics. Similarly, O O maturi es totallin N240. bn are e pected to hit system liquidity in the comin wee this is an cipated to shape money mar et rates movement. Foreign Exchange Market: Naira Remains Stable across Markets The ape ban maintained its mar et inter ven ons this wee , in ec n US$100.00m into the forei n e chan e mar et via wholesale secondary mar et interven ons. While the interven on this wee was below trend, the cumula ve e ect of the an ͛s in ec on in the past three months have pressured re serves. As a result, forei n reserves level de clined by 4.8% to US$45.5bn 5th September, 2018 from US$47.8bn recorded on 2nd of July. Consequent on the persistent interven ons, the naira remained resilient in the wee , with the currency tradin at in the parallel mar et W o W at N3 1.0/US$1.0. However, there were mar inal deprecia ons recorded at the
interban and &E windows, where the naira depreciated by 2bps to N30 .20/US$1.00 and 0.1% W o W to N3 2.78/US$1.0. Also, the ac vity level in the &E window improved to US$1.1bn from US$0.9bn, increasin 22.2% W o W. n the F Q OTC futures mar et, the total value of naira se led OTC futures open contracts increased by 3.4% to US$4.5bn rela ve to US$4.4bn recorded in the precedin wee with subscrip ons in JU 2019, AY 2019 and FE 2019 as the most patroni ed. Ne t wee , we e pect the naira to trade at similar levels as C N con nues to sustain interven on in the mar et. n our opinion, con nued interven ons as well as possible ou lows due to poli cal ris will pressure the reserves in the comin months, we believe this mi ht strain C N͛s ability to intervene frequently in the mar et. Bond Market: Bearish Sen ments Persist on Sovereign Naira Bonds There was another non parallel upward shi in the Treasury bond yield curve by the wee ͛s end, as ac vi es in the mar et re mained enerally bearish. Consequently, avera e yield pe ed at 14.9%, represen n an increase of 11bps W o W. This sen ment has persisted over the wee s since the hi e in yields in the Treasury bills A, on the 29th of Au ust, seemed to si nal that mar et yields were on the rise, in line with e pecta ons. Consequently, the number and value of deals recorded on the F Q OTC declined by 5.1% and 1.5% W o W to 844.0 and N409.9bn respec vely. Given the e pecta on that yields will trend upwards in Q4:2018, as the ape authority see s to maintain price stability in the face of hei htenin ris s primarily poli cal and poli cy , we e pect tradin ac vi es to remain focused on the shorter end of the yield curve
consequently e er n upward pressure on yields in the comin wee s. Also, this is e pected to impact par cipa on bid volumes at the primary mar et bond auc on to be held on the 2 th of September for the bench mar 5 year 12.75% FGN A R 2023: Re openin , benchmar 7 year 13.53% FGN AR 2025: Re openin and benchmar 10 year 13.98% FGN FE 2028: Re openin . n the Sub Saharan Africa SSA Soverei n Eurobonds mar et, the vola lity in emer in mar ets has con nued to re ect in tradin on SSA Eurobonds, as yields have con nued to rise, advancin by 5bps across all instru ments Ni eria soverei ns up 8bps W o W . While the economic constraints in Tur ey and Ar en na persist, we e pect appe te for SSA soverei ns to remain tempered. n our opinion, while the conta ion e ect of emer in and fron er mar et routs has re sulted in a moderate slowdown of por olio investments into Ni eria in H1:2018, we do not e pect these to have substan al impacts on Ni eria͛s broader macroeconomy iven the rela ve stability in e ternal economics par cularly steady and posi ve outloo in oil mar et and the commitment of the Cen tral an of Ni eria C N to achieve a stable forei n e chan e mar et. Hence, the Ni eri an soverei n Eurobonds provide a ood op portunity to ta e advanta e of a rac ve prices, with the opportunity for capital ap precia on as mar et dynamics normali e.
Conversely, the Ni erian corporate Euro bonds mar et has witnessed ood levels of buyin ac vi es, which have resulted in aver a e yield declinin by 5bps W o W to 7.5%, with most instruments recordin declines in yields. This may be adduced to the rela vely hi her yields on the assets over the sover ei n. As the spread narrows, we e pect this to temper.
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Brokerage Ayodeji Ebo | aebo@afrinvest.com
Investment Research Robert Omotunde | romotunde@afrinvest.com
Bolaji Fajenyo | bfajenyo@afrinvest.com
Eronmosele Aziba | eaziba@afrinvest.com
30
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
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A
WEEKLY PULL-OUT
09.09.2018
Bolu Akin-Olugbade On Glitz, Glamour and Grandeur ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com
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T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R ˞ ͡, Ͱ͎ͯ͜
COVER
I Have Appetite for the Best Things in Life Cosmopolitan and debonair, Prince Bolu Akin-Olugbade is a perfect blend of inherited riches and self-acquired fortune. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he did not always have everything on a platter of silver. Inventive and dogged, the suave blueblood had to become intrepid, selfless and ambitious to create his world of grandeur. Extraordinary in his appetite for adventures, the rather polite Akin-Olugbade who reeks of opulence unravels his world of fame, fortune and fortitude as narrated by Funke Olaode
T
...With wife,, Ladun
he glitz is apparent. The royalty is implied. The fortune is omnipresent. Luxury is his signature. His presence is golden and the grandeur is out of this world. Like a largerthan-life character, he waltzes out of the majestic Rolls Royce. The calmness of his countenance is devoid of arrogance. Inside, as he sits opposite an exquisite painting, the glitter of his gold chain – that slithers down his neck – illuminates his dark-coloured attire. He flashed a smile and offered his hand in a handshake, revealing what seems like a customised Rolex wristwatch. As the handshake is exchanged, you can feel the luxurious warmth and experience the allure of the gold-diamond rings that impeccably adorn his tender fingers. His subdued flamboyance carries with it royal elegance – of an African prince whose opulence and influence straddle the globe. “What do I have to offer THISDAY Glitterati?� he seems to say as he adjusts the gold-plated frame of his glasses. On him, all that glitters is gold – and you can add that the ones that dazzle are diamonds. For the Abeokuta high chief, it is as the Yoruba are wont to say, ‘Bi ile se ri, awo lati mo.’ (a home of splendour is reflected in a man’s glowing appearance) Without hard feelings, everyone prays to be like him, loves to be like him and craves for his magnanimity – he is respected and courted my many. He is a man of the people, for the people but born of royal and fabulously rich family. Few wealthy men will engender excitement in you like he does. He oozes with class effortlessly and wears luxury like a second skin. Welcome to the world of Prince Bolu Akin-Olugbade. It is all too easy to tag him as a money man; an individual with humongous riches both inherited and acquired. He is one of the richest men in the world. With abundant wealth spanning four decades, one remarkable thing about Akin-Olugbade is his ability to live above scandals and ward off anything that can taint his image. From his posh home, exotic wonders on wheels and his beautiful wife of over three decades, he has a superlative taste for the good things of life. Legendary for his understated but flamboyant dress and grooming, he lives big anywhere he lands in the world. He never settles for less but the very best – in terms of class, taste and luxury. Apart from his love for cars, another passion he has acquired is luxury wristwatches. He has suddenly become a collector of the most exotic pieces. How did he get to the level he has attained today? Did he rely on the family fortune or decide to toe his own path to success? Those who have followed his life’s trajectory in his early 20s when he joined the millionaire club would attest to the fact that everything about the man and his many successes didn’t happen overnight. It takes many years of painstaking hard work with eyes fixed on a brighter future – Akin-Olugbade has always wanted to be his own man. To him, he gets what he wants – not by flaunting his opulence, dropping names or by bullying. But with captivating shyness, an unfaltering courtesy and a conviction that convinces, he has made headways.
Thus at 24, he became a millionaire in 1984. However, his ascendance to the top was hardly borne on the wings of his privileged background. If it has anything to do with his pedigree, the details are probably too negligible to be noted. Meticulous in attitude to life and industrious in his approach to business, Bolu, as Akin-Olugbade is fondly called disclosed that he was forced to be selfreliant and establish his drive for financial independence courtesy of his father, Chief B.O. Akin-Olugbade, who displayed tough fatherly love to him. “My father had two American cars that were giving him problems, so after abandoning them in the garage for a long time, he decided to give them to me,� he said. Ecstatic, Akin-Olugbade took possession of the choice automobiles only to discover that they were more of a liability than he could ever imagine. The cars were fuel guzzlers and in order to cope with the financial constraints imposed upon him by ownership and running of the two automobiles, he approached his father to request a raise in his allowance. He complained that he needed the raise in order to maintain the cars efficiently. But to his chagrin, his father bluntly declined to grant his request, asking him to deal with the problem. That singular act was emblematic of his father’s firm resolve to encourage his children to be responsible and self-reliant. According to Akin-Olugbade, his father persistently told all his children that he had no inclination of bequeathing anything more than sound education to them. “My father made it known to us that he wasn’t going to leave anything for his children and may be, my brothers and sisters didn’t take him seriously, but I did. So, I was determined to make my own money,� he said. Hence, Akin-Olugbade had to get creative and devise ingenious means of dealing with his problems – that was how the entrepreneurial spirit in him was born. Despite being born into a privileged family – as his father was a foremost businessman and politician who was a leader of the opposition in the Federal Parliament – young Akin-Olugbade had to hustle and burn sweat to become successful and ascend the corporate height that he currently occupies. Being ingenious meant he had to tap into his father’s rich business contacts. He was fully aware of his father’s esteemed position as a director in a cement company. Hence, having established contacts and curried favour from his father’s business associates, he began to approach companies who wanted cement and he began to supply them. In no time, he had expanded his business dealings to tomato puree and rice supply. In the course of his hustle, he chanced on his first million naira. It is noteworthy though that at the time he made his fortune, having N1 million was akin to owning an equivalent of $1million – and he was just 24. That same year, he got married to Oladunni, his wife of over 30 years. Besides his enviable business acumen and matrimonial bliss, the business mogul flaunts an expensive taste in fashion and lust for luxury cars. After buying his first Rolls Royce in 1984, he
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R
COVER
Bolu Akin-Olugbade with one of his wonders in wheels
I Am Formidable in Fortune and Fortitude developed an abiding love for the British symbol of elegance and class that he has since acquired 10th of the choice automobile brand including the two latest Rolls Royce Phantom models. His 10th Rolls Royce, the 2019 Rolls Royce SUV called the Cullinan will be among the first to be made by the Rolls Royce Factory in December 2018.Production of the Cullinan by Rolls Royce. Iß fact, he happens to be the first person in Africa to pay for the 2019 Rolls Royce Cullinan and his Cullinan will be the first to be made for African. The luxury car has all the specifications and options and come with a staggering $450,000. The 2019 Rolls Royce Cullinan will be delivered to the business guru in Nigeria in January 2019. The majestic man does not hide his taste saying, “I have different concepts of how I spend money. I spend money on cars because I have always loved cars. I bought my first Rolls Royce in 1984 and now, I am on my ninth Rolls Royce. I believe in dressing well and I travel a lot.” Although his cars come in a variety of colours, one striking feature of the vehicles is the fact that they all have similar number plates inscribed with his first name: Bolu. There is something else about him: Akin-Olugbade professes an intense love for luxury wristwatches. As you read, he owns an impressive closet of the most expensive and rare collection of contemporary and vintage timepieces. You should not raise an eyebrow when he tells THISDAY: “There is a Yoruba proverb that says, ‘If you are going to
Those who have followed his life’s trajectory in his early 20s when he joined the millionaire club would attest to the fact that everything about the man and his many successes didn’t happen overnight. It takes many years of painstaking hard work with eyes fixed on a brighter future – Akin-Olugbade has always wanted to be his own man eat a frog, eat the one that has eggs.’ So, if I am going to buy a car, for instance, why not buy the best.” That explains his exquisite acquisition of and penchant for luxurious cars and pricey timepieces. Ascribing Akin-Olugbade’s rise to the top to his enviable and impressive pedigree alone however, would be tantamount to lumping him in the same divide as several spoilt brats who grew up
without lifting a finger to work. That’s not Akin-Olugbade. The prince is remarkably different. Born on April 2, 1956, he is no stranger to wealth. Yet, his journey to affluence and acclaim was borne on the wings of his relentless will to develop himself, establish his independence and improve his lot without banking on the overwhelming array and import of his father’s wealth alone. Prince Bolu prepared himself well by attending Ivy League schools. He attended Corona School, Yaba; King’s College, Lagos; London University; University of California (master’s in Law); and Cambridge University where he got his doctorate specialising in Company Law. His business interests cut across law, property development, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, maritime and offshore services, investment banking, etc. Having equipped himself with quality education and corporate boardroom exposure, he decided to dabble into politics spurred by an overwhelming ambition to serve and improve the lot of his people. Thus, he ran for president twice. The first time he tried was in 1992. But he had to step down and let go his ambition because the late philanthropist and businessman, Chief Moshood Abiola, was vying for the same position. Again in 2003, he expressed his interest to be Nigeria’s president. Yet, another of his kinsmen showed similar interest in the presidency. The Ogun State native had to kiss his ambition goodbye due to the emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo as a presidential aspirant then. What is responsible for his deep
interest in politics having conquered the business world? Akin-Olugbade disclosed that his interest in politics was inspired by the endemic poverty he sees around him and his belief that Nigerians deserve a better life and leadership. According to him, life is hardly about making money alone but using such riches to impact lives positively. The suave and cosmopolitan prince, who effortlessly occupies a top spot in the league of Nigeria’s richest individuals, experienced a rare epiphany in life when he was diagnosed as having a cancerous tumour. Although it was eventually discovered to be a false alarm, the scary experience drew him closer to God. On the strength of his sterling achievements and citizenship, the illustrious son of Abeokuta was recently honoured with the title of Aare Onakakanfo (Chief of Defence of Owu Kingdom). As the traditionally-crowned generalissimo of Owu Kingdom, AkinOlugbade understands that he represents a symbol of security and strength to his people. He professed unwavering love and compassion for them. He said that guaranteeing their well-being and security remains his utmost objective in life. Such infectious humaneness epitomizes AkinOlugbade’s capacity for love and pursuit of the good of others. As he rises from his seat, following the conclusion of the very brief interview, the suave prince once again offered a handshake. If handshakes are worth their weight in gold, Akin-Olugbade’s will be more than many ounces of gold – plus the glitz and the glitter.
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T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
ENTERTAINMENT
with VANESSA OBIOHA 08081789737, vaysylver@gmail.com, entertainment@thisdaylive.com
John Ugbe
AMVCA:
A Glittering Night When African Stars Dazzle
Dakore Akande
Adekunle Gold
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R
ENTERTAINMENT On a night glittering with well-heeled screen gladiators and professionals on the African continent’s film industry, only one thing was missing: an enthusiastic audience, writes Vanessa Obioha
H
olding the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) event outside its usual season, points to a dwindling sponsorship or the need to reinvent the continental reward platform for the film industry. To a large extent, the sixth edition of the AMVCA did not prove to be overwhelming. For the first time, it got the backing of the Lagos State government. The state’s support shows the present administration’s commitment to promoting the arts and culture industry. Notable brands such as Airtel, Konga, Martell Cognac had visible presence at the ceremony. With the impressive number of sponsors, few changes were seen on the awards’ script. In its usual tradition, the show opened with a cultural performance. This edition saw the filmmaker and choreographer, Yibo Koko, and his cultural troupe perform a snippet of his critically acclaimed ‘Seki’ dance drama. Musical performances from Big Brother Naija 2017 first runner-up Bisola Aiyeola, Falz, Adekunle Gold, Cobhams and opera singer Omo Bello also spiced up the night. However, it was the huge turnout that secured the AMVCA its rightful place as the Africa Oscars. Screen gladiators and professionals in the continent film industry arrived in large droves at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, last weekend, donning iconic pieces as if they were in a competition to outdo their coevals on the red carpet. The fans and wannabes were not left out in the fashion war. From classy to trashy pieces, the AMVCA red carpet was a theatre of some sort. The red carpet bubbled with much frenzy that one expected the main show would be as vibrant. The reverse was unfortunately the case. With the hall filled to capacity, the atmosphere was underwhelming. IK Osakioduwa, who hosted the event alongside
South African Minnie Dlamini-Jones was the first to notice the dullness when he asked them to perform a breathing exercise. The response was lukewarm but the host quickly attributed it to nerves. As the night progressed, it became apparent that the lackluster ambience had nothing to do with the butterflies in the stomach of the nominees. The audience were seemingly waiting for a wow moment that would spark up the night. Sitting through the entire event was more of keeping up an appearance than actively participating in the show. The winners were hardly cheered with few exceptions like Odunlade Adekola and Aiyeola who were dramatic in their acceptance speeches. The audience’s cold reception was very glaring when Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde was announced the winner of the Best Actress in a Lead Role in Movie/ TV Series category. Only few members of the audience cheered. The reaction could hardly ignite a spark, despite the fact that it was her first AMVCA trophy. Their reaction could mean either the thespian had few fans in the hall or is envied by her colleagues at the gathering. It is often whispered in the industry that the Nollywood actress hardly celebrates her colleagues. Could this be payback time for the superstar of the night? While the hosts did an excellent job in entertaining the audience with their charm and wit, the organisers, MultiChoice and Africa Magic, may however revisit the boardroom and look at innovative ways to keep the audience entertained for its over three-hour duration. The Dramatic Kenyans The Kenyans who took home trophies were very dramatic in their acceptance speeches. Mark Maina, who won the Best Picture Editor in Movie/TV Series for the movie ‘18 Hours’, couldn’t help thanking all his family members for their support. Bubbling with excitement,
he told the gathering that he recently became a parent and his son is four months old. Nyce Wanjeri, who took home the trophy for Best Actress in a Comedy, was more ecstatic that it was her first nomination, her first win and, of course, her first time in Nigeria. It was however the Kenyan filmmaker, Phoebe Ruguru’s childlike mannerisms that elicited laughter from the audience. Apparently tensed, she kept turning and shuffling her feet throughout her acceptance speech. IK couldn’t resist teasing her as regards her gestures. First-timers Mania First time winners are always a delight to watch because of the exciting ways they express their joy and surprise. The 2018 AMVCA had its share of first-timers euphoria. From Bisola’s dramatic enthusiasm when she was announced the winner of the Trailblazer award to Adekola and his entourage’s solidarity display. There was also Ngozi Obasi — winner of the Best Costume Designer category — who just lost her mother but in ‘Naija spirit’ decided to attend the event. At last, Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson finally knew what it felt like to win an AMVCA trophy. Fighting tears, she told the audience that each time she lost out in the awards, she pretended to be happy for the winner. Funny Presenters It was selfie time when veteran actress Ngozi Nwosu who featured in the Airtel data TV commercial waltzed on to the stage to present the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or TV Series which was sponsored by the telecom brand. The catchy phrase ‘selfie time’ was used in the advert. Comedian and actor Charles Inojie also injected his viral pidgin expression, ‘Na dem dey rush us’ during his award presentation. Known for their humour, actors Toyin Abraham and Adekola spiced up their presentation with a light banter in Yoruba
language during their presentation of the award for the Best Indigenous Movie or TV Series in Yoruba language. Memorable Performances Award-winning artiste Cobhams got a standing ovation when he performed a spontaneous remix of his single, ‘One Hit’. Playing with notable Nollywood characters, he delivered a beautiful performance that brought the house down. Opera singer, Omo Bello, though gave a breathtaking act her art was under-appreciated by most members of the audience. The Wild Child Unleashed He is called a ‘wild child’ for a reason. From the beginning to the end of the show, IK served witty jokes, including a shot at Senator Dino Melaye, whom he advised to try the sound and sight business since music isn’t his forte. At a point, he flirted with a married woman in the audience until her husband who was seated next to her, pulled her into his arms for fear of IK’s Midas touch. Again, he echoed publicly his desire to act alongside Nollywood star actress, Genevieve Nnaji. Praise for African Creative Industry Most of the awardees of the night spoke passionately about the continent film industry. Ex-footballer Segun Odegbami who represented Tunde Kelani, the recipient of the Industry Merit Award told the audience that the film industry is on the verge of a renaissance, “a new black civilization is about to launch”. Falz Preaches a Better Nigeria While accepting his award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or TV Series, the ‘This is Nigeria’ crooner urged the audience to get their PVCs and vote in the upcoming elections if they want to see a better Nigeria.
Falz
TEAM ASSITANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE REPORTER VANESSA OBIOHA DESIGNER WAHAB AKINTUNDE THISDAY ON SUNDAY EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS WALE OLALEYE TOBI SONIYI THISDAY NEWSPAPERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO
IK Osakioduwa and wife
Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi
Phoebe Ruguru
DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE
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T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
GLITZ FOCUS
Orakwue
Amaka Orakwue
One Woman, Many Dreams Despite her long battle with myasthenia gravis, it has never limited Amaka Orakwue, founder of STRUGZ – Safe Haven – from reaching her potential. A woman of many parts and feats, Orakwue is shrewd and selfless, writes Funke Olaode
H
er gaze, comportment and physique could be mistaken for a trained broadcaster who has spent over a decade on life camera. And on second look, her intimidating and attractive statures depict a Nollywood diva. But none of the above descriptions match the Anambra born lawyer who is quietly making her own mark in her profession. Orakwue has a long battle with myasthenia gravis, auto immune related issue which causes weakness and rapid fatigue of muscles under voluntary control. According to expert, treatment can help, but the condition can’t be cured. But rather than resign to fate or wallowing in self pity, Orakwue like a brave solder in the battle front has been able to confront the disease and forge on winning laurels and impacting lives. A visionary woman who always aims for best, Orakwue’s hard work has earned her various awards. The most recent was the prestigious 2018 African Entrepreneurs Merit Award that she received alongside Unity Bank, Bloomberg Properties and Constructions, Hon. Emeka Anohu, Homes & Homes/ Crusteam Group and among other prominent organisations in Nigeria and beyond. The African Entrepreneurs Merit Award is a platform that recognizes African entrepreneurs and corporate institutions that have distinguished themselves in their contributions to the growth and Development of MSMEs in Africa. The organisation has grown to earn significant recognition from the public and private sectors as the voice of African enterprise and professional excellence in Africa. It has a reach of over three million strong African-owned enterprises cutting across 15 countries with the largest population of young entrepreneurs in Africa making African Entrepreneurs Foundation a driving force in the development of African enterprise.
As a lawyer, Orakwue wears many caps. The STRUGZ founder is also a blogger, public relations manager, business and real life issues coach, entrepreneur and a legal/business consultant. Aside from being a mentor and a public speaker, she also organizes training and seminars for start-ups and entrepreneurs across different sectors. Orakwue parades an enviable academic pedigree. She has a bachelor in Law from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Bachelor-at-law (BL) holder from the Nigerian Law School, a master’s degree in Oil and Gas Law and in Legislative Drafting from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. She is however, a result driven projectmanagement professional with project management certification Prince II obtained from People Cert -Knowledge Train Limited, London, United Kingdom. Orakwue has certification in radiation protection and safety course in oil well drilling rig operations, in conflict resolution skills for difficult solutions and is also a member of Professional Negotiators and Mediators. She has more than seven years’ experience in legal and business consulting. She has worked with several organizations both as a Lawyer and as a business analyst. She has handled different successful projects within Nigeria. As someone who has lived with myasthenia gravis, she established the Tener Cansado, a foundation that is focused on helping patients with myasthenia gravis and other auto immune related issues. Orakwue said: “Knowing the struggles I have passed through as a Myasthenia Gravis patient and how expensive it is to purchase the drugs and get proper neurologist care, and the thought of people who would not be able to afford these medications nor afford a neurologist consultation influenced the foundation. “So, I decided to start a campaign to
educate people about Myasthenia Gravis, fund research to find a cure and encourage patients on living their best lives despite their challenges and weakness. Information is power and the will to win has helped me a lot, so I want to share my winning strategies.” She added: “In all, I’m thankful to God. I am very empathetic to those going through the same experiences and that’s why I am very passionate about The TENER CANSADO Foundation which helps individuals living with Myasthenia Gravis and other auto immune related issues. I have several notable accomplishments in my career and in my business. Probably, the most notable accomplishment in my career was being part of the team that drafted and delivered on the Physical Planning and Development Law 2015 for Bayelsa State Government. This project gave me an opportunity and a platform to actually utilize my M.Phil in Legislative Drafting, and horn in on my research skills. “While my greatest accomplishment in my business, I would say, is seeing a client’s brand that I manage, scale through the competitive market. Also, my ability to turn my brand STRUGZ into a diversified brand has been short of amazing to me. Thanks to God Almighty, especially how we keep evolving. I’m excited about the future and can’t wait to share with the world our new project that is launching very soon.” As Orakwue continues to record successes in her calling, she is equally fulfilled in her various activities which revolves around creating opportunities for people, including the less- privileged. “Touching lives and making positive impacts in people’s lives is my own little way of changing the world from my little corner,” she enthused. One of the exciting things about Orakwue is that she is a humble and loyal person that believes in lasting relationships. She listens to people in order to understand and know how to confront their issues. Her ability and knack to infuse positive energy and clear insights in a
crisis is astounding. Orakwue explained: “With modesty, I can call myself a solution provider for both clients and people I come in contact with. I am your goto girl whenever you find yourself in a crisis.” As a corporate person, she equally belongs to many reputable associations like the Nigerian Bar Association, Association of Professional and Mediators (Alternative Dispute Resolution), Federation International de Abogadas (FIDA), International Federation of Women Lawyers and the LLM Society, University of Aberdeen. But if there is anything that agitates her mind right now, is how the judiciary can be more effective particularly in criminal justice and women issues under the law. “My priority right now is to improve the performance of the criminal justice system in Nigeria by ensuring that defendants do not have to spend too much time awaiting trial. I also intend to create and introduce a new system where women can get formal and legal education on divorce and settlement options,” she said. As the founder of STRUGZ and The TENER CANSADO Foundation, another project tagged Beyond Beauty Pageant is also in the offing. The project will be commissioned in September. The pageant, she disclosed, is not the regular beauty show witnessed in Nigeria. According to her, the event is designed to empower women between the ages of 21 to 40 with skill-sets. The BBP project which is owned and sponsored by Blak Beach Entertainment, is a new and emerging entertainment outfit poised at redefining acts of entertainment in Nigeria with a core focus on pageant, music and art. However, the dream of Blak Beach Entertainment is to Redefine pageantry in the world stage, given women more voice and hope through BBP project, which will also project the image of Africa through content delivery. “I am happy to be part of another lifechanging experience,” Orakwue said.
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R
GLITZ FOCUS
Olanrewaju Howells
Using Real Estate to Promote Agro-Tourism There was nothing about his early beginnings that suggested he would dabble into agriculture. His father was a surveyor from who he learnt the ropes of the business from a tender age. Today, Olanrewaju Howells is using real estate to promote agriculture and tourism, writes Vanessa Obioha
B
ut by the time he gained admission into Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Olanrewaju Howells, the CEO of Beyond Building, a premium real estate investment company, found himself studying a different course: Mass Communication. The decision was deliberate as he believes that communication goes beyond journalism and is a prerequisite skill in any business. While in school, Howells involved in different businesses, not out of necessity but out of foresight. He already had his future plans mapped out. “I started entrepreneurship from my school days. I did a lot of trading in computer and laptops, built my first shop in my first year in school. At a point, it was tough for me to balance studies and business,” he disclosed. By 2012, he founded his first business, Rent Masters Realtors, a real estate company that provides standard and trusted housing solutions in Nigeria and Africa. The firm still operates under the parent company, Beyond Building which was founded two years ago. He added, “Beyond Building came after Rent Masters which was a platform that pioneered online rentage. We felt people were tired of going through the arduous task of checking out apartments from one agent to another. As the company started to grow, we went into different areas.” One of such areas is agriculture. A shrewd businessman, Howells and his team saw a golden opportunity five years ago when the industry experienced a little challenge. “Five years ago, the industry experienced a little challenge. There was a boom and everybody started doing the same thing and I felt like we needed to do something different from what everyone was doing. We felt the need to explore and do new things. Agriculture was one of the options available but we didn’t want to start setting up farmlands. Rather, we looked at the challenges faced by people that are in that part of real estate. We discovered that the age of an average farmer falls between 50 and 55. Looking at the population of Nigeria and the fact that we have many youths, our findings revealed that if we continue in that pace, in the next 15 years we will be in serious problem. What will happen to the industry when these present farmers get very old? “We also realised that mechanised farming can only be done by the emerging middle class and these people need to have a certain level of interest. We didn’t want them to get involved because people are talking about it. We needed them to be genuinely interested in the field. Having at the back of our minds that the middle class are well exposed professionals with regular jobs, we knew there must be a certain level of structure to entice them to explore this real estate platform. We came up with the initial plan to build a system that will make the middle class go to farming by making the land available
Howells
and bringing it closer to them,” Howells pointed out. That feasibility study gave birth to Varden Farms, a real estate investment for those seeking to generate revenue through agriculture in a tranquil environment. Howells kicked off his new plan with the Varden Farms Scheme in Epe in 2014. The scheme sold farmlands to investors and provided consultants to help them set it up. However, in 2016, the Ogun State indigene took a step further by launching the Varden Farms and Resort – a major tourist destination that intends to offer its customers several services to meet the huge demand gaps and create wealth through agriculture. The overall goal, according to Howells, is to make agriculture attractive to youths. “We discovered from the scheme that most of the farmers couldn’t stay on the farm. Our concern in the first place was how can we encourage the middle class, the youths to go into farming. The Nigerian economy was initially built on agro. It means that people who used to push it are no longer pushing it and the second generation are not so deep into it. They don’t even have understanding of how it works and they feel like it is a dirty work. We need to look at all these factors. So Varden Farms and Resort is where you
farm and you still feel like you are in your luxury apartments,” he explained. The Agro-Tourism destination also goes beyond farming. They are into processing, distribution and storage. There are also concerns about the quality of food produced which Howells said is paramount to him. “We are also key on organic. We are looking at processes to make sure that most of these livestock, veggies are very organic. The high rate of health issues in the country today is a result of the number of processed and imported foods we consume on daily basis. We are having a lot of health crisis today. We are not here to provide just a platform for people to invest in agro or start farming, we are taking into consideration the way it can affect the health and lifestyle of the people involved. The farmer is playing a very crucial role in the health of the nation because they produce what the nation consumes. It is important that this farmer is clear on anything he does,” he stated. Howells further expressed great optimism that agriculture will yield more revenue for the economy than oil. “Without a doubt, agriculture can be to Nigeria what oil is. We have the records even in recession agriculture was not part of the sectors that was affected. If we increase capacity, we have what it takes to make agro, much more than what oil
I started entrepreneurship from my school days. I did a lot of trading in computer and laptops, built my first shop in my first year in school. At a point, it was tough for me to balance studies and business,” he disclosed. By 2012, he founded his first business, Rent Masters Realtors, a real estate company that provides standard and trusted housing solutions in Nigeria and Africa. The firm still operates under the parent company, Beyond Building which was founded two years ago is. We have the best arable land. Nigeria is the only place in the world where you can throw a corn seed on any ground and it will fertilize the following day without cultivation. We just need to have more purposeful leadership and build systems that will not only help farmers but encourage more people to enter the sector,” he noted. For Howells, there is no big difference between real estate and agriculture. He said, “What separates farm and real estate is the use of the raw material. The raw material is the land and real estate is the land. What you use the land for is what people give title to. I can decide to use my own land to build a house, someone else can build a church or a park or a market. The land is an estate, an embodiment of agro-tourism.” There are plans to set up Varden Farms and Resort in other parts of the country such as in the northern and south-western region. For now, it is available in Epe. Howells also revealed that very soon there will be Varden Shops available in selected areas in Lagos where people can shop healthy foods. The outlets are part of his empowerment programme to engage 5,000 youths in the sector.
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Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651
SOCIETY WATCH
Anita Anyanechi Celebrates The name Anita Anyanechi
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may not ring a bell. But her outfit, Posh Secrets, is one of the leading lingerie and wears stores in Nigeria today. Since she opened the luxury store located in the highbrow Lekki axis of Lagos in 2014, she has earned a reputation for quality and excellence. Little wonder , Posh Secrets is a beehive of activity, as top fashionistas and celebrity women For Anyanechi, there is so much to thank God for, especially as she recently turned 40. In celebration of God’s grace in her life, she rolled out the drums to celebrate the landmark occasion; it was indeed a moment to step back in time and reflect on the life journey so far. The private breakfast to mark her birthday was attended by friends and family members who turned up resplendently to honour her invitation. Expectedly, it was an unforgettable breakfast of fun, as guests had more than enough to eat and drink. She also used the occasion to visit one of the old people’s homes, while also putting smiles on the faces of some physically challenged ones.
Ajimobi’s ‘Kurukere’ Moves At the moment, tongues are wagging about the game plan of Oyo State Governor, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi. Known to be very controversial, Ajimobi is reportedly making surreptitious moves to extend the olive branch to his alleged critics within the APC as 2019 elections draw near. Until this peace moves, the governor has reportedly engaged in a lot of war of words with several individuals and institutions. First, he once had a face-off with students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, over the closure of the institution for eight months. It will also be recalled that the forceful elevation and installation of 21 new Obas in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, had drawn the ire of many who believe it is the sole responsibility of the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji. Few weeks ago, the demolition of the Juju musician, Yinka Ayefele’s radio studio
by Ajimobi had drawn criticisms from people across the country. In the wake of the backlash, Ajimobi in his political permutations immediately retraced his steps by making reconciliatory moves to meet and reach a settlement with his perceived political enemies ahead of 2019 as he is running for a seat in the Senate. After meeting with Ayefele to agree on terms of settlement, penultimate Sunday, he also attended the 90th birthday party of the Olubadan. At the event, both Ajumobi and Sen. Rashidi Ladoja, whom he has been having a running battle with, hugged each other amidst cheers from their supporters. Ajimobi has shown that though he may not share the same ideology with most of his critics, he is ready to reconcile with them. It is all in a bid to achieve his political ambition come 019.
EX-SPEAKER, DIMEJI BANKOLE’S FATHER’S PAIN This is not the best of times for Chief Alani Bankole, father of a former Speaker of House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole. The Bankole patriarch has been having a running battle with the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, over a landed property that has been allegedly acquired illegally by the state government. Society Watch gathered that since the property situated at Plot 1,Block V1, Ibara Commercial Centre, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State was taken over by the Amosun- led government two years ago, Bankole has been most troubled. The former All Nigerian Peoples Party chieftain filed a suit against the state governor before an Ogun State High Court and won the first round of the battle. However, Amosun was said to have kicked, as he has headed for the Court of Appeal, seeking to set aside the ruling of the lower court. It was also gathered that Bankole, the Oluwo of Iporo Ake, has vowed to fight the battle to the end even with the last drop of his blood. In an effort to regain his land, Bankole has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, claiming that Amosun has deployed policemen attached to his office as security on the property with the commencement of a project on the site by the government.
Anita Anyanechi
Alani Bankole
PRINCESS FIFI EJINDU’S PRIORITY Offiong Ekanem Ejindu, popularly known as Princess Fifi Ejindu, is rated as one of the most glamorous women in Nigeria today. She understands what it takes to look good and oozes a peculiar aura of self-assurance that is found only in few women. She is also revered for having excelled as an architect of repute in a profession widely considered as male-dominated. A very vivacious and brilliant lady, Fifi has never been known to occupy herself with doing common things. She dines and wines with kings and rulers around the world. Her contact base is said to be inclusive of world financial
Cecilia Ibru’s Other Unfinished Business As the managing director of the defunct Oceanic Bank Plc, Cecilia Ibru had her hands in so many pies. She was the toast of many in the aviation and real estate sectors, either as a direct investor or as an indirect player through one of her proxies. She reportedly targeted lucrative high-end properties located in cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. For this reason, she formed relationships with anyone who could offer her not just a congenial friendship but also a profitable business deal. It was gathered that when she approached some property owners in the posh district of Ikoyi, where she needed
Ajimobi
a few plots to erect a high rise, she found a listening ear in Mrs. Oseni, the widow of the late Tunji Oseni , ex-press secretary to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Their meeting soon yielded fruits with a property on Adeyemi Lawson Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. However, just as the papers were about to be signed, the EFCC swooped on the former banking guru throwing a spanner in the plan. Consequently, Cecilia quickly hopped away from the transaction, leaving the widow bewildered. The property as disclosed to Society Watch has been wasting away as the two partners seem to have completely forgotten about it.
Cecilia Ibru
power brokers. Before now she was also an amazon in the social circles where she dictates the rules and the moves. ‘’She leads while others follow,’’ a source revealed. However, the beautiful woman is said to be slowing down on her social activities, in order to enable her focus on her assignment as a member of Akwa Ibom Foreign Direct Investment, FDI. This makes the cosmopolitan woman to traverse the world, making contacts and negotiating on behalf of the state government. It was gathered that her efforts have resulted in the upsurge of foreign investors who have reportedly been swarming around the state like bees to
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Oil Mogul, Otedola Excited If a horse, as the Yoruba would say, could walk in the belly of oil mogul, Femi Otedola, and his beautiful wife, Nana, it would not stumble as they are experiencing the proverbial Seventh Heaven. This feeling of excitement played out last Monday when their daughter, Temi, graduated with honours in History of Art from the University College of London. The billionaire business, expectedly, was in high spirits over the successful completion of her daughter’s Bachelor
degree. Temi and siblings have always made their parents proud in all their endeavours. His daughters, Wunmi, Ife and Temi, are in their own world pursuing various ambitions. Under the guidance of their parents, they seem to have taken those ambitions to enviable heights within a short period of time to the amazement of many. No doubt, they are a pride to their loving parents. Wunmi is literally having a sizzling romance with soul music. The “Don’t Break My Heart” crooner went into music
after her first degree in Psychology and Philosophy at the St. Andrews University and a master’s in Music at the Vocal Tech in the United Kingdom. Ife, popularly known as DJ Cuppy, is a delight on the turntable. Her dexterity has earned her accolades as well as popularity in and outside the country. Like her sisters, Temi is also doing her father proud. A fashion enthusiast, she owns JTO, a fashion blog, where she expresses her fashion, art and photography adventures.
Adeleke
Again, Dance of Joy for Ademola Adeleke
The Otedolas
nectar. No one will ever forget her 50th birthday bash in Dubai in a seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel. After six years, it still remains a reference point among socialites in Nigeria
For those who know him very well, Afolabi, CEO, SIFAX Group, does not like to do his things in half measure. Whenever he has a cause to engage in celebration of life, he goes the extra mile to ensure its success. No wonder, he is said to be making frenetic preparations to play host to family, friends and business associates,
as his son, Yinka Afolabi, is set to wed his sweetheart, Bisola Omisade, next Saturday. It was gathered that the wedding is coming a few days after the traditional engagement in Ibadan Oyo was held yesterday in Ibadan Oyo State. The reception is scheduled to take place at Harbour Point, Victoria Island. As gathered the party is expected to be a show of class, pomp and ceremony. The soft-spoken young Afolabi is in his early 30s and the first born of the billionaire. He works in one of his father’s companies. He also owns the Grill outlet located on Alexander road, Ikoyi. Afolabi, an Executive Director at SAHCOL, is a well-trained professional
Ejindu
Yinka Afolabi and Bisola Omisade
GLITZ, GLAMOUR AS SIFAX BOSS, TAIWO AFOLABI’S SON, MARRIES
with over 20 years’ experience in the maritime and shipping industry. A phenomenal personality and exceptional achiever, his drive, dreams and determination are a veritable case study for those who truly desire to break limits in the quest for superlative attainments. Through precepts, talk and walk, he has shown that there is no other way to genuine success than hard work, doggedness and tenacity. No doubt, his wealth of experience and organizational prudence have remained invaluable assets to the Sifax Group and the nation’s business terrain where is fast becoming a leading and shining light.
Can you blame Senator Ademola Adeleke if he embarks on a marathon dance now? The Ede, Osun State-born fun-loving lawmaker is ready to dance his heart out, especially now that a High Court sitting in Osogbo dismissed a suit challenging governorship candidacy on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, for the September 22 election in the state. The Presiding Judge, Justice David Oladimeji, dismissed the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs withdrew the case against the light-complexioned Adeleke. The plaintiffs, Oyetunji Suredi and Mr Olagboye Adedamola, had on August 20 approached the court challenging the candidacy of Adeleke. Following the victory, the coast is now clear for him to pursue his ambition to govern Osun. Since the socialite became a senator, following the death of his brother who represented Osun East Senatorial District, he has shown belief in the words of Mark Twain: ‘’Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.” Until his emergence as a senator in last year’s by-election in the state on the platform of the PDP, many had sneered at and even called him unprintable names. But he has remained unperturbed. His father, the late Chief Adeleke, who was Balogun of Ede, was a senator on the platform of the Obafemi Awolowo-led Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN. His elder brother, the late Isiaka Adeleke, otherwise known as Serubawon, was also a senator. If by any chance he wins the governorship election, he will become the second person to rule the state after his late brother who was the first executive governor of the state in 1991. In the face of this, he pinned his hope on his family, who are a force to be reckoned with in Ede politics, his home town.
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SOCIALMEDIABITS While the President was far away in China, a past Vice President challenged the current one and tremors were felt in Abuja. It was all on social media...
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igeria’s President Buhari started the week attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)summit in China. He spent the better part of the week there. In his absence, the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo and a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had a debate about restructuring which each one schooling the other on social media. Prof Osinbajo was also under the spotlight as he launched “Trader Moni” in Iwo, Osun State, a product through which traders could access loans of up to N10,000 at the first instance. Of particular interest was the fact that Osun State would be electing a governor in two weeks.. There was a debate on twitter if it was voter inducement or just a harmless coincidence. Especially as the VP later launched in Abuja.
And the President was still in China when a group decided to step in and buy his presidential nomination for him in an apparent response to the president’s complaint that the forms were too expensive for him to purchase with his salary. However, the President has been advised to refuse the offer because it flouts electoral rules which peg individual and group contributions to election expenses of a candidate to N1million. Around this same time, the Abuja home of 91 year Edwin Clark was raided by the police. The IGP later denied knowledge of the incidence which many on twitter either failed to believe. MR Clark, a Niger-Delta advocate believes the raid was ordered by highly-place officers and not the low level Cont’d on pg 81
with DEMOLA OJO demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com
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SOCIALMEDIABITS guys that were sacked. Then tremors hit Abuja on multiple days which got many wondering what exactly was going on. Social media is the place to find reasons, from the intellectual to the hilarious. A parody account of President Buhari in particular, found a way to lighten what must certainly have been a worrying event. Therre is no cause for alarm according to the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency. None of the above should worry billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola who “works hard and plays hard”. According to his instagram account, he is off on vacation for the next three months. In his absence, his DJ daughter took his ultra expensive Mercedes
SLR Mclaren for a spin. The businessman offered to sell it the hyper car which if you didn’t know, is a more advanced version of a supercar. If this sale goes through, we suspect it will be at a huge discount. Elsewhere Wizkid was breaking the internet stepping out as Naomi Campbell’s date (yes, the same one) for the GQ Man of the Year awards. Certainly, tongues will wag, which is great for an entertainer, as it keeps him in the spotlight. Which is where Papa Ajasco is returning to, considering he’s teaming up with Charles Okocha who has somehow, managed to create far-reaching trends from comic skits on instagram.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R
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SOCIALMEDIABITS guys that were sacked. Then tremors hit Abuja on multiple days which got many wondering what exactly was going on. Social media is the place to find reasons, from the intellectual to the hilarious. A parody account of President Buhari in particular, found a way to lighten what must certainly have been a worrying event. Therre is no cause for alarm according to the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency. None of the above should worry billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola who “works hard and plays hard”. According to his instagram account, he is off on vacation for the next three months. In his absence, his DJ daughter took his ultra expensive Mercedes
SLR Mclaren for a spin. The businessman offered to sell it the hyper car which if you didn’t know, is a more advanced version of a supercar. If this sale goes through, we suspect it will be at a huge discount. Elsewhere Wizkid was breaking the internet stepping out as Naomi Campbell’s date (yes, the same one) for the GQ Man of the Year awards. Certainly, tongues will wag, which is great for an entertainer, as it keeps him in the spotlight. Which is where Papa Ajasco is returning to, considering he’s teaming up with Charles Okocha who has somehow, managed to create far-reaching trends from comic skits on instagram.
ARTS & REVIEW A
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LIMCAF REVS UP, APPOINTS JURY PAGE 69
09.09.2018
TOASTING TO MIKE OMOIGHE’S THREE SCORES Omoighe
EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com
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A painting by Mike Omoighe
Another painting by Mike Omoighe
TOASTING TO MIKE OMOIGHE’S THREE SCORES As activities marking his 60th birthday rev up, Mike Omoighe shares his thoughts on the visual arts with Okechukwu Uwaezuoke
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or Mike Akhaine Osebhajimete Omoighe, the visual arts has been a lifelong passion. Back in his childhood years, he recalled being embedded in an artistic environment. First, there was his father, who was a sculptor. Then, there was this uncle of his, who was a photographer, while another was an architect. Thus, he became convinced about the fact that the purpose of his earthly existence had a lot to do with art. Even so, his actual formal art training began a little later in his life. This was while he was a student at St Gregory’s College in Obalende, Lagos. There, he had the uncommon privilege of being taught art by the revered art icon Bruce Onobrakpeya. A subsequent mentoring by Onobrakpeya’s Zaria Art Society comrade, Yusuf Grillo, further bolstered his confidence. “Yusuf Grillo was the HOD (Head of Department),� he explained. “Other lecturers were Kolade Oshinowo, Paul Igbanugo, Vivian Osemwegie, YAG Lawal and several others. Needless to say, Onobrakpeya, Grillo, Oshinowo, Igbanugo and Ademola Adejumo influenced me and my artwork a lot.� Omoighe, who stomped into his 60th year on July 11, also considers his students at the Yaba College of Technology’s School of Art, Design and Printing as “great influences�. “I have learnt a lot as I was also teaching other beautiful souls,� he said. “I learnt so much from my students, colleagues and the enabling environment provided by Yaba College of Technology Lagos. Hence, my students influenced me as I may have influenced them too.� Growing up in the Lafiaji area of Lagos Island admittedly had its excitements and influences. But, the artist is fascinated by the rich African traditional cultures, proverbs, music and dance performance, philosophy and, recently, the culture of Esan people of his native Edo State. “I'm currently exploring the age
long tradition of extracting dyes from plants for making the Esan cloth and Igbabonelimi Masqueraders’ costumes,� he explained. About two years ago, he held a solo exhibition of drawings and paintings at The Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos, which was titled in his native Esan language, Equal Rights: Unule, Unuile, Ozese. That exhibition, Omoighe said, offered what he called “two viewpoints from my sketches and jotting diary�. The first of these viewpoints alluded to the implication of military rule in Nigeria, which then was a matter of indifference to him until he revisited the jottings, sketches and paintings exhibited, which were in 2005 in a show he titled, Survival Romance. Secondly, the exhibition focussed on the Ukpo-EsanFibre art in the Igbabonelimi masquerader’s costumes, which were recreated and documented in the contemporary medium of paintings on canvas. This, he added, was “to communicate a visual poetry and metaphor as an activist’s social commentary.� Perhaps, the “June 12� riots needed to happen before Omoighe could be roused from his initial apolitical disposition. The outcome of the annulment of that 1993 presidential election, believed to have been won by the late businessman Moshood Kasimawo Abiola, left indelible impressions in his consciousness. A curfew was imposed in Lagos, armoured tanks rolled into the streets, as bonfires and protests added to the pandemonium. According to the artist, he had resorted to adopting what he called “a view point of a ‘child in the wilderness’ in a series of drawings, watercolours, acrylics and oils paintings�. This was while the civil society and both the print and electronic media were feasting on the events. Some of these impressions, which he called “visual narratives� were not only featured at an exhibition he held the National Gallery of Art in 2005, but also at the more recent one he held at The Wheatbaker Hotel exhibition. They also reinforced his belief that artists, as humans, are not immune to politics. “Artists are also Nigerians too. Why not politics if the artist has the muscle to play the game?� After all, one of the surviving Zaria Art Society members, Demas Nwoko, also ran for
the office of the president in Nigeria. Omoighe has since 1986 till date been constantly seeking the happy medium between his job as a chief lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology and his studio practice as well as a slew of other responsibilities. He had on the way to the top held several positions. He has, for instance, been a member of the Academic Board, the HOS Painting, the HOD Fine Art, the Dean School school of Art, Design and Printing, later the Dean, Student Affairs and, currently, the director of the tertiary institution’s Academic Planning Unit. But, his path to reckoning had exactly been strewn with roses. “Life in itself is a major challenge, hence the title of my first solo exhibition at the National Arts Theatre, Lagos in 1982 was Growth and Fear. That's why I love to teach what I know out to others.� He was the president of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) at a time the association was abandoned, making the Nigerian chapter dormant. Nonetheless, he remains grateful to the Almighty that he was privileged to be involved in a lot of artistic activities. “In 1980, I curated the first NYSC artists show in [the Ondo State capital] Akure. Curatorial works weren't even known by most people then.� Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. “Talking about the evolution of art in Nigeria, would be a voluminous book on its own,� he said. “If we create the graph to represent the growth of art and artists in Nigeria, we'll be amazed at the geometrical leap from independence era and beyond.� But, it has not all been a fairy-tale success. For even as Omoighe affirms that art administration befits the consciousness of the people, he holds a cynical view of the endeavour. “Many Artists come to Nigeria yearly from abroad to exhibit because they have a market here. Sophisticated art administration puts few artists up and the rest in abject poverty. When they die of boredom and hunger, the
art administrator go for the art and make them museum pieces. I like the way we are going on without any structure yet. It will grow someday!� On the recent controversy swirling around the Lagos State’s public art projects, he said: “They are trending because they were done at all. If they were not done, we won't have anything to talk about. Public sculptures all over the world have always received comments, positive or negative. The mural paintings that are washed away after one rainy season are not receiving as much comments. Why? Because they are not portraits of notable figures. My only worry is that it is public funds that are being used for the statues. People are yet to grow up to the stage when they will be bold enough to hold their leaders accountable. If the works were done with sincerity, I'm sure it would have been a different matter. The I-don't-care attitude of both the contractors and Lagos State Government is very worrisome.� Still on controversies, conservatives elements in the local art scene were recently leery of the conceptual art forms. But, Omoighe argued that the art form is African. “It is completely at home with us. African art is holistic and solid. It is all encompassing of music, dance, performance, painting, sculpture, textile and all other related components.� He lauded the recently introduced ArtX Lagos and the Lagos Biennial breathing “hope and optimism� into the art scene, adding that they were major catalysts for the creative mind and the entire art community. ArtX, especially, he thought was good for the art market and Lagos. “It was like bringing any art fair to Lagos so that those who have not seen any before can benefit. Great outing. But security around the immediate environment was not too good.� At 60, the artist still sees the future stretched out before him. There can be no question of retirements, for artists don’t retire. “Artists work in their studios till their last day when they drop the body.�
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LIMCAF REVS UP, APPOINTS JURY Okechukwu Uwaezuoke
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or the Life In My City Art Festival, another grand finale and gala night in Enugu looms. Aficionados and habituĂŠs of the annual art festival and competition – better known by its acronym LIMCAF – have good reasons to hope for a better outing for its 12th edition, this year. That is why the festival’s organising committee has rolled out the list of the build-up events to the gala night. It has also expectedly appointed this year’s national jury panel, which will be headed by the University of Port Harcourt’s art historian, sculptor and printmaker, Professor Frank Ugiomoh. A recent announcement by the festival’s art director, Dr Ayo Adewunmi, premised its choice of highly respected academics and reputable studio practitioners on the fact that in view of the festival’s growing stature and continued impressive growth of interest by young artists from all over the country. That should explain why Professor Ugiomoh would be joined by art heavyweights like the Ahmadu Bello University-trained multimedia artist Ayo Aina, the postmodern painter Blaise Gundu Gbaden, a former LIMCAF laureate Ngozi Omeje-Ezema, the Yaba College of Technology-trained artist Odun Orinmolade, the Institute of Management and Technology-based Fide Udenta, the LIMCAF curator Chike Obeagu and the Alliance Française, Ibadan’s director, Nicholas Michelland. Michelland’s presence in the jury panel attests to the contributions of the French to the success of the annual event. For besides the financial and administrative support of the Alliance Française Network, there is also the open endorsement of the event by the French government, which is represented by its embassy in Nigeria. Indeed, the current French Consul General Laurent Polonceaux graced one of the recent grand finales and toured the exhibition with the Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The festival, which was recently hailed by the University of Lagos-based Professor Peju Olayiwola as “a shining example to allâ€?, has always leveraged on this French connection since inception at the Enugu Press Centre in 2007. During its first four years of existence,
it was bankrolled by Chief Robert Orji’s advertising and printing firm Rocana Nigeria Limited. Recall that the idea of the festival itself was mooted thanks to Chief Orji's passion for art-collection. Thus, one man's predilection for the visual arts has turned Enugu into a mecca for artists from all over the country and beyond. Indeed, the pan-Nigerian format of LIMCAF ensures the annual influx of young artists to the serene state capital. These youths are offered the platform to not only showcase and commercialise their works, but also to win prizes and interact with the larger community on both national and international levels. The first four front-runners of the festival's last year's edition were sponsored on a trip to the Dakar Art Biennale, Dak'Art, by the revered best-selling Professor El Anatsui. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka-based Ghanaian-born artist had previously made a handsome cash donation to LIMCAF as an eloquent token of his endorsement. There is, of course, the Pan-African Circle of Artists – otherwise known by its acronym PACA – which lent its expertise and experience to LIMCAF. Indeed, PACA's most prominent members Dr Krydz Ikwuemesi and Ayo Adewunmi were alongside two Rocana staff members
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BRIEFLY Arthouse Foundation Calls For Applications The Arthouse Foundation, an artist residency programme that takes place in Lagos, is calling for applications for its residency programme.The application deadline for this programme is Saturday, September 30. The programme is normally split into three sessions – Winter Session, which runs from January 14 to April 12, 2019; Spring Session, which runs from April 29 to July 26, 2019 and Fall Session, which runs from September 9 to December 6, 2019. The Foundation, which is an arm of the Arthouse Contemporary Limited, offers residency for two artists simultaneously throughout the year in three-month sessions.This is consistent with its aims to encourage the creative development of contemporary art in Nigeria by providing a platform for artists to expand their practice and experiment with new forms and ideas. On the call for applications, it is open to local and international visual artists who wish to engage a new artistic project within the city of Lagos. Each session, artists are provided with a live/work studio as well as a budget for materials and monthly living stipend. Artists develop a new artistic project that is exhibited at the end of the residency programme. Artists will also engage with the public through a workshop, artist talk and ďŹ nal exhibition. Applications can be done through the foundation’s website.
Prof Frank Ugiomoh
Esona Onuoha and Onyinye Igbo among the festival’s first administrative pillars. Meanwhile, the festival’s zonal exhibition has already kicked off in Auchi Polytechnic for Benin-Auchi Zone on Thursday, September 6 and continues at the National Gallery, Uyo for the Calabar-Uyo Zone on Thursday, September 13, at the Alliance Française, Port Harcourt for Port Harcourt Zone on Saturday, September 22, at the Thought Pyramid Art Centre in Wuse, Abuja for Abuja Zone on Tuesday, September 25, at the Alliance Française, Ibadan for Ibadan Zone on Saturday, September 29, at the Thought Pyramid Art Centre in SW Ikoyi, Lagos for Lagos Zone on Monday, October 1 and at the Alliance Française, Enugu for Enugu Zone on Thursday, October 4. It is from these zonal exhibitions that these exhibition that the final 100 works for the grand finale exhibition in Enugu will emerge, which holds from Monday, October 22 to Saturday, October 27. The grand finale and gala night itself will hold at the Institute of Management and Technology’s International Conference Centre’s amphitheatre on Saturday, October 27.
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SEP ÍˇËœ Í°ÍŽÍŻÍś Ëž THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
ARTS & REVIEW\\ANALYSIS
MOURNING THE BRAZILIAN MUSEUM FIRE Okechukwu Uwaezuoke with agency reports
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ot just Brazil grieved. The entire culture world too. According to news reports, the fire had started last Sunday’s evening at about 7.30pm. By that time, the Museu Nacional (National Museum) in Rio de Janeiro, which was housed in a 19th Century former royal palace, had closed for the day. The fire quickly engulfed much of the building, which is located near the MaracanĂŁ stadium and razed hundreds of rooms along with some 20 million artefacts, which according to museum officials accounted for almost 90% of the collection. By Monday morning, most of the museum have been reduced to a smouldering ruin. According to the UK newspaper The Guardian, the Brazilian Culture Minister Sergio Leitao, who spoke to the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, thought that the most likely causes of the inferno were an electrical fault or a home-made paper hot-air balloon landing on the roof. This was even as an investigation had been launched. BBC reported that by the next day, Monday, fire crews still managed to rescue an artefact or a painting while sifting through the charred wreckage. Among the objects destroyed by the fire were fossils, the reconstructed skeleton of a dinosaur, Roman frescoes and pre-Columbian Brazilian objects. It was still unclear if the museum was insured. BBC also reported the Rio de Janeiro's fire chief, Roberto Robadey, as saying nearby hydrants were dry when emergency services arrived, adding that crews had to get water from a nearby lake and from tanker trucks. While Brazilian President Michel Temer was speaking of the government seeking funding from companies and banks to help rebuild the museum, the South American country’s Education Minister Rossieli Soares disclosed international help was also being sought and talks with the UN's cultural body, UNESCO, were under way. Soares had told reporters outside the ruined building that the federal government had set aside an initial 15million reais ($3.6million) to rebuild the structure and restore its collection. Now, it was time for the blame game. The museum’s staff have alleged funding cuts, an allegation the demonstrators who surrounded the museum's perimeter in a symbolic "embrace" on Monday also re-echoed. BBC reported a deputy director of the museum Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte as expressing "immense anger", and accusing Brazilian authorities of a "lack of attention". "We fought years ago, in different governments, to obtain resources to adequately preserve everything that was destroyed today," he was quoted as saying. On the alleged lack of a sprinkler system, Duarte was reported as telling Brazil’s Globo TV that a $5.3 million (ÂŁ4.1 million) modernisation plan agreed in June would have included modern fire prevention equipment, but only after October's elections. BBC also reported the rector of the Rio de Janeiro federal university, which administers the museum, Roberto Leher as saying the community was "very mobilised, and very indignant"."We all knew the building was vulnerable," he had added. Speaking on neglect, Brazil’s iconic novelist Paulo Coelho in an article published in The Guardian of the UK lamented: “Brazilians travel around the world in their millions, visiting fantastic museums like the Tate in London, the Metropolitan in New York, and the Louvre in Paris, which had more than 8 million visitors last year. Yet it is not overstating things to say that Rio – with its panoramic views of mountains, forests and the sea – is the most beautiful city in the world.â€? “So why did the National Museum – the most fantastic museum in South America with its 2m artefacts, its Egyptian collection and the most ancient fossils in Brazilian history – receive only 154,000 visitors a year?â€? he wondered, adding: “We blame the government for neglecting our history. But we, the Brazilian people, neglect it too. Brazil is a
The museum building being gutted by ďŹ re
Luzia fantastic country, a beautiful country, but it is blighted by the lack of education. Poor people in Brazil do not go to school, let alone to museums. Rich people go to museums – but in London, New York or Paris, not in Rio or SĂŁo Paulo.â€? This destroyed building, he lamented, not only housed the country’s history, it was also part of it since it was the official residence of King JoĂŁo VI, who had fled to South America after Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal. It was from this building, known as Saint Christopher’s Palace, that he operated when he turned Rio de Janeiro into the seat of power for the government of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve. “But now, instead of celebrating the 200th birthday of this magnificent institution, Brazil is in tears because it has burned down,â€? Coelho said. “If this historic landmark symbolised the beginning of the nation, the fire symbolises a country where a lack of culture and education is the greatest problem.â€? Among the museum's largest and natural history collections lost in the fire was the 12,000-year-old remains of a woman known as "Luzia", which APF news agency had quoted the museum director Paulo Knauss as
calling “a priceless loss for everyone interested in civilisation�. “Luzia�, a skeleton traced to the upper paleolithic period, was said to have been found in a cave in Brazil in 1975 by the French archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire. Estimated to be about 11,500 years old, she was believed to be the oldest human skeleton found in the Americas. Controversies still swirled around her origins as some anthropologists think the skull point to a south-east Asian origin. In 2010, the face of the skeleton, which would have been less than five feet tall, was reconstructed by scientists. Besides “Luzia�, there were mummified remains of a woman and two children said to have been donated to Emperor Dom Pedro II, the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, there were also mummified or shrunken heads produced in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin by the Shuar people, in heavily ritualised processes, which saw the skull removed while leaving the skin and hair intact. Then, there were 700 items from Egypt, which included the unopened wooden painted coffin of Sha-Amun-em-su, which was said to be from Thebes and was dated to around 750BC. X-rays of the coffin revealed
that in addition to the body, there are amulets still intact inside the casket. There were yet such Egyptian relics as the 3,000-year-old coffin of the priest Hori and a mummified cat. As for the museum's indigenous art and artefacts collection, established in 1818, it contained an invaluable assortment of art and objects from Brazil’s indigenous peoples. Also believed to have been lost in the fire were the 5,260kg BendegĂł meteorite, which was discovered in 1784 in Monte Santo, Bahia by a boy; frescoes that were believed to have survived the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption; fossil records from the SertĂŁo region of Brazil and a scientific library said to have contained nearly half a million volumes, including 2,400 which have been described as rare works. Brazil, and indeed the international culture community, licked its wounds, even as the full extent of the damage caused by the fire is yet to be ascertained. The tragedy, which the country’s culture minister SĂŠrgio SĂĄ LeitĂŁo said “could have been avoidedâ€?, beams the spotlight on not just the poor maintenance of museums in Brazil, but also in many developing countries like Nigeria.
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Editor:Olawale Olaleye Email:wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com, SMS: 08116759819
IN THE ARENA
INEC’s Bold Move Against Vote-buying The decision by the leadership of INEC to rein in the scourge of vote-buying in the nation’s electoral process is spot-on, writes Olawale Olaleye
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pparently tagging along with public mood, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised to make a statement with the September 22 governorship election in Osun State, first, by arresting and prosecuting politicians who induce voters with money. INEC’s National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu at a quarterly consultative meeting with the 91 political parties, noted that vote-buying was already rebranding the nation’s democracy before the international community. “We are witnessing an ugly trend of vote-buying in recent elections in the country. This is giving our democracy a bad name. There is difference between democracy, – government of the people made by the people and for the people – and plutocracy, which is government by the rich. “We are going to make a big statement with the Osun governorship election by arresting and prosecuting vote-buyers. We can’t carry this ugly trend to 2019 elections,” he said. Although the resentful practice of vote-buying has lived long enough in the nation’s political cum electoral system, it however became a publicly acknowledged electoral culture during the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State. This brazen electoral disposition started to sculpt its way into the nation’s electoral process during the governorship elections of Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Ekiti States. The first time it was test-run in Ondo State was when a former governor of the state, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, sought re-election. It was then tagged ‘yahoo politics’, which encouraged voters to take money from opposition politicians and still vote for him and his party. But by the time voting-buying took a return trip to the state during the election of the incumbent governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, it had taken a rather nuclear dimension as if there was a mandatory provision in the electoral act, which compels the practice. They called ‘di’bo ko se’be’, meaning vote and be able to prepare a pot of soup. Sadly, it didn’t generate deserving public excoriation. It was though discussed, it however got lost in the frenzy of the politics of that election as people would rather talk about the winners and losers of that election than see the threat posed by that action, which of course was not peculiar to any of the contending parties. Eventually, when the vote-buying train berthed in Ekiti, albeit for the second time also, it had further graduated and this time, it was called ‘see and buy’, meaning once a prospective and willing voter is approached, she or he is advanced some money, from where he approaches the cubicle, thumbprints and then flashes his ballot for confirmation and goes back for the balance. The first time Ekiti had a taste of the trend was in 2014, when the outgoing governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose introduced the culture of stomach infrastructure, which in practice, was an offshoot of the traditional vote-buying. Thus, while it was right to condemn a practice that tends to undermine the gains and tenets of democracy by politicians, even more disturbing was that security agencies, the police especially were allegedly complicit as they were said to have provided cover for politicians
Yakubu...stepping out with full force who could afford it as well as voters who were willing. A majority of the report that emanated from the Ekiti election contended that the police were actively involved in the practice of vote-buying, because according to the reports, police not only watched as money exchanged hands at the polling units, they allegedly provided security for both the giver and taker as a trading ground, claiming they were only there to ensure there was no breakdown of law and order. INEC must therefore live up to its billings by making sure the ugly practice does not repeat itself again. It should invoke its statutory powers to tame the growing menace and make sure that examples are set where there are established infractions. In the section that addresses the frequently asked questions on the INEC website, two posers were raised and unambiguous answers were equally given as far as vote-buying or card-buying is concerned. The first question was: Is it legal to induce a voter to vote for someone? The answer provided by INEC was straight to the point and it says, “No. The offender is liable to N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) or twelve (12) months imprisonment, or both.”
The other question raised is: Is it an offence to sell voter’s card to someone else? The answer provided to this is particularly succinct. Here: “Yes. Any person who is in unlawful possession of any voter’s card, sells, attempts to sell, buys or attempts to buy any voter’s card whether owned by him or not, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both.” What this means therefore is that the provision to arrest such a menace has always been there but INEC has never activated it, perhaps, because it has never really paid attention to the weight of threat the culture of vote-buying constitutes to the electoral system. But now that it has fully come out to read riot act against the practice, the electoral umpire clearly deserves some commendation for championing a worthy cause. It must however know that all eyes would be on it and hold it accountable to his words during the September 22 governorship election in Osun State. It is after then it can be said that the commission is truly ready for the general election in 2019.
P O L I T I CA L N OT E S
PIGB: Thrice Unlucky!
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Buhari signing an Executive Order but won’t sign the PIGB
or the third time in a stretch, President Muhammadu Buhari has declined assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), citing as usual, drafting-related issues. Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, in a statement, gave the explanation. Unfortunately, because it is election time and given the no-love-lost relationship between the executive (the presidency to be precise) and the legislature (the Senate more like it), it is difficult to not give attention to some political intrigues that might
have underpinned, in the real sense of it, the decision not to assent to the bill. Sad as it is, here was a bill that had suffered over a decade of political misinterpretation before the current Senate under Dr. Bukola Saraki came up with the idea of breaking down the bill for ease of passage and administration, an idea that was hugely applauded. But again, it might be back to ground zero as a politically displeased presidency would rather trade the joy of the Nigerian people. This, whatever reasons adduced, might count against the Muhammadu Buhari government at its own time.
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BRIEFINGNOTES
Can Saraki Change the Game? With PDP’s current difficulty in choosing a presidential standard bearer from a pool of heavyweight politicians, is Senate President Bukola Saraki by any stroke of chance a game changer to ponder? Olaseni Durojaiye asks
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iven the timing in Nigeria’s political calendar, the gale of declarations to run for the nation’s number one job among top politicians is not surprising even as it is mostly so in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).At the last count, over six tested politicians have thrown their hats in the ring for the PDP presidential ticket and slug it out with President Buhari at the general election coming up next year. The trend is expected given at least two reasons: The signal emanating from the camp of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) suggesting it would not tolerate any other aspirant except President Buhari and the reality that the PDP is the most fertile ground for presidential aspiration after the APC. Besides, it is common practice among political parties to hand an incumbent the right of first refusal, when the constitution gives room for same, a good number of those eyeing the PDP ticket defected from the APC to the PDP when it became apparent that the APC would not accommodate their aspiration. The PDP club of presidential aspirants is star-studded by any standard. They include former Vice-President and perennial aspirant for the nation’s presidency, Atiku Abubakar; President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki; former governor of Kano State and sitting senator, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki; former Senate President, David Mark; former Caretaker Chairman of the party, Ahmed Makarfi; a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa; one time minister and former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido; Governor Saraki...Can he change the tenor of extrapolations of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal and Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed among others who might be pretenders to the governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau over the control of the PDP throne. The line-up, indeed, will make the race tough among all. structure in the state. From the North West, arguably the hotbed of the nation’s Kwankwaso, a serving senator and former Defence minister politics, are Kwankwaso, Makarfi, Turaki, Bafarawa, Tambuwal, enjoys immense popularity in the state through his Kwankwasiya Lamido and Baba-Ahmed. In the North East is former vicemovement but his popularity is being eroded by his defection to president Abubakar, while Saraki and Mark come in from the the PDP and his long absence from the state in the aftermath of North Central geo-political zone. his political battle with Ganduje, leaving a mass of his erstwhile Ordinarily, the factors that would determine who gets the PDP followers vulnerable and not as loyal to his cause as they used to ticket would include geo-political zone, candidate’s marketability be. He has not been to the state for a long time now and was even and acceptability, demonstration of understanding of current unable to declare his presidential bid in the state. political realities as well as the dynamics of political horse-trading. Markafi is also seen as another strong contender for the party’s Age is quite a determinant too. ticket. The conclusion is on account of his political pedigree. He is a The archetypal path would be to pick its candidate from the two-time former governor of Kaduna State, former senator and the North West, given its voting population and which is often the immediate past Caretaker Chairman of the party. highest and strategic, even if contentious. But a political science Analysts believe he has built up a strong structure and network teacher at the Lagos State University opined that the time requires of political associates while leading the party in furtherance of his the PDP to think outside of the box if it must choose a standard presidential ambition like Baba Gana Kingibe famously did in the bearer capable of unseating president Buhari at the general run-up to the June 12, 1993 presidential Elections, which eventuelection. ally got him on the SDP ticket alongside the late MKO Abiola. According to him, “The PDP needs a paradigm shift if it must Importantly, Makarfi appears to be siffering trust issues in the PDP. unseat President Buhari. It would amount to shooting itself in the He is largely seen as a Buhari person and might work against the leg if its candidate is chosen from the North West geo-political zone chances of the party. from where the incumbent president comes from.” There are also Turaki and Lamido. While Turaki, from Kebbi The don’s perspective was in consonance with a growing State, appears to be one beautiful bride among a section of party sentiment among Nigerians, especially of Northern extraction. elders and faithful, including a former president, according to The sentiment noted that, except for Abubakar Tarawa Balewa, media reports, he is however considered a dark horse in the race all of the country’s democratically elected presidents of Northern particularly among the major party financiers. extraction had all come from the North West geo-political zone. THISDAY also gathered that that Lamido’s ambition was dead They include Shehu Shagar, Umaru YarAdua and the incumon arrival. One source said, “Lamido is not in contention at all. bent, Muhammadu Buhari. Apologists of the sentiment also noted He is an elder of the party and should remain so.” Likewise Baba that the story was the same during military rule, adding that three Ahmed, described by same source as “a Saraki foot-soldier.” of the nation’s past seven military rulers came from the zone and However, two factors would pose a stumbling block in the way that it was time to give the North Central and North East some of the ambitions of aspirants from the zone. Coming from the same positive concession. geo-political zone as President Buhari, a zone considered APC’s Analysts hold the view that looking beyond the North West stronghold. The other, sources within the PDP said has historic would be best for the PDP. Current political happenings in perspective to it, noting that the same zone has always benefitted the home states of the aspirants from the North West favour a whenever presidency is zoned to the North since the advent of the “paradigm shift.” fourth Republic. Findings showed that almost all the aspirants from the zone lack The major odd against the candidature of Atiku Abubakar are the political wherewithal to deliver the region for the PDP at the his waning influence in his home state, neighbouring Taraba State general election, for as long as Buhari is on the ballot. Groundswell and by extension the North East in general. Another factor easily of opposition to the aspirations of the affected aspirants, findings glossed over is the continued opposition to his ambition to rule the also showed, has gravely eroded their political strength in their country by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Either in or out home states and by extension their strength. of the PDP, analysts see the former president as wielding immense Kwankwaso is currently locked in a supremacy battle on two political influence across the country and political divide, albeit fronts. On the one hand with his erstwhile deputy, and incumbent without a base as the case with Buhari. governor, Abdulahi Ganduje and on the other with another former THISDAY findings indicated that the calculations and permuta-
tions among a critical mass within the PDP favour the North Central geo-political zone in the scheme of things. Proponents of this are strident in their push for the ticket to go to the North Central zone. This automatically throws up Saraki and Mark for critical look among the PDP apparatchik. Given this push, many in this camp contended that but for Mark’s late entry into the race and were the ticket to go to the North Central zone, the ticket would have been that of Saraki’s to take on a platter. Even with Mark’s entry, political calculations and the growing call for a much younger candidate that could provide dynamic and progressive leadership, especially among the youth population still favour Saraki. One source contended that “Saraki would be the game changer for us.” Interestingly, notwithstanding his social media hecklers, there is an increasingly growing number of party faithful across the country that are finding the Saraki narrative plausible, adopting it and vigorously pushing for its realisation. Many in this camp argued that he fits the bill. This contention has been helped by the fact that his political profile has been on the rise lately leading to many seeing him as the alternative and positive force to President Buhari. Indeed, the Senate president has been enjoying a good measure of media share and top of mind recall lately even if much of the soaring media profile have been engendered by the APC and the administration, albeit inadvertently. Beyond his media presence, he has always demonstrated admirable political sagacity. The way he navigated the minefield placed in his political path signposted by his travails at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, without being consumed and how he emerged as president of the eighth senate underscored the fact, even showing him as someone ahead and smarter than his opponents. His critics admit that he comes to the table with strong political capital. Cosmopolitan in outlook, his opponents described him as “always calm and ahead in terms of calculation” and has continued to live up to the billing since he succeeded his late father as the godfather of Kwara politics from where he has extended his political tentacles to many parts the country. The age factor also favours him. His youthfulness and vibrancy are also winning him accolades and huge following among the youth population within the party and beyond. All of these, political pundits argued, make him a well-balanced candidate and the PDP’s best option if the party must wrest power from the APC. The calculation has been that Saraki has the zone on lockdown mode and with minimal support from the party machinery he would deliver the zone to the party. Other factors going for him are his cultural affinity with the Yoruba in the South-west and Kogi State, and the bridges he has built over the years would fetch the party significant political dividends across the South-west states. The same applies to the North East, where one of his trump cards will be the interventionist efforts of the National Assembly under his chairmanship. For the very all important North West zone, political strategists insisted the best the party could play for in the zone, even if it chose its candidate from the zone is the mandatory 25 per cent of valid votes cast. According to them, the strategy to adopt for the zone will be two pronged: Deploy local influential party chieftains and community leaders with the right messaging, one of which should undoubtedly be ‘we will deliver more than your son, the incumbent, has done for the zone. The source further explained that “The South-east and the South-south zones are traditional PDP strongholds and that will not change this time around especially given their experience in the hands of Buhari in the last almost four years. The best that the APC can muster in the two regions is exactly what the PDP will get from the North West. The PDP has an added advantage in the South-east though. Thus, with minimal effort, PDP would retake Imo State going by the charade being allegedly orchestrated by Governor Rochas Okorocha of the state and the infighting among the APC leaders in the state.” A Saraki candidature, sources maintained, could make an easy sell. Paired with the right running mate, they are of the view that the PDP would benefit from Saraki’s widespread contacts and associates amongst them former governors, current and former members of the National Assembly as well former ministers, many of whom share his ideals and are quietly discontented with the state of the nation under Buhari.
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Osinbajo and Atiku at a meeting when the latter was still in the ruling party, APC
View Points of the Vice Presidents In this report, Olaseni Durojaiye examines the different positions canvassed by both Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and one of his predecessors, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the restructuring debate Atiku
1) Devolution of power. 2) Matching grants from the federal government to help states grow their internally generated revenue 3) Free economy market driven by the laws of demand and supply. 4) Replacing state of origin with state of residence. 5) Passing the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill.
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ike the proverbial cat with nine lives, the contentious debate bordering on restructuring yet again returned to the front burner of political discourse last week, and this time around, it pitted an incumbent Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo against one of his predecessors in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Not that the debate had ceased to be relevant in the political circle. It was only in the shadow of other political discourse. Noteworthy is the fact that it did not form the crux of the campaign rhetoric by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leading to the 2015 general election. But it has always been the position of the progressives way back in time that restructuring was the way to go. However, Atiku has since made it a major talking point in his campaign to become the president of the country. Also, that the most strident restructuring campaigners have always been the politicians of the progressive inclination to which Osinbajo belongs, the Atiku narrative was expected to have been embraced by all. This is because for a long time, they had insisted that only a holistic restructuring would address the glaring imbalances in the polity. But Osinbajo reignited the debate in faraway the United States while giving a speech in which he reportedly cautioned that “the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring ... and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from geographic restructuring.” In his summation, the vice-president argued that the nation’s major problem was about judicious management of the nation’s resources and added that “it is about managing resources properly and providing for the people properly, that is what it is all about.” The statement elicited a near-immediate response. One of it came from the former vice-president, who seized on the statement and stated that the vice-President got it wrong and insisted that, “it is a surprise that the Vice President would take such a position and, in particular, fail to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance” . But rather than abate, the vice-president elected to ventilate his view clearer in a statement he sent to an online news portal during the week. In the statement, sighted by THISDAY, he acknowledged the quotation ascribed to him and lamented that his “illustrious” predecessor, Atiku didn’t situate his speech in the proper perspective, then went on to detail his role in the restructuring campaign since when he was the Attorney General of Lagos State during the tenure of Governor Bola Tinubu. Specifically, Osinbajo flaunted his credentials as an advocate of restructuring and described his predecessor’s understanding of the debate as “vague”. He stressed that in pursuant of the restructuring agenda, the
Lagos State Government instituted some cases against the Federal Government, some of which the state won with the support of some other littoral states of the federation and stressed that Atiku couldn’t have been oblivious of the cases being the vice-president at the time. The statement read in part: “As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographical restructuring was a solution to our national problems. Geographical restructuring is either taking us back to regional governments or increasing the number of states that make up the Nigerian federation. “As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actually recommended the creation of 18 more states. And I argued that, with several states struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our geographical structure would not benefit us. We should rather ask ourselves why the states are underperforming, revenue and development-wise. “I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South-west zone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and mining, the government funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still giving up fifty per cent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocation to the Federal Government and other regions. “I then argued that what we required now was not geographical restructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal federalism, and a clear vision for development. “As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty and privilege to lead the legal team against the then Federal government, in our arguments at the Supreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would remember these cases on greater autonomy for states that I cite below, as he was vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time. “At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions on restructuring Nigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our late converts to the concept now wish to score political points on.” Hours after Osinbajo’s letter went public, Atiku again fired back. In a statement made available to the media, he accused his successor of trying to re-write history among other things. Like Osinbajo, he also listed his pro-restructuring credentials, including speeches he gave at different times in support of restructuring. In the statement, Atiku accused Osinbajo of attempting “to revise history” on restructuring. In an apparent bid to further espouse his views on the raging topic, Abubakar highlighted six steps, and noted these are the steps he meant when talking the issue. The steps were devolution of power, matching grants from the federal government to help states grow their internally generated revenue position; a truly free-economy market driven by the laws of demand and supply; replacing state of origin with state of residence and passing the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill. In the letter, Atiku stated that “faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the vice-president should not attempt to revise history by saying he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring’. “I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best
Osibanjo
1) Judicious management of the nation’s resources not geo-graphical restructuring. 2) Need for deeper fiscal federalism to make states more viable. 3) Devolution of power including need for state Police. 4) Government’s Social Intervention programmes as evidence of good governance. 5) Being part of pro-restructuring campaign through the courts. of my knowledge there has not been any term like ‘geographic restructuring’. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the vice-president, which prompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.” Continuing, Atiku explained that “I am hard-pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as ‘vague’. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of ‘geographic restructuring’ whose meaning is hanging in the air. Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice-President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say: “Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. “Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households. “Finally, while the Vice-President is not exactly correct when he says, ‘In four years from 2010 to 2014, the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, USD381.9billion, by contrast the Buhari administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018’, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right,” he stated. Analysts who have been following the debate between the two eminent citizens maintained that politics is at play. While some noted Osinbajo’s role in the agitation for restructuring, they inferred that his initial statement which sparked the row may have been an unintended slip. They argued that it would have amounted to sheer hypocrisy on his part if he had turned his back on the need to restructure the country, having assumed office as the number two citizen of the country. Interestingly, those that share Osinbajo’s views wanted his opponents to look beyond the U.S. speech and argued that in his statement, he had not only explained his pro-restructuring stance but went ahead to further deepen the discourse. They maintained that he has shown that he has not abandoned the call, rather went ahead to show that restructuring would not yield maximum benefit unless it comes with an attitudinal change to eschew corrupt tendencies. But those in Atiku’s corner accused the vice-president of double standard and insisted he spoke tongue-in-cheek when he described his predecessor’s understanding of the issue as vague. Though observers welcome such an issue-based discourse, they urged that it should be restricted to verifiable facts even as they cautioned the two gladiators to be mindful of their standings and not needlessly heat up the polity ahead of the general election.
THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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Balance of Power: How Comforting Are the Gains? In spite of the defection of former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, to the ruling APC, the balance of power is still fluid, writes Olawale Olaleye
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ome of the efforts by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to make up for its membership losses to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had begun to record some gains too in the last few weeks, following the defections of some PDP stalwarts to its fold. Although it is one thing to welcome aggrieved individuals into a political fold, it is, however, another debate entirely what those new intakes bring to the table in terms of value, which interestingly has formed the crux of the new debate on the current balance of power across the board. A couple of days back, the APC caught yet a big one in the person of former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, after a few days of dilly-dallying with the leadership of the PDP on his demands, which essentially were about the sharing formula of the existing structure in the state. But before Shakarau’s eventual defection to the APC, the ruling party had been able to celebrate, first, the defection of a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, which generated existential debate of morality and double standards. This was immediately followed by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, a former Delta State governor, who allegedly left the PDP, because he was not granted the request of an automatic ticket to the senate. Before the APC celebrated those defections, the PDP had gone to town with the defection of about seven senators, led Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State; President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and a host of their supporters. Quite naturally, this development, which marked significant gains for the PDP, shook the APC to its very foundation and was immediately fired to begin membership drive, which finally yielded the defections of Akpabio, Uduaghan and now Shekarau. However, the eventual defection of Shekarau has been long in coming, much as the ultimate choice of where he stays had been extrapolated to determine in the final analysis, where Kano might swing at the end of the day. Curiously, the defection of Shekarau appeared to have followed a pattern. In the lead up to the 2015 election, he also chose to return to PDP, when his successor, Kwankwaso and others defected to the APC. The problem was also about the structure of the party, which he dreaded being handed Kwankwaso. But as the governor then, it was a battle he could not win against Kwankwaso even though concessions were allegedly made to him, which he frankly turned down. Fast forward to 2018, his choices were again limited by the dynamics of Kano’s politics. He was caught amongst the ‘three evils’ of Kwankwaso, Governor Abdulahi Ganduje and President Muhammadu Buhari. Indeed, the belief was that he could hardly stand the president, a notion which had informed the thinking that he might rather stay back in the PDP to form alliances with Kwankwaso and take on the menace of Ganduje’s APC. But again, as it happened in 2015, the negotiations were not water-tight for him especially the alleged sharing formula. In fact, he was said to have been conceded 51 to 49 this time around, but he wanted more considerations and then, the negotiation broke down and he took his leave. Expectedly, his exit from the PDP had raised concerns especially as it concerned the future of the party in the state. Whilst his collaboration with Kwankwaso would have been deemed a plus for the PDP, it is the same way his exit and eventual cooperation with Ganduje and by extension, Buhari is being deemed a major plus
All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole on Friday paid a special visit to former Governor of Kano state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau for the APC in the all-critical North West state. This is also coming against the backdrop of the fact that Kwankwaso has not been able to visit Kano in almost two years, following fear of violent clashes between his supporters and those of the governor, which had been the pattern since they both parted ways. But clearly, and from all indications, the defection fever is yet to subside from the two parties as they continue to gain from each other whatever they had lost in other respects. This, of course, may not be unconnected to a recent boasting of more defections by both parties. The latest trolling was first served by the APC, when it hinted in an exclusive report published by a national daily (not THISDAY) days back, that five PDP governors were in secret talks with it for a deal that would guarantee their re-election whilst they in turn deliver their respective states for the PDP. However, sensing that such a kite-flying could damage its current standing, the PDP too came out immediately to say six APC governors and 27 National Assembly members were also talking to it for possible cooperation that could take out the APC government of Buhari in 2019. Certainly, this would remain the trend till the election period as office-seeking politicians and other political heavyweights with name recognition, who seek better placement in the current equation, would continue in their game, depending largely on what is on the card.
This, ironically, is yet to alter other dynamics of the game. For example, the fact still remains that the APC has lost face in the Middle Belt and some other parts of the North Central, mostly orchestrated by the unabated insecurity in that part of the country. This position was corroborated recently with a report that the collection of PVCs had suffered greatly in that region following reign of insurgency. Again, the situation has put a lie to the assumption that the Buhari government has won the war against terrorism – either it was technical or outright victory. What this also presupposes is that these parts of the country voted massively for the APC in 2015, not because of Buhari but in spite of him. But now that they seem to nurse a feeling of inadequacy in a government they labored to install, the situation therefore explains the increasing bitterness amongst their people and leaders. Nevertheless, as projected the last time in the balance of power, the truth is that the equation is still very fluid. Nothing is as it is and the much sought after chances do not weigh unevenly on either of the sides except of course they properly analyse and situate their gains respectively. What this means is that the weight of incumbency might not change much in 2019, since the dynamics as so far seen are not the same. With what looks like a close race between the two major parties, not leaving out the evident desperations, the 2019 elections sure still have some more surprises to spring as the countdown inches closer.
NOTES FOR FILE
The Army and Alternative Truth
Buratai
The Nigeria Army has denied a recent report that at least, 31 soldiers were killed when Boko Haram insurgents attacked a military base in Zari, Borno State. The insurgents were said to have stormed the area in trucks, overrunning the military base as well as sacking the entire village. Curiously, the Army has never admitted it came under any such attacks at any time or that it lost a huge number of its men to the attacks, in a manner that presents the Army was untruthful or better still, always comfortable
with churning out alternative facts. There have been many cases of attacks on the Army, either by attacking their operational bases or ambushing them. But each time the reports came out, the military always denied, more or less keen about its image perception than the plight of its men, who are in the firing line. But the truth is that the military cannot continue to dwell on sheer lies at the expense of the lives of its men. It is not sustainable.
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CICERO/INTERVIEW
Onoja: Buhari’s Re-election Already Ordained by God Chief Edward Onoja is the Chief of Staff to the Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. In this interview with Journalists, he spoke on some of the trending issues, both in the state and at the national level. Yekini Jimoh was there. Excerpts:
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ogi State is 27 years old. What is your assessment of the state in terms of infrastructure development? First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the people of Kogi State for witnessing the 27th anniversary of our dear state, the confluence state. Taking a critical look at the state in the area of development, I will like to use Lokoja the state capital as an example of the entire state. Without mincing words, it is the 26th and 27th years of the creation of the state that government began to fix workable street lights. It is the 26th and 27th years of the state as an entity that we began to enjoy adequate security of lives and property across the state. It was when Governor Yahaya Bello came that the state capital began to feel the impact of Hygiene and environmental sanitation that today kept Lokoja neat and clean. Before the coming of the present administration, travellers from the northern parts of the country going to South and East cannot pass through Lokoja without nursing fear of either being kidnapped or robbed. Also since the creation of Kogi State in 1991, it was Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who has made the roads motorable. Even the Lord Lugard House, the seat of governance of the state, where Lugard himself used as office and supposed to be a tourist attraction to the people of United Kingdom, it is in the 27th year of the state that the Government House is being remodeled, renovated and refurbished to be able to receive tourist. We have received the United States Ambassador Onoja...Bello not planning to islamise Kogi to Nigeria, we have received United Kingdom High Commissioner to Nigeria, we received the European Union Ambassador one after the other in stages and phases. Within the first one to Nigeria, we received South Korean Ambassador and we year of this administration, the governor put in place a multihope to receive some others here in Lokoja, the state capital. It is disciplinary team and gave them his manifesto and campaign because the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello has been able to promises, and charged the team to make them into a workable put in place enabling environment. document or roadmap which today is referred to as the new We are able to successfully organise the first and ever investdirection blueprint of the government for delivering accelerated ment economic summit 27 years after the creation of the state. development to every part of the state. So, the question is, have we really utilised the potential which The team, having gone round the 21 local government areas abounds in the state in the last 25 years of its creation? of the state, came out with the blueprint that has five thematic areas of governance, which are Education, Health, Agriculture, By the end of the governor’s tenure, what are your Infrastructure and utility, Youth empowerment and Job Creation, expectations? civil service and pension reform. The state government has At the end of eight years of Governor Yahaya Bello’s done very well on job creation in the last two and a half of the administration, the state will be in the right shape in terms of administration. infrastructure development, quality healthcare centres, quality In agriculture, for instance, the government had established 50 education and provision of basic social amenities all over the state, which the people of the state have been yearning for before metric tonnes per day rice mill at Omi Dam and the cultivation of over 800 hectares of rice farm is already in progress, which has now. generated enormous jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in But the previous administrations failed to do so. Eight years the state. The rice mill will be commissioned in October this year. into governor Bello’s government, the people of the state will Also in the area of security, the government has performed see a working Kogi State, where the civil service will be fully excellently well to the admiration of the people. Before this reformed to truly serve as the engine room of the system. I will administration came on board, the security situation in every see a state where criminal elements will advise themselves to part of the state was so bad to the extent that kidnapping relocate from the state as a result of rigid and strong security became a daily affair with huge sums of money being paid as operations. ransom. We want to see a state where an Ebira man will not think any This administration inherited 169 cases of kidnapping and less of an Igala man or Okun man and Igala man though being within few years, the state government was able to clamp down the majority will not see themselves as superior to other ethnic on them and such nefarious activities disappeared, because of groups in the state. We want to see a state where the people the proactive measures put in place by Governor Bello to make irrespective of their religion and background will put the interest the state safe for the citizenry and prospective investors. of Kogi first over and above any other personal considerations. Beside the purchase of over 200 patrol vans for all the security I want to see an empowered young people whom before now agents in the state, the governor also established military forward were regarded as the ‘boys’ suitable to be used as thugs and operation base at Achoze in Okene Local Government that used instruments of destruction during elections. Before the end of to be the hideout for criminals in central senatorial district of the eight years of this administration, we want the young people to state. This effort will be replicated in Kogi east and west of the be fully engaged with sources of livelihood to make them useful state so that the issue of insecurity would become a thing of the to the society and the state. past. As part of efforts to boost security at the grassroots, the The present administration came to power when the governor engaged and trained 3,500 persons, who are retired country is facing recession, how has the government been security personnel as vigilantes to secure the lives and property able to manage the mega resources accrued to the state? of our people at the rural areas of the state. First and foremost, Governor Bello came to power with plans and agenda to develop the state. He knows where the problems How was the governor able to achieve all these within militating against the development of the state were and he lean resources? researched and unravelled the problems in order to tackle them
It is obvious that any government that has the plan to provide for his people must look inward even in the face of recession. In Kogi State, the governor prioritised internal revenue by strengthening the board of internal revenue. The board, in the past, occupied a four room apartment as office. As a result, most of the staff could not put in their best, because the working environment was not conducive. Governor Bello, in an effort to improve on the IGR of the state, gave the board autonomy to operate, built a befitting office for them within the first one year of his administration. The governor did not stop at that, he employed over 450 young and vibrant citizens of the state to drive the objective of improving the IGR, which today has risen to over 1billion naira monthly against the 250 million naira in the past. The Paris club refund and the bailout was judiciously utilised to clear the outstanding salaries and pensions left behind by the immediate past administration. Again the governor blocked areas, where there are leakages in the system, a typical example is the Lokoja greater water which was established at the contract sum of 6 billion by Alhaji Ibrahim Idris’s administration and using 100 million naira for maintenance every month. In a year 1.2 billion naira is spent and in six years the amount spent on maintenance alone will be far more than the cost of the water project. Previous administrations used the project to siphon fund and under the present administration the sum of 25 to 30 million naira is being used to service the water project to make water readily available for the people of Lokoja. The question now is who was taking the differential of 70 million naira monthly and this is just one out of many that the people of the state are not aware of. Also, many ghost-workers were removed from the wage bill. It is all of these blockages and leakages that enable the government to save money for the projects this administration embarked upon. What is your take on the alleged diversion of N3billion by the Chairman of Kogi State Internal Revenue Service? It is a fake news and outright falsehood to mislead the general public and to tarnish the good image and reputation of the Chairman, Alhaji Yakubu Oseni, who have been putting his effort to improve the IGR of the state. When I read the news in an online platform, as an ex-banker, I wondered how anyone thought such a thing could happen. In fact, the originator of the fake news sat down in one corner of his room and concocted the lies that even himself cannot substantiated. It is not even possible to divert kobo under the watch and supervision of Governor Yahaya Bello, who is a certified chattered accountant, an entrepreneur of high repute. There is no iota of truth and since the writer claimed that the case is before the EFCC, we shall see the outcome. Any time something happens in Kogi State – good nor bad – they attribute it to you. How do you feel? That is what I signed for. I signed to work with utmost sincerity and transparency. It is God, who gave me the job through the benevolencee of Governor Yahaya Bello. If they are satisfied with what I do, I am very okay. I am optimistic that in few years to come Kogi people will reckon with our performance. The 2019 general election is around the corner. What are the chances of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, considering the various defections from your party? Taking a look at the recent bye elections conducted in five states, our party, the APC won four meaning that the people are still with the party. President Buhari, no doubt, has performed creditably well in the areas of security, fight against corruption, making agriculture an alternative to oil revenue, among others. The introduction (implementation) of the TSA policy has helped the country greatly. Today, the nation foreign reserves have improved drastically and the Boko Haram has been reduced to nothing in the north east. Finally, unless President Muhammadu Buhari is not contesting, if he does, I am yet to see anybody in other parties that can effectively challenge him. Defection or no defection, his second term is already approved and ordained by God almighty.
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SUNDAYINTERVIEW Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe
Abdulrazaq-GwadabeGoingBacktoSenate! An Amazon from the North, Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe served as a senator representing the Federal Capital Territory Constituency, between 1999 and 2003, serving on various senate committees. In this interview with some journalists, Including Iyobosa Uwugiaren Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe talks about her plans to return to the Senate with a vision for the people at heart of her ambition. She also talks about her relationship with Chuba Okadigbo and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and how she stood up to Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo
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hen you were in the Senate from 1999 to 2003, what was the experience like? Over the years, because of the way I’ve interacted with people at my job, coming to the Senate and having understood the nature of people from different places, I could easily understand their point of view and where their argument was coming from. But one thing in the Senate, in the very early stage that shocked me into understanding that this place is about knowing how to lobby your fellow people and not assuming that everybody is going to see things with you the same way, was when we were filling our biodata. We had to fill so many things and in one place, they left four spaces for children’s name and I was filling and I could hear one of my fellow Senators calling somebody and saying, ‘Ah, Distinguished, how many lines, there is not enough line here for us’. And the other fellow asked, ‘how many children do you have?’ One said, ‘I have 13’. Another one said, ‘Me I have 26. So, I turned my head just to see the faces of those who had this number of kids. What I took away from that was that I had to map my people there. If I need something to be done in a particular way, I will go for certain people that I know will stick with it and those who will not stick with it and I realized that the number of children you
have and that you’re taking care of will determine your strength in holding onto a bargain or a position on any issue. So, that was the first thing I learnt just by people filling forms and cracking jokes and that helped me throughout my term in that place. The point is that when people have too many baggage - and we are all getting the same pay and allowances – would find it difficult to stick to principles when the heat really comes on because the first consideration for most (not all) would be that, well, this would be a way of solving part of their problem. Some of us who did not have as much children, still had to support people – those who had school fees to be responsible for and all that. These were the kinds of things that came to play when the executive needed to have some voices to disrupt the system within the legislative arm. Some of these things played easily for them to pick up. These were a few things I picked up very early. One doesn’t generalize but I found that the cultural biases largely influenced the makeup of the person. You were very close to late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and even when they wanted to remove him, you were one of the women against his removal. What attracted you to Chief Okadigbo? And were events to be replayed again, will you still stand by the OYI OF OYI, as Okadigbo was
known? I will still vote against his today. The Oyi of Oyi is of excellent mind. I love excellent, intellectual minds. The intellectual sagacity came with some form of arrogance that reflected in his charisma. When you are arrogant with your knowledge, you know what you know and you are not afraid to exude what you know and correct those who do not understand what you know and I like that. But a lot of those who don’t know as much don’t like to be told off. If you find a very intellectual person, he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. So, that may be the only thing that was lacking in him. But nobody is complete. Okadigbo was a man of distinction who knew what he knew and was not bothered about what you said. When we were to vote for the Senate President then, I was looking for somebody that had experience. We were all green coming from nowhere in 1999. They say in a blind man’s land, the person with vision in one eye could see better than the rest of us. So, I pitched my tent with him, as against the others who were running, and, at that time, it was zoned to the Southeast – virtually all those who were elected from the Southeast vied for that position. Mind you, I studied law in the UK and then I came back and did my Masters in Nigeria, and after coming back, I did my NYSC. They posted me to Lagos but I didn’t
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CICERO/INTERVIEW t ‘My Love for the People of Abuja Is Making Me to Go Back to the Senate’ t Continued from Pg. 76 want to do it in Lagos. I wanted to go to the East. Why did you want to go to the East? I wanted to understand another part of Nigeria very well, the language of the people and their culture. I already knew the Yoruba and Hausa. I believe in one Nigeria and I am completely detribalised. So, I really wanted to use that year to learn the language and their ways. I remember my father was saying, ‘I don’t understand you. Everybody is coming to me to help post them to Lagos and you want to go to the East’? Eventually, the posting came out and it was Lagos again, mainly because those who studied abroad are all kept in the capital. So, back to my experience in the Senate: after inauguration, we were cheated out of that game but we stood solidly with Okadigbo, that you cannot start a new democratic process with green horns. Eventually, when the time and opportunity came due to the Evan or Evans issue, we were able to impeach Evans and bring Oyi. From the day we brought Oyi, the debate on the floor became robust. If you don’t have anything up in your head, you will not even dare press the bell to indicate that you wanted to speak. You dare not press that buzzer. I enjoyed it because anytime I pressed the buzzer to speak, I will look to my right and the late Senator Wahab Dosunmu from Lagos, as I’m speaking, Dosunmu will be looking through his rule book to see how to stop me. It was quite engaging. He was from AD but he was not always talking from AD platform. He just wanted to demonstrate that sense of engagement – that’s what made it robust. It was exciting. Sometimes, I was in the front row, and you know when you are presiding and a thought comes and you want to quickly reel out a rule to stop the fellow and you can’t really remember it, I’m there checking and I will take my pen and paper, write the rule number boldly and carry it by my chest and show it to Okadigbo and when he looks and down and he sees it, being of a very sharp mind, he already knows what you’re talking about and he would refer to rule so and so. So, the thing was flowing and the debate was rich and the laws we were making were impressive. Even those who didn’t know as much were lured in and people learned a lot by that. But by the time the politics came in to remove him, we tried hard because what we wanted was to build independence of the legislature quickly so that whoever comes will have an established order of doing things and the respect for that institution. Then, you must admit that once you hear the word Mr. President and Oyi stands up to move, you know that power is moving. That was our experience. The people you served at that time, how come it’s been some 15years now since you left the Senate that you’re staging a comeback, what happened? One of the things I learnt then was that you should always ask your community what they want. Don’t assume that they are suffering. When I was campaigning in one of the communities, I discovered that the men complained that women take hours to go from their home, around 6am, to fetch water in the river; they walk long distance and before they come back, it’s by 11, 12 or even 1pm; and I felt that that was too much. So, I decided that we will attract borehole for them. We did that and I was so excited that we were able to bring borehole. The men were happy but the women were not. They said you don’t like us. I brought you water and you say I don’t like you. They said it’s because you don’t understand. What we had before paid us. I discovered that when they wake up at 6am, they take all their laundry and go to the river. They spend the day to socialize, do all their activities and they enjoy it. The husband and children are there at home and they have fun and when they are done, they now come home with their water. Now, the borehole is right in their nose and I deprived them of such a nice social time. So, they wanted their time and that was it for them. I took away their freedom. So, you don’t always assume that somebody is suffering. Maybe he likes it in that particular way because it comes with some form of consolation which money cannot always buy. When you look at what has happened in the last couple of years, what perspective would you want to present regarding your understanding of why things are the way they are now in NASS and why they should not be this way? It’s all about understanding how the legislature works. It works at several levels. The first level is the chamber and the chamber floor is usually about getting an opportunity to also play to the gallery there, because the spot light is on you and you get an opportunity to let your constituency know you can speak English or you can debate. You get an opportunity to bring up issues that are dear to you or your constituency or some group find in you a role model to push issues for them and that’s the floor. Now, in that floor, you must stop to think how you reflect, collectively, that institution to the world because as you are seated, whatever you are doing, people are watching you and making an impression of our legislative house. That’s decorum. It must be top notch and walking and moving around aimlessly when members are speaking should not really be encouraged. I know people have to ease themselves and all of that. The second level is the debate on bills that that come and one has to be prepared. To be prepared to make sound debate, you must have support staff and you are as good as your support staff. Thirdly, you have the level of your committees and at the level of the committees, the work entails working in your chamber as an individual Senator and working as a collective. If you are not the chair of the committee, your responsibility is still high, as far as the committees are concerned, which is
bringing your wealth of knowledge or discovering and learning about the issues that are before you. If, for instance, you are in the Committee on Railways or Ports, you have to understand how the ports work. You have to understand what are the constraints, how many ports do we have; do we have inland ports; the coastal ports. What are the agencies that operate within this sphere? What are the dangers of government neglect by giving jetties out and privatizing it? Is it good for us? Is it not good? If giving these concessions out, you are not monitoring them, you have this proliferation of arms because anybody can engage any particular jetty and bring anything or take anything out. So, it is your responsibility as a member of that committee to do your research, reach out. At the fourth level, you have the workings on oversight. You oversee by going out to visit the ports. What are you looking for? What you should be looking for at that stage is you have done an appropriation. They have come to you with their budget and you’ve worked on the budget and you allocated appropriation for it. Now, you give them six months to see how that has worked. Then, you go and see the first two quarters. These things that we have given them, how far have they gone with it? What are the constraints; what can we do better? You note it, you ask questions, and you wait for the next budget and ask questions; where did the funds go? Why did you vire? You can sanction them for virement and so forth. There is a lot of work that needs to be done but you must understand it, know what you are going there to do and be equipped to do that. So, what’s with this comeback bid now? I asked myself the same question. But honestly speaking, it’s different. We have watched quietly the system changing in the direction that I never envisaged. I came into politics with a lot of vibrancy. I really wanted Nigeria to be better than the rest. Once you have a strong institution, it doesn’t matter who is sitting on top of the institution, it must be made to work. But as you know, I did not technically lose the primaries in 2003. There was a lot of agitation from the National Assembly for the impeachment of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo at the time and we were the people pushing for it because we felt that he was very unconstitutional in his actions. Every constitution, particularly the Appropriation Act, was always flouted. We worked hard to put things in place and he messed it up. When he came to do his budget presentation and state of the nation address, you will find that what he said never tallied with the budgeting. For instance, that time, you can’t be saying my thrust is agriculture and then you are giving less than N100 billion to agric. You can’t tell me that your thrust is health and you are giving more to defence than health. That’s not your thrust. So, whatever you are saying in the state of the nation address must tally with what you have presented us. So, largely, we now look at your address and say this is where he wants to go and we will help him get there. We tweak the budget in a manner that will reflect the direction that he wants to go and we would want to see the system go and achieve that and we worked tirelessly to do that. But when it comes to implementation, he will now become selective as to which ministry he is going to give funds. If you don’t get money, you can’t do anything. We said, no, if we continue the process this way, we are going to get to a point where some of us that want to see Nigeria do well, we won’t get there. This second term he
is seeking let us ask him not to go. So, we were called to a conference - all the appointees, ambassadors and legislators of the PDP – at the Yar’Adua Centre. Audu Ogbeh was chairman of the party at the time, and they selected people to speak and people spoke. I came up and summarized what every speaker had said. I said we are all going round in circles, we know what the problem is and we know where the problem is. Mr. Chairman, please let us beg Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo not to run for second term in the interest of the country and in the interest of the party. There was an explosion of applause. They forgot that he was seated there. I think somebody must have said something. Somebody reminded us that he’s Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. I responded and said I appreciate that you would rather call him ‘chief’. But for a man to say he is going to give up his life and serve his nation, I think he needs to be honoured and he served his nation and rose to the highest level you can give a man in that military field, general. I think we should honour him by addressing him as General Olusegun Obasanjo. He is just a chief of a small community in Nigeria. But he has risen to the highest level as a general and commander-in-chief of that army. So, I repeat, I am talking about our president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. Everybody clapped for me and then the chairman said to me to go and sit. I sat and that was the nail. So, when it came to time for primaries, I said I won’t give them that pleasure of not seeking reelection, that I will go and I didn’t just want the people to ask in future that why didn’t I go for a second term, then I can tell them why. I’m a fighter, they will hit me but I won’t go out of the way. So, that was what happened. They just didn’t want me to return. At some point you moved to ANPP? It’s good to stand for something. Whatever anybody says, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is standing for something. I was sitting in my house and watching the congress of the ANPP on the TV and Gen. Buhari emerged as the flag bearer then and the next thing I saw, he raised the hand of Chuba Okadigbo, the Oyi of Oyi, as his running mate. I said these are the people I’m going to follow. I think I can work with them to get the Nigeria we want. So, that was how I decamped from the PDP to ANPP. I remember the party was excited and they wanted to give me automatic ticket to run for the Senate. I said no. I didn’t come to run. I came to make sure that we tilt Nigeria in the direction that will yield the best. That’s how I joined the presidential campaign team and we went everywhere. I don’t know if anyone of you has ever been in the political rally of those days with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. You need to understand the following he has. We went to Adamawa. I refused to go on planes because I wanted to see what the road situation is and what the people, their lives, are like. So, we drove all the way to Adamawa. The day the President arrived for that campaign, when we got to the airport, we sat in the VIP lounge and the plane landed. We could see from the window, the human surge compromised the perimeter fence of the airport as sea of heads went to tarmac as if they wanted to carry the plane. The plane came to a stop but you couldn’t see the tarmac. The only thing you could see was sea of heads and the plane like it was sitting on their head. Everywhere on the tarmac was filled with human beings. (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)
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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
CICERO/TRIBUTE
Fifty Nine Glorious Years of Obi Efeizomor 11 on the Throne of Owa Victor Efeizomor chronicles the accomplishment of HRM , Dr. Emmanuel Oyinke Efeizomor 11, Obi of Owa Kigdom, who turned 80 years old in March and 59 years on the throne in September
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hen the people of Owa kingdom in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State gathered on the 6th day of September 1959 to crown a young , dynamic and vibrant prince as the king of Owa kingdom, many never believed the crown would rest on the young king’s head for fifty nine years, moreso when his father and grandfather did not spend up to forty years of age on the throne . The young king , soon after coronation, hit the ground running by deploying his managerial skills in bringing socio-economic and political development to his kingdom and beyond. Born into the Odogwu dynasty , the founder and the first king of Owa Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Oyinke Efeizomor 11, (JP),OON , has shown that he is a servant –leader per excellence. He was crowned the Obi of Owa Kingdom on the 17th Obi of Owa on the 6th day of September 1959. He turned 80 years in March 10th , 2018.
panel on ways of improving/increasing government Tax collection in Ika Division; Chairman Ika Divisional Education Board 1973 to 1975, Chairman National Freedom from Hunger Campaign Bendel State 1974 to 1976, Chairman State Advisory Committee on Education for Citizenship 1977, Chairman Land Use Allocation Advisory Committee in Ika Local Government Area; Chairman Police Community Relations Committee 1985, Chairman Zonal Police Public Relations Committee, Ika, Ndokwa, Aniocha and Osimili Local Government Areas 1987 to 1992; Chairman EPI, ORT implementation committee Ika Local Government area 1987, Chairman Ika MAMSER implementation committee 1987 to 1992, Chairman Committee on Land Dispute in Gbariagolor, Alidinma Scheme 1977 and Vice Chairman Presidential Panel on Warri Crisis 2003 among others.
Recognitions
Background /Education
He studied in Sapele, PortHarcourt, Ibadan, Britain and the United States of America (USA). His exposure and experience equipped him with a clear vision and mission to transform Owa into a kingdom of civilized people and modernized structure. As a result of his wealth of knowledge acquired through aggressive reading and learning, Efeizomor II put in place a formidable administrative structure that attracted followership. He endeared himself to wellmeaning people by working diligently on whatever assignment given to him His commitment to the cause of his people, his determination and perseverance to succeed, his democratic leadership style, his advocacy for genderequality,andhisintel Obi of Owa Kigdom, Dr. Efeizomor II lectualprowess are all worthy of emulation. Owa Grammar School, Owa-Oyibu in 1979, OwaEfeizomor II is seen as a monarch of towering Alero Secondary / Commercial School, Owa-Alero stature. He is one of the most accomplished tradiin 1979, Owanta Grammar School, Owanta in 1980, tional rulers in Nigeria. His achievements during the Owa-Alizomor Grammar School, and past fifty years in office are a testimony to his ability Owa-Alizomor in 1980. He gave active support to to adapt to ever changing social, economic and the establishment of Calvary Polytechnic, Owa-Oyibu political situation. and he is currently a visitor to the polytechnic. He is an icon of compassionate fatherhood whose Right from the time of his coronation in 1959, values would continue to be a good reference point. successive governments and other well-meaning His achievements can be seen in educational deorgansations have never failed to acknowledge velopment of himself and his subjects, mobilization Efeizomor’s immense contributions towards the of Owa communities for self help and community peace, unity and development of Owa kingdom and development, and active support for government to beyond. develop Owa Kingdom.
Philanthropy
Efeizomor II formed, revived, mobilized and supported several community organizations of Ndiowa. Notable among these are Owa Patriotic Union, Owa Development Committee, Owa Youths Association and Boji-Boji Owa Community Development Committee. He is a believer in the developmental philosophy of “heaven helps those who help themselves” By his self help approach many roads, markets etc., were built and expanded. He ensured that educational facilities were made available in his domain. Thus in collaboration with the Christian missions and government; the following secondary schools were founded; Ika Grammar School, Boji-Boji Owa in 1960,
Public Service
He was a member, Western Regional House of Chiefs 1960 to 1963, member, Mid-West Region leaders of thought during the civil war, member Delta State Government delegation to several Northern State of Nigeria 1971 to date, member Bendel State Traditional Rulers Council 1967 to 1991; Director, Nigeria Cocoa Board 1979, Managing Director, Toprest (Nigeria) Limited, Insurance Brokers and firm of Building Contractor 1976, member Governing Council, Institute of Journalism, Benin City 1988 to 1990, Representative on WAEC State committee 1996 to 2004 and member, Committee on misuse of title, Delta State 2000 to 2006 among others. Efeizomor II was Chairman Ika and Asaba Divisional Income Tax Review tribunal 1961, Chairman
Other awards and positions held by Obi Efeizomor II include Grand Patron of Owa Patriotic Union 1959 to date, Patron of Bendel East Cultural Association 1988, patron Izu Umunna Cultural Association of Nigeria, Jos, 1989, Grand Patron, English and Literary Students Association, Edo State University (now Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma) 1990 to 2003; Grand Patron, the Institute of Farmers of Nigeria 1994; Life Patron, Ika Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MPAN); Fellow, the Institute of Farmers of Nigeria Ibadan 1994; National Patron, National Traders and Market Leaders Council of Nigeria 2001 to date, Merit Award for Examination Ethics by Ministry of Education of Delta State 2004, Millennium Excellence Award by front line news media Lagos as the most worthy traditional ruler for the year 2003. In recognition of his contributions to the social-economic development of Nigeria 2004. Obi Efeizomor II was listed in Africa year Book “Who is Who” in 1977. Doctorate Degree in Education by the City University, Los Angeles, California, USA-7th April 1990. Fellow, Institute of Administration Management of Nigeria (FIAMN),Lagos -1992. Conferred with a National honour award of Officer of the Order of the Niger(OON)-2008. Fellow, Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja on 28th November, 2017. In Delta State, His Majesty, Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II was the immediate past Chairman of Delta State Interim Advisory Committee of Traditional Rulers (2002-2006). Vice–Chairman, Presidential Panel on Warri Crisis, 2003.Member of the Project Steering Committee for the Establishment of Multi-Door Court House in Delta State, 2011. First Vice–Chairman , Delta State Traditional Rulers Council, 2012-2015. Member, Governing Council of the Delta State Multi-Door Courthouse. He is the current Chairman, Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers.
Literary Works
His Majesty, Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II, has authored the following publications; Community Development on Owa Kingdom : The Nigerian Factor -1994. Perspectives on Owa Kingship and Kingdom -2004. Patterns of Growth and Development in Owa Kingdom -2004. No doubt, Obi Dr. Efeizomor 11 has contributed over 59 years to building humanity in no small measure and committeemen to socio- economic, political and traditional institutions.
T H I S D AY ˾ SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2018 ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
THE ALTERNATIVE/PERSPECTIVE
with RenoOmokri
Restructuring: How The African Continental Free Trade Agreement Can End The Mediterranean Migrant Crisis
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ake a look at these pictures (here, I showed pictures on the screen of migrants fleeing war and hunger through the Mediterranean in the 1940s). What you see are migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean. No, they are not Africans or Asians. Yes, they are Europeans. And they are trying to crossover from Europe into Africa. It may surprise some of my hearers and viewers to learn that the Mediterranean Migrant Crisis was not always about Africans and Asians making the treacherous journey into Europe via the Mediterranean. There actually was a time in history when it was, in fact, Europeans who were desperate to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Africa. What were these Europeans running away from? They were running away from wars. They were running towards peace. They were running away from hunger. They were running towards food. They were running away from threats. They were running towards opportunity. Between 1936 and 1945, Europe was destabilised by the Second World War and there was mass migration From Europe to Africa and other parts of the world. How did the world respond to that? Europe was in crisis and chaos and the then world power, the United States, knew that if they did not help Europe to recover, the refugee crisis arising from the war and the resultant migrant crisis, would spread to America and end up destabilising them as well. President Truman officially signed the Marshall Plan into law on April 3, 1948, as a European Recovery Program (ERP). That was America’s solution to the situation in Europe. In total, America gave Europe $12.4 billion in aid to rebuild. But there was a catch. The Marshall Plan required the beneficiary nations of Europe to restructure their entire continent so that they could work together as one to receive the aid and put it to good use. Many of us know and celebrate the European Union which has helped unite, stabilise and spread prosperity throughout Europe, although in recent times, some European nations, like Britain, have had a rethink of the Union. What is lesser known is that it was the Marshall Plan that led to the restructuring of Europe. The Europeans had to work together to address the problems in Europe caused by the Second War and that led to their migrant crisis. They set up the Committee of European Economic Co-operation in 1948 to help Europe utilise the money they received through the Marshall Plan. The organisation was so successful in addressing the challenges Europe was facing that the Europeans decided to make it a permanent body. It was through the Committee of European Economic Co-operation, that the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) was created in 1948. It later became the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1961. These bodies ensured that Europe was restructured. These were the precursors to the European Union. It was through these vehicles that ideas like Europe wide free trade and free movement of people became solidified. These bodies insisted that to benefit from the Marshall Fund and later economic aid, their member nations must commit themselves to certain minimum standards which for the sake of time I will summarise as follows. They had to commit to; * Democracy * A Free Market Economy driven by the law of Demand and Supply * A Peer Review system. Within a period of just a decade, all of the countries in the initial European Economic Co-operation had overcome the challenges which caused their migration crisis. They had become middle to high-income economies with high Human Development Indexes. You see, restructuring led to peace and stability. Peace and stability brought with it opportunity and by human nature, you do not migrate away from where peace, stability and opportunity exist. Now ask yourself what is the current Mediterranean Migrant Crisis about? Africans are fleeing war, insecurity, poverty and oppression. They are making the treacherous journey through the Sahara Desert, through the Mediterranean Sea, because they believe they would find greener pastures in Europe. They are seeking opportunities
Buhari that they would not have ordinarily found at home. So how can Africa address its own Mediterranean Migrant Crisis? Africa has to do the same thing Europe did with only some slight modifications to adapt that template to suit peculiarities in our own continental environment. We do not have to reinvent a wheel that has already been reinvented. Continental bodies like the African Union are focused more on political restructuring which in itself is okay. Regional bodies like ECOWAS and SADC are focused on regional integration, which still leaves their parts of Africa vulnerable to stronger blocs outside the continent. I am of the considered view that what Africa needs is economic restructuring. I want to put a fact out there. In 2014, the entire continent of Africa collectively earned $2.4 billion from coffee grown in Africa and exported mainly to Europe. In that same year, Germany alone earned $3.8 billion from processing the coffee it bought from Africa and re-exporting it to other nations, particularly in Europe! What is true for coffee is true for cocoa, crude oil, leather and you name it. Another fact: The EU place a 115.4% tariff on sugar cane from Nigeria. If Nigeria even attempts to refine the sugar cane and sell it as sugar, the tariff jumps to 375.6%. So we are forced to sell to the EU low abs then they can reexport at high prices all over the world. You see, the economic restructuring of Europe is making it so easy for them to generate and distribute economic prosperity within and amongst European nations. Africa must do the same. In the history of Africa, nothing has been as significant in addressing this issue of economic restructuring like the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) which requires signatory nations to remove tariffs from 90% of goods in Africa and to allow free access of people, commodities, goods, and services across the continent. The UN estimates that the African Continental Free Trade Area will boost Africa’s intercontinental trade by 52% in the first few decades, but I am even more optimistic. The African Continental Free Trade Area is very important because whereas almost 70% of Europe’s exports were to European nations, the figure for Africa is an abysmal 18%. Africa has the lowest level of intra-regional trade and what this means is that a lot of our value is going outside the continent. A month ago, I travelled to nine nations. Six out of the nine are in Africa. I was in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. I needed a visa for each and every one of those nations. Incidentally, while I was in South Africa, I met some Americans and Europeans who had visited
some of these nations I had just visited or was about to visit, and they had visa-free access to those nations as well as many others in Africa that I as an African did not have. Can you imagine what that means for trade and tourism and cultural relations? The way Africa is currently set up, it is easier for Europeans to do business with Africans than for Africans to do business with each other! If Africa is to become wealthy, if Africa has to provide the opportunities to her people that will act as a disincentive for them to leave the continent, then Africa’s wealth must circulate within the continent of Africa more than it circulates outside Africa. And on this issue, let me say that I am rather concerned that Nigeria did not join other African nations to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. I think that is a setback. One in four Africans is a Nigerian. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. Without Nigeria in the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, it will not work! If I were to counsel the present Nigerian government, I would urge them to think about the huge benefits to Nigeria. Nigeria stands more to gain from the African Continental Free Trade Area than she stands to lose. The Nigerian authorities must take cognisance of the fact that in 2018, Nigeria overtook India as the world capital for extreme poverty. To Nigeria’s leaders, I say, desperate times call for desperate remedies. Once we have this African Continental Free Trade Area in place, Africans will circulate within Africa because there may not be enough in Africa for everyone’s greed, but there is enough on that blessed continent for each African’s need. Last year, Nigeria imported 17.3 billion litres of gasoline or what in Nigeria is known as petrol, mostly from Asia and the Americas. Nigeria does this because she lacks enough refining capacity. But there are several African countries that can take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area to build refineries that can refine Nigerian crude and instead of importing from outside Africa, the $7 billion Nigeria spends importing oil can remain in Africa and circulate within her economies. In fact, not only would the money circulate within Africa, but it would no longer be $7 billion. It would be less expensive because of the African Continental Free Trade Area’s provision for free movement of people, goods and services. Nigeria would benefit and those other countries will also benefit. A win-win scenario that would increase access to opportunities for Africa. Africa would then be in a position whereby African nations would only source for things outside the continent if and only if it can’t be found in Africa. The fact is that Africa cannot and should not run away from restructuring. Nigeria should join the rest of the continent. Africa, as it used to be was not working for Africans. Africans are intelligent people, but Africa was not running intelligently as a continent. The African Continental Free Trade Area is changing that and Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind or we may soon find that the Mediterranean Migrant Crisis is renamed the Nigerian Migrant Crisis because citizens of other African nations have gone on to prosper because of the ACFTA while Nigeria remains the same. Or even gets worse.
Call to action:
My time is far spent, but here is the thing. Right now, Nigeria is an obstacle to ACFTA. Nigeria is resisting restructuring internally and continentally. You and I know that restructuring is not an option, it is a necessity. So in electing leaders, whether it is for the Presidency or for parliament or for local elections, if you want Nigeria to grow, if you want opportunities to come to Nigeria and Africa, if you want to end the African Migrant Crisis, only vote for leaders with a commitment to and a track record of supporting restructuring, democracy and free markets. You might consider that a small act, but never underestimate the big difference small changes can make.
Reno Omokri
Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years, and other books. Avid traveller. Tormentor of the APC.
S Î Ëœ ͺ͸͚΀ Ëž THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
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PERSPECTIVE
The ConsTrack Solution to Corruption in Constituency Projects Bayo Akinloye
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eported incidents of corruption have been the dominant story of constituency projects in Nigeria. The story is amplified and often gets sensational because members of the NationalAssembly are the focus. In fact, many believe that senators and House members simply just cart the funds into their pockets without executing the projects or at best embark on shoddy implementation. And because it is an annual activity dictated by the appropriation law, legislators have rightly or wrongly been tagged with smears of corruption and embezzlement of billions of naira. Examples of abandoned projects which litter many parts of the country also tend to give credence to the allegations of corruption against lawmakers. Even though the projects are directly implemented by ministries and agencies of government, the allegations have stuck like sore thumb in spite of feeble attempts by the legislators to exonerate themselves from the claims. But the critical question is can we convincingly say legislators are corrupt in the constituency projects programme? Beyond the rumours and speculations, what are the evidences to back up allegations of corruption? Are the projects not visible? If they are, do they approximate to the huge sums expensed? For example, N100billion is budgeted for every year for all 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives to implement constituency projects nominated for the benefits of their various constituencies throughout the country. To address these questions holistically, OrderPaper Nigeria, a multi-platform legislative interface, has put forward a technology based solution to unravel the question of corruption in constituency projects. It is called ConsTrack, a mobile application available on the Google Play and Apple stores with which citizens can track the implementation of the projects. It is an innovative and user-friendly tool that empowers citizens to demand answers from their government in the execution of projects and also give them the authentic window to participate in how they are governed by leaders. The ConsTrack app comes loaded with verified and validated information on the location of the projects, amount appropriated, level of funding provided the implementing ministry, department or agency, status of implementation and the profiles of the legislators concerned. With the knowledge and understanding provided by the app and the ensuing engagements, citizens are able to ask the right questions and #Demand2Know how our commonwealth is being expended by government in the name of constituency projects. A defining feature of the ConsTrack app is that it allows citizens to track and directly report their findings on the projects either by text, audio or videos with their mobile devices in the comfort of their neighborhoods, communities and constituencies. These independent citizens’ reports invariably ignite a chain of updates, reactions and counter reactions from various stakeholders in a continuous stream of engagement. The ConsTrack app is importantly also a veritable platform for legislators to tell their success on constituency projects in
order to provide a balanced narrative and healthy interface between citizens and their elected representatives in parliament. In summary, the ConsTrack app is a tool that cuts through the controversy on constituency projects by disrupting corruption and opacity associated with the scheme in a manner that engenders policy reforms along the lines of transparency, accountability and inclusiveness. It is expected that as citizens sustain interrogations of their lawmakers on the projects, those concerned will be forced in no time to not only respond but step up to seek the inputs of their constituents in the choice and design and even implementation. Speaking on the ConsTrack app innovation, Oke Epia, the Executive Director of OrderPaper, noted that the intervention is intended to raise the bar of citizens’ engagement with government in a manner anchored on informed perspectives and verified data. He said: “The app was designed and developed to appropriately channel the appetite of citizens to engage with government, especially elected officials in the legislature. We see that there has been a lot of allegations on corruption, name-calling and lack of inclusiveness in public projects generally and we think it is better to provide Nigerians a tool in their hands that can gives them all the relevant information and indices to make the right calls on members of the National Assembly with respect to constituency projects. So the ConsTrack app is loaded with validated and verified data on the projects such that constituents know how much was budgeted for the projects, how much money was released, the ministry, department or agency of government saddled
with the responsibility of implementation, the level of work done and we also go the extra mile of seeking responses from legislators to provide a balanced outlook for factual judgments to be made. But a very important and defining feature of the ConsTrack app is that citizens are turned into ombudsmen who have become empowered to oversight the projects directly and input their findings and feedback directly.� Epia called on Nigerians to take advantage of the app which enables them to move from the realm of lamentations and agonizing to organizing based on the trove of factual judgments made, stressing that “as the 2019 elections approach, this is one app every Nigerian who cares about who represent them in the legislature should have in their phones, tablets and other mobile devices.� He expressed appreciation to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for providing OrderPaper the support through the Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement (SACE) project to develop the ConsTrack app at a pilot phase. As citizens engage and measure the performance of their elected representatives through the ConsTrack app, it is expected that the governance landscape in Nigeria will change for the better especially with respect to transparency, accountability and participatory democracy. Like Mr. Epia said: “We now have a most potent tool in our hands as citizens to change the narrative on public projects and indeed citizens-government relations in Nigeria. The first step is to download the app, get informed and start engaging. The days of our elected representatives taking constituents for a ride are now numbered.�
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NEWSXTRA PDP Accuses Buhari of Releasing N16.6bn for Osun Guber Election Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of aiding corruption for allegedly releasing over N16.6 billion Paris Club fund to Osun State in secret. The opposition party made the allegation in a statement its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan issued yesterday, accusing the president and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of illegal diversion of public funds. PDP alleged that its investigation had revealed that N16.67 billion had been diverted to bribe INEC officials; compromise international observers and pay hoodlum contracted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in its plot to rig the September 22 governorship election in Osun. The statement said it was reprehensible that Buhari, whose handlers had been parading him as ‘Mr. Integrity’, could approve such dark scheme to convert funds meant for payment of several months’ arrears of workers’ salaries to bribe electoral officers and pay thugs to foist a rejected leadership on an already impoverished people. It said: “Further investigation reveals that bulk of the money has already been penciled for sharing to APC leaders, especially at the national level, as bribe, to shortcircuit the system to favour
Buhari’s reelection bid, while the people of Osun continue to suffer deprivation. “The PDP has been further made aware of how part of the fund will be moved to private company accounts as well as various hidden locations for the compromised INEC officials and APC leaders. “Indeed, these revelations have clearly shown that the Buhari Presidency and the APC care less about the welfare of Nigerians and have completely sold themselves to sleazes and corruption for selfish gains.” The statement, therefore, asked the people of Osun State, particularly the workers to rise up and reject what it described as “direct assault on their rights, sensibilities and survival as a people, by the APC, which have become notorious” for corruption and subversion of rules. It added that it had been at alert regarding the movement of these funds and other secret deals between the APC and INEC and will not hesitate to expose the INEC officials, including a close relation of the President, who had been the arrow head of plots to rig elections for the APC. According to the statement, the world should note how Buhari and the APC, who were huge beneficiaries of credible elections conducted by the PDP in 2015, are bent at destroying the nation’s hard-earned democracy,
Shekarau: Why I Left PDP Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano Former Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau yesterday said the arbitrary dissolution of the State Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) compelled him to return to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Shekarau, a former Minister of Education, gave this reason while addressing his supporters, who converged at his residence at Mundubawa quarters in Kano metropolis. He said that his decision to leave PDP was necessitated by the failure of the national leadership of the party to resolve the lingering crisis which bedevilled the party after the illegal dissolution of the state executive committee. He alleged that the national leadership had violated the party’s constitution by dissolving the state executive committee without giving any cogent reason. Due to what he described as injustice by the PDP and after series of meetings with stakeholders, Shekarau noted that hedecided to dump the PDP without any formal conditions attached. He said: “Weighing the available three options, that is either to remain where we are, retire from politics or defect to another party. So finally I Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardaunan Kano and my followers have resolved to defect to the APC from today, Saturday, September 8, 2018.” He noted that the dissolution
of the Kano State Executive Committee of the PDP and subsequent setting up of a sevenmember caretaker committee was against the constitution of the PDP. “We have tried our best to ensure amicable resolution of the lingering crisis between our side and Kwankwaso side on the sharing of party positions at the state, local government and ward levels but it failed.” Shekarau said he had no option than to leave PDP because of the inability of its national leadership to respect the earlier court order restraining it from taking the action it took. He promised to ensure that Kano and Nigeria continue to benefit from his wealth of experience in the APC, adding that his defection to APC was not based on selfish interest, but to promote democratic norms. Shekarau said the PDP leaders decided “to have an agreement with the leadership of the Reformed APC. They set up a technical committee of five from among the committee of the PDP. The Reformed APC also set up a committee of five which included Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. “At that level, the R-APC had tendered to the committee some demands. The demands they made included sharing some percentage of the party leadership in the respective states of the defectors and granting automatic tickets to all legislatures, both national and state that will be decamping to PDP.”
just because they have been rejected by Nigerians. It said: “In spite of these machinations, the PDP wants the APC to know that it has not retracted the resolve
to contend with it head to head, in all ramifications and magnitude, to discomfit and dismantle its rigging machinery, beginning with September 22, 2018 Osun
state governorship election.” It commends state governors, particularly a few in the APC, who have spoken out against the sneaky act by the Buhari Presidency, saying the
party will continue to work with the patriotic individuals in the overall quest to free the nation from the shackles and misrule of the Buhari-led APC.
PROMOTING HEALTH RESEARCH
Minister of Power, Works and Housing and Chairman, NIMR Research Foundation,Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), and Chairman, NIMR Scienitic Advisory Board, Prof. Oye Gureje, during a national workshop on strengthening health research capacity held at the Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Abuja on Friday
Moghalu Emerges Young Progressive Party’s Presidential Candidate Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu has emerged the presidential candidate of Young Progressive Party (YPP) during the party’s national convention and presidential primaries. Moghalu, former United Nations official, emerged at the party’s national convention held in Abuja yesterday after other presidential candidates stepped down from the race, noting that his campaign would be designed to build Nigeria. Speaking after he was officially declared the party’s flagbearer to contest for the presidency against the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari, Moghalu stressed the importance of putting the concerns of Nigerians at the forefront of the political
debate. Moghalu noted that the 2019 election would be a choice between freedom and slavery under the current political class, between poverty and real prosperity for Nigerians, and between stability and continuing instability of our country. He said: “Right now, our politicians, having fed fat on our resources, are exercising by practising ‘jumpology’, jumping between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which only tells us one thing: that neither party nor people matter. “In the end, all they care about is what is best for their pockets or their safety from prosecution. It is up to us to make the case that their way does not work anymore; that
it has only left us in poverty and insecurity; that it has led to many fleeing this country because they feel there is nothing for them and their children here.” Moghalu, also, emphasised the need for Nigerians “to ignore the prevalent thinking that things cannot get better, or wishing for political messiahs who promise to set everything right.” According to him, there are no magic wands, but just me, the members of the Young Progressive Party and every Nigerian working to truly transform Nigeria. Moghalu, a lawyer and political economist, was a Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University from 2015-2017.
As a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014, Moghalu led the execution of extensive reforms in the country’s banking system after the global financial crisis. He was a member of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee that brought inflation down to single digits. A global leader with an extensive track record of leadership, Moghalu has made contributions to the stability, progress and wealth of nations and communities across academia, economic policy, entrepreneurship, diplomacy and more. He has taught and inspired citizens from more than 40 countries in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, mentoring men and women for leadership roles in business, military intelligence, non-profits, and government service.
EFCC, Magu Shielding Kachukwu from Prosecution, Says Coalition Sylvester Idowu in Warri An anti-corruption coalition under the aegis of Patriots of Anti-Corruption League (PAL) yesterday alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu were covering up corruption allegation involving the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu. The coalition, also, gave the anti-graft commission a 14-day ultimatum to charge the petroleum minister and six other suspects before a court of competent jurisdiction or it would sue the EFCC and its chairman if failed
to initiate prosecution process. This was contained in a petition by its Director of investigation, Mr. Kingsley Arthur and its Director of Media & Publicity, Mr. Dedekuma Orumbo, alleging that the EFCC had in 2016 investigated a case of suspicious banking transactions, involving companies that participated in petroleum subsidy fraud. Apart from the petroleum minister, the petition seeks prosecution of three other persons: Dumebi Kachikwu, Bukola Ayinde and Ahmed Aminu as well as three companies: Accelerated Building Technologies Limited, Netlink Technologies Limited and Dutchess Energy Limited.
Having concluded its investigation on the matter since 2016, the coalition alleged that the EFCC had foot-dragged on taking the next line of action, which ought to have been the prosecution of the persons and companies involved. It noted that failure of the commission “to take action on the concluded investigation would cast a shadow on the identity of the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s anti-corruption crusade, which had endeared the country and its leader to other developed world leaders. “In your investigation report it is clearly stated that investigations have established the
private account as a conduit and money laundering. It is evident and incontrovertible that there lies therein enough evidence to prosecute these persons in a competent court of law for money laundering. “Mr. Chairman, we are writing to lend our voice of disgust to the delay in bringing these suspects to account. In the fight against corruption in this present administration, there should be no sacred cow. These are the words of President Muhammadu Buhari. It is important all people of goodwill should encourage, support and abide by this and stand with President Buhari.”
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THE COVER
Seiyefa...the new man at DSS
Daura
Rumbles Continue in DSS After Daura’s Exit
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Hitherto known and referred to as the State Security Service (SSS), the Department of State Services (DSS), which is the primary domestic intelligence agency in the country, now operates under the huge influence and undue interference by the presidency, in a sense that undermines both the integrity and credibility of the agency, writes Tobi Soniyi
THISDAY exclusive report of last Sunday, which blew the lid off some alleged clandestine moves to undermine the current acting leadership of the Department of State Service though did not come as a surprise to many, it however generated deserving public opprobrium. This simmering development within the agency is believed to have stemmed from the sudden sack of the former Director General of the agency, Lawal Daura, a development some interests in the presidency were believed not to have envisaged let alone prevent. But since the sack of Daura, which paved the way for Mr. Mathew Seiyefa, the current acting DG, all has not been the same, thus creating the room for different theories about the likely goings-on in the agency. It is the view of a majority of members of the public that the sack of Daura, which though was hurriedly managed, did not receive the much expected consent or approval of President Muhammadu Buhari hence the aftermath of the power play that is presently playing out at the agency. This unsavoury situation is believed to have been exacerbated by the fact that while the inevitability of the takeover of Seiyefa has continued to make the presidency uneasy, the mere knowledge that the next in line to him is also a southerner, is believed to have created staggering feeling of inadequacy in the presidency, which in turn is believed to be responsible for the brazen move to undermine the Seiyefa leadership. Suffice it to say that though the theory of alleged plans to reinstate the sacked DG is more impossible than being given a thought, some of the happenings in the agency have however given fillip to these feelings and in a way, setting the north against the south. Thus, the recent order from the ‘presidency’ asking a reversal of some of the postings done by Seiyefa has not only raised concerns, it has also strongly supported the thoughts that there were moves to bring back Daura and deny Seifeya any opportunity of ascending the office in substantive capacity. This, in yet another sense, appears to support a part of the story which claimed there are already name suggestions to the office of the DG DSS. Even more disturbing is that the DSS has not only bowed to pressure from the presidency by reversing some of the postings, which many have described as a tip of the iceberg, the DSS has also come out to defend the order because it is an agency directly
responsible to the presidency and therefore, lacks the capacity to express independent views. Unfortunately, this has been the lot of the DSS since Buhari assumed office in 2015. The DSS, as it is, has been reduced to a shadow of itself, which is now being used to carry out covert operations that signify danger to national security or threaten the rights of Nigerians or better still, undermine the rule of law. Designed for local intelligence gathering and the protection of senior government officials particularly, the President and governors, the DSS, which is one of the three organisations that succeeded the National Security Organisation (NSO) that was dissolved in 1986 by the Ibrahim Babangida junta, functions albeit by design, as a department within the presidency, placed under the supervision of the National Security Adviser (NSA). For a security agency, whose positions on issues had always counted and whose mode of operations had stood out for all that it was worth, what it is currently experiencing totally falls short of expectations, thus raising concerns about the future of the organisation especially, given the disposition of President Buhari. Until a few weeks ago, Daura who was appointed by President Buhari after the resignation of Ita Ekpeyong in July, 2015, was himself fired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, during a 10-day vacation of his principal and he acted. He was sacked for alleged insubordination and immediately succeeded by Seiyefa. As a highly respected security agency, which always pays attention to details and whose operations always come highly recommended, the DSS has hitherto lived up to billings, it shortcomings notwithstanding. It has constantly adapted to the various roles necessitated by evolving security threats in the country, including counter-terrorism and counterinsurgent and has always stood out. Unfortunately, all of that appear to have taken a back seat since President Muhammadu Buhari mounted the saddle. This is because prior to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, inter-agency rivalry had always been properly managed to the extent that these institutions were not a subject of embarrassment to the government and people of Nigeria. But under Buhari, this is no longer the case. Due to a weakness in Buhari’s style of
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SUNDAYCOVER
Rumbles Continue in DSS After Daura’s Exit
Continued from Page 83
Buhari with Monguno at Federal Executive Council meeting
NIGERIA
government, these institutions have largely become an embarrassment to the government and by extension to the nation. Under previous administrations, the agencies at least recognised and respected the authority of the president to whom they are all responsible. This is no longer so. Under Buhari, every institution has become a law unto itself. A few examples will suffice.
Broken Chain of Command
It was never heard of that the Director General of the DSS refused to report to the NSA. But the Buhari Presidency has allowed this anomaly to stand. This unhealthy situation further emboldened the DG DSS, who then interpreted his powers to be absolute. Since the president did not tell the sacked Lawal Daura that he ought not to only respect the NSA, but report to his office, Daura then decided to dare the president himself. The ugly development naturally created in vacuum in the management of intelligence as everyone seemed to be running their shows regardless of the existing structure. Hardly was the office of the NSA aware of the operations of the DSS and NSA too chose to stay off whatever concerned the DSS, whether or not it was in nation’s interest. However, that the president would not redefine the relationship and situate authorities where they belong, escalated what was ordinarily official relationship to personal affairs as these heads of these offices hardly spoke to each other. Even where very strategic information was passed down and meant to be shared with the other, they would rather sabotage each other at nation’s expense.
in the first instance. In saner climes, which run under due process and the rule of law, such high-handedness would have resulted in the termination of Daura’s appointment as DG DSS. But the president, who would rather pan to clannish sentiments than the nation’s stakes, chose to explain away this embarrassment. This was what former President Olusegun Obasanjo called “nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.” Even though there has been a sustained effort to blame the National Assembly for refusing to confirm Magu’s appointment; that blame should rest squarely with the executive.
Criminalisation of the Judiciary
Before he wrote the letters that have reduced Magu to a mere acting chairman in over three years at the EFCC, Daura had embarked on an ill-fated raids of judges’ houses in a manner many reckoned was clearly aimed at instilling fears in the judiciary and not to fight against corruption. But those who appointed him, rather than call him to order, prodded him on. Operatives of the DSS had between Friday night, and the early hours of Saturday sometime in October 2016, simultaneously invaded the houses of two Justices of the Supreme Court – Justices Walter Onnoghen and Sylvester Ngwuta – as well as two other judges of the Federal High Court, Adeniyi Ademola and Nnamdi Dimgba. Justices Onnoghen, who was then the second in rank and currently the Chief Justice of Nigeria, is neighbor with Justice Ngwuta at the Judicial Officers’ Quarters in Abuja, while Justices Ademola and Dimgba live next to each other at the Apo Legislative Quarters, also in Abuja. The DSS operatives, according to reports, surrounded the judicial officers’ houses for hours before they eventually broke in at about 1am on Saturday. And after searching the houses, the security agents eventually took Justice Ademola away at about 5am on Saturday. The DSS operatives allegedly beat up Justice Dimgba’s brother during the operation. Although reasons for the invasion were not known then during the operations, it was however
a matter of public knowledge that Justices Ademola and Dimgba had both ordered the release of suspects in the custody of the DSS, which the security agency did not comply with.
National Assembly Invasions
As if a systematic clampdown on other arms of government, the DSS under Daura, on Tuesday, August 7, did not have any problems sending his masked men to the National Assembly to take over a sacred institution of democracy and as insinuated, aid the removal of its leadership. Elsewhere, whether in the military or secret services, everyone is under the authority of the police and other civil authorities. But not in Nigeria! In Nigeria, the police cannot arrest a corporal in the army not to talk of a general, who has breached the law even though the laws empower the police to arrest anyone that had committed an offence with the exception of those protected by section 308 of the constitution, which grants immunity. In variance, therefore, the EFCC should also have no problems arresting anyone, who has refused to honour its invitation.
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Magu’s Confirmation Drama
By breaking the chain of command and disrespecting a rather superior office, the DSS became law unto itself, a situation that led to the second example. When President Buhari sent the name of Mr. Ibrahim Magu to the Senate for confirmation as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Daura disgraced the president by writing and submitting to the Senate a couple of contradictory security reports on Magu, depicting him as unfit to head the anti-graft agency. By his action, Daura simply told the world that his boss, the president, was wrong to have appointed Magu
The NIA Mess
In Nigeria, agencies are often prevented from arresting errant members of sister agencies in a manner that demystify the whole essence of the nation’s security architecture. For instance, the commission could not arrest Ayodele Oke, a former Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) after a huge sum of money he left at an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, was recovered. Operatives of the agency stopped EFCC from arresting him. Only for the new DG of NIA, Mohammed Dauda, to further insult the collective intelligence of Nigerians by defending the illegal action of their men. According to him, NIA was a secret service, whose operations were clandestine and highly classified, and so, it arrogated to itself some non-existent immunity. But he should have allowed Oke to go and tell that to the EFCC. As if that was not enough, he also said EFCC should first write to him to ask him to surrender Oke. Under the Nigerian laws, the EFCC does not have to write to him. Oke had even left the service of the NIA. But even if he was still in the service, only courtesy, not law, demands that the institution be informed of such
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SUNDAYCOVER
Rumbles Continue in DSS After Daura’s Exit
Operatives of the DSS at the National Assembly an arrest. This can only happen under Buhari, because everyone has carved out an empire within the nation for him or herself and turned the nation into banana republic. As EFCC chair, Nuhu Ribadu did not have to write to the police before arresting a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun. Dauda also expressed regret that the EFCC under Magu had been hostile to and uncooperative with the NIA, leading to the massive withdrawal of NIA operatives from the service of the EFCC. That is the crux of the matter. Every agency wants to operate above the law. Since EFCC discovered the $43.5 hidden in the Ikoyi flat, NIA had suddenly become both hostile and antagonistic to the EFCC, a precedent set by the DSS, because the same scenario had earlier played out at the DSS. Operatives of the service would not allow EFCC arrest Ita Ekpeyong, a former Director General of the department.
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Between the DSS and the Police
Soon after the fall of Daura, the report authored by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris on the DSS invasion of the National Assembly, which was leaked to the media immediately after it was submitted to the then Acting President Osinbajo left much to be desired. The report appeared to aim at one thing: nail Daura. The report, which was written in very bad grammar, stated that the former DSS Director was playing a role orchestrated by â€œâ€Śhighly placed politicians to achieve selfish political goals hence his unilateral and unlawful decision to invade the National Assembly Complex‌â€? Daura through some faceless associates had since debunked the claim that his decision to invade the National Assembly was at the instance of politicians opposed to Buhari. Sadly, too, the Police had days before the National Assembly invasion blocked the convoy of the Senate President from leaving the residence, in what was the first attempt by the security agencies to aid some faceless politicians to forcefully remove the leadership of the legislature. Typically, the police denied knowledge of the illegal operation because of the public opprobrium it generated and that was the end of it. No one investigate the police and they got away with that illegality.
Imperatives of Rule of Engagement Although the laws establishing these agencies clearly
When the police blocked the convoy of the senate president from leaving his residence
spelt out the powers of each agency, there is an urgent need to come out with clear guidelines on how these agencies interact with one another in a democracy and especially under Buhari. It however appears difficult for those at the top to understand and accept the fact that the nation is no longer running a military regime. There is therefore the need for Buhari to lead by example. There is huge but disturbing politicisation of the various security agencies in the country, the DSS being the most susceptible, even though the police and others are not any better. Importantly too is the disposition to the rule of law. Truth is that whenever a court of competent jurisdiction gives an order and the president not only disobeys the
order, but goes ahead to justify the disobedience, he should not expect his appointees to operate under the rule of law. His body language and personal example are therefore germane to the modus operandi of these organizations, going forward. This, of course, is because of his disposition to the rule of law, as stated by him when he attended the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association, where he canvassed for the rule of law to give way to national interest whenever they clash. Although there is a new DG at the DSS, the president must take interest in the goings on in that all-important agency, before some other mischievous elements in the presidency abuse the privilege of working for him.
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NEWSXTRA Ritual Killings: Over 20 Children Missing in Adamawa Daji Sani in Yola More than 20 children have been reported missing in Adamawa State in the last three months, THISDAY has learnt. Investigation revealed that the state had been receiving several complaints over missing children, which had caused panic among parents in the state. Some residents, who spoke privately with THISDAY, alleged that the incessant abduction of children may not be unconnected with the political activities in the state. One of the residents alleged that the abducted children “are used by some politicians to gain spiritual powers and oust any opposition that
stand on their way come 2019.” Another resident from Yola North Local Government Area, Mr. Usman Aliyu lamented that over 20 children “have been reported missing following their mysterious disappearance and have not returned home to their parents.” He said almost every week, advertisements “are place in the media over missing children and nobody knows their whereabouts. This rampant missing of children have become a serious threats to children’s upbringing in the state”. “Our wards cannot longer move freely due to the political activities because it is
believed that the children are missing because some politicians are using them for spiritual powers to win the coming 2019 general elections,” he alleged. Another source revealed that some people “are heartless to the point that they are kidnapping children for rituals. The security agencies
in the state need to beef up security. They should step up operation to arrest those behind the heinous crime.” Following the development, the State Police Command has alerted the general public over the incessant disappearance of children saying this has become a serious threat to
the citizens of the state. The command in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Habibu Musa urged the residents to be alert and be security conscious due to the rising case of abduction. It urged parents and residents “to be security conscious and be watch-
ful over the movement of their wards. Those related to those that convey their wards to school to and fro.” It urged parents to warn their wards from free rides and receiving gifts from strangers. However the police did not mention the numbers of missing children in its press release.
Fayemi Laments N117bn Debt Incurred under Fayose Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti The Ekiti State Governorelect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi yesterday lamented that the state’s debt profile had risen from N34 billion in 2014 to N117 billion under the administration of the incumbent governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose. However, Fayose disputed a claim that Fayemi left N34 billion before he left office in 2014, noting that he inherited a debt profile of N76 billion from the Fayemi administration. Fayemi disclosed this figure while receiving the report of a transition committee set up to interface with the outgoing administration to facilitate smooth change of government. After receiving the report, Fayemi said he had left Fayose and his administration to God over the alleged mismanagement of state funds and resources. He said the state’s latest debt profile from the Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed that the debt profile increased to N117 billion under the Fayose administration. The governor-elect noted that the new debt profile “is outside arrears of salaries,
pensions, gratuities and money owed contractors by the Fayose administration.” He, also, lamented different constraints the transition committee faced in the process of discharging its responsibilities and some actions taken by the outgoing government after losing the July 14 governorship election. Fayemi, therefore, canvassed the enactment of a Transition Law, which he said, would stipulate the duties of an outgoing administration and an incoming administration to pave the way for seamless transfer of power. He said: “Such is in operation in African countries like Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and other advanced democracies in other parts of the world. The chairman (of the committee) talks about assets and liabilities. That is what government is all about. “Government is a continuum. We are not unmindful of the fact that there will be debts but we are focused on our agenda to make a difference in the lives of our people. So for us, we leave whatever that is done by the outgoing government to God and God will handle that in the best way possible.
TOWARDS HUMANITY
R-L: International Organising Committee Chairman, Rotary Zone 20A Institute, Mr. Michael Olawala-Cole, Local Organising Committee Chair, Mr. Kamoru Omotosho, and Rotary International Director, Mr. Yinka Babalola, at a media parley held in Lagos on the 2018 Rotary Institute on Friday.
Customs Seizes 320kg of Cannabis, 555 Bags of Rice in Sokoto Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Sokoto Command, has impounded 320 kilogrammes of Indian hemp from illicit drug traders, lamenting the rising activities of the smugglers in the Sokoto axis. The command, which comprises Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, also seized 555 bags of rice, 34 bags of sugar and 45 bales of second hand clothing with a duty paid value of over N16 million. The Area Comptroller of the Command, Mr. Gimba
Umar disclosed this at a news conference at yesterday, noting that the illicit goods were intercepted along Argungu/ Kangiwa axis, border towns of Kamba, Dole Kaina,Illela as well as Sokoto/Gusau axis. He explained that the command was able to intercept the illicit goods, following intelligence by officers and cooperation of the police. Umar noted that one of the smugglers attempted to use misguided youths in order to evade customs officers along Kamba border town in Kebbi state.
He said: “As you are, the culprit made attempt to escape when he sighted our officers on the way. In fact, he made a detour 200 metres away from the check point and tried to mobilise youths in Bagudo area to fight our officers. “However, the police intervened immediately and assisted our men in recovering the 320 kg f cannabis, though no injury was recorded,” the area commander said. He acknowledged the synergy between the command and other security agencies in the area culminated in the
seizure of the illicit goods. “The synergy with other sister agencies has been very vital in not only providing us with intelligence but also in the seizure of rice and Indian hemp in the zone.” Umar warned smugglers to steer clear of the zone, noting that the command would deal decisively with anyone found engaged in such acts. The new comptroller emphasised that he would give priority to revenue generation, antismuggling and enlightenment of the public on the fiscal policies of the Federal Government.
2019 Election: Group Urges Religious NAPTIP to Establish Sex Offenders Register Leaders to Ensure Peace The National Agency for She revealed that sex offend- persons. She also said that the Prohibition of Trafficking ers had been caught in shelters NAPTIP wasnworking on a Segun James A non-governmental-organisation, the Legacy Initiative International (LII), has called on religious leaders to play more roles at esuring that peace reigns during the 2019 general election. To this effect, religious leaders across the country will hold a conference in December to deliberate on issues relating to religion and ethnicity ahead. As part of this move, Christian religious leaders meeting will hold within the next few weeks in Lagos while that of the Muslim faith will hold in Kano with the joint meet-
ing of both faiths holding in Abuja in December. This was disclosed in Lagos yesterday by the leader and grand patron of the Legacy Initiative International, Dr. Kenny Martins. He said the initiative was part of the move to ensure that anarchy did not reign in the country as the nation moves towards the general election, adding that religion had been identified as a solution for peace in the country. He said: “We want Christian and Muslim brothers to sit face to face and discuss the issues. The common thread tying both the Christian and the Muslim communities together
is good governance. We want them to discuss this frankly between themselves.” He also said that religious leaders should play a more dynamic role in the selection of political office holders, saying that the spiritual factor was necessary to aid the Nigerian voters enthrone good governance by electing only persons that have been duly vetted into political offices. Also at the briefing were other patrons of the group including Bishop Bayo Babalola, Bishop Oscar Ossai, Prince Chudi Chukwuani and the group’s national secretary, Chief Johnny Ucheagha.
in Persons (NAPTIP), has announced plans to establish a sex offenders register which will contain names of perpetrators. The agency said the sex register, which wouldnbe distributed to relevant agencies to shame offenders and make it easy for agencies to detect perpetrators thereby preventing further cases of sexual violence. The Director-General of NAPTIP, Ms. Julie Okah-Donli said this at the weekend during a stakeholders meeting on the implementation of Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act in Abuja organised by the Rule of Law and Anticorruption (ROLAC).
provided for victims of violence where they continue in their act undetected, lamenting that cases of violence especially against women and children were still on the rise. She, also noted that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) “lacks functional and effective shelters. We need to have effective shelters for victims of Violence in FCT, NAPTIP is doing its best to house the victims for now, but there is a need to establish more shelters to take care of increasing number of victims of Violence in the six area council.” According to her, a lot still needs to be done to prevent cases of violence against
3- digit short code, a number to call for help as regards cases of violence. She said: “Violence goes on as a result of ignorance on the part of the victims. There is therefore a need to create massive awareness, embark on national orientation, because if people don’t know their rights then they won’t know when they are being violated or when to report cases.” She however commended efforts by ROLAC for providing gazetted copies of the VAPP Act of 2015, noting that it was a step forward in ensuring the protection of women and children who are victims of violence in our society.
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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
SUNDAYSPORTS
Edited by Demola Ojo Email demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com
US Open: Osaka Wins First Grand Slam amid Serena Meltdown
S
erena Williams was left furious and in tears after a huge controversy involving a coaching violation as Naomi Osaka won the US Open final 6-2 6-4. Williams was left hugely emotional as she repeatedly confronted umpire Carlos Ramos after he handed her a coaching violation before docking her a point and then a game in a dramatic second set. In what was a massively controversial match, Osaka’s brilliance should not be overlooked as she won Japan’s first Grand Slam title. The 36-year-old, who was targeting a recordequalling 24th Grand Slam singles title at Flushing Meadows, angrily confronted umpire Ramos after being told off for what he deemed a coaching intervention. Serena stormed up to his chair and informed him that she would never deliberately receive guidance from her coach, Patrick Mouratolgou, who was sat in the players’ box. She informed Ramos in strong terms: “I don’t cheat to win! I’d rather lose... I’m just letting you know!” Williams was clearly still fuming as she sat at the changeover at 2-1 up in the second set, before getting a point docked for hurling her racket to the ground. Ramos then sent Williams into a rage when he handed the 23-time Grand Slam champion a game penalty for a string of bad behaviour, including a coaching violation and verbal and racket abuse. Williams then launched a verbal attack on Ramos, demanding everything from an apology to accusing him of being a thief. In a further exchange, Williams again informed umpire Ramos that she is not a cheat and did not receive coaching from Mouratoglou, even adding that she had a daughter so would not
Osaka with the US Open Title
do that. “You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life. I have a daughter and I stand for what is right and I have never cheated.” The confrontation came at a time when
Williams perhaps needed a spark after she lost the opening set 6-2 to the dominant Japanese starlet, but she was never able to recover. But Osaka was somehow able to keep her composure and she closed out the victory with
Williams still unable to gather herself. Despite the enormously controversial nature of the match, Osaka’s stunning triumph must not be forgotten as she claimed Japan’s maiden Grand Slam crown.
AFCON 2019: Super Eagles Thrash Pirates of Seychelles 3-0 Three –time champions African champions Nigeria’s Super Eagles got their first points of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying race on board after beating the Pirates of Seychelles 3-0 in Mahé Island yesterday. Despite opting not to move out of second gear for most of the game due to the delicate nature of the artificial turf at the Stad Linite, the Super Eagles dominated easily and should have won by a wider margin had Odion Ighalo and Kelechi Iheanacho converted some begging opportunities. Midfielder Wilfred Ndidi was the first to confirm the Eagles were in for serious business when his 9th minute shot was headed out for a corner, and two minutes later,
debutant Samuel Kalu waltzed his way past the home defence only to be thwarted. Ogenyi Onazi also saw a shot fly over the bar before Ahmed Musa, Nigeria’s star of the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia and captain for the day, let fly a left-foot rocket that shook the crossbar before hitting the Seychelles goalkeeper’s back to roll into the net in the 15th minute. Defender Chidozie Awaziem was the unlikely source of the second goal, as he reacted faster than the home defence to blast home after a free –kick by Kelechi Iheanacho saw the ball kiss the upright and bounce across the face of goal. Two minutes later, with only the goalkeeper to beat, Ighalo lifted the ball too high for what should
have been Nigeria’s third. The Pirates started the second half with greater enthusiasm but Leon Balogun marshalled a rearguard that was in no mood to concede. In the 55th minute, the ever –lively Musa lifted the ball and shot again with his weaker left, but the goalkeeper was alert to block for a corner. Two minutes later, France –based Kalu, who did his Nigerian prospects no harm with an impressive debut, was upended in the vital area as he went on another breezy run. Ighalo made no mistake from the spot, for Nigeria’s third. Ighalo came close five minutes later but was foiled from doing the simple tap –in from Kalu’s cut –back. Another brilliant Ahmed
US Open: Djokovic Targets 14th Grand Slam against Del Potro Novak Djokovic is one match from equalling Pete Sampras’s tally of 14 Grand Slams after outclassing Kei Nishikori to reach the US Open final where he will face Argentine Juan Martin del Potro today. Serbia’s Djokovic beat the Japanese 21st seed 6-3 6-4 6-2 to set up a meeting with del Potro who advanced when Rafael Nadal retired injured from their semi-final. “It means the world to me. I am trying to be the best that I can be,” Djokovic said. “I am working hard every day and trying to reach certain heights that I visualise every time I accomplish something big. I don’t see any limits. I keep on going and hopefully you are enjoying my tennis.” The 31-year-old moved to within one Grand Slam triumph of American great Sampras by winning
Wimbledon in July, his first major triumph since the 2016 French Open. Djokovic suffered with personal and injury problems during 2017 and the early part of this year, but looked back to his best at Wimbledon and has continued that form at Flushing Meadows. If he beats Del Potro to equal Sampras, only Roger Federer (20) and Nadal (17) stand above him in the all-time list. Meanwhile, del Potro will compete in his first Grand Slam final for nine years after defending champion Rafael Nadal retired from their US Open semi-final. Argentine third seed Del Potro, 29, was leading 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 when Nadal quit because of a knee problem. Nadal, the top seed, twice needed medical attention before conceding.
Musa move in the 72nd minute ended with him calling out the Pirates’ goalie again, but he missed narrowly. And in the 90th minute, Henry Onyekuru’s header, off a pull out by Oluwasemilogo Ajayi – who also had an impressive debut – went narrowly wide. Victory gave the Super Eagles three points and wiped out the goal deficit from the loss to South Africa on Matchday 1 (with one goal to spare), and victory over Libya in Kaduna on 13th October would brighten Nigeria’s chances for a place at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals. South Africa had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Libya, who go top of Group E on goal difference Musa scored the opener yesterday above Bafana Bafana.
Kenya Shock Ghana, Comoros Hold Cameroon Ten-man Kenya held on to beat Ghana 1-0 in Nairobi yesterday in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. In other results yesterday, next year’s Nations Cup hosts Cameroon were held to a 1-1 draw away to Comoros. Both South Africa and Uganda had to succumb to 0-0 draws at home to Libya and Tanzania respectively while the 2012 African champions Zambia drew 0-0 away to Namibia. The 12 group winners and runners-up secure places at the 2019 Nations Cup finals, except for Group B, where hosts Cameroon and the highest-placed other team both qualify. Having lost their opening Group F qualifier to Sierra Leone, Kenya - coached by Frenchman Sebastien Migne - pulled off a stunning result against Ghana’s Black Stars to kickstart their campaign. The Harambee Stars scored the only goal of the
game after 40 minutes when Ghana’s Nicholas Opoku struck into his own net. Ghana pressed for an equaliser and the pressure told as Kenya’s Joash Onyango was sent off shortly after the hour mark. The hosts held on to pull off a shock result and go level on points in Group F with both Ghana and Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone can take an outright lead in the group if they can avoid defeat in Ethiopia today. Cameroon, who have already qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations as hosts, came from behind to draw 1-1 away to Comoros in Clarence Seedorf’s first match in charge of the Indomitable Lions. Comoros stunned the reigning African champions with a 15th minute strike from El-Fardou Ben Mohamed to take the lead in the Group B fixture. Stephane Bahoken spared Cameroon’s blushes with an equaliser 10 minutes from time.
Sunday September 9, 2018
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Atiku Abubakar to Yemi Osinbajo “If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor” – Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar responding to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s reply to his arguments on restructuring.
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The Nigerian Federation vs MTN
D
oes the federal government want to chase foreign investors away from Nigeria? This is one of most frequently asked questions since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asked MTN to refund the $8.1 billion it repatriated as profits out of Nigeria from 2007 to 2015 based on “irregular certificates of capital importation”. CBN also fined four banks N5.8 billion over the certificates. We had barely finished reading the story when Mallam Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, fired another letter to MTN demanding “back taxes” of $1.28 billion and N242 billion, both of which we can safely round up to $2 billion. You again, MTN? Only you?! Coming three years after Nigeria’s biggest telephone operator was fined N1.04 trillion by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect 5.2 million unregistered subscribers, the latest sledge hammer blows could kill any company — except it is in the Apple-Amazon-Shell category. The series of fines and sanctions against MTN would play into the hands of those who think the Nigerian state has an agenda against the telco. I have even heard whispers of “xenophobia” following similar negative attitude towards Multichoice Nigeria Ltd, a Nigerian cable TV company owned mainly by Multichoice Africa of South Africa. While many Nigerians can understand the issue of “unpaid taxes” as raised by Malami, the matter of “irregular” certificates of capital importation (CCIs) is a little bit technical. This is the sense I can make out of it if I were to explain to the uninitiated. Between 2001, when it got a mobile phone licence to operate in the country, and 2006, MTN brought in $402 million to start business here: $59.4 million as shareholders’ funds and $343.1 million as loan. For bringing money into Nigeria to invest, you get a CCI as confirmation. It will, at the same time, allow you to get forex from CBN if you want to take the money out or collect dividends as an investor. That’s the job of CCI. The CBN said that in 2007, MTN Nigeria decided to convert $2.9 million of the $402 million to equity and the remaining $399.1 million to shares, or what they call “preference” shares. A preference share, as the name suggests, gives preference to the owner when the goodies are shared. The investor usually gets a fixed sum as dividend. Conversely, the “ordinary” shareholders feed on the leftovers. While ordinary shareholders may not get dividend at times, preference shareholders will always get a fixed sum. MTN applied for, and got CBN’s provisional approval, to convert the $399 million loan to preference shares. So it was no longer a loan. There were conditions given by the CBN to MTN for the bankers to be able to convert the loan to “redeemable” preference shares for the re-issuance of the CCIs. One, MTN must sign an undertaking that no repatriation would be made either on the principal or interest of the original loan from 2001 till the conversion to preference shares was done. Two, the conversion must receive the final approval of the CBN. There were other conditions — such as listing the preference shareholders and the number of shares issued to each one of them; reflecting same in the documentation at Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); and other basic housekeeping chores. Where were we? Between 2007 and 2015 — a period of eight years — MTN bought forex worth
Malami $8.1 billion from the CBN to pay dividends to its shareholders abroad. Now, this is where the trouble is. The CBN said it has just investigated and found out, in 2018, that MTN’s CCIs were “irregular”. That is, MTN’s bankers did not get a “final final” approval before re-issuing the CCIs. Therefore, the conversion of loan to preference shares was null and void. CBN is now saying: “You cheeky rascals, you played a fast one on us! Return the $8.1 billion I gave you to pay dividends over eight years and I will return your naira to you at the rates you bought the forex! Thank you.” This is the sense I made out of the press statement issued by the CBN a little over a week ago. But MTN is seriously disputing CBN’s claims and suggesting that the investigation was shoddy. According to the company, even though the $399 million loan was converted to preference shares and CCIs were re-issued, none of the dividends repatriated between 2007 and 2015 was for the preference shares. Or, to say it another way, preference shareholders have not received any dividends based on the new CCIs. MTN is also maintaining that, in fact, the loan was a tenor-free and interest-free loan. No interests have ever been paid on it. MTN is saying: “Hey guys, do your homework well! We’ve never paid any dividend on those preference shares!” On the $2 billion tax bill from the AGF, MTN is also disputing the figures. MTN has been contesting some figures with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). FIRS is demanding N84 billion, a matter that is now before the tax tribunal (although MTN has paid while contesting it). Customs is also demanding N52 billion which it says was not “properly captured” in its computations; that one too is still a subject of negotiations. NCC, on its part, is not asking for anything from MTN. Adding N84 billion to N52 billion, in the worst case, will not end up at $2 billion. AGF’s demand is, therefore, being hotly disputed by MTN. I will now make my comments. I am not among those saying foreign investors will be discouraged by regulatory actions. Actually, genuine investors care about the regulatory environment. They want to be sure that the rules are clear and are meant to be obeyed. If they have fallen foul of the rules, then they know they will pay the penalty, which must have been pre-defined. Big corporations such as Shell, Google and Apple have faced heavy sanctions in foreign countries and they did not run away because of that. If Nigerian regulatory authorities are trying to enforce the rules, we
should be happy and commend them and not begin to make them feel like they have just killed somebody. However, the problem is when the rules are not clear, or are being manipulated, or are being unfairly enforced. That is what should worry us. Nobody should argue against enforcement of regulations — that is why the rule of law is integral to a market economy. But I am really disturbed by MTN’s claims that they were not given fair hearing and all the documents they submitted for scrutiny were not even properly examined before the demands were made on them. Arbitrariness really, really bothers me. If it is true that investigators from the CBN and Office of the AGF ignored the evidences presented to them by MTN, then that would be catastrophic. I understand that in calculating the “back taxes”, the Office of the AGF applied a flat rate of 10% for all withholding taxes (WHT). It also applied VAT to all items. WHT is usually applied at different rates — 10%, 7.5% and 5% depending on the item. In OAGF’s calculations, though, everything was charged at a flat 10%. Some items that are not VATable were also subjected to VAT by OAGF. These include jobs that did not involve the importation of equipment into Nigeria as well as funds from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which are tax-free by World Bank treaty. I would think taxation matters of this nature should involve the FIRS since that is their job description. I am also not among those saying because MTN is so big it should be treated with kid gloves. I’m sorry: the rules must apply to every player, big or small. I know we need all the foreign capital that we can get to breathe life into the economy, but then ground rules are ground rules. What I will not support, nonetheless, is targeting MTN for the enforcement of rules. MTN is the poster boy for foreign investment in Nigeria and we do not need to bully them. In addition to the capital they brought in 2001, they have been investing averagely $1 billion in the economy yearly. We have every reason to be fair to them without condoning infractions. We have to be transparently fair. I would also appeal to the regulators to be less sensational. Some of these issues are sensitive and could induce negative chain reactions — and the damage might be irreversible. All facts must be on the table and all issues properly examined before actions are taken, not while discussions are still ongoing, in this age of whistle-blowing induced by 5% commission. No agency should create the impression that it is working to an answer. Regulation should be a balancing act; decisions should be arrived at only after carefully considering all sides, as well as immediate and future implications. I want firm regulation, I want sanctions for infractions — but justice be seen to be done. In sum, I do not want to believe that the government has an agenda against MTN. While the telco’s failure to disconnect unregistered subscribers in 2015 was indefensible and they are still paying the penalty, I believe the disputes with CBN and OAGF should be carefully looked into to see that justice is truly and genuinely served. Issues like these are most certainly going to end in arbitration if the parties continue to maintain their positions. Whatever the case may be, still, the government has to be civil until there is a final resolution. Our ability to resolve all these regulatory issues with decency will count a lot in attracting more investments. It is not warfare. Maturity.
And Four Other Things… THE DISASTERS I woke up on Friday to the worrying news that some parts of Abuja were experiencing earth tremors. Managing information around the natural phenomenon is as important as managing the event. Things are built around myth and hysteria in Nigeria and if care is not taken, all kinds of fake theories, fake news and knee-jerk reactions would take over. When the Ikeja Cantonment bombs shook Lagos to its foundations in January 2002, 99% of the deaths were from the stampede fuelled by fear and rumours several kilometres from the scene of the explosions. We are already managing the national disaster called Nigeria — we cannot afford to add natural disaster to it. Shivering. RESTRUCTURING WARS It was interesting reading the exchanges between Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over the burning issue of restructuring. Atiku has hinged his presidential bid on restructuring — a theme that seems to resonate with many southerners and the middle belters — while Osinbajo has tried to refine his understanding of the highly political, or should I say politicised, concept. I am cuddling my popcorn and soda (as Americans call it), holding my remote control firmly, full of expectations of explosive debates ahead of the 2019 elections. I love debates, and I hope there will be plenty this time around. Imperative. THE PDP CROWD While it appears no heavyweight will challenge President Buhari for the APC presidential ticket, the real action will be in PDP, where “men of timbre and calibre” (RIP Chief KO Mbadiwe) are all set to do battle. They are so many I have lost count. There are rumours that some of them are playing the role of spoilers and will end up fomenting trouble after the primary, but so did we hear too in 2015 when APC was loaded with heavyweight presidential aspirants. APC did not break up thereafter, forcing Dr. Doyin Okupe to swallow his words. I am for competition — losers can be assured they were beaten in a contest. Democracy itself is nothing but competition. Exciting. AND FINALLY… Comrade Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters and presidential aspirant, raised some dust recently when he spoke about making Nigeria export marijuana for medical purposes. He said: “We have to start taking care of our weed... Some of the best weeds in the world are grown in Ekiti state. Our NDLEA should get the memo in advance that Nigeria will be exporting weed to cure cancer in other parts of the world.” He seems to be making a case for medical marijuana. My major worry, though, is that if the containers carrying weed “Catch a Fire” at the seaports and the Nigerian customs officers start feeling “irie”, the “Rastaman Vibration” will have no part two. Thunder!
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