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President: With Reforms, We Saved Oil Industry from Collapse Says openness in NNPC indication of anti-corruption fight’s success Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday gave insights into how the reforms initiated by his administration in 2015 saved the oil and gas industry

from total collapse.

He stated that the payments of huge cash call backlog owed the country’s Joint Venture (JV) partners took off a huge burden from the Nigerian National Petroleum

Corporation (NNPC) while the current transparency drive in the oil corporation was also a product of the reforms.

The president, at the presentation of four books written by a former Minister

of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, explained that the sector, which accounts for a huge source of foreign exchange for Nigeria, was in dire straits when he took over.

The titles of the books are

“Nigerian Petroleum Industry: 2015 to the future; Nigerian Law of Contract: Study Companion; Gas Development in Nigeria: Legal and Policy Framework as well as Nigerian Foreign Investment Law and

Policy.”

The president, at the event, which was partly virtual lauded Kachikwu for laying the groundwork, which Continued on page 9

Obaigbena, Amuka, Ibru Console Okowa over Father’s Death... Page 8 Friday 5 February, 2021 Vol 26. No 9434. Price: N250

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INEC to Consult ACF, Afenifere, Parties, Others on Extra Polling Units Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja

MEDIA GURUS’ CONDOLENCES...

L-R: Publisher, Guardian Newspaper, Mrs. Maiden Ibru; Publisher, Vanguard Newspaper, Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu; Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; and Chairman, THISDAY/ARISE NEWS Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena; during a condolence visit by the publishers to the governor in Asaba…yesterday

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it has decided to engage stakeholders on the need to expand voter access to polling units by creating more units across the country.

This, it said, is part of its preparation for 2023 general election, adding that other upcoming activities including continuous voter registration (CVR) would be items in the agenda for conversation.

A top INEC official, who spoke with journalists in Abuja said in the following days, the commissions will be engaging Continued on page 9

Buhari Gives Ex-Service Chiefs Golden Parachutes

Nominates them as Ambassadors IG’s service extension draws knocks from lawyers, PDP

Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha and Alex Enumah in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday took the wind off the sail of those

threatening immediate past service chiefs with criminal suits at international criminal courts, nominating them as non-career ambassadors.

A statement by the Special

Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the president has forwarded to the Senate the names of Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin (Chief of Defence

Staff), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Chief of Naval Staff), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff) and Air Vice

Marshal Mohammed Usman, all recently retired military top brass.

While in service conducting campaigns against internal insecurity, many of the groups

affected by the military’s operations had threatened to file criminal suits against them at the International Criminal Continued on page 9

Tackle Insecurity, Bakare Urges Buhari, Backs Open Grazing Ban...Page 5

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Group News Editor Ejiofor Alike Email Ejiofor.Alike@thisdaylive.com, 08066066268

Tackle Insecurity, Bakare Urges Buhari, Backs Open Grazing Ban

Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Eromosele Abiodun and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos Overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has thrown his weight behind the calls for a ban on open grazing of cattle and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the insecurity in the country.

Speaking yesterday on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, Bakare advocated the need for dialogue among elders on the state of the nation.

According to him, open grazing is obsolete and it should be scrapped so as to stop herdsmen and farmers’ clashes in parts of the country.

He also canvassed the need for herdsmen to register in their host communities and states for proper identification.

Bakare said: “The government needs to pass laws; property laws must be respected and all these pastoralists need to register so that you can know who they are and where they are going. It is a private business and it must not generate all the kinds of heat that it has generated right now. Let’s

be very careful not to tear this country apart and I am appealing to men of goodwill to rise to the occasion.

“There are four issues involved in this matter that I have considered and that by the grace of God as soon as I have the opportunity, I will also bring them to the attention of Mr. President and I know his ministers and those in government will be doing the same with him.

“One of the issues is open grazing. It is obsolete and it needs to end; it needs to end because the nations of the earth had gone beyond this. I was in Glasgow; I was in Israel; there are so many things that we can do about agricultural pastoralism that would stop all the troubles in our land.

“We have lived with Fulani and Fulani have lived with us across our lands; we must separate this agricultural pastoralism from the second thing – the terrorists in the forests. The government must fish out the criminals.

“We must be careful of indiscriminate violence and separate terrorists in the forests from agricultural pastoralism.

"Those who are invading other people’s farms must be

stopped. If our laws do not stop them and if property rights are not respected, then the government is not doing what it should do.”

Commenting on his interaction with a Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemi, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, Bakare said he got his contact through a police officer.

He explained that he spoke to him to basically avoid shedding of innocent blood, adding that his intervention reduced the tension of the seven-day ultimatum given to herdsmen to vacate some parts of the South-west.

Bakare said he would speak to the president on the need to separate farming and pastoral agriculture soon.

He cautioned that there should not be an action that would make Yoruba in Fulani territory feel threatened.

He advised the government to do more in ensuring the security of lives and property.

Bakare called on Buhari to urgently address the insecurity and ethnic crisis in the country, stressing that the crisis is coming to a crescendo.

He said: “I said there is a drumbeat of disintegration in

our nation; you have so many people saying, ‘we are going, we are doing this, doing that.’

Added to that is the recent Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) issues that almost created a lot of crisis in the South-west part of the country. Over time you have seen the South-east and IPOB, different kinds of groups rising; it is about time that those issues have to be addressed directly.

“Is the president not doing anything about it? I am sure he is himself not comfortable with what is going on in our nation; any leader will be concerned about it and he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. A number of things are happening that just will shock anyone; this is not the Nigeria I grew up in as a young child. I was talking to a few friends; we will walk and even roam if you like.

I lived in the North, I lived in the south; it was never as bad as this.”

He called for dialogue to facilitate the peaceful resolution of the crisis and expressed hope that Buhari and security agents will be able to resolve all the issues causing insecurity.

According to Bakare: “It is

my sincere desire that Mr. President, his government and his armed forces will be up to the task of not only dealing with terrorists but bringing the nation together in such a way that we can sit in brotherhood and not tear ourselves apart. We need to sit together and talk and not just talk but act and back our resolutions with actions that will unify the country rather than divide the country further.”

When asked if he has been in touch with Buhari in the last week, he said he spoke to the president’s aides as late as Wednesday night to express his views and his thoughts.

“I do not text the president; I get to see him whenever time permits. COVID-19 restrictions have made it near impossible now. But I saw him late last year. I have not had time to see him this year. Any friendship that ends never started; that is my belief and I will continue as well as other men of goodwill continue to seek a peaceful resolution to our crisis behind the scene more than any public declaration. As I said to you, there is nothing you have heard me say in public that has not been shared,

and even more in private conversation,” he stated.

He added that Nigerians are free to feel disappointed in the president when their expectations are not met.

He, however, clarified that he did not say that he was disappointed in Buhari, saying that when expectations of the people are not met, they are entitled to express their frustrations.

He said: “The coming of President Buhari into power in 2015 was a breath of fresh air to so many people. But in the midst of all competing demands, the conflicts and everything that happened, the expectations they had, not all of them would have been met.

"And, therefore, Nigerians are entitled to say they are disappointed.”

He called on the president to deal with threats to national cohesion and urged all leaders to rally behind the president by not fanning the embers of disunity.

Bakare said: "This is not the country I grew up in as a younger person. It was never that bad. We need to sit together and talk the talks that will unite us as a people and a nation."

Northern Govs Urge Restraint, Calm over Herdsmen Crisis

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The Northern Governors' Forum has called for calm following reports that herdsmen are being attacked in some parts of the country, leading to loss of lives and property.

Chairman of the forum and Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Simon Lalong, in a statement yesterday, recalled that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), led by its Chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had met with stakeholders in Akure, the Ondo State capital, to calm the tension and to work for an amicable resolution of the issues.

Lalong said: "While such intervention was celebrated as a success to be sustained through further engagement between herdsmen and representatives of affected communities, emerging reports of attacks on herders and the gradual introduction of ethnic sentiments in the conflict is disturbing and should immediately be nipped in the bud before it gets out of hand.

"While the Northern Governors Forum concedes to the rights of Nigerians to reside wherever they so desire without any molestation or discrimination, it also emphasises that criminal elements should not be used to tar any particular ethnic group for any crime as that

will portend danger to peaceful coexistence and national unity.

"Rather, such criminal elements should be exposed, isolated and made to face the law of the land without prejudice to their ethnic backgrounds as the motives or criminal actions cannot be said to be the position of their ethnic group."

Lalong reiterated the forum's call for calm, and cautions Nigerians, particularly those in the affected areas who might have been aggrieved or targeted, to exercise restraint.

He added that Nigeria is going through a lot and escalating such tensions will not resolve any grievances but rather aggravate the situation to levels that could threaten national security.

Lalong also urged leaders across political, ethnic, religious and community lines to avoid utterances and actions that could fan the embers of distrust, hate, violence and retaliation.

"Security agencies must equally be firm and rise up to the occasion by protecting all law-abiding citizens against a threat to their lives and property irrespective of their ethnic or other affiliations.

They should also send clear and unambiguous message to those threatening the peace that they will act decisively to stop them from plunging the nation to anarchy," he stated.

PROTECTING THE CLIMATE… Minister of State for Environment, Ms. Sharon Ikeazor (left), and President Muhammadu Buhari during the briefing of the president on legal framework for climate change in Abuja…yesterday godwin omoigui

Buni Replies Akande, Says APC Membership Revalidation Constitutional PDP mocks ruling party over exercise

Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, yesterday took issue with the former Interim National

Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, over his criticism of the ongoing membership registration and revalidation.

Buni, responding to Akande’s Wednesday comments that the exercise is a needless and an unnecessary waste of funds, described the membership drive as a

constitutional provision and a strategic measure by the committee to give existing and new members a sense of belonging.

However, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lauded Akande for exposing what it called the fraud in the APC's membership drive.

Akande had described the

exercise as an indefensible aberration leading to certain ugly perceptions.

He also described the exercise as a waste of money considering the economic situation of the country.

But Buni, in a statement yesterday by his DirectorGeneral, Press and Media Continued on page 10

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Obaigbena, Amuka, Ibru Console Okowa over Father’s Death Commend gov for infrastructural development Omo-Julius Onabu in Asaba It was the turn of media leaders yesterday to commiserate with Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, over the death of his father, Sir Arthur Okowa, who died last week at 88.

Led by Chairman, THISDAY/ ARISE NEWS Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, they told Okowa to take heart even as they praised him for the strides he had made in the development of infrastructures in the state.

Others on the condolence train are Publisher of VANGUARD Newspaper, Mr. Sam Amuka, and his THE GUARDIAN counterpart, Mrs. Maiden Ibru.

Okowa, joined by some top government functionaries, including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Chiedu Ebie; Chief of Staff, Chief David Edevbie; Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu; and Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Olisa Ifeajika, received the media moguls at the Government House, Asaba.

Speaking during the visit, Ibru commended Okowa for the visible infrastructural development in the state.

She said she was impressed with the “massive infrastructural upgrade in Delta, especially in Asaba, the capital.’’

According to her, Okowa’s success in his political career and his performance as governor is a reflection of his humble upbringing.

The publisher urged the

governor and the family to take solace in the fact that their late father left indelible footprints in their lives and for humanity.

Obaigbena said the deceased valued education and gave his children the best of it.

According to him, Pa Okowa was one of the last of the `originals’ who went the extra mile to ensure that their children got the best of education.

"He was a great educationist, who ensured that his children went to the best of schools, which has helped them to become great achievers in life,” he said, adding: "We have come with a strong delegation here to condole with you on this sad development, and with pain in our hearts and smiles on our faces, we mourn with you."

Obaigbena also spoke briefly with newsmen on behalf of the publishers.

He said: "Pa (Arthur) Okowa was the last of the originals.

And, as you can see, he has taken his children through the field of education. His son here, His Excellency, Ifeanyi Okowa, has gone to the best schools - from secondary school to the university, into being an accomplished medical doctor.

"Moreover, he brought him back to the community, from where he rose through the tutelage of politics. He was Secretary of Local Government Council, local government chairman, commissioner, Secretary to State Government (SSG) and

senator before being governor of Delta State.

"That can only be a deliberate nurturing of a strategic mind.

"So, we are here - Uncle Sam Amuka, an original serving journalist; and Maiden Ibru, who hardly goes out - it shows that she holds Governor Okowa in great esteem. And, we're here to share in his pains, no matter how old Pa Okowa was.

"We thank God for his life; we thank God for the life of our governor and his family."

Amuka urged the governor and his family to be consoled by the good deeds of their father, adding that the publishers are with the family in thoughts and prayer throughout the mourning and burial periods.

Okowa thanked the delegation

for the visit, saying that he is consoled by the love and attention shown to him and the family by friends and well-wishers.

He described his father as an accomplished teacher, politician of repute and an astute community leader, who left indelible marks in the sands of time.

He said: "Let me register my appreciation to the gurus of newspaper publishing from our dear state. I truly must thank you and I appreciate this visit.

We are very encouraged for this visit knowing that it’s a visit by high calibre of persons.

"Being a teacher helped my father to mould our lives at our very early ages, which helped us to grow our lives to what

we are today.

"From the testimonies, we gathered we have been made to understand that he played much more roles than we knew because of the many lives he touched."

The governor also received a delegation of members of the National Assembly from Delta led by Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, and expressed gratitude to them for their support.

Elumelu told the governor that they were in Asaba on a condolence visit because they were pained by the demise of the patriarch of Okowa family.

"For us, his loss is not just for you and your family because he played key roles in the lives

of so many people.

"We lost a father because he was the father of the state; we believe in your leadership and we will stand with you during the funeral,’’ he said.

The lawmakers also condoled with the governor on the demise of the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly, Mr. Tim Owhefere, who died on January 27, 2021.

Delegations from Ika Nation led by Chief Dan Usifo; Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) led by its 1st Deputy National President, Chief Anthony Onoharigho; members of Bendel Ecclesiastical Province of the Anglican Communion led by Archbishop Cyril Odutemu, also visited the governor to condole with him.

Police: Four Borno LGs' Residents Forced to Flee

FOR MSMES...

Military keeps mum as inhabitants SURVIVAL L–R: Special Assistant to the President on MSMEs, Mr. Tola Johnson; Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Ms. Mariam Katagun; and Director-General, SMEDAN, Mr. Dikko Raddah, during a press briefing on MSMEs survival fund scamper to Yobe in Abuja…yesterday Michael Olugbode in Damaturu

Incessant terrorist attacks have forced residents of four local governments in Borno State to flee to communities in Yobe State, the police said yesterday.

The Yobe State Police Command listed the local governments whose residents have been sacked as Gubio, Magumeri, Kaga and Konduga.

In a statement yesterday by the Police Public Relations Officer, Yobe State Police Command, Mr. Dungus Abdulkarim, the police confirmed the exodus of residents from Gubio, Magumeri, Kaga and Konduga local government areas of Borno State into Yobe State have been observed.

He said: “They are believed to have relocated from their ancestral homes due to incessant attacks by unknown gunmen terrorising their communities while in the search for food items and other valuables.

“In a proactive move, over two thousand (2,000) migrants so far have been profiled by the command for security reasons while the influx of persons into the state is yet ongoing.

“The migrants have so far settled in areas which include Geidam, Tarmuwa and Gujba local government areas of Yobe State as well as Isori, Kuka Reta, Kasesa and Kalallawa Villages around the state capital, Damaturu.”

According to him, the police have begun an investigation into the cause of the migration while putting in place measures to ensure public safety.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, did not respond to a text message by THISDAY, seeking confirmation on the migration.

The defence spokesman did not also respond to phone calls as at the time of filing this report.

The police in Yobe State have also expressed concern about the prevalence of traffic accidents in the state.

The said statistics revealed that over 200 cases of motor accidents were recorded from January 1, 2020, till date.

Abdulkarim in another statement, said: “Forty-one were fatal motor accidents in which 147 persons died as a result and many others suffered various degrees of injuries."

He added that investigation showed that over speeding, violation of traffic regulations, negligence and reckless driving among others contributed to the high rate of accidents.

“To this end, the command is calling on all and sundry to adhere to traffic regulations, obey road signs, drive with due care and diligence in order to save lives,” he stated.

He warned that any person(s) found violating traffic regulation would be arrested and subsequently prosecuted.

NLNG Generates $108bn, Delivers 5,000 Cargoes in 21 Years Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has delivered 5,000 cargoes to its customers around the world and generated $108 billion from gas sales in its 21 years of operations.

The General Manager, External Relations of LNG, Mrs. Eyono Fatayi-Williams, said yesterday in Abuja when she appeared alongside the Managing Director and CEO of NLNG, Mr. Tony Attah, before the House Committee on Gas Resources, that between 1989 and 2019, the NLNG was incorporated and became a limited liability company with four shareholders.

Fatayi-Williams added that the NNPC, which represents the federal government, has 49 per cent shares while Agip, Shell and Total have 51 per cent shares.

The general manager noted that from 1999, the first cargo sailed from Bonny Island in Rivers State to France which put the NLNG on the map as an operational company.

Fatayi-Williams said that the company was recognised by THISDAY Newspapers as the best performing company of the year and of the decade.

She noted that this award was revalidated internationally

at the LNG summit where NLNG was awarded as the company that had made the most outstanding contribution to the LNG industry.

Fatayi-Williams stated: “We buy gas, we liquefy it; we transport it and sell it to the buyers and get value for Nigeria LNG and for Nigeria.

“In the 21 years we have operated, we have delivered 5,000 LNG cargoes around the world and we have 23 dedicated LNG ships to ensure our operation runs smoothly.

“On Bonny Island, we have six installed and operation LNG trains - the train is also known as LNG manufacturing line - of 22 million tonnes capacity.

“Our installed asset is $11 billion; today we have generated $108 billion in revenue since inception and have delivered $35 billion in dividends to the shareholders in the 21 years that we have operated and have paid $8 billion in taxes.”

Fatayi-Williams explained that in the early days of crude oil exploration, 65 per cent of gas was flared, but at the moment, less than 12 per cent of the gas, which is produced with crude is flared.

The general manager noted that Nigeria is currently rated 9th in the world with 200 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of

proven gas reserves.

According to her, the 600 TCF of unproven gas reserves, if monetised, will make Nigeria the fourth globally in the ranking order of proven gas reserves in the world.

Fatayi-Williams added that there is an opportunity for Nigeria to move up in the ranking of the use of cleaner energy.

Making reference to media publications, Fatayi-Williams said that over 470,000 persons die from firewood smoke in five years.

The general manager said according to World Bank data, about a 100,000 Nigerians die annually due to firewood smoke inhalation and related complications mostly women and children.

She said: “If you compare this with the number of people who have died of COVID-19 complication which is less than 2,000 as reported by NCDC, very little is said about the 100,000 who die of firewood and smoke.

“The use of firewood is a double-edged sword; it is not only leading to a significant number of death, we also know that cutting timber for firewood leads to deforestation, which later leads to desertification."

Earlier, Attah said because of

the changing energy mix, the world is moving from dirty to clean energy, adding that by 2050, there would be nine billion people in the world.

“Today we have about seven billion, so it is like adding one new India and China to the world; where will the energy come from?

“So there is that dilemma, the world will need more energy, it needs it clean and cheaper and gas has offered itself not only as a transition fuel but also a destination fuel.

“We see gas as food because of its role in fertilizer production, we see gas as employment, we see gas as an industry, power and transport as most countries have trains and cars running on gas," he added.

Also, the Deputy Committee Chairman, Hon. Yusuf Miga, commended the current NLNG management for the signing of Final Investment Decision (FID) for the establishment of Train 7 project.

He said the committee was committed to supporting initiatives that would accelerate investments in the production and processing of gas with a view to consolidating Nigeria’s gas export opportunities and to enhance massive gas penetration and utilisation in the domestic market.

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PAGE NINE PRESIDENT: WITH REFORMS, WE SAVED OIL INDUSTRY FROM COLLAPSE culminated in the ongoing reforms of the corporation and has now prepared the organisation for the challenges of the future.

He said: “When we were elected into office in 2015, the industry was in a very dire situation worsened by a backlog of Joint Venture (JV) cash call arrears.

“The industry was in need of reforms to attract more investments and attract the needed revenue to support the nation's economic growth.

“As a new administration, we needed to act fast to address the declining prospects of the industry and aggressively drive economic recovery and improve the

country.

“The current transparency and accountability drive in the NNPC is a good indication of the success of our administration’s effort in stemming corruption and sharp practices in the petroleum industry.”

According to the president, the current efforts at laying a solid legal framework for the industry, resulting in a revamped Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), will further develop the sector and attract the much needed investments.

He added that the imminent passage of the PIB will mark a milestone in the country’s reform of the oil and gas sector.

Buhari said: “Substantial settlement of backlog of cash call arrears has been achieved, which has enhanced the investment appetite of our joint venture partners and other prospective investors.

“We are making progress towards the passage of the necessary legislation to further support the growth of the industry, attract more investments, create jobs for millions of our youths and strengthen the Nigerian economy.

“We are committed to monetising our huge gas resources through the national gas expansion programme to support national economic diversification and job

creation.”

He expressed confidence that one of the books, Nigerian Petroleum Industry, 2015 to the Future, will give an insight into the initial reform process and generate interest in both industry and academia.

In his remarks, former Defence Minister, Lt-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), praised the intellectual prowess of Kachikwu, saying that he has always distinguished himself in every task given.

“His antecedents and intellectual pedigree are well known from his time as executive vice-chairman at Exxon Mobil Nigeria to his time as minister. I am

not surprised that as a true scholar, he took time off his tasking work to author books on law and policies on various issues for posterity,” he stated.

Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who also offered a goodwill message on the occasion, said the ministry had continued to build on those policies started by Kachikwu, and charted new frontiers in the petroleum sector.

Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Dr. Muhammed Barkindo, said as president of the OPEC conference in 2015, Kachikwu played a significant role in laying the groundwork,

which eventually culminated in the signing of the historic Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) on December 10, 2016.

He said: “This monumental endeavour ensures that OPEC works in close collaboration and coordination with 10 nonOPEC producing countries to take collective action to ensure oil market stability."

Earlier, Kachikwu had stated that while the Nigerian law of contracts targets students studying the law of contracts in schools, Nigerian Petroleum Industry, 2015 to the Future, is a culmination of his experiences during his service as a minister and also as GMD, NNPC from 2015 to 2019.

not adequately solved the problem and, in some cases have created new challenges of their own.

The senior official attributed the inability of the commission to routinely expand voter access to polling units to unnecessary politicization of the process by sundry interests in the country, especially by propagating unfounded claims and conspiracy theories about the commission’s intentions.

He said delays arising from opposition to the establishment of polling units have meant that the process comes too close to elections and, therefore, is impossible to complete, saying the level of consultation with stakeholders by the commission may not have been adequate.

Giving a background to the challenge of voter access to polling units, he said the polling unit in the country today is the lowest level of the electoral structure in Nigeria, and probably the most critical point in delivering qualitative elections.

He stated that the current configuration of 119,973 polling units was established by the defunct National

Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) in 1996, adding that in the nearly 25-year period, every attempt to review or reconfigure the polling unit structure has been unsuccessful for sundry reasons. ‘’Consequently, the 1996 polling unit configuration was used for 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 General Elections. When the polling unit structure was established in 1996, it was projected to serve about 50 million registered voters. ‘’However, the number of registered voters for the 1999 General Election was 57.93 million. This rose to 60.82 million in 2003, 61.56 million in 2007 and 73.52 million in 2011,’’ he revealed.

He further explained that although the number declined to 68.83 million for the 2015 General Election - following the cleaning up of the register through the use of Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) to eliminate double registrants, it rose to 84.04 million in 2019 as a result of the commission embarking on a robust continuous voter registration exercise, as prescribed by law.

The import of this

development, he said, is that while the number of registered voters increased from 57.93 million in 1999 to 84.04 million in 2019, which is an increase of 45 per cent, the number of polling units remained the same. ‘’This lack of correlation between the number of registered voters and the number of polling units since 1999 has resulted in congested polling units on Election Day and lack of polling units in many developing sub-urban and newly established settlements.

The effects have been low voter turnout and voter apathy, insecurity at the polling units, disruption of elections and, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, unsafe voting environments. ‘’Indeed, presently, the average number of voters per polling unit in Nigeria, which stands at 700, is 37% more than the situation in Ghana. Yet, this could be quite misleading because in some states in Nigeria, the average number of voters per polling unit is well over 4,000,’’ he added.

He said the motive for the planned exercise is in the general interest of Nigeria.

said neither the constitution nor the Police Act confers on Buhari powers to extend the tenure of an IG after retirement.

According to Mr. Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), while both the 1999 Constitution and the Police Act empower the president to appoint and sack the IG, they did not empower him to extend the IG's tenure after retirement.

He said: "Section 7(3) Police Act, 2020, and Section 215(1) (a) 1999 CFRN empowers the president to appoint the Inspector-General of Police on the advice of the Police Council.

"Section 7(5) Police Act, 2020 also empowers the president to remove the Inspector General of Police on the advice of the Police Council.

"Section 7(6) Police Act, 2020, however, provides that the IG shall hold office for a period of four years. Both the Constitution and the Police Act, 2020 are silent on the power of the president to extend the tenure of the IGP. "The Police Act 2020 and the constitution are also silent on renewal of the office.

“I am of the opinion that the extension of the tenure of the IG for a period of three months by the president is

unconstitutional."

Similarly, Mr. Dayo Akinlaja (SAN) said Adamu cannot continue in office as IG because he is no longer a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force having attained 35 years in service.

"It is my humble view that the president does not have such power considering the fact that both the constitution and the Police Act (as amended) envisage that a person in the office of the IGP must be a serving member of the NPF. "Once a person has retired or reached retirement age, it follows in my opinion that the person is no longer (in the eye of the law) in the service and as such disqualified to continue in the capacity of IG," he stated.

Also human rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), described the extension of the tenure of Adamu as illegal and unconstitutional.

Adegboruwa explained that when the tenure of an IG expires on the basis of the mandatory 35 years of service, it cannot be extended.

He cited Section 215 (1)(a), Section 216(2), paragraph 27 of the third schedule of 1999 Constitution to support his argument.

He said: “When the tenure of a serving IG expires on the grounds of completing the mandatory 35 years of service, he cannot be asked to continue in office beyond his mandatory tenure.

“An IG who has served

INEC TO CONSULT ACF, AFENIFERE, PARTIES, OTHERS ON EXTRA POLLING UNITS all major stakeholders, including socio-cultural groups Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF); traditional/religious leaders, political parties, civil society groups, media and others, on the beauty of the exercise.

Explaining the motive for the exercise, the INEC official expressed serious concerns about the worsening challenge of voter access to polling units, and outlined some indicative issues to be addressed by the engagements and the commission’s thinking on how to solve the challenge. ‘’As a commission, we do not take the important contributions of stakeholders to the electoral process for granted. These engagements are indeed a continuation of the commitment of the commission to always listen to stakeholders and to do our best to carry them along in all cardinal issues of election management in Nigeria,’’ the INEC boss stated.

Explaining the importance of polling units to the democratic process, he said they are central to the electoral process, and at the very heart of electoral

democracy as the basis on which citizens exercise their fundamental rights to vote and to make electoral choices freely. ‘’Consequently, polling units largely shape citizens’ confidence in the electoral process, the levels of participation or apathy, as well as security and safety during elections. ‘’Voter access goes beyond the number of polling units available to voters. It also entails citing polling units in places that are conducive to voting as well as the extent to which the environment of each polling unit provides a good voter experience and implementation of the regulations and guidelines of the commission on Election Day,’’ the source stated.

He added that voter access to polling units in the country has been declining over the years, putting the average number of voters per polling unit in 2019 general election at about 700 nationally, rising to over 2,000 in the Federal Capital Territory, while a specific polling unit in Nasarawa State had over 15,000 voters.

He said: “Some polling units are located in very

difficult places that do not encourage voters to participate in elections, particularly persons living with disability. Others are located in places experiencing conflicts or in places under the control of partisan actors. ‘’Moreover, because of inadequate polling units, many voters have to travel long distances to their polling units on Election Day. All these have contributed to low voter turnout at elections, egregious violation of election regulations and guidelines, violence and insecurity. ‘’Crowding at polling units also constitute health and safety issues in this period of the global COVID-19 pandemic.’’

The INEC official explained that repeated attempts by the commission in the past to expand voter access to polling units by establishing new ones and relocating some to better sites have not been successful.

He added that in order to mitigate the challenges, the commission had to resort to stopgap measures such as the creation of “Baby Polling Units,’’ ‘’Voting Points’’ and ‘’Voting Point Settlements,’’ saying the measures have

BUHARI GIVES EX-SERVICE CHIEFS GOLDEN PARACHUTES Court at The Hague for alleged human rights abuse and crime against humanity.

Largely spearheaded by Amnesty International, the Nigerian military came under severe allegations of war crimes and in early December last year, the Prosecutor of ICC, Ms. Fatou Bensouda, said her preliminary investigations pointed to likely commission of crimes by Boko Haram and elements of the Nigerian military.

She said she had applied to the judges of the court for a full-blown investigation into the alleged crimes.

Analysts said yesterday that Buhari may have moved to shield the former service chiefs from criminal investigations by clothing them with the garb of diplomacy.

“Once they become diplomats, they would have diplomatic immunity,” a diplomat told THISDAY last night.

Buhari in his letter nominating the former military top brass urged the Senate to accord his request utmost priority.

IG’s Service Extension Draws Knocks

Meanwhile, some senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday assailed Buhari for extending the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu.

They declared his action as violating the 1999 Constitution as (amended) and the Police Act (2020).

Adamu, who was billed to retire on Monday having clocked 35 years in service has been discharging the functions of his office since then.

However, the president yesterday ended speculations over the leadership of the police force, by extending Adamu's tenure by three months.

In addition, he directed the police authorities to intensify the search for Adamu's successor.

Yesterday's extension of Adamu's tenure confirmed THISDAY’s exclusive report on Wednesday that the president was more disposed to granting him a tenure extension than allowing him to retire within the stipulated time.

The president said the extension of Adamu's tenure was to allow for a smooth

handover by the outgoing IG. Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Mohammad Dingyadi, told State House reporters in Abuja that Adamu's tenure elongation will allow for proper screening of all qualified senior police officers before the eventual choice of a new IG. He said: "Mr. President has decided that the present IG, Mohammed Adamu, will continue to serve as the IG for the next three months to allow for a robust and efficient process of appointing a new IG. "This is not unconnected to the desire of Mr. President to not only have a smooth handover but to also ensure that the right officer is appointed into that position.

Mr. President is extending by three months to allow him to get into the process of allowing a new one."

Asked if the announcement coming three days after Adamu was due for retirement will not create a lacuna, the minister said "there's no lacuna. Mr. President can decide to extend his tenure for three months."

However, criticisms greeted the president's decision with some senior lawyers and the main opposition party, describing it as illegal. They

Continued on page 10

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NGN NGN 0.02 0.22 0.02 0.22 0.06 0.67 0.05 0.59 0.35 4.90 NGN 0.87 7.88 0.33 3.06 0.07 0.66 FTNCOCOA 0.05 0.48 JAIZBANK 0.07 0.68 HPE Nestle Nig Plc ₦1,450.00 Volume: 629.410 million shares Value: N7.981 billion Deals: 4,753 As at yesterday 4/2/2021 See details on Page 39

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NEWS

Buhari Kicks against Imposition of Election Candidates by Politicians Deji Elumoye in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his opposition to the imposition of candidates on the All Progressives Congress (APC) by politicials whenever there is election at any level of government.

Speaking yesterday at the State House, Abuja during a virtual meeting with the APC National Youth Representative, Buhari stressed that he supported the ongoing APC membership registration and revalidation exercise because he wants the party to return to the grassroots.

He argued that the members should be the ones selecting election candidates and not some leaders sitting somewhere.

"I was in Daura to revalidate my membership and I encourage you all to do same. My belief and firm commitment is that politics is a game of numbers, and political power truly belongs to the people. Parties are built from the ground up.

"So, I envisage a party that we can have transparent electoral contests, drive policies and programmes that are pro-people, and most importantly, have the members determine who represents them, not some leaders somewhere".

According to him, the future of the APC lies in strengthened internal democracy, with transparent electoral

processes, pro-people policies and programmes, and value of each member’s contribution to the party’s growth.

He assured the youths of more party and government policies that will accommodate their interests, promising that a committee was underway, largely of the young, to specially take into cognisance and work for the interest of youths.

"Young people owe this country the responsibility to deploy their energy and creativity in every field — health, science, education, sports, agriculture, etc. — and bring up innovations that would be in tandem with the changing dynamics of the world.

"While I will be looking forward to a more robust engagement with young people across the country, I wish to emphasise to you all that in me, you have a major supporter. I will offer you my full support to grow in politics, public service, entertainment, entrepreneurship and many other sectors, because I know that the future we envisage as a country cannot happen without our youths.

"In the days ahead, I will be engaging with the Minister for Youth, National Youth Leader of the party and others to fine-tune continuous and deliberate strategy on how to better drive a more robust youth inclusion and participation

in different sectors.’’

The President urged youths to join the APC, while thanking many who stood by the party over the years saying "I have followed with keen interest the efforts of many of you in your bid to grow our party, the APC, into a strong and long lasting platform that would sustain progressive governance

in Nigeria. Taking issues concerning our party seriously is commendable and shows your forward thinking.

"I am also aware of the daily toils and sacrifices many of our online warriors make on social media to defend and promote the party and government. I appreciate you deeply and I am committed to making

sure everyone appreciates your work as well. ’’ President Buhari also told the youths to closely monitor the processes that lead to the emergence of leaders in the political party, and also pick more interest in taking up leadership ro les.

"Tell your colleagues to go back to their constituencies and join in

party registration, attend party meetings, pay your dues, make contributions and bring your youthful energy and zeal to bear on the development of the party right from the unit and ward level up to the national. If you want to see something different you have to be willing to do something different," he said.

Varsity Workers Begin Nationwide Strike Today Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the NonAcademic Staff Union (NASU) of Educational and Associated Institution commenced nationwide industrial action to compel the federal government to address their grievances.

The unions have also written their branches to join the strike.

Part of the strike notice jointly signed by General Secretary of NASU, Comrade Adeyemi Peters, and SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, read, “In view of the outcome of the meeting, the leadership

of JAC of NASU and SSANU at the branches are hereby directed to commence joint general meetings on Friday (today) to give reports on the outcome of the conciliation meeting and pass resolutions on the way forward.

“In the meantime, the nationwide strike takes effect from 12 midnight, Friday, February 5, 2021, pending any contrary resolution by the branches”.

Both unions had met last Tuesday with the federal government team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige where it was agreed that a joint committee be set up to look into issues raised by the workers.

Ngige said that most concerns raised by the unions had either been addressed or were in the process of being addressed.

However, Peters told journalists at the end of the meeting that the parties did not reach any agreement, stressing that the position of the unions on the February 5 strike ultimatum remains unless the relevant organs give further directive to the contrary.

He said that the leadership of the two unions had agreed to take the issues discussed back to the members for their input.

The unions listed their grievances to include, alleged discriminatory disbursement of the N40

billion Earned Allowances, inconsistencies in in the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), nonpayment of arrears of national minimum wage, delay in renegotiation of FG/NASU and SSANU 2009 agreement and non-payment of retirement benefits of outgone members.

Other issues in contention are the usurpation of headship of non- teaching units by the teaching staff in clear violation of condition of service and establishment procedures, neglect and poor funding of state universities and non-constitution of Visitation panels for universities.

in office in acting capacity contrary to the law.

Ozekhome said both the constitution and Police Act are clear on the powers of the president on the appointment and sacking of the IG. "Section 18(8) of the same Police Act 2020 states: 'Every police officer shall on recruitment or appointment, serve in the Nigeria Police Force for a period of 35 years or until he attains the aged of 65 years, whichever one is earlier.'

Ozekhome said the use of the word shall by the provision of the Act makes

it impossible for the tenure of the IG to be extended by any person.

According to him, the president cannot administratively amend the Police Act, 2020, by extending the tenure of the IG. "The executive does not make laws. It executes laws made by the National Assembly, as provided for in section 214 (2) (a)," he added.

Also reacting, the PDP yesterday said the extension of the tenure of Adamu showed that Buhari’s administration has no

respect for the law.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, accused the Buhari administration of flouting the constitution.

“Buhari and the APC have no respect for the 1999 Constitution. A party and a government that have no respect for its own rules; that has no respect for its own constitution that it promised to obey. How can you expect them to respect the 1999 Constitution? They can't. They are not used to obeying laws. They are laws unto themselves," the PDP said.

He added that no Nigerian will want to join a party which is accused of ruining the country.

The PDP criticised the APC for allowing its members to engage in what it described as the show of shame as they clashed in a bloody brawl and destroyed public property over the struggle to control the ruling party.

"Our party, therefore, commends Chief Akande for his courage in speaking out on the shenanigans in the APC, including the antics of the illegal national caretaker committee, adding that its meddling with the party’s membership register further confirms revelations of the

fraud inherent in the exercise.

"We also note Chief Akande’s declaration on the waste of resources in the scandalous exercise, which further shows APC's insensitivity to the plight of suffering Nigerians," the PDP stated.

The PDP, however, urged Akande and others in APC not to continue to waste their energy and goodwill on a dead and rejected party.

"Our party, therefore, urges Nigerians to continue to disregard the APC and remain steadfast in rallying on the PDP's platform in the collective effort to rescue our nation from the misrule of the APC," it said.

BUHARI GIVES EX-SERVICE CHIEFS GOLDEN PARACHUTES the mandatory years of service ceases to be a member of the Nigeria Police Force from the date of his completion of his service. In this case, Mr. Adamu ceases to be a member of the NPF from February 2, 2021.

“Under and by virtue of section 215(1)(a) of the Constitution and section 7(3) of the Police Act, 2020, only a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force can be appointed as IGP. Mr. Adamu, having completed his mandatory years of service in February 2, 2021, cannot be appointed as IG,

from outside the force.”

He added that Buhari lacks the power to “reabsorb a retired police officer” to the force under the pretext of “purported tenure extension.”

He said with Buhari’s action, the country does not have an IG recognised by law.

Human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), also described the extension of the tenure of Adamu as "patently and outrightly unconstitutional, illegal, and even immoral.”

Ozekhome stated that Sections 214, 215 and 216

of the 1999 Constitution and Section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act are quite clear that any action by Adamu after February 1, 2021, is null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

He blamed what he described as “sectionalistic, prebendalistic and nepotic forces” for the alleged wrong action of the president.

He stated that that was how the president was led to keep now suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, perpetually

BUNI REPLIES AKANDE, SAYS APC MEMBERSHIP REVALIDATION CONSTITUTIONAL Affairs, Mr. Mamman Mohammed, said the registration and revalidation would assist the party to generate a valid, accurate and up-to-date data on party membership to enhance and support its planning process.

He stated: "Since the initial exercise in 2014, the party has not registered new members nor updated the personal information of our existing members as provided for by the constitution.

"The registration exercise gives our new members a sense of belonging and the existing members will update their information while those who left the party will have their names removed from

the party register."

Buni added that the party has succeeded in building a new confidence among its members and reassuring them of new hope.

He noted that the focus of the caretaker committee is to strengthen the party through a bottom-up approach and to carry everyone on board.

According to him, the caretaker committee has reconciled many aggrieved members and factions across the country, including the Zamfara State factions among others and bringing in prominent politicians into APC, including the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi.

PDP Mocks APC But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the remarks by Akande on the membership drive by his party has confirmed revelations that the party’s membership revalidation and registration is designed to allot fictitious figures and inflate the APC membership register.

The PDP also mocked the ruling party over the freefor-all by its factions during its membership revalidation in Kwara State, saying it exposes the exercise as a monumental swindle.

The PDP also lampooned

APC leaders over the public apathy that has greeted the exercise, despite the deployment of huge financial resources, stating that such is a further confirmation that Nigerians have rejected the APC. In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party said: "Nigerians are already aware that the purpose of the APC membership revalidation exercise is to produce inflated membership figures to assist the APC to allocated fictitious votes for it in 2023 elections; a scheme that is dead on arrival."

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COMMENT

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

THE ESSENTIAL JACOB OLUPONA AT 70 Olufemi Vaughan pays tribute to Olupona, a distinguished scholar and author

I

t is a privilege to share some reflections on Professor Jacob Olupona on the celebration of his 70th birthday. My reflections in this piece will focus on Professor Olupona’s distinguished career as a scholar. These reflections encapsulate our interactions for 35 years since I first met him at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) when I visited Ife from Oxford while conducting fieldwork and archival research for my doctoral thesis in 1986. At the time, Professor Olupona was a young senior lecturer of Religious Studies at OAU. Even in those challenging years as Nigeria experienced severe economic downturn with rapidly eroding institutions, Professor Olupona established himself as a leading scholar of African religious studies, having just completed a book manuscript on what would soon become a seminal work in Nigerian religious studies, ‘Kingship, Religion, and Rituals in a Yoruba Community: A Phenomenological Study of Ondo Yoruba Festivals’, and many groundbreaking articles in leading scholarly publications, notably ‘Journal of Religion in Africa’ and ‘Journal of Ritual Studies’. These publications set the stage for a major theoretical breakthrough on the concept of civil religion in African religious studies.

As the crisis of the Nigerian state deepened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Professor Olupona relocated to the United States, taking a professorship in African & African American Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he led the rejuvenation of Africana intellectual thought at that university.

Harvard soon came calling: Professor Olupona was appointed professor in African religious traditions at Harvard University in 2005. Following a slew of pathbreaking books, landmark edited volumes, and analytically rigorous essays, Professor Olupona emerged as a preeminent scholar of African religious studies a few years later.

These brilliant works include ‘African Religions: A Very Short Introduction’; ‘City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination’; ‘In My Father’s Parsonage: The Story of an Anglican Family in Yoruba-Speaking Nigeria’; ‘Ifa Divination: Knowledge, Power, and Performance; African Immigrant Religion in America’; ‘Orisa Devotion as World Religion’; ‘Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity’; ‘African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings, and Expressions’; and ‘African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society’. They were mostly published by renowned academic presses such as Oxford University Press, University of California Press, and New York University Press.

In their numerous iterations, these studies reveal tapestries of African religious traditions --- indigenous African cosmologies, Christianity, and Islam in the processes of state-society formation --- expressing dialectical tensions between the local and global, national and transnational, tradition and modernity.

Taken altogether, Professor Olupona’s scholarship in African religious studies is extensive in scope and intellectually profound. While deeply engaged with main themes in African religious studies, his scholarship encompasses broad subjects across African humanities and lettered social sciences, covering disciplines as varied as history, anthropology, sociology, politics, Africana studies, and cultural studies. During this moment of scholarly excellence, Professor Olupona was awarded several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ford, Wenner-Gren, Getty, and the American Philosophical Society.

AT VARIOUS STAGES OF A STELLAR CAREER AS A SCHOLAR OF THE HIGHEST DISTINCTION, OLUPONA HAS MARSHALED HIS ENERGY TO BUILD BRIDGES SO THAT THOSE COMING BEHIND HIM CAN HAVE A MORE SECURE PATHWAY AS THEY MARCH FORWARD

In recognition of his reputation in the global Africanist community, Professor Olupona made many of us proud when he was elected president of the African Association for the Study of Religion in the early 2000s. An institution builder and visionary, Professor Olupona established critical institutions to advance the work of African scholars --- and Africanists more broadly. Two notable examples stand out in the last decade: The Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People series at Duke University Press and the Ife Institute for Advanced Studies. Professor Olupona’s stature as a foremost Africanist was affirmed with three honorary doctoral degrees from University of Edinburgh, Obafemi Awolowo University, and the University of Abuja as well as a Nigerian National Merit Award.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of learning from Professor Olupona, drawing from his deep well of wisdom and generosity of spirit. Highly productive scholars can be inward looking most of the time perhaps because of the intense demand of research and obligations to the rigor of academia. Despite the enormous professional demands on him, Professor Olupona found quality time for everyone, especially young scholars. He deploys his professional capital to build a formidable Pan-African infrastructure that has sustained an outstanding pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowship program.

With great introspection, personal fortitude, and progressive Christian values, Professor Olupona, through this initiative, is opening doors for many young African scholars even as they strive to overcome the challenges of doctoral training in many African universities. In many dialogues with him, I admire Professor Olupona’s single-minded devotion to these amazing African scholars.

I will conclude my reflection by focusing attention on the wonderful initiative that Professor Olupona established five years ago in honor of his late parents, Archdeacon & Mrs. Olupona, the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies. In five short years, this amazing initiative has achieved so much. It has established a memorandum of understanding with Obafemi Awolowo University, recruited outstanding faculty mentors from universities around the world, designed an innovative curriculum, establish programmatic agendas for an exciting community of young scholars, build an annual summer research training institute, and sustained a vibrant group of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty mentors, and program coordinators.

Overall, Professor Olupona’s vision for this innovative institute is simple, but profound: The Institute must have a rigorous academic curriculum drawing on best practices in scholarship, research, pedagogy, and mentoring. For Professor Olupona, such an enterprise must balance challenging questions of development and governance in African countries with the dynamic transformations that are taking place in our globalized world. For this critical enterprise to flourish, Olupona insists, it must draw on the collaborative energy, professional expertise, and imaginative agency of all stakeholders. rVaughan is Alfred Sargent Lee & Mary Ames Lee Professor of African Studies, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States

CHANGE OF GUARDS AND EXPECTATIONS The appointment of the new service chiefs is in order, writes A. A. Gadzama

T

he President and Commanderin-Chief has finally succumbed to public pressure and replaced the former Service Chiefs. The changes were long overdue and justified considering the fact that there was not much progress in defeating the insurgents in the North East, stopping the spate of killings by people suspected to be herdsmen across the country and the state of general insecurity in nearly all parts of the country. These were not the only acts of insecurity and criminality that concerned the populace.

Equally of concern were the virtual state of siege in parts of the country as exemplified by attacks on public highways and the rampage by lawless individuals and groups. The change of service chiefs is therefore commendable.

The President and his advisers once again proved responsive to public opinion. The decision took time understandably to avoid past mistakes of appointing unfit persons into sensitive positions of leadership. Many of us believe that the president made wellinformed choices in the appointment of the new service chiefs. Not even his most ardent critics could fault the choice of the new service chiefs. The appointments addressed the twin problems of lopsidedness and brazen disregard of the federal character principles and ethno-religious balancing.

Much more important however is the issue of competence, loyalty and restoring professionalism in the services which demand extreme caution.

I am compelled to write to underscore the importance of caution which in the past was not exercised in such appointments resulting in failure to defeat the security

threats that have engulfed the country in the last one decade. We believe the president and his advisers exercised due diligence. It is important to note that past efforts failed to appreciate our realities. The persistence of insecurity in the country is to a large extent also due to lack of required assets to pursue the wars and deficiencies in strategies being deployed. There is also the problem of dishonesty. I have often advised that there can be no success in any enterprise when there is no honesty in the pursuit of the mission. There is also the indispensability of the support of the citizenry. It is a known fact that no counter intelligence war has ever been successful without the support of the citizenry. In almost all cases, the efforts of the security forces should be complemented with the support of the citizens in intelligence sourcing and identification of criminal elements.

Some of us believe that the forces can make do with more psychological support to encourage the troops to defeat the criminal elements. It should also be pointed out that the ongoing counter insurgency war in the North East suffered immeasurable losses due to uncomplimentary remarks by individuals who should know better. Demanding invitation of foreign mercenaries to deal with the insurgents is ill-informed and smacks of lack of knowledge on the issues being dealt with that constitute serious distractions.

There are also other tendencies that should be discouraged. Change in the attitude of those who find themselves in political leadership is necessary. Politicians must appreciate the predicament of the security forces. We need to insulate the current efforts from politics and parochial

sentiments. Conversely the security forces must accept genuine criticisms from critics in order to make amends. It has been observed that a major problem in the ongoing war against the current security challenges is that many in the corridors of power are allergic to what they misconstrue as unwarranted criticisms. We believe some of the criticisms are honest and well- intended as suggestions that some things could be done differently are acceptable in democratic settings. Those defending the government inevitably end up making more enemies for the government when they are less tolerant of honest advice.

Another deficiency that is very glaring in the ongoing wars against insurgency, kidnapping, banditry and attacks on communities is the dearth of actionable intelligence. Not much progress can be made without the required intelligence. The new service chiefs must therefore revitalize their intelligence gathering strategies and assets.

The new service chiefs should avoid deception and playing to the gallery and be weary of false claims being churned out.

This is the reason why some critics wondering just how many insurgents and bandits there are, considering the frequency of announcements of successes and “neutralization”. There is so much sceptism over some of the claims being made by the spokesmen of the security forces who have formed the habit of only telling their principals what they want to hear. This attitude needs to be discarded as it is poses serious credibility problems in the ongoing efforts against the security challenges.

There are also the challenges of welfare of personnel. The major area of concern of those prosecuting the wars is the negligence

of their warfare and the non-availability of assets and platforms that could help bring the various security threats to an end. Their efforts have also been undermined by the activities of insider saboteurs and those that have lost relevance. The fact is our security forces are generally resilient and could give their best in every situation but they could easily be frustrated when their leadership is not living up to expectations. Accordingly, the new service chiefs, if they are to succeed, should frontally deal with the menace of sycophancy, nepotism and compromise that frustrate honest attempts to deal with problems at hand. The near mutinous situations in some military formations in the past hardly speak well of those in command positions. Finally, there is the problem of inadequacy of men in the theatres of war.

It will be fool hardy to expect that the security challenges would be won with security forces that are terribly inadequate, ill-equipped and overstretched. Not much progress would be made without addressing the problems of equipment, staffing and leadership. The new service chiefs should note that what the country expects from them is bringing to an end all the security challenges in the land. This is possible.

We wish to congratulate the new Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Lucky Irabor and the New Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, previous Commanders of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North East. The two officers did exceptionally well and gave good account of themselves as commanders. We pray they will live up to expectation. rGadzama OFR, mni, is Chairman, Board of National Institute of Security Studies

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T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ ͳ˜ 2021

EDITORIAL

GRUESOME DEATHS ON HIGHWAYS Regulators could do more to save lives

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o many Nigerians, death by Road Traffic Crashes (RTC) is no longer news. It becomes news only when a prominent citizen is involved or casualty figures in a specific incident are high. What is more painful is that many of the crashes are preventable. In the latest series of carnage that now define road travels in the country, no fewer than 20 persons died last weekend in a multiple accident along Bode-SaaduJebba highway in Moro local government of Kwara State.

One of the major SEAT BELTS ARE NOT causes of RTC, MERE ORNAMENTS. THEY identified by FedARE SAFETY EQUIPMENT eral Road Safety Corps (FRSC), WHICH MAY NOT BE 100 PER CENT RELIABLE BUT remains the behaviour of many road THEY COULD SAVE LIFE users. People will WHEN IT MATTERS continue to violate traffic rules and drive with impunity when they know they can get away with it, which is more of what is happening today. The FRSC has to embark on awareness campaigns through seminars, road walks, rallies on the need for drivers to use their seat belts or wield the big stick.

Certainly, seat belts are not mere ornaments.

They are safety equipment which may not be 100 per cent reliable but they could save life when it matters.

Seat belts are standard safety equipment of every modern car to cushion the impact of a car crash on the occupants, particularly the driver and the passenger in the front seat.

In studies carried out in many developed countries – from Sweden to the United States - it had been proved statistically that seat belt, if properly worn, greatly reduces the risk of death and injury in the majority of car crashes. In a study of 28,000 accidents in Sweden for instance, un-belted occupants sustained fatal injuries whereas the belted in

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most cases, walked away with minor injuries.

Airbag, another safety device in many modern cars, increases the effectiveness of the seat belt but is not a replacement as it does not protect against side impacts. Indeed, many modern cars are equipped with intelligent seat belt reminders. Moreover, the belts are comfortable and can even be slackened.

But in many of the country’s cities and on the highways, the law is observed more in the breach. And this, in addition to reckless driving culture occasioned by making calls or texting on cell phones while on the wheel, drunk driving, poorly maintained vehicles and bad roads to boot have made Nigerian roads theatre of blood. As a way of addressing this challenge, the agency once promised to open a ‘Shame Register’ which would be a sort of black book for notorious traffic offenders regardless of their status in the society. Nothing has ever been heard about that.

The state of the roads is another major cause of accidents. Nigeria’s total highway length of 194,394 km is rated second worst in the world. It is therefore, axiomatic that the deplorable state of the roads accounts for the high rate of deaths. In the first quarter of last year, according to statistics from the FRSC, there were 3,947 road crashes, resulting in 1,758 deaths. “The 3,947 number of Road Traffic Crashes (RTC) recorded in the first quarter of 2020 involved 6,448 vehicles. Out of this number, 1,758 were killed and 11,250 were injured,” according to the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem.

Both the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics and that of the FRSC place Nigeria as one of the countries with very high road fatalities in the world. This high turnover of victims on our roads is undesirable given that they are often people in the prime of their productive years, but who unfortunately can no longer play a part in the future of the country. The authorities must do something to contain the menace.

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 (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

SUNDAY IGBOHO WAS NOT BORN ON A SUNDAY

et us take our minds off serious things (read “security issues”) for a moment and do a mundane “talk-talk” in order to entertain the people of the Southwest region of Nigeria who have had causes to be tensed these past couple of weeks. There is something interesting about those of us male children named “Sunday.” I was born on the 10th of October 1970. The gist about Sunday Igboho is he was born on the 10th of October 1972; obviously, Mr. Igboho was born on my second birthday. If I was born on a Sunday, and 1972 being a leap year, it follows therefore that Sunday Igboho was born on a Wednesday and his name should be “Wednesday Igboho” as of today. This is where it gets really interesting. Guess what? I was not born on a Sunday! Actually, 10th October 1970 was a Saturday. It should be easy to determine that Sunday Igboho was born on a Tuesday and to get everything about his nomenclature untwisted he should be known as “Tuesday Igboho.” The coincident day-month of 10/10 separated by only two years makes it impossible for two male kids to be born on Sunday. What’s going on here? It has been a staple of my

Idoma culture to have older ones “book in advance” to have a nephew or a niece in particular but also including a cousin of the first order named after them; my father got his wish by having his nephew named after him (Jonah Sule, who is currently an active serviceman of the Nigerian Army) just before I was born but my soldier-dad was not so keen to christen me “Sule” after his older brother (this would have made me “Sule Jonah” to this day). By the time of my birth, young men of my father’s generation were “guy men” who were hitting adolescent as Nigeria transited from a British colony to an independent country; the positive influence of the “Whiteman culture” of the 1950s could be felt in the hope and unbridled determination that the young men of my father’s generation had. In my hometown district of Ugboju, as was true in nearly all parts of Idomaland, British colonialists began to really set roots in the 1950s, bringing with them education and the beauty of a new religion that contrasted the forced conversions my folks were compelled to do when unknown horsemen, with their conquered Igala foot-soldiers as co-enforcers, invaded our domains, broke our earthenware of locally-brewed drinks

on market days, slaughtered our young men, and forced the remnant folks to “face east” or the direction of the rising sun whilst chanting some even more perplexing tongue in “prayer”. This explains for the names “Abu and Sule” (“Abubakar and Suleiman”) for my dad’s older twin brothers; Sule was keen to have a “namesake” and the Abu I grew hope knowing would have loved that privilege too, but Uncle Sule beat him to it. Thus, no “guy man,” especially a fresh Civil Warrior would want an Abakpa-sounding name for his first born in the confines of the then bivouacs of soldiers (in my native Idoma tongue, the term “Abakpa” is used as a designator for “Islam” or “Muslim;” for those who have been curious about this, the neighbourhood of Abakpa in Kaduna metropolis was bequeathed by Idoma textile workers who were resident at “the place of Abakapa people” in those hey days of blossoming industrialisation of Northern Nigeria). My daughter even had her mother’s first cousin, the recentlydeceased Hajiya Hajara Amodu-Ogwu, “booked” to have my daughter named after her and to this day I call my daughter “Hajiya;” now, enter my soldier-dad, Jonah, who once again, was not so keen

about an Abakpa-sounding name for his oldest grandchild and he duly proceeded to “nack ‘um something” in the form of an “English name” but the name “Hajiya” has apparently stuck within my close family units. And, oh, as I got older I realised that there was once a preponderance of Abakpa-sounding names in my family and even some Kano-centric roots. My mother was once called Jenebu (this was obviously “Zainab” in the Idoma tongue), there is a maternal aunt still known as Adija (this is “Hadiza;” no wonder I was right on the mark when I guessed that the singer Di’ja “be like Hausa girl” when I first read about her. My father actually named me for Uncle Sule’s oldest son, Sunday (one I now doubt was even born on a Sunday).

Thus, who was Sunday Igboho named after? The old Oyo State had its unusual fair share of male Sundays (the late IGP, Sunday Adewusi; the present federal minister of sports and youth development, Sunday Dare; that infamous serial killer who only recently terrorised a neighbouhood of Ibadan, et al.) r4VOEBZ "EPMF +POBI %FQBSUNFOU PG 1IZTJDT 'FEFSBM 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5FDIOPMPHZ .JOOB /JHFS 4UBUF

16

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

NDDC Worker Accuses Agency of Spending N6.25bn on COVID-19 Palliatives Senate gives commission last chance to appear before it

Deji Elumoye in Abuja A management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has accused the agency of squandering N6.25billion on phantom palliatives against COVID-19 in 2020.

This is just as the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, issued final summon to the management of the commission to unfailingly appear before it on February 22 for explanations on the alleged palliatives’ mismanagement.

NDDC had under the

recently sacked Professor Daniel Pondei-led Interim Management Committee ( IMC) claimed to have spent N6.25 billion on palliatives against COVID-19 last year across the nine oil producing States.

However, the Chairman of the agency’s COVID-19 Palliative Distribution Committee , Ambassador Sobomabo Jackrich , said not a dime was spent for such purpose by the then IMC of the Commission.

In a petition he wrote to the Senate Committee on Public Petitions, Jackrich said : “As

Chairman of the COVID-19 Palliatives Distribution Committee of the NDDC, I testify that N6.25billion approved

by Mr. President for palliatives for the entire Niger Delta Region through the NDDC, cannot be accounted for and by the then Prof. Daniel Pondei - led IMC. “My committee was totally sidelined and the IMC hijacked the process because of their secret plots just because I as the Chairman demanded for transparency in the entire

process. The then IMC conspired among themselves and distributed strange substance in the name of Palliatives in form of spoilt food items to a few communities in the region.

To cover up for the fraud, they tried without success to bribe me with few bags of rice and beans just to induce me to play along with them”.

Although the leadership of the NDDC failed to appear before the committee’s sitting on Thursday to answer to the

petition but the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, said there will be no escape route for the agency’s management on the alleged fraud.

According to him, “This is the third time the leadership of the commission failed to honour invitation on the alleged N6.25billion COVID-19 palliatives scam.

“But unfortunately for them, as a committee of the Senate, we shall thoroughly investigate it

whether they like it or not since petition on the fraud even came from a ranking officer from the commission.

“Even as a Senator from one of the affected states , I along with 26 others , did not see any palliatives distributed by NDDC last year.

“Since Government is a continuum, the new management of the commission must appear before the Committee unfailingly on the 22nd of this month”, he said.

Ekweremadu’s Elder Brother Slumps, Dies in Enugu Former deputy senate president harps on peace, tolerance Deji Elumoye, Udora Orizu in Abuja and Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu The elder brother of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy Senate President, Chief Mathias Ekweremadu yesterday slumped and died in Enugu.

The deceased until his shocking death was the Commissioner for Transport in Enugu State.

This is coming as the former deputy senate president has said that dialogue, peace-building, and tolerance, remain the best way forward in addressing divisiveness and building global cohesion for accelerated international development The senator’s elder brother reportedly died at the Niger Foundation Hospital, Enugu.

The cause of his death could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.

But a source in his office said he “slumped” during a meeting at the State House of Assembly and was rushed to the hospital where doctors confirmed him dead.

Before his appointment as a Commissioner in 2019, Ekweremadu represented Aninri state Constituency at the State House of Assembly.

He was also the Chairman of Aninri Local Government Area on different occasions.

Meanwhile, the senator yesterday said dialogue, peace-building, and tolerance, remain the best way forward

in addressing divisiveness and building global cohesion for accelerated international development.

Ekweremadu stated this at the meeting of the Bureau of the IPTC and President of the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) national parliament, the Federal National Council, Saqr Ghobash, in Dubai.

The meeting, came on the second anniversary of the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”, a joint statement issuedyesterday by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, said.

Ekweremadu, who described hate, intolerance, racial and ethnoreligious discriminations and strife as ill-wind that had never favoured anyone, observed that countries of the world desirous of building a great nation had always prioritised justice and tolerance to manage their diversities and make progress.

He said, ‘’Therefore, the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace will continue to promote the virtues of peace, tolerance, dialogue and consensus building. Importantly, we will also continue to promote the principle of justice because you can never have real peace without justice. We will continue to promote a world where every nation treats her people equitably and where the world treats every part thereof with utmost sense of fairness irrespective of race, region or religion.’’

Man Jumps from 7th Floor, Dies during EFCC Raid A man yesterday died after jumping from the 7th floor of 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The deceased jumped from an apartment at Block D5 during a raid by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday morning.

A combined team of EFCC officials and policemen had stormed the estate in search of some alleged Internet fraudsters otherwise known as ‘Yahoo Boys’.

The deceased allegedly

jumped from the apartment and died.

The EFCC officials immediately left and informed policemen attached to the Bar Beach Police Division.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Lagos State, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the incident, adding that from all indications, the man was not even a suspect.

Adejobi said after the man fell, he was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIP…

Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Segun Awolowo (left), and the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum (NNPC), Malam Mele Kolo Kyari, at the ground breaking ceremony of National Digital Innovation And Entrepreneurship Centre, Abuja …yesterday

Alleged Bribery: EFCC Asks Appeal Court to Order Justice Yunusa’s Retrial The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Court of Appeal in Lagos order the retrial of a Federal High Court judge, Justice Mohammed Yunusa, recently discharged of bribery charges.

The anti-graft commission made the prayer in a notice of appeal dated February 2, 2020.

An Ikeja High Court had in a ruling on January 25 discharged Yunusa of the bribery charges, citing a December 23, 2020 letter by the National Judicial Council

(NJC) which lifted the suspension slammed on him in July 2016.

Before the ruling, an EFCC prosecutor, Wahab Shittu, had called 10 prosecution witnesses with only about two more to be presented, when the court struck out Yunusa’s name off the charges, and ordered his alleged co-accomplice, Esther Agbo, to continue facing the trial.

Dissatisfied, the anti-graft agency raised three grounds of appeal in the notice of appeal.

It prayed for “an order setting

aside the order of the trial court striking out the name of the 1st respondent (Yunusa) and discharging the 1st respondent from the information.”

“An order directing the trial court to relist and restore the name of the 1st respondent as the 1st defendant in the Information before the trial court.”

The agency said the trial judge’s ruling attempted to confer immunity on Yunusa as a judicial officer even when the

Nigerian Constitution does not grant such immunity to judges.

Shittu, who filed the appeal, quoted the trial judge as saying in her ruling, “Upon the application of the learned silk, J. A Odubela (SAN), and the document tendered admitted and marked as Exhibit A2, the 1st defendant having been recalled on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council is a sitting judicial officer of the federation, hence immune from criminal proceedings.”

You are Forgiven, Ooni Replies Sunday Igboho The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has accepted the apology tendered by popular Yoruba rights activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho.

He said Igboho, who apologised on Wednesday in a viral video for declaring that the Ooni disappointed Yoruba nation for not speaking the truth on herdsmen killings in Southwest during a recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari,

has been forgiven.

Director of Media and Public Affairs, Ooni’s Palace, Mr. Moses Olafare, said Sunday Igboho remains the son of Ooni.

He said: “He has forgiven him as he had tendered an apology via a video clip he produced via social media yesterday evening.

“Before tendering the apology, it was the Olugbon of Ile-igbon that first called and informed Arole Oodua on the phone that he had scolded Sunday

on phone on his misdeeds and that, he would soon tender an apology to him on the matter.

Sunday Igboho later released a video in which he tendered the apology.

“Even though the way and manner, Sunday behaved was sacrilege to the Oduduwa throne but he has already apologised and I can confirm that Arole Oodua has forgiven him, because, there is no perfection in humanity. “Sunday is a human

being like a normal human being who could misbehave as well”.

He went on: “As the father of all, the Arole Oduduwa Olofin Adimula, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II remains his father who had even identified with him in the past two weeks he has begun with the struggle and he is still solidly behind him for the liberation of the Yorubas from criminal herdsmen who have adamantly terrorised our land.”

I Saw Insurgency in Zamfara, Not Banditry, Says Gummi A renowned Islamic Scholar Sheikh Dr Ahmed Mahmoud Gummi has said that “what is currently happening in Zamfara is insurgency and not banditry”.

Gummi who was briefing Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State at Government House yesterday, said the bandits have completely turned into insurgents following the bad treatment from the people of the state.

“In most of the bandits and Fulani camps we have visited in Zamfara, I come to understand that what is happening in the state is nothing but an insurgency,” he said.

Gummi maintained that most of the bandits he came across during his visit to Zamfara forests were only carrying weapons and attacking people because of persistent attacks and harassment from the vigilante group known

as the Yansakai.

Gummi stated that most of the bandits he interacted with during his visit had indicated their readiness to surrender their weapons and embrace peace if the Yansakai stopped attacking and killing them.

He appealed to governments at all levels to embrace dialogue with the bandits and other insurgents in the country, expressing optimism that “dialogue is the only option

to end the menace”.

He commended Governor Matawalle for introducing dialogue with the bandits as a means of ending banditry, calling on other governors to emulate him.

“Some people are of the view that the bandits should be fought and killed, but what we understand is that majority of them are illiterates who need proper education and enlightenment,” he said.

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Amotekun Arrests 37 Herdsmen, 5,000 Cows in Ondo James Sowole in Akure Enforcing the quit order of the Ondo State Government for herdsmen to vacate the government forest reserves, the Commander of the Ondo State Security Network, Amotekun Corps, Chief Adetunji Adeleye,

yesterday said that no fewer than 37 herdsmen and 5, 000 cows have been arrested for disobeying the state directive.

The state governor, Mr. Oluwatotimi Akeredolu, had last month, issued directive asking herdsmen to quit the government forest reserves

and also banned movement of cattle along the highways and within the cities.

The government also banned night and under-aged herders from operating in the state, while all herders were also asked to register with the state government to enable them operate legitimately. .

Adeleye said that the suspects and their herds were arrested in Ala, Ofosu and Oda forest reserves.

He disclosed that his men were still in the forest to flush out the remaining erring herders.

Adeleye said some of the herdsmen, who could not cope with the terms and conditions of the state government had met with the corps and had opted to move out of the state peacefully.

He said, “some of them have opted to leave the state because they couldn’t meet with our terms and conditions. They

came through the Chairman of Miyatti Allah in the state.

Some opted to go to Osun, Edo and Kogi states.

“So, our men escorted them to the boundaries of those states. We have to monitor their movements out of the state so that they would not destroy farms on their way out.

“About 37 herders have been arrested with about 5, 000 cows . Majority of the herders have been coming

to us through their chairman and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Hausa Matters.

We will hand over the culprits to the chairman to lead them out and anybody caught again after this would be arrested and prosecuted.”

The Amotekun boss implored the farmers to always call on the corps whenever the cows invade and destroy their farms saying the corps would respond immediately.

The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) has ordered the removal of former Attorney General of Cross River, Mr. Joseph Abang, from the roll of legal practitioners in the country. The legal body gave the order after it found that the former AG engaged in an “infamous conduct”.

It ordered that the respondent should no longer enjoy the status of a legal practitioner or accorded audience in that capacity.

The decision against Abang followed a complaint that was lodged against him by the Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

The NBA, in the complaint it entered before the LPDC on June 26, 2020, noted that Unity Bank Plc had engaged Abang as a lawyer to help it to recover a debt that was owed it by Bilwadams Construction Company Nigeria Limited.

The construction firm which

was a customer of the bank was said to have been indebted to the defunct Bank of the North and Intercity Bank Plc (some of the legacy banks that merged and firmed Unity Bank Plc).

According to the NBA, despite the instruction of the bank to the effect that recovered sums should be paid directly into its accounts, the respondent, diverted the sum of N6,666,666.66 he recovered on October 29, 2010, into his

own personal account and never remitted same to the bank.

It alleged that the respondent also received another N66, 666, 666. 71 in 2012, but never remitted same to the bank as at August 2013.

The LPDC was told that upon intensified demand by the bank, the respondent, on September 23, 2013, remitted N45million with a promise to pay the outstanding sum of N23, 249,620. 80.

House Member, Galadima to Forfeit N60m over Former AG of Cross River, Joseph Abang, Debarred Fleeing Maina’s Son Alex Enumah in Abuja A House of Representatives member, Hon, Sani DanGaladima, is likely to forfeit his house worth N60 million to the federal government over a failed surety he entered for Faisal Maina, the son of former Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, who is now at large.

The lawmaker risks losing the house following an order of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which yesterday held that the bail bond signed for the release of Faisal on bail be forfeited since the defendant has jumped bail.

According to the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in a committal proceeding ruling, the federal lawmaker representing Kaura-Namoda federal constituency of Zamfara State, must forfeit the property

having freely elected to do so while standing as surety for the defendant in the criminal matter.

Faisal, who is standing trial on alleged money laundering and fraud charges, was granted bail in the sum of N60 million with a surety in like sum, who must be a serving member of the House of Representatives, after he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

His father, Abdulrasheed Maina, who is standing trial in a N2 billion corruption charges, was also admitted to bail in the sum of N500 million by the same court, and later escaped to Niger Republic to avoid trial but was extradited to the country by the International Police (Interpol).

At yesterday proceedings, Faisal was reported to have fled to the United States of America.

NEPC to Partner NITDA, Communication Ministry on Export Services The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Segun Awolowo has promised to partner the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy in order to fast track export services.

Awolowo revealed this at the groundbreaking ceremony of the centre alongside the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami; Chief Executive Officer of NITDA, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa and the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele

Kyari, among others.

The project, which was established by the NITDA is aimed at creating an innovative ecosystem based on work, life and learn concept. It will also focus on creating an enabling environment that would inspire, connect, encourage

and support technology startups, entrepreneurs and businesses towards innovation and indigenisation of technologies.

The NEPC boss promised to partner with the agency in fast racking export services in line with the diversification agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

T H I S D AY ˾FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021

18

POLITICS

Group Politics Editor NSEOBONG OKON-EKONG Email: nseobong.okonekong@thisdaylive.com 08114495324 SMS ONLY

The Transition of a Titan of Times Femi Ajayi, former Science Editor of Daily Times and member of Daily Times Editorial Board, Information Officer at the United Nations, Communication Specialist at DFID, Senior Special Assistant on International Development Cooperation to President Goodluck Jonathan, DG-NDLEA, and ES-PTDF, honours the memory of former Minister of Information and Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change, Prince Tony Momoh, with a fitting tribute

T

he news flash of Prince Tony Momoh’s transition to luminous heights, as he himself would have described his own passage to immortality, was a rude shock to me. Though I was conscious of his being an octogenarian as well as aware of the great and impactful life that he lived, I still feel a personal sense of monumental loss because he was undoubtedly my destiny helper, having been used by the ever-dependable benevolent God and divine providence to kick-start my brief but eventful journalism career. And I am left with regrets that I did not celebrate him sufficiently while he was with us on this side of eternity.

Perhaps I feared out of misguided selfrighteousness that it was professionally inappropriate and that it would have smacked of self-serving predatory sycophancy for me to valorize the unassuming Prince when he was obviously in a vantage position to be a catalyst to my journalistic career. Probably out of misguided modesty, I believed that it would amount to currying favour or meaningless hero-worshipping to catalogue the numerous virtues of this sober and highly reflective quite achiever. The unvarnished truth is that it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell the truth of Tony Momoh’s good nature, practical fairness, sense of social equity and natural justice as well as his genius and great accomplishments while he was still alive and in a position to influence things without sounding sycophantic. While I appreciated him in several forums and on many platforms, I feel like I did not venerate him as much as he deserved as one of my destiny helpers.

I acknowledge the brief and few privileged moments that I spent in the company and presence of Prince Tony Momoh, the ever-busy voracious reader and prolific writer, was intellectually edifying, professionally rewarding, soul-lifting and spiritually elevating.

Tony Momoh was an obligate and natural philosopher, a journalist’s journalist, a writer’s writer, a mentor of mentors and a multivalent and all-round professional in whose presence your genius and intellectual pretensions was sure to be rebuked by his superior wit, native wisdom, and infectious candour. At the untimely death of my biological father, Chief E.B. Ajayi, which occurred during the early stage of my journalism career, Tony Momoh told me matter-of-factly that I should brace up to face my life with courage and conviction while my other senior colleagues were profusely consoling me. He philosophically posited that everything that happens to a man (seemingly good or bad) happens to him for his own good and that whatever we go through grows us. It was the Auchi Prince’s distinctive way of interpreting the scriptural saying: “All things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.”

Where is that Tony Momoh’s boy? That was typical Mr. Kola Ojo and Sam Ogwa, the News Editors of Daily Times at the time, both of blessed memory now. You would think they didn’t know my name.

My Daily Times career had started with an unusual drama with me presenting a letter of appointment signed by the great and no-nonsense Prince Tony Momoh designating me a Senior Journalist, which the News Editors obviously considered bogus for a fresh graduate from the Times Newspaper Training Centre (TNTC) much later re-christened Times Journal-

ism Institute. What does Senior Journalist mean, they censoriously inquired?

I had received my employment letter from the big man himself, after waiting for over six months for the automatic appointment that I expected because it was the tradition to give automatic employ-

ment to the Best Graduation Student of the TNTC. He gave me the marching order to report to the Science Editor, who was functioning from the Features Desk then and the News Editors, but he said that he expected me to be contributing both news reports and feature materials.

Okowa’s Conversion of Tertiary Institutions into Universities: Sagacity or Accidental Masterstroke?

Magnus Onyibe, a former commissioner in Delta state government, commends the decision of the Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to upgrade three tertiary institutions in the state to universities

O

ne of the iconic leaders that is often cited all over the world as an exemplar, is Lee Kuan Yew, who was the Prime Minister of Singapore that owes much of his fame to the legacy of a phenomenal, rapid and systematic development of the small island nation in a manner that it leapt from 3rd to 1st world over a relatively short period.

And the accomplishment of the development feat in Singapore was achieved partly through the concerted and strategic efforts of providing qualitative education to young Singaporeans who were to later take over the mantle of leadership from Lee Kuan Yew and his epoch making team.

All that is documented in a seminal book authored by the former prime minister titled “From Third World To First.The Singapore Story: 1965-2000” Since childhood , l had learnt from my mother that it is education that makes the difference between the cleaner and the doctor in the same hospital.

Both are human beings. They may even be from the same womb, village or clan. But the doctor obviously acquired education by attending schools to obtain the relevant skill set , while the cleaner did not. Hence both of them ended up in their respective stations in life.

In other words, the doctor functions in an exalted position, while the cleaner occupies a lowly position , simply because he/she did not seek or obtain the requisite education that could have stood him/her in better stead.

And who can better personify or embody the metaphor and analogy of the doctor and the cleaner in the hospital than Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa? He is the son of a nurse and a school teacher (both parents

are now of blessed memory) who trained him as a medical doctor, before he became a dyed-in-the-wool politician , practically climbing up from the bottom of the ladder of all the public offices before emerging the current governor of Delta state.

Without educational opportunities, Okowa might not have attained the position of authority that he occupies today.

So having been a youth with ambition, he knows how critical it is for the youths of Delta state today and beyond to be equipped with market ready skills through education .

That’s why, as soon as l heard the good news about the proposed conversion of the three colleges of education, agriculture and polytechnic into universities, l reckoned that it must be a product of alchemy between education and prosperity which l was convinced must be very clear to Okowa as a governor and a conscientious politician.

Keeping in mind the foregoing, l concluded that the governor must have decided to expand and deepen the infrastructure for education in the state to provide opportunities for the burgeoning number of youths that are bristling with hope to acquire the knowledge that would enable them be up-skilled for the rapidly evolving new age market.

Unbeknownst to me, the decision to upgrade the college of education, school of agriculture and polytechnic into universities is not so much a product of political calculations or machinations, neither is it because the governor and his cabinet are abhorrent of polytechnic and monotechnic education.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

My flamboyant title initially attracted both envy and mocking remarks to me in the newsroom as some old hands they wondered what this Tony Boy would contribute to the great Daily Times.

I remembered one sub-editor who was saying it loudly to my hearing: Tony has come with his “training schoolboys” again. I initially felt some hostility from both sub-editors, fellow reporters, and newsroom pool typists, which I partly attributed to the outlandish designation in my appointment letter. However, all the open hostility evaporated after the “red-letter-day” trashing of a story from an important assignment that I attended at the instance of Prince Tony Momoh.

Being good in typewriting, I usually type my stories, but I gave this unique and obviously high priority story to one of the typists because it was important to type it before the daily news conference and because I had two other stories to type. Not being used to me giving him stories for typing, the typist did not only refuse to type the story, he threw it in the trash can. The next day the story which contained the major issue of the assignment I covered was missing from the Daily Times, but the subsidiary stories that I typed myself were published. So, Prince Momoh came majestically to the newsroom with obvious anger to the newsroom. How did you miss the big news about the event that were published

by The Guardian and the Punch newspapers? I explained that I didn’t know why the story was not used but that I wrote it. We immediately and eventually traced the story to the trash can of one of the typists, who claimed self-righteously that it was given to him for typing by that boy on attachment (pointing to me!). The old typist, having gotten to Daily Times before I went to the journalistic school, obviously considered it audacious for me to ask him to type a story, though that was the job for which he was earning his pay packet.

Tony Momoh, in his characteristic bluntness, told all the typists that while he would encourage me to type most of my stories the way I usually do, they should not repeat the mistake of “refusing to type the good and meaningful stories that he expects me to write” judging from my academic exploits at the TNTC. To whom much is given, and much confidence is reposed, much is expected.

I later became the darling of the news editors, sub-editors, and cub reporters whose jobs were simplified by my story rewriting skills and my readiness to take up any writing assignment. Through the mentoring of Tony Momoh and the patient nurturing of Chris Nnoli (the Science Editor) and Farouk Mohammed, and the later honing of my skills under the tutelage of the polished advocate and practitioner of elevated language, Onyema Ugochukwu, I eventually became a prolific science reporter and features writer after thoroughly learning the art of effectively communicating technical subjects to non-technical audiences.

Throughout my rather brief but fruitful and fulfilling journalism career, I remained Tony Momoh’s boy and protégé in the eyes of those who knew about my rather dramatic entrance to Daily Times for he did not merely give me the job but made sure I got the space to practice my art and craft. The rest, according to the popular cliché of storytellers, is history.

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T H I S D AY ˾ FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021

19

PERSPECTIVE

Considering the Leadership Qualities of Adamu Mu’azu Trump 2024, Distorted Truth and Freedoms of Expression Chido Nwangwu, Founder and Publisher of USAfricaonline.com vents his strong feelings on the trial for impeachment of former American President Donald Trump in the U.S Senate

F

ormer President Donald Trump’s lead defense attorney, for his February 2021 trial for impeachment in the U.S Senate, is an interesting but pitiable manipulator of the language of jurisprudence and politics. He’s what we refer to as a prevaricator. Someone who speaks artfully to avoid the precise truth and facts of an issue.

The man, Bruce Castor, has decided as “defense strategy” in the latest impeachment of the congenitally corrosive, divisive and aggressive Trump that his client bears no responsibility for anything Trump has said or done which imposed global disgrace to the greatest country on planet earth.

Castor said on Wednesday February 3 that “Just because somebody gave a speech and people got excited, it doesn’t mean it’s the speechmaker ’s fault — it’s the people who got excited and did what they know is wrong.”

First, Castor ’s latest meandering and double-speak reminded me of the warning and words of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, the German scientist and prolific writer, that ‘The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth.”

Second, on the face of it, Castor is right that everyone should be he held responsible for his or her actions. That is a classical example of “a slightly distorted truth.”

He knows it, as a lawyer, that there are such a criminal misconduct referred to as “incitement,” “sedition” and “insurrection.”

Third, to be sure, on January 6, 2021 as well as on several and previous occasions during his four years of intemperate presidency, Mr. Trump was a flame-thrower, an instigator, a motivator for a very violent insurrection of his own making and motivation. A brutal violation of his oath of office and fundamental obligations to the diverse people of these United States.

Fourth, as a partisan power-

play, the Trumpists (the new but temporary owners of the Republican Party) and their intimidated and pacified enablers will lack the balls and lack a high sense of self that they will not vote to impeach or indict Trump.

Fifth, the conspiracy-theorists, anti-Semites and anti-African peoples troops and supremacists who have coalesced into this grotesque apparition of the Grand Ol’ Party (Trump Republicans) remain bereft of a true sense of patriotism are incapable of raising only 17 courageous votes to impeach or indict Trump.

Sixth, the Trumpists and their confederacy of extremism remain so drunken in false piety about “taking back our country” and misreading the Constitution that they cannot summon the decency and “testicular fortitude” to rid the party of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, John Kasich and Adam Kinzinger of hurricane Trump.

Seventh, awash in the putrid politics of xenophobia. Blinded by their racism and their philistinism, the Trumpists will not see beyond the potential political high of Trump 2024. Trump 2024 will be a socio-political calamity; of which foretaste of the ghost of things to come, we all witnessed on January 6, 2021! The bottomline: Trump’s footstools and apologists will not vote for his evidence rich indictment or impeachment!

Eight, that we thought we heard the boisterous ex-President say and unleash on January 6, 2021 specifically schemed and scheduled to coincide and disrupt the final protocols of the certification of the electoral college votes holding around the same in the Capitol were phantasmagoric swings of the stupefying kind.

Nineth, that Trump’s incitement of the crowd of thousands near the U.S Capitol, where he specifically called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for “your country” — several minutes before they stormed the Capitol — was not incitement but a garden-variety, full-troth on the highways of the freedom of expression.

I know freedom of expression when I see one; I am, professionally and personally, committed to the freedoms of expression.

I am an advocate for the factual interrogation of the human experience, past and present.

Yes; in as much as I respect and support the freedom of expression, I insist that it must be responsible and factual.

The fundamental question remains: does Trump have a constitutional right to incite mob action? And, brag he’s coming back to the White House in 2024?

Ibrahim Sani draws attention to the leadership attributes of Dr. Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, while arguing that he qualifies for the job of president of Nigeria

I

t was Napoleon Bonaparte that said nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. Decision making is one of the most difficult tasks before any individual, organization or even a country. Once you get it right with your decision, the liquid of the other issues would take shape.

Today, political posters, agitations, lobbying, meetings and consultations are now being regurgitated ahead of the 2023 general elections and this calls for serious re-awakening as delay may be irredeemable especially having political ‘dancers’ that may not understand the rhythmic complexity of what the issues are and how to maximize resources and time to give Nigerians not just anything but what they yearn for in terms of good governance.

The political clouds are already gathering momentum and in no time, the rains would fall and it is in that light that many political strategists are beginning to come out of their vacations because the atmosphere is not such that permits delay especially in a country like Nigeria where decision making especially in politics is taking as a compulsory course for success.

Our huge population in Nigeria is a blessing in all aspects of life even in politics as it presents Nigerians with wide range of choices. We may have the human resource in terms of leadership but the challenge has always been the interest. No matter how good a leader may be by qualification or training, if his or her interest is not the people, you will get everything but good governance.

As 2023 gradually becomes the subject matter, the people’s interest must be prioritised and from that radar, positive-minded Nigerians are convinced that Dr Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, a thorough bred professional gentleman with both local and international backgrounds and whose interest in politics has remained the people deserved the big role in 2023.

Political leadership for many is to achieve personal ambition as those who in some cases seek power only do so for personal goal to become the number leader in a state or country but democracy is beyond personal interest it’s about the people and if that is taken out then leadership become business at the expense of the people’s resources.

As 2023 beckons and political faithful jostle for power we must look out for interests so we don’t regret after the next election. Dr Mu’azu has shown beyond reasonable doubt that he is not a leader that would prioritize personal interest over the interest of the people. This is because as a two time governor of the then Bauchi state, he fought for the people and made the people the centre of his policies.

His leadership style has redefined democracy in the state and even as a successful businessman; he has made impact and continued to engage the people on how the state and the country can be improved. With all sense of sincerity and responsibility, Nigeria will fare better under the leadership of Dr Mu’azu.

Dr Mu’azu is a complete leader having served in various capacities as a political leader and a successful businessman and public opinion over time has scored him high on issues of transparency and sincerity.

With the scarce resources and the

dwindling future of oil, we don’t just need a leader who is good at managing resources but who is also transparent enough to ensure that governance is not shrouded in secrecy but subject to scrutiny. This kind of leadership that is accountable to the people is what Dr Mu’azu will bring to the table and that for many Nigerians would be a game changer. This is the kind of governance that Nigerians are really yearning for. Leadership that is owned by the people, driven by the people and given to the people; the legacy of Dr Mu’azu in governance as well as his wealth of experience will made that possible.

Dr Mu’azu is often regarded as the “golden” leader in contemporary time owing to the manner in which he consolidated upon what he met on ground as the then governor of Bauchi where he laid the foundation for a better and brighter future for citizens of the state. The democratic principles of Dr Mu’azu in influencing people-oriented policies that will help address the challenges of poverty and other issues which are drifting many into the risks of vulnerability, are no doubt the needed resource to help uplift millions out of poverty by empowering the ordinary people through various skills acquisition programmes which he initiated as a governor.

One of the biggest fears of Nigeria now is the issue of the economy and the need to build a stronger economy for the collective prosperity of Nigerians and as a professional and a successful businessman, Dr Mu’azu has the hidden formula to build a robust economy that will be driven by a functional system where everyone will be empowered to contribute their quota via all sectors of the economy to have an all inclusive growth which would be benefitting to Nigerians in both rural and urban settings.

As a leader who believes in equality through even development and all- inclusive growth, Dr Mu’azu will draw from this personality to spread good governance to every part of the country which will in more ways than one help address some of the hidden agitations in the country.

Amongst those who sees 2023 as a race to partake in, those who know the leadership capacity of Dr Mu’azu and have observed his administrative prowess in delivering on his mandate in any public assignment, it is clear that Dr Mu’azu has a commanding margin when compared with those vying for the position of the president.

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 •T H I S D AY

21

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

BUSINESSWORLD

Group Business Editor Obinna Chima Email obinna.chima@thisdaylive.com 08152447875

Ͱ ͷ ˜ Ͱ ͮ Ͱ ͯ MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

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Quick Takes

African Airlines Post 69.8% Fall in Traffic

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

L-R: Chief Information Officer, Stanbic IBTC, Okey Iroegbu; Deputy Managing Director, Huwaei, Ken Zhao and Chief Executive Officer, Edniesal Consulting, Abiola Laseinde, during the CIO Awards held in Lagos...recently

Expert Identifies Challenges of Aircraft Leasing in Nigeria Chinedu Eze Industry operators have said that one of the major factors why they are finding it difficult to replenish their depleting operating aircraft is the difficulty they face in remitting money to lessors due to forex scarcity.

The operators also said that the current exchange rate and the delay in financial institutions to remit the funds to lessors overseas make the transactions a frustrating experience.

Leasing is the easiest way commercial airlines acquire aircraft in other parts of the world and major airlines, including well-known mega carriers, operate largely leased aircraft.

AVIATION Former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and current Rector, International Aviation College, Ilorin, Benedict Adeyileka, highlighted challenges faced by domestic airlines in leasing aircraft.

Adeyileka, stressed that getting forex remains a challenge for the airlines, disclosing that while waiting to obtain dollars for the payment the leasing window may elapse, as other airlines may also be leasing aircraft from the lessor.

“If you have your naira to lease aircraft, the regulator and your bank will be the problem.

They will be the stumbling block because of the scarcity

of dollars. Another problem you will face is the exchange rate. The exchange rate is very high that you must have a lot of money in naira to earn the dollars that will enable you to lease,” he said.

Adeyileka pointed out that another major challenge is the leasing conditions, which is stringent for Nigerian carriers because Nigeria is designated as high country risk.

“You may even have the money but the lessor will not allow you to bring the aircraft to Nigeria. Even if he allows you, he will slam high returns to it that you won’t be able to pay. When you look at what you could be generating with the aircraft, you will find out that you won’t be able to raise

the leasing cost.

“Then, another issue is that when you lease the aircraft, NCAA has its own stringent conditions that you must face. The officials will do pre-inspection of the aircraft and on arrival of the aircraft they will carry out post arrival inspection in which the inspector can ask you for anything about the aircraft, including manufacturing documents,” Adeyileka said.

But recently the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu said the agency would guarantee lessors that it would protect their equipment leased to Nigerian carriers and with the new assurance, lesContinued on page 22

FG Begins Implementation of Ports’ Process Manual Eromosele Abiodun All federal government agencies in the maritime sector have pledged to support the smooth take-off of the Nigerian Ports Process Manual (NPPM) as the government begins its implementation.

The agencies that have pledged support for the implementation of NPPM include: the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The NPPM was launched

by Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, late last year and announced the appointment of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) as the lead agency to implement it.

MARITIME NPPM is to enable Nigeria improve its ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

At a sensitisation meeting for government agencies and stakeholders in the maritime sector on the implementation of the NPPM organised by the NSC, the Executive Secretary of the NSC, Mr. Hassan Bello, stressed the need to reduce cargo dwell time at Nigerian ports from 21 days to the regional average of seven days.

Speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, underscored the importance of the NPPM and the need to sanitise Nigeria’s port system.

Amaechi in his keynote address emphasised the enormity of the responsibility placed the NSC to drive the process and

urged government agencies and the generality of the public to cooperate with NSC. Bello on his part said the NPPM was key to transparency in Nigerian ports.

“There is a need to reduce dual time of cargo from 21 days to the regional average of 7 days. The NSC is not only looking at the ease of doing business but at the cost of doing business,” he said.

He added that the electronic call up system by the NPA would aid in easing the current traffic situation around the port.

He sought for the cooperation of sister agencies to ensure the manual is fully implemented in order to improve the ranking of Nigeria in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Also speaking, the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza

Bala-Usman, said the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the various agencies in the maritime sector are closely tied, hence, the need for seamless cooperation and integration of relevant agencies.

The NPA, she promised, would ensure compliance to the manual and implement sanctions for non-compliance.

Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, spoke on some of the challenges in the sector, which he said include: insecurity and corruption.

According to him methods of addressing these issues are embedded in the NPPM adding that, “Our industry can only be sustained in terms of economic growth if we have sustainable systems in place Continued on page 22

African airlines recorded 69.8 per cent fall in traffic in 2020, adjudged the worst year for passenger traffic in decades.This was disclosed by the InternationalAirTransportAssociation(IATA),initsfull-yearglobalpassenger trafficresultsfor2020.Thereportshowedthatdemand(revenuepassenger kilometersorRPKs)fellby65.9percent,comparedtothefullyearof2019.

International passenger demand in 2020 was 75.6 per cent below 2019 levels.Capacity,(measuredinavailableseatkilometersorASKs)declined 68.1 percentandloadfactorfell 19.2percentagepoints to 62.8percent.

Also,domesticdemandin2020wasdown48.8percentcomparedto2019.

Capacitycontractedby35.7percentandloadfactordropped17percentage points to 66.6 per cent. It showed that as of December 2020, total traffic was69.7percent,belowthesamemonthin2019.Capacitywasdown56.7 percentandloadfactorfell 24.6percentagepoints to 57.5percent.

Bookings for future travel made in January 2021 were down 70 per cent, comparedtoayear-ago,puttingfurtherpressureonairlinecashpositions andpotentiallyimpactingthetimingoftheexpectedrecovery.

IATA’s baseline forecast for 2021 was for a 50.4 per cent improvement on 2020demand,“thatwouldbringtheindustryto50.6percentof2019levels.”

“Whilethisviewremainsunchanged,thereisaseveredownsideriskifmore severetravelrestrictionsinresponsetonewvariantspersist.Shouldsuch ascenariomaterialise,demandimprovementcouldbelimitedtojust13per centover2020levels,leavingtheindustryat38percentof2019levels.”

Emirates Explains Rapid COVID-19 Test

Emirates Airlines has said that it introduced the rapid COVID-19 test for passengerstravellingfromNigeriaaspartofeffortstocontrolthespread ofthevirus.

“As part of the UAE Government’s ongoing efforts to ensure a safe and healthy environment in its fight against the COVID pandemic, a range of healthrequirementsandtestingprotocolshavebeenputinplace.Similarly,to themeasurestakenbygovernmentsaroundtheworld,includingtheNigerian Government,protocolsliketestingframeworksundergoreviewsandupdates basedontheprevailingsituationatthetime,”itstated.

ThelatestupdatedrequirementmandatedbytheUAEgovernmentisthat passengerstravellingfromNigeriatoDubaiarerequiredtocompleteaRapid COVID-19 test no more than 4 hours before departure, in addition to PCR tests donewithin72hours beforedepartureatapprovedlaboratories.

“EmiratesiskeentoensurethatflightsbetweenNigeriaandDubaicontinue.

We moved very quickly to ensure that RAPID COVID-19 testing facilities werereadyinAbuja andLagos forourpassengers.

“Emirateswouldliketoreiteratethatthenewtestingrequirementsareinno wayintendedtosingleoutNigerianpassengers,andthatthesemeasures arebeingfollowedtosafeguardthehealthandsafetyofallthosetravelling, as mandatedbytheUAEgovernment.

“Passengers travelling to Dubai from over 55 countries undergo similar measures,includinga numberofotherAfricancountries,”itadded.

GM Hit by Chip Shortage

GeneralMotorsCobecamethelatestautomakerhitbytheglobalshortage of semiconductor chips as the U.S. automaker said on Wednesday it will takedownproductionnextweekatfourassemblyplants.

GMsaiditwillcutproductionentirelyduringtheweekofFebruary8,atplants inFairfax,Kansas;Ingersoll,Ontario;andSanLuisPotosi,Mexico.Itwillalso runitsBupyeong2plantinSouthKoreaathalfcapacitythatweek,Reuters quotedthecompanyto havesaid.

GMdidnotdisclosehowmuchvolumeitwouldloseorwhichsupplierwas affected by the chip shortage, but said the focus has been on keeping productionrunningatplantsbuildingthehighest-profitvehicles-full-size pickup trucks and SUVs as well as the Chevrolet Corvette sports car. GM saiditintends to makeupas muchlostproductionas possible.

AutoForecastSolutions,whichtracksproduction,estimatedGM’scombined lostvolumewouldtotal almost10,000vehicles nextweek.

“Despiteourmitigationefforts,thesemiconductorshortagewillimpactGM productionin2021,”GMspokesman,DavidBarnastoldReutersinastatement.

“Semiconductor supply for the global auto industry remains very fluid,” he added.

“Oursupplychainorganizationisworkingcloselywithoursupplybasetofind solutions for our suppliers’ semiconductor requirements and to mitigate impacts onGM.” Affected GM vehicles include the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, Cadillac XT4 SUV,ChevyEquinoxandTrax,andGMCTerrainSUVsandtheBuickEncore small crossovervehicle.

The chip shortage has led several automakers, includingVolkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co, Subaru Corp, Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Stellantis NV,to cutvehicleproduction.

“For us at the National Assembly, we are committed towards giving the necessary support to make the Nigerian airline operators thrive” Senate Committee Chairman on Aviation,

Senator Smart Adeyemi

22

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

BUSINESSWORLD EXPERT IDENTIFIES CHALLENGES OF AIRCRAFT LEASING IN NIGERIA sors could now give out their aircraft to Nigerian operators at relatively lower rates.

“We will work with Nigerian airlines that lease aircraft and if there is any disagreement we will intervene and resolve the issues without having serious negative consequences on the Nigerian aviation market,” he had said.

The Director General said it would rebuild the confidence lessors have in Nigeria and could now lease aircraft to Nigerian airlines without stringent measures that describe Nigeria as risky environment, which ups the insurance premium and leasing rates.

“If we continue to intervene for a longtime, it is going to make it easier for Nigerian operators to lease equipment, be it aircraft, engine or whatever, it will also come at a competitive global rate rather than adding premium because Nigeria is considered a high risk market. These are part of the things we are doing,” Nuhu had said.

FG BEGINS IMPLEMENTATION OF PORTS’ PROCESS MANUAL to make our ports attractive.”

Comptroller General, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali re(Rtd.) represented

by Acting Comptroller, Tariff, NCS, Suleiman Chiroma, said that there is a need for the NCS to deploy sophisticated modern scanners to replace physical examination.

He added that at the time of physical examination, all relevant agencies should be present and failure to comply would mean exemption.

Also speaking, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Prof.

Bolaji Owasanoye, said government agencies are not powerless, they have enforcement powers and it is time to effectively use these enforcement powers.

He pledged the support of his agency to implement the NPPM. Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu represented by the Lagos State Commissioner of Transportation, Dr. Fredrick Oladeyinde said the Lagos state is on top of the Apapa gridlock situation.

NEWS

Customs, Soldiers Attacked over Smuggled Rice in Lagos Stories by Eromosele Abiodun

The Nigeria Customs Service (NSC), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’ Ikeja, Lagos has alleged that hoodlums suspected to be smugglers attacked and wounded three of its officers.

The command in a statement said the officers, who were on anti-smuggling patrol on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, were attacked and wounded at dawn.

The Public Relations Officer, Zone A, Theophilus Duniya, in the statement said three customs officer and a military officer attached to the patrol team sustained various degrees of bullet wounds.

He stated that the officers had intercepted six vehicles laden with smuggled rice before the hoodlums attacked them.

According to him, “Some officers of Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ of Nigeria Customs Service, suffered an attack by hoodlums working with smugglers.

“At about 0600 hours of Tuesday 2nd February, 2021.

Officers of the Unit, while carrying out their statutory duty

of enforcing anti-smuggling laws; acted on intelligence and intercepted six vehicles laden with foreign parboiled rice at Abeokuta Express Way. “Upon the interception, some armed hoodlums working in support of smugglers swiftly mobilised themselves and attacked our officers in their

bid to prevent the seizure from being taken away. However, in the cross fire that ensued, our operatives overpowered them and were able to evacuate three out of the intercepted vehicles to the warehouse.”

He explained further: “Three Customs officers and a soldier sustained some bullet injuries

from the attack. The wounded officers are currently receiving treatment at our medical facility, while further investigation into bringing the perpetrators of the attack to book has commenced.”

Duniya, however, stated that the acting Customs Area Controller, Compt. Usman

Yahaya, has warned smugglers against attacking officers of law on duty of protecting the nation’s economy.

He said the CAC has warned youths to desist from being used by economic saboteurs to confront operatives of the service from carrying out their lawful duties.

COURTESY VISIT

L-R: President of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Branch, Ifeanyi Mazeli; Managing Director, NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman and President General MWUN, Adewale Adeyanju during the maritime workers’ congratulatory visit to the NPA boss on her re-appointment in Lagos...recently

160,000 Job Seekers Await NCS Employment Result Two Years After Two years after the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced employment opportunities into 3,200 positions within the Service, many of the job seekers who applied and wrote the employment examination are still in the dark on the outcome of the recruitment exercise.

The NCS had on April 17, 2019, announced recruitment opportunities for 3,200 positions within the Service, and after selecting from the 524,315 applications, invited about 160,000 applicants for a Computer Based Test (CBT) on the 9th of January 2020.

However, the CBT result is

still yet to be released more than a year after the exercise.

Lamenting the delay and lack of communication from the NCS, some of the 160,000 those that participated in the CBT exercise in the South West region explained that the silence and lack of communication is becoming worrisome.

According to the job seekers who wouldn’t want their name in print out of fear of jeopardising their chances of being selected, “The NCS should say something on the recruitment process to erase fears that the recruitment exercise has been swept under the carpet.

“There are fears that the recruitment exercise has been swept under the carpet and the children of some highly placed politicians have been selected. I don’t know how true this is but I want to believe it’s just a mere rumour. However, the Customs have not been helpful in dousing this fear. We have not received any communication from them on the recruitment exercise since we wrote the CBT test.

Specifically, one of them said: “The silence has not been encouraging. Although I have been applying for other jobs, but taking my mind off the Customs recruitment exercise is difficult.

“Anytime I call some of my colleagues who also wrote the CBT exams, what I hear is not always encouraging. At times, they ask me if I am still expecting anything from the NCS, that the 3,200 openings have been filled up by the children of the rich and highly placed.

“That I should just move on and forget about the Customs recruitment exercise because politicians have hijacked it.

“I don’t want to believe and still strongly hope that our CBT result will be out. However, the delay and silence has not been encouraging. It’s been two years of an endless wait.

“At first, we had to wait for almost a year after we applied online for the advertised positions before they called 160,000 applicants to come and write the CBT test. Now, it’s exactly a year since we wrote the CBT test, and nothing has been said either in the papers or via our emails.

“Most of us that wrote the CBT exams exchanged phone numbers and have kept in touch just to know if anybody has been called. I am getting tired of calling people to know if they have heard from Customs. I just hope the recruitment exercise has not been hijacked by some politicians.”

Road Transport Owners Call for Floating of Specialised Bank Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has called on the federal government to establish the Transport Development Bank (TDB) to ensure sustained growth of the sector.

To reduce the chaos in the industry, the association further advised the government to put in place a transport regulatory body that could checkmate the operations of the industry, which

he said is now an all-comers’ affair.

In a statement in Abuja, Executive Secretary of NARTO, Mr. Aloga Ogbogo, explained that the proposed bank would be modelled after existing ones like the Bank of Agriculture (BoA).

The organisation lamented that there was no regulator for the transport sector, despite its being one of the biggest in the country.

“We are requesting that just as we have the Nigerian Bank of

Commerce and Industry (NBCI) we have the Bank of Agriculture, we need a bank. This is because commerce and industry cannot thrive without transportation.

“We are requesting that a Transport Development Bank should be packaged to assist transporters.

“The road transport subsector that is responsible for the movement of close to 90 per cent of goods and passengers does not have a regulatory body. It is an all-comers affair,” NARTO

lamented.

The association recalled that while the federal government engaged the services of NARTO to distribute Covid-19 palliatives to other sectors of the economy such as pharmaceutical and aviation, it had not deemed it fit to also extend the gesture to the transporters.

It urged the government to also give the sector some relief materials to cushion the effects of the pandemic, noting that although the government

is doing its best in terms of road construction and rehabilitation, there are still some flashpoints that require attention.

NARTO called on the government to embrace what it described as the best global practice for road maintenance, which is to concession the infrastructure.

It added: “We urge that there should be some level of concessioning so that the private sector can invest in them for better maintenance”.

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Capital Market Editor

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Comms/e-Business Editor

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FCTA Disburses N3.6bn to Six Area Councils, Stakeholders Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The Federal Capital Territory Administration has allocated a total sum of N3.646 billion to the six Area Councils in the FCT and other stakeholders as share of statutory allocation for the month of December 2020.

FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, who presided over the 149th Joint

Area Councils Allocation Committee (JAAC), described the December 2020 allocation as a great improvement of over N1 billion, which was the previous allocations to the councils.

The six Area councils were allocated N2.007 billion out of the figures, while the sum of N1.639 billion was made available to other stakeholders, bringing the total sum to N3.646 billion.

The figure also showed that Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), received N376.846 million, while Gwagwalada got N375.357 million and Kuje received N306. 910 million.

Similarly, Bwari Area Council received N306. 921 million; Abaji got N329. 730 million and Kwali received N311.136 million.

Furthermore, distribution to other stakeholders include:

primary teachers which gulped N1.268 billion; 15 per cent pension funds took N226. 479 million; one per cent Training Fund got N36. 460 million and 10 percent Employer Pension Contribution was allocated N107.849 million.

While commending the improved allocation to the area councils, the minister harped on the need to embark on the

verification of area councils staff, stressing that the verification exercise would not be left in the hands of council staff.

She maintained that the Independent Corrupt Practices, and other Related Offences (ICPC), Office of the Auditor General, and other relevant agencies would be involved in conducting the verification exercise.

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Dana Air Introduces 24 Hours Customer Service Stories by Chinedu Eze Dana Air has introduced 24 hours, seven days customer service as part of its promise to offer improved customer relationships and guarantee customer satisfaction.

According to a statement

by Dana Air’s Media and Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, Dana Air would now be available on social media platforms and emails. ‘’Having reviewed the number of mails, calls and chats that we receive on a daily basis and the time that

we receive these messages and requests, we decided to introduce this to cater to the needs, requests and inquiries of our guests 24/7. ‘’We understand that some of our guests might be busy while some might have unexpected changes in plans and would require timely modifications, updates, etc.

At whatever time in the day they require our assistance, we’ve got them all covered. ‘’This is also part of the promise we made to our guests earlier in the year, to offer improved customer relations and guarantee cus-

tomer satisfaction across the board and we are delighted to have been able to achieve this for our guests,’’ Ezenwa said.

Dana Air disclosed that recently, the airline announced a Flexible-No-Change-Fee policy to gift its customers free modifications of up to two times when made two hours before their flight and 10 per cent base fare discount on all web bookings.

Dana Air operates with a mixed fleet of nine aircraft and daily flights from Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri, and Enugu.

NDLEA Arrests Suspected Drug Peddler at MMIA Few days after about three cocaine cartels were busted at the Murtala Mohammed Internationl Airport, MMIA, Lagos, another trafficker, Ukaegbu Bright Onyekachi has been nabbed with 3.30 kilograms of the illicit drug.

NDLEA said the suspect was arrested on February 1, 2021, during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian airline at the E arrival hall of the MMIA. According to the Commander, MMIA command of the NDLEA, Mr. Ahmadu Garba, Onyekachi arrived Nigeria on board Ethiopian Airlines from São Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa.

“The hard drug was cleverly concealed in T -shirts stickers but he couldn’t escape the eagle eyes of our detectives,” Garba stated.

The NDLEA also disclosed that operatives of the FCT Command of the agency have raided a number of drug spots in Abuja, where 14 persons including three men in military uniform suspected to be fake soldiers were arrested and different quantities of cocaine, codeine, rohypnols and Indian hemp were recovered.

The agency also disclosed that in the FCT, some of the drug spots raided last weekend include Wuse Zone 4 and 5; Wuse by Banex plaza and Garki by Torabora. Also raised are Area 1 by Gwagwalada park; Dagwa village and Abattoir in Karu.

According to the FCT commander of the agency, Lawan Hammisu, “the 14 persons arrested are being investigated in connection with the recovery of 34.8kg cannabis sativa. Also seized were other quantities of Cocaine, Codeine and Rohypnols. Three of the arrested persons who were in military camouflage are still being profiled but are suspected to be fake soldiers.”

Meanwhile, the Nasarawa Command of the agency has uncovered a cannabis warehouse in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital where 45 bags of the illegal drug weighing 474kg were recovered.

According to the state commander of the NDLEA, Justice Arinze, “the recovery was the biggest singular seizure since the inception of the command in 1999.

We’re grateful to our new

Chairman, Gen. Marwa who made the feat possible for us by empowering us with the needed logistics to go all out.”

Arinze said the command was continuing with its operation “Hana Kwaya”, in collaboration with other security agencies to raid drug joints and markets. He added that the first phase of the operation had covered some local government areas in the state with the arrest of 54 suspects comprising 12 dealers and 42 drug users, while a total of 604 kilogramms of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances have been seized.

The NDLEA Chairman, Gen. Buba Marwa has commended the men and officers of the MMIA, FCT and Nasarawa commands of the agency for taking the war to the doorsteps of traffickers and peddlers of illicit drugs in their areas.

“I have told the commanders in my meeting with them that our maxim is offensive action and I’m glad they are following up on the strategies outlined for them”, the NDLEA statement quoted him as saying.

Ibom Air Introduces Reward Scheme for Customers Okon Bassey in Uyo Akwa Ibom State owned airline, the Ibom Airlines Limited, has promised to reward loyal customers for consistency in their patronage of the airline.

The management of the airline disclosed that with the new initiative, flyers would be entitled to earn miles in an exchangeable loyalty currency called “Gold Stars”.

These earned Gold Stars can be exchanged for Ibom Air flight tickets and class upgrades amongst other benefits.

A statement by the Group Manager, Marketing and Communications, Ibom Airline Limited, Aniekan Essienette, stated that the program was designed to

offer distinctive value by delivering unique recognition, rewards and differentiated service levels.

“Ibom Airlines Limited, as part of its promise of world class service to its growing number of customers, has introduced a Customer Loyalty Program- the ‘Ibom Flyer’. For the first time, Ibom Air customers will have the chance to be rewarded for their continuous loyalty to the Ibom Air brand.

“The program offers distinctive value by delivering unique recognition, rewards and differentiated service levels.

“The Ibom Flyer loyalty program is an opt in program which requires members to sign up, after which they will be assigned a unique

membership number and access to a member’s portal.

As they fly, members are entitled to earn miles in an exchangeable loyalty currency called “Gold Stars”.

“These earned Gold Stars can be exchanged for Ibom Air flight tickets and class upgrades amongst other benefits. The three benefit tiers on the program are Green Flyer, Orange Flyer and Top Flyer. Members can move from one tier to the next as they earn Gold Stars”. the release stated.

Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Air, Mr. George Uriesi, assured Ibom Air customers that the Airline was committed to delivering world-class services as the airline expands.

Improving Nigeria’s Airspace

Monitoring aircraft movement at the control tower Chinedu Eze Nigerian Communication Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT), the Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) and Thales Alenia Space are joining efforts to accelerate Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) development for aviation and other sectors of the economy in Nigeria and in Africa.

The objective of this development is to improve communication, surveillance and safety in Nigeria and Africa’s airspace.

Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (76% and Leonardo (33%), which is bringing the latest surveillance technology to the region’s airspace, while NIGCOMSAT and ASECNA would provide the funds.

Satellite Based Augmentation System is the augmentation of a global navigation satellite system, which is a method of improving the navigation system’s attributes, such as accuracy, reliability, and availability, through the integration of external information into the calculation process.

THISDAY learnt that following the broadcast of a SBAS signal over Africa and Indian Ocean (AFI) region since September 2020, providing the first SBAS open service in this part of the world via NIGCOMSAT-1R Satellite, the three partners have successfully conducted on 27 January 2021 a series of five flight demos at Lomé International Airport.

The goal was to show in real configuration the efficiency of the technology developed in the frame of the early open service as part of the SBAS for Africa and Indian Ocean programme which pursues the autonomous provision over the continent of SBAS services, to augment the performances of the satellite navigation constellations GPS and Galileo.

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Captain Fola Akinkuotu, explained to THISDAY that the agency had held earlier discussion with ASECNA over the installation of the facilities.

“We had had meetings with ASECNA, Ghana and the countries in the West Coast states. What we did then was contract ASECNA to finance the programme and we share the cost based on utilization. We already have radar, but SBAS is cloud based surveillance system.

“The radar system we are already using is installed in eight places and it covers the whole country, but this one is cloud-based system, which is one of the latest in the industry. So when the SBAS is installed it will be augmentation for all of us,” Akinkuotu said.

He said the installation of the surveillance system was not likely to bring down the charges paid by airlines for aeronautical services, especially at the initial period of installation, but would improve aviation safety because air safety is based on redundancies.

THISDAY also learnt that tests already

conducted were done by means of the ASECNA calibration aircraft (ATR42-300), which has been equipped for the occasion

by Pildo Labs with specific sensors and embarked VIPs and pilots in five rotations over Lome airport.

“The aim of the experiment was to demonstrate the ability of the system to allow landings on the two ends of the runway without deployment of local ground infrastructure and with a performance level close to the use of Instrument Landing Systems (ILS).

“It demonstrates the benefits of the future operational safety-of-life SBAS services, expected from 2024, in terms of flight safety, efficiency and of environmental protection,” said ASECNA. The outcomes of the demonstrations, as a crucial step forward the provision and use of satellite navigation services in the Africa and Indian Ocean region, were debriefed on January 28th and 29th, during an international outreach event on SBAS in aviation in Africa, gathering airlines, aircraft manufacturers and other aviation stakeholders from all over the world.

“We are proud to support the SBAS for Africa and Indian Ocean open service and to have contributed to the success of these inflight demos using our geostationary communication satellite NIGCOMSAT1R navigation payload,” MD/CEO of NIGCOMSAT, Abimbola Alale said.

“The SBAS demonstration flight feat is in line with policy direction of the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) for value addition and propensity not only in the telecommunications sector but aviation, maritime, rail transport, precision agriculture, survey, oil and gas and mass-market applications for sustainable development beyond Nigerian shores,” he added.

Vice President Navigation business at Thales Alenia Space, Benoit Broudy, said, “Our longstanding expertise acquired with the development of EGNOS [1] SBAS in Europe and KASS SBAS in Korea combined with our new leading-edge satellite positioning technologies makes Thales Alenia Space the ideal partner to best support countries to implement their own SBAS efficiently.

We hope these series of demos will help to accelerate SBAS adoption in aviation in Africa.”

Also, Director General of ASECNA, Mohamed Moussa said: “I’m proud to have demonstrated the utility and efficiency of the SBAS services in the continent. This event will bolster the deployment of the “SBAS for Africa & Indian Ocean” system, the navigation solution for Africa by Africa, which will enhance air navigation safety and efficiency for the benefit of the whole continent, in line with my vision for the unification of the African Sky.”

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BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

Repositioning Airline Business in Nigeria With the first delivery of its 13 Embraer E195-E2 on firm order, Air Peace has shown that it is prepared to reposition airline business in Nigeria, writes Chinedu Eze

W

hen Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace set a continental record with an order for 30 brand new Embraer 195-E2 aircraft in April 2019, not a few were curious about an emerging Nigerian carrier’s bold step and this aroused new curiosity about Nigeria and its lucrative international routes.

That deal was unveiled during Embraer Business Meeting with the Aviation World in Port Louis, Mauritius. With the signing of the deal, Air Peace became the official launch customer of the brand of the aircraft in Africa.

Fast forward to January 28, 2021, when Air Peace became the first African carrier to take delivery of this brand new aircraft type with 30 requests, which included 13 firm orders and 17 purchase right orders.

As the Chairman and CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema disclosed, there would be subsequent deliveries of the aircraft until the 30 on firm order are completely delivered.

It was also heartwarming that Air Peace number of orders came second to Lufthansa globally, which ordered 35 of the same aircraft type.

With this order and on-going deliveries, Air Peace has written its name in the firmament of world air transport industry and would henceforth become a point of reference for air transport in Africa.

Aviation industry pundits have observed at different fora that Nigeria is well known in the aviation world, not so much for its successful airlines, but the fact that it remains the most lucrative route for international carriers, where foreign airlines fix outrageous fares for people who are obsessed with travelling and a country where they make the highest profits per ticket.

Air Peace Bold Step Speaking at the arrival of the new aircraft at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Air Peace Chairman/CEO said having a brand new airplane is to enhance the airline’s savings.

“It is not as if the second hand planes or old planes are not good, they are good.

But the brand new planes give you that grace to have some savings at the end of the day because less maintenance is required. So, we decided to make an order for 30 aircraft.

“We made the order in Mauritius; we now made a firm order for 13. We have 17 orders on purchase rights. Meaning that whenever we are ready to buy the remaining 17, we are going to get them at the same price we are buying the 13 now. Today is a great day for this country, because Nigeria, through the instrumentality of Air Peace is the launch customer of this type in the whole of Africa.”

In addition to saving maintenance costs, and being more profitable for the airline, industry analysts said that ordering new airplanes puts an airline into the index of global aviation industry and boosts the airline’s goodwill. That was what the defunct Nigerian Airways Limited (NAL) enjoyed as nation’s national carrier and that was what Arik Air enjoyed when it acquired new aircraft and that is what Air Peace will be enjoying now, being the key barometer to reference Nigeria’s aviation industry.

The former CEO Aero Contractors and Managing Director designate of NG Eagle, Captain Ado Sanusi told THISDAY that the bold step taken by Air Peace was commendable and noted that if Nigeria has strong carriers, there won’t be any need for national carrier, adding that Nigeria may tailor its aviation sector like that of the United States, where flag carriers dominate the airspace.

“Air Peace joining the league of airlines that ordered new aircraft is a welcome development. E195-E2 is a very efficient aircraft, cost effective and will ensure the survivability of the airline.

“This level of investment is the right for Nigeria’s aviation industry because it will make the airlines stronger and more

E195-E2 aircraft profitable. When we have strong airlines in Nigeria, Nigeria will become like the United States that are dominated by flag carriers.

So we might take flag carriers instead of national carrier. This is new technology that it is bringing into Nigeria airline industry, which is very good. Developed nations look at flag carriers; not national carriers,” Sanusi said.

Former President of Airport Council International (ACI) World, Angela Gittens and the Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Alexander de Juniac, noted that national carriers may not be the best way to go, especially in Africa, where they are known to be very inefficient because of the government subsidy and so it is more subject to governmental types of economics; so government tends to curb competition in order to allow the national airline to thrive.

De Juniac therefore canvassed for government support of privately owned commercial airlines to make them competitive with downward review of airport charges to make them successful.

The Way to Go The Ministry of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said during the ceremony to mark the arrival of the new aircraft that Air Peace had tapped into federal government’s road map for the industry and noted that to remain competitive and profitable, Nigerian airlines should go for new airplanes.

“I think this is a step in the right direction and keying it into a well-established sector road map. The sector road map of civil aviation in Nigeria operated and being driven under President Muhammadu Buhari, speaks only about this. And I take it as reorganising the content and the importance of that road map that Air Peace is now keying into it,” Sirika said.

The Minister said part of his duties was to support the growth and development of airlines and other businesses in the industry; to help, develop, nurture and support “the businesses so that they can contribute to our GDP, employ our people and provide the needed service. Now you can’t do all of these if you don’t do it right”.

THISDAY learnt that when Air Peace started operation six years ago it stuck to a management and growth plan, which it never deviated from. According to the plan, the airline knew that in the first four years of operation, it would not make profits, but should aim for new aircraft in order to drive on its growth trajectory. That was the time that the airline first made firm order for 10 Boeing 737 MAX in September

2018 and the following year ordered for the E195-E2.

The Chief Executive Officer of Mainstream Cargo Limited, Seyi Adewale described Air Peace as a pride of Nigerian skies and commended the airline for achieving so much in such short period of its existence.

“Indeed Air Peace Limited is a pride of the Nigerian skies. It is instructive to note that a wholly Nigerian owned company can achieve great feats within six years. Air Peace has evidently proven a strategic thinking board of directors and management, passion for excellence and deft maintenance and aircraft replacement or acquisition methods.

“The growth and effective development of Air Peace Ltd reveals that airline business in Nigeria can be successfully and profitably managed. So, this is confidence-building platform (or indeed template) that bankers, investors, intending promoters can latch on to build a more robust sector. There are always risks in business and aviation is not exempted. However, the successes of Air Peace Ltd assures intending airline investors that Nigeria with 36 States, over 200 million (youthful) population, clearer government policy and best stock exchange in Africa assures interested parties that Nigeria is worth taking a second look regarding investing or promoting the sector.

“However, we can develop a long term sustainable part that fits both private airliners and government working together to achieve this competitive feat. It’s very difficult for private airlines to do this by themselves without the active support, promotion and intervention of government. All successful airline operators globally have government involvement and backing. Ours would not be different if indeed we want to compete globally,” Adewale said.

Boosting Nigeria’s Image Industry analysts have also posited that the acquisition of new aircraft by Air Peace will reposition Nigeria’s image in the aviation circles and rebuild trust between aircraft lessors and Nigerian operators. It would also stir aircraft insurers to review their premium and country risk.

The Managing Director, Flight and Logistics Solutions Limited, Amos Akpan told THISDAY that the delivery of E195-E2 aircraft to Air Peace was the best thing to happen to Nigeria because it was not small recognition to have in the industry an airline that can deliver new aircraft.

“For a long time Nigeria has not entered into that classification because of the amount of money involved and the value given to the equipment. You know that when you

put aircraft in some registers you devalue that aircraft due to country risk and other factors. Now, they trust Nigeria to get new aircraft. It means that we have come of age in terms of management of our systems and retention of values and machines.

“It will make insurers review the country risk. This is all part of the global input. Asset owners and managers have found Nigerian operators worthy and suitable to have new aircraft for commercial operations. This is a good credentials for Nigerian aviation.

It raises our status in all ramifications,” Akpan said.

Determination During the aircraft receiving ceremony in Abuja, the Brazilian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ricardo Guerra de Araujo said that Embraer was very proud to do business with Air Peace, which showed a lot of determination and commitment to acquire one of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world.

“It is a really honour and privilege for me on behalf of Embraer and the Brazilian government to welcome Air Peace first brand new Embraer E195 into Nigeria.

This is indeed a remarkable achievement from Nigeria and African civil aviation, especially in the face of the current major challenges posed by the current (COVID-19) crisis. Such achievement is only being made possible by the passionate and the relentless joint effort and hard work of Air Peace and Embraer team. And thank you again Mr. Onyema for your tireless endeavour, courage and vision to make this happen today,”Araujo said.

The Ambassador noted that Air Peace should be very, very proud for its continued success, becoming the domestic and West Africa market leader in only six years of launch with great contributions to Nigeria.

“Just like we Brazilians are very proud of Embraer, the global leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats with more than 50 years of experience, created on solid foundations of national development programme. This is not the first Embraer aircraft bought by Air Peace, on top of the current fleet of eight Embraer ERJ145s, this newest generation of E195-E2 fleet, which I believe to be the first of its kind in the whole African continent, shows not only reliable, confortable and affordable services to passengers, but also most efficient, profitable, and sustainable operation for Air Peace. The E195-E2 nicked named ‘The Profit Hunter’, and I underlined this nick name Profit Hunter, brings the best of new technology, super engineering and superior economics,” he said.

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MARITIME

Transport Policy to the Rescue Eromosele Abiodun writes that the draft National Maritime Transport Policy will transform the industry

M

aritime transport is essential for sustainable trade and development. It is a central part of the “Blue Economy”, which has enormous potential to promote economic growth and improve peoples’ lives – while addressing many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Maritime transport is essential to the proper operation of any country’s economy and a vital part of a nation’s transport infrastructure.

As a matter of fact, without maritime transport, Nigeria would have been landlocked and its economy will not move forward but remain stagnant in different areas and as such maritime transport is of significant importance to and greatly influences the development and growth of the Nigerian economy in several ways.

Maritime transport is of significant importance to the Nigerian economy because it generates a lot of revenue for the federal and state governments which revenue is channeled towards the development of maritime infrastructure and the other areas including health and education.

The revenue comes from fees for the registration of ships and their mortgages, Customs duties, port charges and tariffs realised by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for the use of its facilities by the vessels that berth at Nigerian ports, corporate taxes paid by shipping companies, fees for licensing clearing and forwarding agents or freight forwarders and the registration of shipping companies.

The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) collects three per cent statutory charge on gross earnings of shipping companies on imports and exports, whilst all payments for services offered and rendered to foreign vessels at Nigerian ports are payable in foreign currency.

However, because of the lack of policy guiding activities in the sector, Nigeria and many countries are not able to take advantage of the potential of the industry.

Transport policies are standards, principles, and rules formulated or adopted by the government to accomplish its long-term goals of efficient public transport system.

The public transport policies also serve as regulatory framework, which guides all activities in the sector. The need to develop a national transport policy that is responsible to the needs of the country and its people is essential in developing countries like Nigeria. A transport policy therefore provides the guidelines for planning, development, co-ordination, management, supervision and regulation of the transport sector with its fundamental goal of developing an adequate, safe, environmentally sound, efficient and affordable integrated transport system within the framework of a progressive and competitive market economy.

This will involve public private partnership (PPP) in public transport sector projects with goals of economic, social and environmental growth. Also, there is need for ports and inland waterways development, management and reforms.

Rarity of Policy Nigeria is currently ranked 127th among 144 nations of the world in global competitiveness of their transport systems.

According to experts, government policies have dependably been exceptionally rare and where and when they exist, two noteworthy issues would negatively impact them which are policy somersault as a result of changing government/administrators and the lack of articulation of these policies with virtually all the agencies charged with implementing the policy doing things haphazardly with several policies coming from different agencies on the same issue due to lack of coordination. Transport policy, experts admonished, should be developed to give a satisfactory, moderate, safe, environmentally sound and efficient transport system with regards to a dynamic and aggressive market economy.

To accomplish the goals of such policy, a specific institutional framework, which

Amaechi

incorporates the Federal Ministry of Transport with its varieties of offices and parastatals with comparative must be set up at the state levels and local government levels.

Recognising the need for a policy as a guiding principle in the industry, the federal government brought stakeholders to deliberate on a draft National Maritime Transport Policy before a final document is released.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, said the National Maritime Transport Policy being developed by Nigeria would lead to improved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow and enhance the ability of the Nigerian maritime sector to compete internationally.

The minister’s address was delivered by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.

Saraki said the transport policy would give Nigeria pride of place in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. The free trade area, the world’s largest, was founded in 2018, and came into effect from January 1, 2021.

The meeting was organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation to get stakeholders’ buy-in and input, as the policy document was being fine-tuned. The transport policy is expected to usher in a regime of robust maritime transport system in the country in line with international best practice.

She underscored the strategic economic importance of maritime transportation, saying adoption of the transport policy would mark a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s economic competitiveness.

Guiding framework According to her, “The National Maritime Transport Policy is a framework that will guide and sharpen the activities, actors and modus operandi in the maritime sector. It is an all-encompassing document that will skyrocket the sector to compete favour-

ably in the global market. That is why this document is extremely important and crucial to the development of the sector.”

She said the National Maritime Transport Policy, which industry stakeholders had clamoured for since nearly two decades, “Will change the narrative in the maritime sector of our dear country and result in a paradigm shift that is generational.”

Saraki added: “It is encouraging to know that the maritime policy is coming up at a time when Nigeria has ratified the AfCTA Agreement and deposited it with the AU Secretariat. This is an agreement that will place Nigeria in place of leadership if we adequately prepare for the protocols.

“Therefore, it is expedient for us to make the maritime sector ready for the AfCFTA Transit Protocols and other international protocols for us to compete favourably in the regional and global market.”

Nigeria deposited its instrument of ratification of the AfCFTA agreement on December 5, 2020, becoming the 34th member state to formally ratify the treaty. The free trade area was created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the African Union (AU) 55 member states.

It is the world’s largest free trade area since the World Trade Organisation, and a game-changer in African and world trade, with a market of more than 1.2 billion people, about $3 trillion combined gross domestic products (GDP), and the potential of growing intra-African trade by over 50 per cent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

Bedrock of development In her own speech, the permanent secretary said policy was the bedrock of development and the condition of the maritime sector of a nation determined its future development.

Ajani said: “Nigeria, like other nations, has recognised the integral role policies play in developmental process and, as such, engendered different processes to

The National Maritime Transport Policy is a framework that will guide and sharpen the activities, actors and modus operandi in the maritime sector. It is an allencompassing document that will skyrocket the sector to compete favourably in the global market

drive her quest for a sustainable, feasible and generic National Maritime Transport Policy. This will boost the maritime sector and widen the horizon to enable it serve the domestic market and have comparative advantage globally.”

On his part, Chairman of the Technical Committee, National Maritime Transport Policy, Dr. Paul Adalikwu, revealed that the move by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to carry out an audit exercise of the Nigerian maritime sub-sector prompted the government of Nigeria to revamp the document that has been on the shelf at the Federal Ministry of Transport for over twenty years.

In a summary of the report of the interministerial Committee on the Development of a National Maritime Transport Policy, Adalikwu said that though the process of producing a sustainable policy document is currently on going, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), has considered the document and referred it to a Ministerial Committee for review.

Akalikwu disclosed that the IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS), Committee was scheduled to visit Nigeria to conduct an audit exercise of the nation’s maritime sector and aware of the absence of a policy document, the Ministry of transport quickly set up a Committee to develop the National Maritime Transport Policy, to meet with the visiting Audit Committee’s requirement.

This, according to Adalikwu, was the genesis of the effort to formulate a NMTP, a development that led to the constitution of the Technical Committee and work done during the visit of the IMO team.

He said: “It is pertinent to note that the objective of IMSAS is to determine to what extent IMO member State such as Nigeria are implementing and enforcing the applicable IMO instruments.

“The inter-Ministerial Committee after its constitution deemed it fit to create a Technical Committee to formulate and deliver the framework of the draft policy which was completed in 2016. The Technical Committee executed the national assignment diligently to deliver its mandate within a very short time in the same year.

“Indeed, it is on record that IMSAS Committee did not only commend the principles on which the draft policy was built on, but also applauded Nigeria for articulating the draft policy within such a short time.”

He added: “It is pertinent to state that Nigeria has been an independent maritime nation for over 60 years, there is therefore no gainsaying the fact that a National Maritime Transport Policy is long overdue.

We therefore call on all stakeholders and approving authorities to all in their power to ensure that the finalised document is approved without delay.

“This will no doubt serve as notice to the world that Nigeria is a serious maritime member State. It will also aid in sharpening our administrative processes and ensure that our practices in the maritime transport sub-sector is of international standard.”

He added that the focus for the committee in carrying out its mandate was to produce a Marine Transport Policy that would ensure a safe, secure, clean, cost effective and efficient maritime transport service for the movement of goods and persons.

The committee, he added, also focused on promoting harmony in spatial parcels of activities that lead to marine utilisation such as navigation, mining, fishing, exploration, recreation and riparian rights.

“In drawing up the draft policy, the committee made reference to the African Union Maritime Chapter, Africa’s integrated Maritime strategy 2050, the ECOWAS integrated Maritime Strategy, Draft National Transport policy 2013, Merchant Shipping Act, 2007, the Coastal and Inland Shipping Cabotage Act 2003, maritime policies of some countries around the world and the four pillars of the IMO, namely maritime safety, marine environmental protection, maritime security and human element in shipping among others,” he stated.

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Ehingbeti: Setting Agenda for Lagos’ Socio-economic Development Ugo Aliogo writes about the expectations from the forthcoming Lagos Economic Summit

L

agos State, a major economic hub in Nigeria and also a financial centre in Africa.

The megacity has one of the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa and has been adjudged as one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

No doubt, the outbreak of the COVID-19 has profoundly changed the world. From being a health crisis which has claimed the lives of more than 2.3 million persons globally, the economic damages caused by the virus which emanated from Wuhan, China, has been unprecedented.

For Lagos State, despite the disruption of economic activities occasioned by the lockdown last year, in a bid to control the spread of the pathogen, the state government has remained focused on its promise to transform the city.

Thus, as economies around the world begin to implement recovery strategies from the shockwave of the virus, the Lagos Economic Summit Group (LESG) is charting the path for the sustainable socio-economic development of the state at the Lagos Economic Summit tagged ‘Ehingbeti 2021’ scheduled to hold from February 16-18, 2021.

The three-day summit, which will be a hybrid of virtual and live events, is expected to draw participation from different sectors of the economy and across the globe.

As an ingenuous socio-economic apparatus with significant contributions to the evolution of Lagos State into a major economy in sub-Saharan Africa and an admirable megacity, this edition of Ehingbeti has yet another significant role in the wider Rebuild Lagos Agenda of the current government and its developmental campaigns.

Over the last two decades, successive governments in Lagos State since the beginning of the fourth republic, have hosted the summit to consistently redefine the dynamics of publicprivate sector collaborations for development across social and economic indices in the state Indeed, with the absence of Ehingbeti between 2015 and 2019, the significance of the Lagos Economic Summit, may have been unwittingly diminished.

However, implementation of some of the consensuses reached at pre-2015 summits, during the hiatus, also demonstrated that Ehingbeti is an unending dialogue in the quest for socio-economic and infrastructural development in Lagos state.

From the beautiful bus terminals across the state, to hundreds of mass transit buses procured to partly tackle the transportation challenges, it was clear that Lagos was beginning to embrace the realities of its megacity status expressed by representatives of the UN Habitat at one of the planning sessions that heralded the inaugural edition of Ehingbeti.

Clearly, Lagos before 2000 was awfully chaotic.

Aside from the throbbing of infrastructural deficit, population was growing at a riotous rate.

This was the beginning of the fourth republic, after 16 years of military rule. Democracy ushered in relief, and citizens began to aspire to a decent life after a long era of repression.

The new aspiration put Lagos under pressure because it was the only state in Nigeria, with the possibility of restoration.

So, the state became a point of attraction to everyone seeking survival and prosperity, when its newly democratically elected government was struggling with extremely lean resources to start the business - governance, for which it was voted by the people.

Evidence of the decade-long abandonment and halted development was visible in every corner of the state. The indicators that would justify the transition to civil rule were in the urgent need to address infrastructural deficit, poor transportation system, fix bad roads, improve health services, abate growing insecurity improve the socio-economic climate for general habitability in the state.

Lagos offered a glimpse of hope to the people because of its status as a former capital, but the threatening twinkles of expectation had made the need for the State to ‘take-off’ really necessary, less the State denigrated into total commotion.

Worried about the consequences of inaction,

BRT

the crop of technocrats and egg-heads pulled to government by the allure of democracy and governor’s believability got to work on social services development and planning.

The visual mess had to go, and disintegrating infrastructure needed serve the people, while scaling-up became a major item on the State government agenda.

“The state of things was scary. We had to keep late nights at Akodo resort, brainstorming on how to get tonnes wastes off the streets off Lagos. The disorderliness intensified by the transportation system then was an eyesore.

“Every day in Lagos was a new heartbreak for everyone in government,” Chairman, Citibank Nigeria, who was Lagos State Commissioner for Economic and Budget Planning in 1999, Mr. Yemi Cardoso explained.

“The need to create a functional State, with great infrastructure was undeniable. At the Cabinet level, we saw that things needed to transform rapidly, even though our reality was that the transformation can only be gradual.

“With an enduring commitment, the leadership of the State encouraged and supported a rigorous planning process, propelled by a clear vision about the projected development, with tangible milestones”, he added.

The nights of sweats and toils in the bush of Akodo did not only have the then Governor and his cabinet wandering for solutions to the socio-economic and infrastructural challenges of Lagos State, most of the leading lights in the private sector in Lagos State were also on the hunt for ideas that would not only make Lagos habitable, but also prosperous, in the Akodo bush.

The fading signs of squalour of the era and sprouting of modern architectures brightened by increasing presence of street lights in the state are testaments to the effectiveness of collaboration between the private and public sector.

In fact, Ehingbeti has proven that tough and sincere conversations are paths to building an enduring relationship and an engendering atmosphere of mutual trust.

There was a gust of ideas from the different working groups, requiring discipline of purpose to translate into executable projects, but more important at the stage was taking the idea to the market. And this required committed partnership, which only a shared vision could deliver.

“When we began all these conversations in some of the cabinet retreats, I took a different position; I took the view that Lagos should aim to be the core of a megalopolis,” hinted Professor Patrick Utomi, one of the private sector champions of Ehingbeti.

The quest for a functional state and better city was an area of mutual interest for the government and the private sector, but fine-tuning the

workability of their like-mindedness needed a whole lot of dialogues and engagements because of assumed expectations of each other.

“Initially it was like one camp against the other”, a moderator describing the interactions between private sector and government at one of the early engagement sessions, “but the image of the beautiful of city that was going to emerge from their collaboration introduced meaning to the dialogue”.

“The World Bank Advisor had just interrupted a heated argument between a Senior Executive of Property Development Company and a Lagos State official about taxes and land charges, citing case studies from some notable cities in the world.

Cities like Boston, New York, and London are functional because businesses pay taxes and rates for government to carry-out the social and infrastructural constructions that make cities great!”, he said the World Bank Advisor retorted.

“That statement seemed to immediately change the tenor of the argument from the reaction of the parties. It looked like an idea had dropped, but more illumination would make it resonate better, and justify its practicality”.

“The public and private sectors are partners in progress. The relationship between them is mutually reinforcing, such that the health of one is the vigour of the other.

“Government requires private sector support to succeed while government creates the enabling atmosphere for the private sector with the instruments of state, just as he walked to the flip chat beside me, opened to an earlier presentation, proposing the fourth Mainland Bridge, and asked “when government desires this for the people, who will make it happen?”

There was a long silence, which he ended by saying “the private sector, once government is able build confidence and earn the trust of businesses. They will become investors in social development and aggressive drivers of socio-economic growth”.

This exchange happened in the process of building the consensus enabled rapid infrastructural development in Lagos and distinct positioning of the State an Africa’s commercial hub.

“In the last two decades, Ehingbeti has played a pivotal role in the transformation of Lagos State, with useful inputs into Lagos State Development Plans (LSDP),” the current Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, who is also a Co-chair of the Steering Committee, Sam Egube said.

“Our realities from 2000 when the first Ehingbeti held, exactly 20 years ago, have significantly changed. As a state, we now have to cater to the infrastructural needs of more than 22million population and ensure

that Lagos remains on the path of continuous growth” “These considerations are the groundwork of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration THEMES Agenda, but translating the agenda to benefits for our people will require collaborations amongst stakeholders, and a determination to deepen the foundation for sustainable development and growth of our society. So, Ehingbeti 2020 offers us a platform to address all these,” Egube added.

“It is clear that private sector setting an implementable agenda for government and championing the process of implementation has pushed Lagos far ahead of States in Nigeria and countries in the African sub-region,” the Commissioner said, adding that, “development of the state is not a destination, but a journey.

We need to continue to work at as a government and people”.

This view reflects government’s thinking towards development in the state. It is safe to infer that the government is keen on stretching its collaboration with the private sector to improve infrastructure, echoing Utomi’s thought that as successful Lagos may be in terms of infrastructural development, “the room for improvement exists with the utilisation of a portent economic planning tool like Ehingbeti”.

With the theme ‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting The Tone For The Next Decade’, this edition of Ehingbeti will certainly rekindle the conversations that will enable optimization of the inherent opportunities in Africa’s sixth largest economy and offer perspectives on how to manage the peculiar socio-economic landscape of the State in the coming decade.

The Lagos Economic Summit Group (LESG), with this edition of Ehingbeti, is strengthening the existing relationship between government, and emphasising that greater private sector participation in governance is a prerequisite for a functional state.

Since the inaugural summit in 2000, Ehingbeti has gained useful insights from innumerable business and political leaders, renowned economists, notable development experts and outstanding scholars, who have participated from different parts of the world.

Ehingbeti is the first institutionalized economic forum by any state in Nigeria and is an ingenuous socio-economic apparatus that has contributed significantly to the evolution of Lagos State into a major economy in subSaharan, with expanding potentials.

The summit, hosted by successive governments in Lagos State since the beginning of the fourth republic, has consistently redefined the dynamics of public-private sector collaborations for development across social and economic indices in the Lagos State.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 •T H I S D AY

THIS WEEKEND WEEKLY MAGAZINE

NEWS METRO THISLIFE ART WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com 07010510430

Idia Aisien: t "XBSE 8JOOJOH 57 "ODIPS t1IJMBOUISPQJTU t#SBOE *OnVFODFS t.PEFM t'BTIJPO *DPO t#VEEJOH "DUSFTT

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COVER

ÎÓË ÓÝÓÏØ˝ ˾ áËÜÎ ÓØØÓØÑ ØÍÒÙÜ ˾ ÒÓÖËØÞÒÜÙÚÓÝÞ ˾ ÜËØÎ ØÐÖßÏØÍÏÜ ˾ ÙÎÏÖ ˾ ËÝÒÓÙØ ÍÙØ ˾ ßÎÎÓØÑ ÍÞÜÏÝÝ Over the years, Idia Aisien has grown from a shy young woman with big dreams, into an award-winning TV anchor, philanthropist, and one of the most sought after brand influencer, model and fashion icon in the country. She had a secret passion for acting, but it was a desire she was hesitant about dreaming out loud. She auditioned for her first ever movie role, as ‘Nneka’ in the remake of “Nneka the Pretty Serpent” and was selected to play the lead role out of thousands who auditioned.

Although she had no prior acting experience, surprisingly, everything she wasn’t, made her everything she is - perfect for this role of a lifetime. She spoke with MARY NNAH about her experience as a first time actress, the difficulties she faced and more during the official private press screening of the movie at Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, The Palms Mall, Lekki, Lagos

“N

neka the Pretty Serpent” is apparently your first time in the movie industry. Can you tell us about the journey?

This is my very first movie. It wasn’t really something that I planned for. I have always said I wouldn’t be an actress only because I really respect actors; and I know that it is a craft that some people are born with talent for and I just didn’t know if it was something I was good at. I had really admired the art of acting from afar, and often imagined that maybe I could one day try it, but’s not something I actively pursued, so I never explored it.

When I got a call that I was needed for an audition, I couldn’t believe it. In fact, I told them “I can’t act,” but they said that they saw my pictures and they liked my eyes or something and that they needed me to feature in the remake of the movie, “Nneka the Pretty Serpent”. And I said to them I don’t act. They were like just come. So, I went for that audition and got to know that they have already done many auditions and I didn’t think that I was going to get it. I thought they were using me for roll calls. So I did the first audition and was asked to send in a video.

After the first audition I sent in a couple of videos to the team because they gave scripts to people asking them to read the scripts and basically make videos. I went through another audition and another audition and sent in videos and a month and half later, I got a call and was told that I was cast as “Nneka.” Till now it just seems so surreal. I can’t believe I got the role.

What they really wanted was somebody that can play different characters at a time.

So I kept sending video after video after each audition.

Like you said, you never wanted to be an actress, so what gave you the push and inspiration to forge ahead when you were called out of the blue for an audition?

Honestly I felt like I had hit a jackpot. I have worked as a presenter for one of the biggest news stations, ARISE NEWS, I didn’t know if I was going to retain that position at that time or if I was going to be hired by another station or what the plan was. But I remembered just praying to God for direction because I had lost my dad recently and that loss really confused me and I didn’t know what I was going to do. So, I travelled out of the country to see one of my friends, and there, I realised how successful some of the actors were, as I was able to learn about their inspirational success stories first hand. As I learned of those stories I was like, “if only I can act but I could never do that.” So I didn’t have a plan for acting but I just sort of felt like why not? If people could achieve all these things through this profession, then so could I. And besides, a lot is happening now with Nollywood on the global stage and so why not take a risk and see if it works?

Another unforgettable experience I have had while working on this project, is learning how to work with people who are way more successful than me – understanding that when you walk into that room, you are just there to learn. You shut up and you learn. That has been my biggest take away.

Which of your co-actors was your biggest inspiration?

Kenneth Okoli. There was something that my acting coach was trying to help with the whole time that Kenneth is really good at.

He knows how to take his time in front of the camera but because I am naturally a shy person, I just push myself to be bold, so I tend to rush things. But Kenneth takes his time, he makes eye contact, he would talk to you slowly and make sure that you understand and stuff like that. So he is really good at what he does. I remember when we were shooting Nneka the Pretty Serpent; he was shooting like three movies at the same time.

So his drive and great skill were definitely a huge inspiration to me.

Aisien

pushing me, I have always pushed myself.

So after accepting the role, what was it like to be a first timer?

It was far from easy. For months I had to train. I had to work out. I had to start taking classes on acting too and also had to teach myself how to swim because Nneka is supposed to be from the sea and then I started taking Igbo classes, they got me a coach; I started learning how to swim. I had to learn how to fight and so they had a fight coach, Uzi, who helped me out with that and a lot of things. So much has gone into creating the movie. Play Network really went all out with this production. So they had me really trained. It was pretty long but I really feel all the scenes were worth it. I have watched this movie now for about 15 times and I have enjoyed it every single time.

“Nneka the Pretty Serpent” is Directed by Tosin Igho and produced by Chris Odeh while the Executive Producer is Charles Okpaleke and is Co-produced by Ramsey Nouah and Charles Okpaleke.

How was it like watching yourself for the first time in a movie?

The first time I watched the movie was during the premiere and I almost fainted.

There were so many people watching the movie, and when they would laugh I would look back and be like “okay it is funny they love it!” Really, it is hard to watch yourself on screen, but nonetheless; I still watch the movie every single time the opportunity comes along.

For me, I think being an actress is more than just going, shooting and leaving. If you don’t promote yourself, you will never go far as you want to. I don’t believe in other people

How has the reception been towards your debut performance?

For me personally, in my little bubble - The first thing I was thinking when the movie first came out is: What would my family think? But immediately my sisters watched it, they were like, you did a good job! It’s really weird for me but it has been good so far from my end.

What sort of things that being on this project helped you and is impacting on you in a way?

I studied journalism and I presented for a very long time. I have tried fashion, lifestyle, news and you get to a point where you are like, what is the next step? I knew that If I was going to enter another industry, I had to enter really big. So I really didn’t know what to do to be honest. I think one of the things about me is that I am a really determined person.

Even though I didn’t think that I was going to get the role, they could see that I am a hustler. I will sit on the floor and ask my acting coach questions and even till today, I am still taking acting classes as we speak. I was just one of those people that was really dedicated. And I think that in every industry I have worked in everybody can attest to that fact. And I think that that’s what has helped me so far – never taking no for an answer. If I didn’t get Nneka, I promise you I would have gotten another movie and it would have still probably been the lead role because I am very pushy.

I am still trying to learn Igbo and I totally love the process, though; I am still trying to get my tongue to flow fluently.

What was the most difficult aspect of the movie?

Actually, we put a lot of work into the movie.

I had to learn Igbo even when I am not Igbo.

I had to learn how to fight, how to dance, how to act and how to do many things. So this is like a very new and different realm for me altogether. But kissing was actually harder for me than the fighting. But I think the person I was working with was able to make me comfortable. He is a big cheerleader; he is a team leader and knows how to tell you what to do. I think he is a very patient person and I don’t think any other actor would have had that patience with a first time actress.

So that made me very comfortable despite the difficulties.

Another challenging aspect was speaking Igbo. Like I learn really fast so I could understand a lot of the words I was being taught as well as sentences but the intonation, accent and all of that wasn’t very easy for me but it is a challenge that I definitely want to pursue. I think it is an amazing language and I saw how it brought together a lot of the actors that could already speak Igbo and I love that.

Are we going to be seeing more of you in Nollywood?

Why not, if I get hired? Honestly, I feel like I’m comfortable as it is. It is probably one of the best life or training experiences that I have had because I learned so much.

I met so many people that I worked with and I have never had such an amazing opportunity with such people in an industry like this. So, it is definitely something that I would love to do again. And I have always wanted to act in roles that are with really strong characters - not every time “a nice girl,” because I know a lot of people see me as a sweet girl or whatever. So “Nneka” was a role I really enjoyed playing because it was a journey outside me.

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RCCG Boosts Ikoyi Registry, Promises More Support

Ziroc Residence Assures Customers Maximum Satisfaction

Stories by Mary Nnah The Federal Marriage Registry Ikoyi can now boast of shelter and adequate chairs for its numerous customers courtesy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Dominion Sanctuary, ACME, Region 19, Lagos.

Leadership of the church led

by Pastor Brown Oyitso had on Monday donated four modern canopies and 200 chairs to the foremost marriage registry in the country. This came on the heels of similar projects executed by the church aimed at improving the quality of lives of people in their vicinity.

Such projects include water boreholes for Agidingbi and Idiagbon communities in Lagos, annual provision of bursary scholarships for needy students, provision of 500 brand new school uniforms for Darocha School, Agege, support for Pacelli School for the Blind, End of Year Federal Road Safety Campaigns as well as skills acquisition and empowerment training programme.

Addressing the elated management and staff of the oldest marriage registry in the country, Oyitso who also doubles as Intercontinental Missions Coordinator, noted that the gesture was informed by the directive of the General Overseer, Pastor E.AAdeboye who asked churches to impact

L-R: Prof Ogunmoyela; Pastor Oyitso; Mr. Adeyemi; former Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi and wife, Tokunbo, during the event

positively on communities where they operate.

He said he was particularly moved by the unconducive environment which members of the public from all over the world have to endure whenever they come to the registry.

“I was moved by my last experience at the registry when I came to attend a marriage ceremony. What I expected to see at the foremost registry was not what I experienced. We were not just comfortable with lack of shelter and chairs for guests.

“On the spot of the moment, I asked for the attention of the registrar and assured him that the church will make a meaningful impact in this area.

Today’s ceremony is the fulfill-

ment of that pledge”, he said.

Oyitso, ably supported by other ministers including Minister-In-Charge, Christian Social Responsibility, Prof Olugbenga Ogunmoyela; and Assistant Pastor In Charge of Province (Admin), Lagos Province 89, Pastor Bayo Omojola, assured elated staff of the registry of more support by the church in the near future.

Also, Prof Ogunmoyela, while anchoring the CSR vision on the scriptures, demonstrating love not only in words but indeed according to 1 John 3:18, noted that the vision was built on eight pillars comprising social, health, education, governance, business and economy, media and

communication, arts, culture and entertainment as well as sports. Justifying the church’s interventionist programmes, he said “where many see the challenges of the society, we see an opportunity to make decisive efforts to create solutions. This is the way RCCG expresses its practical demonstration of Christ’s love to all that will visibly and positively impact both individuals and communities”.

Assuring the church of proper usage of the donated items, the Registrar, Mr. Adebayo Adeyemi said the gesture came at the right time and prayed God to meet members of the church at their hours of need.

Dubai to Host Charitable Virtual Concert with DJ David Guetta Dubai Tourism has announced its partnership with renowned International DJ and producer David Guetta, to host the Dubai edition of the charitable concert tagged #UnitedAtHome, slated for February 6, 2021.

The charity concert is aimed at supporting UNICEF and Dubai Cares’ campaign ‘Education Uninterrupted’, an initiative targeted at education and distance learning for children, students and teachers in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Ranked world’s Number 1 DJ in 2020, David Guetta, a French superstar and Dubai resident will deliver an eclectic performance, inviting millions of fans worldwide to come together for the online event at Dubai’s legendary a landmark in a show of solidarity, hope and optimism, as the world continues to battle the pandemic.

Set against the backdrop of Dubai’s beautiful sunset,

David Guetta

fireworks and indomitable spirit, the stunning production of music and lights will see the iconic Burj Al Arab Jumeirah helipad transformed into a DJ booth for an incredible virtual concert streamed via David Guetta’s social media platforms, free of charge.

Speaking about his incredible charity performance, David Guetta said, “After Miami, New York and the Louvre in Paris, I am very proud to announce that we’re heading to the top of the iconic Burj Al Arab Jumeirah for another United At Home

show, this time in a city that is dear to my heart: Dubai.

“In these difficult times, we hope to bring comfort, joy, and support through the power of music and emotions. We have supported many charities and helped make a real difference in people’s lives during the pandemic”.

As a supporter of the entertainment industry and the arts, Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Dubai Tourism, said, “Dubai Tourism is

proud to support the ongoing efforts of award-winning international artist David Guetta and stand together in solidarity with people all over the world.”

Chief Executive Officer at Dubai Cares and Member of its Board of Directors, Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, said “as an initiative that was launched to spread positivity across communities and cultures and bring nationalities even closer, this innovative and uplifting online performance by David Guetta atop the iconic landmark of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is symbolic of the strong sense of vibrancy and optimismprevailingacross the city”.

He added that “with David Guetta and his millions of followers around the world, the message extends globally, and we are privileged at Dubai Cares to be a charity beneficiary of his global initiative with Dubai Tourism”.

NigerianBusinessman,KennethOguzie,GetsMostInspiringImmigrantsAward A Nigerian-Canadian based entrepreneur and Founder, Africa Canada Trade and Investment Venture, Mr Kenneth Oguzie, has been awarded the most inspiring immigrants in Eastern Canada, for his contributions and active support towards immigrants, in the just concluded gala night award ceremony in Canada, regions in Eastern Canada where his contributions were actively recognised included Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island provinces.

Oguzie has been recognised in the past by different groups in Nova Scotia as a dynamic

Nigerian Businessman, Kenneth Oguzie

and supportive individual.

He has won multiple awards

in the past from community organisations, private sector and non-governmental players for his diverse contributions, community impact and professional achievement.

In his acceptance speech, Oguzie noted that his international experience had helped shape his cross-cultural understanding with the international business space for sustainable growth and expansion.

He said, “As a global citizen having lived in Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, my international experience has helped shape my cross-culture understanding and diverse stakeholder management.

“As the CEO of an international business organisation focused on trade, investment, project financing and business facilitation between Canada and Africa, I believe having a global perspective in making business decisions is imperative for organisational sustainable growth and expansion.

“I appreciate all stakeholders, Canadians and fellow immigrants that have worked collectively to support immigrants in their settlement in Canada.

“I am extremely honoured to be receiving such an important award and I am grateful for the recognition that I have received from my work.

Guests at Ziroc Residence, one of Nigeria’s leading hotels, have been assured of a more wholesome experience in 2021 as they continue to make the hotel their choice destination in Lagos. Ziroc Residence, according to its management, has implemented several initiatives to avail guests comfort, safety and the right ambience for business or leisure.

“We are constantly implementing best-in-class solutions to ensure guests receive value for money every time they stay at our hotel,” declared the management, while reviewing the outgone year. One of these initiatives is implementing the health authorities’ recommended protocols to ensure guests are not exposed to COVID-19.

“With studies indicating that transmission of the virus can be halted with high level hygiene, we regularly deep-clean our rooms and every other space with the major objective of reducing to zero, the possibility of spread of the virus in our hotel,” the management stated. This is in addition to regular checks to limit possibility of the spread of the virus on the hotel premises.”

While thanking its clients that have made Ziroc Residence home away from home, the management stated that it has invested in facility upgrades to enrich their experience. “Without our clients, we could not have come this far. We are restating our commitment to continue to make our guests the focus of our operations.”

Ziroc Residence, located in the highbrow Lekki Phase One area of Lagos, has the right ambience and extra security for guests during their visit. “The hotel’s location is perfect, especially for guests on business trips, as we are located close to the headquarters of major corporations in Nigeria,” stated the management.

Guests regularly go online to rate Ziroc Residence highly on hygiene and safety in reviews posted after their stay. The hotel has a restaurant, bar, shared lounge and garden. There is also an indoor swimming pool, in addition to airport transfers and free Wi-Fi throughout the property.

UNILAG Mass Communication Class of 2008 Mourns Emilia Asim Ita The University of Lagos Mass Communication Class of 2008 has described the death of the co-founder of future Awards, Emilia Asim Ita as shocking and devastating.

The President of the association, Mrs Funmi Olaniyi said Emilia will be remembered for her simplicity and creativity.

Olaniyi in a press release signed by the group’s Public Relations Officer, Azuka Onwuzor, said Emilia was instrumental to the unity and bond of the association. Emilia-Asim-Ita She prays almighty God to grant her soul eternal rest and comfort for family, friends, associates, and University of Lagos.

BEATNG Online Radio Organises Talent Hunt Show A new e-radio station, BEATNG Online, has announced the commencement of a new musical talent hunt show tagged “Rise to Fame”.

The show which will start in January is aimed at discovering and motivating budding artists to produce new songs that will rend the airwaves in this new decade.

According to the Managing Director of the station, Mr Williams Kupolati Williams, “The musical talent show is designed to discover great musical talents and develop them to become well-known celebrities across the world. We have organised this competition in a way that will nurture talents and motivate them to give in their best to becoming renowned.”

He mentioned that the competition has various stages in which contestants will be edged out, “with the current global pandemic that calls for physical distancing, part of the competition will be largely virtual and contestants will also require their teeming fans to vote for them amongst others”.

While speaking on the prizes for the competition, Williams noted that the winner of the competition goes home with N2 million; the first runner up goes home will receive N1 million while the second runner up goes home with N500,000 only.

Asides these, they would be signed unto the BeatNG Record Label and they would also collaborate with other top artistes in the Nigerian musical industry. BeatNG e-radio is poised to spot, nurture and develop young talents pan- Africa. The station can be listened to on streema app available on Google play store and apple store or via www.beatng.online

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E-TRENDS

MUSIC SHOWBIZ

…Your weekly entertainment delight

NOLLYWOOD

With ‘The Milkmaid’Oscars Confirmation, Anyaene’s Dream Come True Stories by Vanessa Obioha The recent news of the Academy Awards also known as the Oscars, confirming the eligibility of ‘The Milkmaid’, Nigeria’s submission for the 2021 awards was like having a sweet bowl of ice cream after a long and tiring day. The Academy officially released a list of eligible films from 93 countries in the International Feature Film (IFF) category on Thursday, January 28. The category recognises films from other climes with a predominantly non-English dialogue.

The dream to have a Nigerian film on the Academy spotlight has been pursued fervently by the Chairperson of the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi since 2010 when she first walked into the office of the Academy with hopes of submitting her film ‘Ije’ to compete in the awards. The unexpected letdown fired up Anyaene-Abonyi to take up the challenge and have a Nigerian film listed in the Oscars. She spent the next two years trying to set up a selection committee and by 2014, the NOSC was officially inaugurated.

“It has been frustrating from the beginning. The committee members stood with me throughout, filing document after document, carrying out research after research for two years. At a point, they asked me what I was pursuing as it seemed we were not making headway. I told them I didn’t know what it was but I didn’t want any filmmaker to cry the way I cried,” she said in a 2019 interview with THISDAY. A glimmer of hope came in 2019 when she submitted Genevieve Nnaji’s ‘Lionheart’ movie for consideration. But the hope turned to a mirage as the film was disqualified for not meeting

Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi

the awards language requirements.

Still bent on achieving her lifelong dream, Anyaene-Abonyi rolled up her sleeves, went back to the drawing board, evaluated her actions and came out with more determination.

It eventually paid off with ‘The Milkmaid’, an Hausa language-based thriller on insurgency, especially as it affects women and children in

Sub-Saharan Africa. The film, written, produced and directed by Desmond Ovbiagele is now the first Nigerian film to be successfully submitted to the Oscars for a chance to compete at the IFF category.

“It is heart-warming that the decision of the NOSC has been ratified by the Executive Committee of the IFF”, said a delighted Anyaene-Abonyi. “The

feat underscores our strict adherence to the rules of the biggest film awards scheme in the world.”

Having sailed through the eligibility stage in the IFF’s selection process, Anyaene-Abonyi added that there is no room for her and her team to relent, commending the committee for their dedication and commitment to the cause.

“While we wish ‘The Milkmaid’ and indeed our country further success in the remaining journey towards the 93rd Academy Awards in April, we look further into the years ahead with greater determination to continue to play on this global stage. If we have done anything to get Nigeria to the present feat, rest assured that the NOSC will do even more in the coming years of the Oscars.”

Credence must also be given to the convener of the Africa Movie Academy Awards Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, who was among those who saw the potential in Ovbiagele’s film before its current spotlight. She had invited journalists back in 2019 to interact with the filmmaker at a restaurant in Ikeja. Ovbiagele described his film like a searchlight that illuminates the toll of the insurgency on other northern girls. “There are other victims of insurgency. What is most commonly reported are the students who are denied their right to go to school because of civic ideas against Western education which is unfair. But what the masses don’t know is that a lot of victims are also affected because they are uneducated. These are the ones you see on the streets hawking their wares. Their fate is no different from that of the Chibok girls but nobody is fighting or advocating for them.”

The icing on the cake for ‘The Milkmaid’ will be clinching a spot on the Academy IFF’s shortlist when it is released in March.

MultiChoice Kicks Off February on a Sweet Note as Pandemic Rages On Vanessa Obioha and Nosa Alekhuogie Leading media and entertainment company MultiChoice Nigeria is throwing all in the ring to ensure that subscribers of its Pay-TV platforms DStv and GOtv stay connected and access quality content as the country battles with the rising cases of coronavirus infections.

The company began the month with a slash on the prices of the DStv HD decoder and the GOtv box. The DStv HD decoder which was formerly N18,600 has been slashed to N9,900, almost 50 per cent discount. The decoder comes with a one-month Confam subscription that offers over 120 channels. The package is one of two recently improved DStv

packages specially designed for the Nigerian family.

For GOtv subscribers, the GOtv box which comes with a GOtv antenna and a free month Jolli subscription is now N6,900. The package was sold at a discounted price of N8,400 last December.

The Chief Customer Officer, MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho, who spoke during a virtual media briefing explained that the price slash is part of MultiChoice’s long line of efforts to lessen the economic impact of COVID on customers and a reflection of its commitment to making quality entertainment more accessible to Nigerians.

“We want people to stay at home that is why we decided to slash the prices and make it affordable. With this discount,

Host and judges of MultiChoice Nigerian Idol S6

we are lowering the entry barrier for new customers to get a DStv or GOtv decoder as staying connected to credible information and another quality programming can be comforting for many families during these trying times.”

In addition to the discount prices on decoders, Mabutho also disclosed that subscribers

Don Jazzy, Waje, Others to Feature in Nancy Isime Show As the countdown to the premiere of the second season of The Nancy Isime Show begins, the TV host has revealed celebrity guests fans can expect on the show. They include famed music producer Don Jazzy, actress Kate Henshaw, musicians Omawumi and Waje among others. The show was earlier billed to return last year but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the schedule.

“The second season was shot just before the quarantine before

Nancy Isime

coronavirus became a thing. There are not many changes. We just ensured that the quality is very

good,” said Isime on a recent chat.

The Nancy Isime Show is a potpourri of entertainment, ranging from games, interviews, performances and comedy. The show premiered on Nigerian TV in November 2019 and has warmed hearts across the country.

According to the actress, having a TV show has been a dream since 2016. It stemmed from the love for American TV shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Ellen DeGeneres Show.

can now add Showmax, the company’s streaming service to their DStv account at half the price. Premium subscribers can still enjoy the service for free.

Showmax which recently partnered MTN Nigeria on a new data deal that offers subscribers cheaper data plans will be launching its first original reality series ‘I Am Laycon’ in February.

The series is focused on the Big Brother Naija Lockdown season winner, Laycon. Fans of the artiste will have a ringside view of the artiste journey to stardom.

The month of February will also see the company launching a new Pan-African lifestyle channel on DStv. The channel called HONEY will celebrate and explore the African lifestyle, fashion, food, weddings, dating, as well as reality.

MultiChoice Nigeria CEO John Ugbe, says the move to launch the channel follows consistent, upward lifestyle-viewership trends on the continent. “DStv is thrilled to launch HONEY. The channel is part of our commitment to keep bringing fresh, authentic, and local content to our Nigerian subscribers. For many years, we’ve seen lifestyle is a popular genre in the

country; and now our subscribers will see their own talent, food, celebrations, and their families as the well-deserved hero.”

Music lovers can also anticipate the return of the sixth season of Nigerian Idol. Recently, the judges and host were unveiled. Creative industry entrepreneur Obi Asika, female artiste Seyi Shay and disc jockey Sose are on the judging panel while the charismatic IK Osakioduwa will serve as host when the show premieres in March.

For telenovela lovers, a new romantic tale ‘Law of the Heart’ will grace their screen on February 15 on Telemundo channel. Other exciting programmes to watch out for this quarter include the Grammy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

Realness Institute Extends Episodic Lab Entry Deadline Following the overwhelming response it received since it announced its newest program in partnership with Netflix, Realness Institute is extending the deadline for the submission of ‘Episodic Lab’.

Online submissions will now close upon receiving 150 additional applications or on February 8, 2021. The Episodic Lab offers African writers from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria the opportunity to nurture their

concepts into the series format, receive feedback and pitch them with the possibility of further production with Netflix. The two companies will also run a Development Executive Traineeship (DET) which will be open to applicants from across Africa and the Diaspora. The program is aimed at film professionals with an interest in being trained as story consultants or to gain insight into the story development process, working with writers and directors

in the development of their stories.

“Development is a crucial part of the creative process in storytelling. At Netflix, we’re fully committed to partnering with organisations like Realness Institute to achieve our goal of ensuring Africa’s creative professionals are equipped with all the skills necessary to deliver the quality best-in-class stories from our continent,” stated Dorothy Ghettuba, Netflix Manager for African Originals.

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Schneider Electric Accelerates its Sustainability Strategy Ȋ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱȱ Ȃ ȱ ȱ ȱ Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, last Monday, doubled down on its long-standing strategy to embed environmental, social and governance considerations into every facet of its activities – and to assist its customers and business partners in achieving their own sustainability objectives.

The announcement coincided with the news that Corporate Knights, a Canadian media and research company producing rankings and financial product ratings based on corporate sustainability performance, has for the first time recognised Schneider Electric number one of its annual index of “the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world”.

A jump from 29th position the previous year, the top ranking for 2021 represents an important external recognition of Schneider Electric’s early and sustained commitment to ESG issues.

It also highlights the company’s transformation into a leading provider of digital solutions that facilitate energy efficiency and sustainability.

“The core of our strategy is to build a sustainable business and company. Customers, employees, partners and investors have never been more focused on ESG considerations than they are now.

“Schneider Electric has long embraced those issues, and we keep raising the bar for ourselves, and for our customers and partners,” Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider Electric’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was quoted to have said in a release by the company.

He added: “when we introduced our first sustainability barometer in 2005, we were an early adopter of ESG matters. But ESG commitments cannot just be a one-off, and we have reinforced ours every three years.

“All of us – companies, governments, individuals – can contribute to make the world greener and more inclusive. Our new commitments define the next steps of our contribution.”

The new Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI)

program will span 2021-2025 and amounts to a significant acceleration of previous targets. It is built on six long-term commitments, which are set to deliver on each of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. These commitments are: to act for a climate-positive world; to be efficient with resources; to live up to its principles of trust; to create equal opportunities; to harness the power of all generations; and to empower local communities.

“The ability and willingness to make the world greener and more equitable is not just a moral responsibility – it makes good business sense too,” said Olivier Blum, Schneider Electric’s Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer.

“The year 2020, marked by COVID-19, a string of climate-linked disasters, and the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change, reinforced the urgency for action.

“It has also intensified the appetite from our customers to accelerate their own transitions towards a lower-carbon world. Our solutions can help them achieve their goals, too” he noted.

Eleven concrete targets, deliverable by 2025, underpin these commitments. And, for the first time, leaders of the more than 100 markets in which Schneider operates will set local targets to address grassroots-level needs in their communities.

Repeatedly recognised in key rankings for its sustainability achievements, Schneider Electric said it will continue to report on its extra-financial performance on a quarterly basis, as it has done since launching the world’s first corporate sustainability barometer in 2005. In just the past year, Schneider Electric said it has already stepped up on its own decarbonisation roadmap and became a signatory of the Climate Pledge; was the first company to issue an ESG-linked convertible bond; was also ranked Corporate Disclosure Project (CDP) A-List for environmental transparency and action for the 10th year in a row; and was included in the Financial Times’ Top 50 Diversity Leaders ranking.

Nine African Enterprises Emerge Finalists for 2020 Nigeria Off-Grid Challenge Rebecca Ejifoma The US African Development Foundation (USADF) and All On announced that nine African-owned enterprises have emerged as finalists for the 2020 Nigeria Off-Grid Energy Challenge.

This was announced in a media release made available on the USADF website.

The winners of the third edition of the challenge are: Allbase Global Technology; Ashdam Solar Company;

Covenant Plus Engineering; and Green Acres Microfinance Bank.

Others are Reeddi Technologies; Salpha Energy; Solarworld Alternative Energy Resources; Sunhive Limited; and Vesselnet Integrated Services Limited.

The nine enterprises will be awarded $25,000 in grant capital from USADF; $25,000 in grant capital from All On via its support from the Rockefeller Foundation through the All On Hub; and $50,000 in convert-

ible debt from All On. In addition to funding, the winners will receive technical assistance from USADF and governance support from All On. The President and CEO, USADF, C.D. Glin, congratulated all the finalists on joining an innovative group of local enterprises, and are now making impactful contributions in the Nigerian renewable energy sector.

“We are also happy to announce that the Off-Grid

Energy Challenge partnership will be extended by an additional two years till December 2022,” says Glin.

The annual challenge is a multi-year partnership that identifies and helps scale innovative off-grid solutions to “power up” unserved and underserved areas in Nigeria.

It was established by USADF, a founding member of the United States Power Africa Initiative and an independent US Government agency established by

Congress.

It aimed to support and invest in African-owned and led enterprises and All On, a Nigerian impact investing company seeded by Shell, that invests in off-grid energy solution providers in Nigeria.

In his reaction, the CEO of All On, Wiebe Boer, said despite a remarkably difficult year, we are pleased that the challenge is providing funding to the 2020 cohort of winners.

Boer hinted: “These emerging indigenous companies

have demonstrated that they have what it takes to succeed and over time, scale innovations that will ultimately improve livelihoods and local economies by providing power to unserved and underserved communities.”

As noted by the organisations, the winning enterprises are increasing sustainable energy access, specifically offgrid solutions, and extending the delivery of electrification to unserved and underserved communities in Nigeria.

Etiquette Coach to Unveil Book on Acceptable Manners as Life’s Manual Rebecca Ejifoma For etiquette coach and author, Etienying Akpanusong, her soon-to-be unveiled book, ‘My Etiquette and I’, is a manual that will shape the manners of both young and old in the society.

This was her view during her virtual book review, “My Etiquette and I”, and birthday shout out on New Year’s day.

Addressing the media on her book,Akpanusong reminisced how she formed good manners in her childhood thanks to parental guidance.

Part of her upbringing included parental discipline.

This, she said, refined her behaviour; hence, her undying love to reach others in this generation.

She enthused: “Parents of today are not in charge of their

children as they should be or used to be in the past decade.

“They seem to be so busy these days that they do not have the time to invest and spend with their children to guide them in the right path of life.”

She, however, warned that there is a stage a child gets to and can no longer be influenced; thus, the reason for early direction.

For Akpanusong, My Eti-

quette and I has come to cater to that niche – mould everyone into becoming the better version of themselves by cultivating good and acceptable manners.

While harping on the dire need for a guide since commonsense is not that common, the entrepreneur said, “If you must stand out, you need that guiding principle”.

‘My Etiquette and I’, a 120-page book, is split into three chapters: general, social skills, and formal protocols.

With her resilience to help teenagers and other young adults nurture good societal behaviour, Akpanusong has utilised social media as a platform to share daily tips on etiquette with her 16,000 followers on Facebook, and Instagram.

Etienying Akpanusong

Photizo Properties Set to Deliver 50 Bungalows in Epe Rebecca Ejifoma A leading real estate firm in Lagos, Photizo Properties Limited, is set to deliver 50 units of two bedroom fully detached bungalows in Epe with luxury designs and top finishing.

Among the features of the bungalows include portable water, good drainage system, interlocked road network, Fibre optic cabling, top notched security and Electricity.

According to the Managing Director and CEO, Photizo Properties, Dr.

Patrick Oriyomi, the housing scheme is expected to be habitable from June 2021; hence, individuals can become owners of homes at a rental rate of N400,000.

For the CEO, although 2020 witnessed a high peak in the housing sector because of the drastic fall in treasury bills, real estate moved so much, which created opportunity for house ownerships despite the pandemic.

Oriyomi further said that their target market are for the old and

young between ages 24 and 65, as each apartment will be sold at N10m.

“We stand for fidelity and are redefining real estate by making it affordable for creation of more home ownerships.

Speaking on the choice of Epe he said: “For business, it very very lucrative, the properties are sitting in Epe town, its actually the new Banana Island in Lagos due to its serenity.”

According to the CEO, at the moment, houses are in short supply, there is scarcity of accommodation

in the town.

“Two years ago, rental value of two bedroom apartments in Epe was below N200,000 per annum.

As at today, rental value is between N400,000 and N500,000 depending on the quality of the house.

“We are giving the best quality ever to be seen in the town and in Lagos as at whole. It has been our aim to create affordable homes to all lagosians just as the Lagos state government has envisioned. We are starting

with Epe people.”

Oriyomi added that already in the town, there is topnotch road network, power, and very attractive spas and recreational centres just like the Lagos State chalet and of course the award winning Epe resort and spa.

With its target in 2021 of creating affordable homes for individuals and help the state government reduce the housing deficit, Photizo Properties is working with super speed with seven units ready to be commissioned before the end of January.

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ART WEEKEND

…For pure art enthusiasts

WritingTraumaThroughtheEyesofBolatito Seyi Amao takes the reader through the storms in the lives of her characters to unravel a sweet love story for a riveting denouement, writes Yinka Olatunbosun

I

n a conversational style, Seyi Amao, the author of the fictional novel titled, “Bolatito” carefully beams light on the dark side of life where trauma, betrayal, disappointment, prejudice, depression and sickness lie. Bolatito is quite an atypical ‘happy ending’ story with the overarching theme of love.

The plot was built along a friendship cultivated within the hospital walls between a 12-year old girl battling with an auto-immune disease and a woman-a victim of domestic violence, to say the least. Despite the age difference, both shared courage and the spirit of survivor in the face of formidable life challenges.

Bolatito, the character on which the book is titled, is at the verge of divorce. She captures the image of a woman who is torn between living according to societal expectations of being a biological mother and living a life that brings peace.

Of course she desires to have a child but not at the cost of her life. Her loveless marriage breeds such toxicity that makes the dream of raising a child an impossible mission. On the other side, Ifunanya, who had lost her mother craves the love of her father, Azuka, a frontline military man at the centre of the war against terror in Northern Nigeria.

The death of Azuka opens a new chapter for ‘Bolatito’ and her quest to find love and adopt a child. Call it a Christian fiction, the novel is a repository of biblical allusions. Tito is likened to the woman with the issue of blood while Ifunanya was illustrated as Jarius’ daughter.

Through the relationship between Tito and Ifunanya, the role of support group in coping with trauma and anxieties is revealed. Many women endure the pains of betrayal from their spouses and are bruised by the

judgment of the society when they venture to leave their matrimonial homes.

For the 12-year old Ifunanya, she has to endure a certain life of loneliness since most of her peers are in

CORACelebratesAjai-Lycettat80,LABAFPlansBigfor2021

school or enjoying vacation with their family members. She has to develop a strength of character in her will to

Five Movies toWatch in Black History Month

Yinka Olatunbosun Yinka Olatunbosun The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) held a heartwarming session to mark the 80th birthday of its board member and mentor, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett. The actrss, social activist and culture advocate is regarded as a vital force behind the dreams and passion that drive CORA and its various activities.

“Like all the other eminent members of the board, she is ever ready to listen and help to think through programme ideas, offering much-needed advice and critique as desired,’’ CORA Programme Officer, Samuel Osaze said.

“It is thus with pleasure that the CORA Working Committee (CWC) has dedicated the entire 221 programme season to celebrate the illustrious life and career of the enigmatic matriarch of the Nigerian stage and screen. All through the year, several programmes would be held to celebrate various strands of her blessed life. Some events will also be staged in partnership with other organisations.’’

It was also revealed that the 7-day Lagos Book and Art Festival LABAF will be dedicated to Ajai-Lycett. It will be a comprehensive open-air carnivalesque feast of life and ideas parading a mixed grill of artistic and cultural events. LABAF usually features exhibitions of books and artworks, children and youths art workshops, live music, performance poetry, drama and dance presentations amongst

Ajai-Lycett

other activities.

The CWC has concluded an interview documentary on the matriarch titled “Taiwo Ayai-Lycett: Matriach of the Act” which would be unveiled in the next few weeks.

A trailer from the documentary would be screened on all CORA communication platforms from February 3 till the end of the month.

survive.

Largely influenced by biblical examples, the author has suffered a similar experience with infertility.

She writes in the end note: “At some point in my life, I bled every day for six months. I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) in my late twenties but doctors still struggled to identify the cause of the excessive bleeding.

“The condition started in April 2015 and I did not get proper diagnosis (endometrial polyps) for it until August 2018 which eventually led to two surgical procedures within eight months.” To deal with the trauma of her medical condition, she formed a support group called the PCOS Conquerors Platform in August 2019.

“With this novel, the author hopes to change the public perception of adoption. It is bewildering to know that many people still loathe the idea of parenting through adoption.

Some parents who were fortunate to have biological children tend to discriminate against parents with adopted children, making insensitive comments about their choices.

“The attitudinal change to separation and divorce is one of the subject matters in the novel. Titi has suffered too much battery and emotional abuse to remain married to her husband. It is one of the violent encounters that eventually lands her at the hospital.

“Set in Lagos and Borno, the story also pays a tribute to healthcare workers who genuinely care for the patients through the character of Nurse Mariam. Even in the depth of pain, patients always remember the sincere nurses who cared for themwith love. No wonder the saying goes “Nursing is a work of heart.’’

A captivating read, the story of Bolatito offers a contemporaryAfrican view of parenting and love with a subtle reference to the scripture.

As movie buffs living in the time of the pandemic, the movie streaming platforms had been a refuge of sorts to reduce the risk of exposure to Covid-19. To share in the Black History Month celebrations from the safety and comfort of your homes, here is a list of movies with black themes that will stoke your appreciation for the black identity.

Ma Rainey, starring Chadwick Boseman is a movie about Getrude “Ma” Rainey, one of the early African-American blues singer. Based on the play of the same name written by August Wilson, the movie is also a shuddering reality of a black music hopeful in the matrix of music business.

Black or White is a 121-minute film starring Kevin Costner andOctavia Spencer.

If you love custody battle movie with a tinge of racial provocation, you may want to grab your popcorn while you watch this. Except for its scenes of substances and physical fight, the movie qualifies as a family drama.

Green Book has its plot built around Dr Don Shirley, a world-class African-American pianist who had to hire a white chauffeur on a music tour. Starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, this movie surprisingly hints at sexual identity issues while raising the crisis of blank identity at the heat of racism in America.

Skin is a British-South African 2008 biographical movie about Sandra Laing who

was expelled from school because of the colour of her skin. Born to white parents, Laing was classified as coloured during the apartheid era. Although the concept of atavism was strange, she bore the brunt of racial discrimination and bitter struggle to find herself. Entangled in a relationship with a black man, she eloped to a world of people who are deeply troubled.

Lakeview Terrace is a deceptive title for a near sinister thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington. A young couple has just moved into the neighbourhood and a heart-broken, grieving police officer finds their presence disconcerting.

This leads to a series of violent episodes threatening the lives of the young couple.

Chadwick Boseman

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T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

ENTREPRENEUR

Ekoe Okoduwa: Bespoke PR/Brand Perception Consultant Ms. Ekoe Okoduwa who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Omia Poise, is also an etiquette, perception manager and branding consultant. In this interview with Nume Ekeghe, she shares her journey into bespoke PR/ brand perception consulting, as well as etiquette

H

ow has life been for you and your firm?

My early years began in Port Harcourt from primary school to briefly going to school in Benin and then back to Rivers State. No one ever believes but I did study electrical/ electronics engineering in university. I only practiced my course during my NYSC service and I shifted to more of Human Resources jobs. Omia Poise started out as a lightbulb moment between two friends having a conversation.

I have always been known over the years as the hostess with the mostest, choosing the right silverware, glass cups for every occasion, giving the right advice on how to give the right impression so it wasn’t a surprise when my close friend talked me into turning the passion into business.

At first I was a bit hesistant but I gave in because I asked what’s the worst that could happen and from there Omia Poise was born. Omia Poise is a bespoke PR/ brand perception consulting firm. We cater to businesses, organisations and individuals that want to give their organisation’s personality a face lift.

You have mentioned your various business spread, can you speak on the etiquette arm, what made you venture into this?

We ventured into this type of consulting because we felt it was one area most organisations didn’t focus on. When the company started, it mainly focused on etiquette, it’s various types. Along the line, we realised that image and etiquette went hand in hand together and also we couldn’t cater to all the facets of etiquette and image, so a segment had to be picked to cater to a particular target market and research on issues that were surrounded with that target market and pick out solutions to solve the issues.

Now can you elaborate on your coaching journey and how you intertwine it with etiquette?

We wouldn’t call it coaching per se because you need to have a constant relationship with a coach. What we do is more of training and advisory that is bespoke to the organisation.

The journey so far has been somewhat bitter sweet but we will expatiate further.

The services your firm offer is a new and growing industry with not a lot of practitioners in it, how have your services been perceived in the market?

The perception honestly has been quite interesting. There have been remarks of our services only catering to the elite because of the history of etiquette which isn’t so far off from the truth. Also we get the wrong perception of once they see etiquette, image, they think it’s to learn how to use the fork and knife, saying please, thank you and I am sorry which most times it’s quite funny. At the end of the day we have to give an orientation of what we do, our services, change the perception and then they pay attention.

What have been your major challenges so far and what have been your successes?

Do we have all the time to talk about our challenges? Well I think the one challenge I get the most is from the individuals in the organisation.

There’s this mindset that if it’s not going to put money in my pocket, it’s not necessary but I beg to differ.

A young man or woman leaves the university and gets a job. The organisation organises an induction training where they are met with some

Okoduwa

parts of etiquette and perception management. If they don’t, they are brought into the workforce with no idea of how to dress, how to conduct theirselves during a business lunch, how to network when sent out to represent the organisation, the right kind of greeting or handshake or even posture. Whether the organisation likes it or not, our services are needed.

Are there any business proposition your firm has that distinguishes you from other?

Oh yes we have certain services that distinguishes us from the rest.

It is bespoke so our services are tailored to fit your organisation.

We have services from mastery of customer care and all the facets, professionalism in the workplace,

As an entrepreneur I will advice the young ones, never be scared of change.

If something like the name or a product doesn’t work, take it out and look for something better

business etiquette, an introduction to basic etiquette and so many more. At Omia Poise, we just don’t train, we want to create an impression so from the phone call to physical meetings, we make sure you get the best of us and everyday we make sure we constantly find products that are appealing to our target market.

As an entrepreneur, what would be your advice to young entrepreneurs who would want to follow in your footsteps?

As an entrepreneur I will advice the young ones, never be scared of change. If something like the name or a product doesn’t work, take it out and look for something better. Initially we were an etiquette/ perception management consulting firm but I realised that the time I could have used to book future clients when having a meeting for the first time, I was using the time to explain what we actually do.

You don’t have to start so big.

With the pandemic still ongoing, gone are the days of skyscrapers as offices though when you occupy such a place, you can charge with no fear but that should come much later when you have established your company and even at that learn remote working, that was something I had to learn and honestly I don’t regret.

You don’t need to know everything.

What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Focus on your strength and employ your weaknesses, that way the business doesn’t have to suffer.

Practice what you preach. Once people know what you do, you will become a walking example of everything you preach because they are constantly watching you. I got a client through that means.

Always get a second opinion, from your staff and also close associates.

You might have this idea in your head that looks perfect but someone else might see something else and give you a different perspective and Get a business coach, only then can you have a road map to achieve all that you want What can your clients expect from you in the future?

Our clients both old and new can expect a lot from us. The pandemic during the lock down was an eye opener. It opened my eyes to the services that the company could include in our bouquet. From luxury brand management to crisis management for small business and multinationals. Our customer care series will always be a constant but something is in the works for that particular segment and also to make it much more bigger and create a bigger conversation around the customer service in Nigeria.

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METRO

…Your city life in print

How MTN, AU Combat the Crisis of COVID-19 Vaccines in Africa

O

n February 1, 2021, the news from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was startling. The country’s national health institute revealed that 75 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous week across the country.

In December 2020, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) announced the deaths of 20 doctors within a week from complications arising from COVID-19 infections. Healthcare workers are often at risk of exposure to infections, including COVID-19 as first responders to patients. According to Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, at least 812 health workers had tested positive for COVID-19 as of June 2020.

There is a consensus that frontline healthcare workers are at a higher risk of infection because of their potential direct exposure to the virus, which may contribute to a further spread. Since they are the first responders, healthcare workers are prone to exposure in healthcare settings.

Despite the odds of the pandemic, they must be at their workplaces to take care of the sick.

No fewer than 3,000 health workers in Kenya have tested positive for coronavirus since the country reported its first case in March 2020, according to the Ministry of Health in Kenya.

“A total of 3,068 healthcare workers have been confirmed positive since the pandemic struck. 1,571 are females and 1,495 males,” the ministry reported on its official Twitter page, recently.

According to a report published by the World Health Organisation in 2020, 240 health workers have died due to COVID-19-related complica-

tions in South Africa. The country’s National Health Department released a full breakdown of public and private healthcare workers who contracted coronavirus as of August 4, 2020.

The breakdown shows that about 27,360 healthcare worker cases were reported with 6,027 (22 per cent) cases coming from the private sector and 21,333 reported in the public sector (78 per cent). The majority of the cases come from nurses with 14,143 reported cases (52 per cent), medical doctors make up 1,644 cases (six per cent), porters (28 per cent) have 28 cases and the rest of the 11,545 cases came from other categories of health workers.

The foregoing supports the prioritisation of frontline health workers in the vaccination programme of the African Union. In a bid to fight the scourge of COVID-19 infections, the countries with the most infections began to roll out vaccines for the people with priority to the elderly and the frontline workers.

Compared to other parts of the world, Africa started mulling the vaccination programme at a snail speed. A handful of African countries such as Seychelles and Mauritius, with economies that are largely dependent on tourism, have commenced the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Guinea is the sole low-income nation to have provided vaccines, administering to only 25 people. As it stands, Africa is in danger of being left behind with countries in other parts of the world striking bilateral deals, thus, kicking up prices of the vaccines.

To ramp up the procurement of vaccines, particularly for healthcare professionals, Africa’s leading mobile network operator, MTN has announced its partnership with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) by donating US$25 million to support the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. The donation will secure up to

Ekhomu Bags Yoruba Youth Leadership Award Security expert Dr. Ona Ekhomu has been conferred with the Award of Yoruba Youth’s Ambassador of Peace 2020/2021 in recognition of his efforts at creating security awareness among Nigerians.

Presenting the honor in Lagos last Wednesday, the President of Yoruba Youth Assembly (YYA), Hon. Olarinde Thomas said the security warnings and alerts that Dr. Ekhomu had been issuing about insecurity in Nigeria for over 40 years have unfortunately proven to be accurate as the threats have now materialised into loss events.

Olarinde said that he could not believe that a time would come in Nigeria when traveling from Ibadan to Ile Ife would be an extremely hazardous undertaking.

He said that Dr. Ekhomu had warned about this precarious and dangerous condition but the Nigerian government and people did not listen.

Dr. Ekhomu who is the President of Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), was described as a patriot who correctly diagnosed the security challenges of the country and offered advice to Nigerians on how to protect themselves.

Olarinde said that the solution to insecurity in Nigeria did not lie with foreign consultants who the governments are fond of inviting but with patriots like Dr. Ekhomu who have a longitudinal view of the problem.

The Yoruba Youth Assembly (YYA) President urged Dr. Ekhomu not to relent in preaching the

seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health workers across the continent, which will contribute to the vaccination initiative of Africa CDC. “The devastating impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented and profound. Public and private partnerships are needed if we are to succeed in the fight against the pandemic and restore social and economic norms for our continent and our communities,” says Ralph Mupita, President and Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group.

The MTN intervention comes on the heels of the effort by the African Union to commence this vaccination programme, providing vaccines and helping to finance its rollout. It had secured 400 million doses of COVID-19 jabs for its 55-member states in addition to 270 million doses.

MTN has been at the forefront of the battle against the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic with its series of initiatives that targets the vulnerable as well as Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs).

In Nigeria, over N1.4 billion worth of airtime, data, and devices had been donated by MTN for connectivity support to frontline health agencies including the Nigeria’s leading public health institution, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). During the first wave of the pandemic, MTN Nigeria unveiled its Y’ello Hope Package and announced over N2 billion worth of support to various government and health agencies in Nigeria.

As an organisation that is aware of the devastating effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the life and livelihoods of the people, MTN shares the optimism that a successful vaccination programme could reconnect Africa to the rest of the world, while enabling the reorganisation of the continent’s health systems.

FIDA Oyo Campaigns for Violence against Women Law Rebecca Ejifoma

Dr. Ekhomu

doctrine of security awareness for the benefit of Nigerian citizens as the security challenges ahead are greater.

He said that before now security threats used to impact the rich.

However with poor farmers and rural dwellers now threatened, attacked and killed in their farms and homes, the threats were now ubiquitous.

He charged the awardee to urgently develop innovative security solutions and to partner with the government and citizens to mitigate the threats so as to make Nigeria liveable and enjoyable

once again.

Dr. Ekhomu, who was represented at the award ceremony by the Trustee of Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON)/ Managing Director of Trans-World Security Systems Ltd, Dame Victoria O. Ekhomu thanked the Yoruba Youths Assembly (YYA) for the honor.

He pledged to help secure and safeguard corporate and national assets at this time when insecurity has become a major challenge. “We shall continue to contribute our quota” he added.

To enforce the law on violence against women and in essence, put an end to Sexual and GenderBased Violence (SGBV) against women in Oyo State, the state chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) is currently campaigning for more support.

This was its submission at an advocacy visit to the state Head of Service (HoS), Mrs. Amidat Agboola, recently.

In her address, the chairperson of the state FIDA, Mrs. Oluyemisi Collins, noted that prior to the creation of the law in the state, there was a surge in the spate of violence and abuse against women.

She added: “The situation has not changed as expected since the law was put in place.

Certain factors such as culture of case withdrawal by victims’ families and dearth of data often stand in the way of justice.”

According to the chairperson, their visit is in line with the directive from the United Nations to engage stakeholders on the level that SGBV against women has been.

She added that it is also to educate people on the usage of the extant law prohibiting it.

“The fact remains that despite the efforts by the state government, the spate of this particular crime is on the increase here partly because there is no data.

“Many women will be asked to quit their job in a bid to face the family squarely. But after some years, you see these women start begging for survival.”

She however listed key stakeholders in their SGBV campaign, the governor ’s wife office, Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN), National Council of Women Societies/ NGOS, and Association of Women with Disability among others.

Meanwhile, she bemoaned that despite the stakeholders’ efforts, justice often eludes most women because the evidence needed to prosecute issues are not always there.

The chairperson emphasised: “When a woman is beaten a lot of times, she will be busy taking care of herself. When we even want to go to court, the women try to stop us.”

In her reaction, the HoS commended FIDA for taking their time to sensitise women on their rights and what can be done.

While noting that most women go through a lot in their marriages, Agboola called for more sensitisation in markets, religious centres, and associations.

“We should let every woman know that she has a right to prosecute anyone when she is being violated and abused,” she urged.

She, therefore, called on women across the state to speak out when abused. “In fact, the EndSARS ‘Sorosoke’ tag is for us, women.”

37

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

POLSCOPE COVID-19 VACCINE, Now as Status Symbol

áÓÞÒ ÎÎã ÎÓàáÜÓ ÏÎÎã˛ÙÎÓàáÜÓ̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט ͸΀͸ͽ ͻ͸; ΁ͻͽ;

Canticles….

NIN Registration and the Return of Reason

S

o, at last common sense and reason has prevailed. It is such a relief.

Who lacked common sense before?

What are you talking about?

It is the National Identification Number (NIN) exercise of course. Did you not hear that the Hon Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has extended the NIN registration exercise by eight weeks?

Did you not feel the panic and tension the deadline had given many Nigerians?

So, what are you excited about now? Was it not a mockery of the office to say that a Minister in charge of Digital Economy was so embroiled in manual and analogous exercise?

What is digital about massing up anxious and angry Nigerians in front of locked gates, under the scorching sun, just so they can obtain a number?

Atiku

Mrs Ebele Obiano

O

husband (Willie) does not drink alcohol, but drinks “only Champagne”.

Perhaps, the Champagne madam is talking about is a special one made from orange juice!

But while Mrs Ebele Obiano is rather selfish with her class hit, a frontline politician in the South West in one of he leading political parties, who is also eyeing the presidency comes 2023, is a little more egalitarian in his disposition to the vaccine privilege.

The politician had indeed flown his private jet to the (same infested) United Kingdom, perhaps with his immediate family, to be vaccinated. It is a marked show of power and connection for somebody to fly in from Nigeria and, pronto, get vaccinated, while even UK citizens who are resident in that country are still struggling to be vaccinated. True, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal”.

His large heart was said to have been on display, when he (politician) ordered all his personal staff and aides to fly to the United Arab Emirates and get vaccinated, while the rest of the nation is still embroiled in the banal argument of the cost, the access, and the ‘hidden agenda’ of the vaccine.

He could pull the necessary strings even in the Arab world, as a Christian! The staff, have long gone and returned. All vaccinated!

But hey, what happens to the motley crowd of the politician’s supporters? Shall we ask, like Jesus’s disciples, “Master, carest not thou that we (they) perish?”

Among the poor and lowly, there are usually a plethora of consolatory proverbs and idioms.

One of such is that “ it is only God who drives away the flies of a cow without tales”.

So, for us who literally have no tales to drive away the pestilence called COVID-19, it is God that will remain our shield and buckler. This is even more so when the entire country is struggling to get less than a million shots of the vaccine, for a people over 200 million. So when will the poor folks get vaccinated? Little wonder the narrative has remained sticky in the public domain, albeit wrongly, that “Corona Virus is a disease of Big Men”.

Already, states like Lagos is going ahead to negotiate directly with vaccine-producing companies abroad to get enough for its people (Lagosians).

If Lagos can afford that, can Jigawa or Yobe or even Osun States afford it?

While the efforts are ongoing, people are dying. While many are dying, the blind critics are still arguing about what they describe as “COVID-19 Scam”. Some (including even Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State) are already escalating conspiracy theories that the Vaccines are meant to kill Africans and depopulate the black race, urging those who will take the vaccine to “shine their eyes”.

All said, what remains an invaluable lesson from the plague called Corona Virus pandemic is self development and preparedness. Nigeria literally depends on the western world for all her vitals. Let this pandemic challenge the Nigerian Academy of Science to, at least, do something original and reliable in tackling our own issues. After all, little Madagascar gained traction last year when it announced having a herbal combo that sold like hot cake, during the first wave of the pandemic. Nigerian scientists, Wake Up!

ne of the wise sayings my village people used to write at their door posts was/is: “If Men Were God…” Growing up, the saying did not make much sense to me until latter years.

But its import is becoming clearer and clearer.

Indeed, if men were God, life would have long been on a cash-and-carry basis, and it would have been a game exclusively for the rich and powerful.

In recent weeks, I have read and watched how “powerful, rich and influential” Nigerians have been dazzling us with the tales of having been vaccinated in “the abroad”, leaving us, lesser mortals, to depend on the shifty promises of vaccine for Nigerians.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been raising and dashing hopes of Nigerians on the issue of when the vaccines will really come.

The controversy, suspicion , efficacy and misgiving around the vaccines itself is another matter, for another day.

But what do we say of leaders or dealers who have shown, by their action, that indeed, all animals are equal , but some are more equal?

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had gone public with his vaccination “the abroad”, seeming to say that while Nigeria and Nigerians are dilly-dallying about the access to the vaccine, he’s gone ahead to secure his own life, and perhaps that of his immediate family.

Already, Nigerians are dying in their scores everyday, almost.

The vaccine is meant to protect humanity from being infected by the global scourge.

Nations are struggling to get the vaccines from the advanced countries where they are being produced.

But smarter (?) Nigerians have hopped into the planes and gone to the very countries that already have the vaccine to get vaccinated.

The funny thing however, is that after their vaccination, they still come back to mingle and meddle with the unvaccinated folks.

What the likes of Mrs Ebele Obiano, the wife of the Anambra State governor, did with her own vaccination exhibition in Texas, United States of America, was to flaunt her power, wealth and depth of reach, with the intent of taunting the less connected folks. Were it not so, what was the essence of travelling all the way to America (most likely on tax payers’ bill), with a one-man media crew? The said journalist was himself a videographer and a reporter, all rolled into one.

He had to capture the vaccination exercise itself, organize an interview (with rehearsed questions and answers by both parties), and then upload the video to the Nigerian folks, all to drive home the go-and-die showmanship, which the whole enterprise was meant to achieve.

So, now that madam Anambra First lady has been vaccinated, how many of her personal and official staff have also been vaccinated?

Or is it that those ones can get infected and possibly die, so long as their principal is safe and vaccine-insured?

We have not forgotten how ever desperate Mrs Obiano is to draw marked line between they (in the bourgeois class) and the rest of us, the plebian folks. Few years back, in an attempt to rub in her class nuances, argued that her

No, I am saying that agreeing to shift forward the deadline for the exercise, was being thoughtful and a return of reason, and that it has given lots of relief to Nigerians.

The minister did not have a choice. Only naïve Nigerians were killing themselves to get registered, simply because there was a threat to disconnect all telephone numbers not linked to their NIN. The shift in date was bound to happen. Even now, I am not sure that by April 6, all Nigerians would have enrolled their numbers. As at last Monday, just a little over 50 million Nigerians have been captured. Is it in two months now that the remaining 150 million or more Nigerians would be enrolled? My brother, we shall come back to the kick and struggle, after April 6, bet me!

I think you should admit that Nigerian are a difficult people. They are a last minute .com people.

You will notice that since they have shifted the date forward, many people will relax and even forget about the exercise, only to be roused up in haste and tumble, when it is just a week to the new deadline.

You don’t understand the peculiarity of the Nigerian nation. We are talking of over 200 million Nigerians, expected to get registered in less than a thousand centres across the country. Do you know that in many of the so-called NIN centres, only one computer is working? Do you know that sometimes even the staff cannot capture the enrollees because “there is no network”? What kind of Digital economy ministry is that?

Did you not see the footages of helpless Nigerians everyday struggling to be registered, all to no avail, even after paying bribes?

But the ministry had announced the registration exercise for about one full year now. Did Nigerians respond? Was it not only when they heard that their telephone lines will be disconnected that they started rushing and sweating?

Is that not what we see during INEC registration exercises?

Look, you are treating the symptoms of the disease, not the disease itself. I have told you about their insufficient equipment. How can just one laptop/computer be enough to attend to over three thousand people in three or so weeks?

How many staff does the NIMC have?

How much of training have the registration crew got?

What stops NIMC from recruiting ad hoc staff like Youth Corps members, like INEC does, to speed up the process? And don’t forget that even the few NIMC staff have toyed several times with the idea of going on strike. And you still want to blame the innocent Nigerians who file out daily to be captured?

Pantami

years, are still holding on to the slips they were given? Whereas, NIMC had said “You will be notified when your National Identity Card is ready”. Five years after, there has been no word ever from NIMC, let alone seeing the ID card. How does a system work with such analogous disposition to tasks?

Or have you forgotten that this so-called National ID card scheme has been on the table since the days of late Sunday Afolabi, the then Minister of Internal Affairs, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1999? Did you forget the scandal that followed the exercise, involving Siemens at the time?

Hey, what have we not suffered in the hands of governments and their shenanigans?

But there is a new determination by the present minister to correct all the flaws of the past. That is why he is following up this task with so much zest and devotion. You know he is a youth and he is bringing all of that energy to bear on the task.

That is part of the problem. He is a narrowminded youth. He does not understand the complexity of Nigeria. He thinks Lagos is Gombe State, for instance.

He is just waking up from his slumber. Where was the ministry when kidnappers have been carrying over 200 SIM cards with which they negotiate ransom of their victims?

He is not thinking outside the box, or else he would have devised easier, efficient and more COVID-19 friendly ways of getting this exercise done. Why is NIMC rejecting BVN-generated NIN, for instance? Couldn’t his ministry have done something about collating and synchronising all the previous data of Nigerians either from INEC records, Bank records, Motor Licensing offices, or even from Immigration Service? In all the above cases, there were finger/thumb prints. So why don’t we collate all of that first and focus on others who do not have any of these documents, and then graduate to upgrading and updating the records subsequently?

Look, I know Nigerians. Even if they say the exercise will last till December 31 this year, many people will remember to come for it only on December 30.

It is not as easy as you are mouthing it. The special security features peculiar to this exercise is not accommodated by these previous efforts.

Hmmmmm. If we consider how long a snake is, we shall find no stick long enough to kill it. We can start from somewhere.

But before I leave you, what happens to the people in the rural areas who are not even aware of all these NIN hoopla? How would the NIMC filter out many of the foreign / illegal immigrants like these Malians, Togolese, Ghanaians, Nigeriens, Beninois etc., who are all milling around in Nigeria as Nigerians?

The NIMC itself has not been alive to its duties. Do you know that some people who had got these so-called NIN for over five

I am tired of your many questions. When you see Hon Isa Pantami, please ask him your questions. I have tried for you.

38

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ , 2021

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

DPR Links Oil Thefts to Insecure Land Terminals Peter Uzoho The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said most incidents relating to oil theft occur from the land terminals which are inadequately secured and vulnerable to attacks by oil thieves.

The agency, however, clarified the process it uses for accounting for crude production in the country.

A statement by the Head of Public Affairs, DPR, Mr. Paul Osu, yesterday, stated that the Director of the agency, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, made the clarification while speaking before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Oil Theft in Abuja on Wednesday.

The committee chaired by Hon. Peter Akpatason, hard said it

discovered that $20 billion worth of crude was unaccounted for between 2005 and 2012.

The situation prompted the House ad-hoc committee to summon Auwalu, who stated that the DPR was the agency of government saddled with the responsibility of monitoring crude oil production and lifting.

Auwalu said: I will like to use this opportunity to give a brief on how we account for hydrocarbon in this nation.

“I think that will provide a better view for this committee as well as Nigerians. The process starts from the well because every crude oil comes from well, and you cannot drill a well without knowing the capacity of that well to produce.

“So, the hydrocarbon accounting in DPR starts from well. Once

you drill a well, you will need to have what we call a maximum efficiency rate (MER) to know the capacity that well will produce.

The volume accounting starts from that point.”

According to him, the methodology used in hydrocarbon accounting are static measurement and dynamic measurement.

The director further explained: “The static is the volume that went into tank that you can dip and know the volume while the dynamic is the volume that goes across the meter.

“We have two kinds of meters: we have production meter that you measure the volume of oil produced and we have custody transfer meter where you measure the volume of oil that exchanged hands.”

Report Shows Output Recorded Marginal Growth amidst Rise in Job Loses Dike Onwuamaeze The Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) of the Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc for the month of January 2021, has shown a marginal increase in economic activities in the Nigerian private sector.

The PMI, which indicated a softer increase in output and new orders in the private sector, also showed that many firms in the private sector laid of their workers at the beginning of the year and passed increases in cost of production to their customers.

The latest data, which was released by the bank stated that the expansion in the activities of the Nigerian private sector in January thrived on solid rise in new orders to strengthen economic growth.

However, the PMI also indicated that the growth in economic activities was accompanied with substantial increases in input costs and selling prices that contributed to a moderation in expansion of outputs and purchasing activity.

These, it stated, made firms to reduce their workforce in order to cut costs.

Despite these, firms were able to complete existing orders with backlogs reducing for the eighth month running.

“Nevertheless, the degree of positive sentiment improved to the highest since April last year, with hopes of greater demand fueling optimism,” said the PMI report, which stated that “readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings

below 50.0 show a deterioration.”

It added: “The headline PMI registered at 50.7 in January, down from 51.8 in December 2020, but signaling an improvement in business conditions at the Nigerian private sector. That said, the latest reading indicated the softest rate of expansion since July.

“New order inflows rose solidly in January, despite the pace of growth moderating from that in December. According to firms, new client wins and an improving demand environment led to the uptick. Output rose marginally, which extended the current period of growth to two months. Anecdotal evidence suggested that a rise in demand offset the negative impacts of higher prices.”

Emmanuel Unveils Multi-billion-naira Shipyard, Security Vessel Okon Bassey ÓØ ãÙ Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has inaugurated a nine-meter fast security escort vessel, ‘MV Norfin Swift’ built by Norfin Offshore Shipyard Ltd in Oruk-Anam saying more private investments would be attracted to the state.

The inauguration of the project which took place at the Shipyard located along the Oruk-Anam axis of the East-West road, also culminated in the official unveiling of the multi-billion naira shipyard.

The governor said the security vessel which is for charter and direct purchase, as well as oil and gas related services was a historic endorsement of the industrialisation agenda of his administration.

Unveiling the facility, the governor urged indigenes to take advantage of the vast opportunities in the nation’s maritime, and oil and gas industry; adding that the state government was ready to partner the Norfin Group.

He lauded the investor, Engr.

Charles Udonwa, a Singaporeanbased ship builder for his decision

to site the shipyard in the state, noting that the gesture was worthy of emulation.

While condemning the recent attack on the shipyard, the Governor charged the host community to see the investment as an asset that must be protected, noting that irrespective of the location, the shipyard would benefit the entire country.

“Today marks a seed harvest in the entire Gulf of Guinea and we don’t take this for granted.

But it is worthy of emulation. I hope the host community will behave well,” he added.

Rotary Performs Free Eye Surgeries in Lagos, Ogun The Rotary District 9110 Committee on Blindness Prevention has embarked on a 3-day “Save Our Sight” mission to Ota, Ogun State and performed free cataract surgeries on 100 residents of Lagos and Ogun states.

According to a statement, the surgeries took place at the Ace Medicare Clinics, Ota, Ogun State from January 14th to 17th, 2021.

The surgeries were sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Eko Atlantic (the Lead Sponsor); Gbagada; Agege and Ota. It explained that the project

which cost over N4 million was geared towards the depicting the need for a Rotary Eye hospital in a community between both states.

According to the Committee Chair, Dr. Basirat Giwa, “As an organisation that is interested in humanitarian services; the District Committee on Blindness Prevention initiated the process of selecting beneficiaries of the project in November 2020.

“After series of medical screenings, those who benefitted were selected and notified that they have been scheduled for

the surgery.”

While commending the committee, the District Governor, Bola Oyebade, noted that the theme for the Rotary Year is, ‘Opportunities,’ adding that he was delighted to see the partnering clubs collaborating to restore the sight of 100 persons. As a humanitarian organisation noted for doing good, the beneficiaries will be grateful for the restoration of their sights and our charge to them is to reciprocate good deeds in various ways.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JULY 2020 Money Supply (M3)

36,822,751.47

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

3,476,121.25

Money Supply (M2)

33,346,630.22

-- Quasi Money

120,764,479.02

-- Narrow Money (M1)

12,582,151.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,002,026.89

---- Demand Deposits

10,580,124.31

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,637,137.23

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

29,185,614.24

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

39,711,115.95

---- Credit to Government (Net)

19,521,851.08

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

0.00

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

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

-130,189,264.87

--Other Assets Net

3,472,017.70

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,421,827.07

--Currency in Circulation

2,395,917.03

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

11,025,910.04 317,234.17

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month Inter-Bank Call Rate

March 2018 15.16

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

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ ͯͱϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT WEDNESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2021

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $57.72 a barrel on Wednesday, compared with $56.80 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

39

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

Neimeth Excites Shareholders with N114 Million Dividend Payment Goddy Egene Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc has resumed the payment of dividend following improved results posted for the year ended September 30, 2020.

Shareholders of the company did not receive dividend for some years due to poor performance.

However, the board of directors has recommended a dividend of N114 million that translates to 6.5 kobo per share.

The audited report and accounts of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals for showed that turnover rose by 20 per cent to N2.84 billion in 2020 as against N2.37 billion recorded in the comparable period of 2019. Gross profit rose by 26.9 per cent from N1.19 billion in 2019 to N1.51 billion in 2020.

Despite the tough operating environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and industry-specific challenges, the

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

company sustained considerable bottom-line with profit before tax of N297.39 million compared to prior year figure of N304.44 million. After taxes, net profit stood at N212.48 million, implying earnings per share of 11 kobo per share. Hence, the board recommended payment of a dividend of 6.5 kobo for the 2020 business year, signaling the return of the healthcare company to annual dividend payment.

The balance sheet of the

S E C U R I T I E S MARKET PRICE

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company also emerged stronger with total assets rising by 134.2 per cent from N2.75 billion in 2019 to N6.44 billion in 2020.

Shareholders’ funds grew by 18.7 per cent from N1.07 billion in 2019 to N1.27 billion in 2020.

Commenting, the Managing Director, Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc, Matthew Azoji, said the growth in sales underscored the increasing market penetration and acceptance of the company’s brands by

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

customers.

He said the 2020 performance showed continuing success of the company’s medium-term strategic growth plan as it strives to open additional markets while consolidating its major domestic market.

“Our results show that we are on the right track. We are growing our domestic market and opening up the export market, giving us much-needed diversification and resilience to

O F

sustain growth in spite of the numerous challenges during the period,” Azoji said.

On the outlook, the MD said the company would implement major expansionary initiatives including upgrade of existing factory and development of new manufacturing facilities in line with the overall strategy to become the manufacturing hub for pharmaceuticals and healthcare products in SubSaharan Africa.

0 4 / 0 2 / 2 0 2 1 DEALS

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40

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

Royal Exchange Recovers to N158m Profit after Tax Goddy Egene Royal

recovered from a loss in 2019 to profit in 2020. According to the unaudited results of

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

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

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

the underwriting group, it recorded gross premium written of N15.402 billion for

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

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

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

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 03Feb-2021, unless otherwise stated.

the year ended December 31, 2020, compared with N14.207 billion in 2019.

Underwritten profit stood at N1.330 billion as against N913 million in 2019, while profit after

tax printed at N158 million in 2020 up from a loss of N1.313bn in 2019.

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

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

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

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Afrinvest Plutus Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria International Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A Afrinvest Dollar Fund N/A N/A N/A ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund 1.07 1.09 19.30% ACAP Income Funds 0.63 0.63 -13.46% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 0.31% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.55 3.70 -0.23% ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 0.54% Anchoria Equity Fund 137.84 138.64 2.97% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.20 1.20 -10.83% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 19.22 19.80 5.96% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 401.71 413.82 0.33% ARM Ethical Fund 35.69 36.77 5.88% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.22 1.23 0.14% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.08 1.08 -3.75% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 0.35% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 132.99 133.93 5.41% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.26% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 2.08 2.08 -34.81% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 2.27 2.32 16.52% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Paramount Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Women's Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 1.23% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 131.69 132.60 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 108.54 108.54 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Coronation Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A Coronation Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A 100.00 100.00 1.04% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 1.07% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,185.99 1,187.59 -1.23% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,358.15 1,358.16 -2.95% FBN Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Halal Fund 110.75 110.75 -0.70% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 0.96% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Institutional 123.46 123.46 1.54% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 123.60 123.60 1.53% FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund 156.88 159.00 3.77% FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.08% Legacy Debt Fund 3.88 3.88 0.37% Legacy Equity Fund 1.68 1.72 10.30% Legacy USD Bond Fund 1.14 1.14 0.45% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund 3,918.09 3,966.88 4.29% Coral Income Fund 3,322.91 3,322.91 1.74% FSDH Treasury Bills Fund 100.00 100.00 2.99% GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 0.61% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 129.68 129.15 20.21%

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 0.19% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.89 2.96 0.17% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 155.84 156.37 0.30% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Meristem Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A PACAM Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A PACAM Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A PACAM Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A PACAM EuroBond Fund N/A N/A N/A SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 135.88 138.93 12.85% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 0.55% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 2,521.35 2,532.80 1.39% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 210.33 210.33 0.35% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.88 0.89 2.97% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 273.87 273.95 0.42% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 154.92 156.64 1.65% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 0.28% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,674.15 7,756.30 0.35% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.23 1.23 0.49% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 111.44 111.44 0.32% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.43 1.46 4.74% United Capital Bond Fund 1.90 1.90 0.52% United Capital Equity Fund 0.91 0.94 5.48% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.52% United Capital Eurobond Fund 117.68 117.68 0.51% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.10 1.12 1.67% United capital Sukuk Fund 1.02 1.02 1.78% QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.59 12.72 6.18% Zenith Ethical Fund 13.92 14.05 13.97% Zenith Income Fund 24.13 24.13 0.66% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.94% REITS NAV Per Share

Fund Name SFS Skye Shelter Fund

Yield / T-Rtn

121.32

0.48%

52.52

0.23%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

13.49 127.60 101.43

13.59 127.60 103.35

2.02% 4.81% 2.08%

Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

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

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

4.22

4.26

11.20%

Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund

5.97

6.05

4.80%

Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Money Market Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund

18.21 1.00 20.58

18.31 1.00 20.78

11.12% 0.97% 0.31%

185.10

187.10

-16.50%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

108.05

13.11%

Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund

Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

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

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Gunmen Abduct The PUNCH Reporter, Two Others in Abuja Kingsley Nwezeh and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja An Abuja-based journalist with The PUNCH Newspapers,Mr. Okechukwu Nnodim, was on Wednesday night kidnapped in Kubwa, a satellite town in the

Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Nnodim was said to have been kidnapped around 11 pm by four gunmen who scaled the fence of his house.

It was gathered that the kidnappers who are believed to be Fulani, fired several gunshots

Court Dismisses Suit Seeking Probe of Yari over N900bn Fraud A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking an order compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate a former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, for allegedly misappropriating N900 billion.

A group known as Patriots for the Advancement of Peace and Social Development (PAPS), had approached the court with an ex parte application.

The group, through its Chairman, Sani Shinkafi, told the court that they have submitted 15 petitions to the EFCC against the former governor.

The applicant had prayed the court to compel the EFCC to take action on the 15 petitions.

Delivering judgment on the suit yesterday, Justice Okon

after which they broke into the living room through the windows.

He was said to have finished praying with his family and was about going to bed when the incident occurred.

A source told THISDAY that after the kidnappers gained access to his apartment, and was asked where he kept the money.

According to the source, it is true that when they gained access to his house that they were shouting where is the money.

Maybe they thought he brought money at home.

It was further gathered that the kidnappers made their way to the second apartment where two other young guys were also kidnapped.

“They were planning to enter the third apartment, but someone outside beamed the full light of his car on the clustered house and consistently pressed the horn, while a Naval officer who lives three blocks away shot in the air and the kidnappers left in a hurry.”

THISDAY findings revealed that the kidnappers are yet to make contact with the family or his office.

It was also gathered that his office is treading on a side of caution and also reluctant to issue a statement about the kidnap incident in order not to put his life in danger.

It was gathered that the kidnappers followed the hill behind the house where he was whisked away alongside the two other persons.

Meanwhile, Federal Capital

Territory (FCT) Command yesterday launched a manhunt for the kidnappers.

A source at the command said it was making concerted effort to free the journalist.

“We are making frantic efforts to free him and reunite him with his family.

“He was kidnapped in Pyagi in the outskirts of Abuja. We have been on the matter since 2am (yesterday),” the source said.

The source further said: “we are treating him as our own.

We are all stakeholders”

Abang dismissed the application for lacking merit.

Abang held that the application was filed out of time.

The judge said in line with Order 34 Rule Four of the Federal High Court Rules, such applications should be made within three months of receiving the reports and documents on which the plaintiff hinged his case.

He held that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear a matter which is statute-barred.

In January, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwo of the another Federal High Court had ordered the permanent forfeiture of over $669,000 in two bank accounts linked to Yari.

The former governor was also grilled on Monday by the EFCC over allegations of corruption.

ON MARITIME SAFETY… FG Mulls Petrol Freight Hike COLLABORATION L-R: Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Rear Admiral Awwal Gambo (left), and the Director General, Nigerian Maritime Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The federal government indicated yesterday that it was considering an increase in petrol freight, that is, the rate of transporting commodities, goods and cargo by land, sea or air, from N7.51 per litre of the product.

It noted that talks were already ongoing with representatives of organised labour to hike the rate to N9.11 for a litre, accounting for roughly 21 per cent increase in order to enhance the revenues of transport owners in the country.

In an address at the 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), in Niger State, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation (Management) Board (PEF), Mr. Ahmed Bobboi, noted that what was delaying the implementation was the federal government’s approval as well as the reversion of labour on the issue.

The plan will amount to 21.30 per cent hike in freight, that is, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)

component of the total cost of petrol.

Bobboi also revealed that the federal government was expecting the labour unions to revert to it on the agreement it reached with the joint committee set up to negotiate the hikes in petrol and electricity prices.

“Two days ago, labour requested for three weeks, for them to go and study the technical report, so that when they agree with the technical report , they will come back and then get approval. So, we pray that labour will do what’s needful,” he stated.

Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari said upon the conclusion of the deliberations with labour, the government would announce the effective implementation date in line with the pricing template.

Kyari was represented by the Chief Financial Officer, NNPC, Mr. Umar Ajiya, at the event which was attended by major stakeholders in the petroleum sector.

100% Nigerian Brands Can Be World-class, Says CEO The Managing Director of Rite Foods Limited, Seleem Adegunwa, has declared that being 100 per cent- Nigerian does not connote incompetence in producing state-of-the-art brands.

Adegunwa, who made this known during a recent facility tour of the factory, said: “If anything, being a Nigerian home-grown brand, initially, almost wanted to become like a negative because people think what is produced locally can’t be as good as the imported ones. And we have been able to demonstrate that you can be an entirely Nigerian brand, I mean 100 per cent Nigerian,

and still be able to produce extremely world-class brands”.

He noted that Rite Foods has continued to satisfy its numerous consumers with the production, distribution, branding and marketing of world-class quality food and beverage, as it rolls off tens of thousands of products into the Nigerian markets daily.

With its factory located in Ijebu Osasa, Ogun State, Rites Foods CEO said the company imports some of the ingredients, while ingredients such as water, sugar and others are locally sourced, which is why the company prides itself as being a home grown brand.

Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, during the Jamoh’s maiden courtesy visit to the naval chief at Naval Headquarters in Abuja...yesterday

Glo-sponsored African Voices ChangeMakers Engages Campaigners Two social re-orientation activists of African descent are guests on this week’s African Voices ChangeMakers, a magazine programme of the Cable News Network (CNN) sponsored by telecommunications services provider, Globacom.

The duo of Kennedy Odede, a Kenyan social entrepreneur and canvasser for free education, and Stephen Asante, a mental health advocacy campaigner, will be engaged on the programme.

Odede, 37, a polyglot who

is fluent in six languages, founded Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) which makes clean water and medical care accessible to urban slums across Kenya. He also runs free education for girls in the densely populated demographics of the country as well as helping individuals start small businesses.

He is a Young Global Leader (YGL) at the World Economic Forum and an Obama Foundation Africa Leader. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author who

was awarded the 2010 Echoing Green Fellowship, and listed on the Forbes Under-30 Top Social Entrepreneurs in 2014.

On his part, Asante is the founder of a non-governmental organization, Mental Health Advocacy Foundation, in Accra, Ghana, which promotes the prevention and control of mental illnesses in Ghana and fights to change perceptions on mental health in the same country by providing education and advocacy for the mentally challenged and their families.

His organization equally collaborates with the Ghanaian government to improve mental health services while working with local organizations to reduce the stigma associated with mental afflictions in the country.

African Voices ChangeMakers will be on DSTV Channel 401 on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. Repeats of the edition will be aired the same Saturday at 12 noon; on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. and on Monday at1.30 a.m.

Edo Police Arrest Suspected Killers of Prince Abuda Police authorities in Edo State have disclosed that the state command has arrested some persons in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Prince Dennis Abuda.

Speaking on the development yesterday, the state police spokesman, Chidi Nwabuzor said the hoodlums were

arrested by operatives of the anti-kidnapping and cybercrimes unit in collaboration with vigilantes and hunters.

According to the police spokesperson, the victim’s body was located along the BeninAhor-Lagos bypass, further impelling deeper investigations into the crime.

While Abuda was shot dead by his abductors, a heated chase by security operatives caused the kidnappers to release three other abductees who happened to be the deceased’s brothers.

Nwabuzor said the investigations into the matter are still ongoing as those arrested have been helping the police to

arrest other hoodlums within the state.

The late US-based Nigerian who came into the country for a visit hails from Fugar, Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo. The police command warned all criminally minded people to look for a decent job or leave the state.

CSO Sues Malami over Asset-tracing Law The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), a civil society organisation, has filed a suit against the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Regulations, 2019.

The group, in the suit, said certain sections of the asset-tracing law contradict the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act, the Immigration Act,

and the law on trafficking in persons.

The group said the assettracing regulations also violate certain provisions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Acts.

It said the asset-tracing law “merely gives arbitrary power” to Malami “which undermines effective performance” of the two anti-corruption commissions

and law enforcement agencies.

It said the duplication of the legal framework ends up creating power blocs that destroy the efficiency of the EFCC and the ICPC. “This is not good for the level of independence the anti-graft agencies deserve,” Olanrewaju Suraju, HEDA chairman, said.

“HEDA wants the Federal High Court holding in Lagos to determine whether Regulations 3(a) and 3(b) of the Asset Tracing and Regulation law is not in

conflict with Section 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act No.1 of 2004 on the coordination of various institutions involved in the fight against money laundering and enforcement of all laws dealing with economic and financial crimes in Nigeria and thereby constituting an infringement of Section 4(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered) as to render the said Regulations 3(a) and (b) a nullity,” the originating summons read in part.

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Shell May Exit Onshore Operations in Nigeria Peter Uzoho with agency report Worried by continued problems of oil theft and sabotage, oil major, Royal Dutch Shell, has hinted of its plan to take

another hard look at its onshore operations in Nigeria.

Shell’s Chief Executive, Mr. Ben van Beurden, disclosed the group’s plan to reporters yesterday, saying, “Our onshore

FG Releases N27bn MSME Survival Fund Scheme James Emejo in Abuja The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Mariam Katagum, yesterday said a total sum of N27 billion has so far been released for the implementation of the Survival Fund Scheme.

The fund was launched last November alongside the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS), both targeted at assisting Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The N75 billion project forms the core part of the N2.3 trillion Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) currently being implemented by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to cushion the impact of the pandemic, with a view to boosting the economy by saving existing jobs and creating new job opportunities.

However, Katagum, while giving an update on the intervention at a briefing in Abuja yesterday, said the federal government is ready to roll out the last two schemes of the MSMEs Survival Fund component of the NESP namely: the GOS and the general MSMEs grant.

She said the portal for registration would open from 11:59 pm on February 9 to February 18 to receive applications for both programmes,

oil position, despite all the efforts we put in against theft and sabotage, is under challenge.”

He described the challenge as a headache to the company.

A Dutch appeals court had last Friday, held Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell

Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to farmers, in a victory for environmentalists.

But Shell has maintained

that the spills were caused by sabotage. In November, the international oil company also lost a Nigerian high court case that could lead to $44 million in damages for spills.

Shell’s Nigerian onshore joint venture, SPDC has sold about

50 per cent of its oil assets over the past decade.

“But developments like we are still seeing at the moment mean that we have to take another hard look at our position in onshore oil in Nigeria,” he added.

and urged all interested MSMEs to go directly to the portal and register for either of the schemes free of charge.

The minister said so far, the implementation of the survival fund is progressing steadily with the activation of three tracks, including payroll support scheme, artisan and transport scheme, and formalisation support scheme across the country.

She pointed out that the payroll support portal was reopened for 30 states that had not met their quota in the initial stage of the programme between January 27 and February 2, 2021.

According to her, the GOS is to stimulate direct local production by enabling 100,000 MSMEs in the production sector with Managing Director of Edo State Skill Development Agency, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare (left), and the Project Officer at International Organisation funds to produce post-COVID-19 for Migration (IOM), Ms. Wintana Tarekegn, during the handing over of office work stations and other items donated by the IOM, at the Edo lockdown stimulus products. Innovation Hub, in Benin City…yesterday The scheme will give preference to products produced in reasonably sufficient volumes in each state of the federation, which have the proven propensity to create jobs and have a multiplier effect on the Mr. Ahmed Dangiwa, and other MD, Dangiwa, hinted that the lawmakers that the audited surrounding economy, she Udora Orizu in Abuja officials of the agency on the the present management of accounts are ready but are added. the bank had inherited the five awaiting agency’s board The minister further identified The House of Representatives unaudited accounts.

Oke expressed dissatisfaction years unaudited accounts from approval. the products as face masks, hand Committee on Public Accounts In his ruling, the committee sanitizer, liquid soap, disinfectant yesterday expressed dismay with non-compliance of their predecessors in office, and over the failure of the Federal the agencies to the extant that they have made efforts to chairman urged the Clerk and processed foods. to write to the appropriate She said MSMEs registered in Mortgage Bank of Nigeria provision of the laws on audited clear it. accounts despite having made He explained that the federal authorities in the CBN and (FMBN) and Tertiary Education Nigeria and owned by Nigerians would get patronage from the Trust Fund (TETFUND) to audit previous appearances before the government owned and had NSITF asking them to pay government via procurement of their accounts for five years, committee on the contentious paid N60 million out of the up their equity shareholding N1.5 billion being its share of in the mortgage institution. products with a value of N150, describing it as worrisome issue.

The lawmaker also queried equity in the bank.

Earlier, the committee had and gross violation of the 1999 000 per business entity. why the Central Bank of Nigeria On the percentage equity turned down the presentation by Constitution (as amended).

The Chairman of the (CBN) and the Nigeria Social shareholders capital in the a representative of the Executive committee Hon. Oluwole Oke, Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) mortgage bank, he said the Secretary of TETFUND, Prof at an investigative hearing on had not paid up their 30 percent federal government owns 50 Suleiman Bogoro, who sent his audit queries by Auditor-General and 20 percent equity capital percent, while the CBN and apologies for not being able to of Federation on Ministries, as shareholders of the bank Nigeria Social Insurance Trust attend the hearing.

The lawmakers insisted that Departments and Agencies as stipulated by the FMBN Fund own 30 and 20 percent respectively. the TETFUND boss must appear (MDAs), had grilled the Establishment Act. In his response, the bank Dangiwa, however, informed unfailingly on February 5.

Managing Director of FMBN,

PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP…

House Raises Concern over Five-year Unaudited Asks CBN, NSITF to pay up equity capital

Oba Rauf Adedeji for Burial Today The late Oba Rauf Olayiwola Adedeji II, Akinrun of Ikirun in Osun State, will be buried today.

The late monarch died Wednesday, February 3, 2021 after a brief illness. He was aged 78.

Oba Adedeji who came to the throne in July 1991, was a former banker with the defunct Savannah Bank.

He will be buried at the Akinrun palace today.

Alleged Treason: Court Declines to Revoke Sowore’s Bail Alex Enumah in Abuja

Oba Rauf Adedeji

Dakuku to Speak at SON’s Retreat in Calabar A former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, will deliver the keynote speech at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) retreat taking place from February 9 to 12 in Calabar.

The retreat which is aimed at repositioning SON for greater effectiveness and efficiency, in its quest to set and enforce standards for industrial goods in Nigeria.

The Director General of SON, Farouk Salim, said the organisation is honoured to have Peterside join SON on this agenda-setting four -day retreat.

“We look forward to hearing Dakuku Peterside’s story of how he took NIMASA from an underperforming regulatory agency to a world

class institution. We will have the privilege to learn of the philosophy that inspired him and the methods that gave him and his Team exceptional results,” says the DG of SON. Peterside will speak on the theme: “SON: Growing an Effective and Efficient Regulatory Organisation.“ This SON strategy retreat is the first major outing in a series of agenda-setting programmes to reposition the agency and set her on the path of becoming the foremost standards organisation in Africa.

Under the new leadership, the DG is determined to make SON a role model and safeguard Nigerians from the risk of substandard products whether manufactured in the country or imported into the country.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court yesterday declined to revoke the bail she earlier granted to the convener of #RevolutionNow Movement, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.

Sowore and another member of the Movement, Mr. Olawale Bakare, are being prosecuted by the federal government on charges bordering on alleged treason.

They were said to have committed the alleged offences by staging ‘a revolution’ campaign against the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari

on August 5, 2019.

The #RevolutionNow protest called by Sowore, according to the government, was allegedly aimed at removing the president from office by unconstitutional means.

They, however, pleaded guilty and were admitted to bail in late 2019.

At their resumed trial yesterday, neither the defendants nor their counsel were present in court, forcing the court to stand down the matter until 1 p.m. yesterday.

When the matter resumed later in the afternoon, counsel to the defendants, Marshal Abubakar, explained that he was not in court

earlier on assumption that the matter would not hold on the account of an application he filed on January 29, 2021, seeking to vacate February 4 for hearing proceedings.”

He said they had hoped to make the request on the last adjourned date but trial was stalled due to the demise of Ibrahim Watila, a Federal High Court Judge.

Abubakar, however, apologised for the communication gap between the registry and the defence counsel.

While responding, prosecuting counsel, Mr. Aminu Alilu, said it is shocking that the court has

been made to wait for the arrival of the defendant for the second time, and that the counsel, each time, “has abused the indulgence of this honourable court to create lies.”

He recalled how the court had fined the prosecution N200,000 because the same defence berated them for not being diligent and not being ready to proceed with their case.

While arguing that the defence must show readiness to answer to the charge, he faulted the application on the grounds that reason was not adduced why the court should vacate yesterday’s proceedings.

Militants Attack Civil Defence Corps Operatives, Cart away Arms in Bayelsa Onungwe ObeinYenagoa Bayelsa State Government yesterday condemned the attack by suspected militants in the Niger Delta area on operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state.

The attack was allegedly carried out by armed militants engaged in crude oil theft.

This was alleged in a statement

issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the state Deputy Governor, Mr. Doubara Atasi, after a meeting at the Government House in Yenagoa among the Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo; NSCDC officials, community leaders and stakeholders from Ekeremor.

The militants were said to have ambushed and attacked a team of NSCDC personnel, and engaged them in a gun battle that led to the loss of weapons. One of

the NSCDC men was reportedly captured and taken away by the militants.

The members of the Amabulou community, however, rescued the personnel.

The state government, however, warned that it would descend on communities discovered to be aiding and abetting criminality in the state.

The deputy governor ordered community leaders to work with security agencies to identify and

expose criminal elements within the community.

Ewhrudjakpo emphasised the need for effective collaboration between community leaders, security agencies and the government to safeguard lives and property in the state.

He said stakeholders, including traditional rulers, youth leaders and community development committee (CDC) chairmen, have a critical role to play for any security arrangement to succeed.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

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NEWSEXTRA

No Northerner Has Been Given Quit Notice in Igboland, Says Ohanaeze The apex Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has denied that Fulani or any Northerner for that matter in the South-east was ordered to leave the region.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo called on the elite of Northern and Southern Nigeria to desist from inflammatory statements, warning that such statements could trigger conflicts and inflame passions.

The Igbo apex socio-cultural body however condemned vehemently, the activities of herdsmen instigating crises in the land through the invasion of farmlands, vandalism, rape, and murders.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo tasked the Northern leaders to work for a return to the lawful herdsmen with whom Igbo communities

have interacted in various Hausa settlements across the South-east over many decades.

Ohanaeze, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, said: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo is concerned about recent developments in Nigeria around the activities of herdsmen of Fulani stock said to be foreigners from outside Nigeria who have caused damage across the land and elicited negative reactions. While that is disturbing enough, we are distressed by the tenor of conversations on the subject pushed by persons who should otherwise do better.

“Many are framing it as a North versus South conflict. This is not correct. Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on the elite of Northern and Southern Nigeria to desist

from inflammatory rhetoric and the canvassing of narratives that could stoke conflict and inflame passions. No one would gain from the consequences of such idle chatter but Nigeria will lose big time.

“Specifically, we assert that no one in the South, not the least the South-east, has issued quit orders to all Northerners or will ask Northerners to leave.

Ndigbo are nation builders and not destroyers.

“Rather, what has happened in both the South-eest, the South-eouth, South-east and the Middle Belt of Nigeria are plaintive cries of citizens and their governments for lawless inhabitants of our forests and lands to stop criminality?

Surely, no upright and wellmeaning citizens will dispute

the imperative of having lawabiding citizens who pursue their vocations without doing harm to others.

“We declare that our people demand the observance of due process by all groups. We deplore rash and unlawful retaliatory actions. We condemn even more the activities of herdsmen instigating crises in the land through the invasion

of farmlands, vandalism, rape, and murders.

“We call on Northern leaders to enjoin a return to the lawful herdsmen with whom our communities have interacted in various Hausa settlements across the South-east over many decades. It is the same call that citizens are making in the South-west, South-south and the North-central.

Bauchi LGs Surviving on overdraft, Gov Cries Out Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has lamented that all the local government areas in the state are existing on overdraft to run their affairs.

The governor, who said Bauchi is the only state in the federation that is suffering from dependence on overdraft, however, assured the state that the problem cannot stop his administration from freeing resources to do projects for the benefits of the citizens.

Mohammed was speaking yesterday during a meeting between him and the chairmen of the 20 local government councils of the state and their deputies, which was held at the Banquet Hall of the Government House in Bauchi.

According to him, “On the local government administration, we will try to free resources, work together, give you some autonomy to do as provided in the law, so that whatever allocation you have from the federation will be going to you directly.”

He added: “The accountantgeneral is here; he will give you the picture of what was done before that we are carrying the burden in the name of joint project. They have really finished us; all the monies have been spent, and today, we are living on overdraft every month

as local government authorities.

“However, we will put heads together to do something so that in the end of your tenure, you will be proud that at least you have left legacies and landmarks behind.”

The governor, while welcoming the chairmen and their deputies over their recent victory at the council polls, said their emergence as the elected executives of the local government areas was a well-deserved one.

He said his administration has ensured the entrenchment of due process, stake-holding and all that is constitutionally required for their emergence as elected chairmen and deputies.

The governor, who said that councils’ chairmen are well known to their subjects, urged them to consider themselves as servants to the electorate who voted them into their offices.

He warned the council chairmen against personal aggrandisement and to avoid joining issues that are not supposed to be for the benefit of the state or the local government.

The governor however, urged them establish a very sound accountable means of executing projects and programmes that are transparent and within the law so that at the end of the day, the beneficiaries would be the people.

Sterling Bank Partners Firm on Drone Delivery Service Sterling Bank’s health technology partner, Zipline has signed a service level agreement with Kaduna State Government for the implementation of drones in the health supply chain system.

Zipline, is a global drone delivery service and will use autonomous delivery drones to help transform emergency healthcare and expand access to critical life-saving medications in the State.

Divisional Head, Health and Education Sector, for Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Obinna Ukachukwu, who disclosed this in Kaduna, during the signing of the partnership’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) said

that the delivery services does not only include daily medical supplies such as blood pints and medicines but also includes a plan to use the drones in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines across the state.

He said the bank is supporting the initiative because health is one the five sectors of the Nigerian economy that the bank has committed to and is consistently seeking to improve.

The other sectors are education, agriculture, transportation and renewable energy.

Ukachukwu added that the bank is very proud of the partnership and would be committed to playing its part to deliver on the project.

I SHARE YOUR GRIEFS…

Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (left); and the Chairman, Nigerian in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, during a condolence visit by the Speaker to Dabiri-Erewa on the death of her mother, Alhaja Sadiat Abeke Erogbogbo, in Lagos…yesterday

Adoke: Purported New E-mail Evidence Admitted by Italian Court Forged Alex Enumah in Abuja Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), yesterday noted that the so-called new e-mail admitted by an Italian Court against him was forged.

In a statement he issued through his lawyer, Mr Femi Oboro of Gromyco Amedu solicitors, London, the ex-minister stated that the campaign against him that the document is the “proof”

that he had a close relationship with Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, who is on trial in Milan along with Shell and ENI in the Milan Court, was preposterous.

In the release tagged: “Re:Italian Court Accepts Email Evidence against Adoke”, the senior lawyer noted that he could not have sent an email through another person’s account, adding that he was no longer a minister at the time the purported email was allegedly sent.

He said that the email purportedly sent by him

from the email address of AgroupProperties, said to belong to Abubakar, in respect of the OPL 245 transaction of 2011, was a figment of the imagination of his detractors.

Part of the statement signed

by Adokes’s lawyer read:“Our client states categorically that the e-mail (copy enclosed) is a total forgery. First of all, the email is dated 21, June 2011.

At the time in question, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke SAN was no longer the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

“The cabinet had been dissolved by President Goodluck Jonathan and was yet to be reconstituted. The despicable forgers did not do their due diligence before going to town.

That is their stock in trade, in any case,” he stated.

He said curiously, in a screenshot of the email being circulated, the sender signed off simply as “Mohammed Bello Adoke”, stressing that for the record, all his correspondences, whether physical or electronic, are signed off with the suffix “SAN”.

Fayemi Rejoices with Oyinlola at 70 Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, yesterday congratulated a former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, on his 70th birthday anniversary.

Fayemi described the former governor as an epitome of courage, dignity and character.

The governor, in a congratulatory letter personally signed by him, said Oyinlola does not stand out among his peers only by nobility, but also by “his enormous gift of garb,

wits and inner stamina.”

Fayemi, who noted that Oyinlola had always been elderly in conduct and wisdom, hailed the former military governor of Lagos as a man with “native intelligence and philosophical conviction.”

He said it was not surprising that the former governor, who is also a prince of Okuku in Osun State, has emulative characters because he is a man “well rooted in palace courtesies, and has an decoration full of garlands and medals in military excellence.”

The chairman of the Nigerian

Governors’ Forum (NGF) stressed that Oyinlola has earned the respect of many people as a very loyal and forthright gentleman who never betrays any cause to which he is committed.

“My Egbon, as I fondly refer to him, is very loyal and a forthright gentleman who never betrays any cause to which he is committed. His forthrightness and frankness sometimes pitch him against those who would prefer guile and deception, but for the Okuku prince, fidelity is the highest form of honour.

“Even before now, he has always been elderly in conduct and wisdom. He is truly a prince in courage, dignity and character.

“You cannot but be marveled by the depth of his native intelligence and philosophical conviction. Prince Oyinlola is unique in so many ways. The thing that stands him out is not just the nobility of his birth or the genteelness of his military education but his enormous gift of garb, wits and inner stamina”, Fayemi extoled him.

NGO Gets Grant to Tackle Plastic Pollution DoGood.Africa, a registered non-profit social enterprise, in partnership with HB Imagino has been awarded a grant by The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF) to improve the livelihood of 300 waste pickers and sorters in impoverished communities through economic empowerment recycling project titled “Waste to Wealth”.

The “Waste to Wealth’’ project

is designed to contribute to several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) so as to alleviate the hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and promote a greener environment and ultimately develop Nigeria as a whole.

Organised to run for a year, the project is designed to recover over 500 tonnes of plastic waste at source

by leveraging technology to digitally track waste disposal through RFID waste bins to be installed at strategic highvolume consumption locations such as Hotels, Cafes, Quick Service Restaurants and Schools.

The recovered plastic waste is subsequently recycled into food packaging materials.

With a pilot phase set to kick off within the Lekki axis

of Lagos State, the project seeks to build momentum to scale this model across Africa in partnership with relevant stakeholders in the waste management value chain. The project will leverage the talent and labor of community members, especially women, thus creating jobs and financial inclusion for many.

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FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

WORLD OF ISLAM

24 HOURS...

PDP Alleges Move to Shield Buratai, Others How Did Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Offer Sincere Advice? from Investigation

Edited by: MJO Mustapha Email deji.mustapha@thisdaylive.com

Ahmad Ansari/IslamiCity

Chuks Okocha in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday rejected what it described as a plot by the President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the decoy of ambassadorial appointments to shield the immediate past service chiefs from investigation over alleged killing of innocent Nigerians and crimes against humanity.

The PDP further charged the Senate to eschew all partisan considerations and stand on the side of the people, particularly the victims of atrocious regime of the ex-service chiefs by rejecting the demand by Buhari

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to confirm them as ambassadors.

In a statement issued yesterday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said, “It is indeed sacrilegious and a horrible assault on the sensibility of Nigerians that the APC government is seeking to use ambassadorial appointments as desperate measure to secure diplomatic immunity for the former commanders and protect them from investigation, arrest and possible prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the atrocities committed against innocent Nigerians under their command.”

The PDP asserted that appointing the former service chiefs as ambassadors would confer diplomatic immunity on them and provide them a route for escape.

The party further stated that taking such actions at a time the ICC has declared its readiness

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to commence full investigation on their alleged involvement in the crime against humanity in the country, appears to further validate the allegations against them.

“The frenzy by officials of the Buhari’s Presidency in mounting pressure on the Senate to confirm such abominable ambassadorial nominations has further raised public apprehensions of a desperate attempt to cover the culpability of some other individuals connected to the APC administration.

“It is shocking that instead of allowing the former service chiefs to answer for the alleged crime against humanity under their command, including reported cases of extra-judicial execution, killing of unarmed protesters at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos, rape, illegal arrest as well as detention and torture of innocent Nigerians, the APC administration is rather plotting their escape”, the party spokesperson said

FCC Debunks Allegations on Contract Scam, Others Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has countered allegations on issues ranging from rule of law, due process, contract scam, guidelines and extant circulars.

Others are the award of contract worth N35 million, stepping down of contracts, recruiting of staff, nonadvertisement of waivers, and duty tour allowances.

It said the allegations have been written without thorough understanding by the petitioners on the workings of government and its guiding principles.

The most senior Director of the commission, Mr. Vincent Onobun, who spoke yesterday on behalf of the management, said the fifth board of the commission has been guided by the principle of the FCC Act. He said: “For some days, the commission was brought to the public domain through allegations and counter allegations on issues ranging from rule of law, due processes, guidelines and extant circulars.

With due respect, the allegations have been written without thorough understanding by the petitioners on the workings of government and the guiding rules governing it.”

Onobun said the running cost being released to the commission is hardly sufficient to fund its monthly activities at the headquarters as well as state offices.

He stated that the commission and indeed Nigeria run an Economic Growth Recovery Plan (EGRP). Therefore, the issue of the alleged N35 million is part of the rolling plan that commenced in 2018 for which a release was expected in 2019.

In the Qur’an, Allah SWT has commanded the believers to continue reminding others. He said: “And continue to remind. For certainly reminders benefit the believers.”

(Al-Qur’an: 51:55).

Providing a sincere counsel to fellow Muslim brothers and sisters is a noble act and a Sunnah of Rasulullah (PBUH).

It’s also one of the six rights a Muslim has over his fellow Muslim. Rasulullah (PBUH) said in a Hadith: “The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: ‘The Muslim has six rights over another Muslim. It was said to him: ‘O’ Allah’s Messenger, what are these?’ Thereupon he said: - When you meet him, offer him greetings; - When he invites you to a feast, accept it; - When he seeks your counsel (advice), give it to him; - When he sneezes and says: “All praise is due to Allah,” you say “Yarhamuk-Allah” (may Allah show mercy to you); - When he falls sick, visit him - And when he dies, follow his bier (Janazah).”

(Hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah in Sahih Muslim) Reminding others was also a part of the stated mission of all previous prophets who were sent

by Allah to guide humanity, as mentioned in the following verses of the Holy Qur’an.

Prophet Nuh (Noah) (alaihis salam), for example, explained his mission objectives to his people in the following words: “I convey to you my Lord’s messages and give you sincere advice.

And I know from Allah what you do not know”.

(Al-Qur’an 7:62) Prophet Hud (alaihis salam) said to his people: “I convey to you the messages of my Lord, and I am to you a trustworthy advisor” (Al-Quran 7:68) Another example comes from Prophet Saleh (alaihis salam), who said to his people: “O my people! Surely, I conveyed to you my Lord’s message and gave you sincere advice, but you do not like sincere advisors.” (Al-Qur’an 7:79) In Arabic, the advice or giving a counsel to someone is called an-nasihah. A piece of sincere advice given at the right time and with proper etiquette tremendously helps a person overcome any challenges he/she has and opens the door to self-improvement. It also increases bonds of Islamic brotherhood, unites the community, and strengthens mutual love and respect for one another.

Describing the virtues of giving sincere advice, the Prophet of Allah (PBUH) said in another Hadith: “The religion of Islam is sincerity, the religion of Islam is sincerity, the religion of Islam is sincerity (he said this three times).

The companions said, “To whom O’ messenger of Allah?” He said, “To Allah, to His Book, to His messenger, to the Imams and leaders (of the) Muslim (community), and to their common people.” (Hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah in

by Sunan An-Nasa’i).

Besides explaining the virtues of giving advice, our beloved Rasulullah (PBUH) also taught us necessary etiquette and required manners and characteristics of advising others. These prophetic techniques are conveyed to us through his narrations in authentic Ahadith books. They are simple, easily doable, and universal.

The following Hadith is an excellent example of how the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) advised one of his companions, Mu’adh Bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him). In this Hadith, we can learn the prophetic technique of providing advice by unpacking the etiquette, understanding, and communication displayed by Rasulullah (PBUH): Mu’adh Ibn Jabal narrates that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) held his hand and he said: “O’ Mu’adh, By Allah I love you, by Allah I love you. Then he said: “I advise you not to miss this supplication after every Salah (prayer) in which you say: ‘O’ Allah help me remember You, give Shukr (gratitude) to You, and worship You in the best manner.” (Hadith narrated by Mu’adh Ibn Jabal in Abu Dawud & An-Nasa’i) In this Hadith, the Prophet (PBOH) presents a beautiful example of the steps needed before addressing the topic of advice itself. Rasulullah (PBUH) asked Mu’adh to develop a permanent habit of saying a specific Du’a after every prayer.

Still, prior to advising anything, Rasulullah (PBUH) used the following three unique techniques as mentioned in this Hadith: 1. He held Mu’adh’s hand to express his love and affection for Mu’adh, grounding his words with sincerity.

2. He expressed his love and affection for Mu’adh again. When addressing him the second time, he swore by Allah twice to express his affection for his companion.

3. Then, he repeated his actual name, which encourages the listener to be attentive to what will be said. He then began giving his advice.

Our beloved Messenger of Allah(PBUH) himself possessed outstanding character qualities.

Allah SWT has praised him in the Qur’an by saying: “And surely you [O’ Mohammad] you are on an exalted standard of character”.

(Al-Qur’an: 68:4) While giving advice, he (PBUH) demonstrated love and affection to Mu’adh. He refrained from doing anything that could seem embarrassing or disrespectful to him. Thus, he taught us that by acquiring excellent character qualities, the advisor truly becomes a loving role model, and qualifies to be the most likable and trustworthy advisor. Everyone in the community feels comfortable listening to such advisors and takes their advice seriously. The advice-giving process becomes more beneficial, impactful, and result-oriented. By exhibiting this compassionate and genuine behavior before communicating anything, Rasulullah (PBUH) has established his sincerity in the eyes of the listener, and thus increased the impact of his words.

Developing a sense of responsibility and self-accountability is an essential prerequisite to becoming an influential advisor. The prophet of Allah (PBUH) says in a Hadith: “All of you are guardians and are responsible [accountable] for your subjects.” (Hadith narrated by Abdullah Ibn Omar in Sahih Al-Bukhari – Sahih Muslim) The quality of Taqwa (righteousness and piety) is a virtue and an honor from Allah (SWT). It motivates a person to act responsibly.

“Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.” (AlQur’an 49:13) A righteous person is aware of his behavior and is always ready to accept the consequences of his actions. The quality of righteousness enables the advisor to understand others’ pain and difficulties and give sincere and beneficial advice. Therefore, it’s extremely imperative for the advisor to act responsibly and demonstrate effective self-control over his anger, emotions, and feelings, especially under stress. With congruency between one’s speech and actions, the advisor succeeds in winning the people’s trust, and everyone takes his advice seriously.

Proper understanding of the concept of AlAmanah (trustworthiness) is another required prerequisite for the advisor. He/she must serve as a trustworthy advisor to ensure privacy and confidentiality of all matters. The quality of Al Amanah (trustworthiness) is a unique character trait being practiced by all prophets of Allah.

At the same time, they delivered Allah’s message to their people in the most challenging circumstances. In the face of open resistance, mockery, and ridicule from their people, the beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), as well as all other prophets of Allah, demonstrated the quality of trustworthiness during their interactions with their people.

Now let’s talk about the most amazing aspect of Rasulullah’s(PBUH) unique advicegiving technique. Allah SWT has taught him the art of delivering the most comprehensive statement using very few words. This beautiful skill is called (jawami’-ul-kalim), which means a brief, concise statement with a comprehensive meaning. Rasulullah (PBUH) said in a Hadith: “I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning.” (Hadith narrated

by Abu Hurairah in Sahih Muslim).

The advice mentioned above to Mu’adh Bin Jabal is a perfect prophetic demonstration of jawami’-ul-kalim in his conversation. Here, while being purely focused on teaching Mu’adh Bin Jabal a simple Du’a, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) used the most relevant, brief, and concise words when he spoke to Mu’adh.

As a result, he (PBUH) was able to encourage his student to learn, understand and practice the three important concepts of Dhikr (remembrance of Allah), Shukr, (giving thanks and gratitude to Allah), & Al-Ihsan (achieving the quality of excellence while performing the act of worship).

In the first part of the advice, for example, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) has amazingly excited Mu’adh to learn about the importance, significance, and virtues of doing Dhikr, and motivated him to develop a permanent habit of saying the Dhikr frequently.

In the second part of the advice, the prophet of Allah (PBUH) wanted to inculcate the concept of Al-Shukr (giving thanks and gratitude) and Al-Kufr (being ungrateful) in the mind of his student. He amazingly encouraged him to learn how to admit and recognize the divine bounty and thank Allah SWT as the bounty’s sole Giver.

FRIDAY, ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ ˾ THISDAY

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BACKPAGE CONTINUATION BUHARI, HERDERS AND INSECURITY register or vacate the place. Shehu, apparently more out of mischief than ignorance, conflated the right to property ownership with a citizen’s right to live and work in any part of the country. While Akeredolu’s directive was on the strength of the violation of the former, Shehu threw the armour of the latter in the herders’ defence, saying they had the constitutional right to live in any part of the country.

When every effort to push the re-opening of cattle routes failed and having been persuaded that ranching is the way of global best practices in animal husbandry, the administration has made futile efforts to arm twist state governors into ceding large parcels of land for that purpose. The administration’s policy initiatives from Cattle Colony, to Rural Grazing Area or RUGA for short, and then National Livestock Transformation Plan all failed to get the necessary buy-in from state governments and community leaders in the north central and southern part of the country. Every initiative of the administration, however well-meaning it may appear, has been viewed with suspicion and seen as no more than a land-grabbing scheme to settle a group of herders who have become notorious for applying the scorched earth policy on host communities, besides raping and kidnapping. There was a general hostility to these initiatives in the southern zones. Many could not understand the administration’s interests in forcing such initiatives on states when cattle rearing or dairy farming is private business that is no different from other such types of animal husbandry like poultry, fish and bee farming.

The utterances of the leadership of Miyetti Allah, an association claiming to be representing the herders’ interests, have not been particularly helpful. Miyetti leaders have been annoyingly haughty - they justify the herders’ atrocities, speak as if the Buhari administration exists solely to cater to their interests, act like they own Nigeria, with some even claiming that every parcel of land in the country belonged to the Fulani. It got to a point when many began to wonder if the administration and Miyetti Allah were not working together in

what has been described as the Fulanisation agenda. The general expectation was that the administration would take urgent measures to stop the atrocities being committed across the country by the herders, particularly when Buhari even admitted that not a few of them came into Nigeria from neighbouring countries.

When the administration declared Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra), which had not been particularly notable for violence, a terrorist group in 2017, the general thinking was that the Fulani extremists, who were so hideously violent, more than deserved to be so classified. The administration, however, continued to give excuses for their atrocities even when the Global Terrorism Index 2020 stated that “Fulani extremists were responsible for 26 percent of terror-related deaths in Nigeria at 325 fatalities.” To put this in context, GTI put total deaths from terrorism in Nigeria in 2019, the period of coverage for the 2020 report, at 1,245 fatalities.

It is therefore not surprising, from the foregoing, that Buhari has many times been accused of having sympathy for the herders, atrocities and all. Indeed, those who have alleged that the president, in words and inaction, enables the Fulani extremists cannot be tagged uncharitable. Therefore, Femi Adesina’s disclosure, only last week, that the Federal Government had uncovered an “orchestrated smear campaign” against Buhari in the media was laughable. Adesina, in a statement, the contents of which he attributed to “impeccable security findings” wrote: “Part of the planned publication is to make unwary readers believe that the president has continually used the powers of his office to shield and protect an ethnic group against the crimes of murder, kidnappings, rape and banditry in the southern, middle belt and northern states.” Really?

Have these people not been in this country since the January 2018 Benue massacre when victims of the herders’ atrocities have been crying out for protection and justice in Benue, in Taraba, in Kaduna, in Plateau, in Niger, in Kogi, in Enugu, in Ebonyi, in Ekiti, in Ondo, in Oyo and in several other states? Has

Buhari not been reading the newspapers, and watching on television, the allegations and accusations of his sympathy for the herders?

What is there to smear in the image of a president whose management of the herders’ crisis has long been immersed in infamy?

What can be impeccable in some security findings the facts of which have been in public domain in the last four years? Could those be the kind of security findings deployed to find those killer herdsmen who have made raping, kidnapping and murder their sport?

The fact is the herders’ atrocities have become an existential challenge to the different ethnic nationalities in the country. Buhari has so far displayed an incapacity, if not unwillingness, to bring a stop to the herders’ murderous activities. Reason why non-state actors, backed by their communities and the leadership of ethnic associations, have taken it upon themselves to push back by attacking Fulani settlements. This is generating cross-ethnic tension that, if not properly managed, could lead to violent instability the end of which nobody could predict. It is not enough for the president to wring his hands like Adesina wrote in his statement: “Those who are bent on stoking ethnic and religious unrest in the country remain deaf to reason, and impervious to reality. They are hell-bent on distorting reality, and Nigerians are urged to be wary of them.”

This administration, unfortunately, has mastered the art of blaming others for its own crimes. It is Buhari and his aides, with their incessant rationalisation of herders’ atrocities as detailed at the beginning of this column, that have ignited the fire of ethnic suspicions. It is the administration’s failure to nip religious extremism in the bud that is stoking the embers of religious unrest. It is the president that distorts reality with his head almost permanently buried in the past – blaming past administrations for present challenges; and seeking ancestral solutions to today’s problems. It is Buhari and his aides that Nigerians should be wary of as they neither see nor listen to the people’s cries for justice; they mock their critics, are bereft

of empathy and warmth, and talk down on the people. They are concerned with only one reality – power without responsibility.

It is good for the president to express his displeasure with the elites. Buhari last weekend in Daura blamed the elites for not acknowledging his achievements particularly in infrastructure development since he came on board in 2015; he expressed displeasure at the constant harassment of his administration.

How touching! It would be better, however, that the president looked at himself in the mirror. There is no doubt that the administration has done considerable work in road repairs and reconstruction; it is even doing more considerable work in revamping the railways.

But then, what’s the good of a well-paved road that no one, except the suicidal, is ready to use for fear of being kidnapped, raped or killed? What’s the joy of a train ride that could easily be raided by armed men?

The fact is criminal herders are central to the general insecurity in the country and their activities not only impede the acknowledgement of the administration’s achievements in other areas, their atrocities deepen ethnic and religious tension capable of snowballing into a bigger crisis that could destabilise the country. Buhari would do well in the remaining two years of his tenure, if he cared about the judgment of history, to focus on clocking much more miles on intangible achievements, especially in matters of herdsmen’s crisis and the ensuing insecurity that’s negatively impacting the country’s stability.

“We do what we have to do as leaders”, says Prime Minister Harold Wilson in one of his weekly sessions with Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, a Netflix-original drama series on the life of the English monarch, “our job is to calm more crises than we create.” Could Buhari honestly claim his administration has calmed more crises than it has created on matters affecting herders and general insecurity in the country? Not with the choice he has made in the titanic contest between the two legendary wolves in us, feeding the black wolve with fear and hate, darkness and despair.

good hands, from the North and South, some of whom had championed electoral reforms before being appointed to INEC and have remained consistent, whose presence has given some credibility to the commission, are now targets of attacks by the APC apparatchik in their desperation to rid the system of them.

You see, by mid-2022, about six months to the 2023 general election, the tenure of 80% of Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) who were appointed by Buhari in 2017, would come to an end. This is because of their belated appointments, just like the delay in appointment of ministers by the president in 2015. The current efforts by the APC-led government to disregard universally recognised principles of professionalism and political neutrality expected of those who preside at various positions in lNEC and plant its members or sympathisers will spell doom for the 2023 elections. That appointments to INEC are now being determined by political groups within the ruling party in each of

the geopolitical zones of the country, show how Nigeria’s democracy under Buhari has been undermined.

Nigerians should be aware of the troubling consequences of partisan recruitment of either national commissioners or RECs. Whatever little gains recorded under Jonathan are gradually being reversed as public confidence in lNEC ahead of the 2023 election is fast eroding with dire consequences for the country already reeling from a near-total breakdown of law and order. It’s even more worrisome that about 80% of the RECs will be leaving in August 2022 when the current crop of commissioners in INEC is expected to bow out.

Given the above scenario, and if we are a people with a scintilla of hope of building institutions, particularly institutions like lNEC, to serve the interest of the nation, the appointing authority ought to ensure that a healthy mix of experienced hands are moved up as national commissioners to oversee the RECs expected to be recruited in 2022.The importance of this cannot be overemphasized, given that states are under the supervision of national commissioners and the new RECs will not have sufficient time to acquaint themselves with the task of pre-election and election-day activities that could overwhelm them; especially in a year that will be dominated by transition elections at the federal and state levels.

I sometimes wonder why experienced state resident commissioners who have served with credible records and without blemish can’t rise or be elevated to national commissioners and why national commissioners can’t be appointed to head the electoral body. Instead we look for fresh hands who are pliable to political pressure and deliberately recruited in the pursuit of partisan goals. Every appointment is now seen as an opportunity to push partisan ends and not an opportunity to build institutions that will serve the greater good.

Who are those to be appointed at this time as commissioners to prepare Nigeria for the 2023 election? We cannot take things for granted. We must be vigilant and keep a watchful eye on every move by this discredited government that values cows more than human life, otherwise we may not realise it until it’s too late. Again, Joseph Stalin once said, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” So we must keep an eagle eye on INEC and the integrity of those appointed to the commission.

THE ABC OF A RECALCITRANT DEBTOR Senate, headed by President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, who has said he would not reject any request from the president to please critics. With utterances like that, we’ll not be surprised if he sneaks that confirmation through in the middle of the night when we are sleeping. So we must remain vigilant.

That singular nomination did not help the perception of this government by Nigerians.

Rather, it reinforced its unscrupulous reputation. It’s a measure of the risk Buhari poses to the conduct of free and fair elections in Nigeria. The mere thought that the president considered her rabid partisanship an asset, that her exploits in attacking critics of his government made her worthy of such a sensitive position, is not only tragic but represents one of the greatest examples of insensitivity to democratic tenets and disrespect for the Nigerian people on a scale that defies explanation.

I have repeatedly stated that those who brought Buhari did this country a grave, immeasurable disservice and we must never forget them for what they have done to our country. The president by almost every action or inaction has proved his critics right. Nigeria is on the race to the bottom under a president with nepotism and ethnicity flowing through his veins, a man who is clearly hell-bent on destroying this country. As many have realised, President Buhari is clearly not interested in building or strengthening institutions, instead he is more than eager to destroy them.

Clearly, it appears the first goal of the emerging plot to kill lNEC by the APC is to seize control of it. The aim is to populate it with its members or sympathisers to ensure that whichever faction of its party that emerges as national executive of the party from the expected implosion of its forthcoming national convention would be recognised by those already implanted as commissioners in lNEC. Ultimately, the target is to secure 2023 electoral victory because the party is scared stiff of the public mood. There is no denying the fact that APC has failed Nigeria on a colossal scale. It has destroyed the scintilla of progress Nigeria had made and has become desperate to retain power at all cost. So INEC is now its surest bet of holding on to power as it did in 2019.

As part of the implementation of the Justice Mohammed Uwais’s Electoral Reform Report, the Goodluck Jonathan government had set the tone for appointing the chairman and commissioners of INEC by significantly picking a crop of respected and neutral leadership

Orjiako for the commission. Ironically, the Buhari ruling APC benefited from this initiative because of the civil society background of a handful of the commissioners that Jonathan appointed, starting with Prof. Attahiru Jega.

Most past commissioners, to a large extent, exhibited a commitment to the principles of neutrality and demonstrated courage that led to APC’s victory in 2015.

If I may ask, would Buhari and those targeting the upright commissioners today be in power if these few experienced hands that stood on the part of rectitude had been compromised in 2015? Why should a national electoral management body be reconstituted in the interest and image of a ruling party that could not resolve any known crisis within its fold since 2015 but now wants to use a convention to settle all scores that they need their stooges in INEC to rubber stamp? The desire to purge INEC of its experienced and honest hands is merely aimed at achieving the obnoxious intentions for 2023. These few

46

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

FRIDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

D’Tigress Camp in Atlanta in Frenzy over 2020 Olympics Draw Femi Solaja Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team camp in Atlanta, USA is bubbling with frenzy as all the players in camp are looking for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan to begin.

After Wednesday’s draw with pitted them against USA, France and host Japan, the players spoke in same language of going to the Far East to make impact.

Uni Girona Basketball Club of Spain forward Adaora Elonu alongside other D’Tigress players said it was another opportunity to compete against the best in the world.

“I am so excited as well as the other players and we cannot wait to compete at the Olympics.

We are always excited to see who we are going to compete against and I think they really put us in a group that we have to compete against the best.”

She expressed excitement over

the early camping exercise put in place by the Nigeria Basketball Federation which she believes will put them in good shape before the games.

The D’Tigress captain speaking from the team’s camp in Atlanta described the mood in camp under the supervision of Coach Otis Hughley as good and nice with the coaches more

prepared than ever before.

“The mood here in Atlanta is really good and nice. We came into camp where the staff were already prepared.

Before we entered the camp, they had instructions for us, they had work outs set out for us so that when we come, we will be well prepared and know what to expect.”

Speaking on behalf of her teammates, Adaora revealed that the camping and a renewed focus on the Olympic Games is a nice break for most of the players plying their trades in Europe and within the United States of America.”

“Everyone here is really excited and focused. I think it’s a nice break for us from the teams

that we have been playing in Europe and some in the United States. The atmosphere is really nice and one of excitement of what to come when we get to the Olympics in Tokyo”, Adaora said.

The 10-day Atlanta training camp which started on the 31st of January will end on Monday, 8th of February.

Ighalo Passes Medical at Saudi’s Al-Shabab Former Nigeria striker Odion Ighalo, whose loan spell at Manchester United ended recently, has passed his medical ahead of a move to Saudi Arabian Pro League club Al Shabab.

The 31-year-old is set to leave Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua after agreeing personal terms on a “multi-year” deal with the six-time Saudi champions.

Ighalo has already taken to social media to say his goodbyes to his parent club after Shenhua gave him permission to speak to the Saudi Arabian side.

Odion Ighalo...passes medical at Saudi’s Al-Shabab

“It’s sorted and everything is finalised, it should be announced late on Thursday or Friday,” one of the player’s representatives told BBC Sport Africa.

“Despite interest from other clubs, this is a good move for the player because Al Shabab showed ambition and commitment in their efforts to sign him.”

Ighalo scored 10 goals in 19 appearances for Shanghai Shenhua, helping them to the 2019 Chinese FA Cup. A lifelong United fan, Ighalo reiterated his love for the English giants: “I will always be a fan for life,” he told BBC Sport The former Watford and Granada striker scored five goals in 23 appearances after arriving at Old Trafford on deadline day in January 2020, but made just four appearances for the Red Devils this season.

Despite enjoy,ing praises from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during the first chapter of his loan spell, his quest for more opportunities diminished following the arrival of Edinson Cavani in October.

The Saints Win Appeal over Red Card against Man Utd Southampton have succeeded in their appeal against Jan Bednarek’s suspension following his contentious red card in Tuesday night’s 9-0 defeat to Manchester United.

The defender was shown a straight red card for fouling Anthony Martial in the penalty area following a VAR review that involved match referee Mike Dean watching several replays.

Southampton appealed to the Football Association, who have upheld their claim of wrongful dismissal, meaning Bednarek will be available for their upcoming games, including Saturday’s trip to Newcastle United.

That decision, plus others during their defeats to Aston Villa last Saturday and United on Tuesday, led to Southampton making the extraordinary request that Dean and Lee Mason aren’t allowed to officiate their games in the near future.

A statement by the FA read: “Jan Bednarek will be available

for Southampton FC’s next fixture after an independent Regulatory Commission upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal and removed his suspension.

“The defender was sent off or denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity during a Premier League fixture against Manchester United FC on Tuesday night.”

Southampton were losing the game 7-0, having been reduced to 10 men after only 79 seconds when Alex Jankewitz was sent off for a horror tackle on Scott McTominay, when Bednarek was adjudged to have fouled Martial in the box three minutes from time.

There appeared to be minimal contract but, after a VAR check at the pitchside monitor that lasted several minutes, Dean pointed to the spot and flashed a straight red card at Bednarek.

He protested while walking down the tunnel, with television microphones recording him saying ‘Martial said it’s not a foul’.

Adaora Elonu...optimistic of D’Tigress outing at Tokyo Olympics

Leicester Boss Banks on Ndidi against Wolves on Sunday Leicester City Manager, Brendan Rodgers, is looking forward to having Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, fit for this Sunday’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The AFCON 2019 bronze medal winner with Super Eagles has missed the Foxes’ last two games owing to injury last month but the coach had assured fans that the midfielder will not have a long spell from action.

He has missed matches against Leeds and Fulham but the coach is banking on him for the tough match on Sunday against Wolves.

The Northern Irish tactician insisted that the Nigerian international along with Jamie Vardy should return against Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.

“They should be available for the weekend, so it’s great news for us. They’ve responded really well,” Rodgers told the club website.

“We’ll see how they are over the next couple of days and they’ll hopefully be back in the squad and available for the weekend.”

Rodgers had previously revealed Ndidi will be back to his side soon and praised the performances of the Nigeria international this season so far.

“Wilf won’t be too much longer after that. It’s just the nature of this season. If you look at how compact the games are and the intensity of them, it’s very, very difficult for players,” he said.

“I think the players have been amazing in terms of the level of performance

Both Wilfred Ndidi (left) and Jamie Vardy are expected back for Wolves on Sunday

they’re giving considering the intensity of the games and how close they are together.

It’s just something you have to cope with.”

Ndidi has been struggling with various injuries since the

start of the season which have limited his playing time to 15 games across all competitions.

The midfielder recently returned from a groin injury he suffered in September which ruled him out of action for more than three months.

Ndidi has been a consistent performer for Leicester City since teaming up with the club from Belgian side Genk.

The midfielder has played more than 135 games across all competitions and last season he featured prominently as the Foxes qualified for the Europa League.

With their victory over Fulham on Wednesday night, Leicester City are now third on the Premier League table after gathering 42 points from 22 games.

Organisers Say No Going Back on Australian Open Australian Open boss, Craig Tiley, announced yesterday that he is “absolutely confident” the Grand Slam will start as planned on Monday, despite 160 players waiting for the outcome of coronavirus tests.

A total of 507 people connected to the event were told to isolate by Melbourne health officials on Wednesday after a hotel worker tested positive.

Play at six warm-up events and the Slam draws were postponed on Thursday.

“We fully expect to keep the original schedule after today,” said Tiley.

The warm-up events, which are all taking place at Melbourne Park, will resume on Friday

(today).

The women’s matches have been reduced to two sets and a first-to-10 match tie-break, although the men’s matches will still be played over three sets.

The Australian Open draws have been moved back to Friday at about 03:00 GMT. The disruption came after it was announced on Wednesday that a 26-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19 after working at the Grand Hyatt hotel where the players affected were staying in a 14-day quarantine.

The security guard tested negative after his final shift at the hotel on 29 January, but returned a positive result

after he was tested again on 2 February.

The 160 players, plus their support staff and tournament officials, are deemed to be casual contacts by Victorian state health bosses.

They will be allowed out of isolation once they return a negative test.

British players Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie are among those who stayed in the hotel, but were able to practise on Thursday after receiving negative tests.

Evans, Britain’s leading men’s player, was due to play in the Murray River Open on Thursday and is now set to play twice on Friday.

“The probability is very low that there will be any issues and we fully expect them all to test negative,” said Tiley.

“We’re absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead.”

The Grand Slam tournament was pushed back by three weeks to enable players to quarantine on their arrival in Australia.

Australia has imposed some of the world’s toughest restrictions over the past year in a bid to suppress coronavirus.

Months of strict border controls - both internationally and domestically - have helped limit Covid-19 cases to less than 29,000 and deaths to less than 1,000.

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Ortom to Buhari

“You are the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you are not the President of Fulani. You are the president of everybody and I owe you a duty as a stakeholder in this nation to let you know that what is going on is wrong and this has the potential of dividing this country” – Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom accusing President Buhari of siding Fulani herders.

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Buhari, Herders and Insecurity I n January, two world leaders bowed out of office and received from their people, the goodbyes their leadership, or lack of it, deserved. While US President Donald Trump stole away like a thief in the night, without a decent farewell from his associates, the object of ridicule and scorn from many Americans, nay many more people around the world for his ignorance and meanness and insincerity and divisiveness and incompetence; German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she handed over the party leadership after 18 years in office, received from her countrymen and women standing on their balconies, six minutes of applause for her simplicity and diligence and competence, and for making Germany the largest economy in Europe. Coming home, were President Muhammadu Buhari to bow out of office today, reactions across the country most probably would move from sighs of relief, to shouts of triumph, and to jumps of victory, and then to dances of happiness, indeed, to several joyful noises.

One can safely say that more and more Nigerians are fed up with President Buhari – his insularity and coldness and divisiveness and laziness and incompetence, and his inability, if not unwillingness, to arrest the general insecurity in the country, of which

Buhari the most dangerous to national stability is the activities of terrorists in the name of herders. These people daily move from the north to the south, occupying forest reserves, destroying farmlands, burning down communities, kidnapping our people, raping our women and killing Nigerians.

Buhari’s handling of the herdsmen crisis has been less than salutary, unfortunately.

The president and his aides have, in their utterances, actions and policy choices, created the impression that the herders’ livelihood is more important than that of the farmers and fishermen; or that the herders have unlimited right to do as they wished, including the right to be criminals, and that other Nigerians should live with it. Buhari and his aides, when not pleading for understanding for the herders’ atrocities, explain away their actions, or justify those actions, or blame the victims, and when all this fail, hide their benumbing inaction behind the veil of threatening rhetoric. For purposes of illustration, let’s recall a few examples.

One, when herdsmen killed 73 people in some communities in Guma and Logo local governments of Benue State early January 2018, Buhari was more concerned about the victims not retaliating than he was about bringing the killers to justice. The president pleaded with the victims to show understanding, the herders being their neighbours. Two, at a townhall meeting in Abuja in January 2019, Buhari had propounded a simple-minded solution to the incessant clashes between herders and farmers by amplifying the argument his defence minister at the time,

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Mansur Dan-Alli, had several months earlier made at another forum that the cattle routes of the First Republic in Nigeria of the 50s and 60s, should be reopened. Dan-Ali, following the killings in Benue, and later in Taraba, had urged some states to repeal their anti-grazing laws which he had claimed encouraged the blockade of grazing routes. In an insensate, yet riling, statement of justification for the Benue killings, Dan-Alli had said: “Since the nation’s independence, we know there used to be a route where cattle rearers take as they are all over the nation… If those routes are blocked, what do you expect will happen?”

Three, sometime in July 2018, Buhari’s publicist, Femi Adesina, had in a television interview, dismissed people’s attachment to their ancestral land. In a rhetorical riposte to his interviewer, Adesina had asked mockingly: “Ancestral attachment?”, then added, “You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment, if you are dead, how does the attachment matter?” Four, only a few weeks ago, another presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, challenged Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for asking illegal occupants of the state forest reserves, including herders, to Continued on page 45

0811 266 1654

The ABC of a Recalcitrant Debtor

N

igeria’s rich and powerful sure know how to live life. And they are living it to the hilt. They spare no expense in making an impression of their status.

From expensive homes to posh cars, yachts to private jets, as well as featuring in the rich lists published by Forbes, Bloomberg and what have you, they are perpetually in competition for attention as they flaunt their vast wealth to the envy of many ordinary people. But until a few years ago, many mere mortals like us had thought that it all was a product of hard work as we marvelled at their success and extraordinary gift of business acumen.

Well, their seemingly invincibility and make-belief success were shattered when then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi came down hard on bad bank debtors by naming and shaming them in newspaper publications. We found that many of the billionaires we celebrated as runaway successes were indeed chronic bank debtors who lived on borrowed depositors’ funds and almost borrowed some banks into extinction with no desire to pay back.

Nearly all the big names in Nigeria were exposed then and are still being exposed.

Make no mistake, it is not a crime to

borrow money to grow one’s business.

The problem is that many of the big men diverted depositors’ money to fund their opulent lifestyles. Money taken from banks purportedly to expand their businesses was diverted to buy private jets, supercars or buy mansions in major cities around the world, spending lavishly on luxuries as if money was about to run out of circulation.

When it was time to pay back, they started playing games with the banks, deploying all sorts of dirty tricks to frustrate paying back. Their actions almost destroyed the financial system nearly a decade ago. It appears the same thing is happening all over again.

The latest in the pantheon of bad debtors, who are either refusing or unwilling to pay back their loans, is the Chairman of Seplat Petroleum Development Company PLC, ABC Orjiako. He owes Access Bank PLC over $85.8million. Well actually, the lending to Orjiako was done by the defunct Diamond Bank whose assets and liabilities Access Bank inherited in 2019 after its acquisition of the defunct bank. Imagine if he had repaid that money back in full to Diamond Bank, would the bank have gone under? I have my doubts.

It is not just Orjiako who owed Diamond Bank, there are many others who took loans

and failed to even service the loans, how much more repay them. Diamond Bank, you will recall, was one of the runaway success stories of the Pascal Dozie family business empire. The bank was also the pride of people of the South East. Unfortunately, a streak of management failures and bad debtors saw it gasping for breath until Access Bank came to the rescue by acquiring it.

ABC Orjiako is not disputing that his company owed Diamond Bank, instead he is telling us that it was not Seplat that took the loan directly, even though the money was used to the benefit of Seplat. His other company, Cardinal Drilling Services Ltd took the loan and used it to acquire four rigs for Seplat’s benefit. My word of advice to Orjiako is, pay your loan whether it was granted to Cardinal Drilling Nigeria Ltd or Seplat, and free yourself from the label of a bad debtor. Personally, I don’t like bad debtors because they close the doors on others who would need financing for their own businesses down the road.

Instead of going back and forth, Orjiako and his businesses should come up with a plan to pay back their obligation. You can’t borrow depositors money, and then run to court for protection after failing to pay back. The $20 million deposited with

the Chief Registrar of the Court to secure unfreezing of their assets should have been a starting point to paying down that debt instead. He needs to stop the legal rigmarole and pay his debt, case closed.

Plot to Take Over INEC The nomination of Ms Lauretta Onochie, a diehard member or supporter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), an all-purpose attack dog for the government and aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media and many more APC fundamentalists/ partisan individuals to fill up sensitive and strategic positions in the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), not only underscores the total contempt the president has for democracy, it more than anything else shows a dangerous obsession to rig upcoming elections and perpetuate the calamitous reign of his evil party. Clearly, the 2023 election is the ultimate target and the planning has long begun unknown to many Nigerians. Thankfully, Nigerians have risen in unison and rejected the partisan Onochie as a national commissioner nominee of INEC. Her nomination is still before the Continued on page 45

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