SUNDAY 18TH APRIL 2021

NCAA Approves Commercial Flight Operations at Bayelsa Airport It's a dream come true, says Governor Diri Chinedu Eze After months of expectation, the Bayelsa State Governmentowned airport finally received the nod of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)

on Saturday to commence commercial flight operations.

NCAA Director-general, Dr. Nuhu Musa, presented the regulatory body's approval letter to an elated Governor Douye Diri at Government

House, Yenagoa, after a NCAA team had completed the mandatory inspection of the airport and its facilities.

Musa said the airport met all airspace standards and was one hundred per cent ready

for daytime flight operations.

The governor's Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted the NCAA DG as saying the approval was sequel to the report of the agency’s inspection team, which prior

to the visit had certified that out of 29 gaps, the airport was able to close 26. He noted that other requirements were non-safety related and work was already in progress to achieve night flight operations.

Musa said the agency had to limit flight operations to daytime, as the runway lights were still being installed, stating that once completed, Continued on page 10

1,081,548 Nigerians Receive Astrazeneca Vaccine Jabs… Page 8 Sunday 18 April, 2021 Vol 26. No 9506

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Akpabio: NDDC Forensic Audit Ends July Okon Bassey in Uyo Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has set July ending 2021 as deadline for conclusion of the forensic audit of the

LONELY QUEEN ELIZABETH...

At the funeral service for Prince Phillip, her husband of 73 years

Continued on page 5

Jonathan to Aliyu: You’re a Pathetic Fellow Who Lies to Remain Relevant There’s no truth to his claims on 2015 polls, Jang, Lamido declare PDP suspends ex-Niger gov Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Seriki Adinoyi in Jos Former President Goodluck Jonathan, last night, described a former governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, as a despicable fellow, who resorted to lies and half-truths to try to remain politically relevant.

Jonathan also called Aliyu a backstabber, in a statement

by one of the ex-president’s former aides, Reno Omokri, maintaining regarding Aliyu, “As long as that remains his character trait, he will always be at the back.”

The former president was reacting to claims by Aliyu that the reason Jonathan lost the 2015 election was because Continued on page 8

HAPPY MARRIED LIFE...

L-R: Newlyweds, Nathaniel Omoruyi, his wife, Harim (nee Irabor) and mother of the bride, Barrister Ebele Nduka Irabor, during the traditional marriage reception for Nathaniel and Harim in Owa-Oyibu, Delta State...yesterday

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FAREWELL TO 'A VERY SPECIAL PAPA'...

Prince Philip’s coffin was driven to St George’s Chapel followed by a procession, which included his children Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Princess Anne and some of his grandchildren

Tributes, Gun Salutes as Prince Philip is Laid to Rest Tobi Soniyi with Agency Reports The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, was yesterday, laid to rest amid an outpouring of tributes and gun salutes in an intimate funeral at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

At the event, according to BBC reports, the Queen said goodbye to her husband of 73 years.

Clad in black with a facemask to match, the Queen sat alone due to coronavirus restrictions – distanced from the congregation that also wore facemasks.

A small group of Philip's

close family and friends attended the televised funeral service, which began with a national minute's silence at 3pm, while the duke’s children walked behind his coffin in a funeral procession.

More than 730 members of the armed forces took part in the event, but there was a limit of 30 mourners inside St George’s Chapel, with observance of the Covid-19 rules.

Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle on Friday, April 9 and was aged 99.

His coffin was carried a short distance to St George’s Chapel on a modified Land Rover, which the duke

himself helped to design.

The funeral procession was headed by the Band of the Grenadier Guards, the Major General’s party, and military service chiefs.

Princess Anne and Prince Charles made up the front row behind the vehicle, followed by Prince Edward and Prince Andrew.

Princes William and Harry walked either side of their cousin, Peter Phillips.

The brothers sat on opposite sides of the aisle but were seen chatting together after they left the service.

Vice Admiral, Sir Timothy Laurence and the Earl of Snowdon also walked

behind the coffin, trailed by members of the duke’s household staff.

The 94 years old Queen travelled with a lady-inwaiting in the state Bentley at the end of the procession.

A ceremonial gun fire at nine locations across the UK and in Gibraltar marked the start and end of the national minute’s silence.

No planes landed or took off at Heathrow for six minutes to coincide with the silence and all major sporting events were rescheduled to avoid a clash with the funeral.

The funeral service was conducted by the Dean of Windsor, Rev.

David Conner, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, pronouncing the blessing.

Conner paid tribute to Prince Philip’s “kindness, humour and humanity” and the “many ways in which his long life has been a blessing to us”.

According to him, “We have been inspired by his unwavering loyalty to our Queen, by his service to the nation and the Commonwealth, by his courage, fortitude and faith,” he said during his bidding.

The duke’s association with the Royal Navy and love of the sea was also a

focus of the service but no sermon was delivered, in line with his wishes. e music included the 1860 hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save, by William Whiting, which is associated with seafarers and the maritime armed services.

There was a reduced choir of four singers but the congregation did not sing, in line with coronavirus restrictions.

Buglers of the Royal Marines sounded Action Stations – a signal that all hands should be ready for battle – as the coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault at the end of the service.

Babayo Ardo, said the take-off of the physical verification phase marked a milestone in the effort to reposition NDDC for effective service delivery.

Ardo said, “The audit of the headquarters has been completed. We are now starting the second phase of the exercise. We will go round all the nine states to inspect the over 12,000 projects that have been identified by the NDDC.” The NDDC interim administrator, Mr. Efiong Akwa, emphasised that the forensic audit was a serious and deliberate exercise, which made it necessary for the physical inspection of project sites in the nine states of the Niger Delta.

Akwa said wherever the over 12,000 projects were

located, the committee had been mandated to visit them.

Akwa said a security team had been put together to escort the committee members and ensure their security.

Lead Forensic Auditor, Mr. Joshua Basiru, threw light on the audit exercise, confirming that Buhari ordered the forensic audit of the commission in 2019 as a result of a alleged huge gap noted between resources invested and the infrastructural, human and economic development recorded by the commission.

Basiru stated, “It is our collective responsibility to ensure that this forensic audit exercise is successfully executed, in a bid to reposition the commission in terms of effectively delivering

on its mandate, as well as improving transparency and accountability in NDDC. “We must not allow this project to be scuttled by those who have benefited in the past, or those who are currently benefiting unjustly from the current loopholes in the commission’s policies and operating procedures as well as the profligacy exhibited by its previous management teams to the detriment of the vast majority of the Niger Delta people, and therefore do not like to see change coming to NDDC.” He said despite some challenges encountered during the first phase of documentation and data extraction, they were able to make appreciable progress in line with the forensic audit terms of reference.

AKPABIO: NDDC FORENSIC AUDIT ENDS JULY Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), ordered

by President Muhammadu Buhari. Akpabio stated this at the commencement of the physical verification phase of the audit at Ibom Icon Hotels and Golf Resort in Uyo. He said the audit was part of the internal reform of NDDC. The minister said the 16 field auditors selected for the field audit would now begin to identify and verify projects across the Niger Delta. He rejected rumours that the forensic audit had derailed, saying detractors are falsely claiming that the forensic audit is being used as a ploy to continue with NDDC’s interim administration.

Akpabio said, “It is the considered position of President Muhammadu

Buhari that for us to have a properly constituted board for the NDDC, we should first take a look at what has happened to the commission since inception.

“There was nothing our detractors have not done to stop the forensic audit and this has led some people to be left wondering if the forensic audit has been aborted.”

Akpabio observed that budgetary delays affected the progress of the forensic exercise, prompting Buhari to intervene to save the situation.

He said, “The president is resolute that he cannot leave the Niger Delta and the NDDC the way he met it. As a demonstration of this commitment, he is funding the forensic audit from the budget of the Presidency.”

The minister explained that the security component of the audit exercise was very important because of the safety issues in the Niger Delta. He said, “We decided to start the audit exercise from the NDDC headquarters, while security arrangements were being firmed up. The field visit is a critical next step, after which we go into the office to produce the reports.”

Akpabio stressed that the physical verification was a serious exercise, because the results of the exercise might lead to the prosecution of the affected contractors, some of whom, he said, abandoned their contracts without completing them.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr

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TYING THE NUPTIAL KNOT...

L-R: Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa; bride's father, Hon. Nduka Irabor; newlyweds, Nathaniel Omoruyi, his wife, Harim; bride's mother, Barrister Ebele and Chairman/Editor in Chief, THISDAY Media Group/ARISE News Channel, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, during the traditional marriage of Nathaniel and Harim in Owa-Oyibu, Delta State...yesterday

1,081,548 Nigerians Receive Astrazeneca Vaccine Jabs Lagos, Kano, Kaduna lead Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja As the vaccination of Nigerians against COVID-19 enters its sixth week, the federal government says 1,081,548 people have received their first jab of the AstraZeneca

vaccines, as at Saturday.

According to an update on the on-going vaccination across the country, posted on the platform of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), the vaccination is now being carried out in all the 36

states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including Kogi State, which joined the exercise late.

The agency said the percentage of the vaccine doses so far administered was 53.8 per cent.

The statistics showed that Lagos State led in

the number of persons vaccinated with 200, 602, followed by Kano, 57,900, and Kaduna with 56, 328.

The vaccination figures showed that Abia has 8,035; Adamawa, 19,735; Akwa Ibom, 12,132; Anambra, 10, 645; Bauchi, 36,066; Bayelsa, 10,662; Benue,

21,801; Borno, 21,410; Cross River, 15,115; Delta, 22,992; Ebonyi 8,768; Edo 28,739; Ekiti, 22,903; Enugu 11,841; FCT 48,049; Gombe, 27,239; Imo, 19,,278; Jigawa, 28,133; Kaduna 56,238; Kano 57,900; Katsina 39,394; Kebbi 15,328; and Kogi 8,566.

Others are Kwara, 30,028; Lagos, 200,602; Nasarawa, 17,238; Niger, 27,003; Ogun 52,906; Ondo 31,454; Osun 21,122; Oyo 36,721; Plateau 28,370; Rivers, 28,684; Sokoto, 11,795; Taraba, 8, 390; Yobe, 21,040; and Zamfara, 15,708.

on their commitment to the plot to unseat the then President of Nigeria. In that book, the former Niger State governor said, ‘The Americans had resolved not to support Jonathan. They just wanted to size us up for the level of commitment to regime change.’

“Mr. Aliyu revealed in that book that he was an unpatriotic individual, who held meetings with a foreign government to undermine his own home government. He basically admitted to treason.

Now, how can such a fellow be taken seriously by people who believe in the unity of Nigeria?”

According to the statement, “Witnesses at that meeting revealed that the statements made by then Governors Aliyu and Murtala Nyako were so dangerous to Nigeria’s unity that it prompted a strong rebuttal from Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who was also

present.

“The truth of the matter is that Governor Aliyu Babangida is a backstabber and as long as that remains his character trait, he will always be at the back. What is the level of his relevance today in Niger State?

In betraying Dr. Jonathan, did he not also betray himself?

What influence does he even command? He lost his state to the All Progressives Congress in 2015, and the Niger State government has been probing his regime.

“The northern government of General Muhammadu Buhari, which he says he helped bring to office, is the same government that is currently prosecuting him for a N1.9 billion fraud at the national level?

“The Niger State House of Assembly on Thursday, August 13, 2015, passed a motion calling for the probe of Aliyu, and the Niger State

JONATHAN TO ALIYU: YOU’RE A PATHETIC FELLOW WHO LIES TO REMAIN RELEVANT all the northern governors resolved not to support him.

But a former governor of Plateau State, Senator Jonah Jang, similarly dismissed as untrue the statement credited to Aliyu that the then 19 northern states’ governors had met, deliberated, and decided not to support the re-election of Jonathan in 2015.

Former Jigawa State Governor, Mallam Sule Lamido, also yesterday gave voice to the controversial statement by Aliyu. Lamido denied knowledge of such a meeting where a decision was taken against Jonathan’s re-election.

"I am not aware of any meeting at which such a decision was taken,” the former Jigawa State governor stated. He added, “In fact, it was Governor Babangida, who in one of our NEC meetings at Wadata, implored me to back off my indifferent posture towards Jonathan, which I did and received a very

warm applause from NEC members!"

In a related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger State suspended Aliyu over allegations of anti-party activities leading to cracks in the party in the state since 2014.

In a statement exclusively delivered to THISDAY in response to the claims by the former Niger State governor, Omokri, on behalf of Jonathan, said, “Babangida Aliyu is a pathetic fellow. He has become a broken record and, sadly, he feels that is the only way to remain relevant. Let me break his claim down for you in a way that it will be so crystal clear that he is lying.

“There was no such agreement, whether written or oral. Since he says it was written, then let Mr. Babangida Aliyu produce it.

If he changes his statement and says it was not written after all, but actually verbal,

then I challenge him to name witnesses.”

The statement said, “Mr. Aliyu says the agreement the northern governors had with former President Jonathan was for him to finish off President Yar’Adua’s first term between May 6, 2010 and May 29, 2011, and then contest for only one term between May 29, 2011 and May 29, 2015. If this is true, then how come former President Jonathan lost the votes of Niger State at the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary of January 13, 2011? How come, also, that former President Jonathan lost the actual presidential election, which held on April 16, 2011 to the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Muhammadu Buhari, in Niger State?

“General Muhammadu polled 652,574 votes to then President Jonathan’s 321,429 in Niger State in 2011. He got more than twice the number

of votes secured by former President Jonathan. So, even if we want to say for argument’s sake that there was such an agreement, of which there was no such agreement, wouldn’t Governor Babangida Aliyu have been expected to have kept to his side of the bargain?”

Jonathan maintained, “The truth is that not only was there no such agreement, but Babangida Aliyu is such a perfidious character that does not even know that his current disposition contradicts his earlier statements.

“For example, in Mr. Segun Adeniyi’s book, Against the Run of Play: How an Incumbent President Was Defeated in Nigeria, published in 2017, Mr. Aliyu gave a completely different reason for working against former President Jonathan. According to Mr. Aliyu, the Obama administration had invited 12 governors from northern Nigeria to sound them out

Continued on page 13

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Rising Population Overstretching Our Services, Infrastructure, Says Bauchi Gov Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has said the rising population of the state is overstretching government services and infrastructure. Mohammed stated this yesterday, when he received members of the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) at the Executive Chambers of Government House, Bauchi.

The governor said the population of Bauchi State had risen from the official record of 6.5 to about 10 million.

“We have the highest number of out-of-school children and, therefore, there is unemployment and youth restiveness,” he stated.

Mohammed said there were existing gaps in infrastructure and services, particularly health, education, and transportation, adding that his administration is doing everything possible to close the gaps.

According to him, "We have created a government that is looking comprehensively at all the MDAs to identify where and which gaps exist in education and health.”

The added, “We have discovered that we have not been able to access monies from government institutions and agencies that are giving counterpart funding to us, especially UBEC and SUBEB, and we have accessed over N19 billion during the period that we are because we provided the counterpart funding."

Mohammed said his

administration had built over 600 blocks of classrooms in primary schools, saying this is huge given the reduction

in the number of students.

He said the state government had, in collaboration with the World Bank, through the

N-SHIP programme, UNICEF, and WHO, built over 300 primary health centres that were fully equipped.

He said, "With the establishment of drug revolving fund, if you go to local governments you will

see well established clinics and health facilities that are at per with the those at the city centre."

BAYELSA AIRPORT OPENS FOR BUSINESS...

Director-General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Engr Nuhu Musa; with the Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, presenting the certificate for approval of commercial operations of Bayelsa Airport...yesterday

Obaseki Reassures Edo People, Says We’ll Fulfil All Our Promises Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has reassured the people of the state that his government would fulfil all promises made during his second term electioneering campaign. Obaseki said the state had commenced the process for the drafting of a 30-year development plan to provide the government with necessary tools, guidelines and milestones for development planning.

The governor spoke in Benin City during an interview with journalists, at a workshop for the development of Benin Master Plan and Edo

State Development Plan.

He said the plans would ensure a defined template for development and growth in the state.

The governor stated, “We are here to start a series of workshops that will lead to the creation of the Benin City Master Plan, Edo State Regional Plan, and Edo State 30-year Economic Development Plan.

"I made it clear during our electioneering that one of the legacies of our administration will be to leave behind the compass, like a directional tool, which will indicate where Edo should be headed over the

next three decades.

"So, this is in fulfilment of our electoral promise and it was a well thought-out out idea. We found out that one of the biggest challenges we have as a country and as a state is that we don't plan; we have lost the culture of planning and we just keep moving on.

“As an administration, one of the biggest concerns that people keep expressing is that, Mr. Governor, you and your Deputy, Philip Shaibu, are doing well; you are charting a new direction for the state. What is the guarantee that when you leave office that these things

will continue?

"Who is the person that will come and take over and ensure that these continue?

My response is that we may not find that person, but we can create that system that will ensure that what we have started continues.”

Obaseki further said, “Today, I think we are taking a very small step in the right direction. From the experiences of people, who have done it right, if we do it properly, no matter the challenges ahead of us, we will have the clarity to go through it. From my experience in government, I have been involved in Edo

government for more than 14 years, one of the biggest challenges that we face is waste.

"Most of our resources are wasted, because we do not have a plan. If you just look at the Ministries, Department and Agency of Government (MDAs) about six to seven of them are executing the same job, because they are not talking to each other. Our children are going to inherit that plan.”

Chief Executive Officer of SIRA, Dr. Kamal Azar, the company that is to develop the proposed plan, called on stakeholders in the

state to join hands with the government to ensure the realisation of the plan.

Azar said, "The master plan is very important in meeting the current challenges that we are going to be faced with. The regional plan is going to help us in improving the wellbeing of the people in areas where there are concerns about present and the future living conditions.

"This plan is important, because Benin City is growing and expanding without a plan. I call on all stakeholders in the state to join hands in this dream of executing this plan.”

commence commercial flight operations.”

Diri also expressed appreciation to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the NCAA DG, and officials for the approval and promised to do all within his powers to get full flight operations.

He maintained that all the necessary facilities and equipment were in place and would be installed in no distant time, especially, the runway lighting system.

Emphasising the strategic

importance of the airport, the governor stated, “Bayelsa State is a major contributor to the oil and gas business in Nigeria. Bayelsa is the centre not only of oil and gas but also other economic activities within the South-south and the South-east.

“So, the Bayelsa airport is critical not only to Bayelsans but, indeed, the people of the South-south, South-east, and by extension, the nearby countries. We are at the border with the Gulf of Guinea.”

NCAA APPROVES COMMERCIAL FLIGHT OPERATIONS AT BAYELSA AIRPORT full approval would be granted. He commended the state government for the quality of work done at the airport and the capable personnel from the state that facilitated the issuing of the licence.

Responding, Diri expressed appreciation to God for making the long-awaited day possible. He said issuing of the operational licence was a winding journey that began from the administration of his predecessor.

The governor commended his predecessor, Seriake Dickson, for his foresight in ensuring that the state had its own airport. Diri reiterated that Dickson started the project, which had been on the drawing board of past administrations, and saw to its completion before handing over to current administration.

He said his administration was determined to ensure the commencement of flight operations at the airport, which was why it set the

machinery in motion for NCAA’s nod.

The governor stated, “This is a dream come true for our state and our people. I thank God Almighty because this journey had been a winding one, from my predecessor, and I have been in the saddle for over a year waiting for this licence. Today, God made it possible.

“I also thank my predecessor, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson. This airport had been on the drawing

board but he took the bull by the horns by starting and virtually completed it. May I, on behalf of this government and the people of Bayelsa, appreciate him. As I came on board, having seen what he did, my administration had to cross the T's and dot the I's. Having been briefed on certain requirements, I wasted no time in approving what was necessary to ensure that the airport was ready for use. Today, we have the approval for the airport to

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WORKING HARD TO RESCUE ELECTRONIC CALL-UP SYSTEM...

Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman (middle), flanked by Controller of works, Federal Ministry of Works, Engr. Joshua Popoola (left), and Project Manager, Hitech, Ashton Davies, during the inspection of the road construction around Tin Can Island Ports, Lagos as part of efforts to perfect the operations of the electronic truck call-up app, Eto

AbdulRazaq Awaits Kwara Cabinet Nominees from Lai Mohammed, Others Minister insists on ex-chairman, party control

Hammid Shittu in Ilorin The delay in the full announcement of cabinet members by Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is not unconnected with his moves to ensure that every tendency within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is better represented in the administration, according to sources in the party.

“I am aware that the Governor, as part of his move efforts, has personally

met with the Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed and a few others to request them to send in nominees for the new cabinet. In fact, the need to give Lai and others more presence in the government was a major reason for the dissolution of the cabinet in the first place,” said a top party leader who asked not to be named.

“Two weeks ago, the Governor came to see the Minister in Abuja and they discussed the cabinet

composition. He asked the Minister to bring the names of his nominees, even though he requested that he prefers a mixture of men and women for a balanced cabinet. But the feelers are that the Minister and others fighting the Governor are saying they want the former chairman Basheer Omolaja Bolarinwa to be returned.

This is a condition they are putting on the ground.

The Governor does not appear to be disposed to that. Besides, the request

is interpreted even at the APC national secretariat to mean that the Minister wants to have absolute control of the party to the detriment of the Governor and other stakeholders who hardly agree with the Minister.”

The Governor had recently released a first list of seven commissioner nominees who have since been confirmed by the House of Assembly.

Another source said the Governor meanwhile has also appealed to party stakeholders to strike a

balance between gender and religion of the nominees, in addition to his request for them to bring in people from various camps that formed the APC. “Another challenge is that the nominees being brought forward are all men. I understand that the Governor is saying that, whereas he appointed 56 percent female commissioners before, the lowest he would go is 50 percent apiece and adequate faith representation,” said a source from one of the camps.

“The challenge now is that the Governor we know may be forced to return his former cabinet members if the camp of Alhaji Lai Mohammed and others do not come up with their cabinet nominees while insisting that BOB must return. I hope reasons prevail so that the party can move on,” he added.

Efforts to reach the spokesmen of the Governor proved futile while calls made to the Minister of Information and Culture did not get through.

Minna, last Monday, approved the suspension of Aliyu as a result of six allegations, which the party in Chanchaga Local Government Area of the state, found disturbing and inimical to the party’s progress.

PDP, in a statement titled: “Notice of suspension of Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu from the PDP, Chanchaga LGA,” disclosed that the ex-governor worked against former President Jonathan and the party’s governorship candidate in the state, Alhaji Umar Nasko, by supporting and funding the opposition All Progressives Congress in 2015 with the sum of N450 million to defeat his own party.”

The communiqué, which was made available to journalists, listed the allegations against Aliyu to include “causing disaffection within the party hierarchy even after several peace efforts; strong and verifiable allegations of anti-party activities leading to cracks in the party since 2014 that led to loss of government at the centre and the state levels.

This includes disobedience to then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and working against his re-election in 2015.”

The communiqué further condemned the former governor saying, “He supported and funded the opposition APC in 2015 with the sum of N450 million to defeat his own party for personal and selfish reasons.” it said the former governor was suspended due to his “refusal to participate and attend party activities; undermining and working against the resolutions of party organs, especially, the state caucus and causing division that has led to inability to resolve the issues surrounding the position of state legal adviser that has been unoccupied since 2015 in his own local government area.”

Further, the party maintained, “These and many others have led to the immediate suspension of Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu from the Peoples Democratic Party in Chanchaga local government.”

JONATHAN TO ALIYU: YOU’RE A PATHETIC FELLOW WHO LIES TO REMAIN RELEVANT government has called him a thoroughly corrupt and unreliable fellow. So, I congratulate him on his achievements in bringing this government to power.

“Maybe he feels he can get a soft landing for himself by attacking Dr. Jonathan and making false statements to make the incumbent president feel that he owes his current position to Aliyu.”

Jang, in his own statement titled, “Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu Lied,” equally said as one of the then northern governors, he was never part of any such meeting being referred to by Aliyu, neither was he privy to it, as claimed by the former Niger State governor.

The statement, signed by Jang’s media consultant, Mr. Clinton Garuba, said, “For the avoidance of doubt, despite the perceived shortcomings of President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Jang believed that President Jonathan was better equipped to rule Nigeria at the time, especially, when his opponent was General Buhari, who Jang did not hide

his conviction regarding his (Buhari) inability to resolve the nation’s challenges and sensitivities of the issues at the moment. But, unfortunately, Buhari won, and we are all witnesses to the tales of woe that have followed.

“We view the statement of Dr. Aliyu as an attempt to drag the hard earned reputation of Jang into disrepute. Having served Nigeria as a military officer, later as a civilian governor, and also as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has discharged his responsibilities without blemish, Senator Jang is not one who speaks from both sides of his mouth. Rather, he speaks and supports only what he believes.

“Little wonder that Plateau State was won by President Jonathan in the 2015 general election, largely due to the hard work of the then Governor Jang.”

Jang stressed that there was no basis for him not to support Jonathan, especially, as the contest was against General Buhari. He advised

Aliyu to be weary of false utterances, such as the current one, especially when talking to the public.

Aliyu had in a statement on Friday, defended his role in the ouster of Jonathan, following persistent attack on him by the Niger State chapter of PDP for working against the party’s presidential candidate in the election.

He said few months to the 2015 presidential election, PDP governors joined other northern governors at a meeting in Abuja and unanimously resolved not to allow Jonathan win the election. Aliyu, who was Chairman, Northern Governors Forum then, said the 19 northern governors agreed that Jonathan had violated the terms of an agreement he reached with the party and the northern governors not to run for second term in 2015.

The ex-governor had, in the statement titled, “Why We Opposed Jonathan’s Second Term Bid,” said,“Following the sudden passage of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on

May 5, 2010, the leadership of the then governing Peoples Democratic Party, along with the state governors under the flagship of the party, had series of meetings on the presidency and the future of our great party.

“All the governors in the North under the PDP supported the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to complete the remaining years of Yar’Adua’s tenure and to contest the next presidential election as a sole candidate of our great party.

“However, midway, President Goodluck Jonathan insisted on running for the office in 2015 against the grain of our earlier agreement. Since this was against the grain of our earlier agreement in the party, and which we, the governors in the North felt the North would have been short-changed if Jonathan had succeeded, we rose stoutly to insist on the agreement we all had.”

Meanwhile, the Niger State PDP in a communiqué issued at the end of an emergency stakeholders’ meeting in

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

OPINION

WHY BUHARI’S POLICIES ARE NOT WORKING The government has not given sufficient time to fight poverty and unemployment, the primary cause of insecurity, argues Ike Okonta

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ome May 29 and it will be six years since President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress took power as chief pilots of Nigeria’s destiny. Six years is enough time to pass judgement on the policies of the Buhari government to the extent that they have impacted on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

The loud consensus right now is that President Buhari’s policies are not working and that come 2023 when he quits the stage he would have left Nigerians in an even worse condition than he met them in 2015. Nigerians point to the inflation that is presently ravaging the economy, the insecurity that has gripped the country and the corruption that pervades everyday life and say Nigeria has never had it so bad.

Nigerians are right to be angry. They are right to raise their voices against the government. This, however, is a time that calls for sober reflection and analysis. It is simply not enough to say that Buhari’s policies are not working. The more important question that needs to be asked is: Why, despite President Buhari’s best efforts and his apparent desire to see Nigeria take her place in the comity of nations as a prosperous and selfconfident country, the reverse has been the case? It needs to be pointed out that President Buhari began well policy-speaking in May 2015. Faced with a country with gargantuan economic and social problems in 2015; a country that Peoples Democratic Party politicians had bled dry since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, President Buhari wisely narrowed down his policy and programme priorities to three: tackling corruption; reviving the economy; and improving security. Let us now see how these three important policy areas have fared in the past six years.

Economic Planning Without Strategy The national economy that President Buhari inherited in May 2015 was in profound crisis. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank economist and President Goodluck Jonathan’s Finance Minister was an expert in massaging the country’s economic statistics to look good on paper. Nigeria under Goodluck Jonathan, she claimed, had become the largest economy in Africa. Economic growth had averaged eight

percent and millions of jobs were being created in all sectors of the economy. Okonjo-Iweala believed firmly in the IMF and World Bank’s neoliberal economic policies and she had sought to apply them fully in Nigeria: removal of subsidies on petrol and other vital necessities; privatization of public enterprises; and opening up the economy to all manner of imports in the name of “free” trade.

Goodluck Jonathan is not an economist nor did he have any PhD development economists in his cabinet to serve as a counterweight to Okonjo-Iweala. She was given free rein with the high-sounding name of Coordinating Minister of the Economy.

However, the economic fundamentals that President Buhari and his team encountered when they assumed office in May 2015 told a more distressing story than was painted by Ngozi okonjo-Iweala.

Local manufacturing was at an all-time low, averaging a miserly four percent of GDP; agriculture was gasping for breath despite the colourful speeches of Goodluck Jonathan’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina; and millions of Nigerians, particularly young university and polytechnic graduates were trudging the streets looking for non-existent jobs. The Naira was exchanging at a dollar rate manufacturers could not afford and everywhere one looked it was a bleak picture for the national economy.

To tackle this crisis, the Buhari government unfurled the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in 2017 and promised to create 15 million jobs by 2020. Not done, the government

President Buhari’s economic policies failed because the government did not focus on fundamentals. The one sure way to pull the country out of the present economic doldrums is to quickly industrialise the national economy just as China and the other East Asian economic tigers did in the 1970s and 1980s

introduced the Social Investment Programme (SIP), targeted at the poor and vulnerable, particularly petty traders, artisans, and rural dwellers. When the Brookings Institution, an American policy think tank announced in 2019 that Nigeria had replaced India as the ‘poverty capital of the world,’ the Buhari government countered this by stating its intention to pull 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years by means of its ‘tried and tested’ economic policies. However, by the end of 2020 when the dollar began to exchange for nearly 500 Naira, it had become obvious to discerning Nigerians that the Buhari government was long on rhetoric but painfully short in meaningful economic policies that would address the pains of ordinary Nigerians.

President Buhari’s economic policies failed because the government did not focus on fundamentals. The one sure way to pull the country out of the present economic doldrums is to quickly industrialise the national economy just as China and the other East Asian economic tigers did in the 1970s and 1980s.

To industralise, you need to build a steel industry to serve as basic raw material input for manufacturing. Second, you need to tackle the perennial problem of electric power shortage and make it available and affordable. Steel and electricity are the cornerstone of the Asian Tigers’ economic miracle. President Buhari’s has absolutely no steel policy. Ajaokuta, after the dawdling and incoherence of the Olusegun Obasanjo government has been left to rot by the Buhari government. Regarding electricity, the country was generating 4000 megawatts following the partial privatization of the industry by the Jonathan government in 2013. Six years into the Buhari administration, the country is still generating 4000 megawatts. To put this in context, 4000 megawatts is what an average-sized American city generates. For a Nigeria of 200 million people, it is not even enough to power household needs, not to talk of powering the country’s industrial revolution.

––Dr Okonta was until recently an Early Career Fellow in the Department of Politics, University of Oxford. He lives in Abuja (See concluding part of the article on www.thisdaylive.com)

Escalating Security Crisis In Nigeria Emeka Nwosu urges President Buhari to address the contradictions and injustice in the system

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erhaps, with the exception of the Nigerian civil war and the period leading to it, never in the history of this country has the security of lives and property taken such a terrible nose dive as evident in our land today.

Political observers are agreed that the nation has never been so divided in its history. It would appear that all the latent centrifugal forces in Nigeria have been activated and unleashed on the federation with no hiding place for any one.

The security situation in the land today is scary. No part of Nigeria seems to be immune to the security crisis that has enveloped the country, and is escalating by the day. It will not be out of place to conclude that anarchy has taken over the land with life becoming cheap and valueless.

The words of W. B. Yeats as quoted by Chinua Achebe in his path breaking book, “Things Fall Apart”, have become truer of our current situation. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre; the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”. It would appear that Yeats had Nigeria in mind when he authored this poem several decades ago.

The entire country today is within the vice grips of criminal elements who are identified by various names. In the North East, the nation has faced Boko Haram insurgency since 2009 with no end in sight. The Boko Haram insurgents are a group of terrorists whose declared agenda is to overthrow the existing socio-political order in the country and institute an Islamic Caliphate anchored on Sharia legal framework. The crisis has since expanded to the North West of the country under the assumed name of banditry.

Katsina and Zamfara States are now the epicenter of banditry, where the kidnapping of school children for ransom has become the order of the day.

The terrorists who government has branded as bandits also engage in cattle rustling and illegal mining of gold and other minerals in the areas of their operations. They have since extended their evil activities to Niger State in the North Central Zone of the country where they engage in random abductions of students, women and travellers.

In other parts of North Central like Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Kogi, the citizens contend with the savagery and brutalities of marauding herdsmen who have laid siege on the indigenous populations, sacking and looting villages and taking over ancestral lands of the besieged communities for the grazing of their animals. These tragic incidents which manifest in the form of herder-farmer crises are also being experienced in Taraba and

Adamawa States in the North East, and indeed in the South of the country.

But in all these unfortunate situations, the innocent victims including the farmers are helpless, as there is no form of protection from the State and compensation for the huge losses in material and human resources. Rather the AK-47 wielding herdsmen and bandits are hardly apprehended or brought to trial by law enforcement agencies. Often times, spokesmen in the Presidency have risen to the defence of the herdsmen.

This open support seems to have emboldened the herdsmen, as they have continued in their orgy of killings, raping and kidnappings. The mild manner with which the federal authorities handle the herdsmen fuels the suspicion that they enjoy institutional backing.

The atrocious activities of these terrorist herdsmen dubbed bandits and rustlers by government for whatever reason have led to so many ungoverned spaces in several parts of the Sahelian North and Middle Belt. These ungoverned spaces have been taken over by the killer herdsmen and mercenaries migrating from the Maghreb.

These places have become breeding grounds for jihadist elements and sundry criminals who have declared a war of conquest and attrition on the indigenous communities in Nigeria. The desperate situations in which the affected regions in the country have found themselves have forced them to resort to some policing initiatives to safeguard their homelands and fend off the marauding killer herdsmen. For instance, the South West Zone last year, in the face of unrelenting killings and kidnappings by herdsmen, established a regional security outfit codenamed Amotekun. A few days ago, the Governors of the South East Geo-Political Zone also responded to the herdsmen menace and other emerging security threats in the zone, with a collective security body known asEbube Agu. These regional security initiatives clearly underscore the urgency of the dangerous and perilous times in which we live today in our country. It is also an indication that the government at the centre has failed in its responsibility to protect the citizenry. It is a well-known fact that the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. When a government cannot fulfill this basic obligation to the governed, it has lost its moral legitimacy to exist.

Social contract philosophers of the old like Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke who propounded the theories on the origin of the modern State were unequivocal in their postulations regarding the obligations of the State

to the citizenry and the rights and duties of the citizenry.

According to the philosophers, every citizen has the natural rights to defend himself or herself in a state of nature. But anarchy, chaos and bloodshed would rule in such a society.

In the words of Hobbes, in the state of nature, life is short, nasty and brutish. They, therefore, reasoned that there was the need for the people to come together and surrender those rights to the Leviathan, which in modern parlance means the sovereign authority of the State, to act in their defence and on their behalf.

Having surrendered those natural rights to the State, the citizens are to be protected and defended by the Sovereign.

According to Rousseau, the government owes a sacred duty to act in the defence of the ordinary citizen, having surrendered his or her right to self-help. Indeed, John Locke went a little further to state that the citizenry has a legitimate right to rebel against any government that fails to honour the social contract. Against the foregoing, the actions of non-state actors like Igboho and the Oodua self-determination groups and Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB and other such bodies may have their philosophical underpinnings within the ambits of the social contract theories.

A thorough analysis of the escalating security crisis in the land will immediately reveal the receding power of the Nigerian State to fulfill its basic security and welfare obligations to the people as provided for in the Constitution. There is deepening economic deprivation arising from unabating unemployment and underemployment. There is palpable hunger and excruciating poverty in the land. Life, for a mass majority of Nigerians has thus become meaningless, hopeless and indeed, nasty, short and brutish. In their present desperate situation, these aggrieved Nigerians who feel excluded and marginalized in the scheme of things are now challenging the Nigerian State because they believe that it has failed in its constitutional obligation to the people. This is a dangerous situation that must be apprehended through the deployment of deft statecraft and change of strategies by the incumbent Buhari administration.

A military approach to the resolution of the current security crisis would only exacerbate the conflict and widen the existing fault lines.

––Nwosu, a Public Affairs analyst, holds a Doctorate Degree in Political Economy and Development Studies.

(See concluding part of the article on www.thisdaylive.com)

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

15

LETTERS

GHANA AS AFRICAN TWITTER HEADQUARTERS

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ne of the noticeable gains of the advent of the internet was the concomitant liberalization of the media. The media has been largely democratized and anyone with a smart phone and internet access can now pass as a journalist.

A trend in the new media is the invasion of the space and the creation of media empires by non-journalists. Facebook, the world’s largest social media group has Mark Zuckerberg as one of the Co-Founders and CEO with a tech rather than a media background. The same goes for Google with Larry Page and Sergin Brin.

Twitter made its debut on March 21, 2006 with Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass as co-founders.

Dorsey has been its CEO since 2015 and the micro blogging site has grown from no user to about 330 million active users as of 2020. Its net income as at last year was in excess of one billion US dollars and its total assets are in excess of 13 billion dollars.

Like all other Silicon Valley Unicorns, it set its eyes on Africa as the world’s second most populous continent has the largest youthful population in the world and so it has the status of a beautiful bride.

After Facebook and its sister companies like Instagram and Whatsapp, Twitter is immensely popular in the continent especially in Nigeria which is the most populous nation in Africa. So popular is Twitter with the bird app logo that Jack Dorsey paid a visit to Nigeria in 2019 to see things for himself and interact with the influencers as well as top government functionaries.

Many Brands in Nigeria know the immense value of Twitter and we

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have social media influencers on the platform with a large followership who pride themselves as Twitter influencers as they make a fortune doing direct advertising for the brands to their millions of followers on the platform. So lucrative is the influencer business that a popular name, Japheth Joshua Omojuwa with about a million followers once said that he wouldn’t mind paying tithes to Twitter.

Unofficial statistics put the users of the brand at about 25 million in Nigeria and so there was a natural uproar in the media space when Dorsey tweeted that it will cite its African headquarters in Ghana.

Nigerians were shocked by this business decision and took to both the traditional, new as well as social media to vent their frustration.

The position of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was that the Buhari administration’s lack of economic vision was responsible for the decision. Lai Mohammed the Information and Culture Minister said that it was as a result of the #endSARS protest.

Businesses are in business to make profits and fulfill their obligations to their shareholders as well as employees. They are not houses of charity.

Nigeria is an incredibly difficult place to do business in. Multiple taxation, anti-people economic policies as well as a harsh business environment have contributed to the funeral of many bright business ideas. Inconsistent public policy has also played a key role in making Nigeria unattractive as an investment destination. Analysts will recall how the ban on motorcycles in Lagos State also known as Okada led to the exit of Gokada, O ride which led to job losses in their thousands.

The promoters of the businesses invested

Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo millions of dollars in them but the government didn’t care that they were forced to leave due to policy flipflops.

We recall the brutality meted out to innocent and law-abiding citizens during the ill-fated #endSARS protests where armed soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters. Months after this brutal rape on democracy, no arrests or sanctions have been made.

Why should Twitter, a promoter of democracy and free speech, cite its African headquarters in a quasi-civilian dictatorship? The government banned crypto currencies some months

ago and pundits opine that it was in its bid to forestall another popular protest as Flutterwave co-founded by two young Nigerians – Iyinoluwa Samuel Aboyeji and its current CEO, Olugbenga Agboola was the platform behind the crypt currency usage that led to the unhindered flow of funds during the #endSARS protest.

Dorsey owns a payments processing company known as Square which has started accepting crypto currencies as a medium of payment.

Wouldn’t it be contradictory to choose Nigeria as its headquarters when it has stifled Foreign Direct

by our dear Kano people are becoming dangerous more than how one could imagine. If these substances can damage kidneys, then prompt action needs to be taken.

Recall that the Dr. Tsanyawa cautioned that such fake and expired chemicals damage body parts including kidneys which sometimes lead to death. He also advised Kano residents to desist from taking the chemicals.

Well, these pieces of advice have come at the right time but is that enough? In my opinion, warning and advising consumers alone

away which led to the well televised looting by some Nigerians last year after the #endSARS protests. This must have influenced their decision to go to the West African nation that was the first to obtain political independence from the erstwhile colonial masters.

Nigeria needs to put its house in order. Bloomberg recently said that we will soon overtake Namibia to become the country that has the most unemployed citizens.

The current rate of over 33% is scary. The World Poverty Clock declared us as the world capital for poverty with life expectancy at an all- time low. Our population which will balloon to around 300 million by 2050 may become more of a liability as it is not being harnessed to creating a rich force of human capital development. We need to create a more conducive environment for foreign investors to come in and support our small businesses as they are the fulcrum of any economy anywhere in the globe.

We should stop crying and whining like a baby whose candy has been taken away from it and get our hands dirty so that we can reclaim our lost glory and hold our heads high in the international comity of nations.

Our time starts now!

––Tony Ademiluyi, co-founder of The Vent Republic Media, wrote from Lagos.

Gov Bala’s Double Standard

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ecall we lent our voices few months ago that Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State should give out palliatives meant for the vulnerable in the state.

In his usual deceitful tactic, Governor Bala issued a press release justifying that he had distributed

everything. All lovers of truth knew it was not true.

Now, God has exposed them and their cohorts, they are sharing to their party members and their foot soldiers what is meant for the downtrodden.

The people of Bauchi should know better, what is meant for them was diverted to suit their

ON K ANO'S STRANGE DISEASE

ne of the devastating reports I read recently is about Kano.

According to a video released by the Kano State Ministry of Health, 10 people had died and 400 hospitalized due to the intake of fake and expired flavours used for local drinks.

The most disturbing part of it is that the Kano's Commissioner for Health, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa stated categorically that out of the 400 hospitalised, 50 are on dialysis.

The fake and expired chemicals being consumed

Investments (FDI) by banning crypto currencies?

The government appears helpless in the battle against the Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and Fulani herdsmen. Every day news filters out the atrocities against Nigerians by these groups with the Buhari government playing the Ostrich and leaving Nigerians to protect themselves.

Imagine the security risks of the Twitter members of staff with the current security challenge if they are domiciled in Nigeria!

We recall that the current Defence Minister, Bashir Magashi told Nigerians to defend themselves.

The whole world is watching the circus show of Nigeria due to bad governance and so it is not surprising that they chose Ghana over us due to its relative security, absence of insurgency and political stability.

Twitter once banned political adverts in the wake of the 2016 US Presidential elections and so good governance is a sine qua non for the San Francisco headquartered brand.

During the global lockdown, Ghana gave its citizens palliatives and even went as far as giving free electricity for three months to all her citizens. Nigeria left her citizens in the lurch and it was later discovered that palliatives donated by some public -spirited individuals and foreign donor agencies were criminally stashed

will not bring to an end this calamity. In fact, how can some of our consumers differentiate between the fake and expired ones from the genuine ones since they are being repackaged by the evildoers? Certainly, the government needs to take proactive measures on this.

The question that always rings in my mind is that, is the sale of adulterated substances not a planned move by the enemies of Kano State? Why is it coming a year after the 2020 death syndrome? Are our people secure?

Whatever the case may be, I am not satisfied with the

way the Kano State government is handling the case.

Let there be an executive order which will mandate revoking the license of any company or individual found selling such fake flavours.

The order should also force anyone found guilty to pay victims of the development a huge amount of money. We cannot fold our arms and continue watching our people dying due to our negligence. Government should take cogent action.

Bilyaminu Gambo Kong-kol, Mass Communication Department, Bayero University, Kano.

primordial sentiments. It was not given as at when due, as claimed by their leader.

Palliatives were distributed by federal government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to cushion the effect of COVID-19. Instead, most of the governors with the exception of few, refused to share them.

It's unfortunate, we're in a society where a leader expected to bring succour to his subjects turns the other way round.

Why is our leader being most exorbitantly rebellious against those that entrusted him with their affairs?

––Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani, Kasuwar kaji Azare, Bauchi State.

A Dotty Idea

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ost of my photos are about 6mp which means that they should sell for about 10 trillion dollars which might seem expensive, but they are quite pretty. This valuation is based on a real world one-pixel picture by a digital artist, Pak, that sold for US$1.36 million. It is a nonfungible token which uses blockchain to identify it, a technology that seems strange to most people, or least those that don't have

a spare million to buy a grey dot.

A million dollars will buy a house in many cities, feed a lot of hungry people, pay for 10 art teachers to explain why this is a great purchase or for 10 financial advisors to give advice on saving for your retirement.

Although not an art critic I know that some art is priceless but to me a single pixel seems only worthless.

–––Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia.

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APRIL 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

EDITORIAL

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

TACKLING INSECURITY IN THE SOUTH-EAST The authorities will have to do something drastic to stem the illegal flow of arms and ammunition into the country

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rompted by the deteriorating security situation in the South-East, governors of the region last week in Owerri, Imo State capital, launched a joint security outfit codenamed Ebube Agu to tackle increasing criminality. The security outfit was coming a year after the South-West governors launched the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Operation Amotekun, in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

But the South-east governors are already on collision course with the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that has rejected the idea, warning Igbo youths not to enlist.

Meanwhile, it is the reluctance of President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference that has made all these regional attempts at providing security a pleasing alternative to the much more desired restructuring of the Nigerian federation. The conference had recommended several steps that would devolve many of the responsibilities on the exclusive list to the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) so that the states and local governments could appropriate and deliver on them for the betterment of their people.

Before the response by the South-east governors, some gunmen wielding explosives and rockets had blasted their way into Owerri prison and freed some 1800 inmates. These criminal gangs also invaded the State Police Headquarters, looted the armoury, torched the building and dozens of vehicles within the vicinity. Even though the operation lasted for about two hours, the criminals were practically unchallenged.

“This incident is cowardly,” said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. “An attack on institutions of law and order

is an attack on the well-being of the citizens.”

President Muhammadu Buhari described it as an “act of terrorism.”

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The increasing wave of bloody violence across the country can be traced partly to the ease to small and light weapons by some unscrupulous elements

Letters to the Editor

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S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS OLAWALE OLALEYE, TOBI SONIYI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI , PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ERIC OJEH, PATRICK EIMIUHI ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO HEAD, COMPUTER DEPARTMENT PATRICIA UBAKA-ADEKOYA TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

he challenge of insecurity in the South-east is quite enormous. On 29th March, some suspected herders wielding machetes and AK-47 rifles invaded four communities in Ishielu local council of Ebonyi State and killed about 15 innocent persons. The Ishielu incident came barely 24 hours after some unknown gunmen had attacked Adani, in Uzo-Uwani local government of Enugu State where some six people were brutally murdered.

Within the same period, three policemen were also killed by gunmen in Aguata Local Council, Anambra State, where an APGA governorship aspirant and former Central Bank Governor, Chukwuma Soludo was holding a townhall meeting.

Each of these attacks is a catastrophe. Taken together, they make for something much worse.

The former Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu blamed the attack on the banned IPOB, a claim initially accepted by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma before curiously transferring the blame to his ‘political opponents.’ In the midst of the pervading blame game and confusion, a faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation said the increasing insecurity in the South-east may just be confirmation of a recent warning by the American security agency that the “bandits” ravaging the north are heading south to disrupt peaceful territories and unleash violence, especially in the South-east.

While the country can ill-afford another front for uncontrollable violence, in the present chaotic state, anything is possible. Nigeria is already violence writ large, afflicted by decade-long Islamic insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, all manner of criminality. The violence is partly driven by the proliferation of small arms and ammunition.

Indeed, the level of insecurity and conflicts across the nation highlights the prevalence of weapons in the hands of non-state actors. Only recently, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar expressed deep concern over the proliferation of all calibre of weapons in the country.

Abubakar, who chairs the National Peace Committee, said the arms and ammunition in the hands of non-state actors are about 12 times those in the hands of law enforcement agents, an assertion corroborated by SBM Intelligence report.

The increasing wave of bloody violence across the country can be traced partly to the ease to small and light weapons (SALWs) by some unscrupulous elements.

With the inability of federal authorities to contain spreading violence in the country, the idea of geopolitical regions pooling resources together to form security networks is a clarion call that we must tinker with the current suffocating structure that is more unitary than federal.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

SOLUDO SHOULD STAY THE COURSE

state that is the home state of people, who have achieved distinctions in their respective careers and endeavours, deserves to be led by its best and brightest politicians, who possess probity, leadership qualities, forbearance, and knowledge. And Anambra State is such a state. It is not for nothing that Anambra State is called “the light of the nation’’. And the state has been living up to that appellation and epithet owing to the good political leadership, which the people of the state have been enjoying.

However, at the inception of the fourth republic, Anambra’s politics was dogged and characterized by political godfatherism, which hindered the development of the state. We have not forgotten that Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju

was hamstrung by the interference of his political benefactor in the affairs of the state. And Dr.Chris Ngige, who succeeded him in office, fell out with the man who bankrolled his electioneering expenses.

Consequently, his political godfather spilled the beans about how he emerged as the Anambra State governor. The revealed secrets about his governorship electoral victory offered his political foes the ammunition with which they ousted him from office via electoral litigation. However, his praxis in the area of road repair as well as road construction has remained a model, which other political leaders in the country should emulate.

And, Mr. Peter Obi, whose parsimony is legendary, executed reforms in the health and educational sectors. It was he who returned schools to churches, and

equipped them with computers and modern science laboratory equipment. He revamped the health sector, too, as evidenced in the upgrading of some schools of health in the state.

His successor, Dr. Willie Obiano, will be long remembered after he left office for building the longest bridge in Anambra. And, under his leadership, Anambra has earned huge revenue from the exportation of vegetables to other countries.

He gave local farmers in the state financial incentives, which boosted their morale and led to increase in their agricultural produce. And, until some months ago, Anambra State under the leadership of Governor Willie Obiano had impeccable and commendable record in the area of security. Now, the state is chafing under security problems.

However, the state government has risen up stoutly to the challenge

and problem of rising cases of crimes in the state. The killing of police aides attached to Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo during his meeting with Isuofia youths jolted us. Now, there are many conjectures regarding the motives of the executioners of that homicidal deed.

Did they attack Professor Soludo to frighten him so that he would rethink his declaration of interest to contest the 2021 Anambra governorship election on APGA platform? Or was the killing carried out by disgruntled and indignant gunmen, who are destroying our symbols of statehood and killing security personnel in the country to register their displeasure and disenchantment with the state of affairs in Nigeria? The answers to these questions are still up in the air.

Whatever is the case, it will be a gross injudicious act for Professor Soludo to opt out of the Anambra governorship contest on account of the gun attack visited on him, as he stands a good chance of becoming Anambra State governor

based on the political permutation and situation in the state now. He should steel himself against any untoward thing that may happen to him while fighting to become the next governor of Anambra State.

It is believed that APGA stalwarts have surreptitiously reached a consensus that Professor Soludo will become APGA governorship candidate in the 2021 Anambra governorship election. And, I pray that they will abide by that unwritten accord and decision. Although APGA was rocked by internal crisis in the past, it is still soldiering on. And if Soludo finally gets the APGA governorship ticket, he will utilise the APGA leverage as the ruling party in the state to maneuver his way to power. However, we should not gloss over the fact that PDP and APC pose a great threat to APGA’s bid and effort to retain the governorship seat.

––Chiedu Uche Okoye, Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State

17

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

BUSINESS

Editor: Kunle Aderinokun 08033204315, 08111813084 Email:kunle.aderinoku@thisdaylive.com

The Currency Printing Controversy In this piece, James Emejo, chronicles the recent controversy surrounding the alleged printing of currency by the federal government to support the economy

E

do State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, last week,stirredacostlycontroversywhenheclaimed that the federal government has had to resort to printing of currency to augment shortfall in revenue.

Thegovernorhad,duringtheEdoStatetransition committee stakeholders engagement last Thursday, tried to warn about the consequences ofcountry’scontinuedrelianceoncrudeoilasmajorrevenuesources as some of multinational oil companies and developed economies transit to alternative energy sources.

Obaseki had only re-echoed similar concerns, recently raised by prominent personalities including the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during her recently visit to the country.

Okonjo-Iweala,particularlyexpressedherdiscomfortandfearsfor the economy, which is still largely oil dependent on oil for survival while other countries had already commenced their trasition to renewable energy.

But the governor, apparently, stirred the hornet’s nest, when he told the gathering that amidst the existing Àscal constraints, the federal government has had to print between N50 billion and N60 billion to augment FAAC revenues for March, while also expressing strong reservations over the country’s rising debt proÀle.

He told the committee: “Nigeria has changed. The economy of Nigeria is not the same again whether we like it or not. Since the civil war, we have been managing, saying money is not our problem as long as we are pumping crude oil everyday.

“Sowehaverunaverystrangeeconomyandstrangepresidential system where the local, state and federal government, at the end of the month, go and earn salary. We are the only country in the world that does that.

“Everywhere else, government rely on the people to produce taxes and that is what they use to run the local government, state and the federation.”

He said: “But with the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep.Attheendofthemonth,wejustgotoAbuja,collectmoneyand we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge Ànancial trouble.

“The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major oil companies, who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil. Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest investors in alternative fuel, so in another year or so, where will we Ànd this money that we go to share inAbuja"” Obaseki added: “When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top up for us to share,” he said.

“This April, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, our total borrowings is going to be within N15-N16 trillion.

Imagine a family that is just borrowing without any means to pay back and nobody is looking at that, everybody is looking at 2023, everybody is blaming Mr. President as if he is a magician.”

However, if anything, the idea of printing currency did not augur well with some Nigerians, particularly those who claimed to have understanding of economics - given the implications on economy.

Armed with the literal concept of printing currency, the federal government, especially the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Central Bank of Nigeria came under heavily criticisms from the public for allegedly resorting to increase money in circulation by printing more naira which could further fuel inÁation.

However, in the ensuing controversy, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs ZainabAhmed, while reacting to Obaseki’s claims, said the information was not only untrue, but unfortunate.

She, further allayed concerns raises by Obaseki over the country’s rising debt portfolio, pointing out that the nation’s current debt proÀle which is 23 per cent of GDP falls within sustainable limit.

Ahmed had said: “The issue that was raised by the Edo State Governor for me is very, very sad. Because it is not a fact. What we distribute at FAAC is a revenue that is generated and in fact distribution revenue is a public information. We publish revenue generated by FIRS, the Customs and the NNPC and we distribute at FAAC. So, it is not true to say we printed money to distribute at FAAC, it is not true”.

She added:“On the issue of the borrowing, the Nigerian debt is still within sustainable limit. What we need to do as I have said several times is to improve our revenue to enhance our capacity to service not only our debt but to service the needs of running government on day to day basis. So our debt currently at about 23 per cent to GDP is at a very sustainable level if you look at all the reports that you see from multilateral institutions.”

ButObaseki,inafollow-upstatement,stoodbyhiswords,insisting there was printing of money.

However,withinÁationratecurrentlyat1 .1 percentasatMarch, largelycausedbythefoodindex,analystswerequicktopointoutthat pumping naira into the economy without commensurate output production could particularly be detrimental to the economy as this will further worsen current inÁationary pressure.

Nigerians, practically intensiÀed their search for answers why moneyshouldbeprintedtoaugmentrevenueshortfall,andanxiously awaited the position of the CBN.

Emefiele

Obaseki

It took the bold intervention of the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin EmeÀele, to Ànally calm the troubled waters.

Although,theCBNgovernordidnotwastetimetryingtopuncture theclaimonwhetheritprintedmoneyornot,henevertheless,clariÀed that the concept of printing money does not necessarily involved actual printing but also the act lending money.

EmeÀele, who felt the controversy was uncalled for, said, “It’s inappropriate to give colouration to currency printing”.

Reacting to Obaseki’s statement on printing of currency, he said, the CBN acted in national interest.

TheCBNgovernor,whospokeduringafacilitytouroftheDangote Integrated Sugar complex in Tunga,Awe Local GovernmentArea of Nasarawa State, expressed dismay over attempts to distort the concept of printing of money.

He said: “It’s very inappropriate for people to just give colouration toprintingofmoneyasifit’ssomeforeignwordcomingfromthesky.”

According to him,If you understand the concept of printing of money. The concept printing of money; it’s about lending money.

“That’s our job – to print. It’s about lending money and so there’s no need putting the controversy about printing of money as if we are going into the factory printing the naira and start distributing on the streets.” However, EmeÀele’s intervention in the controversy did not come without a cost to the state governments.

He said since the state governments had resorted to indicting the federal government and by extension the CBN for assisting them with bailout loans to meet their Ànancial obligations during the 2015 2016 Àscal crisis, they must repay the debts.

In July 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved a N1.5 trillion intervention package to assist bankrupt states pay salaries.

He justiÀed the CBN’s interventions in the economy, noting that these are also some of the measures currently being adopted by developed countries to reÁate their economies.

He stated that it would have been irresponsible of the CBN or any central bank to stand idle and refuse to support its government at this critical point in time.

According to the CBN governor, I think it’s important for me to put it this way. “That in 2015/2016, the kind of situation we found ourselves now, which is even worse than 2015/2016, we did provide budget support facility to all the states of this country.

“That loan remains unpaid till now. And we are going to insist on the states paying back those monies since they’re accusing us of giving them loans.

“Most countries in the world today are confronted by not only health challenges coming from the COVID-19 pandemic, causing economic crisis and the rest of them.

“What I keep saying is that it’ll be irresponsible for the CBN or any central bank or any Fed to stand idle and then refuse to support its government at this time.

“What is being done is being done in any clime. And at the last MPC meeting, I gave data on what is being done in developed economies to shore up their economy and take them out of recession.

“Nigeria is unfortunately in a very bad situation. I am not going to pretend about it, in the sense that we are facing problems about productivity output, which is GDP. Luckily we managed to come out by a hair’s breadth.”

However, analysts, in separate interviews with THISDAY, though warned that a sustained policy of printing the currency, if not well managed, would hurt the economy - further opined that currency

is not entirely bad and remains at the discretion of the apex bank.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dignity Finance and Investmemt Limited, Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu, pointed out that printing of currency was often one of the “ways and means” activities of the CBN which could be used at its discretion.

He, however, clariÀed that, “giving out loans is not the same as printing.”

He said: “The CBN has a myriad of functions, one of which is minting and printing of currency. CBN does and executes this function only when it is absolutely necessary. Every country does this as the need arises.

“It is not an activity that is usually made public when in place. I therefore condemn the public proclamation made recently by the public o΀cer who was supposed to exercise caution.

“One of the dangers of printing of currency at will, is that it creates and causes inÁation. But when there is revenue shortfall, it may be relied upon to fund certain local expenditures.”

Also, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Credent Investment ManagersLimited,Mr.IbrahimShelleng,saidthedevelopmentcould lead to further devaluation of the currency and create further costpush inÁation, given that the country is heavily import-dependent.

He said the government would need to take some tough decisions in the future to address the impending Àscal crisis.

He said: “Essentially what we are seeing is quantitative easing, which is a method used by governments to raise money outside taxation and borrowing.

“The eͿects of this will undoubtedly be a further devaluation of the currency and create further cost-push inÁation as we are heavily import-dependent.”

Shelleng warned that, if the development continued, with no resultant uptick in production and growth, there might be a free fall of the naira.

According to him, Ideally, quantitative easing should be used to help stimulate growth by injecting the funds raised to key growth drivers of the economy.

“However, in the Nigerian case, it is being used to fund an overbloated government with no resultant increase in productivity.

“The worst-case scenario (which we don’t pray for) is this leading to hyperinÁation as witnessed in Zimbabwe in the early 2000 or in post-war Germany.”

Also, commenting on the development, Managing Director/ Chief Executive, SD&D Capital Management Limited, Mr. Idakolo Gbolade,saidtheCBNhasitsmandatetobethefederalgovernment’s lender, adding that it will likely be over-Ànancing the government, if it resorted to printing more Naira notes for the government.

He said: “This could mean that Nigeria presently cannot fund itself and can lead to excess pressure on the private sector for taxes.

“It could also lead to inÁation because if enough revenue is not generated through oil and other targeted revenue heads for the government to fund its activities then we could be heading towards economic disaster.”

Also, former Director-General of the West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Prof. Akpan Ekpo, stated that globally, central banks do print money as the last resort when faced with Àscal challenges.

“If you print it and don’t manage it well, you are going to have too much money in circulation chasing after few goods. So, that creates inÁationary pressure.

18

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

ENERGY

Resolving Gas-to-Power Paradox Emmanuel Addeh writes that despite owning the biggest gas reserve on the continent and being one of the top 10 in the world, the Nigerian power sector, appears to be constantly under the perennial constraint of gas for electricity generation. He also examines what is being done to resolve the age-long challenge

J

The Gas Problem again! ust three days ago, precisely last Thursday, the federal government apologised for the worsening power supply in the country, blaming the breakdown of most of the generating plants and lack of gas supply for the current electricity challenges.

Although Nigerians continue to groan due to incessant blackouts , the situation has recently worsened as generation in the country fell below 3,922.2MW, with several of the power plants on the national grid not generating any megawatts of electricity.

Several distribution companies (Discos) have lamented the shortage in the allocation received from the national grid, and have therefore resorted to rationing of electricity to customers.

While the nation’s installed generation capacity is put at 12,954.40MW, available capacity, according to the system operator is 7,652.60MW, while transmission wheeling capacity remains at 7,300MW and the peak generation ever attained by the country remains at 5,801.60MW An obviously distraught Minister of Power, Mr. Saleh Mamman, stated that nine of the power generating plants have broken down, while the ninth one has been shut down for maintenance.

In a statement released in Abuja and signed by the minister’s Spokesman, Aaron Artimas, Mamman noted that aside those that have broken down, seven of the integrated power plants were also having challenges with gas supply.

Mamman expressed the regret of the federal government on the power outages, stressing that the ministry of power was not unaware of the current power outages and shortages bedevilling many parts of the country.

“The problem is caused by the breakdown of some National Integrated Power Plants (NIPP) supplying electricity to the national grid. The plants are namely, Sapele, Afam, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Ibom, Egbin,Alaoji and Ihovbor. The Jebba power plant was shut down for annual maintenance.

“Seven other integrated power plants, namely Geregu, Sapele, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras andAlaoji are experiencing gas constraints while the Shiroro plant has water management problems,” the minister stated.

Mamman added that “this unfortunate development” has drastically aͿected power generation, thus eͿectively minimising supply to the national power grid.

The statement noted that in view of the prevailing situation, the minister of power was working closely with all stakeholders to ensure that the problem is ameliorated at the soonest possible time.

“The minister regrets this unfortunate situation and oͿers his sincere apology to all aͿected Nigerians on the inconveniences the power shortages are causing.

“He assures that the ministry through the appropriate agencies is working assiduously to rectify the technical problems aͿecting the plants as well as resolving the gas issues to the others,” the statement explained.

Mamman further assured that the national grid will be restored to its previous “historic” distribution peak of about 5,600MW of electricity achieved early this year, so as to relieve Nigerians from the current harsh weather conditions and restore full economic activities.

Huge Gas Reserve, None for Power Nigeria is the world’s 13th largest oil producer and with 203 trillion cubic feet of available gas , owns about the seventh largest gas reserves in the world.

It is the largest oil producer in Africa, holding the largest natural gas reserves on the continent and was the world’s Àfth largest exporter of liqueÀed natural gas (LNG) in 2018.

Nigeria deploys gas to power about 83 per cent of energy used to generate power in the country, the commodity being the preferred source of energy because of its e΀ciency in energy generation, relatively low per capita cost and its capacity to serve as means of eliminating

A gas-fired power plant

gas Áares.

While several gas development projects have been embarked upon within the Nigerian oil and gas industry to deliver gas to the domestic sector, supply to Independent Power Plants (IPPs) has been problematic for years.

With 25 gas-Àred plants with a combined installed capacity of about 11,500 MW, the total gas requirement to run all the plants at full capacity is approximately 3.0Bscfd.

Although gas production has increased over the years, with a current total volume of about 8 Bscfd being produced in Nigeria out of which 45 per cent is exported (NLNG), 8.5 per cent Áared, 15 per cent consumed domestically, that is, for power and industries, and the balance mostly re-injected, one thing that is clear is that, it is barely enough for purpose.

Without doubt, the gas to power value chain has been riddled with issues that have aͿected the full generation of power based on installed capacity of existing gas Àred power plants as depicted by the minister’s statement on Thursday.

While lack of su΀cient power transmission capacity from the power generating plants, oͿ spec gas volumes supplied to power generating plants, legacy debt repayment and payment for gas supply, weak payment structure remain recurring problems in the sector, by far the most pertinent has been inadequate gas supply.

A Drop in the Ocean Obviously, while steps are being taken to address these issues, including development of power plants, gas transportation and power transmission infrastructure, it appears to be too little.

Paradoxically, while most of the projected capacity and e΀ciency gains of the power sector reforms initiated from 2001 – 2013 has been hinged on the secured, aͿordable and reliable gas supply, the outlook and trends depict fundamental regulatory and institutional misalignments between the domestic gas supply industry and the electric power market.

The major challenges relate to the lack of or the inadequacy or timeliness of infrastructural investments, as well as the security and aͿordability of gas supply to power generators.

It is estimated that within the Àrst seven days of March this year alone, Nigeria’s power sector lost about N6.8 billion to challenges related to insu΀cient gas supply to electricity generation companies (Gencos).

In alignment with previous reports, the last quarterly report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that

gas supply shortage remains a challenge in the sector.

It stated: “Gas continues to dominate the electricity generation mix accounting for 81.53 per cent of the electricity generated during the second quarter of 2020. This implies that approximately 8.15kWh of every 10kWh of electric energy generated in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2020 came from gas.”

Shamefully, gas supply remains a major threat to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

Aside poor supply, low remittances by the Discos mean that generation companies (Gencos), even if the supply is available are unable to pay gas suppliers.

NNPC’s Ramps up Production Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in its monthly report, said that along with its Joint Venture (JV) its partners produced a total of 223.55 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas in the month of January, 2021.

It disclosed that this translated to an average daily production of 7,220.22 Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day (mmscfd), representing a 4.79 per cent increase over output in December 2020.

The corporation stated that the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants increased by 2.38 per cent to 836mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 3,415MW. For the period of January 2020 to January 2021, it stated that a total of 2,973.01BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,585.78 mmscfd during the period.

“Period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 65.20 per cent, 19.97 per cent and 14.83 per cent respectively to the total national gas production,” it disclosed.

Out of the total gas output in January 2021, the national oil company stressed that a total of 149.24BCF of gas was commercialised, consisting of 44.29BCF and 104.95BCF for the domestic and export markets respectively.

This it said , translated to a total supply of 1,428.65mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,385.57mmscfd to the export market in the month under review.

“This indicates that 67.15 per cent of the daily gas output was commercialised while the balance of 32.85 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel, or Áared,” it noted.

Plans to Add 5,000MW to National Grid Indeed, with the ongoing gas projects throughout the country, NNPC says it is set to deliver

an additional 5,000 megawatts of electricity to the national power grid soon.

Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, who spoke recentl on the eͿorts , explained that the NNPC was committed to fulÀlling President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the national oil company to boost domestic gas supply.

The NNPC helmsman stressed that progress was being made on several of the projects , including the NLNG train 7, with a foreign direct investment of between $3 billion to $5 billion.

He listed others as theAKK, which he described as one the largest and most aggressive gas infrastructure that has ever been embarked upon in Nigeria, stretching 614 km fromAjaokuta,Abuja, Kaduna and Kano and the lot B of the OB3 gas project which he noted is already producing 125 mmscfd of gas.

Kyari stated that by the end of this quarter, the project would “cross the River Niger”, which will successfully create a highway to move the huge gas resources in the eastern area to the west.

He disclosed that the NNPC was looking to establish two gas hubs, one at Oben and the other at Brass, saying that one of the presidential mandates is to deliver on gas and power and create a market in the domestic environment that will consume the planned 4.5bcf of gas.

According to Kyari, for the Àrst time, the corporation in collaboration with its partners was able to raise about $260m within Nigerian merchant banks and two African banks for the Asa north gas project.

He said: “Something we need to emphasise in terms of gas utilisation in Nigeria is the power sector. All our projections have shown that 60 to 70 per cent of this gas that we hope to sell of the 4.5 bcf will come from power.

“At the moment, the power sector is challenged and all eͿorts have to be put in to unlock the liquidity in the downstream sector and expand the transmission network. This will enable us sell the gas we have already invested in and enhance the economic prosperity of the country.

“Within the NNPC, we are looking to establish about 5gigawatts of additional power into the network. So, NNPC is engaging with the stakeholders to resolve the power sector issue so that investment that has been made in generating gas can be realised.”

In industry, he stated that the NNPC had begun to create a link between the domestic gas pipelines infrastructure and export gas pipelines to ensure that there is an outlet into the export route which will make the projects more bankable.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

19

MONEY

Inside the Demutualised Nigeria Exchange Chris Paul

O

n the cusp of its 60years anniversary of incorporation and trading, The Nigerian Stock Exchange is now restructured via the process of demutualisation, into the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGXGRP). The Group will have three operating subsidiaries, namely: Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the operating exchange; NGX Regulation Limited (NGX REGCO), the independent securities regulator for NGX; and NGX Real Estate Limited (NGX RELCO), the real estate company.

The structure has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC) and the entities duly registered at the Corporate AͿairs Commission (CAC).

Subsequent to this approval, the Group Chairman of NGXGRP, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo, had said: “Successful demutualisation was one of my fundamental objectives when I assumed the Presidency of The Exchange. The SEC’s decision today to approve the NSE’s demutualisation plans brings this aspiration to a successful conclusion in a process that has included the passage of the Demutualisation Act through the National Assembly. We are elated that this milestone has been achieved on the 60th anniversary of the commencement of trading at the Exchange and now look forward to the future public listing of its shares on NGX. On behalf of the NSE, I would like to warmly thank all those that have worked assiduously to achieve this watershed event on our journey to make the NSE a multifaceted exchange that extends across various markets and geographical regions.”

NGX Leadership Team The imperative of strong leadership to lead the NGX Group appears to have been taken seriously. The erstwhile Chief Executive O΀cer of former NSE, Oscar Onyema, having completed his 10-year tenure was appointed to as the Group Chief Executive O΀cer. Onyema joined the former NSE in 2011 in the wake of takeover by SEC Nigeria. Prior to relocating to Nigeria, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative O΀cer at American Stock Exchange (Amex). He also ran the NYSE Amex equity business following the merger of NYSE Euronext and Amex in 2008.

In addition, he serves as the Chairman, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, the clearing, settlement and depository for the Nigerian capital markets; and Chairman, NG Clearing, which is in the process of developing a Central Counterparty Clearing House (CCP). In addition, Mr. Onyema is a Board member of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria (PENCOM) and sits on several advisory boards including London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Africa Advisory Group (LAAG).

Nigerian Stock Exchange building, Lagos

His remarkable achievements have earned him awards such as the Special Recognition Award for transformational leadership in the Nigerian Capital Markets at BusinessDay Top 25 CEOs Award 2018. In 2015 Forbes Magazine named him among the Top 10 Most Powerful Men in Africa. In the preceding year, he received the national honour of O΀cer of the Order of the Niger (OON) from the federal government.

Mr. Temi Popoola, CFA will helm the affairs at Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd. A Wall Street trained investment banker, Mr. Popoola joins NGX Ltd. from Renaissance Capital (Rencap) where he was Managing Director and CEO for West Africa.

He is a successful C-suite leader whose unique blend of business acumen, Ànancial expertise, global market growth and operational insight has earned him a reputation built on veriÀable career achievements.

Popoola began his career in London as a portfolio manager focused on African energy markets and worked for several years as a senior equity derivatives trader with Bank of America Securities in New York where he drove Àrm proÀtability by providing derivative solutions to US corporations and family o΀ces.

Since his return to Nigeria in 2009, Mr. Popoola has also worked with United Bank of Africa (UBA) as Head of Structured Products for Global markets and with CSL Stockbro-

kers Ltd. as Head of Sales and Trading. In both of these positions, he guided growth and advancement for investors across global markets, including South Africa, the UK, the Middle east and the US. Ms. Tinuade Awe was appointed as the Chief Executive O΀cer, NGX Regulation (NGX REGCO) Ltd. Prior to attaining this position, she was an Executive Director, Regulation at The Exchange. She also served as the General Counsel and Head of the Legal and Regulation Division as well as Council Secretary before becoming an Executive Director. Prior to The Exchange, Ms. Awe worked with the United Nations in The Hague and Geneva as well as the New York o΀ces of global law Àrm, Simpson Thacher & Barlett and Banwo & Ighodalo in Lagos, Nigeria.

As Executive Director, Regulation, she had responsibility for the regulation of the two primary stakeholder groups of The Exchange, i.e., the Dealing Members that trade on The Exchange and issuers that have securities listed on The Exchange. Her team was responsible for rule making and interpretation, monitoring, inspections, market surveillance, investigations, regulatory technology, and enforcement.

She is a non-executive director of the Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS). She is also a member of the Board of the Financial Reporting Council of Ni-

geria (FRC). She Chairs the FRC’s Board Corporate Governance Committee, which has Board level responsibility to monitor implementation of the National Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG). Among other professional pursuits, Ms. Awe was a member of the Nigerian Senate’s Technical Advisory Committee to review the Bill for an Act to Amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act and the Bill for an Act to review the Investment and Securities Act. The Future The recent launch of a new brand identity and website recently by the NGX Group underscores its intention to become the preferred exchange hub in Africa as captured in its vision.

The Group Chief Executive O΀cer, NGX Group, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON sums this up eloquently by saying, “We are very excited about the launch of our new brand identity and website at this pivotal time in our history. InÁuenced by the dynamism and resilience of our market in both good and challenging times, our new identity, which builds on our rich heritage, reÁects who we are today, our ambitions for the future, and our resolve to deliver superior value to our stakeholders. As we step into the NGX era, we remain committed to achieving the highest level of competitiveness, both in African and global capital markets.”

Streamcent Develops Apps to Showcase African Sports Personalities Emma Okonji

S

treamcent,adigitalplatformwhich streams sports and entertainment videos and live shows with an African perspective but worldwide appeal, recently appointed Dr.Adrian Ogun as its Chairman.

Ogun’s appointment came in recognition of his experience as a promoter of past world heavy weight boxing champions Lennox Lewis and Corrie Sanders (in South Africa, UK and USA) will persuade international networks, such as ESPN, UFC, Showtime, BTSport and DAZN, to host in Nigeria a world championship title defense, featuring Nigerian world champions.

As companies compete to create the most desired user experiences, advances in technology are at the heart of their strategies. Combined with a great user experience, companies can

harness technology and data to create a virtuous circle – one in which increasing consumer engagement and attention lead to the capture of more data and more insights into what users want.

This understanding enables companies to further target and engage their core audiences, opening up new opportunities to generate revenue. Nigeria with a 12.1% compound annual growth rate (albeit strongly inÁuenced by surging spending on mobile internet access) will be the world’s fastest growing entertainment and media market over the coming Àve years (PwC Nigeria, 2020).

Streamcent will be oͿering in May three episodes (free of charge) of the Mixed Martial Arts(MMA) reality show ‘African Knock Outs’ (AKO show) via the Streamcent App. The AKO show attracted 17 million viewers last year across Africa.

Dr. Ogun was the last promoter to successfully host a world heavy weight championship

Àght in Africa, since ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974, featuring Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. In 2001, Adrian promoted a Àght entitled ‘Thunder in Africa’ between former world heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman in Johannesburg and was personally encouraged to do so by former amateur boxer and South African President, Nelson Mandela and local boxing partner Rodney Berman.

Commenting on his appointment, Ogun said, “Only last year, the founding member, director and progenitor of Streamcent, Mr Damola Akindilore, discussed with me the idea of a sports and entertainment streaming service with an African focus, but world-wide appeal and the type of sports and entertainment shows to target. I am eternally grateful to Damola and the rest of the board for placing their conÀdence in me as Chairman of Streamcent. I must also commend our General Manager, Sandra Oboh, who, following her appointment, has brought

tremendous experience and youthful drive to Streamcent, based on her stellar roles in the US over the past decade with Bleacher Report, tru TV (both Turner media companies) and Wave TV. “I have reached out to the UFC, at their headquarters in Las Vegas and expressed Streamcent’s serious interest in staging a UFC world title Àght on the African Continent.

I hope to hear back from them after Karamu Usman’s UFC world title defense against Jorge Masvidal, this month on 24th April in Jacksonville, Florida.” Our proposal for hosting a world title Àght in Africa includes the streaming of live shows in conjunction with UFC Fightpass and DSTV, at prices which are aͿordable to the masses of UFC fans across Africa.

“I know that Nigerian world champion Àghters like, Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and Anthony Joshua are eager to host at least one

Cont’d on Pg. 22

20

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

FOCUS

Local Content Policy as Accelerator of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Sector Hitherto fraught with barriers and sheer opacity for local players, Nigeria’s local content policy for over a decade has opened a new vista for indigenous oil and gas companies, as illustrated by Lee Engineering Group and Allied Companies Limited, writes Bayo Akinloye

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stablishedin2010bytheNigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is vested with the mandate to make procedures that will guide, monitor, coordinate, and implement the provisions of the NOGICD Act signed into law on April 22, 2010.

It is instructive to point out that the foundation for NCDMB was laid in 2001 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Local Content in the Oil and Gas Industry. He mandated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to drive the policy and set certain targets.

In its eͿorts to implement the policy, the national oil company set up the Nigerian Content Division within its system and issued some Nigerian content directives to industry stakeholders. Since there was no force of law behind the Nigerian content directives, operators of the industry found it convenient to comply on a best endeavour basis.

This situation provided the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPC, and other industry stakeholders with the impetus to work closely with the National Assembly to develop the NOGICD bill. During the succeeding administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, the NationalAssembly passed the bill. Jonathan signed the bill into law, giving birth to the NCDMB. Dr Ernest Nwapa, a former staͿ of the Nigerian Content Division of NNPC, served as the pioneer executive secretary from April 2010 to May l 2015. Denzel Kentebe succeeded him.

In September 2016, Simbi Kesiye Wabote was appointed as the third substantive executive secretary of the board.

The key focus of the NOGICD Act includes integrating oil-producing communities into the oil and gas value chain, fostering institutional collaboration, and maximising the participation of Nigerians in oil and gas activities.

In addition to that, it links the oil and gas sector to other sectors of the economy, maximises utilisation of Nigerian resources and assets, and attracts investments to the Nigerian oil and gas sector (service providers, equipment suppliers, etc.).

The NOGICD Act became a game-changer for local oil and gas players who had hitherto fed on crumbs of the fat Àngers of International Oil Companies. Prior to the local content policy take-oͿ, a few intrepid and industrious Nigerian entrepreneurs had begun moves to give Nigeria and its citizens a level-playing Àeld to operate in the sector. One of the drivers of the policy is Dr Leemon Ikpea.

Futuristic in approach and level-headed in temperament, Dr Ikpea, Chief Executive O΀cer of Lee Engineering & Construction Company Limited, knows — like the back of his hand — about the positive impact of local content policy on the nation’s oil and gas industry, the vital role played by the NCDMB in deepening local companies participating in the industry and strengthening their capacity.

“With the advent of the local content policy, Nigerian companies have been strengthened to play important roles in the industry,” explained Ikpea. “It is a thing of joy and pride to let you know that local content discussion started in my o΀ce in my Warri o΀ce back in the days in the early 1990s. We started this discussion.”

In the absence of the policy, local players waited on multinationals who got the job directly from the IOCs. The local players were doing the jobs, but the multinationals were the ones getting the fat paychecks. However, with the establishment of the local content policy given teeth by law, operating as local companies in the oil and gas industry became a diͿerent ball game. Local companies got a platform to excel. The CEO

Ikpea

of Lee Engineering knows better.

“Our hands have been strengthened. We are working directly with the IOCs,” he noted. “The local content agency of the federal government.

The people working in the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board are hardworking, wonderful people. They love Nigerians.

This is no mere platitude. The crop of Nigerians working at the agency have the core interest of Nigeria and Nigerians at heart.”

There have been various calls that the NCDMB should develop and stay independent, bereft of political interference. Industry experts say that one way that can be achieved is by avoiding disruption in the tenure of its executive secretary.

They want the federal government to give those working at the agency enough time to strengthen the board’s structure. “I will suggest a tenure of a minimum of 10 years for the agency’s executive secretary. With that, I am conÀdent Nigeria can experience a boom in the industry,” Ikpea revealed.

So far, the board ensures that local players in the industry receive adequate training and encourage local players to establish fabrication workshops — Lee Engineering is a beneÀciary.

The fabrication’s plant is about 85 per cent completed and will manufacture industrial gases and domestic gases, including gas cylinders saving the country billions of naira in foreign exchange. When the factory in Warri, Delta state, is completed, industry watchers believe that it will positively impact the economy as it will create a larger market for suppliers and vendors.

The plant will also be designed to accommodate demands from other African countries. Lee Engineering includes in its marshall plan the building of capacity.

Giving the local content policy legal backing is perhaps the most signiÀcant development witnessed in the industry. Nigeria is one of the largest and oldest oil producers in Africa. The

oil and gas sector is one of the most critical sectors in the country’s economy, accounting for more than 90 per cent of its exports and 80 per cent of the federal government’s revenue. It is the ninth-largest in terms of global gas reserves with over 200 Tcf. As of 2019, Nigeria had the largest oil and gas reserves in Africa, with around 37 billion barrels of oil and 5.4 trillion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.

With a production of 2.11 million barrels per day in 2019, which is approximately 25 per cent of the total output in Africa, Nigeria continues to dominate Africa’s oil production.

Amidst some uncertainties and challenges, Lee Engineering has witnessed phenomenal growth over the years, demonstrating to other local players how they should conduct oil and gas businesses. The company’s head honcho admits his organisation’s excelling principles are based on so-called old-fashioned principles: godliness, hard work, honesty, and integrity.

“The least product of hard work is dignity,” said Ikpea. “The satisfaction that you work for what you earn. Closely related to that is integrity.

One must have integrity. You must be known not just for being hard-working, but you must let integrity permeate every process of your hard work, your operations.” For him and Lee Engineering, integrity is the key, in addition to the company’s technical know-how.

Harping on the enduring quality, he added, “For us, integrity is not a concept. It is who we are. With integrity, every business partner, client, supplier, or vendor looks for you because they trust you. Who will do business with you if you are not trusted? Integrity is our watchword. We run an honest business.

“We have honest and hard-working staͿ. We are not honest and hard-working some of the time. We are honest and hard-working all the time. The company is transparent. For almost 30 years that we have been in business, there is

no stain on our name. Our dedicated staͿ have ensured that. I have used my exemplary life of honesty, hard work, integrity, and transparency to demonstrate to them how invaluable those values are. They share the dream of the company and run with it.”

As a vibrant local player in a global and dynamic industry, Lee Engineering has stepped up to the plate acquiring marginal Àelds. By the time the company starts production, it will not need to import many resources into the country because it will use equipment manufactured in its fabrication plant, which is cost-eͿective. Ikpea will bring to bear his 14 years of experience in the construction industry. Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited, as a leading indigenous EPCOM (engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance) company in Nigeria, has achieved several milestones and received numerous commendations, awards, and certiÀcates from both local and international organisations and agencies.

It has made signiÀcant contributions to its host communities in terms of HSE policy and higher quality outcomes of projects that oͿer clients the best value for money, boasting a 100 per cent safety record in 30 years.

Starting oͿ in 1990, the organisation admits its Àrst nine years were riddled with losses, about $3 million. “We lost a lot,” confessed the CEO. “That was tough for us. Over time, we recovered fully.And, as we recovered, we began to diversify our business.” Today, the organisation deals in retail, tourism, aviation, and manufacturing, including exploration and production. One of its major ongoing projects is the gas project, domestic gas, and gas to supply the LNG Train Seven. It also has a gas project in Imo. It is a gas transmission facility. Lee’s manufacturing and fabrication workshop will undertake small and massive fabrications of new vessels and spools for process facilities, especially within the oil and gas sector. The fabrication workshop, measuring 2,515sqm, is complete with blasting/painting bays and state-of-the-art equipment. It will also engage in the maintenance of existing equipment for clients for optimal performance.

The company — Lee Engineering Group and Allied Companies Limited — has at least 2,000 employees. The group comprises Lee Engineering, Tribet Ltd (travels and tours), TribetAviation, Tribet PuriÀed Waters, and Lee Oasis.

Ikpea’s organisation does more than creating wealth and value. As the CEO of the group, he sees to it personally that the less privileged are empowered. He considers philanthropy a “gift from God,” resulting in establishing a foundation, Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Foundation (ALIF), in 2012. The foundation has trained students, and the majority said to be orphans.

As of 2019, the foundation has cared for many young children and produced 119 graduates, including medical doctors, nurses, architects, nurses, accountants, quantity surveyors, medical laboratory scientists, lawyers, and other specialists — right from secondary schools. These are the ones in universities. Some started from secondary schools.

Adding to that, the foundation trains people in skills acquisition, including welding, fabrication, engineering, etc. Among other things, the company executed an electriÀcation project in Okpokunoe in Delta, completed a rural water project for Ewatto in Edo, provided speed boats Odidi and Kantu in the coastal area of Delta.

For all Nigerian youths with the passion and persistence to work and earn an honest living, Ikpea said, “I will say, ‘Pause, ponder and take pride in hard work, honesty, and patience.’ Nigeria is a vast country and highly blessed.

“Nigeria is blessed with a lot of natural resources. To fully harness these material resources, the nation’s leaders will have to seek ways to bring out the best in the people. We stand to gain as a nation beyond description as long as we manage all the resources well.”

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

BUSINESS OUTSIDER

Baby Diaper Wars Nigeria

Tunji Adegbite

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aby Diapers are underwear worn by infants to catch waste and is usually made out of cloth or synthetic disposable material. In the past, animal skins, moss linens, and leaves were used; however, diapers have now been proven to be the safest, most convenient way. Cloth diapers are made out of fabrics such as cotton, hemp, or microfibers making them washable and reusable.

While synthetic disposable diapers, first introduced in 1948, are made of absorbent materials that cannot be reused.

Innovations have since been made within the diaper market to segment the market further. There are now biodegradable diapers, pull up, pants or taped diapers (based on mode of wearing), and ridged or non-ridged (based on core and ability to absorb) diapers.

However, disposable diapers still command the most market share; as of 2016, the segment accounted for 64% of the industry. The $3.4 Billion baby diaper industry is projected to grow to $51.5 Billion by 2024. Some of the factors influencing this growth are- high birth rate, rising income levels, and increased awareness of sanitation and hygiene.

North America and Europe are the biggest diaper markets globally while Asia and Africa are significant emerging growth markets. In Asia: India, Indonesia, and China are leading the growth in market share in the region. In Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are projected to see the fastest growth rate between 2020 and 2025 (2.9% and 13.3%, respectively) 7 Million Babies!

7 million babies are born each year in Nigeria with a ratio of 37.3

births per 1000 women. This figure should ideally position the Nigerian market as a prime market for diapers but this is not yet the case.

Nigeria’s high poverty rate, currency depreciation, and economic crises affect purchasing power.

With a GDP per Capita of about $2,000 annually, about half of Nigerians live below the poverty line. It is estimated that the daily diaper usage per baby in Nigeria is between 0.05-0.10, compared to 8-10 daily in Developed countries. Poor hygiene practices also influence diaper usage. About 100 million Nigerians lack basic sanitation facilities, and about 12% still defecate in the open.

The ideal market size of diapers in Nigeria is approximately 2.07billion pieces annually; current consumption is about 1.75 Billion pieces annually. Brands driving this consumption are Pampers by Procter & Gamble, Huggies by Kimberly Clark, Molfix by Hayat Kimya, and a smaller players like Angel, Kiss Kids.

Inspired by babies. Created by Pampers Pampers, the first major disposable diaper brand in Nigeria was introduced by Procter and Gamble in 2000 and controlled nearly 100% of the market share. Pampers was so well known that it became the generic name for the category.

The brand enjoyed a market monopoly for 15 years and did little to innovate on its product or price, despite complaints about its high price- N45 for 1 Baby Dry size 3 diaper. There were also complaints that the Pampers sold in Nigeria were of lower quality than those sold in Developed countries. The only alternative at the time was the importation of foreign diapers.

Kimberly Clark, introduced Huggies to the Nigerian market in 2015 competing for market share with Pampers. Despite this, Pampers

retained its position as the market leader in Nigeria. In 2016, Moflix entered the market and has since disrupted the market, toppling Pampers from the market leader position in Nigeria.

In response, Procter and Gamble did two things. First, they introduced ‘new’ products - some existing product lines already offered in Western countries to Nigeria.

These were Pampers Baby Dry and Pampers Premium, positioned to compete with the new competitor ’s products. They also commissioned and built a $300 Million diaper factory in Agbara, Ogun State – the largest investment in the country by a non-oil company then. The factory was shut down one year after launch; P&G claimed to be “restructuring”. Today Pampers controls less than 20% market share.

What went wrong?

1) Being comfortable in your position – they did not innovate nor listen to their customer ’s complaints about the price and seemingly inferior products compared to those offered in foreign markets.

2) Failure to integrate backwards – Procter and Gamble had not invested in the local production of raw materials and relied on importing essential parts. Devaluation of the Naira and increasing foreign exchange rates raised production costs.

Happy Today, Happy Tomorrow Molfix was introduced into the Nigerian market by Hayat Kimya in 2016 and it was ready for battle!

Introduced during an economic recession where Nigerians’ purchasing power dramatically reduced, Molfix entered at a lower price (N26 for 1 Dry Pants size 3 diaper), while other brands were increasing their selling price. Molfix provided its products at a lower price and retained quality by reducing its production costs. They achieved

this by investing $100 million into local raw materials production.

Also, they generate their plants’ electricity. Their factory in Agbara, Ogun State, churns out 1.3 Billion diapers a year.

Research shows Molfix is the #1 diaper brand in Nigeria based on market share commanding about 44% of the market. It also has a brand loyalty of 70%, meaning 7 out of the 10 people that purchase the brand will repurchase it.

What is working for Molfix?

1) They came into the diaper market to fill a gap - affordable, quality, functional diapers that are readily available in the market.

2) They listen to their target market - through forums and events.

3) They leverage the power of community - providing both online and offline experiential events to customers.

4) Successful word-of-mouth marketing.

5) They speak directly to the journey parents are going through with their babies and toddlers.

In conclusion, although massive growth is forecasted, Nigeria’s diaper market is limited by economic and foreign exchange crises. As the economic challenges continue, purchasing power will drop and spending will be tightened. Many of the mid-middle and lowermiddle-income Nigerians will take a dip in their socio-economic status.

Brands looking to compete in this market will have to adjust and innovate to retain market share.

· Tunji Adegbite is a thought leader in Strategy and Supply Chain, who has worked with leading organisations like PwC and an IOC. He also founded Naspire, a business research platform using African business insights to help entrepreneurs and professionals succeed. He can be reached via tunji@naspire.com.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

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BUSINESS PERSONALITY

,ÀH 6HNLER $ 5HYHUHG 3KLODQWKURSLVW DW Humanity is essentially the same; all face challenges; all face uncertainties, and all face issues to deal with.

How one faces his daily life ends up exposing his sense of character, his ability to understand the issues on the table, and his ability to appreciate the humanness of the person across the table. 5DKHHP $NLQJEROX writes on Managing Director of Heritage, Ifie Sekibo’s selfless service to humanity as he attains the age of 56

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lobally, men and institutions have always emerged at diͿerent fora to show support to humanity in the absence of their immediate government’s intervention. They were pushed to the occasion due to their human nature.

As early as the third millennium BCE (Before the Common Era), evidence from law codes shows that Babylonian kings decreed special punishments for the strong, who abused the weak. To Egyptian sacred writings - such as The Book of the Dead, around the same time, that makes it clear that successful passage to the afterlife depended on a lifetime record of benevolent acts towards the suͿering; and to George Peabody (1795 -1869), the father of modern philanthropy, who endowed libraries and museums in the United States, it is obvious that helping others is a sine qua non of life.

Though American billionaires, Warren BuͿet, and Bill and Melinda Gates can be cited as the modern-day philanthropists, back home, there are various individuals, who live by the code of helping others and have devoted much of their resources to see others smile.

The ability to render a helping hand to others in the society, especially to those encumbered by the unpredictable hands of nature is an attribute those familiar with IÀesimama Sekibo have come to know him for. He perceived philanthropy, not only as a temporary aid to mitigate the need, but something that the recipients can use to build and live a meaningful life.

Sekibo reckoned that lending a helping hand to further better the society is similar to giving hope to those who need it and it will be a crime not to oͿer any form of assistance, especially when he lives by the saying that whoever one has the power to oͿer assistance to, the person is one’s companion, hence the need to help the person.

He summed this up in his book, ‘Leadership Turnaround’, that, “When there is no hope, the human spirit dies. The only reason why we go back to vote in another election, or we believe the society will change, is because we have one strand of hope.

Just one more try and we can make it better.”

Though there are some philanthropic gestures made as a private citizen, the bulk of Sekibo’s societal interventions are done by Heritage Bank, Nigeria’s most innovative bank, where he is the head honcho.

His passion for education philanthropy made him sponsored the launch of a book titled “Let Us Speak Ikwerre”, (A KWU IWNUROHHNA), in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The book originally written in the English Language was authored by Mrs. Oyintarela Umeri and translated to the Ikwerre language

by Dr. Tony Enyia, an indigene of Rumuor-Ogbakari, Emohua Local Government of Rivers State.

Though he stumbled on the idea to translate the English language to Niger Delta languages when he was invited by his friend Timi Alaibe to the launch of ‘Izon Àe’, a book written in Izon language, he immediately took action and sponsored the Niger Delta Books Limited to launch an audio CD in the Kirike language,(Okrika dialect) titled: ‘Speak Kirike’, which was successfully launched in 2017.

He hasn’t looked back since then and has sponsored other

Ife Sekibo

languages, which include Ikwerre, Kalabari, Ekpeye, Nembe, and Ogoni language, with others coming in earnest. He asserted that his support for writing books in all Niger-Delta languages was inspired by the desire not to allow Nigerian local dialects to go into extinction.

Now 56 years old, one of the cardinal points of his life is mentorship, and he is involved in mentoring the youths over the years, as despite his busy schedules, he still mentors and gives direction to them. He believes that by developing their emotional intelligence, his inÁuence can outlive him in their minds. This is what a leader will be remembered, loved, and celebrated for, according to him.

As a leader, who believes that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, Sekibo has gotten involved in various youth empowerment programmes through Heritage Bank, and as such, the bank has received diͿerent accolades and laurels from non-governmental organisations and diͿerent states governments.

Job creation is not left out as Heritage Bank, through the establishment of a full-Áedged learning and development institute, accredited by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), dubbed, “The ReÀnery” successfully trained and employed about 300 new intakes.

Always looking for ways to be of impact to the society, to mark World Water Day 2021, Heritage Bank came with plans to assist communities in dire need of clean water by installing boreholes for them, while it presses for sustainable management of water resources.

In continuation of his gestures and as part of eͿorts to cushion the eͿects of the novel COVID-19 on the education sector, Heritage

Bank partnered Hon. Fatima Mohammed (FAMO) foundation to provide succour to over 300 aͿected private school teachers and small-medium enterprises (SMEs).

The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of schools for months leaving the private school teachers without any means of livelihood and no source of income.

To this eͿect, and in alleviating the challenges, Heritage Bank and its partner supported over 300 private school teachers and small businesses, as palliatives were given in 15 local governments; including Àve major markets in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area of Ifako Ijaiye, in Lagos State.

Revered for his knowledge-based leadership approach, Sekibo realised that to eͿect a change in the society through philanthropy, support has to be given to areas that will have a direct impact on the overall interest of the citizenry.

This came to the fore at Season 7 of Heritage Bank sponsored reality TV show, ‘The Next Titan’, themed “The Unstoppable”. It was designed to search for business ideas that are immune to any pandemic; innovations that break boundaries and technologies that can survive any lockdown, and occasioned by the shock caused by COVID-19.

This was why an entrepreneur, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science, and the Chief Executive O΀cer of Josult Oil Processing Company, a palm oil processing company in Akwa Ibom State, Joshua Idiong, emerged the winner of the show and went home with N10million.

Through Heritage Bank, he doled out $40, 000 grants to winners of the inaugural edition of the Heritage Bank Innovation Lab Accelerator programme (HB-LAB) as part of its eͿorts to support Nigeria’s aspiration, and roadmap to becoming a leading Information Communication Technology (ICT) Hub in Africa.

The HB-LAB called, ‘Demo Day,’ is a 12-week programme, expected to provide technology start-ups seeking additional investments to progress and accelerate market introduction/ adoption of their solutions with co-working and internet resources, guidance, and mentorship with Àntech start-ups founder and seed funding.

The bank intended to create an enabling environment, resources, and support required to innovate and accelerate impactful solutions with the potential to radically improve Ànancial inclusion/ intermediation, health, automobile, agriculture, and other related problems aͿecting critical sectors of the economy.

He sees philanthropy as a way of life and wants others in the society to see it too, especially the younger generation where the concept of self seems more prevalent in everything they do. He said, ‘‘The culture of mindset of self that is prevalent in the youth of today must be changed to a mentality of us and we. We must deliberately begin to eliminate the l and replace it with We if we are to see the economic, political and social transformation we so desire.’’

Sekibo is still touching lives across various communities in Nigeria with his sincere commitment towards their progress and he is always attending to the needs and desires of the less privileged in the society, and this has set him apart as a true champion of equality and an outstanding beacon of hope for the now and coming generations.

6WUHDPFHQW 'HYHORSV $SSV WR 6KRZFDVH $IULFDQ 6SRUWV 3HUVRQDOLWLHV of their Àghts back home in Nigeria. What’s more, I know how to emulate international standards and how to adapt the Western pay per view Àght model to be both proÀtable to foreign networks and aͿordable to the average Nigerian. Thereby, making the hosting a world title Àght in Nigeria a feasible ‘win-win’ situation for: TV networks, combat organizations, the pugilists and more importantly adoring Nigerian Àght fans”.

“Furthermore, when Floyd Mayweather Jnr. wanted to host his last and 50th Àght on the African Continent, I was contacted by US TV networks to promote the Àght on the African Continent because of my past experience in hosting as successful world title boxing show in South Africa. I am now bringing that international exposure to Streamcent”. Originally, Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s 50th Àght was a rematch

with Manny Pacquiao in SouthAfrica but Floyld Mayweather Jnr’s desire to Àght on the African continent was thwarted by boxing politics and he fought his last and 50th bout instead against the UFC boxing champion Conor McGregor, in a Àght sanctioned by the CEO of UFC, Dana White, in the US. “After the heavy weight UFC championship win by Francis Ngannou (of Cameroon) over Stipe Miocic (USA) on 27th March 2021, Francis declared at the post Àght press conference that the UFC, with three current world champions (being Francis at Heavyweight (below 120kg), Israel Adesanya at middleweight (below 84 kg) and Kamaru Usma at welterweight (below 70kg) should seriously consider coming to Africa. “As three Champs, I think we deserve at least one event, open event to honour us,” added Francis Ngannou. To his credit, Dana White the CEO

of UFC, has declared in the past that “I want to do a Àght in Africa. There is a market there, it is real and we can and will do a Àght there, I am planning for that right now”.

Currently, to view an Usman orAdesanya Àght in Nigerian the cost of subscription is outside the budget of the average Nigerian. In Nigeria, approximately 1 percent of the population subscriber to cable/satellite sports channels that broadcast UFC world title Àghts in Nigeria, out of a population of over 200 million. Whereas, the Streamcent App. can connect with smart phones that account for up to 50% of the 170 mobile phone users in Nigeria, at less than one tenth the cost of cable/satellite subscriptions.

Dr. Ogun emphasizes “Our research reveals that mobile phone use inAfrica shall double over the next Àve years to over 500 million phones and the majority of the increase in phone usage

&RQW·G IURP 3J will be smart phones with streaming capabilities.

So much money is being ‘left on the table’ by international sports promoters who continue to broadcast quality sporting content in an ‘analog fashion’ (using cable/satellite) instead of gravitating to a digital world where youths (who make up the majority of the African continent’s population) prefer to use mobile phones and other devices to stream sporting content.

“The outdated Western model for streaming sporting content requires adaptation for Africa.

We, at Streamcen, have perfected how to engage interactively with fans, using local content to maximize revenues, in a way that international streaming companies have failed to do – ‘one size does not Àt all’ – successful streaming of sports content in Africa requires a locally crafted and nuanced approach to fan engagement,” added Dr. Adrian Ogun.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

23

BUSINESS INTERVIEW OLU RAHEEM

There’s So Much Potential in Nigeria Finland Can Tap On 7th October,1960, Finland o΀cially recognised Nigeria as a sovereign country and established diplomatic relations established with her, three years later, precisely 18th January 1963. About 60 years later, in 2018, the Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, expressed her country’s commitment to promote trade relations with Nigeria. It includes the availability of funding instruments for promoting business partnership between Finland and Nigeria. Two years on, in 2021, the Nigerian-born Head, Business Finland Nigeria and Trade Commissioner for Finland in West Africa, Mr. Olu Raheem, throws more light on how far the Nigerian-Finland relationship has gone and how deep they desire the union to get. Speaking with Kunle Aderinokun and Chris Paul, Raheem says, the relationship is anchored on a mutually beneÀcial partnership across socio-economic spectra

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hatisthestateofFinland-Nigeriabusiness cooperation, today?

When you look at the Finnish-Nigeria’s history, there have always been good ties.

When you look at it from my angle, which is the business and investments relations, we know there is still a lot to do. I think there has been great strides and improvements within the last 10 years. We have moved forward. We have seen Finnish companies coming in their numbers; especially the smaller companies being more interested in Africa. And when you talk about Africa, you can’t take Nigeria away.

Of course, I would always like to say we have played our part. But we also recognise the situation that surround business environment also aͿect development, one way or another.

One of the things that have aͿected the potentials and increasing interest in Nigeria andAfrica now, is in the fact that it is the last continent that has been properly tapped into.

We have seen European countries go into Asia and what China, other Asian countries and Americans have gone through and how they have transformed into Àrst world countries by themselves.

Logically, it is now Africa’s turn. How fast and how soon this will happen, we have our question marks. But we know we are moving forward. And when you look at Finland, being a small country has always opted for a business relationships and interactions that are mutually beneÀcial. Finland was never and has never been a conquering nation. It is almost like every African nation that has at some point in her history been under some colonial power. In the beginning they were under Sweden and after that, they were under Russia and that’s where they got their Independence from.

So, there is no history of being a colonial country. So, anything they got has to be through mutually beneÀcial business interactions and partnerships. We can see great strides. Everybody has been following the news; for the fourth year in a row, Finland has been voted the happiest country in the world.

When you talk about happiness, you are looking at parameters that are anchored on security, social interactions, policies, welfare...

You can be in Finland and be rest assured that your way of living is up to global standard and above; no matter what your situation is.

Are you sick, homeless or poor? The government and the society will provide enough resources for you to survive; to some extent.

6R ZH FDQ GHÀQLWHO\ VHH WKHVH JUHDW VWULGHV This COVID-19 has aͿected everyone. We were planning for the Prime Minister of Finland to come. Finland has the youngest Prime Minister, indeed, the youngest female Prime Minister at the moment.

When you look at the Finnish cabinet, about 62 per cent of them are female. So, it is also progressive in that nature. We planned a visit for and also the Minister of Trade too, but this COVID-19 has disrupted that.

Looking at strides and what Finland is known for, you will discover that there is a lot of technology.

Of course, we are aware that technology has thrived tremendously during this COVID time. If there is a brand Nigerians are familiar with, especially in the telecoms sector, it is Nokia. Lots of Nigerians believe Nokia is a Japanese GSM Product. But it is actually a Finnish phone. Of course, they are not producing the phone in the capacity that they used to... As you know, they used to be number one in all phone categories.

But now, Nokia is more focused on the telecoms infrastructure, which is big, but it is more hidden. However, you have to be inside the business of telecoms to really feel the depth. So, Nokia is turning out to be a strong player in the 4G, 5G networks that are coming up. And it is doing very well in Nigeria and we have seen that is one of the strong instruments of growth area. Every telecoms operator is increasing its capacity by focusing on high-end infrastructure development.

deep into circular economy. We have been developing a framework, bringing a lot of companies together as much as we can during this COVID times.

WhatarethesectorsthathavehighFinland-Nigeriabusinessfocus?

ICT is at the forefront of this and Sitra, one of Finland’s strong ICT Àrms has been working with Nigerians in this area.

Like I said, we are a very big proponent of circular economy. Also, power generation, we have Wartsila, one of biggest companies, a lot of people don’t know that the company has the installed capacity of about 10 per cent of Nigeria’s power.

They have been here since the 70s. But you know Finnish companies are entities that you really don’t hear much about in the media and they don’t do enough PR and all of that. It’s mainly because they are business to business companies. So, you have to be in their line of business and allied sectors to know them. They are not a consumer service or products Àrm in that sense. For instance, you have to be in the cement sector to know that the company powers all the cement plants of one of the top players in the Nigerian cement industry.

But then, there are lots of small, small, smaller interactions; and we are also looking at, you know, at the other side. What’s been exported into Europe, Finland? We are looking at Cocoa, Palm Oil, Cashew nuts; what is good about interaction with Finland is that it is part of EU. So, it is basically EU rules. Nigerian products and services, Companies that meet the EU criteria are free to tap into the opportunities that abound within that sphere.

Raheem

And when you check the numbers, the operators are doing very well. Airtel is posting best results ever, MTN is doing great. There’s always somebody that is enjoying the situation that might be harsh for others.

For us too, in Finland, we have concentrated on solutions in products and services that we can work with, in Nigeria, with Nigerians at this moment that will serve both countries mutually.

We are looking at waste management, waste to energy... Finland loves to talk about circular economy.And they are really putting energy and resources into being at the forefront of circular economy. There is a circular economy fund that Finland is launching very soon. And one of the fund advisers is going to be with the African Development Bank. So, they are going to be partly in charge of the fund. They are at African countries and especially Nigeria, to a great extent.

That’s something we have been working on the last six months; working with Lagos State, trying to push Lagos to becoming a circular economy model city of Africa. We are looking at what resources and what frameworks we can develop together.

Just like you said, there is so much potentials and resources to be tapped into; and circularity in general, we have had our ways of doing it, you know, some people pick up trash and ferry it forward...

You know, Lagos has a way in which, relatively, the system works.

Though everything might not be well-orchestrated or structured but one way or the other, we have always managed. And that has been the surprise for a lot of foreigners that how can 25 million people manage so well; you don’t even have a waste management system, but you Ànd a way to make it work.

So, it’s about really tapping into some of these systems and improving them. You know something that is already working within a situation of chaos, you know if you add a bit of system and structure to it, the results will be exponential. Exponential growth.

Those are some of the things we are looking at. So Finland is very

Do these business interactions spill into softer sectors such as culture and entertainment?

I want to believe that has happened more naturally than in other heavy parts of the economy. As you know we look at things strictly from a business perspective. But lately, we have found that the Nigerian entertainment industry has been gaining some traction in Finland.

The music and movie industry for instance have turned to be more popular in Finland than one can imagine.

Sometimes back, they had an African movie festival and it was largely dominated by Nollywood. Some of the Nollywood actors told me they were treated like stars. They told me they took lots of photographs, signed countless autographs and generally enjoyed Hollywood-styled status and of course, loads of fun in Finland. So, the Finland audience really know them.

I believe this is a testimony to the power of communications technology, the internet and all that. People have access to some of these movies. I have friends in Finland who have never been to Nigeria and they know Nollywood actors.

Before they would ask me to bring them the DVDs and stuͿ.

But now, with NetÁix and other online movie concerns, access to these movies are now very easy across the world.

So, the Nigerian movie and music industry is really booming.

You know, for a Nigerian Artiste, the only way you can make money in Nigeria is either you have a big sponsor or you do big concerts; or do weddings, events and so on. But in Europe, you actually do tours. And every month, before the COVID struck, there was a Nigerian Artiste performing in Finland. Yes. Every month!

Burna Boy, Davido, all of them have been to Finland.

I know some of the promoters there and the managers, here; and they told me that is where they actually make money.

That’s why I said it has happened more naturally. And the business part of it, which is evolving rapidly is being demanddriven. The demand is that we want these people to come and perform. They arrange it and of course, the Embassy sees them may be when they are travelling or applying for visas and they go and they come back.

There people go to concerts and they are ready to pay quite a lot; И50, И60 per person and they have 1,000, 2,000 capacity halls etc.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

WOMEN ENTERPRENEURS

TOLULOPE OKO-IGAIRE

As Entrepreneur, I Had Breakthrough Because of My Passion Dr. Tolulope Oko-Igaire is the Executive Director at The Institute of Counseling in Nigeria and Head Therapist/Sexologist at Intimacy Clinic. One of Africa’s foremost sex therapist and professional mental health practitioner, she is a clinical counselor with demonstrated experience in depression treatment, PTSD counselling, human sexuality and dysfunctional behavioral treatment. Also, a leading Gestalt, CBT, and psychodynamic expert with specialisation in personality disorders, Sexual dysfunction and family dynamics. Experience and professionalism distinguished Oko-Igaire in an environment where professional counseling is non- existent and discussion on mental and sexual health issues considered a taboo. She singlehandedly took mental health counseling and psychotherapy from the backward traditional level to a more professional forefront, blending counseling skills and ethical values. With hundreds of articles and publications to her credit, Oko-Igaire, popularly called The Fixer, has worked with various multinationals, governmental and non-governmental organizations across Africa. In this interview with Oyinlola Sale, she explains how counselling can help in transforming the mindset of individuals for a better nation

N

RZ WHOO XV ZK\ WKH\ FDOO \RX WKH À[HU" They call me the Àxer because I build homes, I mend relationships and I Àx sexual issues. I also help people to Àx their mental health issues as well. For me, I think everyone has a level of greatness in them and with a little bit of encouragement or self actualisation, people can always be who they are meant to be. When it comes with issues of the heart, it could mess up with people’s head and make them to be very miserable. In understanding the implications of this, I know there is no marriage or relationship that cannot be worked on. Now, when people come to me, I always believe that the two parties that are involved are willing to give it a shot.

Now, I have seen people who are depressed and people who are even suicidal, people who have given up on their relationships, and I have been able to let them know that there are reasons to live again and have hope for tomorrow. Now, when they begin to see those things, people believe you are The Fixer. :KDW LQVSLUHG \RX WR JR LQWR PHQWDO KHDOWK FRXQVHOOLQJ" I think for a lot of us as Africans, we are barely existing; we are not living. And I will explain what I mean by that to you. You see while we were growing up in the 40s, 50s, Africans have values that help us to shape our lives and guide our behaviours, mode of interaction and things that are cautioning us. But unfortunately, we are gradually losing those values. Whether we like it or not, civilisation is gradually coming upon us in which we cannot keep living in mud houses.

The world is becoming a global village we have to live. Even if we are living in denial and we are saying, we don’t want to move, we are still going to move. For example, according to a latest research now, there are 101 diͿerent kind of gender and in Nigeria, we only believe there are two genders. If we have the ability to control the information being passed to us or we believe we are self-su΀cient, but our economy is in shambles. The western world will keep dictating to us.

So there is nothing we can do about the civilisation coming upon us, so gradually we are losing our values and then the western values that are coming upon us, we are not ready to embrace it.

In Nigeria, we don’t believe in counselling and its aͿecting us.

The fact is that people are dealing with issues and they can’t even talk. They need someone to talk to. This is where a counsellor comes in to guide them and to make a diͿerence. :KDW LV WKH GL;HUHQFH EHWZHHQ PHQWDO KHDOWK FRXQVHOOLQJ LQ 1LJHULD DQG DEURDG" There is a diͿerence between mental counselling here and abroad.

In Nigeria, you see people in churches, they make altar calls and say counsellors will write down your name and number. Now those are not counsellors, they are administrative people. The fact is, professional counsellors do not advise; we oͿer professional counselling and we use therapeutic interventions. We use our theory to intervene in issues.

The accessibility of counsellors is another issue entirely.

Another thing is the area of education. How do I even begin to explain that? The students grow through pain because they want to be a doctor or to have a master’s degree.

There are people who have that in-born ability to counsel people and all they need is a certiÀcate or diploma. Education is a continuous process, but the Nigerian system will not make it happen.

So Nigerians are very ignorant when it comes to mental health counselling. $V D ZRPDQ ZLWK VR PDQ\ UHVSRQVLELOLWLHV KRZ GR \RX VWDUW \RXU GD\" I start my day by opening my eyes, process my thoughts and I come down slowly and try to meditate, sit up and process my feelings and emotions. Change into my gym clothes and take a walk in my estate. I drop my daughter in school, so we get to bond and discuss. It’s very important.

+RZ GLG \RX PDQDJH WR ÀQDQFH WKLV EXVLQHVV LQ LWV HDUO\ GD\V" Fromdayone,myhusbandhasbeentheoneÀnancingmybusiness.

There is a particular loan my husband gets from his o΀ce. They give them to start up a business. My husband gave me the money to settle down, so the renting of the o΀ce and all was settled. The fact is my husband has been my backbone. +RZ KDYH \RX EHHQ DEOH WR FDUYH D QLFKH IRU \RXUVHOI LQ WKH PLGVW RI WKH FRPSHWLWLRQ" In the Àeld of mental health counselling, I am in a class of my own. We have a feedback form in my o΀ce and the comments of clients made us to realise how unique we are. I have developed over the years and I have evolved over the years. I am a force to reckon with in the Àeld of mental health counselling and sex therapy.

Oko-Igaire

The issue we also have is the culture of secrecy that you cannot take your issue to visit an outsider. The Mental Health Law hasn’t been established and there are a lot of places that we are just scratching the surface.

1RZ ZLWK WKH SDQGHPLF HQWUHSUHQHXUV KDYH EHFRPH LQQRYDWLYH VR LQ ZKDW ZD\ KDV LW PDGH \RX FUHDWLYH" Talking about creativity with the pandemic, of course before all our classes were at the Institute of Counselling in Ikoyi. But now, we have students online and they take their classes online and everyone goes to zoom. That is one thing COVID-19 has changed.

:KDW ZHUH VRPH RI \RXU ELJJHVW IHDUV ZKHQ \RX VWDUWHG WKLV EXVLQHVV" One of my biggest fears when I was running this business, is that as a sex therapist, the mindset that people had about it.

I had to break through because of my passion.

Now, what are the things you put in place in order to set XS D VXFFHVVIXO WUDLQLQJ LQVWLWXWH" So, to set up a successful training institute, of course, now we are trying to work with best international best practices to ensure we are doing things the right way to develop curriculum that are of international standard.

+RZ FDQ WKH JRYHUQPHQW FUHDWH DQ HQDEOLQJ HQYLURQPHQW IRU EXVLQHVVHV OLNH \RXUV WR WKULYH" It’s important we pass the mental health act into law, even if it’s not so huge. It’s still going to beneÀt mental health counsel$V WKH H[HFXWLYH GLUHFWRU RI FRXQVHOOLQJ LQ 1LJHULD +DV WKH ling in Nigeria. It’s di΀cult to register this kind of entity, the government needs to make it easy for them.

JRYHUQPHQW PDGH H;RUWV WR VXSSRUW WKLV VHFWRU" Government making eͿorts? I really do not know what that means; 7HOO XV DERXW D KLJKO\ GLͿFXOW SHULRG ZKHUH \RX WKRXJKW you don’t even make eͿort in what you don’t really understand.

Mental health counselling is one thing that is so di΀cult to explain RI JLYLQJ XS DQG KRZ \RX RYHUFDPH WKH VLWXDWLRQ" A highly di΀cult period, I faced a lot, and at the beginning to people. In most cases when our students come into the institute of counselling, you become a born again and start thinking diͿerently. of my journey, I was counselling for free, people come into my Now, until we begin to have a mind shift, I don’t think anything o΀ce and when they are going, I will still give them transport after counselling them for free. It wasn’t easy at all! can get better as Nigerians.

Impossibility is not in my dictionary, you can say no, but I What are the challenges you have faced so far in running the believe in my dreams and what I want to achieve.

EXVLQHVV" A young female entrepreneur thinking of following your The number one challenge is the level of ignorance, so am in a Àeld where people don’t understand. I started pushing the crusade IRRWVWHSV ZKDW ZRXOG \RX WHOO KHU" For a female entrepreneur, the Àrst question I would ask you is: of mental wellness in Africa. who are you? Because you need to discover yourself, when you People don’t see the need for counselling, they will rather talk to their pastor or Imam or one herbalist that will give you something. discover yourself, every other thing becomes easy.

SUNDAY APRIL 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

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KŶ ƚŚĞ ŽƚŚĞƌ ŚĂŶĚ͕ ƚŚĞ ĐŽƌĞ ŝŶŇĂƟŽŶ ƐƵď ĐŽŵƉŽŶĞŶƚ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ Ă ĚŝǀĞƌŐĞŶƚ ƚƌĞŶĚ͘ KŶ Ă LJͬLJ ďĂƐŝƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ŝŶĚĞdž ƌŽƐĞ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ďLJ ϮϵďƉƐ ƚŽ ϭϮ͘ϳй ďƵƚ ĞĂƐĞĚ ϭϰďƉƐ ŵͬŵ ƚŽ ϭ͘ϭй͘ tĞ ďĞůŝĞǀĞ ƚŚĞ LJͬLJ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞ ŝƐ ŵĂŝŶůLJ ƌĞŇĞĐƟǀĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ Ϯϯ͘ϵй ĚĞǀĂůƵĂͲ ƟŽŶ ŽĨ EĂŝƌĂ͛Ɛ ŽĸĐŝĂů ƌĂƚĞ ĂŐĂŝŶƐƚ ƚŚĞ h^ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ůĂƐƚ ϭϮ ŵŽŶƚŚƐ ;ĨƌŽŵ േϯϬϲ ƚŽ േϯϳϵͿ ǁŚŝůĞ ƚŚĞ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞŵĞŶƚ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ŵͬ ŵ ďĂƐŝƐ ĐĂŶ ďĞ ĂƩƌŝďƵƚĞĚ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐůŽǁͲ ĚŽǁŶ ŝŶ ŝŵƉŽƌƚƐ͘

KƵƌ ƐŚŽƌƚ ƚŽ ŵĞĚŝƵŵ ƚĞƌŵ ƉƌŽũĞĐƟŽŶƐ ĨŽƌ ŝŶŇĂƟŽŶ ƌĞŵĂŝŶ ŶĞŐĂƟǀĞ ĨŽƌ ƚǁŽ ŵĂŝŶ ƌĞĂƐŽŶƐ͘ &ŝƌƐƚ͕ ƉŽŽƌ ǁĞĂƚŚĞƌ ĐŽŶĚŝͲ ƟŽŶ ;ƌĂŝŶ ĨĂůůͿ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞĚ ĨĂƌŵĞƌ ŚĞƌĚĞƌ ĐƌŝƐŝƐ ĂƌĞ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĞĚ ƚŽ ǁŽƌƐĞŶ LJŝĞůĚ ĨƌŽŵ ŚĂƌǀĞƐƚ ŝŶ ϮϬϮϭ͘ ^ĞĐŽŶĚ͕ ƚŚĞ E͛Ɛ ĨŽĐƵƐ ŽŶ Ă ƉƌŽ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ ŽďũĞĐƟǀĞ ǁŝůů ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ ƚŽ ĚƌŝǀĞ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ŵŽŶĞLJ ƐƵƉƉůLJ ĂŶĚ ĞƐĐĂůĂƚĞ ŝŶŇĂƟŽŶ ƌĂƚĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŶĞĂƌ ƚĞƌŵ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ůŝŐŚƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĂďŽǀĞ ŚŝŐŚůŝŐŚƚĞĚ ĚŽǁŶƐŝĚĞ ƌŝƐŬ ĨĂĐƚŽƌƐ͕ ǁĞ ƌĞǀŝƐĞĚ ƵƉ ŽƵƌ ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞ ŝŶŇĂƟŽŶ ƌĂƚĞ ƉƌŽͲ ũĞĐƟŽŶ ĨŽƌ ϮϬϮϭ ƚŽ ϭϱ͘ϴй ĨƌŽŵ ĂŶ ĞĂƌůŝĞƌ ƉƌŽũĞĐƟŽŶ ŽĨ ϭϰ͘ϭй͘

'ůŽďĂů ƋƵŝƟĞƐ DĂƌŬĞƚ͗ dĂůĞƐ ŽĨ EĞǁ ^ĂŶĐƟŽŶƐ ĂŶĚ Ă Ψϭ͘Ϭ ƚƌŝůůŝŽŶ Ğďƚ WƌŽͲ ƉŽƐĂů ŝŶ ƚŚĞ h 'ůŽďĂů Ks/ ϭϵ ĐĂƐĞƐ ƌĞŵĂŝŶĞĚ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ƌŝƐĞ ƚŚŝƐ ǁĞĞŬ Ăƚ ϭϯϴ͘ϳ ŵŝůůŝŽŶ͕ ĂŶ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞ ŽĨ ϯ͘ϴй ĨƌŽŵ ůĂƐƚ ǁĞĞŬ ǁŚŝůĞ ƚŚĞ ĚĞĂƚŚ ƚŽůů ƌŽƐĞ Ϯ͘ϵй ƚŽ Đ͘ϯ͘Ϭ ŵŝůůŝŽŶ͘ dŚĞ h^ ƌĞŵĂŝŶƐ ƚŚĞ ĞƉŝĐĞŶƚƌĞ ŽĨ ŝŶĨĞĐƟŽŶƐ ǁŝƚŚ ϯϭ͘ϭŵ ƌĞƉŽƌƚĞĚ ĐĂƐĞƐ ĂůƚŚŽƵŐŚ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ ĞĐŽŶŽŵͲ ŝĐ ĚĂƚĂ ĨŽƌ ƵŶĞŵƉůŽLJŵĞŶƚ ĂŶĚ ƌĞƚĂŝů ƐĂůĞƐ ƌĞǀĞĂů Ă ǀĂĐĐŝŶĞ ƉŽǁĞƌĞĚ ĞĐŽŶŽŵŝĐ ƌĞĐŽǀͲ ĞƌLJ͘ ^Ɵůů ŝŶ ƚŚĞ h^͕ WƌĞƐŝĚĞŶƚ :ŽĞ ŝĚĞŶ͛Ɛ ĂĚŵŝŶŝƐƚƌĂƟŽŶ ŚĂƐ ƉůĂĐĞĚ ĂĚĚŝƟŽŶĂů ĞĐŽͲ ŶŽŵŝĐ ƐĂŶĐƟŽŶƐ ŽŶ ZƵƐƐŝĂ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ĂĐĐƵͲ ƐĂƟŽŶƐ ŽĨ ĐLJďĞƌ ĂƩĂĐŬƐ ĂŶĚ ĞīŽƌƚƐ ƚŽ ŝŶͲ ŇƵĞŶĐĞ ƚŚĞ ƉƌĞƐŝĚĞŶƟĂů ĞůĞĐƟŽŶƐ͘ dŚĞƐĞ ŝŶĐůƵĚĞ ƐĂŶĐƟŽŶƐ ŽŶ ĞŶƟƟĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŝŶĚŝǀŝĚƵĂůƐ͕ ĞdžƉƵůƐŝŽŶ ŽĨ ZƵƐƐŝĂŶ ĚŝƉůŽͲ ŵĂƚƐ ĂŶĚ ƌĞƐƚƌŝĐƟŽŶ ŽĨ h^ ĮŶĂŶĐŝĂů ŝŶƐƟƚƵͲ ƟŽŶƐ ĨƌŽŵ ĚĞďƚ ŝƐƐƵĂŶĐĞ ďLJ ƚŚĞ ZƵƐƐŝĂŶ ŵŽŶĞƚĂƌLJ ĂƵƚŚŽƌŝƟĞƐ͘ dŚĞ ĞīĞĐƚƐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞƐĞ ƐĂŶĐƟŽŶƐ ĂŶĚ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĞĚ ƌĞƚĂůŝĂƚŽƌLJ ĂĐƟŽŶƐ ďLJ ƚŚĞ ZƵƐƐŝĂŶ ŐŽǀĞƌŶŵĞŶƚ ǁŽƵůĚ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ǁŽƌƐĞŶ ďŝ ůĂƚĞƌĂů ƌĞůĂƟŽŶƐ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĐŽƵŶƚƌŝĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĂĚǀĞƌƐĞůLJ ĂīĞĐƚ ďŽƚŚ ĞĐŽŶŽͲ ŵŝĞƐ͘ ůƐĞǁŚĞƌĞ͕ ƚŚĞ ƵƌŽƉĞĂŶ hŶŝŽŶ ĂŝŵƐ ƚŽ ŝƐƐƵĞ Ă ϱ LJĞĂƌ Ψϭ͘ϬƚŶ ĚĞďƚ ƚŽ ĨƵŶĚ ƚŚĞ ďůŽĐ͛Ɛ ĞĐŽŶŽŵŝĐ ƌĞďŽƵŶĚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƉĂŶĚĞŵŝĐ͘

WĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĚĞǀĞůŽƉĞĚ ŵĂƌŬĞƚƐ ǁĂƐ ďƵůůŝƐŚ ĂƐ Ăůů ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ǁͬǁ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ h^͕ ƚŚĞ ^ΘW ϱϬϬ ĂŶĚ E ^ Y ĂĚͲ

ǀĂŶĐĞĚ ϭ͘Ϯй ĂŶĚ ϭ͘Ϭ й ǁͬǁ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ďĞƩĞƌ ƚŚĂŶ ĞdžƉĞĐƚĞĚ ĞĐŽŶŽŵŝĐ ĚĂƚĂ͘ /Ŷ ƵƌŽƉĞ͕ ƚŚĞ h<ΖƐ &d^ ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ͕ &ƌĂŶĐĞΖƐ ϰϬ ĂŶĚ 'ĞƌŵĂŶLJ͛Ɛ y dZ y Ăůů ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ϭ͘ϰй͕ ϭ͘ϵй ĂŶĚ ϭ͘ϱй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞ ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐƐ͘ ,ŽŶŐ <ŽŶŐ͛Ɛ ,ĂŶŐ ^ĞŶŐ ĂŶĚ :ĂƉĂŶ͛Ɛ EŝŬŬĞŝ ϮϮϱ ĂůƐŽ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ϭ͘ϯй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘ϴй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞͲ ůLJ͘

WĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ƚŚĞ Z/ ^ ŵĂƌŬĞƚƐ ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ Ϯ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ůŽǁĞƌ͘ ZƵƐͲ ƐŝĂ͛Ɛ Zd^ ůĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŐĂŝŶĞƌƐ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ϱ͘ϲй ŐĂŝŶ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ ǁŽƌƐĞŶŝŶŐ ƌĞůĂƟŽŶƐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ h^͘ ^ŝŵŝůĂƌůLJ͕ ƌĂnjŝů͛Ɛ /ďŽǀĞƐƉĂ ĂŶĚ ^ŽƵƚŚ ĨƌŝͲ ĐĂ͛Ɛ &d^ ͬ:^ ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƚĞĚ Ϯ͘ϵй ĂŶĚ Ϯ͘Ϯй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘ ŚŝŶĂ͛Ɛ ^ŚĂŶŐͲ ŚĂŝ ŽŵƉŽƐŝƚĞ ŝŶĚĞdž ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ Ϭ͘ϵй ǁͬǁ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ ŝŵƉƌĞƐƐŝǀĞ Yϭ ĞĐŽŶŽŵŝĐ ƉĞƌĨŽƌͲ ŵĂŶĐĞ ĂŶĚ /ŶĚŝĂ͛Ɛ ^ ^ĞŶƐ ŝŶĚĞdž ĨĞůů ϯ͘ϭй ǁͬǁ͘

/Ŷ ĨƌŝĐĂ͕ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂŶĚ ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞůLJ ƐŬĞǁĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ ϰ ŽĨ ϲ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ƵŶͲ ĚĞƌ ŽƵƌ ĐŽǀĞƌĂŐĞ ĂĚǀĂŶĐŝŶŐ ǁͬǁ͘ EŝͲ ŐĞƌŝĂΖƐ ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ ĂŶĚ ŐLJƉƚ͛Ɛ 'y ϯϬ ŝŶĚŝͲ ĐĞƐ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ Ϭ͘Ϯй ĂŶĚ ϭ͘ϲй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐͲ ƟǀĞůLJ͘ ŽŶǀĞƌƐĞůLJ͕ <ĞŶLJĂ͛Ɛ E^ ϮϬ ĂŶĚ DŽƌƌŽĐĐŽΖƐ ĂƐĂďůĂŶĐĂ D ^/ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ Ϭ͘ϴй ĂƉŝĞĐĞ ǁͬǁ͘ ^ŝŵŝůĂƌůLJ͕ DĂƵƌŝͲ ƟƵƐ͛ ^ D y ĂŶĚ 'ŚĂŶĂ͛Ɛ '^ ŽŵƉŽƐŝƚĞ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƚĞĚ ϭ͘Ϭй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘ϭй ǁͬǁ

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27

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘

ĐƌŽƐƐ ƚŚĞ ƐŝĂŶ ĂŶĚ DŝĚĚůĞ ĂƐƚ ŵĂƌͲ ŬĞƚƐ͕ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ ϯ ŝŶĚŝͲ ĐĞƐ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞĚ ǁͬǁ͘ dŚĂŝůĂŶĚ͛Ɛ ^ d ĂŶĚ ^ĂƵĚŝ ƌĂďŝĂ͛Ɛ dĂĚĂǁƵů ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ ϭ͘ϵй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘Ϯй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞͲ ůLJ͘ KŶ ƚŚĞ ŇŝƉ ƐŝĚĞ͕ YĂƚĂƌ͛Ɛ ^D ϮϮϬ ŝŶͲ ĚĞdž ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ͕ ƵƉ ϯ͘ϰ й ǁͬǁ͘ ^ŝŵŝͲ ůĂƌůLJ h ͛Ɛ y 'ĞŶĞƌĂů ĂŶĚ dƵƌŬĞLJ͛Ɛ /^d ϭϬϬ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƚĞĚ ϭ͘Ϯй ĂŶĚ ϭ͘ϭй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘

ŽŵĞƐƟĐ ƋƵŝƟĞƐ DĂƌŬĞƚ͗ >ŽĐĂů ŽƵƌƐĞ džƚĞŶĚƐ >ŽƐƐĞƐ͙ ^/ ĚŽǁŶ Ϭ͘Ϯй ǁͬǁ dŚĞ ďĞĂƌƐ ĚŽŵŝŶĂƚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ůŽĐĂů ďŽƵƌƐĞ ĂƐ ƚŚĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ƐĂǁ ƐĞůů ŽīƐ͘ ĐĐŽƌĚŝŶŐůLJ͕ ƚŚĞ E^ ůů ^ŚĂƌĞ /ŶĚĞdž ĨĞůů ϮϬďƉƐ ǁͬǁ ƚŽ ƐĞƩůĞ Ăƚ ϯϴ͕ϴϬϴ͘Ϭϭ ƉŽŝŶƚƐ͘ zd ůŽƐƐ ŝŶͲ ƚĞŶƐŝĮĞĚ ƚŽ ϯ͘ϲй ǁŚŝůĞ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐĂƉŝƚĂůŝͲ ƐĂƟŽŶ ĨĞůů ďLJ േϮϱ͘ϭďŶ ǁͬǁ ƚŽ േϮϬ͘ϯƚŶ͘ ĐƟǀŝƚLJ ůĞǀĞů ǁĂƐ ŵŝdžĞĚ ĂƐ ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞ ǀŽůͲ ƵŵĞ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞĚ ϭϯ͘ϵй ƚŽ ϮϮϭ͘ϴŵ ƵŶŝƚƐ ǁŚŝůĞ ǀĂůƵĞ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ ϲ͘ϰй ƚŽ േϮ͘ϯďŶ͘ dŚĞ ƚŽƉ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ďLJ ǀŽůƵŵĞ ǁĞƌĞ &/ >/dz ;ϭϰϰ͘ϲŵ ƵŶŝƚƐͿ͕ ^^ ;ϴϳ͘ϯŵ ƵŶŝƚƐͿ ĂŶĚ & E, ;ϲϴ͘ϲŵ ƵŶŝƚƐͿ ǁŚŝůĞ 'h Z Edz ;േϭ͘ϳďŶͿ͕ E/d, ;േϴϵϱ͘ϲŵͿ͕ ĂŶĚ ^^ ;േϳϬϱ͘ϲŵͿ ůĞĚ ďLJ ǀĂůƵĞ͘

ĐƌŽƐƐ ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ƵŶĚĞƌ ŽƵƌ ĐŽǀĞƌĂŐĞ͕ ƉĞƌͲ ĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ǁĂƐ ďĞĂƌŝƐŚ ǁͬǁ ĂƐ ϱ ŽƵƚ ŽĨ ϲ ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞĚ͘ dŚĞ /ŶƐƵƌĂŶĐĞ ŝŶĚĞdž ůĞĚ ƚŚĞ ůĂŐŐĂƌĚƐ͕ ĚŽǁŶ ϰ͘Ϯй ǁͬǁ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ƐĞůů ŽīƐ ŝŶ D E &/d ; ϭϮ͘ϴйͿ͕ D EͲ ^ Z ; ϴ͘ϮйͿ ĂŶĚ h^dK / ; ϭϳ͘ϵйͿ͘ ^ŝŵŝůĂƌůLJ͕ ƚŚĞ ĂŶŬŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ŽŶƐƵŵĞƌ 'ŽŽĚƐ ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĨĞůů ďLJ ϭ͘ϱй ĂŶĚ Ϭ͘ϲй ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ďĂĐŬ ŽĨ ƉƌŽĮƚ ƚĂŬŝŶŐ ŝŶ ^^ ; ϱ͘ϲйͿ͕ ^d Z>E ; ϱ͘ϭйͿ͕ E'^h' ; Ϭ͘ϯйͿ ĂŶĚ E/' Z/ E Z t Z/ ^ ; ϭ͘ϴйͿ͘ dŚĞ Kŝů Θ 'ĂƐ ĂŶĚ &/ / d ŝŶĚŝĐĞƐ ĨĞůů ďLJ Ϭ͘ϯй ĂƉŝĞĐĞ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ďĂĐŬ ŽĨ ƉƌŝĐĞ ĚĞƉƌĞĐŝĂƟŽŶ ŝŶ K E K ; ϰ͘ϭйͿ ĂŶĚ DdEE ; Ϭ͘ϱйͿ͘ ůƚĞƌŶĂƟǀĞůLJ͕ ƚŚĞ /ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů 'ŽŽĚƐ ŝŶĚĞdž ƌŽƐĞ Ϭ͘ϵй ǁͬ ǁ ĚƵĞ ƚŽ ďƵLJŝŶŐ ŝŶƚĞƌĞƐƚ ŝŶ E' D ;нϮ͘ϯйͿ͘

/ŶǀĞƐƚŽƌ ƐĞŶƟŵĞŶƚ ĂƐ ŵĞĂƐƵƌĞĚ ďLJ ŵĂƌͲ ŬĞƚ ďƌĞĂĚƚŚ ;ĂĚǀĂŶĐĞͬĚĞĐůŝŶĞ ƌĂƟŽͿ ǁŽƌƐĞŶĞĚ ƚŽ Ϭ͘ϯdž ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ Ϭ͘ϰdž ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ůĂƐƚ ǁĞĞŬ ĂƐ ϭϲ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ŐĂŝŶĞĚ ĂŐĂŝŶƐƚ ϰϲ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ƚŚĂƚ ůŽƐƚ͘ dŚĞ ƚŽƉ ƉĞƌĨŽƌŵŝŶŐ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ ĂƌĞ &dE K K ;нϭϲ͘ϯйͿ͕ DKZ/^KE ;нϵ͘ϯйͿ͕ ĂŶĚ ZKzͲ > y ;нϴ͘ϯйͿ ǁŚŝůĞ h^dK / ; ϭϳ͘ϵйͿ͕ EE&D ; ϭϯ͘ϳйͿ ĂŶĚ D E &/d ; ϭϮ͘ϴйͿ ĂƌĞ ƚŚĞ ƚŽƉ ƵŶĚĞƌƉĞƌĨŽƌŵŝŶŐ ƐƚŽĐŬƐ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵŝŶŐ ǁĞĞŬ͕ ǁĞ ƐƵƐƉĞĐƚ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞ ƵƉƟĐŬ ŝŶ ĮdžĞĚ ŝŶĐŽŵĞ ƌĂƚĞ ŵĂLJ ĨƵƌƚŚĞƌ ĚƌŝǀĞ ƐĞůů ŽīƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽĐŬ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘

&ŽƌĞŝŐŶ džĐŚĂŶŐĞ DĂƌŬĞƚ͗ EĂŝƌĂ ZĞͲ ŵĂŝŶƐ ^ƚĂďůĞ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ DĂƌŬĞƚ ^ĞŐŵĞŶƚƐ dŚŝƐ ǁĞĞŬ͕ ƐƵƉƉůLJ ĐƵƌďƐ ďLJ ƚŚĞ KW н ĂŶĚ ĚĞĐůŝŶĞ ŝŶ h^ ƐŚĂůĞ Žŝů ŝŶǀĞŶƚŽƌLJ ďƵŽLJĞĚ ƚŚĞ Žŝů ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘ ŽŶƐĞƋƵĞŶƚůLJ͕ Žŝů ƉƌŝĐĞƐ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ϲ͘Ϭй ǁͬǁ ƚŽ ĐůŽƐĞ Ăƚ Ψϲϲ͘ϳϳͬďďů͘ KŶ ƚŚĞ ĚŽŵĞƐƟĐ ĨƌŽŶƚ͕ ĞdžͲ ƚĞƌŶĂů ƌĞƐĞƌǀĞƐ ŝŶĐŚĞĚ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ďLJ Ϭ͘ϲй ǁͬ ǁ ƚŽ Ψϯϱ͘ϬďŶ ;ϰͬϭϰͬϮϬϮϭͿ͘

/Ŷ ƚŚĞ &y ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͕ ƚŚĞ ŶĂŝƌĂ ƚƌĂĚĞĚ ŇĂƚ Ăƚ

E ƐƉŽƚ ƚŽ ƐĞƩůĞ Ăƚ േϯϳϵͬΨϭ͘ϬϬ ǁͬǁ ǁŚŝůĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉĂƌĂůůĞů ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͕ ŶĂŝƌĂ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝͲ ĂƚĞĚ ďLJ േϯ͘ϬϬ ǁͬǁ ƚŽ േϰϴϮ͘ϬϬͬΨϭ͘ϬϬ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ /ŵƉŽƌƚĞƌƐ͛ ĂŶĚ džƉŽƌƚĞƌƐ͛ ;/Θ Ϳ ǁŝŶͲ ĚŽǁ͕ ƚŚĞ ŶĂŝƌĂ ĚĞƉƌĞĐŝĂƚĞĚ ďLJ േϮ͘ϬϬ ǁͬǁ ƚŽ േϰϭϭ͘ϬϬͬΨϭ͘ϬϬ͘ ĐƟǀŝƚLJ ůĞǀĞů ŝŶ /Θ ǁŝŶͲ ĚŽǁ ƌŽƐĞ ďLJ ϲϬ͘ϲй ƚŽ േϮϵϮ͘Ϯŵ ĨƌŽŵ േϭϴϭ͘ϵŵ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƉƌĞǀŝŽƵƐ ǁĞĞŬ͘

ƚ ƚŚĞ &D Y ^ĞĐƵƌŝƟĞƐ džĐŚĂŶŐĞ ;^ Ϳ &y &ƵƚƵƌĞƐ ŽŶƚƌĂĐƚ DĂƌŬĞƚ͕ ƚŚĞ ƚŽƚĂů ǀĂůƵĞ ŽĨ ŽƉĞŶ ĐŽŶƚƌĂĐƚƐ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞĚ ďLJ ϭ͘ϲй ;ΨϴϮ͘ϴŵͿ ƚŽ Ψϱ͘ϯďŶ͘ dŚĞ WZ ϮϬϮϮ ŝŶƐƚƌƵͲ ŵĞŶƚ ; ŽŶƚƌĂĐƚ ƉƌŝĐĞ͗ േϰϯϳ͘ϴϴͿ ƐĂǁ Ă ƐŝŐͲ ŶŝĮĐĂŶƚ ŐĂŝŶ ĂƐ ƚŚĞƌĞ ǁĂƐ ĂŶ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐĞ ŽĨ Ϯϴϭ͘Ϭй ƚŽ Ψϴϱ͘ϳŵ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƚŽƚĂů ǀĂůƵĞ͘ dŚĞ :hE ϮϬϮϭ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚ ; ŽŶƚƌĂĐƚ ƉƌŝĐĞ͗ േϰϮϮ͘ϬϴͿ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ůĞĂƐƚ ďƵLJŝŶŐ ŝŶƚĞƌͲ ĞƐƚ ĂƐ ƚŽƚĂů ǀĂůƵĞ ƌŽƐĞ ϭ͘ϰй ƚŽ ΨϮϴϯ͘ϲŵ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵŝŶŐ ǁĞĞŬ͕ ǁĞ ĂŶƟĐŝƉĂƚĞ ƌĂƚĞƐ ƚŽ ƌĞŵĂŝŶ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƐĂŵĞ ďĂŶĚ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ƚŚĞ ƐĞŐͲ ŵĞŶƚƐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ &y ŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘

DŽŶĞLJ DĂƌŬĞƚ͗ ^ĞĐŽŶĚĂƌLJ DĂƌͲ ŬĞƚ ZĞĐŽƌĚƐ tĞĂŬ WĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ >ŝƋƵŝĚŝƚLJ ůĞǀĞů ƌŽƐĞ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ƐƚĂƌƚ ŽĨ ǁĞĞŬ ĐŽŵƉĂƌĞĚ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŝŽƌ ǁĞĞŬ͛Ɛ ĐůŽƐĞ ĂŶĚ ĞŶĚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ Ăƚ േϱϵϵ͘ϯďŶ͕ ĚĞͲ ƐƉŝƚĞ KDK ĂŶĚ d ďŝůůƐ ĂƵĐƟŽŶƐ͘ ƚ ƚŚĞ d ďŝůůƐ ĂƵĐƟŽŶ ŽŶ tĞĚŶĞƐĚĂLJ͕ ƚŚĞ E ƐŽůĚ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚƐ ǁŽƌƚŚ േϭϱϯ͘ϰďŶ͕ േϴϯ͘ϴďŶ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ƚŚĂŶ ƚŚĞ ĂŵŽƵŶƚ ŽŶ ŽīĞƌ͘ ^ƚŽƉ ƌĂƚĞ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ϯϲϰ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚ ŝŶĐŚĞĚ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ďLJ ϭϬϬďƉƐ ƚŽ ϵ͘Ϭй ǁŚŝůĞ ƚŚĞ ϵϭ ĂŶĚ ϭϴϮ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚƐ ƌĞŵĂŝŶĞĚ Ăƚ Ϯ͘Ϭй ĂŶĚ ϯ͘ϱй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘ ^ƚƌŽŶŐ ĚĞŵĂŶĚ ǁĂƐ ƐƵƐƚĂŝŶĞĚ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ďŽĂƌĚ Ăƚ Ă ďŝĚ ƚŽ ĐŽǀĞƌ ƌĂƟŽ ŽĨ ϭ͘Ϭdž͕ ϯ͘ϭdž ĂŶĚ ϰ͘ϰdž ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ϵϭ͕ ϭϴϮ ĂŶĚ ϯϲϰ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚƐ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘

KŶ dŚƵƌƐĚĂLJ͕ ƚŚĞ E ŵŽƉƉĞĚ ƵƉ േϭϬϬ͘ϬďŶ ǀŝĂ KDK ĂƵĐƟŽŶ͕ ŚŝŐŚĞƌ ƚŚĂŶ

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ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ͛Ɛ ŵĂƚƵƌŝƟĞƐ ŽĨ േϮϬ͘ϬďŶ͘ &ƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƌĞƐƵůƚ͕ ĚĞŵĂŶĚ ůĞǀĞůƐ ǁĞƌĞ ŚŝŐŚ ǁŝƚŚ ƐƵďƐĐƌŝƉƟŽŶ Ăƚ േϵϮ͘ϮďŶ ĐŽŵƉĂƌĞĚ ƚŽ േϮϬ͘ϬďŶ ŽīĞƌĞĚ͘ dŚŝƐ ŝŵƉůŝĞƐ ĂŶ ŽǀĞƌƐƵďͲ ƐĐƌŝƉƟŽŶ ŽĨ ϰ͘ϲdž ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ϯϲϮ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵͲ ŵĞŶƚ ĞŶũŽLJŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ĚĞŵĂŶĚ͘ ZĂƚĞƐ ƐƚĂLJĞĚ ƵŶƚŽƵĐŚĞĚ Ăƚ ϳ͘Ϭй͕ ϴ͘ϱй ĂŶĚ ϭϬ͘ϭй ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ϴϵ͕ ϭϴϳ ĂŶĚ ϯϲϮ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵͲ ŵĞŶƚƐ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘

ĐĐŽƌĚŝŶŐůLJ͕ K ĂŶĚ KsE ƌĂƚĞƐ ŵŽǀĞĚ ŝŶ ůŝŶĞ ǁŝƚŚ ƐLJƐƚĞŵ ůŝƋƵŝĚŝƚLJ ĚLJŶĂŵŝĐƐ͕ ŽƉĞŶͲ ŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ ůŽǁĞƌ Ăƚ ϭϮ͘Ϭй ĂŶĚ ϭϮ͘ϯй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ͘ EĞǀĞƌƚŚĞůĞƐƐ͕ K ĂŶĚ KsE ƌĂƚĞƐ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ ŚŝŐŚ Ăƚ Ϯϱ͘Ϭй ĂŶĚ Ϯϴ͘ϯй ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ ƌŽďƵƐƚ ůŝƋƵŝĚŝƚLJ ůĞǀĞů͘ ^ŝŵŝůĂƌůLJ͕ ĂǀĞƌĂŐĞ d ďŝůůƐ LJŝĞůĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƐĞĐŽŶĚĂƌLJ ŵĂƌŬĞƚ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ Ăƚ ϰ͘ϴй͕ ƵƉ ϰďƉƐ ǁͬǁ͘ dŚĞ ϵϭ ĂŶĚ ϯϲϰ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚƐ ƐĂǁ ƐĞůů ŽīƐ ĂƐ LJŝĞůĚ ƌŽƐĞ ϴďƉƐ ĂŶĚ ϭϬďƉƐ ǁͬǁ ƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ǁŚŝůĞ LJŝĞůĚ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ϭϴϮ ĚĂLJ ŝŶƐƚƌƵŵĞŶƚ ĨĞůů ϱďƉƐ͘ /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ǁĞĞŬ ĂŚĞĂĚ͕ ǁĞ ĞdžƉĞĐƚ ƌĂƚĞƐ ƚŽ ƌĞŵĂŝŶ ŇĂƚ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ Ă േϮϬ͘ϬďŶ KDK ŝŶͲ ŇŽǁ ĂŶĚ Ă ƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ E ŵŽƉ ƵƉ͘

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˜ ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

MARKET NEWS

NGX Lists additional 2.4 billion shares of eTranzact Plc Goddy Egene

last week listed 2,434,566,483 ordinary shares of eTranzact Plc. The additional shares

The Nigerian Exchange Limited, 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

arose from the company’s rights issue of 4,666,666,667 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N1.50

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 15Apr-2021, unless otherwise stated.

kobo per share on the basis of 10 Rights issue was 52.17 per cent subscribed. With this listing

of the additional 2,434,566,483 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of

eTranzact Plc increased to 6,634,566,483 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

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 151.49 152.96 -6.37% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 3.95% Nigeria International Debt Fund 309.93 309.93 -16.62% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 110.27 110.27 -1.61% 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 N/A N/A N/A ACAP Income Funds N/A N/A N/A 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 4.11% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.33 3.49 -6.16% 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 1.66% Anchoria Equity Fund 125.88 127.33 -5.36% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.08 1.08 -18.80% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 18.30 18.85 0.88% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 404.18 416.36 0.95% ARM Ethical Fund 36.22 37.32 7.45% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.20 1.20 -2.03% ARM Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 2.29% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 103.60 103.60 1.86% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 1.99 1.99 -25.87% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 2.16 2.20 -12.54% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.28% Paramount Equity Fund 15.26 15.55 -4.55% Women's Investment Fund 129.65 131.00 -2.63% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.07% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 126.57 127.43 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 110.82 110.82 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 1.21% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.13 1.15 -5.57% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.35 1.35 -15.08% 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 2.33% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 2.28% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,171.69 1,176.83 -2.27% 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 1,356.18 1,356.18 6.16% FBN Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Halal Fund 110.68 110.68 4.25% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.43% N/A N/A N/A FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 124.02 124.02 3.01% FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund 147.18 149.14 -2.65% 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 N/A N/A N/A Legacy Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy USD Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 3,783.85 3,833.90 0.95% Coral Income Fund 3,353.86 3,353.86 2.37% FSDH Treasury Bills Fund 100.00 100.00 1.98%

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 N/A N/A N/A Nigeria Entertainment Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 2.74% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.69 2.75 17.12% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 147.89 148.33 -4.84% Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End 1.08 1.08 5.45% 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 10.40 10.47 Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.61% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.58 1.61 7.54% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 12.16 12.29 -0.59% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 1.60% PACAM Equity Fund 1.56 1.58 -1.21% PACAM EuroBond Fund 110.20 113.05 0.79% 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 128.35 130.40 6.99% 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 1.00 1.00 2.10% 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 3,085.83 3,109.33 -4.06% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 228.16 228.16 1.47% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 1.14 1.15 -2.97% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 298.94 298.94 1.45% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 210.21 212.75 -3.82% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 2.61% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 9,801.03 9,924.66 -6.68% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.25 1.25 1.63% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 113.11 113.11 1.83% 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 1.30 1.32 -4.72% United Capital Bond Fund 1.92 1.92 1.77% United Capital Equity Fund 0.87 0.89 0.37% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.01% United Capital Eurobond Fund 119.39 119.39 1.97% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.06 1.08 -2.58% United capital Sukuk Fund 1.03 1.03 2.84% 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 11.95 12.05 0.66% Zenith Ethical Fund 13.27 13.35 8.48% Zenith Income Fund 24.28 24.28 1.25% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 2.83%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

122.37 53.06

1.35% 1.26%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

12.37 118.41 92.62

12.47 118.41 94.35

-6.39% -2.74% -6.79%

Fund Name SFS Skye Shelter Fund 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 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Money Market Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

3.57 5.46 16.52 1.00 18.61 165.32

3.61 5.54 16.62 1.00 18.81 167.32

-5.37% -3.97% 1.11% 2.38% -9.26% -24.65%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.30

13.11%

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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WEEKLY PULL-OUT

18.4.2021

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FERGUSON UZOMAH FROM BEING A BANKER TO BECOMING A BOAT CLUB OWNER He is debonnaire, simple, decent, loves fun, adventure, and water.

The suave tourism investor is known to keep a low profile, yet he sits atop a profitable tourism operation in the nations’ capital. He has explored tourism’s exciting depth from investment banking, growing up in the coastal Lagos town. Chief Executive Officer, Jabi Boat Club, Ferguson Uzomah, tells Adedayo Adejobi about his revolution in the tourism industry

iving in the nation’s capital, Abuja, has been a journey of almost 25 years for Ferguson Uzomah. It started after his mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps, which was in Abuja. As a graduate of Project Management Technology from the Federal University of Technology Owerri with a master’s degree in Finance, it does not come as a surprise that he spent 18 years in the banking sector’s most coveted and hardest roles as an investment banker.

It is no surprise that the average day in an investment banker’s life is long and stressful. Those who manage to survive the adjustment period often go on to have long and financially rewarding careers.

However, what separates Uzomah from the pack in the tourism sector is the skills garnered as an investment banker, requiring excellent social skills. Aside from the skills to perform the job’s technical functions, he has the stamina, social grace, and the right personality to deal effectively with clients.

When he left in 2011, he set up a project management consultancy firm, QPMC Consultants.

Ferguson held many fun memories: boating, travel, and adventure, things he feels are absent today, especially amongst the lower-income families. Is there a region in the country he has not stepped foot? Growing up in coastal Lagos opened him up to experience the peace, quiet, spirit, and serenity of the waters and beaches.

“Leisure, however, minute, is a part of life,” he says, smiling.

This seed germinated into Jabi Boat Club, which has surpassed its threshold in the last four years.

This he believes is just a gateway to tourism in Nigeria as a whole.

Uzomah, a lover of novelty, likes to sail in the blue ocean. This he has achieved with the Jabi Boat Club.

With many regions untapped, he believes tourism and the face of business will change if the government dredges the water of the Niger Delta, starting from the delta. This makes Asaba in Delta his next point of call. With the strategic alliance and involvement of the Delta government in providing infrastructure, partnerships, and concession between the

ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

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COVER

Testing the Waters with Both Feet government and private owners, he would generate revenues and employment to cater to the needs of Nigeria’s young teeming population.

At Jabi Boat Club, inclusivity is the key factor.

“Everyone should be able to afford our service. Our model is the people. Driving the people to the point they have a reason to come again or tell a family or friend about Jabi Lake. We hope to revolutionise the perception of the average Nigerian on the street,” he enthuses.

There are several ways to have safe, pocket-friendly pleasures without the heat of keep-me-coming-keep-megoing.”

He adds, “With our pocketfriendly family fusion, Jabi Boat Club is home to a range of water sports. From Kayaking, Jet skiing to mundane swimming, boat cruising, and other indoor games like volleyball and basketball are already finding a home with us.”

With the hindsight that some of these sports were already a norm in southern cities like Lagos, Warri, and Calabar, The enterprising businessman made it a mission to bring it to Abuja.

There was a lot of re-education on cost and rendered services provided—many with the intention of a one-off experience having been converted to staple customers.

Now, they have come to the point of managing the surging expectations and numbers of newcomers and recurring customers. Wanting to run an exclusively privately-owned club, Uzomah found out early doing that in the capital city would lead to running at a loss.

With his insight, business model, and experience in investment banking, a re-modelling is in the works to combat that.

With the dawn of a new day is the rise of variance birthing change. With that said, there is the inculcation of the types of boats most of the customers demand.

“The need to go above and beyond for our customers makes it impossible to ignore all their requests,” said Uzomah.

At this point, he will need a lot to protect the lake. Being at the city centre calls for a lot of attention thus maintenance.

This would be a great medium to reach out to the UNDP, Ministry of Environment, and other stakeholders to come to their aid. The government as a regulatory body would profoundly affect introducing measures and possibly investors to create a healthy balance amongst competitors.

Jabi Boat Club prefers the surface for storage on its 4km lake. The revellers are

encouraged to fish. Pontoon boats’ choice, a flattish boat that relies on floats to remain buoyant, is making Jabi Boat Club visitors burst at the seams. A pricing review now gives more time for the boat cruise of an hour that was N150,000 for family and friends with food and drinks and music and games.

On the part of the job he loves the most, Uzomah says, “I like the whole part. I’m the chief executive officer, and I have an executive director who is in charge of the food and beverages. I oversee the business, stakeholder management, and government relations. I like the cruise because the experience is beautiful.

“I used to travel to Lagos to experience some of these things in Lagos, but in the last five years, not seen myself on a Jet Ski in Lagos.

Ever since the business took off, I’ve said no to Lagos and indeed the whole world.”

Playing host to Femi Kuti, Burna Boy, Tuface, Teni, Mayorkun, amongst others, must have seemed like gathering new steam, but COVID-19 did a number on Jabi Boat Club like any other business enterprise of such nature. With relaxed restrictions, business is picking up. Patronage is on the rise without the music or the internationally acclaimed stars.

COVID-19 has forced Jabi Boat Club, like every other business, to work more on enforcing regulations, both old and new, and its protocols within their business premises.

With the current trend of the boating industry locally, Jabi Boat Club has concluded they may never make money from that section going by their N20,000/hr rate, but this loss can be made up for by the other services they provide. Boating is a new venture at Abuja compared to the southern states of Cross-river, Delta, and Rivers. In Lagos, revellers can go far into the lagoon or sea.

With the limitation in growth, Uzomah believes only the government’s involvement can turn the nation’s eye, perhaps the world, to Jabi Boat Club with water sports tournament, which will bring boating associations across the country to come up with the right product for the right event.

Signing a new project with the Delta government with the provision of the River Niger waterfront, Jabi Boat Club is elevating the existing Lander Brothers museum into a modern heritage with breathtaking architecture that will house restaurants, bars, event centres, and beachfront locations. The company is in talks with neighbouring Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River.

Taking a walk down memory lane, Uzomah adds, “The government understands, but at the same time, the same government is not doing much to get ready for business. Look at Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, and Seychelles-these are smaller countries getting it right.

“A lot of factors affect us here. I grew up in Lagos, knowing that we

Uzomah

made two road trips in a year. I looked forward to these road trips during Easter and Christmas when my father would drive us t o t h e village, and we would spend a week or two.

N o w, n o o n e w o u ld want to go on a road trip for a holiday when bandits are everywhere. Security is a

major issue and downfall of tourism.

There is no safe place. These are things the government needs to take care of for certain industries to thrive.”

He believes the Asaba endeavour would be funded by one of the government’s interventions.

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GLITZ FOCUS

Dealing with Misinformation About Cerebral Palsy After her child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy eight years ago, lawyer and author Bukola Ayinde has been on a mission to educate people on cerebral palsy while nudging policymakers to make society more inclusive for people living with disability, Vanessa Obioha reports

E

ight years ago, Bukola Ayinde had her perfect life shattered.

Her first child, Oluwalonimi, had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Her initial reaction was rejection. A devout Christian, accepting the reality of her child’s medical condition challenged her faith in God. She didn’t find solace in the thoughts of friends and colleagues either.

“Someone said that my husband and I must have committed a sin and that we need to sit down and think of what we have done, then ask for forgiveness.

Another told us that we’re not desperate enough for a cure because we have money for her treatment,” she explained.

Ayinde felt alone in her world. When she visited malls and outdoor spaces for children, the young faces that stared back at her looked hale and hearty. The few who had disabilities didn’t suffer from cerebral palsy, a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone, or posture usually caused by an abnormal brain development often before birth.

When she finally accepted her fate, she was challenged by society’s acceptance.

Doors were closed at her in schools; people stared at her child as if she was an alien in churches. During these moments of rejection, Ayinde realised the volume of misinformation about cerebral palsy in Nigeria.

“My journey was like walking through a maze blindfolded, but then I started researching on the subject. I heard all sorts from people, so I realised that there was so much misinformation out there about children with disabilities, and I wanted people to see the child first before the disability.

“I have this beautiful girl with a lovely smile, whom I had discovered was intelligent, and I wanted the world to see that part of her as well, not just the part that she can’t walk, use her hands, and have poor neck control. There was a whole lot about her that other people didn’t know, and I wanted them to see that part.”

A trip to Hungary further enlightened her, and Ayinde began documenting her experience online. By doing that, Ayinde discovered mothers who were in similar situations. They would send messages and share their encounters with her. Their ordeals did not only give the lawyer and author a sense of belonging but inspired her to support mothers with special needs children.

According to her, when a parent receives her child’s diagnosis, the first person who needs therapy is the mother.

Today, she runs a non-governmental organisation, Diary of a Special Needs Mum Initiative, that supports parents with vulnerable children.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that over one billion people live with some form of disability globally, and the percentage is higher in developing countries. In Nigeria, there are more than 100,00 cases of cerebral palsy.

More research revealed the growing misinformation about the medical condition as schools and churches turned their backs at persons with disabilities as

Ayinde and her child Nimi

BUKOLA AYINDE

if they were outcasts. Ayinde took the onus to change the narrative. To achieve this, she targeted the younger generation, because according to her, they are the best way to create the future.

“Today’s future is the children; those in elementary and secondary schools.”

For students in primary schools, Ayinde wrote three storybooks: ‘My Name is Nimi,’ ‘Peter is Different,’ and ‘My Sister is Special.’

The books told different stories about people with disabilities. The books triggered an

interest in her child, and she longed to meet Nimi, as her daughter is fondly called.

She partnered British Council to organise an essay competition for secondary schools where they plumbed different ways to make a child with a disability comfortable in their school environment.

Inclusive education for special needs children is one way to help the

social skills of vulnerable children. Ayinde discovered that this kind of education helped children with disabilities imitate their peers’ actions such as standing and walking. It also helped them to interact while teaching others to have respect and a sense of empathy.

“If we teach them now how to treat people with disabilities, then they will change the narrative because they understand that people with disabilities are human beings just like them and are entitled to their own fundamental human rights.”

The trip to Hungary was indeed an eye-opening experience to Ayinde. Over there, she saw the government’s conscious efforts to make society as inclusive as possible for people living with disabilities.

There are well-equipped special facilities dedicated to children suffering from cerebral palsy and infrastructure are developed with people living with disability in mind. In Nigeria, such infrastructure is visibly missing.

This realisation fired up Ayinde.

Since then, she has been advocating for an inclusive society for children with disabilities and nudging the government and policymakers to make infrastructure provision for people with disabilities in Nigeria.

Compared to other countries, Ayinde opined that Nigeria is not yet an inclusive society. She argued that even when building roads, the government does not consider people without cars, let alone vulnerable people. She advised that the government should make ramps available for people with disabilities in public places such as malls, car parks, restaurants, and schools. Making them inclusive in society, she said, gives them a sense of belonging. However, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, in 2019.

Access to healthcare is another area that the government needs to weigh in.

She disclosed that most mothers who live in Lagos’ outskirts have to walk long distances, carrying their children on their backs to visit public health centres. This, she said, often results in backaches for the parents. She stated that there is an ongoing conversation with the Lagos government to deploy corps members serving the state and are good in physiotherapy to go to communities to help these mothers.

Today, Nimi is eight years old and a brilliant visual learner. Though she still has a speech impairment, she performs well in her class. Her mother described her as an easygoing child with a good sense of humour.

“And she loves cake a lot, particularly chocolate cake,” enthused Ayinde. She also enjoys watching cartoons and throws kisses a lot. She shares a special bond with her younger sister and is generally a darling to anyone who encounters her.

Like Nimi, Ayinde exudes a bubbly disposition that is a far cry from the woman she was eight years ago. Even now, the horrors of those harrowing days linger, but they no longer give her nightmares. Instead, they help her live a purpose-driven life and make her super confident to take on the world.

COVER 2 A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

18.4.2021

“A

s a kid, I loved to play dress up. My mother will always make our dresses, and then I would give her styles and how I want my own dress to be. I really don’t like wearing the same outfit as my siblings.

I needed to create something different every time. I think that was just the spark, and then over time, I assisted my mother much more than my siblings.”

Rita Ufot, the emerging fashion designer with a scintillating difference, who is breaking barriers with her edgy designs, advanced — with her voice carrying a tinge of warmth — towards the reporter seated a respectable distance from her. The weather outside was good, and the curtains in her living room were parted to allow enough sunshine. A little while later, her husband walked in. He looked different from the gentleman in the wedding photos on the coffee table. Today, his facial hair have a tinge of grey. However, he still retains a sprightly bounce in his steps like an athlete.

The bond between the Ufots is unmistakable. One clear example is her trade name, Rajuu, which combines all of their names. The name may not sound ‘Ritzy’ like that of her mother’s fashion house, “but it’s unique and very distinct,” she explained.

Having grown up in a fashion environment, she feels any name can tick if the right factors drive it.

“I want to be a solution to the problems of a woman who is not secure about her body. I work with different body types when it comes to fashion,” she said, emphasising that as the major accomplishment she hopes to achieve. “We do mostly contemporary outfits, which also helps a woman to stand out and be very distinct. I think I’d love to achieve that.”

Ufot, who lives and works in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, has a rich background in fashion from a mother who has put in 30 years in the business. In 2016, her mother, having been convinced she could set up shop, gave her blessings, and Ufot moved on to establish Rajuu, starting small, as many do, from her home. Things have happened fast. And last year, when the whole world was reeling from the negative impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Rajuu admitted that she made her biggest sales. This improvement in her financial fortune was a big approval of her strategy to concentrate sales on online shops, which has helped grow her clientele in Lagos, Abuja and outside the shores of Nigeria, increasingly raising her confidence in the fashion business.

But she did not make a quick dash to relative success in 2020. First was the crawl. A period of “more low points than high points; a roller coaster.”

She recounted a familiar story with her peculiar imprint. “I started in a room in my house, with one machine, with just myself having to do all the cuttings, sewing, and all that before I decided to go for help.

Gradually, I got people to work with me.

There’s been ups and downs over four years.

In four years, I’ve been able to get myself into a runway show in Lagos. I also think 2020 was the best year, so far, when it comes to my brand opening up into society and the world at large. My lowest point will be financial impairment and power supply. But I’ve been able to go through those times. I’m grateful.”

It was good to hear someone say 2020 was a good year for her because, for many, it was very challenging. For Ufot, the trend, people in fashion and fashion news are important to note, but she does not follow trends. When it comes to fashion, spontaneity is her game.

Rita Ufot Adjusting the Charts to Fit the African Woman Over a long session of interview, Vanessa Obioha spoke to Rita Ufot, the confident face of Rajuu, an emerging fashion brand, who paints a picture of determination, discipline and professionalism

ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

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COVER 2

MyVision is Beyond Fashion Her inspiration comes from many things, including the fabric, to create her distinct designs. This does not mean that she does not pick one or two ideas from other brands.

However, she distances herself from copyand-paste designs.

“I really can’t say I follow trends because it comes very natural to me. I could get inspired anytime to bring up something that is out of the ordinary, what people would want to know, would want to wear. So I’m not following a particular trend. I have few brands that I look out for and get inspired.”

Humility is another virtue that comes naturally to Ufot, as she readily mentions some persons who inspire her designs. She also talked about what she is passionate about in fashion.

“SMR is in Lagos. She’s doing an amazing job.”

Vicki James, an upcoming fashion designer from Akwa Ibom, also catches her fancy. “I have a number of them, but these two are very close to my heart.”

Fashion, for Ufot, can be a tool for reformation. She is passionate about being a solution to the fashion problems we have here in Nigeria and Africa at large. One of her goals is to end the dependence on the UK and the US for standard sizing.

She explained, “We are different in our making, in our body shape and type. Most women have the problem of getting their sizes correct. We are very improper in our sizes. A normal UK size 12 will tell you the bust is this.

With that, they give you a rundown. They work with their own body size. The Western people aren’t like us. We have curves. We’ve got a lot of backsides. I’m trying to adjust the charts to fit the African woman; adjust our kind of dressing to fit the African curve. That’s what I want to achieve and globally produce ready outfits that will suit the woman, different aspects of their lives. I will come from the corporate side, the semi-casual and the very casual.”

The no-airs simplicity around Ufot blends easily into her natural beauty. Interacting with her is an experience. Everything appears so well planned. As we walked into her expansive home at Shelter Afrique, an upscale residential estate in Uyo, the reception from her domestic staff raised my curiosity — where they pre-warned or was it for the familiar face of the one that brought me? As if on queue, Ufot was descending the staircase to welcome us. The brilliance of her yellow apparel and the deliberate swing of her long legs revealed proclivity towards modelling.

She smiled sweetly and raised her right hand in a gesture of friendship in keeping COVID-19 protocols.

Her monotone dress accentuated her beauty and urbane disposition. Ufot is the first face of her products.

She said, “I wear my designs. I patronise a few other Nigerian designers. Sometimes, just to put up that thumbs up for them. It’s supporting each other in the business. And it also helps.”

It is standard practice for her to model her outfit. From experience, “people appreciate when you are the wearer of your brand.

People tend to see exactly what they’re looking for. So I model my outfit, all of them,” she confided.

As the conversation progressed, her brilliance unfolded, the experiences that shaped her personality came to the fore. For instance, her late father was a professor of Visual Arts at the University of Uyo. Her husband is a builder. She is a fighter who follows her dream and originally wanted to be in the airline industry. She is friendly and chatty.

“I wanted to be a pilot,” she said, looking the way of her husband coyly. “I won’t forget crying that I needed to go to school outside the country to study Aeronautics.”

In love with Uyo, Ufot can’t trade her beloved city for anywhere else in the world, although she finds it limiting for her work. But, out of her humble Akwa Ibom background came the mother’s ingenuity for over 30 years. Ufot has proudly taken the baton from her mother. She is running with the vision, determined to go farther than her mother. “Certain things stopped her from achieving that. I am taking it from where she stopped or where she may not be able to take it to, which is outside Akwa Ibom State. Being inspired in Akwa Ibom State is really hard.

Mostly, my inspiration comes from social media. I see other things that are not really

Ufot

Ufot

around my reach here in Akwa Ibom.”

If she is pressured to move to Lagos, Nigeria’s undisputed fashion capital. Her definite answer will be “no.” Getting an outlet in Lagos and elsewhere is a “yes”. Akwa Ibom State has won her heart for its serenity.

“It’s quite affordable and peaceful,” she said with a giggle. “So I will still maintain a home here, but I’ll get outlets for easy consumption of my outfits.”

This very peace that she has found is what many are asking her to sacrifice. Constantly, her attention is being drawn to the suggestion that she shouldn’t be in Akwa Ibom. She has developed a standard response. She tells them it’s not really about where she is but about what she is putting out there. Living and working out of Akwa Ibom feels like a plus or minus for some people.

For Ufot, it gives her the conviction that

her mother’s generation obviously wouldn’t really come to terms with the fashion or the style that she is bringing to the table. It also gave her the ability to illustrate an outfit since her father was a Fine Artist.

“So we all grew up drawing. My mother didn’t. I have clients that come to me. And they’re like, if I take it to your mom, she wouldn’t understand how to achieve this, but some come to me. I’m like it’s my mom that will best understand you. She’s making clothes for her age bracket. I’ve improved a lot on what she taught me by developing things.”

From working with her mother to striking out on her own, it took a long time to master the fashion business. She keeps trying to make clothes that this generation can appreciate. But she finds it a tough call. “It’s the environment and also the class of people,”

she said. “In Akwa Ibom, contemporary wear is not so popular. I think five per cent of those who can afford it appreciate very contemporary outfits. The rest are in my mom’s generation and will have the laces, the skirts and blouses-l — very traditional outfits. It’s a few of us that are here doing this. And then trying to help the people adjust their fashion style.”

With more maturity in the fashion business, Ufot continues to grow in confidence.

“I think the contemporary outfits have become edgier. Also, the fabrics that are coming in are making the style more appreciated and more outstanding. That’s what I feel. You could say they’re the same thing but individual styles matter. Having to know what fabric to use for a particular style also creates that distinction.”

Ufot looks fondly at known names who wear her Rajuu brand.

“I have a few people who patronise Rajuu. I feel proud to have them wear my brand. A few of them are in Lagos and then a few boutiques in the UK and US. You can use the post to get my supplies. I feel very proud that they wear my brand,” she confessed.

She added, “Social media has been a great help. On a scale of one to 10, social media has taken me to a high level. I’m always happy when I get requests on Instagram. My brands go viral. The sales come in, and demands come in.

There have been more sales from social media than the shops.”

Though fashion is a promising business for Ufot, there are a couple of improvements she will love to see. The first is to ensure a steady supply of electricity. The dearth of skilled personnel in the fashion industry is of great concern to her.

Lastly, she mentioned that “the production of quality fabrics for fashion designers will put more energy into industrialising the country.

We’ll be able to have fabrics in quantities that we don’t need to depend on the West.”

For all the hoopla about Ankara and the Adire, the Rajuu boss is comfortable following a different path. She believes that there are quality issues with Ankara.

“They bleed a lot, and since we do a lot of washing, I can’t use a fabric that will be gone once the owner washes it,” she asserted. She advanced more reasons, “That’s why most people import fabrics. I work with fabrics that stand the test of time for my clients.”

In four years, Ufot has overcome some of the initial challenges that beset her. By her own admission, she is still grappling with getting the kind of finance to reach more clients around Africa and the world. The unsteady supply of electricity is still a hindrance. But she triumphed over the problem of human resources.

“A lot of fashion designers have the problem of keeping their workers intact and also having good hands. They have this habit of moving here and there. I have been able to keep a great number of my tailors counting five years now.

I’ve been able to overcome the pressure of having to lose them back and forth. When you treat them well and pay them for the work done on time, they stick with you. When they also know that you know the business and do a few things, they respect you. It keeps them in check,” she said proudly.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͶ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HighLife

with KAYODE ALFRED ͮͶͯ​ͯʹ͵ͳͷͶͮ͵˜ E-mail: kayflex2@yahoo.com

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous

Tonye Cole ‘Finally Marital Bliss: Yobe Governor Buni Marries Settles Down’ Abacha’s Daughter as Fourth Wife

Cole

These are happy times for Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State. A few days ago, at a private ceremony, he got married to Gumsu Abacha, the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s daughter, making her the fourth wife in his happy Buni household.

As expected, their status as governor and daughter of a former military Head of State did not dim the happy couple’s happiness. Instead, it served to accentuate that the binds of love acknowledge willing hearts and nothing else. This is especially apparent considering the marital history of the new bride.

Besides her identity as Abacha’s daughter, Gumsu married one of Cameroon’s wealthiest men, Bayero Fadil Mohamadou. Thus, Gumsu was thought to be a lucky woman. But the marriage fell through after 20 years, and they went their separate ways in 2020. However, treasure

T

he news that Tonye Patrick Cole had decided to go back to school was initially received with mixed emotions. Nobody could understand why a man accomplished in virtually everything related to him would subject himself to classes and assignments and the other elements of formal Western education. It has been a while, and folks still have no clue. In the meantime, the centrepiece to the narrative is not holding back.

According to insiders, Tonye Cole has fully been assimilated into the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, and has begun to make progress in his short course.

In the few weeks that Cole has worn his school bag, he has reportedly brushed up on his basics and will soon undergo the main course.

Even knowing this, folks are still scratching their heads to guess Cole’s underlying intention. But this is simplicity itself—the man wants to educate himself.

To those who don’t know, Cole is neither illiterate nor semi-literate. With Honours in Architecture from the University of Lagos and another from the Universidade de Brasília, Cole can walk as proudly as is permissible.

How else could he have built a fierce public reputation over the years?

Besides his political ambition, Cole’s business motions are something worth pondering.

Certainly, a former Group Executive Director of Sahara Group, a business empire that has duplicated itself in over 35 countries of the world, has enough self-awareness? Thus, if such a person goes the length of seeking instruction in a humble college in Jos, it is unlikely that he intends to take over the institution. He just wants to educate himself.

But the doubts cannot be helped. To think that the same ivory tower that has been spurned in recent years for mass-producing helpless school leavers would attract one as accomplished and erudite as Tonye Patrick Cole. In any case, the man has settled down, is keeping a low profile at NIPSS, and gradually moving towards his goal.

finders do not let treasures go to waste, and Governor Buni is one of such treasure finders.

Thus, at 45 years of age, Gumsu has become the happy wife of Governor Buni, the fourth to come after Ummi Adama Gaidam, daughter of Buni’s predecessor, Adama Ibrahim Gaidam. Ummi got wedded to Buni in 2019, a few hours after the latter took over the Yobe mantle from her father. But this was likely former Governor Gaidam’s idea since he convinced Buni to vie for the governorship seat in the first place (before then, Buni was only the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC)).

Overall, the Buni household is set to rise in status and glory in the coming years. The addition of Abacha’s daughter will beautify the governor’s life further and bring great fortune and excitement to the home.

Buni

Bukola Saraki Becomes Poster Boy for PDP

Saraki

The 2023 presidential election is like a storm that will soon be upon us. In recent days, the buzz of likely candidates has only increased and is now about to reach a crescendo. Nevertheless, like former Senate President Bukola Saraki, the brave ones have

already undergone a baptism of identities and expressed their intentions to run the presidential race.

According to reports on the latest moves towards the 2023 presidential election, campaign posters featuring Bukola Saraki have begun to crop up in the FCT. Saraki intends to continue his enterprise and reconcile all of Nigeria under one umbrella—the PDP. On this note, Saraki is likely the first credible and notable candidate vying for President Muhammadu Buhari’s mantle.

Much has been said about Saraki’s momentum. Having taken on the charge to unite warring party members and factions, Saraki has been flitting from one end of the TV screen to another as the Chairman of a sixmember reconciliation committee.

The committee includes former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; former Governors Liyel Imoke, Ibrahim Dankwambo, and Ibrahim Shema; one-time House of Representatives

Majority Leader, Mulikat Akande. Score one for visibility.

In his capacity as PDP peacemaker, Saraki has managed to glue the majority of the PDP membership pie, binding the grassroots to the elite and impressing them well enough to consider chorusing “Power to the people!” In other words, Saraki has placed PDP under the consideration of Nigerians. Another score for meritorious contributions.

Overall, things are looking really good for Saraki, but only the PDP primary election will reveal whether Saraki’s popularity is worth anything. Saraki also emerged in 2018.

However, both the extensive associations of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and the deep preparations of Atiku Abubakar pushed Saraki to third place. Whether Saraki will prevail over his peers this time is the buzz on the streets and social media. What he does next might very well decide where the tides will fall.

Ooni Picks Toyin Kolade as Iyalaje Oodua Growth is the ambition of every kingdom, and the denizens of that kingdom are the facilitators of that growth. Knowing this, the Ooni of Ife, Arole Oduduwa Olofin Adimula, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, has elected to share the burdens of the Ile-Ife Kingdom with notable personality, Princess (Dr) Oluwatoyin Kolade. The decision has brought much joy and celebration to the good people of Osun State.

The announcement of the Ooni’s choice of chiefs was released only a few days ago. According to the communiqué, the Ooni has conferred the title of Iyalaje Oodua on Princess Oluwatoyin Kolade, an accomplished international businesswoman and philanthropist, recognising her accomplishments for her hometown, state and country, and tasking her with being a paragon worthy of immediate emulation.

This is not the first time Princess Kolade is proving her mettle as a daughter of the soil.

In 2017, the Ooni recognised her distinctive understanding of—and regard for—Oduduwa lineage’s peculiarities. Thus, he made her the Cultural Ambassador in charge of the Aje festival. Even so, Princess Kolade’s passion for the culture and traditions of her fathers has not waned.

In recent times, Princess Kolade has raised the pillars of these traditions onto global renown. After organising five successful editions of the annual festivities, it is no longer surprising to find foreigners who have never been to Nigeria but know even the Yoruba culture and people’s subtle novelties. As a side note, the whole of Brazil bore witness to Princess Kolade’s efforts in September of 2019 when she launched the Aje festival in Rio De Janeiro and won accolades for the Ooni and all of Ile-Ife. Little wonder the Ooni has appointed her the Iyalaje Oodua, a representative of the deities and peoples of Oduduwa. After all, with great

Death is an enemy of all things. There’s no measuring the pain that it has caused since man appeared on the earth. But its penchant for stealing lives at prime ages is more than anyone can bear. It has been a year since death took Keniebi Okoko from this world, and much has changed afterwards.

Time is a healer of wounds, they say, but the 365 days’ worth of time has done nothing to blunt the pain of losing Keniebi Okoko to death.

One moment he was a living and breathing

Friends, Relatives Remember Keniebi Okoko part of the world; the next, he had already left it.

Even though the relatives and friends of Okoko are keeping up an appearance of resignation, the angst can be seen in their eyes and heard from their words.

Keniebi Okoko passed away last April, only 42 years old. He had already begun to make his mark as a champion of the people, half a pastor

Kolade

strength and ability comes great responsibility.

Doubtless, Princess Kolade can perform beyond expectations.

of the Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and half a political figure.

He was a gubernatorial candidate for Bayelsa State. One thing, he was entirely and unquestionably a philanthropist, a young and brilliant philanthropist who would give his life for someone else if he could.

59

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͶ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HIGHLIFE

From Nigeria to Canada with Honours for Billionaire Ikpea All roads led to Ontario, Canada, when Chief (Dr) Leemon Ikpea, the Executive Chairman of Lee Engineering & Company Ltd, was honoured with the “award for excellence and recognition of service to humanity.”

With an avowed devotion to hard work, honesty, and integrity, the billionaire Ikpea is a testament to dedication and selflessness.

For those whose paths have crossed his, the conclusion is the same: few rich individuals are as benevolent as he is.

The billionaire oil and gas mogul was rewarded for his magnanimous philanthropic acts over the years by JEN Canada on April 12. The group specifically singled out his Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Foundation (ALIF), felicitating with him for his “excellent leadership and veritable milestone achievements in the areas of employment of youth, widows, and indigent rural women.”

The humble and quiet billionaire has helped over 100 children, most of them without parents, to become graduates.

“The effects of your contributions and support to infrastructural development in rural communities in Nigeria’s South-South region have reverberated across the nation and indeed the international community and deserves the recognition that this award provides,” said JEN Canada.

The award is an endorsement of Ikpea’s strategic implementation of ALIF’s youth employment initiative through the coordinated skills acquisition programmes offered to disadvantaged youths in rural communities in South-South Nigeria.

Over the years, Ikpea has demonstrated exceptional leadership, integrity, and honesty as a shrewd entrepreneur and investor.

The Many Battles of Rochas Okorocha

T Ikpea

JEN Canada is a Canada-based relief, advocacy, and social development organisation that provides a platform for the youth of African descent and newcomers to Canada to actualise their Canadian dreams.

Seyi Makinde Humbles Fayose

Makinde

Like the Oyo Empire of ancient times, the South-West captures the resilience of a people forged from hassles, tough decisions and blood, sweat and tears. Thus, leadership in the Southwest is not like leadership anywhere else in Nigeria—the

same for politics and politicking. After many attempts of grappling between Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde and former Ekiti Governor Ayo Fayose, one party has finally come out on top.

Based on recent reports, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ‘s greatly disputed seat in the South-West has found an occupier. This is the conclusion of a Congress election that witnessed the triumphant candidate (Taofeeq Arapaja) clinching the victory by 13 votes. However, while this development unites all members and affiliates of PDP in the Southwest under one umbrella, folks are already speculating that certain ‘losers’ within the party might soon find somewhere else to hide their heads.

Very few things are secret about politics, governance and PDP in the Southwest. It is known that Makinde and Fayose do not hasten to offer flowers to each other. It is also not unknown that Taofeeq Arapaja is the candidate chosen by Makinde for the South-

West PDP chairmanship seat, whereas Eddy Olafeso was under Fayose’s canopy; that Arapaja won and therefore Makinde won, and that Makinde has effectively pummelled Fayose to the ground.

The leadership of PDP in the Southwest has been an alleged source of contention between Makinde and Fayose. According to reports, each does not want the party or region to become the playground for unruly politicking and privileged selfinterests.

Unfortunately, they do not seem to agree on pushing both the South-West and PDP up a tier or whose hands should do the pushing. Thus, Fayose has only continued to pit his years of experience and alliance against the young Makinde, whereas the latter resorts to his lineage and erudition to have things go his way.

This time, Arapaja’s victory has made it easier for one party to walk on the other’s head figuratively.

Fresh Battles Trail Rotimi Akeredolu and former Ondo Deputy Governor Ondo State, admittedly nicknamed the ‘Sunshine State,’ has a way of taking centre stage in political intrigue and drama. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, with his sharp eyes of discernment and his sharper tongue, has thrown a fresh kick against his former deputy, Agboola Ajayi. Based on reports to this effect, this round might last a while.

From the reports, Governor Akeredolu has written the Nigerian Police to report the conduct of Agboola Ajayi. Purportedly, Ajayi has refused to return government properties in his possession even though he has been stripped of these properties’ rights since two months ago.

The allegedly captured properties are four vehicles: one new Toyota Land Cruiser SUV, one new Toyota Hi-Lux, and two other HiLux models. Thus, Akeredolu’s government

petitioned the Police against Ajayi’s abuse of power and disregard for government property.

Based on reports, Ajayi has gotten wind of Akeredolu’s petition to the police and has responded in the affirmative—that he has not returned the vehicles and will wait for the police to get through to him before deciding on the next course of action. Ajayi does not intend to make things easy for his former boss.

Whoever has followed the tango between Akeredolu and Ajayi is doubtlessly aware of their history and conflict. Before the October 10 Ondo gubernatorial election, Ajayi was rumoured to have his eyes on Akeredolu’s seat.

Not long after, Ajayi left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Because he did this while still a member of Akeredolu’s cabinet, the latter was

Akeredolu

o say that Senator Rochas Okorocha has run the whole length of Nigerian politics and politicking is to put things mildly. After two terms in office as Imo State Governor, Okorocha has been plagued with one confrontation after another. But while it appears as if the native of Ogboko (Ideato South of Imo) has a penchant for being in the eye of storms, one wonders how long it’ll be before lightning crashes down on his head.

Since leaving the Owerri seat of power in 2019, the general assumption was that Rochas Okorocha would vie for the Imo West District Senatorial position— and he did. It was then foretold that Okorocha would stir the Senate with his characteristic’ bossman-ness’—and he did. And then Okorocha was expected to take a break, savour his victories and spring out of self-imposed retirement just before the 2023 presidential elections—but he did not! Instead, Okorocha got involved with his successor, Governor Hope Uzodinma, and it has been one thing after another ever since.

Proud men, both of them, Okorocha and Governor Uzodinma, have allegedly never been able to work things out over a private evening meal, as others might have considered. On the contrary, both of them reportedly hurled enough skeletons at each other until Okorocha overstepped his boundaries, and Uzodinma promptly got him arrested.

President Muhammadu Buhari and many other notable figures had to intervene before Okorocha regained his freedom.

Now, there are reports that he is on the watch list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and has already been arrested since he refused their cordial invitation to sit and have a chat.

All in all, it is one thing for revolutionaries to claim credibility from sitting on a jail bench; it is another for an incumbent Senator. Thus, Okorocha’s present engagement with the anti-graft agencies bodes ill for his political future.

The biblical Job said that man is born for trouble as surely as sparks fly. Okorocha was born for trouble as surely as there are fires.

understandably peeved and has been after Ajayi since then.

Royal Hugs Empire Surprises Celebrates Sixth Anniversary in Grand Style It is the commemoration of six years of good work and productivity for Royal Hugs Empire Surprises. This outfit has made a name for itself by colouring Birthday celebrations, anniversaries, and many other honorary events. Expectedly, the anniversary event was held in grand style with nothing but the best organisation, class and spectacle.

To those who are unaware, Royal Hugs Empire Surprises is a venture that only plays to assist in organising events. Adding to the typical decoration services, the company goes all out to make events truly worth remembering, putting smiles on the faces of celebrants and guests.

Owned by serial entrepreneur Toyin Oyesanya, Royal Hugs Empire Surprises has carved a niche and name for itself among up-and-ups of the Nigerian society. Thus, it has come to be associated with big names like King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage,

Oyesanya

Mercy Aigbe, Iyabo Ojo, Toyin Abraham, Timi Dakolo, AY the Comedian, Kolawole Ajewole Osas Ajibade, Mercy Eke, Adedimeji Lateef, and many others.

Some of these upscale personalities were present at the 6th Anniversary event. Alongside others like Aremu Afolayan, Nkechi Blessing, Bianca Ugowanne, Chinko Ekun, Adediwura Gold, Samuel Olatunji, and Idris Connecting Lagos, they all honoured the invitation of Toyin Oyesanya, the CEO. And Oyesanya did not disappoint, having Comedian Dee-One and MC Ajele on the mic and SB Live and Laolu Gbenjo on the bandstand.

According to Oyesanya, when fears of pandemics plague theworld, it isanhonourto have so many celebrities in attendance. She expressed disappointment that Royal HugsEmpire Surprises could not celebrate its anniversary last yearbecause of the pandemic and remarkedthat thisyear’s celebration had made up for it.

With so many entertainers around, the event was memorable and constituted something of a big thank-you to Royal Hugs Empire Surprises’ clients.

Okorocha

60

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͶ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS

with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)

Dilemma of a Medical Tourist After watching that Reno protest in London and followed some of the arguments against daddy’s constant push towards medical tourism, I come dey look the thing from another angle. You see the problem with our people is that we sha like to always join the bandwagon without looking at things very critically and robustly. You see the angle with which I am looking at is putting myself in daddy’s shoes. So, the choice here is showing that I am patriotic and a good leader and risking inevitable death by going to State House Clinic where no less a personality than madam has said they don’t have paracetamol. Or taking my motorcade complete with a siren to National Hospital where I will face certain death from the incompetence and eye-service that I will face there or just pack small bags enter plane and enter London and get better

treatment stay alive. You see that decision if na me, na very simple decision. I will not because of PR or image and be doing certain risky things so that Reno and his band of misfits will be happy. If they don’t abuse me on this one, they will still use other things to abuse me, so why don’t I just kuku stay alive for my children and let them be shouting. Abi, he no pass coming in front of my flat and be shouting. Is it me that cold is catching?

Even the yeye Reno, if he were faced with the same choice, will he go to Onikan Health Centre? Mbok, make una leave me o, I get grandchildren to see their wedding day o. So, guys, you see the dilemma. It’s not as if daddy will just be jumping every little time to go and let blonde big breast in London be touching him anyhow. There are reasons. Seriously, let’s even be very realistic here. If any of us critics were in Buhari’s

shoes and at his age and at whatever it is that is worrying him even if it is a boil up his backside, would you risk these clinics because you want to prove point? Which kind point? Point kill you there. Will you as Buhari go and bend down and allow doctor or nurse that has not used original stethoscope in their whole career to be putting Aba-made thermometer inside your bum and be looking for the cause of your headache because you want to be a popular President? Mbok, let’s be realistic and allow Daddy o. He needs to stay alive even if na just to dey siddon there dey use toothpick till 2023. Let him stay alive for us. We just don’t know the consequences if anything happen to daddy just yet. Abeg leave am 2023 go soon come. No be London clinic be our problem abeg, our problem is even giving those who created us a rethink.

Thank you.

GENERAL IBRAHIM ATTAHIRU – CALM DOWN If you missed the video clip of the recent engagement between the Chief of Army staff and some legislators( not sure anymore if na Reps or na Senators) that five minutes threw up so many issues that I can write a whole book on the encounter showing exactly where our problem dey for this country. First, general wear oversized uniform come the thing while the legislators some of them dress like say them just dey come from beer parlour. But that is not the problem. The general was so irritable that he was struggling most of the time to stop himself from just shouting – ‘come on gerrout’ to the legislators who in themselves were just behaving like toddlers who were excited about something. Both sides were just very funny not really understanding the roles and expectations of each in a relationship like this.

There was no mutual respect but disdain and irritation. The general was so contemptuous of the legislators, and you could see if there were a rollback to the Abacha years, what would have become of these ‘irritants’. Na Amnesty International documentary, we go dey hear them story. On the part of the legislators, the excitement that they had a caged lion within their space was so apparent. One with the open-necked shirt was shouting with spit all over the place - you can’t teach us our job. If you ask that one what his job is, you will see him waddle. All these pretensions should even just stop. What are we even achieving?

The so-called oversight, we know where he dey end, and that is why the general showed very clearly that this was a major waste of time when as he said, there is insecurity everywhere in the country. I think a major capacity building session be carried out for all of these people to make them better.

laugh want kill me. You know we have to be very careful now that Marwa is in charge of NDLEA and is running around looking to prove a point. If someone say something about igbo, the Duke and his Shomolu early days, Marwa will just jump and come and catch someone. That Oga is not joking. So I keep quiet o and let me warn this Bayo Mustapha person that he should desist from sending me that kind of video o. Anyways, I sha watched and was entrapped by the mindset, the depth of thought and the lucidity in which the speaker engaged. I quickly sent the video to my Gambian Oga Mustapha Njie and said, ‘Lord is this our candidate’. I will not tell you his reply. Left to Mustapha alone, the candidate will end up on a hemp farm harvesting the thing. The guy looking as dirty and scruffy as they look, with dirty and scattered teeth, kept shouting, don’t judge a book by its cover.

He needed to keep emphasizing it because this book was really dirty despite his intellect which was at a very high level, higher than the ones who are parading themselves here with very clean Agbada and suit but who will be going to shopping Malls to buy sex toys or go and be fighting parking attendants because they went to buy Tokunbo phone. When they asked the candidate if he would support the legalization of igbo, he said he would o, but would also table it for national debate. I felt like slapping the journalist. Why would you be asking such an obvious question? You see junkie, and you dey ask what you should be asking are his plans to expand psychiatric facilities in the era of legal marijuana use under his regime. I sha love the Gambia. You should visit. Na old white women looking for something full the place, I hear say na them own oil be that. I go soon go back.

well, let me pass, and I know Nigerians, they will clap, and some will even follow you home to make sure you got home safely. So this talk about Chinese people hawking vegetables on the road being economic sabotage is funny.

Some things in my head to talk, I for like say, face to face before they say I disrespect ogbeni, who I am not sure of his spiritual inclination.

You know these people before they carry cow horn for me and these school fees I dey find I no go come see am again. But let me just say something at this point, I have not seen any Chinese hawk vegetable anywhere o. The one I see na those ones that used to give me massage on Victoria Island and be asking if I want a happy ending and I will say, ‘are you mad, common do the thing’. Is it oil that I cannot rub on my body in my house that I will be coming here? So my brother, even if they are hawking vegetables and aphrodisiacs, that can never be economic sabotage. But instead, that is their contributing, their own quota in reflating the economy. When you go to London, don’t you see Nigerians sell fufu in Thames mead, or Guinea people sell fake wristwatch in New York? My brother, if you are looking for real economic saboteurs, open that your kembe and look down into the thing you will see a shrivelled, disused economic saboteur hanging loosely there. Where we get these kinds of actors beats me.

the Chief Press secretary gave me magazines and materials showing the work, I just took it as one of those things. As I no want annoy the madam, I collect the book and put for my bag say I go use am kill mosquitoes when I reach Anyiam Nsit, my village. But as I got there and in an engagement with the community leaders, the work of madam was mentioned, I sat up. My village head talked glowingly about the First lady’s people’s engagement on rape in the community without prompting.

This made me sit up.

When I got to Ibeno, my mother’s village, I engaged a councillor cousin Nse who also confirmed what I had heard in Anyiam. In this guise, I will seek Governor Udom to invite Her Excellency on a date anywhere of her choice in Uyo to discuss her work extensively to say thank you. Before I shoot my mouth and kill my bank account, let’s do the Castle at Ewet Housing, the afang there is exciting and delicious, but much more important it is very cheap. Mbok I ate afang at one place, I will not mention the name, and they gave me a bill of N6,700 plus vat. Afang in Uyo. Kai, madam, let’s do the Ewet Housing and please come with only one person o except you will pay for the entourage. Me, I cannot shout.

GAMBIA – THE HEMP CANDIDATE Now please, if you all know Bayo Mustapha, the short insurance expert, kindly call him and ask him why he felt I should be very interested in a dirty hemp-smoking Gambian presidential candidate. He send me the video and says Duke, you will be interested in this.

Look like Bill Clinton, I never inhaled - mbok

RAUF AREGBESOLA – SILENCE IS GOLDEN At times when we really have nothing to say, we should sha just keep quiet. It is not every time that because we are minister and there is occasion, we must talk. We can stand up and greet everybody and say, I am sorry, I just took the COVID-19 jab, and I am not feeling too

Attahiru

R-L: Omojuwa and Ezekwesili

Buhari

MARTHA EMMANUEL UDOM – ‘AFANG’ FOR THE LADY You know, because of this, my new play, IBIOM, I have been traversing the length and breadth of my homeland Akwa Ibom in the last month. I have rediscovered Akwa Ibom in a way that has made me very very proud of my heritage. The food, the people, the development going on there. I have even gone to reclaim my ancestral land hitherto dashed the community to see if I can start some form of farming. In my journey through the state, what has really touched me has been the first lady’s work, especially in two areas - rape and shelter. All Local Governments have been touched by her message, and I must say when

OMOJUWA AND EZEKWESILI – FIGHTING DIRTY You see, when things were rosy, they did not involve us o. Now everything has scattered; they are now begging us to come and listen.

They are now throwing all sorts of letters from lawyers and disturbing our peace. You see, this is why the government never takes all these sometimes activists serious because their actions are never backed by ideology or genuine interest, na wetin we go chop be all that one. The government knows that it is ‘na we na we’. That is why you will see government just look on the other side.

Omojuwa is my friend, very cerebral and influential. He has good followership on social media and has done well. From his own admission, even as a corper, he already had access to El-Rufai and Ezekwesili, who

Aregbesola

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͶ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS was minister at that time, that was remarkable but see as everything don scatter now. Usually, when things have come dry, and famine has entered, you begin to see these kind things.

For madam, she has recently been sounding kinda desperate with the attendant effect on her public ranking. She is really not that influential again, and this her fight with her ‘son’ is worsening her case. Exposing her letter to social media is ‘agbaya’ things. Abeg.

Letting the ‘boy’ be insulting her anyhow. So she cannot summon the boy that she used to feed before and have a motherly conversation with him and resolve whatever the matter is. It is until Omojuwa release ‘nude tape’ that common sense will enter abi? You sef Omojuwa, didn’t they bring you up well?

How can you fight a woman that you call mother? Be like say you no get sense. Me, I can never fight a woman like that in my life no matter what. Where are you from sef, didn’t they teach you home training? If mummy stubborn, it is expected, all mummies are like that abi you want to swear that your own mama no be like that? Please stop all this rubbish and go and sit on her feet and explain quietly and beg for her understanding. Don’t let me hear that you are fighting mummy again; otherwise, I will come and knock that your big head. Stop this crap abeg, it’s nauseating.

TEMI POPOOLA – A GREAT ASSETTO STOCK EXCHANGE Mbok, there has been a massive development at the Stock Exchange. After 60 years, the Nigerian Stock Exchange has transitioned into the Nigerian Exchange Group, with my brother Oscar Onyema moving up to Group Chief Executive. The development also includes a robust name change that keeps its international contemporaries abreast with a new branding and logo connotation.

When next I see him for that Mama Bakassi Restaurant he go hear am. But my joy is with Temi Popoola, who has emerged as the CEO of Nigerian Exchange Limited. You see, Temi and I have history. We were together at FCMB. He was Head of International Trade, and I, Head Local trade CSL, the Investment banking subsidiary of FCMB. The boy can disgrace me that time. For Monday meetings, while he will be declaring billions in trades, I will say, ‘Gboyega- our oga please don’t vex NLC strike affect my performance, don’t be annoyed, next week, I will deliver. You see why today, me na actor and Temi na major player for the economy. I am so so proud of him. You will not get any more intelligence and brilliance in one boy. The guy is sound; take it from me.

I have worked closely with him, engaged him, and I must say there is really nobody who understands the market like this boy. In fact, the capital market has scored a coup by securing his service — well done bro, well done, bro.

PASTOR ADEFARASIN – I BEG TO DIFFER I know this one is very touchy o. Does not like yabis o. The last time I yabbed him he didn’t like it o. But how can I not comment on his latest video that has gone viral? He said some very strong things there. Populist talk and hot breeze after which everybody will go home, bathe, eat, make love, and forget about the whole thing. You see, my problem with all this talk which is plenty in this country is the totally wrong but wholly acceptable notion that robust change has to come from government or leadership. This is the narrative that continues to kill us in this country. It is wrong and misleading. The government needs help. They, too, are in trouble. Can’t you even see it in the way they are doing things? We have the freedom to rebuild this country from the bottom-up, and the government will not have a choice but to begin to do what they are expected to do, which is to create an enabling environment for private wealth to grow.

Pastor, it is not the government’s job to provide jobs. The lacklustre atmosphere that hovers around our head is not the government’s job to remove it. Are you not American? Didn’t you hear what JFK said? ‘Ask what you can do for your country and not what your country can do for you.’ Buhari is not the problem. We are the problem. We are the fools; we are the ones waiting for manna to come and drop from the sky, and the government will come and share it for us. Mbok, let’s wake up and smell the coffee. Government cannot do it. We will have to do it ourselves. Is it the government that built your multibillion-naira church that looks like Noah’s ark? Is it the government

Udom

Adefarasin

that is running it for you, creating jobs and impacting? No. So why would you be waiting for the government even for the little that you can do? Nigerians should please start looking inwards because if we continue waiting for this jagajaga government, we will wait forever.

So pastor, kindly change that your narrative or just stay in the lane you better understand.

Let’s be talking about King Solomon and try to understand how without Viagra, he was able to achieve those things they said he did in the Bible. I don run o.

robust renaissance in the industry, throwing up such giants like Bolanle Austen Peters, Bikiya Graham Douglas, putting thousands of actors to work and generally engaging the industry and the industry allied sectors. Nonny is cerebral and passionate about development.

Her essays and opinions make for an engaging read, and she will be really missed as she moves from MTN Foundation to some obviously higher calling. Well done, my sister. I wish you well.

NONNY UGBOMA – MOVING TO GREATER HEIGHTS You know, sometimes the galaxy stands up to sing for a star. Nonny Ugboma is someone like that. While at the MTN Foundation, she led a revolution that revitalized culture in Nigeria.

The Foundation is the engine room behind the

WHY ARE NIGERIAN WOMEN DISCARDING THEIR BEAUTY? I know I will be abused and insulted for this write-up and in fact, fear has been catching me since I had the urge, but the need to say something seems to be stronger than the fear of abuse. It’s even a plea sef. Look I went to a very high-octane soirée. A very popular and

AZUKA OGUJUIBA – THE ONE WHO SAW MY TOMORROW It was her 50th last week, and she had a nice soiree at the Federal Palace Hotel. Me I stormed the place with my crew – Mudi, Olisa, and Tade. We sat at a far table and were watching proceedings.

The party was a testament to Azuka’s social pull. Everybody who matters in the media and entertainment was there.

Very iconic names, Azuka got everybody out of their holes. The tributes were very apt. She is very hard-working, intelligent, and

savvy. Oya, let me say the truth, if not for Azuka, you will not be reading this column. She gave me this opportunity, believing in me and selling me to Shaka Momodu, who said Edgar, go write me five articles. So, in essence, Azuka discovered me, and I will forever be grateful to her. Azuka not only discovered me, but she has also been there for me in guidance and allowing me to leverage her experience as a major journalist.

Happy birthday my sister.

Ogujuiba

influential media personality was having her 50th and she pulled in the whole social establishment.

Her power was on show as everybody who mattered in media and entertainment was there. I saw them all. From Dele Momodu to chike Ogeah to Ruth Osime to Fidelis Anosike and the rest. Nollywood was represented - Ini Edo, Rita Dominic. The great dames were in full flight, Mo Abudu, Senator Ita Giwa and All. As I sat to observe the falsehood that is Lagos social establishment, something struck me. There was no beautiful woman in the room. The only beautiful women were those serving. The rest looked like something out of Michael Jackson’s thriller. God will punish make-up artists in this country o. They turn our otherwise very beautiful women into caricatures. I even admire them how they make someone look ghoulish and the person will still pay thousands of naira and be happy.

Why are they doing this, I don’t know.

I even saw one big actress with a personal make-up artist dabbing her face per second, per second yet she still looked very- let me no talk. In trying to outdo themselves or push back the years, we see things. The push-up bras, the many wigs, the very expensive but garish looking gowns and the stilettos that look like it will break an ankle anytime from now. It’s the make-up that kills me o. They will now be holding small fan to make sure there is no sweat. It’s a struggle even to eat on such occasions because the tapes lifting the breast must not loosen, the stapler holding down the wig must stay, the tight elastic holding down the belle must keep holding it down and the bike shorts not letting the huge thighs rub together must always be lubricated per second with Dustin powder. As I sat with my boys, I tried not to laugh. It’s really a serious matter. I look with pity as self-doubt eats into even the most brilliant and most accomplished woman.

The icing is now the envy. They will now be looking at each other comparing notes seeing whose breasts are better lifted and wondering if it was Julius Berger that did the job.

When my food came, I saw her, she was a waitress and she had no make-up. She was beautiful and dark and wore simple slippers and a short gown which made her shape proud. Every man on my table agreed that this was the belle of the evening but then my friend noted that if she was a guest, she would most likely join the cat race.

Pls anybody who wants to abuse me cos of this, please remember that I am a father o and an elder in church, so abuse me with small regards GODWIN OBASEKI – CARELESS WHISPERS It was my friend Tony Omoregie who dropped this report on the Duke Summit.

The Duke Summit is a political WhatsApp group that has major people discuss the Nigerian situation in a robust manner. I say na fake news. No public official can make this kind of statement, especially an official like Obaseki, as an investment banker. Tony say no be fake, and before you knew it somebody else posted a video of him making the statement. Thankfully the authorities have come out to debunk it. But me I know, say na true, the authorities have done the right thing by trying to calm nerves and throwing doubt into it. You see this kind of talk by my brother Obaseki is what they call loose talk. Real loose talk and this is why in government we have a kitchen cabinet.

With this kind of talk any time they want to take very serious confidential decision, will they call Obaseki into the matter? A government official must be very cautious of statements. This kind talk of printing money can scare aware foreign investors, throw the economy into a tailspin and make economic analysts begin to review their positions on Nigeria’s prospects in the view of the hyperinflation that the act can throw up.

This kind of information should be carefully managed, with strategic economic managers carried along and sensitively engaged. It is not information for the public because it will lead to panic, hoarding and capital outflow, to say the least. So this Obaseki, if na IBB time, we would have been seeing frog jump and koboko in the Edo buttocks. But this na democracy and immunity so we will leave him. But his managers should do more work in engaging His Excellency, this diarrhoea kind of talk will not bode well for us. Ok as for the printers, na wa sha. Is this where we have found ourselves? Wuruwuru to the answer?

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͶ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Hajia Bola Shagaya’s Staying Power Successful businesswoman and socialite Hajia Bola Shagaya is glamorous. She oozes a peculiar aura of self-assurance, an attribute associated only with a few women in our society.

She is also revered for excelling in business and has rubbed shoulders with other top-flight and high-networth women worldwide. But there is more to Hajia Shagaya than her catholic taste.

The woman of substance has her fingers in many pies, all of which have given her fame and wealth. It is no news that she traverses the world, making contacts and breaking new grounds.

Interestingly, her fans are always quick to condemn those who wonder what the Kwara Stateborn billionaire’s staying power is. To them, those who mouth this are ignorant of her high-wire connections. She has been friends of

Ighodalo

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo’s Birthday without Ibidun

A

few days ago, the Senior Pastor of the Trinity House Church, Ituah Ighodalo, celebrated his 60th birthday amidst an outpouring of emotions.

During the well-attended diamond jubilee celebration by the society’s crème, the revered cleric spared some moments for his late wife, Ibidun, who passed on nearly nine months ago.

Speaking at the occasion, which held at his famous Trinity House Church, Lekki, Lagos, he was quoted as saying that, “This was not how my late wife, Ibidun, had wanted to plan my 60th birthday.

However, I give thanks to the Almighty God for His grace and mercy.”

In his sermon at the birthday party, which was organised in strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols, Pastor Niyi Akenzua eulogised Ighodalo, saying he is “a man with a big heart, who has helped so many less privileged homes.”

Also, in his speech, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, was reported to have said that he attended the event because of “Ighodalo’s life of worth as a servant of God,” while his wife, Bamidele, praised the celebrator for his kindness. In the same vein, the wife of Edo governor, Betsy Obaseki, thanked God for giving Nigeria a man of Ighodalo’s calibre.

Other dignitaries at the event were Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Dr Babatunde Fowler and wife; former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; Sen. Tolu Odebiyi; Olori Ladun Sijuwade; Princess Folake St. Mathew-Daniel; Mrs Funmi Teller; Mr Jimi Agbaje and wife; Mr Chike Ogeah; Pastor Femi Faseru; Olufunke Amosun; Gboyega and Bukola Adewuyi; Oba Gbolahan Lawal and his wife, Olori Maryam.

Abacha, the late Stella Obasanjo, and Dame Patience Jonathan.

Shagaya

many former first ladies, including the late Maryam Babangida, Hajia Maryam

Only last week, she again became the subject of interesting discussions in some quarters after she was sighted at the public presentation of Aisha Buhari: Being Different, a biography of Hajia Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Banquet Hall of the presidential villa, Abuja. Therefore, her presence at the event has laid to rest the insinuation that Hajia Shagaya may have lost relevance, especially among the current power brokers.

In a chat with Society Watch, a source revealed: “Many are not aware that her closeness to past and present first ladies goes beyond what she benefits from them. She also adds value to them; hence, her staying power. Her kindness, brilliance, and perceptiveness are the reasons they cannot do without her.”

Jubril Adewale Tinubu’s Characteristic Charity

For so many reasons, the story of the Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Jubril Adewale Tinubu, would make a compelling read for anyone who desires to know the ABC of running a successful business, particularly oil and gas. Though he started out as a lawyer, Oando, under his leadership, has expanded to the delight of shareholders. But as Tinubu continues to make giant strides in his varied businesses, he never trivialises the need to impact humanity positively, especially as enjoined by his faith, Islam.

Perhaps, this explains why he is constantly in the quest to lift the needy individuals around him while also contributing to his society’s development. In fact, he has chosen charity and act of kindness as his hobby. The trained lawyer believes it is far better and more gratifying to make a difference in the poor’s lives. He has been giving without looking back and blinking an eyelid and without making any noise about it.

Over the years, the serial entrepreneur has always been guided by this philosophy. He does not wish to be respected for his wealth but for the grace to impact the lives of the people around him.

Those whose paths have crossed his say

he is always in a constant quest to lift the needy individuals around him while also contributing to his society’s development.

In his characteristic magnanimity, Tinubu, it was gathered, has been giving food and cash donations to Muslim faithful since the commencement of this year’s Ramadan.

A source revealed that the oil and gas guru, for many years now, had expended millions of Naira towards this worthy cause.

“It is like a vow he has made to God. He does it annually during Ramadan and Ed- il- Kabir festival. This is just one of his several philanthropic deeds, as well as interventions, to help the course of humanity,” the source said. The source added that “unlike some others, he never talks about it, believing that his faith frowns on a showy display of kindness.”

Indeed, Adewale Tinubu is not a stranger to success. He is a proverbial man with the Midas touch as everything turns into gold. The indefatigable and intelligent business mogul with a series of milestone achievements started from a humble beginning before becoming the reference point and colossus that he is today. He is a trailblazer in whatever he does.

Tinubu

Billionaire Tunde Folawiyo: A Phenomenon Evolving at 61

Folawiyo

If Nigerian businessman and Managing Director of Yinka Folawiyo Group, Tunde Folawiyo, had penned his memoirs as he turned 61 last Monday, many would have found it simply unputdownable. Alternatively, if he had engaged a creative writer to document his earthly sojourn from birth to the age of 61, the book would not only have enjoyed rave reviews, but the biographer too would have, no doubt enjoyed a rising profile.

However, it was not for lack of interesting

personal experiences to share with the world that he jettisoned the textual project. Certainly, he has lived so many seriocomic experiences that can make the yet-to-be-documented book a compelling read.

But for some reason, Folawiyo, Society Watch gathered, is not in a hurry to release his memoirs for public consumption because he believes that he is still an evolving phenomenon.

Though he would have loved to throw a lavish party to celebrate the day and played host to some of his friends and associates, the country’s prevailing circumstances robbed him of the opportunity.

Commendations and eulogies were poured on him by those who have met him during the birthday celebration.

Reason? His life is a challenge to those who were born with the silver spoon but, out of sheer indiscipline and lack of focus, abused the privilege. His life is also an inspiration for people from humble backgrounds that they should never entomb their dreams, even in the face of adversity.

It was gathered that while he was growing up, he had displayed traits of a child destined to be great in life. He had also nursed a beautiful dream to be one of the world’s greatest businessmen.

In the thinking of many, his paths had been already laced with roses because of his background. But what those who hold this view do not know is that he himself has been able to maintain the legacy left by his father with sweats, determination, hard work as well as discipline.

His father, Chief Iyanda Folawiyo, will be smiling in his grave as the younger Folawiyo made him proud by keeping his legacy afloat.

Today, the company is recognised worldwide.

The Lagos State-born oil mogul has been listed as one of the richest in Africa.

Folawiyo has remained a strong advocate for the exploration of Nigeria’s lucrative crude oil. In an effort to expand the Yinka Folawiyo Group, he founded the Folawiyo Energy Limited in 1989.

This singular effort, in 2004, led to the construction of a world-class storage facility, which can contain approximately about 30 per cent of the country’s petrol.

His contributions to the nation’s energy sector earned him vice president of Nigeria Association of Indigenous Petroleum Explorers and Productions.

The graduate of the London School of Economics currently sits on the Board of various educational institutions, providing a unique perspective towards improving the conditions for students in Africa and other parts of the world, with his membership of the esteemed Global Advisory Board of the African Leadership Academy.

He has also demonstrated a passion for fostering the next generation of African leaders. He is also a fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh’s World Fellowship, a global network of philanthropists dedicated to inspiring youth development.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPA P PER ˾ ͹΀˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹

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February 23, 2019

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AP ͹΀˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

INTERNATIONAL Northernisation as a Major Dynamic of Nigeria’s Deepening Insecurity: The Independence and Parliamentary Foundations

N

igeria was a problem unto herself before, at, and after, independence. Before independence, the prevention of Southerners from settling down in the old cities of the North, was the epicentre of the problem. The ultimate objective of the prevention, by then, was to avoid the corruption or contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. As explained by Nigeria’s former plenipotentiary High Commissioner to Botswana and Lesotho and Professor of Political Science, Dr. Alaba Ogunsanwo, ‘after the amalgamation of Nigeria, certain policies, adopted by the colonial administration at the behest of some of the traditional rulers, inadvertently created migration centres designed to ensure the non-contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. The phenomenon first emerged in the northern part of the country, where the traditional rulers succeeded in persuading the colonial officials to ensure that Southerners were not allowed to establish their settlements or places of abode near the old cities. These settlements where ‘’strangers’’ elements lived were quite some distance at the time from old traditional cities.’

Professor Ogunsanwo, who was also Nigeria’s ambassador to Belgium with concurrent mandate to Luxembourg and the European Union, has noted that ‘what was troubling was the translation of the inner feeling of ‘’you are different from us and, therefore, should not stay among us or near us,’’ into policy. That was to lay the foundation of future distrust and discord. There was, of course, discrimination and it continues today, as the Ibrahim Zakari panel set up recently by the Northern States governors pointed out in its comprehensive report on the extremely slow pace of development in the North.’ (vide Alaba Ogunsanwo, Selected Essays on Politics and International Relations [Ibadan: Concept Publications Limited, 2015], p. 230 et s.).

Even though Professor Ogunsanwo noted that the phenomenon began in the northern part of Nigeria without pinpointing the Fulani as the main traditional rulers involved, subsequent empirical cases clearly showed that the phenomenon is essentially about the Fulani. Let us begin with a cursory look at the Official Report on the Parliamentary Debates in the Senate, during the 1961-62 Session, covering the period from November 25 to December 1, 1961.

Discrimination at, and After, Independence A27-year old primary school teacher, Mr. Modiyu Adeniyi Odunowo complained bitterly about how Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was mistreated at the time of independence celebrations.

Aggrieved by the shabby treatment, he said: ‘let’s have our own Pakistan. If they could rubbish Awo like this, sooner or later, they will be defecating on our heads. Let’s have our own sovereignty.’

He was assassinated five years after, but there is no information on who killed him Whatever is the case, the foundation for suspicions had been laid and Government has not prevented the deepening of further suspicions since then.

On, on Tuesday, 28th November, 1961 at the Senate, Chief O.A. Fagbenro-Beyioku, representing Lagos, introduced a Notice of Motion, entitled ‘Discriminatory Practices in the Federal Territory.’’ The motion stipulated that ‘this House deplores all forms of discriminatory practices, either in the National Policy of the country or in the Public Service Administration of the Land, which are capable of creating tribal disaffection among the several millions of the peoples of the Federation, thereby endangering the solidarity of the Nation.’

Put differently, Senator Fagbenro-Beyioku was directly complaining about discriminatory practices that had the potential to generate tribal disaffection in Nigeria. In his eyes, ‘the only way we can bring about that situation of developing, that sense of feeling at home anywhere in Nigeria, is to make sure that our National Policy, as well as everything we project, has roots radiating from the minds of Nigeria. There is one thing that we must keep ahead of us, and that is that nothing shall be done which shall injure the feeling of one tribe or one class or one religion. As long as we are able to do that, we will be building the Nigeria that we all love so much and will be making things really very easy and sweet for ourselves.’

The background to the Motion is interesting: Senator Fagbenro-

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Buhari Beyioku referred to press reports according to which ‘some sections of the Senior Service are asked to quit their quarters for another Section of the Service, and whereby there was a statement that the Government was committed to providing quarters for a Section.’

He was so disturbed to the extent that he expressed his disbelief as follows: ‘I can never believe that it is the policy of our own Government to single out a Section of the Community for protection against the interests of another Section of the Community. All these things must be clarified and have to be discussed, and we must know the policy of our Government on all these things.’

In sum, Senator Fagbenro-Beyioku moved the Motion so that Government could ‘set yardstick by which we shall measure our national policies and by which we shall remove entirely from our national policies anything that stinks or anything that suggests discrimination, either tribal discrimination, clannish discrimination, favouritism, Regional discrimination, or any form of discrimination.’

Rising to second the Motion, Senator A. E. Ukattah, representing the Eastern Region, submitted that the motion was a desideratum and that ‘if we allow this situation to continue, the consequences which will follow shortly will, indeed, be tremendous. In most of our establishments, and in nearly all our offices today, we find thirdrate and second-rate people displacing the most eligible, the most suitable and first-rate people, who offer their services to the nation.

The danger is there. This leads to frustration.’

In fact, Senator Ukattah asked the Senate why he should not be frustrated if he were ‘the most qualified and able man and the one who should merit promotion’ and he was ‘pushed aside on grounds of discrimination.’ Considering that discriminatory tendencies and practices were then very rampant in the country, and had, before then, not always existed, Senator Ukattah said the motion was clear, its aims were lofty and required seriousness of purpose, and therefore, seconded the motion.

The debate that followed the motion was heated, especially that the Minister of Lagos Affairs, Hon. Mallam Musa Yar’Adua, tried to stop the debate by invoking Sessional Paper Number 2 of 1960, a government policy, arising from the final report of the Parliamentary Committee on Nigerianisation of the Federal Public Service. In the ‘Sessional Paper,’ ‘Government accepted the recommendation

Insecurity in Nigeria has been largely fuelled by Northernisation agenda.The idea of secession of the former Eastern Region was first mooted in 1962 before its actualisation attempt in 1967. Even though the genesis of the centralisation of power is traceable to Decree 34,promulgated under General Aguiyi Ironsi,an Ibo man,to foster national unity,GeneralYakubu Gowon did not succeed in fostering national unity by restructuring the regions into 12 States. Power was not decentralised.Today, PMB is hostile to restructuring but has no control over quests for self-determination and foreign policy implications: those funding the Boko Haram are in Saudi Arabia; theYoruba have asked the UN to organise a plebiscite on their intention to exist as a separate sovereign State. This request cannot but have the support of proponents of self-determination.The war scenario cannot but be between the North and the South, and therefore, PMB will need to secure an entente with either Cameroun or Benin Republic to have access to the seas for military supplies, for reasons of being landlocked.

Also, the Foreign Service Officers will be divided. Defending Nigeria, in whatever ramifications, will be conflicting. Consequently, PMB must address the issue of Northernisation with seriousness of purpose and must not make haste slowly in preventing the destruction of Nigeria

of the Parliamentary Committee that everything possible should be done to increase the proportion of Nigerians of Northern origin in the Federal Public Service and that a careers (sic) officer should be appointed for this purpose.’

Senator Ukattah raised a point of order on the basis of Section 29(1) of the Revised Standing Orders, according to which debates upon any Motion, Bill or Amendment, except in the case of a Substantive Motion for adjournment of the House and also on the basis of the Revised Standing Order 26(2) on Rules of Debate, which required a member to ‘confine his observations to the subject under discussion and may not introduce matter irrelevant thereto.’

The President of the Senate, Senator Chief Denis C. Osadebey, ruled against the point of order, arguing that the Minister’s point was relevant and that the Minister should continue with his submission. On this basis, the Minister explained that ‘in the administrative and professional grades, out of 1,203 Nigerian officers, there are only 34 officers of Northern origin; in the Executive grades, of 1,150 Nigerian officers, there are 30 officers of Northern origin; in the clerical and technical grades, of 16,770 Nigerian officers, there are only 381 officers of Northern origin.’ From this submission, the Minister was simply drawing attention to the fact that there were fewer Northerners in the Federal Public Service. He did not explain whose responsibility it was for the situation.

In his response to the specific issue of housing discrimination, the Minister had it that the case of some Nigerian officers who ‘were asked to vacate their quarters for newly appointed Northern Executive Officers... arose from the recent appointment of 17 Assistant Executive Officers of Northern origin to the Federal Public Service.

It was urgently necessary to provide temporary accommodation because of the difficulty that they would experience in Lagos if such were not done. It would, in fact, have been impossible to persuade them to take up appointments in Lagos if no quarters were to be made available to them.’

The question arising from this submission is why should senior officers be asked to vacate quarters for newly recruited junior officers? If the senior officers were already in such quarters, why were they allowed to be there? If it was public policy to accommodate public officers temporarily, when was the ‘temporariness’ to be removed? This question is necessary because asking an occupant to vacate his residence under emergency can be very disturbing.

In this regard, the Minister explained that ‘those non-entitled Nigerian officers who were warned that they might have to give way to these officers were those who had been occupying quarters for such periods that should reasonably have allowed them to find alternative private accommodation in the town, knowing as they did that they were only allocated government quarters on a strictly temporary basis.’

Even though Senator Fagbenro-Beyioku attempted to withdraw his Motion and some Senators objected to it, submitting that once a Motion was tabled for discussion, it could no longer be withdrawn, there were proponents and opponents of the Motion. There was the particular perception of deliberate discrimination, largely induced by northernisation agenda: that of Senator Chief T.A. Doherty, one of the representatives of Lagos.

In his words, ‘we all know what the situation is in this country today and we have only been going round the fence rather than getting to grips with the problem. Even the mover of the Motion was guilty of the same thing.’ More notably, he said ‘discrimination means tribalism, in plain language; we should not beat about the bush, the Northerners are in control of the Federal Government today, and Easterners are playing second fiddle. That is the position in our country today.’ Again in his eyes, ‘in the Federal Public Service, when the Federal Government took office, the first thing they did was to remove the Chairman of the Public Service Commission and to put a Northerner there. The Northerners know where they are going, and we are not going to sit down unconcerned, while our rights and liberty are being invaded.’ Above all, he said ‘we do not say that Northerners should not come into the Federal Public Service, but we insist that they should come in, in a proper and honourable way. We should behave like brothers to one another... it is not by serving some people with eviction notices and asking the Northerners to take their place that we can have unity in this country.’ The foregoing was a major pillar of Nigeria’s deepening insecurity and crescendo of intolerance of what is considered as Northernisation, and particularly Fulanisation as at today.

Fulanisation and Foreign Policy Dimensions Many Nigerian notables, including former President Olusegun Okikiola Obasanjo, have said that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) has, not simply a northernisation, but particularly a Fulanisation agenda. In the view of many other observers, the agenda has been in the making for quite a long time but reaction to it has been that of ‘’wait-and-see’ strategy: what will be the modus operandi? The modus vivendi? The leading dramatis personae? The strategic format? The strategic implications? And at what costs? Many questions but few answers. True, PMB has taken many decisions that clearly suggest that he supports Northernisation and Fulanisation agenda per excellence. Some critical examples for illustration purposes will do here. First, PMB appears to be giving expression to the perceived Fulanisation agenda in three main ways: institutionalisation, abuse of politico-constitutional powers to appoint, and reckless disregard for the rule of law and public opinion.

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ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

18.04.2021

KANYE’S REALLY GOT SO MUCH TO SAY

Cover continued on Page 66

Kanyeyachukwu with one of his paintings

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

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ARTS & REVIEW\\ARTICLES

KANYE’S REALLY GOT SO MUCH TO SAY Buoyedbyhisprodigiousartisticskills,Kanyeyachukwu(moreoftenknownasKanye)expresseshimselfinbrightcolourful spurtsofilluminationandearnsthelaurelastheposterchildfortheadvocacyforautism,Okechukwu Uwaezuokereports

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ears of hogging the limelight should, by now, have inscribed Kanye’s name in flaming letters into the art industry’s consciousness. This is why his latest exhibition – which opened on Friday, April 16 and ends tomorrow (Monday, April 19) at the Abuja Transcorp Hilton Hotel – should go down in the annals of the local art scene as a landmark event. True, he is only an 11-year-old. But he found fame when he made history as the youngest and first-ever African winner of the prestigious Flamme des Friedens (Flame of Peace) award in the Austrian capital, Vienna. This was on Thursday, September 6, 2018, about two months shy of his ninth birthday.

He had, alongside three other Nigerian artists, participated in that year’s edition of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) annual art exhibition, whose title was Scenes of Peace. The exhibition, held at the Museum of Young Art (MOYA), featured 70 artists from all over the world. It was in this museum that the Prince and Princess of Tuscany, The Archduke Sor Sen in his studio and Archduchess of Austria, conferred the award, which is for promoting peace with art, on him. then, there are those moments when assailed by flashes of anger, Instituted in 2007 by the Austrian non-profit organisation, he throws tantrums. And there are also times when he simply Association for the Promotion of World Peace, the award has retreats into spells of melancholy. been previously conferred on such distinguished personalities In this conceited rationalist world, Kanye lives like an as Ali Abdullah Saleh (who served as the first Yemeni president outsider. Insulated from the tyranny of a society that sets the after the country’s unification on May 22, 1990), the Ambasrules, his perceptive faculties grope for meaning like antennae sador of Jordan to Austria, Hussam Al Husseini (who was in into realms that remain inaccessible to superficial existence – an office from 2007 to 2012) and Atifete Jahjaga (the first female existence that limits itself to purely earthly matters, thus closing president of Kosovo, whose tenure ended on April 7, 2016), itself to real life. among others.

He was just about four years old when he was officially Fast-forward to November 2019. His first solo exhibition, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. But then, his titled Impossibility is a Myth, opened in Terra Kulture in Victo- parents (Tagbo and Sylvia Tagbo-Okeke) were already trying ria Island, Lagos. He had, sometime in March that year, hosted to wrap their heads around something else. And that was his an art exhibition featuring his many works alongside displays propensity for drawing. For drawings, indeed, his abstract by other children living with autism and Down syndrome expressions deserved to be called – not doodles – since there from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Centre for Children with was something about them that hinted at his being focused and Special Needs in Abuja. Months later, not so long after another purposeful. Because he had easy access to A4 papers, he would exhibition held in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, he became use up a full ream in just one day. Under such circumstances a recipient of the Indomie 2019 Independence Day Heroes when he ran out of papers, or if they were discreetly kept out of Award for his Autism Awareness Campaign. his sight, he would begin to draw on the walls. Repainting the No doubt, Kanye’s ever-fluctuating moods have found an walls, his parents would soon find out, made no difference since expression in his fiery palette. he would resume his drawing on them.

Could that be why the founder and owner of the Vienna If the Tagbo-Okeke couple suspected a connection between (Austria)-based Museum of Young Art (MOYA) Dr Kolja the third child’s restiveness and autism, it was because the Kramer thinks highly of his artistic skills? The latter was indeed drawings were abstract and they did not understand them. quoted to have described Kanye’s art as “deep, highly intelIt took a discerning female visitor to draw their attention to ligent and unbelievably very mature for his age.” the creative depth and potentials of these visual expressions.

Still on the 11-year-old’s shifting moods, he like everyone Indeed, it was she, who suggested that Kanye be enrolled in an else revels in his joyful and exhilarating moments. But, of art class. course, these are interspersed with bouts of listlessness, which But, getting an art teacher was no easy task. They were later have been observed to be “very long and frequent”. Now and introduced to Kokab Farrukh the proprietress of Kokab House

of Arts in the Wuse area of Abuja. “The first day she met Kanye, she called me and said, ‘You have brought a genius to me,” Kanye’s mum, Sylvia Tagbo-Okeke, recalls.

On Kanye’s daily activities, his mum says they are “very organised”. This is, therefore, what his typical day looks like: He gets up from his bed, showers, brushes his teeth and dresses up very neatly before his breakfast. After his breakfast on the days that he doesn’t have to go to school, he hops from one room to the other for two hours. Then, he picks up a paper or asks for a canvas to begin his artistic activities.

When he gets hungry, he goes to his nanny to ask for chicken with jollof rice or spaghetti as his mood dictates. He jumps around and plays with his three-year-old younger brother Mekalianna and afterwards with his iPad until the time of his appointment with his therapist, who arrives by 1:30 pm and leaves by 2:30 pm.

His next appointment is with his basketball coach, who comes in at 4 pm and leaves at 6 pm.

Afterwards, he takes a shower, eats his dinner and goes to bed at 9 pm.

Born on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, Kanye is preceded by a girl Uzoamaka, who is 16 years old, and a boy Ozichukwu, who is 12 years old. When he was named Kanyeyachukwu in Igbo – which roughly translates as “Let us commit him to the Almighty” and is now often shortened as Kanye – his parents were oblivious about the fact that they were predicting their third child’s threads of fate. The other names they gave him – Tobenna (Igbo for “Praise the Almighty Father”) and Omozee (Edo for “Because of this child, I feel accomplished”) – seem to reinforce the direction of his earthly paths.

Through his foundation Kanye Autism Foundation (KAF), Kanye gives back to society and has become a poster child for the advocacy for autism.

His paintings adorn the walls of both private collectors’ homes and institutions within and outside Nigeria. Among the institutions and personalities listed as his collectors are: the Museum of Young Art (MOYA) in Vienna, Austria, the Transcorp Hilton Abuja, the Nigerian Embassy in Vienna, Austria, the Australian Embassy, the Syrian Embassy, the Egyptian Embassy, the Venezuela Embassy, the Thailand Embassy, the Lebanese Embassy, the Embassy of Poland, the Embassy of Norway, the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Louis Edet House (Nigerian Police Headquarters Abuja), Chief Dr Ernest Azudialo Obiejesi/ Nest Oil, Aiteo, the Pakistani Embassy, the Kuwaiti Consulate, the Embassy of Finland, Mr Nzam Ogbe, Barrister Mrs Jennifer Abubabkar, Archduke and Arch Duchess of Austria, Miss Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, the OPEC Fund for International Development, Suleiman J. Al Herbish (OPEC Fund for International Development’s director-general), African Museum in Vienna (Austria), BBC Abuja and Save the Children.

MOVIES

Coming2America: Feminism served on Afro-AmericanThemed Menu Yinka Olatunbosun

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t's not clear what critics were expecting to find in the sequel to Coming to America, a 1988 box- office hit produced

by Eddie Murphy Productions. Dubbed Coming 2 America, the movie-upon its release last month had received mixed reviews, toxic and positive reviews.

Some called the storyline dated and in Nigeria, many were thrilled to see the Afrobeats

A scene from the movie

artist, Davido performing as himself in the movie.

There seems to be a loathsome wind around sequels.

Very easily, the new installment can be written off as not having any shock value, or too predictable.

Quite ridiculously, some reviewers wrote that Eddie Murphy is old. Really? Subtract 1988 from 2021, the result is well, old. And for old time’s sake, the bromance between Arsenio Hall (Semmi) and Eddie Murphy (Akeem Joffer) is still timeless and nostalgic of the previous story of their sojourn to America to find love.

With Coming 2 America, movie buffs have only discovered that Akeem Joffer found more than just love. With his father's dying wish to see his out-ofwedlock grandson as his successor, the conflict of drama is cooked, spiced by the intrusion of General Izzi and his several attempts to make his children heirs to the Zamunda Kingdom through arranged marriage.

But from an African viewpoint, the movie has some merits in its refined thematic focus asides its being a romantic comedy. Akeem's daughters represent the new spirit of African women who dare to conquer in spheres that are considered as strictly male territories. Many thought this echoed the spirit

of Wakanda in the movie ‘Blank Panther’ but in reality, it is a cry for women to be allowed into leadership roles since that is not accomplished by testosterone. Many women who had managed to shatter the glass ceilings to accomplish their dreams had been labelled “prostitutes” or made subjects of harmful gossips that question the merit of their achievements. History is tilting to forget how African women have shown courage in war and activism. Queen Amina of Zaria, Moremi Ajasoro, Osun, Yaa Asantewaa, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and many more had laid the foundation for women to be reckoned in leadership roles.

Now to Davido. It would seem that one of Africa's most successful contemporary artists was made the opening act to Sexual Chocolate, a fictional band with a retro vibe with a lead singer, Randy Watson played by Eddie Murphy. But his damask suit emits glamour and class which had been the style of leading artists from Africa like King Sunny Ade, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Mariam Makeba and the likes. With the proliferation of artists who could play multiple characters in one film, the Randy role was such a slapstick compared

to his depiction of Saul, a white customer. That is arguably the best make up role in Murphy's career.

As regards the primitive Africa narrative, Africans should not be quick to resent the lion's whiskers test that Lavelle Junson is made to undergo to qualify to rule. The political landscape in many parts of Africa is still governed by similar unwritten and obsolete traditions. Leaders are usually persons past the youth age bracket and many young men who had dared to approach the corridors of power have had to go through some procedures that are as daunting as collecting whiskers from a lion. For instance, the voting system and electioneering process are grossly challenging.

Ballot-snatching and burning are still the order of the day with no punishment for perpetrators of electoral violence.

Asides having the potential of being nominated and winning best picture, Coming2America boasts of rich costumes, regal and colourful. The allure of the costumes celebrates the African taste for fashion. And to bring Queens to Zamunda is a way of showcasing Africa to the world that in spite of our obsolete traditions, Africa is still one of the most sophisticated continents in world history, rich in art and potentials for impacting global economy.

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CICERO

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

IN THE ARENA

Alleged Money Printing: Did Obaseki Goof?

Dodgy counter-positions from the federal government to explain away Governor Godwin Obaseki’s allegation that it printed N60 billion as part of allocation to states for March 2021 hardly illuminate the issue, writes Louis Achi

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lthough a graduate of Classics, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State is an economist, former investment banker and member of the National Economic Council (NEC).

At a public forum recently, he painted a gloomy picture of the Nigerian economy.

Speaking at the Edo State Transition Committee stakeholders’ engagement penultimate Thursday, the governor said the economy was imperilled and that the rising debt profile was worrisome as dependence on crude oil was no longer sustainable.

His words: “The current price of crude oil is only a mirage. The major oil companies, who are the ones producing are no longer investing much in oil. Shell is pulling out of Nigeria and Chevron is now one of the world’s largest investors in alternative fuel.

“So, in another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to share in Abuja?…When we got FAAC for March, the federal government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share.”

For good measure, the governor said the federal government must act quickly to end the monetary rascality rather than playing the Ostrich.

In countering Obaseki’s bombshell five days later, first, the Minister of Finance, Obaseki and Emefiele Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, daintily dismissed the claim as “untrue”.

“What I keep saying is that it will be irresponsible According to Ahmed, “The issue that was raised for the CBN or any other federal reserve bank to stand by the Edo State governor for me is very, very sad, idle and refuse to support its government at this time. because it is not a fact,” and insisted that FAAC And what we are doing here is being done in any allocation was from revenues from different agencies clime. At the last MPC meeting, I gave data on what is of the federal government. being done in other climes to shore up their economy “What we distribute at FAAC is revenue that is and take them out of recession. generated and in fact distribution of the revenue is “Nigeria is, unfortunately, in a very bad situation, public information. We publish revenue generated by I’m not going to pretend about it. We are facing a FIRS, the customs and the NNPC and we distribute problem about productivity output, which is GDP. at FAAC. So, it is not true to say we printed money to Luckily, we managed from recession, now we looking distribute at FAAC, it is not true,” she stated. at how to get our head above water.”

But, in what seemed more like a tetchy fightTo defog the Obaseki’s allegation on money printing back, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and distill the essence of the finance minister’s counter (CBN),Godwin Emefiele described Obaseki’s position position, economist, banker and financial analyst of no on printing about N60 billion to shore up March mean repute, Bismarck J. Rewane was enlisted. subvention by the Federal Account Allocation ComRewane, the Managing Director/Chief Executive mittee (FAAC) as totally inappropriate.

Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited Noted Emefiele: “If you understand the concept of in Lagos, is a Chartered member of the Institute of printing of money, it’s about lending money. That is Bankers of England and Wales and also a Fellow of our job. To print is about lending money. So, there the Nigerian Institute of Bankers. is no need of putting up controversy about printing Curiously, Rewane left many Nigerians scratching money as if we go into the factory, print the naira and their heads with his coded, ‘fence-sitting’ interpretastart distributing on the streets.

tion of the subject matter: “The difference between what the governor is saying and what the minister is saying is like trying to differentiate between six and half a dozen.”

But if Rewane was being coquettish in grabbing the bull by the horns, other experts of kindred disciplinary plumage were not so hesitant.

Palgrave MacMillan, a think tank, argues that inflation in Nigeria is caused by government’s expansionary fiscal policies, devaluation of the naira and the impact of climate change on the domestic agricultural industry.

Whereas overheads gulp about 70 per cent of government budgetary expenditure, the exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar is N380, going by the usually ignored Central Bank of Nigeria rate, or N485, going by the generally preferred parallel market rate.

Money printing, more technically known as monetisation or “moneyfinanced fiscal programmes” occurs when the government finances itself by issuing non-interest-bearing liabilities. Those liabilities could be currency or they could be reserves that banks hold at their central bank Financial gurus and economists have warned that Nigeria faces the risk of falling off the fiscal cliff if the federal government continues its reckless reliance on ‘Ways and Means’ to fund its widening deficits.

While every country prints money, the experts are concerned that with an inflation rate that is tending towards 20 per cent and extremely low productive capacity, the economy cannot absorb a reckless money supply expansion.

According to Dr. Bongo Adi, an economist at the Lagos Business School, it is difficult to determine the extent of mess Nigeria’s ‘Ways and Means’ financing has caused as nobody knows the amount printed so far. He, however, warned that the economy cannot bear an unrestrained expansion of the money supply, which he blamed for the current stagflation and associated challenges.

For Prof. Uche Uwaleke, of the Nasarawa State University, Nigeria cannot afford uncontrolled printing of the currency to finance the budget, because the economy cannot absorb it. He insisted that the continuous resort to Ways and Means would worsen inflationary pressure and lead to further depreciation of the naira, because the production capacity is low.

Cut to the bone, the unfolding controversy simply puts Buharinomics on the spot!

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

Bawa, EFCC Can Do Better!

T Bawa

he operational style of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has always been gross and highhanded. It is largely predicated on media trial – a conscious choice to name and shame suspects even when they have not been found guilty of the alleged offences. And guess what? It is hardly difficult to dissociate the personality of the individual heading the EFCC from its modus operandi.

But the emergence of a new EFCC boss, 40-year-old Abdulrasheed Bawa, had signaled some hope that, perhaps, things might begin to assume a different slant, only if he was disposed to doing things differently with the sole aim of setting a standard for better results.

The news of the alleged arrest of a former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha and his own narrative that he was merely invited for interrogation is a road many had traveled before. It

fitted into the familiar practice of the EFCC. Unfortunately, only the EFCC could have either set the record straight, corrected the misinformation if any, or controlled the information ab initio.

But the EFCC would rather watch while people are embarrassed only to turn out that the information in the public space was not correct. Even more niggling is the fact that such sensationalised reports were usually leaked by EFCC agents, whose sole responsibility is to name and shame people – whether or not they are politically exposed.

If at all Bawa means business and wants people to believe it is not going to be business as usual, then, the poor operational style of the EFCC, which often casts aspersion on its image must be done away with. Bawa must not only speak about his intention to be different, he must act and be seen to be, indeed. Only then can he be said to be living the age of his ideas and the promises made.The EFCC should stop playing to the gallery. Enough!

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

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BRIEFINGNOTES El-Rufai: Between Idealism and Reality Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is noted for making hard choices in governance and holding resolutely to his position. Thus, the recent mass sack of workers was consistent with his style and choices, writes John Shiklam

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overnor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State is known for his courageous stands, whenever it comes to taking difficult decisions concerning governance issues. Unlike many of his colleagues, El-Rufai, is one governor, who is not afraid of taking the bull by the horns, when it comes to taking very hard decisions that border on public interest, even if such decisions would negatively affect his political profile.

His principled stand against negotiations or payment of ransom to bandits, who kill and abduct people in communities across the state, almost on a daily basis, stand him out among among his counterparts in Zamfara, Katsina and other states facing same challenges and which, despite negotiation and payment of ransom to the criminals, have not succeeded in stopping them.

Since assuming office, El-Rufai has never shied away from taking very hard decisions on issues he thought were in the best public interest, even though there were always stiff opposition to some of his actions by some sections of the state.

He successfully steered through during the reforms in the civil service and education sector despite opposition, especially, by those affected by the polices. In 2016, many civil servants and school teachers lost their jobs following the reforms.

The governor seemed to have raise the dust again with yet another mass sack of civil servants, whichhas pitted him against the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and his other critics.

The state government had reportedly sacked about 3,000 workers due to dwindling financial resources and a high wage bill of workers without corresponding revenues from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC).

In a statement on Monday in Kaduna, the government declared that it had no choice than to reduce the workforce due to high wage bill.

In the statement by Muyiwa Adekeye, Media aid to Governor El-Rufai, the state said, “government finances have been severely stretched by higher wage bills at a time when revenues from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC) have not increased.”

Adekeye explained that what the government has been receiving from FAAC since the middle of 2020, could barely pay salaries and overheads. According to him, in November 2020, the state received N4.83 billion from FAAC, and that after spending N4.66 billion, only N162.9 million was left.

Adekeye said in the last six months, personnel costs accounted for between 84.97% and 96.63% of FAAC transfers received by the state. In March 2021, for instance, the state government received N4.819 billion from FAAC and after settling personnel costs, only N321million was left.

This, he said, did not include standing orders for overheads, funding security operations, running costs of schools and hospitals, and other overhead costs that the state had to bear for the machinery of government to run, for which the state tapped into IGR earnings.

“The state government was elected to develop the state, not just to pay the salaries of public servants. It was elected to promote equality of opportunity, to build and run schools and hospitals, upgrade infrastructure and make the state more secure and attractive to the private sector for jobs and investments”, Adekeye’s statement stated.

He also explained that in September 2019, the state was the first to pay the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments, stressing that this was followed by increasing the minimum pension of persons on the defined benefits scheme to N30,000 monthly.

Nasir El-rufai This, according to him, significantly increased the wage burden of the state government and immediately sapped up the funds of many local governments.

He said the state government, therefore, has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of its workforce. He also disclosed that political appointees would be affected by the rationalisation exercise to save funds for development projects.

Unfortunately, the sacking of workers had been widely condemned, especially, by the state chapter of NLC, which accused the state government of being economical with the truth on the reasons for the sack.

In an interview with THISDAY, the state Chairman of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Suleiman, said the government gave flimsy reasons to justify the “illegal sacking of workers at this difficult times.

“The reasons for sacking workers is because the government said people must have diploma certificates. That is the reason they gave for this latest disengagement of workers; it is not about redundancy”.

Although he admitted that it was important for people to upgrade their knowledge, he said the government ought to have given workers notice and a window period within which to acquire the certificate, insisting that government was also not being truthful about its earnings.

“Kaduna State is earning about N4.8 billion monthly from the federation account. Our salary bill as I am talking to you is N3.6 billion and 36 per cent (N1.296 billion) of this amount is spent on the payment of political appointees.

“Equally, there are internal and external grants coming to the the state. Summing all these incomes per month, I don’t think N3.6 billion will be an issue against almost about N10 billion. So, there is no justification for sacking workers”, the NLC chairman said.

But in the final analysis, the issue is between the idealist and the realist. While the idealist mostly pander to emotion and what’s ideal in a different situation, the realist is inoculated against sentiment and works with facts and figures of what is currently obtainable.

If with the facts before the state, government could no longer sustain the allegedly non-productive works force, then, something needed to be done and core essence of leadership is the capacity to make hard choices.

For those that understand governance and its intricacies, it is hard to condemn Governor El-Rufai for his choices, particularly, this very controversial one, because if the recurrent expenditure takes so much, development becomes overtly impossible and at the end of the day, he takes the blame for the overall rating of his government.

NOTES FOR FILE

Is Killing Police Officers a New Sport?

Acting IG, Usman-Baba

Today, in different parts of the country, particularly, in the Southeast geo-political zone, the killing of police officers appears to be the new sport, which its players appear to have seriously taken to. From Abia to Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra, with the exception of Enugu, police officers have suddenly become endangered species in the Southeastern part of the country.

Although this ‘sickening pushback’started during the #EndSARS protests, which took its root from Lagos and later replicated in other parts of the country, the rate at which the police are being killed today in the Eastern part of the country is worrisome and calls for concern.

It is bad enough that the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests had succeeded in intimidating men of the Nigerian police and stifling them from being alive to their responsibilities, the reason it took them a long time to return to their respective beats after many of their colleagues

had lost their lives to the attacks by hoodlums, who had hijacked what was ordinarily a peaceful protest.

An end must come to this madness by these irreverent youths, who are taking laws into their hands and complicating the already fragile peace of the society. Or is it until the federal government unleashes its venom on them like the military did recently in a community in Benue State, where about 11 of their men were killed and used the excuse to level up the place.

It’s time for common sense to prevail. Let the opinion and community leaders in the South-east speak to their youths to stop this madness. It is nothing but sheer madness. The assumption that the federal government is vulnerable at the moment and as such, could get away with these crimes is delusional. Whatever their grievances, they are going about it the wrong way. Certainly!

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CICERO/ISSUE

The Mai Mala-Buni committee presenting the APC registration and revalidation timetable to Buhari

2023 and APC National Chairmanship For an equitable power distribution, the APC must zone its national chairmanship to North Central, writes Louis Achi

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fter closely evaluating the national political situation ahead of the 2023 general election, particularly, the impending national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the APC Patriotic Ambassadors of Nigeria, led by Dr. Aliyu Ibrahim, is pushing a a case for zoning the national chairmanship to the North Central.

In a recent official memo to Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State and Chairman, APC Caretaker Committee, obtained by THISDAY, the group passionately appealed to all APC chieftains, members of the National Working Committee, all elected representatives, governors and National/State Assembly members to back zoning of the party’s national chairmanship to the North Central geopolitical region.

“The entire North-Central Zone, which also houses, what is politically labeled as the MiddleBelt, will equally swell the electoral advantages in favor of the APC, as a political party that had been able to change the political narratives of political interests-aggregation, old system of power-play, power-game and entrenchment of novel ideals and ideas that modern polity, allows globally,” the memo, to Mala Buni, signed by Dr. Aliyu Ibrahim, elaborated.

Tracking back to the nation’s recent democratic history, the group reasoned that, “A tie-back to the 1999 return to democracy experience, during which period, one of the founding fathers of G-38, which later metamorphosed into the Peoples

Democratic Party, late Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, a second Republic Executive Civilian Governor of old Plateau State between 1979 and 1983, came from the North-Central Zone.

“Late Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, saw the enormous electoral potentials housed by the states that make up the North Central geo-political zone, which his party exploited to full advantage in terms of electoral investments & return on electoral investments, respectively, ostensibly, managing the gains of the ELECTORAL RESOURCES available for usage.

More, it held that, “Here in the year, 2021, with just less than two months to the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress, zoning the National Chairmanship of the Party to the North Central geo-political zone, will greatly help the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal administration, in ushering a new sociology of voting behaviour that will place the APC on good electoral advantage during the secondary elections, come 2023 Presidential and general election.

“Having a National Chairman from the North Central geo-political zone of Nigeria, will provide a solid balance between the Southern and Northern planks of Nigeria.”

According to the APC Patriotic Ambassadors of Nigeria, this strategy will clearly form a buffer against the political infiltration of the zone by other rival political parties ahead of the 2023 elections. The group also strongly believes that having a very experienced political leadership figure with huge administrative wherewithal, competencies, robust knowledge-base and bureaucratic skills

produced from the North Central Zone, will no doubt, give APC its needed leap to victory in the 2023 presidential and general election.

Further, the Aliyu-led APC body reasoned that, “The capacity of all elected representatives to successfully manage the gains of their electoral successes, remain the most vital component of all variables or factors that define the functionality of any good governance infrastructure and system globally.”

This footing, the body held, will help the top hierarchy of the APC, to enhance the functionality of the party’s determination towards sustaining and retaining the hold on political structure of the current President Buhari-led federal administration “as well as attract greater number of states for the party, ahead of the 2023 presidential and general polls.”

Willy-nilly, the initiative to zone the APC national chairmanship position to the North Central, fundamentally puts Kogi State Governor Yahya Bello’s signaled presidential bid on the spot.

Traditionally, the position of national chair is not zoned together with the presidential position to the same geo-political region.

With about two months to APC’s national convention, the emerging consensus among many political stakeholders and pundits is that zoning the national chairmanship position to the North Central, beyond greatly helping the Buhari administration, would signal that the party might have resolved to zone the presidency to the South.

The major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) closely watches.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

SUNDAYINTERVIEW Abdullahi Sule

Sule

Calling Buhari a Failure Is Unfair With an unusual candour, the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdulahi Sule, spoke on the state of the nation particularly the growing insecurity, Nigeria’s unity, agitation for zoning and restructuring, plan to build an hydro-power station and the need to promote tourism in the state and why he’s throwing his weight behind his predecessor to become the next APC Chairman, amongst other topical issues. Adedayo Adejobi presents the excerpts:

A

year after becoming governor, how would you describe the journey?

My ascension to the post of a governor came from the urge to contribute my quota to the development of my state.

Nasarawa State is one of the newest states, although its over twenty years now. When it was created in 1996, I wasn’t in the country. I was outside Nigeria. So, I feel I didn’t participate in the struggle for the creation of my state, and so there was some emptiness in me.

I felt the only way to meaningfully contribute to the development of the state would be by being at the helms of affairs. My exposure, working life and blessings God has bestowed on me, having attained the pinnacle of my career in the corporate world, has inspired me to see what I can contribute to my state. Coming to power, I brought to bare my experience, contacts and exposure to develop my state.

My experience from the private sector blended with the experiences of the civil servants, traditional rulers, youths, community and religious leaders and all those whom I’ve met in the process of rising to this position, have been merged alongside a strong team that has provided support and guidance in charting the way to go.

Before I came in, we developed a blueprint called the Nasarawa Economic Strategy, and since I assumed office, we’ve been on the trajectory of the economic plan. I came

in on the backbone of my predecessor, Senator Umaru Tanko Al’makura, who has supported me very strongly.

During the handover process, I spent a month working and understudying him closely. In that process, we travelled to most parts of the state and I saw first hand all the projects he had done. I used the opportunity to learn and pick-up from there. So, I’ll say the experience has been very interesting, fascinating and encouraging, and I don’t feel any regrets whatsoever for seeking public office.

Coming from the private sector, you must have experienced some culture shock in the civil service.

How have you dealt with the public service?

The private sector is performance and profit-driven but with government, it’s mostly service-driven, and so that’s where the shock comes in for someone like me who’s been in the private sector. But, luckily for me, even whilst in the private sector, I’d mingled with lots of politicians and lived with them. I understand a thing or two about politics and politicians. That has helped in preparing me for the realities of public service and a state like mine, where government is the industry and biggest employer of labour.

What is your government’s main economic strategy?

Coming into power, we looked at the prospect of my

state and ways to make it independent. Before I came in, the state was generating very negligible revenue, being the 31st on the revenue generation list. The Internally Generated Revenue was nothing to write home about.

Therefore, we depend on federal government allocation.

We seek to break away from the culture of depending on the federal government.

Nasarawa is one of the richest states in Nigeria, but all its wealth is in prospects. It’s called the home of solid minerals and we have all the major minerals. We have one of the best and purest barite in the oil and Gas industry. When I used to work in the oil and gas industry in Port Harcourt, we used to see trucks of barite from Nasarawa State being brought into Trans-Amadi, to be taken to oil fields in Onne. But it was abandoned, and instead, they were importing barite and tantalite into the country.

In addition, we have gemstones unexplored. In most cases, they are explored and mined by illegal miners. We saw the opportunities in Karu local government, which is like Ogun State to Lagos State. The housing industry and land opportunities are not explored.

But the biggest of them all is Agriculture. We are blessed by having river Benue coming through Nasarawa State. With the river and huge virgin land measuring over 27,000km, yet a population of only about two million. We are blessed with the best soils to grow any crops. And so we’ve been pursuing these areas.

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SUNDAY INTERVIEW t /0 )*%&0654 '03 #"/%*54 */ /"4"3"8" t Today, we have Dangote in Nasarawa State and in the next few years, we’ll be producing one-third of the total consumption of sugar for Nigeria. We have Olam that is already producing rice and Azman looking to also start producing rice in the state. We have Dams and are looking to develop them for power generation.

What are you doing to stop illegal mining and exploitation of these solid minerals and resources?

We have been monitoring most of these mineral sites.

We have invited most of these miners and now have records of who they are. We have been engaging the miners and the community in order for us to monitor and stem the tide of illegal mining in the state. I have met with the illegal miners, who have turned a new leaf and now legally mining, and this has seen us generate a lot of revenue from these mining sites. We have encouraged mining by ensuring that we construct the road to the site. We don’t want to have a situation where people come with helicopters and take out what have been mined without records. For that reason, we’re constructing roads to these mining sites so that we can also monitor. We’ve also engaged the communities so the mining companies can pay royalties and also be socially responsible to the host communities.

What major projects are currently under way, and how will they benefit the citizens of Nasarawa?

We have two kinds of projects. We have projects of the various structures that are ongoing by the government.

Some of them are revenue-yielding projects. We also have the Mega Bus terminals to reduce traffic in and out of Nasarawa. We have Keffi Market, which is almost completed. We have some that may not be yielding revenue presently but will in the future.

The Dam-Farin Ruwa in Wamba Local Government will provide for irrigation. The waterfall will serve as a tourism site in Nasarawa State. So, we constructed a road that has been completed and would be handed over next week. That encouraged the federal government to award a contract for the construction of a dam and its construction has commenced.

We invited a delegation from the Ministry of Arts and Culture led by the Minister, Lai Muhammed, to see how we can promote the site and idea of investment in an event and tourist centre to attract people to the site. So, when people have events on the hill, they can enjoy a good view of the waterfall. Tourists can also visit.

In addition we also want to attract a hydropower investor. Initially the Abdullahi Adamu government started to see if they could generate 25 megawatts of power, and now we want to generate 40 megawatts of power at two different locations. It all depends on how the arrangement goes.

There are on-going agriculture-based projects by the investors like Dangote, Flour Mills and Azman. We have some Chinese companies carrying out mining projects on the sites and the only indigenous publicly quoted mining company in the country based in Awe local government, mining lead and zinc. We will work with, support and partner investors so they can create employment for our people and develop the state.

Nasarawa was very safe and peaceful. But recently, there have been cases of insecurity, tribal and banditry issues, and fresh reports of Boko Haram terrorists regrouping in the state. What do you think is responsible for that?

Abuja is an attraction for some of those bandits.

If you look at where they hide and commit some of their crimes, they hide in places where Abuja becomes accessible to them. That’s why you have heard that some motorists coming from the east to Abuja were kidnapped. Part of the regrouping when they left the north east was to come to Abuja to see if they could take some kind of revenge, and so Nasarawa State has the hills that some of these bandits hide.

A lot of the hills are huge, virgin and no people live there and so they can move to such locations and have camps. No bandit can go to the middle of Ikoyi, because there’s no free land, but in Nasarawa they have hideouts.

Thanks to President Buhari, who has been supportive.

Luckily, all the security operatives and our son, the Inspector General of the Police has also been supportive in attacking the hideouts where they regroup, whilst they have demolished these hideouts.

So, you just find one or two of them here and there.

Luckily for us, we have our vigilantes. Our traditional rulers have been very hard on the criminals. The Fulani have re-grouped and come up with strong vigilante, and because they know the areas they have been going around attacking and destroying these bandits. That’s why the bandits are on the run now here in Nasarawa.

They don’t have any hiding place.

A few days ago, a sitting governor’s was ambushed and attacked by Fulani Herdsmen. This sends a signal and raises heightened concerns that even you governors are unsafe if you continue to watch and do nothing. Doesn’t that disturb you?

Immediately it happened, I was one of the first few

governors, who called to sympathise with him, because he’s my neighbour and brother. Today, I was going to visit him alongside a few governors in the North Central, but I understand he was invited to Abuja and that’s the only reason we were not there to see him. Most of the things being said are being investigated. But I think we have seen more people being attacked.

President Buhari was attacked in Kaduna. General Bade was also attacked. There were instances where people just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But the attack on Governor Ortom is an unfortunate situation and I think the government is doing everything to be on top of it so that it doesn’t happen. Attacking very important personality, the common man or school children is an attack on all and I think it should worry us. It’s not good.

Tanko Al’makura came in and joined the CPC. He was the only governor, who joined the alliance. He was part of the alliance that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC). He knew what happened! Most of the meetings were held here. He understands the whole process and he is a very close ally of the President. Because of his knowledge of the alliance and the association, he understands what to do to carry the people along in order to keep the flag flying.

He’s been a governor for eight years and he did very well to the extent he’s being named the architect of modern Nasarawa State. He’s passionate about development. I don’t know any enemy he has within the top contestants, but my predecessor, Senator Umaru Tanko Al’Makura has the capacity to heal the wounds and re-focus the party.

Zamfara Governor, Bello Matawalle, has offered to resign if taking such a step would bring a lasting solution to the high level of insecurity in his state.

Should every governor in the North assume this posturing?

Not many Governors think like him. You know most of us are fighting the crime. Is resigning a solution? I doubt it. The lives of all citizens are the responsibility of the Chief Executive and every governor must worry about the safety of his people. I know there are governors, who would go the long haul to ensure the safety of their people. I am in that fold, because I’ll do everything to make my state safe and comfortable for my citizens, but resignation doesn’t solve the problem

How are you consolidating on his achievements?

He started an airport and we will complete it. If not for Covid-19 and the fact that we’re waiting for the controlled cabin, it would have been completed and fully operational. He started some road network and we have completed them. The only one remaining is the road from Kwandare to Keffi, and because of the challenging economy, paucity of funds and large investment required to undertake the project, we haven’t been able to complete. Its only one road project he left half done that we haven’t completed.

May 29, 2021 will mark the sixth year since Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari took office with a promise to safeguard the lives of the electorate, fight crippling corruption and improve livelihoods in Your predecessor, Senator Umaru Tanko Al’Makura, Nigeria. More than half a decade later, analysts have described president as “weak” and see him as having was believed to have demystified governance. How “failed” in his mandate. That doesn’t rob off well on have you managed fitting into his supposedly big your party. Does it? shoes?

The President came on three legs: security, corruption We consider ourselves transition and I consider myself one of the very few governors to have that kind of luxury and the economy. If you want to be fair to him, you can’t rate him a failure. We don’t have perfect security, but I transition. I spent a month with him in his office and around the state. Till date, I have an excellent relationship don’t know who does, because yesterday somebody killed 10 people in Atlanta. In the areas of security, I don’t know with him. I have completed most of the projects he left where is perfect. behind.

Could it have been better? Yes. But is he a failure, definitely Even the projects that those before him started, we have not. Even if you say some people in Nigeria are corrupt, you completed some of them and carrying on new projects, cannot look at Mr. President and say he’s corrupt. For people although concentrating more on projects that have who are close to him or know him, they know he wouldn’t direct impact on the people either in form of revenue or tolerate corruption. However, has he been able to fight prospects. corruption to a certain level? Yes. Has he fought corruption Last night, I was with him and we discussed several completely out of the country? No! issues. Today, I’m at the forefront of campaign for his At the time he came in, most states in the federation owed election as the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). I enjoy a wonderful relationship with him. We are salaries for months. When he came he revived the economy.

I came from the corporate world and by the time he came lucky in Nasarawa State. into power, I was the Managing Director, Dangote Sugar. If you look at the share prices of most of these institutions that But, are the odds in his favour for the APC chairwere declaring profits of say N40bn, now they declare profits manship? of over N200bn, including the banks. Since he came in, food If indeed Tanko Al’Makura is ‘big shoes’, then he production has doubled. We no longer import rice. As an has the capacity. The All Progressives Congress (APC) APC man, I’m proud of what the President has done. Has he came into being as a result of an alliance. I was never a solved all the problems of Nigeria? No. Has he even gone Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) person. I was fifty per cent solving the problem? No. an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) person in 2006 through 2007, when I contested for the office of Governor (See full interview online - www.thisdaylive.com) in 2007. I returned to the corporate world.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPA P PER ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

OPINION

Buhari’ Bu uhaari’ssY Youth out uth thEmpowerment Em mpo pow owe we erme rm me entProgramme Pro Pr rog ogr gra raammeinNorth-Central No ort rth thh-C -Ce Ce ent ntr tra raal ral Adakole Mohammed

T

hose who have known President Muhammadu Buhari, right from his days as a military officer, will easily locate where his constituency lies. As a military head of state, General Buhari, through his lifestyle, decisions and policies, had pitched his tent with the army of the down-trodden in society.

For the greater part of his public and private life, he has been identified as a fighter for the have-nots, the talakawa, so to speak. His ascetic lifestyle shorn of every modicum of ostentation remains an eternal testament to his support and defence of the hoi-polloi among us.

It is crystal clear that the suffering of the masses in the midst of affluence in the country over the years is the leitmotif that pushed Buhari into partisan politics with the return of democracy in 1999.

As he regrets his inability to change much in the lives of the masses of his countrymen and women as a military leader, he saw the great opportunity to change things in a constitutional governn ment. And this explains why he sought the presidency on four different occasions, until he succeeded in 2015.

Campaigning during the 2015 presidential election, Buhari wondered why there was so much poverty in the land in the midst of plenty. He was greatly appalled and pained by the sufferings in the land by the poor masses while their supposed leaders eat and belch. And, so in all his campaigns, he promised to fight the rampaging poverty in the country by creating a robust welfare package that would take care of the alarming army of unemployed graduates, youths, rural women and the most vulnerable in society to help lift them out of poverty.

Thus, when President Buhari was elected in 2015 and subsee quently sworn in, his opponents in the opposition parties gloated as the price of crude oil nose-dived in the international market, leaving him with significantly dwindling revenue. These naysayy ers wondered where the President was going to source the funds for his audacious welfare package that he promised the nation.

Yet that turn of national fortune did not deter President Buhari.

He reached out to his well-known virtue of integrity and judicious management of state resources as he marched on to change the lives of the masses. First, he started a vigorous fight against corruption and recovery of looted funds and then the blocking of various loopholes from which state funds were stolen. He was good to go.

So, in 2016, President Buhari launched the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) “to ensure a more equitable distrii bution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth, and women.” Under the scheme, government has created four programmes to address poverty and help increase economic development.

The N-Power (Nigeria) programme provides young Nigerians with job training and education, as well as a monthly stipend of 30,000 Nigerian naira (USD $83.33). The Conditional Cash Transfer programme directly supports the most vulnerable by providing no-strings-attached cash to those in the lowest income group, helping reduce poverty, improve nutrition and selfsustainability, and supporting development through increased consumption.

The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is a micro-lending investment programme targeting

Buhari entrepreneurs with a focus on young people and women. This programme provides no-cost loans to its beneficiaries, helping reduce the start-up costs of business ventures in Nigeria. Finally, the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSF) is the one way the government is attempting to increase school enrollment by providing meals to schoolchildren, particularly those in poor and food-insecure regions.

It is worth celebrating that President Buhari graciously gave the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiat Umar Farouq, his approval to launch N-Power Batch C, on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Batches Aand B with about 5,000 beneficiaries catered to, and provided opportunity for 109,823 N-Power beneficiaries to utilize the skills they acquired, and savings, to become business owners. It is in line with this great success story that President Buhari approved the expansion of the scheme to “enable on-boarding of one million young Nigerians.”

In other words, Batch C of the N-Power programme is structured to reach out to one million young Nigerians starting out with initial 500,000 participants. What makes the scheme even more attractive and effective, unlike other past schemes by previi ous governments, is its inbuilt independent monitoring scheme.

Trained monitors were selected at the federal level to monitor programme implementation at the states. These monitors applied online, and they were selected based on the LGA/communities they lived in.

According to the minister, “While implementation is done by the states, monitoring is carried out by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The purpose of the monitoring exercise is to ensure that objectives of the NSIP are achieved, and that the programme is reaching beneficiaries in efforts to achieve Mr President’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.”

While these programmes are changing lives countrywide and lifting targeted populations out of poverty, in the North-Central

region in particular, there is a large harvest of positive testimonies.

In Kwara State for instance, it is reported that Atotal number of 2,560 beneficiaries are to benefit from the cash grants of N20,000 each to uplift the socio-economic status of the rural women in the State. Again, it is also reported that Kwara State has received a total sum of N1,946,196,000 from the federal government’s conditional cash transfer programme from inception till date, impacting the lives of 34,304 poor and vulnerable households in Kwara State.

Eight local government areas are benefiting from the conditional cash transfer in the State.

It is therefore not surprising to hear an elated Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, declare that the flag-off of the Conditional Cash Transfer for rural women is another testimony of the love that President Muhammadu Buhari has for the vulnerable and poor people. “Mr President’s exceptional interest in the welfare of the poor is one of those things that stand him out among his peers.”

The success story of the Buhari SIP in Kwara is not different in other states of the North-Central region. Also in Kogi State, lives are being changed as many are being daily lifted out of poverty.

According to reports, no fewer than 3000 indigent women would benefit from the Federal Government’s Cash Grant for Rural Women Project’ in Kogi State. This was disclosed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Faro, recently. The Minister announced the plan during the flag-off of the Federal government Cash Grant for Rural Women Project at Government House in Lokoja.

She said that a cash grant of N20,000 would be disbursed to about 125,000 poor women across the 36 States of the Federaa tion and the Federal Capital Territory. ”It is consistent with the President’s new national vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years. It is designed to provide a one-off grant to some of the poorest and most vulnerable women in rural and semi-urban areas of the country”, said the minister.

Still in Kogi State, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has employed and trained some youth volunteers to monitor the impacts of the integrated National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIP) on the people of Kogi State. This move is in line with community accountability principles to enhance effectiveness of the proo gramme.

In Nasarawa State, over two million households are to benefit from the Federal Government Social Investment Programme and lives in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are being transformed daily. In FCT for instance, not only are youths and women benefitt ing from cash payments, they are also being trained in financial management to secure their investments and consequently, their future. Accordingly, “the SIP programme has captured over six thousand beneficiaries with six payment circles in three Area Councils, and the training module would also help teach the beneficiaries the culture of savings.”

In the past five years, President Buhari has rightfully changed the narratives in the politics and governance of this country. He is saying it loud and clear that government should be about the people. The SIP in general and the launch of Batch C N-Power in particular, represent a clear statement in this direction. And there are many testifiers in the North-Central region!

––Mohammed, a social commentator, contributed this piece from Abuja.

Culture, Cult ltu ture re, e, Ethnic Et Rivalry Riv Ri iva valry ry and the Role Ro of the Mediaa A paper delivered by the Chief Press Secretaryy to the Governor of Kwara State Rafiu Ajakaye j y at a one-day seminar organised by 400 Level Students of Kwara State University Malete on April 16, 2021

I

feel honoured to be asked to give an address on this important national discourse which, in my opinion, is at the core of Nigeria’s national security crisis.

The topic — Culture, Ethnic Rivalry and the Role of the Media — is especially important because of this audience. In the next one year or thereabouts, many of you in this hall and your contemporaries nationwide will likely hold the key to what we read and how we read them in the media, whether conventional or the new media. Our perception of ourselves as Nigerians — Igbo, Fulani, Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio, Muslims, Christians, farmers, herders, and many others — will be shaped largely by what you write, how you write it, and the language you choose to write it. In Kwara here, for instance, the language of the media in reporting issues bordering on ethnic and religious relations will go a long to determine whether a Fulani Prince from the Sheikh Alimi dynasty will be friend to an Igbomina Prince from Kwara South.

I implore the academics in this gathering to kindly let me jump over the niceties of defining what culture and ethnicity mean. I believe these are terms we are all used to. Going into definii tions may tempt us into going into subtopics of the complicated issues of culture and ethnicity.

However, what we cannot run away from is the fact that we come from different backgrounds and had indeed been raised to see things in different ways — often time based on sociocultural and religious perception of things in our own ‘environment’. This is sometimes called the implicit bias, which is considered to be unintentional or unconscious stereotyping.

Nonetheless, it is agreed that people differ whether in their tongues, idiosyncrasies, physical frame, or even belief system. Above all things, however, we are first and foremost humans and descendants of Adam.

The interesting fact again is that our world will get increasingly more complex as we evolve, and it would take more than profiling along ethnic and cultural differences to build a society that can weather the challenges of the 21st century.

Shamit Saggar, author of the famous book Pariah Politics, made this point more pungently when he remarked that: “This century is likely to see more movement across the globe by more people than at any time in human history. To put it in another way, more of us would be encountering more people different in many ways from ourselves than any of our ancestors…. “We already know that increasingly, the first great battle for the twenty-first-century

humankind will be to live sustainably with our planet. It is becoming clear that the second great struggle will be to live with each other ‘graciously’ in the words of Isaiah Berlin.”

Discussing a subtopic he called Reputational Politics, Saggar added that “at the start of the twentieth century, British and American societies were filled with influential assertions that the absorptive capacity of either country immigrants had been reached. This was not based solely on calculations about homes, jobs, or hospitals, but rather couched in terms of foreign, alien threats to the perceived Anglo-Saxon inner character of these societies.”

I believe those words of Saggar were as true of the identified American system yesterday and today as they are today about Nigeria where, despite attempts to bridge the gap, people are getting increasingly territorial and stoking the ember of discord under whatever guise.

So where is the media in all of these? The role of the media is critical in peaceful coexistence and development. Our perception of one another, the nature of our relationship, and the kind of rivalry that exists in our communities are largely influenced by what we read or see in the media.

For example, headlines like Fulani herders burn churches in Katsina; Odua People’s Congress closes Igbo shops in Alaba market; Niger Delta

militants kill Hausa traders in Port Harcourt are inimical to corporate existence of the country.

The media is encouraged to align with peace journalism, rather than war journalism which I’m afraid seems to be in vogue in our country today. War journalism plays up the so-called ‘elite positions’ which hardly represent the views or dreams of the majority. War journalism favours reporting only the differences between (warring) parties and downplays their similarities, previous agreements and progress on common issues. In its worst form, war journalism props up the concept of zero sums.

Renowned scholar of international relations Joshua Goldstein says zero sums is an extreme case where a party feels that its own survival is guaranteed only when and if the other party ceases to exist. We have a perfect example in how a section of the media constantly frames the herders-farmers crisis in zero sums terms, often deploying ethnic slurs like Fulani herders in the process. It is assumed that farmers can only survive if herders are perpetually demonised and vice versa. This zero sums reporting style in a section of the media has led to a dangerous national narrative, the consequences of which are better imagined.

Read full text online - www.thisdaylive.com

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ PRIL 18, 2021

DISCOURSE

Another Nuclear Arms Limitation Talk

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epresentatives of the world powers that signed a 2015 nuclear deal are in Vienna since Tuesday to save the landmark accord, but the path forward appears long and arduous. Iran and six world powers known as P5+1(China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States) reached a historic nuclear deal on July 14th, 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear programme and enhanced monitoring in exchange for relief from nuclear sanctions. Prior to this, Iran had been engaged in efforts to acquire the capability to build nuclear weapons for more than 2 decades. Although it remains uncertain whether Tehran would have made the final decision to build nuclear weapons. It had developed a range of technologies, including uranium enrichment, war head designs and delivery systems that would give this option in relatively short time frame. In spite of the apprehensions of the international community in allowing Tehran that’s relatively short-fused in their usual serial altercation with Isreal whom they threatened to obliterate at some point over issues that bother on the Palestinians over the years, Tehran insists that it’s nuclear activities are entirely for peaceful purposes.

What, however follows is a chronological recount of the most significant development in Iran’s nuclear programme. International efforts to negotiate a workable settlement to address this lingering controversial issue and implementation of the agreement with Iran and P5+1 was signed on the 14th July, 2015.

This contract hit a bump when Donald Trump got elected as the 45th President of the US on November 8th 2016. He had threatened to cancel the agreement on the campaign trail. He’d referred the nuclear pact as the worst agreement. He pledged to renegotiate it while in office. The US allies however resisted any efforts and plans for Trump to renegotiate it before he abysmally failed to win a second tenure. The world’s community heaved a sigh of relief over the renewed efforts to restart the nuclear negotiation with erratic and bombastic Iran. In their estimation, you can’t handover a nuclear bomb to a temperate nation. That will be an untamed implosion on 4 legs. The ding dong eyeball to eyeball stare has actually come to an end with the resumption of this important meeting.

absolute peace to rain and avoid unnecessary nuclear proliferation, I expect all parties to the negotiations must have a clearer vision of what all sides need to do to return to their commitments JCPOA at the end if Vienna talks.

In other to make meaningful progress at the end of this whole iran’s nuclear deal, I believe that it will be fool hardy to think that the process will be favourably conclusive under a single session. There must be more than 1 session to make progress. But this first session must not fail. It is not hard to predict that there will be a mismatch between the Iranian expectations and what The sound of death nail to this agreement was quite the US is willing to offer. But with smart pragmatic an implosion when Trump unilaterally pull the plugs approach, both sides would be able to find a mutually in 2018. A year later, Iran started scaling back it’s acceptable way forward. The key factor here is how commitment under the deal in response to the upscale the restoration of the JCPOA is sequenced. But I guess pressure from the US maximum campaign despite op- that if Tehran goes in with a maximalist expectations, position by other signatories to the nuclear agreement. it would come off the meeting empty handed. I also Trump’s scorched earth policy to destroy Iran didn’t don’t see Iran accepting a step by step plan to lift help matters in this relationship. Trump unleashed, layers of American sanctions and expect the US to take imposed, reimposed or relabelled some 1,600 sets of final step of all sanctions imposed by Trump. sanctions on Iran and inflicted a US1 trillion dollars worth of direct and indirect economic damage on Iran. Why The Talks Now In navigating through a renewed negotiation process, The seeming exertion of energy to restart the nuclear it’s quite unclear how these sanctions will be revoked talks was actually influenced by the fact that Iran and or how many of the sanctions eventually maybe lifted China signed a 25 years comprehensive cooporation for Iran for iran to make good on its promise of comagreement in late March after Foreign Minister Wang ing back to full compliance with the nuclear deals.

Yi travelled to Tehran. Nuclear experts believe this Trump administration officials made it a strategic Iranian move has an impact in influencing the US mood mission in 2020 to impose sanctions with new desigfor this meeting. For one, a 3 months agreement Iran nations namely : terrorism and human rights abuses reached with the INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY on already sanctioned individuals in an effort to make AGENCY (IAEA) to temporarily keep the camera tapes it more difficult for a potential Joe Biden administraoff it’s surveillance of nuclear sites comes to an end in tion to come back to the nuclear deal. Going forward May. That averted a crises in late February as without it, however, Iran expects all sanctions under any labels, the global nuclear watch-dog would face a significant imposed by Trump to be lifted for the ease of further gap in its monitoring of Iranian nuclear activities. negotiations.

Moreover, the Iranian Presidential election in June is It appears officials in Tehran understand the condi- fast approaching. A likely promising Conservative or tions within US and the Joe Biden’s administration hardline president possibly with an audacious military well. But at same time, that’s an issue that’s related to background who may not be in favour of preserving the US, not Iran. This negotiation is expected to be tough, JCPOA as the relatively moderate outgoing president, especially since there maybe stark contrasts between Hassan Rouhani. Baring last minute change.of mind, I what different sides expect each other to do or strongly believe that the Iranian President, Hassan Rourestore. However, expectations must be strategically hani would wish to leave power and legacy of lifting reconciled to save the world from an erratic Iran with these raft of draconian sanctions as an ex president. His nuclear war heads and probably supported by rogue administration is basically working hard to lift these nations including, perhaps China and Russia. For sanctions as soon as possible.

Iranian President, Rouhani

Russian President, Putin

US President, Biden

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APRIL 18, 2021 ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

with RenoOmokri THE ALTERNATIVE How I Predicted the Fate Now Befalling Oby Ezekwesili

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he piece you will soon be reading was first published on Sunday, April 19, 2020, in my column, #TheAlternative, on Sunday ThisDay. Today, 365 days later, and on another third Sunday in April, my words appear to have turned full circle in Oby Ezekwesili’s life.

As at the time it was published, the piece below went viral, with people giving me feedback to the effect that I hit the nail on the head. But there were a few others, who felt that I was too harsh on Oby. To those few, I hope you have followed the events of the last week, as Oby Ezekwesili has been outed by one of the attack dogs she and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai groomed to use against real and imagined enemies, and almost burned down Nigeria in the process of actualising their plan to return to power by tarring the Jonathan administration.

The revelations are sordid, and should not even be mentioned in decent company.

The worm that Oby fed until it became a snake has now turned against her. Meanwhile, both former President Jonathan, and those who remained loyal to him, despite the unrelenting barrage of lies from Oby’s surrogates, keep soaring higher.

Despite her snake’s petition, Dr. Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is now the Director General of the World Trade Organisation.

The only thing her former snake has not said concerning her is that he saw her nakedness, and slept with her, and even fathered her twins. Well, knowing how vile and dirty they both are, it may yet get to that point. Both of them have neither shame nor decorum.

How could anyone have risen so high, only to fall so low? It is the same old story from the celestial to the physical. Lucifer wanted to be God, and ended up as a fallen angel. She wanted to be Ngozi Okonjo Iweala so badly. Wanting to be where God has not placed her, and hating those who are where she wants to be, and being willing to bring them down, no matter how low she has to go to achieve her aim.

But I knew what and who Oby is and I warned Nigerians. The only reason she is embittered about the Buhari administration is because El-Rufai became a Governor, Hadiza became head of the Nigerian Ports Authority, and their various monster children of hate became commissioners, board members, and contractors. While she got-NOTHING! In my Number One bestselling book, Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and the Conspiracies, I said that the Chibok abduction actually occurred, but that it was knowingly allowed to happen by forces within the All Progressives Congress, as part of moves to de-market the Jonathan administration, and that Oby Ezekwesili’s #BringBackOurGirls was a willing tool for the de-marketing of former President Jonathan. Unfolding events are now vindicating me.

I am under no illusion that former President Jonathan was a saint. He had his flaws, one of which was allowing persons like Chief E K Clark and others speak for him, almost as his alter ego, without calling them to order. But on a scale with his predecessors and successor, I cannot find any Nigerian President or Head of State who meant as well for Nigeria and Nigerians, as he did, and who took action towards making life better for the people.

Dr. Jonathan did not deserve what Buhari, Nasir El-Rufai, and Oby Ezekwesili conspired to do to him. And all of them will reap what they showed, in this lifetime, and in the one to come.

This verse is just so apt: “For God is not mocked: whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”-Galatians 6:7.

Enjoy reading it again below.

How APC Used Oby Ezekwesili, Rubbished Her, Then Dumped Her Like a #CoronaVirus Infected Cloth Do not be fooled. Oby Ezekwesili, for all her religious pretensions, is a self-righteous hypocrite. I know this because I have incontrovertible proof that lays her hypocrisy bare.

Oby is a woman that loves to criticise others, but cannot stand to be criticised. While I was one of President Jonathan’s spokesmen, I watched her criticise my boss using polite and impolite language.

Then one day, I saw her respond to criticism by another person against her, and all hell broke loose. She attacked me like a mother hen whose chickens were under threat and promised to report me to my boss. You can imagine! Reporting me to the very same authority she had been undermining. How rich! Typical Oby. And then I wrote a parable tweet directed at someone who is now serving in Buhari’s government and called that person a ‘wicked stepmother’. The narcissism of Oby then came to fore.

She insisted that she was the one I was referring to (she was not!) and then she savaged me again.

Throughout the time that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was President of Nigeria and after his tenure, this woman verbally assaulted him, sometimes using the most savage and impolite terms.

I later got informed that her grouse was not really about President Jonathan, but instead about Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who she felt had left her behind. That is a tale for another day.

Oby cannot deny that she was used by the All Progressives Congress to undermine the Jonathan administration and rise to power. She and her co-travellers in her Bring Back Our Girls movement were celebrated by the APC itself as “our members”.

On October 15, 2014, a major chieftain of the APC, who later became Minister of Agriculture under the party had said at the Presidential declaration of General Muhammadu Buhari as follows: “We commend the #BringBackOurGirls movement led by members of this party”.

Moreover, on March 6, 2014, Oby Ezekwesili was the keynote speaker at the first-ever All Progressives Congress Economic Summit, an event at which she did not lose the opportunity to savage the person and administration of former President Goodluck

THE PUBLIC SPHERE with Chido Nwakanma

Jonathan.

At that time, she had some considerable credibility, which she then used to further the campaign and candidacy of thencandidate Muhammadu Buhari. Oby cannot deny that her public and private utterances and behaviour convinced many of her followers to support the APC in 2015.

And then the APC won the 2015 Presidential election, after which General Buhari was sworn in on May 29, 2015. Ayear later, he appointed Hadiza Bala Usman, co-founder of Oby Ezekwesili’s Bring Back Our Girls movement as the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, in keeping with Ogbeh’s proclamation that the BBOG was “led by members of this party”.

I am a researcher and a keen watcher of the APC and its government, and I can tell you that it was not until it became clear to Oby Ezekwesili that she was not going to get any appointment from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, that she turned on him and began to criticise his administration.

Oby cannot claim altruism. She wanted a job badly. We know she is over-ambitious. When it was clear she would not get a job, she opted to run for the Presidency in 2019 against her previous benefactor, Buhari. She refused to step down for a more electable candidate.

Her then running mate, Gani Galadima, said that Oby was never serious about her Presidential run and that ‘Dr. Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili only wanted to use the platform of the ACPN to negotiate to be Nigeria’s finance minister.’ His words, not mine.

Now, I urge Nigerians to situate her criticism of the Jonathan administration against these facts and in retrospect, you begin to see Oby for what she truly is.

And this has now been further corroborated by the allegation made against her by Bello El-Rufai, the son of the Kaduna state Governor, who accused her of being a beggar while stating that he has dates and receipts for her beggary.

The younger El-Rufai’s words were as follows “I’ll attach receipts later and begging days’.

Even sadder still was the fact that this young man who used to call Oby Ezekwesili as ‘Aunty Oby’ reverently, simply addressed her as Oby! Look how low she has fallen in the esteem of those who used and dumped her. She celebrated the young man when he disrespectfully called the sitting President of Nigeria ‘Ebele’, now she is aghast when he turns on her.

Oby should be aware that a slave who laughs when the man fighting for his emancipation is killed and buried in a shallow grave should expect no sympathy when the same or worse is done to him. What has Bello El-Rufai said to Oby that is not as bad as what he said against former President Jonathan, which Oby Ezekwesili herself tolerated and even celebrated?

Read the full article online www.thisdaylive.com

@ChidoNigeria https://www.facebook.com/chido.nwakanma

As Abia State Engages its Diaspora Community

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n a landmark legal and policy move, Abia State has become the first subnational to domesticate the federal legislation for the involvement of its citizens in the diaspora in state affairs. The Abia Citizens in Diaspora Commission became a parastatal by an Act of the State Assembly on 22 March 2021.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the State House of Assembly’s Speaker have shone in the limelight deservedly, but two women with pluck deserve even more accolades for this happening.

The Abia Citizens in Diaspora Act and Commission reprises the Nigerians in Diaspora Act 2017 and the Commission over which Hon Abike Dabiri presides. It sets out to ensure the protection of Abians in the diaspora and project and facilitate their effective participation in the state’s economic, political, and social development. Its objectives include providing a direct link to the involvement of Abians in the diaspora in the state’s development, exploring the “huge reservoir of skills knowledge and experiences” of Abians abroad for state development and exploring the most attractive and costefficient means for capital inflow or remittances, investments, and transfer of technology among others by Abians outside the homeland.

The Abia Citizens in Diaspora Commission will have an Executive Chairman, a Director General, seven ministries’ representatives and Abians in Diaspora in America, Asia, and Europe. It did not mention Africa. Then there would be persons from the Abia Investment Commission, Human Rights Commission, three serving or retired diplomat. A curiosity is that the Chairman would be Chief Executive Officer with accounting responsibility for the Commission yet serve on part-time basis in the draft bill this correspondent saw.

The Abia State journey to tapping into what PWC calls “strength from abroad: the economic power of Nigeria’s diaspora” began with the Okezie Ikpeazu leadership. He provided policy and strategic direction by appointing Mrs Vivian Iro-Uchime as S.S.A., Diaspora Matters in his first

term. Mrs Iro-Uchime was an active player in the Nigerians in Diaspora movement from her base in the Netherlands.

Iro-Uchime, a lawyer, did the spadework. Governor Ikpeazu approved the proposal requesting the setting up of the Abia Citizens in Diaspora Commission. On 29 June 2018, Enyinnaya Okezie Esq, Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice commenced the legal process based on approval of a draft by the Governor. It then went through the bureaucratic labyrinth until March 2021.

In the period, Mrs Iro-Uchime moved to another assignment while Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Ogbonna-Erondu took over as Special Adviser on Diaspora Matters and Special Duties. Hon Onyekwere Mike Ukoha sponsored H.A.B 21 or The Abians in Diaspora Commission Bill, 2020.

Countries all over the world pay keen interest to their diaspora for economic concerns as well as the transfer of knowledge and skills. The PWC white paper reports that Nigeria accounts for over a third of migrant remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa. PwC estimated that these flows amounted to US$23.63 billion (2017: US$22 billion) in 2018 and represented 6.1% of Nigeria’s G.D.P. “The 2018 migrant remittances translated to 83% of the Federal Government budget in 2018 and 11 times the FDI flows in the same period. Nigeria’s remittance inflows were also 7.4 times larger than the net official development assistance (foreign aid) received in 2017 of US$3.4 billion. PwC estimates that migrant remittances to Nigeria could grow to US$25.5bn in 2019, US$29.8bn in 2021 and US$34.8bn in 2023. Over 15-years, PwC expects total remittance flows to Nigeria to grow by almost double in size from US$18.37 billion in 2009 to US$34.89 billion in 2023.”

States and countries that harness this powerful economic force will derive many benefits. Kudos, therefore, to the Abia State Government team for thinking long-term on this tremendous source of soft power. Commendation to Mrs Vivian Iro-Uchime for bringing her passion, expertise and experience in diaspora matters to deliver on this assignment

and her successor, Dr Ogbonna-Erondu, for taking it to the home stretch.

The politics of international flights from Akanu Ibiam Airport Enugu Aviation authorities have engaged deliberate obfuscation on the resumption of international flights from Akanu Ibiam Airport Enugu. The airport is the only gateway from Eastern Nigeria with the approval to offer such flights. However, the belief in the streets and offices of Eastern Nigerian towns is that it seems some persons do not like it and seek to deny it that right.

Ethiopian Airlines is the only airline currently servicing the Enugu route for international flights. Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika assures that international flights to and from Enugu would resume on 3 May. As of Friday, 16 April 2021, there was no indication that this would happen.

Why? There is suspicion of a deliberate policy impediment from the Federal Government. Conspiracy theorists say Africa’s leading airline may cease servicing the Enugu route because of discriminatory taxes on that route by the aviation bodies.

The authoritative Enugu Metro.com reported that Ethiopian Airlines is yet to open its portal for flights out of Enugu or sell tickets. Travel agents await clarity from the aviation authorities.

Stakeholders of the South-East must wake up to this danger, whether it is a mere conspiracy theory or an actuality. Governors of the five states and various groups such as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nzuko Umunna, Aka Ikenga and others should get into the matter.

I have the testimony of entrepreneurs in Onitsha, including my cousin, about the benefits and reduced expenses of travelling from Enugu rather than coming to Lagos for trips to China and other destinations. The F.G. must eschew any actions that could raise suspicions about its intendments regarding Akanu Ibiam Airport after spending N10billion on fixing it. Clarity, please.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 18, 2021

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

THE OBASEKI HERESY

Economists, Politicians and the Death of Nations

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etween economists and their enabling politicians, the fate of nations often hangs precariously on a balance. On their own, economists can be a miserable enough bunch in ordinary circumstances.

Their professional relevance hangs on the precarious uncertainty that all things may never become equal in real life. Like Delphic oracles, economists keep their relevance and stay in business because the politicians they serve are an insecure lot who need reassurance about the unknowns of economic life. The misery of economists is heightened when as counselors to power they have to contend with recalcitrant or ignorant politicians. Quite often, when cornered by dreadful economic circumstances of their own making, politicians dig into their partisan trenches, defy wise economic counsel and aim for short term wins to retain popular appeal.

Yet, when they are lucky to find listening and enlightened politicians, economists have been known to retrieve nations from the brinks of catastrophe. But if they are burdened with ignorant politicians and pompous bureaucrats, economists can sometimes become accessories to the death of some nations. But in every circumstance, a politician who also understands real economics and is ready to tell its truths can end up as either a blessing or a pitiable outcast.

Edo state governor Godwin Obaseki has wandered into the grey zone where economic counsel can signal either the demise or salvation of a nation. Before he sauntered into partisan politics courtesy ofAdams Oshiomole, Mr. Obaseki could pass as a financial sector technocrat and investment banker of lean repute. With that background, he should ordinarily know a thing or two when he is talking about matters of finance and economics. He recently stepped away from the politics of his office to mount the pulpit of economic prophesying. In the process, he definitely jumped on a few sore toes by choosing to comment on the troubled state of the nation’s economy. Mr. Obaseki is first and foremost a politician who is governor of a state on a partisan platform that pits him in opposition to the ruling party at the center.

His curiously timed critique of our current economic habits did not contain much ground breaking points. He drew attention to the danger in the familiar ritual of states heading toAbuja monthly to pick up cheques to pay recurrent bills or service mounting debts. He further lamented the decline of oil and fossil fuels as a revenue sources in a global environment that is phasing out fossil fuels. He alarmed the deaf about the ongoing massive divestment of oil majors from places like Nigeria to alternative destinations with alterantive energy propositions.

Most importantly, Mr. Obaseki repeated the public alarm at the massive indebtedness of government and continuing unrestrained borrowings. Current domestic debts, according to him, now stand at over16 trillion Naira and still counting. The most frightening charge in the Obaseki treatise is the allegation that the federal government resorted to printing of N60 billion in worthless currency to shore up its funding of last month’s FAAC obligations to states and local governments.

As an opposition state governor, Mr. Obaseki merited the ire of officialdom in the form of polite partisan insults. The Central Bank has quickly risen in fiery defense of the government, first roundly denying Obaseki’s claims on the currency printing.After a few days, the CBN governor readjusted the defense into a tacit admission. The states are being doled worthless new Naira to repay what they owe the federal government. Similarly, the Minister of Finance, Mrs.Amina Zakari Mohammed joined the CBN in the initial stiff denial. The CBN governor has merely accused Obaseki of playing politics with a dire economic situation. But politicians play politics with anything at hand!

All the public knows and can feel are the signs of desperate economic times.Acombination of oil market distress, global Corona virus disruptions and unparalleled insecurity have added to Nigeria’s pre-existing economic conditions.Add these to ramped up corruption (Transparency International, US Government), fiscal irresponsibility, gross mismanagement and a rudderless economic policy environment and you get the profile of Buhari’s Nigerian economy.

Currently, the government is in trouble on how to fund the deficits in the 2021 budget. It has stumbled from creaming off balances from dormant accounts of bank depositors to stealing unclaimed dividends from either dead or uninterested small investors. Even more desperate is the recourse to selling off national assets ranging from the National Theatre, public squares, stadia and uncompleted power plants. That a government in such dire straights could go the extra step of printing worthless naira notes is well within the zone of desperate possibility.

After selling off these assets just to fund the 2021 budget, who knows what else will be sold to fund next year’s budget.And that would be the year to plan for transition politics and the usual lame duck season when government goes into a sleep mode of unproductivity.

Therefore, desperate denials of Obaseki’s charge of printing of useless currency notes will not do. Economic doom is a subject that defies political grand standing. The reality is the reality. Instructively, in less than a week after the Obaseki ‘heresy’, a rash of state governments have screamed out loud.According to a cross section of governors, they are on the average spending above 90% of their federal revenue receipts on workers salaries and pensions obligations. Some states like Gombe and Kano have already slashed salaries of political office holders by upwards of 50%. Many states have been in arrears of workers salaries and pensions obligations for several months on end.

On a national scale, massive labour unrests loom. Resident doctors have just suspended a strike that began as president Buhari jetted off to London on medical vacation. Staff of the nation’s judiciary have been on strike, causing courts to shut down with the attendant prison and

Obaseki awaiting trials holding cell congestions. Support staff of the National Assembly and their state colleagues are gearing to join in the parade of strikes which will shut down the legislature, a development that will transform the federal and state governments into virtual autocracies.

Staff of NAFDAC the agency that certifies the safety of drugs and foods have commenced a nationwide strike. The atmosphere in our public universities and polytechnics remain unstable as academic and nonacademic staff shift relays for sporadic strikes that have paralysed the campuses for over a year.

In response to all these, Nigerians are yet to hear a coordinated position on the state of the economy from the government and its economists. President Buhari’s EconomicAdvisory Council has since its inception remained ominously silent. Neither has any one heard from the president’s Chief EconomicAdviser (whoever that may be!). It is hard to decipher the precise economic policies and measures that are being deployed to contend with current and looming disasters.

Ordinary folk have no business with the technical frays among the economic and political elite. Ours is to live life affordably. We know the state of the economy when things begin to bite. Economists may call it inflation at the current 18.1%, an increase from last month’s 17.1%.

But we know increasing hardship when it comes knocking as now.

Economists call it GDP contraction. But we see higher gasoline prices, increased electricity tariffs, higher food prices and astronomical rents on residential space. We see multiple taxes on small businesses by states and local governments. The money changer has been adjusting the Naira/Dollar exchange rate every week till it got to the present N475 to $1 USD. The hospitals have scant drugs and if you have no money, you go there only to come out feet first. The school proprietor is fed up of endless excuses on deferment of school fees and has decided that junior cannot remain in school without paying up arrears of fees.At work today, the office manager, wearing a long face, told us that the business has regrettably had to fold up since even the option of working from home cannot sustain the business. He hands out some worthless envelopes whose contents are known in advance. Check back when the economy improves!

In all fairness, this is not the first time that our economic fortunes have been on a precipice. The only novelty now is that we are facing economic distress at a time of unprecedented insecurity. Even then, the Civil war posed serious economic challenges at a bad time. It required the homegrown economic wisdom of Chief ObafemiAwolowo and his economists to navigate Nigeria through a war time and the immediate post-war economy of the 1970s.

As civilian president,Alhaji Shehu Shagari inherited fewer economic challenges than he and his NPN politicians created. But he and his colleagues justified incurring debts, insisting that Nigeria was under borrowed even though it had continued to dutifully fulfill its financial obligations to multilateral lender institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. In response to this pro-debt rhetoric of the ruling party, Chief ObafemiAwolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria(UPN) countered and warned that debt service would cripple the economy in the future. Shagari’s liberal and conservative economists led by Professor Emmanuel Edozien stood their grounds. On the other hand, Chief Awolowo and kindred spirits like Prof. SamAluko led the charge of progressive and social democratic economists who insisted that a debt trap was avoidable. The partisan divide had economists on both sides of the ideological gulf. Each side marshaled facts, figures and statistics to buttress its stance. That was Nigeria’s season of enlightened economic discourse.

From 1985, former military president General Ibrahim Babangida was faced with an even more daunting economic situation. The economy had literally collapsed under Buhari’s draconian authoritarianism. Babangida assembled easily the most comprehensive economic team to initiate an appropriate set of policies that saw Nigeria out of the desperate times. The collective of OjetunjiAboyade, Kalu Idika Kalu, Chu Okongwu, Michael Omolayole, Olu Falaye and others walked the nation through a difficult StructuralAdjustment Programme. The nation was migrated from a centralized planning mixed economy to a

free market economy with privatization and commercialization as the guiding mantras of reduced government participation in the economy.

The guiding creed, influenced by the Reagan and Thatcher effect, was that “government has no business in business”.

President Obasanjo was similarly confronted with the major economic challenge of managing a post military economy.Again, Obasanjo took recourse in some of Nigeria’s best economics brains at the time. The collective of Charles Soludo, Ngozi Okonjo -Iweala, Obiageli Ezekwesili joined hands with others to tackle the debt crisis, reorganize the banking sector, introduce the GSM revolution, reorganize the stock market and work towards putting the commanding heights of the economy in the hands of Nigerian entrepreneurs.

Nigeria is neither the first nor will it be the last country where economists have assisted politicians to salvage the national economy and hence the nation itself from collapse. Ghana in the 1980s was a basket case. It fell on the late Jerry Rawlings as civilian president to restore Ghana to economic life and some sovereign respectability. He took a recourse to a corps of IMF and World Bank economists to help fashion economic policies that would help Ghana attract much need multilateral assistance to restructure and reenergize its economy. It is on record that Rawlings kept Kwesi Botchwey whom he borrowed from the World Bank as his finance minister for 9 years first and another 5 years under a subsequent administration to initiate and manage Ghana’s recovery and economic transition. With a disciplined political leadership and stable economic policy thrust, Ghana returned from the precipice to become the pearl of foreign investment and political stability that the world knows today. Politicians and economists in beneficial harmony!

In recentAfrican history, bad politics has been assisted by disastrous economics to accelerate the demise of some nations. In the dying years of the Mobutu autocracy in what used to be Zaire, the economy had literally ceased to exist. Civil servants could hardly remember when last they received a salary.Aprimitive barter system and the elastic limits of theAfrican extended family system sustained an invisible economic thread. If and when civil servants did receive any remuneration, it was worthless as the national currency was hardly worth the paper on which it was printed. Even soldiers and the police went for months without pay. Men and women heavily armed by the state were left to their own designs, fleecing locals and extorting virtually everyone else.

To sustain some illusion of a state and sovereignty, Mobutu resorted to printing as much of the worthless currency as possible for distribution to the populace just to sustain the illusion that the failed state was still alive. Since the banks had since closed their doors to angry daily mobs, the government still needed to get the worthless new notes across to the populace. People had resorted to daily protests and gatherings in public squares in the hope that something would happen.

The Central Bank and its cast of useless economists had quietly bolted away. But Mobutu, the wilyAfrican fox, had not run out of tricks yet.

He decided on a short cut to deliver the notes to the people. Helicopters loaded with the worthless notes were flown low over Kinshasha on specific days to scatter the notes among the beleaguered throngs. In the feverish scramble to get as much of these pieces of paper as possible, many were injured and the old and infirm ended up in hospitals that had neither personnel nor medicaments.

However, the country was still ‘rich’ being home to some of the most valuable minerals in the world(Gold, diamond, uranium, copper and cobalt). It was easily the most mineral rich country on earth but the state had collapsed beyond redemption. Mining activities were mostly in the hands of illegal gangs- bandits, militias, private armies, and some government troops on rent to gangster collectives. They were all paying royalties to gangster politicians and their powerful foreign allies. Mobutu and his family were shareholders in this jungle economy. Literally nothing went to the national treasury. The state had collapsed. Only Mobutu personified the state in a cruel parody of the Medieval absolutist dictum of L’etat c’est moi!. On 17th May 1997, his bodyguards loaded Mobutu and his family into a hurriedly arranged exile flight to Morocco. He never returned, except as a corpse.

Avariant of the Zaire situation was enacted in the years preceding the toppling of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. In spite of the controversial confiscation of lands belonging to white farmers and the virtual nationalization of strategic assets from white business owners, the economy tanked on a year by year basis. The national currency continued to be freely devalued until it had literally no value. In one of those silly brainwaves, Mugabe decided that it was best to replace the Zim Dollar with the US dollar. There was dire shortage of the US dollar.

So he returned to a dual currency regime- the increasingly worthless Zim Dollar side by side with the US dollar were briefly legal tender.

Shortages of essential consumables became the norm. Social goods like electricity and water followed as the government treasury ran out of foreign exchange to sustain essential services. Protests and hunger riots became a daily occurrence. Shops ran empty. Factories ground to a halt. Government offices worked on staggered roasters. The army and security forces concentrated on protest management. The people had become the enemy.

Inflation figures ran up to the millions and then billions until economists ran out of digits and the wise ones sneaked out of town.

According to Old Mutual, the inflation rate was a staggering 79.6 billion percent as at November 2008! The Zim Dollar was losing half its value every 24 hours and 42 minutes. On the eve of Mugabe’s ouster, the exchange rate of the Zimbabwe Dollar stood at 35,000.000, 000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars to $1 US dollar! Mugabe was escorted home by his deputy aided by the army. The economists melted out of town.

Zimbabwe is still reeling under the weight of a long night of disastrous economics and perilous politics.

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NEWS

News Editor: Gboyega Akinsanmi E-mail: ÑÌÙãÏÑ˲ËÕÓØÝËØ×Ó̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט͸΀͹ͽͺͻͽ΁ͺͽͻ

Illegal Arms Threaten Nigeria’s Survival, Ex-Generals Warn Canvass declaration of a state of emergency on illegal arms &KDOOHQJH )* WR ZRUN RQ VXSSO\ VLGH WR VWRS DUPV LQÁRZ

Gboyega Akinsanmi

Four retired generals of the Nigerian Army yesterday warned the federal government that Nigeria might cease to exist with over 6.145 million small arms and light weapons (SALW) illegally in circulation nationwide.

The ex-generals, therefore asked the federal government to declare a state of emergency on arms proliferation and try to stop them from coming into the country instead of focusing on the demand side only.

In separate interviews with THISDAY, the ex-generals warned that the growing trend of arms proliferation “portends grave threat to national peace and security if the federal government does not address it decisively.”

They are a former Commandant, Training and Doctrine Command, Nigerian Army, Maj.Gen. Ishola Williams; a one-time Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Defence, Maj.-Gen. Oluyemi Bajowa; and a retired General Officer Commanding, 1st Division, Maj.-Gen. Abiodun Role and an erstwhile Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army Infantry Corps Centre, Brig.-Gen Saleh Bala.

The Small Arms Survey, a publication of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, had put the number of small arms in the hands of civilian non-state actors nationwide at 6,145,000.

Another report by SMB Intelligence and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) revealed that the armed forces and law enforcement agencies “collectively account for 586,600 firearms, representing about 8.71% of the total small arms and firearms in circulation.”

A former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, at a meeting of the National Peace Committee (NPC) in Abuja on April 8, stated that there were over six million weapons in the country.

Expressing grave concern about arms proliferation in the country, Bajowa warned that Nigeria might cease to exist if strategic measures were not adopted to address the challenge.

He observed that such a statement coming from a retired army general, a former Head of State and current Chairman of Nigeria Peace Committee portrayed the security situation in Nigeria, serious, scary, and worrisome.

In an asymmetric warfare situation, Bajowa revealed that six million are enough “to arm 6,000 battalions with each unit having a strength of about 1000 fighting men, or about one thousand five hundred (1,500) Brigades of four Battalions each or at worst three hundred and seventy-five (375) Divisions of 4 Brigades each.

“Such an illegal force, if properly organised and well commanded, can easily overrun a federation of 36 states. This is a situation

Nigeria can ill afford, particularly, in the face of the unguarded statements by some governors and high-profile individuals in respect of encouraging the arming of the citizenry for self-defence and protection of livestock.”

He, therefore, said it was a matter of national urgency “to rejig the security and intelligence architecture of the nation, by issuing a presidential directive, supported by the National Assembly, to declare a “national

state of emergency.”

He, equally, recommended, a special operation for the Nigeria Armed Forces (NAF), Nigeria Police, and other security services, “to retrieve all weapons illegally imported or smuggled into Nigeria through our porous borders. Otherwise, we stand a risk of losing Nigeria, as a failed state.”

However, Williams, founder of Pan African Strategic and Policy Research Group, disputed the report that put the number of small arms

in circulation at 6.145 million.

“If we have one million illegal arms in Nigeria, we will not sleep.

It means it will outnumber the number of arms in the hand of the military and security agencies.

With the situation that we have, it means that we are not working on the supply side of where the arms are coming from.”

He challenged the federal government “to work on the supply side, the arms will continue to come in. When arms come

in and there is a ready market for them, it means it is a matter of demand and supply. What is the demand for? How well do military and security agencies protect the arms they carry?

“Aside, are those arms so cheap that anybody can afford to buy them when they come in? What are our intelligence systems doing either at the border or within the country? For instance, who authorised Fulani herdsmen to carry arms.

DADDY G.O. IN EKITI. . .

L-R: Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Bisi Fayemi; General Overseer, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor E.A. Adeboye; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, during the cleric’s visit to the Government House, Ado-Ekiti…yesterday

FG Inaugurates Warri-Itakpe Railway Line After 30-Year Neglect Sunday Okobi and Kasim Sumaina

The federal government has unveiled the Warri-Itakpe standards gauge railway 30 years after it started constructing the rail line designed to transport iron ore from Itakpe to Ajaokuta and Aladja Steel Rolling Mills in Delta.

The apex government disclosed that the rail infrastructure was slated for completion within five years after construction started in 1987, though claimed that it was stalled for over 30 years

due to paucity of funds.

This was disclosed during the unveiling of the rail infrastructure on Friday at Ujevwu, a Delta State community close to Warri, the state’s commercial city.

At the inauguration were the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, Chairman, Governing Board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa and Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, among others.

Slated for completion

within five years, the federal government started the rail project in 1987 then under the administration of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida who left office on August 27, 1993.

The project had suffered outright neglect under the regimes of late Gen. Sani Abacha and Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar. But the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo brought it back again, though could not implement it substantially.

Also, no major progress was recorded on the implementation of the rail project under the

administrations of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan.

But it became the priority of President Muhammadu Buhari when he assumed office on May 29, 2015.

At its inauguration, Musa said the construction of WarriItakpe Railway was designed for the transportation of Iron Ore from Itakpe to Ajaokuta and Aladja Steel Rolling Mills in Delta.

He explained that the existing railway network nationwide covered 3, 505 kilometres of single-track routes

of the 1,067 mm narrow gauge on the Western and Eastern lines.

He said the first 198 kilometres of rail line constructed in Nigeria by the colonial government was from Lagos to Ibadan in 1898-1901 and was 1,067 mm narrow gauge classification.

He said: “The LagosCalabar coastal line and the Kano-Maradi standard gauge railway project are in view for financing and commencement.

“The upgrade of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge line has already

been awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

“It is a prelude to the eventual construction of the standard gauge under the Strategic Railway Modernisation plan,” NRC’s board chairman said.

When properly integrated, Musa said, the rail line would provide efficient services for high density flows of passengers, and cargo traffic over relatively long distances, including huge volumes of containerised cargoes or bulk freight.

Johnson’s Will: Banire Drags Lawyer Before Disciplinary Committee Adeboye: Kidnapping Monarchs, Affront to Traditional Institution Tobi Soniyi

Legal tussle over the estate of late Mrs. Helen Johnson has taken a new turn, following a petition written by Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN) to the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee over alleged letter written by a junior lawyer, Mr. Osho Oluyemi.

Banire has also filed a suit against the respondent before the Lagos State High Court seeking N200 million compensation for alleged damage to his reputation.

In his petition with reference number, BB/ LPDC/287/2020, Banire stated that the respondent, Osho Oluyemi in his letter

to the Managing Director of Stanbic IBTC Bank made certain courteous and defamatory statements.

Banire claimed that the letter was a violation of Rule 15 (2) (a), (3) (g) & (j) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners.

He said the statement constituted a direct attack on his personality and integrity, and that of legal practitioners in his law firm as well as a Chief Magistrate I of the Lagos Magisterial District.

Highlighting the facts leading to the alleged act of unprofessional conduct, the petitioner stated that the Executor and the Executrix of

the estate of late Mrs. Helen Aroon Gill Johnson briefed his firm, M. A. Banire & Associates, to represent them in a number of cases and to take immediate and necessary steps in the pending suits.

The petitioner stated that, his clients informed him that since 2017, some of their bank accounts had been frozen via three (3) Bankers’ Orders respectively dated 4 the October 2017, 16th October 201 7 and 16th October 2017, 28th December 2017, and 28th December 2017 obtained by the Inspector General of Police before the Magistrate Court, Lagos in connection with a police investigation.

Victor Olakitan in Ado Ekiti

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye yesterday noted that abduction of monarchs was an affront to traditional institutions.

Adeboye, however, predicted that God would put an end to the rising rate of banditry, abduction, kidnapping and violence nationwide, urging Nigerians to pray for the country amid diverse challenges undermining her peace and security.

He made these remarks yesterday when he paid a courtesy visit to the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi at the Government House, Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

Suspected gunmen had invaded the Palace of Obadu of Ilemeso, Oba David Oyewumi and abducted the monarch.

Ilemeso is a neighbouring town to Fayemi’s country home in Oye Local Government Area.

Oyewumi’s abduction occurred within a week some suspected bandits rained bullets on a car belonging to Elewu of Ewu Ekiti, Oba Adetutu Ajayi along Ewu-Ayetoro Road and wounded the traditional ruler.

In the instant case, according to reports, the gunmen, numbering six, had scaled the fence of the Oba’s palace and shot sporadically to scare the occupants.

A source at the palace had narrated that the incident happened around 8.30p.m. when the chiefs

who had earlier visited the place had retired.

“In the process of shooting, they gained entrance into the bungalow where the traditional ruler and members of his family were and started beating them.

“They were asking after the monarch which showed that they really came for him and not any other person. Immediately they sighted him, they dragged him and took him out of the palace,” the source narrated.”

But speaking in Ado Ekiti yesterday, Adeboye said traditional institutions deserved respect because of the critical roles it plays in society, saying, “It is condemnable the flagrant disrespect to our traditional institution in Ekiti state in recent times by gunmen.”

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NEWSXTRA Judiciary Sliding into Crisis without Hope of Recovery, NBA Laments David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

The Committee of Chairmen of the Branches of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Anambra State at the weekend lamented that the justice was gradually sliding into a destructive dungeon with no hope of recovery.

The committee, comprising eight branches of NBA in the state, said the over dependence of the judiciary, as an arm of government, on the executive “is killing the justice sector. This is capable of breeding anarchy in the country.”

The committee expressed this concern at a news conference its Chairman, Mr. Kingsley Awuka addressed on Friday in Nnewi on the ongoing nationwide strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).

Awuka said the committee “is worried about the on-going nation-wide strike action embarked upon by JUSUN which has now lasted for more than one week with no hope of its end in sight.

“The governors of the 36 states have deliberately subjected the judicial arm of government to their subservient appendage. This grossly unconstitutional situation has in turn eroded the autonomy and independence of the judiciary and led to infrastructural and human resource deficit.

“The justice sector of our country is progressively sliding into the destructive dungeon with no hope in sight of its recovery,” the committee lamented.

The committee read out a resolution, backing JUSUN in the strike, pledging to support it

in the action, including mobilising a protest that would compel the government to listen to the union’s cries, if the right thing was not done.

The resolution said: “The committee fully lends its support to the demands of JUSUN and shall sustain this support until the demands are met.

“The committee calls on all the 36 state governors of the federation, particularly the Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie

Obiano, to immediately commence the implementation of the provisions of the constitution as it relates to the financial autonomy of the judiciary.

Remita Commences Sale of 2021 JAMB ePINs Remita, a leading electronic payment company, has said it began the sale of 2021 Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) ePINs to prospective candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The company revealed this in a statement at the weekend, noting noted that the decision followed a recent announcement by the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB), of the sale of ePINs for UTME and Direct Entry registrations till May 15.

It said” “Prospective candidates are to commence the process by registering their National Identification Number (NIN) by typing the word ‘NIN’, then space, adding their 11-digit NIN and sending as an SMS to 55019, e.g (NIN 00123456789).

“They would receive a 10-character confirmation code on the telephone number that would be used to purchase their ePINs,” the statement noted.

“They are to then proceed to the Remita website (www.remita.

net) and click ‘Buy JAMB form’, select ‘UTME’ or ‘Direct Entry’ and input their confirmation code, registered phone number, and other necessary details.

“Candidates can make payments using their debit/credit card, internet banking, mobile wallet, USSD and others options.

Once payment is completed, PIN is delivered to the candidate’s phone number and also displayed on their Remita receipt,” it added.

Product Manager, Applications and Vertical Markets at SystemSpecs, the providers of Remita, Kayode Osinulu, said prospective candidates of the 2021 UTME are guaranteed fast, reliable and seamless registration when they buy their ePINs on the Remita platform.

“Our payment system delivers a seamless experience to every candidate as they purchase their PIN. They can also make this purchase at any time and from anywhere through any of the multiple payment options available on Remita,” he said.

Abuja Farmer Seeks Peaceful Settlement With Fulani Herders Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja

The Managing Engineer, EcoZone Integrated Services Limited, Mr. Adedayo Adefarakan has called on security agencies and traditional rulers within Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to find a lasting settlement to dispute between his farm and herders.

A staff of the farm, who spoke with THISDAY on condition of anonymity, said Adefarakan who also runs AquaDew Ice Factory Ltd in Gwagwalada, was desirous of having a peaceful co-existence between his farm and the herders.

He said that the dispute between Adefarakan and the herders started on April 1st 2021 when some herders invaded the farm claiming that some of their cows died after eating oranges thrown out of the farm.

They alleged that the oranges were poisoned, an allegation the farm denied.

The staff said Adefarakan made efforts to settle the matter amicably

but it all ended in fracas as he and twelve members of his staff were attacked by the herders with matchetes leading to the sustenance of injuries from machete cuts.

According to him, the workers are scared of coming to work and that the farm could not be run effectively.

He said that Adefrankan was seeking the help of all stakeholders to ensure peace return to the area.

He said: “The workers are scared and most of them are insisting on staying away from work if security is not guaranteed as their lives are under threat.”

The source said that since 2015 when the farm took off, there had been no violence as both the farm workers and the herders enjoyed a cordial relationship.

The staff also said that Adefarakan was grateful to the police and other security agencies for their intervention so far but that his ultimate wish was for him, his staff and their neighbours to live in peace and harmony as that is the only atmosphere under which business could thrive.

WE SHARE YOUR GRIEF . . .

Enugu State Governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi with the Deputy Governor, Cecilia Ezeilo (middle); Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor, Vitalis Ndu (2nd left); Managing Partner, Fit Consult Ltd, Loretta Aniagolu (2nd right) and Dr. Afam Ike, when the governor paid condolence to the Ike family during the funeral of their brother, Dr. Chinedu Ike, at Umana Ndiagu, Ezeagu LGA… yesterday.

Iyalode Tinubu Family Embraces Peace, Withdraws Suit Against Akindele Tobi Soniyi

The family of the late Madam Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu has finally agreed to settle the rift among them by withdrawing a suit filed by some aggrieved members of the family against Chief Akinfolabi Akindele as the holder of the power of attorney over the expanse of land left behind by the late Yoruba warrior.

Prior to the discontinuation of the suit, some elders of the two warring families (the Shobowale family and the Lumosa family) had agreed to bury the hatchet and stop washing their dirty linens in the public in the interest

of the great Yoruba ancestor.

After they agreed to work together, the family consequently instructed their lawyer, Mr J.O.Ogunbiyi to withdraw the suit filed challenging the legal status of Adamakin Investment and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele as the authentic sole holder of the power of attorney to Iyalode Efunroye TInubu Estate in Lagos state.

After the application to discontinue was moved, the trial judge Justice O. Mabekoye of the Ogun State High Court in Abeokuta struck out the matter.

In his ruling on the application, Justice Mebekoya, noted

the affidavit in support of the application sworn in support by one Gafar Babatunde Ibrahim, and the fact that the family had indeed settled their differences, therefore there was no need to go on with the matter. lyalode Efunroye Tinubu left large expanse of land to her family.

This has been a source of rift among the family.

However, following wise counsel, the family collectively decided to seek the path of unity in their efforts to recover their family land from individuals who in most cases are not family members, but detractors who insist on using some family

members to cause confusion which had resulted in legal actions in courts.

These crises got to a head sometimes in 2019, when some members of the board of trustees of the Iyalode Efunroye TInubu Estate went to court challenging the legal status of Adamakin Investment and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele as the sole holders of the power of attorney to Iyalode Efunroye TInubu Estate in Lagos.

Earlier, in their statement of defence, Mr Kunle Awoma, lawyer to Adamakin and Akindele had asked the court to dismiss the matter.

NULGE Warns Lawmakers against Passing Bill Seeking to Scrap LGs Chibuzor Oluchi

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) yesterday threatened to occupy the homes of members of the House of Representatives if it passed a bill seeking to scrap the local government (LG) in the country.

A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Solomon Bob had in December 2020 sponsored a bill to remove the third tier of government from the constitution.

Bob had asked that LGs creation, powers and funding

be vested exclusively in the state houses of assembly “in accordance with the principle and practice of true federalism”.

The lawmaker had argued the bill would go “some good way towards fixing the many centripetal anomalies in the 1999 constitution”.

Warning against the passage of the bill yesterday, the President of NULGE, Mr. Ambali Olatunji described those calling for the scrapping of local councils as enemies of Nigerians and democracy.

He said those behind the plot were insensitive to the plight and governance needs of the majority of Nigerians in the rural areas.

He said NULGE planned to occupy the homes of all federal lawmakers over the plan to scrap the local government system, warning that the sponsor of the bill and other lawmakers, who support it, would face the wrath of the workers.

Olatunji said: “If the bill is not killed immediately, the workers would in the next few days stage a protest at the

National Assembly, after which they would storm the country homes of all members of the parliament.

“Our existence is being threatened; we will not sit down and watch. There will be a national protest there at the National Assembly,” he said.

“They are no longer representing us, they are representing themselves. Bob Emmanuel, who benefited from the local government system, has now become so disillusioned that he wants the system scrapped.

Businesses, Citizens Reeling under Multiple Taxes, Says PDP Oluchi Chibuzor

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lagos State, yesterday alleged that individuals and corporate businesses in the state were reeling under the burden of multiple taxation.

Consequently, the main opposition party claimed that the future of young people in the country, especially in Lagos State, “is not only dim but has become hopeless

and hapless due to a hostile economic environment.

The Chairman of Lagos PDP, Mr. Deji Doherty expressed this concern during a recent virtual town hall meeting, kicking against what he described as illegal and multiple taxes imposed on individuals and corporate bodies in the state.

Doherty said the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu “has caused a

negative impact on business and commercial activities and made life miserable for the people in the face of a global pandemic.

“The economic hardship Nigerians are going through brought about maladministration and mismanagement of public resources by political leaders in the state coupled with the global pandemic,” the party chairman said.

He challenged Sanwo-Olu to look into so many illegal and multiple taxes being collected by force from Lagosians in every nook and cranny of the state.

Doherty alleged that some unscrupulous agents “are working for a few political power holders,” describing such acts as unlawful against the citizens, which he said can cripple the economy of any country.

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NEWSXTRA IPOB: S’East Govs Compiling Our Names to Hand over to FG The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the Southeast governors of compiling the names of its members to hand over to the federal government.

IPOB, a Biafran separatist organisation, alleged that the federal government and its security agencies were behind the plan with a view to weakening the organisation and the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

This was contained in a statement IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful issued yesterday, claiming that the governors had started

compiling their names with the support of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and some traditional rulers.

This came in the heels of the pledge by South East governors to resist attempt by IPOB, to frustrate its new security network, codenamed Ebube Agu. Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi said the Eastern Security Network, ESN, set up by IPOB was an illegal entity which the governors would not want to lose sleep over.

He said: “The problem of this

country is that people will leave their problems and make your problem their problem. ”But what some of these people are doing is to incite the South-East into war and step aside, and we are not going to buy into that; we’re not going to be deceived again.”

He said Ebube Agu was created primarily to protect lives and properties in the South East.

In its statement yesterday, IPOB, which had been outlawed as a terrorist organisation, also accused the Igbo leaders of attempting to clamp down on the Eastern Security

Network (ESN), which it runs as a security arm.

“This wicked move was suggested by the Nigeria Government and her security operatives with the hope to weaken IPOB and ESN making every effort to flush terrorists out of our land,” Powerful said in a statement.

“Our efforts to stop terrorists in the East have indisputably intensified since the formation of ESN but regrettably, the politicians and government officials including local authorities in some communities in the South East are sabotaging

these efforts.

“The South-Eastern Governors in collaboration with all the Traditional Rulers in the Zone and the PGs of all the communities in the Zone are compiling names of suspected IPOB members in their respective communities to hand over to Nigeria security agencies for possible executions.”

IPOB added that the purported clampdown was because the ESN is seen as a menace in the south-east

PDP Commends Fayose for not Challenging Congress in Court Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

WELCOME TO LAGOS. . .

L-R: Chairman, Set Top Box Manufacturers, Godfrey Ohuabunwa; Chairman, DIGITEAM Nigeria, Mr. Edward Amana; Acting Director General, National Broadcasting Commission, Armstrong Idachaba; Minister of Information & Culture, Lai Mohammed; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, during a visit to the governor in Lagos...yesterday

South, Middle Belt Leaders Demand Nations out of Nigeria Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

South and Middle Belt leaders under the aegis of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) yesterday insisted that Nigeria should cease to exist demanding for several ethnic nations.

The alliance, also, disclosed that it would be observing a 120-day ultimatum to consult with the people in the involved regions on its five-point demand to the federal government.

The Chairman of the alliance, Prof. Banji Akintoye made this demand during a world press

conference held in Ibadan yesterday.

At the conference, Akintoye listed the five demands as follows: “To formally acknowledge the sovereignty dispute as declared

by NINAS; to formally commit to the wholesale decommissioning of the repudiated 1999 constitution and to formally commit to the suspension of further national elections under the disputed 1999 Constitution.

The fourth demand, according to Akintoye, is to formally commit to initiating a time bound transitioning during which a two-stage process for the distillation

of successor-constitutional arrangements founded upon the self-determination rights of the constituent components of Nigeria and ratified by regional referendums, will be undertaken.

He said the fifth demand was to formally invite the constituent nationality components of Nigeria to work out the framework, mandate, composition, timeframe and other modalities for the said transitioning.”

He maintained that with the country continuing to wobble and fumble in what he described as its

sure demise as one political union, the group would use the period to carry all the stakeholders along, stating that the federal government and elected office holders in the regions involved have failed to acknowledge the demands.

The text of the world conference read in part, “Today, the Train of NINAS Consultations and Engagements on the December 16, 2020 Proclamation moves on from the Government of Nigeria to the Peoples of Nigeria who are the true owners of the sovereignties forcefully aggregated and federated as Nigeria, hence the conference theme : ‘Activating People’s Power’.

Nigerian-American Journalists Fault Google for Suspending T.B Joshua on YouTube Kayode Fasua

The Nigerian-American Press Association (NAPA) has faulted Google LLC, an American multinational technology company, for suspending Emmanuel TV, a Christian television network established by Founder of the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Pastor Temitope Joshua on YouTube.

The association rejected SCOAN’s suspension in a resolution its executive members unanimously adopted after an emergency board meeting via conference call from Houston,

Texas, United States yesterday.

NAPA is a major convergence of online editors representing leading mainstream media establishments in the United States of America and Nigeria.

YouTube, an online video platform of Google LLC and the second most-visited website in the world, suspended Emmanuel TV for uploading a video content, which it claimed, allegedly contained hate speech.

In a statement on Friday, SCOAN said: “Our mission is to share the love of God with everyone – irrespective of race or religion – and we strongly

oppose all forms of hate speech!

We have had a long and fruitful relationship with YouTube and believe this decision was made in haste.”

After its emergency meeting yesterday, NAPA in a resolution by its President, Mr George Otumu, said, “In a unanimous voice, we condemn the position taken by the management of YouTube to suspend the licence of Prophet T.B. Joshua’s media channel.”

It explained that NAPA strongly believed YouTube’s decision was “condemnable, ludicrous, hastily-made, biased

and vindictive in its entirety; as there were no correspondence or traceable records from YouTube, earlier warning Synagogue Church of All Nations ministry of its alleged offence; even after it hastily singled out seven videos it tagged ‘hate-speech’.

Also, the association said: “YouTube so decided under the cover of darkness to take one out of the seven videos as a reflection of its ban on T.B. Joshua’s media channel, without allowing the Church in contention an avenue of a rightful channel of reply to deny the allegation.”

which has been recording increasing criminal attacks in recent weeks.

It said it has nothing to do with those carrying out the attacks, adding: “We wonder why the government will continue to associate us with that group without investigations.

“The Nigeria Government must understand that IPOB cannot be decimated no matter what they do. The unknown gunmen are not ESN or IPOB,” the group said.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Southwest Zone, yesterday commended a former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose for the resolve of his group to unite the aggrieved party members in the zone.

The party, also, commended Fayose for prevailing on Dr. Eddy Olafeso and other candidates that lost out in the just concluded PDP Southwest Congress held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, from challenging the outcome of the congress in court.

This was contained in a statement

by Publicity Secretary, Southwest PDP, Chief Sanya Atofarati, thanking Fayose for displaying maturity and yielding to calls and appeals from the stakeholders to sheath their swords.

There had been uncertainty that Fayose and his group might contest the outcome of the congress in court which was majorly won by those loyal to Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde while those loyal to Fayose lost out.

In its statement, the party said the outcome of the meeting held by the Fayose’s Group in Abeokuta,

the Ogun State Capital, on Friday was a good one and a right step towards ensuring unity and oneness of the party in the zone.

Atofarati stated that the decision of the Fayose’s Group to join forces with the zonal leadership of a former Oyo State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Taofeek Arapaja “is a welcome development that will further help to rebuild the opposition party.”

He also said that Arapaja leadership welcomed the resolve of Fayose’s group that none of its candidates would go to court to challenge the outcome of the congress and maintained that the common enemy of the PDP and that of Nigerians was the APC. “Fayose’s group said they would rather prefer to join hands and work together to rescue the people from the misgovernance of the APC instead of embarking on internal bickering over the PDP Southwest Zonal Congress already held and concluded peacefully,” Atofarati noted.

He urged members to brace up for the challenges ahead of the Ekiti and Osun States Governorship Elections holding in 2022 as well as the 2023 general elections.

Corruption Fueling Factional Crisis in CAC, Says Cleric Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti Corruption is fueling the lingering factional crisis brewing in the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) with implications on members’ morale and spiritual growth, a priest in the church, Pastor Adeleye Gegeoju has alleged.

Gegeoju, a pastor at Tabernacle of Love District, an assembly of CAC Worldwide, said this kind of crisis was not expected in any religious setting, saying time “has come for leaders to stop running the church like a political party.”

He made this allegation in Ifaki Ekiti, Ido-Osi Local Government Area (LGA), Ekiti State yesterday, while commencing a one-week revival under a theme: ‘Let There Be Unity and Peace in Nigeria’.

He alleged that the lingering factional crisis brewing in the Church was affecting the morale and spiritual growth of members.

On the prolonged division in the church, Gegeoju said the crisis, which escalated in 1990 would have been long resolved, but alleged some highly placed leaders had been profiting from the internal squabbles.

The cleric told the CAC leaders that the solid and rocky foundation laid by its founder, Apostle Ayo Joseph Babalola, was being eroded

by the crisis.

Gegeoju explained that the crisis “started long before 1990. But the internal crisis took another dimension and blew open in 1990 due to differences in the rank of some highly placed leaders in the Church.

“Today, there are four factions of CAC with each parading fake certificates of incorporation at Corporate Affairs Commission different from what Apostle Babalola and other founding fathers handed over to the church.

“The certificate was handed over to the church in 1943 by I.B. Akinyele, Joseph Ayo Babalola and David Odubanjo bore registration number 147, but today a lot of fictitious certificates are in circulation with their leaders laying claim to authenticity.

“If truly we are serving God the way Apostles Babalola, Timothy Obadare and Olulana Babajide did in CAC, then all these should not be happening. But I got a revelation that vengeance will soon come against the masterminds of this crisis.

“CAC is not a political party. Some leaders were even saying Apostle Babalola was from Odo Owa in Kwara, but the late CAC founder was from Ikotun Ile, which was a neighbour to the town. All these misconceptions and lies must stop for our church to regain its integrity”.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER APRIL 18, 2021

79

SUNDAYSPORTS

Edited by: Duro Ikhazuagbe email:Duro.Ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

FA Cup: Chelsea End Man City’s Quadruple Dream this Season Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report

H

akim Ziyech scored Chelsea’s FA quarter Ànal lone goal winner at Wembley on Saturday evening to end Pep Guardiola’s dream of a historic quadruple titles for Manchester City this season.

Both City and Chelsea had secured their places in the last four of the Champions League this week - but Pep Guardiola’s side had their sights set on a unique haul of four trophies as they close in on the Premier League title and also face Tottenham here in the League Cup Ànal on 25 April.

Chelsea truly deserved the victory when Ziyech slid home Timo Werner’s pass in the 55th minute to set up an FA Cup Ànal against either Leicester City or Southampton.

Ziyech had a goal ruled out for oͿside before he scored but that was enough to beat a lethargic City, who made eight changes from their Champions League win against Borussia Dortmund and now have the added worry of the sight of Kevin De Bruyne limping oͿ injured in the second half.

Chelsea had a very late scare as keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga clawed away Rodri’s injury-time header but manager Thomas Tuchel can now reÁect on a hugely satisfying week as his impressive start at Stamford Bridge gathers momentum.

The German gaͿer faced a huge week as his Àne start to life at Chelsea would be further shaped by the Champions League quarter-Ànal second leg against Porto before this FA Cup semi-Ànal meeting with a Manchester City side in hot pursuit of all four major trophies.

And it was no wonder Chelsea’s Tuchel was sporting a beaming smile at the Ànal whistle

Chelsea players celebrating Hakim Ziyech’s winner that ‘killed’ Manchester City’s dream of four titles this season

as this part of his mission was accomplished in excellent fashion. City were seen oͿ after Porto were beaten over two legs to leave Chelsea moving towards the climax of their season contemplating a Champions League semi-Ànal against Liverpool’s conquerors Real Madrid and an FA Cup Ànal.

No-one could begrudge them this victory as

Chelsea, from the Àrst whistle, showed more purpose and drive than a laboured and muchchanged City side.

Ziyech’s pace and Ànishing power troubled City from the start and it was Àtting the man of the match slid in the winner from Werner’s pass, the latter getting his reward for tireless work.

There is organisation, e΀ciency and threat

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Newcastle moved closer to Premier League survival after Joe Willock’s late goal capped a thrilling 3-2 win against 10-man West Ham that dented the visitors’ bid for a top four Ànish in the Premier League on Saturday.

David Moyes’ West Ham however remain fourth with Chelsea just one point behind with a game in hand. Fifth-placced Liverpool would go above the Hammers if they beat Leeds on Monday.

Steve Bruce’s side had squandered a two-goal lead in the closing stages at St James’ Park, but Willock came oͿ the bench to snatch a priceless winner.

Newcastle are nine points clear of the relegation zone with just six games remaining in a turbulent season on Tyneside.

The Magpies had taken control in the Àrst half thanks to Issa Diop’s own goal and a blunder from West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski for Joelinton’s strike.

West Ham defender Craig Dawson was sent oͿ for two bookings in between those goals.

But the Hammers set up a tense Ànale when Diop got one back before Jesse Lingard equalised with a penalty 10 minutes from full-time.

On-loan Arsenal midÀelder

Willock settled a pulsating encounter with his thunderous header, putting Newcastle in position to avoid relegation.

Staying up would be an impressive achievement for Bruce, who has battled with dressing room rifts and distracting takeover talk.

“I’m not going to take anything for granted. I’ve always said it’s the accumulation of points, and 35, in my opinion, is not enough, so you won’t get me jumping and hollering at the moment,” Bruce said.

“We’ve still got six games to play. Can we beat last year’s points tally of 44? We’ll try our

utmost.”

The defeat was a big blow for West Ham as they chase an unexpected place in next season’s Champions League.

David Moyes’ side remain fourth, but Chelsea are just one point behind with a game in hand, while Àfth-placed Liverpool would go above the Hammers if they beat Leeds on Monday.

“I wouldn’t say it was a chance lost, it was an opportunity for us to pick up three points,” Moyes said.

“We like talking about the Champions League, we love the sound of that when everybody says it, but we’re realistic.”

Oparanozie Scores for Dijon against Stade Reims Super Falcons’ forward, Desire Oparanozie, was on the scoresheet despite Dijon bowing 2-1 to Stade Reims in Saturday’s French D1 Arkema encounter.

The Nigeria international had grabbed her sixth assist of the season, with her eͿort ensuring a 2-0 victory at Le Havre two weeks ago.

Following her Àne performance, the 27-year-old made her 14th start of the season for Yannick Chandioux’s team and she made a fantastic contribution again, despite her side crashing to the hosts.

In a quest for a second consecutive win, Yannick Chandioux’s team made a promising start,

although it was Amandine Miquel’s side that earned the opener through Noemie Carage’s 13th-minute own goal.

The hosts, seeking a four-game winning streak, doubled their advantage when Rachel Corboz set up Melissa Gomes from the right Áank to beat goalkeeper Mylene Chavas in the 30th minute.

However, the visitors started a Àghtback in the contest when Magou Doucoure teed up Oparanozie to pull one back nine minutes from half-time, but that was not enough to save her side from the defeat.

The defeat left Dijon in the eighth position on the French women’s top-Áight table after gathering 23

points from 19 games this season.

Oparanozie, who was in action from start to Ànish, has now scored Àves times and provided six assists in all competitions for Dijon this term, while Moroccan Salma Amani was an unused substitute.

On the other hand, victorious Reims were without the services of Cameroon internationals Marie Aurelle Awona and Easther Mayi Kith, following their involvements in the Olympic Games playoͿ in Turkey.

The Nigerian will hope to keep up her Àne form in the Ànal third when Dijon face Chiamaka Nnadozie’s Paris FC in their next tie on May 8.

Desire Oparanozie’s goal not enough to save Dijon at Stade Reims

about this Chelsea side and they have put themselves in with the chance of climaxing what started as a troubled season with silverware.

Guardiola before the clash with Chelsea always played down the chances of what many regarded as the Holy Grail of winning all four big trophies - the Champions League, the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup.

1ZDNDOL RQ 7DUJHW DJDLQ WR %RRVW 6SDQLVK &OXE·V Survival Hopes Nigerian international, Kelechi Nwakali, scored his second goal for struggling Alcorcon to win 3-1 at Lugo and further boost their chances of avoiding relegation.

Nwakali, who is on loan from La Liga side Huesca, followed up on his superb free kick goal last week to score again from the penalty spot in the 80th minute.

He was there after booked four minutes later.

Alcorcon are now two points clear of the relegation zone with 38 points from 35 matches.

There are seven rounds of matches still to be played in the Segunda Division.

Meanwhile, time is running out for Atletico Madrid to reboot their La Liga title challenge, even as they still sit top of the table with eight games left to play.

Atletico remain in pole position, one point ahead of Real Madrid and two in front of Barcelona, but their poor form means it is the chasing duo now considered favourites to lift the trophy.

Four wins in Atletico’s last 11 games inspires little conÀdence they will be able to keep pace with Real and Barca, who have put early-season problems behind them to accelerate down the Ànal straight.

But a victory at home to struggling Eibar today would go some way to reigniting belief.

It would put Atletico Àve points ahead of Barcelona, trashed Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey Ànal last night.

Zinedine Zidane’s side are take on Getafe later tonight.

Sunday April 18, 2021

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“The governors of the 36 states have deliberately subjected the judicial arm of government to their subservient appendage. This grossly unconstitutional situation has in turn eroded the autonomy and independence of the judiciary and led to infrastructural and human resource deficit” – The committee of chairmen of the eight Nigerian Bar Assocoation’s branches in Anambra State on the ongoing strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).

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2023: North or South? East or West?

H

ere we go again: in 2023, whose turn? In Nigeria, nothing excites us like politics. If you want to get our attention, don’t waste your time writing about quality of life, potable water, sanitation, maternal health or out-of-school children. There are more important things that excite us: political intrigues, permutations, elections, all that. I am in the news business and I know what I am talking about. Publish a story that says 63 million Nigerians do not have access to clean water and nobody will touch it. Speculate on who is likely to be fielded as the APC presidential candidate and it will catch fire immediately.

That is how we are wired: more excited over sensation, less over substance.

The hottest topic in town now is what region will produce the next president. Between 1999 and 2023, northerners would have ruled for 11 years and southerners for 13 years. It has gone south-north-south-north since the dawn of this democracy. The street permutation would be that south should be the next. However, there is no legal binding on it. President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, has never shown any appetite for power rotation. He contested every presidential election between 2003 and 2019, no matter the region that felt it was its turn. If we are to use this as a yardstick, we can say he cannot be bothered what region produces his successor.

Many southerners typically assume that power would return to the region after Buhari’s exit. That is just one leg of the argument. If it is coming to the south, what zone? That is another leg. The south-west is staking a claim.

Many will argue that the south-west should give way to other zones in the southern region having produced a president for eight years (1999-2007) and VP for another eight years (2015-2023, all things being equal). South-west’s counter claim, nevertheless, would be that the zone is where APC, the ruling party, is most popular in the south and it should be allowed to reap the reward of its political alliance.

Whatever, many south-westerners are warming up anyway.

The south-south is also making a strong claim, having done only one term before. It is the zone where the nation’s oil revenue is derived. Dr Goodluck Jonathan accidentally became president in 2010 after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Despite strong opposition from the north over power rotation, Jonathan defied the agitation and made a successful bid in 2011, defeating Buhari. But Jonathan did not do a second term as he lost to Buhari in 2015. He did the unthinkable by conceding the election while results were still being announced, although many of his supporters were embittered and felt he was “chased” out of office because he was a southern minority.

The south-east has the strongest claim, having not produced a No 1 or No 2 since 1999. In fact, the zone has not produced an elected president since Independence, even though the Igbo are one of the three biggest ethnic groups in Nigeria (the others being Hausa/ Fulani and Yoruba). Ordinarily, therefore, if it is going to be the turn of the south in 2023 amid the “equity” talk, there should be no argument on where power should go. But there is this impression that based on the activities and rhetoric of IPOB and other groups, the Igbo would genuinely rather not be part of Nigeria. More so, APC, the ruling party, is least loved in the zone — where PDP has always won convincingly.

Ekwueme Where do I stand in all of this? Perhaps it bears repeating that I believe in equity as much as I believe in merit and justice. In simple English, I believe in power rotation.

Still, there are circumstances that may affect the north-south arrangement — as we saw with the death of Yar’Adua in 2010. Those were extraordinary circumstances. Jonathan was blamed for not respecting the rotation principle of the PDP when he ran in 2011 instead of allowing the north keep power. I still would not blame him. In the absence of any compelling law, things were complicated.

For one, I don’t know anyone else who would have the constitutional right to succeed the president and let it go just like that.

There was a moral argument too — that even if the constitution did not disqualify Jonathan from running, he should still have been a gentleman and stuck to his party’s “zoning” arrangement.

But I would also think that any northerner who took over from him in 2011 would not do one term only. No president would have an opportunity of a second term and throw it away, except it is Dr Nelson Mandela. We are yet to get over the political bitterness caused by the consequences of Yar’Adua’s death. The bad blood generated by Jonatan’s decision to contest still runs deep. We saw how the 2015 election season went and how the poison is very much in the system till this moment.

Unfortunately, the Yar’Adua situation has still not been adequately addressed.

The starting point for us as a polity is to answer the question: do we really want to rotate presidential power? We need to reach a consensus on this. If the answer is yes, we need to create the certainty that power would rotate. That can only be guaranteed through the constitution. It cannot be left to individual parties to decide — because the parties are also in a competition and are trying to outdo each other. PDP and APC are carefully quiet on where their presidential tickets would go in 2023. Nobody wants to take the risk of zoning to one region while the other picks another region. A case of who blinks first?

If there had been legal certainty in 2011, Jonathan would not have been able to run.

Rotation was a PDP, not a constitutional, arrangement. If we can enshrine it in the constitution, that can reduce the perennial tension over equity. Dr Alex Ekwueme, former vice-president, came up with an elaborate proposal to take care of our complex political configuration at the 1995 constitutional conference. He proposed a six-zone structure and a single presidential term. Power would

rotate between the north and the south, and also within the geo-political zones in each region.

Every zone’s turn would be guaranteed. No arguments. FIFA has achieved that with World Cup hosting among the continents.

Ekwueme, a sagacious political thinker, also proposed six vice-presidents, each representing a zone. If, for any reason, the president does not serve her full term (maybe because of resignation, impeachment or death), the VP from the zone will replace her, complete the term and power will move to the next region and zone at the next election. This means a lot. A northerner would have finished Yar’Adua’s term and the bad blood would have been avoided. The high tension over Buhari’s ill health in 2017 would also have been avoided. As things stand today, any attempt to impeach a president will fail because of the geo-political sensitivity: the VP will become president.

If I recall correctly, Ekwueme also proposed a sunset clause. Power rotation would not be forever. When presidency has gone round all the zones, it would be thrown open. By his own calculations, Nigeria would have grown politically and outgrown rotation by then. I am not saying his proposal would solve all our political problems. That is not the point. In fact, it is not as if our sub-identities are settled.

Of the six zones, only the south-east is close to homogeneity in ethnicity and religion — the two biggest identifiers in Nigeria. The rest of us are far from homogenous. I admit that rotation does not solve all problems but we need some wisdom to manage our peculiar complexities.

If I were in a room where these decisions are made, I would raise up my hand and suggest that we should strongly reconsider and adopt the Ekwueme proposals as we amend the constitution. In fact, I would further suggest that we should consider a similar arrangement at the state level so that every senatorial district can be accommodated and no district can lord it over the other as it currently obtains in many states. I really admire what Delta state, and a few others, have been able to do in this regard.

Many of those campaigning for power and equity at the centre are actually oppressing the minorities in their own states. But in Nigeria, we have to heap all blame on Abuja.

For clarity, I would say again that I believe in merit as much as I believe in equity. I do not believe that merit and equity are mutually exclusive. There is no state in Nigeria that does not have educated, experienced and competent people who can be president. Take that from me. In fact, if you challenge me, I can give you a shortlist of five solid presidential materials from every state of the federation. I do not subscribe to the notion that only a part of Nigeria can produce competent leaders. Inasmuch as our governors have not turned their states to paradise, nobody has the moral right to say one ethnic group or geo-political zone has all the competence. That is my view.

To my mind, federal character and power rotation are instruments of accommodation in a multi-ethnic polity so that nobody is left out in the cold. In a society where there is mutual suspicion, where there are fears of domination and marginalisation, where there is a fierce competition for power, I will keep arguing that it is in the interest of our peace and progress to have an accommodating political arrangement so that all the people will feel that they belong. Attaining political stability is very critical to the development of Nigeria.

We can only have peace and progress if we get the political atmosphere right. As things stand, we are too bitterly divided to think straight.

And Four Other Things…

GHANA VS NIGERIA Twitter’s decision to locate its Africa headquarters in Ghana has generated a lot of debate. Some Nigerians are celebrating it, partly in the belief that it is an indictment on the Buhari administration. To be fair, Ghana has been beating Nigeria to many things long before Buhari came to power. Who still remembers that President Barack Obama visited Ghana and shunned Nigeria in 2013 and people said it was because the Jonathan administration was corrupt? In all, Ghana is more stable and orderly than Nigeria. If we are wise, then, we should start asking ourselves the hard questions on how Nigeria can reform and become a more hospitable environment to business. Introspection.

PANTS DOWN? Alhaji Isa Ali Pantami, minister of communication and digital economy, has been in the news since it was reported that he was on the US watchlist over alleged links to terrorists. The report has now been retracted with apology, but old tapes are emerging tending to prove that Pantami used to be sympathetic to terror groups. He has denied the allegations and argued, instead, that he was opposed to their murderous ideology. It shouldn’t be a crime that Pantami is an Islamic cleric. There are pastors in government, right? However, while I admit that people change their opinions as they grow older and wiser, we need to be assured that Pantami does not support terrorism.

Imperative.

PRINTER’S DEVIL Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state caused some sensation when he alleged that N60 billion was printed to augment March allocations. Nigeria is in dire financial straits because of COVID and low oil production.

Under such situations, central banks can “print money” for governments via “ways and means advances” (which are loans, as explained by the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele). My little understanding of FAAC is that it only shares federally collected revenues as reported by NNPC, FIRS and Customs, etc. These are clearly itemised. So, did FAAC list “printed money” as revenue? It appears Obaseki, a financial expert, goofed but has gone too far to correct himself.

Puzzling.

IN MEMORIAM Exactly one year yesterday, Mallam Abba Kyari, the ex-chief of staff to President Buhari and probably the most hated human being in Nigeria, died after contracting COVID. Although he was said to have tested negative after treatment, he did not survive the complications because of underlying conditions. If the dead could talk, he would probably be thanking God that he escaped many things that would have been blamed on him, such as the removal of Mallam Ibrahim Magu as EFCC chairman, Mrs Aisha Buhari’s prolonged stay in Dubai and the “printing of N60 billion”. Kyari was certainly not perfect but he unquestionably put in a decent shift in his service to fatherland. Life.

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