SUNDAY 6TH JUNE 2021

Makinde: I Won’t Comply With S'Court Judgement on Sacked LG Chairs Says constitution review will not achieve anything

Nseobong Okon-Ekong

Oyo State Governor, Mr. ‘Seyi Makinde, has said his government would not comply with a recent Supreme Court ruling on the local

government administration, because contrary to the constitutionally recognised 33 local governments, there are additional 35 local council development areas, making it 68, a number he claimed

he couldn’t work with.

He, therefore, said the former council chairpersons might have to approach the apex court again to determine which of them should be paid.

However, in a related

development, the governor has doubted the possibility of the ongoing amendment to the constitution, saying any amendment to the 1999 constitution without restructuring would be

nothing, but a waste of time and as such, an exercise in futility.

The Supreme Court, last month, overturned Makinde’s sack of the council chairpersons in the state.

Removal of the 68 council chairpersons, who were elected in 2018, was one of the early decisions of the governor as soon as he was sworn in, in Continued on page 8

US: AIDS Has Killed 32m People Worldwide… Page 8 Sunday 6 June, 2021 Vol 26. No 9554

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2023: Why Matawalle May Not Defect to APC for Now Already proposes June 12 Sacks all commissioners to accommodate APC in new cabinet Chuks Okocha in Abuja With the 2023 political permutations in focus,

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State might have concluded plans to leave the Peoples Democratic Party

(PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC), but there are far more serious grounds why his defection might be

impossible for now.

The reason is that the Supreme Court decision, which ceded the Zamfara

governorship to the PDP immediately after the 2019 elections, did not consider any individual in arriving

at the decision but the party, a situation which makes Continued on page 5

Twitter Ban: The World Reacts as Presidency Justifies Suspension US, UK, EU, Canada, Ireland, Norway condemn ban FG: Microblogging site is synonymous with fake news, misinformation Telcos deactivate access to twitter handles in Nigeria AGF threatens to prosecute offenders Twitter promises Nigerians access to new platform, belatedly deletes Kanu’s vile tweets Tobi Soniyi, Deji Elumoye, Emma Okonji in Lagos, Chuks Okocha, Olawale Ajimotokan, Alex Enumah, Michael Olugbode and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja Outraged by Nigeria’s suspension of the microblogging and social media giant, Twitter, for deleting a recent tweet found offensive posted by President Muhammadu Buhari, the world yesterday condemned the decision by the federal government and concluded it was a violation of the rights and freedom of the Nigerian people to communication.

Some of the diplomatic missions that expressed their displeasure against the Twitter ban included Canada, the European Union (Delegation to Nigeria), the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom,the United States of America and Norway.

But the federal government,

yesterday, justified Twitter’s suspension, saying the outfit had becomesynonymous with the spread of fake news and misinformation in the country.

This is as the Telecoms Operators (Telcos) have carried out the instruction of the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend access to all Twitter handles in Nigeria, saying they acted in line with the instruction given to them, in the best interest and integrity of the country.

To that extent, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has said the federal government would prosecute anyone, who violates the administrative ban on the use of Twitter in Nigeria.

Condemning the federal government’s decision, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has Continued on page 10

COURTESY CALL...

L-R: Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, presenting a souvenir to Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, during the governor's maiden visit to the Naval Headquarters in Abuja...yesterday.

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TOWARDS NIGERIA'S INTEGRITY...

L-R: Brigadier General Yakubu Yahaya; Brigadier General Sani Abdullahi; Major General Abdullahi Muazu; Major General Gold Chibuisi; and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, during the closing ceremony of 2 Division Inter Brigade Corporals and Below Competition 2021, held at the Sobi Barack, in Ilorin...Friday

20,000 Small Business Owners, Artisans to Benefit from FG COVID-19 Payment in Lagos Segun James A total of 20,000 Vulnerable Households in Lagos State are to benefit from the federal government COVID-19 Rapid Response Cash Transfer Programme. Director, Lagos State Operations Coordinating Unit (LASOCU), Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs. Oluwakemi Adedeji, disclosed this

yesterday. Adedeji said the initiative was being implemented through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and Lagos State Government, in collaboration with World Bank.

The director said to facilitate the cash transfer scheme, a COVID-19 Rapid Response Register was being developed

that will enrol small business owners and artisans, whose businesses had been badly affected by COVID-19 in Lagos State. She said the enrolment process was being carried out through the use of satellite technology to send text messages to the phone numbers of affected residents between May 30 and June 5.

According to the National Social Safety

Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the initiative would start with seven wards and 181 communities in four local government areas. They include Irewe and Tafi in Ojo Local Government Area; Ikoga, Ajido and Iya Afin in Badagry Local Government Area; and Abomiti and Ijede in Epe and Ikorodu local government areas, respectively.

To enrol, residents were

advised to register by responding to the text message sent to their phones or contact their Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the selected wards.

Adedeji reiterated that the selection was based on the scientific method of Satellite Remote Sensing Technology, Machine Learning, Algorithm and Big Data Analysis, which provided the basis for ranking

the wards according to poverty index and availability of resources.

She explained that enumerators would meet applicants at their homes to take further information, such as National Identification Number (NIN) and bank account details, adding that those registered would receive cash transfer directly to their bank accounts.

not certain whether all PDP senators and members of the House of Representatives that benefited from the Supreme Court judgement would be willing to defect with himtoo.

According to the source, "If the governor defects what will happen to the governorship ambition of Senator Marafa?

Will he subdue his ambition that caused his initial political feud with former governor Yari or will he go back to the senate? If he decides to go to the Senate, what will happen to the current senator that is from the PDP?", the PDP source stated.

Yari, Zamfara’s immediate past governor is plotting to become the national chairman of the APC, and has been at daggers-drawn with Matawalle, who became an unexpected beneficiary of the APC crisis in the 2019 primaries in the state.

The source that spoke to newsmen said Mattawlle was expected to join the APC on June 12 as ademocracy dividend to the state.

So far, two PDP governors

have joined the APC. The first to dump the PDP was the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi and he was recently followed by the Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, with Matawelle already in view, if he defected as being planned.

However, Yari is said not to be not living any thing to chance as he still holds the ace in the state.

But a source claimed that to weaken Yari, all the states structures of the APC in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory would be dissolved soon.

"This is part of the reasons APC is delaying their convocation of the national convention of the APC. By the delay, all the interests would be accommodated, including all that are defecting, so that everyone will be equal and own the structures at all levels of the party,” the source explained.

But, the former governor, the source noted, would not go down without a fight, because if Mattawelle joined, the

APC, he might be finished politically, as state structures are naturally in the hands of the governors.

When THISDAY contacted PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, he said, "I will see the National Chairman and thereafter contact you ", but he did not eventually get, even though sources claimed the opposition party was waiting for Matawalle to make the biggest mistake of his life.

A PDP source said the party was in possession of intelligence report that the Zamfara governor had gone as far as seeking the opinions of some Supreme Court justices, who had told him leaving the PDP would definitely cost him the seat, based on the Supreme Court judgment of 2019.

But the governor was said to have contacted some highly placed persons in the government and party, who had allegedly assured him that they would circumvent the law for his sake and ensure he did not lose the seat.

2023: WHY MATAWALLE MAY NOT DEFECT TO APC FOR NOW the opposition party the owner and sole beneficiary of the governorship and not Matawalle.

Already, arrangements are said to have been perfected for the governor to defect to the APC on June 12, where he is expected to be received by the ruling party’s National Caretaker Committee Chairmanand Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni.

Also, as a prelude to the defection, Matawalle had on Monday, May 31, sacked his entire cabinet, including the commissioners, special advisers, the Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff in other to be able to accommodate some members of the APC in the new calculations.

THISDAY gleaned that the cabinet sack was to prevent some commissioners from refusing to defect with him and avoid the kind of backslash experienced in Ebonyi and Cross River States, where some commissioners and aides

refused to go to the APC with their former principals.

Curiously, however, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has yet to officially speak on the developing story, but an informed party source hinted that having given all the political structures in the state to the governor, the PDP was at a loss as to why Matawalle wanted to leave the party.

But the source was confident that the governor would not gamble with the idea, knowing that the seat is the party’s and not his, the reason the deputy governor is said to have declined being part of the defection plan, since he would be the sole beneficiary of Matawalle’s false move if he eventually dared the consequences.

THISDAY gathered that the governor’s planned defection was due to the politics of 2023.

The governor, it was learnt, has been promised a return ticket for 2023. He is currently serving his first term in office.

In 2019, the APC won all

the state and national elections in Zamfara State, the PDP came second but due to the Supreme Court judgement, the PDP inherited the victory across the board.

The state was considered an APC state and it was therefore to ensure his reelection in 2023 that Matawelle was being poached to defect to the APC. Another party source also hinted that, "There is no free ticket for him in the APC by 2023, as the former governor of the state, Abdulazizi Yari and Senator Kabir Marafa have reconciled and will surely give him a fight " But a PDP source said the APC in Zamfara State was like a shark infected water, waiting to consume the governor, if he made the mistake of defecting to the APC. In February this year, the political feud between the two warring camps in the state chapter of the APC – Yari and Marafa – were reconciled, by the national caretaker committee of the party as part of the 2023 scheming.

The source said it was

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US: AIDS Has Killed 32m People Worldwide America pumped $85 billion to eradicate disease Tobi Soniyi The United States Department of State on Saturday said AIDS had killed over 32 million people across the world in its 40 years of existence. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, in a statement he issued on the 40th Anniversary of the First Reported Cases of AIDS, said America remained committed to eradicating the disease.

Blinken said, "Forty years ago, on June 5th, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the first five cases of what later became known as AIDS. "At that time, none of us could have imagined that AIDS would still be with us today or that it would have taken more than 32 million lives globally, including 700,000 in the United States.

"Today, we honour the memory of these men, women, and children, many of whom we lost in the prime of their lives to this devastating disease.

"We also celebrate the more than 38 million people worldwide, including 1.2 million in the United States, who are bravely living with HIV." He said the United States was proud of its longstanding partnership with countries and communities around the world toward ending the global AIDS epidemic.

"We continue to bring the very best of America to this effort – from ground-breaking scientific discovery and inspired activism to steadfast political leadership and deep diplomatic engagement," he added.

According to him, with bipartisan support across presidential administrations and from the U.S. Congress for nearly two decades, the country has invested more than $85 billion in the global AIDS response through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and as the leading donor to the Global Fund to Fight

AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This, he said, was the largest commitment ever by one country to address a single disease.

Blinken said, "Working with our many partners, we have saved more than 20 million lives, prevented millions of HIV infections, and significantly accelerated progress toward achieving

HIV epidemic control in more than 50 countries."

He said PEPFAR had supported nearly 18.2 million people with lifesaving antiretroviral therapy – an additional one million in the past six months alone.

The statement read, "PEPFAR investments also assist nearly 300,000 health care workers, 3,000

laboratories, 70,000 health care sites, and disease surveillance – strengthening country capacity and resilience to prevent, detect, and respond to other infectious disease threats, including COVID-19.

"Forty years on, we must take this important moment to reflect, recommit, reenergise, and re engage.

After decades of progress, our work is not yet finished. To complete this journey – one started by the courageous advocates who marched in the streets of New York City, San Francisco, and across America – we must come together as a nation and as a global community.

It is time to end the HIV epidemic everywhere."

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT...

Acting US Consul, General Brandon Hudspeth, with Head Teacher of St Savior's School Ebutte Meta, Mrs Lawrencia Izedonmwen, during the tree planting event ...yesterday

U.S. Consulate, YALI Alumni Celebrate World Environment Day with Schoolkids In commemoration of World Environment Day, Acting U.S. Consul General Brandon Hudspeth on Saturday participated in a tree planting event with students of St. Savior’s School, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

Acting Consul General Hudspeth alongside General Manager of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) Dr. Dolapo Fasawe and Assistant Director at the Lagos State Ministry of Environment Folasade Adeyoju, joined the students to plant a tree on the grounds

of the school.

The event was organized by members of the Young Africa Leaders Initiative (YALI) under the auspices of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni Association, with the support of a public diplomacy grant of the U.S. Consulate General.

Acting Consul General Hudspeth noted that the tree planting activity underscores the U.S. government’s commitment to supporting initiatives that raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment.

“We are thrilled that our YALI alumni are partnering with St. Savior’s School for today’s tree planting activity.

Children have the potential to be powerful agents of change.

By focusing on school-aged children, giving them tools and knowledge to change behaviors, future generations will be better prepared to care for the environment,” Acting Consul General Hudspeth said.

He expressed optimism that the involvement of the students in the tree planting activity will

shape their perspective about environmental conservation and restoration of our ecosystem. He also acknowledged the positive impact of work performed by the YALI alumni to build linkages between different communities and government institutions in Nigeria to promote environmental conservation efforts.

“Our main goal is to implement a campaign that will involve community members, local organizations, and government institutions to inspire and educate Nigerians

on the importance of a clean environment for human health and a strong economy,” Acting Consul General Hudspeth added.

In her remarks, LASEPA General Manager Dr. Dolapo Fasawe lauded the schoolkids and their teachers for their commitment toward protecting the environment. According to her, tree planting plays an essential role in mitigating the impact of climate change.

“Planting trees is one of the most important things we can do to contribute to the health of the planet,” Dr. Fasawe

noted.

Head Teacher, St. Savior’s School, Ebute Metta, Mrs. Lawrencia Izedonmwen, expressed the commitment of the school to promote environmental education and responsibility by creating awareness and empowering schoolchildren in its host community.

Following the tree planting activity, YALI alumni members moved to the Sabo-Yaba community of Lagos for a clean-up exercise as part of activities marking World Environment Day.

Even my own people told me it is not done that way. They wanted us to write figures and announce results. I refused to do that," he said.

On his position that the constitution review would be an exercise in futility, he said he was ready to stake his future political career on the prediction that nothing fruitful would come out of the exercise,which he described "as an annual jamboree to waste money."

His words: "If this constitution amendment succeeds, that will be the end of my political career. That is how strongly I feel about the waste of time and one that is going on. Former President

Goodluck Jonathan supervised the production of a document, which many Nigerians agreed is the best document for our civil relations, he did not sign it into law, because he thought he was going to return as President. That document is there and this administration has refused to do something about it."

He explained that true federalism goes beyond resource control, adding: “It is the fundamental of how we develop as a people. We should not say because these people are backward, then, you bring everybody to the same starting line. A country must allow its people to develop at their pace."

MAKINDE: I WON’T COMPLY WITH S'COURT JUDGEMENT ON SACKED LG CHAIRS May 2019.

The officials, drawn from the 33 local government areas (LGAs) and 35 local council development areas (LCDAs) and their councillors, were members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The court also decided that the replacement of the sacked officials with caretaker committees was illegal and therefore fined Mr. Makinde’s administration N20 million.

But the court appeared to favour Makinde by noting that the tenures of the sacked council chairmen and councilors had expired.

It, however, ordered that all their outstanding salaries and allowances must be paid with

immediate effect.

Speaking to THISDAY at the Government House, Ibadan, Makinde said, "The Constitution of Nigeria recognises 33 local government areas and 351 wards in Oyo State. The previous administration created local development areas and increased the number to 68.

We couldn't work with that, so, we scrapped it and put in place caretaker committees before proper elections were held in the 33 constitutionally recognised local government areas."

Makinde, who further broke down his understanding of the court judgment, posited that, "What the Supreme Court

invariably said is that it is its policy that governors should not dissolve local government administrations. They expected me to approach the court to argue the unconstitutionality of the 35 LCDAs. “If I had gone to court, it would have taken this length of time for them to reach a decision by which time they would have served out their tenure. They have to go back to court to determine, who among them should be paid.

And I doubt if that matter can be decided during my tenure. I may be out of here by that time," he added.

Defending himself and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against alleged

manipulation in the recent local government elections in the state, in which the PDP won all the 32 local government areas, where elections were held, said it was by choice that he resisted pressure to manipulate the elections.

"I deliberately appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria as Chairman of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, because I know he will be independentminded. I have not even spoken to him after the election. I did not know him before the appointment.

People told me it was the first time they are taking part in local government election.

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2023: Pitting Okowa against Ibori Unhealthy for Delta Politics, Urbobo Youth Leaders Warn Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba The Urhobo Youth Leaders Association (UYLA) has advised all stakeholders and opinion leaders to thread the path of caution in the light of apparently growing tension in Delta State arising from divergent views and positions about who becomes the state governor in 2023.

Specifically, UYLA warned against the seeming attempt by some individuals to pit the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, against the former governor, Chief James Ibori, saying it is unhealthy for politics and development in the state.

In a statement in Asaba, the association expressed worry at the unsavoury comments credited to certain individuals and groups in the state on account of the 2023 governorship.

The statement was signed by the group’s President, Chief Tony Ofoni; Deputy President, Olorogun Vincent Oyibode; Vice President, Chief Austin Atiti; and Publicity Secretary, Oghotomo Samuel.

UYLA observed that the wrangling that was fast becoming a free-for-all media brawl seemed to emanate from various reactions to the decision by Okowa, about two weeks ago, to dissolve his cabinet and relieve many of his political aides of their appointments.

The association frowned on what it called a clear inflammation of political sentiments by a political programme on national television, where the anchor allegedly accused Okowa of attempting to dismantle the over two decades old governorship succession structure put in place by Ibori. It called this a calculated attempt to set Okowa in conflict with the people of Delta Central senatorial district, which is peopled predominantly by

the Urhobo, all in the name of 2023 governorship election.

The statement by UYLA said, "Recently, we have read with grave concern some publications, public statements and comments by members of the public in both print and electronic media, on the question of 2023 gubernatorial election.

There have been claims and counter-claims over which part of the state should produce the next governor of Delta State.

"What troubled our minds the most is a programme on Channels Television and NTA tagged ‘INSIDE THE NIGER DELTA’ anchored by Mamode Felix Akugha alleging that

the incumbent Governor of Delta State, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, was working hard to dismantle the 21 years old political structure of Chief James Onanefe Ibori, former Governor of Delta state.

"We are constrained to react because the statutory right of the governor to take steps to reinvent his cabinet through dissolution of the State Executive Council is generating such degree of bad-blood and negative comments from a section of the populace.

"The Urhobo Youth Leaders Association has resolved not to keep mute while the well-considered actions and activities of Governor Ifeanyi

Okowa are being discredited through a well-oiled campaign of calumny designed to pit the governor against the interest of Delta Central in the politics of 2023.”

UYLA stated, "Firstly, we want to declare total support for the dissolution of the State Executive Council by His Excellency. A situation where over 10 members of the State Executive Council, including the SSG, Chief of Staff, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Chief Strategist and others, were nursing one ambition or the other, particularly to take over from the incumbent, was a huge distraction to the

smooth running of the wheel of governance and only a proactive and decisive action of the governor could save the situation and put the 'Stronger Delta' vision of the administration back on track.

The dissolution is, therefore, a laudable master-stroke to keep the ship of governance in the direction of progress.”

It stated further, "On the role of the novel DC-23 group in the 2023 push towards Delta Central producing the next governor, we want to applaud the initiative. However, we must be quick to point out that the way and manner the group has conducted her affairs since it was formed left

much to be desired.

"The approach adopted

by DC-23 in designing a constitution, calling on aspirants to declare their intentions to them and making public statements to put the governor under pressure was not the right thing to do. They ought to work underground, lobbying others to buy the idea of power-shift to Delta Central without beating war drums. The combative stance of DC-23 cannot achieve the Delta Central dream for 2023 and to that extend, we wish the group tread with caution so as not to jeopardise the common interest of the people."

PAYING LAST RESPECT TO NWODO...

Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (2nd left) with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige (2nd right), Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama (left), Minister of State for Environment, Hon. Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, and other members of the Presidential delegation, during the funeral of Chief Joe Nwodo, held at St. Peter's Catholic Church, Ukehe, Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, yesterday.

Kebbi: Police Confirm Bandits Killed 88 Local Vigilantes The Kebbi State Police Command has confirmed the killing of at least 88 local vigilante (yan sa kai) in Danko/Wasagu Local Government aAea of the state.

Confirming the killing, Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Nafiu Abubakar,

said the bandits struck on Friday night, where they attacked at least seven villages, killing88 innocent souls.

He identified Koro, Kimpi, Gaya and Iguenge as parts of the villages affected by the rampaging bandits all under Danko/Wasagu council areas.

Consequently, the Kebbi State Police Commissioner, Adeyemi Adeleke Bode, has assured the people of the area of his command's readiness to bring the criminals to justice He urged members of the public to always use the emergency number made available to alert the police

on any impending attack.

Yan Sa Kai, a local vigilante, was created to assist the security agencies deployed to the state to secure the volatile areas, which for almost a year now, have been under the siege of bandits. ame dreaded group terrorising the villages had

ambushed and killed 8 policemen, a divisional police officer (DPO) and a soldier.

As at the time of filling this report, there was no reaction from the Kebbi State government.

A THISDAY source has however confirmed that normalcy has returned to the

affected villages but a lot of the people were still taking refuge in other villages for fear of another attack.

The residents have, however, appealed to the state government to come to their rescue as their villages are now under the siege of bandits.

of Twitter to a lot of problems associated with the media platform including misinformation and fake news, which have had telling effect on Nigeria.

He said: "The temporary suspension of Twitter is not just a response to the removal of the President’s post. There has been a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences. All the while, the company has escaped accountability.

Nevertheless, the removal of President Buhari’s tweet was disappointing. The censoring seemed based on a misunderstanding of the challenges Nigeria faces today.

He quoted the President as saying in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA in 2019 that, "The world was shocked and startled by the massacre in New Zealand by a lone gunman taking the lives of 50 worshippers."

According to him, this and similar crimes, which have

TWITTER BAN: THE WORLD REACTS AS PRESIDENCY JUSTIFIES SUSPENSION declared as unconstitutional, illegal, null and completely of no moment a recent directive by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration to arrest and prosecute any Nigerian using Twitter.

Similarly, the Newspaper Proprietors' Association of Nigeria (NPAN), in its reaction, condemned the suspension of Twitter in the country by the federal government and described it as “wrong and an overreaction”.

Also, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), on its part, urged the federal government

to tread with caution and immediately reconsider the suspension of the operation of Twitter in Nigeria and instead, seek other legitimate means of resolving its dispute with the company.

Sharing this view, the International Press Institute (IPI), while expressing concern over the suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria, described the action as detrimental to the free press in Nigeria,which it said uses twitter as a major platform.

In the same breath, the Oyo State Governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has counseled

the federal government of Nigeria not to hamper the operations of thousands of businesses and services with its recent suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria.

On the contrary, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on Nigerians to defend the country's sovereignty by supporting the federal government's Twitter suspension, saying it was in national interest.

Meanwhile, Twitter, yesterday promised to restore access on its new platform to all Nigerians as parts of the choices open to it in the

current circumstances, even as it belatedly deleted some bile tweets by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Responding to the backlash from the move against Twitter, the presidency though described Twitter's removal of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets as disappointing, it however, said the social media outfit's suspension has nothing to do with the removal of the President’s tweet.

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a release, attributed the suspension

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NEWS FG JUSTIFIES TWITTER’S SUSPENSION, SAYS IT’S SYNONYMOUS WITH FAKE NEWS, MISINFORMATION been fueled by social media networks risk seeping into the fabric of an emerging digital culture.

He emphasised that major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities and that "they cannot be allowed to continue to facilitate the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages capable of inciting whole communities against each other, leading to loss of many lives".

This, according to him, could tear some countries apart.

He stressed that President Buhari has therefore been warning against social media's disruptive and divisive influences and the government’s action is not a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter’s preposterous deletion of his tweets, which should have been read in full.

The release stated: "The tweet was not a threat, but a statement of fact. A terrorist organisation (IPOB) poses a significant threat to the safety and security of Nigerian citizens. When the President said that they will be treated ‘in a language they understand’, he merely reiterated that their force shall be met with force. It is a basic principle of security services response world over.

"This is not promotion of hate, but a pledge to uphold citizens’ right to freedom from harm. The government cannot be expected to capitulate to terrorists. IPOB is proscribed under Nigerian law.

Its members murder innocent Nigerians. They kill policemen and set government property on fire.

“Now, they have amassed a substantial stockpile of weapons and bombs across the country. Twitter does not seem to appreciate the national trauma of our country's civil war.

This government shall not allow a recurrence of that tragedy."

But some diplomatic missions in the country have condemned the ban of twitter, insisting that free expression and access to information were the pillars of democracy.

A statement jointly issued yesterday by the the diplomatic missions of Canada, the European Union (Delegation to Nigeria), the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Norway, conveyed their disappointment over Nigeria’s announcement, suspending #Twitter and proposing registration requirements for other social media.

The statement read: “We strongly support the fundamental human right of free expression and access to information as a pillar of democracy in Nigeria as around the world and these rights apply online as well as offline.

“Banning systems of expression is not the answer.

These measures inhibit access to information and commerce at precisely the moment, when Nigeria needs to foster inclusive dialogue and expression of opinions, as well as share vital information in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The diplomatic missions, however, added that, “The path to a more secure Nigeria lies in more, not less, communication to accompany the concerted efforts of Nigeria’s citizens in fulsome dialogue toward unity, peace and prosperity. As Nigeria’s partners, we stand ready to assist in achieving these goals.”

In yet a separate reaction, the United States, in a statement by its Embassy in Nigeria said: “Nigeria’s constitution provides for freedom of expression. The Government's recent #Twitterban undermines Nigerians’ ability to exercise this fundamental freedom and sends a poor message to its citizens, investors and businesses.”

The statement added: “Banning social media and curbing every citizen’s ability to seek, receive, and impart information undermines fundamental freedoms. As President Biden has stated, our need for individual expression, open public conversation, and accountability has never been greater.

“The path to a more secure Nigeria lies in more, not less communication, alongside concerted efforts toward unity, peace, and prosperity. #KeepitOn” However, on the deactivation of access, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the umbrella body of all licensed telecoms operators in Nigeria, in a statement jointly signed by its chairman, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo and its Executive Secretary, Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga, yesterday, confirmed that NCC directed them to suspend access to Twitter.

According to the statement, “We, the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator to suspend access to Twitter. ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the request in accordance with internationally accepted principles.

“Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications ‘Act 2003’, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) the industry regulator. We will continue to engage all the relevant authorities and stakeholders and will act as may be further directed by the NCC. We remain committed to supporting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and upholding the rights of citizens.

“As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online. This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.”

Giving the implications of the action of the federal government on Twitter, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), in a statement released yesterday, said ATCON was working closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure there is a speedy resolution of the current suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria.

In its official statement on the development, which has seen the telecoms regulator issue a directive to the service providers to deny access to the services of Twitter in Nigeria, the President of ATCON, Mr. Ikechukwu Nnamani stated that while the Association and its member companies understand the position of the federal government, the reasons for the directive, and have complied with the directive, it is pertinent that the issue is resolved soon in the interest of all.

Nnamani emphasised that the Over The Top (OTT) platforms of which Twitter is one, is an integral part of the digital economy that the federal government is promoting, adding, so when an unfortunate disagreement arises with respect to the user policies, it is good it is resolved in a timely manner.

Other industry stakeholders, who frowned at the action of the federal government, warned

against the implications, which they said may affect Nigeria most negatively.

Industry sources, however, said government seemed not to be concerned about the revenue and job losses that would come with the suspension order.

Although they projected huge revenue losses to government and the telecoms operators in terms of revenue generation and payment of taxes, they however said revenue generation appeared not to be more important to government than protecting its authority.

AGF Threatens to Prosecute Offenders The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday,said the federal government would prosecute anyone that violates the administrative ban on the use of Twitter in Nigeria.

Consequently, Malami, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said he had directed the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation to begin immediate prosecution of those, who violate the federal government order suspending Twitter operations in Nigeria.

The statement read: “Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has directed the immediate prosecution of offenders of the federal government ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria.

“Malami directed the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation at the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, to swing into action and commence in earnest the process of prosecution of violators of the Federal Government De-activation of operations of Twitter in Nigeria.

“Malami directed the DPPF to liaise with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, National Communication Commission, NCC and other relevant government agencies to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.”

However, despite the ban, a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a former Aviation Minister, Femi FaniKayode, Senator Shehu Sani and others have continued to tweet.

“This won’t be my last tweet”, Atiku said while criticising the ban.

Former Senator Sani while mocking the ban said: “I’m sure Baba will be asking about the ‘meaning’ of that VPN. Those of you from the North, if you want to tweet, take a train to Maradi in Niger Republic, tweet and return home. If you live in Lagos and want to tweet, just go to Cotonou, tweet and come back. Those of you from the South-south, who want to tweet, take a boat through your Creeks to Cameroun, tweet and come back.”

Fani-Kayode, in a tweet on Saturday morning stated thus: “The suspension of Twitter by the FG has proved to the civilised world that they are weak, unstable, paranoid, insensitive, vindictive & delusional. It is a grave abuse of power & a perfidious, insidious & brazen attempt to deny the Nigerian people of their right to free speech.”

In his reaction to the threat to prosecute offenders, a former Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, wondered how the government would prosecute

citizens for violating an administrative ban.

He asked: "Under what law please? The ban is an administrative directive. Lai Mohammed is not a legislature and cannot create a crime."

Malami’s Prosecution Order Is Illegal, Null and Void, Says PDP The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared as unconstitutional, illegal, null and completely of no moment a recent directive by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration to arrest and prosecute any Nigerian using Twitter.

The PDP asserted that the directive by the APC through the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was not only downright ludicrous, but showed the frenzied desperation by the Buhari Presidency to muzzle, victimize, clamp down on innocent Nigerians and foist a totalitarian system on our country.

The PDP stated, in statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated that nothing in the extant laws, not even the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, constitutionally criminalised the use of Twitter by Nigerians or empowers the federal governments to arrest and prosecute any Nigerians for using Twitter.

According to the PDP, "For Malami’s information, section 36 (12) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that, ‘a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is prescribed in a written law, and in this subsection, a written law refers to an Act of the National Assembly or a law of a state, any subsidiary legislation or instrument under the provisions of the law.

"President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC are informed that there is no extant law that defined the use of Twitter as a criminal offence and there is no penalty prescribed in a written law for the use of Twitter by any Nigerians," the PDP explained.

The opposition stated that the APC-led federal government should also realise that the suspension of Twitter, in addition to its unconstitutionality, only suspended Twitter operations and not the use of Twitter by Nigerians.

The PDP, therefore, contended that the directive by the Attorney General to arrest and prosecute any Nigerians found using Twitter, does not have the backing of any law enacted by the National Assembly or any state legislative house, describing Malami’s declaration as completely of no legal consequence.

"Malami’s directive to arrest and prosecute Nigerians using Twitter is therefore an attempt to suspend the 1999 Constitution (as amended), a development which bears the imprints of the leaked memo in which Mr. President was reportedly advised to suspend the constitution and strip Nigerians of their rights and freedom", the main opposition party said.

Twitter Suspension Is an Overreaction, Says NPAN The Newspaper Proprietors' Association of Nigeria (NPAN) has condemned the suspension of the operation of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in the country, describing it as “wrong and an overreaction”.

NPAN, which took the position on Saturday in a statement by its President, Kabiru A. Yusuf, warned that the action by the federal government after Twitter deleted the tweets by President Muhammadu Buhari to the South-east insurrectionists, who have been vandalizing the symbols of state authority would not win Nigeria friends.

It, however, noted that the closure of public space would constitute a limit to public discourse and democratic advancement, further describing the ban as a futile exercise, because other platforms were more likely to suspect Nigeria’s intentions towards democratic tenets and act adversarially towards the country.

“Twitter is a global platform for public communication that has expanded the frontiers of Free Speech and Press Freedom.

It is a platform for business that has brought relief to Nigeria’s youthful population, who have prospered by its operation. The NPAN believes Twitter as a business is not infallible and can be influenced through high level engagement, to be a more responsive, liberal platform of public good and not a cynical champion of suspicious causes.

“There should be a compromise: Nigeria needs friends and not enemies at this critical juncture of her existence.

She should not play into the hands of the enemies, who are relentless in seeking to destroy and ostracise her. Banning Twitter is regressive and should be rescinded in favour of dialogue.”

NPAN warned.

The newspaper proprietors also noted that it was the threat of maximum state reprisal by President Buhari that Twitter found objectionable, in line with its corporate policy, leading to sanction on the President through deletion of his tweets.

It noted that it was not the first time Twitter would sanction world leaders for infractions against its stated policy as it did so to former US President Donald Trump, to global acclaim, when the latter used the social media to spread hate and instigate insurrection by a mob, which stormed the Capitol.

Although it faulted the federal government, the association also challenged Twitter to correct itself as its sincerity is questionable to the extent that it may have been hasty in sanctioning President Buhari while showing an uneven application of its rules against the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu..

According to NPAN, while Nigeria has retaliated with the cudgel against Twitter for alleged double standard in a hasty sanctioning of the President, the micro bloggers appeared to be pampering an unrestrained Kanu for using the same Twitter platform not just for serial hate speeches but for actually provoking and justifying violence in his separatist agitations.

Editors Urge FG to Seek Legitimate Means The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has urged the federal government to tread with caution and immediately reconsider the suspension of the operation of Twitter in Nigeria by seeking other legitimate means of resolving its dispute with the company.

In a statement by Mustapha Isah (President) and Iyobosa Uwugiaren (General Secretary) respectively, the NGE said the federal government’s action has the unintended consequence of jeopardising the economic interests of many Nigerians,

who rely on the social media platform for vital information to make informed business decisions daily.

Advising the federal government to desist from any action that would project the Nigerian government as a dictatorship, the Nigerian editors said the action was an infringement on Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution and violated the right of Nigerians to interact freely on this platform.

“In addition, the suspension is a grave breach of Nigeria’s international obligations under article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The Guild sees the federal government's action as an overreaction to Twitter's decision to delete President Muhammadu Buhari's tweet early this week.

If the federal government finds Twitter's action against the President objectionable, Nigerians should not be made to suffer the collateral damage of denying them their right to freely discourse on Twitter”, the Guild added.

The Guild noted that the federal government had in an initial reaction by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, condemned the deletion of President Buhari’s view as an unacceptable tab on the president’s right, saying that ought to have been a sufficient response.

“However, the ban at the weekend, of Twitter’s operation in Nigeria, is an overkill that gives wind to the sail of critics, who daily accuse the Buhari administration of intolerance of opposing views.

“Certainly, the federal government has the responsibility to safeguard the unity, peace and stability of Nigeria and any person or group that threatens this must draw its ire. In expressing its anger, the federal government, however, ought to exercise restraints to avoid giving the impression that it is intolerant of opposing views and expression of opinion by individual and corporate citizens,” the Guild stated.

Stressing its concern over the growing insecurity in the country, the Guild advised social media leaders, which provide micro-messaging services, to also beam their searchlight on the activities of those, who want to use their platforms to cause divisions and spread hatred in the country and the global community as well.

Noting the socio-political and economic benefits of the social media platforms, the NGE explained that strong democracies rely on both civic and political participation by citizens, saying, Twitter, has over the years, aided citizens’ participation in the nation’s democratic process.

“The Guild is aware of the democratising influence of social media platforms, including Twitter, in helping to check dictatorship and promote democracy worldwide.

“Twitter also builds a market research prospect for businesses to see what customers are chitchatting about, their feeling and what is important to them about products and services”, the Guild said, calling on the federal government to immediately rescind its decision in order not to deny millions of Nigerians, who rely on Twitter to provide services and earn a living.

The International Press Institute (IPI), while expressing concern over the suspension of Twitter’soperations in Nigeria, described the action as detrimental to the free press in Nigeria, which it said uses twitter as a major platform.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

13

EDITORIAL

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

T HE SUSPENSION OF T WITTER The suspension of the social media platform is ill-advised

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he indefinite suspension of Twitter from the Nigerian internet space may not have come as a surprise. It is the culmination of a long period of the current administration’s discomfort with the social media and the culture of free expression which the media in general represents. Twitter’s deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s offensive post on the Nigerian civil war only offered an immediate window for the actualisation of a lingering policy option. That option has now been exercised and it is vastly unpopular and ill-advised in every way.

Despite being a beneficiary of social media campaigns in their first bid for power in 2015, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has never hidden its attempts to erect barriers on the path of social media. They started with the “frivolous petitions” bill which prescribed jail terms and $10,000 fine for “offensive” social media posts. It was only withdrawn after widespread public criticism. And last November, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed told a National Assembly committee: “We must regulate social media in a manner that it does not become a purveyor of fake news and hate speech.”

Although the various social media platforms serve a universal purpose, they remain private entities with clear rules and style manuals. To that extent, they reserve the right to determine what content violates their peculiar corporate policies and regulations. On the matter of hate speech, the platforms are unanimous. Once a determination is made that there has been a breach, Twitter reserves the right to censor, exclude or delete the offending content. That is what has happened in the specific

content in question. And the same rule has been applied to other leaders, including the former United States President, Donald Trump.

The Nigerian government has a right to decide on what actions of companies operating in its space constitute a breach of its national interests. But the national interest cannot, in a democracy, be reduced to the personal ego of the president or the collective discomfort of some regime chieftains. To this extent, the Twitter suspension violates and vitiates the wider interests of most Nigerians. It constrains the public space and the freedom of expression guaranteed citizens by the 1999 Constitution.

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Twitter and the other social media platforms have become an active component of the triumph of freedom of expression and democracy in the world. They are carriers of a value system that has become universal

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

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witter is a carrier of public, private and corporate exchanges. It is a business tool in the hands of Nigerians especially the youth who use the social media to power their startups and online enterprises. To sacrifice this vast gamut of vital communication to the private ego of the president is difficult to accept.

More importantly, Twitter and the other social media platforms have become an active component of the triumph of freedom of expression and democracy in the world.

They are carriers of a value system that has become universal. Therefore, an assault such as this suspension is an affront on democracy.

The world will see it in no other way. Investors will become hesitant while diplomats will send out red alerts. We have marked our nation for all manner of subtle sanctions.

With this action, the Buhari administration has added Nigeria to the list of global antidemocratic nations. We have become a suspect nation. That is not where most Nigerians who voted for Buhari in 2015 and 2019 want to belong. Nor should Buhari strive so hard to join the ranks of leaders like Trump who abused democratic norms and the social media space and ended up in infamy.

The possibility that this suspension could further alienate the federal government from the Nigerian populace is obvious. In an atmosphere of severe insecurity and dire economic stress, it would be senseless to deliberately court another wave of protests. The sensible option is to roll back this suspension quickly. It is perhaps the government and its principal spokespersons that need to learn to comply with the rules of the media they need to publicise their policies and actions. Nigerians are today seeking ways to salvage their country from its present travails. The willful courting of dictatorship is not a route to national salvation and healing. It could lead to unplanned catastrophe.

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.

THE SOUTH-EAST AND INSECURITY

t a time when evil spars against good, we must choose a side. We either opt to be a part of darkness or take a place in the phalanx of virtuous knights.

Staying taciturn while evil course through the land like molten magma from a volcano does not absolve anyone of complicity. All who keep silent in the face of evil are accomplices.

A great pestilence is scourging the south-east.

The land is crimson from the blood of innocents.

There is fear, anxiety and confusion. A region that was once the safest place in Nigeria is in the throes of anarchy. Police

officers are being mauled; soldiers butchered; residents targeted, and citizens killed.

INEC offices and police stations have been razed. And more public infrastructure is being incinerated daily.

What makes these tragedies more devastating is the open support by some citizens of the south-east.

Some of them, particularly those who take residence on social media spreading poison, have rationalised the killings and destruction of public property in the region. They describe the killers and arsonists as ‘’our people’’ and ‘’freedom fighters’’.

When did we become a people who rationalise killings? When did we start

appropriating arsonists and criminals? When did we become a people imbued with so much hate and anger? When did we become so emotive and reactionary?

When did we become so unfeeling? When did life stop to matter to us? Why have we become the monsters we claim we are fighting? When did wanton killing and destruction become a show of strength for us?

What have we become?

Hypocrisy is a vexatious problem here. Some people defending criminals taking innocent lives because "they are our people; they are freedom fighters". This is while they spread propaganda against other groups.

It is really sickening.

#BiafraRemembranceDay ought to be a solemn occasion, but there are reports of killings and arsons in the south-east. It is not enough to say #Ozoemena because the south-east is already at war. Igbo leaders would rather skirt around the issue because they do not want to be seen as going against the zeitgeist in the region. They are observing political silence. But anyone who keeps silent in the face evil is an accomplice.

It appears we learnt nothing from the civil war. Who invites the grim reaper to his own home? Who brings death and destruction upon his own people? Does freedom fighting entail killing and destruction of lives? The south-east is a commercial centre; the multiplier effect of the activities of gunmen

on the region is colossal. Businesses will collapse while some will relocate out of the area.

Already, some businesses are relocating from the place.

Where does that leave us? If the regional economy plummets, families thrown into poverty and hunger ravages the population, what is the benefit of the agitations?

The killing of citizens; the methodical killing of security agents, and the destruction of public property are nothing short of terrorist acts. Citizens of the south-east must rise and stop this declension into the void. It is in our greater interest to do so.

These are just my lamentations.

––Fredrick Nwabufo, fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

OPINION

NIGERIA UNDER BUHARI IS A FAILED STATE

A country fails when it is no longer able to protect its citizens from harm and secure their welfare, writes Ike Okonta

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he occasion of the sixth anniversary of the Buhari Presidency last week should have been one marked by sober reflection, given the severity of the country’s current socioeconomic problems.

Instead, Femi Adesina, the President’s special adviser on media affairs, took to newspaper pages preening and boasting that the Nigerian people never had it so good and that they would have cause to praise President Buhari in 2023 when his tenure comes to an end. It was a shocking performance, to say the least.

One whose house is on fire should not take to the street dancing.

Incidentally, President Buhari’s sixth year in office coincided with a raging debate in American foreign policy magazines whether Nigeria is now a failed state.

I come down firmly on the side of those who insist that Nigeria is indeed a failed state. A country fails when it is no longer able to protect its citizens from harm and also secure their welfare. A country fails when instead of being a harbour where its citizens find succour and happiness, it turns out to be a cauldron that spews out fIre and anguish that consumes its citizens. A country fails when instead of reassuring its citizens that the future will be well and secure, it becomes a case of planning to flee the country to other climes where the government is toiling day and night to secure the future welfare of its citizens. Such a failed country is Nigeria under Buhari.

However, it must be pointed out that Nigeria did not begin to fail under President Buhari. Indeed, I make bold to argue that the seeds of failure were planted right from the outset; right from October 1, 1960 when the country gained independence.

It is not often remembered that the young majors who toppled the Balewa government six short years after independence had a powerful case. If you listen to Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s coup broadcast speech on Radio Kaduna in the morning of 15 January 1966 it reads as if it was written only yesterday. Corruption among politicians and other government officials, indolence in high places, and lack of a sense of direction and patriotism are evils that began at independence, ripened in the heyday of the First Republic, and walk about today with four sturdy legs.

The angry young majors of January 1966 spoilt their case when, instead of arresting and detaining the erring senior politicians they murdered them in cold blood. Even worse, the pattern of killings was partisan, leaving the then Northern Region to bear the heavier burden. This provided Major Murtala Mohammed and Major Theophilus Danjuma the excuse to mount a counter-coup in July of the same year. It is important to note that the Mohammed coup was purely an exercise in revenge. It was not motivated by high ideals. It did not seek to address the ills which even then had reduced Nigeria to a laughing stock among nations. As far as Murtala Mohammed was concerned, “Igbos” murdered “Hausa” politicians and military officers and they must pay for this. Hence the massacre of easterners, civilians and soldiers alike, in the north in 1966. Hence Biafra. Hence the bloody civil war and from then to date a sorry succession of governments military and civilian alike that have not been able to address the country’s central social and economic problems.

I restate: Nigerian began failing long before Muhammadu Buhari entered the stage in May 2015. He, however, bears responsibility for making a bad case even worse. While Boko Haram emerged in 2009, Buhari has had six years to contain the Islamic insurgents.

John Campbell, a former American ambassador to Nigeria and

Do all these dark and sobering facts mean that Nigeria will continue to dwell in the abyss of state failure? No. A lot depends on how Nigerians choose to vote in 2023 – whether they will vote in yet another Buhari look-alike who is unable to articulate and implement his own policies and programmes or strike out and choose a visionary statesman who will courageously slay the scourge of state failure

a writer has rightly pointed out that it is scandalous that a Nigerian Army of 300,000 men has been unable to defeat the estimated 5000 men that constitute Boko Haram. Campbell blamed corruption, incompetence and a general lack of commitment on the part of the Nigerian Army. It is also important to point out that although the Army has been deployed to most states of the Federation to stem insecurity, they have not been able to do so. This is a classic symptom of a failed state.

Another symptom of a failed state is the avalanche of banditry and kidnapping that have overwhelmed the Northwest and parts of Northcentral. It is bad enough that these bandits and kidnappers casually stroll into our schools and highways and abduct their victims and melt away into nearby bushes and forests. What is however shocking is that neither the Police nor the Army have intelligence-gathering infrastructure to track the bandits and their leaders and their modus operandi. As far as it goes, both security personnel and the Nigerian people are helpless and without a clue what to do to contain these men of the night. The might of the Nigerian state is also being systematically blunted in the southeast. It was with interest that I watched the actions of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as it successfully hijacked the anniversary of the declaration of the State of Biafra in the southeastern states last week.

IPOB ordered the Igbo and other easterners to stay at home on Monday, 31st May to mourn the estimated three million easterners who died during the war. Southeastern governors came out with the counter-order that IPOB should be ignored.

Come the fateful day and southeasterners obeyed IPOB. Was it out of fear? Was it out of a genuine identification with the aims and objectives of the secessionist movement? What matters is that slowly and surely southeasterners are beginning to turn away from a Nigerian government which they feel is no longer able to protect them.

––Dr Okonta was until recently Leverhulme 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)

Needed: A Brand New Constitution Malachy Ugwummadu argues that the constitution sought to be amended is both a lie and a fraud

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he continued amendments of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as already altered) will be endless for as long as the legitimacy of the constitution itself is not established. The only way to bring about a legitimate constitution of the people is to institute a process-led effort targeted at the people of this country in their original ethnic nationalities, professional entities, socio-cultural affiliations, youth and gender groupings, persons living with disabilities, workers and even faith-based associations, etc. The notion and practice of constitutional amendment presuppose that the document sought to be amended is legitimate. We miss the point when we proceed on this premise and will continue to expend the scares resources and precious time of the country by merely producing a valid constitution without the requisite legitimacy because the constitution sought to be amended is both a lie and a fraud. Thus, the foundation to build on does not exist. Unfortunately, it appears that the National Assembly at the dawn of the 4th Republic in 1999, through their successive Deputy Senate Presidents have remained adamant in perpetuating these wasteful exercises from Messrs. Ibrahim Mantu to Ike Ekweremadu and now Ovie Omo-Agege.

For a constitution to be legitimate it must emanate from the people who will, in turn, have ownership of it and defend it. Thus, the repeated voyage of seasonal constitutional amendments merely papers over the fundamental flaws inherent in our grundnorm thereby divesting it of the people’s ownership even if it pretentiously acclaims so in its preamble. Yet in the same introduction, the contradiction is laid bare when it affirms itself as DECREE NO 24 of 1999 foreclosing every debate that this is not a people’s constitution. The implication of this is that it contradicts the provision of S. 14(2)(a) which posits that “sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom through this constitution derives all its powers and authority.”

The 1996 Constitution of South Africa, for instance, presents an ideal constitution making process that vests legitimacy as opposed to validity on a constitutional document. The preamble to the constitution traces the historical journey of the country up to that moment when it affirmed that the citizens have enacted for themselves a people’s constitution. It highlights the major turning points in the trajectory of their experiences as a country which consciously struggled towards nationhood. To guarantee that legitimacy, deriving from the participation of the people of South Africa, the draft Constitution was massively circulated to the constituting ethnic groups and translated into their respective local languages in the preceding years before it was promulgated. Adequate advocacy on the content of the document was carried out in a manner that gave everyone and groups an opportunity to understand, contribute and develop a sense of ownership over the constitution. This can also be said of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, that of Eritrea, and even the 1994 Ethiopian Constitution, all

within the African Continent.

Between 1999 and 2018, there have been four different amendments in the following orders: One, on July 16th 2010, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 was altered for the first time. There were series of amendments therein but S.14 altering original S.145(1) stood out to deal with the constitutional requirement of the President to transmit power once he is leaving office temporally or unable to perform the functions of his office. It was further provided in S. 145(2) that if the President fails or is unable to transmit power within 21 days, the National Assembly shall, by simple majority resolution mandate the Vice President to perform the functions of the office of the President as Acting President until he notifies the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives that he is now available to resume his functions as President.

Two, on November 29th, 2010 (barely four months after, the same National Assembly came up with yet another set of alterations essentially targeted at the time frame within which INEC shall conduct elections into the respective elective offices in the country and the determination of election petitions. It is instructive to note that some of the alterations in this second amendment actually amended provisions of the first alteration and not the substantive provisions which underscores the haste and imprudence on the part of the legislators.

Three, on 4th March, 2011, the 1999 Constitution was further amended essentially to expand the Jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court and make it a court of record.

Finally, in 2018, the fourth alteration to the 1999 Constitution focused on the age qualifications for elective officers as well as financial autonomy to the Legislature across the tiers of government.

It should be observed that in all of these amendments embarked upon, very little, if any touched on the crucial needs for structural reordering of Nigeria through a fresh constitutional arrangement including the vexed issues of devolution of power, decentralized (state) policing and judicial system, independence of the Judicial and Legislative arms of government, autonomy of the local government, citizenship, enforcement and justiciability of socioeconomic rights enshrined under Chapter Two of the Constitution and even resource control, etc. To what extent, therefore, would issues of age qualifications for elective officers, transmission of written declarations by the President to the leadership of the National Assembly, or time frame within which elections are conducted and disputed in election tribunals or even the expansion of the jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court address the fundamental question of constitutional and structural reforms in Nigeria? In fact, you would recall that in some of the previous exercises, certain areas including

the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria were declared “nonnegotiable” and could not be discussed. In other instances and at different times, the inordinate ambitions of late Gen. Sani Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo completely compromised those efforts.

In the end, it is important to note that what is required is too fundamental for the business of legislation and law making but a fresh social engineering by the peoples of this great country in determining the basis of their continued coexistence.

Prior to the foregoing efforts, the Nigerian people have been largely alienated from the processes of previous constitutional arrangements that it had. The first major constitutional order was the 1922 Clifford’s Constitution. It was the first constitutional arrangement by which the right of Nigerians to participate in their affairs was recognized albeit in a circumscribed manner and over limited subjects. In no practical way however, were the people of Nigeria instrumental to the making of that constitution.

It was simply given by the colonial masters.

Sir Arthur Richard’s Constitution of 1946 effectively divided this country into three regions of the North, West and East and laid the foundation for federalism in Nigeria. It was no better than the Clifford’s Constitution being largely the product of British colonial masters to the Nigerian people.

Sir John Macpherson’s Constitution of 1951 enhanced greater participation of Nigerians in their own affairs through layers of constitutional structures including bicameral legislatures in the Northern and Western regions. Each of the Regions had the executive bodies while the Governor still retained his veto powers notwithstanding that there was an unprecedented processes of consultation with the people of Nigeria before coming into being of this constitution.

Whereas regionalism and federalism berthed with the 1951 Macpherson’s Constitution, it did very little to create and provide both the institutional and leadership structures to deal with those political expansion leading to the crisis of the following years. The then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Oliver Lyttleton rose to the occasion, provided the needed political leadership and created the necessary platform for Nigeria politicians and technocrats to attend the London Conference in 1953 culminating in the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution.

The Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 essentially established the regional governments as independent tiers of government away from the Central Government in relation to their executive and legislative powers. Besides, Lagos was effectively made the Federal Capital Territory distinct from the Western Region.

––Excerpts from a paper delivered by Ugwummadu, lawyer and human rights activist (See concluding part of the article on www.thisdaylive.com)

15

JU ;˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

PERSPECTIVE Mirroring The Giant Strides of Dapo Abiodun Governor Dapo Abiodun is so busy doing his job that he hardly has time to be political in the otherwise slippery political terrain of Nigeria.

Yes, he is a politician but, not that kind of dyed-in-the-wool politician. He is the master of soft power – that sheer ability not to use force or coercion for political gain when you can shape the dissidents or opposition’s long-term attitudes and preferences by tact and diplomacy.

What is even more extraordinary about him, sources conversant with happenings in Ogun State say, is his ability to defy the centrifugal forces pulling politicians across the state and beyond into warring camps. He is accustomed to staying above the fray while steadily and silently putting in the works. Amid the extraordinary challenges and uncertainties wrought by the immediate impact of the corona virus pandemic, many governors and political leaders are under pressure to deliver on their mandate. Governor Abiodun, popularly called Mr. Talk and Do, is no exception. However, his unyielding commitment to building a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable society has separated him from the pack as he quickens his pace and doubles his efforts in all areas of the state’s life. From infrastructure to social welfare, agriculture and education, Governor Abiodun has raised the bar within two years, writes Lanre Alfred Strides in Agriculture cross the world, it is held fervently that agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of all industries. Agricultural growth is a proven driver of poverty reduction. Governor Abiodun believes so too, and he has continued to invest massively in it. Across the world, it is common knowledge that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is an unabashed and very successful farmer. He knows a passionate investor and believer in the potency of agriculture to eradicate poverty and boost the socio-economic well-being of a people. It did came as a shock, therefore, that last December, the former President, during the inauguration of his Agbeloba Aquaculture Hub in Owiwi, Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state, exalted Abiodun for all his initiatives in the area of agriculture and encouraged him not to relent. The governor must have really impressed the lifelong farmer. Indeed, the Abiodun administration has recorded many achievements in agriculture, noteworthy, the launch of the Anchor Borrowers Programme in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

A poverty-eradicating initiative that provides inputs, service support and training required for farmers through a single-digit loan and guaranteed off-taker, the ABP idea is in fulfilment of Abiodun’s promise to increase food production and create employment opportunities for Ogun people especially youth and women involved in agriculture and create another avenue to boost the nation’s self-sufficiency in food production.

There is the Ogun Broiler Project, which provides day-old chicks, feeds, inputs and training to young farmers and buys the chickens after six weeks. Beneficiaries of the scheme make a profit of about N130, 000 in each six-week cycle. There are also the Joint Ogun State and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Value Chain Project, which is ongoing across many LGAS; and the FADAMA Graduate Unemployed Youths Scheme (GUYS), which credited, at the outset, 200 beneficiaries with a total grant of over N74Million with varying individual amounts depending on the chosen agricultural enterprise including cultivation of cassava, maize, rice, yam and vegetables as well as the rearing of poultry, fisheries, piggery, snailry, large ruminants and agro-processing, among others.

Within one year in office, the state government had constructed four solar-powered boreholes to make a total of 11 of the type, resulting in 2,500 beneficiaries of the Ogun State Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) having access to safe drinking water. By February 2021, another batch of 18 communities in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area was provided with Solar Powered Boreholes, to boost water supply at the grassroots which amounted to 31 communities that have benefitted from such gesture. The state government also partnered with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to distribute improved varieties of plantain, banana, and pineapple to 100 farmers as a way to promote increased productivity of farmers.

In recognition of these agricultural policies and programmes, BusinessDay Nigerian Business Leadership Awards acknowledged Ogun State’s meritorious commitment to enterprise with two awards - Most Improved State on Security Infrastructure 2019 (based on “100 Days” Parameters), and Most Improved State on Agriculture and Economic Empowerment 2020. “Our investments in security, agriculture and business cannot go unnoticed, but we will continue to do more for the welfare of the people and the state,” said the governor who had, last December, been awarded the Governor of the Year at the Nigeria Agriculture Awards 2020 held at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja.

Instructively, Governor Abiodun’s governance roadmap is anchored on the ISEYA acronym (meaning Infrastructure, Social Welfare and Wellbeing, Education, Youth Development, and Agriculture and Food Security) and those sectors brim with visible and invaluable interventions by the governor.

of Ogun State as a whole because it will open doors to further industrialisation, more employment opportunities, and ease of goods movement.”

But for the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirement for physical distancing, Governor Abiodun noted that some of the roads would have been completed thus, bringing relief to the people who commute on these roads on daily basis, either to go to work or to journey to neighbouring states. Unlike his peers in other states, who stifle their domains, like Victorian overlords trampling the peace and shoots of genius without a care in the world, Governor Abiodun understands that good governance goes beyond providing infrastructure and enabling growth across all spheres.

A

Enters, The Roadmaster Having constructed and completed over 220kilometres of roads and rehabilitated over 120 kilometres across the length and breadth of Ogun State within two years of his administration, it beggars no questioning that Governor Abiodun was nicknamed ‘Mr Roads’. At the outset of his administration, he disclosed that as a quick-fix mechanism to address the deplorable condition

Abiodun of roads in the state, the Ogun State Public Works Agency was established. Between then and now, several intra-city roads are being rehabilitated or freshly constructed because of the governor’s belief that motorable roads are a boost for economic activities. He recently commissioned the new 10.25km LusadaIgbesa Road done by the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone in partnership with the state government. He also flagged off the reconstruction of the 19km Atan-Lusada-Agbara Road in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area. The 7.65km road is an inherited project that his administration resolved to take over and complete for its projected impact on the movement of goods and persons, and joint economic growth.

According to Governor Abiodun, “No doubt, the construction of 10.25kilometre Lusada-Igbesa road in partnership with the Ogun Guandong Free Trade Zone, Igbesa, is a commendable project. And, we are happy to have the road commissioned given its benefits for improved investments and individual prosperity of all the people in Igbesa, Lusada and adjoining towns in this area. But, as an adjoining road, it is important to note that the full benefits of this newly constructed road can be realised only when the Atan-Lusada-Agbara road is rehabilitated and reconstructed.

That import is not lost on us. We have just performed the ceremony of the turn of the sod of the Atan-Lusada-Agbara road.

All things being equal, the road will be completed soonest and both the Atan-Lusada-Agbararoad and the Lusada-Igbesa Free Trade Zone road will complement each other for the full benefits of our people.”

While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for the prompt approval of the request for the transfer of the rehabilitation, reconstruction and maintenance of Atan-Lusada-Agbara road to the state, he said that his administration decided to embark on its reconstruction to give succour to the residents and industries along the axis. He assured that the road will be completed in 15 months and that all the roads leading to industrial areas and farm settlements in the state will be prioritised to boost economic growth and development. Describing his administration as a season of project completion in Ogun State, Governor Abiodun said that the expanded 2.5km Elite-Oke Lantoro joins the current set of roads ready for asphalting and that it will be delivered very soon with walkways and covered drainage. The alternative road, he added, will not only ease congestion at IyanaMortuary but also improve accessibility to its host communities.

Significantly, the very essential Ijebu-Ode – Epe Road, a major link between Ogun and Lagos States and an alternative to the busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway, which had been in a state of disrepair leading to abandonment by commuters for several years, is now nearing completion. Some days back, pictures of the current state of the project were splashed on the governor’s social media pages and captioned; ‘Traffic staging along new interchange under construction at the intersection of Ijebu OdeEpe and Sagamu-Benin Expressways.’ The governor stated, “The 14km Ijebu Ode-Epe Road construction project is 90% completed while the interchange, which was awarded late last year, is 40% done. The road is significant to the joint economic development

Ogun As An Industrial Hub...

There was no ambiguity in a recent Businessday Newspaper with the screaming headline; ‘Investors Dump Lagos as Ogun Becomes (the) New Industrial Hub.’ The report stated that direct investors have shunned Lagos State, preferring to set up factories in neighbouring Ogun State with its considerably cheaper doing business environment. In its analysis of data provided by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the report stated that Ogun dwarfs Lagos in new real sector investments by 23 per cent, especially between 2014 and2019.

“The elephant in the room is the constant harassment of corporate organisation in Lagos by touts unleashed by local governments to collect multiple taxes and levies,” noted the report, which added that in a December 2019 investigation by the newspaper, it discovered that micro, small and medium businesses paid 13 different levies and taxes in Mushin, Oshodi and Ikeja Local governments in Lagos ranging from television and radio tax to local government levy for hawkers and Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, LASAA, fees among others.

It added that investors complain that traffic and Apapa port congestions in Lagos make the movement of trucks and lives difficult while the land tenure system in Lagos has been tougher, making business expansion onerous.

“Out of N3.353 trillion pumped in new investments in manufacturing and agro-processing sectors in six years, Lagos got N928.02 billion while Ogun welcomed N1.682 trillion within the period. BusinessDay analysis shows that while Lagos got 27.67 per cent of the total investments, Ogun got 50.16 per cent, an indication that the state is now Nigeria’s industrial hub. Thirty-four states and Federal Capital territory shared the remaining 22.17 per cent, reflecting their unattractiveness to investors.

In the report under review, Ambrose Oruche, acting directorgeneral of MAN, said, “Manufacturers and other investors have more room for expansion in Ogun than Lagos. Secondly, there are fewer taxes and levies in Ogun and thirdly, the Ibadan DisCo is a little bit better in electricity supply than Ikeja and Eko DisCo (both in Lagos).” He pointed out that Ogun’s proximity to Lagos had also provided an advantage with the state leveraging opportunities in Lagos’ weaknesses. Indeed, Ogun State has some comparative advantages highlighted by Oruche and which had been explored by previous administrations. But nothing beats experience.

Perhaps because he came into governance as a manifestly successful businessman with over three decades calling the shots in different multi-national boardrooms, it was seamless, almost effortless, for Governor Abiodun to initiate far-reaching economic reforms that have consolidated the state’s position as Nigeria’s number one industrial hub. He had noted at the outset that the vision of his administration was to give the state focused and qualitative governance and create an enabling environment for Public-Private Sector Partnership that would be fundamental to the creation of an enduring economic development and individual prosperity for the people of the state.

Some of the reforms that quickly set him apart include the establishment of the State Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), which aims to strengthen Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and boost their capacities; the Ogun State Investment Promotion Agency set up to provide a one-stop-shop and eliminate unnecessary delays in processing necessary documents; and the Public-Private Office established to ensure that the state has a transparent and accessible template.

Read full article online - www.thisdaylive.com

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SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2021 • T H I S D AY

17

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

BUSINESS

Buhari

Mohammed

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

Isa Pantami

Abubakar Malami

Projecting Losses from FG’s Twitter Suspension Emma Okonji

N

igerians from all walks of life have continued to react against the action of the federal government for suspending Twitter operations in

Nigeria.

They are worried about the huge revenue loss and as well as job loss that will come with suspension, since Nigerians buy data to access and post tweets on the Twitter platform.

They are also afraid that the revenue loss to government and individuals who rely on online businesses to make sales, may double, should Facebook, which also owns and operate WhatApp and Instagram, decides to disconnect self in Nigeria, in solidarity with Twitter.

The federal government, last Thursday, suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria. The suspension order was based on the action of Twitter, which deleted the tweet of President Muhammadu Buhari from the platform shortly after the president tweeted a post warning agitators from the South-east region.

Reacting to the action of Twitter, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the action was suspicious and undermined the authority of President Buhari.

Industry stakeholders have described the suspension as worrisome and needless.

According to them, the suspension means Nigeria and Nigerians would be partly disconnected from the rest of the world.

In line with the decision of the federal government to suspend Twitter operations in Nigeria, telecoms operators said they have been given instruction to disconnect Twitter and that they have done so in the interest of the country as directed by the federal government.

A statement released by the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and signed by its Chairman, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, read: “We, The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to conÀrm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator

to suspend access to Twitter. ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the request in accordance with internationally accepted principles.

Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of NCC, the industry regulator.

We will continue to engage all the relevant authorities and stakeholders and will act as may be further directed by the NCC. We remain committed to supporting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and upholding the rights of citizens.

“As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people o΁ine must also be protected online.

This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.”

Nigerians have been reacting since the suspension order and has warned the federal government not to extend the ban on Facebook, who also controls WhatsApp. The Nigeria Coordinator, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Mr. Olusola Teniola, said the suspension would backÀre badly on the federal government.”Just watch what will happen in the coming days,” Teniola said.

A telecoms expert, Kehinde Aluko, who frowned at the suspension order, said: “I don’t see how this will work. Twitter has no o΀ce in Nigeria, yet you are suspending it.

Is it that they don’t know that it is a global village, and with VPN, people can remain connected? “ He described it as a disincentive to investments, adding that government would be hurting, especially small businesses that have one or two things they do via Twitter for their trades. “I hope this government is thinking,” he wondered.

Referring to a recent document released by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), which discussed the issues with social media policy and regulation, ISPON President, Mr. Chinenye MbaUzoukwu, the document was developed by the O΀ce of the Chief of StaͿ to the President in collaboration with the ISPON. According to him, Nigeria has been navigating the digital transformation journey that

all nations are undergoing with varying degrees of success.

In the document titled: ‘Framing a National Consensus on Social Media Management’, Mba-Uzoukwu, said as the industry association for policy formulation, advocacy and other matters related to the growth of the software sector as a key contributor to Nigeria’s GDP growth, the Institute has been concerned with the hard and soft infrastructure of the emerging digital economy as well as the policies that regulate and support software Nigeria and ISPON’s shared goal of building innovation as a national capability and driver.

Giving the implications of the action of the federal government on Twitter, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), in a statement released yesterday, said ATCON was working closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure there is a speedy resolution of the current suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria.

In its o΀cial statement on the development, which has seen the telecom regulator issued a directive to the service providers to deny access to the services of Twitter in Nigeria, the President of ATCON, Ikechukwu Nnamani, stated that while the association and its member companies understand the position of the federal government, the reasons for the directive, and have complied with the directive, it is pertinent that the issue is resolved soon in the interest of all.

Nnamani emphasised that the Over The Top (OTT) platforms of which Twitter is one, is an integral part of the digital economy that the federal government is promoting, adding so when an unfortunate disagreement arises with respect to the user policies, it is good it is resolved in a timely manner.

Other industry stakeholders, who frowned at the action of the federal government, wafted against the implication, which they said may aͿect Nigeria most negatively.

A user, Amefor Okonkwo, who expressed his frustration on the suspension, said: “They have just justiÀed Twitter’s decision to set up its Africa o΀ce in Ghana, ahead of Nigeria.

The federal government had blamed the media for making Twitter choose Ghana.”

Another Twitter user, Adekunle Omoniyi, said the suspension of Twitter would make Nigeria lose huge revenue that is accrued to data usage with Twitter. According to him, should Facebook be suspended just the way Twitter was suspended after being

perceived by government to have committed the same oͿence, or should Facebook decide to disconnect self from Nigeria operations in solitarily with Twitter, then Nigeria will be in for it, because more revenue would be lost and more jobs would be lost.

A staͿ of one of the federal ministries, who defended the action of government over the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, however, said the decision of government to suspend Twitter was in the best interest of Nigerians. Although he agreed that the suspension would lead to revenue loss by government and the telecoms operators, in terms of revenue generation and payment of taxes, he however said revenue generation could not be more important than protecting the authority of government in the interest of the general public.

“To be honest, government is not concerned about revenue loss. What government wants is for telecoms operators to comply with the directive just for the purpose of national interest. It is true that there will be loss of revenue and jobs because a lot of people use data for tweeting, and a lot of businesses depend on Twitter and other social media platforms. So with the Twitter services now suspended, definitely there will be decline in revenue generation, particularly for data application. But in the face of protecting government’s integrity, revenue generation becomes insignificant,” the staff said.

Other industry players who blamed the federal government for its action to ban the operations of Twitter in Nigeria, accused the federal government of high handedness in dealing with the issues that affect the general public.

They were of the view that the government action over Twitter ban could set the country backward, in an era where the world is driving technology innovation with emerging technologies. They accused government of inciting hate speech when it claims to be protecting the country against hate speech.

Giving reasons for joining Twitter in deleting President Buhari’s post from the Facebook’s platform, its spokesperson in a statement released on Friday, said: “In line with our global policies, we have removed a post from President Buhari’s Facebook page for violating our Community Standards against inciting violence. We remove any content, from individuals or organisations that violates our policies on Facebook.”

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

ECONOMY

Marginal Fields Awards, Almost Two Decades After Seventeen years after the last bid round, Department of Petroleum Resources, the oil and gas industry regulator, was so determined to get it right, it followed through with all the processes, transparently, fairly and equitably. Applauding the process, the former President of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, Sir. Bank-Anthony Okoroafor, on behalf of a grateful local content community, said, “This is the most transparent Marginal Field bid round ever conducted.”

But there is much to a successfully concluded bid round. The real work begins after the award party is over, as there are issues that face awardees after the ceremony. Chris Paul examines

E

xactly one year after, the marginal Àelds bid round which began on June , 2020 culminated in the handing over of marginal Àelds to 0 successful bidders, in Abuja, last Monday, by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Presented to the operators by DPR’s Director Chief Operating O΀cer, Auwalu Sarki, were the marginal Àelds located on land, swamp, and oͿshore terrains in various parts of the country.

A marginal Àeld is an oil Àeld that has been discovered and left unattended for not less than 0 years from the date of its Àrst discovery.

Sarki explained that the awarded companies met all the conditions for the award out of the that were shortlisted.

When the bid round started last year, a total of expressions of interest (EoIs) were submitted, out of which, 40 were successfully prequaliÀed during phase one of the exercise.

According to the DPR boss, 2,4 2 bids were submitted by 40 applicants at the end of the phase.

Following the evaluation of the bids, companies were shortlisted as potential awardees, out of which 0 per cent met all conditions and therefore eligible for the award ceremony that was organised last Monday.

Sarki explained that the award marked the end of the bid round process, which started on June , 2020, saying: “It also marks the beginning of the post-award phase, which is important.”

Commending the DPR for its handling of the process, former President of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) and spokesman for the body of new marginal Àelds Awardees, Sir Bank Anthony Okoroafor, said: “Since 2003, this is the Àrst most transparent exercise carried out by the DPR. It was made open to everybody.

“Communication with all bidders was consistent, credible and sincere. And they did their home-work very well. For the Àrst time, you made a call to the DPR and they responded responsibly.

I called several times and they were on hand to respond. That for me was the Àrst thing that convinced me that this time, the agency truly meant to be fair and thorough. At the end of the exercise, that was what happened.” This, he pointed out, was not the case in the past.

According to him, if you called to play the usual ‘Nigerian factor card’ to inÁuence the process, you were politely turned down.

“That was when I knew this was serious business. But they will call you to clarify issues where necessary. It was strictly formal and in line with laid down rules and processes. I was really impressed,” said Okoroafor.

But the journey, he stated further, is not yet complete. For him, the DPR has to reach out to the IOCs to allow operators produce with their facilities, since it’s the most cost-eͿective option.

Furthermore, there is a need for the DPR to assist the awardees in farm-out agreement and ensure they are not suͿocated with rules that will disrupt the awardees’ ability to run the assets within their limited capacity.

For any of the consortium to raise money for the administration of their assets, there is a need for a harmonised approach that will require that all aligned with set rules and objectives.

For the former PETAN President, any erring or deviant consortium should be called to the table and concerns thrashed out.

Responding to the prayers of the awardees as enunciated on their behalf by Okoroafor, DPR boss said: “Let me assure you, we are not leaving you alone. We have reached advanced stage on the farm-out agreement.”

As a matter of fact, the agency has been meeting with the leaseholders, but he said, “It’s taking time because each lease has its own peculiarities.”

ConÀrming Okoroafor’s statement, DPR Director said the agency kept engaging the lease through the entire process in order to get it right this time. Allaying the awardees’ concerns, Auwalu said: “As for the unitisation, we know the Àelds that straddle and we have worked that already. Part of the reason why the signing of the farm-out agreement took time is the issue of politically exposed personalities (PEP), which the IOCs needed

Sarki Auwalu

to do their checks. But you are all aware that we have done a thorough due diligence.”

He gave his word that the agency would not allow the original multinational owners of the leases to suͿocate the indigenous awardees on the altar of the strangulating process.

This bid round has come over years since the last one. The on-shore and near-shore Àelds contain an estimated one billion barrels of oil and near TCF of gas.

A major area of attraction to the bidders is the commercial viability of the marginal Àelds and where the best opportunities lie, which, in addition to the Àscal terms, will be a function of reservoir characteristics, proximity to infrastructure, capital and operating expenditure requirements, and production proÀle.

By the Nigeria’s Petroleum laws, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is empowered to designate any discovered oil Àelds abandoned or unattended by existing licence holders for a period of 0 years or more as a marginal Àeld.

Once the asset is designated a marginal Àeld, the delineated area is farmed out from the wider oil mining lease (OML), which eͿectively means the existing leaseholders cede these designated Àelds to the awardee of the marginal Àeld.

Even though the initial pre-qualiÀcation and subsequent submission of technical and commercial bids under the bid round were the exclusive preserve of indigenous companies, upon award of the Àelds, windows for foreign participation, up to a ceiling of 4 per cent ownership, are provided.

As stated in their commercial bids, notiÀed preferred bidder for the marginal Àelds must pay the assigned signature bonus within 0 days from the date of the award, failing which the awardee will be issued with a 30 days’ notice of revocation.

In the guidelines for the bid round, failure to pay the signature bonus upon the expiration of the extended 30-day period by the awardee, the award will be revoked without further notice.

This means prospective bidders will have to seek explore every means possible to access Ànance to beat this stiͿ timeline.

On the other hand, it presents opportunities for foreign players with deep pockets; who want to increase their acreage portfolios.

Now that the successful bidders have emerged, the next stage is the execution of farm-out agreements between existing OML holders and the designated recipients of the marginal Àelds.

This phase of the process, which involves negotiation of the

farm-out agreements and any the Joint Operating Agreement (where more than one party is awarded the same Àeld), has a maximum of 0 days for completion; failing which, the DPR could undo the award.

A unitisation agreement is a condition precedent for approval of the farm-out for straddling Àelds.

While successful bidders can toast to the privilege of owning a marginal Àeld, certain challenges lie ahead of the business.

Fiscally, attracting foreign capital may be di΀cult; because of prevailing market conditions in the global oil market; talking about low prices and oil glut.

The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly constitutes another hurdle. The document contains a number of provisions, which will impact the Àscal terms for the development of the Àelds, if or when enacted into law.

The PIB provides for payment of 30per cent corporate income tax on upstream operations and replaces petroleum proÀt tax with a hydrocarbon tax at a rate of 0per cent for onshore and shallow-water operations and 2 per cent for deep-water and frontier acreages.

It also provides for the requirement of payment of 2. per cent of the audited operating expenses by all operators into an endowment fund for the beneÀt of the host communities.

Another itchy area to consider is the global craze for renewable energy, which is fast fading attention away from fossil fuels.

In other words, bidders may not have it easy accessing the Ànance required to develop the assets once assigned; as international lenders continue to move their focus away from Ànancing fossil fuels to renewables.

However, for asset owners with existing assets of good quality, sound Ànancial track record and strong management team, there are international lenders willing to Ànance fossil fuel developments.

Also, the Ànancial exposure of domestic lenders to local independents may inhibits their capacity to fund the marginal Àeld acquisitions and subsequent development.

Unfortunately, new entrants, without cash Áow and a tested management team may encounter some issues Ànding local lenders, because the low debt capacity of such newcomers, due to a lack of proven reserves and cash Áow, means equity issuance or technical and Ànancing arrangements with service companies may be the available funding options until such Àelds have been appraised for development to attract debt funding.

Procrastination in the passage of the PIB for the comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector continues to diminish investor conÀdence in the sector.

Were the bill to be passed into law, it will improve governance of the sector by strengthening institutions and providing clarity of structures, roles, accountability, transparency, and overall e΀ciency.

It is important that bidders should be mindful of the various issues that may likely arise during farm-out agreements negotiations; given the short timeframe within which investors are required to make such negotiations.

They include negotiations that concern access to infrastructure necessary for evacuation of production.

For purposes of separation, treatment, storage, transportation of crude oil and gas to be produced from the Àelds, issues such as capacity, tariͿ and the possibility of review of same must be considered by bidders.

Given the constant vandalisation of evacuation pipelines, issues such as pipeline losses and the risk allocation of same must be taken into consideration.

There may be need to negotiate the requirement for security payment by leaseholder to cover environmental concerns from the marginal Àeld operator and unitisation.

Where the Àelds of the leaseholder of the OMLand the designated marginal Àeld operator straddle or the area of the marginal Àeld operator straddles the land space in another licence area, there will be need for the negotiation of a unitisation agreement in conjunction with the farm-out agreement.

This is meant to determine and re-determine the petroleum from the straddling Àelds.

See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

FOCUS

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midst the counter accusations of money printing by the two Godwins, denial by the National Economic Council, and statement bytheNigerianNational Petroleum Corporation (“NNPC”) that it will be unable to remit funds into the federation account for several months; several issues started to manifest in my mind concerning the state of the nation. What is the true state of our economic decline, debt levels and descent into a state of anarchy? Several social media posts documenting the facts that in the past week alone over 150 Nigerians killed, was particularly depressing. These killings across the nation were related to kidnapping, insurgency and internal strife. The humble fulani herdsman has been weaponized and converted to a tool of insurgency. This week, the government of the United States of America also upgraded its travel advisory to Nigeria to level three, advising its citizens to reconsider travelling to Nigeria and if they must travel, they should put in place kidnapping protocols and prepare their evacuation arrangements without assistance fromAmerican authorities. We are one step oͿ the highest level, level Four, which advises Americans not to travel to Nigeria. While the dire security situation in Nigeria has not been adequately addressed, the local narrative and o΀cial explanation varies depending on who you talk to. The American travel advisory without any ambiguity, deÀnes how the world now views Nigeria.

As a fallout the money printing saga I decided to extend my 41 2021 Nigerian economic report and conduct a more comprehensive review, focusing on the rising debt proÀle which dates back to 2014, when the economy grew by 6.5% with a GDP of USD569bn, a historic high. Flashback to an article published by Fitch in January 2021, which warns that Nigeria’s deÀcit monetization may raise macro stability risks. The report stated, that the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”) had Ànanced the budget deÀcit directly with NGN10trn (approximately USD25bn). Fitch also warned that “«Repeated central bank Ànancing of government budgets could raise risks to macro-stability in the context of weak institutional safeguards that preserve the credibility of policymaking and the ability of the central bank to control inÁation. The CBN’s guidelines limit the amount available to the government under its Ways and Means Financing (“WMF”) to 5% of the previous year’s Àscal revenues.

However, the FGN’s new borrowing from the CBN has repeatedly exceeded that limit in recent years, and reached around 0% of the FGN’s 2019 revenues in 2020”. The report stated further that “the CBN’s guidelines requires borrowing under the WMF to be repaid in the year in which it was granted. The government has stated its intention to securitise balances borrowed under the facility, but published statistics indicate that the amounts borrowed have been rolled over repeatedly in recent years”.

In eͿect the CBN was out of step with its own guidelines and has also not publicly released its audited accounts in a while. In February 2021, the Debt Management O΀ce (“DMO”) under the Ministry of Finance conÀrmed the level of WMF at NGN10tn (approximately USD25bn). They admitted that they had engaged with the CBN in WMF since 2015 to plug the budget deÀcit. The DMO also announced establishment of a 10-year to 30-year bond issuance program to reÀnance the WMF, in compliance with the CBN guidelines.

The question that remains unanswered is how the CBN, out of step with guidelines, funded NGN10tn (approximately USD25bn) to Ànance the budget deÀcit? The CBN intervention programs and Ànancing in the local and international capital markets are well documented and require legislative approval. In the absence of published audited accounts, is it not logical to presume that the CBN must have printed to support WMF over the past Àve years?

While the doctrine of necessity allows leeway for central banks in time of economic downturn and crisis to resort to printing money or WMF, the Nigerian situation started in 2015, with the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession, exacerbating the situation. From all accounts, the USD25bn WMF has not been accounted for

Nigeria Inflation Rate

Adebayo

Nigeria Total Debt US$Billions

Nigeria Unemloyment Rate

Nigeria Public External Debt US$Billions

Nigeria Youth Unemployment

Nigeria GDP Annual Growth Rate%

Nigeria GDP US$Billions

in Nigeria domestic and total debt proÀle.

According to DMO data in 2014, Nigeria’s total debtwasUSD67.7bnwithdomesticdebtaccounting for USD57.9bn and foreign debt USD9.7bn. By 2020, Nigeria’s total debt increased by 27.5% to USD86.3bn, with domestic debt accounting for USD53.0Billion (a declined by USD 4.9bn or 8.5% from 2014 total domestic debt) and foreign debt accounting for USD33.3Billion (an increase by USD23.6bn or 243.3% from 2014 total foreign debt).

At this level of total debt, 80-90% of government revenue for the 41 2021 was going towards debt service.

AdiͿerent picture emerges when you include the unaccounted USD25bn WMF in the CBN books. In reality, the total debt stock increased from USD67.7bn in 2014 to a record high of USD111.3bn in 2021 (a 64.4%increase). This directly impacts

domestic debt as it rises from USD57.9Billion to USD78bn(anincreasebyUSD20.1bnor34.7%from 2014 total domestic debt). The DMO March 2021 report, when released, should clarify the current position of our total debt proÀle and how much of the USD25Billion WMF has actually been reÀnanced.

Recently, the national assembly approved a foreign loan of USD2.5bn. Taking into account the WMF, this will take the total debt stock to US$113.8bn. From the analysis above, it is clear that with Nigeria’s current debt proÀle, servicing its debt with over 80 to 90% of its revenue is no longer sustainable. As a result of this debt proÀle and declining revenue situation red Áagged by the NNPC pronouncements, Nigeria can now be classiÀed technically insolvent.

A review of the key economic indicators for the Nigerian economy between 2014 to 41 2021 (the period under review), suggests sub-optimal performance. In 2014, The Nigerian economy was growing steadily at about 6.5% until policy inconsistencies forced the economy into a self-inÁicted recession in 2016. The government responded with an Economic Recovery Growth Plan (“ERGP”).

The plan promised, but was unable to stem the economic decline to deliver 7% growth by 2020.

Since the 2016 downturn, the Nigerian economy hasnotgrownbeyond2.5%,consideringitspopulation growth rate of 3.5%. Between 2016 and 2020, Nigeria lost USD218bn (approximately 40% of its GDP). This is equivalent to Portugal’s GDP, three times Ghana’s GDP and six times Cameroon’s GDP. InÁation also hit a 10-year high of 18.7% in January 2017 and the monetary authorities were able to reduce it to 11.9% by December 2019.

Unfortunately, as a result of cost push factors,

by March 2021 inÁation was up by 18.2%. Food inÁation, at just over 22%, is the key driver of inÁation, despite a NGN1.5tn intervention by the CBN in the agriculture sector. The recent hike in utility rates and fuel subsidy removal has done nothing but sustain the upward trajectory of inÁation rates. The Naira suͿered over 300% devaluation as it moved from NGN160/USD1 to NGN 480/$1 under the review period. The static exchange rate mechanism and multiple exchange rate windows have been a sore point. They remain in place, despite calls for a single window and a market driven rate mechanism.

The biggest challenges during this review period were Àscal indiscipline and the perpetual budget deÀcit the government struggled to Ànance. The government admitted in its 2021 budget presentation, that it is now in violation of the Fiscal ResponsibilityAct which stipulates a value of 3.5% ofGDPasthebudgetdeÀcitceiling.Unemployment rate more than tripled from 12% in 2016 to 45% by 41 2021. Factoring underemployment and youth employment reveal higher numbers. As a result of sub-optimal economic growth and declining GDP, over 100 million Nigerians entered into poverty and Nigeria became the global poverty capital. Increasingly, our population instead of being an asset with a viable consumer market and aggregate demand of 180 million people is fast becoming unproductive with meagre disposable income and a liability.

From the data available, it can be established that self-inÁicted policies caused the Àrst recession in 2016. However, the shocks to the economy as a result of the pandemic lockdown and the sharp drop in oil prices caused a downturn in an already fragileeconomyandtippeditintoanotherrecession in 2020. In 42 and 43 2020, the Nigerian GDP contracted by -6.10% and -3.62% respectively.

However, by 44 2020 Nigeria exited recession with 0.1% growth.

The irony as with the last recession is that our economic and Ànancial managers did not have su΀cient buͿers in place to help withstand the shocks. At the onset of the pandemic, the NSIA stabilisation fund had only USD350mn and Excess Crude Account (“ECA”) a paltry USD72mn. A sum of USD150mn (approximately NGN57bn) was withdrawn from the NSIA in April 2020 to support a NGN5tn budget deÀcit. In contrast during the 2009 global Ànancial crisis, the ECA had USD22bn, which saw Nigeria through the crisis.

As a response to addressing the impact of the shocks to the Nigerian economy during the period under review, the FGN began to step up its social intervention programs and engage in consultative meetings with stakeholders across all sectors of the economy. While these programs are laudable and pilots have been successful, it is clear that the government cannot fund the program. The best way out this quagmire is to grow the economy by over 6.5% to 10.0% on a sustainable basis, lifting the masses out of poverty in the process.

The CBN also increased its intervention program with additional funding to cover the healthcare and SME sectors, ensuring liquidity and credit to the economy. An ambitious infrastructure fund with over USD20bn is being developed and request for proposals (“RFPs”) have gone out for fund managers. Rate cuts were also announced on intervention funds and MPR base rates, giving banks the conÀdence to continue lending and providing the much-needed stimulus. On the 24th of June 2020 the FGN approved The Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (“NESP”). This is in an eͿort to cushion the adverse eͿects of the pandemic on Nigerians and deÀne a policy framework and implementation roadmap to economic recovery.

On the 28th April 2021, barely a year after the approvaloftheNESP,theFederalExecutiveCouncil approved The National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy, prepared by the president’s economic advisory council. We are not sure if this supersedes or compliments the NESP. $GHEDMR ,QYHVWPHQW %DQNHU DQG (FRQRPLVW &(2 RI 7KH &)* $GYLVRU\

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

20

BUSINESS OUTSIDER

A supermarket

Pricing Your Product or Service Tunji Adegbite

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n eͿective pricing strategy is the not-so-obvious but crucial part of any business’s success.

It is not enough to simply make a great product; business managers must pay attention to one of the vital pieces of the puzzle - determining what the product is worth to their customers and how to communicate this best.

Several important factors must be considered while determining a suitable pricing strategy in an increasingly competitive marketplace, such as customer’s willingness to pay, product positioning, competitors’ prices, production direct and indirect costs.

Pricing strategies reÁect a business’s understanding of its customers’ demographics and psychographics, without which the company is missing the opportunity to grow and expand its reach and revenue exponentially. In the hierarchy of importance to business growth - pricing (monetisation) has the most signiÀcant impact on revenue, followed by customer retention and acquisition.

The Àrst step to developing a pricing strategy is to conduct a pricing analysis. It is also advisable for every business to create a consistent price review process, to evaluate its pricing against competitors and consumer expectations. A price analysis involves: à Evaluating the cost of the product or service (and breakdown into Àxed and variable elements) à Understanding your positioning, market structure, customer segments and how they respond to diͿerent price structures à Analysing competitor’s price à Reviewing any external inÁuences and/or constraints to cost and price; Developing a pricing strategy is not a one-time event. Even established

businesses must continue to evaluate the performance of their products and deploy new pricing strategies in response to market conditions or to drive customer acquisition. Data has shown that pricing is four times and twice more e΀cient for business growth than improving acquisition and retention, respectively. There are several ways to price products depending on the market.

Common pricing strategies include: Competition-based Pricing Strategy Usually utilised by new entrants into a highly saturated market, this pricing strategy focuses on the existing market rate for a product or service category irrespective of consumer demand. This strategy is helpful because slight price diͿerences may be the sole diͿerentiating factor in those market situations.

An example of this is seen with bottled water companies. Most will price their products around the going market rate of 50 ² 60 Naira for a 75cl bottle.

Price Skimming Strategy Price skimming is a strategy that sets the highest possible prices at a product’s introduction and then gradually lowers the price as the market category gets saturated. This type of pricing helps recover sunk costs and continue to sell the products beyond their initial fad. Price skimming is ideal for products creating a new market or entering an emerging market. It allows a business to capitalize on early adopters and reduce prices to get an edge on future competitors. An example of this was when Telco, MTN and Airtel (then Econet), introduced SIM cards into the market; SIM cards were sold for more than 400 times the price today.

Penetration Pricing Strategy The opposite of price skimming; Penetration pricing is when a business introduces products to the market at an extremely low price. This strategy

is used by enterprises introducing products into an existing competitive market to attempt to lure customers away from higher-priced competitors.

A temporarily disruptive approach, businesses must evaluate their ability to deal with potential revenue loss when using this strategy. An example of this was the price and size wars of carbonated drinks in Nigeria. The new market entrant, Bigi Cola, sold a 60cl bottle for 100 Naira compared to its major competitors, who priced their 50cl products at 100 Naira. Another example is Green Africa Airways that recently launched with a pricing of NGN 16,500 for a one-way ticket for the Lagos ² Abuja route.

nesses. It is a commonly used strategy in the pharmaceutical industry where generic medications are priced lower than their name brand counterparts.

Businesses must evaluate their operating and production costs before choosing this type of pricing strategy.

Another disadvantage of this strategy is that it may condition the customer to associate the brand with low value cheapening the brand value. Companies can circumvent this by creating bargain products under a diͿerent brand name.

Premium Pricing A prestige strategy that appeals to luxury-seeking customers by presenting an image of exclusivity through price. Building on a brand’s perceived value, premium pricing is used by businesses known to create high value or status products. This form of pricing allows products or services to be priced many times over their production cost.

A commonly used pricing strategy by fashion and technology brands; an example is House of Deola Sagoe’s Komole Kandids, a luxury fashion outÀt targeted at the modern bride.

Internationally, fashion brands like Supreme have created a cult following around its products with customers willing to stand in line for hours just for an opportunity to purchase a product.

Bundle Pricing Bundle pricing involves pairing two or more complementary products or services and selling the bundled unit for less money than their total individual price. A successful bundle pricing strategy involves proÀts on low-value items outweighing losses on highvalue items included in a bundle. This strategy helps sell non-performing products or services, introduce a new complementary product, or get customers hooked on one of the products faster.

It can also be used as a temporary value-added strategy for customers willing to pay upfront for unreleased products.

The key to the continued success of any business is a well thought out pricing strategy that matches a product with the target audience. Even the best products will struggle if not correctly and eͿectively priced. The market is not always about having the best product but the optimally priced product.

Economy Pricing The opposite of premium pricing, an economy pricing strategy appeals to customers seeking bargains. Based on volume, the economy pricing strategy sells the product for a low price and makes its revenue from the number of customers. This strategy works best with generic or bargain brand busi-

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.

21

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

WOMEN ENTERPRENEURS

OMAEDO OSAMOR

Govt Should Make Business Environment Conducive for SMEs to Thrive Omaedo Osamor is the founder of Lilmissfab, a bespoke shoe brand for women. A managing partner of Samuel & Doxa LP, she is solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Before starting her private legal practice, she worked extensively in the oil and gas industry as company secretary and has a fair knowledge of human resources, employments and training and business consulting. Being a chartered secretary, Osamor is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Nigeria as well as the Nigerian Bar Association. Lilmissfab was borne out of her creativity and the passion to help women across Nigeria remain fabulous without breaking the bank. Lilmissfab produces shoes in European sizes from size 36 to size 45. Comfort and class is very key for us and as such we are able to produce the same shoe in different heel heights from 2 inches to 5 inches to suit the wearer. In this Interview with Oyinlola Sale, Osamor reveals the inspiration behind creating her shoe brand, Lilmissfab

A

s Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court, what is the inspiration behind creating Lilmissfab?

My inspiration behind creating Lilmissfab is very simple, First of all I like a good pair of shoes and I believe that a very beautiful pair of shoes can make a simple outÀt look extraordinary. I also believe you don’t have to break the bank to wear a perfect pair of shoes, and even though I am a lawyer, I practise as a solicitor, but I felt my passion and creativity needed to be harnessed and that was how I created my own shoe brand, Lilmissfab.

Would you say your experience as a legal practitioner made it easier to establish a wellgrounded shoe business?

My experience as a legal practitioner made it very easy to establish my shoe business, Àrst of all when you are called to the Nigerian Bar as a Lawyer, you can practice both as barrister and solicitor. I cut my teeth from the onset and i choose to practice as a solicitor.

So being a solicitor and being a chartered secretary, I have worked in-house as company secretary and legal adviser and currently in my private practice, I manage several businesses, I also act as company secretary on the board of several businesses.

So, it was easy for me to create my own business and it’s something I love to do, in terms of being able to incorporate what the law wants us to do and corporate governance practices that would make my business run smoothly.

7KH LQGXVWU\ LV FKXUQLQJ RXW GL;HUHQW VKRH designers, what makes Lilmissfab Unique?

The industry is really churning out a lot of shoe designers, I actually stumbled on a couple of them before creating my own and since I started my legal practice, I have always had the desire to create my own show business. When I started selling shoes originally, it wasn’t my own brand and I had a 9 to 5, I was working in-house as company secretary and legal adviser, but I had this passion of selling good shoes and I like to turn out looking really good and people will compliment my shoes.

That was the beginning of my success in the shoe business, I started getting supplies from abroad and I was selling to my colleagues, friends and new acquaintances.

Now what makes Lilmissfab unique from the other shoe brands is that I cut a deÀnite niche for myself and I realised that a lot of people have big feet and some people that have big feet are comfortable with wearing high heeled shoes, while some others are not comfortable in high heeled shoes.

My style is to create something for each individual by creating the same shoe in diͿerent types of heels. The whole idea is that whatever type of heel you like, you deserve to look good and fabulous.

three of us on the board, so we all donated into this business. I more or less donated my life savings into this business, we never got any external funding, we are positive that the business will be proÀtable, regardless of the risk involved and we are open to external funding, if it’s provided.

Funding has been a big issue because we can’t meet the demand we currently have, but we are taking it one step at a time and currently believe it will get better.

What were some of your fears when setting up the Lilmissfab Company?

I used all my savings to set up Lilmissfab in its early days, so I was very afraid what if the business collapses, will people buy, then the competition out there of people selling shoes, what will make mine stand out and those were my fears, but being lawyer and solicitor, it was easy for me to do the background work, I set up the company and the trademark for the company.

I set up the social media account and business account as well. Now starting up was quite scary, I had to look for factories to manufacture for me abroad but I took the plunge and I don’t regret it.

Osamor

Presently, you manufacture your shoes abroad.

What are your reasons behind that decision?

Although, I manufacture my shoes abroad, this was not the plan from the onset, when I conceived this idea for the shoe brand, I wanted the slogan; made in Nigerians for Nigerians and I went around looking for who will create this shoes for me.

I discovered that creating shoes in Nigeria was the same thing as importing them, because the shoe designers import the materials they use. I still have a plan to opening my own shoe factory in Nigeria and that will happen very soon.

In what way has COVID-19 changed the mode of operation in your business?

COVID-19 has been a game changer with everybody’s business and Lilmissfab is not exempted.

When we started the shoe brand in 2019, our main aim was working class women that are trying to look good and still want to feel comfortable.

However, with the advent of COVID-19, most people who were going to the o΀ce, started to work from home.

So we had to create new products that would Àt this era, because we want to cater to their needs of our customers.

This made us create Áat sandals and Áat shoes

for most people working from home, and we still had the visibility that we always had. Even though a lot of businesses crippled, it just gave us new ideas to Àt the situation we are in right now.

What are some of the challenges you have faced so far in building this brand?

The major challenge we have faced so far in building this brand is foreign exchange, when we started this business, a dollar was exchanging for N360 and we coped with it.

The fact is that Lilmissfab is supposed to be aͿordable luxury, we are very mindful of the fact that people need to wear good shoes without having to break the bank and with the increase in dollar exchange rate, it just became impossible to keep our prices at the same place where we started.

So we had to do a little price increase, though it was not as signiÀcant as the way forex exchange has really gone up, against us and against our favour. We are still working round the clock to see how we can provide quality shoes, but yet aͿordable.

How can the government create an enabling environment for businesses like yours to thrive?

Whether we agree to this or not, small businesses in Nigeria are going a long way to driving our economy, a lot of the money being made today is by small and medium enterprises and people like you and I are the ones driving the economy and It will be great if the government can recognise this and create a more enabling environment for us to work.

First of all, a lot of things have to be put in place to enable us do this business favourably, If I produce shoes in Nigeria for Nigerians, we are going to cut out a lot of external factors and it will favour us in the long run.

If I have government funding that makes sense, at one-digit interest rate, that would help me push my business forward and help me set up a business in Nigeria and help me get training from the people who currently produce for me, also if our electricity was stable and we didn’t have to use a lot of fuel and diesel to run production it will cut a lot of cost too and Lilmissfab would be able to meet expectation and we would also be able to do what we planned from the onset.

Do you have plans of expanding the Lilmissfab brand beyond shoes? What should we be expecting?

We still have plans of expanding Lilmissfab beyond shoes and beyond this borders and I see myself in the next Àve years in several countries around the world. The name Lilmissfab means Little miss Fabulous and I gave it this name for a purpose because we are global.

Lilmissfab currently runs an online store and can +RZ GLG \RX PDQDJH WR ÀQDQFH WKLV EXVLQHVV be found here @lilmissfab.squad on Instagram, in its early days? @lilmissfab on Facebook, @lilmissfab on Twitter Financing the business from the earlier stage and it has a website www.lilmissfab.com. We have was quite tasking; we have a board and there are plans to open a physical store as we get bigger.

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

22

MARKET NEWS 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

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 03Jun-2021, unless otherwise stated.

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 153.34 154.87 -5.21% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 4.00% Nigeria International Debt Fund 304.88 304.88 -23.78% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 111.82 111.82 -0.25% 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 5.01% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.26 3.31 -9.51% info@anchoriaam.com 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 3.08% Anchoria Equity Fund 128.87 130.29 -3.11% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.06 1.06 -20.36% 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 18.89 19.46 4.14% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 413.62 426.10 3.31% ARM Ethical Fund 37.10 38.22 10.05% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) N/A N/A N/A ARM Fixed Income Fund 0.96 0.96 -14.41% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.11% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 104.45 104.45 2.69% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 1.94 1.94 -22.68% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 2.01 2.04 -24.50% mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com ; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund 1.01 1.01 1.25% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.83% Paramount Equity Fund 15.86 16.14 -0.87% Women's Investment Fund 131.93 133.30 -0.92% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.57% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 116.09 116.84 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 106.65 106.65 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 3.17% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.16 1.17 -3.33% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.35 1.35 -14.63% 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 2.86% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 2.93% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,162.24 1,169.97 -2.95% 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 1,372.31 1,372.31 10.37% FBN Balanced Fund 185.50 186.68 -1.16% FBN Halal Fund 109.69 109.69 6.66% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.48% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Money Market Fund Legacy Debt Fund Legacy Equity Fund Legacy USD Bond Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Growth Fund Coral Income Fund FSDH Treasury Bills Fund

125.10 152.48

125.10 3.45% 154.55 0.86% fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com

Bid Price N/A N/A N/A N/A

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price N/A N/A N/A

Offer Price N/A N/A N/A

Yield / T-Rtn N/A N/A N/A

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 6.12% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.79 2.85 21.57% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 149.21 149.65 -3.99% Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF) - June Year End 1.22 1.26 29.54% Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End 1.09 1.09 6.25% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.36 1.38 0.00% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,140.10 1,140.10 3.23% 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 10.82 10.85 3.27% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 6.31% 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 1.66 1.68 7.20% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 12.38 12.44 2.04% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.52% PACAM Equity Fund 1.58 1.59 -0.35% PACAM EuroBond Fund 110.93 112.54 0.89% 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 126.52 128.83 6.88% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 3.05% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 3,127.65 3,152.46 -2.75% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 229.94 229.94 2.26% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 1.18 1.19 0.42% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 301.54 301.54 2.33% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 215.76 218.41 -1.27% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 6.70% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 10,150.31 10,276.31 -3.36% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.25 1.25 2.34% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 113.80 113.80 2.45% Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund 101.25 101.25 UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.35 1.37 -1.44% United Capital Bond Fund 1.94 1.94 2.74% United Capital Equity Fund 0.90 0.93 4.55% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 7.62% United Capital Eurobond Fund 120.74 120.74 3.12% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.09 1.11 0.82% United capital Sukuk Fund 1.05 1.05 5.13% QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.06 12.16 1.60% Zenith Ethical Fund 13.58 13.70 11.16% Zenith Income Fund 24.09 24.09 0.49% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 5.48%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

123.46 51.40

2.25% -1.91%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

12.56 123.58 96.89

12.66 123.58 98.64

-4.96% 1.51% -2.53%

Fund Name SFS REIT 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

3.66 5.57 16.86 1.00 18.79 161.26

3.70 5.65 16.96 1.00 18.99 163.26

-2.98% -2.14% 3.12% 4.01% -8.39% -26.33%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.52

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.

SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2021 • T H I S D AY

SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

06.6.2021

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ERICA NLEWEDIM

HER LIFE WITHOUT FILTERS With her new partnership with MTV Base, the charming reality TV star and actress Erica Nlewedim is offering fans a ringside view of her life, writes Vanessa Obioha

eople will easily misjudge you, especially if you are a television star with a huge following on social media.

This seems to be the case of Erica Nlewedim, the Big Brother Naija former contestant who grabbed headlines during her time in the reality series last year for good and bad reasons.

The level of criticism is not peculiar to Nlewedim alone.

Anyone in the fame business, particularly those who rose to stardom either through hebdomadal TV drama series or reality TV shows. Once you are in the spotlight, criticism is not inevitable.

Whether the young actress and model was prepared for the public shredding of her private life or not, one thing is clear, her star wattage is amplified with every mention of her name on social and traditional media.

Thanks to her devoted fans who christened themselves ‘Elites.’

These persons from different walks of life are committed to promoting the reality TV star.

On social media platforms like Twitter, their voice is deafening, like the piercing sound of a church bell. They sometimes act as a strong army, protecting Nlewedim from any attacks while challenging anyone who dared to cross their paths. Their weapon is the hashtags. Fire an arrow, and you get a hashtag that either stultifies you or amplifies the voice of their hero.

These fans are the first to reveal any achievement of Nlewedim such that when MTV Base announced the new reality TV show ‘Inside Life’ that will feature the model, the fans broke the news and began a countdown hashtag to the premiere of the show. It is almost a given to see the star as one of the trending stories on Twitter nowadays.

Beyond the activities of her fans, Erica has equally worked hard to earn accolades such that she doesn’t feel under pressure to meet the demands of her fans.

“I feel under pressure to meet my own demands and goals,” she said. “I’m very ambitious, and I set a lot of high goals for myself.

And luckily, I have achieved a lot of goals that have impressed my fans, and they are very happy with my success.”

Blessed with pulchritude, ever since her departure from Big Brother Naija House, the actress

ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

1THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

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COVER

Her Life Without Filters has been clinching one deal or the other, promoting brands while positioning herself as the best hand for the job.

Her hardworking disposition can be traced to her teen years. At age 17, the commercial model from Abia State landed her first modelling job with a furniture company and earned N50,000.

Subsequent offers elevated her status, and she even contested in the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria in 2014, where she clinched the Most Photogenic award for Kogi State. It wasn’t long before she set her eyes on Nollywood, appearing in her first TV drama series, ‘Secrets and Scandals’ in 2015.

The graduate of Business Administration from Covenant University would further hone her acting skills at Met Film School in London in 2019 before participating in Big Brother Naija.

At first, her mother was against her choice of career.

She wanted her only child to have a nine-to-five job like her peers but Nlewedim didn’t see her toeing that path, although she once worked for a company to accommodate her mother’s concerns. But today, her mother is elated to see her achievement. The worry of her having a white-collar job no longer exists.

Despite her hustling spirit, Nlewedim believes that she deserves a me-time too. She recently tweeted that it was time to put her first.

When asked about the tweet, she explained, “It relates to my life. I have been working non-stop so I’m trying to relax. I have been putting a lot of people first, putting their feelings over mine. God said, ‘love your neighbours as you love yourself,’ so I’m trying to love myself more so I can love people around me better.”

With ‘Inside Life,’ Nlewedim is now the network’s first Nigerian celebrity to feature in the new reality TV series. In recent times, ViacomCBS Networks Africa has been bringing stories of African superstars on their various platforms. Last March, it premiered a reality TV show on South African singer Busiswa on BET Africa. With ‘Inside Life’ on MTV Base, it is providing viewers with premium entertainment and storytelling with original scripted and nonscripted shows.

The series, which will premiere on June 9, follows the model as she navigates the business and entertainment worlds.

“The series shows that I’m growing, and MTV Base is a very huge platform and is international. It gives me a lot of optimism that I’m doing something right and in future that I will also become international,” she said.

What’s most interesting about the reality TV show for

Erica

her is that people will understand her better.

“They will get to know that what they see on the internet is most times untrue and a tip of the iceberg.

I will be very interested in seeing people’s reactions when they get to see the true story behind some headlines in the past few months.

They will get to realise that their assumptions are just assumptions.”

The ever-smiling model feels she has been misjudged a lot since she left the Big Brother Naija House and believes that ‘Inside Life with Erica’ will show the audience who she truly is without filters.

“They will get to see me as a human being that I am and not as the public portrays me to be. Most times, there are so many touching moments in my life, successes and generally good news about me, but I don’t really see that in the news. For the people who don’t really know

me, when they watch the reality TV show, they will get to see

everything that makes me a human being and not just the negative stuff.”

She added, “I’m not promising that they will get to see me smiling and laughing all the time, but they will understand me better. In life, things don’t always go smoothly for people all the time. So in ‘Inside Life,’ they will get to see my low moments as well as my wings, that is, my high moments.”

Nlewedim feels blessed for her career trajectory. She is obviously not close to her ultimate goal.

“I’ve only had less than a year in the spotlight. Even before the new spotlight, I have only been known for only five years, which is not as long as many who are already famous. I believe I’m on my way, and I’m very optimistic that I will get there in a short amount of time,” she affirmed.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HighLife Any ‘Hope’ for Uzodinma’s Imo?

Uzodinma

I

mo State, once famed for being a place of peace and progress, is gradually changing into a marshland of violence and unrest. Anything goes now—or will soon start to if nothing is done to return the State to its original status. Ironically, Imo used to be nicknamed the ‘Land of Hope’.

Is it a joke of the ages that when a Governor named Hope took the reins, hope flew out the window?

The recent murder of Ahmed Gulak, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Special Adviser to the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, has stirred the waters much more than the others have done. Gulak’s political assassination—that is what Governor Hope Uzodinma called it—in Owerri woke folks up to the realisation that almost anyone is up for grabs and that the banality of evil reaches even to the high tiers of government.

Governor Hope Uzodinma is the main target of critics, whether well-meaning or otherwise. As a human being with limitations, Uzodimma is not altogether capable of cleansing Imo of the growing trend of insurrection.

Nevertheless, as the chief government official in the State, this is Uzodimma’s first responsibility.

This is the line of reasoning that most folks used to present at newspaper stands both for and against Uzodinma. Then suspected hoodlums allegedly attacked his house in Oru East local government area of Imo State and were rumoured to have ended the life of a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officer.

Consequently, it became clear that even the head of the government was barely holding his own against the budding insurgency.

A few days ago, it was reported that communal clashes had begun to spring up within the North area of Imo. Even the local people noted for their endurance have begun to beat and sharpen their ploughshares into swords. Is this the new normal for the eastern heartland? Is it all going to Hades on Governor Hope Uzodimma’s watch? What is hope, and where is it?

with KAYODE ALFRED ͮͶͯ​ͯʹ͵ͳͷͶͮ͵˜ ̋×ËÓÖ: ÕËãʮÏâ̶͓ãËÒÙÙ˛ÍÙ×

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

Princess Toyin Ojora-Saraki Becomes Erelu Bobajiro of Iruland It’s a time of colour and celebration for both the people of Iruland and the wife of the former Senate President and also the daughter of Prince Adekunle Ojora, Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki. Based on reports flowing in from all corners, the well-known global health advocate will be bagging one of the highest titles in Iruland for women: the title of Erelu.

Folks of Iruland and the surrounding area, whether well-placed or from the grassroots, are preparing for a day like no other since the reign of the new Oniru of Iruland, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, Abisogun II. This June, Iruland, Victoria Island, and the rest of Lagos will play host to a deluge of high-tier government officials, politicians, business people, and other representatives of the crème of Nigeria’s high society.

From what folks are reporting, the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is pulling out all the stops to make the day memorable for his darling wife, the soon-tobe Erelu. Need the best juju, fuji or highlife artists on the bandstand? Get the best juju, fuji or highlife artists on the bandstand! For the Erelu-designate and her husband, the Oniru’s consideration is more than a nod at

Princess Ojora’s abilities and contributions, but also a big step forward towards even more responsibilities. So, why not usher in the new level with dance and song?

Toyin Ojora-Saraki is a princess. She is the successor to both her paternal Ojora royal family of Lagos and her maternal Akinfe titled clan of Ondo State industrialists.

The royal legacy has served to polish her determination to render good works to the Nigerian society starting with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their role in cutting down maternal and infant mortality.

Her contributions to health coverage are more than can be enumerated in a few lines. Thus, the Erelu title is not an empty one. This is honouring the honourable and hailing the praiseworthy.

Ojora-Saraki

Chief Rasak Okoya Organises Send-off for Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, Demola Seriki

Okoya

The friendship between the billionaire industrialist and the Aare of Lagos, Chief Rasak Okoya and his brother-in-law, Chief Demola Seriki, is known far and wide. At

every opportunity, the former treats the latter to a majestic get-together or soirée. Birthdays, appointments, you name it. In keeping with this tradition, folks were summoned a few days ago to Chief Okoya’s Oluwa N’ishola Estate residence in Lagos to celebrate Chief Seriki’s ambassadorial appointment and officially send him forth.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed Chief Demola Seriki, the Otun Aare of Lagos and former Minister of State for Defence, as the Nigerian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain. The appointment was well-received among the elites of the Nigerian society considering Seriki’s many contributions.

The recent get-together at Chief Rasak Okoya’s residence to celebrate this big step forward.

Although it was meant to be something of a small gathering, the crème of the Nigerian society came out en masse to honour Okoya and celebrate Seriki. Some of the most notable of these individuals included Justice George Adesola Oguntade, Festus Keyamo, First Lady

of Lagos State, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, Sir Olu Okeowo and wife, Prince Aderemi Sijuwade, Prince Samuel Adedoyin, Alhaji Dodo Adams, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, Aare Bashir Fakorede and wife, Princess Folashade Odumosu (wife of Lagos Commissioner of Police), Juan Jose Otamendi from the Spanish Embassy, Alhaji Garuba Abubakar, Hon. Sola Giwa, Comrade Kamal Salau Bashua, and many others.

Every one of these special guests paid their respect to the celebrant in their own ways.

Prince Adedoyin, for example, led the opening prayers; Tunde Okoya, the host’s prestigious son, welcomed the guests; and Lagos’ First Lady, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, supervised the cutting of the deliciously coloured cake.

Meanwhile, with DJ Joydee on sound, Finesse Events on visuals, and comedian Tee-A as the MC, it was a happy time. All in all, everyone toasted to the health, wisdom and continued success of Chief Seriki, wishing him nothing but the best in his endeavours in Spain.

Thanksgiving Time for the Babangidas asInMohammed Cheats Death the last few months, Nigerians have witnessed an unprecedented increase in accidents of all kinds. The most notable of these include the plane crash that led to the death of the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 others. Were it not for the prevailing mercies of God, Mohammed Babangida, son of a former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, would surely have joined this inauspicious list.

Many Nigerian media houses are reporting what can only be construed as an act of Providence upon the family of the Babangidas. From what has been gathered so far, the scion of the Babangida House, Mohammed Babangida, almost lost his life in a car accident that led to the death of three other individuals.

According to the reports, Mohammed Babangida was in a Honda Space bus with

other family members en route to Abuja when the crash occurred. An articulated vehicle carrying tomatoes reportedly ran into them, directly colliding with a black Prado SUV that was a part of the convoy. However, because Babangida’s ride was behind the security vehicle, neither he nor any family member was injured. But the members of his security detail were not as lucky.

From the reports, three soldiers who were part of the guard detail lost their lives almost immediately after the collision. One other soldier was reportedly critically injured and is currently receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Abuja. While the Babangidas are lamenting the death of the soldiers, they are also celebrating the narrow escape of Mohammed. One might even say that death came close to knocking off Mohammed Babangida’s cap, but the owner of the cap dodged out of the way by a hair’s breadth.

Babangida

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

HIGHLIFE

Tony Elumelu: The Banker Giving Master Classes on Entrepreneurship

Elumelu

Super businessman and longtime figure of United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), Tony Elumelu, has proved to be nothing short of a progenitorial character.

Besides drafting an outline of what he insists is the way forward for business on the African continent (Africapitalism, for short), Elumelu has begun to corroborate his ideas and

suggestions with overwhelming proof.

The year 2021 started on several positive notes in the Nigerian business space. The most notable of these was the announcement that Elumelu’s proposed foray into the insurance industry (via Heirs Holdings) would be given flesh. That announcement stirred the minds of young and old people everywhere since Elumelu has always improved whichever industry he delved into. Thus, June 1, 2021, marked the beginning of the transformation that Elumelu is guaranteed to bring to the insurance sector.

On June 1, 2021, Tony Elumelu commandeered Heirs Holdings into launching the subsidiary companies: Heirs Insurance Limited (HIL) and Heirs Life Assurance (HLA). During the launch, it was revealed that both companies would offer their clients digital insurance options at the tip of the fingers and driven by the latest innovations in asset coverage technologies.

At the launching (which took place at

the headquarters of Heirs Holdings, Victoria Island, Lagos), Elumelu’s team assured the public that HIL and HLA would offer the typical protection packages for all kinds of assets and properties. However, they will also optimise the packages for users at all levels, especially low-income earners and small business owners. Moreover, they also unveiled several packages, the most delightful of which is the internet application that allows users to verify insurance quotes whenever they want and collect their claims settlement in a day or less).

As the MD/CEO of HLA, Niyi Onifade, explained, Elumelu’s game is to “empower people to live more confidently and achieve their dreams, whilst securing the future of their loved ones.” This is Elumelu at the peak of his expertise: emphasising and capitalising on customers’ demands and providing services that satisfy these demands, nothing missing and nothing broken.

Lagos City Lady Adaobi Nwakuche Bounces Back with Tony Elumelu’s Heirs The Chinese say that the tallest tree always faces the strongest winds. This is one way to describe the life of Adaobi Nwakuche, the notable person of beauty, intelligence, and the insurance industry. As the super businessman Tony Elumelu takes off in the form of Heirs Insurance Limited (HIL) and Heirs Life Assurance (HLA), Lady Adaobi Nwakuche is one of the few on the administrative and executive side of things.

The launching of Heirs Holdings’ dual insurance companies, Hil and HLA, on June 1, 2021, has painted a new narrative in the public image of renowned insurance lady, Adaobi Nwakuche. According to the reports, Nwakuche is taking the enviable position of Acting MD of HIL, guaranteeing her a page on the annals of the company’s pioneers.

Until recently, Adaobi Nwakuche kept

something of a low profile. Nevertheless, her portfolio of excellent work experiences, particularly in the insurance sector, has ensured that her name is hallowed in the high places of the industry.

A professional with a PhD in Insurance, Risk Management and Corporate Governance, Nwakuche is notable for her contributions to Otega Emerhor’s Standard Alliance. This company retained her services after her one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Her work earned her one promotion after another until she became the company’s General Business Group Head.

From Emerhor’s Standard Alliance, Nwakuche became a Deputy Director at Dere Otubu’s Staco Insurance. After this, she joined Equity Assurance Plc as its Executive

Nwakuche

Director (in 2013), to leave for Elumelu’s Heirs Insurance Limited in 2016. With this work record which totals over 15 years of active experience within the insurance sector, those who are more qualified to be the acting MD of HIL can be counted on one hand. Overall, all eyes are on the famed beauty of Abia, created for and loved the best things that life has to offer, namely, luxurious clothing and cars.

Stop the Rumour... Former Fidelity Bank MD Nnamdi Okonkwo Not Contesting Governorship

Okonkwo

Where do bank MDs go when they retire?

A loaded question, to be sure, but one that far-seeing folks have asked time and time again. First Bank’s Bisi Onasanya reportedly consented to dally in Real Estate; Polaris Bank’s Tokunbo Abiru took to politics like a fish in water; Fidelity Bank’s Nnamdi Okonkwo did what? And that’s one of the most popular questions thrown at the all-answering search

engine, Google.

Nnamdi Okonkwo served as a super CEO/MD at Fidelity Bank from 2014 to 2016.

During his time, the well-liked man engineered smart innovations, the likes that saw Fidelity Bank rising to the top of Nigerian banks and Okonkwo himself becoming a celebrity who collected awards every quarter of the year the same way art connoisseurs collect paintings and sculptures.

When Okonkwo retired in 2020, it was as a champion of banking and industry, and it was assumed that he would immediately put down his roots and found an insurance company, travel agency, or something along the elite business continuum. There has been no such thing—and it has been more than half a year.

It may be as a result of this perceived nonactivity that rumour markets began to feature Okonkwo as a soon-to-be-out-of-the-closet

politician. And since Anambra enjoyed the favourable financing of many projects from Fidelity Bank in Okonkwo’s time, why not cast him in a gubernatorial role? And this they did.

At present, the seed of hearsay that was sown a while ago has begun to bear fruit. Folks have started to pass around the supposition that Nnamdi Okonkwo is interested in taking up the mantle of Willie Obiano, the incumbent Governor of Anambra State. This is not true.

So far, Okonkwo has neither publicly worn the colours of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), as folks claim, nor declared an interest in the governorship of Anambra (Perhaps he has some interest in the governorship of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but even that is wishful thinking on the rumour monger’s part).

President Buhari, Family and Friends Celebrate Alhaji Erogbogbo At 95 The true fortunes of human life are less than a handful: freedom, long life and prosperity.

To have all three in almost equal measure is the blessing of multiple lifetimes. This is the defining quality in the life of Alhaji Ashafa Ajibola Erogbogbo. At 95 years of age, the man has built the kind of legacy that even presidents do not dare to ignore.

President Muhammadu Buhari was one of the first federal-level characters to send warm felicitations and goodwill messages to Alhaji Ashafa Ajibola Erogbogbo on his 95th birthday. While the message was filled with praises and prayers, it also demonstrated that there are a few Nigerians out there whose services to humanity continue to be felt even though they themselves have retired from the public scene.

Alhaji Erogbogbo has indeed made laudable contributions to Nigeria and

the part of Lagos State most renowned for enjoying the Erogbogbo legacy—Ikorodu. It could be said that the city enjoys the visitation of outsiders and the accolades of informed Nigerians due to Alhaji Erogbogbo, his late wife, Alhaja Sadiat Abeke Erogbogbo, and their nest of influential children.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa is the most notable of the Erogbogbo children, and her determined personality reflects the celebrated unshakeable character of both her parents. But the Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Chairman is not the only one that inherited this strong personality. The others include Kofo Kassim, Yomi Erogbogbo, Rotimi Erogbogbo, Ajoke Gbeleyi, Moji Williams, Sola Erogbogbo, Yetunde and Folake Erogbogbo, not to mention the ones that are Erogbogbo by blood. The achievements of these great people have added to the reputation of Alhaji Erogbogbo.

Erogbogbo

Gbajabiamila

Who is after Gbajabiamila?

A word is enough for the wise—or so people insist. After many words were thrown against what used to be construed as mischievous rumours, the ‘secret aspirations’ of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, have once again been laid bare. Whether or not these rumours are true, one cannot say that Gbajabiamila is smiling reading about them.

It started less than a year ago when Femi Gbajabiamila showed himself to be a brilliant, considerate, and relatable character. Because the speaker had taken a distinctive stand against the failings of certain authority figures, he became a man of the people and was hailed, as it so happens in such situations, as a champion of the young and the old, one deserving of a more representative role. In other words, Gbajabiamila qualifies for a gubernatorial or even presidential position.

But all those were just necessary bootlicking—or so it was assumed.

If recent reports are to be believed, Gbajabiamila has locked his eyes on the Lagos number one seat, which Babajide Sanwo-Olu currently occupies, and might drag it from under the bespectacled Governor. As one can imagine, seeing as Governor Sanwo-Olu has been nothing less than a gem of a first citizen, Gbajabiamila is facing criticism from certain corners of Lagos in particular and Nigeria in general.

As someone who has occupied several noteworthy and representative positions since 2003 (minority leader, house leader, and speaker), Gbajabiamila is not unfamiliar with the trappings of instigation. Everyone with a smattering of understanding knows that nobody builds a political tower on the flattery of men. No sooner is the deceived fellow beating his chest and proclaiming himself king than he turns around and finds himself alone.

Gbajabiamila is aware of all these and so should not be liable to fall for it. The only other explanation for the continued proliferation of the rumours is that certain folks are hard at work to sow dissensions between Gbajabiamila and Sanwo-Olu. Whether this supposed mischief will work depends on how the good speaker reacts to them.

Nevertheless, the seeds have been sown.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS

with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)

Edgar, Do You Like the President?

Buhari

That was the question one fine woman came to ask me o. You see how you will just sit down, and temptation will now come and meet you and make you open your mouth and answer something that can lead you into self-exile. I pretended like I didn’t hear, but she insisted, “Do you like the President?” She asked. I say, wait, let me ask Pastor Adefarasin for advice on Plan B. You know that one is the custodian of Plan B the way Asiwaju is the custodian of the Lagos master plan. But pastor no pick. So, I look at this extremely beautiful woman, and I tell her straight- it is not a question of like or not liking but that of pity. Yes o, I pity baba, I swear if he knew it would be like this, he for just jeje siddon with his cows. The whole thing seems to be unravelling before his very eyes without no real road map to pull it back altogether again. My greatest regret in all this is not collecting the number

of one man wey follow me enter a supermarket in Ikeja. I just noticed that the guy was just following me. I say see this one, he no even sabi follow person.

Instead of him to be watching American gangster film, I sure na Yoruba film he dey watch, when I don tire, I walk up to him say oga hope no problem.

He says, ‘you have nothing to worry about Duke of Shomolu’. I shout, you know me? He say yes na. I work in the Presidency, and I have served three Presidents. We know you; we enjoy your writings and as long as you don’t insult anybody, you are ok. I say thank you and I say if you are truly from Presidency, pay for my food. He start to frown. So if I had collected his number that day, I for send am to Buhari. This thing is not rocket science.

Your Excellency, you have to break out of your cocoon and come direct to the people. I do not believe you are

getting the best of advice from your people. I think you should, as a matter of urgency, embark on a nationwide tour, meet the people directly. Engage them, feel their pulse. I can escort you if you dey worried say dem go pour you pure water. Spend like five days in Owerri and you will see how things will calm down. Come to Lagos, go to Sokoto, fly to Uyo eat some afang. Ask your people what is going wrong. Feel their pain, share in their sorrow. This one you are doing is not it o and this is why things are falling apart. Na beg, my lord just try this thing I am saying and you will see what will happen very quickly.

Like I say, I have nothing against you, I will probably not invite you for lunch but you remain our leader and the custodian of the essence of our nationhood and we must all support you. I am with you, let’s get this motor running again sir.

that they have been cursed with.

It is very easy to blame Buhari. In fact, till tomorrow, they are still blaming Awolowo for the grim reality that is life in the SouthEast. One is tempted to ask, all the federal allocations, the little IGR that has come to that region in their trillions, what exactly has happened to all of them? The situation is not peculiar to that region. Fine, we have masquerades at the centre, but the ones who are closer to the people, what have they done to better the lot of the people? This hopelessness is borne out of a lack of purposeful leadership at the second and third tier of government, leading to the upheaval and the worse HOPE UZODINMA AND BROTHERS – infrastructural deficit in the country but brilliantly parlayed THIS IS YOUR FAULT as a – Buhari no like Igbo people – You know me, I can be bold. The trailer. Sad. Really sad. Hope and problem, especially in the Southbrother governors, how do you East, is that of everybody that guys sleep? has ever been a governor in that region. They have left the place BUBA MARWA – PUMMELLING desolate and sad with a series of THEM FROM ALL CORNERS terrible leadership, corruption Now we are catching drug barons, and avarice. Apart from maybe couriers and even users. I just saw Peter Obi or Ngige, I do not think a report citing the billions of Naira the South-East from inception has in seized drugs since Marwa took been lucky with their leadership.

This failure now makes it easier to over the reins of leadership at the NDLEA. I say well done, sir, demonize the centre so that anger and God bless you because this can be diverted from the statue confirms my position that the bane building, visionless leadership

of leadership is the problem we really face in this country. All this mumu talk about restructuring, separation, constitutional review will not work if we do not fix leadership. We are told that Owerri will suddenly become Dubai the moment Biafra is won or that Ekiti will be competing with Denmark when they get the Oduduwa Republic. My brother Marwa, we have never met, but I must say I am really very happy with what you are doing at that NDLEA. Try and go for the source, cut down the pipelines because, as you have said, drugs are the main fuel of the insurrection. So this fight against terrorism, banditry, kidnappers and the like will be easier won if we win this war against drugs.

Well done sir, I have a fine bowl of Afang for you, just tell me where to send it, and you will have it.

Please eat with Fufu and not Garri o and make sure you take your bath before eating, so you really enjoy the taste. God bless you.

AISHA BUHARI – TIME TO STEP IN You see in our estate, we were having meetings, and the then chairman will be doing like all these activists. He will be bullying everybody and shouting everybody down. That is how I spark. He say I should shut up and sit down. See mumu o.

Me, Duke of Shomolu, should shut up? I attack. I jump table as I move towards castrating him. That is how Seyi hold me down. How he got the power till today, I don’t know because in full flight, nothing stops me o.

But Seyi just pluck me from the sky with one hand. Na juju. Well the story here is that after that move, everybody go him house lock themselves. But Duchess wake up the next morning, start to go house to house to explain my behaviour. Please don’t mind him, she told them. He is broke.

Na so he dey do when he no get money. Please forgive him. You know he is crazy. He didn’t mean it. He cannot blow anybody.

Where is the power. Shebi dey beat him at Onipanu bus stop the other day. It is just shakara. She was able to calm nerves and bring all of us back to the table with her sitting down firmly beside me, making sure there were no more eruptions. That is what I am begging mummy to do. Please, be the soft landing for all sides. Be the mother we clearly, really need.

Engage all parties, calm nerves,

move around the cities. Assure the people that you will get daddy to listen. Remove all these Adesina, Lai and Garba types of people and give us direct access. You will see that even Nnamdi Kanu will smile if you invite him for tea. You just may be the deal maker in all of this. Kindly consider my plea.

At times gra gra no dey work. All this, ‘I will deal with them in a language they will understand’ no dey move or go anywhere. In fact, it will worsen things. But mummy, with the soft touch, carrying our mothers along on a nationwide trek for peace, that can work wonders. I tell you. Just try it, Your Excellency.

Buhari

Uzodinma

Marwa

OONI OF IFE – A BREATH OF FRESH AIR If you grew up in the ‘80s, you would be conversant with the TV promo. The one that Chief Zebrudaya was plugging the elephant blue detergent.

In his unique language, he would say, “are you are, try the new improved elephant blue detergent?” That was what was

Oba Ogunwusi

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

LOUD WHISPERS on my mind as I listened to the Ooni speak recently. The video clip had gone viral as people were really impressed and amazed at his words. He spoke very eloquently without reading from anywhere on the issues, causative factors of the Nigerian problem. He pointed fingers while expressing himself confidently and finally preferring solutions.

He begged that the youth be better engaged otherwise, they become willing tools in the hands of those who don’t want Nigeria. I loved him that day, I really loved him.

This is a new and improved Ooni. kabiyesi oh!.

SENATOR FLORENCE ITA-GIWA DEFENDS ACTION That is how last week, I said my mind about my mummy and her latest move. I knew she would not take it lying low. That is mummy for you. She has sent in her response, and I beg you all to read and see her position.

‘My son, no vex, you are right, yes at 75 years of age, nothing will please me more than to relax and enjoy my celebrity status, attend events in eye-popping outfits and so on, but when a very driven digital governor like Senator Professor Ben Ayade comes along with such verve and a vision that will lift my people and state out of perennial poverty, I am left with no option than to support him. Cross River State has had to bear the brunt of many economic setbacks, the loss of our oil fields, then more poignantly to me personally was the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon.

In my position as a leader, it is incumbent on me to do all in my power to ameliorate the hardship my people are going through. In doing this, I don’t mind being occasionally misunderstood by people who do not feel the pinch.

What you described as mimicry is what I know as the solution to my state’s perennial struggle with poverty and underdevelopment.

Industrialization holds the key to unlocking the vast potential of my people and state. I therefore will not hesitate to do all that I can to promote it, which is why I accepted to be the Cross River State Ambassador for Industrial projects, even at the risk of being mocked by less discerning pundits. By the special grace of God, over the years I have amassed tons of goodwill both nationally and internationally and I believe now is the time to put it to good use on behalf of my state. I fully intend to give this assignment my best, as I see it as the only path to the economic liberation of my people.

In the meantime, let me assure you that our Lagos-based ‘social mother and son relationship’ is intact. In fact, I will be instructing my chef to give you an extra helping of snails and smoked fish each time you visit Echoes of Calabar in Lagos.

Sosongo eyin mni.

Well you see the risk we take for Nigeria. At least, my afang has not been threatened. Mummy na Osa and Ajanaku push me. I will send their pictures for necessary action.

Thank you.

friend Niji, and his brother joined.

The conversation dwelt so much on the OBJ years, the situation now and the probable solution.

Kola is such a patriot, very passionate about Nigeria, forget that he no give me afang - he is very confident that we will remain a unified entity. My position exactly. After about three hours by the lagoon and as I was leaving, he made a statement that really touched me. ‘Edgar, everything I have is here. Port Harcourt South East, North, South West, we cannot go anywhere. I have no Plan B’.

My brother, my sentiments exactly, my sentiments exactly. God bless you.

Ita-Giwa

KOLA KARIM – LUNCH BY THE LAGOON I sha like to engage this my brother. I enjoy his deeply engaging thought processes, especially when it comes to Nigeria, its economy and our leaders. Kola is sound. He understands this clime and has a front-row seat, especially with the kinds of relationships he has built over time. This time, it was no different as I walked into his

Karim

Ikoyi home. He had called and pretended he was expecting me o. I knew he was not when it was time for lunch and na rice and fried plantain he give The Duke of Shomolu. I no want vex, because na my friend, so I just chop the rice like that. Next time, kindly let him know that you host the Duke with afang. This has been gazetted, and even the Lagos governor knows that. Anyways, we had a healthy conversation up to a point my

Ife is a consummate professional. One of the very best in her field, and it is no wonder that the secretary general’s office at the United Nations has snapped her up for a very strategic and important assignment with global ramifications. Ife is one out of nine in the world chosen for this assignment, expected to impact millions. I always knew that Ife would make this kind of landfall, so I ‘gum’ her. Congratulations to my sister and many more garlands.

Fashola

BOLAJI BALOGUN – A PERFECT GENTLEMAN On my way to Abuja last week, I saw Bolaji Balogun. If you don’t know him, he is one of the most brilliant investment bankers and former chairman of Lafarge, or I no sure again o. One big cement company like that. So as we were about to board, I saw him standing tall behind one mask. Once you see your Oga, you must know na. I greet am. He say, “Edgar, how are you? How is work?” I say tough. He say, “You work so hard. It shouldn’t be tough.” I say thank you sir.

As a rookie stockbroker, I used to watch him trade stocks. He was a marvel to watch. His arguments, logic and trading strategy were all very compelling. He had positioned himself as a major thought leader in the industry in later days and continues to garner respectability.

A perfect gentleman he remains.

Respect.

OLADAPO OJO – ALL HAIL THE TRAILBLAZER This my brother is doing things.

With a 6,000 square meter studio lot nestled downtown Ogba, Dapo presides over the largest studio lot in West Africa. With over 80 fulltime workers, Dapo represents for me what we should be as a people.

In this era of pessimism and ‘na Buhari cause am’ excuses, people like Dapo still stand out in their bold determination to make a difference despite the ‘situation.’ His studios have hosted such large reality programmes like the Voice and the Africa-wide Cowbell Mathematics Competition. He is, in fact, getting ready to launch what he has called the biggest Mathematics Contest in Africa. He is looking for the very best 20 years nine students who live TV would struggle to win N3 million in the most keenly contested Mathematics competition in Africa.

Well done, bro.

NYESOM WIKE – ALWAYS AMUSES ME Last week, I talked about Wike and how he makes me laugh. He even threatened to slap a colleague governor and a few days ago. He said IPOB juju does not work. I just so love this brother. His down-toearth approach really gets me. The way he delivers his wisecracks with a lot of seriousness just cracks me.

Great guy, please, your Excellency, what are your thoughts on the following people - Nnamdi Kanu, El Rufai, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Tambuwal, Ayade that just defected to APC? Oya throw one bomb make I laugh abeg.

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Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

AGF’s Son Abiru-Rahman Abubakar Malami Quits Bachelorhood

Peller

Shina Peller’s Pristine Initiative

H

onourable Shina Peller has undoubtedly proved to be not just one who is full of ideas but also one who equally has the zeal to ensure his ideas prosper.

During his active days in the thick of social activities, Shina never played second fiddle; instead, he dictated the pace. He made up his mind to dabble into the political space, and at his first shot, he made it to the House of Representatives in 2019. Like one prepared, Shina, with his activities, has been able to distinguish himself just as he’s fast establishing himself as one who has a long-term project to execute.

A few days ago, the politician’s profile representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/ Iwajowa federal constituency in Oyo received a boost when he set up a group named ‘The Lead Generation Initiative.’

The initiative, replicated in different parts of the country, is designed to coordinate the youth for the desired change by properly channelling their creativity, energies, and aspirations for the needs of society.

But that won’t be the first time Peller had shown commitment to his electoral promises. In furtherance of his pristine vision, Peller recently organized a symposium tagged, ‘National Security & Peace: Role of Government, Citizens, and Institutions,’ as part of activities to mark his 45th birthday.

The event was graced by dignitaries from all walks of life, who took time out to be part of the laudable initiative.

Besides, in his wife’s company, Peller also used the occasion to lavish his magnanimity on students of the School for the Handicapped, Adie-Omu Ekunle, Iseyin.

During the visit, the graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, offered massive life-changing empowerment tools as a form of intervention for his constituents.

Until recently, Abiru-Rahman Abubakar Malami, son of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was one of the hottest bachelors in Abuja.

He is also one of the super-rich kids who ride in super-fly automobiles in the country. He is popular at the social scene and upscale nightclubs while hot and sophisticated babes swarm around him like bees to nectar.

Young Malami, however, has quit bachelorhood following his recent marriage to Aisha Humaira Umar, daughter of Justice Ibrahim Umar, a former Chief Justice of Kebbi.

At the wedding, graced by eminent personalities from across the country, their parents were in high spirits as they watched their children exchange marital vows.The wedding reportedly started at the popular Alfuraqan Mosque, Nasarrawa area, Kano State, with Dr Bashir Umar as the presiding Imam.

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State was said to have paid the bride’s dowry on behalf of the groom Thereafter, the guests converged on the highbrow Meena Event Centre for the grand reception/ dinner soiree.

It was gathered that guests were treated to the best of sumptuous meals and assorted drinks.

The venue was breathtaking and came alive while it was decorated in gold and black. The bride was dressed in a flowing white gown flanked by the groom decked in dark agbada laced with a gold pattern as they both sauntered into the hall amidst pomp and ceremony.

Before the wedding dinner party, the wedding proceedings had taken a week with a series of events like the traditional wedding called ‘Kamu’ and an Arabian night, where Abiru’s friends were all fitted in a blue customized Jalabia and the Arabian headgear with camels to add glamour to the day.

Some of the guests spotted at the wedding included the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, along with some Senators;

Abiru-Rahman and Aisha

Governors of Gombe, Kebbi, and Zamfara; Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi; the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Police Trust Fund (NPTF), Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu; Sen. Magnus Ngei Abbe; Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno State, among others.

Construction Colossus Hakeem AloboBakare Counts Blessings at 63

Bakare

“Count your blessings; name them one by one. Count your blessings; see what God hath done. Count your blessings; name them one by one. Count your many blessings; see what God hath done,” so goes a song.

On Friday, June 11, Hakeem AloboBakare, Chairman, DHB Group Limited, will have another good reason to count his

blessings, as he would turn 63.

Alobo-Bakare, a construction giant, is widely recognized as a man who has an indescribable passion for his calling.

He has successfully built a name for himself in the nation’s property construction industry in the past years, owing largely to his relentless efforts, unbending determination, focus, and business acumen.

The businessman, who has been in the warm embrace of fame for many years, also towers above many of his contemporaries.

He also evokes a rare combination of critical approval and public affection or even love.

This may not be unconnected with the fact that he is audacious in his simplicity and brilliant in his business exploits. Interestingly, he also shares that strength with tremendous compassion and empathy.

Channelling his own experiences, he has personally touched the lives of countless others who have had to confront their challenges.

As gathered, the man who is also a politician is not throwing an elaborate party, though. Rather he will dedicate the day thanking God, counting his blessings, and praising Him with what He has done for him so far.

The Business Administration graduate of the University of Lagos and Masters Business Administration from Ladoke Akintola University is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Local Government and Public Administration of Nigeria.

After a stint with the Central Bank of Nigeria, he took a plunge into the stormy and highly capital intensive construction industry with the launch of his company, DHB Construction Limited.

To the chagrin of naysayers who scorned him when he left the CBN for self-employment, Alobo-Bakare has continued to make indelible marks in the field. Like a man with the Midas touch, his construction company has grown into a conglomerate, with subsidiaries including DHB Properties Limited, Hexagon Logistics, Temjob Limited, Eko Trans Afrik Limited, among others.

Alobo-Bakare, a former governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the 2015 elections, belongs to the A-List social clubs in Lagos, such as Ikoyi Club and Island Club, where he served as the Social Secretary for two terms.

Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson’s Endearing Feats Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, is not a tyro in politics.

Years back, he was spotted as a diligent public servant when appointed as the special adviser to the then governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, on Works and Infrastructure, having worked as the permanent secretary, Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

In recognition of his brilliance, he was subsequently appointed as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure by then-governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2015.

While he served under Fashola and Ambode, he was instrumental in landmark projects that repositioned the state, including the novel Ikoyi -Lekki Cable Link bridge, Okota-Surulere Bridge Ago Palace-Festac Road, amongst many others.

He would later succumb to pleas by his people who were seeking quality representation at the centre.

Buoyed by this, he resigned as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State to contest for a seat at the Federal House of Representatives representing OshodiIsolo Constituency 2. He was elected in the 2019 National Assembly elections.

In the past two years, Johnson is said to have impacted his constituents enormously. That can be seen through various ingenious initiatives and projects such as the FOOD4ALL during the Covid-19 lockdown, Meet your MP (a regular interactive session with the people of his constituency), construction, rehabilitation of schools, and classrooms across the constituency. Other efforts included skills acquisition and empowerment programmes for youths and women, amongst many others.

Perhaps, this explains why he is touted as one of the few politicians in the state to hold relevant positions of authority and leadership to better society as the next general election draws near.

Johnson

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 24 2012

ARTS & REVIEW

A

PUBLICATION

06.06.2021

BETWEENARTANDMUSIC,MOSESOYELEYESEESNOGREYAREAS Quite early in his promising career, the visual arts and music have remained complementary passions for Moses Oyeleye. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

I

n’t it rather curious that Moses Oyeleye – a. k. a. Leye Moses – now blames it all on “No Gray”? Yeah, perhaps this song, which was written and performed by the American gospel, R ’n B singer Jonathan McReynolds, should take the blame for the virtual neglect of his promising studio practice.

It was in 2017 when the University of Lagos graduate first heard the song, which was released in 2012 as one of the songs in McReynolds’ Life Music album. This was thanks to a friend, who knew about his passion for the R ’n B musical genre.

“I learnt the song and would sing the lyrics as if I owned them,” Moses says. Indeed, some of his friends, who neither knew the song nor about McReynolds, actually thought the song was his. “This was when the idea of doing a cover of the song started forming in my head. I got even more motivated to do it when I heard a cover of the song done by Alic (Paco) Walls, who infused a rap verse into his version.”

For Moses, the option left for him was to “Africanise” his version to distinguish it from the original. “Hence, I rewrote the lyrics and spoke to my producer about my idea on the instrumentals and that was how my version came about.”

Talking about the song, it is basically about the human struggle between doing the Will of his Creator and succumbing to his base desires.

Besides music, Moses’ other interest is the visual arts. He is unarguably among the leading artists, who work with ballpoint pen. He started working with the medium from as far back as when he was a Primary Three pupil of the Fresh Myrtle International School in Okota, a mainland neighbourhood of Lagos.

“Back then, I had a jotter in which I would replicate illustrations from textbooks,” he reminisces. “Little did I know that I was sharpening my skill with the medium and it would be my preferred medium years later.”

Much later, when he was about to conclude his studies at the University of Lagos, his proficiency in the medium had grown so much that it surpassed his own expectations of what he thought possible. “It’s been amazing what I’ve been capable of doing with the ballpoint pen between then and now. The first major pieces I did then were the Prime Leadership series, which was done to address issues in the political scene in Nigeria, featuring my colleagues in school.”

Art, for this second child and son of a Kwara State-born couple’s four children, has been a lifelong passion. This was even when, somewhere along the line, music tends to interpolate into this sphere of interest. He traces this complementary passion for music back to his paternal grandparents, who were folk musicians.

Abused, a work by Leye Moses So, it is curious that he could blame his recent work on a cover version of “No Gray” for neglecting his visual arts practice.

Haven’t the two passions harmoniously coexisted for so long in his career?

An unapologetic adept of representational art, Moses loves paying attention to details. “I’ve always been keener on representing forms for what they are, rather than attempting to stylise them,” he intimates. “Since childhood, most of my drawings have been more of portraits than cartoons. I’d say realism comes from my tendency to be a perfectionist. I love paying attention to details, but my style isn’t hyper-realism though it’s close. My works are seen with vivid layers of cross-hatching ballpoint pen strokes.”

It took his encounter with the late Chinedu Sunday, who was then a student at the Yaba College of Technology to launch himself into a period of artistic tutelage that extended a little beyond his senior secondary years.

It became evident soon after his secondary education that the

visual arts and music would dominate his future activities. “For a period of a year and couple of months, before my admission and resumption at the University of Lagos in 2014, I became an apprentice to Jamiu Apewo from 2012 to 2014.”

Thus, studying art at the University of Lagos became a natural sequel to his previous experiences, because – as he puts it – “it was like a DNA imprint that couldn’t be altered”. And that, of course, foreclosed the prospects of any opposition from his parents. “My family knew I wouldn’t trade my passion for art for anything else. They take it as a divine calling, seeing that no one else in the family shares the same interest. If I didn’t study art, I would have studied music. I’m still hoping to get a degree in music though.”

His first big hit came in 2017. This was when he participated in the #DRAWCHURCHILLCHALLENGE, a drawing contest to draw Churchill Olakunle, a businessman and philanthropist.

“Ten out of several entries were picked, and the first, second and third place winners were determined by installation likes and comments. I won second place, and was awarded $600.”

Twice – in 2018 and 2019 – he not only participated in the annual Life in My City Art Festival competition but also made it to the grand finale. In 2018, he won the viewers’ choice category award, which was awarded by the Life in My City Art Festival’s artistic director Dr Ayo Adewunmi. Shortly after the 2019 edition of the event, he participated in a three-man exhibition organised by Mbari Uno in the upscale Government Reserved Area Ikeja.

The artist, who prices his ballpoint pen works higher than his works done with pencils, has executed several commissioned works in both mediums. Primarily influenced by the works from the European Renaissance period, he admits admiring some contemporary artists. As for role models in the local art scene, he mentions only two names: Ibe Ananaba and Austin Uzor. “These people’s works are similar in style but they’ve got their uniqueness. Their pen drawings inspire me so much all the time. Though their drawings look sketchy, I love the fact that they allow the viewer to use his or her eyes to fill up the missing blank spaces, which therefore makes them engaging.”

Now that it is settled that art is his life’s calling, he looks forward to the future with optimism. “[Making art] is my full-time business,” he says. “It involves adorning places and rendering artistic services. With the aid of social networking, I see my works going places across the world. What this means is that I have to stay true in this business and stay consistent.

Staying consistent is tantamount to how much I’d evolve and how much mastery I’d gain over the medium. The goal is to create works of timeless relevance, bearing in mind that art is still one of the best ways to keep records of important issues in society even for the sake of posterity.”

FILMS

Inside Tina docu-film: What Media’s Got to Do With it Yinka Olatunbosun

T

ina, a 2021 American-British documentary film, directed by Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin.

Produced by Erwin Bach, it trails the life and career of rock and roll legend, Tina Turner and it is not the first documentary of her life. This version is particularly interesting because the focus is not just on a grass-to-grace story but on the trauma that trails the success story of a sexual violence survivor and the role that the media plays in building the box around a survivor, making freedom a mere wishful thinking.

By all means, Tina's story is agonising and the 2021 documentary was consciously done not to retraumatise Tina. Though she is still the protagonist in the story with her husband Bach within earshot, Tina wasn't made to recount the days she was beaten or raped by her husband and mentor, Ike Turner while her son was watching. All those gory episodes were played on audio with footages from the 1993 biopic, ‘What’s Love Got to do with it’ starring Angela Bassett as Tina.

today.

At the end of their tumultuous marriage in 1975, all Tina asked for was her name.

Although she has no royalty from the body of work that produced some of the greatest rock and roll hits of the 60s and early 70s like River Deep Mountain High, Nutbush City Limits and Proud Mary, she left with her name and only 36 cents. Tina revealed that it was not easy to get that name but she got it anyway.

She needed a new life and even though all the American recording companies rejected her music, she persevered. At last, she had to tell her story to People Magazine not because she craved public sympathy but so that the media would quit asking about Ike and whether they still talk and other awkward questions. Shortly after this story, precisely in 1982, she signed a deal with Capitol Records and her groundbreaking record Private Dancer was released Turner had the hit song, ‘What Love's Got to do Tina must have thought she had escaped the woes which with it.’ The iconic image of Tina on the album of her life when she left Ike Turner after 16 years cover drew media attention to her hot legs. of collaboration as performing artists in rock and ‘What's Love Got to do with it’ won the roll. Tina was everything to Ike: a student, a wife, a Award for Record of the Year, babysitter, a lead vocalist, a sex slave. Tina felt a sense Grammy and it became her first and only No.1 on the of loyalty to Ike who brought her to music. She was Billboard Hot 100. At age 44, she was the oldest Anne-Mae Bullock with a raspy voice. Her stage solo artist to top the Hot 100. She set a persona was inimitable. Ike knew this and promptly female then-Guinness World Record for the largest gave her his last name which Tina cherished till

paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer with her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988.

But the media never stopped asking about Ike at every interview- an unnerving daylight nightmare. After the 1993 biopic, she told the press why she would not want to watch the movie. Even though Ike took to cocaine and alcoholism and eventually died, the media still questioned Tina about it. Ike and Tina Turner era was an indelible imprint in rock and roll history but does anyone still ask Diana Ross about the Supremes? Or Michael Jackson about The Jackson Five? The media felt Ike and Turner was ‘the story’ even as Tina continued to build an intimidating solo career, acquiring luxury properties and yes, finding love in the arms of Erwin Bach. Even as she was enlisted for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, there was an argument as to whether she would be accorded the honour as Tina Turner or alongside Ike Turner. As the first woman of colour to break into the rock music industry, Tina's commercial success cannot be watered down by always tying the name Ike to every honour that she deserves. While Tina was belting, dancing and sweating in heels, her ex-husband was controlling the whole spectacle and the business of music. Would Tina ever forgive the media for making her life all about Ike? Time will tell.

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EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

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JU ;˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

INTERNATIONAL AU’s Subsidiarity Rule and Unconstitutional Change of Government: The Cases of Chad and Mali

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he Principle of Subsidiarity (PoS) is of multidisciplinary application in international relations. Its importance is largely explained by the fact that it deals essentially with the regulation of power and its exercise in the maintenance of international peace and security, which is the primary objective and rationale for the establishment of the United Nations Organisation in 1945. It is about the determination of who should have authority and how the authority should be exercised in a given situation or region in ensuring peace and security.

The understanding of the principle varies from one stratum of society to another and from one discipline to the other, but the denominating factor remains common. Its origin is traceable to Catholicism, the 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum by Pope Leo XIII, who attempted ‘to articulate a middle course between laisser-faire capitalism, on the one hand, and the various forms of socialism, which subordinate the individual to the state, on the other.’.

Subsidiarity is etymologically derived from the Latin word, subsidiarius, meaning ‘to help’ or ‘to support.’ Catholics consider subsidiarity as ‘the coordination of society’s activities in a way that supports the internal life of the local communities... The common good is the totality of social conditions allowing persons to achieve their communal or individual fulfilment (Benedict XVI, 2008).

Politically, the PoS means that ‘all people have the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. It requires that decisions be made by the people closest and most affected by the issues and concerns of the community (vide https://www.caritas.org.au). In the eyes of Wikipedia, ‘subsidiarity is a principle of social organisation that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level that is consistent with their resolution.’ The emphasis of this definition is on the immediacy or nearness of operational environment of the principle.

From the perspective of the European Union, Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union regulates the application of the PoS: ‘the area concerned does not fall within the Union’s exclusive competence (i.e. non-exclusive competence); the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States (i.e. necessity); and the action can therefore, by reasons of its scale or effects, be implemented more successfully by the Union (added value). Without meeting these three conditions the PoS is inapplicable.

As interpreted by uk.practicallaw.thomson.com, ‘in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the EU can act only if, and insofar as, the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at the central level, or at the regional or local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale of effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at EU level.’ And perhaps more significantly, how does the PoS apply in the context of the AU’s rule of non-constitutional change of Government in Africa, and particularly in the context of the coups d’état in Chad and Mali?

Unconstitutional Change of Government (USG) Grosso modo, the PoS is a general principle of international relations, which not only promotes the protection of lower levels of government against unnecessary intrusions of central governments, but also wants political governance, particularly, decision-making processes, brought closely to the level of the local or community levels. For example, the nexus between the PoS and AU’s principle of non-constitutional change of Government in Africa is quite interesting because of the conflict in their power implications. On the one hand, the PoS preaches that matters that do not fall within the exclusive jurisdictional competence of Member States of an organisation, and their pursuit of objectives whose action céannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, should be left for the local communities to handle. In other words, the PoS delegates authority to the local regions to act on behalf of the central government.

Empirically, the resolution of the conflicts in Chad and Mali, for examples, should be left to the regional organisations to which both countries belong: Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) for Chad and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for Mali. It is only when no room can be found for peace and security to reign that the intervention of the

VIE INTERNATIONALE

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

in Africa: military coups, lack of free and fair elections, and illegal constitutional amendments aimed at entrenching in power the incumbent governments and monarchies. In this regard, for instance, Article 28(E) of the Malabo Protocol, which is largely inspired by Article 23 of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, identified different acts that could constitute a crime of illegally accessing or maintaining power. The unwanted acts include a putsch or coup d’état against an elected government; any mercenary intervention to replace a democraticallyelected government; any replacement of a democratically-elected government through armed dissidents, rebels and political assassination; any refusal by an incumbent government to relinquish power to the winning party or candidate after free, fair and regular elections; any amendment or revision of the Constitution or legal instruments, that infringes on the principles of democratic change of government or is inconsistent with the Constitution; and in the event there is ‘any substantial modification to the electoral laws in the last six months of the majority of the political actors.’).

What is quite noteworthy is that, in spite of the foregoing provisions on UCG and abundance of efforts, coup-making has not stopped. In fact, it has not only acquired a notorious recidivist character, but has also prompted the main proponents of the values and principles of UCG to begin to adopt a double standard approach to the problem of UCG. Put differently, how do we explain the fact that the same AU leaders or even the ECOWAS leaders are now condoning the military coup, not to say an apparently stage-managed killing of the Chadian leader, Idris Déby Itno, and what is now referred to as a ‘coup within coup’ in Mali?

AU and UCG: the Double Standard in Chad and Mali

Moussa Faki Mahamat, AU Commission Chairman continental body can be required. This is the AU’s understanding of the PoS. In light of this, an attempt is made here to explicate the PoS within the context of another AU principle of non-acceptance of unconstitutional change of Government in Africa.

The origin of non-acceptance of Unconstitutional Change of Government (UCG) is traceable to the early 1990s when the OAU Seventieth Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers mandated the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution to reactivate, as a matter of urgency, ‘the sub-committee on unconstitutional change, in order to finalize its work in light of the Harare discussions particularly, as regards the measures to apply in coup d’état situations occurring in Member States.’ It is useful to also note here that the Central Organ talks about reactivation, implying that the sub-committee on UCG once existed and apparently entered into désuétude. It was the increasing cases of coups d’état in Africa that prompted the need for reactivation of the sub-committee. The question therefore is how do we explain the fact that, since the 1990s, coup making or unconstitutional change of government is yet to be thrown into the garbage of history?

And true enough, the OAU adopted four measures in response to the UCG: adoption of common values and principles for democratic governance; providing a definition of what constitutes an UCG; articulating measures and actions to be taken in response to UCG; and putting in place an implementation mechanism.

In terms of the values, emphasis was placed on adoption of a democratic Constitution; respect for the Constitution and adherence to the provisions of the law and legislative enactments; separation of powers and independence of the judiciary; promotion of political pluralism or participatory democracy; democratic change principle and recognition of the role of opposition parties; organisation of free and fair elections in conformity with existing texts; guarantee of freedom of expression, especially freedom of the press; constitutional recognition of fundamental rights and freedoms in accordance with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and guarantee and promotion of human rights.

The ultimate objective was to remove the three main problems militating against entrenchment of enduring democratic culture

In essence, there is a lot of beauty in the principle of subsidiarity and its application because it seeks to bring governance, particularly decision-taking to the lowest level of, or nearest to, the people. There is also beauty in the rejection of UCG in the political governance of Africa.

However, in the case of Mali, for example, the PoS was naturally applied.The ECOWAS attempted to manage the crisis. Besides, it was the people of Mali that wanted a change of government by brute force or by manu militari. How should Government deal with people’s request in a democracy?This is a question that the Muhammadu Buhari will also need to address in dealing with the many complaints against his administration. Threatening to treat people who never experienced the bitterness of the 1967-1970 civil war in the language they understand is, at best, an expression of unpatriotic belligerence and poverty of ideas. Imposition of an unwanted Constitution is also manu militari and can only generate societal acrimony. PMB cannot be preaching the gospel of national unity and the principle of Federal Character while remaining the chief driver of nepotism and alleged silent Fulanisation agenda. And true, with this type of situation, no amount of PoS or UCG can be applied and be expected to provide good result.

At a distance, the change of government in Chad may appear quite difficult to be seen as a forceful change of government because the President, Idris Déby Itno, was reportedly killed at the battle field. It was not that he was forcefully attacked by the military with the ultimate objective of ousting him from power.

However, at a closer look, the change of government was a reflection of coup d’état per excellence.

Without jot of doubt, following the early April, 2021 presidential elections, which President Déby Itno won, the Chadian rebel group, Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (FACT: Front for Change and Concord in Chad), with the support of the Conseil de Commandement Militaire pour le Salut de la République (CCMSR: Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic), launched a military offensive from the Tibesti region in Northern Chad, from April 11 through 9 May, 2021. President Itno was said to be at the battle field to defend the territorial sovereignty of his country. Questions have been raised as to why he should be there at that material time, when he was actually awaited in the capital, N’Djamena, for celebration of his victory by his ruling party.

Whatever is the case, the Idriss Déby Itno Government was able to contain the military offensives of the FACT and the CCMSR. According to the N’djamena authorities, eleven Chadian soldiers were killed, 58 soldiers were wounded, and one helicopter was destroyed. The Chadian government also revealed that hundreds of insurgents were killed and 210 insurgents were captured.

More importantly, on the very day Déby Itno was killed on the battlefield, 20 April 2021, his son, Mahamat Ibn Idriss Itno, who was born on 1st January,1984 in Massakory and is also a Major General in the Third Armoured Brigade, was immediately appointed the Chairman of the Transitional Military Council, that is, as the interim President of Chad. He already served as the Second-in-Command of the military for the Chadian Intervention in Northern Mali. Thus, he appears to have been put on the path of greater responsibility assumption. In this regard, three critical points are noteworthy about the appointment of Mahamat Ibn Idris Déby Itno as successor to his father.

First, his appointment contravenes the constitutional provision on presidential succession in Chad. The Chadian Constitution requires that the Speaker of the House, in the person of Haroun Kabadi, must be asked to take over the presidential responsibility.

Mahamat Itno, following his appointment, however, dissolved the National Parliament. French sources have it that the Speaker Kabadi was actually requested to take over but he allegedly declined the request. If this situation were to be so, was the military takeover not a coup d’état, not a forceful change of Government, or an UCG in Chad?

Second, Chadians pleaded with President Déby Itno not to contest the presidential elections but he ignored the pleas. The opposition elements believed that the president was on the path of imposing a monarchical dynasty or an Itno dynasty, especially with the introduction of a new Constitution in 2018. The 2018 Constitution, which was approved by 132 votes for, and two votes against, was boycotted by the opposition parties. The new Constitution increased the presidential term from five to six years, reintroduced the two-term tenure that was jettisoned in 2005.

The new Constitution also changed the system from a semipresidential system to a fully presidential democracy, and by so doing, scrapping the office of the Prime Minister. The president is therefore both Head of State and also Head of Government.

Third, the Chadian Constitution provides that in the event a president is absent or dies, the Speaker of the House must take overpower for 40 days during which the needful for proper succession must be done. This was not done.

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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 ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

CICERO

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

IN THE ARENA

A Disturbing Rise of Afflictions Driven by unresolved statehood issues, poverty, youth population explosion, environmental triggers, non-functional education and clueless leadership, the nation’s security crises is spiralling out of control, writes Louis Achi

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he late scholar and economist, Dr. Pius Okigbo, once noted that what was unfolding in the nation’s socio-political arena was comparable to an Athenian tragedy but lacking the majesty of a Greek drama.

A verdict delivered many years ago, Okigbo’s insight, strangely relevant, simply distils the damming failure of the ruling political elite.

Being Africa’s demographic and natural resources centre of gravity, much of the world believe Nigeria ought to lead the journey of transformative change on the continent and provide the leadership to raise Africa to her next level. But, then, charity must begin at home.

Smouldering in the six geopolitical zones are crises of different hues but nonetheless with fundamental interrelatedness. The emerging conclusion is that the rising security challenges and sundry crises seem to connect to other social-political issues like ethnic nationalism, poverty, youth population explosion, environmental triggers, inadequacy or lack of functional education and others.

When these core issues are juxtaposed with poor leadership, the consequences cannot be only imagined but are being felt by the majority of Nigerians today.

It is hardly far-fetched to assert that Nigeria today, especially, under the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, is more divided than ever. Ethnic nationalism is rearing its head in the Buhari and Monguno South-East, South-West and Middle Belt with by the Senate, over the nightmarish and intractable security different political nuances – from the overt to the subtle. But, situation in the country. perhaps, most importantly and to the credit of Nigerians, the It is no secret that terrorists and sundry criminals are tauntcountry remains one entity despite powerful forces that have ing the Nigerian State and the government appears clearly challenged its growth and severely tested its resilience – but helpless. One of the most dangerous dimensions to the infamy just by the whiskers. playing out is that schools are being mercilessly targeted.

At press time, it has been widely reported that bloody secuMore than 1000 people have been abducted from schools rity operations are on-going in the South-East zone, especially, in Northwestern Nigeria since December in a rash of kidnapin Imo State, with soldiers allegedly disregarding basic rules pings for ransom in the volatile region. Kaduna Governor of engagement. In Southern Nigeria and North Central zone, armed herders continue with their depredations despite the fact Nasir El-Rufai has repeatedly said his state government will not negotiate with “bandits.” that Southern governors recently called out President Buhari in Clearly, with rising attacks against security agencies and their ‘Asaba Declaration.’

Incidences of kidnap for ransom, armed banditry, secessionist their facilities in the Southeast, terrorist and criminal turmoil in the North and detectible threats and outright killings in activism and terrorist insurgency across board are scaling up the Southwest and South-South, many strongly believe the with an over-stretched military practically treading water. nation’s fate is hanging over the precipice. Many are also Recently, the nation’s security chiefs, including the Chief wondering why calls for separation are scaling up. Today, even of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor; former Chief of Army Staff, respected statesmen are morphing into activists.

Ibrahim Attahiru (now late); the Chief of Naval Staff, Awwal Recently, according to the Minister of Finance, Budget Gambo and Chief of Air Staff, Isiaka Amao appeared before a and National Planning Minister, Zainab Ahmed, a total of jittery Senate in plenary.

N1,008.84tn was released to the Army between January 2019 Also, present were the Director Generals of the State Security Service, National Intelligence Agency, and the Defence and April 2021. There is pretty little correlation between such a budget and results delivered so far by the nation’s military in Intelligence Agency as well as the Acting Inspector General caging the raging insurgency. of Police, Usman Baba. This was in response to an invitation

Kabir Adamu, a security risk management and intelligence specialist believes the Nigerian Army had so far failed in its mandate despite the money released to it. He holds that Nigeria witnessed more cases of banditry, terrorism and kidnapping during the period.

His words: “What was the mandate given to them? Is it not to contain insurgency? Unfortunately, they have not justified it.

If their mandate was also to curb banditry, they have not been able to do that.”

Adamu’s position was however countered by Col. Hassan Stan-Labo (retd.), a security specialist, who said the N1tn was not enough, describing it as a drop in the ocean. Stan-Labo, who described the defence sector as a capital-intensive venture, stressed that the sector’s neglect in the past years had created a vacuum, which made the funding by the Ministry of Finance insufficient.

According to him, “The defence sector has been neglected for too long by being starved of adequate fund and wellequipped inventory. This got this long, because as a nation, we are not security-conscious. Even under this dispensation, you can see that there is no seriousness.”

To turn around the nation’s current dangerous trajectory to a large extent depends on the president. It is to the extent of his success or failure in this regard that the verdict of history pivots.

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

Really, What’s Genocidal About Buhari’s Tweets?

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Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

he Twitter, last week, suspended President Muhammadu Buhari’s account, after first deleting his tweets, which formed part of the president’s response to the security situation in some parts of the country and which Twitter categorised as genocidal. Obviously incensed by Twitter’s poor judgment, the presidency too fired back on Friday and suspended Twitter’s operations in the country.

Cut to the bone and dispassionately, what, really, was genocidal about President Buhari’s tweets? First off, look at the controversial tweets again, especially, the part that seemed to have caught Twitter’s attention: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Biafra war…Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.

“I think we have given them enough latitude. They have made

their case, they just wanted to destroy the country…Whoever wanted diversion or destruction of the system at this point, I think will soon have the shock of their lives.”

Above was President Buhari reacting to the unceasing carnage caused by an identified group of people – a situation many had expected him to look into a long time before eventually stepping forward – and yet, when he did, Twitter found the otherwise harmless but tough-talking tweet genocidal? How? Was Twitter expecting the president to pat criminals on the back?

Truly, Twitter’s position in this matter was suspect and appeared to have thrived only on the mob rule. Whatever the inadequacies of the president, Twitter clearly didn’t find the right reason to enlist in a fight it didn’t quite understand or in possession of the details. It’s utterly a poor judgment on the part of Twitter, which must stop acting as though it’s the government of the universe. Putting it straight, the Twitter decision suspending Buhari was a total misjudgment.

And the ban by the federal government? Just as idiotic!

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

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BRIEFINGNOTES For Buhari, It’s Time to Act, Talk Less On the growing insecurity, Nigerians are becoming increasingly frustrated with President Muhammadu Buhari’s no action approach, writes Tobi Soniyi

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resident Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets, wherein he threatened to deal with “many people misbehaving today” who “were too young to remember the deaths and destruction from the civil war”, continue to generate controversy almost a week after the statement was made.

“Those of us, who went through the war will treat them in the language they understand,” he warned.

Many found the president’s statement not just objectionable but insensitive given the dangerous security situation in the country. Twitter, therefore, deleted it and suspended the president’s handle for 12 hours, which further irked the Nigerian authorities.

The statement by the president has shown that he and his advisers did not correctly read the mood of the country or have deliberately underestimated the potential for escalation. Either way, the statement, many believed, gave the president away as someone, who was not genuinely interested in ensuring peace. This is not the time to issue threats.

Beyond the condemnation and rebuke, however, it is high time the president adopted a different approach to resolving the multifaceted and perilous security challenges threatening to derail the country.

First, the president needs to talk less and act more.

Nigerians are interested in results and not talks or threats.

Action, it is said, speaks louder than words. Nigerians have lost count of how many times the president had threatened Boko Haram, but the insurgents remain deadly.

Second, it should have danwed on the president by now that it is either the security agencies are incapable of carrying out his threats or are unwilling to do so or both.

The point is, none of the criminal groups terrorising the country is moved by the president’s otherwise empty threat statements. They carry on as if the country did not even have a commander-in-chief.

He once ordered that anyone found with an AK47 should be shot on sight. That order was never carried out. But herdsmen armed with AK47 have continued to terrorise the country. This much was admitted by the president, when the Presidential Economic Advisory Council told him that insecurity had slowed down the economy.

The president said: “I said shoot anyone found illegally with an AK-47”, yet, they haven’t stopped, saying, “People must show consideration for their own country.”

As the president issued the latest warning, Niger Delta warlord, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo gave him and the Minister of Niger Delta affairs, Godswill Akpabio a seven-day ultimatum to reconstitute the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board or face a major breakdown of law and order in the Niger Delta. If the Niger Delta joins the fray, Nigeria may be in for a long haul.

Policemen serving in the southeast, who could no longer wear uniform for fear they would be targeted and killed would be wondering where the president is getting his idea from. They need protection and assurances, not rhetorics that further endanger them.

President Buhari Isn’t it ironic that a president, who helplessly stands by and allows kidnappers to forcefully take students for ransom on a daily basis is now threatening to deal with those too young to remember the civil war of 1967 to 1970?

If the president had been decisive enough, banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and herdsmen’s attacks would have become history by now.

If the president must know, kinetic power alone isn’t going to pull the country out of the brink. The military is overstretched. The ENDSARS protests had exposed the police as an institution that is not capable of protecting the people. Since then, nothing, in terms of logistic, has been done to re-equip them.

If the president is truly desirous of engendering peace in the country, he should start talking to those who are aggrieved. Heads of security agencies should put their education to use by advising the president to adopt a more conciliatory approach. In the Southwest, there are people, who can call Sunday Igboho to order. The president has refused to identify those people and seek their help.

In the East, there are people, who can reach out to the agitators. The president should be humble enough to invite

them for talks. Talking to your adversaries is not a sign of weakness. Nigerians want results and they want them very fast. Nobody is going to crucify the president for achieving a peaceful society by talking to agitators.

Security agencies also need to up their game on intelligence gathering. That the country is this insecure is evident of intelligence failure. True be told, the security agencies as presently structured cannot thrive in intelligence gathering.

It is like us versus them. That has to change. No one can deny the nexus between criminality and the economy.

Last month, Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Professor Doyin Salami told Buhari his effort to boost the economy was being thwarted by insecurity.

According to the council, banditry, Boko Haram insurgency, farmers-herdsmen conflict, separatist agitation and organised violent groups, among others, cost the federation a whopping sum of $10.3 billion in 2020.

For political and economic reasons, it is expedient for the president to tone down his threats and explore more effective alternatives. He must accept that his approach presently isn’t working hence the need for a review of strategy.

NOTES FOR FILE

Beyond the UAR Joke Since the idea was mooted that Nigeria should change her name to United Africa Republic (UAR) and became a public discourse, there has been a litany of jokes by both the Twitter generation and the online comedians, many of whom seemed to find the name attractive, somewhat. At least, their jokes say as much.

But, there’s an instructive takeaway from the swirling jokes, which the leadership cannot afford to gloss over and it is the evident desire by many to have many things change about the country, including her name, if possible. Many people, indeed, now refer to themselves as citizens of the UAR and not Nigeria, with a matching flag already designed.

Instructively, therefore, if the cost of convoking another national conference is too much to bear for the country at the moment, it can as well as dust up reports of the old ones, the most recent being the one at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 and implement. The message is clear: Nigeria as a union requires a review, going forward. It is the only way to save the fragile unity and address the palpable injustices.

…And UNICEF’s Sickly Report

In her April 2021 report tagged: “Digital Age Assurance Tools and Children’s Rights Online Across the Globe”, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), talked about how government policy could be used to protect

children from harmful, abusive and violent contentsonline. The core of the report, however, suggested that preventing children from watching porn was an infringement on their rights.

Really?

This conclusion was reportedly based on a European study of 19 EU countries, where most children,who allegedly saw pornographic images were said to be “neither upset nor happy.”

The said UNICEF report further contended that 39 per cent of Spanish children engaged in the experiment were happy after seeing pornography.

However, disagreeing with the data, porn fighters contended that, “UNICEF’s report ignores the vast body of research demonstrating the harms of pornography to children. By ignoring the real harms pornography can have, UNICEF is playing roulette with children’s health and safety.” This was Lisa Thompson, vice president and director of the Research Institute at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, speaking.

Whatever UNICEF was thinking, it is shameful, embarrassing and disappointing that an international agency assigned to look after children – a helpless demography – has elected to put them in harm’s way. Can anyone trust their children with UNICEF anymore? It may not be beneath them to suggest in the future yet to come reasons to start giving paedophiles a breather in the community of sane people. With this report, UNICEF is a huge letdown; a bunch of jokers!

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

CICERO/INTERVIEW

Egbemode: With Oyetola’s Attention to Details, Osun Can Only Get Better In this interview with Yinka Kolawole, Osun State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode x-rays the activities of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administrationand how he is juggling governance with politics in the state

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s the image maker of the state, how well would you say this government has fared with delivering on its mandate so far?

First of all, I’ll like to explain the way I approached the job. One, we agreed at the pre-swearing-in workshop, a retreat for commissioner nominees at Ada, where we had what we called the “Ada Declaration”. There we all agreed on how the state media should function, which is that we would operate One Newsroom.

One newsroom means that the cabinet members and their activities will be pushed out and promoted by the Ministry of Information, where I am the Team Head of the Newsroom. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ismail Omipidan, and I drive the media strategy of the administration. So far, it has worked for system.

You will notice that there has been no retraction of stories and no confusion about figures on what the governor or the government is doing because everything is coming out through one source.

The governor has been very supportive of the media machinery.

He is a media-savvy gentleman, who wants only his activities and achievement projected. He does not believe in propaganda and does not court controversy. He is doing a lot to strengthen the information machinery of the state.

For instance, we asked the governor to support us on what we now have as the osunnewsroom.com, which is the state news website, and we are gradually growing. We have people visiting the sites nationally and internationally. We are now growing the site to accommodate stories beyond government activities.

You can now find national and international stories there, because we are not an island. We have come to realise that the osunnewsroom.com can’t just be about activities in the 30 local governments and Area office of the state. Now that’s how I’ve approached the job.

Before you came on board, there’s the issue of ‘State of Osun’ and ‘Osun State’ and that has created a lot of controversies over the years. Now, as Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, what are your takes about this and what has been your approach to reverse it?

My job does not include how I feel but to be the image maker of the state and the mouthpiece of the government. Whether it is State of Osun or Osun State, that is a matter to be resolved by Council and Court and I really should not talk much about it, because its a matter that has been taken to court and it will be subjudice to talk about it.

What has been the major activities of this government that has brought hope and still bringing hope to the people of the state?

There’s a way to summarise what gives us hope in Osun and what brought hope. You have a man, who took an oath just like any other governor but didn’t just sit in office to do a list of how many points agenda he will bestow on his people but a man, who went round the state to feel the pulse of the state during a Thank you tour and Citizens Needs Assessment.

The Citizen Needs Assessment helped the governor to assess the needs, the gaps in sectoral development and he found out that what the people of Kajola wanted was different from what the people of Ikire wanted. What gives us hope in Osun is that we have a man, who’s passionate about his people, has a listening ear, a governor, who didn’t wait for them to come and tell him what they wanted. He went to them and that’s a new dimension to leadership. He listened to their needs, noted them all and swung into action.

Today, he’s doing something about the yearnings of the people and touching every sector. He’s delivering on his promises and he’s an accessible governor, who’s for an-all inclusive governance.

He’s very tireless, patient, and wants to do what’s right by his people and that gives us hope. If you look at what he is doing across all sectors, you will realise that he’s determined to leave a mark, change how things are done and adjust to the needs of the people, not just because it’s convenient but because they are what he has promised and because that’s what needs to be done.

For instance in the education sector, the people told the governor that they wanted certain policies changed. Indeed, the previous governor already alerted the people of Osun that there would be things his successor might change, when he came on board and so, when the people said they wanted the traditional, distinguishing school uinforms back; that is what they wanted and that was what they got. They wanted the original names of their schools back, the confusion in the education policy to be resolved, and that was what Governor Oyetola made happen.

You see, only Osun in the whole country had an education policy that was not in sync with the national education policy.

Egbemode These yearnings of the people were discussed extensively at the State executive cabinet meeting. This governor doesn’t want to pretend to be a know-all governor. This is an education problem and it’s at the heart and root of any society and so, he put together a team of experts, who sat for hours.

In that committee of experts were former VCs, former principals of schools, former Registrar of WAEC, representative of parents and other academic scholars, who came up with all the points that we reviewed. That’s how things ought to be done really. With a man, who pays attention to details, Osun can only get better.

In the area of security, we are doing something different with our security, because security is not just about guns and bullets but about intelligence and that’s one thing we have introduced in Osun. This administration of Governor Oyetola places a lot of emphasis on intelligence gathering and that’s one of the things that’s working for us.

How is the government re-positioning the economy of the state to better the lives of the people?

Mr. governor has said we should do more on the empowerment of the people and now we have gone into the realm of billions in terms of empowering the people, even youths on small, medium scale businesses. The Governor is of the opinion that you can’t grow the economy by depending on the government. Osun is bigger than civil service. Osun is full of civil servants that are brilliant and making serious input into government.

There’s no area of human endeavour that you don’t have Osun people, from aviation to medicine, Agriculture to Engineering.

That’s why the governor decided that what we really need to do is harness our resources, which we started in November 2019, by having an economic and investment summit to showcase what we have – from natural resources to tourism.

Now, our tourist sites, for instance, are beyond what we can make money from by ourselves. We need to bring in investors from everywhere and that’s what we are doing in every sector.

We had the fruit juice factory that came to do its flag-off in January, the ethanol factory last year, and so on. La Campagne Tropicana is interested in our beautiful sites and our free trade zone is equipped for businesses to thrive. We have even taken the gospel of ‘Osun is Open for Business’ to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The governor is always about us doing everything to make the state attractive to investors. Just last week, we have the NIPC here to show that the Ease of Doing business is important to us. We

have the One-Stop-Shop in place to support Small and Medium Scale Businesses so that investors will not come here and run into turbulent waters or bottlenecks.

The Governor signs C of Os everyday so that people, who need C of Os to approach banks and other agencies are not discouraged.

We are working with Central Bank and other donor agencies to make sure that our Agriculture efforts move from being just Agric to being Agric-business. We want to eventually become an exporting state, because Agriculture and tourism can generate employment. Don’t forget our Dagbolu International Market.

We want our people to import and use the Dagbolu International Market, because the train runs from Lagos directly into the market. It sits on a large expanse of land with facilities to accommodate large scale businesses, including a car mart. We want to compete with Lagos Trade Fair complex and we want our people not to look for trailers and truckers if they need to send their products or goods out of the country.

We are running into the wet season, what is the state government doing for farmers?

We just flagged off the Cocoa season and seedlings were given to farmers. The world is moving beyond what’s wet season and what’s dry season. As a state, we want to have a state that does all-year-round farming. We have in Ede a demonstration Farm, where we are doing farming round the year,because we are using greenhouses and deploying technologies and training farmers.

We will continue to work with Agric agencies within Nigeria or outside, for those who are interested in Agric-business, especially, our teeming young people, who are interested in farming business.

How far have you gone in the infrastructure developments?

A lot of people felt this governor wouldn’t be able to do anything considering the paucity of funds in the state but the governor started with the most difficult task of all, which is paying salaries in full. Even I was afraid, when he was sworn in and up till this moment he’s not defaulted once. He has done a lot in infrastructure and like empowerment, infrastructure is a daily thing.

We have done plenty of roads and plenty of roads are also being done even as we speak. Some of them include Oba Adesoji Aderemi Way (East-Byepass), 17.5km; Gbongan-Akoda Road, 30km;

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Okorie: I’m Not a Party to Insecurity in Ebonyi Hon. Linus Abba Okorie is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and two terms member of theHouse of Representatives from Ebonyi State. He bares his minds on several allegations, including that he was involved in inciting and causing insecurity in the state. Benjamin Nworie presents the excerpts:

Y

ou have been repeatedly accused for complicities in some of the dire security situations in Ebonyi State, how do you consider the allegations?

I’m surprised that anyone can accuse me of insecurity in Ebonyi State. My response is that I have no hand in insecurity. I have no hand in any plot and I have no hand in any that has been plotted. Indeed, my track record especially, through Caring Heart is one who has the feelings and conditions and he who feels concerned about the welfare of the people. I wholeheartedly and openly affirm that I am not part of any crisis or insecurity in Ebonyi State. I have never been part except if anyone confronts me with any evidence, I want to let the whole world and Ebonyians know that I am not part of any insecurity in Ebonyi State.

It is argued that the animosity between you and Governor David Umahi was mainly, because the governor scuttled your third term bid?

Definitely not. Indeed, like I mentioned early, I don’t know where it all started. I have never risen against the governor. I have never spoken against the governor negatively. I even refrained from making critical comments on his projects and programmes for reasons that were personal, to give him absolute respect.

But when I saw that his aides, his commissioner had come out to name me as the mastermind of kidnap, that my home was used to torture a kidnapped victim, and the victim, who even at that point, it was in the public domain that an appointee of government was seen and identified positively as one of the kidnappers. It got me thinking and even at that, I held my beat. I was cool until I heard an audio circulating that trnor personally named me and was working hard to put me behind bars for reasons of what I didn’t do. In fact, no clear allegations at all. I bless my God. When Umahi was in PDP, you and other PDP stakeholders expressed absolute confidence in his capacity and performance but the narrative has changed immediately he joined the APC. Why? At every point in time, expression of confidence is the function of the time. And at that time, which is many years back, before 2019, when I spoke about the governor, he was on his first tenure and what he was doing at that time was all OK. But in governance, you must continuously improve. He has remained too long on one spot, building concretes and houses.

We had expected that in his second tenure he would have move strongly and forcefully to the terrain of human capital development.

We wanted him to look into tourism to now link up and leverage on the infrastructure and roads he built. We had expected him to provide the enabling environment that will bring investors and turn Ebonyi from its current civil service economy to a private sector driven economy.

But what do we get? You set up a small business and you are taxed to death. They won’t give you time. They will just shut down your businesses. Its good to build roads. Nobody is taking that a way from him. You don’t just build road and believe you have just build a state. Or you have built an economy. There are things that must come together for those roads to function. You built ecumenical center. Beautiful! We are Christians. Then to what purpose now that u have built? Are u attracting the national Christian body for use. Now, it has become a government hall. That’s not what it should be. Nobody is fighting David Umahi.

Everybody is saying change methods. Factor people in every programme. We are not castigating him. What we want him to do is to move away from construction of concrete to building the people. The truth is that there is need whether in APC or PDP for the governor of Ebonyi State to know that what Ebonyi needs most is developing the people. Not sharing money for God’s sake. With education and health care, Ebonyi will be a great place.

But the governor had earlier raised the alarm after joining

APC, that some stakeholders probably your PDP party men were plotting to destabilise the state just to discredit his administration. How true is it?

Well, if the governor raised the alarm that any person in any party or opposition was working to destabilise the state and he was doing that at the point he was defecting to APC, I am sure subject to providing conclusive and reliable evidence, that remains in the realm of politics. It means that from November till now, he could not provide a shred of evidence against any person, whether name or unnamed, it means he was playing on the realm of politics.

The question is: why will it be at a point of his defection that he suddenly realised that the people he was dining and wining with have suddenly become destabilisers? And these are people he has spoken gloriously about. People he had called fathers and brothers and mentors. That’s by the way, he is the Chief Security Officer, he has the information and he should provide it. It is shocking that the governor would want people to be arrested and charged for inciting bandits and killing.

He actually said these are the killers of your men, security men on the basis of such frivolous reasonings as heard in the audio recording. Let him be open and provide his number, I will provide mine. Other PDP members will provide theirs. Let us hand them to, maybe, the National Security Adviser, maybe DSS, let them screen and see who has been talking to the right and wrong persons and will now know who is the one instigating crisis or insecurity in Ebonyi State. So, there’s no evidence, not even one bit of it in all the governor has said, when he decamped, after he decamped and today while he is still in the APC. Interestingly, peace is gradually returning to the state shortly after the Ebubeagu Security outfit started work but PDP members in the state alleged they are personal militia to fight the opposition members. Is this not alluding to the governor’s claim that insecurity has been politicised in the state, probably by your party?

It is a thing of great joy to learn that peace is gradually returning to the state. We all need peace. We all condemn insecurity. I still condemn any form of insecurity or crises. I condemn it wholeheartedly. But if peace is returning to the state, it is the greatest thing we can get.

Be that as it may, while we pray and I pray for peace and calm to return to the state fully, I disagree completely that any return of peace to the state has any attribution at all to the launch of Ebubeagu. I have not seen any evidence of special efforts made by them. But, first of all, why is Ebubeagu a problem to we in the PDP? It is not a problem to us at all because its a local vigilante.

I have always supported State Police. Indeed, I voted for State Police as a member of House of Representatives during the constitutional amendment. But I hold great exception to the form and structure of Ebubeagu that has been launched hurriedly by Governor David Umahi in Ebonyi State.

He is the chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum. His elder brother is the security consultant in the South east. This Ebubeagu was launched as Southeast security structure but as the driver of the Southeast group, it meant one thing: that there was going to be an understanding, it means there was going to be a law passed in each of the states as announced, or existing ones amended to accommodate a common structure, a uniform, an operational modality, even deployment.

But only two days after, Governor Umahi, without any form of structure, without publishing any law that will guide it, without naming what the structure of Ebubeagu will be in Ebonyi State, without saying who is the Commander General, and so on. He as the governor, rolled at people in a certain uniform and said they were Ebubeagu.

There was widespread outcry saying they look more like the Assemblies of God warders. And he said that has been dissolved and pulled back. Only a few days later, we saw a group of people he said he has launched Ebubeagu in Ebonyi State and suddenly armed. Ebubeagu is not a problem to PDP stakeholders. But

Okorie everything must be done in a clear and transparent plan.

What law is guiding Ebubeagu? What is their role? If I have a complaint against Ebubeagu, where do I go to complaint? Who is the Commander General? What is the command structure? How are they recruited? What is the vetting process to ensure that those Ebubeagu are not criminals, cultists or past convicts? How did they acquire arms? How are they certified to bear arms? To what use can they put their arms to? These are the issues PDP is talking about.

And the governor chose not to answer these clear public interest questions.

You don’t hide the law. You and I should have the law, read it and know when Ebubeagu has violated anybody’s right and know where to report or even go to court. Where is their office?

The governor should provide answers to these questions, provide clarification so that people will stop seeing it as his personal militia, that is there to hunt his enemies and opposition. PDP has no problem with Ebubeagu if it is well done.

There is this fear that crises are imminent in Ebonyi PDP ahead of 2023 general election over varied interests especially, as the party has no definite leader that can take or veto some decisions?

Any party that’s a big party that doesn’t have varied interests is not a party. Any large family must have varied interests. But nobody should be worried about our varied interests in PDP. We are more than capable to harmonise our interest and come out stronger and better. The truth is that if we don’t have this varied interests, we will not be able to build a kind of coalition that we need to take back our mandate that was stolen and taken to the APC. We are on rebuilding struggle and when the time comes, we shall come together as a body of people,who are concerned. We get the result Ebonyi people want. We shall present a candidate in harmony and that candidate shall be our candidate and Ebonyi people, who are PDP will vote that candidate as their candidate and we shall continue from were stopped from the stealing of our mandate to rebuild Ebonyi in the greatest.

Rebuild Ebonyi in the security and welfare of the people and take their interest at heart. And start to provide project and policies that are people-driven. We shall not be a government of deceit. We shall not be a government of promise and fail. It shall be a government,

t Egbemode: With Oyetola’s Attention to Details, Osun Can Only Get Better t Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo, 40km; rehabilitation of Itaasin (St. Stephen) – Our Lady’s School – Police Divisional Headquarters, Modakeke – Famia Road, 1.8km; Osogbo – Kelebe – Iragbiji Road, 16.55km;rehabilitation of Ilesa – Iperindo – Ipetu Jesa Road, 30km; Odori – Adeeke Road, Iwo, 5.6km; completed, total overlay of Ikirun (Idi Esu) Roundabout – Iragbiji Road, 6.092km; Dele Yes Sir Roundabout – Okefia Roundabout, Osogbo, spot patching of Isare – Ifofin – Iloro – Akewusola Road, 1.5km; Ede Army Barracks – Ara – Ejigbo Road, Moro – Ipetumodu – Yakoyo – Asipa – Ife/Ibadan Expressway, Ada – Igbajo Road, 13km etc.

And these are just a few.

We have a round peg in a round hole and a leader, who thinks paying salaries is one thing,

making his people happy is another, securing them is very important and improving their environment for now and the future is also of utmost importance. He’s juggling all the balls successfully to the admiration of even the naysayers. We have done a lot of roads across all the senatorial districts of the state.

All the local government areas of the state have benefitted in one way or the other from Alekuwodo Network of roads, Ada-Igbajo and so on. It’s quite a list. Some of those roads had not been touched for 30 years and some didn’t even exist. Now, we are topping it with the Olaiya Flyover, because a city centre is a city centre and a state capital is a state capital and cannot continue to look like a rural area. This is an ancient city but with modern people in it.

It’s a state capital we are trying to invest in and bring more people into, it means more vehicles; heavy duty vehicles, more cars and more houses are springing up, because as more people are trooping in to do business, they will need a place to live in. Everything is more and as we approach the extra level, it was decided that our people will not spend their productive time in traffic, so, we found a way of funding our infrastructure through what we call the Alternative Funding Approach.

That helped us to free up funds to attend to other immediate essential things while we let the contractors fund those projects and we pay back later in instalments. This has helped the state tremendously and that is why construc-

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tion of roads is going on everywhere.

Not a lot has been heard from water resources. Why? We are doing a lot in that sector. We have two great guys manning the sector and they are are passionate about their assignment. The day I found out what had been done in water resources, I was amazed. The special publication we did from this ministry, titled: “The First 24 Months” has a long list of things done in water resources. Every Commissioner and Special advisers in the State has been given a mandate on what they should do and deliver on and we are all doing that but of course, we are all work-in-progress.

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David Ker: Soulmate: Welcome to the Septuagenarian Season Olu Obafemi

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celebrate my bosom friend, brother and soulmate, David Ker, frontline literary scholar, university and public administrator, profound intellectual and fine gentleman, as he turns Seventy today. We may not eat food (the Tiv’s king of cultural cuisines) dressed with bush meat (Nyam toho) today, but I shall drink a little wine to your safe arrival at the portals of the Septuagenarian Season.

I do not find it difficult at all to write about my bosom friend and soulmate, David Iyornongu Ker, at any moment or time and from any perspective of our lives together, which is a year short of five decades today. What may be difficult for me to do is knowing what to leave out, as too private and what is for our ears only in our banter-full, laughter/ humour, anecdote-surfeited fraternal lives together. This Tribute will therefore, in delivery strategy, oscillate between formal and direct manner of telling. This is because, it is one relationship that has transcended the confines of friendship and has smashed the borders of kinship, and everyone marginally close to us know that we are simply inseparable. Turning Seventy now, a year and two months after me, the only thing I may have had to lose is the privilege of taunting you with this thing about being a senior citizen, which you have now, handsomely become, with all his charms, relish and burdens. I am very delighted to welcome you, David, into colder clime of life; the Season of the Septuagenarians!

Ker And, I do not take this friendship for granted at all, as I know that you never done. It has been a relationship full of mutual sacrifices, understanding, grace and coveted devotion. It has also been one jealously cultivated and guided, not just because it is difficult to begin to build new ones but also because the value it has added to our lives, my life and I believe yours, bears clutching on to, and I am most grateful to you for being such a priceless pal. I would have loved to sing you a song, but in what language, as we both, in spite of these many years shared in each other’s mind and company, and along with many of our other friends, we only share a smattering of each other’s tongue—Okun-Yoruba in my case, and Tiv in yours. Yes, we know the social nuances of our tongues, the rich anecdotes and idiolects, social behaviours, mores, lores and ethos of our mutual peoples on the lower Niger trough, where civilization around here began; yes you sing one or two of Ajon songs and dance to the bits of my people’s Agbelege music, just as I relish the rhythms of Swange, including its sensuous lyrics and body rhythms and the satirical butts of Kwag-Hir, I cannot dress you in your Oriki, your cognomens, nor paint your exploit in the eloquence of Tiv thought, tropes and figures. So, a song will not do to capture the twists and contours of our closely knitted lives these many seasons. Neither, therefore will a poem do; despite the power of every word, every verse, to tease meanings out of the rough and tumble of life Believe me when I say that your friendship has meant so much to me, as it has revealed to me, the boundlessness and infiniteness of the possibilities inhered in a genuine relationship, a relationship that does not count costs, nullifying distances and spaces, domes and heights, in all their manifestations. The personal sacrifices you have made for this friendship to subtend are too weighty to debrief. Everyone knows that no Obafemi event—social, celebrative, creative and professional- is complete without your physical, moral and mental involvement. The effortless ease which your shorten the road between Makurdi, via Abuja to Ilorin, just to be there with me; the incredible way you meet 48 hours’ unfair deadlines to write Forewords, prefaces and blurbs to my books! The joy you show in take examination assignments in Ilorin (and I know elsewhere) even as Vice-Chancellor and Commissioner, for the love of our shared calling! How many shall I count in the plethora of Adepele’s teeth, dear David! Now, do I dare look forward to the future with trepidation, given the uncertainties and dangers in our insecure, violent theatre which our nation has now become, where every moment lived beyond every night, is a bounty, a bonus, even as are turning the final curve in the journey of life?

There is so much to reveal, in appreciation of the

friendship you offered me, dear Noriega, but the paradox of life also is that, there are always things to say, where time is in deficit, but yet, unlike now, where there is time in abundance, and words fail. Luckily, I have heard occasions—at your Golden and Diamond Jubilees, at your Valedictory from BSU and the lectures to which I have been invited to give speeches by your acolytes and disciples who read your mind and will, that hardly are there many others whom you would have preferred on such occasions to make speeches.

I borrow all those talks and lectures to express my feelings and joy on this occasion of your entry into the Winter Season.

Yet it would be quite apposite, and relieving to share a just a few of those features and attributes of your life, as I have lived them with you, not for your sake, but for what instruction it may bequeath to society, out there.

I am not talking of those achievements of yours that Professor Google has eloquently provided—your fine scholarship, commitment to the academia and education generally, your erudition, capacity for eloquence, poetic brevity of profound thoughts; your perspicacious public intellectualism which carry the burdens of the underprivileged masses of society, your inimitable mentoring genius delivered in palpable humility and baritone and elocution in the middle of laughter great humour, and so on. Need I engage in the obvious achievements which you have gathered in your strides without airs—as Head of English, Dean of Arts and of Students in ABU, during which one of your students, Tanimu Abubakar, himself a Professor of over two decades and eloquent literary theorist, painted as locating you in the frontier of literary scholarship /discourse as a ‘political activity’ in ABU in the late seventies and eighties in his Tribute titled Professor Ker and the Pedagogical Transformation of Literary Studies at A.B.U. thus: ‘Professor Ker should be credited with the singular prestige of consolidating a political pedagogy for the study of literature in ABU. He broadened and entrenched the pioneering works of late Professor Ogungbesan (our late teacher and mentor I add) by fusing literary studies with studies of History, Sociology and Drama. In his very important contribution, Professor Ker centred the grand-narratives of African discourse-History, politics and Ideology in the study of Literature’.

I have quoted this pithy and apt perception of your contribution to literary knowledge and academia only to foreground the origins of your unique apprehension of the sociology of power politics, power ploy and its strengths and limitations in our society, which as I have said two decades ago, you, among our generation, were the first to embrace, or is it confront. You came to

grips very early in your career with power in its many trappings and demonstrated, in practice, how it can be used to nourish humanity.

Your achievement as an academic, scholar, university administrator (as Deputy Vice- Chancellor and twice as Vice-Chancellor and in public service as a former Commissioner in the Benue State Governmentveritable platforms/laboratories for locating your incredible deployment of positions of power for the advancement of the humanist enterprise. The goal has always been, for you, the improvement of the lot who come across you in the classroom, in university committees, in bureaucracies, in the dog-eat-dog field of politics and in the joyous social venues among friends. I had observed that your life aspirations and motivations, as those occasions of selfless service have proved, has always been informed by the vocation of the imagination, which compelled, you, to tell a story from which humanity feeds and drinks; to nourish the soul and help grow society achieve its possibilities, from whichever corner of it you are privileged to operate.

As you turn seventy, beginning to bend the curve of life downwards, inevitably, it is satisfying to see you return to your original and first love—from which I am proud to say as a witness that you never departed from—pedagogy, training the minds that owns the future, critical thinking, and mentoring of the generation that is succeeding ours. You dared, in advance of many of us too timid to do so, to venture into partisan politics, believing, as Tai Solarin once admonished, that ‘he who knows does, he who does not teaches. Your life in academia was devoted to teaching what you know and do, best. You plunged into the ajar-red jaws of a famished lion; into the murky waters of politics, out there, willing to dirty your hands so as to help clean up the filth in the society of your birth, and by extension, the nation. In the end, that society, whose grass-root wanted and believed in you, and whose political elite, cautiously embraced the inevitability of your capacious merit to help lift society, but only from a safe distance-- was not ready for you. We, your friends, less daring and indeed timid to leap like you did into the political terrain, allowed you, in fact encouraged/ nudged you on, knowing that, giving the condiments and requisites for getting into the Government House (which should be the people’s house), you may not get there. We let you dare because we know that after your plunge, the pond will never settle again until the people’s dream for visionary leadership comes to fulfilment.

This, my brother, soulmate, Noriega, as I said two decades ago, is what I wish you in abundance; ‘that your shadow never shrink nor your glowing light go dim or less than the glow-worm of your promise. That the plethora of your bright colours may shame both the chameleon and the rainbow.

That you match, toward old age, excelling in the enterprise of giving service, hope and love to those who need it the most and that you continue to carry along all those around you, struggling to find a way out of the darkling deluge of our land, with courage, characteristic humility, Spartan discipline and may you yet eat, on this part of life, the fruit of your laborious life—even as our Season runs its course.

At seventy, dusk time is nigh, but the lights are not dimmed yet, and there is still so much light that you can shed on our cloudy, foggy, national doldrums. And you must (as indeed you have been doing in the last few years in Abuja and Keffi) embrace your profession, teaching, mentoring, lighting the way to society’s future. I join all the elders in our ‘tribe’ to welcome you to the Season of the Septuagenarians.

And to you, Professor Mrs. Beatrice Ker, the cherub, who bears and tolerates your restless search for essence, these many decades, I can only say, keep on your enduring virtue of your fulfilment as this celebration is also for you.

––Olu Obafemi.

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‘Buhari’s Borrowing Is Worrisome’ Samuel Iyapo is the Financial Director of the Nigeria Diaspora Network based in the United States. In this interview with Tobi Soniyi, warned the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to reduce the cost of governance and reduce its appetite for foreign loans. Excerpts:

N

igeria faces a number of challenges, one of which is youth unemployment and restiveness. How should the government tackle this problem?

One of the reasons for youth unemployment is urban migration, whereby everybody moves to the cities looking for white collar jobs and because the cities cannot cope with the number of people migrating to the cities, there is a blowout of population in the urban centers.

To reverse this trend, I will suggest a restructuring of the economy by giving local government areas autonomy to enable them generate more revenues and create jobs. The councils in return should engage the youth by introducing school to land programmes.

Economy should be diversified from over reliance on the oil sector to agriculture. There should be programmes by local government allocating lands to the use and supply them with high-yielding crops. The government should give a monitored soft loan to any youth ready to go into agriculture. Monitored loan in the sense that such loan will be directed to the purpose for which the loan is given.The government also should make available free rentals of tractors and other farming tools to assist the youth farmers.

Nigeria’s economy is seven times bigger than that of Ghana, but Ghana attracts more Foreign Direct Investments than Nigeria. Why is this so?

It is a combination of factors. First is the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. People, including foreigners, are kidnapped on a daily basis. People can not travel from one state to another without fear of possible attacks or kidnapping for ransom. In these circumstances, it will be very difficult for foreign investors to come to Nigeria, where the safety of people is not guaranteed.

Several investors have been kidnapped or killed. No foreign investors will establish where they are not able to get returns.

Instead, they must pay ransom to free their workers, who are kidnapped.

There is also the challenge of inconsistency in policy. Today, the government can make it easy for you to bring your money in only to wake up tomorrow and throw in another policy that will not allow you to take your money out. Policy summersault scares investors. There is also the challenge of multiple taxation.

Iyapo Local government, state, federal and even non-state actors will tax you. This discourages potential investors. They will look for a country where they face minimal challenges.

Nigerians living in the Diaspora send billions of naira home as remittance every year, yet, they have no role to play in elections.

What roles should Nigerians in the Diaspora play to stabilise Nigerian politics and elect good leaders for the country?

It is long overdue for Nigerians in Diaspora to be given the opportunity of voting in Nigeria’s election. It is one of our goals to work with the federal government so that we can vote in any election through electronic voting including local government elections. In the meantime, we have resolved to put in place a fund to support honest Nigerians, who can make positive

change when elected into office.

Our findings show that many credible people cannot participate in elections because they lack the resources. We will identify such people, interview them and support them.We are also calling on the authorities in Nigeria to discourage godfatherism so that more qualified Nigerians can vie for any elective position.

There are various ethnic groups seeking to declare independence from Nigeria. Do you think this is the right way to go?

In my opinion, restructuring would have been a better alternative, the reason every person is yearning for independence is the lopsided appointments by the federal government and the none-fair distribution of the national cake. Nigerian is recognised worldwide, because of our numerical strength. We can make the country work for everyone, if it does, no one will be asking for independence. In fact, our neighbours will seek to join Nigeria.

We should make the country work for all of us.

No doubt, Nigeria is bedeviled by bad leadership, but do you think the followers have done well too?

There are enough blame to go around. We all as citizens have faults and cannot exonerate ourselves from the issue of bad leadership. We all encourage corruption one way or the other.

Our constitution gives room for censuring of non performing leaders, but because of the love of money, we have mortgaged our rights to our rulers. The people’s reactions to prosecuting corrupt officials have been mangled. It is very difficult to prosecute a corrupt Yoruba man, because of the response from his people, who think he or she is being prosecuted, because he is a Yoruba man. The same goes to the Igbo and Hausa/Fulani. We are all guilty because of the love for money. As a matter of urgency and priority, can you suggest steps President Muhammadu Buhari should take to stop the country from drifting into a failed state?

As a matter of urgency, the President should address the nation and state the efforts he is making towards solving the security challenges confronting the nation. He must realise that his economic policy isn’t working. He should form an economic team that will steer the country in the right economic direction.

The president should stop digging Nigeria further into debt. It is worrisome that the Buhari administration continues to borrow instead of reducing the cost of governance to generate the needed resources. They say when you are in a hole you should stop digging. You cannot dig yourself out of the hole. Nigeria will sink further, if Buhari continues to borrow.

PERSPECTIVE

Abdulrazaq: A Mid-Term Report Raheem Adedoyin

H

AbdulRazaq

e is already on a projects commissioning mode; so, you can’t claim ignorance of the achievements of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in Kwara State in two years.

The decision to go public with the projects the AbdukRazaq Administration has executed since getting elected in 2019 is commendable. It, at least, lowers the temperature on the often manufactured negative news on the state of affairs in Kwara.

If you go by the recent press and social media reports, you will be forgiven to think that Kwara has lacked of good governance since the last government was sent packing in 2019 in a gale of electoral tsunami.

The crisis in the rulling All Progressives Party (APC) in the state, the Hijab in school controversy and other negative news trended faster than the methodical execution of programmes and projects across the state.

Well, Kwara is working; Kwara is making progress; Kwara is a model for good governance. All politics are local; If you live in Kwara, you would know all this. Mercifully, the Government Communication strategy is getting better and getting more coordinated.

Kwara APC scored an own-goal by mismanaging the goodwill that came with routing the 20-year old (not 16-year old) hegemonic leadership in the state. So unfortunate, so troubling.

As an insider, I know the genesis and dangers of the party crisis. The Governor as the Party Leader does not sit well with some respected political leaders who wear the toga of _OtoGe_ Godfathers.

They want the Governor to surrender or share his executive authority with party leaders even when the opportunities and leveraging they have at the federal level have been self-serving.

The ambivalence of the party’s national leadership has not helped matters. The National leadership deals officially and publicly with Abdullahi Samari as State Chairman but they have not publicly announced that Bashir Omolaja Bolariwa (BOB) had ceased to be Chairman. They should speak out.

I applaud the reconcilatory moves of well- meaning leaders.

The formation of a new executive committee of tge party at all levels should bring the much-needed peace if reconciliation is prioritized and pursued genuinely.

The party crisis has obscured the administration’s sterling performance on basic good governance and infrastructural development. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) has lately regained some of its fractured gait but the real opposition to the state government is not PDP but the aggrieved APC leaders whose cyber bullies have let loose their arsenals on the Governor and the Administration. They are destroying the party, not the Governor.

I love that the Governor is commissioning some of his signature projects- from the North to the Central and to the South.

My Oro District in Irepodun Local Government, is already in celebratory mood. Our flagship educational heritage, the iconic Oro Grammar School (OGS) has been given a complete face lift (rehabilitation, renovation, new classroom construction and new equipments). Complementarily, the Ijomu Oro/Okerimi Oro Junction –NITEL Junction (strategically linking the two wards in Oro District) is now an alphart-lay road, courtesy of the AA Government. This road project is so significant to us because all entreaties by Oro people since 1958 when OGS was created for that project to be undertaken, were unheeded. Until AA came to our rescue. Thank you, Mr. Governor.

The Governor’s mid-term report in the public space is very good. The political space, however, needs greater attention as the next two years will be battle royale politically.

Happy Anniversary, Mr Governor.

––Raheem Adedoyin is a Journalist and APC Chieftain.

67

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 6, 2021

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

A Walk Along Biafra Street

O

f all the ghosts that haunt the Nigerian landscape, none are more stubborn than the restless ghosts of Biafra. They used to return annually to possess their devotees. Now they have become permanent residents in our lives through the social media and on television screens in our living rooms. They have gripped the streets and now also inhabit the forests of familiar places.

Last Monday was observed as memorial day by the people of the South East. It was Biafra Day, a solemn commemoration of the day of independence in what used to be Republic of Biafra. This year, as in recent years past, various pro- Biafra groups had scrambled for headlines by routinely declaring the day a work free day. These declarations were unnecessary. The day declared itself a memorial day since the formal end of the civil war in January 1970. Since then, it has become etched in the collective memory of all the people who still see this imaginary republic as an alternative home nation.

The right to adopt a sanctuary of the mind, a destination of collective respite where the collective mind finds solace in times of tribulation remains the entitlement of every people afflicted with a bad history. The memory of Biafra, like all treasured memories of historical belonging, has been passed down the generations in the last 50 years. The force of communal remembrance of past sadness is usually fired up by experiences of in a bitter present. In recent times, a palpable uncertainty about the future of the Nigerian common patrimony has amped up the burden of a troublesome historical memory for those who see Biafra as part of their authentic identity.

In solemn observance of this year’s Biafra Day, business and official activities in major centres of the South East were paused. The markets were shut, roads deserted and the ritual of money making which drives the lives of most of these people was suspended. Any intangible force that is strong enough to stop the Igbo race to pause the reflex of money making, even for a short while, is strong enough to arouse genuine curiosity.

On the day before, which was a Sunday, some in these parts had chosen to dedicate their church services to a communion with the spirits of the dead and return to the privacy of their homes afterwards. It was not the fear of danger by errant youth or the violence of frenzied mobs that kept people indoors. If there was fear of danger, it was danger from bullets fired indiscriminately by soldiers and police men sent to disturb the peace of those who only want to be left alone. The observance of Biafra Day in some previous years had always witnessed the routine accidental discharges, deaths in cross fires or the indiscriminate shooting at crowds of people merely out in memorial procession. The police and soldiers, always citing orders from ‘above’, have tallied casualty figures that often conflict with those recorded by Amnesty International. Experience has however taught these people that it is better to stay alive to witness future memorials by simply staying home while the heavy boots of transient power trample the streets.

The assumption that it is IPOB, ESN, MASSOB or any of the other latter day partakers in the growing Biafra franchise that made this year’s Biafra Day ‘sit at home’ so effective is false. The increasing uncertainty of life in a very insecure Nigeria has contributed. The discord among Nigerians about the future of the nation itself has spread the message of separatism and imminent catastrophe widely among many Nigerians. In a time of nationwide uncertainty and insecurity, people naturally seek the warm embrace of homestead, the invisible protective wall of kindred and the reassurance of ancient beliefs and kind ancestors, Beyond the discomforts of present day Nigeria, however, the Biafra experience hardly needs anyone’s prompting to be remembered. Official Nigeria committed a fatal error of common sense in presenting this year’s Biafra ‘sit at home’ order as a test of will with the separatist groups especially IPOB. Now that the order has been obeyed massively, the government has lost a simple avoidable psychological contest. The people of the South East obeyed the force of memory, not the orders of IPOB or the counter order of the police.

Biafra Day is simply a spontaneous pause to remember those lost in a season of rage and hate.

The Biafran war remains to date the single most memorable historical event in the history of Nigeria. It was a full -blown civil war. People died in droves, an estimated 1 million, from bullets and starvation. The Igbos happen to be the one single ethnic group that bore the brunt of the war. To that extent, it has become lodged in their collective unconscious as a trauma that will not go away. It will not go away easily because the Igbo seem to have been singled out or branded by who they are for victimhood in the Nigerian experience.

Better still, the Igbos do not need anyone to remind them of Biafra or the pain that lingers in their collective heart. No one needs to remind the Jews that the Holocaust claimed 6 million of them. The blacks in South Africa do not need to be reminded that there was Apartheid and centuries of injustices and violent racist oppression.

Successive generations of Japanese citizens need no one to remind them that on 6th and 9th August, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incinerated by nuclear bombs dropped by the US, leading to the death of 85,000 and another 35,000 injured. Twenty five years after the Rwandan genocide, no one needs to remind the Tutsis that there was a genocide which led to the loss of nearly a million Tutsi lives in less than 100 days. Nor do the Australian Aborigines need anyone to remind them of their near extermination and the loss of whole generations of Aboriginal children forcefully taken away from their parents. No one can remind the African American population of the United States that there was slavery, racial discrimination, the Ku Klux Klan, public hanging of blacks

Alkali-Baba, Inspector General of Police or Jim Crow even in today’s America. These memories live on as determining forces of these different national histories.

Memory is the gathering place of experience. The sanctity of memory is guaranteed by the impenetrable wall of communal anguish and past injustice. You can neither decree away nor shoot down the power of a people’s memory. The collective memory of a people has a certain sanctity about it that demands that it be respected and venerated as a sacred zone. No one else can feel the hurt in my heart. You do not go there let alone allow the irrationality of transient power to tempt an invasion of the sacred place of a people’s communal memory. It is an abomination. Individual memory of past hurt is however a more restricted private place. It can only be assuaged by the passage of time and the soothing balm of love and fellowship. Not so for communal memory of hurt and historic injustice.

For a people bound by culture and kinship, a bad memory can become a place of refuge in times of tribulation in a larger community. Nigeria has spent the last fifty years consolidating a segment of the national community, the Igbos, as the ‘other’ Nigerians. Or, better still, the Igbos have unconsciously spent the last fifty years literally left out in the rain of national life. But an ethnic group remembers the past often as an enclave demarcated either by triumph or victimhood and injustice.

Nations are different. They have a more composite memory which is the sum total of all the communal memories that make up the nation.

Unlike individuals or ethnic groups, nations remember differently.

The memories of a nation are also stored differently. They are either locked away in museums, frozen in monuments or celebrated in the ritual re-enactments of state ceremony. The best nations are those that confront their past boldly and appropriate even the worst episodes, nationalize and democratize them.

The difficult questions posed by national memory are best addressed and answered for the benefit of posterity. Biafra was not just a tragedy of the Igbos or the peoples that once called themselves Biafrans. It was a rude question mark on the false assumptions of Nigeria’s independence. But for fifty years, Nigeria has confined the memory of Biafra to a sectional ethnic pigeon hole. This is why each year, Nigeria marks Biafra season with special security arrangements designed for the South East. This usually takes the form of massive deployment of battle ready soldiers and policemen.

To characterize these operations, Nigeria has literally exhausted the animals in the wild trying to name each special operation: ‘crocodile tears’, ‘python dance’, ‘jackal parade’ …

Through these operations, the Nigerian state repeatedly reminds these people of the violence that precipitated the war in the first place.

That violence is re-enacted annually in the multiple renditions, arrests, senseless incarcerations and summary executions of innocent people. The repeated criminalization of memory is one reason why Biafra has refused to die. Each seasonal show of force, each torrent of violence, each triumphal motorcade of armed forces through the streets of areas that no longer want to be battlefields is a deliberate irritation. These shows have only renewed and rekindled the spirit of Biafra.

This year’s memorial has coincided with an atmosphere of widespread insecurity. Anew Inspector General of Police had ordered a special security operation in the South East. He was ostensibly responding to a spate of criminal acts ranging from the torching of police stations to the unfortunate loss of police personnel. Reports on the ground indicate this special operation has however degenerated into an orgy of indiscriminate arrests, harassments, abuses, extra judicial killings and routine disappearances of innocent healthy male youth in the region. We are yet to see any court arraignments.

In pursuit of this policy of total pacification, we are witnessing a fundamental reversal of the principle of all internal security operations. In a democracy, the protection of life and property ought to be the overriding objective. Instead, what seems to be going on in the South East is a programmed denial of life and wanton confiscation of private property. In the process, a deeper bitterness is being sowed and etched into the hearts of a people long used to seeing themselves as ‘outsiders’ and victims of deliberate exclusion. Asecurity strategy that deliberately endangers life, liberty and property in a specific region of the country can only heighten the sense of exclusion and worsen national insecurity.

Something even worse is happening in the anti- Biafra security operation. Acertain insensitivity to the cultural peculiarities of the people is openly on display in the security template. You cannot secure a people you hardly know. Consequently, the operation is defying and defiling every thing that the Igbo hold sacred. You do not arrest or abduct a male son in the presence of his widowed mother.

You do not go into a community and round up most of the adult young males and take them to an unknown destination. You thereby send a message to the community that their protective wall has been forcefully taken down. You do not manhandle the head of a family in the presence of his wife and children. These are all adversarial acts that have little to do with securing lives and property in any civilized sense. In this culture, these acts are hubristic and hard to forget.

There is however a common crime to which these random abuses are being attributed. Every youth that is arrested, killed or caused to disappear in the South East today is presumed guilty of being a member of IPOB or ESN. No need for evidence. No need for investigation. No need to file formal charges or stage court trials.

The crime is established; the investigation concluded and the verdict passed. The penalty is the same: death not by judicial verdict. No one has yet shown us the membership list of IPOB or ESN or a camp with weapons or evidence of organization.

Those who want to know why Biafra will not go away in a hurry should take a trip to the South East now and observe the 2021 edition of the Pacification of the Lower Niger in progress under the supervision of our own national police and military. Since after Lord Lugard’s pacification towards the end of the 19th century, so much progress has indeed been made. The colonial maxim gun has been replaced by AK-47s and machine guns mounted on Toyota pickup trucks. The jackboots of the occupying force and their victims have not changed however. Neither has the doctrine. The power relationship remains the same: the hunters versus the hunted.

On the contrary, there is now a new attitude to national memory and history that is calling us from all over the world. It is inspired by a new model of statesmanship as well. Sensitive nations remember the crimes committed by their citizens against their fellow citizens or the atrocities which previous dispensations committed under the banner of the nation against other people or nations.

Only last Tuesday, President Joe Biden of the United States returned to Tulsa Oklahoma, the place that best captures the extreme violence of racial hatred in American history. There in 1921, white hate in an orgy of insane rage massacred hundreds of blacks, burnt down a unique business district that came to be called Black Wall Street. In returning to Tulsa, Biden went with a message of hope and reconciliation and healing. Hear Biden: “Only in remembrance do wounds heal… Great nations come to terms with the dark sides of their past.”

On 13th February 2008, my friend the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, got the Australian parliament to openly apologize to the Aboriginals for the injustice of the forceful abductions of their children in an unjust programme of racist acculturation. Barely a fortnight ago, President Emmanuel Macron traveled all the way to Kigali to meet Paul Kagame. His mission was to literally apologize for the negligence of France in failing to prevent or curtail the extent of Rwanda’s Hutu versus Tutsi genocide 25 years ago. Not far from there, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a special envoy to Windhoek, Namibia, to apologize for the genocide committed by German colonial soldiers against the Herero and Namba peoples in what has come to be known as the ‘forgotten genocide’.

There is always a moral burden that leaders of nations must discharge in dealing with the bad memories of their nations either in dealing with other nations or in ugly relationships among sections of their own populace. That moral burden remains a debt overhang around the necks of successive leaders. Neither the passage of time nor changes in dispensations can obliterate the pangs of an ugly memory nor reduce the moral deficit of injustice.

Fifty years after the end of the Nigerian civil war, no Nigerian leader has found the courage to nationalize the Biafran experience as national (not Igbo ethnic) memory. None has yet found the courage to appropriate the lessons of that war and make them national assets for the avoidance of a repeat. No one has been called to account for the war crimes committed in that war. Instead, we have decorated glorified war criminals with senseless titles and fancy accolades.

We have invited the same scoundrels to re-assume the mantle of national leadership as if nothing happened between 1967 and 1970. We have awarded some of them huge oil blocs and generally elevated them into a pantheon to whom the nation owes life time gratitude. No Nigerian leader, military or civilian, has found the courage to apologize openly to the Igbos for the genocide committed against them before and during the war. Instead, our leaders have all relapsed into the psychology of victor and vanquished which has now made Nigeria a land of winners and losers.

I am an unrepentant Nigerian. But do not ask me why I prefer to walk each year along Biafra Street or why the fifty year old ghosts of Biafra are doomed to return ever so frequently to torment us all.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

68

NEWS Despite $30m Safe School Project, Bandits Kidnap 939 Students in Six Months

News Editor: Gboyega Akinsanmi E-mail: ÑÌÙãÏÑ˲ËÕÓØÝËØ×Ó̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט͸΀͹ͽͺͻͽ΁ͺͽͻ

Global Rights laments govts’ failure to secure schools Seeks immediate audit of $30m Safe School Initiative Gboyega Akinsanmi

No fewer than 939 students have been kidnapped from different secondary schools and tertiary institutions across the federation between December 2020 and May 2021, a new survey that tracks kidnapping incidents in schools has revealed.

With the rising incidents of students’ abduction, Global Rights, a Washington-based human rights organisation, asked the federal government to audit the Safe School Initiative, a $30 million project initiated under the Goodluck Jonathan administration to protect schools nationwide.

The organisation yesterday released the report of its study to THISDAY, graphically showing the trajectory of mass abduction that occurred in secondary schools and tertiary institutions from December 2020 and May 2021.

Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist organisation, kidnapped 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School at Chibok, headquarters of Chibok Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State on April 14, 2014.

Consequently, the Global Business Coalition for Education, a movement of businesses committed to ending the global education crisis, unveiled the Safe School Initiative in Nigeria

in May 2014 with $30 million to prevent the recurrence of armed invasion into schools nationwide.

The Jonathan administration supported the Safe School Initiative with N2 billion before he handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015.

But the Buhari administration did not prioritise the implementation of the initiative despite the frequency of armed invasion into and mass abduction in schools, forcing the House of Representatives to launch a probe into the initiative The abduction of students had continued in different parts of the federation, compelling Global Rights to kick off campaigns against mass abduction and killing under the hashtags: #NigeriaMourns, #NigeriaBleeds and #SecureNigeria.

Tracking mass abduction in schools, the survey revealed that a group of gunmen invaded Olagua Primary School, Ohordua, a town in Esan South East Local Government Area (LGA), Edo State on December 1, 2020, abducting one teacher.

Similarly, on December 8, 2020, the survey showed that two teachers in Ohorhe Secondary School, Effurun, the headquarters of Uvwie LGA, Delta State, kidnapped at least two teachers in the school.

The incident of December

11, 2020, according to the survey, was more tragic with the invasion of the Government Boys Science Secondary School, Kankara, Kankara LGA and the consequent abduction of 333 students from the school.

Precisely one week after the Kankara incident, the survey revealed that bandits struck again in Katsina State on December 19, 2020, abducting

84 students in Hizburrahim Islamiyya, Mahuta village, Dandume Local Government Area.

In Niger State, bandits invaded Government Science College in Kagara, the headquarters of Rafi LGA on February 17, 2021, leading to the abduction of at least 42 persons comprising 27 students, three staff members and 12 of their

relatives.

On February 26, 2021, bandits invaded the Government Girls Science Secondary in Jangebe, a community in Talata Mafara LGA, Zamfara where they kidnapped at least 279 students.

On March 11, as the survey revealed, the bandits forced their way into the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, a town in Igabi LGA,

thereby kidnapping at least 39 persons.

Also, the survey showed that the bandits invaded Greenfield University in Kasarami Village, Chikun Local Government, Kaduna State on April 20, 2021. The bandits eventually left the campus with at least 23 students of the university, five of whom were murdered due to the inability of the students to pay ransom.

GOING GREEN. . .

L-R: Founder, Lekki Urban Forest Animal Sanctuary (LUFASI), Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi; General Manager, Lagos State Parks & Gardens Agency, Adetoun Popoola; Commissioner for the Environment & Water Resources, Tunji Bello; Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage Services, Dr. Joe Igbokwe and Permanent Secretary, Environment & Water Resources, Belinda Odeneye, during the unveiling of urban regeneration garden to commemorate the 2021 World Environment Day in Lekki Lagos... yesterday

Tompolo Accepts FG’s Request to Constitute NDDC Board in June Sylvester Idowu inWarri

A former Commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo (a.k.a Tompolo) yesterday agreed to the request of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to constitute the board of NDDC before the end of June.

Ekpemupolo, the Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw nation, said he reluctantly accepted the outcome of the meeting with the minister, though warned that nothing should derail the agreement reached.

He made these remarks in a statement he issued yesterday, asking President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) before June 30 as a matter of urgency.

He agreed to review the early ultimatum he issued last Monday due to the aftermath of the consultative meeting held at Oporoza in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local government Area (LGA), Delta State by leaders, youths and stakeholders from the region and not any form of inducement

The former warlord acknowledged that the seven-day ultimatum he issued last Monday, May 31 generated a lot of concern in the polity He said the ultimatum “has generated lots of concerns expressed by Nigerians hence machinery was put in place for consultations among Nigerians, especially from highly placed individuals and organizations from the Niger Delta region, including the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.”

Ekpemupolo said he waded

into the matter because of his love for the region and Nigeria, noting that he could not be compromised by money and other material things.

However, he said the only thing one “can do for Nigeria in the trying times, where all the six geopolitical zones are in turmoil, is to pray to God for peace and tranquillity, particularly for the economic hub of the country, the Niger Delta region.”

Ekpemupolo said he welcomed the consultative meeting of “our revered traditional rulers from the region, Delta State Government,

the Ijaw National Congress (INC) led by its President, Professor Benjamin Okaba, leaders from the Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko, Ndokwa and other Nationalities with the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Akpabio in attendance, at the traditional headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Oporoza town on Thursday, June 3.

“The minister has made the outcome of the meeting known to the public. He promised profusely to start the process of the constitution and inauguration of the substantive board of the NDDC immediately and that he

should be allowed to drive the process to an end on or before the end of June 2021.”

Ekpemupolo disclosed that although he reluctantly accepted the outcome of the meeting, he warned that nothing should derail the agreement reached.

“As it stands now, I have accepted the outcome of the meeting reluctantly. It is pertinent to state at this juncture that I do not want anything to disrupt the relative peace we are enjoying in the region. It was on this premise that I accepted the outcome of the meeting.

Oyo Dares FG, Constitutes Special Task to Enforce Open Grazing Prohibition Kayode Fasua in Abeokuta

The Oyo State Government at the weekend dared the federal government with a revelation that it would not only start the implementation of its anti-open grazing law in full hog, but will also raise a special task force to hunt down defaulting herdsmen.

Makinde, also, said it was clear that governors across the federation “are not the Chief Security Officers” of their respective states, but mere Chief Logistics Officer.”

The state governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde revealed this plan at a session with journalists at the

Government House, Ibadan, Oyo State capital, noting that the task force would be inaugurated in the next two months.

In a 12-point communiqué last month, the Forum of Southern Governors announced a ban on open grazing in all the 17 Southern states, asking the federal government to support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems.

The forum noted that the unity of the country should be “on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples

with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity.

In response, the president questioned the legality of the forum to prohibit open grazing in the southern region of the federation, noting that his administration was working on other alternatives to bring peace between farmers and herders.

Makinde’s latest move came on the heels of a joint decision by the southern governors to outlaw open-grazing, amid concerns over recurring Fulani herdsmen attacks and cases of kidnapping, assault, and raping, traced to the herders.

Makinde was particularly appalled by the spectre of Fulani herdsmen whom he sighted grazing their flock on local farmers’ plantations, on his way from Ibadan to Iseyin in Oyo State on Thursday.

Makinde, who sighted the scenery in company of his Benue counterpart, Dr. Samuel Ortom, had on the day commissioned the 65-kilometre Moniya-Iseyin road, which his administration constructed.

At the session Friday, Makinde said: “Give us eight weeks, there is going to be a task force on opengrazing. In the course of time,

we will set up the mechanism.

Certainly, we will implement it.

It is going to cause a lot of issues but we will implement it.”

Describing the zone as the main source of the rating of Oyo as the second largest producer of farm produce in Nigeria, Makinde said he would not allow such income-yielding heritage to be destroyed.

The governor particularly noted that the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, which the new road passes through remains the food basket of the country and should not be allowed to be destroyed.

Makinde also expressed frustration with efforts by his administration to protect the local farmers, saying it was now clear that governors in Nigeria are not the “Chief Security Officers” of their respective states, but mere “Chief Logistics Officer”.

He said: “I signed the antiopen grazing bill into law in November 2019 but the police cannot implement it, because they are watching the body language of their bosses in Abuja. The Amotekun (Southwest security corps) were trying to implement our anti grazing law but the police stopped them.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ʹ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

69

NEWSXTRA Foreign Banks Enabling Corruption in Nigeria, TI Alleges Canvasses review of stolen asset recovery regime 6D\V UHFRYHUHG DVVHWV PXVW EHQHÀW YLFWLPV RI FRUUXSWLRQ Gboyega Akinsanmi Transparency International (TI) has alleged that international enablers headquartered in Beijing, Dubai, London and New York are parts of every single illicit transaction perpetrated in Nigeria, costing the country $18 billion per annum in tax evasion.

TI, also, observed that Nigeria had witnessed significant recovery of stolen assets from different countries worldwide, though lamented that absence of a harmonised stolen asset recovery regime had led to the re-looting of the recovered assets.

TI’s Head of Nigeria Office, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani made this allegation during a virtual special session of the United Nations General Assembly against corruption, which ended on Friday.

At the session, Rafsanjani lamented that corruption in Africa, especially Nigeria, “is aided by legitimate enablers that are only seldom held accountable and

punished.”

He noted that Nigeria yearly “loses around $18 billion, most of it on tax evasion. International enablers headquartered in London, New York, Dubai and Beijing are part of every single illicit or corrupt transaction of significant proportion.

“The current situation is very bad. Putting things into perspective, Nigeria loses about $15bn to $18bn annually to illicit financial outflows like money laundering and the likes.

“Financial institutions, lawyers and other notaries help to facilitate Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Money Laundering (ML). International jurisdictions that have become tax havens and allowed shell and shelf companies exist are also vehicles and destinations for moving these illicit funds out of developing countries.

“We also have cases of big companies finding loopholes in tax laws to prevent themselves

from paying their fair share of taxes,” TI’s country representative alleged.

He said Nigeria had witnessed in recent years significant recoveries of stolen assets from abroad, noting that stolen assets recovered from the late tyrant, Gen. Sani Abacha was almost $2billion from the UK, New Jersey and Switzerland.

Despite what had been recovered from the late tyrant,

Rafsanjani alleged that Abacha might have stolen “close to $6 billion. He inflicted incalculable social damage on the entire Nigerian population. Nigeria has experimented with a number of modalities on the management of international asset return.”

TI’s country representative, equally, lamented that some early recoveries were re-looted due to the lack of domestic management recovery framework and also

due to incompetence of the international oversight.

“More recent recoveries reflect the growing realisation that civil society needs to be part of the monitoring of the management of the disbursement of recovered assets and they should be part of the entire asset recovery process from pre-investigation to the stage of disbursement of the recovered assets.”

Rafsanjani lamented that

the victims of corruption “are not part of any stage of asset recovery in Nigeria. International asset recoveries follow bilateral agreement, which oversee and neglect the issue of identification of victims.”

In some cases, he explained that some attempts “have been made to prefer SDG financing or pro-poor allocation of compensation. However, no real standard is in place.”

Igboho: No Election in S’West in 2023 Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

A Yoruba rights activist, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a Sunday Igboho) yesterday threatened that there would not be any election in the Southwest in 2023, saying the people of Yoruba Nation were weary of Nigeria.

Igboho added that the Yoruba people could no longer tolerate the feudal and political dominance in the federation, which he said, had been a source of concern nationwide.

He made these remarks yesterday during a pro-Yoruba Nation rally he addressed in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, where thousands of youths trooped out to welcome him.

Before his arrival, a rally staged by different groups, led by Yoruba Nation and Ilana Omo Oodua under the leadership of Prof. Banji Akintoye, took off around 11:00 a.m. with a large number of enthusiasts converging on Ado-Ekiti.

At the rally, Igboho was emphatic that there would be no election in the Southwest in 2023, observing that the Yoruba

race was already weary of the Fulani alleged feudal and political dominance in the country.

He said Yoruba would never be slaves again to any other race, saying the only way “to actualise this is by having an independent country and regain freedom from oppression.”

Describing Nigeria as a contraption, Igboho said time was already ripe for the race to wake up from its deep and long slumber and fight for its own emancipation.

He said: “I am sorry for coming late and I want to apologise for this. I went to a meeting with some Yoruba leaders. That was the reason I came late.

“Today, we are here to sensitise our people that we can no longer endure the sufferings being meted out to us by Fulani feudal Lords. We are no longer slaves under them.

“The South has oil and water and other natural resources, but Fulani are the ones enjoying them. Most of our university graduates are Okada riders being what our politicians who tell lies recklessly have made us to be.

Glo Excites TV Viewers with Super Story, Enakhe Nigeria’s foremost telecommunications multinational, Globacom, has continued to excite television viewers with two television drama series, Super Story and Enakhe.

In a statement by Glo Corporate Communication Office Friday, the telecom giant said the two series are currently running on primetime television.

Globacom, the grandmasters of data, had unveiled as the headline sponsor of Super Story on African Independent Television (AIT).

It had supported the programme, which had earned a good reputation in family entertainment with its track record of productions that

have become epics in television programming in Africa.

Likewise, the telecom giant had produced and sponsored “Professor Johnbull”, a television drama series broadcast on the networks of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

But the statement at the weekend said the company “is Headline Sponsor of the two series currently running on primetime television.

“We are delighted to support Super Story to continue to excite some of our esteemed subscribers who watch the drama series.

“Super Story is chock-full with viable lessons on slices of life bordering on vices, venal practices, follies and foibles.

IN HONOUR OF ONYENSO . . .

L-R: Chief Operation Officer, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Tayo Adulodu; Managing Director, Pathfinder International Limited, Nckchi Onyenso; NESG Board Member, Nnanna Ude; Station Manager, Lufthansa Airlines, Lagos, Adewale Sanni and Airport Manager, Nigeria British Airways, Adetoun Odejinmi, at the 1st memorial lecture of late Obinna Onyenso held in Ikeja, Lagos . .. Friday ETOP UKUTT

#EndSARS: 99 Corpses Deposited at LASUTH, Obafunwa Reveals Gboyega Akinsanmi and Segun James

Chief Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof. John Obafunwa yesterday disclosed that at least 99 dead bodies were deposited at the hospital’s morgue during and after the #EndSARS protest.

Consequently, the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS and the Lekki Tollgate Incident ordered that the record of all 99 corpses deposited in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) mortuary between October 19

and 24, 2020 be submitted to the panel.

Obafunwa made this disclosure before the panel investigating the Lekki incidents yesterday while counsel to #EndSARS protesters, Mr. Olumide Fusika (SAN) cross-examined him.

During the cross-examination, Obafunwa stated that prior to the deployment of the military to Lekki Toll Gate Plaza, where youths were protesting against police brutality, no one was killed.

The chief pathologist, who was summoned to present autopsy reports on victims of the Lekki shooting incident,

told the panel that the reports showed different degrees of injuries.

He disclosed that a total of 99 bodies were recorded between October 19 and 24, 2020. According to him, three bodies were from Lekki as recorded by the people who brought them in.

Also at the sitting, Fusika said: “I want to prove to this panel that the claim that only three dead bodies were brought in from Lekki is not true,” Mr Fusika said, while questioning the pathologist.”

Fusika requested that the panel order the chief pathologist

“to present the records of all 99 cases recorded during the period. Since he was told that only those three are from Lekki, he might have been told the wrong thing.”

Responding to Fusika’s request, Obafunwa said the bodies were deposited by the Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU), an agency in charge of recovering dead bodies.

He said: “I do not go about scavenging for dead bodies. It is when they are brought in that we are told and it is recorded where they were taken from.”

Osunbor Seeks Review of Court’s Powers to Declare Election Winners Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A former Edo State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, has kicked against what he termed the court’s usurpation of the sole powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare winners in electoral contests in the country.

In a memorandum he forwarded to the committee currently collating views on the review of the 1999 constitution, Osunbor argued that the law could not have envisaged that INEC will share its powers with any other authority or organ of government.

Osunbor, a professor of law, described it as a serious aberration, for the commission to conduct an election and declare

a winner and for other persons who took no part in the conduct of the election to declare a different person as winner.

He maintained that the courts’ decisions have rendered the word “independent” in the name of the commission worthless and meaningless, noting that it is inherently wrong.

According to him, this has given rise to the emergence of elected officials who were rejected at the polls by the voters, but emerged through the courts as winners in total disregard for the will of the majority of the people that heeded the call to perform their civic duty.

“The essence of democracy is thus defeated. Elections to that extent, have ceased to reflect the will of the people but the will

of the judges sometimes by a split decision of 2:1, 3:2, etc., as the case may be.

“Elections should be won at the polls, not in a court of law.

They should be a reflection of the will of the voters, not the brilliance of election petition lawyers or the will of courts of law or other extraneous considerations. Every vote must count because this goes to the very foundation of democracy.”

Osunbor observed that former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr Adams Oshiomhole, who were beneficiaries of court-ordered electoral victory, had recently spoken against the usurpation of the constitutional rights of voters to elect their leaders through the ballot.

He further listed Prof. Itse

Sagay (SAN), a member of the team of lawyers that secured electoral victory in the court for Oshiomhole in 2008 as having echoed his opposition to the hijacking of the powers of INEC by the judiciary.

Osunbor contended that if the court “finds that there has been a serious infraction or violation of the law, which amounts to substantial irregularity or substantial non-compliance in the election, the tribunal or court could and should nullify the election and order a rerun.

“Anything beyond that, puts the judiciary and its impartiality in a dangerous situation where its integrity can be called to question as we have seen in recent times,” he averred.

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NEWSXTRA How Bureaucracy Stalled $3.1bn Customs Automation Project Tobi Soniyi Nearly a year after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a concession agreement to reposition the operations and boost revenue generation of the Nigeria Customs Service, experts are worried that a formal agreement has not been signed by parties thereby stalling the take off of the project.

On September 2, 2020, the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari ratified the Nigeria Customs

Service modernisation scheme at the cost of $3.1 billion.

However, nine months after the president’s approval, experts are worried that bureaucrats had kept the agreement under the table even as Nigeria continues to take external loans to finance infrastructures.

“How do you explain that government officials have dithered for nine months on a project approved by the highest organ of government and nobody is asking any questions,” a retired permanent secretary said, asking

not to be quoted.

A finance expert also expressed concern that government officials who advise the president on economic matters prefer to jump at foreign loans instead of exploring alternative revenue sources.

“Can you imagine how much leaking revenue would have been plugged if this scheme had taken off early in the current year? But the fat cats at the ports and customs would rather prefer the status quo,” said the top banker based in Lagos.

At the FEC meeting last year, the

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed had presented a memo approving the e-custom project for the complete automation of the NCS processes and procedures using the application of information and technology in all aspects of Customs administration.

Rising from the FEC meeting, Zainab had told journalists that the concession to Messrs E. Customs HC Projects Nigeria Limited would last twenty years.

She said it was projected that

Wamakko Asks S’East to Stop Attacks on Northerners Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja A former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Wamakko yesterday challenged the leaders of Southeast to stop the attacks of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on northerners living in their geo-political zone.

Wammako, currently a senator representing Sokoto North, noted that the northern leaders would no longer douse tension among their followers if the attacks on the northerners continued in the Southeast.

In a statement yesterday, Wammako lamented that what was happening in Southeast and South-south regions had transcended beyond genuine expression into a full scale war against Nigeria and a section of its peoples.

He noted that what could have been dismissed, as the action of a few ‘misguided’ youths “is now clearly becoming an agenda for which there is almost a wholesome backing from those who should have cautioned their children and nip the emerging crisis in the bud.”

He stated: “I, like all wellmeaning Nigerians, have followed with disbelief, pain and disgust the happenings in the past few months in the Southeast and parts of South-South zones of Nigeria.

“While expressions and legitimate demands fall within the constitutional rights of all citizens in a constitutional democracy, it is sad to note that what we are witnessing today has transcended beyond genuine expression into a full scale war against Nigeria and a section of its peoples.

“As leaders of our own people,

we have been under intense pressure over the current situation.

We cannot bear it any longer. If leaders from the Southeast feel they can allow their own people to do what they want, we may have no choice than to stop dousing the increasing tension among our own followers.”

The former governor said there was no part of Nigeria without its own share of discomfort and even reservations about the state of the country, saying addressing such challenges required sincere political engagement, not threats and violence.

Besides, according to him, quests for political answers to one’s grievances should never be directed at hapless citizens who are going about their own legitimate business.

“The day the victim decides to

Corp Members Stage Unity March to Mark 48th Anniversary Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja Corp members, currently undergoing orientation exercise in Sokoto State, yesterday staged a unity march to mark the 48th anniversary of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).

The march was staged at the time some stakeholders were advocating for the scrapping of the NYSC, citing the scheme’s failure to achieve its primary mandate.

But thousands of corps members carried placards with the inscription: “Unity is our strength. In brotherhood we stand. Shun cyber crime. Shun acts that divide us.”

Speaking during the march, the

NYSC Coordinator, Sokoto State, Mr Philip Enaberue said NYSC was a symbol of unity holding the country together as an indivisible entity.

He said: “What we are witnessing today is to tell the world that as Nigerians we are one irrespective of ethnic and religious background.’

Also speaking, a member of NYSC Governing Board, Alhaji Abdullahi Maishanu said NYSC “is the most enduring scheme that has promoted the country’s unity, integration and economic development.”

Maishanu reiterated the state government commitment to the welfare and safety of corps members posted to the state.

During the march, some corps members, who spoke to THISDAY, said NYSC had eroded negative

thought they had towards other tribes in the country.

They further disclosed that before they came to Sokoto, they held the view that the state was not safe, but discovered that it was the most peaceful state in the country.

Meanwhile, the National Communications Commission (NCC) at the weekend donated 100 mattresses to NYSC Orientation Camp, Kubwa, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Speaking after the donation, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta said they were the NYSC to replace some of the items that were stolen from the camp during the ENDSARS protest when some miscreants came and vandalized the camp.

Sterling Bank Unveils Africa’s First Free Banking Product for NGOs Sterling Bank Plc at the weekend unveiled Africa’s first free banking services for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) christened Sterling CARES initiated to empower the NGOs. Unveiled in partnership with Sterling One Foundation, the bank disclosed that the new product would allow NGOs to operate their corporate accounts without account maintenance fee (AMF) and transaction charges.

This was disclosed in a statement by Chief Executive Officer, Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe after the product was unveiled Friday, saying the only applicable charge on the

account is for SMS notifications.

Ibekwe said the Sterling CARES “is open only to NGOs, legal entities operated for a social benefit. It is introduced to help them keep

costs down at this challenging time when their work and support is needed now more than ever by people with a low socio-economic background.”

pay back the aggressor will not be good for everybody,” he added.

Wamakko lamented that many northerners living peacefully in some states in the Southeast have come under undue harassment lately while a number of them have been murdered in cold blood for simply coming from a section of the country.

Prior to the assassination of Ahmed Gulak last Sunday in Imo State, the former governor observed that tens of northerners have suffered similar fate in the hands of the increasingly emboldened IPOB militants.

Wamakko noted that those killings were largely under-reported perhaps because the victims “are not prominent and partly because of a deliberate culture of silence in a section of the media about what is happening.”

the government would earn about $176 billion during the period.

“The main objective of the project is to completely automate every aspect of the customs business and to institutionalize the use of smart and emerging technologies that will enhance the statutory function of the Nigerian Customs Service in the areas of revenue generation, trade facilitation and enhancement of security,” the minister further explained.

She said the project was approved as a Public-PrivatePartnership model and that the Federal Government would not invest any funds in the scheme.

She said the project would be solely financed by a consortium led by Messrs Y Technologies with four other members.

According to her, the committee that led the process also looked at the National Trade Impact process that has been going on for years and confirmed that the Nigerian e-customs project is a subset of the National Trade Impact and would prefer the Nigerian Customs to play it’s lead role in the national trading platform.

She said: “Bionica Technologies West Africa Limited, Bargain Securities and Supplies Nigeria Limited are lead sponsor and co-sponsor. We also have The Africa Finance Corporation as the lead financier and Huawei Technology as a technical service provider.

“So, the council today ratified Mr. President’s approval for the

PPP concession for a 20-year period to Messrs E. Customs HC Project Limited as a concessionaire for the delivery of the customs modernization project. This is a project that will not have an immediate cost to the government, the investors are providing all of the financing and this revenue will be deployed in three phases and they will look over the investment in the concessionary period of 20 years.

“The key point is that it is not costing the Federal Government one thing, the $3.1 billion being proposed will be sourced by the sponsors and the partners” the minister had emphasised.

The Nigeria Customs Modernisation project, before presentation to FEC for approval, went through a rigorous diligence test which began in 2016 when 94 companies responded to a bid request by the NCS. In the exercise, 15 companies were pre-qualified and invited to make presentations on their solutions expected to fully automate all customs operations.

Stakeholders had applauded this impactful vision; especially the benefits of a strong partnership with 100 percent attraction for external finance and having no immediate cost to the NCS or the Federal Government for all projects. Instead, it will increase revenue for the government, create jobs, minimize smuggling and insecurity owing to porous and largely unmanned border posts.

71

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 6, 2021

SUNDAYSPORTS

Edited by: Duro Ikhazuagbe email:Duro.Ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

Rohr Unfazed by Eagles Defeat against Cameroon Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report

S

uper Eagles Head Coach, Gernot Rohr, has played down Nigeria’s 1-0 defeat by Cameroon in Friday’s international friendly in Austria, stressing that it is not important but how the team fared overall.

The Franco-German coach stated after the game that what was important was having the opportunity to try out fresh legs.

Despite bossing the game in the early stages, it was Cameroon who took the lead throughAndreAnguissa.

It was Cameroon’s Àrst win against the Eagles since the Ànal of the AFCON 2000.

The Eagles will have the opportunity to make amends when both teams clash again on Tuesday.

“The most important thing is not the result because it was just a test match,” Rohr said. “It was interesting to see some new players because we had to manage the situation and we did well, I think we had 17 shots on the goal while Cameroon only had three, they had only one on target which was the goal and we had six in target.

“Like I said, the result is not the most important thing in a friendly, the most important thing is to learn, to see some interesting things, to test some new players and to see what we want to do in September for the World Cup qualiÀers.

“Our domination was not good enough because we had to score in the beginning of the game but we didn’t and when you don’t score you get published.”

Rohr revealed that William TroostEkong and Jamilu Collins will not be in action for the second game due

Super Eagles forward, Paul Onuachu (second right), sandwich between two Cameroonian defenders during Friday’s friendly in Vienna, Austria

to injury.

“But I saw interesting things, we had good integration of some new players, three of them played for the Àrst time. We lost two players to injury and it will be di΀cult for the second game because Troost-Ekong and Collins are out and now we have to manage the di΀cult situation. But

it is an opportunity to play with three defenders and to change a little bit with the system and try something diͿerent that’s why we are happy to have the second game.”

He praised the performances of Terem Mo΀, Abraham Marcus and also Peter Olayinka after they came on in the second half.

He added:”These test matches are made to give chance other players.

Of course I will love to play with my best team, prepare them for the World Cup qualiÀers in the same conditions but it was not possible because too many players could not come so it was an opportunity to see Mo΀, he did well, Olayinka did well on the

Fraser-Pryce Becomes Second-fasting Woman Ever over 100m Jamaica’s two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has become the second-fastest woman in history after running 10.63 seconds in Kingston.

The 34-year-old, who also won World Championships gold at Doha 2019, streaked clear to win a national trials warm-up event in Kingston.

Only American legend Florence

Gri΀th-Joyner has run faster.

Gri΀th-Joyner scorched to a world record 10.49 seconds in 1988 before retiring less than a year later.

Fraser-Pryce’s time eclipses the 10.72 seconds run by American Sha’Carri Richardson as the fastest time in the world this year. It is an improvement of 0.07 seconds on her previous personal best of 10.70, set

in 2012.

Fraser-Pryce, who took more than a year out of the sport around the birth of her son in 2017, admitted she surprised herself with her time.

“Honestly, no, I wasn’t coming out here to run that fast,” she said. “Thank God that I Ànish healthy.

“There was no pressure - I just wanted to get one more race in before

the national trials.”

The result will increase the anticipation for the event at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer. In addition to Fraser-Pryce and 21-year-old newcomer Richardson, Rio 2016 champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and Britain’s world silver medallist Dina Asher-Smith have also put in impressive performances this season.

French Open 2021: Nadal Beats Norrie to Advance Cameron Norrie became the Ànal British player to fall in the French Open singles as he was unable to create a seismic shock against Rafael Nadal.

Norrie, 25, pushed the 13-time champion in their third-round match, but the Spaniard’s quality proved too much.

The third seed won 6-3 6-3 6-3 to set up a last-16 match with Jannik Sinner.

Top seed Novak Djokovic’s quest for a second career Grand Slam continued with another one-sided victory as he beat Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis.

Nadal beat Djokovic in last year’s Ànal and the pair remain on course to meet in the semi-Ànals this time around after being drawn in the

Rafael Nadal...cruised into next stage

same half.

Norrie had previously played Nadal twice, both matches taking place this year - Àrst at the Australian

Open, then on the Barcelona clay - and both ending in straight-set defeats for the Briton.

Going into the third meeting, this time at the place where Nadal has been almost unbeatable, Norrie insisted he had “nothing to lose” as he tried to avenge those defeats.

The task was daunting, though.

Nobody in the history of the sport has been as dominant at one place as Nadal on the Paris clay, having won 102 of his 104 matches there on the way to his record 13 titles.

Even though the Spaniard turned 35 this week, he has been as dominant as ever as Norrie looked to end his streak of 29 winning sets.

That record was stretched further as the 20-time Grand Slam champion comfortably served out the opener

after breaking decisively for a 4-2 lead.

Nevertheless, Norrie was undeterred and played at a good level as he threatened Nadal at the start of the second set.

The British number two broke for 2-0 and 3-1 leads, but was unable to back up either with a hold as Nadal rattled oͿ the Ànal Àve games of the set.

While trying everything and getting little joy out of Nadal, Norrie refused to become despondent but saw the third set slip out of his grasp with a single break in the fourth game.

“I thought I played great. I don’t think I took enough risk,” said Norrie, who is set to rise to the cusp of the world’s top 40 after the tournament.

right side and we saw Marcus who was also good and Valentine who came in for Troost-Ekong in the end.

“We will see in the next game if they can be in our 23-man list, now there will be competition and it’s good to give them the chance and all the time we are happy to have young players.”

Tomori to Complete Milan Transfer This Week

Italian giants AC Milan have told Chelsea they will pay 28 Million Euros to sign Fikayo Tomori, Sky in Italy has reported.

AC Milan are expected to Ànalise the paperwork and announce the transfer next week.

The 23-year-old defender joined the Serie A giants on an initial six-month loan in January and was an important part of the squad and this prompted the club to make the deal permanent this summer. The Serie A club have been in talks with Chelsea in the past few days in an attempt to reduce the fee agreed in January as the option to buy him.

Tomori played 17 league games during his loan spell with great performances, scoring a goal against Juventus, helping them secured a UEFA Champions League ticket after missing out on that for seven years.

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Osunbor on Role of Courts in Election

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“Elections should be won at the polls, not in a court of law. They should be a reflection of the will of the voters, not the brilliance of election petition lawyers or the will of courts of law or other extraneous consideration” – A former Edo State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, while warning against the judiciary usurpation of Independent National Electoral Commission’s power to declare winners in electoral contests in the country.

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SIMONKOLAWOLE Nigeria’s Twitter Tantrums SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE!

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

K

indly permit me to start this article with a footnote.

I run a medium-size media company that publishes an online newspaper. We provide employment for roughly 40 young Nigerians. We do not receive government subvention or subsidy.

Rather, we constantly get — and promptly settle —government bills: VAT, WHT, PAYE, corporate tax, education tax, and all that, aside the sky-high electricity and diesel expenditures.

We work very hard to generate the revenue that keeps us going. Twitter drives at least 15 percent of the daily traffic to our site. We need the traffic not just for marketing and meeting the needs of our readers on the go but also to earn some decent revenue.

You can imagine my disgust when the ministry of information announced on Friday that the federal government was suspending Twitter because it was “undermining” Nigeria’s existence.

I would have sworn that it is the harsh economic situation and the pervasive insecurity that are undermining our “the existence of Nigeria”.

Nigerians are hungry. Bandits and other species of gunmen are kidnapping school children and murdering Nigerians. Insurgents are on the rampage. Separatists are burning police stations and INEC offices, and killing police officers.

I would never have guessed or thought that deleting President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet is what undermines “our existence”.

Buhari, while receiving the INEC management team at the presidential villa on Tuesday, had condemned the arson on the electoral umpire’s offices. He said: “I received a briefing today from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the series of attacks on their facilities nationwide. These attacks are totally unacceptable, and we will not allow those behind them to achieve their evil objectives. I have assured INEC that we will make available to them everything they need to operate efficiently, so that no one will say we don’t want to go, or that we want a third term. There will be no excuse for failure.

We will meet all of INEC’s demands.”

“In the area of security, we have changed the Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General, and we are demanding that they rise fully to the challenges confronting us. There must be zero tolerance for all those bent on destroying our country by promoting crime and insurrection,” he added, and then dropped the ominous warning: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” Buhari’s remarks as well as the video were posted on his social media handles. There was an instant uproar.

Any observer of the currents, however, would have noticed this government’s unease with Twitter — and, to some extent, Facebook — since Buhari came to power. Although Twitter was deployed ahead of the 2015 polls to extensively damage President Goodluck Jonathan, particularly among the young and the educated, the tables swiftly turned after Buhari’s inauguration. He started getting called unprintable names, with fake news and hate speech about him and his government getting super-amplified on the social media app. The climax, I suppose, was the deadly #EndSARS uprising of 2020. Jack Dorsey, the Twitter CEO, publicly supported the fund-raising efforts of the protesters.

There is also the little matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the supreme leader of IPOB. The group

Buhari has been leveraging on the social media in its secession campaign. The Buhari administration had, in 2016, designated IPOB as a terrorist organisation. It naturally expected “cooperation” from foreign entities. On the contrary, Kanu continues to grow in influence on Twitter and Facebook, regularly making announcements and threats through those apps. His status has also grown internationally. An American company handles lobbying and media for him.

The UK government surprisingly decided to grant asylum to “persecuted” IPOB members.

The “terrorist” tag is definitely not flying.

There is no doubt, whatsoever, that the Buhari administration is uncomfortable with the role of social media apps in street mobilisation in the country. To us on the outside, it is freedom of speech — one of the fundamental freedoms in the free world. After all, what is democracy without freedoms? But to those in government, they believe these platforms have become a threat to national security and are meddling in the affairs of the country by enabling those who are complicating the fragile situation.

Government officials are asking why Kanu is allowed a free rein to incite violence with his tweets but the president’s warning on the consequences is deleted.

There have been subtle moves by the Nigerian government to regulate social media but none seems to be working. It appears the deletion of Buhari’s tweet has finally afforded the government an opportunity to launch an outright crackdown. In my opinion, though, everything is wrong with the decision to suspend Twitter — no matter how you look at it. If I was in a meeting where such a decision was being contemplated, my first question would be: what impression are you trying to create to the world? That you want to be playing in the same censorship league with Iran, China and North Korea? Government must stop giving the impression that it wants to suppress free speech.

My next question would be: beyond your anger that a tweet was deleted, do you understand the implications of suspending Twitter at a time Nigerians are gasping for breath under these harsh economic conditions? A combination of low oil revenues, the COVID pandemic and poor policy choices have hurt the Nigerian economy, with the key rates — plus the one for unemployment — hitting the roof. Twitter is one platform where hundreds of thousands of young, self-employed Nigerians earn their

2k. Could it be that government officials are so furious they don’t care about the role Twitter plays in enabling the economy, even though we have a ministry for digital economy?

Some decisions taken by this government are quite disturbing. They are further hitting the battered economy below the belt. According to some estimates, the decision to suspend the sale of SIM cards early this year because of NIN registration led to a loss of over 10 million subscribers. That was a big hit on the telecoms sector, which has been a major contributor to, and sustainer of, economic growth for years, even during recession. While there is a strong argument to be made for national security in the SIM-NIN linkage policy, you also have to wonder if there is no other way of achieving the purpose without injuring the economy. The quality of decision making is so atrocious.

Confidence in the Nigerian economy is currently not at its best and we can feel the impact in the data regularly rolled out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Investors always complain about our policy environment, in addition to a number of other factors. We could do with a fresh inflow of foreign investments as we face a dire forex situation (a dollar is now exchanging for over N500 in the open market).

We could do more to attract inflows. But when we take knee-jerk decisions as in the case of Twitter, we are not painting ourselves in glory.

The community of international investors is a closely-knit circle. They talk to each other.

If I were in the room where the decision to suspend Twitter was being made, I would have asked: why can’t we be civil a bit? Why can’t we write to Twitter, explain the context of the president’s tweet, dispel any links to genocide, protest the decision to delete the tweet and request that it be re-instated? Why do we always behave as if this is the best Nigeria can offer? Why must our first line of reaction be that Twitter is out to undermine our existence? Even in a room full of hawks, is there not a single dove who can take a deep breath and draw out the implications? Or are people afraid to say their minds so that they too would not be accused of undermining Nigeria’s existence?

To be sure, I would be the first to say national security is very critical. I am one of those who believe that the social media would have to be regulated at some point in human history. I have been saying that for years. It is a conversation the whole world needs to have someday. Social media apps are no longer harmless — many societies have been put at risk by the kind of materials being circulated on them. If nothing is done, the basis of human civilisation would eventually be eroded and the human society could go wild. Globally, pressure is mounting on the tech companies to moderate what goes on there. There must be freedom of speech, but there is also a responsibility that should go with it.

Nevertheless, suspending Twitter is not the solution to our security problems, neither will it guarantee our “existence”. You cannot be hurting your own people and your economy because you want to get at Twitter. It’s not done. The federal government must give room for dialogue and lift the suspension as soon as possible. To tackle the problems posed by Twitter, we need to be very strategic and intelligent with it. Might is not always right. We should not throw the baby away with the bath water.

We should not cut the nose to spite the face.

Attacking my source of livelihood threatens my existence far more than deleting a tweet from the presidential handle. Wisdom.

And Four Other Things…

POLICE AND GULAK Something disturbing is becoming a characteristic of our security agencies: playing up ethnic divisions. When Ahmed Gulak was killed, the police, in an official statement, said the suspects were caught distributing onions stolen from a hijacked trailer from the “northern region” of Nigeria.

The amateurish police press statements on Gulak’s murder are odious enough on their own, but for a security agency to be deliberately highlighting our fault lines is utterly horrifying. In 2016, the DSS issued a statement saying they found Fulani dead bodies in a grave in the south-east. Our security agencies shouldn’t be so brazenly involved in playing up ethnic sentiments.

Dangerous.

TALK OR NOT TO TALK I am one of those who criticise President Buhari for hardly communicating directly with Nigerians. I am now having a rethink. While he appears aloof, he often spits fire whenever he speaks. After the #EndSARS protests, he said: “The promptness with which we have acted [on their demands] seemed to have been misconstrued as a sign of weakness and twisted by some for their selfish unpatriotic interests… Under no circumstances will this be tolerated.” My interpretation: “If dem born you well, continue!” And now, on the ceaseless attacks on INEC offices, he said: “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” Chilling.

CONSTITUTION CHORISTERS The much-maligned 1999 Constitution is undergoing a review again and Nigerians are being given the chance to propose the changes they want. There are no no-go areas, to the best of my knowledge. But if I know the rabble rousers very well, they will never make an input. They will be singing in the media until the process is over. They will then continue their campaign that only a sovereign national conference or whatever can amend the constitution. The almighty 1963 Constitution — the “perfect constitution”, according to them — was just an updated version of the 1960 Constitution, duly amended by the parliament. It was not re-written or jettisoned. Fact.

OWN GOAL My initial reaction when the Nigerian government started raising hell over the deletion of President Buhari’s tweet by Twitter was: is this drama by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, minister of information, worth it? For the life of me, I do not understand why there must be drama over everything in this country. Little did I know that something else was loading: the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, thereby disrupting the lives and businesses of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and institutions. Even most of those who are very quick to defend the Buhari administration on every issue have found the Twitter suspension very difficult to explain or justify. This is an avoidable own goal. Foul.

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