SUNDAY 30TH AUGUST 2020

NNPC Remittance to Federation Account Hits N1.87trn in One Year Zainab Ahmed Named African Finance Minister of the Year

Tobi Soniyi in Lagos and Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) remitted a total of N1.87 trillion to the Federation

Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) between June 2019 and June 2020, the latest report from the national oil company has indicated.

The full financial report for June also showed that

compared to May, NNPC's operating revenue increased by 32 per cent, but that was wiped out by the corporation’s cumulative expenditure, which equally went up by 32.8 per cent.

Payments are made to the Federation Account by NNPC after the adjustment of crude and product losses as well as pipeline repairs and management cost incurred during the period.

According to the corporation, for the month under consideration, all its Strategic Business Units (SBUs) suffered various levels of losses, except four, with operating deficit on the non-

functional refineries standing at over N10 billion.

The corporation disclosed, “In June 2020, NNPC remitted the sum of N68.42 billion to the Continued on page 8

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Secondus: A Govt Engrossed in Corruption Can’t Regulate Church Activities Insists govt has enough problems to deal with Urges National Assembly to revisit CAMA Chuks Okocha in Abuja National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, Saturday, condemned the recent signing into law of the

bill amending the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2004 by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying a government as corrupt as the Buhari administration cannot regulate church

activities. Secondus said the government had more problems on its hands to deal with than interfering in church activities.

Secondus, who spoke in an interview with THISDAY,

called on the National Assembly to review the CAMA Act, 2020 as quickly as possible to end the controversies it had generated.

The bill, which was signed into law by Buhari on August

7, is expected to engender corporate innovations geared towards enhancing the ease of doing business in the country.

Section 839 (1) &(2) of the new law provides that the Registrar-General

of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and a supervising minister will strictly regulate religious bodies and non-governmental Continued on page 5

Edo Poll: INEC Reads Riot Act, Lists Election Offences, Penalties Poll may be defined by violence, voter apathy, says CSO

Chuks Okocha in Abuja With the Edo State governorship election less than three weeks away, amid growing fears of violence, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is taking no prisoners in its pursuit of a free, fair, and peaceful poll.

INEC has listed conducts that may run afoul of the Electoral Act and the penalties, declaring its determination apply the law strictly.

This is as a coalition of civil society groups, Yiaga Africa, says from its survey, the September 19 election may be marked by strong-arm tactics, violence, and voter apathy.

In a bulletin released at the weekend, INEC, reading the riot act to the parties, gave a list of actions that would not be condoned during the election, and the penalties for such.

Quoting extensively from the Electoral Act, INEC stated

that Sections 23 (a and d) of the law frowned on unlawful possession or selling or buying of voters’ cards, saying the penalty for the offences is two years imprisonment or fine of 500,000.

INEC said in Section 59 of the Electoral Act, anyone impersonating voters shall be arrested and prosecuted for an offence of impersonation under the law applicable in the state and the Electoral Act. Section 124 (1) of the Electoral Act, INEC said, deals with the bribery of its officials or security officers and anyone found wanting shall be jailed for one year or fined 500, 000 or both.

According to INEC, Section 125 of the Electoral Act states that anyone spying to know who a person voted for is to be jailed for six months or made to pay a fine of N100, 000. Section 127 (1) of the Act specifies that voting or Continued on page 5

CONSULTING FOR 2023: WHO GOES FIRST?...

Vice President Yemi Osibajo (right) with All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, when the VP visited Tinubu at his Abuja residence at the weekend

Polaris Taps Innocent Ike, Segun Opeke to Lead Bank…Page 5

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Polaris Taps Innocent Ike, Segun Opeke to Lead Bank Obinna Chima The Board of Polaris Bank Limited and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), its shareholder, have tapped Mr. Innocent Ike as the Acting Managing Director/ CEO of the bank and may have also appointed Segun Opeke as Executive Director subject to confirmation by the Central Bank.

The appointment of the new acting managing director becomes effective from September 1, 2020.

The bank disclosed this in statement that was released yesterday.

The appointment followed the retirement of Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, having successfully completed his two terms of two years each, first as Group Managing Director/CEO, Skye Bank Plc and Managing Director/ CEO Polaris Bank Limited.

Abiru would bow out from the bank from tomorrow.

The statement explained: "In line with a culture of good corporate governance and succession planning, the Board of Polaris Bank Limited and AMCON, the bank’s shareholder, have announced the appointment of Mr. Innocent C. Ike as the Acting Managing Director/ CEO of Polaris Bank Limited effective 1 September 2020."

The incoming acting Managing Director/CEO was until now the Executive Director, Technology and Services while also overseeing the South-south/ South-east Directorate of the bank.

"Accordingly, not only has he been a pivotal part of the Bank since July 2016, but a major driver of the Corporate Transformation journey. This gives an assurance of continuity: a definite continuation of the strategic plans and initiatives that brought the Bank the successes it has recorded till date.

"Mr. Innocent Ike has garnered over three decades’ professional experience in the Banking Industry. He is a graduate of Accounting from the University of Lagos, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), a Certified IFRS Expert and an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).

"He holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy & Innovation from MIT Sloan School of Management; Boston and he is also a Member of Institute of Directors (IOD)."

According to the statement, with the change of baton, the bank is set to continue to deliver on the positive

performance reflected in the full year 2019 results in which the Bank posted Profit After Tax (PAT) of N27 billion.

"To buttress the fact that this is sustainable, the Bank’s first half 2020 result showed a PAT of over N18 billion, despite the tremendous

headwinds brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Board of Directors of the bank is confident that Polaris Bank will benefit immensely from Mr. Ike’s skills and wealth of experience. With his hard work and diligence, the Bank is bound to continue to

thrive under his leadership.

"Polaris Bank is a futuredetermining Bank committed to the delivery of industrydefining products, and services, across all sectors of the Nigerian economy."

There have been speculations that Abiru, a former Lagos State Finance

Commissioner is to join the race in the forthcoming senatorial bye-election to replace the deceased Lagos East member of the National Assembly, Senator Bayo Osinowo. The election holds on October 31, 2020.

Abiru is from the Ikorodu division of Lagos East.

FOR A NEW TRANSPORTATION VARSITY...

L-R: Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi with the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Farooq Umar, during the minister's visit to inspect the site of the University of Transportation in Daura... yesterday

EDO POLL: INEC READS RIOT ACT, LISTS ELECTION OFFENCES, PENALTIES trying to vote where a person is not registered is an offence corroborated in Section 127 (2) and a person shall be jailed for six months or pay a fine of 100, 000 if found guilty of the offence.

INEC said section 128 of the Electoral Act dealt with acting or inciting others to act in a disorderly manner, saying it is an offence punishable with a year imprisonment or a fine of 500,000, while Section 129(1) states that campaigning, blaring of siren within 300 meters of a polling unit on an election day is an offence under Section 129(3) with a jail term of six months or a fine of N100,000.

Furthermore, INEC said under Section 129 (1) of the Act, the destruction of electoral materials or snatching of any election material constituted an offence, as stated in section 129(4), with one year jail term without an option of fine.

INEC also addressed

the issue of underage or multiple voting, explaining that anyone found wanting here shall be jailed for 12 months or fined 500,000 or both.

But Yiaga Africa, in a report by its Executive Director, Samson Itodo, identified those that could influence the credibility of the governorship election to include INEC and the other stakeholders, including the security agencies, the courts, and domestic observers.

"Of the five institutions that can influence the credibility of the upcoming Edo governorship elections, respondents expressed the highest levels of trust in the military (56%) followed by election observers (53%), the courts (48%), INEC (46%), and finally the police (39%)," it stated regarding its opinion poll.

Yiaga Africa stated that, "Voter apathy has also been evident in Edo State during the 2016 governorship and 2019 presidential elections,

where only 32.7% and 35.6%, respectively, of registered voters cast their ballots. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the looming climate of insecurity in the lead up to the September 19 polls, there is overwhelming concern among stakeholders that registered voters in Edo may not be motivated to vote."

According to the report, "Ninety-four per cent of Edo respondents in our survey identify themselves as registered voters. Among the registered voters, approximately seven-inten (71%) report being “very likely” to vote in the September 19 election, and a further 14 per cent ‘somewhat’ likely. When combined, an overwhelming majority of registered voters in Edo State (85%) are enthusiastic about casting their ballots for one of the 14 governorship candidates.

"A deeper examination of the results indicate that men are almost 10 points more likely to report being ‘very/

somewhat likely’ to vote than women and residents in Edo Central are also slightly more positively disposed to voting relative to those in Edo North.”

On the perceptions of election quality, the group said the final section of its findings focused on citizens’ opinions of the quality of the 2020 Edo governorship election.

It stated, “Several academic studies find that when citizens believe that their elections are credible, they are more likely to trust the newly elected government, express satisfaction with democracy, and actively engage in the political process between elections.

"Yiaga Africa asked respondents to evaluate the integrity of the upcoming governorship elections and found that a little more than half of respondents (54%) expect the upcoming contest to be ‘completely free and fair with minor problems’.

Positive opinions of election

quality were highest among men, 36 and over, and respondents living in Edo North and Edo Central.”

The CSO said scholars and policy experts suggested that several factors, including the performance of election management bodies and expectations of violence and electoral fraud might influence citizens’ perceptions of election quality.

It revealed, “Our survey results indicate that perceptions that the upcoming Edo election will be free and fair are lower among those who are concerned about violence perpetuated by political parties and security agencies; those concerned about vote buying; and those worried about the spread of COVID-19 on Election Day. Although, positive evaluations of election quality are not associated with INEC’s election preparedness, perceptions of election quality are lower

among those dissatisfied with INEC’s independence.

"As a follow-up question, respondents were also asked to compare the quality of the upcoming 2020 Edo governorship election with the general election held in early 2019.

Again, the results provide additional confirmation that Edo citizens are generally optimistic about the quality of the upcoming elections.

"Specifically, a plurality of respondents (42%) believed that the quality of the upcoming governorship elections would increase ‘a lot/somewhat’ relative to the 2019 general election.

“However, 19% thinks it will decrease ‘a lot/ somewhat’ and a further 15% believes that quality of the elections will not change. The relatively positive election quality expectations among Edo residents are particularly encouraging and provide somewhat of a silver lining to the report’s findings."

with the aim of deploying them to intimidate and harass opponents.

"We want to warn that state security outfits are at experimental stages and any abuse will mean their. The people of the South-west desired Amotekun to secure them. Anything otherwise would be undermining the will of the people."

Secondus called on the federal government to remain neutral in the October 10 governorship election, explaining, "This government can do this by ensuring that they respect the Constitution and the Electoral Act as well as the ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria

that says security operatives, particularly, the military should not meddle in election matters outside providing adequate and equal security to all the parties within the requirements of the law."

In the coming elections in Edo and Ondo states, however, Secondus said he expected that the military, police and other security agencies that are supposed to be at election venues would be made to operate within the dictates of the law. He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resist intimidation, but strive to always carry out its duties as set out by the law.

SECONDUS: A GOVT ENGROSSED IN CORRUPTION CAN’T REGULATE CHURCH ACTIVITIES organisations. It gives the Registrar-General of CAC power to suspend the trustees of not-for-profit organisations and appoint interim managers to coordinate their affairs, where he reasonably believes there has been misconduct or mismanagement, or where the affairs of the associations are being run fraudulently or where it is necessary or desirable for the public interest.

However, Secondus stated, "We note the curious rush to pass and sign this controversial law by the National Assembly and the president and wonder why such speed cannot be seen in critical laws like

the amendment and quick signing of the Electoral Act. "I find this needless, especially at this time, when a government that is confronted with myriads of problems and with loopholes in every government department they cannot block wants to look into the finances of religious places as their priority.

"Has any church or mosque complained about financial misappropriation?

And even if they did, these religious houses have internal mechanisms of resolving their problems, including changing their leaders. It is not for a government that is engrossed in corruption

to do it for them.”

The PDP national chairman called on the federal government to reverse the CAMA law.

He said, "As a Nigerian, I will add a few words on the raging debate on the newly signed controversial law, the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

“The new law permits the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the supervising minister to strictly supervise and scrutinise the financial operations of nongovernmental organisations, including religious places, as well as change their trustees.

The government and the National Assembly should revisit this law, because the nation's numerous challenges need the good will of the people, especially, the praying houses.”

Speaking on the Southwest Security Network, otherwise known as Amotekun, Secondus hoped it would not be used to harass and intimidate voters during the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State. He said, "Intelligence available to us shows that the outgoing APC government in Ondo State, in its panic, has hurriedly gone ahead to launch the local security outfit, Amotekun,

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Schools to Reopen in Lagos Sept 14, 21, Says Sanwo-Olu As COVID-19 recedes Decline does not mean virus is over Segun James Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has announced that all primary and secondary schools in the state are to resume full academic activities from September 21, while the tertiary institutions are to re-open for academic activities from September 14, 2020.

Speaking at the 18th statewide briefing held at the State House in Marina yesterday, the governor however noted that the September 21 resumption date for primary and secondary schools could be subjected to further review in the ongoing modelling of the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, the re-opening order is coming six months after all tertiary institutions and basic schools were shut on the order of the Government, following the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Sanwo-Olu said the decision to re-open the schools was carefully thought through, given the decline in the number of positive cases and the progress recorded in the state’s response, even as he’s asked the management of the schools to ensure adherence to the safety guidelines as they re-open their campuses for activities.

The governor also permitted the re-opening of recreational centres and social clubs that have registered trustees, but on the condition that they obtain a provisional Safety Compliance Certificate through the registration portal of the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC).

He said: “I am pleased to announce that tertiary

institutions in Lagos State will reopen from September 14, 2020.

We are also working towards the reopening of Primary and Secondary Schools anytime from September 21, 2020. However, the decision to re-open the basic and secondary schools is not cast in stone and is subject to a review of our ongoing modelling of the state’s response to the pandemic.

“Also, social clubs and recreational centers that have registered trustees have also been permitted to open, on the condition that they have applied for and obtained a Provisional Safety Compliance Certificate through the registration portal of the Lagos State Safety Commission. Restaurants are now permitted to open for indining services, but they must

ensure the maintenance of a 50 per cent maximum occupancy at any point in time. They must also have obtained a provisional Safety Compliance Certificate.”

Sanwo-Olu said his government remained sympathetic to the plight of business owners, especially those operating in hospitality and tourism sectors, noting that the state was still reviewing the permissible opening dates for businesses tourism and hospitality industry, while pointing out that there would be concrete decisions on easing the lockdown on tourism businesses before the end of September.

He also directed that all event centers, bars, lounges, night clubs, spas, beaches, cinemas, gyms and game arcades to remain shut till further notice.

Meanwhile, as federal government prepares to re-open international airspace for traffic on September 5, Sanwo-Olu said the his government had started to work with the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to put adequate measures in place in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of Lagos residents in the light of resumption of international air-travel.

He, therefore, ordered civil servants in the state’s unified public service to comply with existing guidelines and roster schedules issued by the Head of Service and the heads of MDAs. “As a government, we will continue to keep our citizens informed and updated on the decisions that we are taking in

response to the pandemic. We will also continue to ask for your understanding and cooperation.

These are challenging times for all of us, and it requires extra levels of patience, sacrifice and understanding,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu explained that the observed decline in the number of positive cases did not mean the pandemic was over and thus, urged residents to continue to adhere to the safety guidelines outlined by the health authorities.

“The fact that we have been seeing a gradual easing of the lockdown does not mean that we are now returning to our old way of doing things. The easing you are seeing is the outcome of a careful and deliberate attempt to ensure that livelihoods are not crippled by the overwhelmingly

disruptive impact of the virus.

It is certainly not an invitation to carelessness or nonchalance,” the Governor said.

He also hinted that the State’s Deputy Incident Commander and Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, had been discharging his duty and responding to treatment, noting that he has remained asymptomatic.

Sanwo-Olu, at the briefing, launched a COVID-19 Care Pack, which contains medications, hand sanitizer, facemasks and handy medical equipment that could be used to check temperature.

The Care Pack is to be given to those who have been confirmed positive of the COVID-19 free of charge and who prefer home-based care.

ENUGU STATE IS 29...

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State (middle) with the former Governor of old Enugu State, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo (2nd left), President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo (2nd right), former Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo (right) and the President, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State chapter, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, during the cutting of cake to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the creation of Enugu State, held at Ohanaeze Ndigbo Secretariat, GRA, Enugu...yesterday

NNPC REMITTANCE TO FEDERATION ACCOUNT HITS N1.87TRN IN ONE YEAR Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). From June 2019 to June 2020, total NNPC remittances to FAAC is N1.870.13 trillion. Out of this, Federation and JV (Joint Venture) with government priority projects received the sum of N845.42 billion and N1.024 trillion, respectively.

“June 2020, group operating revenue as compared to May 2020, increased by 32.05 per cent or N76.39 billion to stand at N314.72 billion.

“In the same trend, expenditure for the month increased by 32.80 per cent or N77.30 billion, at N312.95 billion. This month (June) expenditure as a proportion of revenue is marginally below par at 0.99; just as was recorded in the previous month.”

NNPC further said it experienced a lower trading surplus of N2.12 billion compared to the N2.68 billion surplus in May 2020, when the world began a fragile recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it noted that there was a 21 per cent net increase in performance, which it attributed primarily to the 166 per cent rise in surplus posted by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), one of its subsidiaries. The corporation noted that this was a reflection of the on-going global rise in market fundamentals for the second consecutive month, explaining that in addition, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) continued to enjoy a drop in average product landing cost as profit increased by 22 per cent.

According to the corporation, takings from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), and Duke Oil Incorporated grew by 16 per cent, one per cent, and 127 per cent, respectively.

Besides NPDC, PPMC, NGC, and NGMC, which it said recorded relatively commendable performances,

all other SBUs, NNPC said, recorded further loss positions with the headquarters' deficit increasing by 71 per cent compared to May, due to increased terminal benefits made to retired staff that reduced the group surplus for the month.

Still following the trend in the last couple of months, there was no sale of special products in the month, but 767.42 million litres of petrol were supplied into the country through a Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement.

The combined value of output by the three refineries (at import parity price) for June 2020 amounted to just about N0.04 billion, with no associated freight cost since there was no production, but operational expenses amounted to N10.27 billion, resulting in an operating deficit of N10.23 billion by the refineries for the month.

While the average crude oil price for the month further increased by $10.04 or 34.7 per cent month-on-month,

NNPC projected that the world economic growth will remain unchanged in 2020 at 3.4 per cent.

The corporation said it expected the global economy to grow by 4.1 per cent in 2021 based on the assumptions that COVID-19 will largely be contained on the global level by the fourth quarter of 2020.

NNPC said it also expected that no further significant issues will derail economic developments. It stressed that national gas production in June decreased by 0.26 per cent at 231.28BCF compared to output in May 2020, translating to an average daily production of 7,709.38mmscfd.

Meanwhile, Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs) Zainab Ahmed has been named the African Finance Minister of the Year.

In choosing Zainab as the finance minister of the year, the organisers noted that despite difficult circumstances she was able to push through a set of difficult reforms as well as successfully engaging

international partners to help the country navigate an extremely challenging economic environment.

Similarly, the Managing Director of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe was named African Banker of the year.

Nigeria's Bank of Industry was awarded the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank of the Year.

Ecobank also won the Innovation in Banking Award.

The awards, were held virtually held under the high patronage of the African Development Bank.

It was sponsored by the African Guarantee Fund as Platinum Sponsor, the Bank of Industry as Gold Sponsor and Moza Banco as Associate Sponsor.

The organisers said the awards were pushed back to August to coincide with the African Development Bank Annual Meetings which took place this week, with the election of the new president of the bank expected tomorrow.

Following on from what was seen as a lack of inclusion last year, the organisers put an emphasis to reward institutions that ensured that women and financial inclusion at the forefront of their agenda.

The awards are considered the Oscars of the African banking community and given the impartial selection and judging process are the most respected in the field.

The Central Bank Governor of the year went to Caroline Abel, from the Seychelles.

African Banker Icon was given to Vivien Shobo, who was the CEO of ratings and advisory firm, Agusto & Co up until last December. She was recognised for playing an instrumental role in developing Nigeria’s credit markets and also for helping grow a truly world class organisation that is competing against much better resourced international players.

Tunisian pioneer Ahmed Abdelkefi won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Sanwo-Olu Visits Helicopter Crash Scene, Promises to Renovate Affected Structures

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Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-olu on Saturday visited the site of the helicopter crash at Salvation Road in Opebi area of the State 24 hours after the incident to assess the damage of the crash and promised to renovate the affected buildings after the impact assessment is done.

Speaking to journalists after looking round the crash site and meeting with owners of the affected buildings, the governor promised that the Lagos State Government would carry out integrity tests on the buildings and do necessary repairs by way of assisting the affected families.

A Bell 206 Helicopter, belonging to Quorum Aviation, was traveling in from Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital with two crew and a passenger before it crashed in between two residential buildings in the Opebi area of Lagos at mid-day on Friday.

A statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, said Sanwo-Olu sympathised with the families of the three people that lost their loved ones in the crash and prayed that God would comfort the families of the deceased.

He said: “I am here to do a real on-the-spot assessment and I have seen things for myself. We thank God that as painful as the incident might be, the damage was not beyond what we have witnessed. We are pained by the death of the three people on board but we thank God because it could have been worse than that.

“The affected buildings are residential homes that have citizens living there.

As at the exact time the helicopter crash happened,

a lot of people were not in the premises and even the elderly people that were around and in their rooms.

But as God would have it, nothing in terms of fatality happened to people on the ground. So, we need to thank God. If not, fatality may have been a lot more than what we are talking about.

“As you can see the people affected are senior citizens; they are people in their 80s and 70s that I have come to condole with and also thank God for them. We have seen the level of destruction and damages.

“Tests will be conducted to understand the integrity of the buildings and once that is ascertained today or tomorrow, we will start work with the federal agencies. We will start the reconstruction and renovation of the places affected by the crash; the rooms, walls, tents and ensure that we quickly bring respite to the senior citizens that have been affected.

“From Monday, we will start rebuilding the damaged structure and also assist in any areas the owners of the buildings need our assistance.

We will also assist the senior citizens wherever they need help. We know that the incident has had some impact on them.

“We will give them whatever support we can give them to reduce their psychological, physical and emotion hardship, which may have been caused by the incident. We would be doing that for them as a government. The whole essence of governance is to ensure that once your citizens are affected like this, government need to rise up.”

The governor also commended all the federal and state agencies for their quick response by moving to

the site of the crash shortly after the helicopter crash.

“I want commend all our frontline workers, all the emergency staff that turned up yesterday with citizens in the neigbourhood that turned out in large number to help,” he said.

Speaking during the governor’s visit, residents of the helicopter crash site thanked Sanwo-olu for visiting the crash site, as they thank God that when the helicopter crash-landed, there was no fuel in it.

They prayed for the governor, saying his tenure in government will be successful,

noting this is the first time something will happen and a sitting Governor in Lagos will make a quick response.

They also thanked several agencies of Lagos State for making quick response to the crash site and clearing it.

In her address, one of owners of the affected buildings, a 77-year old Deaconess Oluwayemisi Oluwole said the repairs promised by the governor should be done quickly for her to be able to move back into her residence.

She said: “I thank God for what happened because there was nobody in the

apartment affected by the crash. We thank God that the helicopter didn’t land on top of the house. We thank God that there was no fuel in the helicopter when it landed.

“I hope somebody will come and assess the degree of the damage and that should be done quickly because I have not entered the house since yesterday because I have been banned from entering the house.

“Since yesterday a lot of people came here without observing any COVID-19 protocols. In my house now, I can count 20 facemasks

on the floor. So, I want to appeal to government to come and help us to sanitise the place. I am very happy that you (Governor Sanwo-Olu) have blood that you know something happened to your subjects and you decided to visit them. Your reign will be sweet in Jesus name.”

Also speaking, Mr. Sesan Kuyoro thanked the many agencies of government for their quick response to the crash site and clearing it, saying their response showed the commitment of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration to welfare of the citizens of the state.

WIKE TO BUILDS LAW SCHOOL HOSTELS IN BAYELSA...

L-R: Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike; Director General of the Nigerian Law School, Professor Isa Hayatu Chiroma and other officials, during Wike's visit to the Nigerian Law School in Yenagoa, where he promised to construct two new hostels that will accommodate nine hundred students each at the school... yesterday

Anxiety As Supreme Court Rules on Kogi Governorship Election Tomorrow Alex Enumah and Ibrahim Oyewale in Abuja There are increasing tensions in Kogi State as the people await the verdicts of the Supreme Court on two separate appeals against the return of Yahaya Bello as governor of the state.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Mr. Musa Wada, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Natasha Akpoti, had approached the apex court to upturn the judgements of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the re-election of Bello. A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court presided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, on Tuesday adjourned to Monday, August 31, judgements on the two appeals after taking the submissions of lawyers to the parties.

Tensions had been rising in the state since the last week following the announcement

that the Supreme Court was set to hear the appeals on August 25.

Lawyers to PDP and Wada, led by Mr Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, in adopting their brief of argument pleaded with the apex court to allow the appeal and grant the reliefs sought by their clients. They claimed that the appellate court erred in arriving at the conclusion that they did not prove allegations of electoral malpractices, which a minority judgement of the tribunal had established and ordered a rerun in seven local government areas where the said malpractices took place. They urged the apex court to affirm the minority judgement of the tribunal delivered by Justice Ohiamai Ovbiagele.

However, Bello's lawyer, Mr Joseph Daudu, SAN, and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr Alex Izinyon, SAN, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit.

Daudu pleaded with the

apex court to uphold the concurrent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the majority judgement of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the return of Bello as governor.

After taking the arguments of the lawyers representing parties in the appeal, Muhammad announced that judgement in the matter would be delivered on August 31.

In the second appeal filed

by SDP and its governorship candidate, Akpoti, the apex court also announced its decision to give final verdict on August 31.

Meanwhile, the appeal filed by the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and its governorship candidate, Usman Mohammed, was struck out after an oral application for its withdrawal by their lawyer, M. S. Ibrahim.

The withdrawal was after some prompting over the eligibility of the DPP candidate, who was said to

be 31 years old, instead of the mandatory 35.

The apex court struck out the appeal with a cost of N200, 000 in favour of the first and second respondents.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, had in July this year affirmed the election of Bello as governor of Kogi State, after dismissing four appeals filed by the PDP, DPP, SDP, and Action Peoples Party (APP) and their respective governorship candidates for lacking in merit.

The litigations followed last year’s declaration of Bello, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the November 16, 2019 governorship poll by INEC. The commission announced on November 18, 2019 that Bello won majority of votes cast in the election, polling a total of 406,222 votes, while the runner up, Wada, polled 189,704.

However, the four contestants and their parties disagreed with INEC and

approached the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the victory of Bello. Their petitions were all dismissed by the tribunal for lacking in merit. The Court of Appeal upheld the decisions of tribunal.

The appellants approached the apex court to set aside the judgements of the appellate court on the grounds that the Court of Appeal discarded evidence of rigging and violence in seven local government areas of the state.

The Court of Appeal had, in a unanimous judgement, held that the appellants did not prove the allegations of over-voting, multiple thumb-printing, and results falsification. In the ruling delivered by Justice Haruna Tsamani, the appellate court said the appellants merely dumped documents on the tribunal without calling relevant witnesses to link the documents to the allegations.

According to the judge, a party who alleges overvoting must tender the voter

registers for the affected polling units and the results of the polling units, show how, without over-voting, the results would be in his or her favour.

In the other judgements, the Court of Appeal held that the tribunal was right in dismissing the petitions of the DPP and APP over alleged unlawful exclusion and that of the SDP for failure to prove claims of electoral malpractices in the governorship election.

Although the decisions of the Kogi election tribunal were unanimous in the petitions of APP, DPP and SDP, it was divided in that of PDP. While the majority judgement delivered by Justice Kashim Kaigama favoured Bello, the minority judgement delivered by Ovbiagele held that there was evidence of electoral malpractices in seven local government areas. Ovbiagele then upturned Bello’s victory and ordered a rerun in the affected local government areas.

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AUGUST 30, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

EDITORIAL

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

T HE IRRITATIONS F ROM GHANA The ill will towards Nigerians in Ghana is misplaced. Both countries should sit down and talk

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he warning by the federal government that it would no longer tolerate the incessant harassment and acts of hostility towards Nigerian citizens in Ghana is long overdue. Kicking against what is fast becoming “an emerging xenophobic attitude towards Nigerian traders and Nigerians in general” that has led to the closure of their shops as well as biased judicial trial, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, said the federal government was already considering a number of retaliatory options to deal with the challenge. We say it is about time!

In the past few years, there has been a consistent pattern to the hostility of Ghana against Nigerian interests and our nationals. The federal government has highlighted a few of them to include the seizure of the Nigerian Mission’s property that has been used as diplomatic premises for almost 50 years, deportation of no fewer than 825 Nigerians from Ghana between January 2018 and February 2019, and the closure of over a thousand shops belonging to our nationals within the past two years. Other policies directly targeted at Nigerians include stringent residency permit requirements and outrageous financial demands for doing business by the Investment Promotion Centre Act. Yet these are policies that run counter to the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) protocols.

There have been other threats against Nigerians in Ghana that come directly from their nationals.

That the Ghanaian authorities have not shown sufficient will for dealing with the problem can be glimpsed from the pronouncements of some

of their officials which tend to provide justifications for violence. This is despite historical ties between the two preeminent African countries. On regular basis, many of our female nationals are being deported from Ghana for alleged illegal stay and prostitution, in what was seen as unfair targeting of Nigerians. Besides, policy instruments that are arbitrary are also usually pushed out in some of the sectors in which Nigerians operate which include real estate, textile and garments, electronics, banking, tourism and telecommunication. Aside imposing high tariff on Nigerian movies, our actors are also restricted from shooting films in Ghana.

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Since the principle of reciprocity drives diplomacy, we must always insist that other countries treat our citizens the same way we treat theirs

Letters to the Editor

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

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

erhaps the most egregious of these hostile acts against our country was the demolition of Nigerian High Commission in clear violation of article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) which states: "The premises of a diplomatic mission, such as an embassy, are inviolable and must not be entered by the host country except by permission of the head of the mission.

Furthermore, the host country must protect the mission from intrusion or damage...." Even though President Nana Akufo-Addo personally apologised to President Muhammadu Buhari over the attack on the high commission, that incident is a pointer to how much things have degenerated between the two countries.

Now that Nigerian residents in Ghana feel sufficiently threatened along with their businesses, it is good that the federal government is finally making it clear to their authorities that they bear responsibility for what has become hate mongering against our country. Since the principle of reciprocity drives diplomacy, we must always insist that other countries treat our citizens the same way we treat theirs.

The deteriorating diplomatic relations between Ghana and Nigeria is a direct assault on a long tradition of cultural and economic bonding between the two countries that dates back to the colonial days. And for that reason, we want to believe that the avenues for diplomatic engagement have not yet been exhausted.

While Nigeria should deploy a bit of proportionate reciprocity in the present circumstances, both countries should do the difficult work of diplomatic engagement to resolve the issues at stake. Even then, Nigeria should leave no Ghanaian in doubt that our national interest begins and ends with the welfare and security of our citizens wherever they may reside.

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.

B LAME A BIDAL FOR BARCA’S T RAVAILS

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he Lionel Messi’s impending departure from the Camp Nou soccer outfit may have been oiled by ego letdown the moment young Ansu Fati switched agent from Messi’s brother to Jorge Mendes. That was a big snub. How could the new coach, Ronald Koeman, hope to build a new Barca team around Messi in the midst of this sort of “disrespect?” Ansu Fati probably reckoned he’d had the last laugh on Messi because Messi was fingered as the reason for the sack of Eric Abidal as Sporting Director at Barcelona Football Club.

Recall that Abidal had questioned the “commitments” of several unnamed Barca players on the pitch before the COVID-19 pandemic took a hold on La Liga and Messi, as captain of the football club, was not flattered one

bit by that veiled criticism from Abidal.

But, then, who was Eric Abidal to the invincible Barca setup that revolved around Lionel Messi? Abidal was everything a quintessential Barca player wasn’t; a Barca man was Catalan by birth or inclination (Abidal was French), a Barca man was white (Abidal was black), a Barca man was Catholic (Abidal was a Muslim convert).

That was a real contrast.

When Abidal was threatened by serious health issue, it was the “real” Barca posse that shored him up through his medical challenge and on the big night of a champions league ultimate victory. But, how come Abidal had such magnificent staying power? Was it the Qatari connection when the “Qatar Foundation”

broke with long-established norm and became the shirt sponsor of Barcelona Football Club? Note that the billionaire emirs of Qatar are shamelessly using sports to promote Islam (see, Nigerian girls who were lured to do athletics and other sports under the banner of Qatar have all been converted to Islam and re-branded with Muslim names; major European football clubs with Qatari owners do their utmost to surreptitiously “resuscitate” the down-dip careers or highlight the football careers of footballers with Muslim connections or mere Muslim first names like the case of Raheem Sterling of Manchester City Football Club).

At Barcelona, Abidal was the point-man and counsellor for the flop, Ousmane Dembele, a Muslim footballer brought over at an impossibly high cost that

thoroughly rankled the Barca setup.

The attempt to make up with the Coutinho signing was feeble at best.

From then on, Barca could not squeeze the freshest juice out of mainstays like Gerard Pique (he became distracted with the tennis Davis Cup investment), Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, whilst Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez continued to work their asses off to ensure Barca was still top-notch. The cards finally crumbled when Eric Abidal took on the heart of the Barca team in obvious memory-loss situation too soon.

Methinks that that “heart of the Barca team” wasn’t quite taken in with the hype around Ansu Fati. The connected trio of Abidal, Dembele, and Fati would give the money men of Qatar great joy because this must have been viewed as a budding Islamic Triangle at the great Catalan club. Messi then punctured that enthusiasm balloon by being responsible for Abidal ouster (just to

ensure that Messi is “happy” at Barca and remain committed to the club, the honchos surmised) and young Fati hit back at Messi by dumping his brother as his agent.

When the Barca honchos decided on a massive house clear-out that affects Messi’s buddies, Messi cannot stand the idea of having a new Barca team built around him at age 33 with the likes of Fati and the “kids” that Abidal probably foisted on the team schmoozing with him. Well, now, he looketh towards Manchester City Football Club. Even though Manchester City is owned by Qatari Muslim billionaires, Pep Guardiola has already put up a squad of “jolly matured” men who would integrate Messi into the team in a seamless fashion.

––Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State

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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 ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

OPINION

SITUATION R EPORT ON COUNTERINSURGENCY IN B ORNO S TATE Bukar Usman reckons that the reasons being adduced for the protracted war on the insurgency are flimsy

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military spokesman has reportedly faulted the claim that the gains of counterinsurgency operations were now being eroded in Borno State. This is a matter both the military and the people of Borno State are equally capable of ascertaining. My emphasis here is on the response of the said military spokesman to a media report that 17 out of 27 local government areas in Borno State are under attack by the Boko Haram insurgents.

In a bid to solicit public understanding of the situation, the spokesman, among other things, said that unlike in the other North-East States of Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Gombe, where substantial progress had been made in the military campaign against the insurgents, the terrain in Borno State was different.

According to him, among the serious factors hindering the campaign in Borno State was that the basic facilities that could assist in winning the war were absent. He was quoted as saying that: “There is no semblance of governance or civil authority in Borno State. No cross-country roads, no interstate roads, no intra-local government roads. Some terrains are not easily accessible by troops because there are no road networks. Even some roads constructed by DFFRI many years ago have become dilapidated and not repaired. It is only federal roads that are better. How many local government roads do they have? There is no road linking the state capital to some of these local governments and war fronts.” (The Nation, August16, 2020, p.5).

For the spokesman to have made such a powerful case for the need for road development network in Borno State is praiseworthy. He has a point in stating that terrain is an important factor in warfare. However, the handicap of road network in Borno and anywhere else would appear to have been overplayed.

As to the lack of effective administrative presence in some of the local government areas in the state, such a situation may be responsible for the Boko Haram insurgents seizing the opportunity to establish de facto local administration such as in the Sambisa forest where they have a hierarchy administration with identifiable

Amir and his commanders mounting various checkpoints and communal and social activities somehow going on in several villages in the forest (Daily Trust, August 16, 2020, p. 36).

It is getting to nearly nine years since the military campaign started. The impression must not be created that it is only now that the military has realized that the terrain is an obstacle. How does the terrain suit the insurgents better than the professional soldiers?

Wars have been fought and won even in medieval times when there was hardly any road of note. European wars were fought and won before the Roman roads and the German autobahn. Wars have been fought and won in jungles and deserts with hardly any recognizable road let alone a road network. Even in modern times we have had military campaigns in Congo, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan. Nigerian military participated creditably in many of these places. And, here at home, the civil war and military campaigns in the Niger Delta were successfully undertaken. Simply put, the road factor should not be stressed as it gives the impression that we may have to wait for the development of road network in Borno State before the military campaign would have its way over the insurgency. This is unthinkable.

One narrative states that with a navigation campus and a four-wheel drive vehicle with auxiliary gear one could easily approach Baga town on the shores of the Lake Chad

It is expected that the military should have the logistic to move in all terrains.

And since the development of roads in most parts of Borno State cannot be done without first dislodging the insurgents, the emphasis should shift from bemoaning the terrain to a reevaluation of the military’s response to this protracted insurgency situation

from Gubio. Because most of the terrain in northern Borno is sandy and short of bush, one could easily find one’s way if one has these two vital logistic. Indeed, one could easily surmise that these are what aid the movement of the insurgents in that part of the state.

There is another narrative by two women abducted

by Boko Haram insurgents bearing AK47 rifles and wearing military camouflage. The women were abducted from a farm near Tugunshe village in Konduga Local Government Area and taken to Sambisa forest on motorcycles. On that deplorable road, it took the abductors and their captives two days to reach their destination in Sambisa (Daily Trust, August 16, 2020, p. 36). This is indicative of the lack of sophistication in the nature of some of the operations of the insurgents.

Similar reports have been made of this kind of operation in the North-West.

These narratives indicate that the insurgents also face terrain-related challenges but have devised ways of surmounting these challenges to maintain their enclave and entrench themselves. It is expected that the military should have the logistic to move in all terrains.

And since the development of roads in most parts of Borno State cannot be done without first dislodging the insurgents, the emphasis should shift from bemoaning the terrain to a re-evaluation of the military’s response to this protracted insurgency situation. Although no one knows better than the military how this strategic reappraisal should be conducted or implemented, there appears to be an urgent need for it right now.

The fact that some traditional rulers who hitherto fled their domains had returned clearly demonstrates that once the military clears the insurgents from any enclave and security restored, civil authorities will return. Security is the key to that.

Certainly, there are several factors hampering or facilitating the military campaign which should be appreciated by all concerned. However, in addressing the public, military spokesmen should always endeavour to adduce fairly convincing reasons. To do otherwise would inevitably lead to the erosion of public sympathy and confidence.

––Usman is a former federal permanent secretary.

The Femi Fani-Kayode in Us All We are a society that is averse to accountability, contends Matthew Ayibakuro

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he last 48 hours has witnessed varying degrees of reactions to the trending video of a former Minster of Aviation in Nigeria, Femi Fani-Kayode, passionately rebuking a journalist for asking him who was bankrolling his cross-country visit to several states in Nigeria. The Nigeria Union of Journalist has released a statement rebuking Mr. Fani-Kayode, as has various media houses and stakeholders, including Daily Trust, for which the journalist in question works.

To his credit, the former minister was quick in issuing an explanation, followed by an apology for his actions, but I reckon the damage is already done, leaving in its wake the ongoing social and political scrutiny of his actions and what it says of the relationship between the media and public servants - past and present - in Nigeria.

To be fair, the video was a hard watch, especially the point at which the former minister asks the journalist if he was stupid. That was simply unwarranted and unfortunate and reflects the personality and disposition of Mr. Fani-Kayode.

A different individual could have handled the situation in a manner that made the point that he endeavoured to make without using such abusive words. On the other hand, whilst recognising the invaluable role of the media in society and the importance of the democratic principle of freedom of the press, perhaps the journalist could have possibly provided a background to the question. However, considering the lack of context in the video offered online of the encounter, it is impossible to have a conclusive perspective on this.

What is clear, however, is the disproportionate, degrading and indefensible nature of Mr. Fani-Kayode's response. His reaction demonstrated, not just an aversion to the content of the question, but a clear feeling of being insulted by the audacity of a journalist to ask him such as question in the first place. As clearly stated in his long tirade, the journalist appears not to know who Mr. Fani-Kayode is: a two-time minister of this federal republic, a lawyer from a rich family background,

a one-time this and a one-time that; how dare he question him?

As disturbing and incongruous as it all sounds, let us make no mistake about this: There is a Femi Fani-Kayode in us all. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is surely a Femi Fani-Kayode in most of us: That feeling of absoluteness that should only be an exclusive reserve of God, but now resides in the souls of many in public and private spheres.

In the Nigerian context, you can see it easily everywhere, starting from public office holders who have such an exaggerated sense of entitlement that makes them believe they are doing the people a favour by holding such offices.

Hence, they demonstrate obvious irritation whenever they are questioned by journalists or required by civil society or the opposition to explain decisions or actions taken. In Nigeria, public office holders are gods with more knowledge than Nobel prize winners and more understanding than experts and professionals. They know better than the people and whatever they do is right. How dare you question them?

Sadly, the Femi Fani-Kayode syndrome is not only found in public offices. You find them in universities too, where lecturers take exception to being questioned or corrected by their students, punishing those who do so for good measure. There abound numerous examples of similar Femi Fani-Kayodes in corporations and even civil society organisations who rule with absolute authority and in doing so trample on the innovative disposition and human rights of their staff and partners in lesser bargaining positions.

Operating in the private sector provides them even more room to exert their authority without any form of questioning. Do you know who they are?

The recent reaction to the amendment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act in Nigeria, especially as it relates to the supposed regulation of non-governmental organisations also demonstrates the Femi Fani-Kayodes in churches and

other places of worship. More than anything else, religion provides a potent mechanism through which religious leaders exert unquestionable authority over people without any room for questioning, for in their case, when you question them, you are invariably questioning God, on whose behalf they speak. In a deeply religious society like Nigeria, who would dare do that?

The recent blasphemy cases in some Northern states in Nigeria demonstrates the fate of those who dare question religious authority: You will be persecuted beyond biblical or qur’anic proportions and receive state-sanctioned guilty verdicts and corresponding punishments for good measure. As for the Christian religious leaders, well, most would declare curses on all those who dare question the Femi Fani-Kayode in them and defend their actions on their golden pulpits to boot.

We are a society of Femi Fani-Kayodes. We are a society that is averse to accountability and so easily hypnotised by absolute and unquestionable leadership. It is therefore not surprising to see masses celebrating governors who bestow on themselves titles like "Governor-General", or "Oweifa" (Ijaw word meaning "no man can challenge’’). There are similar titles in various parts of the country glamorously held by public officials and traditional chiefs. These were titles which were historically held by warriors who proved their might in physical battles but have now been reduced to a mechanism for individuals to channel their inner Femi Fani-Kayode. Or maybe it is just a variant of the "Indaboski" in them. It is easy to see how the unchallengeable disposition of that preacher gained national attention.

So, even as we all jump on the mainstream bandwagon of critically analysing the actions of the former minster, this regrettable event provides an invaluable opportunity for everyone to examine at a society-wide level, and in our personal spaces, the little Femi Fani-Kayode in us all.

-––Dr. Matthew is a governance and development expert

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R Ëž AUGUST 30, 2020

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LETTERS

A CASE FOR MORE PUBLIC LIBRARIES

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he library is one of the most critical forms of social infrastructure that we have. It is also one of the most undervalued! A public library is a non-profit library that is accessible by the general public, and is usually funded by the government or from public sources, such as taxes. The public library has also been described as a "welfare centre, which provides useful services to the community by fostering education, promoting culture, recreation and dissemination of information to all sections of the society."

As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries play a fundamental role in society.

The resources and services they offer create opportunities for learning, they support literacy and education, and they help shape the new ideas and perspectives that are central to a creative and innovative society. They also help ensure an authentic record of knowledge created and accumulated by past generations. Without libraries, it would be difficult to advance research and human knowledge, or preserve knowledge and heritage for future generations.

One significant and fundamental role of public libraries is education. Public libraries provide books and other materials for people to read and use. These materials are educational and lead to self-improvement. They also help to develop basic literacy skills. The educative role of public libraries has expanded to include supporting both formal and informal education.

Promoting literacy is another function of public libraries. Literacy refers to the ability to read and write.

Public libraries continue to play a major role in fostering literacy in communities and societies, particularly among people that need special assistance in developing literacy skills.

Public libraries also help to promote lifelong learning.

Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education Lifelong learning is the process of continuous and ongoing learning throughout a person's life in order to enhance continuous development and improvement of an individual's knowledge and skills. Due to the complex and rapidly changing environment, people need to acquire a variety of skills and knowledge, irrespective of their age, or social or economic status.

Public libraries do not only have educational roles and functions. They can also contribute to the country's economic development. For example, public libraries can have a significant impact on economic productivity when they get involved in providing effective business services, resources and literacy programs to their business communities. Such businesses and organizations that use public libraries as a resource become more successful, thereby contributing to economic development in their communities.

One of the most important functions of the library is the preservation of our cultural heritage. Perhaps the most deep-rooted of our human instincts is the desire to

preserve our culture for future generations. Libraries help to accomplish this objective.

Libraries are rich repositories of historically and culturally significant collections, many of which are not available anywhere else. Without the services of a library, many works that are reflections of our cultural heritage would be lost to future generations.

What are some of the challenges facing public libraries in Nigeria today?

One problem faced by public libraries in Nigeria is their scarcity. For instance, someone who lives somewhere in Festac Town, Lagos would have to travel a long distance to somewhere around Mile 2/Amuwo Odofin, in order to access the services of a public library. This Public Library (The Borno House Library, which functions under the Lagos State Library Board), seems to be the only functioning library in the entire Festac/Amuwo-Odofin area, if I am not mistaken. So, it will be appreciated if more public libraries are established across various communities/ neighbourhoods.

Another problem is that many public libraries do need renovations. These public

NIGERIA AND THE HEALTH SECTOR

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ealth, they say, is wealth. Better health is a key to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress, as healthy population lives longer, is more productive, and save more.

However, Nigeria's health care system has been under poor condition for decades.

This has exposed Nigerians especially the poor to hardships. Many have died due to the deplorable nature of the health care system of the country.

The novel coronavirus has uncovered the poor health facility in the country which has been crying for attention for over a decade.

It could be recalled that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Musta-

pha, had decried the poor state of Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure in April 2020.

Mr Mustapha, who is also the chairman of the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19, said he realised how bad it was after he was appointed to head the team.

He also noted that the pandemic has provided the opportunity to examine the state of the national health care system which is in dire need of reforms and funding; he said the weaknesses in Nigeria’s health system became more glaring given the way more established health systems in Europe and America collapsed under pressure. Findings revealed that the challenges of the health care system in Nigeria include: inaccessibility of quality health care, poor hygiene, maltreatment of

patients, corruption, malnutrition, lack of access to safe drinking water, poor health infrastructure, insufficient drugs, equipment and financial investment as well as lack of sufficient health personnel, absence from duty, and establishment of private hospitals by public doctors.

Therefore, Nigeria must utilize the opportunities brought by the Covid-19 to address all the challenges in the health sector. By doing that, the number of people flying abroad for medical attention would be reduced drastically. This would allow Nigeria to save more lives and our economy will be diversified in the shortest period of time. ––Bilyaminu Gambo Kong-kol, Mass Comm.

Department, Bayero University, Kano.

libraries are often unattractive and poorly maintained, while in most cases, the infrastructural facilities are inadequate.

This could be because the library buildings and the systems that sustain them are underfunded, and probably neglected.

This problem can be tackled by improving funding for the public library system.

More public support - such as through the contributions of philanthropists - can be of much benefit in this regard.

Besides, the books in stock at the libraries are usually outdated. It is quite rare to find new and current books or journals. Also, reference materials, where they exist, are old and dusty. Audio-visual materials are also usually hard to come by. The quality of manpower is also frequently not up to expectations. These and many other problems are currently plaguing the public library system in Nigeria.

A functional library is expected to stock all kinds of

items that add to knowledge - from books to audio and visual materials, internet access, artefacts that advance the cultural and recreational needs of the society, etc.

Libraries are essential not only for community vitality but also for buffering all variety of personal problems - including isolation and loneliness. This is especially so, as the rate of unemployment and poverty in the country continues to rise, leading to idleness, among other ills. It is also important to generate more awareness among the populace about the important role that libraries play in modern communities, or the many roles they could play if they had more support.

Also, public enlightenment campaigns and other activities that encourage reading and literacy should be encouraged and implemented in various communities.

Libraries play a very healthy role throughout our life.

Public libraries are important

informational, educational, cultural, and social institutions which play fundamental roles in the development of the society. They are educational institutions, providing educational and literacy programs and supporting lifelong learning. They provide business resources which contribute toward economic development. They help to preserve our cultural heritage, and they also provide free and equal access to high-quality information, to meet the needs and interests of all segments of the community, including national minorities, in accordance with the principle of human rights.

Therefore, the relevant authorities will do well to establish more public libraries, maintain existing ones, and make our public libraries attractive to meet the informational, educational, and recreational needs of the people. ––Daniel Ighakpe, FESTAC Town, Lagos.

Esanland Endorses Obaseki

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he battle between Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State for the gubernatorial election took a new twist with the mammoth crowd that graced the PDP rally at Eguare Primary School Field, Irrua, Edo State.

Governor Godwin Obaseki visited the palace of the Ojirua and Okaigesan of Esanland, HRH Williams Momodu 11 and got the blessing of His Royal Highness for his second term re-election bid.

The traditional ruler commended the administration of Governor Obaskei for the works done in Ibhore Road, Idumabokhae Royal Palace Road, the building of Usugbenu Technical School, Usugbenu, Irrua; Oboh Anakaso Street, Eigbe Street, as well as in the entire Esanland.

The visit was accompanied with a colourful rally. Besides Obaseki, in attendance was his deputy, Rt. Hon. Comr. Philip Shaibu, Senator Clifford Ordia

representing Edo Central Senatorial District; Mr. Agbodoli Stephen Ukokobili, A PDP chieftain in Edo Central and other party chieftains.

With the weight of support from Esanland Godwin Obaseki will hopefully clinch the gubernatorial election in September 2020. Political analysts believe Obaseki would clinch the ticket for many reasons.

One of the key points is that Edo political block which comprises of Benin, Esan and Etsako is the key determinant for election victory in Edo State. Of the three blocks, Benin has had a share of governing the state for 12 years, Etsako for eight years.

Esanland is yet to have a slice of the cake.

The Esan people thought it wise to allow Obaseki to finish his second tenure rather than to give power to the APC-led candidate Pastor Osagie IzeIyamu who is a Benin man to rule for another eight years.

APC political forces ought to have picked a candidate from

Esanland in order to clinch the Edo gubernatorial election.

But instead they put their trust on popular identity and federal power as their political strategy to win the forthcoming election. Will this political strategy of APC yield the expected dividend? The forthcoming pool will attest to this political calculation of APC. Insight at the rally organized in Esanland with the blessing of the Okaigesan of Esanland and his cabinet in attendance bear testimony to the endorsement of Godwin Obaseki by the people. This strategic alliance between PDP and the people of Esanland would lead to the emergence of a son of Esanland in the future after the successful tenure of Obaseki for second term. It is this political philosophy that is driving Esanland to throw their support for Godwin Obaseki as the chosen candidate for Edo 2020 gubernatorial election. ––Pedro Ukokobili, Lagos.

Emeka Offor And The Fight Against Polio Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it - John D. Rockefeller Jr.

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- "+ & $ (+ (.' -"(' ! *. +- +, "' + " "- ––Obi Ebuka Onochie, obiebuka360@gmail.com.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

16

SUNDAY AUGUST 30, 2020 •T H I S D AY

17

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

BUSINESS

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

CBN’s Battle to Safeguard the Naira Going by the present volatility in the macroeconomy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cannot afford to allow saboteurs ruin its current efforts to maintain price stability as well as support the recovery of the economy, writes James Emejo

U

ndoubtedly, these are not the best of times for the Nigerian economy as key data in the second quarter of 2020 are really not encouraging.

The economy contracted by 6.10 per cent year-on-year in real terms in Q2 while foreign capital importation fell drastically by 78 per cent to $1.29 billion within the same period compared to $5.85 billion in Q1.

Yet, the lull in the global economy, largely occasioned by the impact of COVID-19 had further impacted on oil price, cutting government’s revenue and putting pressure on the country’s external reserves which stood at about $35.60 billion as at August 21.

Again, inflation had continued to be a threat to macroeconomic stability, peaking at 12.82 per cent in July while the Monetary Policy Rate remained at 12.50 per cent while unemployment rate had further increased to 27.1 per cent in Q2.

The official exchange rate is pegged at N375 to the US dollar as the apex bank had been working in recent times to allow the local currency find its real value by partly moving towards unifying the exchange rate across board, and following through the five-year roadmap of the CBN Governor, Mr.Godwin Emefiele, who had promised investor a more flexibility foreign exchange regime.

Nevertheless, the naira had continued to be under increasing attacks by forex manipulators, who engaged in various unwholesome practices including round tripping, over-invoicing as well as currency speculation- all of which undermine price stability and threaten the CBN’s mandate to stabilise prices.

Amidst all these and after several cautions which appeared to go unheeded, the CBN resolved to unfold its arm and tackling the situation head-on.

Last week, the apex bank took the markets and saboteurs by huge surprise when it launched a policy to arrest the age-long practice of over-invoicing, which unscrupulous businesses had used to cart away the country’s forex by directing banks and other authorised dealers to desist from opening Forms ‘M’ whose payment are routed through a buying company, agent, or other third parties.

The CBN further installed a product price verification mechanism, which is to help prevent overpricing or mispricing of imported goods and services, stressing that the decision was part of its continued efforts to ensure prudent use of the scarce foreign exchange resources and eliminate incidences of over-invoicing, transfer pricing, double handling charges and avoidable costs that are ultimately passed to the average Nigerian consumers.

The apex bank further vowed to unveil and prosecute “buying companies” that had been engaged in the unwholesome practice of forex manipulation.

It was stated that CBN Economic Intelligence Unit and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) was collaborating with Interpol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to uncover companies that had been engaged in the forex fraud.

According to information available to THISDAY, the forex fraud is perpetrated by these companies buying houses that are invoiced at inflated prices abroad, which they then offer to original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

The companies then go abroad to cream off the forex often at 40 to 60 per cent of the transaction amount.

But it is not the first time the CBN had cautioned over the apparent abuse of the iconic Form “M” which is key for accessing foreign exchange for importation of goods.

The CBN had in June 2015 excluded importers of 41 goods and services from accessing foreign exchange at the Nigerian foreign exchange markets in order to encourage local production of these items.

The measures were taken to sustain foreign exchange market stability and ensure the efficient utilisation of foreign exchange as well as ensuring that optimum benefit is derived from goods and services imported into the

Emefiele

country.

Nigerians had however tried to manipulate these restrictions which also apply to rice, toothpicks, tomato, fish palm oil, textile among others by tinkering with the Form M. The CBN particularly warned all authorised dealers and the public of severe sanctions should they establish Forms M for importation of all NPK fertilisers and other prohibited items going forward adding that it would severely punish management and staff who may be responsible for such transactions.

Meanwhile, analysts have thrown their weight behind the latest clampdown by the apex financial regulatory institution over the introduction of measures to arrest the age-long activities of currency manipulation, stressing the need for price stability amidst fluctuation in reserves.

The analysts also encouraged the CBN to follow through with its sanctions if positive results must be achieved.

Speaking to THISDAY on the development, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Credent Investment Managers Limited, Mr. Ibrahim Shelleng, said the CBN must ensure that the policy is followed by expansionary policies

that will provide cheaper funds to the private sector to help stimulate the economy and boost growth.

He said: “Well, certainly, it’s a good move

by CBN and even well overdue to be honest.

In the past, the Form M has been abused by allowing companies to access cheaper funds from CBN at official rate and round tripping the funds to the parallel market thereby making a spread.

“This was done by over inflating prices of imported goods. This ultimately gets passed onto the consumer and creates cost-push inflation without adequate mechanisms to control and verify prices of imported goods.

“Now that our foreign reserves are under severe pressure, we certainly need to block all loopholes that allow for a more stable currency.”

Also commenting on CBN’s new policy regime, an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics at University of Port Harcourt, Anthony Onoja, described the new forex policy regime as a “very strategic move that will reduce corruption in the foreign exchange market.”

He said: “The move will, on the long run, shore up the value of Naira which has been eroding rapidly since the beginning of this year.

The central bank is getting more creative in addressing the foreign exchange depreciation problem with this policy.

“Many foreign exchange racketeers are certainly going to run out of business soon and dollar will be more available in the market thus forcing down the price of US dollar in Nigeria. This will promote foreign trade and improve the capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector and other real sectors using foreign exchange for their businesses.”

On his part, Professor of Finance and Capital Markets at Nasarawa State University, Prof.

Uche Uwaleke, while commending the initiative, however pointed out that the real challenge for the CBN is how to ensure that these laudable measures are not circumvented thereby defeating the purpose for which they were put in place.

He said the CBN should be ready to apply sanctions to serve as deterrent, noting that the rule for export proceeds repatriation had been in the CBN books before now but would appear to be observed in the breach by some exporters.

According to the former Imo state commissioner for finance, this is the “time for the CBN to wield the big stick, not mere slap on the wrist, on any DMB that flouts the Form M order regarding third parties.”

He said: “I have not stopped wondering where people who hawk forex in the black market get their hard currencies. The CBN should device means of checking round tripping to ensure that the banks are not diverting forex to the parallel market.

Uwaleke said: “It goes without saying that the economy is going through challenging times as a result of the decline in crude oil price made worse by COVID-19.

“To provide a context for the CBN’s recent measures regarding forex, it is pertinent to realise that the Q2 negative growth in real GDP, high inflation rate, increase in inflation and downturn in virtually all macro indicators are all partly attributed to scarcity of forex following collapse in oil price since oil revenue accounts for over 90 per cent of our forex receipts.

“This precarious supply situation is exacerbated by spurious demand for forex, activities of speculators and sharp practices. So, the CBN is faced with a double whammy sort of situation.”

He said part of the sharp practices which exerted pressure in the forex market is the over-invoicing of products imported into the country due to the activities of middle men.

According to the erudite professor, requiring banks to raise Form M only in favour of a supplier as opposed to routing payments for imports through agents will go a long way in reducing the pressure in the forex market especially if the product price verification mechanism the CBN is putting in place is effectively implemented.

He added that “since inflated prices of imports are ultimately passed on to the consumer, I expect that this measure will also reduce imported inflation.

“By the same token, the directive by the CBN to exporters to ensure that all export proceeds are repatriated should boost forex supply if complied with.”

Furthermore, economist and former Director General, Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu, said the apex bank should indeed pronounce sanctions on both the customers and their local commercial banks as this will deter them from opening Form M in agents or middlemen’s names.

He said: “This has always remained an unwholesome practice which has been in our system.

“Unfortunately, it is not easy for CBN to identify the companies abroad that are genuinely the actual exporters of these goods. Thorough checks can still be done and should be done by commercial banks opening these Firm M on behalf of their customers.

“Continuous practice will always create avenue for laundering of money thereby putting pressure on our foreign reserve.”

18

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

BUSINESS /ECONOMY

:LOO ,QÁDWLRQDU\ 3UHVVXUH $EDWH" James Emejo interrogates the variables that had continued to fuel inflation as well as possible policy options to weaken the upward trajectory witnessed in the past consecutive months No doubt, the economy has continued to groan under inflationary concerns which had thrown a spanner in the wheels of both monetary and fiscal policy

T

he impact of the rising headline index cannot be underestimated particularly in macroeconomic analysis.

Itisnoteworthythatinflation is major culprit behind some of the macroeconomic policy shortfalls witnessed in recent

times.

Untilrecently,risinginflationhadmadeitdifficult for the monetary authority to lower the monetary policy rate (MPR) amidst high cost of funds.

Among other things, inflation which is part of the convergence criteria for the ECOWAS single currency programme had also posed significant challenge towards achieving the milestone due to its upward trajectory among countries within the region.

Also, rising inflation particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as impending economic recession further constitute a nightmare for policy makers who have had to contend with stabilising prices and boost output among other pressing decisions.

Yet,thethreatofinflationpersistsintheeconomy.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) consumer price index (CPI) which measures inflation increased to 12.82 per cent (year-on-year) in July compared to 12.56 per cent in the preceding month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), representing the highest rate in 29 months while annual inflation rate rose for the 11th consecutive month in July.

The composite food index increased to 15.48 per cent in July 2020 compared to 15.18 per cent in June in the review period.

Theriseinthefoodindexwascausedbyincreases in prices of bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fruits, oils and fats, and fish.

Ontheotherhand,coreinflation,whichexcludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce stood at 10.10 per cent in July, down by 0.03 per cent when compared with 10.13 per cent recorded in June.

Coreinflationwasfueledbythehighestincreases in prices of medical services, passenger transport by air, pharmaceutical products, hospital services, passenger transport by road, maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment, paramedical services and vehicle spare parts.

The uptick is a setback for monetary policy which had only managed to curtail its rise for a few consecutive months before a rebound that had seen inflation again on an upward trajectory in recent times.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has the mandate to stabilise prices, had set an inflation target of about six per cent to nine per cent in its current five-year roadmap.

The MPR, which is the rate at which the apex bank lends to commercial banks is currently at 12.5 per cent, above inflation rate, a situation which economic analysts are not comfortable with.

In his personal statements during the recent MonetaryPolicyCommittee(MPC)meetinginJuly, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, noted that therisinginflationarytrendhadbeguninSeptember 2019 due to structural factors aggravated by the pandemic-derived supply shocks.

Emefiele said inflation was partly attributable to the lingering effects of disruptions and challenges around agricultural belts, and infrastructural complications, which were aggravated by COVID-19 setbacks to interstate distribution network.

Emefiele, however, noted that the spill- over effects of these adverse impulses were expected to persist in the short-term and abet inflation inertia for much of 2020.

Also, a member of the MPC,Adamu Lametek, saidthedepreciationpressureonthenairaexchange rate combined with upward trending inflation creates complexity for monetary policy at a time when economic activity requires a boost.

He said: “This complexity calls for a cautious approach that is underpinned by instrument diversity” adding that the CBN’s interventions in the real sector had remained robust and welltailored to deliver speed in employment elastic

A pepper market

sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and solid minerals.

However, according to a report by SB Morgen Intelligence , the country’s headline index was largely influenced by foreign exchange controls.

It stated: “Amajor reason for this high inflation is the unending quest to defend the value of the Naira. To control dollar demand following the crash of oil prices, the CBN banned 41 items from accessing foreign exchange in June 2015. Several capital controls were also put in place to prevent foreign exchange leaving the country.

“This widened the gap between the official rate and the parallel market rate, which was nearly 200 Naira at one point in 2017. It also had the effect of driving away investment, and tipped the country into recession. In addition, land borders have been closed since October 2019, further strangling trade, a sector that is the second largest employer of labour in Nigeria.”

Moreover, in its Monthly Economic Update for July, the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) associated the current inflationary pressures with the over 20.4 per cent increase in fuel price.

It stated: “Food inflation to inch-up in spite of the harvest. Food inflation is expected to continue its rising trend, albeit at a slower pace of 0.02 per cent to 15.20 per cent. This is because of the impact of the prevailing supply chain disruptions, Third Mainland Bridge closure and PMS price hike. This will further reduce consumer purchasing power and lower aggregate demand.

“However,theharvestseasoncouldslowdown the pace of increase in food inflation rate.

Weaker naira and rising import bill to push up core inflation. The depreciation of the naira and its resultant impact on imported inflation will continue to impact on core sub-index (headline inflation less seasonalities).

The report added: “In the last seven months, the naira has lost approximately 23.79 per cent at the parallel market while commodity prices have increasedbyover100percentinthelastsixmonths.

In addition, the price of fuel has ranged from as low as N125/litre to N147.50/liter. Higher PMS pump price will increase transport costs, which will most likely be passed on to the final consumer.

Therefore, we are projecting a 0.05 per cent increase in the core inflation to 10.18 per cent in July.”

Nonetheless, analysts have suggested some policy measures to be taken by the authorities to

addresstherisinginflation,urgingthegovernment to wrestle the incessant bandit attacks on farming communities as well as aggressively implement the Economic Sustainablity Plan (ESP) to address the impact of rising inflation which peaked at 12.82 per cent in July.

They also called on the monetary and fiscal authorities to respectively deploy all the monetary policy tools in tackling inflationary pressure as well as stimulate the critical sectors of the economy to boost productivity and production as well as urged the apex bank to among other things focus on how to improve liquidity in the forex market particularly through the on-going unification of exchange rates.

Professor of Finance and Capital markets at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Prof. Uche Uwaleke,saidtherisinginflationamidstdownturn in economic activities was quite worrisome.

Uwaleke described it as a “stagflation which further complicates monetary policy against the backdrop of forex market illiquidity and rising unemploymentsimilartothecountry’sexperience during the 2016-2017 recession.”

He said the upward inflationary trend was the pass through to commodity prices of increase in VAT and the pump price of fuel, border closure, COVID-19impactonsupplychainsandinsecurity in the food belt regions of in the country swell as a reflection of the high exchange rate.

The former Imo State commissioner of finance, said the best way to rein-in the rising inflation was for monetary and fiscal policies to synchronise in addressing the major inflation driver which is the food component that is in excess of 15 per cent.

Also, former Director General,Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu,alsoblamedtheinflationarypressure on forex, low oil price and effects of VAT increase.

He said: “We need to identify the causes of the rise in inflation rate. Top on the list is the exchange rate, which is rising in reaction to demand and supply of foreign currencies.

“Revenue base of the country is threatened by low demand of oil and drop in its price. This has caused the exchange rate to rise. Supply chain of goods and services were also distorted at the period of lockdown.”

According to him, this affected prices of goods and services. “The effect of the VAT increase also had its effect on prices. Inflation rate therefore will continue to rise until all the factors affecting supply

and demand are controlled.”

“From the monetary policy perspective, the higher the money in circulation, the higher the price of goods and services. All the monetary policy tools should be used to address this. On the Fiscal policy side, the critical sectors of the economy must be given stimulus packages to stimulate productivity and production.”

However,HeadofResearch,UnitedCapital,Mr. Wale Olusi, further predicted inflation to rise to 13.06 per cent as a result of the underlying factors.

He said: “For the month of August 2020, we do not see any relief in sight as pressure on the headline inflation is expected to be sustained given that fundamentals remain the same. For food inflation, as land borders remain closed, we expect the resulting food deficit to persist. Similarly, the core-inflation sub-index is foreseen to continue the northward trend.

“Firstly, CBN’s continued suspension of FX sales to BDC and the illiquid status of the Investors and Exporters window remains , which we expect to continue to spur demand at the parallel market, keeping exchange rate high and driving up corporate cost components as well as cost of imported cost.”

Furthermore, anAssociate Professor ofAgricultural Economics at University of Port Harcourt, Anthony Onoja, linked the rise in inflation to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which had ravaged the economy causing unemployment and poor capacity utilisation.

Onoja said: “With the closure of the borders, ports and major markets in the country the output from the real sectors have dropped including the formal and informal sectors.

“There is need for stimulus in form of increased access to credits to businesses in the country so that they can begin to contribute to real GDP growth again. Foreign exchange regimes need to be guided by the central bank too while fiscal measures like easing the lockdown completely should be considered.”

Nonetheless, Lametek said it was gratifying that the economy had received and will continue to receive substantially higher amounts of credit compared with periods of similar crisis in the past.

He said between June 2019 and June 2020, total credit rose by N3.46 trillion (about 22 per cent), of which new credit in June 2020 alone accounted for N773 billion, up from N412.7 billion in May 2020.

19

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

BUSINESS /TRANSPORTATION

One of the trains for the Lagos-Ibadan Railway in motion

Lagos-Ibadan Railway as Economic Game Changer The Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail line will positively impact the Nigeria’s economic fortunes when operations begin in the middle of next month, reports Olawale Ajimotokan

A

fter several delays, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said it was planning to commence lowscale operations on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail line with effect from September. Full-blown passenger service will expectedly follow suit in January 2021 when the project is completed by the construction firm.

The Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Fidet Okhiria, who disclosed this, said that 16 trips will be made per day between Yaba in Lagos and Ibadan.

According to Okhiria, 24 coaches, and a set of Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) made of eight coaches had been acquired for the purpose.

He gave this insight when the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of Information and Culture,Alhaji Lai Mohammed, recently inspected the train stations still at varying stages of completion.

The construction of the rail infrastructure began in February 2011 and the railway is expected to produce far-reaching economic benefits and commercial transformation for Nigeria, when it begins operation between the two terminals at Apapa Port and Ibadan.

It will enable the freighting of consumer goods and refined petroleum products via the rail track from the port to the hinterland and other parts of the country.

Residents and commuters of Apapa see the laying of the track as a wholesome development that will resolve the perennial gridlock caused

by the craters on the road coupled with the reckless attitude of tanker and heavy duty drivers that ply the route to transport fuel and goods from the port.

Pedestrians on that axis are subjected to harrowing experience every day. Besides the irritating attitude of the tanker drivers, there is also the risk of commuters either being killed or incurring life haunting injuries, when containers that are barely strapped to the rickety trucks randomly fall on moving vehicles.

Essentially, there will also be a reduction in the sheer volume of articulated vehicles that ply the Lagos- Ibadan highway, to deliver goods as the train will provide a faster and efficient alternative means of transporting goods across the country.

As a result, the road life span will increase while the cost of road maintenance will be reduced to the barest minimum.

Track laying has been completed between Ebute-Metta Junction in Lagos and Ibadan while work is still ongoing at the 11 stations along the train corridor.

The stations are Apapa, Ebute-Meta, Ikeja, Agege, Agbado, Kajola, Papalanto, Abeokuta, Olodo, Omi-Adio and Ibadan.

Some of the stations, four of which are mega stations, with platforms and large concourses can accommodate between 4,000-6,000 passengers at peak hours.

The project which costs $1.5 billion is the first phase of the ambitious Lagos-Kano Railway constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) at the cost of $5.3billion.

The long term benefits for Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States can only be imagined. In a nutshell, the railway will ease the pressure on Lagos, creating a potential industrial hub in the southern part of Ogun, which is rich in a swathe of unexplored land.

The design has provision for freight yards at Apapa, Kajola and Ibadan in addition to Rolling stock workshop and depots at Kajola, Abeokuta and Omi-Adio.

The rolling stock workshop under construction in Kajola will serve as a rail wagon assembly plant. The plant, the first of its kind in the country will generate about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs when completed while also boosting socio-economic activities.

It is central in the production of spare parts and maintenance of equipment needed for the railway modernisation programme. It will also produce some parts of the wagons for the Abuja-Kaduna rail line.

The track from Lagos to Ibadan is 156 kilometres in length while the train will cruise at the top speed of 150km per hour. Upon completion, the infrastructure will boast of 21 bridges, 40 vehicular overpasses, 27 pedestrian bridges and 147 major culverts and under passes.

There will also be 64.4km of line that branches to Otta, Abalabi, Owode and Idiroko in Ogun State and some parts of Benin Republic on the western flank.

It is a modern rail track that will use the GSM-R signalling and communication system for the central traffic control.

The newly acquired locomotives, which arrived the country in June have been catching the eye and exciting the public in anticipation

of their full deployment.

The coaches are modern and designed with facilities that will offer passengers comfort and travelling pleasure. All the coaches are air-conditioned and came with tinted window glasses.

The sitting arrangement is configured in a way that no passenger will be allowed to stand on board.

It is also fitted with restaurants, power outlets to enable charging of telephones and other electronic appliances. The toilets are standard with pressure flushers and hand washing basins. Other features include televisions and music players for relaxation during voyage in addition to security cameras.

The pace of the project originally due for completion in May has slowed down lately due to underfunding, the rain season and the effect of COVID-19, which has restricted the construction work force at each station, which stood at 200 workers before the pandemic to 20 workers presently.

On his part, Mohammed has said the federal government was effectively utilising the funds it borrowed from China and elsewhere for infrastructural development to create jobs and provide the basis for economic development.

“There is no better way to answer Nigerians as to what we have done with the money we have borrowed than this trip,’’ he remarked during the inspection.

He said there was nothing bad in borrowing, provided the funds are invested in infrastructure rather than services or consumption, adding that the people in all communities who saw the new coaches showed excitement.

20

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

BUSINESS/MONEY

As Abiru Bows out of Polaris…

Effective from tomorrow, August 31, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Polaris Bank Limited, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, will retire after about 29 years out of a 32-year private sector life. At Polaris, Abiru successfully executed a transformation plan, which brought the bank from liability to profitability. Bamidele Famoofo writes

L

ast Monday, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Polaris Bank Limited, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru formally announced his retirement from the bank.

His retirement will take effect from tomorrow after about 29 years in the banking sector, serving in different capacities.

The last four years were perhaps the most defining part of his 29-year banking career. On July 4, 2016, precisely, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appointed him to lead the defunct Skye Bank Plc out of insolvency. With other professionals on the board of the bank, Abiru has successfully led transformation of the defunct bank to become Polaris Bank in four years.

He provided synopsis of how he transformed Skye Bank to Polaris Bank in a short note he sent to his friends and associates, announcing plan to bow out of the bank. Specifically, Abiru wrote: “With the support of the Board and Executive Management of Polaris Bank and by God’s grace, I have delivered on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s mandate to stabilize and establish the Bank on the path of sustainable profitability.

“Polaris Bank is today a digitally enabled, customer-friendly and forward-looking enterprise, which has secured its rightful place in the vanguard of Nigeria’s banking industry.

What remains outstanding is the divestment of government ownership from the bank to suitable investors in order to further solidify the journey on the path of continuous growth.”

From his personal account and the bank’s financial statements, Abiru has no doubt put Polaris on a good standing, pulling it out of liability to profitability. Evident from verified documents, the bank is now not just profitable and stable, but also poised to compete effectively with the established competitors in the Nigerian banking industry.

A Peep into Polaris Indeed, the last two years have been noteworthy in the transformational history of Polaris Bank, a bridge bank the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) established September 21, 2018 to manage the assets and liabilities of Skye Bank. The apex bank resorted to this option on three related grounds.

First, as revealed in its records, Skye Bank, the defunct precursor of the bridge bank, had about 80 per cent non-performing loans far above the regulatory standard. Second, other prudential and adequacy ratios of the defunct bank abysmally performed much below the thresholds of the apex banks. Third, the owners of Skye Bank failed to recapitalise the bank.

Altogether, these grim realities shaped CBN’s decision first on July 4, 2016 and afterwards on September 21, 2018. On the former date, the apex bank announced the takeover of Skye Bank. With Abiru as GMD/CEO, consequently, the CBN appointed an 8-member Board of Directors under the chairmanship of Mr. Muhammad Ahmad for the defunct bank.

Also, on the latter date, the apex bank established Polaris to assume the assets and liabilities of Skye bank in consultation with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), a statutory body set up to protect depositors and guarantee the settlement of insured funds. That decision marked the second phase in the history of the troubled bank in which both customers and investors practically lost confidence.

Obviously, the rationale behind the strategy of the apex bank was pure and simple. As designed then, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, explained, the strategy is for the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to capitalise the bridge bank and begin the process of sourcing investors that will eventually buy out the AMCON. Return to Profitability From the abysmal records of its precursor, Polaris has come out stronger under its new management, now performing impressively and lucratively as much as other banks that

its future when the apex bank announced its take-over on July 4, 2016.

UnderAbiru, however, the new management managed the bank’s grievous challenges, which culminated in reduction of deposit loss, restoration of customer confidence and stabilisation of the bank. Also, it settled many matured trade and expired bilateral obligations and restructured outstanding balances with the relevant institutions and counterparties.

Abiru’s team, substantially addressed the challenges of loan security inadequacy and improper collateral documentation in the legacy portfolio of the bank. It equally cleaned up loan and collateral documentation on most of the high value facilities, thereby putting the bank in a stronger position to enforce its rights as a lender.

With its aggressive loan recovery drive, the bank recovered over N60 billion of outstanding bad loans withinAbiru’s first year in office. Under Abiru’s leadership, records showed, loan recovery rose to N100 billion at the end of the second year.

Also, it reached settlement and restructuring agreements with many of the chronic bad debtors resulting in substantially improved payments and prospects of future recoveries.

Abiru, likewise, pursued other initiatives to restructure and reposition the bank based on its mandate including cost management and optimisation and divestments to improve the institution’s financial position. Among others, cost management initiatives include branch rationalisation, review of service contracts and cash management operations all of which have resulted in hundreds of millions of financial savings.

Abiru

are not in crisis. The bank’s first audited report bears witness to positive change a management structured around sound corporate governance can bring about.

Under his leadership, undoubtedly,Abiru has changed the narrative of Polaris Bank from pessimism to optimism, more aptly from liability to profitability. In its audited report, Polaris posted N27.35 billion profit after tax in the 2019 financial year. In terms of profits after tax, relatively, Polaris performed much better than N660 million posted by Ecobank; N7.13 billion by Sterling Bank; N10.66 billion by FCMB; N16.35 billion

by Union Bank; N5.03 billion by Wema Bank and N2.95 billion by Unity Bank.

Besides its comfortable return to profit, Polaris reported N857.86 billion total deposits in the 2019 financial year, a major feat most banks of its status could not record. In the same financial year, for instance, Sterling Bank could only report the total deposit of about N827 billion, Stanbic IBTC 660.93 billion, Wema Bank N578.88 billion and Unity Bank 251.91 billion.

Likewise, its return on assets was quite impressive in the year under review. With its 2per cent return on assets, Polaris ranked ahead of Ecobank, which reported 0.03per cent; Sterling Bank 0.60per cent; FCMB 0.66per cent; Wema Bank 0.70per cent; First Bank 0.72per cent; Unity Bank 0.91per cent; Union Bank 0.94per cent; Fidelity Bank 1.21per cent; Access Bank 1.35per cent as well as UBA 1.54per cent.

In terms of return on equity, Polaris reported 33per cent, almost at par with GTBank at 33.67per cent. From available records, most Tier I banks did not post better returns on equity than the bridge bank. In the 2019 financial year, Zenith could only post 15.85per cent; Access Bank 17.44per cent, UBA 15.35per cent, First Bank 6.66per cent and Ecobank as low as 0.24per cent.

WiththeexceptionofStanbicIBTCthatreturned 34.79per cent on equity, virtually all Tier II banks were ranked below Polaris in their performance.

In 2019, as shown in their audited reports, Sterling Bank only returned 6.29per cent equity; FCMB 6.58per cent; Fidelity Bank 11.90per cent; Union Bank 7.55per cent; Wema Bank 9.20per cent and Unity Bank’s equity regressed by 1.22per cent, all of which were ranked below the bridge bank.

At the end of the financial year, Polaris’ capital

adequacy ratio comfortably stood at 14per cent while its liquidity at 81per cent. These ratios are well above regulatory requirements, thereby demonstrating a strong return to prudential compliance and providing assurance of a strong capital buffer and careful liquidity management to customers and regulators.

With respect to its cost-to-income ratio, Polaris recorded 59per cent relatively better than Ecobank (83.33per cent),Access Bank (70.08per cent), UBA (68.26per cent) and First Bank (75.83per cent).

Only GTBank and Zenith, both Tier I banks, posted better cost-to-income ratio than Polaris.

When compared with banks of its status, Polaris did better than Fidelity Bank, which reported 73.79per cent; FCMB 86.71per cent; Sterling 84.24per cent and Union Bank 84.27per cent.

From about 80per cent record of its precursor, Polaris’ non- performing loans at 46per cent is relatively high given its inherited portfolio.

Obviously, with its management’s aggressive efforts to improve loan quality, strengthen collateralisation and collect outstanding loans, the non-performing loans of the bank would come down significantly in the foreseeable future.

Challenges of Transformation Without result-oriented management, Polaris would not have been able to transit from liability to profitability, only in four years of its transformation. This perhaps justified the decision of the apex bank to appoint Ahmed as the Chairman of Polaris Board; Abiru as its GMD/CEO and other reputable professionals as executive and non-executive directors to pull the bank from the brink of outright collapse.

At its takeover, a failure of corporate governance was one of the bank’s major problems.

This was evident in what the new management described the bank’s high level of non-performing insider-related loans. By implication, its funding structure and risk asset portfolio mix signified improper risk management exposing it to policy and currency risks.

Also, reports of forensic audits, which reputable accounting were engaged to conduct, revealed significant infractions under the bank’s previous managers.As a result, Polaris suffered significant deposit attrition. Customers, depositors, shareholders and institutional partners alike doubted

Repositioned for Future With its profit before tax standing at N27.83 billion at the end of the 2019 financial year, Abiru and his team have returned Polaris to profitability in line with the mandate the apex bank set for the new management. Now on a strong foothold, the bank has been repositioned as a major player in Africa’s biggest economy with over 370 branches nationwide.

Already, the bank has been restructured for sustainability. At the beginning of the 2020 financial year, Abiru reeled out future plan for the bank in a note to its staff members nationwide.

He wrote in part: “2018 was pivotal in the life of the bank with the transition from Skye to Polaris.

2019, however, is even more important as we commence the journey of truly building a bank and brand we will all be proud of in years to come.”

“I am confident our bank has indeed stabilised and is now headed towards our purpose, which is to become a top retail bank” in Nigeria. This was demonstrated by our collective and sustained performance trajectory in 2019. Our prudential ratios-capital adequacy and liquidity ratios are now in full compliance with stipulated regulatory requirements.

“We returned to profitability on a month-onmonth basis throughout 2019. Our cost-to-income ratio is also in line with industry average. We aggressively pursued our IT infrastructure refresh with a view to replacing and upgrading the aged, obsolete and sub-optimal performance IT equipment. The impact on efficiency, effectiveness, transactions and customers’ experience will become noticeable from the end of the first quarter of 2020...”

With this impressive performance, therefore, Abiru laid out strategic initiatives for the bank’s future growth. He cited the bank’s digital transformation, which had begun with recruitment of professionals and setting up of structures and systems. He cited the bank’s agency banking platform, an initiative designed to provide banking services to the unbanked and underbanked, especially in locations where the bank is not present.

Confident of taking the bank to an enviable status in the nearest future, Abiru reaffirmed his resolve to execute its corporate transformation plan, which according to him, was designed to provide direction for the bank into the future and define its corporate and strategic aspirations.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A Review of Buhari Administration’s Achievements To mark the first anniversary of the second term of the Buhari administration recently, the federal government announced a plethora of policies, programmes and projects, which it defined as achievements of the Buhari administration. Nosa James-Igbinadolor looks at these accomplishments and wonders if the government should indeed be celebrating at all

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ugust 21st 2020 marked the first anniversary of the second term of the Muhammadu Buhari administration; an administration largely perceived as lacklustre in ideas and results, and cruelly divorced from the distressing economic realities of average Nigerians.

Faced with a growing yet unyielding harmony of public opinion, crystalised around a tangible perception of failed promises and brittle achievements by the president and his government after five unpromising years in office, the Presidency threw at Nigerians a mélange of what it averred to be feats and triumphs.

These ‘accomplishments’, a salad of initiatives and policies, with a sprinkling of projects, according to a statement from the Presidency, include the President establishing “new Ministries, including PoliceAffairs and HumanitarianAffairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in 2020, the Budget Implementation Cycle being successfully restored to a January-to-December Calendar, with the signing of the 2020 Appropriation Bill in December 2019 and President Buhari signing into law a Finance Bill, to reform domestic tax laws, introduce tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets, and improve the business environment.”

The presidency also asserted that among the many achievements of the administration is that President Buhari ordered a forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigeria rising 15 places on the World Bank Doing Business Index, to 131st position, from 146th, and President Buhari assenting to the Deep Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) Act. Also mentioned were Buhari performing the ground-breaking for the University of Transportation in Daura, an investment by CCECC in Nigeria, Vice PresidentYemi Osinbajo performing the ground-breaking for a new WagonAssembly Plant in Kajola, Ogun State, which will produce rolling stock for Nigeria’s new Rail Lines, and create jobs for thousands of Nigerians, President Buhari approving the Financial Transparency Policy, mandating publication of Public Financial Information through an Open Treasury Portal and Nigeria commencing the issuance of Visas on Arrival to all persons holding passports of African countries among others It further posited that “no fewer than three private Modular Refinery projects have been completed in 2020 “The first of the dozen A-29 Super Tucano light attack, combat and reconnaissance aircraft ordered by Nigeria in a government-to-government deal with the United States successfully completed its inaugural flight at the production facility. The full fleet is scheduled for delivery in 2021.

That the “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched a 50 billion Naira Household and SME support facility, to cushion the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic. As at July 2020, N49.195 billion has been disbursed, to over 92,000 beneficiaries,” is also part of the administration’s achievements, according to the statement.

The ‘achievements’, long on initiatives but feeble and petite on outputs and positive, impactful results, reflect the realities of the last five years of the administration; one largely characterised by a debilitating economy, unprecedented job losses, poor investor confidence, and a weak local currency among other economic ills.

The obvious fact, is that the last five years of the Buhari administration, despite the uplifting picture painted by the government have seen the economy meander from one bleak valley to another.

The depressing state of the Nigerian economy under Buhari, was aptly enumerated by the Economist magazine in its May 2019 edition, when it noted, “the Nigerian economy is stuck like a stranded truck. Average incomes have been falling for four years; the IMF thinks they will not rise for at least another six. The latest figures put unemployment at 23per cent, after

Buhari

growing for 15 consecutive quarters. Inflation is 11per cent. Some 94million people live on less than $1.90 a day, more than in any other country, and the number is swelling. By 2030 a quarter of very poor people will be Nigerian, predicts the World Data Lab, which counts such things”.

In 2016, Bloomberg, the financial and media giant, warned that the rigid leadership style of President Muhammadu Buhari was making Nigeria’s economic challenges difficult to solve. Africa and the world, according to the company, “cannot afford a failing economy in the continent’s most populous nation.

“Yet that is exactly what Nigeria might be getting: Its economy is on track to shrink by 1.7 per cent this year, the official unemployment rate has more than doubled over the last two years, and inflation is at an 11-year high.

“One concrete step President Muhammadu Buhari could take to address the crisis would be to eliminate the country’s disastrous foreign exchange controls. Instead, Buhari has made no secret of his desire to defend Nigeria’s currency.

“And the central bank has mostly gone along.

Despite allowing the devaluation of the naira in June, it is continuing to manipulate the exchange rate — discouraging foreign investors, creating a crippling shortage of dollars for businesses that need to import, and feeding a currency black market. To keep down the street price of vanishing dollars, Buhari’s government has arrested informal money-changers. More capital controls are in the works.”

The Nigerian government only began to see reason and adopt these policies in 2019 despite warnings and admonitions by economists and other experts.

According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 6.10 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020.

The figure represents an 8.22 percentage point decline compared to the Q2 2019 GDP growth rate of 2.12 per cent, and 7.97 percentage point drop from the 1.87 per cent growth rate recorded in Q1 2020. The -6.10 per cent negative growth effectively ends the low, but positive real growth rates recorded since the 2016/17 recession.

In addition, the oil sector contracted by 6.63 per cent in real terms in Q2 2020, representing a

13.80 percentage point decline when compared to the Q2 2019 figure, while the non- oil sector, according to the report, contracted by 6.05 per cent in Q2 2020, representing a 7.70 percentage point decline from Q2 of last year. It is also the first decline in real non-oil GDP growth rate since Q3 2017.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had projected in June that the Nigerian economy would witness a deeper contraction of 5.4per cent in 2020 According to the NBS, the decline was largely attributable to significantly lower levels of both domestic and international economic activity during the quarter, which resulted from nationwide shutdown efforts aimed at containing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The expectation, according to Bloomberg, is that the Nigerian economy would contract further in the third quarter of the year. “We expect the economy to contract again in Q3, but at a slower rate than Q2. The above target oil production in April-June, though, mean steeper production cuts will be required in August and September in order to reach full OPEC compliance. At the same time, a weaker naira and on-going foreignexchange restrictions will continue to weigh on growth in the non-oil sector,” it said.

Data from the statistics body further show that the country’s unemployment rate rose to a record 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, from 23 per cent in the third quarter of 2018.

In effect, about 22 million Nigerians, twice the population of neighbouring Benin Republic, are unemployed. The underemployment rate is much higher, with 22.9 million Nigerians working less than 20 hours a week. As expected, the majority of the unemployed are young men and women in their productive age. Since coming into office in 2015, the Buhari administration has lost more jobs than any other administration in country’s history.

The analysis by most experts is that the last five years has seen little of anything perceptible to celebrate about. In its 2019 analysis of the Nigerian economic and business landscape, the global media and investment company, Forbes warned, “Want to lose money in one of Africa’s biggest markets? Put it to work in Nigeria.

“Despite sitting on nearly 40 billion barrels of

proven oil reserves and over $48 billion worth of investment opportunities in the oil and gas sector, Africa’s largest economy is mired in problems with big corporate investors as president Muhammadu Buhari readies his second-term after a swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 29.

“Nigeria’s stock index is down 0.4per cent year-to-date while emerging markets are up 2.3per cent and the MSCI Frontier Markets 100 is up 10.2per cent.

As one of the better known, investable African equity markets, anyone who tried their luck with the Global X Nigeria (NGE) exchange-traded fund is down 27.7per cent over the last 12 months. In five years, the Nigeria ETF has blown up, now down over 74.5per cent. Frontier and emerging indexes are better than Nigeria. It’s also worse than South Africa, Africa’s largest stock market, and Egypt, Africa’s second largest.

“In terms of foreign direct investment, back in 2013 inflows totaled $5.6 billion, most of it in the telecoms and energy sectors. Last year, Nigeria’s FDI flattened to $2 billion. Equity investment between 2013 and 2018 has fallen from around $2.9 billion in 2013 to just $139 million in 2018.

In the last quarter of 2018, there was the first net pull-out of equity capital since records began under the current accounting methodology in 2008, according to data compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

“It’s Nigeria’s abundant commodity resources that make it so big. But it’s Nigeria’s government that keeps it from getting bigger, and richer.”

Under Buhari, Nigeria faces “a looming external debt crisis.” Its external debt increased by about $20 billion in five years, going from a little less than $10 billion to $29 billion between 2015 and 2020.

Most of these debts were recorded in the first four years of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration via multilateral, development, bilateral and commercial loans (Eurobonds and Diaspora bonds). To most Nigerians, there is nothing tangible on ground to justify these massive debts incurred by the administration. On the contrary, debt servicing now takes up more than 80 per cent of government revenue, leaving very little for much needed capital investments.

For the average Nigerian, the achievements and successes of any government can be better appreciated by how the policies, programmes and projects of that government affects their income and daily lives. A 50kg bag of rice cost on the average N8,000 five years ago before this administration came into office as against N28,000 under Buhari. This is despite the government’s much heralded and trumpeted ‘rice revolution’. While a litre of fuel under the preceding administration cost N87, it is today N148. A bottle of Coke cost N60 under the last administration as against N150 today, while a tin of peak milk which cost N80 under the last administration now sells for between N250 and N260 today. Flying to Lagos from Abuja was on average around N10,000 five years ago, it hovers around N27,000.

Five years after, most Nigerians would likely see the rash of successes painted by the government as preposterous. They are unable to connect with these self-adulating achievements that remain a mirage to many. Almost everyone will agree that life has become a lot difficult since Muhammadu Buhari took over power; what with tens of millions of jobs lost, the naira in constant freefall, an economy producing lots of oil and almost nothing else of worth, and a growing debt crisis that many thought Nigeria had finally dealt with in 2006 when the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration paid off the nation’s sovereign debts Five years is more than enough to fundamentally change the socio-economic landscape of any country, including Nigeria. The Buhari administration has woefully failed to chalk up a posse of accomplishments, rather it chose to respond to the widely held belief by Nigerians of unconscionable and immoderate failure to achieve much by wringing out of a cornucopia of disappointments, an assemblage of initiatives sans result.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͻ͸˜ 2020

22

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Where’s Nigerian Economy Headed?

The gross domestic product stood at -6.1 percent as at end of second quarter in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This is not cheery news for the largest economy in Africa, as the report indicates that all is not well with the country. By implication, Nigerians, especially the poor, are to prepare for more difficult times, even as the federal government confirms that figures from the remaining two quarters may be worse. Howbeit, there might be hope as government says it will do everything in its powers to assuage the on the people by formulating the right policies. Bamidele Famoofo writes

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t is no longer news that rather than for the economy of Nigeria to grow in the second quarter, it dropped significantly by 6.1 percent. The figure beats the 5.4 per cent contraction projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020, but still lower than 8.9 per cent shrink expected by the government in 2020.

It is reported that the GDP in Britain for the same period was negative 20.3per cent while the decline of the US economy is steeper at 32.9per cent. The South African economy is projected to experience a worse contraction of 44.5per cent while the results of economic performance in other Africa countries are anticipated but not expected to deviate from the trend as reported.

Analysts have said the economic output, published by the NBS, did not come as a surprise, as they have envisaged that the downturn in global oil price would take its toll on the economy. But more than the impact of oil, economic slowdown arising from the COVID-19 pandemic was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

A report published by United Capital Research said the decline was “significantly more than our estimate representing the steepest economic decline in Nigeria in over three decades. “Clearly, this is attributed to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global lockdown measures on the various sectors of the economy.”

Meanwhile, of the 19 sectors in the NBS’s classification, 13 recorded contraction while six sectors recorded expansion. The bright spots included financial services, telecoms, coal mining, utilities, and agriculture. Specifically, the financial institution and telecommunication sectors were stand-out performers with 28.4 per cent and 18.1 per cent expansion, respectively.

United Capital Research attributed the expansions recorded in both sectors to policy impacts. “Clearly, credit growth amid CBN’s LDR policy, FX revaluation gains, increased digital adoption and strategic positioning of these sectors supported their performance.”

But on the contrary, oil refining, road, air, rail & pipelines transports, accommodation & food services, as well as construction were the worst hit with over 30 per cent contraction each or -52.0 per cent on average.

“As expected, the Nigerian oil sector steeply contracted by -6.6 percent y/y in real terms in Q2-2020 (vs. +7.2 per cent and +5.1 per cent in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020 respectively).

Notably, the y/y contraction was fueled by a 12.6 per cent y/y decline in oil production to 1.81mbpd in Q2-2020 (the lowest level since Q1-2017) amid the country’s compliance to OPEC+ output quota during the period. In terms of contribution to overall GDP, the oil sector’s contribution slid to 8.9 per cent, (vs 9.0 percent and 9.5 percent in Q2-2019and Q1-2020 respectively),” United Capital Research said.

Breakdown of the report from NBS showed that the non-oil real GDP contracted for the first time since Q3-2017 by -6.1 per cent in Q2-2020 (vs. +1.6per cent in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020, respectively. This was on the back of slow growth in the agriculture sector which grew 1.58 per cent (vs 1.79 per cent in Q2-2019 and 2.20 per cent in Q1-2020), coupled with contraction in services sector, -6.78 per cent in Q2-2020 (vs 1.94 per cent in Q2-2019 and 1.57 per cent in Q1- 2020) and the Industrial sector, down 12.05 per cent (vs 2.84 percent in Q2-2019 and 2.26 per cent in Q1-2020). However, there

Ahmed

were a few bright spots within the non-oil sector. Notably, the Financial Services and the ICT sector which contributed a total of 22.0 per cent to real GDP jumped by 28.4 percent and 18.1 per cent respectively in Q2-2020.

Overall, 13 sub-sectors within the non-oil GDP classification grew while 32 contracted.

Agriculture sector GDP slowed to 1.58 percent in Q2-2020 y/y as restriction in movements coupled with extension of planting season into Q2-2020 left an underwhelming imprint on the sector. This is a slowdown relative to the 1.8 per cent and 2.2 per cent recorded in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020, respectively.

Specifically, Crop Production, which accounts for above 85.0 percent of the sector’s GDP was marginally up by 1.4 per cent (vs. 1.9 percent and 2.4 per cent in Q2-2019 and Q12020, respectively). Similarly, growth in the Forestry sub-sector slowed to 1.1 per cent y/y in Q2-2020 (vs 3.2 per cent and 1.7 per cent y/y in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020, respectively).

Meanwhile, the Livestock sub-sector - the second largest contributor to Agric. GDP (at c. 7-8 per cent) saw a faster growth of +2.26 per cent (vs -0.1 per cent and +0.6 percent in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020, respectively). Also, Fishery sub-sector recorded a faster growth of 5.68 per cent (vs 1.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent in Q2-2019 and Q1-2020, respectively).

The manufacturing sector was one of the worst hit sectors in Q2-2020; declining 8.78 percent y/y. Analysing the component of the subsector showed that only 2 out of the 13 sub sectors recorded growth. Specifically, the Chemical and Pharmaceutical sub-sector (+3.8 percent y/y) posted its fastest growth in more than three years in Q2-2020. This is

Emefiele

unsurprising considering the intervention fund channeled towards the pharmaceutical companies as well as the increased demand for pharmaceutical products in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the Motor Vehicles and Assembly sub-sector was up 6.95 per cent y/y (vs 1.04 per cent y/y in Q1-2020). Meanwhile, the Oil Refining (-67.66 percent y/y), Electrical and Electronics (-28.41 percent y/y), Pulp Paper and Paper Products (-28.16per cent) as well as Non-metallic Products ( -22.78per cent y/y) recorded the sharpest decline within the sector. Overall, the manufacturing sector contributed 8.82per cent to aggregate GDP in Q2-2020, down 83bps compared to Q1-2020.

Outlook “For the rest of the year, we believe the sharp contraction recorded in Q2-2020 is as worst as it can get for the year as the government continues to phase out lockdown measures implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19 within the country. However, we expect economic performance to remain contractionary through half year 2020 as business activities continue to struggle to return to their pre-COVID-19 levels,” analysts said. They hinted that what happened in Q2 2020 as reported by the NBS, “Signals that recession will kick in fully by Q3-2020E, as key sectors such as Oil & Gas, Trade, Agric, Aviation, other Manufacturing & Services, accounting for over 50per cent of real GDP, may not rebound fully by end of September 2020.”

“Specifically, we expect Nigeria’s compliance to OPEC+ production cut agreement

(capped at 1.50mbpd from August-2020 to Dec-2020) and compensation for prior months’ overproduction with deeper cut to limit production to below pre-COVID-19 levels of above 2.0mbpd. Hence, oil sector GDP is expected to remain pressured. Also, contrary to our initial optimistic position for the non-oil sector to recover by Q4-2020, we now assume the sector will remain contractionary through Q3 and Q4-2020E. This assumption is predicated on the negative impact of the current FX scarcity, pressure on consumer spending amid rising inflation and unemployment rates, would continue to have on volumes growth,” United Capital Research projected.

Economic pundits believe sectors such as the ICT, Agriculture, and Financial Services, which contribute c. 45.0per cent to real GDP, will continue to stay resilient during the dark times in Q3 and Q4-2020.

A Lagos-based economist, Dr. Boniface Chizea, noted that there was the need for intentional and properly focused policies by government to move the economy in the desired path of rapid growth. “We believe that what needed to be done has been well canvassed but what has been badly lacking is determined and focused implementation.

And unless a vaccine against Coronavirus is found, no one is in a position to predict when the pandemic induced disruptions will abate. As a nation we must rise stoutly to the challenge of this unfamiliar economic environment if we must have a chance of moderating its devastating and far-reaching negative economic consequences as we brace up for the long haul,” he warned.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ UGUST 30, 2020

INTERNATIONAL Sequence and Consequence of a Lacklustre Foreign Policy: Chinese Loan Agreements and Nigerian Traders in Ghana

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any international scholars believe that foreign policy is necessarily a resultant from the domestic setting. We do agree with this observation, but there is also no disputing the fact that foreign policies are defined by international environmental conditionings.

The only problem of definition with any

given foreign policy is when it lacks lustre, when a foreign policy is not vibrant and only remains reactive without definite direction.

And perhaps more disturbingly, when a foreign policy has little Telephone : 0807-688-2846 or no perceived role in the making of foreign agreements, one e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com cannot but expect the worse or the worst outcomes. This is how to explain and understand the controversy surrounding the NigeriaChina loan agreements in terms of blank pages in the agreement.

Was the Foreign Ministry not involved in the making of the agreement? How do we explain signing an agreement without having the Foreign Ministry, at least, as an observer, if not as one of the negotiators?

The mounting hostility vis-à-vis Nigerian businessmen in Ghana is another manifestation of Nigeria’s lacklustre foreign policy. The domestic setting has probably sent wrong signals that are not helpful to the government and people of Nigeria to Ghana, while the international environment has made life difficult for Nigerians in the Diaspora. In other words, how is Nigeria perceived globally? Has Nigeria no more any foreign policy? If yes, what is it on? What is the current meaning of Africa as centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy under the Buhari administration?

Unfortunately, if not most unfortunately, the Foreign Ministry gave its success story in the Buhari Administration Fifth Anniversary Factsheet (vide The Nation of Tuesday, June 9, 2020, p.5) at two levels: multilateral and bilateral. At the multilateral level, signing agreements with the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jersey Island United States, Lichtenstein, etc, are given as success stories. One truth is that the agreement with the United Kingdom in August 2016 was simply an MOU (Memorandum of Buhari Understanding) on modalities for the return of looted funds from Nigeria. ally expand the boundary of West Africa to the Mediterranean.’

Another truth is that the struggle for the return of such funds to (vide The Nation, Friday, June 9, 2017, p.8). It took the intervention Nigeria began even before the election of President Muhammadu of the House of Representatives to temporarily put an end to the Buhari (PMB). In fact, Switzerland is on record to have repatriated Moroccan dream. looted funds before 2016. One cannot but wonder why routine Apart from the multilateral questions, many bilateral developdiplomatic activities are presented as success stories. True they ments are also considered as success stories. For instance, there can be, especially when strenuous diplomatic negotiations are is the elevation in 2019 of the South Africa-Nigeria Bi-National deployed. But when international positions are zoned to regions Commission from Vice Presidential to Presidential level ‘as a and the positions have to be rotated within the beneficiary renewed commitment to cooperation between Africa’s two largest region, why should the Foreign Ministry claim success stories? economies.’ The question here is the extent to which the Vice This is self-deceit at best. It is more than a self-deceit to consider, Presidential level of the commitment has nipped in the bud South for instance, ‘the designation of President Buhari as the African African xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion for 2018. It is more of a Another alleged bilateral success is the signing and ratification mockery than an expression of honour in the current dispensation of an Extradition Treaty with the United Arab Emirates. What of intra-African politics. Consequently, it has become necessary to really is the big deal with the signing of an extradition treaty with evolve parameters for the determination of a success story at the any country? What would have amounted to a big deal is when level of multilateral diplomacy, because the failure of foreign policy PMB’s mobilisation of ‘international support for the war against is being presented as a success story. This should not be.

Boko Haram, forging strong partnerships with key countries...’ has successfully neutralised the Boko Haram insurgency. It is not because the United States would have accepted to sell and have Sequence of Foreign Policy Failures actually sold 12 Super Tucano aircraft, which she initially refused to In 2017, Morocco made strenuous efforts to become a full sell, that there is a success story to tell. member of the Economic Community of West African States.

The truth remains that the United States’ interest was not Nigeria argued in favour of Morocco’s membership even though guaranteed and protected when she initially refused to sell. The Morocco belongs geo-politically to North Africa and not to the fear of the United States was that certain weapons might get into West African region. The foreign policy elite strongly opposed the hands of the terrorists as a result of possible mishandling by the Morocco’s membership because such a membership has the Nigerian military. Another main truth is that the United States was potential to compete with Nigeria’s influence, as well as open the unable to influence Nigeria on the basis of its whims and caprices. doors to uncontrolled international interferences to the detriment If the selling of Tucanos is now a success story, then arguably, of Nigeria. In the eyes of Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, ‘Nigeria has only one option. Let the West African Heads of State and Presidents Nigeria’s sovereignty must have been sold to the United States, which cannot but be most unfortunate. drop this whole issue of expansion to the Mediterranean. Or Additionally, the role of the Foreign Ministry cannot but be Nigeria should serve notice that it would terminate, not suspend, called to question on the implications of presidential firing or but terminate her membership of ECOWAS.’ sacking of political appointees,whose jobs have implications In fact, Professor Akinyemi sees a fraudulent intention in the for international relations. Media reports have it that President membership by looking at it from a double advantage, which Muhammadu Buhari had sacked Professor Charles Quakercould only be to the detriment of the ECOWAS members. As he Dokubo as the Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme. He put it, ‘the United Nations, the African Union and all international was first suspended in February 2020 on the recommendation of institutions now use the concept of regionalism in the distribution the report of the panel chaired by the National Security Adviser, of both appointive and elective posts. ECOWAS cannot unilater-

VIE INTERNATIONALE

Bola A. Akinterinwa

Without any iota of gainsaying, foreign policy under PMB has been most reckless and unpatriotic.

It is too reactive and lacks focus. Signing international bilateral agreements with empty pages in them is not only unfortunate, but also portrays a poor quality of representation and negotiation.

Anti-corruption efforts are meaningless if probing alleged anomalies is discontinued for selfish reasons. In fact, it taints Nigeria’s international image to learn that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State wants to take a loan from China for the construction of a mono rail, but not ready to do so transparently, prompting the Alhaji Bashir Tofa-led Kano Unity Forum and others to lobby against it. Why is the contract shrouded in secrecy, when the loan will make the State Government to be indebted to China for 50 years? Questions are asked: ‘is it 684 million Euros equivalent to over N300billion or N828 billion imputed by a Kano political opposition movement? In the event ...

KNSG chooses to remain impervious to this well-intentioned intervention, Kano Unity Forum will diligently pursue court processes and other lawful means to stop the Light Rail project.’The Forum has said. Indeed, Nigeria is a country of mounting domestic contradictions. Probably foreign policy may not explain all the problems

Major General Babagana Monguno (retd). Quoting Femi Adesina, Presidential Adviser on Media affairs, The Punch has it that ‘the Monguno panel had looked into the ‘’numerous allegations and petitions surrounding the Presidential Amnesty Programme’’ and came to the conclusion that Dokunbo should be suspended’ (The Punch, August 27, 2020, p.)

The eventual sacking of Professor Dokunbo is not interesting in itself. What is particularly interesting is three-fold. First, the Government acknowledged that there are cases of serious financial infractions on the basis of which he was to be sacked, yet, the same Government, led by the same ‘President Muhammadu Buhari appreciated the services of Professor Dokunbo to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and wished him the best in his future.’ This, indeed, is a funny appreciation: is it appreciation for engaging in frauds? Were the allegations against him not tenable? If they are not tenable, why sack him? If they are tenable, is relieving him of his appointment as coordinator of the Amnesty Programme the ideal deterrence to his successor and others? Is sacking really a punishment?

Second, when allegations were made against Professor Dokunbo, social media reports pointed to several accomplices. What are the punishments for them? Why is the appreciation not extended to them? If public funds have been embezzled or diverted, why is it that efforts are not focused on recovery or on prosecution? I raised this point as an anti-corruption fighter and in my capacity as the Coordinator for the Lagos State Chapter of the National AntiCorruption Volunteers Corps (NAVC)? Without doubt, in the eyes of the general public, the sacking is simply a cover up for all those reportedly involved in the various allegations.

Third, and most important, is the implication for foreign policy.

How can any good or even bad Foreign Service Officer defend the Government of Nigeria for consciously saluting embezzlement of public funds. Put differently, even if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have any focus under President Muhammadu Buhari and has continued to bastardise the only government research institute on international relations, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, the Government’s silence over such alleged high-level corruption in the presidency cannot be helpful in the use of foreign policy to defend the Buhari administration in international relations.

Fourth, and most unfortunately too, public attention has been drawn to the anti-Nigeria roles of the Embassy of Nigeria in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the promotion of the UAE’s interest to the detriment of the protection of Nigeria’s national interest. The Embassy of Nigeria in the UAE has been accused by the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji, of sabotaging Nigeria’s economic interest by marketing Emirates Airlines’ charter flights.

True, in June 2020, the House of Representatives adopted a motion which sought the use of only Nigerian airlines for the evacuation of stranded Nigerians abroad. As reported by Chinelo Obogo, Nnolim Nnaji ‘said it was regrettable that the Emirates has continued to evacuate stranded Nigerians from UAE with the active connivance of the officials of Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi to the detriment of earlier agreement for Nigerian airlines being engaged for such evacuations.’ Honourable Nnaji reportedly added: ‘all over the world, embassies and diplomats strive to promote and protect the economic interests of their nations, but it is unfortunate that this has not been the case with our embassy in UAE’ (Daily Sun, Monday, August 3, 2020, p.2).

And true enough again, the non-protection of the Nigerian interest, prompting the probing of the Sino-Nigerian loan agreements, as well as the shoddiness of foreign policy protection of Nigerians abroad, such as in the face of Ghanaian self-protectionist laws on qualifications for foreigners to settle down to do business in Ghana, are nothing more than a manifestation of a lacklustre foreign policy without focus.

Consequences of a Lacklustre Foreign Policy

As regards Chinese loan agreements with Nigeria, there is absolutely nothing wrong in taking commercial loans from China or from any other country if the ultimate objective remains boosting economic productivity, and particularly if the boosting is to be backed up with seriousness and objectivity of purpose. When situations of force majeure arise and repayment of loans becomes difficult, even if there are provisions on non-invocation of sovereign immunity clauses, both signatories cannot but know that the reasons for inability to repay are not deliberate and not because of bad policies. COVID-19 pandemic provides a good illustration of this type of force majeure.

For instance, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank considered the implications of COVID-19 for many countries and resolved to revisit the moratorium of debt repayments of 77 developing countries, of which 44 are in Africa, Chinese President, Xi Jinping, announced, at the June 17, 2020 Extraordinary Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), his country’s readiness to cancel the interest-free debts of African countries, initially scheduled to mature by the end of 2020. President Jinping said the debt relief would be extended to the debts owed by countries that are party to the FOCAC framework.

Nigeria is part of this framework and Chinese consideration of possible relief cannot but be a welcome development.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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SUNDAY AUGUST 30, 2020 •T H I S D AY

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

30.08.2020

PROF. ANDREW HARUNA

A COBBLER WHO BECAME PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES He is an embodiment of humility and humanity with a depth of intellect. Prof. Andrew Haruna, the Vice Chancellor, Federal University Gashua, Yobe State, is a consummate academic and passionate researcher of international repute. He shares his grassto-grace story with Funke Olaode

T

he sun was blowing hot and the mid-day harmattan breeze blew relentlessly. Unperturbed, both father and son dared the unfriendly atmosphere as they walked briskly under the scorching sun. On a lonely dusty road, the young Andrew trod the path with his father in search of his destiny. The duo’s consolation lay in a flourishing future for the poor but ambitious lad. This was 50 years ago.

Prof. Andrew Haruna, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Gashua, Yobe State, has a story that underlines the virtue of perseverance, resilience, hard work, and

providence. He had earlier taken a common entrance examination to secondary school in 1970 which the examiners claimed he failed.

Recalling his childhood, he said, “It was a long road to academic accomplishment. I hail from Bauchi State, Alkeleri Local Government, in a small village called Gar, which is very close to Yankari Game Reserve.

“I had my primary education in Gar Local Education Authority Primary school. I sat the common entrance examination which I was told at that time, I failed. So, my father couldn’t just leave me at home, he took me to his friend’s place at Zalanga, (a distance of about 120km) which is along Kari road from Bauchi.

Speaking further, the professor narrated, “While repeating the primary school, in Zalanga … a few weeks later, my dad came with a letter in his hands, that information came to the headmaster of my former primary school in Gar that I had passed my examination, and I was sent to Government College Maiduguri, at that time Maiduguri was the headquarter of North-eastern states.

“Being a poor man, my father had no money. So, he walked half the distance between my village to Bauchi so as to save the little money with him to enable him to travel to Zalanga.”

“From Zalanga,” said Haruna, “we

travelled with my father to Maiduguri.”

He recalled that in those days, only lorries were available to make such a journey.

“It was a journey of three days from Bauchi to Maiduguri. That was my trajectory to Maiduguri, and my school was Government College. There I started my secondary school education,” the language scholar added.

For him, tough times don’t last, tough people, do and this he exemplified through hard work resulting in outstanding academic achievements. Thus, he proved that the future belongs to those who dream big and give their all to achieve their dreams.

ASSISTANTEDITOROLUFUNKEOLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

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T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R ˾ ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

COVER

PROF. ANDREW HARUNA

Prof Haruna and wife Dr (Mrs) Elizabeth Andrew Haruna

After his secondary education at Government College Maiduguri, he gained admission to the University of Maiduguri where he bagged BA in Linguistics in 1981.

“Ironically, at Government College Maiduguri, my father wanted me to study the sciences so that I could read medicine in the university,” Haruna acknowledged.

“His idea as a cleaner in a small dispensary made him engage me in helping him clean wounds of patients. My father did that thinking I would be more interested in becoming a medical doctor. He did all he could to encourage and persuade me to study medicine.

“Though during my secondary school days I had started studying the sciences, my interest was to study the arts.”

Prof. Haruna admitted that he would not be fulfilled if he had become a medical doctor or study the sciences.

Even at that the language professor could not for a certainty whether his preference was a product of childhood aspiration.

“I am not sure that it was my childhood dream to study languages,” he disclosed. “It seems it was so, though my father wanted me to study medicine in school. I developed a strong interest in languages later in life because I found out that, language is a display of the human spirit. It is a means of expression through which the soul of a particular culture comes into the material world.”

Subjects like Hausa, Arabic, and French were his favourites.

“I can simply say that I took my destiny in my own hands. Since I cannot see the future, I cannot tell where I was to be and should be, especially with the kind of background I came from,” he said.

Today, his life story could be summarised as ‘Alherin Allah,’ meaning a life lived under the grace of God. Like a soothsayer who sees tomorrow, Prof. Haruna predicted his glorious future in academics as his decision to follow his heart paid off. Having earned his BA from the University of Maiduguri, in 1981, he proceeded to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the prestigious University of London for his MA and PhD which he completed in flying colours winning academic laurels in 1990 when he was barely 33.

Again, for his outstanding performance, he won two awards: recipient of the award of the University of London Laura Soames Prize for the best PhD in Phonetics and recipient of a cash award by the British Science Academy for the best PhD in Phonetics, SOAS, and the University of London.

With a deep sense of modesty and humility, he reflected: “I cannot say I am a gifted child because I can’t see this in me. I am just an ordinary village boy who grew up in the village. I am one who always wanted to study and learn new things for the sake of knowledge. Nothing in my background to

warrant the kind of opportunities the children of today have. So, I cannot say I am a gifted child. My father just taught us to be hardworking, disciplined life, content, honest, and respectful.”

In a philosophical tone, he said further, “You must remember, ‘Life may be tough at few points, but destiny is not created by the shoes we wear but by the steps we take’.”

Then, he said, “I was very happy that I won these prizes. I saw it as a reward for hard work under the grace of God upon my life. I did not see anything racial about the reward as a black man. My discipline taught me that all human brain is the same everywhere and anywhere. I am a human being.

“To start thinking about race and some of these abstract things, to my mind is to think ‘inferior.’ It is a distraction.”

Prof. Haruna has been a professor for past 12 years with over 35 years’ teaching experience culminating in the execution of several research projects, both locally and internationally with world-renowned institutions such as the Dino Leventis Foundation, University of London; SFB Special Research in the Savanah North-East Nigeria between Johann Wolfgang Goethe Institut, the University of Frankfurt and the University of Maiduguri; German Research Foundation, Germany; German Academic Exchange Services Overseas, Bonn, Germany; Austrian Science Fund, the University of Vienna, amongst others.

In 2016, he became the VC of the Federal University Gashua. Since his assumption of office, Prof. Haruna has worked assiduously to see the budding university experience unprecedented growth.

His relentless efforts in that direction are yielding tangible results.

The university boasts of a connection to the national power grid. There are ongoing road projects in the school that when completed, will open up the landscape and lead to the rapid expansion of infrastructure on the campus.

Other projects include a central laboratory, office complex for three faculties, entrepreneurship centre, student dignity projects, 3-kilometre internal roads, 300- and 150-capacity lecture theatres, recreational facilities, solar-powered boreholes, overhead tanks and reticulation, acquisition of new buses, amongst others have reached advanced stages.

With over 20 years of traversing European universities. Why did he return to Nigeria?

“I returned home to contribute my quota.

Remember, the Nigerian taxpayers’ money was used to pay for my education abroad and not my father’s money. The greatest respect for Nigerians is to return and serve them. Many communities were denied basic amenities so that I could be trained and have a quality education. Now that I have been trained and educated, I should not be selfish.

“Any education that turns one to be selfish is not good education. Since my return to Nigeria, I remained in the job I know well and love doing well. I tried to remain within my constituency, which is the academic environment. There are greener pastures everywhere in the country,” said Haruna.

He explained further, “It is left for each one of us to determine what they consider greener pasture and go find it. My word of caution is, don’t let others determine the so-called greener pasture for you.”

Haruna’s staying power is patriotism.

“My staying power is simple: my love for my country.”

Besides that, he also finds fulfilment in academics.

“I am not sure that I have achieved so much. I just love doing what I love doing best, which is teaching and sharing knowledge, particularly with the youths. My principle in life is to share the best I have with others and to celebrate their success,” stated the scholar.

“I just try to be a good human being under the grace of God and also try to be good and to be a source of blessing to others. I am fulfilled as a teacher. I invested and devoted my life to my students because they are the ones to take over from me. I see my students as the ladder upon which one climbs to success in life. My life is all about them. One cannot afford to waste the brain of any child because no one knows what a child would be in the future.”

Then, he paused momentarily.

“Look at me for example,” Haruna continued with the past and present reflected in his eyes.

“I was once a cobbler mending shoes in front of the post office in Maiduguri. By the grace of God today I have a PhD. I am a professor and a vice chancellor. I taught in many universities in Europe for many years and in Nigeria too.”

Though his father was a pastor at the Evangelical Missionary Society, Haruna said, “I won’t say the idea of being a pastor never crossed my mind. My father taught us that, to be a pastor does not mean heading a

I was once a cobbler mending shoes in front of the post office in Maiduguri. By the grace of God today I have a PhD. I am a professor and a vice chancellor. I taught in many universities in Europe for many years and in Nigeria too

congregation or being ordained as a priest or wearing the garment of a priest.

“He taught us that we are pastors in everyday actions of our life and in whatever we do. In other words, we must walk the talk. The best side of every man’s religion is seen in his actions and not in his words.”

Happily married, Haruna recounted how his path crossed that of his wife.

“I met my wife during our primary school days. Her father was my headmaster and her mother was a friend of my mother.

Our friendship began during that time and continued until my university days. It was a child kind of love. I can say we had been in the relationship for 14 and a half years before we got married in April 1983.

“We got married when she was in school to obtain a National Certificate of Education (NCE). She started teaching in primary school with a Grade Two Teachers Certificate. We supported each other to study until she got her PhD. Now she is a senior lecturer at the University of Jos. She is a humble and peaceful lady with an excellent disposition. I can tell you, she is an exceptional human being. If there is another marriage in heaven, I will marry her again.”

Prof. Haruna’s endless travels and meetings never stopped him from cherishing his wife and children who are trailblazers.

He explained: “My first daughter is a lawyer. The second holds a doctorate and lectures at the university. She is the one following my footsteps closely and that of the mother. The day she got her PhD she called me and said, ‘Prof., it is your junior colleague speaking!’

“I laughed. It was the laughter of joy. The third child is a male and he read Computer Engineering. The fourth is a female and she read Mass Communication and the fifth has yet to finish her senior secondary school.”

As life is not a bed of roses, does Prof.

Haruna have any regrets?

“There is no reason to regret my childhood even though it was tough,” he stated.

“Remember that I was once a cobbler who specialized in mending shoes. As a matter of fact, this is the best story of my life which I love to share with anyone and particularly my dear students. I am not ashamed of this early history of my life. My life has always been that of showing gratitude to God.” Haruna dared poverty. He hoped against hopelessness and trusted in providence to achieve his dreams.

But his life’s episodes aren’t without disappointments.

He said, “I have had disappointments from people who wrestled my position because of my ethnic background. But in the midst of human chaos, I learnt the art of forgiveness because it gave me peace and happiness.”

T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R ˾ ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

GLITZ PERSPECTIVE

Darey Never Left Vanessa Obioha reports that the multi-award musician and creative entrepreneur, Darey, who recently released a single after a five-year hiatus never really left the art that brought him fame.

I

n 2018, when Deola Art Alade, wife of the foremost musician, Darey, took journalists on a tour of her new $100 million Livespot 360 office in Lagos, the musician hinted that he is working on a new album.

Almost two years later, the multiple award-winning Afro-Soul/R&B singer, is back with a new single.

Released on August 14, the track, ‘Jah Guide Me,’ is coming five years after his fourth album. Not a few considered his absence as a departure from the art that brought him to the spotlight in 2004 when he emerged a runner-up in the music reality TV show Project Fame.

But Darey never left, though the past few years have seen more of his creative exploits in showbiz.

As the co-founder and creative director of Livespot360, Darey is instrumental in some of the agency’s successful campaigns. He is notable for producing some of the most elaborate and groundbreaking concerts and festivals in Nigeria, which have featured appearances and performances from African and international superstars alike, including Grammy award winners Kelly Rowland and Ciara, as well as global super influencer and TV personality, Kim Kardashian.

The Livespot X Festival which birthed in December 2019 across two African cities Lagos and Accra, saw rapper, social media sensation and Grammy Award winner Cardi B headline what was dubbed the biggest and best festival in Nigeria’s recent history.

As if reading the thoughts of many regarding his music, Darey tweeted a day before the official release of the single that he never really left.

“I’ve been active and powering the creative space these past years. Safe to say Darey never left.” “Music has always been my first love. My creative instincts have often led me to the other interests but music has always been close to my heart,” he said in a chat.

‘Jah Guide Me’ follows a similar path like his 2015 hit ‘Pray For Me’. It takes the form of a prayer where he asks the Supreme One for guidance as the world navigates these tough times caused by the strange coronavirus.

It comes to grips with and addresses the current global situation, often indulging in the pensive territory with a message of hope as a key takeaway.

“Jah Guide Me is simply my way of navigating the current situation. The past few months have been tough for everyone. For me, like many others, it has been a hard year, and right now, we all need some sort of encouragement to power through these times, which is why I picked the song to be the first single off my new album,” he said.

The inspirational track draws from a deep well of his Yorùbá heritage and its storytelling tradition, fuses soulful R&B vibes, with the rhythmic punch of Afrobeats, to create a unique sound. He dubs this genre of music, AfronB. For its visuals, Darey sought Mex Ossai to help him direct the video. Featuring stunning images such as the aerial view of Lagos, the backdrop of a cathedral, a picturesque blue sky and an open field and models donning fashion-forward pieces, the video is a skilful blend of colours, scenery, emotions and narrative.

“The approach is carefully styled and curated and exudes a vibe I term Afrofuturism. Edgy, cultural, cosmopolitan yet very relatable as it mirrors life for the ordinary person,” explained the son of the legendary Jazz musician Art Alade.

For the album, Darey hinted that it will feature several collaborations with artists spanning different genres.

Art-Alade

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52

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž ÍąÍŽËœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

People are always holding the wrong people accountable for bad things, especially in Nigeria. It is only in Nigeria you see the entertainment industry being seen as the moral standard or the watchdog of our society

ALEXX EKUBO THE DIFFERENT LAYERS OF ALEXX EKUBO Armed with good looks and a good sense of humour, actor and model, Alexx Ekubo is the ideal Nollywood sweetheart. But what makes him tick is the many layers of his personality and unwavering passion for a better Nigeria. Vanessa Obioha writes

Y

ou may be forgiven if you label Alexx Ekubo an actor, model, rapper, motivational speaker or a ‘chop life gang’ member, but never call him a comedian. He emphatically denied that title. “No! Not at all,�he argues.

It is not unexpected that people will easily tag the 34-year-old actor a comedian.

With Ekubo, it is hard to hold one’s stitches.

Almost every statement is accompanied by a funny remark. Our conversation was punctuated with guffaws and amusing remarks as if we were very familiar with each other.

On Instagram and TikTok, he is the king of comedy. His timeline is ďŹ lled with funny skits of him in his beautiful abode, having witty arguments with the popular Ikedi, or getting on the nerves of his Chop Life Gang members,Yomi Casual and IK Ogbonna or reenacting movie scenes.

His ability to keep his thousands of fans entertained without donning the toga of comedy makes him exceptional. It’s like a second skin to him. On several occasions, he’s been told to pursue a career in standup comedy. “No oh, not me,�he tells his friends. It is not his calling. “These days when I get roles, they literally give me slapstick comedy roles and I always tell them that I’m not a comedic actor. I’m an actor with comedic timing�

He explains further: There’s a difference.

I don’t go around trying to make people

laugh but I know when to apply my high sense of humour that people can ďŹ nd amusing or funny.â€?

One such occasions was when he received a Screen Nation Film and Television Award in London as the Fastest Emerging African Screen Talent a few years ago.The Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’ O clinched the award in the female category.

On getting to stage to give his acceptance speech, Ekubo told the packed hall, full of Africans from different parts of the world that he dedicated the award to the Supreme One, family and to his wives on Instagram. “The hall erupted in laughter,�he says.

By the time he returned to Nigeria, his speech had gone viral. His female fans easily called themselves his wife on Twitter or Instagram, depending on which social media they ďŹ nd him.

However, a group of female fans decided to make it ofďŹ cial by forming Alexx Ekubo Wives Association. “When I ďŹ rst saw it, I was curious.They told me they have been trying to reach me for a while but to no avail.â€?

The group’s Instagram page is adorned with everything Alexx Ekubo as well as pictures of prospective wives. On one of their posts, they surprised the actor with birthday presents. “I really love them and they are one of my strongest support structures. It’s amazing to have a group of people dedicate

their time to you, supporting you in every way particularly in a journey where nothing is certain.�

Armed with good looks, Ekubo is the ideal Nollywood sweetheart. Acting has always been in his DNA but he opted to study Law instead in university. However, it was while contemplating if he should go to Law School or not that he discovered his true calling. He started out playing minor roles in movies before gaining recognition as a model in 2010 when he became the ďŹ rst runner-up at Mr. Nigeria beauty contest. After that contest, he began to feature more prominently in movies.

His recent movies include the EbonyLife production ‘Your Excellency’, Bolanle Austen-Peters ‘Bling Lagosians’ and ‘Trapped in Between 2’.

He is also part of the cast that will feature in the upcoming futuristic ďŹ lm ‘Area Dogs’ by ‘Gbomo Gbomo Express’ director Walter ‘WaltBanger’Taylaur. He is particularly excited about the movie. “I’m very proud to be part of the movie because it is a futuristic sci-ďŹ movie, a genre that is uncommon in our clime.

Most Nollywood movies are either drama or comedy. We don’t really explore other genres of ďŹ lmmaking because they are expensive. But I’m happy that Nevada Bridge, an out of Africa movie streaming platform for Nollywood and African content is changing that narrative with the production of ‘Area Dogs’.

It’s a big cinema project that we are

planning for 2021. It’s set in 2041 and knowing WaltBanger as a phenomenal director, you can bet the movie is going to be a hit.�

For Ekubo who hails from the historical town Arochukwu in Abia state, Nollywood’s excellence boils down to budget. He believes with the right budget, that Nollywood ďŹ lms can rub shoulders with Hollywood. “We already have amazing talents, content and fantastic producers and directors, but we don’t have the budget. With a budget, we can do anything. An average Hollywood blockbuster is shot with $15 million.

To put that in perspective, about 2.5 million of that is N1 billion. They have the budget to do anything: to blow off an airplane, shut down an entire city and build their own village. We don’t have that budget in Nollywood. “So, once we get the budget, everything can be done. We already have ďŹ lmmakers who are crosspollinating so we know it can be done with a budget as little as $5 million.

I know a handful of ďŹ lmmakers who can make a fantastic movie that will rival the ‘Avengers’ or any Hollywood blockbuster if they are given $10 million.â€?

With the pandemic, Ekubo foresees productions becoming pricey because of the health measures put in place to ensure the safety of everyone. He also takes seriously COVID-19 safety measures. “People are always holding the wrong people accountable for bad things, especially in Nigeria. It is only in Nigeria you see the entertainment industry being seen as the moral standard or the watchdog of our society. “It is not our job. Whenever there is an uproar on a social or national issue, people easily accuse celebrities of not doing enough. Why would you hold us responsible for the rot in the country? Why don’t you call out your governor, senator in your senatorial district, your House of Reps member, or even the president? These are the people who need to be held accountable.�

He continues, his voice assuming a higher pitch,“But when we do our bit, we are also criticised.�

The way Ekubo sees it, youths are not active when it comes to national issues.

They rather turn a blind eye than demand action. He urged them to wake up and start speaking out because they are playing with their future by keeping silent or acting nonchalant.

An avid traveller, the actor who calls himself a method actor wears his Nigerian heritage like a badge of honour. He patronises local designers such asYomi Casual, 313Eko, and loves artworks by local artists.The walls of his lavish apartment are donned with artworks mainly by the artist Atinuke Badmus. He is proud that the commercial city of Aba is getting the spotlight thanks to his state governor Okezie Ikpeazu who promoted the slogan ‘Made in Aba’. He only wished that the momentum was maintained. “These designers are making quality clothes and footwear. Until we start supporting them, we can’t really get the Nigeria we want. Hollywood is where they are because of the support they get from the people not from the government. If one percent of the population supports our local designers today, imagine the impact,�he points out.

Born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and schooled in Katsina State, the actor revealed that he is into real estate. Like an industrious Igbo man, he is exploring other sources of income because“I don’t want to end up begging on Instagram.�

Much of his success he attributes to God, little wonder he now includes an extra ‘x’ in his name. “The other ‘x’ represents extra-large God. I have a religious background. My mother is an evangelist and my father is an elder in the church. As a young boy, I joined the choir. I will really feel bad if I die in sin because I come from a religious background. God is everything to me,�he says.

ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

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High Life Easy Does it for Demola Seriki

B

esides all the best and ugly things that life can offer, the unrepentant variable that is change is likely the most welcome and equally dreaded of all. There was a time when Ademola Rasaq Seriki most probably sneered at every passer-by, eyeing their good fortunes for being indistinguishable from the crowd of humanity—unlike him. That was the past.

The winds of change blew and blew the graces of Providence into Seriki’s yard. Things are really looking up and yummy, special thanks to his recent ambassadorial appointment.

Fortune smiled on Seriki when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded his name—alongside 40 others—for confirmation as non-career ambassadors.

For someone who depressed the steps of Nigerian public service with his unrelenting trek to and fro, the honour of serving the country at the ambassadorial height is not lost on Demola Seriki. To date, his identity is tied to politics, teaching, business and entrepreneurship, accountancy, public administration, and his titled position as the Otun Aare of Lagos.

This is not to say that Demola Seriki always got to enjoy the first fruits of harvests in these positions. Not at all. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) allegedly took a fancy to him, and seized two of his landed properties over incurred debt. All that is old news in the face of this new appointment.

Judging from Demola Seriki’s tweet, the ambassadorial appointment is an exciting opportunity to serve the country and his All Progressives Congress (APC) again. Recall that he was a minister of something or the other since 2008 all the way into 2010.

Perhaps, this is the beginning of a new streak of appointments.

In other news, when providence is on the side of Demola Seriki, he doesn’t hold back at all. And neither does he.

Seriki

with KAYODE ALFRED 08116759807, E-mail: kayflex2@yahoo.com

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

Adesola Adeduntan to Be Honored By Forbes Measuring genius, impact and efficiency is no small work, especially when there are seemingly innumerable sides to them. The metrics that are eventually employed must be such that they are not only useful and reliable but also widely accepted. The Forbes Best of Africa Awards is such a metric, and so when it says that Adesina Adeduntan is a man deserving of regard and reverence, he is.

These are rainbow times for renowned First Bank of Nigeria MD/CEO, Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan. Evidently over and above many of his contemporaries, Adeduntan is one of three prominent African business leaders (the others being Idahosa Wells Okunbo, the CEO of Ocean Marine Security, and Mahmood Ahmadu, Founder and Executive Chairman of Online Integrated Solutions) who are Forbes Best of Africa Award recipients for the year 2020.

The Best of Africa Award is a prestigious recognition and acknowledgment of talents coupled with skill and foresight in designated industries and career spectrums. The fact that there are only three individuals to be honoured in this light this year is telling enough—it is a respectable and illustrious symbol of recognition.

To illustrate its breadth of influence,

Adeduntan

Forbes has reported that this year’s award presentation will feature a keynote address by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, a peerless leader known far and wide. So, the honour is not lost on Adeduntan—but he deserves every bit of it.

At 51, Adesola Adeduntan is one of Nigeria’s foremost banking and business executives. An experienced hand in the sector of banking and investments, it is surprising to most that Adeduntan is actually a veterinary doctor (from the University of Ibadan).

Since joining the banking industry in 1994, Adesola Adeduntan has shown that the precision required of veterinary surgeons is available for a sharp-shot investor and banker. Evidence of his successes are littered over the corporate place, the latest of which is his lecture at the Edinburgh School of Business, in March 2020, where he explored and explained the role of financial institutions as drivers of financial inclusion.

With respect to the current global situation, the awards will be presented to Adeduntan—and the others—on September 11, via a virtual event in conjunction with Foreign Investment Network (FIN). Without question, Adesola Adeduntan and others like him are paving the way for global and industrial recognition for Nigerians and Africans.

Great times for Adeduntan and co and Nigerians and Nigerian bankers anywhere.

From Banking to Politics...

Abiru on the Move Again

Abiru

Vision with means is a dependably handy thing. Where others—who have little or no foresight—may reach the end of their means and find themselves lost, others might run the length of their aspirations and—destitute of resources—collapse. Not Tokunbo Abiru.

After dominating in the banking

Lagos State is renowned for a number of things: a vast and diverse population, impressive road networks, enchanting vistas, and lots more—not to mention an administrative structure that is vast and diverse, and impressive and enchanting at the same time. More than any other, this administrative structure is featured on news headlines and neighbourly gossip.

The latest tidbit on the Lagos administrative front has Lagos State Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, on a collision course with Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Contrary to tradition, the contention is not about misappropriated funds, but missing aircraft.

In this very recent development, the Lagos State House of Assembly queried Sanwo-Olu on the whereabouts of three helicopters belonging to the state. In addition, because the aircraft were originally meant for security and commercial purposes, Obasa has reportedly asked Sanwo-Olu to tidy the accounts with reference to the profits accrued, so far, from their use.

In other words, Governor Sanwo-Olu is being pressured to, one, produce the three helicopters from wherever it is they’ve been hidden or discarded, and two, give a thorough account of how much has been made from them since they were bought in

industry for camel and donkey years, Abiru has reportedly transferred his passion to politics, to the stupefaction and surprise of many.

When the now-defunct Skye Bank was running on its last legs, weighed down by debts and gasping with strands of breath, the common belief was that it was the end of another banking establishment. And then Tokunbo Abiru came along, helped to tweak the whiskers of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), dragged Skye Bank out of obscurity, and transformed it into the renowned Polaris Bank of present-day. And now, Abiru is reportedly leaving Polaris and moving onto politics.

Of course, Abiru’s two-year tenure will actually end on August 31, 2020. That is no surprise or loss, considering that this is his second time occupying the MD/CEO position. However, he has reportedly stated that he will immediately join the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the available Lagos East District senatorial seat.

Recall that the empty senatorial seat

used to be occupied by the late Bayo Oshinowo who passed away on June 15, 2020. Since Oshinowo was a member of the APC, it has fallen to the party to have someone else man the senatorial position.

Reportedly, Tokunbo Abiru is this someone.

Considering Abiru’s accomplishments in banking leadership and management, the decision is understandable.

Abiru himself reportedly explained how his administration improved on the lot of Polaris since he took over as Group Managing Director in 2016. According to him, with the support of the Polaris Board of Executives and staff, he has been able to deliver on the mandate of the CBN upon assuming office and influenced such milestones as the refreshment of the bank’s IT infrastructure and upgrade of the bank’s digital platform and data centres.

In other words, Abiru is set to bring the winds of positive change to Lagos East District, if given the opportunity. Come October 31, the soundness of Abiru’s decision will be clear.

Is Sanwo-Olu and Obasa on Collision Course?

2007.

So serious is the whole thing that the Lagos House of Assembly has reportedly summoned Tayo Ayinde (Sanwo-Olu’s Chief of Staff), Sam Egube (one of the state’s commissioners), Seye Oladejo (Commissioner for Special Duties), and the Management of Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF)—who are supposed to oversee the handling of the helicopters.

It has been revealed that although the helicopters were purchased during Governor Babatunde Fashola’s tenure for security purposes and to generate revenue for the state, the helicopters might have been loaned out to Caverton Nigeria Limited for commercial operations.

While the queries are not altogether strange, it wasn’t so long ago that Obasa reportedly stated that Sanwo-Olu was a dragon among men, that Sanwo-Olu’s “exemplary qualities, wisdom, prowess and love for Lagos state reflect daily in the bond we share.” Is this bond so soon frazzled, or is something else in the works? This is the question on the minds of many.

Point of fact, if things are not quickly settled, lawyers and advocates might join the tango—this is where the executive meets the legislature meets the judiciary.

Medayese

Obasa and Sanwo-Olu

54

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Stephen Omamuli’s Winning Streak Stephen Omamuli is the CEO, Class Hospitality Limited, a wholly hospitality management company.

The hotel has unparalleled hotel management solution experience behind it.

Known for his many successes, Omamuli is one young entrepreneur who has the world at his feet.

As one of the most sought-after hospitality experts in Nigeria, the amiable dude is, no doubt, keeping to the vision of his Class Hospitality brand, with its expansion drive coupled with managerial efficiency and partnership in uplifting hotel businesses in Lagos State and beyond.

Quite impressively, the young handsome UK-trained corporate lawyer continues to break new grounds, even in the face of the pandemic and lockdown, which is threatening the survival of many big brands.

Since it started operations, Class Suites has re-branded and expanded into a chain with seven different hotels located across Lagos, including the premium brand, Class Suites Signature, opened two years ago in Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos.

And just as the company celebrated its 10th anniversary, Omamuli expanded the chain with the opening of a stateof-the-art multimillion naira gym located within the premises of his premium brand, Class Suites Signature in Opebi, Omamuli’ Lagos.

The Signature Gym - open to both gu e s t s o f t h e h o t e l and visitors alike - was unveiled during an exclusive anniversary bash held at the poolside o f t h e h o t e l l a s t S a t u r d a y, August 15.

The celebration, which held in strict adherence to the standard Covid-19 p r o t o c o l s , had in attendance some prominent personalities, including Dr. Rafiu Ladipo, President-General, Nigeria Football Supporters’ Club, and Demola Fashola, who represented the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN.

Real Reason Buruji Kashamu-Adebutu Kessington’s Phone Call Was Leaked

Kessington

There is no gainsaying the fact that the Chairman of Premier Lotto, Chief Adebutu Kessington, is one of the top businessmen in the country.

But long before the advent of online betting, the Ogun State-born billionaire had been at the forefront of older generation lottery enterprises that catered for low-income earners.

However, for days now, many have passed judgment on the person of the Odoole of Yorubaland over the leaked phone conversation between him and the late Senator Buruji Kashamu who passed on, recently.

In the video, the late billionaire could be heard telling Adebutu that he was ill and was also asking for forgiveness.

Also, in the telephone conversation, he had asked for a chance to right his wrongs.

Since the video of Baba Ijebu talking to Buruji went viral, it has generated mixed reactions across the country.

A source close to the businessman disclosed to Society Watch that Adebutu decided to record the conversation based on the late Buruji’s past antecedents of being “slippery.”

“Baba Ijebu was never aware that the late Kashamu was in the hospital. He called the very day he was taken to First Cardiology Hospital.

Baba was shocked when he saw the call. This was the same person that had battled him and his business. So, he needed to have evidence,” said the source. The source disclosed further that Baba Ijebu, as fondly called, never had any intention of leaking the video.

But, according to the source, Adebutu had to come out with it when some unscrupulous elements went to town with the rumour that he had a hand in Buruji’s death.

“His intention was not to release the video until these reprobate people came out with the

unfounded theory that he had a hand in Kashamu’s death.

“So, to prove that he has forgiven him, he had to show to the world the video,” the source added.

It is doubtful if any keen watcher of politics in the South-West, particularly Ogun State, could have forgotten so soon the war of words between Kashamu and Ladi Adebutu, son of Sir Adebutu, in the build-up to the governorship election in the state in 2019.

Kashamu, it would be recalled, had insisted he was the PDP candidate and got all the court orders to shut out Adebutu from the race, despite the efforts of older Adebutu to get his son on the ballot.

But even many months after the election had been contested and won by those whom Providence had chosen to place in various political positions in the state, it showed that Kashamu was in a kind of war with the family. Evidence of the unresolved political differences emerged again in February, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the leading anti-graft agency in the country, was said to have gone after Adebutu, over tax fraud, following a petition written by the late Kashamu.

How Billionaire Businessman, Harry Akande, Battled Shoprite to Standstill Billionaire Harry Ayoade Akande towers above many of his contemporaries, particularly because he has been in a warm embrace of fame for many decades.

Beyond his famed status as a successful businessman, he has also remained very relevant owing to his uncommon brilliance, a quality that has endeared him to many across the globe.

The Agbaoye of Ibadan, who set out to pursue his dreams quite early in life, had served as a business advisor and consultant to many other businessmen, including governments of several nations.

The world-class businessman in the past has scored many firsts in the nation’s business climate to the envy of many of his competitors.

Indeed, he would have scored yet another first in 2005, as the South African retail store, Shoprite, had several meetings with his company, AIC Limited, and agreed his company would be the exclusive operator and manager of its brand across West Africa, except Ghana where the Shoprite brand was already

established.

Consequently, there were a series of business meetings between Akande’s representatives and Shoprite Checkers first in South Africa on April 16, 1998, and then at Akande’s office on Victoria Island, Lagos on May 27, 1998.

Shoprite was also said to have flown in representatives who were shown possible locations for retail stores at some locations, including Lekki Roundabout, Trade fair Complex and Lagos National Theatre, Iganmu.

But when the South African retail giant was ready to commence operations in Nigeria, it allegedly sidelined Akande’s AIC and incorporated another company, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, and began using the new entity to operate in Nigeria, thereby breaching agreements between them.

The billionaire was upset and this led to a prolonged legal battle with Akande securing a 2018 major victory against the South African retail group for breaching a contract between both parties in Suit No

Akande

LD/488/2010 —AIC Limited (Claimant) v Shoprite Checkers (PTY) Ltd of South Africa and Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited (Defendants).

However, Shoprite owners appealed the judgment, while the Ibadan, Oyo State-born billionaire secured another victory in May 2020 at the appellate court.

Disc Jockey Extraordinaire, DJ Cuppy, Drops Hotly Anticipated Debut Album

DJ Cuppy

One of Africa’s finest and Avant-garde disc jockey, Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known as DJ Cuppy as continued to dazzle dropping her hotly anticipated debut album, ‘Original Copy.’

The 12-track release features songs with Wyclef Jean, Julian Marley, Fireboy, Rema, Teni, and more.

The young and exciting young DJ and producer’s Original Copy debut album pleasantly shocked the industry with positive reviews and is a contender for the album of the year.

“We can now crown Cuppy as ‘Princess of

Afrobeats,’” said a source.

Many years in the making, Original Copy features an array of high-profile collaborations and sees Cuppy tap into a sound she describes as neo-Afrobeats, with the 12-track releasing tackling themes ranging from independence to love lost and African pride.

The album features singles like ‘Jollof On The Jet’, the global sensation featuring Rema and RayVanny that has charted in over 15 countries, and the recently-released ‘Karma’ featuring award-winning dancehall star Stonebwoy.

Further star-studded tracks include Grammy winner, Wyclef Jean, making an appearance on the feel-good track, ‘Wale’, Bob Marley’s son, Julian, linking up with Nigerian favorite, Sir Shina Peters, on the cross-continental anthem ‘54.’

The project also features UK breakout stars, Ms Banks and Darkoo. Creating this body of work was a journey for Cuppy.

“I went back to my roots, where I am from; Epe and mixed with the locals for inspiration.

I visited my family’s farm and recorded lots of ambient and animal sound samples. If you listen very carefully you can hear these in each track,” she told Society Watch.

Beaming about the arrival of her album, Cuppy added: “I am so proud that the album is

now out. For me, it’s not about numbers and statistics and charts. It’s about the fact that I was able to focus and actually achieve my dream of having an album.

“So honestly, I’m already happy regardless of what happens. Nonetheless, I encourage everyone to join this journey and I hope they enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making this album.”

DJ, producer, philanthropist and Apple Music Radio host, Cuppy has quickly risen through the ranks to become a supreme lead role as a global pan-African tastemaker. With her loveable personality and undeniable hard work ethic, she’s embarked on a number of projects, including her ‘Cuppy Takes Africa Tour.’

Original Copy brings together some of Africa’s most star-studded artists for a celebration of the continent’s ever-growing influence on the global music scene with tracks like: Epe ft Efya; Jollof on the Jet ft Rema & Ray Vanny; Wale ft Wyclef; Feel Good ft. Fireboy; Cold Heart Killer ft Darkoo; Original Copy *Interlude*; Karma ft Stonebwoy; Litty Lit ft Teni; 54 ft Sir Shina Peters & Julian Marley; Guilty Pleasure ft Nonso Amadi; P.O.Y. ft Ycee & Ms Banks; and Labalaba ft Seyi Shay.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

55

with JOSEPH EDGAR ̡͸΁͸΁ͽͻͺͽͿ΁͹̢

VP Yemi Osinbajo Says, ‘Joseph, I Agree With You’ These were the words that first came out of the highly respected Vice President of Nigeria, the only venerable Prof Yemi Osinbajo after I asked him the earth-shaking question at the Wole Olanipekun Justice Forum last Saturday. Shebi you people are taking small eye be looking at me. Be sitting there and be saying that I am not combing my hair. Look, I am no longer a small person again in this country o. See when a whole vice president calls my name after I ask him earthquake question. It was my brother, brilliant Bode Olanipekun (SAN), who invited me to be a rapporteur in his conference that had apart from the greatest vice president ever, some of the most brilliant legal minds in the country in attendance and speaking. People like Prof Odita, Prof. Pat Utomi and plenty justices and learned people o. Na me Bode chose to ask the first question.

As the VP was talking, I was just shaking o. You know the man can talk. He talked about the importance of institutionalized

justice delivery and its effect on social justice and equity. I sit down there trying to follow.

I pose o. That is how my daughter, Zara on her way to go and raid the refrigerator, stumbled on the VP and screamed, dropping the piece of cake – Joe! It is Osinbajo! In our parlour, she screamed. I smiled, these ones think na small papa dem get. Yes. It was Osinbajo; I am asking him question. So by the time Bode called on me for my question, the whole family was prepared. I made sure everybody bathe. You know Chantal will not bath until 4 pm after a Netflix binge which takes her the whole night. Duchess even Omotola, Estate Chairman, Treasurer everybody. Only Ex-Chairman no come.

That one is still vexing over lost elections, na him business. Duchess tie gele, put make-up and wear high heel. Position beside me so that no yellow ‘babe’ will come and try her.

The moment came, the moment Akwa Ibom and Shomolu finally registered in national politics, Bode screamed- here is the Duke of

Shomolu Hon. JOSEPH EDGAR. I mute, run go piss, luckily na wrapper I tie so he easy.

That is how I drop this bombshell: Mr. VP, there is a total disconnect between the people and the justice system as confidence has been totally obliterated and that is why we are resorting to ‘self-help’ which if not carefully handled will put us on the road to apathy as we are seeing in some parts of the country and in some cases like rape.

I continued - there is a palpable feeling of helplessness amongst all of us…… by the time I finished I was hungry and in response, the VP, the VP oh, not a local government chairman oh; two-time elected VP call my name o. I press pause. I stop am there. No more. QED. Everybody listen. I need a new title. This Duke of Shomolu is now too little abeg. Bro Osinbajo well done, God bless you as you comot shame for my eyes for this estate wey dey take small eyes look me.

EL-RUFAI – COME TO AFANG SUMMIT

NBA, when they get themselves, we will begin to reckon with them again.

must confess that I have been watching the wahala at Unilag with shame. The way that Baba that used to have afro was running around the place like a drunken sheriff was giving a lot of us sleepless nights. He suddenly became a dictator, sacking people, making accusations and doing all sorts as if the power ended with him. Some people will finish us if they ever get to be commander-in-chief o.

Common small Governing Council oga, see the way they were running around like Idi Amin. Anyways Buhari cleared all that rubbish last week with the appointment of John Momoh. Sanity seems to have come back. That is how some people in my BGL Alumni WhatsApp group start to talk the usual rubbish. You see this WhatsApp thing is beginning to get to me, the way people just jump on it and be talking authoritatively total bunkum. ‘O hhh the partiality of Channels TV has been confirmed with this appointment,’ they screamed.

I just weak. You see why my egbon shouted ‘stupid’ at that skinny reporter?

Some of the things people say can make you just run naked. Anyways, me I have implicit confidence in John Momoh and the role he is expected to play in my Unilag. Oga, if there is anything you need of me, let me know. Let me go pay my alumni dues first. Well done and congratulations sir.

Look bro, forget about that NBA Conference. What did they have to offer you? Have their leadership finished their wahala with EFCC that they will be rubbishing you like that? Mbok, come to the Afang Summit and discuss with credible Nigerians who will understand you better. Shebi even Uncle Abati that wrote that long essay the other day on you and NBA was also on the Afang Summit? So please do not mind those people with black gowns that they have not washed since Lord Lugard did the amalgamation. Mbok, who or what do they think they are?

Many of them na ‘let my people go’ for Law School o and they are now writing letters to stop a whole esteemed estate surveyor and conqueror of COVID-19. Even me sef, I will not speak at that NBA Conference until they sit up and ensure that their stables have been cleaned up. The NBA today is in a crisis of identity having fallen from the utopian heights luminaries like Prince Bola Ajibola took it to. Those days, you didn’t even try to do Law in JAMB, the profession was that respected.

Today, what are we seeing na a collection of debt recovery agents fighting with estate agents all over the place for business. Me, I supported my brother Olu Akpata believing very seriously that the NBA needed an urgent injection of vibrant energy. They remain the last defender of the helpless but today….. make I no talk. My brother, please let me know if you will come to the Afang Summit so we can prepare for you. Thank God it is virtual so we won’t need to get a carpenter to reduce the podium. You are my man, I swear, ask Osa, the bald-headed enfant terrible of The Duke Summit who will be yabbing me anyhow.

Please if you need special adviser for drainage like we have in Lagos, let me recommend Osa for you. He is an expert in that field. Thank you, my brother. Leave

El-Rufai

HERBERT WIGWE – A CHEERFUL SALUTE I hear August 15 was this my brother’s birthday and my conscience will not allow me be if I do not send out a befitting birthday wish to him. The other day, I yabbed am no be small when he decided to take out his tea girls. The write-up went far o, even Google News carry am. I was weak.

People call me o. They say, why did you do that to a man that has been nice to you.

Well, that time COVID-19 dey everywhere and people’s eyes were red. Bro weathered that storm as he has always done in his sterling career emerging one of the most distinguished bankers of our time. I respect him and will continue to, no matter what.

That we disagree on some issues does not mean that I do not hold him in the highest of esteem. Not only me o but millions of Nigerians.

Last time I saw him, he still had the gorimapa but looked quite handsome although was tired having just returned from a trip to Osun or somewhere. He worked into his office and we were plenty waiting to see him.

He saw me and said, ‘Edgar, what are you doing here oh? I said I was looking for somewhere to piss. What kind of question be that? His humility and demeanour always disarming me and making me maintain the huge regard that I have for him. Happy birthday, bro! When I am less busy I will come and present to you my latest work – Anonymous Nipples, a compilation of over 50 semi-nude pictures. If madam see am, that is your wahala o. Stay safe bro and God bless.

PROF. AKIN ABAYOMI – YOU HAVE MY PRAYERS

As a distinguished alumnus of Unilag, I

We got the news of this hard-working Prof contracting the dreaded COVID-19 with sadness. The good thing is that it looks like we have started to master the thing. With just a little over 1,000 fatalities and over 80% recovery, the curve is beginning to ease towards flattening, so I am calm. Prof has been at the forefront of this fight even when we thought the thing will finish us.

Wigwe

Momoh

JOHN MOMOH – A STRONG VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Osinbajo

He stood firm working with His Excellency in erecting the initial frontier against the virus. I know Prof will be ok, he has the courage to deliver himself and the rest of us from this scourge. We remain quite lucky to have him on our side and I pray that our heavenly father will guide not only him but all those afflicted with this illness safely home.

Prof, please send your address let me send you a well-prepared bowl of afang complete with snails, periwinkles and dry fish as my own contribution.

Please, my brother, avoid activities in the other room for now. We need all the strength we can muster to boost immunity. That one can wait. I will be dedicating my own activities to you.

Don’t worry, you hear. Be strong.

REGINA ASKIA TALKS ABOUT ANONYMOUS NIPPLES This eternal beauty graciously accepted to write an essay in my forthcoming book- Anonymous Nipples. Kai, this book is going to cause trouble o. At the last count, such strong amazons have agreed to write. Media personality like Azuka Ogujiuba, my sister and CSR expert, Ini Abimbola, delectable actress, Elvina Ibru and Nigeria’s leading Sexologist Soul Spice have all agreed to contribute essays.

Wait o, HIV activist, Mary Ero, is also doing her contribution. When Regina submitted her essay I almost fell down.

She dropped a bomb that will make a lot of people stand up and give the woman the applause she truly deserves.

The book will be coming with 100 boudoir pictures contributed by two leading photographers and Nigeria’s best in the field, Ibi Sofekun and Femi Olude.

For those of you who do not know the meaning of boudoir, na French for nude.

Me sef no know until this project, na Ibi tell me. Buy the book. Kai. I can find trouble.

Askia

56

AUGUST 30, 20Ͱͮ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

THEALTERNATIVE

with RenoOmokri

Maryam Babangida as the Epitome of Nigerian Beauty

T

he article from penultimate week’s The Economic magazine, titled ‘Nigeria’s demand for fancy wigs fuels a global trade’, reveals our shallowness in Nigeria. If you have not read it, I urge you to read it. It may shock you to know the extent to which the world is acutely aware of the growing cultural rejection of our Nigerian heritage by contemporary Nigerian society.

It starts with this line ‘Hair from EVERYWHERE adorns Nigerian heads’. The writer describes how Nigerians “grovel” (their exact words) over “long, straight hair”.

We spend more money on human hair than we spend on books. Looks matter to us more than knowledge. According to Reuters, in 2014, Africa spent $6 billion on human hair.

And they say we are poor.

Sadly, as The Economist investigative report shows, what we import as ‘human hair’ in Africa is not always human hair. It is often a synthesis of human and animal hair. A lot of it is untreated and unhealthy and is causing various types of hair and scalp issues.

Obviously, African women need role models that demonstrate to them that there is nothing wrong with looking African from head to toe.

No matter what you want to say about Maryam Babangida, she was the epitome of Nigerian beauty. Always in her natural hair. Always in local fabrics (spectacularly tailored to achieve breathtaking results). Black, unbleached and beautiful! With poise, panache and confidence. No First Lady before or after her was her equal!

And it is not just that Maryam was beautiful and had poise; she was also intelligent. The Better Life for Rural Women was the first and best of all the First Lady intervention projects in Nigeria, again, bar none!

It was futuristic. It was meaningful. It was grassroots focused. It made sense. It was not vain. Maryam Babangida understood the impact of empowering women. When you empower a woman, you empower the community.

And even in my own family, I have personally seen the impact of empowering women.

When my father was ill, my oldest sister left her job to stay with him. My next oldest sister left her business to work shifts with her. My next oldest sister simply moved in with my parents as a live-in carer.

Maryam None of us boys left our business or work. Yet African men foolishly complain when they have only girls? Rather than complain, such men should realise that they have hit the jackpot! Each of their daughters is worth three sons!

Having a daughter prolongs your life. She will not get into as much trouble as your sons. She is less likely to be disobedient. When she leaves your house, she will remember you.

If you are too old to live alone, she will move you into her home, marital or not. African men should thank God when they have daughters!

And if that daughter is anything like Maryam, then you have not only hit the jackpot, you have won the lottery itself.

Almost all the so-called pet projects that came after her (but not all), were vain attempts to replicate what Maryam Babangida started. And for all the media exaggerations of the faults of Nigeria’s first family from August 1985 to August 1993, in hindsight, the team of Maryam and Ibrahim Babangida were not as bad as the media portrayed them to be.

Together, they were charming. The exuded more warmth than strength. They were both personable personalities and, but for the annulment of June 12, 1993, they had set Nigeria

THE PUBLIC SPHERE with Chido Nwakanma

on a course of steady progress.

But, the thing I most celebrate about them is that they were unapologetically Nigerian. Much like his wife, no other Nigerian leader made it a point of duty to wear Nigerian outfits from all over Nigeria.

I remember that when out of uniform, General Babangida, as President would sometimes were a Yoruba style agbada, sewn in aso-oke like material, which, along with his middle name, Badamasi, gave rise to the urban legend that he is a Yoruba man passing himself off as a Northerner (he is not).

I recall watching General Babangida as military President, attending the Nigerian Music Awards, and even presenting one of the awards.

It matters what leaders do because followers tend to copy their leaders. Africa needs leaders who believe in themselves and their people. We do not need leaders who feel inferior to Western and increasingly, Chinese leaders.

We need leaders who epitomise the African idyll, in their appearance, demeanour and outlook.

Too much money leaves Africa to Europe and Asia to buy bleaching creams, human hair, champagne, and other products that are a complete waste of our scarce resources.

I remember once watching a comedy in the late 90s with a scene where the main character walked into a room and asked the occupants if they had seen a Black woman with blonde hair. Those in the room looked at him as though he were bonkers.

Alas, today, if that man asked the same question, those in the room would answer ‘we have seen many Black women with blonde hairs today. Can you be more specific’?

Reno’s Nuggets

I see many young men chasing women and asking for their numbers. Sadly, they are going about it the wrong way. If they chase success and get the right numbers in their account, it is them that women will chase. Nothing is as attractive as success! Let me break it down for you: Women are not interested in men that chase them. Materialistic women are interested in men that chase wealth. Vain women are interested in men that chase power. Godly women are interested in men that pursue God. No woman is interested in men that chase women! #FreeLeahSharibu #RenosNuggets.

@ChidoNigeria https://www.facebook.com/chido.nwakanma

Why Enugu is the Fifth-best Economy in Nigeria

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nugu State celebrated its 29th anniversary in the past week alongside others. Enugu was and remained in the news for good and a sad reason for the massacre by the DSS of unarmed young men freely associating one with the other in exercise. The incident cast a dampener on the deserved celebrations.

Twenty-ninth anniversary for the former capital of Eastern Nigeria is an accounting based on the state creation exercises of Nigeria. Enugu city was before Enugu State and has been the political capital of the Eastern states for years on end. Enugu was capital of the Eastern Region, Biafra, East Central State, Anambra State and now Enugu State.

Enugu is also in the news for several other positives. One of them is the expected reopening today Sunday 30 August 2020 of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport after one year of the shutdown. Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika and Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi should take a deserved bow for delivering on this project.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics says Enugu is the best-performing state economically in the South East and ranks fifth overall in Nigeria. Enugu ranks with the best in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). Yet it is not an oil-producing state and no longer has any major industrial outfits apart from the old ANAMMCO retooled by Frank Nneji’s Transit Support Services (TSS) Limited and the huge Nigerian Breweries plant at Ama. The agro-processing ventures such as AVOP, the cashew nuts factory at Oghe and several others lie moribund.

Economic Confidential, an intelligence publication, lists Enugu State as one of only six states economically viable in Nigeria. Others are Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Kwara and Kaduna.

Its Annual States Viability Index asserts that many states cannot survive without the federally collected revenue mostly from the oil sector.

Collections only tell half of the story. Bayelsa State, one of those that get the most from federal allocations, is insolvent.

Many states that should otherwise be ranking with the best as independent entities hold on tightly to their feeding bottles to receive milk from Abuja.

What is Enugu doing right?

Economics is about data, but it is ultimately about people.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi gets deserved plaudits in the state for economic management. Many there are who disagree with him on the relationship with the centre, alleging softness over Igbo interests. Still, on the direction of the resources of the state, he gets a hurrah. It starts with the treatment of human capital.

Government workers in Enugu State get their salaries on the 24th of every month. They have also under Ugwuanyi regularly received the 13th-month compensation. Regular and appropriate payment of workers is not only right but smart. The bureaucracy often makes a critical difference in a project and human management. The bureaucracy could be a clog or an enabler.

Prudence is Ugwuanyi’s watchword. He has carefully managed the lean resources of the state while pushing to enlarge the coast. He has kept borrowings low, unlike some states rushing to sign loans from China.

Enugu State is like most states of Nigeria in boasting several natural resources. They include coal, the mining of which from the 1920s earned its capital the monicker of Coal City, iron ore, limestone, fine clay, marble, and silica sand. Official literature claims its industries include textile manufacturing, food processing, lumbering, soft drink bottling, brewing and furniture manufacturing.

Enugu State covers a land area of 7, 534 km harbouring 17 local government areas. Its 4.6million people live in a place that includes most of the Udi-Nsukka Plateau that rise to more than 1000 feet.

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission says investment opportunities exist in Enugu State in Agribusiness, Light Manufacturing, Healthcare, Tourism, Energy, and Mining.

Investors listened as Enugu State leads the states of the South East in Foreign Direct Investment as well as in Internally Generated Revenue over the last four years. Enugu State’s IGR grew from N14.2b in 2016 to N31.7b at the end of 2019. It was not a straight upward curve, though. While it rose to N22b in 2017, it declined by one per cent to N21b in 2018 and then grew majestically to N31.7b in 2019.

In FDI, Enugu State is the tallest man in the Lilliput that is the South East. Its $151, 490, 000 (2014) was the highest in the region.

The South East attracted a paltry FDI of 0.22% ($$203,898,690) of

the $93.28billion that came into Nigeria for over seven years.

What has Enugu done right? Automation is a significant contributor. Others include deployment and tinkering with the law, enforcement, communication, information and education of citizens, and proper structures. Automation of revenue collection in Enugu has widened the tax net while minimising leakages. In return, officials report an increase in voluntary tax compliance by the large numbers of citizens in the unorganised private sector. It then streamlined many taxes, bringing all landbased taxes by the state and local governments into the single Enugu State Land Use Charge Amendment Law (2017).

Automation is central and has featured in the Pay Direct System by which all revenue goes directly to the banks. In contrast, the state has extended automation of revenue collection to all other revenue arms. Enugu State believes that the introduction of the Enugu State Social Benefit Number as a tax card would digitally document and increase the state’s tax database.

Emeka Odo, a vibrant multifunctional professional, chairs the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service. Governor Ugwuanyi established the Board in 2016, and the state asserts that it is the first time a properly constituted board would administer this critical function.

Enugu State claims it grew IGR without increasing taxes.

Instead, it expanded the tax net by bringing in more people.

Ugwuanyi also played smart. He waived the payment of income taxes for the most disadvantaged groups -petty traders, artisans, Keke/Okada riders, and similar vocations. The state granted Covid19 tax reliefs to citizens as well.

While the Board gets plaudits for the positives of IGR increment in the state, it understandably draws the ire of some citizens. It has applied carrot and sticks, including “distrainment” (seizure until the owner performs an obligation) of properties and prosecution of offenders. Enugu State is proof that where people fete the taxman, then something is not right.

The taxman gets grudging respect and admiration.

The Enugu State IGR story speaks to possibilities and what our states can do with proper deployment of human capital. Enugu and Nsukka are becoming notable players in the fast-evolving Nigerian digital start-up ecosystem. The future beckons to the state to show even more the benefits of higher IGR.

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

30.08.2020

IN CELEBRATION OF BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA’S

CREATIVE RESOURCEFULNESS

Cover continued on Page 58

Onobrakpeya before one of his installations

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

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ARTS & REVIEW\\LEGENDS

IN CELEBRATION OF BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA’S

CREATIVE RESOURCEFULNESS

As the activities marking his 60th year in the exhibition circuit trails into a second year, the highly-revered Nigerian artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya, celebrates his 88th birthday anniversary.

Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

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ot much has changed in this cluttered groundfloor recess. At the end of the reception room, the long-familiar installation work still denies visitors access to its hallowed nook. Still shrouded in its old mystique, “Akporode”, as the work is titled, symbolises “the striving towards a higher and richer life”. Produced in 1995, it was first exhibited at London’s Whitechapel Gallery during the Africa ’95 exhibition. It was, subsequently, shown at the littoral Swedish city of Malmo and later in California, USA. Contrived from an assortment of found objects, this assemblage of artworks, the octogenarian artist later explains, proclaims “the grandeur and beauty often associated with traditional religious shrines and architectural decorations of palaces”. Perhaps, this is one work – among countless others – that, metaphorically speaking, best captures the aspirations and the professional accomplishments of the iconic artist Bruce Onobrakpeya.

Professor Onobrakpeya, who marks his 88th birthday today, owes much of his renown in the contemporary art scene to sheer diligence. His studio practice, which first came to the public eye with his first-ever exhibition held sometime in 1959, swirls mainly around printmaking, painting and sculpture and has since traipsed through several other mediums of expression. At the time he held that exhibition, he recalls, he was just a second-year student of the Zaria-based Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology – more often known as NCAST – and happened to be in the agrarian town of Ughelli, now in the present-day Delta State, for a vacation job. The exhibition, which featured mostly the paintings, drawings and engravings he had produced as a student, was motivated by the fact that his Zaria Art Society associates – Uche Okeke, Demas Nwoko and Yusuff Grillo – had already had the exposure of art exhibitions.

Talking about the Zaria Art Society, it is to this group – created on Friday, October 9, 1959, and officially disbanded on Friday, June 16, 1961 – that the contemporary Nigerian art owes much of its defining aesthetic credos. This was particularly thanks to the society’s bequest of the “Natural Synthesis” doctrine, which Onobrakpeya says was articulated by its then-president Uche Okeke. The members had envisioned a kind of synthesis, which implied unearthing traditional aesthetic values from their various ethnic backgrounds and placing them on the pedestal of national significance. Its main crux was to cull what was good from the past, dust them up, polish them and make use of them for a better life.

Besides, this philosophy – though not the society’s invention, but an appropriation – chimed well with the zeitgeist in Nigeria, which was basking in the euphoria of independence. The group, which consisted of seven core members alongside a handful of other associates, was primarily deliberated on the nature of Nigerian art. Were they, as the Nigerian artists they were, expected to jettison their rich traditional heritage in favour of the kind of art taught by their lecturers? How would they emboss the imprints of their Nigerian identities in their works? Hence, the need for the artist’s sincerity with himself since people assimilate impressions assailing them differently according to their nature.

Meanwhile, the ambience at the NCAST in those early years used to be conducive enough for its 120 students – 20 of whom were female – to excel in their fields of study. The teachers, some of whom were expatriates, were very dedicated. Yet, art, back then, was not recognised as a worthwhile subject to study. “We were

Thorax of Antedulivian Insect (Orere), plastic and metal (mixed media) 2020, by Bruce Onobrakpeya looked down upon,” Onobrakpeya recalls.

But, the artists remained undaunted and courageously waded against the tidal waves of the public’s disdain for their profession.

They ignored the curious looks their fellow students casually gave them, as they defiantly did their paintings en plein air. Slowly, but surely, they began to earn their respect, as some among them began to understand the importance of art in the environment. Out in the larger society, some parents began to deem studying art worthwhile enough to sponsor their wards in art schools.

Onobrakpeya blames the widespread apathy for art among students and in the larger society on the colonial influence. “The colonial masters only encouraged the three R’s [reading, writing and arithmetic].”

On the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of his first-ever exhibition, a series of exhibitions and events, meant to spread over three years, have been lined up. Since the last years’ shows at the Freedom Park along Broad Street in Lagos Island and the Wheatbaker Hotel in upscale Ikoyi neighbourhood of Lagos as well as the special retrospective on the Zaria Art Society artists in Victoria Island organised by Arthouse Contemporary Limited, there was also an exhibition featuring one aspect of his art in the Delta State town of Agbarha-Otor earlier this year as part of the annual Harmattan Workshop.

The intrusion of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the suspen-

sion of one or two other serialised shows that had been planned as part of the commemorative events. The phase-by-phase exhibitions of the works of this celebrated figure of the Nigerian art cognoscenti became necessary because their sheer number would have overwhelmed any museum or gallery. “No matter how big the gallery may be, it’s going to be difficult to show the works all at once,” he explains.

This was, of course, not made any easier by the fact that Onobrakpeya has remained prolific even at his age. Among his most recent works, produced this year during the lockdown, was a sculptural piece he titled “Thorax of Antedulivian Insect (Orere)”, which is a mixed-media assemblage, consisting mainly of plastic and metal. Well-known to aficionados are his experimental works with discarded compact discs and electronic parts.

Mind-boggling is his vast range of works dating back to as far back as 1957, many of which adorn both private and public collections within and outside Nigeria. These works have, for the convenience of the art historians, been segmented into periods, the shortest and the first of which is dubbed “Mythical Realism” which coincided with his student years at the NCAST from 1957 to 1962. This was a time that he produced paintings and linocut prints, which depicted folkloric themes and the northern Nigerian landscapes.

Following closely on the heels of this period was the “Sunshine Period”, from 1962 to 1967, during which his workshop experiments and his bronzed lino relief series swim into focus.

Then followed the “Mask and the Cross” period – from 1967 to 1978 when he produced several works based on Christian themes, among which were the lino engraving “Nativity II”, the plastocast “The Last Days of Christ”, the bronzed lino relief “Obara Ishoshi” and the metal foil “Pope John Paul”. It was during this period that he also developed a lot of ideas he had started during his NCAST years with the plastography medium.

Other periods were: the “Symbols of Ancestral Groves” (between 1978 and 1984) when he represented historical vignettes based mainly on the royalty of the Benin Kingdom and developed the “Ibiebe” alphabet; the “Sahelian Masquerades” period (between 1984 and 1988), which featured works that expressed his concern about the destruction of the environment; the “Mask” Series (1990 to 1995) when he developed folklore-inspired images which later inspired his depiction of masks; the “Social Unrest” period (from 1995 to 1999), which captured the dark years under one of Nigeria’s worst military dictatorships with works like “Ekugbe”, “Nude and Protest” as well as “Smoke from the Broken Pipe” and the so-called “Installation Period” (from 1995 to date) when works like “Akporode” were produced.

Even in the most creatively-obtuse environment, Onobrakpeya’s resourcefulness could have remained unrecognised for a long time. Relatively recently, in 2017, he was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the Delta State University.

This was 28 years after he was awarded an honorary D. Litt from the University of Ibadan. Beyond the academic world, he was honoured with an honourable mention at the Venice Biennale and became a Fellow of the Society of Nigerian Artists on June 6, 2000. Other recognitions and awards included the Pope John Paul II award for depicting the life of Saint Paul, the Fellowship of Asele Institute, an award from the late Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, the Solidra Circle award and the Fulbright Exchange Scholar award as well as 2006, UNESCO recognition as a Living Human Treasure and the Federal Government of Nigeria’s prestigious Nigerian Creativity Award on September 14, 2010.

EXHIBITION

Lagos-Party, Shanty Inspire Debut Solo Show by Artist Yinka Olatunbosun Sylvester Aigbogun, a painter and graphic artist is set to ignite the virtual space with his Lagos-party scene inspired art exhibition. Lagos is famed for its unrivalled party scene and the culture of “aso-ebi”, the ceremonial uniform worn by party-goers to add glamour to the occasion. As a painter, Aigbogun had always been fascinated with the beauty embedded in colours and this has, invariably, influenced this show. With the theme, “Shanty Aesthetics,’’ this debut show is a product of his graphic art practice and a defiance of the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown. Following the lockdown measures imposed globally, many had lost their means of livelihood or business dealsand some businesses were plunged into major depression. With this exhibition, Aigbogun has produced a soothing and therapeutic body of works. This creative elixir taps from cave paintings, renaissance style and the aesthetics of the so-called “Zaria Rebels” playing freely with colours.

In her curatorial statement, Idoreyin Nzeh of Aziki Media examines the dynamics of Aigbogun’s pieces in this show and the creative force that drives them. “Asimple theme becomes very complex because of his unique style of treatment which is a fusion of the 17th century impasto and the 19th century impressionism art style,’’ she said.

Asides being a response to the Covid-19 temperament, Aigbogun’s long-awaited show explores the issue of urban migration using colours as the conveyor belt. According to the United Nations, about 70 percent of Lagos residents are living in slums, not by choice but by prevailing economic circumstances.

“In ‘Shanty Aesthetics’, I explore the idea that we are all predisposed to making design decisions irrespective of status or position,” the artist explained in a statement to help his online viewers appreciate the underlying message in the world of his works. “Ashanty can be described as a small, badly built house, usually made of pieces of wood, metal or cardboard in which poor people live. They are generally built with recycled materials which still bear the original colours they were manufactured in, different sheets of coloured plywood, metal, cellophane in bright colours such as red, blue, white, green, orange, pink, rust, black amongst others. This body of works is my attempt at capturing the beauty of the completely random aesthetic expression of the shanty dweller.”

The show, which kicks off on Friday, September 4 parades oil paintings such as “Aso Ebi”, “Living off the Grid’’ “Bush Radio’’ “Diana’’ as well as the “Covid-19 Series: Finding the way through the maze.’’ Through the works, Aigbogun draws attention to the complexity, creativity and functionality that shanty-dwellers articulate in their make-shift homes.

Do Shanty Dwellers Pay Electricity Bills

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

Bad Postcard from Bamako

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n the 21st of March, 2012, mutinous soldiers of the Malian army invaded the Presidential Mansion in the capital city of Bamako. The mostly other rank soldiers were thrilled to burst into the luxury and opulence of the mansion. Their instant punishment for any unfortunate occupants they found in the place was merciless flogging with several strokes of horsewhip. The soldiers then proceeded to empty the refrigerators of expensive rare liquor before ransacking the kitchen for choice leftover presidential food. They then sank briefly into the pampering comfort of sumptuous presidential leather sofas while savouring their momentary opulence, a taste of the gravy of privilege and the spoils from the conquest of power.

This earlier coup, like the recent one, began as a mutiny ostensibly in protest against the government’s handling of the Tuareg jihadist insurgency in the desert north of the country. The soldiers then proceeded to sack the government of Ahmadou Toumani Toure. Then as now, the coup was greeted with unanimous international condemnation and a barrage of sanctions, blockades and diplomatic lockouts. Concerted diplomatic squeeze led to negotiations between the coup leaders and ECOWAS which yielded an understanding that the coup leaders would hand back power to a transitional government in return for some form of amnesty. The ousted President was allowed to proceed on exile.

Before then, the Tuareg insurgents had taken control of northern Mali and declared an independent nation of Azawad led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a separatist movement that dates back to about 1916. The armed wing of the Tuareg insurgency is fuelled partly by returnees from the Libyan civil war and sundry Islamist movements in the Arab world, some inspired partly by the Arab Spring.

Following a UN resolution and a formal invitation by the then interim government of Mali, the French intervened by launching “Operation Seval” in January 2013. The aim of the operation was to neutralize the threat of the rampaging Tuareg Islamist insurgents in the northern parts of the country. They had initiated a southward push to sack the government of the country. The French operation was part of an international effort to contain the spread of Islamist fundamentalist terrorism in the Sahel.

Fast forward to 18th of August, 2020. Widespread protests and civil unrest over worsening economic conditions and bad governance produced widespread discontent. The spectre of growing insecurity from continuing threats from the Tuareg Islamists in the north in the country worsened a bad political situation.

Another set of mutineers from a wing of the Malian army from a base in the small town of Kati invaded the capital city of Bamako and stormed the presidential palace. They arrested and detained the President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and the Prime Minister Boubou Cisse with key government officials. The government was forced to resign. The protesting mobs jubilated in the streets. A coup was completed with Col. Assimi Goita emerging as head of the new junta.

Both the political opposition and the leaders of the civil

Goita unrest have welcomes the coup. No one knows whether there is a collaboration between the coup leaders and the opposition elements.

International condemnation and sanctions have followed.

Mali has been suspended from the African Union while ECOWAS has imposed a land and air blockade of the country. The United States has suspended military training and assistance. ECOWAS has sent in a negotiating team headed by former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan. It is only likely that the soldiers will negotiate everything except their hold on power and the duration of their tenure.

The new coup in Mali is a replay of a familiar African script. Insecurity has bred bad politics. Political instability has in turn opened the door for ambitious soldiers to topple democracy at a bad time and in a dangerous place. The sad truth is that fragile democracies cannot in and of themselves protect themselves from the forces that bad politics and atrocious governance unleash.

Sadly, the ripples of the drama in Bamako will not stop in Mali. A host of regional security issues have been come to the fore. First is the future of democracy in vulnerable places where bad governance and unsettled national questions inevitably endanger national security. Second is the security of the nations sharing the Sahel against the strategic peril posed by the geo political relocation of international terrorism to the Sahel.

The long standing conflict between the Tuaregs in the north of Mali and political factions in the southern half of the country has remained intractable for decades. Mali’s

geographical location as a gateway between North Africa and the Sahel make the strategic implications somewhat compelling and treacherous. Local Islamist jihadists have mixed freely with fundamentalist terrorists from North Africa and the Arab world from where they have been routed by concerted Western pressure. Instability has also made Mali a hot highway for illicit trade in drugs and human beings seeking a safe corridor to Europe.

Malian politics has been infiltrated by these contending forces. The jihadists have embedded themselves into the partisan divides of the country. Assorted Islamist fundamentalist groups have sheltered into the equation. The political opposition now includes jihadist elements seeking a bigger voice in the government.

It is doubtful if a government assailed on all sides with sectarian and political turmoil can deliver good governance to avert the kind of civil unrest that quickened the latest coup. Most tragically, the politicians in Mali have failed to strengthen the apparatus of state security over these years.

Consequently, the periodic easy invasions of the centres of power and authority cannot be a credit to any credible concept of state security.

The fragile state of Mali’s national security has major regional and international security implications. Mali is central to the Sahel which is a continuum with the entire West Africa. This zone has also become the festering ground for the renegade formations of Al Queda, ISIS and now ISWAP. These terror groups having been routed in Europe and most of the Arab world have become more active in West Africa up to Nigeria where Boko Haram has remained a major threat for over a decade. Countries as far afield as Senegal, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Cameroun have all been targeted by the terrorists.

It is good that ECOWAS has initiated a mechanism for some resolution. Coaxing the soldiers to leave the comfort of the presidential mansion and return to the barracks may not be so easy. Forging a platform of common national commitment between the Tuaregs and the rest of the political factions in Mali may be the real challenge. Even more daunting would be how to dissuade the more militant wing of the islamists in northern Mali to disconnect from their patrons in the larger Arab jihadist formations.

For us in Nigeria, the development in Mali has an urgent resonance. We have unresolved internal security challenges.

We have since adopted a strategy of involving the military in internal security operations. Increasingly, the insurgency in the North East is becoming institutionalized. It could acquire political coloration over time. They have attempted an assassination of the Governor of Borno state. They had previously tried establishing a caliphate spanning the border areas between Nigeria, Chad and Cameroun. There are unproven allegations of complicity between active politicians and elements of the insurgents. There have also been charges of sabotage of operations by elements in the security forces. These problems further complicate Nigeria’s internal security nightmare. Mali has shown that where insecurity and instability persist, incompetent governments no matter their military backing are a danger to national security and democracy itself. That incidentally is the postcard from Bamako to Abuja.

‘Animal Farm’ at 75: Art and Enduring Political Purpose

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n 17th of August, 1945, Penguin Books published “Animal Farm”, the classic political satire by George Orwell (real name: Eric Arthur Blair). Initially intended as an anti Stalinist satire to dissuade Europeans from embracing Stalinist totalitarianism, Orwell’s slim ‘fairy tale’ has gained wide acceptance among the English speaking readership and in homes, libraries and school curricular in over 70 languages around the world. Orwell, who was himself a social democrat, was mortally petrified by the prospects of the spread of revolutionary absolutism, bloody dictatorship and upheaval in Europe especially in Britain.

For the last 75 years, ‘Animal Farm’ has cemented its position as one of the most remarkable literary events of the last century.

It remains an undying political allegory of universal appeal and enduring contemporary resonance. Not even Orwell’s other much celebrated futuristic and prophetic novel, “1984”, has found nearly as much popular appeal and contemporary relevance.

Thus, wherever revolutions have occurred and self imploded, wherever the heroes of revolutionary disruption have turned the sword of subterfuge against each other, wherever the promises of messianic political change have turned into ashes of disappointment and mass betrayal, ‘Animal Farm’ has found meaning as a literary paradigm of human political behavior and experience. To the extent that such tragic reversals remain a permanent feature of politics and human behavior, the appeal of this otherwise simple animal fable has endured with recurrent freshness and troubling echoes.

Since after reading ‘Animal Farm’ as a high school junior in 1966, I have found myself repeatedly returning to the tiny novel ever so often. As a matter of personal choice and habit, each time any of my children began reading, I would instinctively gift them two books as primers: George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. My aim has been to prepare them in advance for two basic experiences that will recur in their

future lives. The first is the ever present reality that every political change usually carries in its womb the seeds of its own reversal.

The second is the inevitability of change as the only permanent thing in the world, be it political, cultural or indeed technological.

As a teacher, I always included “Animal Farm” in reading lists for courses in ‘Literature and Politics’ or, for that matter, as textual matter for graduate courses in ‘Literary Theory’ or ‘Literature and Society’.

Ordinarily, a simple imaginative recreation of an animal fable should not graduate beyond bed side entertainment or, at best, a reading primer for young adolescents. “Animal Farm” fulfills both functions and rises to loftier heights. It is a revolt among animals in an English countryside farm. The animals in the farm, led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball mobilize the rest for a violent revolt against Mr. Jones, a countryside farm owner. The revolt succeeds in chasing off the unsuspecting Mr. Jones and his family, thereby ending an era of ostensible human exploitation and ushering in a regime of government of animals by animals for animals with the memorable hilarious moto: “Two legs bad, four legs good”!

Soon enough, supplies run thin as the capacity of the animals to run the farm diminishes, leading to unavoidable hunger and widespread discontent. The totalitarian Napoleon deploys the wily propaganda skills of Squeler, a gifted propagandist to disinform and misinform the animals while justifying every act of the ruling oligarchy of pigs. The height of this propaganda blitz is the subversion of the original anthem of the revolt: “All Animals Are Equal” by a crafty emendation: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. Soon enough, an oligarchy of pigs emerges with an entitlement to the good things with all the vices and excesses of the discredited humans.

Soon enough, Snowball overthrows Napoleon and the vanguard of animals spawns an opposition camp of silent malcon-

tents. Devotees of the toppled Napoleon are routinely liquidated while widespread disillusionment among the animal population erodes and subverts the original ‘revolutionary’ fervor. In the end, the elite regime of pigs invites representatives of humans to an event that resembles a banquet and perhaps a disguised rehearsal for handing back the farm to human management. At the climactic moment, the other animals look in through the window.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

This simple allegory which Orwell insisted on calling a ‘fairy tale’ captures the historical twists and turns of great revolutions and even the reversals in partisan democratic political changes of baton. The Bolshevik revolution bred the great purges of revolutionary ‘fellow travellers’ under Stalin and later led to the rise of a privileged communist elite class that lived in luxurious dachas in the suburban outskirts of Moscow. Similarly, the Chinese revolution under Mao Tse Tung produced the unintended rise of the infamous Gang of Four and the serial abuses and corruption that led to their subsequent purge in the post Mao era.

Elsewhere in the world where the adoption of leftist ideologies led to popular revolutions, there would seem to be a bit of the wisdom of ‘Animal Farm’ in the subsequent tragic reversals of the original revolutionary ideals. In Venezuela, the populist autocracy of Hugo Chavez and his comrades literally crippled the economy of one of the world’s potentially richest countries and sent millions of impoverished citizens into the streets literally with begging bowls. It is only perhaps in Cuba that the original revolutionary ideals and spartan discipline of Fidel Castro and his successors was never substantially diluted, leading to the survival of Cuba today as easily the most credible surviving vindication of socialist progress and humanism.

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GAVEL

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

Debating the Medium Term Expenditure Framework

The two chambers of the National Assembly in the last two weeks, had engaged ministers as well as heads of revenue generating agencies of government to defend the revenue estimates outlined

by President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper submitted to it for approval, report Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu

I

n line with its desire to achieve early passage of the budget to be in tandem with the January-December cycle, and open up more revenue sources to finance the country’s N12 trillion budget for 2021, the Senate and House of Representatives held a five-day interactive session on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) in Abuja with various heads of revenue generating agencies of government.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 21 sent the 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP to the Senate and the House of Representatives for approval. The MTEF/FSP document included N12.66 trillion budget estimate for 2021 and an estimated N5.16 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year.

Accompanied with a covering letter from President Buhari, the MTEF/FSP document was read at plenary by the presiding officers of both chambers.

The letter read in part: ‘’It is with pleasure that I forward the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) for the kind consideration and approval of the Distinguished Senate. Let me seize this opportunity to express my deep gratitude for the cooperation, support and commitment of the leadership and distinguished members of the Senate in our collective efforts to sustain the restoration of the January-December financial year. ‘’In line with our commitment, we have worked very hard to achieve an earlier submission of the MTEF/FSP. This is to allow the National Assembly enough time to perform its important constitutional duty of reviewing the framework. I herewith forward the 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP, as the 2021 budget of the federal government will be prepared based on the parameters and fiscal assumptions of the approved 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP. I seek the cooperation of the National Assembly for expeditious legislative action on the submission.’’

Buhari, however, expressed concern over the effect of the pandemic on revenue target.

The document said the federal government was determined to use innovative ways to raise revenues required for financing its expenditures and diversifying its revenue sources, thereby increasing the revenue-to-GDP ratio. The medium term target for this remains 15 per cent.

It noted that higher revenue collections would enable government to effectively deliver public services, enhance infrastructure investment and mitigate the health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of the public hearing on August 19, the Senate Joint committee on Finance and National Planning led by its Chairman, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, threatened to ensure no allocation was given to the agencies whose heads fail to appear before the lawmakers1 to defend figures it submitted as presented by the President to the National Assembly.

Some of the heads of agencies invited include the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, (NDIC) Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG),Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, (AMCON), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The Committee, in the course of interfacing with heads of government agencies, canvassed for the urgent forensic auditing of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Startimes Joint Venture account through which over N200 billion had allegedly been taken out of the country since 2008.

The federal lawmakers also directed the management of the joint venture to step aside for failing to convince the committee of the transparency of the business agreement.

They declared that the forensic audit of the account of the non- profitable venture to NTAneeds to be carried out to unravel the exact sum of money that had been fraudulently taken out of the country within the last 11 years, estimated to be N200 billion.

“With what we are seeing, you people as management of the venture are collaborating with Startimes in siphoning money abroad. You need to be put under oath along with the other management team, collecting monthly salaries from NTA and working for Startimes and in the process, indulging in capital flight in collaboration with foreign staff of the company. By rough estimations, all the revenues made through the joint venture and recorded in dollar amounted to about N200 billion between 2010 and 2018,” the committee said.

The committee also described the affected management team namely Maxwell Loko, who is the Managing Director of the joint venture, and Tunde Aina, who serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO), as unpatriotic Nigerians working for Startimes but receiving monthly salaries from NTA. It called on the NTA/Startimes management to explain why the joint venture has not yielded any profit for NTA as lamented by the Director General, Yakubu Ibn Mohammed, before the committee last Monday.

The MD of the joint venture, Loko, told the committee that he agreed that the business was not thriving, because Digital Terestial Television (DTT) operated through the venture, is

Senator Adeola

Faleke

capital intensive as against the Satellite model. He lamented that out of the four million subscribers that Startimes has, only 20 per cent are active, which according to him, makes the venture unprofitable for both parties (NTA and Startimes).

But the Chairman of the committee, Senator Adeola, and other members, faulted his arguments based on records obtained from the audited account reports submitted by both the NTA and the joint venture.

Adeola particularly asked the MD, why as obtainable in the audited account reports presented proceeds of transactions from the joint venture are both in dollar and naira.

He said, “Based on records made available to us, both the expenditure and revenue components of transactions made on the joint venture since 2008, have been recorded in naira and dollar, indicating capital flight intension.

“For example, as clearly stated in the audited report before us, in 2018 alone, your revenue from subscription was $36.1 million which is N11 billion. Also, in the expenditure component for the year, monies incurred were put in both dollar and naira and in that year, your expenditure (N19 billion) far exceeded the N11 billion revenue allegedly generated.”

Attempts by both the COO and Director of Tax and Audit of the venture to disabuse the minds of the committee members on any sharp practices, failed as they resolved that they must all step aside from their current positions for forensic audit to take place.

Adeola and the co-chairman of the committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetunbi, told the DG of NTA to, in his own interest and for his own good, ensure that the three affected workers of NTA on the joint venture step aside.

The Senate Committee also took a swipe at the Director- General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda over what it described as ridiculous and unacceptable, spending of a whopping sum of N10.3 Billion to pay salaries of its staff strength of 600.

Consequently, the Senate while condemning the N10.3 Billion expended on only 600 Staff, said there must be a thorough audit of staff of the Commission with a view to ascertaining whether or not there are ghost workers.

The Senate asked the DG to look inward and told the Management that it will not be business as usual, adding that the present situation, where over N10 billion was spent to pay salaries of 600 staff was not sustainable as the government must be prudent and save money.

The lawmakers also asked Yuguda to ensure that he remits the sum of N300million into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account of the federal government within few days and ensure that the Commission remits the sum of N1 billion to the Consolidated Account next year as part of moves to fund the Budget deficit.

At another session, the Senate mandated the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to probe the reported payment of the sum of $18,323,032,261.03 as dividend from Nigeria’s 53 per cent investment in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) between 2004 and 2020.

Senator Adeola gave the directive following disclosures made by an NLNG top official at the public hearing. He asked the

AGF, Ahmed Idris, to among others, confirm if the amount was actually remitted to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which represents the interest of Nigeria in the NLNG. Other terms of reference of the Accountant General, according to Adeola, include to determine how much was actually remitted to the Federation Account, and to also find out if there was any deduction by NNPC; how much was deducted and who authorised the deductions as well as the exchange rates applied for the amount that was remitted over the years under review.

Giving the AGF two weeks to complete his assignment, the committee chairman inquired from him if he could confirm the payment of the humongous dividends to the federation account.

Responding, Idris said such could not be immediately verified as the dividends are usually paid to NNPC, which is the representative of Nigeria in the company.

The General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development of NLNG, Mrs. Eyono Fatai-Williams, had earlier presented a financial summary of the company from 1999 to 2019 indicating that it had paid a dividend of over $18 billion to Nigeria from 2004 to 2020, stressing that NLNG is committed to a culture of transparency and integrity.

According to her, the NLNG had in the last 16 years remitted $18 billion to the NNPC as dividends to the federal government.

She gave the breakdown of the $18 billion remitted to NNPC on behalf of the federal government to NNPC to include $278,860,715.00 for 2004; $57,425460.17 for 2005; $332,979,540.83, 2006; 2007($842,956,858.80); 2008($2,613,170,000.00); 2009($848,680,000.00); 2010($1,401,40 0,000.00);2011($2,509,780,000.00), and 2012($2,768,990.00). Others are 2013($1,260,704,340.00); 2014($1,389,908,436.93);2015($1,04 3,764,965.12); 2016($356,126,898.440; 2017($798,140,840.45);201 8($904,498,502.96), and 2019($915,645,702.33).

She also revealed that the NLNG paid $9 billion as tax to the federal government from 2011 to date, while $15 billion had also been remitted for field gas to the NNPC since the inception of the company.

At the House of Representatives, the interactive session on August 19 saw the federal government warning that Nigeria faces medium-term fiscal challenges, especially with respect to its revenues, which could snowball into a debt sustainability crisis if not immediately addressed. It also said with the negative growth in the country’s second-quarter GDP, the economy could slide into a second recession in four years, with significant adverse consequences, unless the third-quarter economic performance showed better results.

It projected that Nigeria’s nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will rise to N138.415 billion by 2023 and will also increase from N130.836 billion in 2020 to N 132.1254 billion in 2021.

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clement Agba, reeled off the data while presenting the draft 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP to the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Finance, Appropriation, Budget and Economic Development as well as Loans and Debt Management.

According to him, the consumption expenditure, which is projected to remain flat at N118.735 billion in 2020, will increase to N118.468 billion in 2021. It will also grow to N124.358 billion by 2023, reflecting a gradual steadiness in the recovery.

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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 ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

CICERO

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

IN THE ARENA

Nigeria’s Vanishing Diplomatic Clout The attacks on Nigerian traders in Ghana, which followed similar ones in South Africa and the demolition of the nation’s embassy in June, in Accra, are indications that gone are the days when African countries ‘feared’ Nigeria. Shola Oyeyipo writes

O

n June 21 this year, the staff quarters of the Nigerian embassy in Accra, Ghana’s capital, was demolished by men who, armed, came with a bulldozer. They based their action on the fact that the embassy was sitting on parcel of land that belonged to one of them.

Channels Television had reported that the man earlier came with papers claiming that the land belonged to him. Though the Nigerian Embassy petitioned the Ghanaian government, it seemed nothing came out of the petition.

“The man showed up with evidence to support his claim and began to knock down the fence surrounding the building.

The action of the man was not opposed.

The Nigerian High Commission petitioned the Ghanaian government about it but there was no response. Days later, he returned to the premises of the staff quarters and this time with a bulldozer.”

Geoffrey Onyeama, the Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, condemned the demolition, saying it was the handiwork of criminals.

“We strongly condemn two outrageous criminal attacks in Accra, Ghana, on a President Muhammadu Buhari and his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Akufo-Addo residential building in our diplomatic of Ghanaians in the early 80s, when the country was titled: ‘Recent Attacks on Nigerian Traders in Circle premises by unknown persons in which a bulldozer facing severe economic crisis. They took up menial Market, Ghana’. was used to demolish the building,” Onyeama said. jobs but many of them actually took more dignifying This was December last year. But by June this He added that the Nigerian government was going jobs like teaching and were employed by many state year, a businessman had the effrontery to attack a to engage its Ghanaian counterpart and demand governments especially, in the southern parts of the diplomatic building claiming the land was his. The urgent action to find the perpetrators and provide country. question analysts were asking then, and still asking, adequate protection for Nigerians and their property Though via the ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ crisis of 1982, was that how come the so-called businessman was in Ghana. many of them were sent back to their country, this able to get police cover to carry out the demolition?

It could not be ascertained if the Nigerian governDenis Ogbu, a businessman, who recently returned only affected those, who entered the country illegally. ment had reached out to the Ghanaian authorities and Time it was when Nigeria’s voice commanded from South Africa, said there was no way the man, if the reaching out has had any effect. But if it has respect on the continent. During the apartheid era, Niany effect, it must be on a negative side, because from who demolished the building could have carried out geria led the charge and was at the forefront of those all indications, Ghanaians, with the active connivance such act without either passive or active support of taking on the Western powers goading on the racist the home government. of their government, are really persecuting Nigerians government in Pretoria. Nigeria also led the struggle Speaking from experience, he said the practice was in that country and targeting their businesses. for the independence of countries like Namibia, usually for the home government to feign ignorance In fact, different laws and policies are being put Mozambique, Angola and South Africa itself. or make some half spirited attempts to create the in place to stifle Nigerians and their businesses in In 2004, there was a coup plot in Sao Tome and impression that it was against any aggression against Ghana. These laws included placing very outrageous Precipice. President Olusegun visited the country off foreigners or their businesses but at the end of the levies, specifically for Nigerians, and if unpaid, their archipelago of central Africa. He practically ordered day, no arrest would be made or would anyone be businesses would be shut down. the coup plotters to restore constitutional order, which tried for the attacks.

In December last year, Nigerian traders, most of they did.

He claimed that it was the same thing they experiwho were into retail businesses, were attacked in Recently, there were massive protests in Bamako, enced in South Africa with local politicians actively Accra, and a couple of major cities. In fact, the police the capital of Mali, against former President Boubacar that tried to dispel the rioters were pelted by the irate supporting and encouraging attacks on foreigners Keita and President Muhammadu Buhari visited the and their businesses. He might not be farther from mob. Their grouse was that Nigerians had taken over country to mediate, but days later, President Keita the truth. But the problem is far much deeper than their businesses and hence, they (Nigerians) must was overthrown. Indication: if anyone took Buhari’s that. return to their country. visit serious, perhaps, Buhari and his entourage.

What the attacks on Nigerians and their businesses The House of Representatives, reacting to the That says something about why the Nigerian in South Africa and now Ghana have shown is that attack, asked the Nigerians in Diaspora Commisembassy residential house in Accra was demolished.

Nigeria is fast losing its diplomatic clout in Africa. sion and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to And nothing happened. And for all it is worth, From all indications, most African countries do not investigate the attacks. This move came after the everyone should be worried about Nigeria’s vanishfear or respect Nigeria again.

Chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora ing diplomatic clout.

A time was when Nigeria was home to millions Affairs, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, sponsored a motion

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

F

Fani-Kayode

Fixing FFK’s Short Fuse ormer Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi FaniKayode, last week, bit more than he could chew, when he called a journalist stupid for daring to ask how his current tour of some PDP states in the South-south for peer review was being financed. For over two minutes, FFK as he is otherwise called, took the reporter to the cleaners, because according to him, he was

short-fused.

Thankfully, Fani-Kayode got back in multiple folds and from various quarters, what he dished out to the reporter.

Everyone agreed he went overboard even if he found the question offensive and said too much to someone merely

doing his job.

The following day after the heat from different quarters increased heavily, he gave a subtle apology and took back the word ‘stupid’, which he used repeatedly to describe the reporter, while many had hoped he would fix his ‘short fuse attitudinal crisis’ and stop putting himself in unsavoury corners.

Perhaps, he’s learnt his lessons.

That said, it is also important for journalists too to know that the right to ask probing questions is not the same as licence to being indecorous or ill-mannered, when talking to people. This is a disposition many journalists assume as right and often get carried away in the line of duty. It is therefore expected that the journalist and others had a thing or two to learn from that experience too.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

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BRIEFINGNOTES Adesina: When Integrity, Merit Trump Subterfuge A quirky script to scupper the second tenure of the President of African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, by the US Department of Treasury and a coterie of shadowy forces gets deservedly snookered, writes Louis Achi

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t was indeed a remarkable and teachable moment on the first day of the AfDB’s annual general meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, mid last week, when Dr. Akinwumi Adesina spoke: “At this Annual Meetings, I offer myself to you, our Governors, for your consideration for election for a second term, as President.

“I do so, with humility. I do so with a strong sense of duty and commitment and a call to serve Africa and our Bank, selflessly, to the very best of my God-given abilities.”

Given the heft of forces aligned against his legitimate quest for second term as president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), especially as they were led by the US, the odds appeared insurmountable. But like many principle-governed quests, he beat the odds and was re-elected AfDB president for a second fiveyear tenure on Thursday, August 27, 2020, by the Board of Governors of the Bank.

The election result, announced by the Chairperson, Board of Governors of the Bank and Minister of National Planning of Côte d’Ivoire, Mrs. Niale Kaba, actually gave him, the first Nigerian to lead AfDB, a hundred per cent of votes of all regional and non-regional members of the Bank.

Her words: “I am delighted that the Board of Governors have re-elected Dr. Adesina for a second term in office as President. As shareholders, we strongly support the Bank and will give him all the necessary support to carry forward and implement his compelling vision for the Bank over the next five years.”

Following his deserved victory, an emotional Adesina had responded: “I am deeply grateful for the collective trust, strong confidence and support of our shareholders for electing me for a second term as President. It is yet another call for selfless service to Africa and the African Development Bank, to which I will passionately Adesina devote myself.

“The future beckons us for a more developed Africa and a much stronger and resilient African Developthe People of Africa. ment Bank Group. We will build on the strong During his first term, AfDB achieved impactful foundations of success in the past five years, while results on the lives of 335 million Africans, includfurther strengthening the institution, for greater ing 18 million people with access to electricity; 141 effectiveness and impacts.” million people benefiting from improved agricultural The African Development Bank is Africa’s premier technologies for food security; 15 million people development finance institution, comprising 54 benefiting from access to finance from private investregional and 27 non-regional member countries. ments; 101 million people provided with access to A globally renowned development economist improved transport; and 60 million people gaining and a World Food Prize Laureate and Sunhak Peace access to water and sanitation.

Prize Laureate, Dr. Adesina who was first elected The Bank has maintained its AAA-ratings by all President of the Bank on May 28, 2015, has clearly major global credit rating agencies for five years in distinguished himself in driving a bold agenda to a row. The Board of Governors of the Bank Group reform the Bank and accelerate Africa’s development. approved a 125% increase in the General Capital of The AfDB president’s first term focused on the bold the Bank, raising its capital from $93 billion to $208 new agenda for the Bank Group based on five debillion, the largest in the history of the Bank. velopment priorities known as the High 5s: Light up The African Development Fund received a $7.6 biland Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; lion pledge from donors, a 32% increase, for support Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for to low income countries and fragile states. The Bank

was ranked the 4th most transparent institution globally by Publish-WhatYou-Fund, bolstering its strong governance credentials for transparency and accountability.

Under Adesina’s leadership, the African Development Bank’s Board of Directors approved a $10 billion facility to support African countries to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bank also launched a $3 billion COVID-19 social bond on the global capital markets, the highest US dollar-denominated social bond ever in world history, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Luxembourg Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Adesina’s re-election for a second tenure was almost derailed a few months ago, when US authorities insisted he must be investigated for corruption claims made by whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers had accused him of 20 breaches of the bank’s code of conduct, including “unethical conduct, private gain, an impediment to efficiency, preferential treatment, and involvement in political activities”. But Adesina denied any wrongdoing and was also cleared of all allegations on multiple occasions.

On May 5, AFDB’s ethics committee headed by Takuji Yano, said in its report that Adesina was not guilty on all counts.

Dissatisfied with the committee’s report, the US called for an independent investigation. But Nigerian authorities rose in his support. Through Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the government rallied crucial support for him.

In separate letters in May, Obasanjo and Ahmed had urged AfDB to ignore calls for an independent investigation of Adesina by the US. Obasanjo’s letter which held that the call by the US for an independent investigation of Adesina “is outside of the rules, laws, procedures and governance systems of the bank,” was addressed to 13 former African leaders including former presidents of South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzanian, Republic of Benin, Liberia and Tunisia.

Ahmed’s letter was directed to the chairman of the Board of Governors of African Development Bank, Kaba Niale, urging her to follow laid down processes to protect and preserve the bank. At press time and with Adesina’s second term formally kicking off September 1, 48 hours hence, the rest is history.

The emerging consensus is that Adesina’s triumph over scurrilous, undeserved efforts to undermine his second term could only have been possible through transparent, demonstrable integrity and merit. This makes a powerful statement and speaks to African leaders that a new continent is indeed possible, when they yield to principle-governed leadership.

NOTES FOR FILE

Edo and the Okunbo Factor

Captain Hosa Okunbo

From his quiet, private and peaceful, albeit enviable lifestyle, billionaire businessman, Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo has since been drawn out to a terrain he ordinarily would have strolled by unnoticed.

Much as he tried to resist the urge to be drawn into the usually messy political turf, those who underrated his strength refused to read the equation very accurately and today, they are struggling with the consequences of his breezy showing.

A quintessential son of the soil, Okunbo, as it appears, seeks nothing but the growth and development of the state and his people – the one state he is doing everything in his personal capacity to help push up the ladder of positive peer review in the collective interest of the people of the state.

Sadly, as it seems, underrating the strength of this self-effacing but generous and compassionate retired commercial pilot, has become the issue in the state’s political firmament as Edo marches towards September 19, when the election to choose another governor for the state is scheduled to hold.

Well, for a man of means and capacity with a resolve to cause an interesting change, it goes without saying that the inter-play of interests in the September 19 election is one that would clearly distinguish the men from the boys, and also recalibrate the political leadership of the state. Here, however, Okunbo stands uniquely tall. And with a Forbes award as one of Africa’s best due for September 11, he is definitely a force to reckon with!

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

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CICERO/ONTHEWATCH

President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledging Governor Mala Buni as the APC caretaker chairman

2023: Retooling the Battle for APC’s Soul The various contending forces in the All Progressives Congress are beginning to retool ahead of a renewed battle for the soul of the party, writes Chuks Okocha

W

ith the reconciliation between the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and his colleague in the Petroleum Minister, Timipre Slyva, the supremacy battle of who becomes the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-south region is now a three-man affair.

This is because the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, is also interested in who controls the regional structures of the party.

Interestingly, one thing is common to the three of them: they are all former governors and currently in control of first class federal ministries, with huge financial pedigrees or war chest as some are wont to call it.

But, the battle may be put in abeyance if on September 19 the sacked national chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, is able to install Pastor Osagie Ize-iyamu as the next governor of Edo state.

That also explains why Oshiomhole sees the governorship election in the state as a do-or-die affair.

It is a do-or-die affair, because if Godwin Obaseki is re-elected for another four years, it could spell doom for the political career of the Iyahmo-born labour-leader-turned politician.

Though the Director General of the APC Progressives Governors’ Forum, Dr. Salihu Lukman, had leaked plots to reinstate Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the APC whenever there is a national convention, there’s been a consistent denial by Oshiomhole. Yet, there are elements of truth in the allegation as plots are still in the incubator.

The grand plan by his supporters is that, if eventually, the September 19 is in favour of the APC, then, there would be a fresh reinvigoration to see Oshiomhole back as the national chairman.

But, if not, Oshiomhole may be finished politically.

He would forever be blamed for the basic reason the APC lost the governorship election. This, therefore, explains why he is taking it as a do-or-die affair. Many people usually ask whether he was the person contesting or Ize-Iyamu as the pastor has indeed been sidelined.

However, if the APC is victorious at the end of the day, his supporters will launch a fresh campaign that he was unfairly treated and that he should be returned as the national chairman. When this becomes the case, then the struggle for the soul of the APC in the South would be tough particularly, in the South-south it would become foursome: Oshiomhole, Amaechi Akpabio and Slyva.

Also, as part of plots to ensure that Oshiomhole returns, some chieftains of the APC are already waiting to commence court processes to challenge his removal from office as the national chairman, citing that due processes were not followed. All these calculations are part of the 2023 permutations within the APC and this explains why the national conventional might not take place as earlier proposed.

If this succeeds, then, it would give more advantages to the presidential ambition to the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu. Oshiomhole and Tinubu are seemingly inseparable political allies for 2023.

When this scenario plays out, the likes of Amaechi, Akpabio and Sylva will eventually take the back seat. As, there won’t be two captains in a ship. Oshiomhole as the national chairman would definitely call the shots in the South-south zone for the 2023 political calculations.

What this means is the perceived presidential ambitions of Amaechi and the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi would be in limbo.

But, if the PDP eventually wins and Obaseki returns to the Osadebe House, the battle for the control of the zone would bring out the political sagacity of Amaechi, Slyva and Akpabio. It might be in the interest of Amaechi and Fayemi that Obaseki wins the Edo governorship election, as it would tame the ‘monster’ in Oshiomhole.

In 2014, it was the attempt by Amaechi, who was the APC overlord supervising Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Edo to take over the Bayelsa State APC that led to the faceoff between him and the oil minister.

Thus, in Amaechi’s camp, the last may not have been heard of Victor Giadam as according to those who should know, he still has an ace up his sleeve. Besides, all the camps have directed their allies to head to court as a last minute’s efforts to ensure that they were not schemed out in the power equation for 2023.

But despite the appeal by the party and the National Executive Committee (NEC) to all aggrieved members to withdraw their cases from the courts, some members of the party in some states have filed suits against the party at different courts, seeking the sack of the caretaker committee.

There are pending appeals at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal fixed for hearing in the appeal brought by members of the party in Rivers State loyal to Amaechi.

There is this APC member, Chief Lateef Arigbaruwo, in the suit number FHC/L/CS/789/2020, faulting the NEC meeting of the party held on June 25 that eventually led to the sack of Victor Giadom and Oshiomhole.

The suit has the APC, Mr. Victor Giadom, NEC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as first to fourth respondents respectively.

Arigbaruwo, who claims to be a chieftain of the APC in Ojo Local Government Area in Lagos State, is asking the court to declare whether having regards to Article 25, paragraph B (i) and (ii) of the Constitution of the party, the 24 hours’ notice given by the 2nd defendant for the NEC meeting held on June 25 was valid and legal.

The suit filed on July 1 on behalf of the plaintiff by Mr. Dimien Edonkumoh, is seeking “an order of the court setting aside all the decisions taken at the NEC meeting, which he declared illegal on the grounds that it was conveyed in the June 24 and held on June

25, contrary to Article 25 of the APC Constitution.”

The plaintiff asked the court to restrain the caretaker committee members from parading themselves as such. He wants the court to grant an order allowing the APC National Vice Chairman (South-south), Mr. Hilliard Eta, to pilot the affairs of the APC as acting national chairman and preside at all meetings of the National Working Committee and NEC. This is interesting because the sacked Chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Mr. Isaac Ogbobula, who is a loyalist of Amaechi, had approached the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the Rivers State High Court that sacked his committee and affirmed Aguma as the acting chairman of the APC in the state.

Aguma, APC and former National Chairman of the APC, Oshiomhole, are the first, second and third respondents.

Justice George Omereji of a Rivers State High Court had on June 9 declared Aguma the acting chairman of the party in the state. The court also compelled the party to allow all its members loyal to Senator Magnus Abe to participate in the new congresses.

The court voided the caretaker committee appointed by the nowdissolved NWC of the party in 2018.

This could explain why the chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee, Governor Mala Buni had to warn members still in court to withdraw their cases or be expelled within two weeks.

The caretaker committee has already written two different letters asking state chapters to ensure compliance in the withdrawal of all pending cases in the court.

In the latest letter, Secretary to the Caretaker Committee, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, wrote a letter dated August 14 titled, ‘Request for documentary evidence of compliance/noncompliance’, which he personally signed.

Part of the letter stated thus: “In Further to our letter dated July 1, 2020, wherein we directed that you coordinate with your state legal advisers and secretaries to encourage all members, who have instituted any matter in court against the party to withdraw the same and steps to be taken towards reconciliation.

“It is however with dismay that several state chapters have not yet sent their reports in line with our earlier request. In view of the above, you are hereby directed to forward to the National Secretariat, within 14 days of the receipt of this letter, the following: list of all litigation between party members in your state chapter.

“Also, to be submitted to the party secretariat are the documentary evidence of compliance with the National Executive Committee directive on withdrawal of all pending litigation and names of litigants, who have refused to withdraw from the court any matter, which may have been filed against the party in your state.”

Clearly, the last has not been heard of the struggle for the soul of the APC, as all the factions and camps have alternatives, only waiting for the appropriate time to spring surprises. But as it is, only time will tell, who holds the ace in the struggle for the soul of APC preparatory to 2023.

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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 ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

CICERO/REPORT

How Long Can Amaechi, Sylva Tag Along?

The truce, brokered last week, between the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and his counterpart in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva remains an effort, whose fate is still in the belly of time. Onungwe Obe writes

Amaechi, Buni and Sylva after the reconciliation meeting

P

olitics is an interesting vocation. It is only in politics that there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies – where promises are held out to be broken.

A few days ago, Governor Mala Buni, the Chairman of the National Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) brokered a truce between the Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Hon. Timipre Sylva, two leaders of the party, who had been in a no-love-lost situation over the leadership of the party in the South-south geopolitical zone.

The interest of the national chairman of the party is apparent. The party cannot afford to lose election again in the zone, because of infractions among its leaders. So, contending party leaders and their supporters must close ranks and sink their differences in the overall interest of the party. Or don’t they have a local saying in the Niger Delta that you first drive away the vulture from the load before you find out who owns the load?

While many party faithful commend the supposed restoration of peace between Amaechi and Sylva, there are still many, who only hope that the truce will endure.

This is because despite the clout that APC leaders parade in the South-south zone, the party had failed to make electoral successes, because at critical times, the leaders had allowed their differences spill over to jeopardise the electoral fortunes of the party.

There are reasons to think the Buni peace accord between Amaechi and Sylva is suspicious. The contentious issues and the details of the resolution were not made open. The response from Amaechi and Sylva were not also detailed enough. And their bland facial comportment did not betray their feelings about the truce.

However, their words could be taken for granted. “We have agreed to work together,” Amaechi told journalists after the meeting. But not a few believed that the peace process was initiated by Amaechi, who has a presidential ambition, and would need Sylva, who now presides over the nation’s cash cow: the oil ministry.

APC is fielding candidates in the Edo and Ondo States governorship elections taking place in September and October respectively. It will field candidates in three senatorial by-elections in Bayelsa and Cross River State on October 31st.

In the four states, the party has been rocked by serious conflicts that could affect its chances. But then politics is

also said to be the art of the possible. Anything can happen before the elections. The major question, however, is how come the APC has not been able to resolve its leadership crises in the South-south zone?

It is not clear when the bad blood came between Amaechi and Sylva. But those close to them have noticed it for a very long. The culmination of it was a few months back when Sylva, who is the leader of the party in Bayelsa State was said to have crossed into Rivers, where Amaechi is the leader to get a known opponent of Amaechi, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, appointed into the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which Sylva oversees.

That is considered poaching, an unwritten offence, in politics because any appointment coming from the area where there is a recognised party leader ought to be routed through that leader or at least have his consent.

Before 2018, Amaechi was clearly the undisputable leader of the APC in the South-south zone. Combined with his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari, Amaechi dictated virtually every term and determined every appointment from the federal government that came to the zone.

He almost got whatever he wanted from the President.

All the catchment Niger Delta portfolios like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), NIMASA, NPA and even South-South slots in NNPC were under his firm control. It was his nominees that got appointed to those agencies.

Some close observers say the beef between Sylva and Amaechi started in 2015/6 when Amaechi failed to deploy his control of the federal might in support of Sylva’s governorship election.

They believe that had Amaechi mobilised for Sylva in that election, he would have won. It was a similar story with Senator Godswill Akpabio, who lost his senatorial election in Akwa Ibom, when many thought the federal government would have used the ‘federal might’ to back him up.

After Adams Oshiomhole emerged the National Chairman of the APC in 2018, the process to cut Amaechi to size began. The party was broken in Rivers State, where Senator Magnus Abe was propped up to challenge the dominance of Amaechi.

The emergence of Ovie Omo-Agege as the Deputy Senate President provided another flank of the gang-up. As the highest ranking elected officer of state from the zone it seemed natural that the zonal leadership of the party

should fall to Omo-Agege. But Amaechi was not prepared to lose his position, given what awaited him in Port Harcourt if he lost it.

But he continued to lose his wings. When Akpabio became Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, the anti-Amaechigroup lobbied and took NDDC out of his control and handed it over to Akpabio. So, Amaechi lost his privilege to nominate appointees to the Board of NDDC. Amaechi further lost space, when they refused to renew his men’s appointments into NIMASA and NPA. With Sylva in charge of the nation’s cash cow, the NNPC, it became clear Amaechi was up against powerful forces.

Somehow, providence crept in to Amaechi’s favour. He has managed to get part of NIMASA back with one of his loyalists, Hon. Asata Asata getting appointed Chairman of the agency. The controversy with NDDC weakened the strength of Akpabio, especially, with the talk of returning NDDC to the Presidency. Oshiomhole’s loss of his national chairmanship of the APC put him out of contention for the zonal leadership of the party, except anything changes in the foreseeable future. And Omo-Agege has not really demanded to be given his due as the leader of the party in the zone.

It could be understandable if it is Amaechi that now needs Sylva, as much as others. With his presidential aspiration gathering steam, Amaechi needs as many friends as he can muster. He also needs peace in his zone and home state. If he gets Sylva on his side, it is likely that Abe could follow. A man cannot be running after a rat, when his house is on fire.

Sylva did not speak when journalists interviewed him and Amaechi when they met in Buni’s office in Abuja.

Could they have reached a rapprochement? Or he is still taking his time.

Sylva and Amaechi have come a long way together. Age mates, they both attended the University of Port Harcourt, with Sylva studying linguistics and Amaechi graduating in English studies. At the time, Sylva was a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly in 1992 and Amaechi, a Special Assistant to the Governor of Rivers State.

When the Fourth Republic came, Amaechi was in the House of Assembly while Sylva was Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Petroleum. Both of them became governors of their respective states in 2007. And today they are both ministers, holding very vital portfolios in the Buhari government. Will their past cement their relationship? Or would the Monday truce just be some public relations photo ops? The jury is still out.

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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 ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

CICERO/REPORT

Rumble in Sokoto as Parties Race Ahead of 2023 Sokoto State is fast warming up for 2023 local politics, writes Onuminya Innocent

A

ll is not rosy with the leading political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto State over who controls the party’s structure ahead of 2023.

In APC, the three leaders that are strategising ahead of 2023 include Senator Aliyu Wamakko, Yusuf Suleiman and

Farouk Yabo.

Senator Aliyu Wamakko, no doubt, is the leader of the party in the State, he commands respect in the political space in the state due to his generosity.

His house at Gawon Nama is like Mecca, whenever he is in town. When in the build-up to 2019 governorship election, the former governor’s political godson, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, defected to People Democratic Party, pundits thought it was over for APC in Sokoto State.

With intervention and help of Wamakko, APC gave Tambuwal a good fight, but the governor managed to win the election with a slim margin of 342 votes.

APC also won the three senators in the state before court nullified the election of senator Abubakar Shehu Tambuwal thereby returning Senator Ibrahim Danbaba of PDP as the winner of the election.

Not enough, APC won 7 House of Representatives out of 11, and 16 House of Assembly out of 30.

The crack in APC in the State is due to speculations that Wamakko may likely support Ahmad Aliyu to clinch the party’s governorship ticket again in 2023, which did not go down well with other party members, who are eyeing the seat.

Despite that Ahmad Aliyu was not a popular candidate, with the support of Wamakko, he defeated Faruk Yabo in the 2019 APC primary. His recent appointment as the Executive Secretary of the newly created Police Trust Fund has been viewed variously in the state as part of the 2023 game plan.

Yusuf Suleiman, the former minister of Youth, sport and development under Goodluck Jonathan, defected to APC on the eve of the 2019 general election and was the campaign director general of the party’s governorship election in the state.

His grudges with Wamakko are that he was abandoned after the election. He was expecting to be nominated for ministerial appointment.

Farouk Yabo, a former commissioner for finance during Wamakko’s governorship, is a politician to reckon with.

Wamakko

Tambuwal

Yabo has built political structures across the three senatorial districts in the state and narrowly lost the party ticket to Ahmad Aliyu, because of the Wamakko factor.

Yabo has been rebuilding his structures against 2023 in case Wamakko insists on Aliyu.

A chieftain of APC in the state, who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity, said if APC is to reclaim the state, it should field a popular candidate unlike what happened in 2023.

“We lost 2019 governorship election, because our candidate was not popular,” he said The PDP, on its part, has it own cracks, which some political analysts have also attributed to the 2023 election.

A chieftain of the party, who didn’t want his name print, attributed the problems in the party to the way Governor Aminu Tambuwal has been handling the party affairs. He authoritatively confirmed to THISDAY that all was not well with the ruling party in state.

One of the problems, he said, was that the governor as the leader of the party in the state was not consulting

stakeholders in some decisions made or being made. He further disclosed that the names of the party executives submitted for congress was compiled in error, stressing that some people who featured as caretaker committee members already have political appointments.

“For instance, Kabiru Aliyu, whose name appeared in the caretaker committee had already been appointed as a special adviser, not only him,” he stated.

He, therefore, advised the governor to mend fences with party stakeholders instead of going about consulting for his presidential ambition.

THISDAY also learnt that a meeting held recently in Abuja by concerned citizens of Sokoto State, and the outcome of the meeting was that the group would come up with a governorship candidate devoid of godfathers.

They vowed that the candidate would emerge without the support of Wamakko, Bafarawa and Governor Tambuwal, saying what they want in the state is good governance.

The implication is that, with this, there might be a third force for the 2023 battle.

POLITY

‘It Isn’t Going to be All Partying under Otoge’ Rafiu Ajakaye

C

hange was never going to be rosy or flamboyantly flowery the way we knew it. Things weren’t going to remain the same. There isn’t going to be free money to throw around.

And there definitely wouldn’t be a chance for anyone to throw their weight around to oppress fellow human beings in the name of serving in government. Government house bazaar of old can no longer hold. But there was going to be some pushback. Humans are mostly averse to change. But that is what Otoge means: change. Or did people ever think those chants of Otoge were just sloganeering? Did a whole lot of people actually think that the defeat of the old order birthed a new one where the only difference are just the persona? No, this is certainly not a perception shared by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

The administration, given the prudent orientation of its head, has definitely stabilised, considering the economic and COVID-19 turbulence of the past few months. This is particularly true when one considers the low turnover of appointees so far.

Coming from diverse professional careers and various socioeconomic backgrounds, the appointees are weathering the storm.

Much as everyone desires a good life, the ethos of this Administration is service first. Given the Kwara journey, many expected the appointees to own new houses and fleet of expensive cars by now. But so frugal is the administration that the only set of vehicles the government has procured thus far are those used for service delivery to the people especially in the civil service. No appointee has received government funds to purchase personal cars. None has got public funds to procure houses. In the years past, appointees got as high as N16m each of public funds to buy themselves good cars. How do you demand for such a luxury under an administration headed by a man who drives a car he bought with his own money? While it is not a crime or abnormal for government to make its appointees comfortable, the thinking of the Governor is that the people have for too long been deprived of things as basic as water. He thinks they deserve a better deal this time in fulfillment of his promise to them, thus rewarding their choice of a new political direction.

But the truth is that this was not the norm in Kwara. Surrounded and constantly derided by some persons, probably

AbdulRazaq even some in the family, whose expectations and perception of public office were shaped by the old order where sudden wealth was the hallmark of public office and where public appointees paid the exorbitant tuition of their children in foreign schools or lavishly funded the wedding of their children and so on, it is natural for some persons to feel deflated following a man whose conception of Otoge is for things to be done differently.

Faced with the prospect of ‘our people’ saying they risk coming out of government poorer and without status cars in their garage, it will not be unusual to see some appointees taking a walk. The noise of ‘enugbe’ in the political and social circles of Kwara sums up this thinking. Enugbe does not mean that the government is not performing. Everyone agrees the Governor is doing excellently well, particularly at the level of infrastructural development and promptly providing basic amenities of life

to the underserved segment of the society. Even the opposition grudgingly agrees that he is making unprecedented socioeconomic impacts in the state -- regardless of their occasional tantrums. That is expected.

Whatever the shock, pain or grumbling that is happening to and in the new administration is perfectly normal. That is akin to the pangs of childbirth, the birth of a new Kwara. The new order may seem a tad stormy at the beginning as the people and various actors gradually adjust to the new normal. It happens everywhere a change has just occurred. Those insinuating a lack of direction miss the point. There is nothing in the economic outlook of the state that suggests a lack of direction. Kwara has just posted one of the lowest unemployment figures. It recently recorded Nigeria’s lowest inflation rate. That did not just happen.

It happened because the administration worked for it. The state has had one of the finest showings in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its social spendings in time of economic downturn were one of the best in Nigeria today, with locally sourced palliatives shared to the underprivileged, hundreds of thousands of face masks produced for the people and by local artisans. Add all of those to its prompt payment of salaries even when civil servants have been asked to work from home to limit human contacts and flatten the curve of the pandemic, provision of financial support to thousands of people hard hit by the lockdown, waivers on tax payment, and a strategic decision not to totally shut down industrial production. When the country initially went into full-scale lockdown, Kwara exempted the agriculture sub-sector and a few others. That kept the economy moving even if at reduced capacity.

At the end of the day the pace and punch of the Administration will regrettably come with casualties as this race to birth a new Kwara is for the strong and the inspired; not for the weak nor the meek. We cannot all resign to our fate or circumstances; we must take the fate of Kwara in our hands to bring positive change. The expectations of public servants and political appointees in the new Kwara can no longer be self-aggrandizement; they would have to align with the Otoge philosophy of a man who carries his own bag, often personally drives his own car, and lives under his own roof. The emerging system would not be near perfect but it would be closer to that ideal public service we all desire: one where public officials truly serve the people.

––Ajakaye is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.

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SUNDAY AUGUST 30, 2020 •T H I S D AY

Zainab Ahmed’s Economic The policy execution drive of Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has within this one year into the second tenure of Buhari -led administration, just as it has over the years, consistently helped to take the economy through the frightening months of COVID-19, and also looked to set it on a path to steady growth. But for the impact of the pandemic, perhaps this period ought to be a good time to review Ahmed’s economic policy execution drive.

The budget process, for example, was completed within a period of two months and successfully reversed the budgetary cycle to Jan. – Dec. 54.9 percent overall revenue outturn was achieved (66 percent for oil, 31 percent for non-oil) as at Q2’2020.

Also achieved was 90.4 percent recurrent expenditure, 86.9 percent debt service, 31 percent capital expenditure) as at Q2’2020. The increase in minimum wage was funded, and there was continued monthly reconciliation and revenue performance monitoring by Presidential Revenue Monitoring and Reconciliation Committee (PRMRC).

The successor mid-term and long-term plans (the MediumTerm National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021-2025 and the Long -Term Plan Agenda 2050) that succeeded vision 2020 and the ERGP had commenced respectively. The development of the macro economic framework for the proposed Medium-Term Plan

as well as the Perspective Plan had also commenced. The 2020-2023 MTEF which has been passed by the NASS was prepared. The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanisms was institutionalised by finalising matrix and targets to each ministerial key performance indicators (KPIs).

The key MDAs have established performance matrix to track and measure the presidential deliverables (2019 – 2023) to ensure improved service delivery. To enhance the quality of data, this administration has approved the establishment of a Geo-Reference Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3). This is aimed at providing high resolution data for sustainable planning.

“This administration has achieved the passage of the Finance Act 2019 at a record time before the 2020 budget, and a return of the Budget cycle to January - December.”

According to the Honourable Minister, “Through the Finance Act, we have achieved the following: Value added tax (VAT) rate increase from 5 percent to 7.5 percent, which was implemented in Feb. 2020; introduction of a N25million threshold for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for eligibility for VAT collection; reduced of tax rates for SMEs (0 percent and 20 percent respectively); administering of the Finance Act 2019; automation of import duty exemption certificate (IDEC) and vehicle registration (V-REG); and automation of the collection of stamp duty.

The government has provided N802.82 billion as new domestic borrowing to partfinance the deficit in the 2019 Appropriation Act. The funds were mainly deployed to capital projects like roads, bridges etc. As part of the economic development plan of the government, N100 billion sukuk bonds was raised in 2018 and provided N1,319,986 billion, out of the total borrowing of N1,564 billion in the 2020 Appropriation Act, to part-finance the budget deficit.

For COVID-19 Response and fiscal stimulus, the federal government provided debt relief to states to relieve them of debt service obligations for 2020, developed a N2.2 trillion economic stimulus plan to help cushion the effects of COVID-19, provided N500 billion for COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund; N263.63 billion of which will be drawn from federal government special accounts, N186.37 billion from Federation Special Accounts and the balance of N50 billion is expected as grants and donations, reviewed 2020 Budget based on the current realities (oil price shock p and COVID-19 pandemic) as well as funded the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 response, mobilised funding from domestic and external sources for the implementation of 2020 budget (Raised domestic revenue for the budget deficit butt

as a result of weakness of the foreign market, and converted foreign borrowing to local currency in other to cushion the effect of the oil price shock and COVID-19 pandemic).

On Sunday July 5, 2020, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) issued a press statement announcing an additional $150 million for its Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF), which it launched in 2017 with $200 million, under the management of the Bank of Industry. $50million of the new $150million is going into a new Fund being set up to support specifically for Women in Oil and Gas. The National Sovereign Investment Agency (NSIA) invested over US$22.5million in the development, construction and operationalisation of three tertiary healthcare facilities in Lagos, Kano and Abia States.

Combined, the three centres are to provide training for over 200 healthcare professionals and facilitate the delivery of high quality, affordable and accessible healthcare services to Nigerians.

The centres are meant to save an estimated US$1billion in foreign exchange that Nigerian’s expend on medical tourism annually. y

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SUNDAY AUGUST 30, 2020 • T H I S D AY

Policy Actions In The First Year The government provided palliatives to taxpayers in addition to other palliatives contained in the Finance Act, 2019, which will help stimulate the economy post-COVID. Some of these include: Late returns penalty (LRP) was waived for taxpayers who pay early and file later; allowing supporting documents to be emailed to the dedicated email addresses or submitted later to the tax offices by those who are not able to use the email facility; remittance of VAT on or before 21st of every month was extended to the last day of the month; and taxpayers facing challenges in sourcing for forex to offset their tax liabilities were given the option of paying in Naira at the prevailing investors and exporters (I and E) forex window rate on the day of payment.

Oil revenues have been highly affected by the twin shock events, i.e. crash in oil prices and dampened economic activities and consumption from the COVID-19 pandemic which have adversely affected non-oil taxes. As at March 2020, oil revenue performance was at 70 percent while nonoil performance stood at 60 percent. The erratic oil market makes prediction difficult, heightening the vulnerabilities around oil revenues.

The government relaunched the strategic revenue growth initiative (SRGI) with MDAs (portfolio owners) charged with responsibility of establishing Project Implementation Units (PIUs), and completed the opportunity sizing of incremental revenue with clear identification of

status incentives under the industrial development income tax relief Act (‘IDITRA’), as well as auto policy incentives and import duty exemptions.

It restructured Social Investment Programme (SIP) by: Suspending further intakes into the N-Power scheme of the SIP

potential revenue expected for a period; transitioning youths currently under of each source.

N-Power into CBN’sAnchor programme; However, a deep dive into Borrowers’ oil revenue streams show and conducting a review some good results from of the SIP to implement to increase reforms (VAT and Stamp measures duty), which include: efficiency.

Achieving 54.9 percent government has overall revenue outturn The with the (66 percent oil, 31 percent worked non-oil Q2,2020); the stamp international community donors, nations, duty which increased of by 40 percent from multilateral organisations, N3,386,648,663.85 in Q1, etc. to raise concessionary 2019 to N4,750,893,578.48 resources for the nation, COVID-19 in Q1, 2020; and VAT also including increased by 27 percent at response. In the light of the customs level and 13 this, it signed a total of percent at the non-import $2,534,880,717.6 as follows: African Development Bank level.

(AfDB) - $278,093,093; The federal government IFAD - $89,100,000; World reviewed tax expenditures Bank IDA - $1,573,248,600; and exemptions by reducing AFD - $201,911,909,23; sectors eligible for pioneer and China-Exim Bank -

$392,526,218.37.

In the petroleum sector, the government implemented the price modulation mechanism, which removes one of Nigeria’s majorfiscal strain;embark on reduction of approved N457.50 billion petroleum motor spirit (PMS) underrecovery to Zero, following the transition to the PMS price modulation process to be driven by underlying international oil and gas prices in the global markets; and provided the sovereign guarantee for Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, which will drive industrialisation across the country. Between December, 2018 and May, 2020, a total of N1,138.785 billion had been paid to oil marketing companies, exporters and contractors, through the issuance of promissory notes to stabilise the sector and settle the inherited obligations of previous administrations.

The government in the power sector completed negotiations with the World Bank on power sector reform program for result financing (awaiting board approval), with the program meant to stabilise the power sector and eliminate fiscal risks from the tariff shortfall. It successfully established a 99 percent owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National

SUNDAY AUGUST 30, 2020 • T H I S D AY

Planning for the Solar Homes Systems (SHS), including a consumer financing plan that will boost access to energy and will in turn stimulate economic growth.

It commenced least cost dispatch of power, which will optimise tariffs amidst improved supply to consumers.

Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) program has focused on the delivery of commercially significant quantities of affordable and high-quality fertilizer to Nigerian farmers. Since its commencement in December 2016, about 22 million bags of fertilizer have been delivered at a unit price of N5,500 per bag, compared to pre-PFI market price of about N12,000 per bag.

The blending industry has been revived, with a total of 31 blending plants now participating in the PFI, creating a significant number of direct and indirect jobs across the value chain.

The government created the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) which is being managed by NSIA for the development of four roads and one critical power infrastructure projects namely: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge Project, Abuja-Kano Road, Mambila HydroPower Project, and East West Road. The projects, worth over N2.5 trillion, will stimulate economic activities across the country especially in the areas the infrastructures are situated.

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and reporting of financial transactions in the MDAs, it also introduced e-auction to boost the integrity of Customs auction processes.

The government deployed asset tracking and management to ensure that all federal government assets are easy to identify, locate, access and evaluate all its moveable and immoveable assets on real-time basis, and automated the IDEC and V-REG processes which will reduce process turnaround time from 60 days to 11 days.

fund of US$311 million from the United States (US) will be invested directly in three PIDF projects to accelerate completion.

involved (CBN, NBS, BNP (MFBNP)) to address the impediments to the assumptions and models.

On infrastructure financing, the government provided N802.82 billion as new domestic borrowing to part-finance the deficit in the 2019 Appropriation Act, which were mainly deployed to capital projects, ranging from roads, bridges, etc. It deployed the bulk of the proceeds of the N100 billion Sukuk raised in 2018 towards the rehabilitation and repairs of 28 road projects across the six geopolitical zones of the country. Considering road infrastructure development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS), the federal government developed the RITCS which was signed via an Executive Order no7 by Mr. President to utilise tax expenditures, refundable by way of tax credits, to finance the construction of critical roads infrastructure through a public private partnership (PPP) mechanism. Under this scheme, the pilot is being led by the following: Dangote Industries Ltd; Lafarge Africa Plc; and Unilever Nigeria Plc. The investors are meant to invest in 19 eligible road projects, totalling 794.4km which have been prioritised in 11 States across each of the six geopolitical zones.

The government has ensured the expansion of integrated personnel payment information system (IPPIS) to cover the para-military, armed forces as well as federal universities and other academic institutions.

It has deployed Bank Verification Number (BVN) system to serve as the verification mechanism for all payment of salaries through the system. This has considerably led to Government launched detection of fraudulent the Open Treasury Portal names in the payroll.

(OTP) in January 2020, and the OTP has enhanced As at May 2018, the transparency through Treasury Single Account the daily publication of (TSA) system had been receipts and payments implemented in about 92 of amounts in excess of percent of MDAs, which N5 million transactions has improved in the MDAs. The daily payment reports indicate transparency and the beneficiary, purpose accountability in the of payment and the management of all federal amount above the N5 government receipts by million threshold. providing a consolidated view of Government’s In an effort to execute cash flow. The MDAs all this, there are lessons bank accounts that had learnt such as the need for been scattered in over fiscal buffers (provision 20,000 bank accounts for rainy days) for future shocks, high risks of is now consolidated in oil revenue dependent the TSA at CBN which budgets, exposure of has ensured an average the magnitude of abuses savings of N4billion on and smuggling activities monthly basis of bank from the unplanned charges. increase in Customs revenues, urgent need for ***On the public infrastructure upgrade finance management for revenue generating (PFM) automation, the agencies, loss of revenue government deployed and worsen internal security situation, and GIFMIS to produce poor regulatory skills online and real-time headquarters reports on budget among preparation, budget staff. execution, accounting

Regarding Nigeria Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), the government has revised the 2015 NIMP and is coordinating the stakeholders The recently repatriated different

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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 ˾ ͱͮ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

NEWS

Acting News Editor ÌÙãÏÑË ÕÓØÝËØ×Ó E-mail: ÑÌÙãÏÑ˲ËÕÓØÝËØ×Ó̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט͸΀͹ͽͺͻͽ΁ͺͽͻ ̙Ý×Ý ÙØÖã̚

Financial Impropriety, Sexual Immorality Now

Rife in Churches, CAN President Laments

Says Lord’s name being maligned for Christian misbehaviour Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),

Rev. Samson Ayokunle yesterday lamented that financial impropriety and sexual immorality were rife in the church of Christ

nationwide.

Ayokunle, also the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, chastised Christian leaders

for not leaving up to expectation, lamenting that the name of the Lord “is being maligned because of their indiscipline and

SECURING SEAS FROM AIR . . .

Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (third left), inspecting facilities during operational visit to the 107 Air Maritime Group of Nigerian Air Force in Benin... yesterday

misbehaviour.

Ayokunle attacked them at a virtual Baptist Convention where he also expressed concern that the moral decadence in churches had got to a stage where Christians could no longer be entrusted with noble assignments.

He lamented that the church “is now in a state where lack of discipline has led to many instances of sexual immorality, gluttony, financial impropriety, laziness, court cases.

“The name of the Lord is being maligned in our society today because of the way Christians are behaving.

Obscene dressing and all forms of impurity are happening in our midst. Some Christians cannot be trusted for any noble assignment.”

He also said some church leaders had become too attracted to money and worldly things that there appeared to be no difference between them and the unbelievers.

He observed that money in particular “has become the god of some (if not many) Christians, including church leaders! What a shame to the church!

“The Lord of the church is

sad concerning the state of the church. We are robbed of our powers and molested by the children of Satan because of our careless living.”

Speaking on the theme of the 2020 Baptist Convention, “Moving Forward: Becoming a More Disciplined Church,” Ayokunle said churches must continue to emphasise discipline in the house of God. He said that the theme was crucial to the state of the present-day church.

He said: “It is through discipline that we would remain holy and enter the kingdom of God! Hence this year’s convention is a call to self-examination as individuals, family, church, convention.

“It is a clarion call to be more disciplined in areas where we have shown discipline and exercise discipline in areas where we lack such.

“It is my prayer that none of us would leave this place without experiencing the touch of God and the determination to go out there and make a positive difference for Christ in this corrupt world, in the name of Jesus Christ,” he added.

CSOs Ask Presidency, N’Assembly to Resolve Contentious Issues in CAMA Gboyega Akinsanmi Civil society organisations (CSOs) have asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Assembly and the Presidency to resolve all contentious issues contained in the amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020.

The CSOs, also, urged the CAC to rigorously implement the relevant provisions of the

CAMA 2020 relating to the establishment of the beneficial ownership register, including adopting appropriate regulations to give full effect to them.

They made these recommendations at a public consultation on the establishment of Beneficial Ownership Register enshrined in the CAMA 2020 in Ikeja on Thursday.

Among others, the CSOs comprise Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC),

Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Open Government Partnership Secretariat and African Centre for Leadership and Strategic Development.

During the public consultation, Executive Director of CISLAC, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani observed that responsible institutions such as the CAC, National Assembly and Presidency should resolve all contentious issues in the amended law.

Rafsanjani said: “We were

Nigerians in Diaspora Ask Buhari to Disband Cabinet Tobi Soniyi Nigerians in diaspora have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to disband his cabinet, saying that those working with the president now would not allow him to deliver on his campaign promises.

The Coordinator, Nigerian Diaspora Network, Mr Samuel Atolaiye made the call in a telephone interview with our correspondent.

Atolaiye is a United States of America based engineer mobilising Nigerians abroad for the task of helping to build their fatherland.

He noted that while the president’s integrity and incorruptibility was not in doubt, the same could not be said of the people working for him.

He said: “Watching President Buhari publicly admitting that the people he trusted have betrayed him is most troubling to say the least.

“There is no doubt that the president has good intentions for Nigeria as a country, but his lieutenants appear to be busy helping themselves instead of the people.

“The President cannot succeed with such people around the president unless something urgent and strategic that kick-starts an effective process is done.”

Atolaiye said that the atrocities being committed by those Buhari appointed into office to help him were proof that they did not share the same appropriation with the president.

He said: “How do we explain the award of Contract at NDDC? Where we learnt on the television that one will not need more than N30 million to do a contract awarded for N700 million?

“Or NNPC where a particular refinery is not generating profit for over two years and the management

is getting bonuses and contracts are being awarded without merits?

Or where we borrow money from the Chinese government and bring in Chinese labourers who pose as professionals at the expense of Nigerian graduates without employment?”

He said that if the atmosphere was conducive, Nigerians in the Diaspora were ready to bring in their expertise to help the nation develop.

He said: “Nigerians in the Diaspora are doing very well in the strata of the society where they are located. They excel in complex situations and get things done.

“These are the people we are discussing with who have the interest of the Nigerian people and are willing to bring in creative ideas that will have a significant impact in resolving developmental issues.

already facing sanctions from the European Union for the inexistence of anti-money laundering legislation.

“While we see and hear of prosecutions of individuals and entities involved in the #panamapapers leaks and the #wikileaks among others, there seems to be no legal framework that enables the convictions of all that was involved from Nigeria.

“Aside from the fear of the international community, conceal-

ing the beneficial owners costs the lives of our fellow countrymen. For instance, terrorists use international financial systems to sustain their operations.

“Without transparent ownership of Nigerian and international companies operating within Nigeria, we will not be able to stop the bleeding through illicit financial outflows which is perpetually on a geometric progressive increase year on

year, which costs us annually $17 billion with emphasis on the backbone of our economy, the oil and gas industry.

“As long as wrong incentives and dysfunctional supervision dominate our national financial systems, consequences in the form of terrorism financing, trans-national organized crime, tax evasion and illegal enrichment of politically exposed persons will prevail,” Rafsanjani observed.

Senate Denies Considering Passage of Social Media Bill

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Senate yesterday in Abuja described as false the report making the rounds that it was considering passing the contentious Social Media Bill.

Rather, the upper chamber said the passage of the bill was not on its card as the relevant committee had yet to complete necessary legislative work on it.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru made this clarification in a statement yesterday.

“The report that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is to pass the Social Media Bill despite rejection by Nigerians is false and a lie concocted to ridicule and tarnish the image of the Senate.

“This report is yet another example of irresponsibility taken too far as there has not been any recommendation for passage of the bill by the Senate.

“By deliberately publishing falsehood, SaharaReporter is not only doing no good to the nation but it is also shooting itself down as its recklessness and incredulity would always speak against it.

“The Senate wishes that Nigerians will be circumspect, shunning gullibility which makes them to lap up those invidious write ups and begin to comment on non-existent issues.

“If some people have chosen the path of perfidy wanting to bring the nation and its sacred institutions down, Nigerians must be wary and unwilling to be led by those believing the

false fabrication”, Basiru said.

According to him, the Senate conducts its sittings in the open and matters for consideration are well laid out and therefore, would not require anyone’s investigation to ‘dig’ out what the Senate would do.”

He also, said the relevant committee of the Senate “has not submitted its report for the bill to be passed at all or surreptitiously as claimed by SaharaReporters.

He said: “We will not allow unscrupulous writers to denigrate the Senate and ridicule the great work that is on-going. SaharaReporters must be afraid to see the platform where they peddle their trade of falsehood tampered with, even at that, there should be no need to lie so brazenly.”

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˜ ˞ AUGUST 30, 2020

NEWSXTRA Red Cross: 23,000 Missing in Nigeria in Eight Years Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri Not less than 23,000 persons, mostly children were reported missing in eight years in Nigeria, a new report by the International

Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has stated.

According to the report, which was released last week to mark the annual International Day for the Disappeared today (August 30),

With 250 New Infections, COVID-19 Cases Now 53,727 Nigeria yesterday recorded 250 new COVID-19 cases and zero death, according to the data released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

This takes the total confirmed cases in the country to 53,727.

A breakdown of the fresh infections revealed the following; Plateau-69, FCT-41, Lagos-21, Delta-14, Kaduna-14, Bayelsa-13, Enugu-13, Ekiti-11,

Bauchi-9, Ogun-8, Edo-7, Oyo-7, Rivers-6, Adamawa-4, Osun-4, Nasarawa-3, Ebonyi-2, Kwara-2, Gombe-1 and Imo-1.

Also yesterday, 297 patients recovered and have been discharged from various isolation centres in the country on Saturday.

Total recoveries stood at 41,314 with 1,011 fatalities.

coronavirus pandemic hindered the search and reunification of missing persons as large gatherings of persons were discouraged.

The report also stated that about 44,000 people were registered as missing across Africa due to conflicts, climate change, and immigration of whom 45 per cent of those are children.

The report shows that Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cameroon, Libya, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo accounted for 82 per cent of the disappeared persons registered by the Red Cross in the continent.

As a result of the conflicts in

the north east part of the country, Nigeria has the highest number of the missing people registered, at about 23,000.

The report said about 20,000 missing persons were reported in that part alone.

Many have lost their lives as a result of the bloody asymmetric war in the north east. Thousands have also been displaced.

Attacks on civilians in the region have continued despite claims by the government that the group has been defeated.

In June, Boko Haram in one of its deadliest attacks, killed 81 people in Gubio, a Borno community. The

UN humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, had while commenting on the killings of the civilians, bemoaned the failing state of insecurity in the Northeast.

ICRC’s spokesperson in Nigeria, Aliyu Dawobe, had on Thursday told BBC Hausa Service that the Red Cross received complaints of the missing persons in Nigeria due to conflict in the Northeast from 2012 to 2020.

According to him, among the missing persons, children constitute 60 percent of reported disappearance in Nigeria. “Those missing persons are not

under the Red Cross safe custody.

They were, however, under the Red Cross search following complaints by relatives of the missing persons because the Red Cross does search for the missing persons. “The searches are mostly conducted at Internally Displaced Person Camps (IDPs), likewise, children do ask us about their missing parents which we normally ask about their names, towns, and addresses then we conduct the search.�

He said the Red Cross in Nigeria in 2019 was able to reunite over 53 children with their parents and other missing relatives.

Glo Celebrates Yemi Alade, Other Music Stars African Voices, the Globacomsponsored magazine programme of the Cable News Network (CNN), this week celebrates the achievements of Nigeria’s energetic female music star, Yemi Alade, and two other highly talented youths who are spreading joy across the continent.

This was revealed in a statement Glo Corporate Communications Office issued yesterday, justifying the decision of the telecom giant to celebrate the music stars.

The statement said the two talents, who will join Yemi on the programme, “are Amanda Black, a South African pop star, and Ben Pol, a notable

recording artist from Tanzania. “Yemi, 31, began her music career after she won the Peak Talent Show in 2009. She followed the laurel with the release of a hit single titled “Johnny� in 2014. “She won the All Africa Music Awards (Afrima) for Best Female Artiste in Western Africa in 2015 and 2018; the MTV Awards in 2015; and the 2016 Nigeria Entertainment Award as Female Artiste of the Year in 2015. She has also won the Headies Awards for four consecutive years.�

The statement, also, said Amanda Benedicta Antony, 27, is popularly known by her stage name Amanda Black.

AFRH Hosts Virtual Conference on Assisted Reproductive Technologies The Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH) will on September 24th and 25th September, 2020 hold a virtual conference on universal access to fertility care in Sub-saharan Africa.

AFRH is a non-governmental association that is geared towards the enhancement of quality education and service in reproductive health.

A statement jointly signed by the Chairman, Local Organising Committee, Dr. Eloka Menakaya and AFRH President, Ibrahim

Wada stated that over the last decade, the association had organized series of webinars, conferences, etc. where different research findings, and updated information had been shared on the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART).

The association said that it continuously sought to create awareness, enhance education, facilitate research studies and disseminate learnings among all ART stakeholders in Nigeria and other parts of the world.

NOW IN SADDLE . . .

L-R: Mr. Folorunso Ogunekun; Chairman, Photojournalists Association of Nigeria (PJAN), Mr. Abiodun Ajala; PJAN’s Secretary, Mr. Tayo Odusanya and Mr. Oluwaseun Bola-Hassan Esq during the inauguration of PJAN’s new executives at the LTV 8 Agidingbi Ikeja... yesterday

Oni, Fayose End Decade of Hostility ‡Crisis in Ekiti PDP degenerates, two chairs emerged Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti Two former governors of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose and Chief Segun Oni have agreed to work together thereby putting an end to 13 years of political hostility between them.

They took the decision to work together at the Ekiti State’s congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Despite the reunion of Fayose and Oni at the state congress yesterday, the crisis in Ekiti PDP degenerated with two factions of the party claiming to have

produced members of the State Working Committee (SWC).

While former Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Bisi Kolawole emerged from Fayose’s faction, a former federal lawmaker, Kehinde Odebunmi was elected from another faction loyal to Senator Biodun Olujimi.

Fayose and Olujimi had been embroiled in battle for the control of Ekiti PDP since the chapter conducted its ward and local government congresses about six months ago.

After several years of political enmity, however, Fayose and

Oni yesterday took advantage of the congress to reunite with an understanding to work hard to ensure victory for the PDP in the 2022 governorship poll in the state.

On the new understanding to work with Oni, Fayose declared that the ruling All Progressives Congress would be defeated easily in Ekiti with unity and discipline among members of the PDP. Fayose said loyalty “is the best ingredient the party members as opposition must exhibit to be able to triumph over the Governor

Kayode Fayemi-led APC,� saying the people of Ekiti had resentment for the ruling party.�

Fayose said: “I welcome Chief Segun Oni to Ekiti PDP. I knew APC would fail him when he left.

I congratulate him for becoming born again today. Whoever comes back, you are welcome. “APC operates secretly. PDP is the only democratic party. All that defected to APC in 2018 will regret their actions. But we are waiting for all of them. APC is losing their members on a daily basis, because people do not like them.

Remove Ministers Politicking for 2023, Group Tells Buhari

‘Despite Gulping N243bn in Four Years, Amnesty Yet to Achieve Mandate’

Ahamefula Ogbu

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A non-governmental advocacy group, the National Council for Democratic Development (NCDD), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to rejig his cabinet and offload those mired in quest for 2023 political contest as they had allegedly abandoned his agenda for personal ambitions.

The group said it observed with dismay that the cardinal programmes of the president were being sacrificed on the altar of personal ambitions leading to strides made especially in agriculture and anti-corruption crusade to stall.

The advocacy group in a statement by its Executive Director, Prince

Nweze Onu, said since 2023 was still far, such political distraction could tell poorly on the performance of the president’s agenda which necessitated the call. “Our Organisation has keenly followed the performance of President Buhari and has identified huge gains and progress made on agriculture and infrastructural development. The fight against corruption has steadily been confronted with the right spirit and commitment. “We have also observed that while President Buhari is working round the clock to deliver on his campaign promises to Nigerians, some of his appointed ministers manning sensitive ministries are

not helping him in that regard. We observed with dismay, that certain ministers are already launching political organisations to actualise their 2023 agenda. “The implication of this deviation is that government infrastructure and instruments are now being used to serve the political agenda of these ministers thereby affecting the discharge of their given mandate. “It is in the news that one of the ministers recently launched a political organisation with visible posters and offices for his 2023 presidential election. Such is a distraction and abuse of trust.

We call on President Buhari to investigate all who have done so among the ministers.

Even though the federal government spent a whopping N243 billion on the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in the Niger Delta from 2010 to 2014, the programme has yet to achieve its objectives, a report by an international development firm has said.

The report by Nextier Security, Peace and Development (SPD) described the programme as too expensive to maintain and marred by corruption and patrimonial sentiment.

The report, which was unveiled in Abuja yesterday, noted that the amnesty programme had failed to

achieve its mandate despite gulping a whopping sum of N243 billion between 2010 and 2014 alone.

Consequently, the reporÂşt urged the federal government to devolve the activities of the programme into state oil commissions, noting that the amnesty programme was the most expensive of such initiatives in the world.

Specifically, the report admitted that the programme was too expensive to maintain, as well as being marred by corruption, nepotism, prebendal and patrimonial sentiments, the organisation said the report was to trigger debate on the programme after 10 years of its operation.

Like most bureaucratic institu-

tions nationwide, the report noted that the amnesty programme “now suffers from lack of transparency, consistency, and effective management of resources.�

Although 20,000 beneficiaries had gone through various formal education and vocational training programmes under the initiative, to address the feeling of exclusion, the report said the plight of excluded people and ravaged communities should be factored into the transition.

The report explained that corruption should be significantly reduced through effective oversight functions, deployment of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms as well as prosecution

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ AUGUST 30, 2020

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CICERO/ISSUE

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, President Muhammadu Buhari and Pastor E.O Adeboye

How CAMA 2020 Touches the Raw Nerve of CAN The initial commendations and applause that followed the signing of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari are now being dwarfed by resentments from the Christian community under the Christian Association of Nigeria leadership, writes Davidson Iriekpen, while dissecting the controversies

A

new twist was last Thursday added to the commendations President Muhammadu Buhari has so far received for assenting to the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, when the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) rejected the law, saying it would harm the country and its citizens. The CAMA 2020 was passed by the National Assembly early this year and was signed into law on August 7 by the President Buhari.

While industry players have hailed the law, saying it would boost the ease of doing business, CAN, has however, dismissed it as “satanic,” adding that it would snuff life out of the church and rank it as a secular institution under secular control.

In a statement by its president, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, CAN said the law, which repealed the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990 (1), was assented to despite its rejection at the public hearing stage. It noted that if the federal government insisted on retaining the legislation, it would be seen as a declaration of war on Christianity and an agenda to destroy the church.

“The law, to say the least, is unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and an ill-wind that blows no one any good. It is a time bomb waiting to explode,” it added.

The controversial portion which the Christian community is frowning at are contained in Section 839 (1)&(2), which empowers the Corporate Affairs Commission to suspend trustees of a not-for-profit organisation (in this case, the church) and appoint the interim managers to manage the affairs of the association for some given reasons bordering on mismanagement.

Specifically, Section 839(1) of the Act empowers the CAC to suspend trustees of an association and appoint interim managers to manage the affairs of the association, where it reasonably believes that there is or has been misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the association. This, according to the law, is aimed at protecting the property of the association.

Subsection 2 provides that the trustees shall be suspended by an or court upon the petition of the CAC or members consisting of one-fifth of the association and the petitioners shall present all reasonable evidence as requested by the court in respect of the petition.

Another contentious provision in the CAMA 2020, which the CAN is unhappy with provides that no suit can be commenced against the CAC before the expiration of period of 30 days after a written notice of intention to commence the suit has been served upon the commission by the intending plaintiff and notice is to state the cause of action, particulars of claim and reliefs sought.

The Act also empowers the Minister of Trade and Investment to prescribe by regulations, model articles of association for companies.

Contending that the controversial section 839(1)&(2) was smuggled in the CAMA 2020 through the backdoors, CAN said during the first term of President Buhari, there was a public hearing conducted by the National Assembly on a similar provision in another bill which it vehemently rejected only for the government to include it in the CAMA. It noted that while it is not against the government fighting corruption wherever it may be found, it completely rejected the idea of bringing the church, which is technically grouped among the NGOs, under control of the government “The church cannot be controlled by the government, because of its spiritual responsibilities and obligations. How can the government sack the trustee of a church, which it contributed no dime to establish? How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution, which is not political?

“How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution, which is not political? How can a non-Christian head of government ministry be the one to determine the running of the church? It is an invitation to trouble that the government does not have power to manage.”

Before CAN’s outburst, Bishop David Oyedepo, had taken umbrage at the provisions of the Act. Venting on the law, he accused the government of being jealous of the prosperity of the church.

Hear him: “The church is God’s heritage on earth. Molest the wife of somebody and you will see the anger of that person. The church is the bride of Christ. You know how a strong man is, when you tamper with his wife. The church is the body of Christ.

We are under obligation to give warnings to wicked rulers so we could be free from their blood.

“The church works on the pattern delivered by God not the pattern of man. Government has no power to appoint people over churches. This is a secular nation. The church is the greatest asset of God in this country. Please be warned. Judgment is coming. “The Lord says I have been still but now I will arise.

Anybody that is in this deal is taking poison. This will never work. I am waiting for a day, when anybody will appoint a trustee over this church… You can’t gag anybody. We own this country together.”

Many believe that over the years, the church in Nigeria has carried on as an agency that should not be subjected by secular laws despite earning its sustenance from peoples’ pursuits. The churches, which are registered as charity organisations, hardly live to that expectation.

Hardly do any of them pay tax while running publishing firms, hospitals, schools, restaurants and other businesses, many of their hospitals and schools as very expensive and beyond the reach of even the members. What a majority of Nigerians see always are a display of opulence and ostentatious lifestyles.

In 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) sought to bring transparency into the church business, but the agency’s noble endeavour was resisted and its boss sacked.

Ironically, while churches in Nigeria are resisting the Act, they subject themselves to similar regulations abroad. For instance, there is a Charity Commission for England and Wales for regulation of charity organisations under the jurisdiction of High Court charity law. It is worth noting that if a charity’s income exceeds £5,000 a year, it must register with the Charity Commission.

The commission investigates accusations of wrongdoing and if a serious problem is uncovered, the commission has powers to restrict transactions a charity may enter into; appoint additional trustee; freeze a charity’s bank accounts; suspend or remove a trustee; appoint an interim manager or make a referral for investigation to the police and other law enforcement agencies.

Similarly, in Scotland and Northern Ireland, there is the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), which ensures that charity organisations are used exclusively for charitable purposes, which benefit the public.

In the United States of America, states have wide discretion over the regulation of charities even as many states do not impose significant regulatory burden on charitable corporations, in part, because charities that have special tax status are subject to Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In 2019, the UK Charities Commission appointed an interim manager for Mountain of Fire and Miracles International, the church founded by Daniel Olukoya. The commission hinged its decision on acts of fraud in the organisation.

It said: “The commission is concerned over the trustees’ unwillingness to report serious incidents. The inquiry found two alleged incidents of fraud by former employees involving significant sums, both of which were not reported until a number of years after the frauds were discovered.”

Also, in 2015, the UK Charities Commission probed Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel International over alleged misappropriation of 16 million pounds. Oyedepo did not rail against the regulatory commission. He surrendered his church to the investigation, and fortunately, his church was cleared of all allegations. No wrongdoing was found.

In addition, in 2014, the commission appointed an interim manager for Christ Embassy International, the church founded

by Chris Oyakhilome. It situated its decision on “serious misconduct and mismanagement in the church’s administration, inadequate recording of its decision-making processes and failure to comply with grant-making policy.”

Many are wondering that if these churches could subject themselves to the laws abroad, why are they against similar regulatory process in Nigeria? But a cross section of Nigerians feels that the Charity Commission of England does not have the biases in Nigeria especially, with religion being very sensitive here.

Sunday August 30, 2020

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MISSILE

Odebunmi to Fayose “Fayose is free to grandstand, but the final arbiter is the court of law and it will adjudicate on this crisis and tell us which faction is authentic.”

– Factional chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Mr Kehinde Odebunmi criticising a former governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose for holding a parallel state congress of PDP in the state.

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simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

Playing Politics with Southern Kaduna

T

wo can play the game. That should sum up the politicking surrounding the disinvitation of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, for the 2020 annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) where he was to be a guest speaker. If he was “cancelled” simply because of the allegations that he does not obey court judgments, it would have been more manageable. But by throwing the highly sensitive and divisive southern Kaduna crisis into the mix, the campaigners poured fuel into fire. Inevitably, our fault lines were swiftly magnified. Muslim advocacy groups soon entered the fray and some northern lawyers announced they were pulling out of NBA. If you can understand the southern Kaduna crisis, then you are in a good place to understand and resolve the Nigerian conundrum. There are about 60 ethnic groups in Kaduna state as a whole, with the Hausa/Fulani obviously the majority.

The minorities are generally referred to as “Southern Kaduna” — which, politically speaking, is euphemism for “Christian Kaduna”. In geography and demography, however, there are Muslims in “Southern Kaduna” although we often equate it with “Christian Kaduna”. In fact, I have been told by many Kaduna Muslims to stop saying that southern Kaduna is “predominantly Christian”. Nonetheless, I see it more as an ethno-religious identity.

The difficult part, for me, is not whether southern Kaduna is predominantly Muslim or Christian. That will not tell the story. The complicated part is how to understand, much less explain, why Kaduna Muslims and Christians do not see eye to eye, why there is mutual hate and distrust, and why the perennial bloodshed is almost unrivalled in ethnic, religious and communal combustions in Nigeria, maybe in Africa. If you cannot understand the problem, how can you identify the solution? Life is full of a billion uncertainties, but it is almost certain that blood will keep flowing in Kaduna. Thousands have died. Orphans and widows and widowers of war are everywhere.

Since the Kafanchan riots of March 1987, I have lost count of the many minor and major clashes and killings in the state. The creation of chiefdoms by Gen Ibrahim Babangida after the Zangon Kataf disturbances of 1992 appeared to have brought some peace, but it was the kind of perfect peace you experience at the graveyard. It does not take as much as a matchstick to set the state on fire. The reaction after every round of riots and killings is always the same: Muslims queuing behind Muslims and Christians queuing behind Christians.

The last thing anybody wants to know is what the issues are and who is at fault. We simply take sides along our biases. That’s the way it works.

The Kaduna killings are, ironically, not perpetrated by only one side. There are aggressors and victims on both sides of the divide. When one side suffers more casualties than the other, there is always a desire for reprisal to “even things up”. Life is so cheap that it seems killing competitions are being organised on a home-and-away format.

My eternal philosophy is that every life is important: I value the life of every Muslim as I value the life of every Christian. Nobody

El-Rufai should be killed or maimed, no matter their religion. But when “an eye for an eye” is the predominant philosophy of any society, the people will forever be blinded to tolerance, reconciliation and peace.

But how can we discuss tolerance, reconciliation and peace when we don’t even know what the problem is? What exactly is the fundamental issue in southern Kaduna?

Is it that God created Kaduna Muslims and Christians specially and decreed that they should never live together in peace? That would be ahistorical. Before 1987, I never heard or read of any bloodbath between Muslims and Christians in the state, at least not since Nigeria gained independence in 1960. I admit that I might not have read enough of their history and that maybe events of centuries ago are coming back to shape their today. But to say they never lived together peacefully is not supported by history.

The Muslim/Christian animosity in the state is all the more befuddling when you consider that Gombe is almost a photocopy.

The northern part of Gombe is predominantly Fulani and Muslim, while the south is where you find the Christians and about 10 ethnic groups. Just like in Kaduna, Gombe Christians have a senatorial zone to themselves. Just like in Kaduna (until 2019), the deputy governor slot is automatically reserved for Gombe Christians. But have you ever heard of any ethno-religious riots and killings in Gombe?

Maybe there are tensions or rivalries, but whatever they are doing right in managing their differences is working and they should stay that course.

My elder sister lived in Kaduna city most of her life before her passing in September 2015. Sometime in 2005, after surviving many riots and killings, she called me to say she was moving to the “Christian” part of the city. I was shocked. She told me Kaduna city was now divided into two, like Lebanon.

Christians and southern Muslims, she said, were living in one part, while northern Muslims were living in another. That way, she said, they all felt safe in their havens.

This was some 15 years ago. And that was long before el-Rufai became governor. What we are dealing with in Kaduna, therefore, is not a recent development. We are dealing with deep-seated animosity and bitterness.

So, when el-Rufai is disinvited for a conference and a link is being made to the

southern Kaduna crisis by the campaigners, that is a dangerous game. It re-opens a wound.

It touches a raw nerve. Even those who are not el-Rufai’s fans will queue behind him.

I was not surprised that the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) jumped headlong into the fray. MURIC is the Muslim version of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) when it comes to whipping up divisive sentiments for political gain. The Jigawa branch of NBA also threw in their hat to support a fellow northerner. And now, some northern lawyers say they are forming a new NBA. In other words, two can play the game.

You don’t need to be an Albert Einstein to understand that the disinvitation of elRufai had little to do with the Kaduna crisis.

The NBA itself did fact-finding in southern Kaduna three years ago and concluded that local politicians and “violence entrepreneurs” were behind the unending bloodbath. But as the 2023 presidential race draws nearer, and with el-Rufai believed to be eyeing either presidency or vice-presidency, the NBA somehow allowed itself to be used as a tool of demarketing. We are now witnessing the unintended consequences. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, also thought to be presidential aspirants, are also facing demarketing campaigns.

In that case, the 2023 race promises to be awfully dirty. To be honest, I cannot be bothered about the civil war in the All Progressives Congress (APC). I am bothered rather if there will be a peaceful Nigeria before then. Our security agencies are evidently overwhelmed.

We are battling with pockets of terror all over and the recent unemployment figures are not exactly exciting. So if what our political gladiators have to offer is blackmail and playing ethnic and religious cards, they need to ask themselves if there will still be a country for them to rule at the end of it all. If being president is really about serving Nigeria “with heart and might”, then the desperation and dirty tricks will be less.

I conclude. Indeed, two can play the game.

But I suggest a different kind of game this time around: the game of peace and unity.

Now that the el-Rufai disinvitation has pushed the southern Kaduna crisis to the agenda of broader national discourse, we have to take more than a passing interest. Those who don’t understand the issues should please seek the truth with open minds. What exactly is fuelling the crisis? Is it purely an identity issue? Is it security? Is it economic? Is it political?

How do we engage around these issues with sincerity and sensitivity? If we do not have any solutions to proffer, we should at least not complicate things. And I say this to all sides in the conflict.

Ultimately, we need to get the southern Kaduna leaders, Muslim and Christian alike, to look inwards and ask themselves how long they want to be at daggers drawn. No Jupiter can bring peace to their communities until the leaders themselves decide that they have shed enough blood. We need to get them to bury the hatchet and allow the wounds to heal. In Jaba LGA, Fulani and Ham leaders have agreed to de-escalate tension. This is encouraging and has to be replicated in other communities. Any peace that needs to be enforced by soldiers is no peace. Peace is not enforced. Peace is embraced. Southern Kaduna badly needs more healing, more handshakes and less politics.

And Four Other Things…

INVERTED CAMA If the only thing you read is news, you would think CAMA means “Christian and Allied Matters Act”, although the law covers all religions. It allows tighter regulation of the activities of not-for-profit bodies (not just churches). We live in an era where the church founder is also the accountant, treasurer and auditor — and has final say on what they see as personal business empires.

That some Christian leaders would oppose accountability and transparency under the guise of resisting “jihad” is unsurprising: many are conveniently serving God and mammon simultaneously. Nevertheless, they should find a civic way of engaging with the lawmakers over their misgivings.

Practical.

PEN BASHERS There was public outrage last week over the verbal assault on a journalist by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister. He has been touring some states and pouring encomiums on the governors, and the journalist asked: “Who is bankrolling this?”

Rather than answer the question with facts and figures, Fani-Kayode responded with raw insults and intimidation. I honestly do not blame him. The truth is that many politicians have no regard for Nigerian journalists, whatever the reason may be.

They think our job is to massage their egos with patronising questions. I hope this will start a kind of revolution among Nigerian journalists. We are not meant to be bootlickers. Professionalism.

DEATH AT THE DOOR The death sentence passed on Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a singer in Kano state, by an upper Sharia court has generated enormous public interest, concern and criticism. He had been found guilty of blasphemy in a song he circulated via WhatsApp. Members of his sect have dissociated themselves from him. From the look of things, the politicians are determined to carry out the execution if his appeal fails. Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano, says he will not waste a minute in signing the warrant of execution.

Anybody who loves Sharif-Aminu should get him a damn good lawyer. Twitter campaigns and public opinion may not be enough to save his neck. Essential.

TERRORISTS IN OYO Iba Gani Adams, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, has raised the alarm that members of the Islamic State are now in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo state. My immediate response was: we made so much progress in tackling and pushing back Boko Haram before the 2015 elections and even celebrated taking over ‘Camp Zero’ in 2016, so what went wrong? I have no doubts that some of what we call banditry, kidnappings and herdsmen attacks in several parts of the country are linked to the different factions of Boko Haram. What we used to see as a Borno/ north-east problem is now threatening the whole country. Can we still retrace our steps in this war on terror? Deteriorating.

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