THURSDAY 12TH AUGUST 2021

Buhari: Nigeria’s $3bn Share of Africa’s $75bn FDI Unacceptable Report: foreign investment flow to Nigeria decreased 48.5% US: OPEC must pump more oil to cut prices Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria’s low share of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow to Africa between 2015 and 2019 is a cause of concern.

Buhari, who spoke at a retreat organised by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, described the situation as unacceptable.

In another development,

United States President Joe Biden's top aides are pressuring the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies to boost oil output to tackle rising petrol prices, which the US sees as a threat

to global economic recovery, Reuters reported yesterday.

But in Nigeria, Buhari reaffirmed the country’s commitment to using the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to implement reforms and enhance

revenue growth.

Despite having the biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria only received four per cent, which was about $3 billion of the $75 billion invested in the continent in the first term of

Buhari’s administration.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2020 World Investment Report, FDI Continued on page 10

FG to Lift Ban as Twitter Agrees to Set Up Office in Nigeria... Page 6 Thursday 12 August, 2021 Vol 26. No 9621. Price: N250

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Your Opinions on Supreme Court Judgment, Malicious, Self-serving, BuniTells Keyamo, Others Says ruling has strengthened party instead Advises aggrieved members to approach internal conflict resolution channels Adedayo Akinwale and Treasure Chinelobi in Abuja Chairman of the Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and the Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, has berated some members of the party, including the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Festus Keyamo, over their comments on the recent

Supreme Court judgement in the Ondo governorship election and described their comments as both malicious and self-serving.

Keyamo, SAN, in a leaked memo, had said while the ruling party won the legal battle in the Ondo governorship, the Supreme Court has just weaponised all those that would be aggrieved by Continued on page 5

FG Set to Reintroduce Tollgates on Highways 18 Years After Only 5, 005km of 35,000km federal roads eligible Vehicles to pay between N200 and N500 toll per trip Diplomatic, military, para-military vehicles, tricycles, motorcycles to be exempted

Deji Elumoye in Abuja The federal government has expressed its willingness to reintroduce toll collections on designated dual carriageways across the country. Minister of

Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this yesterday while briefing newsmen at the end of the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting Continued on page 6

SENATOR-ELECT GETS HIS CERTIFICATE AT LAST...

National Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs May Agbamuche Mbu, (left), presenting the certificate of return to newly elected Cross River North Senator-elect Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja... yesterday.

PHOTO: Ayo Ajayi

Osinbajo: Great Nations Too Face Security, Economic Challenges...Page 10

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Group News Editor: Goddy Egene Email: Goddy.egene@thisdaylive.com, 0803 350 6821, 0809 7777 322

Nigeria Not among High-debt Risk Nations, DMO Insists

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja The Debt Management Office (DMO) has said news making the rounds that the World Bank had listed Nigeria among 10 high-debt risk nations was false but misleading.

The debt management agency in a statement yesterday, explained that its attention was drawn to a newspaper report (not THISDAY) with the caption, “World Bank Lists Nigeria, Nine Others as High-debt Risk Nations”.

The DMO noted that the said publication claimed that the World Bank had classified Nigeria as one of the top 10 ‘high-debt risk nations’ in the International Development Association (IDA) Audited Financial Statement for the Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020

– June 30, 2021) published on Monday, August 9, 2021.

It described the newspaper publication as not only false and misleading, but also suggests an inadequate understanding of the essence of the World Bank’s report.

The DMO stated: "The World Bank’s Report was an assessment of the performance of IDA and not the performance of the IDA Loans nor the debt repayment capacity of the beneficiaries of IDA Loans.

"By way of explanation, the World Bank through IDA, gives concessional loans to poor and developing countries to help them achieve improvements in growth, job creation, poverty reduction, governance, the environment, climate adaptation and resilience, human capital, infrastructure, and debt

transparency. Nigeria is a beneficiary of IDA loans."

The DMO said it was important to re-emphasise that the World Bank’s Report, which was misrepresented in the said newspaper publication was focused only on the composition of IDA’s loan portfolio and did not make any reference to the debt sustainability of the top 10 beneficiary countries of IDA

loans, such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana that the newspaper erroneously referred to as ‘high-debt risk nations’.

It stressed that IDA loans are typically for tenors of 30 – 40 years, grace period (moratorium on principal repayment) of 7 – 10 years and Service Fee of only 0.75 per cent.

"The highly concessional nature of IDA Loans satisfies

James Emejo in Abuja The federal government generated a total of N984.32 billion in Company Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) in the second quarter of the year (Q2 2021), according to

the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

While the sum of N472.07 billion was generated from CIT, N512.25 billion was realised from VAT for the period under review.

The CIT generated in Q2,

was a 20.23 per cent increase compared with the N392.64 billion recorded in the preceding quarter, the NBS stated.

The positive revenue growth in CIT followed improved performance in companies’ profits which was associated with the gradual recovery of the economy following the adverse impact of the lockdown implemented by the government last year to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resumption of economic activities had further spurred consumer spending which helped to increase VAT. According to the company income tax by sectors Q2 report which was released by the statistical agency, yesterday, professional services generated N130.09 billion, while other manufacturing sector generated N87.27 billion.

Banks and financial institutions generated N60.01 billion, while textile and garment, automobiles and assemblies and pioneering recorded N27.23 million, N62.15 million and N64.30 million respectively.

Out of the total amount generated in Q2, N412.74 billion was generated as CIT locally, while N51.61 billion was generated as foreign

CIT payment.

The balance of N2.72 billion was generated as CIT from other payments.

Similarly, the sectoral distribution of VAT report for Q2 showed that the sum of N512.25 billion was generated as VAT compared to N496.39 billion in Q1 and N327.20 billion in Q2 2020. This represented a 3.20 per cent increase quarteron-quarter and 56.56 per cent growth year-on-year.

Also, other manufacturing generated the highest amount of VAT with N44.89 billion closely followed by professional services which recorded N29.30 billion.

Commercial and trading generated N21.96 billion, while textile and garment industry, pioneering and pharmaceutical, soaps and toiletries generated N77.74 million, N169 million and N188.71 million respectively.

Out of the total VAT generated in the review period, N187.43 billion was generated as non-import VAT locally, while N207.69 billion was generated as non-import VAT for foreign.

The balance of N117.13 billion was generated as NCS-Import VAT.

How Edo Raised N3bn Through Enhanced Land Mgt in 3 Years

L-R: Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi; greeting Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun and the governor's wife, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, when the monarch led royal fathers on a condolence visit to the governor's family to commiserate with them on the death of the governor's father, Dr Emmanuel Abiodun... yesterday

YOUR OPINIONS ON SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT, MALICIOUS, SELF-SERVING, BUNI TELLS KEYAMO, OTHERS better was just to play on the gullibility of the public.

The Yobe governor, who was represented by the party’s National Secretary, Senator John Akpanudoedehe said, "In the past few days, the media space has been filled with commentaries on the Supreme Court judgment in Jegede v. Akeredolu, with persons, who should know better, coming out with very malicious and self-serving opinions, just to play on the gullibility of the public, while forgetting that our party is made up of very intelligent, sound and intellectually proficient persons, who have seen beneath their grandstanding.

“The majority judgment of the Supreme Court has strengthened the position of the CECPC and our Chairman. The minority judgment serves only for academic purposes, nothing more."

Buni noted that the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who is the chief law officer of the federation, has said the committee was on firm ground and advised that it should proceed with the processes of the congresses.

cost of debt service.

"The DMO wishes to state that Nigeria’s IDA’s Debt Stock as at June 30, 2021 was $11.7 billion. IDA loans represent one of the most favourable borrowing options for countries like Nigeria and is also consistent with the Medium Term Debt Management Strategy of the Federal Government," the DMO clarified.

FG Raked in N984.32bn from Company Income Tax, VAT in Q2

ACCEPT OUR CONDOLENCES…

the APC Congresses to proceed to court to challenge the competence of the Buni-led committee to organise the congresses and national convention.

Also, two presidential aides, Senators Babafemi Ojudu and Ita Enang, said a cursory look at the minority judgment appeared to have swept the carpet of legality off the caretaker committee rendering it illegal, null, void and of no legal capacity to undertake any action on behalf of and in the name of the party.

In the same vein, a former National Legal Adviser of the APC, Mr. Babatunde Ogala (SAN), believed that the party's congresses remained a nullity in the eyes of the law and should be cancelled forthwith, recommending instead, the reinstatement of the dissolved NWC without the former National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, because his suspension followed due process.

But Buni, while inaugurating Appeal Committees on the recently-conducted Ward Congresses yesterday in Abuja, said, the comments from some persons, who should have known

the requirements of the provision of Section 41(1)(a) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, which states that government at all tiers shall only borrow on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonably long amortisation period.

"The cost of IDA Loans, which is the Service Fee of 0.75 per cent, is considerably low thereby moderating the

“It is trite to note that, the Congresses to produce our party organs across had commenced on the 31st of July, 2021 and you will agree with me that it went substantially well.

“However, it is expected that where ever and whenever there's a competition, of course, there is bound to be contestations.

“Therefore as an organization based on rules and procedures, avenues and channels must be provided for party members who are dissatisfied with the processes, to ventilate their grievances through an internal mechanism, hence this Wards Congresses Appeals Committee in the circumstance of this exercise.”

The chairman further pointed out that the Progressives Governors’ Forum through their extensive legal apparatchik had x-rayed the generality of the issues at their meeting held August 8, 2021, and reaffirmed their support for the committee and asked it to proceed with the congresses as scheduled.

He pointed out that while the congresses that would produce party organs across had commenced on the 31st

of July, 2021, it was expected that wherever there was a competition, there was bound to be contestations.

“Therefore as an organisation based on rules and procedures, avenues and channels, must be provided for party members, who are dissatisfied with the processes, to ventilate their grievances through an internal mechanism, hence these Ward Congresses Appeals Committee in the circumstance of this exercise," Buni added.

He noted that the ruling party was for all Nigerians, therefore, the party must show, not only by words, but by concrete actions that there was no attempt to exclude or sideline anybody in the course of the exercise.

The chairman noted that the actions of the members in this regard would help engender cohesion, build trust and confidence in this all-important exercise.

He maintained that the committee has been entrusted with one of the most solemn obligations of citizenship, which was to help deepen democratisation processes and strengthen the polity.

The Edo State Government, has generated over N3billion in less than three years through the Edo State Geographic Information Service (EdoGIS) on the back of reforms by the Governor Godwin Obasekiled administration to ease the process of land registration and improvement in land management in the state.

Managing Director of EdoGIS, Arch. Frank Evbuomwan, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists in Benin City, said the amount was raised between September 2018 and July 2021.

Evbuomwan noted that since the inception of the agency in September 2018, fraudulent practices in the process of registering land have been eliminated through digitisation of obtaining Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) compared to the past.

The EdoGIS boss further reinstated the agency’s plan to open zonal offices in Auchi, Edo North Senatorial District and Uromi, Edo Central Senatorial District, before the end of 2021, with a target to issue a minimum of 10, 000 C-of-Os yearly.

According to him, “We

have been in existence since September 2018. In the first 18 months, we generated about a billion naira but between 2018 to July this year, we have generated over N3 billion to the government coffers.”

He said the EdoGIS has simplified the process of registering land ownership and reduced the timeframe and burden in applying for land titles.

While noting that the ease and convenience in processing title documents for landed property had opened the state for economic growth and attracted investors, Evbuomwan said, “Edo State is now the destination for prospective investors due to the speedy access to documentation and titling of lands, as well as guaranteed land property.”

The EdoGIS Managing Director added, “Before the EdoGIS came on board, it took one to three years to get a Certificate of Occupancy.

The Edo State Government has simplified the process of obtaining land title and strengthened the security of land and title by signing into law, the Edo State Private Property Protection Law 2021.”

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FASHOLA ON PROJECTS TOUR… Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN (2nd left), flanked by Director, Bridges and Design in the Ministry, Engr. Emmanuel Adeoye (left), the Project Engineering Representative, Engr. Eseme Udoh (3rd right) and two Members of the Project's Peace Committee, HRH Mene Stephen Kpea of Mogho, Gokana LGA , Rivers State (right) and Mene Gbaragbe (2nd right) while speaking with journalists during the Inspection of the Bodo -Bonny Road with Bridges Across the Opobo Channel in Rivers State ... recently. Behind the Hon. Minister is the ongoing piling works on water at the Opobo Channel main Bridge at Ch.17+500.

FG to Lift Twitter Ban, Says Firm has Agreed to Set Up Office in Nigeria We look forward to our service restored soon, Says Twitter Deji Elumoye in Abuja The suspension order placed on the microblogging platform, Twitter by the federal government since June may soon be lifted, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has said.

This is just as the social media giant in a statement yesterday reacted to the development, saying it was looking up to the restoration of its service in the west African country in the coming days.

The possible lifting of the suspension order, the Minister stressed, was sequel to agreement that he said has been reached between the organization and the federal government on most contentious issues. Mohammed

made this known yesterday, while briefing newsmen at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja.

Giving an update on government’s negotiation with the blogging site, the Minister said Twitter had complied with most of the conditions given to it for the suspension to be lifted.

He said pending issues such as Twitter setting up an office and having a Twitter staff of management cadre that would serve as the country representative, were still being discussed.

Mohammed stated that although Twitter has agreed to set up a Nigerian office, it is however

FG SET TO REINTRODUCE TOLLGATES ON HIGHWAYS 18 YEARS AFTER at the State House, Abuja.

The planned reintroduction of tollgates comes 18 years after the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo dismantled all toll plazas on federal roads throughout the country in 2003.

Fashola said after the FEC meeting presided by the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that only 5, 005 kilometres of dual carriageways out of the 35,000 kilometres of federal roads in the country– that is 14.3 per cent – would be eligible for tolling. He said vehicles would pay between N200 and N500 per trip, depending on their make.

However, diplomatic, military, para-military vehicles, and as well as tricycles and motorcycles would be exempted from toll payment, the minister stated.

Fashola said his ministry presented a memo for the reintroduction of tollgates, which the council approved.

He stated, “The total network of roads today, assuming we wanted to start today, which will be eligible for tolling on federal network will be 14.3 per cent of the total network.

“So 85.27 per cent will not be eligible for tolling. We have seen that most of those dual carriageways also have alternative roads, but they are single carriageway. That was

why we left them.

“The only exception to single carriageway are some bridges and they are listed in the regulation.”

The former Lagos State governor said with the council’s go-ahead, modalities were being worked out to determine when the tolling system would take off.

He explained, "The Ministry of Works and Housing presented a policy memorandum for the approval of federal roads, bridges, tolling policy, and also a regulation that will provide legal framework for the tolling policy.

“We have taken another step.

So let me be clear, tolls are not going to start tomorrow. Let us be clear about that.

"But the big step to actual tolling was taken today by presenting for approval the broad policy that will guide the tolling so that local people, states, local governments, all those who manage roads, investors who want to come in, will know what our tolling policy is. And that will form the basis of their financial modelling, their investment decision.”

Fashola emphasised that the open tolling system to be introduced would not commence until the affected roads were motorable, while agreements Continued on page 10

maintaining that the earliest it could establish it would be 2022.

Though the microblogging site did not confirm or deny Mohammed’s claim in a short statement it issue yesterday night following Lai Mohammed’s announcement.

The minister was optimistic that all outstanding issues would be sorted out with Twitter in a matter of days or weeks.

According to him, the government’s committee negotiating with Twitter would soon meet on the agreement and make necessary recommendations to government on the issue.

He further said: “The question I think has to do with the status of the conversation between us and Twitter. I want to say that

the end for an amicable solution is very much in sight. We quite appreciate the anxiety of Nigerians who have been worried that two months after the suspension, we've not been able to finalise talks, but I just want to assure you that we have made tremendous progress.

And when I say tremendous, really tremendous.

“We've engaged Twitter in writing. We set up a technical committee to engage Twitter, they set up their own committee too; they have met virtually and have exchanged correspondents about three times. Really, apart from dotting the i's and crossing the t's, we're actually almost there.

“I don't want to say that the engagement has been extremely

positive, devoid of any acrimony.

As a matter of fact, it is to the credit of Twitter that they admitted that they've never received any kind of informed or detailed or professional communication from any country as they have received from us.

“Not only did they promise that they were going to look into it, but we made it very clear what we wanted from Twitter. Even though our report is not ready, even though we're still expecting more clarifications around some conversation with Twitter, I think I can share with you some of our conditions for reopening for Twitter operations to resume in Nigeria.

“I'm glad that both the Minister

of Works who is a member of the Ministerial Team and Tolu Ogunlesi who also serve on the technical committee, are here. So, if I'm wrong they'd correct me. But I know that one of the conditions that we set was that Twitter, in line with Nigeria's Companies and Allied Matters Act, should establish presence in Nigeria with registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

“And we think it is the only thing, that if you want to do business in Nigeria, you must register first, a Nigerian company and of course, you must have an address.

That's one of the conditions we gave Twitter.”

Continued Online

Oshiomhole: Leave Me Out of APC Leadership Debate Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday asked some persons he described as distractions to leave him out of the leadership debate in the party.

Recently, there have been debates to bring back Oshiomhole who was ousted from the party through a ruling by the Court of Appeal as chairman of the party.

Some are of the opinion that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party led by the former governor of Edo State should be restored excluding Oshiomhole.

But in a statement issued in Benin City through his Media Aide, Victor Oshioke, Oshiomhole said he was not interested.

According to the statement, Oshiomhole stated: "My attention has been drawn to a statement credited to Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) who is now a member of the APC and self-styled aide of Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi.

"In the said statement widely reported in the media, Chief Eze was quoted as saying that Mr.

Festus Keyamo, Minister of State of Labour and Employment and others were plotting to bring back Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC." He said ordinarily he would have ignored what he described as nonsensical suggestion, but decided to respond on the ridiculous falsehood being marketed by Eze. According to the statement, Festus Keyamo was in the forefront and indeed provided legal support through his personal legal assistants who went to court and argued on behalf of those that filed cases for the removal of Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC. Not only that, the statement averred that Keyamo also offered legal advice on the legality of the NEC that was convened for the dissolution of the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of the APC and emergence of the Governor Mai-Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee.

"It is therefore frivolous for any right thinking person to assume that Keyamo who actively supported the removal of the APC National chairman elected by over 6,500 party delegates from across the 36 states and the FCT, because eight out of 27 Ward executive members purportedly suspended a national

party chairman, would now plot to bring the same Oshiomhole back to office.

"It is strange that a serving Minister would share on social media platforms, what he captioned as a "Private and Confidential" legal opinion for Mr. President who appointed him, especially considering that he was in the political kitchen when the pot of crisis he is now offering advice on was being cooked.

"If Keyamo has no ulterior motives behind his sudden change of legal interpretations of relevant aspects of the APC constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the right channel would have been to sit down with his Co-Minister and the Attorney General of the Federation behind closed doors and put forth his arguments.

“Alternatively, he could have sought a private audience with Mr. President or write a confidential memo to Mr. President and explain why his earlier opinion supporting the dissolution of the NWC and setting up of a Caretaker Committee has changed or no longer tenable.

“Instead he went to the market with his bogus arguments. His action is reminiscent of the indiscipline from some senior

leaders of the party which Oshiomhole sought to deal with decisively as national chairman."

The statement went further to read: "A minister certainly should know better how to communicate his concerns to Mr. President and party leadership in a truly constructive conversation behind closed doors.

"The truth of the matter is that Mr. Keyamo seems to have lost out in the power play and failed to secure the benefits he anticipated in Oshiomhole’s removal from office with the consequent dissolution of the NWC and other structures of the party.

“This is the main reason for his self-serving new legal opinion which contradicts his earlier stance. For the avoidance of doubt, Adams Oshiomhole will not be part of any plot to destabilise or ridicule the party in any way or for any reason.

He takes serious exemptions to his name being dragged into an issue that he has no hand in.”

It reaffirmed Oshiomhole’s loyalty to the APC under the able leadership of Buni, saying all hands should be on the deck to support the Caretaker Committee complete its assignment rather than creating distractions that are counterproductive to the mandate of the committee.

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RENDERING ACCOUNT TO SHAREHOLDERS… L-R;, Executive Director, Operations, Mutual Benefits Assurance, Biyi Ashiru –Mobolaji; MD/CEO, Femi Asenuga; Chairman, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi; Company Secretary, Jide Ibitayo and, Direcror, Abidemi Sonoiki during the 25th PHOTO: Abiodun Ajala Annual General Meeting of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc in Lagos…recently

Oil Spillages: After 31 Years of Legal Battles Shell Agrees to Pay Ogoni N45bn Alex Enumah in Abuja Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), has finally agreed to pay compensation for oil spillages in the Ogoni community of Rivers State, to the tune of N45 billion, after over 31 years of legal battles.

The legal battle, which commenced in 1991, saw judgment in favour of the Ogoni community in 2010 by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos division of the Federal High Court.

But the oil giant declined payment and proceeded up to the Supreme Court twice; first in 2017 to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had upheld the judgment of the trial court and in 2019, seeking a review of the apex court judgment dismissing its appeal.

However, after several back and forth, Shell Petroleum Development Company announced that it has reached an agreement with the plaintiffs/ respondents to pay the sum of

N45 billion.

When the matter was called yesterday, counsel to Shell, Chief Aham Ejelamo, SAN, who informed the court of the decision to pay up the money, sought permission of the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, to make payment through the Chief Registrar of the court in a bank account to be opened for the purpose.

This request was, however, opposed by counsel to the Ogoni community, Chief Lucius Nwosu, SAN. In a short ruling, Justice Mohammed, who endorsed the agreement by parties, ordered shell to make payment to the clients through their lawyer.

The substantive suit commenced in 1991 before a Rivers State High Court sitting at Nchia Division, when the Ejama community represented by Isaac Osaro Ogbara, Victor Obari, John Oguru, Joseph Ogusu, G. O. Nnah, George Osaro, and Adanta Obelle, sued Royal Dutch Shell

Plc, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United Kingdom, and SPDC over alleged oil spills, which occurred, when Shell operated in the community in the 1970s.

Judgment was entered for the sum of N6 billion in favour of the community by the Nchia High Court. That judgment was conceded on appeal, because the Supreme Court had in a sister case decided that states’ High Courts had no jurisdiction in oil related-matters.

The plaintiffs in 2001 refiled the suit at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.

After listening to the submissions of the parties in the suit, the trial judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, in his judgment in 2010, awarded N17 billion to the representatives of the Ogoni people. The court equally granted the Ogoni chiefs 25 per cent interest charge on the principal sum.

SPDC then appealed against the judgment and applied for a stay of execution of the judgment

pending the appeal.

As a condition for granting the stay of execution, the court required Shell’s bankers, FirstBank, to provide a guarantee of the judgment sum plus interest. This condition was complied with.

But Shell’s appeal failed on merit because it failed to file a brief of argument in support of its appeal, claiming that it was granted leave to file an amended brief of argument, which the Court of Appeal found not to be correct.

Against the agreement reached, Shell proceeded to the Supreme Court, where its new lawyers filed a fresh application asking for leave to amend the original notice of the appeal filed by Olawale Akoni (SAN) at the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal registry in order for them to argue fresh points not raised at the court below and in order for them to argue 36 additional grounds of appeal.

In its judgment, the apex court held that the notice of appeal filed by the oil giant was incompetent,

adding that the motion filed on July 16, 2018, had no leg to stand on and should not have been filed. The apex court consequently dismissed the suit in its entirety.

Justice Kumai Akaahs, who read the judgment of the apex court cited a plethora of authorities to back up the Supreme Court's position, adding that since the notice of appeal filed by Shell sought to be amended was incompetent, no valid amendment could be effected, because issues of fact or mix law and fact were raised in the original notice of appeal with leave of court.

The Supreme Court justice agreed with the submission of Shell’s lawyer that an appellant, who has a valid and subsisting appeal can seek the leave of court to do so, adding that in the instant case, there was no such valid notice of appeal that could be amended.

While the case was still pending at the apex court, sensing that Shell was using delay tactics to prevent FirstBank from paying the

Okorocha's Properties: Court Refrains from Granting Restraining Order against EFCC, Imo Govt Alex Enumah in Abuja Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court yesterday refrained from granting an order restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Imo State government from confiscating properties belonging to a former Governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha.

Justice Mohammed in a short ruling held that it was not in the interest of justice to grant the request when the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter in the first place was still being contended.

The judge accordingly fixed August 24, to take the motion of the EFCC and Imo State claiming, that the case could not be heard during the court's vacation period.

The former governor is asking the court to restrain the EFCC and Imo State from further interfering and confiscating his properties located in various parts of the country.

The order according to him was needed to preserve his properties pending the resolution of ongoing

litigations over his properties.

According to the Senator, his properties have been marked in several states for confiscation, saying that unless the preservative order was issued against EFCC and Imo State, he would be prejudiced.

His motion on notice for the sought court order was filed by his counsel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Oba Maduabuchi.

But the EFCC and Imo State government opposed the request on the grounds that the court has no jurisdiction to hear Okorocha's suit on the grounds that it was not the type that can be heard during court vacation.

The respondents further argued that Okorocha did not meet the condition precedent for the matter to be heard during vacation, adding that the Fiat of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court ought to be sought and obtained before such matter can be heard during vacation.

EFCC and Imo State cited Order 46 Rule 5 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedures Rule 2019 allegedly breached by Okorocha while filing the fresh motion.

It will be recalled that Justice Fred Njemanze of a State High Court in Owerri had on Monday ordered the final and absolute forfeiture of Royal Palm Springs Hotel and other properties said to belong to Senator Rochas Okorocha and members of his family.

Justice Njemanze who granted the order while ruling in an application by the government for forfeiture of the said assets held that Okorocha’s counsel failed to give concrete and verifiable reasons why a final and absolute forfeiture order should not be given in favour of the applicant.

The forfeited properties were listed in the Imo State Government White Paper Report by a Judicial Commission of Enquiry on Recovery of Lands and other related matters.

The court in the ruling stated that the suit filed against the Imo State Government by Okorocha’s counsel was not properly filed.

Justice Njemanze maintained that the white paper gazette by the Imo state Government is a legal binding document.

The judge concluded that there

was no concrete reason before it why the forfeiture should not be made absolute and final, hence the Imo State Government can go ahead and do whatever it deems fit to do with the properties.

As for persons who might have made purchase on such properties, Justice Njemanze said they are at liberty to approach the court to prove their titles.

However, the properties as at today have been returned to the Imo State Government.

Justice Fred Njemanze had on February 26 given an interim order of forfeiture on the properties urging Senator Rochas Okorocha to approach the court to show cause as to why a final and absolute order of forfeiture should not be given over the properties following an application brought by Mr. Louis Alozie, SAN, on behalf of the state government.

This prompted Okorocha’s counsel to file a preliminary injunction to stop the final forfeiture, citing forceful eviction and that the suit by the Imo State Government was not properly Instituted.

Some of the properties forfeited include: Eastern Palm University, Ogboko; Royal Spring Palm Hotels and Apartments; IBC staff quarters said to have been illegally acquired for the purpose of Rochas Foundation College; Owerri magistrate quarters, Orlu road/cooperative office/ Girls Guide allegedly converted to private use housing market square and Kilimanjaro eatery.

Others are; Public building situated at plot B/2 Otamiri South Extension Layout given to the Ministry of Women Affairs for establishing a skills acquisition centre for women, allegedly acquired for the benefit of Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha’s All-In Mall along Aba road, Plot P5, Naze residential layout, initially part of primary school management board but now annexed to All-In Mall along Aba Road, belonging to Mrs Nkechi Okorocha and all the properties contained from pages 226 to 272 of the government white paper on the recommendation of the judicial commission of inquiry into land administration in Imo State from June 2006 to May 2019.”

judgment creditors the N17 billion judgment debt, in December 2017, the plaintiffs commenced garnishee proceedings at the Federal High Court in Owerri presided over by Justice Lewis Allagoa.

They urged the CBN to pay them N122.53 billion out of FirstBank’s account in its custody, and also calculated the principal sum of N17 billion and the accrued 25 per cent interest charge per annum to arrive at the sum of N122,533,403,392.

In January 2018, Justice Allagoa granted them a temporary order (garnishee nisi) ordering the CBN to pay them the sum from FirstBank’s account with it.

But the CBN asked the court not to make the order absolute.

The apex bank’s counsel argued that compelling the CBN to pay the N122.53 billion from FirstBank’s funds domiciled with it could have far-reaching consequences for Nigeria’s oldest and biggest lender by assets and deposits, and a systemic impact on the rest of the financial system and wider economy.

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 2, 2020, issued an order absolute, and by the order made by Justice Ekwo, the CBN governor was to order the release of the judgment sum from the account of First Bank.

Reacting to the latest judgment of the Supreme Court, the respondents’ lawyer, Nwosu hailed the court for protecting the dignity and integrity of the nation’s judiciary by its decision, despite alleged moves by Shell to ridicule it.

Nwosu noted that the judgment sum, “as at today, with the interest running, is in the neighbourhood of N182 billion.”

He expressed displeasure with the alleged plot by the CBN to frustrate the execution of the garnishee order absolute got against the account of First Bank by the victims/judgment creditors in their bid to execute the judgment.

Shell, in its reaction, disputed the amount, saying the ruling of the Supreme Court did not decide liability or the size of the award. It also denied responsibility for the oil spill in the community, insisting that it was caused by ‘third parties’ during the Nigerian Civil War. Continued Online

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Osinbajo: Great Nations Too Face Security, Economic Challenges Military plots major offensive against insurgents, bandits Kaduna appeals for more troop deployments to flush out criminals Deji Elumoye, Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja and John Shiklam in Kaduna The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, said whatever situation that the country was going through was nothing alien to history as many great nations across the world, had and are still encountering the kinds of security and economic challenges that Nigeria currently faces.

This is coming at a time the military high command has concluded plans to launch an offensive against the remaining criminals in the North East and the North West as well asother parts of the country, where the criminals have continued to wage war against the state.

Relatedly, the Kaduna State government, as if privy to the new plan by the military high command, has appealed to the Army to deploy more troops to the state to boost the ongoing operations against terrorists, bandits and kidnappers in the

state.

Osinbajo, who spoke while playing host to a delegation from the Arewa Concerned People for National Unity and Religious Tolerance from Kano, led by Alhaji Auwal Maidabino, stressed that there was no great nation anywhere that has not had the sort of challenge that Nigeria I currently faced with.

This, he claimed was especially so in countries, “where you have a multi-racial, multi-religious setup, and the greatest nations in the world are multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic.

“As a matter of fact, some of these things are as important as the economy and security… for the reason that a united people, people who see themselves as one, are more likely to be economically successful, more likely to be able to secure themselves and secure their borders, and more likely to work together for the goodness and greatness of their people.”

The vice president told the delegation that, “It is the duty of the leadership, not just political

leadership, but also the leadership of social groups and organisations such as yours, to ensure that we are focused on these issues of unity and tolerance.”

Osinbajo explained further that, “As you know, religious tolerance and unity, is for me, a matter that goes beyond mere advocacy.

I believe very strongly that the greatness of nations, wherever those nations may be, have always been on account of leaders, who thought it fit to build those nations on the basis of unity and tolerance.

“I think that it is such an important issue that we cannot afford to discount it. There is a need for us to pay more time and attention to these issues in whatever way we can, because every once in a while, we see some threats to the unity of our country, and we must not allow it to happen at all, we must continue not just in the advocacy, but in action that will bring about unity and religious tolerance".

Leader of the delegation, Alhaji Maidabino, who spoke earlier, commended Osinbajo for his

BUHARI: NIGERIA’S $3BN SHARE OF AFRICA’S $75BN FDI UNACCEPTABLE flows to Nigeria showed a 48.5 per cent decrease compared to the previous year.

Nigeria has a poorly developed transport and energy infrastructure, resulting in high operating costs, an inefficient judicial system and unreliable dispute settlement mechanism as well as serious security concerns.

Buhari, who was represented at the occasion by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, urged the new NEITI board to build on the efficiency and ramp up on-going reforms in the oil and gas as well as mining sectors.

The president explained that NEITI’s work strongly aligned with the vision of his administration to provide a robust governance framework in the oil and gas and mining sectors and guarantees professionalism, transparency, accountability, good returns on investment, as well as improved revenue for the country. He urged the new board to provide the required leadership and strategic direction for NEITI to channel similar attention it had shown in the oil and gas industry to the solid minerals sector to galvanise reforms in the sector.

Buhari stated, “The board of NEITI must articulate a new approach and seek productive collaborations, where necessary, to make Nigeria investment destination and dramatically increase the quantum of investments to the country.

“It is unacceptable, a situation where only $3 billion came to Nigeria out of the $75 billion investment in the extractive industry that came into subSaharan Africa.”

He charged the new board members to avoid acts capable of disrupting the day-to-day management of the agency.

“I have witnessed a lot of disruptions to agency activities due majorly to a misunderstanding and at times deliberate misinterpretation of roles,” he stressed.

In his remarks, the chairman of the board, Mr Olusegun Adekunle, pledged the commitment of the team to push the boundaries of EITI implementation in Nigeria to achieve results.

Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji, explained that the retreat was designed to

expose members of the board to the methods, principles and benefits of EITI in Nigeria. Orji added that the retreat, which had global and national experts on EITI, law, public policy and administration as resource persons, was put together to build the capacity of the board to take up its leadership role with adequate knowledge and competence.

Head of the international secretariat of EITI, Dr. Mark Robinson, in a message from the organisation’s headquarters in Oslo, Norway, said the world body was ready and willing to offer technical assistance to the new board in the performance of its functions.

Meanwhile, Biden's aides are pressuring OPEC and its allies to increase oil output to tackle rising petrol prices, which they see as threating global economic recovery.

Biden's National Security Adviser (NSA), Jake Sullivan, criticised the world's major oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, for what he said were insufficient crude production levels in the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

"At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough," he said in a statement.

Petrol prices in the United States are running at $3.18 a gallon at the pumps, up more than a dollar from last year at this time, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

The unusual statement ratcheted up international pressure and comes as the administration tries to contain a range of rising prices and supply bottlenecks across the economy that have fuelled inflation concerns.

Biden has made recovering from the economic recession triggered by the pandemic a key priority for his administration.

The message also underscored the new dynamic between Washington and OPEC since Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, broke with prior practice in demanding specific policy changes to adjust prices.

Trump had threatened to withdraw military support from OPEC leader Saudi Arabia over output, which at the time he thought was too high and hurting U.S.-based drillers.

Biden's administration is pressing countries within OPEC+,

which groups OPEC with Russia and other big producers, "on the importance of competitive markets in setting prices," Sullivan said, adding, "Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the on-going global recovery.”

The US government said, “OPEC+ must do more to support the recovery."

International benchmark Brent crude was trading around $70 a barrel yesterday, down half a per cent, after the US issued its statement, lower than the prices above $77 in early July, but still representing an increase of nearly a third from the beginning of the year.

The Biden administration's push for lower fuel prices in some way shreds its efforts to secure global leadership in the fight against climate change, an agenda anchored by efforts to transition the economy away from fossil fuels toward cleaner energy sources and electric vehicles.

US oil production has been stagnant at 11 million barrels per day (bpd) since the fallout of the pandemic pulled it from a record high of 12.3 million bpd in 2019.

OPEC+ had implemented a record output cut of 10 million bpd, about 10 per cent of world demand, as global energy demand slumped during the pandemic, but has been gradually raising output since. As of July, the cut had been eased to about 5.8 million bpd.

At a meeting held in July, OPEC+ agreed to boost output by 400,000 bpd a month starting in August, until the rest of the 5.8 million bpd cut was phased out. OPEC+ is scheduled to hold another meeting on September 1 to review the situation.

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, recently said high oil prices were not in the interest of resource-dependent countries, like Nigeria, arguing that the most comfortable threshold would be between $50 and $60.

He argued that if prices continued to rise, it would get to a point that buyers of Nigeria’s crude oil might find other alternatives, which could negatively affect the country’s economy.

innovative approach to governance and the several initiatives of the Buhari administration anchored through his office, praying God to provide the opportunity to enable him continue to serve the nation.

He noted that through schemes such as TraderMoni, National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, N-Power, and the Ease of Doing Business initiative, among others, the vice president has impacted many Nigerians across different sectors.

His words: “We wish to commend and congratulate you for your contributions in the area of promotion of good governance, transparency, and efficiency as exemplified with the core principles behind the Ease of Doing Business initiative of this government, and for the continuation of your uncompromising dedication to peace, unity, and economic progress, among others.”

Maidabinno informed Osinbajo of plans by the group to convene a national forum on unity as part of its contributions to entrenching peaceful coexistence and unity among Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the decision by the military to launch an offensive followed refusal by more terrorists and bandits to lay down their arms after over 1000 of them, including their families, recently surrendered to the Nigerian troops.

Security sources were of the view that the successes recorded so far were the outcome of the joint operations launched by the new service chiefs under the leadership of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor.

The planned concluding offensive, however, came as hundreds of roaming armed bandits were alleged to be regrouping in Zamfara State, one of the hot beds of armed banditry.

Another source, who spoke anonymously, said the surrender by the insurgents was the result of the joint operations launched by the military against terrorists.

"We are seeing clearly the result of jointness, which was evidently missing in the past. The Chief of Army Staff and Chief of the Air

Staff have demostrated jointness and the importance of collectivism in a war like this.

"They see themselves as one.

They don't look at individual trophies but a collective one. The welfare flights launched to airlift soldiers on pass was the jointness again. The service chiefs brought their experiences as former theatre commanders to bear.

"The CDS is providing leadership. The CAS despite recent incidents has kept his eyes on the ball", the source, who retired at the equivalent rank of a major general, explained, adding that, “The jointness, synergy and collaboration are paying off," the source stated.

When contacted on the planned offensive, Spokesman of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, said, "We have no specific date for the deployment", but THISDAY sources insisted the deployment would be soon.

Curiously, hundreds of armed bandits were said to have started regrouping in Zamfara State after military operations drove them out of Dansadau in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

THISDAY learnt that the bandits were setting houses ablaze and killing villagers. "Most of the bandits are said to be foreigners," a security source posited.

Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, who appealed to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya, when he paid her a courtesy call at Government House, Kaduna, emphasized the need to deploy more troops to the state.

Balarabe, while noting that the ongoing military operations in parts of the metropolis hadyielded positive results, also appealed to the Army Chief to firm up the attacks across the state to wipe out bandits.

She urged the COAS to deploy more troops along KadunaKachia-Kafanchan roads as well as increased military presence along Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road to curb increasing cases of kidnappings by bandits.

“We are appealing for more deployment of troops along the

Kaduna-Kachia road. This is one place that in recent times, has become a very serious source of concern.

“Initially, we were thinking of the Kaduna-Abuja highway, but now because of the presence of troops there, kidnapping and banditry have moved to KadunaKachia-Kafanchan axis,”she said.

She added that increased military presence was also required in Igabi, Chikun, Giwa and Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.

While commending the military for the operations, she also called for a more coordinated approach to tackle the bandits, noting that once security forces were in a particular area, the bandits moved to other areas.

She , therefore, called on the Nigerian Army to consider deploying more troops to the Southern Kaduna general area, especially, Zangon Kataf LGA, following the recent crisis in the area, which has led to destruction of lives and property.

She applauded the leadership of the Operation Safe Haven in trying to secure the Southern part of the state.

“We have had relative peace until recently, when the crisis in Zangon Kataf started again and we feel that we should have more troops deployed there because it’s like the situation is overwhelming,” she said.

Earlier, Yahaya, who said he was in Kaduna for Senior Officers Seminar, commended the state government for the support being given to the Army.

“I would like to particularly appreciate His Excellency, the Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, for all the support we enjoy from him and from the Government of Kaduna State.

“I was here as the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 1 Division, I know how we related.” he said.

Yahaya contended that the Nigerian Army was aware of the security challenges in Kaduna and assured the people and government that everything would be done to flush out the criminals, adding that troops had started taking the battle to the bandits.

18 YEARS AFTER, FG SET TO REINTRODUCE TOLL GATES ON HIGHWAYS as to the erection of the plazas would be negotiated with relevant government agencies.

He said, "First of all, toll will not start until roads are motorable. So let's be clear about this.

“There will be agreements that have to be negotiated with government through the Ministry of Works and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.

“Some of the highlights are that we will adopt an open tolling policy, as distinct from a closed tolling policy. The difference is that only open tolling policy, which is what we were used to, you pay at a barrier over a fixed or predetermined distance.

“The closed toll system means that you will pay tolls over the distance you travel and the size of your vehicle. We haven't operated that before. So we are going back to what we know. We also approved that consultations must be done. Willingness to pay surveys must be done before specific roads are tolled."

The minister also said the fees to be collected, apart from being used to maintain the roads,

would be used to construct new roads, while the toll system would be electronically driven for transparency.

According to him, "We also got approval that the toll will be used to maintain roads, to construct new roads as they accrue and also to pay the investors who invest in building or completing a road and then take a concession on it. Those are the uses.

"We will also be going through a process of largely electronic toll collection and management system for audit and transparency.”

Fashola stated, "We concede this as a national policy, that is why we are making general framework so that states can also decide, subject to their local laws, local governments can do their own tolling based on all of these considerations as a broad framework.”

Fashola emphasised that government had consulted widely with both stakeholders in the public and private sectors before agreeing on the policy.

He stated, "We met with a lot of people, we met with government agencies, first of all, but more importantly, we

met with private sector and organised labour. Nobody that we met with opposed the idea of tolling, at least none of the people that we have met with opposed it.

“Some of the people, you might wish to know, are members of the National Assembly, Senate, and House of Representatives Committees oversighting us, so that they can take this feedback to their constituents.

“We had consultations with the Office of the National Security Adviser, Bureau of Public Enterprises, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, which will be helping us with the electronic and digital aspect of it.

"We also met with those who are affected by the tolls themselves: Ministry of Transportation, who supervises a part of the transport business and, then, the Road Transport Employers Association, the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and National Union of Road Transport Workers (NUTRW), and Ministry of Trade and Investment, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council.”

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COMMENT

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

USING TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE PORT EFFICIENCY Mohammed Bello-Koko urges all stakeholders to buy into the e-call up system for trucks

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igerian Ports Authority’s focus in line with the federal government’s port reform agenda has been to enthrone a competitive port system that supports efficient handling of ships and cargo, facilitates the smooth evacuation of imports from overseas and receipt of exports from the hinterland, served by road, rail, and inland waterways.

Effective cargo handling requires that there must be adequate cargo handling plants and sufficient trucks for cargo evacuation from the ports. After the 2006 port concession programme, the Lagos Ports witnessed an upsurge in cargo throughput, and the deplorable state of the port access roads led to vehicular congestion on the port access corridors.

Traffic management along the access roads to the ports in Lagos grew into a major challenge for the NPA. Consequently, an Integrated Truck Traffic Management System (e-call up system) which requires the combination of information technology and physical infrastructure was evolved in partnership with an indigenous company – Messrs Truck Transit Park Limited (TTPL), to bring an end to the situation.

The e-call up system is based on the principle that all port-bound trucks shall be called from a truck park or empty container holding bay, before they can have access to the ports. The system manages the scheduling of trucks to access the ports from satellite truck parks or a pre-gate as the case may be, with minimal human interference.

The effectiveness of the e-call up system, however, is dependent on three major factors namely: physical infrastructure, information technology, and stakeholders’ collaboration.

Inadequate physical infrastructure (such as truck parks and holding bays) has been a major constraint to the smooth transfer and delivery of shipments in and out of the ports. To nip this challenge in the bud, the Nigerian Ports Authority mandated all shipping companies to comply with the authority’s empty container policy, which requires all shipping companies involved in container operations to have empty containers holding bays in locations other than the port precincts or the maritime logistics ring. The logistics ring is from Tin-Can Island Port to Mile Two and also from Lagos Port Complex to Eric Moore Bridge down to Orile -Mile Two. With the e-call up system, movement of the empty containers from these holding bays is done electronically in scheduled batches.

The authority in December 2020 via a public advert invited private truck parks operators for their facility to be used as satellite truck parks after fulfillment of the set conditions in the advert. This is aimed at standardizing truck park operations and providing dedicated space where all the trucks hitherto on the roads and bridges would temporarily stay before being scheduled to the ports.

Also, the authority converted the Lilypond Container Terminal, Ijora to serve as truck transit park. The newly-built truck terminal at Tin-Can Island Port (known as MOB Park) was integrated into the network of parks for the e-call up system. The Ahmed Bola Tinubu Park at Orile Iganmu, provided by the Lagos State government has been identified as a potential feeder park to hold static traffic and also feed the Lilypond Truck Transit Park for the port-bound trucks. Currently, 31 truck parks have been approved across Lagos State to accelerate the implementation of the e-call up system.

All approved truck parks are to be well equipped with telecommuni-

A KEY DELIVERABLE THAT WE’RE WORKING TO ESTABLISH IS A DEDICATED UNENCUMBERED LANE FOR OTHER ROAD USERS ALONG THE PORT CORRIDOR, IJORA TO APAPA 24/7

cation gadgets that would allow for proper integration and monitoring of activities in these parks on a 24/7 basis.

Some of the equipment expected at the parks include closed circuit television (CCTV), electronic access barrier (Access Gate), inverters for constant power supply, reliable internet connection (preferably local area network, LAN) and bollards.

A team of officials from the NPA constantly visits these parks to ensure that these gadgets are functioning. The provision and installation of these hi-tech gadgets have accelerated the implementation of the e-call up system.

The Lilypond Transit Truck Park serves as the pre-gate and central control room for all truck park activities.

The e-call up system for trucks will not achieve the desired outcome if stakeholders do not buy into it. The NPA, therefore, sensitized both its internal and external stakeholders through town hall and virtual meetings.

Amongst the industry stakeholders engaged by the authority include freight forwarders, shipping companies, and the various transport unions operating at the port, owners of empty container holding bays, barge operators, and terminal operators.

Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Road Safety Corps, and relevant agencies under the Lagos State Government serve as the enforcement backbone of the project.

The authority also embraced the intermodal transport approach in tackling the vehicular congestion on the port access roads by encouraging the use of barges. Trucks are captured on the “eto” platform, and are moved via barges to the port thereby reducing the travel time had the truck moved by road to the port.

To address the bottleneck faced by exporters to process their documents, the NPA engaged the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) on the establishment of export processing terminals to ensure that export containers are given priority. All export documentation would take place in the terminals, thereafter the trucks conveying the export containers will now be scheduled to access the port electronically.

The e-call up system like any other novel initiatives comes with its teething problems. However, these teething problems are surmountable and the authority is working towards resolving them.

Enforcement of traffic rules and regulations has been a challenge since the roll-out of the e-call system in February this year. But a key deliverable that we’re working to establish is a dedicated unencumbered lane for other road users along the port corridor, Ijora to Apapa 24/7.

This is the source of discontent by the Apapa residents of unregulated truck movement within the Apapa environment.

Other challenges are poor supervision at night of trucking activities and the activities of security agencies (Nigeria Police/LASTMA/NPA Security/FRSC), miscreants called ECOMOG Boys and members of the disbanded Presidential Task Team that are having adverse effects on the ecosystem. The Lagos State Police Command has identified over 30 checkpoints specifically interfering with traffic movement and sabotaging the e-call up project.

The NPA has, however, intensified its engagement with the system operator - Messrs TTP Ltd., and others stakeholders to enhance service efficiency and response time to users of the “eto” platform.

Bello-Koko, is Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority

ENGAGING YOUTHS IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

There is need to engage the youths in education, entrepreneurship and innovations in technologies, writes Noah Dallaji

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he focus of this year’s International Youth Day obviously throws up some important conversations on the challenges of making the world a better place to live with particular attention on the Agenda 2030 as declared by the United Nations as well as the prime position of the youths and their crucial engagement.

While there have been advances in increased food production thereby enhancing sustainability in relative degrees, there are also concerns regarding other elements which could still hinder human and planetary wellbeing.

It is, therefore, salutary that the United Nations deemed it fit to put the pertinent issues into context in this year’s celebration with the theme “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”.

According to the UN, the substantive aim of the theme is to draw attention to the fact that the success of such a global effort will not be achieved without the meaningful participation of the young people.

Of course, this is sound reasoning when we realize that the number of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 is 1.1 billion, constituting 18 percent of the global population. Yet, youth and children together, including all those aged 24 years and younger, account for nearly 40 percent of the world’s population. Still, the world’s population is expected to rise by two billion in the next 30 years.

In Nigeria, the situation is more alarming.

According to population projections by the UN for 2020, about 43 percent of the Nigerian population comprised children 0-14 years, 19 percent age 15-24

years and about 62 percent are below age 25 years.

Invariably, the youths are not only the essential components of the future but quite key even in contemporary considerations for any purposeful ideas and policies for development.

Now, in examining the theme and its relevance, we should look at the two important parts, namely the issues in transforming food systems and levels of participation by the youths to enhance human and planetary health.

The food systems refer to the technical, economic, social and environmental processes and actors through which we feed the world’s population, which have also collectively helped significantly in mitigating the challenge of hunger and starvation, even though in relative terms.

Experts believe that the world has made tremendous progress in improving food security and nutrition in recent years. According to statistics, the proportion of people experiencing hunger fell from 14.7 percent to 10.6 percent between 2000 and 2015. It is also stated that progress has further been made on under-nutrition, with the prevalence of child stunting, for instance, dropping from 40 percent to 23 percent between 1990 and 2015.

However, recent effects of the food systems are scaling down these landmarks as they are also recognized to be at the heart of the global health and sustainability crises. For, it is reckoned that after a period of prolonged decline, world hunger is on the rise, millions of children are still too short for their age, and nearly two billion adults are overweight or obese. These different forms of malnutrition, it is also asserted, have become some of the leading causes of disease in the world.

It is further believed that activities of the food systems have led to water pollution and land degradation, with substantial effect on greenhouse emission.

In spite of all these negatives, experts think that the food systems are capable of fixing the problems, thereby helping to meet the UN development goals where poverty reduction (particularly unemployment), social inclusion (women empowerment), health care, biodiversity conservation and challenge of climate change are critical.

And it is here that the youths have a major role to play as relevant actors by using their innovative minds to influence our collective sanity in making the wellbeing of human and planetary health a possibility. But this won’t happen by chance, we need to engage them critically and actively in the process especially in our policies and programmes.

Indeed, such a step can only be in tandem with the 2021 ECOSOC Youth Forum where the youths highlighted salient issues and priorities which included the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human health, the environment and food systems.

There were also issues relating to the importance of working towards more equitable food systems, making informed decisions on food choices, adequate capacity building and the reality that some externalities can be generated in the process of food system with great health consequences.

As summed up by the UN, a lot can be achieved through youth education, engagement, innovation and entrepreneurial solutions and I quite agree. Clearly, such engagements will have a relationship with innovations in technologies, policies and our institutions.

As we celebrate the International Youth Day, I am enamored to think about how we can leverage on our National Youth Development Policy which could have a major impact on the pace to delivering on the UN goals 2030. The policy, among others, seeks to promote and protect the health, social, economic and political wellbeing of all young men and women in order to enhance their participation in the development process and improve their quality of life. Overall, it focuses on key areas like education, health, agriculture, women and girls, peace-building, HIV/AIDS, migration and human trafficking, poverty and participation.

These are important areas of possible engagement of our youths which correlate with underlying concerns for innovation as espoused by the UN, thereby impacting on wellbeing of human and planetary health. Indeed, they could possibly align with the other half of the IYD theme in effecting desired change and balance in the overall food system transformation process.

The Nigerian youths constitute our real hope for a greater future and we must begin to identify and address issues that would enhance their lives and improve overall national development.

What is required is fidelity to the effective implementation of the basic contents of the National Youth Development Policy and affirming institutional oversight on the policy as it relates to the activities of the various stakeholders towards fulfilment and making life more abundant to the generality of our population.

Dallaji, founder, African Children Talent Discovery Foundation wrote from Abuja.

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EDITORIAL

FALLOUT OF TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS Sports administration deserves an earthquake

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he delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has come and gone. For the first time, spectators were barred from the venues for fear of the spread of Covid-19. Athletes competed without the usual vibes from the stands. It certainly was a different kind of Olympic Games.

While our country’s contingent performed slightly better than the last two outings in London and Rio de Janeiro with the consolatory silver and bronze medals won by Blessing Oborududu (wrestling) and Ese Brume (long jump), Team Nigeria was in the news for the wrong reasons.

Of the 20 athletes from seven countries suspended by Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics fr om Tokyo 2020, 10 of them were Nigerians. They were among the 23 athletes we took to Tokyo for the track and field events. These unfortunate athletes were barred by the AIU because the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Federal Ministry of AFTER NIGERIA’S BESTYouth and Sports EVER PERFORMANCE AT Development failed to do their THE ATLANTA GAMES IN 1996, OUR SPORTS HAVE jobs. The athletes BEEN FLOUNDERING LIKE violated Rule 15 of the anti-doping RUDDERLESS SHIP ON regulations which SEA. mandated three out-of-competitions tests within 10 months of a major track and field competition.

Since last year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had beamed its searchlight on Nigeria due to several things that officials take for granted.

It therefore came as no surprise when Nigeria got listed in Category ‘A’ of countries with highest risks of doping. It was this carelessness that resulted in the suspension of the 10 athletes. They didn’t do the mandatory blood and urine tests three weeks apart before arriving in Tokyo for the Games.

As is typical, the new AFN led by Tonobok

Letters to the Editor

Okowa has shifted blame for the embarrassment to the immediate past board headed by Ibrahim Shehu Gusau. Okowa’s board is less than two months in office. Of course, Gusau has in turn insisted he warned the Sunday Dare-led ministry about the impending doom in Tokyo if our athletes failed to carry out the mandatory tests. Beyond the blame game, it is obvious that the power tussle in the AFN that forced affairs of the athletes to take back seat was largely responsible for the embarrassment Nigeria faced at the Tokyo Olympics.

I T H I S DAY EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITOR WALE OLALEYE, OBINNA CHIMA MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL IWEGBU CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI THE OMBUDSMAN KAYODE KOMOLAFE

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 SHAKA MOMODU, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGED ENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

t was a sorry sight to see Nigerian athletes who should be competing for medals, carrying placards in protest of being excluded through no fault of theirs. As if that was not enough, Blessing Okagbare, our brightest medal prospect in the women’s 100m and 200m was also provisionally suspended from the Games for failing out-of-competition dope test carried out on her last month. She tested positive for Human Growth Hormone (HGH), a performance enhancing substance added to WADA’s ban list this year.

To compound the problem, PUMA, the German sportswear company that Gusau entered partnership with on behalf of the country, cancelled the four-year deal over a breach that can easily be located in some financial improprieties.

After Nigeria’s best-ever performance at the Atlanta Games in 1996, our sports have been floundering like rudderless ship on sea. No real attempt has been made to reverse the rot in the sector. Will there be sanctions for those who caused Nigeria to be embarrassed in Tokyo? That too, cannot be answered with affirmation. Worse things have happened in our sports in the past without consequences. So why would those handling the sector be bothered when all that matters are what they stand to get, financially? Will there be better preparations for Paris 2024? We doubt.

Unless there is a total overhaul of the sports sector and there are consequences for what happened in Tokyo, the rot will continue.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

ANAMBRA POLL AND JUDICIAL ‘HANDOUTS’ Continued from backpage n 16th July, Dr Godwin Ezeemo sought an Order declaring that the PDP primaries in which Ozigbo emerged the winner was null and void. Meanwhile, the drama in the APC has been no less intense. On 16th July, Hon Maxwell Okoye was at the FHC, Awka, seeking an Order to declare him the APC gubernatorial candidate.

On 19th July, Dr George Moghalu sought an Order to compel INEC to delist the name of Emmanuel Andy Nnamdi Uba from among the list of candidates participating in the election.

There are also cases within the smaller parties, even though petitioners may be proxies for others within the leading parties. For instance, on 19th July at the High Court of Abia State, Ukwa Division, in a case involving Action Alliance (AA), Hon Chukwudi Tony Ezekwelu sought an Order to recognize the gubernatorial candidate and running mate submitted by the Chief Kenneth Udeze leadership as the authentic, lawful, and duly nominated candidates of the party for the election. Other cases involve Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Advanced Nigerian Democratic Party (ANDP).

Clearly there is an interesting intersection between politics and the judiciary in Anambra State. President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed as much in one of the interview sessions I had with him before the publication of my 2017 book, ‘Against The Run of Play’. In explaining how his view on the distinction between corruption and stealing was deliberately taken out of context by his opponents, President Jonathan illustrated his point with a meeting he held with the leadership of both the legislature and judiciary to find an institutional framework to tackle

O

corruption in Nigeria: “…I also invited Chief Judges from one state in each of the six geopolitical zones. I specifically requested for Lagos and Anambra to represent their zones. My choosing Anambra was because that is one state where every political aspirant goes into election with at least two court orders in his pocket. You cannot fight corruption without dealing with such issues”.

I agree with President Jonathan that what is happening in Anambra State is antithetical to democracy. But we should not blame the politicians. In fact, there is a positive to what is happening in Anambra State.

As Dr Ikechukwu also said, rarely do you see violence in Anambra politics. It’s either the politicians engage in ‘financial shootout’ (a phrase coined by Mr Ferdinand Agu) or they slug it out at the courts. That is commendable in a milieu where elections are generally fought as a do-or-die affair in which lives are usually lost.

However, the growing trend of indiscriminate use of ill-gotten court orders and judgements to achieve political goals is fast eroding the credibility of the Bench in Nigeria. And those we must blame are judicial officers who offer themselves as willing tools for desperate politicians. At all times and in all circumstances, the role of the courts as the interpreter of the law, resolver of disputes and defender of the constitution, requires that Judges abide by their oath. A judiciary debilitated by, or prone to, all manner of misconduct, including hawking judgments and orders, is a danger to any society. That danger stares us in the face even more conspicuously in the reprehensible free flow of baffling court orders and judgements regarding the upcoming Anambra State gubernatorial election.

Olusegun Adeniyi, Abuja

VAT AND JOYOUS DANCE IN RIVERS STATE

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on. Justice Dalyop Pam issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining FIRS and AGF from collecting and demanding personal income tax and VAT. The suit was filed by the Attorney General of Rivers State. The court granted all the reliefs sought by attorney general citing Item 58 and 59 of the exclusive legislative list of the constitution as the only authority limiting the tax collection of federal government to taxation of incomes, profits and capital gains and this does not include VAT or any other sales or levies.

This judgement is exciting to some Southerners who see the region as the biggest source of VAT and implying the North as “parasite”. So the judgement fits the deepening regional division unfortunately. It is more unfortunate because the judgement will attract ethnic biases instead of dispassionate legal analysis. It is needful to disappoint those that will use the judgement as a tool of ethnic or regional manipulation to note that out of 36 states in Nigeria and FCT, only about five states can boast of contributing meaningful VAT collection. According to 2020 report of BudgIT, Lagos, Ogun, FCT, and Rivers are the highest contributors of VAT. This is a slap in the face of other states; whether in the south or north that are being sustained largely by the contributions of just four or five states.

Mujib Dada-Qadri Esq, dadamujeeb1@gmail.com

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POLITICS

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

Babajide Sanwo-Olu

Completing Red, Blue Rail Lines May Cost Over N100bn Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in an interview monitored on a national television, spoke on his achievements in the last two years in line with his THEMES development agenda and other issues. Nseobong Okon-Ekong presents the excerpts:

Sanwo-Olu

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hat are the plans for the Red Rail Line? The rail project has been planned for over 10 years but has not been delivered just yet. What caused the delay?

It was on our drawing board when I was in the Babatunde Fashola government. We started the Blue line in 2010 and not the Red line. If we step back, we will remember we always had the rail corridor. Lagos was not with the Federal Government at the time, so the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government never gave Lagos the right of way for the Red line, which is from Oyingbo, Ebute-Metta all the way to Agbado. The Federal Government never gave us the opportunity to do the Red line then. It is just now that we are doing the Red line. The Federal Government went ahead to construct the Lagos to Ibadan to Kano rail and if we miss the opportunity now and we do not quickly do the Red line, what will happen is that once they start the full operations, we will not be able to have an intra-city rail network. It is inter-city they are doing now – Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan and all the way to Kano.

So, for us, it is to seize the opportunity to build the rail infrastructure and go line in line with Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC). In some places, we need to build our own terminals, sidelines, have joint communications strategy and build overpasses such that we can have intra-city network from Oyingbo to Ebute-Metta to Yaba, to pass Jibowu to Mushin, Ikeja, Agege, Ijaiye and finally to Agbado. What this will do for us is that while the Federal Government is taking people out of Lagos to other parts of the country, we are keeping our own traffic internal to Lagos. Whilst the corridor has been developed, there are places where we need to extend the rail infrastructure corridor. We have about six stations to build and bridge overpasses, where vehicles would go on top and rail will go below, so that we can have safety which is critical

and paramount for any rail infrastructure.

And in each of those stations to be built, car parks and small retail malls will be built for people to have a transportation experience.

The whole idea is for people to have transportation choices in Lagos. We are doing rail, we have started extensive development in waterways. Of course, BRT is the only one that everyone sees.

But I would also tell you something as regard the waterways. We are currently building 15 jetties. They are like small terminal buildings right from Liverpool in Apapa straight down to Apa in Badagry, Marina waterfront in Badagry and will take you to Otuomu Creek in Epe, Ilaje, Ilado on Lagos West coast, which is in Amuwo-Odofin; Eti-Osa (Badore, Oke-Ira) through Falomo, Ebute-Ero leading to Marina. So, we are connecting the entire Lagos also with waterways. At the end of the day, representing the first pillar of the THEMES agenda which is Traffic Management and Transportation, we want to have efficient rail network (Blue line and Red line), waterways that people believe in, trust, reliable and safe, and of course have the BRT. Although working independently, we want to ensure that

the payment solution can be done cutting across all transport systems together.

For those who do not know, what is the difference between the red and the blue line rail?

It is where they are in Lagos. The Blue line is meant to start from Okokomaiko in Lagos West on Lagos – Badagry Expressway after Lagos State University (LASU).

It is supposed to come from Okokomaiko to Mile 2 through Orile, take it elevated to pass the National Arts Theatre then sea crossing and finally end up in Marina. It is a 29-kilometre stretch. The Phase 1 of the project is from Marina to Mile 2, while the Phase 2 is from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko.

The beauty of this project is that we have constructed the difficult parts, which is the elevated one like the bridges; we are building bridges all through where the rails are going to be. From Mile 2 to Okokomaiko is at the grid level, meaning it is at surface level. So, we are just going to put the tracks there, we are not building any bridge. It is just straight track and the alignment is there.

The Red Line is on Lagos Central District into Lagos West as well. The Phase 1 of it will start from Oyingbo, go through

I don’t criticise my predecessor, but indeed for whatever planning or reasons, he never just funded it. So, when we came back two years ago, the contractor has since significantly moved from about 55 per cent and now we are about 94 per cent in terms of physical construction of Phase 1.

We have also raised finance for the rolling stock

Ebute-Metta, pass Yaba, Jibowu to Mushin, pass through Ilupeju to Ikeja Along, gets to Agege, Iju and finally to Agbado. The Phase 2 of the Red Line will be the C-Crossing from Ebute Metta, Oyingbo to Iddo and will cross the bridge as well like the Blue line has done and finally bring you to Marina. So, Marina will eventually have both the Red Line and the Blue Line. So, it will be a major transport hub.

So, there is no difference Blue and Red rail, many thought that by the colours one is more sophisticated than the other Yes. Was funding the reason for delay of the Blue line?

There is no sub-national anywhere in subSaharan Africa; in fact if you also take it to the developed world in United States that is taking a rail project by itself. We are a sub-national, we took that decision over 10 years ago and we said we want to be audacious. I was in that cabinet and we said we have never seen a rail being developed. No sub-national has taken up one, so it was an audacity that we have taken it up. And you will see that from Orile to Marina is elevated. It is like we are building eight kilometers of bridge on the highway. So, cost is critical and it is crossing the water. It was funding that was the major problem. It was a major problem.

It looked like contractors stopped work and nothing was happening, at a point in time Unfortunately, I don’t criticise my predecessor, but indeed for whatever planning or reasons, he never just funded it. So, when we came back two years ago, the contractor has since significantly moved from about 55 per cent and now we are about 94 per cent in terms of physical construction of Phase 1. We have also raised finance for the rolling stock.

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POLITICS terminals or jetties that the boat can berth, with security, just like the type you have at Falomo.

It may not be the building that size, but the safety and the security of the jetty must also be of that quality. Once that is done, the other thing is to encourage private sector investors to be able to make investments in ferries; buy the boats, ride and just comply with safety that we are going to put in place. We have been the one leading that conversation as we have 20 boats now with 30, 50 passengers that is been run by LAGFERRY. We want to demonstrate the capability and capacity of the waterways. The data shows we have moved over 200,000 passengers in less than one year and it is verifiable.

How much is this costing Lagos State?

It is a lot of money, it is well over N100 billion to be honest with you.

Is it government funding or counterpart funding?

It is largely government funding but we have to use creative financing. When you are doing creative financing and you are building infrastructures that are going to last 20, 30 years, you cannot be using short term fund. You need to look out for matching long-term funds to be able to have the breather so that you will be able to pay back in the life of that infrastructure. So we have some very decent long term borrowing to cushion the effect of it.

In terms of Return on Investment, what does it look like?

I will be critical with you. There is always that little element of subsidy that might come in there; subsidy in the area of ensuring that you have price regulation. We are going to get concessioners who are going to put the rolling stock on it. All we are developing is the infrastructure. Somebody is going to put the rolling stock on it, which is like the buses. It is like on the normal road, we built the road and get people to buy buses and ply the road; that is what is going to happen with the rail.

So, with our concessioners, it is to say to them, we must have some stringent passenger rules; you can’t just wake up and say you want to increase the fare to a certain amount. You must have the breather to know that you will recoup your investment over a longer period of time so that it becomes accessible and affordable to the citizens. So, those are some of the models we are working with. We believe that there will be Return on Investment for the concessioners when they come.

The bigger Return on Investment will be the ease of life for the lives of Lagosians in terms of the traffic and hours that people stay in traffic.

There was an interesting video that someone posted where everybody on the bus at night were commuting from the Island to the Mainland were asleep except a person who recorded the video and obviously the driver. It tells how tedious it is for people to commute in Lagos.

It is difficult because a megacity of this size cannot rely only on one means of transportation.

It is unfair. So, that is why we have to stretch ourselves. When we asked the citizens a question during the campaign, what do they want us to solve first? It is transportation and so we needed to look for the funding to give them the three options – rail, waterways and road transportation. Not only does it improve the quality of life, we believe that it also enhances the economic value of our citizens. People can pretty much determine their travel and journey time, and have it all set up.

Can Lagos residents and citizens hold on to your promise that this will be delivered before the end of next year.

It will be delivered. We should see the rail movement by the last quarter of next year. Once we are able to get the rail movement, the only thing that would probably remain is to ensure signalisation, security components and that we certify all of the security and safety issues that are required; then we should open it up. We believe that before the end of our tenure as governor, people should be plying on the railway.

It is not only the scarcity of the means of transportation that is the problem causing traffic and long-man hours on the road but also the quality of some of the road.

There are lots of potholes on the road. Are you solving those kinds of problems too?

We have to take it up very seriously. Infrastructure in terms of road infrastructure is critical to us.

In all of our three senatorial districts, there are big investments we are doing on road infrastructure.

For instance in Lagos West, we are doing a lot in the whole of Alimosho, Ojokoro, AgbadoIjaiye and Ojo. Right now, we just awarded the Old Navy Town Road in Ojo; the Buba Marwa, very notorious heavy traffic road where all the trailers and fuel tankers are at Ijegun. We just commissioned Tedimowo Bridge at Ojo Local Government Area. If you come towards Agege/ Alimosho area, we handed over the Pen-Cinema Bridge and 31 roads in Ojokoro and Agbado/ Oke-Odo and Ijaiye axis. If you come to the Lagos East, we are doing Agric-Isawo Road, Oba Sikumade Road, Ijede Road, Igbogbo-Isawo Road and a brand new road to be named Bola Ahmed Tinubu Road going towards new Ijede Road, all in Ikorodu at the same time. In Lagos Central, we are doing several roads in Ikoyi; we

Is that why the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) also partnered with Lagos State for Super Eagles to travel across the water?

Absolutely. Thank you very much

Sanwo-Olu are doing Thompson Avenue, McPherson in Victoria Island.

Are these new roads construction or you are fixing them?

They are brand new roads. Because of potholes, we are doing brand new roads with drainages everywhere. From Eleko Junction in Eti-Osa going to Epe is 18-kilometer of six lanes; from face me I face you, we are turning it to three lanes both sides, six lanes of rigid pavement road. That is what we are doing for our citizens. That is the kind of things that they need. We are doing the roads concurrently.

We are not just doing the highways; the regional road is there, it is 10-kilometers from VGC which has a bridge bursting out at Freedom Road. We are also looking at internal roads, and that is why I am happy with the kind of things that the Lagos State Public Works are doing. Lagos State Public Works as of today have done Grade 1 maintenance of 270 roads.

We also set up a 377 constituency projects which we started last year, meaning that we are doing a project in every ward.

We have 377 wards in Lagos State. We took up 377 projects and over 60 per cent of the projects are road works. We went to every local government and requested what they wanted us to do in their wards and a lot of them want us to do internal roads for them. So we are bridging all of that. We have over 10,000 roads; it is huge. So, for us it is work in progress, but we need to be very strategic. We need to look at roads that can commune and connect communities together; roads that can also open up to new area. I will give you a classical example, we had an idea to do Ijeododo-Ijagemo Road, but the community said “we don’t want you to demolish our properties, look for another alignment.” So we had to tell the contractor, let us take you to somewhere else; maybe further down the line, they will tell us to come back. These are some of the challenges we face. We are going to reconstruct Adeniji-Adele, Tapa and

Glover in Lagos Island because there is flooding issues there and we are engaging them.

One of the things that people tell us is that, “Mr. Governor, we might not be able to go to your school, we might not be able to use your hospitals, but we will use your road.” Therefore, road does not have any differentiation in colour, so we have to continue to do it. It is always about 55 to 60 per cent of our capital expenditure every year.

How many waterway terminals are you planning and how many commuters can they take per day?

We are building 15 jetties. Lagos Ferry Services Company (LAGFERRY) has done about 200,000 passengers now. We believe that we are an enabler of that sector. We are getting another set of six Carter marine (smaller vessels boat) each carrying 40, 30 passengers and 25 in some cases and they are supposed to move people from one terminal to another. We are meant to be a stimulator, so Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) will be doing an Expression of Interest to get other players to come in, bring in ferries and boats and we can complement our own efforts.

We are doing channelization, so safety, security is assured on the waterways.

Once that is done, we are believing that on the waterways, we should be able to do about 60,000 to 70,000 passengers per day. We are doing currently about 5,000 passengers.

Are you mirroring it on any international template considering that a lot of Lagosians are not familiar with water transportation?

First thing first is one third of Lagos is water and that is natural. So, it would be unfair on us not to utilise that opportunity.

Lagos in terms of area is also below the sea-level, so the water will always be there; about 33 per cent of our landmass is water.

So, we need to create that infrastructure for water, which is the terminal; proper

They have served our citizens; they have served Lagosians for so long a time. The yellow buses even became the print of Lagos. So, let us be very creative and see how we can remodel them. So, it is not a scrapping out, we are not throwing anybody out. We are collaborating with them and saying our citizens now deserve newer models of car, better means of transportation and let us work together

The government came out at some point to say they were going to scrap the yellow buses. When is the exact date for that?

Well, it will be unfair for us to use the word scrap; we need to collaborate and engage because these are important stakeholders. They have served our citizens; they have served Lagosians for so long a time. The yellow buses even became the print of Lagos. So, let us be very creative and see how we can remodel them. So, it is not a scrapping out, we are not throwing anybody out. We are collaborating with them and saying our citizens now deserve newer models of car, better means of transportation and let us work together. The yellow buses are meant to be doing what we call the “Last Mile Movement.”

We recently launched the first phase of the “Last Mile Movement” with 400 buses; they are small eight-passenger and 10-passenger buses to compliment what the Yellow buses are doing. We will sit with them and let them know we have brought the buses to you, let us exchange it. You are the one that can still run it, let us take this fleet out and re-fleet this new component for you and so it seems like it is a win-win opportunity that we are creating.

What about the car-hailing model that you introduced recently?

That is a taxi-model which is another model.

We want to participate in the three models of land transportation – buses, last mile minibuses and taxis. The taxis are for individuals. For taxis, we will sign an agreement with an international automobile company to start an assembly plant in Nigeria for that transaction. For it to work, we said, we will do a demonstration, procure and stimulate with 1,000 taxis. So the 1,000 are coming; they are on their way and they should start arriving by May. But beyond that is to be able to deliver about 5,000 to 6,000 taxis over the next one year or one and a half years. So an assembly plant is also coming.

At a point, we will not see the yellow buses again.

We will see newer buses.

The yellow bus drivers might be the ones who will take up the jobs and not be out of jobs. We need to clarify that they will not be out of jobs and their families do not get into trouble.

We will take them as stakeholders for them to seat with us as small cooperatives to manage it very well.

Several BRT buses that were destroyed during the #EndSARS protest. Are you planning to replenish that pool?

Absolutely, we are planning to replenish them. Infact, we have started a conversation and the interesting thing is, we are working with a local bus manufacturing company and it is going to come with almost the same specification of the buses that were unfortunately destroyed so that Lagosians can still have the same experience.

Weren’t they insured?

They were insured but insurance would never cover up 100 per cent because these are public things. These are insurance that go beyond natural events like arson, riots will cover.

Your insurance typically will cover accidents, reckless driving but these are like unforeseen and unexpected incidents, so the premium on it were far low; they cannot give you any replacement.

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

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BILLS N’ MOTIONS

Onuegbu: Uzodimma Has Shown Capacity to Unite Imo Chief Enyinna Onuegbu, until recently was the Imo State pioneer Commissioner for Power and Energy Resources. He also served as the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning under the present regime in the state. In this interview with Amby Uneze, this legal icon highlights the activities of Governor Hope Uzodimma and the return of peace

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he insecurity that befell Imo state in May, precisely was unbearable but today calm has returned and people are now going about their businesses without molestation, what is your take on this?

You can see where we are doing this interview in an open place and that will attest to the fact that life has come back to Imo state, and we can say all glory be to God. On a human level, we can as well thank Governor Hope Uzodimma for his untiring effort to return the state to normalcy. Also special appreciation goes to the leadership at the national level because if they did not come to assist the state due to the security reports they got from the governor probably the security agencies sent to salvage the abnormal situation would not have been possible.

Imo has a history of being a peaceful and hospitable state. It is a tourist destination right from time. Here, you find out that people from the South-east and South-south regions come to Imo for their holidays and weekends. That is why we were worried that the intense insecurity situation was to jeopardize that brand of Imo as a safe haven for tourists. Thanks to God that the situation is back to normal.

During that period, the governor was really embattled in the sense that as the father of the state he was not happy to see his home burning, his children being killed; even if there was an issue no normal person would wish his enemy dead. It was a terrible six weeks. Hell was almost let loose here and then coupled with the fact that people started thinking that it had something to do with those who were asking for sovereignty. But from the aftermath you can see that it was a band of criminals who were really creating tension in the state.

The situation was worsened as a result of the jail break at the Federal Correctional Services and the Police Headquarters, and people who were incarcerated for various crimes suddenly became free and I’m sure they needed to ply the trade and the only trade they know was to go back to criminality that took them to prison, in the first place. I commend the governor; for showing us that he had abintio the good intention of keeping Imo peaceful.

Inspite of the effort of the governor to deal with the situation at the time, people felt he was unable to bring the stakeholders together as a way forward to co-exist peacefully, do you believe them?

It is not true. Despite the fact that our society has virtually become captive to social media frenzy. People stay in their bedrooms and write whatever and push it into the blogosphere, it did not stop the governor from tackling the issue head on. Also, it was quite unfair for people to read and react based on what the social media dished out even as some gullible ones kept praising criminals. Governor Hope Uzodimma was not deterred from being focused; he kept his head low and fought a good fight.

Like he said it was a politically motivated crisis. Why wouldn’t political leaders of other parties condemn what was happening in Imo? They didn’t bother. They believed that it was Hope Uzodimma suffering in terms of the fact that he would lose the governorship seat or render the state ungovernable so that he would not be popular again. Well people didn’t remember that another election of governorship is the next two years away from now. They were concerned in calling a dog a bad name to hang it. Instead of condemning the brigandage going on in Imo some of them were calling for his resignation, but the governor kept his head cool and defended the integrity of the state.

He achieved this feat with assistance from the security agencies serving in the state. To that extent I say kudos to the governor.

Since that trouble was scaled through, you don’t hear him mentioning anybody or looking for protagonists or somebody to castigate or prosecute; he has moved on facing the serious business of governance. So that is why I said he has shown the capacity to unite Imo. For the first time this type of thing happened in Nigeria,

Onuegbu a state government paid out N5 million each to families of security personnel that lost their lives in the crises. For the first time the government instituted a judicial commission of inquiry with a view to know what happened in Imo so that people can know the circumstances or situation that led to the unfortunate stray bullets that hit some persons.

The governor said there would be a judicial commission of inquiry where people would go and air their grievances so that the government can make adequate considerations in assuaging their losses by compensating them for the loss of loved ones. That is aimed to calm the situation so that people can know that this government means well. I commend him because he has shown the capacity to unite Imo behind a government.

The only people standing on the other side are actually those leaders with opposing political interests. You don’t expect a man who is interested

in the governorship seat to start applauding Governor Hope Uzodimma at this stage because he still thinks that magic would happen and he takes over, so we don’t begrudge them. But if you check the followership judging from the stakeholders’ meeting from all the local governments, you would notice that there is a positive movement of Imo leadership to the APC. Even those who are not politicians are coming to support the government and its programmes. You can see the likes of Nda Ambu Ejiogu, Engr. Ebere Udeagu, Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu, Sir Eustace Eke, all coming to identify with this government and you can’t say that these nationalists don’t mean well for the state.

We require peace and the governor has shown the capacity to protect and manage Imo; the capacity not to have enemies, to have the benefit to sit on a higher pedestal to see everybody and to make the best use of it for the enhancement of our state. So I think it is something to

The Governor said he would automate the civil service structure, he has done that. There is no more news of dud cheques for pensioners and civil servants again.

Governor Hope Uzodimma took over on January 15, 2020 and promised that the Imo work force must be automated. Today, there is no more protest by Imo workers or pensioners

commend him for. Finally on this point, you know he will never rest, it is important we remember that even the family of the governor suffered huge losses; their houses were burnt.

I don’t think that the Uzodimma family had any other business with Imo except that their son is governor of the state. They sacrificed.

They are also an affected party; we should not lose sight of this. We have been in this state and saw how some former governors ruled the state with their families.

By January it will be two years since Governor Uzodimma has been on the saddle, and not one scandal from any member of Uzodimma’s family. Not one scandal of taking Imo property, people looking for offices through them, taken Imo vehicles or any transport franchise or taking over one Imo estate or the other. We have been in Imo and seen where the governor’s relatives took over government vehicles or so, it is not happening under this man, and we are not commending him. We have seen siblings, children or relatives of a former governor having their own task force; either dredging sand, collecting motor transport revenue, or hotel revenue for themselves; but it hasn’t happened under this man. We need to commend him for all these. The discipline is unimaginable for a place like Imo where we had one big man as governor at a time and his family ruling. We don’t see charter of private jets or foreign trips; we don’t hear one local government held to ransom by the governor’s relatives or the other.

That is the paradigm shift he has introduced into governance.

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

21

T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

POLITICS

A First Time Legislator Who’s Mastered the Ropes A first time legislator and 9th House of Representatives spokesman, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, appears to know his onions and is striving to make a difference. Udora Orizu writes

Kalu

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or legislators in both national and state assemblies to be good, they must carry out the functions expected of them in a system of representative democracy.

The main functions are making laws, representing constituencies and power balance. An active legislator, therefore, has to be independent of any form of control from ‘external forces’ and refuse to rubber-stamp most executive proposals. In considering whether the lawmakers are performing their duties, one has to examine how well they are performing the above named functions.

The Ninth National Assembly, which was inaugurated on June 11, 2019, is made up of 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives elected from various constituencies across the country. While majority of the lawmakers are inactive, the ninth House has a handful of active legislators, whose contributions in the last two years are quite laudable.

One of those active lawmakers is the mouth piece of the Green Chamber, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu (APC Abia). Kalu who is a first timer in the House of Representatives representing Bende Federal Constituency was appointed Chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs and official spokesperson of the Ninth House by the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

As Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, he launched the first ever magazine publication of the Assembly called, “The Green Chamber Magazine”, which according to him would be a tool of transparency for reporting all activities of the House.

In the past two years, his innovative approach towards legislative activities through bills and motions has ranked him as one of the top 10 members of the House by bill sponsorship.

He also attracted various projects to his Bende constituency including road rehabilitation, construction and rehabilitation of schools and medical centres, and distribution of educational material.

On Making laws and Representative Democracy The Lawmaker hit the ground running by moving the first motion of the 9th Assembly.

He has since then sponsored several motions.

One of his notable motion was the motion praying the evacuation of Nigerians from China as Coronavirus spread from that country to other parts of the world.

Moving the motion at the plenary in February 2020, Kalu called for the evacuation of over 65 Nigerians from the City of Wuhan and the Wider Hubei Province in the Peoples Republic of China. The motion was however rejected by the lawmakers.

Another notable motion, was the motion on the need for intervention in the public health crises of Tuberculosis in Nigeria.

Adopting the motion, the lawmakers urged the Federal Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries, departments and agencies of govern-

ment to ensure effective and efficient implementation of tuberculosis-related policies, including improving government funding and ensuring the inclusion of TB in the minimum primary health care service package as well as other priority interventions in the health sector.

Also, the House urged the Federal Government to consider the inclusion of TB services into the benefits package of the National Health Insurance Scheme “due to its qualification as a disease of high burden and public health concern.”

Furthermore, the House mandated its committees on HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control; Health Care Services; and Health Institutions to interface with stakeholders, relevant professionals and the public “to determine the appropriate legislative intervention required for improved TB control and to mitigate the impact of COVID–19 on tuberculosis, especially the MDR–TB, and to effectively address stigmatisation and all forms of discrimination against people living with TB.” Some other motions include: Motion on the Need to Suspend the Implementation of the Cashless Policy on Deposits by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Motion on the Urgent Need to Ensure Speedy Reconstruction of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Runway and Installation of Landing Aids,Urgent Need to Combat Severe Landslide and Other Threatening Environmental Degradation in Alayi and Other Communities in Bende Federal Constituency, Need to Investigate the Failure and Refusal of the Niger-Delta Development Commission to Submit its Budget Estimates for 2019 to the National Assembly for Approval.

The House Spokesman, has also sponsored over 40 bills within two years.

While some of his Bills have successfully passed through different stages of Bills reading, the lawmaker in December 2019 experienced opposition to one of his proposed legislation in the House. He had to withdraw a Constitution Amendment Bill that sought to amend Section

12 of the 1999 Constitution by including committees of the National Assembly in negotiation of treaties. His colleagues who opposed the Bill’s passage, hinged their reason on the proposed legislation breaching the doctrine of separation of powers.

Some of the Bills include: Federal College of Education Bende, (Establishment,etc.) Bill 2020, Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) Act (Amendment) Bill, Counterfeit Currency (Special Provisions) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Dangerous Drugs Act (Amendment) Bill 2020, Acts Authentication Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Nigerian MeteorologicalAgencyAct (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Nigerian Communications Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Internal Loans (Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Public Accounts Implementation Tribunal Act (Repeal) Bill 2019, Official Secrets Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, among others.

His Bills awaiting first reading are: “Associated Gas Reinjection Act (Amendment) Bill, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment) Bill, National Planning Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, Armed Forces Act (Amendment) Bill, Federal Cooperative College, Oji River (Establishment, etc.) Bill, Federal Cooperative College, Ibadan (Establishment, etc.) Bill, Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna (Establishment, etc.) Bill, Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Protection) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Minerals and Mining Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Automotive Tyres (Mandatory Inscription of Dates) Bill, 2020, Fiscal Responsibility Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Flags and Coat of Arms Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Power Balance The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made the theory of

Moving the motion at the plenary in February 2020, Kalu called for the evacuation of over 65 Nigerians from the City of Wuhan and the Wider Hubei Province in the Peoples Republic of China. The motion was however rejected by the lawmakers. Another notable motion, was the motion on the need for intervention in the public health crises of Tuberculosis in Nigeria

separation of powers a fundamental principle of governance. Kalu as the House Spokesman has been able to be balance the uneasy task of being the mouthpiece of the House.

An example of this can be noted in December 2020, when the House Spokeman faulted the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), for querying its power to summon President Muhammadu Buhari.

The President, who was earlier scheduled to appear before the House to brief lawmakers on efforts by his administration to check the worsening insecurity in the country, expectedly failed to turn up.

Countering Malami, Kalu, told reporters in Abuja that the legislature did not act in error to invite the president.

He also fired back at the minister that contrary to his claim, the constitution empowers it to invite the president Kalu noted that majority of the lawmakers took the mandate of their constituents and moved a resolution even against the position of the Speaker, adding that the decision of the parliament overrides the Presiding Officer’s because to do otherwise would be biased and undemocratic.

He explained that in deference to Buhari’s office, the House leadership sent a delegation, which included the Speaker; Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ahmed Wase; and House Leader, Hon. Alhassan Doguwa, to engage the President beyond the resolution of the House.

Kalu said: “When they met with Mr. President, he assured them that he will visit and address Nigerians. As the days went by, it was narrowed to Thursday. There was official communication from the Presidency committing to the position of Mr. Speaker that the President has accepted to come. So, the Speaker and Deputy were not operating on the frolic of their own; it was backed up by the President.

“As you know, what we operate is a democracy that hinges on party supremacy. Beyond the president lies the supremacy of the party.

The president answers to the party. He’s there as president on the platform of the APC, given to him by the party. So, if he took a position as the president and his political party asks him to alter his position, if he’s truly a party man, he must oblige his party while the discussion goes on.”

“Regarding whether it is constitutional to invite the president, somehow I would have said let’s leave the judicial interpretation of the provisions of the constitution to be in the hands of the judiciary, but as a lawyer, I can assure you the parliament did not act in error and this I say based on the constitution. There’s a mandate and that mandate is well expressed in Sections 88, 89. The position of the law says that granted by Section four of the Armed Forces Act, the president is the chairman of the Security Council. The Armed Forces Act is a piece of legislation made by the parliament.

22

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ 12, 2021

FEATURES

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, Tel: 07010510430

Dissecting Ugwuanyi's Support for Budding Talents

Governor Ugwuanyi (in white) with some top officials of his government, the two inventors, their parents and the school principal when they were received by the Governor in Government House Enugu

Samson Ezea

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overnment and governance are not only about providing basic infrastructure, peace and security which Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi's administration has provided for Ndi Enugu in quantum, especially in the long neglected rural areas. They also entail catering for the immediate welfare of the people and impacting directly on their lives in several ways, and not about catering for the wellbeing of the privileged ones or those in government.

They are indeed about giving everyone a sense of belonging and responsibility in the affairs of the state and encouraging those with exceptional talents or potentials to excel and add value to themselves and the society at large.

As a personality that has always had flair for philanthropy, details and understands the little things that matter in the society and to the people, Enugu state Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had since assuming office in 2015, consistently and sincerely demonstrated knack for fishing out, supporting and encouraging budding talents in the state without minding their states of origin, religion or political leanings.

Governor Ugwuanyi, who usually meets and interfaces with these talented kids through periodic tech fairs that are organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology at Michael Okpara Square, Independence Layout, Enugu, has continued to motivate, encourage and propel them to the next level with his administration's unflinching supports.

In addition to the above, his administration established two Enugu State Tech Hub and Youth Information Centres in Enugu and Obollo to provide opportunity and enabling environment for the budding youths in the state to continue to sharpen, improve and expand their knowledge and keep tab on modern Information, communication and technology innovations. Under Ugwuanyi's administration, many dilapidated and moribund technical schools have been rehabilitated, equipped with material and manpower resources.

In continuation of his wonderful and appreciable work in this direction and keeping faith with strong belief in human empowerment, Governor Ugwuanyi recently offered scholarships, up to University level, to the Enugu and Anambra-born young students of Government Technical College (GTC), Nsukka and Enugu, Master Emmanuel Maduabuchi Chukwu and Master Chukwuebuka Udoye, who locally manufactured two aircraft (helicopter and jet fighter) and an MP3 radio set, respectively, in the state.

The Governor announced the scholarships when he received the two students at the Government

Under Ugwuanyi's administration, many dilapidated and moribund technical schools have been rehabilitated, equipped with material and manpower resources...to provide opportunity and enabling environment for the budding youths in the state to continue to sharpen, improve and expand their knowledge and keep tab on modern information, communication and technology innovations House to appreciate their talents, skills and sheer dexterity in promoting technology-based innovation in the state.

In addition, the governor gave the inventor of the two aircraft, Master Chukwu, an indigene of Nnewe in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, the sum of N1 million, and N500,000.00 to the student of GTC, Enugu, Master Udoye, an indigene of Aguata in Anambra State, who produced the MP3 radio set, to enable them advance their inventions.

Expressing his delight, Ugwuanyi disclosed that he is very proud of the students and the many feats the educational system has brought to Enugu State since the inception of his administration, stressing that “all the money being spent in education is a worthy investment”.

Appreciating the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, the Executive Chairman of the Science, Technical and Vocational Schools Management Board (STVSMB), Dr. Gabriel Ajah, the Principal of GTC, Nsukka, Peter Ugwuokpe, and other stakeholders in the education system for the achievements being recorded in the sector, Ugwuanyi requested the Commissioner to immediately present to the State Executive Council (EXCO), a memo for the approval of the sum of N100 million for the construction of more classroom blocks in Government Technical Colleges (GTCs) in the state.

The governor equally directed the Executive

Chairman of STVSMB, Dr. Ajah, to apply for the sum of N50 million for the construction of more technical workshops in GTCs Nsukka and Enugu, and also request for employment of additional technical teachers, for the EXCO's approval.

“I am proud of all of you; I am proud of the education system in Enugu State; I am excited. The young student from Anambra State, we give you N500,000.00 and scholarship for manufacturing a radio set in our state”, Gov. Ugwuanyi said.

In his remarks, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Eze, applauded Gov. Ugwuanyi for the premium his administration places on education in the state as well as his gesture to meet with the students to encourage and appreciate their talents.

“We are so happy, and we appreciate this honour given to us to come and make this presentation. Your Excellency, your schools are working; this is just one of the many things that are going on in our technical colleges.

Thank you for encouraging our young talents.

This is part of the legacies you are leaving behind for posterity”.

Responding, the two students, Chukwu and Udoye, expressed their deepest joy and gratitude to Gov. Ugwuanyi for honouring them, adding that the encouragement and support from the governor, which they never expected, will spur them to fully actualise their dreams. They asked God to continue

to bless the governor.

Although the duo of Udoye and Chukwu were the latest beneficiaries of Ugwuanyi's largesse in the area of talents supports and encouragements, it would be recalled that on May, 26, 2021, Gov. Ugwuanyi rewarded winner of the 2020 edition of the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs’) national mathematics competition for girls, Miss Chinwe Mary Blessing Onodagu.

Miss Chinwe, an SS1 student of Federal Government Girls’ College, Lejja, Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State, and from Aku in Igbo-Etiti LGA of the state, was crowned the “Nigerian Mathematics Queen 2020,” in March, 2021, in Abuja, after emerging the overall best student in the mathematics competition among Nigerian girl students.

Receiving the SDGs’ award winner at the Government House, Gov. Ugwuanyi congratulated her for making Enugu State proud, describing her “a special gift and blessing from God”.

The governor first thanked God for the feat and went further to commend her parents and the entire management of the school, stressing: “I can confirm that Federal Government Girls’ College, Lejja, is a success story”.

Gov. Ugwuanyi therefore announced a cash donation to the girl for achieving the feat and another donation to the school to encourage them to produce more award winners. The governor equally gave her scholarship.

Responding, the visibly elated ‘Queen’ expressed gratitude to Gov. Ugwuanyi for the recognition, saying: “I am very happy; I pray that God will continue to help him (Ugwuanyi) in all he is doing. He will be prospering in everything he lays his hands. I am also thanking God for making it possible for me to emerge the winner of the competition. I am equally thanking my parents and the school. I am hoping that more students will get this kind of opportunity”.

On her advice to other students, Miss. Chinwe said: “If you read hard and pray hard, your dreams will come true”. With this kind gesture which has continued to come consistently, Gov. Ugwuanyi has apart from motivating and encouraging the beneficiaries to aspire for more feats, has also relieved their families of the financial burden of cartering for their academic pursuits.

On this note, Ndi Enugu can not thank Gov. Ugwuanyi enough for his disposition to aggressively encourage talent development Enugu State, just as the youths of Enugu are also urged to redouble their efforts at self discovery and development. t&[FB XSJUFT GSPN *OEFQFOEFODF -BZPVU &OVHV

23

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ ͯͰ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

#THISISNIGERIA - Rachael Eni.

Twitter Ban and Its Implication for Nigeria's Fragile Democracy

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f you think the quote “There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech” attributed to Idi Amin is ludicrous, you probably haven’t heard of the happenings in Nigeria over the last two months. Like many other Nigerians, I didn’t fully understand the gravity of the government’s announcement banning social media platform, Twitter, until I was unable to access it shortly after midnight on the 5th of June. But even then, doubts still lurked in my mind, for it was impossible to believe the government is capable of flagrantly trying to stifle freedom of speech in the manner it went about banning Twitter. However, if there are any more doubts about the government’s intent, I assure you that events of recent months have totally cleared them.

It's high time we drop the cloak of pretence and address the issue squarely.

We are no longer in a democracy and are spiralling quickly into a dictatorship. But how did we arrive here?

According to Carl Sagan, “You have to know the past to understand the future.” It isn't surprising what a trip down memory lane has revealed - this is not the first time the man in charge has tried to stifle the press and free speech. His regime between 1983-1985 was marked by a severe crackdown on civil liberties and freedom of speech under the guise of protecting the nation from instability. With the enactment of Decree 4, he forbade any journalist from reporting information considered embarrassing to any government official. He once stated, “We will not allow irresponsible views capable of creating trouble or instability in whatever form to be published by these private newspapers.”

Sounds familiar? It's mind-boggling how we ever believed the 'converted democrat' narrative.

This is, however, not the time to apportion blame but to fully comprehend the implications of this move by the federal government on our fragile democracy and our ability to criticise acts of impunity by the government and its agents, assess its policies, expose corruption and generally hold leaders accountable when they err.

But first, let me take a detour to events leading up to the infamous Twitter ban.

On the 5th of June, the Nigerian government officially placed an indefinite ban on the social network platform, Twitter, after it deleted tweets from the Nigerian president referencing the Nigerian Civil War and warning the Igbo people of a potential repeat owing to the ongoing insurgency in the Southeast. The government claimed that the deletion of the President's tweets did not play a role in their decision but it was ultimately “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence” that spurred their decision. Two months later, the Twitter ban has not been reversed.

But what is the government really afraid of?

It is most definitely not the fact that the platform has been used to help locate missing people nor is it because it has been a source of livelihood for many youths. The fear lies in the powerful mobilising possibility of the microblogging platform. Ironically the same government has, on numerous occasions, leveraged the platform to campaign, and agencies like the NCDC have used it to provide real-time updates on COVID-19.

Twitter arguably has, among its members, the most vocal and politically active segment of the population. Little wonder the #EndSARS protest garnered 48 million tweets in 10 days. Beyond the ego trip and the sense of utmost power they derive from having us all at their mercy lies the government’s understanding of the immense power of social media and the troubles it could pose for its administration.

Even the damning statistics of the ban's impact on the economy and the high unemployment levels it has been predicted to cause is not enough to deter the government or force a change in its stance. Nigeria has, over the course of two months, lost $366.9 million, according to British firm Top10VPN. However, in a democratic state, freedom of speech which is enshrined into the 1999

It is most definitely not the fact that the platform has been used to help locate missing people nor is it because it has been a source of livelihood for many youths. The fear lies in the powerful mobilising possibility of the microblogging platform

Constitution forms the basis of all freedoms and it is integral to political rights. Nigerians have a right to participate in governance and government. Nigerians have the right to voice out their opinions, concerns and disappointment in light of the deteriorating state of the nation in virtually all facets.

As with the nature of most policies by the government, the Twitter ban could potentially be setting the stage for a more severe reality - a total clampdown of the media and press in Nigeria.

Already the Minister of Information has threatened to ban other social media platforms if they do not register in Nigeria as a business concern. But we know what registration entails - they are most likely going to be worse off since they would be under the full control of a government that has a history of regulating media reportage.

A recent instance is the clampdown of the media reportage during the #EndSARS protest where the government consistently concealed crucial information and withheld details on the attack on citizens. They further released a set of guidelines stipulating how traditional media outlets were to cover the protests making digital outlets like Twitter the only recourse for real-time information and unfiltered updates.

And this is why we can no longer afford to be silent on issues like this. Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the heavy censure of social media is very worrisome. We should be scared and rightly so. Regardless, we cannot afford to throw in the towel. We cannot allow them to distort reality and determine what view of the internet we can get. We must keep making our voices heard, whatever it may take. In the famous words of Anibal Barca, “we will either find a way or make one.” t3BDIBFM &OJ JT B SFTFBSDIFS BOE FEJUPSJBM analyst based in Lagos.

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THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET

A S

REPO

OBB OVERNIGHT

8.50% 9.00%

A T

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Email oriarehu.eromosele@thisdaylive.com

08056356325

A U G U S T

S & P INDEX

1 1 , 2 0 2 1

S & P INDEX

CALL 1-MONTH

4% 6%

INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY

538.76% 0.17%

3-MONTH

10%

MONTH-TO-DATE

0.28%

EXCHANGE RATE

1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

1.08% –19.62%

N411.34 / 1 US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

SIM Sale Suspension Backfires as Nigeria Slipped in Internet Subscriptions to 140.2m in June 2021 Emma Okonji Internet subscriptions in Nigeria slipped in eight consecutive months from November 2020 to June 2021, to as low as 140.2 million, after attaining 154.4 million subscriptions in November 2020, according to the latest report on active internet subscriptions by technology, released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The figure is a combination of internet subscriptions on Mobile GSM, Fixed Wired lines and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies.

Analysts blame the decline on the suspension order on the sale and activation of new SIM cards in December 2020 by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami.

The figures, which were obtained from NCC’s website, showed that in November 2020, the total number of active internet subscriptions was 154.8 million, but it slipped to 154.3 million in December 2020, with a further slip in January 2021 to 151.3 million.

In February 2021, the figure dropped again to 148.5 million with a further drop in March 2021 to 144.9 million.

From April 2021 to June 2021, the figure also dropped consecutively to 141.8 million, 140.5 million and 140.2 million.

As at June 2021, the total internet subscriptions from Mobile GSM alone was 139.9 million, while subscriptions from Fixed Wired devices was 12,188, and that of VoIP was 348,068, totaling 140.2 million active internet subscriptions for the month of June 2021.

The figures gave information on the number of active subscribers for data (internet) services on each of the licensed service providers utilizing the different technologies, such as GSM, Fixed Wired and VoIP. Also, the statistics in the last eight months from October 2020 to May 2021, showed a slide in broadband subscriptions and penetration level.

According to the statistics, in October 2020, the total number of broadband subscriptions was 87.7 million, with a penetration level of 45.93 per cent. In November and December 2020, the total number of broadband subscriptions dropped to 86 million and 85.9 million, with penetration level of 45.07 per cent and 45.02 per cent respectively. Between January 2021 to May 2021, broadband subscriptions and penetration

also dropped to 81.94 million, 80.28 million, 78.61 million, 77.61 million and 75.56 million, with penetration level of 42.93 per cent, 42.06 per cent, 41.18 per cent, 40.66 per cent and 39.59 per cent respectively.

However, in June 2021, broadband subscriptions picked

up again to reach 76.29 million, with a penetration level of 39.97 per cent.

Worried about the slide in internet and broadband subscriptions between December 2020 and May 2021, industry analysts blamed the slide on wrong policy implementation,

which they said, affected the growth of the telecoms industry, within the period.

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, blamed it on the suspension order on the sale and activation of new SIM

cards in December 2020 by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami.

Statistics showed that the number of Nigerians with access to broadband (internet highContinued on page 26

How Big Brother Naija Became a Multi Billion Naira Advertising Goldmine Raheem Akingbolu Companies and brand custodians can leverage visuals to tell their stories in memorable and vivid ways that may deliver more impact and emotion than words alone. Artful, custom and unique photography can transcend the mundane observable facts of a scenario.

It is for this reason that many top brands in Nigeria are falling over one another to be associated with the popular reality show, Big Brother Naija or BBNaija, to further engage their targeted audience ahead of competitors in their respective industries.

BBNaija is popular for its heavy dose of escapism. Every day, Nigerians are faced with multidimensional challenges that put a strain on the mind. Watching these people’s true nature revealed during the course of the show

builds a strong connection that’s evident in the fandom displayed on social media. As a result, Big Brother Naija turns out to be a rollercoaster for fans, viewers, and generally every Nigerian who nurses interest in pop culture.

When one considers it from this perspective, the hit TV show is defined by its economic value. In fact, the entire show is profitable for everyone involved in the creation, marketing, and advertisement. The participants are almost always in a better financial position after they leave the house. Sponsors get their value in advertising and PR. Everyone involved in the show ends up a winner one way or the other.

Many brand enthusiasts and critics have commended the creative and consistent approach MultiChoice Nigeria has adopted in leveraging the reality show platform to promote made-in-

Nigeria goods and services.

But here’s the burning question: What is the return of investment on the BBNaija show? Do all the numbers add up to show real economic value? Yes, they do.

BBNaija ticks every positive box for great business. In 2018, Plaqad, a marketing and public relations technology company carried out a research that examines the direct and indirect impact of the show on the Nigerian economy and society at large. Their results provide data that supports this.

However, three strategic areas of importance are the overall influence, media value for sponsors, and its popularity with young people.

Like the previous editions, the 2020 edition of BBNaija ended on October 3, 2020, with a contestant, Laycon, emerging the most voted Continued on page 26

M A R K E T D ATA A S AT W E D N E S D AY, A U G U S T 1 1 , 2 0 2 1 FGN BONDS DESCRIPTION 11.668 FGNSB 15-AUG-2021 10.301 FGNSB 16-AUG-2021 11.150 FGNSB 11-SEP-2021 12.364 FGNSB 12-SEP-2021 12.175 FGNSB 10-OCT-2021

Price

Yield

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100.09

3.16

0.00

NTB 26-Aug-21

3.00

3.00

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100.10

3.16

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NTB 9-Sep-21

3.10

3.11

0.00

100.67

3.13

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NTB 16-Sep-21

3.15

3.16

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100.80

3.12

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NTB 30-Sep-21

3.25

3.26

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NTB 14-Oct-21

3.35

3.37

101.47

3.08

CONTRACT TENOR (MONTH) 1

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NGUS AUG 25 2021 420.93

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NGUS SEP 29 2021 422.38

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NGUS OCT 27 2021 423.83

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NGUS NOV 24 2021 425.28

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5

NGUS DEC 29 2021 426.73

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Discount Yield

Change (%)

MREP CP XXXI 13-AUG-21 UNCP CP III 27AUG-21 VAAG CP I 27AUG-21 TTNG CP II 31AUG-21 SIBP CP I 2-SEP21

9.02

9.03

0.00

4.26

4.27

0.00

10.20

10.25 0.00

4.59

4.60

0.00

4.13

4.14

0.00

26

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, ͰͮͰͯ ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

INAUGURAL COMMERCIAL FLIGHT… L-R: Chairman, United Nigeria Airline, Obiora Okonkwo; Governor Douye Diri and Speaker, Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Abraham Ingobere; at the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 (MMA2) before takeoff of the inaugural commercial flight to the Bayelsa International Airport… recently

FinTech Raises N11.5bn Series ‘A’ Funding to Address Vehicle Financing Gap in Africa Emma Okonji Moove, an African mobility fintech, has raised $23 million Series ‘A’ funding, led by Speedinvest and Left Lane Capital, with participation from DCM, Clocktower Technology Ventures, among others.

This brings Moove’s total funding to $68.2 million, including $28.2M in equity and $40.0 million in debt.

Moove is the first investment in Africa for many of its U.S.

VC backers, underscoring the opportunity for a platform like Moove to address the continent’s vehicle financing gap.

“Operating on a continent with more than a billion people who have limited or no access to vehicle financing – and the lowest per capita vehicle ownership in the world, Moove will use the funding round to build a full-service mobility fintech that democratizes vehicle ownership across Africa. The market opportunity is vast – Africa is

home to 1.3 billion people, with 43 per cent in urban areas and growing, and in 2019 had fewer than 900,000 total new vehicle sales compared to 17 million in the U.S. “Moove embeds its alternative credit-scoring technology onto ride-hailing and e-logistics platforms, which allows access to proprietary performance and revenue analytics of mobility entrepreneurs to underwrite loans. Moove’s model is to provide loans to its customers

by selling them new vehicles and financing up to 95 per cent of the purchase within five days of sign up.

“Moove customers can choose to pay back their loans over 24, 36, or 48 months, using a percentage of their weekly revenue. All Moove customers sign up to the Moove app to manage all transactions and access other financial products on the platform, “the company said in a statement.

It added, “Co-founders

of Moove, Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi are British-born Nigerians, educated at the London School of Economics, Oxford University and MIT, who have successfully built three other businesses in Africa over the last eight years through their venture studio, Grace Lake Partners. Ladi is a serial entrepreneur and Jide is a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and former management consultant at McKinsey. Driven by a common

passion to create shared value leveraging their extensive operating experience on the continent, they set out to build Moove to provide Africans with a path to new vehicle ownership while creating new jobs.”

Country Manager for Moove Nigeria, Chisome Anoke, said: “Since commencing operations in Lagos in June 2020, our customers have completed over 700,000 Uber trips in Moove financed vehicles, spanning more than 10.6 million kilometres.

Report Identifies Ethical Challenges, Risks with Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Emma Okonji A recent report released by World Health Organisation (WHO), has identified the ethical challenges and risks with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

The report however gave six consensus principles on how to ensure that AI works for the public benefit of all countries.

It also contained a set of recommendations that can ensure the governance of Artificial Intelligence for health, maximizes the promise of the technology and holds all stakeholders in the public and private sector accountable and

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Comms/e-Business Editor Emma Okonji Aviation Editor Chinedu Eze Asst. Editor, Money Market Nume Ekeghe Senior Correspondent Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafo (Energy) Emmanuel Addeh (Energy) Reporters Nosa Alekhuogie (ICT) Peter Uzoho (Energy)

responsive to the healthcare of workers who will rely on these technologies and the communities and individuals whose health will be affected by its use.

The WHO guidance on Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health is the product of 18 months of deliberations among leading experts in ethics, digital technology, law, human rights, as well as experts from Ministries of Health

around the world.

“While new technologies that use Artificial Intelligence hold great promise to improve diagnosis, treatment, health research and drug development and to support governments carrying out public health functions, including surveillance and outbreak response, such technologies, according to the report, must put ethics and human rights at the heart of its design,

deployment, and use, “it stated.

According to the report, scholars and healthcare professionals have debated ethical questions related to health and healthcare since the earliest days of medicine.

The report becomes the first global report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, issued by WHO. Analyzing the report, the Director General for WHO, Dr.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “Like all new technology, Artificial Intelligence holds enormous potential for improving the health of millions of people around the world, but like all technology it can also be misused and cause harm. This important new report provides a valuable guide for countries on how to maximize the benefits of AI, while minimizing its risks and avoiding its pitfalls.”

“Artificial intelligence can be, and in some wealthy countries is already being used to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and screening for diseases; to assist with clinical care; strengthen health research and drug development, and support diverse public health interventions, such as disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health systems management, “Ghebreyesus further said.

SIM SALE SUSPENSION BACKFIRES AS NIGERIA SLIPPED IN INTERNET SUBSCRIPTIONS TO 140.2M IN JUNE 2021 speed) services on their mobile devices as at Q1 2020, which stood at 87.6 million, reduced to 78.6 million by the end of March, 2021, which was attributed to policy implementation that rather set the telecoms sector backward.

During the same period, basic active Internet subscriptions dropped also from 154.8 million to 144.9 million, according to the statistics obtained from NCC’s website.

The Nigerian Communications Commission, had in December 2020, announced the directive of the federal government to suspend

further sales and activation of new SIM cards known as Subscriber Identification Module. The suspension was expected to last till the completion of the audit of the Subscriber Registration Database, which seeks to achieve global standards and quality in the issuance of SIM Cards.

Giving reasons for the suspension order, the federal government, in a statement released in December 2020

by NCC, said: “In line with the federal government desire to consolidate the achievement

of the SIM Card registration exercise of September 2019, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to embark on another audit of the Subscriber Registration Database again. The objective of the audit exercise is to verify and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators with the set quality standards and requirements of SIM Card Registration as issued by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the Commission.

HOW BIG BROTHER NAIJA BECAME A MULTI BILLION NAIRA ADVERTISING GOLDMINE candidate, after other finalists (including Dorathy, Nengi, Vee and Neo) failed to inspire superior numbers. Winning is a popularity contest driven solely by the actions of candidates and intense campaign from fans, which influences viewers to spend money to register their support and keep their champion in the house. The lockdown edition polled over

900 million votes cross SMS, Mobile, Website and the DStv & GOtv Apps. These numbers confirm the influence and penetration of the show.

The media value of sponsoring BBNaija according to experts surveyed is in billions of Naira, somewhere around N10 billion. The eyeballs, conversations and general awareness generated

by the show makes it a viable option for brands looking to get the word out about their business.

This much is seen in the robust mentions enjoyed by previous sponsors of the show.

The top-of-mind-awareness, share of mind and share of voice BBNaija offers partners makes it a top choice for many smart brands. Little wonder,

the show always never fails to attract top Nigerian brands as sponsors every season.

Online retailer Payporte was the headline sponsor for the 2017 and 2018 editions.

Nigeria’s sports betting platform, Bet9ja, replaced Payporte as headline sponsor in 2019 while gambling giants Betway became lead sponsor of the 2020 edition.

For the 2021 edition, social payment platform, Abeg, is the headline sponsor and Patricia as associate sponsor for season 6. Other category sponsors over the years have been Pepsi, Heritage Bank, Nokia, Oppo, Tecno, Minimie, Guinness, Darling Hair, Dano Milk, Close Up, IVM, Revolution Plus, Travelbeta and other notable brands.

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

ANALYSIS

Counting Gains of GSM Revolution in 20 Years

Emma Okonji examines the impact of telecoms on the Nigerian economy and Nigerians, in relation to communications and financial transactions carried out on the mobile phones since the rollout of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2001 GSM PIONEERS IN NIGERIA

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

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efore the rollout of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2001, Nigeria had a cumulated telecoms subscriptions figure of 400,000, from the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and a few Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators, from the time of Independence in 1960 to 2001, when GSM operators were licensed.

Few years after the licensing and rollout of GSM services, telecoms subscriptions figure jumped to millions and tens of millions, reaching over 200 million as at today.

It all started with the first commercial call and rollout of GSM services on the Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) network, now Airtel Nigeria, on August 8, 2001. Thereafter, MTN Nigeria, which had initially carried out a trail test on its network before August 8, 2001, also rolled out its commercial GSM services, few days after August 8, 2001, before the emergence of Globacom in 2003 and 9mobile in 2008.

The rollout of GSM services in 2001, eventually discarded the old belief that telecommunication was meant for only the affluent in the society.

That was the era 090 NITEL line, when only the rich had access to NITEL telephone lines and they had to queue with their tally numbers after a date must have been given to them to make just a call within or outside of Nigeria.

Although GSM started with high cost of SIM cards and mobile phones, including high cost of call rate, which was charged per minute and each second that ended the call was automatically rounded off to minute, the cost of telecoms services continued to drop till date.

In 2001, the cost of SIM card was N20, 000, the cost of low-end phones like Motorola and Nokia 3010, were above N50, 000, while the call rate was N50 per minute. If the call ended in two minutes and two seconds, it would be automatically rounded off to three minutes and then charged N150 for three minutes call.

But as time went on, cost of telecoms services continued to drop, and today the cost of SIM card is N100, which is as good as free, since each SIM card comes with some value of airtime.

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Karl Tortola, said telecommunications remained the only sector where consumer prices have dropped consistently year-on-year since 2001.

“The steady decline in tariffs has been driven by increasing demand for telecommunication services, stimulating increasing minutes of usage and activities on the networks by a growing number of people,” Toriola said.

He wondered how the Nigerian economy and the global economies would have been without telecommunications, insisting that no other sector in Nigeria and the world has impacted the economy the way telecoms did.

He gave instances of food items, manufacturing products, including building materials, whose prices have continued to increase without

Former Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe dropping, and compared them with the cost of telecoms services, which he said, had continued to drop since the rollout of GSM in Nigeria in 2001.

GDP GROWTH

From the inception of GSM services rollout in 2001 up till 2015, telecoms contribution to GDP was put at $70 billion.

But the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the figure had gone beyond $70 billion in 2020, given the continuous growth rate of telecoms operations in the country.

The contribution of the telecommunications sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), however doubled in the last eight years, according to data obtained from the website of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

According to the statistics, telecoms contribution to GDP in 2012 was 7.7 per cent, but the figure doubled to 14.3 per cent as at the second quarter in 2020.

The statistics indicated that telecoms contribution to GDP had maintained a steady growth rate between 2012 and 2020, excerpt for 2013, when there was a slight drop in the contribution, compared to the contribution in 2012.

The statistics showed that in 2012, telecoms contribution to GDP was 7.7 per cent and in 2013, the contribution dropped slightly to 7.4 per cent, but it picked up again in 2014, contributing 7.6 per cent to GDP. In 2015, telecoms contribution to GDP further increased to 8.5 per cent and it had another increase in 2016, contributing 9.13 per cent.

In 2017, it contributed 8.7 per cent to GDP and in 2018, telecoms contribution to GDP grew to 9.9 per cent.

In 2019, telecoms contribution to GDP grew again to 10.6 per cent and in 2020, as at second quarter, telecoms contribution to GDP, reached 14.3 per cent, representing N2.3 trillion, whereas the entire contribution of ICT to GDP within the same period was 17.5 per cent.

Impressed by the contribution of telecoms to GDP, Danbatta said NCC would continue to rollout initiatives and implement government policies in such a way that the sector would continue to grow the country’s GDP. Danbatta said the NCC would be unveiling its second Strategic Vision Plan that would guide the activities of the sector for the next five years from 2021 to 2025.

“The Strategic Vision Plan 2 will leverage on the National Broadband Plan, the National Digital Economic Policy (NDEP), and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Vision Plan to drive telecoms activities in the next five years, and contribute more

Former CEO of MTN Nigeria, Adrian Wood

to the country’s GDP. These are policy documents expected to drive the sector, and NCC will come up with implementable plans to drive them,” Danbatta said.

He explained that the projection for 2021 would be on capacity building and the unveiling of the second Strategic Vision Plan.

“Government is looking at additional deployment of fibre optic cables in the next four years, in addition to what is currently on ground. The NCC is desirous that telecoms services are pervasive and accessible to all Nigerians, irrespective of their locations, even in remote and isolated communities.

We need adequate infrastructure to build on the gains of telecommunications,” Danbatta further said.

BROADBAND PENETRATION

Broadband penetration, which is the backbone for Internet connectivity, is one area through which the telecoms sector impacted the Nigerian economy. In order to further boost broadband access across the country, whose penetration was hitherto slowed down, the federal government, in 2013, issued the first document on National Broadband Plan (2013-2018), which set broadband penetration targets for both fixed and mobile broadband across Nigeria. Of the many targets set by the document, the most prominent one was the projection that Nigeria must reach 30 per cent broadband penetration by December 2018. At that time, broadband penetration was below six per cent. There was however a large dose of pessimism about the country’s ability to reach this target before the December 31, 2018 deadline. But few months before the deadline, Nigeria reached and surpassed the 30 per cent broadband target.

Having surpassed the 30 per cent broadband target, the federal government came up with a second National Broadband Plan (2020-2025), with a target to achieve 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025.

The second National Broadband Plan seeks to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria at a minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population and penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data.

The broadband plan also targets the deployment of nationwide fibre coverage to reach all state capitals, and provision of a point of presence in at least 90 per cent of local government headquarters. It also targets tertiary educational institutions, major hospitals in each state and fibre connectivity at statutory rates of N145/ linear metre for Right of Way (RoW).

From less than six per cent broadband

penetration in 2015, Nigeria witnessed increased broadband penetration that reached 45.93 per cent as at Q1, 2020, but witnessed a decline to 41.18 per cent between December 2020 and March 2021, which was the period that Nigerians suffered SIM card ban.

Statistics showed that the number of Nigerians with access to broadband (internet high-speed) services on their mobile devices as at Q1 2020, which stood at 87.6 million, reduced to 78.6 million by the end of March, 2021, which has been attributed to policy implementation that rather set the telecoms sector backward.

During the same period, basic active Internet subscriptions dropped also from 154.8 million to 144.9 million, according to statistics obtained from NCC’s website.

In spite of the drawback, broadband penetration has picked up again and it is expected to be sustained through the right policy implementation.

DISRUPTIONS IN FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

Apart from communicating and making calls from the comfort of homes and offices, using the mobile phones and without spending hours on long queues to use NITEL facilities to make call, the GSM revolution has equally disrupted banking services, allowing bank customers to carryout financial transactions on their mobile phones, without visiting the branch offices of banks.

The Financial Technology (FinTech) players, leveraged the widow of opportunities presented

by GSM revolution, to develop banking applications that disrupted the usual banking services where bank customers must visit the bank and queue for hours before the bank staff could perform basic financial transactions for them like transfer of funds from one account to another, checking of account balance and payment of utility bills and airtime recharge.

With such smart applications that could be downloaded freely, the customer can perform all financial transactions, including payment of bills from a smart mobile phone and other smart devices, from the comfort of their homes, offices, or even when on the move. With the new development from FinTech players that has disrupted banking operations, all banks have gone digital, a development that has reduced the number of physical bank branches across the country, as the banks invest in digital applications that will further enhance customer experience.

Although the ease of financial transactions come with its own challenges like online hacking of bank accounts, but the banks, in collaboration with FinTech players, are coming up with measures and solutions that will boost security architecture around financial transactions.

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

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THURSDAY AUGUST 12, ͰͮͰͯ ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

BRAND & MARKETING

Of Agency Proliferation and Egoistic Syndrome for CEO Title Emergence of new companies from existing ones is neither a local practice nor associated to advertising industry alone. However, recent findings have revealed that desperate urge to earn the ‘CEO’ title is a major factor for opening businesses for some players in the marketing communications industry. Raheem Akingbolu writes

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eyond the institutional challenges facing integrated marketing communications industry, it has been established by many critics that practitioners themselves are the biggest threat to the growth of the

industry.

Among other self-created challenges, proliferation of agencies appears to have become a bottleneck for the industry. Though it can be explained away that multiplication of agencies was one of the factors that strengthened the local marketing communication practice in the early stage of the industry revolution in Nigeria, but recent developments have also pointed to the fact that some practitioners jump where they should walk and open shops without plan.

Speaking on proliferation, an Associate Professor of Journalism, Lagos State University, Tunde Akanni, said “there’s nothing wrong for an individual who have run an agency as chief executive officer for three or four years to go out there and establish his own and expound the industry.”

According to Akanni, who is also the Director of Digital Media Research Centre of the university, the best thing a professional could do to remain fulfilled is to live his dream.

“To me, I don’t see anything abnormal in a thoroughbred creative man, who has done well for the industry and mastered the business to go out there and open his own shop. As a university lecturer, I hope to remain relevant and contributing to scholarship even after leaving the school. The same way an adman will want to remain creative till the end,” he stated.

WINNER-TAKE-ALL ATTITUDE

As found out by this reporter, one of the major factors that daily fuel proliferation in the marketing industry is the greed on the part of many agency owners. Over the years, the industry has seen many owners of advertising and other marketing agencies not conceding any part of the business to long-serving and diligent staffers, even after spending their productive years serving the ‘master’.

The case study of Comex Advertising Limited is still fresh over 20 years after. Lanre Folorunso had approached Sunkanmi Ajiboye on the need for them to float an agency. Ajiboye agreed and became the de-facto Deputy Managing Director.

The relationship between the duo at the beginning was determined by mutual trust and transparency.

But as the agency was growing, sources said certain decisions were being taken behind Ajiboye.

He had to opt out.

Having lost out, Ajiboye was left with no other option but to establish his own ad agency known as MartLink.

“At the beginning Ajiboye was privy to all in-flows, but was shut out when the big cheques started coming in,” a source privy to the situation confided in THISDAY. There was also the case of Tola Bademosi and Dotun Ajiboye, who at the beginning, ran BDConsult like a joint business but the relationship suddenly went sour and Ajiboye threw in the towel. But rather than opening a PR shop to compete with BD-Consult, Ajiboye was said to have gone into another sector entirely. Though with little difference, Udeme Ufot’s SO & U was also owned by three practitioners: two men and a woman. These were Gbemi Sagay, Julia Oku and Udeme Ufot. But again, things fell apart and they went their different ways. Perhaps because of the fact that the name has become an established brand, Ufot and his new team didn’t yield to the pressure to adopt a new name. Though Sagay later floated an agency, The Shops, not much was heard of the firm and its businesses a few years after.

Speaking to THISDAY on the issue, an analyst who understands the happenings within the industry, Samuel Ajayi, disagreed that the reason for agency proliferation is as a result of in-fight but genuine desire to run a business.

“I take strong exception to the belief in some quarters that most people that left their previous agencies to set up another firm did so as a result of disagreement. It’s not so. For instance, Lolu Akinwumi of Prima Garnet and Tunji Olugbodi had perfect working relationship but at a time, Olugbodi thought of starting something on his own and that was how Verdant Zeal was established.

Today, the two agencies are employers of labour, adding values to businesses and doing perfectly well,” Ajayi said.

This was also the case of Nucleus Advertising,

which was jointly established by Joko Okupe, Taiwo Osunsanya, Ade Olabode and two others. The partners parted ways early with Osunsanya setting up Media Pro while Ade Olabode established Media Specialties.

At the Troyka Group conglomerate, the story is not different but ironically, the group is also the most cited agency whenever the issue of perfect partnership comes up. At various fora, it is common to hear the story of how Biodun Shobanjo and Jimi Awosika have worked together for decades and still counting. In particular, Shobanjo has received many accolades for being able to manage Awosika well.

Unfortunately, the group has also mismanaged many talents and loyal employees who would have been asset to the brand today. The most recent, are perhaps that of Feyi Olubodun, Bolaji Okusaga and Sam Osunsoko. Young and productive, the three brilliant communication strategists rose through the ranks to head three of the group’s subsidiaries; Insight Advertising, The Quadrant Company and Leo Burnett Lagos.

It is believed that if the group had allowed the duo and others who left after putting in many years; some portions of the business, they would still be adding value and growing the business till today. In the case of TQC, where Okusaga held sway for over a decade, he was believed to have taken the agency from point zero to a major profit-making arm of the group but he left when he saw the handwriting on the wall that he might not be part of the business and may one day be shown the way out. Today, TQC, that was once among the top three Public Relations agencies in Nigeria only exist on papers.

But where others have failed, the Noah’s Ark family appears to be getting it right. In the last few years, Bolaji Alausa and Bolaji Abimbola have been the faces of Noah’s Ark and Indigo PR while Lanre Adisa, the owner of the business plays the advisory role. A source within the group confided in THISDAY that the relationship between Adisa and his two ‘captains’ are chummy and cordial -at least for now.

OVER AMBITION

While one can blame some big agency owners for greediness, findings have also

revealed that some employees are irredeemably ambitious and often turn out to be their employers’ albatross. For instance, there have been cases of client service directors, who went behind the door to hijack their employers’ businesses simply because they knew the value of the businesses and they were the ones relating with the clients. In some cases, the former agencies died and in some other cases, they struggled to survive.

The most common cited case by practitioners in this regard is the case of Sir Kehinde Adeosun’s Promoserve. Adeosun was said not to be a grounded advertising man when he established Promoserve and appointed Alan Olabode as managing director. Unknown to Adeosun, Olabode was only feeding his own nest. Before Adeosun knew it Olabode had fed fat on Promoserve. He threw in the towel and instantly established 21st Century Advertising Limited. In fact, the agency was the first to start operations from its own property at Ikosi area of Ketu along Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

After Olabode’s exit from Promoserve, Daye Oruwari was appointed MD but he repeated the same thing and quit to establish Admix.

Promoserve didn’t survive the onslaught.

A recent example was the coup masterminded at Centrespread by the trio of Sola Adegorioye, Doyin Adewumi and Wale Akintunde. As the faces of Centrespread within and outside, the three young men had almost successfully cornered the agency’s business but they couldn’t go far before the bubble burst. Unknown to Ayanwale, there was a certain Creative Zone, which was registered by proxy by his employers to hijack the then Skye Bank, Eko Supreme and other businesses.

Though they managed to strike a calendar deal and other businesses, the major account of Skye Bank, which they targeted didn’t move due to the resistance on the part of some of the bank’s top management officers.

Another early challenge they had was an in-fight among the three, which forced Wale Akintunde to retrace his step and returned to Ayanwale like the biblical prodigal son.

INSTIGATION FROM CLIENTS

Outside the practitioners, there are cases of some brand promoters who often sell the idea of owning agencies to friends within the agency.

This practice is common in a situation whereby the brand managers have no friendly relationship with the agency owner and some sharp practices could not be carried out. However, experience has shown that after the initial businesses, such agencies crumble and throw employees back to the labour market because there is always no long term planning before the establishment.

By and large, the issue of proliferation of advertising agencies in Nigeria has remained a subject of debate. While some practitioners believe that it is a positive development provided that clients get the best services they desire, others opine that the proliferation was undermining creativity and hindering growth.

In a recent interview with Marketing Edge, a marketing journal, the President Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Steve Babaeko, said that the proliferation of advertising agencies in the face of the dwindling economic realities in Nigeria was not the right way to go.

He pointed out that it was ironic that while the number of advertising agencies are on the rise daily, the clients that they are jostling to work for are reducing by the day.

“I think that proliferation on its own is not necessarily a bad thing because it means that more people have the opportunity to come and show us what they can do. But when proliferation becomes proliferation for proliferation sake that is where we have a problem.

And that is where we are now. It flies in the face of economic reality that we have more agencies opening shops everyday but even the clients that we are all jostling to work for; they are reducing. They are closing factories. So if you are now opening your agency today, which client do you want to work for? lt makes sense in the face of economy realities for agencies to merge; come together and become a bigger platform with a bigger voice, with bigger muscle and bigger strength, so that is what I will recommend.”

Managing Director, TreeWater Retreats Limited, Mrs. Julia Oku Jacks, agreed with Babaeko.

She stressed that it was paramount for advertising agencies to cooperate and rely on each other for strength. Jacks claimed that Nigerian advertising agencies have to become stronger agencies through effective collaboration to withstand competition globally.

According to the former co-founder of SO&U Advertising: “I think measures are important but you have to look at everything on a case by case bases and you look at where, maybe you are lacking in some strength, where you can leverage on each other’s strength and then become a stronger agency.”

Former Marketing Services Director of Nestle Foods Nigeria, Mrs. Iquo Ukoh, said the crave for money and prestige as the Managing Director of an agency are some of the reasons why advertising agencies are opening shops every day. She stressed that such experience may not last long because big brands love to work with agencies with affiliations, depicting the need for collaboration amongst them.

“Having little shops here and there is not giving agencies the leverage that they need to pitch to big clients. We live in a world of collaboration, the more you collaborate with your competencies the better because partnerships work.”

Managing Director, Ladybird Limited, Mrs. Bunmi Oke, has a slightly different opinion, as she believes that the proliferation of advertising agencies is not the problem because the market is diverse. According to her, agencies have the opportunity to choose which segment of the market to service.

She added that what is important is the ability for agencies to meet the desires of their clients should be the paramount issue at play.

“I believe that everything in life is in phases.

There is a time when you consolidate, there is a time when you cooperate, there is a time when you isolate and there is a time when you reposition and re-strategise. I think it is a reflection of the time and season. I don’t think that you should generalise that proliferation is bad; you have to watch how the waves go, you have big waves, you have small waves and how we tackle it by ourselves is different. Let’s just take it as a welcome development as long as we are creating the jobs and the services. We have clients that are happy and they are also building the economy” Oke added.

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

PERSPECTIVE

‘Strategic Leadership for Success in an Unknown Tomorrow’ Caroline Lucas

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sk any successful leader about their secrets to excellence in leadership, and you’ll realise that preparing for an unknown tomorrow is one of them. As an executive or organisational leader, you have to lead your team into the uncertain, unclear and unknown future perhaps more so now when we are facing an unprecedented pandemic. Indeed, we are living in times where leaders have to change their plans since some old school strategies and management practices might not work now.

Turns out, while tomorrow remains unknown we can accurately predict that it will happen whether you are prepared to face it or not. Interestingly, you can also create a plan as a leader for tomorrow, next week, or next month, but when that time comes, the reality might not play out as you had designed or hoped. It hurts, but that is the beauty of tomorrow. You can plan a lot about it, but the fact remains that you won’t control it. So, what should you do about it? Should you just wait to see how it unfolds before you? Obviously, you cannot do that as a leader. Here’s the secret. Yes, you cannot control the future, but you can develop your competence to optimise your decision-making, influence, impact and shape it.

To help you learn the art of influencing and shaping the future through strategic leadership, TEXEM, UK wishes to invite your organisation to a four-day executive development programme tagged ‘Strategic Leadership for Success in an Unknown

Tomorrow’. As a leading and innovative provider of learning platforms for leaders, our services have always inspired many leaders over the years.

Since 2010, TEXEM has expanded her reach, and glad to be part of the success stories of many organisations whose leaders are active participants in her executive development programmes.

The forthcoming TEXEM programme will equip leaders with requisite insights into actionable strategies required to thrive despite the disruptive, fast-paced, uncertain and challenging operating landscape. More specifically, it will focus on some of the best tools that organisational leaders can use to secure success presently and even as we move into the unknown tomorrow. TEXEM’s interest is to help leaders focus on the bigger picture (goals) even during these disruptive times when being a leader requires resilience, agility and a visionary outlook to tackle the never-ending challenges and win.

As the organisation have always done, TEXEM gives you a chance as an executive from your organisation to benefit from their tested and proven methodology that consistently help organisations to achieve their goals effectively and efficiently. During this programme, you would learn from world-renowned leaders, scholars and award-winning strategic leadership experts. To paint the right picture of what to expect, some of the faculties that would deliver this programme will include insightful Gerald Baldwin,

Director, Cadbury World and prolific, as well as the pragmatic Ambassador Charles Crawford. But that’s not all.

Others are world-renowned London Business School trained Professor Paul Griffith of Ashridge and the eminent University of Cambridge trained Ambassador Dr Rachel Aron. If you’ve read some of the works of these TEXEM’s eminent faculties or watched their coaching presentations or listened to testimonials from the hundreds of organisations that they have helped transform, you would know that they would help you challenge assumptions, enhance your; self, team, organisational and societal leadership.

TEXEM has designed a well-balanced schedule to help you get the maximum benefits of attending this programme. As usual, the activities during the meeting will comprise impactful live sessions, peer to peer learning, games, group/individual activities and moments of self-reflection.

With such well-blended activities, the programme will optimise the capabilities of leaders to anticipate, inspire, interpret, conceptualise, decide, influence, align, and grow to achieve sustainable success, especially in an uncertain clime.

Since we are left with a few slots, we invite your organisation to confirm participation in this programme as soon as possible to avoid being locked out of such an insightful and impactful programme. So, we encourage you to apply to reserve your place as soon as possible. The programme will run between the 16th and 19th of August 2021 at the

Hilton Garden Inn, Birmingham, UK. The cost is £3300/2,343,000 Naira, which covers your visa support, study materials, two tourist visits, five nights of hotel accommodation, and most meals during the programme, group picture, and certification.

TEXEM, UK is cognisant of the fact that we are living in times of a pandemic. Therefore, for one reason or the other, we understand that some leaders or organisations might not be able to send representatives to attend the programme. For the benefit of such organisations and any other individuals who might be unable to go off-shore due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we have an offer for you. There will be a one-day live session at Radisson Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos on the first day, while the participants can join via zoom for the remaining three days from day two in a Hybrid version (of face-to-face and virtual live sessions). The programme fee for the Hybrid version is £2300, meaning you save a whopping £1000. The cost covers study materials, group pictures, and certification.

Being a strategic organisational leader means having the skills and ability to steer clearly into the future even in complex and disruptive times as the present and future operating context depicts. It is a fact that COVID 19 has created pressure in organisations. As a leader, you are responsible for guiding through the pandemic and bringing the innovation or change that is required. You now have an opportunity to learn how to do so by attending the forthcoming programme.

Please apply through https://texem.co.uk/ strategic-leadership-for-success-in-an-unknowntomorrow/ or call +447425 883791 or email exec@texem.co.uk.

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THURSDAY AUGUST 12, ͰͮͰͯ ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Kallon: Peaceful Co-existence Will Address Humanitarian Crisis in North-east In this interview with Ugo Aliogo, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon, speaks on the humanitarian crisis in the North-east, UN reforms in Nigeria, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other issues. Excerpts: What are the major reforms of the United Nations in Nigeria and how have these reforms impacted the country’s development indices? he Secretary General’s Reform Agenda is being implemented on the basis of three interlinked tracks: a. Repositioning of the United Nations Development System aimed at improving the overall UN approach to 2030 Agenda through a reinvigorated resident coordinator system, a new generation of UN Country Teams and restructuring of regional assets; b. Break existing silos and allow for an integrated whole-of-pillar approach to peace and security, through enhanced focus prevention and peace sustainment (Human Rights, Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus), and c. Paradigm shift in the management of the Secretariat through decentralization, delegation and simplification to enhance effectiveness, while strengthening accountability.

In Nigeria, the Resident Coordinator (RC) position was officially delinked from the UNDP Resident Representative function at the beginning of 2019, thus creating an impartial, independent and empowered RC as the official Representative of the Secretary-General in the country.

Earlier in 2018, the UN System in Nigeria developed the $4.3 billion United Nations Sustainable Partnership and Development Framework (UNSDPF) 2018 -2022 which outlines the strategic direction and results expected from the cooperation between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the UN System in Nigeria. The UNSDPF 2018-2022 serves as the collective support and response of the UN System to the national development initiatives of the government regarding the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa Union Agenda 2063 and other internationally agreed declarations.

The UNSDPF 2018-2022 reflects Nigeria’s changing economic, social and environmental conditions and is designed as a strategic framework to assist and address Nigeria’s developmental and humanitarian challenges, leveraging on UN leadership, comparative advantages, and capacity assessment. The UNSPDF 2018 -2022 is also the basis for the country programme documents and presence of the 19 resident and four non-resident UN entities with the host country programmes in Nigeria.

Impacting development indices in Nigeria requires a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach. It requires that we use the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to develop social contracts that promote action from all stakeholders including youth, civil society, academia, media, the private sector, trade unions and other stakeholders.

The SDGs will also need to be localised. This will require that there is a transition in policies, budget implementation (not just allocations), institutions and regulatory frameworks. At the higher levels, it will be necessary that both the Federal and State governments galvanise the political will and set priorities to secure the requisite resources and develop smarter development solutions to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. Over the next decade, Nigeria will require additional resources anywhere between $161 to 357 billion to achieve SDG targets. As a middleincome country, between 50-60 percent of the financing needs is expected to be covered by the government. The challenge is that over the last couple of years, the total consolidated budget (both federal and state) was only about $54 billion. The capacity of the Nigerian government to increase investment and spur post COVID 19 recovery and job creation are severely restricted.

Furthermore, debt accumulation is not an option and it is, therefore, necessary that the government does everything possible to facilitate enhanced private capital investment.

in need of renewed efforts. The UN continues to support the government in a broad set of areas to help her goal of meeting the SDGs. Nigeria’s commitment to those goals is clear and the UN is ready to continue supporting Nigeria.

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What are the obstacles to reforms for the United Nations in Nigeria?

Almost all UN entities have a special mandate that is United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on children, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on climatology and World Health Organisation (WHO) on health.

With these reforms, we still need to work through the differences in agency systems in order to promote joint working among them and to develop joint programming initiatives (Deliver as One). We still need to develop a more systematic approach to our partnership with Government, bilateral donors and IFIs. The skillsets for such

Kallon an approach are not yet fully developed. We are also yet to develop a Nigeria funding compact with our donors. This is a critical foundation for all other areas and it is still the most challenging.

As a system, we are proud that we now have a Management Accountability Framework (MAP) to provide guidance on the overall direction, accountabilities and oversight to take forward our collective responsibility to make the United Nations fit for purpose to support the 2030 Agenda. The MAF provides a consistent approach that remains faithful to the letter and spirit of the GA resolution on the repositioning of the UN Development System.

Is the UN doing enough to support Nigeria in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF) is the UN’s partnership with the government of Nigeria on our partnership to support Nigeria in meeting the SDG goals. The current partnership runs until 2022 and a new framework is currently being developed to support Nigeria. This support cuts across many areas from health and vaccinations, education, social protection, environmental issues on desertification and the cleanup in the Niger Delta, support to the National Bureau of Statistics on data collection, and support to State governments in using the SDG framework in the development plans, among others.

Financing remains a key challenge and the UN is supporting Nigeria in developing an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) which should help identify options and potential areas for action. Most recently the UN has supported in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in testing, vaccinations, and risk communication, with over $70 million mobilised and spent. The UN continues to stand ready to support Nigeria.

How will you measure Nigeria’s commitment to achieving the SDG goals and where are we in comparison to other countries?

Nigeria remains committed to meeting the SDGs goals and that commitment is clear as Nigeria was one of the first countries to adopt the SDGs. The effort of Nigeria also goes back to the commitment to meeting the previous MDGs. The commitment is also

clear as the SDGs have been a key part of the national development planning process.

At the sub-national level, many States are now incorporating the SDGs into their plans.

The available data however suggests that accelerated efforts are required if Nigeria is to meet the goals by 2030. Even though there are improvements across many fronts the improvements in many cases are not fast enough. The Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs continue to champion the SDGs and remain key coordinators.

In 2019, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that without additional spending, there would be less than 50% progress toward all SDGs and even with increased investment from the public and private sectors, many SDGs would not be met. Therefore, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a business-as-usual approach to financing development appeared insufficient to attain national development priorities and SDG targets.

Now, the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 has compounded the problem, marked by the decline of government revenues and development financing as well as worsening socio-economic indicators.

Poverty and hunger remain high and the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to disrupt any progress.

In the areas of education, health, and access to basic services some progress has been made but will need to be accelerated significantly to meet the targets for 2030.

For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to push over 7 million more Nigerians into poverty in 2020, with the poverty rate projected to rise from 40.1% (82.9 million) in 2019 to 42.5% (90.2 million people) in 2020 and 42.9% (95.7 million people) in 2022.

One area that has seen a setback is in gender equality, where cases of gender-based violence have risen since the pandemic. Significant challenges also remain in financing the SDGs, as government revenue is constrained and many being left behind in private financing of some SDGs.It is important to note the internal variation within Nigeria with some regions, particularly in the North West and North East lagging behind and

The humanitarian crisis in the Northeast remains a major crisis that seems to hinder achievement of the desired success.

What do you think is responsible for this?

The crisis in North-east Nigeria is a complex emergency and presents an intricate web of issues that require the collective efforts of different actors in the search for a durable solution.

The humanitarian crisis in the BAY Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States is very dynamic and remains one of the largest in the world today. At the peak of the crisis in 2017, over 2.2 million people were displaced in the BAY states and 303,963 Nigerian refugees were in neighbouring countries Cameroon (115,695), Chad (16,294) and Niger (171,974). Currently, there are an estimated 1.9 million people displaced in the worst-affected BAY States.

Over 80 per cent of them are in Borno State and many live in dire conditions with four out of five IDPs living in overcrowded camps. In addition, an estimated 1.6million displaced people have returned to relatively safe areas in BAY States with limited basic services and livelihood opportunities.

Over $3.2 billion has been mobilized for the humanitarian response in the north from 2017 to 2020, providing life-saving assistance to over 5.5 million people annually. This is thanks to advocacy at the highest level by the Government, the ERC and IASC at the Oslo Conferences in 2017 and 2019, and the mission of the UNSC to the Lake Chad Basin and endorsement of the UNSCR 2439. These efforts contributed to raising international awareness of the impact of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin and mobilisation of donor interest.

The humanitarian communities in Nigeria, including the Government, International NONGovernmental Organisations (INGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the UN have done very good work over the years in alleviating human suffering, averting a famine in 2017, and bringing hope to millions of people affected by the conflict. This is despite the conflict being a complex and challenging counter-insurgency ecosystem with regional implications for the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin.

However, 8.7 million people in the BAY states need humanitarian assistance in 2021 and a total requirement of $1 billion. The ongoing conflict continues to be the main driver of humanitarian needs in North-east Nigeria.

What is the role of the UN in supporting the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), providing psycho-socio support and source of livelihood for them?

The ongoing conflict is resulting in a serious protection crisis with continued violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, violations of the rights of children, abduction, rape, arbitrary killings, gender-based violence, and the collapse of traditional coping mechanisms. About 80 per cent of people in need of humanitarian assistance across the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are women and children. Women and children are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and gender inequalities have been reinforced over the past few months. From global best practices, there are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems.

The only solution to the crisis in Northeast Nigeria is peace. We must therefore have a shared understanding of the risk and vulnerability that prioritise prevention always, development wherever possible, and humanitarian action when necessary.

This approach should also be supported by the right kind of financing, drawing from diverse funding sources to ensure that the required resources are mobilized.

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

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Adebayo: Telecoms has Become Nigerian’s Common Wealth Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, gives insight into GSM revolution in Nigeria; it’s transformational impact on the economy and how it has become the common wealth of all Nigerians. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts: Nigeria is celebrating 20 years revolution of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) rollout. How will you describe its impact on economy and Nigerians? n the last 20 years of GSM rollout, significant transformation has taken place in Nigeria, and I want to thank the media for the good narratives that have also helped in putting things in the right perspective.

In the last 20 years, Nigerians took joint ownership of mobile communication and today it has become our common wealth. I do not see how the world will develop without mobile services and I do not see how Nigeria will make significant progress without telecommunications.

In the last 20 years of GSM, Nigeria has done very well, the telecoms industry has done very well and all industry stakeholders have done very well.

I want to also thank the government for the political will to license GSM operators in 2000 and for providing the enabling environment for the GSM rollout in 2001.

Certainly, telecoms investments as at 2021, should be quadruple of the $70 billion that was recorded in 2015, the reason being that by 2015, the world was not fully digitalised, but today, the world, including Nigeria is fully digitalised.

Telecommunications has impacted positively on commerce, banking, insurance, health, manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), are in a better position to give the accurate figure of investments in telecoms in Nigeria, but I know the investment is huge by now and has surpassed what it used to be in 2015, in terms of job creation, foreign direct investments and in terms of contribution to GDP, commerce and security, because of the many digital transformations going on in Nigeria.

Telecoms have impacted positively on all sectors of the economy. So apart from the earnings from the telecoms sector, we can also look at the earnings of other sectors that are dependent on telecoms, to see how much telecom has impacted the Nigerian economy generally.

I

What are the key benefits of GSM to the Nigerian economy since 2001?

GSM transformation in 20 years is a function of rapid changes in technology. Before GSM technology, there was Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, but all these have transformed to total neutrality of technology, leading to availability of service, quality of service among others, and they have brought about significant improvement on mobile communications. We have transformed from 1G technology, which was the CDMA technology, to 2G, 2.5G, (voice only) 3G, 3.5G, 4G and 5G technology. At the last count, Nigeria has 40 per cent of 4G coverage across the country. These transformations are functions of technology, but the beauty of it is that Nigeria moved at the right speed of technology, and if the country had not moved in that speed by adopting emerging technologies, we would not have had that rapid growth.

Today there is no kind of service on the network of developed countries that is not on our networks in Nigeria and we give the credit to our operators.

So part of the progress we have made as a country, is by accepting and adopting the rapid changes in technology. We adopted emerging technologies, developed the right human capital to support the technologies, such that we did not depend on foreigners for service management, even though we depended on them for technology and that in itself, helped us to develop and to grow rapidly.

We are looking at a time when we will no longer depend on foreign players for technical support, when GSM equipment will be manufactured in Nigeria.

SIM card sales at the beginning of GSM was N20, 000, it later dropped to N17, 000 and today SIMcards are sold for N100 and some operators even offer it free of charge to customers. We started with the macro SIM card, and later moved to micro SIM card and nano SIM card. Today the world is talking about the embedded SIM card, which is eSIM. All these are technology transformation, which clearly shows that as we advance in technology, the devices were becoming smarter, more intelligent and smaller in size. We used to have larger phone batteries that last for few hours, but today phone batteries are smaller in size and last longer. Initially mobile phones come with external antennae but today antennae

Adebayo are embedded inside of the mobile phone, for easy use and carriage.

Early telcos were given five years exclusivity period, and taxes waved within that period. How did the exclusivity period help in shaping the telecoms industry?

The five years exclusivity period offered to early operators by the telecoms regulator must be commended because it was useful and it did three things for the operators.

Firstly it led to rapid development of telecoms in Nigerian, because the regulator said it does not want briefcase operators, but operators who were willing to invest in Nigeria to grow the telecoms sector. It also helped the telecoms sector to have physical infrastructure and there were telecoms masts at different locations that were installed by telecoms operators. Part of the criteria for sustaining the exclusivity right was a proof of deployment of telecoms services. So the early operators were granted national licence that gave them access to national coverage.

At that time, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), was a national carrier and was meant to provide national backbone, which automatically made NITEL to be relevant during the period of the emergence of GSM in Nigeria. But as the technology advances, regulatory barriers were removed and operators were able to carry national traffic by themselves.

Without the exclusivity that we had a time in the telecoms industry, the growth we had at that time, would not have been achieved, and we thank the regulator for that foresight. At a point, in order to overcome the challenge of congestion, national roaming licence was considered to enable operators roam to another network that has network capacity in areas where the roaming operator does not have network capacity.

All these helped the rapid development of telecoms in Nigeria in the last 20 years.

Today subscriber number is over 200 million, up from less than 400,000 lines that we had prior to GSM rollout in 2001.

Collocation has been described as key

factor in achieving so much success in 20 years. What is your view about collocation?

Within the first five years of exclusivity period, there was regulatory requirement to build physical infrastructure, but when transformation came and deployment was adequate, the regulator saw a need for colocation and co-sharing, and so the need for operators to build their own physical infrastructure was no longer there, since they can collocate on a single mast and share infrastructure, and that was when outsourcing of building base stations came in place. Private infrastructure companies were licensed to build telecoms masts, where operators could come together to mount their antennae on the same telecoms mast and collocate. This again enabled rapid development, occasioned by the right regulatory environment, right human capital and right sense of ownership.

No doubt, there were some challenges in the past 20 years. What were those challenges?

Despite the progress made in the last 20 years, we still had our challenges in the areas of poor electricity, willful destruction of telecoms infrastructure, multiple taxation, indiscriminate charges, denial to Right of Way (RoW), incessant disconnection of telecoms facilities, among others.

In the area of poor electricity, we are trying to overcome it with the use of alternate energy like solar energy, wind energy, to generate electricity that will power base stations.

We had other several challenges but we were able to weather the storm and came out strong in all of those battles. ALTON was formed as a result of the many challenges faced by telecoms operators.

First we had the battle of connectivity.

NITIEL in its days, was all- in-all. NITEL was the regulator, operator and transmission company. So it became difficult for the early telecoms operators to connect with NITEL, when NITEL was the only access point connecting other operators, and the operators had to pay for the connecting links called the E1 links. It was so bad then that operators could not connect to themselves, without passing through NITEL. So operators may

have enough capacity to interconnect with other operators, but because NITEL was the only national carrier at that time, all operators must have enough E1 links to pass through NITEL before interconnecting with other operators. In spite of government and budgetary support for NITEL as the only national carrier at that time, NITEL compelled the early telecoms operators to build a Private Telecoms Operators (PTOs) room at NITEL exchange for the purpose of interconnectivity. We paid for building the PTOs room, we bought the PTO equipment ourselves and we were equally paying to NITEL for access to that PTO exchange. When the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) introduced a new signaling point called SS7, NITEL at that time, had all its telecoms equipment on MFCR2. So we needed to invest in a signal converter to convert signals from NITEL’s MFCR2 and convert to SS7, which was at that time, compatible to te equipment of telecoms operators. NITEL has to force telecoms operators to pay for the converters before we were able to connect to NITEL to access the SS7. So early operators paid for PTO room, paid for converters to connect to E1, and at the end of the month, NITEL sends a bill to telecoms operators for interconnectivity access to NITEL E1, and will they quickly disconnect any operator that delays to pay. NITEL will not allow the early operators connect with themselves, except they pass through NITEL. So when operator ‘A’ links NITEL in order to connect to operator ‘B’, the operator ‘A’ pays to NITEL for the link, but if NITEL routes traffic from NITEL network to the network of operator ‘A’, NITEL does not pay operator ‘A’ for routing traffic through the network of operator ‘A’. So we had to fight to battle of access to interconnectivity among telecoms operators. We approached the NITEL to remove the barriers of interconnectivity and a technical committee was then set up to discuss it, and I was the chairman of the technical committee, which recommended removal of the NITEL barrier to interconnectivity. We eventually won that battle and the barrier was eventually removed and a separate interconnect exchange was built to connect all the private telecoms operators together. That again led to the introduction of Interconnect Clearing House (ICH), to manage interconnection among telecoms operators and to also manage dispute resolution in interconnectivity among the operators.

By the time GSM was introduced, there became congestion using the single interconnect clearing house. So individual PTOs started connecting directly to GSM operators that have the capacity but do not have the licence of national carrier, and so depended on NITEl to carry traffic on the national route, and most cases, NITEL links are down, a situation, that compelled GSM operators to seek approval from the regulator to have a national carrier licence, which was granted to them.

In the issue of power, the regulator had promised telecoms operators of 24 hours steady power supply from the national grid within the first five years, and there is a document to that effect, but government failed in that agreement. In that same document, telecoms operators were mandated to rollout 10, 000 base stations in the country but that was achieved within the first one year of rollout. Energy challenges remain unsolved up till today and operators have to find ways to deal with the challenges.

Multiple taxes and denial of RoW have been a major hindrance to network expansion across networks. How were these challenges resolved?

At a time, government started seeing telecoms industry ad extractive industry, rather than contributive industry, and government started imposing all manners of taxes on telecoms operators and was denying operators of access to Right of Way (RoW). All the taxes and denial of RoW, slowed down telecoms growth at some point. So factors like power, multiple taxation, multiple regulation among others, slowed down network expansion, which invariable slowed down telecoms growth.

Security and vandalisation of telecoms facilities also affected telecoms growth.

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

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BUSINESSWORLD

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, ͰͮͰͯ ˾ T H I S D AY

PERSPECTIVE

Odegbami: YouID Allows You to Live Smart Youverify.inc, a technology company recently launched, YouID, a secured digital wallet solution that allows individuals to secure and store all identity information and documents in an encrypted format. CEO and Founder of YouVerify Inc., Dr Gbenga Odegbami, explain how it works and also highlights economy worth of YouID to potential users and businesses in this interview with Mary Nnah What informed your decision to come up with YouID, the all-in-one identity information app? hat really triggered what we are doing now, is an experience my mom had.

It was so hard for anyone to hack her account before because she was very safe with her money but immediately she moved to online and USSD banking, she started losing money.

And we said okay let’s see how we can solve some of the image problems that we have in Nigeria because it is now becoming a pandemic.

YouID is a secured digital ID wallet that allows you to store all identity information and documents in an encrypted format and allows you to access opportunities at a go.

So YouID allows you to live smart.

So, you only need to fill a form once and any other time you want to access any other opportunity your other information is in your phone. It is neither with anybody else nor with us at YouID. That means that even if you put a gun on our head we do not even know the information you have. The information is only with you and you alone have the power and exclusivity to share that information with any merchant or service provider that you choose to do.

Our goal at YouID is basically to eliminate you from filling the form twice or numerous times. Once you upload your information you just need to click to fill any form, hopefully in any part of the world but let’s start with Nigeria.

This is the first app that I know of actually, that you can get mapped to a loan based on who you are. Your phone actually knows the kind of load that you qualify for; before you apply for a job, it knows the kind of Odegbami job that you are qualified for. So it allows you to live smart; instead of applying for put in place in the countries in which sign off, you are actually confirming a 100 things before you get one, just buy we operate. that you are a real human being and your identity and we are able to put this that they actually have some level in your phone which will profile you and You mentioned that merchants and of confidence in who you are. So if map you to the right opportunities for you businesses are going to take advantage they want to give you a credit, they to start living smart. of this app for KYC. Are there other can decide to give you based on the We did not just stop there but also added E-commerce advantages that they are credence score on your YouID. That is some spices to it. In Nigeria we are not very going to get from this? the kind of transformation that YouID used to data breaches and data security. All If you want to get yourself on board adds to the e-commerce space, not just these sound too advanced but what we do an e-commerce platform you need to in Nigeria but in all the other markets with YouID is that anywhere somebody has fill a form in the first place - names, that we operate in. hacked any data, it does not necessarily have email, phone number and other KYC What we do is very specific and to be Nigeria; all of us sign into google, information. So what that means is unique in the customer journey. We are yahoo mail, Facebook and so many different that with YouID, on-boarding for an basically pre-screening and qualifying a platforms online; immediately somebody has e-commerce platform is faster because customer from the business perspective hacked your data in any of those platforms, you do not have to go through all that and from the users perspective we are we would inform you that you need to change filling process. You can just scan your just like a secured safe for you. your password.

YouID code on the platform and you The app is also that intelligent to also be are on-boarded. What that means is What is it going to cost people able prompt you, without you doing anything, that every single time you want to run to key into this initiative? to take the right action. a transaction, you are a pre-verified The app is free to use. You can And the whole thing is how do we grow customer meaning that your ID already download it right away if you want. our economy? The only way we can scale exists in a format that ensures you are our economy to cater for over 200 million not fictitious. It is the same way when Who pays for your service and (200,000,000) people is to go digital because it you want an on-board merchant to sell how does your company generate is very expensive to create factories and the something. revenue from this? whole point of view is how do we connect In addition, one of the things that a For the individuals the service is you to this opportunities in the digital space lot of E-commerce businesses have been free of charge. All you need to do is and how do we make sure that when we trying to do for many years is to give to simply go to the google app store, are connecting you, we are connecting you their user credits but I am not going to download it and you are ready to go. in a secured and safe manner. That is why give anybody credit just based on your In terms of businesses, the merchants we came up with YouID. email and phone number that might actually pay. It is a subscription service be fictitious. But with YouID when so you just subscribe to our service and This is an app that takes a lot of data. e-commerce companies allow you to then you would have access. We are What is the level of compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation?

We are in full compliance with NDPR “The beauty of this is that YouID also serves as a and not just Nigeria’s because it is not just a Nigerian platform. We are actually kind of store. We have something we call a vault launching it in multiple countries; we are in the app. So, everywhere you have given access in compliance with multiple data regulation agencies. As part of that compliance that to your personal information you can actually go is why we made it self-regulatory in the sense that you actually control your data. there and see what data you gave out. And if you We do not have access to your data. We are feel a particular platform should not have access in full compliance with all those data and information security policies and regulations to your data any more, you can revoke it.”

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pretty much a gateway for data and KYC information between you and the merchants.

So the merchants pay for our services to access your information.

Sometimes it is a problem for an e-commerce company to give credit to their users because they don’t have the KYC or the infrastructure to do this or maybe the cost doesn’t make sense for them to do the KYC part - YouID solves that problem for them. So that is the problem we are solving and for which they are paying.

And because of the empowerment we are not transferring that cost to individuals because your data is with you and you decide who you want to work with and who you do not want to work with; so all the empowerment is for the individual users of YouID. What happens to my data if I lose my phone?

There is a data backup feature that comes with YouID. For Android you can connect the app to the google drive. For iOS, you can connect it to iCloud Storage. All your information is stored and encrypted to either your google drive or iCloud storage. So once you login on your new phone, go to the data backup and import from your google drive or from your iCloud storage and restore all your information.

How do you mean that you do not have access to the information I’m going to put on your app?

Let me explain the information flow. What the users do is that they get their physical IDs and scan them (we are eliminating you typing and so we introduce scanning). So, when you scan these IDs, we use computer vision to extract all your information, encrypt it and store it on your device. It is not leaving your phone. The only time that information leaves your phone is when you grant access to a merchant; let’s say you want to apply for a loan or you want to shop online. At that point you have granted access to your data by passing the information from your phone directly to the merchants.

Youverify just acted as a processor. We act as both data processor and data controller, so at that moment we are acting as a processor, so we just move the information along. We don’t have it; we just pass it to the merchants. It is the merchants that require that information that now has access to your information.

The beauty of this is that YouID also serves as a kind of store. We have something we call a vault in the app. So, everywhere you have given access to your personal information you can actually go there and see what data you gave out. And if you feel a particular platform should not have access to your data any more, you can revoke it.

When you revoke your data we remove your data from the merchant’s system and it becomes inactive and the merchant can no longer access your information. In return you don’t have access to that service which you subscribed for again.

How long did it take your company to come up with this app?

I think the first time we talked about it was late 2017, so it was about two and a half years ago that we started the process.

We are actually the frontier of digital ID. What Features have you put in place to prevent hackers from penetrating your app?

The information about you is not with us but on your phone. Although our website is secured, your information is not on our server; so if someone should go to our website now, they cannot find any information about you. It is on your phone. We just offer a pathway to flow that information from you to the merchants and to allow you exercise control over that data.

T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021

33

IMAGES

Photo Editor Abiodun Ajala Email abiodun.ajala@thisdaylive.com

L-R: Minister of Environment, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar; Director-General, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Rufus Ebegba; and Conservator-General, National Park Service (NPS), Ibrahim Gomi, during the candlelight memorial held in honour of the fallen heroes of NPS in Abuja...recently

Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Buki Ponle (left), and Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, during a courtesy visit by NAN management to the governor in Abuja…recently

L-R: Chief Executive Officer, Ikeja Electric, Mrs. Folake Soetan; Chief Commercial Officer, Ikeja Electric, Mrs. Ogochukwu Onyelucheya; and Head of Project Management Office of the power company, Mr. Adewale Atobatele, during the symbolic unveiling of Ikeja Electric upgraded mobile app in Lagos…recently

L-R: Director, De Dynamic Comprehensive College, Ota, Ogun State, Mr. Jide Bello; overall JSS3 best student, Miss Mayowa Alao; and Chairperson of the occasion, Mrs. Adekemi Amasa, during the graduation ceremony of students of De Dynamic Comprehensive College, held in Ota…recently

L-R: Director of Trade Information, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mrs. Ifeyinwa Obidike; Head, Product Development of NEPC, Mr. William Ezeagu; Director, International Export, NEPC, Mrs. Uduak Etokwor; Director of NEPC, Mrs. Estelle Igwe, at the opening ceremony of level 4 Diploma International Trade by NEPC in Abuja...recently PHOTO: KINGSLEY ADEBOYE

L-R: Winners, Madu South Okechukwu and Paul Stephen Ogar; Convener/Special Assistant on Documentation to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Oluwadamilare Fawole; other winners, Onyediako Augustine and Mustapha Adams, during the grand finale of the Regional Photography Empowerment Workshop held in Abia State...recently

L-R: Commissioner for Insurance/CEO, National Insurance Commission (NIC), Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas; bride’s mother, Mrs. Ogheneyoreh Efekoha; groom, Mr. Osigwe Ahmed Momoh; bride, Ejiro Oghenesuvwe, and bride’s father/Group Managing Director, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, during the wedding of Ejiro and Osigwe in Lagos…recently

L-R: Vietnam Ambassador to Nigeria, Luomg Kuoe; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, during the visit of the ambassador to Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja...recently

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T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 12, 2021

HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

ÜÙßÚ ÏËÞßÜÏÝ ÎÓÞÙÜ˝ Chiemelie Ezeobi ×ËÓÖ chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, Tel: 07010510430

Strengthening Workplace Policies for Exclusive Breastfeeding Sunday Ehigiator reports that experts at the 2021 Nutrition Policy Dialogue recently organised by the Nigeria Health Watch have harped on the need for a strengthened workplace policy that would enable working mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children for at least six months as prescribed by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund

Chief of Section, Nutrition, UNICEF-Nigeria, Nemat Hajeebhoy

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ccording to the World Health Organisation (WHO), breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure a child’s health and survival.

However, nearly two out of three infants in the world are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months, a rate that has not improved in atleast two decades.

The Labour Act provides that in any establishment, a pregnant female employee is entitled to six weeks leave before her expected delivery date and another six weeks after delivery making a total of 12 weeks statutory leave.

The law also provides that every employee that is nursing a child is to be allowed 30 minutes twice a day during her working hours for the purpose of nursing her child.

And where a woman is unable to resume work after her maternity leave because of conditions arising from her delivery, her employer cannot terminate her employment.

One burning issue during contract signing that remains a clear indication of discrimination of female employees on issues relating to maternity by some private establishments, especially the banking sector, is the prohibition of women from getting pregnant within a stipulated period of time after resuming their appointment.

Failure to adhere to this rule has at times led to penalties such as automatic termination, demotion or deductions from salaries etc.

Although attempts of the Labour Act to protect female employees from discrimination are laudable, its provisions are, however, limited in scope especially with respect to workers in the private sector whose employment are usually predicated on the contracts they enter into with their employers.

As such, where a female job seeker enters an employment contract with a company which provides that she is not entitled to maternity leave, the courts would uphold such contract because it was freely entered into by the job seeker.

This formed the backdrop of conversations among nutrition experts at the zoom-event

Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu

Breast milk is an essential food for every child for the first six months. We should all work to implement policies that will allow women to breastfeed effectively and always themed, ‘Strengthening Workplace Policies for Exclusive Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility’, which was held in commemoration of the 2021 World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), themed: ‘Protect Breastfeeding: a Shared Responsibility’.

Continuing the discussion, the Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu reiterated that breast feeding was one of the best ways to ensure the good health of a child, and mother, hence nursing mothers require adequate moments at the workplace to enable them practice exclusive breastfeeding.

According to her, exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months has many benefits for the mother and child in numerous ways, especially when it is initiated at a very early moment after delivery.

Adding her voice, Programs Director, Nigeria Health Watch, Dara Ajala-Damisa, said early initiation of breastfeeding, within one hour of birth, protects the newborn from acquiring infections and reduces newborn mortality.

“Breastfeeding lowers the risk of stomach problems, ear infections, respiratory infections, childhood asthma, and diarrhea.”

In her remarks, Director, Public Health, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Dr Hajara Kera, noted that equitable breastfeeding policy by private organisations would enhance better productivity.

On the backdrop of Kaduna State, being the first and only state in the country to

extend maternity leave for civil servants from three months to six months, Kera said the state government is aiming to take it further by making it an executive bill that will likewise compel private institutions in the state to also do same.

According to her, the bill which is currently being worked on by the ministry of justice, “will implore the private sector to allow nursing mothers to have six-month paid leave.

“It will also advocate for creation of a crèche within the office space, where nursing mothers can take short time-off from work to go and breastfeed their children even while at work.”

Also speaking, Head, Food and Nutrition Division at Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Chito Nelson said there was an unfounded belief among women that if they take longer maternity leave, it may jeopardise their career.

According to her, “Having longer maternity period does not in any way affect your career as a woman. In fact, it gives you the advantage of exclusively breastfeeding your child which in turn relieves you of stress, depression and makes you more productive at resumption.”

Mrs. Nelson equally dismissed beliefs among employees that giving longer maternity periods to nursing mothers would increase unemployment in the country and productivity.

She said, “There is no correlation between having longer maternity leave and

increased unemployment, and also decreased productivity.

“When a nursing mother gets all the support necessary from her employee during lactation, she would have a sound mind that would improve her productivity tremendously.

And this would have a ripple effect on the economy as well.

“People need to understand the benefit of exclusive breastfeeding to the economy and country at large.”

In her address, Chief of Section, Nutrition, UNICEF-Nigeria, Nemat Hajeebhoy, spoke on the need for employers to create opportunities that give nursing mothers flexibility at work places.

According to her, “Flexibility gives mothers time. One of the benefits of COVID-19 actually is that we can be flexible, we can work from anywhere. Making it a new normal, we’ve talked about the new normal in the context of COVID-19, but we need to make breastfeeding the new normal in Nigeria too, sadly, only one out of three children is exclusively breastfed.

This is unacceptable.

“Breast milk is an essential food for every child for the first six months. We should all work to implement policies that will allow women to breastfeed effectively and always,” she said.

Earlier, a representative of Nigeria Health Watch, Kemisola Agbaoye, while laying context to the importance of a maternal friendly work environment said, the workplace plays a critical role in supporting breastfeeding practices “According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), lack of support at the workplace is one of the major reasons why women stop breastfeeding before the recommended time.”

She posited that women tend to stay longer at their jobs if they can breastfeed at work.

At the end of the discussions, all the experts concluded that, given the obvious benefits of breastfeeding, there was a clear need to strengthen workplace policies for exclusive breastfeeding both in public and private organisations, and to ensure that these policies become consistent across all sectors.

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 12, 2021

35

NEWS

Collaboration Key in Fight against COVID-19, Says Minister Emma Okonji The Minister of state for Health, Dr. Olurunnimbe Mamora, has said collaborative efforts between the private and public sector, helped in no small measure in the fight against the fast spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria and Africa.

The minister who said this in a recent interview, commended the active participation of the private and public sector in checkmating the spread of the pandemic.

According to statistics, towards UIF FOE PG UIF $07*% outbreak hit the world. Over a year later, there have been more than 191 million confirmed cases. *O .BSDI UIF 8PSME )FBMUI Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic due to the fast spread of the virus.

As the pandemic persisted, socioeconomic challenges increased requiring emergency responses from countries.

Governments responded with different containment measures while sourcing for a cure.

The statistics explained that African countries leveraged regional collaboration and implemented lockdowns and border closures as soon as the first few cases were reported.

The Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement 1SPHSBN 3&%*44& NPCJMJTFE GVOEJOH UP IFMQ DPVOUSJFT JO West Africa with entry-point surveillance, reinforced laboratory testing capacity, infection prevention and control, and access to essential medical equipment.

In East Africa, governments leveraged capacities from the East "GSJDB 1VCMJD )FBMUI -BCPSBUPSZ /FUXPSLJOH 1SPKFDU JO SFTQPOEJOH to the virus.

The Africa Centres for Disease $POUSPM BOE 1SFWFOUJPO $%$T

with funding from the World Bank, also mobilised infrastructure and networks to counter the spread of COVID-19 at the regional level.

South Africa executed one of the strictest lockdowns contributing to a remarkable decrease from QFS DFOU UP GPVS QFS DFOU JO infection rates.

“Before Nigeria confirmed its first case, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and its partners started mapping out isolation and treatment centres to manage COVID-19. “ Additionally, the NCDC began training health workers on case management, infection QSFWFOUJPO DPOUSPM *1$ TVSWFJMlance, risk communication, and other areas of epidemic response.

“The Federal Ministry of Health sensitised people at the grassroots about the virus and preventive measures through various campaigns and programs.

However, there was a need for joint intervention by the private sector to amplify the efforts of the government in combating the virus,” Mamora said.

Into the pandemic, a private sector-led intervention, Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) was formed.

Spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Aliko Dangote Foundation, and Access Bank, it mobilised private sector resources towards supporting the response to the crisis.

"T PG +VMZ $"$07*% IBT NPCJMJTFE BSPVOE / CJMMJPO XIJDI XBT QFS DFOU PG JUT / CJMMJPO UBSHFU GSPN private sector organisations in the Finance, Health, FMCG, and Telecommunication sectors.

As a key contributor to reducing the spread of the virus, the telecommunication sector inter-

vention has also been significant in raising public awareness on COVID-19 prevention.

One of such players within the telecommunications sector that has played a role in raising public awareness is IHS Nigeria. The largest subsidiary of IHS Towers.

In partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health and UIF 6OJUFE /BUJPOT $IJMESFO T 'VOE 6/*$&' UIF PSHBOJTBtion introduced its awareness intervention in different phases.

In the first phase, the organisation disseminated safety guidelines to underserved communities via radio jingles and flier distribution.

During the second phase, and more recently, the campaign which was aimed at sensitising the public on the risks around the virus focused on four major approaches to reducing the spread. They included handwashing, use of face masks, testing, and vaccination.

In an Instagram live session between Toyin Abraham Ajeyemi, a popular actress and comedian and the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, he reiterated the Ministry’s resolve to reach the grassroot through collaborative efforts. ‘’The ministry is hands -on in ensuring that we reach the grassroots and we have a network that enables this. The /BUJPOBM 1SJNBSZ )FBMUIDBSF Development Agency liaise with the state authorities who also have State Development Agencies.

“They link up with the local governments and conduct grassroots administration through their health portfolio. With this collaboration, we reach the comNVOJUJFT UISPVHI UIF 1SJNBSZ Health centres.

Pastor Umo Eno Tasks NMA on Restoring Professional Integrity Worried by perceived negative portrayals of the medical profession in Nigeria, especially in the movies, the Akwa Ibom State $PNNJTTJPOFS GPS -BOET BOE 8BUFS 3FTPVSDFT 1BTUPS 6NP Eno has urged the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to correct the very false and evil impression that doctors will not treat patients except they pay a deposit fund.

Speaking at the opening DFSFNPOZ PG UIF UI "OOVBM General Meeting and Scientific Conference (AGM/SC) of Akwa Ibom State Branch of the Association, the commissioner said such perception was capable of injuring the reputation of the medical profession if not quickly corrected.

1BTUPS &OP XIP XBT UIF DIBJSman of the occasion, called for serious reorientation of the public and partnership with the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood to erase scenes depicting the profession in negative light out of their storylines.

He thanked the NMA for their sacrifices since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that medical practitioners were at the forefront and contributed immensely in the fight against the pandemic.

The commissioner appreciated NMA for standing by Governor 6EPN &NNBOVFM JO UIF àHIU against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic adding that without the God-given wisdom on the medical practitioners, it would have been disastrous for humanity.

He recounted with admiration, the conviviality of medical doctors at the isolation centres and generally, in attending to their patients, emphasising that doctors are truly the people’s friend.

He called on the NMA to continue to partner government and support the Governor Emmanuel-led administration to achieve his completion agenda.

While commending the association for choosing him as chairman of the occasion despite his none medical background, he reminded them to remain tenacious to their Hippocratic oath. Earlier in his speech, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of /." %S *NF 4ZMWFTUFS 6EPI said the AGM affords them the opportunity to evaluate the events of the last year and chart a way forward for the medical profession, adding that it also presents them with the privilege of presenting leadership scorecard before the members.

He commended some prominent Akwa Ibom people, FTQFDJBMMZ 1BTUPS 6NP &OP GPS their support to the association especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Ime noted that the choice PG 1TU 6NP &OP BT UIFJS DIBJSman was in recognition of his continuous support to the body, saying “when you look through the profile of our chairman, it readily becomes very evident why he was specially chosen to play this role – the congruence in values.

“Colleagues, permit me to give your memory a little task.

Recall that at the height of the 1st wave of the $07*% QBOEFNJD 1BTUPS 6NP &OP BT B QSJWBUF DJUJ[FO which he then was, was one of the few who came to the aid of NMA by donating personal protective equipment which the association shared to members. Sir, your gift saved lives- the lives of doctors and their patients alike,” he added.

He commended Governor Emmanuel for always coming through for doctors in the state and beyond and prayed for God’s blessings upon the governor and his family.

FERTILITY

Info@lifelinkfertility.com; Website: lifelinkfertility.com 08033083580

INFERTILITY AS A CAUSE OF BROKEN HOMES (PART 2)

SHOULD INFERTILITY BE A CAUSE OF BROKEN HOME? he answer is NO! It is however unfortunate to note that infertility has been ranked as one of the major causes of broken homes. The main challenge that a couple struggling with infertility face is external stress from family and friends as well as the society.

Most couples get worked up and worried about what people would say or think about them. The anxiety created by this feeling on its own hinders pregnancy. Most couples trying for baby in a bid to ensure timed intercourse during ovulation may end up limiting sex to mean a baby seeking exercise and thus lose the fun of sex. You may forget that sex is much more than for making babies. This can seriously impact your sex life and may result in decreased sexual desire, performance anxiety or erectile dysfunction.

Some couples goes through denial, refusing to accept their doctors diagnosis and treatment options proffered. This outright refusal to comply with the doctor’s recommendation may be backed by religious belief or faith. Some couple also has the wrong perception that infertility was meant for some certain group of people whom they perceive as having poor moral, unfortunately there are so many factors that can affect fertility and one of them is genetics. Some individuals are more fertile than others due to their body make-up, lots of innocent young ladies have got polycystic ovaries which makes them seldom ovulate, it is genetic and not their fault, same goes to women with endometriosis. Some individual may require just mild medical intervention to assist them conceive naturally. This may just be fertility education like ovulation calculation and not necessarily advance technologies like In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Applying the right perspective to infertility is very important as it provides the compass to its resolution.

Infertility is one among many challenges in life. Every challenge can be resolved by following due proven process. There are various ways of resolving infertility, hence couple attempting pregnancy should learn to work with their Fertility Expert through each step of the way. Infertility should not be a female affair because we require both the sperm and egg to form the embryo.

Just like the adage that says ‘’it takes two to tangle’’ couples trying for babies should be seen together as this facilitates their management.

Early evaluation of couple to identify underlining reasons why pregnancy is not achieved is essential, knowing fertility declines with age. Most of the couple who delay medical intervention towards their fertility earlier in life often ends up attempting more advanced expensive fertility treatment at later age when their fertility has drastically reduced. The success rate of virtually all fertility treatment decreases with increasing age, hence

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patient may experience repeated implantation failure and this involves huge financial burden thus creating more frustration.

Studies have shown that women undergoing infertility treatment are more emotionally stable when they have the support of their spouse than when they don’t. It has been reported that hormonal levels in overly anxious/ depressed/ sad/ frustrated people fluctuate greatly. In Depression/ anxiety there is elevation of Hormones like Cortisol and Adrenaline which have negative impact on the reproductive system.

While infertility may often lead to broken home or polygamy, this approach is often not the best route to infertility resolution as it often in some cases tend to create more harm than good.

Recommendations for couples battling Fertility Challenges: r 0ODF B XPNBO JT ZFBST BOE BCPWF TIF should seek the help of a Fertility specialist/ Gynaecologist immediately she starts attempting pregnancy. r $PVQMFT XIP UIPVHI ZPVOHFS CVU IBWF CFFO having regular, unprotected sex for up to a year without conception should seek medical help. r $PVQMF USZJOH UP DPODFJWF TIPVME FOTVSF they enjoy regular, unprotected sex, several times every week especially around ovulation. r .FO BOE XPNFO XIP BMSFBEZ IBWF CFFO diagnosed of reproductive abnormalities, must learn to work with time as increasing age does not favour fertility. r 8PNFO XIP BSF PWFSXFJHIU BOE IBWF JSSFHVMBS ovulations will increase their chance of conception by losing some weight. Weight loss should be achieved by healthy diet and exercises. r &BU SJHIU GPS GFSUJMJUZ BOE BMTP BEE VTF PG prenatal multivitamins and minerals at least NPOUIT CFGPSF BUUFNQUJOH DPODFQUJPO r -JGFTUZMF NPEJàDBUJPO UIBU FYDMVEFT TNPLJOH and alcohol consumption will better enhance fertility. r .FO BOE XPNFO XIP KPJO GFSUJMJUZ TVQQPSU group are better able to cope than those who do not. r 1SFHOBODZ SBUF JT IJHIFS JO ZPVOHFS XPNFO BT compared to older women even for advanced expensive medical interventions as IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) using own eggs. r "TTJTUFE 3FQSPEVDUJWF 5FDIOPMPHZ provides the opportunity for couple to become parents irrespective of age and cause of infertility. $0/$-64*0/ -JGF JT B SIZUIN POMZ UIF XJTF XJMM DIPPTF UP EBODF to the melody, do not let infertility overwhelm you; learn to enjoy this special gift called today. *U IBT CFFO FTUJNBUFE UIBU NJMMJPO couples experience fertility problem globally.

While some researchers have observed that infertility constitute a major burden on clinical service delivery in Nigeria, being more than 50% of gynecological caseloads and constituting over 80% of laparoscopic investigations.

36

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 12, 2021

NEWS

COPE Launches Prosthesis Store for Breast Cancer Survivors Rebecca Ejifoma

At the launch of the prosthesis shop in Ikeja area of Lagos by the Care Organisation Public Enlightenment (COPE), a handful of breast cancer survivors reminisced about their pitiful ordeals following their diagnosis with breast cancer and mastectomies afterwards.

While a few recollected how as young girls they couldn’t wait to attain puberty and have shape and boobs like the big girls, others narrated how fortune smiled on them again through COPE after years of living without breasts, a woman’s asset.

One of such women is Mrs. Anita A. (not real name). She sees COPE as a burden bearer of cancer patients in Nigeria, describing it as a foundation that understands what every breast cancer patient goes through, especially during treatment.

For Anita, the CEO of COPE, Mrs. Ebunola Anozie, has been a rare support for her and several others. “You can even call her at midnight and she will pick up her phone and attend to you. For those who have finished treatment but still want to keep checking their status, there is a free ultrasound scan for all members.

“Sometimes, women run out of

money because the medication is expensive. She could find people or organisations that would be of help to complete the treatment.

Treatment in most cases can cost nothing less than N4 million, and it can be as high as N10 million.”

She narrated how in 2015 she was diagnosed with cancer.

“Thank God, I was not in a terrible situation. I was in stage one when my husband discovered it.

After the treatment, one doctor introduced me to this place. And since then I have continued to derive joy here, encouraging others.”

“Breast cancer is not a death sentence”, Anita declared, adding that early detection is the key.

According to her, she has taken a lot of proactive steps in her lifestyle; she makes it a part of corporate social responsibility to do enlightenment in church, in her business group, and anywhere she finds herself.

While bemoaning the loss of her friends to cancer, she admired Anozie’s resilience and consistency in lending a hand.

“She is constantly available to help. That is the beauty of COPE. There are some people here whose husbands have left them, and some who were supposed to get married and

8-months-old Ademola Urgently Needs N5m for Hole in the Heart Surgery Rebecca Ejifoma Eight-months-old baby, Ademola Adekoya, urgently needs N5 million to save his life and has less than two months only.

Baby Adekoya was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) after multiple tests were carried out, as shown in the documents made available to THISDAY. According to research, ventricular septal defect is a common heart defect most often present at birth, but it can occur in adults after surgery or a heart attack. It involves a hole in the wall between the heart’s lower chambers.

Shortly after his birth this January, baby Ademola was said to have fallen sick and was taken to the General Hospital Ikorodu for a medical check.

What the parents thought was a minor baby illness turned out to be VSD. Speaking to THISDAY, the mother, Mrs. Hannah Adekoya, narrated that when she took her baby to the hospital, the doctor told her that her son had an infection. “So, they placed him on drips and medication.

“The doctor checked him again and noticed he had mono in his chest. So the doctor recommended an X-ray. We did it. In the report of the X-ray it showed he has Cevenicat disease. After that, the doctor recommended an echocardiogram for the baby at the Afriglobal Facility.”

When she got a call from the Ikorodu General Hospital, she was referred to LASUTH Ayike House since the general hospital does not attend to such cases.

“When I got to LASUTH, I was able to see a cardiologist. They gave me an appointment to come

their fiances left because they had their breasts removed.”

Having given some breast cancer survivors free prosthesis at the event, the Chairman of Board of Trustees of the foundation and fertility expert, Prof. Osato Giwa-Osagie, expressed much pleasure to be associated with COPE. He added: “I am proud of this organisation. Without being tele-guided, Anozie has been doing well. NGO development is a long-distance race.

“Today we are launching the breast prosthesis and brassiere.

A big problem in the treatment of breast cancer among women

is the thought of removing the breast. This is attractive because it is a removable thing. It has no problems like implants.”

According to Giwa-Osagie, people can be self-conscious about breast matters. “Hence, COPE has brought in the brassiere and the prosthesis so that when the surgeon is telling a woman, I am going to remove your breast, he will also tell her that we have what you can wear so that people will not know that you have had a mastectomy.”

The fertility expert mentioned that they have been on this project for two years, especially

on how to get funds and bring the products to Nigeria. “That is typical of Anozie. She is steady.

I am very happy to be part of the organisation.

“We have women who have been survivors for more than 20 years. Some are up to 30 years old that I know. The outlook is getting better because of earlier diagnosis and, again, micro diagnosis. Examination of the breast regularly is far more important.”

Addressing newsmen, Anozie recalled in 1995 when she kicked off the organisation and was tagged jobless. “Today, God has

vindicated what we are doing, and we still stand tall doing what we are doing and impacting the lives of Nigerian women.

“Just like if you lose a leg, you have a prosthetic leg, when a woman has her breast removed, instead of walking awkwardly with one breast, we have this.

“We thank Variant Advisory’s CEO, Mr. Kehinde Durosinmi, Mrs. Yemisi Ayeni for sponsoring this project, and support from Access Bank. Now, people don’t need to worry about what to wear when they lose a breast and not being able to wear something that is admired.

L-R: Prof. Osato Giwa-Osagie, Mrs. Ebunola Anozie at the launch of the prothesis store in Ikeja

2021 ISN Medical Lab Scientist Award Calls for Entries Rebecca Ejifoma

Ademola Adekoya

every three months. I used to go during the appointed time.

“Last month, they called and said the hole in my baby could not be closed, that the baby is having VSD and that the hole is of moderate size. It can only be closed only through surgery.

They told me the bill is in millions of naira - N5 million.”

And with the options that the surgery could only be at Babcock or abroad, Adekoya took her baby to Babcock to make enquiries.

“Getting there, we started all over; they did the echo test again and it still showed the same problem.

Later they gave us the bill for the surgery, and that we have to do it within two months,” she lamented profusely.

In her plea, she called on all Nigerians to help save her child “Please I need Nigerians to assist me. I and a graduate. My husband is a graduate too. We got married in 2019. I don’t have a job. My husband is working but we can’t afford this big amount.

“This is our first child. I beg Nigerians to help me. He is my first child. I don’t want to lose this child. He is my life. Please help me.

While donations can be made to the UBA account 2213288367 Daniel Ademola Adekoya, the family can be reached on 08169230042.

The ISN has called for entries into the 2021 second edition of the ISN Medical Laboratory Scientist Award of the Year.

The ISN is an initiative powered by ISN Products Nigeria Limited, the leading supplier of medical diagnostic products and services in Nigeria.

Speaking at the flag-off ceremony in Lagos, the Managing Director, ISN Products Nigeria Limited, Mr. Felix Ofungwu, outlined the objective of the initiative including to promote excellence in the practice of medical laboratory science in Nigeria by recognising and rewarding outstanding medical laboratory scientists.

“The ISN Medical Laboratory Scientist of the Year Award is our way of recognisng the significant role medical laboratory scientists play in the delivery of quality

healthcare through accurate testing, which is critical to proper diagnosis and treatment of patients,” he added.

For years, Ofungwu continued, quality-driven medical laboratory scientists have served as the unsung heroes, carrying out their duties thanklessly and silently. “ISN is trying to ensure that these heroes get the recognition they deserve.”

On eligibility for the award, the MD listed the criteria for applicants. “An applicant is required to possess requisite and relevant academic qualifications, must be working in a registered Laboratory or Hospital and must be registered with the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN).”

He announced that the grand prize winner would be rewarded a cash prize N1m, capacity development training and a donation of Lab Equip-

ment, Reagents and Consumables worth N1m to the laboratory or hospital where he or she works.

“The award is as much a recognition of the laboratory in which the scientist works as it is of the scientist,” he explained.

The first runner-up will receive N750, 000 and a capacity development training while the second runner-up will receive N500, 000 and a capacity development training. Seven other finalists will receive consolatory prizes of N200,000 each.

While lauding esteemed stakeholders including the Federal Ministry of Health, the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), and the Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors (GMLD), for lending support to the initiative, Ofungwu noted

that the company remains committed to advancing the cause of medical laboratory science practice by celebrating these unsung heroes for their invaluable role towards the delivery of quality healthcare in Nigeria.

In his remarks, the Project Consultant for the Initiative, Mr. Daniel Adewuni revealed that entries would go through a rigorous assessment and grading from a distinguished panel of judges drawn from the medical laboratory science profession.

In his remarks, the National President, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMLSN, Professor James Damen who was represented by its Chairman, Lagos Branch, Olumide Fadipe lauded the company for continuing with the noble initiative noting that such gesture is testament to its commitment to excellence.

Med-In Pharmaceuticals Unveils 100,000-A-Day Intravenous Fluid Factory in Ogun State Mary Nnah As part of efforts to deepen access to locally manufactured intravenous fluids to increase access to quality healthcare for Nigerians, and significantly reduce foreign exchange expenditure on importations Med-In Pharmaceuticals Limited, last Thursday, launched an ultramodern intravenous (I.V) fluids production factory in Ogun State.

One of Nigeria’s foremost pharmaceutical and healthcare providers, the pharmaceutical

company launched the 100,000 bottles per day facility located along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, near Sagamu Interchange, Sagamu, Ogun State.

The construction of the facility, which commenced in 2010, was backed by the Bank of Industry (BOI) and further supported by Providus Bank to ensure that the quest to enhance quality healthcare delivery in the country remained obtainable.

In his remarks, the Managing Director of Med-In Pharmaceuticals, Mr Tola Awosika, said,

“Today’s milestone event is the result of years of consistency and deliberate efforts to deepen access to quality healthcare for Nigerians and to provide healthcare providers robust options, convenience, cost-effectiveness and ease of access in meeting the high demand for IV fluid products in the country.

“With a global market size valued at US$ 10.7 billion in 2020 and estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% from 2021 to 2028, we understand

the demand in this ecosystem, and we are poised to satisfy the market.

“Our facility is one of the largest and most sophisticated in Nigeria with a capacity and readiness to deliver.

“We are committed to driving product quality through strict adherence to the principles of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), regulatory and statutory requirements, and constant review of our systems to meet global standards.”

37

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 12, 2021

PERSPECTIVE

COVID-19: Issues Related to Kidney Failure, Kidney Transplant and Hypertension Dr. Onyekachi Ifudu

in immunosuppression. Conversely, continued immunosuppression may enhance the risk of uncontrolled COVID-19 infection.

I

n late 2019, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was identified as the cause of pneumonia in several patients in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. By 2020, COVID-19 exploded into a worldwide pandemic.

COVID-19 usually begins as a respiratory infection and disproportionately affects patients with pre-existing conditions, such as patients with kidney disease. Detailed herein are issues related to COVID-19 and acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, hypertension or kidney transplant.

Does hypertension increase severity of COVID-19 infection Among patients with COVID-19, hypertension is a risk factor for more severe disease. History of hypertension was more common among those who had severe, as compared with nonsevere COVID-19.

There was speculation that patients with COVID-19 receiving a type of antihypertensive drug called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (e.g., Lisinopril, Enalapril), or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) (e.g., Valsartan, Losartan) may be at increased risk for adverse outcomes.

However, there is no evidence to support discontinuation of these drugs in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Most studies found no relationship between the use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs and severity of COVID-19.

Does COVID-19 cause kidney failure

Patients with COVID-19 may present with acute kidney injury (AKI) as part of their overall illness.

Kidney disease among patients with COVID-19 may also manifest as increased blood or protein in the urine. In patients with COVID-19 infection, AKI is associated with high mortality and serves as an independent risk factor for death in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

The incidence of AKI among patients with COVID-19 varies depending upon the severity of disease. Evidence suggests that AKI likely affects over 20% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and over 50% of COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit.

It remains unclear if AKI in COVID-19 is due to reduced blood flow to the kidneys or direct injury to the kidneys. The presence of virus-like particles has been reported in the kidneys of patients with COVID-19.

While treatment of AKI in non-COVID-19 patients may include aggressive administration of intravenous fluids, in patients with COVID-19 who develop AKI, too much intravenous fluid must be avoided because it may worsen their respiratory function.

Up to 15 percent of patients with AKI may require some form of dialysis. Of note is that peritoneal dialysis can increase intra-abdominal pressure, interfere with respiratory mechanics, and potentially worsen respiratory function. About one-half of the patients with AKI in hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not achieve complete recovery of their kidney function by hospital discharge, thus kidney function should be closely monitored after discharge.

Does having chronic kidney disease increase COVID-19 risk?

Among patients with COVID-19, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a risk factor for more severe disease. Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 due to the high frequency of other

Among patients with COVID-19, hypertension is a risk factor for more severe disease. History of hypertension was more common among those who had severe, as compared with non severe COVID-19 conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, in this population.

Also, most patients with ESRD receive in-center hemodialysis, limiting their ability to observe social distancing. Patients with ESRD may also be at an increased risk of dying from COVID-19.

Can you get COVID-19 from a kidney transplant There is a very small risk of transmitting COVID-19 from an organ donor to a recipient based upon the detection of viral RNA in organs that can be transplanted. Because of

this risk, all organ donors and transplant candidates should be screened for COVID-19.

Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in kidney transplant recipients are variable and generally similar to those observed in nontransplant patients. However, fever appears to be less common. Management is also like that for the general population, although careful attention should be paid to potential drug-drug interactions and effects on the immunosuppressive regimen.

Adjustments to the immunosuppressive regimen are individualized. Some kidney transplant recipients recover without reduction

Should erythropoiesis-stimulating agents be stopped in CKD patients with COVID-19?

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are drugs used for the treatment of anemia in patients with CKD – they work by stimulating the bone marrow to make blood, thereby averting blood transfusion. However, ESAs may theoretically increase the risk of formation of blood clots posed by COVID-19. Currently, there are no good studies to guide use of ESAs in CKD patients with COVID-19 infection.

The indications and contraindications for ESAs remain the same in patients with active COVID-19 as they are in patients without COVID-19.

Should patients with CKD and kidney transplant recipients get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Patients with CKD, especially those receiving in-center hemodialysis, represent a susceptible population who are at high risk of death from COVID-19. However, such patients were excluded from most COVID-19 vaccine trials, and therefore, information regarding safety and efficacy of the vaccines in this population is lacking.

However, based upon data from the general population, patients with CKD, dialysis patients, kidney transplant recipients and dialysis facility staff are strongly encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Finally, since COVID-19 is a new disease entity, information will be changing as we gain more clinical experience and conduct more research, thus practice guidelines will continue to evolve. t*GVEV XSPUF JO WJB %PEPLJOBTF!HNBJM DPN

FIDSON Sets the Pace in Pharmaceutical Sector Grows profit after tax by 196% Mary Nnah Shareholders of Fidson Healthcare Plc, the leading indigenous pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Nigeria, will receive dividend of 25 kobo per share.

This was unanimously approved by the shareholders at the 22nd Annual General Meeting, which was held on Wednesday July 28, 2021 at the company’s head office in Lagos Nigeria. This dividend is an improvement on the 15 kobo per share paid in the 2019 financial year.

It was also reported that the

company recorded a turnover of N18.28 billion for the year ended 31st December 2020, which represents an increase of 30 per cent compared to the N14.06 billion revenue in 2019.

In the same vein, operating profit grew by 38 per cent between 2019 and 2020, while profit after tax also increased from N407.19 million in 2019 to N1.21 billion in 2020, an increase of 196 per cent.

In his remarks, the Founder and Managing Director of Fidson Healthcare Plc., Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, said that the

improved performance of the organisation was largely the combined result of volume growth on key product lines and improved efficiency in her supply chain.

“As an organisation, we are committed to intensifying focus on these performance drivers going forward”, he added.

“This stellar performance has further strengthened our position as a leader in the healthcare industry. “ From inception (in 1995), we have shown commitment

to offering customers the highest quality healthcare products and services in our relentless pursuit to becoming the leading pharmaceutical company in Africa”, Ayebae noted further.

One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of three newly appointed directors to shareholders.

The new directors are Dr. Vincent Ahonkhai, Mr. Ekwunife Okoli and Mr. Ola Ijimakin. While Dr. Ahonkhai and Mr. Okoli were appointed as Independent Non-Executive

Directors, Mr. Ola Ijimakin was appointed Executive Director, Commercial. These new directors were unanimously elected to the board while retiring directors were also re-elected by the shareholders.

The chairman of the Board, Mr. Segun Adebanji (FCA ) explained that the three highly professional and accomplished new members of the Board will contribute immensely to the quality of Board deliberations and the achievement of the company’s strategic objectives.

Shareholders also expressed

their satisfaction with the performance of the company.

Mr. Tunji Badmus, thanked the management of Fidson Healthcare PLC., particularly the Managing Director, Dr Fidelis Ayebae for their proactive leadership.

In his words “I will disagree to the dismay of others; last year (2019) was a good result. This is a better result we are celebrating, while the best is yet to come.”

In the same vein, Barrister Adetutu Siyanbola gave kudos to the board and the management for an outstanding result.

Arrive Alive Opens Diagnostic Centre for COVID-19 Testing Ugo Aliogo Arrive Alive Diagnostics and Imaging Services (AADIS) has opened a new diagnostic centre dedicated to the testing of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

The wholly-owned indigenous company, with a vision to be the foremost in quality

healthcare, made this move to bring efficiency to the process of COVID-19 testing and result delivery. Speaking on the reasons for creating the new site, the director of Arrive Alive, Dr. Maame Fuwaa Antwi-Gyamfi, stated that “we identified gaps in COVID-19 PCR testing which include long

turnaround times as well as cumbersome registration and results tracking processes.

The Laboratory Practitionerin-charge, Ms. Lilian Ogechi Vincent said: “By the establishment of the Ikoyi COVID testing centre, we are able to fill these gaps with our robust IT infrastructure, state-of-the-art

PCR equipment and evidencebased improved work processes.

“What we hope to achieve with this is EFFICIENCY! We are bringing convenience to the entire testing process and aim to give all our clients quality services that will exceed their expectations.”

THISDAY learnt that Ar-

rive Alive has its new testing centre at Ikoyi, Lagos with drive-through testing services available. It was gathered that the facility undertakes corporate or group COVID-19 testing upon request and has home testing services available in Lagos, “Sample collectors are trained on biosafety issues. Hence, they

ensure samples are taken, stored and transported to the laboratory without contamination.”

With their highly advanced equipment, Arrive Alive is able deliver PCR test results within 6 hours of sample collection, a process that would normally take others 24- 48 hours to achieve.

38

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ 12, 2021

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

FG Okays $2.5m, N498.2m for Four Power Projects Deji Elumoye ÓØ ÌßÔË The federal government has approved a total sum of $2.54 million and N498.23 million for four power projects across the country.

This is just as it also okay the interim report on greenhouse emission reduction for the nation.

Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, and his Environment counterpart, Mohammed Abubakar, made these known Wednesday after the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja.

Giving details of the power projects, Mamman said the FEC meeting approved four power projects including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in favour of Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15,800,000.

“The second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited in the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.

“The third approval was the award of the contract for the repairs of 100 MVA and four

sets of 60 MVA 132 33 power transformers for TCN in favour of GT Engineering Limited in the sum of US$ 661,220 offshore and N127,758,781 onshore with a delivery period of 12 months.

“On the last one, approval was also granted for the contract for procurement of 10 sets of 330 KV and 30 sets of 133 KV circuit breaker for the TCN in favour of Horsepower Engineering Trading Limited in the sum of US$ 502,719 plus N114,571,500 with a delivery period of six months”, he said.

The FEC also Wednesday approved a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for climate change pact.

Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abubakar, said the Council ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari on the nation’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is part of its commitment to the climate change pact.

According to him, the contribution, which saw Nigeria agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emission by 20% as at last year and by 45% in 2030, adding that part of the obligations to the signatories of the agreement is the revision of the progress and the submission of an interim report every five years.

“The Federal Ministry of Environment presented a memo today, seeking for the ratification of an anticipatory approval that we received from Mr. President, on the submission of our primary

NDC, that is the Nationally Determined Contribution.

“This is part of the commitment that Nigeria made in 2016 during the Paris Agreement; that every country, after five years, will revise the commitment the country made in cutting down emission. So, at the time we committed to reducing emission by 20%, unconditionally, meaning we can do it by ourselves. That’s by 2020. The 20% is by the year 2020. At the same time, we are also committed to reducing 45% by 2030. That’s again from the year 2016.

“So, we did the first the interim report, a country is supposed to send in an interim report to the United Nations Climate Change desk, and then before July 31st, you’ll now submit the final report.

We have done that and part of this reporting is again, for every country, doing that will put the country on a good footing as far as climate change action is concerned and this has a number of sectors that we depended on to be able to reach this: Power, Agriculture, Transportation.

“These are areas that we used as part of attending to that commitment that we made and today, we have gotten the approval of the ratification following that statutory approval

by Mr. President. So, Nigeria is currently in good standing, as about 100 countries have already submitted and Nigeria is one of those”, he explained.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JANUARY 2021 Money Supply (M3)

38,779,455.43

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

1,039,129.55

Money Supply (M2)

37,740,325.88

-- Quasi Money

21,779,302.69

-- Narrow Money (M1)

15,961,023.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,364,871.13

---- Demand Deposits

13,596,152.06

SEC, AfDB Commence Implementation of Risk-based Supervision Project

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,414,275.50

Darasimi Adebisi The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and African Development Bank (AfDB) have commenced the implementation of the regulatory capacity improvements under the risk-based supervision framework and capacity building project.

The SEC in a statement yesyerday said the project funded from the AfDB Group administered/Capital Markets Development Trust Fund is to finance the Risk Based Supervision Framework Implementation and Capacity Development Project.

SEC in the statement disclosed that: “The principal objectives of the project are to provide

technical assistance and capacity building on selected areas of the Commission’s operations, support implementation of riskbased supervision framework, improve the securities markets regulatory environment and broadening of market instruments that will help deepen the capital markets in Nigeria and strengthen the Commission’s supervisory tools as well as its capacity to achieve its mandate of investor protection and minimising systemic risk.”

The statement by SEC added that: “For the project, the mode of procurement to be adopted is Quality and Cost Based (QCBS) and the risk-based supervision framework implementation component would involve the development of best practise

risk based supervision inspection manuals, tools and guidelines for the market.

“The envisaged activities also include capacity building on prudential risk-based supervision approach including the development or update of relevant risk matrices and models for data analysis and interpretation as well as expansion of existing AML/ CFT matrix.

“Capacity building in riskbased supervision will focus on enhancing SEC’s approach in carrying out its monitoring and supervisory role over all capital market operators namely fund/investment managers, conventional & commodity exchanges, stockbrokers, issuing houses (investment banks) etc.”

Customs Orders Probe into Deadly Katsina Accident James Emejo ÓØ ÌßÔË The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) has ordered a holistic investigation into the fatal vehicle accident involving one of its operational vehicles which recently claimed about eight lives in Katsina State.

Customs Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah, disclosed this in a statement yesterday adding that the move was aimed at preventing a reoccurrence of the unfortunate accident.

The lives were reportedly lost and others injured after a patrol vehicle of the NCS, on Monday rammed into a crowd in Jibia Local Government Area

of the state.

The customs, while regretting the incident, appealed to wellmeaning Nigerians to “show understanding of the situation and offer words or actions that can help heal those in pains” adding that “human actions cannot always keep society accident free”.

“As a service, our hearts and prayers go to the families of the bereaved and those in hospitals,” the statement added.

Attah said the entire staff of the service remained deeply saddened by the unfortunate operation accident that resulted in the death of fellow Nigerians and injuries to others.

He said,”As a responsible government agency, we are mindful of the duty of care imposed upon us to ensure the safety of our citizens.

“Unfortunately, our efficiency is sometimes undermined by unanticipated failures in our equipment as in this case which was caused by break failure resulting in the death of eight fellow Nigerians and injuries to others at the border town of Jibiya, Katsina State.

“Nigeria Customs Service shares in the pains of losing these compatriots and extends heartfelt condolences to the immediate families of the deceased, Government and the people of Katsina State.”

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

31,365,179.93

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

42,916,586.63

---- Credit to Government (Net)

12,304,773.44

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

30,611,813.19

--Other Assets Net

3,892,112.74

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,264,585.14

--Currency in Circulation

2,831,167.19

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

10,433,417.96 317,234.17

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ ͯͱϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE ˜ ͯͳ ͰͮͰͯ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $73.15 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $75.29 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

39

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ ͯͰ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

Stock Market Maintains Positive Trend, Appreciates by N459.12bn in Two Days Darasimi Adebisi Transactions on the Nigerian equities market yesterday closed on a positive note to maintain the previous day’s bullish sentiment, as investors investment soar by N459.12 billion in two days.

The stock market in the previous day appreciated by N317.5billion and yesterday it also gained N141.6 billion.

Yesterday’s trading upturn was buoyed by investors’ buysentiment in some blue-chip stocks like Airtel Africa, GTCO, Zenith Bank Plc and Oando Plc. Consequently, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All Share Index (ASI) increased by 271.84 basis points, representing a growth of 0.69 per cent to close at 39,448.46 basis points from 39,176.62 basis points.

Similarly, the market capitali-

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R

DEALS

sation gained N141.6 billion to close at N20.553 trillion from N20.412trillion.

In addition to the two days appreciation, stock market performance Month-to-Date increased to +2.3per cent, while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to –two per cent.

Analysing by sectors, the Banking (+0.5per cent) and Oil and gas (+0.1 per cent) indices recorded gains, while

S E C U R I T I E S

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

the Insurance, Industrial Goods, and Consumer Goods indices closed flat.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 20 stocks gained, relative to 15 losers. Pharma Deko recorded the highest price gain of 9.17 per cent, to close at N1.19, per share. Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with a gain 8.61 per cent to close at N1.64, while Ikeja

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

Hotel appreciated by 7.69 per cent to close at N1.40, per share.

Livestock Feeds went up by 6.84 per cent to close at N2.03, while Linkage Assurance appreciated by 6.78 per cent to close at 63 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, FTN Cocoa Processors led the losers’ chart by 8.89 per cent to close at 41 kobo, per share. Wema Ban followed with a decline of 7.32 per cent to close at 76 kobo, while May

O F

and Baker Nigeria lost 6.38 per cent to close at N4.40, per share.

Mutual Benefits Assurance shed 5.56 per cent to close at 34 kobo, while Veritas Kapital Assurance depreciated by 4.17 per cent to close at 23 kobo, respectively.

The total volume of trades declined by 61.8 per cent to 181.42 million units, valued at N2.08 billion, and exchanged in 3,599 deals.

1 1 / 0 8 / 2 0 2 1 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

40

THURSDAY, ͹ͺ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

41

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021 • T H I S DAY

MARKET NEWS A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 10Aug-2021, unless otherwise stated.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS

MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS

AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 158.44 159.87 -2.11% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 4.69% Nigeria International Debt Fund 312.43 312.43 -22.56% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 111.26 111.26 4.56% ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ACAP Income Funds N/A N/A N/A AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.22% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.26 3.42 -4.17% info@anchoriaam.com ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 7.77% Anchoria Equity Fund 137.80 139.38 3.60% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.11 1.11 -16.66% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 19.68 20.27 8.51% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 430.63 443.61 7.56% ARM Ethical Fund 38.23 39.39 13.42% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.09 1.09 -1.06% ARM Fixed Income Fund 0.97 0.97 -7.77% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 7.95% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 105.62 105.62 3.84% AVA GAM Fixed Income Naira Fund 1,016.28 1,016.28 1.63% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 134.56 135.50 6.64% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 9.74% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) N/A N/A N/A CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com ; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund 1.01 1.01 2.28% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 8.03% Paramount Equity Fund 16.55 16.86 3.50% Women's Investment Fund 136.55 138.13 2.61% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.30% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 118.50 119.25 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 107.84 107.84 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 7.48% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.19 1.21 -0.57% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.36 1.36 -13.83% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A 100.00 100.00 8.43% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 7.10% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,138.80 1,154.20 -1.13% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,400.32 1,400.32 11.33% FBN Balanced Fund 192.00 193.37 2.30% FBN Halal Fund 111.74 111.74 7.79% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 9.60% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Money Market Fund Legacy Debt Fund Legacy Equity Fund Legacy USD Bond Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Balanced Fund Coral Income Fund Coral Money Market Fund

126.57 158.52

126.57 3.52% 160.75 4.86% fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com

Bid Price 1.00 3.96 1.59 1.18

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 1.00 5.57% 3.96 2.39% 1.62 4.47% 1.18 4.13% coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price 3,715.37 3,358.16 100.00

Offer Price 3,768.85 3,358.16 100.00

Yield / T-Rtn -0.79% 2.50% 3.83%

GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria Entertainment Fund N/A N/A N/A GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 6.87% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.71 2.77 -4.97% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 152.13 152.40 -2.17% Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF) - June Year End 1.28 1.32 1.60% Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End 1.10 1.10 0.84% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.42 1.44 4.17% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,142.32 1,142.32 5.22% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 11.61 11.67 10.88% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 7.68% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.66 1.69 7.17% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.51 11.56 -5.14% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 5.18% PACAM Equity Fund 1.64 1.65 3.59% PACAM EuroBond Fund 112.67 114.47 2.55% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 131.42 134.00 11.21% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 10.08% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 3,274.17 3,309.15 1.95% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 232.13 232.13 3.24% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 1.22 1.24 4.24% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 305.53 305.53 3.69% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 224.89 228.24 3.04% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 8.16% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 10,359.21 10,509.96 -1.27% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.27 1.27 3.33% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 115.20 115.20 3.71% Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund 102.89 102.89 UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.30 1.32 1.73% United Capital Bond Fund 1.90 1.90 4.03% United Capital Equity Fund 0.87 0.89 9.28% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 9.63% United Capital Eurobond Fund 119.53 119.53 4.44% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.06 1.07 3.66% United capital Sukuk Fund 1.06 1.06 5.89% QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.92 13.04 8.91% Zenith Ethical Fund 14.26 14.39 16.71% Zenith Income Fund 24.26 24.26 1.18% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 6.24%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

125.18 51.80

10.79% 2.67%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

13.44

13.54

1.66%

122.51 97.01 17.90 18.15

125.56 99.14 18.00 18.25

1.89% -2.22%

Fund Name SFS REIT Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund MERGROWTH ETF MERVALUE ETF

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Money Market Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

3.91 5.90 17.54 1.00 19.25 153.07

3.95 5.98 17.64 1.00 19.45 155.07

3.53% 3.74% 8.03% 6.35% -6.14% -30.20%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.40

13.11%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

42

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

12 Years after Fawehinmi’s Death, his Son, Mohammed Dies of COVID-19 Segun James and Wale Igbintade Twelve years after a legal luminary of global reckoning, Chief Gani Fawehinmi passed, his scion, Mohammed, died last night of complications from Covid-19.

Mohammed reportedly died at a private hospital yesterday and the Minister of State for Niger

Delta, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has confirmed the news.

Although some other sources claimed Mohammed died of an undisclosed ailment at a private hospital in Lagos, THISDAY however confirmed he died of complications arising from Covid-19.

THISDAY also has reasons to believe he might have died at a

government facility in Lagos State.

But the family was yet to make a statement on his death as at the time of filing this report.

A reliable source at a government health facility, who confirmed he died of Covid-19 complications, told THISDAY that, “We have been managing him since morning, but unfortunately, he passed on. Yes, he died of

Covid-19,” suggesting he died at a government hospital.

Keyamo, though confirmed the news without stating the cause and where he died, hadworked with the late Mohammed at the Fawehinmi chambers for many years.

In a statement, the junior minister lamented: “My brother, friend and son of my late boss,

Mohammed Fawehinmi, is gone. I am speechless and heartbroken. I just spoke with the eldest daughter, Basirat and she confirmed it,” said Keyamo.

According to him, “Mohammed was energetic and very intellectually alert, despite his mishap. He kept the flame of his father burning. We will sorely miss him.”

Mohammed lost his ability to walk after a terrible auto accident in 2003. A graduate of Business Administration at the University of Lagos, before he ventured into law practice, he obtained an LLB degree from the University of Buckingham, England, and was called to Nigerian Bar in 1998. He has over 20 years of experience in the practice of law.

NSCDC to Hand over Corruption Cases to ICPC’ Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The Commandant-General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr. Ahmed Audi, has said that all corruption cases involving officers of the corps would be transferred to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for further action.

A statement by the ICPC said Audi, who spoke at a courtesy visit to the commission in Abuja, disclosed that NSCDC would discontinue with the high-profile corruption cases before it to allow ICPC that had the mandate and technical know-how to handle.

He also asked for the support of the commission on staff training, adding that ICPC was better placed to train NSCDC officers

on investigation techniques and intelligence gathering.

The CG lauded the robust working relationship between the two agencies, revealing that officers of NSCDC were more aware of corruption and its associated risk due to the introduction of the AntiCorruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) in the Corps by ICPC. “NSCDC officers have benefited through the ACTU as they have been trained on Corruption Risk Assessment and System Study,” he said.

In his response, the Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN), noted that the problem of insecurity facing Nigeria was triggered by high level of corruption and unstable economy.

N10.8bn Fraud: Court Grants Ponzi Operator N2bn Bail Wale Igbintade

Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Lagos Federal High Court, yesterday granted bail to 22-year-old, Joshua Adeyinka Kayode, who allegedly defrauded 170 people of the sum of N10.8 billion under fake investment He was admitted to bail in the sum of N2 billion with two sureties in the like sum.

Justice Oweibo also ordered that each of the sureties must own a landed property within the jurisdiction of the court, and must depose to an affidavit of means.

The judge also ordered that the two sureties and the defendant must deposit two passport photographs with the Court’s Registrar and that the defendant must deposit his

international passport with the Court’s Registrar.

Besides, the judge directed the prosecutor to verify all the bail terms and that the defendant should be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) till the perfection of the bail terms.

Justice Oweibo ruled on the bail application, after taking arguments from the defendant’s counsel, Mr. Emeka Okpoko (SAN) and the prosecutor, Mr. Tijjani Williams.

The defendant alongside his company, Quintessential Investment Company Limited were arraigned on August 5, by the men of Force Criminal Investigation Department (Force CID) Annex, Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos, on 170 count charges bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence.

Insecurity: Okorocha’s Wife Leads Women Group in Prayer Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja A group under the aegis of Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) led by the wife of the former Governor of Imo State, Mrs. Nneoma Okorocha, has commenced a 40-day prayer session over insecurity in the country.

The former Imo first lady, who is also the founder of WODDI led hundreds of women from across the country and have converged on Abuja yesterday to pray for an end in the spate of kidnapping, banditry and terrorism across the country.

The theme of the 40-day prayer session attended by clerics from across the country

is, “Heal our land and let there be peace”.

Okorocha particularly expressed the fear of the fate that would befall upcoming generations of Nigerians if the insecurity situation is not nipped in the bud.

She said: “Nigeria our country is a blessed land, from human to natural resources. It is not a mistake that we are called the giant of Africa. Unfortunately, the enemy has and is still trying so hard to destroy the glory of our land and bring about insecurity, killings, bitterness, underdevelopment and hate in our society. Looking at what is happening almost everywhere in this country.”

A NEW WAREHOUSE…

L-R: Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor on Industry, Trade and Investment, Chief. Remi Ogunmefun; Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Kikelomo Longe; Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Services, Eat ‘N’ Go Ltd, Mr. Lanre Tunji - Sanusi; and Head of Development and Projects, Eat ‘N’ Go Ltd, Mr. Olusola Adeeko, at the launch of Eat’N’Go warehouse in Mowe/ Magboro, Ogun State… yesterday ETOP UKUTT

Niger Don’t Negotiate with Bandits, Kidnappers, Says SSG Laleye Dipo in Minna The family of the kidnapped Niger State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Idris, has begun negotiating with the abductors of the commissioner, the state government has said.

The government also affirmed that the abductors of the commissioner have made contact with the family during which

they demanded a N500million.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, told THISDAY in a telephone interview yesterday that the family cannot afford such huge amount of money demanded, “so they are discussing with the kidnappers.” Matane said the kidnappers did not make any contact with the state government, pointing out that “the government

does not negotiate with bandits or kidnappers.”

However, the SSG explained that the government was taking steps to ensure that the abducted commissioner regains his freedom, but declined to state steps already taken for “security reasons.”

Asked if the state government is aware of where Idris is being kept, he declined to say, for security reasons.

However, independent

investigation revealed that the kidnappers yesterday called his family during which they (family) were assured that the abductee was “in good health and was fine.”

Idris was kidnapped from his private residence in Babantunga town in the Tafa Local Government Area of the state at about 11p.m. last Sunday by armed men and taken into captivity.

Labour Laments Non–implementation of Minimum Wage in Kogi Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja The Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), has expressed shock over the failure of the Kogi State Government to implement the N30,000 new minimum wage.

The Kogi State Chairman of NLC, Mr. Onuh Edoka, disclosed this yesterday when the new executive council of the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) paid him a courtesy visit in his office

in Lokoja, Kogi State capital.

Edoka lamented that two years after a committee set up by the government to improve the welfare of workers has not submitted its report to the Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yahaya Bello.

He expressed disappointment and stressed that the union is under serious pressure from workers in Kogi State to see that the new minimum wage

is speedily implemented.

He, however, assured that the union would not rest until the new minimum wage is realised in Kogi just as it is applicable in other states.

His words: “The organised labour in Kogi State is still in dismay over the none implementation of the N30,000 new minimum wage. After two years of setting the committee, they are yet to submit a report to

his Excellency. For how long are we going to continue like this?

Workers have been patient and they have exhausted it.

“We are using this medium to call on the Kogi State Government to do the needful as things are getting out of hand given the current economic reality.

The prices of foodstuff have skyrocketed and workers are still been paid with their old wages.”

No Plan to Reverse Fee Hike, Says Babangida Varsity Miracle Chukwu in Abuja The Vice Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL), Niger State, Prof.

Abu Kasim, has said that a total reversal of the recent increase in the institution’s tuition fee may be impossible.

Following the upward review of the fee paid by students at the university’s 50th regular meeting, many of those

affected by the increase had expressed dissatisfaction with the development.

THISDAY learnt that the over 100 per cent hike impacted nonindigenes who will henceforth pay N117,325 instead of the former N55,300 fee. Indigenes are expected to pay N67,925 in contrast to the N27,500 hitherto paid, while international students will cough out N266,760 forthwith.

Speaking in Minna, the VC stated that the hike was necessary in view of some circumstances facing the institution, adding that the hike was to sustain the growth of the university, provide quality learning as well as ramp up infrastructure.

He advised parents not to withdraw their children from the institution and charged them to make sacrifices to adjust to the new development.

On the call for part payment, he said: “We will go back to the drawing board and look at all the options available, whether, we can warrant it, we will look at it, if not, students will bear with us.

“We will go back as management and discuss with the council and other stakeholders, and also look at the scenario and appeal to them that it is a civil service and an agrarian state.

NIMASA Empowers Nasarawa IDPs with Working Machines Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

The Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) yesterday empowered the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nasarawa State with working machines as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The Director General of the NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, donated the working machines to the state IDPs in Lafia through the Assistant Director of Seafarers Services, NIMASA, Dr. Amos Hosea Kuje, in the office of the state’s deputy governor.

A breakdown of the donation by the NIMASA were 15 sewing

m,achines, 10 grinding machines, 10 work master welding machines, 50 hair clippers with bags and complete barbing accessories and 15 vulcanising machines.

Other machines donated were 10 units of 1.8KVA generators, two tricycles (Keke Napep), four Bajaj Boxer motorcycles, 15 water

surface pumping machines and two sugarcane electric extractors.

Speaking shortly after donating the empowerment machines to the IDPs, the Director General of the NIMASA said the issue of displaced persons was not just about what they would eat, but focusing on how to engage them back to the society.

43

THURSDAY AUGUST 12, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS XTRA

Airport Concession: FG Assures FAAN Workers of Job Safety The federal government yesterday allayed the fears of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) workers of any lay-offs as plans to concession four major international airports in the country get underway.

Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika gave the assurance at a virtual meeting with aviation

stakeholders in Lagos, on the concession update of the four airports.

Sirika said instead more hands would be engaged as most of the airports were under staffed.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the four airports billed for concession are: the Mallam

Aminu Kano International Airport, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Port Harcourt International Airport and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The minister informed the stakeholders that there wouldn’t be any need to sell the country’s assets, but to concession them in

a manner that would modernise the airports and have them operated to create more jobs as well as generate more revenue for the country.

“We will not sell the assets that belong to over 200 million Nigerians and the future generation of this country.

“We are not going to sell

because those that were sold were lost, so, we in government believe that we should hold those assets for the Nigerian people in trust.

“We must make those assets better to provide the services that are needed. So, we said, rather than sell out rightly, we will concession.

“In other words, we would give it up to someone who would operate them and make them better.

“We will then get more money, the people will enjoy better services, the industry grows and after a certain time, the airports will come back to us,” he said.

Group Petitions ICPC over Extortion in FCT Secondary Schools Kuni Tyessi in Abuja The Initiative for Citizens’ Rights, Accountability and Development (ICRAD) has petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over a levy imposed on the Senior Secondary School students in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), particularly those in SS1 and SS2.

The ICRAD alleged that the affected students were compelled to pay N1,500 per session, outside the official fees recognised by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for secondary school students, into a private account under Shokami Consulting Limited, Zenith Bank Account number 1014972989.

The Executive Director of the ICRAD, Mr. Hassan Luqman, who signed the group’s petition, said that their attentions were drawn to the obnoxious fees when it discovered that the payment was boycotting the Treasury Single Account (TSA) platform of government.

Luqman said that the ICRAD became suspicious of the motive behind the alleged ordering students of public schools to pay fees meant for part of their academic activities into L-R: Legal Practitioner, Sterling Law Centre, Deji Ajare; member, Governing Council, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mrs. Kemi Okenyodo; a private company’s account. Director, Women and Children, NHRC, Harry Obe; and Executive Director, Adopt a Goal For Development Initiative, Mr. Ariyo Atoye, during the press He explained that the group conference by a coalition of civil societies organisations and NHRC on court rules in favour of women abused by the Nigeria Police, in Abuja… yesterday urged the anti-graft agency to launch investigations into the fraud in order to avert a situation where parents, at exactly 3: 30p.m., had on House of Assembly members, commence in two weeks based guardians or students Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa board the state Governor, commissioners among other on bookings made. would fall victims the In a statement issued by his Commercial flight operations Senator Douye Diri; the dignitaries. racketeering.

A mammoth crowd of Chief Press Secretary, Daniel yesterday commenced at the airline Chairman, Chief Bayelsa State International Obiora Okonkwo; Tokyo jubilant Bayelsans had thronged Alabrah, the governor noted Airport with the United Nigeria Olympics Silver medalist in the airport in the morning in that the commencement of the Airline aircraft touching down wrestling, Bayelsa-born Blessing order to witness the historic commercial flight signalled Oborududu; King Alfred Diete- event. economic development of the about 3:45p.m.

Addressing the crowd on state-bringing Bayelsa State to The aircraft, which took off Spiff, Boladei Igali, members Secretariat, Osogbo. from the Murtala Mohammed of the Bayelsa State National arrival, The governor said the world and the world to Oyintiloye likened the role Airport 2 (MMA2) in Lagos Assembly caucus, the state full commercial flight would the state. of mass media in grassroots mobilisation to the civic engagement initiative of Governor Oyetola, which was created to reach out to the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi disclosed that the Chief Judge of the state, Justice confirmed by the state House people at the grassroots with Ugwuanyi, yesterday inaugurated exercise was pursuant to the Priscilla Ngozi Emehelu, is the of Assembly.

He further stated that the for their views and yearnings the newly reconstituted state relevant Sections of the 1999 chairman of the commission in the policy formulation Judicial Service Commission Constitution of the Federal while the state Attorney-General, commission has the mandate process to facilitate inclusive (JSC), after swearing in Ben Republic of Nigeria (as amended) Chief Miletus Eze, and the “to advise the governor and participatory governance Chukwuemeka Ezeugwu, Mr. as well as the Enugu State Judicial President of the state Customary in nominating persons for that bridged the gap between the Ifeanyi Emma Jonathan-Ogbu, Service Commission Law Cap. Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice appointment as Chief Judge of government-and the governed. and Mr. Emmanuel James 60, Revised Laws of Enugu State George Chibueze Nnamani, the state; President of the state He said: “Like journalism, the Chiezue Ugwu, as members 2004 (as amended), “following are members by virtue of their Customary Court of Appeal; the expiration of the tenure of positions (ex-officio).

Judges of the state High Court civic engagement of Oyetola’s of the commission.

Inaugurating the state JSC the prevision commission by The governor explained that of the state, and Judges of the administration also focuses on the rest of the members were state Customary Court of educating and informing citizens at the EXCO Chamber of the effluxion of time.”

The governor stated that the nominated and subsequently Appeal.” about the general governance Government House in Enugu, activities in the state, as well as sensitising the populace on the need to take responsibility in the fight against any societal Kogi State Governor, Mr. Yahaya Ayoade, said the appointment Commissioner for Culture Initiative, Mr. Yesufu Abubakar challenge.

Bello, has appointed a nine-man of Runsewe, who is also the and Tourism, Hon. Salifu Isah and Dr. Ronke Bello as well as Tourism Intervention Advisory President, Africa Region of the Idachaba,who is the alternate the Special Adviser to Governor Committee (TIAC), in his bid to World Craft Council (WCC), took chairman; The Chief Executive Bello on Culture and Tourism change the narratives of culture effect immediately.

Officer of Nike Arts Galary, Mr. Hon. Femi Bolaji. and tourism trade in the state.

The appointment came a week Nike Okundayo; the Proprietor In his acceptance speech, The TIAC would be chaired after Runsewe lead the 36 states’ of La Campaigne Resort, Mr. Runsewe assured the governor defection, said that the alleged by the Director General of the commissioners and directors of Wanle Akinboboye and Mr. that he would work with other members of the committee to inability of the state chapter National Council for Arts and Arts and Culture to a technical Joseph Makoju and Others are Head, Culture reposition culture and tourism of the APC to demonstrate Culture (NCAC), Mr. Segun meeting on National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) in and Tourism, African Union, in Kogi State and realise his fairness, equity and provision Runsewe, as chairman.

A statement that was issued by Ekiti State.

Mr. Kehinde Quadri Adu; the dreams for Kogi State economy, of a level playing ground for Other members of the Representative of Kogi State particularly in culture and every member of the party the Secretary to Government of prompted their decision to Kogi State, Dr. Folashade Arike committee are Kogi State Strategic Revenue Growth tourism. dump the party for the YPP. AbdulRaham also alleged that their former party The NCS Public Relations in Jibia Local Government Area accident-free. excluded majority of the James Emejo in Abuja Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah, of the state.

“As a service, our hearts party members from exercising The Customs, while and prayers go to the families their legitimate right during The Comptroller-General disclosed this in a statement adding that regretting the incident, of the bereaved and those in the membership/revalidation (CG) of the Nigerian Customs yesterday, exercise.

Service (NCS), Col. Hameed the move was aimed at appealed to well-meaning hospitals.” to “show Attah said the staff of the He added that “the Ibrahim Ali (rtd), has ordered preventing a reoccurrence Nigerians development is a signal that a holistic investigation into the of the unfortunate accident. understanding of the situation Service remained deeply The lives were reportedly and offer words or actions that saddened by the unfortunate the current administration in fatal road accident involving Kwara State is not interested one of its operational vehicles lost and others injured after a can help heal those in pains,” accident that resulted in the in securing a popular mandate which recently claimed about patrol vehicle of the NCS last adding that “human actions death of fellow Nigerians and Monday rammed into a crowd cannot always keep society injuries to others. at the next elections.” eight lives in Katsina State.

WOMEN’S PROTECTION…

Bayelsa International Airport Records First Flight

‘Journalism, a Potent Tool for Grassroots Devt’

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Special Adviser on Civic Engagement to the Governor of Osun State, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has described journalism as a strong driver of community and grassroots development.

Oyintiloye noted that the media practitioners remained the pivot in the development engineering of every polity.

He disclosed this while delivering a keynote address on the topic “Journalism: a tool for grassroots development” as the guest speaker at the opening ceremony for 2021 Press Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Local Government Chapel, which was held at NUJ State

Ugwuanyi Inaugurates Judicial Service Commission

Runsewe Heads Kogi’s Culture, Tourism Committee

Thousands of APC Members in Kwara Defect to YPP Hammed Shittu in Ilorin Thousands of members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State yesterday formally joined the Young Progressives Party (YPP) because of intra party crisis in the state’s chapter of the APC. The group popularly called Third Force (TF) said that they would wrestle power from the APC in the state come 2023 as the major leaders of the “O To Ge” movement that have defected to the YPP. The State Coordinator of the TF, Mr. Abdulfatah AbdulRahman, who spoke with journalists in Ilorin on the

Customs Probe Katsina Accident

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NEWS XTRA

FG Okays $2.5m, N498.2m for Four Power Projects Deji Elumoye in Abuja The federal government has approved the total sum of $2,541,689 and N498,230,281 for four power projects across the country.

This is just as it also approved the interim report on greenhouse emission reduction for the country.

Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, and his Environment counterpart, Mohammed

Abubakar, made these known yesterday after the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House in Abuja.

Giving details of the power projects, Mamman said the FEC meeting approved four power projects, including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) in favour of

Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15.8 million.

The minister said: “The second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited with the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a

delivery period of nine months.

“The third approval was the award of the contract for the repairs of 100 MVA and four sets of 60 MVA 132 33 power transformers for TCN in favour of GT Engineering Limited in the sum of US$ 661,220 offshore and N127,758,781 onshore with a delivery period of 12 months.

“On the last one, approval was also granted for the contract for procurement of 10 sets of 330 KV and 30 sets of

133 KV circuit breaker for the TCN in favour of Horsepower Engineering Trading Limited in the sum of US$ 502,719 plus N114, 571,500 with a delivery period of six months.” The FEC also approved a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for climate change pact.

The Minister of Environment, Abubakar, said the FEC ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari on the

country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is part of its commitment to the climate change pact.

According to him, the contribution saw Nigeria agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emission by 20 percent as at last year and by 45 percent in 2030, adding that part of the obligations to the signatories of the agreement is the revision of the progress and the submission of an interim report every five years.

Northern Lawyers Mobilise Free Legal Services for Kyari Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja A group of northern Nigerian lawyers have volunteered to render free legal services to the embattled suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.

The group in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, which was signed by its Coordinator, Sunusi Salisu, said the volunteered lawyers are drawn from across all the 19 northern states and across all religions and tribes to render free expert legal services to preserve Kyari’s fundamental rights “that may be potentially jeopardised by his alleged indictment by a court in the United States of America.”

The lawyers said they would critically review the procedures adopted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to get

the US court to indict Kyari on allegations of involvement in charges filed against a suspected fraudster, Ramon Abbas, known also as Hushpuppi.

The group said: “We would raise questions involving the possibility of the occasioning of breaches of Kyari’s fundamental rights entrenched in Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right which essentially state that every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person and every individual shall have the right to have his cause heard.

“These comprise: The right to an appeal to competent national organs against acts of violating his fundamental rights as recognised and guaranteed by conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force.

CONGRATULATIONS…

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Mr. Michael Harace Osabuahen; the New Oshemi Onayinmi of Igarra, His Royal Highness, Samuel Sunday Mayaki; and his wife, Mrs. Grace Mayaki, during Mayaki’s installation in AkokoEdo LGA, Edo State... yesterday

Umahi Suspends Housing and Urban Devt Commissioner Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has approved the indefinite suspension of the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Clement Nweke, with immediate effect

for insubordination.

The Secretary to the State Government, Ugbala Igwe, in a statement yesterday directed the commissioner to hand over all governmental property in his possession to the Permanent

Secretary or the most senior officer in the ministry before the close of work.

According to the statement, “His Excellency, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dr David Nweze Umahi, has approved

the indefinite suspension of Hon. Clement Nweke as Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development with immediate effect. The indefinite suspension is as a result of insubordination.”

Okon Bassey in Uyo

A Councilor Representing Ward 14, Oku 3, Mr. Mmenyene Abasi Michael Okon, said the erosion constitutes a big challenge to the community, adding that in order to prevent visitors from falling into the ravine, the youths mobilised themselves to keep vigil in the area just to direct people to the save corner.

“We woke up to see this disaster. We have tried our

efforts to organise the youths to stand here and control the vehicles going to, Uyo City Polytechnic, Barracks Roads, Calabar-Itu and many other places.

“The students cannot have access to receive lectures in their schools here. So Keke stops here and then the youths will direct them on how to go to the other side so that they will not fall into the ravine.

“I have personally spent four nights here because when it happened some people did not know. So by putting the light on we have been able to save a lot of people from driving into the ravine. This is how far we have gone.

“We have taken video clips and pictures of the ravine and send to the state government and I believe that Governnor Udom Emmanuel has seen it.”

FCTA Demolishes 2,000 Ravine Sinks Three Buildings, Threatens Others in Akwa Ibom Shanties in Mpape Olawale Ajimotokan inAbuja There was pandemonium yesterday when the Federal Capital Development Administration (FCDA) of the FCTA demolished about 2,000 illegal structures impeding the flow of traffic at Mpape, Abuja, a hill-top area with high concentration of quarries and always in the mix of jolts caused by earth tremors.

The removal of the structures followed the expiration of threeweek quit notice issued by the FCT Ministerial Committee on Sanitation to the illegal squatters of the slums.

It was the first demolition exercise carried out in Mpape since 2004, and the continuation of the scale-up in the demolition of illegal structures as witnessed recently at the international airport communities of Iddo Sarkin and

Iddo Sabo.

The Chairman of the task force, Ikharo Attah, said the demolition exercise was carried out after the residents appealed to the FCT Minister, Muhammed Musa Bello, to remove roadside shanties and other unapproved buildings causing traffic obstruction along the road.

“So what we did was in line with the request of the people who wanted the road corridors to be reclaimed so that there will be ease of movement. As a responsible government, we responded to the cries of the people,” Attah said.

Also speaking, the Secretary, Command and Control of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Peter Olumuji, asserted that many of the Mpape shanties were demolished because they were becoming hideouts for criminal elements.

Global Citizen Unveils Activities for Lagos, Paris, New York Events Sunday Okobi An international advocacy organisation, Global Citizen, has revealed that various artists set to perform at the Global Citizen live events that will take place in Lagos, Nigeria, as well as festivals in Paris, France, and New York City in the United States of America on September 25, 2021.

The group in a statement said across six continents, artists will help rally the people of the world to demand that governments, major corporations, and philanthropists work together to defeat poverty and defend

the planet by focusing on the most urgent, interrelated threats seriously affecting the poor on various continents of the world, which are climate change, vaccine equity, and famine.

In Lagos, the Global Citizen said it is working with the Lagos State Government to create a limited-capacity event in celebration of Nigerians working on the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statement quoted the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as saying: “Lagos is thrilled to be a part of Global Citizen Live.

Three buildings have collapsed while others are being threatened by the fast encroaching ravine along Ikpa Road in Itu Local Government Area, near Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State’s capital.

People living around the area have cried out to the state government to intervene and save the residents from the threatening ravine.

755 Inmates Await Trial in Ondo Correctional Centres James Sowole in Akure The Controller of Correctional Services, Ondo State Command, Mr. Opeyemi Fatinikun, has disclosed that of the 950 inmates in correctional centres in the state, 755 are Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP).

Fatinikun noted with grave concern the number of inmates in the Custodial Centres in the state, and sought the assistance

of the state government on the smooth discharge of the Command’s operational duties.

The controller stated this when he paid a courtesy call on the state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, in his office.

He said: “We have 950 inmates, 755 Awaiting Trials Persons (ATPs), 12 females, 55 lifers, and one condemned person. We are also requesting

that the governor find time to visit the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Olokuta.”

Fatinikun assured the governor that his Command would support the state government “within the ambit of Criminal Justice Administration, security and any other areas required for effective collaborations.”

Responding to the controller, Akeredolu directed the

state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to commence the legal process of domesticating the NonCustodial policy contained in the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, in a bid to decongest the Correctional Centres in the state.

The governor expressed concern over the number of ATPs across the five Custodial Centres in the state.

UK Projects £14.7m for Human Devt in Kano Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano The United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Nigeria has projected to spend £14.7 million on human development and social protection programmes in Kano State.

The projection came even as the UK Government announced a 29 per cent slash in its global intervention from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 percent of the UK Gross National Income,

which it said was occasioned by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Development Director, FCDA Nigeria, Dr. Christopher Pycroft, who made the disclosure yesterday in Kano during a strategic dialogue between Kano State Government and FCDO on Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) held at the government house, also reminded that British Government is interested to see value for every pound

spent on social intervention in Kano and other partner states.

The UK donor agency declared a paradigm shift on government development programmes, saying the FCDO intervention would only focus on a sustainable framework on human development and social protection programmes.

He explained that the MAF project is aimed to improve coordination and support government’s efforts to implement reforms that would

drive developmental and social protection growth in Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa States.

Pycroft emphasised that the MAF blueprint developed

by FCDC would eliminate cash support and replace it with technical assistance in concrete areas of good governance, economic recovery, investment opportunity and poverty reduction through human capital development, particularly in the areas of health, education and social protection.

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NEWS XTRA

Abductors Free Woman, Daughter in Ekiti Five Days after Killing Husband Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti A joint security team operating at a section of Ekiti State has freed a woman and her daughter from captivity on Friday.

The woman and her daughter came for a burial from Lagos but were kidnapped along Ayetoro-Ewu Ekiti Road by gunmen that shoot her husband and killed him instantly.

The security also freed six others, who were kidnapped at Otun Ekiti, Moba Local Government Area (MLGA) of the state, on Monday while four persons were still being held.

A source confided in newsmen in Ado Ekiti yesterday that they were freed at a forest located at Ikun Ekiti in MLGA on Tuesday’s evening.

The source said each of the abductees paid undisclosed sum as ransom to regain freedom.

“They all paid ransom and they did this under strict instruction that they should put the money inside polythene bags. They were released at a forest in Ikun Ekiti.

“Those who took the money to them only trekked for a few minutes into the forest before getting them. They were said to have threatened those who brought the money with guns,” he said.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, ASP. Sunday Abutu, said eight persons were rescued from the gunmen.

Abutu stated that they were rescued through combined

Joint Border Patrol Team Intercepts N92m Goods in Three Months Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The Coordinator, the Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT) North Central Zone, Sector 3 Ilorin, Mr. Olugboyega Peters, has said that his team has intercepted smuggled goods worth N92 million between April and July this year.

Peters disclosed this in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, yesterday while speaking with journalists on the activities of the team in the last three months.

He said that, among of the goods seized during the operations are 650 sacks of 60 liters each of Diesel (39,000 liters); 1,735 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50 kg each; 1,415 jeri cans of 25 liters of petroleum products each (36,525 liters); 33 used vehicles, 12 bales of worn clothing and 10 motorcycles.

He said: “As part of effort by federal government to curb smuggling of petroleum product, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in collaboration with Nigerian National Petroleum

Cooperation (NNPC) recently approved the reactivation of Operation White Hilux Team, designed to control the smuggling of petroleum products across the border.

“The team had commenced operations and the JBPT of Sector 3, is collaborating with the team and such collaboration has started yielding positive results.

“Just on Tuesday, the Sector 3 held a sensitisation meeting with the IPMAN, Kwara State Chapter and petrol station owners about the do’s and don’ts, as heavy sanction/ penalty await any erring persons or group of persons.

“The sector will not stop on mass sensitisation of our youths, the Rice Millers Association, the Market Men/Women Associations, the Transport Union Associations, students, traditional institutions, the Manufactures Association of Nigeria (MAN) and other relevant stakeholders on dangers of smuggling.”

efforts of the police, Amotekun Corps and local hunters after giving the bandits a hot chase into the forest.

“We didn’t hear of payment

of any ransom. Our security people did a great job.

Immediately the incident happened, we started combing the surrounding forests and that

yielded results.

“They were rescued due to good job done by security men and that was commendable,” Abutu said.

The deceased and his family members were driving in a Lexus Jeep when the gunmen suddenly rained bullets on the car.

FOR RURAL ELECTRICATION…

L-R: Board Member, Association of Rural Electrification Contractors of Nigeria (ARECON), Chief Kehinde Sogbamu; Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Power, Hon. Magaji Aliyu; and Chairman of ARECON, Innocent Akubuobi, during the association’s sensitisation workshop in Abuja…yesterday

Leave Feminists Alone, Women Group Tackles Oyedepo The Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) has condemned the comments credited to the Founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, on feminism, saying he should proffer solutions to insecurity, inflation, amongst others confronting the nation.

A statement signed that was by the Communications Officer of the NFF, Ms. Angela Nkwo, said that Oyedepo’s comments casted aspersions on being a woman

when he advised women against joining the NFF movement.

Nkwo said that “feminism is about demanding for gender equity, justice and access to equal resources for everyone, which will benefit families, communities and the wider society as a whole.”

The statement alleged that Oyedepo’s unsubstantiated claim that those desiring feminist revolution should not “attempt to get married, because it won’t work,” failed to accept or even

understand that marriage involved two consenting adults who have to agree to live together.

Further, the women group said that the cleric’s comments justified the notion that women would not lead branches of the church popularly called Winners Chapel, which it described as condemnable.

The NFF said: “We need to ask the eminent cleric if the feminists and the coalitions caused the unproductivity of his pastors, or

the insecurity and high inflation that had enveloped the nation?

“Nigerian women grapple with insecurity, sexual and genderbased violence, lack of access to quality healthcare and education, oppressive cultures, widowhood practices, wife inheritance, female genital mutilation, cultural beliefs that subdue women such as the land ownership, and being seen and not heard, and these must be stopped” because the time to act is now.

COVID-19 Impact Worsens Unemployment in Nigeria, Say Experts Michael Olugbode in Abuja Experts at the on-going series of workshops organised by the United Nations Country Team in Nigeria (UNCTN) as part of the Common Country Analysis (CCA) for Nigeria, have noted that the impact of COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the unemployment situation in the country.

The workshops, which began from August 9 and will end on August 18, is to validate with key stakeholders of UNCTN analysis of the country situation across

various thematic areas and to identify data and issue gaps.

A statement, which was signed yesterday, by the UN’s National Information Officer, Oluseyi Soremekun, said that informal employment is still predominant, noting that International Labour Organisation (ILO) had estimated the share of informal employment in non-agricultural employment at 83.7 per cent.

The experts stated that Nigerian economy has not been creating enough jobs and a significant number of employed people

were working below their capacity, which puts underemployment rate at 22.8 per cent in 2020.

“In 2020, young people were most affected with a youth unemployment rate of 53.4 per cent. Gender imbalances were present with unemployment rates higher for females at 35.2 per cent compared to male’s 1.8 per cent.”

They called for the creation of conditions for sustained and inclusive economic growth that would drive progress, create decent jobs for all, and

improve living standards, which would be critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In his remarks, the Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office, Mr. Ernest Mutanga, explained that the UN would hold eight virtual workshops in Nigeria across specific themes: economy, demographics and human capital development, governance, gender and social inclusion, youth, climate, and financing and public sector management.

Committee on Lands, Housing and Urban Development during a courtesy call in the Government House, Uyo. Emmanuel, who was represented by the Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor, Mr. Moses Ekpo, noted that he was not aware that there were as many as 40 federal government projects in Akwa Ibom State, saying that for the purpose of proper synergy and needs assessment, there was

absolute need for the federal government and its agencies to always build confidence in the states and ensure proper consultation towards the success of such projects.

He noted that such projects were neither known to the state government nor were their needs and locations assessed and rationalised.

The governor stated that the need for such consultations and periodic reviews had become

indispensable in order to enable the two governments align their resources toward common objectives.

He expressed surprise at the number of projects to be inspected during the visit and noted that given the present inflationary trend occasioned by uncertainties of the global economy, there was utmost need to ensure that government had value for resources committed into projects.

We Remain Committed to World Bank-backed Project, Says Makinde A’Ibom Seeks FG’s Collaboration to Execute Projects Goddy Egene To uphold his pledge to continue to serve the interests of the people of Oyo State, Governor, Seyi Makinde, has expressed his avowed commitment to the timely completion of the World Bank-backed Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP).

The governor has also appealed to the World Bank not to withdraw its conditional no objection for the Second Pool of Long Term Investments (PLTI2) , and make available funding for the contracts.

A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicated that the state also rejected insinuations that the World Bank had withdrawn its commitment to IUFMP due to display of undue interests by the governor.

The commitment of the governor and the state

government “is coming at a time the World Bank, in its correspondence of July 30, 2021, to Makinde, pointed out administrative issues and strengthening of the safeguard team.

“The bank, nonetheless, expressed the recognition of the governor’s unwavering support to the important project.”

The World Bank said it recognised “...Your Excellency’s unwavering support to this important project for the safety and well-being of Ibadan’s citizens.”

The statement noted that while a correspondence from the World Bank, signed by the Country Director, Nigeria, Western and Central Africa Region, Mr. Shubham Chaudhuri, had conveyed the determination of the status of its support for the project, the said decision was not as a result of undue interference by the governor.

Nseobong Okon-Ekong

The Akwa Ibom State Government has expressed surprise at the number of federal government’s projects sited in the state and called for closer collaboration between the federal and the state government in the execution of projects in the state.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, expressed this shock recently when he played host to the Senate

FG to Boost Support for People Living with Disabilities James Emejo in Abuja The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Mariam Katagum, yesterday reiterated the federal government’s commitment to supporting people living with disabilities in the country.

Katagum pointed out that

the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led- administration was passionate about the well being of people with disabilities when she received in audience a delegation from the Network of the Disabled Women (NDW), which was led by the National Secretary ofNDW, Ms. Mary Omoyeme Musa, in her office in Abuja,.

She observed that Buhari’s passion for people with disabilities that motivated the setting up of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) to address their various challenges and mainstream them for better inclusion in the policies and programmes of the government.

Katagum said a lot is being currently by the federal government to support people with disabilities citing, the allocation of five per cent in every track of the MSMEs Survival Fund, meant to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on MSMEs to people with living with disabilities.

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THURSDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Kepa the Hero as Chelsea Defeat Villarreal to Lift Super Cup Chelsea players celebrating defeating Villarreal 6-5 to win the UEFA Super Cup in Belfast...last night Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report Kepa Arrizabalaga was the unlikely hero last night as Chelsea defeated Villarreal 6-5 in penalty shootouts to win the UEFA Super Cup. The game tied at one-all after 120 minutes at Windsor Park in Belfast.

But Arrizabalaga who has lost his

place as number one since joining the club for a world record fee for a goalkeeper in 2018, was introduced late in extra-time as a substitute for the shootout and saved from Aissa Mandi and Raul Albiol.

The Spanish club that defeated Manchester United to Win the Europa League last term deserved to have their hands on the trophy as their

displayed belies the fact that Chelsea were the UEFA Champions League winners.

Villarreal were brilliant on the night.

However, it was the Blues with an excellent first-half performance that stormed into the lead when Hakim Ziyech opened the scoring for the midway through the opening 45 minutes. Ziyech was then forced

off with what looked like a worrying shoulder injury before half-time.

The Spaniards hit the woodwork either side of the break before Gerard Moreno equalised in the 73rd minute to force extra time.

Chelsea, who look set to complete a deal to re-sign striker Romelu Lukaku for a club record fee of £97.5m from Inter Milan, failed to rediscover their

first-half vigour in extra time but did come close to a winner through Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.

It was the first time the Super Cup was played in Northern Ireland and 13,000 spectators generated a fantastic atmosphere in the south Belfast stadium, the highest attendance at any sports event in the country since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Messi: My Dream at PSG is to Win the Champions League PSG president insists Messi’s staggering £1m-a-week deal does not breach FFP rule Lionel Messi said he dreams of winning the Champions League once more after joining Paris St-Germain, adding: "I think we have the team to do it here."

The Argentina captain, 34, won four Champions League titles with Barcelona, the last of which came in 2015.

PSG are still searching for their first title in the competition, having lost to Bayern Munich in the 2020 final.

"My goal and my dream is to win the Champions League once more," Messi said as he was unveiled as a PSG player.

Messi left Barcelona - who he joined aged 13 - as they were unable to afford a new deal under La Liga's financial fair play rules.

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, he scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for the Catalan giants.

He won the Ballon d'Or a record six times and lifted 35 trophies during his time at the

Nou Camp, but said he is excited to "begin this new moment of my life" after a "difficult" departure from Barcelona.

"It was a difficult change after so long a time," he told reporters at the Parc des Princes. "But the moment I arrived here, I felt very happy and I really want to begin

the training sessions. I want it to be quick.

"My only will now is to begin the training sessions. I want to work with the staff and team-mates and begin this new moment of my life.

"I have this will to play. I am really impatient. I still want to

Messi...at PSG press conference in Paris... yesterday

win, as I did the first moment of my career.

"I feel this club is ready to fight for all the trophies. This is my goal, I want to keep growing and keep winning titles and that is why I came to this club."

Adding Messi - who has signed a two-year contract with the option of a third - to an already talent-rich squad is a major step in PSG's quest to reach the European summit.

After losing to Manchester City in last season's semi-finals, the Parisians - who also lost their Ligue 1 crown to Lille last term - have recruited Champions League winners in Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum and Messi.

However, Messi is aware that in order to lift the trophy for a fifth time, he may have to face Barcelona along the way, and admits that playing at the Nou Camp in PSG's colours would be "very strange".

"Barcelona is my home - I have

been there since I was a kid and I've lived so many things there," he added.

"I don't know if we are going to face each other - it would be very nice to go back to Barcelona.

"It will be very strange to play at home there in Barcelona with another shirt but it can happen and we will see."

Messi's arrival in the French capital completes one of the most formidable attacking lines in history. The South American is poised to play in PSG's frontline alongside the two most expensive players of all time - former Barcelona team-mate Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

PSG President, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, has insisted no Financial Fair Play rules have been breached by the club signing Messi on a staggering £1million-a-week deal.

While there is no transfer fee for Messi as his Barcelona contract had expired, questions

have been asked as to how PSG could add his enormous salary to their wage bill and comply with UEFA's financial rules.

But Al-Khelaifi said the commercial opportunities that come from signing such a global star will offset the outlay.

He said: 'We follow FFP regulations from day one until the end. Before we do anything, we look at commercial and financial aspects and we had the capacity to sign him.

“We knew we could sign him and today what Leo is bringing to the club is huge.

“What you as the media need to focus on is not the negative side of things but the positives he can bring. He is an asset for the club and everything will grow commercially.

“In three days, you will be shocked. I hope he does not ask for any more in terms of salary but we always look at FFP and will always follow it.”

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SPORTS

After Messi, What Next for Barcelona?

While Lionel Messi's departure marks the end of an era for Barcelona, there is plenty more to be resolved at the Nou Camp before the season gets under way:

*MONEY ISSUES

Barcelona have a gross debt of over one billion euros ($1.17 billion) and years of profligate spending meant they flew too close to the sun once too often.

Even without the Argentine, their salary mass accounts for 95% of all income - in football, it is considered viable and healthy to have your wages to income at a maximum ratio of 70%.

That is all the more remarkable given they topped the 2021 Deloitte Football Money League despite the pandemic and are officially the world's highest-earning football club.

*FAT STILL TO BE TRIMMED

With football stadiums still at a reduced capacity in Spain, matchday income will still be relatively low, meaning Barca

TRANSFER NEWS

must reduce their wage bill in order to register new signings Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Emerson and Eric Garcia.

Indeed, with just two days until the start of the 2021-22 La Liga campaign, Barca have not officially registered any of their new arrivals with the league, meaning it is unlikely any of them will feature against Real Sociedad this weekend.

With Aguero out injured for the first three months of the season, and largely brought to the club to appease Messi there is an off-chance they might look to find a taker for the forward in order to get his wages off the books.

*FAITH IN YOUTH

While the immediate postMessi future might look bleak, in Ansu Fati and Pedri Barcelona have two of the best youngsters in the world on their books.

They must harness their talents and build a squad

around those two for the next decade - just as they did with Messi previously.

However, with all of world football well aware of just how burdened they are financially, selling one of - or both - the duo could realistically be their most viable way out of the mess they are currently in.

Whether fans could stomach such a move is another question altogether.

*TIME TO SHINE

One school of thought surrounding Barca was that players were too comfortable knowing they always had a 'get out of jail free' card in that they could pass the ball to Messi, or a moment of individual brilliance from him would get them out of a hole.

Without that safety net, and the former No. 10's sheer presence, could the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho and co. finally step up and justify the extravagant price-tags that Barca shelled out on them?

Team Nigeria’s Efforts at Tokyo 2020 Will Bear Medals in Future, Says Are A former Director of Grassroots Sports at the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Dr. Ademola Are, has stated that the positives of Team Nigeria’s participation at the just concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will manifest in future.

Are noted that there were many areas the Nigerian team failed to win medal but made huge impacts which could facilitate medals at future global games and future Olympics.

He noted that it was important for Nigerians to recognize the magnitude of the Olympic Games before people give harsh

judgment on the Nigerian team.

Are said: “Over 205 countries took part in the games and we should realize that some of these countries invested heavily in their facilities and athletes in multiple fold. They also have edge technically.

“The efforts of the sports ministry were evident in Tokyo.

We had our sprinter in the final of the 100m for the first time in over 20 years and we made impact in wrestling, we were in the final of the Shot Put event while we maintained strong presence in hurdles and long jump.

Abraham Agrees Personal Terms with Arsenal Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has reportedly agreed personal terms with Arsenal despite links with a move to Roma.

The 23-year-old fell out of favour under Thomas Tuchel last season and will struggle for game even more at Stamford Bridge next term with the arrival of Romelu Lukaku.

With Edin Dzeko thought to be heading to Inter Milan as a replacement for Lukaku, a transfer merry-go-round will supposedly see Abraham head to Roma to fill the void left by the Bosnian.

Roma have supposedly agreed a £34m fee to sign Abraham, but according to Italian outlet Il Messaggero, the Englishman has already agreed on the personal side of a deal with Arsenal.

However, the Gunners are not said to have approached Chelsea with an official offer for the forward as they first look to offload Alexandre Lacazette, who is also thought to be on Roma’s radar.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Manager, Thomas Tuchel, said he understood Abraham's frustration over his lack of playing time last season and took some responsibility for it.

"I can absolutely understand that he wants more minutes. So the decision will be 'how do we plan, what are Tammy's plans, does he fight his way back into

the team from the position where he ended last season or does he want to change club to have the chance of being a regular starter?'"

Tammy Abraham...on Roma radar even as Arsenal have agreed personal term with him

“In future, our athletes will be capitalizing on these to do better and that is a success story we should appreciate.”

Are showered praises on Sports Minister Sunday Dare for his foresight and determination to get Team Nigeria on track for good results.

"The positive results of the minister’s determined efforts will manifest in no distant future.

Those running their mouths should compare Nigeria's placements in sports with other government Ministries and Department Agencies (MDAS) in world rankings despite all the challenges.

“As a former athlete, I know how it feels, but our investments will bring great reward in the nearest future. The future of Nigerian sports is very bright," Are added.

Lionel Messi...exit from Nou Camp has thrown Barca into uncertain future

Adegoke Applauds FG, Sports Ministry over Tokyo 2020 One of Nigeria's star athletes at the recently concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Enoch Adegoke, has applauded the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Sports for supporting his quest towards achieving a great feat at the Games.

Though he was not a favourite in Tokyo, Adegoke created a new history as he became the third Nigerian and first in 25 years to make the Olympics 100m men’s final.

Despite failing to finish the final race due to injury, the Fiditi, Oyo State-born athlete finished the Olympics with his head high.

To get to the final, Adegoke stormed to a new Personal Best of 9.98secs in his heat while also beating Asian record holder, Femi Ogunode, British star, Zharnel Hughes, and 2021 world leader Team USA’s Trayvon Bromell to win his 100m heat.

Impressed by Adegoke’s feat, Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, announced that the Sports Ministry was going to foot the medical bills of the sprinter along with three others who competed for Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020

Olympics with injuries.

The four athletes include; Adegoke who stopped 40 metres into the 100m final due to a

hamstring trouble and Usheoritse Itshekiri who also pulled his hamstring in the semi-final of the blue ribband event.

Enoch Adegoke... pledges better performance after Tokyo 2020

Sprint hurdler, Tobi Amusan, who placed fourth in the women’s 100m hurdles, as well as Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who made history as the first Nigerian man or woman to compete in the final of the Shot Put event at the Olympics.

“When I heard that the ministry will be taking care of my treatment, I was very happy,” he said.

“While going to Tokyo, I was adopted and that helped me to give my all and it was so unfortunate that I had that injury in the final, despite that, I was happy that I was able to end a 25-year absence of a Nigerian in the final.

“I thank the Federal Government through the minister and the ministry of sports for their support for the athletes.

“This kind gesture will help me to give my all in the future while competing for Nigeria.

With alot of competitions ahead and also with age on my side, I know the sky is just the starting point for me,” concludes Adegoke who won the 100m final at the 20th National Sports Festival in Benin City.

Thursday, August 12, 2021

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MISSILE Peter Obi to Ndigbo “We need to convince the other people why it should be us. And you know we have a convincing argument for that. But it needs to be convincing. We are not going to hold a gun in their head and say you must come here. Politics is about engagement and consultation, and not confrontation” —Former Anambra State Governor on how the Southeast can produce the next president.

OLUSEGUNADENIYI THE VERDICT

olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com

Anambra Poll and Judicial ‘Handouts’

I

t is not for nothing that I call Dr Okey Ikechukwu ‘Ijele’. The former University of Lagos philosophy lecturer has a way with words. Asked on ARISE Channels early in June for his impression of the acrimony resulting from the gubernatorial primaries of leading political parties in Anambra, Ikechukwu dismissed the situation as the usual “epidemic of court cases” that define election seasons in the state. Nothing could be more apt.

This judicial ‘epidemic’ that first began in Awka has, within two months, spread to at least seven states across four geo-political zones in the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). For an election holding in Anambra, it is beyond scandalous that cases have been filed and heard at the Jigawa State High Court in Dutse, Delta State High Court, Okperke Division, Bauchi State High Court, Katagum Division, Abia State High Court, Ukwa Division, Imo State High Court, Owerri, FCT High Court, (Bwari and Maitama Divisions), Federal High Court, (Abuja and Awka Divisions), Court of Appeal, Kano Division, Anambra State High Court, Awka etc. As things stand, some of the cases will not cease until they reach the Supreme Court.

Mr Festus Okoye, the INEC national commissioner in charge of public enlightenment, recently lamented that these indiscriminately dispensed orders and judgements from diverse courts have “far-reaching implications on the conduct of the Anambra State governorship election”.

This is because party chairman, the target of most of the cases, plays some vital roles in the election process. The commission, according to Okoye, usually issues access codes to the national chairman of political parties with which they upload the personal details and list of their candidates electronically. Thus, the inability of INEC to ascertain who is the chairman of a participating party may create a huge problem. “Unfortunately, some of the judgements and orders given especially on the primary elections in Anambra state have bypassed our portal and sought to restore the manual submission of the list and personal particulars of candidates,” said Okoye. He added that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the commission to obey these court orders and judgements “as some of the political parties and the candidates have perfected the art of shopping for the first in time or the latest in time”.

The danger of this state of affairs, as I have highlighted in the past, is that it encourages judges to issue orders on matters not within their jurisdictional competence, putting the judicial system in jeopardy. That forum shopping has become a weapon of political mischief and corruption in Nigeria should worry critical stakeholders in the justice sector. Many countries have taken a tough stance on it. In a landmark case on 5th March 2003, the Supreme Court in the Philippines described forum shopping as “the institution of two or more suits in different courts, either simultaneously or successively, in order to ask the courts to rule on the same or related causes and/or

Soludo, Anambra APGA gubernorial candidate

to grant the same or substantially the same reliefs,” before reaching this conclusion: “It is an act of malpractice that is prohibited and condemned because it trifles with the courts and abuses their processes. It degrades the administration of justice.”

Whatever reliefs are being sought by Anambra politicians, the overall objective in this game is to scuttle the ambition of someone or ensure they get their name (or that of their principal) on the ballot. This is regardless of the outcome of party primaries.

Not surprisingly, the majority of these cases originate from members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the party in power in Anambra State. They are targeted at the candidature of the assumed front-runner in the upcoming gubernatorial election, the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo. But there are also cases within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a few other fringe parties. Caught in the middle is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that has had to change the names of candidates as dictated by the courts. This singular fact has presented its own problem. On 19th July, there were two conflicting orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction on the PDP gubernatorial ticket being contested by Senator Ugochukwu Uba and Mr Valentine Ozigbo who has been endorsed by the party’s national secretariat.

Before I conclude, let me highlight a few of the cases that have come up within the last two months. On 23rd June, Alhaji Rabiu Garba Aliyu filed a case against Chief Jude Okeke at Dutse High Court, seeking an order to validate the APGA

Owerri national convention of 31st May 2019 and declare him (Aliyu) the validly elected Deputy National Chairman (North).

On the same day, Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf filed a case against INEC at the Bwari division of the FCT High Court seeking an Order to compel the commission to monitor the APGA primaries then scheduled to hold on 1st July 2021 under the leadership of Chief Jude Okeke. Again, on the same day at FHC, Akwa, Chief Eze Boston sought an Order to declare the APGA Owerri convention of 31st May 2019 null and void. A day later, on 24th June, Hon. Pete Ibida was at the High Court in Akwa seeking a declaration that those elected as members of National Working Committee (NWC) of APGA on 31st May 2019 were entitled to conduct the gubernatorial primaries as well as an Order restraining INEC from accepting, receiving, or recognizing as APGA gubernatorial candidate from any other primaries except the one conducted by Victor Oye and his NWC. Chief Sopuluchukwu Ezeonwuka instituted, on 25th June 2021, the most dramatic case in FHC Akwa where he sought a declaration that any aspirant who purchased APGA’s nomination form could validly contest the gubernatorial primaries irrespective of the faction from which the nomination form was purchased. On the same 25th June, Mr Sylvester Ezeokenwa sought an Order from the Anambra High Court, to declare the APGA national convention of 31st May 2019 as the authentic one that produced the NWC members and thus the only body to conduct APGA gubernatorial primaries and submit name of candidate to INEC. On 28th June, Ogbueshi Anthony Eboka was at the High Court of Delta State (Okerkpe Division) seeking an Order to declare that all members of APGA were bound by the party’s constitution as well as an injunction restraining INEC from accepting or recognising names of certain people as candidate. On 13th July, Okoye Nonyelum Nwabuogo sought an Order nullifying, invalidating, and setting aside the APGA special ward congresses held on 15th June 2021 for being in default of notice of 21 days to INEC as

well as an Order nullifying, invalidating, and setting aside result of the primaries held on 23rd June 2021. Same day, 13th July, Alhaji Abubakar Adamu at the High Court of Bauchi State (Katagum Division) sought an Order to declare him as the APGA acting chairman with the power to conduct primaries and nominate candidate for the Anambra State gubernatorial election.

You may wonder what could be the business of these Alhajis in an election holding in the Southeast. That is because you know little about Anambra politicians.

Behind these Alhajis are prominent political Ogbuefis. On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal sitting in Kano ruled on the appeal of Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf who had earlier filed a case against INEC at the Bwari division of the FCT High Court, and subsequently filed another one in Jigawa when he was dissatisfied with the ruling of the FCT High Court. He got a judgement in Jigawa High Court that initially made INEC to withhold the name of Soludo from the list of candidates. With the affirmation by the Court of Appeal of Victor Oye, the INEC’s recognized chairman of the party, the ambition of Michael Omeoji is now technically over unless the Supreme Court reverses the decision of the Court of Appeal.

This sordid drama, sadly, is not restricted to APGA. On 26th June at the FHC Akwa, Edwin Akwuobi sought an Order to declare that the PDP Anambra State Congress conducted on 26th June 2021 was not properly constituted and therefore null and void. On 7th July at the Anambra High Court in Akwa, Senator Ugochukwu Uba sought an Order to declare that the PDP primaries conducted on the same day at a different location, which produced him as winner, is valid, lawful, proper, and binding on the party. On 9th July at the FHC Akwa, Hon Genevieve Ekwochi sought an Order setting aside the PDP primaries conducted on the 26th of June 2021. This case has been adjourned till 21st September which means another banana peel is on the cards.

NOTE: Piece concluded on page 15

A Clash of Interests

F

rom 1999 to 2007, Sheddy Ozoene was spokesman to the then Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ononefe Ibori.

So, when he told me last year that he was writing a book on politics, I was excited.

Even if he avoided some of the controversies that dogged the administration he served, I reasoned, an account of politics in Delta State would be fascinating. I was therefore surprised when I arrived my office recently to see a copy of Ozoene’s book on my table. It was not about Delta State! And the title says it all, ‘Clash of Interests: Godfathers and the contest for political power in Enugu State’.

Unknown to me, Ozoene hails from Enugu State and also served as spokesman to the incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

between 2015 and 2019. I was initially disappointed that the book was not about Delta State, but the moment I began to read, it was difficult to put down. Ozoene not only provided rich insights into the nature of political godfatherism in Enugu State from 1999 to date, but he also named names. In an environment where the only lucrative enterprise is politics, those who make it their own business to get people elected into public offices will also always be in demand. But there are also codes for this business as I wrote in my 2019 piece, ‘The Way of Godfathers’. There are also enormous rewards for political entrepreneurs, as I learned from interactions with the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.

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