SATURDAY 4TH FEBRUARY 2023

Splendour, Passion As Iconic Arise Fashion Week and Jazz Festival Ends Today in Lagos Our Correspondents The three-day iconic Arise Fashion Week and Jazz Festival ends today in Lagos with more

exceptional designers from Africa and Africans in the Diaspora expected to showcase their skills amid jazz-themed performances.

The 2023 edition of the

momentous show, marking its 20th anniversary with the theme, “Arise Fashion Week and Jazz Festival: Future Forward,” kicked off on Tuesday at Eko Hotel,

Lagos with splendour.

On the opening day, a diverse set of world-class designers were on parade, including Pepper Row, Bloke, Mariya Sanusi, Ninie, Uni

Form, Tolu Coker, Ti Nathan, Vicnate, Bianca Sunders and Nkwo.

Also, runway goddess Naomi Campbell set the stage on fire

on the opening day in the outfit of Mariya Sanusi, while multiinstrumentalist French Kiwi Juice Continued on page 6

Terrorists Ambush Vigilantes in Katsina, Kill 44... Page 8 Saturday 4 February, 2023 Vol 28. No 10161

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New Naira Notes: Buhari, APC Governors Disagree on Deadline Govs demand concurrent use of new and old notes till year end, postponement of February 10 deadline for currency swap President begs for 7 days to resolve cash crunch Emefiele: No plans to extend deadline for old naira Protests in Ibadan, Warri, Benin Akeredolu to Buhari: Cash, petrol scarcity may yield unpleasant consequences, act now Deploy more money agents, Osinbajo tells banks Deji Elumoye in Abuja, Nume Ekeghe in Lagos, Fidelis David in Akure, Sylvester Idowu in Warri, Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Eleven governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at the State House, Abuja, over the lingering cash crunch in the country following the Naira redesign, and demanded for the concurrent use of the new and old notes till the end of this year.

At the meeting, which was also attended by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, President Buhari rejected the demand of the governors and urged Nigerians to give him a seven-day grace to resolve the cash crunch.

Many Nigerians are finding it difficult to obtain the new Naira notes, resulting in protests in parts of the country like Benin, Ibadan and Warri.

The governors sought to share with Buhari the negative

impact of the Central Bank’s policy, which they said had been undermining the painstaking efforts that had been put forth by this administration in transforming the economy.

But the President said the objective of the policy was not to create hardship but to provide the economy with much needed revitalisation and the benefits will be borne in the medium to long term.

Unfortunately, Buhari said, “inefficiencies and underhanded practices being carried out on the part of our banks as the primary distribution medium, have destabilised the smooth and successful execution of the policy.

“Some banks are inefficient and only concerned about themselves.

An extension of the time frame within which to complete this process will be made insignificant for as long as greed and selfishness continue to guide our actions."

The President said he had received and seen televised reports about cash shortages and undue Continued on page 6

Tinubu: Naira Hoarders Plotting NAOMI CAMPBELL DELIGHTS IN AWA MEITE’S OUTFIT… Super Model, Naomi Campbell in the outfit of Awa Meite Collection at Day 2 of the 20th edition of Arise Fashion Week and Interim Government... Page 8 British Jazz Festival at Eko Hotel, Lagos... yesterday KUNLE OGUNFUYI

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T H I S D AY, T H E S AT U R D AY N E W S PA P E R • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023

PAGE SIX NEW NAIRA NOTES: BUHARI, APC GOVERNORS DISAGREE ON DEADLINE hardships that local businesses and the citizens are being subjected to and gave assurances that the balance of the seven of the 10-day extension will be used to rectify whatever issues that pose a threat to successful implementation.

While continuing to monitor the situation, the President assured that he would be meeting with both the CBN and the Security and Minting Company and a decision would be taken based on current realities in the best interest of the people.

The President stated that when considering the policy, prior to its initial approval, he demanded an undertaking from the CBN that no new notes would be printed outside the country, and he received firm assurances that there was enough capacity, manpower and equipment for the domestic execution of this exercise.

However, the president said he would interrogate these assurances as part of his engagement with the responsible agencies of government.

Finally, he thanked the governors for bringing the cries of the people to him, given their proximity to them and assured that there would be a solution to the problem.

Earlier, the governors, led by Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, while briefing the President, reiterated their position which is in full support of the policy decision to redesign the currency, and were convinced about the intent behind its thinking, but shared their concern regarding the current fallout which has a debilitating impact on their constituencies.

They told the President that as leaders within the party and the government in their various states, they were becoming anxious regarding the economic impact and the potential erosion to the democratic process, particularly the upcoming general elections.

They, therefore, requested that the President directs an adequate injection of the new notes and the continued utilisation of the old ones until the end of the year.

Speaking with newsmen after the APC governors’ session with the President, Governor Nasir ElRufai of Kaduna State disclosed that they urged Buhari to allow both the old and new naira notes to co-exist to ease the suffering of Nigerians while also postponing the February 10 deadline to complete the currency swap.

The governor, who spoke with some reporters in Hausa, said while the CBN mopped up over N2 trillion of the old notes, it printed only N300 billion which was not enough to cater for citizens' needs.

El-Rufai, who was in the company of his Kano State counterpart, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, said the apex bank should have printed at least half of what they mopped up, which is N1 trillion if it had wanted to implement the cashless policy.

According to him, the governors

told the president that the masses were suffering and traders were losing their goods due to lack of patronage, citing the case of tomato sellers that travelled to Lagos with their goods but all got wasted because people have no money to buy.

El-Rufai, who said the governors appealed to the president to reconsider his earlier stance, however, said he did not tell them yes or no.

He added that Bagudu went back to meet the President privately with the hope of convincing him.

On the notion that he criticized the President because he wanted to become "a godfather", the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said: "I don't criticize President Buhari.

I have never criticized President Buhari, it's only those working with him who are telling him lies, they don't tell him the truth, and they don't tell him what the people are going through on these policies or decisions that are taken.

"What President Buhari brought, we support it. We know the reason he wants to do something, but they are not doing it right and they don't tell him the right thing.

We, the true followers of Buhari are not using him to get money for shopping, we are mandated to tell him the truth, and that's what we've done.

"President Buhari himself knows me, he knows how we have been together, all these allegations I'm used to hearing them. Which godfather am I looking for? Tinubu is our Presidential candidate, we want him to win the election.

Emefiele Rules Out Further Extension of Deadline The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele at a press briefing in Lagos yesterday stated that there would be no further extension of the Naira swap.

He urged Nigerians to be calm, reassuring that the CBN is working assiduously to address all the challenges related to the redesign of Naira notes and the unavailability of cash.

He added that undue charges

by Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) and super agents would be stopped.

He further reiterated that the policy was not targeted at any politicians as stated by some political bigwigs.

He said: “We do see that there will be some transient or temporary pains. But we are appealing, we are begging, we are on our knees begging people to please show understanding they should be calm. In our meetings with the banks, we have told them to set up tents and chairs, and give people numbers, which I'm sure some people will say is old-fashioned.

“But at this time that we're trying to get the currency to circulate there should be a queuing arrangement and please be patient.

The assurance we give is that it would eventually go around.

“Eventually, the limits would be raised and the limits would be removed and people would be able to conduct their exchanges and businesses in the way it has always been in the past.”

Also, on the clamour to move the deadline by one year, Emefiele said: “I would say no. I'm sure that people are going to say that only last Tuesday, I said no, but I want to say unfortunately again, this time, we will not be looking at an extension of the deadline.

Because we at the central bank, the deposit money banks, and other very important stakeholders, we are looking at areas where there is pressure and we are doing everything possible to address those areas of pressure.”

On the allegation that the Naira redesign is solely directed at a presidential candidate, he refuted such claims and stated that the policy was in line with best practices of managing the macroeconomy.

He said since the commencement of the programme, N2.1 trillion had been collected, leaving about N900 billion balance.

IG Orders Arrest, Prosecution of Naira Notes Racketeers The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has ordered the arrest and subsequent prosecution of all individuals engaged in the sale or abuse of the new Naira notes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, revealed this in a statement yesterday.

Baba directed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department and the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Intelligence Bureau to place officers and men of the department and the bureau across the nation on high alert to carry out the directives.

The police chief noted that this was in furtherance of the federal government’s policy and drive to uphold the provisions of the CBN Act, 2007, and dignify Nigeria’s currency.

The IG similarly charged all supervisory AIGs and Commissioners of Police in charge of police commands and formations to carry out full enforcement of the provisions of Sections 20 and 21 of the CBN Act, 2007 which criminalises, among other things, the hawking, selling or otherwise trading of the Naira.

“And, also, the spraying of, dancing or matching on the Naira

notes, falsifying or counterfeiting of bank notes, refusal to accept the Naira as a means of payment, tampering with the coin or note issued by the CBN,” the statement read.

Adejobi further noted that the IGP reiterated the mandate of the NPF to enforce all laws and regulations without any prejudice to the enabling Acts of other security agencies.

He also urged “all and sundry to cooperate with the police as it brings the long arm of the law to bear upon all violators of the provisions of the CBN Act, and other extant statutes in Nigeria, with a view to having a wellpoliced society in all ramifications within the country.”

Akeredolu to Buhari: Cash, Petrol Scarcity May Yield Unpleasant Consequences Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has advised President Buhari to take urgent steps to address the scarcity of Naira notes and petrol price hike in the country.

The petrol crisis and scarcity of Naira notes are resulting in protests in parts of the country.

In a statement yesterday, Akeredolu said the current situation was a recipe for “unpleasant consequences” if not properly handled.

He said: “The struggles and actual fights recorded in banking halls, ATMs and POS points, and markets across the country are disquieting. The choice of this period for the implementation of a policy, which bears an instant negative impact with no discernible mitigation in sight, raises serious suspicion of partisanship on the part of the CBN. “The ordinary people are the victims. Depositors can no longer access their monies even to feed their families. Hunger is not the anticipated result of a monetary policy.

“While no reasonable person will contend with the decision of the CBN to discharge its statutory functions, the plight of the downtrodden must, however, be considered. Majority of Nigerians groan, at present, under the crushing weight of these crises.

“There is pervasive discontent in the land and unless some urgent redemptive steps are taken to ameliorate the debilitating effects of seeming desultory and nonchalant disruptions of their normal simple lives, a series of events with unpleasant consequences is inevitable.

“There is palpable anger engendered by frustration in the land. The wave of discontent increases with unbelievable rapidity across the country. The current hardship being experienced by the ordinary people forebodes

SPLENDOUR, PASSION AS ICONIC ARISE FASHION WEEK AND JAZZ FESTIVAL ENDS TODAY IN LAGOS (FKJ) further shut it down.

FKJ performed, providing an eclectic mix of jazz and electronic sounds that perfectly supplemented the array of runway shows from top local and international designers.

Yesterday, the second day of the show, Joy Meribe, Ameer

by Ameer, Eki Kere, Mokodu Fall, Fruche, Ziza Lagos, Awa Meite, I.N Official, Kenneth Ize, and Ituen Basi, all top designers, thrilled the audience.

Campbell is expected back on stage today, with another set of world-class designers.

Designers expected to round off the show today are Lanre Da Silva Ajayi, Xuly Bet, Kadiju, Syari Bespoke, Selam Fessahaye, Hudayya, Ajabeng, Lisa Folawiyo, Olooh, and Tifanny Amber.

Wizkid, an ARISE Fashion Week favourite, will likewise take the stage today, the last day, for an unmissable performance following the release of his fifth studio album, More Love, Less

Ego just months ago.

The afrobeats icon has performed at ARISE Fashion Week multiple times in his career, including ARISE Fashion Week 2019 and 2020’s “ARISE 30 Under 30” showcase.

Wizkid will be joined by jazz legend Herbie Hancock who will be performing in Lagos for the first time in his decades-long career.

The 82-year-old pianist and composer has been the mastermind of numerous prominent ‘jazz standards’ and hit singles such as “Cantaloupe Island”, “Maiden Voyage” and “Rockit”.

With 14 Grammys and an Oscar to his credit, Hancock Lagos debut at ARISE Fashion Week and Jazz Festival will certainly be one for the history books.

The 2023 Arise Fashion Week, the most explosive edition in the event’s long history, will be remembered as a celebration of

African design and its progression over the years, as well as ARISE’s role in championing musical and design talents.

Since its inception, the pioneering fashion event has been held under various names. They included ARISE Magazine Fashion Week, ARISE Africa Fashion Week, and ultimately ARISE Fashion Week, which returned to Lagos in 2018 following a six-year break. Previous editions were held in Lagos, Abuja, New York, London, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., and Dubai.

With its Future Forward theme, this year’s edition took its audience through an exciting journey filled with enlightening experiences, in celebration of African design and its progression over the years, as well as ARISE’s role in championing musical and design talents from the continent and beyond.

In all, 20 editions have been

organised in top fashion and culture destinations across the world, from New York, Paris and Washington, D.C., to London, Cape Town and Abuja.

With a diverse range of jazzinfused talent and a plethora of design legends on display at the 2023 edition in Lagos, ARISE Fashion Week and Jazz Festival has proved once again that no one can provide both spectacle and substance the way ARISE does.

The ARISE Fashion Week runway has been graced by some of the most iconic models across the globe, including Campbell, Alec Wek, Grace Jones, Oluchi Onweagba, Bethann Hardison, Tyson Beckford, Alton Mason, Imaan Hammam, Davidson Obennebo, and Nyagua Ruea; as well as music superstars such as Rihanna, Jay-Z, Wizkid, Asa, Tinie Tempah, Akon, Solange, and Mary J. Blige, who have performed for its eminent audience.

unpleasant consequences. These crises may set in motion a chain of events, the end of which is better imagined.

“The federal government must make a categorical pronouncement on the availability of petrol and its price since it is the general belief that the country still pays humongous amounts as subsidy.

A situation which permits a few individuals to inflict pains on the populace, seemingly without check, is deplorable.

“Emefiele must come clean on the new monetary policy. Nigerians are practically buying the country’s currency to feed when we are not in a state of war.

“The fact that the ruling party hopes to present candidates for election in the general elections in the coming weeks accentuates the level of suspicion as regards the possibility of having certain elements whose interests stand at variance with the general aspirations of the party and its committed members.

“There is no better way to demarket a brand than this ruthless execution of a pernicious motive.

The Federal Government, through the President (Muhammadu Buhari), must act now.”

Deploy More Money Agents, Osinbajo Tells Banks Concerned about the difficulty experienced by Nigerians in getting the new Naira notes, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met with some players in the FinTech space yesterday, with a view to exploring possible ways of mitigating the hardship.

Specifically, the Vice President at the meeting held at the State House, Abuja, urged regulators and the banks to deploy more FinTechs and money agents to the hinterlands to address the worrying situation.

Osinbajo said: “You need cash to pay for transport. For instance, in Abuja how do you take ‘drop or along’ or use a Keke NAPEP without cash, or buy foodstuff on the road or in canteens, or even buy recharge cards?

"Parents with kids in public schools give money daily to their children for lunch, most commerce is informal, so you need cash for most things.”

During the interactive session with a number of FinTech investors and ecosystem players, the Vice President said the CBN and the commercial banks should work with all FinTechs that have mobile money agents, not just some of them, in order to reach the farthest places in the country.

According to him, “it seems to me that banks must engage their mobile money operators – FinTechs with mobile money licenses and many of them have micro-finance bank licenses now and already have a network of mobile money agents or human banks or human ATMs (as they are sometimes called) who are responsible to them and they can supervise by themselves. They can do currency swaps and open bank accounts.”

Speaking further about some of the concerns arising from the redesign of the new naira notes, Osinbajo disclosed that more disturbing is the fact that after depositing your old notes, there are no new notes, so people everywhere in the urban areas and rural areas simply have no money.

The Vice President acknowledged that “there are logistical challenges that have to be addressed by the CBN and the banks, especially from the point of view of the average Nigerian and those in the hinterland who hardly use any electronic platforms.”

Protest in Warri, Benin, Ibadan Scores of youths and women

barricaded major roads in Warri and environs yesterday protesting fuel hike and the scarcity of Naira notes in the country.

The angry protesters took over the ever-busy Warri-Sapele road in Warri, breaching socio-economic activities along the route.

Another band took over the NPA expressway, by Delta Broadcasting Station, setting fire at the two sections causing traffic gridlock on the busy road.

The protesters accused fuel marketers and various bank managers of being responsible for the current hardship befalling citizens.

The protest, which started at about 10 am, took a concerted effort of soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Effurun to calm and dislodge the protesters, promising to prevail on relevant authorities to address the situation.

The protesters lamented that the Naira notes are being sold in high amounts by bankers and POS operators and fuel is also being hoarded by marketers.

According to the protesters, many families were now dying of hunger due to the scarcity of the Naira notes, as internet banking is being frustrated by bad networks.

In Benin City, Edo State, depositors who could not access their funds in different banks in the city blocked the ever-busy King Square (Ring Road) to traffic in protest.

The protest caused diversion of vehicular traffic to adjourning streets and roads.

The depositors, who are majorly youths, turned down all pleas from a detachment of police and men of the Edo State Traffic Management Agency who were available to control the traffic.

Residents of Ibadan metropolis, in large numbers yesterday, stormed major roads protesting against refusal of commercial banks in the city to dispense new redesigned naira notes through the ATMs and over the counter.

The protest which began peacefully at Agodi-Gate axis turned violent in some parts with the burning of a police station and destruction of public utilities.

When the protesters stormed the Oyo State Secretariat, Agodi, a police officer attached to the Governor’s office was injured during an attack.

The protesters who came with sticks, woods, broken bottles and other dangerous weapons forced the two main gates of the Secretariat open making the security operatives on ground to run for their lives.

However, an unconfirmed report said the police station at Agodi-Gate was set on fire, after a confrontation with officers of Operation Burst.

In most areas, roads were blocked while tyres were set on fire with thick smoke all over the sky.

In some areas, angry protesters resorted to molesting harmless passersby and extorting money from them.

The situation thus forced many banks to hurriedly shut down operations in the city.

There were reports that some banks were attacked by the protesters who were said to have damaged some of the ATMs. Most major roads in Ibadan were deserted, while people were seen with green leaves trekking long distances.

Armed policemen in their patrol vehicles were stationed along the road to prevent breakdown of law and order.

Areas mostly affected by the protest included Agodi Gate, Idi Ape, Iwo Road, Mokola, Dugbe and Monatan.

In October 2022, Emefiele announced the plan to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, and asked Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023 when they would cease to be legal tender.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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NEWS

News Editor Charles Ajunwa 09157401421 (sms only) Email charles.ajunwa@thisdaylive.com

Terrorists Assassinate Imo State Customary Court Judge Amby Uneze in Owerri Again, terrorists on Thursday assassinated a Customary Court Magistrate, Nnaemeka Ugboma while presiding at the Ejemekwuru Customary Court in the Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.

The situation which kept the community in a fearful mood happened when terrorists who came on motorcycles invaded the courtroom, dragged the Magistrate out and shot him dead.

Information has it that the killing of the Magistrate caused confusion as litigants, court staff and even residents fled the community in fear of the unknown.

Sources indicate that the slain Magistrate was a Law graduate of 1991 set and hailed from Nnebukwu community in the Oguta Local Government Area of the state.

“He was killed while presiding over a court session by gunmen who operated in motorcycles.

Nobody knew they were killers.

“His killers came with motorcycles. They came into the court, dragged him out and shot him dead and drove off. ”His corpse was left there as people in the court premises fled.

The whole thing is confusing because nobody knew any reason

while they killed him. He was from Nnebukwu community in Oguta LGA here.”

A colleague of the victim, Emperor Iwuala who confirmed the killing in a brief statement he issued on Friday wrote “my learned brother

His Lorship Nnaemeka Ugboma Chairman (Judge) Customary Court Ejemekwuru Oguta LGA Imo State was shot dead yesterday in court by yet-to-be identified persons. We are indeed in a perilous time.”

When contacted, the Chair-

man of the Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ugochukwu Allinor, confirmed the killing.

The state Spokesperson for the Police, Henry Okoye, is yet to confirm the incident as effort to reach him was not successful.

FG Drops Plan to Reduce Numbers of Diplomatic Missions Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The federal government has backed down from a move to review the number of foreign missions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this at the 22nd edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023) in Abuja.

The federal government had in October last year, inaugurated a 13-man presidential committee, headed by Ambassador Martin Uhomoibi, to review the number of the country’s diplomatic missions worldwide and their level of chronic indebtedness.

But Onyeama said pruning down the number of foreign missions could undermine Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council as well as create challenges of reimbursing local workers affected by any lay off.

He said reducing the size of the foreign missions is not an option as many Nigerian citizens, who transact business in different countries will also require consular support and assistance.

“We do want to rationalise but in a true challenge, we are a major power in Africa who aspires to the Security Council membership. Nigeria is looked upon as the biggest in Africa, so we must have a wide pres-

ence in a number of countries,” Onyeama said.

He warned it would cost millions of dollars to close down one mission in one country and pay off the local staff because of extant local laws on pensions and other things.

While providing comparison of other African states in support of his argument, Onyeama said South Africa has 103 embassies, 96 consulates, similar to Nigeria that has -110foreignmissions,whileEgypthas 125embassiesand30consulates,Algeria 96 and Morocco 97 embassies.

“And as I said when they talk about which African country will be a permanent seat, we insist it has to be Nigeria,butyouhavetobepresentand showyoudeservetobeleadingAfrica and you can’t sit back and expect to have result.”

He also justified the 51 foreign trips embarkeduponbyPresidentMuhammaduBuharisince2015,sayinghehad used those visits to engage with other leaders and maintain confidence.

“InJapanwemetwithPresidentof Toyota, who said they were going to establishaplantinGhana.ButPresident Buhari objected, saying Nigeria is a country of 200 million people and Ghana is a country of 20 million people and questioned the logic of selling vehicles to Nigeria from Ghana? Now Japanese government has taken that on board, and they are trying to work it out,” Onyeama said.

Marwa to Religious Leaders: Make Anti-drug Abuse Messages Constant in Your Sermons Michael Olugbode in Abuja Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) has charged religious bodies and other faith-based organisations to make the campaign against drug abuse a constant feature in their sermons and evangelical activities to save millions of Nigerian youths afflicted by the menace of substance abuse and prevent many others from slipping into the scourge.

Marwa, gave the charge when he received a delegation from the Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah, JIBWIS, led by its Chairman Sheik Abdullahi Bala Lau, at the agency’s national headquarters in Abuja.

The NDLEA boss, while appreciating the JIBWIBS leadership for their advocacy

campaigns against drug abuse through their various platforms, said millions of young Nigerians are already grappling with substance abuse and its consequences, and as such every stakeholder is needed to mobilise preventive measures that will save those not yet afflicted by the scourge.

He said: “I will like to seize this medium to appeal to our religious bodies, the two major faiths and other faith based organisations to join this effort being coordinated by NDLEA and ensure that anti-drug abuse messages feature constantly in their sermons and other evangelical activities.”

He expressed happiness about JIBWIS decision to establish a rehabilitation centre in Kaduna.

“We’re glad about your choice of Kaduna because Governor Nasir el-Rufai is passionate about the drug war and has done a lot to transform the state,” he added.

ACCEPT OUR SYMPATHIES… L-R: Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Nasarawa State Governor, Abdulahi Sule and their Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun, during a condolence visit to the Governor of Nasarawa on the sudden demise of his son, Hassan Sule...yesterday.

PDP Alleges Plots by Tinubu to Incite Nigerians, Disrupt Elections APC berates Atiku for ‘maintaining opportunistic silence on Naira sabotage’ Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation has alleged that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of sending his campaign officials to unleash hate speech against prominent leaders in the North and other parts of the country in a desperate bid to incite Nigerians, cause insurrection and disrupt the 2023 general election.

But in a swift reaction, the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the current sabotage of the Naira notes swap and fuel scarcity that have caused untold hardship to millions of Nigerians across the country revealed the true character of the presidential can-

didate of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, as public enemy number one.

The Spokesperson of Atiku/ Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement issued yesterday decried how notable arrowheads and supporters of the Tinubu/ Shettima Campaign have been moving around various media houses to spew hate speeches and promote blackmailing narratives apparently with the view to undermining national unity and derailing the electoral process.

He said Tinubu, who was heavily agonised by his looming defeat in the 2023 general election, having been rejected by Nigerians, has now resorted to incendiary statements as well as deploying top members of his campaign, including a serving governor, to insult and condemn

prominent Nigerian leaders as a ploy to trigger crisis in the polity.

The PDP campaign further alleged that such top officials of the Tinubu Campaign are also reportedly instructed to attack peaceful and well-meaning Nigerians, issue threats, incite mob actions, promote riots and violence in various parts of the country in furtherance of Tinubu’s unrelenting incitement to his followers to deploy violence, fight and snatch power by all means.

Ologbondiyan recalled how Tinubu recently in London declared to his followers that: “political power is not going to be served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all costs; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.”

He also recalled how Tinubu during an APC campaign rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, made very wild allegations, inciting his followers to see the February 25, presidential election as a “revolution”.

Ologbondiyan noted: “It is therefore not in doubt that having failed in every parameter of assessing a credible presidential candidate and having realised that he cannot win in the election, the APC presidential candidate is desperately seeking to cause anarchy, mayhem, bloodletting, violence and a forcible overthrow of our democratic system not minding the lives and safety of millions of Nigerians.

“It is clear that Tinubu is pathetically being driven by an entitlement mentality, and as such, he does not care about the unity of our country.

Ohinoyi of Ebira Land, Governor Bello Settle Rift Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja In bid to ensure peace, love and tranquility in Ebiraland, the Paramount Traditional Ruler and the Vice President of Kogi State Traditional Rulers Council, Dr. Ado Ibrahim, has finally settled rifts between him and the Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.

The peace meeting took place at the burial of the late Tafida of Ebira land, Dr. Abdulazeez Umar Farooq, with the paramount traditional ruler promising to accompany and support every step so far taken by the governor in the interest of the Ebira nation.

The monarch assured of his support for all the programmes and policies of the Governor

Bello’s administration, promising to work harmoniously with him in the interest of the Ebira nation.

In his remarks, Governor Bello assured that till the expiration of his administration, this will be the last time a rift will ensue between him and the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland.

Governor Yahaya Bello described the death of the renowned medical practitioner and pharmaceutical manufacturer, Dr. Abdulazeez Umar Farooq as a huge loss to Ebiraland, Kogi State and the nation as a whole.

The governor made the statement in Okene during the Islamic burial rites for the remains of the late Abdulazeez.

Bello described the late Royal

College of Surgeons’ trained medical expert as a man who lived his life for humanity and the service of God. “The death of Adayi Dr. Abdulazeez Umar Farouq is a huge loss to me and the nation at large. But from God we come and to Him we shall all return.

He taught us many things in life and thank God for what we have learnt from him over the years. We have learnt a lot from His sense of responsibility, firmness, astute leadership style and good management of human and material resources. He has accomplished his mission on earth and has returned to his maker today but his obvious love

for God which has been expressed in his good habit cultivated over time remains a source of inspiration to all of us.”

The governor extolled the virtue of late Farooq as a “humble, peaceloving statesman with a legendary commitment to excellence and an earnest desire to do right in all things, a feat that qualified him for leadership at different stages of life.”

While comforting the immediate family of the deceased to accept the death as an inevitable circumstance, the governor prayed for the peaceful repose of the soul of the deceased.

Dr. Farooq passed on at the age of 84 on Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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NEWS Terrorists Ambush Vigilantes in Katsina, Kill 44 Francis Sardauna in Katsina Terrorists have killed no fewer than 44 vigilantes in an ambush while on distress call in Gidan Gamji Village, Danmaidaki Ward of Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.

Locals had reported at the vigilante office in Bakori that

some terrorists attacked the residence of one Muntari and rustled unspecified numbers of domestic animals, a development which prompted the victims to trace the hoodlums to Gidan Gambo Village in Kankara.

Unknown to the slain vigilantes, residents said, some terrorists’ informants in communities

Tinubu: Naira Hoarders Plotting Interim Government All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday alleged that fifth columnists behind the current nationwide fuel and new Naira notes scarcity want to foist a political crisis on the country.

Speaking at Ekiti Parapo Pavilion in Ado-Ekiti, venue of the presidential campaign rally, Tinubu said the people behind the crisis that is causing nationwide frustration and hardship to Nigerians want to spark turmoil that can lead to postponement of the general elections.

“They are hoarding Naira so that you can be angry and fight.

They want confusion so that the election can be postponed. What they want is an interim government. But we are wiser than them.

We will not fight. Any rat that eats the rat poison will end up killing itself.”

The former Lagos State governor told the people that he is in the presidential race to better their lives.

“I am in the race for the betterment of the people. If it is what I will eat and what I need personally, God has provided for me. I am in this race to make life good and better for you too.

“Ekiti people are well educated people. They are well read; they don’t joke with education. But it is not good to finish schooling and not get a job. So, we shall provide jobs for you.

“On that day, we will trek to the polling booths to cast our votes. Your polling booths are not far from where you live. So, you should walk down to cast your votes,” Tinubu told his supporters.

Rallying the people of Ekiti to hope for a better and happy life in his prepared speech, Tinubu said he believes every Nigerian is entitled to live a life of dignity.

“I believe each and every Nigerian is entitled to a life of dignity and happiness free from the fear of hunger, poverty, violence and hopelessness. I believe we can do better as a nation. I believe we must do better. History calls.

Destiny Calls. Greatness calls.

“I came here today to offer you my best and assure you that I will always work for you. Take a look at my plan and ideas for the nation.

You will like them because they were developed out of concern and hope for your welfare and for your future.

“Parents, don’t you want your children to enjoy a better life.

Young people, don’t you want a nation where you can realise your dreams and also be able to care for your parents, yet nurture and have children of your own?

“Join us, elect us so that the government will work to ensure that you have decent jobs, that farmers make a good living, that enough schools and clinics exist. We will expand industry, assure your peace and safety, make sure that our nation is well fed and without hunger and we shall renew your hope in Nigeria and in your future.”

Speaking on his plans for Ekiti State, Tinubu promised to focus on development of the agricultural sector, employing modern and mechanised farming.

He also promised to make the state an exportation hub for its agricultural products, bringing more revenue to the state.

“My farm policy will establish commodity exchange boards guaranteeing prices for important crops so that you are ensured a decent living for your hard work. Our Agricultural Plan calls for agricultural hubs and improves access to finance.

Glo, Samsung Delight Customers With Exclusive Galaxy S-23 Offer Foremost Digital Services Company, Globacom, and world’s leading manufacturers of electronic devices Samsung, bring an exclusive offer for Glo subscribers to own the much sought after Galaxy S-23 smartphone.

According to the offer, only Glo subscribers will benefit from the exclusive offer, while Samsung will continue to have #patronage by millions of Glo customers.

“For the first time in Nigeria, we are bringing exclusive offer for Glo customers & lovers of classy and hi-tech phones with Samsung Galaxy S-23. Globacom is fully committed to innovative and bring value adding services that provide immense benefits for our subscribers,” Globacom said in a statement.

Highlight of the offer include extended pre-order window up to February 23, 2023, for Glo subscribers who wish to purchase the device and also exclusive customised packaging only for Glo customers.

In addition, Glo customers can also trade-in their old devices on purchase of the new Samsung Galaxy S-23 Series with a discount.

“Pre-ordering starts from 10p.m., February 1, 2023, at all Gloworld shops across Nigeria.

The offer includes Eco package which comes with Samsung S-23, Samsung smartwatch5 pro and Pre order gift, while Only Device package comes with Samsung S-23 and a Pre-order gift,” the statement added.

bordering Bakori and Kankara local governments alerted them that the vigilantes were tracing them, the development that led to their ambush by the terrorists.

A resident of Kankara, Abba Usman, told THISDAY in a telephone interview yesterday that the terrorists operated concurrently between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in several villages of the two local governments.

He said: “They (terrorists) attacked the residence of one Muntari in Bakori town last Wednesday night and rustled hundreds of his domestic animals. Following the development, some local vigilantes organised themselves the next day (Thursday) and traced the terrorists to Gidan Gamji Village where they

engaged them in a gun battle.

“Sadly, the terrorists killed 44 of them (vigilantes) and injured many others who are currently receiving treatment at different hospitals in Bakori and Kankara. As we speak, we recovered 44 dead bodies so far and search parties, including soldiers and policemen are in the forest searching for more bodies.”

But the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isah, while confirming the incident to journalists in a statement, said those killed were members of the outlawed Yansakai (volunteers) group from 11 villages in Bakori Local Government.

He said: “On Wednesday, 1/02/2023 at about 2200hrs, terrorists in their numbers,

shooting sporadically with AK47 rifles, attacked the house of one Alhaji Muntari, at Unguwar Audu Gare, Kandarawa, Bakori LGA, and rustled fifty (50) cows and thirty (30) sheep.

“Subsequently, on Thursday, 2/02/2023, at about 10:00hrs, Yansakai outlawed group, from eleven (11) villages from Bakori LGA, regrouped and went after the terrorists with a view to recovering the rustled domestic animals. They traced the footpath of the hoodlums to a location at Yargoje Forest.

“Unfortunately, the terrorists planned and launched a coordinated ambush on the Yansakai. The hoodlums shot and killed forty-one (41) Yansakai and wounded two (2).

“Area Commander, Malumfashi, led a team of Policemen

to the scene and recovered the corpses and injured to Kankara General Hospital.

A joint security operation is currently ongoing with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book. Investigation is ongoing, please”.

Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Bello Masari has directed for the inauguration of a panel of inquiry in order to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the incident to enable the government to take precautionary measures.

Masari’s Special Adviser on Security Matter, Mr. Ibrahim Ahmed Katsina, who disclosed this while briefing journalists on the incident, said the state government would also distribute relief materials to families of the victims.

GOOD PARTNERSHIPS. . .

L-R: Group Managing Director/CEO, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Oliver Alawuba and the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, during a business visit by UBA to the Governor in Awka, Anambra State...yesterday.

N13bn Judgement Debt: GTBank Takes Possession of Stallion Nigeria’s Wale Igbintade In a bid to recover a N13 billion judgement debt granted by a Federal High Court, in Lagos, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) has taken possession of the assets of Stallion Nigeria Limited in Lagos and its sister firms.

Possession was taken through the receiver/manager appointed

by GTBank, Mr. Temilolu Adamolekun.

Adamolekun took possession of the assets of Stallion Nigeria Limited in Lagos and its sister firms following suit number FHC/L/ CS/2/47/2019 filed against Stallion Nigeria Limited before the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The brands of vehicles recovered from the premises included Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Volkswagen, Skoda, Hyundai, and Hyundai among others.

Scores Wounded As Army, UNIBEN Students Clash Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Hell was let loose in Benin City, capital of Edo State as some soldiers attached to the S&T Barracks Ugbowo allegedly invaded the University of Benin, caused disruption and assaulted staff and students of the university.

The incident took place at one of the school’s Operated Automated Machines (ATM), which resulted in scores of students being wounded and several vehicles damaged in the melee.

In the process, one of soldiers narrowly escaped being lynching but for the intervention by members of the public.

The soldiers, according to eyewitnesses, who spoke, were said to have had an altercation

with the students when they forcefully overtook students on queue whose turn it was to withdraw from the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), owned by one of the banks at the university premises.

Trouble, according to the source, broke when the students who had queued for the withdrawal resisted the soldiers from jumping the queue to withdraw at the expense of the students who had stayed for hours to get paid.

It was said that the soldiers had on Wednesday, approached the ATM and wanted to repeat the same on Thursday when the students asked them to queue up if they were to withdraw from the Point of Sale Machines.

On December 2, 2019, the court granted the receiver/manager leave to take possession of the assets of Stallion and the landed properties of its sister firms in line with the Deed of All Assets, Debenture, and several Deeds of Legal Mortgage.

According to court documents, this followed Stallion Nigeria’s default in meeting its repayment obligations to GTBank.

The Receiver/Manager’s officials

and court bailiffs, protected by policemen, took over the firm’s Victoria Island office and showroom containing several exotic automobiles.

Adamolekun said: “Subsequent to the Receiver taking possession of the assets, parties met, agreed to Terms of Settlement and consequently entered same as Consent Judgment on the 17th of December, 2019.

2023 Elections: FG Urges Google, Facebook to Curb Fakes News Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has urged Google and Meta, owners of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to checkmate the spread of fake news and disinformation on their platforms ahead of the 2023 general election.

He made the call in Abuja yesterday when he met with representatives of Meta and Google, which owns YouTube and other platforms.

The minister noted that Nigeria, with a predominantly youthful population, ranks among the countries with the highest number of users of the various social media platforms, especially Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

He said they summoned the meeting because the use, or misuse of the platforms had become a great concern to all stakeholders in the elections, so they don’t become the platforms of choice for purveyors of fake news and disinformation.

According to him, the government had noticed how some unscrupulous people were using parody accounts, cloning of reputable media platforms and the use of deep fakes to carry out their nefarious activities.

“For example, candidates’ campaign speeches are doctored to portray them in bad light, video clips and pictures of campaign rallies are tampered with to make them look poorly attended; fake or unscientific opinion polls are concocted.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

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FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER

COMMENTARY

TIME TO LEASH THE SPORTS BETTING BEHEMOTH Government should protect citizens from unscrupulous sports betting operators, writes Elvis Eromosele

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lmost everyone has stories of someone who has made or lost tons of money from sports betting. A simple internet search will throw up many examples. There is the story of a popular Senior GP in the UK who was jailed three years for stealing £1.1m within a space of three weeks due to online gambling addiction. There is a block of four flats, off Ikotun Igando Road, that rumours indicate was built from the proceeds of sports betting success. The stories, whether of gain or pain, are endless.

Experts point to the increase in penetration of mobile telephony, widespread availability of broadband internet and growing global attraction of football leagues in Europe as the principal drivers of the ubiquity and adoption of sports betting across Nigeria. The engagement of popular influencers in sports betting marketing is also a factor here. Despite the deeply religious orientation of the citizens, sports betting has continued to gain ground across the length and breadth of the country.

Sports betting can be a fun and exciting form of entertainment, but it can also be addictive and potentially harmful if not approached with caution. In Nigeria, as in many other countries, sports betting has become increasingly popular in recent years, with an increasing number of online and offline betting companies offering a wide range of options for placing bets on various sports events.

The concern is that there are risks associated with sports betting, including the potential for financial losses, addiction, and other negative consequences. In Nigeria, the young and women are particularly vulnerable as the operators invade every nook and cranny without thinking about the social impact of their endeavours.

One of the main dangers of sports betting in Nigeria is the potential for financial losses. Betting in sports involves risking money on the outcome of a game or event, and it is not uncommon for people to lose more money than they can afford. Families have starved, children have had to stop schooling with many homes broken because of the financial losses occasioned by sports betting.

Another risk is the potential for addiction. Some people may become so engrossed in sports betting that they neglect their personal and professional responsibilities. It can lead to problems such as neglect of family and work and even criminal activity in some cases. Experts concede that gambling is addictive. Sports betting, in all its forms, is gambling. It follows that sports betting is addictive, contrary to what operators may try to portray.

In addition, the issue of underage gambling through sports betting deserves special attention due to the potential harm it can cause to minors, including addiction. Sadly, today minors can access sports betting facilities without any encumbrance.

It is clear that to truly minimize the risks associated with sports betting in Nigeria, it is important to adopt a holistic approach. Yes, individuals engaging in sports betting must take responsibility for themselves and their families and know to proceed with caution and set limits for themselves. People must set a budget for how much money they are willing to risk, only betting with money that they can afford to lose, and be willing to seek help if they feel that their betting habits are becoming a problem.

SPORTS BETTING CAN BE A FUN AND EXCITING FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE ADDICTIVE AND POTENTIALLY HARMFUL IF NOT APPROACHED WITH CAUTION

But the government must also take a more hands-on role in regulation, granting permits and protecting the citizens from unscrupulous sports betting operators.

Operators, naturally, are quick to point out that sports betting creates jobs. They point to the myriad of betting shop outlets across the country in addition to in-house staff members to prove that they are a viable economic activity. In addition, they pay taxes. Their operations in many instances however may leave much to be desired.

At over $2 billion, the nation’s sports betting industry is today a behemoth. It must however be tamed if the country wishes to harness the benefits. Again, the onus is on the government and the regulator to rein it in before it wrecks the future of the youth.

Consider this, while sports betting is getting more and more popular, the impact on sports development is still largely negligible.

We must ask questions. Over the last decade of tremendous growth, how many new sports grounds have been built with funds from sports betting?

Can the sports betting industry point to athletes that its sponsorship has been supported and promoted? How much is paid in taxes and levies and which agency?

What is it doing to curtail the increase in underage participation in sports betting?

These are the issues. If sports betting exists only to make money for a few, fuel the gambling addiction and drive-up underage participation, it is not a business but a parasite. They, therefore, need to be tamed, their activities curtailed and their modus operandi scrutinized more closely.

The sports betting industry must demonstrate a clear commitment to sports development. It equally has to invest in measures to curb underage participation. In addition, it must pay commensurate taxes.

The National Lottery Regulatory Commission, the regulator of the sector, urgently needs to rise to its responsibility to protect society. At the very least, the commission must insist that operators implement strict age verification processes to ensure minors cannot access sports betting sites or shops and push to educate the public, especially minors, on the dangers of underage gambling through school programs, media campaigns and community outreach.

The National Assembly may also need to look at strengthening the laws prohibiting minors from engaging in gambling activities and include a provision to prosecute those who violate these laws. Security agencies must be willing to enforce the law to its full extent.

Parents equally have a responsibility to care for their wards. They need to closely monitor their children’s online activities and have open communication with them about the risks of underage gambling.

Overall, it is important to approach sports betting responsibly and to be aware of the potential pitfalls, risks and dangers and opportunities.

If the country takes the necessary precautions, sports betting can make tremendous contributions to the nation’s economy. And it may be possible that individuals can enjoy sports betting as a form of entertainment without exposing themselves to unnecessary risk.

Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos

2023 VOTE: IT’S NOW THE TURN OF A PRINCE Will history repeat itself? Banji Ojewale reflects

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ecause Nigeria has a near naughty knack for nibbling at the past, history is also going the full circle to dish us troubling traditional tricks and torments. One such is the dithering act we’re taking straight from English playwright William Shakespeare’s historical classic, Hamlet, as the ballot day approaches.

The tragic hero, Prince Hamlet, isn’t sure which path to pick at a crossroads, the same way Nigeria and her citizens seem to be uncertain about the coming poll in February and March, 2023. Will the ballot hold? Or it won’t? Should it hold? Shouldn’t it?

Shakespeare’s character is held in thrall by indecision. He soliloquizes: “To be, or not to be? That is the question—Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them.”

A long tale of consuming vacillation told in 29,551 words, (Shakespeare’s longest), Hamlet is the tragedy of meandering procrastination resulting in the death of most of the actors, including the prince himself.

More than four centuries after Hamlet, a Nigeria given to seeking solace in senescent politicians and their style is sliding again into tutorials from the past. We choose our leaders from the community of the superannuated; from among those who have receded into the shadows of bygone days, those whose proper clime is history. They can’t but return us into that past, when what we need is the dynamism of the present with its foretaste of a better future. Now, they’re giving us of the dilatory language of Hamlet.

Some citizens are singing the old, unhelpful and fatal To-be-or-not-to-be sing-song of Shakespeare’s actor. We’ve dredged Hamlet from the past as we usually fetch relics to reorient us when we wobble.

So, despite the claim of Bola Tinubu, one of the presidential poll aspirants, that it’s his turn to occupy Aso Villa, Hamlet, a man residing in the past like him, is insisting that it’s really his turn to occupy Nigeria’s political territory. He has brought in the wavering act…To be or not to be? To hold the poll or not to?

We’re throwing ourselves in the same boat that shipwrecked him. He lingered in decisiontaking after inconclusive introspection and paid dearly for it. Some of us are also putting forth an unsure stand suggesting we shelve the poll or put it off until we restructure the federation. They’re citing nationwide insecurity and inadequate preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It was the poll umpire that sparked this ambience of prevarication. INEC’s training institute said the ballot might not be a reality if some conditions were not met. Chairman of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, said: “If … insecurity is not monitored and dealt with decisively, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder declaration of election results and precipitate constitutional crisis.”

Many interpreted the statement as a ploy to test the waters. But for it not to build up into a flood sweeping us off our feet, Lai Mohammed, Information and Culture Minister,

who had been away from the scene for some time, surfaced suddenly to dismiss the idea of delaying the election day. His assurance: “Let me use this opportunity to respond to inquiries from the media over a widely-circulated report, credited to an INEC official, that the 2023 general elections face a serious threat of cancellation due to insecurity. The position of the federal government remains that the 2023 elections will be held as planned. Nothing has happened to change that position.”

Nothing has also happened to change the position of Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and university founder. On several occasions he has championed poll shift to make way for an interim contraption to last six months. During the hiatus, he argues, a “new course for Nigeria” will be worked out.”

Babalola says “any election that holds under the present… (1999 Constitution foisted on Nigeria by the military)…will end up producing transactional and recycled leaders, with no ability to turn (us) around.”

It’s been an unending game played between those who want the poll held, regardless of the gathering clouds of insecurity, and those who seek a ballot postponement over fears that the overhanging pall might release a cataclysmic downpour on polling day. Nigerians have had to put up with ballot day alterations in the recent past: 2011, 2015 and 2019. The reasons ranged from insurgency to logistical hitches.

We were, however, spared grave impact in the system, nor was there any consequential constitutional crisis. The waiting periods hardly left a permanent dent on the polity.

It wasn’t so in an earlier era, during the medieval ages of our history. At that time, there arose a man, a billionaire, called Francis Arthur Nzeribe, who sought to decapitate the 1993 electoral process. Riding in a locallymade jalopy he called Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), Nzeribe didn’t simply look for a postponement of the make-or-mar ballot.

Waving a clandestine court order his ABN got from a midnight ruling by Justice Bassey Ikpeme on June 10, 1993, Nzeribe called for the outright cancellation of a poll only two days away. He failed; but he had his way in the long run because, although the ballot took place as scheduled, its outcome promising a new dawn was nullified. It amounted to what ABN requested. The country hasn’t recovered its composure since. No other election, thereafter, has offered our land greater prospects, despite the presentation by the victorious party of a Muslim presidential candidate with a running mate of the same faith.

Now 30 years after, we’re at the threshold of another crucial plebiscite. And the past is playing old sardonic games. There’s a Hamlet from a historical drama bringing us his singsong of To-be-or-not-to-be. He says it’s his turn to play the Pied Piper of Hamelin, effectively displacing the presidential candidate who had swamped the space with a tune of entitlement.

While these bygone ages are obtrusively at work in the present, our unceasing prayer should be that their pregnant belly does not deliver an abiku pair of Francis Arthur Nzeribe and ABN. Ojewale writes from Ota, Ogun State

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FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER

INSIGHT

Stylish...

Why Has Life Become So Cheap in Nigeria?

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stanch the bleeding of the hearts of all those who have lost loved ones to here should people start from in Nigeria? From where exactly are the explosions, it is time Nigerians began to receive some explanation about people expected to pick up the pieces when entirely avoidable why they drop dead like flies in their own country again and again. tragedies bring with them a truckload of pain, anguish and loss?

Nigerians deserve to know why life has become so cheap in a country At what point do people step beyond their threshold having which has everything to make life not only safe but worth living. had enough? Just when should a people who seem to have bottomless People should not be attacked and dropped so frequently an in the fortitude finally say they have had enough? country as randomly as if the country is fighting an all-out war. People Of course, at the end of many ponderous days, the recent airstrikes should not have to live under the suffocating cloud of insecurity and which killed more than 40 people in the Doma Local Government area uncertainty that has become the lot of many Nigerians in recent times. of Nasarawa State will be put down to a deadly accident, another deadly It all boils down to leadership at the end of the day, to how a country accident. That is even if desperate attempts to blame terrorists for it fail. has been run in the last decade or so since terrorism became an existential The herders were said to have been retrieving about 1,250 cattle which challenge. A lot of what has refused to change has simply refused to change had been confiscated by the Benue livestock guards while the airstrikes because those whose merry-go-round had taken them into and through the were coordinated by a drone deployed by the Nigerian Armed Forces in corridors of power in Nigeria were simply content to do the rounds even if continuing operations to flush out terrorists. things only became worse as they did.

Whatever it was, no explanation would possibly be enough for the man It is rather unfortunate that the war against terror is claiming so many who lost nine family members to the deadly airstrikes. lives at the moment. Whether it is security personnel, the terrorists In Nigeria, death is never far away. Beneath every word said about themselves or innocent civilians being killed, result is the same and the how sacred human life is here and despite everything the law supposedly conclusion inescapable that there are too many unaccountable deaths in says about how criminal it is to take human life, there is always the next Nigeria at the moment. casualty and after that, the next in the sequence of bloodletting that has left Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com a country’s hands soiled with blood.

The attacks continue in Nigeria and the bodies continue to pile up whether at the instance of state or non-state actors.

At this juncture, is safe to say that the worst Nigerians feared when Boko Haram upped the ante of its operations T H E SAT U R DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR YEMI ADEBOWALE around 2009 is gradually becoming a reality? Countless DEPUTY EDITOR AHAMEFULA OGBU Nigerians have been caught in the relentless crossfire as MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO Nigerian authorities have battled terrorists with suspect DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL IWEGBU artillery.

CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI The Nasarawa incident is certainly another black mark EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI for ordinary Nigerians in what is surely a compelling and THE OMBUDSMAN KAYODE KOMOLAFE utterly excruciating experience of what it means to be a Nigeria. For all its prodigious potential, promises and problems, Nigeria remains a country roiled by uncertainty.

A chief reason so many Nigerians cling to the crags of T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D religion with their fingertips is that they are desperately EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA unsure about what the next moment can bring in a country GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, that has experienced and experimented with all that there is ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI under the sun but one which never fails to invent new ways DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS SHAKA MOMODU, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE to shock itself senseless.

DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH The cloud of insecurity which beclouds the fleeting sense ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI of safety Nigerians feel is bared by the fact that Nigerians CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI stay in their homes and are killed; Nigerians go to their DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO farms and are killed; children go to school and are abducted; TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com people travel and never return home to their loved ones.

Although there is no explanation that can satisfactorily

How Long Does a Message Last?

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local newspaper reported on the ‘Australian of the Year’ award, given to an exceptional person who then spends the next year spreading their message or work.

Taryn Brumfitt, the 2023 recipient’s words were included in the paper on Australia Day, Jan. 26, “There is so much despair in this nation for children and adults when it comes to what we think and how we feel about our bodies.”

The message here is to value yourself and others independent of how they look and to not comment on people’s bodies, and yet the very next day, in the same paper we see “TAKE that for a revenge body. Fashionista Pip Edwards has shown ex Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke just what he is missing out on” with a photo of the woman in a bikini. The reference is to a retired sportsperson who had a public argument with his then girlfriend about a previous girlfriend.

So why is it so difficult to stop these messages of comparison and, in this case, sexism? It appears that these attitudes are embedded in society, and equality will take a long time to achieve.

The example is from Australia, but the problem is worldwide. We all need to make efforts to ensure that we are all equal despite the variations in all of our different ways, beliefs and appearances.

Listen when good people talk.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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NEWS %XKDUL 0RXUQV $LU &RPPRGRUH 'DQ 6XOHLPDQ Deji Elumoye in Abuja

AVIATION ON THEIR MINDS… Federal Ministry of Aviation Directors with the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Abubakar Sirika (sitting 4th from right ); Permanent Secretary Dr. Emmanuel C. Meribole; and Ms. Modupe Bankole; Managing Consultant, Diadems, at the signing of Performance Contracts and Ministry’s Leadership Retreat: ‘Delivering On Aviation Roadmap Through Effective Performance Management System’ ... recently

2EL :H·OO )ROORZ 'L;HUHQW 3DWK WR %XLOG D 1HZ 1LJHULD Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has said that he would take D SURJUHVVLYH SDWK GLͿHUHQW IURP the retrogressive path of the old political order, to birth a new Nigeria that would work for HYHU\ERG\ XQGHU D WUXH GHPRFUDWLF HQYLURQPHQW He stated this yesterday at a WRZQKDOO PHHWLQJ LQ 8PXDKLD Abia State capital, during which he enunciated his vision for the HPHUJHQFH RI D QHZ 1LJHULD WKDW people have been yearning for.

Obi insisted that a new Nigeria LV SRVVLEOH EXW KDV UHPDLQHG HOXVLYH EHFDXVH WKH WZR PDMRU political parties that have ruled Nigeria since 1999 lacked the vision and political will to do the right things.

“We are going to build a new Nigeria. Yes, a new Nigeria is

SRVVLEOH DQG WKDW·V ZK\ ,·P LQ the race,” he said.

However, the LP presidential ÁDJ EHDUHU VDLG WKDW 1LJHULDQV PXVW WDNH EDFN WKHLU FRXQWU\ IURP the retrogressive forces that have been clinging on to power. $FFRUGLQJ WR KLP ´LV WKH turn of Nigerians to take back their FRXQWU\µ IURP OHDGHUV JURSLQJ LQ the dark with no clue about how WKH FRXQW\ FRXOG PRYH IRUZDUG 7KH IRUPHU $QDPEUD JRYHUQRU assured Nigerians that if given the PDQGDWH RQ )HEUXDU\ KH would build a new nation that ZRXOG LQVSLUH SDWULRWLVP DQG SULGH “I will build a new Nigeria where we shall all be proud of the green passport. I will build a QHZ 1LJHULD ZKHUH ZH VKDOO PRYH IURP FRQVXPSWLRQ WR SURGXFWLRQ µ Alluding to what he described DV IDLOHG SDVW JRYHUQPHQWV RI the PDP and the present APC DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ 2EL VDLG LW ZDV WLPH IRU 1LJHULDQV WR WU\ D YLDEOH

alternative in LP. He said: “We have voted for WKH XPEUHOOD 3'3 EXW ZH GLGQ·W get any protection. We voted for WKH EURRP $3& EXW LW KDV VZHSW us into poverty and hardship. All ZH JRW IURP $3& DQG 3'3 LV KXQJHU DQG VXͿHULQJ ´1RZ LW·V WLPH WR YRWH IRU WKH IDWKHU PRWKHU DQG FKLOGUHQ /3 :KDW ZH QHHG QRZ LV WKH IDPLO\ VR WKDW ZH FDQ UHFRYHU IURP RXU falling state.”

2EL VSHFLÀFDOO\ WRRN WKH UXOLQJ to the cleaners over the present woes of Nigeria, saying that “APC has given us insecurity and hunger, IXHO VFDUFLW\ DQG $688 VWULNH 1R state in Nigeria is safe again.”

But he stated that “if given the opportunity, I will restructure the entire security architecture of Nigeria to provide security for all citizens.”

The Labour Party presidential KRSHIXO DOVR SURPLVHG WR FRQVLJQ to history the incessant strikes in

WKH XQLYHUVLW\ V\VWHP VD\LQJ WKDW under his watch Nigeria will be restructured to work for its citizens.

He said that Nigerians would PDVVLYHO\ YRWH IRU KLP EDVHG RQ KLV SURYHQ FRPSHWHQFH DQG national appeal and not because RI ZKHUH KH FRPHV IURP YRZLQJ WKDW KH ZRXOG UXQ D JRYHUQPHQW WKDW ZRXOG QRW GLVFULPLQDWH DJDLQVW any part of Nigeria. ´,·P QRW JRLQJ WR ZLQ EHFDXVH ,·P IURP 6RXWK HDVW EXW EHFDXVH ,·P FRPSHWHQW DQG UHDG\ WR EXLOG D QHZ 1LJHULD ,·P SUHSDUHG WR lead Nigeria out of poverty to greatness. I have done it before LQ $QDPEUD , ZLOO UHSOLFDWH WKH feat in the entire country if you JLYH PH D FKDQFH µ KH VDLG The LP presidential standard bearer further pledged to ban LVK WULEDOLVP DQG LQMXVWLFH IURP QDWLRQDO DͿDLUV DQG HQJHQGHU D new nation where every citizen would have a sense of belonging irrespective of faith and creed.

6RXWKHUQ 0LGGOH %HOW /HDGHUV 5HMHFW ,QWHULP *RYHUQPHQW Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The leaders under the aus pices of Southern and Middle Leaders of the various %HOW /HDGHUV )RUXP VWDWHG WKLV ethnic groups in four of the six LQ D FRPPXQLTXH LVVXHG DW geopolitiwcal zones of Nigeria the end of their extraordinary have vowed to resist any plans PHHWLQJ KHOG LQ $EXMD DQG WR VFXWWOH WKH IRUWKFRPLQJ PDGH DYDLODEOH WR 7+,6'$< yesterday. general election.

7KH 60%/)·V SRLQW They also warned those SODQQLQJ WR LPSRVH DQ LQWHULP FRPPXQLTXH ZDV VLJQHG JRYHUQPHQW RQ 1LJHULDQV WR E\ LWV /HDGHUV &KLHI (GZLQ Kiagbodo Clark, Chief Ayo bury the idea.

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%HQXH 6WDWH *RYHUQRU 6DPXHO 2UWRP KDV GLVFORVHG WKDW KLV OLIH LV LQ GDQJHU DOOHJLQJ WKDW SURPLQHQW )XODQLV DQG WKH GHSRVHG (PLU RI .DQR /DPLGR 6DQXVL LV LQFLWLQJ D IDFHOHVV JURXS WR HOLPLQDWH KLP 2UWRP ZKR VWDWHG WKLV DW D world press conference he held LQ %HQXH *RYHUQPHQW +RXVH Makurdi, on Thursday, was UHVSRQGLQJ WR D ´ZULWH XS VLJQHG E\ SHUVRQDOLWLHV RI )XODQL extraction led by the deposed (PLU RI .DQR /DPLGR 6DQXVL LQ IRUP RI D OHWWHU WR 0U 3UHVLGHQW LQ ZKLFK WKH\ DFFXVHG KLP RI EHLQJ responsible for the recent killing RI VRPH SDVWRUDOLVWV DW $NZDQDMD 'RPD /RFDO *RYHUQPHQW $UHD RI 1DVDUDZD 6WDWH YLD D ERPE

attack.

The governor said in a desper DWH DWWHPSW WR VHW KLP XS IRU hatred, vilification and attacks, the group which refused to give LWVHOI D QDPH WULHG WR OLQN WKH Benue State Livestock Guards ZLWK WKH NLOOLQJV FODLPLQJ WKDW WKH SDVWRUDOLVWV ZHUH ERPEHG RQ WKHLU ZD\ IURP %HQXH WR 1DVDUDZD after they had retrieved their cattles. ´7KH JURXS PDOLFLRXVO\ DFFXVHG PH RI FDUU\LQJ RXW JHQRFLGH against pastoralists. The dethroned (PLU 6DQXVL GLG QRW VWRS DW WKDW +H PDGH D YLGHR LQ +DXVD LQ ZKLFK KH PDOLJQHG PH DQG FDOOHG RQ DOO )XODQLV WR FRQVLGHU PH DV WKHLU HQHP\ ZKLOH XUJLQJ WKRVH LQ %HQXH 6WDWH WR YRWH DJDLQVW PH GXULQJ WKH FRPLQJ HOHFWLRQV µ

riders in a road show across Lagos State, in expression of WKHLU VXSSRUW IRU WKH UH HOHFWLRQ RI *RYHUQRU %DEDMLGH 6DQZR 2OX 7KH JURXS PDGH XS RI LQGLYLGX DOV IURP GLͿHUHQW ZDONV RI OLIH LV D SULYDWH HQGHDYRXU FDPSDLJQLQJ IRU WKH UH HOHFWLRQ RI *RYHUQRU 6DQZR 2OX DQG WKH DFWXDOLVDWLRQ of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, $VLZDMX %ROD 7LQXEX 'LUHFWRU RI 7HDP 3UDGR $G HWRNXQER $MHWXQPREL H[SUHVVHG FRQÀGHQFH LQ WKH FDQGLGDF\ RI 6DQZR 2OX XUJLQJ /DJRVLDQV WR FRPH RXW HQ PDVVH WR FDVW WKHLU YRWHV IRU KLP He stated that the ‘Sanwo $JDLQ· SURMHFW LV D WDVN WKDW PXVW be delivered considering the LPSUHVVLYH ÀUVW WHUP SHUIRUPDQFH

LQ SODFH D QXPEHU RI SODWIRUPV WR VKRZFDVH WKH DFKLHYHPHQWV RI WKH LQFXPEHQW LQ WKH ODVW IRXU years and we have also organised VHYHUDO LQLWLDWLYHV DQG SURJUDPPHV WR HOHYDWH WKH JRYHUQRU·V SURÀOH DV ZHOO DV SURPRWLQJ WKH WUDFN record of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate,” $MHWXQPREL VDLG 7KH URDGVKRZ featured hundreds of dispatch ULGHUV ZKR VWRUPHG VWUDWHJLF streets in Lagos to canvas votes for the governor.

In addition to the roadshow, $MHWXQPREL GLVFORVHG WKDW the group is investing a lot of UHVRXUFHV DQG WLPH LQ WKH XVH RI VPDUW WHFKQRORJLFDO LGHDV DV ZHOO DV HPSOR\LQJ JUDVVURRWV FDPSDLJQ VWUDWHJ\ RI WDNLQJ WKH FDPSDLJQV to the doorstep of every Lagosian.

3UHVLGHQW 0XKDPPDGX %XKDUL KDV FRPPLVHUDWHG ZLWK WKH IDPLO\ RI HOGHU VWDWHVPDQ $LU &RPPRGRUH 'DQ 6XOHLPDQ (rtd), who recently passed on.

5HFDOOLQJ WKH OLIH DQG WLPHV RI WKH UHWLUHG PLOLWDU\ PDQ President Buhari, in a press release issued yesterday by presidential spokesperson, 0DOODP *DUED 6KHKX QRWHG WKDW ´WKH ODWH $LU &RPPRGRUH 'DQ 6XOHLPDQ ZKR VHUYHG DV a Military Governor in Plateau State was one soldier that lived the oath, always ready to defend the unity and peace of the country in whatever capacity

KH IRXQG KLPVHOI µ 7KH 3UHVLGHQW UHPDUNHG WKDW DIWHU KLV H[LW IURP WKH 0LOLWDU\ WKH $LU &RPPRGRUH FRQWLQXHG to defend Nigerian citizens as an activist, noting that he was one of the founding fathers of the 1DWLRQDO 'HPRFUDWLF &RDOLWLRQ 1$'(&2 WKDW IRXJKW IRU WKH UHYDOLGDWLRQ RI WKH -XQH elections, as well as the return RI WKH FRXQWU\ WR GHPRFUDWLF governance.

President Buhari, therefore, SUD\HG WKDW *RG $OPLJKW\ ZLOO VWUHQJWKHQ KLV IDPLO\ DQG friends as well as the Middle %HOW )RUXP 0%) ZKLFK KH once chaired, and repose the soul of the departed.

%XKDUL -RQDWKDQ $WLNX 7LQXEX 2EL 2WKHUV WR $WWHQG ¶'D\ RI 7ULEXWH· IRU $PHFKL LQ $EXMD Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja 3UHVLGHQW 0XKDPPDGX %XKDUL IRUPHU 3UHVLGHQW Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, his 3HRSOHV 'HPRFUDWLF 3DUW\ (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of /DERXU 3DUW\ /3 DUH DPRQJ other dignitaries expected to attend the ‘Day of Tribute’ of D IRUHPRVW VWDWHVPDQ DQG RQH RI WKH ODVW UHPDLQLQJ IDWKHUV RI Nigeria’s independence, late &KLHI 0ED]XOLNH $PHFKL $PHFKL ZKR ZDV 1LJHULD·V Minister of Aviation in the )LUVW 5HSXEOLF DQG IRUPHU SDUOLDPHQWDULDQ GLHG RQ VW RI 1RYHPEHU His burial is slated for 16th )HEUXDU\ DW 8NSRU 1QHZL

6RXWK /RFDO *RYHUQPHQW $UHD RI $QDPEUD 6WDWH Also expected at the event, which is slated to hold on 7XHVGD\ )HEUXDU\ at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua &HQWUH $EXMD LV WKH 9LFH 3UHVLGHQW 3URIHVVRU <HPL 2VLQEDMR )RUPHU 3UHVLGHQW -RQDWKDQ will chair the occasion, while the Senate President, Dr. $KPHG /DZDQ DQG 6SHDNHU RI WKH +RXVH RI 5HSUHVHQWDWLYHV +RQ )HPL *EDMDELDPLOD DUH the Special Guests of Honour.

7KH &KDLUPDQ RI WKH 3ODQ QLQJ &RPPLWWHH RI WKH ¶'D\ of Tribute’ Senator Ben Obi. 6WDWH JRYHUQRUV PLQLVWHUV SDUW\ FKLHIWDLQV DQG PHPEHUV RI WKH GLSORPDW FRPPXQLW\ have already indicated their interest in attending the SURJUDPPH ELOOHG IRU QRRQ

5HPDLQLQJ )RXU 6FKRRO &KLOGUHQ $EGXFWHG LQ 1DVDUDZD 5HVFXHG Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia 7KH UHPDLQLQJ IRXU SULPDU\ school children abducted by JXQPHQ DW /($ 3ULPDU\ 6FKRRO $OZD]D LQ 'RPD /RFDO *RYHUQ PHQW $UHD RI 1DVDUDZD 6WDWH KDYH been rescued. $ GHWDFKPHQW RI MRLQW VHFXULW\ operatives in collaboration with KXQWHUV UHVFXHG WKH UHPDLQLQJ IRXU SXSLOV DW 'RND 9LOODJH LQ 'RPD /*$ RI 1DVDUDZD 6WDWH The four pupils were abducted RQ -DQXDU\ DW WKH /($ 3ULPDU\ 6FKRRO $OZD]D The Nasarawa State Police

&RPPDQG LQ FROODERUDWLRQ with sister security agencies had UHVFXHG WZR IHPDOHV DPRQJ WKH six pupils that were abducted at WKH /($ 3ULPDU\ 6FKRRO $OZD]D ZKR LQFOXGHG 9LVLRQ 8PEXJDGX -XGJH DQG 3HDFH $PRV 7KH UHVFXH RI WKH UHPDLQLQJ IRXU SXSLOV RI WKH /($ 3ULPDU\ School, Alwaza, was contained in a VWDWHPHQW LVVXHG E\ WKH 1DVDUDZD 6WDWH 3ROLFH &RPPDQG 3XEOLF 5HODWLRQV 2IILFHU '63 5DPKDQ 1DQVHO '63 1DQVHO JDYH QDPHV RI WKH UHPDLQLQJ IRXU SXSLOV UHVFXHG DV $ZD]L (PPDQXHO 6XFFHVV 2JDK 'RPLQLRQ $OKDML

3KDUPDFLVWV 'HPDQG 1+,$ $GKHUH WR 1HZ 361 $FW 3KDUPDFLVWV XQGHU WKH aegis of the Association of &RPPXQLW\ 3KDUPDFLVWV RI Nigeria (ACPN) have called on the National Health Insurance $XWKRULW\ 1+,$ WR HPEUDFH changes in the practice of SKDUPDF\ LQ 1LJHULD LQ LWV control of health insurance DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ DW DOO OHYHOV LQ the country.

ACPN told the Director General of National Health Insurance Authority, Prof.

0RKDPPHG 1DVLU 6DPER WKDW D QHZ 3KDUPDF\ &RXQFLO RI 1LJHULD 3&1 $FW ZKLFK ZDV R΀FLDOO\ DQQRXQFHG LQ

)HGHUDO *RYHUQPHQW *D]HWWH 1R RI $XJXVW was structured to revolutionise 3KDUPDF\ SUDFWLFH LQ 1LJHULD ,Q D OHWWHU WR 3URI 6DPER WLWOHG ¶,QIRUPDWLRQ RQ SKDUPDF\ practice as it relates to social KHDOWK LQVXUDQFH VFKHPHV LQ 1LJHULD· MRLQWO\ VLJQHG E\ the ACPN National Chair PDQ $GHZDOH 2ODGLJEROX DQG 1DWLRQDO 6HFUHWDU\ (]HK $PEURVH LW DGYLVHG WKDW LW ZDV LPSHUDWLYH 1+,$ DGRSW WKH new order as it will enable it establish a lawful operational guideline in accordance with the rule of law in Nigeria.

15

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

RingTrue 08054699539

Yemi

Adebowale

yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com

The Deceits Fueling Petrol Crises

T

he quantity of petrol brought into this country has declined steadily in the last one year due to sliding crude oil production at home used for swap. Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), the sole importer of petrol, is struggling to meet its obligations to crude swap contractors. As at December last year, petrol inflow was down by as high as 50 per cent. As a result, marketers have not been getting desired quantities from NNPC, resulting in queues at petrol stations and trauma for hapless Nigerians. This is the truth that must be told. Unfortunately, those running the show in Abuja are averse to the truth. For almost eight years now, they have been running Nigeria on lies. No system can make progress with falsehoods.

Nine days back, a senior official of the Independent Petrol Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) was forced to openly declare that petrol supply to marketers had reduced by over 50 per cent.

He clearly said: “It doesn’t seem that they (NNPCL) are bringing in more, if they are, we will be getting the volume we usually get. Since July/August last year, the volume we receive now is not up to 40 or 50 per cent of what we usually get.

As of today, with what is trending in the private depots, the volume we are getting is not enough. With the look of things in the private depots, I assume it is not enough, because if they have petrol, they won’t hoard it.”

This supply glitch is responsible for Nigeria’s unprecedented petrol scarcity that has lasted over four months. So, forget about stories by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) that “there is petrol sufficiency of over 1.6 billion litres as of January 26 both on land and marine.” This quantity cited by NMDPRA can flood the entire West Africa, if indeed, Nigeria has it.

The additional commitment by the NMDPRA to supply more volume of petrol for the months ahead “to guarantee national energy security and nationwide availability at the government-regulated price” is also a big deceit. The challenges

Buhari

with crude oil for swap contracts and forex for fresh imports are still very much there.

What about the lie that the current supply hitch is heightened by activities of cross-border smugglers, who divert petrol meant for the Nigerian market to neighbouring countries where petrol prices are significantly higher than Nigeria’s regulated price? The NMDPRA remarked last week: “We are engaging and collaborating with the Nigeria Customs Service to address this issue. The price arbitrage between Nigeria and neighbouring countries has continued to grow.”

Yes, petrol is smuggled to our neigbouring countries, but the quantity is not enough to disrupt local supply, if the required quantity is brought into Nigeria. Besides, in the last four months, the incentive to smuggle to neighbouring countries is no longer there. The price of petrol is now higher in Nigeria than Benin Republic and Togo. The price of a litre of petrol in Cotonou as at yesterday was 510 CFA (N510). Nigerians are now paying as much as N600 per litre in some parts of this country. A practical example is playing

out at Din Oil in Irrua, Edo State, where petrol was selling for N600 per litre as at press time. Why will anybody put himself through the rigours of smuggling petrol to neighbouring countries when he can make more money in Nigeria? Besides, the regulators and security agencies have suddenly forgotten that they told Nigerians that trucks of petroleum products are meticulously tracked from loading to delivery, to ensure they are not taken to neigbouring countries. Has this security arrangement collapsed?

In addition, hardly can anybody get petrol at government-regulated price in stations in this country today. Yet, the regulator keeps telling Nigerians that the pump price remains the same. At one point, we were told that the ex-depot price of petrol was N148 per litre and that it should sell for N165 per litre in petrol stations. It was only a few weeks back that the regulator changed the story and said the ex-depot price was between N172 and N185 per litre, depending on location. It was still all deceit.

No marketer, not even the major marketers can get the product at this price. Yet, the junior minister for petroleum, Timipre Sylva said he had directed the NMDPRA to ensure strict compliance with the government approved ex-depot and retail prices of petrol. This is preposterous and another deceit.

Now, this is another manner NNPCL has messed up Nigerians and made it impossible for us to get petrol at government-regulated price. NNPCL imports and sells only to private depot owners. Why? The private depot proprietors have now been saddled with the responsibility of completing the last leg of NNPCL’s fuel importation process. They handle the transfer of petroleum products from mother vessels on the high sea to smaller vessels. These smaller vessels sail closer and discharge into their depots. The depot owners factor this extra cost and much more into prices of these products.

The IPMAN members that control over 80 per cent of petrol stations in Nigeria can’t get petrol directly from NNPC because they don’t own depots. Yes, IPMAN members that supply petrol to 80 per cent of Nigerians buy from depot owners at inflated prices.

Terrorists in Imo State Emboldened

A

female officer of the Nigerian Army, Lt. P.P Johnson, who was abducted in Imo State by the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is exactly 41 days today in the prison of the terrorists. She was seized on December 26 while visiting her grandmother in Aku-Okigwe in Imo shortly after passing out of her training as a cadet and becoming a Lieutenant of the Nigerian Army. Hope of rescuing Lt. Johnson is fading. There are fears that she must have been killed by the extremists. The Nigerian Military can’t rescue one of their own. It’s a shame.

A few days after the abduction of Lt. Johnson, Army spokesman, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu said they would surely rescue the officer and prosecute her abductors, adding, “The Nigerian Army will leave no stone unturned in its effort to rescue the officer and bring the perpetrators to book.” It was all showboating.

I knew Lt. Johnson was in big trouble the moment General Nwachukwu was appealing to the general public to provide credible and reliable information that could lead to the abducted officer’s “safe rescue and arrest of the perpetrators.” The Nigerian military’s intelligence capacity is appalling.

In this same Imo State, 14 days after the

Sole Administrator of the Ideato North Local Government Area, Chris Ohizu, was abducted and beheaded by IPOB terrorists, not even one of the extremists has been arrested. Ohizu was kidnapped alongside two others on January 20, from his country home at Imoko in Arondizuogu by terrorists, who also razed his building. He was then beheaded on Sunday, January 22, after collecting a N6 million ransom.

The Imo Police Command spokesperson, ASP Henry Okoye, said that police had commenced investigation into the incident.

That was where it all ended. So far, no news about arresting the bastards that beheaded Ohizu in the name of IPOB. Just last Thursday, terrorists assassinated a judge, Nnaemeka Ugboma while presiding at the Ejemekwuru Customary Court in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.

Terrorists are emboldened when the state fails to act appropriately. This is what is happening in Imo State and other parts of Nigeria where extremists are enjoying a free rein. Our security agents are a big disappointment. The Nigerian state can no longer protect citizens. This is the legacy of failure bequeathed to Nigeria by calamity Buhari.

The Buhari administration persistently fails the people, with thousands sent to early graves by extremists in almost eight years. It is so

Gen Yahaya

depressing that security agencies controlled solely by the central government have been overwhelmed by terrorists, yet, the FG is unwilling to listen to talks about state police.

This is why petrol stations belonging to IPMAN sell for as high as N600 per litre in some places. This is the tragedy of this country called Nigeria. The NNPC has abandoned its depots due to persistent sabotage and now utilises private depots.

If the NNPCL rejigs its depots and sells to IPMAN directly, petrol price will come down. Is the NNPCL saying it does not know that its depots can be protected with drones?

The National Controller, Operations, IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi was apt when he said: “If NNPC gives us products directly and we don’t have to pass through third parties, prices will crash. IPMAN members account for 80 per cent of products in the market. So, why won’t they give us products directly? Where major marketers’ stations can’t get to, our members are there. You can quote me on this. NNPC is subsidising their pockets and not Nigerians. The subsidy they claim is in their pockets. There is currently confusion in the downstream sector because NNPCL has not been able to address the scarcity.”

There is chaos in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, resulting in endless pain for numerous Nigerians. The pain is becoming unbearable. The biggest challenge we are facing now as a nation is that the people that promised us “change” in the petroleum sector are now coming up with all sorts of excuses on why they can’t deliver on their promises. They have also compounded our misery by squandering virtually all the gains of this country in this sector since independence, just within eight years. I thought that by now, our dear Petroleum Resources Minister, President Muhammadu Buhari would have offered some form of apology to Nigerians over ongoing anguish at petrol stations. This is the standard in sane societies. Buhari has not done this. Public office holders in our dear country operate like big bosses. Do they really care?

The setting up of a 14-man steering committee on petroleum products supply and distribution management, which will be personally chaired by Buhari, as a response to the petrol crisis is laughable. The committee is expected to, among other things, ensure transparent and efficient supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country.

Almost all the people listed as members are responsible for the current failings in the petroleum downstream sector. They are the ones misdirecting our petroleum products’ system. Nigeria is in this mess because of the ineptitude of these committee members.

So, what will they be doing differently as a committee? Anything put together with deceit will always fail.

For now, Nigerians continue to groan under the burden of scarcity and skyrocketing price of petrol. Dense gridlocks caused by motorists queuing to buy petrol remain on our highways. Black marketers are making brisk cash as they hawk petrol in kegs.

What is the way forward? Full deregulation! While waiting for Dangote Refinery to commence operation, the downstream sector of the petroleum industry must be fully deregulated so that private players can import fuel. Subsidy must be fully removed.

Yes, fuel must sell at market price if this country wants to make progress. But with full deregulation, it won’t be as high as what we are experiencing now.

Similarly, after full deregulation, importers of fuel must not be given access to government forex. They should source their forex from banks and open the market. This is how to curb forex scam. In addition, this idea of official forex must end in Nigeria.

It is one big scam retarding this country.

16

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

17

Ferdinand Ekechukwu - 08035011394 Email: ferdi_adthisday@yahoo.com

SHOWBIZFLAIR

Hugo Boss Engages Mr Eazi for Campaign Ferdinand Ekechukwu

E

mPawa Africa founder/ musician/song writer Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi, has joined luxury fashion brand, ‘Hugo Boss’ in their Spring/ Summer 2023 campaign. Themed “Be Your Own Boss”, the promotion tells the stories of ordinary people who have gone through extraordinary routes to become great at what they do and who WKH\ DUH 7KH VRFLDO ÀUVW FDPSDLJQ DOVR includes podcasts, behind the scenes, stories, and reels.

Joining the campaign, Mr Eazi posted an adorable picture of himself as child along with a current image wearing a sweater from Boss’ new season. Along with the musician, the campaign features a lineup of celebrities and models including fellow Nigerian Anthony Joshua, Colombian pop singer Maluma, US supermodel Gigi Hadid, and British supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Other celebrities on the campaign include South Korean actor Lee Minho,

Mr Eazy

and Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini. This new collaboration comes after a slew of successful releases of songs like ‘Legalize’,

this year.

A statement by Mr Eazi, revealed that the Nigerian singer was the only African artiste featured in the new star-studded Boss campaign. “The advertising campaign for Spring/Summer 2023 features a star-studded lineup of celebrities including Nigerian artiste Mr Eazi. He engaged in some nostalgia posing with an adorable picture taken when he was just a child wearing the new season sweater from Boss.”

The statement further noted that “The aim is to illustrate Boss’s slogan ‘Be Your Own Boss’, by telling the story of ‘the extraordinary path to a life of success’ travelled by the celebrities featured in the campaign. The brand also enlisted the likes of Colombian pop singer Maluma, US supermodel Gigi Hadid, British model Naomi Campbell, South Korean actor Lee Minho, Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini, Anthony Joshua and many others from across the world.”

The campaign is a continuation of the over 50years old brand Spring ¶3DWHN· DQG WKH ODWHVW VLQJOHй³й¶:HUVHU· Summer #BeYourOwnBOSS campaign which is already gaining traction on which brought together an all-star cast Tiktok. He also revealed via a tweet as part of a true 360-degree rebranding that he will release a couple of projects last year.

Carolyna Hutchings Appointed Director, AGN Investment Ferdinand Ekechukwu

N

ollywood actress Carolyna Hutchings appears to have started the New Year with good tidings.

Just days after she took to social media to “blow her academic trumpet”, the DZDUG ZLQQLQJ ÀOPPDNHU SURGXFHU ZDV appointed Director of AGN Investment, owned by Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN. Sharing the good news, Carolyna expressed how honoured she is to serve an industry that believed in her and gave her a platform to showcase her talent. Pledging her commitment, Carolyna stated: “Always available to serve and deliver to the success of Nollywood.”

The AGN is an umbrella union that UHJXODWHV DQG UHSUHVHQWV WKH DͿDLUV RI

ÀOP DFWRUV LQ 1LJHULD DQG DEURDG The reality television star in a chat with Showbiz, hinted that her new position will see her facilitating positive investment opportunities, handling existing investment opportunities, creating \HDUO\ WXUQ RYHU IRU WKH EHQHÀW and growth of AGN and also creating attractive opportunities for investors both locally and in diaspora.

Speaking on her recent acaGHPLF TXDOLÀFDWLRQ ² 06F LQ International Law - Hutchings added: “I am even about to start another course, registered in the 8. :HOO WKLV LV P\ ÀUVW WLPH RI blowing my academic trumpet. , KDYH D ORW RI FHUWLÀFDWHV EXW felt I should encourage younger people on my page. The road is tough but the success is worth it.”

Carolyna

Asake Minds His Business in New Song Ferdinand Ekechukwu

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Asake

ave making artiste, Ololade Asake has UHFRUGHG KLV ÀUVW song of the year 2023. Titled ‘Yoga’, Asake dropped the new single last Monday. This comes days after the ‘music star was revealed to have set new UHFRUG DV WKH ÀUVW DUWLVWH WR VSHQG D UHFRUG 52 weeks on TurnTable Charts, Nigeria’s foremost music chart, with ‘Omo Ope’.

“The song is about minding my business and guarding my peace so no one can disrupt it,” Asake says of the ‘Yoga’.

The ‘Mr. Money with the Vibes’ released the single along with a music video which depicts a deep, spirited, message that is skillfully woven into the song delivered primarily in the Yoruba language. He

had taken to social media to share a snippet of the new record hours before it dropped.

In “Yoga,” Asake uses his signature sonic blend of Fuji music, merged ZLWK VSLULWXDO D΀UPDWLRQV 7KH PXVLF video, which saw Asake and reality 79 ÀJXUH $OH[LV 6N\\ H[SORUH 'DNDU Senegal, packs colourful and vibrant imagery. ‘Yoga’, which was produced

by Magicsticks, has since gone viral with many in high praise of the quality of the visuals directed by TG Omori and the song itself.

“Asake is a student of music. If you understand sound, you will appreciate what he did on ‘Yoga’,” a fan tweeted.

His ability to take his music to a place of deep introspection and spirituality while sharing bits of his mind state and story is true sonic art that’s connected with a wide range

of growing fans who believe ‘Mr Money’ is truly with the vibe right now.

With a unique approach to his music visuals, with the help of renowned video director TG Omori, Asake makes sure his videos take his viewers to the next level. The singer who has one of the greatest runs of a new artist in the Nigerian music industry.

Since the release of his debut album, Asake has taken the world by storm. First going on a promo run for his album in North America, which had him perform at sold-out venues across eight American cities.

In a monumental step for a breakout DUWLVW WLFNHWV IRU $VDNH·V ÀUVW HYHU VKRZ LQ London, at the famed 02 Academy Brixton, sold out in minutes, prompting him to add two more dates which also sold out. But Asake got his major break earlier in January, 2022, when street-hop artiste and YBNL honcho, Olamide hopped on the record breaking single, “Omo Ope,” and brought Asake on to his label shortly after.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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SHOWBIZFLAIR

Magic Man Majek Fashek Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

M

ajek Fashek was a magician, and he could always come up with all makes of mischief.

Majek was once rehearing at daytime in Silver Shadow Night Club, Ola Ayinde Street, Ikeja, Lagos where my legendary DJ friend Stagger Lee reigned at night.

I was in the neighbourhood with my love interest at the time, a brilliant undergraduate whose name must not be revealed here because there is no need to start a Third World War just yet!

Majek was the rave for all the young ones, and my young darling was in shock when I took her into the lair of the rehearsing superstar.

I exchanged pleasantries with Majek, and my lover-girl was in wonder how familiar I was with most of the celebrated stars of the age that she could only see on television.

The babe and I settled down on a table to watch Majek rehearse with his band in their throbbing groove.

A boon companion of Majek and me walked in to tell me that some of my friends who had seen me walk into Silver Shadow were asking for me to come be with them in a nearby watering hole outside.

I excused myself from my girl who was enjoying the Majek show and wouldn’t really want to be distracted with my boozing asides. , ZDONHG RͿ WR VKDUH EHHU ZLWK P\ IULHQGV immediately forgetting Majek and his music because of the appeal of a quick tipple.

I later learnt that once I was out of sight the master music man Majek left the stage to chat up my babe!

“I came with your friend and I am leaving with your friend.” Those were the words my girl told me she had said to Majek.

Well, when I got back into Silver Shadow, 0DMHN ZDV VWLOO VWUXJJOLQJ KDUG WR JHW ÀQH with a hard-to-crack sweet one.

I calmly walked up to them, and Majek

as Steel Pulse and so on.

Majek who was on a roller-coaster of praises, especially for the hit song “Send Down the Rain”, somewhat felt betrayed.

I had to make him understand that in the business one had to take every criticism in one’s stride or go bust.

That’s how superstars are made, for as Oscar Wilde quipped: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

There is no denying that Majek was a genius who came ahead of his time, and paid the price of every wunderkind.

He was seen in many informed quarters as the natural successor of Bob Marley in the reggae realm.

Being gifted is a tough act to sustain as there are many menacing demons haunting the gifted ones. , FRXOG HYHQ IHHO LW IURP WKH ÀUVW PRPHQW I went with Azuka Jebose Molokwu to Jerry Anazia’s Ace Night Club in Ikeja for the press launch of Majek Fashek’s debut album Fashek “Prisoner of Conscience”.

In the beautiful innocence of Majek that evening I could see tragedy lurking in the who had told the babe he did not know shadows of the likes of earlier tragic young me – forgetting that he had greeted me musicians such as Otis Redding, Richie warmly when we entered – appeared funny Valens, Sid Vicious, John Lennon and so on. indeed.

When images of Majek wasting away I called Majek “Gangsta”, a nickname we started appearing in the media, I felt that jabbed each other with alongside another my worst fears had come back to haunt me. musician friend of ours – Ras Kimono.

The later years of travails cannot take Majek then tried to make amends by away the trailblazing triumphs of Majek pretending to only be recognizing me at because he was a natural leader who dared last, and then saluted me thusly: “Aaah to sing where angels feared to lift a voice.

Uzor…”

His camaraderie could be infectious, I just told him “Bye-bye, Rain-beaten especially as per jamming up with his fellow Baby Thief”, and walked away with my reggae artist Ras Kimono and screaming: babe who could not stop laughing at the “Gangsta! Guns shooting kpa-kpa-kpa!” brief encounter.

Majek was a philosopher who had deep Knowing Majek, he was only trying to thoughts and redoubtable application well be hip in making a kill like all superstars beyond his age and time. are wont to in the nick of time.

I believe it was his insatiable quest for 1RZ OHW·V JHW VHULRXV 0DMHN GLG QRW ÀQG knowledge that led him to spiritualism and it funny when my brother, Isidore Emeka suchlike that eventually unhinged him.

Uzoatu, published a review of Majek Fashek’s It’s obvious that many people took debut album “Prisoner of Conscience” which advantage of him, but there is no point KH HQWLWOHG ´3ULVRQHU RI ,QÁXHQFHV µ making recriminations here.

My brother’s contention was that Majek Majek Fashek did enough work in his borrowed heavily from other musicians such lifetime to ensure that he will never really die.

Wale Adenuga Honoured at ‘Humour Awards’ Tosin Clegg

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ale Adenuga MFR, Chairman/CEO of Wale Adenuga Productions (WAP), was recently honoured with an induction into the Comedy Hall of Fame at the 2nd edition of The Humour Awards on 15th January 2023, in Lagos.

He was honoured for his immense contributions to the growth of the comedy industry in Nigeria.

Other individuals who have made notable marks in Nigerian comedy like Nkem Owoh, Sunday Omobolanle (Aluwe), Ngozi Nwosu, 0U 0DFDURQL +DÀ] 2\HWRUR 6DND &KLQHGX Ikedieze, Nosa Rex (Baba Rex), Real Warri Pikin, were also honoured.

Wale Adenuga Jnr., Managing Director of WAP, who received the award on behalf of Mr. Wale Adenuga MFR, had this to say: “We appreciate the organisers of this impressive event for acknowledging people who have contributed to the growth of Nigeria’s Comedy Industry.

While there is still a lot more to be done, we are proud of what has been achieved thus far, and we pledge that Wale Adenuga Productions will continue to do push the envelope for the sake of future generations.”

In addition to providing millions of viewers with the hilarious Papa Ajasco Reloaded TV Comedy, and Akpan & Oduma Comedy Skits weekly, Wale Adenuga MFR is also the Creator and Executive Producer of the multiple-award-winning Superstory, and The Babington Family TV Dramas; Founder and Chairman of PEFTI Film Institute, located in Lagos and Ibadan, which has trained several generations of Nigerians in the Entertainment Industry; and Chairman of wapTV – a Family Entertainment TV Channel on a network of all major Satellite TV Platforms across Nigeria.

Adenuga

Birds of a Feather’ to Air ‘British Council will Continue to Season 2 This February Support Nigeria’s Creative Industry’ Tosin Clegg

H

aving enjoyed a massive run in top terrestrial and cable platforms across the country, family sitcom, ‘Birds of a Feather’ (BOAF) is set to start airing Season 2.

With promises of a new viewing experience for lovers of the TV series, producers of the sitcom say that the second season will deliver a new family, The Martins.

Producer and Director of the sitcom, Seun Arowojolu promises that the new season will be packed full with plot twists and top-of-the-shelf humour. According to him, KLV SURGXFWLRQ RXWÀW &RQWHQW*UDP 6WXGLRV Africa pulled all the stops to make sure viewers get the best entertainment value.

Cast of ‘Birds of a Feather’

In the new season, Tokunbo Martins hits the 40th year life milestone and his wife Tare, is all out to celebrate her husband who has achieved quite a lot in his career as a banker. This does not go well with him, as he wants his birthday to be quiet with just his family.

Meanwhile, Tokunbo has resigned from the bank to pursue a career he is passionate about. This sets the tone for the season-long drama and suspense all created to keep viewers entertained.

“The new season not only entertains but also has many interesting moments for viewers.

The plot and storyline are very relatable.

This twist in plots from Garba (Tokunbo’s driver) and Sotonye (Tare’s sister) will bring quality entertainment to your screens creator of the show,” said Arowoloju. The new season of ‘Birds of a Feather’ will start airing on Sunday, February 5th 2023, at 6:30 pm on NTA Network and other Top Platforms across the country. $URZRMROX·V MRXUQH\ LQWR ÀOPmaking started early in 2003 as an actor under the direction of Tope Idowu when he starred in a Docudrama called ‘Champions’.

So far, his career as a director has seen him churn out some of the best productions from Nigeria, from Plateau to Lagos, through other States even up to faraway Istanbul, Turkey. His production RXWÀW &RQWHQW*UDP 6WXGLRV $IULFD recently launched its world-class RXWÀW

Michael Olugbode

T

he British Council has indicated its willingness to continue to support Nigeria’s creative industry, insisting that with the right investment and support, it has the potential to be the highest employer of labour and contributor to the nation’s wealth.

Speaking at a recent Creative Enterprise Showcase Programme (CESP) in Abuja, Project Manager, Arts and Creative Industry, British Council SSA, Uju Dubas-Agbasi noted that the creative industry in Nigeria is rapidly growing economic powerhouses that are increasingly being recognised as pathways for sustainable livelihoods for young people across art forms.

Dubas-Agbasi said: “However, most creative artistes are faced with obstacles of weak policy support, a lack of infrastructure, low levels of awareness of the livelihood opportunities that exist within the art sectors and limited opportunities especially for networking, collaborations, and skill-sharing. If the industry is properly harnessed and supported, it has the potential of leading the earning index of Nigeria.

“To understand the state of the industry, it is important to highlight some of the several business opportunities that are integral and LPPHQVHO\ SURÀWDEOH ZKLFK LQFOXGH EXW DUH not limited to, showcasing of various creative art forms through seminars, art events and residency.

“The British Council Creative Economy

Showcase Programme aims to stimulate links among Nigerian creatives by providing them access to the British Council exhibition spaces, for displays, showcases and performances. This initiative is in line with our goal at British Council to support the creation of new art and sharing this art to audiences.

“As part of British Council’s engagement with the art community and creative entrepreneurs, we have launched this programme and it will run between the months of September 2022 and March 2023. The programme intends to grant selected exhibitors permitted access to use the British Council exhibition spaces (for up to two consecutive days in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt for displays, showcases and performances.”

She revealed that these activities were put together by curators in each of the cities.

The Arts Curator of the Abuja Project, Philip Agbese, on his part, said all that the Nigerian creative art industry needed to attain the lofty height are enabling environment and the right legislation.

He said: “The industry has huge potentials, all that is needed is the environment and space for artistes to express themselves and to be allowed to run with business model in mind, then we would all see the beauty and potentials of the industry unfolding in our very eyes.”

He added that the creative industry remains perhaps the biggest selling point of Nigeria and the promoter of the country’s image, stating that “can we quantify what people like Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Adichie, Burna Boy, Kizz Daniel, et al have added to Nigeria’s image.”

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

PERSPECTIVE Financial Inclusion, Youth and the Future of Banking Ademola Adebise

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he COVID-19 pandemic may have disrupted global systems across trade, finance, health, and education, over the last three years, but for financial inclusion, it was a significant growth enabler, which accelerated the adoption of digital payments and online banking, amidst the global expansion of formal financial services.

71% of people in developing countries now have a financial account, according to the Global Findex Database 2021 report. The gender gap in account ownership also shrunk for the first time, narrowing from 9 to 6 percentage points in developing countries. However, there is still a lot to be done as 1.4 billion people worldwide remain unbanked, with Nigeria and six other economies boasting half of this population.

Financial inclusion, a concept that describes the process of ensuring that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs in a responsible and sustainable way, has received significant global attention in recent years. Given its critical importance in driving significant economic growth and development, more than 55 countries in the world have made commitments to financial inclusion, and more than 60 have either launched or are developing a national strategy, since 2010.

In Nigeria, The Central Bank aims to achieve 96% rate of financial inclusion in the country by the end of 2024. Presently, the progress rate stands at 64 percent as recently revealed by the Deputy Governor of the CBN, Aisha Ahmad. While this is laudable, it is imperative to understand that in achieving this goal, the financial sector must strongly leverage technology to promote and enhance access to financial services for the unbanked and underserved segments of the population, while providing strategic financial literacy to drive adoption.

The gains from a solid financial inclusion strategy are huge. In an inclusive financial sector, financial institutions may have more opportunities to garner cheap retail deposits, and thus reduce marginal costs of producing banking services output. There is also an increase in fees and commissions revenues, alongside the overall viability and stability of the financial system are some of the most obvious. When supported by an enabling

Ad Adebise deb ebi bis ise ise

regulatory framework and a proliferation of digital technology, innovation and strategic collaborations, a national financial inclusion strategy is more likely to achieve its set objec-

tives within a reasonable time period.

The renewed commitment from the CBN on enforcing a cashless economy for Nigerians, is also encouraging more persons to use alternative channels to carry out their banking transactions. The growing number of Fintechs and licensed Payment Service Banks within the ecosystem, also presents an opportunity for improved partnerships across various categories of players in the financial services industry for both mutual and industry-wide benefits.

The growing demand for exciting digital banking experiences from millennials and ‘Gen Zers’ is transforming how the entire banking industry operates. This shows an increase in the consideration of diverse customer desires to access financial services from digital channels, leading to a surge in new banking technologies that are reconceptualizing the banking industry.

The population in Nigeria is growing at 2.6% a year, one of the fastest rates globally, which means that the population could double within the next 25 to 30 years. About 70% of this population are under 30, and 42% are under the age of 15. This youth population cannot be ignored.

In Nigeria, as with the rest of the world, young people are early adopters, they adopt new technologies quickly, as soon as they have the opportunity. This adaptability also applies to the several innovations in the financial sector.

They would rather use digital payments on their phones, purchasing mobile credit, or even employ mobile credit for online gaming and in-app purchases instead of queuing up at a

)RU %DQNV )LQWHFK DQG RWKHU GLJLWDO ÀQDQFLDO VHUYLFHV SURYLGHUV WKHUH LV D PDVVLYH RSSRUWXQLW\ WR VHUYH WKH XQEDQNHG 1LJHULDQ \RXWK LI WKH\ FDQ FRQVLVWHQWO\ GHYHORS DQG RIIHU PRUH FRQYHQLHQW IDVWHU VHFXUH DQG ÁH[LEOH SURGXFWV ZLWK ORZHU IHHV WKDW VHUYH WKH VSHFLÀF QHHGV RI WKH \RXWK ,W LV DOZD\V D JDPH FKDQJHU IRU EDQNV ZKHQ WKH\ SURYLGH UHVSRQVLEOH GLJLWDO ÀQDQFLDO VHUYLFHV IRU \RXWKV ZKR KDYH FKDOOHQJHV DFFHVVLQJ EDVLF ÀQDQFLDO VHUYLFHV

bank counter.

Considering that Gen Z is the first generation born in the smartphone era, their entire worldview revolves around mobile telephone devices. Financial service providers will need to adapt to their tech disposition to capture this huge market of over 82 million Nigerians that are Gen Zs. For Banks, Fintech and other digital financial services providers, there is a massive opportunity to serve the unbanked Nigerian youth, if they can consistently develop and offer more convenient, faster, secure and flexible products, with lower fees, that serve the specific needs of the youth. It is always a game changer for banks when they provide responsible digital financial services for youths who have challenges accessing basic financial services.

Without a doubt, digitization is changing the way people interact with themselves and do business. It is also transforming how the entire banking industry operates globally. From retail and mobile banking, to neobank startups and even Banking as a service, technology is driving growth for almost all aspects of the banking industry and we can expect this trend to continue, going forward.

Just having access to the Internet as well as a mobile phone, now brings a wider range of financial services within reach, such as mobile banking, online applications, payment applications, mobile wallets, in-app purchases among others. To be very clear, the banking industry is facing a future marked by fundamental restructuring and only banks that successfully manage this transition are likely to grow faster, become bigger and more profitable.

In 2023 and going forward, more people will get comfortable with personalized banking.

Banking apps are already turning to smart digital assistants as opposed to serving as mere self-service tools. This trend will continue as I expect to see more closed loop solutions driven by a very fast and intuitive system of data collection.

Blockchain will witness increased adoption in the coming years, and we can expect more banks to deepen customer relationships via AI and chatbots.

Adebise recently retired as the Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc after over 13 years of service on the Board of the Bank.

His retirement takes effect on the 31st of March, 2023.

Delta Govt: Clark’s Attack on Okowa Political, Undemocratic Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

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he Delta State Government has described the recent criticism of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa by elder statesman, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, as political and undemocratic, urging him to concern himself more with what actions and issues that promote peace and unity of Nigeria.

The government expressed dismay that the respected senior citizen of Delta State, who has played various roles in governance and affairs of this country could not maintain dignified silence even if under pressure to unnecessarily heat up the polity in Delta State and the country at large with spurious claims as contained in his recent open letter.

Delta State Commissioner for Information and a spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Charles Aniagwu, stated this while speaking with newsmen in Asaba yesterday on Clark’s call on the governor to resign as vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Aniagwu, who noted that Clark had, over the years, built a reputation of integrity and forthright leader within the Nigerian political space, ought not allow himself to be dragged into the murky waters of partisan politics especially in this season of electioneering.

He assured that the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, were prepared to keep to the terms of the peace accord midwifed by very eminent Nigerians including the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and the revered Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah and, indeed, other members of the National Peace Accord Committee.

He stressed that the promotion of peace was necessary to achieve the much-needed development in the country, advising Pa Clark against sacrificing that national desire for anything less noble. ‘’It might be pardonable for the young ones to talk about the North and South dichotomy, but Edwin Clark has been around even before the Civil War, and he knows the geographic composition of Nigeria with brothers and sisters criss-crossing the North and the South. ‘’By tradition, not by law, the choice of a running mate has always cut across the other zones different from that of the presidential candidate. In this regard, delegates of the PDP overwhelmingly elected Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. ‘’In fulfillment of the constitutional provisions and after wide consultations, saw that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa would be able to add value to his quest to lead Nigeria out of the woods and have a much more united country.”

Aniagwu recalled that when former President

Goodluck Jonathan sought re-election in 2015 to the consternation of the North, his running mate, Namadi Sambo, was not embarrassed by the North for supporting a southerner. ‘’So, for our elder statesman to cast aspersions on Governor Okowa and label him a betrayer cannot be in the interest of nationalism. If someone must be patriotic, as Pa Clark has shown over time, his recent comments do not suggest the way for our continued unity. ‘’We also know that Pa Clark has made his choice in this election. First, he took sides with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, even when the last President of the PDP (Goodluck Jonathan) was from the old Rivers State (Rivers and Bayelsa). ‘’If we are talking about equity and justice, could it have been fair that the power coming back to the south would have still come to the same state, even when we have 17 states in the south? ‘’Are we looking for a regional president or one who would govern the entire country? So, elders and everybody must try as much as possible to bury their sentiments under the need for us to be nationalistic. ‘’We need a united country that can

survive beyond the election and build for us to call home even beyond the elections. So, any comment that fuels such division cannot be in the interest of current and coming generations. ‘’We advise our elder statesman, whom we respect very well, not to allow the politics of sentiments to injure his prominent position. As an elder statesman, the integrity and sanctity of our constitution are fundamental. The unity of this country should be paramount. ‘’Therefore, those that should know in the categories of Edwin Clark cannot, because of the sentiments and conveniences of today, push an agenda that is inimical to the unity paramount for us to move as one country.”

However, Aniagwu said that the PDP will continue to accord Chief E.K.Clark enormous respect but nonetheless insist that elder statesmen channeled their energies and utterances to promoting unity and the peace in this country.

“As an administration here in Delta and as a political party the PDP, our Presidential Campaign Council has enormous respect for Chief Edwin Clark on many grounds as an elder statesman, as somebody who has played very wonderful roles in our country as a former minister; and, as a Nigerian allowed by the constitution to have an opinion on issues. So, we have enormous respect for him and that respect we will continue to give to him,” he noted.

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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2023 • T H I S D AY

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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POLITY

Overcoming Post-election Scenarios Amid perennial fears of untoward post-election occurrences, experts at a forum in Lagos recommend for businesses a culture of deliberate visualisation and planning against possible circumstances. Vincent Obia reports

I

n Nigeria at this time, everyone is probably worried about two things: the performance of their candidates at the coming elections and reaction to the outcome of the polls.

This is a natural tendency among Nigerians on the eve of elections. Policymakers at various levels seem to take note of the prevailing disposition, but they do not appear to have effective strategies for dealing with the post-election apprehensions. Developing such strategies was the subject of discussion on February 2 in Lagos, when Nigeria’s premier government relations consultancy outfit, GT Pro, held its first “Conversation Series”.

The keynote speaker, Bolarinwa Onaolapo, an environment and social governance expert, gave a good account of himself in dealing exhaustively with the theme for the discussion, “Post-Election Scenario Assessment and Possible Political Risks: How Businesses Can Mitigate It.” The forum discussed crucial factors in post-election scenario assessment, including need for scenario planning, scenario analysis, driving forces for actions, institutional issues, development of a resilience culture, and business continuity and emergency framework.

Onaolapo set the tone with the correction of a common misconception about post-elections issues, saying, “Scenarios are not about predictions – but consideration of possibilities.

Scenarios are description of possible actions or events in the future. They offer diverse possibilities that are not constrained by history or experience.”

In the course of preparation for the forthcoming elections in Nigeria, political pundits have predicted different outcomes.

But the end result of the polls remains unknown.

Onaolapo says it is from such state of uncertainty that scenarios derive their power.

Events in the election season often proceed from antecedents created by an interplay of economic and social forces, which sometimes follow a predictable pattern. The patterns may, however, end in different outcomes. This shift in outcome, which often transcends history or experience, is what scenarios help to identify and deal with, according to Onaolapo.

He believes scenarios are intricately connected with risk assessment, as they can transform to probabilities.

“Knowledge of impact of these probable events is critical for business short or long term viability,” Onaolapo says.

In Nigeria, understandable anxieties have preceded the

general election billed for February and March. Besides the anxiety regarding the outcome of the polls, citizens and investors in the Nigerian economy have faced uncertainties concerning the colour of events in the election season and the effect on their plans and expectations.

Onaolapo identifies the possible political risks to business to include effect on their operations, logistics impairment, supply chain disruptions, safety of staff, and energy supply and IT disruptions. Others are revenue decline, market access troubles, bank closure, drop in demand, force majeure, attack on facilities, and reputational burdens.

He categorises the driving forces for actions during election seasons into political, social, and economic factors. The political factors include sentiments provoked by the utterances of candidates, same faith succession, and absence of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari, from the ballot.

The social factors include ethnic division and increased youth awareness in the aftermath of #EndSARS. Obviously, the Nigerian youth are emerging as a strong voting bloc, mostly blind to ethnic prejudices and focused on values. This can be gleaned from the latest figures of registrants at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Insecurity is another key social force ahead of the 2023 general election. Personal safety has been severely undermined by rampant kidnap for ransom, attacks on train stations and moving trains, and abduction of school children, all of which seem to be settling into a nationwide phenomenon.

Add the above to the menace of unknown gunmen in the South-east, rampaging armed bandits in the North-west, and killer herdsmen in the North-central, and what do you get, a poll season threatened by a terrible gale of insecurity.

On the economic scene, there is the issue of excruciating living condition of many Nigerians, involving inflation, currency depreciation, and high cost of living. The dire economic conditions have been worsened lately by fuel scarcity, currency redesign by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the ensuing cash withdrawal difficulties faced by ordinary citizens.

The incumbent government and the political party in power are generally blamed for the growing hardship, and this may likely lead to loss of votes at the poll.

Onaolapo identifies institutional barriers and systems, saying, “These are social, physical or governance structures, systems and processes that have been established to prevent or

mitigate an occurrence or reinforce an attribute of the society.”

They include law enforcement, election management system, judiciary, and information management. He says these systems may be termed fragile, resilient, or broken based on the outcome of their interactions with the driving political, social and economic forces.

He captures the “alternative scenarios” likely to emerge from the above interactions with the literary works of three renowned African writers – The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (by Ghanaian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah), The Gods Are Not to Blame (by Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi), and Season of Anomy (by Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka).

He pictures a situation where the citizens would be wearied by cliché-ridden promises, battles, and failed promises of politicians, and then become despondent, and turn to political apathy. Furthermore, here, the institutional barriers are not compromised by the driving forces and are able to quickly contain tendencies towards violence. But post-election suspense is heightened by poll litigations. These situations denote a general loss of faith in the system - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. A second scenario, according to Onaolapo, is where the electorate are frustrated and angered by pre-existing adverse conditions, and then decide to turn out in large numbers across the country to vote against the ruling party.

But the votes against the ruling party may be divided by the opposition in key battleground states, paving the way for the ruling party to have a clear majority.

The discontent about the poll outcome from majority of citizens may create an overwhelming pressure on the institutional barriers and systems, including law enforcement, which may, however, be moderated by the statesmanship of opposition figures and the judicial process. The Gods Are Not to Blame!

A third scenario is when pre-existing conditions generate pressure on institutional barriers and systems, producing high and low voter turn-out of voters at different locations on election day. Here majority of the votes would vote against the ruling party, thereby strengthening previously unknown parties and candidate to challenge established parties in key battleground states.

Under the third scenario also, established parties may lose ground to third party candidates, leading to new alliances emerge across the political landscape with ethnic colourations.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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POLITY

Ekwunife: Running On Impressive Scorecard Sheddy Ozoene

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rdinarily, the contest for the Anambra Central Senatorial seat which comes up on the 25th of February 2023, should be an easy call for incumbent Senator Uche Ekwunife. The Peoples Democratic Party Senator who is running for the seat for the third consecutive time, has impressed with what many consider a superlative performance in office. She has not only represented the district effectively in the Senate, she has proved effective in tabling their concerns at the nation’s topmost legislative chamber. Importantly, Ekwunife has gone beyond the normal call of legislative mandate to provide all types of infrastructure for the people at a level never before witnessed in the Anambra State in particular, and Nigeria as a whole.

There are indeed, only a few communities in her constituency that have not directly benefitted from her many development projects, educational institutions or her many programs for the less privileged. Across the district, billboards abound in every corner, announcing one project or the other, from roads to schools, from skill acquisition centres to water schemes and from health centres to erosion control projects. If indeed the projects littered around Anambra Central are anything to take into account, Iyom, as she is popularly called, is light years ahead of her rivals.

The contest has, however, come into strong national focus for other reasons, and especially since the emergence of Peter Obi who hails from the same Anaocha Local Government Area, in the presidential contest on the platform of the Labour Party. And since both seats will be contested on the same day, strong sentiment about a son-of-the-soil aspiring to the highest office in the land will come face-to-face against a woman who has, in words and in deed, embodied the larger developmental aspirations of the people of Anambra Central.

The brief appearance of Chief Victor Umeh in the Senatorial contest would appear to be a distraction of sorts. The former Chairman of the state’s ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had been Obi’s bitter foe since he left office as Anambra governor and joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Not until he lost the APGA senatorial primaries did he return to Obi in the Labour Party, and for some few months posed as the party’s Senatorial candidate before penultimate Friday when he was disqualified by the Federal High Court in Awka.

Umeh and Ekwunife are familiar political combatants, even if he always ended on the losing side. As the candidate of APGA he had lost the 2015 Senatorial contest to Ekwunife before he upturned the decision through a controversial Court judgment in 2017 that put him to serve out the tenure till 2019. He again lost in 2019 to Ekwunife and they were just warming up for a third faceoff later this month before Umeh’s aspiration to return to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly came to a screeching halt.

The Federal High Court, presided over by Justice H.A. Nganjiwa, disqualified Victor Umeh from the contest on the ground that his nomination as a candidate of the Labour Party was in violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. The Court said Umeh stood for primary election in the same constituency under two different political parties, noting that while Umeh’s name was not in the membership register of the Labour Party as at June 3, 2022 when the primaries held, there was no evidence that he had effectively left the APGA as at the date. The Court consequently issued an order restraining him from parading himself as the Labour Party Senatorial candidate, with another injunction restraining the party from presenting Umeh as its candidate.

Although Obi and Ekwunife started out as close political allies, they have both come to terms with the fact of their political realities that their fates lie in two different parties. While Ekwunife took the departure of Obi from the PDP in her strides, she is quite convinced that his aspiration on a different political platform does not in any way dim her own chances of reelection. Not one to be brow-beaten out of her political conviction, Ekwunife has since been encouraged by the groundswell of popular approval of her re-election bid.

All through the electioneering campaign, she has displayed maturity, refraining from calling Obi by name or making direct references to him or his presidential aspiration. While this has not stopped mischief makers from creating an imaginary cold war between the two, it has earned her widespread endorsements as well as the respect of her constituents. The day she took her campaigns to Peter Obi’s Agulu community, even the traditional ruler, His Royal Highness Igwe Innocent Obodoakor did not hesitate to join leaders of most other communities in the district who have endorsed the lawmaker.

While she ensures that her campaign is focused on her performance and the promise to do more in the Senate, she also has to battle those fanning the embers of discord and who stand to benefit from it. Until his disqualifica-

Ekwunife tion from the contest, Umeh who was unable to get his campaign going on the basis of his records, was the major culprit in that regard.

The sheer number of projects the Senator has attracted to her constituency is mind-boggling and her supporters proudly flaunt it as evidence of her outstanding performance. To her credit are scores of completed and ongoing road projects across the 59 communities in Anambra Central district, dozens of Water supply projects, electricity supply projects, solar street-lighting and erosion control projects. Over 30 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the area have benefitted from construction of classroom blocks and equipment of laboratories and libraries. At the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, the Senator provided 100 pieces of ZPads and SIM Cards to students while 131 other schools benefitted from her ambitious program of providing furniture and supply of educational materials and equipment.

Just last year, she commissioned a 20-bed health Centre in Neni.

Outside of Umeh, Ekwunife still faces a stiff challenge from Honourable Dozie Nwankwo who represents Anaocha/Dunukofia/Njikoka federal constituency in the House of Representatives. Nwankwo who hails from Enugu-Ukwu is the Senatorial candidate of the APGA. His zeal to change from the Green to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly like Ekwunife before him, is obvious but the regular recourse to violence, intimidation by members of his campaign staff and destruction of opponents’ campaign materials have exposed him as a candidate ill-prepared for the high stake that representing the zone entails. Dozie Nwankwo is obviously intimidated by Ekwunife’s scorecard and his supporters have on several occasions displayed acts that show their candidate as desperate. On several occasions they have stalled the execution of projects attracted by senator Ekwunife in his own community. This has not only been counter-productive to his aspiration, it has elicited stern condemnation from elders in the zone.

Ekwunife’s projects may indeed be intimidating but she is even more passionate about alleviating the sufferings of the less privileged. Across the state, she has touched the lives of women and the less privileged, unlike many others for whom distribution of palliatives is a seasonal thing, she has ensured regular outreach in her area. For many, she has ensured the payment of stipends on monthly basis. Various trainings programs have been organised for the youth and women to become self-dependent while scholarships have been offered to hundreds that can further their education. For a few of them who are very poor, invalid or widowed and who live in dilapidated sub-human environments, she undertook to build brand new 3-bedroom bungalows for them. A less privileged woman, Mrs Victoria Okafor had her mud house in Isuaniocha community pulled down and a 3-bedroom bungalow built and equipped for her. It was the same story of human kindness for another woman, Mrs Mercy Emonye of Agulu, a blind man in Umuoji and such other

less privileged persons in Abagana, Ukwulu, Oba, Adazi Nnukwu and 23 others who benefitted bungalows from the Senator. In all she has provided over 28 of such homes across the district.

If the massive infrastructural development she has attracted to the area are insignificant, her record in placing her constituents into job at the federal level are no less impressive. At the last count since her membership of the National Assembly, Ekwunife has secured high profile job placements for nearly 500 of her constituents.

Considering the rate of unemployment in the country, the disadvantage faced by her constituents as well as the stringent quota systems in the country, her effort in this regard stand her out.

The lawmaker’s outstanding performance has not escaped the people who take every opportunity to also commend her humility and passion for service. During her campaign trips, traditional rulers and opinion leaders have kind words for her. At Adazi-Enu, the Traditional Prime Minister, Chief Sunday Okonkwo lauded Ekwunife for her impact in the community, adding that her unprecedented achievements in the community would be difficult to match. While extolling the Lawmaker’s pragmatic leadership style, the Prime Minister maintained that Ekwunife’s projects in Adazi-Enu elevated her status in the community because the people never believed that a Lawmaker would be able to construct roads the way she did to the surprise of everyone. He urged the people to massively support the Lawmaker’s re-election bid because she is the best candidate for the Senatorial elections.

At the palace of the traditional ruler of Agulu, HRH Igwe Innocent Obodoakor, Ekwunife highlighted her achievements in Agulu to include the siting of the National University of Science, Technology and Innovation which she attracted, construction of asphalted roads, schools, boreholes, solar street lights, federal government employment, amongst others. In his response, the Monarch endorsed the aspiration of Ekwunife, noting that her Senatorial Candidature under the PDP does not conflict with that of an indigene of the community, Mr. Peter Obi, who is contesting for the presidency under the Labour Party. He maintained that the Lawmaker has been doing well for the community right from her days in the House of Representatives and as a Senator, she has continued to do well for the community.

The atmosphere of commendation was the same at Nri, Anaocha LGA and Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikoka local government Area and indeed across the entire senatorial district as Ekwunife stormed the communities for campaigns. Speaking at the event which was held at Eke Nri, the President General of the community, Chief Dr Kelvin Obiegbunam noted that the entire community was happy with her representation and the goodwill she enjoys all over the zone. While she had planned to use the campaign stops for project commissioning, it has turned a series of pleasant surprises as the traditional rulers, Presidents-General of communities as well as opinion leaders have taken turns to publicly endorse the Senator for what they regard as another well-deserved term.

The lawmaker’s outstanding performance has not escaped the people who take every opportunity to also commend her humility and passion for service.

During her campaign trips, traditional rulers and opinion leaders have kind words for her. At Adazi-Enu, the Traditional Prime Minister, Chief Sunday Okonkwo lauded Ekwunife for her impact in the community, adding that her unprecedented achievements in the community would be difficult to match

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

25

POLITY

Igbokwe: I Expect a Level Playing Field inToday’s PDP Gov Primary in Abia Nduka Nwosu

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bia State Peoples Democratic Party’s fresh governorship primary election comes up today in Umuahia following the death of Professor Uche Ikonne. Mayor Lucky Igbokwe is gunning for the ticket in a race that also has Bob Ogu, Eric Opa and Okey Ahiaiwe.

At the last primary election during which the PDP Abia State declared the late Professor Ikonne winner, Mayor Lucky Igbokwe came a distant second despite the perceived irregularities and arm twisting. Yet, Igbokwe ended up working with Ikonne as the youth ambassador for his campaign network.

Igbokwe wept when Ikonne’s family released a press statement confirming his demise to. Having come out of mourning he believes the same mistake that was made in the first primary should not be repeated today.

Right now, the governorship race has been zoned to the Isiala Ngwa LGA where Ikonne comes from, and new entrants are being admitted to take part in the race. Igbokwe has protested that this should not be allowed.

The question is who would succeed Professor Uche Ikonne as Abia PDP Governorship candidate whose campaign trail was halted because of illhealth?

Prior to this, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made an official statement asking the PDP Abia State chapter to conduct a fresh primary in 14 days. Elder Abraham Amah, Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary, stated: “following the death of the Abia PDP gubernatorial candidate, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne on January 25, 2022, and the subsequent directive by INEC, to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days to replace him, members of the Abia PDP State Caucus met and zoned the vacant Guber seat to Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area, the home LGA of the late Prof. Uche Ikonne.”

Does zoning the primary to a local government meet the requirements of INEC in the electoral law?

These interrogations are necessary to avoid litigations that will further downgrade the electoral value of the PDP in the run up to the March 10 governorship election.

Igbokwe thinks there was no reason for new entrants to be admitted in the ring where the earlier contestants should have the exclusive advantage of being the combatants in a fresh primary, lining up reasons he believes should have been considered by the PDP caucus.

The caucus members include the big stakeholders such as Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, former governor Theodore Orji, Abia House Speaker and House of Representatives aspirant Engineer Chinedu Orji, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, former Defence Minister and Senatorial hopeful Col. (Rtd) Austin Akobundu, and the statutory members of the Abia State caucus.

One would argue Igbokwe is fighting the battle of his life in Abia politics especially knowing he has an opening, no matter how small, that can lead to a bigger window in this gubernatorial race. Igbokwe believes the decision of a few members of the party in choosing a replacement for the party’s governorship candidate in the fresh primary ordered by INEC is flawed, saying it was wrong to allow those who did not participate in the first primary into the current primary holding today Saturday 4th February.

The other side of the coin to the argument is that the party was properly represented across the geopolitical and Senatorial zones of the state. Again, those standing against the constituted membership of the caucus would argue to the contrary insisting everything being done is not in tandem with the electoral law and INEC directive.

Igbokwe notes the decision runs against the intention of the electoral law and the instruction of INEC as he tries to appeal to the Abia people to stay awake and take their destiny into their hands rather than allow a few people to decide it for them.

Would his clarion call suffice and bring victory to PDP especially with three other strong candidates-Ikechi Emenike of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alex Otti of the Labour Party and Greg Ibe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), on the ballot box?

“My fellow Abians,” Igbokwe persuades the Abians with his clarion call, “let me explain. It can never be in the best interest of this state to force upon us candidates who have not been vetted and tested as our potential flag bearers from whom one person will emerge to face the other party flag bearers already on the campaign trail for months now in this allimportant governorship election.”

According to him, “these are candidates that have not undergone the rigorous processes of formal and informal scrutiny by stakeholders and members of this party in the 17 LGAs,” noting that the essence of consultation before party declaration is to go round the local government areas, present them with your manifesto and interact with the people before primaries.

“Will seven days be enough for this consultation and campaign by these new aspirants?” Igbokwe asks.

He reminds us that the first primary was marred by irregularities which led many to withdraw from participation while some left the party. This should not be allowed to happen again, he advises. Why would the modalities for a new primary be discussed without involving the earlier participants? he asks.

The decision to zone the governorship to the Isiala Ngwa LGA is wrong, Igbokwe insists. Some have asked the question if there was any illegality or electoral infraction committed in zoning the primary to the Isiala Ngwa LGA and allowing the party caucus to take this decision on behalf of the members of the party in the 17 LGAs, considering the time lag allowed for a more comprehensive electoral exercise.

Igbokwe says due process is the necessary rule to follow and that those who have laboured to bring the Abia PDP to where it is today should not be ignored: “We invested in the party and cannot just be ignored.

PDP must create room for growth and not recruit unwilling horses who did not aspire to lead in the first place “You do not force a child who did not do well in the sciences to read medicine, otherwise he would flunk his exams. This is why Abia State has failed woefully and keeps failing. Why must it be left open for those who were not participants in the first primary?” Igbokwe notes the idea of calling for fresh candidates coming in for the primary as well as choosing some anointed candidate from Isiala Ngwa LGA is unacceptable to the majority of PDP party stakeholders He stresses that many people might wonder why it is gravely important that the party should not be allowed to present new aspirants to this runoff election.

Igbokwe said: “Among those who either left the party for another party or withdrew from the primary contest out of frustration are Dr. Desmond Chima-Anyaso, His Excellency Right Hon. Udo Oko-Chukwu, the Deputy governor, Emma Nwaka, Professor Greg Ibe, Chief Ncheta Omeremkpe, Chief Mrs. Ezenwanyi Jonah, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Dr Sampson Orji, Engineer Enyinnaya Nana-Nwafor. Three of us participated in the primaries – myself, Chief (Mrs.) Ezenwanyi Jonah and Professor Uche Ikonne who persuaded me not to drag the governor to court.”

Igbokwe said he would contest the idea of calling for fresh candidates coming in for the primary as well as choosing some anointed candidate from Isiala Ngwa LGA. Igbokwe criticised the decision of a few members of the party to choose a replacement for the party’s governorship candidate as well as allowing new contestants to join those who took part in the first primary. As the governorship aspirant put it, the decision runs against the intention of the electoral law and the instruction of INEC that the election should be conducted in 14 days.

According to him: “Festus Okoye the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee has stated, the election is still one month away, and the State’s ruling party PDP has a window to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days of Ikonne’s death. This call is for due process to be followed by conducting a rancour free fresh primary as INEC has instructed. I urge the governor to do the needful so

Igbokwe that there would be minimum reason for any kind of objection to the outcome of the primary.”

He is sad that, the previous primary was marred by irregularities and many people withdrew from the contest.

“The few who voted for me despite the obstacles placed on my part, gave me a second place.

Ikonne and I had a good chemistry that brought us together. My mobilsation skills came to the fore and it was a beautiful work experience though very short. This fresh primary ideally should have been restricted to the earlier participants, not new ones.”

Why would a fresh primary be discussed without involving the earlier participants? He asks.

The important question in the minds of the many who still love PDP is whether the ordeals the party has gone through currently and in the past, would put it in good stead winning the governorship race come March 10, 2023? All that the party has as an advantage is incumbency over the opposition and a possible numerical strength from the Ngwa clan over the other Senatorial zones.

The long-awaited future is here and the question in the lips of Abia citizens is: will the PDP be allowed to continue with more than two decades of non-performance, or will the citizens rise and give it a sack notice?

I urge governor Ikpeazu to do the needful so that there would be minimum reason for any kind of objection to the outcome of the primary

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

26

POLITY

Significance of Peter Obi’s Abia Campaign Tour Jones Ike On the February 3, 2023, Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party was in Abia State as part of his nationwide campaign in readiness for the February 25th presidential election.

The Abia visit of Obi unlike several others in the country has a lot of political and historical implications for national politics .

Firstly, it has to be acknowledged that Obi has already achieved the unique feat of being a historical figure in Nigeria because of his transformation of Nigerian national politics from the way it was played in the past, as an ethnic and regional contest for the control of national resources to its present elevation as the contest of ideas, as an ideological struggle between forces that have held Nigeria down and made it the poverty capital of the world and the mass of the Nigerian people – workers, peasants, farmers, students, business people, pensioners, artisans, intelligentsia etc and who want to retrieve the soul of their nation from a thieving elite. It is a struggle intended by the Labour Party to retrieve their country from the iron grip of a vicious and conniving elite that are spread all over the country, North, South, East and West.

The battle is still raging and proving to be a titanic one.Obi and his Deputy, Yusuf Datti Ahmed possessing the moral compass of integrity, capacity, experience, intellectual capacities have been leading the charge rather very well.

However, there has been a noticeable effort on the part of a tiny Igbo elite to obfuscate the fact of Obi’s general acceptance in Igbo land as in other parts of Nigeria. This tiny elite who belong to the group that the Nobel laurate, Professor Wole Soyinka regarded as the “wasted generation” are amongst the tiny national elite that has benefited and continue to benefit from the rot in the Nigerian system. This corrupt elite has been vociferous in their campaign to keep Nigeria the way it is so that they, their families and cronies will continue to feed fat on the blood and sorrows of the Nigerian masses.

This tiny conniving Igbo elite in alliance with their counterpart in other parts of Nigeria have been working hard to undermine Obi’s campaign efforts. The negative campaign of these agents of backwardness have sometimes tended to cast doubts in the minds of non Igbo populations

Obi about the readiness of the Igbo to climb the topmost rung of Nigeria’s political leadership.

The importance of Obi’s Abia visit and the general acceptance accorded him there will be better appreciated when it is realised that Abia is the bastion of Igbo nationalism. Enugu maybe the administrative capital of the Igbo but Abia is its political headquarters. Real Igbo politics flows and is domiciled in Abia.

A check out of Igbo history especially its relationship with national politics will buttress this fact.

Abia is the original home of the Aro’s and the ancient warrior communities of old Bende like the Abam, Ohafia, Abiriba, Item, etc who controlled and

L-R; Nigerian Stand Up Comedian, Ali Baba; Convener Celebrity Prayse, Pastor Emmanuel Paul; representative of Lagos State First Lady, Mrs. Funke Shofola; President, Actors Guild of Nigeria, Emeka Ejezie Rollas; and Comedian, Steve Onu-Yaw at the Celebrity Prayse “ Theme Non Shall Be Missing” held at Civic Centre in Lagos on Sunday…..

SUNDAY ADIGUN

dominated much of the pre colonial Igbo social and political life.

Even during the subsequent colonial and post-colonial era, Abia as part of Igboland continued to be the base of Igbo Nationalism as is evidenced in the Aba Women’s Riot of 1929, the widespread support that was given to Zik’s NCNC, the use of Umuahia as Biafra’s capital during the Nigerian civil war, the mass support for NPP in the Second Republic etc.

It was in recognition of the fact of being the bastion of Igbo Nationalism that the late Biafra leader Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu before his death made the wish and which was carried out that his corpse should be taken to Abia before interment. It is against this background of being the base of Igbo Nationalism that the rousing reception accorded to Peter Obi and his team during the February 3rd, 2023 Abia visit should be viewed as a wholesome endorsement of his candidature by the generality of the Igbo’s. This is just as well as it should be considered as a genuine support by the masses for the fundamental changes which Mr. Peter Obi and the labour Party are crusading for. Changes that will transform Nigeria from a consumption oriented country to a productive one. These are changes that will ultimately stem the national slide towards anarchy that we have all been witnesses to in recent times.

The Abia rousing reception and endorsement could as well be regarded as a follow up of the earlier endorsements by strategic groups and individuals like that of the former Civilian president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), Chief Edwin Clark, the leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum, Pa Adebanjo and the Afenifere leadership, the Ohaneze, the Middle Belt Forum, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Gov. Otorm of Benue state,The Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN),The Islamic Clerics,Youth Groups,Students,Artis, Musicians, Athletes etc. Such gale of endorsements is just a pointer to the fact that Mr. Peter Obi’s Candidature has a national appeal and that such appeal is not restricted to any zone or region.

It is against this background that most Nigerian are expectant that his win during the forthcoming February 25th, 2023 presidential polls will usher in a renaissance in all facets of Nigeria which the Nation desperately needs.

Ike, Fmr Chairman Arochukwu LGA is a member of Alex Otti Campaign Council

L-R: Group Head, Corporate Services, Hope PSBank, Cletus Igah; Group Head, Inclusion and Distribution South, Hope PSBank, Ms. Helen Nwelle; Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, Hope PSBank, Mrs. Ogechi Altraide; Group Head, Operations, Hope PSBank, Mr. Sunday Abah and Group Head, Corporate Services, Unified Payment, Mr. Felix Edionwe, at the Press Conference for the Nationwide Wallet Account Opening Campaign held in Victoria Island, Lagos … recently SUNDAY ADIGUN

L-R; Marketing Manager, Three Crowns milk, Mrs. Gloria Jacobs; Cluster Supply Chain Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Mr. Temitope Bandele; Cluster Sales Director, Sub Sahara Africa, FrieslandCampina WAMCO,Mr. Adedeji Adeshoga; the winners of the Three Crowns Mum of the Year 2022, Mrs. Oluchukwu Rose Igwe; Mrs. Joy Obiese; Mrs. Ivbade Odigie; Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Mrs. Ore Famurewa and Cluster Marketing Director, Sub-Sahara Africa, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Chris Wulff-Caesar at the grand finale of Three Crowns Mum of the year campaign 2022 held in Lagos ….yesterday

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 24, 2011

GLOBAL SOCCER A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

4.02.2023

NEWS

RECORD SEEKER PAGE. 29

Terem Moffi Can He Recreate Lorient’s Form at Nice?

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

GLOBAL SOCCER

Terem Moffi during his first traning session with OGC Nice

Terem Moffi

Can He Recreate Lorient’s Form at Nice?

With 12 goals in 19 matches, and just one shy of French super star, Kylian Mbappe, it was obvious Lorient would not be able to hold on to their Nigerian jewel- Terem Moffi. It therefore came as no surprise when Ligue 1 side met Lorient’s €30 million valuation of the Nigeria international with just 24 hours to the end of the winter transfer window. What remains to be seen however is if the Super Eagle will justify his huge transfer to the Riviera

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fter having several bids rejected, Ligue 1 club OGC Nice on their seventh attempt finally met Lorient’s valuation of €30 million on Nigeria international, Terem Moffi.

Lorient have accepted a €30 million offer for Super Eagles forward, Terem Moffi to join Ligue 1 club OGC Nice.

According to French news outlet, Footmercato, the deal agreed on entails €25 million fee with another €5 million in add-ons.

Lorient had wanted Moffi to join Olympique Marseille after they met their valuation of the Super Eagle but the striker insisted on a move to the Riviera club.

Moffi, 23, signed a four-and-a-half-year contract upon the completion of his medical.

The Moffi saga lasted almost the entire window. Initially, Nice were rivalled by Premier League clubs West Ham United and Southampton. However, interest from across the Channel waned as reports revealed that the Nigerian striker’s preference was to remain in Ligue 1.

With his move to Nice, West Ham’s pursuit of Moffi was all but dead in the water. Lorient’s preference has always been to sell to West Ham rather than rivals

Nice.

But the player’s preference has always been to join Nice.

West Ham already had a deal in place with Lorient for the 23-year-old Nigerian for £20 million plus, while Nice were struggling to get close to it.

The Hammers however became concerned after Nice offloaded striker Andy Delort to Nantes as it raised guaranteed funds and indicated they are expecting to sign a replacement before the deadline.

Now Nice have blown West Ham out of the water for striker Moffi.

According to breaking news from Foot Mercato on Monday, Nice submitted a seventh bid to Lorient for Moffi worth over £26 million plus add-ons.

The report claims that there are “still details to be settled” but that Nice had already taken charge in the battle with West Ham. “OGC Nice have made a new offer, possibly the last, for Terem Moffi at Lorient,” Foot Mercato reports.

“It seems to be getting closer to President Féry’s demands. Final details are currently being discussed…

“The final details are currently being played out. And this concerns the different percentages and bonuses. Percentage on resale, more or less accessible bonuses, this is

what is currently being discussed between the two parties.”

This was always likely to be the case as soon as news emerged that Nice had shipped out Delort – ironically an alleged former West Ham target himself.

It is looking increasingly likely that West Ham boss David Moyes will be going into the relegation run-in with what he has.

And that is an enormous risk based on what the Hammers have produced during a woeful Premier League campaign so far.

Especially as all of their seven relegation rivals bar Everton have been active in the January window while West Ham have only brought in Danny Ings.

Moffi joined Lorient from Belgium Pro League outfit, KV Kortrijk for €8 million in October 2020.

He has scored 12 goals in 19 league appearances for Lorient so far this season.

Meanwhile, OGC Nice have said they are thrilled to sign Nigerian international Terem Moffi from fellow Ligue 1 club FC Lorient.

“We’re delighted that Terem’s determination to sign for OGC Nice, combined with our own, has led to this outcome. The support of our owner was also invaluable,” remarked club president Jean-Pierre Rivère.

“It’s an investment that matches our ambitions.”

Nice Sports Director, Florent Ghisolfi, was full of praise for the quality of their new striker.

“When it comes to the ideas that we want to implement and the identity that we want to establish, he’s the ideal striker,” Ghisolfi said.

“Terem is capable of playing with his back to goal and of running in behind. He’s a modern striker, very pacy and very powerful. He has experience, and he fights for the team. He’s capable of making run after run whilst always keeping a cool head inside the box.

“In Ligue 1, he’s already set the standard.

A new milestone awaits him at Nice, where he’ll get to play in Europe for the first time in the spring and will be one of the key men carrying the club’s lofty aims.”

Describing the 23-year-old, OGC Nice wrote, “quick, powerful and a formidable finisher, the Super Eagle is also a man of his word.”

Moffi has become a household name in the Ligue 1, scoring 34 goals in 87 matches since his arrival from KV Kortrijk in 2020.

His transfer was competed on time and he’s eligible to make his debut for OGC Nice when they face Marseille tomorrow.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

GLOBAL SOCCER Players Focus One player that is making waves and definitely attracting attention in the 2022/23 Nigeria Professional Football League campaign is Plateau United’s central defender, Emmanuel Ifeanyi.

In spite of the fact that his primary assignment is to prevent poachers from getting close to his goalkeeper, the defender has scored four goals in five matches to emerge the joint-highest goal scorers in the league.

Emmanuel has same number of goals with Bendel Insurance striker, Imade Osehenkhoe, who also scored four in five games. While Osehenkhoe’s goals pushed Insurance to the top of the table, Plateau United are struggling in the league.

NPFL TABLE GROUP A TEAM

PWDL Insurance 5 5 0 0 Remo Stars 5 4 0 1 Enyimba 5 2 1 2 Akwa United 5 2 1 2 Plateau United 5 2 1 2 Gombe United 5 1 3 1 Shooting Stars 5 1 2 2 Kwara United 5 1 2 2 El Kanemi 5 1 1 3 Nasarawa 50 1 4

Remo Stars’ midfielder Segun Odegbile tries to guide the ball away from two Bendel Insurance players

Bendel Insurance Seek Record Six Straight Wins

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fter five wins in five, with victories over, Akwa United, Plateau United, Kwara United, Remo Stars and El Kanemi Warriors, Bendel Insurance will be attempting to record an unprecedented six straight wins in the 2022/23 Nigeria Premier Football League as the ‘Benin Arsenal’ welcome Gombe United to the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.

While Bendel Insurance top Group A table, having amass the maximum 15 points from five matches, their today’s opponent, Gombe United are 7th on the log with six points from five matches, having won one, drawn three and losing one.

Bendel Insurance have kept a clean sheet in their last three matches in the league, while Gombe United are yet to score a goal in their last three away league games.

In all their last three matches, the league leaders have shaken the back of the net in both halves. On the other hand, Gombe United’s performance has been

disappointing of late, as they have won just one of their 20 most recent away league games.

If statistics are anything to go by and the fact that Bendel have turned the Ogbe Stadium to a fortress, the ‘Benin Arsenal’ look good to make it six wins in six games, probably a record-breaking feat in the history of the domestic football scene since the advent of professional football in the country.

If the team can maintain their current form, Bendel Insurance supporters’ quest for a silverware in over a decade may just be on the horizon.

Bendel Insurance steeler performance since the club’s return to the elite division has been a suprise. In the first game away to Akwa United, even an obviously surprised Coach Monday Odigie admitted the result was not a true reflection of the action on the pitch and described Akwa United as the better side in the game.

“I am happy we won but the truth is that we were lucky to have taken our chances.

“Akwa United had experienced players,

their game plan was better which explains why we were always under pressure,“ Odigie noted.

He however commended his players for the emotional and psychological strength to have withstood the pressure.

“When we played in the pre-season tournament in Lagos, we didn’t do well and took the lessons back for correction.

“We needed to build their psychological strength and mental conditioning to play in the top league where you have tough clubs likeAkwa United, Enyimba, and Plateau United. It worked in this match but we are not there yet, there’s a lot more to do,” Odigie stated.

When told of the heroics of goalkeeper Anas Obasogie, who thwarted Akwa United’s efforts at goal, Odigie attributed the win to team work.

He said, “You can see everyone contributed to the defence of the goal, it was not the goalkeeper alone but I acknowledge his contribution also.”

If the Benin side continue their form Bendel Insurance supporters’ quest for a silverware in over a decade could be on the horizon.

GROUP B TEAM

P Rivers United 5 Lobi Stars 5 Abia Warriors 5 Tornadoes 5 Sunshine Stars 5 Doma United 5 Rangers 5 Bayelsa 5 Dakkada 5 Wikki Tourist 5

W 4 4 3 2 1 1 1 2 1 0

D 1 0 0 1 3 3 2 2 1 1

L 0 1 2 2 1 1 2 5 3 4

F 9 6 6 5 8 3 5 2 2 4

A 1 3 4 4 8 3 7 5 5 10

F A 9 4 7 2 6 3 4 3 4 4 3 3 2 4 9 -4 4 6 2 8

PTS 15 12 7 7 7 6 5 5 4 1 PTS 13 12 9 7 6 6 5 5 4 1

ROUND 6 FIXTURES TODAY

Bendel

v Gombe

16:00

v El Kanemi v Remo Stars v Abia Warriors v Rivers Utd v Lobi Stars v Kwara v Nasarawa v Bayelsa Utd v Rangers

16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00

SUNDAY

Enyimba Akwa Utd Dakkada Doma Utd Tornadoes Plateau Shooting Sunshine Wikki Tourist

MID-WEEK RESULTS GROUP A

El Kanemi Gombe Kwara Utd Nasarawa Remo Stars

0-1 2-1 2-1 1-2 1-0

B’Insurance Shooting Akwa Utd Plateau Utd Enyimba

1-0 1-1 1-0 1-0 2-0

Tornadoes Doma Utd Dakkada FC Sunshine Wikki

GROUP B

Abia War Bayelsa Utd Rangers Lobi Stars Rivers Utd

Rangers Not in Wikki as Tourists, Target Maximum Points in Bauchi

A

fter a poor start to the Nigeria Premier Football League, Enugu Rangers recorded their first league win with a hard-won 1-0 midweek, in Akwa Ibom (Rangers’ adopted home) curtesy of Hadi Mohammed 30th minute goal to relieve head coach, Abdu Maikaba of more pressure.

The Flying Antelopes now turned attention to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi, for a date with Wikki Tourists FC. The management of Rangers in its bid to ensure that the upward movement of the team is maintained in the ongoing NPFL 2022/2023 Abridge season, has effected the payment of the outstanding two match bonuses due

players and officials as a motivation for a win in the match day 6 fixture against Wikki Tourists F.C in Bauchi.

Addressing the players after its training session, Thursday, at Rangers Training Pitch, Independence Layout, Enugu, the administrative secretary of the club, Ferdinand Ugwuarua, praised the players and coaching crew for the newfound form that has helped the team go three matches unbeaten while challenging them to increase the tempo in their match in Bauchi.

“Enugu State Government through the management of Rangers is living up to its promise and willing to go further in its push for the club to achieve its set target this season. In this regard, the two outstanding match bonuses for this season have been cleared to

serve as a motivation towards your match in Bauchi against Wikki Tourists this weekend. The maximum points are our target and management believes in your ability to deliver the goods,” stated the youthful club administrator.

The team will be at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi for the match day 6, Group B fixture against Wikki Tourists F.C tomorrow, with their sights set on annexing all three points at stake to further push for a top finish in the group and be part of the end of the season, Super-Six championship playoff.

Rangers is currently placed 7th in Group B with five points from five matches scoring two goals and conceding four.

30

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

GLOBAL SOCCER

Guardiola Hopes to Break Tottenham Stadium’s Jinx as City Visit Spurs Having lost all four of his previous visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and knowing Manchester City could be eight points behind Arsenal before his team’s cracker with Tottenham, Pep Guardiola would be hoping that he could break the new White Hart Lane’s jinx for a chance to keep track of the Gunners for the Premier League title race

Premier League Table TEAM

P

GD

Arsenal Man City Newcastle Man Utd Tottenham Brighton Fulham Brentford Liverpool Chelsea Aston Villa Crystal Palace Nottm Forest Leicester Leeds West Ham Wolves Bournemouth Everton Southampton

19 20 20 20 21 19 22 20 19 21 20 20 20 20 19 20 20 20 20 20

29 50 33 45 22 39 7 39 9 36 10 31 2 32 4 30 9 29 1 30 -4 28 -9 24 -19 21 -7 18 -7 18 -8 18 -18 17 -23 17 -13 15 -18 15

PTS

PREMIER LEAGUE TODAY

Everton Aston Villa Brentford Brighton Man Utd Wolves Newcastle

v Arsenal 12:30 v Leicester 15:00 v Southampton 15:00 v Bournemouth 15:00 v Crystal Palace15:00 v Liverpool 15:00 v West Ham 17:30

SUNDAY

Nottm Forest v Leeds Utd Tottenham v Man City

14:00 16:30

LA LIGA TODAY

Riyad Marhez was a thorn in the flesh of Tottenham when Manchester City came from 2-0 down to beat Spurs 4-2 at the Etihad Stadium

J

ust over two weeks on from playing out a six-goal thriller at the Etihad, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City renew hostilities in tomorrow’s Premier LeagueclashinNorthLondon.Bothteams progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup last weekend, as Spurs eased past Preston North End 3-0, while the Citizens edged 14-time winners Arsenal 1-0.

Thoughts will be spared for Antonio Conte this week, as the Tottenham boss cedes control of the reins to Cristian Stellini, following an operation to remove his gallbladder, having experienced “severe abdominal pain” following last weekend’s FA Cup win over Preston.

Prior to returning to his native Italy to go under the knife, Conte, who could reportedly take up a seat in the director’s box for this game if he is well enough to travel witnessed Son Heung-min net a brace alongside a debut goal for Arnaut Danjuma in a comfortable Deepdale success.

Success in the cup followed a hardearned Premier League triumph over London rivals Fulham - courtesy of Harry Kane’s record-equalling 266th Tottenham goal, but the Lilywhites are still playing catch-up in the Champions League race, currently sitting fifth and three points worse off than Newcastle United and Manchester United, both of whom have a game in hand.

Now seeking to win three successive matches on the bounce for the first time since October, Tottenham suffered defeat immediately after back-to-back wins in November and January, and home has not been a fortress for the Lilywhites recently.

Indeed, four of Spurs’ last five Premier League games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have ended in defeat - conceding at least twice in all of those fixtures.

Finally pitting their wits against the only team in the land to have out-performed

them in the 2022-23 campaign, Man City were nullified by Arsenal in the first half of their FA Cup fourth-round heavyweight tie, but Mikel Arteta would ultimately experience another miserable return to the Etihad.

A sublime finish from Nathan Ake was enough to send Man City through to the fifth round at the Gunners’ expense, but the reigning Premier League champions still have plenty of work to do when it comes to usurping Arteta’s runaway leaders at the top of the table.

Ending a minor goal drought, the only way he knows how, Erling Braut Haaland’s fourth hat-trick of the season put Wolverhampton Wanderers to the sword 3-0 two weekends ago, but Guardiola’s men remain five points behind Arsenal, who have a game in hand after the Gunners left it late to beat Manchester United.

A trio of home wins may have come Man City’s way, but the champions travel to North London having lost each of their last two away contests to Southampton and Manchester United, and Guardiola has remarkably lost all four of his previous visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - at no other ground does the Catalan coach have a worse record.

A seething Guardiola also tore into his players after their 4-2 win over Spurs in January - where Conte’s side got into halftime with a 2-0 advantage before the Riyad Mahrez-inspired fightback and Tottenham will even have the support of the red side of North London, for a couple of hours at most, in their bid to right the wrongs of the Etihad encounter.

Experiencing the true definition of a baptism of fire, Sean Dyche takes charge of Everton for the first time at today’s showdown with leaders Arsenal.

Eighteen places and 35 points separate the two sides at opposite ends of the Premier League table, as the Gunners aim to extend

their lead at the summit to eight points.

Dyche undoubtedly inherits a poisoned chalice at Goodison Park, where disgruntled fans have been making their feelings clear for some time now.

Selling starboy Anthony Gordon and failing to bring in a single new face in the January transfer window has hardly helped matters either, as Dyche takes over with the Toffees sitting 19th in the rankings, but a shock win over Arsenal could see the hosts rise above the dotted line if results elsewhere go their way.

While Dyche has been handed a whole list of things to fix at Everton, first on the agenda will be trying to snap a fourgame losing run in all competitions, and their winless streak now stands at 10 games since a 3-0 win over London opposition in Crystal Palace on October 22.

The Toffees’ Premier League losing streak at Goodison Park also stands at four matches, but they have at least managed to find the back of the net in their last three home contests, and Arsenal fans have painful memories of the blue half of Merseyside from the past couple of years.

Despite some bright moments, Arsenal’s magical start to the season would not extend to a rare win over the reigning champions at the Etihad in last week’s fourth-round FA Cup battle.

With only the Premier League and Europa League to focus on for the remainder of the campaign, some Gooners have welcomed their early cup eliminations as they endeavour to steer eight points clear of Man City - who do not play until tomorrow.

The 50-point Gunners, who have a game in hand on Man City, are on course to match the Citizens’ centurions of 2017-18 should they continue in the same vein, and they enter today’s game unbeaten in 13 top-flight

Espanyol Elche Atlético Real Betis

v v v v

Osasuna Villarreal Getafe Celta Vigo

13:00 15:15 17:30 20:00

v v v v

Madrid Valencia Valladolid Sevilla

13:00 15:15 17:30 20:00

v

Almería

20:00

SUNDAY

Mallorca Girona Sociedad Barcelona MONDAY

Vallecano

Head to Head 23/19/01 22/19/02 21/15/08 21/13/02 20 /21/11 20/02/02 19/17/08 19/20/04

Man City4 - 2Tottenham Man City 2 - 3 Tottenham Tottenham 1 - 0 Man City Man City 3 - 0 Tottenham Tottenham 2 - 0 Man City Tottenham 2 - 0 Man City Man City 2 - 2 Tottenham Man City 1 - 0 Tottenham

Hot Shot PLAYERS

Erling Haaland Harry Kane Ivan Toney Aleks Mitrovic Rodrigo Marcus Rashford Miguel Almiron Martin Odegaard

CLUB

Man City Tottenham Brentford Fulham Leeds Utd Man Utd Newcastle Arsena

GOALS

25 16 13 11 10 9 9 8

matches, having earned a slice of revenge over Manchester United at the Emirates two weeks ago following their Old Trafford defeat.

Six of Arsenal’s last seven Premier League games away from home have also ended in victory, and Arteta’s men ended the 2021-22 season with a 5-1 thumping of the Toffees in North London, but they have lost each of their

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

31

GLOBAL SOCCER

L-R: President, International Association of Ultrarunner (IAU), Dr. Nadeem Khan; Vice President, Nigerian Olympic Committee, Solomon Ogba; MD/CEO, Nilayo Sports Management Limited, Bukola Olapade; Executive Chairman, Lagos State Sports Commission, Sola Aiyepeku; President, Athletic Federation of Nigeria, Tonobok Okowa; Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Access Corporation, Amaechi Okobi and Head of Running and Mass Participation, World Athletic, Alessio Punzi, during a press conference to announce the 2023 Access Bank Lagos City Marathon in Lagos ...yesterday.

Lookman

Lookman Beats Osimhen, Dybala to AIC’s January Player of the Month Award Nigeria international, Ademola Lookman has been named Associazione Italiana Calciatori (AIC) January player of the month.

The Nigerian striker started off the bench as the Oribici lost 1-0 to Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia match.

However, it is accurate to note that the Black and Blues were playing without their top player throughout the first half of the game, which

contributed to their defeat by the Nerazzurri during their visit to the San Siro stadium.

The Nigerian striker has five goals and two assists in the Goddess’ last three league games, making him one of Gian Piero Gasperini’s new system’s key cogs.

Players that excelled at their highest levels in January were Paulo Dybala (2 goals and 3 assists), Victor Osimhen (5 goals and 1 assist), and

Mattia Zaccagni (3 goals and 1 assist).

However, the former Leicester City star outperformed these competitors, including his own countryman, by scoring goals, which led to his being named January’s Player of the Month.

The attacker, though, trails his countryman Osimhen by two goals in the Serie A scoring standings with 12 goals.

Flying Eagles Beat Junior Chipolopolo 4-2 in International Friendly Nigeria outclassed Zambia in a fire-packed, hugely entertaining U20 international friendly in Abuja yesterday evening, as both countries ratcheted up their preparations for this year’s Africa U20 Cup of Nations starting in Egypt in a fortnight.

Isah Ladan Bosso’s boys and the visitors treated spectators to heartwarming close control, excellent turns and dribbles and good positioning play on the turf of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, but the seven-time African champions could have won by a wider margin without the brilliance of visiting

goalkeeper Jeban Tembo.

Ayuba Abubakar heaved the ball too high when Tembo spilled after a lob by Ogbelu Onuche in the 6th minute, and Tembo was on hand to foil an advancing Ibrahim Muhammad two minutes later. Rilwanu Haliru Sarki’s effort from a 20-yard free-kick rocked the upright in the 11th minute, and at the other end, the nifty Moses Mulenga stretched Nathaniel Nwosu from a similar position six minutes later.

Sarki shot wide from a good position in the 27th minute and had his effort punched away in the 33rd, but there was no

stopping him in the 39th minute as he stripped three defenders and unleashed a cannon that Tembo could not stop on its way to the net.

In the second period, both teams moved the needle of the pressure even higher, and following even exchanges, Derrick Bulaya volleyed past Nwosu for the equalizer in the 55th minute. Another excellent Sarki free-kick was kept out by the upright in the 63rd minute and two minutes later, Tembo had to sprint outwards to block a header by substitute Adams Olamilekan.

Sheffield Would-be Owner, Mmobuosi Stops Players’ Sale During Transfer Dozy Mmobuosi, who is hoping to shortly become Sheffield United’s new owner, instructed the club not to sell either Iliman Ndiaye or Sander Berge during last month’s transfer window after making funding available to ease its financial position.

Mmobuosi was reported to have handed two undisclosed sums over to the present regime; only one of which related to an exclusivity agreement. The other is understood to have been used to help support dayto-day running costs at Bramall Lane, with the English Football League recently placing United under a transfer embargo after

they failed to keep up with their repayments on previous recruitment deals. Unless those are quickly met, the EFL, which is now scrutinising Mmobuosi’s credentials, could prohibit them from signing players for another two windows.

With the situation behind the scenes clearly more perilous than some observers have cared to admit, the job being performed by manager Paul Heckingbottom, his coaching staff and players becomes even more remarkable given the circumstances.

United enter tomorrow’s game against Rotherham

second in the Championship table and 12 points clear of third place with a match in hand on their nearest rivals.

However, Heckingbottom feared much of the good work achieved so far could be undone if Ndiaye or Berge were sold before Tuesday’s deadline for new signings to raise funds. In a display of both his commitment to take control and early influence behind the scenes, it is understood Mmobuosi encouraged United to reject any offers for the two - preferring for them to remain at Heckingbottom’s disposal until at least the end of the season.

NRA in Tears over Painful Death of NPFL Referee The Nigeria (Football) Referees Association NRA, is in a very mournful mood following the unexpected demise of a member and Premier League Referee of the Abia State Referees Council, Dr Kingsley Nnaemeka Eneogwe.

Dr Eneogwe died in a fatal motor accident yesterday on his way back to his Abia State base from Kaduna through the Lokoja-Enugu road as part of officiating crew who handled one

of the Nigeria Premier league matches on Wednesday. He was the Assistant Referee 1 of the Week 5 match; Nassarawa Utd vs Plateau Utd. A medical doctor by profession. After passing out from Federal Government College, Ohafia, he went to Abia State University where he read Medicine and Surgery and practiced

as a Medical Doctor until death came calling.

Dr Eneogwe, whose mother, a teacher and also a Referee, obtained Grade One in 2022 and went through the levels of national matches from Nationwide to National League Matches. He later gained promotion to Premier League about four years ago.

He was once invited for Fifa Listing exercise by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF Referees

Man Utd Intensify Effort on Osimhen’s Transfer Manchester United are reportedly intensifying their quest to sign Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen from Serie A giants Napoli.

According to a report from Fichajes, Manchester United are hoping to sign the 24-year-old at the end of the season.

Osimhen has been in exceptional form this season, scoring 14 goals in Serie A for the Italian club. Manchester United need to sign a quality goal scorer, and the Nigerian would be a superb long-term acquisition for them.

The report claims that Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag remains a big admirer of the striker. And it remains to be seen whether the Red Devils are prepared to pay over the odds to secure his services.

Apparently, Napoli will not

let the player leave for cheap and they will demand a fee of around €100 million for his services. But Manchester United are not afraid to pay the required price to land the Nigerian striker. There is no doubt that the Red Devils have the financial muscle to pull off the transfer, and it remains to be seen how the situation evolves.

Osimhen has already proven himself in Serie A, and he could be tempted to join the Premier League now. The opportunity to showcase his qualities in England could be an attractive option for the player.

Furthermore, a move to Manchester United could help him continue his development and fulfil his tremendous potential. Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has a proven track record of nurturing talented young players. And he

could have a positive impact on the development of Osimhen as well.

The Red Devils decided to terminate the contract of Cristiano Ronaldo earlier on in the season. And they have been overly reliant on Marcus Rashford as their main goalscorer now. The England international needs more help in the final third, and Osimhen could share the goalscoring burden alongside him next season.

Furthermore, Rashford has proven to be more effective as a left-sided forward. And the arrival of Osimhen will allow him to operate in a more natural role. The 24-year-old Napoli striker is unlikely to have any shortage of suitors in the summer transfer window. And it will be interesting to see if Manchester United can beat the competition and secure his services.

Olise Beats Saka, Rashford to Win EPL Goal of the Month Crystal Palace forward, Michael Olise has become the second player of Nigerian descent to win the Premier League Goal of the Month award, following in the footsteps of Chelsea academy product, Ola Aina, who won the award for November 2020.

The Eagles’ dazzler’s strike against Manchester United was named as the Premier League Goal of the Month.

Olise produced a moment of magic to deny Erik ten Hag’s

men three points in stoppage time when he delivered a sumptuous effort over United’s three-man wall and into the top corner.

Olise’s free-kick goal beat Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka, Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford, Tottenham Hotspur superstar Harry Kane, Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Daniel Podence, and Brighton & Hove trio Solly March, Danny Welbeck and Kaoru Mitoma.

to the prize.

He is the third Crystal Palace player to win the Goal of the Month after Andros Townsend, who won the award twice, and Wilfried Zaha.

Olise’s brilliant goal against Manchester United is also up for the Crystal Palace Goal of the Month.

In the current season, the France youth teamer of Nigerian descent has scored twice in 19 Premier League appearances while providing four assists.

Ilaboya Promises World-class Sportsville Awards All is now set for the annual Sportsville Recognition Awards billed to hold this evening at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos.

Chief Executive Officer of Sportsville, Frank Ilaboya, said yesterday that all arrangements have been concluded for the event slated to begin by 6pm.

According to Ilaboya, all the sports personalities billed to grace the occasion have confirmed they would be present at the event which is put together to honor eminent Nigerians who have done well for Nigerian sports.

Fourteen eminent Nigerians would be bestowed with the awards this year alongside two corporate bodies.

Top on the list of those to be honoured are the Governors of Bayelsa and Lagos states, Senator Douye Diri and Babjide Sanwo-Olu. Edo State First Lady, Mrs Betsy Obaseki, the General Overseer of MFM, Dr Daniel Olukoya, and former DG of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr Patrick Ekeji .

Others are the President of Naija Ratel, Paul Edeh,

President of FIBA Africa Zone 3, Col Sam Ahmedu (retd) and President of Remo Stars, Kunle Soname are to be bestowed with the award as well.

Also on the honours list are the President of HS Group, Taye Ige, the CEO of Owu Sports Manufacturing outfit, Tunji Brown, Mrs Tayo Popoola, Initiator of Lagos Women Run, Emmanuel Etim and late Brown Ebewele, who is getting a post humous award.

The duo of Supersports and Zenith Bank would also be honoured for their corporate support for Nigerian sports.

Milan Derby, EPL, LaLiga Matches to Air on GOtv Internationalle face its city rivals, AC Milan tomorrow, as it looks to close the gap on league leaders, Napoli and keep its title hopes alive on matchday 21.

After 20 games, Inter are second in the Italian league, 13 points behind league leaders, Napoli and two points ahead of its city rival Milan. The game, which kicks off at 8:35pm, will

be live on SuperSport Select 1 (GOtv channel 33).

Before the Milan Derby, Jose Mourinho’s Roma will play host to 10th-placed on Empoli today, at 5:50pm, live on SuperSport Select 1 (GOtv channel 33), while Sassuolo will host fourth placed Atalanta at 8:35pm, live on SuperSport Select 1(GOtv channel 33).

Tomorrow’s Serie A fixtures

promises more excitement as Nigerian striker, Victor Oshimen, looks to continue his stellar form by assisting Napoli in extending its Serie A lead against Spezia, on SuperSport Football (GOtv channel 31), at 12:20p.m. Also, tomorrow, Fiorentina will host Bologna in the mid table battle, live on SuperSport Select 1 (GOtv channel 33).

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾FEBRUARY 4, 2023

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

AUTO WORLD

Bennett Oghifo 07052343083 Email:bennett.oghifo@thisdaylive.com

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5 Tips for Windshield Crack Prevention and Repair All it takes is one small chip in the windshield before it becomes a IXOO ÁHGJHG FUDFN 6PDOO \HV EXW you want to be safe. Here is how to prevent a windshield crack from interfering with your safety.

Grenadier

INEOS Grenadier Partners Coscharis Motors in Nigeria

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KH /DJRV 6WDWH *RYHUQRU %DEDMLGH 6DQZR 2OX DQG WKH Corps Marshal of the Federal 5RDG 6DIHW\ &RUSV )56& 'DXGD %LX ZLOO EH VSHFLDO guests at the forthcoming Nigeria auto industry award.

The award is scheduled to be held at the 2ULHQWDO +RWHO LQ 9LFWRULD ,VODQG /DJRV RQ WKH WK )HEUXDU\ $FFRUGLQJ WR WKH RUJDQLVHUV 1LJHULD $XWR -RXUQDOLVWV $VVRFLDWLRQ RWKHU VWDNHKROGHUV that have also indicated interest to be part of the prestigious award ceremony are Toyota 1LJHULD /LPLWHG 71/ &)$2 0RWRUV 'DQJRWH 3HXJHRW .HZDOUDP 1LJHULD /LPLWHG DQG /DQUH 6KLWWX 0RWRUV ,Q DGGLWLRQ 0LNDQR 0RWRUV 57 %ULVFRH (OL]DGH $XWRODQG -HW 6\VWHP 1RUG 0RWRUV $XWRFKHN *82 7UDQVSRUW DPRQJ RWKHUV KDYH HTXDOO\ FRQÀUPHG WKHLU SDUWLFLSDWLRQ LQ WKH foremost auto industry event in the country. $OUHDG\ ÀQDOLVWV KDYH EHHQ VKRUWOLVWHG IRU WKH DXWR DZDUGV ZLWK *$& *6 *HHO\ &RROUD\ DQG 6X]XNL 6 3UHVVR QRPLQDWHG IRU WKH XOWLPDWH car-of-the-year award category.

NAJA Auto Awards is an annual event that celebrates auto brands across the entire industry value chain in Nigeria. $FFRUGLQJ WR WKH DZDUGV FRPPLWWHH GR]HQV of distinguished automotive journalists from GLͿHUHQW PHGLXPV VHOHFWHG WKH ÀQDOLVWV EDVHG on their evaluation of each eligible vehicle as part of their professional work. ,Q WKH 7UXFN RI WKH <HDU FDWHJRU\ WKH FRQWHVW ZLOO LQYROYH 6LQRWUXN E\ 'DQJRWH 6KDFPDQ WUXFN E\ 766 DQG -$& WUXFN IURP /DQUH 6KLWWX

1. Decide if it needs immediate attention )LUVW ZKHUH·V WKH FUDFN ORFDWHG" ,V LW RͿ WR WKH VLGH RU LV LW REVFXULQJ \RXU YLHZ" ,I LW LQWHUIHUHV ZLWK \RXU DELOLW\ WR VHH WKH URDG \RX VKRXOG GHDO ZLWK even a small crack immediately by taking your car to the repair shop. +RZHYHU LI LW·V QRW UHDOO\ LPSDLULQJ \RXU DELOLW\ WR VHH WKH URDG JUDE a ruler.

2. Determine whether it needs repaired or replaced ,I WKH FUDFN LV OHVV WKDQ LQFKHV ORQJ RU WKH FKLS LV VPDOOHU WKDQ WKH VL]H RI D TXDUWHU WKH LQWHJULW\ RI WKH ZLQGVKLHOG KDVQ·W EHHQ FRPSURPLVHG DQG SUREDEO\ GRHVQ·W UHTXLUH UHSODFLQJ according to Cars.com. But every crack RU FKLS LV GLͿHUHQW DQG LW·V LPSRUWDQW to consult an expert. The goal is to ensure a crack from getting bigger or in any way compromising safety.

3. Avoid dirt and debris One of the biggest things to guard DJDLQVW LV GLUW ,I GLUW JHWV LQWR WKH FUDFN LW FDQ PDNH D VLPSOH UHSDLU much more complicated. But that GRHVQ·W PHDQ \RX VKRXOG KHDG IRU WKH FDU ZDVK RU UHDFK IRU D EXFNHW ,I ZDWHU VHHSV LQWR WKH FUDFN ZKDW EHJDQ as a small repair has now become a FRPSOHWH UHSODFHPHQW ,QVWHDG NHHS dirt and moisture away from the crack ZLWK D SLHFH RI FOHDU SDFNLQJ WDSH ZKLFK LV VWURQJ EXW ZRQ·W REVFXUH your view.

4. Park indoors to avoid the sun ,I SRVVLEOH SDUN WKH FDU LQVLGH where it will be protected against UDLQ DV ZHOO DV WKH VXQ ZKLFK FDQ cause the windshield to heat up and DOORZ WKH FUDFN WR H[SDQG ,I \RX GRQ·W KDYH D JDUDJH WU\ SDUNLQJ LQ a shaded spot.

5. Avoid temperature extremes /LNHZLVH NHHS LQ PLQG WKDW H[WUHPH cold is not good for the cracked windshield. Refrain from putting your air conditioner or defroster RQ KLJK ,I QHFHVVDU\ XVH WKH KHDWHU moderately to gradually defrost the windows.

Sanwo-Olu Motors. ,QQRVRQ 0LNDQR DQG *$& ZLOO VOXJ LW RXW LQ WKH $VVHPEO\ 3ODQW RI WKH <HDU FDWHJRU\ ,Q WKH OX[XU\ FDU VHJPHQW 3RUVFKH 0HUFHGHV and BMW models are the front runners.

(OL]DGH $XWRODQG -$& 6WDOOLRQ +\XQGDL DQG CFAO Motors will battle for the outstanding auto workshop honour. ,Q WKH 689 FDWHJRU\ FRPSDFW .LD 6HOWR *HHO\ &RROUD\ DQG *$& *6 KDYH EHHQ QRPLQDWHG )RU /DUJH 689 7R\RWD /DQG &UXLVHU ZLOO ORFN KRUQV ZLWK *$& *6 %0: ; DQG 5DQJH 5RYHU $XWRELRJUDSK\ 7R\RWD +LOX[ 0LWVXELVKL / DQG )RUG Ranger will battle for the Best Pickup award.

/DQUH 6KLWWX -$& WUXFN 766 6KDFPDQ DQG 'DQJRWH 6LQRWUXN ZLOO DOVR EDWWOH DJDLQ IRU WKH truck plant of the year award. *LYLQJ LQVLJKWV LQWR WKH QRPLQHHV &KDLUPDQ RI WKH $ZDUG &RPPLWWHH 5DVKHHG %LVLUL\X VDLG DOO YHKLFOHV QRPLQDWHG LQ WKH various categories represent exceptional value and designs. ´:H DUH XVLQJ RXU UHVSHFWHG WUXVWHG SODWIRUP to recognise and acknowledge best-performing EUDQGV LQ GLͿHUHQW VHJPHQWV DQG FDWHJRULHV DFURVV WKH HQWLUH DXWR YDOXH FKDLQ µ $FFRUGLQJ WR KLP WKH DZDUG HYHQW ZKLFK KDV QRZ EHFRPH D PDMRU LQGXVWU\ VKRZ FHOHEUDWHV and rewards automotive excellence.

6. Drive carefully Another way to keep the crack from getting larger is to drive with extra caution. That means steering clear of potholes and staying away from rough roads. Jostling the car is the last thing that you need when driving ZLWK D FUDFN DQG \RX DOVR ZDQW WR be careful when getting in and out of the car and avoid slamming the doors or the trunk. $ERYH DOO NHHS VDIHW\ LQ PLQG at all times; the sooner you get the windshield in for replacement or UHSDLU WKH EHWWHU %H\RQG UHSDLULQJ D FUDFNHG ZLQGVKLHOG SHUIRUPLQJ regular car maintenance is key to sustaining your car in the long term.

(Source: Nationwide)

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

AUTO WORLD

Mikano Motors Teases Latest Brand Addition

M

ikano International’s Motors Division is at it again. The fastest growing automotive company in Nigeria is expanding its brand portfolio once more, following the recent debut of the Maxus brand.

The General Manager, Mikano Motors, Mr Ralph Haidar stated that “this latest addition will complete and complement our product lineup, joining our Geely, ZNA and Maxus brands.”

Proceedings are fully underway for the launch of this yet- to – be named brand, though auto enthusiasts have made several educated guesses on the mystery brand, which will be proven or disproven when an R΀FLDO DQQRXQFHPHQW LV PDGH In true Mikano style, the new automotive brand is being introduced in grand style. A social media challenge where participants stand the chance to win a brand- new 2023 luxury SUV is currently ongoing, and all that’s required to win is a descriptive and creative expression of their dream car.

Other indications hint that the new auto brand will be arriving with a wide array of models going by the subtle hints on promotional material released from Mikano Motors. While we wait with bated breath, we can tell that Mikano Motors is going to storm the market as they did with the Geely brand in the past couple of years.

Mikano International’s Motors Division teases with new brand

5 Kia Models Named to Cars.Com 2023 Best Value Report

F

ive select Kia models have been named to Cars.com’s 2023 Best Value New Cars report, further cementing the brand’s leadership position in offering award-winning vehicles at an incredible value.

The 2023 Rio S (with technology package), 2023 Forte LXS (with technology package), 2023 Seltos S, 2023 Niro Plug-In Hybrid EX, and 2023 Sportage Plug-In Hybrid X-Line made the report, which Cars.com says helps car shoppers who are considering their next vehicle purchase. In addition, the 2023 Rio S (with technology package) was named the winner of the New Car segment.

“We are thrilled to have so many of our models added to the Cars.com 2023 Best Value New Car report, including two of our Plug-In Hybrid models under the ‘Plan S’ umbrella of electrified offerings,” said Steven Center, COO and

EVP, Kia America. “This recognition reinforces our commitment to design, safety, reliability, dependability and value.”

Cars.com’s 2023 Best Value New Cars report identifies the most affordable new-car models in four categories — small SUVs, EVs and PHEVs, small pickup trucks, and cars — that offer the best value for the price based on features and each category’s median price among Cars.com’s inventory.

“We expect affordability to be top of mind for consumers in 2023. Finding affordable vehicles that still offer impressive technology and safety features can be challenging for car shoppers,” said Jane Ulitskaya, Cars.com Editor. “Cars. com’s 2023 Best Value New Cars report will help shoppers find a quality vehicle within their budget including five options in small SUVs, sedans and plug-in hybrids from Kia.”

The 2023 Rio S

Still On Rishi’s Rear Sealtbelt I do not know if you read my piece titled, “Rishis’ Rear Seatbelt Comeuppance.” It was about Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Please kindly spare time and read it as it captures all the drama surrounding the citation issued to the Prime Minister’s for failing to buckle up at the rear of a moving vehicle while filming a documentary.

I said the Prime Minister, not a Mayor; neither a Member of Parliament.

In that piece, I doff my hat for his humility in accepting his error and the apologies tendered to his government and the people of the United Kingdom despite the barrages of criticisms from opposition. Before I draw the curtain on the piece, I wish to first share a Facebook testimonial on the value of seat belts and how it saved a family. I know I blushed when I read the part by Susan Ade Coker applauding the efforts of the Federal Road Safety Corps. In her words, we tend to neglect the good works of the Federal Road Safety Corps Nigeria. They do excellent work of keeping roads safe especially during the festive periods.

I was therefore delighted to read her post mentioning how the family received help from members of the Road Safety Commission. The post was all about how a family on 28 December, 2022 survived a road traffic crash fatality all because of the inestimable value of the seatbelt as a safety device in the event of a possible crash.

According to the story, the family were travelling down to the east to celebrate the new year with their grandma. The journey according to her was smooth but along Enugu-Okigwe, their car failed to break. This happened shortly after the husband wanted to overtake a trailer man behind him and their car ran into the bush and hit a mighty tree. The family ended the testimonial by thanking God for road safety operatives who arrived just two minutes after the crash, noting that nothing happened to my husband, maybe because he was on a seatbelt.

This testimony underscores the value of seatbelt

SAFE DRIVING with Jonas Agwu

amnipr, mcipr,mprsa,arpa Assistant Corps Marshal Zonal Commanding Officer Federal Road Safety Corps.

usage by all vehicle occupants. But before I continue, I must equally inform you that I love Nigeria too.

It is my country of birth. Nigeria has provided me the platform to express myself and rise in my chosen career despite my innermost wishes. Like my brother from another mother, Patrick Adenusi, I am proud of the Green, White and Green flag.

Like I wrote last week, I do have my worries. I am worried about when we would domesticate the UK example. I am also worried that what happened to Rishi couldn’t have been imagined to happen in our clime. For emphasis, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was filmed without a seatbelt in a moving vehicle.

He was fined by the Lancanshire Police with a conditional offer of a fixed penalty. In his humility, Mr Sunak “fully accepted his mistake and apologised”, and promised to pay the fine.

I once informed you that passengers caught failing to wear a seatbelt when one is available can be fined a hundred pounds. I also informed you that this fine can increase to five hundred pounds if the case goes to court. In our clime, the fine is a mere pittance that targets only the driver without any consequence on the defaulting passenger unlike in the UK. Funny enough, I have a frisson feeling at the thought of the likely reactions if what happened in the UK had happened in Nigeria with numerous

phone calls and threats which I have experienced from both the mighty and lawless. But in the case of the Prime Minister, like I stated earlier, he apologised, promising to pay his fines. Despite this sense of humility, critics tore him into shreds, calling him a liability and laughing stock with the Liberal Democrats thumping the police for what they called, “the Conservatives eventual comeuppance.”

When I wrote about this last year, I informed you that Passengers aged 14 and over in the UK are responsible for ensuring they wear a seat belt in cars, vans and other goods vehicles if one is fitted.

Drivers are responsible for passengers under 14.

Exemptions include having a doctor’s certificate for a medical reason, or being in a vehicle used for a police, fire or other rescue service. This I had advocated as a best practice that could change the face of seat belt compliance in our clime especially at the rear But while we would consider tinkering with this thought, it is interesting to bring you up to speed with current developments in the United Kingdom where despite the level of success recorded and the amount invested in raising the level of awareness, the government is being urged to reinforce seat belt messages.

Interestingly, seat belt usage by seating position in the United Kingdom will marvel you. For starters, driver usage is ranked 97 per cent while front seat passengers stands at 96 per cent. Rear seat passenger ranking is 92 percent. Yet there are still concerns on the need to stiffen penalties for defaulters borne out of the results of an observation survey, carried out in the autumn of 2021 which found out that more than five percent of drivers were not wearing seat belts in all vehicle types.

The figure for front seat passengers is almost similar as it found out that non-compliance rates rose to more than eight percent among rear seat passengers. Despite this lamentations, seat belt wearing is high as estimates in 2021 stands at 94.

8 per cent for drivers, 94.6 for front seat passengers

and 91.5 for rear seat passengers. Among car drivers, the compliance rates were slightly greater at 97.2 per cent for drivers, 96.8 per cent for front seat passengers and 92.2percent for rear seat passengers.

However, with data showing that 23 per cent of car occupant fatalities in 2020 were not wearing a seatbelt, the Department for Transport says those who do not wear a seatbelt are ‘disproportionately likely to be killed in road collisions’. This underscores my call for a post mortem since seatbelts are probably the single biggest life-saving device ever introduced into vehicles and therefore requires a reinforcement of the messages while enforcement must be stepped up.

The current spate of crashes as well as the type of vehicles being used for commercial transportations raises fundamental issues, as well as the need to roll out new awareness campaign strategies, DQG LQFUHDVHG ÀQHV UHJLPHV ZKLFK , IRFXVHG RQ a couple of weeks ago. Truth is that seat belts save lives. It can’t be put simpler than that. Seat EHOWV KDYH EHHQ DGMXGJHG WR EH WKH PRVW HͿHFWLYH WUD΀F VDIHW\ GHYLFH IRU WKH SUHYHQWLRQ RI GHDWKV and injuries in the event of a crash. Wearing a seat belt can reduce risk of crash injuries by 50 per cent according to the Global National Safety Council. $OWKRXJK D VLJQLÀFDQW QXPEHU RI GULYHUV DQG front seat passengers now wear seat belt, sustaining the level of compliance requires a tougher penalty as further improvement holds the key to crash reduction in the face of rising crashes at night as well as rising head- on collisions. The truth is that, the current pittance called fines for defaulters does not emphasise the seriousness of the risk of not complying with seatbelt which is significant to injury prevention when a crash occurs. Although there are new technologies that offer prospects of avoiding crashes, we need to seek public buy-in which requires mere strapping and not spending any cash to stay safe.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

36

MEDIAGAFFES

EXPRESSION

‘Join the Bandwagon’ Wrong

T

HISDAY Front Page of January 21 welcomes us today: “…the aim of the interactive session is to build confidence amongst (among) the people in the electoral process….” A ‘ mongst’ and ‘amidst’ belong to the old

school!

“Commander Brigade of Guards assures on security of FCT, Niger, Nasarawa states” Get it right: Commander, Brigade of Guards, assures FCT Minister on security…” Also note the punctuation. “…the government and good people of Kano State heartily felicitate with the oldest monarch in the world….” ‘Felicitate’ is a standalone. So, yank away ‘with’. “Élections (Election): Parents appeal for 2 weeks (weeks’) break for students to vote” “Anger in Patani over herdsmen (herdsmen’s) attack, abduction of farmers” “We’ll fish out, deal with oil theft (thieves), FG’s probe panel vows” THE GUARDIAN of January 29 did not live up to expectation: “Physically challenged (Physically-challenged) persons arrested over (for) illegal drugs” “…the decision by the government to deploy 900 troops to (in) Mali as part of….”

“Fontini Consulting Limited Training Calender (sic) for the Year” “Empower Nigeria conference kicks-off (kicks off) in Enugu” Next is DAILY INDEPENDENT of January 30: “CSR: Access Bank dishes out post disaster (post-disaster) relief materials to flood victims” Last Monday’s edition of THE NATION lost its glamour thrice: “…why he did not join the bandwagon to float cosmetics line (a cosmetics line).” You either climb or jump on/ aboard the bandwagon—you do not join it! “…speaks volume (volumes) of the

decadence in the system.” “…her life in a society largely comprising of ‘settled citizens’ should be applauded by all without ill-feelings.” Delete ‘of’. “…the nation is rent apart by all manners (manner) of rancour, acrimony and divisiveness, while the people have lost total confidence in the regime’s capacity to govern.”

“Leaving this lovely little girl with ‘uncle’ could result to (in) a rape of her innocence.”

“Generally, a country’s criminal law apply (applies) only to acts committed within its territory.”

“But now that the middle class has fizzled out, a good number of alms givers has (have) turned to beggars, particularly in the urban centres across the country.”

“Yet, the CBN mops up millions of Naira intermittently from the economy on the ground that there is liquidity in the system!”

Beyond the realm of politics: on the grounds.

“This notwithstanding, some distinguished personalities, brilliant schoolars and astute politicians got elected into the National Assembly.” Not just an opinion: scholars.

“When an administration confronts them, they sometimes lie low, knowing fully well that they outlive administrations.” Get it right: knowing full well or knowing fully. “...he has a secret wife of Igbo origin whose off-springs (sic) prefer to bear their maternal grand-father’s name.” This way: offspring (non-count and not a compound word).

“It was a siege on (to) the court…on (to) the judiciary.”

“New wave of arrest (arrests)” “…the least that should be done is for it to handover (hand over) power willingly to a civilian administration and depart in peace.”

“Because the Nigerian economy has been in the doldrums for quite sometime (some time)….”

“Usually, the word ‘rights’ appear (appears) to strike a chord of anger in parents.”

“But then, would the world have bothered if he never succeeds (succeeded)?”

“In the final of his fourth part (four-part) analysis on (of) the present political state in Nigeria.…”

“Holy Bible says that money is the root of all evils.…” No distortion: It is the love of money (and not money itself) that is the root of all evils.

“The association must be commended for discharging its patriotic duty of alerting the authorities about (to) the security breach.”

“If for any reason, neither the state nor the police issues (issue) a statement.…”

“But first, the group must get its acts (act) together….”

“After a lull, violent crimes, particularly armed robbery, has (have) resurfaced.…”

“The Oputa-led panel investigating human rights violations in the country between the period of 1966 to 1999. For linguistic justice: between 1966 and 1999.

“We were of the opinion that the panel was set-up (set up) to sooth frayed nerves.”

Politics this week: soothe.

“Nigeria’s soccer house set to take the bull by the horn and change the face of the game.”

Sport Today: take the bull by the horns (not horn). This is a standard form.

“We could do nothing against such formidable odds giving (given) the worthless tools at our disposal.”

“A further review of the performance of the major currencies of Nigeria’s trading partners also indicate (indicates) that the Euro....”

“The reasons range from power generation limitation to the use of overaged (overage), antiquated and archaic hydro-terminal plants and so many others too numerous to mention.”

2023: Our Self-Inflicted Ides and Tides

L

et us indulge in a rehash (wherever you see 2013 (or 2015) simply substitute our current 2023; and swap equivalent names and offices from then with now): Let me quickly introduce myself. I’m not a clairvoyant, a prophet or seer. I however do believe that if things remain as they are (and there is nothing in the past 30 years to indicate that we will change for the better, or even resist the temptation to over-reach ourselves), my predictions have a good chance of coming true.

My prescriptions are, of course, predicated on the obvious facts of our current existence, and really do not take much intelligence to articulate that the consequence of the ongoing actions, inaction and serial perfidy of politicians and public officials can only mean one thing: near total collapse of all democratic and state structures.

For those who understand their history, and appreciate the influence of numbers in the natural order of inevitability, figures matter. They really do matter. Crunch these for instance... In Nigeria, our fate appears to be intertwined with figure ‘3’ in every decade, even long before our 1960 independence.

Not in the mould of being the third largest economy in Africa. No, rather in a more draconian way - we tend to unravel politically around that number, and then spiral into series of bungling and fumbling missteps and misadventures; which over several decades have prevented us from progressing speedily and sensibly as a nation, in spite of the quality of our human resources and the (quantity) of God’s deposits upon our soil.

If in 1953, the Nigerian politicians had positively received Chief Anthony Enahoro’s call for “a primary political objective (for) the attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956”, we would have embraced a fairly more Nigerian constitution rather than the Lyttleton contraption of 1954; and Nigeria would have been independent four years before she did in 1960. We would have avoided the Kano Riots of 1953, precipitated by deep

ethnic and partisan divisions within the polity.

We missed the chance, and were reduced subsequently by sundry setbacks.

The post-independence crisis between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Ladoke Akintola led to the Western Region crisis of 1962/1963, and of course all the intrigues, skirmishes and conflicts were the harbinger of the first military coup in 1966. Though something good came out of 1963, the MidWest region was created in spite of prevailing agitation in the West that it was more of a back-stabbing castration (masterminded by) the eastern and northern governments.

On 12 August, 1963, the Mid-Western Region was born. Nigeria also received her republican status on 1 October, 1963.

The blight of the first set of indigenous political leadership reared its head essentially from 1963, in preparation for the 1964 Federal general elections - a fool-hardy, self-serving politicking that completely ignored the prevalent dangerous tension and anger in the land. But the real detonator for the Wild West’s “Operation Wetie” fiasco was the dubiously arranged Regional elections of 1965. Its vitriolic over-flow swept in the military adventurers. More importantly, the unreasonable weakness and confounding indecision of the Tafawa Balewa-led Federal government to deal decisively with barefaced hooliganism and lawlessness in the western region persuaded the coupists that the politicians had no clue on how to rule their rich country. Does that sound like a deja vu?

However, after surviving a couple of quickfire coups and a mindless civil war, Nigeria sort of straddled into some peacefulness.

But about 1973, the young Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, strangely began to drop hints of amnesia concerning his hand-over date and programme. He was no longer sure if Nigerians needed civilian rule (any more). That indolence bought him a bloodless palace coup in 1975.

And in fits and bounds, we staggered on until 1983, when the putrid cup of purposeless politicians came crashing down with the rude

entrance of the Buhari/Idiagbon bloodless intervention. The military’s return was arguably excusable because of the bastardization of politics and demonization of honesty in the conduct of public affairs. In a now usual climate, a prostrate (civilian) president appeared clueless while his subordinates traversed the entire country looting public till and flaunting their perfidy across national countenance with despicable impunity - and all the while, Nigeria drifted about in rudderless and meaningless meanderings. Deja vu?

1993 brought out the big lie in our muchvaunted claim of the giant of Africa, as rulers of that period, driven by their Lilliputian sense of self-importance and inordinate grab and greed for power, truncated what, until then, was our best attempt at national political transition. The only profit we derived from the annulment of the 12 June, 1993 election, truth be said, was a great and incessant devastation on the body polity and psyche of the nation...a dull pall from which we are yet to unfurl.

Of course, we also remember 2003 and its emblematic presidential election, internationally regarded as the worst election ever organised by any human society. The fissures of that election will take political anatomists many years to correctly and fittingly dissect and categorize for edification of the next generation.

Therefore, on these precepts, let us proceed in streams we are now familiar with....

Just like we had our fears about how the government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) appeared to be working furiously to breathe life into the lurking demons that evidently ruled the years towards 2013… what with the cold, disparaging realities of 2011/2012 as expressed in the great revelations of incredible larceny and gargantuan pilferage that toppled the then political actors, and led to the resounding crash of the ruling party during the 2015 elections… the wind is again blowing the backend of the preening hen. As it is becoming clear, the same prognosis that afflicted the Jonathan

EBERE WABARA

ewabara@yahoo.com, 08055001948

“The Yorubas, Igbo and even Northern minorities have grudges….” English with politics: the Yoruba, the Igbo (collective) and, of course, the northern minorities.

“The police has an image problem, too.”

Bound to correction: The police have.…

“I have persistently advocated, without much success, the need to align policy making (a hyphen) to (with) crime control….”

“The purchasing power in the hands of consumers have (has) been going down; it means that demand for goods and services are (is) reducing. “…the executive cannot acquiesce to a patently wrong situation and demur in a similar situation.” The legislature we deserve: acquiesce in (not to). “…anybody who happened to stumble unto (on) some millions of naira by fair or foul means dabbled into threat business.”

“Motorists deserve this relief after the anguish of yesteryears.” Stock form: yesteryear.

“This is another scintillating edition for the matured (mature) mind.”

“Benue assures on abandoned projects” Just tell readers who the state assured.

“Before embarking on the strike action….”

You can as well embark on strike inaction!

Just ‘strike’ (no ‘action’), please!

“It was as though both informants were mischievous people who had an affinity in (for) discrediting the preachers.”

“The vigilante group visited instant judgment on the thief and sent him to the great beyond.” In the name of lexical exactitude: vigilance group.

“Sixteen people were killed and two others seriously injured in a ghastly (fatal) accident which occurred along (on) the Bauchi-Auchi road on Saturday.” The fatality component is unnecessary as it is clearly implied.

COUNTERPOINT

FEMI

AKINTUNDE-JOHNSON fajalive1@gmail.com 08033622806- (SMS Only)

misadventure is being stubbornly copied by the current Muhammadu Buhari administration.

If the President and his cabinet, the incumbent legislators and state governments across the board do not revert from their current “I-don’t-give-a-damn” posturing, and they continue to do little or no work, and take unsightly remunerations; if they continue to transfer national wealth to private accounts with scant regard for retribution; if they continue to caress indicted thieves and cavort with determined criminals...the year 2023 is a potent number that may herald tremors and terrors that will suffocate corrupt leadership and up-end despotic do-little mandarins who purport to be selfless stewards of our commonwealth.

As predictions go, there is no absolute in this crystal ball. There is nothing to show that a change of heart and a reversal from current insensitive direction may prevent untoward consequences. But, look around you, the same nonsense is being repeated: The selfinflicted national agonies of ‘fuel scarcity’ queues, and inability of folks to have access to their funds trapped inside banking vaults and ATMs because the so-called distribution of new naira notes falls abysmally short of the crying demands of the people.

All these have combined to make discerning people wonder why a government would aim a loaded gun on its own head, especially in an election year. However, deeply ingrained traditions and human predilection for selective amnesia may lull the current political players to underestimate the inevitability of centrifugal forces that have plagued this nation right from the first Lagos election of 1923!” Welcome…2013.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

SUPER SATURDAY Ibinabo Fiberesima

I’m Not Looking for Fame, Na Money I Dey Find Now Nollywood actress cum filmmaker, Ibinabo Fiberesima is always never shy of the truth. Choosy with her words, the ex-beauty queen and model, appears to make bold statements at any given opportunity.

Just like she did in this conversation with Ferdinand Ekechukwu. She talks about her newly established Queen Bae Studios and its debut feature film an epic drama based on a real character - titled “Amanyanabo The Eagle King”

T

ell us about “Amanyanabo The Eagle King” It is an epic drama based on a real character, a King of Okrika, Ibanichuka, Ado the VI, Amanyanabo of Okrika. He was one of the great monarchs of Okrika that reigned over an era of prosperity, sterling diplomacy, astute trade relations and security. Ibanichuka is fondly referred to as the overlord of Okrika and the last of Okrikas grand potentates. The movie is a fitting tribute to his reign which was characterized by a lot of events that outlines some of his conquests, alliances and even a civil war.

He weathers these storms while trying to unite a people already divided by the incursion of a foreign religion and finding a solution to colonial encroachment led by a sadistic British consul.

Ibinabo When is it to be released? Will it be straight to cinema or streaming platform?

When you produce a film, you want to eventually get it to reach the widest audience possible. Were critically now in the marketing and publicity stage. There are a lot of options open to us. We are also being broached by cinema houses and some platforms but we are consulting widely to arrive at the best business decision that will reach the widest audience available.

We want the movie to get to its

farthest and we will choose any platform that can make that happen. But I will keep you informed in this regard.

What was it about this story that pulled you to it and what is the essence bringing this historical movie at a time like this?

First of all, the story is inspired by a book written by Dr. Alfred S. Abam, Ado the IX, Amanyanabo of Okrika. A lot of people rightly haven’t heard about Ibanichuka.

I dare say a lot of Ijaws especially the present generation who aren’t in touch with

their roots have not. Personally, I grew up reading about the great Bini Monarch, Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi in a play written by the legendary Ola Rotimi. I read about the flamboyant Jaja Jubogha of Opobo and Nana Olomu of Itsekiri. But there were other leaders too that reigned around the time. King Ibanichuka was one of them. I was awed to discover about his exploits and challenges even in his household. I was pulled to the story because Africa has a lot of Ibanichukas whose stories have never been told. The Niger-Delta and even Nigeria as a whole has come to the point where

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

SUPER SATURDAY We Need to Remember Who We Are As a People and Return to Our Principles it is necessary to look back in order to move forward. We have a proud history of honest, strong and wise leaders that inspired our people through tough times.

We need to remember who we are as a people and return to our principles. For instance, in those days it was an anathema to be labelled a thief. You and your entire family bore the stigma. But these days, you are even hailed based on the amount of money you manage to steal. You can steal and then hire fancy lawyers, make flamboyant appearances to court, frustrate the process with technicalities and hold your head high in the midst of the flagrant infamy. Even with that toga you can eventually even nurse the odious ambition to aspire for office. We have lost our values, but we must recover those values, one step at a time.

What’s the major influence in your acting career?

The major influence on my career is the passion to tell stories. To tell stories, you sometimes need to play a character. It’s a form of escapism. I love that part of it all, when I have to drop the person Ibinabo Fiberesima and assume the persona of another character, either lovable or terrible.

I cherish the honour to play someone else and in that regard make a positive impact on people’s lives.

Tell us about your production outfit and how did the name came about?

To achieve my production objectives, I needed a vessel and that was why I founded Queen Bae Studios Production. I’ve always been referred to as the Queen Bae of the Niger-Delta by my close friends. So, when I was thinking of a name for my production house, I felt it was a nice way to immortalize the name given what I was about to embark on, and that was it, Queen Bae Studios Production was born. Queen Bae Studios is a small but beautiful Nigerian production outfit with massive dreams and even more immense potential. Queen Bae Studios loves challenges and will aspire to tell stories others shy away from. Our mission is to dominate the world stage with credible African stories beginning with ‘Amanyanabo The Eagle King’.

The story has been retold through oral and written medium. What difference does it make in film medium?

Film is about entertainment and whoever pays to watch a film wants to be entertained. This singular fact was not lost on me. Indeed, even if you have a sermon, it is prudent to enshroud it in an entertaining form or you lose the largest part of your audience. ‘Amanyanabo The Eagle King’ has been packaged with every ingredient one can imagine. There is action, drama, comedy, tragedy and factual reality bordering on history. It is something you will want to pay money to watch and that is the difference.

You produced and also acted in the movie. What are some of the choices and factors you considered before taken up the production rein?

To tell you the truth when the script was written, the first factor I considered was its achievability with regards to funding.

The cheapest you need to shoot a Nigerian movie replete with modern production standards that can at least compete contemporarily is in the considered region of $2 million. But you see, even with all the funds being bandied about, it is a very tedious and almost impossible feat to source funds for production and a lot of practitioners can bear me witness. The industry is in large parts self-sustained, albeit inadequately. I had to source funds by meeting old friends and liquidating assets. I had the choice to water the script down, but I also have a mission to challenge the very best in Hollywood just as some of my colleagues are doing presently.

I want to continue shifting the paradigm, to aim for the best. The technology to shoot any movie of one’s imagination is here with us, including the personnel to make it happen. I mean look at a movie like Avatar: The Way of Water. To shoot that sort of movie required massive funding between $350 and $460 million. But consider the end result and its financial dividends, as I write this, it has breached the $2 billion mark. Isn’t it mind-blowing?

So why are we not achieving same? Funding gets you the best from scriptwriters all the way to post-production and marketing.

My goal is to compete so I considered the best hands to work with. Acclaimed filmmaker, Izu Ojukwu was my Production Consultant along with Zeb Ejiro and the movie was directed by Fred Amata. I also had to assemble trusted hands as cast and crew and the result was more than I had imagined.

Share with us your role in the movie I played Tamunoba, the goddess, a very minimal but impactful role in the movie as you will see. It was by choice. As a producer, I knew I would have my hands full on the project and I didn’t want to compromise my films quality because of ample screen time.

I believe I’m already accomplished for that.

I’m not looking for fame, ‘na money I dey find now’.

You seemed to cast only old hands in this production. Not even a newbie.

Why? Like I stated earlier, I needed trusted hands first and foremost. The dialogue of the movie was not the run-of-the-mill and

How long did it take to shoot Amanyanabo?

Principal photography commenced April 2022 and ended May 2022 in a total of 21 days. We used principal locations, including Mgbegbe-gboko Island, One Mans Island, Okoro Ama and Akalogbo Ama all around the beautiful island of Okrika. We have spent quite some time in post-production between May 2022 and December 2022 and that was due to the foreign consultants working on the movie in association with Izu Ojukwus House of Illusion.

Ibinabo no actor was permitted to improvise my lines, which is a quietly celebrated norm on a lot of Nollywood sets. I required experience and those that had discipline for the craft. I did try to get one or two newbies, but they had conflicting schedules.

However, I had some budding actors on set who under my strict observation as Casting Director were fit to play the roles allotted to them, including Oluwatunmise Emmanuel Akinbo, the son of costume expert, Millicent Jack and Izuchukwu Ezeokoli.

I left no room for errors as a lot was invested in this. But I’ll say this. Most of these your newbies are arrogant and need to learn the discipline of the profession. It’s okay for your Instagram following to get you on screen but it will not sustain you.

Your following will not help you interpret roles, respect production or get along with others. They need to ask why many veterans are ever-green and why newbies fade after a short time. The knowledge, respect and discipline for your craft are key factors. Nkem Owoh, Monalisa Chinda Coker, Walter Anga et al turned in dramatic monologues for my audition and when contracted were never late to my set.

They never disrespected the cast or crew and were always standing by. I had two Ph.D holders in the persons of Columbus Irosanga and Ovunda Ihunwo who comported themselves and even helped the younger actors. Gentle Jack shuttled Delta and Okrika to ensure he delivered the script in precise words. That’s discipline and professionalism and ‘dem no dey buy

am for Instagram’ (laughs)...

Do you think Nollywood is telling real African stories looking at some of the films that have been churned out lately?

Nollywood is trying its bit in the aspect of telling real African stories, but more can be done. A lot still gets lost based on the budget available.

There are a lot of inconsistencies with the depiction of our culture on screen and this is because unlike our foreign counterparts most of our filmmakers work without consultants. For my film, we had a culture consultant. ‘Abeg, I didn’t want wahala with my people’ so I ensured I stayed within the border of acceptable plausibility. I find some of our epic movies funny especially the depiction of royalty which seems like a pale imitation of the British monarchy or comically copied excerpts from the fictitious Zamunda of Coming to America.

No offence but some of those productions cannot be classified as true African stories. There’s a thin line in trying to balance fact and fiction, but we need to be more cautious so we do not lose the basic ingredients that make up our identity in the telling of our stories. It’s embarrassing when I have to answer awkward questions from some of my foreign friends as to the cultural authenticity of some of these epics.

This is the first movie from your film house, Queen Bae Studios Production and the first time it will be captured in motion pictures. Were there challenges you had to deal with in the course of production?

Like I mentioned earlier, my biggest challenge was funding. I was able to shoot with a budget of approximately $1.05 million which is not a bad outing for a budding film house. I was able to pull elite thespians and high-end crew members to help me execute a world-class script.

Other challenges were logistic in nature which isn’t out of the ordinary when one is making a film of such a magnitude. But in all, I really did enjoy the pressure and what more, I was shooting in my home town and thus I was a beneficiary of so much love and goodwill especially at the behest of His Royal Highness, King Ateke Tom, Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, Okrika.

What’s the next project on Queen Bae Productions?

We actually have three ambitious stories in the pipeline, scripted and ready for production, but we want to patiently see to our first baby’s progressive nurture. The incidents of ‘Amanyanabo The Eagle King’ must be sorted before anything else. We are motivated but we are not in a hurry.

Female colleagues in the industry have been accused of living above their means and are doing well more than their male colleagues. What’s your view about this?

As a rule, I try to mind my own business.

There are a lot of hard-working actors and actresses out there who mix the craft with genuine business and I don’t think it’s fair to bunch them all in the same bowl.

There will always be the bad eggs and you know what happens to bad eggs. They eventually begin to reek and are thrown into the bin. This is the word of an elder and it is true.

How do you relax when you are not working?

I watch movies, I read and I hang out with my friends and family.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

NEWSXTRA PDP, Ayu Petitioned Over Friday Okpechi’s Alleged Fake Credentials Mary Nnah A group under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Obubra Local Government in Cross Rivers State has petitioned the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, the party and other organs of the party to immediately prevail on Hon. Friday Gabriel Okpechi, a PDP candidate in the Obubra/Etung Federal House of Representa-

Polls: Group Demands INEC’s Impartiality

DIPLOMATIC VISIT… L-R: Senior Document Adviser, Norwegian Embassy, Christiana Robertson; Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Isah Jere; First Secretary, Norwegian Embassy in Nigeria, Jon Geehard Lavendal, during a visit to Jere in Abuja...yesterday

in Etiti-Uzo Federal Constituency Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

Gunmen Attack Police Formation in Anambra, Kill One, Burn Facility David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

used by the attackers, one of the buildings in the formation was DͿHFWHG E\ ÀUH “As I speak to you, there is massive police operation going on in the area now, and we are calling on members of the public to trust us with information. People should come forth with information that can help us apprehend these culprits, and we promise that every information given to us will be treated with a high OHYHO RI FRQÀGHQWLDOLW\ µ

saying that a huge detachment of operatives were sent to the area Gunmen on Thursday attacked immediately the command get a police formation used by information of the attack.

The state Police Command’s Anti-Cult Operatives in Obosi community, Idemili South Local Spokesperson, DSP Toochukwu Government Area of Anambra Ikenga, said: “Our men were moved there immediately, and State.

It was gathered that the gunmen they were able to combat the NLOOHG RQH SROLFH R΀FHU DQG DOVR gunmen, and also recovered burnt down a building in the some improvised explosive formation using a petrol bomb. devices (IED), which have not The Anambra State Police Com- been used.

“Our men stood their ground PDQG KDV FRQÀUPHG WKH LQFLGHQW

DQG ZHUH DEOH WR ZDUG RͿ WKH attackers.

“The men came in their numbers, using three vehicles.

One Toyota Highlander, one Toyota Sienna and a Corolla car.

“Because of the deployment, the attackers were not able to do harm to the level that they H[SHFWHG 7KH\ KDG WR ÁHH “Meanwhile, we lost one police operative in the attack. He was hit by a bullet from the attackers.

Also, because of the petrol bomb

Abdullahi Adamu: We’re Behind Tinubu, Others

DataPro Upgrades VFD Group Rating to “A+”

Laleye DipoinMinna National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has said that the entire leadership of the party is solidly behind Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.

Similarly, Adamu said the leadership of the party is behind all its candidates for governorship, national and state Houses of Assembly contests.

Adamu made the declaration in Bida, Niger State, on Thursday at a mega rally organised for the presentation of flags to candidates of the party from the Niger South Senatorial zone.

Adamu, whose speech was presented by the National Vice

Chairman, North Central Zone, Alhaji Muazu Bawa, said the party will campaign vigorously for all the candidates to ensure they win all the elections.

Adamu maintained that APC is “a formidable political party that is capable of winning the forthcoming JHQHUDO HOHFWLRQV µ DVVXULQJ WKDW WKH party would move Nigeria to greater heights if voted into office.

He submitted that “a vote for APC from the presidential candidate Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the vice presidential candidate, Shettima as well as the state governorship candidate Umar Bago and his running mate, Comrade Yakubu Garba and other elective positions is a vote for security, transportation, development, youth and women HPSRZHUPHQW µ

2023: You Must Join Hands with Me to Rescue, Develop Abia, Emenike Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia The Abia State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ikechi Emenike, has urged Abians to end their ‘I-don’t-care attitude’ to political affairs of the state and partner with him to rescue Abia from those blocking its way to development.

Speaking at a series of townhall meetings he held yesterday with different social-cultural groups and market associations in Aba, Emenike made Abians understand that their state would not get to the expected height of development by mere wishful thinking.

He told the groups, including the

Abiriba Communal Improvement Union, Aba, Old Bende Progressive Union and Aba Merchants and Artisans Association (AMAA) that they must actively participate in making a new Abia possible with their votes.

According to him, those who refuse to use their votes to express their disenchantment with the rot in Abia were also guilty of helping the bad leaders to remain in power and continue to hold the state down.

“If you want a good Aba; if you want a good Abia State, let’s work WRJHWKHU µ KH VDLG DGGLQJ ´,I \RX vote for a government that will remember that it is in partnership with you, that government will VHUYH \RX µ

tives in the forthcoming general election to resign, or the party will risk no representation in the green chamber of the National Assembly.

The request was contained in the statement titled ‘Request for the Immediate Resignation of Mr. Friday Gabriel Okpechi as PDP Candidate in the Obubra/ Etung Federal House of Representatives Election’, and made available THISDAY.

DataPro, a technology-driven credit rating agency, has upgraded VFD Group Plc’s long-term rating IURP ´$µ WR ´$ µ ZLWK D VWDEOH outlook for the year 2023/2024.

The rating agency, in a statement on Thursday, explained that WKH ´$ µ 5DWLQJ LQGLFDWHV ORZ risk in addition to very good ÀQDQFLDO VWUHQJWK RSHUDWLQJ SHUIRUPDQFH DQG EXVLQHVV SURÀOH when compared to the standard established by DataPro. It, therefore, said that VFD Group has a strong ability to meet its ongoing obligations.

The company’s Client Services Manager, Mr. Kehinde Rasheed, who signed the statement explained that the DataPro Rating Committee approved the rating after the assessment

RI WKH FRPSDQ\·V ÀQDQFLDO SHUformance, corporate governance and risk management as well as operational and regulatory environment.

He explained further that the rating also considers the operating model of the parent company DQG WKH ÀQDQFLDO VWUHQJWK RI WKH subsidiaries.

The statement said the VFD’s revenue surged during the year under review, saying this was due to an increase in earnings recorded across its line of businesses.

“The Group maintained continuous revenue growth RYHU WKH ODVW ÀYH \HDUV 7KH latest increase was 49 per cent growth from N6.6b (Yr. 20) to N9.9b (Yr. 21).

Ondo, Kogi Get New Chief Judges Fidelis David in Akure and Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu,SAN, yesterday sworn-in Hon. Justice Ayedun Olusegun Odusola as the 12th Chief Judge of the state.

Similarly, Governor Yahaya Bello has sworn-in Justice Josiah Joe Majebi as substantive Chief Judge of Kogi State, stating that his administration will continue to do its best at putting the judiciary in its rightful position.

Justice Odusola had served as the Acting Chief Judge of Ondo State until his recommendation by the National Judicial Council (NJC) and subsequent appointment by

the governor and approval by the state House of Assembly.

The governor also swore-in Hon. Justice Bolatito Florence Ajibade; Hon. Justice Bankole Jacob Akinwunmi; Hon. Justice Leonard Boyede Ologun and Hon. Justice Femi Sylvester Akinbinnu as new High Court Judges in the State.

Akeredolu equally inaugurated Pastor Omofunmile Adejombo; Mrs. Omolola Akinseloyin and Mr. Stanley Adeniyan as members of the State Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

Their inauguration was performed at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the *RYHUQRU·V 2΀FH $ODJEDND Akure.

A group, Total Support for the Rule of Law and Justice Initiatives, has demanded impartiality of the the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in all the pre-election matters going across the country, especially that of Igbo Etiti/Uzo Uwani Federal Constituency of Enugu State.

Its Director, Chidi Odo while addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, accused the electoral body of bias for allegedly supporting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Igbo Etiti/Uzo Uwani Federal Constituency of Enugu State, Hon. Martins Okey, against the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sam Ekwueme.

Nigerian Startup Plans to Transform Property Ownership in the Country A Nigerian prop-tech startup has taken the market by storm with the aim to transform the way people buy, sell, and own property.

The platform launched by the prop-tech startup Vank Wallet (www.vankwallet.com ) will evidently deregulate ownership structure of property giving everyone an opportunity to have a slice of the prop-cake has been described as nothing but revolutionary by market watchers.

According to the promoters of

the platform, Vank Wallet aims to bring innovation and seamless transactions in the property market across the country.

The startup deploys a state of the art digital wallet built on Blockchain technology that allows users to buy, sell, borrow against and manage vetted real estate.

Founded in 2021 by Daniel Essien, Vank Wallet is a one-stop shop for users to do everything real estate, including pooling resources to buy property as a group.

Mba: Canada Leadership Conference, Renewed Hope for Girl-child Canada-based Nigerian licensed immigration advisor and convener Leadership Conference, Edmonton Canada, Dr. Lina Mba, has said that mentoring of teenage girls who dropped out of school due to pregnancy form the thrust of this year’s Leadership Conference holding in Edmonton Canada in August.

She said proceeds from the conference will be used to procure equipment and training opportunities to develop skills that will fetch the girls revenue as well as contribute

to the local economy.

Dr. Mba who spoke online said: “Some proceeds of the forthcoming event will go to support our Girl-child Project.

We are currently mentoring teenage girls that dropped out of school due to pregnancy and are having challenges going back to school.

These proceeds will help them get equipped with equipment and training to develop a skill that can turn into a source of revenue and contribute to their local HFRQRP\ µ

Webinar to Unlock Hidden Potential in Business Operations Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

$ ÀQDQFLDO DQG SHRSOH operations solutions company, Earnipay, is set to organise a webinar on how to help business owners to unlock their hidden potential and achieve success.

The upcoming webinar slated for February 18, 2023 which is themed, The Million-Dollar Asset Businesses Don’t Know About in 2023 will be moderated by Yemi )DVHXQ &KLHI 7DOHQW 2΀FHU RI YF Talent Partners and board advisor of Earnipay.

The event will feature insights and strategies from Earnipay CEO, Nonso Onwuzulike and &KLHI 2SHUDWLQJ 2΀FHU &22 Busayo-Onome Oyetunji.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 4, 2023

IMAGES

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ounder of AT3 Resources, Ms Tosin Adefeko, supported by her husband, Ade recently invited friends and associates to celebrate with her on her firm’s 5th anniversary at their newly opened Ikoyi Lagos office. The show of support was impressive. Here are some pictures from the event PHOTOS: ABIODUN AJALA L-R: Mrs Tosin Adefeko; Mrs Aishah Ahmad; and Mr. Ade Adefeko

L-R: Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Mr. Gbenga Oyebode and a guest

Enema Samson

Gen. Ahmad

Mrs. Ibukun Awosika

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

L-R: Temidayo Adekanye; and Bassel Mourad

L-R: Premier Oiwoh and Olusegun Adekanye

L-R: Eniola Bello with wife Ayobami; and Oseni Rufai

L-R: Sola Obagbemi; Rosemary Egabor-Afolahan; and a guest

L-R: Imma Bavoigartner and Tara Durotoye

L-R: Toyin Aralepo; and Anne Dankaro

L-R: George Ugbegua; and Ekenedilichukwu Ugbachie

L-R: Vice Admiral Adekeye and Fatima Adekeye

Mrs. Safurat Adekanye

L-R: a guest and Tola Adeyemi

L-R: Okezie and Franca Akaniro

Akinwale and Hansatu Adegbite

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Price: N250

MISSILE

Obasanjo on the state of Nigeria “Never have we been so politically divided along religious, ethnic and other fault lines and deliberately so. Appointments in government are skewed and lopsided on basis of nepotism and mediocrity” –Former President Olusegun Obasanjo raising the alarm on the state of Nigeria at the 50th anniversary of Federal Government College, Kaduna.

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ISAGUSAU GUEST COLUMNIST

Naja’atu Contradicted Herself on Shettima H

ajiya Naja’atu Muhammad is not naïve, she did not err, she knew she was telling lies when, at the end of last month (January, 2023) she went on television, to libelously link Vice Presidential candidate of the APC, Senator Kashim Shettima with sponsorship of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Naja’atu, and those who may have scripted her play, wanted to use her ‘just divorced’ relationship with the APC, to present herself as a former ‘insider’, in a position to make some revelations.

It is typical of defectors, especially when they are ‘well motivated’ or looking forward to it.

At her ‘must-win-a-new-husband’ interview, Naja’atu tried using one incident to associate Shettima with Boko Haram. She cited that a notorious member of the Boko Haram, Kabiru Sokoto, was arrested at the Borno Governor’s official lodge on T.Y. Danjuma Street, Asokoro, Abuja, back in January 2012, when Kashim Shettima, was less than one year old in office, as Governor of Borno State. That to her, was enough to call him a terror sponsor.

In holding to that argument, however, Naja’atu contradicted herself in at least, the following four ways: Kabiru Sokoto was arrested at the Borno Governor’s official lodge on January 14, 2012 and for that, Naja’atu called Kashim Shettima a sponsor of Boko Haram. However, what Naja’atu deliberately omitted was that sometime in 2014, she was in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and during her visit, Naja’atu stayed at the official residence of Kashim Shettima while he was Governor of Borno State.

Naja’atu spent two days or so, with Kashim Shettima and his family in the Government House, and that stay happened two years after Kabiru Sokoto was arrested at the Borno Governor’s lodge.

Now, if Naja’atu truly believed that Kabiru Sokoto’s arrest implied a link between Boko Haram and Kashim Shettima, would she have considered it safe to travel and live in the same house with the same Kashim Shettima, and in Maiduguri, where the Boko Haram was still commanding territories at that time?

I knew about Naja’atu’s visit to Maiduguri and her stay at Shettima’s residence, because I worked closely with Shettima as his media adviser throughout his first and second terms as Governor of Borno State.

Kabiru Sokoto’s arrest back in January, 2012 at the Borno Governor’s official lodge happened during the administration of then President Goodluck Jonathan, who was leader of the PDP, while Shettima was then an opposition Governor under the ANPP (which later fused into APC). After Kabiru Sokoto was arrested, security agencies investigated the circumstances of Kabiru Sokoto’s arrest.

It is public knowledge that as sitting President in the PDP, Jonathan openly had issues with Kashim Shettima (in the then opposition ANPP).

Shettima openly criticised Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram while Jonathan openly threatened Shettima (see Premium Times, February 25, 2014, ‘Jonathan slams Borno Governor, Shettima’).

Now, if the PDP-presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, which investigated Kabiru Sokoto’s arrest had found anything criminal associated with Kashim Shettima, will the PDP-presidency have spared an opposition ANPP Governor, especially one that the PDP-presidency openly criticised? Would Kabiru Sokoto’s issue not have given the PDP a strong story-line to use in

Naja’atu

Shettima

associating Shettima and the entire APC with Boko Haram ahead of the intense 2015 election?

At an Abuja public presentation in April 2018, when the Bring Back Our Girls movement held a lecture on Chibok girls, Naja’atu Muhammad, reminded her audience thus, as I quote her: “I have been part of a committee that investigated the atrocities of Boko Haram…” Naja’atu announced (see The Cable, April 18, 2018, ‘Naja’atu Muhammad: Terrorism has become a multi-billion dollar industry’).

Now, as she re-confirmed, Naja’atu was part of that committee that “investigated the atrocities of Boko Haram”, but how come she never, on the basis of what should have been her committee’s findings, raised any alarm against Kashim Shettima, whom she not only lived with at his residence in 2014, but even accepted to work with, in her membership of the Tinubu/ Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (until her sack)?

At that notorious interview, in which she accused Shettima, Naja’atu conveniently refused to reveal that the security committee she served in, which investigated the atrocities of Boko Haram, had based on its findings, strongly commended Kashim Shettima’s contributions

to the fight against Boko Haram.

The committee identified Kashim Shettima’s 2013 role in organising, formalising, training, equipping, deploying and funding over 10,000 youth under the Civilian JTF, Vigilantes and Hunters, who used their local intelligence to help the military chase out Boko Haram out of Maiduguri and to fight along them at other frontlines in over 20 Local Government Areas.

It is on record, and no one can erase that, Kashim Shettima in 2013, applied to the then National Security Adviser during Jonathan’s presidency, and convinced the presidency on the need to approve a partnership between the Borno State Government, the military, the DSS, police and para-military, to involve combat-ready youth with local intelligence in the fight against Boko Haram (see The Will, September 26, 2013; ‘Borno Govt Trains first batch of 800 civilian JTF members’; Aljazeera, May 31, 2014, ‘Nigeria’s Civilian JTF has taken it upon itself to fight against Boko Haram’; Premium Times, September 4, 2014, Bama attack: ‘Borno Governor meets security heads, Civilian JTF’, Premium Times, February 1, 2015, ‘Calm returns to Maiduguri as soldiers, Civilian-JTF foil Boko Haram attack; TVC, June 6, 2019, ‘Counting the gains of civilian JTF’).

Now, if Naja’atu truly believed that Kabiru Sokoto’s arrest implied a link between Boko Haram and Kashim Shettima, would she have considered it safe to travel and live in the same house with the same Kashim Shettima, and in Maiduguri, where the Boko Haram was still commanding territories at that time? I knew about Naja’atu’s visit to Maiduguri and her stay at Shettima’s residence, because I worked closely with Shettima as his media adviser throughout his first and second terms as Governor of Borno State

Few months after approving Shettima’s request, President Goodluck Jonathan in August 2014, praised youth of the Civilian JTF, being funded

by Shettima, for their gallantry and patriotism in the fight against Boko Haram (see Vanguard, August 2013, ‘Jonathan commends Civilian JTF in Borno’).

Beside Jonathan, heads of the military and commanders who operated in Borno State while Shettima was Governor, including the current Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who served as Theatre Commander, all testified to how Shettima incredibly supported the fight against Boko Haram.

In fact, a delegation from the Defence Headquarters, led by the then Director of Operations, had in May 2013 in Maiduguri, revealed that then Governor Kashim Shettima was even helping the military with valuable security information he was gathering from community leaders, most of which had served as actionable intelligence in the military’s fight against Boko Haram.

Truth is that Shettima has incredibly contributed to the fight against Boko Haram as all these instances suggest.

Meanwhile, taking us back to the arrest of Kabiru Sokoto, which opposition elements seem to isolate in trying to reverse Shettima’s history of impeccable service as Governor, I appeal to you, dear reader, to read an investigative news story that was published on July 15, 2022, by The Cable news, to which none of Nigeria’s security establishments has so far faulted, since the publication.

The story titled, Revealed: How Boko Haram kingpin plotted to kidnap Shettima’s children at Borno lodge, reads: “Kabiru Umar Sokoto, the convicted Boko Haram bomber, was hatching a plot to kidnap the children of Kashim Shettima, then-governor of Borno state, when he was arrested in January 2012, a confidential memo has revealed. Sokoto was the mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state, which killed at least 37 people and injured 57 others.

“He was initially arrested at the Borno governor’s lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, on January 14, 2012 before he escaped from police custody and was re-arrested a month later in Taraba state. In a confidential security memo dated Thursday, June 14, 2012, that is just coming to light, Sokoto was reported to have infiltrated the Borno governor’s lodge in a plot to kidnap the children of Shettima, who had relocated them from Maiduguri, Borno state, to Abuja for safety reasons.

“According to the memo, which was submitted to the presidency, Shettima — who had spent barely eight months as governor — had been warned that Boko Haram was plotting to kidnap his children for ransom. Shettima, who is now the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), decided to relocate them — two girls and a boy — to Abuja and enrolled them at Turkish and British schools in Wuse II and Gwarimpa.”

The above story of The Cable News remains the whole truth about the Kabiru Sokoto saga.

Truth is constant. Shettima’s hands are clean.

•Gusau, Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy to Governor Zulum, served as Adviser on Communications and Strategy to former Governor Kashim Shettima (March 2012 to May 2019).

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