SUNDAY 26TH JUNE 2022

FG Set to Issue Prospecting Licences to Winners of Marginal Oilfields Pledges to meet OPEC’s production quota by August Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja After a long wait, the federal government, through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), yesterday said that it was set to issue

Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPL) to successful awardees of marginal fields in the 2020 bid round.

The commission noted that the move was in fulfilment of the promise made early this

year, pursuant to the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.

A statement signed by the NUPRC Chief Executive, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, indicated that the event would hold on

Tuesday in Abuja.

This is coming as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva, at the weekend said the gap between Nigeria’s oil production and the quota given to it by the Organisation of Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be filled by August.

The marginal oil fields bid round, which commenced in 2020, had been bogged down by bureaucratic challenges, which prevented the winners from

commencing the development of the fields over one year after the awardees were officially handed the initial certificates.

On May 30, 2021, the then Continued on page 5

Buhari: Investments from Nigerians Abroad will Help Economy to Grow…

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Obasanjo: My Regret in Appointing Atiku as Vice President James Sowole in Abeokuta Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday reminisced on his life and achievements both

in the military and as civilian president, saying one of the mistakes he made was picking former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as his running mate during the 1999 presidential

election.

He made the revelation at the final of the National Exhibition and Awards, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta,

Ogun State, which featured presentations and exhibitions of some products, made by students of the participating schools.

Obasanjo was responding to

questions, posed by students from selected secondary schools chosen to participate at the event, organised by Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE).

The current presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was Obasanjo’s Continued on page 6

Tinubu Didn’t Lie Under Oath, Says Bayo Onanuga Group gives Buhari, IG 48 hours to arrest former Lagos governor Chuks Okocha, Alex Enumah and Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation yesterday stated that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, did not lie under oath over academic qualifications.

This followed an allegation that Tinubu claimed in the forms he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2022 that he did not attend primary and secondary schools.

The former Lagos State governor was said to have claimed that he attended primary and secondary schools in the forms he submitted to INEC in 1999.

INEC had in line with the Electoral Act, on Friday released the Form EC9 containing some details of presidential candidates Continued on page 10

LOVE IN THE AIR… L-R: Groom's parents, Mr. Oluwakemi Balogun (SAN); his wife, Folashade; Akarigbo of Remo Land, Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi; newly-wed, Olamide and Motunrayo; Intercontinental Overseer on Christian Social Responsibility (CRS), Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade; Senator Mohammed Sanusi Daggash; KUNLE OGUNFUYI and President of African Industries, Mr. Raj Gupta, during the wedding reception of Motunrayo and Olamide Balogun in Lagos…yesterday

Relief as INEC Extends Voters’ Registration Exercise Indefinitely…

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CELEBRATING GBAJABIAMILA AT 60…

L-R: Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Bola Tinubu; Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari; the celebrant/Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; his wife, Salamatu; his mother, Alhaja Lateefat Olufunke Gbajabiamila; during a special prayer session organised in honour of the Speaker to mark his 60th birthday at the Ansar-Ud-Deen Central Mosque, Wuse 2, Abuja…yesterday

Relief as INEC Extends Voters’ Registration Exercise Indefinitely EU urges Nigerians not to sell their votes Chuks Okocha in Abuja Apparently bowing to pressure, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday announced an indefinite extension of the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.

With this indefinite extension, eligible Nigerians who have been struggling to meet the initial June 30 deadline for registration, will now experience relief.

The electoral umpire has also promised to issue Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to all registered voters by October just as it also pledged that the forthcoming governorship election in Osun State would be better than the just-concluded governorship election in Ekiti State.

This is coming as the European Union (EU) has urged Nigerians not to sell their votes, stressing that vote-selling amounted to selling their future and enhancing bad governance.

Chairman of INEC, Prof.

Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at the closing ceremony of the musical concert mobilised to sensitise eligible voters ahead of the general election.

He also pledged that votes would count in the 2023 general election while urging voters not to sell their votes.

"I assure you that the voters’ registration exercise will not end on June 30 as earlier proposed.

It will continue till prospective voters register.

"We will continue to register all who come out to register and ensure that all that are eligible get registered," Yakubu explained.

Speaking on the issuance of Permanent Voter Card (PVC), the INEC chairman said: "All of you that registered within this period will get their PVC

by October this year.”

He announced that between Monday to Friday when the musical concert started, 14,000 voters registered at Area 10 Old Parade Ground in Abuja.

He promised that more voting machines would be deployed to areas of need, while additional 50 voting machines would be made available to the Area 10

Old Parade Ground to ensure the registration of more voters.

"We will not stop the registration exercise until eligible voters are registered,” he added.

The INEC chairman cautioned against the use of PVC as a source of identity among Nigerians, stating that it is mainly meant for election and voting.

Speaking on subsequent elections, Yakubu said: "If you think that the Ekiti governorship

election is good, I assure you that the coming governorship election in Osun State will be better and the 2023 general election will be the best ".

He, however, called on the youths and other voters not to sell their votes and be peaceful in all elections, while pledging that he would ensure that their votes count in all elections.

In her speech, the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria,

Samuella Isope, urged Nigerians not to sell their votes.

She argued that vote-selling amounts to modern enslavement and selling the future of the unborn generation.

She decried the growing youths’ apathy to elections in Nigeria.

"Since 2015 to 2019, the participation of youths in elections has been declining, but I hope that with what is happening here

now, it will change the face of youths in future elections in Nigeria,” she added.

The EU Ambassador urged the Nigerian youths not to sell their votes, saying, "don't allow anyone to steal your future because that is what vote-buying represents.

Vote to get a better future for yourselves and your country," she said.

She commanded INEC and Yiaga Africa for their efforts

in encouraging more eligible Nigerians to register in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

The musical concert witnessed a mass turnout that created heavy traffic between the Area 10 Function, International Conference Centre and the Navy and Popular Radio House.

Many young musicians, including 2face and others performed at the concert.

FG SET TO ISSUE PROSPECTING LICENCES TO WINNERS OF MARGINAL OILFIELDS Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) announced the conclusion of the exercise, the first since 2003, with the presentation of letters to the bid winners in Abuja by the industry regulator.

The regulator had put up 57 marginal fields spanning land, swamp and offshore for lease, with 161 companies eventually shortlisted to advance to the final stage from 591 entities that applied for pre-qualification.

Head of the DPR, which has now transformed into NUPRC, Mr Sarki Auwalu had at the time, stated that the exercise was worth roughly $500 million in signature bonuses.

However, a number of the award winners had decried the slow turn of events, stressing that they had continued to pay heavy interests on the loans that were borrowed to pay for the transactions, despite that the loans had been unproductive for over a year.

In January, the NUPRC disclosed that the 2020 marginal field bid round concluded in 2021 had at the time, yielded about N174.944 billion, with owners of 30 fields having partially paid and two fields stalled by court cases.

The new commission further stated that 20 companies which won the bids had partially paid up, among those who won the 57 oilfields.

But in the statement issued yesterday, Komolafe stated that the event would also witness the unveiling of the implementation template for the Host Communities Development Trust Fund for the commencement of the provisions under Section 235 of the PIA, 2021.

According to him, this will

positively impact restiveness in the host communities and the process guarantees seamless operations and boost investors' confidence.

Furthermore, the NUPRC chief executive stressed that it will provide enabling environment for sustainable development of the country's hydrocarbon resources.

“These will mark the conclusion of some of the most urgent and critical tasks inherited by the commission when it was inaugurated in October 2021, after the signing into law of the PIA 2021,” he stated.

He recalled that the commission had in March this year informed all participants in the 2020 marginal field bid round programme that it had put all necessary machinery in place to progress the bid round exercise to a conclusion in line with the PIA 2021.

“In furtherance of that resolution, the commission constituted an in-house work team to distil and address the concerns of awardees with a view to close-out issues affecting multiple awardees per asset and formation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) by awardees in line with the respective letters of the award.

“Awardees were therefore enjoined to avail themselves of the resolution mechanism provided by the commission in the overriding national interest,” he noted.

The NUPRC explained that the successful coordination and resolution of the issues culminated in the emergence of the successful awardees that would be handed over licences this week.

Meanwhile, despite a huge gulf between Nigeria’s current oil production compared to its

expected OPEC monthly allocation, the Minister of State, Petroleum, Sylva, at the weekend said the gap would be filled by August.

Sylva who spoke during an online media conference also dispelled the notion that OPEC could turn on spare capacity and pump more, citing capacity concerns.

The comment came almost a year after similar assurances by the minister and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, that the country would drill enough oil to cover the deficit

by December 2021.

But the aspiration expressed by the minister remains very ambitious as the latest OPEC market report indicated that Nigeria reported a paltry 1.024 million barrels per day production in May, quoting primary sources, a multi-year production low.

In all, the latest figure released by the OPEC, means that Nigeria's underperformance was as high as 700,000 barrels per day for the month, although the cartel’s total allocation to Nigeria exceeded 1.75 million bpd for the month.

The 1.024 million bpd production was about 195,000 bpd less oil drilled last month when compared with April’s total of 1.219 million bpd, OPEC said in the report.

Nigeria has a quota allowance to produce 1.77 million barrels a day in June and 1.80 million in July respectively.

What the OPEC figures imply is that rather than improve, the country’s oil production has deteriorated massively in the past months, although the authorities

say efforts are being made to ramp up production.

Citing massive theft as one of the reasons for its inability to meet its quota, the federal government had also months ago, deployed a heavy military presence in the Niger Delta to curb the menace.

But even that move has not helped much.

However, Sylva said during the interview that the country would be able to meet its OPEC production quota by the end of August as the country aims to boost security in its oil industry.

"For us in Nigeria, we are at a low point. We are not able to meet our OPEC quota. We have given ourselves just about a month to ensure that we can ... we believe that by August we would see some security improvement.

“At this moment, there is a little capacity that can be brought to the market," the minister was quoted

by Bloomberg and OilPrice.com as having said.

The perceived lack of spare capacity among many OPEC members has helped to keep oil prices high in recent months, despite lofty ambitions from the group regarding July production targets.

The July figure was set at 648,000 bpd higher than the June target and over a million bpd higher than the May target which OPEC is not meeting either.

If Nigeria manages to meet its August production target, it is expected to make a huge difference in the oil market which countries like the United States have complained is currently undersupplied.

The minister further said that the OPEC+ alliance of oil

producers was running out of capacity to pump more crude, including its biggest member Saudi Arabia.

“Some people believe the prices to be a little bit on the high side and expect us to pump a little bit more but at this moment there is really little additional capacity.

“Even Saudi Arabia, Russia, of course, Russia, is out of the market now more or less,” the minister added.

The extended group will meet next week Thursday to decide whether to proceed with a planned August oil production increase.

Over the last year, the cartel has been boosting output in a series of planned increases.

“At this moment, I think the prices are firming up and I don’t think there will be any surprises in OPEC in August,” Sylva said.

Aside from not being able to produce enough, the country has an additional headache, with international majors selling and exiting onshore and shallow-water fields.

“Struggling even to meet the quota has been very sad for us and operators have planned to fill the gap within a couple of months,” Sylva said.

“By end of August, generally the commitment is that we’re at least going to produce our OPEC quota and then of course look at going even beyond that after August,” he added.

Last Thursday, the federal government inaugurated a 10man expert team to work on a report preceding the reactivation of over 3,000 shut-in oil strings, which the authorities say will help increase production in the coming months.

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TEAM PDP IN DELTA… L-R: Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly and Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in the state, Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori; member representing Aniocha/Oshimili Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu; Deputy Governor, Mr. Kingsley Otuaro; and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, when the governor arrived at the Asaba International Airport after his emergence as PDP vice presidential candidate for the 2023 general election…recently

Buhari: Investments from Nigerians Abroad will Help Economy to Grow Deji Elumoye in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that the huge investments made in the country

by Nigerians in Diaspora would help in no small measure in the survival of the nation's economy.

The President has also praised the youth for excelling in their various callings at home and abroad, saying Nigeria would welcome inputs and investments from compatriots with international exposure for the economy to thrive.

President Buhari, according to a statement issued yesterday by his Media Adviser, Mr Femi Adesina, spoke at a town hall meeting with Nigerians in the Diaspora, in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, on the sidelines of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

He noted that with the establishment of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Nigerians abroad can now seamlessly contribute their quota to national development, especially in the areas of investments in the economy.

His words: ‘‘Our agriculture, housing and real estate, ICT, healthcare, education and services sectors among others are waiting for your inputs and investments considering your global exposure. ‘‘Let me urge you to key into the programmes of NIDCOM to make your contributions," Buhari explained.

Commenting on the feat performed by Nigerians at home and in Diaspora, he said: ‘‘I am proud of you all, and I remain ever proud of our Nigerian youths excelling,

at home and abroad. ‘‘It gives me great pleasure to be in Kigali, Rwanda and to meet with you, members of the Nigerian Diaspora as part of my regular meetings with Nigerians wherever I visit other countries. ‘‘Let me begin by congratulating and commending Yewande Adebowale for emerging as one of the top four winners at the Commonwealth Youth competition at the Kigali Startup Festival 2022 at the Commonwealth Youth Forum. ‘‘I also commend Esther Olanrewaju and Favour

Aderinto who are recipients of the Lakshmi Subramanian CMU-Africa Student Excellence Awards for Masters in Information Technology and Electrical and Computer Engineering respectively.

The Nigerian leader, who commended the level of professionalism of Nigerians living in Rwanda and the amiable nature of their interactions with each other, added that living peacefully and in obedience to the laws of the host nation was also paramount as it gives Nigeria a good name.

‘‘Remember, that you are our ambassadors-at-large while here.

People would read and know Nigeria by your actions and activities. ‘‘Our government is determined to work with Nigerians both at home and abroad to develop our economy and create a nation that is productive, peaceful, and caters to the needs of its citizens. ‘‘We are also working assiduously to protect all Nigerians whether at home or abroad to feel safe and attain their full potentials in life.’’

Earlier in his speech, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Rwanda, Ambassador Aishatu Musa, told President Buhari that Nigerians in the country were generally well behaved, and their population has swelled from 100 to 400 in recent years, “and they are in various fields like banking, agriculture, education, telecommunications, and others.”

She added that the President of the Association of Nigerians is Professor Umaru Wali, a Dean at the University of Rwanda.

The event, coordinated by NIDCOM Chairman, Hon

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, saw some Nigerians interacting with the President.

They include Kelechi Reginald, Chief Executive Officer of an investment firm; Uduak Udoh, who runs an architectural consultancy; Muyiwa Omololu, Managing Director of Rope Ways Transit, a company that builds cable cars; Favour Aderinto and Esther Olanrewaju, Lakshmi Subramaniam Excellence Award Winners, and Yewande Adebowale, who runs Salubata, an outfit that makes shoes from recycled plastic waste.

"If the basis of religion is doing the right thing for the benefit of mankind, you don't have to condemn any person because of what he believed.

"I do not believe that any religion is superior to mine and I don’t believe that mine is superior to another person's beliefs. I will not allow any person to cast aspersions on my religion and will not do the same for another person.

Practice your religion the way God wants you to do it and don’t condemn another person,” Obasanjo explained.

Welcoming participants at the event, the Chairman of SAGE Nigeria, Agwu Amogu, said the programme was to celebrate the creative energies and commitments of teen entrepreneurs who see the challenges in the communities as their responsibilities.

He said: "SAGE is an acronym for Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. It is an international programme initiated at the California State University, Chico, the USA in

2002 and is currently operational in over 32 countries across all the continents of the world.

"It offers secondary schoolaged young people a hands-on learning process on how to create wealth, help others and their communities," Amogu explained.

Amogu said since the introduction of the programme in Nigeria in 2006, it had shown that it is a potent strategy and model for educational reform, youth re-orientation, job creation and poverty alleviation and multi-cultural integration According to him, Nigeria urgently needs a new paradigm for education.

"The new paradigm must provide students with a chance to learn while solving community problems and immediately applying what they have learnt in the classroom by actually doing something great.

"We now live in a world where any country can compete effectively with others based on the creative imagination of its human capital,” he explained.

OBASANJO: MY REGRET IN APPOINTING ATIKU AS VICE PRESIDENT deputy from 1999 to 2007.

They both fell out after winning their second term in 2003 and their relationship deteriorated till they left office in 2007 when Atiku contested the presidential election against Obasanjo’s anointed successor, the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

Obasanjo, who interacted with the students during the questions and answers session, went down memory lane on his life and achievements both as military Head of State and a civilian president, saying he had made many “genuine” mistakes in his life, but God made him overcome.

The former president said, "One of the mistakes I made was picking my Number Two when I wanted to become the president. But because it was a genuine mistake, God saved me.

"The second one was when Abacha wanted to arrest me.

When Abacha wanted to arrest me, I was told by the American Ambassador that they will arrest me and that America has asked that I should be given asylum.

I said no. It could have been a mistake because I could have lost my life.

"I will say there are many things that could have been a mistake but God saved me from them all," Obasanjo explained.

While speaking on opportunities for the youths to take over the mantle of leadership in the country, Obasanjo said youths can never assume power, if the current trend continues.

He said with the "Not Too Young to Run" campaign, and you can see that those that are contesting now are between 70 and 80 years old, how can the youths run?” he queried.

The former president said: "Another thing inhibiting youth from running is the amount of money involved in going into politics. I hope that things should not continue like this.

"I was 39 years old when I became the military Head of State. Twenty years later, I came back as civilian president, but those there now do not want to allow the youths. If things continue like this, I do not

know how you can come in," Obasanjo added.

The former president also urged the students to imbibe religious tolerance.

He advised them not to see their religion as superior to that of another person.

Obasanjo said: "I have no right to say what another man believes in is inferior to mine.

If God had wanted all of us to be of the same religion, he would have made it so and since He did not make it so, no person should attempt to make it so.

"You people should learn at a very early stage in life that if there are five religions in the world, that is how God wants it to be. If there are 10, that is how God wants it. All religions originated from the same source.

"If you are a Muslim and you do not live the way God wants you to live, you cannot enter Aljannah. If you are a Christian and you do not live the way God wants you to live, the same thing, you will not enter paradise.

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MARITAL BLISS… L-R: Nasarawa State Governor and father of the Groom, Alhaji Abdullahi Sule; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; newly-wed: Mr. and Mrs. Sule; and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, at the wedding fathia of the governor’s son at the Emir of Keffi's Palace in Nasarawa State…yesterday

Poor Welfare: Falana Asks Judges to Form Association to Defend Judiciary Gboyega Akinsanmi A human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday challenged judges to form a national association of judicial officers to protect the interest of the judiciary in line with section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

Falana, a former President of the West African Bar Association (WABA), alleged that floating such an association became imperative to prevent the executive arm from

compromising and sabotaging the judiciary.

He suggested in response to a letter 14 Justices of the Supreme Court recently wrote to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad about their poor condition of services despite an annual allocation of N110 billion.

Responding to THISDAY's inquiries, Falana said the executive “cannot stand a judiciary that is independent to the extent of ruling against the subversion of the rule of law, constitutional breaches,

Ex-Governor Nnamani Condoles with Obaigbena over Mum's Demise Ugo Aliogo A former Governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has sent a message of condolence to the Chairman of THISDAY/ARISE Media Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, and his family over the passage of their matriarch, Princess Margaret Obaigbena.

Princess Obaigbena passed away on Friday, June 17, 2022, after a brief illness. She was aged 87.

The matriarch of the Obaigbena family left her footprints as the Chief Nursing Officer in the old Bendel State and later, Delta State, where she served meritoriously.

She also served three successive governments in Delta State as Special Adviser, deploying her robust wealth of experience in health sector management to serve her people, community and the state.

In his condolence message, Senator Nnamani also condoled with the government and people of Delta State over the demise of the Princess of Owa Kingdom.

According to the Senator representing Enugu East senatorial zone in the National Assembly, "Mama's exit is painful but we cannot question the will of God. We are consoled that she left positive footprints in

the sands of time.

"There is no doubt that her exit has created a huge vacuum in your family, Ika community and Delta State but take solace in the fact that she lived an eventful and accomplished life worthy of emulation.

"The avalanche of encomiums on her since her demise is a manifestation of her good deeds while she was alive.

"Her good neighbourliness, philanthropy, community services and commitment to peace and unity endeared her to many who came across her.

"Your success story and those of your siblings is an eloquent testimony that your mother was a caring, disciplined and responsible woman who taught her children good virtues.

"She was a pleasant mother to so many, full of life and hope.

She was a devout Christian who promoted evangelism and indeed touched the lives of people in many positive ways," Nnamani explained.

Senator Nnamani reminded the bereaved family of the need to uphold those rare attributes of hard work, kindness, honesty, perseverance and courage that their mother was known for.

He prayed that God in His infinite mercy grant her eternal rest and give the bereaved family the fortitude to bear the loss.

human rights abuse and official impunity.”

Consequently, he added that judges “are deliberately poorly paid to compel them to depend wholly on the executive organ of the state. Even though the constitution provides for financial autonomy for the judiciary, the executive arm has sabotaged it.”

In spite of the independence of the judiciary, according to the senior lawyer, the salaries and allowances of judges are withheld while houses and cars are supplied to judges by state governors.

On these grounds, Falana said: “Notwithstanding that judges

are conservative, it is high time that Nigerian judges form an association to defend and protect the interests of the judiciary.

“This demand is justified by section 40 of the Constitution which guarantees the fundamental right to freedom of association,” the senior lawyer said.

He drew the attention of the judges to similar bodies across the world, citing the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association, Judicial Officers Association of South Africa, South African Chief Justice Forum, International Association of Judges and

National Associations of European Administrative Judges, among others.

Falana also cited similar bodies already functioning in the federation to include the National Association of Women Judges and the Magistrates' Association of Nigeria.

The senior lawyer emphasised the need to set up the Nigerian Judicial Officers Association “to defend the interests of judges and promote judicial independence, human rights and rule of law in the country.”

He noted that the letter signed by the 14 Justices of the Supreme Court had confirmed that judges

had been suffering in silence, and called for a holistic review of the conditions of service of judges in the country.

He added that the federal and state governments should be compelled “to actualise the financial autonomy for the judiciary in line with the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”

Falana, however, pointed out that it had been difficult to join the struggle for the improvement of the working conditions of judges on the ground that the budget of the Supreme Court “is shrouded in secrecy.”

I Won’t Quit Politics, Osinbajo Tells Supporters Segun James After his failed bid to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said he will remain in active politics.

Osinbajo further noted that he would continue to push for a better Nigeria.

He stated this while addressing “representatives of the Diaspora Professionals for PYO” in a virtual meeting, a statement by his media aide, Mr. Laolu Akande said.

“I intend to stay very actively engaged in the politics of our country, because I believe strongly that, if God

gives us that opportunity, the change will be swift and we will make a real difference.

“We must continue to push.

If we give up and say let’s see how it goes, we will be much further back than where we started from,” Osinbajo explained.

When the All Progressives

Congress (APC) held a special convention to elect a presidential candidate for the party in the 2023 general election at the Eagles Square in Abuja, Osinbajo came third behind former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, and ex-transport minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.

PDP Accuses Adamu of Inciting Osun Electorate Chuks Okocha in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu of incitement in the forthcoming Osun State governorship election, stressing that his incitement cannot save Governor Gboyega Oyetola from inevitable defeat in the July 16, 2022 poll.

The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba described the statement by the APC National Chairman as reckless, irresponsible and a strong indication of APC’s aversion to a peaceful electoral process.

The main opposition party also described Adamu’s comments as a demonstration of the ruling

party’s disdain for the democratic right, freedom and sovereignty of the people of Osun State to freely and peacefully choose their leaders.

“It is pertinent to remind Abdullahi Adamu that election is not warfare. Directing his party members to ‘go down to the trenches,’ in the Osun State governorship election and brazenly asserting zero tolerance for election defeat cannot find accommodation within the ambits of the law.

"Abdullahi Adamu’s comment further confirms that the APC is in mortal fear of Senator Adeleke’s soaring popularity, realising that Governor Oyetola is no match for Senator Adeleke; a blunt reality for which the APC National Chairman has now become frenetic.

"It is distressing that the APC has become so chaotic in the pursuit of its territorial occupation agenda that the National Chairman views the Osun State governorship election as a warfare in which the people must be conquered," PDP explained.

The PDP said that it was more provoking that the APC has no apology for such an irresponsible, reckless and offensive ‘posture’ against the sensibilities of the people of Osun State.

The PDP said that Nigerians observed the nerviness and dread of defeat written all over the APC National Chairman’s face while inaugurating and threatening the APC’s National Campaign Council on Osun Governorship Election not to come back crying in defeat, a fate, which the main

opposition party said, already awaits the APC on July 16.

Ologunagba said that Adamu should know that the Osun State governorship election is not about incitements, issuing of threats and grandstanding as a ruling party.

"He must understand that this election is a referendum on the monumental failure of the APC in Osun State and that the people are solidly behind Senator Ademola Adeleke in their resolve to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of the incompetent, vicious and inhumane APC administration in Osun State.

"Governor Oyetola in the last four years displayed unparalleled incompetence in governance and ran the most ineffective and clueless administration in the history of Osun State.

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NEWS

COMMITTEE OF FRIENDS… L-R: Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Prince Arthur Eze; Enugu State Governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; and the Executive Chairman of Oilserv Limited, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, during the traditional marriage of Okwuosa's daughter, Chibundu, in Enugu…yesterday

Ex-NAPTIP DG: Ekweremadu Should Have Obtained Clearance Certificate to Travel out with Kidney Donor Gboyega Akinsanmi Former Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Julie Okah-Donli, has stated that a former President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice should have obtained a clearance certificate from the agency before travelling to the United Kingdom with a kidney donor.

Okah-Donli, who is also the Chairperson of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF), also revealed that most cases of organ harvesting in the country “are often treated as ritual murder by law enforcement agencies that lack the institutional capacity to handle such cases.”

She clarified yesterday during

an interview on ARISE NEWS Channel, while also lamenting the rate at which body organs of Nigerians “are stolen in India and most countries in the Middle East when they go for procedures.”

The London Metropolitan Police had arrested Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice at Heathrow Airport, over an allegation of bringing a minor to the UK for organ harvesting.

The police had claimed that the investigation was launched after detectives were alerted to potential offences under the Modern Slavery Act, 2015 aimed at preventing hidden labour exploitation, payment for work-finding services and harvest of human organs, among others.

Consequent to this, Ekweremadu and his wife were arraigned before the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court

which denied them bail, ordered their detention and deferred the case till July 7 for a hearing.

Faulting Ekweremadu for not observing the laws regulating all forms of organ donation, Okah-Donli explained the basic requirements all citizens should fulfil under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 before travelling out of the country with kidney donors.

She said: “In a case like this, there is a regulation in place.

NAPTIP ought to have issued them a clearance certificate to travel out of the country. However, it looks like NAPTIP was not even aware of it.

“Under the legislation, NAPTIP has the right to issue a clearance certificate to any person who is going for anything relating to organ

donation. Ekweremadu ought to have gone to NAPTIP to get a clearance certificate.”

During the process of issuing a clearance certificate, Okah-Donli explained that NAPTIP would have exhaustively interacted with the would-be donor before a clearance certificate would be issued to that effect.

She added that if the case had been reported, NAPTIP would have been able to investigate the case further with “a view to finding out whether the donor is an adult or a minor, whether the donor understands the consequence of what he is going for or not.

“Unfortunately, all these things did not happen. The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) will only issue passports based on the information they are given.

They are not going to look for

information that they are not given.

“If they say the boy in question is 50, the NIS will write 50 on the passport. But NAPTIP will have investigated in-depth, spoken to the donor and issued a clearance certificate before travelling out of the country. Unfortunately, the case was not brought to the attention of NAPTIP.” The former NAPTIP boss, therefore, lamented that the case of organ harvesting “is really bad in Nigeria. It is huge across the federation but we have not paid attention to it. We have such cases in which people were found with their organs ripped out all over the federation.”

She added that the authorities were quick to tag it ritual murder, noting that organ harvesting “has been going on for so many years undetected.

“NAPTIP has the mandate to curb organ harvesting.

Unfortunately, we have other law enforcement agencies that want to deal with it. But those agencies do not have the capacity to deal with it. They do not have the training.

“These issues are not even referred to NAPTIP for proper investigation. We have that bottleneck in this area not allowing the appropriate agency to deal with the issue of organ harvesting. This is a very specialised area. Rushing to the conclusion that it is ritual murder will not help.

“Even in countries like India, they actually steal your organs.

You go there for a procedure. By the time you go back, they have removed another organ. Stealing organs is something that has been going on in the Middle East,” she explained.

providing false information on oath in his INEC form CF 001 which he submitted in 1999.

"Since the IG is yet to act on the petition, we are using this press conference to call on the IG to do the needful; he is not above the law; nobody is above the law, Sections 191 and 192 make it a criminal offence to provide false information on oath.

"We are also calling on President Buhari to direct the IG to arrest and prosecute Tinubu for perjury; it is a very serious issue," Kalu said.

He added that in the event Buhari and IG failed to do the needful, the group in conjunction with other civil groups would approach a court of law for judicial review and order of mandamus to order the IG to do the needful.

The Abuja-based lawyer explained that the position of his group for the arrest of Tinubu was not politically-motivated but based on the need for good governance and transparent leadership, which Nigeria deserves in the 2023 general election.

He insisted that the former Lagos State Governor is not legally qualified to become the next president of Nigeria on the grounds of supplying false information on oath in his Form EC 9 submitted to

the INEC. According to him, Tinubu had in 1999, claimed to have attended Saint Paul Aroloya Children Home School, Ibadan between 1958 and 1964 and Government College, Ibadan between 1965 and 1969, but turned around in 2022, to claim that he never attended any primary or secondary school in his Form EC9.

The civil group legal adviser, who presented the ad-hoc report of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which investigated the former governor in 1999 pointed out that Tinubu admitted discrepancies in his academic qualifications.

He said that the investigation of Tinubu's academic qualification was the aftermath of a petition written by a foremost legal luminary and social crusader, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN).

Among the vital documents, which he claimed were attached to the petition delivered to the IG and acknowledged by his office are the forms submitted to INEC by the APC presidential candidate in 1999 and 2022.

In a related development, another civil group under the aegis of Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative (ASRADI), has officially demanded from INEC, a copy

of the nomination forms of all presidential candidates for the 2023 general election.

The group in the letter dated June 20 and signed by its Executive Director, Adeolu Oyinlola, said the request was made in line with the Freedom of Information Act. Consequently, the group urged the Chairman of the commission to grant its demands within seven days in line with the law.

Among leading presidential candidates in the 2023 election is Tinubu of the APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

The letter titled: Freedom of Information Application for Certified True Copies of The Nomination Forms as well as all Attached Documents of Candidates Intending to Participate in the 2023 Presidential Election, read in part, "Kindly furnish us with Certified True Copies of the Nomination Forms (as well as all attached documents) of all candidates bidding to become President in 2023.

"We would be grateful if this application of ours is granted within the seven (07) days prescribed by the Freedom of Application Act, 2011.

"We extend to you, the assurances of our consideration and regards."

TINUBU DIDN’T LIE UNDER OATH, SAYS BAYO ONANUGA of the various political parties in the 2023 elections.

Based on this, a civil group, Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy yesterday issued a 48-hour ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General (IG) of Police to arrest and prosecute the former Governor of Lagos State for allegedly supplying false information to the INEC. Tinubu, according to the group, lied in his Form EC9 that he did not attend both primary and secondary schools.

The group alleged that Tinubu’s claim contradicted his earlier submission to the electoral umpire in 1999 in his Form CF 001, where he also claimed that he attended Saint Paul Aroloya Children Home School Ibadan, between 1958 and 1964 and Government College, Ibadan between 1965 and 1969.

In its reaction, the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation yesterday described the allegations by the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy as untrue.

The Director of Media and Communications of the organisation, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, who spoke in Abuja, said the group was only bringing up issues where there were none.

He said the APC presidential candidate was more than qualified to be Nigeria’s

president.

Onanuga insisted that the former Lagos State governor did not submit any fake certificate to the electoral umpire in 1999.

According to him, the one (certificate) people keep referring to that he submitted was not even filled by him.

Onanuga argued that the Lagos State House of Assembly had exonerated Tinubu in its report.

“Asiwaju was exonerated in the House of Assembly’s report because Senator Afikuyomi said he filled the form on his behalf then.

“The same certificate he gave to INEC this year, he used in 2003 and there was no issue then.

Why are they raising issues now?

“And what people don’t know is that when he was in exile, his house at Balarabe Musa Crescent in Surulere was burnt by the military and he couldn’t pick out a pin from the razed building.

“This was what happened that time and if in 2022, he (Tinubu) now drew blank on that session, what offence has he committed?

“Those who are making noise are PDP agents who are just trying to raise issues where there is none,” he said.

The campaign spokesman further said that the only thing needed to be Nigeria’s president is a school certificate but that the APC candidate had qualifications

higher than a primary school certificate.

“People making noise are PDP agents. They cannot just be coming out to raise issues where there are non-issues.

“He (Tinubu) is more than qualified to be president of Nigeria,” he said.

Tinubu was also said to have claimed that documents relating to his qualifications and his certificates were stolen during the military era when he went into exile.

Group Gives Buhari, IG 48 Hours to Arrest Former Lagos Gov Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy yesterday issued a 48-hour ultimatum to President Buhari and the IG of Police to arrest and prosecute the former Governor of Lagos State for allegedly supplying false information to the INEC. Legal Adviser of the group, Mr. Kalu Agu, at a press briefing in Abuja, said that the alleged offence committed by Tinubu breached both the Constitution and the Electoral Act. Kalu disclosed that the group raised the alarm because the police were yet to respond to its petition since June 16, 2022.

"We wrote a petition to the IG on June 16, demanding the prosecution of Tinubu for

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

BUSINESS

Editor: Festus Akanbi 08038588469 Email:festus.akanbi@thisdaylive.com

Nigerians Bearing the Brunt of FG, Fuel Marketers’ Muscle Flexing $JDLQ 1LJHULDQV DUH DW WKH UHFHLYLQJ HQG RI WKH FXUUHQW IXHO VFDUFLW\ H[DFHUEDWHG E\ WKH disagreement between the federal government and fuel marketers over the appropriate pricing for petrol, Festus Akanbi reports

T

hroughout last week, it was a tale of utter frustration, anguish and unmitigated confusion, as commuters were caught between an avoidable showdown between the federal government and fuel marketers over the latter’s agitation for an increase in the pump price of petrol. :KLOH R΀FLDOV RI WKH UHJXODWRU\ DJHQFLHV ZHUH EXV\ FKDVLQJ EODFN PDUNHWHUV RI IXHO ZKR WRRN DGYDQWDJH RI WKH SURGXFW·V VFDUFLW\ WR KDZN IXHO RSHQO\ RQ PDMRU URDGV LQ $EXMD for the most of last week, most fuel stations EHORQJLQJ WR WKH 0DMRU 2LO 0DUNHWHUV $VVRFLDWLRQ RI 1LJHULD 020$1 DQG ,QGHSHQGHQW 3HWUROHXP 0DUNHWHUV $VVRFLDWLRQ RI 1LJHULD ,30$1 ZHUH VKXW ZKLOH D KDQGIXO WKDW VROG the product dispensed from few pumps.

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“The implications of this sustained and SURWUDFWHG IXHO VFDUFLW\ DUH QXPHURXV ,W KDV led to a hike in the cost of living and cost of doing business as transport fare has increased E\ RYHU SHU FHQW )RRG SULFHV KDYH VLPLODUO\ shot up due to the rising cost of transportaWLRQ $ ORW RI SURGXFWLYH PDQ KRXUV DUH ORVW WR TXHXLQJ IRU SHWURO DW WKH IXHOLQJ VWDWLRQV ,Q WKH FRXUVH RI WKLV VFDUFLW\ PDQ\ YHKLFOH HQJLQHV KDYH EHHQ GDPDJHG E\ IXHO SXUFKDVHG IURP unwholesome black marketers whose sole aim LV VXSHU SURÀW µ 1LJHULD FRQVXPHV DQ HVWLPDWHG PLOOLRQ OLWUHV RI IXHO GDLO\ +RZHYHU ÀQGLQJV VKRZHG WKDW E\ 330&·V UHFRUG PDUNHWHUV ORDGHG DV PXFK DV PLOOLRQ OLWUHV SHU GD\ DV RI $SULO Season of Energy Crisis +RXVHKROGV DFURVV WKH FRXQWU\ ZHUH OHIW LQ WKH GDUN IRU GD\V DIWHU WKH QDWLRQDO HOHFWULFLW\ grid collapsed earlier in the month as a blackout VZHSW WKH FRXQWU\ DͿHFWLQJ HYHU\WKLQJ IURP hospitals to radio stations and other businesses.

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A long queue of vehicles waiting for fuel

in transporting petroleum products from the depots to the retail outlets.

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FG Adamant, Says Petrol Remains N165 Per Litre ,Q DOO WKLV WKH IHGHUDO JRYHUQPHQW VD\V WKH

À[HG SXPS SULFH RI SHWURO UHPDLQV 1 SHU litre as stipulated in the petroleum product pricing template.

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7KLV ZDV PDGH NQRZQ E\ R΀FLDOV RI WKH 1LJHULDQ 0LGVWUHDP DQG 'RZQVWUHDP 3HWUROHXP 5HJXODWRU\ $XWKRULW\ WKH 1LJHULDQ 1DWLRQDO 3HWUROHXP &RPSDQ\ /WG DQG WKH 3LSHOLQHV DQG 3URGXFW 0DUNHWLQJ &RPSDQ\ DIWHU YLVLWLQJ MHWWLHV LQ $SDSD /DJRV Haulage Companies Withdraw Services ,Q LWV UHVSRQVH WKH 1LJHULDQ $VVRFLDWLRQ RI 5RDG 7UDQVSRUW 2ZQHUV 1$572 H[SODLQHG that although the President approved the upward review of the transportation claim, the QHZ UDWH KDV \HW WR WDNH HͿHFW IRUFLQJ KDXODJH companies to park their vehicles instead of incurring losses due to the high cost of diesel. :LWK WKH HOHFWULFLW\ VLWXDWLRQ JRLQJ IURP EDG to worse, marketers said most retail outlets are also shutting down due to the high cost of running power generating sets.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

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FINANCE

Buhari

escalating by the day, analysts argued, the federal government embraced the option of investing more in social support programmes to prevent outright descent into criminality.

Apparently, for others, rising insecurity and VRFLDO QHHGV DUH LQVX΀FLHQW WR MXVWLI\ 1LJHULD·V resort to borrowing to pay salaries. In the last seven years, according to Teriba, far-reaching reasons accounted for the failure of the federal JRYHUQPHQW WR IXOÀO LWV EDVLF UHFXUUHQW REOLJDtions. In 2016 when the economy slumped into GLVWUHVV VSHFLÀFDOO\ %XKDUL KLPVHOI EODPHG LW on an extremely low crude oil price, which then dropped to about $29 per barrel.

In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 triggered another economic downturn, which Chief Executive, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf claimed, was the fallout of WKH FRXQWU\·V SUHYLRXV ÀVFDO LQGLVFLSOLQH DQG WKH failure to create an enabling regulatory environment that could attract massive investments and spurred economic activities nationwide.

But the problem is not as simple as how some analysts put it, especially with the historic rise in the crude oil prices. From $29 in 2016, bonny light is currently about $123 per barrel. Ordinarily, this should be an advantage for the federation. But the increase has not translated to fortune due to what Teriba ascribed to unprecedented cases RI RLO WKHIW WKDW DͿHFWHG RLO SURGXFWLRQ DQG WKH vicious regime of fuel subsidy that escalated the cost of under-recovery.

In particular, the incidence of oil theft has sparked national outrage among key actors in the petroleum industry. This concern arose from the volume of crude oil being lost to oil thieves daily. The Chairman of Heirs Oil and Gas, Mr Tony Elumelu put it at about 95 per cent of the country’s production capacity. For Chief Executive 2΀FHU 6HSODW (QHUJ\ 3OF 0U $XVWLQ $YXUX LW is as high as 80 per cent.

Also, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) admitted the gnawing trend of oil theft. But its Chief Executive, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, conservatively put the loss at 7.6 per cent. Even though the exact volume of stolen oil cannot be ascertained, the trend has been grave for governments at all levels. The gravity of its consequences is evident in the failure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to remit its projected revenue into the Federation Accounts.

In 2021, for instance, the corporation was projected to remit N2.5 trillion into the FederaWLRQ $FFRXQWV %XW DW WKH HQG RI WKH ÀVFDO \HDU the corporation could only remit N542 billion, accounting for about 21.58 per cent of its projected revenue.

By 2022, the shortfall grew worse than it was LQ WKH SUHYLRXV ÀVFDO \HDU 2I LWV 1 WULOOLRQ projected as remittance, the corporation has not been able to remit a dime due to what its Group Managing Director, MallamAbba Kyari attributed to the increasing cost of under-recovery, which weakened the capacity of the federal government to pay wage bills without borrowing. :LWK WKHVH JULP ÀVFDO UHDOLWLHV HFRQRPLVWV ULVLQJ GHEW SURÀOH KDG SXW 1LJHULD LQ DQ H[WUHPHO\ observed, Nigeria can slide into insolvency ZHDN ÀVFDO SRVLWLRQ 7KH XJO\ WUHQG DV RWKHUV amid rising public debt stock and dwindling believed, could push the federation into the abyss revenues. But most of them are divergent of bankruptcy if not well managed. on how this challenge can be handled in the %XW WKH '02 VKDUHG DQ HQWLUHO\ GLͿHUHQW interest of the citizenry. As the AGF put it, the view for two reasons. First, the debt stock only federal government has already embraced the represents 23.27 per cent of the GDP, which the RSWLRQV RI LQVWLWXWLRQDOLVLQJ ÀVFDO GLVFLSOLQH GHEW R΀FH VDLG LV VWLOO EHORZ D SHU FHQW QDWLRQDO EORFNLQJ ORRSKROHV LQ WKH SXEOLF ÀQDQFH V\VWHP threshold. Second, diverse policy initiatives expanding the country’s tax coverage or posaimed at growing and diversifying revenues sibly increasing the tax burden in some cases. are yielding results. By implication, according To some degree, Yusuf, former DirectorWR WKH GHEW R΀FH WKH GHEW VWRFN LV QRW EH\RQG General of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and what Nigeria can sustain.

Industry, subscribed to the options before the Despite this defence, this keeps generating IHGHUDO JRYHUQPHQW ,Q VSHFLÀF WHUPV KRZpublic concerns about the future of Nigeria. What ever, Yusuf canvassed a radically restructured then could have jolted the federal government HFRQRP\ ZKLFK FRXOG HQDEOH WKH UHDO VHFWRUV into the dark realm of indebtedness after Obasanjo FDWDO\VH PDVVLYH LQYHVWPHQW LQÁRZ FXW WKH FRVW secured $20 billion debt relief for Nigeria from RI JRYHUQDQFH VLJQLÀFDQWO\ DQG ERRVW ÀVFDO Paris? What again brought Nigeria into the debt accountability. trap amid highly-priced assets, which according Unlike most analysts, Teriba proposed a more to the Chief Executive, Economic Associates, pragmatic option that could ease the country’s Dr Ayo Teriba, could be harnessed to meet the burden of public debt. He believes more in country’s capital and recurrent needs. securitising the country’s idle assets than the 2Q GLͿHUHQW IURQWV ÀVFDO H[SHUWV KDYH H[SODLQHG increasing tax burden on corporate citizens reasons that justify the resolve of the federal gov- and individuals. Securitisation of idle assets, HUQPHQW WR ERUURZ WR RͿVHW ZDJH ELOOV HYHQ ZKHQ he argued, provides access to much-needed it violated section 41 of the Fiscal Responsibility liquidity and relieves the federal government Act, 2007. The AGF, for instance, attributed it to of the burden of debt repayment and servicing.

WZR PDMRU WULJJHUV +H ÀUVW DVFULEHG LW WR ULVLQJ He further explained how Saudi Arabia eminsecurity, which analysts agreed, had been at braced this option by selling about two per cent the core of Nigeria’s heinous socio-economic of its stakes in Aramco at over $29 billion. With challenges. what it realised from the sale of two per cent stakes Also, theAGF explained it in the burning social in its oil conglomerate, he observed, the country needs of the people, who were either casualties of was able to inject life into its crawling economy armed violence in the north or victims of economic without the burden of debt repayment and servicdistress in the major cities. The latter became ing. With this approach, Nigeria can register all its compounded after the economy slid into recession LGOH DVVHWV OLVW WKHP LQ WKH VWRFN PDUNHW WR NQRZ ÀUVW LQ DQG DOVR LQ :LWK KXPDQLWDULDQ their values and determine the percentage of its crises, poverty indices and unemployment rates interests to be listed for investments.

Nigeria in the Throes of Fiscal Crisis

The decision of the federal government to embrace borrowing to pay the salaries of its public servants suggests an intractable fiscal crisis that can plunge the federation into the abyss of bankruptcy if not efficiently managed with its prevailing socio-economic realities, Gboyega Akinsanmi writes

A

s diverse indicators that measure governance and economic performance recently revealed, Nigeria is truly in the eye of the storm.

First, its unity is loosely hung in the balance, which according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), is due to the increasing activities of divisive forces nationwide. ,WV HͿHFWV DV VKRZQ LQ WKHLU UHSRUWV KDYH SXW the polity in bad shape.

But Nigeria’s problems appear more complex than most analysts think they are. The Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Anamekwe Nwabuoku beamed light into the depth of the country’s gnawing multifarious FULVHV DW D UHWUHDW RI SXEOLF ÀQDQFH H[SHUWV KH addressed in Abuja a fortnight ago. $W WKH UHWUHDW VSHFLÀFDOO\ FRQYHQHG WR FRQVLGHU a policy alternative to borrowing, the AGF acknowledged Nigeria’s inability to pay salaries, ZKLFK DFFRUGLQJ WR KLP LV DEVXUG +H LGHQWLÀHG dwindling revenues as a dominant factor that compelled the federal government “to resort to other sources to augment for the payment of federal public servants.”

Ordinarily, as the AGF revealed, the federal government should not embrace borrowing to meet its recurrent obligations at a time of the historic rise in crude oil prices worldwide. But WKLV KDV EHHQ WKH JULP UHDOLW\ RI 1LJHULD·V ÀVFDO environment under President Muhummadu Buhari, about two decades after former President Olusegun Obasanjo negotiated debt relief for Nigeria.

As revealed in the debt records obtained from the Debt Management (DMO), this crisis did not start under Buhari’s administration. In 2007, for

instance, the relief crashed external debt to $3.65 billion, apparently from $31 billion it owed Paris Club and $5 billion it owed London Club. But its domestic debt then stood at about $18.57 billion for the entire federation.

But the debt trajectories portrayed Nigeria’s relapse to borrowing just after the end of Obasanjo’s administration. Under the administration of President UmaruYar’Adua, for instance, Nigeria’s total public debt rose from $22.23 billion in 2007 to $35.09 billion in 2010, indicating an increase of 57.84 per cent.

This trend continued into the era of President Goodluck Jonathan. From $35.09 billion in 2010, the country’s debt escalated to $65.43 billion in 2015. This represents an increase of 86.46 per cent.

Under Buhari’s administration, according to the debt records, public debt steadily increased by 52.97 per cent to $100.09 billion in March 2022.

When the AGF recently said this at the Abuja retreat, the trend again elicited protracted debate among analysts nationwide. Some argued that the

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

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CAPITAL MARKET

6WRFN 0DUNHW 'HÀHV ,QFUHDVHG Political Spending, Remains Stable 7KH VWRFN PDUNHW RI WKH 1LJHULDQ ([FKDQJH /LPLWHG 1*; KDV FRQWLQXHG WR PDLQWDLQ LWV SRVLWLYH momentum amid political spending that has depreciated the Naira and improved liquidity in the economy. Kayode Tokede ZULWHV DERXW KRZ WKH FDSLWDO PDUNHW PDLQWDLQHG LWV SRVLWLYH JURZWK LQ 0D\ 2022 as investors thread the market with caution

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rom all indications, the Nigerian VWRFN PDUNHW KDV VR IDU GHÀHG WKH increased political spending in the country as the various political parties conduct their primaries to select candidates for various elective positions in the run-up to the 2023 general elections. $V YDULRXV SROLWLFDO R΀FHU VHHNHUV EUD]HQO\ deploy money for the purchase of nomination IRUPV DQG WKH OREE\ SDUW\ GHOHJDWHV 1LJHULDQV were apprehensive that the current pressure on WKH QDLUD FDXVHG E\ WKH H[FHVVLYH XVH RI PRQH\ for political purposes may have a direct impact on the value of stocks and the appetite of foreign LQYHVWRUV ZKR PLJKW EH JDXJLQJ WKH HPHUJLQJ SROLWLFDO FOLPDWH EHIRUH FRPPLWWLQJ WKHLU UHVRXUFHV in Nigeria. +RZHYHU LQYHVWLJDWLRQV E\ 7+,6'$< ODVW ZHHN VKRZHG WKDW DV D UHVXOW RI D FRPELQDWLRQ of factors which include, the resolve of foreign investors and High Network investors to tip into their undervalued price to take a position, a regime RI QHJDWLYH UHDO UHWXUQ LQ WKH À[HG LQFRPH PDUNHW ZKLFK LV IRUFLQJ VRPH LQYHVWRUV WR HPEUDFH WKH equity market as an alternative investment class, among others.

Fever Pitch Party Primaries ,Q 0D\ PRVW SROLWLFDO SDUWLHV LQ 1LJHULD held primary elections to appoint new candidates to represent them at the forthcoming general election in 2023.

7KH 3HRSOHV 'HPRFUDWLF 3DUW\ 3'3 $OO 3URJUHVVLYH &RQJUHVV $3& DQG /DERXU 3DUW\ /3 among other leading political parties in Nigeria, KHOG WKHLU YDULRXV SULPDULHV IRU WKH 3UHVLGHQW WKH 6HQDWH DQG +RXVH RI 5HSUHVHQWDWLYHV DOWKRXJK WKH $3& KDG WR SRVWSRQH LWV SUHVLGHQWLDO SULPDULHV till this week.

6RPH RI WKH SDUWLHV LQ WKH SURFHVV RI FRQGXFWLQJ WKHLU SULPDULHV ORVW VRPH PHPEHUV ZKR KDG WR join other protest parties.

6RPH VWDWH HOHFWLRQV ZLWQHVVHG YLROHQFH VXVpense, and confusion, while the most intriguing HOHFWLRQ ZDV WKDW RI WKH 3'3 SUHVLGHQWLDO HOHFWLRQV ZKHUH IRUPHU *RYHUQRU RI $QDPEUD 6WDWH 3HWHU 2EL GHIHFWHG WR WKH /DERXU 3DUW\ 'HVSLWH WKH XQFHUWDLQW\ VXUURXQGLQJ SROLWLFDO DFWLYLWLHV LQ 0D\ WKH VWRFN PDUNHW ZLWQHVVHG D renewed interest of foreign investors in fundaPHQWDO VWRFNV DQG WKHUHE\ UDOOLHG E\ 1 WULOOLRQ LQ PDUNHW FDSLWDOLVDWLRQ WR FORVH DW 1 WULOOLRQ RQ 0D\ IURP 1 WULOOLRQ LW RSHQHG for trading activities for the month under review.

Also, the overall market performance measure 1*; $OO 6KDUH ,QGH[ $6, ZKLFK WUDFNV WKH general market movement of all listed equities RQ WKH ([FKDQJH URVH E\ SHU FHQW WR FORVH DW EDVLV SRLQWV LQ WKH ÀIWK PRQWK RI WKH \HDU 7KH PDUNHW LQGLFDWRU KLWV RYHU D \HDU KLJK LQ 0D\ GULYHQ E\ ORZ \LHOG LQ À[HG LQFRPH VHFXULWLHV LPSUHVVLYH FRUSRUDWH HDUQLQJV E\ OLVWHG FRPSDQLHV SRVLW FRYLG DQG D VWHDG\ LQFUHDVH LQ JOREDO RLO SULFHV WKDW KDV LPSURYHG OLTXLGLW\ in the system.

2YHUDOO WKH VWRFN PDUNHW KDV DSSUHFLDWHG E\ 1 WULOOLRQ LQ ÀYH PRQWKV RI WR FORVH RQ 0D\ DW 1 WULOOLRQ IURP 1 WULOOLRQ LW FORVHG LQ &RQVHTXHQWO\ WKH 1*; $OO 6KDUH ,QGH[ an indicator used to track the general market movement of all listed stocks on NGX, including WKRVH OLVWHG RQ WKH JURZWK ERDUG UHJDUGOHVV RI FDSLWDOL]DWLRQ RSHQHG LQ DW EDVLV SRLQWV WR FORVH RQ 0D\ DW EDVLV SRLQWV UHSUHVHQWLQJ DQ LQFUHDVH RI SHU FHQW Companies Driving Stock Market Indicators Despite Political Pressure in May Capital market analysts noted that few stocks RQ WKH 1*; DUH UHVSRQVLEOH IRU WKH JURZWK LQ market indicators, stating that foreign investors and High Network investors tipped into their undervalued price to take a position.

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6SHDNLQJ ZLWK 7+,6'$< WKH GR\HQ RI WKH 1LJHULDQ FDSLWDO PDUNHW 0U 5DVKHHG <XVXI said the political tension across the country has QRW DͿHFWHG WKH VWRFN PDUNHW $FFRUGLQJ WR KLP ´8QWLO WKH SULPDU\ HOHFWLRQV DUH FRQFOXGHG LW ZLOO EH YHU\ GL΀FXOW WR DVFHUWDLQ the outcome of the general primaries. When the primary elections are concluded, we can analyse whatitportendsforthecapitalmarketandeconomy atlarge.Whicheverwaytheelectionsareconcluded, WKHQ LW ZLOO UHÁHFW LQ WKH VWRFN PDUNHW ´7KH UHDO UHÁHFWLRQ RI WKH SULPDU\ HOHFWLRQV LQ my view is when all the presidential elections are FRQFOXGHG EHIRUH ZH EHJLQ WR VHH KRZ IRUHLJQ

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corporate earnings, higher dividend payouts, and c SRVLWLYH PDFUR HFRQRPLF GDWD WR VXSSRUW WKH EX\LQJ S sentiment. s 7KH &(2 RI :\RPLQJ &DSLWDO 3DUWQHUV 0U 7DMXGHHQ 2OD\LQND QRWHG WKDW LPSURYHG OLTXLGLW\ LQ 7 WKH VWRFN PDUNHW FDQ EH WUDFHG WR SHUIRUPDQFH W E\ OLVWHG FRPSDQLHV DQG LPSURYHG SHUIRUPDQFH E E\ PDQ\ RI WKHP LQ WKH ÀUVW TXDUWHU RI UHVXOWV E +H DGGHG WKDW ´,QFUHDVHG ORFDO LQYHVWRUV SDUWLFLSDWLRQ LQ WKH PDUNHW DQG UHLQYHVWPHQW RI W DQQXDO GLYLGHQGV E\ LQYHVWRUV ZKR UHFHLYHG VXFK D dividend payments recently from listed companies. d ´/LTXLGLW\ RYHUKDQJ WKDW LV PDNLQJ LW SUDFWLFDOO\ GL΀FXOW IRU LQYHVWRUV LQ WKH À[HG LQFRPH VSDFH WR G IDFWRU LQ FXUUHQW KLJK LQÁDWLRQ UDWH WR WKH \LHOGV I REWDLQDEOH LQ WKH PDUNHW 7KH QHJDWLYH UHDO UHWXUQ R LQ WKH À[HG LQFRPH PDUNHW KDG IRUFHG VRPH RI L WKHVH LQYHVWRUV WR HPEUDFH WKH HTXLW\ PDUNHW DV W DQ DOWHUQDWLYH LQYHVWPHQW FODVV EHIRUH WKH UHFHQW D SHU FHQW KLNH LQ 0RQHWDU\ 3ROLF\ 5DWH 035

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20

JUNE 26, 2022 • T H I S DAY, T H E S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R

CONVERSATION WITH MY BILLIONAIRE FRIEND ayo.arowolo@thisdaylive.com 08086447494 (SMS only) PERSONAL FINANCE SAVINGS BUDGETING COMMODITIES

AYO AROWOLO

GOLD

INVESTING

WEALTH CAPSULE 21

Cooperative Societies, A Great Lever for Start-up Wealth Builders Co-operative enterprises provide the organisational means whereby a significant proportion of humanity is able to take into its own hands the tasks of creating productive employment, overcoming poverty and achieving social integration - Boutros Boutros Ghali.

A

of its rice for consumption, were produced by cooperative societies in that country. The cooperative societies acquire land and jointly produce under different acres that are cleared by the government for them and the cooperative societies buy their tools and light machinery for the production of those large amounts of rice that many countries of the world, including Nigeria, consume. There are many examples to draw from about the importance of building wealth by start-up wealth-builders with minimum access to capital and minimum resources for building wealth.”

“Cooperative movements began in Europe in the Nineteenth Century primarily in Britain and France. The industrial revolution and the increasing mechanisation transformed society and enhanced the livelihood of many workers.

This is what led to the first formation of cooperative societies in the world. In 1844, the Rochdale pioneers founded the modern cooperative movement in Lancashire, England to provide an affordable alternative to poor quality and adulterated food and provisions using any surplus to benefit their community.

This Rochdale Cooperative Movement has since grown, metamorphosed into many forms of the same body and has spread around the world including Nigeria. Cooperative societies are now business organisations of different trades and goals that are voluntarily formed by members to help themselves in their different trades and wealth-building objectives. They have the characteristics of being open with a democratic structure in which each member has one vote per their business meetings and has an equitable and fair distribution of their economic results. Cooperatives do not declare profits and their operations are not taxable.”

“Cooperatives produce surpluses which are distributed equitably and fairly amongst members. It is a type of business entity which is formed by mainly economically weak sections of society to enhance their economic positions, the performance of their economic activities, and derive economic sub-scale advantages in their trades and businesses. They also prevent the exploitation of their component members by stronger business competitors.”

“There are different forms of cooperative societies: retail cooperatives, workers cooperatives, producer cooperatives, service cooperatives, housing cooperatives, and thrift and credit cooperatives. Examples of these different types of cooperatives can be found in credit, agric, fishing multipurpose activities. Cooperatives enhance and encourage thrift and savings mobilisation among their members towards extending credits to themselves for productive purposes and enhancing their communal development.”

“In Nigeria, cooperative societies are governed by the Nigerian Cooperative Society Act which provides for the registration of cooperatives.

Such registration costs only N10,000 for registration. After payments, members get letters of recognition which serve as a licence for operations for three years before getting their

head of our weekly conversation, my Billionaire Friend had engaged me in a telephone chat revolving around feedback from readers on the topics we had featured up to that point. I relayed to him that virtually all had elicited comments, but the ones focusing on how employees can build wealth seem to have attracted more attention. I also told him my observation that the dominant issue among those who have shared their feedback with me was how to get the initial money to invest, given that there are competing demands for the take-home pay. After more reviews, my Billionaire Friend promised that he would focus on a subject that could address the concerns Artist Impression of my Billionaire Friend raised.

So, without wasting time, he announced that this week’s discussion would be on how wealth builders can use collective investment “The benefits of cooperatives schemes (cooperative societies) as a lever for their are enormous. For one, it allows wealth-building endeavours. He had touched on a point about this kind of investment in our past wealth-builders with little or conversations, describing it as how employees zero capital to access capital. can grow to become wealth builders through little drops of water from their savings, salaries It also allows members with and gradual investments. But he decided to little production possibilities discuss it in detail. to harness in a joint communal He started the discussion this way: “In this conversation, we are going to discuss effort to optimize their activities how an employee or a small-scale entrepreneur and helps them to gain economic or an artisan can build wealth. One problem that comes to mind here is the problem of sub-scale in selling their products the high cost of capital in Nigeria, in terms of and services and also in supply how small-scale enterprises can obtain capital logistics for members” at minimum cost. Currently, the cost of capital in of Nigeria is friendly: inflation is in double digits and obtaining loans is very difficult. This is one major reason the concept of cooperative and professional experts that would not be societies remains valid. affordable for individual members of such What is the utility of COOPERATIVE societies. It is for this reason that cooperative SOCIETIES? societies have helped to build the wealth of “Cooperative societies are generally formed communities and nations.” due to the limited resources of members, which “A few years ago, I visited Malaysia. I was limits the ability of members to appoint and retain pleasantly surprised to find that the palm kernel competent management professionals and thus farms extending into thousands of acres on have to depend on their members who generally both sides of my travel route were being lack skills and experience. But this is resolved farmed under cooperative movements and by the government’s supervision via cooperative I was informed on my trip that at that time inspectors and cooperative auditors that oversee (some thirty years ago), Malaysia, under its the activities of cooperative societies. The auditors cooperative movement activities, had not only and cooperative inspectors are bankrolled by the become the world’s largest palm oil producers state government to visit, check the books, give but was also researching and producing management advice, and ensure that the books pilot vehicles that were utilising the diesel are properly kept on all the financial activities fuel produced from palm oil. Incidentally, of the cooperative societies.” palm oil seeds were taken from Nigeria to “The auditors are to audit the accounts of be farmed in Malaysia at about the time of the societies in each state to ensure that the her independence.” cooperative members adhere to the basic rules “Again, on another visit to Thailand, I was of cooperative governance and accounting and surprised to learn that the large rice fields financial regulations.” from which Nigeria was importing the bulk “The benefits of cooperatives are enormous.

For one, it allows wealth-builders with little or zero capital to access capital. It also allows “Again, on another visit to Thailand, I was surprised to learn that members with little production possibilities to the large rice fields for which Nigeria was importing the bulk of harness in a joint communal effort to optimise their activities and helps them to gain economic its rice for consumption, were produced by cooperative societies sub-scale in selling their products and services in that country.The cooperative societies acquire land and jointly and also in the supply of logistics for members. It also gives poor wealth start-ups the opportunity produce under different acres that are cleared by the government of building their wealth with minimum tax for them and the cooperative societies buy their own tools and exposure and helps them to invite experts where necessary to advise them on how to light machinery for the production of those large amounts of rice manage their operations. Cooperative societies that many countries of the world, including Nigeria, consume” afford members the opportunity of accessing resources such as land, labour, entrepreneurship

certification as legal entities as cooperatives. The Nigerian Cooperative Society Act is a federal law which grants powers to governors of each state for the establishment of directorates for cooperatives in charge of regulating and directing cooperatives.”

“Start-up wealth-builders are usually confronted with the problem of raising capital especially when staunch start-up wealth-builders are employees or artisans or owners of small-scale enterprises.

Capital is necessary for wealth builders to produce goods and services which leads to creating goods and services for generating wealth. Capital is the core of wealth building and economic development. It is that specific factor of production that increases the wealth builder’s ability to generate increasing value in business financial assets that are held by wealth owners which can be used to create further wealth and acquire assets to leverage growth and build their financial stability. Capital is that part of wealth used for further production of wealth. It is required by wealth builders to purchase assets and resources that are needed to build wealth.

Capital is all the financial resources that wealth owners use to fund their operations and assets for producing products and services towards generating further wealth. In the absence of capital, there will be no wealth builders. In other words, without capital wealth cannot be built. Capital is the blood of the four main factors of land, labour and entrepreneurship.

Without capital, it would be difficult to utilise the benefits of land and labour and of course, entrepreneurship would be impossible. Hence, wealth-builders of all forms and types form cooperative societies for realising their economic and social needs as members. Such cooperative societies produce goods and services for the benefit of members as a common business entity of entities to eliminate avoidable exploitation by middlemen in trade and commerce and also protect the rights of cooperative members, both producers and consumers. In such cooperative societies, members have equal voting rights with structures that encourage members to contribute and share responsibilities under a limited liability structure.”

“Examples of successful cooperative societies in the world include the Credit Agriculture group of France, ZEN-NOH, which can be interpreted as the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Japan, and so on.

On a personal note, you would recall in one of the past conversations that I related how I had to set up a cooperative society in my workplace as an executive director. I obtained a loan from that cooperative to add to my savings and housing allowances to build a multi-story building. On completion, I collected as rent four times my capital exposure for building the multi-story building. That is an example of an employee. Another example is the 1844 group of 28 artisans, I mentioned earlier, that was working in the cotton mills in the town of Rochdale northern England, who formed the first cooperative movement and named it the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society.”

“Cooperatives, therefore, provide huge benefits for start-up wealth-builders with little access to funding the cost of loan capital or building enough savings to invest and having access to the tools of production in terms of machinery and other parts of production. It serves as a good form of limited liability that attracts zero-taxation to the organisation and gets government backing in terms of providing support services free of charge in building such cooperatives for the wealth-building benefits of the members of the cooperative societies.”

Thus far…

I can’t wait to catch up with you next week. ayo.arowolo@thisdaylive.com

21

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

SUNDAY INTERVIEW OLUWATOYIN OGUNDIPE: Collaboration between UNILAG and German Varsities will Aid Our Students to Compete Globally In its effort to enrich its global education in innovation, collaboration, research, culture and academic exchange programmes, the management of University of Lagos led by its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, recently held a submit tagged ‘Partnership for Change’ with German Universities in Frankfurt, Germany. The jointly organised summit facilitated by the Consulate General of Nigeria in Frankfurt was held at Goethe-University, Frankfurt. On the sideline of the submit, Prof. Ogundipe spoke with Funke Olaode on how the partnership will position UNILAG to be among the top universities in the world while strengthening academic relationships between Nigerian universities and its European counterparts

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DWWUDFWHG UHVHDUFK JUDQWV /RRN DW WKH QRQ WHDFKLQJ VWDͿ WZR RI them, Bolarinwa and one other person got research grants. So University of Lagos has continued to blaze the trail.

our university held a summit in Frankfurt recently tagged ‘Partnership for Change.’

Why are you so passionate about this innovation that will bring changes into the 1LJHULDQ V\VWHP LQ OHVV WKDQ ÀYH PRQWKV to your exit?

Well, I think it’s about loyalty. It is about the system that I have worked in for 32 years.

So I am very optimistic, believing that whoever comes in as a new Vice Chancellor will meet the structure on ground. It will be an auto piloting system. And even when I am not there the Deputy Vice-Chancellor can perform and perform excellently well.

We learnt that the process was facilitated by the Nigerian Consulate General in Frankfurt. Can you shed more light on this? <HV , ZDQW WR VSHFLÀFDOO\ DSSUHFLDWH WKH &RQVXODWH *HQHUDO of Nigeria in Frankfurt, Ambassador Wahab Akande. He is a fantastic man. Because the way he handled everything makes me proud of being a Nigerian. I wrote in what I put there that I am proud to be in Nigeria because of the way he was able to coordinate everything for us. He made the programme run VHDPOHVVO\ 7KH &RQVXODWH R΀FH DVVXUHG WKH FROODERUDWRUV WKDW the University of Lagos is one of the best universities in Nigeria.

So I want to really say that I acknowledge what he did for us with his team, they are fantastic people.

What is your takeaway from this summit?

My takeaway is that we need to have a new system of running the universities in Nigeria. We always complain that we don’t have enough resources from the government, which I quite agree with, but we need to look inward. And one of the ways through which we can run our system is to have collaboration with other universities outside the country. And if you look at this arrangement, it is not only about the university, it is also DERXW WKH FRPPXQLW\ $QG \RX ÀQG RXW WKDW LQ WKH FRPPXQLW\ they have all that is needed to assist in moving the university forward. My take on it is that, that brand, the University of Lagos, we need to continue to talk about the brand outside the country, so that they will know that we have a brand. If you look at it, they (the German universities) are happy to associate with the University of Lagos. They are even looking forward to coming to the University of Lagos.

How many universities did you engage with during the summit?

We had discussions with about four universities and one company that is ready to partner us particularly in Germany: University ofApplied Sciences, Fachhochschule Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, ProEnergie GmbH & Co. KG, Laatzen, Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences, Schmalkalden, University of Münster, Münster and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe.

And beyond Nigerian students coming to Germany, how GR \RX WKLQN WKLV VXPPLW ZLOO EH EHQHÀFLDO WR 1LJHULD DQG Nigerian students?

One, we are talking about student mobility - at least student exchange in the area of engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, law, even economics. In another university, we are talking about technology, looking at the strength of that university. In another university, we are talking about social sciences. So, what we are bringing in is to look at the strength of those universities and link ourselves with the strength of those universities. Two, we are looking at the possibility of linking those lecturers to our own lecturers in University of Lagos so that WKH\ ZLOO EH DEOH WR ZRUN WRJHWKHU 7KDW LV IRU WKH VWDͿ $SDUW IURP UHVHDUFK ZH DUH DOVR WDONLQJ DERXW VWDͿ PRELOLW\ VWDͿ FRPLQJ WR use their facility for one month, two months. One of our lecturers in the English Department, Dr. Oloko is already in Germany for a one month programme. The advantage is that it is not only going WR EH VWXGHQW PRELOLW\ ,W LV DOVR JRLQJ WR EH VWDͿ PRELOLW\ 7KDW LV RXU RZQ VWDͿ ZLOO FRPH WR WKH XQLYHUVLW\ KHUH 7KHLU RZQ VWDͿ WRR will come to our university. It’s not a one directional agreement.

Like I said, we don’t want to be parasitic, we want to have a V\PELRWLF UHODWLRQVKLS VR WKDW WKH\ DOVR SUHVHQW WKHLU RZQ VWDͿ In October or thereabout one or two of them are coming to our university so that we can enhance and expand the relationship.

Ogundipe

with its peculiarity. One talked about the waste-to-wealth. They talked about generating gas. I think they talked about solar, in the area of wind we cannot do that of wind, or using wind to generate power because the speed that we have in UNILAG is not enough to generate enough power. You know Lagos State tried it during former Governor Babatunde Fashola and they did not succeed. People don’t know the reason. The reason is that the wind speed we have cannot move that blade consistently to generate enough power. So we are looking at waste to power and we are also looking at solar. And I also want you to know that there is a team in UNILAG now that is producing solar panels.

It is not that we are just folding our arms and expecting them to just come and give us all that we want, no. We are working on a possibility of what we need to do to generate power locally. Also, in the area of startup, you know we are talking about innovation. $ ORW RI SURJUDPPHV DUH LQ WKH SLSHOLQH WKDW ZLOO EHQHÀW WKHLU own students so that they will be able to compete with their counterparts in Germany.

Before coming to Germany you were in the UK, is there any GL;HUHQFH EHWZHHQ ZKDW KDSSHQHG LQ WKH 8. DQG *HUPDQ\" The mission in the United Kingdom was fantastic too. I want us to know that by the time they are going to do the ranking of the University of Lagos next year, it will be among the top universities in the world. When we got to Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, they themselves were happy to receive us. In fact, in Edinburgh, they said that they need to learn from us too in the area of entrepreneurship and FinTech. That FinTech in Nigeria is good. Like I said earlier, it is not going to be parasitic, we want to have a symbiotic relationship and it is already yielding results. By next year, Architecture students with one or two of their lecturers from Dundee University are coming to University of Lagos. And our students in the Department of Architecture will be going to Dundee to learn about architectural design and other things in Dundee. We are going beyond that, like I said, student mobility, presently some of our students, I think one or two of our students are in Turkey. And they told me that one of our students is here in Germany, on student mobility. So we are going to improve student mobility to expose our students to that international space. We are not stopping at that. We are going to even encourage our students, expose them to the universities that are ready to admit them for their masters or postgraduate programmes. One of the universities has promised to absorb our students for their master’s programme and it is going to be tuition free. So these are the things that we are talking about to make our students exposed. If you look at what I said in my statement on UNILAG, I said for our students to be relevant locally and to compete globally. Somebody told me of one university that they have arrangements to admit people with 2.1 from Nigeria. By the time they told them about UNILAG they were admitting students with 2.2 from University of Lagos.

Now that you are leaving, beyond all these within the next couple of years, what would you like to hear about the University of Lagos? :LWKLQ WKH ODVW ÀYH \HDUV \RX KDYH DWWUDFWHG DV PXFK DV I am proud to lead the team. Like you mentioned earlier, some about 18 billion in terms of grants to the university. What is people are asking me, that you have four months to go, why the status of those particular grants? are you doing this? It is not about me, it is about the university.

We have a grant from I think from Tetfund, we have gotten a Somebody said what do you want to be remembered for? And total grant of over three or four hundred million naira. I don’t I said, I want to be remembered as somebody who emptied NQRZ WKH VSHFLÀF WKLQJ QRZ :H KDYH IURP WKH :RUOG %DQN )URP himself to move the university forward. That is me. I have the World Bank, we have two centres that are running now and never worked anywhere in my life, apart from University of the two will be around $9 million. We have from the European Lagos. And I never applied for vice-chancellorship, appointUnion too. So we have in medicine, we have in biological sciences, ment, anywhere before. So I am proud of this partnership and we have in law, Facebook. We have another one which BCMs collaboration because I want UNILAG to be well-recognised is involved in. I think that one is the European community or at the national and international level. I want to hear of uniUNILAG has had relationships with other foreign universities European Union, which we just got with some universities. We versities who are coming up with solutions concerning the just got another one last week, which is $250,000 in the area of problems that we have with the country. But I want you to know LQ WKH SDVW :KDW PDNHV WKLV RQH GL;HUHQW" :KDW PDNHV WKLV RQH GLͿHUHQW LV WKDW OLNH , VDLG DSDUW IURP DUWLÀFLDO LQWHOOLJHQFH 'U <LQND %DQMR RI &RPSXWHU 6FLHQFH DQG that nobody can help us. No country will come help us. It is only the issue of research, we are looking at renewable energy. They Dr. Mary Akinyemi of Statistics are involved in that too. And the the universities and research institutes in Nigeria that will help are bringing their facility to us in which our own students will interesting thing about this is that it cuts across all faculties. That the country to move forward. I want to see a university where EHQHÀW IURP LW LQ 1LJHULD 7KHQ ZH ZLOO EH DEOH WR JHQHUDWH RXU is why I am excited. Unlike in the past, it’s only science, medicine there is peace. I want to see a university where the students are own energy in the University of Lagos. It has been an eventful that normally gets research grants. But now all the faculties in the well known all over the world. Like I said UNILAG is a brand, RXWLQJ LQ *HUPDQ\ EHFDXVH GLͿHUHQW XQLYHUVLWLHV DUH FRPLQJ University of Lagos you could get one or two people who have I am happy to be part of that progressive brand.

22

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2022 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY MONDAYSunday MARCH 2022 26 14, June, 2022 Vol 27. No 9938

OPI NION

123

opinion@thisdaylive.com

www.thisdaylive.com

2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: DUMEBI KACHIKWU AND HIS ‘OPENING ARGUMENT Nigerians have a choice to make, from the old or the new, writes DELE OLOWU

See Page 24

AFTER OWO CHURCH MASSACRE: WHAT NEXT? It is time to draw up contingency plans for the protection of worship spaces, writes JOHN SEGUN ODEYEMI

See Page 24

DEMOCRATIC REVERSALS AND THE CRISIS OF GOVERNANCE WEALTH D.OMINABO argues that ECOWAS needs independence to enforce its protocols See Page 49

OSUN GUBER, APC PRIMARIES AND OTHER STORIES Political parties must come up with ideas and programmes that will endear them to the people, writes ABIODUN KOMOLAFE See Page 49

EDITORIAL

SECURING THE CHURCHES See Page 50

The Sultan of Sokoto ALHAJI MUHAMMED SA’AD ABUBAKAR preaches love and mercy at the NIREC meeting

PROMOTING MUTUAL LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING IN NIGERIA

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T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26,, 2022

2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: DUMEBI KACHIKWU AND HIS ‘OPENING ARGUMENT Nigerians have a choice to make, from the old or the new, writes Dele Olowu After a long and interesting struggle, a gaggle of candidates, 15 in all, has emerged to engage in the Presidential election in 2023.

The group is eclectic and amongst them is veteran campaigner Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; KH KDV XQVXFFHVVIXOO\ FRQWHVWHG ÀYH WLPHV IRU WKH RIÀFH RI 3UHVLGHQW RI 1LJHULD LQ 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. At 75, elder statesman Atiku may be running out of political tarmac. 2023 is therefore terminal for him and carries a special sense of history DV KH ÁLHV WKH 3'3 ÁDJ $VLZDMX 7LQXEX WKH -DJDEDQ %RUJX UDWKHU ZHOO NQRZQ LQ WKH EDUULFDGHV KDV ULYHWHG WKH QDWLRQ ZLWK KLV successful campaign to be the Presidential ÁDJ EHDUHU IRU KLV $3& 0DQ\ VXJJHVW WKDW WR FOLQFK WKH SUL]H $VLZDMX 7LQXEX defeated not only his rival candidates but also decimated their sneaky sponsors, some

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It is time to draw up contingency plans for the protection of worship spaces, writes JOHN SEGUN ODEYEMI AFTER OWO CHURCH MASSACRE: WHAT NEXT? 2Q )ULGD\ -XQH D JRRG QXPEHU RI people either joined by zoom, live TV coverage RU ZHUH LQ LQ SHUVRQ DWWHQGDQFH DW WKH IXQHUDO PDVV RI SHUVRQV ZKR ZHUH PDVVDFUHG DW 6W )UDQFLV &DWKROLF &KXUFK 2ZR 2QGR 6WDWH 7KH\ KDG JRQH WR PDVV RQ 6XQGD\ -XQH WKH solemnity of Pentecost. While not offending DQ\RQH ZKLOH SHUIRUPLQJ WKHLU FLYLF UHOLJLRXV and natural human rights to freedom of ZRUVKLS DVVDLODQWV FDPH LQ DQG RSHQHG ILUH RQ GHIHQFHOHVV ZRUVKLSSHUV :KLOH WKLV LV QRW SDUWLFXODU WR 1LJHULD ZH KDYH VHHQ &KXUFKHV synagogues, mosques shootings around the ZRUOG +RZHYHU ZLWKLQ RXU RZQ FOLPHV WKH DWWDFN RQ &KXUFKHV &KULVWLDQ FOHUJ\ DQG &KULVWLDQV LV EHJLQQLQJ WR DGG XS ´,I LW ORRNV OLNH D GXFN ZDONV OLNH D GXFN DQG TXDFNV OLNH D GXFN WKHQ LW·V D GXFN µ :H PXVW DW WKLV SRLQW VWRS EHLQJ GHOXVLRQDO DQG FDOO LW ZKDW LW LV HLWKHU VWDWH VDQFWLRQHG PDVVDFUH RU D MLKDG E\ ,VODPLF H[WUHPLVWV ² RU ERWK DFWLQJ LQ V\QHUJ\ Watching the funeral mass of 40 people ZKRVH FDVNHWV ZHUH ODLG RXW LQ WKH DXGLWRULXP ZKHUH WKH HYHQW WRRN SODFH HYRNHG D VHQVH RI GHVSDLU DQG IUXVWUDWLRQ ZLWK D FRXQWU\ ZKHUH WKH YDOXH RQ LWV FLWL]HQV· OLYHV ZRUWK QRWKLQJ WR LWV SROLWLFDO OHDGHUV , DP FRQYLQFHG EH\RQG doubt that the killing fields of our country has become business as usual for those in the

highest ranks of our polity. Their aloofness, callousness and lack of empathy daily emboldens the various groups emasculating the nation. When the entire apparatuses of state for defense totally collapse, then you can agree ZLWK WKH JRYHUQRU RI 2QGR 6WDWH $UDNXQULQ $NHUHGROX ´ZH JRYHUQPHQW KDYH IDLOHG WR SURWHFW RXU SHRSOH µ +HUH LV WKH YHU\ FRUH WKH central question to be asked after identifying the problem; if the government is no longer able to, XQZLOOLQJ WR LQFDSDFLWDWHG WR SURWHFW XV WKH SHRSOH KRZ GR ZH SURWHFW RXUVHOYHV" This question straddles the very pronounced SDFLILVW HWKLFV RI WKH JRRG QHZV RI -HVXV DQG SHUKDSV ZKDW FDQ EH GHVFULEHG DV WKH UHWDOLDWRU\ UHOLJLRXV IDYRU RI WKH =HDORWV )XQGDPHQWDOO\ , WKLQN WKDW DV D QDWLRQ ZH RIWHQ VK\ DZD\ ZLWK confronting difficult questions. We seem to huddle behind a religious facade of “do no evil to DQ\RQHµ ZKHQ ZH QHHG WR IRUPXODWH LQWHOOLJHQW ZD\V RI SURWHFWLQJ RXU OLYHV DQG SURSHUWLHV from charlatans, scoundrels, murderous and KHDUWOHVV PDUDXGHUV ZLWK QR PLON RI KXPDQ V\PSDWK\ EHQW RQ SURJUDP DQG JHQRFLGH ,Q WKH KRPLO\ RI WKH GD\ DW WKH IXQHUDO 0DVV RI WKH slain innocents, Bishop Emmanuel Ade Badejo, &DWKROLF %LVKRS RI 2\R 'LRFHVH LQ D WKHRORJLFDO DQG LQWHOOLJHQW H[SRVH OHG WKH FRQJUHJDQWV WR UHIOHFW RQ WKH PHDQLQJ RI WKH VXIIHULQJ RI &KULVW DQG D &KXUFK WKDW PXVW QHFHVVDULO\ EH ZLOOLQJ to face persecution too. +H KRZHYHU DVNHG ´+RZ PDQ\ PRUH PXVW GLH" %LVKRS %DGHMR JRHV RQ WR VWDWH ´%XW WR surrender to faith is not to surrender to bestial EUXWDOLW\ 2XU &KULVWLDQ IDLWK VWURQJ DV LW LV LV WKRURXJKO\ WHVWHG ZKHQ ZH UHPHPEHU WKDW WKH PDVVDFUH ZH KDYH MXVW IDFHG LV QRW DQ LVRODWHG FDVH DQG WKDW ZH VHH OLWWOH RQ WKH JURXQG WR LQGLFDWH WKDW LW PLJKW EH WKH ODVW ,W KDV EHHQ D ORQJ EORRG\ OLVW DOZD\V JURZLQJ RYHU WKH ODVW RGG \HDUV µ

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The ethic of Pro-Life movement in WKH &DWKROLF &KXUFK DOVR NQRZQ DV WKH FRQVLVWHQW HWKLF RI OLIH RU ZKROH OLIH HWKLF opposes abortion, capital punishment, DVVLVWHG VXLFLGH DQG HXWKDQDVLD 6RPH DGKHUHQWV RSSRVH ZDU RU DW WKH YHU\ OHDVW XQMXVW ZDU 7KLV LV DQ LGHRORJ\ WKDW LV EDVHG on the premise that all human life is sacred; it is relevant to a broad variety of areas of public policy and should be protected by ODZ 7KH &DWKROLF &KXUFK WHDFKHV WKDW DOO human life is sacred from the moment of natural conception to natural death.

Because each individual human person is FUHDWHG LQ WKH LPDJH DQG OLNHQHVV RI *RG each person enjoy both divine and natural rights to life, liberty and freedom. Therefore, it is egregious and morally reprehensible IRU DQ\RQH WR WDNH WKH OLIH RI DQRWKHU 1RW HYHQ WKH VWDWH KDV WKDW SRZHU RXWVLGH RI WKH MXGLFLDO V\VWHP ZKHUH WKH VWDWH KDV DOUHDG\ VLJQHG LQWR ODZ FDSLWDO SXQLVKPHQW )URP WKH IRUHJRLQJ LW LV D PRUDO GXW\ imposed on everyone to defend one’s self and protect one’s life.

Rev. Fr. Odeyemi is of Xavier University of Louisiana

349

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2022

DEMOCRATIC REVERSALS AND THE CRISIS OF GOVERNANCE Wealth D.Ominabo argues that ECOWAS needs independence to enforce its protocols Democracy in West Africa is in crisis, it is threatened by insecurity, human rights violation , digital repression, electoral fraud, institutional weakness and state capture. The region is becoming a ÁRXULVKLQJ JURXQG IRU XQFRQVWLWXWLRQDO transfers of power, compounding the security challenges of the region.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea are now governed by military leaders and ECOWAS has for the last two years been searching for a sustainable solution to the political impasse in the countries.

At the foundation of the issue of democratic reversals is the crisis of governance. The inability of States to function effectively; the lack of capacity of institutions to carry out their functions, the inability of political leaders to safeguard and protect the lives and properties of citizens is also seen as a major threat for the survival of democracy. Peace and security are the primary responsibilities of a State, and the government’s relevance is to the extent to which it can guarantee the basic rights of people. The crisis of governance is better explained in the context of the current reality in many countries,

where citizens are daily confronted with miseries such as poverty, unemployment, insecurity and hunger. This has created a WUXVW GHÀFLW EHWZHHQ WKH JRYHUQPHQW DQG the citizens. Trust is the threshold upon which the legitimacy of a government is EXLOW DQG VXVWDLQHG DQG WKH GHÀFLW RI WUXVW portends a crisis of legitimacy.

Democratic sustainability is tied to adherence to democratic principles which include the rule of law, separation of powers, credible elections, access to justice, equality and inclusive governance. These virtues help to reinforce the wheel of governance and maintain state on the path of stability and national cohesion. Dictatorial instincts by political leaders have made many citizens lose faith in democracy , making citizens resort to the search of hope by all means even outside the constitutional democracy. In Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso citizens trooped out to the street to celebrate when democratic governments were overthrown. In some instances like Mali, civil society groups and political party leaders were reported to have endorsed actions of the putschist.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is threatened with legitimacy and governance crises - this impacts on its ability to deliver on its mandate and enforce its protocols. Democracy and security are major areas of interest of ECOWAS, regrettably the region has been a melting SRW IRU LQVHFXULW\ DQG ÁDVKSRLQW IRU democratic decline in recent years. Part of the challenge lies in the lethargy of presidents from member states to uphold democratic principles in their countries.

Another factor lies in the absence of strong institutions in many countries which has made many presidents manipulate the

state institutions for their interests.

The inability of ECOWAS leaders, especially those within the ranks of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the highest decision organ of the body comprising serving presidents to enforce its laws and protocols, has created a crisis of governance for ECOWAS. In recent times, most presidents of ECOWAS nations have defaulted ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance through electoral malpractice and tenure elongation.

Some leaders have also captured democratic institutions in their countries subjecting State institutions to act according to their whims and caprices.

President Alpha Conde’s decision to seek a third term has always been cited as the major reason for the coup in Guinea.

ECOWAS today faces a legitimacy issue because many citizens in member states do not see the body as representing their interests because of their silence on the illegality of sitting presidents. For example, ECOWAS maintained sealed lips when Alassane Ouattara amended the Côte d’Ivoire’s Constitution and sought a third term .

This practice by ECOWAS signals a departure from the old tradition when ECOWAS used to be assertive on issues of democratic principles involving member states. In 2009 ECOWAS suspended President Mamadou Tandja of Niger after the expiration of his two terms despite orchestrating a referendum and conducting a sham election to validate his third term. In 2010, ECOWAS also asserted its power and compelled President /DXUHQW *EDJER WR YDFDWH RIÀFH DIWHU KH was defeated by Alassane Ouattara in the 2010 Presidential Election of Côte d’Ivoire.

Also in 2016 ECOWAS restored the presidential mandate of Adama Barrow of Gambia after Yahya Jammeh refused to YDFDWH RIÀFH DIWHU KH ZDV GHIHDWHG LQ WKH presidential polls.

The deviation from this time tested practice is what has created a legitimacy gap for ECOWAS among citizens of PHPEHU VWDWHV 7RGD\ (&2:$6 ÀQGV LW GLIÀFXOW WR HQIRUFH LWV SROLFLHV DQG SURWRFRO on dissenting members . The failure and refusal of military authoritarians in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso to abide by ECOWAS timeline of political transition despite sanctions imposed on them signals the irreverence of the body in the region. )RU GHPRFUDF\ WR ÁRXULVK LQ WKH UHJLRQ presidents from member states must commit to democratic principles in their own countries, this will translate to wider democratic gains in the region. One way to achieve this is through the strengthening of democratic institutions in a way that it can withstand pressures from African Strongmen and authoritarians. Strong institutions are the bulwark upon which democracy is preserved. The ECOWAS Commission and ECOWAS itself is in need of urgent reforms that will guarantee its independence, from internal DQG H[WHUQDO LQÁXHQFHV VR LW FDQ HQIRUFH its protocols without fear or favour.

Lastly, West African nations need to improve their level of statecraft, such that the government is able to deliver basic social goods to its citizens; this will help ensure trust and build faith in the hearts RI FLWL]HQV RQ WKH EHQHÀWV DQG UHOHYDQFH RI democracy.

Ominabo is the Communications Officer at the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation

OSUN GUBER, APC PRIMARIES AND OTHER STORIES Political parties must come up with ideas and programmes that will endear them to the people, writes ABIODUN KOMOLAFE When we were growing up, we were treated to the fact that, whether things were convenient or not, elections, globally, were contests; that membership of a political party was a thing of pride; and that, in a contest, ‘you win some, you lose some.’ We were told that, in every contest, a candidate from a pool of aspirants would always emerge; and that, ‘while those who win end up thanking their stars’, losers would always go back home, most likely looking forward to fighting another day. Well, these contextual explanations become necessary, especially, when one takes into consideration the experiences of the last primary elections of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country.

Osun State is no exception.

Taking Osun APC as a case study, even a fool in the party would know that the outcomes of the elections did not satisfy everybody. And the truth is: there’s no way it could have satisfied everybody! But then, this is where we will know the difference between a party man and a passerby; between real members and mere wannabes. Therefore, since the party’s interest and ‘will’ are superior to that of any individual, all conflicts must be resolved to its advantage.

Members must ensure that they close ranks; for that’s the only way the party can be strengthened.

This becomes important because, once the party exists, it provides the needed platform through which political agitations can be articulated and appropriately channelled. Besides, whatever it is that agitators don’t, or can’t get now, subsequent elections will provide it. But, if they ruin the party, it becomes weakened and the process of rebuilding it is not a Tea Party! What’s more?

There may be no platform upon which to contest again. So, it is not just about fighting for the soul of the party in the present, any untoward stuffs will be tantamount to ruining its future.

Still on Osun APC, to say that it doesn’t have a lot of work to do is to be economical with the truth. To this end, every issue that is pending and contentious must be resolved before the governorship election, either at the party level or caucus meetings. Since accruable political benefits to members, induced loyalty and associational spirit of members to the party help sustain the notion of party supremacy, it therefore implies that, no matter how small, or apparently insignificant a grievance may be, the leadership of the party must not run away from resolving it, amicably. At this point, any aggrieved member must be settled and he who believes he has lost something significant while running after the party’s interest must also be assuaged in a way that’ll show that the party is fair to all. If this is not done, chances are that it may be difficult to bring non-committed members on board on the day of the election. Predilection for distancing themselves from the polling units cannot even be ruled out, if they don’t see their matters as being effectively handled.

In politics, little things count! A good politician is always regarded as a man of the people. While seasoned utterances and matured mannerisms are virtuous attributes, humility must also not be too far from him or her. Bluntly stated, those who won the elections at various levels must learn to be humble. They must learn how to be magnanimous in victory so that it doesn’t hurt the other man who lost. If a man is not mature, it may be difficult for him to reconcile with anybody. What it therefore means is that the aggrieved should be persuaded for peace to reign. One should become a sheep even if the other is proving too difficult to handle, rewardingly. Anything short of that can only lead to more troubles.

Take for instance a petition written against Seun Odofin to the National Working Committee of the party by a group of people in Ijesa North Federal Constituency in the heat of the primary election. Well, whatever the situation, that a petition was even written against his candidature was a hydra-headed palaver which, if not efficiently and effectively dealt with, might lead to thorns and thistles on the way forward.

Until stumbling blocks are effectively removed, the cynics may never find anything good in the

victorious candidate. Yes, Odofin has done a lot in the upliftment of the living conditions of the people of the Federal Constituency!

Yes, he has facilitated hundreds of solarpowered light panels to its rural areas! Yes, he has paid school and examination fees for indigent students and done empowerment programmes for the constituents more than anyone else! Yet, ‘ota eni kii pa odu oya’ (to one’s enemy, every success is always a futile attempt). Since the horse of an enemy is never adorable, those who have already made up their minds won’t see anything good in that labour of love, unless fences are mended.

The more reason it is essential for the aforementioned issues to be addressed in the overall interest of the party in particular and the state in general. The other possibility may be better imagined. If it’s too late, damage control may no longer work.

By the way, what can we say of the political misdemeanor of posters removal currently tearing Osun apart? Well, it’s not that it is entirely new but the troubling truth is that it is moving towards a frightening dimension.

Overnight, before people wake up in the morning, posters of candidates of a political party have either been defaced, or removed altogether. This is amateurish in the practice of party politics and whosoever is involved or guilty of this misbehavior should desist.

Political parties must come up with manifestoes that are sellable. They must come up with ideas and programmes that will endear them to the hearts of the people.

The capacity to attract votes, seriously speaking, does not really lie in posters. For the records, the involvement of posters in political campaigns was an invention of psychologists. It came at a time the people didn’t rely so much on research. To the inventors, when a prospective voter keeps seeing a picture every time, it registers after a while. And when such a person gets to the polling booth, he or she is most likely to remember that face and vote for that person. That’s the argument behind posters. They simply don’t have any RWKHU VHULRXV GHÀQLQJ LPSOLFDWLRQV RQ who wins what in political lexicons.

Where politics is practised, based on issues, nobody will remember a poster.

The funny part of it is that it has become a subject of counter-accusations; allegedly a product of tit-for-tat! In the interest of peace in the state, whosoever is responsible for posters defacement in Osun should stop forthwith! It is giving the State a bad name!

Lastly, reports from the nooks and crannies of the state are pointing in the direction of neighbourhoods, communities, wards and constituencies, one after the other, and Local Governments in their numbers coming together, reconciling and pledging their loyalty and support to the party. Opposing aspirants are also said to be uniting behind the party’s prime interest and working for the re-election bid of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

Komolafe wrtes from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

4 50

T H I S D AY SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2022

EDITORIAL

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

SECURING THE CHURCHES The freedom of worship in an atmosphere devoid of fear and death is a pillar of democracy

T

he June 5 attack on a catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, has quickened what was already a growing national anxiety. Barely a week after the attack which claimed over 40 lives of innocent worshippers, there was another on a catholic church in Kaduna State which claimed two lives. While the federal government has stated that the Owo attack may have been perpetrated by operatives of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the Ondo State government has disputed the claim. But the controversy is needless. Irrespective of the identity of the culprits, what remains at issue is the security of worshippers in churches across the nation.

In every religion, the object of worship is a willful surrender of the self to the protection of the higher power of the divine. In peaceful climes, places of worship hardly ever need earthly human physical protection. Footage and images from recent church scenes especially in the wake of the Owo killings have shown clerics and worshippers clutching weapons.

These images are blatant signs of the times in which Nigerians now live. They are also unfortunate violations of the code that enables religious worship.

Besides, they undermine the object of religious supplication and the ultimate surrender to the protection of the Almighty. The quest for physical security and protection for places of worship in any society or nation is therefore one clear sign that all is not well in the land.

When metal detectors become essential requirements of security or churches begin to seek armed combat soldiers and police protection for times of worship, the very end of religion is undermined if not totally destroyed. If those who head to church every Sunday are unsure that they will return home in one piece and not in body bags, then something fundamental that binds society together is shattered.

The freedom of worship in an atmosphere devoid of fear of injury or death is a pillar of democracy.

When and where that freedom is under threat, the state has an urgent bounden duty, indeed an

obligation, to provide that protection to all those who have to be in places of worship as part of normal life.

In our present national context, the security of places of worship, especially the churches, have become the favorite targets of sectarian zealots and deranged terrorists. Yet, the state hardly has enough personnel to physically police and man every church.

7KH FKDOOHQJH LV ÀUVW RQH RI LQWHOOLJHQFH EDVHG security. The vulnerability indices of certain states and locations ought to be part of available national VHFXULW\ GDWD DQG SURÀOLQJ 7KDW SURÀOH QHHGV WR EH constantly updated in the light of current threats and the mobility of troublemakers and terrorists. It may also help for churches to provide metal detectors and beepers at entrances as an early warning precaution.

After all, during the highpoint RI WKH &RYLG KHDOWK emergency, churches LQVWDOOHG À[HG VDQLWL]HUV and other devices to protect their congregants.

However, the more elaborate the gamut of preventive security measures in churches, the farther away they drift from the spiritual essence of divine SURWHFWLRQ 2Q D ORQJ WHUP EDVLV WKHUHIRUH LW RXJKW to trouble our political leaders that the spiritual foundations of the nation are being gradually eroded by the insecurity that now haunts our land. A nation that is already fractured along many fault lines risks falling apart completely when innocent citizens can no longer take recourse to divine protection from a growing army of dark forces and agents of the devil.

Yet bad times dictate unusual precautions. An essential responsibility of the state is the protection of the lives of citizens as they undertake the rituals of daily living. When citizens are invaded in their homes or accosted on the highways, their places of worship remain where they can reinforce their armour of divine protection. When evil forces invade those same places, the sense of utter defenselessness becomes total and unforgiving. That perhaps is the JUHDWHVW WKUHDW WR QDWLRQDO VHFXULW\ SURSHUO\ GHÀQHG But the soothing balm of church hymns and the tranquility of the moments of prayer should not be replaced with anguish and the trail of blood.

A nation that is already fractured along many fault lines risks falling apart completely when innocent citizens can no longer take recourse to divine protection from a growing army of dark forces and agents of the devil

Letters to the Editor

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

LETTERS

NIGER’S NEST OF NIGGLES As insecurity continues to gain grounds in Nigeria, the proximity of Niger State and the criminals which have set up shop there, to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, remains a source of grave concern.

Since over a hundred kids were picked RII IURP 7HJLQD DQG KHOG IRU GD\V ODVW year, and villagers in Zagzaga advised to sell off their farm produce to raise ransom to free their abducted loved ones, the State has gained some notoriety for being one of Nigeria`s most insecure states.

It is no longer in doubt that life has become cheap in Nigeria. What remains in only little doubt is to what extent. Even the most cursory of examinations would betray the fact that it is to a large extent. Niger State in Nigeria is one of such states where life in Nigeria is as cheap as commodities in a market of chips.

2Q :HGQHVGD\ -XQH DUPHG bandits fell upon Maguzawa Community LQ 5DÀ /RFDO *RYHUQPHQW DUHD RI WKH VWDWH While they slaughtered three people, DQ XQVSHFLÀHG QXPEHU RI SHRSOH ZHUH

abducted. The attacks on Maguzawa came less than 48 hours after bandits raided *LGLJRUH FRPPXQLW\ DOVR LQ 5DÀ /RFDO *RYHUQPHQW ZKHUH DW OHDVW ÀYH OLYHV ZHUH lost and dozens abducted.

The attacks on Maguzawa were not isolated. According to reports, residents FRQÀUPHG WKDW LQ OHVV WKDQ WKUHH ZHHNV DERXW GLIIHUHQW DWWDFNV KDG EHHQ YLVLWHG RQ YDULRXV FRPPXQLWLHV LQ 5DÀ /RFDO *RYHUQPHQW DUHD 2Q 6XQGD\ -XQH ZKHQ D EXV UDQ LQWR D W\UH WUXFN SDUNHG RQ WKH URDG LQ *LGDQ .ZDQR DORQJ 0LQQD %LGD LQ %RVVR ORFDO JRYHUQPHQW DUHD RI 1LJHU 6WDWH passengers were burnt beyond recognition.

2Q 0RQGD\ -XQH <XVXI 6DCDG D fuel attendant, was shot dead at the AYM 6KDID ÀOOLQJ VWDWLRQ DORQJ %RVVR URDG RI Chachanga local government area in Minna by a military personnel after an argument ensued between the management of the ÀOOLQJ VWDWLRQ DQG VRPH PHQ RI WKH 1LJHULDQ military who came to buy fuel long after the ÀOOLQJ VWDWLRQ KDG FORVHG IRU WKH GD\

In every country that is serious about the development of its citizens which necessarily factors the quality of life as well as life expectancy into the development equation, the life of every citizen is of supreme importance. In fact, Nigeria remains one of countries where the increasingly unfashionable death penalty remains a feature of the law. Yet, death continues to stalk Nigeria.

Every day, all over the country, Nigerians continue to fall victim to mindless and senseless attacks on their lives and properties by criminals who should be cooling their heels in jail was Nigeria a saner country.

Instead, the experience of even Nigerian children, is of a country where families have to put up with constant threats of terrorist attacks in addition to the poverty that is a constant companion these days.

While Nigerian lives continue to lose their worth with each passing day, governments at different levels are always beside themselves to reiterate that they are doing their best.

It remains to be seen however that this ‘best’ is enough for the men, women and children whose lives continue to be disrupted every day by these violent attacks, and whether this `best’ will remain enough for the criminals who seem hellbent on claiming Nigerians communities for themselves.

Kene Obiezum, keneobiezu@gmail.com

WHAT IS RIGHT? 7KH PDMRULW\ RSLQLRQ RQ FDUU\LQJ concealed guns is concerning. There is a difference between what the law says is right and what most of society thinks is right and that difference will allow more mass murders to be possible. Rethink the laws before somebody else is harmed.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

26.6.22

Femi Koya Breaking Boundaries Through Music

Femi Koya is arguably one of the most recognisable faces of the African music renaissance, combining West African highlife and jazz. From the bubbly streets of Lagos, Nigeria to Sophia town-inspired sounds of South Africa, his sharp, deep and rich fusion of Afrobeat and contemporary groove connects to his life’s journey - a story of migration from the West to the South. A composer, performer, versatile saxophonist and dynamic vocalist, Koya, through his craft, expresses a wide spectrum of emotions, depth and energy. He speaks with Adedayo Adejobi on his quest for African unity through music ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/victoria.olaode@thisdaylive.com.

52

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ßØÏ Ͱʹ˜ ͰͮͰͰ

COVER

I’m On a Quest to Unite Africa Through Music Technology’ as well as ‘Ori mi’ and more were performed at the concert. The ‘Iba’ album also calls for African unity, making a plea for the dignity of human rights, and celebrates Africa’s love of life

Koya

F

or those who know, love and appreciate quality and timeless Afrobeat and jazz music; one household name they can all go to watch in Johannesburg, South Africa is Femi Koya.

In Nigeria for a tour of a few states and to celebrate his mother’s 73rd birthday, Koya kicked off

his tour with an intimate concert at the Freedom Park, Marina Lagos powered by Ayoola Sadare’s Inspiro Productions. He was not only recognised for his music but also for his fight to return Nigerian highlife, Afrobeat and jazz music into public consciousness.

Naturally, the saxophone is both a beautiful and tough instrument, but

playing the tenor saxophone requires a great deal of breath and dexterity. Koya would rather feel the music he plays than read it off a page. All he needs is the rhythm and the rest is easy.

Playing the tenor saxophone for Koya is as easy as ABC. He has the flow, tonality and proficiency expected of a good sax player. He’s a very relaxed performer; doesn’t impede the rest of the band. The musician puts out an energy that is comforting and professional at the same time. That kind of energy goes a long way in this business.

Watching him and his band perform, his style is far from predictable. A good example is on a recent Sunday night when the musician, songwriter, composer and saxophonist walked into the audience while playing the saxophone solo in one of his popular tracks ‘Iba’ meaning ‘homage’ a title from his second album released in August 2015. He sustained his breath on the instrument for minutes, fading his musical notes in as though they came out of nowhere, going all the way up into the fortissimo range, and then coming back down to fading out. Koya noticeably made it a point to not remove the horn from his mouth between notes, as it would have robbed him of the chance to recuperate. Wondering how he got the strength? The legend’s natural way of playing has made his tone noticeably richer.

Sitting to listen to the musician, you cannot but be drawn to the spectacle that made up the well-crafted stage, floodlights beamed on an array of musicians featuring the Brass Sessionsaxophonists, trumpeters, flugelhornist, keyboardist, guitarist, bassist, drummer and traditional percussionists who laid out in a clean and tidy manner, sweet and melodic Nigerian highlife feel to his music. The reporter couldn’t but mesh the sensibility of absurdity laced with intelligence- a collection of some of the most accomplished musicians in town, on the band.

Tracks from his album ‘Technology’ as well as ‘Ori mi’ and more were performed at the concert. The ‘Iba’ album also calls for African unity, making a plea for the dignity of human rights, and celebrates Africa’s love of life.

His album, ‘Village Afrobeat’, was released in April 2018 and its songs depict nature, fertility, rituals, change of seasons and traditions essential to village life. The album tells stories and tales of what happens in villages as well as fables.

Songs such as Babalawo, Lerato, Alo and Kongo enable new generations to understand the significance of African unity as well as provide a nostalgic look at village culture and its life lessons.

The multiplicity of voices in his songs creates a conscious musical and social dialogue between West and South African artists. It is a dialogue that promotes a culturally integrated Africa and strives for love, unity and respect for human rights among Africans regardless of their backgrounds or social station. In

‘Africa Unite’ he sings about taxi drivers and women at marketplaces as some of the ordinary people who also deserve a decent living in Africa.

Born in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, in 1981, his musical talents were evident from early childhood when he used to dance with traditional drummers in his father’s compound. With a keen interest in the piano and trumpet, he chose the brass singlereed woodwind instrument with a conical body- a saxophone. At a tender age, his musical influences include Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Manu Dibango, Hugh Masekela, Baaba Maal and John Coltrane became his influences, while he had attuned his ears to South African musicians like Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Hugh Masekela.

Sharing the stage with world music greats like Youssou N’dour and Yvonne Chaka Chaka at the CAF Awards in Lagos; and with John Legend during his first South African tour in Cape Town, he had also performed alongside the King of Juju music, Sunny Ade at the Glo launch in the Republic of Benin.

Other colourful festivals have featured Femi Koya’s acrobatic music, where he performed alongside Wynton Marsalis, Oliver Mtukudzi, Habib Koite, Salif Keita and Baaba Maal. He has recorded with Simphiwe Dana, Pops Mohamed, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and worked with Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo and Wizkid, among many others.

A few years ago, his musical pendulum swung full circle when Chaka Chaka invited him to contribute saxophones on her latest album, ‘Amazing Man.’ The recognition from the Princess of Africa is a far cry from his humble beginnings when he first landed in South Africa 10 years ago with nothing but hope and a determination to make it against all odds. He had been invited by a South African-based Nigerian church to work with a choir as its coordinator with promises of a regular salary and accommodation.

But within a week of his arrival in the Promised Land, his hopes were dashed when the church authorities told him that they were experiencing financial difficulties and could not contribute to his upkeep. For some time he was stranded on the streets of Yeoville.

“It was tough, but I persevered. Every day, I would walk around carrying my saxophone and approaching anyone with musical instruments,” he recalls.

His fortunes eventually changed for the better when someone directed him to Newtown – a space that enabled him to pay homage to his adopted land in true Yoruba tradition.

With a life story of migration from the West to the South –one thing resonates in his music, a conscious dialogue between West African and South African sounds. This musical fusion demonstrates the path to a new and culturally integrated Africa in which a common heritage is reinforced to meet the needs of today’s world. His quest is for African unity at a time when he believes Africa should claim its rightful and proud place in the world.

While reflecting on his career in music, he added: ‘‘I am very happy that God uses me as a vehicle, hopefully, to express the spirit of unity through music, oneness through music, peace through music, love through music, and the perpetuation and preservation of life through music.’’

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE 26, 2022

53

GLITZ ENTERTAINMENT

The Dubai Girls Kicks off 2022 Travel with Raffle Competition Stories by Vanessa Obioha Nollywood actresses, Chioma Akpotha, Ufuoma McDermott, Uche Jombo and Omoni Oboli, are ready to embark on their trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Nicknamed the Dubai Girls, the actresses have since 2018 been travelling to the city for fun and tourism.

However, for this year’s trip, the actresses are kicking it off with a raffle competition for fans. The winners will have the opportunity to join them on the trip which organisers say will be fun and full of surprises. They also have the opportunity to travel with a companion and spend five days in the iconic city.

Benefits and attractions include accommodation, meals and access to the activities of the Dubai Girls. Participants are expected to purchase their ticket to Dubai from any travel agent in Nigeria that is registered with Dubai Tourism. The deadline for purchase will end on August 12 and each of the actresses will choose two winners through a live Instagram session on August 15.

“Dubai is the beautiful city of gold with modern features and luxury at its peak! The safest city I have ever been to never had to worry about anything. When Dubai calls, I just pick my passport and go...no need to pack a bag!”

The trip is scheduled for September 5 to 12, 2022.

L-R: Akpotha and others.

Lagos Plans to Partner Filmmakers in the Diaspora

Yussuf

At a recent roundtable discussion at Oxford University, the United Kingdom, Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Pharmacist Uzamat AkinbileYussuf expressed the readiness of the state government to partner with filmmakers in the diaspora to produce world-class movies that will showcase the state and project it positively in the international community.

According to the Commissioner, the state government believes that the proposed partnership with household names in the film industry will also create more jobs for creative youths who are residents of the state.

Akinbile-Yussuf who informed that the roundtable discussion with filmmakers in the United Kingdom was facilitated by the Africa Film Academy, the curators of Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, in collaboration with the James Currey Society, reiterated Governor Babajide SanwoOlu’s passion for a diversified economy through the creative industry.

“This initiative and many more are some of the evidence of the State Government’s efforts in pursuing a diversified economy using film production as a vital tool.”

She further noted that the idea behind the discussion is the need to further reposition the creative sector in line with the goals of the present administration, to develop tourism, arts, and culture to their optimal potential and showcase the state to the world.

Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the founder of AFA added that the event is in pursuit of a diversified economy, which the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture has been striving to achieve since the inception of the administration of Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu. “In 2021, Governor Sanwo-Olu announced that Lagos State Government will host AMAA for the next three years.

Also, recently, the state government gave funds to filmmakers to produce films and also engaged the Africa Film Academy to train over 600 filmmakers in Lagos. These are some of the efforts made so far by the State Government in the film

industry.

She disclosed that the state is also considering a collaboration of bringing the filmmakers to Lagos to work on projects within the Lagos metropolis like the planned Film City which is intended to be a major film hub for the practitioners.

The conversations continued with Dinner at Blooms Café in London Euston with over 50 young filmmakers in attendance from established filmmakers to young vibrant animators like Tayo who worked on ToyStory. Other

MTN Foundation Donates Music Studio to MUSON

Candy Bleakz Arrives with Exciting Debut ‘FIRE EP’ After a long run delivering several hits in the music scene, Candy Bleakz returns with a project aptly called the “Fire EP”. Her statement is very clear - she is redy to finally ready to let the word hear her out with the release of this project further projecting her.

The six-track project is a blend of distinct, vibrant sounds that show Candy’s versatility and her newly found street house sound. It is a clear display of Candy’s sonic growth since her first single, “Owo Osu”.

The tape features the two lead singles from the project “Red” and the widely successful street favourite “Tikuku”.

Alongside “Dragon” and “Water”, these songs are exciting upbeat songs that borrow from the buzzing Naija-tinged Amapiano sounds alongside memorable lyrics and melodies.

On these songs Candy self appraises her personality reemphasising her confidence in her sound and her relevance in the industry.

In “Atenu”, lauds the every day hustle of the average Nigerian who does anything to make ends meet and on “Sango” she goes back to her hip hop roots, and delivers bars in Yoruba, on a trap infused record. She chants, “Sango! Ina wa lenu mi (I’ve got fire in my mouth)” indicating that like the ancient Yoruba deity Sango she spits fire on any track she’s on; and she backs that heavily with this project.

Speaking on this project, Candy says “It’s been a long time coming. I’ve worked so hard trying to finetune my sound while keeping it fresh with the usual energy that is expected from a Candy track. The project is fun and will definitely make people dance”.

When asked her what she wanted to say to her Dragons, a nickname she has given her fans she said, “I love my fans!

Odunayo Sanyo (2nd right) at the inauguration of the music studio at MUSON School of Music.

Bleakz

This is for them…for riding with me so far on my journey, each track on this project is special and memorable” The Fire EP is a unique blend of several genres and styles of music put together that compliments Candy’s sound and high tempo.

In continuation of its support for the creative arts, MTN Foundation recently commissioned a music studio and musical instruments donated to the MUSON School of Music.

Since 2006, the MTN Foundation, in partnership with MUSON, has fully funded and developed over 350 music scholars, providing scholarship awards for a two-year diploma. The awards cover tuition, transportation and resource materials among others, after which students are awarded an internationally recognised Diploma in Music on graduation.

Speaking at the commissioning event, Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya emphasised that the foundation is donating “because we believe in you and we believe you have what it takes to brace global stages and showcase your talent.”

The items donated by the MTN Foundation include a fully equipped digital music studio, 30 laptops, one unit of Professional 4 and a half Octaves Marimba, custom series, one unit of Malltech 4.0 Octave Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone, one unit of Viscount Unico 400 Organ - A 3 manual organ with 32 notes pedalboard, 56 Register Tabs plus 7 Orchestral Registers, four Units of Stentor Conservatoire Violin, 3 Units of Armstrong USA Trumpets and 3 units of Essex EUP-116 Upright Piano.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE26, 2022

54

HighLife

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

Bimbo Ashiru on the Move Again, Becomes Odua Group Chairman

Elumelu, Sanwo-Olu as Partners in Progress Great minds flock together, so it’s not strange to have Nigeria’s top entrepreneurial mind and the country’s top administrative mind meet and conceive great things. The result of this engagement is Falomo Towers, a massive and captivating project that is expected to turn Lagos on its head. After all, to have both Lagos Governor, Babajide SanwoOlu, and Heirs Holdings Chairman, Tony Elumelu on the same project is a dream come true for the progressive people in Lagos.

Sanwo-Olu and Elumelu have decided to wow the rest of Nigeria with their partnership. A few days ago, it was announced that both visionaries have settled on a project to boost the productivity of Lagosians. The project, named Falomo Towers, has already taken off, according to reports, so Lagosians and the rest of Nigeria are only looking forward to seeing this majestic project come alive.

Interestingly, the Falomo Towers project is benched in the real estate industry. The goal is to provide apartments that are sustainable on the basis of affordability and environmental health.

Thus, the apartments will not only be reasonably priced but also assist the government’s efforts to increase the average Lagosian’s sense of responsibility towards the natural environment. As a result, the Lagos government will not have to worry about unemployment, lack of housing, or citizenry indifference to environmental sustainability.

During the project launch, Sanwo-Olu and Elumelu revealed that Falomo Towers will be a model for the kind of futuristic estate development that they expect to characterise Nigerian cities in a few years.

It will incorporate cutting-edge technology and make the most of the offerings of both the public and private sectors.

Falomo Towers is very likely to shift the real estate industry in Lagos. After all, it has the backing of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) and Afriland Properties Plc, an establishment that Elumelu’s Heirs Holding has thrown its weight behind.

What else is there to say? All that remains is seeing the wonder that SanwoOlu and Elumelu’s partnership will bring about.

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

Ashiru

There is no remedy for good fortune. There is just this set of people that have it good, even though it

is their hard work and continued persistence that stand them out from peers. Bimbo Ashiru is such a person, and his fortune is the kind that could be shared among a thousand people. Even now, fortune continues to pull him like a magnet.

The recent appointment of Ashiru to the Board of the Odua Group where he is to serve as Chairman of the regionwide conglomerate signals the good tidings that have engulfed the Southwest region lately.

The most prestigious figures in the country are sending an avalanche of praises and cheers to Ashiru on account of the Odua appointment.

Even President Buhari has sent his congratulations, further celebrating the fact that the South-western group knew enough of Ashiru’s brilliant merits to have him take the lead during his (Buhari’s) tenure.

But all of this is to be expected. Even when Ashiru was the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry in Ogun State, he made sure to invest his time and efforts into building that part of the state, winning award after award in the process. All of this is even more noteworthy because Ashiru was born in Ijebu-Ode with a spoon that was more silvery than anything else.

Ashiru’s father, the late Pa Simeon Adeyemi Ashiru, was a well-known Ijebu sage, and his mother, Princess Moradeun Ashiru, descended from the Fidipote royal family of Ijebu Ode and the ruling house of Owu-Ijebu.

So, to remain humble even when one’s descent is this noble is very rare. And yet, Ashiru is himself, unencumbered by pride and not predisposed to prejudice.

It is no wonder that Ashiru got the Odua Chairman position. By every criterion, it is clear he deserved it.

Billionaire Moves as Sayyu Dantata Dazzles Many at Polo Club with His Chopper There will always be several critical differences between the rich and the poor. We generally think that death is the equalizer of all men and that we will all answer to God. This is true, at least, some of us believe it. But what about presently? Is the roar of a poor person half as loud as the chuckle of the wealthy? Not if you saw Sayyu Dantata arrive at his polo club in his $2 million chopper.

There have been many instances where the wealthy in Nigeria ‘oppress’ their poor neighbours with their wealth, although not always intentionally. It is during such times that the exclamation, “Ey, God when?” begins to float on social media. Well, Dantata has once again opened that dam of mild complaints and severe envy, provoking men and women everywhere to raise their hands and ask the heavens why things are so unfair.

It was an ordinary day in Lagos. And other Time is one of the most credible measures of human accomplishment. It is why we all celebrate young people who are doing amazing things with their lives. If they waited until they were 80 years old, for example, before building a spectacular events and logistics company, nobody would sing their praises genuinely. That is why the world is celebrating Adegbuyi Ogunaike Jnr. as he clocks 40 years.

Among Nigeria’s 200+ million people, there are very few people on the same level as Ogunaike with regards to the deliberateness of disposition and diligence. As the brain behind Ice Box Nigeria Limited, Ogunaike’s momentum is not to be belittled. If the man could summon

than the New Club House opening, there was nothing particularly noteworthy happening.

And then Dantata, CEO of MRS Holdings and younger brother of Aliko Dangote, decided to arrive at the club flying his own helicopter. Some people had to labour in the traffic to get there, while others probably had a convoy of security agents going before and after them. But nobody beat Dantata with his majestic entrance.

Indeed, there were lots of “Ey God” as Dantata landed at the club. That arrival proved once and for all that he is not only an excellent polo player but one of the more affluent sponsors of the New Club House.

So, yes, is there any competition? Maybe a few. However, considering how easy Dantata makes it all look, there has to be something he has that the other billionaires in Nigeria do not.

Dantata

Adegbuyi Ogunaike at 40: Young and Getting It Right! enough courage to break into the events and logistics industry, there’s very little that is out of his league in terms of potential future accomplishments.

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Ogunaike in 1982 in Ogun State, Ogunaike grew up to be a driven and self-motivated young man.

His interest in business and the corporate world inspired him to get a BSc degree in Business Administration from Babcock University. He also did his MBA and promptly threw himself into the events and logistics industry with his Ice Box Nigeria Limited.

The idea behind Ogunaike’s Ice Box

company is simple. The company supplies cold drinks to events, going so far as to set up mobile bars for clients who request it. Moreover, the company makes sure to offer different packages so that clients can choose whichever they want based on the size of their pockets.

While the Ice Box idea appears simple, difficulties abound in carrying it out. What if clients overestimate themselves? What if there are more people at the event than they planned for? Ogunaike’s staff take care of all these. Thus, at 40, the man has made a name for himself as a reliable event manager, the kind that makes events trend.

Niyi Adegbonmire: The Homeboy Putting the Right Leg Forward Sanwo-Olu

Elumelu

Some of the most powerful men to have ever lived have either been politicians or had very close relations with politicians. This is one of the reasons that influential people never take it easy with politics but go all out to secure positions. It is not all of them that want to loot and loiter. Some, like Niyi Adegbonmire, are genuinely interested in the welfare of the people they aspire to represent.

There is no debating the fact that Adegbonmire is a dragon among men.

He is one of those people who just have this captivating personality, enough to draw you in and leave you wanting him. His being a lawyer also does not help matters but only contributes to his amicable air of mystery. As such, when he declared his interest in the Ondo Central Senatorial seat, very few people thought to draw the rug out from under him. Instead, informed folks drew up their trousers and wrappers and swore to

see him get the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.

Unsurprisingly, it did not take much effort for Adegbonmire to decimate the senatorial ambitions of his rivals for the APC ticket. Of the 323 delegates who were accredited and voted during the primary that was held at the International Cultural and Event Center, the Dome, Akure, Adegbonmire got a total of 144.

This shows that he almost got 45 per cent of the entire votes cast by the delegates, leaving the remaining 55% to be shared by the immediate past Minister of State for Niger Delta, Senator Tayo Alasoadura (who got 88 votes), Ilesola Akinpelumi (who got 45 votes), Tola Awosika (who got 44 votes), Wunmi Olatunji (who got 2 votes), and Adeniran Oyebade (who did not get any vote).

Without a doubt, Adegbonmire is set to take home the senatorial trophy and represent his people. It will be an era worth remembering in a few years.

Adegbonmire

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE 26, 2022

HIGHLIFE

Will Wike Back Atiku?

Relief for Senator Musiliu Obanikoro as His Son Regains Ticket Politics in Nigeria has more to do with influence than anything else. This has always been the case whether the political ground is the grassroots or among the elite class.

So young politicians better take a leaf out of the book of the son of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Ibrahim, and thicken the stem of their influence so that they can go further than popularity would allow them.

Some time ago, the All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives primaries were held in Lagos. For Eti-Osa Federal Constituency, Lagos, Ibrahim was in the political ring against some aspiring Honourables to retain his position as the House of Representatives member for the constituency. However, Ibrahim lost to Oye Elegushi, the brother of Oba Saheed Elegushi of Ikate Kingdom. Elegushi got 25 votes and Ibrahim got 23, losing the ticket to Elegushi by 2 votes.

On this account, it was believed that Ibrahim would have to sit on the benches as Elegushi contested against candidates of other political parties to represent the Eti-Osa people. But no. According to the latest reports, Ibrahim is back in the game. Why? Because the leadership of APC in Lagos State saw it fit to have Ibrahim represent the party to win the constituency at the House of Representatives.

There have been many debates as to why the APC leadership decided to take such a course of action. The loudest of these arguments is that the leadership wants to console Ibrahim’s father, the former Minister of State for Defence. After all, Obanikoro also lost his political ambition after contesting the Lagos West Senatorial ticket. So, at least one Obanikoro gets to win the ticket, even if it is only the House of Representatives instead of both the House and senatorial tickets. This is the core of the aforementioned argument.

Obanikoro

OnTopofHisGame,AnotherElevationforSenatorAduda

Aduda

Say what you will about nepotism and ethnic discrimination in the Nigerian political arena, there is still a place for merits.

This dynamic of meritocracy, while rare, still crops up from time to time. Currently, there

is a unanimous argument that the nomination of Senator Philips Aduda as the Minority Leader of the Senate is one that was based on his merits.

And if a lot of people are saying this, there has to be some truth to it.

Indeed, Aduda is his happiest at the moment. According to what he posted on his Twitter page, it is by “sheer providence and grace” that his colleagues deemed it fit to let him lead them in the capacity of the Chamber’s Minority Leader. It is also a big leap from his former role as Senate Minority Whip.

It has to be said that these are the days for Aduda to beam and shine. After all, he is not under the ruling party but a happy and passionate member of the opposing party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Nevertheless, he still got to replace the former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who decided to defect

to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

For those familiar with Aduda’s career, the man representing Abuja Federal Capital Territory has been doing so since 2011. This is his third term as a Senator of the region and he has remained under the same PDP umbrella, a trait that is very rare these days. Thus, for his integrity, it is not strange that the other senators determined that Aduda would be the best person for the Minority Leader role.

Truly, it looks as if nothing can stop Aduda’s momentum. He is on top of his game and has full command of his faculties, abilities, and relationships. Knowing this, it is only a matter of time before another promotion sets him on the same level as some of the truly powerful politicians in the country.

Ayo Fayose Eats Humble Pie, His Man Kolawole Humiliated It has been said time and again, that politics in Nigeria is not always about prestige, power, or even numbers. There are times when an era ends and one prominent figure has to retire from the limelight and hide in the shadows. This is exactly what looks to be happening in Ekiti State as former Governor Ayo Fayose lost the gubernatorial election that was held a few days ago. Of course, he was not the actual contestant, but with the efforts he committed to the election, he might as well have been.

The Ekiti gubernatorial election is the first of the new era, that is, following a change of government at the presidential level. Thus, the election does not only indicate what the other 35 states ought to expect but also what the entire country should expect to come as the reality of the 2023 presidential election settles on everybody. Nevertheless, things are not at all looking good for people like

Fayose whose ambitions have been trounced mercilessly.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the winner of the election is Biodun Oyebanji, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He got a total of 187,057 votes, which amounted to about 52 per cent of the entire votes cast. Oyebanji was accompanied by Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who got 82,211. Fayose’s candidate, Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came third with only 67,457.

Kolawole’s loss is the perfect evidence that Fayose does not have Ekiti in the palm of his hand which was the prevailing belief before the election.

Although people from Fayose’s side have claimed that the loss was on account of splinters within the party, a loss is a loss, and a descent is a descent. Thus, Fayose has no excuse, as several newspaper-stand lawyers have argued.

Battle to Stay Afloat … Tobi Adegboyega Fights On Nigerians will always stand out no matter where they are or what they are doing. Although this used to play to our advantage, these days, it is one of the biggest negatives to being a Nigerian in a developed nation like the United Kingdom (UK). Well, a Nigerian Pastor who is the founder of Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church (SPAC Nation, for short) has gotten into trouble with the UK government.

His church, SPAC Nation, is the object of contention.

The news has spread far and wide that Tobi Adegboyega’s pentecostal church based in London, England, has gotten the attention of the UK government. A High Court recently ordered that the church be closed on the grounds of financial mismanagement and lack of transparency in church operations.

According to reports, Adegboyega’s SPAC Nation was suspected of mismanaging funds and putting up an

Adegboyega

Fayose

image for the public that is not true. As a result, the court investigated the church’s operations and found that Adegboyega and his staff could not properly account for about £1.87 million (around N950 million) of outgoing funds. Moreover, the court was convinced that the church’s operations were not transparent and could negatively impact public interest considering the nature of the establishment.

If anybody knows anything about Adegboyega’s SPAC Nation, the sanction should not come as much of a surprise. The church has always raised eyebrows due to its radical representation.

Adegboyega, for example, is known to be a ‘bling-bling’ preacher, someone who does not mind dressing in very expensive attire, wearing very bright and high-priced jewellery, and using even more costly cars.

In fact, last time, Adegboyega received knocks on social media for attending Davido’s O2 Arena concert and spraying the singer a sea of pounds at a restaurant in London.

Atiku

The first part of the 2023 presidential election has ended. Currently, three main contenders are in line to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari: Bola Tinubu of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and Peter Obi of the Labor Party (LP). And even though the gauntlet appears to have been thrown in the midst of these three, people are paying more attention to those holding them up rather than the men themselves.

Anybody that knows anything about winning the forthcoming election knows that it will be won on the back of alliances.

Personal prestige can only take one so far, so that part of the election is over. While each of the aforementioned individuals understands this fact and is working to bridge gaps, Atiku may be at the highest risk if his alliances don’t pan out.

At the moment, the person who is most likely to contribute to Atiku’s ship and let it sail to victory is Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

Political analysts claim that once Atiku gets Wike on his team, he will be able to win the entire South-south region to himself, and break the blade that his rivals currently have over his neck.

One would assume that Wike is already on Atiku’s side considering that both of them are under the umbrella of the PDP. However, considering that Wike lost the presidential ticket to Atiku, many analysts are convinced that Wike will not support Atiku. Even worse, it is almost certain now that Wike will not be Atiku’s Vice President, as Atiku has reportedly settled on Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.

A few days ago, Wike was reported to have met with Obi. The content of the meeting was not published, so things are not looking good for Atiku. Then again, these things have never been cut-and-dried, so Wike may still end up helping Atiku win.

Time will tell.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE 26, 2022

LOUD WHISPERS

with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)

Justice Tanko Muhammad: No Water to Bathe?

My people, during the week, it was gathered that 14 Supreme Court Justices wrote to the Chief Justice of the Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad. The letter was historic because Lord Lugard’s wife, after a satisfying time in the other room, gave us our name as Nigeria has this kind of thing happen.

The justices said they are living like we live in Shomolu. No power, no water to bathe and they are even driving tokunbo cars which will be overheating.

They said they have never had it so bad. Even my egbon, Dr Abati follow put mouth. So, you can see that some of these highly respected justices will not be bathing and go and sit down and be passing landmark judgments.

Some will be dry-cleaning sef. You know dry-cleaning is when you soak water in a handkerchief and wash your face and legs and armpits, when water no dey.

So, as I am writing, the CJN has

Muhammad

responded. Through his aide, he just slammed the whole thing. Two of you

have died and the money we paid was not budgeted, he countered. What else can we say but that you people should be regulating how you die o. Have a timetable or something so that it will be easy to plan for. So that we do not spend money that has not been budgeted.

Well, he also added that the Supreme Court is also not existing outside its immediate environment.

That a budget that was cut at N300 per liter for diesel is now selling at N700 per litre. Do you people want the CJN to go and be driving a tanker so that you can be happy?

Me, I don’t like people who will just sit down and be writing letters to embarrass people I like. Can’t they see that he has even repaired the roof of the courts? Is it his fault that just like that they appointed eight new justices, where do you people want him to see money to

IN BED WITH MUHAMMADU SANUSI Please, it is not that kind of bed o. In this context it means, in agreement with his thoughts. But first let me thank my new friend, Babangida Sule Jnr, who made this meeting very possible and my big aunty, Fatima Wali- Abdurrahman and my egbon, Kola Karim, who have helped me get very close to His Highness.

You see my people, I am a huge fan o, up to the point of obsession.

When His Highness is discussing the economy, Nigeria or his philosophy of life, I will just be looking like a teenage girl watching Michael Jackson dance on stage. Yes, that is electrifying.

That was how Sule called me early on Sunday morning, where are you, Duke? Can you get here in 15 minutes? His Highness wants to see you. I was in Magodo and about to do something – cough, cough. I jumped down, wore clothes and amid protests of Duke naaaaaa, come and finish – I ran to Ikoyi overtaking all the LASTMA on the road.

His Highness is a very handsome man o. He sat in a regal fashion and spoke very deliberately. The man is sound, kai. Not all these ‘guguru’ people who will be talking on television.

His position on the economy remains

the same, his position on corruption and its debilitating effects on the polity remains the same but it’s his philosophy about life that really caught me.

“Edgar, I sacked myself from any position, the next day I was appointed.” Wow! Wow!! “Edgar, I do not define myself by the position.

I am Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and not the CBN Governor.” Ohhhhh My God! This is very far from the “do you know who I am” we hear from Lilliputians who by chance get some local government appointments.

His Highness represents a long line starting from about 200 years and he will carry himself with the dignity and royalty his birth requires. As he spoke, I was just sitting there listening and learning like a sponge.

Nigeria never understands its brilliant outliers. Nigeria always cuddles the ‘emi lo kans’ and chews and spits out the brilliance of the type of Khalifa but this particular child of the Niger has refused to be cowed as he still maintains his respect internationally and is still followed massively by hordes of Nigerians.

As he bade me farewell, I felt like hugging him but I for turn to a pillar of salt, because I am not sure you can hug him – this no be Obi Cubana. So, I bade him farewell and rushed back to Magodo to see if I could finish where

SHINA PELLER – A CHILD OF CIRCUMSTANCES Shina is my brother. Some of you will be wondering from where and how?

An Akwa Ibom man and a man from Oyo? But he is my brother with a longstanding history between us. I used to go watch him play football in Lekki and was afraid that with his skinny legs, some hungry urchin would break the leg and the man would be unable to come and discuss our business o.

Anyways, he has just announced on the floor of the House of Representatives that he will be cross carpeting to the Accord Party after losing out at the senatorial primaries.

Now I do not really know what to make out of this but to say, ‘Bro, I got you’.

Shina in my estimation has performed creditably well. His positions, his bills and his frontal take on the leadership of the House have all been very admirable. His bill on the guguru defence was landmark. Although it didn’t see the light of day, it still threw light on the duplications in the system that form a conduit for revenue drainage.

I really do wish my brother well with

Sanusi-II

Peller

Udofia

I left off. Mbok see what they told me – go back and meet Emir, let him sort you out. – sharrap. Some people are not just children of history.

build new chambers for this Buhari economy?

My thinking is that as my oga once advised me, that you cannot have one source of income. If this Supreme Court thing is not delivering the dividends, I think you guys should start looking at side hustle and leave my brother Tanko alone.

You can start appearing in musical videos or even turn to football commentary or anything abeg. This thing you are all complaining about is small compared to what we are facing generally so make una let us rest abeg or even migrate to Canada sef. (Every time Bubu travels, me I dey fear say himself don migrate, with the way everybody is running away).

Brother Tanko is trying. He cannot kill himself because he is now CJN at this time when things are just going awry in this country. God bless our judges but much more importantly God bless the ordinary Nigerian.

his exploits in the Accord Party. I am sure he knows in this era of ‘emi lo kan’ politics in that area, he would be facing a real uphill task. But if it is the Shina I know, he will fight this thing to the end.

GOD BE WITH YOU, MY BROTHER. Enough is Enough, Rev. Father Mbaka Me don tire for this Baba. His own is just too much. His mercantilist approach to Catholicism is riling and I dare say irritating. Why the church in which he claims to belong to has not reeled him in still beats me.

Anybody that does not come to his altar, he will see vision or abuse. Na so he do Jonathan, do Buhari now he don do the obedient one. ‘Warrist’ Mr. Father? Are you the only Father in this land?

Thankfully, you have shamefully sent in an apology. But don’t you ever think before you do these things?

This song is very boring to the point that people are now resisting your prophecies and calling them what they really are – follies of a roadside preacher.

Abeg don’t come and see any vision for me o, na umbrella I go use push am back to sender. As if we do not have enough problems

Tommey

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE26, 2022

LOUD WHISPERS

AKAN UDOFIA: EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING Mbok ayeneka, ku yard esit. That is in Ibibio – my brother no vex. It was his birthday tolast week and in my wahala I forgot to wish him well.

Akan has brought in the needed colour and vigour into the Akwa Ibom Political space. He has blurred party lines and finally made our people see things more clearly instead of the jaundiced ways we have been seeing it as a monolithic party state.

Today, Akan is the issue in Akwa Ibom. Akan’s name and colouration is the vending tool for all frontline thinkers in the state. One of the largest employers of labour and certainly the biggest philanthropist, Akan is preaching the gospel of prosperity.

He is talking about democratising wealth and streamlining it such that every freeborn Akwa Ibomite will be an active participant in the wealth creation and redistribution process.

My brother, I wish you a happy birthday and God’s blessing as you move towards your predestined and appointed position as the next Executive Governor of our state.

Postscript - people ask me why I love Akan so much? Well, the truth... Na the Afang gave me for him house for Ikoyi. The stockfish and periwinkle in that Afang were magic. Then they used small ‘abu’ that is crayfish and the fufu was as smooth as a newborn baby’s bum. Since then, I became a slave of Akan Udofia o. Oya I don reveal secret, you people start yabbing me. I got no shame.

SCOTT TOMMEY. AN IBIBIO MAN IN DUBAI When I first heard about him, I thought he was Scottish. It was my brother Raymond Abia that first mentioned his name and then I started seeing him in the papers.

I took some time to meet up with him though. It was the recklessly handsome Otunba Morakinyo who took me to his office in Abuja and we had a long meeting.

This was a real-life Ibibio man and not Scottish o. I sat there and stared at him. Nothing came out of the meeting and I promptly forgot about him. When I was doing my play in Uyo, they said, Scott is your man.

I called him and he took my calls and I explained my mission and he promptly forgot to take my calls again until Akan commandeered him and he performed.

That was how Akan invited me to dinner in Dubai. I was passing through on my way to the UK, to meet up with my beautiful daughter, Chantal.

That was how I met up with Akan and Scott in a very beautiful and elegant restaurant downtown Dubai.

My brother, when I look the menu, I just dey see things I no recognise.

So, I turned to Scott who was also

looking as confused as I was. Are you minding Akan? That one had already made his order and speaking in French was already eating.

I said my brother Scott, abiet mo nyienge Afang mi o- meaning – looks like they don’t have afang o. Scott said, na so we see am o. I asked “what do we do?’’ He replied “let’s manage na, Afterall no be only Afang we go dey chop na.”

“Scott, what if I start to purge,” I asked to which he replied, “Well na so he dey do me. We go just chop am and go purge. After all, flight na till tomorrow.

That was how me and Scott went through the suffering of eating raw scorpion and lizard testicles with a straight face to make the other people no laugh us. After all, we were dining with incoming customers.

Scott is a very loyal and proud Akwa Ibom man. His vision for the state aligns with that of Akan and also that of the generality of the Youth of Akwa Ibom. Scott is a serious business man who believes that our state, Akwa Ibom as presently configured is under performing. He wants to be part of a new engine of growth, attract international businesses, to invest, create jobs and empower the people.

These are the types of men we need and this is why we are supporting them. Men, who have built tremendous wealth without leeching or relying on the state government.

Men who have gone out there despite the fact that they belong to a minority tribe, fought to sit on the table reserved for the Emi lo kan’s of our country.

Akan and Scott have come to Akwa

AUSTIN EBOSE TAKING TO THE SKIES If you ask me, I will say Austin is one of the best dressed insurance people in this country. His suits are bespoke and his ties always reek of class and elegance. Well, this is not why I am hailing Austin this morning.

Austin has taken erstwhile little-known Anchor Insurance from the backwaters of the industry to mainstream. He has built a strong franchise that today Akwa Ibom State which is the major shareholder of the firm is so proud of this one investment.

Recently, Anchor launched a major product. A product that covers insurance of travellers from the moment

Ebose

in this country, you will now come and be adding your own with all these misguided pronouncements.

Mr. Obi has shown a very strong resolve in repelling you, winning our admiration.

That was how your colleague said, he was seeing bloodshed in Soludo’s house. How can na? Please can’t we even regulate and punish all these kinds of prophets of doom.

That was how one came to me the other day, that I will die before December 31 of that year. Me? Have I finished my mandate with ‘yellow’ women in this life? I just go Shomolu Police Station, arrest am. From behind the counter, he was crying and begging for forgiveness. Mumu.

Please Fr. Mbaka, allow us to rest in this country. The thing Buhari has carried our eyes to see the last seven years is enough, don’t come and add your own abeg. Thank you.

you check in to check out. Meaning that once you are insured, all those - I cannot find my baggage, my flight has been delayed and all that wahala that comes with domestic flights will no longer be as gut wrenching as they used to be.

Anchor covers all of those, giving compensation to losses and making flying domestically a little bit more bearable. Well-done Anchor, welldone. This is indeed remarkable and historic.

Meanwhile you should watch their advert on CNN and see the Ishan man demonstrate. Austinooo!!!

Ibom to ask what the state wants from them and not what the state will give them. We have the answers bro, our state needs a major economic renaissance. Do it.

BURNA BOY, GROW UP URGENTLY As these things go, you will be regaled with so many sides to one story and that is why I will not bother to ask who did what or who did not do what. The thing there is that this artist with the stature he has garnered internationally should never be embroiled in this kind of clannish and shameful episode.

His name should never be dragged into this kind of mess, where lives were at risk simply because someone was horny. This is classic shame and should never be condoned.

I am happy that the authorities have waded in and I do really hope that an objective and incisive investigation is carried out with the culprits dealt with.

As for the gun happy policemen who could shoot in a crowded club, all I can say is shame to them and to their employers. To the club who could allow such to happen, I say I wish you well. Na wa.

The biggest loser here is big headed Burna Boy and I hope this case will not be the case of cloth a pig, bath a pig, a pig is still a pig as my colleague in the political science department of the famed University of Ibadan will say, anytime he is bullied. Spoilt.

CHIDI AJAERE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO’ If you do not know this guy, this is the young brain behind the giant GIG Group. He is Chidi Ajaere and he is my friend and brother. Chidi has over 4,000 Nigerians under his direct employ and he has taken the logistics business with his GIG Logistics by storm giving well established conglomerates a run for their money.

Hospitality, media, logistics, software, distribution and real estate are his forte and he has done so well for himself as a young Nigerian who is not only visionary but hardworking and transparent.

His work in inspiring youths through concise engagements, empowerment and inspiration has been well documented and he remains a young lad we should all look out for in the coming years.

Happy birthday my brother- a strong salutation from the Duke of Shomolu.

NED NWOKO: ‘COME WATCH FILM’ This bro recently made a statement that made the internet burst into laughter. He is reported to have said that Obi is not ready for the presidency and that he had no structure. Something along those lines and also that the Igbos were not ready for the presidency.

You know he lives his life on the internet and his people took him to the cleaners. One particular irate contributor said “when it comes to ‘babes’ we will consult you sir, for this one leave am.”

The comments were virulent and vicious. His statement reeks of a major disconnect with the streets and with popular agitation. A swim against the tide type thing and he was rightly taken to the cleaners.

I will not say much especially as we are entering school fees season before daddy will carry police and court pursue me. I hear he has a knack for such double whammy moves at the slightest provocation.

When I finish paying school fees and school resumes in September, make him make that kind statement then I will say my real mind. For now, let’s just leave it for the internet trolls to feed off his faux pax. We should all be OBidient ooo.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE 26, 2022

58

Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

SOCIETY WATCH

SIFAX Boss, Taiwo Afolabi’s Astounding Taste

Afolabi

It’s always a blessing when you are surrounded by family and friends during the celebration of a special day in your life.

Billionaire businessman and Chairman of Sifax Group, Taiwo Afolabi, has been a detribalised Nigerian, whose circle of friends cuts across the who-is-who in society, including captains of industry, monarchs, politicians, socialites and celebrities.

So, when a man with such high-net worth and high-wired connections throws an event, you can bet that it will never be in half-measures.

Last Sunday, evidence that the Ogun State-born business mogul’s good deeds have not been in vain came to the fore, as the high and mighty, including monarchs, showbiz stars, as well as relatives, friends and wellwishers literarily shut down the city of Ijebu-Ode when he celebrated a-threein one ceremony: his birthday, housewarming and church dedication.

Though he had celebrated his 60th birthday last month in London, he needed to fete his loved ones here in Nigeria.

Apart from his birthday celebration, the man, who is also into the hospitality business, showed the world that he is a man of class, with his new wondrous mansion called Omo Elero Villa, a white architectural masterpiece located in Ijebu-Ode GRA. The philanthropist of note also donated a multimillion Naira church building to the Anglican Communion in honour of his late father, Samson Afolabi. It is strategically situated beside the new mansion.

The event, which commenced on Friday, June 17, and climaxed on Sunday, June 19, with an all-white party was graced by dignitaries and top personalities across the nation.

On Saturday, June 18, the birthday celebration continued with an early morning workout session in a joyous atmosphere with family, friends and well-wishers.

The unforgettable birthday celebration came to an end on Sunday, June 19, with Church dedication, mansion dedication and special church thanksgiving, and a great reception for guests.

Dignitaries at the event include Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun; a former Ogun Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja 11; Sir Kessington Adebutu and Chief Toyin Kolade.

Others are King Saheed Elegushi, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, Mayor Akinpelu, Femi Davies, Bukola Olapade and Rasak Mohammed, among others.

Oando Boss, Jubril Tinubu, Rejoices at 55 Today, oil mogul, Jubril Tinubu, has more than one reason to be joyous, apart from the grace to survive the mysteries of last night.

Rising from his ornate massive bed to witness the dawn of a new beautiful day, his heart is filled with gratitude to God for the grace to mark his 55th birthday today.

The Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc prefers to be reflective on a day as this for very good reasons. Reliable sources disclosed that the birthday celebration would definitely be low-key; there would not be any carnivallike celebration. His disposition shows that he is neither given to frivolities nor any form of revelry. Nevertheless, his family members, friends, business associates, fans and admirers are sharing in his joy and are ready to pour encomiums on him.

In the past years, JAT, as he is famously called, has touched several lives whose paths have crossed his in so many positive ways. He is as generous, collaborative, and lovable as he is innovative and brilliant. The mogul has a

large heart and loves to see others succeed.

He has an innate belief that behind every success story are others helping to make it happen.

Probably because he keeps the cameras away during his altruistic gestures, many don’t know that he is one of the biggest philanthropists in Nigeria at the moment.

It is a fact that the King of Africa’s oil has eyes for good investments. His convictions can move mountains and his determination can shatter ceilings. This, no doubt, has made him have some edge over his competitors.

In the views of some observers, Tinubu’s continued relevance, nay staying power, should provoke a careful study by aspiring entrepreneurs or even established ones, especially in Nigeria’s inclement business environment. The highly cerebral business mogul has proven in all ramifications that the African continent does not lack talents who can hold their heads high anywhere in the world.

Tinubu

Would Otunba Rotimi Ajanaku Be Lucky this Time?

Ajanaku

What else does he want in life?

This is one of the rather queer questions often asked by many who know about his political ambition. While you may not blame those who ask this nagging question frequently, the truth seems to be that Otunba

Rotimi Ajanaku, a successful businessman, desires a bigger platform to serve humanity.

This, therefore, explains his political trajectory since he ventured into politics in 2011.

But his sortie in the murky water of Nigerian politics in 2011 was, to put it mildly, unpalatable. He had aspired to win a seat in the Oyo State House of Assembly on the platform of the then-ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). He, however, could not go beyond the party’s primaries. Again, in 2015, he had literally eyed the House of Representatives, where he had hoped to represent the Ibadan North Federal Constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Prior to that time, he had established some businesses, including a hotel and a farm in the ancient city, so he could be closer to the grassroots.

But sadly, he lost at the party’s primaries to Saheed Fijabi, son of a popular Ibadanborn socialite and businessman, Akin Fijabi.

Ajanaku did not only lose the ticket, but he also lost a huge amount of money.

“It was a total loss. He was bitter, angry and dejected,” a source said.

Thereafter, he left the party for the Labour Party. But his ambition to be elected into the Green Chamber was met with a kiss of death, a situation that made him unhappy, distraught and utterly deflated.

However, if you think that the multimillionaire businessman has lost hope or has jettisoned his political ambition, you are wrong.

The incurable optimist, Society Watch gathered, is determined to give his people good representation. So, he has, once again, thrown his hat into the ring for the 2023 election. This time around, he is reportedly contesting on the platform of the Accord Party to represent Ibadan North/ Southwest Federal Constituency. Already, many of his friends, fans and admirers are praying he would be luckier this time around.

Yet Another Honour for Dandy of Repute, John Obayuwana John Obayuwana, founder and Managing Director of Polo Luxury Group, always looks dandy. In fact, his guards are always above board; his fashion acumen and debonair lifestyle are top-notch; he oozes class and allure and his wrists are always sparkling with luxurious wristwatches.

The Edo State-born septuagenarian raised the bar with Polo Luxury, which he floated over three decades ago. With hard work and resilience, he has nurtured it from a moribund company to one of the best retail stores that house the most luxurious wristwatches and other fashion accessories across the world.

Recently, Obayuwana’s firm organised a corporate event, which aimed to promote and build a strong bond between the Nigerian and Switzerland governments.

The private event themed “A Taste of Swiss Luxury” witnessed attendance from corporate executives and industry leaders.

Obayuwana was also honoured with the Swiss Excellence Award by the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and the Swiss Learning Organisation by Thomas Schneider.

Attendees were taken through the excellent products and services coming out of Switzerland, including top education institutions in the country.

Obayuwana

Zidora Group Chair, Arinze Madueke’s Kindness

Madueke

It is a fact that the success stories of most developed countries of the world have a lot to do with the pristine visions of some members of those societies. Therefore, true nationalism is when the visionary content of a man

accommodates goals concerning his personal growth and development and that of his or her country in general.

In today’s Nigeria, one of the few who have risen above all odds to impact their society is Dr. Arinze Madueke. He is what he is today simply because he has refused to listen to the whispers of short span satisfactory contentment. He has also tried to change the narratives in many sectors of the economy in his capacity as Chairman of Zidora Group of Companies.

This great philanthropist owns several thriving businesses, including Zidora Travel and Tours, Zidora Errands & Logistics, Zidora Consults, Zidora Media and Communication Limited, Zidora Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Limited, Zidora Real Estate, Zidora Agriculture and Food Services Limited and Arigo Technologies International Limited.

Interestingly, he has also been rendering invaluable services to humanity via his

Zidora Aid Foundation, which gives succours to the needy in and outside the country. Through the Foundation, the Anambra High Chief has built houses and given scholarships to many indigent students.

His outstanding performance in various fields of life, through selfless services, as well as contributions to the social and economic development of Nigerians, have earned him recognition, both at home and abroad.

Despite his success, he relates well with people across all socio-economic classes.

He has contributed immensely to the development of the Nigerian economy with his entrepreneurial ingenuity.

Interestingly, his beautiful wife, Chioma, has been most supportive of his chain of businesses. The mother of three is blessed with enviable leadership qualities, a factor that has also helped in the growth of the conglomerate.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JUNE 24 2012

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

26.6.2022

A Tale of Shared Values Between a Father and His Son… As one of the most recent phenomenal exhibitions on the Lagos art scene, a joint exhibition featuring the works of the renowned printmaker, Segun Adeku, and his son will remain etched in its collective memory. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

O

nly a few of the Lagos art scene’s many exhibitions in recent memory could have matched the swoonworthiness of Ori L' Afínjú. Indeed, this two-generational collaboration between a father and his son—dubbed "the most impressive art show of the year" by metal sculptor Dotun Popoola—also earns the diadem as its most inspirational and didactic so far. The father's 2-D works, which are still remembered fondly by contemporaries as a largely self-taught neo-traditionalist great, found complements in the engaging ' ZRUNV RI KLV VRQ *EHQJD DQ HͿHUYHVcent 2015 Obafemi Awolowo University graduate. +DWV RͿ WKHUHIRUH WR WKH GXR 7R WKLQN WKDW WKHLU MRLQW H[KLELWLRQ ZKLFK R΀FLDOO\ opened to the public on Saturday, May 7 (after private viewings on Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6), could have been so JHQHURXVO\ H[WHQGHG EH\RQG WKH R΀FLDO Saturday, May 26 closing date by the host gallery! Perhaps, that would be a good UHDVRQ WR D΀UP WKDW LW PXVW KDYH JLYHQ WKH ORFDO DÀFLRQDGRV VR PXFK WR PXOO RYHU ,Q his statement in the exhibition’s catalogue, Terra Kulture’s Yakubu Yahaya, who curated the exhibition, extolled it as "a show combining years of experience alongside exciting, innovative craftsmanship" and as "truly a labour of passion and artistic excellence."

Talking about the exhibition, its title Ori L' Afínjú – a derivation from two Yoruba words, “Ori” and “Afínjú” – positions the head or the mind (Ori) as a “cautious, fashionable, and environmentally proactive person” (Afínjú). Thus, the word concerns itself less with its literal meaning as the head and embraces its wider concepts such as man’s intuitive faculty and destiny. As the artists further explained in the exhibition FDWDORJXH LW FDQ DOVR EH ´WKH UHÁHFWLYH VSDUN of human consciousness embedded into the human essence, and therefore it is often SHUVRQLÀHG DV DQ 2ULVKD JRG LQ LWV RZQ right.”

The exhibition, buoyed by its easily understood themes, appropriates timehonoured traditional nuggets as vehicles for dispensing its message. Through the awakening of the concept of Afínjú, it kindles the enthusiasm in the viewer for aesthetics, ÀQH WDVWH DQG WKH SXUVXLW RI H[FHOOHQFH among others. For instance, while the works of Segun Adeku proceed from the premise that the mindset is decisive for every outward expression, which either ennobles or debases the human being, his VRQ·V ZRUNV IRFXV RQ WKH XQVDYRXU\ HͿHFWV of this inward process. “The body of works will further discuss what it means that the head (Orí) is metaphorically the god of beauty and the custodian of a healthy human environment,” the exhibition catalogue promises.

Besides the advocacy for the reawakening of the sense of beauty, Segun’s works also

seethe with an infectious joie de vivre.

For not only do the disarming smiles on the faces of his subjects proclaim their state of mind, but they also lift the veil on the elderly artist’s inner disposition. Indeed, the deep etched print works on watercolour paper, “Young Couple,” “Chicken for Dinner,” “Celebration,” and “Àkóyawó” (Transparency) evoke a yearning tenderness in the viewer, which stirs up a subconscious longing for those idyllic bygone years of innocence.

Perhaps, it is to reinforce this nostalgic message that the artist, for whom this exhibition also marks his 50th year of art practice, extends his lighthearted visual anecdotes in the oil on canvas paintings “The Power of Smile”, “Ìfé ní Ìbàdàn”, “Tokotaya” and “Ife Obi” (Parental Wish), among others.

The exhibition’s unique selling point could be said to be the narrative arc, which seamlessly shows the links between Segun’s impressive artistic odyssey and the promising FDUHHU RI KLV VRQ 7KH ODWWHU ZKR ÀUVW trained in his Olokun Art Gallery in Ile-Ife, has continued in his father’s footsteps, albeit with new mediums.

Self-described as an "upcycle artist", the 29-year-old enthuses about his passion for art. “I see plastic waste GLͿHUHQWO\ µ KH ZULWHV LQ WKH H[KLELWLRQ catalogue. “I see thrashed PET bottles as Michelangelo sees marble. I see thrashed bottles as thrashed people, as abandoned relationships. Frustrated, they’ll protest at toll gates; block our waterways and take our homes if ignored.”

While growing up in the vicinity of his printmaker dad, he inevitably could think of being nothing else than an artist, which to him was like being an astronaut. “I thought what he was doing had to be important because he mostly had many foreign friends over at his gallery and studio,” he once told an interviewer. “He let me draw and, at times, play with his art materials. I enjoyed the freedom I felt even then.”

Not even the obvious father-son bond would stop Gbenga, who now runs an upcycling-focused art studio called XtetixUpcycle, from charting his own unique creative course. His antiZDVWH DFWLYLVP DOVR ÀQGV H[SUHVVLRQ LQ inculcating his environment-friendly endeavours into younger people.

2QFH ÀQGLQJ KLPVHOI IHHOLQJ JXLOW\ IRU FRQWULEXWLQJ WR WKH WR[LÀFDWLRQ of the environment through the improper disposal of plastic bottles, he soon discovered more creative ways of giving them new life. Paying more attention to plastic waste led to his deeper understanding of the timebomb on which the planet sits. “Of all the solid waste degrading our

A section of the exhibition hall

planet, in my opinion, plastic waste is the most violent, yet the most easily generated and hardest to properly dispose of. I want Nigerians to see their ‘discards’ become more. I want to share the truth of the living GLUW 3D\LQJ DWWHQWLRQ WR ZDVWH LV WKH ÀUVW VWHS to gaining an environmental awareness.”

Eventually, the upcycled plastic waste re-emerges in a 3-D world of cheerful colours WHHPLQJ ZLWK H[RWLF ÀVKHV DQG DQWV DV DQ DSW counter-narrative to this depressing state RI DͿDLUV %XW HYHQ WKH HQWUDQFLQJ FRORXUV cannot smother the jeremiad lurking in the messages of such works as "Ìrìnajò Wúra" (Golden Journey), "Ìfékúfè" (Lust), "Ìfé kún ìfé" (Abounding Love), "Èjìré" (Twins), "Ìrandíran" 2 and 3 (Generations 2 and 3), “Kòkòrò tín jèfó” (Vegetables Eating Ants), “Ìdìtè” (The Conspiracy), “Ibú” (The Deep), “Àjegbé kan o sí” (Repercussions) and “Ìje” (Fortune).

Talking about these works in the context of this phenomenal exhibition, their antiwaste precepts will remain etched in the Another section of the exhibition hall showing Lagos art scene’s collective memory.

Gbenga's works

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

60

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

ARTS & REVIEW\\POTPOURRI

Nigerian Curator, Adebowale Named an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society Yinka Olatunbosun

N

igerian curator and founder, ASIRI Magazine, a histocultural publication online, Oludamola Adebowale has been named as an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society. This new membership category was launched in 2021 to recognise the contribution made by a wide range of historical researchers and advocates for history across many sectors.

“Some of our new Associate Fellows are historians working in Higher Education who have not yet reached the extent of publications, or equivalent, required to join the full fellowship.

Other Associate Fellows contribute to history through their work in sectors such as heritage and museums, libraries and archives, teaching, publishing and broadcasting or through private research,’’ the letter stated.

Using digital media as a tool for edu-

ENCOUNTER cating and preserving archival Nigerian history, Adebowale made ASIRI Magazine Nigeria’s biggest digital repository of history, arts and culture for more than half a decade. An archivist, researcher and writer of Nigerian history, he was moved by the need to interrogate articles of history. Recently, he created a history-themed chess game app around the History of Lagos FDOOHG ´7KH $JLGLQJEL *DPHV µ The term 'Agidingbi' is an onomatopoeia for the sounds made during the cannon guns that were fired by British forces in

The sound resonated as far as Badagry and Lagos mainland.

7KH $JLGLQJEL JDPH VHHNV WR WHDFK D bit of Lagos history while improving IQ, mental awareness, risk analysis, leadership skills and more.

According to Adebowale, the chess-style game is a way of exporting Lagos to the rest of the world via the digital landscape.

Adebowale

Putting the Tail Back to Trunk of the Tale Chuu Krydz |Ikwuemesi Dirt on White Spectrum: Myths, Travails and Legacies of Eze Nri, the Custodian of Igbo Tradition and Nigeria’s Oldest Kingship Institution,

by Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh, The Pan-Afrika Press, 154 Zik Avenue, Enugu

T

he book, Dirt on White Spectrum, critically engages the continued disparaging DQG PLQLPLVDWLRQ RI WKH VLJQLÀFDQFH RI Nri Kingdom by contemporary “political” scholars, armchair researchers and bread-and-butter writers from across Igbo land, even from the Nri clan itself, according to the author. /LWWOH ZRQGHU KH GHVFULEHV KLV HͿRUWV DV SDFLÀVW intellectual “war” against the prevailing fallacies about Nri Kingdom/Kingship. Perhaps the war is most timely and necessary, not only in light of the current misrepresentation of the history and VLJQLÀFDQFH RI 1UL .LQJGRP EXW DOVR LQ WKH IDFH of the bastardisation of the word “kingdom” and its essence and meaning across Igbo land in recent times, thanks to the happy-go-lucky script writers and producers of Nollywood. The book is structured into six chapters.

Starting with the comments of the great Nnamdi Azikiwe in a motion he moved in the Eastern House of Assembly on Wednesday, March 29, 1956 on the “Recognition of Chiefs”, Onyesoh draws attention to the elevated position and status of Eze Nri in Igbo history and tradition, as clearly acknowledged

by Azikiwe (pp. 1-2), even when he did not try to correct the anomaly himself. Beyond the possibilities at Azikiwe’s disposal in 1956-57, the author notes, WKH 3URIHVVRU $GLHOH $ÀJER &RPPLWWHH RI DOVR failed to “restore the Igbo focus/centre”(p.3), in spite of the huge historical evidence available on the issue.

To drive home his argument of Nri supremacy in Igbo civilisation, Onyesoh follows up with several historical and research evidences that may guide the Igbo like the orphan child through the forest path and out of the prevailing crossroads in Nigeria. The evidences include archaeological, anthropological and historical facts gleaned from such important sources as Olaudah Equiano, Thurstan Shaw, Donald Hartle, M.A. Onwuejeogwu, John Adam, Arthur Leonard, Northcote Thomas, Reverend Father Duhaze, Reverend Father John P. Jordan, among many others. Added to these are other forms of evidence, including ethnography, legacies of Nri Civilisation, the origin of the Igbo market days, proclamation of the Igbo Lunar Calendar, the Igbo agricultural cycle, ,JER WLWOH WDNLQJ WKH SDFLÀVW WUDGLWLRQDO ZRUVKLS LQ D monotheistic system, sanctity of human life, attempt to unify Igbo land under Nri hegemony, the concept of

MUSIC DOO NLQG DQG PHUFLIXO *RG XQLÀHG DJH JUDGH V\VWHP the pursuit of non-violence and peace in governance and justice, democratised monarchy, the historical age of Nri Kingship in comparison with 14 other major kingship institutions in Nigeria (pp.34-56).

7KH DXWKRU DOVR IRFXVHV RQ ´7KH 3DFLÀVW 3KLORVRSK\ in the Nri Political Culture” and discusses the symEROLVP DQG VLJQLÀFDWLRQV RI ZKLWH DV D FRORXU DQG VSLULWXDO VLJQLÀHU LQ WKH 1UL V\VWHP WKH PDQGDWRU\ white attire of Eze Nri, as well as the centrality of nzu (white chalk) in the king’s mundane activities and in Nri life and religion in general. It is made obvious that white and its attributions in Nri culture are a V\QHFGRFKH IRU WKH NLQJGRP·V SDFLÀVW SULQFLSOHV DQG its perception of the spiritual and physical worlds and how the two interface in the lives and aspira-

WLRQV RI WKH SHRSOH :KLWH DOVR UHÁHFWV WKH UHSXWDWLRQ of Eze Nri as a non-warlike monarch without an army and with proven commitment to “the use of peaceful means in ‘active’ or persistent manner, to bring about political and social changes” (p. 40).

The hermeneutics of white as an important colour in Nri culture is thus subtly extended to Nri respect for sanctity of human life, the dignity of the human SHUVRQ WKH (]H 1UL SHUVRQLÀFDWLRQ RI WKH VSLULW ZRUOG the absence of imperial power in the Nri throne and the recognition of the king as a sky-being, Igwe, a term now borrowed and banalised by communities across Igbo land. However, in spite of the inspiring and admirable qualities of the Nri kingship, with DOO LWV UHOLJLRXV DQG SROLWLFDO VLJQLÀFDQFH LWV GHFOLQH is recorded to have occurred in 1677 to 1936, as DUJXHG E\ $ÀJER LQ KLV 5RSHV RI 6DQG GXH to the kingdom’s commitment to “a set and rigid cosmological concept which did not easily adjust

WR FKDQJHµ S $GGHG WR WKLV LV WKH FKDOOHQJH of Aro theocracy and the slave trade. But perhaps the more threatening coup de grace was to come in the wake of colonisation and its other corrosive cousin – Christian evangelisation, coupled with the DJJUHVVLYH HͿRUWV E\ WKH FRORQLDO DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ WR demystify the believed spirit nature and essence of Eze Nri. In addition, the “Igbo enwe eze” campaign championed by the colonial administration, the inability of the colonialists to appreciate kingship or monarchy in the colonies outside the British model, the home-grown rebellion from neighbours in the 1UL FODQ &KDSWHU )RXU DͿURQW RQ (]H 1UL E\ ,JER political leaders, and Nri compromise with belligerent neighbours are among the factors that minimised 1UL LQÁXHQFH DPRQJ WKH ,JER While part of Chapter Three traces in some detail WKH DͿURQW DVVDXOW DQG GLVUHJDUG RI 1UL·V SRVLWLRQ in Igbo history and politics by Igbo politicians beginning from the time of Azikiwe and Michael Okpara down to the present, the later part discusses some misconceptions by some eminent non-Igbo 1LJHULDQV DERXW WKH 1UL VLJQLÀFDQFH DQG WKH KLVWRU\ of the Igbo in general. The same discussions and arguments are extended in Chapter Four with a keen focus on the Enugwu-Ukwu challenge, including its claim to Umu-Nri headship.

The author also sheds light on the origin of Agukwu as a location and not a son of Eri (the Nri ancestor), the bastardisation-cum-Christianisation of Nri customs and traditions by some communities in the Nri clan and the fact that religion has done more harm than good to the Igbo. Onyesoh provides further evidence in Chapter Five about the challenge of other members RI 1UL FODQ DLPHG DW PLQLPLVLQJ WKH VLJQLÀFDQFH RI Nri, especially the Akamkpisi experience and some episodes of unhealthy politics played against the 1UL WKURQH E\ $QDPEUD JRYHUQPHQWV 7KH ÀQDO chapter of the book leverages on Iguaro Ndigbo, the Igbo lunar calendar, as proclaimed by Eze Nri, WR GULYH PRUH QDLOV LQWR WKH FR΀Q RI WKH IDOODFLHV that abound against the prime place of Nri in Igbo history. Following these is a collection of historic DQG KLVWRULFDO SKRWRJUDSKV WKDW URXQG RͿ WKH ERRN 2Q\HVRK UHD΀UPV WKDW ,JER KDV D ORQJ DQG HQYLDEOH KLVWRU\ HYLGHQFHG E\ WKH ,JER 8NZX ÀQGV ZKLFK are associated with Nri kingship and hegemony.

As he hints on p.342 of the book, rather than seek pride and solace in the claim of a Jewish ancestry, the (hi)story of Nri should embolden and imbue the Igbo with a collective pride that speaks to Igbo elevation and sophistication in history, culture and arts. In sum, Onyesoh’s book is about the Igbo story.

Dr Ikwuemesi writes from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

61

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26,, 2022

CICERO

Editor: Ejiofor Alike SMS: 08066066268 email:ejiofor.alike@thisdaylive.com

IN THE ARENA

The Face-off between CJN and Justices of Supreme Court The shrill face-off between Justices of Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Muhammad Tanko willy-nilly offers an opportunity to reboot critical service conditions of the nation’s marginalised third arm of government, writes Louis Achi

I

n explaining the need for an independent judiciary, US revolutionary, statesman and founding father, Alexander Hamilton noted in The Federalist Papers #78 that the federal courts “were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and their legislature” in order to ensure that the people’s representatives acted only within the authority given to the legislature under the constitution.

In the same document, he viewed the judiciary as inherently weak because it has neither purse, nor sword to enforce its judgments. Indeed, the executive not only dispenses the honours but also holds the sword of the community.

Hamilton’s thoughts over 200 years ago fundamentally capture the current quandary of the nation’s third arm of government - the judiciary.

It also fuels the imperative of progressive action to shore it up. Here’s why.

In a recent unsettling leaked memo to the Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, 14 Supreme Court justices, protested their appalling welfare, deplorable service conditions and accused him of denying them the legitimate entitlements. They accused the CJN of abandoning his responsibilities and diverting funds meant for the running of the apex court.

The memo presented a laundry list of other operational challenges that have almost crippled the efficient adjudication of cases at the court - a first in the 58-year history of the court. Some key issues raised by the miffed apex court judges are non-replacement of poor vehicles, poor accommodation, lack of drugs at the Supreme Court clinic and epileptic electricity supply at the Supreme Court.

Still others are increase in electricity tariff, little or no increase in the allowances for diesel and lack of internet services to residences and chambers.

They also accused the CJN of receiving their demands without acting “after several persistent requests” to hold a meeting which was finally held on March 31, where a welfare committee was set up. More, the Supreme Court Justices demanded to know what had become of funds set aside for the training of justices, alleging

Justice Muhammad that they were denied the usual two to three international workshops annually.

Not one to allow the grass grow under his nimble feet, the CJN countered the aggrieved apex court justices in a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesperson, Ahuraka Isah.

His words: “The Supreme Court definitely does not exist outside its environment; it is also affected by the economic and socio-political climate prevailing in the country. Besides that, the apex court has to a larger extent, been living to its constitutional responsibility.”

Stating that the leaked justices’ memo was “akin to dancing naked at the market square by us with the ripple effect,” the CJN deftly punctured the premises they set out on, saying that it was utopian: “The accusation so far, in summary is that more or all ought to have been done and not that nothing has been done; which is utopian in the contemporary condition of our country.”

Touching on much of the items listed by the aggrieved justices, the CJN largely sought to absolve himself of fundamental culpability.

He expanded on the budgeting process and components and perhaps essentially communicated the helplessness of his constituency due to the structural funding template.

But will this defence cut much ice with his colleague justices now up in arms? Big question!

However, following this unprecedented crack between the CJN and apex court Justices, several initiatives by critical stakeholders have also kicked in to attempt urgent resolution.

Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan last week directed the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to get involved with the CJN/justices bust-up to seek resolution of the key issues. He gave the directive at the end of plenary on Wednesday.

On its part, the Body of Benchers has set up a

seven-man committee to look into the matter.

The Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), revealed that the committee is headed by a former CJN, Mahmud Mohammed.

According to Olanipekun, “We are talking to parties concerned, individually and collectively.

For now, we are advising that they should sheath their swords. The immediate objective of the committee is to resolve the impasse while the ultimate objective is to work out an acceptable package for judicial officers all over the country, particularly judicial officers in superior courts.”

Olanipekun who disclosed that the committee would work to improve the welfare package for judicial officers in the country revealed “The committee has also been mandated to compare and contrast what the judicial officers take as their remuneration among others with what is obtainable in other parts of the world.”

While conceding that the CJN Muhammad may be right, based on facts available to him as the head of the third arm of government, constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), stated, “It must be noted that the entire annual allocation meant for the Supreme Court is like a drop of water in an oasis.”

According to Ozekhome, “The N110 billion yearly allocation to the Supreme Court has not changed in the last four years (since 2018). This means that every year, in spite of the hyper inflationary trend which has become geometrical and not merely arithmetical, the allocation to the apex court remains static.

“It also means that since the time when the exchange rate was about N180 to N250 to a dollar, which is today about N612 to the dollar, the apex court’s allocation has not changed. It also means that the Justices’ quality of life has thereby been receding, rather than appreciating.”

Ozekhome also expects the CJN to engage the justices more and pacify them. “I want to believe that before they wrote that letter, they must have complained severally and serially quietly in secret. The CJN must go ahead and take up their grievances and fight it through with the executive arm of government that is holding on to more than 70 per cent of our national resources, with the legislature holding on to the rest,” he validly stated.

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

2023: It’s Not Enough to Get Your PVCs

Yakubu

Not a few are impressed with the sudden mad rush by some youths to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC)justsotheycouldpartakeofthechangetheyseek in next year’s elections. Many of them, though, rooting for a particular candidate, the frenzy is, however, intimidating and of course, welcoming.

But, if these youths that everyone knows are still the ones in question, then, it would not go beyond the initial “gragra” as they say downtown. Very few of them, clearly betraying the number that came out for registration, are definitely going to vote on the day of the election, often disappointing their desire for change.

Announcing results of the recent governorship election in Ekiti State, Returning Officer, Prof.

Kayode Adebowale, Vice-Chancellor, University of

Ibadan, said the APC candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, scored 187,057 votes to defeat his closest rival, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who garnered 82,211 votes, while Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 67,457 votes. There were 13 other candidates, who couldn’t pull as much weight.

Thus, for a state with three senatorial districts, six federal constituencies, 26 state constituencies, 16 local governments areas, 16 candidates, 177 wards, 2,445polling,andboasting989,224registeredvoters, out of which 749,065 voters, representing 76 per cent, collected their PVCs, then, that turnout was cause for concern.

If out of the 989,224 registered voters, only 363,438 were accredited, representing 36.74 per

cent, then everyone should be worried. Although this might not be considered abysmal, when compared to the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra, where just 10.24 per cent voter turnout was recorded, it was still a far cry from the kind of expectations that could cause change to happen.

Unfortunately, while Ekiti could have served as a foretaste of what to come in 2023, such voter attitude often encourage the archetypal politicians to manipulate the system and, of course, get away with ‘murder’, because it would be easy to manipulate and churn out the much-needed votes from their strongholds.

So,thehypearoundthecurrentregistrationisunable to move mountain yet until it starts to translate into numbers during elections.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26,, 2022

62

BRIEFINGNOTES Umahi’s Curious U-turn on South-east Presidency After his woeful performance at the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress, Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. David Umahi, has ditched his clamour for South-east presidency. Ejiofor Alike reports that Umahi’s curious U-turn was borne out of selfishness and insincerity

B

efore the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held their presidential primaries, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. David Umahi was one of the greatest advocates of Southeast presidency. When he defected from the PDP to the APC in November 2020, he told journalists in Abakiliki, the state capital that he moved to the APC because of “injustice” meted out to the South-east by the PDP, which was the refusal of the main opposition party to give the presidency to the geo-political zone since 1999.

“Since 1999, the South-east has supported the PDP.AtatimethefivestateswereallPDP.Oneofthe foundingmembersofthePDPwasfromSouth-east, the late former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme.

“It is absurd that since 1999 going to 2023, the South-east will never be considered to run for presidency under the PDP. And this is my position andwillcontinuetobemyposition.Ithadnothingto do with me or my ambition,” Umahi had reportedly claimed.

Inwhatwasperceivedasasignofgenuineagitation fortheinterestofNdigbo,Umahihadalsopromised thathewouldcontinuetoagitatefortheinterestof the South-east in or out of office.

Hesaidhehaddecidedtobecomethe“sacrificial lamb” that would be crucified for the interest and good of the South-east as a zone.

Umahihadfurthernotedthatdespitehismovement totheAPC,hewouldnotcastigatethePDP,expressing thehopethatthePDPwouldstillconsidertheregion and zone the Presidency to South-east for equity and fairness. He seized every opportunity to make case for South-east presidency.

HearguedthatNigeriansfromotherregionsofthe country should not be afraid of Igbo Presidency. At a reception organised on his behalf at the Christian EcumenicalCentre,Abakaliki,lastJanuary,theEbonyi StategovernorhadnotedthatNdigboarenotknown forcausingdestructionbutgrowthanddevelopment inanysociety.HeinsistedthattheIgbomanwithlots ofinvestmentsindifferentpartsofthecountrywas betterequippedtodeveloptheeconomyofthenation.

While addressing the APC delegates from the South-eastinOwerri,ImoStatecapital,shortlybefore the party’s presidential primary, Umahi, who was a presidential aspirant on the platform of the ruling party,saidthecountryneededapresidentthatcould provide development and security to Nigerians.

“Let me tell Nigerians that there is nothing to be afraid of in an Igbo man becoming president. We need to be wise and stand together.

“Wehavepropertyandinvestmentseverywhere; so, when people tell you about Biafra, it is not about seceding at all.

“We want one Nigeria built on the platform of equity, fairness and justice; the Igbo man will do better under a united Nigeria. We want to be fairly treated,” he reportedly explained.

Umahi Theformerpresidentialhopefulsaidthe2023 electionwasatimeforNigerianstoprovethe‘no victory, no vanquish’ declaration that was made after the civil war.

“My position is that our brothers from the South-South and South-West should give us a chance on the same platform upon which we demandthatthepresidencyshouldcometothe South-east,” Umahi reportedly added. Despite the several odds against the South-east, which were caused by the refusal of his party to zone thepresidentialtickettotheregion,coupledwith the refusal of the South-south and the Southwest to cede the presidency to the South-east geo-political zone, Umahi still contested the

presidential ticket of his party, and recorded a very poor outing.

Expectedly, he came a distant sixth position aftertheNationalLeaderoftheAPC,SenatorBola Tinubu; immediate past transport minister, Mr. RotimiAmaechi;Vice-PresidentYemiOsinbajo; SenatePresident,Dr.AhmadLawan;andGovernor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

Following his poor performance, which was caused by his failure to read the handwriting on the wall, Umahi tongue-lashed the Igbo’s apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, blamingtheleadershipofthebodyforhisshameful outing at his party’s primary. He accused an innocentPresident-GeneralofOhanaezeNdigbo

Worldwide,Prof.GeorgeObiozor,ofplayingpolitics with the clamour for Igbo Presidency in 2022.

Addressingthepeople,whoreceivedhiminAbakaliki,thestatecapitalonarrivalaftertheAPCprimary, hesaidhewasdismayedwiththeattitudeofpolitical actors from South-east zone for not justifying the agitations against the marginalisation of Ndigbo.

“Prof. Obiozor could not stand for Igbo when it mattered so much, it is a very big shame, I have no confidence in him and he is no longer my President.

In the comity of South-east, Ebonyi people are not regarded; I continue to say that Ebonyi will never be Biafra.

“I weep for our leaders, we are now regarded as people that will sell anything for the sake of money, it is about equity, justice, and fairness upon which I continue to shout for the unity of this country,” an angry Umahi was quoted as saying.

Sourceswithinthepan-Igbosocio-culturalorganisationallegedthatUmahi’sgrouseagainstObiozor wasduetohisallegedrefusaltopresenttheEbonyi State governor to President Muhammadu Buhari as the consensus candidate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

According to one of the sources, Umahi had allegedly invited Obiozor to Ebonyi State during PresidentBuhari’svisittothestatetoraisehishand as the consensus candidate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

ButObiozorwassaidtohavepolitelydeclinedtodo hisbiddingandremindedhimthattherewereother South-eastaspirantsinAPC,PDPandotherparties.

So,whenhelosttheelection,hepouredhisvenom onObiozor.HowpresentinghimtoPresidentBuhari could have made him to defeat the likes ofTinubu, Osinbajo, Amaechi and other better-equipped aspirantsstillbeatone’simagination,”thesourcesaid.

TodemonstratethatUmahi’sclamourforSoutheast presidency was borne out of selfishness and lack of sincerity, he went further to urge voters in thestatetorejectthepresidentialcandidateofthe LabourParty,Mr.PeterObiduringtheFebruary25, 2023 presidential election.

Speakingduringtheswearing-inoffivecommissioners,twoSpecialAssistantsandsixdevelopment centrecoordinators,theformerchampionofSoutheast presidency urged the people of the state not to vote for the Labour Party.

“WewillnotvoteforLabourParty,wewillonlyvote forAPC.OurvoteisforAPCandnotforLabourParty,” he reportedly said. There is no doubt that Umahi, as an APC governor is expected to work for the success of his party at the presidential election.

But the way he championed the clamour for the South-east presidency gave the false impression that he would support any presidential candidate that would emerge from the South-east in any of the major political parties.

HiscuriousU-turnonlyshowedthathisclamourwas borne out of insincerity, selfishness and hypocrisy.

Umahihasconfirmedtheclaimsbyhiscriticsthatthe only presidential aspirant he wanted as president to fulfill his desire for South-east presidency was himself.

NOTES FOR FILE

Ekweremadu’s Many Troubles

Ekweremadu

ThisisnotthebestoftimesforformerPresidentof theSenate,SenatorIkeEkweremadu,whoiscurrently waginghistoughestlegalbattleintheUnitedKingdom to avert a sudden fall from grace to grass.

ManyhadwantedtheSenatorrepresentingEnugu WestsenatorialdistricttoemulatetheformerSenate President,SenatorDavidMark,whobowedouthonourably when the ovation was loudest but he continued to push his political luck too far.

First,hesuccessfullygambledandretainedhisposition as the Deputy Senate President on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.Second,hisvictoryin2015intoxicatedhimthat here-contestedforthepositionin2019withouttaking his party into confidence and lost woefully to Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the ruling All Progressives

Congress (APC).

Third,hisinordinateambitionpushedhimtoaspire to be the governor of Enugu State when he knew that by the zoning arrangement in the state, that it would be the turn of Enugu East senatorial zone to produce thegovernorin2023.Ekweremaduknewthatbefore it would be the turn of his Enugu West in 2031, he probably would no longer be relevant in the politics of the state. So, he ignored all pleas by the political leaders and elders in the state, who prevailed on him not to truncate the zoning arrangement for the sake of peace, justice and equity.

ItwasnotuntilafewhourstothePDPgovernorship electionwhenherealisedthathestoodnochancethathe withdrewfromtheelectionandthreatenedtocontinue court action. But having realised later that court ac-

tion would not help him to realise his gubernatorial ambition,Ekweremadulaterformallywithdrewand congratulated the winner, Mr. Peter Mbah.

As if losing his governorship bid was not enough, Ekweremaduandhiswife,Beatrice,werearrested and clamped into detention in the United Kingdom following an allegation of attempting to harvest organs.

The UK Metropolitan Police charged them with conspiracytofacilitatethetravelofanotherperson fororganharvestingintheUK.TheywereonThursday denied bail by an Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court and would remain in custody until July 17.

Ekweremadu will need the best lawyers in the UKtoavertconvictionthatwilldestroyhispolitical career permanently.

63

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26,, 2022

CICERO/ISSUES

Vote-buying and Credibility of Ekiti Governorship Election As the technology of the Independent National Electoral Commission makes the traditional methods of rigging elections ineffective, politicians have resorted to vote-buying as witnessed massively in the just-concluded governorship election in Ekiti State, Gboyega Akinsanmi writes

W

ith the 2023 general election drawing closer, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is preoccupied with how to conduct a credible general election. No time did this question become an issue of national debate than during the last governorship election in Ekiti State due to the prevalence of vote buying or selling that charaterised the process and of course, tainted the credibility of the election.

Nearly all observers reported that the cases of bribery of voters and inducement were prevalent in virtually all the 16 local government areas (LGAs) in the state contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

According to some reports, the electorate willingly placed monetary values on their votes without weighing the consequences of their decisions.

In its reports, for instance, observers under Yiaga Africa Watching The Vote (WTV) documented how the party agents of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) were doling out cash - ranging from N5,000 to N10,000 - in exchange for the votes of the willing sellers.

In Ijero LGA, specifically, Yiaga Africa observed APC agents sharing N7,000 per voter. In Ado-Ekiti, as shown in its report, Yiaga Africa also observed the party agents Yukubu of the ruling party sharing N5,000 to every electorate, who provided evidence that they voted for the APC in their polling centres.

How can the authorities nip in the bud?

Also, in its report, the Centre for DemocExperts sharply differ on what racy and Development (CDD) documented constitutes the root causes of vote 41 cases of vote buying and selling in six buying or selling not just in Ekiti State, LGAs. The LGAs comprise Ado Ekiti, Ijero, but also in other states. For some, the Ikole, Irepodun-Ifelodun, Ise-Orun and Moba. phenomenon is rooted in the perilous In its own case, the Transition Monitoring living conditions of the people, which Group (TMG) attested to how public funds they argued, induced them to sell their were used to woo voters before and during suffrage to the highest bidders in order the governorship election. to solve their immediate challenges.

Likewise, Chairman of CDD Election Jinadu placed this argument in the Analysis Centre, Prof. Adele Jinadu docucontext of the ongoing strike in the mented the patterns of vote buying across public universities. For him, the strike 16 LGAs that comprise the state. In the first influenced some of the electorate who instance, as Jinadu claimed, vote-buying sold their votes to view the election as took the patterns of cash collection in brown an opportunity to solve their economic envelopes to disguise the content to avoid challenges. This might particularly arrest by the anti-corruption agencies. In be true in the case of the Ekiti State another case, according to him, young voters considering its poverty index. openly displayed the money for the votes In terms of poverty headcount rate, they willingly auctioned.

Ekiti has more poor people than other Whether in Anambra, Ekiti, Edo, Kogi, states in the South-west. Besides, it is Ondo or any state in the federation, political classified as one of the averagely poor actors, capitalising on massive poverty in the states in the federation. As shown in the country, which is mainly due to their maladNigeria Poverty Assessment 2022, a ministration, now offer voters rewards in publication of the World Bank, 28 per exchange for their votes since the traditional cent of its population are captives of methods of rigging elections have been extreme poverty. In every 100 persons, rendered ineffective by INEC’s improved according to the assessment report, at technology. During the Ekiti State governorleast 28 are extremely poor. ship election, voters auctioned their votes This is a sharp contrast to to the highest bidder, a trend, which TMG’s other states in the geo-political zone. In Chairman, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani, said had now Lagos, for instance, poverty headcount replaced snatching of ballot boxes. rate is about 4.5 per cent, the lowest All these reports indeed contradicted not just in the South-west, but also in what Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr. Biodun the federation. In Osun, it is about 8.5 Oyebanji told President Muhammadu Buhari per cent of its population; 9.3 per cent in the day after he was declared winner. But Ogun; 9.8 per cent in Oyo and 12.5 per what could have bred the unholy exchange cent in Ondo. of votes for monetary rewards in the polity?

Does these poverty rates suggest What made voters to have resolved to that vote-buying or selling is less prevaauction their suffrage? lent in other states in the South-west?

Apparently, vote buying is not a one-way In 2018, as shown in TMG’s reports, transaction involving voters alone. But political actors were scrambling to candidates and their political parties are compromise the suffrage of the Osun culpable actors in the black market of vote people during its governorship poll. The auctioning or trading. What are the triggers party that paid the highest price eventuthat compelled them to compromise the ally won the election. In 2019, also, promise by offering rewards for the votes of vote-buying or selling was a recurring willing sellers? What does this trend mean for decimal during the general election. For the future of democracy in the federation? others, the gnawing trend of vote-

Usman buying or selling attests to the inordinate quest by the political actors and parties to gain control of political power at all costs.

Hence, it spurred most dominant political actors and parties to financially induce the electorate to support their aspiration or vote materially influence their electoral behaviour before and during the elections.

While most observers attested to how inordinate quests for political power and escalating poverty indicators often trigger vote buying in Nigeria, they believe most voters see every election as the opportunity to get their own dividends of democracy, which they largely justify in the poor performance of their elected representatives Such voters, as observers put it, lament the failure of their elected representatives to meet their aspiration. Their claims are evident in the catalogue of decrepit public schools, deplorable roads, poor healthcare system, acute infrastructure deficit and increasing unemployment rates, which they argue, have not gained deserved policy priority. Hence, according to them, it is during the election session that they can claim what their elected representatives have denied them.

With vote buying gradually becoming a norm, analysts have raised the alarm over its grave consequences for the future election.

This phenomenon, according to Rafsanjani, is a symptom of a deeper problem of integrity crisis for the INEC, and will always compromise the electoral processes if appropriate measures are not adopted to reverse the trend.

But the former INEC Chairman, Prof.

Attahiru Jega explained its consequences for the anti-graft fight and economic development. For him, the trend exacerbates corrupt practices and economic crimes that permeate the public sector with political candidates diverting public funds to sponsor their campaign activities.

More broadly, the National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Alhaji Yabagi Sani explained its consequences from three perspectives. First, he argued, that the voters, who sold their ballots for a mess of electoral porridge, had already

mortgaged their future for the next four years. Second, he said, what happened in Ekiti clearly showed that the INEC lacked the capacity “to conduct credible elections.”

Third, he added that the trend further compounded the public perception crisis for the INEC. Most analysts agreed that anticorruption agencies “have core roles to play in nipping vote buying in the bud.”

However, Rafsanjani observed, anti-graft agencies “alone cannot address the root causes of voter bribery and inducement in the federation.” He justified this claim on the vicious cycle of extreme poverty in which at least 100 million people were trapped. Given these excruciating economic conditions, Rafsanjani argued that using a legal approach alone may not yield desired outcomes because it is difficult for the voters, who cannot meet their basic needs, to reject inducement from political actors and parties. While the roles of anti-graft agencies cannot be downplayed, he observed, pre-election engagement is more crucial in reversing the trend of vote buying nationwide.

Like Rafsanjani, other analysts canvassed voter education and wider civil education to address the roots of voter bribery. Since vote buying is an approach that anti-people political actors are using to clinch political power to serve their selfish interests, educating voters properly before an election is key to discouraging it.

As a strategy, they suggested that voter education programmes should not just be deepened across all strata of the federation, but also designed to expose how vote-trading is aiding corrupt practices and how candidates are diverting public funds for the purpose of gaining political power at the expense of the people. Beyond voter education, civil society organisations believed strengthening public institutions “is a viable approach to decimating the roots of vote buying or selling.” In response to this challenge, the CSOs argued, relevant public institutions should be empowered to arrest voters for electoral crimes; prosecute them and culpable parties should be deregistered.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

64

CICERO/REPORT

Tinubu

Obi

A Curious Look at the Concept of Placeholder The controversy surrounding the concept of placeholder, which some presidential candidates of political parties has resorted to, could trigger a floodgate of litigations, especially since the Independent National Electoral Commission has described it as unknown to the country’s constitutional and legal framework, Alex Enumah writes

T

he concept of a placeholder that some presidential candidates have resorted to has raised questions on the validity of this move in accordance with the Electoral Act. While the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu had named Kabiru Masari as placeholder to stand in temporarily, pending when he would nominate substantive vice presidential candidate, the Labour Party submitted the name of the Director-General of Peter Obi Campaign Organisation, Dr. Doyin Okupe, as the interim vice-presidential candidate of the party.

Even though all political parties have till August to withdraw the names of such running mates and substitute them with substantive ones, many Nigerians have faulted the concept, describing it as unknown to the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act. Section 142(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) clearly provides that the presidential candidate nominates his running mate from the same political party; nowhere did it and the Electoral Act provide for a placeholder.

While the Constitution and Electoral Act, do not provide for a placeholder, Section 31 of the Electoral Act 2022 allows a candidate to withdraw his/her nomination in writing, and such withdrawal must be communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the political party not later than 90 days to the election.

Specifically, Section 33 of the Act then allows the political party to submit the name of a fresh

candidate within 14 days of the withdrawal of the former candidate by conducting fresh primaries, or in the case of a vice presidential candidate or deputy governor, by selection.

By ensuring that the so-called placeholder signs an undated letter of withdrawal in advance, when APC and Labour Party then finally decide on their real vice presidential candidates, the provisions of Sections 31 and 33 of the Act can be set in motion as late as November 25, 2022, 90 days to the presidential election on February 25, 2023.

While some lawyers have contended that the law permits presidential candidates to present surrogate or placeholder running mates to INEC and replace them with substantive ones later, many others are indifferent, while others have expressed their reservations to the concept.

But a source close to Tinubu said there was nothing wrong in what they did, adding that they submitted the name of a placeholder before the window of INEC deadline closes.

According to the source, “Tinubu will use that time to continue consulting with the party, governors and the president. He is taking his time and doesn’t want to rush it.

He just wants to carry everybody along. Even the elections will take place in 2023 and the campaign won’t start until September.

The window period is still long. There is no need to rush anything about it.

“I think we have fulfilled our own part by submitting the name as required before the INEC deadline closes. He is not really a surrogate per se. He is just holding forth.

The electoral act stipulates that candidates

have the window period to substitute up till sometime in August.”

The Head of the Legal Directorate of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Babatunde Ogala (SAN) stated that the Electoral Act 2022 allows a political party to change its candidates up to when it is three months to an election.

Another SAN, Wole Olanipekun, stated that nothing was legally wrong with the placeholding of vice-presidential candidates to beat an election timeline.

When asked why the party submitted the name of a placeholder, National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, said it was not an unusual practice in the electoral process.

But INEC said the concept of “placeholder” for vice-presidential candidates “has no place in our constitutional and legal framework”.

INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, while reacting to the trend in a chat on ARISE NEWS Channel on Monday, said the placeholder is a unique Nigerian invention for which the commission’s law has no provision. He added that as far as the commission was concerned, there’s no form submitted by the presidential candidates where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a space or placeholder’.

Okoye added that the commission can only replace a candidate if the person writes a “sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law”.

“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form submitted by the presidential candidates, where they said, ‘we’re submitting this person’s

name as a place or space holder’. The issue of space or place holder is a unique Nigerian invention that has no place in our constitutional and legal framework.

“The law says that as a presidential candidate, you must nominate an associate to run with you.

And as far as INEC is concerned, the presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the presidential election.

Political parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them, and that is the position of the law as of today and nothing has changed.”

“For there to be a substitution of a candidate, the vice-presidential candidate must write to the INEC, with an affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law, as that is the only way there can be a substitution of candidates.”

Corroborating INEC’s view, constitutional lawyer, Mr. Inibehe Effiong, disclosed that the concept of a “placeholder” used by Tinubu and Obi, is unknown to the constitution and the Electoral Act. According to Effiong, when a name is submitted to INEC, the name’s bearer automatically and legally becomes the vice presidential candidate of the party simpliciter.

“However, Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2022 allows for withdrawal of candidacy.

Unlike the position under the repealed 2010 Electoral Act where parties were allowed to substitute for “cogent and verifiable” reason, the new Act prohibits substitution; subject to two exceptions. By Section 33 of the Act, a political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate except by reason of death or withdrawal. Section 31 requires a candidate seeking to withdraw to do so in writing, and must deliver the withdrawal letter personally to the party,” he said.

The lawyer further noted that where a candidate has properly withdrawn in accordance with the law, the political party is required to inform INEC within 14 days and also conduct fresh primary to produce a fresh candidate and submit the name to INEC. This is a risky political arrangement. It is not rooted in law.

The individuals so nominated are the vice presidential candidates of the APC and the Labour Party. However, Tinubu and Obi and their parties can substitute them if the above conditions are met by the placeholders.

“The risk with this arrangement is that if the “place holders” subsequently fail or refuse to withdraw as expected or agreed in writing after they’ve been validly nominated, the parties and the presidential candidates will have no choice but to stick with them till the election.”

Citing judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of AGF V. Atiku Abubakar where it stated that a vice president is the vice president of the country; not of the party, Effiong argued that the suggestion that a vice presidential candidate can be substituted at will is erroneous, adding that the position of the vice president is elective, not appointive.

“The suggestion that a vice presidential candidate can be substituted at will is erroneous.

The position of Vice President is elective, not appointive. As the Supreme Court correctly stated in AGF V. Atiku Abubakar, a VP is the Vice President of the country; not of the party.

“It should also be noted that by Section 142 of the 1999 Constitution, a person cannot be validly elected as President unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party to run with him to occupy the office of vice president if they’re elected.

“In summary, a vice presidential candidate is a candidate. Thus, the conditions for valid withdrawal of candidacy under Sections 31 and 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022 are equally applicable to a vice presidential candidate.

“The difference is that the process of substituting a vice presidential candidate upon valid withdrawal does not involve the conduct of a primary election. The reason is that vice presidential candidacy is birthed by and incidental to the nomination of a presidential candidate.

“Presidential candidates, political parties, the media and the public shouldn’t trivialise the process of nominating a vice presidential candidate. I understand that parties resorted to this ‘aberration’ to beat the deadline of INEC. As earlier explained, this is not without risk,” he said.

Many fear that controversy around the issue may generate a barrage of litigations especially since INEC has declared that the concept is unknown to law.

65

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE 26, 2022

GAVEL

Editor: Ejiofor Alike SMS: 08066066268 email:ejiofor.alike@thisdaylive.com

Apprehension over Defections in National Assembly The gale of defections in the National Assembly caused by alleged poor handling of the internal politics of the two major political parties by their leaders continue unabated as more lawmakers are VHW WR GXPS WKHLU SDUWLHV RQ WKH ÁRRUV RI WKH WZR FKDPEHUV WKLV ZHHN Sunday Aborisade reports

B

aring any last minute changes, massivedefectionsoflawmakers would happen in the Senate and House of Representatives this week at plenary following the failure of the national leadership ofthetwomainpoliticalpartiesin thecountry-theAllProgressivesCongress(APC)and thePeoplesDemocraticParty(PDP)-toeffectively address the grievances of the legislators arising from the just concluded primaries which produced candidatesthatwouldcontesttheNationalAssembly elections next year on their platforms.

The federal lawmakers had earlier in the year, sensed that the governors in their various states either wanted to take over their seats or have fresh candidates that would replace them, hence moves weremadetogivethemautomaticticketsfromtheir political parties but the plan failed.

Reasons for the failure of the plan in the PDP could not be immediately be ascertained but it was frustrated in the APC because a sitting Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, was in charge of the party’s affairs.

The lawmakers allegedly, planned the removal of Buni and ensure his replacement with one of their own, who was representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, who was a two-term governor, Senator Adamu Abdullahi.

This was after the lawmakers had ensured the insertionsofcertainprovisionsinthe2010Electoral Act(Amendments)Bill2021whichtheyhopedwould clip the wings of the governors in the choice of the party’s candidates for the 2023 general election.

The national legislators initially made provisions forthedirectmodeofprimaryelectioninthefirstbill senttoPresidentMuhammaduBuharisothatallparty members and not the delegates (who are mostly in governors’ control) would determine the aspirants fate but Buhari rejected it and pleaded with them to consider the inclusion of indirect and consensus options for the sake of other political parties.

The lawmakers agreed but made provisions for onlyad-hocdelegateswhowerespecificallyelected for primary elections and removed statutory and specialdelegateswhoaremadeupofelectedofficials, politicalappointeesandpastandpresentexecutives of political parties at all levels The development excluded president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, elected council officials, lawmakers, political appointees, pastandpresentexecutivesofpoliticalpartiesfrom determining the fate of the aspirants at all levels.

By virtue of Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act, 2022, delegates to vote at the Indirect Primaries andNationalConventionofpoliticalpartiestoelect candidates for elections shall be those democraticallyelectedforthatpurposeonly.Thatwashowthe legislatureexcludeditselffromtheprimaryelections.

They nevertheless decided to right the wrongs following a court order and the fact that the ad-hoc delegatescouldbepocketedbythegovernorsbutthe lastminuteamendmenttoincludethestatutoryand special delegates was too late as President Buhari refused to sign the new amendment.

Thegovernorshadtheirwaysintheprimaryelectionsatthestate,NationalAssemblyandpresidential primary elections.

This led to about 70 per cent of the National Assemblymemberslosingtheirseatsattheendofthe pollsbecausethegovernorsanointedcandidateswon.

Specifically,about174membersoftheHouseof Representativesoutofthe360and54senatorsout of the 109 senators lost their return tickets.

Terribly disappointed and frustrated by the turn of events, the aggrieved federal parliamentarians resumed plenary penultimate week and started dumping their parties one after another, to enable themtoparticipateinthenextyear’sgeneralelection.

ThelastminuteeffortsbytheNationalChairmanof theAPCtohaltfurtherdefectionfailedlastweekafter hismeetingwiththeaggrievedlawmakers.THISDAY

National Assembly Complex learntfromsenatorswhoattendedthemeetingthat Adamucitedintelligencereportsavailabletotheparty leadership as reasons for conveying the parley.

AsenatorfromtheNorth-west,toldTHISDAYon conditionofanonymitythattheAPCnationalchairman saidhelearntthatsomeAPClawmakerswereplanning massivedefectionsonthefloorofthetwochambers nextweek.HesaidhiscolleaguestoldAdamuthatonly justice could reverse the gale of defections rocking theparty.Headdedthattheysoughttheimmediate interventionoftheAPCleadershiptostemthetide.

The senator said: “The National Chairman said the essence of his meeting with us was to find out the reasons APC senators were defecting. Adamu saidhehadintelligencereportsthatmanysenators wereplanningmassivedefectionsnextweekandhe cametofindoutwhatcouldbedonetohalttheaction.

“Somesenatorsactuallystooduptogivedifferent scenariosofthetypeofinjusticestheysufferedinthe hands of their governors. Adamu, after listening to them,promisedthattheNationalWorkingCommittee of the APC and the leadership of the Senate would meet soon to address the lawmakers’ grievances,” the source added.

Thedefectiontidehassofarsweptawayninesenators including the Senate Leader and the Minority Leaderwhileabout20othersmostlyfromtheAPC are set to join them this week.

SixAPCsenatorshadsenttheirdefectionlettersto theSenatePresident.Theyincluded,SenateLeader, Yahaya Abdullahi, who defected to the PDP. The seventh,SenatorIbrahimShekarauhasnotformally defectedontheflooroftheSenatebutheisnowthe presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

The Senate Leader in his letter, alleged that the democratic challenges and deficits in Kebbi State, didnotjuststartfromthelastcongresses,butfrom Julylastyear.Heallegedthat,“Thegovernorillegally decapitatedthestateleadershipoftheparty,imposed unelectedward,localgovernmentandstateexecutives of the party.

Also, a former governor of Kebbi State, Adamu

Aliero(KebbiCentral),defectedfromtherulingAPC to the PDP stating that his “predicated on the fact that there is no internal democracy in the APC.” He alleged that Governor Atiku Bagudu had “bastardised, the party and electoral processes in the state which are now characterised by highhandedness and unfairness.”

Similarly,SenatorsAhmadBabba-Kaita(Katsina North), Lawal Gumau (Bauchi South), and Francis Alimikhena(EdoNorth)alsoannouncedtheirdefection from the ruling party onTuesday at the plenary.

Babba-Kaita and Alimikhena defected to the PDP while Gumau, defected to the NNPP. Shekarau, representing Kano Central District is expected to defect along with others this week on the floor of the Senate.

Meanwhile,thewindofdefectionalsohitthePDP caucus as it lost three members. One of them is the formerSenateMinorityLeaderEnyinnayaAbaribe who dumped the PDP and resigned his position as a principal officer of the Senate.

Abaribe, who was one of the top contenders for the party’s governorship ticket in Abia State, pulled out of the primary and joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

He confirmed his exit from the PDP and as a minority leader in both the party and the Senate in separateletterstothewardchairmanofthePDPinthe ObingwaLocalGovernmentAreaofAbiaStateand thePresidentoftheSenateintheNationalAssembly.

Abaribe cited reasons of illegality, impunity and hesitations in decision-making for his decision to dump the party.

Besides,SenatorEmmanuelBwacha,representing Taraba South, had left the PDP where he served as Deputy Minority Leader in the Senate and joined the ruling APC where he has been rewarded with a governorship ticket AlsoSenatorEzenwaOnyewuchi,ImoEastSenatorial District, who was elected on the platform of the PDP had gone to the Labour Party.

Sofar,themembershipconfigurationintheSenate acrosspartylinestandsthus:APC61,PDP38,NNPP

three,YPPtwoLPoneAPGAone,vacantseatsthree, totalling 109 .

IntheHouseofRepresentatives,theSpeaker,Femi Gbajabiamila,seriouslylamentedthedevelopmentin hisfirstaddresstohonourablemembersaftertheir resumption from both “Easter” and “Sallah” breaks whichspilledovertopoliticalpartiesprimariesahead of 2023 general election.

The speaker blamed the “delegate system” for the loss of the return bids of many legislators in the recently concluded parties primaries. He said that theyforesawtheproblemwhichwaswhytheHouse earlier opted for “direct primaries.”

Some political observers have also argued that either out of “omission” or “desperation” the two houses of the National Assembly did not read the 2022ElectoralActAmendmentbillcarefullybefore itspassage.OnecontinuestowonderhowtheNational Assembly excluded “statutory” delegates in the conduct of primary elections of all political parties which they too are part and parcel of.

Those who strategically positioned themselves fromtheexecutivearmofgovernmenttodecidewho takes over power come 2023 were challenged by thosewhoarefarwayfromtheexecutivebranchof government through the legislative arm of government.

InaninterviewwithTHISDAY,theGeneralSecretary of the Campaign for Democracy, Ifeanyi Odili, said hewasnotsurprisedattheturnofevents.Headded that he would not be surprised if the PDP should form the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the next few days.

Hesaid,“Thebitterrivalrybetweenthegovernorsat thefederallawmakersisnothealthyforourdemocracy.

TheElectoralActshouldbeamendedtodiscourage themonetisationoftheelectoralprocessthatwould determine candidates of political parties.

“Itishighlyunfortunatethatthecurrentsituation iserodingtheinstitutionalmemoryoftheparliament asnewcropoflawmakerswouldbetakingoverand starting learning the process of lawmaking.” Odili added.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R JUNE 26, 2022

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INTERNATIONAL Africa as Dumping Ground for European Wastes: From Toxic Wastes to UK Unwanted Refugees

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Africa as Dumping Ground In January 1988, an Italian company dumped more than 2000 drums, sacks and containers of hazardous wastes in Koko, a small fishing village in the rain belt of the then Bendel State in Southern Nigeria.The drums and containers were presented as containing fertilisers for farmers and meant to assist them. From various accounts, there is no disputing the fact that the importation of the toxic waste was in collaboration with Nigerians. Not only were the host community more interested in the inducements to be given for the dumping of the toxic wastes, apparently for ignorance of the toxicity and its implications for the environment, but the Government of Delta and the Federal Government under General Ibrahim Babangida showed a lackadaisical attitude to the issue.

In an interview granted by an indigene of Koko fishing village and former President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Professor Lucky Oritsetojumi Akaruese, to the The Punch newspapers, the attitude of the governments was shameful. As he put it,‘it was some Nigerian students in Italy at the time that exposed the dumping of the waste and possibly in conspiracy with some Nigerians that were highly connected. A Nigerian newspaper reported the issue. I think it was the Sunday Guardian newspaper. Note that the waste passed through the Koko seaport with the full compliments of the officials of the Federal Government that owned the port.’

What is particularly noteworthy about this quotation is the fact of negligence to control the toxic drums. In other words, the government officials did not know about the contents? If they did not know, what did they do when eventually the matter was brought to its attention? An overview of the situation is disheartening as told by Professor Akaruese: ‘it is a community that has been abandoned and sacrificed by the duo of the State and local governments on the altars of greed, selfishness and political electoral interests. It is a community that has been sold to merchants of death by its local leadership for peanuts and a community that will constitute the future metaphorical“guinea pig”for research into the effects of industrial toxic wastes.’

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VIE INTERNATIONALE with

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

Johnson And most unfortunately too, another toxic waste dumping in the same Koko village took place in 2017. How do we explain this recurrence? Why the choice of Koko again for the dumping? Why the complicity of the Governments of Nigeria? Who is to blame in this regard for the policy of fresh dumping in exchange for money?

In the Côte d’Ivoire, a United Nations Press Release of 30 January 2018 had it that in August 2006, a cargo ship, Probo Koala, a Panama registered tanker and chartered by the Singaporean-based oil and commodity shipping,Trafigura Beheer BV, offloaded toxic waste toan Ivoirian waste handling company,Tommy.Tommy took delivery and disposed the waste in 12 sites in Abidjan which created unwarranted health hazards. In fact, about 100,000 Abidjanais had to seek medical attention when the Prime Minister, Charles Banny, opened hospitals and offered free healthcare to all residents of Abidjan.

Expectedly, Trafigura Beheer BV initially denied any importation of toxic wastes from the Netherlands. When it eventually accepted knowledge of it, it claimed not to know that the toxic waste would not be properly disposed off. The Ivoirian government made the Trafigura to pay damages to the tune of US$ 198m. Besides, more than 30,000 Ivoirians embarked on a law-suit in 2008 against theTrafigura in London. Trafigura had to pay £30m (US$ 42.4m) in settlement of the suit.

In the context of the toxic waste in Koko village in Nigeria, the story is completely different. There is nothing like sanction or trial of anyone in the spirit of Nigeria being a fantastically corrupt country.

It is collective thieving and institutional corruption. In Abidjan, more than 100,000 suffered ill-health. There is no official record of victims of the toxic waste in Nigeria.

But true enough, there is the Convention on the Control ofTransboundary Movements of HazardousWastes and their Disposal, which wasadoptedon22March1989bytheConferenceofPlenipotentiaries inBasel,Switzerland.TheConventionwaspromptedbypublicoutcries following the discovery of deposits of toxic wastes in Africa and many

A third implication is the likelihood of political magouilles in Rwanda because President Paul Kagame is a condoned dictator. The UK-Rwanda agreement is simply a Memorandum of Understanding and therefore not enforceable.

In paragraph 1.6 of the MoU, it is clearly stated that ‘this arrangement will not be binding in International Law. Additionally, paragraph 2.2 says, ‘for the avoidance of doubt, the commitments set out in this Memorandum are made by the United Kingdom to Rwanda and vice versa and do not create or confer any right on any individual, nor shall compliance with this Arrangement be justiciable in any court of law by the third parties or individuals.’ Thus it simply remains a non-justiciable bilateral arrangement which gives room for future manoeuvres. In this regard, for how long will Africa remain a land for dumping of Europe’s unwanted toxic wastes? Will the relocation of the UK’s unwanted refugees to be sent to Rwanda not be the beginning of another process of re-colonisation of Africa with the complicity of Africans this time? But before time will tell, UK and others should send their unwanted refugees to the Maghreb countries where they can fit in well, being mostly Arabs, rather than to Rwanda

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nce upon a time, Africa was the darling of Nigeria.

Africa was first made the cornerstone of Nigeria’s foreign policy and that was from 1960 to 1976.

Anti-apartheid policy stand of Nigeria was the major dynamic. In 1976, following the Professor Adebayo Adedejireport,Africaseizedtobethecornerstoneand became the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy.

As centrepiece, Africa was given greater prominence in Nigeria’s foreign policy calculations. This was one major rationale for the nationalisation of the British Petroleum and the Barclays Bank, which became the Union Bank in 1977 and 1978.

As from 1994, with de-apartheidisation, Nigeria does not have any meaningful foreign policy to reckon with. When Dr. Okoi Arikpo was Commissioner for External Affairs under General Yakubu Gowon, he made it clear that Nigeria would not allow the use of Africa simply as a source of raw materials for the development of Europe and America. In fact, Nigeria was vehemently opposed to the exploitation of Africa by the colonial masters in many ways. It was against this background that Nigeria opposed French Atomic Tests in the Reggane area of the Sahara desert in February, April and December 1960, as well as the eventual rupture of diplomatic ties with France in January 1961.

Today, Nigeria’s foreign policy does not have any focus or anything to defend. Nigeria is even aligning internationally contrarily to the established non-alignment policy put in place in 1960. Although the policy does not imply that Nigeria must never align, it simply says that such alignment must be a resultant from Nigeria’s sovereign decision. The decision must not be as a result of international pressure. Whether Nigeria’s support for Ukraine against Russia is sovereignly taken is a separate debate on its own.

However, it is on record that the US government is currently making efforts to sanction any African country that is supporting Russia. And most unfortunately in this case, voting against Russia is, grosso modo, not in Nigeria’s national and African interest.

And perhaps most disturbingly, not only are Nigerians mistreated in many parts of Africa, the same African continent has become a terra cognita for dumping of anything unwanted in Europe and America. It is sufficient to attach monetary compensation to any unwanted thing for African leaders to accept acts of wickedness for their own people. The most recent example is the controversial plan of the British government to deport all unwanted migrants from the UK border to Rwanda.With the dumping of toxic wastes in 1988, new approaches to people deportation, visible efforts at re-colonisation in 2022, and without Nigeria vigorously reacting, Africa as centrepiece of Nigerian foreign policy in defending Africa and its people has become meaningless. This is most unfortunate.

parts of the world. The Convention was done to reduce hazardous waste generationandtopromote‘environmentallysoundmanagementofhazardous wastes wherever the place of disposal; the restriction of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes except where it is perceived to be in accordance with the principles of environmentally sound management’; and to regulate the system applying to cases where trans-boundary movements are permissible.

Most unfortunately, however, many of the signatories to the convention breached the obligations created for them by the Convention. While the challenge of how to dispose industrial waste in the developed countries, and particularly the high costs of their disposal in Europe and coupled with the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) syndrome, industrialists have to seek cheaper ways of disposing their toxic wastes, which mainly was to turn to Africa. Nobody wanted toxic wastes in their backyard in Europe, but craftily negotiated with African leaders to accept and which the African leaders happily accepted for their people because of money. h It is against this background that the Bamako Convention was conceived iin 1991 and negotiated by 12 OAU countries.The Convention entered into fforce in 1998 and has six main purposes: prohibition of importation of aall hazardous and radioactive wastes into African continent for whatever rreason; minimizing and controlling trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes within Africa; prohibiting all ocean and inland water dumping o or incineration of hazardous wastes; ensuring that disposal of wastes is o cconducted in an environmentally sound manner; promoting ‘a cleaner production over the pursuit of a permissible emissions approach based p on assimilative capacity assumptions’; and establishing a precautionary o principle. In essence, Member Signatories are required to ban the import p of harzardous and radioactive wastes and all forms of ocean disposal. o Even though the Bamako Convention drew a lot of inspirations from tthe Basel Convention, especially from its Article 11 which requires its ssignatories to enter into bilateral, multilateral and regional agreements on Hazardous Waste to help achieve the objectives of the Convention, o tthe Bamako Convention provides for stronger restrictions on import of hazardous wastes to Africa, For instance, it makes no exceptions on certain h hazardous wastes like those for radioactive materials provided for in the h Basel Convention. It prohibits all imports of hazardous wastes.

B Again, most unfortunately, Nigeria has not ratified the Bamako Conventtion since 1998 while the developed countries have continued to import hazardous wastes to Africa. This cannot but be an expression of failure of h Nigeria’s foreign policy, especially in light of the fact that Africa is considered N aas the centrepiece of foreign policy.What is again staring Nigeria in the face iis the shift from importation of toxic wastes to importation of refugees of mixed personality and whose future has the great potential to threaten m continental stability in a very serious manner.

Refugee Deportation and Implications for Africa The refugees are comprised of Afghans, Syrians, Arabs, and Muslim in the main, and will be expected to constitute in the long run a new colony, in addition to the minorityTutsi and majority Hutus, in Rwanda. BothTutsi and Hutus are basically Roman Catholics.When the population becomes inclusiveofpeopleofdifferentbackgroundandpossiblyofextremistreligious beliefs, the current myopic policies of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda will be another internal strife from which future lessons will be drawn.

Before then, questions ought to be raised on the choice of donation of money to Rwanda in exchange for accommodating unwanted refugees in the United Kingdom? In an agreement done on 14 April, 2022 and signed by the British Minister of Interior, Priti Patel, and Rwandan Foreign Minister, VincentBirutaare,Britainofferedtogive$157m€144mtoRwanda.Explained differently,Britainwillfirstpay£120mtoRwandaforeconomicdevelopment and will then pay thereafter for the operational costs of the program along with accommodation and integration expenses.This is necessary because theasylumisnotforatemporaryperiodbutonedesignedtobepermanent.

The refugees are by implication to become Africans by conferment of Rwandan nationality on them. Additionally, even though the Rwandan government is looking at the current small number of the refugees, the moment the foundation for settlement of the asylees is well laid, a gradualist further repopulating of Rwanda must be expected In this regard, why is it that the opposition to the deportation of the refugeeshasbecomeanissueintheUnitedKingdom?Thereisrivalrybetween British courts, on the one hand, and the European Council of Human Rights (ECHR), on the other. While the ECHR issued a last minute injunction to stop the deportation of the thirty migrants initially earmarked to be flown to Rwanda, two British courts did not accept to block the deportation.

Many of the deportees themselves have been protesting vehemently against their deportation. They complained about unfairness, warm welcome to Ukrainian refugees and better treatment for them, but such good treatment was not given to them. The Kurdish and Syrian migrants who spoke to Al Jazeera said they fled joining the army in Syria and would prefer to take their lives rather than accept to stay in Rwanda. While the UK-Rwandan deal is an expression of human trafficking, the Boris Johnson government argues that the cardinal objective of the deportation is to prevent such human trafficking. It is to ensure their protection.

As reportedbyAlJazeera,one23-year Kurdish detaineefrom Iran,Ferhad, was quoted as saying that‘when the war in Ukraine started, all Ukrainians were welcomed and given better treatment. Since we are all refugees, I didn’t understand why I would be relocated to Rwanda when Ukrainians are welcomed, given a better life, shelter and everything they need.’ More important says the quote,‘regardless of our origin, we are all human beings, Kill me here or let Iran kill me, instead of taking me to Rwanda.’The implication of this position cannot be far-fetched. If the protesting migrants are forcefully deported to Rwanda, their anger has the potential to impact negatively on political governance in Rwanda.

Read full article online - www.thisdaylive.com

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER JUNE26, 2022

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

Time to License the Vote Trade

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he recent presidential nomination primaries of the two big parties and the just concluded Ekiti state governorship elections are united by a paradox. In both, Nigerian democracy recorded some dubious progress. An orderly and fairly credible electoral processes seems to have finally evolved. Correspondingly, however, the monetization of the electoral process hit the highest peak in our history.

In a sickening Arab street bazaar at the presidential nomination conventions, APC and PDP delegates exchanged their convictions for wads of dollar bills reportedly ranging in value from $5000 to upwards of $35,000. In the Ekiti governorship election, the entire state became a retail market place for haggling over the price of each vote and finally settling for a range between N3000 and a princely N15,000 per vote cast.

As things stand, our electoral outcomes are beginning to look more like validations of financial prowess rather than vindications of genuine intentions of public good. In both the APC and the PDP presidential primaries, the two presidential candidates that finally emerged happen to be the richest citizens among the aspirants. In Ekiti, it seems that a well to do candidate backed by the treasury prowess of the incumbent state administration also won. In both sets of elections, therefore, we may have reached that point in our descent into decadence where electoral victories may have acquired a new Nigerian name: Coronation of the Highest Bidder.

At the centre of this aberration is a helpless acceptance of vote buying and selling of votes as a legitimate seasonal trade. As has been variously reported, serial bribing of delegates and retail vote buying at polling sites dominated both exercise. Most observers have concluded that the outcome of the presidential nomination conventions of the two big parties merely confirmed the primacy of cash as the deciding factor in the outcome. This is only a foretaste of what is likely to transpire at the real general elections in 2023.

On the scale of state governorship elections, the Ekiti governorship election now holds the gold trophy in retail direct vote buying and selling.

From informed reports, pay masters of the leading candidates were located strategically at vantage points in the vicinities of the polling booths with cell phone cameras focused on the balloting point for verification. Once the voter thumb printed the correct party emblem, he/ she qualifies to received the agreed price of the vote at the point of exit from the polling area. Eye contact and thumb signals were the confirmation signals. Reportedly, the going rates in Ekiti ranged from N3,000 to N15,000 depending on the depth of the candidate’s pocket. The highest rate guarantees the more certain win. In one epic unguarded moment, a social media viral photo showed a leading candidate personally openly handing out wads of naira notes to a throng of supporters at a last minute campaign. No one has cared to deny that footage!

In all this drama, we need to accord INEC its deserved credit. It may have finally made election rigging and vote robbery less attractive than ever before. So far, hardly anyone has alleged that either the presidential primaries of the big parties or the Ekiti governorship election was rigged in any material way. The announced results have so far corresponded neatly with the numbers of accredited delegates and voters in each case.

INEC’s adoption of new anti fraud technologies seem to be working. In Ekiti, tallying of votes and the issuing of results were completed in about one day. Some INEC staffers still function as facilitators of residual electoral fraud. But most importantly, potential election riggers and vote thieves now need to think faster than INEC and its new devices. That is bad news for habitual election fraudsters and other ugly Nigerians.

In all fairness, INEC’s contract with us ends with delivering credible, accurate, free and fair elections. It has no responsibility when it comes to regulating the conduct of voters and the behaviour of candidates and party supporters. Security is the business of the security people. The brazen monetization of our elections is a matter of social deviance that ought to preoccupy government and the political parties that give birth to them.

And yet it is the very parties themselves and their leaders that are the source of the brazen monetization of the electoral process.

Yakubu

We have every cause to celebrate the general acceptance of orderly electoral process as the best way to advance the cause of democracy. Already, lovers and champions of democracy have saluted the progress and success in Ekiti. The United States government has congratulated Nigeria on the success in Ekiti. Even the habitually litigious Nigerian politicians in Ekiti have carefully focused their attention on the open vote buying and selling than on the credibility of INEC’s procedures and processes. The complaint seems to be that they were out bidded in the bazaar!

But we should all be ashamed that our endemic corruption culture has assumed a permanent seat in something as strategic as our electoral process. Democracy dies the moment the choices made at elections do not reflect the genuine wishes and aspirations of the people but accord with a market logic.

Worse still, when cash stands between political aspirants and the genuine feelings of the people, it is hard for electoral outcomes to reflect the desirable direction of public policy.

The aberration befuddles the real needs and urgencies of the society and fuels the existing decay of the state.

There is yet another way of viewing the matter. As it stands now, the quantum of monetization in the recent electoral contests indicates the emergence of the vote trade as something of a new economic trend and nascent sector. We may in fact have indirectly created a seasonal economic sector with a quantum cash turnover. An industry of sorts has found a place among the gamut of new nefarious undertakings now struggling for prominence in our infinitely entrepreneurial nation.

The trade in votes has just joined the ranks of other illicit trades now thriving in our midst. Cyber crime, trading in babies produced by ‘baby factories’, trade in human body parts, human trafficking across state and international boundaries, online fake celebrity endorsement scams and circuses etc. These are the faces of the ‘new economy’.

Add these to the already flourishing lethal sectors of transactional kidnapping and industrial banditry.

The vote trade is the complementary face

of our new era politics. Let us call it transactional politics. It is informed by the Nigerian craze of “cash and carry” or “carry go” in popular parlance.

The ‘Ghana must go” politics is the unofficial certification of a cargo cult political culture that feeds on compulsive corruption. While the new INEC is the face of a promising future for democracy in our country, the rise of transactional politics is the death knell of democracy as well.

The unscripted understanding is that politicians have no moral obligation to attend to the needs of their constituents once they have bought off their votes at election time. The business of the next four years becomes how to recover the investment made at election time and ensure some return on investment. The avenues for investment recovery are well known in our political economy. Inflated and phantom contracts, dubious claims of perks and entitlements, padding of annual budget provisions, countless official trips and tours to all corners of the earth in the name of either finding foreign investors or learning new tricks in nation building or institution management. There is of course the familiar serial scam of oversight visits to public institutions and departments by federal and state legislators. It is an endless cesspool.

Once sold, the citizens’ vote is a blank cheque that relieves the political office holder of all responsibility for delivery of the benefits of democracy and accountability to the electorate as citizens. The insensitivity of politicians is only complemented by the indifference of an electorate that has sold its votes for a pittance or was absent on election day.

Interestingly, neither politicians nor the general public find transactional politics unusual or minimally offensive. Our politicians have no qualms about openly negotiating or bidding to buy your votes. Neither do voters feel any moral reservations about selling their votes. It is an anomaly that has found a fertile ground in an atmosphere and culture of endemic corruption.

The unwritten common wisdom is that the public sphere is a no man’s land, a place where the treasure of the nation belongs to no one and in which politicians once in office are entitlement to help themselves to the public till. Since the citizens’ vote is the only ticket that grants access to the feast called government, politicians and the citizens have vicariously placed a monetary value on the vote as the ticket to political power.

The trade in votes therefore becomes a normal transaction process in the business of political exchange. There is a desperate demand for votes by politicians and a ready supply by voters eager to cash out and move on.

In the business of the vote trade, then, we are dealing with a market situation. Able buyers and willing sellers which is the basic requirement for the creation of a market. Never before in the history of electoral democracy in Nigeria has adversity created such a thriving ready market in a basic instrument of democracy: the vote.

Here then is one toxic dividend of Nigeria’s democracy under Mr. Buhari’s presidency. The democratization of abject penury and crippling poverty, the generous distribution of misery among the populace has created a country in which the distrust of politics and politicians is so thorough that people only believe in instant encashment of their citizenship rights in order to survive in the present as against belief in a forlorn hope that things will get better any time soon.

Ultimately, the article of trade here is power, the sovereign power to decide the fate of a nation of over 200 million people most of whom are held hostage in the fangs of poverty and desperation.

The currency is the vote now symbolized by the Permanent Voters Card or PVC. The raging demand for PVCs is driven by two opposing forces.

One is the desire by more citizens, especially the youth, to genuinely vote their convictions hoping it will change this ugly present. The opposite is the existence of humongous troves of cash in a few political hands ready to buy any number of PVC carrying voters in order to gain or retain power.

In the election season, however, the trade in votes becomes brisk business with a fleeting expiration date. The day after the election, life resumes. Delegates smile home and to the banks while bribed voters content themselves with perhaps ‘one nice pot of soup’ in the parlance of former Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose, who invented the term ‘stomach infrastructure’ to capture the politics of instant gratification of the poor electorate in a period of ravaging hardship and virtual mass starvation.

In the immediate aftermath of every monetized election, politicians tally their vote haul. The highest bidders head for the streets to celebrate. Those who could not hit the benchmark going prices for votes on sale quietly head home to lick their wounds, recalibrate their depleted bank accounts and console their disappointed spouses.

It is futile to continue to deny the existence of the vote trade, the unbridled unregulated free market of vote buyers and sellers. After all, this is a free market (free racket!) economy.

Instead, perhaps what we urgently need is to recognize and perhaps regulates the vote trade as a seasonal sub sector of our economy.

In terms of quantum of cash in circulation, the election season witnesses such a high volume of transactions in a regime dominated by a largely of invisible trade. The greater part of the money movement is undocumented and part of our robust underground economy. It is all about of cash, undocumented unofficial transfers via numerous electronic and human channels. The benefits of these transactions do not accrue to the official public treasury.

Perhaps the best way to re-inject the monetary benefits of this vast seasonal economic activity is to recognize the vote trade as a legitimate activity. Why deny the existence of something you know will always be there? Let us ‘legitimize’ vote buying, delegate payouts, etc as legitimate transactions in the political sector of the economy.

Therefore, payments to delegates should be declared just like gratuity is entered in your hotel meal invoice. There should be a tax on both the paying party and receiving parties. There should be extra taxes levied on bank accounts with unusual traffic during election seasons.

Beyond this cynical suggestion, I recognize the urgent need to save our democracy from the scourge of monetization. But sermons and preachments will not do it. Legislation will not do it either. Existing anti graft agencies are as useless as they have been in fighting corruption.

Instead, it is better to fight what money has caused with money in the form of higher prices for votes and open declaration of transactions in the vote trade.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾JUNE 26, 2022

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NEWS

News Editor: Gboyega Akinsanmi E-mail: gboyega.akinsanmi@thisdaylive.com,08152359253

To Curb Insecurity, Akeredolu Orders Compulsory Installation of CCTV in Public Places Fidelis David in Akure Ondo State Governor, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has signed an Executive Order for the compulsory installation and use of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) devices in all public and private institutions in the state.

A statement issued yesterday by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Richard Olatunde, explained that the order became imperative in the light of the increased spate of insecurity in the country and the need to

ensure the security of lives and property in all public and private institutions and centres throughout the state.

The directive came weeks after suspected gunmen killed more than 38 people, including women and children at the St. Francis Catholic Church, in Owo Local Government Area of the state.

The incident, which attracted condemnations from far and near, also left more than 50 persons sustaining various degrees of gunshot injuries.

Akeredolu said the execu-

tive order shall be enforced at all religious places of worship, financial institutions (of all kinds), event centres, supermarkets, educational institutions (schools), hotels or motels, guest houses, inns, restaurants, clinics and health centres, eateries, recreation

or vehicular parks and other places regularly used by the public.

The statement read: “Pursuant to Section 176 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which vests in the Governor of Ondo State the Chief Executive

powers of the state, the Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) hereby issues the following Executive Orders: “That the owners, occupiers, managers and operators of public or private institutions within Ondo State shall

mandatorily install, use and maintain CCTV devices and other secret cameras to monitor and keep surveillance on the daily activities on their premises and especially monitor the ingress and egress of people/vehicles at the said places, venues and centres.

Southern Kaduna Writes UN, EU, Laments Neglect by FG John Shiklam in Kaduna The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) yesterday disclosed that it had written the United Nations, European Union and Africa Union on the plight of its people amid intractable insecurity.

SOKAPU added that it was tired of begging Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to end the carnage going on in Southern Kaduna.

The National President of SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake revealed this at a session with journalists yesterday, asking the international community to wade into the plight of Southern Kaduna people.

SOKAPU expressed grievance following the June 5 attack by armed herdsmen on Maikori and three other Adara villages in Kajuru Local Government Area, Southern Kaduna, killing 32 persons and kidnapping 27 villagers.

Speaking on the attack, Asake lamented the security situation in Southern Kaduna, stating that the region was now facing wanton

killings which had become a ‘reality’ for them for many years.

The national president said the federal government needed to intervene because the state government has shown that they are complicit.

He said: “On the June 5 attack, the villagers were already winning the battle against these militias before a white helicopter suddenly showed up in the sky and rained bullets on the helpless villagers.

“No terrorist died but 32 villagers died. Now, the state government is telling us that the white helicopter came for a rescue mission of some sort. How is that even possible?

“An Evangelical Church Winning All Church was bombed and many other homes destroyed. I do not know what the government wants us to say. El-Rufai has said he will not pay any ransom.

“So, he has left us to our fate. How do we raise N100 million to bail these villagers?

We will involve the international community.

Buhari Rejoices with Sanwo-Olu at 57 Deji Elumoye in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has sent warm greetings to Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as he marks his 57th birthday on June 25.

The president, in a release yesterday by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, rejoiced with the political leader on remarkable strides of service in the private and public sector.

Buhari noted the visionary leadership of the governor in Lagos State, with impact on infrastructure, security, business outlook and public service, creating opportunities for Nigerians

and foreign investors to benefit from the economic vibrancy of the state.

As the former Managing Director and CEO of Lagos State Property Development Corporation and banker turns 57, the President believed his vast experience in the private sector will always be relevant in pursuing competence and excellence in governance, after working successfully with the big financial institutions in the country.

Buhari prayed that the Almighty God would keep and prosper the Governor of Lagos State and his family.

Glo Celebrates Athletic Stars on African Voices African Voices Changemakers this week celebrates the sterling achievements of two athletes who provide pathways for young Africans to make their marks in American football and tennis, Glo Nigeria has revealed.

According to the telecom giant, the duo of Nigerian Osi Umenyiora, former National Football League , NFL player and Joseph Oyebog, founder of a Tennis academy named after himself, will be on the 30-minute magazine programme sponsored by telecommunications services provider, Globacom.

In a statement by its Corporate Communication Office yesterday, Glo said while 40-year-old Umey-

ionra “is promoting American football across Africa and providing African athletes with a pathway to join the league, Oyebog, a former tennis champion returns to his hometown to train underprivileged youth and mentors them to acquire skills both on and off the court.

“Former American football defensive end, Umeyionra played college football for Troy University prior to which he was drafted by the New York Giants in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and holds the Giants franchise record for most sacks in one game and one of five British-born players to have won a Super Bowl.

RESOURCE PERSONS….

L-R: Director, Policy Innovation Centre (PIC), Mr. Faisal Naru; Director, Strategy, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, Mr. Itia Otabor; Deputy Director, PIC, Dr. Osasuyi Dirisu; Senior Policy Analyst, PIC, Mr. Mayokun Adediran; Senior Research Specialist, PIC, Mr. Akinwumi Akinola; and Country Director, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Mr. Odeh Friday, at a Macarthur Foundation-funded ‘Behavioural Insights for Transparency and Accountability’ training organised by the PIC in Abuja…recently

IPMAN Defends Sale of PMS at N200, Warns against Panic Buying James Sowole in Abeokuta The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday defended the decision of its members to sell premium motor spirit (PMS) at 200 per litre, saying N165 was no longer tenable.

IPMAN, a body of independent petroleum marketers nationwide, warned members of the public against panic buying of petroleum products, particularly the PMS, revealing that reality on ground compelled its members to sell the PMS between N190 and N200 per litre.

The National Ex-officio (Southwest) and former Mo-

simi Depot Chairman, Alhaji Surajudeen Bada made this clarification in a statement yesterday.

Bada explained that the independent petroleum marketers would continue to be perseverance and resilient in buying at any available private depot and sell to the public appropriately.

He said its members would continue to make petroleum products, particularly PMS available to the general public, saying the current price adjustment was based on the challenges its members are facing in getting the product from government depots.

He, therefore. urged the public “not to engage in

illegal storage of petrol as its members would not put unnecessary burden on the general public. Reality on ground made its members to be selling the products at the current price of N190 to N200 per litre.”

Bada said former National President of IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Okoronkwo “is on his own and not in tandem with current realities.

“He is a factional president.

He has no right to issue any statement on behalf of IPMAN. His statement is misleading and capable of causing artificial scarcity and portrays IPMAN members as enemies of the people.

“Today the products are not

available in the government depots. I can tell you categorically that Mosimi Depot operated last on March 16. So, where should we get fuel to be sold at government regulated prices?

“All of us as of today purchase from private depots at the cost between N167 and N168 excluding transport and other loading charges which vary depending on the depot and your destination.

“Sometimes, the landing cost is between N175 and N180.

How then could any marketer buy at 175 or 180 and sell at N165? The factional president of IPMAN calling members to sell at the rate of N165 government regulated price is totally on his own.

Kogi Condemns Attack on Police Station, Vows to Deal with Criminals Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja The Kogi State Government has condemned the attack on Eika-Ohizenyi Police Station in Okehi Local Government Area of the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo confirmed in a statement yesterday, saying one person was killed during the attack at midnight of Thursday.

He said: “We commend the gallantry of the security

operatives who resisted the attack with utmost bravery and professionalism to reduce the level of casualties. We shall wait for the Kogi State Police Command to release official reports.

“Meanwhile, interim reports available to us show there was one casualty recorded at the scene of the attack which was foiled by security agents.

“Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has directed the office of the State Security

Adviser to mobilise adequate security personnel and equipment to the affected area to ensure watertight security and restore confidence in the citizens, as the state government implements an effective action plan to avert reoccurrence, while also working closely with the security chiefs in the state as well as the people in the affected area.”

Fanwo appealed to residents of Okehi to cooperate

with the security agencies, saying necessary measures would be put in place to curb violent crimes in the area and to flush out the criminals.

The government, he stated, has directed all the broadcast stations of the state to publicise the curfew imposed for public awareness.

According to the commissioner, the government relies on credible intelligence from residents that will lead to the arrest of the criminals.

In Six Months, NDLEA Seizes 19,703 Kg of Illicit Drugs in Apapa Sunday Ehigiator The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the weekend disclosed that its Apapa Special Area Command seized a total of 19,703.25kg of assorted illicit drugs between January and June 2022, NDLEA, a federal anti-drug enforcement agency, revealed that the same area command seized illicit drugs worth over N6 billion within seven days.

The Area Commander of the

command, Mr. Ameh Inalegwu revealed this at a news conference he addressed ahead of the 2022 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking held yesterday.

Inalegwu explained that the command in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service recorded drug seizures worth more than N6 billion in six months.

He listed the seized drugs to include 1,518 kgs of Tafrodol (another brand of Tramadol) in 120 grams and Tramadol weighing

3,553 kg in 225 mg and 250 grams.

He said: “This is in addition to the seizures of 14,080 kg of cough syrup with codeine in January and another 40.25 kg of the same cough syrup with codeine in February and 12 kg of another cough syrup with codeine in March.

“The area command also recovered 350 grams of Cocaine and 150 gm of Heroin in March 2022. In summary, the Command recorded a total seizure of 19,703.25 kg of assorted illicit drugs between

January and June 2022.”

On the 2022 International Day against Drug Abuse, Inalegwu said the command would embark on some activities that increased awareness and knowledge of the potential health, social and legal consequences of illicit drug use and provide accurate information on illicit drug habituation.

Inalegwu said: “We carried this out within the Port and the host communities of Apapa, Ijora and Amuwo-Odofin where the maritime operations are concentrated.

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NEWSXTRA

Organised Private Sector Seeks Ratification of N375bn Export Grants Michael Olugbode in Abuja At least 55 scrap metal collectors lost their lives in a series of attacks coordinated

by Boko Haram insurgents in the last three weeks in Borno.

Borno Festus Akanbi The Organised Private Sector Exporters Association (OPEXA) has appealed to the National Assembly to urgently ratify the approval of the N375billion Export Expansion Grant (EEG) for the exporters.

The N375 billion represents the backlog of the unpaid EEG from 2017 to 2020, which was delayed due to budgetary

constraints.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had recently approved the disbursement in form of Promissory Notes, subject to ratification by the National Assembly.

The Executive Secretary of OPEXA, Mr. Jaiyeola Olanrewaju, in a statement issued yesterday, urged the lawmakers to expedite action on the ratification process to boost the country’s export sector.

“We sincerely appreciate the gesture shown by Mr. President and the Vice President to support the non-oil export sector.

“We also commend the intervention of both the Ministers of Finance and Industry, Trade and Investment, who tabled the issue of the EEG backlog at the cabinet.

“We now appeal to both the houses of the National Assembly to expedite the ratification of the approval given by the FEC to provide

relief to the exporters who have been starved of liquidity.

“This appeal becomes more urgent in view of the fact that the ratification will be the beginning of another long process,” he said.

He said after the ratification, the recommendations of other relevant stakeholders like the Debt Management Office (DMO), International

Auditors (Peat Marwick) and the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) would be required.

“No doubt, this process takes a while,” he said.

Olanrewaju noted that the Presidential Committee on Continuous Audit (PICA) had earlier carried out a validation exercise on the claims.

He said that the exercise

included physical inspection of the facilities of beneficiary companies.

He commended effort by the government to reform the EEG policy, adding that actual implementation of the policy was most desirable.

“It was the report by PICA that the Ministry of Finance presented via a memo to the FEC for approval.

Jack-Rich Asks Buhari, Others to Prepare for Bleak Economy in 2023 Blessing Ibunge in PortHarcourt A former presidential aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Tein Jack-Rich yesterday warned that there would be a bleak economy globally in 2023, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and other government functionaries to prepare ahead of it.

Jack-Rich, President/Founder of Belemaoil Producing Limited, harped on the need for leaders, particularly those who wish to take over the reins of affairs to be proactive and strategic to enable Nigeria to wade through.

He gave the warning in a statement he issued yesterday, observing that it was certain that 2023 would expose the vulnerability of the nation’s economy He explained that leaders should focus more on initiatives and policy that would promote job creation, export amongst others.

He said: “Truly, next year

will be tougher economy wise due to concern of global supply chain disruptions, persistent Covid-19 lockdowns that will impact production channels, euro zone geopolitical crisis and more.

“These challenges will expose the vulnerability of the economy in 2023 to issues such as higher inflation, economic tension, massive unemployment, increased social unrest, turbulence in currency management, inconsistencies in market growth forecasts, GDP contraction, foreign reserve depletion and much more”.

According to him, mitigants should be activated to avoid being found on the brink, adding that any policy misstep next year will plunge the economy into depression.

“I am concerned that 2023 leadership must understand these issues and keep their eyes on changing economic numbers, and how these indices will affect emerging economies with high import dependency like Africa.

African Merit Awards Inspires Undergraduates Michael Olugbode in Abuja African Economic Merit Awards (AEMA) has launched its Economic Varsity Tour of Nigerian universities to inspire entrepreneurship skills in undergraduates across the country.

The President and Founder of AEMA, Mr McEva Temofe unveiled the Economic Varsity Tour at the Baze University Abuja during the week.

Temofe said AEMA “is an organisation driven by young professionals to promote innovative ideas for entrepreneurial, economic and social development.”

He added that the tour was designed “to inspire students pursuing their careers in areas of entrepreneurship and to raise their consciousness on the need to get interested in the 2023 elections.”

He said the theme of the tour: ‘Revamping the Nigerian Economic System for a Secure Future’ was carefully chosen to encourage and stimulate business prowess among youths.

Temofe said the tour would inspire undergraduates to key into entrepreneurship rather than wait for white-collar jobs after graduation.

QUALITY EDUCATION AMBASSADORS… L-R: Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goal and Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond; her counterpart in Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab; Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, and Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Private Partnership, Mr. Ope George at the EQUAL Summit held at the Eko Hotels, Lagos ... recently.

Soludo: My 100 Days in Office Has Been Bumpy, Good David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka Anambra State Governor, Prof.

Chukwuma Soludo yesterday said his first 100 days in office had been very bumpy, but good.

Soludo, who marked his first 100 days on office yesterday with a state-wide briefing, said he looked forward to better time ahead as governor of the state, while also pledging to fulfill every promise he made to the people of the state.

THISDAY however observed that in his over 30 minutes

It has been a case of so far, so bumpy, but so good. Everyday, we work 24 hours to ensure that we do not disappoint you.

We have resolved that we must do that to make you happy and proud.”

Speaking on the security challenges in the state, Soludo said: “I remind everyone who wants to commiserate with me that I duly applied for this job.

“We have launched a campaign to restore our homeland.

Most people can attest that the grave insecurity is gradually

being contained and we remain undaunted. Even as I speak to you now, something is going on in various communities in Anambra State.

“This administration is built on five pillars; our first pillar is security, law and order. We have created a new ministry, the Ministry of Homeland Affairs, which has also unveiled the security and emergency crack team. We have embarked upon mobilisation, sensitisation and worked with clergymen and others to mobilise the people against insecurity.

NOSDRA Confirms Oil Spill at Eroton’s OML 18 in Bayelsa Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has confirmed an oil wellhead leak at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 18, operated by an indigenous operator, Eroton Exploration and Production Limited along the 97 kilometre Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL).

The Director-General of NOSDRA, Mr Idris Musa confirmed the oil leak yesterday, noting that efforts were being

made to plug the leaking oil well.

Musa explained that the company reported and oil recovery “is underway. Efforts are on to stop the source which is a wellhead.”

A notification report by Corporate Communications Lead at Eroton, Mr Odianosen Masade indicated that the incident occurred on June 15, while a site assessment visit was carried out on June 23.

The oil firm said preliminary

findings indicated that the incident was due to vandalism.

It added: “This is to bring to your attention the loss of control of Cawthorne Channel well 15 resulting from the oil spill.

CAWC015L/S is a dual string well which started production in May 1977. The short string was shut-in in 1988 due to high gas oil ratio (HGOR), while the long string watered out and quit in 1991.

“The spill started on the 15th of June 2022 and

immediately an emergency response procedure was activated.

The operations team quickly visited the site for preliminary investigation and discovered that the wellhead was vandalised.

“It was also observed that the wellhead platform was removed. This will compound the difficulties in gaining access to the wellhead. Our team of Well Engineers are working with contractors and evaluating the safest procedure that will be required to bring the well under control.

Segun Sango, Social Activist, Buried Amidst Eulogies

MCSN Holds AGM to Elect Board Members June 29

Segun James

The Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) has revealed plans to hold its 2022 annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, June 29.

During the meeting, according to the musical body, one of the businesses fixed for the day is the election into its Board (General Council) of the society.

In a statement by its corporate communication office yesterday, the organisation said: “It is this part of the agenda of the AGM that has generated the

One of the nation’s social activists, who died in May 23 after a brief illness, Mr. Segun Sango was buried amidst eulogies at the Atan Cemetery in Lagos over the weekend.

Before his demise, Sango was a leader of the Movement for a Socialist Alternative, the group that gave birth to the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), one of the nation’s registered political parties, of which he was the founding national chairman.

Born Segun Aderemi, he was a student activist at the university and was detained for his activism by the

most interest as several members of the society have in the past wondered if elections are ever held on the board.

“Other items on the agenda of the AGM include the receipt and consideration of the Chairman’s report of events and developments as of December 2021.

“To also receive and approve the Directors’ Report for the year ended 31 st December 2021. The meeting will receive and approve the Financial Reports for the year ended 31 st December 2021 and the Auditors’ Reports thereon.”

broadcast, the fight against insecurity topped the activities of the state government from March 17 when he was sworn in till date.

“We just clocked our first 100 days in office, as I and my deputy, Dr. Onyekachukwu Ibezim serve you as your governor and deputy governor.

“I am not a fan of marking 100 days in office. I prefer to give you annual report and we look forward to the first one in March next year.

“The last 100 days has been very bumpy and challenging.

military government in the 1989s.

In a grave-side eulogy, Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade lamented the loss, saying Sango was a warrior in the struggle for the emancipation of Nigerian people from the shackles of imperialists and capitalist exploitation and the revolutionary socialist transformation of Nigeria so that the peoples’ collectively produced wealth can be used for the benefit of the majority, and not that of a greedy and thieving few.”

Arogundade said such was the struggle to which Sango gave and dedicated his entire

life in the classical tradition of renowned revolutionaries such as Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg and Nelson Mandela.

He said Sango was “a great friend, a great comrade, a great class fighter, a great thinker, a great mentor, a great teacher, a great revolutionist, a great organiser, a great orator, a great polemist, a great leader, a great husband and father, a great humanist, a great visioner, a social and personable character and above all a great and outstanding Marxist and Socialist.”

In his tribute yesterday, Ombuds-

man and Group Executive Director, THISDAY Media Group, Mr. Kayode Komolafe said Sango lived anexemplarylifewhichdemonstrates what it means to be human.

He explained that Sango was able to define his purpose in life early and that is what he lived for, adding that he gave meaning to what it means to be a professional in revolution.

Reminiscing on the life of Sango, Prof. Sola Olorunyomi recalled that Sango had a way of making Yoruba proverbial sayings meaningful to none speakers of the language as he speaks in parables.

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B AC K PAG E C O N T I N UAT I O N UNDERSTANDING THE PETER OBI DILEMMA election, excluded Obi and installed Andy Uba on May 29, 2007. The Supreme Court ruled on June 14, 2007 that Obi’s tenure would lapse in March 2010 — on the fourth anniversary of his inauguration.

That was the start of off-cycle governorship polls and why Ekiti, Osun, Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo, Imo and Ondo don’t elect governors during the general election. Now you know the origin.

That was not the end. As Obi’s first term drew to a close, Uba went all the way to the Supreme Court asking to be declared “governor-in-waiting” based on the 2007 victory organised for him by Iwu’s INEC. He argued that the victory was still valid. There were real fears that Uba might finally have his way, but Obi won again. Having won landmark legal battles, Obi can creditably claim to have contributed a decent quota to the constitutional development of our democracy.

Having received education home and abroad and having run businesses successfully, Obi can claim to have what it takes to become the next president. His resume is not inferior to that of any other candidate.

But Obi’s candidature, which has been gathering momentum since he left the PDP and joined the Labour Party (LP), is getting hit by the day. His strength is becoming his weakness: the fan base.

His followership has clearly caught fire and is spreading not just on social media but also on the streets in many parts of the country. But some of his overzealous supporters are so unruly that this is turning out to be a baggage for him.

It is putting off a lot of people. It is a bit of a bitter-sweet phenomenon: he is gaining more supporters partly because of the aggressiveness of his diehard fans but this aggression is now

going overboard and becoming nauseating to even some of his admirers.

First, some of them are using religion to promote him. They are proposing that the structure of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, to which he belongs, should be used as his political machinery. This is supposed to be a response to concerns that Obi needs a structure to reach the grassroots to be able to win the presidential election. There is also the subtext that he is the only Christian among the top candidates and Christians should rally around him. This is absolutely silly. Although religion may sell in some parts of the country, I bet that no-one has ever been elected president by adherents of their faith alone. In a multi-cultural society like ours, we need to be careful with this kind of campaign.

Also, his supporters are creating and circulating all sorts of falsehood on social media in an extremely dishonest attempt to market a candidate they project as an honest man. The contradiction.

They have come up will all sorts of concoctions — inventing and attributing “endorsement” quotes to Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II and Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, whom they would otherwise call “Fulani jihadists”. They were circulating the fiction that Obi invested $20 million of Anambra’s money in SabMiller and it is now worth $100 million. The Anambra state government was forced to clarify that the investment and returns, either in naira or the dollar value, were grossly exaggerated.

More so, some of Obi’s supporters, especially the ones on social media, are awfully ill-mannered.

I admit that social media takes some people to Cloud 9 and there is not much Obi can do to rein

in those who don’t directly work for him. It is, indeed, to Obi’s credit that after his supporters had gone on Twitter to celebrate and gloat over the misfortune that befell Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife in the UK over alleged human trafficking and an attempt to harvest the organ of a minor (they deny the allegations), Obi tweeted a message of empathy to them. That is the Peter Obi that I have known for nearly 19 years. Ekweremadu is not his fan but Obi is a civil and decent human being.

Furthermore, Obi’s fans are overmarketing him and portraying him as being beyond reproach.

They attack anyone who raises any questions about him. We had a similar experience with Candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s fans in 2015.

But supporters need to be real: no human being is perfect. Only God is. This “stainless steel” marketing strategy is unnecessary: Obi can be sold based on his pedigree, his credentials, his resilience and his modesty. As his candidature becomes more viable, he and his camp should expect more scrutiny from his opponents. That is the nature of politics. They cannot shout down everyone or gloss over everything. It will not work. Obi needs professional help.

Herein lies Obi’s dilemma: should he keep riding on the waves of these lies and toxins to gain more fans — thereby undermining his own credentials as an “honest and decent man” — or should he call his supporters to order and risk losing the momentum — even if it is being propelled by fake news and abuse?

No politician wants to lose supporters, so the temptation to allow the supporters to keep running riot will always be there. Obi himself,

it has to be said, also has issues with his statistics and claims and has become a nightmare for fact checkers, but my assumption is always that this is mostly because of memory lapse on his part rather than a genuine attempt to mislead or misinform.

To be sure, Buhari benefitted from overmarketing in his 2015 presidential run. It was one fabrication after the other every day of the week. In my article on the disturbing trend, entitled “Buhari and the Burden of Expectations” (THISDAY, January 25, 2015), I wrote: “Buhari’s growing popularity, particularly on the social media, scares me at times. In an attempt to market him, some chaps have gone overboard, designing and spreading beautiful disinformation about him such that even the former head of state has had to come out to clarify one.” There are people who contend that it was Twitter that made Buhari president in 2015 and they are trying to replicate it with Obi in 2023.

Finally, Obi should worry about the narrow notion that he can become president with sectional votes. I know that many Nigerians genuinely support him because they are dissatisfied with the status quo and desire a fresh breath. They see him as the best of the lot. But those pushing the regional and religious agenda need to reconsider their messaging. Those who wrote the constitution are not stupid. To become president, you need more than the support of one sect or one section.

Otherwise, Buhari would have won in 2003, 2007 or 2011. It was not until he built viable bridges across the divides that he won in 2015.

Good enough, Obi still has the time to sanitise his campaign.

And Four Other Things…

EKWEREMADUS ON TRIAL On Thursday, Nigerians were treated to the shocking news of the arraignment of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy senate president, and Beatrice, his wife, before a UK court. They were accused of trafficking a child to harvest his organ. The boy was to donate a kidney to Ekweremadu’s daughter who has been ill. There are things we still do not know, but it appears the prosecution is aiming for the worst possible scenario, going by the charges. Questions are being asked about the boy’s real age (a document appears to show he is 21, not 15 as he now claims). Did he pre-plan to “japa” via asylum? As investigation continues, I only hope that the whole truth come out. Waiting.

THUMBS UP, INEC! It is in human nature to complain about things that are wrong and keep quiet when things go well. I want to go against the grain by commending the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) for the successful conduct of the 2022 governorship election in Ekiti state. There were minimal hitches. The usual issues with logistics were largely overcome. Voting went smoothly for the most part and results were all uploaded to a portal by 10pm. If there is one institution in Nigeria that keeps improving, it is INEC, especially from the time of Prof Attahiru Jega. I commend Prof Yakubu Mahmoud for not only maintaining the standard he met but for also raising the bar. Kudos!

PLACEHOLDERS PALAVER Many things are peculiar to us in Nigeria and I do not see a way out yet. Ahead of the INEC deadline for the submission of the necessary forms for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, some parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP), introduced what they brazenly call “placeholders” for the No 2 position. That is, they are buying time. I do not know much about the possible legal implications but it is funny that APC, the ruling party, will go this route. It says much about the tentative and sloppy way they have been handling the affairs of this country since they came to power in 2015. A ruling party using a placeholder for No 2 slot? Shame.

MACHINA’S MACHINATION If you are having a bad day, please remember Senate President Ahmad Lawan. Having been encouraged to contest the APC presidential ticket allegedly with the promise that he would be President Buhari’s “consensus candidate”, he not only lost heavily but is now at the risk of being homeless, politically.

Bashir Machina, his “placeholder” in the Yobe north senatorial district, has refused to step down for him after the failed presidential bid and INEC seems to agree with Machina.

Lawan’s name is missing from the INEC list.

For the first time since 1999, Lawan will not be in the national assembly. He will feel betrayed, but it was always going to be a risk.

Stranded.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE LONG ELECTIONEERING PERIOD more headroom to operate. However, INEC is not the sole beneficiary. Having the election notice/timetable on time provides clarity and certainty to political actors and the country at large. At some point, there were wild speculations about the 2023 elections. INEC’s unveiling of the election timetable took the sting out of this distraction. This made it easier for all those involved in election matters to plan better.

Certainty and clarity can thus be identified as the fourth benefit.

The fifth benefit is that having the candidates on time and ensuring that they campaign for long should provide the electorate ample time to properly scrutinise the candidates and their promises. All things being equal, this should empower citizens to make more informed choices at the polls.

And lastly, some of the political parties can also benefit from the added time. They will have enough time to adjust to emergencies and to upturn, maintain or regain momentums. If a day is accepted as a long time in politics, a period of eight months is clearly a very, very long time in an election year. That is enough time for any possibility. This should provide some comfort to those interested in upstaging the status quo and those exploring viable electoral alliances and other such permutations. Time is on their side, though not in absolute terms.

As stated earlier, there are also downsides to this unusual extension, and some of them are quite substantial. The first and a very obvious one is that the law has by default extended the lame-duck period. The moment the candidates emerged, attention shifted away from the president and other term-barred incumbents who have about one year left of their tenures. That is enough time to still get some key things done or at least to complete their major programmes and initiatives.

But most of these incumbents have logged out and everyone else is distracted, including most of their aides who are busy positioning themselves for post-May 29 realities. The traditional lameduck period is usually between the election

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and the swearing-in of a new administration.

Now, that period has become more elastic, and stretched way back.

The second related downside is that active politicking has completely upstaged governance.

I had mentioned this concern earlier on this page and on other platforms. A cynical fellow rebutted that not much governance happens in this country anyway. From little governance, we have effectively backflipped into the zone of near zero governance.

During the primaries, we were all witnesses to how almost all the state governors abandoned their states and relocated to Abuja, and it is no secret that very little gets done in the states when

the governors are out of town. The National Assembly was on recess. The president, the governors and other party leaders were constantly meeting. You don’t need to be in the room to know that governance was not on the agenda of those meetings.

The conclusion of the primaries has not dramatically reversed this easily predicted crowding out of governance by politics. The political actors in elected positions are busy dealing with the fallouts of the primaries (very evident in the National Assembly where about 70% didn’t get the tickets to contest) or getting ready to campaign for themselves, their successors or their parties’ presidential flagbearers.

Even when actual campaigns will start in September, it is better to write off the period between the primaries and February/March next year as a time lost to elections. The few governance and policy issues that manage to swim to the surface will likely be addressed with an eye on the election. Our politicians, including elected ones, are not known for multi-cropping, especially during election season. Governance is too important to trade off so flippantly, especially for a country at this present pass.

Extending the campaign period from roughly eight weeks to twenty weeks officially has huge financial implications. Running for elections costs serious money, even for basic things like posters, jingles, transportation, and polling agents. Yes, the electoral act sets limits on campaign finance. But it is difficult to really monitor how much candidates and parties expend on campaigns. It is plausible that most serious candidates in past elections even spent beyond the expanded limit set by the new law. What is not difficult to figure out is that the sum needed to run a serious campaign for sixty days will not be the same as what is needed to run the same campaign for 150 days.

Also, the 90 days between the emergence of candidates and the commencement of public campaigns should for all intents and purposes be filed as the unofficial, non-public

campaign period. Candidates will attend and host meetings; they will speak at events and to the media. If that is not campaigning, then maybe nothing is. And even when it is subtle and below the surface, it will not be cost-free, even if not captured officially as campaign expenses. Effectively, the law has offered an eight-month campaign window that can be divided into: three months for low intensity, non-public campaigns and five months for high-intensity, public campaigns.

This additional financial burden will task all candidates, no matter how long they have been in this game and the depth of their support systems. They will need a lot of stamina and will need to figure out how to pace themselves for this unusually long period. This will be the key question for their strategists: how do you stay visible and connected without exhausting your finite war chest?

No matter how they answer this question or the strategy they develop and deploy, the additional resource burden will impact candidates differently.

Those with lean resources and limited financial networks are likely to be at a disadvantage, and those with deep pockets and in control of patronage systems are likely to be better resourced for a race that has been suddenly transformed from a sprint to a marathon. The playing field is likely to become more uneven.

Talk about unintended consequences, because I doubt this was the intention of those who advocated for the elongation.

I will argue for reducing the electioneering window to five months. So, for an election in February, the primaries can start in September instead of April in the current law or in December as was the previous practice. Five months can still afford us most of the lofty benefits of the elongation without saddling us with some of its crippling and possibly unintended downsides on governance and entry barrier to elective office. For sure, there will always be trade-offs.

But it is important to always think through options, and to always ensure that serious and unavoidable losses can be minimised.

SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2022 • T H I S D AY

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“One of the mistakes I made was picking my number two when I wanted to become the President. But because it was a genuine mistake, God saved me” – Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, revealing that one of the mistakes he made in life was picking former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as his running mate during the 1999 presidential election.

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SIMONKOLAWOLE Understanding the Peter Obi Dilemma SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE!

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

H

ow time flies! I met Mr Peter Obi for the first time almost 19 years ago — in August 2003 to be specific. He had come to the THISDAY head office in Apapa, Lagos state, on a visit to Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, then Sunday Editor. I was the Saturday Editor. As I saw him in front of Adeniyi’s door, I recognised him instantly: his face had been all over the papers. He was acclaimed to have won the Anambra governorship poll on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under the guidance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had done some magic with the figures and declared Dr Chris Ngige as the winner.

We exchanged pleasantries and phone numbers.

I thereafter went to see him in his office at Apapa.

We had a very long, engaging conversation.

Something struck me about him: his modesty.

For a billionaire, he had no airs. He told me how he made his money through the franchise of choice wines and spirits, among other businesses.

He said he decided to go into politics the day he saw “Bakassi Boys” (the forebears of Unknown Gunmen) burn a man alive in Onitsha, Anambra state. He told himself “lunatics have taken over the asylum”, that something needed to be done to restore sanity to the society. We became friends

Obi and I would easily say I was one of the closest journalists to him.

As he now seeks to be president of Nigeria, he is, without a doubt, eminently qualified.

He has paid his dues to the development of our democracy. During our conversation that day, we discussed his struggles over the 2003 governorship poll. He was so sure he would

win his petition at the tribunal. “My position is that the election was held, it was peaceful and there was no rigging whatsoever,” he explained to me. “But I am saying the wrong results were declared. We have the result sheets from all the local governments signed by all the returning officers. What INEC declared in Awka was totally different. I am asking the tribunal to declare me governor based on the authentic results.”

The following weekend, I “officially” enlisted in the campaign for electoral justice in Anambra state through my weekly column. The title of my first article on it was “The Man They Call the People’s Governor”. I highlighted the electoral banditry that took place in the state on April 19, 2003. But if I thought getting justice was going to be a walk in the park, I was awfully mistaken. As a delay tactic, PDP had lined up 425 witnesses.

APGA had 45 and INEC 12. That was a total of 482! It took two years for the tribunal to listen to all the testimonies and take evidence. I was so exasperated at some point that I asked in one of my articles: “Will Peter Obi Ever Get Justice?”

(THISDAY, December 20, 2004).

On August 12, 2005, the tribunal finally delivered judgment in Obi’s favour. For the record, he filed the petition on May 16, 2003. The first phase lasted for well over two years. His lawyers established before the tribunal that the results declared by INEC across the 21 local government areas were written by the same person. The police presented

a handwriting expert who testified against INEC and PDP. That was the first election result to be overturned in the fourth republic. PDP went on to file an appeal and this lasted for another seven months. On March 15, 2006, the Court of Appeal ruled in Obi’s favour. In those days, governorship petitions did not go beyond the Court of Appeal.

At long last, Obi was inaugurated as governor of Anambra state on March 17, 2006. Effectively, Obi waited for almost three years to get justice over a four-year term. But the “owners” of Anambra were not sleeping. Seven months after his inauguration, they struck again. They organised an illegal impeachment on November 2, 2006. Obi sought justice and won his case in the High Court as well as the Court of Appeal.

Both courts declared that the house did not form the required 2/3 quorum and the recognised place of legislative sitting is the chamber of the house of assembly, not someone’s dining room.

Obi was re-instated on February 9, 2007. But, as Nigerians say, “trouble no dey finish”.

Another issue came up: would Obi leave office in 2007 after only one year, whereas the constitution stipulates a minimum of four years? He headed for the courts again for the constitutional definition of a “term”. INEC, under Prof Maurice Iwu, did everything to get rid of him: they conducted an Continued on page 70

WAZIRIADIO POSTSCRIPT

Implications of the Long Electioneering Period

O

ne of the key provisions of Electoral Act 2022 is the significant elongation of our electioneering period.

Effectively, the time committed to elections is now close to one year, more than double the previous period. During the fevered advocacy for the bill to become law, this was promoted as one of its positive and landmark provisions.

And in many ways, it is.

Clearly, having enough time for primaries, political campaigns and the elections proper has its uses. But every positive thing has at least a downside. It is doubtful if enough attention was devoted to the possible negative impacts or the unintended consequences of a long electioneering period before arriving at this consequential decision.

The train has since left the station. As such, we are far too gone to be able to change or moderate the possible downsides of a long electioneering period on the 2023 elections and the country at large. But it is not too early to start thinking about how to achieve a more optimal balance in the next amendment.

First, a quick look at the relevant sections of the law. Section 28 (1) of Electoral Act 2022 mandates the Independent National Electoral

Commission (INEC) to publish the notice of election not later than 360 days before the polls.

The bill was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on 25th February 2022. The electoral management body complied with this provision the following day, 26th February. That almost one-year notice was all that the political actors needed to crank their election machines to life. They have not looked back since.

Section 29 (1) of the law stipulates that the political parties must submit the names of their candidates to INEC not later than 180 days to the elections; while Section 94 (1) states that political parties can commence public campaigns 150 days to the elections.

On the basis of these provisions, INEC set the following dates: party primaries from 4th April 2022 to 3rd June 2022 (later extended by six days); submission of the names of candidates for federal elections from 10th to 17th June 2022 and for state elections from 1st to 15th July; commencement of campaigns for federal elections on 28th September 2022 and for state elections on 12th October 2022.

This is what it has translated to: election notice was out a full year to the elections; candidates were in place by early June, almost nine months before the elections; campaigns will not start until late September/early October, at least three

months after the candidates emerged and roughly five months before the polls.

The electioneering period now has enough air, and maybe too much air. Previously, the whole process was usually cramped within 90 days. This put a lot of pressure on all involved, especially the election management body.

The elongation sure has many benefits. The issue though is whether those same benefits could not have been retained by moving the election calendar from three months to five or six months, instead of to almost one year. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s exhaust the pros before we look at the cons, then the case for a middle-ground.

The first and most compelling benefit is that the extension gives INEC enough time to conduct free, fair and credible elections. Conducting elections in a complex and diverse country with spotty infrastructure like ours is no mean task. It is a major logistics undertaking, and requires meticulous planning, procurement of sensitive electoral materials that are not available off-the-shelf, and hiring and training of mostly ad-hoc staff members.

Combined with the provision in Section 3 (3) that the money for election must be released to INEC not later than a year before the general election, the increase in time is definitely good

for the election management body, which commendably has been giving a good account of itself. INEC will thus have all the money and all the time it needs to perform even better.

The second benefit is that the extension grants INEC more flexibility to quickly and realistically adjust to emergencies or unforeseen developments. This is the luxury that ample time offers. Relatedly, the third benefit of the extension is that it will grant INEC enough wriggle room to accommodate resolution of pre-election matters by the courts. This is important given that the bulk of election litigations are pre-election matters and that judgements delivered close to the elections could lead to the need to print fresh ballot papers.

Beyond the obvious issue of cost, such scenarios also have logistics implications. Ballot papers, for security reasons, are not printed by just any printer, and the pre-selected and usually foreign printers may be fully booked when such an urgent need arises. The new provisions should insulate INEC from dealing with fewer of such logistics nightmares, especially because there is also a deadline for courts to resolve pre-election disputes.

Without a doubt, the extension gives INEC Continued on page 70

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