SUNDAY 12TH JULY 2020

Domestic Flights to Resume Across Nigeria July 15, Says Sirika Kano, Maiduguri airports begin operation Kasim Sumaina in Kano Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, hinted on Saturday in Kano that domestic flights would resume across the country's airports by July 15.

Sirika, however, said airports that were not ready would be given enough time in order not to risk peoples’ lives.

The minister stated these when he led a team from the aviation industry and

the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on a simulation exercise with a MaxAir flight, VM1644.

He said the exercise was to ensure that the airport was opened in accordance with the protocols established by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and to assess the airport’s readiness for safe

operation.

Sirika stated, “I am very glad and I think the civil aviation authority and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria have done extremely well under our watch to ensure that

everything we put in place on physical distancing and good hygiene is being established and is being followed “So we believe this airport Continued on page 5

20 Reportedly Killed in Two Kaduna Communities…Page 12 Sunday 12 July, 2020 Vol 25. No 9225

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Magu’s Case Shows There are No Sacred Cows, Says Presidency Says agency more important than an individual It's the greatest damage to Buhari’s anti-graft fight, says TI Suspended EFCC boss must answer for his crimes, says PDP Shehu Sani: Buhari's action a bold step, wants commission of inquiry to probe Magu Gboyega Akinsanmi in Lagos, Omololu Ogunmade and Chuks Okocha in Abuja The presidency, yesterday, said despite the seeming embarrassment the ongoing probe of the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu had caused the government and the country, it was a strong

message that no one in Nigeria was above the law or beyond investigation in the country’s anti-corruption war. It said by subjecting the head of one of its most critical agencies to an open probe, the administration had set a new record in the country's history by the move and strengthened the mantra that there were no sacred cows Continued on page 5

...Buhari Writes AU, Calls for Renewed Commitment to Anti-corruption Fight Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja In another statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in commemoration of Anti-corruption Day in Africa yesterday, Buhari called for renewed commitment to anti-corruption war by African leaders.

According to Adesina, the president wrote South African President Cyril Ramaphosa,

and Chairman of the African Union (AU), appealing to African leaders to ensure the immediate actualisation of the Common African Position on Assets Recovery (CAPAR).

He said such commitment would engender an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the Continued on page 5

AT THE WEDDING FATIHA OF MALAMI'S SON...

L-R: Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman; Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, at the wedding fatiha of Malami’s son in Kano on Friday

Report Cites Nigeria in Dubai Global Corruption Saga… Page 5

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Report Cites Nigeria in Dubai Global Corruption Saga Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja A new report has identified Nigeria as one of the major countries whose citizens use Dubai, the economic capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to launder proceeds of corruption and other illicit financial activities.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace sponsored the report titled, “Dubai's Role in Facilitating Corruption and Global Illicit Financial Flows.”

The authors are eight globally renowned anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime specialists. They include Policy Director for Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Lakshmi Kumar, and Associate Fellow, Chatham House, and non-resident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Matthew Page, and a Fellow of the United Kingdombased Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).

One of the authors, Jodi

Vittori, is also a non-resident scholar in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Programme, and an expert on the linkages of corruption, state fragility, illicit finance, and United States national security.

The report states that while the vast majority of financial, business, and real estate transactions in Dubai are not associated with illegal activity, part of what underpins its prosperity is a steady stream of illicit proceeds from corruption and crime.

It adds that the foremost obstacle to reduction of Dubai’s problematic role is its economic dependence on illicit financial flows.

It notes that corrupt and criminal actors from around the world operate through or from Dubai, stressing, "Afghan warlords, Russian mobsters, Nigerian kleptocrats, European money launderers, Iranian sanctions-busters, and East African gold smugglers, all find Dubai a conducive

place to operate."

A Nigerian, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as "Hushpuppi", was recently arrested in Dubai and is currently facing trial in the United States for alleged money laundering and cyber fraud.

According to the report, Dubai’s property market is a magnet for tainted money.

It says the Dubai property market is, "Built to attract foreign buyers, the emirate is dominated by towers of upscale flats and man-made islands studded with luxury villas. Property developers and real estate agents accept huge sums from politically-exposed persons – individuals entrusted with a prominent public function, as well as their families and associates – and other suspicious buyers.”

International law enforcement agencies, the report stresses, find it especially difficult to acquire information and solicit cooperation from Emirati authorities.

It notes that in its April 2020 report on the UAE, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) specifically called out Dubai for its limited number of money laundering prosecutions and convictions, adding that as a result, the FATF has placed the emirate under a year-long observation to ensure that it fully implements recently passed anti-money laundering legislation, actively works to dismantle international money laundering networks, and improve formal crossborder cooperation on criminal cases.

It says, "Indeed, the emirate’s comparative advantage as a trade and financial hub relies to a large extent on its openness to dubious characters and transactions.

"The wealth has helped to fuel the emirate’s booming real estate market; enrich its bankers, moneychangers, and business elites; and turn Dubai into a major

gold trading hub.

"Meanwhile, both Emirati leaders and the international community continue to turn a blind eye to the problematic behaviours, administrative loopholes, and weak enforcement practices that make Dubai a globally attractive destination for dirty money.”

The report adds, "Even individuals targeted by international sanctions use Dubai property to launder money due to weak regulations and lax enforcement.

“Now, one of the world’s largest gold hubs, Dubai is also a place to launder artisanally-mined gold, especially from conflictprone parts of East and Central Africa. Opaque business practices and regulatory loopholes allow this laundered gold to enter world markets on a massive scale.

"With approximately 30 free trade zones, Dubai is a haven for tradebased money laundering.

Operating with minimal regulatory oversight or customs enforcement, these zones allow businesses to disguise the proceeds of crime via the over- and under-invoicing of goods, multiple invoicing, and falsifying of other trade documentation.

"Many migrant workers are also treated as commodities in Dubai through the kafala system, an exploitative migrant labour scheme that shares some characteristics with human trafficking."

The report states that the central government of the UAE, Dubai officials, and Emirati law enforcement agencies largely possess the technical knowledge and capacity to tackle these challenges. It points out that Emirati regulators, officials, and law enforcement agents are aware of how Dubai is being used as a conduit for illicit financial transactions, noting, “This is a feature, not a bug, of Dubai’s political economy.”

before the panel during the week. His houses have been searched and some documents recovered.

But the embattled EFCC boss has asked his lawyer to file a bail application before the Nigeria Police, though Buhari formally approved his suspension on Friday.

In its first official reaction to the probe, the presidency said those who saw Magu’s probe as an antithesis underscoring the failure of the administration’s antigraft fight were missing the point. Shehu said instead of looking at the probe from such perspective, it should be seen as a proof that the fight against corruption was real.

According to him, the development shows that there is no sacred cow under the Buhari administration and those

who think they can engage in wrongdoings and get away with them are only deluding themselves.

Shehu stated, "Those who see Mr. Magu’s investigation as a signal that the fight against corruption is failing have, unfortunately, missed the boat.

"There is no better indication that the fight is real and active than the will to investigate allegations in an open and transparent manner against those who have been charged to be custodians of this very system.

"Under this president and government, this is our mantra and guiding principle. There are no sacred cows, and for those who think they have a halo over their heads, their days

that one will touch. If this continues, then everyone is safe to remain in the cabin seated next to each other with the mask on.

“So with this, yes you can, but in the departure and arrival halls and everywhere, including the buses, you must remain physically distanced, at least six feet or two metres."

The minister further revealed that the Maiduguri airport was ready for operation, adding that

airfares are normal. "There is little or no increase because nothing changed within the cabin," he stated.

On his part, National Coordinator, PTF on COVID-19, Dani Aliu, said, "Additional recommendations to the aviation authorities in terms of oprationalising this airport, in particular, to avoid having crowds and to make sure that the airlines depart promptly will be done."

framework on a Common African Position on Assets Recovery (CAPAR).

“Happily, in February 2020, at the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, CAPAR was adopted. In my view, the African Union must go beyond the mere annual celebration of the Africa Anti-Corruption Day by moving swiftly to operationalize the African Common Position on Assets Recovery by all member states. This is an excellent way to drive

Africa’s Agenda 2063, for an ‘integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena.’

“As current Chair of our Union, I sincerely commend to you, this suggestion that seeks to call our leaders in Africa to recommit ourselves to this very important task of reclaiming our continent from the vice of systemic corruption.

“Please accept, Your Excellency and Dear Brother, the assurances of my highest consideration.”

MAGU’S CASE SHOWS THERE ARE NO SACRED COWS, SAYS PRESIDENCY in fight against corruption.

However, contrary to the claim of setting historical precedent by with probe, the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration had meted out an even tougher treatment to its Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, and some sitting ministers, like Adenike Grange and Fabian Osuji. Some members of the National Assembly at the time also had a taste of the government’s fierce anti-corruption stance under the then EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu.

The statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, stated that the current probe of Magu was an indication that the anti-corruption fight was real. Shehu said the

probe, particularly, sent out a strong message that the survival of the agency was more important than any individual, because the EFCC was not built around anyone.

But the world’s foremost coalition against corruption, Transparency International (TI), differed, stating that the Magu case is the greatest damage to President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft fight. TI also believed the situation could make people begin to doubt the credibility of the fight against graft by the Buhari administration.

In the same vein, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saturday, said the Buhari presidency must not cover up for Magu but ensure that he answered for the alleged corruption, violation

of rules, victimisation of Nigerians, and stealing of recovered funds for which he was suspended.

On his part, vocal politician and former senator, Shehu Sani, threw his weight behind Buhari's decision to suspend Magu.

Sani said the move was a bold step, adding that the government should take further steps in the current investigation exercise.

Magu was arrested on Monday by a combined team of officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) and Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) after he allegedly disregarded invitations from a presidential probe panel headed by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami.

Magu’s interrogation alongside Secretary of

EFCC, Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, and other directors, entered its fifth day Friday.

The panel began sitting three weeks ago, but it compelled Magu to appear before it on Monday. He has since been in detention while the Director of Operations, Mr. Muhammed Umar, has taken over the anti-graft agency in acting capacity.

Magu was ambushed on the road in Abuja on Monday and dragged before the presidential panel investigating a 21-point allegation of fraud levelled against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to defend himself. He was subsequently detained at the FCID while appearing

Continued on page 8

DOMESTIC FLIGHTS TO RESUME ACROSS NIGERIA JULY 15, SAYS SIRIKA is one of those airports that are safe to operate in and out during this COVID-19. I am happy with what I saw and it is good enough for us to go."

On seating arrangement, he said, "The airplane is hygienic enough once you have your mask, you are safe to remain seated on your seat and where possible, we will keep the distance.

"However, let me explain the mechanism in an airplane that makes it

safe in COVID-19 period.

Airplanes are designed in such a way that the ambient air at altitudes is clean.

It is not contaminated.

The air is dropped in the aircraft pressurised and because of pressurisation, the temperature of the air goes up to 200 degrees, which is twice that of boiling water, and there is no bacteria or virus that can survive it, and it is suddenly cooled to about two degrees centigrade

and then it is passed to a filter. A high efficiency filter and passing through the filtration system ensures that every single organism is screened and then it is passed to the cabin and once it is passed through the cabin, it comes from the ceiling downwards.

"So it is not coming from the cockpit to the rear, it is from the ceiling downward and it drops on the floor and gets circulated. This circulation happens every

two minutes. On a flight from Abuja to Lagos, the circulation will happen like 27 to 30 times. With this, it is more hygienic to be in an airplane than to be in an operating theatre in the hospital.

"With this mechanism in place, everything will be safe, provided we are decontaminating the airplane before we enter and decontaminating after we leave and also cleaning all the possible surfaces

...BUHARI WRITES AU, CALLS FOR RENEWED COMMITMENT TO ANTI-CORRUPTION FIGHT international arena.”

Adesina also said Buhari lamented what he described as massive corruption being perpetrated in various governments of Africa.

According to him, such misdemeanors creates a huge governance deficit which he said had adverse effects on socio-economic and political experiences in Africa.

The letter read in part: "As Your Excellency is aware, the continental fight against corruption has been premised on an irreducible minimum

that can pave the way for Africa’s transformation.

In this effort, the emphasis has been on the continent’s collective determination to forge resilient partnerships among our national governments, civil society organizations and other interest groups, such as women, youth and the physically challenged, to ensure improved socioeconomic, political and security development and ultimately, the improvement of our continent.

“The concern of the African Union is that the

massive corruption being perpetuated across our national governments, has created a huge governance deficit that has in turn created negative consequences that have worsened the socioeconomic and political situation in Africa.

“Your Excellency may recall that these continental concerns led our colleagues at the African Union, to appoint my humble self as the African Union AntiCorruption Champion. I believe that the efforts and focus of the Nigerian

Government at home, partly informed this decision as well as the need for Africa, as a continent, to recommit herself to the fight against corruption and the imperative to free resources for meaningful development.

“I am, therefore, in full support of the call for the issuance of a continental message to commemorate this day, on July 11, 2020, to re-commit the African Union to the continental fight against corruption, including through a robust approach to assets recovery, hence the need for a strategic

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"Magu was not immune, regardless of the obvious embarrassment that potential acts of wrongdoing by him, given the office he held, may appear for the government. No other administration in the history of Nigeria would have moved to bring into the light and public domain such an allegation."

The statement also explained the rationale behind the suspension of Magu by Buhari, saying it is a norm in the public service that when allegations are made against the head of a government institution, he has to step aside until the investigation is concluded.

Shehu said the situation was even more compelling in this circumstance, because the EFCC as an anti-corruption agency must be without blemish. He also stressed that the EFCC as an institution was not built around the personality of Magu, as there were other dedicated staff of the institution that could carry on with the agency's responsibilities. He insisted that Magu's suspension was necessary to give room for transparent investigation.

The presidential spokesman said, "As is the proper procedure, when allegations are made against the chief executive of an institution, and in this case an institution that ought to be seen as beyond reproach, the chief executive has to step down from his post and allow for a transparent and unhindered investigation.

"The EFCC does not revolve around the personality of an individual, and as such cannot be seen through the prism of any individual. Therefore, the suspension of Mr. Ibrahim Magu allows the institution to continue carrying out its mandate without the cloud of investigation hanging over its head.

"The EFCC has many good, hardworking men and women who are committed to its ideal and ensuring that the wealth of our country isn’t plundered and wherein there is an act of misappropriation such person(s) are brought to justice."

Shehu also said the suspension of Magu and his appearances before the investigative panel showed that he was being accorded his right to fair hearing. He described the fight against corruption as dynamic and ever evolving, saying EFCC is just one of the actors in the fight, and every institution in Nigeria would continue to go through such evolution as the democratic process progresses.

The presidential aide said what was most important was that the principle of accountability and transparency was in place and people would always be held accountable for their actions, describing such trend as the bedrock of the anti-corruption fight.

"Meanwhile, Mr. Magu is being availed the opportunity to defend himself and answer the allegations against him,” he stated, adding, “This is how it should be, as is the

fact that under the laws of Nigeria every citizen is presumed and remains innocent until proven guilty.

"We must realise that the fight against corruption is not a static event, but a dynamic and ever evolving process, in which the EFCC is just one actor; and as we continue to work towards improving our democratic process so shall every institution of ours also embark on that journey of evolution. What is, however, important is that there must be accountability and transparency and our people must realise that they would be held to account. This is the building block in the fight against corruption, the establishment of the concept of accountability and the recognition of the rule of law."

It's the Greatest Damage to Buhari’s Anti-graft Fight, Says TI But Transparency International insisted that it was the federal government that created the lapses for the graft allegations against Magu by ignoring reports from the Department of State Security (DSS), which rejected his confirmation twice. Nigeria’s Head of Transparency International, Mr. Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, who spoke exclusively to THISDAY, also sought a review of the EFCC Act with respect to its board constitution, while calling for an enactment of the proceeds from crime bill.

Rafsanjani urged the National Assembly to review the EFCC Act in order to make the anti-corruption agency effective and efficient. TI also recommended the inclusion of non-state actors on the board of the anti-graft agency.

Rafsanjani revealed that a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had written a report against Magu before she resigned from Buhari’s cabinet, regretting the federal government did not take any concrete action.

Based on the DSS reports, Rafsanjani, who is also Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), observed that the National Assembly rejected Magu’s nomination twice, but the Buhari administration did not review it for necessary action or look for a credible replacement to head the anti-graft agency.

In spite of the reports, he said the federal government “did not take any action on it. In my opinion, it is not Magu’s fault that he did whatever he is doing now. The government gave him knife and meat without supervision. The EFCC is supposed to be under the supervision of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

“As far as I am concerned, allowing the whole issue to escalate shows the lackadaisical attitude of the federal government to the anticorruption war. If the security reports indicted Magu, why should the federal government not take proactive steps to

replace him?”

Rafsanjani advocated the amendment of the EFCC Act to include non-state actors in the running of the commission and constituting of its board for efficient operation.

He explained that there was need “to amend the EFCC Act, because the federal government did not constitute the board.

The board of EFCC has not been constituted and inaugurated. There is need to review the EFCC Act and bring non-state actors to the board of the commission.”

Rafsanjani lamented that contrary to the international best practice, only representatives of the government agencies “are recommended to be on the board of the anti-graft agency. The Act does not recommend non-state actors to be part of the board. That is the only way we can resolve all these issues.”

He reiterated that Magu’s investigation for corrupt practices “is the greatest damage to Buhari’s antigraft fight. Now, the people will doubt credibility of anti-graft fight. The international community has already expressed doubt about the fight against corruption.”

Rafsanjani disclosed that Transparency International “has made many recommendations on the anticorruption war. But the federal government ignored us. This government does not understand the fight against corruption.”

According to him, fighting corruption “is about whether legal process, policy and practice have actually improved. In terms legal process, there are so many issues relating to asset recovery like the proceeds of crime bill.

They have refused to pass a legal framework that will guarantee accountability and good utilisation of the recovered asset.”

Apart from asset recovery, Rafsanjani also observed that the procurement policy in this country “is a charade, indeed another nonsense. That is why corruption still thrives in this country. Besides, election malpractice, manipulation and rigging that are being perpetrated, are part of the corruption.

“The disobedience to rule of law and court order is part of the corruption.

The emasculation of the civil society and the media is equally part of the corruption,” he said, lamenting that with Magu’s probe, Buhari’s anti-graft fight “has been discredited.”

Suspended EFCC Boss Must Answer for His Crimes, Says PDP Meanwhile, the PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described Magu as unfit to lead an agency like the EFCC. PDP said Magu had reduced the anti-corruption agency to a house of corruption and a partisan witch-hunt organisation that thrived on violation of rules, abuse of investigation processes, manipulation of court procedures, as well as

harassment and extortion of money from innocent Nigerians.

The PDP stated that Magu should be made to provide answer to allegations in the public space that he was more interested in securing politically induced convictions than justice.

The party alleged that Magu turned the EFCC into a terror house, where innocent Nigerians were harassed with trumped-up charges and convicted on media trial even before they were allowed to defend themselves in court.

According to the statement, "There are also allegations of violation of rights, including allegedly making his victims to make statements in custody without the services of their lawyers. This is in addition to insinuations in the public that the indicted EFCC boss was also harassing certain judges to get conviction on cases.

"Similarly, there are several cases of officers and ranks of the commission, whose employment in the service were unjustly suspended or terminated."

PDP lamented that Magu had destroyed the integrity of the anti-corruption agency with a manifestly selective fight against graft in which members of the current administration, including those who had been openly indicted for corruption, were hardly prosecuted by the EFCC. The party stated that Nigerians could recall that under Magu, former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, declared that once a corrupt person joined the APC, all his sins would be forgiven.

PDP also said the memo by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice detailing charges of diversion of recovered funds, secret sale of seized property and insubordination, among others, validated the position of most Nigerians that Magu lacked the required discipline, exposure and experience to head an agency like the EFCC. PDP called for an investigation into the alleged connection between the indicted EFCC boss and certain judges handling EFCC cases, while also calling on the judiciary to sanitise the courts in this direction.

"What Nigerians expect at this time is for the federal government to ensure Magu's prosecution in court as well as take necessary and decisive steps to restore the integrity of the EFCC by ensuring that Magu's replacement as EFCC Chairman is thoroughly screened to avoid the ills and violations experienced under the suspended acting chairman," the statement said.

Shehu Sani: Buhari's Action a Bold Step, Wants Commission of Inquiry to Probe Magu Sani urged the federal government to go a step

further by setting up an inquest on the Magu issue.

He said, "I commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the bold action he has taken on Magu. But in order to correct the rot in the last five years, there must be a re-examination of the EFCC law that will make it possible for the Ministry of Justice to oversee the commission's activities.

“EFCC cannot prosecute any case without the approval of the minister of justice. They should only investigate and present evidence to the Ministry of Justice, headed by the minister and Attorney General of the Federation," he told THISDAY by telephone.

Sani stated that Buhari should do more than just suspending Magu by setting up a commission of inquiry to probe the activities of the suspended EFCC boss, insisting that other top and influential officers of the anticorruption agency should be investigated.

Regarding the setting up of a commission of inquiry to look into Magu's fiveyear reign at the EFCC as advocated by some, the former legislator said, "It is important.

“It is very important that a commission of inquiry should be set up, because Magu must be comprehensively investigated and those who are working with him.

They should be arraigned in a court of law. Also, you cannot prosecute Magu without prosecuting the boys whom he has operated with."

According to the vocal politician, Magu's predicament is a sign that the anticorruption crusade is questionable. He said EFCC was the centrepiece of corruption.

Sani said, "What has happened to Magu is a vindication of what many of us have been saying and it is also a testimony to the rot and the decay in the anticorruption agency. The EFCC is the centrepiece of Nigerian corruption.

“They protect those they want to protect and witchhunt those they want to witch-hunt; frame up those they want to frame up."

He alleged that the EFCC had become a behemoth, out-of-control and unaccountable.

Sani said, "They have become a behemoth; an unaccountable body. They arrest, they detain, they prosecute, they confiscate, and they sell properties.

Things will continue to go wrong if the EFCC Act is not properly amended to make it accountable.

"It is simply going to be a waste of time, because as it is now, it is not accountable to the police and it is not accountable to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation."

Accusing Magu and other EFCC officials of underhand dealings, Sani explained, "Magu's case is a testimony to the fact that the anticorruption crusade led by the EFCC is simply a fraud. It was a fraud and EFCC is at the centre of extortion, of blackmailing people to part with their

possessions.

“The officers help themselves. A proposed Proceeds of Crime Commission was frustrated from taking off. It was meant to be in charge, to have the custody of whatever EFCC has seized and auctioned to the public.

Unfortunately, EFCC wanted to be in control of everything.

"They, thus, began selling properties – seized properties – to their friends.

You can see that the present headquarters of Voice of Nigeria was once the property belonging to the late Chief of Air Staff, Alex Badeh. The EFCC wanted to sell that property but the president intervened and it was given to Voice of Nigeria."

Sani also called on the Buhari administration to demand a publication of the names of individuals’ properties that were seized or auctioned and to whom.

"The federal government should tell the EFCC to publish names of those, who benefitted from the properties – movable and immovable properties – sold

by EFCC. The government should demand the publication of such a list."

Sani, who is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC and once bore the brunt of the commission's alleged high-handedness, said more about Magu and the agency.

He said, "The EFCC's chairman is a law unto himself. He has been given everything so he doesn't need to report to anybody.

So, this man capitalised on that, deceiving the nation that he was fighting corruption while he was simply amassing wealth, extorting people; and deceiving Nigerians that he was fighting corruption.

"Let me tell you EFCC's process regarding bail.

When they arrest a person, they will keep you in detention for 24 hours.

Then, they will go to a magistrate's court and get a detention order for 14 days. In addition, they will go to another magistrate's court and get another 14day detention order. If you filed a case challenging your detention, they will release you and arrest you outside the premises of the court."

On the increasing spate of arrests of Nigerian students, Sani stated, " They have destroyed the lives of young people in the South-east and South-west in the name of cybercrime.

Young people who could have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

“They raid universities, arrest people, arrest young boys, put them in detention, force them to make confessions, enter a plea bargain with them and charge them to court to get them convicted for a case of $100, $200, and so on.”

He accused the Nigerian media of being complicit in the alleged infractions of the anticorruption agency saying, "It's sad to note that there are journalists who are complicit to the evils of the EFCC in Abuja. They have been used to launder the image of EFCC and destroy the image of other people."

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EFCC Director: My Travails in the Hands of Magu Tobi Soniyi Mr Ayo Olowonihi was a level 17 officer at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Commandant (Director) of the commission’s academy in 2015 when Ibrahim Magu was appointed Acting Chairman of EFCC. After putting in almost 15 years in the service of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), he had elected to retire voluntarily, and later joined the EFCC. Following the exit of Ibrahim Larmode, Olowonihi was one of those in the commission who were eminently qualified to replace him. He ostensibly lobbied for the top job. Magu, then Director of Operations under Lamorde, also lobbied for the job through the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). As luck would have it, Magu was chosen to replace Larmode.

Little did Olowonihi know that his ambition to replace Lamorde did not go down well with Magu. For daring to nurse the ambition to become EFCC chairman, Olowonihi must be taught a lesson.

After trying unsuccessfully to get an operative of the commission to lie against him, checking through his records to try to find anything that could be used against him, and finding nothing, and after inquiring from his former employer, NDLEA, if he did any wrong that could be used to nail him and also finding nothing, Magu caused a phony query to be issued to Olowonihi.

In the query dated December 22, 2015, Olowonihi was accused of sponsoring negative publications against the EFCC in an online medium. He did not only deny the allegations but said he was the first person to draw the attention of Larmode to the publications since he was the chairman when the said reports were published. Olowonihi said his emails and bank accounts were investigated, but nothing incriminating or linking him to the publications was found. Yet, he was arrested, detained, and forced to make statements under caution. Not satisfied, Magu caused a suspension letter to be issued to him to enable the commission investigate the allegations against him, citing a defective EFCC Staff Regulations Handbook 2007.

The suspension letter was dated December 29, 2015. Since that day, the commission had stopped his salaries and he had been subjected

to untold hardship. While the suspension lasted, entreaties were made to Magu to recall him, but Magu could not be bothered.

Then two years after, on November 15, 2017, Magu caused a letter of reinstatement to be issued to him, but attached some onerous conditions.

They included forfeiture of his salaries for the two years he was on suspension, writing a letter of apology to Magu, swearing to an oath of secrecy, downgrading to level 16 from level 17, writing an undertaking to be of good conduct, and deployment to work in Magu's office.

The conditions were not only onerous, they were also humiliating. Olowonihi rejected them and issued a notice to commence a court action against the commission, an option he said he didn't want to take in the interest of the commission.

In its judgement, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Abuja reversed his demotion. Justice Musa Kado, who delivered the judgement, ordered Olowonihi to be reinstated as Detective Commandant, Grade Level 17, after he set aside a letter of reinstatement, which had downgraded him to Grade Level 16, for being illegal, null and void.

Olowonihi had asked the court to declare his demotion as well as the processes that led to it as illegal, unlawful, null and void. The claimant, in a 62-paragraph oath deposed in support of the suit, said he was not given fair hearing before disciplinary action was taken against him.

Among the issues raised for determination before the court were whether the EFCC Staff Regulations Handbook 2007 used for the discipline of the claimant was validly made, having not been approved by the commission.

Kado decided all three issues raised for determination in favour of the claimant. He held that the fact that the EFCC Regulation Handbook, which guides the appointment and disciplinary procedures of employees, had not been approved by the commission rendered it invalid. “Failure of the defendant’s counsel to produce approval by the commission means it is either not in existence or it will not be in the favour of the defendant,” he said.

Kado further noted that while the absence of signature on the document might not necessarily make it invalid, there was no commencement date to show when it actually came into force.

He held that the approval of the draft by the chairman did not amount to approval by the commission, which had been empowered by law to do so.

The judge accordingly held that the purported regulation handbook used for the suspension and subsequent demotion was not valid and as such null and void.

The court having declared as invalid EFCC’s handbook for lacking approval of the commission, agreed with the submission of the counsel to the claimant, Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN), that the defendant did not comply with the Public Service Rules, the applicable regulation on disciplinary matters affecting the claimant, who was a Director on GL 17. He said section 9 (2b) of the Act establishing the EFCC provided that until there was a regulation in place guiding the appointment, discipline and dismissal of employees of the commission, the civil service rule shall continue to be in force.

Kado held that while the chairman of the commission or the secretary had the right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the claimant, it was the commission that had the power to sanction after due consultation with the Federal Civil Service Commission.

Similarly, on the issue of fair hearing, the judge agreed with the claimant that the fact that he was not given the opportunity to defend himself before the ad hoc committee set up to investigate him and two others rendered the whole exercise a nullity.

“There is a violation of natural justice,” the court held, adding, “The claimant’s appointment is statutory and can only be tampered with strict public service rule.”

He subsequently held that the letter of reinstatement downgrading the claimant to GL 16 was “nullified and set aside” and ordered the EFCC to reinstate the defendant back to his position as Detective Commandant Grade Level 17.

Kado, however, stated that the court could not order the defendant to restore the claimant as Commandant of the EFCC Academy, as the defendant had the right to deploy its personnel to any position it deemed appropriate.

Curiously, the court refused to grant the prayers of the claimant on the payment of all his salaries and allowances within the period of the suspension

on the grounds that the claimant failed to prove that he was entitled to such relief.

Born in Kabba, Kogi State, Olowonihi attended the University of Jos and Lagos State University, where he obtained B.Sc. Economics (Second Class Upper Division) and Masters in Public Administration (MPA), respectively. He obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Corruption Studies from the University of Hong Kong, Certificate on Better Governance: Managing Corruption from the Singapore Civil Service College, Certificate in Mastering Competitive Strategy and Blue Ocean Strategy from the Lagos Business School. He is also a graduate of the Policy, Strategy and Leadership (Pre-SEC) Course of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos. Olowonihi joined the NDLEA at its inception in 1990 and attended the first Senior Officer's Basic Course – ANS Course 1/90. He has attended numerous professional courses and management seminars in Nigeria, Germany, Côte D'Ivoire, Senegal, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Turkey, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Olowonihi has acquired diverse experiences spanning 30 years in law enforcement, investigations, anti-corruption and good governance, personnel management, training and manpower development, etc.

While in the NDLEA, Olowonihi held appointments such as Acting Director, General and Assets Investigation, NDLEA Headquarters; Acting Director, Training Research and Development; Commandant, NDLEA Academy, Jos; Zonal Commander, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Director, Abuja Liaison Services; and Commander, Kogi State Command, among others.

In February 2001, Olowonihi returned to the agency’s academy as commandant. The high point of his second tenure was the upgrading of the academy to a regional academy for drug control in West Africa. After a successful second tenure, he served briefly at the agency's headquarters as Coordinator of the National Drug Control Strategy.

He transferred his services to the EFCC in May 2005, and served as the pioneer Deputy Director/ Head of Training at the academy. He also served as Head of the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML).

Plot to Remove Omolori, N’Assembly’s Clerk, Thickens Chuks Okocha in Abuja There is a renewed plot to remove the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sani Omolori, allegedly by the group loyal to the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan.

This followed two months respite in the National Assembly by both the supporting and opposing groups among members of staff of the legislature over the Revised Conditions of Service passed by the 8th National Assembly.

Yet, this is in spite of the fact that the Clerk is not due for retirement, but without the implementation of the revised conditions of service, he might be due to retire in June next year.

Sources privy to the plot said last week’s invitation by the Senate President to the Head of the civil service of the federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan and the first Clerk to the National Assembly, as well as the immediate past Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, Dr. Adamu Fika, to brief a select team of principal officers of both Chambers of the National Assembly was intended to discredit the Revised Conditions of Service and provide grounds to convince the 9th Senate to override the Resolution of the 8th National Assembly.

The thrust was to discredit the Revised Conditions of service and pave the way for

the removal of the Clerk of the National Assembly on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the civil service rules.

THISDAY source also stated that the Revised Conditions of Service was not the main problem why the Senate leadership wanted the Clerk removed, but the fact that SaniOmolori was to be a beneficiary of the extended years of service provided in the new Conditions of Service.

According to the source, "In fact, our informant holds it in good authority that if Omolori is axed from the National Assembly Service, the five year extension in the Revised Conditions of Service will be automatically restored even if it is removed now. Our source holds that the Senate President has been nursing personal animosity against Omolori for a long time and has been looking for a platform to vent his anger on him.”

THISDAY gathered that some of the alleged grievances of the Senate President against Omolori included the fact that while he was a Director in the Legal Department of the National Assembly, Omolori held back a bill sponsored by Lawan, which was sent to the Department for clean up and the bill took long before Omolori brought it out.

He also alleged that Omolori as secretary to a subcommittee, which Lawan chaired, when Dr. Olusola Saraki was Senate President, never picked Lawan’s

calls after office hours and in most cases, Lawan had to contact Saraki to compel Omolori to pick his calls.

Lawan was also said to have alleged that, when he was contesting for office of the Senate President, Omolori refused to support him and instead supported Senator Alli Ndume. He was said to have also alleged that Omolori refused to adopt 2011 Senate Rules to conduct the election of the presiding officers in the 9th National Assembly and instead insisted on using the 2015 Senate rules, which he considered unfavourable to him.

THISDAY gathered that even though the issues raised

by Lawan were personal and had nothing to do with the official conduct of the Clerk to the National Assembly, the President of the senate was bent on having his way against Omolori even if it would destroy the bureaucracy of the National Assembly.

Many stakeholders in the National Assembly including some former Clerks to the National Assembly were said to have intervened in the matter issue but Lawan allegedly insisted Omolori must go.

THISDAY reached out to a close aide to the Senate President who didn't want to be named because he is not authorised to speak on the matter, he however dimissed the allegation against the Senate President, describing

the allegations as a fabrication by dubious and mischievious people hell bent on rubbishing the intergrity of the Senate President and undermining his achievements.

However, as part of the plot to ease out Omolori, the Senate President deliberately ensured that his former Senior Legislative Aide, Kardi Amshi was appointed the Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission to execute his plan and carry out his directives.

According to a source, "How else will anyone explain the fact that for the first time since 2000, this set of Commissioners after inauguration embarked on a twoweek retreat without involving the management of the National Assembly and former Clerks to the National Assembly, who would have provided them with benefit of information and wealth of experience on the issues of relationship between the Commission and the National Assembly management and other related bodies in the legislature".

It was learnt that the Service Commissioners went for the retreat and on resumption set up a committee of six members to review the Revised Conditions of Service and never got brief from the Management of the National Assembly, adding that, when they sent request for information on the procedure for the adoption of the conditions of Service by the two chambers, the committee had already submitted a pre-

prepared report without input from the National Assembly management and staff union, whose initiative gave birth to the Revised Conditions of Service.

The 8th National Assembly, in attempt to solve a protracted protest for proper remunerations and agitations for new conditions of service in the National Assembly, obliged the last set of Commissioners of the National Assembly the proposal for a review of staff Conditions of Service.

The two chambers of the National Assembly considered the proposal following eloquent arguments presented in favour by the two leaders of the Senate and the House respectively, Senator Lawan and Hon Femi Gbajabiamila. Both leaders of the two chambers in the 8th National Assembly were the presiding officers in the 9th National Assembly.

Following the controversy that ensued with the Ahmed Kardi Armshi-led National Assembly Service Commission on the Revised Conditions of Service, the Staff of the National Assembly had been pitted against each other for the past two months.

But, when the Commission forwarded its report to the two chambers to review the age extension part of the Revised Conditions of Service, the House of Representatives leadership led by the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila stood in favour

of the Resolution of the 8th National Assembly and refused to rescind the decision.

The House held that the overriding public interest of capacity building in the National Assembly intended by the five years extension on age of Service in the National Assembly, should take priority over personal animosity of any individual.

Even when the Senate President, not satisfied by the decision of the House of Representatives and scheduled a joint meeting of the principal officers of both chambers, the House leadership still maintained its decision as representatives of the people.

For the avoidance of doubt, the House of the Representatives leadership did not just decide to support the Revised Conditions of Service just for the sake of it, the House is aware that the Revised Conditions of Service for staff of the National Assembly was passed by the 8th National Assembly after a painstaking process and could not be thrown away for no justifiable reason.

In fact, the House is aware that before the Resolution was even presented on the floor of the two chambers for debates, the two presiding officers of the 8th National Assembly held separate meetings with the stakeholders in the National Assembly on the matter.

Continued on page 52

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EDITORIAL

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

EFCC AND THE CRISIS OF CREDIBILITY

The current efforts should go beyond the investigation of one officer to a reform that will strengthen the anti-graft agency

O

n Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari formally approved the suspension of Ibrahim Magu as acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) “in order to allow for unhindered inquiry by the Presidential Investigation Panel under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act and other relevant laws.”

The EFCC Director of Operations, Mohammed Umar, has also been directed to take charge and oversee the activities of the commission. That was after five days of drama that saw to the arrest and detention of Magu without any official statement.

However, whatever may be the issues in this unfortunate saga, the crux of an anti-corruption commitment ought to be a strict adherence to the rule of law. So, the irreducible minimum in the investigation of Magu or/and the EFCC, is that there be transparency. The facts and evidence must be made public and the matter should not end with the drama of investigation and the politics of appointing a successor, should Magu be indicted and he is no long able to continue in office.

From what is now in the public space, Magu is facing investigation for sundry acts of financial impropriety. For someone in his position, these are grave allegations indeed and a blight on the image of the country. Given that impression has long been created that some smart officials were re-looting the assets recovered from those who have been indicted or convicted for corruption, it is our considered view that it would serve the government better if it is more open about what exactly is going on. Leaving the issue to speculations is very much unhelpful to the federal

government and unfair to Magu.

Meanwhile, there are issues in the fight against corruption that must be addressed now that a searchlight has been beamed on the EFCC. There is a perception that the anti-graft agency is more concerned about public image than fighting corruption. It is quick to announce the recovery of ‘loot’ without corresponding activities geared towards docking culprits. Sometimes too, it appears the agency is more interested in getting photo ops in certain critical matters to score cheap points: suspected felons are made to wear tags for the cameras; mug shots are celebrated; court appearances are well advertised; pages of adverts are paid for to show records of arrests and detention.

I

For any meaningful change to occur, the EFCC Act needs to be amended so that the agency’s leadership can be drawn from the wider society of judges, human rights advocates, clergy, retired military personnel and other professionals

Letters to the Editor

A

good name is better than gold and silver.

No matter what, it is required of you to represent your family well anywhere you find yourself. It's only a foolish child who imbues the image of his family by engaging in illegal acts.

A few days ago, a Dubai firm, Shirley Recruitment Consultants, published that it was looking for Africans who would apply for its vacant menial jobs — merchandisers. However, it indicated that Nigerian applicants wouldn't be considered in the recruitment.

You would recall that Ramoni Igbalode Abbas, otherwise known as Hush-

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

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

n spite of all these, the national corruption index remains frightfully negative.

State officials are coming up with sleazier and more sophisticated method of stealing. Politicians now even know how to get around the EFCC dragnet.

But where and when they are caught, they find a way to get out of the net. Many of these antics have eroded the credibility of the agency and brought it much flak from the public. Besides, if there is anything that the current ordeal of Magu has revealed, it is that the entrenched government reflex of creating new agencies to deal with systemic challenges has only led to the relocation of the various seats of abuse, rather than the elimination of systemic, process and procedural corruption.

For any meaningful change to occur, the EFCC Act needs to be amended so that the agency’s leadership can be drawn from the wider society of judges, human rights advocates, clergy, retired military personnel and other professionals. In addition to the pool of police personnel that populate the EFCC, there are also career officers trained in institutions at home and abroad. For whatever reasons, these officers are cut off from leading the commission, because of the law and convention. Yet if the police were so effective in fighting graft and narcotics trade, separate agencies wouldn't have been created to fight these crimes. It is rather strange that the police that do not have enough officers and men for normal policing duties would be saddled with the job of running other agencies.

Yet, the scramble to be posted to EFCC has in itself become a serious ethical issue.

If the full scope of the current investigation is to expose the extant practices that fuel abuses by officials, we endorse it wholeheartedly. But it must go beyond the career of one officer to a reform that strengthens the EFCC and its very important mandate.

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

Nigeria: Our Image Abroad puppi, and his accomplices were raided in the same Dubai by the E-police unit of the Dubai Police some weeks ago. Upon his arrest, they discovered that he had swindled millions of people and accumulated billions of naira. Could it be the reason why the firm asked Nigerians not to partake?

However, Nigerians home and abroad have been showing their distress and displeasure on social media since the Dubai firm left out Nigerian applicants in its recruitment. Their comments have been on Hushpuppi, his accomplices and other internet robbers.

"If Hushpuppi hadn't been caught by the Dubai Police for fraud, the firm wouldn't

have ridiculed us like that.

These internet robbers are just smirching Nigeria's image," a male netizen and Nigerian said.

From the comments I've read so far, no one has commented on the firm's nauseating generalisation.

Why only Nigerians? Why didn't the firm bar other African countries? Is there a country that doesn't have citizens who engage in cybercrimes?

Anyway, we shouldn't blame the firm when we have our own leaders to blame. They're the glasses through which the lazy youth who engage in cybercrimes are seeing themselves. They will loot public funds and save

it in their foreign accounts.

Sometimes, they go shopping with part of it in Dubai. When these 'yahoo boys' too swindle their victims, Dubai is the first place that will come to their minds. Opulent lifestyle! I wasn't surprised when I saw Hushpuppi and some of our politicians in a viral video.

If there are enough jobs in this part of the world, our people wouldn't be seen begging for menial jobs in other countries. Sadly, countries that we were told while we were growing up that its citizens came to work in our country many years ago, are now rich economically, and they're the countries our people are flocking to for menial jobs. Why? Because our political leaders aren't in anyway progressive. They prefer

to develop foreign countries with our commonwealth.

Nigerians are being maltreated and labelled all over the world, still, no adjustment from our political leaders. Ghana disrespected us last month — its citizens demolished our embassy. What about the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, in which our people were looted and wounded? These are countries we once gave succour when they had nothing. Don't call them ingrate, they're not.

Our leaders are the ingrates, who we vote every four years to bring us out of the mess; instead, we continue to sink into deeper mess because of their corrupt practices.

––Aremu Lukman Umor, Lagos.

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NEWS Akpabio: Corruption, Lack of Patriotism Crippled NDDC for 19 Years

Acting News Editor ÌÙãÏÑË ÕÓØÝËØ×Ó E-mail: ÑÌÙãÏÑ˲ËÕÓØÝËØ×Ó̶ÞÒÓÝÎËãÖÓàÏ˛ÍÙט͸΀͹ͽͺͻͽ΁ͺͽͻ ̙Ý×Ý ÙØÖã̚

Says ongoing forensic audit will be ready December

Gboyega Akinsanmi The Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio yesterday said endemic corruption, lack of patriotism and the entrenched culture of patronage had crippled the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from delivering its mandate to the people of the region in the last 19 years of its operations.

Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, also said all these challenges informed the decision of the federal government to commission forensic audit into NDDC’s operations between 2001 and 2019, noting that the report of the forensic audit would be ready before the end of the year.

He made these clarifications on Arise News, a sister TV arm of THISDAY Newspapers Group yesterday, absolving himself of corruption allegations made against by the NDDC’s former Managing Director, Ms. Joy Nunieh.

Nunieh had accused the minister of serial corrupt practices. She had alleged that during her brief tenure at the commission, Mr Akpabio repeatedly pressured her to take “an oath of secrecy” that was meant to keep her from exposing fraud at the commission.

Nunieh, who was relieved of her appointment after confrontation with the minister, said: “For instance, he told me to raise a memo to fraudulently award emergency contracts for flood victims in the Niger Delta. I would have been jailed if I had succumbed to Akpabio’s ‘oath of

secrecy.”

Defending his decision to reposition the interventionary agency on Arise News yesterday, the minister alleged that the NDDC had failed to deliver to the people of the region almost two decades after its operation.

For 19 years, the minister alleged that nothing “can be seen on ground in the NDDC because of corruption and because people see it as a place for patronage.

For 19 years, NDDC could not even buy a house they could use as an office.”

Asked to explain the factors responsible for the failure of the NDDC, Akpabio claimed that the commission “had been a place for election matters before he assumed office. If you want to contest elections, all you need is to get into the NDDC; make money there and contest elections.

“Unfortunately, so many that made the money never won elections. They did not win the election because they contested with blood money. If the previous managing directors and chairmen of NDDC used the right contractors or have love for the region, they could have done far better.”

He lamented that the NDDC “has existed for 19 years. No one can pass through the Warri-Sapele road every year when it is raining.

It is just 45 kilometres. It is a road we can award to fantastic company and people will say this is the NDDC road.

“If you do not love your children, you cannot give them the best. If you bring in those who do not love the region, they move their pocket forward instead of

moving the region forward. I do not care about any allegation.

“What I care about is that things cannot remain the same again. In less than eight months, we have moved the managing director and other executive directors to the permanent site. It is an 18-storey building. It is totally finished. But it is 96 percent complete. Under 18 months, that is a will.

“What has happened in the NDDC is the people go there to

Explains dismissal of Joy Nunieh, NDDC’s former MD

steal the NDDC. If they attempt to steal the NDDC, then it means there will be no benefit for the people of Niger Delta.

“But they are paying N300 million annually as rent in the place they are using as an office in Port Harcourt. There was a building started under Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC). Yet, they could not complete it.

“When I was appointed the

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, I prayed to God. I asked God to give me the ability to take insults that will come my way.At the same time,IaskedGodtogivemethewisdom to turn around the Niger Delta.

“Of course, I expected all these things coming my way. If you place a seed, that seed must first die before it germinates.

The NDDC must go through this process before it stands. We must give kudos to the president.”

Besides the proliferation of corrupt practices, the minister also identified paucity of funds as NDDC’s major challenge. He said the commission “needs more than what it is presently getting.”

He acknowledged that NDDC’s previous chairmen and managing directors “tried their best. I believe they tried their best in their own way. Unfortunately, because of paucity of funds, they could not make much impact.”

PREVENTABLE TRAGEDY . . .

Rescue operation officials and sympathisers at the scene of a collapsed two-storey building with a penthouse at 20, Freeman Street, Lagos Island on Lagos Island ... yesterday ETOP UKUTT

Minor, Two Others Die in Lagos Building Collapse Eddie Alegbe in Lagos At least, three persons have died, nine rescued and several others currently trapped under the rubbles of a three-storey building in Lagos Island that collapsed early Saturday.

As gathered, the building sited on 7 Freeman Street collapsed on the 12 occupants at about 0405hrs on Saturday and left

them trapped under its rubble.

Efforts by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and other emergency agencies aided the rescue of nine occupants including a 7-year-old boy, six adult males and two females.

They were given pre-hospital care by LASEMA and the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in order to sta-

bilize their health conditions, before being rushed to hospitals by the combined team.

While the nine escaped death, three others were not and one of the three bodies recovered from the rubble was said to be a child that was asleep when the three-storey building caved in.

The child was identified as 9-year-old Abdusalam Balogun, a 6-year-old girl

Gunmen Invade Ekiti Community, Abduct Three Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti No fewer than 10 gunmen at the weekend invaded Isinbode, an agrarian community in Ekiti East Local Government Area, Ekiti State and abducted three persons.

The assailants, THISDAY learnt, attacked a sawmill located along Isinbode-Ode road and dispossessed the workers of their personal belongings and abducted two at the scene.

An eyewitness told THISDAY that after the attack, the kidnappers ambushed a Hilux Van conveying a top government official and kidnapped one of the occupants.

He explained that some

hoodlums stormed “a sawmill in the area where they dispossessed traders and workers of their money and valuables while two persons, a man and a woman were abducted.

“While the criminals were fleeing the community, a Hilux van conveying a senior officer of a government agency was attacked in which the driver was shot.

“The driver of the Hilux was hit by bullets forcing him to pull up on the highway. This led to the kidnap of a top government’s functionary,” the eyewitness said.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Police Command, Mr. Sunday

Abutu, confirmed the incident, disclosing that one of the victims of the kidnappers had escaped from captivity.

Abutu said the kidnappers “are now left with two persons including the senior civil servant,” noting that the police detectives had started a manhunt.

The police spokesperson added that the police were on the trail of the criminals, promising that the captives would be freed unhurt.

Abutu disclosed that the driver, who sustained gunshot injury, had been taken to an undisclosed hospital where he is currently receiving treatment.

(yet to be identified) and an adult female, all of whom were handed over to the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit, SEHMU and have been transported to the mortuary.

At completion of the exercise, Director-General of LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, confirmed the tragic incident in a statement made available to newsmen

and stated that the remains of the dead victims have been transported to the mortuary, while the nine injured are being administered pre-hospital care by the agency.

He said: “The agency responded to emergency calls on the above captioned incident. Upon arrival at the incident scene at 0405hrs this morning, a 3-storey

building was discovered to have totally collapsed on people asleep inside.

“Nine victims have been extricated from the rubble alive while three bodies were recovered dead. Their remains were transported to the mortuary

by SEHMU while pre-hospital care has been administered to the Nine victims by LASEMA and LASAMBUS.

Gombe to Plant 1.2m Trees Before December Segun Awofadeji in Gombe Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya yesterday disclosed that his administration would plan 1.2 million trees before December to combat land degradation, desertification and erosion, among others.

Inuwa disclosed the plan at the unveiling of the 2020 Gombe Goes Green (3G) Tree Planting Campaign in Wajari District of Yalmatu Deba Local Government Area of the state.

After unveiling the project, the governor said that his administration would commit to making environmental sustainability the cornerstone of its development agenda.

He, also, said the state government would continue “to enhance and protect the ecological system upon which all lives and liveli-

hoods depend. My administration unveiled the project with the aim of planting 1.2 million trees annually for a period of four years.”

He said through aggressive afforestation and reforestation, the 3G project would combat land degradation, desertification, erosion, loss of soil nutrients and rehabilitate degraded land.

He explained that since the launch of the project, the state had achieved significant milestones in the establishment of eight 20-hectare woodlots in nine local government areas and planted over 20,000 trees along the major roads within Gombe metropolis.

He explained that the state “has over the years spent huge amounts of its resources in controlling gullies that threatened social life and physical infrastructure in the metropolis and other local

government areas.”

He said the unwavering commitment of his administration to environmental sustainability had inspired the state to initiate the largest and most comprehensive environmental restoration project in the Northeast.

Inuwa said his administration’s resolve to prioritise and preserve the environment was necessitated by the realisation of the severity and diversity of the environmental challenges confronting the state.

“Gombe is one of the frontline states that is threatened by rapid desert encroachment. Available evidence shows that about twothirds of our entire state is facing various forms of land degradation such as desertification, deforestation and other negative effects on agricultural productivity leading to declining crop yield”.

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NEWS Fulani Herdsmen Kill 20 in Kaduna Communities John Shiklam in Kaduna

Twenty people have been reportedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen following an attack on Chibuak and Kigudu II communities in Kauru Local Government Area, Kaduna state.

Apart from those killed in the two communities, THISDAY learnt that some of the villagers are missing.

The two villages were said to have been attacked consecutively, on Thursday and Friday at midnight.

The bandits reportedly launched yet another attack yesterday in Kigudu II where the villagers were preparing for a mass burial for some of the victims who are Catholics.

The bandits were however repelled by security personnel and the burial was quickly done without the usual burial rites.

In a telephone interview, the Parish Priest of Damakasuwa Outstation, Rev. Aaron Tanko, who oversees the two communities, confirmed that 20 people were killed while some others

were still missing.

He said in Chibuak village, nine people were killed while 11 were killed in Kigudu II. He said the attacks took place on Thursday and Friday at midnight. Chibuak “was attacked on Thursday and nine people were killed. They attacked Kigudu II on Friday night and killed 11 people.

“Some people are still missing so I cannot conclusively say this is

the casualty figure. Some of those killed are my parishioners others are protestants.

“We were preparing for the mass burial for our parishioners this morning (Saturday) in Kigudu II but we could not do it when the herdsmen came attacking us again.

“But they were repelled by security personnel. Nobody was killed or injured.

“We couldn’t even conduct a proper mass burial, we just offered simple prayers and they were buried” the clergyman said.

The cleric said: “Many of our villagers are at the mercy of Fulani herdsman. They are always well armed and they invade our communities and kill people at will.

“There are villages where people cannot even go to their

farms for fear of being killed by herdsmen. We appealed to the government to address these incessant attacks on our communities and killings by herdsmen.”

At the time of filing this report, spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, Mohammad Jalige was yet to respond to a text message sent to his mobile phone on the attacks.

WHO Unveils Malaria Prevention Campaign in Borno, Kano Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri and Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Borno State government has commenced administering malaria prevention drugs on two million children.

In a similar development, the Kano State government said it has committed the sum of N5 billion to fight malaria in the state.

The organisation yesterday unveiled its annual malaria chemoprevention campaigns (MPCs) in Maiduguri, noting that two million children between 3 and 59 months were targeted in 25 of the 27 local governments of the state.

WHO revealed that Abadam and Marte were excluded from the ongoing campaign due to inaccessibility brought about by the Boko Haram insurgency.

After the inauguration, WHO’s National Coordinator Malaria Emergencies in Nigeria, Dr. Iniabasi Nglas said the campaign “is not only done in Borno, but across other eight Sahel states of Yobe, Bauchi, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Jigawa and Kano.”

She said malaria “is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. Borno is not left out. But with the Boko Haram insurgency, a lot of children have missed the opportunity of getting proper healthcare services.

“In these parts of the country, peak rainfall lasts three to four months and seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaign which is being flagged off is to protect the Sahel areas within these three or four months when there is peak malaria incidences and prevalence.

“The programme is scheduled to happen during the peak rainfall to protect children between three months and 59 months from malaria sickness.

The programme is not only done here, but in other eight states

in the country.

“Borno happened to be one of the states. But in Borno, WHO is taking the lead working with Borno State Government with support from Global Fund. We are going to do this programme for five days. Each child will get a drug the first day. After that, the second and the third day doses are handed over to caregivers or parents and guided on what to do.”

At the seasonal anti-malaria campaign in Kano, the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa disclosed that the state government targeted about 3 million children under five years to be reached with the exercise across the 44 local government areas of the state.

He said: “The state government and partners are going to commit N5 billion for the SMC campaign, for four rounds or cycles of four days per month from July to October, 2020. The SMC burden or prevalence in the state is around 22 per cent.”

Tsanyawa, also, said over N100 million was earmarked to improve maternal mortality, newborn and child health in the state.

“The SMC exercise will be conducted in all the 44 LGAs in the state and the exercise entails administration of Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine plus Amodiaquine (SPAQ) to children between 3 to 59 months, and therefore targeted about 3 million children in the state.

“We targeted the children under five because if you look at statistics they are more prone to malaria and severe forms of malaria. We believe once we target under five, 75 percent of the burden of this malaria would be reduced.

“On the other hand and for the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) week, the state government is to commit over N100 million.

Covid-19 Cases Hit 31,987, as Lagos Records 224 New Cases The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control yesterday announced 664 new cases of #COVID19 bringing the total number of cases in the country to 31,987.

Lagos recorded the highest new cases with 224, followed by the Federal Capital Ter-

ritory with 105 new cases while Edo has 85 cases.

Ondo has 64, Kaduna 32, Imo 27, Osun 19, as Plateau, Oyo and Ogun States have 17 new cases each.The centre said 13,103 patients had been discharged while 724 had lost their lives as a result of the disease.

HOMAGE TO A PATRIOT . . .

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi during a visit to Protem National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande at his country home, Ìlá Òràngún, Osun State... yesterday

FG: War on Bandits, Insurgents Not for Armed Forces Alone Francis Sardauna in Katsina The federal government yesterday said that the ongoing war against insurgents and bandits was not for military and other security agents alone, hence the need for support from all and sundry to enable the country to overcome the security threats.

Also yesterday, the federal government said it was working hard to end the lingering insurgency, banditry and other criminal activities bedeviling North-east and North-west regions of the country.

The Minister of Defence, Maj.Gen. Bashir Magashi, gave the assurance yesterday during the Nigerian Army honours and award ceremony in Faskari Local

Government Area, Katsina State.

He said the federal government would continue to demonstrate political will and determination towards eradicating insurgency and other forms of criminalities in the country.

He noted that the current security challenges would soon be over, noting that the federal government was doing everything possible to tackle the menace.

He, therefore, urged Nigerian soldiers not to relent, but work assiduously until peace is restored in all troubled spots across the country to enhance development.

According to him, the ongoing war against insurgents and bandits is not for military and other security agents alone. All and sundry should support the

military to overcome the security threats.

The defence minister urged the soldiers in the theatre of operations to discharge their obligations in accordance with existing laws of engagement and constitutional provisions.

He said: “Let me use this opportunity to reiterate Mr. President’s absolute determination towards achieving success in the fight against insurgents and other forms of criminalities in the country.

“I urge you not to rest but continue to work assiduously towards containing the lingering threats to our national security until peace and security is restored to all troubled spots in this country.

“We will continue to dem-

onstrate the political will and determination to ensure that insurgency and other criminalities are totally eradicated in our dear country,” the defence minister said.

Earlier, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, said the country had in the last decade witnessed unprecedented security challenges.

He said the nation’s capital was also subjected to frequent bombing attacks while major cities like Kano, Kaduna, Jos and Maiduguri were also not spared from the deadly attacks.

He, however, said the measures taken under his leadership in the last five years, had tremendously enhanced the security of lives and properties of the citizenry in cities hitherto captured by the insurgents.

OPC Disowns Gani Adams Over Attack on Tinubu Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan The Oodua People’s Congress, New Era, yesterday disassociated itself from the verbal attacks on National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu by Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Otunba Gani Adams.

In a statement by its National President, Mr. Razak Arogundade, the group described the attack of the National Coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) on the former governor of Lagos State, as unfortunate and very disrespectful.

It said the Oodua People’s Congress (New Era) is dissociating itself from Comrade Gani Adams’ vitriolic and ill-advised attack on the person of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

“We not only condemn Adams’ disrespectful action but also advise him to go for training and counselling on how a true ‘Omoluabi’ should relate and comport when addressing or dealing with elders.”

Arogundade said the group was compelled to issue the statement following the deluge of reactions that followed Adams’ disrespectful comments, stating that many of which, by association, impinged on the name and character of OPC. “We here again stress that Adam’s comments are his personal opinion and should not be regarded as that of the OPC as a collective entity. Our advice also goes to Adams to heed this advice and to seek forgiveness from Tinubu -as that was among the allusions in his

unguarded outburst- in order for peace to reign in the house of Oduduwa. We give this advice, knowing that this is not the first of such unguarded reactionary behaviour which we believe was a personal and deep hatred for the person of Asiwaju Tinubu.

“It’s on record that Adams had publiclystatedthathewouldneverhave anything to do with Tinubu again.And he stated further that he would rather head into the bush than tread the same pathwithhisformerbenefactor”,hesaid.

He disclosed that the only crime Tinubu committed against Adams’ was his refusal to give him a chunk of Lagos State funds seized by President Olusegun Obasanjo’sadministrationandwhichwas laterreleasedbyPresident Yar’Adua’s government.

“Gani Adams who has been running from pillar to post in order to get the attention and patronage of President Buhari and who supported and campaigned vigorously for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar cannot claim not to have a Fulani agenda if so charged. That brings us to the matter of Gani Adams unbridled and avaricious partisan politicking.

“Although Adams has been for long a mercenary if not partisan political actor, his attack against our own is untenable. Adams needs to be reminded of the fact (even though he’s the major beneficiary) that partisanship led to the initial factional crisis that saw OPC break into two. He should also remember that it is the same reason that led to our sacking him from the leadership of the OPC.”

SUNDAY JULY 12, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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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 ˾ JULY 12, 2020

OPINION

SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMES IN NIGERIA Social protection programmes are basically ad hoc and uncoordinated, writes Olasunkanmi H. Okunola

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ver the years, Nigeria has witnessed huge and seemingly growing insecurity problems, rapid increase in poverty rate, high inequality and concurrent threats of instability. The recent report by National Bureau of Statistics affirmed that 40 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line and more than two million are internally displaced. These and many more challenges posed serious threats to national development. In a bid to address various problems facing Nigeria and other developing countries, social protection is increasingly being seen by the international community, regional bodies and national governments as a policy tool to address such development challenges. It is generally conceived as a set of interventions which aim to address poverty, vulnerability and risk. As a result, various government regimes since the fourth republic have implemented various social protection interventions with the aim of lessening poverty, economic shocks and vulnerability in both rural and urban areas in Nigeria.

The 2004 National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) marked the beginning of social intervention programs since the inception of fourth republic in Nigeria with emphasis on employment opportunities and poverty reduction. However, NEEDS did not achieve the desired result due to weak statistics on poverty, particularly on income poverty. The Yar'Adua led administration in 2007 also introduced another set of social protection programs such as universal primary education, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health care. These programs were designed to run concurrently with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing chronic poverty and hunger by 2015. These interventions were also disrupted as a result of the demise of the then president of Nigeria in 2010. The Goodluck Jonathan administration also recognized the importance of social protection intervention by introducing Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWIN) and Community Service Schemes with human capital development in mind.

The ineffectiveness of the aforementioned programs led the Muhammadu Buhari administration to implement new set of intervention programs such as Youth Employment and Empowerment, Conditional Cash Transfers, Homegrown School Feeding and Micro-Credit Scheme for one million market women. However, various social protection programs implemented over the years have failed to buffer the vulnerability and poverty level in the country as there were no significant decrease in poverty and vulnerability levels in the country. This could be attributed to poor design and uncoordinated manner of the interventions with no clear-cut policy framework driving the social protection agenda. Consequently, their life spans came to an end when the administrations that initiated them left power. In other words, social protection programs in Nigeria are basically ad hoc and uncoordinated. Another major problem facing the social protection programs in Nigeria is lack of data to indicate those that are vulnerable. Poor data system has hindered various intervention programs in the country resulting in coverage that is estimated at a tiny fraction of the poor leading to the question whether it is social protection or social exclusion. One could argue that the reasons for low coverage is as a result of many factors including political, financial and capacity limitations, which restrict the potential effectiveness of the social protection interventions to lessening poverty and vulnerability in the country.

In light of the aforementioned challenges of social protection programs in Nigeria, the following are strongly suggested towards

Continuous monitoring of the performance of social protection programmes would provide an evidencebased framework to see if progress is being made, and where amendments or modifications are needed to improve system performance

mitigating vulnerability and buffering poverty level in the country.

Create comprehensive database for proper identification of the vulnerable. Social protection without appropriate database is synonymous to fetching water with basket. It is extremely essential to create appropriate database at local government level to enable it identify the needy and vulnerable. This would accentuate proper evaluation and monitoring of the social protection programs in Nigeria.

Develop a comprehensive social protection framework: A comprehensive social protection policy framework in Nigeria would clarify institutional roles and responsibilities which will guide social protection design and implementation at the state and federal level. This would give room for proper implementation and continuity of the programs when the administrations that initiated them had left power.

Foster political commitment to social protection programs at the national and state levels: Political commitment for social protection at the national and state levels is a pre-requisite for stronger commitment for social protection at local level. Encouraging broad-based political commitment to social protection needs to be built at both the federal and the state levels, given the relationship between the two in terms of designing, funding and implementing programs.

Allocate resources to strengthen social protection programs:While government awareness of the need and importance of social protection programs is rising, there is an urgent need to significantly increase fiscal resources available for social protection programs to address increasing poverty and vulnerability levels.

––Dr. Okunola is a scholar in disaster risk reduction and community resilience with cross-cutting research and program experiences on climate change adaptation and inclusive education in the sub-Saharan Africa.

(See concluding part of the article on www.thisdaylive.com)

Is A New Africa Possible?

Chukwuemeka Uwanaka canvasses for a new multilateral organisation with conditions for membership

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nother Africa Day was marked on May 25, 2020.

The day represents the anniversary of the founding of the Organisation for African Union (OAU) in 1963, the primary multilateral organization in Africa that precedes the current African Union (AU). Multilateralism as a concept represents the attempts by countries to collaborate in solving challenges or attaining goals. As it is usually the case with anniversaries, reflections are carried out to x-ray and engage in some soul searching and assessment of goals, aims and objectives as applicable. In the case of Africa, the aims and aspirations that heralded the OAU and AU provide the benchmarks upon which reflections are to be made.

The objective of the organization has been the development of Africa politically, economically and socially. In some details, the objectives as spelt out are to promote solidarity, integration, economic wellbeing, good standard of living, human rights, peace and security among the people and countries of the continent. With success in political independence for many African states secured, the complementary aspiration has been the socio-economic development of the people of Africa. A review of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which uses education, health and economics to assess countries shows that the majority of African countries rank poorly on the index. Security, which is the primary responsibility of government, has African countries also ranking poorly, as demonstrated on the Fragile States Index (FSI), with many of them ranking among the more fragile countries. Africa constitutes 17 percent of world population but only 3 percent of global GDP. On indices that measure human rights, many African countries also rank poorly.

The successes recorded by the European Union (EU), which constitutes 5.8 percent of world population but 25 percent of global GDP, in promoting the socio-economic and political development of European member states after the destructions of World War II, in which Europe was the centre stage, represents some of the heights that Africa should have attained since the founding of OAU. The similarities between both institutions also include their changes over time in nomenclature, with the EU first starting as European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union in 1993 with the coming into force of the Maastricht Treaty. With the EU demonstrating how multilateralism can act as a force for good, the question then arises - which other multilateral approaches can be adopted by African countries to quicken the pace of development on the continent?

One of the marked differences between EU and the AU and set certain political, economic and social standards is in membership pattern. While the AU has really been an which aspiring countries will have to meet, to become a ‘all comers affair’, with membership for every country on member of the new multilateral organization. In essence, the African continent, EU membership on the other hand a realist approach towards the establishment of a new comes with certain terms and conditionalities that aspiring multilateral organization in Africa that takes preeminence and existing European states must meet. As contained in over the AU. the Presidency Conclusions of the Copenhagen European The leading countries will be the bigger economies of Council of 21-22 June 1993, they include stable institutions their AU recognized Regional Economic Communities that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and (REC) such as Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana from West respect for and protection of minorities, the presence of a Africa; South Africa and Botswana from Southern Africa; functioning market economy, as well as the capacity of the Kenya and Rwanda from East Africa; Egypt and Morocco economy to cope with competitive pressure and market forces from North Africa; and Cameroon from Central Africa. The within the Union. Among other obligations, the intending proposed new organization will have attractive membership country should adhere to the aims of political, economic and benefits such as direct aviation links, visa free travel, a monetary union. large economic bloc for free trade, and possibly a single With Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, currency that will prove attractive enough for other African and West Germany constituting the inaugural countries, the countries to desire to join, just as European countries aspire EU became ‘good company’ that other European countries as- to EU membership. The RECs were established under the pired and worked towards being a part of, including repeated Abuja Treaty of 1991 that established the African Economic attempts by the United Kingdom (UK) best characterized by Community (AEC), and the RECs are the building blocks the ‘empty chair crisis’. From its inaugural six countries, the of the AEC. The focus on the leading economic countries EU grew to 28 in 2013, and though the UK voted to leave the flows from the disappointment of political independence union in 2016 under what is called the ‘Brexit’ vote, the four not providing the expected economic dividend. The relative years of Brexit negotiations underscores the importance the inability of RECs to meet modest mandates of regional UK still attaches to the EU. Brexit has also not deterred other integration according to a UNECA study further underEuropean countries such as Turkey with GDP of $852 billion scores the need for another multilateral approach towards from aspiring to EU membership. Other developed European development in Africa. The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) countries such as Liechtenstein, Iceland, Switzerland and for example has hardly met since 2008, and the current crisis Norway have sought means of relating with the EU through bedeviling Libya, one of its member states, has other nonthe European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free AMU members such as Russia and Turkey as the primary Trade Association (EFTA). The EU, which was the epicenter of participants. Morocco, one of the AMU member states made World War II and constitutes very diverse people, currently, attempts to join the West African REC, by formally applying has no conflict within its borders. to join the ECOWAS on February 24, 2017.

Some other thought on the EU. The Council of Europe, The ability of leading countries such as Ghana led by which constitutes almost all European countries, co-exists Kwame Nkrumah in establishing the OAU, and Muammar with the EU. The inaugural member states of what is now al-Gaddafi in the creation of the AU from the OAU, are the EU, decided to form the organization for reasons that examples of the feasibility and practicability of creating a included the inability of the Council of Europe to attain new multilateral organization. Therefore, a new organization some of the integration expectations of essentially the leading can be created. What will however require a bit more effort economies of Europe. is the ability of the proposed ‘leading countries’ to attain Coincidentally, the conditions for EU membership, largely the economic, political and social status that they would set liberal democratic principles, are similar to the aspirations for other African countries who desire membership of the of the AU. The other question and concern will then be to organization. ascertain if a similar approach can be adopted in Africa, ––Uwanaka, a Policy and Management Expert, wrote especially given that the AU already exists. With certain feasible conditions, a radical approach can be adopted, where from Abuja. the leading economies in Africa can form a new organization, (See concluding part of the article 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 ˾ JULY 12, 2020

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LETTERS

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COVID-19 AND MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

he United Nations' health experts have warned of a looming global mental health crisis as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.

Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) mental health department, said an upsurge in the number and severity of mental illnesses is likely, and governments should put the issue as a priority to be addressed urgently.

Experts define a mental disorder as a significant dysfunction in a person's thinking, emotional control, and behaviour, which often disrupts a person's ability to relate to others and to deal with the demands of life. The severity of symptoms can vary in length and intensity depending on the individual and the particular ailment and circumstances.

Pointing to what often brings on mental illness, a professor of psychiatry, Peter Sainsbury of Chichester, England, said: "When social stresses prove too strong" mental illness results. Also,

NCDC DG, Ihekweazu according to Kestel of the WHO's mental health department, "the isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil - they all cause or could cause psychological distress."

Millions of people are facing economic turmoil, having lost or being at risk of losing their income and livelihood, and frequent misinformation and rumours about the

Coronavirus pandemic, and deep uncertainty about how long it will last are making people feel anxious and hopeless about the future.

It is not enough for one to know the factors that could cause mental illness. For such things such as sudden tragedy, severe sickness, loss of job, etc., to bring mental illness, there must first be underlying conditions that contribute to the loss

of balance. These root causes might be said to fall into three basic categories: one, the social fabric or "environment," which includes relations with others, economic condition, and so forth; two, biological factors, including such things as heredity and metabolism; and three, personality flaws.

The environment can be said to play a major role in mental illness because of the stresses and pressures of modern living. Besides, some persons have a predisposition toward mental illness. They are not very well equipped at birth to cope with the stresses of unfavorable conditions.

Another biological factor is metabolism. Today there is increasing interest in the role that faulty diet plays in causing mental illness in that it can affect metabolism. For example, a psychiatric research done by one Dr. J.F. Greden, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., implicated large doses of caffeine in coffee, tea, headache tablets and other commonly used products such as cola drinks as causes of some mental illness.

Among other things, he said that "for an undetermined number of (people) subtracting one drug - caffeine - may be

Lagos And Renaissance of Public Health

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here is a saying that, “a wealthy nation is a healthy nation”.

This assertion is anchored on the belief that health is central to human happiness and wellbeing. A healthy population contributes immensely to the political and socio-economic growth of the nation, as healthy people tend to live longer and are certainly more productive.

It is in view of this that the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu administration in Lagos State has not only identified health as one of the cardinal programmes of its administration as captured in the administration’s T.H.E.M.E.S ( acronym for his administration’sstrategic development agenda namely; Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism and Security and Governance)developmental Agenda, it has equally gone further by reinvigorating activities in the health sector and paying attention to the resurgence of public health in the state.

The administration is investing massively in the upgrade of health facilities and free healthcare programmes to enhance access to quality healthcare. It is also improving the state of the environment through its environmental regeneration.

At the center of its public health policy is the provision of unhindered access to healthcare delivery without

financial constraint to the residents. The commissioning of two Mother and Child Centers (MCCs) at Eti-Osa and Igando amply demonstrates the administration’s resolve to transform public health in the state.

The Eti-Osa MCC is a110-bed facility equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to ensure top-class health services for users. It wasspecially designed to provide integrated healthcare services for women of child bearing age and children.

It has modern equipment and furniture that would enhance the achievement of better maternal and child health indices in Eti-Osa Local Government Area and adjoining environs. It will also go a long way to boost our goal of achieving universal health coverage.

Similarly, the 149-bed Igando MCC, located at the Igando General Hospital, further affirms the determination of the current administration to ease access to medical care by the residents. It is unprecedented in the annals of the country for a state government to commission two MCCs within a spate of one month. That is the feat that the state government has accomplished.

Undoubtedly, the delivery of qualitative and effective healthcare services in response to the ever-increasing healthcare demand of the expanding population in Lagos is overriding to the administration. Presently, the Sanwo-Olu administration is working hard towards the

completion of more MCCs in the state. In particular, the Badagry and Epe MCCs are nearing completion.

The state government has equally empowered its local governments and local council development areas to build health facilities that will cater for the maternal and child health care need for the people at the grassroots. This is aimed at decongesting the secondary and tertiary health facilities in the state. These centres regularly give free immunization to children between ages 0-5 years against childhood and preventable diseases such as yellow fever, tetanus, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, measles and hepatitis.

In fulfilment of the administration’s pledge to provide equitable and sustainable health care to Lagosians, it organized a free health care delivery service for Lagosians under the “BOSKOH (Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu and Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat) Healthy Bee Project” initiative. It was organized in collaboration with Healthcare Mission International, a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) to deliver free health care services especially to children between ages 0 to 12 with a strategic vision to protect children from sickness that may impede their potential.

There is no doubt that the Sanwo-Olu Administration recognizes the prime place of children in the survival of humanity as it offered to collaborate with Healthcare

Mission International to make children healthier.

The programme involves screening children for visual and hearing impairments, and other ailments that can negatively impede their capacity to study.

Following the flag off of the programme across the State, not less than 20,000 residents received various forms of medical intervention in seven strategic Primary Healthcare Centres.

At the flag-off ceremony, the Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat highlighted the significance of the programme, stating that it is a component of state government’s developmental agenda to reposition healthcare and offer disadvantaged children access to quality medical care.

“If children lack access to good health facilities and quality medical attention, they might lose their ability and functionality. We want to help them fight ailments that can put them at a disadvantage.

This is the reason the programme is essential to make sure our children live a good and fulfilling life”, he disclosed.

Though children are actually the prime targets of the programme, vulnerable adults were also given health counselling and screening for tuberculosis and HIV after which those found to be positive were managed using the established channel of treatment of the illnesses.”

––Haruna Ileyemi, Ikeja, Lagos.

of greater benefit than adding another."

Faulty personality structure could be the problem. This is often largely due to failure of parents to rear their children with love and firmness.

Proper youthful rearing is vital for mental health.

Neglect can lead to psychiatric problems.

Since mental illness is such a complicated matter, how can it be best handled/ treated? The first crucial step is to obtain a thorough assessment from a competent health professional who is experienced in treating mental conditions. Many people have learned to deal with mental disorders after acquiring a better understanding of their condition and following the treatment prescribed by mental-health professionals.

They also benefit from the support of family and friends.

However, strong mental health is not just the absence of mental health problems.

Being mentally and emotionally healthy is much more than being free of depression, anxiety, or other psychological issues. Rather than the absence of mental illness, mental health refers to the presence of positive characteristics.

Just as physically healthy people are better able to bounce back from illness or injury, people with strong mental health are better able to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. This ability is called resilience. People who are emotionally and mentally resilient have the tools for coping with difficult situations and maintaining a positive outlook. They remain focused, flexible, and productive, in bad times as well as good. Their resilience also makes them less afraid of new experiences or an uncertain future. Even when they do not immediately know how a problem will get resolved, they are

hopeful that a solution will eventually be found.

Whether you are looking to cope with a specific mental health problem, handle your emotions better, or simply to feel more positive and energetic, there are plenty of ways to take control of your mental health. These include: Making social connections a priority. Staying active and engaging in regular physical exercise.

Learning how to keep your stress levels in check (e.g. by listening to uplifting music, making leisure time a priority, making time for praying, meditating, enjoying the sunset, taking up a relaxation practice like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, etc., understanding and accepting your emotions - even the unpleasant ones you may try to ignore).

Eating a brain-healthy diet to support strong mental health, and avoiding foods that adversely affect mood, such as caffeine, alcohol, sugary snacks, fried food, etc.

Getting enough sleep.

Finding purpose and meaning in life (such as through engaging work that provides meaning to yourself and others, building wholesome relationships, etc.).

Spiritual health is vital.

While the Bible is not a healthcare book, it provides practical guidance that can help us to cope with painful emotions and distressing circumstances. The Bible does not indicate that spirituality cures medical problems. Still, many people around the world have derived much comfort and strength from what the Bible teaches. For instance, the Bible assures us that our loving Creator is keenly interested in consoling those who are "brokenhearted" and "crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18) ––Daniel Ighakpe, FESTAC Town, Lagos.

A Bit Short of Inspirational

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n this time of trouble, we need a laugh and Noah Lyles, a fast runner but not as fast as initially thought, provided it.

Because of COVID restriction a number of sporting events have been postponed or cancelled including the Olympics.

The spirit of the Olympics is to inspire us to be the best we can, Faster - Higher - Stronger and this does truly inspire many although not this year.

An alternative was set up with athletes basically competing by a ZOOM-like approach at different locations around the world and American Noah Lyles competed in the 200m in an apparent time of 18.90 seconds, a new world record that even he could not believe it and he was right. As it turns out he had mistakenly started in the wrong lane and thus run 15m less than others. He would have known that something was wrong as athletes at this level know what they are doing every second of the race.

Obviously, this was his worst best day.

These errors do occur with the Darwin swimming pool being only 49.5m long, a small difference that will cost a lot to fix and Portsmouth, England have a pool 5 cm too short. It shouldn't matter too much as demonstrated by Eric the Eel, in the Sydney Olympics, who had never before swum in a 50m pool. He did however win his heat, in the slowest ever Olympic time although this was helped by the fact that his two opponents fell in.

We need to look for the fun in life and enjoy these occasional small, 15m errors as everything is too serious at the moment. If we need to look for further inspiration, watch Eddie the Eagle movie, telling the story of a very brave or perhaps stupid Ski Jumper, who although hopeless inspired everyone.

––Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia.

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SUNDAY JULY 12, 2020 •T H I S D AY

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

BUSINESS

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

Magu’s Travails and the Anti-graft War Kingsley Nwezeh writes on the arrest and detention of the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, the triggers that led to his incarceration and the implication for the anti-graft war

L

astMonday,thenewsthatMr. Ibrahim Magu, suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was arrested hit the nation like a thunderbolt.

Although his handlers made concerted efforts to disclaim the arrest by substituting it with invitation, it turned out that he was picked up by security agents to face the seven-man presidential panel headed by Justice Ayo Salami, set up to look into the activities and allocations made to the commission.

Wait for it, the feared and dreaded anti-graft czar, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, was detained! How are the mighty fallen!

As at the time of filling this report he remained in the custody of his parent agency, Nigerian Police, being a Commissioner of Police.

Magu was the poster boy and face of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption drive. While he reigned, he cut the picture of a no-nonsense, unsmiling, anti-graft warlord.

He also enjoyed a seeming chubby relationship with Buhari and had, among others initiatives, convened an anti-corruption summit that attracted many African leaders to Abuja.

Magu’s leadership at EFCC is on record to have secured the conviction of four former governors, notably, Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Lucky Igbinedion (Edo), Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and recently Orji Uzor Kalu, who was set free via a court order after spending some months in Kuje Correctional Facility.

His arrest alarmed the nation, Magu, having been rated as one of the best performing heads of the anti-graft agency in recent memory going by the 2,240 convictions the agency secured under his leadership and N990 billion and other assets recovered in five years.

He was a nightmare to politically exposed persons mired in corruption, oil thieves and Nigerians involved in cybercrime popularly known as “Yahoo boys”.

He also received accolades and awards from no less an institution than the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his efforts in joint operations aimed at hunting down internet fraudsters across the globe.

Charges against Magu Magu’s problems from inception are many and varied. The issues hunting him had stalled his confirmation as substantive head of the commission for five years.

The 8th Senate relied on the DSS report to deny him confirmation, but his name was not sent to a friendlier 9th Senate either after one year into President Buhari’s second tenure.

A memo written by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, accused the suspended EFCC Chairman of diverting recovered looted funds, insubordination and discrepancies in lodgement of recovered loot.

The AGF also accused Magu of failing to provide sufficient evidence for the extradition of former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, sale of seized assets to cronies, associates and friends and issuance of investigative activities to some media outfits prejudicial to some cases.

The minister also accused Magu of delay in acting on two vessels seized by the Nigerian Navy, alleged preference of some investigators called “Magu Boys” and reporting some judges to their presiding officers without deferring to the AGF.

Magu also explained why the former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosun’s arraignment was delayed.

According to him, “the reason Amosun was not arraigned when the likes of Alex Badeh and Umar were arraigned was because he cooperated with the commission in terms of assisting the process of recovering the proceeds of crime.

“Indeed, among the suspects arrested over the arms procurement scandal, he was most cooperative. The commission recovered N2.835 billion cash from him, aside from property N1,581,000,000, $2,150,000 and £1,000,000”.

He held that, “since a key focus of the investigation was to recover as much proceeds of crime as possible, the commission took its time to ensure it had recovered what was possible before arraigning the suspect in court.

This had nothing to do with the wish of any individual. Moreover, the suspect has since been arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction.”

Power Play

Magu

More Accusations Before the Justice Minister’s memo, Ibrahim Magu had running battles with the then Lawal Daura-led Department of State Security (DSS), who raised issues with houses owned and rented by him in Karu and Maitama Districts of Abuja, expensive air travels, high profile and expensive lifestyle, the mutually beneficial relationship with retired Air Commodore Mohammed Umar, missing EFCC files and alleged vendetta against some people under investigation.

Magu’s Position Magu had also responded to the allegations to a query issued him by the AGF following the DSS report against him.

Responding to the allegations in a letter addressed to the AGF, dated December 21, 2016, Magu, had given a point by point response to the allegations, which are still some issues before the Justice Salami Panel.

Missing EFCC Files Magu posited that, “It is true that my residence was searched on the orders of Mrs. Farida Waziri, shortly after she succeeded Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as Chairman of the EFCC and some documents relating to cases under investigation were found in my house. At the time of the raid, I was yet to formally hand

over to my successor, Umar Sanda, as head of the Economic Governance Unit.”

On return to EFCC under Lamorde, he said: “I was Assistant Commissioner of Police in Charge of Operations at the Anambra State Police Command, when I was recalled to the EFCC in 2012.

“I did not lobby to return to the EFCC. It is preposterous to say I was recalled to do a hatchet job for Lamorde, as alleged in the DSS Report. My job schedule as Deputy Director, Department of Internal Affairs, under Lamorde, was simply handling issues of professional responsibility in the commission. I had no inputs in core operations, duties of the commission.”

On his controversial residential accommodation, the embattled EFCC boss said: “I live in the official residence of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. This accommodation, contrary to the report of the DSS, is not my private home, neither was it rented and furnished for me by Commodore Umar Mohammed (rtd).

“It was rented and furnished by the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory through the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, under the Safe House Scheme.

“It is also false that the house was rented for N20million per annum and furnished for N43million. The entire cost for both twoyear rent and the furnishing of the house is N39.628million.”

The Magu probe saga has been variously described as power play amongst power blocs in government, proof that no official is above the law, and witch-hunt by others.

A presidency official, who spoke anonymously affirmed that probe of Magu’s headship of EFCC was proof that nobody in the administration is above the law.

A member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Femi Odekunle, weighed in on the matter.

He argued that Ibrahim Magu’s invitation to face a presidential panel probing the activities of the anti-graft agency was a product of power play by power blocs in government.

He warned that President Muhammadu Buhari must be careful not to shoot down his government’s anti-corruption fight and modest achievements.

He called on the president to be mindful of the fact that EFCC under Magu remained the administration’s anti-corruption poster-face.

He posited that the memo written recently by the Minister of Justice and AttorneyGeneral of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) calling for Magu’s removal was also an outcome of the clash by power blocs in government.

“The alleged originating Malami memo, up to the current “arrest” seems an outcome of power-play by power blocs in the corridors of power in which Malami appears to be an arrow-head or major agent of a power bloc that is not really interested in, or in support of Buhari’s anti-corruption fight.”

Panel and EFCC As the presidential panel continues its proceedings, President Buhari Friday approved the appointment of Umar Mohammed, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) as the acting chairman of the commission.

Directors of the commission have also appeared before the panel even as Magu applied for bail on self recognisance.

The Justice Ayo Salami-led panel is expected to do a thorough job of ensuring that the issues raised are dealt with in a manner that occupants of such sensitive positions in anti-graft agencies live above board while also taking into cognisance charges raised over the perceived true intention of the investigation.

The nation is in dire need of cleansing, which could only be provided by a transparent leadership at the highest level including anti-graft agencies.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

BUSINESS/TRANSPORT

A container vessel at a berth in Lagos port

A ‘Whistleblower’ Misadventure at NPA The reforms embarked upon by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Port Authority , Ms. Hadiza BalaUsman, since her assumption of office, has left no one in doubt about her resolve to right the wrongs of the past, block all avenues of leakages and save more money for the government. Some of her actions that have ruffled feathers were targeted to rein in impunity and lawlessness by powerful private interests. Bala-Usman has burnt down their ‘untouchable’ aura, forced them to adhere to the rule of law and restored investor confidence in the system. To get back at her, entrenched interests have continued to make effort to get the government to reverse some of her tough decisions. The spurious claim few days ago by a ‘whistleblower’ of an account that was secretly being operated by the Nigerian Ports Authority to illegally collect revenue from vessels, is one of the many plan to get even with her. Eromosele Abiodun reports

W

ithout any doubt, if there is any government agency in Nigeria today that epitomises the anticorruption war of the Buhari administration, that institution is certainly the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) under the leadership of the current Managing Director, Hadiza Bala-Usman. However, in a country where entrenched interest will do anything to get people perceived to be stumbling block to their criminal enterprising that they have sustained by ripping off the Nigerian government via dubious contracts and violation of laid-down rules over the years, you never can be certain what extent they can go to achieve their object. Any discerning observer of recent developments in the Nigerian ports system will know that reforms embarked upon

by Bala-Usman have ruffled feathers and they are ready to do anything to get back at the NPA. This was what played out a few days ago when a certain John Okupurhe wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, accusing the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

Okpurhe, in a letter written by his lawyer, Aliyu Lemu, dated June 22, 2020, accused the AGF of refusing to pay him commission after exposing over $1billion (N420 billion) hidden

in Unity Bank Plc. Okupurhe said he expected his share after he exposed the account that was secretly being operated by NPA to illegally collect revenue from vessels.

He said he provided the details to the Office of the AGF of the secret account in line with the whistle-blower policy, and that an agreement was signed.

The agreement stated that Okpurhe would be entitled to a commission if the information provided turned out credible.

Okpurhe said after playing his own part, the AGF’s office began to give excuses.

The letter read in part, “Pursuant to the whistleblower policy of the federal government, our client approached the Office of the AGF with confidential information in respect of hidden public funds concealed in a commercial bank in Lagos contrary to the Treasury Single Account policy which requires all public revenue or funds to be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Our client presented the Office of the AGF with qualifying information on a cloned account with the Nigerian Ports Authority which was being used to illegally collect revenue from vessels by the signatories who are no longer in the service of the NPA. “Upon establishing that our client’s information qualified under the whistleblower policy, the Office of the AGF signed a

whistleblower agreement with our client through his appointed counsel- Mamman, Maiyaki & Co. “The information provided by our client eventually led to the exposure of the hidden/concealed funds in Unity Bank Plc to the tune of $1,034,515, 000.”

He added that the Head of Asset Management and Recovery Unit, Mrs. Ladidi Mohammed, informed him that the matter was in court and that plans had changed.

He added: “On the next day, one Ms. Bunmi, who deputises for Mrs. Mohammed, called our client and asked him to come alone without a lawyer. Upon arrival, she informed our client that there was no pending matter in court on the account.”

He said he was told that because the money involved was huge, the Office of the AGF recommended a private firm with which he should enter into a contract to help him get the funds.

Okpurhe said upon the insistence of the AGF’s office, he was made to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the company to forfeit 60 percent of his reward.

He said in a dramatic twist, his lawyer was attacked by armed policemen in his office, who robbed him and made away with the original copy of the agreement signed with the AGF. Okpurhe, however, called on the President to quickly intervene as failure to pay him could compromise the whistleblower policy and affect public trust in the government.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

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BUSINESS/TRANSPORT A ‘Whistleblower’ Misadventure at NPA Facts Laid Bare In a swift reaction to the allegation, the NPA said the allegation was untrue and a misunderstanding of the purportedly hidden account.

According to NPA, “Although Mr. Okupurhe, claiming to be a whistleblower cited a wrong account number, the NPA truly operates an account with Unity Bank plc. However, this account has been inoperable due to a Suit No: FHC/L/CS/582/2010 GARNISHEE ORDER NISI- AMINU IBRAHIM & CO & ANOR. VS. NIGERIAN PORTS AUTHORITY. The fact of the case are as follows: The plaintiffs in this matter filed a suit against the Authority asking the Federal High Court to order the NPA to pay the sum of $9, 186, 701( Nine Million, One Hundred and Eighty Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty-Million US Dollars) to the plaintiffs being the fees allegedly agreed on for consultancy services rendered by the plaintiffs and interest of the same sum at the rate of 10% from April 27 2004 until the final liquidation of the said debt.”

The plaintiff, the NPA added, claimed that they had carried out the assignment given to them by the NPAdiligently and submitted their bills for payment, “but the Authority failed, refused or neglected to pay their professional fees. They accompanied their Writ of Summons with an affidavit stating that the Authority had no defence to the suit.

“In filling its defence, the Authority disputed the claims of the plaintiff for the following reasons: The plaintiffs did not carry out the assignment as required, a result of which there are discrepancies which made the reports they produced unreliable for the Authority’s use.

“The assignment was given on a “no cure, no pay basis,” which allowed the Authority not to pay in case of non-satisfactory performance.

There was no evidence to ascertain how the consultants arrived at the sum claimed.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) was investigating the matter at the time the suit was filed, a result for which payments for all contracts awarded during the period was suspended.”

NPA said it thereafter made an application requesting the court to allow it defend the suit on merit to enable it proffer evidence to confirm the failure of the consultants to execute the assignment diligently.

“The court reserved ruling on this application for December 13, 2006, but rather than deliver ruling on the set date, the court entered judgment against the Authority in the exact sums claimed by the plaintiffs.

“Dissatisfied by the judgment upon conviction that the weight of evidence favoured the Authority and that the learned judge erred in law and in fact by holding that the Authority had no defence, lawyers of the Authority were briefed to proceed to the Court of Appeal.

“The Court of Appeal entered judgment against toAuthority on May 7, 2009 holding that there was no merit in its defence and therefore dismissing the appeal, “it stated.

The NPAadded that it was surprised that the court did not consider the fact that the claim was the subject of an EFCC investigation and that the plaintiff did not deny its disputation of the means of computation of its alleged fees.

NPA Challenges Court Ruling The NPAadded that in view of the enormous sums of money awarded against it by the Court of Appeal and the conviction that there was apparent bias in the judgement of the court, it again, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

It added that it also applied for a stay of the execution of the Court of Appeal judgement on May 11, 2009.

It added, “On May 11, 2018, the Supreme Court, found that the plaintiffs rendered services, which were not paid for to the Authority and dismissed the Appeal. The authority had argued that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit being a case for the recovery of professional fees and a matter of simple contract. But contrary to its earlier decisions in similar cases, the Supreme Court decided that the present case was not one of simple contract but the administrative decision of an agency of the federal government.

“Contrary to the authority’s hope that the Supreme Court would direct that the matter

Hadiza Bala Usman

be referred to the appropriate trial court for fair hearing given the authority’s position that the services rendered did not satisfy the contract, it held that the authority should pay the plaintiffs the following: $9, 186, 701.00 plus pre and post judgment interest at the rate of 10% per annum with effect from April 27, 2004 until date of payment, N144, 303, 981.00 together with pre and post judgment interest at the rate of 10% per annum with effect from April 27, 2004 until date of payment.”

The above stated sums, it stated, translated into: Twenty-two Million, Five Hundred and Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventeen United States Dollars and Forty-Five Cents.

“It should be stated at this juncture that following the judgement of the FHC in 2010, the judgment creditors had approached the court vide the Garnishee procedure to enforce the judgement. The FHC granted the Garnishee Order Nisi against the following banks with which the Authority holds accounts: Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank plc, United Bank for Africa plc, Unity Bank plc, Polaris Bank plc (Former Skye Bank). Union Bank Plc, Bank PHB, Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Intercontinental Bank plc.

“Based on the appeal going on then, the authority opposed the order of the court directing the bank to freeze the sums standing to its credit pending when the Garnishee Order will be absolute. The court then ordered a suspension of the Garnishee proceedings until the resolution of the appeal. Some of the banks, relying on the 2010 Garnishee order nisi, held on to the sums standing to the credit of the authority as at the date of the order and refused to transfer same to the Treasury Single Account when asked to,” it stated.

The NPA added, “Upon the determination of the case at the Supreme Court however, the judgment creditors continued with the Garnishee process. On May 30, 2019, the FHC made a garnishee order absolute against the authority’s account with Access Bank plc and GTBank. This was to the effect that the banks, may in satisfaction of the judgment debt transfer the sum to the judgment creditors.

“As the bank statement on the Nigeria Ports Authority’s Unity Bank Account No: 013670344 revealed, the debit of the sum of $1, 057, 772.0 on December 4, 2019 in favour of Suit No: FHC/L/CS/582/2010 GARNISHEE ORDER NISI- AMINU IBRAHIM & CO & ANOR. VS. NIGERIAN PORTS AUTHORITY was necessitated by Garnishee Order absolute.

“It is pertinent to point out that as of August 27, 2010 when the account was put on Garnishee, it had the total sum of $929,019.79. The difference between this sum and the sum of $1, 057, 772.0 on December 4, 2019, represents accrued

Abubakar Malami

interests in the period between August 27, 2010 and December 4, 2019 when the judgement creditor was credited.”

The NPA stressed that it is obvious that there is no cloned account as has been speculated in the alleged whistle blowing effort of Okpurhe.

The account under discussion, it added, was freezed on the strength of a court order while the money was transferred to the judgment credit, “without the knowledge of the authority following the Garnishee Order Absolute. The authority hereby reiterates its conviction that it did not get justice from the courts on this matter even though it pursued same to the Supreme Court.”

Malami Replies Okupurhe Last week, the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) responded to Okupurhe’s allegation, that his office refused to pay him his fee after exposing over $1billion hidden in a bank.

The minister said the federal government only pays whistleblowers after a successful recovery of looted funds and not for mere tracing or exposure of suspected illegitimate funds.

In a statement by his special assistant on media and public relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu, Malami said, “The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice wants to make it categorically clear that one does not get paid on account of exposing looted assets, but on successful recovery and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

Malami added, “The Office of the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and Minister of Justice wants to make it categorically clear that one does not get payment on account of exposing looted assets, but on successful recovery and lodgment of same into the designated assets recovery account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

While reeling out the procedure for engagement of a whistleblower or recovery agent as it relates to the Office of the AGF, he added: “A proposal is submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, a Letter of Engagement is issued to a whistleblower or recovery agent where the disclosure is assessed to have some prospects of success. The recovery agent or whistleblower is expected to notify in writing the acceptance of the engagement.

“The recovery agent or whistle-blower is expected, upon acceptance, to not only trace the assets but recover the same and have it deposited in a designated asset recovery account maintained by the federal government in the Central Bank which is usually provided to the recovery agent in writing.”

According to the AGF, where these funds are eventually claimed to have been lodged by a

whistleblower or recovery agent, the Central Bank issues acknowledgment of receipt of the fund to the Office of Attorney-General on demand.

“It is the satisfaction of the above elements that entitles the whistle-blower or a recovery agent to a claim of the success fee and the payment is usually effected by the Federal Ministry of Finance and not the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“The role of the Office of the AttorneyGeneral, in essence, is simply that of processing the above-listed documents to the Ministry of Finance which is the ministry saddled with the responsibility of effecting payment.”

Malami explained further that recovery is not about exposing the existence of certain assets in an account purported to have belonged to an agency of the government.

“It is about establishing that the funds in the account are looted assets or illegitimately warehoused and following that up with actual recovery and lodgement of the funds in the designated asset recovery account through judicial and extrajudicial means.

“Entitlement to recovery fees is for all intent and purposes contingent on lodgement of the purported/exposed assets constituting the subject of recovery into the Federal Government Recovery designatedAccount, “he added.

NPA Welcomes Reps Probe Also last week, the NPA applauded the decision of the House of Representatives to probe an alleged secret account with Unity Bank Plc. This follows a motion of urgent national importance and the consequent resolution of the House of Representatives to investigate an alleged secret account operated by the authority during plenary yesterday.

In a statement issued by its General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, Jatto AAdams, the NPAreiterated the non-existence of such an account.

“While awaiting communications from the House committees on finance; and ports and harbours on the proposed investigations, the authority restates it position in the statement issued by management earlier this week that the Unity Bank account number: 0013680344, cited by the whistleblower, Mr. Okpurhe, does not exist as evidenced by a February 12,2020 letter from Unity Bank Plc,” it stated.

The NPA, added that it operates an account with Unity Bank Plc with account number: 0013670344 with a total sum of $1,057,772.03 as of December 4, 2019, “and not $1,034,515,000.00(one billion, thirty-four million, five hundred and fifteen thousand United States Dollars)” as alleged by the petitioner.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

20

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

How CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme LV 3URSHOOLQJ )RRG 6XͿFLHQF\ Obinna Chima writes on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which is supporting the country’s quest to becoming self-sufficient in food production. If this initiative by the CBN under the leadership of the Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, is sustained, it will be one of the enduring legacies of the Buhari administration

T

heoutbreakoftheCOVID-19 has rapidly changed the world. Today, globalisation hascomeunderseverethreat.

Already,therearepredictions thattheglobaleconomyisfacing an economic downturn that is worse than the Great

Depression.

Due to the disruptions caused by the virus, there have been worries about unprecedented global food insecurity, with concerns that agricultural production may be dislocated by the containment measures that were put in place to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), about 37 countries had enacted various forms of food export restrictions in response to COVID-19, even in countries where average production exceeds domestic consumption.

For example, Vietnam, the world’s third largest exporter of rice, suspended granting rice export certificates until the country “reviews domestic inventories,” while Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, had banned export of buckwheat and rice due to concerns over panic buying in local supermarkets.

The World Bank recently pointed out that the primary risks to food security are at the country level: as the coronavirus crisis unfolds, disruptions in domestic food supply chains, other shocks affecting food production, and loss of incomes and remittances are creating strong tensions and food security risks in many countries.

In addition, the United Nations World Food Programme warned that an estimated 265 million people could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020, up from 135 million people before the crisis, because of income and remittance losses.

The foregoing has reinforced the need for countries to look inwards in order to guarantee food sufficiency for their citizens.

Owing to this, analysts have continued to hail the foresight of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in creating the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), an initiative that has supported for food sufficiency in the country.

They pointed out that save for the improved domestic production in rice and some other crops, the country could have been faced with food shortage during lockdown in Lagos and Ogun states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, that saw the restriction of movement, in a bid to contain the spread of the COVID-19.

For a country of over 200 million people, and projected to be about 450 million in a few decades, the pandemic has shown that dangers lie ahead if the country does not begin to depend largely on what it produces locally.

The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme The ABP which was launched by President MuhammaduBuhariin2015,wasdesignedtoassist small-scale farmers to increase the production and supply of feedstock to agro-processors with the aim of creating an ecosystem to link out-growers (smallholders) to local processors.

The programme has increased banks’ financing to the agricultural sector, enhanced capacity utilisation of agricultural firms involved in the production of identified commodities as well as the productivity and incomes of farmers.

The anchor borrowers’ programme has also assisted rural subsistent farmers to reach commercial production levels.

The thrust of theABP is the provision of inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to smallholder farmers with a view to boosting the production of rice, maize, poultry, sorghum, cassava, tomatoes, cotton, palm oil, Soybean, among others.

The idea is to stabilise input supply to agroprocessors and address the country’s negative balance of payments on food. It is a loan to farmers without collateral and the benefitting farmers are given farm input and cash to cultivate their farms,

Emefiele

including the experiment on rice.

According to the structure of theABP, a farmer who wants to repay his loan can either do so with cash or give the central bank his /her produce of same value, after which officials of CBN’s Development Finance Department would sell and recover the loan.

After the rice boom that has seen many homes ditching expensive imported rice for home grown local rice consequently saving the country huge foreignexchange,inlinewiththePresidentBuhari administration’s quest to diversify the economy, the CBN decided to extend the scheme to other produce.

Presently, the CBN has restricted importers of 43 items from accessing dollars from its regulated forex windows in its bid to encourage domestic production.

Also, other fiscal policies are making it increasingly unfavorable for the importation of those items. Currently, almost all the states are involved in the scheme.

Clearly, the intervention has led to a decline in imports and have resulted in significant rise in the price of imported rice.

CBN’s Focus Following success recorded by the scheme and inlinewitheffortstoboostfoodproductionaswell as help the country avert the looming economic recession, the CBN recently disclosed that it has set aside about N432 billion to fund the value chainsofninecommoditiesinthe2020wetseason.

It listed the commodities to include rice, cassava, maize, cotton, oil palm, cowpea, livestock, poultry, and fish.

TheDirector,DevelopmentFinanceDepartment of CBN, Yila Yusuf, who disclosed this, said over 1.1 million farmers, cultivating over one million hectaresoffarmlandwereexpectedtobenefitfrom the loans that would help to produce a collective output of 8.3 million metric tons. Yusuf said the focus on the 2020 wet season was to ensure the provisionofimprovedseedsthatwouldincentivise farmers to return to their farms.

He maintained that the CBN adopted the value chain approach across all the commodities to ensure that every player along the entire value chain, from the farmers through to the processors, was financed.

The CBN’s funding of the ABP for the 2020 season, Yusuf said, was the highest since the inception of the programme in 2015. He said the proposed funding for the nine commodities was a significant move by the CBN, considering the successes recorded in the 2019 season that contributed to shielding Nigeria from any food shortage, particularly rice.

Also, CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor, said the bank was committed to aggressively fund its agricultural programmes, particularly in the 2020 agricultural wet season, to ensure the farmers go to work immediately on the cultivation of the identified commodities.

“This is to spur farmers along select crop value chains to prevent the country from sliding into a recession,asiscurrentlybeingexperiencedinsome major economies of the world,” Okorafor said.

Also, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said the bank would sustain its intervention in the agriculture sector through its development finance mandate, in order to help catalyse growth incriticalsectorsoftheeconomysuchasagriculture and the manufacturing sectors.

“When I became governor of the Central Bank in June 2014, imports of rice, fish, wheat and sugar aloneconsumedaboutN1.3trillionworthofforeign exchange from the Bank. My immediate question was: can we not produce these ourselves? After all, only a few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of many agricultural products like palm oil, cocoa and groundnuts,” he said.

In line with the vision of President Buhari, the CBN has indeed created several lending programmes and provided hundreds of billions to smallholder farmers and industrial processors in several key agricultural produce. These policies are aimed at positioning Nigeria to become a selfsufficient food producer, creating millions of jobs, supplying key markets across the country and dampeningtheeffectsofexchangeratemovements on local prices.

The CBN governor explained that through programmes such as the ABP, the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Bankers Committee Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS), the apex bank has improved access to markets for farmers by facilitating greater partnership with

agro-processors and manufacturing firms in the sourcing of raw materials.

“As a result, manufacturers have integrated local options in sourcing their raw materials.

Partnerships forged through contracts between farmer cooperatives and agro-processors have also helped to support improved production of agricultural commodities such as rice, cotton and maize.

“In order to address some of the challenges faced by local farmers and manufacturers, we embarked on measures to discourage smuggling and dumping of restricted items into the country, by imposing restrictions on the use of financial institutions in Nigeria by identified smugglers, as their activities undermined the growth of our local industries.

“Thesemeasuresareaidingoureffortstosupport local cultivation in rice, cotton and fish, etc.,” he disclosed.

Furthermore, he pointed out that at some point in Nigeria’s history, the economy was heavily reliant on agriculture, with increased cultivation and exports of primary products such as cocoa, palm oil, cotton and groundnut.

He, therefore, urged the country, in view of current challenges in the global economy, to return to the era, when the growth of agricultural and manufacturing sectors were used to bring about growth and employment.

Emefiele, also said theABPhad yielded positive outcomes for the growth of the economy.

Emefiele believes the Bank’s on-going interventions, especially in agriculture, would, “help to boost not only our domestic outputs but also improve our annual non-oil exports receipts from $2 billion in 2018 to $12 billion by 2023.”

PresidentBuharirecentlydecriedthehugesums spent by the country importing food items that could be produced locally.

He added: “The importance of agriculture in the economy cannot be over emphasised. Prior to the advent of oil, our country survived on agriculture production. During this period, the economy was built on agricultural activities and our gross domestic product grew steadily.

“Economic diversification is no longer an option for us, it is the only way for economic momentum and the drive to prosperity.”

According to him, the only way to do this was to go back to the land and develop agriculture.

Impact Assessment Ogun State Governor, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, recently described theABP, as a veritable scheme for fighting unemployment and ensuring food security in Nigeria.

Abiodun said Ogun had already keyed into the initiative with anchors in rice, maize and cassava production.

“We have latched on to theAnchor Borrowers’ Programme, which is basically a programme that requires that you identify an anchor, who would be the processor of off-taker and then you line up your unemployed youths, who want to be agri-prenuers,” Abiodun stated.

According to him, Ogun State selected the first 10,000 persons in its job portal to benefit from the programme by allocating to them a hectare of land each.

Explaining further, the governor stated that, “And this anchor, who happens to be somebody processing cassava and requires 200 tonnes of cassava daily, has committed to an off-take price, the CBN has provided us with funding to clear the land, the anchor and the CBN are providing us the seedlings to plant.

“We are going to provide the extension service, the CBN would pay them stipends until harvest and we intend to scale this up over the next five months to about 50,00 people.

“So, it affords us the opportunity to build capacity to employ our people and also achieve food security. Consequently, we are believing that with this, we would see a reduction in criminal tendency,” he added.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

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BUSINESS /BRANDS & MARKETING

Purple: From Real Estate to Lifestyle While some brands in the real estate industry are working to improve their market share, some are struggling for visibility. But for Purple Group, the ambition is to consolidate its expansion plan and become the market leader, writes Raheem Akingbolu

PurpleLekki...currently under development

I

n the last five months, many questions have been raised by experts and business owners on how best to communicate with consumers during the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has almost crippled businesses worldwide. Should brand owners halt all marketing communications activities until the crisis subsides? Should they leave everything to chance or find a new way to communicate?

While the questions have remained unresolved, local and international analysts have been busy proffering solutions. One, it was generally believed that halting marketing activities would do nothing but kill businesses. Rather than leave things to chance, brand owners were charged to look for how best to communicate, not relying on the traditional platforms alone. It has also been recommended that companies that deserve rebranding or any form of positioning must act fast before their loyal consumers look elsewhere.

Recently, Purple Capital Partners Limited, a Nigerian leading investment firm and real estate developer took the bull by the horns and changed its name to Purple. The company also took another giant step and actualized what was said to be a well-conceptualized brand extension by unveiling its lifestyle business lines. With the new development, observers believed that the Purple Group has not only contended well with the challenges that come with the current global crisis but has proved to be on top of its game.

Stakeholders in the company have commended the move because of its strategic relevance to the ongoing repositioning plans of the Purple Group. Besides, it aligns with the global practices of companies that target the broader audience. The Purple Group is believed to be acquainted with the basic rule that brand aspiration should reflect on identity.

A common example is that of an established company that rebrands in order to appeal to the millennial crowd. One company that has done this very successfully is Adidas. In the past few years, the sports retailer has gained considerable market share—to competitors like Nike and Under Armour—by capturing the increasingly large athleisure segment adored by millennials.

The Journey, The Synopsis According to the management of Purple Group, the announcement about the rebranding of Purple Capital Partners Limited and the change of name to Purple was in line with the strategic repositioning of the company. Also, its flagship multi-use centre, Maryland Mall, in Lagos will now be known as PurpleMaryland while the ongoing development in Lekki is to be known as PurpleLekki. The decision, it said, was in line with the group’s core belief in continuous innovation and customer satisfaction.

The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Olayide Agboola, who made the announcement in Lagos, stated that the rebranding and repositioning took effect from July 1. He also indicated the process would be implemented on allthecompany’sphysicalanddigitaltouchpoints.

Speaking on the new direction for Purple, Agboola explained: “We are refocusing our brand and extending our reach beyond just real estate development. We see the need to curate affordable lifestyle experiences by leveraging our expertise in real estate development. With MarylandMall, now PurpleMaryland and our on-going development with PurpleLekki, we are integrating retail, arts, entertainment, media and advertisement, family fun, food and drinks, ecommerce and financial services all in one through superior mixed-use centres and services. Our new focus is clear; working with our range and network of partners, we are creating affordable lifestyle experiences for our consumers across all income levels.”

Agboola further pointed out that all the group’s facilities and ongoing development were also rebranded and would be addressed with the Purple prefix (PurpleMaryland, PurpleLekki) while its new services would also bear a touch of the purple identity as well. He, however, added that to keep in touch with the group’s brand heritage, they kept the same colours and logo symbol.

Speaking on what the new identity connotes, the CEO said it signified growing strength, resilience and elegance, noting that it represents the significant growth and successes it has recorded over the past few years.

He said: “Ours is a story of sheer resilience, best practices and excellent service delivery to

our partners and clients across the group. With this brand repositioning, we are re-committing to our core beliefs and ensuring unwavering commitment to our values, to our investors and to our esteemed partners. Our refreshed brand clearly communicates these values. We are also excited to unveil the brand identities for our new services and ongoing development projects.”

More Opportunities for Patrons According to Agboola, with the new development, PurpleLekki, PurpleNano, PurpleShop and PurplePlay have all been designed to give customers more value for money. For instance, he explained that PurpleLekki, the all-new lifestyle centre in Lekki, Lagos, currently under development, will occupy a land size of about 10,000 sqm and a few floors which will be for retail, entertainment, serviced accommodation, and private offices.

For PurpleNano, Agboola stated that the premium and standard studio apartments were conceived with the modern professional in mind and available in 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 1-bedroom variants.

“These ‘nanos’ are furnished to fit the peculiarities and taste of the Lekki Market and provide a peaceful, cozy space for occupants and visitors,” he stated.

Speaking of the future, the company also has plans to venture into the e-commerce space with brand ‘purple.shop’. Purlple.shop will work with the base of retail, fashion, food and entertainment partners, and service providers in Purple centres. With this, they can reach even more customers through online channels.

The e-commerce platform will also provide marketing tools and real-time analytics to optimize growth.

While pointing out that the group’s identity may have been refreshed, he was quick to add that the company’s focus remains. “We are creating affordable lifestyle experiences for our consumers through our principal investments in these superior mixed-use centres and services. We also remain thankful and committed to our partners and we will continue to utilise our expertise and experience to deliver alpha returns and provide best service to our customers across the group,” he pointed out.

Significance Beyond the fact that the rebranding and brand extension would shore up the profile of the brand, its major significance was that it coincided with the fourth anniversary of the leading retail shopping outlet. The shopping hotspot is the leading neighbourhood retail and entertainment centre in Lagos and plays host to a mix of local and international brands including Shoprite, Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Uber, Workstation, Medplus, Miniso, PEP amongst retail, hospitality and entertainment brands.

The Maryland Mall is a redevelopment of the Maryland Business Plaza seating on a 7,700 sqm piece of land and located on the ever-busy Ikorodu Road, Lagos. The construction of the mall was said to have begun in September 2014 and was opened to the public in 2016. The mall contains three floors with a mezzanine, about 50 stores and hoists on its external façade the largest outdoor screen in sub-Saharan Africa spanning 550 square meters, a unique feature that sets it apart from any other retail centres in Nigeria.

While capturing the feelings of the Maryland developers toward the mall,Agboola, expressed pride in the achievements of the mixed-use centre.

He praised the discipline, focus and resilience of the partners, occupants and everyday customers at the centre, appreciating the value created over the years.

“The successes of Maryland Mall showcases the fact that domestic investment fuelled by the indefatigable spirit of Nigerian entrepreneurs is key to driving national economic growth.

We are proud to be supporting the retail and entertainment industry and creating lifestyle experiences for Lagosians on that axis,’’ he said. ‘’We are leveraging the success of this flagship project to grow our footprints in retail, entertainment and lifestyle by delivering similar assets within the next few years. This we have started with the development of a new mixed-use centre in Lekki, Lagos. This is a bigger development; occupying about 10,000 sqm and a few floors which will be mixed-use – retail, entertainment, serviced accommodation, and private offices.

It’s a larger development and our success with Maryland Mall gives us the confidence to go for more.”

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

BUSINESS INTERVIEW EGIE AKPATA

Nigeria’s Debt Won’t Reduce in Foreseeable Future

Mr. Egie Akpata is the acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UCML Capital Ltd. Hitherto called Union Capital Markets Ltd, a former subsidiary of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc before Akpata and his partners acquired it in 2014. UCML is a foremost investment and advisory firm active in the debt capital markets segment of the industry. In this interview with Kunle Aderinokun, Akpata speaks on Nigeria’s money and capital markets, analysing money market instruments and bond issuances as well as the performance of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in recent time. Besides, Akpata expresses his views on the economy, investment climate and narrows down on the federal government’s borrowing and debt service to revenue, which recently reached an all-time high. Excerpts:

H

owhastheCOVID-19 pandemic affected the primary issuance market?

Alot of things have happened. I think the firstlockdownstarted at the end of March, and the impact on the primary market has not been as much as we would have thought it would be, for a number of reasons.

First, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remained open, so did FMDQ and the NSE. So trading was still going on and primary market transactions were still being approved. Anumber of transactions actually happened during the total lockdown of Lagos and Abuja. So the primary markets actually continued uninterrupted.

Also, interest rates have been coming down due to the Central Bankof Nigeria’s activities in the market, and globally, central banks have been forcing rates down to try and provide liquidity for the market to survive this slow-down period. I think that has also helped here. The equity market, though, has not really seen much on the primary issuance side.

We noticed that your company’s name has changed from Union Capital Markets Limited.

What necessitated the change?

Our new name is UCML Capital Ltd. Union Capital Market used to be a subsidiary of Union Bank. My partners and I bought the company from Union Bank in 2014. That transaction technically closed on December 31, 2013. In January 2014, we took control of the company. Part of the requirements of the acquisition was to rename the company. Also, we did that to coincide with our 20 years anniversary.

The company was founded in 1999, and the 20 years anniversary of the company was technically last year. We are in our 21st year now. So, in order to just reposition the company as independent of any bank, we went into a renaming process. The new name has been approved by all the regulatory authorities.And so the new name is UCMLCapital Limited.

Wedohaveonenewsubsidiary,UCMLInvestment Management Limited, which is the asset management, fund, and portfolio management arm. So, our new name is UCML Capital, and that name is what we would be using going forward.

Is the independence basically the reason you changed the name?

Well, it is primarily regulatory. It is also to rebrand and create our own identity. It is a repositioning and I think over the past five years, we have done quite a lot particularly in the investment banking space.

A lot of quality transactions that have proven our capacity to perform in these markets on our own.

transaction, so those transactions have gone through, and there are quite a number that are coming into the market as you can see.

We closed a N10-billion bond for United Capital in May. We are closing a N10-billion bond for another merchant bank this month, and we have a couple of others that are on the pipeline. So we will be seeing moretransactions,butthequestionis,whyeverybody has not tapped into the low-rate environment to refinance and re-price all their borrowings down?

Sometimes, it’s just knowledge. So we may have to do more to reach out to more clients.Also, sometimes, there are other internal constraints within the issuer community. But I think we will see more transactions this year, certainly more than we saw last year.

Akpata

Despite record-low interest rates, we don’t seem to be seeing as many corporate or state bond issues as would have been expected.Why? This problem happens any time interest rates drop very substantially. Recall this happened in the end of 2015/2016, and I can name a few other times it has happened. Most issuers miss the exact point when rates bottom out.

Let’s break the primary bond market into two parts. The state government bond market since 2015 has become quite small, for a number of regulatory andotherreasons.Between2015andDecember2019, I think Lagos State was the only state that issued a bond. So that is the challenge.

You are having a situation where, for all kind of reasons, most states can’t issue. But Lagos State did do a very large transaction, I think in February or so, to the tune of N100 billion, the largest state

government bond ever.

But, you don’t see many states come to the market because of regulatory constraints around some existing laws, primarily Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007, making it a bid difficult for those transactions to get approved.

Again in Q1, you tend not to have many transactions from corporates, because most corporates have a December year-end. By the time their audited accounts are out and they start the process of a regulated transaction, you go a bit beyond Q1.

But a number of transactions have been coming through. Dangote Cement PLC did a N100-billion bond, you had a N100-billion Commercial Paper (CP) from Dangote Cement, MTN also issued a N100-billion CP. These sizes have not been seen before. Never has there been a N100-billion Commercial Paper

Interest rates for all FGN instruments of all tenors are all below inflation. Why and is this a sustainable trend?

There are two parts to look at it from. First is, has it happened before? It has happened before in this market. It happened in 2016, happened in 2009/10 financial crisis. In this case, it is a reaction to a global crisis.

We do have a global economic crisis triggered by the global pandemic.And if you look at what central banks all over the world have been doing, they have been forcing interest rates down particularly on the short end of the curve. And that has dragged all rates down across all tenors. So we have a situation where, if you look at the US for instance, 10-year bond is around 0.6% per cent. It is probably sitting well below around inflation there. And if you go to Europe or Japan, they even have negative interest rates.

So that phenomenon has found its way here.

There was a time when Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) believed in positive real interest rates, interest rates above inflation. But now, they have to battle with servicing the economy, so they systematically managed the situation in the market to the point where all FGN bond tenors are now yielding below inflation. Inflation is now 12.4 per cent, and even the 30-year bond is below 12 per cent.

So you just create a challenge for investors who are trying to outperform inflation, but for a government that is having to borrow very massively to fund its operations, it’s actually a positive on the government side.

They’re reasonably trying to force people to spend money or invest in productive assets, rather than just storing your money. Because right now, your money is being eroded by inflation, you can’t even earn an interest rate high enough. It is to stimulate the economy.

On how long can it go on for? We have had negative real interest rates in many countries for five years plus, the question is, can you sustain low rates?The CBN probably has enough tools to do so, but what is the collateral damage

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž ÍšÍşËœ 2020

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Regulatory Constraints Preventing State Governments from Approaching Bond Market in terms of punishing savers or encouraging capital ight??

The CBN seems to have found a backdoor way to almost isolate the exchange rate part of the market from the interest rate part. They could do this for a while, a few years definitely.

The federal government has vastly increased borrowing in this year’s budget. How is the new local borrowing impacting corporate borrowers?

I think the original budget had about N1.6 trillion totalborrowing,localandforeign.Thelocalwasabout N850 billion, now the local is like N2.2 trillion. First of all, the entire N1.6 trillion has been converted to local, and they have even added more.

Part of the problem started because of this pandemic. The Federal Government was supposed to go to the Eurobond market for about $3.3 billion which then was about N1 trillion roughly, and the market shutdown just before they could go out.

Unfortunately, they started working on the issue in early March, by end of March, the market had shut down. So there was no opportunity to go into the Eurobond market.

In terms of the naira side the cause was technical issues around the way CBN is managing liquidity.

For instance, local investors in OMO bills cannot buy OMO bills anymore. So as these OMO bills mature, they have to put the money in other federal government instruments such as bonds, or treasury bills.

So,allthatmoneythatismaturingfromOMObills, the DMO and CBN are finding a way to basically direct that money back into federal government instruments.

So as of now, federal government has met about 66 per cent of the N2.2 trillion 2020 borrowing target in local currency Given the level of bids they have received in the auctions, clearly, the liquidity is there for them get to their N2.2 trillion this year. This as far as I know will be a record amount of local borrowing by the federal government in a calendar year and because of the peculiar situation of the market, they can actually raise the money.

On its impact on corporate issuers, it is probably a positive impact from the point of view that the interest rate environment is being managed downwards so as to allow the federal government not take too much borrowing costs. The corporates who are smart enough to tag on to that wave, are able to get money out on usually low rates compared to historical averages.

When somebody is issuing a N100 billion CP at 4.9 per cent and 5.95 per cent for 6 and 9 months respectively, historically you just did not issue CPs at those kind of rates, if you go a year back. So, positive side is that it has brought rate down, and the negative side is that when the excess liquidity dries up, if the federal government continues to borrow at this rate, which is likely next year, then, it would become a very different story.

But for now, it doesn’t seem to be disturbing the local issuance market.

The outstanding FGN debt has grown astronomically in the past five years. Is there now the risk that we might be returning to the debt trap of the 90s?

It depends on what time horizon you look at.

Short-term horizon, such as next two years, the answer is no, because you have to bear in mind that most of that debt is in local currency.

And when you have debts in local currency, the government has a few options, at the worst case scenario, you can either print money or increase taxes. And in the Nigerian government case, the third option is to devalue, so you have more naira from any dollar earnings, to offset the naira debt.

The naira debt is really not a problem. The problem is foreign currency components, which is growing very rapidly.And at some point, I think debt in foreign currency is almost $30 billion. When you add this new IMF, World Bank, AfDB, IDB $5.5 billion that has been recently approved, it definitely goes well over $30 billion. There are still all these Chinese borrowings that are not still clear what their status is.

They were as high as $22 billion. I mean when you add this on top of everything, then you are getting into problem territory.

On the short term though, because of the structure of these loans, the Chinese loans, the multilateral or bilateral loans from DFIs, they are not a problem on the short term. They have low interest rates within longer repayment period. The problem is that at some point, you would start to have to repay these loans in foreign currency. And that could become a problem in about five to 10 years’ time, if it keeps growing at this rate.

For now, there is no near-term risk that Nigeria wouldhaveanydifficultytopayanyforeigncurrency debt including Eurobond debt which is private. Total debt service for Eurobonds last year was $771 million.

dormant and no more very attractive to investors.

So nobody really misses those ones.

The challenge is getting new companies to come to the exchange. The problem seems to be that, for most sectors, public companies in Nigeria have a lower valuation than private companies. That is the root problem.

So if you own a company, you don’t see any value in going to list it, and then, if you want to do a transaction for equity raising, everybody points to your stock price. You find out that your public price is far less than when you are a private company and you have a higher valuation.

That creates a big disincentive for anybody to list you. The whole point of listing is that you hoped to get a higher valuation as a public company. And also, the structure of the market is such that you don’t really have any significant pool of institutional equity investors outside the pension funds.

Mutual funds that are equity focused are very tiny, and you can’t really rely on HNI or corporate investors in the market local. Foreign investors are not that excited about this economy anymore, on the equity side, so you don’t really have demand for the instrument. And when you don’t have that kind of demand, there is a very little motivation for companies to rush to the market.

Until we do have a situation where your public valuation is higher than your private valuation, you might not see any rush in companies coming to list on the exchange.

Akpata

I think next year, it might be slightly more because of a maturity of $500 million early in the year.

But it is still not a problem, which is why Nigeria has not requested any type of restructuring of the Eurobonddebt. EvenwhenFGNEurobondsdropped substantially in price (in March, it dropped 30 per cent plus) it pretty much recovered in price because the market knows that there is no risk of default on Nigerian Eurobonds.

Tenyearsfromnowatthisrate,theforeigncurrency loans would become a problem.

When you look at the debt service to revenue, it’s about 99 per cent, which is too high. Who do you think would pay for these debts in the medium to long term?

I think there’s a lot of talk from the government side around debt service to GDP. We have less than 25 per cent which I guess local regulations allow.

DebtservicetoGDPprobablydoesn’tmeananything because you don’t service debt with GDP. GDP is privately owned. This is not a communist state.

The GDP is actually privately-owned and not owned by the government. It does not have any ability to use the GDPto service debt. What you have ability to use to service debt is revenue that accrues to the government from taxes or other revenues with the government.

Yes, 99 per cent is very worrying, again, it might be worthwhile adjusting the 99 per cent downward for a bond repayment that happened sometimes in March.

When you have a bond repayment, you are pre-paying principal. That in theory, is servicing but it is not a cost for carrying debts. Cost of carrying debt is the interest. And in reality, there are very few governments in the world that ever paid down their debt.

When you look at the US government, their debt has more than doubled in the past 10 years. In fact, in the past three years it has increased probably by $6 or $7 trillion.

In the case of Nigeria, we have bonds that are as far as 2049 maturity, both in local and foreign currencies.And these are bullet repayments. Clearly, those would not need to be repaid any time before then. What would probably happen is that, the debt wouldmostlikelykeepgettinglarger,buttheywould find a way to make the interest payment lower, and you just keep rolling it over.

I don’t see any scenario in the foreseeable future where Nigerian government debt will materially reduce. The only way that would happen is if there was some substantial selling of government’s assets to bring down debt.

And again, in the face of a huge infrastructural deficit, why are you bringing down debt?You should be using the money to build the country itself.

US equity markets are setting all-time highs, but the NSE ASI seems stuck at a fraction of

its all-time high. Why has this market failed to surpass its 2008 highs?

The US markets, particularly the S&P and NASDAQ indices, recently set new all-time highs. The Dow Jones index is yet to do that but it is getting close. So, it is a bit odd that you are having all-time highs in the middle of a pandemic with a huge spike in US unemployment and earnings collapsing in a couple of companies.

But the reason why that is happening is primarily because the Federal Reserve Bank has pumped a lot of money into the system. And their system is a bit different from here.

When the Federal Reserve Bank pumps money into their system, some of that money finds its way into the stock market. In the system we are running here in Nigeria, none of that money goes into the stock market. The people who get hold of the money that is coming out of CBN, they are almost prohibitedfromputtingthemoneyintostockmarket.

It is different in the US. So, a lot of money that their federal government has released, has entered their stock market and pushed it up.

USinvestorsaregiventheoptionofearningalmost zero on their money in US Treasuries. Buying stocks that actually still pay yields way above government yieldsisarationalchoice.Imean,manyUScompanies are paying dividend yields of 2 per cent and above, so it makes sense to park in money in stocks, which is what they are doing.

Now when you bring it to the Nigerian case, unfortunately, here, you have not even had any significanteconomicgrowthinthepastfewyears,and the companies have not been growing earnings at a very rapid pace, and you need continuous earnings growth to have your stocks become more valuable.

That is really not happening here.

Also, you have a situation where you don’t have a lot of the fast-growing sectors of the economy well represented in the stock exchange. It is only recently that MTN got listed and the stock is doing quite decently, but the growth areas of the economy are not represented in the stock exchange, so you might not get the kind of index growth that you hope to get.

If you look at the US, most of the companies that are propping up that market are big tech companies that are still growing.

There seem to be very few equity listings coming to the market. In fact, the number of listed companies on the NSE reduces every year. When will this trend be reversed?

I think that is an unfortunate trend. That is factual. You have to go to the history of the NSE and the 70s indigenisation. A lot of companies were forced to list, so those companies basically, some of them are delisting for different reasons and a number of them are just dying off. Some are now

Governments seem to have a long-term challenge funding their recurrent expenditure, suggesting they cannot fund infrastructure needs of the country. What is the way to bring in fresh funds for infrastructure development?

We have structural problems across the board both at state and federal governments level, because it’s the practical reality. It’s just mathematical, given their payroll, and pension cost, which can only go up every year. It cannot go down, without a huge restructuring of the workforce and layoffs.And that is politically not on the table.

Eventually, it is already happening at the federal government level, and that is why the debt service is so high. Eventually the government basically is just living on borrowed money and hoping that some generations in the future would repay the debts.

So first thing is that the government has to restructure, it can’t keep just getting bigger in terms of its operating cost. Because its revenues are not growing commensurately.

Also, philosophies around who owns what have to change. There was a time in this country where to just make a phone call it was through the government company. We had no private options. That has changed.

That kind of change has to apply to most sectors. The government shouldn’t really be in most sectors of the economy, it should be left to private investors to run and the government taxes them.

But where are those private investors? They are not in Nigeria. The money to build infrastructure does not physically exist in the country. Even if you take all the money in the country and put it into infrastructure, it would not be enough. So, you have to get fresh money from abroad that would come in to build infrastructure to stimulate economic growth and eventually these investors get their money back in foreign currency So far, that has really not happened. There is no private company in any serious infrastructure in Nigeria outside some ports. The power privatization attracted some private money that was mainly leveraged, and that sector is not in good shape right now.

That privatization hasn’t solved anything as the government keeps spending on subsidizing the sector. So many sectors have to be opened to private capital especially foreign private equity.

Not debt, but actually equity. Meaning, risk capital that might make a good return or might be lost.

That is what equity is; it’s not debt.

That money has to come in from abroad. There are various structures that can be used but right now, we don’t seem to be making much progress in that front because, there is no evidence of any money having come in, in any material way into infrastructure, and that has to change.

Can you give an assessment of the investment climate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and what are your predictions?

The investment climate locally cannot be good right now because we do know that there is an economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 situation. We haven’t seen the Q2 GDP data from NBS, but we are quite sure it is down. We haven’t also seen Q2 results of public companies, but we are quite sure it’s down.

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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 ˾ JULY 12, 2020

CICERO/PERSPECTIVE

Hushpuppi (37) repeatedly showed off his flamboyant lifestyle on social media

On Age, Hushpuppi and the Leadership Question Demola Ojo

E

arlier this month, a photo from Nigeria’s past circulated on social media, bringing back great memories of how the affairs of this troubled nation were run in the 1970s.

The picture of former Head of State, Murtala Mohammed, his aide de camp, Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa and Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, three gentlemen in their 30s, is instructive in many respects. It is a clear reminder that the affairs of Nigeria have not always been in the hands of tired old men.

Mohammed was 37, his ADC 31, and Akinyemi as the chief executive of a strategic think tank (The Nigeria Institute of International Affairs) was 33 when the picture was taken in 1975.

All were already accomplished in their respective careers and in respective positions of leadership.

Their generation didn’t embark on lamentation, nor did they make a fetish of age. The young people of the old days understood that power is not served a la carte. They simply rose to the occasion, after being equipped by their backgrounds to do so.

The generation before that of Murtala and Akinyemi also began to run affairs of Nigeria at a relatively young age. Some of them held crucial positions in their 20s. Mathew Mbu became High Commissioner to the UK at 24 while Richard Akinjide became a minister at 29.

Further back into history, the generation of Nnamdi Azikiwe took over the leadership of the anti-colonial agitators from the Lagos elite at a relatively young age.

Unfortunately the case is starkly different today, with the values of hard work, excellence, seeking education, dignity in labour and concerted nation building – which propelled the above mentioned to their lofty achievements - almost completed eroded.

In its place is the celebration of instant riches without any care in the world about its source. This switch in values breeds a lazy and visionless populace with a puzzling sense of entitlement to others’ resources, which they covet and aim to acquire through handouts, fraud or by any means that bypasses the universal law of sowing and reaping.

This worship of material and superficial acquisitions has been exacerbated by the primacy of social media in the lives of the modern youth. It has led to vain and conceited exhibitionists, who are adored by fans whose only plan is to “tap into the blessings” through wishful thinking.

Many of these social media “influencers” and “celebrities” have no verifiable sources of income, yet they enjoy the adulation of millions, to the detriment of their hardworking and creative counterparts who need to wait years to see and enjoy the fruits of their labour, if ever.

The case of Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, is an indication of a much deeper malaise that betrays the values being upheld by the youth of today. Hushpuppi was notorious for flaunting his flamboyant lifestyle, with posts showing him in luxury cars, private jets, and designer

Murtala Mohammed (37) Lt Akinsehinwa (31) and Bolaji Akinyemi (33) in 1975 clothes, as he globe-trotted to fashion shows and dined with celebrities, soccer stars and Nigerian politicians.

He had millions of fans across various social media platforms and his adorers did not care that the only explanation for his stupendous extravagance was, in his own words, as an influencer.

Last month, Hushpuppi was among 12 alleged fraudsters arrested by the Dubai Police Force in the United Arab Emirates as part of a now-viral special operation. Six raids were conducted concurrently while the suspects were asleep. Among several items, Dubai police reportedly seized more than $40 million in cash and hard disks containing the addresses of nearly two million victims.

The arrest was part of a United States’ FBI investigation that unveiled Hushpuppi as one of the kingpins of a transnational cybercrime network specializing in Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, a fast-growing form of cyber-fraud that involves hacking corporate emails and sending fake messages to clients in order to redirect financial transfers and steal bank details.

The 37-year-old has been extradited from the UAE to the US to face criminal charges for allegedly conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through online heists, including those targeting a US law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club, according to a criminal complaint filed in a US federal court last month.

In a twist of fate, Hushpuppi was undone by the social media he used to show off his opulent lifestyle, primarily Instagram and Snapchat.

An FBI affidavit details how the Bureau initially discovered Hushpuppi and his social media handle through two co-conspirators. The FBI found and reviewed his Instagram account—where he styles himself as a real estate developer. The account gave the detectives insight into their target’s lifestyle of “substantial wealth.”

According to the FBI, Hushppuppi was a key player in a large conspiracy that provided “safe havens for stolen money around the world.”

Hushpuppi taking to social media to flaunt material acquisitions is not an isolated case. One of his accomplices, Olalekan Jacob Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, who was also arrested in the Dubai raid, is just as ostentatious on his social media platforms. Same goes for Ismaila Mustapha, alias Monpha, an internet celebrity with a similar profile.

Earlier this year in March, Mopha was arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for N32.9bn fraud. After Hushpuppi’s arrest, Mompha deleted pictures from his Instagram account.

The Hushpuppi case is reminiscent of last year’s FBI arrest of Obinwanne Okeke, another fraudster who posed as a successful entrepreneur and was featured on the Forbes 30-under-30 magazine cover, spoke at the London School of Economics Africa Summit and was lauded by the BBC as a “rising star.”

Okeke has pleaded guilty to an $11 million fraud scheme.

Probably the most unfortunate aspect about these incidents is the apparent celebration of fraud by a substantial number of the youth who view it either through the lens of “reparation” or justify it by pointing to public officials who loot the nation’s treasury to the detriment of ordinary citizens.

Those who attempt to denounce fraud as a way of life are shouted down, mocked and vilified. The comments sections of influential blogs and social media handles are replete with these attacks on those who denounce fraudulent activities. In recent cases, artistes such as Falz and Simi bore the brunt of a social media backlash because they dared to speak up against internet fraud.

The elevation of Hushpuppi and his like as examples worthy of adoration and emulation, points to a morally bankrupt culture enabled by Nigeria’s perennially corrupt political elite, many of whom evade punishment for pilfering public funds. It is a state and situation that has taken years – probably decades - to plunge to, and would take as long to reverse.

While the most desirable solution would be for the older generation in positions of authority to lead by example and pull the nation back from the precipice which this erosion of values will ultimately lead it, it is more practicable for the youth to take their destiny in their own hands and plot the future that only they would live in.

Like their forebears in the 50s, 60s and 70s, they must define their mission for progress and development and seek leadership to actualise it. For as Franz Fanon puts in his The Wretched of the Earth, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it in relative opacity.”

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

12.07.2020

STEVE AYORINDE At 50, I’m A Child of Grace All that glitters is not gold. But at the golden age of 50, bespectacled Steve Ayorinde, former Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture in Lagos State, glistens with confidence and happiness as he reflects on his life’s five-decade roller-coaster.

Demola Ojo presents excerpts ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

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

COVER

STEVE AYORINDE

My Relationship with Babalakin, Ambode And Jimoh Ibrahim the trauma and stress of procuring new passports and visas to travel. Then we got to the UK only for my scholarship to experience hiccups. My wife was pregnant with our daughter. Serious wahala. But the never-saydie Nigerian spirit plus good friends and benefactors came to our rescue. And it all ended in praise with a distinction. But not without various stints at menial jobs many of which my friends still tease me with to date.

Then, of course, there were the one or two cases when you’ve had to move on from a particular job at a time you probably thought you were not ready. But look closely, with the benefit of hindsight, we only see in part while God knows his design for us. If you had not left or forced to leave a position that means a lot to you at a particular point in time, you won’t know that you were being taken to higher grounds. That’s how life usually works. This is why I tell people, don’t force anything. Don’t die fighting over temporal positions. Relax, maybe what is on the other side is far better than what you are struggling to keep. Even if it doesn’t look like an alternative may appear better, God sometimes takes us out of harm’s way so that we can live to witness other opportunities.

Not all that glitters is gold.

Ayorinde

You just clocked 50. How does it feel?

W

ell, I will have to get used to life on the 5th Floor.

I’m just getting there.

No previous experience (laughs). But I imagine that it will be a golden era. Gold does not come cheap, you have to cherish it and handle it with care. So my expectation is that this age and the decade that commences with it will come with the caveat: handle with care (laughs) in terms of attention to one’s health, lifestyle and general responsibility. But more important, I’m grateful to have been permitted to come this far.

and the Almighty has been kind to me.

From being born into a great family with a pedigree to attending good schools at home and abroad, to encountering journalism and rising to the peak of my career at a relatively young age and to having the opportunity to serve Lagos State for four years. All these are blessings that I’m thankful for and speaking about them once in a while will never be to gloat but to encourage others, especially the younger generation who require role models and genuine inspirations.

Are you disappointed that the pandemic must have disrupted your grand plans for this day?

There were no grand plans actually. I’m not a birthday person. If it’s not a milestone like this, I wouldn’t even bother. The Holy Book enjoins us to learn how to count our days, not how to rock our birthdays. My 40th was a bit big. But for this, what I had intended was to unveil my latest book in the morning and then have a small cocktail dinner with close friends later in an arty way.

So yes, you are right, Covid-19 has disrupted that. The book unveiling has been postponed till much later in the year, God willing. And physical distancing protocols plus common sense won’t allow a 100-people dinner again.

But I’m very happy at the show of love and camaraderie by friends and associates in planning a pan-African zoom webinar in my honour to discuss the way forward for African Tourism. I also got to know about the special publication of tributes put together by a committee of friends. I couldn’t have wished for a better celebration. So I do not see covid as a kill-joy. There is more than one way to be shown love and be celebrated.

Looking at your CV and career as editor of Nigeria’s biggest newspaper, MD of a newspaper, consultant to a conglomerate and a commissioner in Lagos State, would you admit you’ve had things relatively easier?

I’m a child of grace like I said earlier, for which gratitude must be ceaseless. But you can’t appreciate a man’s trajectory by only reading his CV. To every grace, there’s always a plague lurking round the corner. It is one’s Ori (Head/Destiny) that protects one. It was Zik of Africa that started his autobiography with the words: my life has been from the unknown to the unknown. That’s pretty similar to my trajectory too. Each time I listen to that song by Tope Alabi and TY Bello titled, ‘Logan Ti o De’ I thought they had me in mind in composing the song. My eyes have seen oh! But isn’t that what makes a man?

So to every great achievement, there will always be adversity?

Definitely. Maybe there would be a few exceptions, but on a general note the road to success, as Tai Solarin said, is always rough.

Gold must go through fire to get purified.

It can’t be worthwhile if it’s too easy or too smooth. There will always be rough edges.

There will be disappointments. You will sometimes be betrayed by allies. You wi l be envied. Some will hate your guts. Many will become entitled and make impossible demands. But that’s life. It does not always run on a straight course.

Do you subscribe to the Biblical injunction to count your blessings and which are you most grateful for?

I’m a child of grace and therefore I’m obliged to be grateful to my creator for every single blessing he has bestowed on me.

When I want to be cheeky as a father, I say ‘my greatest blessings call me Dad.’ That’s a father in me talking; being emotive. But great blessings indeed they are, which wouldn’t have been possible without their mother, my wife who happens to be my best friend.

But then blessings come in various packages

Which of life’s challenges has been most impactful on you?

All. There is no little challenge in my opinion. What others may take in their stride might send some towards the lagoon. We deal with issues differently. In 2005 when I was going to the UK for my master’s, armed robbers burst into our home with only my wife and baby in. There was no money to assuage them until they saw my passport about three or four layers. That’s what saved my family.

They took mine and my wife’s. That was few weeks before our trip. You can imagine

Is this the philosophy you recommend and will live by too?

I’m not a philosopher. I’m only sharing insights based on my own experience and understanding of life. We all learn differently and life has a way of passing its messages across. What is more important though, which is what I’m adopting on this 5th Floor of life is to take things easy. Compete with no one. Be more family-oriented and live a more healthy lifestyle and trust my maker to direct my steps. I will gladly recommend this to anyone.

Tell us about your latest book.

Oh, it’s called ‘30: Three Decades of the New Nigerian Cinema.’ It’s a book I’d started six years ago in 2014, with the wish to have it published in 2015 to celebrate the 25 years of the new Nigerian cinema otherwise called Nollywood. But the electioneering of 2014 and appointment as a Commissioner in 2015 didn’t allow that happen.

Hey, here we are now.

But isn’t 1992 often credited with the beginning of Nollywood and if that is true, will this year be ideal to celebrate its 30 years?

That’s the popular narrative in a section of the film industry. But it’s not an accurate account.

1992 is always mentioned because of Living in Bondage, which was the first home video in Igbo. But it was not the first home video in Nigeria. The like of Muyideen Aromire and Big Abass had shot home videos from 1988 and 1989 while the first Hausa home video was in 1990. Ishola Ogunsola’s Aje ni iya mi was shot in 1991 and marketed by Keneth Nnebue’s NEK Videos before Living in Bondage. Asewo to re Mecca was shot in 1991 and directed by Afolabi Adesanya and that’s an important figure in the history of the Nigerian film industry.

So your book is to correct the erroneous impression that it all started in 1992?

No, Not necessarily. Scholars can always have a field day to debate dates and signification. I’m more interested in celebrating the outstanding movies, directors and actors who have put us on the world map in the last 30 years. My argument is that we had 20 years of golden era between 1969 and 1989. And then a new era began in 1990, for Kannywood, Nollywood and other latter-day woods. In all these, I’m focusing on 30 each that I consider the most outstanding - for movies, directors, actors and actresses, while also remembering 30 of those legends that have departed as well as 30 of the most outstanding landmarks that have shaped the Nigerian film industry in the last 30 years.

Is this is your fourth book?

Yes, those that I personally authored. But I also edited a compilation while I was MD at National Mirror Newspapers.

So books are important to you?

Absolutely so. Book is life. Life is literature.

May we never get to a point where we shall stop reading.

A journalist or an art aficionado, which one best describes you?

Both. A media man and an arts man. Those are the two pillars I lean on and where I find fulfilment.

It must have pleased you then that you had an opportunity to serve in the two ministries that both represent your core interests.

Yes, in a way. You know if it were in other states and even at the federal level, Information Tourism and Culture would be under the same roof. But it’s different in Lagos.

Strategies are driven by the information machinery in the state since 1999 and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to serve there first before moving to Tourism Arts and Culture, which Governor Ambode created in 2015 and which Governor Sanwo-Olu has retained as an important ministry that has a direct bearing on the lives of Lagosians and on the image of the state.

You granted an interview recently in which you canvassed a consolidation in the media. Is this really doable?

It worked in the banks and the corporate sector. I don’t see why it shouldn’t work in the media. Our profession is shrinking and it calls for a different survival strategy. Consolidation may be one of the options that can be considered so that rather than have 15 so-called national newspapers, we can have only four or five or six that can withstand turbulence with regional offices in all the six geo-political zones and large online departments. Maybe that can save us the trouble of all these one-man one-smartphone blogs mushrooming about, feasting on social media misinformation. Yes, our future is digital and the future is here. But the preponderance of blogs and online platforms we have at the moment is a mockery of our profession, truth be told.

Do you have icons or shall we say did your former bosses play important roles in the man you have become?

Oh yes, definitely. All my bosses are icons and role models to me. All of them. And I don’t refer to them as former but as bosses. From Mr. Lade Bonuola, Mr. Emeka Izeze, Mr. Ben Tomoloju, Mr. Debo Adesina, Jahman Anikulapo and Mr. Gbenga Omotosho at the Guardian and The Comet; to Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, Mr. Ademola Osinubi and Mr. Azu Ishiekwene at The Punch. Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR (Araba Nla) at National Mirror to Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN (Okunrin Meta) at Resort International and to His Excellency, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, FCA (Omo Akin, Agba Akin) I am exceedingly grateful to have been tutored by these great men.

In different ways, the Almighty has used them at different times to fulfil a purpose in my life. My heart holds nothing but prayers and gratitude for each and every one of them.

Lastly, considering the turbulence and its unpredictable nature, would public service ever appeal to you again?

Hmmmm. Turbulence is a fact of life but it doesn’t last forever. It will always subside at some point. Nothing is perfectly predictable in life either. So we won’t because of the heat in the kitchen stay away from making our meals. Public service is the highest form of service. It’s not the same thing as politics, as such. We are all political animals and we can’t always stay away if we desire good governance and true development.

What shouldn’t be encouraged though is to continue to create a large pool of rent-seekers and leeches on the common wealth of the nation. We sure can do a lot better and the best of our men and women are needed to engender true change for the benefit of our children and the coming generation.

77 T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ LY 12, 2020

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The front view University College London, United kingdom

How Nigeria Can Unlock the Mysteries of Science,Technology and Development For young Nigerians studying abroad, a crisis of identity shouldn’t be a stumbling block but a stepping stone. For millions of teeming youths at home, young girls, especially, must rise above societal perceptions.

However, the government must be pragmatic and futuristic, Kofo Babalola˜ Ë ÝÞßÎÏØÞ ÙÐ ÞÒÏ ØÓàÏÜÝÓÞã College London, writes about her experience

W

e often seem to spend time conversing, debating on tragedies and forget the goodness that happens around us. Yes, tragic events happen but is it really worth exhausting all our time dwelling on them? I am not saying we shouldn’t address these situations, of course, we should. But I believe we could spend more time celebrating the goodness in this world that we live in. I am not denying the pain that many of you feel. But shouldn’t we turn the pain to act as a fuel to propel us into better days?It is easier said than done. However, one thing that could surely help this change is by recreating news headlines to talk about the goodness that takes place around us that most of us are blind to or don’t even notice. The point is not to tell news outlets to change their ways. I am solely here to tell my story.

We all have stories to tell, no matter how short it is, we all have something to say.

In writing this, I am coming to terms with the events that have taken place in the 19 years of my life and hoping that someone that reads this will be encouraged and will instil some sort of hope in the midst of the tumultuous world we live in.

Firstly, who am I? Often a question that we are asked in a philosophical lesson or even in an interview. ‘So tell me about yourself.’ ‘My name is Kofoworolaoluwa....’ Is that really enough to answer an interviewer? Well, of course, not. We are trained to answer this in a more sophisticated format as the interviewer looks up nudging you to go on. Well, I can go on and on. I have a lot to say. To begin, do you know what it is like to be the only black girl studying mechanical engineering in a lecture hall filled with various boys and a few more girls but from other European countries? It is strange but in the best way possible. I would not

say that I get stares or looked down on just because of my ethnicity. Not at all.

In fact, I see those two things as the best things that make me unique. I can use my Nigerian background to give those around me a unique perspective on how we think, and I can also use my qualities as a girl to give guys that have rarely come into contact with one just how powerful and strong, we can be. Going to an all-girls secondary school taught me that the frail characteristics that those see in girls could be used in a way to give people in my course a unique perspective. There is absolutely nothing wrong in people treating you differently, use it to your advantage and prove the naysayers wrong every time they try and assume you wouldn’t be able to achieve it.

Dwell less on those that are dubious of what the future holds for you but instead make it clear to them you barely notice them. Eventually they will stop. But do you know what happens when you give up and leave? You have allowed them to win. Looking back, you will regret every second that you allowed them to get under your skin. Trust me, I have been there. In secondary school, I can remember being in the office of the head of Chemistry department for a meeting and he made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t my biggest fan. He started off by saying that it didn’t matter whether I got the highest mark in the mock exam for the subject, they would still not predict me an A* grade.

What did I do immediately after that? I went to the bathroom and cried my eyes out? I didn’t see the point in revising anymore for the exam. In that moment as I wiped the tears from my eyes, I called my mum. After that phone call, I wondered, if I allowed his words to break me where would I be? I surely wouldn’t be studying mechanical engineering. I

began to see the good in the words that he tried to use to break me. I used the pain and frustration that I felt towards him to act as a fuel in me to finish the five subjects that I had taken for A levels.

I did those five subjects till the end, and it never crossed my mind to drop one or give one up because each one helped craft the future I am walking in today. I am not here to list my achievements but to give you some encouragement. I strongly believe that the future is fuelled by science and technology.

Especially if you are young and black and to be specific a girl, it could be daunting. Do me a favour and ignore all the noise and tap into what you want to become.

We need more young black girls especially in these fields. I believe this is the tool that many African countries need to use to create a brighter future for our countries, the ability to solve problems and to look ahead. Just like in chess what makes a better player is the ability of looking ahead and predicting the moves of his opponent. Science-related subjects teaches us this skill: the ability to look beyond. Like in advanced maths, you not only want to solve the algebraic problem, but you want to find the fastest and easiest way possible because in an exam you are working against time. In order for Nigeria to become better and up to speed with nations like US and China we need to be able to tap into science and technology to help develop the youth’s minds to think in an innovative way to solve the issues we are facing today.

Can we come up with a strategy to fix our roads, that often trap the water from the rain, in a faster and cost-effective way? I can say only technology can do that because I presume as we are solving problems the same old-fashioned way, China and America are innovating and creating new ways to solve these same problems.

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

FOCUS

Ode to the Astute Statesman Aminu Adisa Logun!

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq

H

e liked to be called Aminu Adisa Logun.

These are names he so much cherished and protected until his last breath on Tuesday July 7, 2020.

If you must add anything to his name, it has to be the ‘mni’ acronym, which indicated his attendance of the prestigious National Institute *for* Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Jos. There are important takeaways from these two intangibles which anyone very close to the late technocrat could notice.

He was a man who cared so much about substance than superficialities. By sticking only to your name and not necessarily some acquired titles, the message is that you like to be yourself. He was a man who was always true to himself and his beliefs.

It is safe to say I share this belief with the late chief of staff since he was a dear uncle to me.

An alumnus of the great Barewa College and a polyglot, the late Chief of Staff was a fervent admirer of the late Sardauna of Sokoto Ahmadu Bello. Even so, he was a true Nigerian who despised prejudices built around ethno-religious sentiments. For him, all that matters are your competence, sincerity of purpose, team spirit, and hard work — not your tongue or ethnicity.

Having such a personality as my Chief of Staff was an honour and a stabilising factor.

He brought his age, experience, and global exposure as an industrialist and intellectual to bear in advising the relatively younger members of the Otoge cabinet. My other appointees found in him a father figure who they were certain would scold or encourage them in equal measure, knowing very well that he was far ahead in everything they needed to excel.

When this administration came on board on May 29, 2019, the Chief of Staff’s chairmanship of our Transition Committee was a huge blessing. He not only shared my passion for a new and working Kwara, he had a fantastic grasp of what the issues were, including the land mines, and he gave me his unwavering support. He was the right bulwark that the Chief of Staff should be.

Governor Abdulrasaq and his late Chief of Staff, Mr. Adisa Logun, at an event The COVID-19 pandemic is definitely one of the most unsettling developments in human history. It has totally changed our lives, including the way government business is run and how we relate with one another. On April 6 , 2020 when I came out of self-quarantine that followed my feared contact with infected persons, we resolved to take the lead in physical distancing as a subnational government. This was communicated to everyone. As a man who lived ahead of his time in terms of his firm control of modern ICT gadgets, the Chief of Staff was one of my officials who easily embraced the new trend despite his vital role in the administration. We chatted daily on phone or met often via the zoom platform to ensure that governance continued seamlessly. Like me, he perfectly understood that physical

distance at this time was particularly vital for persons of our age bracket. He was 74 (born 20th May, 1946) and I am 60. That made us quite vulnerable and imposed on us the responsibility to lead by example for both the government and the governed .

Like James A Baker lll, the world gold standard of Chiefs of Staff, Aminu Logun focused more on “Staff “ than “Chief”, hence the immense impact he had on governance.

Except for age that eventually makes us all vulnerable, there was nothing in the carriage or behaviour of the late Chief of Staff that betrayed poor health as he was very active up to his last moments. He kept strictly to all the pandemic protection protocols, always wore his face mask, and kept a reasonable distance from others. That he

nevertheless succumbed to complications from the virus is a further evidence of the insidious nature of this virus. His death is indeed painful and we seek solace in the Holy Quran’s injunction: “Inna liLlaahi wa Inna ilaehi Raajiun” (From Allah we came and to Him is our ultimate return).

Adieu, Aminu Adisa Logun. Your frank advice, your firm and articulate positions on issues of governance, your undiluted loyalty, and your patriotism to see a better Kwara State shall be sorely missed. I pray your family find the fortitude to bear this sad loss. I pray Almighty Allah to forgive your trespasses and admit you into Aljannah Firdaus. Good night, my dear Uncle. t "CEVM3BINBO "CEVM3B[BR JT UIF (PWFSOPS PG ,XBSB 4UBUF

NEWS

Plot to Remove Omolori, N’Assembly’s Clerk, Thickens Then President of the Senate, Saraki called a meeting of the Executives of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), who were in office that time and who were the architects of the proposal for the revised Conditions of Service.

Present at the meeting was also Lawan, who was the Senate Leader and in fact, the person, who led debate on the proposal on the floor of the Senate. The minutes of the meeting, from good authority, was taken by Hakeem Baba Ahmed, who was Chief of Staff to the Senate President.

The Senate President listened to the PASAN officials led by Comrade Bature Musa to defend the proposal and they were able to convince the Senate leadership on the proposal.

The Senate President went further to invite the then Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission and other Commissioners on the matter and after an elaborate and convincing debate, the President of the Senate allowed the proposal to be tabled on the floor of the Senate by the Senate leader, Lawan.

In the same way, the Speaker of

the House then, Yakubu Dogara engaged the PASAN officials and members of the Commission. It was after all those processes that the proposal was tabled in the House and the debate, led by then Leader, Gbajabiamila.

Interestingly, and from an impeccable source, when the current Commission ignited the debate on the already implemented Revised Conditions of Service and sent their position paper to the two chambers to reconsider the Resolution, the House of Representatives leadership invited the Clerk to the National Assembly and listened to his own side of the story. It was after listening to him that the House leadership rose with one voice to stand by the Resolution of the 8th National Assembly.

As at press time, Lawan has yet to invite the Clerk to the National Assembly to listen to him if he felt there was any new story or development about the Revised Conditions of Service, but he preferred to invite an executive appointee, Dr. Yemi-Esan, who has no locus standi in the matter to appear before a joint meeting of the principal officers of the

National Assembly.

Even when the matter was brewing serious misunderstanding among staff and the story of “smuggling” the five years extension into the Conditions of Service was peddled, the Department of State Security Service (DSS) invited the PASAN officials both the old and new executives as well as the chairman of the commission for a meeting.

During the meeting, the past Exco of PASAN presented documentary evidence to prove that the process of presenting the proposal to the Commission and leadership of the National Assembly was transparent and included all the clauses and prayers, which the 8th National Assembly considered and passed in the Revised Conditions of Service.

The source told THISDAY that, “We have it on good authority that even the Chairman of the Commission was surprised after he witnessed the presentation

by PASAN officials, which contradicted his own position on the matter.

“The position of the House of Representatives ought to have been adopted by the Senate in

keeping with the synergy through which both Chambers operate, but Senator Lawan would not have it. He is searching for loopholes”.

Undaunted, Senator Ahmad Lawan has been looking for a way to convince the House to stand against a Resolution that is meant to reposition the legislature that has suffered so much in the face of military interference in governance over the years and needed this breath of freedom to develop her human capacity structure.

Lawan’s latest antics of hosting the Head of the civil of service of the federation and Adamu Fika in a closed-door meeting were another fruitless campaigns.

It is clear by the provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that the National Assembly is an independent arm of government and not under the authority of the Head of the civil Service of the Federation.

The letter from the Head of service purported to be a response to the leadership National Assembly has no use, because an appointee of government, which is what the Head of service is, has no power over the National Assembly.

To even contemplate a letter to the National Assembly on the Revised Conditions of Service and make comments on the salary of staff of the National Assembly by the Head of Service is overreaching herself as she has no locus in law and status so to do.

“It is also clear that by the interpretation Act second schedule, the National Assembly is a public service and not a civil service under the control of the Head of the civil Service of the federation. Thus, the Head of Service of the federation should not ordinarily have a say on the revised Conditions of Service of the staff of the National Assembly.

“The National Assembly Service Commission Act 2014 as amended empowers the Commission to regulate the operations of the staff of the National Assembly including fixing of salaries. The action of the last commission to propose to the National Assembly a review of the Conditions of Service for staff of the National Assembly and passage of the same by the 8th National Assembly was legally executed.

“It is therefore incumbent on

the Senate President and indeed the leadership of the Senate to recuse itself from the vengeful undertaking by Senate President Ahmad Lawan and save the bureaucracy from unnecessary politicisation.

“It also beats sane imagination why Dr. Fika would accept to be used as a tool to destroy a house he started building when Gen. Ibrahim Babangida appointed him as Director General/Clerk Designate of the National Assembly following decree 48 of 1988.

“He served as Ckerk to the National Assembly from 1988 to 1994 and Chairman, National Assembly Service Commission for five years. It was under his leadership that the Revised Conditions of Service was presented to the National Assembly,” THISDAY was told If Omolori was successfully pushed out, the next beneficiary is Bala Yabani, from National Assembly Legal Department.

He is incidentally from the same Yobe State as Lawan. This is why the revised condition of service is believed to be causing a lot of crisis within the National Assembly.

ͯͰ˜ ͰͮͰͮ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

53

High Life Unveiling Rita Oguebie, the New Queen on the Block

H

umanity is quite the strategist. What we do is push forward individuals from amongst ourselves to inspire us, to guide us, and ultimately represent for us all the beauty and truth and wonder that is within us. This is the call of modelling, and the call that Rita Oguebie has responded to.

Born in the environs of Ezinifite of Nnewi-South LGA, Anambra State, Rita Oguebie has risen to become a dazzling figure and soft potentate of modelling, enterprise and philanthropy. So far, her name has been inscribed on several ambassadorial plaques, humanitarian trophies and even a Presidential medal.

These, combined, are outclassed by the weight of recognition that Oguebie has garnered in recent years.

Oguebie’s life as beauty queen and model began in 2010 with a zenith of successes. This was the first time she contested at the Miss University Nigeria pageant. It was a string of victories from then on: Miss Anambra in 2011; Miss South-East in the same 2011; Finest Nigerian Girl in 2011; Miss Africa in 2015; and Miss Tourism International Nigeria in 2016—where she won herself a scholarship to study Performing Arts at the prestigious private international university Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

For a lady with two degrees in Library and Information Management and Entrepreneurship and Business Management, Oguebie’s interests have flung her beyond the borders of country and culture. Currently, she is involved with projects that are essentially intended for her to give back to her people.

Three of such projects and initiatives are gaining grounds of their own: the Rita Onyinye Foundation which Oguebie found in 2011 to promote and applaud women development and empowerment, as well as address matters of the female gender; Project Take A Tour (ProjectTAT), which attracts foreign and international investors into Nigeria by documenting and promoting tourism sites and attractions; and Nation Builders TV Talk Show, where the national objective of ‘unity and faith, peace and progress’ is demonstrated and advanced.

Rita Oguebie is tempered intelligent wearing a face and figure of radiant babe. Add in her devotion to beauty modelling, business and beneficence, and you have yourself an olive lady of high nobility.

That’s our Rita Oguebie—Beauty Queen, model, business lady and philanthropist.

Oguebie

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

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

Kwara Governor Salutes Philanthropist and Son of Billionaire Businesswoman, Hajia Bola Shagaya at 40

Bola Shagaya

Sheriff Shagaya

The skies are clear and bright for Sheriff Shagaya, son of billionaire businesswoman, Hajia Bola Shagaya as he turned 40 a few days ago. As expected of a man of accomplishments, privilege and charter, great things were spoken of him. The Governor of his Kwara State also The global economy is not yet balanced, but elements within it are beginning to agitate it. The ambitions and business sophistication of Lekan Osifeso are the resident agitating elements within Nigeria. If his latest move was into some sector of trifling significance, it wouldn’t be noteworthy. However, it would seem that Osifeso intends to become lord of the Nigerian construction industry— an industry patrolled by vigilant sharks of enterprise.

Lekan Osifeso’s latest gambit is the reported launching of a new construction company, the Retro Construction Company Limited. This new establishment is expected to disrupt the construction business a bit, with its ensemble of experienced and techsavvy engineers, and an organisational substructure that guarantees that the company will surpass its peers in no time.

Furthermore, Osifeso’s Retro Construction is expected to draw strength and influence from its older cousin, Lekai Construction. This older brainchild of Osifeso is already one of the most prominent construction companies in the country. It has accomplished countless remarkable projects in recent times, and developed national infrastructures ranging from Federal and State roads, international standard markets, and bridges. It is unquestionably a leading indigenous construction company, a

complimented him, wishing him a long life in health and prosperity.

One of the pinnacles of Hajia Bola Shagaya’s success is the fact that all five of her sons are doing incredibly well. Each one inherited the gentle grace and humility of their exceptional mother, along with the passion and drive to see their dreams fulfilled. It is on account of these inherited temperaments that Sheriff Shagaya, the eldest son of Hajia Shagaya, won the felicitations of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on his 40th Birthday.

The Birthday celebration itself was more of a low-keyed and conservative gathering—as a result of the trending Covid-19 pandemic.

Regardless, it was still a remarkable gathering, as Sheriff Shagaya’s family and friends joined him in thanking God for four decades of providence and grace and mercy.

As is the custom of the Shagaya household, Sheriff’s Birthday was borrowed as an avenue to reach out to those in need, the underprivileged and the disadvantaged. This they did with their own resources, encouraging friends and associates to never desist from emulating them.

Sheriff Shagaya, at 40, is every bit his mother—apropos family, business interests and philanthropy. Like his mother, he is loyal to his familial ties, possibly knowing that they are

vital for peace and progress. He is married to Maryam Shagaya (formerly Maryam Tukur), daughter of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chairman of NEPAD Business Group and Executive President of African Business Roundtable.

In business, Sheriff is doing well for himself. Although a graduate of Economics from University of Bradford, United Kingdom, Sheriff Shagaya has expanded his business interests beyond any one domain. In the purely corporate sense, he triples as Managing Director for three thriving companies within the oil and gas sector: Phoenix Energy Nigeria Limited (for 16 years and counting); Kashton Concepts Nigeria Limited (for 15 years and counting); and Maron Oil & Gas Limited (for 12 years and counting). One man. One single man. That’s focus and willpower.

Then there’s the philanthropic disposition.

Sheriff Shagaya is the founder of an Ilorin-based NGO—Salman Shagaya Foundation—whose sole purpose is the empowerment of unemployed youths in Nigeria, with particular focus on those in Kwara State.

As Sheriff Shagaya advances in age and experience, the skies can only get even clearer.

Otunba Lekan Osifeso Launches New Construction Company

ranking that is special because the majority of indigenous construction companies are formidable on a continental scale. Still, Lekan Osifeso’s brilliance and influence are not without phenomenal potency.

Recall that Lekan Osifeso was introduced into the construction trade while working in his father’s Oluwamuyiwa Construction Company. It was from here that he joined Bofewa Group of Companies. His education and experience from both of these companies led him to establish Lekai Construction. Although Lekai is doing marvelously well, the new Retro Construction is sure to further advance Osifeso’s ambitions of monopoly and autocracy in Nigeria’s Construction sector.

Judging from the dissonance that Retro Construction introduced upon its launch, Lekan Osifeso’s status is set to swell beyond these shores. His reputed transformational leadership bent might pay off, and Retro Construction would become a continental force in the global construction market. When that day comes, Lekai Construction might dominate the local construction fair, and Lekan Osifeso might become the unchallenged authority of Construction, land use, and infrastructural development.

Osifeso

Sholaye Jeremi Celebrates Birthday with Thanksgiving...Why He Doesn’t Joke with the Needy Sholaye Jeremi is by leaps and bounds one of the most accomplished Nigerians of Delta descent. While he has been hailed as a dispenser of goodwill and boons, Jeremi has managed to maintain the reputation and character of a quiet gentleman—every emphasis on the qualitative quiet. While celebrating his Birthday on July the 5th, the Deltan billionaire was just as quiet and philanthropic as he would be any other time of the year.

Sholaye Jeremi’s July 5th Birthday celebration was not a surprise to anyone who knows the man. Rather than make a big deal out of it (which he is able to do on account of his vast assets and vaster associations), Jeremi opted to observe the day with a tranquil thanksgiving service. In addition to this decision to desist from extravagant wining and dining, Jeremi also reportedly instructed his friends and well-meaning business associates to liquidate every gift intended for him, and donate them to the needy and underprivileged.

Of course, those who are intimately familiar

with the unconventional dispositions of Sholaye Jeremi were not at all surprised that he would direct the largesse of his corporate confrères to charity. According to these folks, Jeremi is a committed believer in the inherent significance of every individual. Thus, he always allocates a considerable chunk of his wealth to those who cannot fend for themselves. All of these, it is reported, are done without the knowledge of the good folks that flock about him. What is public about Sholaye Jeremi is the span of his affluence and influence and connections in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

Several folks have commented on the fact that the serene and pious ambience around Jeremi’s Birthday celebration is a far cry from Medayese the one he held in his mother’s honour in October of 2019. That Birthday celebration was a party that hosted the likes of James Ibori, Julius Rone, Scott Tommey, and several others with similar sky-high standing. During that party, Jeremi’s wealth was put on display. The

Jeremi

display glass cracked when the celebrant, Mrs. Lilian got a car—a 2020 Jaguar XJR—as a Birthday gift from her son.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͯͰ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Late Oando Legal Officer, Ngozi Okonkwo Laid to Rest Exactly five weeks after her painful passage on Thursday, June 4, Ngozi Janice Okonkwo, the highly cerebral Chief Legal Officer of Oando Plc, will be laid to rest, this week Friday, July 17 at her hometown, Nibo, Anambra State.

It was gathered that a Virtual Service of Song was held in her honour last Friday which was strictly a private affair with only immediate family members and very few close friends and associates in compliance with the current guidelines occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.Before she lost the battle to cancer at 45, Ngozi was said to have recovered and resumed at her duty post.

However, she suffered a relapse during the COVID-19 lockdown and could not travel out to see her doctors.

A source said, “The best available health facilities in Nigeria couldn’t help her. So, she lost the battle.”

In his tribute, oil tycoon and the Group Chief Executive Officer, Oando Plc, Adewale Tinubu, described the deceased as a wonderful soul who was ready for every goal-oriented endeavour.

Tinubu said, “Oando has lost a true leader– kind, passionate, driven, focused and diligent. She was an exemplary professional and an astute lawyer who commanded respect from all who knew her… She was knowledgeable, efficient, competent and diligent. She was what we all hope for in a team member. She was an embodiment of empathy, loyalty, support and trust. She was someone you wanted by your side when winning was the goal. She was focused, audacious.”

Before joining Oando, Ngozi had worked as a junior counsel with F.O. Akinrele & Co., and also with KPMG Professional Services (previously known as Arthur Andersen) as a manager in the Tax, Regulatory and People Services Unit and head of Indirect Tax Services.

She obtained LLB (Hons) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1997 and BL from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos in 1999.

She was a member of the Nigerian Bar Association; an honorary fellow of the Association of Fellows and Legal Scholars of the Centre for International Legal Studies, Austria; an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Nigeria.

Ngozi was survived by her husband, Chukwunenye Okonkwo, and their four children.

Okonkwo

Malami Hosts Protocol-complaint Wedding for Son, Abdulazeez Denies buying N300 million house for him Prevents friends, others from attending

Abdulazeez and Khadija Malami

It would have been pomp and circumstance; gold and glitters; excitement and exhilaration as Abdulazeez Abubakar Malami, the eldest son of Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, got married yesterday, July 11, 2020, in Kano.

But alas, it turned out a subdued and solemn affair owing to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The wedding fatiha of the son of the justice minister to Khadija Abduljalil Danbatta took place under strict observations of the protocols and guidelines issued by the federal COVID-19 task force.

In thanking friends, well-wishers and the general public for their prayers and goodwill for the wedding fatiha of his son, Malami expressed appreciation for the understanding that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wedding fatiha was a low-key affair.

Earlier, Malami had communicated in writing, notifying friends and colleagues that most of them would not be invited to the occasion. Instead of an invitation, Malami on

July 3 only sent out a notification to his friends, colleagues, family members and well-wishers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to many weddings and occasions billed as talk-of-the-town events.

The directive of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 restricts the gathering of more than 20 people during such events.

The AGF has also addressed what he described as a “mischievous, deceitful and perfidious” report by an online publication which claimed he bought a house in Abuja worth N300 million for the newly-wed couple.

While refuting the claim, Malami said “God knows that I did not purchase any house for him in Abuja. Not even a rented house was secured for my son in Abuja, because he has no plan to live in Abuja.”

He also debunked allegations of hiring private jets to convey family and guests for the wedding, labeling them as “preposterous.”

Again, Dora Akunyili’s Daughter, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby Honoured Again Again, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, a celebrated visual artist, has done the nation proud as well as her late mom, Prof.

Dora Akunyili, a former Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC. This follows the announcement by Carnegie Corporation, a New York-based foundation, which named AkunyiliCrosby, in its 2020 news release, Social Tool kit Democracy Week published every July 4 since 2006, as one of its 2020 Great Immigrants Honourees.

She was named alongside 37 others from different countries for their exemplary contributions as immigrants to American life. The foundation said, ”In 2020, the corporation honours 38 naturalized citizens who have enriched and strengthened our nation and our democracy through their contributions and actions.”

Interestingly, she clinched the first

position on the honourees and orderly arranged list tagged “Great Immigrants/ Great Americans 2020.”

In a world where Nigerians’ integrity is eroded or synonymous with one form of criminality or the other, one of the late Akunyili’s daughters is making the country proud with her exceptional behaviour abroad. She is recognized, home and abroad, for her style of paintings, which had graced many international journals, museums, exhibitions, billboards, tube stations and streets, among others.

She is a recipient of grants, awards and prizes by reputable establishments who appreciated her art collections and contributions.

The Afro-American artist, last year, was awarded an honorary PhD by Swarthmore University for all her wonderful contributions to the art world.

Without a doubt, the fourth of six children of Nigeria’s former anti-counterfeit drugs

Akunyili

Czarina is toeing her late mother’s unforgettable footprints in the line of integrity, discipline, accountability, and hard work.

In 2017, she was invited to Nigeria

by Art X to discuss Artworks as a way

Oil and Gas Magnate, Otunba Funsho Lawal, Counts Blessings at 65 There are lessons to be learnt from the life of Chairman, Sogenal Oil &Gas, Otunba Funsho Lawal (OON, CON).

An encounter with the Oyo State-born businessman reveals a man of exceptional intellect, with a profound passion for his calling.

As he turned 65 recently, he evokes a rare combination of critical approval and public affection - love, even. This may not be unconnected with the fact that he is audacious in his simplicity and brilliant in his business exploits.

For many years, he has become a reference point in the nation’s oil and gas sector. This is not a mean feat, as those close to him attribute it to his relentless efforts as well as personal strength built through struggle, tenacity, resilience, unbending determination, focus and business acumen.

Interestingly, he also shares that strength with tremendous compassion and empathy.

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

Lawal

The billionaire towers above many of his contemporaries, particularly because he has

been in the warm embrace of fame for many decades.

No wonder, when a man with such phenomenal achievements celebrates his birthday, not a few would want to share in his joy.

Though the former president of Petroleum Club didn’t throw an elaborate party due to COVID-19, his fans, friends and associates celebrated him to high heavens with praises and encomiums.

The oil magnate, who may be regarded as an encyclopaedia of sorts in the sector, is the brains behind one of the most successful indigenous oil production companies in Nigeria.

He knows his onions, having been in the business for decades. Little wonder, he led the Petroleum Club for many years. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the club.

Lawal, a former chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission, apart from oil and gas, also has his fingers in other sectors of the economy.

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

55

with JOSEPH EDGAR ̡͸΁͸΁ͽͻͺͽͿ΁͹̢

Magu’s Humpty-Dumpty World The head look alike o. If you are used to the illustration of the nursery rhyme and the head of our just ‘kicked out’ oga, you will see a mad resemblance. This our own local Humpty-Dumpty truly fell with a great thud and like in the rhyme, the king’s men did not even attempt to put the big head together again, but rather they are the ones even smashing it into more pieces. The whole thing is even scary and smirks of high wire politicking. That this has nothing to do with 2023 is a fable,

only the unschooled in Nigeria’s political chess game would believe.

Anyways from the stories we are hearing it looks like oga was truly busy doing things that really had nothing to do with the work we sent him. Now everybody is saying that the Saraki-led National Assembly has been vindicated. Well, for me just as the Presidency has been quoted as saying that nobody is above scrutiny, let me also say that everybody including Humpty Magu must have their rights protected no matter what.

So he is facing an investigative panel, his rights as prescribed in our constitution must also be protected.

All these stories of being detained that we are hearing should not be the case abeg. Let the investigation finish on time and let’s arraign him in a real court where he would be given a firm platform to defend himself. All this jankariwo dance, no need. He himself, why didn’t he run? Me I for run o.

The moment Malami develop courage to release that statement, I for don run to Fernando Po.

Wike

Hushpuppi

Sanwo-Olu,

WIKE AND GANDUJE – A BATTLE OF WITS It was Ganduje that fired the first salvo.

But wait how that one even escaped that dollar scandal complete with video still baffles a lot of people. Anyway that is not the gist for today. In his capacity as chairman of something for APC in this Edo State something, he had said something about sending my brother Wike to Isolation centre. Kai, you no dey use that kind thing joke with Wike.

The man can fear Covid, a man that bulldozed a whole hotel in his fight against the virus? Come and see the seven face masks and windscreen of him bullet-proof G-wagon he customized to cover his face.

To the point that when he is talking he will be wheezing and gasping for breath, that one is not a problem, na the virus. It cannot come near him. So using isolation centre to yab the bro will really rub him up the wrong way.

His reply as expected was caustic and pinpoint. He immediately alluded to the dollar scandal, quipping that Edo will not fall to his dollar rain and ending by asking where this country is headed with such people leading and choosing leaders.

Na the question where some of us dey fear to ask be this too. But let’s just keep quiet as this season is looking more interesting than anything Nollywood can throw at us. Ganduje and Wike are the best comedic characters any tragicomedy movie can come up with.

I just feel like throwing up and jumping off the bridge as the ship of state continues to veer off course. We are in trouble, I tell you.

he lived his life on the net. He even almost tried to claim a platform as an inspiring and motivational figure to not only the youth but to pot-bellied political leaders who should have known better but instead carried their baldheads to his Dubai mansion to swig choice drinks and have photo ops after which they would come back and be singing rubbish songs all over social media.

This boy try o. He even was throwing everything in our faces on social media like he was earning legitimate money.

He lived the kind of life that Dangote himself will not dare to live. This Hush whatever he called himself is a study in crass stupidity – pardon me.

I have not seen in this world. Since his arrest, I have gone back to his various social media accounts and still remain very bewildered at the brazen nature with which he displayed his ill-gotten wealth. Did he ever think that a day of reckoning will not ever come? This is the biggest mumu of all time. The mother of all mumus. No pity here bro.

the kind thing they tell their humble followers – I don’t want to use the word gullible because my mama dey among them: ‘Don’t you know that when the churches open, collective prayers will wipe out this virus? I just say, ‘Daddy let me pay for your food.’ I needed to leave the place before I slap am enter prison.

He did not stop at that o - ‘if the markets are opened, why we can’t open... I just say sir, it’s true and walked away without buying the food again.

When I got home, I went to the sites of one of these churches to watch a so-called miracle service and just saw what will happen if and when the churches are opened without the curve flattening. Holy water replacing face masks? Please, my dear governor, abeg no matter the pressure, the Schools and churches must remain closed. Thanks sir.

HUSHPUPPI HUSHED Since the internationally-covered arrest of this ‘mega star’, I have not been able to comment. I just weak as they say it in Shomolu. This guy is alleged to scam over a million people? They are also claiming that he even tried to scam a premiership club? This is lion heart, I tell you. Nothing must happen to him o. He must tell his story in movies and books. The amazing thing was the way

SANWO-OLU, KINDLY IGNORE CAN The desperation of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and their Lagos-Ibadan cohorts to open their churches and exponentially spread this virus is totally worrisome. Shebi we are still in 30,000 and they want to help drive it to 100,000 because of tithe? Abi what else will be driving this almost childish call for their reopening? Even the bible says, where two or three are gathered - can’t they just gather in twos and threes and let’s live. The other day, while I was at the Nook to get my takeaway lunch in Alausa, that is how one very prominent archbishop came in.

I will not call his name, he is a big one as big as the other ones o. He was wearing one long faded gold chain with the biggest cross that I have ever seen on his chest. He gleefully walked up to me to announce that he was a pastor and immediately asked about my thoughts on the continuous closure of their ‘businesses’. I said I was in support and he retorted with

NAKED ACTRESS – THIS IS MADNESS Please I have carefully forgotten her name but that picture of her naked form holding the hands of her son in a stupefying salute to the boy on his birthday continue to play in my head.

That evil of abuse she subjected the boy to is something I cannot begin to explain. I cannot even find words to explain it. These people in a bid to ‘break’ the internet do all sorts just to get ‘followers’. I have seen things on this social media o that even in my own madness, I used to reel in shock. All sorts of things that you cannot even begin to imagine. But this one takes the cake.

How can a mother say because she gave birth to a child naked she will stand naked in front of the boy to celebrate his birthday? She would have spooked the boy, messed up his mind and exposed him to a life as a ‘freak’ if he is not psychologically evaluated. Maybe, she has never heard of the Oedipus complex, a psychological theory that stipulates that the first sexual object of a boy is his mother. Most people will never agree, but this theory is prevalent in millions of males as they grow up. They struggle with sexual urges towards their mothers and in trying to redirect

Magu

Thomas

it, pursue their housemaids and other such figures that will take their minds of it. This is a well-documented syndrome which happens to millions.

So for your mother to stand naked, squat exposing herself to the boy in this manner is damaging to not only this boy but to the millions still struggling with the complex that comes across the picture. I hear she has been arrested. It is not the normal African gra-gra that we will be doing.

She needs help. Real help and that boy especially needs psychological support. What they should not do is separate them. There is an obvious bond; they should just gently nurture them slowly back into a healthy relationship. Sad. But who be the photographer sef? That one no get sense?

MRS EUNICE THOMAS – A GENTLE SHOUT-OUT I was invited to the Oriental Hotel to give a talk on something. I get all these invites almost on a daily now because of Covid, they say it is Zoom. If I allow it, I will spend all my walking hours on Zoom, zooming away my productive years. Now before my turn, this very beautiful Akwa Ibom lady was on the podium. Her poise and diction caught my attention. I stopped o, you know Ibibio women can fine o. This one was not only sensationally beautiful, she was also very deep and her content flowed so easily that she enraptured the audience. When she finished and they handed the microphone to me, I spent the first ten minutes of my talk, greeting her and asking what part of Akwa Ibom she was from.

This person I am taking about is Mrs. Sandra Thomas, the former Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social welfare after that, they also gave her the Education Ministry. Since that day, she has been some kind of inspiration especially with her magic initiative something to do with a tool that combines theory, effects and biases. She is truly spreading influence hence my shout-out. Well done, adiagha.

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JULY 12, 2020 ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

THEALTERNATIVE

with RenoOmokri

Buhari’s Use and Dump Syndrome

A

re you a Nigerian voter? Did you vote during the 2015 and 2019 elections? Were you mesmerised by President Muhammadu Buhari’s sugarcoated promises of CHANGE and NEXT LEVEL? Well, I have got news for you!

Do you want to know what Buhari thinks of you, the Nigerian voter? I mean, what he really thinks, not what he said during his Taqiyya-style campaigns. You are in for a shock.

Go to Buhari’s verified Instagram page. During the 2015 and 2019 elections, he was posting on IG per second. Immediately he rigged himself back to power, his posts stopped! His last post was on May 29, 2019, the day he was sworn in! Buhari dumps people (Magu, Sowore, Ezekwesili, Tinubu, Soyinka, Orji Kalu, Oshiomhole) after he has finished using them!

On September 15, 2017, I published a post on Facebook as follows: This is Oby Ezekwesili showing her 36 teeth as she received a standing ovation from Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of theAll Progressives Congress (APC) on March 7, 2014 after delivering a speech lambasting then President Goodluck Jonathan.

Today, the same Buhari, through his spokesman Garba Shehu, called her a ‘petty hypocrite’!Alesson to those who think destroying others will get them promoted #ObyUsedAndDumped.

It is now three years after I made that post. Did I lie?

When you sell your brother for either money, power or fame, even the buyer will not trust you. This is the story of the following: * Omoyele Sowore * Oby Ezekwesili * Bola Tinubu * Wole Soyinka * Oshiomhole * Rochas Okorocha, and many more Today, President Buhari is doing to them what former President Jonathan would NEVER have done to them!

They had freedom of speech under Jonathan. They had the third fastest growing economy in the world under Jonathan. They had freedom to protest and organise ‘Revolution Now’. Yet, they said ‘Jonathan is the worst Nigerian leader ever’. Now, allow them enjoy their ‘best leader!’

You see, no matter how far and fast falsehood has travelled, it must eventually be overtaken by truth.

What happened to all those lies that Ibrahim Magu was telling against Jonathan? The media trial? The leaks by EFCC itself to the press? The warrant to US banks in search of Jonathan’s nonexistent foreign bank account? Today, who is the thief between

Magu and Jonathan? The truth is that Magu is a low mentality thug, unsuited for the sensitive position he held, and tolerated by Buhari for as long as he went after Buhari’s enemies and left his friends like Bola ‘Bullion Van’ Tinubu alone. Now, he was not removed for his corruption and incompetence. He was actually removed because foreign governments refused to work with Buhari, and give him the loans he so desperately needed unless Magu was removed!

On Sunday, March 31, 2019, I wrote an article titled ‘Facts That Prove Ibrahim Magu is a Hypocrite’. Today, one year later, reading that article sends shivers down my spine as to how accurate I was in predicting the exact fate now befalling the hypocrite called Magu.

And to think that just a few weeks ago, this same Magu was waxing philosophical about Hushpuppi and Mompha, not knowing that they were partners in crime. Where are those who attacked me for saying that ‘under Buhari, corruption is official’? I hear the man is now singing like a canary!

Consider the following: President Buhari’s wife fights with his nephew atAso Rock with gunshots SARS forcefully obtains money from innocent Nigerians The Chief ofArmy Staff kills 347 unarmed Shiite men, women, children and infants The Chairman of EFCC is a crook.

Governor El-Rufai admits paying herdsmen instead of prosecuting them for killing Nigerians Boko Haram are pampered and rehabilitated Umar Ganduje (Gandollar) leadsAPC’s Edo electioneering team Tinubu ‘Bullion Van’ isAPC’s National Leader!

Do you now see why I said ‘under Buhari, corruption is official’?

Someone read what I wrote about the blackmailer, Omoyele Sowore, and said I should forgive and forget because I am a pastor.

That is how satan misleads people. ‘Forgive and forget’ is NOT in Scripture. It is a phrase that has come to be accepted as being religiously correct, but it has no basis in Scripture. It is a satanic deception on God’s children to make us follow our emotions and think we are following Scripture. Read Romans 16:17. That verse says: “MARK them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; andAVOID them.”

It is this stupid and unscriptural ‘forgive and forget’ philosophy preached by Wole Soyinka on behalf of Buhari in 2015 that made us willfully suspend our intellect and expect a man who was an undemocratic despot between 1983-1985 to be a democratic saviour in 2015.

It is commonly said ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’. Nigeria should be ashamed of herself for allowing

THE PUBLIC SPHERE with Chido Nwakanma

Buhari to fool us twice.

Anyway, returning to the using and dumping of Ibrahim Magu, by l Buhari, is there any law that says the Chairman of the EFCC can only come from the North? Magu has gone and is replaced with another Northerner, Mohammed Umar. There have now been five chairmen. Each has been a Northerner. Each of them has been a Muslim. What is happening?Are there no credible Southerners? Even if there is an unwritten law that the EFCC Chairman must come from the North, are there no reliable Christians in Northern Nigeria?

Does it mean that no matter how good you are as a police officer, you cannot be good enough to be the Chairman of the EFCC if you are not a Northern Muslim? One Northern Muslim is a precedent.

But five Northern Muslims back to back is a pattern. Where is Federal Character? TheArmy,Air force, Police, NSA, DSS, DIA, NIA, NPS, NCS and NIS all headed by Northerners. Meanwhile, the heads of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary are Northern Muslim men. The heads of EVERY military, security and law enforcement body in Nigeria, except the Navy, are Northern Muslim men. The heads of the biggest parastatals (NNPC and NPA), are Northern Muslims. Where is the balance?

Whatever the case, let me end this piece by listing ten alleged crimes that the former strongman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu tried to ignore: Charly Boy’s admission that Festus Keyamo bribed him with a 9 figure sum Ganduje’s videotaped bribe Aisha Buhari’sADC’s looted billions Chief ofArmy Staff’s Dubai Mansions Kebbi Governor’s link withAbacha loot Sabiu Tunde Yusuf’s sudden wealth Tinubu’s election-eve bullion van Nasir Danu (Buhari’s confidante) money laundering NNPC’s $25 billion scam NHIS N10 billion scandal

Reno’s Nuggets

When you suffer embarrassment publicly, many people will privately show their support to you. That is not love. Love is not shown in secret. The person who truly loves you would publicly associate with you during your embarrassment. Beware of secret love. Christ had 12Apostles. None of them came to his execution on Calvary, except John. That is why John is called the Beloved Apostle. The people who associate with you while you are in the limousine are not your lovers. Wait until you only have a bus to know your lovers. #FreeLeahSharibu #RenosNuggets.

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

The Future of Professional Practice Post-COVID19

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roups and individuals worry and wonder as Covid19 ravages the land. I was recently part of a conversation on “The future of professional practice post-Covid19”. The Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter organised the Zoom session on 5 June 2020. I featured alongside Mr Wolemi Esan, Partner at Olaniwun Ajayi LP.

Some excerpts.

The coronavirus pandemic is a hydra-headed monster and a war with many faces. It is an unseen enemy; no one knows when it will finally depart! Stay safe and keep surviving Coro.

Zoom and all the new platforms enabling social distancing yet collaboration on projects for professionals stand on a foundation of technology. Technology has mostly been a positive force. Yet. I have written three essays that pointed to the downsides of technology. The articles appeared in BusinessDay newspaper in the last two years.

In “Technology ate our breakfast and is coming for our lunch” (28 December 2018), I observed: “Technology has eaten the breakfast of the worker in many places. It is changing the nature of work and the role of humans. Many certain jobs of the past are disappearing before our very eyes. It cuts across many industries and occupations.” Following Covid19, artificial intelligence and the aggravated job losses in the banking sector, I asked that individual professionals and the society should act in the essay Technology now wants our dinner and will change our diet.

In discussing the future of professional practice, it is proper to go back to the foundations. What makes a profession? What does it mean to be licensed? A profession arises when any trade or occupation transforms itself through “the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members, and some degree of monopoly rights.”-Nitin Popat (2016), Introduction to Accounting.

The route to professional status for most occupations involves full-time work; a recognised training scheme; an association

of people in the field; a licensing law and procedure; and professional ethics. We speak of a cognitive base, professional association, institutionalised training, accountability, and control by colleagues via the Code.

The preceding means that professions have standards and include barriers to entry. How effective those barriers to entry are for a given trade draws on several factors, including the strength of the legislation, the reward system, and collaboration or otherwise of members.

Technology is breaking many of the barriers to entry, such as Zoom has done for events. Will it be positive or detrimental to your profession?

Professions are occupational social institutions established and maintained for providing essential services to the individual and society. Each profession is concerned with an identified area of need or function (for example, maintenance of physical and emotional health, preservation of rights and freedom, enhancing the opportunity to learn). The profession collectively, and the professional individually, possess a body of knowledge and a repertoire of behaviours and skills (professional culture) needed in the practice of the profession. Non-professionals typically do not possess such knowledge, ethics and expertise.

Professionalism will matter post-Covid19. Professionalism involves competence, service to clients, knowledge-based decisions, responsibility, and accountability.

In the immediate post-Covid19 period, clients will be even more demanding despite tighter budgets. They want competence, excellent service, latest insights as a basis for your counsel, responsibility, and accountability. The caveat is that many would want to pay less for more.

Excuses of the past in a city such as Lagos, like traffic, distance, and such would no longer hold. Clients have tasted the apple of technology and how it can bridge these challenges.

The intervention of technology may stretch the capacities and time of professionals. You may end up having four to seven meetings or client engagements a day. After all, you did not have to drive through Lagos traffic! Yesterday, I participated in four Zoom meetings back-to-back: two classes, one of which I taught, an association learning session, and a media conference. Pre-

Covid, it would have been impossible. How do you move from Ibeju Lekki to Ajah, back to Ibeju Lekki and then to Maryland same day?

Peter Drucker’s five great questions are useful for the professional today. What Is Your Mission? Who Is Your Customer?

What Does Your Customer Value? What Are Your Results?

What Is Your Plan? Ask and answer these questions for yourself as a roadmap.

Post-covid19, the professional should pull out all the artillery in his armoury. The four classes of intelligence would be critical.

They are Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ), Social Quotient and Adversity Quotient (AQ). Most people are familiar with the first three.

Adversity quotient is the new paradigm in the measurement and application of intelligence. It is a critical one relevant to these times of job losses, reduced earnings or work hours and things that “test the souls of men”. Wikipedia states that “An adversity quotient (AQ) is a score that measures the ability of a person to deal with adversities in his or her life. Hence, it is commonly known as the science of resilience”. Paul Stoltz coined the term in 1997 in his book Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities.

AQ looks at your grit and stick-to-itiveness. Will you be one of the professionals that will survive the rough patches that may come post-Covid19? Or will you be among those that will take to drinking, destroy their careers and marriages, or even contemplate suicide?

The central fact of professionalism is that it is all about customers. The professional, individual or a firm, must pay critical attention to client relationship management. Most disciplines know it as account management. Client management is at the heart of every business in the best traditions of Drucker. Drucker famously stated that every business has just two functions: marketing and innovation. (Peter Drucker, 1954).

Go ahead. Go forth courageously. Be professional. You will succeed in the post-Covid19 era. Start by contributing to the discourse. What has been your experience: will professionalism be a critical success factor in this era or should we merely strive anyhow the wind blows so long as it delivers soup?

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JULY 12, 2020

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

ENGAGEMENTS

Season of Firefights

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n the clear absence of a grand vision, big issues or any inspirational undertakings, President Buhari may be condemned to spending the remaining part of his tenure supervising sporadic firefights among his cast. Family members, regime pontiffs, political devotees and highly privileged officials of state are all likely to get embroiled in imminent fights over influence and treasure. The presidential ears may in the next two years be occasionally deafened by the cacophony of either domestic quarrels or loud noises among squabbling big hirelings at the corridors of power who seek to magnify their importance or announce their sheer presence.

An ancient law of primitive courtly power may be unfolding in Abuja. When disparate interests and persons are brought together in a place of power merely to indulge in its opiate or satiate in its narcotic trappings, they usually have a tendency to break out in occasional loud disagreements and foolish turf fights. Similarly, if a sovereign fails to create active engagements for his followers and prefects, he may find out that his power and authority are cannibalized among feuding ambitious lieutenants. The public gets engrossed in the drama of these fights and soon forgets that there was ever a king on the throne. The regime degenerates into a chronicle of rivalries and avoidable firefights. Going by the number and frequency of recent firefights in and around the Buhari presidency, we may well be in a season of defining engagements and terminal ambushes.

In the domestic front, the Buhari clan may have already set a national record in the frequency of its open altercations, rancorous exchanges and unguarded utterances. Several open quarrels in the precincts of the Presidential mansion itself have been reported and dramatized in the social media.

Villa spinners are yet to deny any one of these uproars. As a matter of fact, the social media has in the recent past captured open shouts, name calling and domestic turf wars inside the private confines of the First Residence. A few weeks back and again for the first time in our national history, differences between the First Lady’s security staff and sundry officials of the presidency degenerated into an open exchange of gunfire between factions of security personal deployed to guard the presidential villa and its inhabitants. Wild media reports on this worrisome episode were casually confirmed by Aso Rock spokespersons with hardly any room for respectable spin add-ons. As a consequence, the police had to intervene and arrest the errant highly placed miscreants. Subsequently, there was a mass reorganization of the security personal in the Villa.

It was hard to hide the overwhelming national security concerns over this incident. The concerns ranged from the personal security of the president to the safety of the inhabitants of the nation’s pre-eminent and most strategic real estate.

The complex that houses the residence and offices of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria is not exactly the best location for undisciplined and poorly trained security personnel to practice their weapons skills. (Imagine factions of the US Secret Service exchanging gunfire in the precincts of the White House!) Not to talk of the unflattering testimonial of a first family that cannot muster the restraint to manage their differences and curb the excesses of their handlers. The nation expects that the President should minimally be able to manage his household to avoid such ugly incidents. His predecessors did so without embarrassing the nation.

At the level of the machinery of government, some tension is becoming noticeable between the executive and the legislature. The presumed amity and accord between the two branches since the advent of the president’s second term would seem to be coming under some stress. The preponderance of the ruling APC in the two houses of the legislature may not help much in the months running up to the 2023 succession political battles. As the succession time frame gets shorter, the financial stakes of political positions will get higher. The fights will become more fierce and party loyalty will take a back seat. The banners are already up.

In the last couple of days, for instance, the Minster of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has been locked in a public relations firefight with the National Assembly. At issue is the implementation of a token 774,000 jobs meant as Covid-19 employment palliative for 1000 unemployed youth in each of our 774 local governments. Ostensibly, Mr. Keyamo, a known lover of publicist noise making and grand standing wants to protect the public works programme from the usual influence peddling of politicians. The legislators want to hide under their oversight cloak to insist that the programme is best handled by a statutory agency of government, namely the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). The issue remains unresolved up to this moment.

The question of right and wrong on this matter is only a moot point. What seems to be happening is a clash of bloated egos and political self interests. Mr. Keyamo has no right to treat the public works programme as a personal platform for sanctimonious posturing in derogation of the National Assembly in its normal order of duty. Similarly, the National Assembly should not hold the junior minister to ransom on a matter of wide national interest with direct implications for the livelihood of many desperate Nigerian youth. All the National Assembly is required to do is to insist that

Buhari the Ministry of Labour adheres to due process in filling the positions. So, here is one needless turf war which seems to have raged because the warring parties may be blinded by narrow interests. While it rages, the senior Minister of Labour, Mr. Chris Ngige, is himself embroiled in another fight over his handling of the budget of the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

At the level of the ruling party, there is a smouldering cauldron of subdued firefights. Almost caught in a cross fire between Mr. Oshiomole and his multiple traducers, the president was pressured into hosting the National Executive Committee meeting of the battle torn party in the council chambers of the presidential Villa. To wit, he got the Attorney General of the federation to swear in the Caretaker Committee of a party on the excuse that he won an election and therefore is entitled to use the resources and facilities of the nation to advance his narrow partisan interests.

Even then, his intervention which was designed to restore unity and sanity to the party has merely driven the revolt and its foot soldiers underground. Soon after the Edo and Ondo elections, the dogs of war will spring back into an active open confrontation mode. The fights for the soul of a post Buhari APC will resume in the various states where the president and his Abuja politicians remain light on the ground. In the political battles that lie ahead, the Buhari influence will increasingly become less consequential as 2023 gets nearer. The party will likely splinter into vicious warring tribes and antagonistic factions under the command and control of the many political war lords in waiting. This stage of the skirmish has vicariously fingered Mr. Bola Tinubu as the first target of the post Buhari cavalry. Others will follow shortly.

At the national geo political level, a most unexpected fight has recently reared its head from a most unexpected quarter.

A few weeks back, there was an incendiary verbal exchange between Aso Rock presidential spokes persons and various Northern interest groups. Specifically, the Northern Elders Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum respectively had issued statements declaring increasing loss of confidence in the Buhari administration as well as the various governors of northern states over the worsening insecurity in the region as well as sundry issues like youth unemployment. Aso Rock retorted by questioning the status of the leaders of these groups. The North is after all the president’s presumed core political base. The conundrum is that among the southern elite, the Buhari administration is seen as divisive and parochial on account of the excessive lopsidedness of its appointments and projects patronage in favour of the northern half of the coutry.

As the politics of Buhari’s succession gathers steam, we should expect greater pressure from northern groups who already have begun to argue that Buhari may not have been the best news for the northern interest. When this line of argument intensifies, it will be hard to distil its altruism from its hidden political intent.

By far the most strategic firefight in the life of the Buhari administration may be the one currently raging around the leadership of the EFCC. The former chairman of the agency, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has been undergoing interrogations before a presidential investigation panel right in Aso Villa. The speculative allegations schedule reads more like a telephone directory indicating that Mr. Magu may have commandeered some of the proceeds of his anti corruption war for himself.

An unimaginable quantum of cash and serial properties are also alleged to have changed illegal hands with Magu’s knowledge. No one knows the boundary line between fact and fiction in these wild speculations. Until the exact charges

are made public or adduced in an anticipated court outing, the allegations against Mr. Magu will remain conjectural. What is indisputable however is that there must be something to warrant the drama of an elaborate presidential inquiry.

In the interim, it is only proper that Mr. Magu has been made to step aside in order that the investigation proceeds unfettered. The president can only spare himself the nasty politics of this affair by a strict adherence to the rule of law. Of course it will remain a matter of grave concern that a public officer on whose shoulder a major plank of the president’s mandate hangs should be the subject of an elaborate criminal investigation in the first place. What remains hard to understand is how a president who made anti corruption the major pillar of his campaign from 2015 should allow an officer with Magu’s alleged character defects to preside over the EFCC in the first place.

However, we need to locate the curiosity of the EFCC as an agency of government in some historical perspective in order to determine the altruism of the present drama. From inception, the EFCC has been used as an instrument of political odd jobs by incumbent presidents. Obasanjo deployed it against state governors who did not align with his political machinations including the third term infamy. People like Mike Adenuga, Peter Odili, Rotimi Amaechi, Fayose, Ibrahim Babangida, the late Alamieseigha and others were victims of a politically weaponized EFCC. Similarly, the late president Yar’dua used the EFCC to advance his cause. Former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu was demoted, harassed and haunted until he went into self exile after what was obviously an illustrious career. Thereafter, regime friends like James Ibori and Bukola Saraki who were close to Mr. Yar’dua became the undertakers of the EFCC and had a hand in the appointment of Farida Waziri as Chairperson.

In similar vein, when Farida Waziri would not play ball with President Jonathan, she was eased out to be replaced by Lamorde who had been Nuhu Ribadu’s Director of Operations in Lagos. Lamorde became chairman and subsequently left in circumstances similar to what is happening to Mr. Magu now. An unprintable catalogue of corrupt events was leveled against him. Not much was heard of Lamorde and the corruption charges against him afterwards. I understand he is currently at the very top of the police hierarchy in Abuja.

In all of this, it is clear that the EFCC has been left as a hybrid government agency, something to be cited in search of transparency and also to be deployed against political adversaries by an incumbent president as occasion demands. At no time has the Act establishing the EFCC been implemented fully.

The agency is supposed to have a governing board that ought to authorize the actions of the chairman. Membership of the board includes the Governor of the CBN, the Inspector General of the Police, an official of the Ministry of Finance etc.

Nigerians may need to ask why this board has never been inaugurated from President Obasanjo till today. It has only been convenient for successive presidents to appoint the EFCC chairman and leave him without a board to be used for political ends or fired when those ends change.

In fairness to the embattled Magu, he had a mixture of a dramatic and public relations approach to the anti corruption crusade. He may not have been the most intellectually inclined or the most articulate public officer in these parts. But he had the training of an accountant who also happened to be an effective police officer. He had a nose for sniffing out big criminals with dodgy book keeping records and cooked up figures.

In the immediate post election campaigns in 2015-16, Mr. Magu’s EFCC regaled the public with dossiers of the corrupt activities of mostly the leadership of the just defeated PDP, A number of them were named, shamed, investigated, charged to court and even tried. An avalanche of convictions and plea bargains followed. Troves of cash and a long list of properties were reportedly recovered. Gradually the steam went out of the EFCC crusade. Thereafter, Mr. Magu began a series of trials of and convictions of those accused of corruption in the media.

In the chamber schemes that built up to the present travail of Mr. Magu, the Attorney General has featured as an arrow head who is officially positioned to cast the lethal death stone. But we need to watch out for where Malami is coming from politically. I smell political bad manners in this whole thing going by the configuration of political interests in the Villa. . It may be that Mr. Magu cannot be relied upon to nail whoever the commanding faction has identified as the imminent political threat to their scheme in the post Buhari equation. I would have a champagne just to be proved wrong on this speculation.

Certainly, the end season firefights will not end with the stampede around Mr. Magu’s rowdy goodbye. The stakes are rather high. The contradictions inside the Buhari administration are far too many to guarantee a quiet end of tenure season. In addition, the collective is too disparate and devoid of a unifying agenda. Even worse, the president himself is too remote and distant to be perceived as being in charge. His presence is defined mostly by a certain absence, a worrying vacancy in a place of great power. As the public keeps asking ‘Who is in charge here?”, the likelihood of even more severe firefights increases by the day. A cult with many devotees and no creed is bound to explode into a diversity of denominations with multiple tongues.

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SUNDAY JULY 12, 2020 •T H I S D AY

59

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͹ͺ˜ 2020

GAVEL

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

Removing the Elephant in NDDC’s Room The Senate, last Thursday, commenced investigations into the alleged financial recklessness by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission, report Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu

T

he much talked about investigation into the alleged N40 billion fraud perpetrated by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the National Assembly, began last week with the Senate holding a two-day public hearing into the alleged financial recklessness of the IMC between February and May, 2020.

Senate committee room 231 was filled to the brim as the public hearing organised by the Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi-led Ad-hoc committee commenced in earnest last Thursday with stakeholders including the office of the Accountant-General of the federation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the current Interim Management Committee of the NDDC in attendance.

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, was on hand to declare the public hearing open with a warning that the allegations of financial recklessness and misappropriation of funds leveled against the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are unacceptable hence the decision by the Senate to investigate the activities of the Commission.

Lawan, who underscored the need for prudent application of public funds by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs), emphasised that same had become imperative in view of scarce income at the disposal of the federal government.

He said: “Financial recklessness is not an attribute that anyone can afford, whether rich or poor. It is even worse with the poor, or for the organisation or a country with limited resources.

“This is the reason we have always highlighted the need for prudence in the application of public resources. The time when public resources are seen as nobody’s is long gone. We are in trying times, when we all have to be concerned about judicious use of scarce incomes.

“The NDDC is an important statutory agency that is supposed to improve the lot of the Niger Delta community. It is, therefore, unacceptable to hear about inappropriate use of resources, or outright financial recklessness.”

According to him, the weighty allegations of misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N80 billion by the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC prompted the upper chamber to investigate the Commission. He expressed delight that the Ad-hoc committee has made excellent progress by requesting and receiving vital information from identified stakeholders.

“This public hearing should further help the committee get more information, to enable them to come to a pleasant conclusion on the facts on ground, before reporting back to the Senate.

“I have trust in the ability of this committee to do the right thing, but I add that you all have to cooperate with them and be openminded and frank with your submissions.

“The Senate will be fair to all. Our aim is to get all evidence, to make excellent decisions, to benefit the citizens. Your cooperation is therefore very important”, the Senate President added.

Chairman of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee, Senator Adetumbi, in his welcome address said, the panel in line with its mandate sought “to holistically investigate all financially related allegations, mismanagement and misappropriation and the breach of the extant procurement processes as enshrined in the public procurement Act 2007.”

He added that: “The exercise is not aimed at witch-hunting any individual, groups, persons or institutions, but to rather get at the root of the matter, that will aid in repositioning the NDDC to effectively deliver on the mandate on which it was established, to block leakages of financial mismanagement as well as promote the effective utilisation of its resources for the overall development

Lawan of the people of the Niger Delta region.”

At the interactive session held after the opening ceremony, the Senate committee disagreed with the IMC over funds spent as COVID-19 palliatives for both NDDC staff as well as police commands in the nine oil producing states.

Senator Adetunbi-led Ad-hoc had queried why huge amount of money was given to workers of the commission as relief for COVID-19 pandemic wondered why N10m was given to a single staff as Covid-19 relief fund without the person testing positive to the virus.

“From the financial statements or documents forwarded to this committee from your office as regards expenditure carried out between October 29, 2019 and May 31, 2020, monies expended on COVID-19 pandemic relief are mind boggling. Out of the total expenditure of N81.495billion spent by both the IMC led by Mrs. Gbene Nunieh as Managing Director between October 29, 2019 and February 18, 2020 and the current IMC led by Professor Daniel Pondei between February 19, 2020 and May 31, 2020, N3.14billiion was spent on COVID-19 pandemic as relief funds.

“Highly disturbing is the fact that based on the records of payment of such funds, a whopping N10million was given to a single staff while two other staffers collected N7million each.

“Other payments as reliefs against the pandemic are N3million given to each of 148 other staffers, N1.5 million each to 157 other category of staffers , N1million each to 497 others and N600,000.00 each to the last category of 464 other staffers.

“Also included in the COVID-19 pandemic relief largesse, as clearly stated in your submitted financial documents, is N475million given to the Police High Command for purchase of face masks and Hand Sanitizers for men and officers across the nine states in the Niger Delta Region,” he said.

Senator Adetunbi also took up the IMC officials on other spending including N1.3billion for Community relations, N1.956billion for Lassa fever, N23.8billion for Consultancy fees, N486million for Duty Travel Allowance, N85.6million for overseas travels etc.

In their separate explanations, however, both the Managing Director, Professor Pondei and Acting Executive Director (Project), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, defended the various expenditure saying they were done in the best interest of the Commission and Niger

Delta Community at large.

Pondei explained that the Commission alone has 150 policemen attached to it for security purposes aside the various Police Commands of the affected nine States in the Niger Delta Region.

On his part, Ojougboh made allegations of financial meddlesomeness, contracts grabbing and splitting against Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi and his counterpart in the House of Representatives.

According to him, out of 2,900 emergency projects the Commission planned to carry out in changing the face of the Niger Delta Communities, the two chairmen requested for 1,000 projects to be executed by them as they have been doing over the years.

“Aside projects grabbing, the two Chairmen are holding the Commission to ransom on its 2020 budget, which had been submitted since November last year but yet to see the light in July 2020.

“We have lost confidence in the two chairmen, who are have been hijacking and bastardising operations of the commission over the years,” he said.

Responding to the N40 billion allegation levelled against the current IMC by the Senate within the first three months of this year, Ojougboh said there was nothing of such.

According to him, no single Kobo is missing in the account of the Commission since February 19 this year, when the current IMC assumed office.

He said: “The current IMC met debt of over N3trillion as payments for contracts awarded and executed by previous management, out of which N156 billion had been released and ready for payment”.

Other members of the Ad-hoc committee, which has up till next week to submit its report to Senate at plenary are Senators Jika Haliru, Tanko Almakura, Abdulfatai Buhari, Chukwuka Utazi, Ibrahim Hadeija and Degi-Eremienyo Biobarakuma.

The two chambers of the National Assembly had in May resolved to investigate an alleged N40billion fraud by the IMC of the NDDC. While the Senate raised a seven-member ad-hoc committee to look into the allegation, the House summoned the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Akpabio, and the IMC to explain to the House the plan of the commission to ameliorate the effect of the present economic situation on the region.

After debating a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Navy, Senator Thompson Sekibo, the Senate passed a resolution to investigate the allegations on how the IMC spent N40 billion between Feruary and May, this year.

Sekibo, in the motion titled, “Urgent need to investigate alleged financial recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission,” stated that the reports from the Commission revealed financial recklessness that must be halted and investigated.

He said while President Muhammadu Buhari set up IMC to co-ordinate forensic audit of financial transactions carried out by the dissolved board of the commission, reports emanating from IMC indicated financial recklessness by the new management.

He added that aside financial recklessness

by IMC, the commission also indulged in arbitrary sack of the management staff of the commission.

“While President Buhari’s action of setting up an IMC and the forensic audit may have been conceived to forestall the financial recklessness of the commission and reposition for fast-tracking of the development of the region, the IMC has been more bedeviled by the same financial misuse, misapplication, misappropriation or outright fraud in the management of the funds of the commission.

“Within the last three months, the commission has spent over N40 billion of the commission’s fund without recourse to established processes of fund disbursements, which has opened up further suspicion among stakeholders of the Niger Delta Region,” Senator Sekibo had alleged.

Reacting to the move by the federal legislators to probe the agency, the Commission alleged that the probe was simply designed to scuttle the Forensic Audit currently going on at the NDDC, which was ordered

by President Buhari, following alleged corruption by the interim management.

Ojougboh also accused the Senators and members of the House of Representatives of being behind the fraud in NDDC. Speaking on the Morning Show, a programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers sometime in May, he stated that the leadership of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Niger Delta Affairs “raised and vandalised” the commission’s 2019 budget.

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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 ˾ LY 12, 2020

PERSPECTIVE Tinubu and the Latter-Day Nostradamus Tunde Rahman

S

ome people never learn but I will tender to them a word of sound advice in hope that some degree of civility and good sense will find its way to them.

It is not wise to continuously pass judgment on a person or to repeatedly predict a person’s demise, politically or otherwise. Worst, are those who lurk in the shadows to pass calumny and stir falsehood against someone because you believe that person may one day seek the same high office you so irrationally and desperately covet. The same measure you use shall ultimately be weighed against you and you shall be found lacking.

Political carpetbaggers and their hired mercenaries have strained and tugged so hard to paint recent developments within the All Progressives Congress to be what they are not. With the legal disputes regarding the national chairmanship, the party was certainly going through a rough patch. However, we know much of that turbulence was due to the covert machinations of a troubled minority in the party that wanted to take over the party leadership. Since they did not have the requisite popularity within the party, they tried to do through the court what they could not achieve through the workings of internal democracy. They learned this tack from their former mentor Atiku Abubakar who used the same ruse to try to grab though specious legal argument what President Muhammadu Buhari handily won through the democratic ballot. Victor Giadom would never have laid claim to the APC chairmanship if not that certain figures were instigating his actions from their lairs in the shadows.

He was not really an independent leadership figure. He was but the improvised explosive device of those who paid him to do their destructive work so that they may seem to keep their hands clean.

Their motives were still soiled and sordid.

The turmoil this minority caused indeed was hurting the party. The president waited patiently hoping matters would be resolved. However, when it became clear that the usurpers would not stop, he wisely determined to put an end to their penchant for confusion.

The action taken at the recent NEC meeting placed the party on an even keel.

Victor Giadom gloatingly waltzed into the meeting thinking himself chairman of the party. He was escorted out before Tinubu the meeting ended. The court cases were to end. The party was to stand united behind the Edo primary winner, Osagie Ise-Iyamu. A caretaker committee comprised of leading and highly respected party members was formed to guide the party through elections in Edo and Ondo states and to schedule a national convention in 6 months.

The minority usurpers were denied the core of what they had been plotting to achieve. Party leadership was moved as far from their hands as ever. They reacted predictably by vainly depicting this as a setback for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. But Asiwaju’s statement on the matter set the record straight. If this were a defeat, it is one of those defeats so advantageous as to be indistinguishable from victory. In their dissections of events, some writers have, however, attached themselves to the empty conjecture and propaganda of the anti-party usurpers.

Posturing as latter-day Nostradamus, these people are not trying to predict what will be; they are predicting what their sponsors want to happen. They see only what they and their biases have been financed to see. What they claim to be their crystal ball are nothing but their leaden hearts and dense ambitions. They see nothing because they cannot see beyond themselves.

This brings us to the existential question: why all the furore over Tinubu? They want to rule this nation but deep down they know the nation does not really want them. They also know that their ambitions far outpace their abilities. They have no qualms in making a mash of the party because they merely view the party as a platform for their unbridled selfishness.

Tinubu on the other hand is different. He joined with

President Buhari to form this party. He sees the party as an essential institution to provide Nigerians the democratic good governance and progressive reform needed. He also established a fine track record as a creative and innovative governor, one of the nation’s best and most productive.

Those who snipe at him from the shadows and through proxies know they cannot equal his resume nor do they have his knowledge and vision. Thus, they must do the only thing they have mastered in their long careers.

They must seek to destroy a man who has in one way or another helped them during their times of need. While such destructive talents may seem potent in the short-term, they offer no enduring solutions to building a great nation or establishing a vibrant political party.

These people are so scared of Tinubu’s shadow that they constantly attack him although he has yet to declare an interest in the 2023 race. As such, this ambition exists only in the imagination of his enemies. Tinubu has shown himself to be clearly of a different personal constitution than these people. He does not engage in backbiting and sniping. These people do these things because it is all they now. At this juncture, with so many challenges facing us, these people should be too occupied with the daily welfare of the nation than in what might happen three years from now. Their perception of time and what is important are sorely warped. This should give the public pause as to whether they want such people to lead them.

While believing the expression and naked pursuit of any presidential ambition would be highly distasteful at the moment, Asiwaju has devoted himself to trying to assist the party and the administration. Showing a supportive

relationship with President Buhari, he has offered policy suggestions and ideas during the COVID-19 crisis. Abridged versions of some of these ideas have been published to help explain to the population the need for novel approaches during this uncertain time.

While Asiwaju has devoted himself to such constructive efforts, his assailants have done nothing of the kind for they cannot offer what they do not have. What they lack is statesmanship and economic knowledge. What they have in abundance are cheap tricks, intrigues and cynical politics that speak of nothing but their individual ambitions. Such people are not of the kind that Nigeria needs, particularly now.

Tinubu has spent his time trying to better the lot of the average person during this straitened moment of global emergency.

These others give not a thought to the common person. They would rather sacrifice the collective interests of all Nigerians to satisfy their thirst. Whatever you want to say about Tinubu you cannot say he has been afflicted with this malady. He has sacrificed his own ambitions more than these other men ever could.

As a last ditch effort, the usurpers and their hired columnists have tried to create some rupture between President Buhari and Tinubu. Their efforts, though creative, have not worked. They have tried to stoke the President by saying Tinubu is trying to undermine him. They have tried to stoke Tinubu by saying the President is attacking him. The two men and their political partners are wiser than the conspirators think. The President sees how hard Tinubu has worked and, I believe, knows the sincerity of Tinubu’s suggestions and recommendations. Tinubu trusts that the President is always seeking the national interests. Such a foundation cannot be destroyed by unfounded rumour and tales.

From his response to President Buhari’s intervention, Asiwaju clearly demonstrated his support. Not only did he support the decisions taken by President Buhari to restore order, he restated his unwavering belief in the Buhari administration to continue to reform this nation for the better.

This is not the response of a man bemoaning his fate. Moreover, the APC Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Buni had visited Asiwaju Tinubu and former Interim National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande. During their visit, the panel thanked Asiwaju for his support of the NEC decisions. Governor Buni stated that the visit was to seek support, guidance and wise counsel for the committee’s assignment.

Those mindlessly pursuing a 2023 presidential ambition at present to the point of fomenting disunity to gain control of the party structure need therapy. They have been driven to mad obsession by their ambitions.

Asiwaju has taken a different path.

In his most recent statement, Asiwaju said: “To those who have been actively bleating how the President’s actions and the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions, I seek your pity. I am but a mere mortal who does not enjoy the length of foresight or political wisdom you profess to have. Already, you have assigned colourful epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is not yet even born.

“At this extenuating moment with COVID-19 and its economic fallout hounding us, I cannot see as far into the distance as you…I have devoted the last few months to thinking of policies that may help the nation in the here and now. What I may or may not do 3 years hence seems too remote given present exigencies”.

In addition to thinking of policies and ideas that can help the country at present, Asiwaju, at every point, has been counseling Nigerians to stay safe by engaging in personal hygiene and embracing social distancing measures.

Only in this way may we get through this moment without adding to the tragedies that have already come.

Every other matter including what happens in 2023 is for the future and as such in the hands of God, not the clever devices of man.

––Rahman, former Editor Thisday on Sunday Newspaper, is Media Aide to Asiwaju Tinubu.

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

12.07.2020

WOLE SOYINKA AT 86 A WRITER’S COURAGE IN ISOLATION

Cover continued on Page 62

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ JULY 12, 2020

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ARTS & REVIEW\\TRIBUTE

WOLESOYINKAAT86:AWRITER’SCOURAGEINISOLATION As the 2020 Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange kicks off today, Yinka Olatunbosun reminisces on the celebrated legacies of the leading African writer and activist who turns 86 on Monday, July 13.

L

ike it or not, “86” is a significant number in the life of Nigerian poet, playwright and activist, Prof.

Wole Soyinka. It was in 1986 that he became the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, which simultaneously aroused global admiration and critical remarks. The prize hinges on his fight for justice and democracy consistently through his body of works, which had fetched him repeated exiles and a death sentence.

Born on July 13, 1934, he lived in an Anglican Christian enclave called a parsonage. Despite his Christian background, Soyinka has his reservations about how Christianity is propagated and through his writings, he had questioned the colonialism that brought it to Africa. As a child, he witnessed how his mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka and her sister who is an educator, political campaigner and activist, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti protested against the oppressive taxation laws imposed by the traditional ruler, Alake of Abeokuta with the backing of the British colonial authorities. With the protest, the Alake was forced to abdicate. These memories were captured in Soyinka’s childhood memoir, Ake: The Years of Childhood.

Soyinka is very African and he didn’t need to be clad in Ankara or kente to prove this. Indigenous elements and his understanding of western culture have wielded powerful influence on his writings. Of course, he was also intrigued by the egalitarian principles that the philosopher Karl Marx promoted which proposes equal opportunities for all individuals. After higher education in the UK, he grew into a fierce nationalist. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service Studio to demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional elections.

In his personal life, he had demonstrated that African spirit in his assortment of friends, some of whom he lost to the infamous Nigerian Civil war that began in 1967 and ended in 1970.

Soyinka’s intervention in the war may have sprung from a place of empathy. His friends were displaced. One of them, a foremost poet, Christopher Okigbo was killed near Nsukka at the age of 35. Okigbo originally got admitted to the University of Ibadan to study medicine but later switched to classics. He played the piano and had accompanied Soyinka in public performances as students at the university. Later, with the creation of the Republic of Biafra, Okigbo volunteered to join the Biafran military where he met his untimely death. For Soyinka, the civil war struck on a personal level, not just as some developing story in the media.

“Writing became a therapy. I was reconstructing my own existence. It was also an act of defiance," he once said. Enthralled by the way some Spanish writers had used literature to fight dictatorship, Soyinka put his resistance into words. Soyinka made a theatrical debut in 1960 with the controversial play A Dance of

Soyinka at his Ijegba forest residence in Abeokuta the Forests, which was performed on the occasion of Nigeria’s independence having passed through a rigorous independence playwrights’ competition. Naturally, the play sparked some outrage among the ruling class for its portrayal of post-colonial politics in Nigeria as corrupt. Soyinka was a visionary who saw the rot in the system early enough. During the civil war, Soyinka could not remain a passive observer. He pleaded with the government to cease fire and even paid a visit to the General of the Biafran Armed Forces, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. But Soyinka was considered a spy and imprisoned by the Nigerian government in 1967. He was deprived of stationery which is a big blow to any writer. Still, he improvised writing materials and smuggled writings to the outside world.

In a recent online session on Soyinka, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. Pelumi Folajimi examined Soyinka’s prison poetry rendered in two collections namely Poems from Prison and A Shuttle in the Crypt. Folajimi explained how Soyinka likens himself to a shuttle, that is a restless animal in a cage in a self-assessment of his condition in prison. He recounted how the

writing materials were only provided for Soyinka when his wife visited to create the impression that he was allowed to write.

In Soyinka’s dramatic monologue titled “Joseph”, Folajimi recounted how Soyinka alluded to the Bible to negate the widespread misconception that Soyinka is “anti-christ.’’

Contemporary writers have much to learn from Soyinka’s conditions in prison. The current Covid-19 pandemic imposes restrictions on normal human activities that may have serious mental health implications similar to those of solitary confinement which Soyinka endured and survived for 22 months. The poems embody relevant themes of isolation and alienation.

Though many writers work in isolation, many still find it traumatising to be forced into it by a condition that could be life-threatening. Writers and readers may draw strengths from the writings of Soyinka who was held in chains for a crime he would later be declared innocent from. Chains may be symbolic; it could be financial constraint, political oppression, unhealthy relationships or even a writer’s block. Courage, like Soyinka’s, remains indispensable to weather the storm.

PARASTATAL

LOOKING BEYOND COVID-19, NATIONAL GALLERY ROLLS OUT NEW PLANS Forced to suspend some of its programmes due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Gallery of Art (NGA) adapts its new programmes to the current realities. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

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hortly after he had assumed office as the chief executive of the National Gallery of Art (NGA), Dr Simon Odey Ikpakronyi showed early signs of hitting the ground running. During his first interaction with art journalists, he stated in clear terms that it would not be business as usual.At that briefing, which took place sometime in March last year, he rekindled the waning hopes of a befitting edifice for the NGA, among other things.

“I pinpointed the issue of lack of a befitting edifice for NGAas not only making it difficult for people to relate to what we do but appreciate the quantum of work we have done over the years,” he recalls. “I, therefore, made it clear that I will push relentlessly for a standard structure to serve as Nigeria’s National Gallery ofArt.” Also at that first meet-the-press encounter as the agency’s helmsman, Dr Ikpakronyi decried the fact that many of the NGA’s signature programmes had “been left in limbo” and promised to “resuscitate them”.

Ayear later, while commemorating his one year in office, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka PhD holder in art history had listed the programmes the NGAhad executed under his watch – even as he promised to do more – in a publication, titled National Gallery ofArt: 12 Months in the Saddle.

But then, neither he nor the members of his team could have reckoned with the intrusion of a pandemic (globally known by the moniker, COVID-19) which was already menacingly lurking around the corner. “And so we at [the]

Ikpakronyi NGAwere stopped in our tracks. Thankfully, with the gradual easing of lockdowns, we wish to restate our commitment to do more for the advancement of the visual art in the country while adhering to established protocols of the time we are in.”

On this note, he rolled out a series of new programmes – optimistically tagged “Post-COVID Programmes – “to reflect what the world is passing through”, in a press briefing held on Thursday, July 2 inAbuja.

Not surprisingly, the case for an edifice for the NGA was returned to the front burner as the first among the new programmes. The renewed clamour for the gallery would be invigorated by a retreat, which is billed to explore the possibility of both a short-term solution of having a temporary structure and the desirable long-term one of erecting a permanent structure.

“I wish to state without any equivocation that Nigeria is one of the few countries inAfrica and the world at large that does not have a befitting edifice as its National Gallery ofArt,” Dr Ikpakronyi argued.

“The result is that most of the artworks in its national

collection are kept in unconducive environpractice in [the] arts through the award of grants ment and artists have limited spaces to exhibit to artists and arts scholars”, among the gallery’s their works among the few private galleries responsibilities. around.”

This should explain the gallery’s plans to Clear implementable timelines should be celebrate the modern Nigerian art scene’s biggest a major outcome of a retreat that would unite names –Aina Onabolu, Ben Enwonwu and Clara NationalAssembly members, representatives Ugbodaga-Ngu – in one publication as The Three of the Federal Ministry of Information, Culture Irokos. The book on these artistic trailblazers, it is and Tourism as well as other stakeholders in a hoped, will be presented to the public in Lagos common cause. alongside an exhibition featuring some of their “We are hoping that the NationalAssembly works. should be able to make budgetary allocation for Still on the gallery’s planned publications, the the edifice in the next budget cycle,” Ikpakronyi public presentation of another major book, this added. “We are also hopeful that our honourtime on two frontline Benin artists – Princess able minister will liaise with the FCT minister Elizabeth Olowu and Ellis Erimona – will be held to fast-track getting a sizeable portion of land in in Benin City at the same time as an exhibition of the Central Business District,Abuja to NGAfor the artists’ artworks. Seventy-five-year-old Olowu the proposed edifice. This will rub off positively is a sculptor, who works in bronze, and a daughter on visual artists who will now have alternaof a former Benin monarch, ObaAkenzua II.A tive spaces to exhibit their works. More: the 1981 University of Benin MFAholder, her thesis government will begin to earn revenue as fees was titled “An Investigation into the Benin Cire will be charged visitors who come to view the Perdue Casting Technique”. exhibitions.Also, the sculpture garden will be Erimona, anAhmadu Bello University, available to sculptors for their work. These are Zaria-trained sculptor, has executed many comamong other benefits.” missioned works – including the Shaka Momodu Also not surprising is the inclusion of new monument in the Edo State town of Irua and the publications and exhibitions in the so-called life-sized bust of Chief Edo Osagie – in his Edo post-COVID programmes. For both have State. been the gallery’s forte and stock in trade There will also be a book on theAhmadu Bello since it was established in 1993 in a nod to the University, Zaria-trained renowned scholar and country’s cultural policy, which is a fallout of painter, Kolade Oshinowo, whose public presentathe UNESCO document on the World Decade tion will also be complemented by the exhibition for Cultural Development (WDCD). Indeed, of some of his works in Lagos. The presentation the National Gallery ofArt (Amendment) of this book, previously planned for his birthday Act 2004 lists “organising permanent and in February when he marked his 72nd birthday, temporary exhibitions” as well as “sponsoring has been moved to sometime before the end of and encouraging research into all aspects of this year when it failed to hold as planned due to [the] arts”, “establishing and maintaining a unforeseen circumstances. documentation centre on [the] arts and artists” Readers should continued online www.thisdaylive.com and “promoting excellence in the theory and

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CICERO

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

IN THE ARENA

EFCC: A Commission’s Search for a New Life From Nuhu Ribadu to Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde and Ibrahim Magu, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has always been a child of controversy. While modest feats have been recorded without a doubt, many still see the Commission more as a political tool than a corruption-fighting agency.

But, will the new acting helmsman be able to change this perception? Samuel Ajayi asks

W

hen Nuhu Ribadu, a senior police officer and son of a First Republic Minister, was appointed the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), many hailed the appointment even when many within official circles believed many of his seniors were unjustly bypassed for his appointment.

But if you ask any Nigerian today, he or she would likely say he remains the best chief executive of the Commission till date.

He did not only take on seemingly untouchable figures, he brooked no nonsense and was able to survive the many attempts made to compromise him. Much as Ribadu tried, he was consumed by political intrigues and his fate was sealed from the seat of power, Aso Rock.

The belief was that the political forces that made the emergence of the late Umaru Yar’Adua possible as president of Nigeria included the targets of Ribadu in his fight against corruption. He was not ready to listen to any “wise counsel” as he was determined to bring some of them to book.

One of them was said to have declared to a presidential aide that he would not be the first person to install a President and then go to jail under same President.

When the pressure on Yar’Adua was too much, Ribadu was seconded to the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, for a course. While there was a massive outrage at the attempt to force Ribadu out of EFCC, the powers that be eventually had their way and replaced him with Mrs. Umar Farida Waziri, another top police officer and first and only woman to have led the Commission.

After Waziri, whose era was fraught with complaints and allegations of sorts was Ibrahim Lamorde, he was in charge of operations at the commission. He too was not to tarry in that office following similar grounds of high-handedness and corruption allegations, a development that eased him out and paved the way for Ibrahim Magu, whom Lamorde brought back into the agency after he was initially sent off over charges bordering on sleazes.

However, the suspension of Magu, another senior police officer, earlier in the week as the chief executive of EFCC, appeared an indication that there was a jinx as far as the headship of that agency is concerned.

There seems to be a curse that no head of the agency would ever complete his or term and they will always leave in the gale of controversy and trouble.

Magu was accosted on his way to an official engagement early last week and was commandeered into a Presidential Probe Panel investigating unwholesome activities under his watch. While there was a spin by those sympathetic to his cause that he was not arrested but invited, it was when he has yet return since day that it dawned on them that it might be serious than they thought.

The following day, the President approved the appointment of Mohammed Umar as the acting chairman of the Commission. Umar, until his appointment, was the Director of Operations of the Commission. Though the brief for Umar was to “oversee the operations and activities of the anti-corruption agency pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation on the allegations against Ibrahim and further directives in that regard,” but no one is under the illusion that Magu would come back.

Umar might get the final nod and retain the job as substantive chairman of the Commission and if he does, he has a job in his hands. While EFCC might have achieved some modest successes, especially under Ribadu and the embattled Magu, sympathisers of the present government know that the agency has been used more as an instrument of political witch-hunting than its primary job of reducing if not eradicating corruption. And under no other chief executive has this been the case than Magu.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari made fighting corruption the mantra of his Presidency and which dominated his campaign both in the 2015 and the 2019 elections, all eyes were fixed in what EFCC would do under Magu.

Problem started for Magu when the Senate refused to screen and pass him, basing its decision on the two scathing security report by the Department of State Security, DSS, he nevertheless continued in acting capacity making him the longest serving chief executive of any federal agency in acting capacity.

Magu set to work and was also making the right noises. He ensured that a majority of those he ‘convicted’ were done so on the pages of newspaper. He made media trial his priority and he was not able to secure many major convictions he would have wished simply because he and his team would have been holding media conferences even before they started any investigation.

A senior judge was said to have advised Magu and his team that investigations into financial crimes should be discreet and devoid of media campaign. He added that with the style of EFCC under Magu, they would not be able to secure any notable conviction.

Rather than take this advice, Magu turned to the Judiciary and claimed they were hampering the fight against corruption and allowing accused persons to get off the hook and when they did not, they convict but with very light sentences.

Many lawyers felt Magu did not seem to understand how Judiciary works. A judge, according to them, would give judgment based on what was proved in his court and not what he read on the pages of newspaper.

Beyond media campaign, Umar has to also look at redeeming the dented image of the Commission as nothing more than a political tool. Shortly after Buhari was sworn-in, the Commission returned 48 houses seized from former Bayelsa governor, Timipreye Sylva, to him.

Everyone knew this was a politically motivated decision. In the same vein, the Commission has, under Magu, blatantly refused to investigate certain petitions and even ridiculously announced that it needed court injunction before it could investigate some cases.

There were petitions against many top officials of this government and the ruling party, the APC. But the Commission has either refused to investigate or when it does, it sits on the outcome of the investigations.

Will Umar change this trend? Will he be able to birth a new EFCC that does not care about the political affiliations of those under its investigation? Time will tell.

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

P Obaseki

Edo’s Political Quagmire

olitical developments in Edo State are daily wearing all the semblance of a mutually assured destruction by hitherto political allies, whose differences have become glaringly irreconcilable.

And with Governor Godwin Obaseki now out of the APC internal equation, the die might have been finally cast.

Sadly, this political trajectory is beginning to look too familiar. From the experience in the Zamfara State election to that of Rivers, Bayelsa and later Imo States, the current state of

play in Edo is far too tricky and intricate for bookmakers to start making predictions. It is desperately fluid and unpredictably uncertain as both camps within the same party, the APC, go for the kill.

Interestingly, as with the other elections, which turned out a bitter experience, the battle for the soul of Edo State is evidently about 2023. It is part of the positioning ahead of an election that could make or mar Nigeria as a social unit. But that might be early in the day. What’s certain is that the Edo election as with other off-season polls coming up later in the year, is a battle for the future.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JULY 12, 2020

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BRIEFINGNOTES Magu: Ignoble End of an Anti-graft Czar Last week’s suspension of a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, was shocking and shameful, writes Shola Oyeyipo

F

rom the beginning to the end, the entire period Ibrahim Magu acted as the chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was characterised by turbulence. His era finally ended in a mess, because as at the time of compiling this report, the presidency had suspended him from office and appointed a replacement, Mohammed Umar.

That is ultimately his final exit from the anti-graft agency.

His sad end was due to allegations of corruption, insubordination and abuse of office levied against him by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, which followed his arrest and brought before a presidential panel at the presidential villa, where he detained and summarily suspended.

Now that he is suddenly in the thick of the storm, so many allegations are rolling out.

In Malami’s memo indicting Magu, he was alleged of insubordination to the office of the AGF, re-looting of recovered loots, selling seized assets to his cronies, associates and friends, giving preferential treatment to some select EFCC investigators known as the ‘Magu Boys’, leaking investigative reports to the media, discrepancies in records of the EFCC and the Federal Ministry of Finance on recovered funds, and declaring N539b as recovered funds instead of N504b.

He was also alleged of not providing concrete evidence against some suspects including former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke to ensure her extradition, reporting some judges to their presiding officers without deferring to the AGF, refusal to promptly investigate the P&ID – a transaction about to make Nigeria lose about $9.6bn to a UK firm, disregarding a court judgment to unfreeze a N7bn belonging to a former director of a bank and other underbellies.

Though there are series of conspiracy theories making the round about the embattled former anti-graft boss, prominent of these is the insinuation that he is simply a victim of power play between the cabal in Aso Rock and former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Magu Tinubu, whose loyalists are believed to be victims of orchestrated attacks due to his 2023 presidential ambition.

But the question is, could Magu have had a clean record?

In 2016, when the APC-led Nigerian Senate under Dr. Bukola Saraki rejected his nomination as substantive head of the commission and demanded that President Buhari sent a fresh nominee due to a damaging report by the Department of State Security (DSS), which accused him of double life, sabotage and corruption.

The DSS is perhaps the elite force in Nigeria as regard intelligence gathering and even though people wondered why the APC seemed divided over Magu, indications were that he probably had a skeleton in his cupboard.

As he did in the case of a number of his aides alleged of corrupt dealing, President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to the Senate clearing Magu of any malpractice but the content of the DSS security report has not been erased. He was said to be under investigation, because of his close relationship with an indicted retired Nigerian Air Force officer, Commodore Umar Mohammed, who was fingered as the one behind his flamboy-

ant lifestyle, particularly paying the N20 million per annum rent of his home and furnishing same at N43 million.

The DSS added, among other things, that during the era of Mrs. Farida Waziri as the EFCC chairman, in an August 2008 investigation, which resulted in a search at Magu’s residence, some sensitive documents that were not supposed to be in his possession were discovered in his house. He was detained and redeployed to the regular police over this development.

His eventual arrest and subsequent suspension have however vindicated the Bukola Saraki-led eighth Senate, which maintained its refusal to confirm Magu as the EFCC chairman.

Though amid his controversial stint at the EFCC, Magu got both knocks and kudos from Nigerians, in the overall, the EFCC as much as the President Buhari leadership did not show Nigerians the kind of anti-corruption moves expected of the presidency that came into power on the promise to fight corruption to a standstill. That aside, members of the opposition had also castigated the Magu-led EFCC as selective in its anti-corruption fight.

Nigeria cannot boast that it is corruption free today. Government officials have only perfected more clever ways of siphoning public funds for personal use and this simply explains why the suspended EFCC doesn’t seem to be getting support from Nigerians. The people really didn’t feel the impact of his much-touted disdain for corruption.

The agency easily became a political tool under Magu and it was effective in tormenting perceived political opponents. The immediate past Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who was considered as the arrowhead of a group of dissidents in the APC, would live to remind the traumatising media trial he underwent with the EFCC and reliable sources are hinting that the former Kwara State governor is having his last laugh presently, because he believes members of the public now see what the eighth Senate saw.

Generally, public opinion is not in Magu’s favour and that is quite significant. If he fought the anti-graft war fearlessly, effectively and without favour, Nigerians would have queued behind him by now, but a glance on the social media would show that a majority of Nigerians is of the opinion that even his initial indictments were not far from the truth.

A financial expert and public opinion analyst, Mr. Adeyinka Adeniji wrote that, “His (Magu’s) eventual arrest, in interrogation and detention came as huge vindication for the Senator Bukola Saraki-led 8th Assembly. Buhari and the APC played on the stigmatisation of the 8th assembly to keep Magu at the helms of the EFCC affair illegally.

“Despite hues and cries by the out-of-favour Saraki, and the refusal of the parliament under him to swear Ibrahim Magu in as substantive EFCC chairman, and the attendant uninformed castigation of the Senate by a section of the public, Buahri’s retention of Magu was like assigning a cat to keep watch over the meat.

“Going by experiences of past EFCC bosses, who were equally relieved of their post after investigation revealed massive misgivings on their part, Magu’s case may also be swept under the presidential carpet by a government overwhelmed by different corruption.”

He was particularly miffed that among Magu’s alleged offences is the re-looting of recovered loots from corrupt politician, who are mainly members of the opposition parties.

Former Senator representing Kogi West senatorial district and a strong critic of the government, Senator Dino Melaye, in his characteristic comic reactions, took to his twitter to say he told President Buhari about Magu but he disagreed, adding that “So many Magu’s are in his government.”

Journalist, Chuks Akunna wrote: “In 2008, the EFCC chair, Farida Waziri detained Ibrahim Magu in the FCID underground cell. When I visited, Magu and other inmates were chorusing ‘I have decided to follow Jesus.’ He returned to the same cell last night.”

Then there was a slight twist to the developing story, when the name of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was dragged into the matter after he was alleged to have received N4bn from the ousted EFCC boss, but Osinbajo was quick to deny receiving nay such money from Magu, out of the recovered looted funds.

Already, the presidency is shopping for a replacement for Magu, but in the meantime, Mr. Mohammed Umar. What an end to an era!

NOTES FOR FILE

Is There a Defence for Him?

W

Magu

ith the everyday twists to the many allegations against the suspended chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, it is hard to think of a plausible defence in his favour as his matter gets messier each passing day.

After about six days in detention and the desperate plea for a bail, it is clear to many people now that those keeping Magu in detention have more than they can possible feed the public with

as discoveries from their investigations, further complicating likely grounds for defence.

Friday’s burgling of the office of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has further corroborated fears that there’s more to the corruption allegations than is already in the public space.

Although all of Magu’s predecessors left under controversial circumstances, Magu’s situation is even he more niggling, the reason the investigation of his reign must be thorough, total and examples set with it.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ JULY 12, 2020

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REPORTER’SDIARY

In 20 Months, Fayemi Changes Ekiti’s Landscape Allegations that Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s second coming as governor is a colossal failure do not speak to the facts of his administration, writes Raheem Akingbolu

O

ver the years, Akannasan curve along Ado-Iyin road has remained a nightmare for motorists, recording casualties at short intervals.

Though successive administrations between 1999 and 2018, had tried to mount bumps to mitigate speed on the bad road, the number of mishaps only reduced; it didn’t stop.

To this end, experts within and outside the state have continued to clamour for construction of the new Ado-Iyin Road, which would provide ample opportunity to avoid the dangerous twist along the road. But despite the conviction that the option was the best, none of the previous administrations summoned the courage to dabble into the construction – perhaps, because it’s capital intensive.

At the twilight of Fayemi’s first coming in 2014, he had identified the road and the Ado Ekiti flyover, as being on his priority list if he won the 2014 election. Unfortunately, he lost the election to former Governor Ayodele Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who eventually constructed the flyover.

But on assumption of office two years ago, despite the lean resources of the state, Fayemi immediately commenced construction of the Ado-Iyin road and mobilised contractors to site within the first sixth month of assuming office.

As this reporter found out last week, the construction of the 2-lane dual carriage 7km 4-lane with 8.8m width is ongoing with the Fayemi inspecting one of the ongoing projects in Ekiti assurance that it would be completed by you can see, the drainage system is well built with concrete and December 2021. Knowing full well that the project would put an the asphalt lane is super. In a matter of months, the challenges we end to the incessant accidents between Iyin and Ado Ekiti, Ekiti encounter daily on the road will be a thing of the past.” people are already in ecstasy, waiting for its commissioning next The next place of call on the visit was the road that leads to year.

Arinta Water Fall in Ipole Iloro and the popular Ikogosi Warm According to Ayo Akinyemi, a Civil Engineer, who was Spring, all in Ekiti West. Perhaps, because of his sophistication and formally with Ekiti State Local Government Commission before joining a federal parastatal, the construction of the road would be a global worldview, Governor Fayemi on gaining political power in 2010, made it crystal clear that he was desperate to further relief and a great achievement for the Fayemi administration.

“It is sad that politician play politics with anything. If any of our reposition the iconic Ikogosi Warm Spring, which has put Ekiti on global map. elected officer is doing something that would be beneficial to all, To achieve this, the governor had then embarked on total regardless of whether we share the same political view or not, it is overhauling of the tourist center by turning it into a beautiful patriotic to commend such leader rather than running him down masterpiece. Following the total makeover, Ikogosi became an to score cheap political goal.

“Having been involved in many road constructions while work- instant success story that started attracting thousands of people ing with various local governments in Ekiti, I know how tedious it within and outside Ekiti.

The achievement didn’t only shore up the profile of the can be to dabble into construction of a road like the new Ado-Iyin administration and its revenue base; it became a reference point, road, because we have unfriendly topography and thick forest in as many were quick to call it the second Tinapa resort in Nigeria.

Ekiti,” Akinyemi said.

However, the honeymoon didn’t last – no thanks to the bad roads Also penciled down for completion between December 2020 from Aramoko, capital of Ekiti West, through which people from and June 2021 are Oye-Ikun road, which is 34.4km and 7.3m Lagos and Abuja easily connect both Ikogosi and Ipole Iloro. width; Ado-Ilawe-Igbara Odo-Ibuji road, 3km construction and During the buildup to the electioneering campaign for his 7km rehabilitation; 13km Aramoko-Erijiyan-Ikogosi road, Agbadosecond coming, Fayemi was said to have assured the people of Ode-Isinbode-Omuo road, which is 30.5km and 7.3m width as the local government, through the current lawmaker, representing well as the 25.6km Ilupeju-Ire-Igbemo-Ijan Road.

Ekiti West Constituency 2 in the State House of Assembly, Unlike the new Iyin road, which is considered a leeway for Tajudeen Akingbolu, a lawyer, that the road to Ikogosi and Ipole motorists and people of the state, whose patience have been was on the priority list. maximally tasked as a result of frequent casualties, the IlaweAkingbolu, who was then preparing for House of Assembly Igbara Odo-Ibuji road will provide alternative for people from Ekiti election told his people that they could go to sleep, assuring them West, Ekiti South West, Ijero and Efon Alaaye Local Governments that Fayemi would fix the road immediately he assumed office. to link Ondo State through Igbara Oke and Ilaramokin, rather He was vindicated as the governor indeed walked the talk by than accessing the neighbouring state through a longer route – coming down within the first one year of the current administraAdo-Ikere-Iju road. tion to kick-off the road.

Speaking to THISDAY during the tour, a supervising engineer Speaking on the ongoing work on the road, the Alara of at the construction site, Kehinde Bakare, who went down memory Aramoko Ekiti, Oba Adegoke Olu-Adeyemi, one of the leading lane to how his people from Ekiti West used to connect Akure first class monarchs from the state, described the project as a thing through the road in the 80s and 90s before it became a shadow of joy for Aramoko and the people of Eka-meta, referring to of itself, said it was always a delight then to travel to Akure and Erijiyan, Ikogosi and Ipole. bypass Ado Ekiti.

He said: “As you can see, Ekiti West houses the major tourist While assuring Ekiti people that the governor was committed centers in the state – the Warm Spring and Arinta Water Fall. to finishing the project very soon, he was quick to add that We also have Ori-Oke Erio, a religious pilgrimage center that has compared to the part of the road handled by Ondo State, the Fayemi administration is committing more resources to the road to become well known for spiritual excursion. Besides, our people are majorly farmers and we have been clamouring for this road to provide quality work with concrete drainage system, which was open up our farm settlements. not considered by Ondo State.

“Again, Aramoko as a nodal town has a major market that “I’m speaking not only as a project supervisor but also as a serves as meeting point for farmers and traders from this axis and would-be-beneficiary of the road, when completed. Incidentally, other part of the state to display their wares and farm products.

I’m from Ekiti West and growing up, we found it much easier On completion, the road will boost Ekiti economy and reposition connecting Akure through this route, which was then our state our various tourist centers. capital before Ekiti was carved out of the old Ondo State. No “On behalf of other traditional rulers and people of this axis, I doubt, the honeymoon will begin for us again when this road is commend Dr. Fayemi for the project and we implore him not to completed. allow complacency to set in. He started well and we are praying “Coming to the project, I think Dr. John Kayode Fayemi and for him to end well. Succinctly speaking, we can’t wait for the his team deserve our applause for not compromising standard. road to be completed.”

With what is being done, what Ekiti is putting in place here will In fulfillment of his campaign promise to restore the Ekiti value be a legacy project that generation yet unborn will be glad for. As

and uphold the state’s commitment to education, the Fayemi administration is also doing a lot in the education sector. For instance, while the former administration was lackadaisical about the plight of the Ekiti State University College of Medicine, which has made many students spend close to 10 years for a 6-7 years course, for lack of basic infrastructure and manpower to boost accreditation, Fayemi administration has looked in their way and produced the first set of medical doctors in the college.

A concerned parent of one of the final year students in the college, Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Apempe, who was on a visit to his medical student child when this reporter visited the school last week, commended the state governor for the feat recorded by producing the first set from the college but called on the administration to declare a state of emergency on the institution to pave the way for other students to graduate.

“For many years, parents and students were hopeless until Fayemi came and saw to the graduation of the first set from the college. We were excited and grateful for the achievement.

However, we are still appealing to government not to relax in its effort to see other students through.

“No doubt, if the successive administrations had shown interest in the College, the shortage of medical personnel we are experiencing in the midst of the current coronavirus pandemics would have been ameliorated. We shouldn’t forget in a hurry that the Governors of Western states between 1979 and 1983, established Universities in Ago Iwoye, Ado Ekiti, Ekpoma and Lagos to produce university graduates that would become middle class administrators in their various states.

“After achieving this, the managements of Lagos State and Ogun State Universities had since produced medical practitioners in hundreds. It is also an irony that the Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, which was established many years after, has overtaken Ekiti State University in the area of producing manpower in the medical field.

“Considering the important place of medical personnel in the society, Fayemi should not pay lip service to issues concerning the EKSU College of Medicine. As a well-travelled man and scholar of international repute, I know he will not let us down,” Apempe said.

Beyond the College of Medicine, record has also shown that the current administration in Ekiti, has embarked on building and equipping standard Model Secondary Schools in Ado-Ekiti, in honour of Senator Ayo Fasanmi, David Oke, Prof. Banji Akintoye and Chief Deji Fasuan. There are also works going on to give a new look to many primary and secondary schools in Ekiti.

Meanwhile, in partnership with the World Bank, the state is also committing huge resources to the provision of potable water across the state, through rehabilitation of Ero/Egbe Dams and Piping of Water from Ero Dam to Ado-Ekiti.

When this reporter thought the tour had completed after two days of driving round various communities in the three senatorial districts of the state, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Yinka Oyebode, impressed it on him, the need to visit the Ekiti Civic Center which, when completed would house shopping mall, cinemas and event center.

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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 ˾ JULY 12, 2020

CICERO/REPORT

In Ondo, Things Are Fast Falling Apart The crisis between the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, has heightened political tension in the state, a situation reminiscent of the 1983 political crisis, writes James Sowole

T

o the people of Ondo State, the disagreement between the Governor, Oluwatotimi Akeredolu SAN and his deputy, Mr Agboola Ajayi, was not a new phenomenon in the political history of the Sunshine State. The current scenario between the two is the third of such happening in the state.

The first of such scenario and which was the most serious and most violent, was in 1983 between the first Executive Governor of the state, the late Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin and the late Chief Akin Omoboriowo. The physical and emotional scars of the violent political crisis still exist in Akure, the state capital and among the indigenes of the old Ondo State.

The second scenario was between the immediate past Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and his deputy, Alhaji Ali Olanusi. The crisis between the two, who became friends in a manner unexpected of the chairman of a ruling political party surprised many people.

Olanusi, who was the Chairman of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the Labour Party (LP) nurtured and sponsored

by Mimiko and was made the deputy governor as a compensation. The duo however parted ways midway into the second term tenure of Mimiko.

That things have fallen apart between the Ondo State Governor, Akeredolu and his deputy and ‘brother’ is no longer surprising to the people of the state but the concern of a majority is that it came in the same manner of the 1983 episode.

Considering the fact that Omoboriowo’s choice was made by the most respected political leader of the Southwest, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Akeredolu and Ajayi...when the going was good no one could expect that the relationship between governor. the two could go awry and generate to the level of a violence of While speaking with journalists, Ojogo said Ajayi betrayed that magnitude. the trust and confidence reposed in him by Akeredolu, which In the same manner, the choice of Ajayi as the running mate might have been responsible for the cold war between them. to Akeredolu, was to many people, accidental. Ajayi’s name, He said: “I can say that Mr. Governor in the history of Nigeria, according to findings, was submitted to beat the deadline set Ondo State, in particular, is the only governor that entrusted so by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for much power in his deputy much more than any other person. political parties to submit names of their candidate and their In the history of Nigeria, I can say that the Office of the Deputy running mate on a specific date whereas the Ondo State APC Governor of Ondo State, I’m not talking about the personality was yet to resolve issues concerning the filling of the position. but the office of the Deputy Governor became more powerful While the game of likely substitutes was ongoing, some and more influential from 2017 till date under Akeredolu. people said Ajayi should not be chosen, because he was from “And if there are issues the public sees in the realm of loss of Kiribo Town in Eseodo Local Government Area, whereas confidence, distrust, and disappointment, culminating in a cold Akeredolu’s mother hailed from neighbouring Kiribo Town. war, we need to know because since Akeredolu came on board, They said chosen Ajayi would mean that Akeredolu has given the office of the Deputy Governor became more powerful than the slot to his brother. it was, only betrayal of trust and confidence, could have been the The expectation, therefore, was that the name would be reason they parted ways.” substituted after the party must have resolved the issues At another forum after the deputy governor had defected to concerning who should be running mate to Akeredolu. But it the PDP, Ojogo, when asked whether Akeredolu would hand was gathered that for his political prowess, sagacity, financial over power to his deputy after he tested positive for COVID-19, and material contributions to the contest, Ajayi eventually declared that it would be dangerous for the state to do so. became Akeredolu’s deputy.

“The Governor will not be advised to hand over to his deputy, Considering the circumstance under which Ajayi emerged it is not done, because there is no reason for that. The deputy as the running mate to Akeredolu and eventually the deputy governor has since left our party and has since left governance, governor, one would have expected that they should be able to work without rancour and if there is going to be any, it should be even though he has not left government.

“You can’t hand over government to someone who has left manageable. governance or handover the rein of government to someone The journey, which started on a very good note between the who attempted to pull down government. two brothers became stormy, when the deputy governor was “Those of us in government believe strongly in this governsaid to have objected to the use of the money of the Ondo State ment and see the deputy governor as the greatest threat to good Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) governance in Ondo State and you can’t attempt to handover for the funding of projects like BEMORE, Forum of Wives of to people like that. Agboola Ajayi is the greatest threat to this Ondo State and Women Political Office Holders (FOWOSO) government.” initiated by Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu.

“I don’t know how we got into this. What we witnessed in The cold war was heightened after the 2019 Presidential, 1983, the level of treachery that was deployed against the late National and State House of Assembly elections, when Ajayi was suspected to have influenced the choice of many candidates Adekunle Ajasin, except for those who have the opportunity to witness what we are seeing in Ondo State, one may be tempted for the House of Assembly and who eventually won in their to say that was the height or nothing could surpass that level of respective constituencies. treachery.

Ajayi also gained further influence among some politicians “But what we are seeing today represents the fact that what across party divides, because of the alleged failure of his boss Omoboriowo did in 1983 was a child’s play compared to what (Akeredolu) to take good care of politicians including even Agboola Ajayi is doing now. those who are in government. He was said to have been nice to “We cannot risk it and attempt to hand over to someone who many of the aggrieved members and when it eventually became has exhibited mindless level of betrayal and an unquestionable known to Ajayi that he would not be fielded for second term, level of treachery,” posited Ojogo, who hailed from the same many of them joined him in the face-off against his boss.

Eseodo Local Government area.

Also, Akeredolu’s inability to reconcile with APC leaders and That Ajayi, who had been cleared to contest the primary members, who were aggrieved after the party’s 2016 primary of the PDP ahead of the October 10, 2020 Election would not and which gave birth to the Unity Forum with not less than seven aspirants and other aspirants eyeing the party’s ticket, had be allowed to remain in office, was a simple fact known to all politically conscious people of the state. emboldened Ajayi that he could slug it out with Akeredolu.

Therefore, the penultimate Tuesday’s move by the state While Ajayi was strategising for his next political move when House of Assembly to begin the process for his removal as the the cold war was ongoing, the state government went all out deputy governor, did not come as a surprise to the people of the against him as the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Donald state.

Ojogo at every available opportunity, lambasted the deputy

However, the unfolding drama that ensued indicated that the deputy governor had gone far in his plot to oust his boss.

Only 14 out of the 26 members of the House signed the Notice of Removal from office against Ajayi while nine dissociated from the move, three others including the Speaker remained undecided.

The surprising aspect of the issue was the fact that the drama took place barely three weeks after 21 members of the house accompanied Akeredolu to Abuja, where he submitted his nomination form at the APC National Secretariat.

That the House could not muster two third majority at the commencement of the process to impeach the deputy governor, was likened to the 1983 scenario, when the late Ajasin could not get approval of the House twice in order to replace his deputy, who resigned to contest against him.

Though the two dramatis personae, have yet to secure the ticket of their different political parties, their crisis has heightened political tension in the state, with the attendant fear that the stage is gradually getting set for a repeat of the 1983 episode Writing under the headline, “They sowed the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind”, an analyst, who pleaded anonymity, said the two were reaping what they sowed.

“In 2016, when Aketi and his deputy were preparing to take over the reign of government as the outcome of an election, they didn’t think of a better way to do this than to destabilise the outgoing government of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

“The arrowhead of the plan was no other than Agboola Ajayi.

The first step was to ‘abduct’ the State Accountant General thereby stalling all financial transactions of government.

“Government was unable to meet its financial obligations to both public servants as well as the general public. The “abducted” officer resurfaced the following day Mimiko left office.

“From there, the arrowhead of the grand plan proceeded to the House of Assembly and turned the members against the outgoing government. All efforts made by Mimiko to present the state annual budget were thwarted by the manipulation of members. It is interesting to know that they are both now reaping the whirlwind of the wind they sowed three and a half years ago.”

Currently, the House of Assembly has been turned into a drama theater of impeachment imbroglio. The same Assembly they used as a destabilising weapon three and a half years ago has developed into a monster and making both of them to suck the sour grape they planted.

Today, the state has an APC governor and a PDP deputy.

Unfortunately, it is the people of the state that are paying the price for this, though it’s technically the fallout of the “d’ibo k’o se’be” But despite the tension, analysts believed that there might not be a repeat of the 1983 episode, even though people have lost confidence in politicians in terms of performances. It’s the belief of the people that things fell apart for the two brothers due to their selfish interests and that they were divided by the same thing that united them.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ULY 12, 2020

INTERNATIONAL Unending Protests and Beijing’s New Security Law: Choosing between High and Full Degree of Autonomy

H

ong Kong has become a new terra cognita for recidivist protests. The genesis of the unending protests is traceable to the opposition to the then proposed extradition law in early 2019, and which in itself, is also traceable to the murder of Poon Hiu-wing by her boyfriend, Chan Tong-Kai, in 2018. Hiu-wing and TongKai were both residents of Hong Kong. They travelled together to Taiwan on holiday in love or under infatuated influence, but terminated their relationship tragically: Tong-Kai brutally murdered his girl friend.

The Government in Hong Kong wanted to have Tong-Kai extradited back home for prosecution, but did not have an extradition agreement with Taiwan. This was the background to the proposition, in 2019, of an extradition bill to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (Cap 503) and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance (Cap 525). The amendment was meant to enable a case-by-case transfer of fugitives on the order of the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, to countries with which Hong Kong does not have a formal extradition treaty.

Grosso modo, the grant of extradition requests in international diplomatic practice is dependent on several factors: the crime for which an extradition is being sought must be against the law in the country from which extradition assistance is sought. In other words, the offence must not only constitute a crime in both requesting and sending countries, but must also be extraditable and very serious. This is the ‘principle of double criminality.’

Additionally, extradition of any suspect is also a function of the ‘Speciality Principle’ according to which an extradited person cannot be tried for a crime other than the offence for which he or she was extradited. And more notably, extradition treaties not only generally have a bilateral character and do exclude military, political and religious offences, but also create the same obligations for the contracting parties.

The problem here is that the crime of Tong-Kai was committed on the territory of Taiwan and Hong Kong did not have any extradition treaty with Taiwan. Apparently, there was a compelling need for an agreement with Taiwan and other countries, including China. As a country is not under any obligation to grant a request for extradition in the absence of an extradition treaty, and as there is no rule of international law preventing a State from extraditing anyone in the absence of a treaty, Carrie Lam opted to have an enabling agreement in place.

Against this background, Carrie Lam came up with a bill, entitled ‘Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill, 2019’ in February 2019. But, for various considerations, Hong Kongers have been reacting violently to the bill. They began protesting on March 15, 2019 and more than 9000 people have been arrested. Two people have lost their lives. Hong Kongers do not want to be subjected to the jurisdictional competencies of the People’s Republic of China.

They complained about the misconduct of the Hong Kong Police Force and mistreatment of protesters since June 12, 2014. The failure of the 2014 Umbrella Revolution and the implementation of an anti-mask law and the invocation of an Emergency Regulations Ordinance since October 3, 2019 were other reasons for the protests against the extradition bill. More significantly, the protesters were not at all happy with the implementation of the National Anthem Bill put in place since June 11, 2020.

Consequently, the protesters have demanded the withdrawal of the bill, the investigation of police brutality and misconduct, the release of all arrested protesters, and the retraction of the official characterisation of the protests as ‘riots.’ The protesters insisted on continuing with the protests until their demands were met.

And true, the impact of the protests has compelled Carrie Lam to announce on September 4, 2019 her preparedness to suspend the bill with effect from October 23, 2019. The bill was suspended as promised, but the protests have not abated in light of the new National Security Law for Hong Kong, enforced since June 30, 2020.

TheLawanditsInternationalisation

The introduction of a National Security Law by the Government of Mainland China in Hong Kong has not only raised two critical

VIE INTERNATIONALE with

Bola A. Akinterinwa Telephone : 0807-688-2846

e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com

Carrie Lam, Prime Minister of Hong Kong principles of international law, but also prompted its internationalisation. The two principles are those of pacta sunt servanda (sanctity of agreements) and rebus sic stantibus (fundamental change of circumstance).

Sanctity of agreements presumes that when an agreement is voluntarily negotiated and freely contracted, decency and commitment require faithfulness to it, and therefore full implementation of the agreement as obligated. On fundamental change of circumstance, it simply presumes that an agreement cannot but remain in force for as long as the circumstances prompting the conclusion of the agreement remain the same. However, whenever there is a change in the circumstances after the entry into force of the agreement, any party to the agreement is lawfully free to disregard the agreement.

In this regard therefore, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, done in 1984, is internationally believed to have been vitiated by the Beijing authorities, thus prompting the arguments of pacta sunt servanda and China’s breach of the Anglo-Chinese Joint Declaration. In the same vein, for the alleged breaches by China, there has been a change of circumstance, prompting not simply the main other party, Great Britain, but also its allies, to take some diplomatic sanctions against China, since Hong Kong is now believed to have been forcefully integrated into Mainland China.

For instance, the measures taken by the Government of Australia are noteworthy. Australia officially suspended its extradition agreement with Hong Kong and China on the basis that the newly introduced National Security Law is a manifestation of a ‘fundamental change of circumstance.’ In the words of the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, ‘the other issue that we are addressing is one that, as a result of changes that have occurred in Hong Kong, there will be citizens of Hong Kong who may be looking to move elsewhere... Australia has always been a very welcoming country to such people from all around the world.’ As he further put it, Australia ‘will also put arrangements in place to ensure we focus on Hong Kong applicants to study and work in regional areas, to help address skills shortages in those areas, with

For a very long time to come, peace is most likely to be far-fetched in Hong Kong which is the short name for the whole area covering Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories.

The problem in Hong Kong is the conflict of interest between Mainland China which wants high or limited degree of autonomy for Hong Kong and the Hong Kongers who want full autonomy or autonomous sovereignty in favour of which the West is campaigning. Australia, for example, has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and has advised its citizens not to travel to Hong Kong because of the new National Security Law.This measure is only begging the issue.

With the law in force, the future of Hong Kong is left to be determined more by Beijing and less by international reactions, and further less by the protesters.The main question is: can the protesters or anyone impose a full degree autonomy before 2047 when the ‘One Country and Two Systems is expected to come to an end and give way to a new principle of ‘One Country, One System’? Most unlikely!The international community will need to make a choice between the pursuit of high degree and full degree autonomy in Hong Kong in the maintenance of international peace and security

express pathways to permanent residency, as already applies after three years.’

Prime Minister Morrison has it that about 10,000 Hong Kongers, citizens and residents alike, are currently in Australia and that those of them with short visas would have their visas extended for five years and thereafter have them fully integrated. He also pointed to the possibility of disinvestments in Hong Kong. As good or as bad as these measures are concerned, there is nothing to suggest that the main problem of whether Hong Kong can have a full degree of autonomy now or in the year 2047 is always left unattended to.

Measures taken now can only, at best, prompt a lose-lose situation, as they only strengthen Chinese hostility against the West.

International stakeholders rely largely on the December 19, 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, done in Beijing by Premier Zhao Ziyang and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in arguing that China has breached its obligations under the Joint Declaration which entered into force on 30 June 1985. The consideration in this case is that, in the Joint Declaration, the Chinese government made clear its basic policies on Hong Kong.

One of the basic policies was that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as it is officially called, would not practise the socialist system in Mainland China for fifty years, meaning that not until 2047. It is therefore being considered that there is no good basis for the Beijing authorities to begin to intrude in the administration of Hong Kong now. Hong Kong still has 27 years of ‘One Country, Two Systems.’ Perhaps more interestingly, not only is China accused of human rights violations, it is also argued that there is hardly any fairness in the dispensation of justice for critics of Beijing in Hong Kong.

For instance, international observers have raised many implications of the new security law: it will undermine human rights and basic freedoms in Hong Kong, as well as violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; that the security law may serve as pretext to oppress the Hong Kongers; that the law has the potential to make it difficult for foreign businesses in Hong Kong to respect human rights under the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights of the United Nations; that the Hong Kong police have always gotten away with excessive use of force, particularly, their use of chemicals against protesters; and more importantly, that the new legislation violates China’s obligations under the Joint Declaration.

The Chinese have argued to the contrary: that there is no breach of the Joint Declaration at all. In fact, China has posited that the life of the Joint Declaration came to an end with the eventual handover of Hong Kong on July 1,1997 to Mainland China. Following the handover, Hong Kong is governed by the Chinese Constitution and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR. Consequently, the Joint Declaration is no more relevant. More notably, the Chinese government has it that the basic policies regarding Hong Kong as stated in the Joint Declaration are simply a declaration of policies that have been incorporated into the Basic Law of Hong Kong which was enacted by the National People’s Congress, on the basis of 2,878 votes in favour of the draft security law, one against, and six abstention.

And interestingly too, China has argued that, contrary to allegations of non-public support for the new law, there was general public support for it and that the new law, when compared with what obtains in the United States and Europe, is quite mild.

Nowhere is the issue of human rights allowed to override national security. In fact, China indirectly indicts the United States of defining more than ten types of crimes that impinge on its national security while those of China are limited to only four. On this basis, it is difficult to admit that China has flouted the Joint Declaration.

First, China’s decision ‘to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong with effect from 1 July 1997’ is made clear in Section 1 of the Joint Declaration. Second, Section 3(1) of the Joint Declaration accepts Chinese intention of ‘upholding (its) national unity and territorial integrity,’ while Section 3(2) stipulates that Hong Kong ‘will be directly under the authority of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China and that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would enjoy a high degree of autonomy (emphasis mine), except in foreign and defence affairs, which are the responsibilities of the Central People’s Government.’

The British simply agreed in Section 2 as follows: ‘’the Government of the United Kingdom declares that it will restore Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China with effect from 1 July 1997.

Three issues are noteworthy in the stipulations of Sections 2 and 3: national unity, territorial integrity, and high degree of autonomy. The ordinary interpretation of Article 3 is that China will be reunited as one country, politically and one people, culturally (notion of national unity). It should be recalled that Hong Kong used to be an integral part of Mainland China until 1842. On January 25, 1841, the British occupied the island of Hong Kong and used it as a military stage point. The defeat of China compelled the cession of the island to Britain for 99 years in an agreement (Treaty of Nanking) on August 29,1842. Thus, Hong Kong became a crown colony of the British Empire.

Consequently, the return of Hong Kong, as provided in the 1984 Joint Declaration and the effective hand over on June 30-July 1, 1997 at 12 midnight was in fulfilment of the obligations created for the British in the 1842 Nanking Treaty. This is the logical basis for the political unity provided for in the Joint Declaration.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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INTERVIEW

Ayanwusi: My Parents Had Written Me off Until I Encountered Christ Dr. Caleb Ayanwusi, a medical doctor with love for community health outreach and General Overseer, Gospel Herald International Church with presence in major cities nationwide, was a write-off as a child. But his encounter with Jesus Christ turned his life entirely around from a rascally youngster to a responsible person. Since his conversion, he has been putting smiles on the faces of ordinary people using the medical profession and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ayanwusi, who turned 60 today, shared with Eddie Alegbe how his life turned around from being a forgotten child to a vessel God has used to rescue thousands in his generation.

Y

and corruption among some religious leaders?

I will not tell you things that happen outside my jurisdiction, which is Pentecostal environment. Some churches, as we speak, have millions of Naira in their custody, while some of their members are crying because of hunger. Many of them have even turned the church to their personal or family business that their wives or children inherit after them.

If you conduct a survey of many of these rich pastors today, you will discover that they were from poor backgrounds. Many of them were jobless. But today they are riding on people’s influence, parading exotic cars and jets whose monies were gathered from their congregations.

ou turned 60 years today.

Looking back at your life, what lessons can you share about life?

I am thankful to God Almighty who has made it possible for me to reach this stage in life because my background was nothing to write home about. From what my mother told me, I was not expected to be a responsible adult even if I ever lived long in the first place. At some points, I became influenced by bad peer group pressure. My character was alarmingly bad. I was a rascal. My parents started to fear that I might not make it in life as an adult.

Fortunately, however, I had an encounter with Jesus Christ. He turned around my life. That turning point marked the beginning of the goodness of God.

Do you frown at the situation whereby the husband, the wife and the children are the board members and trustees of these churches?

I do not subscribe to the idea that the church belongs to an individual. If you were called by God, did God also call your wife and children? Did God ask you to handover the church to your son? Let the members decide that important decision after you must have left. But if your son or wife works for it and the Church decided to give them, it can be understood. That is exactly what you find in our political environment today where a governor wants to install the son to take over after him, the wife to be in the Senate or House of Representatives and the driver to be a councillor.

Can you mention what made your parents write you off as a child?

To be honest, I was not a responsible boy in the real sense of the word. I fomented a lot of troubles and beat up people anyhow. I did not know what was just pushing me to misbehave even when there was absolutely no need to do so. The trouble was so much that no school in my locality wanted to accept me if not that my father was a community leader. My case was miraculous turning around from one extremity to the other.

Were you at any time involved in drugs or alcoholism?

Thankfully, I was not into drugs, but I was a chain smoker. My father was a tobacco farmer and merchant who was always with cigarettes in boxes as the Chairman of Tobacco Farmers Association of my town, Ogbomoso at the time. That influenced me a lot to smoke.

I started smoking at the primary school.

When I entered secondary school, I used to visit my elder brother during long vacation.

He was working in Ilorin, Kwara State. From there, I also began smoking Indian hemp. I stopped Indian hemp in 1976, when a friend requested me to give him one particular thing.

I did not know he had a hidden agenda. He had already secured a promise from me to give him whatever he requested. When he requested that I should stop smoking weeds, I had no choice than to give it up. Since then, I never returned to it.

What is your advice to youths who are engaged in immoral behaviour and possibly drug addiction?

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. For any person to become successful in life, he must fear God. I always tell young people one guiding principle. They must do away with anything or activity that can endanger their life. I always encourage them that whatever they cannot showcase proudly in the public, they should not engage in it in secret.

At what point did you decide to become a Christian? Or what motivated you?

I can only attribute it to destiny. I brought Islam to my family so to speak. My father became a Muslim in order to marry my mother because my maternal family members were chronic Muslims where I also grew up. For my father to marry my mother, they insisted, he must convert to Islam. Even though I was involved in all vices, I had the fear of God. I did not tell lies. I did not steal. I did not womanise or take anything that did

Ayanwusi

not belong to me right from the cradle. But I grew up to see myself causing troubles in the neighbourhood and in school. I did not like it, but had no control over it. I even gave money to Imams to exorcise the root of the devil in me. After I finished my Muslim prayers one day, Jesus Christ appeared to me in a dream where He gave me a scriptural verse to read even though I had no idea of how to open the Bible. I approached one of my cousins and he read the verse to me from John 14:6.

In this verse, Christ said: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” From that moment, my journey to Christianity began in earnest. Apart from being a Christian, I also became a church founder. From my personal experience, I have discovered that if a Muslim gives his life to Christ, he does not require any push anymore, because the kind of zeal Muslims give to Islam is very strong and it transits to other religions automatically.

As a former Muslim and now a Christian leader, how do you now see the rivalry between the two religions today?

We do not need to contest or drag it. What is mostly responsible for the suspicion is ignorance and selfish interest. We have turned religion to political parties where you criticise whatever your opponents do whether right or wrong. As a born Muslim, I know most good things I learnt in Quran have been very helpful to me as a Christian. There are some injunctions in Islam that help one to develop scripturally. You cannot see me criticising Islam or fellow Christian faith because religion is religion and no religion is perfect. Only Jesus Christ makes the difference in perfection. Do

not forget that Islam and Christianity both emanated from polygamy. Ishmael did not recognise the authority of Isaac and Isaac will never subject himself to the authority of Ishmael his elder brother. It is simply a rivalry from two mothers – which makes religions imperfect. The only difference between Islam and Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which the Islamic religion will never accept because doing so will render the two religions the same. Do not steal. Do not kill. These commandments are the same in the two religions. I can defend it anywhere.

Islam even preaches against sins more than Christianity. The Quran calls Jesus Christ Anabi Isah. It even talks about Jesus Christ more than the Bible. The only denial that the Koran has is that Jesus Christ was too holy to be killed.

Does it not bother you that some religious leaders and some Christians in positions of authority are the ones perpetrating one evil deal or the other?

It has always been like that even before Jesus Christ was born. If such acts are not correctable in the church, then can it be corrected outside? You go to our religious leaders today, what do you see? Everybody is protecting his pride at the expense of others.

Take this COVID-19 pandemic for instance.

They are agitating for re-opening of churches solely because they have been starved of the income from tithes and offerings they collect every Sunday without minding the health implications to worshipers.

What about the high level of sins

As a church founder, are you saying the leadership and administration of your church is not between you, your wife and your children?

None of the people you mentioned is a board number. I am proud to say that none of the Church documents is with me. They are all with the secretariat. If I die today, the church may decide not to bury me in the church premises because my family may not be able to influence them. That is why I said religion has become personal interest and not God’s interest. This is the reason there are conflicts everywhere today.

You gave palliatives to your church members and residents of the communities around your church. What motivated you to do that?

We still have selfless Christians, but they are very few. We must have feelings for others. Christianity should not be about sympathy, but empathy for others. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ left His comfort zone to carry our sins and transgressions. You can imagine how painful it is to suffer for sins He never committed. If you are hungry, Jesus was also hungry. That was why He was able to help us. He felt what we felt. It is not about being able to feed yourself, are the people around you able to feed as well? If you are selfless, you will not be able to close your eyes to the needs of the people around you. I knew a church member and a worker not in my Church, where the wife had an operation during child delivery and was billed N120,000. He could only pay N40, 000.00 out of the medical bill. He approached his General Overseer, who prayed to God to provide for him. After two weeks, the church member saw an advertisement where a property was being offered for sale at N35 million. He proposed the deal to the General Overseer, who promptly paid for the property and from which the church member was able to offset the wife’s medical bill from the commission he collected.

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NEWSXTRA

Residents Lament Ordeal, Seek Solution to Abeokuta Flooding Kayode Fasua in Abeokuta

ECOWA SUPPORT AGAINST COVID-19 . . .

L-R: Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire and President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Brou at the handover of some medical equipment donated to Nigeria to fight COVID-19 in Abuja ... yesterday

Ondo 2023: PDP at Dilemma over Deputy Governor’s Aspiration

$MD\L GHFOLQHV FRPPHQW RQ DJH IDOVLÀFDWLRQ DOOHJDWLRQ Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party has been at dilemma over the decision of a 2009 Election Petitions Tribunal in Ondo State that indicted the state’s Deputy Governor, Mr. Agboola Ajayi for alleged age falsification and perjury, THISDAY has learnt.

Although an appellate court upturned the decision of the tribunal on technical grounds, THISDAY learnt that some governorship aspirants had already petitioned the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) that Ajayi’s candidature might cost the party victory even though it wins at the poll.

Confronted with compelling evidence from the tribunal, THISDAY learnt that the NWC members “are at dilemma and unwilling to field a governorship candidate that can jeopardise the

victory of the party after winning the election.”

Consequently, it was gathered, the NWC might disqualify Ajayi during the screening of governorship aspirants scheduled to hold on July 25 in Abuja, though the party legal team had started to study all the petitions submitted to the NWC. A chieftain of the opposition party, who privately spoke with THISDAY, explained how the tribunal indicted the deputy governor of age falsification and perjury in a petition that challenged his election into the House of Representatives in 2007.

He said the tribunal “upheld the allegation that he sent mercenaries to write his school certificate examination in a secondary school in Mobolorunduro, while he was chairman of Ese-Odo Local Government, in 2004.”

In the said exam, the party

source explained that Ajayi was reported to have reduced his age by 12 years from 1968 to 1980 in order to gain qualification to sit for the papers.

The source said: “He afterwards went ahead to reverse his date of birth to 1968, through a court affidavit, knowing that his 1980 claim would never fly anywhere. The tribunal upheld all these allegations and subsequently nullified Ajayi’s election into the House of Representatives.”

But the source said the appellate court threw out the decision of the tribunal that indicted the deputy governor, not because he did not commit the offences, but because the court ruled that the allegations were pre-election matters.

On these grounds, the source disclosed that different affiliate groups in Ondo PDP had peti-

tioned the NWC, warning the leadership not to jeopardise by fielding a governorship whom court might disqualify his candidature if challenged. , The source said all the petitioners described Ajayi’s governorship ambition as a potential jeopardy, citing the instance of Bayelsa State, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost its electoral victory to the PDP.” On these grounds, Sunshine Redemption Group (SRG) urged the PDP leadership to disqualify Ajayi from contesting the coming primary election of the party.

In a statement its chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Agbara, and secretary, Chief Ebiemi Williams issued yesterday, the group warned that the party risked losing an eventual victory in the coming governorship election to its runner-up, should Agboola’s qualification become a legal contest.

Residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday recounted their loss to flood that ravaged their communities, farmland and homes due to long hours of rainfall last week.

The disaster sacked most parts of the ancient city; submerged different categories of buildings, temporarily displaced residents in hundreds and wreaked havoc on public and private assets.

Apart from the perimeter fence of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library that was affected, the disaster affected Isale-Oja, Kuto, Ago-Ijesha, Ijeun Titun, Ijeja-Igbore road, Gbangba, Elite-Lantoro road and Oba Adeleye’s park.

But the construction of LafenwaSapon-Idi-Aba-Ajebo road and Onikolobo-Omida-Sapon road prevented major damage to public and private assets in Ijaye, Isale-Igbein and Itoku, the hub of the indigenous Adire cottage industry.

Recalling their ordeal, most residents told THISDAY that flooding in the state had been a recurring decimal for more than one decade, thereby pleading with the state government to come up with a permanent solution.

Secretary, Isale-Oja, Kuto, Community Development Association, Alhaji Bello Mohammed lamented that his community had been experiencing flooding on a yearly basis in the last 10 years.

Mrs. Abike Awosanya and Abideen Musibau, residents of Ago-Ijesha, in Abeokuta South

Local Government, also wanted the government to urgently find a lasting solution to the flood problem, noting that the disaster had disrupted their means of livelihood and made life unbearable for them.

A hairstylist at Isale-oja, Miss Florence Adegbite said: “I think the state government will need help, particularly from the federal government, to permanently address this problem, and a huge amount of money will be involved.”

With the enormity of damage caused by the disaster, Ogun State Governor, Mr. Dapo Abiodun at the weekend promised to compensate residents who lost valuables to the flood disaster.

Abiodun said, “I am here to look at the damage caused by the rain that fell on Saturday. Though I have sent my Commissioners and other government officials to inspect the damages, I decided to also come and see things by myself. I am happy that no life was lost, though you lost properties.

“I want to assure all of you who lost property to the flood that we will support you. In a few days time, government officials will come to see you to take down your names so that we can look at how to compensate you.”

He explained the resolve of the state government to permanently solve flood disaster in the ancient city, noting that the dredging of the canals that criss-cross the state capital was on-going, while clearing of refuse along the gutters, was also being carried out.

Jonathan: I Didn’t Sack Reno Omokri Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said that he did not sack his erstwhile Special Assistant on New Media, Reno Omokri.

Jonathan, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr Ikechukwu Eze said Omokri served him till May 29, 2015 when he ceased to be president.

The statement said: “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that at no time did former President Jonathan ever sack Mr. Omokri

while he was in office.

“Mr. Omokri was appointed on August 17, 2011, and served meritoriously until May 29, 2015.

“His record of service can be verified at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

“While he is no longer a staff of President Jonathan, Mr. Omokri enjoys the gratitude of many Nigerians including Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for his patriotic services to Nigeria.”

PDP Tackles Fayemi for Asking Retirees to Sign off 15% Entitlements Kintum Heads SSVP Media Committee Govt faults PDP’s allegations, defends decision on pension Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ekiti State, yesterday alleged that the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi had colluded with the United Capital Plc to compel the state’s retired civil servants to sign 15 percent of their entitlements.

The state government, in a swift response, described the allegation as baseless and unfounded, saying the Fayemi administration had been paying N100 million monthly since 2018 to defray the backlog of pension and gratuity.

In a statement by its Secretary, Mr. Diran Odeyemi yesterday, the PDP Caretaker Committee said during his first tenure when Ekiti State was receiving as much as N7 billion as monthly allocation and over N46 billion from the Excess Crude Account, Fayemi refused to pay retirees.

The party described the state

government’s new scheme in which pensioners desirous of getting their gratuities and pensions are made to sign off 15 percent of their entitlements as wicked callous and fraudulent.

Precisely in July 2012, the statement alleged that the Fayemi administration stopped allocating funds to the Pension Transition Arrangement Department.

The statement said: “We want to ask Fayemi if contractors in the state, who are being paid with borrowed funds, are also made to part with 15 percent of the contract sum as a condition to get paid.

“When Fayemi returned in 2018, he introduced favouritism to the payment of retirees’ entitlements.

He chose to pay retired permanent secretaries who retired in 2018 and 2019 with gratuities ranging between N12 million and N15 million and monthly pension

running to over N400, 000.00 each.”

However, the statement claimed that the low-ranking civil servants, who are the most vulnerable with gratuity of not more than N2 million and monthly pension less than N30, 000.00, were left unpaid.

The statement alleged that the state government wanted “to borrow over N40 billion to pay the pensioners. If a government is borrowing money that will be repaid by the pensioners and other indigenes of the state including those yet to be born, how sensible is it to still make the pensioners part with 15 percent of their entitlement?”

The statement, therefore, accused Fayemi of seeking to eat from the sweat of the pensioners, alleging that the governor will be getting10 percent out of the 15 percent to be deducted from the pensioners’ entitlement.

Faulting PDP’s allegations

on a television programme yesterday, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Investment, Mr. Akin Oyebode explained that Ekiti had paid the pensioners N1.2 billion out of N14 billion owed, by paying N100 million monthly to defray the backlog of pension and gratuity.

Oyebode disclosed that Fayemi jacked up monthly payment of the arrears from N10 million being paid by the administration of former Governor Ayodele Fayose to N100 million monthly.

According to him, this indicated that the governor has the interest of the pensioners at heart and has no reason whatsoever to dupe them as alleged by the opposition.

Oyebode said COVID-19 has reduced the federal allocation accruing to the state, admitting that it was becoming practically impossible to pay pension and gratuity.

The International Confederation of the Society of St. Vincent De Paul, Lagos Central Council (LCC), has appointed Mr. Frank Kintum, as the Chairman of the Media/Communications committee. SSVP is a charity society under the auspices of the Catholic Church, In a statement yesterday, the society said Kintum would serve on the board of the LCC. The statement added that Kintum alongside other committee members and advisers, were inaugurated recently at the Ozanam House Charity Home of the society, located at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

It said the Society of St. Vincent De Paul“is an international voluntary

charity organisation founded in Paris, France in 1833 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor.

“The LCC, through the particular councils, coordinates activities of over 150 Conferences of the society in different parts of the state.

“Kintum, who is the current President of St. Dominic, Yaba, is a communications specialist with over 20 years experience in journalism, advertising, public relations and marketing communications.

“He holds a Masters Degree in International Relations & Strategic Studies, and is a member of various professional bodies,” the statement said.

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Conversations Around Ize-Iyamu’s Ambition As the campaign for the September 19 Edo State governorship election heats up, there are boiling conversations around the All Progressives Congress candidate, Pastor Osagie –Ize-Iyamu’s ambition, writes Iyobosa Uwugiaren

F

or those very close to him, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu didn’t return to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in November last year with the sole purpose of running for the Edo State governorship election.

“Let me say straightway that it was Governor Godwin Obaseki’s confrontational style, arrogant posturing, fastened with intimidation, pompousness and holier-than-thou attitudes that forced many leaders of the party in the state to put suffocating pressure on Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu to present himself as an alternative to the governor in the September 19 election,” Barrister Odion Obazuaye, a close ally of Ize-Iyamu stated.

The Edo State APC governorship hopeful in the September 19 election was a foundation member of PDP since 1999, before he, along with some members of the party, were deregistered ahead of the 2007 general election, because of what insiders attributed to “political disagreement with some forces” within the party.

While in PDP between 1999 and 2007, Ize-Iyamu headed a powerful pressure group known as the “Grace Group”, and when the opportunity came for PDP to do registration, some forces felt that the best way to reduce the influence of the group was to deregister many of its leaders, and Ize-Iyamu and others became victims of PDP’s interminable squabble.

That seeming injustice melted out to Ize-Iyamu and others, according to some political analysts, forced them to work for the formation of what is today known as the APC. In a way, many political watchers in the state see his return to APC late last year as “returning to a house he helped to build”, because of a very strategic role he played in the APC registration and formation in Edo State and in the country.

And when again in 2014, he left APC, along with his huge followers, it may not necessary because of any ideological difference but also on certain political disagreement.

They might have felt that some of their members were not well treated, and consequently, took a collective decision to leave the party.

While in PDP, Ize-Iyamu played strategic roles for the party, especially in many of the elections conducted. He was the Director-General of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Organisation in the 2015 general election.

And in spite of the fact that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was then APC incumbent governor in Edo State and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun national Chairman of the party, he delivered Edo State to PDP with nearly 60 % votes.

Again, Ize-Iyamu played a similar tactical role in the 2019 presidential election, when he was appointed the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Coun- Ize-Iyamu cil in Edo State. And, despite the fact that Obaseki was Edo State perfect – believing that what is happening in Edo State is just a APC incumbent governor and Oshiomhole national chairman of storm in the teacup. the ruling party, Ize-Iyamu delivered Edo State to PDP with nearly “I want to go there with those who believe in me, because I 70% votes. He ensured that Governor Obaseki lost his polling unit believe that it is a platform that we built; it is a platform that our in the Edo South Senatorial district. people believe can help us to actualise our dream. The issue of For Ize-Iyamu, politics is essentially being able to represent governorship is secondary; I have not entered there; I don’t know people in the political arena, and an avenue for government with those who are interested in governorship,” he told journalists last strong belief that it is only through government that a true public year. office holder can hugely attract social amenities to the people and He added: “For me and for now, it is to go into the party, empowered them. integrate and see what value we can bring in. Then, we leave the rest To be sure, the former Secretary to Edo State Government had to God.” consistently told those who cared to listen him that his ambition, as However, the timing of Ize-Iyamu’s return to APC might have a “responsible and responsive politician”, is to be part of those who created huge apprehension among Obaseki’s loyalists. Ize-Iyamu take decision so that communities and the people do not suffer for returned to APC at a time the governor was waging needless lack of true representation. political war against his political godfather, Oshiomhole and key However, day after day, while Ize-Iyamu remained in PDP, his leaders of the party in the state. The war became intense that all suspicious that the party no longer shared his vision and objectives efforts by well-meaning Nigerians, including the revered Oba of swelled. “It was becoming very frustrating and quite a number of Benin, to make Obaseki see reason for reconciliation were allegedly my followers were already frustrated with the attitude of many of turned down by Obaseki. those in the PDP,” he stated recently.

At a point a respected traditional ruler in the Benin Palace, And because he was a foundation leader of the APC, there said that the “arrogant governor” stopped picking Oba Ewuare II’s were a lot of overtures both at the state and national levels that he phone calls. For sons and daughters of Edo State, Obaseki’s action should come back to “the house that he helped to build.” Going by was sacrilegious. This forced the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’ Edo, the process that led to his return to APC, last year, Ize-Iyamu did Ewuare II, to plead with President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly not take that decision without consulting his followers. Perhaps, that intervene in the feud between Obaseki and Oshiomhole. is why thousands of PDP members followed him back to APC in “Mr President, we as traditional rulers in Edo State are November last year. concerned about the crisis between Oshiomhole, APC National Arguably, Ize-Iyamu returned to APC along with his followers Chairman and Governor Obaseki of Edo State, and Edo State at a time Governor Obaseki was “waging political war” with his House of Assembly. perceived enemies and many leaders of APC in the state. And “If this crisis is not resolved now with immediate effect, it may many political observers had wondered why he contemplated jeopardise the progress of the state. On behalf of the good people joining a party that was enveloped in crisis. of Edo State, we kindly appeal to Mr President to use your good “No, you cannot because of problems run away from the place offices to intervene and stop this crisis”, the Oba stated, when he led your people desire you to be. How are you sure that our presence or a delegation of traditional rulers to the Villa last year. going there will not bring peace and reconciliation? And whether While Oba Ewuare II was seriously concerned about peace and you like it or not, they are in government at the state, federal and unity in Edo State, many sons and daughters of the state saw it as an local government levels,” Ize-Iyamu explained. attempt to demystify the well-respected Benin Palace.

Since his intention, according to those very close to him, was “Why would Governor Obaseki force our respected Oba not to escalate the problem Obaseki was having with the state to plead with the President to intervene in his war against APC party leaders, he was not deterred. He perhaps, knew there were leaders? It shows Obaseki’s disrespect for our Oba. There is no crisis issues, and said the issues were not insurmountable. His argument or dispute that is too enormous for our Oba to resolve. It shows was that with sincerity, all the challenges could be resolved, while Obaseki is not a true son of Benin,” a university scholar, Dr. Ogieva stating that all that is needed, is to get people who can talk to the Osarodion lamented. parties involved and everything will be reconciled.

While Obaseki may have his reasons for biffing Oshiomhole He might have been encouraged by the fact that no party is and some other APC leaders in the state, not many political

observers doubt that but for the maturity displayed by Oshiomhole, “the governor’s intimidation, pompousness and holier-than-thou attitudes” would have created uncontrollable crisis in the state.

Already, apart from the huge opposition that is confronting him in the state, Obaseki’s seemingly snobbishness is already instigating interminable squabble within his party – as the September 19 election draws nearer.

One of the spokesmen of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council in the 2019 general election, Prince Kassim Afegbua, in a recent statement gave reasons why the candidate of his party, Governor Obaseki, will not enjoy his support.

“Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s comportment and diligence at delivering responsibilities, sense of organisation and marksmanship, are direct opposite of Governor Obaseki’s combative style, laced with blackmail, pretentiousness and over sanctimonious.

“Democracy talks about constructive engagement and collective bargaining. It preaches inclusion not exclusion. It reinforces participation, involvement and collectiveness. Governor Obaseki is the opposite of what an ideal democratic situation should be. His politics is destructive, exclusive, and demonising”, he stated.

In the statement titled “Obaseki Remains A Bad Omen For PDP”, Afegbua, who served in the same cabinet with Obaseki during Adams Oshiomhole-led Edo State government, accused Governor Obaseki of demolishing his political opponents’ houses, terrorising the populace, intimidating opponents and radicalising the youths as a mark of magisterial presence.

The former commissioner of information in Edo State added: “Governor Obaseki dishes out ingratitude in place of gratitude, a simple thank you becomes abominable in his elocution, as he gleefully spends tax-payers money to fight imaginary wars.

Such a candidate cannot enjoy my support.”

However, there are those who believe that the manner, in which a “sitting governor” was denied a ticket and forced out of APC, might have attracted sympathy for Obaseki in the state.

Some people interviewed in state said that their support for the governor was based on the way Oshiomhole treated him.

“Ordinarily, I don’t have anything against Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu; he is a good man. But I am voting Obaseki in the coming election, because of the way Oshiomhole treated Governor Godwin Obaseki. You cannot humiliate a sitting governor like that”, a University of Benin student, Idemudia Osayuware stated.

One thing is obvious in the coming election, the contest is between Oshiomhole and the governor; it is a contest between two sons of Edo State – from the same South senatorial district.

Sunday July 12, 2020

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Malami to Critics “It is regrettable that the information communication technology tools have been hijacked by disgruntled elements in spreading fake news and blatant lies” – Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) reacting to allegation that he bought a N300m house for his son in Abuja.

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Stamp Duty: More Money, More Money

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n Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari discharged the ritual of signing the revised budget into law. That, we know, is the easiest part of the job.

The projected expenditure for 2020 is now N10.8 trillion — curiously more than the N10.5 trillion that Buhari originally signed in December 2019 when the world was still a better place, when we didn’t need to be using hand sanitisers anyhow. Crude oil price was $72 then; it is now $40. The economy was breathing better then; it is now struggling for air under the face mask. Already, the crash in oil prices has meant we could only raise 44 percent — about N1.48 trillion — of our revenue target for January to May. So, for Pete’s sake, where are we going to get the N10.8 trillion to fund the entire budget? That’s the hard part of the job.

For an economy that is tied to petrodollars — and with the global economy badly infected by the coronavirus — the natural instinct is to panic over the consequences of the oil price crash for Nigeria. Where will the money to fund the budget come from? We are taking loans, I know, but they are not going to be enough. For one, though, I will advise that Nigerians fasten their seat belts: the government is dead serious about the stamp duty. While this may not provide the naira and kobo needed to fund the budget, I don’t need any expert to tell me that the Buhari administration is going to stamp its feet on the newfound goldmine. Nigerians are already complaining about the N50 stamp duty charge on deposits in their bank accounts.

Well, they have to get used to it.

The federal government is really talking big about the stamp duty. It even wants to recover the unremitted duties paid between 2016 and 2019. It recently empanelled an inter-ministerial committee “to audit and recover” all stamp duties charged from January 2016 to date but are yet to be remitted by the relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), money deposit banks, the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) and others. At the inauguration, Mr Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, standing in for Buhari, said “the collection from stamp duty will be second to oil revenue, as it has the potential to yield up to a trillion naira if properly harnessed”. In essence, VAT now has a close rival on its heels.

All eyes are on Mr Mohammad Nami, the executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), to improve revenue collection for the federation. Our finances are in dire straits but, interestingly, Nami is more optimistic than I am that there is no cause for alarm — even though I am supposed to be a hopeless optimist. It is not as if Nami had options: he has to be extremely positive if FIRS is to meet its target of raising at least N8.5 trillion in 2020. These are times you wish money doublers were for real. The state of the global economic environment means Nigeria has to practically squeeze water of out to survive. Clearly, the petroleum profit tax (PPT), which used to give FIRS a lot of comfort in meeting its targets, is not going to be robust this year.

In recent public statements, Nami has spoken confidently on making the FIRS meet the revenue needs of the nation. His optimism is apparently fuelled by the discovery of the “new” gold — the stamp duty. Although Nigeria had been charging the stamp duty

Nami, FIRS executive chairman before World War II started in 1939, it had been limited to land deals and certain documents until Buhari expanded it to electronic banking transactions in 2016. Now, the stamp duty is being further expanded to tenancy agreements, sales agreements, MoUs, insurance policies, receipts and a number of other contractual transactions. In the Republic of Ireland, electronic transactions are also subjected to stamp duty charges. In Nigeria, we now pay N50 for electronic transactions above N10,000.

There is a little controversy on the side — who should collect the stamp duty? Should it be the duty of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) or the FIRS? NIPOST thinks since the word “stamp” is involved, it should be the one to handle it. Nami said “stamp duty” should not be confused with “postage stamp”. One is a tax, the other is a stamp. I would go with Nami on this. Stamp duty is a tax handle. The then Federal Board of Inland Revenue (FBIR), which became FIRS in 1958, was the collector from the very beginning, not the Postal and Telecommunications (P&T) department from which birthed NIPOST. I do not expect this controversy to last for long — although given what we know about the civil wars going on in Buhari’s government, we may be on this argument till 2023.

Jokes apart, it is clear that the FIRS has been saddled with collecting the stamp duty by the government. In fact, Nami has taken full charge. He said, in an interview, that by deploying technology and tweaking the structure of the tax agency, the results are already coming in. For instance, from January to May 2019, FIRS raised N6 billion from stamp duties. Over the corresponding period in 2020, the revenue was N66 billion. I’m not particularly good at math, but that looks like some huge percentage leap. Let me say that’s 11 times more than the corresponding period in the previous year. Nigerians may be complaining about the additional costs of transactions, but the government is literally smiling to the bank. I will say more about this shortly.

Nami estimates that if there is full compliance, stamp duty could generate “trillions of naira” yearly. He told an interviewer: “Presently, there are claims from many quarters that if the records of stamp duty on chargeable transactions as far back as the Year 2000 are revisited, as much as N20 trillion unremitted stamp duty revenue are due from agencies charged with collecting it on behalf of the federal government. This is

more than double the Year 2020 budget of the federal government… in the banking sector, we discovered that in 2019 alone, the total volume of transactions was over 52 billion and that the total value of these transactions was over N613 trillion. You can imagine how much would be realised from this value if a stamp duty of N50 was charged.”

Many Nigerians are, meanwhile, complaining that government is imposing too many taxes on them at the same time, especially when the economy is very hard on a majority of the people. Chief Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recently listed the increase in VAT rate from 5% to 7.5%, the approved hike in electricity tariffs and fuel price adjustment as “killing” Nigerians and “scaring away” foreign investors. Many argue that expanding the items to be covered by the stamp duty should not yet be on the agenda. The argument is that the government should slow down on taxes for now in order to help the economy recover. This school believes that we should first create prosperity before we tax it. You cannot fault the logic.

Personally, I do not worry about paying N50 on banking transactions. My worry is how the revenue is spent. I do not want to hear tomorrow that the revenue raised by FIRS and paid into the federation account has been spent to buy 4WDs for senators, or that N10 billion has gone missing in one federal agency. That is the one that hurts me. I don’t mind paying taxes as long as the money is judiciously and transparently spent on what will benefit the generality of Nigerians. Nami has, no doubt, demonstrated considerable passion on the stamp duty charge, which he takes as a signature project. The bigger duty on Nigerians is to stand up for accountability. How will the revenue be spent? Taxation should trigger us to ask the government tough questions.

That’s where we miss it!

Overall, it looks like the N10.8 trillion budget will be partly funded with plenty naira revenue from the stamp duty. But where will the dollar come from? Nigeria is an importdependent country. We import most of what we consume, including important medications and clothing. And we need forex inflow to pay for these imports. With crude oil revenue on a downward journey — meaning we will earn less in foreign exchange — our economy will remain vulnerable. The naira will continue to lose value. The CBN rate is now N381/$, compared to N306/$ before the pandemic.

Imports will become more expensive. This is one problem our age-long overdependence on oil for forex inflow and government revenue created for us. And this is one problem the stamp duty cannot solve.

In its latest policy paper, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) proffers key changes if we are to overcome the oil dependency which perennially jeopardises our budgets. The recommendations practicable: improving preparations for the “rainy day” by restructuring our oil savings, such as the excess crude account, and channelling them into the more productive sovereign wealth fund; maximising our benefits from the oil and gas sector through full deregulation, gas utilisation, and tackling of oil theft; boosting non-oil revenue; and correcting economic distortions that hurt agriculture and industry.

FIRS will do all it can with the stamp duty and make more money for government, but this alone cannot fill the massive gaps in the 2020 budget. We need more reforms.

And Four Other Things…

MAGU MANGLED Mallam Ibrahim Magu, the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has experienced a sharp change in fortune within the twinkle of an eye. From being the hunter of corruption suspects — probably the most dreaded man in Nigeria — Magu has suddenly been slammed with grave allegations of “mago mago”. In short, the subject has become the predicate. I like Magu very much: he achieved a lot in terms of recoveries and convictions. I was uncomfortable with his methods and we can always argue about that, but an anticorruption Czar must be above board. I can only wish these corruption allegations are not true. Unthinkable.

BACK AND FORTH One of the biggest surprises you will ever get from this government is clarity. It is such a scarce commodity. It has got to a stage that when government officials make a public pronouncement, we expect it to be reversed within a few days. We were told that students preparing to write their WASSCE would go back to school in August. Not surprisingly, the government has engaged the reverse gear and we are no longer sure of anything any longer. We can still do WASSCE if we really want to. We will have to put health and safety measures in place for the students, teachers and other officials. They can use sanitizers and face masks. We can enforce physical distancing.

Doable.

WHO KNOWS? I often wonder what might have been if the World Health Organization (WHO) had been proactive and alerted us early that COVID-19 could be transmitted human-tohuman. Meanwhile, WHO has finally agreed that the virus “could be” airborne — four months after medical science proved that infected droplets could be aerosolised and could survive in the air for three hours.

This is significant: it explains why crowded or closed spaces are dangerous and why we need face mask. In fact, WHO did not advise us to start wearing mask until four weeks ago — when the entire world had left them behind. It even said, and swiftly recanted, that asymptomatic people are not infectious. Inept.

ANDREW’S LIVER Mr Andrew Yakubu, former NNPC GMD, has liver. In case you missed it, he told a court on Thursday that “97 to 98 percent” of the $9.7 million and £74,000 cash recovered from his Kaduna property in February 2017 by the EFCC were gifts he received after leaving office in 2015. “The money… was given to me on the occasions of birthdays, thanksgiving services, weddings of my daughters and other celebrations that I hosted after leaving office,” Yakubu said. On behalf of my family, I hereby salute the great man. Conventional wisdom in Nigeria is that once you leave office, your phone stops ringing. His own case is unique: the phone started ringing after his exit. Wonderful!

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