THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST 2021

FG Appoints Eight Transaction Advisers for $6.2bn Eurobonds Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja Preparatory to the issuance of N2.343 trillion ($6.2 billion) Eurobonds in the International Capital Market (ICM) to partly finance its N5.2 trillion 2021 Budget deficit, the federal government has appointed

eight international and domestic transaction advisers.

The Eurobonds to be issued are for the purpose of raising funds for the New External Borrowing of N2.343 trillion (about $6.2 billion) provided for in the 2021 Appropriation Act to part-finance the budget deficit.

The eight transaction advisers

include international bookrunners/ joint lead managers--JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and Goldman Sachs.

The Nigerian bookrunners to the proposed issuance is Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Services Ltd and FSDH Merchant Ltd who will act as financial adviser.

White & Case LLP would act as the international Legal Adviser while the firm of Banwo & Ighodalo are the Nigerian Legal Advisers.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) announced yesterday that the eight Transaction Advisers emerged following an open competitive bidding process as

outlined in the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (as amended).

It disclosed that a total of 38 institutions responded to the Expression of Interest (EoI) and after rigorous evaluation to ascertain their technical capacities, eight institutions were selected.

With the approval of the Transaction Advisers by Federal

Executive Council (FEC), the DMO said it would accelerate activities towards the issuance of the debt instrument.

The resolutions of the Senate and the House of Representatives, in compliance with the DMO (Establishment, Etc.) Act, 2003 Continued on page 10

US Court Seeks 10-Day Pre-trial Detention of Kyari... Page 6 Thursday 5 August, 2021 Vol 26. No 9614. Price: N250

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FG: How Ransom Payments to Bandits is Escalating Insecurity Says rescue efforts on the way for kidnapped students Deji Elumoye in Abuja The federal government, Wednesday, declared that the reason it stopped negotiating

with kidnappers of students in some parts of the northern was because the bandits had been using parts of the ransom to equip and re-arm themselves

and by implication, fueling insecurity in the country.

Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, made this known

while speaking with newsmen at the end of the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice

President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Reacting to a recent viral video of some of the kidnapped students in Kaduna

State, who were being tortured by kidnappers, the Minister, who reassured Nigerians that efforts were being made to rescue the children, however, said, negotiations had to Continued on page 10

FEC Approves $11.174bn For Construction of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Rail Endorses acquisition of 20% stake in Dangote refinery Sylva: Rehabilitation of Warri, Kaduna refineries to gulp $1.484bn NNPC misses six-month revenue projection by N1.1trn Deji Elumoye and Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved $11.174 billion for the construction of a standardgauge coastal railway from Lagos to Calabar. FEC also approved the award of two contracts to the tune of N6.2 billion and N2.31 billion, respectively, for the construction of two power substations in Jigawa and Akwa Ibom states.

The council approved the acquisition of 20 per cent minority stake by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Dangote Petroleum and petrochemical refinery in the sum of $2.76 billion. This was as hope for the restoration of the country’s four refineries in less than eight years from now was

raised yesterday.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, disclosed these at the end of the monthly FEC meeting in Abuja.

Sylva also announced the federal government's approval of $1.484 billion for the rehabilitation of both Warri and Kaduna refineries.

However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to meet its gross revenue projections in the first six months of 2021, hitting a huge deficit of N1.106 trillion during the period.

Speaking to newsmen at the end of the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said the meeting approved Continued on page 10

AI: 115 Civilians, 21 Police Officers Killed in S’East in Four Months…Page 6

AT FEC MEETING… L–R: Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha; Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba ; Chief of Staff to the President, Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari and Attorney General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, during PHOTO: GODWIN OMOIGUI a virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja…yesterday

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

AITEO MAKES LANDMARK INVESTMENT IN THE NATION’S SECURITY...

R-L: Chief of Defence Staff, Maj. Gen. Lucky Eluonye Onyenuchea Irabor, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral AZ Gambo, Aiteo Global Group Director/Co-ordinator (Asset Protection/Security Services/Community Matters), Chief Andrew Oru, GMD, Aiteo E&P Co LTD, Mr. Victor Okoronkwo,, Representative of the Honourable Minister of Defence, Mr. Istifanus Musa Permanent Sec., Defence, Representative of the Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Tammy Danagogo SSG Rivers State, and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrujakpo at the inauguration ceremony of major maritime security assets and technology donated by AITEO to the Nigeria Navy: at NNS Pathfinder... yesterday.

Fitch: Partial Implementation of PIB Will Dampen Impact of Proposed Legislation Warns of conflict over host communities' trust fund Says Nigeria’s debt to revenue ratio still high Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Fitch Ratings, a global credit rating agency has said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) could have positive long-term effects for both the country’s public finance as well as oil and gas production.

However, Fitch stressed the positive impact would depend on Nigeria’s readiness to implement the law to the letter.

It noted that while the bill which is awaiting the President's assent was unlikely to have a significant near- to mediumterm impact on Nigeria’s creditworthiness, it could boost oil sector investment as well as help in stabilising the sector which had long suffered from

underinvestment, and potentially reverse the downward trend in oil production.

A harmonised version of the long-deliberated PIB completed its passage through both houses of parliament on July 16, and is expected to be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari soon for his assent.

On the effect of the 30 per cent of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) profit from petroleum sharing contracts to be spent on frontier exploration, the rating agency said the near-term effects of this on the revenue remitted by the company to the government was uncertain, but it could help raise production in the longer term.

Tinubu Hale and Hearty, Says Sanwo-Olu Hints they spoke on national issues, state of APC Amid death rumour, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Wednesday, said one of the national leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was hale and hearty.

Speaking to journalists at the Lagos House, Ikeja on his visit to Tinubu in London, the United Kingdom on Tuesday, SanwoOlu disclosed that his meeting and the picture he took with Asiwaju Tinubu should dispel the rumors flying around that the APC leader was sick and hospitalised.

Speculations were rife a few days ago that Tinubu was hospitalised and had undergone a major surgery in Maryland, the United States, over an undisclosed illness.

But Governor Sanwo-Olu while dispelling the rumour few hours after his return from London said, Tinubu was hale and hearty, adding that they both discussed happenings in the APC, topical national issues and other matters during the

visit to the APC National Leader.

“Yes, indeed, I am the one you saw in the picture that I took when I visited our leader in London just to dispel all of the rumours that were flying around that he was sick and hospitalised.

“You saw him (Tinubu). He is well, he is healthy and we conversed. We talked about what is happening in our party, what is happening in the nation and just to say to him that all is well.

“I went to see things for myself. It is just to put the mind and heart of people to rest that there is nothing for us to worry about,” the governor disclosed.

When asked when Asiwaju Tinubu would likely return to Nigeria, Sanwo-Olu said only the APC leader would decide when to return from his trip.

“A man has discretion as to decide when to go out of the country and when to return. It is his call. Is he coming here to do governor's work? Can’t you see the picture we took together?

Picture doesn't lie,” he said.

“The full impact will also depend on the details and implementation of the fiscal regime for international oil companies, as joint ventures between the NNPC and international oil companies account for the bulk of new exploration and production activity.

“If remitted revenues were lower, this would be credit negative for the sovereign in the near term, but we believe this would be unlikely to drive rating adjustments, all things being equal, particularly since Nigeria is also benefiting significantly from the recent sharp rise in international oil prices.

“Provisions in the PIB could also improve transparency in the petroleum sector, potentially lowering revenue losses due to

inefficiencies and corruption.

Nonetheless, there remains a risk that they may not be fully implemented, which would blunt this effect,” Fitch stated in the report.

It noted that Nigeria’s structurally low government revenue, as well as its heavy reliance on volatile oil revenue was an important constraint to its rating, which it affirmed at ‘B’ with a Stable Outlook in March, adding that the sovereign’s general government debt to revenue ratio is high relative to peers, same as its interest expense to revenue ratio.

Fitch stressed that there was a risk that oil sector investments could be affected by global policies associated with the fight against climate change, as well as broader

industry trends related to it.

In particular, it noted that Nigeria’s offshore oil sector and any new exploration are quite heavily dependent on international oil companies, which have drastically scaled back their global oil-related investment plans over the past year.

“As less investment is available for hydrocarbon sectors, those countries with the highest extraction costs and least favourable investment climates will be the first to suffer a pullback in investment.

“It is still uncertain whether the PIB will be enough to make the country internationally competitive for energy-sector investments against such a background.

Moreover, there is a risk in the long term that some existing

production facilities in the oil sector could become stranded,” it cautioned.

The rating agency highlighted the ongoing contention around the share of oil revenue to be distributed to oil-producing communities, noting the discordance over the share of around three per cent, lower than the five per cent level in an earlier version of the legislation passed previously by the lower house of parliament.

“The PIB mandates the formation of host community development trust funds, aimed at ensuring the funding is used to address the communities’ concerns. Nonetheless, there is a danger that conflict over this issue could escalate regional animosities,” it warned.

Court Stops DSS from Arresting Igboho Admits associates of agitator to N10m, N5m bail Alex Enumah in Abuja and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan An Ibadan High Court presided over by Justice Ladiran Akintola, yesterday, granted an order of interim injunction restraining the DSS and other security agencies from arresting, detaining, molesting or killing Chief Sunday Adeyemo otherwise called Sunday Igboho.

The court also granted an order forbidding the DSS and the other security agencies from blocking his bank accounts.

Similarly, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, granted bail to 12 of Sunday Igboho's associates held in custody by the DSS since July 2, 2021.

Justice Egwuatu subsequently admitted the applicants to bail, which ranged between 10,000,000 and N5,000,000 while ruling in the applications filed to that effect.

Igboho, in the suit No M/435/2021 by his counsel, Chief Yomi Aliyu, SAN, listed the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the State Security Service (SSS) and Director, State Security

Service (SSS), and Oyo State, as respondents.

Aliyu, while arguing for the orders to be granted, said the orders were necessary, because Igboho’s life was in danger.

According to him, his residence in Ibadan was invaded on July 1, by operatives of the DSS in collaboration with the Army, his property was destroyed, innocent souls killed and a cat whom they thought Igboho changed into was also shot at.

He informed the court that pictorial evidence of the destruction of the building, blood stains and the cat shot were attached to the processes filled before the court.

Thus, in a ruling that lasted five minutes, Justice Akintola granted the orders and adjourned the case to August 18 for hearing of the originating motion, stating that the respondents must be served before the day.

"I hereby grant an order of injunction restraining the respondents, their agents, privies, and/or associates in other security forces and/or anybody acting on their behalf and/or instructions from killing, arresting, detaining,

molesting, harassing, and/or in way interfere with the applicant's fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, freedom of movement and peaceful enjoyment of his property without fear of invasion of his house by the respondents and their agents pending the hearing of the applicant's originating motion.

"Also an order restraining the respondents, their agents, privies and/or associates in other security forces and/or anybody acting on their behalf and/or instructions from blocking the accounts of the applicant in any bank and/ or placing no debit thereon and directing them to lift same where they had so acted pending the hearing of the applicant's originating summon," he said.

From the Abuja High Court, Justice Egwuatu, who held that there was no charge against the applicants admitted four of the applicants’ bail in the sum of N10 million each with two sureties in like sum, while the remaining eight were granted bail in the sum of N5 million with one surety each.

The four applicants who were granted N10 million bail were Amudat Babatunde (AKA Lady

K), Okoyemi Tajudeen, Abideen Shittu and Jamiu Oyetunji.

The others admitted to N5 million bail were Abdulateef Onaolapo, Tajudeen Erinoye, Diekola Jubril, Ayobami Donald, Uthman Adelabu, Oluwafemi Kunle, Raji Kazeem and Bamidele Sunday.

One of the sureties, the court held, must be an employee of the federal government on grade level 12 and above.

The sureties, who must be resident in Abuja and have properties, must swear to an affidavit of means.

The judge also ordered that the title deeds of the said property must be verified by the Court registrar and the DSS in addition to evidence of three years tax payment.

The sureties were also to submit all travel documents to the court.

Meanwhile, the four applicants have been asked to report to the DSS on the first Monday of every month for the next three months.

Egwuatu, in addition, held that the four applicants should remain in the custody of the DSS pending the perfection of their bail.

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US Court Seeks 10-Day Pre-trial Detention of Kyari Embattled officer makes new claim, says Hushpuppi sought his team's assistance to recover N8m for a friend Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja A United States District Court of California, has requested a pre-trial arrest and detention of the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police and Head of the Intelligence Response Team, Mr. Abba Kyari, for 10 days.

The US court papers sighted

by THISDAY requested a 10-day pre-trial detention of Kyari on criminal grounds.

But Kyari, who was suspended, because of his alleged involvement with a notorious internet fraudster, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, yesterday, made a new claim, insisting that the criminal reached out to his team to help him recover N8 million for a friend.

He also appeared before the DIG Joseph Egbunike special investigation panel on Tuesday, where he presented his defence.

The committee is sitting at the

Force Headquarters Conference room, Abuja.

THISDAY learnt that the committee was considering his defence even as he was expected to attend daily sittings of the panel.

The US court papers were signed by Acting US Attorney, Tracy Wilkinson and two other officials.

"Plaintiff, United States of America, by and through its court of records hereby requests

detention of defendant (Abba Kyari) and gives notice of the following factors: temporary detention requested on the following grounds: that (b)the defendant is an alien not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or (c) defendant may flee," it said.

The US District Court of California had indicted Kyari over his involvement in a $1.1million fraud committed by Hushpuppi.

The development led to

his suspension by the Police Service Commission (PSC) on the recommendation of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Baba.

Kyari is presently facing an investigation panel set up by the IG and headed by DIG Egbunike.

But in a new claim on his Facebook page, which was later deleted, drawing the ire of his followers, Kyari, who earlier claimed that Hushpuppi

CLEANER LAGOS GETS A BOOST...

R-L: Lagos Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Managing Director/CEO, Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni; Commissioner for the Environment & Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu during the commissioning of 102 brand new Compactor Trucks and 100 Double Dino Bins for LAWMA at Lagos House, Ikeja, Lagos... yesterday

AI: 115 Civilians, 21 Police Officers Killed in S’East in Four Months Over 500 arrested, tortured, in police, military raids

A global watchdog, Amnesty International, yesterday, alleged that a body count exercise revealed that 115 civilians had been extra-judicially killed by security forces, currently on a peace mission in the Southeast.

In a statement, the Nigerian mission of the organisation also alluded to an official headcount by the Nigerian authorities, which showed that 21 police officers had been lost to the raging insecurity in the geo-political zone.

The killings were allegedly perpetrated in four months.

Nigerian security forces, long suspected to be carrying out alleged human rights abuses in the course of restoring peace to the zone, were accused by the body of committing a catalogue of rights violations, captured under international law.

In opening the screamer of a statement, AI said: “Nigerian security forces have committed a catalogue of human rights violations and crimes under international law in their response to spiralling violence in Southeast Nigeria, carrying out a repressive campaign since January, which has included sweeping mass arrests, excessive and unlawful force, and torture and other illtreatment.”

Nigeria’s Country Director, Osai Ojigho, was also quoted as saying, “The evidence gathered

by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by Nigerian security forces in Imo, Anambra and Abia States.”

Detailing its field intel gathered in the course of the months under

review, AI further claimed that, “Nigeria’s government has responded with a heavy hand to killings and violence widely attributed to the armed group calling itself Eastern Security Network (ESN), the armed wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a pro-Biafra movement.

“According to government officials, the ESN killed dozens of security operatives and attacked at least 10 public buildings, including prisons and police stations, from January to June. In response, security forces comprising military, police, and Department of State Services (DSS) have killed dozens of gunmen, as well as civilians, where attacks have been committed.

“Eyewitnesses told Amnesty International that the security forces have engaged in excessive use of force, physical abuse, secret detentions, extortion, burning of houses, theft, and extrajudicial executions of suspects.

“Human rights groups estimated that the death toll of violence between January and June 2021 in Anambra, Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi States might run into the hundreds. The police said ESN fighters killed 21 of its personnel in Imo State alone.

“Amnesty International carried out an extensive investigation to document the human rights violations and crimes under international law in Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi and Abia States from January 2021. The organisation documented 52 incidents of unlawful killings and 62 cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and torture.

“Media reports, video and audio recordings reviewed show that the Nigerian security forces also employed excessive force and other unlawful means to address the rising violence.”

Linking its findings, the group said, “From January 2021, gunmen suspected to be ESN militants launched a series of attacks on government infrastructure, including prisons and public buildings, killing several police officers. Amnesty International condemned these attacks and called on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Nigerian security forces launched security operations in June, primarily targeting ESN militants or those perceived as such to decimate the group. Amnesty International documented at least 115 persons killed by security forces between March and June 2021.

“Many relatives of the victims told Amnesty International that they were not part of the militants that were attacking security agents. Many of the victims were deposited at government hospitals in Imo and Abia States. According to several hospital sources, all the victims deposited by the police had bullet injuries.”

Amnesty spoke of two cases, among others, documented as victims of official murder, without justification.

“For instance, in two of the cases documented by Amnesty International, the victims were targeted with no apparent justification: Uguchi Unachukwu, a Germany-based businessman was killed by soldiers on 31 May

at a checkpoint near Owerri airport on his way out of the country. The police are yet to investigate the crime.

“Mathew Opara, a 45-yearold businessman, was shot by soldiers on 25 May 2021 in Orji, near Owerri. Witnesses told Amnesty International that he was returning from work when

he ran into a team of soldiers in an armoured vehicle and Hilux vans shooting at residents. He was shot in the chest and could not receive immediate medical help because of the violence. His family said the military acknowledged the killing but did not launch an investigation or offer any apology.”

sent N300,000 to his tailor after admiring his dressing on social media deleted his post and instead claimed in the new post that the suspect asked his team to help a friend recover N8 million.

Kyari, in his first facebook post had claimed that the international fraudster only called his office about two years ago to say somebody in Nigeria “threatened to kill his family here”.

The suspect, Kyari said, was trailed and arrested, but after investigation, it was discovered that there was no actual threat to anyone’s life and that “they are long-time friends, who have money issues between them hence we released the suspect on bail”.

He said the suspect “saw some of my native clothes and caps on my social media page and he said he likes them and he was connected to the person selling the clothes and he sent about N300k directly to the person’s account”.

In his new post, Kyari deleted the part where he said Hushpuppi sent N300,000 for clothes and claimed his office was reached a second time to help recover N8 million.

“Nobody demanded or collected any money from Abbas Hushpuppi. He can be interviewed publicly in the presence of the world media by the people holding him to confirm this.

“He also called for another case in June 2020 and complained about a financial transaction with a second person, whom he said his friend sent N8 million to and pleaded for his friend’s money to be recovered. He sent transaction slips and other evidences to prove their case against the person.

“All these can be verified from the Hushpuppi since he is still in custody and it can be verified from the person, who collected N8 million from Hushpuppi’s friend whom they complained about is alive and is in Nigeria,” he said.

His new claim, however, drew the ire of some of his followers, who lampooned him.

"I thought you were smart and intelligent", one of the followers said.

"Even if you delete your post, you will still answer to your crime", another said.

One hour later, most of the negative comments were deleted leaving more of the supportive ones.

UNICEFHarpsonBreastfeeding as Pivotal to Child’s Survival Amby Uneze in Owerri

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has stressed the need to promote breastfeeding in the country in order to guarantee survival and growth of children.

UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office, Enugu, Dr. Ibrahim Conteh made this admonition while presenting an address yesterday at a Zonal media dialogue held in Enugu on the commemoration of 2021 World Breastfeeding week organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA).

The zonal meeting attracted Journalists from the eight states, including Abia, Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Cross River, Enugu, Kogi and Imo. According to him, the first and the most essential nutrition in life is breastfeeding and mothers must as a matter of urgency continue to play this pivotal role for continuous

recreation of society.

The UNICEF boss highlighted that, “If we get exclusive breastfeeding right, other things will fall in line as regards the nutrition of the survival of the child”, adding that there was no product that was comparable with breast milk.

Conteh stressed that the responsibility of ensuring compliance to the advocacy for exclusive breastfeeding in all communities was for families and stakeholders, including the media to act as better town criers for information dissemination.

He, however, added that government should devise a means of giving some incentives, such as tax holiday to private companies for the promotion of exclusive Breastfeeding to enable mothers go on six months maternity leave.

In her contribution, Dr. Ijeoma Onuoha-Ogwe, Communication Officer, UNICEF, Enugu,gave the objectives of the dialogue

to include identifying media networks, engagement and equipping journalists from the Enugu Field Office with more knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding.

She said the other major objectives of the meeting were for journalists to develop action plans to pitch stories that would motivate communities to support exclusive breastfeeding.

In a paper on "overview of breastfeeding initiative in Nigeria and prospects', the UNICEF Nutrition Manager, Dr. Hanifa Namusoke, observed that breast milk was not dependent on the size of the breast but on the emotion of the mother.

Commissioner for Gender and Social Development Affairs, Enugu State, Peace Nnaji,revealed that nothing was preferable to the health of the child and urged mothers to ensure exclusive breastfeeding of their children as they were the engine room of the society.

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Secondus, NWC Meet Resigned PDP Deputies Chairman can’t be bullied out of office, says NEC member Dickson sues for caution, warns against caretaker c’ttee Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie in Lagos In a last minute rapprochement, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC), yesterday, met with the deputies that resigned their offices on Tuesday over allegations of being neglected by the party leadership.

At the meeting presided over

by Secondus, he charged the aggrieved deputies to at least conclude their tenure, which they all started together in 2017 before considering the option of quitting.

But a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP, and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Kaduna State, Mark Jacob, said, there was no way Secondus could be bullied out of office, except he chose to resign.

Also, a former governor of Bayelsa State, Sierake Dickson has sued for caution, even as he warned that the party could not survive the risk of a caretaker committee in the face of the 2023 general election.

In their separate letters addressed to the National Secretary of the party, Senator Unaru Tsauri, the seven national officers of PDP that resigned Tuesday had alleged being sidelined and unfairly treated

by Secondus.

Those who resigned were the Deputy National Financial Secretary, Deputy National Organising Secretary, Deputy National Legal Adviser, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Deputy Woman Leader, and Deputy National Auditor.

National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said after Secondus had addressed the deputies, they were allowed to meet among themselves and consult before a final decision was taken.

He said that the meeting was a one item agenda, and which was to dismiss claim that Secondus was shut out of the meeting, reiterating that the party had already activated its crisis resolution committee to handle the issue.

While denying reports that Secondus was not allowed to preside over the meeting, Ologbondiyan said the party told the aggrieved members that their issue could only be resolved through an amendment of the party's constitution.

"By the PDP constitution Part xiii Article 29 (1), establishment and composition of the NWC, there shall be a National Working Committee of the PDP, which shall consist of the National Chairman, two deputy national chairmen, the National Secretary and the Deputy National Secretary.

"Other members of the NWC are the National Treasurer, the National Financial Secretary, the National Organising Secretary, the National Publicity Secretary, the National Auditor, the National Legal Adviser, the National Youth Leader, the National Women Leader, and the six national vice chairmen from each of the six geopolitical zones of the country.

"The functions of the NWC consists of the day-to-day administration of the party, and shall be responsible only to the

National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. In the case of emergence, it can act on behalf of NEC subject to the ratification

by NEC. It can perform such other functions as approved by the NEC," he said.

On the quorum of the NWC meeting, Ologbondiyan said, "The NWC shall meet not less than once every fortnightly at the instance of the national chairman or two-thirds of members of the NWC. "The quorum of the NWC shall be two-thirds of the members from the two-thirds of the six geopolitical zones of the country and a simple majority shall pass any motion."

But Jacob, who was furious about how the chairman of the party was being haunted, maintained that there were laid down constitutional provisions to remove a national chairman and that they would stick to in any eventuality.

Speaking on the ARISE News Television yesterday, he said, "The conditions for the national chairman that is duly elected to be removed is stated in the constitution, except when the national chairman in question decided to resign on his own volition. He cannot be bullied out of office.”

Jacob said under the circumstances, any NEC official, who had any grievances against any NWC member must bring it to the NEC for attention, adding that, "In this case of deputies that resigned, they never complained or brought any issue to the NEC for any attention or for it to be addressed."

Corroborating Ologbondiyan, Jacob said right from the inception of the party, the said deputies were not members of the NWC of the party and weren’t attending leadership meetings, except the NEC. He described their resignation as highest point of selfish and personal interest, asking: "They have been in that position since their election in 2017, what made them to hurriedly resign now?”

Dismissing claims that an individual could control the party, Jacob said it was not possible as there were organs within the party that served as checks and balances.

On his part, Dickson, who said the party could not stand the risk of a caretaker committee ahead of 2023, stated: "We have observed for some time the growing tension, recriminations and outright attack on the National Chairman and members of the National Working Committee by some leaders of the party.

"One has refrained from making statements, because we believe that the party has internal mechanisms and levels of leadership that will handle it and I was in fact, aware that BOT members, governors and other elders, reconciliation committee, collectively and individually, have been making efforts to resolve some of these disputes and challenges affecting the stability of the party.

"As we are all aware, some officers of our party, resigned yesterday (Tuesday) and we should thank them for their

services but if their resignation is aimed at causing crisis in the party, then, we should all condemn it and those behind it.

"By the party’s constitution the appropriate authority, the NWC is empowered to make replacements. I, therefore, call on the national chairman and other members of the NWC in accordance with the constitution of the party to immediately make appropriate consultations from the states and zones from which these officers have resigned and forthwith, make those replacements subject to ratification by the NEC. "An emergency NEC meeting should be convened which should take appropriate decisions to stabilise the party. And if there is any member of the working committee, who wants to resign, such a person should consider the overall interest of the party and have a rethink. If, however, any NWC members goes ahead

to resign, the resignation should be accepted and consultations be made by the Chairman and NWC to fill those positions as temporary vacancies subject to ratification.

"The National Chairman and NWC members should utilize their powers under the constitution to discipline erring members involved in the nefarious plot to destroy the party. PDP is bigger than any individual and should no longer tolerate people with inordinate ambitions to destroy the party, which belongs to all Nigerians.

People with ambition must know that unless the party is stabilised and strengthened, their ambition will be of no consequence even if they pocket it.

"If the PDP shrinks from a party for all to a party for a few, it would lose its selling point and many members and leaders will have no option than to review their membership.

"We are not a ruling party at the centre. We don't have the time, resources and mechanisms to resolve problems that will arise from a caretaker committee, which will throw up more problems before the party convention and primaries at the centre and across the states.

"I caution all those behind this crisis not to leave any opening to the APC to exploit with their control of the resources and machinery of government.

We should all learn from the challenge the APC has found itself with the appointment of a caretaker committee, which is still unfolding. With only four months to the end of the tenure of the current working committee, it does not make sense to either push for and force a resignation, or to force the appointment of a caretaker committee on a party with officers, who have a constitutionally guaranteed tenure." he said.

SARO GROUP OF COMPANIES GETS TAX CREDIT… L-R: Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki (left) with the Chief Executive Officer, SaroAfrica, Rasheed Saromi, after the signing of tax clearance certificate granting tax credit to Saro Group of Companies, at Government House, in Benin City.

We've Expended N2bn to Maintain Dumpsites, Says Sanwo-Olu …Hands over 102 waste compactors, 100 double dino bins Segun James Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday disclosed that the state government has expended over N2 billion on rehabilitation and maintenance of dumpsites across the state in the last two years.

The governor further disclosed that additional N1 billion would be spent on three new transfer loading stations to provide the necessary infrastructure of solid waste management service.

He stated this during the inauguration of 102 new waste compactor trucks and 100 doubledino bins at Alausa, Ikeja.

Sanwo-Olu said: "We are gathered here today to unveil new equipment that will enable the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to be more effective in fulfilling its mandate on behalf of the people of Lagos.

This event is a testament to our administration’s determination to secure the public and environmental health of the state, as well as to improve the aesthetic value of our environment.

"In our governing agenda encapsulated as THEMES, solid waste management represents a crucial cog of the health and environment pillar. Our promise was to empower LAWMA to effectively drive the elimination of waste accumulation in Lagos and the adoption of recycling state-wide, as well as to harness the potential for job creation and other opportunities in waste recovery, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and materials innovation.

"Crucially, and this goes to all LAWMA staff, ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’. I am entrusting these new implements to your care; they must be put to

good use, they must be handled responsibly and well-maintained, and Lagos must be kept clean!"

The governor appealed to the residents against non-proper management of waste.

According to Sanwo-Olu, "In the course of our daily lives, we all generate waste, and we must take responsibility for the waste we generate. We must act like responsible citizens at all times. We cannot continue to litter our roads, dump waste on the roadside or in illegal dumpsites, or patronise cart-pushers for waste disposal.

"It has been said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing and yet expecting a different result. We cannot be irresponsible in our waste handling and disposal behaviour and somehow expect that we will be spared the consequences of irresponsibility.

"We are also fully aware

of the potential of the waste economy. Our waste-to-wealth plan is taking shape, and as we are rehabilitating the compost facility in Odogunyan, we will also unveil more projects and programmes in the coming months.

"Let me be clear on this, our intention here is not to disenfranchise the Private Sector Participants (PSPs). In fact, our view is that waste management should be private sector driven, and the role of the government, through LAWMA, will be primarily to provide support to PSPs. I am therefore pleased to announce that among other things, we will shortly be rolling out a programme to assist PSPs to renew their waste collection fleet.”

While delivering his welcome address, the state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji

Bello, said: "Lagos is presently confronted with the enormity of the challenges of managing more than 13,000 tonnes of solid waste,” saying with the 102 trucks, it would go a long way in managing solid waste in the state.

In his remark, the Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, said: "The Authority has faced acute shortage of compactor trucks to do critical intervention assignments. With waste generation on the increase on a daily basis, it has been a challenging task till date.

"The governor has graciously illuminated our path, positioning us for progress and better performance.

Accordingly, therefore, the trucks will be distributed among LAWMA formations and operational districts for effective coverage of the state and for optimal performance.”

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18 NYSC Members Test Positive to COVID-19 in Niger State suspends exco to honour late DIG Aliyu

Laleye Dipo in Minna

No fewer than 18 members of the National Youth Service Corps deployed to Niger State have reportedly tested positive to Covid-19.

The positive status of the Corps members was confirmed during a routine tests by the state COVID-19 Task Force Committee at their Paiko Orientation Camp.

In another breath, the state has suspended its weekly state executive council meeting in

honour of the senator, who represented Niger North senatorial district between 1999 and2007, DIG Nuhu Aliyu, who passed on Wednesday morning.

Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Idris, who disclosed the developments while briefing newsmen in Minna said the concerned corps members have been isolated for "proper medication" As a result of the incident, Idris said the state has resuscitated the COVID-19 Task force committee

as an "immediate action to curtail the spread of the disease", adding that the task force would embark on massive sensitization of the people on the disease and the need for them to adhere to the guidelines such as wearing of face masks, washing of hands and keeping physical distancing among others.

Idirs explained that with immediate effect, the government has directed that henceforth staff and visitors to the state secretariat, ministries, departments and parastatals,

must use their facemask or be refused entry into the offices.

"His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Niger State has ordered that from today, nobody should be allowed access into public offices without wearing facemasks, Heads of Ministries, Departments and Parastatals, have been informed to take charge and provide hand washing items for their staff.

"These also include the Government House, State House of Assembly complex, Secretariat.

They are to ensure nobody enters

these areas without a facemask as sensitisation continues. To the best of our ability, we will ensure the Covid-19 protocols are observed," Idris said.

On the suspension of state executive council meeting to honour Aliyu, PDP’s first chairman in the state and a retired police officer, who was buried in Kaduna according to Islamic injunction on Wednesday afternoon, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, in a condolence message, described the deceased as "an accomplished

elder statesman, who dedicated most part of his life to service to humanity" adding that the death of Aliyu "is a great loss not only to the state but the country at large".

According to the message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mary Noel Berje, the governor said, "It is sad to hear the news of the death of a great man, who was committed to service to the nation in different capacities and was a father to many. We, however, cannot question the acts of Allah".

AHEAD OF 2023, NIGERIA’S DOMINANT POLITICAL PARTIES BATTLE SURVIVAL, LEADERSHIP CRISES the memo for the ratification of the president's approval for the award of the contract for the Lagos-Calabar coastal standardgauge railway.

The information minister said, "This is a very old project, which we inherited. Under the former administration, an approval was given, but nothing was done, but today, the council has given approval to commence the LagosCalabar coastal route."

According to him, the rail project is important to the nation's coastal economy, which is why $11.174 billion is earmarked for it with a completion period of six years.

His words: "This particular route is very important because after the Lagos-Kano route, this Lagos-Calabar coastal route, actually will link all the coastal cities in the country.

"The proposed route alignment is to go from Lagos to Shagamu, Shagamu to Ijebu-Ode, IjebuOde to Ore, Ore to Benin City, Benin to Sapele, Sapele to Warri, Warri to Yenagoa, Yenagoa to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Aba, Aba to Uyo, Uyo to Calabar, Calabar to Akamkpa to Ikom, to Obudu Ranch, with a branch line from Benin City to Asaba, Onitsha Bridge and then Port Harcourt to Onne Deep Seaport."

The minister also stressed that the commitment of the present administration to expanding and consolidating on the rail projects across the country informed FEC’s approval of the funds for work to commence immediately on the Kano-Jibia rail and the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri route.

Speaking also, Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, disclosed that FEC approved two projects for his ministry, including the construction of 2 by 60 MVA 132 33 substation at Gagarawa, Jigawa State, in favour of Messrs Power Control and Appliances Limited in the sum of N154,212,396.05.

"The second one is the award of the contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of 2 by 30 MVA 132 33 substation at Ibiono Ibom, Akwa Ibom State in favour of Messrs YEMEC West Africa Limited in the sum of US$6.2 offshore plus N1.8 billion onshore," he said.

On his part, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba stated, "Today, the Federal Ministry of Education presented two memos. The first one dealt with

ratification of convention Nigeria had already acceded to which seeks to regularise the recognition of certificates and diplomats all across Africa."

The second memo, according to him, dealt with the award of contract for the building of two blocks of social science complexes at Adamawa State University in Mubi for a total sum of N1,103,000,000, which is a TETFUND allocation that emerged from 2017 through 2021.

Sylva: Rehabilitation of Warri, Kaduna refineries to gulp $1.484bn Meanwhile, Sylva has announced the approval of $1.484 billion for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries.

The minister, who made this disclosure to newsmen at the end of the FEC meeting, also said 15 per cent of the total sum for the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt which was awarded earlier this year had been paid to the construction firm currently working at site.

The minister said the FEC meeting approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries to Messers Saipem SPA and Saipem Contracting Limited at the combined total sum of $1.484 billion.

According to him, $897,678,800 would be spent to repair Warri refinery while Kaduna refinery will gulp $586,902,256.

He stressed that the completion of the rehabilitation exercise would be in three phases spread over a 77-month period.

He explained: "The completion of the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries is going to be in three phases. First phase will be completed within 21 months, in 23 months phase two will be completed and in 33 months, the full rehabilitation will be completed."

On Port Harcourt refinery, Sylva noted that the repair work had commenced adding that already the first 15 per cent of the contract sum has been paid to the contractor and the contractor was fully mobilised to site.

"We also discussed in council the need for us to give periodic updates. Soon, we'll be going to inspect the work in Port Harcourt refinery, and you will all be with us on that visit," he said.

NNPC misses six-month

FG APPOINTS EIGHT TRANSACTION ADVISERS FOR $6.2BN EUROBONDS and Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2003, had earlier been secured.

The Eurobonds to be issued are for the purpose of raising funds for the new external norrowing of N2.343 trillion (about USD6.2 billion) provided in the 2021 Appropriation Act to part-finance the Deficit.

The DMO stated that while the federal government expects a successful outing, it would be mindful of cost and risks (in terms of tenor and pricing) in

determining the amount of the Eurobonds to issue.

According to the agency, since the Eurobonds are being issued to part-finance the 2021 Budget deficit, the proceeds would be used to fund various projects in the budget.

In addition, the proceeds would result in an inflow of foreign exchange which in turn, would increase Nigeria’s external reserves and support the exchange rate of the local currency.

revenue projection by N1.1trn Meanwhile, the NNPC failed to meet its gross revenue projections in the first six months of 2021, hitting a huge deficit of N1.106 trillion during the period.

Latest data on the operations of the NNPC obtained by THISDAY indicated that against the benchmark of a monthly budget of N414.941 billion, NNPC in the first half of this year did not meet its revenue forecast, the closest figure to the budgeted figure being N320.315 billion in May. The 44-year-old corporation is currently beset with high operational costs, especially in its drilling activities in addition to the reduction in oil production quota by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which has led to the shutting down of some of its assets.

Moreover, payment of fuel subsidy remains a burden the corporation has been shouldering, even though it has said the situation is unsustainable, with under-recovery gulping over N608 billion between February and June this year.

Information on the corporation’s funding performance showed that while gross revenue forecast for the year was put at N4.979 trillion and N2.489 trillion in the first half,

it has only be able to meet its financial target to the tune of N1.383 trillion, leaving a shortfall of N1.106 trillion.

In January, out of the calendarised sum of N414.941 billion, the NNPC only struggled to earn a gross revenue of N195.624 billion, same in February when it made a gross revenue of N191.194 billion.

In March, revenue rose to N224.589 billion, while they were N156.366 billion, N320.315 billion and N295, 396 billion respectively in April, May and June.

Some of the capital projects earmarked for the year 2021 have also suffered under-funding, with Brass LNG Gas Supply Project in Bayelsa receiving zero financing for the six months under consideration.

The Brass LNG project designed to produce 10 million metric tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas, was initially agreed to be built by the NNPC, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Eni Group, but have seen the exit of ConocoPhillips and Chevron. It has now been in the works for over a decade.

Added to that, national domestic gas development, which had a budget of N40.352 billion for the first six months, only got N20.22 billion, leaving a deficit of N20.130 billion. Also, gas

infrastructure development had a shortfall of N15.7 billion, while funding for frontier exploration fell by N12.9 billion during the first six months of the year.

Similarly, the N3.05 billion budgeted for renewable energy for the year, had a shortfall of N789 million as of June, while the Nigeria/ Morocco pipeline with a budget of N1 billion was underfunded by N83 million.

It also showed that fuel landing cost for the 22 vessels that brought the product into the country in June, ranged from between N185 to N209, with the recorded under-recovery for the month being N114.337 billion.

For pipelines' repair and management cost for June, security and maintenance gulped N3.2 billion, actual facilities’ repairs cost N599.5 million while strategic holding by the NNPC was N677.5 million, totalling N4.530 billion.

However, the NNPC and the Minister of State, Petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva, had on two separate occasions said they were dealing with the twin issues of high production cost per unit of crude oil, said to be one of the highest in the world as well as low production quota handed down by OPEC. On the third issue of subsidy, the minister had said negotiations

were still ongoing with organised labour.

In the heat of the COVID19-induced oil market crash last year, the Group Managing Director of the national oil company, Mr. Mele Kyari, had said along with its joint partners, the NNPC was targeting a production cost per unit of $10 per barrel.

Asked in a recent interview if the target had been met, Kyari told journalists that although the corporation had reduced unit cost by 30 per cent, he could not readily give the actual average cost per every barrel pumped at the time, saying that the NNPC had approached its contractors for renegotiation of contracts, which yielded results.

He had also said with the contract renegotiations and discounts, in addition to some optimisation of operating process driven by the National Upstream Cost Optimisation Programme (NUCOP), reduced the cost of production by close to a third.

On low OPEC quota, Sylva during a meeting with the Secretary General of the organisation, Dr. Sanusi Barkindo, last week, noted that Nigeria will be seeking a new reference production figure in addition to the 30,000 barrels Nigerian share of the members' July agreement of about 400,000 barrels per day.

FG: HOW RANSOM PAYMENTS TO BANDITS IS ESCALATING INSECURITY stop, because it had become glaring that ransom payment was fueling and escalating insecurity in the country.

His words: “Truly speaking, it is disheartening anytime any of our students are taken at any point. I can assure you that the federal government is doing all that it can. We have held several meetings with our security personnel and that whole region. Insecurity at the school level, you may understand stems from insecurity around the area.

Before we had Chibok, there was Boko Haram in the area.

“It is the success of the military more or less, in incapacitating Boko Haram in the Northeast, that led to some level of insurgents in the Northwest. And as bandits appeared, they started striking randomly at some of our schools from Jengebe, Kangara. You know, everywhere. And the places where they've had to go, we've pursued them.

“But the containment policy of the military is actually in response to what we also did as the humanitarian element that surrounds it, because the way the military will engage bandits once they have our citizens will not be the same way they will engage them ordinarily. And therefore, they may not just go into the forest shooting at everything or everybody they see. And that has enabled the bandits use some of our citizens as

human shields.”

Speaking further, he said, “We are constrained to stop negotiations with bandits because we've seen that every time they get any payment, it leads to further escalation, because they reequip and they re-arm and then they go back, because if you notice what happened from the kidnap at the College of forestry, in Kaduna, this was prior to the kidnap at the Baptist College and at Usman Polytechnic before they got the university children. Now, there is none of our students that will be held that we're happy at all about. It doesn't matter which level. One is even too many at any time.

“So, on Tuesday the military returned with our children that they were able to rescue. We've seen the video you alluded to, and while we cannot attest to the veracity or how authentic it is, it is still concerning, and we are in touch with the military authorities. They are in continuous pursuit of them.

I was in Katsina to discuss with the detachment that is overseeing that area and all the way to Buni Yadi in Kebbi State, where we have some of our children still held. Tigana boys are the ones in Niger State, the Islamia school.

“We are continuously engaging. There is no such thing as federal government not engaging. Almost day and night we are engaging. From

anywhere that we are in the world, we’re trying to engage and I'm just trying to assure Nigerians that as distressing as it is, we are on top of it.

And we will keep doing all that we can possibly do to get our children and keep our students safe.”

On measures put in place to ensure that federal government schools were not attacked by bandits, Nwajuiba said, “I had already said that the whole of government approaches to security exercise is not just limited to our schools.

Yes, the federal government owns a few federal colleges around Nigeria, out of the 25,000 secondary schools, federal government owns only 120 of them. And we are constantly policing each of our parameter areas.

"As far as we're concerned, we have policemen, we have Civil Defence, we are collaborating with the Ministry of Interior, the police to have personnel, boots on ground everywhere. But we're not limiting ourselves to our own institutions at all, that we're looking at the security as a national policy is a whole of government engagement.

“And we already had worked out with the rest of the governors and security operatives around the country on how to do this. And I just explained that if you look at a place like Kaduna State, with 512 secondary schools, we've had to look at those

who are most prone, which from our analysis are exposed, girls secondary schools with boarding facilities are most at risk.

“So, what we've done is to look at the radius from response time at the security agency stations to where the schools are, and if it exceeds the maximum reaction time that the military and us have worked out, we close down those schools and have them come and reside with or co-locate them with schools that are within the precinct of what we determined are safe at the moment.

“If you go to Sokoto State, for instance, we've done buzzers, we've done alarm systems, we've done perimeter monitoring, we've done community engagement platforms, we've done the SBMC procedures, which we put on school management bus and then attach security compliance officers alongside them. We are engaging everyone.

“Well, if you look at what we're doing in Borno State, and all other places, where we are at risk, because even in reopening the Chibok school, if you see what Governor Zulum did there, what we did was to first of all, get all the security apparatus around the area to be able to stay within response zones. The federal government has also expanded its own forwarding basis.

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COMMENT

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

AMINA MOHAMMED AT 60

Isyaku Dikko pays tribute to Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary general of the United Nations

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he initial title of this piece was: “Amina Mohammed: An amazon at 60”. But I decided to check a dictionary to be sure of the meaning of amazon.

And this is the definition according to the dictionary: “a woman from a group of female soldiers (2) a tall and strong woman.“ It is therefore appropriate to use it here figuratively or metaphorically. However, it dawned on me that Amina does not need attachment. Let her be herself. Amina. Just like legendary Amina, the strong leader of the historic Zazzau Kingdom, who was so accomplished that she is simply known in history as Amina without a middle or surname for identification. But the scope of Amina Mohammed is wider as the Deputy Secretary General of United Nations.

I was the Focal Officer of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in my state for about four years from January 11, 2008 when Amina was the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs. And having worked with her for the period, my conclusion about her is that her passion for public good is REAL. No grandstanding. Few examples may suffice.

The first place we visited when she came to Katsina State for official visit was the Babbar Ruga General Hospital on the outskirts of the state capital where about 200 VVF patients were languishing in hopelessness as they were abandoned by their families and society. The women were a sorry sight and before I finished my briefing I saw tears rolling on her cheeks. “Let us go back to the office”, she requested after my briefing. No grandstanding.

On reaching the office she asked a simple question: how do we save these women? We strategized on what to do and with her decisive support the intervention was successful. At least, this was the verdict of Dr Kees, the medical doctor in-charge, a Dutch who is more Nigerian at heart than many Nigerians. He is one of the three leading experts on the VVF in the world.

Many women are excited about material things. Not Amina.

She is more excited about ideas, competence and honesty. She had the opportunity to make billions in the MDGs office but she didn’t. She doesn’t need much money because her needs are few. She is not flamboyant in her dressing nor is she interested in flashy cars or houses. Amina is accomplished and confident enough not to be defined by material things. This made it easy for her to hold everybody accountable either at the headquarters in Abuja or in the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory managed by the Focal Officers.

Amina is organised, focused and committed. She was monitoring spendings in the states from her office. One of the conditions for accessing funds by the states was the authority to monitor bank accounts directly from her office. We were also meeting as Focal Officers every month to present report on completion of projects. In most cases we were presented with reports on completion of projects based on the visits to states by monitoring teams from her office. Many civil societies and development partners were involved in the designing, implementation and monitoring of the projects. There was a day an American called me and said that he was in my state to monitor our projects.

When I asked him how we could meet he replied that he didn’t want to meet me, just for my information. He said “thank you” and switched off.

The staff at the headquarters had to sit up because she was staying in the office working until some hours in the night. She

MANY WOMEN ARE EXCITED ABOUT MATERIAL THINGS. NOT AMINA. SHE IS MORE EXCITED ABOUT IDEAS, COMPETENCE AND HONESTY. SHE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE BILLIONS IN THE MDGS OFFICE BUT SHE DIDN’T. SHE DOESN’T NEED MUCH MONEY BECAUSE HER NEEDS ARE FEW

had zero tolerance for laziness, incompetence and dishonesty.

Of course, she took care of these by organising regular and intensive capacity training programs for staff in the states and headquarters.

Amina is a proud Nigerian. Although her mother is British, she relishes telling whoever cares to listen that she is Fulani from Gombe. Interestingly, while Amina is the Deputy Secretary General at the United Nations, Professor Tijjani Bande, an accomplished professor of Political Science, is Nigeria’s Representative at the same United Nations. These are two outstanding Fulani who have become international citizens on merit and do not perceive issues from the prism of ethnicity or other primordial sentiments. Nigeria never had it better at the United Nations with Professor Bande and Amina occupying responsible positions.

Undoubtedly, Professor Bande is a fantastic human being. This I know because he was my colleague as lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.

Now you know why the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres, confirmed Amina as his Deputy for the second term of five years approved for him recently.

Nobody can get a top United Nations job through ‘magumagu’ or ‘wuruwuru’.

In making the offer to Amina Mr Gutress said: “After being elected, I have the pleasure to invite the Deputy Secretary General to remain in my second mandate and I hope she will accept”. Wow! (Cable News June 18, 2021) Amina was first appointed Deputy Secretary General in 2007. Earlier in 2015, she served as Special Adviser to the then Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon on post MDGs (2015) development plans. Based on the work of her office, the United Nations came up with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which all member countries have subscribed to.

Finally, based on my interest in gender issues, my advice to Amina is to reflect on the advice of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, to the five women who made history recently by emerging as Managing Directors of five top banks in the country. We have to celebrate their competence and capacity like Amina because no shareholders in the world will hand over a big bank to a mediocre simply because she is a woman. Sanusi is emphatic: “The best advice to these fine women bankers is first to go out there and prove that they can do better than the men, as the female Directors we appointed in CBN did. Second, do NOT be “queen bees” who love the attention of being the only female there. Keep the ladder, reach out and help other women to the top. Implement women friendly policies, have creches, pay for the babies and nannies of nursing mothers when they go on official assignment abroad, encourage remote access and work from home for women on extended maternity leave, etc. Finally, the real gender issues in Nigeria are far beyond getting women to Boards. For each one of you, there are millions of girls who are not completing primary school. Issues of forced marriage, domestic violence, arbitrary divorce, “sex for grades” in universities, bankers are Nigerians and you cannot just be focused on money. Use your position and power to fight for the Nigerian girl and woman, especially the poor and voiceless ones”.

God Bless Amina as she celebrates her birthday at 60.

Dr. Dikko is of the Department of Political Science, ABU, Zaria

ORJI, ABIA PROFESSIONALS AND ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION OF VOTES The absence of Theodore Orji during the session was not deliberate, argues Eddie Onuzuruike

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he Abia Professionals has a grudge. Their grouse is that Senator Theodore Orji (Ochendo), did not participate in the ill-fated July 16, 2021, votes where electronic transmission of results was voted against.

There may not have been need for Senator Orji to react to these baseless grumbles if not for the respect and loyalty to his constituents, especially those who may by default be hoodwinked into believing the tantrums of the faceless Abia Professionals.

From the look of it, many of the assumed signatories were not consulted before using their names in this smear campaign. It is well known that the PDP nationwide took a stand on the issue and in a meeting urged all PDP Senators in the National Assembly to vote in favour of electronic transmissions of all votes cast wherever in the country.

In line with the activities of such nature in the Assembly, a date was fixed, but the leadership of the Senate thought differently and did not honour the date fixed earlier.

Before the later date, Senator Orji had already given his consent to an invitation by

one of his ardent followers, Hon. Darlington Nwokocha, the member representing Isiala Ngwa North and South Federal Constituency who among multiple projects named the legislative hall that he constructed at Isiala Ngwa South LG HQ, after Senator T. A. Orji.

Senator Orji was live cutting the tapes and making speeches in Isiala Ngwa. All who attended and others following the trends are fully aware of Orji’s penchants for attendance to events and his zeal in shoring up followers and provViding for his people and all around him.

Come to think of it, Senator T. A. Orji has given a good account of himself since the legislative assignment in Abuja. Take a look at these.

In the Eighth Senate he sponsored a total of 13 bills including the Food Security Bill, checking of illegal and reckless blasting of Rocks in Abuja, the AIB Bill on investigating Air Accidents which got the concerned bureau on the foot to investigate air accidents as to forestall repeated occurrences.

Two years in the Eighth Senate, he was

spotted by The Daily Trust Newspapers for high performance. One year in the ninth Senate, he was tops with the highest number of bills among the former governors’ category in the Senate.

After the second year, he came up again with the highest no of bills, scoring 57.87% of the total bills sponsored by Abia senators in the Senate. Facts are sacred, any in doubt should crosscheck the records.

All citizens can attest to the effectiveness of NCDC that came into existence due to his bill on the same agency and did much to arrest the spread of COVID-19. If viewed further, the constituency projects are in high numbers alleviating hard conditions and ameliorating situations that would have been chaotic and fatal if unchecked.

Since 2016, he has embarked on annual scholarships in which over 300 students are happy beneficiaries all equally drawn from the six LGAs that make up Abia Central.

Added to these are the free Eye Hospital and Surgeries Centre at Ohafia Street, Umuahia, Abia State, that has conducted more than 1,000 free examinations and surgeries on people living in Abia, whether

they are constituents or not. Still touched by health issues, hundreds have been screened for blood pressure-related ailments and diabetes where instruments for monitoring the silent killers are doled out.

The question of his stance on electronic transmission of results shouldn’t even arise as he has been in the forefront of taking scientific modes seriously. For a man who constructed and furnished an E-library for Abia State in 2013/2014, what wouldn’t he do for votes to count? His absence from the exercise in the Red Chamber couldn’t be anything else but genuine as he never faltered with anything he sets his hands on.

Recall his 29 years in the civil service where he was never given a query or indicted by any inquiry, the cumulative results that pushed him up as the Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2007.

As it is said, talk is cheap! The Abia Professionals should look elsewhere for victims. If they insist, they should adopt Senator Orji’s penchant for diligence, fairness and equity now proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Onuzuruike wrote from Abuja

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EDITORIAL

LESSONS FROM THE ZUMA RIOTS The times call for political pragmatism and economic realism

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he dust is gradually settling after the recent violence and looting in many urban centres of South Africa, especially Durban and much of Kwazulu Natal. An estimated 150,000 jobs were lost in a spree of looting and vandalism that eviscerated businesses, and wrecked livelihoods.

A body count of lives lost is still being tallied. As public tempers cool and the government tries to figure out what exactly went wrong, the undeniable casualty in South Africa’s latest whirlwind of anger and destruction is the country itself.

At the bottom of the violence and looting lie South Africa’s deep-seated inequality which remains one of the worst on the continent despite being an industrialised economy. The mass poverty, the homelessness, joblessness, and general lack of access to education and health would seem to have worsened in recent years. Under former President Jacob Zuma, a culture of corruption and cronyism ate deep into the government and eroded the THE RAINBOW NATION gains of previous MUST RENEW ITSELF AS years towards the alleviation of cripAN ENGINE OF GROWTH pling poverty and AND A DRIVER OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE inequality. With MAJORITY OF ANGRY AND unemployment in HUNGRY SOUTH AFRICANS the region of 40% and still rising, South African society had for long been a seething time bomb of poverty induced convulsions that required only the slightest irritation to ignite into a huge fireball. Zuma’s corruption trial and conviction for contempt of court merely lit the fuse.

The expectation of ordinary South Africans and indeed the rest of the world was that the postApartheid government would right the wrongs of inequality, racial and class discrimination for which minority rule became untenable. Initially, the towering totemic presence of Nelson Mandela and the rigorous bureaucratic tidiness of Thabo Mbeki assured a minimally credible and progressive government. Targets in housing, education, healthcare,

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and infrastructure were being met methodically and progressively. A black empowerment legislation emplaced a new crop of black entrepreneurs including the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in positions of power and influence on the boards of major corporations in mining, power, finance, banking and transportation. There were credible grounds for optimism across the new rainbow nation.

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

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BEYOND ABBA KYARI’S INDICTMENT Continued from backpage e may choose to ignore the other details about how a police officer became a fashion consultant for someone who just reported a case to him. Or that he served as the courier for money transfer to a ‘tailor’ and a fund recovery agent for a foreign-based complainant. But we cannot ignore the little details that several of our police personnel are indeed muscle men for connected people or that abuse of power is rampant in most of the institutions that deal with law and order in Nigeria. Even if we ignore the documented evidence presented by the FBI and go with the line by Kyari, neither he nor the institution he serves comes out good. Hushpuppi phoned from Dubai that a friend was threatening his family and without any investigation to establish the veracity of the claim, the ‘suspect’ was arrested and locked up by Kyari.

Or, as it is in another matter, Kyari deployed his men to recover N8 million from another friend of Hushpuppi—all in public interest!

The real issue here is the way personnel of our security agencies are deployed to settle personal scores and generally run personal errands that conflict with their duties. There is a way we can connect this to our colonial legacy when policemen were mere brutes for the enforcement of the whims of Lugard and his henchmen. That explains why, even today, police details of senior public officials would kill and maim for their principals and family members. Some are used to collect debts, chase away recalcitrant tenants, terrorise political/business opponents, enforce contracts, including those ‘drafted’ in The Other Room, etc. It is the way we roll in Nigeria.

We have unwittingly created a situation in which those who bear arms on behalf of the state have become mercenaries for hire by just about

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owever, the onset of the Zuma years witnessed an erosion of these gains. The internal coherence of the party began to yield to powerful forces of division between the personality cult of Zuma and nostalgic remnants of the old African National Congress (ANC). The clash of interests also happened to coincide with a clash of political values. At the end of his tenure, Zuma, whose corruption scandals had become public knowledge, schemed to be succeeded by his ex-spouse but failed.

The emergence of Ramaphosa was bound to be greeted by pockets of disquiet from the conservative pro-Zuma faction of the party. This is the landscape that has recently been ignited by the Zuma riots. These riots only mark the first major test of South Africa’s social and economic stability since after the end of Apartheid.

Ramaphosa is an altruistic man with a reasonably patriotic credential and nationalist background. But South Africa is now in such a place where neither past patriotic commitment nor ceremonial affiliation to Mandela will calm the storm. The moment calls for political pragmatism and economic realism. The empowered black business leaders must step forward to create more jobs. Big business must now diversify from the old mining and extractive conglomerates.

The ANC will need to reinvent itself to embrace South Africa’s diversity instead of remaining a decadent black barbers’ shop stuck in the mud of old animosities and ancient prejudices. The black South African underclass must be taught anew the value of purposeful enterprise and sweat in the workplace.

The rainbow nation must now renew itself as an engine of growth and a driver of opportunities for the majority of angry and hungry South Africans.

anybody who can pay for their services. And to imagine it started with the case of Hushpuppi or that it will end with him is to live on fantasy island. I enjoin readers to do a simple Google search: Hundreds of innocent citizens are currently languishing in police or State Security Services (SSS) detention centres across the country, following arrests ordered by powerful men and women. The procurement of the arrest, detention and torture of his partner-in-crime by Hushpuppi speaks to the abuse of power related to illicit transaction flows into our country. This is a problem that has permeated practically all critical sectors. For instance, ahead of the November Anambra gubernatorial election, politicians from the state are procuring court judgements from Abuja, Kano, Jigawa, Imo and several other states.

The judges outside Anambra State who are dishing out ‘extracurricular’ orders/judgements and courts with coordinate jurisdictions nullifying one another must know that they are abusing their power. But nobody should be surprised if some of them, in the spirit of the season, are also sending account details to beneficiaries of these orders/judgements. Such payments of course would be for their ‘tailors’!

Overall, the lurid details in the Abba Kyari casefile with the FBI result from the lack of accountability that defines public conduct in our country today. When you run a system where officials permit themselves the indulgence of acting above the law and there are no consequences for bad behaviour, it becomes easy for those who ordinarily should uphold the law to also become outlaws. That, sadly, is where we are in Nigeria today. So, whatever may be the eventual outcome of the Abba Kyari tragic saga, we must begin to enthrone a culture that demands accountability in the public space.

Olusegun Adeniyi, Abuja

LEAVE ABBA KYARI ALONE

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t is no longer news that the celebrated super cop and head of Intelligence response team, Abba Kyari, has been suspended by the Police Service Commission to pave way for investigation of alleged complicity with internet fraudster, Hushpuppi. Abba Kyari is being accused by the US Federal Bureau of intelligence (FBI) for aiding or abetting fraud involving Hushpuppi and Qatari business man. Since the time the sad news broke, many Nigerians have aired their views in support of or against Kyari. For several Nigerians DCP Kyari is being persecuted for refusing to dance to the tune of some vested powerful interest, hence his current troubles. Being one of his ardent supporters who is convinced by his numerous performance in crimes bursting and in apprehending high-profile suspects, Kyari should not be allowed to face persecution in his country that he serves with dedication and passion.

There is nothing wrong for suspending and investigating him. The whole uproar generated by the unfortunate saga is based on mere allegation by FBI. By suspending him, the Inspector General of Police has done the right thing to save the image of the force. If Kyari is finally found wanting, he should be punished according to the laws of the land. The US government should also know that Nigeria is a sovereign entity with set of laws fully enacted to punish offenders.

Saidu Liman (Dan Libiya), Funtua, Katsina State

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

Nigeria’s Peculiar Federalism is a Challenge to Good Governance, Says Seyi Makinde Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, recently hosted News and Politics Editors, including Nseobong Okon-Ekong, in Ibadan, the state capital, as part of activities marking the second anniversary of his administration. He spoke on how his government has fared in two years. Excerpts:

Makinde

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ow far will you say you have gone regarding the mandate given to you by the people of the state and what have been the constraints?

I really appreciate you for coming to be with us. From day one, even during the electioneering, we brought out a document, which is our Roadmap for the Accelerated Development of Oyo State, 2019 to 2023. We focused on four major areas: Education, Health, Expansion of our economy through where we think we have the comparative advantage. These are agriculture, agribusiness, agro-processing; and the fourth pillar is Security. Last week, I visited the Ikere Gorge Dam, because I wanted the focus to shift to what we are trying to do with tourism and solid mineral development. I can tell you boldly that we are stabilising with some of our programmes. Before I came, Oyo State was already doing well with Cassava, for instance. We had a retreat and I learnt that Oyo State was the second largest producer of Cassava in Nigeria, at that point. So, I asked how many tonnes of Cassava are we producing per annum? And the next question was, how did we get to this point; was it just happenstance or through deliberate action? I asked for an explanation on those actions that we took that got us to that point but I was told the farmers were just cultivating on their own. So, I said I was not sure the government did anything deliberately to encourage the farmers. I said, now, we have to be deliberate on how we approach things. Now, I feel we have stabilised with some of the deliberate actions that we took after coming into government.

What are those deliberate actions you’ve taken?

We have the best agribusiness practitioner on this continent to come into this government and engaged with all the research institutes around here. In Ibadan, we have the FRIN, CRIN,

IITA, and all others. We have people doing research here and what have we done with their research outcomes to lift our agricultural output? We started approaching them one after the other and we got IITA to sign an MoU with us and it gave us one of its best brains in agribusiness and, from that point, we started the STEP for the young ones out there. We reorganized what they used to call OYSADEP, which was just a drain pipe. We established the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) and moved the headquarters to Saki. We did the commissioning of the OYSADA Complex as part of the activities marking the second anniversary of the government. The Rural Community Development Centre at Awe was turned into an incubation centre for agribusiness. Of course, not up to six months in office, COVID-19 hit everywhere and we were faced with different kinds of issues.

What we tried to do was to turn this into opportunities. We gave inputs and fertilisers to farmers and assisted them with a lot of other things. So, we believe we have stabilized in that area too. What is next? We have to keep expanding our economy and the next thing for us is solid mineral development, because we are

blessed with solid mineral deposits all over the place. They already discovered lithium in certain parts of Oyo State and while the world is looking for 40 per cent purity of lithium, what we have found and tested is around 75 per cent purity. Also, we are looking at the tourism potential of Oyo State. For us, we are thinking about our nearness to Lagos and how we can exploit that to boost our own tourism earnings. We may say the world is in the throes of COVID-19 and travels around the world for tourism have been hampered, but what about internal tourism? Let us even say Nigeria is not such a fantastic place for anyone from around the world to visit at this period, but internally, rather than people going to Dubai or Ghana, can we have people coming internally? Our natural target will be Lagos. So, if people want to come from Lagos and other places as internal tourists, what are the things to put in place for them? We need to address infrastructure deficit and security. And with the rail line coming, people can come in. It is 145 rail kilometres between Moniya-Ibadan and the Yaba at Lagos.

They are moving at 70 kilometres per hour now. But when they are modulating, they will get to 90 kilometres per hour.

A big challenge for us has been the kind of federalism that we are operating. I signed an anti-open grazing law in November 2019 and we could not implement it because when you talk to the Police, they are not willing. They are watching the body language of their folks in Abuja; the IGP and the rest

That means you can leave Moniya and be at Yaba within one and a half hours. To harvest all of those people, we have to deal with our infrastructure deficit, which is why we invested money on Moniya-Iseyin road. That is also the reason I wanted to take you to Ikere-Gorge Dam, because within the next year, that road will also be fixed and our vision is that the place becomes the equivalent of our own Sun City in South Africa. By our calculation, if you are leaving Moniya for Iseyin, it is about 40 minutes and from Iseyin to the Ikere Dam, it should be around 20 minutes. So, within one hour, you land at the train station here and you are out there to enjoy your life. So, we believe we have been a little bit successful with the expansion of our economy. The last leg of our major pillars is security. Yes, it has been quite challenging for us as a state, even country-wise but people easily forget the fact that Amotekun was not in existence before this administration came in.

Look at the control of the federal agencies.

They may call me the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State but in reality, I am actually the Chief Logistics Officer. I can only give them logistics. If I call the Commissioner of Police to carry out an assignment, she will have to call her Inspector General of Police in Abuja for further instructions. For instance, when we got to Ikere, which is still under Ogun/Osun River Basin Authority, we sent a message to a guy that we were coming and he also sent a message to Abeokuta where the Headquarters is located. And because he did not get any response, he refused to open the gate. And we said, okay if you are not opening the gate, we have a part of the fence that is broken anyway.

We are going to walk in and go check what we want to check. those are the challenges you have with the federal arrangement and that is what we saw with the issue of security and we decided to operationalise Amotekun. At this point, I don’t think anybody in Oyo State

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‘APC Isn’t a Party Anyone Should Be’ can imagine the state without Amotekun. That is how much impact Amotekun has been able to make within this very short period of time.

On those four pillars, I think we have made good progress. The last bit on the expansion of our economy has to do with the engagement of our youths. A lot of them are out there on the street and not able to engage in productive ventures or do much. Some of them are real talents as far as sports is concerned, and that was why we went to Lekan Salami Sports Complex.

Worldwide, sports is a USD6 Billion industry.

But here in Oyo State, we have not been able to get a fair slice of the money. This is another area where the issue of being deliberate in what you want to do comes in. Before now, Lagos used to be Number One at any National Sports Festival, but this last one, Lagos beat Oyo State on the last day by one gold medal. They came 5th and we came 6th. So, we are remodeling the Lekan Salami Sport Complex and we are putting an Olympic-sized swimming pool, the gym, tennis court and the rest so that we can bring in talents here and also see if we can get a small slice of the sport industry deliberately.

Speaking about bridging the infrastructure gap, you commissioned the 65-kilometre Moniya-Iseyin Road with pomp and celebration, with a lot of people commending the administration for such a laudable project. But knowing how vast Oyo State is, isn’t the Moniya-Iseyin Road just like scratching the surface?

What you saw during the trip between Moniya to Iseyin is almost very similar to most of the things we are doing in every zone of the state. If you move further up, there is Saki Township Road, which we are almost done with. We will commission it shortly. We also flagged off, a few days ago, the Saki-IgbohoOgboro road. It is about 45 kilometres. In Oyo, we have also commissioned Akesan Market, which got burnt about 10 months ago, and it is fully reconstructed now. We have inspected the Township road we are fixing it and we have also gone to Fashola to launch the farm estate. Once you get to the Iseyin Junction and make the next turn, that is the road that will take you to Oyo. We have got approval from the Federal Government to repair it. They said we won’t get any refund. But I believe it is the people of Oyo State that are passing through the road, and it is of economic benefit to us all. Once Fashola is fixed on the right, on the left side, you see an expanse of land that goes all the way to Ikere-Gorge Dam. Those are places where we can do irrigation and have production. That axis is extremely important to us and I said that our infrastructure will target our economy. We would not just go and build something that we won’t see economic benefits coming out of it. So, that is where we are. In Ibadan, we have the Ajia-Airport Road with a spur to Amuloko ongoing; that is about 21 kilometres and it also sits well with our focus to build infrastructure that targets the economy. There is the Apete-Awotan Road, which we are constructing with concrete. We also have the Akobo-Ojurin Road, which we have re-awarded, as well as, many others. On a general level, we have the second phase of the Light-Up Oyo State project going on, covering 70 roads and 223.42kms across the state. We are installing LED-technology streetlights and the focus is to enhance the security of the state and to also enable owners of businesses and services in the state to operate freely without fear of night-time or darkness. That project was initiated when we took over in 2019 and the first phase has been delivered. The second phase has also been progressing and all these are part of our deliberate efforts to address the infrastructure challenge of the state.

Makinde anti-open grazing law in November 2019 and we could not implement it because when you talk to the Police, they are not willing. They are watching the body language of their folks in Abuja; the IGP and the rest. So, that has been a very big challenge to us. Then, when Amotekun came, we were in total control of their operation and that was why when I operationalized them, I said I should be held accountable for their conduct. But when they tried to implement the anti-open grazing law they were being arrested. I went to the then Commissioner of Police and asked why Amotekun operatives were being arrested even when the Police were supposed to collaborate with them to make the state safer for us. He said people write petitions against them that they killed someone or carried illegal firearms, the Police were the only organisation authorised in Nigeria to investigate those cases. So, if you look through, they are telling us it is almost like the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. They didn’t want Amotekun to succeed in the first instance. So, we had to pull back and re-engage to let them know that we are actually pushing towards the same objective, which is to make this place safe. You have inter and intra-agency rivalry. People will want to protect themselves or their agency in an advantageous position. That is what we have seen and those are the major challenges we have faced, which have slowed us down. We had COVID-19, economic meltdown, security challenges and all that but we are dealing with them.

How have you been able to source for funds to finance these projects?

Are you embarking on a borrowing spree?

Well, you definitely must have seen the release from the Debt Management Office. At this stage, I think Oyo state is probably owing about N90 Billion and about USD200 Million, and since we came in, we took N24 Billion for contract financing and we have not

accessed everything. We are probably still around N18 Billion. The USD200 Million was taken by the previous administration for the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP).

Before I came in, they already spent about USD54 Million of that money and they had committed about USD100 Million, as well. For the award packages, they have done the evaluation, selected contractors and it was remaining the final sign-off. I was going to cancel it when I came in because I did not see any need for that but the World Bank came and said it will affect the relationship with Oyo State. So, I said they should go ahead with the commitment and I am the one spending the over USD40 Million remaining right now. But I have changed the work plan. For instance, I thought the Agodi Gardens Lake was the major source of flood in Ibadan, and it should have been part of the programme to start with. So, I asked them to change some of the programmes and put in the gardens to desilt that lake so that water can flow freely, and also desilt some of the major streams in Ibadan. So, that insinuation of a borrowing spree is not correct. These two are the major chunk of money Oyo State is owing.

Our government took USD24 Billion Naira because when we came in, it was almost like we did not meet anything in the treasury, and what was coming from the federation account could not even cover the salary bills. What we did basically was to try to increase the IGR, which we have been very successful in doing. We have increased our IGR from less than N2 Billion to over N3 Billion now, which means monthly, we have N1 Billion available, which was not there before now. The N1 Billion in a year means I can do N12 Billion worth of projects and the target for us is to push that IGR to about N7 Billion per month, and we think Oyo State has the potential to quickly get to that. Take, for instance, we changed the waste management architecture and now have the Land Use Tax. I know they have sent bills

What have been the challenges or the constraints, so far?

In terms of the challenges, we are two years on, but we should be celebrating six months, because we came in May 2019 and by January 2020, COVID-19 came up, which is still with us till now and throughout the world. That basically triggered an economic meltdown. But the smart countries are managing themselves.

At the national level, we have not been able to manage things well and that has impacted negatively on the states.

A big challenge for us has been the kind of federalism that we are operating. I signed an

Oyo state is probably owing about N90 Billion and about USD200 Million, and since we came in, we took N24 Billion for contract financing and we have not accessed everything. We are probably still around N18 Billion. The USD200 Million was taken by the previous administration for the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP)

out to people worth about N20 Billion. Even if we have half or 60 per cent of that, say N12 Billion, that is additional N1 Billion aggregate monthly. That will immediately take our IGR to about N4.3 Billion. You also remember that for this increase, we did not increase the taxes people are paying but all we have done is to just expand the base because when I came in, I told them that nobody has ever given me a bill in my own house here. Everywhere in the world, you pay property tax, which is supposed to be utilized to ensure that you have security, evacuation of trash, provision of water and electricity, and other infrastructural facilities but here, people just feel you build houses and don’t have responsibilities for the common areas. What we have done was to move in there, enumerate the houses in Oyo State, and try to bring out a bill commensurate with the type of houses that we have seen. This will be our first year of enforcing that and if we are successful, 60 per cent, it will push our IGR by another N1 Billion and I think we are on that path. I have not borrowed anything compared to the previous administration. Another thing we are doing is being creative with the way we handle our projects. The Moniya-Iseyin project was given out through a contract. We gave the contract out to Kopek and we paid them based on that contract. But on most of the other projects, we are exploring the Alternative Project Funding approach. For Moniya-Iseyin, we paid 60 per cent upfront. We went outside of the procurement law to give special approval because that road was in a very deplorable state when we came in and we thought if we want to start repairing the economy of Oyo State, that is the first road we have to fix, because it is the link between Ibadan, the major consumption area to where we are producing our food in Oyo State. So, I did not want any delay and wanted the project done within 12 -18 months and it was delivered in 18 months. I was actually pushing for 12 months but COVID-19 came and they had to slow down. When we paid the 60 per cent, we told them not to come back to us until they have attained 75 per cent of the project and that worked out in the end because they did not come back to us not even with N1 variation on the project. When we were discussing the 60 per cent payment upfront, we agreed on it based on the fact that they should go out to buy everything that may have inflationary pressure. We told them that once they were able to buy everything that may have inflationary pressure, it means they would be talking about their staff and a few other things, so we should be home and dry and that was why the project was completed on budget and almost on schedule, if we take COVID-19 out. So, we have been creative. APFA in other areas like Saki-Ogbooro, we paid 10 per cent commitment but before we start making the monthly payment, they must have at least 30 per cent of their scope. So, for most of the Continued on page 20

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‘Constitution Amendment is a Total Waste of Time’ APFA projects, by the time they are handing it over to us, the payment that must have gone out from the government purse is probably between 40 and 45 per cent. So, they have 55 per cent still hanging with us. Therefore, they had better do a very good job. Nobody in his right mind will do a project like that that will fail after two or three months, because they still have 45 per cent of their money here and those monthly payments are tied to the satisfactory performance of the project. I will also say we have blocked a lot of loopholes and reduced the cost of running the government here. Remember that for one year, everybody in the cabinet was using their vehicles and the ones we met here. I was using my own car. So, we prioritized project delivery for the people as opposed to taking care of ourselves first.

There was a report that you recently reduced the tuition fee for students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso by 25 per cent. What are your achievements in the area of education?

In the area of education; from the primary up to the junior secondary, they are under SUBEB. When we came in, we discovered that the challenges they were faced with were two or three at most. One is inadequate infrastructure. We saw some of them learning on the bare floor and the buildings were nothing to write home about. The teachers were not motivated and the education levy for some of them also was burdensome to the extent that Oyo State had the highest out-of-school children in the entire South-west. Students were not just going to school because their parents could not afford the education levy. After I was sworn in, that particular moment, I scrapped the education levy and it has paid off. We have been able to take over 50,000 students off the streets back into the classrooms. We also procured notebooks and textbooks for all public secondary school students. For the ones in Senior Secondary School, we arranged special coaching for them, especially in English and Mathematics and we saw the results with our WAEC and NECO. I have seen people complain about the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), because when things got so bad, the PTA employed some teachers to put in those schools and they were collecting money from students to pay those teachers and all. But we scrapped all forms of payments. We found out that it was just one giant corruption scheme because I called the people from SUBEB, TESCOM, and the Ministry of Education to give me the record of how much was collected from the children last year. That N3,000 education levy, how much did it generate? They could not give me a proper answer, because there was no data and records. The schools were collecting the levies and they were not remitted to the central purse. There was no way to account for it. The schools would only say they have done this and that from the money they have collected.

There was no accountability. I said no. Now, we have employed 5,000 teachers for those schools. We are employing 2,000 non-teaching staff also. The process is at a very advanced stage, they may resume any moment from now.

At the primary and secondary school level, I believe with the teachers employed, with all the programmes that have worked so far, we just need to consolidate on that and the result has been coming. Our students performed better in WAEC, which took a lot of students off the streets, and we have been paying our UBEC matching grants. We did over 300 projects in the education sector, so we think we are doing okay there. At the tertiary level, when we came in, the subventions being paid to state-owned tertiary institutions was in percentages but they made the announcement in early May, just before we took over, saying they have moved the subventions to 100 per cent. They thought we would not be able to pay, but we just continued with the 100 per cent subventions, as it was something that we already planned for. When we had few issues to address like the Oyo State College of Agriculture at Igbo-Ora (OYSCATECH). They came to me that they had about a N10 Million gap between their subvention and their actual needs and when I went there recently, I approved it. I already approved it anyway, maybe the ministry hasn’t written to them officially. I believe that we are also moving in the right direction. Of course, we have also gotten a consultant to effectively sanitize their financial transactions and I said to

Makinde them that, look, if you Polytechnic Ibadan would be coming to us for subvention, we also have the right to know your IGR. Your IGR should not be opaque while you’re asking me for more money. No. If we can both agree that there is a genuine gap, we can address it. But you can’t keep your IGR at the back so I won’t see it and you are just coming to request for money. Of course, people will try to blackmail the government but I think we stood our ground and we are moving in the right direction.

For LAUTECH, this was a problem that has been there for more than 12 years.

There had been PDP governments in both Oyo and Osun states, but they could not solve it. There was a time when the governors of both states were APC, but they still could not solve it. But when we came in, we said, look, this is so important to us. It used to be the best state-owned university and they lost all of that. We were single-minded in what we thought we wanted out of LAUTECH and with our negotiations with Osun State, we were also single-minded. There was no ego involved. I said to my colleague in Osun State, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, though we belong to different political parties, that we should establish the fact that this joint ownership has not worked. So, if we agree, let us work out the details. We brought in Deloitte, NUC and others. They worked out the details and it was signed off. Again, we made a decision here based on data and logic.

If it was logical for Osun State to own LAUTECH, which is physically located here in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, if it made sense, then we said they should own it.

I said that what we should be talking about should be how to get value for our interest? If you are riding on logic, it is a lot easier to get alignment and that is what we have done. I slashed the school fees because we have been getting requests and we have also been looking at their books. You know this is part of cutting the cost of governance, because it is the same template we gave to them: How much are you collecting from these people? How much are we giving you?

What is the actual request? And if we are making savings by doing things right,

we can pass it on to the students and their parents and that is what we have done in LAUTECH. Many states have been banning the activities of commercial motorcycle riders. Going by the nefarious activities of some Okada riders in the state, especially, in Ibadan, when is Oyo State going to take action?

I have been asked this question many times and my standard response is, for you to have a supply, there must be demand. If no one is boarding okada, they will be out of business. So, if they are filling a gap, it is a different kind of discussion that you need to have. Though we have security issues, unruliness in the behaviour of some okada riders, and all of that, what we need to do is to regulate them. For us to regulate them one thing that is foundational for us is identity management. We want to know who are those riding? They must get a permit. We must know who they are, where they are and the areas they are operating in. We are in the process of doing that. I don’t think we should just ban okada or restrict them to certain areas.

I took people to Ojoo to see how many people were boarding okada. From Ojoo to Iwo Road, go and check the number of people that take okadas on that Express road; the number is few and I have tried it more than three times just to convince myself. So, why are people not taking okada on that axis? It is because you have enough Micra cars out there and the road is such that people are moving at a fast pace, and the road is not that great. We went to the old Toll Gate and I asked them to tell me how many people they see boarding okada from there to, say Ogunmakin, the border community between Oyo State and Ogun states. Why are they not doing that? We should create superhighways. How come when I go to my estate at Kolapo Ishola, we don’t have okadas in there? If you go inside the IITA, you don’t have okadas in there, and few estates like that. Yes, you can see them in some general areas where people going short distances use them. I liken the ban on okada to a Police officer chasing after prostitutes. Yes, it is fine

We have blocked a lot of loopholes and reduced the cost of running the government here. Remember that for one year, everybody in the cabinet was using their vehicles and the ones we met here. I was using my own car. So, we prioritized project delivery for the people as opposed to taking care of ourselves first

to see them stand by the roadside and you go and arrest them. But that is the supply side, what about the demand side? What have you done to the people demanding the services of those prostitutes? So, the okada is like that. If the transportation system is such that they are filling a gap, it is okay. And for many of them, that is the only legitimate thing they are doing for a living. So, do you want to turn them into armed robbers? I have been to China and I don’t see those okadas on the major highways but I see them on streets all over. So, if you have demand, you would also have supply and if you try to suppress the process, they will go underground. In 1980/1981, Nigeria was going through economic hardship then and that was when we started seeing civil servants using their vehicles as cabs. So, if we have to address a problem, we must go to the roots of the problem. If we say we don’t want Okada after 8 p.m., how do we enforce it? To make an announcement is the easiest thing.

So, in Oyo State, we would allow them to keep operating but we will regulate them through identity management and engagements as much as they are filling a gap. Go to Kigali, Rwanda. We have okadas out there but they are well-organized. They wear vests and behave well on the roads and the authorities know who they are. So, for us, we will carry out the identity management on them and give them those trackable vests. Yes, we can track okada riders and people stepping out of line will be made to face the music for their transgressions.

And when new people come in, you identify them almost immediately, because it is either they register or they go out there without their identity being known. And for those ones, it would be easier to track them and take them off the streets. It is work in progress and their engagements are ongoing.

How soon should people expect these regulations?

The engagement is ongoing. We have the buy-in of the operators themselves and their unions. I believe in a few months, we should have gotten there because we have to issue physical ID cards to them and we have to give them jackets that are trackable. They pay N100 every day. Let me tell you some of the challenges that we have there. When they came to me, I asked how many are you guys? They said they could bring out from their register about 50,000 operators. I said if you are 50,000 and you pay N100 every day, that is N5 Million and, in a month, it is N150 Million but the government is getting only N10 Million. So, some people are getting N140 Million and they have vested interests. Whether they are civil servants or park managers, some people are getting that money monthly. So, you have to try and pull everybody in, even if the government is saying, ‘look guys, we are losing, you are gaining. We can get to a lose-lose situation, because the populace is crying because of security issues, they say you okada riders are unruly, that they are banning you everywhere but I don’t want to ban you; I want us to work together. I said ‘instead of you guys getting N140 Million through the back door, let us say you get N70 Million but that N70 million would have to pass through a proper channel, I can sign off on it and so, whatever we collect daily, they take 50 percent of it. The government will take 50 percent of it but it has to be taken through a proper POS, I can account for it.’ So, there are still some engagements to be done further down the line. Please, take me up on this, we can go to Kigali and check out what they have done. This is a place where they were at war 20-something years ago, but now the current French President bypassed Nigeria, visited them and stayed there for two days. If we solve that problem, it is solved. When others are coming in, you don’t know them, you ask questions. We want to be able to get on the street, flag an okada down, and say, you, where is your ID card? They must carry it on them.

Though here in Nigeria, we cannot manage an ordinary national ID card properly, that is federal. For Oyo State, we should be able to do things right and if we are successful, others can replicate it. In all the places okadas were banned, give them six months, they will be back there because they are filling a gap.

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

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021

PRINCIPLES & POLITICS

Abba Kyari’s Extradition Not Automatic Abuja-based popular lawyer, Mr. Kayode Ajulo writes that while the distress being experienced by embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari who has been indicted by intercepted communication between him and alleged wire crime fraudster, Mr. Abass Ramon, better known as, Hushpuppi, is not about to disappear, the United States of America which is seeking Ramon’s extradition must be held to strict adherence to principles of rule of law and due process

Malami

Introduction here is no doubt that the recent pronouncement of the Central District Court of the Central District of California on the July 26, 2021 where the court ordered the extradition and detention of the Commander, Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Department of the Nigeria Police Force, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari has generated hues and cries from different quarters and strata. The air is thick with rage, reactions, reprimand; all kinds of anathema and diatribe from political pundits, lackeys and legal minds.

In order not to throw out the baby with the bath water, it is important to pensively consider the issues at hand viz-a-viz international legal principles and protocols.

T

Corruption as a bane to the Nigerian Society and the United States’ Intervention At present, Nigeria’s reputation in the international scene goes for a little less than a penny. The country has gathered notoriety as a den of 419ers (advance fee fraudsters); a tribe of diabolically sophisticated con-men who have made fraudulent activities their preoccupation from which they live big and high on fortunes illicitly obtained from other people.

Sadly, this evil trend has found its place in our political cycle. The cankerworm/pandemic has eaten too deep into the fabric of existence of our great nation. It is imperative to state pronto that corruption is an endemic sin against humanity and it is the root of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man.

Undoubtedly, traditional, moral and modern antidotes and measures to fight against this phenomenon called corruption, have not been able to eradicate corrupt practices in human society.

It is without gainsay as it has been established that President Muhammadu Buhari has pointed the direction of Nigerians to the fight against corruption. However, the startling events in recent times have only shown that the mantra ‘fight against corruption’ has become ad nauseam with little to show for it.

There is no doubt that the United States of America’s assistance to

DCP Kyari

Ramon

Nigeria has sought to bolster peacekeeping capacity, enhance security, combat transnational crime, support civilian law enforcement and strengthen anti – fraud and cybercrime efforts particularly through the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) and such efforts must be commended.

As a corollary, the District Court must also be commended for ensuring that the course of justice is best served. However, one should not allow sentiments becloud the clear and unambiguous position of both international and municipal laws.

The Doctrine of Presumption of Innocence and the Imperative for Discreet Investigation Without prejudice to the intrigues trailing the instant saga, one must not forget the doctrine of presumption of innocence which is the bedrock of our criminal jurisprudence enshrined in Section 36 (5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and apparently applicable in most jurisdiction, the world all over.

For whatever it is worth, the allegations against the “Super Cop” are at best, ipse dixit without any concrete evidence. We speculate a lot and it is no surprise the spectators/observers are mostly excited. A prima facie case must first be made against him before the process of extradition can be initiated.

Legal Mechanisms for Extra-

dition in Nigeria It is unequivocal that Nigeria is a sovereign state and a citizen of Nigeria cannot be expelled/ extradited from the country without strict adherence to the provisions of the Constitution and international protocols. What is more, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United States of America are bound by the provisions of the Extradition Treaty signed with the United States of America on December 22, 1931 (entered into force on June 24, 1935) including the Extradition Act of 1966, (Extradition Modification) Order, 2014, Extradition Act (Proceedings) Rules, 2015 and other International Protocols.

For a starter, by the provision of Section 6 of the Extradition Act, a request for the surrender of a fugitive criminal of any country shall be made in writing to the Attorney-General by a diplomatic representative or consular officer of that country and shall be accompanied by a duly authenticated warrant of arrest or certificate of conviction issued in that country.

Thereafter, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation would have to conduct a discreet and thorough investigation into the said allegations and upon the conclusion of same, if there is any prima facie case against DCP Abba Kyari, commence extradition processes against him in a Court of competent of jurisdiction within the Nigerian Territory and obtain an Order of Court before he can

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation would have to conduct a discreet and thorough investigation into the said allegations and upon the conclusion of same, if there is any prima facie case against DCP Abba Kyari, commence extradition processes against him in a Court of competent of jurisdiction within the Nigerian Territory and obtain an Order of Court before he can be extradited to the United States of America

Ajulo

be extradited to the United States of America.

Other perdurable posers to answer are: a. Was the said alleged offences against DCP Abba Kyari committed outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? b. Is the offence for which DCP Abba Kyari is being charged in the United States an extraditable offence under the Extradition Act? c. Is the offence for which DCP Abba Kyari is being charged recognized as an offence punishable under the Nigerian Penal Laws? d. Whether from the aggregate of facts and evidence presented to the Court by the US Special Prosecutor against DCP Abba Kyari, there is any nexus between him and the offence of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to engage in money laundering? e. Whether from the aggregate of facts and evidence presented to the Court by the US Special Prosecutor, the probable offence for which DCP Abba Kyari might be charged is abuse of office which was an act done within the territory of Nigeria and within the exclusive imprimatur of the Nigerian government, the Police Service Commission and under the territorial jurisdiction of a Nigerian court?

Conclusion While this article is not intended as a cannon fodder for the “Super Cop,” truth be told, the supposed ordeal of DCP Abba Kyari (if there is any) is not a tale of unrelieved woe; the present cloud though thick and intimidating, does have a silver lining!

It is interesting to note for the purpose of this discourse that the import of this deliberation is that the United State of America’s polity is engraved on the rock of adherence to principles of rule of law and due process.

The United States of America as the modern patriarch and beacon of democracy and popular sovereignty is therefore called upon at this crucial time to ensure that strict adherence to both international and municipal legal mechanisms are observed.

While we keep our fingers crossed in the interim, we should allow the law to take its course.

22

T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ 5, 2021

FEATURES

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

Empowering Female Entrepreneurs across Borders Although small and medium enterprises account for nearly 80 per cent of jobs globally, women own nearly 10 million of the SMEs. However, despite the high participation rate, they continuously face the challenge of accessing information, funds, and financing. To address these, the Women Empowered Leave Legacies through Trade and Investment Initiative was launched by the US government for women in Middle East and Africa, Chiemelie Ezeobi reports

U

.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) of Commerce for Middle East and Africa Camille Richardson launched the Women Empowered Leave Legacies through Trade and Investment (WELTI) Initiative.

American Business Council in Nigeria CEO and Executive Secretary Margaret Olele participated in virtual session entitled: “Women Empowered Leave Legacies through Trade and Investment (WELLTI).” The event was organised by the U.S. Commercial Service Office, the diplomatic arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and part of the U.S. Foreign Service.

The session was attended by over 400 attendees from around the world, and featured women leaders from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce affiliates in the MENA region including Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Abu Dhabi, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The session’s discussion revolved around opportunities, challenges, and solutions for women doing business in the Middle East and Africa. The conversation gave attendees insights and advice from experienced women chamber leaders in the region.

The U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS)

More than 90 per cent of enterprises around the world are considered as SMEs, which account for nearly 80 per cnt of jobs globally...women own nearly 10 million of the world’s SMEs thus ...sustainable economic growth and achievement of the (United Nations) Development Goals are possible only through the active participation of women of Commerce for Middle East and Africa Camille Richardson launched the event and briefed attendees about the WELTI initiative, which aims to bring together leading businesswomen from the United States and the MENA region to discuss strategies. These techniques can provide

them with the data, knowledge, contacts, and financing to increase international trade.

DAS Richardson shared insightful statistics stating that “more than 90 per cent of enterprises around the world are

considered as SMEs, which account for nearly 80 per cent of jobs globally.”

She also mentioned that “women own nearly 10 million of the world’s SMEs.” DAS Richardson concluded with the fact that “sustainable economic growth and achievement of the [United Nations] Development Goals are possible only through the active participation of women.”

AmCham Nigeria representative Margaret Olele stated that “[a] lot of women, especially during COVID, started to see opportunities” in entrepreneurship, specifically citing healthcare and e-commerce. These recent entrants constitute just a fraction of Nigeria’s female entrepreneurs, many of which are engaged in entrepreneurship of necessity to support themselves or families.

"Despite the high participation rate, Margaret acknowledged the “challenges that women face remains the same around access to information, funds, and financing.” These are several of the shortcomings that the WELLTI initiative wishes to address.

The American Business Council is a steadfast supporter of the U.S. private sector doing business in Nigeria. Through events, advocacy, and their newsletter, they connect and promote U.S. business interests in the market.

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T H I S D AY ˾ ˜ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͯ

#THISISNIGERIA - Abidemi Jimoh

Our Daura Nero

I

n July of 64 A.D., a great fire, as it was later called, ravaged Rome for six days; destroyed about 70 percent of the city, and left half of its population homeless. According to a now popular expression, Rome’s emperor at the time, the decadent and unpopular Nero, who was at his villa at Antium, around 35 miles from Rome, “fiddled around while Rome burned.”

Though he later helped put it out and put relief measures in place, people still didn’t trust him. Some even believed he knew about the fire, especially after he had the burnt area cleared to build his Golden Palace. Nero himself blamed the Christians (then a relatively tiny religious sect) for the fire and had many arrested and executed. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that the tale of Nero’s fiddling as his people suffered was unconfirmed by eyewitnesses, but the expression has come to stay. The expression has a double entendre: not only did Nero play music while his people suffered the horrors of the fire, he was also an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis.

President Buhari is also enclosed in Aso Rock, cross-legged with a toothpick in his mouth while the country burns.

Terrorists and bandits control large areas in the north, some even say they collect tax from citizens before allowing them to farm or move around. There are calls for secession in the southeastern part of the country and many people in the southwest have joined the fray. We have the highest food inflation in decades with youth unemployment at its highest since the nineties; all these burdens upon the citizens in the middle of a global pandemic and the worst security indices only second to war-ridden areas like Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria. Despite the uprisings, the president remains unmoved by the tensions ravaging the nation nor is he making policies to soothe the pain of his citizenry. Instead of being a figure of cohesion, he is in fact the one pulling apart the threads of unity of this very country. My favourite musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti once sang and I quote “This uprising would bring out the beast in us.” But in the Nigerian parlance, may God forbid bad things.

If Emperor Nero is such a distant figure the president cannot learn from, he knows about the Prime Minister during our first republic - Tafawa Balewa, a fellow northerner. A leader just as lackadaisical as Buhari about the fire on the mountain, Balewa ruled over this nation not only at its very beginning but also at the time the unity and dexterity of its leaders were put to test. Needless to say that he failed woefully. Like Buhari, he was at the helm of affairs at a time when an entire section of the country was literally afire and political uprising was at every part of the country - Operation Wet E, Tiv uprising, the 1962/1963 Census Fiasco, the 1964 Election Violence, and even the Awo Treason Trial. How did he react? Like Nero, Balewa sort of fiddled, while Nigeria burned. In October 1965, as Balewa departed Nigeria for Accra to attend an OAU meeting, he was asked by journalists at Ikeja Airport (now Murtala Muhammed International Airport) what he was going to do about the fire raging in Western Nigeria. He chuckled, looked around, and cynically declared; “Ikeja is part of the West and I cannot see any fire burning.” Three months later, on

President Buhari January 15, 1966, he and some other top politicians of the day, were killed during the first coup d’état led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and the rest is history. Like Asa once said, “one day the rivers would overflow and there would be nowhere else to go, and we would run, wishing we had put out the fire.” The rivers overflowed for Balewa, and I am sure, he wished he had put out the fire.

The current attitude of the president mirrors the attitude of Prime Minister Balewa.

Balewa was swift in moving a motion and declaring a state of emergency while opposition government Dauda Adegbenro was in power in the Western Region in 1962, but was reluctant to do the same during the regime of Samuel Akintola, a political ally, even when it was clear that he was not in control of things in 1964. Buhari and his administration have shown such favouritism in handling the situations of the country. From lopsided appointments in government posts to his

His inactions have further pushed the people into the waiting hands of people of questionable intentions and characters like Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu. But how do you convince the people otherwise when the president would rather bury his head in sand like an ostrich while other ethnic groups in the country are feeling alienated?

not-so-disguised tribalistic support of the Fulani people, he is adding more flesh to the story of a Fulani Agenda to take over the country in an Uthman Dan Fodio manner. His inactions have further pushed the people into the waiting hands of people of questionable intentions and characters like Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu. But how do you convince the people otherwise when the president would rather bury his head in sand like an ostrich while other ethnic groups in the country are feeling alienated?

The happenings of these past years have proven beyond doubt that Buhari shouldn’t be the leader of a multi-ethnic society like Nigeria and his reactions to the agitations of people show his demeanour is not suitable for the role. I mean, he even believed the #EndSARS protest against police brutality was to depose him. The more he stays in that office, the more the balkanisation of the country seems like an eventuality.

Let us hope that our Rome doesn’t burn totally, while Emperor Buhari continues to pick his teeth. t"CÓEÒNÓ +JNPI JT B UFBDIFS BOE XSJUFS CBTFE JO ÖCËEËO

24

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 • T H I S D AY

25

T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OBB OVERNIGHT

A S

REPO 8.50% 9.00%

A T

08056356325

A U G U S T

1-MONTH

4% 6%

S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY

538.76% 0.17%

3-MONTH

10%

MONTH-TO-DATE

0.28%

CALL

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

S & P INDEX 1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

4 , 2 0 2 1 EXCHANGE RATE N411.34 / 1 US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

1.08% –19.62%

U.S CONSUL GENERAL VISITS LAGOS FREE ZONE…

L-R: Project Leader – Power and Gas, Lagos Free Zone (LFZ), Prem Krishna; the Commercial Counselor, US Mission to Nigeria; Jennifer A. Woods; the Consul General; Consulate of the United States of America, Claire A. Pierangelo; the Managing Director, Lagos Free Zone (LFZ), Dinesh Rathi and the President, American Business Council and Country General Manager, IBM, Dipo Faulkner during the visit of the Consul General and the American Business Council to Lagos Free Zone...recently PHOTO: SUNDAY ADIGUN

Nigeria Can Generate Billions of Dollar from Cloud Computing Services to Unlock Growth Opportunities Stories by Emma Okonji The Director General/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has stated that Nigeria can generate huge sums of money, running into billions of dollars from cloud computing services that will enable it unlock business

growth opportunities.

Abdullahi cited Gartner’s report on global cloud investments, which stated that in 2020 alone, the global combined end-user spending on cloud services was about $270 billion and is expected to increase by 23.1 per cent this year to reach $332.3 billion and $397.5 billion by next year, 2022.

He said it was therefore

imperative for enterprises and organisations in Nigeria to depend on the effective use of cloud technology to enhance existing business processes and deploy new business value propositions in and post COVID era.

Abdulahi made the assertion in his keynote address at a recent webinar on cloud services for private and public organisations

in Nigeria, organised jointly by Galaxy Backbone and Zadara.

Participants who attended the webinar also stressed the need for organisations to adopt cloud computing, which they said, would unlock business growth opportunities and enhance Nigeria’s digital economy drive.

Abdullahi listed the benefits of adoption of cloud services

to the growth of businesses in the digital economy, to include: Reduced IT costs; Scalability; Flexibility; Better security; and Less time to market.

“It is however important to note that both the private and public sectors have made significant progress in cloud adoption in Nigeria. The Minister of Communications and

Digital Economic provides the exemplary leadership we need in implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a digital Nigeria,” Abdullahi said.

He explained that NITDA would align the implementation of the Nigeria Cloud Continued on page 26

EFInA Report Highlights Opportunities for Financial Inclusion in Kaduna State The EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Report on Deep Dive Survey, which focused on Kaduna State has revealed that there is a significant market opportunity to drive financial inclusion in the state, including all excluded groups such as women, rural adults, micro-entrepreneurs and farmers.

According to the report, high ownership of mobile phones and interest in digital financial services, present favourable conditions for reversing the financial exclusion of over half of adults in Kaduna State.

The EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey was funded by the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

EFInA is a financial sector development organisation that has been at the forefront of promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria since its establishment in 2007.

The Kaduna State Deep Dive Survey showed that 38 per cent of adults in the state are using regulated financial services, such as Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Microfinance banks, Mobile money, Insurance, and Pension accounts.

“While majority of the adults are using bank services, 33

per cent of adults in Kaduna State are banked. Although the state has the highest rate of financial inclusion in the North-west, 62 per cent of adults in Kaduna State still do not use any regulated financial services. Financially excluded adults in the state are more likely to reside in rural areas, have

lower levels of education, be micro entrepreneurs or farmers, and have limited access to bank branches or other financial access points.

“Women continue to be more financially excluded than men, with only 30 per cent of women Continued on page 26

M A R K E T D ATA A S AT W E D N E S D AY A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 2 1 FGN BONDS DESCRIPTION 11.668 FGNSB 15-AUG-2021 10.301 FGNSB 16-AUG-2021 11.150 FGNSB 11-SEP-2021 12.364 FGNSB 12-SEP-2021 12.175 FGNSB 10-OCT-2021

Price

Yield

BILLS Change (%)

MATURITY

OTC FX F U T U R E S

Discount Yield

Change (%)

100.29

2.85

-0.04

NTB 26-Aug-21

3.00

3.01

0.00

100.26

2.86

-0.04

NTB 9-Sep-21

3.10

3.11

0.00

100.84

3.16

-0.04

NTB 16-Sep-21

3.15

3.16

0.00

100.99

3.17

-0.04

NTB 30-Sep-21

3.25

3.27

-0.05

NTB 14-Oct-21

3.35

3.37

101.59

3.50

CONTRACT TENOR (MONTH) 1

Contract

Current Rate ($/₦)

NGUS AUG 25 2021 420.93

2

NGUS SEP 29 2021 422.38

3

NGUS OCT 27 2021 423.83

0.00

4

NGUS NOV 24 2021 425.28

0.00

5

NGUS DEC 29 2021 426.73

C Ps MATURITY

Discount Yield

Change (%)

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

8.66

8.68

-0.04

4.10

4.11

-0.04

10.02

10.09 -0.04

4.48

4.50

-0.04

4.04

4.05

-0.04

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THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD NIGERIA CAN GENERATE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES TO UNLOCK GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES Computing Policy (NCCP) and the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT, to support the partnership between Galaxy Backbone and Zadara Cloud Services Company.

The Director-General said the COVID-19 pandemic further compelled the world to see the need for ubiquitous cloud services, where businesses and economies can thrive without the physical presence of people.

Speaking on the theme of the webinar: “Cloud Services And The Journey Towards A Digital Economy-Opportunities For Business Growth,” Abdullahi said: “As the virus swept the globe, every fabric of our lives moved online. The demand for online services skyrocketed. At the peak of the pandemic, cloud computing played a crucial role in migrating our processes online quickly, easily and conveniently.

We leveraged cloud solutions such a Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Docs to keep the light on and bring innovation to the government. Today virtual engagement is the new normal in the government circle, and we have a policy for that.”

According to him, 2020 became a tipping point for cloud computing, and COVID-19 played a lead role in accelerating remote work and cloud adoption globally.

He therefore called on organisations in Nigeria, including government agencies, to take advantage of cloud computing in addressing business challenges and in accelerating business growth in the digital era.

“Today, cloud computing has become an essential part of our business continuity and it is key to unlocking growth in the digital economy, “Abdullahi further said.

African Countries Urged to Accelerate E-band to Drive Digital Future Emma Okonji

In order to accelerate 5G in Africa, regulatory frameworks governing critical wireless backhaul spectrum like E-band (70-80 GHz) needs to be put on the agenda swiftly.

This is according to the views of experts in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, who attended the 6th Annual sub-Sahara Spectrum Management Conference, which held recently on a virtual platform.

According to them, for data to move from one point to another on the internet, there should be a medium that allows these points to interface with each other.

Wireless backhaul is the use of wireless communication, such as microwave, to transport data between the wireless site and core areas. It’s a key component to connect a device to the internet.

The Director of Wireless and Core Network for Huawei Southern Africa Region, Shu Peijian, said: “The E-band and 5G RAN spectrum planning prior to 5G is essential for the development of ICT in Africa especially as network densification and planning for urban network development advances.”

According to the Wireless Backhaul Evolution Delivering Next-generation Connectivity Report that was published in February 2021, by the GSMA, 5G is set to have a significant impact on backhaul networks in the coming years.

“Microwave backhaul will account for the majority of global backhaul links from 2021

EFINA REPORT HIGHLIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN KADUNA STATE in Kaduna State using regulated financial services, compared with 46 per cent of men. Restrictive gender norms contribute to this gap in access; for example, only 21 per cent of women in in the state have the final say on whether they can work to earn income, compared with 87 per cent of men,” the report said.

For the first time, the EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey, measured the financial health of Nigerian adults. Only one-quarter of adults in Kaduna State are considered financially healthy, meaning they can plan, save, manage their day-to-day spending, and are resilient towards

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

NEWS

financial shocks.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who expressed his views about the report, said the state viewed financial inclusion as a contributor to economic growth and is taking policy steps to expand it.

“The Kaduna State Government has developed a roadmap and blueprint for the adoption of a state-wide digital payment infrastructure, with the support of the Gates Foundation. Kaduna State is also partnering with the United Bank for Africa (UBA) to improve financial access points in all the 23 Local Government areas of the State,” El-Rufai said.

According to him, “The state government appreciates the strong impact that access to telecommunications services has on financial inclusion. The state is working in partnership with IHS Towers to improve and provide mobile network (voice and data) in 42 blind spots across the state. Aside from digitising payments, Kaduna State is digitising identity, capturing the biometric details of over the 3.5 million residents in the database of the Kaduna State Residents Registration Agency (KADRRA). The goal is for KADRRA to reach nine million residents, which is about 90 per cent of enrollment of residents, by December 2022.”

Analysing the report, Nigeria Country Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Jeremie Zoungrana, said the presentation of findings from the survey on access and use of financial services in Kaduna State would provide important baselines for measuring progress.

to 2027, with around 65 per cent market share. The continued use of wireless backhaul will require an evolution toward higher frequency bands, such as the E-band, which can support wider channels and have a greater total amount of spectrum available.

“Having demonstrated clear technical advantages in 5G backhaul construction globally, E-band spectrum has been allocated in 86 countries, including eight in Africa. The Independent

Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), started E-band regulatory planning in 2015 with amendments for use of these bands coming into force in 2016. Nigeria is also the first country in Africa to open up 70/80GHz spectrum to support terrestrial service providers for short backhauling, “the report stated.

Head of Spectrum Planning, Nigerian Communications Commission, Joseph Emeshili, said: “E-band enables Nigeria’s

backhaul network to evolve to the 4G & 5G era. The release of E-band is a highly significant step to accelerate Nigeria’s ICT development and enable more people to enjoy digital service.”

Industry insights show more than 85 per cent of base stations in Africa use microwave for backhaul while eight carriers provisioned 5G services.

Alongside the rollout of 5G in Africa, microwave backhaul is playing an increasing important role as an essential component

to 5G network infrastructure in the continent, ICT experts said at the virtual forum, The 6th Annual sub-Sahara Spectrum Management Conference took place using a virtual format. The conference provided a platform for governments, regulators and industry to deliberate on issues pertaining to the management and coordination of spectrum policy across Africa and clear the path towards 5G to build Africa’s digital future.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS LAUNCH…

L-R: Comedian, Okechukwu Onyegbule; Head, Consumer Electronics, Samsung Nigeria, Oluwaremilekun AdesolaOgunsan; Marketing Manager, Consumer Electronics, Samsung Nigeria, Chika Nnadozie and Comedian, Bright Okpocha, at the Launch of Samsung 2021 Consumer Electronics Products in Lagos...recently

NASC DG Predicts Increase in Seed Production from 100,000mt UgoAliogo The Director-General, National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), Dr. Olusegun Ojo has expressed the commitment of Nigeria seed companies to increase seed production from 100,000 metric tonnes, which is the current production figure, adding that 50 per cent of seeds produced in West Africa are from Nigeria.

Ojo, who disclosed this in Lagos during the recent launch of the Plant Variety Protection Act, said the law would make it possible for breeders to be properly recognised and remunerated.

He stated that the agency would ensure that companies have improved productivity, increased competitiveness for their seeds in the global seed space, and crop yield will also increase in order to compete in the international space.

He hinted that there were over 300 seeds companies in the country that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as a result they were only able to produce 100,000 metric tonnes of seeds in 2020.

He decried the situation that Nigeria was once regarded as one of the few countries in Africa that does not have a plant variety protection system, for

plant varieties, but said it was no longer the case with Nigeria.

According to him, “The importance of having a PVP law in place cannot be overemphasizing. Nigeria’s agricultural sector transformation is a significant reason why the country should pay attention to plant variety protection (PVP).

This would incentivize national and multinational agribusiness investments in the country.

“We will begin to see on our farmer’s field superior yielding, stress-tolerant, disease-resistant, and climate-smart and input efficient varieties which will be introduced by innovative breeders both from the public

and the private sector in few years to come. In addition to the above, we will begin to witness efficient land use and reduced food cost as a result of the increased productivity from cultivated hectares across the country.

“All the above transformation will not happen without the necessary push. The NASC under my able leadership is always ready to push and we have already started doing what is necessary to ensure that we do not only have the PVP Law, but we implement it for the aforementioned impacts to be delivered to the farmers and the entire Nigerians.

W/African Stakeholders Move to Embrace Universality of Internet Emma Okonji

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders in West Africa have agreed to embrace the universality of the internet with the aim of deepening internet penetration across the region and ensuring safe internet.

The agreement was reached recently during the joint organised forum of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO) and the African ICT Foundation, on how to mainstream Internet Universality and the Rights, Openness,

Access and Multi-stakeholder (ROAM) approach principles.

The session, which was held on the occasion of the West African Internet Governance Forum 2021, focused on how to encourage more countries to use ROAM-X indicators for improving national Internet development and digital policies in West Africa.

The session was moderated by the Regional Director, West Africa, African ICT Foundation, Dr. Kossi Amessinou, who underlined the main objective to engage an extended partnership with the Internet community of West Africa by mobilising them to participate

in dynamic coalition and provide the necessary tools to conduct national assessments in all ECOWAS countries.

UNESCO’s Director for Partnerships and Operational Programme Monitoring in the Communications and Information Sector, Marielza Oliveira, said: “Our work on Internet Universality seeks to identify and close digital divides, foster digital inclusion, protect rights including freedom of expression, access to information, privacy, and contribute to strengthening resilience and development”.

President of the African ICT Foundation, Mr. Tony Ojobo,

commended the collaboration with UNESCO and highlighted the need to carry out periodic evaluations in African countries to enable the improvement of national Internet governance.

The ROAM principles and indicators go beyond the traditional rational of physical access. They contribute to comprehensively advancing digital inclusion, focusing on multiple dimensions of human rights, open Internet, quality of access and inclusive multi-stakeholder governance for building resilient West Africa and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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ANALYSIS

As NCC Prepares Ground for 5G Deployment Amid widespread misconceptions, Emma Okonji examines the effort been made by the Nigerian Communications Commission to sensitise telecoms consumers on the benefits of 5G rollout

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iding on the crest of the support of the federal government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the NCC says it is determined to collaborate with necessary stakeholders across sectors to ensure that factors impeding faster deployment of broadband infrastructure and the adoption and deployment of new technologies like 5G, are tackled.

To this end, the NCC, last week, used the occasion of the second quarter 2021 meeting of the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF), which held in Lagos, to sensitise telecoms industry consumers on the need for 5G deployment across the country, vis-a-vis its many benefits.

The need to sensitise telecoms consumers on the benefits of 5G rollout, is coming amid widespread misconceptions that 5G technology, as well as other emerging technologies, are capable of causing health hazards to humans like cancer and the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

5G Benefits Addressing stakeholders and consumers at the ICAF meeting in Lagos, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, listed its benefits of 5G technology, and stressed the need for its deployment across the country.

Danbatta who was represented at the forum by the Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau at NCC, Mr. Efosa Idehen said the Fifth Generation Technology or 5G, as it is popularly called, remained one of the new technologies identified and regarded as a game changer.

“It is therefore appropriate to educate telecoms consumers on the theme: “Deployment of New Technology for Improved Consumer Experience; 5G Misconceptions and Conspiracy Theory, ”Danbatta said.

He explained that the advent and continuous evolvement of new technologies were driving a wide array of services in the global space.

“Digital technologies are ushering in new possibilities such as improved broadband services, smart cities evolution, financial services and inclusion, security, e-commerce, education, among others, which is increasing consumer expectation for new services and solutions to address some of the challenges of our daily lives, “Danbatta further said.

According to him, “The 5G communication technology is the next evolution of the mobile communications technology which is capable of creating new opportunities for growth in the economy by enabling new and dynamic business models and opening up new opportunities and markets. Not only this, it also provides tremendous improvements in interpersonal communications with several innovations and services.

“Technology has revolutionised our lives in recent decades. Excellent tools and resources are delivering helpful information at our fingertips. Computers, smartphones, smartwatches, and other technology-dependent devices are bringing multi-functional comfort and utility. Advancements in technology are making medical diagnostics more intelligent and user-friendly. Social apps and instant messaging have birthed a connected world as well as a global village.”

Danbatta who expressed satisfaction about how the ICT sector had been exemplary in advancing growth and development, said NCC had been consistent and profound in instituting regulatory measures that will promote 5G deployment.

5G Status Giving the telecoms regulatory interventions and the current status in the planned deployment of 5G, Danbatta said in the last quarter of 2019, the NCC commenced the proof of concept trials of 5G in selected locations across the country to gain insight into the potential economic benefits as well as security and safety challenges that may be associated with deployment of 5G in the country.

“However, we are all witnesses to the widespread concerns that greeted this regulatory move by the government. There were misconceptions, orchestrated misinformation and disinformation, in both online and historical media, linking 5G with COVID-19 pandemic and cancer. Based on the tension created, the government, in its wisdom, directed that a more robust investigation be carried out to ascertain the actual national security and health implications of 5G deployment on the people

Illustration: Ezeibe Aguwa of Nigeria,” Danbatta said.

He further said investigations had so far been conducted and the outcome of the inquiry made public.

He also said the Senate has adopted recommendations of its joint committee, which was constituted last year to ascertain the technological impact of 5G deployment on Nigerian citizens.

According to him, “the Senate was convinced that the technological impact of 5G would transform the lives of Nigerians, in education, agriculture, security, entertainment, and indeed, in governance in general, when the technology is deployed.

The Senate’s decision to recommend the deployment of the 5G technology was based on information provided by relevant government establishments, private sector organisations and industry experts who maintained that 5G poses no risks to human life.”

Danbatta said whilst the NCC deferred to counsel by observing the trend of 5G deployments around the globe before taking a plunge, as a responsible regulator, the NCC would continue to engage all stakeholders in extensive sensitisation through cross-media and multimedia channels before the commencement of commercial deployments of 5G in Nigeria.

“Objectively, we also expect various ongoing regulatory efforts at deepening broadband deployment to provide robust infrastructure that will trigger Nigeria’s ability to leverage the benefits of new technologies for the advancement of our digital economy, “Danbatta further said.

As a precursor to the commencement of commercial deployment of 5G network in the country, the NCC submitted a 5G Development Plan (5GDP) to the federal government for final approval towards effective deployment of the technology to cover major urban areas by 2025.

The Plan is to ensure efficient assignment of spectrum for deployment of 5G technology; create an enabling environment for investment in the industry; ensure the security of the 5G ecosystem and the protection of data; as well as ensure that international best practices and globallyaccepted standards and specifications are entrenched in Nigeria’s 5G ecosystem.

Industry Position Also speaking, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, who presented the keynote paper at the ICAF meeting, stated the telecoms industry position on 5G deployments, while discarding conspiracy theories on 5G rollout and the perceived fears as expressed by the public.

According to him, expert opinion issued

by authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), Global System for Mobile Communications Africa (GSMA) and International Commission on NonIonizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), have affirmed that base station signals and radiation are non-ionizing and do not pose a risk of predisposition to cancer or any other disease.

Adebayo cited the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which had earlier said there was limited evidence that radio frequency signals could cause cancer in humans.

“Wireless technologies operate in compliance with the 1998 guidelines of the ICNIRP and national regulations on limiting exposure to radio frequency in the interest of workers and the public.

The 1998 ICNIRP guidelines were updated in 2020 and they address all frequencies used for mobile communications, including the frequencies used for 5G. “More particularly, the updated ICNIRP guidelines show that the 1998 guidelines provide adequate protection against all known health effects of high frequency radiation with its limits to frequency range of 100 kHz – 300 GHz. 5G frequencies are below 1 GHz, 1-6 GHz and above 6 GHz and therefore fall within these limits,” Adebayo said.

He explained that for frequencies above 6 GHz, the 2020 ICNIRP update provides additional guidelines and had introduced test methods to ensure compliance of 5G devices with its guidelines.

He however said despite this, it is still important to note that the final limits for radio frequency transmitting devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, intended for use by the public are unchanged below 6 GHz. He insisted that customers were already protected in this regard.

“Several authorities have also reiterated that there are no known health hazards associated with wireless technologies including 5G and continue to underline the proviso of safety offered by acceptable international guidelines issued by ICNIRP and affirmed by ICNIRP. For instance, the Ofcom in verifying whether 5G-enabled mobile base stations remained within the Electro Magnetic Frequency (EMF) limits set out by the ICNIRP, found that in all cases, the measured EMF levels from 5Genabled mobile phone base stations are at small fractions of the levels identified in the ICNIRP guidelines, the highest level recorded being approximately 1.5 per cent of the relevant level, ”Adebayo added.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami had also reiterated that there were no health risks associated with the deployment of 5G. The NCC, in its three months approved

trial-test for 5G conducted in November 2019, did not observe any health or safety challenges that may be posed by 5G. Regulatory Roles Adebayo, in his keynote, listed some regulatory roles of the NCC and the federal government in sensitising the consumer on the importance of 5G technology for organisational and national development.

According to him, the federal government, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the NCC, have a responsibility to drive awareness on the benefits of the deployment of 5G. “The awareness involves sensitisation of citizens through different platforms such as ICAF meetings. Collaboration between the health ministry and security agencies to facilitate this local sensitisation will be efficient in dispelling common myths associated with 5G deployment and is highly recommended. Awareness also involves that the federal government actively participate in regional and global engagements on the deployment of 5G to ensure that we stay abreast of developments and best practice, such as the 2020 updated guidelines of the ICNIRP. “Enabling policy and regulatory frameworks dealing with lingering issues such as Right of Ways (RoWs), arbitrary taxation and protection of critical network infrastructure are also strongly recommended,” Adebayo said.

He added that MNOs must partner all stakeholders to address concerns raised by the public, adding that consumers must be encouraged to take advantage of the various engagement fora of ICAF meetings, targeted at sensitisation on 5G deployment.

This, he said, would ensure their questions are answered and their views taken into consideration in consultation and implementation.

Consumers’ View Some telecoms consumers who attended the ICAF meeting, were convinced with the explanations that 5G would do more to boost consumer experience, but called for adequate protection of the consumers, through policy implementation.

The outgoing ICAF president, Prince Ighoovie Majemite, said: “Since the inception of ICAF in 2009, we have assisted NCC with many far-reaching recommendations that resulted in regulatory actions, which brought satisfaction to consumers and the industry. ICAF therefore expect NCC to continue to address the concerns of consumers, especially the 5G concerns and its perceived health risks.”

According to him, the emergence of new technologies, would increase consumer’s appetite for service, which he said, would call for more efforts from the telecommunitions industry to meet up with the capacity and the capability to handle these new challenges to achieve quality of service and better customer’s experience.

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INTERVIEW

Daffe: Technology Automation Key to Online Market Place

The CEO and co-Founder, Gebeya Online Market Place, Mr. Amadou Daffe, speaks on how African startups can attract funding from local investors and the need to scale online business offerings through automated processes, among other issues. Emma Okonji presents the excerpts: freelancer economy, both on the continent and abroad. Two key challenges to overcome include payments and data.

In markets like the US, 95 per cent of households have bank accounts, and 79 per cent have at least one credit or charge card.

This makes conducting business transactions easy and secure, with minimal fees. In contrast, in a country like Ethiopia, only 33 per cent of adults are estimated to be banked. Add to that, fluctuating currencies.

Innovative start-ups are easing both incountry and cross-border payments with mobile money and fintech solutions. But it’s not an impossible hurdle. In fact, we have a client based in Nigeria who has been leveraging talents based in Ethiopia; we manage the payment between the two, as part of our service offering. Because we operate across the continent, we also have collected key data insights that benefit both sides of our marketplace. Freelancers struggle to know what to charge, and start-upsneed guidance on how to budget accordingly, based on the skills and experience level they seek. We provide guidance on both, benchmarked against market research and our own first-hand data.

Gebeya recently launched its revamped online marketplace for freelance professional talent.

What informed the launch and what does it seek to address? he high percentage of unemployment on the African continent is cited often at 30 per cent or more in populous countries like Nigeria and South Africa. But Africa has both an abundance of talented professionals and work opportunities. We know this from our own market research. We recognise that Africa does not have a talent shortage, but rather a matching problem. Thus, we launched a fully automated process that immediately connects those looking to hire with the talent they need. We address the trust and accountability risk by doing the candidate vetting ourselves.

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Gebeya raised a $2 million seed investment in February 2020, co-led by Partech and Orange Ventures. How has the seed investment helped in improving the service offerings of the company?

Since our investment last year, we have built the two key components to make automation possible: the Gebeya Talent mobile app, and the client web app, at app.gebeya.com. Our marketplace model has been greatly enhanced by implementing an intelligent algorithm that automates what were previously manual processes that involved spreadsheets, lengthy email chains, and calls. We’ve now been able to scale our service offerings globally and fast-track communication, matching, and project implementation.

Raising seed funds from local investors across Africa appears a herculean task for small businesses and start-ups. How can this challenge be addressed?

If fundraising were easy, everyone would do it. I recommend two avenues for startupfounders in Africa: join accelerator programmes and build their networks early. Do not wait until reaching the stage where you are ready to raise money to begin making connections. Investors invest in your idea as much as your reputation. Plug into start-up communities like VC4A and AfricArena. Y Combinator is not the only reputable accelerator and investment avenue, thus adding more and more African companies with each batch, by the way. There’s also Startupbootcamp AfriTech, Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, and others.

As a Pan-African freelance talent marketplace company headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with remote teams in Kenya, Senegal, North America, and the UK; what are your plans to expand your remote teams to Nigeria and other African countries?

In the first half of 2021 alone, we have already added senior team members in North Africa. Our talent pool applicants now represent more than half the countries on the continent. We long ago recognized Nigeria’s enormous potential with one of our investors there, Consonance Investment Managers. And with its recent explosion of unicorns, we are steadily growing our talent pool in Nigeria to accelerate the matching process.

How secure is the online marketplace, given the rise in cyberattacks across the globethat have shutdown many businesses?

Cybersecurity has been of utmost importance to us from day one. In 2020, the world saw governments and global multinationals get hacked. Start-ups and small businesses are that much more vulnerable, thus we have cybersecurity talents in our pool to service customers’ needs. On our own marketplace platform, we are cloud native; we developed the platform according to industry standards,

Daffe

Our marketplace model has been greatly enhanced by implementing an intelligent algorithm that automates what were previously manual processes that involved spreadsheets, lengthy email chains, and calls. We’ve now been able to scale our service offerings globally and fast-track communication, matching, and project implementation have implemented data protection measures, and leveraged the best talent in Africa to help us build and reinforce all of the above. We also educate our staff and talent on how to protect themselves.

Ubiquitous broadband access is key to the growth of online marketplace. What are your thoughts about the perceived high cost of broadband internet connectivity in Africa?

Internet connectivity access and cost certainly are challenges for both companies and freelancers. As a business, we have gotten creative about addressing this very real issue through creative solutions such as partnering with co-working spaces out of which our talents can work, and offering data packages to those who were enrolled in our training programmes in Ethiopia last year.

Start-ups are key to economic growth of any nation, but lack the initial support for growth. How will Gebeya market place support the growth of up-comping start-ups in Nigeria and other African countries?

One of the biggest challenges for startups looking to grow is finding the right people at the right cost. One mistake we see entrepreneurs making again and again is preferring full-time hires over contractors or freelancers. We understand that there’s a trust issue—a fear that freelancers won’t be loyal or reliable. Our promise is that we have mitigated that risk by vetting the freelancers ourselves. How does this benefit start-ups? They can save an average of 30% with freelance talent over hiring full-time staff. And, they have full control over the contract duration and terms of deliverables. They will not be weighed down by the ongoing and possibly unnecessary cost of a permanent hire, whose additional costs might include health benefits, equipment, training, etc.

African participation in the total addressable freelancer economy industry is at its lowest ebb, compared to the huge participation of other continents like North America. How can African participation be improved?

Africa has an opportunity to claim a much greater percentage of a growing

Experts are of the view that freelancers will constitute 80 per cent of the global workforce by 2030. How will Gebeya unlock the power of the skilled workforce on the African continent to be part of the projected workforce by 2030?

Raw talent is abundant on the continent. A report from Google and IFC last year found that there are 700,000 software developers in Africa. Software developers are just one of many types of talent in our marketplace. Our plan to tap into that talent includes onboarding freelancers at a variety of experience levels, and enabling them to upskill through internationally recognized certifications and experience, and make them more globally competitive.

Emerging technologies are fast driving global digital transformation. How are you leveraging emerging technologies to drive digital transformation on the African continent?

We are implementing technology like our matching algorithm to accelerate the speed at which companies can connect with the right talent. Several start-ups have approached us requesting that we fully handle the process of vetting their candidates, which is a service we are considering adding in the near future.

We also plan to leverage AI interview tools to speed up the talent-screening process.

These technologies have endless, scalable applications, such as helping companies select vendors.

What are some of the key features of Gebeya and how would these features spur digital growth among African youths?

African youth who join the marketplace through the Gebeya Talent app can benefit from features such as being part of a Pan-African community of freelance talents with whom they can network and learn from; gaining exposure to global work opportunities; and upskilling on new technologies.

How would you describe technology adoption in Africa and how has it helped the growth of online business since the spread of COVID-19?

Virtual meetings and innovations in fintech, healthtech, and logistics and delivery all emerged out of necessity. All of the above have accelerated contracting and decision-making processes, made transportation of goods and people more efficient and adaptable, and communities more resilient and informed about their well-being.

There’s no turning back.

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PERSPECTIVE

PPP: The BUA Example

Rabiu Usman Zubairu Rabiu

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he need to positively affect the lives of Nigerians and complement the efforts of the government in the provision of basic infrastructural services led to the establishment of the Bua foundation, and later the Abdulsamad Rabiu Initiatives (ASR Africa), the philanthropic arms of the Bua group.

The foundation leverages the power of Public-Private Partnerships in complementing the efforts of various levels of government and its impact on the socio-economic development of society.

Public-Private Partnership here is seen as any collaboration between the private sector and various levels of governments, Non-Governmental Organizations NGOs, Community Based Organisations CBOs, FaithBased Organizations FBOs, to provide goods and services to the public, which traditionally has been the sole responsibility of government.

This has become necessary because government alone cannot do everything due to the rising demand for public services and the dwindling resources available. The private sector must therefore come in to supplement government resources and complement its effort in the provision of basic infrastructural services.

Public-Private partnerships can be categorized into For Profit and Not-for-Profit Public-Private Partnerships. This article discusses how the Bua group utilizes Not-For-Profit PPP in fulfilling its Corporate Social responsibilities.

The BUA foundation as a champion of Public-Private Partnership has redefined the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria, with its new structure of community-based initiatives and a unique method to improve the lives of the Nigerian people sustainably and systematically. The BUA foundation and the ASR initiatives’ philanthropic interests are in the areas of Education, Health, socioeconomic empowerment, and investment.

The sustainable philanthropic intervention approach of the Bua group is to intervene in the communities, in which it operates as well as the people of its companies, directly or indirectly. The primary purpose of this intervention is to strategically in a sustainable way, complement the efforts of the government in reducing poverty, fostering development and, improving the lives of the ordinary citizens of the community and countries in which it operates.

Since the establishment of the Bua group, and mostly through the Bua Foundation, the group has been actively involved in corporate philanthropy in various sectors – from health, education, community development, water and sanitation, sports, and even more lately, its works on COVID-19 humanitarian interventions.

Over the years, the Bua group’s efforts in partnering with various levels of government in fostering socio-economic development of the society manifest in developmental partnerships in the areas of education, health, water resources, social and economic interventions, sports and others. This has indeed complemented government efforts and, supplemented its resources in meeting its statutory obligations of providing social and economic infrastructural amenities to the people.

Education is one sector that the Bua group has made a tremendous impact by its unique and systematic philanthropic approach. The group

through its foundation has built and renovated schools, donated to educational research, and also instituted scholarship schemes for students.

For instance, a subsidiary of the BUA Group, the BUA Cement Company, donated a school, hospital, and other infrastructures worth N230 million to two relocated communities, Gidan Bailu and Gidan Datti in Wamakko Local Government Area of Sokoto. The donated facilities comprised a school with two blocks of classrooms, an administrative block, a township mosque, a clinic, two boreholes, a 30 KVA electricity transformer, township electrification installations, and a cemetery.

The BUA Foundation has also funded the construction of the multi-million Naira Centre for Islamic Studies at the Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria, and had also started the reconstruction of Jakara Primary school in Kano municipal local government, Kano state among other schools earmarked for this gesture.

It has also inaugurated a scholarship board for the Okpella Community, Edo State, Nigeria will administer a minimum of 24 tertiary scholarships from the company every year starting in September 2019 to develop capacity and a highly skilled youth population in that area. It has also donated N200million to Sokoto State University towards the construction of an ICT Faculty Building for the University. This donation will support the University’s quest to become one of Nigeria’s best universities producing talent in the ICT space. The group through the ASR initiatives has also awarded a $3 million education infrastructure support grant to the Ghanaian government through its Ministry of Education to eradicate ‘schools under trees’ whilst developing primary education infrastructure across the country. As part of its contribution at the tertiary educational level, Bua announced a N1billion donation to six higher institutions in Nigeria – the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; the University of Maiduguri; the University of Ilorin; and the University of Benin. All the universities have got their NI billion each.

These and many other gestures are some of the few ways the Bua group leverages public-private partnerships to contribute to educational development in the country. The outbreak of the dreaded Covid19 pandemic truly demonstrated the power of public-private partnerships in bringing private and public sectors together to fight the pandemic head-on.

Bua understood these better and provided enormous resources to complement government efforts in fighting the epidemic. As of January 2021, the BUA Foundation had so far contributed over N7billion in cash, foodstuffs, and medical supplies, amongst other things to the federal and state governments and various humanitarian agencies. Earlier, the foundation had donated 31 fully-kitted ambulances to Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Sokoto, Jigawa, Katsina, Edo, and Kwara states, and cash donations ranging from N100million and above to eight states and N300million to the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19. This is apart from the donation of N1 billion in cash through the BUA Foundation to CACOVID (the private sector coalition spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria and tasked with pulling resources across industries to provide technical and operational support while building advocacy through aggressive awareness drives with the sole aim of combating coronavirus in Nigeria).More states were also availed with various donations of ambulances and other medical supplies. The BUA foundation had also placed an order for one million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine worth over 3m dollars through the AfreximBank vaccine program partnership with CACOVID and also donated a 3-storey gigantic structure, located along Court Road, and furnished it with state-of-the-art beds and all other facilities needed for a standard isolation center. In addition to these donations, the foundation ordered medical supplies and equipment to the two most populated states in Nigeria - Kano and Lagos states and each received about 100,000 protective facemasks, 1000 high-grade medical protection and isolation gear, 2000 protective goggles, 1000 gloves, and 1000 testing kits amongst other things.

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

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ANALYSIS

The Journey to Corruption Purgatory Raheem Akingbolu reviews the three-year project end line report of the Akin Fadeyi Foundation, which chronicles the impact of the subtle campaigns deplored to address corruption in Nigeria.

He reckons that the report has further confirmed that Nigeria has lost over $500 billion to corruption since Independence, despite all efforts to re-orientate the citizenry.

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n recent times, stakeholders in Nigeria are concerned about the country’s image crisis and daily attempting various approaches through which they could tame the menace. In local and international dealings, politics and businesses, Nigerians battle daily to convince potential partners.

Of course, there are government agencies, saddled with responsibilities to promote positive behavioral change among citizens on issues of good governance, corruption, transparency and accountability but little or nothing has changed. It is believed in some quarters that the nature of the methodology usually adopted tends to operate in a top to bottom mode.

Whether in terms of the creation of policies and institutions that seek to corral the people into a notion of restraint, or the manners in which the endeavours are ‘sold’ to citizens, there has always been that palpable lag between the design and its outcomes. This critical gap in relating the burden with the cause, through a very popular process of engagement, is possibly the one of the most significant value additions that the Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF) has brought to bear in the series of anticorruption advocacies it has engaged in, over the past half a decade. It creates easily related vignettes of modern living (either though the one-minute drama skits, the radio or TV narratives) that not only needle, incite reconsideration of the act of corruption and then contrition/behavioural catharsis, but becomes a composite of encounters that impel a sense of ‘ownership’ of the transformative experience in its audience. This methodology, hinged to an effective behaviour change advocacy has been highly successful in the way it connects very easily to people in their local and private spaces, were it takes the anticorruption message to people, utilising a host of popular figures in the Nigerian entertainment industry – actors, actresses, and show business personalities – as arrowheads of information and change agents. Akin Fadeyi Foundation took the battle for behaviour change to the individual level, the ‘I’ that needs to change across multiple locations, in order to build a critical mass for social change. This gained enormous traction in the past three years, with the support given to the engagement by the MacArthur Foundation.

Anti-corruption Messages And, the numbers are quite staggering, if not exhilarating – reaching an estimated 100 million people with its anti-corruption messages across various nodes of the national and international broadcast media; from television to radio and then the social media! A vital segment of the demographic of outreach comprised youths of the working age (between the ages of 15 and 35), stretching up to 70 million overall, and considered a principal target of the messaging.

In the recent report of the Foundation, presented publicly on July 13, “The Journey” embarked upon by AFF in the past 5+ years, even while essentially chronicling the high moment of the past three years, the Foundation unveiled the extent, alongside impact, of its anti-corruption programming, principally through the audiovisual campaign tagged, “Corruption: Not In My Country”. Through this intervention, the offering had included the production of 60 Corruption Not-In-My-Country drama skits, coupled with 21 episodes of the “Never Again” radio drama, and nine episodes of the “Badt Guys” – a television series that ran for nine weeks. And, the building of a technology platform for the reporting of corruption, the FlagIt app, which has more so had its remit expanded to enable the documentation of sexual crimes in society. Still, there was the additional capacity building held on the sensitisation against corruption for over 500 students, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Public Advocacy Drive Equally terrifying are the numbers that the Akin Fadeyi Foundation’s public advocacy drive has been warring against. Corruption has become one of the most insidious facts of Nigeria’s post-Independence existence, accounting for the trajectory of arrested development of a country

projects. In this regard, the audio-visual advocacy materials it produces are carefully scripted to avoid language that could trigger gender bias, while the cast and crew of its productions ensures gender and social inclusion, and the Foundation has up to 55 percent of female representation in its team. For AFF, “building a gender-inclusive workplace does not end with hiring more women or emphasizing pay equity, we have also built a system that supports and encourages women-led teams.” As a very modern outlook to the attainment of social change, invariably resolving in advancement, it is remarkable how the Akin Fadeyi Foundation strongly considers the issue of collaboration and partnerships, in which the collectively achieved is sturdier and more resilient than the individual parts. According to the AFF report, this operated on a number of levels, both lateral and vertically to achieve all it has done so far with the “Corruption: Not In Country” project.

Yet, with all the important milestones traversed in the “Corruption: Not In My Country” programme, the AFF report intimates on a number of challenges encountered all through the interlinked series of projects, from the difficulty in securing the ‘buy in’ and collaboration of governmental stakeholders, to other levels of institutional pushbacks, coupled with the shortness of timelines, in relation to the delivery of better outcomes.

Significantly, there were associated risks, especially with the deployment of the FlagIt app in going after criminally minded citizens who sought to wreak havoc through their unusual corrupt dealings, including the sextortion of fellow citizens. Added to this was the repeated head butting with the Nigerian Police, whose corruption-infestation evolved in routine lawlessness against citizens, which occasionally resulted in unwarranted deaths.

Still, all this was presented as a journey that was as remarkable in its trajectories, as it was nerve-wracking

of great human and material resources that has constantly punched far beneath its weight, due to the relentless haemorrhaging of these resources. As such, it has not only evinced some of the worst indices on the Human Development Index, in 2012, Nigeria is said to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since Independence in 1960. At this point, almost a decade after this, the figure is projected to have gone north of $500 billion. The depth of the burden of corruption in the country has been revealed in its constantly being rated as one of the worst manifestations of the social ill in the world, ranking 144th out of 180 countries measured by Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index. Much of the incidence of poverty – ranging from its more benign hues to the extreme form of expression – and immiseration are as much the indication of pervasive corruption in the country, as much as they are outcomes of poor policy and planning, with the former reinforcing the latter, and vice-versa, in a concentric interplay. In the present, the fallouts of this is revealed in the over 10 million out of school children in the country, which is the highest in the world; a poverty headcount rate of 40 per cent, having over 90 per cent of citizens locked up in dirt scarcity, 60 percent of who are women. Also, while more than 40 million women of childbearing age neither have access to proper healthcare nor proper nutrition, this leads to health issues in childbirth, and more than 10 per cent of global maternal mortality, among similar gory statistics. No doubt, corruption is one of the great social menaces of the times we live in, with the global cost of corruption being put at no less than $2.6 trillion or five per cent of the global GDP, according to the World Economic Forum. Because states and governments have been stripped of their capacity for social provisioning due to the deleterious

ravages of corruption, this then yields and 3 gives space to conflict, terrorism and cognate forms of instability, occurring in tandem to illegal traffic in drugs, arms and people, etc.

Crusade Against Corruption The Akin Fadeyi Foundation crusade against corruption is of very critical relevance to Nigeria at this historical juncture that corruption has risen to unprecedented or exospheric levels, and in which citizens not already enmeshed in the social ill are merely time-bidders, waiting for their opportunities for participation. Hence, the highly crucial need for changes in mindset as a collective responsibility towards the transformation of society. An important part of the AFF public advocacy strategy was the mobilisation of what it describes as a “citizen-led societal transformation” activated through a Corruption Prevention Approach and the tackling of corruption in the department and agencies of government through a Corruption Fighting Approach.

The latter necessitated a major engagement with public institutions such as the Nigerian Police Force, the Federal Roads Safety Commission (a central agency for the operation of its technological anti-corruption platform, the FlagIt app), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Nigerian Immigration Service, and ministries, departments and agencies of government, etc. It is deeply pleasing to learn that the AFF avails itself of some of the best practices in the social enterprise, such as its subscription to the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) protocol – which actively enables the affirmation of women, children, person with disabilities and other marginalised groups – in its processes and operations. It claims the intentionality of this approach in its work, hence the different sensitivities it brings to bear on its programming and

MacArthur Foundation Support In the Akin Fadeyi Foundation’s “The Journey” report, what could possibly be deemed as the most reverberative of acclaims was given to the support of the MacArthur Foundation to the “Corruption: Not In My Country” project. This had packed a huge punch that gave major fillip to the earlier instances of funding by organisations like the European Development Fund, in its concert with UNODC and UNDP, though with much of the illustrious work being reviewed was made possible. Hence, the resounding chorus of gratitude was offered by AFF, not only to the On Nigeria programme of the MacArthur Foundation, but also to its seasoned leadership, comprising such change administrators like Dr. Kole Shettima, Erin Sines, Dayo Olaide, Amina Salihu, and their other noteworthy colleagues.

With the uncommon industry exhibited by AFF in its social crusade against the monster of corruption in the past three years, it becomes easier – with a deepening of this process – to dream of a future in which most Nigerians will be able to say, with all sense of conviction, that: “Corruption: Not in my country!” Which one of the foundation‘s work for the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria can be forgotten. Is it a newspaper report on how he confronted the Nigerian Police for illegally detaining and killing a poor Gbagi Trader in Ibadan, Mr. Kehinde Omotosho? Is it how he ensured the matter got the attention of the Oyo State Human Rights Tribunal or is it how he enlisted the support of Afe Babalola Chambers to take up the matter and defend the poor family till they are now about to get justice? While Nigerians celebrate the Akin Fadeyi Foundation’s credible and genuine milestones, they must not forget that the promoter of the foundation has been championing and advancing true cause for a better Nigeria -a great sacrificing costs that risks to his very existence from institutional repression and certain events in government who are uncomfortable with his guts. The FlagIt App is a game changer and no one likes to see his or her name on electronic devices as aiding corruption.

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BUSINESSWORLD

E-BUSINESS NEWS

Expert Calls for Fortification of Nigerian Communications Act 2003 Emma Okonji

ICT Legal and Regulatory expert, Mr. Ayoola Babatunde Oke, has stressed the need for additional input that will further strengthen the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (NCA 2003), to enable it address new trends in today’s digital world.

Although he commended the responsiveness and transparency of the Act, he however said technology had evolved over the years and that the Act needed to be fortified in line with new trends.

Oke, who was the Special Assistant to the former Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Dr. Earnest Ndukwe, said the provisions of the Act remained fair while vesting regulatory powers in Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), adding that it also imposes obligations on NCC to be judicious and fair, without acting arbitrarily in its roles.

Oke made the call, while speaking at a recent annual workshop organised by NCC and National Judicial Institute (NJI) for Judges, with the theme: “Developing Telecommunications Law: Jurisprudence and Judicial Precedents- An X-Ray of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.”

He explained that the Act provides for regulatory professionalism in the constitution of the Board of the Commission which is a Governing Board made up of all three Executive Commissioners and three Non-executive Commissioners.

According to him, “the Act contains mandatory provision for consultation on policy and regulatory decisions and provides for NCC to be accountable to stakeholders.

He noted that in strengthening the concept of separation of powers, the Act may be further empowered to make the Governing Board of the Commission to have the

exclusive right in the exercise of the Commissions quasijudicial powers, while the management would be the executory organ.”

The Nigerian Communications Act 2003, he added, should be deepened to protect the local and small operators.

“In the telecommunications sector, it is almost as if the regulation favours the big operators more than the small operators, which is one of the reasons why the small operators are dying without meaningful impact on the country’s economy.

It is therefore important to protect the small telecommunication companies to enable them exist side by side with the big operators,” Oke said.

Making comparison between the Act of 1992 and that of 2003, Oke said the NCC was yet to fully implement the 2003 Act, adding that it is already affecting the effectiveness of the regulatory framework.

MTN to Accelerate Long Term Growth with New Strategies Emma Okonji

MTN Nigeria has promised to accelerate long term business growth in Nigeria, while leveraging on emerging opportunities, through a refined strategy.

According to the telecoms company, the new strategy called Ambition 2025 would closely be aligned with that of MTN Group and built on four key strategic priorities: build the largest and most valuable platforms, drive industry-leading connectivity operations, create shared value and accelerate portfolio transformation.

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Karl Toriola, made the promise in a recent statement to announce the company’s half year financial results ended June 30, 2021.

According to Toriola, the priorities would define MTN’s focus for the next five years.

“Taking advantage of MTN’s existing platforms and assets, we are well-positioned to accelerate long term growth as we continue to monitor and manage the impacts of the

pandemic. We have a clear focus on sustaining double-digit service revenue growth ahead of inflation, driving 4G and rural network expansion, as well as positioning our FinTech and digital businesses for accelerated growth in order to unlock their full value. In addition, we will continue to sustain our expense efficiency programme to strengthen our financial position and support margins,” Toriola said.

“We are driving a positive culture change across the organisation to enhance productivity and further improve performance. We maintain our strong focus on deeper, proactive and inclusive engagements to drive shared value for all stakeholders, while ensuring that our activities align with and contribute to the Government’s development agenda, “Toriola added.

Announcing MTN’s plans for its 20th anniversary celebration in Nigeria, Toriola said MTN Nigeria would be executing numerous national impact projects in the coming months, to mark the milestone.

“We are pleased to announce

that our Board of Directors has approved our participation in the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit (RITC) Scheme.

This is in response to the government’s drive towards public-private partnerships in the rehabilitation of critical road infrastructure in Nigeria.

We intend to participate in the restoration and refurbishment of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway,” Toriola said.

According to the financial statement released by the company, MTN’s participation in the RITC Scheme is one of the many projects that will be executed in celebration of MTN Nigeria’s 20th year in Nigeria.

Since its launch in 2001, MTN has steadily deployed its unmatched services across Nigeria, connecting approximately 69 million people in communities across the country with each other and the world. MTN Nigeria currently provides services in 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages and communities, and a growing number of highways across the country, spanning the 36 states of Nigeria and the federal capital territory, Abuja.

Accelerex Demonstrates Fintech Leadership with Two Awards Emma Okonji

Nigeria’s Financial Technology (FinTech) company, Global Accelerex has clinched the FinTech Services Provider of the Year and Customer Focused ICT Company of the Year awards at the 12th edition of the Beacon of Information and Communication Technology (BoICT) Awards, which held recently in Lagos.

Commended as one of the FinTech sector’s highest honours by key stakeholders, the awards were in recognition of the company’s trailblazing efforts in the development of innovative products and provision of excellent customer service, as defined in the Accelerex Service Promise.

It is Accelerex’s second

consecutive time of winning the BoICT FinTech Services Provider of the Year Award, as it won the same award in 2020. The Company also bagged the Customer Focused ICT Company of the Year Award in 2019, making this the second time in three years it is being bestowed with a tribute for its customer-first approach to business.

At the award ceremony, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Communications Week, the awarding organisation, Mr. Ken Nwogbo, revealed that the winners were decided through electronic voting by the general public, largely drawn from technology consumers, business leaders, ardent readers of its publications and other major stakeholders in the

ICT space. He congratulated Accelerex for distinguishing itself from the competition through its cutting-edge products and exceptional customer-centricity.

While speaking on the awards, the Managing Director of Accelerex, Mr. Kayode Ariyo, said: “We are honoured and humbled by this recognition. The fact that our two critical areas of focus were acknowledged by a public jury, is proof that we are doing something right and this makes us proud.

“These awards are dedicated to our valued customers that deemed us worthy of being recipients and to Accelerex staff that constantly push boundaries to ensure that our customers always enjoy a stellar experience”.

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THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

VDMA: Timely Boost to National Priority In line with the federal government’s pledge to accord priority to technical education in Nigeria, the Aliko Dangote Foundation in partnership with Germany’s VDMA (the German Association for Mechanical and Plant Engineering) and its Foundation for Young Talent in Mechanical Engineering (NWS) recently launched a technical training programme to address the skills deficit in critical sectors of the economy. Ugo Aliogo reports

L-R: Immediate Past Executive Secretary/CEO, National Board for Technical Education, ADK Muhammad; Consul General, the Federal Republic of Germany to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Stefan Traumann; former VDMA (German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association) President and Initiator of the VDMA Initiative ‘Skilled Workers in Africa’, Dr. Reinhold Festge; Chairman, Aliko Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Edward David Onoja; and President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Ahmed Mansur, at the Aliko Dangote Foundation-VDMA Technical Training Programme “tagged: Nigerian Industry meets German Engineering) launch in Lagos…recently

Official Commitment ecently, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said the Federal Government would continue to accord priority to technical education. During the 6th Combined Convocation of the Federal College of Education (Technical) in Bichi, Kano State, the minister, represented by the Director, Colleges of Education, Onyeka Nwabuogo, described technical education as a major pillar in economic development.

The minister said the federal government was passionate in its commitment to ensure that education took its rightful place in Nigeria.

Adamu said the government would continue to invest in the sector through approved capital allocation and training routed through the Universal Basic Education and Tertiary Education Trust Fund. He said the recent approval of six additional Colleges of Education across the six geopolitical zones of the country would bridge the gap in teacher education among other benefits.

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Alarming Statistics The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in a 2020 report, revealed that Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 was 27.1% indicating that about 21,764,614 Nigerians remain unemployed. The data also revealed that the worst-hit are Nigerian youths with over 13.9 million currently unemployed. Youth between the ages 15-24 have about 6.8 million Nigerians out of jobs and another 7.1 million also unemployed.

Analysts are of the opinion that high youth unemployment rate is linked to increased insecurity and poverty, a situation, which can spiral out of control if not urgently addressed. The worrying increase in loss of jobs and resultant impact on crime due to the fallout of the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has also generated a cause for concern among various stakeholders including the private sector.

Critical Partnership To significantly address the skill deficit in all the key sectors of the nation’s economy, the Aliko Dangote Foundation in partnership with Germany’s VDMA (the German Association for Mechanical and Plant Engineering) and its Foundation for Young Talent in Mechanical Engineering (NWS) have officially launched a technical training programme in Nigeria.

Speaking at the official launching of the programme in Lagos recently, the Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote said that the landmark programme is a sevenmillion Euros (€7m) investment, mainly for the specialised equipment shipped from Germany

and installed in five workshops purpose-built for the programme at Dangote Academy in Obajana, Kogi State. He also said the beneficiaries would be trained, using these machines, so they can learn practical skills that will be transferable as they enter the work force.

According to Dangote, this programme is the first of its kind in Nigeria, and will be replicated in all the six geo-political zones of the country. Noting that vocational and technical skills are vital to the well-being of any economy, as key levers for growth, specifically in the manufacturing sector, Dangote said significant skills’ gaps exist in Nigeria, which is what the training programme is seeking to address. “The trainees that successfully pass through the full vocational training will be prepared as well-rounded professionals. In addition to the technical training, they will also get personal effectiveness trainings of same quality as our staff.”

“At the Dangote Group, we have been providing vocational training for young Nigerians to hone their technical skills for a long time. We started our own Dangote Academy in 2009, based in our Obajana cement plant where we train over 2,000 technicians every year. These technicians have been deployed to some of our operations and to other companies outside our group. In some of our plants, we have recruited graduates of Engineering and other technology-based courses and trained them on many aspects of industrial operations through Dangote Academy.

“As a private sector entity, the programme is a crucial step in a larger vision of collaboration between Nigeria and Germany that we expect will lead to the exchange of knowledge, technology, and industrial capabilities. We also hope that this could lead to the deepening of the commercial relationship between our two countries.

Today, we are reiterating our commitment to sustain this partnership arrangement and provide opportunities for scaling up the technical skills of our youths to help expand the skills’ base for the sustained growth of our nation’s economy”, Dangote added.

Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr. Gerd Muller, lauded the Aliko Dangote Foundation and VDMA for the enviable programme that can transform and develop the economy of Nigeria. He said his ministry has supported the initiative with €3.6 million and would not hesitate to do more for the purpose of the initiatives to be achieved.

The VDMA past president, Dr. Reinhold Fostge said: “I am very happy that this has become reality eventually in Nigeria. We started six years ago. Four years ago, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Nigerian German training project. This programme is to raise the skill level of workers and make the youth employable …our vision in VDMA is that, in future, we should be able to exchange highly skilled professionals between Nigeria and Germany and as a matter of fact, I have no objection to inviting Nigerian specialists to help me in Germany and vice versa.”

Technical Programme The ADF-VDMA Technical Training Programme is a partnership between Aliko Dangote Foundation, VDMA and Nachwuchsstiftung Maschnenbaw – NWS (German training partner). The initiative arose from a shared vision of addressing the deficit in vocational skills required in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. The main objective is to upskill the Nigerian youths in the area of Electrical and Mechanical Technology and to bridge the skills gap in the manufacturing and energy workforce.

The training programme is designed for the needs of the Nigerian industry and sustained by the expertise of German engineering. The training concept is based on dual-track vocational training that combines both theoretical and practical aspects of Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, and Mechatronic. The ADF-VDMA Training programme is of two types – Advanced Training Short Courses, and Dual Vocational Training Full Trade (Long) Course.

The short courses are Electrical and Mechanical programmes. Duration is between 2-4 weeks. These include: Control and Maintenance of Machinery (2 weeks); Electrical Installation (4 weeks), Basic Mechanics and Fitter works (4 weeks), Electrical Machines (3 weeks), Welding and Brazing (3 weeks), Vulcanization (Industrial) - 2 weeks, and Advanced Measuring Techniques (3 weeks). The target audience include Industry Operatives and Supervisors.

The Dual Vocational Training Full Trade Course is an 18-month programme with a focus on Electrical and Mechanical disciplines. Exceptional trainees will proceed to an advanced industry Mechanics and Mechatronics program for an additional 12 months. A total of 120 candidates who have successfully gone through the selection process have commenced the programme

in April 2021. The target audience include Secondary school certificate holders who are non-graduates, and those between the ages of 16-24 with interests in vocational training.

Lagos Endorsement Meanwhile the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, enjoined both the Aliko Dangote Foundation and VDMA to consider citing the second training workshop in Lagos, with a promise to make funds available for the take-off of the programme.

He said, “I am truly excited to be part of this nation-changing event. For us in Lagos, I am happy to announce that we have six vocational training schools. But we are going to be making a public commitment that given what I have listened to now, we are not going to leave this to Aliko Dangote Foundation alone; we have to upscale our commitment.

“We won’t wait for him to replicate this in the six-geographical zones of the country.

Lagos State will work with him and ask the VDMA what level of commitment is required from the state government…to ensure that in no distant future, we can replicate and bring a full arm of the Dangote academy to Lagos State.

“It is because of where we see Lagos… the amount of the teeming youth that we have in our country and our state. Lagos has continued to be the biggest economy in our country and even in Africa, and what this present to us is an opportunity to bridge that will help to significantly reduce the unemployment level in the state.”

Huge Benefits The ADF-VDMA Technical training programme is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project fully sponsored by the partners with about €8,000,000 spent on the project. Some advantages of the Training Programme include: High standard facilities with modern equipment and learning tools; it combines Nigerian requirements with German expertise and technical know-how; benefit from NWS long-standing experience in industry-ready vocational training; exposure to industrial work experience in various plants of the Dangote Group and Industry Partners in Nigeria, and highly qualified and experienced technical instructors.

With the increasing need for Nigeria to fill the yawning gaps in her technical work-force, the launch of the VDMA training programme could not have come at a better time. Moreover, the most admirable aspect of this programme is that it is a win-win situation for all those involved, from the trainees to the trainers, from the partners to the governments of Nigeria and Germany. This is crucial for Nigeria’s unceasing quest for development.

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T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

Repositioning Healthcare Delivery Ugo Aliogo examines the commitment of the private sector to reposition healthcare delivery through the establishment of Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN)

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he Nigerian healthcare sector is plagued by several challenges across the value chain. Most primary health centres are poorly equipped, with only about onequarter of all facilities able to achieve up to 25 per cent compliance with stipulated minimum requirements. Drug availability is also a cause for concern, with less than half of all Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) facilities having the listed essential drugs in stock.

Healthcare is majorly driven by the private sector, which serves as the first point of call for over 80 per cent of patients. In total, the private sector currently accounts for around 65 per cent of all healthcare provision in Nigeria.

Most Nigerians pay for healthcare services out of pocket.

To address this gap in the health sector, the establishment of Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN), must be recognised. PSHAN is an unprecedented country-owned private sector-led coalition focused on mobilising the private sector’s collective capabilities, influence (advocacy), innovation, and resources to complement governments’ efforts in advancing the health Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and accelerate improvement in health outcomes.

The transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a compelling opportunity for Nigeria to distill lessons from its MDGs experience, reshape its aspirations and engage the private sector through partnerships and innovative approaches with an overarching goal to support Nigeria’s Universal Health Coverage agenda.

In line with the government’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) priorities as well as the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Alliance refreshed its mandate to complement government’s efforts in accelerating progress in women, adolescent, and child health in four programmatic areas: Expand basic services through strengthening Primary Health Care and providing integrated care at the frontlines, encourage healthy living and good quality of life by emphasizing prevention of disease and other areas.

PSHAN’s Vision The Alliance was inspired by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Jim Ovia, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Mrs. Sola David-Borha and other corporate business leaders in Nigeria in 2013 with a vision to be the country’s foremost private sector platform.

The organisation is established to complement the federal government, partners and implementers’ effort in accelerating improvement in health outcomes by leveraging private sector innovation, advocacy, impact investments, and partnerships to support the Federal Ministry of Health’s Save One Million Lives Initiative.

PSHAN based its strategic approach on the premise that the vibrant and fast-growing private corporate sector in Nigeria with its business techniques, innovative approaches, influence, reach, resources and capabilities can yield huge gains in the health sector if harnessed strategically and aligned to the government’s priorities.

The alliance focuses on four main strategic pillars; innovation, partnership, advocacy, and impact investment.

The transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a compelling opportunity for Nigeria to distill lessons from its MDGs experience, reshape its aspirations and engage the private sector through partnerships and innovative approaches with an overarching goal to support Nigeria’s Universal Health Coverage agenda.

Positioning Health Sector In a bid to improve healthcare delivery in Nigeria, the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) is seeking to use AdoptA-Health Facility Programme (ADHFP) as a vehicle. The initiative was conceptualized by one of the Board Members, PSHAN, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, and PSHAN with the aim of delivering at least, one global standard PHC in each of the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country.

The proposed initiative will implement a market-based private sector-driven intervention to provide low-cost, high-volume health services to the public. ADHFP will operate through a chain of integrated Primary Healthcare Centres in each of the 774 LGAs and will be sponsored by

high net worth individuals (HNIs)/private citizens who will be known as ‘adopters’.

The primary target market consists of the low-income population, living in rural areas and urban slums. Adopters will build or adopt the health facility, take responsibility for all aspects of making it functional, efficient, and effective throughout the adoption period which, in the first instance, is five years.

To further conversation on the initiative, PSHAN convened a roundtable of over 40 stakeholders to discuss the PHC Adoption Initiative, put forward knowledge from similar programmes, concerns, questions, suggestions and agree on various workstreams that would be required to take the initiative to the next level.

In his opening remarks, Aig-Imoukhuede, spoke about basic rights and the right to health, and emphasized the need to serve humanity.

He reiterated the need to create a private stakeholder group, which can assist the government in improving healthcare in the country, adding that this led to the concept of the PHC Adoption Initiative “where each of the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria has a functional PHC that can deliver global standard healthcare services to the surrounding communities.”

“For I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me.

If we form a coalition of private sector stakeholders, we can work with government and do bold ambitious things in the health system,” he noted.

Aig-Imoukhuede opined that it would be easier for philanthropists to get the government of their respective LGAs on board since they would have more influence in their states of origin.

On her part, the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, lauded the initiative and also pledged her support.

Orelope-Adefulire hinted that the brownfield model is better because constraints like acquisition of land would be avoided.

She revealed the importance of incorporating health insurance to the scheme and suggested using the National Youth Service Corps Doctors to man the PHCs. She recommended that provisions should be made to accommodate the health workers close to the PHCs and also drew attention to the inadequacy of Schools of Nursing.

She expressed assurance that she would bring the State Governors onboard.

The event also provided the platform to present the Concept Note, which was done by the Chief Executive Officer, PSHAN, Mr. Sonny Nwarisi, who reiterated the need for a functional primary healthcare system.

He highlighted the present challenges being faced by the PHCs, categorizing them into demand sided challenges such

as poor quality of care, poor accessibility and inability to pay for services, and supply-side challenges like inadequate funding, talent, infrastructure, and governance.

He stated that it would cost NGN141million in the brownfield model and NGN182million in the greenfield model to adopt and run a PHC for 5 years.

War Against Malaria The PSHAN in partnership with Access Bank Plc and GBC Health convened private sector partners including Banking/Financial Services, Telecommunications, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs), Development Partners and other stakeholders in April 2016 launched the ‘Malaria-to-Zero’ Initiative, an innovative financing platform, to galvanize private sector assets, resources, and capabilities for sustained support towards averting at least one million malaria cases and deaths by 2020.

The launch of the initiative is seen as a first step towards complementing government’s effort in achieving its malaria pre-elimination goals by 2020 and a Malaria-Free Nigeria by 2040. The Alliance believes that transition from malaria control to elimination provides a compelling opportunity to inspire bold, innovative approaches, and complementary non-traditional public-private partnerships, to disrupt poor malaria outcome and catalyze a path towards achieving Nigeria’s preelimination targets by 2020.

Since the launch of the MTZ initiative, over 15 corporate organizations signed and committed to the malaria pre-elimination project, including Dangote Foundation, Stanbic IBTC PLC, Zenith Bank PLC, GlaxoSmithKline and Etisalat. In Q1, 2017, benefitted from Behavioural Change Communication and effective demand creation materials as well as Long Lasting Insecticide Trated Nets (LLINs) in under-served communities while stimulating in-country production of LLINs. Strengthening Maternal Health The PSHAN is contributing to strengthening the nation’s health care system by improving demand creation promotion, delivery and utilization of health and nutrition services by women and children, increasing coverage of MNCH Week interventions and improving human resources for health capacity of health workers to deliver quality health care services.

Until now, the demand for critical maternal newborn and child health services have remained low for vulnerable pools during Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Weeks campaign, a biannual national mass campaign.

The need to urgently interrupt and reverse the trend necessitated the Alliance to deliver a package of high-impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions in several states of the Federation, proven to be effective in both reducing mortality rates and improving

mother and child health during the bi-annual MNCH weeks. The benefiting States are selected following needs-assessment analysis against the backdrop of poor maternal and under-5 health indices as well as their MNCH week needs.

The impact Aig-Imoukhuede stressed that the initiative would be funded by Nigerians and hinted that if it is shown to work in a particular state, other philanthropists would be encouraged to replicate it in their own States and there is a potential for replication even beyond the borders of Nigeria.

He further explained that the various workstreams would be constituted for the purpose of the initiative.

The expected impact of the initiative includes; saving lives, improvement in health outcomes, job creation, stronger civic engagement, greater government accountability, and others.

Solution Orelope-Adefulire stated that the brownfield model is better because constraints like acquisition of land will be avoided.

She also highlighted the importance of incorporating health insurance to the scheme and suggested using National Youth Service Corps Doctors to man the PHCs. She recommended that provisions should be made to accommodate the health workers close to the PHCs and also drew attention to the inadequacy of Schools of Nursing, while assuring that she would speak to the governors to get them on board.

The Founder, Flying Doctors, Dr. Olamide Brown, saida unlike in the United Kingdom, patients in Nigeria visit secondary and tertiary health facilities without going through the PHCs leading to increased pressure on the secondary and tertiary health centres.

On his part, Aig-Imoukhuede opined that it would be easier for Philanthropists to get the government of their respective LGAs on board since they would have more influence in their States of origin.

The President, Health Federation of Nigeria’s Mrs. Clare Omatseye noted that 26 States have signed the mandatory health insurance and that there is a need to look at partnerships with the state health insurance.

She pointed out that power is still a major issue and severely limits the quality of healthcare that can be provided.

She also reiterated the need for reorientation of health workers and suggested that advocacy should be done at various levels.

Omatseye posited that the N21million budgeted for the brownfield model should be looked at because it would cost way more than this to restore a PHC in a very dilapidated state.

The Chief Executive Officer, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and board member of PSHAN, Ms. Zouera Youssoufou, highlighted the importance of focusing on the quality of service.

She added that patients would not come back if there is poor quality of service.

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THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

DEVELOPMENT INTERVIEW

Bello: Lagos Ready for September Flood Alert In this interview with Ugo Aliogo, the Commissioner for Environment, Lagos State, Tunji Bello, speaks on the readiness of the state government for the September flood alert, efforts of the state to combat climate change and other issues. Excerpts: Climate change is a global problem facing countries. However, on the part of the United Nations, efforts have been on the ground to address the challenges through tree planting and other measures of reclaiming the lost natural habitat. What have been the efforts of the Lagos State Government in addressing climate change? et me state here that climate change is real and it is better for our people to understand it. We have been trying to make our people understand that Lagos has been a champion in this course. Nigeria has been noted in Africa as one of the countries making frantic efforts to combat the challenges of climate change. In 2008, we started the climate change conference. We inaugurated an international climate change conference and that has given us a lot of mileage. Furthermore, it has made Nigeria one of the leading countries in the process of combating the challenges of climate change.

Our last climate conference was done in June.

There was a law in the previous administration so we didn’t organise any climate change.

During Fashola’s administration, we organised the climate change conference on a local level.

There was one we did which was an international conference and we assembled experts from across the globe. One of the measures we took from those conferences especially during the former Governor Fashola’s administration and till the present was the creation of Lagos State Parks and Garden Agency (LASPA). LASPA manages the beautification, greening and planting of tree in Lagos. One of the impacts of combating climate change is that you have to do the adaptation and mitigation process, and one of the ways, which we are doing that is to use tree planting as a measure.

Today, we have planted close to eight million trees in Lagos. That shows you how active Lagos has been in terms of combating the effects of climate change, so we have been at the forefront.

There was a law in the past administration, but we have resumed now and we have taken the front seat, and we are recognised by the UN and several Africa countries in this regard. We are ready to propagate the message of climate change as a way of combating its effects. We are doing mitigation and adaptation methods, and there are several processes in which we do that. There is the issue of combating the effects of the Atlantic Ocean through protecting the sea shores and monitoring the coastal areas.

Another measure, we put in place to combat the effects of climate change is clearing of drainage channels especially before the rainy season. There is a lot of public enlightenment with regards to managing the effects of flooding and others.

In carrying out these efforts, we are partnering with the private sector in beautifying certain places in Lagos. Several banks and corporates organisations are involved in the beautification and landscaping of some areas. Though government have done major beautification of certain areas. The beautification and landscaping of Ajose Adeogun, Victoria Island is been done

by Zenith Bank. The beautification process of Ajose Adeogun started during former Governor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu administration and it was championed by Zenith Bank. During that period, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, was the Deputy General Manager of the Bank. Today, Ajose Adeogun is a very beautiful place; it was something we started jointly with Zenith Bank.

We have also done Ikeja roundabout which has been replaced because of the road expansion.

It was done in partnership with United Bank of Africa (UBA). We have partnered with Cadbury Nigeria Plc and several other companies, to combat the effects of climate change. These partnerships are important because the effects of climate change are not only on the part of the government, the citizens are also involved.

As a government, when you are protecting the public, every other person is involved including the private sector. So you cannot say that the effect of climate change will be felt by those in government only. All hands must be on deck to ensure that there is combined effort in reducing the effects of climate change and people must be sensitised along that line.

L

The Annual Flood Outlook, prepared by Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency, cited Lagos States as one of the states with probable flood risks places. How prepared is Lagos?

Lagos was not flooded in July as some persons were saying. What we experienced when it rained that Friday in July in Lagos was a flash flood.

I remember a long time when I was a reporter with St Petersburg Times, in Florida, President

Bello

George Senior was the President of America then. He was coming to the Tamper Bay area for a function, and I was to report the event for St Petersburg Times, and I was to leave for 9 a.m, then I was informed that it rained heavily that day. The road was flooded, it was nothing but a flash flood, even the President’s trip from the Airport to the venue was affected, so he was late and I was also late in getting there. There was no movement of vehicles because the roads were flooded. But few hours after the rain stopped the flood disappeared.

Flash flood happens across the world, therefore Lagos is not an exception, and Lagos is a coastal city. Lagos is below sea level. Lagos has only one korobo channel.

Korobo channel is the channel is where the vessels and ships bringing goods to enter the port and it is only one entry. If you compare it with other West Africa countries, you can through several ways enter the ocean.

The only koboro channel that Lagos has is the way through which the Lagoon enters the Atlantic Ocean. So as the ships are entering the ports, they are pushing the Lagoon back, and then the Lagoon has to travel a long way to go and discharge in Epe. If you are coming from Marina and going to Victoria Island, look at your right, you will see that as the ships are trying to enter Marina, the Lagoon is also coming in, and then ships are pushing the Lagoon back. Then the Lagoon has to travel through Lekki to go and discharge at the Ocean again through Epe. Lagos is about two meters below sea level already, and if it rains consistently for two hours, Lagos will be flooded and if your canals and channels are not working, the flood can be there for three days, it happened in the past. This time, the same thing happened and it rained consistently for seven hours, and everywhere was filled up. Firstly, the Ocean is already high and the lagoon is marooned, therefore it cannot discharge into the ocean. So how can your channels discharge into the ocean? Because the drainage channel empty into the Lagoon.

The lagoon has also locked up to your channels so everywhere will be waterlogged.

But allow the rain to go down for few hours, say three or four hours, the water will disappear. But if you don’t clean your drainage channels and dredge it properly, the water will be there for two or three

days. It has happened to Lagos before, but it is not happening now. The following day the flood was not in the drainage channels because they are functional. It was not flooding, but it was flash flood.

Flash flood is totally different from when Lagos is flooded. You cannot compare what happened in Lagos to what happened in China, Germany, India and US. Let me state here that flood is occasional, it is not a permanent thing, and it is temporary, so when the rain stops, the flooding will come to an end. If the flood doesn’t dry it means the government is not working. So flash flood is a global problem, it is not just peculiar to Nigeria alone. What happened in Lagos also happened in Florida because the state is a coastal state. When Florida was flooded after few hours, the water disappeared and nobody complained about the flood. But in Nigeria, the situation is different. I am not saying it cannot happen, but you cannot compare the Lagos States with other States, Lagos manages the flooding situation very well. Let me say here that the state government must be commended for the work it has done especially in managing the flooding, although there are still areas that the administration needs to improve upon. The state government has been doing a lot of public education on how to combat flooding in the state.

Yearly, we are the first state in Nigeria to announce the rain pattern to Lagosians and urge them to take caution especially in the vulnerable areas in Lagos. We know the areas that are very vulnerable in Lagos.

Five major rivers empty into Lagos, we have Ogun, and Osun rivers, then there is river Owo along the Badagry axis. But the most critical ones are rivers Osun and Owo, river Ogun empty through ketu, Alapere, and Mile 12. River Osun goes through Epe and axis along that area. Don’t forget that the Oyo Dam which is in Ogun and Oyo State, once they empty their dams, it also has a fall back on Lagos. All the water coming through Ogun and Osun river, they must empty into Lagos. So if the Lagoon or the Ocean is not able to discharge, they will be locked, and everywhere will be filled up. So people must understand that the terrain of Lagos is totally different from Ogun, Oyo, and others.

The Director-General, NIHSA Clement Eze said there would be worst flood in Lagos,

maybe in September. What is the preparation from the Ministry of Environment regarding the September flood alert given by the NIHSA? Regarding the flood alert from NIHSA, I will like to say that here in Lagos state, we are not preparing for September, we start preparation in January. Some of the measures we have put in place are public education and regular clearing of the drainage channels. Part of the measures is to ensure that people must stop dumping into the drains because most of the drains have already been cleared; they are going back to second part now which is in anticipation that it will rain in September, October and November. We have been preparing ahead for years; we don’t wait for a flood alerts before we start preparing. Every year, we start our flood preparation between January, and February, we organise a press conference to announce the rain pattern for that particular year and state our preparation.

For 2021, we have done some slight differences by increasing the number of the drainage channels that we are cleaning. Let me state here that we have three levels of drainage channels; primary, secondary, and tertiary drainage channels. Tertiary drainages are the drainages in residential neighbourhoods, and they are the responsibilities of the residents and Local Government Councils. While secondary and primary are the responsibilities of the state government. There is a need to be synergy between the Local Government Council and State Government in clearing the drainages between primary and tertiary drainages to flow into one another.

In some areas, in the state, we have primary, secondary and tertiary, while in other areas, such as Victoria Island you have only secondary and tertiary channels because you are very close to the sea levels. But in places where you have higher ground such as Alausa, Maryland and Ikeja GRA, what you have is secondary and tertiary because of the hills. If you visit a place like Ojota, you will notice that the land level is high. So Alausa, Maryland, Ikeja GRA, and Ojota are very far from the Lagoon levels. So tertiary drainage will discharge to secondary and secondary will link up with the primary channels. But in Victoria Island, you have a lot of Secondary drainage channels, if you go to Ozumba Mbadiwe, there are a lot of secondary drainage channels discharging into the Lagoon and many of them are coming from residential neighbourhoods, so that is the way to measure the water levels and ensure that these places are regularly cleared and cleaned up. Though the clearing of the drainage channels is the responsibility of the government, our people must be educated and engaged. Lagosians should stop dumping into the drains.

Plastic pollution has become a very serious problem in Lagos, what is the ministry through LAWMA doing to address it?

Plastic pollution is an issue that everybody needs to be concerned about because plastic won’t degrade because they can be buried in the ground for many years and it will remain the same. As part of the strategies for combating it, people should be advised on the need not to dump plastics in drains. Most of the things excavated from our drains are mostly plastics and they are gotten from eateries and restaurants. The public needs to be educated more and awareness should be raised about this issue because it affects the flow of water.

So on our path, we are partnering with a lot of private sector partners. We are also engaged in recycling activities, and there are private sector organisations that we are partnering with.

The Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is also doing waste separation, which they are starting from different estates in the state. Waste separation means that if you are generating refuse in house, you put plastics in separate containers and the waste in another container so that that plastic will not be taken together. When so sorting, it is very critical to separate the plastic from the ordinary estates and we have to start from organised estate first. So you have to build up gradually, it will be very difficult to visit general areas such as Ajegunle, Mushin, and Shomolu, so you must start from organised estates, which they are currently doing.

Eventually, you will be able to reduce the amount of plastics going into waste. So that is the process, which we have started.

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

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 5, 2021

HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

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

Promoting Exclusive Breastfeeding Annually, World Breastfeeding Week is marked from August 1 to 7. This year, Ada Ezeogu, a nutrition specialist with the United Nations Children’s Funds, while emphasising on the countless benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, harped on how it protects women from cancer, boosts intelligence quotient in babies, and saves the resources of the nation, among others. Rebecca Ejifoma writes

W

“Apart from improving the workforce of a nation, it also reduces the medical cost for the nation. When children are exclusively breastfed they are protected to a large extent from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, obesity, thereby the cost to the government to run the hospital and maintain these illnesses is reduced.”

Speaking on infant formula and its cost of production, the UNICEF expert expressed that the resources that go into producing infant formula are also saved for the nation. “You don’t only get to save the resources, but you make the nation produce intelligent children who are able to compete with their peers in the world,” reminding mothers that the world is a fast moving place.

orld Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is a global campaign observed every year from August 1 to 7 to raise awareness and galvanise action on themes related to breastfeeding. Every year, pregnant women and nursing mothers are reminded of the numerous health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, which not only helps the mother and the child, but also saves the nation a great deal of resources.

This year, the World Breastfeeding Week harps on its theme ‘Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility’ to promote both exclusive breastfeeding.

What Breastfeeding is Speaking with THISDAY, Nutrition Specialist United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, described breastfeeding as the best way of providing a child with breast milk. “Breastfeeding is when you feed your baby breast milk, usually directly from your breast or express it then feeds it to the baby. However, we always advise mothers to let the child suckle directly from them to achieve the full benefits and interaction between mothers child.”

She further hinted that breast milk has a nearly perfect mix of vitamins, protein, and fat -- everything your baby needs to grow.

And it’s all provided in a form more easily digested than infant formula.

Promoting Breastfeeding in Adolescent Mothers While emphasising the importance of breastfeeding, Ezeogu recommended that adolescent mothers need extra care, more food, and rest than older mothers.

She urged: “You need to nourish your own body, which is still growing, as well as your growing baby’s. During breastfeeding, you need to eat two extra small meals or ‘snacks’ (extra food between meals) each day to provide energy and nutrients for you and your growing baby. Pregnant adolescents need extra support.

They need extra care, more food, and more rest than an older mother.”

Breastfeeding Protects Mothers from Cancer In the words of the nutritionist, breastfeeding protects a woman’s health. “It protects her from cancer of the womb. It also protects mothers from breast and ovarian cancers and heart disease.

“It creates a strong bond between mother and child”. The expert mentioned that breastfeeding also burns extra calories, thereby, losing pregnancy weight faster. “It releases the hormone oxytocin, which helps your uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size and may reduce uterine bleeding after birth.

Breastfeeding also lowers your risk of breast and ovarian cancers, reduces your bleeding, and helps eject the placenta. It may lower your risk of osteoporosis, too.”

Moreso, Ezeogu highlighted how exclusive breastfeeding builds the relationship between mother and child. “It supports the mother-baby relationship and the mental health of both baby and mother.”

A study published in The Lancet in 2016 found that increasing breastfeeding rates around the world to near universal levels could prevent 823,000 annual deaths in children younger than five years and 20,000 annual maternal deaths from breast cancer.

Breastfeeding Boosts IQ, Prevents Obesity, Infections in Babies According to the nutritionist, breastfeeding helps the baby’s brain develop better, adding that it is the best way of providing a child with breast milk. “It protects children from a vast range of illnesses including infection, diabetes, asthma, heart disease and obesity, as well as cot death (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

“Breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infants, lowers the risk of obesity, and diabetes when they grow. It also boosts a child’s immunity so that the baby resists a lot of infections, especially colostrum (the thick yellowish milk that comes out first when the baby is born). Breastfed infants are more likely to gain the right amount of weight as they grow rather than become overweight children, and this reduces frequent visits to the hospital.”

Truly, breastfeeding has been linked to higher IQ scores in later childhood in some studies and better equips the child in adulthood,

Dangers of Mixed Feeding During the First Six Months Mixed feeding, she pointed out, means feeding your baby both breast milk and any other foods or liquids including infant formula, animal milks or water before six months. “This is dangerous and can make baby sick.”

She warned against mixed feeding before six months, describing it as dangerous and able to make babies sick. “Mixed feeding increases the chances that your baby will suffer from illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, and from malnutrition which can also cause death of young children.

“Giving your baby foods or any kind of liquids other than breastmilk, including infant formula, animal milks, or water before six months can damage your baby’s stomach.

This reduces the protection that exclusive breastfeeding gives, and all of the benefits that your baby gets from your breastmilk.”

Giving your baby foods or any kind of liquids other than breastmilk, including infant formula, animal milks, or water before six months can damage your baby’s stomach. This reduces the protection that exclusive breastfeeding gives, and all of the benefits that your baby gets from your breastmilk Ezeogu noted. She listed physical closeness, skin-to-skin touching, and eye contact, which all help the baby bond with you and feel secure.

She also acknowledged that breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. Sadly, she lamented that nearly two out of three infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months—a rate that has not improved in two decades.

“For Nigeria to really achieve the benefits of breastfeeding, we have to attain 90 per cent away from the 27 per cent we are

currently at. The world has placed a target of a minimum of 50 per cent. Hence, to achieve the full benefits, the majority of the population needs to practice exclusive breastfeeding every year.”

Breastfeeding Saves National Resources, Improves Workforce Indeed, the benefits of breastfeeding are said to save cost and improve the national workforce. The nutritionist emphasised:

Statistics As shown by UNICEF, in Nigeria, where one in eight children do not reach their fifth birthday and three in 10 children are stunted, hence, Ezeogu supports the recommendation that optimal breastfeeding practices are known to reduce neonatal and child morbidities and mortality rates as well as stunting reduction.

“Optimal nutrition,” she continued “provided by breastfeeding along with nurturing, care, and stimulation strengthens a child’s brain development with positive impacts that endure over a lifetime.”

She cited available statistics in Nigeria revealing that the average duration of exclusive breastfeeding is approximately three months and only three out of every 10 children under six months of age were exclusively breastfed (29 per cent). “This is an improvement from 17 per cent in 2013 to 29 per cent in 2018 according to the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS 2013; 2018” However, she noted that it still falls significantly below the target of 50 per cent set by the World Health Assembly to be achieved in 2025 and the SDG target for 2030.

And while the percentage of children who were breastfed within one hour of birth remains less than 50 per cent, the expert calls on all mothers, fathers, and the nation to support and encourage exclusive breastfeeding across the country.

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 5, 2021

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NEWS

Hope Consortium Develops Solutions for Vaccine Delivery Globally Rebecca Ejifoma The HOPE Consortium has developed one of the most extensive and integrated end-to-end supply chain solutions in the world, capable of delivering millions of vaccines from the point of production to the point of vaccination safely, effectively, and transparently.

This development, which is in collaboration with AD Ports, Etihad Cargo, Rafed, Skycell, and Maqta Gateway, aims to deliver vaccines to all those in need, irrespective of where they find themselves, and help win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effort places Abu Dhabi as the central life sciences hub for the global response to the pandemic by leveraging its strategic position as

a gateway to two thirds of the global population.

The HOPE Consortium said it has pooled the collective expertise of its partners to provide multi-faceted logistics services to handle transport, demand planning, sourcing, training, and digital technology infrastructure, to facilitate vaccine availability across the world.

Comprising leading Abu Dhabi entities, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Ports, Etihad Cargo, Rafed, SkyCell, and Maqta Gateway, as well as a wide body of global logistics players, the HOPE Consortium is developing capacity to transport, store, and distribute 18 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses per annum to countries around the world including Nigeria.

“The partners have come

together to leverage their unique capabilities to offer the world a complete end-to-end vaccine delivery solution covering both the physical movement of the vaccines in parallel with a digital solution monitoring and reporting on the supply chain progress and compliance,” the firm added.

With this, the Hope Consortium can deliver vaccines from the manufacturing plant to those in need anywhere in the world.

Adding that “As a growing international effort, the Consortium has added a number of world-class logistics partners including Aramex, Bolloré Logistics, Agility, DB Schenker, DHL, FedEx Express, MICCO Logistics, Hellmann and Kuehne + Nagel, RSA Global, and UPS.”

FERTILITY

Info@lifelinkfertility.com; Website: lifelinkfertility.com 08033083580

INFERTILITY AS A CAUSE OF BROKEN HOMES (PART 1)

Smile Train Partners Scottish KidsOR to Reach 12,000 Children Sunday Ehigiator No fewer than 12,000 children are set to benefit from a partnership between Smile Train, world largest free cleft/palate care provider, and Scottish charity, Kids Operating Room (KidsOR), which has led to an upgrade of major hospitals across Nigeria.

A recent statement from Smile Train’s Vice President, and Regional Director, Africa, Mrs. Nkeiruka Obi, revealed that the partnership has led to an upgrade of the Armed Forces Specialist Hospital, Kano; Lagos University Teaching Hospital; and National Orthopedic Hospital Enugu.

According to her, “the state-of-the-art pediatric operating rooms and recovery ward have been outfitted with the latest medical equipment as well as colorful wall art of animals, trains, and balloons designs that are meant to transform the oftenintimidating environment of an operating room into a welcoming, child-friendly space that enhances the

healing experience.

“Together with KidsOR, we aim to transform the lives of 12,000 children in Africa by the end of 2021. Let us collectively ensure that our patients always come first and are given high standards of treatment regardless of their socio-economic status.”

Speaking further, Obi said the COVID-19 pandemic had upturned healthcare systems all over the world, and brought gaps in the health systems to the fore, exacerbating inequities in Nigeria’s fragile health systems.

According to her, before the pandemic, an estimated 1.7 billion children lacked access to safe, affordable surgical care.

“This staggering number includes children with clefts; a common congenital anomaly that impacts an average of one in 700 babies and requires a range of multidisciplinary care in addition to surgery.

“In Nigeria, the impact of the pandemic on babies born with clefts makes it clear

we cannot delay investing in strong health systems.

“Cleft is a stigmatising birth difference in which a child is born with a gap between the lips that at times extends to, or is isolated from, the roof of the mouth called the palate.

“A child born with cleft experiences difficulty breathing, eating and speaking. With treatment, children with clefts can overcome these challenges to live a happy, healthy life.

“Cleft treatment, however, requires a holistic, patientcentered approach. As a global organisation that has been in existence for the past 21 years and in Nigeria for the last decade, Smile Trains model is rooted in empowering medical professionals with training, funding and resources to ensure that quality cleft care is as close to their doorsteps as possible.”

She however harped on the need to continue advocating for the rights to quality, affordable healthcare especially among children, and the welfare of Nigerian healthcare providers.

Obi Donates 5 Million to Physically Challenged as Part of Birthday Celebration The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has donated N5 million to Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled, Old and Tramps (RECDOT) Ozubulu, as part of the activities to mark his 60th birthday celebration.

He also equipped the computer laboratory of RECDOT Comprehensive Secondary School, Ozubulu.

Obi, who visited RECDOT Family and RECDOT Secondary School explained that it was more fulfilling for him to celebrate his birthday with the downtrodden and the poor people in the society.

He said it would do neither him nor the society any good, if he lavished huge amount of money on exotic celebrations,

when people were hungry on the streets “Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t do parties. How can I be drinking expensive champagnes in Abuja when millions of Nigerian youths are roaming the streets hungry and unemployed? “ I would rather invest whatever money I have into making our society better by building schools, upgrading hospitals and lifting people out of poverty. That to me, is more rewarding and fulfilling”, Obi explained. Handing over the cheque of N5 million to RECDOT Centre and 10 laptop computers, two printers and a generator set to Recdot Comprehensive Secondary School, Obi encouraged

their founder, Mrs Rosemary Odunukwe, to keep up her good works.

Addressing the students, Obi encouraged them to take their education seriously, for it remains a pathway to greatness.

He reiterated that education remains the greatest contributor to national development and urged the students not to take it lightly.

In her words of appreciation, Mrs Odunukwe said Obi has always come to their aid and contributed to their welfare.

Obi, who celebrated the mass of thanksgiving to commemorate his birthday on Sunday at the centre, was accompanied by Prof.

Chinyere Stella Okunna and Dr. Patrick Obi.

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arenthood is undeniably one of the most universally desired goals in adulthood, with most people having life plans that include children. However not all couple who desire a pregnancy will achieve one spontaneously and a proportion of couple will need medical help to resolve underlining fertility challenges while some may never be able to have their own genetic children and will result to use of donor gametes (sperm/egg) or even adoption.

Infertility is a global health problem and a social destabilizing condition for couples associated with stigmas and a major cause of marital frictions. Many homes go through the pains of the childlessness with the issues of infertility fast becoming a common occurrence in the county. According to the World Health Organization, infertility prevalence rates are difficult to determine due to the presence of both male and female factors which may only address the woman and an outcome of a pregnancy diagnosis or live birth.

The African society places a high premium on the size of the family, be it nuclear or extended. The woman’s place in marriage remains precarious till confirmed through child bearing. In most case, a woman has to prove her womanhood through motherhood, and the man also having to confirm his manhood in the same fashion. Children are held as a source of pride, strength and economic fortune for the family, a man’s wealth and strength being equated to his progeny. Infertility therefore involves a feeling of loss even though previously inexistent; it is thought to be tangible and therefore impacts negatively on a couple’s mental and social wellbeing. Infertility may constitute a crisis in the affected family.

The attendant emotional, psychological, cultural and social burden drains the couple of self-worth and esteem. In most African society, a woman’s childlessness may be viewed as a punishment for a social misdemeanour or attributed to other factors including witchcraft and the disaffection of one’s ancestors. The unsolicited and often inpatient societal demands and expectations place on such couples an unimaginable pressure and tension. They may become isolated and neglected consequent upon the attendant social stigmatization.

Childlessness is a dreaded outcome of any marriage in the society and often leads to polygamy and broken marriage but rarely child adoption in the traditional African setting. Female infertility is stigmatized in western as well as non-western cultures. The notion of child-bearing being a hallmark of womanhood, the high premium placed on children by extended families as well as difficulties in the procedure for legal

or permanent adoption make stigmatizing attitudes experienced by infertile woman particularly severe in non-western cultures.

Although the socio-cultural setting has before now focused on the female, fertility issued are shared by both male and female sexes.

Demographic studies have shown that more women are delaying childbearing at the present time than previously. This trend is expected to cause a corresponding rise in the mean age at which women first present themselves at fertility clinics. It is unclear as to whether women who present to fertility clinics at an older age have a different diagnostic profile from that in younger women. However, research has proven that older women may be more likely to be diagnosed with unexplained infertility and that this is due to the negative effect of age on ovarian reserve. Clinicians have also observed that most infertile couple present at the infertility clinic at least after 5 years of trying to conceive usually after the age of 37 years when their natural fertility is already declining. Fertility declines with age in both male and female. Infertility in older women may be due to a higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities that occur in the eggs as they age as well as diminished ovarian reserve. Older women are also more likely to have health problems that may interfere with fertility. The risk of miscarriage also is much higher with advancing maternal age.

An overwhelming amount of evidence has accumulated in the last five to seven years that point to the fact that there has been rise in the male infertility and some researches have shown it at an incidence rate of 40-50%. Despite the high prevalence of infertility in Nigeria, not much effort has been made at tackling the problem. This high prevalence of infertility on men has been associated with sexually transmitted infection, and in women pelvic inflammatory disease, post-abortal or post-partum genital tract infection and even environmental toxin.

THE IMPACT OF INFERTILITY ON THE COUPLE When a woman cannot bear children, it tremendously affects her identity, but the pain can extend far beyond her to affect her relationship. Conflict often arises amongst couple over which treatment or when to adopt. Most treatment options available for management of infertility may be very expensive and emotionally draining. Infertility also affects a woman’s relationship with other members of the family like the mother and father in laws. Misunderstanding may be arising from their perception of what infertility is and what its management should entail TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

40

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 5, 2021

NEWS

HLF to Hand over Second Dialysis Centre to Ogun State Mary Nnah His Love Foundation (HLF), the charity arm of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) will today, hand over another dialysis centre at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, to the Ogun State government.

The new Kidney Dialysis Centre is the second dialysis centre to be commissioned in Ogun State this year following the setting up of the Pastor Enoch and Pastor Folu Adeboye Intensive Care Center in Redeemed Health Center, Mowe, Ogun State early this year.

The foundation’s latest Dialysis centre, to be named Enoch and Folu Adeboye Dialysis Centre, will have among other amenities, three Dialysis Machines; one Medical Water Reverse Osmosis Purification System and a 30KVA generator.

Speaking during a media parley in Lagos to intimate journalists about the foundation’s new initiatives and the flag off of its global crowdfund-

ing campaign, Intercontinental Overseer, Christian Social Responsibility (CSR), RCCG, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade, said the newest donation will be the 16th in the series of the church’s specialised medical interventions - Intensive Care Units (ICU)/ Dialysis Centres / Cancer Screening Centre / Primary Healthcare Centres donated by the foundation in the country.

Meanwhile, the commissioning of the full-fledged dialysis centre will commemorate the third year anniversary of the setting up of His Love Foundation and the 69th Annual Convention of RCCG. The handover and commissioning of the centre will be done by Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun with other state dignitaries and the leadership of RCCG in attendance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State by 12.00noon.

The vision of the foundation is to impact the healthcare system of the 36 states of

GE Donates Seven VScan Ultrasound Equipment to AMCH Ayodeji Ake Abiye Maternal and Child International (AMCH) Foundation recently at its office in Maryland, Lagos, received seven modern mobile ultrasound systems donated by GE Healthcare West Africa, to help increase access to quality maternal and child medical services especially in rural areas in the state.

Speaking at the acceptance ceremony, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AMCH, Prof. Elizabeth Disu, expressed her gratitude to GE West Africa for donating the medical equipment.

She further promised that it would be used to improve medical services rendered to pregnant women especially in the rural areas in Lagos State and Nigeria in general.

She said AMCH had collaborated with other partners to execute several training programs such as Essential Care for the Newborn which comprise; helping babies breathe, essential newborn care, essential care for every baby and essential care for small babies, newborn resuscitation training (NRT), to mention a few. The representative of the Federal Ministry of Health Head of Newborn, Family Health Department, Dr. John Ovuoraye, in his address, commended GE for their contributions to the de-

velopment of the health sector in Nigeria and for donating the equipment to AMCH, a reputable NGO whose commitment to maternal and child health is widely recognised.

He said: “On behalf of Federal Ministry of Health, I wish to thank GE for the company’s commitment to improving access to medical services in various communities in Nigeria.

“We have had collaborative trainings with AMCH and its founder, Prof. Elizabeth Disu, a pillar and a worthy person in the health sector, especially on maternal and childcare services. “ The equipment that I am seeing here will help in no small measure to improve quality services to pregnant women in Nigeria.

“The machine is technologically driven, simple, handy and mobile. It works amazingly well with a soft touch, gives accurate analysis, and has durable battery life. Once again, I want to thank GE for this donation”.

Director of Training, AMCH, Prof. Adeniyi, and a consultant at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, opined that the ultrasound equipment would help monitor the number of babies a pregnant woman is carrying, the baby’s position and growth of pregnancy amongst many other factors associated with improved quality care.

the federation with signature healthcare projects- ICU, Kidney Dialysis, Cancer Screening and

primary healthcare.

His Love Foundation is not only involved in health but also

in social, education, media, business, arts and culture, governance and sports with

over 43,000 operating centres all over Nigeria and in 197 nations of the earth.

L-R: Pastors Segun Opaleyi, Detola Akinremi, Idowu Iluyomade, Trevor Akindele, Africanus Sam-Epelle, Adeyemo, and Lanre Oyegbola, all of RCCG, during the press conference in Lagos

Group Tackles Mental Health in Lagos with New Trauma Care Centre Rebecca Ejifoma JARS Education Group, a Lagos community mental health/ trauma care initiative, has unveiled a community trauma care centre, Asak Wellness Centre, in Ifako area of the state as an effort to combat mental health.

The centre aims to help people living with stress, emotional and psychological instability to regain mental balance against any form of psychosis.

For the CEO and Convener, JARS Education Group, Prof.

Akindotun Merino, Asak Wellness Centre became more

pressing following the level of stress Lagosians experience daily.

Among the stress triggers in Lagos, Merino listed traffic, abusive bosses at work, and violence in various families.

She, therefore, suggested that the state needed dire attention in handling the mental health of citizens, while lamenting that the country loses N57 billion yearly to mental health issues.

Merino said: “These are people who do not go to work because they are in a depressed state. It is not about insane people; this is about all of us.

“Mental wellness is that we are psychologically safe, emotionally healthy, financially

viable, socially collected, and it is that we are a community helping each other so that we can be better in Nigeria.”

In her speech, the wife of the Lagos State Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, acknowledged the importance of mental health while lamenting that awareness is abysmally low, “thus necessitating a deliberate measure towards bringing to the front burner the pertinent factors relating to mental illnesses in Nigeria”.

Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO), the first lady decried that Nigeria has Africa’s highest caseload of depression, and ranks 15th in the world in suicide cases.

Represented by a Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychologist, Dr Olayinka Jibunoh, she added that the number of psychiatrists in the country has been established to be a far cry when juxtaposed with the percentage of mentally ill Nigerians.

She added: “The staggering reality certainly is a pointer to the fact that all hands have to be on deck towards improving the help-seeking behaviour on.

“The Lagos State government is seriously committed to the wellbeing and welfare of residents. And no efforts will be spared towards playing up all aspects of health care including mental health.”

FCT Inaugurates Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Olawale Ajimotokan ÓØ ÌßÔË The FCT Administration has inaugurated Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory as part of efforts geared towards delivering quality animal health care services and strengthening the capacity of the administration to respond swiftly to the prevention of emerging infectious diseases.

At the inaugural ceremony held in Nyanya, FCT Minister of state, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, noted that the livestock sub-sector provides enormous business and commercial opportunities that could help facilitate job creation and poverty reduction as well as the attainment of food security and improved livelihood for the citizenry.

She also lamented that the economic and social viability of the livestock sector was threatened by the increasing outbreak of animal diseases particularly those that are highly communicable and zoonotic by nature.

“Studies have shown that the majority of diseases that afflict animals are zoonotic, capable of causing not only huge fatalities in both animals and humans but economic losses as well.

“In Nigeria, we have witnessed notable zoonosis such as Anthrax, Monkeypox and Ebola. Other contagious diseases such as Rabies and Lassa fever, Avian Influenza, Rinderpest, Peste des Petits Ruminants amongst others”.

The minister pledged that the FCT would leaving no stone

unturned to ensure the sustenance of the sector through the implementation of innovative strategies to boost productivity and help enhance systemic capacity and preparedness to combat emerging and infectious animal diseases even before they occur. She used the occasion to reveal that the administration has concluded plans towards establishing a special livestock industrial processing zone in the Paikon-Kore grazing reserve, aimed at boosting the livestock production and processing, while promoting peaceful, mutually-beneficial economic partnerships between herders and pastoralists, creating jobs, and enhancing food security.

The minister commended all

those that have contributed to the success of the veterinary diagnostic laboratory, particularly the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, “on the milestone achievement of creating a vehicle for facilitating quick animal health care service delivery to the residents of the FCT, in line with the food security enhancement policy of the current administration”.

On his part, the acting Secretary FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Mr. Prospect Ibe, also emphasised the importance of the project, stressing that the implementation of innovative programmes would help to reposition the agricultural sector towards increasing food production and improving the livelihood of FCT residents.

How UBTH is Eliminating ‘Out-of-Stock’Syndrome in Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery Rebecca Ejifoma The Head of Pharmacy, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, (UBTH), Dr. Caroline Olumese, has urged hospitals across the country to adopt its innovative method of eliminating Out-of-

Stock (OS) syndrome within the shortest possible time.

The pharmacist said the OS syndrome, which is a common problem of non availability of drugs in Nigerian hospitals, is no longer an acceptable standard in modern health care delivery

system.

Giving these hints while addressing journalists during a tour of the hospital, part of her suggestions was that patients should not take for granted that they would always be suplied medicines and other items

required to manage ailments whenever they visit the hospital.

“We should never tell patients there are no drugs,” she said while emphasising that since the inception of the current management, they developed a policy of 100 per cent availability

of drugs.

She noted: “Management came up with this policy of ‘100 per cent Availability of Drugs’, even up to soap for people with skin problem. If there is nothing, the onus lies on me, as the chief pharmacist, to bring out the

money and buy. This is called 100 per cent availability policy by our amiable CMD.” Olumese further added that it is no longer permitted for staff to instruct patients to source their drugs from anywhere else apart from the hospital pharmacy.

41

T H I S D AY ˾ AUGUST 5, 2021

PERSPECTIVE

Treating Hypertension – Why are We Failing?

Onyekachi Ifudu

H

ypertension is common in Nigerians and indeed in people of African descent wherever they reside.

Despite the availability of a wide variety of antihypertensive drugs, poorly controlled hypertension is the single largest risk factor for organ damage.

This is not just a consequence of socio-economic deprivation, because even in countries that subsidize medications, hypertension control rates remain poor.

What is Blood Pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of the blood against the walls of the arteries when the heart pumps blood into the arteries. Normal BP is below 120/80 mmHg. The top (systolic) is the pressure when the heart contracts to pump blood into the arteries, and the bottom number (diastolic), is the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats.

Both numbers are equally important. When BP is high and untreated, it can damage blood vessels in various organs in the body.

What are the types of Hypertension There are two types of hypertension. Primary hypertension – also known as essential hypertension refers to hypertension that has no known cause.

Over 90% of people who have hypertension have primary hypertension.

Secondary hypertension is when there is an identifiable and potentially reversible cause of hypertension. Less than 10% of hypertension is the secondary type and it is more prevalent in younger people. Some of the causes of secondary hypertension include high levels of hormones that control BP, narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the kidneys, side effects of medications like birth control pills and diet pills.

Why is hypertension common in people of African descent – The “thrifty gene” hypothesis Researchers don’t have a definitive explanation, but it may be due to genetic factors. It has been theorized that people of African descent possess a gene – a thrifty gene for sodium - that enabled their kidneys to excessively reabsorb and conserve sodium in the hot, dry climate of Africa to avoid dehydration.

However, as people migrated out of Africa to cooler climates, they carried this gene with them, resulting in sodium avidity that leads to hypertension especially in societies where salt is abundant in foods.

Also, research shows that there may be a gene that makes people of African descent more salt sensitive. In people who have this gene, as little as half a teaspoon of salt could raise BP by 5 mmHg. Furthermore, even among persons of African descent with normal BP, when given an equivalent amount of salt, their BP rises higher, and their body retains more of the administered salt compared to white persons.

Harmful effects of Hypertension – No organ is spared Hypertension usually has no symptoms. Organ damage goes on quietly without the individual having any symptoms (silent killer), until a

ÙÙÑÖÏ catastrophic event occurs. Hypertension may cause heart failure, stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, abnormal heart rhythm, death, eye disease and erectile dysfunction.

How is Hypertension treated– Drug therapy and Nondrug therapy Broadly there are two approaches to treat hypertension and both are complementary to each other. Your doctor decides on what drug is ideal for you based on factors like cost, side effects, gender, age and any coexistent conditions like diabetes, heart failure or prostate enlargement.

Nondrug therapy of hypertension (also called lifestyle modification) involves the implementation of the following interventions: 1 Dietary salt restriction 2 Maintaining ideal weight 3 Aerobic exercise 4 Reducing alcohol intake 5 DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet – which consists of increased intake of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products combined with salt restriction 6 Smoking cessation, adequate potassium intake, avoidance of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs 7 Good sleep hygiene 8 Vitamin D supplementation in those with vitamin D deficiency

Treatment of Hypertension – Why are we failing Proper treatment of hypertension significantly

reduces the risk of organ damage. However, proper treatment of hypertension MUST include “nondrug” therapy. Failure to aggressively employ the above-listed “lifestyle modifications” is the most important explanation for why a large proportion of treated hypertensive patients fail to achieve the desired BP. This is because the ability of antihypertensive drugs to normalize your BP long-term is dependent on strict adherence to the “lifestyle modifications”. For example, even if you achieve normal BP initially by taking multiple BP medications, and you fail to simultaneously reduce salt intake, after a while your BP will begin to rise again.

The effectiveness of nondrug interventions is well established but, the challenge is that doctors don’t emphasize them enough, and many patients lack the discipline to stick to them. Therefore, it becomes rather convenient to just prescribe drugs.

Other measures that will improve hypertension control is to appreciate that in persons with moderate to severe hypertension, no single drug covers for 24 hours – stagger treatment throughout the day to achieve round-the-clock coverage.

Also, in persons with moderate to severe hypertension and in people of African descent, a diuretic (water pill) is essential to enhance salt excretion – especially since the body reflexly begins to retain salt after the initial lowering of BP with drugs.

Common myths in hypertension “I can’t have hypertension because there is nothing am thinking about or nothing is bothering me”. Thinking or being bothered by something is not the issue – hypertension is very common in people of African descent.

“My BP is not high because I don’t have any symptoms”. In general, there are no symptoms attributable to hypertension – you will have symptoms once it has damaged your organs.

Primary hypertension is a lifelong condition,

so most patients will need BP control for life.

However, achievement of normal BP by strict adherence to lifestyle modification measures would permit reduction in the number or dose, or infrequently, discontinuation of antihypertensive drugs.

Treating Hypertension – The way forward Meticulous adherence to lifestyle modifications to control hypertension is not just effective, but also saves money by reducing the number or dose of antihypertensive medications that the individual requires. While individuals are ultimately responsible for adherence to lifestyle modification measures, many countries are implementing policies at the national level to combat hypertension.

Countries that have implemented a hypertension awareness initiative, reduction of salt intake strategy and aerobic exercise by prescription program at a national level, have witnessed a dramatic improvement in BP control, as well as a remarkable reduction in organ damage and deaths from hypertension. t%S *GVEV JT CPBSE DFSUJmFE JO *OUFSOBM NFEJDJOF /FQISPMPHZ )ZQFSUFOTJPO BOE JT BO "EKVODU 1SPGFTTPS PG .FEJDJOF BU 46/: %PXOTUBUF #SPPLMZO /FX :PSL )F HSBEVBUFE GSPN 6OJWFSTJUZ PG /JHFSJB BOE )BSWBSE 6OJWFSTJUZ EJE SFTJEFODZ USBJOJOH BU $PMVNCJB 6OJWFSTJUZ $PMMFHF PG 1IZTJDJBOT 4VSHFPOT /FX :PSL BOE GFMMPXTIJQ BU 46/: %PXOTUBUF #SPPLMZO /FX :PSL " DMJOJDJBO SFTFBSDIFS %S *GVEV JT FYUFOTJWFMZ QVCMJTIFE BOE IBT SFDFJWFE OVNFSPVT SFTFBSDI HSBOUT JODMVEJOH TVQQPSU GSPN UIF /BUJPOBM *OTUJUVUFT PG )FBMUI )F BVUIPSFE B TUBUF PG UIF BSU BSUJDMF JO 5IF /FX &OHMBOE +PVSOBM PG .FEJDJOF PO UIF i$BSF PG 1BUJFOUT 6OEFSHPJOH )FNPEJBMZTJTw )F IBT EPOF WPMVOUFFS XPSL GPS UIF /BUJPOBM ,JEOFZ 'PVOEBUJPO JO /FX :PSL BOE JO WPMVOUFFSFE GPS TJY NPOUIT BU UIF /FQISPMPHZ VOJU PG UIF /BUJPOBM )PTQJUBM "CVKB

Public Health Physicians of Nigeria Changes Guard Ferdinand Ekechukwu The Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), the largest professional organisation of Disciplinary Public Health Physicians and other Public Health Practitioners in Africa, has announced Prof. Alphonsus Rukevwe Isara, of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin-City as its new President.

According to a statement made available to the journalists, Prof. Isara, who was elected during the 37th Annual General Meeting of the association held on June 17, 2021, in Abuja, took over

from Prof. B. S. C. Uzochukwu.

Prof Isara will serve for a period of two years in the first instance. He had served as the Secretary General of APHPN from 2009 to 2013.

The release further stated that the current and immediate past president of APHPN are top notch Nigeria medical scholars with decades of teaching and research experiences in medicine and are game changers.

“They have produced medical experts, who are doing groundbreaking researches and written their names in gold as solution providers to health issues globally. “ Again, they have managed

different programmes and innovations for better health care at the national and sub-regional levels; and the findings of their researches over the years find expression in their community service activities, which focus on repositioning public health,” the release further stated.

The mandate of the newly elected EXCO of APHPN under the leadership of Prof. Isara is to uphold the tenets of the association as enshrined in its vision: “Excellence in Public Health Practice by Public Health Physicians at all levels contributing the attainment of better health, equity and well- being”.

Prof. Isara is a Professor

of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Benin, and a Consultant Public Health Physician at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).

He has been in the forefront of promoting Public Health in Nigeria for over two decades; and at present a member of the Board of the Faculty of Public Health and Community Medicine, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.

He is also the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI), University of Benin; and currently, the Secretary of Network on Behavioural

Research for Child Survival in Nigeria (NETBRECSIN).

Other officials elected with Prof. Isara include: Prof. Mustapha Jamda, of the Department of Community Medicine, University of Abuja, FCT, Vice President I; Dr. Sunday Aderibigbe, of Department of Epidemiology & Community Health, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Vice President II; Dr. Alphonsus Aigbiremolen, of Cedar Centre for Health and Development, Ekpoma, Edo State, Secretary General.

Also elected are Dr. Ulunma Mariere, of Department of Community Medicine & Public Health, Federal Medical Center,

Yenagoa, Assistant Secretary; Dr. Omosivie Maduka, of Department of Community Medicine, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Publicity Secretary; Dr. Achunam Nwabueze, of Department of Community Medicine & Primary Health Care, Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Internal Auditor; Dr. Adesuwa Aigbokahode, of Department of Public Health, Federal Medical Center, Asaba, Treasurer; and Prof. Vivian Omuemu, of Department of Public Health & Community Medicine, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Editor-in-Chief.

42

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ 2021

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

FG Confirm NIPOST’s Rights, Unveils N50 Revenue Stamp The federal government has launched the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) N50 revenue stamp, confirming the rights of the postal agency over stamp duty.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, led the chairman of NIPOST, Maimuna YayaAbubakar; Postmaster-General of the Federation, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi in unveiling the stamp at a ceremony held at the NCC Digital Complex, Abuja.

Speaking, the minister said plans had reached advanced stage to unbundle NIPOST adding that, “Soon, we will be unveiling other parts of NIPOST such as Property and Development Company, Transportation and Logistics Company, NIPOST Microfinance Bank, among others.

We will achieve this by leveraging on all our infrastructures around the country.”

Confirming the crucial role of NIPOST in the scheme of things in Nigeria, the Minister said, “NIPOST is one of the most important institutions of government historically, economically, socially, politically. But for many years before this administration came, NIPOST was neglected completely.”

In her remarks, Yaya-Abubakar

said the official unveiling of NIPOST revenue stamp represented a quantum leap in the re-engineering efforts of the NIPOST, aimed not only at repositioning the agency for optimal performance but stimulating it to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country.

“We are thankful that the dust has finally settled with the signing into Law of the Amended Finance Act, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari. NIPOST is back to its legal position of administration of stamps: as the exclusive producer and custodian of stamps in Nigeria.

“There is no need overstating the obvious which is that NIPOST stamps have been unquestionably used since time immemorial as the only instrument for denoting duty.

“Today’s event is a testament that NIPOST is finally free from all forms of constraints (legal and fictional) to execute its mandate without let. But the truth is that we couldn’t have achieved this alone,” she said.

Adewusi, speaking at the event, reiterated that the postal socioeconomic sector is undergoing rapid changes and development in its operations.

He said, “Stamps have been used in Nigeria since 1874, when

Nigeria pioneered the production of stamps with the issuance of what was then known as the stamps of Lagos.

“The use of stamp is not limited to payment of postal services alone. Stamps also serve as objects of visual communication and as a dependable recorder of events for posterity.

“Through stamps, NIPOST has documented Nigeria’s history, educating and preserving our national heritage, among others.

To describe NIPOST as a pride of immense value is not only appropriate to the Nigerian public, but also to the international community. NIPOST over the years has played strategic role in the socio-economic and political spectrum of our economy.”

“The revenue stamps, which come in a single denomination of N50, will be made available in our post offices nationwide, ”he added. Also speaking, Chairman, House Committee on Communication, Akeem Adeyemi disclosed at the event that the NIPOST Repeal and Re-enactment Bill, 2021, has passed the third reading.

“The bill seeks to unbundle NIPOST for efficient service delivery by creating a commission to regulate its affairs, ”Adeyemi said.

Shareholders Commend Stanbic IBTC over Dividend Payout Shareholders of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc have again lauded the company for its last dividend payout of 360 kobo per share for the financial year ended 31 December 2020, as well as the bonus shares of one for every six ordinary shares, approved at the last Annual General Meeting.

Some of the shareholders who expressed their appreciation to Stanbic IBTC said that they were glad that despite the socio-economic challenges of 2020, the Stanbic IBTC Group not only paid scrip and cash dividend, but also continued to keep many Nigerians in employment while also investing in communities within the country via various Corporate Social Investment projects. “Indeed, the Stanbic IBTC Group deserves a lot

of commendation,” said Mr. Tunde Bamidele, one of the company’s shareholders.

The last audited results showed that Stanbic IBTC posted gross earnings of N234.446 billion against N233.808 billion in 2019. Stanbic IBTC’s deposits to customers improved from N819.944 billion to N637.840 billion, while loans and advances improved from N532.124 billion to N625.139 billion.

Based on the results, the board recommended a final dividend of 360 kobo in addition to a bonus of one new share for every six ordinary shares already held.

The shares of Stanbic IBTC jumped 9.9 per cent from N44.05 to N48.45 as investors reacted positively to the results and dividend declaration.

Analysts at FSDH Merchant Bank Research had said the 6.6

per cent increase in total income to N198.9 billion recorded by Stanbic IBTC was primarily driven by a 14.7 per cent jump in non-interest revenue of N124.7 billion.

Non-interest revenue ascended 14.7 per cent, powered by a 43.4 per cent increase in trading income to N52.1.

Speaking further, Bamidele expressed gratitude to the Board and Management of Stanbic IBTC for the steadfastness, hard work and dedication, which resulted in the N83 billion profit after tax for the 2020 financial year, and the subsequent 360 kobo dividend and allotment of bonus shares.

He said: “I would like to express my gratitude to the Board of Directors, Management and members of Staff of Stanbic IBTC for a job well done.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JANUARY 2021 Money Supply (M3)

38,779,455.43

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

1,039,129.55

Money Supply (M2)

37,740,325.88

-- Quasi Money

21,779,302.69

-- Narrow Money (M1)

15,961,023.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,364,871.13

---- Demand Deposits

13,596,152.06

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,414,275.50

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

31,365,179.93

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

42,916,586.63

---- Credit to Government (Net)

12,304,773.44

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

30,611,813.19

--Other Assets Net

3,892,112.74

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,264,585.14

--Currency in Circulation

2,831,167.19

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

10,433,417.96 317,234.17

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR)

SEC Inaugurates Issuers’ Forum to Aid Capital Market Devt.

Ndubuisi Francis ÓØ ÌßÔË The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has inaugurated the Securities Issuers Forum (SIF), designed to aid capital market development in the country.

Speaking during the virtual inauguration of SIF, which is a collaborative effort of the SEC and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the Director General of the Commission, Mr. Lamido Yuguda said the forum has the potential to act as a bridge between the SEC and issuers of securities.

SIF, he stated, will create a platform for issuers to engage the Commission in order to encourage more listings, improve contribution of issuers to the development of the capital market as key stakeholders, deepen

and broaden the market and ultimately contribute to Nigeria’s economic development.

According to him, it is also expected that with the establishment of SIF, the SEC will be better positioned to engage issuers on capital raising opportunities to facilitate increased participation in the capital market, development of new products to meet funding needs and addressing issues relating to compliance with regulatory requirements.

He noted that the idea of a forum for issuers of securities is not novel, adding that such fora exist in other parts of the world to cater to the interests of issuers of securities in the capital market.

According to him, in Europe, the European Issuers acts as the voice of issuers of securities repre-

senting over 8,000 companies and national associations of issuers of securities.

He added that in the United States of America and South Africa, the American Securities Association and the Debt Issuers Association respectively serve as the associations for issuers of securities.

Lamido noted that “In Nigeria, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the umbrella body for over 3,000 members seeks to protect interests and rights of businesses and ultimately influence policy making.

“By encouraging the establishment of the SIF in collaboration with NECA, the SEC hopes to bridge the gap that exists between the expectations of issuers and the requirements of the regulator,” he said.

Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ ͯͱϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE ˜ ͯͳ ͰͮͰͯ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $73.15 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $75.29 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

43

T H I S D AY ˾ ͳ˜ 2021

Investors’Wealth Up N5.13bn As Stock Market Extend Gains Darasimi Adebisi Transactions on the Nigerian stock market yesterday closed on a positive note, extending its gain in August to three-day consecutive trading sessions, as investors’ wealth increased

by N5.13 billion.

The stock market appreciation was buoyed by buy-interest in Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Presco

Plc and 14 others.

The market capitalization value rose by 0.13per cent or N5.13 billion to close at N20.282 trillion from N20.277 trillion it opened for trading yesterday, while the Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 0.03 per cent or 9.84 basis points, representing an increase of to close at 38,927.83 basis points from38,917.99 basis points the market opened for

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

trading.

With the marginal gain yesterday, the stock market Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at -3.33per cent.

However, the market breadth closed negatively, as 26 stocks dropped in share price as against 17 gainers. Cutix Plc recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent or N0.50 to close at N5.50 kobo, per

S E C U R I T I E S MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

share. FG142037s2 followed with a gain of nine per cent or N10.40 to close at N125, while Veritaskap went up by 8.70 per cent to close at N0.25, per share.

TrippleG Plc rose by 7.78 per cent to close at N0.97 kobo, while Presco appreciated by 3.71 per cent to close at N72.60 per share.

On the losers chart, Sovereign Insurance depreciated by

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

7.14 per cent to close at N0.26 kobo, per share. Regal insurance followed with a decline of 6.67 per cent to close at N0.42, while Unity Bank Plc lost five per cent to close at N0.57 kobo, per share.

Jaiz Bank lost 4.84 per cent to close at N0.59 kobo, while Caverton shed 4.26per cent to close at N1.80 per share.

Market turnover closes negative as volume moved

O F

down by -10.87per cent as against -5.25per cent downtick recorded in the previous session.

Transactions in the shares of Sterling Bank topped the activity chart with 51.83 million shares valued at N79.29 million.

Transcorp followed with 19.24mllion shares worth N18.17 million to join the most active to boost market turnover.

0 4 / 0 8 / 2 0 2 1 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

44

THURSDAY, ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

45

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 • T H I S DAY

MARKET NEWS A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 03Aug-2021, unless otherwise stated.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS

MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS

AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 156.81 158.37 -3.07% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 4.63% Nigeria International Debt Fund 311.70 311.70 -22.74% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 111.49 111.49 -0.54% ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD info@acapng.com Web: www.acapng.com, Tel: +234 1 291 2406, +234 1 291 2868 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ACAP Canary Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ACAP Income Funds N/A N/A N/A AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.05% AIICO Balanced Fund 3.25 3.41 -4.47% info@anchoriaam.com ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 7.14% Anchoria Equity Fund 135.36 136.91 1.76% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.10 1.10 -17.53% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Discovery Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A ARM Ethical Fund 38.27 39.43 13.53% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.09 1.10 -0.87% ARM Fixed Income Fund 0.97 0.97 -7.90% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 8.02% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 105.51 105.51 3.74% AVA GAM Fixed Income Naira Fund 1,014.26 1,014.26 1.43% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 2.00 2.00 -12.19% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 2.11 2.16 -9.34% CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com ; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund 1.01 1.01 2.14% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Paramount Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Women's Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.24% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 118.79 119.55 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 N/A N/A Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 107.47 107.47 CORONATION ASSEST MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com , Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 7.00% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.19 1.20 -0.98% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.36 1.36 -14.27% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A 100.00 100.00 8.49% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 6.80% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,138.70 1,153.72 -1.15% FBNQUEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Fixed Income Fund 1,397.31 1,397.31 11.41% FBN Balanced Fund 191.47 192.83 2.02% FBN Halal Fund 111.60 111.60 7.78% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 9.49% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Legacy Money Market Fund Legacy Debt Fund Legacy Equity Fund Legacy USD Bond Fund FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Coral Balanced Fund Coral Income Fund Coral Money Market Fund

126.44 157.76

126.44 3.29% 159.97 4.35% fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com

Bid Price 1.00 3.96 1.59 1.18

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 1.00 5.33% 3.96 2.36% 1.62 4.24% 1.18 4.03% coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com

Bid Price 3,721.40 3,358.16 100.00

Offer Price 3,773.96 3,358.16 100.00

Yield / T-Rtn -0.65% 2.50% 4.23%

GREENWICH ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gtlgroup.com Web: www.gtlgroup.com ; Tel: +234 1 4619261-2 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Greenwich Plus Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria Entertainment Fund N/A N/A N/A GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@gdl.com.ng Web: www.gdl.com.ng ; Tel: +234 9055691122 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn GDL Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A INVESTMENT ONE FUNDS MANAGEMENT LTD enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.investment-one.com; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Abacus Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 7.92% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.80 2.86 -2.00% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 4.50% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 151.92 152.20 -2.30% Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF) - June Year End 1.28 1.32 1.70% Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End 1.10 1.10 0.95% LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.43 1.45 4.86% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,139.38 1,139.38 4.97% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 11.40 11.46 8.87% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 7.33% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 1.65 1.69 7.19% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.48 11.54 -5.37% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 5.49% PACAM Equity Fund 1.65 1.66 4.36% PACAM EuroBond Fund 112.57 114.34 2.44% SCM CAPITAL LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital Frontier Fund 134.57 137.17 10.02% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.01 1.01 10.06% STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 3,272.61 3,307.28 1.89% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 231.84 231.84 3.11% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 1.22 1.24 4.24% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 305.31 305.31 3.61% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 224.04 227.35 2.65% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 8.00% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 10,309.58 10,458.46 -1.75% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.27 1.27 3.22% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 115.04 115.04 3.56% Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund 102.73 102.73 UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.29 1.31 1.28% United Capital Bond Fund 1.90 1.90 3.90% United Capital Equity Fund 0.87 0.89 9.23% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 9.89% United Capital Eurobond Fund 119.38 119.38 4.31% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.05 1.07 3.34% United capital Sukuk Fund 1.06 1.06 5.82% QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Equity Fund 12.94 13.05 9.01% Zenith Ethical Fund 14.20 14.33 16.23% Zenith Income Fund 24.24 24.24 1.11% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 6.81%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

124.98 51.79

10.62% 2.65%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

13.49

13.59

2.04%

127.09 100.85 17.91 18.16

130.15 102.99 18.01 18.26

5.65% 1.62%

Fund Name SFS REIT Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund

SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund MERGROWTH ETF MERVALUE ETF

VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Money Market Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund

funds@vetiva.com Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

3.90 5.90 17.62 1.00 19.59 151.59

3.94 5.98 17.72 1.00 19.79 153.59

3.38% 3.58% 8.54% 6.33% -4.49% -30.81%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

107.40

13.11%

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

46

IMAGES

T H I S D AY ˾ THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021

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

L-R: Head of Media and Human Resources, JSP Communications, Funmilayo Erikitola; the President of Association of Catholic Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (ACMPN), Dr. Matthew Ashikeni; and Managing Director/CEO, Stratech Properties, Moses Kolawole Obisesan, at the 15th Abuja International Housing Show (AIHS) in Abuja...recently

L-R: President, Board of Organisation of Military Sports in Africa (OSMA), Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdullahi; Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; and Minister of State of the ministry, Abdullahi Mohammed, during the investiture of Onu as the patron of Sahel Military Games by the OSMA in Abuja...recently

L-R: Brand Manager, Beverage and Bakery, Rite Foods Limited, Boluwatife Adedugbe; winner of the Nigerian Idol Season 6, Kingdom Kroseide; and the Managing Director of Rite Foods Limited, Mr. Seleem Adegunwa, during the Nigerian Idol winner’s visit to Rite Foods Limited corporate office in Lagos...recently PHOTO: SUNDAY ADIGUN

L-R: Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa; former state Governor, Chief James Ibori; and the immediatepast state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, chatting during the funeral service of late Mrs. Tuwere Nelly Utuama in Ughelli, Delta State...recently

L-R: Special Assistant to the Director-General (DG), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Special Duties, Mr. Emeka Duru; DG of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim; Director, Standard Development Directorate, SON, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu; and Deputy Director, Head of Public Relations, SON, Mr. Bola Fashina, during SON’s capacity building workshop for journalists in Lagos...recently

Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court (left) administering Oath of Secrecy and Declaration of Secrecy to some staff members of the State House at the Presidential Villa in Abuja... recently

Member of the House of Representatives representing Langtang North and South federal constituency, Hon. Beni Lar (left), having a jolly good time with some women during the distribution of fertilizers, seedlings, and farm tools as part of her empowerment programme for women and youths, in Langtang, Plateau State... recently

47

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Aiteo Buys 50 Gunboats, Maritime Equipment for Navy Goddy Egene The Nigerian Navy yesterday received 50 assault gunboats and drones to tackle crime and criminality in the nation’s

territorial waters.

The platforms and equipment, which were donated by Aiteo Global Group in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, include 21 gunboats, 14 operational patrol boats, seven

NSIA Explains Alleged $200m Arbitration Settlement for Chinese Coy

James Emejo in Abuja

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has refuted media reports that it had been directed by the federal government to source $200 million for the settlement of a Chinese firm, Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, following the International Court of Arbitration ruling in Paris against the federal government.

The report had alleged that the federal government, through the Ministry of Power had agreed to pay the sum, thereby mandating the NSIA to work out modalities for the settling the debt as a result of an alleged breach of contract

among for the 1,525 megawatts Mambilla hydropower project and and the re-award of the same to another Chinese firm.

But, NSIA spokesman, Titilayo Olubiyi, said the authority had not received any instruction from the federal government to bankroll the judgement debt.

However, he explained that, “The only instruction we have is to conduct value engineering” on the project.

The report, however, stated that based on the terms of settlement, Sunrise is expected relinquish all claims to the project once the requirements contained in the agreement with the federal government were settled.

houseboats and four airboats.

Others are four high-speed interception inshore patrol boats, long-range surveillance drones and six high definition cameras.

Receiving the items, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, said the hardware would be deployed to the creeks to fight oil theft, piracy and sea robbery.

He said the donation was the manifestation of months

of collaboration with critical maritime stakeholders to support naval operations.

“The delivery of these platforms and assets aligns with the provisions of the Nigerian Navy 2021-2030 strategic plans on inter-agency and sub-regional cooperation.

“This is a milestone in our collaborative engagement with corporate maritime stakeholders to rid the nation’s maritime environment

of criminal elements and economic saboteurs.

“To this end, these platforms will enhance the navy maritime security architecture and bolster our maritime security operations effort,” he said.

Gambo commended Aiteo for the donations and sought the support of other corporate organisations, to enable the navy to deploy more gunboats and halt the growing criminal

activities in Nembe Creek Trunkline area of Bayelsa.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Iraboh, said the new platforms would be deployed to complement other internal security operations across the country.

The defence chief gave assurance that the boats would be used for its set objectives of securing lives and property, including the nation’s oil and gas installations.

NAFDAC CAMPAIGN…

L-R: Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Healthcare Services, Hon. Tanko Sununu; Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye; and Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, at the inauguration of NAFDAC sensitisation campaign in selected states of the federation in Abuja…yesterday

Mob Set Ablaze Two Suspected Armed APC Resolves Issues on Ward Congress in Ondo Robbers in Kano Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano Two suspected armed robbers have been burnt to death in a mob action in Rimi village of Sumaila Local Government Area of Kano State.

The incident occurred on Tuesday when three of the suspected armed robbers, who are said to have been terrorising some villages around the local government area entered Rimi to commit robbery but were busted by Good Samaritan.

THISDAY gathered that two of the three suspected armed robbers were apprehended by some angry mobs while the other one escaped.

The two suspects were then beaten up by dozens of youths, who hung tyres on their necks and set them on fire until they were bunt to ashes.

Spokesman of the Kano State

Police Command, Mr. Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, confirmed the incident to reporters yesterday.

Kiyawa, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said the command received a distress call that some mobs set two notorious armed robbers on fire while the other one escaped.

“From the information at hand, the robbers was said to have been terrorising Rimi and Magami villages and met their waterloo when they came to launch operation on Rimi village.”

He said two of the suspected armed robbers were apprehended by some mobs and were set on fire, while the other one escaped.

Kiyawa said when police arrived at the scene, they found that the robbers were burnt to ashes, thereby evacuating their remains to hospital.

BUA Cement Donates Cement, N10m to Host Communities in Sokoto Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto The BUA Cement Company, as part of it corporate social responsibility, has donated 150 tonnes of cement and N10 million to its host communities in Wamakko Local Government of Sokoto State.

Presenting the items to the beneficiaries t The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BUA, Mr. Yusuf Binji, said the gesture was meant to provide succour to the people of the communities.

Binji, who was represented by the Manager, Administration and Corporate Affairs, Sada Suleiman, noted that the event was an annual occasion for the company to donate to its host community despite COVID-19 pandemic challenges.

He further disclosed that the gesture would enable the benefiting communities and individuals to rehabilitate cemetery, town hall square and private buildings.

He maintained that with the cost of building materials the company deemed it fit to provide the materials for them to carry out rehabilitation.

James Sowole in Akure

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has resolved all issues that emanated from the last Saturday’s ward congresses of the party and would submit its report to its national secretariat.

The Chairman of the Committee for the Ward Congress in Ondo State, Mr. Gbenga Nasir Isiaka, stated this while addressing journalists on the exercise.

Isiaka, who was flanked

by other members of the committee, commended the Acting Chairman of the APC in Ondo State, Mr. Ade Adetimehin, for piloting the affairs of the party in the state effectively.

The committee’s chairman said that the congress was conducted in line with the consensus principle that was adopted by the APC in the state.

He said the committee on arrival in the state, met with various stakeholders and called those who could not be met

physically to ensure that the party truly adopted consensus arrangement.

Isiaka added that the committee, split into three teams to be able to work in three senatorial districts of the state.

He, however, said that the committee encountered some aggrieved members of the party while in the field.

He said: “We encountered very few skirmishes in few areas, which was less than five per cent of the entire state.

“We are addressing the media today because we have been able to resolve all issues emanating from the exercise irrespective of the fact that such complaints were negligible.”

Isiaka commended the State Chairman of the APC, Mr. Ade Adetimehin, and other members of the executive for the manner in which they handled issues on the congress and what the committee gathered from various stakeholders of the party.

NDLEA Rallies International Cooperation against Drug Trafficking Signs MoU with Gambian antic-narcotic agency

Michael Olugbode in Abuja The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its Gambian counterpart, the Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Gambia (DLEAG).

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Banjul, capital of Gambia, the Chairman/ Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) harped on the need for regional and international cooperation

in order to successfully cut off of drug supply to the rising criminal gangs across the world.

A statement by the Spokesman of the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, explained that the MoU borders on cooperation in combating illicit production, manufacture, and trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors.

Marwa said nations across the globe are daily grappling with the challenge of druginduced crime and criminalities, and as such nations must forge

a common front to confront the evil twins of drug trafficking and abuse.

He expressed optimism that the collaboration between Nigeria and Gambia on drug war will ginger similar partnerships among other countries in West Africa and the African continent.

According to the NDLEA boss, the MoU is in furtherance of the affirmation and commitment entered into between the Ministers of Justice of the two countries at the 62nd session of the UN Commission

on Drug in Vienna, Austria.

He said: “The commonality of English Language between us and shared colonial history, heightened by our cultural affinity and business transactions in addition to statistics on drug abuse in West Africa calls for urgent need for collaboration. We in the NDLEA are prepared to collaborate with the sharing of intelligence, operations and any other area that will help to effectively combat illicit drug trafficking between our two countries.”

Abiodun Orders Contractor Back to Mowe/Ofada Road The Ogun State Government has ordered the contractor handling the Mowe-Ofada road reconstruction in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state back to site.

The contract for the reconstruction of the eight km road was awarded by the immediate-past administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun in 2013.

However, the road was abandoned by the contractor,

CSCC, in 2018, following the failure of the state government to defray the sum of N500 million it owed the firm. The dual carriageway is now in a dilapidated state with one side impassable.

The state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, who disclosed this during a chat with journalists, said the state Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has approved that the contractor should return to site

to complete the reconstruction of the road. The project, he said, stretched from Ofada roundabout to Mowe junction, linking the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

According to Akinsanya, the governor has directed that the contractor should be mobilised to site immediately to complete the project.

The commissioner said the Abiodun administration has taken it upon itself to complete all the abandoned road projects left by

the Amosun administration.

Similarly, he said: “On account of the creativity and prudence of the current administration, the 42 km Sagamu-Siun-Abeokuta road, which the Amosun administration claimed it awarded at a total cost of N60 billion, but was later abandoned with no work done, is being reconstructed by a firm, Strabic, through two layers (binding and wearing course) at a cost less than N20 billion, including street lighting.”

48

THURSDAY AUGUST 5, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS XTRA

87 Boko Haram Fighters, Families Surrender to Troops Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The Nigerian Army yesterday said that 87 more fighters of terrorist groups, Boko Haram and Islamic State for West African Province (ISWAP) and their families surrendered to troops in Borno State.

The Nigerian Army said last week that 73 insurgents and their families including women and children surrendered to troops of 202 Battalion, who took them into custody in Ruwaza village in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.

A war update issued by Army Spokesman, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, stated that in continuation of the ongoing intensive clearance operations across the theatre of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), “more Boko Haram terrorists and elements of Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and their families, who have

hitherto hibernated around the fringes of Sambisa forest have yielded to troops’ heavy artillery and air bombardments and surrendered to troops at Forward Operational Base (FOB) Banki Junction/BOCOBS in Bama, Borno State on August 2, 2021”.

It said the terrorists also surrendered several assorted weapons and incendiaries, comprising 19 male fighters, 19 adult females and 49 children from Njimia village and environs.

“The terrorists lamented that the ground and condition in the forest have become untenable, hence their surrendering”, it said. The update listed the fire arms and incendiaries recovered from the terrorists to include, eight AK 47 rifles, one General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), two Fabrique Nationale (FN) rifles, one dane gun,one Makarov pistol, and

Air Strikes Kill 19 Insurgents in North-east Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja Nigerian Air Force Alpha jets conducted air strikes that killed 19 Insurgents and destroyed gun trucks and heavy duty vehicles conveying ammunition to Parisu near Sambisa Forest.

THISDAY gathered that fighter jets struck the gun trucks with rocket fire that killed insurgents destroying other logistics vehicles of the terrorists.

The air interdiction was conducted by the Air Task Force of Operation Hadin Kai. A military source in the North-east said the attack was part of the ongoing onslaught aimed at containing insurgency.

“It has been a successful week for Nigerian military troops under Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) as they continue

their onslaught of BH/ISWAP terrorists operating in Borno State.

“Today, the air component of OPHK recorded yet another successful strike undertaken using Nigerian Air Force Alpha jets after it took three gun trucks and a heavy duty truck (Yellow bucket) suspected to be conveying ammunition and other logistics supply between Parisu and Sambisa”, the source said.

“The vehicles were engaged with rockets leading to their total destruction along with about 19 insurgents.

“About four surviving terrorists were observed frantically trying to put out the fire from the bucket truck confirming that it was carrying important logistics supply”, the source said.

Group: Buhari Determined to Upgrade National Infrastructure

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Legacy Awareness and Campaign, a voluntary thinktank group of the ruling party, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is determined to set new standards in upgrading national infrastructure.

The group made the declaration in a statement that was issued yesterday and jointly signed by the Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, the Youth Leader of the APC, Mr. Ismail Ahmed, the former Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu and a Presidential Aide, Mr. Tolu Ogunlesi.

The group noted that projects Nigerians have looked forward to in decades would be completed and commissioned between now and May 29, 2023, when Buhari’s second and final term in office would come

to an end.

The group noted that the high rate of abandoned or slow-moving road projects across the country prompted the present administration to increase the amount of funding available for road projects It noted the Buhari’s administration has devoted more resources to road and transport infrastructure than any other administration since 1999.

It said: “In the area of roads and bridges, work has since resumed on several stalled, abandoned or solution-defying road projects that were inherited, like the LokoOweto Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Benin Expressway, the EnuguPort Harcourt Expressway, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Kano-Maiduguri Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, Obajana-Kabba Road, Ilorin-Jebba Road, Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Road.

89 rounds of 7.62mm (special) ammunition.

Others include: 89 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, 66 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunition, 5 x 9mm rounds of ammunition, two hand grenades, 27 AK 47

rifle magazines and two FN rifle magazines.

Others weapons recovered from them are one pistol magazine, 1 x 60mm mortar bomb, 10 x14.5mm empty cases, two primed suicide vests, 72

trigger switches, 10 primed Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), five electric detonating chords, six packs of water gel explosives and six mobile phones.

Other items recovered

include one camel pack, one cammoulage bag, two hard drives, one plier, two unserviceable hand held radios, two scissors, and needles, two match boxes and the sum of N55,000.

DISCUSSING GOOD GOVERNANCE…

L– R: President of Lagos Country Club, Mr. Funmi Bamkole; Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; and Vice President of Lagos Country Club, Mr. Igho Okor, during the club’s 72nd anniversary lecture on “Imperatives of Good Governance” delivered by Hamzat in Ikeja, Lagos… yesterday

MRA Rejects DSS Probe of Attack on Journalist, Calls for Independent Investigation The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) yesterday said that it has no confidence in the proposed investigation by the Department of State Services (DSS) into the reported assault on Vanguard newspaper’s photojournalist, Mr. Oluwagbemiga Olamikan, by officials of the agency.

The MRA described the proposed investigation by the DSS as an exercise in futility that would have no credibility. It called for a serious, independent

and impartial investigation into this and other attacks against journalists.

The MRA’s Legal Officer, Ms Obioma Adesewa Okonkwo, said in a statement that was issued in Lagos that “the idea that the DSS plans to investigate itself in order to bring about a resolution of this matter is offensive to any concept of justice or fairness and runs counter to the well-established legal principle of fairness that you cannot be a judge in your

own cause.

“If anyone has any doubt about the inherent lack of credibility of such a process, the person needs to look no further than the statement made by the Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, on August 3 in announcing the plan by the security agency to conduct an investigation and even before any investigation has started, that the DSS is a responsible security organisation with good working relationship

with the media and so could not have assaulted journalists.”

Okonkwo argued that having already reached a conclusion absolving the agency of any blame even before any investigation, it would be difficult for any fair-minded person to believe that the DSS could have an open mind to conduct a fair and impartial investigation that would likely result in its own indictment or establish the culpability of its personnel.

‘Insecurity Has Created More Widows, Orphans in Armed Forces’ Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja Wife of the Chief of Defence Staff and President of Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA), Mrs. Lucky Irabor, has lamented the state of insecurity in the country which led to the death of many security personnel, leaving more widows and orphans in the barracks.

She spoke at a skills acquisition programme in Abuja designed to empower wives whose spouses died fighting insurgency and other security challenges.

The DEPOWA president spoke as the Minister of Women

Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, rallied support for wives of fallen security personnel and affirmed the commitment of her ministry to partner with the DEPOWA) towards empowerment of women and youths to achieve economic prosperity of the nation.

Mrs. Irabor, said: “The insecurity the North-east and other flash points had led to loss of lives which have left widows and orphans in the military and police barracks”.

She stated that embarking on skills acquisition for widows and vulnerable youths was in line with the role which DEPOWA

and her affiliate member associations were playing in addressing “the enormous social and emotional stress, associated with being the wives of men, who are trained to lay down their lives for their country”.

Irabor disclosed that 40 students who successfully passed through the six months rigorous and intensive training, comprised of widows and orphans of fallen heroes.

She added that graduands were trained in the various vocational skills which include fashion designing, catering, hair dressing, make-up and gele tying, barbing, cosmetic production,

computer studies and bead stringing.

Aside the starter-packs, Mrs. Irabor equally revealed that DEPOWA would provide funds for the graduands to be able to rent shops for one year.

The DEPOWA president further mentioned the starterpacks that were given to graduands, which were set of pots, ovens, cylinders, cake mixers, coolers and baking pans.

Others, she said, include generators, clippers, powder brush, combs, catering, weaving and sewing, tonging machines, hair dresser, standing and hand hair dryers.

APC Chieftain Sues Kalu Over Alleged Certificate Forgery Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon Benjamin Kalu, has a fresh legal battle to save his seat after over two years in the National Assembly.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Okechukwu Ezeala, filed a suit asking an Umuahia High Court presided over by Justice O.A. Chijioke to sack Kalu over alleged certificate forgery and impersonation.

Other defendants in the suit No. HU/265/2020, include the ruling APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the Speaker, House of Representatives.

In the originating summons, the claimant alleged that the primary and secondary school certificates that Kalu, who represents Bende Federal Constituency on the APC platform, had submitted to INEC contained incriminating irregularities as the names on the said certificates are completely different from his current identities.

In the affidavit in support of the originating summons,

the claimant contended that Benjamin Okezie Kalu did not submit any valid document to prove that he attended primary and secondary schools, because there is no Benjamin Kalu in both the primary and the secondary school certificates he submitted to the INEC. Speaking with journalists in Umuahia, Ezeala said that he was sure of the validity of his claims and that was why he approached the court to remove Hon Kalu having deceived both INEC and voters in his constituency to win an election.

He stated that the documents

that Kalu submitted to the INEC contained “one school certificate from Wilcox Memorial School, Aba, bearing Okezie and another one bearing Osisiogu Okezie, so the two names, Benjamin and Kalu are very strange names to say the least.”

The claimant argued that “if we elected Benjamin Kalu in Bende into the House of Representatives and there is no Benjamin Kalu and neither is there a valid change of name” he cannot retain the mandate by mixing up several names since there was no valid change of name up till university level.

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NEWS XTRA

Immigration Deploys Digital Operations to Check Illegal Immigrants Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti As the country groans under attacks by suspected foreign herders, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr. Mohammed Babandede, has said that the service would deploy technological innovations to secure Nigerian borders.

Babandede said the digitalisation of operations at borders would complement other security measures like 24- hour border patrol system, establishment of border corps and border management sector in the NIS to boost services in areas where illegal immigrants and criminals used to sneak into the nation.

On the issue of corruption in the system, Babandede stated that the service has introduced e-passport system for Nigerians

to apply for travel documents online without physically appearance that could warrant extortion.

Babandede spoke at the NIS Command in Ado Ekiti yesterday during a sensitisation and enlightenment workshop tagged: “Zero Tolerance Approach to Corruption” for men and officers of the immigration service.

The comptroller general, who was represented by an Assistant Comptroller, Mr. Garba Idris, said the NIS has upped the games in its operations at borders with Republic of Benin, Cameroun, Niger, and Chad that were being used by foreigners to invade the country.

He said: “Nigeria is a very big nation and some of the crimes being perpetrated here were through these illegal

immigrants. We have had enough from these immigrants and we are moving against them.

“Knowing that human efforts might not be enough, the NIS has introduced technology to our operations at borders with these four countries. This was different from other reforms like autogate innovation system that we are using in airports and seaports to track down illegal foreigners.

“Part of our reforms now is that, being a national of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can’t guarantee you free exit and entry. Before you are allowed into Nigeria, you must have all valid papers and means of livelihood, so you don’t come here and constitutes nuisance to our nation.

Zulum, Shettima Distance Selves from Embattled Kyari Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri Borno State Governor, Prof.

Babagana Zulum and his predecessor, Senator Kashim Shettima have distanced themselves from embattled “Supercop” Abba Kyari, insisting that they have not met with him recently.

A posting on the Facebook of Abba Kyari, who hails from Borno State, has videos and

photo splashes of him with some prominent politicians in the state among them the two respected indigenes of the state, Zulum and Shettima with the writing: “Today With my elder brothers his Excellency Governor Zulum of Borno State, Former Governor Kashim Shettima and Senator Habu Kyari.”

But in a reaction to the Facebook posting, both Zulum and Shettima denied recently meeting with Kyari, who

was few days ago suspended from the Nigeria Police for his indictment in a fraud case at an American court alongside Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Ray Hushpuppi.

A statement by the Spokesman to the Governor, Mallam Isa Gusau yesterday said both Zulum and Shettima never even knew the residence of the embattled deputy commissioner of police, let alone visiting him.

APC Sets up Young Women Forum, Appoints State Representatives The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker and Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has approved state contact representatives of the Progressive Young Women Forum (PYWF) for effective delivery of the forum’s mandate.

In a statement signed by the group interim Publicity Secretary, Theresa Thekena, yesterday, she stated that the appointment was a recognition of their diligence, hard work, sacrifice and commitment to the party.

The statement added that the political platform was a product of the visionary leadership of the National Caretaker Committee Women Representative, Hon. Stella Okotete, for progressive women between the ages of 18 and 35, to empower and promote the visibility of young women in politics and governance.

According to her, PYWF is a platform designed to holistically invest in the leadership and socio-political potential of young women in Nigeria, to harness the strength and capacity that women hold in population size, economic activities and governance.

Some of the appointment contact persons are: Fatima Mohammed for Borno State;

Tonbra Ekiotenne for Bayelsa State; Anthonia Tortor and Maureen Wilson for Delta State; Elizabeth Aniebiri for Enugu State; Omowunmi Ogbara and Moremi Ojudu for Lagos State; Modinat Lawal for Ogun State; Yusuf Monsurat for Kwara State; Odaudu Joy for Kogi State, and Patience Charles for Adamawa

State among others.

The statement read in parts: “The APC Caretaker and Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has approved state contact representatives of the Progressive Young Women Forum (PYWF), for effective delivery of the forum’s mandate.

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Gunmen Kill RCCG Pastor in Lagos

Sunday Ehigiator

The Resident Pastor of King of Kings Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Mile-12, Lagos, Bolanle Ibrahim, was yesterday shot dead by a yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

According to reports, the incident occurred yesterday when the pastor was officiating at a child dedication.

The reports indicated that the gunmen tried to drag Ibrahim out of the church, just as another senior pastor in the church approached them and demanded what they wanted from him.

The senior pastor, whose name could not be identified as at time of filing in this report, was attacked and waded off before they returned to Pastor Ibrahim and killed him.

Reacting to the incident, an aunt to the deceased, Mrs. Justina Alebiosu, described the incident as a clear case of assassination.

She said: “Before they killed him, they showed him his picture to identify if he was actually the right person they came for. His death was an unfortunate one, we have lost a gentleman.

“It is true we were born as Muslims, but we converted to Christianity. My thinking is that my brother had business transaction with someone.

“I was told when the assailants wanted to drag him out of the pulpit where he was praying for women, who brought their children for dedication, he begged them to kill him there, and that was where he was eventually killed by the gunmen.”

She stated that the assailants also threatened to shoot any member of the church who tried to challenge them.

Also speaking, the distraught wife of the deceased, Mrs. Kudirat Ibrahim, dismissed the notion that her husband was a cultist, even as she stated that

Nigeria’s Problem is Spiritual, Says Bishop Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo The Presiding Bishop of Sufficient Grace Truth Christian Church, Okinni, Osun State, Reverend Seun Adeoye, has asserted that Nigeria’s problem is spiritual, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari does not possess the spiritual capability to tackle it.

Adeoye, the lead Bishop of Worldwide Anglican Church in Nigeria and spokesman of World Bishops Council, Africa chapter, stated this during a two-day programme tagged: ‘Children of Grace’, which commenced last Tuesday at Okinni.

The cleric, who spoke from the Book of 1 Samuel chapter 5, noted that just as Dagon had no answer to the Ark of the Covenant of God, President Buhari’s spiritual level cannot match Nigeria’s woes.

According to him, “I am a man of prayers; God had told me to be before him for 100 days, and today marks 82

days. In the process of praying for my beloved country, I saw Nigeria ragging in battles against demons from the kingdom of darkness.

“But we have a weak leadership overwhelmed by those forces. I saw only Vice President Yemi Osinbajo trying to fight back.

“No war is won in the physical until it is won in the spiritual. No human weapons or human knowledge can defeat demonic powers.

President Buhari places emphasis on the physical aspect, but Nigeria problem is far more than that.

“The man at the helm of affairs in Nigeria is the father figure of the country.

He is expected to fight all battles at all fronts on behalf of the country, but Buhari’s spirituality is inadequate to tackle our problems.”

He asked Osinbajo to mobilise men of God across Nigeria to gather for prayers for the country, “maybe the Almighty will be merciful and help Nigeria.”

he was still on fasting when he was killed.

Reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the

incident, said the police have launched a manhunt for the assailants.

According to Adejobi, “The assailants went for him in the church. We are investigating

the case because we have a clue into the killing. The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has directed the tactical commanders to handle the

matter as expected. We will unravel the case.”

He added that the CP had taken steps to stem the activities of cultists at Mile 12 and Ketu areas of the state.

TAKING CHARGE…

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State (left), during the swearing-in of some of the 68 new Development Area Administrators in the state in Enugu... yesterday

Igbo Group: We Support One Nigeria with Equal Rights David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka An Igbo group, Igbo for a Progressive Nigeria (IPAN), has expressed it support for a united Nigeria that promotes equal rights for all citizens of the country.

The group said such arrangement would favour the Igbo nation more than a bid for secession.

The President of the group,

Mr. Lawrence Onwuzulike, who spoke with journalists in Awka, the Anambra State capital, yesterday, said the group would continue to work for the unity of Nigeria, but more interested in ensuring that the Igbo people get equal rights, treatment, privileges and share in the country.

He said the group, which started in the diaspora less than two years ago, has been engaging with other Igbo groups to use

its strength to unite Nigeria, adding however that the country must guarantee equal right for all citizens in order to be happy and remain willing to be united.

According to Onwuzulike, “This (Nigeria) is our country.

We are not like black Americans who are begging to be seen as Americans. This is our country, and we are proud of it. We are happy as a united country, but first we must be sure that all

the rights given to the people in other parts of the country are also given to us.

“Our interest is how to develop Igboland, and galvanise our people to ensure that they bring back their resources for the development of Igbo nation. We want an Igbo land where all the companies owned by affluent Igbo businessmen would have their head offices in Igboland, and maintain branches in other places.

Four Suspected Cultists Kill Poly Student in Kwara Hammed Shittu in Ilorin Suspected cultists have reportedly killed a middle-age man suspected to be a student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.

The incident, according to THISDAY checks, happened last Monday when the deceased was going home after he closed for business where he used to repair phones at Challege area of Ilorin after school hours.

It was further learnt that the suspected cultists were said to

have laid an ambush for him at the Post Office area where he was alleged to have been killed.

The development, it was gathered, led many people in the area to scamper for safety when the suspected cultists were displaying their dangerous weapons.

However, speaking with journalists in Ilorin yesterday, the mother of the deceased, Mrs. Olawale, said his son left home past 8p.m. last Monday morning, “but when he didn’t return on

time, which was unusual of him, I called his phone several times but there was no response.

“We then decided to report the matter at the ‘A’ Division Police Station and also went to his school as well as search hospitals if perhaps he had an accident.”

She added: “It was while searching for him that we saw some people gathering around a spot at Unity area taking pictures.

It turned out to be the severed head of my son,” the mother

who couldn’t control her emotions wailed.

When contacted on the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the attack, said effort to arrest the perpetrators is ongoing.

He said: “While responding to a distress call, a severed human head was recovered at Challenge area of Ilorin last Tuesday. Investigation so far has confirmed that it was an attack by cultists.

by the Gombe State Government after the Billiri royal throne crisis in the state early this year has reported that no fewer than eight lives with property worth N531, 358, 468 million were lost in the crisis.

The report also stated that no fewer than 51 persons sustained various degrees of injuries during the mayhem.

The violence erupted after

Mai Tangle.

The silence exhibited by the state government after the election by the kingmakers resulted to the rising tension which generated to full scale violence on February 19, 2021.

Rising from its State Executive Council (SEC) meeting yesterday, the state government said it was looking at the possibility of compensating those who were

Mr. Julius Ishaya, who briefed journalists, said a five-man committee made up of four unnamed commissioners and the Chairman of Billiri Local Government Area, Margaret Bitrus, was formed to look at ways of compensating the victims.

According to the report of the assessment committee, which the council ratified during the meeting, 41 houses worth

401 corporate business places, 335 individual business places as well as 66 others belonging to Billiri LGA valued at N148,135,000 million were destroyed.

He said 33 worship centres worth over N33,129,000 million and other property such as cars, animals among many others, worth over N31,480,000 million were destroyed, making a total sum of N542,258,468 million.

Nigeria, Cameroon Gombe Moves to Compensate Victims of Billiri Crisis Committed to Border the people suspected that the badly affected by the crisis. over N94,666,000 million were Segun Awofadeji in Gombe state government wanted to The state Commissioner destroyed.

Demarcation, Says Malami An assessment committee set up subvert their choice of a new for Information and Culture, The report also stated that Alex Enumah in Abuja The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had expressed the federal government commitment to finalise the boundary demarcation exercise between Nigeria and Cameroon.

Malami stated this while receiving the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary- General for West Africa and Sahel, Mahamat Annadif, who paid him a courtesy call last Tuesday.

In a statement made available to journalists by the AGF’s media aide, Dr. Umar Gwandu, yesterday, the minister said: “I wish to assure you that the Nigerian delegation is confident that under your leadership, the CameroonNigeria Mixed Commission

(CNMC) will continue to achieve more success in its efforts to permanently demarcate the boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria in line with the judgment of the International Court of Justice and other relevant Treaties and Declarations.”

Malami expressed optimism that the steps taken in resolving the outstanding areas of disagreement on the boundary issue between Cameroon and Nigeria would be fully and legally demarcated in no distant time.

According to the minister, “It will be appreciated if all aspects of the disagreed areas of the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon are resolved and demarcated in accordance with the judgment of the International Court of Justice without fear or favour.”

21-year-old Man to Die by Hanging in Akwa Ibom for Robbery Okon Bassey in Uyo A 21-year-old man, Ekemini Otuakak Edet, from Oruko community in Orueffong Uruko Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, has been sentenced to death by hanging for armed robbery.

The condemned man had admitted taking part in

the robbery of MI AMAN Pharmacy located in Uyo, the state capital, in March last year.

Edet was sentenced to death yesterday by an Uyo High Court presided by Justice Okon Okon.

In his judgment, Justice Okon found the accused guilty of armed robbery,

which is punishable by death under Section 1 (2a) of the Robbery and Firearms Special Provisions Act, Laws of the Federation 2004.

The Justice held that the prosecution has “satisfactorily discharged the burden of proving the guilt of the accused in the commission of the crime.

“A confessional statement of

the accused, especially where admitted without objection, is equivalent to and has the effect of a plea of guilty.”

The Judge, who described confessional statement as the best evidence, even better than eyewitness account, held that such confessional statement can be relied on solely to convict the accused.

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THURSDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Adekuoroye is Inconsolable, Devastated after Defeat, Says Igali

Duro Ikhazuagbe Odunayo Adekuoroye’s dream of an Olympic medal evaporated in her face in an unusual manner yesterday.

Even her Nigerian Wrestling Federation Caretaker Chairman, Daniel Igali, is distraught over Adekuoroye’s failure in Tokyo 2020 yesterday.

The top Nigerian wrestler was on top of the game in the 57kg category of the women’s freestyle. She raced to 8-0 lead against her opponent, Anastasia Nichita of Moldova and was just minutes away from picking the remaining two points when the unexpected happened.

Nichita won the Round of 16 contest 8-2 through a pin down of Adekuoroye. The entire Team Nigeria contingent watching the contest were shocked beyond words. Adekuoroye could not be consoled as she cried.

She felt she has let down the entire nation with the defeat.

And so ended her dream of leaving Tokyo with an Olympic medal. She wanted to emulate her training partner, Blessing Oborududu who on Tuesday became the first Nigerian wrestler to win an Olympic silver medal.

How Adekuoroye allowed the Moldova wrestler pin her down for over two seconds remains a mystery. In wrestling, a pin (or fall) is when you put your opponent on his/her back with any part of both shoulders or both shoulder blades in contact with the mat for two seconds.

When you pin your opponent, the match is over and you are pronounced the winner, irrespective of the scores before that feat!

Igali who won wrestling gold medal for Canada at Sydney 2000 later yesterday admitted it will take Adekuoroye time to get over the defeat.

“Understandably, she is inconsolable. She feels she has disappointed a whole nation. We feel her pains. We are equally pained because over 80 per cent of wrestling enthusiasts had her as the odds on favourite to pluck gold here in Tokyo.

But God’s ways are not our ways,” the wrestling federation boss philosophized.

Igali further stressed that the failure to progress had nothing to do with Adekuoroye’s preparations for the Games.

“We prepared very well.

TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS Of the 16 athletes here (from other countries), Adekuoroye had wrestled against about 9 of them. This is the third time she was wrestling against this Moldovan (Nichita). She had destroyed her 10-0 in each of the last two contests.

“Within two minutes of the match this morning, Adekuoroye had already built up a healthy lead. Wrestled cautiously and tactically. Was winning 8-0 and on the verge of getting the last two points to

win the match by superiority before she was reversed and pinned. It was a ‘workplace accident’ to say the least,” revealed Igali who also doubles as Bayelsa State’s commissioner for sports.

He pointed out that the next couple of days will be the hardest for Adekuoroye as the picture of the Fight will keep playing out on her head.

“The next 24 hours of grief are always the hardest. But we trust that She will be fine.

The Sports Minister (Sunday He believes Adekuoroye Dare) and his team, the NOC will be champion at the next President, (Habu Gummel, and Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. his team, all her teammates, the “Delay is not Denial, Oduncoaches and myself are here for her. I have personally spent all afternoon with her.

“She had refused food all afternoon, but we went out and got some food this evening.

Heck, was even able to make her laugh this evening before she retired to seek the comfort of her bed,” Igali further stressed of the mood around the wrestler who Nigerian had pinned hope of an Olympic medal in Tokyo.

ayo will likely be at her peak in Paris (2024 Olympics). I have no doubt that three years will be a blink,” concludes Igali.

Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, with Nigerian medalists Ese Brume (left) and Blessing Oborududu in Tokyo... yesterday

Odunayo Adekuoroye (on the mat) lost her bid for a medal as she was knocked out through a pin down in the women’s 57kg freestyle wrestling event...yesterday

Omo-Agege: Brume's Victory Proof of PUMATerminatesitsFour-yearContractwithGusau’sAFN Delta Women's Exceptional Potentials Deji Elumoye in Abuja Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has described Ese Brume's victory at the on-going Olympics in Tokoyo, Japan as clear evidence of the exceptional potentials of Delta State women.

Omo-Agege in a release on Wednesday posited that women with great potentials abound in Delta State and other parts of the federation but Ese Brume’s Olympic victory emphatically demonstrate Delta women’s capacity to move mountains.

He expressed gladness with

the good news about the young Delta lady, Ese Brume who won the first medal for Nigeria with a 6.97 metres jump in the final of the women’s long jump event at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan on Tuesday.

According to him, Ese Brume had earlier won the gold medal in long jump at the 2019 African Games after leaping 6.69m while on June 12, 2021 at the Chula Vista Field Festival in California, USA. Ese Brume broke another great female compatriot, Chioma Ajunwa’s 25-year old

African women’s long jump record.

The ranking Senator said: “Remarkably, Ese leapt a distance of 7.17m at the California event to break the 7.12m record set by Ajunwa who was then on her way to winning gold at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

“I feel vindicated in my conviction that if given the chance, many Nigerian women who are blessed with great potentials can further contribute towards the progress and development of Nigeria; God bless Nigerian women".

German sportswear manufacturing giants, PUMA, has terminated its four-year contract with the former board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria led by Ibrahim Shehu Gusau.

The contract has been in dispute since the infighting started over the control of the federation in 2017.

The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development backed Athletics Federation of Nigeria denied knowledge of the contract as the deal was shrouded in secrecy between Gusau and Sunday Adeleye who was the Technical Director of the immediate past board. The sponsorship was worth $2.7m.

But in a letter dated Wednesday 4th August 2021 and signed by the company’s director,

Manuel Edlheimb, PUMA said it was officially notifying the Athletics Federation of Nigeria of its termination of Sponsoring and Licensing Agreement.

“We are referring to the licensing and sponsoring agreement signed between our company and your federation.

“As a direct consequence of the recent developments, particularly at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 and pursuant to clauses 9.2 and 7.3 of the Agreement, we hereby terminate the Agreement with immediate effect.

“PUMA especially declares to be discharged from any or all obligations towards all stakeholders involved and reserves all rights against these entities and individuals”.

Gusau’s four-year contract

with PUMA signed in 2019 was due to expire in 2022.

According to the contract, PUMA was to supply apparels to all age categories AFN teams for four years at no cost.

In addition, gold medalists at the Olympic Games were to earn $15,000, silver medalists $5,000 while a bronze medal will fetch the athlete wearing the PUMA apparel at the games $3000.

The PUMA kits delivered to Gusau who is still laying claim to the presidency of AFN despite the election of Tonobok Okowa as his successor, were rejected by the Sports Ministry.

Instead, an indigenous sports wear company AFA was contracted to produce the kits Team Nigeria are currently using at Tokyo 2020.

53

THURSDAY, ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

SPORTS MATCH DAY 38 MFM FC

v Jigawa GS

Lobi Stars

v Akwa Utd

Sunshine

v Rivers Utd

Dakkada

v Enyimba

Rangers

v Plateau Utd

Abia War’

v Nasarawa

Kwara Utd

v Katsina Utd

Wikki

v Adamawa Utd

Heartland

v Kano Pillars

Ifeanyi Ubah v W’ Wolves

Akwa United have nothing to play for today after already winning the 2020/21 NPFL season with a game to spare

Tricky Final Day Fixtures for Enyimba, Nasarawa, Kano Pillars, River Utd

Duro Ikhazuagbe

The drama in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) will play out today when the last matches of the 38-week season are rounded up this evening in all the centres.

While Akwa United have clinched the title and are still in celebration mood, the race to the next two spots that guarantee tickets to the CAF

NPFL MATCH-DAY 38 Champions League as well as the Confederation Cup have become tricky and crooked.

Despite defending champions Enyimba in the fifth spot on the log as a result of losing ground in their fortress in Aba last Monday to Sunshine Stars, anything can still happen today to throw them up into the continent.

However, it remains to be seen how Coach Fatai Osho and his People’s Elephant are going to achieve that dream.

Going into Match-day 38, Nasarawa United (2nd, 65 points), Kano Pillars (3rd, 64 points) and Rivers United (4th, 63 points) are all ahead of Enyimba in the struggle for continental tickets. The quartet however have the disadvantage of playing away to Abia Warriors,

Ezeji Hails Eunisell Boot Awards Impact on NPFL Former Nigeria Professional Football League top scorer, Victor Ezeji, has hailed the impact of the prestigious Eunisell Boot award on the domestic top flight.

Conceived by Eunisell, West Africa's largest independent chemical as well as oil and gas engineering solutions company in 2018, the Eunisell Boot was introduced to inspire players and create fresh consciousness about the NPFL. Ezeji, who retired as the most decorated player in the Nigerian League expressed satisfaction with the quality of goalscoring, which he has attributed to the introduction of the Eunisell Boot and its incentives.

He said: "Eunisell has shown real commitment to developing stars in the NPFL through the Eunisell Boot incentives. I am not surprised with the way players are responding with goals.

"It is a challenge from Eunisell and the players have responded

Nasarawa United’s Silas Nwankwo is tied on same 18 points as ..... going into the final day

well with goals.

"The competitiveness of the Eunisell Boot this season is a confirmation of the readiness of players to change the narrative.

This is the first time that the goal race will be decided on the last match day of the season,” observed Ezeji.

The former Enyimba and Club Africain star maintained that the Eunisell Boot contest has raised more awareness about the NPFL. "Everyone is talking about

who gets the Eunisell Boot.

Will it be Silas Nwankwo or Charles Atshimene? Fans of both clubs are anxious to see how it ends, just as fans of teams (Abia Warriors and Lobi Stars) they will play today are waiting to see if the duo will score. It has been an amazing contest," he stated.

In addition to the prestigious Eunisell Boot, Eunisell placed a premium value of N200,000 for every goal scored by the winner.

Heartland and Sunshine, who are all not safe from danger of dropping out of the Nigerian topflight.

Even Enyimba who are playing Dakkada at home in Aba cannot bank of maximum points as Sunshine Stars’s 1-1 result on Monday has shown that anything can happen this evening.

This season, the Aba club have also enjoyed a better form away from home.

Coach Fatai Osho will quit the team after two years in charge and he would most certainly want to end it on a winning note and offer them a glimmer hope to play in either the CAF Champions League or Confederation Cup next year.

All that remain to be seen at the end of regulation time this afternoon in the four centres.

After a better forgotten performance in the continent this term, the two-time African champions will be gutted not qualifying to play CAF competitions next season.

2020/2021 NPFL League Table Club Akwa Utd Nasarawa Kano Pillars Rivers Utd Enyimba Kwara Utd Rangers Lobi Stars Plateau Utd Dakkada Katsina Utd MFM F.C Heartland Abia War’ Jigawa GS Wikki Sunshine W’Wolves Ifeanyi Ubah Adamawa

P 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37

W 19 20 19 18 17 18 17 16 14 15 14 12 12 11 11 11 10 11 8 5

D 14 5 7 9 12 8 8 7 9 5 7 12 9 11 10 9 12 8 12 10

L 4 12 11 10 8 11 12 14 14 17 16 13 16 15 16 17 15 18 17 22

F 52 54 38 48 38 45 41 41 45 36 35 32 42 45 29 38 27 30 32 20

A 22 35 28 35 32 28 31 38 33 44 39 35 50 41 44 47 39 44 50 53

GD 30 19 10 13 6 17 10 3 12 -8 -4 -3 -8 4 -15 -9 -12 -14 -18 -33

Pts 71 65 64 63 63 62 59 55 51 50 49 48 45 44 43 42 42 41 36 25

‘Lagos Committed to Showcasing Football Extravaganza’ Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has restated that no stone will be left unturned to ensure the Centre of Excellence goes down in history as the best ever host of football events in modern day starting with the upcoming maiden Aisha Buhari Invitational Women’s Football Tournament.

The Nigerian sports city was handed the task of hosting the first-ever Aisha Buhari Cup competition that will see the continent’s powerhouses in women's football - Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Mali, and Morocco - test their strength in a celebratory and convivial atmosphere.

The Centre of Excellence known for its aquatic splendour is not new to hosting big time sporting events.

It parades a number of world-class sports facilities in different parts of the state and cerebral sports administrators in its fold.

Facilities at these stadia, Mobolaji Johnson Stadium (formerly Onikan Stadium),

AISHA BUHARI CUP Teslim Balogun Stadium, Agege Stadium (Soccer Temple), and others are being upgraded to meet the peculiarities of a high profile tournament like the Aisha Buhari Cup. The nation’s commercial hub has hosted the Africa’s mini-Olympics, the All Africa Games, Africa Cup of Nations, FIFA U17 World Cup, FIFA-20 World Cup, Olympic and AFCON qualifying matches for all cadres of the national teams both male and female, league matches, among others with flawless and seamless deliveries.

Lagos always goes the extramile whenever the issue around hosting of an event has to do with the women, it usually comes with special touches as shown in the two previous times the State hosted the elite NWFL Super 4 at the ‘Soccer Temple’ Agege Stadium, Lagos in 2018 and 2019. Those events have stood the test of time as the most glamorous and best

ever organised in any clime.

The images of what the State can do as host featured prominently when the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the Aisha Buhari Invitational Women’s Football Tournament paid a courtesy visit on Governor

Mrs Aisha Buhari...honoured with an invitational women’s tournament

Sanwo-Olu to brief him on the football fiesta.

The Governor restated his undying love for the women’s game, an overwhelming joy to host the football showpiece, and readiness to unlock the beauties and hospitality of the State to participants.

“Football is one of the lead factors that bridge the gap and bring communities closer and is enabling a more exciting world. The women’s game has continued to pull its weight and can be said to be presently at par with the men’s game in the euphoria that it generates, and the sheer class, stamina, excellence and expertise that the players put on display," the Governor noted during the visit to his office by the LOC of the tournament.

“Lagos State, the State of aquatic splendour, is delighted to be named as host of this very important invitational tournament. We will aim to not only host a tournament befitting of the name and positive values that Her Excellency projects

and promotes but also want to showcase our State and the country at large through an efficient and effective organisation that will be talked about for a long time.

“The opportunities available in football are boundless, so we will commit to delivering a successful and model event that will spur us to encourage and support women’s football in our institutions of learning in Lagos State,” said Sanwo-Olu. The Aisha Buhari Foundation with its theme ‘Future Assured’ is an advocacy outfit vigorously canvassing for the well-being of women, children and adolescents.

It tries to optimise the potentials of women, youth, and children through interventions in health, education, and economic empowerment. Aside football, the event will aim to sensitise Africans on the benefits of sports to global development. It will address issues affecting women in developing countries with specific reference to the place of the girl-child in the society.

54

THURSDAY, ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

SPORTS

Man City Closing in on £100m Aston Villa Captain Grealish Manchester City are closing in on the £100m signing of Aston Villa skipper Jack Grealish.

A deal could be concluded in time for the England midfielder to play in the Community Shield against Leicester City

T R A N S F E R N E W S . . .T R A N S F E R N E W S . . . on Saturday.

The move for the 25-year-old would make it a British record.

The fee for him would

surpass the £89m Manchester United paid to re-sign France midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.

Grealish is set to make the move after returning to preseason training with Aston Villa following Euro 2020.

It seems as though the transfer has been conducted in a much smoother way than that of City's

other main target, Harry Kane, who is presently in a standoffwith Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy over the striker's claim a gentleman's agreement exists for him to leave the club this summer.

Grealish signed a new five-year deal with Villa last September.

City made their move for him at the end of last week, following up a summer of conversations with Villa by lodging a bid.

Manager Pep Guardiola believes Grealish's creativity can offer an extra attacking dimension to what is already one of the most potent attacking units in the English game.

City scored 83 goals in the Premier League last season, 10

more than the second-highest scorers Manchester United, but Guardiola evidently feels they are capable of more.

Grealish is a lifelong Villa fan and has been with the club for all his professional career, other than one brief spell on loan with Notts County as a teenager.

Villa announced the signing of winger Leon Bailey for £25mon Wednesday to add to the arrivals midfielder Emiliano Buendia from Norwich Cityand Ashley Young from Inter Milan.

If City do land Grealish for £100m it will make him the ninth most expensive player in history.

Only eight players have ever commanded a transfer fee of £100m or more.

Grealish and Man City attackers compared Grealish Games played 26 Goals 6 Assists 10 Chances created 81 Dribbles completed 65 Fouls won 110

Sterling 31 10 7 39 66 41

Foden 28 9 5 36 38 34

Mahrez 27 9 6 44 45 30

Silva 26 2 6 27 41 18

De Bruyne 25 6 12 80 48 3

Most Expensive BritishTransfers * Grealish * Pogba * Maguire

£100m? £89m £78m

* Lukaku * Van Dijk

£75m £75m

World's Top Five Transfer Fees Aston Villa Captain, Jack Grealish, is about to switch to Manchester City

Alisson Seals New Liverpool Deal Until 2027 Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has committed his future to the Reds by signing a new contract until 2027.

The Brazil international, 28, said he had "confidence" and "trust" in the club after three years at Anfield since arriving from Roma in 2018.

Alisson has won the

Champions League and Premier League during his time on Merseyside and said his family were happy and settled. "[The decision] is not hard for me," he told Liverpoolfc.com.

Alisson is the latest Liverpool player to sign a new deal, with Brazil team-mate Fabinho, 27, having done soon Tuesday -

committing to 2026.

Full-back Trent AlexanderArnold, 22, announced last week he had put pen to paperon a deal until the summer of 2025.

Alisson has made 130 appearances and kept 57 clean sheets since joining from Roma for £66.8m- a fee that made him the world's most expensive keeper.

His memorable injury-time winneragainst West Brom in May won the club's goal of the season award as he became the sixth keeper to score a Premier

League goal - and the first to do so with a header.

"We have to set goals and we have to set them high," he said. "Winning everything that we are playing - the Champions League, Premier League, the cups, everything. I think we can start from there.

"But obviously winning depends on what we will put on the pitch, what we will give on the pitch and we have to give 100 per cent at least. If we can push harder, we will go."

Eriksen Visits Inter Milan Training First Time After Cardiac Arrest

Alisson has entered into a new Reds contract until 2027

Inter Milan announced yesterday that Christian Eriksen is in "excellent mental and physical shape" after his first visit to their training ground since his cardiac arrest.

Eriksen is continuing his recovery after collapsing during Denmark's opening match at Euro 2020.

The 29-year-old former Tottenham player had a heartstarting device fitted in the days after the matchwith Finland.

On Wednesday, Eriksen met Inter team-mates, staff and directors at the Serie A club's Suning Training Centre.

The Italian champions said in a statement on their website "Eriksen is doing well and is in excellent physical and mental shape.

"He will now follow the recovery programme put

forward by Danish doctors in Copenhagen, who will also co-ordinate the clinical follow-up.

"The Inter medical staff will naturally be kept informed and up-to-date throughout the process."

On Tuesday, referee Anthony Taylor told BBC Sport he knew instantly after the incident that Eriksen was in trouble.

"The only thing that was close to him was a bouncing ball which hit his knee," said Taylor.

"I could see his face as he fell.

I knew straight away something was wrong because of how his face looked and how he fell to the floor. That is what concerned me the most."

Eriksen joined Inter from Tottenham in January 2020, and has made 44 Serie A appearances, scoring four goals.

* Neymar (Barcelona - Paris St-Germain) £200m in 2017 * Kylian Mbappe (Monaco - Paris St-Germain) £166m in 2017 * Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool - Barcelona) £142m in 2018 * Ousmane Dembele (Dortmund - Barcelona) total fee of £135m in 2017 * Joao Felix(Benfica - Atletico Madrid) £113m in 2019

AstonVillaSignJamaican Winger for £25m Aston Villa have signed winger Leon Bailey for £25m from Bayer Leverkusen.

The 23-year-old Jamaica international, who has scored 28 goals in 119 Bundesliga appearances for Leverkusen, has signed a deal until 2025.

"Leon is a hugely exciting young striker with great pace and creativity," said Villa boss Dean Smith.

"We are now looking forward to watching him show his skills and talents for Aston Villa in the Premier League."

Bailey becomes Villa's third

signing of the summer after the arrival of Emiliano Buendia from Norwich Cityand Ashley Young from Inter Milan.

"For me, it's a great club with a big history and it's the right step for me. I'm excited to get started," said Bailey.

"It's always been somewhere that I've wanted to play. I feel like now is the right time and I'm excited about it.

"Hopefully, I can do what I do best and have a great season in the Premier League."

Meanwhile, Villa captain Jack Grealish is a £100m target for Manchester City.

Leon Bailey is excited with move to England

55

THURSDAY, ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

SPORTS

TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS

Edem, Assar Are Africa’s Biggest Movers in ITTF Ranking The performances of Nigeria’s Offiong Edem and Egypt’s Omar Assar in the singles event of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been rewarded, as the Nigerian and Egyptian have been listed among the biggest movers in the latest ITTF Ranking released yesterday by the world table tennis ruling body.

The Nigerian who was ranked 123 before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gained seven steps up the ladder to be rated 116 in the world, the third best African player in the world behind Egypt’s duo of Dina Meshref and Yousra Helmy who were ranked 37 and 101 respectively in the latest world rating.

Edem who competed in her third Olympic Games started her campaign from the first round of the women’s singles where she defeated highly-rated Hungarian Dora Madarasz 4-2 before being edged out by American Lily Zhang 4-1 in the second round.

At Tokyo, she remains the only Nigerian to record a

win while the likes of Quadri Aruna, Olajide Omotayo and Olufunke Oshonaike failed to win their matches to advance to the next round of the singles event in Tokyo.

Like Edem, Egypt’s Assar who is the second African to reach the quarter final stage at the Olympic Games gained seven steps up the ladder to

Offiong Edem on duty at Tokyo 2020 table tennis women’s singles. She received a marginal seven point lift in the latest ITTF rankings released...yesterday 36 from 43 in the world rating.

Assar who started his campaign from the second round defeated some highlyrated players like Sweden’s Mattias Falck while he was shown the exit by the eventual winner Ma Long of China in one of the entertaining quarterfinal ties which ended 4-1 in favour of the Asian star.

Despite being the first female African player to make it to the third round of the women’s singles at the Olympic Games, Meshref dropped to 37 from 36 in the ranking.

For participating in her seventh Olympic Games as the first female table tennis star in the world, Oshonaike gained one step up in the rating to be ranked 174 in the world.

Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw gained two steps up to be rated 69 while Omotayo slid to 95 from 94.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito have

dispatched Chinese Taipei’s Cheng I-Ching and Lin Yun-Ju from the number one spot in the latest Mixed Doubles pairs position on the recent rankings.

The Japanese pair, who created history by winning the Mixed Doubles gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, previously occupied the second spot behind the Chinese Taipei duo.

In the Men’s Singles ranking, Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov moved up to seventh place following his epic battle with Lin, where he emerged victorious in a seven-game thriller to win his second Olympics Singles bronze medal.

China’s Ma Long meanwhile switched places with compatriot Xu Xin and occupies his second spot now after his heroics in Tokyo, where he was crowned Olympic Men’s Singles champion for the second time.

De Grasse Claims 200m Gold Ahead of World Champion Lyles Canada's Andre de Grasse won his first gold and fifth Olympic medal overall as he overhauled world champion Noah Lyles in the final 50m of the 200m final.

The 26-year-old, who took bronze in the 100m final on Sunday, won in 19.62 seconds, making him the eighth-fastest man in history.

Lyles led into the final quarter but slowed as De Grasse and second-placed Kenny Bednarek ran him down.

Canada’s Andre de Grasse ....won the 200m gold yesterday

Uganda's Chemutai Wins Gold as Kenyans Dominate Men's 800m

Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai...celebrating her gold medal in the women’s 3000 steeplechase event in Tokyo...yesterday

Peruth Chemutai became the first Ugandan woman ever to win an Olympic medal as she claimed gold in the women's 3,000m steeplechase yesterday.

The 22-year-old Ugandan set a new national record as she chased down the USA's Courtney Frerichs, who won silver at the 2017 World Championships, on the final lap and pulled away to win by 20 metres.

Kenya's Hyvin Kiyeng had to settle for the bronze medal to go with the silver she won in the same event at the Rio Games in 2016.

Ethiopia's Mekides Abebe was fourth with Kenya's world champion Beatrice Chepkoech only able to finish seventh, after struggling with a hamstring injury.

A second Ethiopian Zerfe Wondimagegn was eighth.

Kenya claimed gold and silver in the men's 800m as Emmanuel Korir finished ahead of world championship bronze medallist Ferguson Rotich in the final.

Korir moved into the lead with 200m left to run while Rotich who looked to be struggling found the speed on the home straight to claim his medal.

Poland's Patryk Dobek was edged into the bronze medal by Rotich with former Sudanese refugee Peter Bol in fourth place

running for Australia.

Botswana's 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos, who was reinstated after falling in his semi-final, finished in eighth out of the nine finalists.

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon continued the defence of her Olympic women's 1500m title by winning her semi-final ahead of Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu as both athletes advanced to Friday's final.

Unfortunately Kenya's Winny Chebet fell in the same race and finished in last place, an appeal to have her reinstated later failed and she will not be in the final.

In the second semi-final Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo was fourth to clinch an automatic place in the final but Ethiopia's Lemlem Hailu and Kenya's Edina Jebitok failed to progress as they finished down the field.

Benin's Odile Ahouanwanou is in fifth place after the first day of the women's heptathlon, which saw the athletes compete in the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m with the long jump, javelin and finally the 800m to come early today.

Africa's other representative in the event was Burkina Faso's Marthe Koala and she did not take part in the final event of the day the 200m and so will not compete in Thursday's final three events.

Seventeen-year-old Erriyon Knighton finished fourth in 19.93.

The American teenager broke Rio 2016 champion Usain Bolt's world junior record for the event in May and may well be its future, but it was De Grasse, himself once the next big thing, who finally lived up to his billing as Bolt's heir apparent.

De Grasse had set a personal best 19.73 in Tuesday's semifinals and looked relaxed as he strode to the blocks.

In contrast to his smiling and clowning, Lyles struck a serious figure, bellowing into the Tokyo skies as he emerged into the arena.

It was Lyles who led off the bend, but his lead was slowly chewed up as De Grasse and Bednarek - side by side in lanes six and seven - came on strong.

De Grasse celebrated with a video call to his partner, American hurdler Nia Ali, at the finish line, seeming to exclaim "finally" during their conversation.

He has been pegged as a potential successor to Bolt since he finished third behind the Jamaican in the 100m final at the 2015 World Championships aged just 20.

He signed a lucrative deal with the same footwear sponsor as Bolt a few months later.

However, hamstring problems stalled his progress before he returned to form with silver and bronze medals at Doha 2019.

"I've been waiting for this moment, I've been training hard for this moment," said De Grasse.

"Nineteen point six - I cannot believe the time. And almost 19.5, I'm almost there."

TR

Thursday, August 5, 2021

UT H

& RE A S O

N

Price: N250

MISSILE Muri Emir to Fulani Ardos “As a leader who stood firmly on the side of truth and honesty, I would never allow injustice and shield criminals. What we are going to do, as captured in our communiqué, is to check and fish out the bad eggs among us” —Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Tafida, lamenting that the image of the Fulani in Taraba State was being sullied by the criminal activities of a few herders who operate from the forests

OLUSEGUNADENIYI Beyond Abba Kyari’s Indictment THE VERDICT

T

he moment the news broke of his indictment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last Thursday, the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Alhaji Kyari did not wait for details before releasing a telling statement that has elicited all manner of jokes on the social media. Even when more damning revelations came out about how he was allegedly recruited and paid by an internet fraudster to deal with an opponent, Kyari remained unfazed.

Last Friday evening, the embattled DCP posted a screenshot from someone else’s platform which quoted a lady as saying ‘Abba Kyari arrested me, didn’t charge me to court but kept me to himself’. And below it, he inserted this message: ‘Hahahahaha. This is the funniest One so far, we are enjoying the Show.’

Although he deleted the post shortly after, it was evident Kyari considered the entire scandal just another allegation of impropriety he has weathered over the years. As it would happen, he misread the situation this time. Within a period of 72 hours, Kyari bagged suspension from duty, a panel was established by the Police Service Commission (PSC) to investigate the charges against him as provided by extant laws and his position as head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in the Office of the Inspector General of Police was given to another officer. No matter what happens now, Abba Kyari’s career as a ‘super cop’ is over. Yet, if we will be honest, his fall did not happen because of any sense of moral outrage in Nigeria but rather because of American might.

olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com

By charging Kyari to their court, asking for his arrest and placing emphasis on the fact that “he is a highly decorated deputy commissioner of the Nigeria Police Force ...”, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was implicitly making a connection between criminality and law enforcement in our country. That was enough for the same NPF that had serially ignored allegations against Kyari, including by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Amnesty International, to act swiftly. But there are lessons in this tragedy that should not be lost on the authorities in our country. Having allowed the police to degenerate as an institution, it is little surprise that many of their personnel now embody the worst vices of society.

Before I make my point, we must recognize that Kyari is still an innocent man in the eyes of the law. It is also important for us to understand that this case goes beyond the career of one man to the issue of accountability and rule of law in the Nigerian public space, as well as our reputation as a nation. In June last year, following the arrest of a number of our nationals in the United States, the Department of Justice (DoJ) issued a statement that included these damning lines: “Foreign citizens perpetrate many BEC (Business Email Compromise) scams. Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world.”

That Nigeria is profiled as a country that breeds scammers is what makes the link between Kyari, a celebrated law enforcement officer, and Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, commonly known as

Hushpuppi, very damaging. Hushpupi, who has already pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States, is an Instagram celebrity who laundered millions of dollars made from internet scams, until he was arrested and extradited from Dubai last year to answer for his crimes.

At issue in the Kyari case is that Hushpuppi in 2019 asked the DCP to detain and torture one Kelly Chibuzor Vincent, a colleague with whom he (Hushpuppi) had a dispute over how to share the $1.1 million scammed from a Qatari businessperson.

Meanwhile, what Kyari initially put up as his defence has done more damage to him and the Police he serves. “Abbas who we later came to know as Hushpuppi called our office about two years ago that somebody in Nigeria seriously threatened to kill his Family here in Nigeria and he sent the person’s phone number and pleaded we take action before the Person attacks his family,” Kyari wrote last Thursday in his statement that has been deleted. “We traced and arrested the suspect and after investigations, we discovered there wasn’t an actual threat to anyone’s life and they are longtime friends who have money issues between them hence we released the Suspect on bail to go and he was not taken to any jail. Nobody

Wisdom from WhatsApp!

Who Will Save APC from Itself?

By the time the crisis within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) reached a head in June last year with many of the governors insistent that the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had to go, there were only two options left for the party. One, get two thirds of the National Working Committee (NWC) members to invoke a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where a motion for his removal could be tabled and executed.

Apparently because the governors knew this would not work given the support Oshiomhole enjoyed within the two organs, they avoided going this route.

The second option was for the governors to get President Muhammadu Buhari to apply the ‘Obasanjo Formula’ ala Audu Ogbeh: Visit Oshiomhole at home, request for a bowl of ‘tuwo shinkafa’ (which should not be a problem for a man who lived most of his life in Kaduna) and after the sumptuous meal, ask Oshiomhole to append his signature to an already prepared letter of resignation. I don’t know how that would have played out with a man the late Mrs Oluremi Oyo used to call ‘Adamant Adams’ but that was at least a legitimate option. This route was also not appealing to the governors because that would still leave behind many NWC members who may not be sympathetic to their own agenda.

Ignoring those two options, the governors goaded the president into deploying powers he does not possess; to sack the party’s NEC and install Mala Buni, Yobe State governor as the interim chairman. Buni’s specific mandate was to lead a 13-member caretaker committee to

conduct a national convention within six months for the election of a new leadership. This is the 15th month and Buni, who abandoned his state (well, not totally, because he claims he spends three days in Yobe every month!) has been criss-crossing the country, poaching the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to the APC. Meanwhile, like he abandoned his state, Buni also abandoned the task he was given until he had no more sit-tight cards to play. Now the party he ‘chairs’ is in crisis.

What has transpired in the APC in the past two years is similar to what we witnessed under the PDP. The jury is still out as to whether that party can survive the current imbroglio that has pitched some of its NWC members against national chairman, Uche Secondus. Incapable of managing either victory or defeat, political parties in Nigeria are there to advance the personal interests of politicians and not the larger society. There are also no shared ideals propelling members. Which is why the APC, like the PDP while in power at the centre, has become notorious for disregarding its own internal rules in the bid to help powerful members achieve predetermined ends, especially as they relate to cold calculations for the 2023 general election. That is what is behind all the current illegalities and the attendant convulsions.

How the APC digs itself out of the ditch is its problem. But the spirited recriminations among their leaders and the violence that greeted last Saturday’s ward congresses undermine the peace we require in an already heated and chaotic political environment. The party must put its house in order.

demanded for a kobo from Abbas Hushpuppi.

Our focus was to save people’s lives that were purported to have been threatened.”

It is trite that in criminal investigation, whatever suspects say (or write) would be used against them. Yet, Kyari keeps digging while still inside a hole. For a man who headed a critical intelligence unit of the police, it is very telling that he cannot understand the implication of the various contradictory and self-incriminating statements he has been making. How do you explain this convoluted admission by Kyari on the N8 million allegedly collected from Hushpuppi, which was not in his earlier social media post?

“He (Hushpuppi) also called for another case in June 2020 and complained about a financial transaction with a second person whom he said his friend sent 8 million naira to and pleaded for his friend’s money to be recovered. He sent transaction slips and other evidences to prove their case against the person,” wrote Kyari before he deleted. “All these can be verified from the Hushpuppi since he is still in custody. And it can be verified from person who collected 8 million naira from Hushpuppi’s friend whom they complained about is alive and is in Nigeria.”

NOTE: Piece concluded on page 15

Gbagbo and Quattara n the April 2010 presidential election in Cote D’Ivoire, Mr Allassane Quattara, (the current President) defeated the then incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who refused to leave power. He caused the Constitutional Council, comprising mostly of his cronies, to annul parts of the results and declare him (Gbagbo) winner.

That led to a political crisis in which at least 3,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others, displaced. Gbagbo was

I

eventually arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague where he was tried for crimes against humanity. Acquitted in 2019 for insufficient evidence to prove the charges against him, Gbagbo recently returned home to a rousing welcome. He was also received like a hero at the State House by President Quattara.

The 79-year old Ouattara, who last October won a boycotted extra-constitutional third term presidential election, with 95.31% of the votes, is now a friend of the broken Gbagbo.

That has elicited a WhatsApp post by a Mr Sagir Yana who reminds us that just about a decade ago, “poor Ivorians, fought and killed themselves,” for these same political leaders. “Today, the two have made peace, hugging themselves while the poor innocent supporters are in their graves; and their wives, children and other family members are languishing. Trust me, neither Quattara nor Gbagbo will help the families of their dead supporters. So, those who blindly fight for African politicians should be wise.”

Enough said!

2021 Teens Conference Update

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egistration for the 14th August 2021 annual teens career conference with the theme, ‘A Brave New World: Who Dares, Wins!’ continues. While the portal for physical attendance closes today, that for the online attendance will remain open.

The speakers are Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Chairman, Talent City Inc; Mr. Chinedu Azodoh, Co-founder and Chief Growth

Officer, MAX.NG; and Mrs Omowale David-Ashiru, Group Managing Director (Nigeria), NewGlobe Education. Like previous editions, it will bring together teenagers from Abuja and its environs to listen to expert advice on career choices in today’s dynamic and challenging world. For details on the conference, interested teenagers should visit www.rccgteapteens.org.

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