MONDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2020

NNPC Unveils Plan for CNG Refilling Plants Nationwide Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja As part of the efforts to provide alternatives to petrol as vehicular fuel following the hike in the cost of the product, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has unveiled plans to begin the

activation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refill stations for motorists across the country.

The corporation disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday by its Group General Manager of Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie

Obateru, in Abuja.

The corporation pledged to support ongoing initiatives by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to provide an alternate energy source to Nigerians.

The national oil company said it was intensifying its

effort to ensure the move comes to fruition soon through the aggressive activation of CNG refill stations for motorists across the country.

The statement by Obateru noted that NNPC Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, made the pledge

while speaking on TVC Business Show, Business Nigeria Live.

Kyari affirmed that the national oil company had already keyed into the gas penetration agenda as championed by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief

Timipre Sylva.

He said as an energy company with a focus on cleaner and cheaper sources of fuel, the corporation would continue to work with other stakeholders in the industry to Continued on page 10

W’Bank Starts $750m Power Support Fund Disbursement in 2021... Page 8 Monday 14 September, 2020 Vol 25. No 9288. Price: N250

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FG Replies Obasanjo, Says Buhari Prevented Nigeria from Failing You're Nigeria’s ‘Divider-in-Chief,’ presidency tells former president Listen to voice of reason, PDP urges president APC: Actors that midwife rot can’t chart way forward Omololu Ogunmade, Chucks Okocha, Olawale Ajimotokan and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in 2015 saved Nigeria from becoming a failed state, the federal government said yesterday in a stern reply to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s last week rebuke

of Buhari’s administration as heading the country towards failure.

It said contrary to the former president’s claim, Nigeria was on its way down the slope after 16 years of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) rule before Buhari ascended power and brought Continued on page 9

PDP Alleges Plot to Use Judiciary to Halt Edo Election

Trades words with APC over suspected plans to buy votes Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm on an alleged plot by All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the judiciary to halt the September 19 governorship

election in Edo State.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, told journalists yesterday at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja that APC has concluded plans to file a suit before the Continued on page 9

CHANGE OF BATON...

New Assistant Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Service, Zone A, Ms. Doris Braimah (left), and outgoing ACG, Mr. Muhammed Alfa, during the handing over ceremony at Zone A Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos...yesterday kolawole alli

Health Workers Begin Nationwide Strike...Page 5

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NEWS Health Workers Begin Nationwide Strike

Group News Editor Ejiofor Alike

Email Ejiofor.Alike@thisdaylive.com, 08066066268

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja Following the stalemate at its meeting with the federal government, the umbrella body of health workers, Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), has asked its members to begin a nationwide strike with effect from last midnight.

This was the decision reached after its expanded National Executive Council meeting

held on Saturday.

The union said the strike was due to the failure of the federal government to meet its demands.

JOHESU wrote to the federal government at the weekend through the Ministry of Labour and Employment, to inform the authorities of the decision of members to proceed with their planned strike.

The federal government

Senate Won’t Succumb to External Pressure on Constitution Review, Says Omo-Agege Deji Elumoye in Abuja Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has declared that the Senate would not succumb to pressure from external forces in its attempt to review the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Omo-Agege, who also doubles as Chairman of the 58-man Senate Committee on Constitution Review, noted yesterday that the committee and indeed the Ninth Senate in the course of their assignment would not give in to pressure from outside the legislative body.

"We have taken an oath to protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I can assure you that members of this committee and indeed all of the Senators of this Ninth Senate will do the right thing.

We are not going to succumb to any pressure," he said during a television programme monitored in Abuja.

He assured that members of the committee as Nigerians of great accomplishments in their respective fields and all Senators would continue to live above board in the discharge of their constitutional duties.

"The Nigerian Senate is a chamber made up of statesmen. These are people of accomplishments in their previous endeavours before they came to this place. I don't think these are people who are going to be susceptible to pressures from external forces. These are people who are here to do the right thing.

"And if you must also know the Steering Committee of this Constitution Review Committee is populated by the entire leadership of the Senate. I am just the Chairman before you talk about the 57 other Senators," he said.

Omo-Agege also added that his committee would not kill any of the constitution alteration bills before it.

According to him, the Senate would recommend all the bills before it for consideration while the Senate in plenary would determine whether or not such proposals should be transmitted to the state assemblies.

He noted the need for Nigerians to take advantage of the window given by the committee to submit their proposals on or before September 25 on any of the 13 thematic areas to the panel.

The ranking senator disclosed that besides the constitution alteration bills already referred to the panel, more proposals could surface on the floor, arising from memoranda submitted to the committee.

"Any Nigerian who feels strongly about any issue that ought to be addressed in this exercise, has a right within the time stipulated to put their thoughts in writing by way of a memo and submit same to us.

"Upon receipt of that, we will meet as a committee, set up some sub-committees within the main committee that will go to each of the geopolitical zones.

There they will reach out and ask people to step forward and speak to the memo that they have already submitted to us.

"Thereafter, we will come back, hold a retreat where we will aggregate the views of the content of the memoranda. And in some cases come up with more bills. This committee will try not to kill any bill.

We will rather have all bills go to the floor at plenary and let the Nigerian people, speaking through their elected representatives, make the call as to whether or not those bills should pass. Thereafter, we will go to the various Houses of Assembly to see if those votes can also muster a two-thirds majority of the 36 assemblies.

From there, we receive and transmit the successful bills to Mr. President for assent," he explained.

According to him, the zonal public hearings would be conducted in line with the COVID-19 protocols.

On state assemblies being rubber stamps of state governors, the Senate Deputy President called on those who have sent in their memoranda to put pressure on state legislators to do the right thing, adding that all the 36 state governors were unanimous that more powers be moved from the Exclusive to Concurrent Legislative List.

"It is our belief that it behooves on the electorate to mount the requisite pressure on their House of Assembly members.

"In any event, we are also going to be liaising very seriously with the Speakers of the various Houses of Assembly. So, before the final vote is taken, we will be able to have a feel of where we are.

And if it requires some lobbying of the state governors, so be it.

"I don't know of any governor in this country today who doesn't subscribe to the idea that the content of the Exclusive Legislative List is not too cumbersome and there needs to be some shedding of weight. I am sure practically all governors will subscribe to that so we can have some of these powers devolve to the states," Omo-Agege said.

and JOHESU had earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) last Thursday on measures to resolve their grievances.

In the MoU, both sides agreed on modalities to sort out the issues before the next meeting scheduled for September 15.

The MoU said: "In view of this understanding, JOHESU will consult with her members with a view to reporting back on Saturday, September 12, 2020. The meeting adjourns to October 15, 2020, to enable Federal Ministry of Health to carry out the assignments."

JOHESU leaders, at the end of the meeting with the government representatives, including the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN); and Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, were given Saturday, September 12 to report back to the government’s negotiation team.

But, JOHESU in a threeparagraph letter dated

September 12 with ref. No. HO/JOHESU/ADM/FMoH/ VOL.I/58, entitled: “Re: Notice of 15-day ultimatum/outcome of JOHESU expanded NEC meeting,� resolved to proceed on strike.

JOHESU's strike declaration notice was jointly signed by the President, Medical and Health Workers' Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Mr. Biobelemoye Josiah; the Secretary-General, Mr. Silas Adamu; President, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Mr. A. Adeniji; General Secretary, Mr. A. Shettima; President, Senior Staff Association of Universities Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), Mr. A. B. Akintola; General Secretary, Mr. Ezekiel Popoola; President, Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAP), Mr. O. Ogbonna; and the General Secretary, Mr. Martin Egbanubi.

Others are: National President, Non-Academic

Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Mr. Hassan Makolo; and the General Secretary, Mr. Peter Adeyemi.

JOHESU had complained that many of its members were either omitted or under-paid in the implementation of Special Hazard and Inducement Allowance as agreed in the MoU of April 21, 2020.

According to JOHESU, some of its members were paid 10 per cent of their consolidated basic salary instead of 50 per cent in the MoU of April 2020.

The union also alleged that other members were omitted in the categories of those to benefit from the Special COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowance.

JOHESU added that in spite of several engagements with the Federal Ministry of Health, the anomalies were yet to be corrected as of September 10, 2020.

The strike declaration read: “You would recall that at the end of the meeting held in

your office on Thursday, September 10, 2020, JOHESU demanded that the outcome of the meeting between JOHESU and the federal government be reported back to our expanded NEC meeting and give a feed back to the federal government within 48 hours. “In the light of the above, the meeting of our expanded NEC was held today, Saturday, September 12, 2020. And at the end of the meeting, which was held both physically and virtually, it was unanimously agreed that since nothing concrete was achieved at the said meeting with the federal government, that the strike notice is still germane and alive. “Therefore, the 15-day ultimatum still subsists and with effect from midnight of Sunday September 13, 2020, our members shall withdraw their services due to the federal government’s inability to meet their demands. Kindly accept the assurances of our high esteem.�

GETTING SET FOR EDO 2020...

Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu (left), and Chairman, Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission, Senator Kabiru Gaya, during the committee’s visit to INEC oďŹƒce ahead of next Saturday’s Edo Governorship Election in Benin‌yesterday

NBA to Tackle Malami on Amended Rules of Professional Conduct

Alex Enumah in Abuja

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, yesterday said the body would meet with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), over the purported amendment of the Rules of Professional Conduct of lawyers, saying only the General Council of the Bar (Bar Council) could alter the rules.

AGF has reportedly amended sections 9 to 13 of the rules guiding the professional conduct of lawyers in the country.

The affected areas include payment of practising fees; stamp and seal for legal practitioners; the annual practising certificate for legal practitioners; and obligation to give notice of the commencement of legal practice to the branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) responsible for the jurisdiction in which the practice is located.

By the amendment, it's no longer mandatory for lawyers to be part of NBA, or to attach NBA stamp and seal on their court processes to make such valid.

However, reacting to the development, Akpata, who noted that he has been receiving several calls and texts messages on the issue, said the new leadership would take up the matter with the minister.

While not dismissing the report, Akpata, in a statement, said there could not be an amendment of RPC without a meeting of the council of NBA. He said: “I have seen and read Statutory Instrument No. 15 of 2020 (the instrument), making the rounds on social media and which purports to amend certain provisions of the 2007 Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (RPC). Since the instrument was released, I have received numerous calls and messages from lawyers across the country seeking clarification and guidance on the purport of

the instrument.

"The explanatory note to the instrument suggests that it was done to bring RPC into conformity with the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, the Law Officers Act, and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

"For the avoidance of doubt, the Legal Practitioners Act (as amended) confers the power to issue rules of professional conduct for legal practitioners, and any amendments thereto, on the General Council of the Bar (the Bar Council).�

According to him, the Bar Council comprises the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation (HAGF), the Honourable Attorneys-General of the 36 states of Nigeria, and 20 members of NBA. "Consequently, RPC and any amendments thereto may only be validly issued after it has been deliberated upon and approved at a properly convened meeting of the Bar Council," he said.

Akpata added that "as far as NBA is aware, no notice convening a meeting of the Bar Council was issued to its elected representatives on the Bar Council and no meeting of the Bar Council was convened and/or held to deliberate on the Instrument.

"To that extent, our position is that no authority or approval was given for the amendment of RPC. Consequently, NBA maintains that RPC has not been amended and enjoins all legal practitioners to remain calm and continue to conduct their affairs in the same manner as they did prior to the issuance of the instrument."

He assured members that he's engaging closely with the minister on this issue and would provide further updates on the body's next steps in the coming days.

He reiterated the commitment of the current administration of NBA towards the welfare and capacity building of members and the overall improvement of the Bar.

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W’Bank Starts $750m Power Support Fund Disbursement in 2021 Chineme Okafor in Abuja World Bank has disclosed that it would begin the disbursement of the $750 million it approved for Nigeria’s Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) next year and complete the process in 2023.

PSRP is expected to improve the reliability of electricity supply, achieve financial sustainability, as well as enhance accountability in Nigeria’s power sector, which is currently riddled with governance and process challenges.

In a document containing its implementation plan for the programme, which was obtained

by THISDAY, the bank explained that it would not pay out any money from the fund in 2020.

It revealed that it would start disbursement in 2021 with $426 million and $162 million would be disbursed in 2022 and 2023 respectively, to bring the total to $750 million.

The bank’s document also projected that with the government’s revenue projected to drop by three per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or more in 2020, Nigeria would experience some fiscal pressure, necessitating urgent reforms in the country’s power sector.

According to the multilateral development institution, the programme would help the government redirect large fiscal resources from regressive power tariffs subsidies towards critical crisis-responsive and pro-poor expenditures.

It explained that in 2019, Nigeria’s electricity tariff shortfalls

reached N524 billion or $1.72 billion, equivalent to 0.4 per cent of her GDP and more than N428 billion spent on health care delivery. “The federal government financing gap in 2020 is currently estimated at $8.1 billion and it would increase by $1.0 billion in the absence of implementation of Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) and Power Sector Recovery Operation (PSRO). “In addition, the sector recovery efforts focused on ensuring regulatory and policy predictability, providing incentives for efficiency in operations, while enforcing payment discipline across the supply chain are critical for maintaining the 'lights on' through the continued generation of electricity,� said the bank.

Additionally, it noted that improving power sector performance would be central to unlocking economic growth, particularly in the non-oil sectors of manufacturing and services during the recovery process.

It further stated that: “The annual economic losses caused by Nigeria’s unreliable power supply have been estimated at N10.1 trillion or about two per cent of GDP,� adding that the country ranks 131 with respect to the overall ease of doing business in its 2020 assessment, with getting access to electricity ranked as one of the major constraints.

With regards to clear-cut objectives of the scheme, the bank stated that it has three-Programme Development Objectives (PDO) for it.

They include an increase in annual electricity supplied to the distribution grid; decrease in annual tariff shortfalls, and that the new tariff shortfalls should be funded from non-Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sources once its Payment Assurance Fund (PAF) is depleted.

It also requested that public awareness about the ongoing power sector reforms and performance increases.

The bank said while a multilayer of implementation processes would be adopted for the programme, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) would, however, be its top implementation agencies. “Successful implementation of PSRP and PSRO requires robust governance and implementation arrangements, given the complex

inter-agency dependencies of many of PSRP interventions and the need for change behaviours in key MDAs. “As the bulk trader purchasing electricity from Gencos and selling it to Discos, NBET will be the entity receiving different sources of funds to execute the approved financing plan i.e. make regular (monthly) payments to Gencos for the tariff shortfall portion of the Gencos invoices

(both new and historical arrears) and make CBN debt service payments. “NBET has to follow predefined agreed protocols - little discretion will be allowed – in deciding how best to use the different sources of funds to make payments to the different uses of funds. NBET will report back on the execution of the financing plan to PSRP Secretariat and DG Budget,� it stated.

CONDOLENCES TO THE MINISTER...

Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi (left), and his wife, Judith, at the funeral service of his late brother, Mr. Oha Amaechi, at his hometown, Ubima, Rivers State...weekend

NERC to Deploy Data Loggers to Monitor Defaulting Discos Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is set to deploy data loggers in all power feeders belonging to Distribution Companies (Discos) to prevent them from ripping Nigerians off, following the transition of tariffs regime to the number of hours supplied.

A data logger is a specialised electronic device that measures and records specific data over a certain period of time or in relation to its location either with a built-in instrument or sensor or through external instruments and sensors.

Power consumers in the country have consistently complained since the release of the new service-based system on September 2 that giving the electricity distributors the freedom to determine and bill customers based on the

number of electricity supplied was susceptible to abuse by the Discos.

Speaking during an online town hall meeting at the weekend, organised by NERC, the agency’s Commissioner in charge of Legal, Licensing and Compliance of the regulatory agency, Mr. Dafe Akpeneye, said the devices would ensure strict monitoring of power that gets to the final consumers to make sure there’s no discrepancy between data on Discos' figures and the actual number of hours supplied.

NERC, however, failed to outline any sanctions that would be meted out to the defaulting Discos, but disclosed that after the adjudication process in cases where such complaints arise, the area or customer would be immediately reverted to a lower band depending on the supply deficit.

He said: “Customers have two

payment options (for meters), the one-time payment and the installments option, so the Discos will take this into cognisance and meters will be installed on that basis during the meter rollout. “If they (Discos) do not improve your service they cannot increase the tariff. From the monitoring standpoint, there’s going to be two-way monitoring.

The commission is going to be installing data loggers in feeders for Discos and customers can lodge complaints. “So, when the complaints are lodged and customers promised 20 to 24 hours were not provided that service, or only got 12 hours of supply, at the end of that adjudication process, the Discos have to transition those customers to the tariffs of customers who enjoy 12 hours of supply.�

On how the billing regime related to the number of hours

was arrived at, Akpeneye said the hours were decided by the commission after consultations with Nigerians and the Discos.

He noted that there would soon be an upgrade and change of all the outdated meters in the country, but noted that before then, Discos must adhere to the capping methodology for non-metered customers. “If they believe you are paying less than you consume, they should provide you a meter. “There will be infrastructure to monitor the Discos and also the app that will be launched for customers to lodge their complaints. If the Disco doesn’t provide service that’s guaranteed, you will be moved to a lower band,� he noted.

While admitting that the Discos remain the weakest link in the supply system, he added that the meter penetration in the country was slowed down

by the duty imposed by the government, but opined that with the intervention of the federal government, Nigerians would soon have access to the facility.

On the call for the imposition of a penalty on Discos that fail to supply the number of hours promised customers or compensation for consumers who are under-supplied, NERC stated that it might not be necessary since those, who haven’t been supplied the designated number of hours, haven’t also consumed their power units.

NERC maintained that the sector was in dire need of massive investment, which despite over N2 trillion intervention in recent times, did not make any marked difference in the supply chain. “The sector is seriously constrained and that’s why the government has had to intervene by providing N2

trillion in support to ensure that the generators who generate power can still be in a position to do so. What we are doing is to ensure that investment can be done and everyone can be lifted out. “Nobody takes pride in the fact that some people are in darkness. Some are not even connected to the grid. We have to have an investment. In the past, there was a blanket increase and it didn’t work. And Nigerians said they won’t pay based on promises of improvement. “So, we have taken cognisance of the service they get and that’s how the rates were determined.

Those on less than 12 hours are not increased. The industry is being incentivised. When (Discos) come to the banks (for loans), they (banks) do not see the line of payment, but now they can see and project revenues,� the commission noted.

Only JSS3, SS2 Students will Resume September 21, Says Lagos Segun James Lagos State Government has announced that only JSS3 and SS2 students would be allowed to resume school on Monday, September 21, 2020.

The state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, disclosed this in a statement yesterday through the Head of Public Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Mr. Kayode Abayomi, while revealing plans for a new 2020/2021 academic session resumption for public and private schools.

She said the state would adopt a phased approach in

opening public schools, thereby congratulating the SS3 students for successfully completing their WASSCE examinations and urged them to stay safe as they wait for their results.

Adefisayo stated that the phased approach to opening would enable public schools to meet COVID-19 social distance rules and safety protocols which would help watch the behaviour of the pandemic as “we gradually open up our schools. “The present JSS3 and SS2 students in public schools in the state are to resume classes from Monday, 21st of September, 2020,�the statement said.

She explained that the resumption would permit the present JSS3 students who are already in an exiting class to revise and get adequately prepared for their forthcoming Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organised

by Lagos State Examination Board and scheduled between Tuesday, 6th and Monday, 12th of October, 2020.

According to her, the resumption would also afford the present SS2 students an opportunity to prepare effectively for their transition to SS3.

The scheduled dates and venues for Entrance Examination

into Lagos State Model Colleges would soon be announced by the state Examination Board.

The commissioner assured parents that announcements for the opening of the other classes would occur as soon as the state is certain of their safety.

In the meantime, “the unopened classes in public schools will continue their lessons on our various distance learning platforms (online platform, radio, television and WhatsApp) while the next phase for physical resumption will be announced in due course.�

For private schools, Adefisayo also announced that private

primary and secondary schools in the state are allowed to resume on Monday, September 21, 2020.

She added that the state government strongly recommended and encouraged school owners to put safety first and open in phases similar to the plans for public schools.

The phased opening includes strategies for the staggered resumption in the mornings, classes on alternate days during the week, and teaching through various distance learning methods. “Schools must also comply with safety protocols and hygiene guidelines as instructed by the

state government through the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA). “The Office of Education Quality Assurance will continue to monitor and evaluate Schools’ preparedness. “Please note that pre-primary classes and schools in both public and private schools will remain closed until further announcements are made,� she emphasised.

The commissioner reminded schools that the pandemic is still around and so in all situations ensure the safety of children, teachers, and parents as a whole the first priority.

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PAGE NINE FG REPLIES OBASANJO, SAYS BUHARI PREVENTED NIGERIA FROM FAILING the country back from the brink.

Obasanjo had on Thursday said Nigeria was slowly becoming a failed state and a basket case that urgently needed to be pulled from the brink of collapse.

Speaking while delivering a speech titled: “Moving Nigeria away from tipping over,� at a consultative dialogue in Abuja, the former president said he had never seen Nigeria so divided, adding that many of the problems plaguing the country today were due to the recent mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity.

But in an apparent response to Obasanjo’s claims, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement yesterday, said that Buhari took office at a time some parts of the country's territory were under occupation and many cities, including the capital city of Abuja, were a playground for Boko Haram insurgents.

The presidency too backed Mohammed yesterday, coming down hard on Obasanjo over his comment on the state of the nation, describing him as the country’s “Divider-in-Chief� even as the All Progressives Congress (APC) joined the fray and said it was ironic that political actors that midwife and institutionalised corruption, impunity and eroded the country's value systems are the same characters posing as voices on the way forward.

Mohammed, who described the leadership of

the opposition as ''rapacious and rudderless,'' said until now the nation's wealth had been looted dry, with little or nothing to show for the nation's huge earnings, especially in the area of infrastructure.

The minister described as a cruel irony that those who frittered away the country's resources at a time of financial buoyancy and planted the seed of insecurity in some parts of the country, were the same people now lashing at a reformist government.

He said: ''Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges.

But whatever situation the country has found itself in, things would have been much worse but for the deft management of resources, unprecedented fight against corruption, determined battle against insurgency and banditry as well as the abiding courage of Mr. President in piloting the ship of state. ''Nigeria today is not a failed state, but a nation that is courageously tackling its challenges and building a solid infrastructure that will serve as the basis for socio-economic development, a nation that is unrelenting in battling insecurity and working hard to ensure the greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people.''

The minister noted that in spite of declining revenue at 60 per cent less of national income, the present administration had made progress on all fronts and set the country on the path of sustainable growth and development, adding

that no government in the history of the country had done so much.

He berated the opposition for playing up the instances of insecurity in the country, insisting the country could have been overrun by insurgents and bandits had President Buhari not rallied regional and international allies to retard the insurgents who at a time, controlled an estimated 20,000 square miles of the nation's territory and were recklessly bombing many targets without check. ''They tout the downturn in economic fortunes without putting things in context. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a global shutdown and a drastic fall in global oil demand, Nigeria lost 60 per cent of its earnings, yet the administration has ensured that not a single worker has been retrenched, has paid salaries as and when due and has continued to build infrastructures like roads, rails, bridges and power, among others, that will serve many generations,'' he said.

Mohammed accused the opposition of aggravating the national fault lines with angry rhetoric, failing to realise that when national challenges are amplified at a time of dwindling economic fortunes, it is the kind of responsive and responsible leadership being offered

by Buhari that is needed to foster peace and unity rather than reckless elocution.

He insisted that the country is on the road to greatness, despite several hiccups, citing the hard push

Also reacting to Obasanjo’s criticisms, the presidency yesterday described him as the country’s ‘Dividerin-Chief.’

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, stated this in a statement titled: “Obasanjo is Nigeria’s Divider-in-Chief.�

Shehu said with Obasanjo’s comment, which he described as unfair attacks on Buhari and his administration, the former president had descended from the lofty heights of a commanderin-chief. “In his most recent statement, former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempts to divide the nation while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation-building and the unity of Nigeria,� he said, adding: “The difference is clear. From the lofty heights of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of Divider-in-Chief (to adapt the coinage of Time).�

The presidential spokesman said as some commentators were already suggesting, Obasanjo should, in accordance with his mantra as a statesman, get involved with problems solving, when and where they exist instead of helping the “mushrooming of a poisonous atmosphere of ethnic and religious nationalism.�

He said the former president must have disappointed many of his local and foreign admirers by showering commendations on a few extremist groups who have vowed to shun the invitation by the National Assembly to participate in the process of constitution amendment.

Shehu added that Obasanjo must have left his admirers confused in announcing the support for the boycott of a democratic process of changing the constitution, at the same time calling for dialogue and engagement.

He added: “The fact that the process he ushered in under his administration with the dubious intention of amendments that sought tenure elongation failed - as did two other attempts by the successor administrations of the same political party does not in any way justify his dismissal of the exercise by the 9th Assembly as another waste of time and resources. “To the credit of the All Progressives Congress-led 8th Assembly, the process of constitution amendment was kickstarted and carried through, paving the way for, among other benefits, the financial independence of local government councils, states Houses of Assembly and the country’s judiciary.

These changes have already been signed into laws by the president as mandated by the constitution. “The recent decisions by the administration as they relate to subsidy withdrawal, helping to plug some of the most horrendous notorious holes and release of scarce resources for the more pressing needs of the people have also not escaped the ire of the former president. “It’s a known fact that the withdrawal of subsidies had been on the wish list of the Obasanjo-led Peoples

APC chieftains to rig and buy votes with N300 million reportedly polled from local councils in Lagos State, APC has accused Obaseki of wantonly disbursing N1.7 million to electoral officers across the 18 local government areas on Friday, in order to secure a second term as governor.

Chairman of PDP Campaign Council's Publicity and Media Committee, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, in a statement, said intelligence available to the council revealed that the local councils in Lagos State have been mandated to contribute N15 million each to finance the alleged rigging plan.

He alleged: "We are once again drawing the attention of the world and all lovers of democracy to the glaring fact that APC is attempting to rig the Edo 2020 governorship election scheduled for Saturday, September 19, 2020, by mobilising N300 million from Lagos State local councils, each council contributing N15 million to execute the sinister plan.

"It is regrettable and disturbing that at a time when Lagos residents are suffering from the vagaries of biting economic hardship superintended by APC government's policies, the party is deploying Lagos State's resources to subvert the will of Edo people."

He said it was shameful that APC is propagating the template of vote-buying and rigging that should best be left to the relics of Nigeria's political history, noting: "We are sure that the resort to this despicable tactic is because

the party is certain of defeat at the poll and is only trying to save face. The people have been unanimous in their support for the candidate of PDP and no matter the underhand tactic of APC, the will of the people must surely prevail. “Edo people are proud and dignified people and would not surrender their freedom and free will to men who want to act god over their affairs."

But APC also alleged that it received veritable details of how Obaseki allegedly spent over N100 million for the purchase of arms, claiming that his deputy, Mr. Philip Shaibu, took the contract for the supply and distribution to thugs.

Chairman of APC Media Campaign Council, Mr. John Mayaki, alleged: "Governor Godwin Obaseki directed local government chairmen in the state to give N1.7 million to Electoral Officials (EOs) in the various local government areas. One of the council chairmen said he has ordered his council's treasurer to effect the payments under the sub-head of 'support for elections logistics.

"The disbursement was done yesterday, Friday, and confirms our earlier revelation that he has a N5 billion budget earmarked for election rigging and vote commerce. We also have veritable details of how Governor Godwin Obaseki spent over N100 million for the purchase of arms. His deputy, Philip Shaibu, took the contract for the supply and distribution to thugs.�

The party also alleged that at least 25 pump action guns had been budgeted for each local government area, while condemning PDP’s desperation and fear that the aftermath would leave a bad taste in the state.

Reacting to PDP's claim that a Lagos APC chieftain was masterminding the rigging process, Mayaki said: "If the man (Nehikhare) had been following the news, he would have noted that the person he is lying against is only giving us moral support as a party leader. He is not here in Edo, and he is a man who strongly opposes antidemocratic moves.�

towards food sufficiency; the modernisation of the rail system; the nationwide construction of roads and bridges; the reform in the oil and gas sector; the unprecedented anti-corruption battle, the diversification of the economy and the renewed effort to ensure steady power supply, anchored on a three-phase project that is expected to deliver 25,000MW of electricity in the next few years.

He lauded Nigerians for their perseverance and understanding, especially against the backdrop of the stifling effects of COVID-19 on the economy, and appealed to them to continue to support the administration as it seeks to lift 100 million people out of poverty in the next 10 years. ''In one of the most difficult moments in the nation's history, Nigeria is fortunate to have at the helm a leader who is not only dedicated, selfless and patriotic but one who is globally acknowledged for his discipline, integrity and vision. Those who genuinely love Nigeria will support, rather than subvert, this committed leadership,'' Muhammed said.

You are Nigeria’s ‘Divider-in-Chief,’ Presidency Tells Obasanjo

Continued on page 10

PDP ALLEGES PLOT TO USE JUDICIARY TO HALT EDO ELECTION High Court in Benin to stop the election.

PDP spokesman called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate the cause of the fire outbreak in its Ondo State office in Akure, stating that it was part of the process to discredit and rig the October 10 governorship election in the state.

According to him, some people want to use frivolous lawsuit to scuttle the September 19 Edo State governorship election, following APC’s realisation that there's no way it could win in the election.

He said it was revealed to PDP that some interests who are masquerading through certain political groups are seeking to blackmail the judiciary and stampede the court to violate the clear provisions of the Electoral Act and illegally halt the election.

He said: "Nigerians are already aware that Section 87(10) (11) of the Electoral Act, clearly prohibits the courts from restraining the conduct of party primaries and general election by INEC. "This Section of the Electoral Act has put paid to situations in the past, where groups or individuals who have no real stake in elections were used as cannon fodders by selfish individuals and groups to manipulate the courts and frustrate the electoral process against the interest of the people," PDP spokesman said.

Ologbondiyan added: "It is, therefore, clear that the

aim of APC is to use the political groups to drag in the judiciary, trigger constitutional crisis in Edo State, the Niger Delta region and the nation at large and blame it on the court.

"APC’s calculation is a re-enactment of the similar judicial quagmire that led to the scuttling of 1993 general election, a development that led to a serious national crisis that almost destroyed the corporate existence of our country."

PDP, he explained, stands with the people of Edo State in condemning this plot by APC to derail the democratic order, scuttle the governorship election, create an emergency situation, forcefully seize power and foist an undemocratic and oppressive regime in the state.

"Our party, therefore, cautions such unpatriotic persons to note that the people of Edo State are ready to go to the poll on September 19 and will vehemently resist any attempt by anybody to tamper with the schedule of election or attempt a forceful takeover of their state," he said.

Ologbondiyan also said PDP has been informed of the drafting of soldiers to the GRA, Benin and Iyamho residences of the former APC national chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.

"Our party holds that it is indecorous, shameful and sinful on the part of APC and the Buhari Presidency to leave the flanks of our people in Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, Yobe, Adamawa,

Sokoto, Kogi states open to bandits while soldiers are guarding the residence of suspended Oshiomhole just to enable him to perpetrate electoral heist.

"Not even in the face of our current insecurity should such an impudent and inconsiderate action be considered," he stated.

PDP called on President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Commander-in-Chief to immediately withdraw the troops from Oshiomhole’s residence and deploy them in their constitutional duty post in the interest of the nation.

He expressed the preparedness of PDP and its candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki, for the election, saying: "We counsel APC to stop wasting its time in the court and take steps to withdraw from the contest if it is not ready to face the crushing defeat that awaits it and its candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, on September 19."

PDP called on INEC to investigate the fire incident in its Akure office where over 5,143 Smart Card Readers were destroyed last week.

PDP Trades Words with APC over Suspected Plots to Buy Votes Meanwhile, Edo State PDP Campaign Council and its APC counterpart have traded words over alleged plots to buy votes in the forthcoming election.

While PDP has raised the alarm over alleged plot by

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MONDAY, ÍšÍźËœ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž T H I S D AY

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NEWS

OPL 245: Malami Breaks Silence on 35% Asset Recovery Fee Deal with US Firm Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has denied an alleged federal government’s involvement in an OPL 245 asset recovery deal entered with Drumcliffe, a United States firm.

Drumcliffe, which serves as the litigation funder, established Poplar Falls LLC, a special fund incorporated in Delaware.

Johnson & Johnson, a law firm hired by the federal government in 2016 for the recovery, had reportedly acted on the instructions of the AGF to sign a new deal with the US litigation firm to receive one-third of the recovered fund in the OPL 245 case.

According to a leaked document dated March 5, 2018, the US company is expected to get 35 per cent as a recovery fee. “Thirty-five per cent to the funder (the recovery

percentage) and 65 per cent to the counterpart or its designees,� a part of the agreement read.

But in a message to TheCable yesterday, spokesperson of the AGF, Dr. Umaru Gwandu, said Johnson & Johnson has no power to enter into such a deal on the government’s behalf. “The Federal Government of Nigeria has no contract expressly or by remote implications with Poplar Falls LLC and the engagement with Johnson and Johnson vest no power in them to commit the Federal Government of Nigeria to any third party liability,� he wrote.

Gwandu did not explain if Johnson & Johnson has received instructions from the government not to commit to the agreement.

He simply asked TheCable to “channel these inquiries� to the law firm.

Earlier, in a list of 24

questions, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and some other civil society organisations (CSOs) had asked Malami to give details of the deal entered with the US firm.

When asked to react to the AGF’s claim, Chairman of HEDA, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, said the government is playing games with the matter. “The government, as represented by the office of the AGF, is technically, and most sadly, repeating and not learning from the experience of the past.

This government is also playing the game, almost with what we have with P&ID experience and similar contracts that have launched the country into several embarrassing agreements, contracts and commitments,� he said. “The government has outrightly failed to come out openly, officially to

defend that Johnson & Johnson does not have the power to go ahead with that commitment made on behalf of the government. “These are written statements, and as you can see as published by one of the newspapers, showing that there was that agreement reached between the parties. “The Nigerian government and the office of the AGF is not seen during the trial in all of those countries.

The only person that is seen is that lawyer who represents Nigeria. And if that lawyer who represents Nigeria commits on behalf of Nigeria to such an egregious and irresponsible amount of percentage, then how else do you want it to be believed that the Nigerian government is ignorant of it?�

Suraju said the AGF and the ministry of justice were informed about the

development, but there has not been any official statement.

He said upon seeing the leaked contract documents, they had expected the government to come out and say it did not authorise its lawyer to enter into any agreement.

Beyond getting the 35 per cent, Suraju said it was also stated in the agreement that the recovered amount would go into an escrow account and it is from that escrow account that the 35 per cent would be withdrawn before the balance is now paid to Nigeria. “This is exactly how the people originally behind the OPL 245 created an escrow account in London with JP Morgan where they removed the $1.1 billion that was their own corrupt proceeds and only transferred $250 million to Nigeria’s federation account,� he said.

“This is another design tailored almost like that criminal enterprise that is being prosecuted under the current dispensation. “The Nigerian government as represented by the office of the AGF cannot just sit down in a corner and respond verbally that it never authorised the lawyer to do that without showing evidence of either a stern warning to the lawyer and a protest to also the company that is responsible for the litigation fund, to the effect that Nigeria does not operate any escrow account for the purpose of that recovery. And that Nigeria does not give anything outside the peak of five per cent to any recovery agent.�

Suraju added that it's possible that elements in the ministry of justice have conspired with the recovery agent.

FG REPLIES OBASANJO, SAYS BUHARI PREVENTED NIGERIA FROM FAILING Democratic Party (PDP).

They failed in achieving these measures because, one, there was shared greed.

They plundered the treasury as much as anyone could in the name of either subsidy or waiver with reckless impunity. “Two is to say it takes courage and rare statesmanship on the part of a leader as President Buhari to shun populism and seek the best interest of the people and the state providing the kind of reform and development that Nigeria urgently needs.�

Shehu boasted that Buhari has run an administration focused on infrastructure development.

The president, he said, has repaired the nation’s damaged relations with neighbours and traditional allies such as the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the others with lots of benefits to the country.

He said with his achievements and more to come, it was not surprising that Buhari would be the object of envy from politicians who he said failed to deliver.

According to him, “It (Buhari’s) is a probusiness administration that has used diplomacy to unlock bilateral trade and investment. “He leads a government that has liberalised the investment climate and market access by achieving reforms that have placed

the country in the list of the world’s top reforming economies. “Nigeria, which other nations had mocked and ridiculed for so many things that were wrong is today progressing at a pace reflecting its size and potential. “With so much to show and many more coming, it is little surprise that President Buhari would be the object of envy and harsh unfair challenges by politicians who failed to deliver, but continue to nurse ambitions of delighting the audience long after their curtain has been drawn.�

Shehu also faulted the views of some analysts on Buhari’s recent advice to West African leaders to avoid tenure elongation.

He said contrary to the assertions by the few analysts, Buhari’s recent speech in which he advised West African presidents against tenure elongation beyond constitutional limits has been consistent with his long-held views on the need to adhere to the rule of law.

The presidential aide said he hoped the former president would once again sheathe the sword and “rest the pretentiousness about the Messiah that has (mis) led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.�

Actors that Midwifed

Rot Can’t Chart Way and listen to advice from provisions, acute corruption a fraud and that it never Forward, Says APC eminent Nigerians, who and violent muscling of existed. Five years down Also reacting to the criticisms by Obasanjo, PDP and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC said it's ironic that those political actors that midwifed and institutionalised corruption, impunity and eroded the country's value systems are the same characters posing as voices on the way forward.

APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yekini Nabena, in a statement issued yesterday, said these political actors probably only listen to their own voices because Nigerians have long stopped taking them seriously.

He said the political actors simply lack the antecedents and moral credentials to guide Nigeria and Nigerians to the path of prosperity and progress.

Nabena stated: "It is baffling that the same political actors that midwifed and institutionalised the national rot, corruption, impunity and eroding of our value systems are the same characters posing as voices on the way forward in our national life. How ironic!�

Listen to Voice of Reason, PDP Tells President Meanwhile, PDP has called on Buhari to come down from his high horse

are advising him against allowing the nation to tumble from the cliff under his watch.

The party stated that the Buhari presidency is worsening the sorry state in which it has plunged the nation by choosing to haul insults on Nigerians, including Obasanjo and other well-meaning leaders, who are patriotically calling on the administration to end its divisive, suppressive and insensitive style of leadership that has ruined the nation.

PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said from the presidency's reactions to patriotic counsel, it's clear that the Buhari’s presidency has become bereft of the fundamentals of governance as well as overwhelmed by its own failures and burden of guilt for the disunity, bloodletting and anguish that have enveloped the nation in the last five years.

The party said: "It is incontrovertible that the Buhari administration is leading Nigeria into a failed state, where citizens are not guaranteed of their safety; cannot afford the basic necessities of life and where governance has been crippled by incompetence, unbridled nepotism, promotion of injustice, executive high handedness, abuse of human right, disobedience to court orders, brazen violation of constitutional

elections.

"Under Buhari, all sectors of our national life are in shambles; the productive sectors have been crippled; the nation has been pushed into the reverse gear; bandits, insurgents and marauders are freely ravaging communities and our citizens live in constant fear and extreme poverty."

PDP said never in the history of the nation has the situation been this pathetic.

"While President Buhari recedes in the comfort and safety of the Presidential Villa and reneges in his promise to lead from the front, Nigeria is being pushed to the fringes by marauders who are pillaging our citizens in various parts of our country, including Mr. President’s home state of Katsina," it said.

Furthermore, the main opposition party said it smacks of shamelessness for the Buhari administration to be talking about corruption in PDP’s subsidy regime, when it has been caught neck-deep in unprecedented oil corruption that had ruined the economy, turned the nation into the poverty capital of the world and put the citizens in a dire strait.

According to PDP, "Nigerians know it as a fact that before he was elected President, Buhari, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, had publicly told Nigerians that subsidy was

the line, trillions of naira have been discovered to have been stolen under the subsidy regime of an administration over which he presides.

"Today, life has become traumatising for Nigerians as resources from the sale of crude oil have either been wasted or stolen by officials of the Buhari administration."

Furthermore, the party explained that it's undebatable that the biggest achievement of constitution amendment in modern administration of our country is the entrenchment of a credible electoral process, which enabled President Buhari to win the election in 2015 from an opposition standpoint, explaining that unfortunately, this noble achievement is being washed away in five years under the watch of President Buhari.

PDP said it, therefore, amounts to pretending to sanctimony for Buhari to be preaching on term limit, whereas, his administration has done everything possible, broken all known democratic norms and rules to debase credibility in our elections.

"Our party implores President Buhari to pause, think of Nigeria and its people and heed wise counsel to save our nation from an imminent collapse, which this idling administration has foisted on all our people," it said.

a robust diagnosis of the issues which have over time made it impossible for the facilities to operate up to their nameplate capacity.

The GMD said the shutdown also became

inevitable due to difficulties in feeding them with crude oil via the pipelines that have been completely compromised by vandals.

He added that the corporation was moving

rapidly to execute complete rehabilitation of the refineries under an exercise that would guarantee restoration of the facilities to at least 90 per cent capacity utilisation.

NNPC UNVEILS PLAN FOR CNG REFILLING PLANTS NATIONWIDE provide viable alternatives to petrol which would ultimately lead to a reduction in demand for the product and eventual reduction in price.

NNPC GMD reiterated the commitment of the

corporation towards openness and greater transparency in its operations, noting that in the months ahead NNPC would make public its 2019 audited financial statements

as a sequel to the 2018 AFS released in June.

Kyari also shed more light on the status of the nation’s refineries, noting that the plants were deliberately shut down to allow for

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COMMENT

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

THE HIKE IN FUEL PRICE

Boniface Chizea thanks the government for having the courage to take out the corruption-ridden subsidy

O

n September 2, 2020 announcement was made to the effect that the pump price of premium motor spirit has been increased to 151.56 Naira per liter from its previous price of between N 148 and N 150. But it has been reported that pump prices in some filling stations were going for as much as N 161; you will trust us to want to take advantage of such developments. This will be second such announcement of pump price increase under the COVID-19 pandemic after it was gleefully announced to all that the petroleum products market was going to be henceforth deregulated. Since the announcement of this increase, all hell has been let loose as we return to familiar territory of agitation which usually follows such increases. So far, notices of shutdown of the economy have been served by organized labor and sporadic protest marches have been experienced in state capitals. In one particular instance the lawyers were reported to be leading a protest march.

And some have even asked and complained unpatriotically why reactions have been muted under this government compared to what particularly happened during President Jonathan administration. As we discuss this matter what readily comes to my mind was the fuel price hike of January 2012 under the Jonathan regime as an attempt was made once more to end the clearly unsustainable nightmare of humongous wasteful subsidy.

This widespread protest remains ever green in mind as I was trapped in a hotel in Abuja for a whole week.

The fact that subsidy payment in Nigeria on petroleum products is wasteful, opaque, corruption-laden is common knowledge to all compatriots but what has been lacking has been the political will to push this matter through. We all have to consider the amount of money said to be expended in offering this subsidy; it is mind boggling particularly when seen alongside its effect on lack of commensurate budgetary allocations to the important social sectors of education, health, water supply and general sanitation, amongst others.

My personal stand on subside payment has been well canvassed over the years as it is aligned with the views of most contemporary economists. Subsidy if we must call a spade by its name is wasteful and clearly a misallocation of scarce resources particularly as we are talking of subsidizing consumption. If at all there is going to be justification for any subsidy payment it must be limited only to production as it is adjudged to have the potential to boost capacity. But there is everything wrong with the way and manner we are now currently attempting to deregulate the pump price of petrol.

It is difficult to properly conceptualize price deregulation under the current regime except we are content with what has been dubbed price modulation. You cannot have a market whereby product importation is still under the monopoly of the state with the requirement for occasional announcements of depot prices and claim to have price deregulation. For any serious and definitive progress to be made in the desired direction, the state must hands-off importation which should be handed over to the major oil marketers. It is anomalous for the state to be announcing prices and then turn around disingenuously to claim that it has no hands any longer in the determination of pump price of

SUBSIDY, IF WE MUST CALL A SPADE BY ITS NAME, IS WASTEFUL AND CLEARLY A MISALLOCATION OF SCARCE RESOURCES PARTICULARLY AS WE ARE TALKING OF SUBSIDISING CONSUMPTION

products.

It is also not in order to retain some of the regulatory agencies with their mandate which clearly serves a different fuel price regime and still claim to have deregulated the market for petroleum products. What is Petroleum Equalisation Fund and even Petroleum, Products, Marketing Company still doing in a deregulated environment? As has been proposed, what regulation that will remain following deregulation should be confined to quality assurance and the need to keep a keen eye to ensure that the oil marketers do not exploit their monopoly to fleece the consuming public by guiding against profiteering. Therefore, from where I stand and as far as I am concerned, we are yet to bite the bullet and resolve to make up our minds to deregulate the products market and end the shame of the characterization of Nigeria as the only dominant oil producer that still has to resort to importation of fuel for its consumption needs.

But this administration must rise up to its responsibility on this matter to free the economy from this albatross of subsidy payment. It is in its second term and therefore on its last leg and therefore should be able to muster the political will which has been so painfully lacking all these years to push through this belated but much desired termination of this harmful, shameful, growth impeding payment of corruption-laden subsidy. The multilateral finance agencies as has been announced have made the removal of subsidy for petroleum products and for power supply as well as the unification of exchange rates as preconditions for the approval of the country’s loan requests. It is opportune to leverage on such demands as anchor to push through some of these urgent and badly needed policy reforms.

But beyond the issue of the deregulation of petroleum products market, there has been no talk lately about the shameful state of the country’s refining capacity. It would seem as if we have all given up on the almost dormant state of the nation’s three refineries as it now remains regrettable that the sale of the refineries by President Obasanjo at the twilight of his administration in 2007 was reversed by the successor Yar’Adua adminstration. Who knows by now we could have put all the issues regarding the importation of the petroleum products and associated problems behind us? And if we are able to deregulate the pump price of fuel, we might then be in a position to attract private capital into the sector. As it is common knowledge, refinery business is capital intensive and nobody in his right mind would be prepared to undertake such investments under a regulated market environment. In fact, the reality is that it is impossible to attract institutional funding to undertake this investment under the prevalent price regulated regime.

The expectation was that by now the Dangote Refinery at the Free Trade Zone here at Lekki must have been near completion to operationalize its 650,000 barrels a day refining installed capacity. But for one reason or the other this refinery has suffered a number postponements for commencement of operations. It is stating the obvious to observe that when this refinery comes on stream that it will be a game changer as it is bound to impact on the Nigerian economy.

Chizea wrote from Lagos

COVID-19 AND THE TAX POLICY RESPONSES

The Finance Act, along with FIRS, has oered good incentives to cushion the pains of the citizenry, reckons Oluwole Osagie – Jacobs

I

t is common knowledge that the Nigerian economy is passing through perilous times. The economy which is the engine of the government has dipped precipitously due to the significant drop in the international price of crude oil and the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as of September 9th, 2020 shows that there are 55,456 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, 43,337 have been discharged and 1,067 are dead. The country has had to lock down, thereby shutting down business activity significantly.

The economy now plods on listlessly with no redemption in sight. The cost of basic necessities like food, clothing, healthcare, education and shelter has gone up. This has sent ripples of discontent among the people as their ability to meet financial obligations has been severely undermined. Private businesses have been severely deflated. Advanced economies are not spared. The omnipresent virus has laid them prostrate. The whole world is under captivity.

The pains endured are so chronic and virulent that I now better appreciate the reverses suffered by Job in the bible.

In response to the harsh economic condition now experienced by Nigerians, the government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has come up with a lot of tax incentives to cushion the harsh effect of the economic meltdown on the citizens. A tax incentive has been defined as “a form of a reduction of or an exemption from, the tax which somebody or an organization would normally be liable�. It should be recognized that high level of inflation currently endured by the citizenry is an unplanned taxation.

This has been made known by the American economist, Professor Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006), in his famous statement that “Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation�. Therefore, tax incentives

whose goal among others is to attract investment, increase employment, raise capital transfer, increase economic growth, must in addition decimate inflation.

Perhaps the most far reaching palliative is the taking away of about 60% of the tax base by the Finance Act, 2019. The Act excludes companies with less than N25 million turnover in a year from tax. The implication is that about 60% of those who should pay tax will not do so. Also, about 60% of people who are supposed to act as agents for the remittance of Value Added Tax (VAT) monthly are relived of this duty. Companies in this bracket include a large number of Small and Macro enterprises.

We must commend the government for this concession because from my over 30 years experience in audit assurance this is a palliative overdose. The truth is that only few of Nigerian businesses preparing accounts for tax purpose disclose a turnover of above N25 million. Many of these companies don’t prepare accounts for auditing. Those who prepare accounts do so because they intend to participate in the bidding for government contracts. This Act has excluded from tax payment about 90% of the traders in Alaba market in Lagos, Onitsha market, Ariaria market, Aba and the big merchants in kano. They will only be liable to rates and levies.

The Finance Act, 2019 reduced Company Income Tax rate to 20% for companies with a gross turnover of above N25 million but below N100 million. This is a big relief to companies covered by this provision.

The Service has eased the burden of the payment of Stamp Duty on rent as such payments are now graduated with minimal rates. For example, if the tenure of a rent is between one and seven years, the rate applicable is 0.78%.

It means for a rent of N100,000 per annum the tenant will be liable to pay N780 only. You are not going to pay Stamp Duty on your own house if you live there. The payment is to

legalize the agreement between you and your landlord. Furthermore, the service has announced plan to give relief to individuals who should pay Stamp Duties on rent to corporate organizations and promised to extend this to the jurisdiction of states’ Internal Revenue Service.

The furor which arose after the announcement of Stamp Duty on rent payment was unfounded. Stamp Duty came into effect vide Ordinance 41 of 1939. It is payable in respect of dutiable instruments like MoUs, Agreement Contracts, Receipts, Promissory Notes and Insurance policies.

An incentive on the filling of returns is the Late Returns Penalty waived for taxpayers who paid early and filed later. This allowed supporting documents to be emailed to dedicated addresses or submitted later to the tax offices by those who are unable to use the email facility.

Remittance of VAT on or before the 21st of every month was extended to the last day of the month. Taxpayers who earned their income in Naira or Dollar are required by law to pay their liabilities in the same currency the income was earned. For good measure, the FIRS offered a palliative to taxpayers who earned their income in Dollars and faced challenges in sourcing for forex to offset their tax liabilities.

They were given the option of paying in Naira at the prevailing Investors’ and Exporters’ (I &E) Forex window rate on the day of payment.

In respect to tax audit, investigations and monitoring, visits were suspended till June, 2020 and all interest and penalties on additional tax liabilities which arose as a result of desk review, tax audit and investigation were waived provided the tax liabilities are paid on or before the 31st of August, 2020.

To encourage Agricultural Production a new tax regime of eight years tax holiday has been instituted to encourage crop production and

animal husbandry.

Other incentives include the following: the exemption of Personal Income Tax in respect of gratuities payable to an employee in the private sector in respect of services rendered by him under a contract of service with his employer; and the exemption from Capital Gains Tax on the sums obtained by way of compensation for loss of office, except where the amount of such compensation or damages exceed N10 million in any year of assessment.

It is rather unfair to allege that the FIRS is apathetic to the pain and suffering of Nigerians and businesses operating under the current economic situation. It should be noted that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa but in terms of tax to GDP ratio, Nigeria is among the least in Africa. The figures for some African countries are: Algeria (35%), South Africa (29%), Ghana and Kenya (18%). That of Nigeria is as low as (6%).

An analysis of the telecoms industry now trending on social media is both confounding and revealing. It would be noted that the same Nigerians shying away from tax payment hold 250 million active SIM cards. About 72 million Nigerians recharge their cards every day.

Nigerians spend about N446 billion to recharge their cards in a month. Nigeria’s investment in the telecoms industry in a year is N21.4 trillion.

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) says Nigerians spend more on telecoms than on health and food. The amazing thing is that most of these GSM activities by Nigerians are very unproductive.

The FIRS has expressed confidence that the above incentives together with those in the Finance Act, 2019 would aid economic recovery and stimulate growth of Nigerian businesses during and post COVID 19. It is therefore expected that Nigerians will take maximum advantage of these incentives.

Osagie – Jacobs is an economist and a chartered accountant

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T H I S D AY Ëž Ëœ ÍŻÍ˛Ëœ 2020

EDITORIAL

THE VINDICATION OF ADESINA AT AFDB Adesina should justify the overwhelming confidence reposed in him

T

he build-up to the re-election of Adewumi Adesina as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) was characterised by intrigues from interests beyond the continent of Africa.

Specifically, the United States came up with myriad of allegations of impropriety against the former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture. Even against its own procedures, the board of the bank bowed to US pressure to institute a fresh investigation after weeks in which past and present African leaders had complained bitterly that Washington was meddling in the institution’s affairs.

Eventually, an independent panel of experts cleared Adesina of all the charges levelled against him, paving way for his unopposed re-election at the bank’s general meeting last month. To be sure, the US is one of the 27 other stakeholders of WE HOPE ADESINA WILL the bank with its USE THE LAST LAP OF HIS share standing at 6.5 per cent. But TOUR OF DUTY AS AFDB questions remain PRESIDENT TO DO MORE as to why some WORK NOT ONLY FOR THE US officials were AFRICAN CONTINENT BUT all out to abort the second-term HUMANITY AT LARGE ambition of Adesina who had the backing of his home country as openly demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In exonerating Adesina, the independent panel, according to its conclusion, was mindful of the fact that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence�. At the same time, “it appears to us to be an undue burden to expect a holder of high office in an international organisation, to prove a negative, in the absence of sufficient grounds. An attorney writing on behalf of the president, also argues quite correctly in our view, that a distinction should be drawn between alleged institutional failure at the bank and the conduct of the president.�

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We consider the re-election of Adesina for the AfDB top job as a positive development for Nigeria in several ways. It has disproved the notion that our nationals cannot uphold the highest standards of probity in international jobs. And the re-election has also restored confidence in the ability of Nigerians to excel given necessary support by the federal government as demonstrated in this case. It is particularly instructive that when Adesina was vying for the position in 2015 shortly after leaving office during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, the then new administration went all out to back his candidature without allowing party differences to colour its judgement. Five years down the line, the same administration was at the forefront of canvassing Adesina’s re-election based on performance in office and his nationality. We commend President Buhari for his consistent efforts on the issue.

Adesina was sworn in for a second term last week by the chairperson of the AfDB board of Governors and Ghana’s Finance Minister, Kenneth Ofori-Attah. “Our focus will be on institutions, people, delivery and sustainability.

Together we win for Africa,� pledged Adesina at the ceremony attended by several stakeholders from across the continent. But now, the hard work begins at a period the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the economic landscape not only in Africa but across the world.

With all the 54 African countries stoutly in support of Adesina, we also hope that the US and other European countries that are stakeholders in the AfDB will extend their cooperation to the re-elected bank president.

To Adesina, we hope he will use the last lap of his tour of duty as AfDB President to do more work not only for the African continent but humanity at large. He will definitely need to justify the confidence reposed in him by African leaders and other stakeholders. So, he cannot afford to fail as he begins his second and final term of five years as AfDB boss. We wish him all the best in his assignment.

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

LAGOS AND THE EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

agos State is unique in many ways.

It is the sixth largest city in the world and the most populous state in the country.

It is also the leading non-oil sector contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic product (GDP). It contributes more than 30% of the nation’s GDP, consumes more than 60% of its energy, pays 65% of its Value Added Tax (VAT), and accounts for 90% of Nigeria’s foreign trade and 70% of all industrial investments.

With three lighter terminals and two ports, Lagos generates 50% of Nigeria’s port revenue while the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, is the major hub for aviation within West Africa, and between the region and Europe.

Lagos is equally the country’s financial, commercial and industrial nerve centre, with over 2,000 manufacturing industries and over 200 financial institutions.

The state alone harbours about 60 per cent of the federation’s total industrial investments and foreign trade, while also attracting 65 percent of Nigeria’s commercial activities.

Currently, the state government’s expenditure focuses on developing infrastructure.

Waste management is also experiencing improvement while the public transport system is being re-engineered.

Improved government financial control and other steps to create a favourable climate

for investment have seen confidence grow in Lagos as a destination for investors.

Recently, the government signed the $629 million financing facility aimed at completing the Lekki Deep Sea Port with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), thus reflecting the plan to explore investments and partnerships that would accelerate growth and benefit residents of the state.

It is this strong belief in the private sector that propels the government’s collaboration with the OPS in various vital areas of the T.H.E.M.E.S. Agenda of the Sanwo-Olu Administration’s development strategy. The government regularly meets with the business community to discuss issues of mutual interest. The last of such was held last July.

In the last 12 years, through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), the OPS and the government have been battling to put in place a seamless security plan with the aim of creating a conducive environment for economic undertakings. The success of this novel model has made other states replicate same.

In order to protect businesses, the implementation of additional reliefs and measures to further ease the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on taxpayers and businesses have begun.

These incentives are sequel to the initial three-month extension of the deadline for filing of annual returns (from March 31 to June 30, 2020). Also, taxpayers are to enjoy

a waiver of penalty for late payment of liabilities under PAYE (Pay As You Earn) that was due during the period of March-May, 2020 when the state was under COVID-19 lockdown.

The 2018 Land Use Charge (LUC) law was reviewed to bring a huge relief to all, including corporate organisations. The penalties for 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been waived. This translates to over N5 billion potential revenue loss for the government.

There is also 48% reduction in the Annual Charge Rates, just as the annual rate for agricultural land has been reduced from 0.076% to 0.01%, which represents an 87% reduction from the old rate.

On power supply, in collaboration with the private sector, the state government has, in the last 12 years, built 13 Independent Power Plants (IPPs) across the state. In furtherance of this, the government has unveiled a Smart Meter Initiative tagged “The Lagos Smart Meter Hackathon 2020�.

In respect of issuance of C of Os, Lagos is the first to begin an automation process of the process in 2001 and the procedure is getting faster by the day. On May 29th, 2020, the government published over a thousand C of Os that were ready for collection, the highest figure ever at a go. Thanks to the effectiveness of the e-process.

The various commitments of the government towards ensuring a safe haven for

investors is already paying off. In the last one year, the state has attracted the sum of $192.10million in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Also, bureaucratic processes in business registration have been reduced. By the same token, processing of relevant construction permits is now faster and better. In terms of enforcing contracts, litigation time has also reduced drastically.

There is also reduction in incidence of loss of files as data are now kept and transferred electronically. Equally, the time frame for property registration has been radically reduced while more land is now available for investors.

No doubt, Lagos is the prime investment destination in West Africa. The state, together with Kano, is responsible for the country’s jump to 131 from 146 in the 2020 World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EDOB) Report. The state was presented with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Award on EODB in recognition of its performance at the 2018 EODB Sub-National Ranking, in Abuja by the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Undoubtedly, Lagos is ready for business and things can only get better.

Tayo Ogunbiyi is Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

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MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 •T H I S D AY

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

POLITICS

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

M O N D AY D I S C O U R S E

Sharif: Waiting for the Hangman’s Noose or Judicial Repreive Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Ibrahim Shuaibu write that the recent death sentence passed by a Shariah Court on a Kano-based musician, Yahaya Sharif Aminu over alleged blasphemous acts has provoked mixed reactions around the world

Left to right Kano Police Commissioner Mr Habu Sani, Governor Ganduje at the centre, SSG of Kano Usman Alhaki and Local government Commissioner Murtala Sule

A

ll eyes are on Governor Abadullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State as the world awaits his response to the death sentence passed by an Islamic Sharia Court against Yahaya Sharif Amin, a 22 year-old musician who resides at his family home in Sharifai quarters of Kano municipality.

A notice of appeal has since been filed at a Kano High Court a few hours to the end of the 30-day window allowed by the Shariah Court.

The minstrel has suffered untold hardship since he was declared an enemy of Islam. The punishment against him has been extended to his relatives, as well. The family house of the Sharif located at Sharifai quarters in Kano Municipal Local Government Area was set ablaze by irate youths who invaded the area in protest against Sharif’s alleged blasphemy in his creative work.

Residents of Sharifai including friends and associates of the condemned musician have been overwhelmed by stifling backlash from the larger Kano society and agents of the state government. Afraid for their lives, they have distanced themselves from him. To justify their stance, which is largely out of fear of the dreaded Sharia Police popularly known as Hisbah Command, they resorted to distorted stories suggesting that Sharif may be suffering psychiatric problems. They also allude to his membership of theTijjaniya sect and Faidha group who are known for their preference of Ibrahim Nyass (a famous Senegalese Islamic Scholar) over Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Sharif, they claim had become radicalised, holding fanatically on to a strain of Islam that contradicts the mainstream Islamic teachings.

According to Islamic tenets, blasphemy, for which Sharif has been found guilty attracts capital punishment. The offence was allegedly on a social media platform through his posts.

So far, the dissenting voices against the death sentence passed on Sharif have come from outside Kano. Itnside Kano, there is a conspiracy of agreement to execute the death sentence as tasted as possible. Some group of Islamic teachers began mobilising themselves to compel the state governor to sign the death warrant for the execution of the judgment to appease the din of protesters.

This move prompted the Kano State government and its officials to immediately summon a public decision meeting and allow the Islamic scholars to properly advise the government

and the governor.

Ganduje said at the public meeting that “What happened is so important to the state and to the security of the state and the nation in general. What the Court did is absolutely right. And we support it completely. Such kind of irresponsible act, if not because of the state power, nobody could know what would happen in the future,” he reminded.

“The man, who did that, confessed to be a follower of a particular Islamic Sect. But the adherents of those Sect rejected him right away.

So we need to understand the importance of this judgment. We are lucky that scholars maintained that it wasn’t a case for a particular sect, but rather of one member who just decided to derail.”

Waiting for Ganduje The statement by the governor at the meeting was seen as an affirmation that everyone was in support of the execution of the judgment.

The governor also reaffirmed that the state government has accepted the death verdict of the Shariah court and the rule of law surrounding the case.

“I will not waste time in signing the warrant

for the execution of the man, who blasphemed our Holy Prophet of Islam,” he assured.

“Lawyers just told us that the case could go up to Supreme Court. So if that happens, I will not waste time in approving the verdict right away. And the second issue is, if the victim did not take up the case to appellate courts, I will not waste time to give the approval for the execution. I will not take more than a few minutes to accept the verdict,” he said.

Representatives of the Islamic scholars addressed the gathering on why the judgment should be accepted and executed. The Chairman of the Council of Imams, Sheikh Muhammad Nasir Adam, Leader of Izalatul Bid’ah Wa’iqamatussunnah, Prof Abdullahi Saleh, Malam Usman Yusuf Makwarari and others, gave reasons why the judgment should be executed.

The Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria (MULAN) Chairman, Kano State Branch, Barrister Muhammad Sani Garba, disclosed that his group would stand firm behind the governor’s approval of the judgment, adding that, even if the case goes to Supreme Court, nothing could change.

NBA Chairman, Kano State Branch Barrister

Khadi Aliyu Muhammad of Kano Shariah Court had offered defence options to the convict who kept admitting that he committed the crime. He resolutely declined to plead not guilty, the court records revealed. It was also disclosed that he was even offered the option to change his plea. He kept admitting the offence, therefore, the court found him guilty of blasphemy on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on a social media platform through his posts. Passing the judgment on August 10, under tight security, the judge said based on Section 382 (b) of Kano Shari’ah Penal Code of 2000, the court found him guilty and ordered for his death by hanging but gave him the option of 30 days to appeal the case

Aminu Sani Gadanya, said, as an association, they collectively accept the verdict of the Court.

“Looking at the legal provisions followed by the court, we are supporting this judgment 100 percent.”

However, the renowned lawyer, Kola Olapini of High Bridge Chambers has registered a notice of appeal before the Kano High Court against the death sentence on Islamic musician, Yahaya Aminu Sharif.

In a notice of appeal, CR432020 filed by Kola Olapini, the convict, sued the Attorney-General, the State and the Governor.

Spokesman for the Kano judiciary, Mr Baba Jibo told THISDAY, “Yes I can confirmed to you that a notice of appeal has been filed before High Court in Kano” “A lawyer, Kola Alapini, has filed an appeal on behalf of Sharif on Thursday. The judgement as you all know was passed in Hausa, it will be translated into English for the use at the appeal.’

Mr. Jibo also confirmed to THISDAY that Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) had also requested for certified copies of the judgment in preparation for filling an appeal.

Abdulgafar Oladimeji, the immediate past chairman of the Association of Crime and Judicial Journalists, Kano state chapter said no doubt the convict has the right to appeal until all legal windows are exhausted. The verdict, if upheld by the Supreme Court will invoke a huge burden on Governor Ganduje who is a Muslim and is expected to promote the tenets of Islam.

How the Protest Against ry Sharif’s Alleged Blasphemy Started Initially, agrieved youths in their thousands on Wednesday 4th March besieged the headquarters of Sharia Police popularly known as Hisbah Command situated along Sharada quarters in Kano. They came to register their protest against Sharif Yahaya over his alleged blasphemous song, portraying the Holy Prophet Muhammad in bad light.

Mr Idris Ibrahim (known as Baba Idris), the Convener of the protest against Sharif said they came to notify the government to do the needful otherwise they would take the law into their own hands.

The outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic helped to calm the protesting youths. They accused the government of doing nothing when similar incidents occurred in the past.

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T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

MONDAY DISCOURSE

Governor Ganduje According to them, lackadaisical attitude toward of the Kano State government towards similar atrocities may have allowed the issue die without any action from authorities. This time, they were not ready to let go The Hisbah Commander in the state, Harun Ibn-Sina, while speaking to the protesters, assured that the state was on top of the situation.

The Upper Sharia Court is one of the respected courts in the state which is situated at Hausawa quarters within the metropolitan area. In the Sharif case, the court is believed to have conducted all its sittings under law and procedures laid down by Islamic law and jurisprudence Khadi Aliyu Muhammad of Kano Shariah Court had offered defence options to the convict who kept admitting that he committed the crime. He resolutely declined to plead not guilty, the court records revealed.

It was also disclosed that he was even offered the option to change his plea. He kept admitting the offence, therefore, the court found him guilty of blasphemy on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on a social media platform through his posts.

Passing the judgment on August 10, under tight security, the judge said based on Section 382 (b) of Kano Shari’ah Penal Code of 2000, the court found him guilty and ordered for his death by hanging but gave him the option of 30 days to appeal the case.

The organised body of Nigerian musicians, the Performing Musicians Employers of Nigeria led by its President, Mr. Prettty Okafor has written to Ganduje to drop all charges against Sharif. Okafor also rallied internatiinal support for the condemned musician. The musicians represent 10 national and international organisations in the field of music and artistic freedom: European Music Council (EMC), Finnish Music Council, Finnish Musicians Union (SML), Freemuse, International Federation of Actors (FIA), International Federation of Musicians, (FIM), International Music Council (IMC), Nordic Musicians Union (NMU), Artists at Risk / Perpetuum Mobile, Safemuse.

They wrote, “We wish to express our deepest concern regarding the situation of young Nigerian musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, who has been sentenced to death by a Sharia court in Kano State, for blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed. According to our information, he will be executed by hanging in less than seven days from today, unless charges are dropped or the sentence is overruled.

“This court decision is clearly in breach of sections 38 (protecting freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and 39 (protecting freedom of expression) of the Nigerian Constitution. The application of the death penalty also violates Nigeria’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which it is a party. “ “Considering the above, we urge you to use your influence to make sure that the rights of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu under the Nigerian Constitution are fully respected and that all charges against him are dropped.”

In 2014 publication, titled, ‘ Death Sentence for blasphemy’, a well-traveled journalist Abdulrazaq Hamzat, who is a Muslim stated ‘ both Christians and Muslims have different attitudes to their “Holy” books, the Bible and the Quran. While the Christians are free in the ways they handle the Bible and can put it under their pillow for “protection” and on their dining table for use before meals, the Muslims hold their Qur’an in respect that borders on awe. For example, the Qur’an cannot be put

Chairman of Kano Council of Imam, Malam Nasir Adam

Chairman of Muslim Lawyers Association Barrister Muhammad Sani Lawal

Cross section of Islamic and lawyers group at the meeting on the bed, especially on ones where love is made between couples. It should not be put on the floor, table or any place where anyone that has not performed ablution can have access to it. The tendency for Christians not to treat the Qur’an with the level of respect that Muslims accord it has been a source of problems, and a number of conflicts have been linked to this. Closely related to this is the extent of respect that should be given to the Prophet Mohammed”.

“Muslims are unequivocal in their demand for respect for the Prophet, while Christians are less inclined to giving the Prophet any special attention. While most Christians are willing to respect the sensitivity of Muslims by not desecrating the name, they do not have any special desire to accord the name any special respect. Saying the usual “Peace be unto him” after the mention of his name, for example, is not what Christians are inclined to do. While many Muslims are willing to accept this, they take seriously any conscious attempt to desecrate the name. Again, this has been at the center of violence in northern Nigeria.

While Muslims in the south also frown at any form of desecration of the Holy book an holy prophet, they believe such desecration should be peacefully corrected with education of the culprit. There hasn’t been any form of violent reaction to desecration in the south, though, they express their displeasure with such desecration and try to ensure it is corrected.

“This slight difference in reaction to same issue can be traced back to the origin of Islam in both region. While those in the north receive islamic do’s and don’ts from their ruler as a form of state law that should be strictly adhere to failure of which may be punished, those in the south learned about it on their own through islamic education. Therefore, there is every tendency that those who learned through islamic education could have been properly exposed to the diverse nature of the law and its applications, while those who receive it as an order may have not.”

Hamzat’s publication also takes into account a similar occurrence in the past. “The crisis over the Miss World Beauty Pageant in May 2004.

The crisis brought out all the complexities of

The organised body of Nigerian musicians, the Performing Musicians Employers of Nigeria led by its President, Mr. Prettty Okafor has written to Ganduje to drop all charges against Sharif.

Okafor also rallied internatiinal support for the condemned musician. The musicians represent 10 national and international organisations in the field of music and artistic freedom: European Music Council (EMC), Finnish Music Council, Finnish Musicians Union (SML), Freemuse, International Federation of Actors (FIA), International Federation of Musicians, (FIM), International Music Council (IMC), Nordic Musicians Union (NMU), Artists at Risk / Perpetuum Mobile, Safemuse

national politics. Sometime in 2003, Nigeria was selected to host the Miss World Beauty Pageant. It was widely believed that the country won the bid because a Nigerian contestant, Agbani Darego, had won the competition the previous year.

“But controversy began almost immediately after the announcement of Nigeria’s hosting of the competition. A protest came from within the country and it comprised mainly of those who saw the competition as a debasement of women. These people saw the exercise as promoting promiscuity as it offends female modesty and sexual morality. While objections to this remained contained, crisis erupted when a columnist with a national newspaper, HISDAY, Isioma Daniel, criticised Muslims who opposed the competition and argued that Prophet Mohamed would probably have loved to marry one of the contestants.

This was greeted with spontaneous riots across the country and a fatwa was pronounced on the writer who was forced to flee the country.

“Despite two front-page apologies by the newspaper, riots continued for many days, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and the organizers of the competition had to move the venue to London.

“The fatwa pronounced on Isioma turned out to be very controversial even among Muslim clerics and scholars both within and outside Nigeria. Within the country, there were those who argued that the fatwa declaration was inappropriate since Isioma is not a Muslim and that she and her newspaper had apologised for the article that caused offence.

Indeed, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs accepted the apology and was not willing to endorse the fatwa. There were also those who argued that while Isioma not being a Muslim did not invalidate the fatwa, the apology that was tendered nullified it.

“Outside Nigeria, reactions were mixed; an official of the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Saad al-Salah, said that it would be inappropriate to kill a person who is not a Muslim and had apologised for her action.

However, regardless of the opinion on the matter, the Nigeria government said that it would not allow the fatwa to be carried out.”

So far, there has been no reaction from the Federal Government on the Sharif death sentence. Will Ganduje approve Sharif’s death?

As the matter goes to appeal, the whole world is watching the unfolding event in Kano

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MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 •T H I S D AY

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BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OVERNIGHT OBB

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Group Business Editor Obinna Chima Email obinna.chima@thisdaylive.com 08152447875

S E P T E M B E R

S & P INDEX INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY MONTH-TO-DATE

588.78% -0.35% -0.01%

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

4 , 4.61% 22.37%

2 0 2 0 EXCHANGE RATE N379/1US DOLLAR* *AS AT LAST FRIDAY

Quick Takes Stanbic IBTC Appoints Oyedeji Director

ECONOMIC REVIEW

L-R: National Treasurer, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Isaac Adeagoye; President, Mr. Mansur Ahmed and Acting Director-General, Mr. AmbroseOruche,atthe48thAnnualGeneralmeetingoftheAssociationinLagos...recently ETOPUKUTT

Investors Stake N11bn on Shares amidst Profit Taking Goddy Egene Equities investors staked N10.842 billion on 1.226 billion shares in 19,529 deals amidst profit taking last week. After a rally, propelled by reactions to corporate earnings and dividend declarations the previous week, profit taking in banking stocks such as Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Zenith Bank Plc led to a moderation of the growth last week. Consequently, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 0.05 per cent to close at 25,591.95, while market capitalisation ended the week at N13.351 trillion.

CAPITAL However, analysts at Cordros Research urged investors to remain cautious given the prevailing economic situation. “Our view continues to favour cautious trading as risks remain on the horizon due to a combination of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and weak economic conditions. Thus, we continue to advise investors to seek trading opportunities in only fundamentally justified stocks,� they said.

The Financial Services industry regained the number spot on the activity chat with

980.482 million shares valued at N6.987 billion traded in 11,634 deals. As a result, it contributed 79.9 per cent and 64.4 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates industry followed with 59.758 million shares worth N72.458 million in 550deals.

The third place was the Consumer Goods industry, with a turnover of 58.869 million shares worth N1.349 billion in 2,862 deals. Trading in the top three equities namely Custodian Investment Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc accounted for 404.171 million shares worth N3.847 billion in 3,910 deals.

Meanwhile, only 23 equities

appreciated in price last week lower than 41 equities in the previous week, while 38 equities depreciated in price, higher than 19 equities in the previous week.

Eterna Plc led the price gainers with 28.8 per cent, trailed

by C & I Leasing Plc with 11.1 per cent. NEM Insurance Plc appreciated by 8.7 per cent.

NPF Microfinance Bank Plc chalked up 8.6 per cent, just as Academy Press Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc garnered 7.4 per cent and 6.6 per cent in that order.

Others among the top 10 gainers included: Oando Plc (6.6 per cent); Nigerian Aviation Continued on page 24

NEITI Foresees Rebound in Nigeria’s Revenue Chineme Okafor in Abuja The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI) has projected that monies accruing to Nigeria’s federal purse for sharing between the federating units may pick up in the second half of 2020.

NEITI stated this in the latest edition of its quarterly review on the federation account. It explained that Nigeria has responded quickly to make adjustments in a number of areas to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such, the federation’s earnings could pick up.

It equally noted that gradual rise in oil prices could contribute to the rebound in earnings, adding that it expects a healthy earning for the country in the second half of 2020.

In the review, NEITI analysed disbursements from the federation account in the first half and second

ECONOMY quarter of 2020. It explained total disbursements from the account in the first half of 2020 were N3.879 trillion; comprising of N1.53 trillion to the federal government, N1.29 trillion to state governments, and N771.34 billion to local governments.

It also stated that a total of N1.934 trillion was disbursed from the account in the second quarter of 2020; comprising N739.2 billion to the federal government, N629.3 billion to state governments, and N375.4 billion to local governments.

NEITI subsequently found that disbursements from the account in the first half of 2020 were volatile when compared to disbursements in similar periods in 2018 and 2019; and concluded that aggregate disbursements in the second quarter of 2020 marked

the third consecutive month of falling disbursements.

It pointed out that part of measures taken by Nigeria against COVID-19 included the downward revision of its 2020 budget in anticipation of the expected reduction in revenue, amongst others. “The oil price benchmark was reduced from $57 per barrel to $28 per barrel; oil production was reduced from 2.18 million barrels per day to 1.8 million barrels per day, and the exchange rate was initially adjusted from N305/$ to N360/$, and later to N380/$.

These led to a revised budget of N10.81 trillion, to be financed with N5.835 trillion from revenue and N4.98 trillion from borrowing. “In addition, N500 billion was added for COVID-19 related expenditure. Also, the government has approved and unveiled the N2.3 trillion Economic Sustainability Plan which is designed to

address the various economic dimensions of the pandemic.

Other policy measures included removal of fuel subsidies and full cost electricity tariffs to be completed by 2021. “The FGN has taken a $3.4 billion emergency facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is withdrawing $150 million from the stabilisation fund of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA),�

NEITI stated.

It further stated that the lockdown of economies as a result of COVID-19 resulted in slower rates of economic growth of countries across the world with Nigeria also affected. “Nigeria’s GDP growth fell by 6.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 (GDP contracted by 20.4 per cent in the United Kingdom, 13.8 per cent in France, and 9.5

The Board of Directors of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc has announced the appointmentofMr.WaleOyedejiasanIndependentNon-ExecutiveDirector.

The appointment became eective from September 8, 2020, following the receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

Oyedeji holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan and a Master of Science in Financial Economics from the University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. A statement from the bank explained that Oyedeji has over 25 years of banking experience across corporate banking, treasury and commercial banking. He served as Managing Director of GuarantyTrust BankUKbetween2008and2011.HewasappointedtotheBoardofGuaranty Trust Bank Plc in October 2011, where he served as Executive Director for the corporate bank group and contributed to the growth of their business until his retirement in August 2018. Prior to joining GTBank in 1994, he worked with Ernst & Young, Lagos, for two years. He is an alumnus of the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School.

Speaking on the appointment, Chief Executive of the Bank, Mr. Wole Adeniyi, stated that, “the board is pleased to welcome Wale Oyedeji to the Board of the bank and will undoubtedly beneďŹ t immensely from his wealth of experience.â€?

NAHCON, Ja’iz Seal New Deal

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON and Ja’iz Bank have signed an agreement to enable the take-o of the Hajj Savings Scheme.

The ceremony was attended by representative of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; representative of the MinisterofFederalCapitalTerritory,MalamMusaBello;theChairmanHouse of Representatives Committee on Pilgrimage, Hon Hassan Nalaraba; the Chairman Ja’iz Bank, Alhaji Umar Mutallab; the Managing Director of Ja’iz Bank, Mallam Hassan Usman; NAHCON Board members, chief executive oďŹƒcersofStates’Pilgrims’WelfareBoardsandrepresentativesofLicensed Tour Operators, among others.

NAHCONChairman,AlhajiZikrullahKunleHassan,describedthelaunch as one of the most important achievements of the fourth board since its inauguration in February this year.

HedescribedtheHajjSavingsSchemeasacontributorypaymentscheme forprospectiveMuslimswishingtoundertakepilgrimagetoMakkah,while stressing that the last two boards made signiďŹ cant progress towards the implementation of the Hajj Savings Scheme.

Mustapha,whowasrepresentedbyOlusegunAdekunle,advisedNAHCON and Ja’iz Bank to invest in cyber security as they launch the scheme. He also aďŹƒrmed that promotion of national cohesion and social inclusion is one of the core principles upon which the administration’s Economic Growth Recovery Plan (ERGP) is built.

Mutallab said Ja’iz expects that the scheme will uplift NAHCON’s self-sustenance and ensure utilisation of Hajj slots allocated to Nigeria

by Saudi Arabia.

Kenyan Makes GDP Projectionion

Kenya’s economy is expected to grow by less than 2.5 per cent this year as more evidence of the economic damage caused by the health crisis emerges. Reuters quoted Kenya’s Finance Minister, Ukur Yatani, to have said this during an event.

The projected growth rate would be a slide from 5.4 per cent last year, Yatanitoldavirtualeventtolaunchbudgetmakingforthe2021/22ďŹ nancial year, battered by loss of jobs, a steep contraction in tourism and a drop in government revenues. “The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cause a major economic shock,â€? the minister said. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs and some employees have had their hours reduced.

The tourism sector, which many households rely on for their livelihoods, is expected to contract by 18.7 per cent this year and 9.1 per cent next year, before it starts to grow slightly in 2022, the Treasury said.

Thegovernment’srevenuefromtaxesdroppedby 10percentintheyear to August, or 120 billion shillings ($1.11 billion), the ďŹ nance ministry said, partly due to tax cuts announced in April to support consumer demand in the face of pandemic.

“Subsidy is unsustainable.

It is something that our president would like to do so much because of his love for the common man. But is it is something that can be sustained in perpetuity? �

Minister of State for Petroleum,

Continued on page 24

Timipre Sylva

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BUSINESSWORLD INVESTORS STAKE N11BN ON SHARES AMIDST PROFIT TAKING Handling Company Plc (6.5 per cent); Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc (5.2 per cent) and Access Bank Plc (4.6 per cent).

Conversely, Royal Exchange Plc led the price losers with 15.1 per cent, trailed by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc with 14.7 per cent.

Livestock Feeds Plc shed 10.6 per cent, while Ardova Plc and Arbico Plc lost 9.9 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively.

Julius Berger Nigeria Plc went down by 8.2 per cent, just as Associated Bus Company Plc and Unity Bank Plc depreciated by 7.6 per cent and 7.1 per cent in that order. CAP Plc and Guinness Nigeria Plc shed 6.8 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively.

NEITI FORESEES REBOUND IN NIGERIA’S REVENUE

per cent in USA). This contraction is hardly surprising. Lagos and Ogun States, and Abuja first went into lockdown on March 30. “The gradual easing of the lockdowns started on May 4; at the same time with nationwide overnight curfews from 8pm to 6am. Also, Kano State was put under total lockdown on April 27. “In addition, there was a nationwide closing of all schools, places of worship, and ban on gatherings. These measures constricted economic activities, which ultimately led to the contraction in economic growth,� the NEITI said.

In its projection, it stated that: “As the lockdown has been eased across the country, economic activities have started picking up. Available data from January to May 2020 reveal that actual government revenue was N1.62 trillion. This was 62 per cent of the expected pro-rata revenue of N2.62 trillion from the revised budget. Thus, there was a shortfall of 38 per cent in government revenue for the first five months of the year. “As oil prices continue to rise, and with the increased pace of economic activities, it is projected that government revenue will perform better in the second half of 2020, albeit, with the possibility of shortfalls in revenue compared to budgeted figures.�

NEWS

Report Highlights Liability Loss Trends for Businesses Ebere Nwoji The latest report from Allianz Global & Corporate speciality (AGCS), a corporate insurance carrier has stated that liability exposures for companies around the world have been on the increase since the outbreak of the COVID-19.

It noted that businesses mainly face five major liability loss trends since the advent of the pandemic.

The report listed factors such as rising litigation, collective redress and large court verdicts, costly and frequent recalls in the automotive and food sectors.

It further stated that the disruptive impact of civil unrest and riots in a growing number of countries and environmental concerns such as indoor air quality and higher fines and remediation standards would likely impact businesses and their insurers in future.

Highlighting these liability trends, the report stated that social inflation in the US and rise of collective redress globally was a phenomenon especially prevalent in the US, driven by the growing emergence of litigation funders, higher jury awards, more liberal workers’ compensation claims, as well as new tort and negligence concepts.

It said the median settlement amount of the top 50 United States verdicts from 2014 to 2018 nearly doubled from $28 million to $54 million, adding that litiga-

tion funding was not only on the rise in the US, but also in Europe and elsewhere around the world. This, it stated, contributed to a growing trend of collective redress as hurdles for consumers are lowered to embark on class actions.

The report also said countries that may not be historically associated with this development, such as Saudi Arabia and South Africa, are classified as being “medium risk,� that a company may face a collective action in these jurisdictions, according to AGCS’ litigation funding country

guide.

According to the report, another factor influencing the size of settlements in the US was the increasing sophistication of the plaintiff’s bar with specialist consultants and psychologists being deployed to influence the jury’s decision.

It noted that the legal system in the US has seen a deterioration in consumer confidence towards corporations adding that this lack of confidence is driving an anger by individuals or classes of individuals towards perceived “greedy corporates� that

is resulting in so-called “nuclear� verdicts.

According to AGCS experts, it’s too early to identify a reverse trend, but court closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic may slow down social inflation as plaintiffs realise that it could take years before their case is tried before a jury and therefore may be more willing to settle outside court.

The report highlighted liability two as rising automotive repair and recall costs, adding that in recent years, there has been a growing number of recalls in the automotive industry in both the

US and Europe. “In the US, there were 966 safety recalls affecting well over 50 million vehicles in 2019 – more than two every day. In Europe, the number of recalls reached 475 for 2019 – the highest figure for a single year in the 2010s and up 11 percent year-on-year.�

It said in many cases, components can be produced by one of a handful of suppliers that services the entire industry, which can make it prone to accumulation risks. It said as a result, recalls have become larger and more costly over time.

BUSINESSEXPANSION

DirectorGeneral,Nationaled’OpÊrationsPÊtrolièresdelaCoted’Ivoire(PetrociHolding),Dr.IbrahimaDiaby(left),andCountryManager,SaharaEnergy(Cote d’Ivoire),OlayemiOdutola,attheexecutionoftheJointVentureAgreementbetweenbothcompaniesfortheconstructionofa12,000MetricTonnesLiquefied PetroleumGasstoragefacilitytoguaranteeLPGsupplysecurityinCoted’Ivoire‌recently

NIMC Boss Gives Timeline for National Identity Registration Ugo Aliogo The Director General, Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz stated that the commission needs between three and five years for full registration of citizens.

In addition, he said the agency would be focusing on its core regulatory functions as well as some form of verification.

He disclosed this recently at the Pre-#NES26 event with the theme: “Digital Identity as a foundation for Digital Economy and achieving the SDGs,� organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National

Planning.

The NIMC DG stated that the commission was collaborating with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and National Orientation Agency (NOA) to ensure voter validation happens with the National Identity Number (NIN). “The NIMC aims to register every Nigerian and issue them a unique identity. The NIMC act aims at reinforcing data protection and privacy laws, mandatory use of National Identity Number (NIN) by Telecommunication companies, ensuring the NIN is a unique identifier for public servants and an upgrade of the automated biometric identification system ABIS,� he said.

The Director, NESG Board, Mrs. Wonu Adetayo, said the implementation of a unified identification system cannot be over-emphasised, noting that it would provide the country the opportunity to take optimum, “advantage of a vibrant digital ecosystem that is obtainable in highly innovative nations across the globe.�

She further hinted that the NESG applauds the strategic implementation roadmap for digital ID which recognises the need to leverage Public-PrivatePartnerships (PPP) to scale the enrolment process to reach at least 150 Million Nigerians in 3-5 years.

The Nigeria Country Director World Bank, Mr. Shubham

Chaudhuri, stressed the need to use an ecosystem approach that coordinates enrollment partners in the private sector, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and government. He maintained that enrollment partnership would help to accelerate enrollment systems, legal frameworks and a strong robust authentic management system that can help to boost any Nigeria’s digital economy.

The Permanent Secretary, Political and Economic Affairs Office, David Andrew, who represented the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said partnerships across board would help to stimulate the economy, adding that better identification systems would, “help

to improve transparency, reduce waste and address a number of developmental challenges.�

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer, VerifyMe, Mr. Esigie Agele, revealed that only about 11 percent of Nigerians have a national ID given by NIMC and that a lot of Nigerians carry multiple forms of ID as opposed to having a single identifiable ID. He pointed out that it was essential for Nigeria to have a trusted identification system to boost socio-economic growth.

Agele said: “Government must look at digital ID from a foundational and functional identity data component perspective to address its suitability for national security, social and financial inclusion.�

Experts Proffer Solution to Nigeria’s Economic Recovery Emma Okonji Group Business Editor

Obinna Chima

Capital Market Editor

Goddy Egene

Comms/e-Business Editor

Emma Okonji

Senior Correspondent

Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents

Chinedu Eze (Aviation) Eromosele Abiodun (Maritime) James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafor (Energy) Emmanuel Addeh (Energy) Reporters

Nume Ekeghe (Money Market) Nosa Alekhuogie (ICT)

Some analysts who spoke at the third Economic Outlook Forum, tagged 2020 Economic Outlook, organised virtually by Nairametrics, have proffered solutions to economic recovery.

They however differed in their projections on the economic recovery pattern of the country, and advised the federal government on how best to addressing the economic challenges.

While some were of the view that the recovery pattern may take the ‘U’ shape, where the recession period is longer and has a less-clearly defined trough, others predicted that recovery pattern would likely take the ‘W’ shape, where the recession

is a double-dip recession, which explains that the economy falls into recession, recovers within a short period of growth, then falls back again into recession before finally recovering.

The financial experts who spoke were Partner and Chief Economist, PwC Nigeria, Andrew Nevin; Group Executive, Energy and Infrastructure, FirstBank, Bashirat Odunewu; Head of Research, Coronation Asset Management, Guy Czartoryski; Chief Commercial Officer, Mixta Africa, Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani and Senior Vice President/Head of Financial Advisory, Africa Finance Corporation, Fola Fagbule.

Founder of Nairametrics, Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, moderated the session.

Nevin said despite the federal government’s expectation of a 4.69 per cent fiscal deficit to GDP in 2020, he anticipated both oil and non-oil revenue to worsen, and severe constrain of the implementation of fiscal policy targeted at expediting economic recovery. “Without the COVID-19 shock, about two million Nigerians were expected to fall into poverty by the end of 2020, as population growth surpasses economic growth. With the pandemic, the recession is likely to push an additional five million Nigerians into poverty in 2020, bringing the total newly poor to seven million this year. “This implies an increase in the total number of poor people in Nigeria, from about 90 million in

2020 to about 96 million in 2022.

Having a vulnerable employment and being already poor, are factors that help explain this increase in poverty,� Nevin said.

On the way forward, he advised the federal government to unlock its dead capital in a meaningful way, and to also unlock value from government’s assets that are lying idle or under-utilised. The VAT reforms in the Finance Act 2020 should be implemented, and maintaining the increase in VAT rate to 7.5 per cent is key to recovery, he said. “I am not trying to be an alarmist, but if the country does not take advantage of the period to accept the moment of truth, there will be pressure on the economy. So, I will opt for a

U shape recovery� Nevin said.

Odunewu who said some factors like oil prices that hover around $40-$45 per barrel, would hinder the economic recovery, desired by the government, however, opted for a U-shape recovery pattern, adding that 90 per cent of the nation’s revenue still come from oil, and that low compliance of Nigeria to the OPEC cut deal has forced reduction in our oil production for the next few months.

Akinkugbe-Filani and others who chose a different path, said “the reality is that the nation still lives above its means, because she continues to borrow in a way that is not sustainable, and seeking an economic construct that may not be sustainable.�

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BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

Agbaje: Why I am Excited about Our Upcoming HoldCo Structure The Group Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, in a recent investor conference call on the bank’s half year 2020 financial performance fielded questions from analysts and investment bankers, where he spoke extensively on the plan to adopt a holding company structure by the first quarter of 2021. Obinna Chima provides the excerpts: What is the update on the bank’s plan to adopt a Holding Company (HoldCo) structure and what should the market be expecting on that; also I noticed that you maintained your guidance, what is your view on your net-interest margin and your asset quality?

The arrangement for HoldCo is going very well. As you know, it is a financial holding company which means you need regulatory approvals. That means you need the Central Bank of Nigeria (SEC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other places that we currently do business. In terms of the work we are doing on it, the operational model for the HoldCo is set. You will have the centre, which is the controlling or holding company and you have a couple of business units.

Operationally, what you would see is that in terms of HoldCo, we are going to do a one for one exchange, which means that the shares of GTBank would move up to the HoldCo. In terms of the bank, operationally we are going to split it into three: You will have Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria; Guaranty Trust Bank East Africa, almost operating as a region and you will have Guaranty Trust Bank West Africa operating as a region. We would then have other business units. The business unit we are looking at commencing with would be Asset Management, a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) and a payment company. Hopefully this week, we would put in our application for final approval for the payment company. For the asset management and the PFA, we are going through a due diligence on an entity as we speak and if we close, they would be together. I believe that we would be ready to go live with the HoldCo, hopefully by the first quarter of next year. Things are going well; we have all the advisers working and we are working on the operating model and we hope to go live first quarter 2021. In terms of guidance, we never change our guidance as we go through the year. As you would see, some of them, we have actually exceeded as at half year, but we are not going to change them. In terms of loan growth, we are eight per cent as at half year and our guidance is 13 per cent. If you look at our net interest margin (NIM), half year it was 9.7 per cent. We gave out a guidance of eight per cent, which means we built in a possible drop in a third quarter. If you look at what is happening to interest rate and what is happening to your fixed income yield portfolio, you will see that half year we went down from about 15.6 per cent to 13.4 per cent. As our bill mature, we think we would face some NIM pressure in the fourth quarter, not necessarily in the third quarter. So, we might see some pressure, but we don’t think we would go below the eight per cent which we have as the guidance. In terms of assets quality, our non-performing loans (NPLs) is about 6.8 per cent. We have restructured about 20 per cent of our loan book and five per cent of that was for public sector loans which we all had to do as a banking industry. So, we restructured our entire public sector loans, which was five per cent. The others that we restructured was about 15 per cent. We are very comfortable with the restructuring we have done. The kind of restructuring we did were in accordance with what the Central Bank of Nigeria advised, which means we didn’t give anybody more than a moratorium of one-year. So, you would find out that most of our repayments would be due in April. So, when you look at our loan book, my believe is that what you are going to see on people’s loan books is that the decisions people made in the last three to five years is what you would see in their loan books. If you had a lot of off-shore trade loans, I think you have to strengthen because as those things mature, you would see some stress. I think we have been very conservative in terms of trade book. Our oil and gas book is okay and I am always willing to shed more light if people want to know. So, we haven’t done a restructuring outside of what the CBN wants and we are comfortable with the quality of our loan book.

Agbaje If we take out the revaluation gains, noninterest income would have been very soft.

What are you thinking about this going forward? Secondly, what is your dividend outlook and are you looking at shedding some expensive deposits before the end of the year?

In terms of non-interest income, of course we are down by two per cent. If you look at the banking sector, a lot of the non-interest income that we make money from is activity-based. So, in terms of fees we are down about 48 per cent because we really didn’t book a lot of loans; in terms of e-business income, we were down 32 per cent; in terms of corporate finance fees, we were down by about 68 per cent. So, it is all activity-based and I don’t think it is unique to us. But from what we have seen in the third quarter is pick up in activities. You will also see that account maintenance actually went down.

So, account maintenance which is an indication of the amount of velocity going through your system was up; we would see if we can make up some of the others. Even in terms of e-business income, volumes are up – USSD is up by 34 per cent; mobile banking is up for about 58 per cent. So, what we are battling to do is just to make sure that the increase in volume more than outweighs, where really, for transfers under N5, 000, you are only allowed to charge N10, which is about 50 per cent of your USSD fee. Yes, we would try to close up the other lines as activities have picked up in the second half of the year.

In terms of dividend policy, there would be no change. We have paid 30 kobo, which is what we do at half year and by the time we get to the end of the year, we hope to pay our full year dividend. As I mentioned earlier, in terms of guidance, we don’t change its mid-way, not even when we are up or when we are down.

We continue to drive the business. Just because we are above the guidance on deposits, we are

not going to come back and change. We have a policy of trying not to change, because that is the easiest thing to do. So, we try to deliver what we promised.

Your restricted deposit with the CBN doubled, can you tell us what your effective CRR is at this time and can you give us an indication of the devaluation impact on your loan book in percentage terms?

As you know, the cash reserve requirement (CRR) is not up to us. Our CRR rate to deposit as at half year was 47 per cent and that was N99 billion.

What is the magnitude of interest rate reduction you granted to those you gave forbearance?

Essentially what we did was that when we give you a forbearance, we were not necessarily looking at an interest rate reduction, we were looking at the moratorium on the interest and the principal. So, we didn’t deliberately go out to reduce interest rate. We think where our interest rates were even before the pandemic was pretty low, so we didn’t feel the need to bring it down.

How did your customer cash ow fare in the second quarter and are you not seeing any signs of improvement and if so, which areas do you think are recovering faster and what is the risk that we see when some of these loans that had been restructured are due?

In terms of cash flow, what we have started to see which is very helpful was that in the second quarter, especially during the lockdown, lots of the retail loans, customers stopped paying because a lot of companies cut salaries by as much as 80 per cent. So, we have started to see the cash flow obviously improve for retail loans. Also, in the second quarter, for oil and

gas, as you heard, people sold crude oil for as low as $9. So, I would say the three areas where cash flow has looked good is telecoms, general retail, SMEs are coming back as a lot of them, such as the restaurants have started to open, the fashion houses and hairdressers are all gradually coming back to business. Also, oil and gas is coming back up. I won’t say we have seen any significant increase in cash flows as far as manufacturing sector. If I am to pick the sectors, I would say oil and gas, telecoms and retail. Let me also spend some time on the stage two loans. Our total amount of stage two loan is actually N283 billion and four customers account for 91 per cent of the loan. They are Aiteo, Wemco, Kunoch and Stallion. For Stallion, we have actually resolved that through a court settlement. But, even before we did that, they had for seven months met their loan restructuring agreement. So, for anything, Stallion is going to stage one and not to stage three, which is about N14 billion. Then you have Wemco, which is a syndication. It seems to be working and it is about N60 billion. That restructuring continues to work and we are looking at selling some assets which would de-leverage the loans. There are about two assets we are looking to sell: one is a hotel and the other is an office block in Hong Kong. If you sell that, you actually de-leverage the loan. So, I don’t expect Wemco to move towards stage three. If anything, we would be staying at stage three. Kunoch is stage two and I don’t expect it to move to stage three because right now apart from its other cash flows, you have the dividends from MTN and Access Bank to continue to service that loan and you have the core securities. For Aiteo, we are working on doing a restructuring which I hope we would finish. Once we finish the restructuring, I don’t expect it to move to stage three; I expect it to Continued on page 26

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BUSINESSWORLD

INTERVIEW

AGBAJE: WHY I AM EXCITED ABOUT OUR PROPOSED HOLDCO STRUCTURE

FG Inaugurates NCC Toll Free Centre in Imo Amby Uneze in Owerri The federal government has inaugurated an emergency communication center (ECC) in Owerri, the Imo state capital with the intent to combat crimes and corruption in the south East region.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ibrahim (Pantami), who unveiled the Center on behalf of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, said it would help the country to fight issues of insecurity, corruption and economic sabotage.

Ibrahim, said that the federal government chose Imo for the building of the Center because of the strategic role the state plays in the economy of the people of the south East, adding “this is first to be commissioned in the South East�.

The Minister disclosed that the people of the state had the opportunity of disclosing emergency developments to

Agbaje stay at stage two, but maybe 180 days to one year. So, when I look at the fact that 91 per cent of it is four loans and one has actually moved already to stage one, then I don’t expect to see further deterioration from stage two to stage three.

For the Holdco, what is the plan for leadership for the Nigerian business?

I am really excited about our plan for holdco. I think everything that happened in the pandemic has proven that are on are the right path. I think you would see that we are gearing up the business for another high growth phase. Not only are we taking the banking business and operationally splitting it into three, where we can look at Nigeria differently from East Africa and from West Africa. We think that if you look at what we are doing in the payment business, where we are number one in NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP), where we are number one in both inflows and outflows, which means we control over 18 per cent of outflows and almost 17 per cent of inflows, when we commence the payment company, we think the business is going to do well. With PFAs, we think we are strategic about that, especially right now that people are going to be able to move their pension accounts around. We think we can always gain market share from that. We also have the asset management business, which would basically complement our personal banking business for people who are looking for high yield. We would obviously focus on Nigeria, but none of these businesses would fully focus on Nigeria. For the payment company, we are going to be Africa-focused. So, the way I feel is like where we were at 2011, when we decided the retail and SMEs would be the base for us.

I think we are well positioned to handle the next couple of years and this will put us in a position where we would diversify our earning base significantly and de-emphasise the reliance on the interest from the bank in Nigeria. So, in terms of succession, what we are looking for now is a Managing Director for Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria. The process has started and I have always told people that we have five Executive Directors and so all of them are going through a process at the moment. We are working with a consulting firm in the United Kingdom. We are looking at what we think the future would hold and what we think the Nigerian banking industry would look like. At the end of the process which would end at the beginning of the fourth quarter, we would have a Managing Director for GTBank Nigeria.

So, we are on track. So, succession to GTBank Nigeria is well under control.

In terms of your fee and commission income, are you seeing any form of recovery back to the ďŹ rst quarter level and for the retail book, the NPLs have increased quite

signiďŹ cantly, can you speak more about that?

In terms of non-interest revenue, we have started to see some pick-ups in volumes. Our volumes are going back to almost like the first quarter. So, live is becoming a bit more normal.

Obviously, we are being a bit more careful about how we are growing our loan books. Retail NPLs went up to about 12 per cent. But it has started to correct for two reasons. Just like I said, salaries are being paid. I also believe that the fact that the global standing instruction (GSI) policy has been switched on, it has also made people a little bit more careful about diverting salaries or cash flows, when they know they have loans somewhere else. We have actually have some monies sent to us through the GSI for people who had moved their salaries to other banks. So, I think between the fact that live is coming back to normal again, people being paid salaries again and businesses are opening up and the GSI, the quality of the retail loans would keep getting much better.

Why is GTBank’s fee income lower than that of its peers and what steps are you taking to narrow the gap and in terms of your assets quality, you talked about the oil sector earlier, can you speak more about your midstream book?

I try not to compare myself to my peers.

In terms of fee income, we are driving our volume. Like I said earlier, in terms of retail, we are pushing volume to be number one. Our corporate business is about 70 – 75 per cent of our business. Maybe that is why we can’t charge a lot of credit-related fees. That is because your corporates don’t really pay credit fees. They pay no account maintenance charges. So, maybe the reason is the mix of our business. In terms of our businesses, you will see that 75 per cent of the loan book is high-end. And that is where they pay the least fees and that is the only reason I can think of. But in terms of retail, I don’t think anybody would be doing better than us. We really don’t have a middle market business. So, when you look at the middle market business where you can charge a lot of fees, we are not big there. So have to look at the structure of business that we and our high-end business is not where you charge a lot of fees. In terms of oil and gas, our midstream is now 15.5 per cent of loan book. It is a pretty safe loan book quite honestly. In there we have a company that does pipeline and the payments are obviously tied to upstream evacuation. We don’t have a lot of vessel financing there, which is the part that is a bit tricky today, where a lot of upstream companies have actually de-commissioned vessels.

So, we don’t have a lot of vessel financing. What we have is logistics based and pipeline, which are not really affected. The place I would be worried is if most our midstream loans were for vessel financing, which really isn’t. So, it is pretty okay.

the authority by dialing 112 on toll free basis.

According to him, Buhari was working hard in reviving the economy of the state, adding that the adoption of the dialling code 112 was in line with what is obtainable in the United States that uses 911 and United Kingdom with the dialling code 999.

The Minister said, “today, I commission this Emergency Communication Center on behalf of my boss, the president of the federal republic of Nigeria. This Center will help to fight corruption, crimes, assist in attending to healthcare issues and economic sabotage.�

The governor of Imo state and host, Hope Uzodinma, who was the chairman of the occasion, said that the state was grateful to the federal government for citing the Communication Center in the state.

He said that the state would take the advantage of the center to fight social vices and incidences

of fire outbreaks.

The governor said that the state was in support of the president’s interventionist policies and programmes such as this emergency centre.

In his remarks, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Umar Danbatta said the Centre is a one-stop-shop through which members of the public could access help from any response agency such as the Nigeria Police, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Fire and Ambulance Services, Nigerian Emergency Management Agency, etc.

He said the centre is equipped with facilities such as eleven workstations, a server system that receives and processes 112-calls from members of public, power supply mix, etc.

According to him, the ECC had been activated in 19 States, including FCT.

Bread Bakers Seek FG’s Intervention Oluchi Chibuzor Bread makers under the auspices of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) and the Association of Masters and Caterers of Nigeria have called on the federal government to intervene in the rising cost of baking ingredients in the country.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Lagos recently, the President of PBAN, Tosan Jemide, said under the current economic realities and rising prices of baking ingredients facing its members the public, millers, ingredients manufactures, sugar refiners should expect corresponding increase in prices of bread. “Data has shown that about 70 per cent of the flour consumed in the industry goes into bread production. It is therefore expedient for the federal government of Nigeria to do everything within its means to ensure that the industry does not die as we cannot breathe any longer. Our businesses have become comatose due to incessant increase in the prices of baking

ingredients, and our inability to pass on the cost to the Nigerian consumer. “Profit in our line of business has been wiped out completely.

Capital injections through loans and equity investments have been pumped into a lot of these businesses and repayments are no longer possible due to the prevailing situation in the industry and the economy as a whole.�

With the bread industry estimated at $621 million with a compound annual growth rate of(CAGR) of three per cent within the year, the five per cent tariff on Wheat imports and 15 per cent Levy earmarked for national wheat development program since 2012 has not yielded effect in the local supply chain as bread remain critical in attainment of food security,� he explained.

Speaking further, he said: “Over the last six months, the prices of flour, sugar and other baking ingredients have skyrocketed without a corresponding increase in prices of bread by our member bakeries. It has become increas-

ingly difficult to pass this cost onto the Nigerian consumer because of the eroding consumer spending power where sharp increases will take bread out of the reach of the common man. “In the same vein, we request that the government intervenes prevail on sellers as well as imploring millers to put a stop to the incessant increment of price, giving some consideration to the manufactures. “Most of us got loans with double digit interest rates from banks and other financial institutions to fund our bakery projects and are finding it extremely difficult to meet our loan repayment obligations,� he said.

A reflection on various ingredients price showed that between March 2020 and August 2020, the price of flour increased from N10, 500 per 50kg bag to N13, 500 per bag, while sugar increased from N13, 500 to N29, 000 and down to N19, 000. Margarine from N8, 500 to N11, 000 and Milk from N29, 000 now goes N52, 000.

TGI Employees Provide Free Meals to Vulnerable Nigerians The TGI Cares Fund, an employee-led charity initiative of Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group, has commenced the provision of one million free meals in communities struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19.

The pandemic has left many vulnerable people in communities without a steady source of livelihood but TGI Cares Fund, focusing solely on supporting communities during and beyond the economic crisis, is giving them food items.

Speaking while handing over food items to FoodClique Support Initiative, an organisation that identifies and reaches out to the most vulnerable in communities, Group Human Resources Director and Coordinator of TGI Cares Fund, Mr Tominiyi Oni, was quoted in a statement to

have reiterated the commitment of TGI employees to assisting less-privileged Nigerians. “We are proud of our people who birthed this noble idea. These are difficult times, so I am elated that my colleagues have pooled resources together to kick start this charity drive,� he said.

Receiving the items on behalf of FoodClique Support Initiative, Team Lead, Bolajoko Fadipe, expressed gratitude for the kind gesture.

He further appreciated employees of TGI Group, promising proper distribution of the food items to the most vulnerable in low-income communities across the country.

In its first phase, 280,000 (two hundred and eighty thousand) meals have been provided for children, unemployed youth and women in Lagos State. Phase two

of the charity drive will extend to other communities in the northern part of the country.

The TGI Group had previously donated the sum of N500 million to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 intervention fund organised by the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).

It had also donated food items to 2,000 families in Lagos, 500 families in Abuja, 500 families in Ogun and gave N20,000,000 to an Isolation and Treatment Centre in Lagos, among others.

Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group is an international investment and holding company with diversified interests. Its corporate identity is based on respect for people, its communities and the natural environment as it continuously seeks to support its communities during and beyond challenging times.

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NCC Alerts Telco Consumers on e-Frauds Emma Okonji The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has again alerted members of the public on the increasing incidents of fraud across various platforms, especially on social media networks.

The commission advised telecom consumers using any social media platform to be alert and wary of the wiles of fraudsters and other unscrupulous persons, in order not to fall victim to their antics.

In a recent statement that was issued by NCC and signed by its Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, it stated: “The latest scams sometimes take the form of Vishing, which are fraudulent phone calls from people who may claim to be calling on behalf of a known and credible organisation, with the intention to gain access to the target’s personal social media account or other identity resources to perpetrate fraud. Vishing is a form of Phishing which is punishable under Section 32 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc.) Act of 2015. “These increasingly popular incidents typically start with a phone call from fraudsters requesting the call receiver to perform a certain task for the caller, which will enable the caller to swiftly takeover the social

media account of an individual or group.�

NCC informed the general public that such calls and antics, were always initiated and carried out by unscrupulous persons, usually with the intent to defraud unsuspecting citizens and or commit other heinous crimes. “The commission observed that most times, when a receiver of such calls acts as the caller directs, the Facebook or other social media accounts targeted by the caller would be taken over by such persons, who may then proceed as impostors, soliciting funds from and/or enticing friends of their victims into fraudulent business transactions in order to swindle them. “To illustrate the insidious dimension of this development, a recording of an attempt by a person to extract information was made available to the commission by a telecom consumer. The commission considers it necessary to post the recording online to educate the general public about how fraudsters play tricks on people to defraud them.�

The commission assured telecom consumers that all the numbers reportedly used to perpetuate these crimes are being investigated and thereafter, appropriate actions would be taken in that regard as prescribed by relevant laws.

Rising Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco Worries World Bank, ICC Ugo Aliogo The World Bank has revealed that global trade in illegal tobacco is worth an estimated $40 to $50 billion yearly, to the criminal groups who produce, manufacture, smuggle, distribute and sell tobacco products on which there is no tax duty paid.

The World Bank in in JTI (Japan Tobacco International) report obtained at the weekend, stated that the loss of revenue to law-abiding retailers was also significantly felt, “as it is the impact on consumers who are lured into buying sub-standard products.�

Furthermore, the Interna-

tional Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in the report predicted that global counterfeit trade would reach $4 trillion by 2022, primarily fueled by e-commerce.

The report explained that JTI intelligence discovered that global public health crisis and financial downturn has created the conditions for a ‘perfect storm’ where organised criminal groups would further exploit public demand for cheap goods, “and capitalise on dwindling buying power in the impending global recession, particularly in countries with high tax regimes.�

The JTI Global Anti-Illicit Trade Director, Ian Monteith,

stated: “To some consumers’ illegal tobacco is a victimless crime, which is why we need to inform them not only of the hidden dangers they are consuming, but the wider social consequences of buying from criminal groups who also traffic people and arms. Our report, shared with over 160 law enforcement agencies across the world, is the first of its kind for intelligence gathering during the pandemic, and we hope it will serve as a warning to governments of ‘The Gathering Storm’ in the black market.� The report hinted that as part of JTI’s plans to tackle what it described as illegal tobacco business; it had called

for improved enforcement at national borders.

The report explained that JTI was also calling for improved intelligence sharing through public and private partnerships between all industries and law enforcement agencies.

It added: “We call for exploration of fiscal measures that would allow consumer confidence to grow and avoid the temptation to spend on illegal products. “We call for co-ordinated global campaigns to inform consumers through increased awareness about the dangers of illegal tobacco and the consequences that arise through its trade.�

Gombe Seeks Increased Private Sector Investment Segun Awofadeji in Gombe Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Yahaya has said the state is open to investors that would assist in driving his administration’s vision of making the state a one-stop-shop for trade, commerce and manufacturing.

Yahaya stated this at the weekend when he received senior officials of Keystone Bank, led by the Managing Director in charge of Northern Region, Ahmed Jibril Lawal.

The Governor said the banking sector has gone through a lot of reforms and transformation over the years.

The Governor disclosed that Gombe State Government is keen on devising means of generating money to stimulate the economy in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, hence the people would need the support of financial institutions in the areas of health, agriculture, education, trade and investment, saying his administration is amenable to what the bank is bringing to the table.

He directed relevant members of the State Executive Council to avail themselves to discussions with the bank on areas of mutual benefit.

He said because of the relative peace Gombe enjoys, the state has maintained its status as the business hub of the north-east, adding that the state was open to financial institutions who seek to do business in the state so long as they can come up with packages that will better the lots of the p6 and uplift their social being. “You are in Gombe, you know the history of the state, so you know how best to serve the people, the most important

thing is how you relate and gather customers, especially with good packages that will help stimulate the economy post covid-19�. “ In Gombe, we are coming up with an industrial park perhaps the first of its kind in the North East measuring about one thousand hectres in size and we are willing to accommodate whoever is interested as an investor to come and join hands with us to put up agro-allied industries because of our potential in agriculture, solid minerals and other natural resources�.

The Governor expressed the belief that the value chain along the Agricultural sector can do alot of good to the economic wellbeing of the people.

He said the federal government has identified the Wawa-Zange grazing reserve to be used as a model project for the National Livestock Transformation Programme which is aimed improving livestock production and animal husbandry as well as combating incessant farmers/ herders clashes.

Yahaya commended Keystone’s approach to corporate social responsibility.

Earlier speaking, Lawal said the bank was at the Gombe Government House to pay respect to the Governor and to intimate the government and people of the state of the bank’s objectives and packages.

He said keystone Bank remains a development and partnership bank which is now rebranded towards providing support and bettering the lives of the people. “It is for this reason that the Managing Director disclosed that the Bank will undertake the renovation of a secondary school in the state as part of its corporate social responsibility,�

STOCK-TAKING

L-R: Acting Secretary, AP Ardova Plc, Oladeinde Nelson-Cole; Chairman, AbdulWasiu Sowami; CEO, Olumide Adeosun and Chief Financial Officer, Moshood Olajide,duringthe41stAnnualGeneralMeetingoftheCompanyheldinLagos...recently ABIODUN AJALA

Chevron/NNPC JV Donates PCR Lab Centre to Warri Central hospital Sylvester Idowu in Warri A Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratory facility worth several millions of naira has been donated to the Warri Central Hospital by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Chevron Nigeria Ltd Joint Venture to support the fight against COVID-19 spread in Delta State.

The provision of the state-of-art molecular laboratory testing centre with a brand new PCR machine brings COVID-19 testing centres to two in the state, the first being in Federal Medical Centre, Asaba.

CNL/NNPC also donated test kits, medical consumables, five air conditioners, refrigerators and a

50-KVA soundproof generating set as well as the renovation of the four-bedroom laboratory building at the hospital.

General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs of CNL, Mr. Esimaje Brikinn, while handing over the state-of-the-art facility in Warri recently, said the gesture was a part of the overall contributions of CNL to the fight against the virus.

He disclosed that the donation would ensure early detection of COVID-19 cases for isolation and treatment in Warri and environs. “The aim is to support the government in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Delta by enhancing early detection of cases for isolation and treatment

within Warri and environs. “This is why we’re fully involved in the NNPC-led initiative to provide both tactical and strategic support to the coordinated efforts of government in the fight against COVID-19 in our country by halting its spread,� he noted.

Brikinn, who was represented

by Area Manager, PGPA Field Operations, Warri, Sam Daibo lauded the leadership of the Delta State government in the coordination of the oil and gas sector’s response in the containment of the virus in the state.

Director of Health Services/ CEO Delta State Hospital Management Board and representative of the Delta State Commissioner for

Health, Dr Mrs F. E. Omoraka, lauded NNPC/Chevron JV for adding another molecular laboratory testing lab to the one in Asaba.

While pledging a judicious use and discreet maintenance of the centre, Dr Omaraka further thanked NNPC/Chevron JV for their earlier provision of an ambulance, a ventilator, test kits, PPEs and medical consumables as well as three buses for contact- tracing activities to the state government.

Chief Medical Director (CMD), Warri Central Hospital, Dr Paul Okubor, said with the new molecular laboratory, results of COVID-19 samples, which usually took 72 hours from Asaba, will be provided faster.

Wema Bank Supports Start-ups, Organises Hackaholics Wema Bank Plc said it is spearheading future innovations in fintechs with the second edition of its technological expo - Hackaholics 2.0.

The bank explained that the digital exhibition was part of its efforts to expand its digital innovation beyond being the first fully digital bank in Nigeria. The event which would be a 2-day pitching competition would be held online from October 30th to 31st, 2020 and would feature

leading industry specialists as the marked judges.

Earlier in 2019, the bank held the maiden edition of Hackaholics which attracted 463 start-ups to solve problems in nine different areas. The top 20 were invited for a 3-day hackathon and the winners, Eazychange received $10,000, in funding for their transport management solution.

To develop the ideas presented at the hackathon into tech-driven

commercial solutions, Wema Bank said its team further engaged six of the startups of which some of them had launched, absorbed them into the bank and the last batch set to launch as they were further developed at an incubation and acceleration program tagged “The Hackaholics Bootcamp�; the Bootcamp helped in transforming their products into working solutions. “Following the success of Hackaholics 2019, the bank is

set to host the second edition, Hackaholics 2.0. themed ‘Connecting Worlds’. While we are fully aware of the impact of the pandemic on the country and our economy, the 2-day virtual event will focus on five essential areas - Health-tech (community health and disease management), Agric tech, Edutech, Financial technology services and Gaming & Betting in a bid to contribute to the country and economy recovery.

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Zenith Bank Secures Afreximbank’s $200m Facility Emma Okonji African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said it has disbursed $200 million to Zenith Bank Plc under its Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA).

The fund is expected to assist Zenith Bank to continue to maintain foreign currency trade flows impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It would also allow Zenith Bank to on-lend to eligible sub-borrowers involved in the manufacture and supply

of medical resources needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on the facility, a statement quoted the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, to have said: “The Afreximbank facility undoubtedly underscores the confidence reposed in Zenith Bank, and it will enable the bank to contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by providing trade finance and foreign currency funding for the importation of urgent medical

equipment and raw materials.�

Zenith Bank Plc is Nigeria’s largest bank by tier-1 capital.

The bank serves more than nine million corporate and individual clients through its network of over 500 branches across Nigeria and its subsidiaries in the Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. It also has a representative office in Beijing China, and Dubai (UAE) a branch of Zenith Bank UK. President of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, said: “The Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA)

is designed to support and stabilize the foreign exchange resources of African countries, enabling them to support critical imports under emergency conditions. We are pleased to contribute to keeping economies going especially during this pandemic. The role that banks such as Zenith Bank play in Africa is huge. Supporting them to carry out their mandate is our greatest contribution to making sure that African countries and institutions build back better from the shocks of the pandemic.�

PATIMFA was set up in March 2020 to provide financing to assist Afreximbank member countries to adjust in an orderly manner to the financial, economic and health services shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This 3-year medium-term facility has been availed through direct funding. Afreximbank has already disbursed more than $3.5 billion under PATIMFA. In addition, the Bank provided a grant of $3 million towards the COVID-19 Special Fund set up by the African Union as

well as to the African Center for Disease Control and other agencies.

Afreximbank has a history of providing support to African economies in times of economic crisis. During the 2015 economic crisis, it introduced a Counter-Cyclical Trade Liquidity Facility under which it disbursed more than $10 billion on a revolving basis to enable member countries to adjust to the adverse economic shocks. That facility helped key African economies to manage the crisis and recover swiftly.

Lagos to Mark World Tourism Day September Chinedu Eze The Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf has said the state government has concluded plans to join tourism stakeholders across the globe to celebrate the Year 2020 World Tourism Day (WTD) on Sunday, 27th September 2020.

Akinbile-Yusuf, who made the disclosure, when she hosted the Ikechi Uko-led team from Akwaaba African Travel Market and Atqnews in Ikeja recently, added that the state’s focus was to fashion out strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery and the development of domestic tourism. The Commissioner told the visiting team that all the five

divisions of the State would be involved in the celebrations of this year’s WTD. She said Lagos was targeting grassroots participation, assuring that tourism stakeholders would also be carried along in the planned activities for the celebration.

Responding on behalf of the delegation, Uko thanked the Ministry for hosting the team and stated that the purpose of the visit was to acquaint the Ministry with its planned activities for the forthcoming WTD celebrations.

He explained that the World Tourism Day is important to the nation as it was a Nigerian, Late Mr. Ignatius Atigbi, who moved the motion to make September 27th the World Tourism Day.

Jobberman Launches Nigeria’s Virtual Career Fair Emma Okonji Jobberman, an online training and job placement website, has announced plan to host a virtual career fair, which is scheduled to hold September 30th 2020.

As part of its campaign, 250 potential employers from various sectors including digital, agriculture and creative, and 10,000 highly qualified candidates would come together under one virtual roof for the landmark event.

As unemployment and underemployment reaches an all-time high in Nigeria at over 40 per cent due to the pandemic, the search for jobs has become an overcrowded marketplace, with 18-35 year olds mostly impacted.

The one day fair would be centred on how to navigate the

increasingly competitive job space and provide the necessary tools to get hired, with one-one interviews between candidates and employers and sessions such as CV Preparation masterclasses.

The ongoing online training program seeks to equip young people (18-35) with critical tools including business etiquette, emotional intelligence and more, to help them transition into their new roles and increase workplace productivity.

The virtual Career Fair is free to all candidates who have completed the online program and passed the end of course assessment test.

Companies mainly from agri-tech, digital and the creative sectors with operations in Lagos, Kano and Kaduna will be in attendance to showcase their brands and company cultures.

Unity Bank Ranked High on e-Banking Revenue Unity Bank Plc’s earnings of N1.3 billion through electronic banking channels in its first half 2020 financial results has placed the lender among the top 10 highest earners in Nigeria.

This was disclosed in a report

by Nairametrics released recently.

The bank’s performance was not unconnected with its aggressive push in digital banking in recent years as it spearheaded the launch of several cuttingedge digital baking solutions including a youth-focused mobile banking solution called UniFi and a robust internet banking

platform.

Earlier this year, the lender had launched multi-lingual USSD banking, the first in Nigeria’s banking industry.

These gains come on the back of aggressive reforms embarked on by the bank over the past three years which saw the bank returning to a profit position in 2019 when it recorded a N4.061 billion gross profit.

The bank continued its impressive performance in 2020 as it declared gross earnings of N22.8 billion in the period between January and June 2020.

SAHCO Introduces Ankara Uniform for Staff Chinedu Eze Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc has introduced a branded ankara uniform for its frontline operations staff.

The company said the introduction of the uniform is to showcase the Nigerian culture to the world through the company’s day to day operations. “As an indigenous company with a global soul that was an arm of the Nigerian Airways before it was acquired by SIFAX Group and now listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange with

a Nigerian top Executives, SAHCO has always been proud to showcase Nigerian culture to the world through quality services to clients.

More so, the introduction of the Ankara uniforms coincides with the 60th Anniversary of the existence of Nigeria as a country “The new uniform’s theme is a fusion of abstract shapes of orange and dark grey, which is SAHCO’s brand colours all incorporated in a Nigerian themed Ankara design.

These uniforms will help create more awareness about SAHCO’s brand while also

promoting the Nigerian culture since the first point of contact to SAHCO as a company is usually through the front-line staff,� the company explained.

SAHCO is the first Ground Handling company to adopt ankara design uniform.

It further explained that the focus of the uniform is not to change the ones used by operations staff, but to have an additional uniform that aims at projecting the “Buy Nigeria to Grow the Naira� slogan and to promote the Nigerian cultural heritage and pride. “For clarity’s sake, SAHCO is not changing the official uniform,

but the company is giving operational staff a different option for their convenience and comfort, using our indigenous Ankara fabrics. “In another development, SAHCO has produced a Contactless sanitizing station in a bid to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic to all visitors to SAHCO’s facilities. “The sanitising station, which was constructed from locally sourced materials is fitted with a speech sensor system that senses human presence after which it automatically plays Covid-19 educational information to the hearings of users,� it added.

BEDC: 30 Firms to Generate 800MW Electricity, Commences Service-based Tariff Sylvester Idowu in Warri Determined to address electricity supply shortfall from the national grid, about 30 generating firms have expressed interest in generating 800 MW of electricity to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).

The Managing Director, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, who disclosed this in Benin however lamented that within the last three years, the electricity company signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with two generation

companies to generate between 100 MW and 30 MW for the zone.

Osibodu, who was represented by the Executive Director, Mr. Abu Ejoor at a media chat on service-based tariff for Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) said the companies pulled out of the deal due to the current tariff rate which he described as too low to be economically viable.

The managing director who announced the commencement of the new service-based tariff said it was in line with the outcome of customers’ feedback from the tariff review consultations

held by the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Council (NERC) and the distribution companies.

She explained that under the new service dispensation which took off on September 1, customers have been disaggregated into various clusters/bands based on hours of supply and using number of times hours of daily availability as a measure to determine the tariff rates with those with more power paying more than those with less power.

Osibodu said: “The new tariff regime also provides that customers can move to upper bands of

more power availability as their quality of service improves and accordingly pay the appropriate tariff. “The new system essentially affects customers that enjoy electricity for at least average of 12 hours per day. For those enjoying less than 12 hours of power supply they will continue to pay at old rates until end of year.�

She assured that the new system would allow customers to enjoy certainty in a minimum of hours of power availability and pay appropriate rates for services rendered based on availability.

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Subsidising the Naira Blocks Nigeria’s Economic Takeoff Kingsley Moghalu The naira should be floated to find its exchange rate value on the market if Nigeria’s economy is to become productive, instead of relying on oil revenues, a dependency that has plunged our country and our citizens deeper and deeper into fiscal bankruptcy and individual poverty.

Ending the elusive quest for a “strong� currency when the economic fundamentals do not support it will be painful in the short run (we have already undergone several years of devaluations forced by these fundamentals, so what’s new?) but will be beneficial in the longer term.

The notion of an artificially strong currency remains attractive for three fundamental reasons: Firstly, we are fundamentally an import economy, and imports are priced in dollars and other “reserve� currencies in international trade. Secondly, there is a lack of economic knowledge both in policy-making governance circles and in the wider population.

Thirdly, based on the two factors earlier cited, politicians want to remain “popular� and lack the political will to do what is required to set the economy on a truly productive path. Some “technocrats�, for self-serving reasons, sing and clap along instead of providing the necessary advice and guidance.

In taking this approach, as well as others such as subsidies on consumption instead of on production, structural poverty has been entrenched in Nigeria and the Nigerian economy has remained uncompetitive in a global context, for far too long.

To measure the naira only relative to the dollar and other foreign currencies is to miss a fine point - that it matters as well to differentiate what the naira equivalent of one dollar can buy in Nigeria from what one dollar can buy in America-what economists call “purchasing power parity� - what your currency can purchase for you in your national market as a way to measure GDP and GDP per capita. This approach to measuring economies arose because sometimes currencies are manipulated, and so measuring against such currencies may not yield a fully accurate picture.

As someone so brilliantly put it on a Whatsapp post I read, “in the US, a dollar may not buy you more than a bottle of water, while N500 will buy you a pack of 12 of the same bottles of water in Nigeria!�

Because we are an import economy, we want to maintain an artificially strong naira/dollar exchange rate, to subsidise the import habit of our elite, or our ability to pay school fees of our wards abroad - understandable, given the decline of education in Nigeria, but not the solution to a problem that needs to be fixed.

We produce and export nothing that is valueadded. Over 90 per cent of our forex comes from oil. When an economy lacks “complexity� (value-added manufacturing as a ratio of GDP) but depends on exports of natural commodities or minerals, the exchange rate value of its currency is determined almost exclusively by the level of its foreign reserves, which accrues mainly from income from such commodity or resource exports.

Moghalu These reserves determine how many months of imports such a country can pay for.

So when oil prices are high for a long period, the reserves swell, and the (say) naira value relative to foreign currencies rises. When the oil price crashes, our reserves are depleted. When reserve levels indicate that a country’s ability to pay for up to six imports is threatened, market forces weaken the strength of the currency (naira in this instance).

The value of the currency crashes, because that value is not underpinned by diversified exports that earn revenues as is the case with mature economies. If oil were $100 per barrel for a long period, for example, and our reserves rose to $80 billion, the naira value relative to the dollar will go up. But we have little control over the vagaries of the oil price.

Commodity dependence therefore exposes a country to currency instability except the country builds up huge reserves (e.g Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries which long ago invested heavily in oil refining AND have huge sovereign wealth funds (we arrived at the sovereign wealth party about 40 years late!) in addition to exporting crude. It is obvious in such cases that there is backing for that legal tender in terms that are relevant internationally.

The naira is not so fortunate because our economy is “naked� and globally uncompetitive.

What all this means is that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts to “defend� the naira are like Sisyphus rolling the proverbial huge boulder up the hill, only for it to surely come rolling back down, economically speaking. It weakens the very value of the naira it is defending because the dollar supplies come from the external reserves, but is politically “expedient� because it creates an impression of patriotic nationalism. By the end of the first quarter of 2020, for example, the Bank is reported to have spent approximately $4 billion on naira defence in the forex market by supplying the market with dollars.

But it’s all just populism. Foreign investors have exited, and forex is not coming in as investments aren’t at a level that can create confidence.

So the only way to reposition our economy is to shift it from an import-oriented one to one that is export-oriented. For as long as CBN continues to subsidise the value of the naira this will not happen, because they are creating incentives for an import orientation.

Forex “ban� makes the matter worse. Local productivity often is not enough to meet the gap

in demand for the previously imported products.

Smuggling booms. Meanwhile, in a frontier economy, “cabals� have allegedly had access to the naira at CBN rates, so they obtain huge amounts of subsidised dollars, and turn around to sell the dollars at the street market rates with huge profits.

Arbitrage reigns. The black market booms.

But if CBN devalues the naira decisively rather than tentatively, or allows it find its value in the market, this will create an incentive to manufacture locally and export in order to earn forex, because imports become more expensive.

But other policies must accompany this approach.

The absence of those policies is why series of devaluations have not solved the problems, but only import inflation. This is death by a thousand cuts.

The necessary accompanying policy thrust is trade policy. Instead of forex bans, anyone should be able to import (yes, they will need forex to do so) but slap high tariffs (revenues for the government!) on imports deemed luxury items.

Policy support should be provided to enable local production of such goods to be cheaper than foreign imports. That way, rich people can buy expensive imported goods, poorer people can buy cheaper “local-made�. More exports, more forex, and eventually the value of the naira stabilises.

The “cheap� exchange rate of the naira (from the perspective of foreign trade partners) will lead to greater orders of Nigerian manufactures, which = more forex earnings. Foreign investors seeking profit will also flood the country that is seen as a large and profitable market with dollars because the market is “open� and trade transparent. This will also help stabilise the naira.

But this is difficult when Nigeria is being mortgaged to a country like China. If our government treats China as a financial lifeline, can we slap the appropriate tariffs on imports from China which are so cheaply produced that it makes production in Nigeria uncompetitive? This is part of a broader problem of the absence of a worldview that includes a strategy to rise in the world, including economically.

Ideally, citizens should be well prepared, communicated to and educated about these kinds of necessary reforms. And we know that vested interests will often seek to short-circuit such reforms to still game the system. It’s like highway robbery on an unsafe road.

You may be okay in the early part of the journey, but could (God forbid) run into robbers in the last mile. The role of vested-interest rent-seeking in Nigeria’s economy has been a dominant one for far too long. The phenomenon is not unique to Nigeria, but that’s no excuse.

Our concern is about our country and our people and creating an enabling environment for real development. Getting right the balance between the role of the state and that of markets is one of the most important factors in development. I hope that, as President Muhammadu Buhari pursues the Vision 2050, we can get these fundamentals right. t.PHIBMV JT B GPSNFS QSFTJEFOUJBM DBOEJEBUF BOE B GPSNFS EFQVUZ HPWFSOPS PG UIF $FOUSBM #BOL PG /JHFSJB

Heritage Bank, FAMO Support 300 Private School Teachers, SMEs Heritage Bank Plc in partnership with Honourable Fatima Mohammed (FAMO) foundation has provided succor to over 300 affected private school teachers and small medium enterprises (SMEs). The bank disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, have continued in the shutdown of schools for months leaving the private school teachers without any means of livelihood and no

source of income.

To this effect, in alleviating the challenges, Heritage Bank and its partner supported over 300 private school teachers and SMEs as palliatives in 15 local governments; including five major markets in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area of Ifako Ijaiye, in Lagos State.

Speaking at the event, the Group Head, Education, NGO & Faith Groups, Lagos Mainland Zone of the bank, Mother Dan-Egwu,

stated that as educational-friendly financial institution, Heritage Bank appreciates the socio-economic role the sector plays in the country.

According to her, Heritage Bank deemed it necessary to partner FAMO to champion the corporate social responsibility of the bank in supporting private school teachers and small businesses out of hardship and the quagmire plunged into nationwide by the pandemic.

She further explained to that

Heritage Bank and the Foundation seek to help teachers in phases.

Dan-Egwu said this phase involves 300 teachers who would get food items and cash worth N10, 000 each. On the mode of selection adopted, she stated that FAMO selected the teachers based on the regions. The first phase involved 300 teachers and SMEs in the South-west (Lagos) would be assisted and the poorest of the poor were the main target through the help of National Association of

Private School Teachers (NAPST) to identify those teachers in direst need of the assistance.

She, however, disclosed Heritage Bank’s strategy to provide basic palliative care to the educational system at the resumption of academic activities in schools.

According to her, the bank has three areas of basic supports in providing mentorship program for schools, school portal and school health plan in partnership with Health Maintenance Organisations

(HMOs).

She further explained that support programs churned out by the bank are designed to instill value and keep students focused on making the best of their lives through corporate models, help school authorities to manage operations and steer them into moving educational system to the new digital era; where teachers can use technology in classroom management, administration, engagement with parents.

FAO Calls for Greater Action to Tackle COVID-19 Impacts Ugo Aliogo with agency report The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) DirectorGeneral, QU Dongyu, government, ministers as well as civil society organisations and private sector representatives expressed concern over COVID-19’s

impacts on the food security and livelihoods of millions of people.

They also called for greater action to overcome the food and agriculture challenges facing the region. A statement on the FAO website said they spoke during the Ministerial Session of a virtual regional conference,

which was hosted by Bhutan and aims to define the region priorities for the coming years.

The conference also elaborated strategies to fight hunger and malnutrition and advance the transformation of agrifood systems, making them more sustainable, productive and resilient. Delivering the

keynote address on behalf of the country’s Prime Minister, Bhutan’s Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji, said: “We need to recognise that the food and agriculture sectors, including fisheries, forestry, crops and livestock, and the families that rely on them for their livelihoods, have been badly affected by the

spread of the pandemic.�

The FAO Director-General stated that small and vulnerable farmers must be at the centre of the response. “Smallholder farmers and their families, food workers in all sectors, and those living in commodity- and tourism-dependent economies are particularly vulnerable. They

urgently need our attention,�

Dongyu said. The statement said the Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half of the world’s undernourished people, and with the impacts of COVID-19 the number of hungry people in Southern Asia could rise by nearly a third to 330 million in the next 10 years.

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MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 •T H I S D AY

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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CITYSTRINGS

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Ă—Ă‹Ă“Ă– Ă?Ă’Ă“Ă?Ă—Ă?Ă–Ă“Ă?Ë›Ă?äĂ?Ă™ĂŒĂ“ĚśĂžĂ’Ă“Ă?ĂŽĂ‹ĂŁĂ–Ă“Ă Ă?Ë›Ă?Ă™Ă—Ëœ ͙͔͙͚͚͓͖͑͑͑͒

A Delta Community at the Brink of Isolation Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that baring any palliative, the people of Ubulu-Uku, a Delta community, lies on the brink of isolation as the only link road to other communities is at the verge of complete annihilation

A

tree cannot make a forest neither can a community cut off from its neighbours flourish. This is the case the Ubulu-Uku Community in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State.

For a decade, the community has been riddled with bad roads, often almost cutting them off from their neighbours, which they tried to ameliorate over the years. But now, the situation has completely gotten worse.

THISDAY had also done a report on the state of the roads in the community and it seemed succor had finally come.

But in a recent appeal by the community to both the federal and government, they urged them to repair the only access road that leads to other communities- the UbuluUku-Onicha-Ugbo Road.

Especially with the rains now, the road has been destroyed by erosion and is impassable to the extent that walking through what is left of the track is like mission impossible. The community disclosed that only their strong youths can summon courage to pass through the road, but most times, they end up in traditional bonesetters homes.

They noted that their clamour for help from the FG and the state government was their discovery that the contract for the road project was awarded to a prominent son of Delta State by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). They also charged the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpobio; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and all well-meaning Nigerians to come to their rescue.

Also, Ubulu-Uku people at home and in diaspora have unanimously appealed to President Buhari and Sen. Akpobio to declare a state of emergency on the road. They also made a passionate appeal to the World Bank to assist in the road repairs while investigation into the contract award is on.

Mr. Pius Monye, who spoke from the United States of America called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to quickly intervene. In his call to the governor, he alleged that “the contract of this road has been awarded many times to a prominent son of the state, the last being in 2015, and till date the job is not done. All we have there is abandoned equipment and serious threats to my people. “Each time we make noise about the road, the man would send a few workers who would grade the road and leave it in a worse condition, as he did last November. The road is in a more terrible condition than it was before he came to grade it.

"My people are living in fear because of his threats to deal with anyone who dared to report him to the authorities. My people are helpless. Your Excellency, my people voted for you and we believe in your leadership; so, it will be appreciated if you can take care of the Ubulu-Uku-Onicha-Ugbo road. “Secondly, as a governor, use your good office to ask why the person the road contract was awarded to is against the good people of Ubulu-Uku and what he stands to gain with all the threats to deal with my people.

We are aware that the road contract has been awarded many times to someone. “Now that there is a panel of investigation into the NDDC, we implore the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Minister of Niger Delta to look into the records of the contract award and see who the contract was awarded to. The last contract was awarded in 2015 and we have the documents to tender as evidence when we are called.�

Activist, rights crusader and convener of #Saveubuluroads, Esther Nwogwonuwe, who spoke from the United Kingdom, said: “We all know that the contract has been awarded about four times. The most painful thing is that he abandoned all the projects in communities that gave him massive votes. Ubulu-Uku, for example, is PDP and loyal to delivering PDP aspirants in every election.

The only access road that leads Ubulu-Uku community to other communities

Esther Nwogwonuwe

Pius Monye

“Why has the party in the state decided to pay Ubulu-Uku with evil and wickedness?

The senator has bitten the fingers that fed him by abandoning such a multibillion-naira project. The entire Ubulu-Uku/ Onicha-Ugbo communities will never forget such criminality and wickedness. We, the people of Ubulu-Uku in the diaspora, can no longer travel home; we love our rich culture and heritage. “We love our annual festivals, we used to return home annually, if not for the festivals but for Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Now this is no longer possible. What is the essence, when we can't access the roads to our homes? What is the essence of returning home only to break our limbs and end up in bonesetter's homes? Even my people in Nigeria who are not based at home don't bother to come back. “Some of our relatives who lose their loved ones outside Ubulu-Uku, living along the road, do not bother to bring the deceased home for burial. Traditional weddings have been done outside the community. What is the essence of coming home with friends and colleagues only to be embarrassed by not arriving home?

So, we are calling on the presidential panel investigating NDDC projects to look into the issue raised on Ubulu-Uku-Onicha-Ugbo Road.�

On her part, 90-year-old Madam Grace Kolu has appealed to government to do urgently fix the road before she joins her ancestors: “My fear is that when the Lord calls me, there is no way for sympathizers to pass to come and give me a befitting burial. I have been confined at home, I can't go out. Even though I am old, God gave me strength and I was physically strong. I used to trek to visit people, but now I am down and weak because I can't go out for exercise. “The worst of it all is that the Reverend Father who used to bring communion to old people has stopped coming here because the

road is impassable. He nearly broke his legs the last time he came. When we heard the road was being repaired before Christmas last year, we rejoiced and prayed for whoever was bringing joy to us, because the road became passable and our children came home. “But after Christmas, the road was abandoned again. During the first rain, erosion swept away all the repairs on the road and dug gullies in it. It became worse. I am on my knees begging my son, Okowa, to do something about the road.�

A farmer, Monday said: “We rely on our farms for sustenance, because we are predominantly farmers. The only access road to our farmland has been totally destroyed. We cannot take our farm produce to the market.

Foodstuffs are wasting away in the farm; no vehicle, motorcycle or wheelbarrow can pass through the road. How do we carry our produce when we are afraid of breaking our limbs? It is a terrible thing to pass through the gully. “The painful thing is that, between September and November last year, we rolled out the drums to celebrate when we saw one of our brothers who came with tractors and workers and started grading the road. We thanked the workers and we were supplying them palm wine and other things to make them happy. We were so grateful that, after many years, the NDDC, through our senator, had finally answered our prayers. “They left after two weeks, promising that work would resume by January 2020. We took photographs of the road, which we sent to our people outside the community, and a lot of people returned home for Christmas and New Year celebrations. “We sold our farm produce very well and we were so grateful, but the workers have failed to come back and resume work. When the first rain came, it was as if we were blaming

God for sending down the rain. It destroyed the road more than how it was before the grading by our senator. We used to patch a part to enable the courageous ones to pass, but with the state of the road now, it is far beyond what community efforts can do. “Except the government intervenes, we are doomed. On behalf of Ubulu-Uku youths, I am begging the World Bank to intervene.

There was a time when the World Bank came to inspect the road, but we now think that because the World Bank discovered that the road contract had been awarded to someone, it decided not to do the road anymore. Please, World Bank, come to our rescue. We also plead with government to prevail to get a refund of the money for the road project awarded from the NDDC.�

When the matter was brought up within government circles, a state government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as he was not supposed to speak with the press, said calling the governor or the DG of Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, Mrs. Amaechi Mrakpor, would be futile because they are aware that the road has been awarded about six times to someone by the NDDC. He further alleged, “the last contract to do the road as at 2015 was N245 million, not for the entire road, but about some kilometres, because he has been collecting money in bits.

The document is with us. The only people that can assist are the World Bank and the Federal Government. Except they intervene, your community will be totally exterminated.�

Meanwhile, those in government cycles note that the government is not treating the menace of erosion in Delta with kid gloves as earlier in January this year, the government committed N500million in counterpart funding to that of the World Bank.

The World Bank had classified five erosion sites - Owanta, Ubulu-Uku, Ukwu-Nzu, Jesse and Obomkpa, as posing clear and present danger to the affected communities.

However, the focus at the moment seem to be the Owanta community as the menace of devastating erosion has been affecting the area for over 20 years. This has created active gullies in different streets in the area and causing environmental degradation leading to destruction of infrastructure, loss of arable land, lives, properties and established means of income.

But while the Ubulu-Uku community wait for either the World Bank or the state government to come to their aid, these are indeed troubling times for them given that the state of the road, which has been exacerbated by widespread erosion, has almost cut off the community, thus making it nearly impossible to access their homes and neighbouring communities.

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CRIME&SECURITY

The Fall of Benue’s King of the Underworld Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that after years of eluding arrest despite a N50million bounty placed on him, Benue’s self-acclaimed king of the underworld, Terwase Akwaza, alias Gana, recently met his waterloo in controversial circumstances

F

or years, Terwase Akwasa, alias Gana, proved elusive. He was the king of the underworld in Benue but his tentacles covered the entire North-east region. He was notorious for alleged several criminal activities including banditry, kidnapping, assassinations, ritual killings and cattle rustling. He even orchestrated terror on his own people.

Many conclude that Gana constituted himself into an alternate government and enjoyed the status of a maximum ruler in the jungle. His area of operation was mainly what is known as the Sankera geo-political axis which comprises KatsinaAla, Ukum and Logo local government areas of Benue State.

He presided over the activities of that empire from the jungles of Gbise, his immediate community, where he enjoyed the protection of the community which played a big role in shielding him from the arm of the law.

But on Wednesday, September 8, 2020, marked the end of his era. He died in controversial circumstances, just as he had lived. He wanted to be seen as a saviour and a defender of the Tiv people against external aggression. But close observers note that he perpetrated atrocities on his kinsmen even while claiming that he was protecting them against external aggressors.

Amnesty in 2015 When Governor Samuel Ortom initiated an Amnesty programme in 2015, Gana was the greatest beneficiary. On the last day of the programme, he turned in 84 assorted firearms and thousands of ammunition. He was granted Amnesty and made leader of the beneficiaries. The state government made him a revenue consultant as part of his rehabilitation and that of the other beneficiaries and he made a fortune.

Spurred Amnesty For whatever reasons known to him, he later spurred the amnesty given to him and went back to a life of crime.

After he reneged, it was alleged that he sponsored the assassination of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Security, Mr. Denen Igbana. Instead of making himself available for investigation and the judicial process, he returned fully to crime.

Bounty Given the widespread effect of his criminal activities on the people, the Benue State Security Council moved against him by declaring him wanted and placing a bounty on him of N10 million which was later increased to N50 million.

The state security apparatus carried out several expeditions to his enclave in a bid to arrest him, all to no avail.

These efforts were later complemented by the Federal Government which joined the manhunt through, first "Operation Ayem A Kpatuma" and later "Operation Whirlstroke". All efforts to track and arrest him, however, proved abortive.

Nefarious Activities Meanwhile, from his enclave, he ran an organised and sophisticated network of criminal activities in his chosen domain and conducted affairs with an iron fist.

Any challenge to his authority was met with death. Findings reveal that at Gana’s orders, whole communities were razed down.

His activities which came to their peak between 2015 to 2020 led to the near total collapse of socio-economic activities in that axis. He strangulated the entire Sankera area which used to be the most productive part of Benue State particularly in agriculture. It is this geo-political axis that gave Benue State the status of Food Basket of the Nation.

Akwaza (right) after he surrendered

It is reported that Gana killed his victims with relish. He was alleged to have buried many alive and gunned down many at the slightest provocation. In this manner, several traditional rulers were killed in cold blood including the District Head of Mbayongo, Chief Aloo Alev, and his counterpart in Michihe, Chief Chiahemba Livinus Shom,in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area.

His latest victim amongst traditional rulers was Chief Awua Alabar, District Head of Kundav in Ukum Local Government Area, who was gunned down in the presence of his family.

Outside this group numerous others from various walks of life had incurred his wrath. These include Mr. Igbana, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ortom on Special Security and Msugh Tyavyar alias Pastor whose roles in the prosecution of the first Amnesty programme he considered a threat to his interest. Both were brutally gunned down by people believed to be sent on the orders of Mr. Akwaza.

Perhaps what many consider incomprehensible and most dastardly was the abduction and murder of Mrs. Esther Nguumbur Tur, wife of Justice Tine Tur of the Court of Appeal and her companion, Mrs. Mbalamen Kpensuen Aminde, allegedly on the orders of Mr. Akwaza, after collection of ransom and seizing of the Hilux van vehicle in which they were abducted. The Appeal Court Justice could not survive the trauma of his wife’s murder.

He died shortly afterwards.

He was at the centre of the crisis brewing between Benue and Taraba border communities leading to the death of many and destruction of property worth billions of naira on both sides. Gana was believed to be the man behind most kidnappings in Taraba and Benue States. His Tiv kinsmen innocently suffered the consequences of his dastardly actions on many occasions.

Those in the know state that the notion that Gana was defending Tiv people from Fulani attacks is one of the most fictional stories of this decade. Investigations do not point to any instance when Akwaza put the interest of his people above his quest for personal glory and wealth. He

was known to be responsible for cattle rustling in conspiracy with Fulani elements.

Infact, they stated that he was never a defender of Sankera people! This is because he placed special levies on farmers, traders and prominent people in his domain.

Failure to pay meant death. He fought supremacy gang wars with his former allies which visited devastation on several communities in Ukum and Katsina-Ala local government areas.

Another Amnesty Offer This state of affairs prompted prominent indigenes of the geopolitical axis, including political, religious and traditional leaders to request for a second Amnesty programme.

Thus on Friday, September 4, 2020, Governor Ortom while on project commissioning and inspection tour of the Sankera axis accepted the request of the leaders.

The governor gave an ultimatum for those who wanted to embrace the second Amnesty to surrender their weapons on Tuesday, September 8, in order to become beneficiaries of the programme.

Before the governor's recent visit, major stakeholders from the Sankera area had done painstaking work to persuade those with illegal weapons in their custody to embrace the second Amnesty programme by surrendering those weapons.

Such were the circumstances that Gana found himself in the second Amnesty programme.

In company of religious leaders, he left his hideout and presented himself at the Emmanuel Akume Atongo Stadium in Katsina-Ala in full public glare to embrace the programme.

The State Security Council was holding a meeting at the New Banquet Hall of Government House, Makurdi where the second Amnesty programme was to be formalised.

Military Interception Selected traditional rulers, prominent indigenes and security personnel took off with Mr. Akwaza and other potential beneficiaries from the stadium to come and present them to the Council. This was where things went awry. On their

way to Makurdi, the military intercepted the convoy at Masaje, close to Yandev in Gboko Local Government Area.

They pulled the Katsina-Ala Local Government Chairman, Alfred Orya Atera and his security detail, a former House of Assembly member, Dr Ianna Jato, out of the official vehicle in which Gana was being conveyed to Makurdi.

The military took the vehicle and Mr. Akwaza away. They also arrested close to a hundred other potential Amnesty beneficiaries from Katsina-Ala, Ukum and Logo local government areas.

Later reports were received that the military killed some of the potential beneficiaries near Moji Farms after TseKucha, and later they killed Gana at another location in Nasarawa State.

News of this development filtered into the venue of the Expanded State Security Council meeting as unconfirmed rumours.

Reliable sources reveal that most of those present, including Ortom, Senator Gabriel Suswam and the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse, were shocked.

This prompted the abrupt end of the meeting. Ortom while addressing journalists later stated that the convoy conveying Mr. Akwaza and other potential Amnesty beneficiaries had been intercepted and that Major General Adeyemi Yekini of Operation Whirlstroke had confirmed this and promised to get back to him.

What came next was a statement from the Commander of the 4 Special Forces based in Doma, Nasarawa State, Major General Moundhey Gazama Ali, that Gana had been killed in a gunfight with the military, with the picture of the wanted gangster at the back of the official vehicle of the Katsina-Ala Local Government Chairman.

Mixed Reactions When the news of his death filtered out, it was met with mixed reactions- while some thought his death was justified given the enormity of crimes he committed, others declared it as extra-judicial killing because he had laid down his arms.

While some think the government lured him out to betray him, other allude that the the military acted out a script to eliminate him and pave way for further unhindered attacks on Benue communities.

Yet, there are others who think it is the law of karma or retributive justice that has caught up with Gana.

For those that consider Gana’s death an act of extra-judicial killing, they stated that given the fact that he had surrendered, he was no threat at that moment. They further argued that Gana and other members of his gang were entitled to be subjected to the judicial process, in accordance with civilised norms and global best practices.

Fear of Reprisals Those in the know said the governor was blindsided by the military as they were as shocked as others in the security meeting when the news of Gana’s death filtered in. According to them, they never reckoned that the military would eliminate Gana on the way to Makurdi.

They said the governor wasn’t privy to the military operation and that the military seized the opportunity to upturn what would have been a seamless transition.

Citing that from the first Amnesty programme, Ortom had indicated clearly that he was committed to the carrot approach and as a man of his word, he could not have broken his word by arranging Gana's elimination.

For the government and its people, the fear of reprisal looms as the death of Gana looks like a betrayal of trust. Given Gana’s large network, some of whom are still at large, peace remains elusive.

While the police said they are geared to curb any uprising while maintaining peace and order, the fact remains that Gana’s death signals the end of an era.

36

IMAGES

T H I S D AY ˞ ͯͲ, 2020

Photo Editor ĂŒĂ“Ă™ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă˜ ÔËÖË Email Ă‹ĂŒĂ“Ă™ĂŽĂ&#x;Ă˜Ë›Ă‹Ă”Ă‹Ă–Ă‹ĚśĂžĂ’Ă“Ă?ĂŽĂ‹ĂŁĂ–Ă“Ă Ă?Ë›Ă?Ù×

L-R: Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Chairman, APC Caretaker Committee and Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe; Political Adviser to the President, Femi Ojudu; and Senate President Ahmed Lawan, during the ďŹ rst meeting of APC tripartite consultative committee of the Executive, Legislature and Leadership, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja...recently

Director-General of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim (right) and Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr John Babatunde Kokumo, during the Director General’s visit to the State Police Commissioner to seek protection for Corps members that would participate in the forthcoming Edo State Governorship Election in Benin...recently

L-R: Convention Committee Chairperson, Ikeja Metro Lions Club, Lion Abiodun Ibrahim and Chairperson, Zone 6A, Lion John Oriazowan, at the 1st District Governor’s Advisory Committee Meeting held in Lagos...recently

L-R: Devon King’s Brand Inuencer, Chef Obubu; First runner up of The King’s Chef Challenge, Omolabake Davis and Category and Brand Manager, PZ Wilmar, Toyin Popoola-Diana during The King’s Chef Challenge prize presentation ceremony in Lagos...recently PHOTO: SUNDAY ADIGUN

Founder, Kate Amas Hearty Foundation, Kate Amas Osasuyi Idemudia(3rd Right) during the donation of food items to the Children Orphanage home Karu, Abuja...recently

L-R: Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara; National Coordinator and Chief Executive OďŹƒcer of NEPAD Nigeria, Ms Gloria Akobundu and Chief Executive OďŹƒcer, Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation, Nigeria, Mr Nyaknno Osso, during inspection of NEPAD e-library before a virtual stakeholders meeting on strengthening of smallholder farmers capabilities amid COVID-19 in Abuja...recently

L-R: Senior Pastor, Trinity House/Director, Market Doctor Initiatives, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo; CEO, Market Doctor Initiatives, Dr. Yetunde Oyalowo; and Director, Market Doctor Initiatives/Resident Pastor, RCCG, Jesus House, Naslville, US, Pastor Taiwo Osinusi during the dedication of the new market Doctor OďŹƒce and Mobile Clinic in Suru-Lere, Lagos...recently

L-R: Governors - Alhaji Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi); Engr. Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) and Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) during the National Food Security Council meeting, at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja...recently

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 • T H I S D AY

37

38

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ˛Ëœ 2020

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

FEPSAN Hails Buhari on Fertilizer Importation Ban Maduabuchi Ubani The President of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) Mr. Thomas Etuh has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for re-emphasising the need to sustain the ban placed on the importation of fertilizer and some staple food items into Nigeria.

A statement quoted the FEPSAN President to have said the presidential pronouncement was a demonstration of Mr. President’s determination to ensure self-sufficiency in food production.

Reacting to the presidential proclamation, Etuh said President Buhari has demonstrated uncommon commitment to the development of the agricultural sector in the country, and urged Nigerians to support the efforts towards making the country self-sufficient in food production. “FEPSAN is grateful to the

President for his uncommon commitment to agriculture in general and the fertilizer industry in particular. His efforts towards growing capacity in this most critical sector of the Nigerian economy has continued to yield tremendous dividends, especially since the launching of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative in December 2016. “Today 35 fertilizer plants are operating at full capacity across the country, employing hundreds of thousands of people directly and indirectly and supporting farmers with high quality fertilizer inputs,� the FEPSAN President said.

He added that the billions of naira that had been invested in the agricultural sector by Nigerians and other foreign investors bear strong testaments to the confidence the private sector reposes on the capacity of President Buhari to steer Nigeria to enhanced local agricultural

development, employment generation and food security.

Etuh said it has been in response to the commitment towards enhancing the fortunes of the country in the agriculture value chain that propelled the members of the fertilizer association to ramp up investments in the production of quality, locally-adapted fertilizer that have been supplied to local farmers. “Mr. President, in his wisdom understands the importance of local capacity building in the overall economic development of our dear country. Against the possibilities of pressures from briefcase investors to pen up the country for the importation of all manner of food items and agro inputs, we at FEPSAN appreciate his unwavering commitment towards amplifying the gains so far recorded in banning the importation of fertilizer and other food items.

NEPZA, NASS Collaborate to Boost Industrialiation James Emejo Ă“Ă˜ ĂŒĂ&#x;ÔË The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and the Senate Committee on Trade, Industry and Investment said they would strengthen synergy on critical roles to quicken the country’s industrialisation process.

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive of the authority, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, said the collaboration became important as the country looks inward at the possibilities of NEPZA been a catalyst to propel the economy particular as the downturn in the global

economy has affected every country.

The agreement was reached when the acting Chairman of the committee, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, led other members on a courtesy visit to NEPZA. The NEPZA boss further said the negative impacts of the prevailing harsh economic outlook brought by the COVID-19 pandemic could be quickly ameliorated using the strategy of free zone.

He said: In this respect, we have looked at what is on ground especially the special economic zones that

the government had created and we intend to give life to for full operations to commence in those locations as this a sure way to create the much needed employment and to spark genuine industrialisation. “I hope and pray that this committee helps galvanise the required support for the Authority by taking us into consideration when issues relating to assisting us comes into play at the national assembly.�

According to him, the role of the senate and the entire National Assembly was critical in enabling the authority to achieve its mandate.

Sun Trust Reaffirms Commitment to Entrepreneurship Devt Sun Trust Bank Nigeria Limited has restated its commitment to drive entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.

The Executive Director, Sun Trust Bank Nigeria Limited, Umar Dan-Umma, while speaking at the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) Award held recently, explained the bank has entrepreneurship at heart, maintaining that SME development is one of the surest ways to diversify the Nigerian economy. “This is why we are organising this event today to support entrepreneurship development at the national and international level. One of the reasons we set up this bank was to support

SMEs. Going forward this event is going to be yearly where it would give contestants the opportunity to compete where six participants would be selected and one would represent the country at the global stage,� he said.

The six participants were rewarded with $100,000 each after being rigorously selected from over 11,500 participants across the country.

He added: “One of the key challenges of SMEs is how to access funds for expansion when idea has been conceptualized.

What we do is relax issues of collateral and provide structural lending. We will give them ideas

on how best to invest the money and idea of business expansion.�

According to him, the bank has been complying with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) 65 per cent Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR) while also stating plans to do even more. “We have been complying and at times we are even above the 65 per cent threshold. We believe in the small scale and also the large scale, but it is the small ones that would grow into bigger ones. About 90 per cent of the big businesses started from small. We are very sure because is SME is the way forward and expanding the Nigerian economy,� he stated.

Polaris Bank to Empower Female Entrepreneurs Polaris Bank has pledged that its Polaris Pearl account will equip women entrepreneurs with the requisite knowledge, skills, and support to run their businesses profitably.

The bank announced that following from its interaction with women across the country, it has discovered that most of them are unable to access finance to either stabilise or scale their businesses mainly because of a lack of awareness on how to

leverage bank funding to drive and sustain profit.

It therefore noted that the finding was contrary to the popularly, but erroneously held view that unavailability of finance is the main challenge facing the average business woman.

Speaking on the value proposition of the Polaris Pearl, the Bank’s Acting Managing Director/CEO Mr. Innocent Ike, explained that, “Polaris Bank is a member of the United Nations

Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and hence a critical stakeholder in the global conversation about gender inclusion and women empowerment especially in enhancing their access to finance and business opportunities.�

He explained that the empowerment of Nigerian women constitutes one of the six pillars of Polaris Bank’s corporate citizenship and Sustainability focus.

Buhari

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JULY 2020 Money Supply (M3)

36,822,751.47

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

3,476,121.25

Money Supply (M2)

33,346,630.22

-- Quasi Money

120,764,479.02

-- Narrow Money (M1)

12,582,151.19

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,002,026.89

---- Demand Deposits

10,580,124.31

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,637,137.23

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

29,185,614.24

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

39,711,115.95

---- Credit to Government (Net)

19,521,851.08

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

-130,189,264.87

--Other Assets Net

3,472,017.70

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,421,827.07

--Currency in Circulation

2,395,917.03

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

11,025,910.04 317,234.17

Ëž Ă™Ă&#x;ĂœĂ?Ă? Ě‹

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month Inter-Bank Call Rate

March 2018 15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

Ëž Ă™Ă˜Ă?ĂžĂ‹ĂœĂŁ ÙÖÓĂ?ĂŁ Ă‹ĂžĂ? Ě‹ ͯ͹Ϲ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE Ëœ ÍŻÍŽ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $39.83 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $39.82 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), ZaďŹ ro (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).

SOURCE: OPEC headquarters, Vienna

39

T H I S D AY Ëž ÍŻÍ˛Ëœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

Zedcrest Investment Managers Introduces Wealth Creation Solution Goddy Egene A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) licensed and regulated assets management company in Nigeria, (Zedcrest Investment Managers) is set to make investing stress-free for Nigerians through its selfservice wealth management platform, known as Zimvest.

It is a digitally-enabled wealth management system that seamlessly allows users to invest their

money in a basket of diversified fixed-income backed portfolio.

Speaking on the development, the Group Managing Director of Zedcrest, Adedayo Amzat, said: “The Zimvest platform was built with the user in mind, it provides artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools to analyse a client’s investment personality, risk tolerance, investment horizon and net worth, while ensuring that individual or corporate users’ are served the right investment

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

products to suitably meet their financial goals.�

Amzat explained that added that these are special situations that require special measures. “It is glaring that our current reality is a time of discouraging rates being offered on traditional investing options. The ludicrous interest rate offered on savings deposits (1.25 per entp.a.) and increased concern of the Naira’s ability to hold on to value makes investing tiring. Zimvest realizes

S E C U R I T I E S

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

the increasing need for more low-risk investment options which have the much desired capital preservation feature and encouraging rates,� he said.

Also speaking, the Product Marketing, Innovation and Growth Manager of Zimvest, Idris Oladipo, said Zimvest is determined to revolutionise the wealth management experience of Africans in the growing digital landscape. “We aim to be the choice digi-

T R A D E D MAIN BOARD

A S

tal asset management company in Africa - enabling clients to grow wealth by offering best-in-market rate and beating currency risks through multicurrency investments and innovation-driven processes,� he added.

According to him, Zimvest boasts of investment product offerings that reflect an understanding of current investment needs, the developing market landscape and growing market opportunities. “The journey to wealth creation

O F

should rather be painless and gratifying, a mandate Zimvest promises its growing customer base,� Oladipo said.

The company disclosed that the Zimvest is leveraging the consummate expertise of the renowned Zedcrest Group in global financial services market evidenced by the leadership position of its brokerage business, Zedcap Partners, which was honoured with the “Best Brokerage Service� award at the 2019 FMDQ G.O.L.D. Awards.

1 1 / 0 9 / 2 0 2 0 DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

˾ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

40

േ േ

േ

േ േ

േ

7 R S 7 U D G H V E \ 9 R O X P H T ic k er

Vo lum e

P ric e C hg %

7 R S * D L Q H U V T ic k er

P ric e C hg %

C UST OD IA N

63.1

0.0%

NP FM CRFB K

1.38

8.7%

Z EN IT H B A N K

17.7

1.5%

UN ION D A C

0.27

8.0%

GUIN N ESS

13.7

-3.6%

R OYA LEX

0.28

7.7%

T R A N SC OR P

9.3

0.0%

ET ER N A

2.68

7.6%

A F R IN SUR E

8.0

0.0%

C OR N ER ST

0.65

6.6%

UB A

6.8

0.0%

OA N D O

2.40

5.3%

GUA R A N T Y

6.7

1.0%

WA P C O

12.80

4.9%

A C C ESS

5.8

0.0%

C ILEA SIN G

4.00

3.9%

FB NH

5.7

1.0%

ST A N B IC

40.00

3.9%

F ID ELIT YB K

5.4

-2.2%

1.85

2.8%

M A N SA R D

7 R S 7 U D G H V E \ 9 D O X H

Afrinvest West Africa Limited

P ric e

7 R S / R V H U V

T ic k er

Value

P ric e C hg %

A IR T ELA F R I

424.6

0.0%

T ic k er A R D OVA

P ric e 11.35

P ric e C hg % -9.9%

N EST LE

346.1

0.0%

CA P

15.75

-9.7%

Z EN IT H B A N K

303.6

1.5%

C H IP LC

0.29

-9.4%

C UST OD IA N

302.9

0.0%

J B ER GER

15.60

-8.2%

GUIN N ESS

185.1

-3.6%

R EGA LIN S

0.23

-8.0%

GUA R A N T Y

167.2

1.0%

J A IZ B A N K

0.58

-4.9%

F LOUR M ILL

59.7

1.8%

IN T B R EW

3.50

-4.1%

ST A N B IC

54.1

3.9%

UA C -P R OP

0.95

-4.0%

M TNN

47.0

0.0%

LA SA C O

0.25

-3.8%

D A N GC EM

44.6

0.0%

WEM A B A N K

0.53

-3.6%

Brokerage

Asset Management

Investment Research

Ayodeji Ebo | aebo@afrinvest.com

Ola Belgore | obelgore@afrinvest.com

Abiodun Keripe |akeripe@afrinvest.com

Adedoyin Allen | aallen@afrinvest.com Florence Warikam | fwarikam@afrinvest.com

Adedayo Bakare | abakare@afrinvest.com

41

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS

FMDQ Admits CPs of Mixta Real Estate and CardinalStone Partners Goddy Egene FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited

recently approved the quotation of the Mixta Real Estate Plc N2.39 billion Series 28 Commercial Paper

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

under its N20.00bn Commercial Paper (CP) Issuance Programme and the CardinalStone Partners

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 10Sep-2020, unless otherwise stated.

Limited N5.00 billion Series 1 CP under its N10.00 billion CP Issuance Programme on its platform.

According to the exchange, the MixtaReal Estate Plc and CardinalStone Partners Limited

CPs would be used to finance the issuers’ short-term funding requirements.

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 N/A N/A N/A Afrinvest Plutus Fund N/A N/A N/A Nigeria International Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 0.93 0.94 2.90% ACAP Income Funds 0.78 0.78 10.29% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.61% AIICO Balanced Fund 2.99 3.07 21.72% 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 2.34% Anchoria Equity Fund 99.90 100.24 -2.03% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.28 1.28 10.94% 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 14.46 14.89 -5.61% ARM Discovery Fund 341.34 351.63 -1.18% ARM Ethical Fund 30.54 31.46 5.03% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.15 1.16 15.52% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.08 1.09 8.57% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.25% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 97.09 97.77 1.05% AXA Mansard Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.16% CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com ; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CEAT Fixed Income Fund 2.16 2.16 18.42% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) 1.85 1.88 5.34% CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 5.08% Paramount Equity Fund 11.47 11.67 -8.39% Women's Investment Fund 111.17 112.08 0.65% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.61% Cordros Milestone Fund 2023 105.74 106.08 Cordros Milestone Fund 2028 109.70 110.00 Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 103.52 103.52 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 3.41% Coronation Balanced Fund 0.96 0.97 3.00% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.57 1.57 18.34% 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 3.80% EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B 1,000,000.00 1,000,000.00 2.14% EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund 1,171.79 1,184.26 5.68% 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 1,403.06 1,404.62 14.95% FBN Balanced Fund 152.69 153.73 4.00% FBN Halal Fund 108.03 108.04 8.03% FBN Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 4.50% FBN Nigeria Eurobond (USD) Fund - Retail 121.27 121.70 4.39% FBN Nigeria Smart Beta Equity Fund 115.86 117.65 -10.97% FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy Debt Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Legacy USD Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Growth Fund 3,167.02 3,202.31 4.15% Coral Income Fund 3,193.76 3,193.76 3.84% FSDH Treasury Bills Fund 100.00 100.00 3.92% 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 100.00 100.00 4.18% Nigeria Entertainment Fund 113.32 120.56 8.27%

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 4.05% Vantage Balanced Fund 2.31 2.34 5.22% Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund 1.00 1.00 8.35% Kedari Investment Fund (KIF) 150.52 151.26 5.01% 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 1.25 1.27 7.08% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,135.33 1,135.33 7.22% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: http://www.meristemwealth.com/funds/ ; Tel: +234 1-4488260 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Meristem Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A 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 1.39 1.41 13.70% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 11.89 11.96 5.60% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 3.36% PACAM Equity Fund 1.08 1.09 PACAM EuroBond Fund 108.07 110.59 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 116.31 118.18 -5.19% 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 1.02 1.02 6.62% 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 2,521.35 2,532.80 5.92% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 210.33 210.33 5.02% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 0.88 0.89 -0.56% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 273.87 273.95 5.85% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 154.92 156.64 4.57% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 3.93% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 7,674.15 7,756.30 -2.87% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.21 1.21 3.84% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 109.30 109.30 4.88% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 803 306 2887 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Balanced Fund 1.16 1.18 -3.11% United Capital Bond Fund 1.85 1.85 7.01% United Capital Equity Fund 0.66 0.68 -5.85% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 4.56% United Capital Eurobond Fund 114.56 114.56 4.85% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.03 1.03 -2.07% 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 10.36 10.48 0.79% Zenith Ethical Fund 11.57 11.67 -0.49% Zenith Income Fund 24.36 24.36 9.41% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 3.57%

REITS NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

117.93

5.15%

53.40

2.59%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

9.16 85.51 66.75

9.26 87.36 67.97

5.21% -9.47% -11.16%

Fund Name SFS Skye Shelter Fund Union Homes REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund

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

3.04 4.29 12.04 1.00 11.15 183.82

3.08 4.37 12.14 1.00 11.35 185.82

-14.36% -27.20% -0.72% 3.06% 7.26% -2.31%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

108.03

15.02%

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.

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MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

INTERNATIONAL

Mali: Fresh Crisis Looms over Transition Leader’s Appointment Fresh crisis looms in Mali as popular opposition movement has rejected a charter for a transition government backed by the ruling

army officers who ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The military junta backed a charter for an 18-month

South African Economy Could Shrink More Than Forecast, Says Minister South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni warned Sunday the economy could shrink by more than the seven per cent forecast by policymakers and the central bank for 2020, adding that public finances are “overstretched”.

The economy of Africa’s most industrialised nation contracted by more than half in the second quarter of this year, an unprecedented decline caused by anti-coronavirus restrictions.

Looking ahead, there is a “risk that the actual GDP outcome for 2020 could be lower than previously thought,” Mboweni wrote in the local Sunday Times newspaper.

The Treasury and central bank expect the economy to contract by 7.2 and 7.3 percent respectively this year, after the country went into a strict lockdown in March already in recession.

Mboweni noted that public finances, already in an “unsustainable position” before the pandemic, were now “overstretched”.

“The reduction in economic activity in the second quarter has flowed through to lower tax revenue,” the minister wrote, adding that emergency tax relief to keep households and businesses afloat would compound the loss.

Government is expected to fall short of more than 300 billion rand ($18 billion) in tax revenue — over six percent of GDP — Mboweni said, forcing the heavily indebted country to “borrow even more”.

But he also promised reforms to climb out of the hole, writing “we must be bold in confronting what has impeded economic growth and the progress of our nation.”

transition government on Saturday, after a three-day forum with political parties and civil-society representatives.

But the June 5 Movement, which took part in the talks, later rejected the roadmap in a statement, and accused the junta of a “desire to monopolise and confiscate power”.

It also said that the discussions had taken place against a backdrop of “intimidation, antidemocratic

and unfair practices worthy of another era”.

Conclusions from forum working groups were not reflected in the final document, the June 5 Movement said, pointing for example to broad support for a civilian transition president.

A committee chosen by the junta, which was overseeing the talks, adopted the final version of the charter by acclamation on

Saturday.

Either a civilian or a military officer can become transition president, the committee’s rapporteur told delegates.

AFP has not seen the final version of the charter.

However, an earlier version seen on Saturday stipulated that a juntaappointed committee would pick the transition president, raising questions about the military’s influence.

The June 5 Movement is a loose coalition of opposition groups, religious leaders and civil figures who organised a months-long wave of protests against President Keita, which led up to his ouster and arrest in a military coup on August 18.

Some seats in the 121-person legislature foreseen in the charter are reserved for members of the movement.

Experts Fault US Agency’s Allegation of Spying on African Nations against China A cross-section of professionals have faulted the report by a United States agency, alleging that China might be spying on African countries, describing such reports as mere speculations and hearsays that cannot be substantiated.

A report released in May by a non-governmental organisation, Heritage Foundation, had alleged that Beijing likely has better surveillance access to Africa than anywhere else by having built or renovated at least 186 African government buildings.

The report also concluded that Beijing likely uses surveillance to, among other things, give advantage to its companies competing for contracts, spy on US officials, and influence African

officials, advising that the US should try to complicate Beijing in Africa as part of a strategic response to China’s effort to reshape the global order.

Reacting to the report in an interview, the Acting Director of Research and Studies of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Dr Efem Ubi, observed that the allegation is ‘a mere speculation that lacks concrete evidence’, saying that spying is part of international political activities engaged in actively by the world superpowers.

He said, ‘Who among the super-powers is not spying on the developing world and other countries and among themselves?

So, espionage or spying is part of

international politics and I think a whole lot of countries are involved in it. He noted that the claims of espionage against China by the Heritage Foundation is baseless as the Foundation itself do not have concrete evidence in support of its claims, he however advised that irrespective of the speculation from differing quarters, African nations should nevertheless continue its fruitful economic relationship with China. ‘‘Irrespective of the position of heritage foundation, and a whole lot of Sinophobia or Sino skeptics, I will also say that we shouldn’t stop our relationship.

You must relate. That is where foreign policy comes from. So, I think we shouldn’t bother about

espionage. But, we have to also be cautious of the fact that we could be spied on. Be cautious of the fact that a lot of countries may want to infiltrate us especially with the advent of technology’’ Dr. Ubi further observed that the super-power nations who control the internet and major internet platforms like Google and other social media channels should instead be seen as the greatest spies since these technologies sometimes engaged in individual profiling which can be termed spying, while there are lots of satellites out there controlled by the super-powers that might be spying on individual countries that subscribe to the services offered by such technologies.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

55

NEWSXTRA

Gunmen Abduct 17 Family Members, Injure Four Others in Kaduna John Shiklam in Kaduna Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen have abducted 17 family members and injured four others in Udawa village, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The injured persons were taken to the hospital in Kaduna.

Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday, a community leader in the village, Mr. Liman Hussaini , said the abductions occurred on Friday and Saturday when the villagers

were going to their farms.

Hussaini said four people were abducted on Friday while 17 persons, all members of the same family were abducted on Saturday on their way to the farm at about 7am.

He said about one and a half kilometres from the village, the bandits swooped on the family of 21 injuring four and abducting 17.

Hussaini said by the time security personnel stationed in the village, rushed to the scene of the incident, the bandits had

escaped with their victims into the bushes.

Hussaini said: “Yesterday (Saturday), a family of 21 was going to the farm, but about one and a half kilometres away from home, they were attacked by gunmen.

“Four of them sustained serious injuries from gunshots while 17 of them were abducted.

“Also on Friday at about 7am, four people were abducted while on their way to the farm.

“You know there is serious hunger, people are finding it very difficult to feed, but now that the maize is done, many families depend on it to feed.

“We have started harvesting maize, which we use for feeding because there is no food.

“The head of this family of 21 was riding on a bike with one of his sons and two daughters to the farm as the bandits opened fire at them after abducting 17 members of the family.

“The man was shot on the leg, the son was shot in the mouth. One of the daughters was shot on the chest, the other daughter was shot on the hand.

The four of them were taken to the hospital in Kaduna.

“There are soldiers and policemen that are stationed in Udawa, but by the time they got to the scene of the incident, , the bandits had escaped to the bushes with their victims.

“This is what has been

happening in our community.

“Going to the farm is a serious risk, on the other hand if you don’t go to the farm hunger will kill you and your family.

So, we are faced with two dangerous options”.

The Spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Mr. Mohammed Jalige, could not be reached for reaction on the incident as his mobile phone was switched off.

Nigeria’s COVID-19 Cases Rise By 79 to 56,256 Martins Ifijeh Nigeria has recorded 79 new cases of COVID-19, bringing to 56,256 the number of confirmed cases in the country.

It also recorded four new deaths, raising the tally from 1,078 to 1,082 in the last 24 hours.

Announcing this yesterday,

the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lagos recorded 30 new cases; Kaduna, 17; Ogun, seven; Anambra, five; Kano, four; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Akwa Ibom and Katsina, three each; Oyo and Rivers, two each, while Delta, Plateau and Ondo recorded one each.

Two killed, Police Officer MOBILISING AREWA SUPPORT FOR PDP...

L-R: Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Governor Godwin Obaseki; former Governor of Kano Shot in Kogi Robbery Attack State, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso; and Deputy Governor of Edo State/deputy governorship candidate of PDP, Hon. Philip Shaibu, during a She noted that their situation Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja No fewer than two passengers were killed, while a police officer was shot at a nearby roadblock by suspected armed robbers on Okene -Lokoja highway in Kogi State at the weekend.

The incident, which occurred at about 6p.m. at Osara last Saturday led to most of the drivers abandoning their vehicles and running away while the passengers were left stranded on the road.

Sources hinted further that the two victims, who lost their lives, were said to be siblings from Okene residing in Katsina State.

They were home on a visit and were on their way back to their base.

One of the passengers said she arrived at her Lokoja residence in the early hours of yesterday.

The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she boarded a vehicle from Lagos, where she had been since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, adding that they encountered heavy vehicular traffic between Berger, in Lagos, and Ibadan in Oyo State.

was further compounded when after the attack, the vehicle in which they were travelling on developed mechanical fault.

According to her, “We boarded our vehicle from Lagos around 7a.m., but experienced heavy traffic till we got to Ibadan in Oyo State.

“We got to Osara after 6p.m.

Our driver stopped for a passenger to urinate, that was when we saw oncoming vehicles flagging us to stop that there was an robbery attack ahead. People ran helter-skelter, but the residents in the area would not allow us to take refuge in their houses.

They said if they did, the robbers will search of us one by one.

“After quite a while, other vehicles continued on their journey, but ours would not start.

The driver made contacts and a motor mechanic came over from the Kabba Junction to attend to it.

“When we got to the scene of the attack, we heard that two brothers were shot and killed, while a policeman at the nearby checkpoint was shot on the leg.

We heard that their remains were later evacuated and deposited at the state Specialist Hospital in Lokoja.”

Buhari Writes SGF, Says He’s Competent Administrator Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekend wrote a personal letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, acknowledging him as a competent administrator.

The letter and acknowledgement were the fallout of a successful ministerial retreat organised by Mustapha and held on September 7 and 8, 2020.

A statement by the presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the president in the letter personally signed by him, stated that he was ‘’very impressed’’

about the SGF’s performance at the retreat.

It also said Buhari hailed Mustapha’s organisational competence and comprehensive speech delivered at the beginning of the second day of the retreat.

The statement quoted excerpts from the letter thus: ‘’I am writing to personally recognise your competence and commend the way you organised and led the ministers’ retreat. ‘’The intellectual inputs by the panel, chaired by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed were remarkable.

meeting with leaders and members of the Arewa community in Edo State...weekend

Flood Sweeps away Two Children in Lagos Flood from torrential rainfall has swept away two yet-to-beidentified children at Oyebanjo street, Ketu area of Lagos State.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) in a situation report issued yesterday said a search operation was ongoing to find the missing children.

LASEMA’s Director-General

and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, noted that it was discovered that the children were missing around 8 pm on Saturday.

He said, “The agency received distress calls concerning the above. On arrival at the scene of the incident it was discovered that, around 8 pm, two

children had been caught up by floodwater.

“A joint team of responders comprising Agency responders, LASG Fire Service and LASAMBUS was at the scene.

“The Agency’s tiger team commenced a search and rescue operation along the path of the floodwater.

“Initial observations revealed

a sloping topography with a direct channel of drain water into the canal. This has proven to be rather challenging to navigate. Rescue operation remains ongoing.”

He urged members to “exercise extreme caution, particularly with young children, in flood-prone and low lying areas”.

ASUU: FG, Private Varsities’ Owners De-marketing Public Universities Hammed Shittu in Ilorin Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the weekend berated the perceived attitude of the federal government of allegedly conspiring with owners of private universities to de-market public universities in the country.

The union said such development had occasioned the proliferation of private varsities and the deliberate underfunding of public universities owned by both the federal and state governments.

Speaking at a town-andgown interactive meeting with stakeholders on the ongoing strike of the members of the union held at the African Hall of THE University of Ilorin, Kwara state, the ASUU President, Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, said: “I want to state that the issue is a calculated attempt to de-market public universities by the owners of private universities and the Nigerian leaders. There is also an attempt to underfund these public universities to make them surrender.

“Discerning minds should know that we cannot divorce the assault on public universities today from the general trend in the society (which is that the government has no business in business). What we are seeing today in the education sector is a reflection of what is happening in the larger society.

“Our situation in Nigeria is programmed to discourage investment in public institutions, particularly the education and health sectors, so that the private ones can thrive.

“Today, we even hear that the government wants public secondary schools to be privatised. At least we heard a junior minister saying such last month that unity schools that were not performing well will be privatised.

“A minster once tried that but because for the resistance of stakeholders, including ASUU. We in ASUU stood our ground and identified with other stakeholders and insisted that to privatise unity schools will sound their death knell.

PDP House Caucus Demands Immediate Reversal of Hike in Fuel Price,Tariffs Udora Orizu in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives yesterday said the recent increase in the pump price of petrol as well as the electricity tariff has shown that President Muhammadu Buhariled administration is highly irresponsive to the suffering of the Nigerian masses.

The caucus leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, reached

the resolution at its 18th virtual meeting, where it reviewed issues of national interest particularly, the recent increases in fuel price, electricity tariff, stamp duties and the implementation of 7.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) by the federal government.

Chinda noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt inflicted great hardship globall,y and a government that has the interest of its

people at heart ought to know that the best response to the current economic uncertainties exacerbated by the pandemic is to stimulate its economy by introducing some waivers and encouraging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and skills development.

He said Nigerians have gotten to the end of their tenders and would resist further draconian and non-people oriented policies, as the federal

government has consistently flouted the contract of good governance entered with the people as enshrined in chapter 2 of the constitution.

The lawmaker lamented that the recent increase in pump price would be the third hike since the advent of this administration, calling on President Buhari to as a matter of urgency reverse the increases to meet the yearnings of Nigerians and realities of the moment.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 ˾ T H I S D AY

56

NEWSXTRA

Fireworks as Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu Engage in Edo Election Debate Raheem Akingbolu, Chinedu Eze in Lagos and Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City Ahead of this Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), last night squared up in a debate to unfold their programmes to the people of Edo State.

They spoke on the areas of security, health, agriculture, education, and employment, among others.

The debate, which was monitored by THISDAY in Benin City, capital of Edo State, and Lagos, was an opportunity for the candidates to unveil their plans.

Kicking off the debate, Obaseki explained that in the last four years his administration had employed 157,000 persons and done well in all sectors.

But Pastor Ize-Iyamu disagreed, saying the figure of employment bandied by Obaseki was bogus, adding that schools and hospitals in the state were without teachers and doctors.

According to the moderator, the Human Development Index of the state in 2008 was 0.622 per cent and Edo State stands at 12th out of 36 states.

Also, in 2019, Edo State had a poverty headcount level of sixth out of the 36 states of the federation.

Responding, Obaseki said, “in terms of human capacity and employment, that is one area we believe we have accomplished quite a lot. On the onset, I promised I will raise a minimum of 200,000 jobs within a minimum of a four-year period. And just before COVID-19 pandemic hit, we had created directed and indirect jobs for Edo people - as much as 157,000 jobs.

“And where did the jobs come from? They came from the way the government decided to address the economy. The government’s role is creating an enabling environment for people to come and invest so that the economy can thrive.

But the APC candidate faulted the statistics given by the governor, saying he falsified the data.

According to Ize-Iyamu, “It is sad when the government that should be accurate with figures begins to falsify the figures. If it is true that we have been able to have the number of jobs that the Edo State governor claims, our IGR (internally generated revenue) will not be where it is; there will be a significant leap but I can tell you and they know, it has stagnated.”

Continuing, he said, “I hope the governor is not going to mistake the appointments he is making now as jobs because I know that in the past one month, he has appointed over 200 people as SSAs on social media and the rest of them. Those are not jobs.

“So, when you are talking about jobs, where are the jobs? Who did you give them to? It is sad when government that should be accurate with fact begins to feed our agencies with bogus statistics in an attempt to give an impression that we are doing well when we are not doing well.”

Reacting, Obaseki noted that the data he gave was verifiable, insisting that it was based on a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to him: “You can’t just come to a debate and roll out figures, forgetting that everything you say can be googled. When you talk in general terms, understand that people can just google and find out the facts.”

But Ize-Iyamu disagreed, saying, “I think that in the past four years, the economy of Edo has been mismanaged, plundered and all the huge amounts that we receive at the inception of this administration has practically left our state without any serious project to show for it.

“We had the opportunity to diversify our economy. The governor made what I might call a very lame attempt and he failed completely and we are in a very sorry state. During Christmas for example, people were going to Abakaliki to bring rice; they were going to Kebbi to bring rice because there is no rice mill in Edo State.”

On the issue of Obaseki dumping the APC for the PDP following his disqualification from participating in the APC primary that produced Ize-Iyamu as the

Secondus Backs Obasanjo, Others on Comments over State of the Nation The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has commended former President Olusegun Obasanjo and some Nigerian elders for standing up to save the country at its worst time in history.

Speaking at the backdrop of the National dialogue convened by the former President to address the deteriorating state of the nation, Secondus said that the situation in the country calls for patriotic men and women to stand up to be counted.

Secondus berated the Presidency and others playing to the gallery instead of embracing words of wisdom from patriotic elders.

He commended Obasanjo for always exhibiting exceptional

patriotism whenever the challenge in the country overwhelms as it is today.

Secondus then charged President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progress Congress (APC), to dispose themselves to absorbing the words of wisdom and stop grandstanding even as the nation under their watch is going down.

He also warned the Presidency against abusing and disrespecting nationalists who fought for the unity of this country.

The PDP National Chairman admonished the President to save the country from getting progressively worse by conducting free, fair and credible election in Edo state on September 19, 2020.

candidate of the party, the APC candidate alleged that Obaseki’s disqualification bordered on discrepancies in his certificates.

Asked to comment on the matter, Obaseki said, “It is very ironic that someone who has no certificate can stand up and comment on someone whose certificate was issued by the premier university in Nigeria.

He said: “In 1976 when I gained admission into the University of Ibadan, there was no JAMB; you could either go into the university through prelim or through Direct Entry in your advanced level examination. I finished my O’ Level and my Advanced Level.

So, I gained admission into the University of Ibadan in 1976.

“I don’t know what has happened but for the University of Ibadan, the standard is still very high and they have come out to say that I graduated from that university. How else do you want to make that clear?

“It is very sad that in a country like Nigeria, some people who do not have the qualifications,

have the effrontery to challenge the qualifications of those who went to proper schools. It is sad.”

The APC candidate was also accused of pouring acid on a fellow student when he was an undergraduate at the University of Benin. Ize-Iyamu was also reportedly expelled from the university.

Asked to comment on the issue, Ize-Iyamu said, “I graduated from the University of Benin. I was very active in the students’ union and my records are clear. People have alleged that when you were in school, you did that but I think they should go to the university authorities and find out exactly what was the offence.

If you do something very criminal, the university cannot even handle it. And I am proud that throughout my stay, I was not engaged in any criminal matter.”

Facing his rival, Ize-Iyamu fired, “We are not doubting your going to the university; that is not the issue. The issue is, you failed by your own records, you failed your school certificate examination. You had three credits - no English, no

Maths, even to enter A’ Level would have been difficult. And if you got A’ Level, why is it that you’ve not been able to present the A Level; where is the result? That is a moral question.

A lot of people are looking up to you as a governor and as a leader.

“The question is that you failed your A-Level and that is why you were disqualified and your disqualification arose from information from the PDP, your party now. The PDP, when I was contesting against you (in 2016) said you have no results. Why have you not answered the question?

Where are your results?”

Ize-Iyamu also used the platform to score the incumbent low in many areas, including agriculture, security and health services, insisting that the increase in security vote did not translate to investment in security.

On the economic agenda, Obaseki said his predecessor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole borrowed recklessly and that the federal government had to restructure outstanding obligations to the state to the tune of N30 billion.

“My predecessor in office borrowed recklessly and the federal government had to restructure all the debts taken before I came into office. The federal government restructured outstanding obligations to Edo State to the tune of almost N30 billion and that is what was responsible for the debt stock, and not the borrowings from this administration,” he said.

The governor said Edo’s debt moved to N120 billion and that he had been able to reduce the debt stock.

But Ize-Iyamu countered Obaseki, saying that it is scandalous for him to attribute the huge debt to Oshiomhole when he was the Chief Economic Adviser.

“It is scandalous to attribute the huge debt to a predecessor that you were the Chief Economic Adviser to. “Sometimes you seem to forget the role you played in the past government,”IzeIyamu said.

RALLYING SUPPORT FOR APC...

L-R: Leader of Arewa community in Edo State, Alhaji Yahaya Isa; former National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole; governorship candidate of APC in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu; Director General, National Campaign Council of APC for Edo State, and Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje; and the deputy governorship candidate of APC, Hon. Gani Audu, at the declaration of support for the APC candidate

by Arewa Group, in Eyean, Benin City, Edo State...weekend

Health Workers’ Strike Ill-timed, Illegal, FG Insists Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The federal government has declared the strike by the the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) as illegal and unnecessary.

In a statement issued yesterday by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and signed by the Deputy Director in charge of Press and Public Relations, Mr. Mr. Charles Akpan, the federal government directed the various unions in the health sector operating under the umbrella of JOHESU not to go ahead with the strike scheduled for midnight of yesterday.

It also urged the Leadership of the various unions making up JOHESU to have a rethink on this illegal strike by putting the welfare of their patients and Nigeria first.

The ministry said negotiation with the union was still ongoing.

It said that going ahead with the action would be illegal as

it is in clear breach of the ILO Principles and Conventions on Strike and Section 18 of the Trades Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

It urged JOHESU not to “armtwist or intimidate the federal government that has shown clear commitment to tackling the challenges in the sector as evidenced by the huge resources it has been pouring into the sector since the Global COVID-19 pandemic broke out”.

“The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has effectively apprehended the trade dispute as forwarded to him by JOHESU and has brought JOHESU and the Federal Ministry of Health, their employers, to conciliation since Thursday, September 9, 2020.

Parties in disputes are expected not to arm-twist, intimidate or foist helplessness on the other party, while negotiations are ongoing as per Sections 8 and 18 the of

Trade Dispute Act (TDA) 2004 barring any strike when the matters are before a Conciliator and undergoing conciliation.

“Any strike now is inimical to an equable settlement of the dispute, bearing in mind especially that this is a grave period of a pandemic where the federal government has spent about N20 billion to pay April/May 2020 and an additional N8.9 billion for June 2020 on COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowances respectively to all categories of health workers that are mainly JOHESU members.

“Besides, all health workers on essential services such -pharmacists, nurses/midwives, radiographers as members of JOHESU are statutorily barred from strikes during emergencies, by both the ILO Statutes and the Trade Dispute Act 2004.

“Such an action while the nation battles the COVID-19 emergency accentuates its illegality, as it will

compound and aggravate the challenges in health services, causing further risk and deaths to the sick in hospitals across the country as the COVID-19 pandemic has been declared as a situation of “Acute National Health crisis” by both the ILO and World Health Organisation (WHO) whose statutes and regulations have forbidden strike for the period,” it said.

The statement said that withdrawal of services is clearly unnecessary as the federal government has demonstrated capacity in her amelioration of age-long challenges in the health sector.

It listed some of things government done to include, provision of enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), approving N29 billion for payments of allowances and also spending N9.3billion as premium for Group Life Insurance for Medical and Health workers.

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Falana Promises to Challenge Malami’s Illegal Amendment of NBA Rules A human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has said he will challenge the illegal amendment of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Falana said this in a statement issued yesterday and titled: ‘Clarifications of My Stand on the Purported Amendment of RPC by AGF’.

Malami had reportedly amended the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 by deleting sections 9(2), 10, 11, 12, and 13 thereby removing the requirement for NBA stamp and seal on court processes and giving everyone – including nonlawyers – the right to submit court processes.

Falana had in an earlier statement said the NBA failed

to live up to its responsibilities when it left the General Council of the Bar in the hands of the AGF in the last 15 years.

He had said since the NBA never complained when the then AGF, Mr. Bayo Ojo (SAN), unilaterally introduced the use of stamps in 2007, then the association should not complain now that Malami has been unilaterally removed.

In a fresh statement issued yesterday, however, Falana said he had sought further clarification and discovered that Ojo actually did not take the decision unilaterally but only after consulting with the general council.

He said, “My position on the 2007 RPC was anchored on the preamble wherein it is stated: ‘In the exercise of power conferred on me by Section 12(4) of the Legal Practitioners Act 1990, as amended, and all other powers

enabling me in that behalf, I, Bayo Ojo, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice/Chairman General Council of the Bar hereby Make the following Rules.’

“However, I have read the clarifications credited to Prof.

Ernest Ojukwu (SAN) and Mr. Lawal Rabal (SAN) to the effect that the 2007 RPC was properly made by the GCB. I have also spoken to both of them on phone for confirmation of their positions.

I verily believe them in toto.

“Therefore, notwithstanding my opposition to the Stamp and Seal on ideological grounds I wish to reiterate my position that the 2020 RPC was illegally made by the AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN). To that extent, I will take appropriate steps to fight this latest act of unpardonable impunity emanating from the office of the AGF.”

Lagos Police Deploy 1,000 Officers for Edo Governorship Election The Lagos State Police Command has deployed 1,000 officers to complement other security personnel drafted for the Edo governorship election scheduled for Sept. 19.

This is contained in a statement issued yesterday in Lagos by the Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olumuyiwa Adejobi.

Adejobi said the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Mr. Hakeem

Odumosu admonished officers from the Command to be of good conduct and exhibit professionalism in discharging their duties during the election.

“He further reiterated the commitment of the IGP to sustain the core values of democracy in Nigeria via fair, free and credible elections,” the police spokesman said.

Odumosu said that adequate incentives and welfare packages

as approved by the IG had been provided to encourage and boost the morale of the officers detailed for the special duty.

The CP enjoined the officers to protect themselves and avoid any acts capable of denting the image of the Force and truncating the peaceful conduct of the election in Edo State, the statement said.

Southern Kaduna Leaders Condemn Mailafia’s Invitation By DSS John Shiklam in Kaduna The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), has condemned the invitation issued for the third time, to a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia by the Department of State Services (DSS) over his interview with a radio station on August 9, 2020.

Mailafia, in the interview with Nigeria Info 99.3FM radio, had condemned the killings in Southern Kaduna, claiming that a repentant terrorist told him that a northern governor was a Boko Haram commander.

He was first invited for questioning by the Jos office of the DSS on August 17, 2020.

Mailafiya who was the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2019 elections had been asked to report to the Plateau Command of the DSS in Jos on Monday (today) by 11am.

However, SOKAPU, in a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna, condemned the invitation, saying the DSS “seems to be embarking on a deliberate ploy aimed at coercively silencing Dr. Mailafiya.”

The statement signed by President of SOKAPU, Hon. Jonathan Asake, called on “men and women of good conscience in Nigeria and the international community to resist this apparent dictatorship and stop further persecution of Dr. Mailafiya

over his audacity to stand up for truth and patriotism.”

The group said it is worried that this is the third time that the DSS was Mailafiya to appear before it over a radio interview he granted.

“It is now undoubtably obvious that these series of summons are aimed at not only intimidating the former Deputy Governor of the CBN, but also throwing him into an abyss of frightening uncertainties in a bid to force him into silence,” the statement said.

Asake noted that: “This is not the first time a prominent Nigerian would come up with what Mailafiya came up with in his radio interview.

“That the DSS has continued to be on the trail of this distinguished son of Southern Kaduna who is a national patriot reveals that an unsavoury plot orchestrated by certain elements in the security agencies to coerce him into silence may be in the offing.

“Dr. Mailafiya has every reason to warn against any further threats to our dear country, real or perceived, moreso, that today, over 101 communities of Southern Kaduna where he hails from are literally captured, thenativeschased awayandarenowoccupiedbyarmed Fulani militia, where the native owners of these lands have been living in dehumanising conditions as IDPs, mostly in neighbouring communities.

“WhathastheDSSandtheNigeria state done about it? Nothing!

“SOKAPU therefore, wishes to state without any form of equivocation that we hold Dr. Mailafia in high esteem and very proud of his scholarly footprints in both national and international arena.

Asake said SOKAPU is “in total agreement with the disclosures made by the erudite scholar and technocrat”.

SOKAPU maintained further that “as he rightly said without doubt, the current gale of killings in our rural communities are deliberately sponsored and a part of a bigger agenda to cause anarchy with the ultimate objective of taking over our ancestral lands.

“We recall that in the past, there have been prominent people who came up with similar disturbing disclosures, but no such invitation was ever extended to them for questioning.

“For instance, officials of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) had in many instances claimed responsibility over deadly attacks on communities, but the response from the security agencies has always remained an embarrassing silence.

“We also recall an instance when a university don who was teaching at the North-West University Kano, Professor Umar Labdo Muhammed, caused a national outrage when he recklessly declared that by right of conquest, Benue State belongs to the Northern Caliphate.

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Malabu: Adoke Writes Malami, Protests Corruption Label By Nigeria’s lawyer in Italy Alex Enumah in Abuja A former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), has written the current AGF and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), protesting against his indictment by Nigeria’s lawyer, Mr. Lucio Lucia, at the ongoing trial of Shell and others by a Milan Court in Italy.

In the letter of complaint dated September 10, which he personally signed, Adoke, appealed to Malami to call Lucia, “to order” so as to prevent him from trampling upon his rights.

The former AGF, in the letter titled: ‘Letter of Complaint against the Conduct of Mr. Lucio Lucia Representing the Federal Government of Nigeria in the Milan Proceedings against Shell, Eni and Other Individuals,” complained bitterly about how Lucio, presented him as corrupt and partly responsible for fraud allegations being tried by the Milan court.

“Mr. Lucio Lucia in his submission before the court on 09/09/2020, on the position of Federal Republic of Nigeria as injured party entitled to civil compensation, had allegedly

“reaffirmed the indictment of Mr. Adoke and others in the heist” connection with the OPL 245 Resolution Agreement.

“He proceeded to make other bizarre and unfounded allegations to the effect that I was extradited from Dubai for the corruption related to OPL 245 knowing fully that nothing of sort ever happened and with characteristic audacity, he carelessly reconstructed the evidence on my mortgage transaction with Unity Bank Plc, which is subject of ongoing criminal proceedings in Nigeria to suit his narrative,” Adoke said.

He reminded Malami that his official role as AGF and Minister of Justice in the implementation of OPL 245 Settlement Agreement has been the subject of judicial pronouncement by the Federal High Court, Abuja April 13, 2018 where the court exonerated him of any wrong doing.

Trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, had amongst others held that, “The plaintiff cannot be held personally liable for carrying out the lawful approvals of the President while he served as a Minister of the Government of the Federation”.

Adoke also reminded Malami that apart from the above judicial pronouncement, the OPL 245 Resolution Agreements was a subject

of review of two cabinet ministers in the present administration; Malami and former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, wherein they did not find him guilty of wrong doing, adding that Kachikwu, in his letter to the Chief of Staff to the President dated December 13, 201 7, “Came to the reasoned conclusion that the agreements were in the national interest”.

“In the light of the above, I am unable to understand why Mr. Lucio Lucia would be allowed to assert on behalf of the same Federal Government of Nigeria, a position that is contrary to the unassailable declarations in the subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja dated April 13, 2018 and the views already expressed by your good self as the sitting Attorney General of the Federation and the former Minister of State, Ministry of Petroleum Resources on my role with respect to the implementation of OPL 245 Settlement Agreement”, he said.

While stating that he is not adverse to the federal government’s claims before the Milan court, Adoke expressed concerned that Lucia has been allowed to present to the court, deliberate false statements against him in support of the federal government’s case.

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Abiru: My Emergence as Sole Candidate of APC Product of Consultations Dike Onwuamaeze The senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming Lagos East senatorial by-election, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, has described his emergence as the party’s consensus

candidate as a product of intense consultations with the state APC leaders, interested contestants and other stakeholders.

Abiru, who addressed journalists in his country home in Ikorodu, Lagos, at the weekend, said he would champion

the course of infrastructural development of the Lagos East and the sustenance of the special status of Lagos State as the former capital of Nigeria, which requires more resources from the federal government.

According to him, “My emergence as the party’s sole

candidacy was the outcome of the strong consultation I made towards my nomination. I met one on one with the intending aspirants, and I got their understanding and encouragement. I also met with them as a group to solicit for their understanding.”

He added that he also consulted

the members of the state Governor’s Advisory Council and the APC state executive council.

Abiru, who resigned recently as the Managing Director of Polaris Bank Limited, described himself as “a very proud indigene of Ikorodu. I have made the division (Ikorodu) very proud by my

own personal achievements in the private sector. I am a deep member of this community and a well-integrated personality in this place. I am a member of the Oriowo Club since 2006, which is the foremost in the community.

Also, my late father established the Exclusives in 1965.”

Arik Writes Minister over Threats by Union to Disrupt Its Operation

Chinedu Eze

Nigerian major carrier, Arik Air, has written a letter of appeal to the Minister of Labour and Employment, urging him to interface with the aviation unions that threatened to disrupt the airline’s operations over workers’ welfare and non-payment of allowances.

Arik Air in the letter sought the understanding and cooperation of the unions; while explaining some key issues in the disagreement.

The airline also observed that the issues in the dispute cannot pass the test of fairness, and

alleged that the unions’ leadership has abused their position without exhausting various channels of engagement, discussion, and consensus.

The letter, which was made available to THISDAY, was titled: ‘Re-Unions in Arik Air Threaten to Down Tools September 14’, dated September 11, 2020, was written by the Chief Executive Officer, Arik Air in Receivership, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, and directed to the Minister of Labour and Employment as well as copied the Minister of Aviation and the DirectorGeneral of NCAA.

HONOURING THE DEAD...

ICPC Asked to Probe Alleged Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva (left), and Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress and Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, at the funeral service of Oha Charles Amaechi, the elder brother of the Minister of Corruption in FG Technical College (APC) Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, in his hometown, Ubima, Rivers State... weekend The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) has been asked to beam the anti-corruption searchlight on the Federal College of Education (Technical) located in Asaba, Delta State. The school was established in 1986 by Decree No 4 of the then military authority with focal point on producing vocational education teachers to mentor students with vocational skill.

The school has been hit by allegations of corruption leveled against the management of the school. In a petition sent to the ICPC Chairman, Professor Owasanoye, the Human and

Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA Resource Centre) said a representative of the school’s workforce had written to the ICPC indicating a can of worms in the institution but instead the whistleblower has faced threats to his life.

“We urge you without further delay to beam the searchlight on the school. There are serious allegations of corruption against the management of the school.

The allegations are financial mismanagement of millions of Naira of public funds,” HEDA said in a petition signed by its Chairman, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju.

NBA Rules: Lawyers Initiate Petition to Strip Malami of SAN Title No fewer than 380 lawyers have signed a petition demanding that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, be stripped of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

The petition, started on Change. org by Izu Aniagu, is titled, “Sign to strip Nigeria’s AGF, Abubakar Malami the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria”.

Aniagu predicated his petition on the recent unilateral amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007 by Malami.

He said the unilateral amendment was a threat to the rule of law, coupled with Malami’s other alleged wrongdoings, such as “disobedience to court orders, to his lacklustre prosecution, to his outright failure to prosecute, to allegations of corruption and bias against his person, to the usurpation of office, to shielding of suspects, to his general dereliction of duty.”

The petition added, “This

time, the AGF has decided to take his imprudence to topnotch by unilaterally deleting the provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct which provide for stamp and seal as well as bar practicing fee for government lawyers.

“The AGF does not have such power. Section 12 (4) of the LPA gives the General Council of the Bar power to make any such amendment and make other decisions concerning the NBA. “There is no record of any meeting convened by the Attorney General of the Federation, who is the President of the Bar Council.

The AGF took the decision alone and his actions constitute a threat to the rule of law. His action is totally shameful and is undeserving of a lawyer in the rank of a Senior Advocate, let alone a Chief Law Officer of the federation.”

A total of 383 lawyers had signed the petition as of 8pm yesterday.

Lottery Commission Moves against Money Laundering, Other Crimes The National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) has perfected stringent measures to deter money laundering, financing of terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other predicate offences in the lottery industry in its unrelenting effort to serve Nigeria and the industry better.

Essentially, the new technologybased measures are being attained through information and intelligence sharing with the relevant agencies and arms of government, according to the Head of Public Affairs for the

commission, Mr. Magnus Ekechukwu.

Ekechukwu spoke to journalists during the weekend at the sideline of a workshop on Effects of Hate Speech, Fake News, Financial and Cyber crimes on National Security in Nassarawa on behalf of the Director General of the commission, Mr. Lanre Gbajabiamila.

He disclosed that the NLRC under the leadership of Gbajabiamila had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the National Lottery Trust

Fund (NLTF) for efficient and effective implementation of the measures.

Ekechuwku told journalists that since assumption of office, Gbajabiamila has been methodically and successfully introducing well thought out and sustainable policies and programs that have repositioned the 15 years old commission which are now engendering profound results in terms of revenue generation, promotion and protection of stakeholders including the stakers and most importantly supporting the Federal Government in its fight

against corruption, terrorism and insecurity, generally.

The Lottery Commission’s spokesperson explained that the objective of the recently signed MOU with the agencies was to strengthen and ensure transparency in the Nigerian Lottery industry; facilitate exchange of knowledge and expertise through training programs and promote a better understanding of economic and legal conditions relevant to the enforcement of applicable laws and statutes.

Akpabio: We’ll Revamp NDDC for Optimal Performance Francis Ndubuisi in Abuja The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that the ministry was making relentless efforts to revamp the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and reposition it for optimal performance.

Akpabio noted that his administration would ensure that all issues slowing down productivity and peace in the Commission are resolved.

The minister made the remarks while inaugurating the committee set up to look into some prevailing staff matters in the commission in Abuja, adding that the commission will be rejigged in order to deliver on its mandate.

Akpabio said the ongoing efforts were for the benefit of the people of the Niger Delta region.

“Over the years, the NDDC has witnessed varying degrees of challenges especially in the management of the human

resource that had led to low morale and dwindling performance of the staff of the commission.”

“The effects of these issues have affected the activities and productivity of staff in the commission adding that there is continuous bickering and complaint amongst the management and staff of the commission.”

Akpabio stressed that for the Niger Delta region to progress and develop, the NDDC must be rightly positioned both

administratively and otherwise to deliver on its mandate.

He further explained that it is in this connection that the committee is set up to examine all prevailing staff matters in the commission with a view to resolving them.

The committee members are expected to examine the remote and immediate causes that led to placing some staff on compulsory leave and the deployment of officers in the commission amongst other issues.

Nnamani Heads APC Panel on Imo North Primary Election Dispute Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed a member of the committee and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, to proffer amicable resolution to the Imo North senatorial primary election controversy.

The recently conducted primary election for the Imo North senatorial by-election saw the emergence of Mr. Ibezim Frank, who was

declared winner by Senator Ajibola Bashir-led-faction of the committee, while Senator Ifeanyi Ararume was declared winner by Mr. Umar Ngumaled faction.

However, THISDAY can reliably report that the leadership of the party has tasked Nnamani on amicable resolution of the crisis.

But there are, however, indications that the leadership of the party would stick with the result of the Bashiru-led

committee, and Frank may likely be presented as the candidate of the party in the bye-election in Imo North.

A chieftain of the party, who preferred anonymity, told THISDAY that the issue has already been sorted out.

The source said: “There is a panel which they (APC) have set up, headed by Nnamani. They sat at the party secretariat last week Friday. I think yesterday (Saturday) they met, and they are going to send in their report;

so I think it is not a problem, everything has been sorted out.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Yekini Nabena, while speaking with THISDAY in a telephone interview yesterday, insisted that the Imo North senatorial by-election committee was not factionalised.

He said it was criminal for a member of the committee, Mr. Umar Nguma, to make himself the chairman and declared the result.

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FG: Floods to Hit Borno, Enugu, Yobe, Others Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The federal government yesterday advised state governments to take proactive and necessary mitigative measures in addressing forecasts on heavy rainfalls and floodings.

The Minister of Humanitarian

Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, gave the advice in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Mrs Nneka Anibeze, in Abuja.

Umar Farouq said that states to experience heavy rainfall and

Ganduje Urges Hausa Community in Edo toVote Ize-Iyamu Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City The Governor of Kano State and chairman All Progressives Congress’ Edo State Election Campaign Council, Mr. Abdulahi Ganduje and members of his cabinet, yesterday visited the Hausa Community in Eyaen, the outskirts of Benin City and urged them to vote for the APC during Saturday’s governorship election.

Addressing a large crowd of majorly Muslims audience, Ganduje said a vote for APC is a vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and the support for him to continue to reposition Nigeria for greater heights.

Similarly, the former National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, also said that the APC’s Candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, would continue

Ize-Iyamu told the crowd that he would use his SIMPLE Agenda to bring back smiles to the people of the state.

Gandije, who called at the Palace of the Enogie of Eyaen, H.R.H. Osazuwa Idurase, said that “we have come to mobilse our northern brothers and sisters who are based here to vote for the APC’s candidate come Saturday.

“We know traditional rulers are not partisan but they are father to all, so we have come for prayers so that we can achieve our goal. We know the stabilising role of the traditional institution in the society.”

spread because experiences in other countries have revealed that the virus could resurface if people are not sufficiently educated on basic hygiene and made to comply with protocols and guidelines.

According to Youssoufou, government at all levels and the private sector operators have done so much to tackle the global challenge posed by COVID-19 and warned that it would be preposterous to relax at this time and allow the people to get back to their old lifestyles and ignore the preventive measures against the disease.

She explained that the coalition launched the phase two of the grassroots awareness campaign after experiences from the phase one of the campaign showed that a lot still need to be done to sensitise the people that preventing the virus is within their control.

Tambuwal’s Commissioner Emerges Sokoto PDP Chairman Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto Sokoto State Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Alhaji Aliyu Goronyo, has been elected the new state chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP).

Goronyo was elected at the state congress held in Sokoto yesterday.

Announcing the result in early yesterday, the Chairman of the committee of the state congress, Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, said the total number of 2,250 delegates was accredited.

He further added that all the executives emerged through consensus, but stressed that the delegates have to vote to affirm their emergence.

identify high grounds for use as camps, for the evacuation of possible Internally Displaced Persons and to shelter evacuated communities.

She called on them to organise Humanitarian Coordination Fora to prepare all stakeholders for mitigation and response, as well as request for relief materials for prompt response after the flood.

The minister also sympathised

with the people of Kebbi, Bauchi and Jigawa following the heavy flooding in some areas of the states, which has led to the loss of lives and farmlands including the displacement of many people.

“The recent flood incidences in parts of those states affirm the need for serious and urgent actions to be taken to safeguard lives and property against the predicted flood.

“The 2020 Annual Flood Outlook

forecasts that 102 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 28 states will have heavy rainfall, while 275 LGAs in the 36 states of the Federation including Abuja will experience moderate flooding.

“The remaining 397 LGAs fall within the low probable flood risk areas. Unfortunately, the predicted floods have started to occur in many parts of the country, including Bauchi, Kebbi and Jigawa.

the works his administration started but were abandoned by the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who he described as the outgoing governor.

CACOVID Seeks End to Community Spread of COVID-19 The members of the Private Sector led Coalition Against Covid-19 (CACOVID), has said that stopping the community spread of COVID-19 pandemic disease is the only way to get the nation’s economy back on track and prevent prevents the disease’s resurgence in the country.

The CACOVID noted that the present situation demands that all efforts should be geared towards grassroots awareness campaign in order to prevent community spread of the disease across the country and sustain the gains of the past in combating the deadly pandemic.

CACOVID Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), Mrs. Zouera Youssoufou, explained in Lagos while receiving briefings from the Grassroots Awareness Campaign Team, that the coalition embarked on grassroots awareness campaign against community

possible flooding this year include: Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Niger, Kogi, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Rivers.

Others are Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Osun, Kwara, Zamfara, Sokoto, Lagos, Ondo, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Abia, Kano, Kebbi and the Federal Capital Territory.

Farouq urged the states to

In another development a chieftain of the party in the state and former state Governor, Dahaltu Attahiru Bafarawa, was conspicuously absent at the congress.

THISDAY gathered that Bafarawa absence was unconnected to the manner in which the new executives emerged.

The party’s congress produced the newly elected state executives to man the affairs of the party for the next four years.

Others who emerged along with Goronyo are Alhaji Aliyu F.C, deputy chairman;Alhaji Muhammad Dangwaggo vice chairman North; Alhaji Sule A.P, vice chairman South, and Alhaji Nasiru Bafarawa, vice chairman East

CONGRATULATIONS…

L-R: Representative of the Chairman of Nasarawa Local Government Council, Mal. Sarkin Kurawa; former Super Eagles Captain, Nwankwo Kanu; Deputy Managing Director of KAROTA, Mal. Bala Ibrahim; and Business Head, Simba TVS, Mr. Mahendra Pratap, presenting a gift during the inauguration of the Simba TVS Workshop in Kano... recently

Ndume: Nigerian Army Helping to Resettle IDPs in North East Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has hinted that military personnel are currently assisting state governments in the North-east to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) back to their ancestral homes.

Ndume also praised the Nigerian Army’s officers and other ranks serving in the

North-east geo-political zone for their involvement in other civil activities such as teaching and hiring private teachers to teach hundreds of school children in the area.

He also disclosed during the weekend that his recent visit to his home state, Borno, has shown that the soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgents were able to assist the state government in resettling the displaced people.

He said: “In the course of my interaction, I discovered that the military has been supporting the state government’s bid to return the internally displaced persons to their ancestral homes. So far, the people of Kukawa, Kawuri, Ngoshe, are in the process of returning while some of them had returned already.

“Just last week, over 1,000 Kawuri people, along the Maiduguri-Bama Road, about 40 kilometers away from Maiduguri, returned to their

town. Kawuri was where the insurgents massacred 85 people in one day sometime in February 2014.

“I was at Ngoshe with the Governor of Borno State and preparations were at the final stage for the return of the displaced persons on October 15.

The government is also making efforts to return the people of four other communities at the various IDP’s camps by the end of the year.”

Umeh Backs Igini, Asks Edo APC Chairman to Resign from Politics Peter Uzoho A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Victor Umeh, has defended the Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Mike Igini, against the accusations levelled against him by the Chairman of All the Progress Congress (APC) in Edo State, Col. David Imuse (rtd).

Umeh in a statement issued

yesterday, said Imuse should resign immediately from politics, for throwing cautions to the wind and making weighty allegations of a plot by Governor Godwin Obaseki to rig the September 19 governorship election, using officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that would be coordinated

by Igini.

He said “ordinarily, I wouldn’t have bothered to join the fray,

but I was constrained to do so after reading the direct allegations he made against Mr. Mike Igini who is unarguably one of Nigeria’s very principled and noble Public Officers.”

Puncturing Imuse’s allegations, Umeh said Igini became a spartan and lived up to expectation and also became a relentless officer in the fight for credible elections and against electoral vices when he joined INEC.

According to him, “he (Igini) was always deployed by the commission to all troubled election spots that required strength of character to deliver clean elections”.

Umeh, who cited the quality coordination displayed by Igini in the Imo State Supplementary Governorship Election in 2011, and the replication of such in other troubled places during elections, stated that the fear of Igini became the beginning of wisdom.

Insecurity: Group Asks Buhari to Ban Use of Mufti By Security Operatives Sunday Okobi An organisation, which fights against perceived societal ills and oppression of the masses by those in authority, Brothers Across Nigeria (BAN), has sent a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to ban the use of mufti by security agents, who

are not investigating any crime.

The group argued that such action by policemen and soldiers has caused confusion and vulnerability for the citizenry leading to many deaths.

BAN noted that it is now challenging for Nigerians to differentiate between criminals and policemen or soldiers on casual wears, adding that many citizens

have been killed when criminals posed as security operatives.

In a letter written to President Buhari, which was signed and made available to THISDAY by BAN’s Secretary, Mr. Adeyemi Moshood; and the President of the group, Dr. Lewis Atuife, the group stated that: “We are aware that by virtue of the Police Act and Regulations made pursuant

to the Act, there is the need for Crime Investigating Officers (CIO) to abstain from wearing regular uniforms of the force which enables them blend into the environment in which they operate. This they do in the course of carrying out investigations and apprehension of criminals.

The need for this cannot be overemphasised.

FG to Deliver 5,000 Housing Units under NESP Nigerians to get 20,000 housing units annually over five years.

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government is set to commence work on the delivery of 5,000 housing units under the National Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) recently approved by the Federal Executive Council

(FEC) to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mr. Ahmed Dangiwa, made the announcement during a presentation to the Minister of

Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on mass affordable housing scheme for officers of paramilitary agencies under the ministry.

A statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications Group of the bank, Mr. Lawal Sauri, yesterday noted that

participants at the meeting included the leadership of Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Fire Service (FFS), and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

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Removal of HoS Does Not Translate to Retirement from Service, Court Rules Alex Enumah in Abuja Justice S. H. Danjidda of the Yenagoa Division of the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Yenagoa has held that the removal of a state Head of Service (HoS) by a governor cannot automatically translate to the retirement from the civil service.

Justice Danjidda, who made the declaration in a judgment he delivered in a suit filed by a former Rivers State Head of Service, Mr. Samuel Longjohn, held that although the governor has the powers to appoint the HoS, his retirement from the civil service could only be done in line with the provisions of the civil service rules and regulations.

The judge held that since a Head of Service (HoS) is picked from the rank of permanent secretaries, it is a political appointment, which implies that once the occupant of the position is removed from office as HoS, he or she needs to return to his or her former position as permanent secretary if he or she has not reached the mandatory retirement age.

Longjohn had dragged the Rivers State government to court over his unlawful retirement after he was removed as HoS of Rivers State in December 2015.

Defendants in the suit are the Attorney General, Rivers State; Head of Service, Rivers State and the Civil Service Commission, Rivers State.

Chimamanda Adichie Mourns Father Africa’s literary icon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has expressed her deep pain and sorrow over the passage of her father, the late Prof.

James Adichie, who died on June 10, 2020.

The late Professor of Statistics died at the age of 88, after showing signs of unwellness.

Adichie in a glowing tribute laced with pains and feeling of shock, titled: “Notes on Grief: Chimamanda on Her Father’s Death In memoriam: James Nwoye Adichie, 1932-2020,” expressed the great vacuum her father’s departure would have on her.

“The news is like a vicious uprooting. I am yanked away from the world I have known since childhood,” she said.

She, however, described her father as the “Defender

The claimant, Longjohn, was first employed by the Rivers State Government through the Civil Service Commission in 1995 as Director of Treasury.

On August 15, 1998, he was then appointed as Permanent Secretary and was subsequently appointed Head of Service of Rivers State by the then Governor Chibuike Amaechi in August 20, 2012.

He, however, said on July 15, 2015, he heard his purported removal as HoS on the orders of the state Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, on the radio.

He stated that upon his removal, the defendants continued payment of his salary up till December, 2015 when he was last paid.

The claimant argued that upon his removal from the position HoS, the defendants ought to have redeployed him as a Permanent Secretary to any other office or position as he had not attained the statutory age of retirement.

But this was not done, hence the legal action against the government.

He, therefore, prayed the court to set aside his retirement, order his reinstatement as well as payment of his outstanding emoluments.

In the suit filed on his behalf by his lawyer, UB, Obaika, the claimant therefore prayed the court for the following reliefs: “A declaration that his removal as HoS of Rivers State did not

translate into his retirement from the state civil service”.

In arguing the suit, Obaika had submitted that the appointment of the claimant as Head of Service was pursuant to Section 208(1) 2 (b) of the Constitution which empowers the governor to appoint a person as Head of Service from the rank of Permanent Secretaries or its equivalent from the Civil Service of the State of Federation.

He, however, argued that the removal as Head of Service does not translate to retirement of the claimant from the Civil Service of Rivers State when he was yet to attain the statutory age 60 years of retirement on September 19, 2018.

Obaika argued that Section

208(5) of the Constitution expressly excludes the Head of Service and Permanent Secretary from holding office at the pleasure of the Governor, adding that a person appointed into the office of Head of Service remains in office at the expiration of the tenure of the appointing governor until attainment of the statutory age of 60 years or 35 years in service.

He further submitted that the claimant having been appointed Head of Service from the rank of Permanent Secretary, upon removal as Head of Service, should have reverted to the rank of permanent secretary and remains in the civil service until retirement.

Floods Renders 2, 500 People Homeless in Kwara Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

of Spouse, for how quick he always was to support my mother.”

Flood has displaced more than 2,500 people in Jebba, Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State from their homes.

It should be recalled that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), had warned that 28 states in the country, which included Kwara State, would be exposed to flood disasters from September 6, 2020, and advised

those living in lowlands areas to move uplands to avoid the coming floods.

However, THISDAY checks revealed that the recent flood disasters in Jebba and other adjoining communities were caused by recent heavy downpour.

It was gathered that the rainfall, which started in the midnight of Thursday, created havoc that rendered many people in the town homeless.

A visit to the town during the weekend by THISDAY’s reporter showed that people were still counting their losses and sleeping in mosques, churches and friends’ houses.

One of the victims of the flood, Mrs. Iyabo Oloyede, complained that the flood had swept away all her belongings and called on the state government to come to their aid.

However, the Deputy House

Leader in the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Jihn Olarenwaju Bello, paid on the spot assessment to the area and assured them that the state government would come to their aid.

He said: “The Kwara State Governor, Mr. Abdulrahma Abdurasaq, is a man of the people who has Kwarans best interest at heart and will intervene and bring relief to them.”

Kano Road Transport Authority Applauds Simba TVS Tricycles

Prof. James Adichie

Kano State Road Traffic Authority (KAROTA) has expressed satisfaction with the quality of Simba TVS brand of tricycles, saying the products are road worthy and are bound to return profits to commercial drivers.

The Deputy Managing Director of KAROTA. Mr/ Ibrahim Bala made the remarks recently at the unveiling of an

additional TVS workshop located at Hadejia Road, Kano.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were former Super Eagles Captain, Kanu Nwankwo; the representative of Nassarawa Local Government Chairman, Mr. Sarkin Kurawa; Business Head-Simba TVS, Mr. Mahendra Pratap; Simba Group Head of Marketing, Mr Karthik Govindarajan as well

as commercial tricycle drivers in the state.

In his remarks, Bala said that, as an automotive engineer, he was in the best position to assess and affirm that TVS tricycles are durable and good for commercial purposes. ‘As an automotive engineer, I know the best of engines of any kind’, he stated adding that the TVS brand of tricycles

enabled their owners to grow their businesses.

He appealed to the youths in the state and the general public to make use of TVS tricycles given the strength and the quality of the brand.

Also at the well attended occasion, the Simba TVS team engaged with dealers and customers as well as Kano State government officials.

NORTHERN NIGERIA: THE PRETENCE PERSISTS There is hardly any recent event (and I am talking about the last 15 years) in the home, or village, of most Northern politicians where the guests are not usually overwhelmed by at least 100 shabby looking youths, who are either prowling the vicinity, directly affronting guests, or raiding laid out tables. They are looking for nothing other than scraps of edibles and, not even a full meal. And the big men themselves are usually not embarrassed by the spectacle. And, by the way, Governor Ikpeazu of Abia State took his place in the pantheon of depraved leadership when he personally handed out wraps of Eba and a helping of poor quality soup as COVID-19 palliative to his people. In M.I. Okpara’s State; which was also once governed by Dee Sam Mbakwe? Ejikwa m Ogu o!

The dreadful disconnect between the 21st century and the Nigerian political religious, traditional and even academic elite is palpable.

Has lasting school enrollment or academic performance improved in the North, in the last ten years, even as all the governors are announcing massive “investments” in education? Has the region shown any real increase in the number of people registering for SSCE, NECO and similar competitive examinations? If no, then an inevitable implosion will yet come. The current leadership

culture of impunity portends ill. As “their people” come from Chad and Niger, their own youths are begging in the streets; or in the forests. Everywhere is turning into a no-man’s-land, where even revered traditional rulers and religious leaders are no longer safe. A backlash will come when the Sudanese, Chadians and North Africans will suddenly not be so welcome; especially after the Northerners discover that they are displaced in their very homes.

When foreigners are the ones with Nigerian ID cards in the North, when foreigners are voters in the North, when the total number of registered candidates for all competitive examinations from the 19 states of the north continues to stand much lower than that of one particular state in the South, when even the cattle business is now in the hands of roaming bands who have no conception of a brotherhood, the modern state, you will realize what the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, meant by his two books, “Fear and Trembling” and “The Sickness Unto Death.” By then it would already be too late.

As I said then, over a year ago, “…relentless, daily killings are going on in all the northern states, while everyone thinks that power resides in the north. … The northern political elite would seem to have been diligently digging

its own grave for quite some time now, but without knowing it. They have allowed a new breed of wild youths, not sufficiently socialised even in line with the ‘Ranka dede’ culture to … to become dominant. Drugs, poverty, motiveless criminality and rapacious daredevilry have chased all the northern big men to Abuja. But for how long will they be in exile? Is Abuja itself still safe?

Are some high profile estates and exclusive neighbourhoods in Abuja not being quietly attacked these days?”

As property rates crash in the North, as investors flee, as local economies collapse, as re-desertification takes over many places, as farmlands and animal husbandry are abandoned, as the proceeds of crime become the new means for the unlettered, the threat to the children of the elite will multiply.

The peace of mind of those who had the chance to make a difference but failed to do so will evaporate. The free-band society of cattle herders will collapse before their very eyes, as much of the North is taken over by “degenerate marauders who know nothing about modern statehood, law and order etc.”

Is anyone thinking of what to expect in the “very near future”?

I need not repeat the old observation, that the late Abubakar Rimi would probably still

be alive today if he had not encountered his ‘brothers’ on a lonely road in the dead of night. He spoke to them in in Fulfulde and tried to remonstrate with them that it was beneath dignity of a Fulani man to be involved in their “line of work”. But they did not listen to him. They robbed him, instead, and, still angry that he was telling them how to live their lives, managed to spare his life after warning him to keep his preachment to himself . it was the trauma to Rimi’s existing heart condition, as well as the statement of his “brothers” that they were simply trying to “make a living” and feed their families, saw Rimi out of this world a few days later.

But the pretense persists, that “The North” is on course. The CAMA 2020, the Water Resources Bill, the suffocation of institutions of stage by lopsided appointments will deliver nothing lasting. To still conclude on the note of the said article of last year: “A region that has the highest allocation from oil revenue, the highest earnings from tax mostly paid by other regions, the highest earning from bunkering and the highest earnings from the illegal mining of gold and other natural resources, is ravaged by poverty, underdevelopment and a burgeoning population of unemployable youths. Is this right? Is this normal? Is anyone paying attention – as the North goes under?

so that commerce and movement of persons can thrive and flourish.

How do we deepen technology penetration to ensure that we are not left behind in the digital race. These are a few amongst the things that occupy the thoughts of the President.

All statesmen will be judged by their records long after they exit the scene, and President Buhari is focused on deepening Nigeria’s unity and laying a solid foundation for the

transformation of our country so that future leadership can build on. Therefore, he will not be deterred by those whose singular objective, carried out through a veil of deception, is a cocktail of hate-inspired messaging and vitriol intended to distract and undermine our march towards prosperous nation building.

BUHARI FOCUSED ON NATION-BUILDING AND UNITY However, what is sad, and most reprehensible is the conduct of those who should know better and should be seen to be playing a leading role in bridging and or mediating these fissures that we have lived with, who now invest their time in trying to deepen those fault lines and stoking ethnic embers in very subtle and manipulative ways that eventually find their way to the public sphere.

Given the plethora of challenges that confront

our nation, Mr. President’s attention is on how our growing youthful population can compete in a world that has no boundaries and barriers, given our very fertile land. Focus is on how we can best improve agricultural practices and increase yields per hectare, so our farmers benefit from their sweat and honest labour.

Also under attention is how connectivity between markets and people can be improved

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Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com 0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

EUROPEAN LEAGUES

Ndidi Outshines Ajayi as Leicester Begin Campaign with Away Win ’No Show’ for Iheanacho, Iwobi in opening weekend Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report Nigerian international, Wilfred Ndidi played all 90 minutes yesterday as Leicester City claimed a huge 3-0 away victory against West Bromwich Albion in their first game of the new 2020/21 English Premier League season.

The Foxes’ chief handler, Brendan Rodgers featured Ndidi in the central defence instead of his role as a defensive midfielder. This was perhaps due to the absence of Wes Morgan and Johnny Evans.

The versatile Ndidi played his role without blemish, pairing Caglar Soyuncu to shield goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel from harm.

Ndidi’s compatriot as Leicester, Kelechi Iheanacho was however overlooked in the opening game. Alex Iwobi was also overlooked in the other game of the

RESULTS PREMIERSHIP West Brom 0-3 Leicester Tottenham 0- 1 Everton LALIGA AlavĂŠs 0-1 Real Betis, Valladolid 1-1 Sociedad Villarreal 1-1 SD Huesca LIGUE 1 Lille 1-0 Metz Angers 1-0 Reims Dijon 0-2 Brestois Lorient 2-3 Lens Olympique 2-4 Rennais Monaco 2-1 Nantes

day between Tottenham and Everton. Carlo Ancelotti’s men won 1-0.

It was however a bad day for Semi Ajayi who lost his first game in the topflight with the Baggies. He played a crucial role in West Brom’s return to the English elite division.

The new formation played

by Leicester effectively caged Slaven Bilic’s men. The Foxes’ formation paid off as Jamie Vardy scored a second-half penalty double as Leicester condemned West Brom to a disappointing return to the Premier League.

After goalkeeper Sam Johnstone twice came to the home side’s rescue with saves to deny Harvey Barnes in the first half, new signing Timothy Castagne broke the deadlock when he nodded home a far-post cross from fellow Belgian Dennis Praet nine minutes after the restart.

Vardy, last season’s Premier League top scorer, then got up to score from the spot after being dragged back by Kyle Bartley as he chased into the box to support a move that saw Johnstone deny former Baggies loanee Barnes for a third time.

The 33-year-old repeated the feat 10 minutes later after Dara O’Shea tripped James Justin.

As playmaker James Maddison made a secondhalf appearance off the bench after recovering from a hip operation that crucially caused him to miss the end of the season, it was a good day for manager Rodgers and his

Serena Out of Italian Open with Achilles Problem Serena Williams has pulled out of the Italian Open starting today due to an Achilles injury, the former world number one confirmed at the weekend.

Williams’ bid for a recordequalling 24th Grand Slam singles title ended with a defeat to Victoria Azarenka at the US Open on Thursday, a match in which she took a medical timeout to have her left ankle re-taped due to the Achilles problem. “I regretfully must withdraw from The Internazionali BNL d’Italia due to an Achilles strain,�

Williams, a four-times

winner in Rome, said in a statement. “I’m so humbled by the continuous support from my fans in Rome and I look forward to making my return soon.�

Double Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and top-ranked Ash Barty have also pulled out of the tournament.

Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev, who contested the US Open men’s final yesterday, have withdrawn from the event, the organisers said in a statement.

Serena Williams has pulled out of Italian Open starting today due to Achilles injury

team, who were winning this particular fixture for the fifth time in a row.

For West Brom, it was a brutal reminder of the task they face merely trying to stay in the top flight.

All three promoted teams lost on the opening weekend and - like Fulham, who were beaten by a similar scoreline against Arsenal on Saturday - there are early question marks over whether they have the quality to survive. Leeds however gave a good account of themselves missing sharing points with champions Liverpool by the whiskers.

Elsewhere in Europe yesterday evening, Kelechi Nwakali had his first feel of the Spanish top-flight as he came in in the 62nd minutes for newly promoted Huesca.

On the other side of the field, Samuel Chukwueze started for Villarreal as they cancel a first half deficit to pick a point at home with the 1-1 draw.

In France, Henry Onyekuru played the last 28 minutes of that game as they edged past Nantes that paraded another Nigerian Moses Simon 2-1.

Wilfred Ndidi was in action for all 90 minutes yesterday as Leicester City defeat West Bromwich Albion 3-0

Okpotu Emerges Top Scorer in Tunisian League Former Lobi Stars goal king, Anthony Okpotu, has joined an exclusive list in Tunisia as the highest goal scorer in the country’s topflight, the Ligue1Tn, which ended yesterday evening.

Fondly called the ‘Panther’ for his impressive work rate, Okpotu, who joined modest US Monastir on the eve of the current season scored 13 league goals this term.

According to Scorenigeria. com.ng, Okpotu however

failed to increase his tally on the last day of the season as US Monastir drew 1-1 at home with Ben Guerdane.

The closest player to Okpotu is Club Africain’s Burkinabe forward, Bassirou Compaore, who scored eight goals.

Compaore’s Club Africain lost 2-3 at home to Etoile du Sahel. Etoile won the supremacy battle after losing the title to rivals, Esperance.

Since joining Monastir, Okpotu has achieved several feats.

He is the first Monastir player to hit double digits and his presence has helped the modest side to their first ever qualification for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Arab club tournaments.

The influential Foot24Tn had earlier named Okpotu Best Foreigner in Ligue1Tn. Okpotu’s feat makes him only the second Nigerian after Michael Eneramo to be crowned goal king in the Tunisian League.

Anthony Okpotu...top scorer in Tunisian topflight

Osaka: Covid-19 Break Helped Me Accomplish US Open Feat US Open champion Naomi Osaka has said that the time she was forced to take off tennis because of the coronavirus pandemic helped her win a third Grand Slam.

Osaka, 22, fought back from a set down to beat Victoria Azarenka in Saturday’s final at Flushing Meadows in New York. “The quarantine definitely gave me a chance to think a lot about things, what I want to accomplish, what I want people to remember me by,� said Osaka. “I would definitely say it’s been an important few months.�

Victory earned her a third major title after winning the 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open.

Osaka has demonstrated a growing maturity during the US Open bubble, which included last month’s Western and Southern Open being held at Flushing Meadows before the Grand Slam event.

On the court, her improved mental resilience has helped her forge an 11-match winning streak since the professional tours returned last month.

The Japanese fourth seed needed that against Azarenka after being overwhelmed in a one-sided first set, and being a point away from trailing 3-0 in the second set, before recovering to win 1-6 6-3 6-3.

Off the court, she has used her platform to speak out about racism and police brutality in the United States. “For me, my life was always go, go tennis-wise, especially after the previous US Open that I won,� she said when asked about the impact of the disrupted season. “It definitely accelerated things, and I’ve never had a chance to slow down. “I feel like I’ve definitely tried to mature. I wasn’t really sure the process that I was going to have to take.

“But I feel like the lessons that I learned with life definitely developed me as a person more.�

Although Osaka’s second US Open win came in strange circumstances in a near-empty Arthur Ashe Stadium, it provoked wildly different emotions to her first.

Two years ago, she was left in tears as she waited to collect her first Grand Slam trophy following a tumultuous match against Serena Williams.

The American had an infamous argument with umpire Carlos Ramos, which created a hostile environment among an Ashe crowd unhappy at Williams’ treatment. “This win feels different overall because of the circumstances I’m under. I wasn’t in a bubble last time. There were a lot of fans last time,� she said. “I feel like in the end all I focus on is what I can control on the tennis court. That’s what I did last time. I feel like that’s

what I did this time.�

Whether or not Osaka will try to win back-to-back majors again at the French Open later this month remains to be seen after she was non-committal about her plans. “I was planning to play when I came here (to the US Open), but I guess I’ll see what happens,� she said.

Naomi Osaka kissing the US Open trophy after triumphing over Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-3 6-3‌ late Saturday night

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The Stadium Adoption: A Necessity

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ith ceremonial opulence and public razzmatazz, the Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports, led by the Honourable Mr. Sunday Dare launched an audacious project late last year. It was the ‘Adopt an Athlete’ and ‘Adopt a Stadium’ programme. This was an innovative way to involve corporate Nigeria into the development of sports in Nigeria as the country prepared for the Olympics with paucity of funds even before the COVID-19 induced recession. The programme was beautiful in its simplicity; The Ministry put up athletes who had podium chances at the Olympics and each corporate body can bid to support any of them with fees ranging from 10,000 USD – 20,000 USD annually to assist them in training. The ‘Adopt a Stadium’ followed a similar MOU. Some stadia were put up so that companies can renovate them and thus help our long decaying sporting infrastructure. The Adoption Campaign may have started yielding dividend following the confirmation by the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, that business moguls, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Adebutu Kessington (also known as Baba Ijebu) have pledged to renovate the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja and the National Stadium

in Lagos respectively.

It must be noted however that these noble programmes are not new in sports and it is no way the exclusive idea of Mr. Dare.

As the athletic programmes grew, The Hillcrest School in Texas, USA introduced the ‘The Adopt-an-Athlete program’ as an initiative designed to provide financial assistance to all teams and student-athletes by providing for uniforms, team travel, tournament fees, referee expenses, etc. Contributions made to Hillcrest School for this programme were tax-deductible and provided enhanced programmes and opportunities for the entire team.

In Ontario Canada, Sponsors of Special Athletics were permitted to choose to ‘adopt a sport’ and become either the ‘title’ sponsor or for larger sports, could be a co-sponsor. Teams will proudly display name/logo on teams’ shirts and show the community the generosity of the sponsors to those in the Region who are so often overlooked. U.S Track & Field and U.S college sports also used the ‘adopt an athlete’ programme to get financial support of athletes.

However the criticisms in Nigeria have been coming as usual. The usual people who complain of the lack of adequate infrastructure in our sports and also the total dilapidation of the National Stadium are out condemning the actions of the Minister. Their position have one common theme, the hardship and livelihood of the numerous

squatters around these stadia who have made the stadium their temporary homes and business premises. They argue that sending these people away to renovate the stadium is insensitive and inhumane especially during these times that the pandemic has made things difficult.

The position of these critics is understandable but they are speaking out of a combination

night clubbers and a centre for social miscreants. The place is an uncoordinated market place.

We have a melting pot of people that gather there for different reasons ranging from being a social club where adults meet to drink and flirt, to a place littered with people begging for alms, to a home for touts and people with nefarious behaviours. Mixed in this broth are the lifestyle enthusiasts.

National Stadium Lagos of emotions and need to play to the gallery. Stirring up public sympathy for a decision that may cause some changes to pop culture.

The National Stadium over the years has transformed from a Centre of Sporting Excellence to a place of general chaos. The large edifice has since stopped hosting great and memorable international fixtures. The one time home of the Super Eagles is now home to beer loving

These social joggers, fitness clubs, dancers are scattered in every corner from parking lots to roads that there seems to be total disorderliness of activities. The environment is filthy. Without proper garbage disposals around, dirt ranging from used water bottles, plastic wrappers, uneaten fruits to even used condoms. Public toilets are sparse or non-existent for a place that takes in tens of thousands of people. So human

waste can be seen at every area.

The infrastructure is dead. The running track looks like a rat eaten carpet while the stadium seats have been broken, pulled out or just damaged in one way or the other. The main-bowl pitch is overgrown with weed at areas we are even lucky to have grass. The road surrounding the main-bowl is totally dilapidated.

Large pot-holes, illegal kiosks and makeshift rooms are seen around. The unpainted edifice reveals the years of decay and bellies the once outstanding architecture that heralded great sporting moments in our nation’s history. Offices that housed previous Ministers of Sport and federal civil servants now are either night clubs or house cobwebs and piles of dust. Rats are landlords in many areas. The structures around the main bowl do not tell a different tale. The National Institute of Sports looks like an abandoned brothel, the indoor gyms have outdated and dirty equipment, the poorly lit indoor hall looks fit only for a vampire chamber. North of the stadium, the Medical Centre is a shadow of its former image and the buildings that house the SWAN and NOC are a disgrace in relation to our size, pride and sporting prowess.

The security perimeter wall of the stadium has been completely destroyed by nature and human vandalism in equal measure.

Over grown grass surround the edifice while the area smells due

make shift toilet activities.

Inside the offices, the human resource mirrors the outlook of the stadia, with staff looking disinterested and unmotivated.

The is a feeling of idleness and nonchalance boredom in an arena that ideally should be busy all year round with sporting activities, concerts and a shopping plaza one can be proud of.

But it is not all gloom and doom. The indoor basketball hall has seen makeovers by Nestle and recently DSTV. The Para-Sports gymnasium had new world-class equipment supplied by Peak Milk. This is evidence of the role the private sector can play in upgrading our infrastructure. We may feel the initial pain of change, as it would not be business as usual even when renovation is complete but we must embrace it if we want progress.

While critics have a case in pointing out that existing contracts with local merchants be resolved amicably, either by refunds or compensation, the overall dream of having a great edifice like Wembley in London or The Allianz Arena in Germany would not come at an easy price. But in the end, it would be worth it.

* EneďŹ ok is an author, Speaker, administrator, Life coach, businessman and Nigeria’s ONLY Male two Time Olympic Medalist

PREMIER LEAGUE

New-look Everton in Flying Start, Win at Mourinho’s Spurs Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s brilliant header ensured new-look Everton made a flying start to the Premier League season with 1-0 victory at Tottenham.

Calvert-Lewin gave Hugo Lloris no chance after connecting with Lucas Digne’s in-swinging free-kick to earn the Toffees a first win over Spurs since 2012.

In a high-octane encounter, Jordan Pickford produced two excellent saves to keep out Dele Alli and Matt Doherty, who was making his debut after signing

Mbappe Puts Madrid, Liverpool, Others on Alert Kylian Mbappe has reportedly told Paris Saint-Germain he is to play his final season with the club, before seeking out a move during next summer’s transfer window.

Mbappe is contracted to PSG until 2022, meaning next summer is the last opportunity for the Parisians to sell their star asset before running the risk of losing him as a free agent.

And now the 21-year-old, who has been linked with both Liverpool, Manchester City, and United, has made clear his intentions to his club, as report UK’s Times.

PSG made a huge investment in Mbappe, signing him from AS Monaco in 2018 for a fee in the region of ÂŁ165 million.

The deal remains the second highest ever paid for a footballer, behind PSG’s marquee capture of Neymar after triggering his Barcelona release clause.

PSG are said to have made multiple lucrative offers to Mbappe in hope of getting him to commit his future to the club, including a promise to see him as their highest ever paid player while pledging to build the team around him in future.

But the World Cup winner with France already has his

eyes on pastures new, and it now appears Real Madrid are front-runners for his signature.

Madrid have already drawn up a battle plan for next summer’s transfer window, with Mbappe set to be the headline signing in a busy period of elite talent recruitment.

Mbappe is understood to have been frank with PSG about his wishes to leave, in order to allow technical director Leonardo a final summer window in which to recoup the club’s transfer-fee investment.

PSG will also need to earmark a replacement for the talented youngster, who was a driving force behind their journey to the

2020 Champions League final.

Having played just over 100 Ligue 1 and Champions League matches for PSG, Mbappe has already scored 77 goals for the club.

The 21-year-old has previously admitted he has been ‘flattered’ with links to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, while marvelling at how the Anfield club consistently racked up victory after victory.

Klopp himself had spoken at lengths about Mbappe’s talents, though it is understood Liverpool would have to part with one of their iconic front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to even consider a deal.

Kylian Mbappe (right) and Liverpool gaffer, Jurgen Klopp

from Wolves.

But with new signing James Rodriguez in excellent form, Everton fully deserved their win after a hard-working performance.

Everton should have taken the lead in the early stages but Richarlison lost his footing after rounding Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris.

After Everton’s disappointing 12th place last season, their lowest position since 2003-04, Carlo Ancelotti has embarked on an ambitious rebuilding job, specifically targeting the midfield.

As well as Rodriguez, Brazil’s Allan and Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure have also been drafted in to provide energy and creativity in the engine room - and all three gave Ancelotti huge encouragement for the season ahead.

Rodriguez, in particular, stood out, with his quality passing setting up good chances.

The Toffees could - and should - have won by a more handsome margin against a static Tottenham side short of ideas.

Rodriguez twice picked out

Richarlison after half-time but the Brazilian, who wasted a great chance in the first half, was unable to punish Spurs.

Allan, who played under Ancelotti at Napoli, was calm and composed as Everton looked rejuvenated after a poor 2019-20.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (2nd right) who got the lone winning goal scored his 25th for Everton in the Premier League. He equaled Wayne Rooney’s total for the Toffees

Thiem Comes from Two Sets Down to Win US Open Austria’s Dominic Thiem clinched his first Grand Slam title after a gritty fightback from two sets down stunned Alexander Zverev in the US Open final.

Second seed Thiem, 27, had lost his previous three major finals and looked destined for another agonising defeat.

But 23-year-old Zverev, playing in his first Slam final, became edgy at key moments and Thiem took full advantage.

Both players failed to serve out victory in a tense decider before Thiem sealed a 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 (8-6) win.

Thiem took his third

championship point when Zverev pulled a backhand wide, leaving the Austrian falling flat on his back in celebration.

When he climbed back to his feet, he found a gracious Zverev - with whom he is close friends - waiting to hug him at the net. “I wish we could have two winners today, we both deserve it,� Thiem told Zverev, who he known since they were juniors.

Thiem is the first player to claim a Grand Slam title from two sets down since Argentine Gaston Gaudio at the French Open in 2004.

It had been longer since

anyone achieved this feat in New York, with Thiem emulating American Pancho Gonzales’ comeback in 1949.

Thiem, who remains third in the world rankings, is the first man to win a maiden Grand Slam singles title since Croat Marin Cilic’s 2014 US Open victory.

The absence of 2019 champion Rafael Nadal and Swiss great Roger Federer at the behindclosed-doors Grand Slam, plus the expulsion of top seed Novak Djokovic for hitting a line judge with a ball, opened the door for a new name to be etched on to a major trophy.

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Monday September 14, 2020

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MISSILE

FG to Obasanjo

“It is therefore a cruel irony that those who frittered away a great opportunity to put Nigeria on a sound socio-economic footing, at a time of financial buoyancy, and those who planted the seed of the insecurity in some parts of the country today, are the same ones pointing an accusing finger at a reformist government” – The federal government replying former President Obasanjo that Nigeria is a failed state under President Buhari.

OKEYIKECHUKWU

EDIFYING ELUCIDATIONS

okey.ikechukwu@thisdaylive.com

Northern Nigeria: The Pretence Persists

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recent lengthy submission from the elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, rested on a telling conclusion: Northern Nigeria is not developing its human capital. It also does not have the time to do so anymore. Therefore, it is now illequipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow.

It needs at least 20 years to become significant in any way. But, rather than wake up to this benumbing fact, there is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance. Meanwhile the people of the region lack the skills for tomorrow, as majority of its youth lack everything that could make them part of a 21st century world. The major point in Joda’s intervention is that the triumphalism of cattle rearers whose illusion of invulnerability is fuelled and sustained by a national security framework that is skewed to promote insecurity in specific regions of the country will go burst sooner than later.

Confiscation of the headship of institutions of state is not the same thing as creating a “replacement generation” that could be part of a 21st Century world.

Since most of the northern states have abandoned, ungoverned and even ungovernable spaces, its currently consumption-driven elite is really in no position to do anything, beyond maintaining a hollow swagger that is backed by nothing but the fact that they are living mostly in Abuja and floating on free state funds.

Look more closely and you will be reminded of what was said of the House of Eli in the

Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar Bible: “Any ear that hears” the judgment of The Lord on that household will tingle.

I take us back to an article which appeared on this page on April 17, 2019, titled “As the North Goes Under.” It spoke of a visit to Zamfara State in 2014, which was “at once frightening, sobering and demoralising.”

The then “Secretary to the State Government explained how he abandoned his farm and

ranch because of cattle rustling and fear for his personal safety.” He confessed that “it was impossible to deploy law enforcement agents, even for himself, in any meaningful way” because they were mostly outnumbered, ill equipped and answerable to Abuja. Have matters improved in Zamfara State today, or gotten worse, in almost every state of the federation?

Just as the then Zamfara State governor complained that “the misfortunes” of his people centred around “derivation, as a lot of gold was mined in the state and carted away while his people were ravaged by poverty,” many other states are not faring any better. Look at Bauchi State, with its new MoU on service delivery with development partners. Is that what the state needs at the moment; with its pathetic human development index profile?

Is it any different in Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Edo, Rivers and the others?

Even Northern states with over 30% of their geographical space occupied by marauders have been drafting and implementing budgets and development projects covering these areas, where no one lives.

Elite myopia, leadership illiteracy and abysmal ignorance of both 21st Century leadership and cultural anthropology of the Nigerian state are working together here. Most of Nigeria’s poor are northerners, even as most high profile political and economically rewarding positions are held by Northerners.

While the South laments the asphyxiation

of the Nigerian security infrastructure by its exclusive Northern domination, the very north is being systematically wiped out. Unlike what happened during the mass massacre of Igbos in the 60s, no religion, ethnic, or political affiliation exonerates anyone today.

For once, the North is actually giving the greatest evidence ever in its history of both political illiteracy and failure to follow the rules of self-preservation.

The former leather works sites of many Northern states, clothes factories and groundnut pyramids of Kano and Kaduna, are now like graveyards. Question: Are leaders of the North, and our leaders of various regions today generally, doing any form of costs/ benefits analysis in their expenditures and use of public funds? I think not. No matter how generous you would like to be in evaluating the situation of the North today, you must come away with the painful conclusion that all might not be well with the people for a long time to come. The trouble is that the collateral damage moving from the North to other regions is now like a sickness unto death, thanks to Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To think that many political leaders who were celebrating their political dominance a few years ago shall henceforth live in full knowledge of what the Mighty Maytones, the reggae singers of the 70s, meant by “weeping and wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth.”

Continued on page 61

FEMIADESINA GUEST COLUMNIST

Buhari Focused on Nation-building and Unity

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o state that we live in challenging times is perhaps an understatement and does very little justice in accurately capturing our current realities. Those realities include a world faced with a pandemic the scale of which hasn’t been seen in 100 years. The crisis has crippled economies, destroyed global supply chains and obliterated once productive and viable sectors of the economy.

Our dear nation has not been spared in this difficult period and, indeed, has felt the impact of the global crisis. But as a responsive government, the Buhari administration has within limited resources designed responses that are targeted at mitigating the full impact of this scourge.

The Economic Sustainability Plan has earmarked N2.7 trillion in spending to create and sustain jobs and livelihoods for those who have been impacted the most by this crisis.

Despite battling with low public revenues, and the hydra-headed monster of low oil price and a reduced production quota from OPEC, this administration remains committed to honouring the promises made to the

Nigerian people across the key areas of security, economy and fighting corruption.

At the just concluded InterMinisterial Retreat, where the entire government apparatus was gathered under one roof to review performance over the last year; with a singular objective of identifying how to improve in those areas where successes fell short of target, and how to replicate those key elements that led to success in others.

A frank conversation took place between the participants and independent assessors.

Amongst the critical themes that emerged from the two-day session was the need to improve focus, coordination and collaboration amongst Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and the importance of rigorous execution, monitoring and evaluation of projects and activities against set targets.

Regarding domestic policy actions, the last week has seen critical decisions around the economy being taken. These are decisions that for many years previous governments have shied away from, and as a result cost our country several billions of dollars.

This was funding that could easily have been deployed elsewhere in support of millions

of our citizens, as opposed to subsidising a small percentage of our population. If we continued along this path it would portend a very dark and uncertain future for our country.

As most crisis managers state, “Never allow a crisis go to waste.” Such periods present an opportunity to take stock and make difficult decisions. These domestic policy decisions were by no means easy, but are in the best interest of our nation.

The impact of this decision is to have an improved allocation of very scarce resources, create an opportunity for private sector investment to return to sectors where government intervention had created distortions in various ways. The return of the private sector promotes job creation and provides for the entrepreneurial genius that is embedded in Nigerians.

Leadership is about making tough and difficult decisions and not a popularity contest. President Buhari’s commitment to doing the right things in the best interest of our country should never be in doubt.

In the regional sphere, Mr. President has not shirked from his responsibilities

of promoting alongside other subregional leaders the principle of non-acceptability of change of government other than by constitutional means, and the values of democracy in places like Mali and ensuring that peace and security are maintained in neighbouring countries as they have a direct impact on our own security and territorial integrity.

Mr. President is also fully aware that there are historic fissures that exist in various locations across the country, and has advocated for dialogue between key parties who are direct stakeholders in ensuring peace. An example is the recent peace dialogue that took place in Kaduna between warring groups that have been at each other’s neck for quite some time. Their efforts to sit across the table and dialogue on how best they can resolve their differences, is the pathway that needs to be charted in addressing our internal issues. Such peace moves, which would be deepened and extended to other parts of the country, are critical to our continued existence as a people and as a nation.

Continued on page 61

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