NA'ABBA WARNS BUHARI: Beware of Obasanjo

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Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

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758 stranded foreigners at Calabar seaport evacuated by road

By Kingsley Omonobi, Abuja

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One of the daughters of the governor of Ogun State, Miss Akorede Amosun, donating some medical items to the Family Health Centre, Oke-Ilewo, in Abeokuta South Local Government Area of the state, last week.

58 foreigners strand ed at the Calabar Sea Port following the breakdown of a vessel conveying them from Gabon to Benin Republic have been evacuated by road.

The nationals from Togo, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Guinea were forced to terminate their sea journey in Calabar when a passenger vessel –Emiliana-Carneiromade an emergency berthing at the port when one of the engines malfunctioned and a leakage

on the floor of the ship was observed.

A statement signed by David Akate, Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Cross River State Emer-

gency Management Agency (SEMA), said, “Over 10 buses conveying the passengers were escorted by Immigration, police and other security agents”.

Delta Speaker lists achievements

By Lekan Bilesanmi

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PEAKER of the Del ta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Monday Igbuya, reminisced on the first seven months of the Sixth Assembly, describing it as “ wonderful”. In a New Year message,Igbuya said that the period would re-

main evergreen in his memory even as he listed the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency Law, 2015, Delta State Technical and Vocational Education Board Law, 2015, Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Law, 2015, Delta State Appropriation (Amendment) Law, 2015 and the Delta State Contributory Health Commission Law, 2015 as major achievements of the Sixth Legislative Assembly.

He described the performance of his colleagues as impressive and promised to introduce more laws that would aid growth and reforms in the state.

He urged his colleagues to set new goals to quicken the pace of development in the state.

Osun Assembly urges Nigerians to embrace 2016 with optimism and faith

By Yinka Ajayi

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SUN State House of Assembly, under the leadership of Speaker Najeem Salaam, has charged Nigerians to approach the new year with high sense of hope, optimism, positive attitude and unshakable faith.

The House also called for fervent prayers for peace, a pre-requisite for development, spirit of sacrifice from the citizenry in view of the myriads of challenges confronting the nation, as well as mutual trust needed for nation building.

The calls were made in a statement to mark the New Year celebrations, issued by the Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye.

Describing the year 2016 as one of great expectations, hope, possibilities and challenges, the Assembly, said though the nation is at economic crossroads and not yet the nation of our collective dream.

The parliament said Nigerians of all faith must unite to make Nigeria the global giant of Africa that it was destined to be.

Stressing that Nigeria has every ingredient for greatness, Oyintiloye maintained that with tenacity of purpose, the reversal of downturn of fortune was achievable.

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 5

2019: PDP, APC in war of words over Dasuki

By Umoru Henry and Joseph Erunke, Abuja

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Methodist Church Of the Holy Trinity Tinubu joined Christians worldwide to hold prayers to mark the New Year in Lagos. From left: Very Rev Stephen Adegbite,Proto Presbyter; His Eminence, Dr Samuel Chukwuemeka Uche, Prelate; Rt Rev Edoka Amuta, Bishop of Evangelism and Discipleship; and Rt Rev Oladapo Omotayo Babalola,Bishop of Tinubu, during the service. Photo

by Biodun Ogunleye.

NEW YEAR TRAGEDIES

Man hacks step-mother to death in Enugu

By Francis Igata

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ANDEMONIUM broke out in the agrarian community of Umuenem,Ezinesi-Oduma in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State following the killing of Bennedeth Anyim, allegedly with an axe during her intervention to quell a fight that erupted between two belligerent siblings.

The suspect, Friday Anyim, was said to have engaged the elder sister,Abigail Anyim, in an argument over the sale of a water tank to enable him (Friday) raise money for the purchase of a motorcycle, popularly known as Okada, for commercial purpose.

It was gathered that the suspect,a son to one of the three wives of his father, Anyim Samuel, had, in a bid to have his way,picked an axe, apparently to deal a devastating injury on the sister before the deceased rushed to intervene and was hit by the flying axe.

The attack left the deceased sprawling on the floor just as the suspect took to his heels.

Enugu State Police Command Public Relations Officer,PPRO,Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, confirmed the

incident in a statement, adding that the deceased’s husband who was in the middle of a meeting in a nearby house, raced home on hearing the news only for him to meet the wife in a pool of blood.

Five worshippers dead in Benue auto crash

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

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O fewer than five per sons have been re ported dead with several others sustaining various degrees of injury in a motor accident which occurred on New Year day at Wannune, in Tarka Local Government Area of Benue State.

According to an eye witness, the accident involved a truck conveying over 50 members of the Universal Reformed Christian Church, URCC, otherwise known as NKST, to Gboko Local Government Area of the state.

The members of the Achusa and High Level branches of the church were said to be going for the annual NKST Conference

when the vehicle skidded off the road and ended in the bush. The eye witness added that the driver of the truck was trying to avoid a pothole on the road when he lost control.

It was gathered that those injured were rushed to a public hospital in Tarka, Gboko for treatment while relations of the passengers tried to locate their beloved ones to establish their condition.

he Peoples Democrat ic Party (PDP), yester day, linked the trial of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), to the 2019 general elections, saying President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) are scared Dasuki may be nursing a presidential ambition.

The party said it was unfortunate that Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade has now become a war between the APC and the PDP. Meanwhile, the APC leadership replied,saying it was not losing sleep over who the PDP plans to pick from the North as its presidential flag bearer in the 2019 elections.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said it was appalling that the APC and its leaders, “who gleefully and unjustifiably poured invectives on former President Goodluck Jonathan in the guise of playing the role of an opposition party, would now not want to condone criticisms”.

PDP explained that the trial of Dasuki was a sign that the ruling party felt threatened by his wide political and security network which he may use should he decide to contest for the presidency in 2019 on the PDP platform.

Buhari, according to the opposition party, appeared to have already pronounced Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu of Radio Biafra guilty in his last week media chat even before court pronouncements.

It sympathised with the President and the APC over “their inability to accept, with equanimity, constructive criticisms of their administration”.

“Besides, it is sad and embarrassing that President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade has now been reduced to a war between the APC and the PDP as declared by the Office of his spokespersons. Since

Girl, 4, killed in Delta midnight fire

By Akpokona Omafuaire

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RAGEDY struck, yes terday, as midnight candle light induced inferno consumed a fouryear old girl, sacked seven families, a farm, Deeper life Bible Church and a school at Makro Street, Warri, Delta State.

The little Favour was identified as the daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Paul.

An eyewitness, Abba Idogun, narrated that the fire started as a result of a candle light carelessly left while asleep by one of the occupants of the compound located at 16, Makro Street.

Idogun, an Information Officer with Delta State Ministry of Information, Warri Office, said the fire burnt the four-year-old beyond recognition, saying a private school, a

church and a poultry farm were also razed.

Lamenting the incident, one of the victims, Emmanuel Nwodo, a poultry farmer, said the fire started from his neighbour ’s apartment in the compouand.

“It started from my neighbour ’s place. We were inside my room when I heard ‘fire, fire’.

And before I could come out, the fire was already raging.

“Maybe they left candle on and slept off and the candle just sparked big fire. That was just how the fire burnt everywhere.

There is one man, a lady with three children. A little child of about four years was burnt to death.

Her name is Favour. “Very innocent girl but they could not rescue her. The fire started about 10:30pm.”

they have confirmed that this is what the anti-corruption crusade is all about, the APC is obviously seeking to destroy the PDP so that it can push through Buhari’s second tenure in 2019 without opposition from the PDP”.

The party continued: “This has also confirmed our concern that this is the reason the Federal Government is persecuting, and not prosecuting Col. Sambo Dasuki. The APC and its leaders fear that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition, more so that the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the north.

“The PDP is conversant with the sinister plan by the APCled Federal Government to completely decimate our party by raking up all manner of allegations of corruption against the Goodluck Jonathan administration and leaders of the PDP with a view to taking them to court on orchestrated charges”.

PDP also said that it is aware that Buhari has directed security agencies to be more vicious in dealing with our members and has continued to subtly coerce the judiciary to convict those being charged to court.

“But what gives us joy is that President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him.

Unlike the APC that denigrated the office and person of former President Jonathan by wrongly depicting him as ‘clueless and incompetent’, the PDP remains the most decent, mature and constructive opposition party in our democracy and we have evidenced great respect for the person and exalted office of President Muhammadu Buhari”, the opposition party said “During the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, while in the saddle as interim Deputy National Secretary of the APC, in a post on his twitter page, described President Jonathan as ‘lazy, docile, incompetent, clueless, hopeless and useless leader.’ Other APC leaders made raining abuses on Jonathan a past time.

“The PDP is a very responsible opposition party; our leaders are mature; and we have demonstrated so in our critique of the President’s responses during the maiden Presidential Media Chat. We have reviewed Buhari’s performance and concluded that it was uninspiring”

‘We are not bothered’

Responding to the PDP allegations, last night, the APC said it was not losing sleep

over who the PDP picks from the North as its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.

The party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, spoke in a statement, through the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Edegbe Odemwingie, in Abuja.

Oyegun said his party “ will not join issues with the childish and laughable conspiracy theories being bandied by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in relation to the 2019 presidential election.”

He went on,”Whoever the PDP picks as its candidate for the 2019 presidential election is not the business of the APC. Relevant laws in the country clearly spells out requirements for persons seeking election into all political offices.

“The preoccupation of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari is to deliver on all the promises made to Nigerians by the party during the 2015 election. Looking back at the last seven months, there are clear indicators showing that the APC and the President Buhari administration is on the right track to delivering on its Change Agenda.

“The PDP speaks of a presidential directive to security agencies and judiciary to “coerce” and “convict” PDP leaders and officials of the immediate-past administration with corruption charges.

Clearly such abuse of presidential directives was a concept invented and effectively deployed by the PDP during its defunct 16-year rule. The APC is a law-abiding party and cannot adopt such diabolical concept. The APC believes strongly in the rule of law, as against the kind of impunity Nigeria witnessed under the PDP for 16 years.

“We assure Nigerians that the PDP conspiracy theories will not distract the President Buhari administration, law enforcement and anti-graft agencies from the successful on-going war against corruption being waged on looters of our common wealth. The ongoing war against corruption is not selective. Anybody guilty of corrupt practices will face the law.

“Clearly, the PDP has chosen to blame everyone but itself for the sorry state it finds itself. The PDP should have known that it will pay for its years of impunity, recklessness and shocking mismanagement of the country’s commonwealth. PDP members who are genuinely inspired by the APC-led administration are welcome to the APC fold.

It is their right to abandon a sinking ship and join one that is smooth-sailing”

Methodist Prelate, others rally support for Buhari

By Yinka Ajayi NIGERIANS have been charged to create a genuine road map for a nation where no man is oppressed.

The advice was made by the Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Chukwuemeka Kanu Uche JP, the Archbishop of Lagos, Most Revd Luke Olukayode Odubanjo and the Bishop, Diocese of Lagos West, Rt. Revd Dr. Isaac Ayobami

Olawuyi, at the Conference Annual Retreat for the Conference Officers and Clergies, Lagos for the year 2016 and its expectations.

Commending Nigerians on their determination to effect change in the polity, they asked the people to tread with caution, but support the new administration while assisting it with constructive suggestions and criticism.

PAGE 6 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

From right: Lagos State governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (middle), being conducted round by Special Adviser, Urban Development, Mrs. Yetunde Onabolu (right), during the governor’s inspection of the Lagos CHOIS homes at Agbowa, Ikorodu. With them are Commissioner for Science & Technology, Mr. Olufemi Odubiyi (2nd right); Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare (3rd right); Special Adviser, Office of Overseas Affairs & Wife of Ekiti State governor, Mrs Feyisetan Fayose, presenting a gift for Investments, Prof. Ademola Abass (3rd left) and Commissioner for Physical the first baby of the year 2016 in the state to the Chairperson of Gboyin LGA, Planning & Urban Development, Mr. Wasiu Anifowoshe (left).

Mrs Shade Akinrinmola, yesterday.

Bayelsa Poll: Jonathan’s men dump Dickson *Sylva meets Ateke Tom in Port Harcourt

By Olayinka Latona

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ARELY one week to the rescheduled governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, wife of the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, and his (Jonathan) political associates have moved to stop the re-election of Governor Seriake Dickson by mobilizing support for Chief Timipre Sylva, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the January 9 poll.

INEC had, on December 5 last year, conducted

election in seven out of eight local government areas of the state, out of which the governor and candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) overwhelmingly won in six while Sylva took one. Both the PDP and APC have shifted the battle to Southern Ijaw.

Though Dickson is leading with over 33,000 votes, the APC is bent on upturning the governor ’s victory.

Sources close to the former first family confirmed that Mrs. Jonathan had brokered a peace meeting between

Sylva and a former militant leader, Ateke Tom. The meeting was said to have been held behind closed doors on new year’s day in the Port Harcourt palatial home of Tom where Jonathan allegedly persuaded the militant leader to “come to Southern Ijaw and help Sylva.” Aside the former first lady, key political associates of Jonathan, it was learnt, have renewed their resolve to gang-up against Dickson on January 9.

It will be recalled that while some of Jonathan’s men had defected to the APC to fight Dickson, many of them remained in the PDP to work for the election of the APC candidate, Sylva. Prominent amongst those who defected are Senator Clever Ikisikpo (Bayelsa East), immediate past senator representing the former president; Chief Ikiogha Diekivie, a former Chief of Staff Government House and close ally of the president from Yenagoa; a former Commissioner for Lands and confidant of Jonathan, Surveyor Furoebi Akene; a former Commissioner under Jonathan and current FERMA Director, Finance, Bishop Deggi Eremienyo. The FERMA top official defected to APC just eight days to the December 5 election and worked against Dickson in Nembe.

Others are a former Chairman of the NDDC and bossom friend of Jonathan, Dr. Tarilla Tabepah, who hails from Kolokuma/Okpokuma; Hon Ayobegha James, Chief Numoipre Wills, a Nembe high chief, who was appointed Executive Secretary, National Boundaries Commission

by Jonathan.

Mr & Mrs Olanrewaju Oladipupo, receiving an award from Mrs. Tokunbo Edun, Administrator of Grace School, Gbagada, Lagos, during the school’s Parent Appreciation Day.

Draw closer to God, Mouka tells Nigerians

By Olayinka Latona

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HE General Overseer of the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, has urged Nigerians to move closer to God in 2016.

He added that prayer and God’s intervention would bring solution to the current challenges facing the country.

Speaking, yesterday, at

the opening of a threeday crusade titled, ‘What God has determined shall be done’, holding at the Chosen International Secondary School, Mgbidi, Imo State, Mouka said the challenges facing the country would be a thing of the past when Nigerians turn to God and become more prayerful.

The cleric expressed the hope that Nigeria would bounce back to become one of the most successful countries in the world if only Nigeri-

ans will draw closer to God. Mouka said God has blessed Nigeria with many resources, hence the Federal Government should stop depending on oil and invest more on agriculture and other available sectors.

Yesterday ’s crusade, which commenced at 8am, witnessed a large number of worshippers, numbering over a million who defied the early morning cold weather to attend.

Abia election verdict: Be calm, Otti tells supporters have appealed to secuBy Chinweoke Akoma

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HE Appeal Court de clared winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Abia State, Alex Otti, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has condemned the spate of violence in Aba, the state’s commercial city, describing it as unfortunate, “particularly for a

state in dire need of liberation”.

Otti alleged, in a statement, that the violence was perpetrated by PDP supporters in protest against the Appeal Court ruling which declared him winner of the governorship election and urged all APGA supporters to remain calm even in the face of extreme provocation, denial and injustice.

Also, well-meaning individuals in the state

rity operatives in the state to dismantle few road blocks allegedly mounted by tugs.

“We totally condemn any form violence in the state . It is barbaric and a sad development especially now that the will of the people has triumphed after more than seven months of tortuous and needless legal tussle against the principalities of thuggery, barefaced robbery and highhanded impunity.”

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016 — PAGE 7

Is the DSS misleading Buhari and leading Nigeria into political crisis? -- 2 “Democracy lets all voices, even those against it, be heard. Democracy’s true strength is its ability to incorporate the needs and desires of a diverse population into a governing consensus over a long period of time.”

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOATIONS, VBQ , p 36). ast week, this article started with a defence of the rights of Mr Kanu – the pro-Biafra leader. This is only a continuation of that and other instances in which the DSS might be exaggerating threats to the country and exacerbating crisis. Incidentally, the over-kill adopted by the Army in Zaria against the Shii’te Muslims is another example of exaggerated threat leading to inappropriate response likely to deepen crisis. I do not approve of the conduct

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or aims of Mr Kanu or Zakky Zakky, but there must be other ways of dealing with the issues they present than violence.

Referendum is the best option to handle selfdetermination issues and inter-denominational meeting can be explored to manage the Shii’te matter.

At all costs, we should avoid violence. The first to pick up the gun might not see the end of the violence unleashed.

The treatment meted out to Mr Kanu, even after being granted bail by a competent court of law can only be excused in a country ruled by the Gestapo. So far the DSS has not been able to establish any major crime against Kanu to warrant his detention and their opposition to his bail.

This is not one of the changes for which we voted and there is no reason the

Something for nothing Nigerians "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.

It never did and it never will."— Frederick Douglass President Buhari's presidential media chat was hotly anticipated, some have argued that his delivery was a storm in a teapot, I disagree. The president held his own and was very frank in his delivery. I hope that the journalists heed his appeal to do more investigative journalism about important national issues.

He is right. Malcolm X once said that; "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

The press has got a key role to play in putting their

trade and profession in order. As with press freedom, comes an enormous responsibility.

We have a very hungry press and sadly, hunger is an easy bedfellow and what a price to pay, when one sells one's soul for a price, then it will be difficult to distinguish the truth from falsehood.

Unfortunately, most Nigerians think the press has a price and some are paid to peddle falsehoods.

This is sadly a reflection of our society.

Journalists should get their facts right, it is one of the cardinal principles of journalism, as they are the independent voices and they cannot afford to be partisan, press should be fair, objective and impartial and at most, it has to strive to be ethical and do no harm. They are accountable for what they write. It is a tall order but, I believe that the president got it right to expect that the press do their job professionally and objectively.

PMB was direct with regards to the continuous detention of Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu: "If you see the atrocities those committed against this country, we can't allow them to jump bail ." For

DSS should assume it is.

The third and fourth instances of deliberate DSS misinformation involve the same man – Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd). As Nigerians would recall, he was first arrested, on several charges made by the DSS, including treasonable felony, as well as possession of huge collection of arms, expensive vehicles purported to have been procured from proceeds of crime and money laundering. In the end our inept security agents settled for “illegal possession of arms and money laundering”. Despite the fact that both are offences for which people are routinely admitted to bail, the DSS still opposed bail.

After failing and finding that Dasuki also secured the court’s permission to travel for medical treatment, the DSS laid a siege to his house to prevent him from leaving Nigeria. Is this democracy?

To justify their vendetta, they then unleashed on the nation the wild accusation that Dasuki defrauded the country of $2 billion in arms deals. Like all Nigerians, I was alarmed.

Two billion dollars (N400bn at N200/USS1) or (N540bn at N270/$1) is a lot of money and anybody stealing that sum should be hanged. But, unlike most Nigerians, I waited for the DSS to prove that N400bn or N540bn had been stolen.

Under our laws, he who asserts must prove. If they

claim $2bn was misappropriated they must total up all the funds missing to that number. It will amount to the wildest exaggeration to tell us that people are being prosecuted for N31bn after alarming us with N400-540bn.

Wait till next week to find out how much the DSS has presented to various courts and you will wonder if anybody in that office ever attended primary school.

And they must assume that the rest of us never attended school as well.

Consider the evidence.

The DSS raised an alarm that Dasuki was involved in

a $2 billion arms deal. That was used to justify disobeying a court order granting the man bail and permission to travel for medical treatment.

Then, they proceeded to inundate the media with allegations concerning transfers to various individuals and organizations associated with the $2 billion scam. In all these, the DSS banked on the fact that if Nigeria’s secondary school kids

N31.2bn, Aminu Baba Kusa with N1.85BN, N584m went to Iyorcha Ayu, Jim Nwobodo N500m, Dr Haliru Bello N300m etc. Some of the figures represented double counting because they were part of the same N31.2bn Dasuki was alleged to have misappropriated. Our calculators stopped clicking when the DSS stopped dropping figures.

Suddenly we were faced with a total less than N40 billion. We added again and the result was the same.

Then the questions started tumbling out. First, where is the rest of the N400-540bn said to have been scammed? Was the DSS inadvertently or deliberately exaggerating in order to scare justices from granting bail or to terrorise Dasuki and receive public applause?

Then, we recollect that former President Jonathan had announced that he never approved $2 billion to be spent on arms throughout his tenure of office. So far, what has been revealed has not contradicted GEJ. It is quite possible that far less than $2bn was spent on arms and we are just chasing shadows and getting alarmed over only N40bn.

NSE SHEDS N2TR IN 2015; will shed more in 2016.

Readers of this page were warned to get out of the Stock Market last year.

They were told that another disaster looms. Those who listened and those who failed to listen can now testify to the accuracy of that forecast.

Unfortunately, 2016 will be worse. Banks and oil companies are going to receive a shellacking they will never forget. Once owning an oil well was like owning your own mint.

Today, it is like poison.

“Fortunes favors never last.” (Seneca).

those who are crying wolf and foul play, they should understand that the security and the rule of law has got to be followed explicitly and in light of such exceptional circumstances as in this case; there is a need for an executive decision.

These people are flight risks and the allegations levied on them are grave indeed. Only those who have no gumption will say otherwise, but then we know that, they do not care about the country nor its people.

For those people, it has always been about their ulterior motives and dark agenda.

So pleased that the needs of the young people are been addressed; "The Minister of Finance and the Central Bank have to sit down immediately to look at ways to help students who are already outside the country to overcome the challenges posed by the foreign exchange limitation policy." For change to happen, the young people have got to have a stake in their future and to help our young people train and to be given an opportunity to earn a living wage but also to have a sound and quality education. And for the internally displaced persons; he said:"We have about two million IDPs, over 70% are women and children. Over 65% of the children are orphans" PMB promises:"We are more concerned with the orphans, a chance for them not to lose the opportunity for education. Some progress is being made on the ground.

Some Nigerians contributed money, about 25 Billion Naira, a committee was set up to utilise the funds".

Within the weeks he was

sworn in, he went to Chad and Niger. The sceptics were very disparaging of his foreign visits and cast aspersions of his approach but then, they would, won't they?

He went on regardless of the distractors and this unity of neighbours has paid

this man has broken the back of terror and have got the insurgents on the run with less places to hide and limited their brand of terror and murdering spree. It is by no means over and those that want a quick fix; they have their own agenda.

On the economy, PMB intends to make foreign exchange available to the productive sector of the economy and not for luxury items. About time we cut our coat according to our size. I remember years back when we had to make do without foreign goods in order to balance the books.

Nigerians had no choice but to make do with home grown products and we had our own industries.

This created jobs and industries and we took pride in our home made goods. It was hard at first but eventually, things did improve. With this, came opportunities and an improvement in overall living standard for the ordinary Nigerians.

This administration has led the way and served as a good example; by cutting down on the number of ministries and ministers. PMB said: "Our parastatal would be realigned in view of the lesser number of ministries we have now.

And he is very pragmatic: "We are being economically stretched."

This is a departure from the last administration, who were on a spending spree, living ostensibly and were glad to make a how of it .

And he said: "the process of government agencies earning monies and spending them and giving government change will have to stop.

All government monies have to be paid to the Federation Account and a budget submitted for their operations. And he stressed that: "Our priority now is to get our refineries working.

By the time we finish what we are doing 60 per cent of the allocation of crude oil for local refining and 40 per cent would be used for crude oil swap."

Yes, it was important to draw attention that the previous government failed to pay part funding of 30% but this present government is back on track now that China has agreed to pay 70% cost of railway projects between Lagos and Kaduna and Lagos and Calabar. And he has promised to revisit the bloated National Assembly members seeking 4.5 billion Naira for their high end cars even after they had collected transport allowance, with an efficient transport system, they better come up with an excuse for fleecing money from the national coffers.

And he said: "Check previous records. Over 90% were recurrent. No country can develop without capital projects". We were in very, very bad shape.It is going to take some bitter medicine to swallow but the nation will become well again and will function once more after a clean bill of health.

He said it as it is: that it is about time that we face the fact, something has to be done and fast. It is not going to be easy but nothing worth doing comes easy and for many years, the country has been held to ransom by a few greedy and conniving looters, who had made the Central Bank their personal ATM, the message is clear; that time has gone.

routinely fail Mathematics in the West African School Certificate examinations, they must be chips of old blocks. Their parents must also be deficient in arithmetic. And, the DSS is almost right.

Unfortunately, they forgot those at UniJankara. The minute somebody mentions figures we turn our thinking caps on. So, as the DSS released one figure after another, our calculators started clicking. Dasuki was eventually charged with misappropriation of

The DSS raised an alarm that Dasuki

was involved in a $2 billion arms deal. That was used to justify disobeying a court order granting the man bail and permission to travel for medical treatment

The process of government agencies earning monies and spending them and giving government change will have to stop. All government monies have to be paid to the Federation Account and a budget submitted for their operations dividend immensely. Chad and Niger were willing partners and shared intelligence, worked together so there was no further hiding places for the insurgents.

And he was realistic about finding the Chibok Girls; "We are working with Niger, Chad and Cameroun on the girls. We have no credible intelligence of where they are." He has not shirk his responsibility when it comes to the rescue of the Chibok girls: "we want to be sure that the girls are complete, safe and sound before we attempt any form of negotiation on the girls. We are still keeping our option. If a credible leadership of Boko Haram is ready for negotiation without any condition we are ready to listen to them." Now this is a breath of fresh air,

PAGE 8 —SUNDAY

Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin City

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HE joining of the 2016 governorship race in Edo State by the Chairman of the Economic Team of the Edo State government, Mr Godwin Obaseki, may have changed the calculations ahead of the poll. Before now in the All Progressives Congress (APC), we have aspirants such as the incumbent Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Pius Odubu; a for mer gover nor, Prof.Osarhiemen Osunbor; the Commissioner for Works, Bar r.Osarodion Ogie; Gen.Charles Airhiavbere; a former Minister of State, Works, Dr Chris Ogienmwonyi; and educationist, Mr Kenneth Imasuagbon. Many had thought the contest was going to be between quintuple before the emergence of Obaseki towards the end of November 2015.

Ordinarily, Obaseki’s emergence would not have been a problem for the other aspirants, but, with the seeming support being given to him by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, they have reason to worry. Sunday Vanguard gathered that the governor had told close political associates that Obaseki is his choice, but that would not stop other aspirants from going into the primary if they wish. Oshiomhole had, on several occasions, expressed his respect for all the APC governorship aspirants but, as it seems, he decided to go for a neutral person whom, according to a source, he has so much confidence in. The situation in Edo is similar to what played out in Lagos in 2007, when the National Leader of the APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu (the Jagaban), anointed the little known Raji Fashola as his governorship candidate to the chagrin of many of his loyalists. Sunday Vanguard learnt that it took Oshiomhole time to make up his mind on Obaseki, after he was convinced that the latter has the wherewithal to move the state to the next level after his exit. And as expected, the governor ’s perceived preference for Obaseki is creating tension in the APC as the decision may have pitched the governor against his political son, Ogie and deputy, Odubu.

It was gathered that Ogie and Odubu were earlier on the list of the governor after holding meetings with the duo sometime in September because the governor, Sunday Vanguard learnt, had always preferred those aspirants who have been in the APC, right from its formation stages, so as to ensure that the PDP does not take over the state through the back door. The governor had attributed the crisis that rocked the leadership of the National Assembly to PDP members

•Obaseki

•Ogie

•Oshiomhole

EDO 2016: Unease in Edo APC over Oshiomhole’s speculated endorsement of Obaseki •Odubu, Ogie, others shocked who defected to the APC, stressing that because those category of lawmakers don’t understand the struggle some of the leaders of the party went through to build APC, it will, therefore, be difficult for them to understand what the APC is talking about. Though Oshiomhole enjoys good relationship with most of the aspirants, he believes he should put the state first before his relationship with people.

The only issue about Obaseki’s aspiration is that he is not a politician but a technocrat who has contributed immensely in moving the economy of the state forward. Oshiomhole’s worry now is how to market the preferred aspirant to the public, starting from his APC. And that is where he needs his traditional political allies, Odubu and Ogie. It was gathered that it is as a result of this that the governor commenced consultations with the aspirants in his cabinet to see how they can assist him make the primary election of the APC stressfree.

Pendulum As at August 2015, many believed the pendulum was swinging in the direction of Ogie, who has been the governor ’s ‘closest associate’ as far as the politics of the state is concerned. But, according to a source close to the governor, “if the governor was thinking about himself alone, Ogie would have been his first choice like peo-

ple know but, in this project, the governor is thinking for the state as whole and that is why he went for Obaseki”.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that it was a difficult decision for the governor to dump Ogie for Obaseki, but Oshiomhole believes strongly that it may be difficult for Ogie to step on toes if he becomes governor due to his

The governor is consulting with Ogie to see how the latter can dump his ambition and help him deliver Obaseki.

Ogie’s supporters are hurt about the situation but it may be difficult for him to say no to Oshiomhole who is like a father to him. But for Odubu, the situation is tense

closeness to many political figures in the state unlike Obaseki. But loyalists of Ogie disagreed, asserting that their principal understands the governor ’s vision for the state and would do every thing to protect it, no matter whose ox is gored.

However, Sunday Vanguard understood that the governor is consulting with Ogie to see how the latter can dump his ambition and help him deliver Obaseki.

Ogie’s supporters are hurt about the situation but it may be difficult for him to say no to Oshiomhole who is like a father to him. But for Odubu, the situation is tense.

Like Ogie, the deputy governor is well known by most of the likely delegates for the primary; as a result he believes he can clinch the ticket. But the fear is that the situation may pitch him against his boss who wants Obaseki. Another worrisome aspect of it is that other aspirants such as Ogienwonyi, Imasuagbon, Osunbor and Airhiavbere have been working hard for the primary and may not entertain any move to stop them from going for the exercise. They have been watching the drama between Oshiomhole, Ogie and Odubu closely, and may have been strategizing on how to benefit from it. But, tactically, Oshiomhole has been putting his seven years experience in the politics of Edo into good use by trying to neutralize any gang-up that may stop his candidate from

emerging.

Rattle He tactically got the support of his Political Adviser, Charles Idahosa, who initially was for Odubu. Idahosa is one vocal politician that can always rattle Oshiomhole when he is at his best; as a result, many Benin politicians in the APC were hoping he will lead a rebellion against Oshiomhole in the event that the governor wants to anoint a successor without their input. Sadly for these politicians, Idahosa is today leading the campaign for the Obaseki governorship. The governor is neutralizing every gang-up against his candidate across the 18 local government areas of Edo. And the result has been positive as many APC leaders, Sunday Vanguard observed, have keyed into the project in order not to offend the governor. Luckily for Obaseki, he has a family name that is so popular in Benin Kingdom. As a matter of fact, about six of his uncles are palace chiefs and that has punctured the belief in some circles that the Obasekis are not in the good books of the Oba of Benin.

And as a person, he is a financial expert that has used his position to assist the Edo government which has immensely helped in moving the economy of the state forward.

There is no doubt that the APC governorship primary will be a Titanic battle. Oshiomhole has assured that there will be a level-playing field for all the aspirants. He has equally told anyone who wants to listen that he has a candidate of his choice just like any other party leader; so any one attributing it to god fatherism is making a big mistake. It is obvious that the governor wants a less rancorous primary and that has necessitated his several meetings with some of the aspirants. If he succeeds in reconciling with his angry foot soldiers, he may be good to go. But as it seems, other aspirants can only check him if they prune down their numbers which is almost an impossible task considering the calibre of aspirants in the party. Oshiomhole’s targeted votes, which may deliver Obaseki, will be intact while votes of other delegates will be shared among other aspirants. That may give the governor the expected edge.

But that is if he does not suffer rebellion in his camp because Odubu, Ogienwonyi, Imasuagbon and Arhiavbere are experienced in party primaries and are capable of giving the governor a shocker. Oshiomhole’s experience in politics will be put to test in the next few months; no doubt about that. He has succeeded in battling the god fathers in the state, but the big question is, can he successfully anoint his successor without the god fathers fighting back?.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 9

o man can handle me N apart from my husband – Omotola

Super screen diva, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde doesn’t always blow her trumpet. In fact to get an interview with her may be something as easy as running a camel through the eye of a needle. Potpourri did in 2015.

Unlike many of her previous interviews Omotola revealed some things we never knew about her.

She told us how she stays off scandals, her relationships with other actors in the industry and many more. When asked if she would have been married now if she had married so early, she replied : “ I don’t think so, because I don’t think there is any man that can handle me apart from my husband. Not because I am a bad person, it is because I am a very strong

personality. I can understand why a lot of female artistes find it very difficult to find the right person.

When you achieve some kind of success, you become really confused as to who really loves you for who you are. It’s not really easy, it is very hard finding those people who really love you. If you are not a very grounded person, you can also contribute in some kind of way to your own problems and so I might have contributed to my own problems”.

I used to beg for money to eat – Tonto Dikeh For Tonto Dikeh, it seems the side that is well known is the wild one.Controversial as many may think this singer and actress is, she does have her subtle side and she laid it on the line for everyone to see in an Instagram last year, telling us her story of humble beginning.

At the age of twenty, I said to myself ‘I wouldn’t ask my dad for money- I wanted to be independent. I tried

traveling to UK but I got refused at Nigerian Embassy, not because my documents were not complete but because I didn’t have the connection to pass through” she stated “University life was so hard for me, handouts I could not afford, I begged from hand to mouth just to eat! Sometimes, I considered going back to my dad but ego and pride wouldn’t let me”.

“Then, all my jeans were Alaba bend-down-select. If the jeans was longer than me I would cut it to my size to make it look rugged! If I asked friends for a favour, before they helped they would ask me to do something for them in return, like cleaning their rooms, or helping with course work” she added.

I don’t mind plastic surgery to reduce my boobs – WAJE Soul Diva, Waje is open to the idea of having plastic surgery on her breasts, but not the one you have in mind. The singer revealed in 2015 that rather than breast enhancement surgery, she

would like to have breast reduction surgery.

She made the revelation on MTV Base Word On The Street with VJ Stephanie while responding to a question from Twitter user @kazzang, “Would you ever consider plastic surgery?” Clarifying why she would like to have breast reduction as against enlargement, she jokingly remarked to an amused Stephanie,”As me and you are sitting down here, don’t you like that they are seeing your face? Do you want me to cover the screen?”

No breastfeeding for my kids - Cossy Commotion Cossy as I like to call her can never be seen without her humongous boobs getting in the way. In 2015 she told us how much she cherish her mammary so much that she has ruled out breastfeeding her kids. Why? She doesn’t want to lose the boobs! “ I am so grateful to God for this lovely boobs.

Though sometimes they are

such a burden. The load gets big but I love them” she says. “ In ten years my boobs will still be firm and good because I will use sucker to pull the milk for my kids. No direct sucking.

No breastfeeding” she quips.

Then, she added a line that must have got some guys daydreaming “OMG My boobs fell out again yesterday at TBS. I was so shy of myself as a guy helped package it for me “ I love to be kissed — Eva Female hip hop star, Eva Alordiah is no doubt one of the sexiest divas taking Nigerian hip-hop to enviable heights.

However,she revealed her romantic side recently when she took to Instagram to declare that she loves to be kissed.

According to her: “I love to be kissed. More importantly, I love to be kissed on my lips.

But if ever I were mad at a lover,all he had to do to get me to surrender was to kiss me many times on my neck.For there, right there is where all my mumu buttons reside”.

Some hot, daring revelations of 2015

P

hew! 2015 is gone but what a year it has been. It was the year of the good, the bad, the ugly, the awesome and the damn outrageous. And where would you have found all these if not on the hot plate of entertainment. Too much went down that is almost impossible to put a single tag on them all. However, Potpourri will try to serve you some that came out of its kitchen. Check it out:

•WAJE

•Cossy

•Tonto Dikeh •Omotola

•Eva

PAGE 10— SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016 Onikoyi68@gmail.com

Baby-mama drama:

Davido apologizes to Dele Momodu

F

or days now Nigerian pop star, Davido and media mogul, Dele Momodu have been at war over custody and alleged child abduction of Dele Momodu’s niece, Sophie, who had a child for the singer.

In recent developments, Davido has apologized to Dele Momodu and his fans over the baby abduction drama .According to him: “Mr. Dele Momodu I apologise but …U didn’t have to” The artist insisted that the allegations against him were false, saying, “All these lies being put on me … no be today … I have so much to say but in respect for my daughter I will keep quiet …

I apologie.”

He appreciated his supporters and those “bashing” him, adding that “The truth will come out!

Even if I don’t keep her, she will grow up to know I fought for her.”

The beginning First, Sophie and her family reportedly started the drama after filing a petition against Davido and his family for alleged child trafficking. All

R

emember Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur? Not a very pleasant memory but same situation seems to be brewing with arguably two biggest record labels in Nigeria, Don Jazzy’s MAVINS and Olamide’s YBNL. This came after MAVIN’s Reekado Banks won the award for Next rated at the Headies but popular opinion was, the award was meant for Lil Kesh who is signed to Olamide’s record label …

This obviously didn’t go well with Olamide and he made his feelings known when he climbed the stage with the whole YBNL team, when his artist Adekunle Gold won the award for Best Alternative act for his song, Shade.

While expressing his appreciation, Lil Kesh prostrated before Olamide who then took the mic and said; “Lil Kesh is our own Next

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•Davido with his baby-mama Sophia Momodu of this, led Davido to release a lengthy recount of his side of the story via his Instagram handle which has generated a lot of different views in the public domain According to him: “I became the father of a love-child.

DNA testing determined with maximum proof that I indeed was the father of my daughter, delivered by a head-butting casual lover, Miss Sophia Momodu. I met Sophia when I was barely 21 Rated artist. F**k that shit!

The streets ti take over.

Every f**king single was a hit back to back. From lyrically to Shoki to Efejoku.

Ko ni dafun Iya anybody”, he then threw the mic down and they all walked off the stage.

After Olamide’s speech, Don Jazzy won The lifetime Achievement Award & while taking his award, he addressed

years old. She was many years older than me and was able to manipulate and exploit my youth, naivety and generosity. Sophia is the mother of my daughter, and no more! She never would be my wife and she was never qualified for that status. Her background is very dissimilar from mine, and she has very paltry education and equally diminished physical attributes. Cunningly, she moved into my house because she claimed she has

no place to stay in Lagos and that her father is late and her mother is resident in Abuja. I have accepted what providence brought my way including my own personal indiscretions. But I also have been burdened by the lapses in the character of Sophia and have thus suffered for my daughter who I love as much as my late mother, Imade. As for the person of Sophia, I paid a two year rent for her apartment at Lekki and she receives a monthly

The Headies dr ama: drama:

Olamide blasts Don Jazzy

Olamide and Don Jazzy

Olamide

allowance of 300,000 naira from me ever since Imade was born. This December, Sophia received 500,000 naira as her Allowance and Christmas bonus. On a routine hospital check, my daughter was found to be infested with massive dosage of poisonous cannabis that she contracted from the breast feeding regime of her mother’s breast. We still don’t know how much Imade was damaged by this toxic feeding and medical tests and procedures continue to rise and bemuse me and my family members. Already, Imade has special needs and has been treated at the American Hospital,Dubai with all medical costs and travel expenses drawn off my personal purse ever since she was born. On December 29, Imade was supposed to travel, once more, to Dubai for further medical care. A family vacation was attached to this medical trip. But our family plan was truncated by Sophia, her uncle, Dele Momodu in the company of his wife, and all these persons were the significant accessory to the Lagos Airport debacle. It is this incidence of December 29 that made implicitly necessary to bring my family matter to the public domain. “ According to Sophie, her daughter Imade Aurora Adeleke has been with the Adelekes since July 11, 2015.

She sent a petition addressed to the Director-General National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons to prevent her daughter’s travel.

Olamide’s rant on stage. He said “Egbon Olamide, if you want the car, come and take it.”

(Next Rated win comes with a car).

Afterward, Olamide went nuts and came for Don Jazzy on Twitter. In a number of twitter rants, Olamide declared war on Don Jazzy and ripped him to pieces not only on his person but also on the way he treats artistes signed under him. In one of this tweets, he left a warning that brings to mind a deja

vu of what pretty much started the bloody feud between late Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG, by telling Don Jazzy not to come to the mainland. “.... Don’t fucking comt to the mainland. Honestly, fuck you, I am fucking mainland” He continues: “ I did not mention father’s name on the stage. Don’t fucking mention my name fuck boy.

Don’t try all this shit with me” He blasted him further on how he treated D’banj: “You crave attention so bad, cool with everyone on your team but na you be Don fuck everything up, ruin every relationship”, obviously referring to how Don Jazzy and Dbanj parted ways.

“U dey chance your boys, Dem dey call you baba, my niggas call me my brother” “After you don ruin d’banj with packaging, na de same u come dey form humble on social media.I called to strike a deal with Di’ja”

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 11

NA’ ABBA TO BUHARI:

Beware of Obasanjo’s pieces of advice

•‘To confront ex-President, we nearly elevated our House of Reps to the level of a cult’ • Says former leader would not have allowed APC to emerge

BY BEN AGANDE

Since leaving office as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2003, Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba has not held any political office. Though he was very popular with ordinary Nigerians during his tenure because of the perception that he was fighting a just cause by standing up to the executive arm of government, his bluntness is what many political heavy weights, especially in his native Kano State, cannot stand. At a point, he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Congress of Nigeria (ACN), then back to the PDP before finally dumping the PDP shortly before the general elections for the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, Na’Abba speaks on some national issues. Excerpts:

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HAT would you say the Buhari government has done differently from the previous government?

I think from what is happening today, there is a greater commitment by the Buhari administration to tackle insurgency. Thanks to that commitment, a great deal has been achieved. In other areas, time must be given to the administration to begin concrete undertakings before any value judgement can be made. In the realm of rhetoric, of course there have been some achievements. But those achievements need to be concretized. For example, there has been an improvement in power supply since the beginning of the administration even though from time to time drop in that supply is experienced. No doubt, this improvement is prompted by the emergence of a new Sheriff in town, whose rhetoric is made of a sterner stuff. On the whole, it must be admitted that with the emergence of this new administration, more seriousness and urgency have been injected into governance

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than hitherto.

You were passionate in advocating change in the affairs of your former party, the PDP. Eventually you left the party for the APC. Did you feel that at that time that PDP was a hopeless case?

At the time I left the PDP, the party was definitely a hopeless case. Apart from important members of the party feeling alienated, the party was ruled by impunity and corruption; particularly in the manner some top members of the party were collecting money from aspirants in order to offer them tickets to contest elections. In some cases, some individuals paid out money so that certain aspirants were denied the right to contest for elections. Imposition of candidates became the order of the day, to the extent that primary elections that were supposed to take place in the states were moved to the national headquarters in Abuja because favorite aspirants must become candidates of the party in the elections. This was done to the

The PDP of 1998 that ushered in the new democracy in 1998 had transformed into a bizarre contraption practising everything but democracy

detriment of members that had been in the party for 16 years. There was also schism between the President and the party as the President lost confidence in the National Chairman because, according to them, he was planning to contest for the presidency at the expense of Jonathan. The National Chairman also lost confidence in the President. The general feeling among party officials then, was that Jonathan could not win the presidency for the party and had thus become a liability. There was also schism between the Presidency and the presidential campaign organization over finances, protocol, procedure and which organ to spearhead the campaign. There was the factor of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria’s involvement in the campaign which met with a lot of resentment from party members. No one knew them in the party, but they took over the activities of the party and they seemed to enjoy Jonathan’s backing. Overall, the government was behaving like a cartel such that most members and organs of the party were not privy to the goings on in government. Under such circumstance, there was no way the party could have won the election because it was out of touch with the people and reality.

Members in majority of the states felt they no longer had any stake in the party. The PDP of 1998 that ushered in the new democracy in 1998 had transformed into a bizarre contraption practicing everything but democracy.

One of the banes of democracy in Nigeria is the absence of internal democracy within our political parties. How can this be corrected?

The issue of internal democracy is central to any debate about Nigeria’s democracy. There is a general lack of

it in our parties. In fact, the crisis of development that Nigeria goes through today is as a result of the jettisoning of this cardinal principle of democracy. Without mincing words, it is the reason we have low quality leadership in most aspects of governance. Lack of internal democracy has a very pervasive effect on governance overall. It not only affects our political system and institutions negatively, it also has a devastating effect on economics and society. It deprives politics of order, vibrancy and purpose, and enthrones mediocrity. It is the mother of political, economic and social exclusion. At a time when economies are being deregulated, it is wrong for anybody to regulate politics through the subversion of internal democracy. Candidates must not emerge through anointing or consensus. There must be election. It is that competitive spirit inherent in elections that propel societies to develop intellectually and consequently in all facets of life. Excellence can only be achieved through competition.

Sycophancy must not be allowed to continue to be the criterion with which and within which our political leaders emerge. In a regime of sycophancy, the incentive to excel is non-existent.

The society becomes dead intellectually. When that happens, every sector will be inhibited.

Politics, economics and society stagnate and stalemate and become immersed in inertia. No going forward. Under such circumstance, revolution follows. I must emphasize, philosophically speaking, that it is wrong to deregulate economics and

Continues on page 12

PAGE 12 — SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

‘To confront ex-President, we nearly elevated our House of Reps to the level of a cult’ Continued from page 11 regulate politics.

As the Speaker of the House of Representatives, you fought former President Obasanjo in order to sustain the independence of the legislature. Would you say that your successors sustained your effort?

When elections took place in 1999, many people were skeptical about the sustenance of the newly ushered democracy. You will recall that elections took place when former Head of State Sani Abacha was in power even though most of those who won the elections were his acolytes. The Abdusalami government cancelled the elections and asked politicians to establish their own political parties as opposed to the contraption, called political parties under Abacha, that Uncle Bola Ige labelled “the five fingers of a leprous hand”. Because the parties were more independent after Abacha’s demise, aspirants decided to participate in the elections. The institution that benefited most by being populated with such altruistic and idealistic Nigerians, under that dispensation, was the House of Representatives.

Most of those who are responsible for the destruction of the tradition and standard we set have been mere power players who believe in nothing but the acquisition of power for power sake.

Inci-

dentally, I was elected to lead the House after my predecessor resigned after only 44 days as Speaker. When I was elected, I thought I must mobilize the institution and the members to properly position democracy in Nigeria and give it its rightful place. Luckily for me, apart from my colleagues’ altruism and idealism, majority of them did not come to the House through godfathers and governors.

Therefore, the way the House was constituted was receptive to my democratic proselytization. We succeeded in debating and adopting a philosophy for the House that overwhelming majority of the members subscribed to; a philosophy that was in tandem with our own world view. In effect, the House, in spite of differences in political parties, was coalesced into one to the extent that we were generally regarded as a cult. In such a situation, it was easy to raise the level of the House to where we took it to. Subsequent Houses, 5th, 6th, and 7th did not emerge under the same circumstances. By 2001, the President and governors realized the potential of the legislature to bring them to equity in ways that they never envisaged if it had a very strong leadership.

Strong leadership of course in the House of Representatives under me had. We had the worst confron-

•Na’Abba... Biafra agitators are misguided

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How could someone who spent $16b on power without achieving anything when he was President bring a proposal on that matter to anybody?

While I would not advise Buhari to repay Obasanjo in his own coins, I would advocate that he should not allow him to be distracting him tation ever between the executive arm and the legislature in the history of this country. Of course, the President was battered and bruised particularly with the attempted impeachment of him by the National Assembly due to his misrule, which took a more serious mien when the House decided it was time to remove him. With these developments, the President, the party and the governors colluded to undermine the legislature by, among other things, the use of the party and governmental machinery to bring to the legislative arm only members that will be loyal to them and to neither the institution nor the Constitution henceforth.

In the general elections of 2003, almost all the Mobile Police in the North were mobilized to Kano to ensure that I lose the election at all costs at the instance of President Obasanjo under the watch of the governor. That was after I got away with a win in a primary election that we had to take away the delegates to Katsina to hide them because the state governor tried to get all of them arrested and detained and would only be released after the primary election.

They were to be substituted with a new set of delegates who would only vote for the government candidate, a former commissioner for information of the state. Most members of the House of Representatives that worked with me to ensure a free, vibrant and independent legislature were so treated like me in their primary election in varying degrees and could not win their primary elections So they could not come back to the House.

So those that came to the House to succeed us in 2003, of course with some exception, came at the behest of their governors with the active support of President Obasanjo. In fact, the presiding officers were personally selected by the President and imposed on the House, their qualification being their refusal to support the House to impeach him in 2002. From there, what we had built started getting eroded. In the circumstances that the 5th House was constituted and run, it will be impossible for them to maintain the standard and tradition established by us and also made it impossible for the 6th and 7th Houses to follow suit. The current 8th House has good

leadership. I hope the members will give the leadership the necessary support for him to be able to restore the House to it’s halcyon years of 1999-2003. The issue is that, no matter how strong and clear headed a presiding officer is, in a legislature , if he hasn’t got the kind of support he requires from floor members , he may find it difficult to deliver.

Are you saying that Obasanjo played a role in weakening the legislature?

No doubt, Obasanjo played a big role in weakening the legislature.

It is common knowledge that he did all he could to see to my impeachment and removal as the Speaker by my colleagues. What he wanted was to install a puppet.

In my own case and that of the House of Representatives, he did not succeed. In the Senate, he orchestrated the impeachment and removal of my counterpart, CHUBA OKADIGBO. No doubt, this weakened the Senate in that his eventual successor Anyim Pius Anyim, was a confessed Obasanjonian. Together with Obasanjo, they engaged in doing a lot of things, too numerous to mention here, that eventually culminated in weakening the institution . In 2003, Obasanjo colluded with the PDP to bring to the legislature people who should not be there, all in his effort to see the Constitution amended to accommodate his tenure elongation project. It almost succeeded but for the requirement that to amend any item in the Constitution, two thirds members of both Houses must to vote in the affirmative. If it were ordinary majority votes required, that anti-democratic project would have succeeded and he would have been enjoying his fifth term today.

He would of course never have allowed the APC to emerge. I can go on and on. The emergence of the Senate President in 2007 was no doubt because of the active support he gave to the tenure elongation project . Unfortunately for the country, he became the longest serving presiding officer of the Senate.

President Buhari seems to be very close to Obasanjo. Considering the adverse role you said he played in this democracy, what would be your advice to President Buhari about his closeness to Obasanjo?

I obviously would not want to come between Buhari and Obasanjo. They knew each other in the military. Buhari was variously a Minister and military secretary under him as well as a military governor. So Buhari knows him better than I do. So he knows how to handle him. However, in 1984, when Buhari became Head of State, he said his administration was an offshoot of the Obasanjo administration. I was, therefore, baffled when, in 1999, Obasanjo, having become the President, became determined to embarrass Buhari over his headship of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). He instituted probe after probe to find faults with Buhari. Unfortunately for him he did not find anything.

Indeed, he personally harassed and interrogated Buhari. I was in the government, so I know all these. He went on to disband the PTF in spite of the important infrastructural projects being undertaken by the body, against

the advice of some of us. The nation lost so much to this singular misadventure in monetary terms that I personally called into question Obasanjo’s patriotic credentials. The other day, I watched on television Obasanjo’s emissary handing over documents to Buhari on power infrastructure developed by his think tank, an action that made me laugh profusely. How could someone who spent $16b on power without achieving anything when he was President bring a proposal on that matter to anybody! While I would not advise Buhari to repay Obasanjo in his own coins, I would advocate that he should not allow him to be distracting him. He hasn’t got any ideas to offer him.

Of recent, he took some Colombians to Buhari and introduced them as experts on insurgency. Up till now, Colombia is battling insurgents. So I don’t see how the Colombians would help end insurgency in Nigeria.So, he should relate with him with some circumspection. It must never escape Buhari’ s memory that all the difficulties Nigeria is going through today are Obasanjo ‘s handiwork, including the fielding of the likes of Umaru Y’ar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan to be President and Vice President and subsequently the President in spite of the known condition and limitations of all of them. He did that with the sole purpose of continuing to run the government from Otta, which unfortunately for him failed. Both denied him that privilege and guarded their mandates jealously. This accounted for his hostility to Jonathan.

There is heightened agitation by a group in the South-East for what they call sovereign state of Biafra. What do you think is responsible for this resurgence?

I think there is a sort of conspiracy. Most of the former governors from the zone did not do much for their states and this has been a source of frustration for the people of the South-East. Let me add that it is not everybody in the SouthEast that is in support of this Biafra agitation. I think it is a misguided demand based on propaganda from people who are self-serving. I don’t think there is any need for Biafra today. The Igbo are very hard working and enterprising.

They are spread all over Africa. In Nigeria, there are over 25 million Igbo outside Igbo land, achieving economic success. They are very dominant in the economies of all the states they live in. I don’t think it is fair to throw Igbo into some kind of crisis. I believe there must be some dialogue in order to douse the tension. The leadership of those agitators are just serving their interests. They target their propaganda towards a particular class of people who are ignorant.

We have to handle it with much care.

The clash between Shiites and the military in Zaria recently provoked widespread reactions from Nigeria and the international community. What is your reaction to the incident?

The allegation against the Shiites was that they blocked the road and refused to allow the Chief of the Army Staff to pass. If it is true that they blocked the road, then they went too far. But for the army to do what they did to the Shiites, it was very brutal and barbaric which should not happen under a democratic dispensation.

The law should not be applied by people to serve their ego. The armed forces of Nigeria are supposed to serve Nigerians and they should do so with care and responsibility. What they did was reckless.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 13

Again, Boko Haram bares its fangs •Deploys girl-suicide bombers enmasse in Borno •No cause for alarm — Military

BY NDAHI MARAMA, Maiduguri

A

CCORDING to the Global Terrorism Index, a report released by the New York-based Institute for Economics and Peace, Boko Haram “has become the most deadly terrorist group in the world”.

The Islamist group has increasingly relied on children and women as weapons, often deploying young girls strapped with explosives in crowded marketplaces, public gatherings and worship centres, particularly churches and mosques in the North-East.

This clearly shows that the insurgents can still spring surprises inspite of the fact that they have been substantially degraded by the military in compliance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s December 31, 2015 deadline to end terrorist activities in the country.

An Analyst, Rotimi Fasan, said: “Just days before Christmas, the Federal Government declared it had met its self-imposed December deadline for C M Y K

the overthrow of insurgent forces in Nigeria. At different fora, both President Muhammadu Buhari and his Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, claimed that Nigeria had won the war against Boko Haram.

“The capacity of the insurgent group to launch coordinated attacks against targets and overrun towns and villages has been drastically degraded.

The group has been reduced to its pre-Jonathan administration days when it launched guerrilla attacks against soft targets,” Fasan said.

“That the group now controls just two or three local governments in its stronghold of Borno State, down from when it was in effective control of about three states- that its capacity for terror has been largely cut down is, for both Buhari and Mohammed, enough evidence that the administration has fulfilled its promise to end insurgency and make Boko Haram a thing of the past”.

At the best of times, it is not unusual for governments to engage in chest-thumping,

congratulating themselves for real or perceived achievements. But these are unusual times when every claim of progress or victory in a particular area of governance by a sitting administration is often combed through and subjected to scrutiny.

Nothing is left to chance. Where progress has been made, the government would make so much song and dance of it. But the opposition is quick to downplay its importance. And where such claim to achievement is exaggerated, the opposition wastes no time in pointing it out. Thus, the latest claim by the Buhari administration that it has overcome Boko Haram would, no doubt, be contested by many in the opposition camp.

Indeed, some commentators have, before now, taken the government to task over what they saw as an attempt to renege on its promise to Nigerians that Boko Haram would be defeated not later than December 2015.

Residents of Maiduguri, Borno State capital, last Sunday, were gripped by fear after two days of bloodshed blamed on Boko Haram, pouring scorn on the government claim that the jihadist group had been “largely defeated”.

At least 50 people were killed while 85 were injured when 14 female suicide bombers invaded Maiduguri that day only to succeed in detonating their strapped explosives at the outskirts of the town.

Failed attacks

The attacks were repelled by gallant troops of the Nigerian Army, as the Theater Commander, Major General Yushau Abubakar, while briefing newsmen at the Media Centre of ‘Operation Lafiya Dole,’ insisted that “the female suicide bombers, between the ages of 12 and 18, tried to force themselves into Maiduguri with the intention to cause mayhem, confusion and panic.”

He said the bombers were intercepted by troops on patrol, “but unfortunately three of the suicide bombers detonated their explosives, killing only 25 persons, while 85 others were injured”.

The Theater Commander, represented by the GOC, 7 Division, Major General Lamidi Adeosun,

Continued on page 14

TURD AY PAGE 14, SA SATURD TURDA

Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Boko Haram and its female suicide bombers Continued from page 11

Continued from page 8 said the terrorists wanted to

Continued from page 13 carry out a massive and coordinated suicide mission through Asmari, Damboa check point, Ali Dawari, Molai Kura, Baderi, Jumari villages, all at the outskirts of Maiduguri.

The Commander said: “The seven other suicide bombers were gunned down by our troops, three escaped and one was arrested which I believe they have averted what would have been a major disaster if they had gained entrance into Maiduguri. One of them went to a nearby house and requested for water to perform ablution but instead prepared herself and came to a nearby mosque and blew off herself killing one person while 13 others injured” .

According to him, the terrorists, also in recent times, laid ambush on troops in Mairarialong, Maiduguri, Monguno and Firgi, stressing that the military lost four soldiers while two others were injured.

Degraded terrorists

Abubakar said the insurgents’ capacity to attack had been degraded, saying that was why they were bent on attacking soft targets and laying ambush, and appealed to the public to always be vigilant and report any suspicious movement to security outfits.

A source at the State Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri confirmed that C M Y K

they received over 30 corpses while 85 others were admitted for varying degrees of injuries.

Meanwhile, Governor Kashim Shettima, on Tuesday, held a meeting with youth volunteers involved in counter insurgency operations in Borno State, popularly known as ‘Civilian JTF,’ during which he appreciated their efforts and unveiled a welfare package for them.

The meeting was held at the Multipurpose Hall of the Government House, Maiduguri. The governor ’s closed- door discussions with leaders of the volunteers focused on enhancing community policing.

At an open session later with the volunteers, Shettima paid glowing tributes to them for sacrificing their lives and complimenting the efforts of the armed forces to fight for the restoration of peace in the state. He said no amount of welfare package could equal the sacrifices made by the volunteers, especially given the fact that some of them had laid their lives for Borno.

The governor said that despite its meager resources, the state government would expend whatever it takes to ensure that the volunteers were properly paid allowances, equipped and highly motivated. He announced a bonus of N20 million for the volunteers while

directing that any backlog of allowances be paid immediately. Shettima asked the Ministry of Health to put a system in place that would guarantee free medical attention for youth volunteers in all public hospitals in the state. He also ordered the supply of more patrol vehicles to the volunteers.

“We are all eternally indebted to you and we thank you most sincerely for the sacrifices you have made for us to have peace in this part of the world. I want to assure you that once the dust settles, once this madness is over, we have the Herculean task of creating jobs, of engaging the multitude of youths who stood firm and ensure that we have peace in this part of the world”, Shettima stated.

The governor also commended President Buhari on his fight against Boko Haram and for his role towards restructuring the military.

“I have to pay a special tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari. He has shown the zeal, the courage, the passion and the commitment to bring about peace in this part of the world. Our military men and women are now adequately armed and supported so that they carry out their task, they have so far recorded great successes not withstanding some attacks being carried out by insurgents on soft targets.

Insha Allah, Boko Haram will be over and very soon”,

he added.

The leader of the ‘Civilian JTF’, Baba Lawan Jaafar, pledged the continued commitment of his members to supporting the military in the fight against insurgency in Borno and said they were motivated by Shettima’s support for them over the years. He condoled with the governor over last Sunday’s attack on the outskirts of Maduguri where many lives were lost.

“We have also changed our tactics and strategies. By the

This clearly shows that the insurgents can still spring surprises inspite of the fact that they have been substantially degraded by the military in compliance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s December 31, 2015 deadline to end terrorist activities in the country

grace of God, we are going to resist their new tactics of inflicting havoc”, Jaafar promised.

Similarly, Shettima said that the worst of Boko Haram insurgency was over for peace to reign in the state and the North-East as 1.6 million displaced persons in camps could return to their communities

by May this year.

The governor gave the assurance after visiting three hospitals in Maiduguri to “condole and sympathize” with victims of the Sunday multiple blasts and village attacks that claimed 52 lives.

The over 100 surviving victims, according to the Chief Medical Directors of the State Specialist Hospital, Umaru Shehu Ultra-Modern Hospital and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri; Drs. Laraba Bello, Salisu Kwaya Bura, and Abdulrahaman Tahir, were responding to treatment for burns, gunshot wounds and trauma.

Shettima, however, said that the attacks and killings, though worrisome, will not deter the state government and the citizenry from fighting terror.

He insisted that the days of the Boko Haram insurgents were numbered, as they were already “technically defeated.”

He said even though ‘pains and anguish’ had already been inflicted on the people, their spirits remained high.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 15

Ekwueme: The Architect as statesman

By Dapo Akinrefon

H

E is a distinguished architect, who rose to become the first elected Vice President of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 during the Shehu Shagari tenure. A native of Anambra State, Dr Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme is a house hold name as far Nigeria’s polity is concerned.

Born in October 21, 1932, Dr Ekuweme started his primary school at the St John’s Anglican Central School, at Ekwulobia, after which he proceeded to King’s College, Lagos.

Instructively, he was one of the first Nigerians to awarded the Fulbright Scholarship in the United States America, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and city planning.

Besides, he obtained his master’s degree in urban planning.

Fulbright scholarship Having distingushied himself as an academia, Dr Ekwueme earned degrees in sociology, history, philosophy and law from the University of London.

Not satisfied with this, Ekwueme later proceeded to obtain a doctorate degree in architecture from the University of Strathclyde, before being honoured with a law degree from the Nigerian Law School.

With architecture being his first love, Ekwueme started his professional career as an Assistant Architect with a Seattlebased firm, Leo A. Daly and Associates, and also with the London-based firm Nickson and Partners. Upon his return to Nigeria, the one time VicePresident joined ESSO West Africa, Lagos, where he was in C M Y K

charge of the construction and maintenance department. Having the itch to go into private practice, Ekwueme created a successful firm, which went on to become the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria. His firm called the Ekwueme Associates, Architects and Town Planners flourished with 16 offices spread all over Nigeria.

Having recorded successes in his firm, he ventured into politics in the Second Republic where he joined the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, securing a joint ticket with Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

The NPN won the presidential elections in 1979 and Ekwueme emerged the Vice-President of the country.

Prior to his venturing into the political terrain, Dr. Ekwueme had presided over the Nigerian Institute of Architects and the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria. Also, he was actively involved in the socio-economic development of his community in Anambra State. Presently, he is chairman of the Board of Trustees

Ekwueme was the arrowhead of the a group of 34 (G-34) eminent Nigerians who risked their lives to stand up against the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha during the era of military rule in Nigeria

of the Nigerian Institute of Architects.

Sensing the importance of impacting in the lives of people at the grassroots, Ekwueme was involved in the Educational Trust Fund, a feat that has seen to sponsoring the education of several hundred youths to universities, both home and abroad.

Furthermore, Dr Ekwueme was a member of the housing subcommittee of the Adebo Salaries and Wages Review Commission.

Having served for severally years on the board of the Anambra State Housing Development Authority, the former VP was actively involved in National Constitutional Conference, NCC, in Abuja, where he served on the Committee on the Structure and Framework of the Constitution.

His famous proposals at the NCC for a just and equitable power sharing in Nigeria based on the six geo-political zones led to the acceptability of the present structure being operated in the country.

Acceptability of the present structure Also on the national front, Ekwueme was the arrowhead of the a group of 34 (G-34) eminent Nigerians who risked their lives to stand up against the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha during the era of military rule in Nigeria.

The G-34 later metamorphosed into the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. With his help, the PDP went ahead to contest, win elections and formed the ruling the party in 1998. Ekwueme also sought to vie for the presidency at the party’s Jos Convention in 1998 but lost out to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who

emerged the party’s presidential candidate. Due to his contribution to the formation of the party, he was made the first chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees.

Considering his contribution to nation building, the Elder Statesman sits on the board of several companies. The London trained architect led a team known as the National Democratic Institute, NDI, which was involved in the pre-election monitoring for the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe in 2000.

Run-off election Aside from being the leader of the Organisation of Africa Unity, OAU, observer team to the Tanzanian Presidential and Parliamentary election in 2000, Ekwueme co-led the 28 member NDI/Carter Centre sponsored Observer Team to the Liberian Presidential run-off election in 2005. In the wake of intra-party logjam in the PDP, he was called upon to head the Reconciliation Committee.

Following his track record to nation building, he has been honoured with second highest national honours of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) as well as the Order of the Republic of Guinea and Nigeria.

He is also the benefactor and patron of Alex Ekwueme Foundation. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Canada-based Forum of Federations and a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Council of Elders. Dr. Ekwueme is a renowned and prolific philanthropist, public servant and a man of peace.

PAGE 16, SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Otunba Olasubomi Balogun: The Prince as Pathfinder

By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor

O

TUNBA Michael Olasubomi Balogun has been described by many as a man of excellence, integrity, an exemplary leader. He is the Founder of FCMB Group and a trail blazer and pioneer extraordinaire in the Nigerian financial and business sector.

Otunba Subunmi Michael Balogun has also been frequently referred to in the Nigeria financial circle as the Grand-master and Baron of the Nigerian Capital and Money Market for his pioneering efforts in the development of the Nigeria financial markets.

He surprised detractors with his can do and a no guts, no glory instincts and made history by founding the first ever Nigerian private bank to be established in Nigeria without foreign direct investments or funding from the Nigerian government. Of the several of such ventures, his has remained an enduring legacy.

Subunmi’s life journey story inspires confidence and tenacity; Rather than staying down and remaining vengeful after being unfairly treated by his employers for a role he more than deserved in a company he had even helped drive to the peak with his expertise; Otunba Subunmi Balogun pulled himself together and took a giant leap of faith in venturing out on his own.

Giant leap of faith A move that has not only paid off, but fruit of that move the First City Monument Bank has become a legacy which has now been handed down to a new generation of leaders and is currently headed by his son Mr. Ladi Balogun.

In an interview with Vanguard when he clocked 80, Subunmi said “I am not a pharisee of real life experience, my journey to what you now see had been divinely guided, and if you care to know, I am happy and thankful.

If any of you go to PrimroseTower, the headquarters of FCMB, this block prim-rose-tower is dedicated to the glory of God as an embodiment of a young man’s faith in the unfailing support of the Almighty God and in his own destiny, in spite of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

“It is also a monument of a young Nigerian’s determination to succeed and prove that given the opportunity, Nigerians have the capacity to attain a commanding height in the management of financial institutions. Lastly, it serves as a lesson to all and mankind that in all things, men may have their say but in the final analysis, the Almighty God will have His way”.

When you mention courage, tenacity, inventiveness, brilliance, distinction and visionary C M Y K

Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun leadership, all of these attributes added to faith, personifies the life story of Subunmi Balogun. Born to Muslim parents, he has never been one to shy away from his converted Christian beliefs and unwavering faith and the importance of Godly practices both in his personal walk and business life.

This move bears testimony to his courage, independence and willingness to go against the grain. These combined with his resolve to make the best of life and be the best, are the virtues that helped him quit his job and set up a bank in a way no one had ever done before at the age of 42.

The Ijebu people had long been nicked named tight-fisted people, but Otunba Subunmi Micheal Balogun has proved this assumption a wrong one too many times and continues to do so with his philanthropy.

He has touched and continues to touch lives with his hundreds of scholarships and support to the under privileged and many other charitable undertakings. He is one man that has said to himself that no child in Nigeria should ever die of a curable disease.

His charitable actions are too many to be listed here. He donated the Otunba Tunwase National Paediatric Centre,

I had a courage to desire and without anything in my pocket except my God, I decided to start a on a journey of self actualisation

OTNPC, Ijebu Ode to the University of Ibadan.

The beginning of the journey: I had a dream, I had a vision. I was cheated, I was an employee in an institution created by Nigerians and Americans, but I was the brain behind the whole thing. I went on a course in the US and I came back with ideas with which we should set up a merchant bank.

The whole of the company was aware that I was behind it. But when it came to selecting the Chief Executive, I was told that in spite of all entreaties, that I could not be the Chief Executive because I happened to have a basic training in law. I was 42 and they brought a young man with little or no experience, from America, at 32, to take my place.

Tenacity of purpose One of the gifts God gave me is courage and tenacity of purpose.

I decided to pray in addition to my decision to fight it out, so that was what happened to the dream and the vision which was clear.

By nature God gave me what we call courage, tenacity of purpose, discipline, I knew where I was going but the vista was as misty and unbelievable.

I was trying to prove a point, that I wasn’t arrogant or envious, but with the support I had and with the grace of the Almighty God so when I felt cheated by not being allowed to head an institution created by foreign institutions and then former employers. I had a courage to desire and without anything in my pocket except my God, I decided to start a on a journey of self actualisation.

It wasn’t a proud journey; it was a journey of faith, a journey on the handbill of my God. my confidence in myself and my trust in the Lord God our Savior. In the

course of the whole journey, it has been turbulent. I had a focus, I had courage, and I had an unstated faith that the good Lord will carry me through, come rain come sunshine that mortals may have their say, but in the final analysis, the Almighty God will have His way.

Maybe that was one of the reasons why I was made the Asiwaju of the Ijebu Christians association, but that faith was very strong. So 35 years ago without thinking of what to do, I threw in my letter of resignation.

One of the things we have come to learn in this country is that in the first process of having a vision or a dream, only an individual does dream, other people would join later on. And in this country in those days, it was an anathema for an individual to set up an institution; one man show; one man show, as if when you’re dreaming, more than one man can dream.

Born March 9, 1934 •Graduated from Igbobi College 1952 with Grade 1 •Graduated with LLB Honours from the London School of Economics June 1959 •Called to the English Bar December 1959 •Assistant Parliamentary Counsel 1962 •First Principal Counsel and Company Secretary to the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank 1966 – 1975

Stock broking and issuing house •Director of Operations for Icon Securities Limited 1973 •Member of the Council of Stock Exchange representing City Securities Limited and Icon Securities 1973 – 1988 •Resigned from Icon Limited (Merchant Bankers) December 1977 •Set up his own company, City Securities Limited the first Nigerian institution to combine stock broking and issuing house December 1977 •Set up the first solely Nigerian owned merchant bank known then as First City Merchant Bank 1979 •Set up a Chair for Capital Market Studies in the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan 1987 •Became a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management August 1988 •Donated the “IyeSubomi’s Child Care Centre to the IjebuOde General Hospital 1989 •Commenced the construction the “Otunba Tunwase National Paediatric Centre” 1994 •Established the “Otunba Tunwase Foundation” 2000 •Published his memoirs “The Cross, The Triumph and The Crown” August 2000 •Commissioned the “Otunba Tunwase National Paediatric Centre” as a gift to the nation 2004.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 17

General TY Danjuma: Soldier of political

consequence and philanthropic niche

By Chioma Gabriel

A

NYTIME the story of the Nigerian army is told, the name of General TY Danjuma will always feature prominently.

Similarly, the political history of Nigeria is not complete without mentioning the role he played in the political development of the Nigerian nation. And talking about one man who has a heart of gold and looks out for the less privileged, General Danjuma is that man.

Indeed, history has been kind to General TY Danjuma (rtd), a Jukun man from Taraba State, northeast Nigeria who ranks as one of the richest Nigerians with wealth running in billions. He had a 19 year illustrious career in the Nigerian Army where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and served as Chief of Army Staff before he retired in 1979 at the age of 40.

He was born on December, 9, 1938 in Takum Taraba State, formally Gongola, Nigeria, a farming community known for growing crops such as yams, rice, cassava and beniseed. His parents were Kuru Danjuma and Rufkatu Asibi..

His father was a hardworking peasant whose ancestors were all highly respected members of the community. Kuru Danjuma was a farmer who also traded in metal parts for farming implements and tools.

Forbes list of rich Africans Theophilus Danjuma started his education at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Wusasa and moved onto the Benue Provincial Secondary School in Katsina-Ala where he was the captain of the school cricket 1st XI team. He received his Higher School Certificate in 1958.

In 1959, Danjuma enrolled at the Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study History on a Northern Nigeria Scholarship.

By the end of 1960, he left the university to enroll in the Nigerian army.

Danjuma is in the Forbes list of rich Africans. In fact, Forbes report of 2015 estimates Danjuma’s wealth to be $1.1 Billion. Fobes believes too, that TY Danjuma is the 22nd richest man on the whole of the African continent.

Life as a soldier: General TY Danjuma was commissioned into the Nigerian Army as second lieutenant and platoon commander in the Congo and in 1963, he joined a UN Peacekeeping force in Sante, Kataga Province in Congo when he was promoted to captain three years later.

In 1966, Captain Danjuma was involved in the Nigerian CounterCoup of 1966 with the 4th Battalion in Mokola,Ibadan.

In 1967, he was promoted to

General TY Danjuma lieutenant colonel at the start of the civil war campaign towards Enugu, which was captured later in that year. Towards the end of the Nigerian Civil War he led a battalion that freed Jaja Wachuku from detention by the Ojukwu government.

Danjuma and his soldiers were dismayed that, Wachuku, their globally respected first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, first Ambassador to the United Nations and first Foreign Affairs Minister was in detention for exercising his freedom of speech and fundamental human rights, in terms of speaking out against the recruitment of child soldiers by the Ojukwu led Biafran government.

In 1970 Danjuma attended the International Court Martial in Trinidad and Tobago as Nigeria’s representative, when he was appointed president of the tribunal in a case brought against members of a failed coup attempt in Trinidad and Tobago.

entrepreneurial vision.

Following his retirement from the army, General Danjuma embarked on a business career and became a distinguished and highly successful businessman with over 30 years experience. He was the founder of many Nigerian companies including the NALComet Group, one of the most successful indigenous shipping agencies and terminal operators in Nigeria .

In 1995, TY Danjuma took another bold step into the highest money spinning business across the globe when he floated the famous South Atlantic Petroleum Limited, an oil exploration company. An oil Prospecting license (OPL) was granted SAPETRO in 1998 by the petroleum ministry two years after it was established, as OPL 246, covering a total area of 2,590 km2 (1,000 square miles).

It might be of interest, to note that South Atlantic Petroleum Limited owns nothing less than 16 per cent stakes in the famous

Supporting the president Following his promotion to Colonel in 1971 he spent next two years with responsibility for courtmartialling Army officers proven guilty of corruption and indiscipline.

In 1975, he was promoted to Brigadier and the position of General Officer Commanding (GOC) and in the following year, he became the Chief of Army Staff to the Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo. He played a prominent role in supporting the president in resisting the Dimka Coup in 1976. retired from the Nigerian army in 1979.

The business tycoon: TY Danjuma is a man with a strong

In 1995, TY Danjuma took another bold step into the highest money spinning business across the globe when he floated the famous South Atlantic Petroleum Limited, an oil exploration company

Akpo deepwater oil field alongside operator Total and china’s CNOOC. General Danjuma equally has stakes in Notore Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of urea fertilizer, which is another diversification into the agrochemical world, which undoubtedly presents the soldier, politician and businessman as a man of diverse thoughts.

Political career: When the military returned power to civilians in 1999, Danjuma continued to serve in the Obasanjo regime who also returned as a civilian president that year. Danjuma played an active political role since 1999 and held some key appointments in the Obasanjo regime.

In 1999, he was appointed as Minister of Defence by President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2003, he was appointed Chairperson for investigative committee on the Warri conflict and in 2010, he was nominated as Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council by the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan who later became a substantive president.

Part of his campaign in office was to curb the politicisation of the military as a firm supporter of democracy and the rule of law.

Firm supporter of democracy He also oversaw the renaming of all Nigerian barracks and cantonments from those of civilian or living persons. He was also widely known to be an avid opponent of President Obasanjo’s attempts in 2006 to engineer a way that would enable himself and state governors to serve more than two consecutive terms.

Danjuma was also the Chairman of the Victims’ Support Fund Committee, supporting the victims of terror such as the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping.

In a speech at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on 16 July 2014, Danjuma told the then President Jonathan that Boko Haram insurgents “appeared to be having the upper hand, as they choose where to strike and capture territory, pointing out that the battle to win the insurgency war has already taken too long.”

The philanthropist: Apart from his career as a soldier and a politician, General TY Danjuma has left his marks in the field of philanthropy haven created the TY Dajuma Foundation in 2008 with principal aims to provide durable advantages through the implementation of development programmes. The Foundation is operating more as a philanthropic organisation rather than simply as a charity, seeking to alleviate poverty in communities by providing basic amenities, education for children and young adults while also providing free medical care for indigent people.

The Foundation has currently given out about 500,000 USD as Continues on page 19

PAGE 18, SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Dafinone: The accomplished accountant,

politician, administrator

By Clifford Ndujihe

S

ENATOR David Omueya Dafinone, 88, is an accomplished accountant, administrator and erudite politician. The patriarch of the Dafinone family, an accounting family listed in the Guinness book of records as having the largest number of accountants in one family, is the proprietor of D.O Dafinone & Company, which he founded in 1966 and later merged to become Horwath Dafinone and Company.

Born on March 12, 1927 in Sapele, Delta State, Dafinone announced his arrival on Nigeria’s political landscape with his landslide victory inn Bendel South Senatorial election in 1979 when he was 52 years old. Then Delta was under defunct Bendel State, which has now been broken into two – Edo and Delta.

Running on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, he polled 59,632 votes to beat Thompson Salubi of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN (24,874 votes) and E.E.E Idigbo of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party, GNPP (20,760 votes).

Elder statesman As a senator, Dafinone, who owns the Ceddi Plaza, Abuja, was one of the leaders of the movement for the creation of Delta State in the 1980s and and the efforts yielded dividends in 1991.

The nationalist, who is a member of The Patriots, a group of eminent elder statesmen, of late, has been leading the Union of Niger Delta, a non governmental environmental and social justice pressure group.

Growing up: Dafinone attended Government School, Benin, from 1934 to 1938 and Edo College, Benin, from 1939 to 1942.

Between 1943 and 1945, the young Dafinone moved to Abeokuta Grammar school where he remained until he completed his secondary education and emerged as the overall best candidate in Mathematics in the Cambridge School Certificate Examination in West Africa for that year.

This feat automatically won him a scholarship from the then Governor of Northern Nigeria, L. H. Gobble, to further his studies overseas.

Brilliant career: Dafinone joined the civil service on August 28, 1946 as a third class clerk in the Registration and Records Department under the supervision of Mr. E. Ejueyitchie, the administrative officer in the Finance Department. In 1948 when Mr. Ejueyitchie was transferred to the Zaria Training Institute, Dafinone was appointed Acting Administrative officer in the Finance Department.

At 21, the consummate accountant was saddled with the

Chief David Omueya Dafinone responsibility of preparing the native treasury estimates for the entire Northern Nigeria. The task entailed the entire paper work on revenue and expenditures of the entire 92 native treasury in Northern Nigeria.

Any time the estimates were prepared, they were taken before a special Finance Committee appointed by the colonial administration for approval before they eventually received the Governor ’s consent. In that committee were five other notable Nigerians – Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, Alhaji Aliyu Makaman Bida and Alhaji Yahaya Madawakin Ilorin.

Given his excellent performance as Acting Administrative Officer in the Finance Department as well as Assistant Secretary to the Special Finance Committee of the Big Five, Dafinone was recommended for the First Devonshire Course in Public Administration at the University of Exeter in August 1951, where he spent two years and obtained

Informed by the call by his people to lead, rather personal ambition, it was therefore not surprising Dafinone’s political journey was very successful

a Diploma in Public Administration.

On completion of the course, Dafinone was advised by the then Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards, who had much knowledge of his performance in Kaduna to read for a university degree if he must come home to cope with the challenges of development in Sub-Saharan Africa. He thus enrolled for a degree in Economics (with specialization in accounting) in 1953 at the University of Hull. He transferred to the University of London as an external student in 1956 where he graduated in 1958.

He immediately enrolled for his professional examinations with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Chartered accountants In the same year, he joined J.A. Miles and company, a firm of chartered accountants as an articled clerk. He served his term for three years with the firm and having passed his professional examinations, he was admitted as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in November 1963.

Chartered accountant: Back home, Dafinone qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Nigeria in 1970 and joined Delloites, Haskins and Sells, a firm of Chartered Accountants as an audit manager. In spite of the heavy load of work he shouldered at Delloites, he maintained a compact social life. He hobnobbed with several Federal Ministers of the First Republic such as Chief Festus Okotie Eboh and Sir Balewa. He also on several occasions assisted the Prime Minister in drafting some of his short questions and answers in

the parliament.

On August 18, 1966, he founded a firm of chartered accountants registered in the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the registration of Business Names Act of 1961. He named the firm after himself; D. O. Dafinone & CO. (now Horwath Dafinone).

Public service In 1967, the then Head of State General Yakubu Gowon appointed him into a three-man commission to investigate the assets of public officers in the then Mid-West State of Nigeria. He worked for several months on the commission, but at the end of the day had to make independent, minority recommendations because he found some aspects of the initial report not agreeable with his personal convictions.

In 1969, the Gowon Administration again appointed Dafinone a Commissioner under the Ports Amendment Decree of 1969 to serve as the Federal Government Arbitrator with Justice Fatayi Williams as Chairman to take over the Port of Warri and Calabar from the United African Company Limited. From 1964 to 1970, he sat on various Commissions as Administrator and member for the Apapa Road Project tribunal together with Justice Adefarasin as chairman.

Partisan politics In 1971, he was appointed Sole Commissioner by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate the affairs of the Nigeria Pools Company Limited.

Having excelled on the jobs he was assigned especially during the war years, General Gowon in 1971 appointed Dafinone as a non-executive Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, where he served in various capacities. He was at different times, the Chairman of the Monetary and Banking Policy Committee and the Recruitment Committee.

His politics: In September 1978, when the administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo lifted the ban on partisan politics, he joined the NPN and with the likes of Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir and others, they wrote the NPN manifesto inside his office on Broad Street, Lagos.

Informed by the call by his people to lead, rather personal ambition, it was therefore not surprising Dafinone’s political journey was very successful.

At first attempt, he was elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1979, representing former Bendel South (now Delta Central in Delta State) senatorial zone.

Mobilising and impacting on his Urhobo people: Before long, he used election to reposition the Urhobo ethnic group which had been dogged by factional fighting Continues on page 19

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 19

Dafinone: The accomplished accountant, politician, administrator Continued from page 18 among various interest groups.

He started the Urhobo Development Association, UDA with other prominent sons of Urhobo to provide purposeful leadership for the people in the 80s.

In the Senate, he served as Chairman, Senate Committee on Commerce, Industries, National Planning and Steel Development between 1979 and 1983. He was re-elected for a second term in 1983.

He consistently supported the creation of new state as a means of ensuring good governance. As the NPN caucus leader in the Senate, he had a working arrangement with the other parties. Thus on several issues of national interest, he was able to muster his colleagues for the Alhaji Shehu Shagari Administration. He showed an unflinching commitment to the promotion of high standards in the practice of the accountancy profession in Nigeria.

Return to private sector Following the truncation of the Second Republic by the Military, Dafinone returned to the private sector. However, he was appointed in 1987 as consultant to carry out a detailed organizational, financial, technical and management review of the country’s steel mills with a view to providing information for their partial privatization and commercialization.

Dispute resolution capabilities Known for his excellent dispute resolution capabilities, he was also appointed to Arbitrate the dispute between the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company Limited and Thomas de la Rue limited of the United Kingdom in 1990.

Between 1990 and 1991, Senator Dafinone was appointed as a consultant to the Federal Government to source funds for the completion of the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge Project, while serving as a committee member to review the administration of indirect Taxation in Nigeria.

Founding the PDP: With the end of the Abacha regime in June 1998 and the beginning of General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition to civil rule programme, Dafinone joined forces with like minds to found the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. He thereafter aspired to lead the country as her president, for which he mobilised men and resources to begin the Dafinone for President campaign.

However, the dream was aborted in mid-September of 1998 due to a protracted illness.

He was flown abroad and after four months he recovered fully.

By January of 1999 when he returned, political activities had gone too far to be reversed in his favour.

Undaunted, Dafinone later joined the National Democratic Party, NDP but his desire to fly the party’s presidential flag in

Dafinone 2003 was not successful as he lost the ticket to Senator Ike Nwachukwu.

Eagle-eyed entrepreneur The Second Republic Senator, who in the last 48 years has mounted a strong campaign for the emancipation of the people of Niger Delta and for equitable distribution of the resources of the country, is a successful industrialist.

He also went into joint venture Partnership with multinationals to establish two industries in roofing materials and rubber processing plant in Sapele Local Government of Delta State. Dafinone constructed a multi- purpose building named Ceddi Towers in the Central District Area of the Federal Capital City, thereby

offering employment to hundreds of Nigerians through various businesses that he presides over.

As a versatile player, Senator Dafinone is a member of various international organizations. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute of America, an organization with an asset value of $93 trillion, since 1992 and was elected to the Public Private Partnership Council of the same body in November 1994. He was elected a fellow of the National Geographical Society of Great Britain in 1990.

Awards, honours: His humanitarian service manifest in various forms, particularly his pivotal role in the construction of the Orodje of Okpe’s palace, a project that was completed in

1997. He has also been functioning as Chairman and Patron of sundry bodies in Okpe Kingdom.

In recognition of his immense and selfless contributions to the socio-economic and political development of Okpe Kingdom, he was honoured in 1997 with the traditional title of Owhere 1 of Okpe Kingdom by the Orodje of Okpe.

An award of Certificate of Excellence for professional practice by the Delta State Government was also given to Senator Dafinone in September 1997. In 2001, he was awarded the ICAN Certificate of Merit for Outstanding contributions to the Accounting profession by the institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria. And in 2003, the Federal Government conferred on him the National Honour of the Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR. On August 1, 2000, Guinness World Records recognized Senator Dafinone as the patriarch of the Family with the highest number of Chartered Accountants (who are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England Wales) in one nuclear family – a recognition that has received resounding ovations from far and wide. In 2006, he received a ‘definite entry’ in the Cambridge Blue Book for an outstanding contribution in the field of Accountancy.

Married to Chief Cynthia Watson Dafinone, the elder statesman, is blessed with three sons and two daughters.

Interestingly, all of them are qualified and chartered accountants, a world record. They all had degrees in Economics.

They are all, today working for the same firm, Horwath Dafinone.

Danjuma: Soldier of political consequence and philanthropic niche Continued from page 17 grants to NGOs working to relieve suffering in his home state of Taraba which is historically one of Nigeria’s most impoverished states, compounded by the absence of a health service which catered for the masses.

The state is perceived to have the highest case of river blindness and other debilitating illnesses.

Currently, the Foundation is partnering with over 50 NGOs throughout Nigeria, and with the support and co-operation of 36 state governors. One of the many NGOs which is being supported by the Foundation is CASVI working in Takum, Wukari and Donga. Recently, the foundation put smiles on the faces of the suffering people of Dako, in the Federal Capital Territory when it donated a solar powered 20,000litre borehole facility to LEA Dako Primary School, Gwagwalada Area Council.

While performing the commissioning ceremony in Dako, the founder, Lt.-General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd) said the facility was in

fulfillment of a promise of a borehole made to the primary school in 2014 after a modern teacher’s residential house was commissioned.

Danjuma told the people that his foundation had in the past, provided grant to one of its guarantors, Total Child Care Initiative (TCCI) to construct a block of three classrooms, gendersegregated toilets and renovate a classroom block.

Billionaire businessman Dako is a community located in a remote part of Gwagwalada.

Before this time, he had splashed a whooping N2.2 billion at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria at the 50th anniversary of the pioneer northern university after a similar gesture was extended to Bayero University Kano, where the billionaire businessman made another whooping donation of N250 million in support of the institution’s development projects. Awards: General

Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma is a holder of the prestigious national award title of Grand Commander of Nigeria (GCON) as well as several other merit awards and honours, including traditional titles.

In the current regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, General TY Danjuma has been conferred the Environmental Friendly award by the president who assured that his administration would ensure “environmental justice” for sustainable growth and development. Theophilus Danjuma, was conferred with “Champion for the Conservation of Biodiversity”.

It is also worthy of note that General TY Danjuma flies a Hwaker 900XP Hawker private jet, and is also the owner of a Challenger 605 Bombadier.

He owns first class hotels in Lagos and as well as choice residential homes in Lagos, Abuja and his country home in Taraba State. He is married to delectable Senator Daisy Danjuma.

PAGE 20, SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Mike Adenuga, Jnr: The Triumph of African enterprise O

By Prince Osuagwu

UR African Business Man of the Year, Dr. Mike Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga Jr. (GCON), Chairman, Mike Adenuga Group, can be conveniently described as the triumph of African enterprise.

He symbolizes the African enterprising spirit of passion, unalloyed commitment, resilience and hard work.

He is today one of the most recognisable names on the African continent; sitting atop what is arguably one of the continent’s largest business empires, comprising oil and gas, telecoms, aviation, banking and real estate.

In each of these sectors, Dr. Adenuga has moulded his companies into major players.

In the oil and gas sector, for instance, Conoil Plc is known as one of the largest and most profitable oil marketing companies in Nigeria.

Conoil Producing, the downstream arm of the conglomerate, made history by becoming the first Nigerian company to strike oil and produce it in commercial quantity in 1991.

In banking, Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) was one of the few banks that effortlessly met the N25b capital requirement during the 2005 banking consolidation exercise without going to the stock market. It only merged with Devcom Bank which was also owned by Adenuga. Two years ago, ETB merged with Sterling Bank.

Direct employment Adenuga also has a multibillion dollar investment in real estate. These companies provide direct employment to thousands of workers and millions of others indirectly.

In telecoms, Globacom is known as one of the most innovative networks in Africa and has operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Senegal, Gambia and Cote d’Ivoire. Dr Adenuga made history in 2010 when his telecoms firm commissioned its international submarine cable, Glo 1.

The cable has provided a solution to the long-standing problem of insufficient internet bandwidth for Africa and has lead to a much faster and robust connectivity for voice, data and video.

He is credited with the telecom revolution in Nigeria as Globacom flagged off operations with Per Second Billing and crashing of SIM cost to as low as N100 when competitors had consistently told Nigerians it was impossible.

This feat led to the company

Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr

being the second largest operator in the country today, in terms of number of subscribers connected.

The network also pioneered such revolutionary products as Blackberry, mobile internet and mobile banking services in Nigeria.

He was born in 1953, in the ancient city of Ibadan, into the family of Chief Mike Adenuga

Snr. and Madam Oyindamola Adenuga, a successful trader and Yeyeoba of Ijebuland. He attended the famous Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, Nigeria, for his secondary education and studied Business Administration at Northwestern State University, Alva Oklahoma, in the United States. He also earned a Masters degree at Pace University, New York, majoring in Business Administration with emphasis on Marketing.

In recognition of his business accomplishments and outstanding contributions to the growth of the country, he was last year awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

He also holds an honorary doctorate degree conferred on him by Ogun State University.

Biggest supporter of football

In spite of his towering achievements, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr, remains an epitome of modesty

During Nigeria’ 50th anniversary celebration, Adenuga was one of the 50 pre-eminent Nigerians who were conferred with the Special Golden Jubilee Independence Anniversary Awards by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

A self-effacing philanthropist, Dr. Adenuga Jr., through his company, Globacom, is the biggest supporter of football in Africa and has raised the profile of

football in Nigeria and Ghana with the sponsorship of the Premier Leagues and national football teams of the two countries. The company has so far spent over N9 billion in cash and kind on Nigerian football.

It has also transformed the annual CAF Awards and made it the most glamorous sports event on the continent. CAF has awarded Adenuga the Pillar of Football in Africa for his strong support for African Football at both national and continental levels.

Business accomplishments Dr Adenuga has won numerous other awards in recognition of his personal and business accomplishments among which is the African Telecoms Entrepreneur of the year for his courageous and rapid investment in the telecoms sector.

In early 2010, he was voted Nigeria’s Most Outstanding Business Personality in the last 50 years.

In 2009, Dr. Adenuga won the Silverbird Man of the Year Award, polling over 75% of the votes cast to edge out other eminent personalities nominated for the award.

Yet, in spite of his towering achievements, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr, remains an epitome of modesty.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 21

Jim Ovia: The man that

took banking to the Zenith

By Babajide Komolafe

W

HEN Jim Ovia, as an undergraduate of Business Administration at the Southern University, Louisiana, United States, fell in love with computer technology, little did he know that the love will make him one of the pioneers of modern banking in Nigeria, the pioneering Chief Executive Officer, and now Chairman of Africa’s 6th biggest financial institution.

“It so happened that halfway through my studies, my keen interest in computer science and information technology was heightened… I couldn’t help it and decided to incorporate computer science into my program. One of my uncles advised me against this, as he reckoned that it was an immature industry at that point. Business administration was the way forward,” he said in an interview with The International Herald.

Today, his obstinacy and passion for technology has created a business empire spanning banking, telecommunications and real estate, in the process amassing over $850 million fortune which made him the 6th richest man in Africa.

From banking clerk to CEO Jim Ovia started his working career clerk at Barclays Bank, DCO, and now Union Bank in 1973. Thereafter he worked as Financial Analyst at International Merchant Bank (IMB) where he rose to Senior Manager Position In 1987. From 1987 to 1990, Ovia was the Head of Corporate Finance department at the Merchant Bank of Africa. He had previously gained experience in the use of computers in 1977 when he worked as a part-time computer operator at Baton Rouge Bank and Trust Company.

The Zenith Bank revolution When Jim Ovia along other investors co-founded Zenith Bank in 1990, banking in Nigeria was at the rudimentary level.

Operations and services were manually driven, and as a result customers were subjected to delays and stress.

Speaking of these times, Ovia said, “When we started Zenith in 1990, it was extremely difficult as the necessary resources and infrastructure to do business, particularly banking, were not in place. There were no ATMs, no mobile phones and ICT was a rarely known concept in the business space,” he says.

Notwithstanding this barriers, Ovia decided to make Zenith Bank an information technology driven bank. This is reflected in the bank’s pay off line which is, “People Technology and Service”.

As a result, Zenith Bank, under Jim Ovia’s leadership blazed the C M Y K

Dr. Jim Ovia trail in digital banking in Nigeria; scoring several firsts in the deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to create innovative products that meet the needs of its teeming customers.

The bank is verifiably a leader in the deployment of various channels of banking technology, and the Zenith brand has become synonymous with the deployment of state-of-the-art technologies in banking.

Ovia’s passion for technology driven banking service also helped in transforming Zenith Bank from a small commercial bank operating from Ajose Adeogun Street on Victoria Island, Lagos to one of Africa’s biggest financial institutions.

In 2004, Ovia leveraged on the soaring public confidence led the Zenith Bank through a Initial Public Offering (IPO) that was oversubscribed and helped the bank survived the consolidation exercise of 2004. This was followed massive branch expansion across the country, and establishment of subsidiaries in other African countries. Presently Zenith Bank Plc has over 500 branches in Nigeria with

The contributions and influence of Zenith Bank in the Nigerian banking landscape is reflected in the strings of awards and recognition from local and international bodies

subsidiaries in Ghana, Sierra Leone Gambia, United Kingdom, and Peoples Republic of China.

The contributions and influence of Zenith Bank in the Nigerian banking landscape is reflected in the strings of awards and recognition from local and international bodies.

Biggest company For example, The Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London in a 2013 survey, rates Zenith as the Biggest bank in Nigeria by tier-1 capital. Also, Forbes & CNBC Africa ranks Zenith bank as the 3rd biggest company in West Africa; while Capital Finance International (CFI) adjudged the bank the Best Commercial Bank in Africa. Furthermore, World Finance voted the bank as the Best Nigerian Bank in Corporate Governance. KPMG rated Zenith bank as the Best CustomerFocused Bank in Nigeria.

In 2012, Zenith Bank was recognized as one of the 30 Outstanding Global Brands making sustainable impact on their operating environment. This recognition was prelude to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012.

In 2007, the bank bagged the African Bank of the Year; awarded

by African Investor Magazine, Quoted Company of the Year; awarded by Nigerian Stock Exchange and Socially Responsible Bank of the Year awarded by African Banker Magazine. For three consecutive years, Zenith won the Web-Jurist award conducted by the website

rating arm of Phillips Consulting.

Beyond Banking Ovia’s love for technology also impacted Nigeria’s bourgeoning Information Technology industry.

In 1995, when the internet was still at infancy in Nigeria, Ovia founded Cyberspace. The company was one of the pioneers in provision of internet services in Nigeria. He was also the pioneer President of the Nigeria Internet Group, an organisation dedicated to pervasive employment of internet in Nigeria.

Jim Ovia founded the ICT Foundation for Youth Empowerment, which focuses on improving the socio-economic welfare of Nigerian Youths by inspiring and motivating them to embrace Information and Communication Technology. In addition to these, Ovia is the Proprietor of the University of Information and Communication Technology, Delta State; Chairman of the Nigerian Software Development Initiative (NSDI) and also Chairman, National Information Technology Advisory Council (NITAC); And a member of the Honorary International Investor Council as well as the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI).

Mobile telecoms company In 2007 Jim Ovia entered Nigeria’s telecommunication industry by founding Visafone Communications Limited, a mobile telecoms company with over 3 million subscribers across the country.

Recognition: In recognition of leadership role in Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia was awarded the Zik Award for professional leadership in April 1999. Less than two years later, the President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, bestowed on Jim Ovia a national award, inducting him as a member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). Lagos State University gave Jim Ovia an honorary doctorate in Finance in October 2005. Ovi was also received the Business Day’s Award for the top 10 bankers in Nigeria, while he was among Vanguard’s 20 most outstanding CEO’s in corporate Nigeria in 2002.

Philanthropy: Over the years, Ovia found a second love-which is, giving back to the society. He founded the ‘Mankind United to Support Total Education (MUSTE)’, a humanitarian Organization dedicated to funding the indigent with educational grants. Furthermore he has headed various NonGovernmental Organizations (NGO) at various times, including Chairman of the Committee on “Nigeria Polio-Immunisation Action Group”. The committee in collaboration with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to eradicate the scourge of the dreaded polio disease in Nigeria.

TURD AY PAGE 22, SA SATURD TURDA

C M Y K

Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 23

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PAGE 24—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

CRASHED OIL PRICE AND WORRIES OVER 2016 BUDGET

How Buhari will raise

trillions from tax — Udo Udoma, National Planning Minister •Says FG to ‘ raid’ MDAs for funds •He declares: No retrenchment,

but workers will be redeployed

BY DELE SOBOWALE “Nigerians are naturally enterprising people. So we believe that if government can provide excellent infrastructure, roads, transport and power, they will no longer be waiting for government to provide jobs.

They will create their own businesses” - Senator Udo Udoma, Minister for Budget and Planning, December 28, 2015.

CAVEAT HE following is the summary of what the Honourable Minister said.

He deserves an apology in advance if any of it is distorted. The call met me asleep in bed with a serious head cold and catarrh and no note book around. But, it is not every day that a Minister calls; there was no alternative to listening very well. The fate of our country depends on it.

T

SETTING OUT AT DAWN Seldom does a columnist have the pleasure of receiving a call from a Federal Minister very early in the morning – especially when one is at a loss about what to write next. The mental block was total until the phone rang that morning and it was the Minister who had called to provide more background briefing on the 2016 Budget.

In nearly 30 years of writing analysis on annual budgets, what we published last week was the latest to be released and the 17th by a civilian government. The first analysis was in 1987 and that was the year the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, entered our economic and political lexicon. It was a gamechanger at the time and an admixture of prospects and problems. In the end, the problems dominated the prospects and left the nation C M Y K

worse than when we started.

The 2016 is also a gamechanger in many respects, as the chat with the Honourable Minister revealed. But, before going into the details, a word is required about the efforts the Minister and his staff must have made to prepare and deliver the 2016 Budget at a time most of us had considered that as a mission impossible.

Those who have been fortunate to work with multinationals would confirm that the budget cycle starts sometime in the third quarter and it is invariably a race to the deadline for delivery to the Board of Directors by the last week of November. Ministers of this administration were swornin in late November last year, less than six weeks to the end of 2015. It was the shortest time any Minister has ever had to deliver the annual budget. Even for a conglomerate, it must be regarded as a minor miracle.

For an entire country, it must be regarded as a major miracle that Senator Udo Udoma was able to drive the process to deliver it in such a short time. Any defects in it must therefore be largely explained by the tyranny of time. Its merits, which are considerable, reflect the years the Minister had spent at the top of one of our largest companies with many divisions. Nigeria is the beneficiary of years of the UACN experience.

BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS AND THRUSTS “Ideas are capital; the rest is money.”

The last 16 budgets presented by governments of Nigeria had suffered from the absence of an important idea around which the budgets revolved. There were no budget thrusts which constitute the compass directing their activities. Instead, what we

The last 16 budgets presented by governments of Nigeria had suffered from the absence of an important idea around which the budgets revolved

had were mere allocations of funds to various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, to be spent as the officers in charge felt appropriate. Budget 2016 has changed the approach to budget preparation. Each year ’s budget is part of a building bloc designed to achieve specific short, medium and long term goals. For lack of a name, this might as well be called the Budget for Upgrading Nigeria’s Infrastructure.

This will be explained shortly.

Four important elements were prominent in the explanation provided by the Minister as follows: •Crude oil benchmark •Tax •Infrastructure •Revenue generation BENCHMARK AT $38 PER BARREL; OIL REVENUE AS COMPONENT OF BUDGET Because most of the criticism of the budget had centred around the $38 per

barrel benchmark, the Minister provided the answer to our queries on that issue first.

Government, he assured us, had taken into account the forecasts made by several organizations and individuals before settling on an average figure of $38 per barrel. That figure represents the average for the year 2016 and not the current global price levels.

Government is aware that the current price is near the benchmark but expects a higher level by mid-year.

At any rate, government is not relying on crude oil revenue as much as in the past to fund this year’s budget. Even if crude revenue estimates are off the mark, the budget implementation relies on a series of non-oil sources of revenue for 2016. Prominent among these are increased tax collection, blocking of revenue leakages, long term loans and reduction of recurrent expenditure as well as the Infrastructure Development Fund which

Continues on page 25

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 25

Continued from page 24 will be employed to improve infrastructure while generating revenue to render the loans selfliquidating.

Recurrent expenditure will be slashed by nine (9)% in 2016 mostly by blocking wasteful expenditure.

TAXES Before your heart beats unusually faster, the Honourable Minister had informed me that government has no intention to increase taxes in 2016.

The Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, under Mr Fowler, who had performed creditably in Lagos State, had identified various ways by which individuals and corporate entities engage in tax evasion. Shocking, as it might appear, the percentage of tax to Gross Domestic Product, GDP, is 5% in Nigeria, 15% in Ghana and a whopping 40% in South Africa. By doubling the tax revenue, government aims to make up for any shortfall in revenue from crude oil.

Furthermore, owners of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises will actually enjoy reduced taxes providing they pay. The lower tax is supposed to be the incentive for compliance.

RAIDING MDAS FOR FUNDS For years, it had been the least guarded secret that many MDAs of the Federal Government generate surpluses which are lavished or misappropriated internally by the Boards and top executives of the organisations. Included in this group are Nigerian Communications Commission, NIMASA, NPA, CBN, NERC, etc. In the days when crude oil sold for $118 per barrel, nobody in government bothered to ask about the “chicken feed” available, as surplus, at the MDAs. Today, the story is different and government wants all the money it can get to fund the 2016. For the MDAs, the party is over. For other Nigerians, it is just starting.

To that extent, this is a populist budget attending to the greatest good of the majority of Nigerians.

INFRASTRUCTURE FUND — $25B At the heart of the greatest push for infrastructure development since the Murtala/Obasanjo/Yar’Adua governments (1975-1979) is the $25 billion Infrastructure Development Fund which will address the nation’s infrastructure deficits with regard to roads, railways, airports, power supply, etc.

C M Y K

'FG to ‘ raid’ MDAs for funds' There will be no mass retrenchment of workers by the Federal Government, although with the merger of Ministries, several thousand people will be redeployed

Mostly borrowed, the funds will, however, target projects which will yield revenues that will liquidate the loans and still yield surpluses.

Approximately $10 billion of this is supposed to be raised in 2016 alone; while the rest will be spread over the next four years.

Another aspect of the infrastructure development programme is the reintroduction of concessioning of major projects and the application of the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) approach. Airports and the toll gates, which will soon be reintroduced to the nation’s roads, will be largely financed by this method.

NO MASS RETRENCHMENT As if the Minister could guess the question uppermost in people’s minds nationwide, he provided the answer before being asked. There will be no mass retrenchment of workers by the Federal Government, although with the merger of Ministries, several thousand people will be redeployed.

Instead, the planned recruitment of 500,000 graduates as teachers and infrastructure development will provide millions of jobs nationwide.

HALF YEAR REVIEW Finally, the Minister announced that government plans to undertake a Half Year Review and to make amendments considered necessary. This is “hands on deck” approach to budget management.

MY COMMENTS “Wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic” James Russell Lowell, 18191891 (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 222).

Few people nursing a

head cold can be totally alert when woken up from sleep. But nothing wakes up an economist faster than talk about the national budget and this one certainly set the heart moving faster. The first thing to do was to quickly write down an accurate rendition of what the Minister said in about 45 minutes of conversation (dictation really). The Minister must forgive any error in the recollection.

The next thing is to ask: Will it work? These are my comments on the matter.

Budgeting has never been an exact science – even at the best of times.

For Nigeria, “these are the times that try men’s souls”.

So a difficult assignment had turned more arduous.

So credit must be given to those charged with it in such a short time. Still the question remains: Will it work? The answer is, “Yes, with some reservations”.

The reasons for optimism are the following: •Leadership •Professionalism •Innovation Leadership here includes not only the President and the Minister, but the entire team that will face the task.

Since leadership involves intelligence and integrity, the drivers of this budget, Buhari and Udoma, have both in abundance.

Buhari is the better known of the two. But Udoma will also satisfy anybody’s gold standard for competence and character. He has been on my radar since he turned down

appointment as Minister under Obasanjo and opted to remain in the Senate for eight years. Totally “unNigerian”! At any rate, this is the first time since Babangida appointed Dr Okongwu as Minister of Budget that Nigeria will have someone monitoring the budget. Attention alone will guarantee improvement in implementation.

Professionalism relates to Udoma’s years of experience working with, and leading, organizations which take budgets seriously. Nigeria will certainly benefit from the experience and the tenacity of purpose associated with it.

Innovation is demonstrated by the fact that our leaders have, at last, understood that government money alone does not build infrastructure.

They intend to tap a wider source of funds globally.

That should provide relief to domestic lenders already stretched to breaking point.

Does that mean Nigerians can “go to sleep with their two eyes closed” (apologies

•Udoma...Millions of jobs coming

to Professor Soludo). Not at all. Instead, we need to be wide awake and be vigilant.

For once, our money will be spent – not oil money.

The skepticism, which has become habitual, after watching nearly 30 budgets fail woefully, involves two non-quantifiable essential components of national budgets. The first is for government to provide. The other is for fellow Nigerians to supply.

“Behind the facts of economics are the facts of psychology…the emotions of fear and confidence…” wrote Arthur Stone Dewey in October 1923.

Government must take the lead in reducing fear (social, political, religious, economic) and increasing confidence in the nation’s leadership. Without this, a budget is only a trope of words on paper.

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”- US President John Kennedy, 1917-1963.

President Kennedy made this declaration at his inauguration in 1960. It is still the best test of patriotism and good citizenship. More than ever, since oil became our “god,” Nigerians are being asked to pay to execute the budget and to determine the direction of our economy. We can all help in two major areas – taxes and revenue leakages.

Unless we pay all our taxes and identify tax-dodgers and also point to those stealing public funds, we will make a very difficult task a mission totally impossible. Actually, it is not much to ask for from us.

Will it work? It depends on all of us.

STOP PRESS!!!

Just as the last lines of this article were being written, another call came in from the Minister. He had read a lot of the comments about the 2016 Budget which he knew were inaccurate.

That demonstrates how passionate the man is to communicate with Nigerians and to be perfectly understood. This is a first in my experience with a Minister.

So be careful; don’t believe all you read about the 2016 Budget.

The Finance Ministry will not receive N1.5 trillion; neither will Budget and Planning be allocated N1.15 trillion.

When in doubt, ask questions.

PAGE 26—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

Kaleidoscope

The new country we need, by Prof.

Bolaji Akinyemi (3) Continued from last week

T

HE fourth group comprises those who run an open system which is restricted to a two-party system. Nigeria ran this system under the first Babangida electoral system which resulted in the annulled Abiola election. The Babangida military regime decreed the existence of two political parties, the National Republican Convention (NRC) which ideologically was slightly to the right and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), slightly to the left.

The main issue which confronts ethnicity in the electoral conundrum in Africa is how to build an inclusive electoral system which turns the ethnic kaelodoscopy into a positive factor.

Even though we tend to slide into the “one man one vote” mantra when we think democracy, the practice of democracy worldwide is not based on one man one vote.

Countries that practice the presidential system come closest to the “one man one vote” paradigm.

But those countries which practice a joint presidential/parliamentary system, a straight parliamentary system and proportional representation are very far from the “one man one vote” mantra but close to the Lincolnian definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. The critical factor is the definition of the people. A system that recognizes the plurality of the constituents of the population, be that plurality, be one of gender, religion, ethnic or any other come fairly close to the essence of democracy. It is the failure of the African political system to fully interrogate the ethnic conundrum that still constitutes the major stumbling block to nation-building The biggest disservice done to Nigerian unity was the abolition of the two-party system in the 1999 Constitution. I know that there are those especially from the human rights community who argue that there should be freedom of choice in forming as many political parties as there are married couples.

Given Nigerian penchant for ego tripping, I consider this to be a recipe for anarchy.

Being a multi-ethnic nation calls for the acceptance of certain imperatives. Firstly, it was and it is important to give every grouping of nations the feeling of belonging.

Those who started earlier on the steps of the ladder have to accept that supersession would have to take place. That is the sacrifice they have to make for the sake of nation-building. But those who are implementing the exercise of supersession and those who are beneficiaries of the supersession need to show an understanding C M Y K

•Prof. Akinyemi

that those superseded hurt and needed to be respected. Those understanding and respect have been missing. And that is why in the Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration adopted by the 2014 National Conference, states that the cumulative effects of all of these is “ resentment, nurtured bitterness and sustained distrust among Nigerians against one another ” Being a multi-ethnic nation calls for a deliberate policy of even dispersal of economic development. What often fuels disharmony in a nation is the competition for jobs. Even in uniethnic countries, scarcity of jobs could lead to massive unemployment and corruption. In multi-ethnic states such as Nigeria, favouritism along ethnic grounds accompanies the corruption. The economic dispersal may not make economic sense but it is a desideratum for national integration.

Finally, I must draw attention to the need to show group mutual respect in a multi-ethnic environment. You may also call it reciprocity or reciprocal hospitality.

Within a religious environment, the golden rule is do unto others as you wish they should do unto you. In diplomacy the concept of sovereignty manifests itself through the principle of reciprocity. If your group is welcomed in other parts, you are under an obligation to welcome

•Rev Etteh

other groups into your zone. If your people have flourishing businesses in other parts, you are under an obligation to be welcoming to others. The Lagos State government, appointed into

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations

its cabinet as a Commissioner, someone from the South-East zone for sixteen years. This gesture was never reciprocated for a day by any of the five governments in the South-East zone. This is not a recipe for national integration.

Rev Etteh’s philosophy of life he articulated as such when he said “People who work and live with me have seen the spirit that operated in Lawrence and I, that we, when we started our journey together in life, gave no precedence to strife and discord, we were completely unaffected by tribalism or prejudice…” It has the resonance of the soaring Lincolnian exhortation :” With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

•Prof. A. Bolaji Akinyemi, CFR, delivered this lecture at the Maiden Edition of Engr. (Rev) Et Ikpong Ikpong Etteh, (OFR) Annual Distinguished Lecture held, at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos on Wednesday, December 16, 2015.

• Concluded

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 27

By Bashir Adefaka

I

N the last few days, fiery Catholic priest and founder of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Rev. Father Camillus Ejike Mbaka has been celebrated for having predicted failure for the second term of former President Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan. The question regular followers of predictions in the country are asking is, “Who really should have the accolade for predicting the fall of Jonathan to pave the way for the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari among the many prophets?”

Of those who predicted far later is Mbaka, who, though should be respected for his fearless nature as a priest but, in his sermon titled, “From good luck to bad luck”, during a night end- of year Adoration in December 2014 to usher in the New Year of 2015, only said that he and millions of other Nigerians were disappointed by Jonathan’s administration, arguing that it had thus far failed to rescue the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in April 2014.

The Catholic priest had prior to that sermon turning his back against Jonathan’s government anointed the then First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to continue in that office. That was when Patience, accompanied by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Nwanneka, worshipped at the Adoration Ministry where the First Lady said she experienced “spiritual rebirth.” Mbaka also reportedly did something symbolic after anointing Mrs. Jonathan on that day. He was said to have released some birds to ‘go and fight for Jonathan.’

Investigations then revealed the shock of followers of events at Mbaka’s sudden turn around in January 2015 to say, “Jonathan will not win this year’s presidential election”, recalling that one of the birds – which he said symbolised the President – he released during Mrs Jonathan’s visit to the Adoration ground failed to fly.”

Ayodele an Jonathan’s fall

Some had argued that the man, who really predicted Buhari’s victory, is the founder and Head of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos, Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele, whose prophesy of the 2015 carrier of the presidential C M Y K

•Mbaka

•Ayodele

Was Mbaka really the man who first predicted Jonathan’s defeat? baton since 2012 fell off the hands of Jonathan and, in a follow up prophecy, he gave it to Buhari.

Observers, therefore, were surprised that people would play politics with what should be appreciated as a credit to a man of God who seeks true vision.

In The Guardian of Saturday, July 13, 2013, Ayodele referred to what he said about 2015 as laying the foundation for the disintegration of Nigeria “except we pray and Jonathan listens to the words of God.” The publication revealed the primate as prophesying: “Jonathan will not win in 2015,” citing many other warnings of the past that he did including the one published by Daily Champion of Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at page 43 where he said, “I am not against President Jonathan or his government but let him not contest in 2015. He should relax else he will break the country.” In Weekend Champion of June 16 – 17,

Elijah Babatunde Ayodele, whose prophesy of the 2015 carrier of the presidential baton since 2012 fell off the hands of Jonathan and, in a follow up prophecy, he gave it to Buhari

2012, at page 12, Ayodele said, “The governors will gang up against Jonathan and the PDP will lose the central government in 2015.”

In Global Excellence of Tuesday, September 25 – Monday October 1, 2012, at page 5, he said, “President Jonathan’s 2015 ambition will break the governors into factions” and, “Governor Mimiko should not leave the Labour Party for the PDP.” The Inri’s spiritual leader, in a follow up prophecy in the Daily Independent had, on January 5, 2015 said, “No matter what, Jonathan will be last PDP President in Nigeria.”

There are many other prophecies by prophets or pastors who spoke on who would emerge the President of Nigeria in 2015 and who gave it to Jonathan. Among them is a Ghanaian pastor, B. B. Frederick of BB Frederick Ministries and Wonder City Chapel, Ghana, who predicted that Jonathan, in the 2015 general election would win. He predicted: “Nigerians should watch out for the second term of His Excellency President

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Although it looks very challenging with him and his ruling party now, yet the Lord says Nigerians shouldn’t lose hope in Jonathan.”

Ayodele, who was asked, last week, to comment on this, said it was not his place to speak on what he was asked to talk about as, according to him, his prophesies were not for him to be celebrated but to warn the nation against impending dangers and that if they were heeded the better.

The primate wondered if those that listed him in a newspaper as one of prophets whose prophecies did not come through had actually followed his prophecies at all. He, however, urged Buhari and other stakeholders in the administration of the country to be God-fearing, Godconscious, heeding warnings by truthful and sincere religious leaders with a view to seeking solutions. “This is the way to run a successful nation,” he counselled.

PAGE 28 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016 Edited by: Morenike Taire

My mum inspired my love for designing — Onome, Mistics boss

BY JOSEPHINE AGBONKHESE

because she dressed well.

Mummy is my number one fan.

rom clothing school mates on campus, Onome Ikhimioya evolved into one of Nigeria’s top designers with a client base comprising A-list personalities, from both the public and private sector.

The phenomenal Mistics Couture boss had practically shelved her Masters degree in Human Resource to follow the path where her love liesfashion designing, after a brief stint in insurance In a chat during the recent opening of a new Mistics store at Lekki, Lagos, the mother of four, to whom fashion designing is secondnature, spoke passionately of her love for fashion, plans to venture into fabric stoning and much more.

You seem to have on display a wide range of designs in Ankara fabric at this opening.

Why Ankara?

Basically, I’m an Ankara person. I love Ankara because it is one fabric you could mix and do all sorts with. It comes in different colours and motifs which give inspiration. I think Ankara creates itself in the sense that it tells you what to do with it once you look at it.

F

This is the second store you’re opening. For how long has the first existed?

That has been on for three years now, and it’s in Victoria Garden City. Prior to its opening, I worked from home for four years, building my customer base through referrals. I practically had people come to the house from ‘everywhere’. I design for men as well.

How did the passion start?

Fashion has always been a part of me, in the sense that I care what I wear; I just don’t dress up or go with trends because I know how to sketch and match colours correctly.

It however took a new dimension when I got into the University of Benin in Edo State because I soon started clothing almost everyone on campus. They ran to me each time they needed to attend any function.

The name Mistics actually came from school because people began calling me “Ono Mistics” when they wanted my free services; and they succeeded because I would even go to New Benin Market to voluntarily buy them suitable fabrics.

For me, fashion is effortless; it’s not something I have to crack my head about.

Who influenced your abilities?

Nobody. I only remember that back then when we were on holiday, I would go to attach myself somewhere to learn. I actually started sewing without anybody teaching me. I got a machine, put it on my dining table, bought fabrics and started sewing. I thereafter trained with a Ghanian, and then a few bigger designers. Soon, I got tailors and began designing and sewing in our boys ‘quarters at home and my customer base continued to grow.

Mum’s inspiration I however want to believe I was greatly inspired by my mum. Though she wasn’t a designer, I remember, while growing up, that people nick named her “To Match”

C M Y K

Onome 's desig n

"My oldest child is a graduate of Petroleum Engineering but she is already doing fashion with me"

So, on display today are palazzos, kaftans, skirts, shorts, shift dresses, gowns, and all sorts, all made with Ankara.

How would you describe the Nigerian fashion scene at the moment?

It’s wonderful. Years back, people didn’t like Ankara this much. But these days, you see people attend big functions in Ankara. I make clothes for wives of governors and top people and I see how they put the fabric to use, creatively.

And it stands them out. I recently also saw a picture of Beyonce wearing an Ankara short and a jacket.

Over time, I intend to go into Ankara shoes, bags, necklaces and wrist watches.

This year 2016, I’m however venturing full-time into fabricstoning because I’ve realised most women travel to Dubai to stone their fabrics. Recently, I went to Dubai to see why it’s their choice place for stoning fabrics. I also stoned one too.

I eventually had to buy an industrial stoning machine, same used in Dubai. So, right now, I have designers come to me to stone their fabrics. I’m getting more stoning machines from the US. What’s been your major challenge?

Because there is a limit to how much any designer can sew within a space of time, we rely heavily on tailors, and I tell you, these tailors are my major challenge. Every designer in Nigeria will tell you same. Most of them are so, so unreliable.

What we look forward to is having a place where we could have a lot of tailors, like they do abroad, where you just take your designs to a production house and they do a whole lot for you. Even like we had in Aba. We now source tailors from Abidjan, Cotonou and Ivory Coast, and it’s not easy managing them.

But I believe we can develop our skills and capacity here

Onome Ikhimioya

instead of sourcing tailors abroad. Like I tell my children, they must have a skill; it is not just about going to school anymore.

My oldest child is a graduate of Petroleum Engineering but she is already doing fashion with me.

Your most memorable moment?

Being a naturally shy person, I would say that was when I first had to go on the runway at a show I did for Vlisco.

But I felt so good when people walked up to me to commend my designs. It gave Onome me a push. 's des

igns

Nigerian breaks jinx, to head Inner Wheel worldwide

BY JOSEPHINE AGBONKHESE

F

OR the first time since the International Inner Wheel made its debut 93 years ago, a black woman has been elected to preside over the global organisation which comprises business and professional women.

The jinx-breaker is an astute Nigerian entrepreneur, Mrs Oluyemisi Alatise,who got elected unopposed by 3,500 clubs in 100 countries around the world for the year 2016/ 2017.

Yemisi's journey in Inner Wheel, as gathered, dates back to 1978 when she joined the Lagos chapter of the organisation which was

*Oluyemisi Alatise originally intended for wives and families of Rotarians.

She has since then built a formidable track record.

As club president, she initiated the Children's Transit Centre for lost and found children at Idi-Araba, a home

which currently houses dozens of children.

She became the District Chairman for District 911 in 1995/96 when the foundation for the district's Vocational Training Centre was laid.

Yemisi was made the National Representative/President of the National Governing Board of Inner Wheel Clubs in Nigeria in 2008/2009 after serving at various executive positions.

She was elected a Board Director in 2010/2011, became elected as Vice President in 2014/15.

Yemisi made her mark internationally through her activities in Inner Wheel Nigeria and in other countries. She presented several papers at Inner Wheel workshops,

symposiums, conferences, seminars at IIW conventions, in Stavanger and Istanbul, at Turin, Firenze Italy, Saint Dennis Reunion Island and many locally organised one.

She initiated, planned and organised the first Women for Africa Seminar and started a revolving small credit loan for needy women. She did same in Tapiola Finland for District 913.

Yemisi handled international joint projects with Germany D85 and District 911 and 913.

Through her also, District 914 Nigeria benefited from a Solar Energy Project from Finland for Ndembia Health Centre in Abakaliki.

The Inner Wheel which has its roots in Manchester, UK, was chartered in Nigeria in 1967.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 29

Ho w tto o guarant ee yyour our best yyear ear How guarantee of lo lovve

T

BY ONOZURE DANIA

he most powerful thing you can do to create the relationship of your dreams whether you’re searching for a partner or you’ve been with one

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PAGE 30—SUNDAY

Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

2015: A tale of terrorism, immigrants and disasters

A

s the old year retires and a new one is born, we commit into the hands of our Creator the happenings of the past year and ask for direction and guidance in the new one. May He grant us His grace, His tranquility and His wisdom!” ? Peggy Toney Horton, Does God Want Us to Be Happy As it is usual, the last two weeks of a year are mostly for reflections and also projection into the new year.

2015 was a mixed bag of emotions for nations and countries all over the world.

For some parts of the year, there were celebrations of new developments while in some, the opposite was the case. It was a case of win some and lose most.

The 2015 UK and Nigeria general elections both went down with surprises. Against all odds and forecast, David Cameron, the Tory candidate won a convincing majority to form a government. The defeat of the Labour's Ed Miliband promoted a change in leadership which saw the emergence of a left wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn.

In Nigeria, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Dr Goodluck Jonathan accepted defeat without any fight, against bookies' and bloggers' expectations. And everybody lived happily after, as all “threats of war ” disappeared.

However, there is no doubt that in 2015, the art of terrorism manifested more in many places than the previous year's.

Unfortunately, the Europe continent was the hardest hit. In this region, state security personnels were made to work extra for their wages. Despite this, the evil organisations still managed a few dastardly attacks on some cities. The French attacks are still fresh in our minds while the lock down of the Belgian state for fear of attack is not far from memories.

Elsewhere, the kidnap and killing of westerners which climaxed in 2014 continued. A British man who became particularly notorious for being the mastermind behind the slaughtering of captured individuals - Jihadi John was reported killed by an air drone in Syria. We all remember him as the heartless man who took delight in showing to the world, via ISIS propaganda videos that he was not a man of feeble mind, and never flinched at cutting the throats of innocent individuals, who were kidnapped aid or charity workers.

As a result of the civil war in Syria and Iraq, coupled with the activities of the IS, and rebels, many citizens of this region put their destinies in their feets, and “swam” or “ walked” their ways to Europe. They were joined by other migrants from subSahara Africa also running away from wars, persecution or just a desire

for better lives.

By mid year, the seas leading to Europe became congested by small boats occupied by individuals of different nationalities, ages and sex. The seas were turned into a sort of boat regatta and needless to say that many lost their lives.

Despite the various warnings and stories of deaths on the high seas, it was a risk worth taking by these desperate immigrants.

The surviving immigrants who found themselves on the sea sides of European countries were desperate, hungry and sick from many days or weeks of travelling by all means and through all terrains. The European Union was completely taken unawares and some of the member countries could not but show there is a limit to their humanitarian gestures. The countries, encouraged by right wing citizens and groups turned their backs on these suffering immigrants.

For UK's Cameron, these immigrants are "swarms" who had come to devastate the "farm", called Europe.

His comments on the immigrants were roundly condemned, even as his Home Secretary Theressa May maintained a "stoic" face that UK was not ready to take more that a thousand of the total immigrant population in Europe. She sure knew what she was talking about. The choice destination of these immigrants is Britain, where when successfully processed, they are entitled to some sort of benefits. The government is no doubt under serious strain on the benefits bills of Asylum seekers and

The irony of 2015 is that while immigrants were desperately "struggling" their ways to Europe, some EU member countries, especially Britain, also “struggled” with keeping their borders locked from inside so the internally radicalised citizens would not "escape" to fight in troubled regions

families. The radical change in benefits pay outs has not deterred these immigrants from aiming for Britain.

While Cameron, May and some EU leaders were foot dragging, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel,

came forward boldly to announce her country's readiness to take a sizeable number of the immigrants.

As expected, this move angered the German conservatives, while she lost out in the "popularity vote", but above all, she showed she is human. Her efforts have been praised all over the world and this earned her the valued TIME Personality of the Year 2015.

The irony of 2015 is that while immigrants were desperately "struggling" their ways to Europe, some EU member countries, especially Britain, also “struggled” with keeping their borders locked from inside so the internally radicalised citizens would not "escape" to fight in troubled regions. It was not such a success of an effort on the parts of Scotland Yard, MI5 and other security agencies. Many radicalised people, including families, comprising of children, escaped to fight the “holy war”.

While the agencies struggled to keep these wannabe terrorists in the country, they no doubt succeeded in "locking" the ones in the UK down. We have been told severally that many terrorist plots have been foiled in the county as a result of good intelligence.

Among them were the couple, Mohammed Rehnan and his ex wife Sana Ahmed Khan sentenced to life imprisonment last week.

The government believed there are many "small time" terrorists such as these and if not for intelligence, they would have caused havocs in the country.

In all these though, there was good news on October 30 when the last British detainee in Guantanamo Bay, Shaker Ahmer was released after 13 years without charge. Ahmer's release to say the least was not on a platter of gold. It was made possible by relentless efforts of individuals, campaign organisations and pressure groups.

Just as the year was winding down, the heavens opened up on UK to record her biggest flooding in recent times. A large percentage of the country's landscape was under water.

Despite the numerous flood warning alerts by the Environmental Agency, there was little home or business owners could do than sit far away and watch their prized possessions washed off. Realising the enormity of the flood, the government drafted in the army to help in "putting the water" under control.

The financial implication of this flood on the country had been estimated at over a billion pounds sterling.

This is understandable going by the pictures of neighbourhood totally submerged in rain waters.

Sadly, on the New Year's Eve, an iconic building, the Address Downtown, in the oil rich country Dubai caught fire. There was panic among residents who had been looking forward to the annual end of year fireworks. Sadly the fireworks exercise took place as the 63-storey hotel building burnt in the background.

It is 2016, here is hoping that at the end of the year, we shall be writing good reports of it. Happy New Year

says, “ Every challenge has an expiry date”.

Don’t give up... God has not finished with you

C

ongratulations! We are in a New Year; a leap year for that matter. This is the year in which, by God’s grace, you will leap into your breakthrough.

Before we look ahead, let’s take a look at the past.

It is good to give God thanks for all the good things we received in 2015.

With our faith firmly in place, we are bound to have greater testimonies this year in the mighty name of Jesus.

On my part, I thank the Almighty God and the management of Vanguard, especially the Chairman, the Editor of Sunday Vanguard and his hardworking team for giving me the opportunity to bring Joyful Homes to you.

It is, indeed, a covenant and I believe God that many are going to be blessed by staying in contact with Joyful Homes.

Now that we are in the New Year, we must remember that God remains on the throne and is still in the business of miracles.

Therefore, unlike our previous columns, I wish to start this New Year with an outstanding testimony I witnessed late last year.

Mrs. Ade had been married for 18 years. Fortunately, she had a son in the first year of her marriage. Then a new challenge set in. She could not conceive again, though she and her husband wanted to have more children. For 17 years, she went from one medical doctor to another.

She was diagnosed with a syndrome which, in the lay mans terms, means flow back of sperm.

She had a surgery which was unsuccessful. Her doctors then advised her to come for another surgery.

She resisted this and said to herself, “ Since the doctors of the world have failed, the Doctor of doctors can never fail”.

Mrs. Ade said she then began to move from one church to another . She also tried a popular fertility clinic in Lagos and she was told that her tubes and uterus were okay. Therefore, she required no treatment.

One of the doctors advised her to go and adopt.

However, she remained steadfast in prayer.

She said often she dreamt about people always operating on her.

Eventually, she broke through and had a set of twins; a boy and a girl.

The story of Mrs. Ade affirms the message of Pastor Sunday Awe at Harken Unto Me O Lord at the RCCG, Victory Chapel, Magodo.

He said, “ Don’t give up, God is not through with you”.

The truth is that the time for waiting is a period that your faith and patience are put to test. You reliance on the Almighty God must be total.

Awe, while emphasizing the need to pray without ceasing, made reference to Acts of Apostles, 12 vs 5, “ Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him”.

The answer to the prayer was

recorded in verse 7 of the same chapter: “ And behold , the angel of the Lord came upon him and light shined in the prison and he smote Peter on the side , and raised him up, saying, ‘ Arise up quickly’ . And his chains fell off from his hands”.

The consequence of the angel’s action was that Peter was set free.

You too can be set free.

The power of God will overshadow every power of darkness in your life in the mighty name of Jesus.

Remember, God visits suddenly.

Whatever the challenge, we must remember that a divine turnaround is possible.

Prayer is so important and we must learn to give quality time to prayer.

Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, in his daily devotional manual, Open Heavens, reminds us that sometimes when we pray, a miracle may be delayed because of the influence of the forces of darkness.

He made reference to Ephesians 6 vs 12, “ For we wrestle not against flesh

How then do we receive ?

Adeboye suggests, “ Prayer is a spiritual tracking device you need to track your blessing from heaven until it arrives in your hands. Once you start praying on a particular issue, don’t stop. Keep on praying until the answer gets to you”.

He also advises, “ It is necessary to specifically pray against every spiritual agent of hindrance”.

How? He says that while praying, we need to “ paralyse every diversionary agent of darkness” . He adds: “Pray against blessing thieves and hijackers and envelope our blessing in the blood of Jesus”.

Let’s strive to put this into action and be full of expectations for the Lord’s visit.

When He visits, you receive your miracles.

We should also remember that as an angel was sent to deliver Peter, God can also send an angelic person that will deliver your miracle to you.

Readers, it is a new dawn, a New Year and, by the grace of God, new things will begin to manifest.

Isaiah 26 vs 4 is unambiguous, “ Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength”.

You need spiritual strength to have a breakthrough.

You cannot afford to be weary.

Anyone who is weary is open to the full manipulation of the enemy.

Therefore, we must pray for spiritual strength.

Take action

Prayer is a spiritual tracking device you need to track your blessing from heaven until it arrives in your hands and blood but against principalities , against powers , against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.

Adeboye explained, “ These forces exist and they are out to delay or deny you of your blessings. If you lose faith and stop praying, the enemy might divert them”.

He wrote: “ It is one thing to pray and have the answer released but it is another thing to receive the answer”.

As believers, we must not succumb to the forces of darkness.

I share with you a popular saying of Pastor Gbenga Oso, the General Overseer of Laughter Foundation Ministry, “ Shedding tears of sorrow does not produce miracles”.To him, wearing mournful looks because of a problem also does not bring solutions. The solution to every challenge is to focus on God. Pastor Oso also often

This is the time to put focus on the solution and not the challenge.

If your challenge is waiting for children, begin to see yourself as a mother.

Call yourself by the name you have given to your unborn child.

If need be, pay tithe in the name of that child.

Speak to your body to produce that baby or babies in the name of Jesus.

Do you wish to have a set of twins?. Then Genesis 25 verse 24 should be a major part of your prayer points.

It states,” And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled , behold there were twins in her womb”.

Spend quality quite time to declare to yourself, “ I am a mother of twins”.

It may look far from your present situation but I have seen someone who did this and, to the glory of God, despite all the antics of the enemy, she became a mother of twins.

In this New Year, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will teach you new things in your prayer life and you will have amazing testimonies in the might name of Jesus.

Declare to yourself, “ This is my year of breakthrough”. Mention whatever you have been waiting for. Marriage partner, financial breakthrough, blissful marriage, children, whatever.

Our God has everything we want in abundance and He will give unto us . We only need to ask.

Wishing all our readers a fruitful year in Jesus name.

SUND AY Vanguard , JANU ARY 3 , 2016, P AGE 31 SUNDA JANUARY

How to cope when you’re years older than your girlfriend

I

N general, when experts talk about fine-tuning a relationship, they suggest ways both partners can compromise and adjust.

Not so with the older man! younger girl pairing. “In testing the waters of male-female love, the girl has to splash - and pay attention to her own strokes,” says Janice a seasoned relationship expert. “She needs to be childish at times, to fret, to go beyond the bounds of conventional behaviour to act on impulse and sometimes to enslave herself to the loved one. It is therefore up to the man to measure whether he is the right person to chase and hold her.

“The older man should first of all have lots of time. She expects demands that the relationship take first priority every day, every week. He may be flying to the end of the world next morning, but if she needs to talk about their love all the night before, listen he must! He should also have a physique that’s in good shape, and be secure in his sex

appeal. Today’s teen is lean and mean! Chances are she jogs, and does aerobics. So if he’s not athletic, he should add a new dimension to his life - buy jogging shoes and a new tennis racket! Otherwise, he’ll find himself sitting on the sideline.

The older man must also be at a stable point in his life.

Changing careers or going through a divorce are terrible times to form this type of relationship. The man who is rooted in a good career and makes a good salary will be able to handle the young girl

and offer her more of what she expects from him. Since a teenager requires lots of attention, and will eventually rock the boat, the rest of her lover ’s life should have its own momentum; after all, part of the appeal is that - he has arrived and he’s in control!

A chivalrous man who likes to protect a woman will find much to protect in his teeny-bopper!

Shortly after his wife left him for her new office boss, Eddy, 42, met Sussie, a beautiful, wild singer at a night club. “In spite of the fact that I found her electrifying,” said Eddy, “she was also neurotic. She’d had a few crisis with management of the club she sings at but I was always there to support her because I realized her maturity was still evolving. Soon she will be matured to handle these problems on her

own. Meanwhile, her every mood fascinates me. The commitment between us is beyond what I ever would have had with an age equal.

It’s best that a man be sensitive to what real feelings lie beneath her words, and not overreact to negativism on her part.

Sussie doesn’t know yet how to weigh her words.

She strikes out critically at me, something I wouldn’t forget or forgive with a woman nearer my age. I indulge in her. ‘I hate you’ may mean she feels neglected -.or she’s been watching a lot of home movies and identified so strongly with their characters that she carried the melodrama right over to life!”

The generation of today’s teenagers is more casual about sex, and it’s a double edge sword, Her older 10ver is unavailable but her fellow youth copper is, and she sleeps with him, cosily and unromantically. Better if her older lover is not the jealous type, otherwise he has to be constantly available to meet her desire.

“Most good relationships are between equals,” explained the relationship expert.

“When he’s a lot older than she, the danger is that they are not providing inputs at the same level. This creates an underlying tension.

When conflict arises, they perceive it as enormously hostile. I know a college professor, 49 who waited until the woman he loved, now 28, finished her B.A. before marrying her. He wanted a real wife and marriage. It started out as a honeymoon, but now he says he’s stuck with a teeny-bopper. She feels she’s trapped with a hasbeen. This couple has big problems finding common interests. She loves pop music, he like classical. She is hooked on fast foods, he enjoys home made meals. At first differences in tastes seem trivial, but in a marriage they are very important. I see success for an older man/girl relationship only if both people can change and grow together.

08052201867(Text Only)

You are what you eat T

O be healthy and hearty our food must be wholesome and in the right quantity.

Eating anything and everything and too much of anything spells doom for our well-being. In the urban centres across the length and breadth of the world people are developing the diseases brought on

by Modern civilization and t’s attendant prosperity.

To put it simply, people who are earning so much are getting more and more careless with their eating habits.

There are now a lot more people engaged in sedentary occupations than ever before with such people physical activity is nearly always at a minimum. But you see the body needs a certain minimum level of exercise. When this is denied the body, it soon begins a down-hill trip. And the inordinate amount of food consumed adds to the problem of deterioration.

It’s like this, when the body is given more than it needs in relation to its energy out-put the surplus calories translate as excess weight.

There must be balance as regards tissue building (anabolism) and tissue breaking down (catabolism) when one exceeds the other you have what is

known as Metabolic inbalance leading to a build up of toxemia.

There are two fundamental ways the body produces toxemia. One is normal and natural to the function of the organism; the other we constantly contribute to knowingly or otherwise.

In the first place there is toxemia produced on account of the process of metabolism. The inner body never at a stand-still has billions of old cells being replaced by new ones each day.

The old cells needing replacement are toxic, meaning poisonous and must be gotten rid of by one of four means of elimination: skin, lungs bowels and bladder.

All this is normal and natural to the body and doesn’t have to worry us unless in a situation where this toxic waste is not being rid of at an equal rate to which it is being produced. All what this process demands is ample energy at the body’s disposal.

The second means by which toxemia is produced in the body is from the by-products of foods that have not gone through digestion and assimilation and become part of the cell structure.

The build up of this toxic waste will eventually lead to overweight. The problem doesn’t end there. Toxins are acidic in nature and the build up of acid makes the body require water to neutralise it bringing about more weight

and bloat.

On a daily basis this finally brings us to the door step of obesity and all what it portends.

So now, we see that interference with the body’s elimination cycle is the forerunner of toxemia and overweight.

And we can also understand that there must be the kind of living pattern that allows us to continuously cleans our system and forestall a build up of toxins.

To help us achieve this state of metabolic balance are the following food items that work against overweight: Carrot, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, orange, pear, plum, pineapple, beetroot, cabbage, grapes, lemon and strawberry.

Exercises to be practised to achieve the same end i n c l u d e CHAKRASANA for regularization of bowel movements a n d matsyendrasana the lateral spinal twist to stimulate the activity of the kid-

neys.

CHAKRASANA, or the wheel posture.

Technique: Lying flat on your back, draw in the knees and place your feet wide apart on the floor. Put your hands backward on the floor just below the shoulders. As you breathe in deeply, raise the entire body in the shape of a bridge. As you stay in this position respiration must be slow and deep. After 15

There must be the kind of living pattern that allows us to continuously cleans our system and forestall a build up of toxins to 20 seconds, lower the body, lie flat on your back and rest in a still fashion.

You may repeat this thrice.

MATSYENDRASANA or the lateral spinal twist.

Technique: Placing the left heel under the right thight which his lying

horizontally on the ground put the right foot over the left thigh with the sole of the foot on the ground. As you turn the chest to the right put the left arm in front of the left knee which is uprightly erect and grasp your left knee. Place the right hand across the middle of the back. As you

stay in this posture your breathing must be of an even rhythm for some 30 seconds. Change legs and arms and repeat on the other side.

Apart from the wonders it works on the kidneys and the digestive system, it is also said to restore strength to the nerves.

* TheWheel Posture

Yoga Classes STARTED Physical Therapy Centre @ 32 Adetokumbo Ademola, Victoria Island Lagos.

9.00am — 10.00am on Saturdays

PAGE 32—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk 08056180152, SMS only

Why are we busy building nesteggs for our adult children!

“

Arinola was 25 years old when she moved back to Lagos

to live with her father and her step-mother after a spell of studying abroad. “It was an unmitigated disaster,” she said. “Armed with a masters degree and a prospective to-die for job, I wasn’t exactly a sight for sore eyes with my stepmother. She’d cleary enjoyed having the house and her husband - to herself, and she was no at all pleased to see me. Weeks later, she took me aside and said: ‘You’re a full adult now. You can’t stay here for long, your presence in the house is too disturbing’.

I was furious - after all, this was also my home. I wasn’t allowed to cook in her kitchen (too much mess) or to have friends over, (too much noise) or to watch rubbish TV (too corrupting of my two younger siblings).

Everything I did was a challenge to my stepmother ’s authority, whether I meant it to be or not. Poor dad had given her such a free reign of the house he never intervened afterall, they ’d been married for close to 14 years.

“The final straw came when I got back late one night and rang the door bell because I had forgotten my key. I was let in as if I were an intruder. The next day, I had come home to find my mum waiting for me. My step-mother had packed my belongings ready for me to move to my mum’s house.

26 years down the line, my experience then is not something I wanted to repeat with my own 22 year- old daughter. The difference between my experience as a returnee all those years ago and my daughter is that I really do want her under my roof. But

I’m beginning to realise that maintaining a good relationship with an adult child can be just as challenging as looking after a kid. The first big change is that my word is no longer law. When your child is young you have authority - if my daughter wanted to go out in something I didn’t consider suitable, I could simply forbid it. Now there is nothing I can say when she wears one of her ridiculous wears. If I do say anything timid, such as “should you be going out dressed like a tramp?” She will most likely disappear up-stairs and come down wearing one of my expensive designer tops. “But you said I should dress more appropriately mum;’ she’d say if I protested.

The worst thing is having to remember not to ask questions like: ‘Where are you going?’ or worse still: ‘What time will you be back?’ Adults should be allowed to come and go as they please but when you are lying awake at 3.00am straining to hear a key turn in the lock, it’s hard to remember that. I am far from the only mother going through "the boomerang” experience with their grown-up children. The current generation of twenty something are living at home in unprecedented numbers.

Today, a large number of the so-called millennia generation of 24 to 22-yearold live with their parents.

In my days, the number was very few. And it’s not their fault of course - there aren’t enough good jobs for new graduates, and if they do find work, their salary will only just cover the rent if they are lucky.

“At my daughter’s current age, I could rent a room and still have enough money to have fun - and at 26, I was married and buying our

Y

OUR column to express your loving thoughts in words to your sweetheart. Don’t be shy. Let it flow and let him or her know how dearly you feel.

Write now in not more than 75 words to: The Editor, Sunday Vanguard, P.M.B. 1007, Apapa, Lagos. E.mail: sunlovenotes@yahoo.com Please mark your envelope: “LOVE NOTES"

RULES FOR GODLY WOMEN

Continued from last week

19). Don't forget that husbands want attention and good listeners, never be too busy for him. Good communication is the bed rock of every happy

slap-up meal and then send him drinking with his pals.

When he returns she must be dressed in her naughtiest negligee and look her most beautiful. The following evening, she does exactly as instructed and is dressed to kill by the time her husband returns.

When he sees her lying on the bed in all her gear, he tells her to stand up and take it all off. He then tells her to do a handstand against the bathroom mirror and open her legs.

This excites the woman immensely, as her husband has never been this erotic before. She does as instructed, and then he puts his face between her legs, faces the mirror and says, “No, no... Maybe the lads are right. A beard wouldn’t suit me,”

first flat with my husband.

This was fairly typical of my generation born between 1955 and 1964, most of whom were married by their early 30s with a lot of them home owners. The awful economic truths is that unless my daughter suddenly comes into good money (winning the lottery maybe?l) or marries into money (both extremely unlikely), the chances of her buying a home before she’s 40 are infinitesimal.

"1 have quite a few friends who are going through the boomerang experience with the same varying degrees of success. One family decided to accept the economic reality and turned their house into flats so that all the children could live independently.

Another family converted the locked-up garage to a bedsit for their grown-up returnee daughter. Sadly, I don ‘t have the means for something that drastic and convenient. Unlike a tenant, my daughter is not

paying rent. And despite having a perfectly nice room of her own (with a new bigger bed she requested for) she likes nothing better than to spread out on my bed, leaving a trail of magazines and biscuit wrappers in her wake. It's not the mess 1 mind as much as the sense that I am slowly but surely being usurped - like it or not, I’m no longer the leader of the pack. When my daughter’s friends come around it is delightful. I love being around young people, but there’s something quite demoralising when you are middle-aged about waddling down to the breakfast table to find a group of gorgeous 20somethings sitting around, glossy haired and glowing skin, reminding you of your rapid slide down the evolutionary slope.

“Since my daughter ’s return, I’ve spent a fortune on hair extensions and beauty products in an effort to keep up, but you can’t buy

home. (Gal 6v9) 20). If your idea worked better than his, never compare yourself to him. It's always teamwork.(Gal 6v10) 21). Don't be too judgmental to your husband. No man wants a nagging wife.(Eph 4v29) 22). A lazy wife is a careless wife. She doesn't even know that her body needs a bath.(Prov 24v27)(Prov 20v13) 23). Does your husband like a kind of cooked food?, try to change your cooking. No man jokes with food.

(Prov 31v14) 24). Never be too demanding to your husband, enjoy every moment, resource as it comes.(Luke 11v3) 25). Make a glass of water the very first welcome to your husband and everyone entering your home.

Sweetness of attitude is true beauty. (Prov 31v11) 26). Don't associate with women who have a wrong mental attitude about marriage.(Prov 22v14) 27). Your marriage is as valuable to you as the value that you give it. Recklessness is

youth in a bottle. Still, I can’t complain much.

When she was a baby, older women would say to me: “treasure this time, you will miss it when it is gone.’ But sleep - deprived and desperate, I couldn’t understand what they meant. Now I do - and I am determined to treasure this second chance I have with her praying it won’t last for ever. That however, comfortable and easy it is living at home, she will eventually want to move on, without my resorting to prayer warriors, and I will lose her gain - this time for good!”

As Thick As A Plank? (Humour)

A woman complains to her friend that her husband is losing interest in sex, and he prefers nights out with the boys to the joy of copulation. Her friend tells her that to win his love she must make more effort.

She advises her to cook a

Put Your Money Where Your Bits Are! (Humour)

This deaf mute strolls into a chemist’s shop to buy a pack of condoms.

Unfortunately, the mute cannot see any of his required brand on the shelves, and the chemist, unable to decipher sign language, fails to understand what the man wants. Frustrated; the deaf mute decides to take drastic action: he unzips his trousers and drops his bits on the counter, before placing a NI ,000 note next to it. Nodding, the chemist unzips his own trousers, performs the same manoeuvres, as the mute, then picks up both notes and stuff them in his pockets.

Exasperated, the deaf mute begins to curse the chemist with a wild gesturing of his arms.

“Sorry,” - the chemist says, shrugging his shoulders. “But if you can’t afford to lose, you shouldn’t gamble.”

unacceptable.(H?eb 13v4) 28). Fruit of the womb is a blessing from the Lord, love your children and teach them well.(Prov 22v6) 29). You are never too old to influence your home.

Never reduce your care for your family for any reason. (Prov 31v28) 30). A prayerful wife is a better equipped wife, pray always for your husband and family(1 Thess 5v17)

Chris Onunaku 08032988826/08184844015 #SeasonGreetings!!!!

The woman I love

Your love is like harmattan wind in my heart. It has set my heart on fire-the Love Fire.

My heart is glowing red, because it is being radiated with your love.

Ovie Uk™ Ovis1302@gmail.com

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 33

08116759757

MYSTERY

Female swamp

corpses unsettle Lagos community

By Esther Onyegbula

I

n the past four weeks, the community of Anibaba, Bugon Filling Station and Water Corporation, Obafemi Awolowo Road, Ikorodu has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

This came after a bloated female corpse was discovered on Thursday, December 3; six others on Saturday, December 5, 2015; and two more on Tuesday, December 15.

The mystery surrounding the deaths has raised a lot of dust, especially because of the unseemly conspiracy of silence that has enveloped the community since the first discovery.

It was gathered that residents had woken up to find the first corpse in Anibaba Canal, close to Andrew Street, that Thursday. By Sunday, five other female corpses were discovered at Agunbiade Street at Itupatie.

While residents were trying to fathom the mystery surrounding the corpses that were discovered in the community, two other corpses were found on Tuesday, December 15 down Anibaba. While one was dumped inside the drainage C M Y K

system, the other was lying inside the bush.

Lifeless inside the bush Unlike the other six corpses initially recovered, the last two corpses were fresh. One of the corpses had blood stains on its nose and mouth while the other one inside the drainage was naked, but with no part of the body missing. Another mystery is that the bags and valuables belonging to the two victims were found next to their bodies.

When Sunday Vanguard visited the community, there was this evident air of silence as residents, for reasons best known to them, refused to talk about the incidents. Most of the residents, kept saying they weren’t around when the corpses were found.

According to Iya Beji, a resident at Agunbiade Street, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, “This is really strange; it is strange because they are all females.

There was no way the first six corpses that were recovered on Thursday and Sunday could be identified because they were all bloated except through forensic study.

“But the last two corpses were very fresh. One of the

corpses found last Tuesday, in the bush, had blood in the nostrils and mouth.

Whatsoever is the cause of the death is definitely a very painful one.

“Even if these victims were call girls, their killers should have spared them. They would have slept with them without paying them instead

Unlike the other six corpses initially recovered, the last two corpses were fresh. One of the corpses had blood stains on its nose and mouth while the other one inside the drainage was naked, but with no part of the body missing

of killing them. Besides, their bags, clothes and belongings were found where they were dumped.”

All the community did, on discovering the corpses, was to alert the police who came to recover the corpses. They haven’t made any effort to know how the female corpses got to the canal.

Lamenting the strange corpses, another resident, Umoru Adisa, who lives close to the Water Corporation, Awolowo Way, said: “We don’t know what is happening in this community any more. This morning, the police recovered two more bodies.

“Between last Sunday and now, they have recovered nine bodies.

Something is definitely wrong somewhere, as this is getting out of hand.

Government needs to investigate this thoroughly because we don’t know what is happening anymore.”

A landlord in the area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “It is surprising that the community leaders have not taken any step to clean the land, considering the fact that, that same canal at Anibaba is used by some traditional worshippers in

the community. At least, we expect them to have done Oro ritual which is used to cleanse the land in times like this.”

Confirming the incidents, Director, Lagos State Environment Health Monitoring Unit (LSEHMU), Dr Enigbokan Olakunle, said the unit, on Monday, recovered the mutilated body of a female which was later taken to the mortuary.

Mutilated body On the fresh bodies also recovered, Enigbokan said LSEHMU was not informed about the corpses but the unit learned that the police recovered and later took the bodies away.

Also confirming the reports, a leader of the popular vigilante group, known as Onyabo, Chief Kamoru Bomabata, said that one of the corpses, a female, was found in a canal near ‘two hotels (names withheld).

Also confirming the incident, Lagos State Police spokesman, DSP Joseph Offor, told Sunday Vanguard that policemen recovered six corpses from Anibaba River in Ikorodu area of Lagos.

“By the time the corpses were discovered, their bodies had started decomposing,” he said.

PAGE 34 —

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016 08116759757

Three oil refineries for Akwa Ibom

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overnor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has advocated for liberalization of the Petroleum Downstream Sector to make room for inter play of market forces which would regulate the cost of petroleum products.

The governor stated this during the monthly prayer meeting at the Latter House Chapel, Government House, Uyo. Emmanuel was speaking against the backdrop of the scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS) created by the marketers who have closed their stations and in the process deny motorists access to

•Governor Udom Emmanuel

the product. “Petroleum marketers are hoarding fuel on the pretext that the just concluded National Economic Council would push for the removal of petroleum subsidy. Let me clarify that during our last meeting, even at the Governor’s Forum, subsidy issues were not deliberated.

If at all it will be removed, it’s not going to be immediately, so there’s no point hoarding fuel hoping that subsidy will be removed for them to enjoy super abnormal profits. “ “Let’s not take things to the extreme. Yesterday no station was opened in the state. I am of the view that if

subsidy is removed, the interplay of market forces will bring down the price to where it should be. At present, landing cost of crude oil in the current market price is #78. with liberalization, anybody can come in, refine and sell the product. This way, the product will be cheaper, so I want to see the stations opened.”

He announced that three refineries have indicated interest to start operations in the state and warned marketers against contravening the miscellaneous code which, he said, is punishable by law.

Empowerment: DESOPADEC to increase number of beneficiaries in Ndokwa

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elta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) is to increase the number of empowered people in Ndokwa.

The Executive Director in Charge of Social Services Development of the commission, Hon Ochor Chris Ochor, during an empowerment programme at Ashaka, in Ndokwa East

By Festus Ahon, Asaba

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HE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, family in Delta State heaved a sigh of relief when the news of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s victory at the Court of Appeal filtered in from Abuja at about 2pm on December 24, 2015, a day before Christmas.

Uncertainty had enveloped the Okowa family, his appointees and indeed all PDP members in the state when they heard that the Appeal Court, which had been sitting in Benin City, Edo State had relocated to Abuja to deliver its judgment on the petitions brought before it by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the 2015 polls in Delta, Chief Great Ogboru, and his All Progressives Congress, APC, counterpart, Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor.

Ogboru and Emerhor had approached the appellate court to challenge the decision of the lower tribunal which upheld the victory of Okowa when it delivered judgment on their petitions on October 23.

Since Friday, December 18, when the news of the decision of the appellate court’s resolve to move the judgment to C M Y K

Local Government Area of Delta State stated that, just as some of the beneficiaries of the programme appreciated him and the commission for the programme.

Ochor who spoke to newsmen at the occasion, said that over 200 beneficiaries, made of youths, women, widows and the physically challenged, were empowered, while the

commission will increase the number of beneficiaries in the area so that majority of Ndokwa people will not only be self-reliant, but also be employers of labour.

While pleading with the beneficiaries to protect and put to proper use the starter packs given to them, he called on those that did not benefit to be patient as the exercise was a continuous one as directed by Governor

Ifeanyi Okowa in line with the SMART agenda of the state government.

Meanwhile, some of the beneficiaries of the programme from Ukwuani LGA thanked Ochor for the gesture. The beneficiaries, who spoke through Mr Kingsley Emeke, said the empowerment was the best Christmas and New Year gift they ever received, as the materials and cash gifts will go a long way to end the year, and begin the New Year, 2016.

God’s Yuletide gift for Okowa Abuja filtered in, prayer warriors and non- prayer warriors alike in the PDP family did not know sleep as they embarked on massive prayers for the victory of the governor at the Court of Appeal.

Every PDP home went on its kneels to God, asking Him to sustain Okowa’s declaration as the winner of the April 11 governorship election in Delta by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. For Okowa and his party, it was the second hurdle to cross to affirm the governor ’s victory at the election. As a matter of fact, Okowa had been unsettled since his opponents went to the appellate court to challenge the judgment of the election petitions tribunal.

The governor, his family, political appointees, elected officers on the platform of the PDP, the party leadership and faithful, immediately after the verdict, converged at the Government House Chapel, Asaba to offer thanks to God. Okowa, overwhelmed by joy, danced to the glory of God and was joined by his appoin-

•Governor Ifeanyi Okowa tees and other top government functionaries.

The congregation sang praise and worship songs in appreciation of what many of them described as God’s Christmas gift for the Governor and the PDP family.

The governor, who beamed with smiles, was clad in white native attire as he sang during the service.

In his sermon, the Chaplain of the Government House Chapel, Venerable Charles

Osemenam, said: “The door of prosperity has been opened in Delta. God’s name will always be glorified; the victory at the Court of Appeal was the victory of the faithfulness of God, our God cannot fail.”

Okowa, who spoke to newsmen moments after the thanksgiving service, said his victory was made possible by God through the prayers of Deltans who came out massively to vote for him in the April 2015 gubernatorial election.

He said: “In the last few days, there have been rumours, speculations but, we continued to trust in the Lord.

I thank God for His faithfulness and I appreciate all Deltans for your prayers and support. The wish of Deltans expressed in the April 2015 elections have been upheld”.

Indeed, God answered Okowa and his supporters prayers with the judgment going in their favour. Without mincing words, Okowa and the PDP family were unsettled until the judgment was delivered.

MUSLIM ELITE TO BUHARI:

Restructure educational system

BY YINKA AJAYI President Muhammodu Buhari has been urged by the Ansa-ru-deen Old Students Association, of Isolo, Lagos, 6266 Sit to restructure the nation’s educational system.

The group stated this at the end of the year celebration held in MaryLand, Lagos.

Speaking at the occasion, the President of the group, Achietech Mutiu Abou, stated:”To revive our lost glory in the education sector, there is need for change.

But definitely, President Muhammudu Buhari’s change mantra is yet to materialise in this sector. If Buhari restructures the sector, the impact will be enormous nation wide!”.

The group, however, urge the Federal Government to instill discipline as a core value in order to standardise educational system in Nigeria, in terms of restructuring the system to suit modern

technology obtainable in the developed world.

He called on other old students associations nationwide to contribute to the development of their

schools in order to equip tomorrow’s leaders and the society at large. “For instance, our set, in the past years, equiped the computer class of

Ansa-ru-deen Secondary School, Isolo, Lagos with about 20 computer desktops.

We also built a new assembly hall.”

In the same vein, the pioneer President and prefect of the set, Mr. Waheed Ayo Thompson, acknowledge that discipline is the core missing link in our educational sector.

Madam Ogunniyi for burial Jan 8

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he remains of the late Mad am Patience Adebisi Ogunniyi, aged 80, will be buried on Friday, January 8.

According to the funeral arrangements by the family, service of songs holds on Wednesday, January 6 at Ire Akari Estate, Isolo, while the Christian wake takes place Thursday, January 7 at Ire Akari Estate playground.

The funeral service holds on Friday 8 at the Ogunniyi residence in Ire Akari with interment following immediately. The outing /thanksgiving service takes place at Zion Event Centre, Okota-Isolo to be conducted by Christ Apostolic Chuch, (Centre of Glory).

She is survived by children.

The late Mrs P. Ogunniyi

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 35

Uncommon governance:The bane of Akwa Ibom State

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tim, an old school mate, has mastery of grassroots democracy having been involved in politics right from our university days (Ibadan of course). The only point he always makes which sounds irrational to me is his assertion that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would for the next 50 years win any election in his state, Akwa Ibom. When I remind him that the major advocates of that idea had themselves left the party, he assures me that all those who claim to have left PDP are not only on political sabbaticals, but that they are in essence serving as the party ’s ambassadors wherever. It was thus with a rude shock that I read media reports a few days ago that some 5,000 members of my friend’s party had decamped to the All Progressive Congress (APC). My worry was really not the decamping because I know that the 2 parties concerned have an unwritten agreement to occasionally swap their

members; my worry was that the alleged latest massive decamping reportedly took place in Obot Akara Local Government Area which happens to be Etim’s place of birth and current residence.

The event according to the media also witnessed the official commissioning of the Obot Akara Secretariat of the APC and a reception in honour of its candidate who recently won his election petition at the Court of Appeal. Painfully, all efforts to get Etim to explain the issue have failed.

With calls to all his telephone lines neither answered nor returned, I just hope Etim was not among the decampees. But that does not really matter because changing parties now and again is the norm in Nigeria. However, with media reports that many Ibom people are unhappy with what they perceive as the unending tele-guiding of Governor Udom Emmanuel by his PhD,Depar tment of Philosophy, University of Lagos 08116759758

A critical phenomenology of Christmas (3) he Christian religion in its early form is the T work and expression of the

Christian church. But we cannot say that, speaking of Jesus as an individual man, we know that he explicitly intended to found the Christian church.” Now that we have looked at Christmas and the views of some scholars concerning the status and historicity of Jesus, let us harvest the main fruits of our discourse. First of all, whatever the historical status of Jesus of Nazareth, it is incontrovertible that Christmas, as it is being celebrated worldwide, has no biblical warrant. It is the crystallisation of superstitious ideas and practices drawn from ancient Rome and other M e d i t e r r a n e a n communities that constitute the substance of the Gospels. The Bible does not contain a precise statement of the actual day and month when Jesus was born. It follows that Christmas celebration is not based on actual historical event.

We have noted already how Pope Julius 1 imposed that date on Christendom, although the Jehovah’s Witnesses have consistently refused to mark the birthday of Jesus on December 25, or C M Y K

on any other day, because, according to the sect, he never commanded his followers to celebrate it.

A devout Christian is likely to consider it sacrilegious if anyone expresses scepticism about whether Jesus of the Gospels actually lived.

However, Christian dogmatism and sentiments apart, there is no solid evidence to back the claim that he did, or that the narratives in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are historical records of real events.

Indeed, there is abundant evidence indicating that Jesus is a composite figure created from the synthesis of ancient Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Roman mythological traditions, blended with some strand of the messianic tradition in Judaism. These facts, and more, are well known to serious students of the New Testament.

Therefore, as believers celebrate Christmas, they should bear in mind that the event is more of mythology and fantasy than reality. And no matter how blasphemous it might appear to the faithful, they should know that there are good reasons for thinking that Jesus Christ, as depicted in the New Testament, is a myth as well. There might

predecessor, it is easy to imagine that the problem in Akwa Ibom is beyond that of Etim’s local government area. The said tel-guiding we hear results in huge expenses on cosmetic matters which do not impact in the strict sense on the living conditions of the people. A good example is the recent exceedingly wasteful sponsorship of a Christmas carol which has

The way out is for Governor Udom Emmanuel an accomplished banker to be himself by putting on his professional cap to turn around the economy of the state and engage in purposeful spending so as to earn the confidence of his people been holding annually since 2008. The event which was held at Uyo Township Stadium was as usual colourful and indeed uncommon as the government assembled top national and international artistes to perform on the occasion watched by

well have been a bohemian Jewish rabbi born around 4 B.C., who taught a form of Judaism different from the conventional version. But all the supernatural attributes and occurrences attributed to Jesus in The Bible were derived from, and are analogous to, superstitions and legends in ancient Mediterranean and Oriental worlds. Take the story of virgin birth, which is very popular in many antiquated communities. In ancient Egyptian mythology, for instance, the god, Toth, was said to announce the forthcoming birth of a son to the virgin-queen Mautmes. In Persian mythology, Saoshyas, the future savior of mankind and conqueror of death, was miraculously conceived by his virginmother from the seed of Zarathustra, who himself was born of a fifteen year old virgin, Dughdova, after the latter had been visited by a shaft of light from the supernatural realm. Indian mythology proclaims that Krishna was born from the rib of a virgin who belonged to the royal line of Devaci. Even Buddha was said to have been born through divine intervention, not through the natural process. It is clear, from the foregoing, that the myth of virgin birth is not unique to Christianity.

We have examined the Christian celebration, Christmas, and concluded that it is not biblical. We have thrown doubt on the historicity of the character named Jesus, indicated that even if

thousands of guests. No one knows the exact cost of the event as it is not in the character of the government to disclose public accounts. Even the exact amount left behind by the immediate past administration has reportedly remained unknown.

One can only hazard a guess that it must have as usual run into billions of naira and may have surpassed the immediate past edition which was held on December 13, 2014 featuring some 25, 270 strong Godswill Akpabio Unity Choir.

This uncommon choir which is estimated to be the largest number of carol singers on earth is reportedly recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, and is at least 10,000 bigger than the previous record set by the CENTI Choir in Bogota, Columbia. That some corporate bodies cosponsored the fiesta does not however make it the priority of the people.

Indeed, the poor could not have accessed the event in the stadium. Some may have watched it on television but how many Ibom people have the government empowered to own television sets from where to watch the uncommon event? How many such TV owners had light on that fateful day to watch the event? In short, what did the average Ibom citizen gain from the uncommon Christian extravaganza?

If answers to these questions do not reveal a pro-people policy, it seems irrational to continue to hold the uncommon event especially at this time of economic recession.

Interestingly, some 3 months earlier, government had similarly rolled out the drums to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the creation of the state. While the celebration is not in itself a bad idea, should be it done in a lavish and ostentatious manner as Akwa Ibom did on September 23, 2015?

Analysts imagine that it must have cost billions of naira as every official event in the state always involves more than 2 weeks of media campaign featuring billboards, press, radio and TV advertising; production of branded Tshirts, artistes and entertainers’ fees, Travels, hotels and accommodations to guests & pastors & former governors, Foods & drinks, Mobilization of women form the LGAs, decorations and most importantly expensive LIVE TV broadcast. Is it not instructive that Katsina State which was created the same day did not toe that line of profligacy?

In the midst of all these uncommon things, the government is unable to accomplish the most common issues of governance. For example, doctors in the state last week threatened to down tools following the nonpayment of over 15 months

of their salaries. The State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in a statement announced that the decision to embark on the strike followed restiveness among members in state government hospitals as a result of their unpaid emoluments. The doctors also complained bitterly that the State Government had employed and posted 61 Medical Officers to various hospitals across the state whose salaries are yet to be paid some 15 months after their engagement Against this backdrop, the way out is for Governor Udom Emmanuel an accomplished banker to be himself by putting on his professional cap to turn around the economy of the state and engage in purposeful spending so as to earn the confidence of his people. He can for instance; complete the Specialist Hospital which though previously politically commissioned was uncompleted. Such a common project makes more sense than frittering away billions of Naira on singing, celebrations and merriments just to satisfy a sponsor.

He should remember that it is people that matters most in governance as shown at his inauguration when an embarrassingly dead silence of disapproval greeted his renaming of the Akwa Ibom International Stadium- the “Nest of Champions” after Godswill Akpabio his predecessor.

there was one, he probably was not born in December 25, and drawn attention to the fact that the miraculous stories in the gospels stories about Jesus also exist in other world religions. The implication of all this is that the historical basis of

humankind.

For Christians, the significance of Jesus’ birth does not lie in its historicity or in its agreement with the research findings of science. Rather, the “coming of the son of man” is a momentous event in human history since it provides a unique opportunity for humans, especially “the chosen ones,” to be reconciled with God after the Original Sin. Yet, for an unapologetic unbeliever like me, the Jesus narratives instantiate the futile efforts of humanity to project its fears, hopes, anxieties, dreams and aspirations to an imaginary divine realm where the glaring evils and imperfections in the real world would be eliminated.

It is unfortunate that a religion, which ought to help humanity grow spiritually, has become an instrument of deceit, glorification of selfindulgent materialism, and plain fraud.

Ordinarily, one would wish that Christianity, and therewith, the Christmas celebrations associated with it, would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon, because religion is an attempts to satisfy, in a grossly inadequate and mostly irrational manner I must say, certain existential needs of humans.

Moreover, as long as human beings continue to waste scare resources of the earth in planning to kill each other instead of deploying their incredible cognitive and emotional

intelligence to reduce drastically both manmade and existential evils, religion will continue to play an important role in the lives of billions of people globally.

The spiritual core of Christmas has almost been swallowed up by crass materialism.

But it is not just the spiritual essence of the occasion that is endangered – more significant is that the whole concept of virgin birth of “saviour of the world Christmas celebrations is extremely weak.

Evidently, belief in Jesus, his virgin birth and alleged mission on earth are both mythological and eschatological at the same time. They are mythological because the key events, such as his virgin birth and purported resurrection, are ruled out by science.

They are eschatological given the fact that Jesus’ birth is ultimately meaningful because it has a redemptive mission for believers in the so-called judgment or last day when God would judge

With specific reference to the Nigerian situation, it is obvious that for millions of people, this year ’s celebrations would not be as enjoyable as they expected at the beginning of the year. Things are generally difficult, and the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is grappling with the serious challenges of nation building in a stochastic economic environment characterised by dwindling crude oil prices and steady decline in the value of the naira in relation to other currencies such as the dollar, pound sterling and euro.

Fortunately, Nigerians are very resilient people. Despite the hardships, people would eat, drink and make merry during Christmas.

In my opinion, however, the best way to celebrate the occasion is for those that have to share with those that do not have. It is silly for one to have too much to drink, too much to eat and even throw away when there are thousands of people who do not have enough to eat and enjoy the festive season. At this time, and always, we should be our brothers’ keepers, in the knowledge that inspite of our differences, we are all members of the same family who need one another to be fully human.

Merry Christmas in arrears to everyone.

Concluded.

PAGE 36—SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

DASUKIGATE, ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

I don’t believe in ‘unmoderated’ rule —Prof. Odekunle, Sagay of lawCommittee member •Says Mr President ‘gentle and constrained’ on graft

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ROFESSOR Femi Odekunle, an expert in criminology, was an aide to Lt. General Oladipo Diya as Chief of General Staff (CGS) under the Sani Abacha regime and one of those held for the 1997 alleged coup against the then Nigerian leader.

Odekunle is currently a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on AntiCorruption set up by President Muhammadu Buhari and headed by Prof.

Itse Sagay (SAN). In this interview, he speaks on the mandate of the committee with particular reference to the $2.1billion arms purchase case against former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, among others.

What actually is the mandate of the Presidential Advisory Committee on AntiCorruption?

Our committee covers everything, except that we are not operational. We don’t engage in execution because we are not like the EFCC and the ICPC, that arrest people but, in terms of what government should do to actually attack corruption in all its ramifications, our job is to advise the Presidency. Specifically, we advise in the area of the laws, the operations of the EFCC, the ICPC; about certain policies concerning judges, concerning senior lawyers and how they are collaborating with corrupt people.

For example, we met with the top echelon of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, and our Chairman (Professor Itse Sagay) was telling them that whoever is collaborating with looters, they are themselves looters.

These are the kinds of things that we advise government

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on - how do we deal with corruption?

For instance, do we not shame names? Do we not need to withdraw from these people national honours and expose those who have been found to be collaborating with those involved in corruption? Or do we not need to go round the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and some major capital cities and identify the ownership of houses and ask people whether they have been paying taxes on those houses and where they even got the money to build such houses in the first place?

How can the ICPC and the EFCC actually train their staff in such a way that they will be motivated and enabled to attend to their work; or how do we enhance the prosecutorial abilities of those in the Ministry of Justice to be able to attend to the cases before them?

How do we mobilise judges to deal with the cases before them more than relying on technicalities?

You appear to have packed so much?

Our job is advisory and it is not for public consumption. But in the course of our duties, we meet with agencies, whether it is CBN, Customs Service, EFCC, ICPC, and extract suggestions from them on how best to do their work and thereafter we advise government on what to do.

But any agency discovered to be derelict in its responsibilities, we would inform the government and some of the activities you see in the Ministry of Education, in terms of probing certain institutions, are as a result of some of the work we have been doing.

In terms of advising the government on the operations of the EFCC and

the arrest and re-arrest of people…

We would not want a situation as was the case in the past whereby people would be arrested, they would end up getting bail and the cases would go on for years and these people will now go to the National Assembly to make laws for Nigerians. Our position is that investigations should be thorough and detailed, and, once people are arrested, the judicial process should be proceeded with swiftly and that is why the 2015 Administration of Criminal Justice Act comes in handy because it disallows unnecessary adjournment and, whenever a case of corruption or something like that comes up, it should be handled, with hardly any break in-between.

But there are those who say impunity is returning and ….

Look, we have met the justices, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria and justices of the Supreme Court, and we laid before them these observations and they have said that they are willing to help the country fight corruption, but also it is part of the responsibility of the government to ensure the prosecutorial ability of the Ministry of Justice, and the agencies saddled with the job of prosecuting because it is whatever comes before the court that the judge will deal with, without public sentiments.

Specifically, many say if a man is out on bail, on what grounds does the EFCC re-arrest him, especially when the order is that he should not be re-arrested, and many are raising questions about the integrity of the process?

I do not think so. You see, one of the problems we have in this country is that we put the interest of the

individual above the interest of the collective. As a professional criminologist, I am not for unmoderated democracy, I’m not for unmoderated rule of law in which the rights of the individual will be so hyperbolised and override those of the collective.

If a man is accused of stealing N1billion, and he goes to court and the SANs, with all their shenanigans and technicalities, using the Constitution, to say you have committed a bailable offence whereas the consequences are more than

As a professional criminologist, I am not for unmoderated democracy, I’m not for unmoderated rule of law in which the rights of the individual will be so hyperbolised and override those of the collective

what is bailable, then you are able to get bail; then tomorrow, we find that you have stolen another billion naira, that is another offence and, therefore, you should be arrested. To me, once you get a bail for a particular offence, that does not mean you cannot be arrested for another offence. As far as I’m concerned, the government has even been very gentle and constrained in doing its job and dealing with this monster of corruption. If you know the damage that is done to us morally, psychological, socioculturally and financially, image wise, you will not be going into this discussion about the human rights of certain people who are actually ruining us. If we don’t make examples of these characters, sooner than later, our future and that of our children are jeopardised.

Are you saying…

Don’t get me wrong please, I’m not saying peoples’ rights should not be respected, but I’m saying that in respecting peoples’ rights, you must respect the rights of the collective.

So, when a man has the resources to hire the best lawyers and is released on bail and he uses his resources to sabotage the evidence, to deal with witnesses…

That’s an assumption or can you give us any specific instance of what you’re saying…

That is the time they are always sick. Immediately you arrest a man, that is when he is sick and that is the time he wants to go for medical attention abroad.

This type of nonsense has to stop. I believe President Buhari and his government have been very gentle in dealing with these characters. I get emotional when I talk about corruption.

Continues on page 38

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 37

OPEN LETTER TO BUHARI

Nigeria under statesponsored tyranny – Femi Fani-Kayode

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R. President, as one of your most loyal and faithful subjects who has nothing but the utmost respect for your person and your office, I am constrained to write you this open letter. This is because there are issues I believe are important for you to clarify and to come clean on. I say this because some of your assertions of late are at best contradictory.

Whichever side of the political divide we are on, I believe we can all agree on one thing: The prosecution of the war against terror is not something that any of us should play politics with. This is especially so given the fact that human lives are at stake and the very existence of our nation is under threat. Like much of the rest of the world, our country is going through hell at the hands of jihadists and Islamist terrorists.

There is no gainsaying that we must all come to terms with the fact that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Al Shabab and Boko Haram are nothing but bloodthirsty murderers.

They are indeed the scum of the earth, the troublers of humanity and the vermin of hell. It is with this in mind that I urge you to take the war against terror far more seriously than you are doing and plead with you to stop passing the buck.

Your penchant for blaming your failings in this regard on the previous administration is simply nauseating and it does not serve you well. You continuously contradict yourself when it comes to this matter.

We your subjects look up to you for consistency, strength, unequivocal commitment, a firm resolve and the ‘’leadership from the front’’ that you promised during your presidential campaign in this war.

We do not want and neither do we need doublespeak, lame excuses and buck-passing.

Permit me to point out a few examples of your contradictory assertions and your buckpassing in this short intervention. Initially, you claimed that your predecessor in office, President Goodluck Jonathan, never bought any arms and that, instead, he squandered and stole all the money that was appropriated for the procurement of arms.

Yet, when the British Minister of Defense visited you in the Presidential Villa the other day, the story changed.

You did a u-turn and gleefully

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told him and the wider world that Jonathan bought arms with raw cash.

One wonders which story you shall come up with next and which one you will conjure up in the future.

Kindly tell us what the position is: Is it that Jonathan did not buy arms at all and stole all the money or is it that he used cash to buy arms? You cannot have it both ways. It is either one or the other.

Glaring doublespeak Quite apart from your glaring doublespeak on this matter, there was another issue which you ought to have raised with your highly esteemed and respected British guest. You failed to tell him that his was one of the countries that not only refused to sell weapons to us during the course of this bitter conflict but that also helped to impose and enforce the international arms embargo on our country even though we are at war.

This resulted in the unnecessary death of thousands of our people because we found it difficult to procure the weapons to protect them. Your guest’s country insisted on toeing the American line and doing this to us, even though we were fighting a war against a relentless, well-motivated, well-funded and well-armed fighting force that Global Terror Index has described as the ‘’deadliest terrorist organization in the world’’. One is forced to ask: With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Given the fact that the embargo was in place, one wonders how we were supposed to procure arms unless we did so with raw cash in the black market. The alternative was to buy none at all, to do nothing and to allow Boko Haram to take Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos.

Perhaps that is precisely what your Western friends and allies wanted but, thankfully, it never came to pass.

Despite the challenges and constraints Jonathan faced, instead of losing any more ground, he rose to the occasion and retook no less than 22 local government areas and virtually pushed Boko Haram out of Nigeria. The only place that they occupied by the time the election took place was Sambisa forest.

The former President achieved this with those arms that he bought with raw cash.

This is apparently what you are now complaining about.

Permit me to remind you that it

is those same arms that Jonathan bought with raw cash that your army is still using till today. Yet, sadly, since you were sworn- in as President, seven months ago, you have lost some of those same local government areas that were earlier recovered and they are now back in the hands of terrorists.

‘Technical’ victory Despite this, you keep telling the international community and the Nigerian people that we are ‘’making progress’’ in the war against terror. As a matter of fact, you went as far as to say that we had ‘’won the war’’ against Boko Haram and your Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, echoed that grotesque mendacity and reiterated that sentiment by adding the words ‘’technically won’’ (whatever that may mean) to the equation.

Sadly, two days later, on Christmas day, in what can only be described as an eloquent response from the terrorists, scores of innocent civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Borno State and a whole community was burnt to the ground. Again, on Sunday, December 27, Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, came

Instead of deploying all the power of the state against Boko Haram, you have spent all your energy and resources trying to teach the former National Security Advisor, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and all your other perceived enemies the lesson of their lives

Femi Fani-Kayode under heavy attack from the terrorists. Yet again, on Monday, December 28, in Adamawa State, Boko Haram launched a series of suicide bomb attacks in which at least 50 civilians were killed. So much for having ‘’won the war against Boko Haram’’, whether ‘’technically’’ or otherwise.

Curiously, the next thing that you did was to tell Nigerians that you would ‘’persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms’’. One is compelled to ask: Why would you have to persuade them to drop their arms if you had already defeated them and won the war against them?

Persuasion as a weapon In any case, this would be the first time in the history of modern warfare that a sitting President has sought to destroy and defeat a vicious and relentless terrorist organization and win the war against terror simply with the awesome and devastating weapon of persuasion. Perhaps you should recommend that same tactic to the Americans and the rest of the international community as an effective and credible weapon to adopt in their war against ISIL, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab and all the other jihadist groups that plague the world.

Whilst you are at it, perhaps you could also persuade Boko Haram to free the Chibok girls.

It is disturbing to note that despite all your campaign promises and assurances that once you are elected President the girls would be rescued or returned, nothing has been done or heard about any of them ever since you were sworn- in. Worste still, the Bring Back Our Girls group, which was essentially an appendage of your election organization, together with its distinguished leaders and conveners, appear to have gone very quiet. I guess they are busy trying to persuade Boko Haram to drop their arms too.

Sadly, you appear to be

detached from reality. Instead of fighting the war against terror, you are making it worse with the killing of Shia Muslims in Zaria on December 12, locking up their leader Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky and opening yet another war front in our country. The last thing that we need is for Hezbollah or the Iranian Republican Guard to rise to the occasion, take up the challenge, jump into the fray and decide to protect and avenge their Shia Muslim brothers and sisters in northern Nigeria.

Yet, despite the reprehensible and indefensible actions of your military commanders in Zaria, you have refused to show any remorse for what was undoubtedly a war crime against fellow Nigerians and you have not prosecuted the officers and military personnel that were involved in the butchery. Instead the homes of the victims and those that share their Shia faith have been burnt to the ground in Zaria and their graves and burial sites have been dug up and desecrated.

Cameroonian attack Worse still, you have refused to defend our country. I say this because a few days ago the Cameroonian military invaded our country, violated our territorial integrity and savagely murdered over 70 Nigerians in their village before burning it down.

Your government refused to acknowledge that this event even took place, despite media reports. You did not console or express condolences to the families of the victims or retaliate against the Cameroonians.

You did not even warn them or demand an apology or reparations from them. It could not have happened under Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Shagari, Abacha, Abubakar, Shonekan, Mohammed, Balewa or

Continues on page 38

PAGE 38 —SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

or third and one wonders how would those judges feel when they’ve given an order that on no grounds should the person be re-arrested and is granted on bail because he has to come and face the charges against him…?

Why I agree to some of the points you raised, while admitting that this is not a classroom, you must understand the nature of bourgeois law, it is meant to protect the interest of those who have economic or political power. But what we are trying to say is that this kind of approach will eventually ruin the collective; therefore, those who have conscience should use the loopholes to also deal with the offenders.

‘I am not for unmoderated rule of law’ Continued from page 36

Some people say this fight against corruption has been one-sided and it is as if it is only members of the last administration that are corrupt and have been interrogated.

I’m sorry…hehe…sorry for that appearance, but I do not think the President will be purposely go after those who served in the last administration. What I think has been happening is that what we call the lowhanging fruits of corruption is what is coming for attention. Remember he said he will not go as far back as…. Okay, somebody like me, I will not go as far back as 1986, but he says that the problem is so enormous and so extensive that let him start with the last administration, the most obvious, that is what I call low-hanging fruits and that is why it appears as if the other party seems to be at the end of the fight. I do not think the government is purposely going after the last administration, I do not think so. The government is going against officials who have stolen money and, to me, from what I am seeing and hearing, he has not even gone after 1% of those people who are responsible for our position.

Ok ay, what is unique about the year 1986?

As a social scientist and criminologist who has been studying corruption since the early 1980s, that was the watershed in Nigeria’s regression into corrupt disposition. At that point in time, we had had a government that was trying to get rid of the problem created in the Second Republic, the Shagari government; and that was Buhari, in which he used extraordinary measures to try to tackle the problem of corruption. But immediately the next government came in, in order to get popular with the elites and the lawyers, they released all those who had been found guilty of corruption, systematically, they returned their properties to them, systematically, settlement became the engine of government; in fact, somebody used to say that before that regime, the average civil servant was a petty thief, but that immediately after that regime, the average civil servant became an armed

robber. Now, that situation regressed so much so that as of the time of Jonathan, the Nigerian government had become a racket, a mafia racket, in which a few people, using their offices, actually fleeced the country to penury, to a state of economic kwashiokor. That is why I, personally, in order to make everybody feel confident about our fight against corruption, we should go back as far back as 1986 in a systematic manner, in an orderly fashion - it may take us five years, it may take us 10 years, but there must be a systematic approach to this fight against corruption because what we are hearing now about Dokpesi, about Dasuki or whoever, is just a tip of the iceberg.

What happens daily in every MDA, in every bank and in the private sector is ruining the economy. Government is not just attacking ABCD, it is about the low-hanging fruits, the immediate ones confronting government.

We hear the military say we follow the rules of engagement but in a democracy, there’s got to be rule of law and a presumption of innocence.

By all means, whoever is found guilty should face the music but there are rules to be followed. If people go to jail for contract splitting,

Professor Odekunle why should an agency of government be involved in splitting charges because if you say if somebody released on bail is discovered to be involved in another offence, then he should be picked up and arrested, as if you just discovered the charge. It gives the impression that they are presuming them guilty even before trial?

If you understood what I said, i didn’t say they were splitting charges.

I got what you said. Is it at the point of the person being released that the new charges were

But why is it that they keep discovering these charges whenever they are released on bail.

It’s not the first, second

•THIS INTERVIEW WAS FIRST AIRED ON CHANNELS TELEVISION

Nigeria under state-sponsored ttyranny yranny – Femi Fani-Kayode Continued from page 37

The government is going against officials who have stolen money and, to me, from what I am seeing and hearing, he has not even gone after 1% of those people who are responsible for our position

suddenly found? That is the issue here prof?

Going by law, you may be arrested for burglary. And if later it was discovered that you were involved in armed robbery, that is another offence and, if you are arrested for that, you would be charged accordingly but separately.

So, I do not think they were suddenly splitting charges.

I believe what is happening is that they charge as they discover.

Why not amend the laws because nobody knows those who would occupy the office tomorrow and then cite these unlawful precedents to do damage?

In 1997/1998, I as a victim of the violation of my human rights, so I am not against the respect of human rights, but I am saying the interest of the nation must be paramount. The interest of the nation must come first just as government has nipped the issue of the South East in the bud and that of El-Zakzakky and those who are criticising the government should commend government and not criticise.

indeed any other former Nigerian President or Head of State. If any of them had been in power and the Cameroonians cultivated the effrontery to do such a thing, there would have been consequences.

Yet, you did nothing to avenge this affront or to defend our honor. What happened to the gallant and brave General Buhari that courageously led our troops into victory in Chad in the early 1980s? What happened to the man that we all admired and looked up to because of his military exploits in Chad?

What happened to the war hero that gave the Chadians a ‘’bloody nose’’ for daring to attack a Nigerian village and that almost took Ndjamena, the Chadian capital? What happened to the man who proved to the Libyans and their Chadian proxies that Nigerians knew how to fight?

It appears that you have changed and that you are no longer the man that you used to be.

State – sponsored tyranny You refuse to tell the world that our military is terribly demoralized, our soldiers are suffering heavy casualties and are not being paid their salaries regularly and, worst of all, you have failed to procure a single bullet or weapon for them to use in the last seven months since you came to power.

Instead of deploying all the power of the state against Boko Haram, you have spent all your energy and resources trying to teach the former National Security Advisor, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and all your other perceived enemies the lesson of their lives by misrepresenting them before the world, subjecting them to statesponsored tyranny and the most insidious form of persecution, violating their human rights and telling the world that they stole and shared money that was meant for the purchase of arms.

You have also misinformed

the Nigerian people about the rules and conventions that are applied when it comes to the administration of security funds and about the fact that it is the National Assembly alone that has the right to probe the use of such funds as part of their oversight functions. To cap it all, you have claimed you did not receive any benefit from the NSA ‘s office whilst Jonathan was in power. This is an assertion which we all know is, at best, questionable.

You must understand that any leader or government that is motivated by bitterness, fear, hate, vengeance and malice will eventually hit the rocks and crash like a pack of cards. You must appreciate the fact that God is watching and that He sees and knows all.

*Fani-Kayode was Minister of Aviation under the Obasanjo administration

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016 — PAGE 39

Doing business in Nigeria riskier than fighting Boko Haram – Eric Umeofia, Erisco Foods CEO

BY JIMOH BABATUNDE Talking to the Chief Executive Officer of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, you will feel the pains of a man that has high hopes for the country’s manufacturing sector, but feels dejected by the activities of those holding the economy down. His tomato paste plant in Lagos, one of the biggest in Africa, provides jobs for many Nigerians and he believes he can create more jobs if the system is clean. Today, the industry is plagued by importation of substandard but cheap tomato paste from China, so, Umeofia is left to fight to keep his local plant afloat and has become a strong advocate for the manufacture of goods locally as against importation. In this interview, Umeofia shares his pains and hopes for the manufacturing sector.

On the manufacturing sector he sector is not doing well for now because of the bad foundation laid by previous governments.

There is no pretence about it, the manufacturing sector anywhere in the world is given due attention.

Manufacturers are respected anywhere in the world ,except Nigeria because we have not realized the importance of the real sector to grow the economy.

The English people know why they call it the real sector. In some clime, manufacturers have estates where they are provided everything from roads to water, they can even buy cars on loan. There is no sector of the economy that creates employment more than the manufacturing sector anywhere in the world. Before the advent of this government, some of us manufacturers felt we made the greatest mistakes of our lives by being investors.

If not for President Buhari, I would have shut down this business by now or take it elsewhere.

The previous governments, particularly that of Jonathan, allowed importation, to the detriment of manufacturers.

They were interested in making more money than paying attention to quality by allowing substandard goods to come into the country.

For example, a tomato paste should at least have 40% real tomato; other ingredients are water and salt. So it means that in each tank you are mixing , you need to use six to eight drums of tomato; it depends on the quantity you are producing. That will make it to be concentrated, but in some countries, they use a drum of tomato and add starch , colour to make it look like real tomatoes.That colour they are adding is dangerous to our health as it blocks blood vessels. We found out the Chinese tricks, we reported to NAFDAC, but NAFDAC has not done anything about it.

If not that CBN came to help us with the foreign exchange policy that triggered our sales, we would have gone under. Now, these people have found means of smuggling these products across our borders. So as manufacturers in this country, even criminals on the street are more respected than us.

We are creating jobs for their people, I will continue to appeal to Nigerians to avoid foreign foods and other products for the economy to grow. The government agencies did not listen to us, but now they are seeing why we have been shouting

T

C M Y K

• Chief Eric Umeofia Sometimes I ask myself why am I wasting my time manufacturing as those who went into trading are richer than me all because I chose to help my country. It should not be so. Nigeria is not a manufacturing nation.

Foreigners come here saying they want to invest, but all they are interested in is to exploit the system. If you know the damages they are doing to our economy, you will not believe it. If we have good economic policies, no Nigeria will be out of work as there will be enough for all in the next four years except you are lazy. A situation where a foreigner comes to invest N100 million, after 2-3 years takes out N1 billion out of the economy is unacceptable. That person is wounding the economy the more. There is no country that its economy is driven by foreigners.

But in our country, government policies favour foreigners, whatever they say is law. And in their countries, that is not possible. They will jail you, but here because of corruption, they are free. The foreigners bleed our economy, criminalize our people, introduce corruption to government agencies, yet nobody is imprisoned. In their countries, Nigerians are imprisoned for flimsy excuses.

Government needs to do something urgently on our immigration policy to stop these people.

Britain just did that. The Nigerian government should ensure that any foreigner that comes here has a good reason to be here. I have businesses in Angola and UAE, all the nonsense they are doing here, they cannot try it in Angola.

Last year, about 21 of them were sent packing from Angola with their properties confiscated.

They are making our people slaves in their country. A time will come when the people will revolt.

On the reason for still remaining in manufacturing The passion to grow my country’s economy is what is keeping me going . I read a book on how five people made America what it is today, so I said to myself if people can achieve that in America, I want to be among those that will make Nigeria great. In 1994, my company gave every state government one utility car when we launched Erisco Bonpet, that will show you the type of love I have for my country. By the grace of God, we are very contented and that contentment made me to come back home to establish companies despite the successes we are making in Angola and UAE. But, little did I know that it was a risky venture doing business here in Nigeria. It is riskier than going to fight Boko Haram in Maiduguri to be an indigenous manufacturer here. Because your government agencies work against you as they support foreigners to the detriment of their people.

If I produce with six drums of tomato and someone in China does so with one drum, how can we compete with them?

I wrote a petition to the House of Reps on this and they are working on it . We are creating jobs for their people, I will continue to appeal to Nigerians to avoid foreign foods and other products for the economy to grow. The government agencies did not listen to us, but now they are seeing why we have been shouting.

My life and business are at risk because I am saying what I am seeing. I know reports have been submitted to NAFDAC on the activities of these people, but they will not do the right thing. Indian government recently confiscated $50 million worth of goods belonging to a multi-national and other charges filed in court against it. For infractions. Here, in Nigeria who will do it?

NAFDAC boss will not do it, because he says all is well, but we know it is not.

How do you relate this to some

of our governors going abroad to look for investors?

About three years ago in Ogun State, I bought land wanting to expand my factory, I paid everything payable to government after buying land from some people, just to get C of O, but two and a half years after, no C of O. I wrote petitions and yet they say they want investors. How can investors come when you can’t issue ordinary C of O? What is good about industrialization in this country? There is frustration left and right . If not that I have courage, I would have been frustrated out of this country.

On policies that can assist manufacturers The CBN governor is doing well now. I have come to realise that not that they don’t know what is good, it is because the person at the helm of affairs was not interested then. By the action of the CBN governor now, you will realize that he was interested in performing but didn’t get the support and so he is performing now. I can tell you now that they are listening to advise and by the time they follow the advice step by step, you will see how the government will be praised by those making noise. I want to draw your attention to this again, before now they will create an intervention fund but after six weeks, the whole fund is in India or Lebanon as these people manipulate documents to take the money out of the system.

They frustrate Nigerians.

On access to bank facilities Our commercial banks are opportunistic, they don’t have conscience. They will tell you their board wants them to make profits, but must they kill to make profit?They steal people’s money through agreement, but when you discover they will tell you it was a mistake. It will take them over 90 days to correct the mistake, but if you owe them a dime, they will put all kind of pressure on you to recover their money. The commercial banks are killing the economy because of their selfish interest, none of them is interested in supporting industries. I wanted to build a tomato concentrate plant in Kano in 2009, but a big bank in this country advised me to import instead of investing in the country. They are not interested in committing to development all they are after is buying and selling.

On his company’s backward integration plan We have 460 hectares of tomato plantation in Jigawa, we are about having same hectares in Sokoto now. In this business

it has been our target to have tomato grown everywhere, though the money is not there.

When you want to do backward integration of tomato in this country, you need a minimum of one line to process tomato into concentrate; and it costs $30 to $50 million to do one line. In China, 95 per cent of the factories are owned by government. The same machine that will work 6090 days a year, will work just 35 days in China. So, getting the money isn’t easy. We grow tomato twice a year here in Nigeria. In China, they grow just once a year, the same China that produce once in a year we are importing from them. That shows we don’t know what we are doing. This is why I made up my mind to produce tomato here.

When we started producing tomato in can here they said it was not possible, but today we are doing it. Some people are still deceiving Nigerians that it is still not possible all in a bid to continue importing .So with our backward integration on course, I pray God gives us the power to produce everything about tomato here from planting to packing very soon. We are going into tractor project now as you cannot do agriculture without tractorization.

This is my area, agriculture spare and machinery. So, I am doing everything possible for Nigeria to be rich in agriculture machineries as this is where the world is going now.

There is none in the country that is functioning now, we are the only one, so we plan with our backward integration to support export from this country.

I want to impact my society and this informed my building churches and mosques, I don’t want people to use religion to deceive the people all in the name of tithe. I am a Christian, but I don’t support this idea of tithe. I give what I have to people who need them. I will rather pay my staff well than give tithe to pastor and and also those that come my way.

On his company’s market share in the tomato business If the CBN gives us N100 billion loan and the market is not here, I will not be able to pay back, even without interest . We have a plant for about 450,000 metric tons of tomato paste in a year. As a matter of fact, myself and Dantata can meet the demand needs of Nigeria and export more, but there is no market. Now in the factory, we manage to operate one line.

Everywhere is filled up with products, so I have the capacity to produce, but the substandard products from China have taken over the market. Smuggled products have taken a large chunk of our market share .But, I have the confidence that with this new government things will turn around. I tell Chinese when they come that if you want to do business here bring the plants to Nigeria.

If you give me anything to import for N20 billion and make profit of N18 billion, I will tell you no, let us produce here. That is why I am going back to Sokoto in the first quarter of next year to start production of 20-30, 000 tractors per year.

The government of Sokoto is willing to assist us and we are also doing tomato there.

PAGE 40 —SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016

Emefiele and the economics of the Naira free fall

BY UDO NTUDO

E

ver since the naira entered into a tail-spin, performing woefully against other currencies, there has been an outpouring of concern by disillusioned citizens.

Perhaps because of the high prevalence of poison in contemporary politics in the country, all manner of suggestions have been made.

And one of such suggestions that have not only heightened exasperation among the informed but also exposed the degree of ignorance of their proponents is the tendency to blame the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele for the fate of the naira.

This argument is not only hare-brained but reflective of the tearjerking ignorance that inspires its protagonists.

For starters, elementary economics tells us that the value of any currency is determined by a predictable composite, one of the most critical of which is the aggregate contribution of economic production to the gross domestic product of the economy. For a monoproduct economy like Nigeria’s, which depends almost solely on oil, this scenario, in itself, is well-defined for economic disaster which is exactly what is playing out.

Rather than waste energy in dramatizing ignorance of basic economic principles, protagonists of trending politics, that is dripping with poison and vendetta, should concern themselves with questions like, why has it remained convenient for the FG to continue to grant import waivers for items as basic and ridiculous as tooth picks and bottled water among others that profile the vanity of a lazy middle class?

Rather than review the quantum of rudderless economic policies, which precipitated the exodus of manufacturing companies from Nigeria to neighbouring countries, the apostles of the trending politics of poison and vendetta seem determined to

tackle the same person who has been battling to manage the consequences of the riotous politicking by government.

Like, former Akwa Ibom State governor and the Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who is yet to be credited with the genius of designing the socio-economic renaissance of that state with his revolutionary free and compulsory education programme because of the trending politics of vendetta, Emefiele has been suggested for needless sacrifice , perhaps to whet the enormous capacity for mischief by these hidden persuaders who appear bent on derailing the change

Suddenly, it is so politically convenient to ignore the tested economic fact that any country, which does not produce any thing, has no reason to be alarmed if its currency inevitably slides into danger as the naira is currently doing

proposition by Presdient Muhammadu Buhari.

Suddenly, it is so politically convenient to ignore the tested economic fact that any country, which does not produce any thing, has no reason to be alarmed if its currency inevitably slides into danger as the naira is currently doing.

Besides operating an economy which is insatiable in terms of capacity to absorb every junk brought from

abroad, a sufficient reason to kill the naira, the ill-advised resolve by the principal actors in this government to disparage the immediate political dispensation has, ironically, the combined with other factors to intensify international dismay with and suspicion for the country’s economy.

Did the managers of the rowdy orchestra of anti-corruption expect international confidence in the country ’s economy after key actors, including the president, have repeatedly rendered uncomplimentary testimonies against the economy? Even if the naira had maintained a semblance of stability, how could we have expected a nonproducing economy to behave other than reflect its true economic worth?

For God’s sake, Emefiele should not be made a scapegoat in a political conspiracy that he had no hand in.

Every nation’s currency is a reflection of certain basic economic composites, especially sectoral contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is like a system where a unit can not run faster than the whole. Because the rest of the country was in a hurry to rape the ‘conquered’ territory of Biafra and outlying regions, every one abandoned what they knew best how to do to bring food to the table and now that the oil bubble has burst, the hilarity in this foolishness has suddenly become dramatic, with most state governments unable to pay workers salaries.

Only diversification of the economy can save Nigeria.

Those clamouring for the removal of Emefiele as CBN Governor because of the free-fall of the Nigeria are victims of spectacular ignorance.

The dynamics to achieve a stable and strong currency, unfortunately, can not be fabricated even in the laboratory of poisoned politics. The naira is a reflection of our true worth as a nation. *Ntudo is a Lagos based public affairs analyst.

N

igerians have been riveted by the scandal allegedly involving former National Security Adviser, Mr. Sambo Dasuki, under whose charge, the former President Goodluck Jonathan prosecuted the war against the Boko Haram Insurgency. The current Buhari administration and his All Progressives Congress party, have so far painted the alleged misuse and misappropriation of a $2.1 billion vote for the procurement of Arms by Colonel Dasuki and his cronies as a scandal beyond all historical proportion.

But we know that’s a little bit of an exaggeration.

Nigeria has seen worse.

The compelling reasons for the current roadshow seem however to be (a) the gloomy revenue picture for the coming years has unnerved the federal government and it needs a victim for sacrifice to assuage Nigerians increasingly impatient for a change that is not yet visible.

President Buhari wants to continue to blame the past administration for the parlous state of things, (b) President Buhari has it in for Dasuki. There have been hints of an alleged old burning animosity.

It does seem increasingly clear that President Buhari wants to make mince-meat of Sambo Dasuki for reasons not too unconnected to this past.

It seems there’s something very personal in the president’s pursuit of Sambo Dasuki, and I make this statement, not without some hesitation, because on one hand, the President’s fight against the level of corruption revealed so far in the Dasuki affair is necessary and commendable. Yet, we must sound here, a note of caution, because so far, what we have heard is the Buhari government’s story of the scandal. We need to pause and take a deep breath as a nation, and wonder a bit if this government is driving us to a frenzy that could foreclose all reason.

As a newspaper columnist, I am professionally required to be skeptical until all the proofs come in. In fact, good, old reason instructs me to first, doubt the government on any occasion when it brings a case against a citizen, until the clear case is established in a legitimate court and before a fair and fearless judge. That’s what informs my current skepticism in the current government’s pursuit of this case in the manner it is currently pursuing it. Again, let me be as plain as possible: Buhari’s publicly stated mission to find and prosecute all those who have corruptly enriched themselves at the expense of the public is a most commendable thing. But many good things have been known to go south, as the expression goes, too quickly, as a result of the mishandling of process.

The facts as have been outlined by the government prosecutor in the Dasuki case is that the past President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan authorized funds for the use of the

rexmarinus@hotmail.com

Buhari: President, judge and jury The president’s seems set on prosecuting and exerting his own brand of justice on these individuals who have been accused, one of embezzlement of government funds, and the other of treasonable felony

National Security Agency under Dasuki to procure arms for the fight against Boko Haram, but no arms were procured. Part of the money was released by former Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, as it has been revealed, from the recovered Sani Abacha funds held by the government, and given to the former National Security Adviser, after the minister sought the authority of the president, who gave it, and whose action in authorizing the funds should have been the subject of a National Assembly inquiry only if (a) he, as president disbursed money outside of the appropriation act, and (b) without the express authority of legislation, he deployed government emergency funds to any purpose. I do of course confess my ignorance on the question of whether the president of Nigeria has spending authority up to a particular limit outside of legislative authority, and if he does not, the question then must arise on whether he had the approval of the National Assembly to release money from the Abacha funds, and whether he communicated this fact also to the National Assembly. If he did not seek that authority, the 7th National Assembly failed in its duty to the nation in its role as the guardian of the state and chief purser of the nation, as well as the watchmen for the public, in not impeaching President Jonathan... If the National Assembly did not have the information about the withdrawal of money from the National Accounts, the AuditorGeneral of the Federal must be held accountable for dereliction of duty.

These should be the substantive question arising out of this scandal.

What all these point to is

the failure of the law and the disregard of institutions of law. The rule of law is the cornerstone of every democracy. The alternative is arbitrary rule, and that is the fear now being quietly expressed by an increasing number of Nigerians about President Buhari’s style of government. The president has deployed the Department of State Security to deny Mr. Dasuki his freedom. At the moment, Sambo Dasuki is a victim of government because the case against him has not been proved in court. The government prosecutor has arraigned him, and the courts have granted him a bail which the Buhari government has denied him. Last week, in his first media chat, the president made it quite clear that he is scandalized by the Dasuki affair, and on the Nnamdi Kanu event.

The president’s seems set on prosecuting and exerting his own brand of justice on these individuals who have been accused, one of embezzlement of government funds, and the other of treasonable felony. But at this moment, Nigerians must remember that the courts have granted these individuals bail, and that the Buhari administration is defying court orders and keeping these citizens in prison, and denying them their rights for freedom under a democracy. I think the president’s advisers should remind him of the following: one that he is no longer a military president, that the democratic republic is governed by something called the rule of law; two that he cannot continue to subvert the rule of law by making his administration defy court orders. Those accused have been granted bail, they deserve their day in court, but until that day, the government has no business locking them up when the courts have freed them, and three, the president does not have the rights to be both judge and jury in a democracy.

President Buhari has been accused of selective and vindictive pursuit of justice by the PDP opposition in his current anti-corruption stance, but the larger truth is that the president does not have the powers to investigate another administration.

The power to investigate any government lies with the National Assembly which so far seems like a sleeping arm of government – a rubber stamp of every regime.

But I think it is about time that the National Assembly called the president to order in order to prevent the misuse of his powers in a democracy.

SUNDAY VANGUARD,JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 41

C

HRISTIANS are sup posed to be disciples of Jesus. We call him Lord and Saviour; “the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus gives us this charge: “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Nevertheless, many of us who call Jesus “Lord, Lord” do not do the things he says. (Luke 6:46). Worse still, many Christians are unfamiliar with the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus never told anyone to celebrate his birthday. If he wanted us to do so, he would have told us when and how. He did not. Moreover, we know from the scriptures that the early church never celebrated Jesus’ birthday. There is no such record in the Acts of the Apostles. We are told to remember the Lord's death (Luke 22:19), and not to celebrate his birth.

Ungodly birthday parties Every birthday celebration recorded in the bible is ungodly; and results in either mischief or disaster. As one of the special features of his birthday, Pharaoh has one of his servants, the chief baker, hanged.

(Gen 40:20-22). In similar fashion, one of the highlights of Herod’s birthday party is the beheading of John the Baptist.

(Matthew 14:6-11).

Job fears the birthday parties of his children are prone to ungodliness: “When these birthday parties ended- and sometimes they lasted several days- Job would summon his children to him and sanctify them, getting up early in the morning and offering a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said, ‘Perhaps my sons

Christmas tree

CHRIS TIANS SHOULD NO TE CHRISTIANS NOTT CELEBRA CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS (1) have sinned and turned away from God in their hearts.’ This was Job's regular practice.”

(Job 1:4-5).

True enough, God wipes out all of Job’s children in one disaster that comes while they are celebrating the birthday of his oldest son. (Job 1:1319). Thereby, Job comes to realise the vanity of life. He curses his birthday, saying: “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’”

(Job 3:3). So does Jeremiah who exclaims: “Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!”

(Jeremiah 20:14).

Birthday parties are carnal and worldly; therefore believers are never seen holding them in the scriptures. Jesus says: “Whoever loves his life loses it.” (John 12:25). True believers do not celebrate every extra year spent on earth away from God. Unscriptural Christmas Jesus says: “Salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22). However, Christmas is not Jewish: it is Roman. You will not find in the scriptures any of the things normally associated with Christmas, such as the exchanging of gifts; the Christmas tree; the singing of

When Christians decorate green Christmas trees with lights, glitter and tinsel, little do they know they are following the God-forbidden protocols of a pagan festival in honour of an idol god! carols; Santa Claus; the hanging of the mistletoe and the burning of the yule log. These are all of pagan origin.

Charles Spurgeon, the famous English preacher of the nineteenth century, said: "Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas ... we find no scriptural word whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because (it is) not of divine authority.”

Christmas was not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church. The general Jewish pattern was to celebrate the death of a remarkable person rather than his birth. Thus, Solomon says: “A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one's birth.” (Ecclesiastes 7:1-4).

The word “Christmas” itself comes from the combination of two words; “Christ” and “mass.” The mass, according to Roman Catholicism, is a

prayer read for the soul of a dead person. The contradiction of celebrating the death of Christ on a date alleged to be his birthday came about because Christmas originally had nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Jesus.

However, the Church of Rome absorbed the customs, traditions and general paganism of different tribes, cultures and nations, in the bid to make it easy for pagans to become Christians. Accordingly, a feast was established in memorial of Jesus in the fourth century.

In the fifth century, the Roman Catholic Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the same day as the pagan feast of the birth of the sun.

Pagan Christmas December 25 celebrations actually started with sun-worshipers during the time of Nimrod; the man who supervised the building of the tower of Babel. His widow, Semira-

mis, said to be the queen of heaven, had a son called Tammuz; venerated by many as the god of the sun. It was believed that Tammuz died on December 22 and rose from the dead three days later.

Emperor Aurelian of Rome proclaimed the sun god Tammuz to be the principal patron of the Roman Empire on December 25, 274 AD. The date corresponds with the winter solstice when pagans celebrate the renewed power of the sun. It was also the day of the Roman Saturnalia; a festival dedicated to Saturn, the God of Agriculture, after whom Saturday is named.

The Romans also observed “the Kalends of January;” representing the triumph of life over death. The entire season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis; the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” After Constantine, the Roman emperor, won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he forced all the pagans of his empire to be baptized into the Christian church. So doing, Christianity became paganized, especially because pagans far outnumbered Christians. December 25, the date of Tammuz’s alleged rebirth, was then designated as also the birthday of Jesus.

Thenceforth, pagan traditions of feasts, partying, giving and receiving of gifts and drunken orgies became grafted into the Christianity. This means whenever Christians say “Merry Christmas,” we are actually mixing the name of Christ with paganism.

It is written in Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the heathen; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them.

For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple.” (Jeremiah 10:2-4).

What we have here in the scriptures is a perfect description of the decorated Christmas tree. God castigates this as “the way of the heathen.”

He expressly commands we should not subscribe to such idolatry. The green tree is mentioned 14 times in the bible and, in every instance, it is linked with idolatry. And yet, it is this same green tree that Christians use as our Christmas tree.

The tradition of bringing an evergreen tree into homes and decorating it began with heathen Greeks who used it to worship their god Adonia.

They claimed Adonia was killed and brought back to life by the serpent Aessulapius.

Therefore, when Christians decorate green Christmas trees with lights, glitter and tinsel, little do they know they are following the God-forbidden protocols of a pagan festival in honour of an idol god!

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Adeboye, Oritsejafor, Martins agree 2016 inspires hope for change

BY SAM EYOBOKA AND OLAYINKA LATONA

W

HILE most Nigerians en tertain fears about the prospect of Nigeria recovering from current economic morass, eminent Christian leaders including the CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, appear to agree with the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, that the year inspires hope of a real change for Nigeria.

Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev Alfred Adewale Martins called on President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to quickly put in place sound economic policies that would help shore up the nation’s dwindling economy, and save the country from imminent economic collapse.

Asked about his projections into the new year, Pastor Oritsejafor said he was very optimistic that the nation's fortune will turn for the better, revealing that God gave him a theme titled EPHPHATHA which presupposes that God is about to open does of possibilities for the nation and its citizens in the new year.

He therefore urged fellow Nigerians to be totally obedient to all divine injunctions and things that appear to be hopeless today, including the security situation, will be divinely sorted out, "because the King of kings has promised to open doors of possibilities for the

nation to the amazement of all her detractors within and without."

According to the CAN president the only role expected of those who are called by His name, is to humble themselves, turn from evil ways and pray with obedience to the word of God and He will open doors we never imagined and heal the nation.

Similarly, at the cross-over night service at the new auditorium of the Redemption Camp on Simawa Road, Ogun State, Pastor Adeboye acknowledged that the current economic situation in the nation may get worse after which there will be brighter days.

Revealing his annual prophecies for year under four categories; individuals, Nigeria, international, and the RCCG, he said things are likely to get tougher before they get better in the new year, assuring that there will be light at the end of the tunnel and the masses will have cause to glorify God before the end of the year.

The man of God also urged Nigerians not to forget the place of prayer for God to finish what He started in the country, stressing: "In this new year, things are likely to get tougher before they get better, but things will surely get better before the end of the year, provided we did not rejoice too soon.

Keep praying that God will finish what He started last year."

On the international scene, Daddy GO, as he is fondly called by all and sundry, quoted God as saying there would be progressive occurrence of natural disasters until world leaders realized that such happenings are part of di-

vine judgment against unholy laws made by the countries.

He further said a major war will be averted internationally, warning that a new sexualy transmitted disease will surface.

He said: "On the international scene, natural disasters, floods, fire, earthquake, are likely to get progressively worst until governments realized that these are part of divine judgment against those who enact unholy laws. If Government will repent of disdaining Christ and His Church, He will help them win the fight against terrorism."

For individuals, Adeboye said some families will trace the beginning of their generational blessings to this year. Some will obtain help from unexpected sources, grateful hearts will have more causes to be grateful, noting that the chosen few will receive blessing so large they can hardly contain it.

In all the churches visited by Sunday Vanguard correspondents, the crossover night began with Holy Communion services and sessions of hearty praise and worship to express gratitude to God for His wondrous doings in the passing year.

At the Camp, a service of songs where the GO’s wife, Pastor Folu Adeboye and some ministers as well as the church's Mass Choir thrilled the congregation with theme hymns from previous Congresses and conventions. The drama department also showcased a drama which focused on the healing power of Jesus and divine prosperity.

In a message made public through the Director, Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Msgr. Gabriel Osu, Archbishop Martins, while noting that the state of the nation’s economy was in an all-time low, said there was need for the President having finally got his cabinet in place to urgently present the nation with a sound economic blueprint that would help arrest the fast depreciating value of the nation’s currency in the new year and pursue in earnest a diversification of the economy to make it more robust and investor-friendly.

"While the proposed budget recently presented to the National Assembly is encouraging, we hope its provisions, when passed, would be strictly followed and properly monitored so that we can get the required results," he said.

Archbishop Martins while acknowledging the necessity of fighting corruption and recovering much of the nation’s wealth that have been cornered by a few, said that it is necessary that the task of governance and implementation of policies that would impact positively on the lives of suffering Nigerian masses must be pursued without undue distraction.

“If you look around, it is obvious that Nigerians are truly suffering. Our economy is on its knees; the naira has depreciated drastically while fuel scarcity pervades the whole country. Nigerians expect the Buhari-led government to rise up to the challenge of rebuilding the nation as we are anxious to see a positive change that will begin to impact on the day to day life of Nigerians.

Pastor launches 3 books, 2 albums

By JOSEPHINE AGBONKHESE

W

ORSHIPPERS at the King of Kings Evangelical Ministries were, December 20, 2015 in Lagos, treated to a special service whose highlight was the public presentation of two gospel music albums and three books by the host pastor, Pastor Evans Mozurunyem.

Pastor Mozurunyem gave the congregation a taste of his new offering, rendering three songs from the new albums, including “God of mercy” and “Let it shine upon my life;” maintaining that

the album launch should not be seen as a commercial venture but rather a message of deliverance to the world.

The preacher of the day, Bishop Miracle William, in his sermon, attested that the “music is full of messages that blessed,” and called on all to support the good work of Pastor Mozurunyem.

A visibly elated Pastor Mozurunyem said: “It is one of the most wonderful days in my life, celebrating the books and the songs in the albums that I packaged. I thank God for what he has done.”

Page 42, SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Liberia’s VP Boakai on vital home truths from Ebola crisis VIEWPOINT

By Lindsay Barrett

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Tackling a dreaded virus

T

HE Vice President of Liberia Hon. Joseph Nyuma Boakai is regarded by many of his compatriots as being the antithesis of the sophisticated and globally experienced Ellen Johnson Sirleaf whom he partners at the head of Africa’s oldest republic. Although he has had an illustrious career as a technocrat in the public service

of his nation he is regarded as one who has always placed the interests of the grassroots communities at the forefront of his concerns. The one-time Agriculture Minister and former chief executive of major government agencies including the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation recently represented Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf at the ECOWAS 40th Anniversary Summit and while there we had a short chat with him about the state of affairs in Liberia, especially on the issue of the outbreak of the Ebola virus. According to him, Liberia will eventually emerge

Hon. Joseph Nyuma Boakai from the crisis having learnt some vital home truths about social

EDO 2016: The Osunbor edge VIEWPOINT

By Okite Akhigbemudu VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Previewing a forthcoming governorship election

A

S the Edo State gubernatorial election draws close, the people should look deeply at the same time not to go too far as Citizen Oserheimen Osunbor holds the ace to deliver the Heartbeat of the nation.

The former governor and twoterm senator remains the aspirant to beat as he parades the best credentials among the crowd jostling to occupy the Denis Osadebey Government House, Benin City.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, needs not go searching for a

marketable product because Osunbor is already on the shelf for sale.

Those spending money for now to purchase the APC ticket should think twice as none equals Osunbor in status and visible performance.

For the sake of equity and fairness to all, his senatorial district, Edo Central, deserves the slot.

In 18months, the professor of law displayed rare leadership qualities before the forces of destruction truncated his tenure on November 11, 2008.

The teachers and pensioners not for one month missed their salaries as they were paid as and when due.

The civil servants had cause to rejoice for those wonderful months of his reign.

Yes, Osunbor made them rejoice.

He came to Government House in

2007 with the singular aim of taking Edo to its former glory when the state was first among equals but the vagaries of life truncated his laudable mission.

Osunbor knew then that a hungry man is an angry man; he quickly revamped the four farm settlements that the then action Governor Samuel Ogbemudia created in the 70s but abandoned by successive governments and tractors, with other farming equipment deployed into action.

He met a state yearning for good roads and, within six months, he worked on 24 roads across the three senatorial districts spending less than N10billion, a figure that could be described as outrageously conservative compared to the amount some state governments had spent on a 10km road.

Edo Line and Edo City Transport

management. He said, “Apart from the fact that we have identified major deficiencies in our health management policies and systems that we can now work to overcome we have also learnt that we must not ignore the traditional community based elements of social management. Now that we have discovered that the virus can lay dormant and undetected for long periods it is imperative that we collaborate with traditional authorities and community leaders to monitor and effect the isolation of any new outbreak. Liberia is developing its community health were given a life line.

He gave bursary that had been long removed from the lexicon of the state and graduating students smiled to school.

It is on record that Osunbor increased salaries twice and salaries were never owed even for one month as the state experienced industrial harmony for the period.

Above all, Osunbor brought peace and for the 18 months he was in power, security was upper most in his mind as the bandits relocated from the state because there was a citizen Osunbor at Government House who believes the peoples’ lives and property must be secured first.

His loyalty to the APC has remained unshakeable.

He was an advocate of government money must be properly accounted for as the first thing he did barely one month in office was to establish a due process

Elevating the Akwa Ibom brand through gospel concert VIEWPOINT

By Akeem Salau

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

A Carol Festival in retrospect

D

ESPITE the economic challenges faced by the nation in 2015, many institutions and agencies in the country managed to put together different activities to mark the yuletide season and to welcome the New Year.

One of such events is the 8th edition of the Akwa Ibom Christmas Carol Festival which came to life recently amid a display of great splendour and magnificence. The first in the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel, this year ’s edition produced excitement beyond the

VIEWPOINT

By Albert OGRAKA/Agbanashi Obinne

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF The lawmaker and his constituents

O

N your first visit to his office, aides direct you to an upper room reception where you fill a visitor ’s form, indicating your purpose of visit. After assurances that “Honourable would soon attend to all of you”, the aides usher you into the elaborate office of Rt. Hon. Friday Osanebi, the member representing Ndokwa East Constituency at the Delta State House of Assembly. Osanebi is a positive, calm, well-defined gentleman, and a detribalised personality.

usual.

Despite being the first for the Emmanuel’s administration, the celestial night, no doubt, has continued to receive acceptance by the people of the state and tourists.

Although this year’s edition took a new dimension, as the record making 9999 choir did not featured at the carol night, the star studded event featured-international gospel artistes including Donnie McClurkin, Voices of Barbados, Angella Christie and Chevelle Franklyn, with performance of local gospel acts including Asu Ekiye, Anne Inyang, Lara George, Chinelo Dellimono, Aity Dennis and David Eka who literally charged the event.

Indeed, the atmosphere at the Akwa Ibom Township Stadium, venue of the festival, was lively. Over

10,000 guests who participated in rendition of praise and worship of God were filled with joy and happiness.

The festival had carnival-like decorations around the stadium with two long platforms - one was for the governor and family, members of the state executive council, the legislature and the judiciary and another one was for dignitaries. This year’s edition of the gospel concert had the support of Globacom, United Bank for Africa, Le Meridien Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort, Hensek and Zenith Bank.

The Akwa Ibom governor and organising committee showed creativity in the staging of the annual event that was started by the administration of Godswill Akpabio

Osanebi and the 36 clans Devoid of sentiments, he attends to complaints from people of various constituencies, as he deploys his personal resources to improve their conditions. He oftentimes calls on his colleagues on matters about their constituencies and fashioning out ways to help the constituents who throng to his office regularly.

Although Osanebi is the youngest legislator in Delta House of Assembly, the maturity and dexterity he brilliantly exhibits at plenary sessions confirms the zeal to making laws for good governance. His view of the legislative mandate is that a lawmaker should, in the light of the severe economic hardships in the country, not only make laws and check the excesses of the executive arm but also seek ways to cushion

the sufferings of his people, particularly the large army of unemployed youths. He insists that as a legislator, the desire to serve the people must override any other sentiment in order to “build the Delta of our dreams.” “Everyone must work as a team with the collective desire and objective of bringing about development and sustainable growth through the instrumentality of legislation,”he once said. What makes his humane activities so commendable is the exemplary manner he uses his empowerment programmes to assist youths, elders, women, widows and even infants through scholarship awards, skill acquisition, provision of cars, motorcycles, generating sets and sundry tool kits to artisans, and cash

in 2008. It was repackaged in a manner to remain the cynosure of all eyes as well as attract new visitors.

The festival was beamed live on global broadcast media such as DSTV (African Magic and dedicated channels), NTA and AIT. The event was flagged off by Emmanuel accompanied by his wife and children. In his address, the governor disclosed that the annual Christmas Carol Night is one of the shining legacies of the Akpabio administration. He said, “We are proud to inherit, sustain and improve upon it for the good of Akwa Ibom State. This night we have come here to sing to the supreme God who can take us to the Supreme Court.”

The night was electrified when international gospel act, Pastor grants to petty traders and donations to orphanages. Osanebi’s feat as a philanthropist recently led to the implicit vote of confidence passed on him by Youth Presidents from the 36 clans in Ndokwa nation as well as the community Youth Chairmen as a result of his interest in youth development through empowerment. While Osanebi’s determination to promote the overall development interest of Ndokwa and his willingness to support the youths for sustained unity, peace and security in the communities is growing, he has also initiated modalities for wealth creation at the grassroots.

He was House Committee Chairman, DESOPADEC, in his first tenure and later Chairman, Interparliamentary Matters before he became the Deputy Chief Whip. He

management system to a higher standard than ever before in response to the crisis but this should also be regarded as a necessary element of the overall development of the nation as we recover from the trauma of war.

We see overcoming the health crisis as just one more incentive in our drive to rebuild our nation and re-create a society that welcomes investors from all parts of the world, and that will provide a safe and profitable destination for all West Africans as it did in the past.”

office to monitor government spending.

People never liked this development but it went a long way in making him run a clean slate without blemishes while in office.

A man, whose credentials are taller than the resume of all other aspirant put together, has declared his intentions to run for the 2016 Edo governorship election on the platform of APC. This is an opportunity for all elders and youths of Edo who want the state to excel in spheres of all human endeavours to rally round a citizen Osunbor who had patiently waited on the sideline to rightly take back what rightfully belongs to him.

Edo people shine your eyes and vote wisely.

There is a citizen Osunbor who could deliver the state via a governance that has human face.

•Akhigbemudu is a public affairs analyst.

McClurkin, brought down the Shekinah glory when he sang in Efikl anguage, ‘’Eyama ne kwo, eyama ne nekikwo idara ke esami‘’. Angella Christie and David Eka the saxophonists, also charged the stadium with popular gospel hits.

Shortly after the flag-off, the General Overseer of TREM, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, mounted the podium to offer Christmas message.

The guest preacher, reading from Isaiah 9 and Luke 2: 7-11, said, ‘’The love of God to humanity has not changed since creation, to attract the love of God demands building of faith and believing in the teaching of the Holy Spirit.”

In his benediction, Senator Godswill Akpabio said, ‘’ This is one of the legacies that God can never forget because we have kept faith with God, we have come here to join our voices to praise God and we shall continue to have blessings upon us.” has empowered over 1,200 widows across Ndokwa.

The lawmaker is a man with a large heart and father to many orphanage homes throughout the country and has placed many elders, youths and women on monthly stipends. He has given out over 600 motor-cycles to jobless youths and a well over120 cars under his empowerment program.

His scholarship program cuts across indigent students of Delta origin. He is a patron to people with special needs. His re-election to represent Ndokwa East at the Delta State House of Assembly for a second term is as a result of his benevolence and forthrightness in dealing with his legislative duties, oversight functions, and delivering on constituency projects where the mantra of “Empowerment Master” is yielding positive response from the legislature and his constituents.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016 —

VIEWPOINT

By Sani Adamu

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

In defence of the Minister of Information

T

HE politics of pull-himdown is on display at a trade fair craftily packaged to cast a dent on the good name and image of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture.

If there is any doubt that Mohammed, the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been pencilled down for an orchestrated campaign of calumny, recent events and the plethora of uncharitable and unwarranted attacks on his person by those who see him as a thorn in their flesh have obliterated all those doubts.

Mohammed, for the avoidance of doubt, is one of the very few Nigerians who meticulously and creditably performed what has variously been described as pure magic by presenting the then opposition party, APC, as a

VIEWPOINT

By Fabian E. Egun

VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF

Another look at the Delta postelection scenario

G

OV. Ifeanyi Okowa ‘s victory at the Appeal Court was a victory for Deltans and the judiciary. It clearly shows that the judiciary has come of age.

If the ruling of the Appeal Court had gone the other way, it would have attracted the attention of political historians and would have probably won the award of the most unjustifiable ruling of the year 2015.

Now, for the sake of fairness and justice, Okowa, of all Deltans that contested for the governorship seat, was the most politically experienced.

Who is afraid of Lai Mohammed? credible alternative to the then ruling party, PDP. Today, the APC is the governing party, and the PDP has not and probably will never forgive him.

The fact that the achievements of the man are still been talked about with relish and nostalgia is a testimony to his great feat that helped to decimate the PDP. But pray, how can it be a crime that Mohammed played a pivotal role in changing the nature of politics and information management system in Nigeria?

Even in his new role as the Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammed’s exploits have not gone unnoticed. Realizing that one of the keys to successful democratic governance is to ensure effective and sustainable communication between the government and its citizens, the Minister started off by holding a series of consultations and interactive meetings with stakeholders in the information sector, including the Nigerian

By Willie Samson

TRIBUTE IN BRIEF

Celebrating an accomplished octogenarian

O

TEFE-OGHARA was agog when Chief Isaac Ighare’s children, relations and well wishers led him to the dance floor as he celebrated his 85th birthday.

The joy of the octogenarian high chief, who has the honour of producing the highest number of graduates in Oghara Kingdom, knew no bounds when he told journalists that he was happy for God to have given him life and good health for his children to celebrate with him at 85. Ighere, from Otefe-Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area, added that, at 85, he felt so young and strong in the mind, maintaining that at his age he can still do what normal young men could do.

He prayed for his children and the entire Ighere family who deemed it fit to celebrate him in old age.

That explains why, despite the packaged and unrelenting media attacks against him, Mohammed’s hard-earned reputation remains rock solid, especially as he has also availed himself creditably in his new role as the country’s image maker.

It will, therefore, do the anti-Lai Mohammed drum beaters and their pay masters a lot of good if they could quickly realise the nullity of their actions and retrace their steps for good.

Thousands of empty sponsored write-ups would not suffice against an innocent man whose only offence is that he is part of a team that is assiduously working to lay the foundation of the rebirth of a new Nigeria.

Their latest past time is to blame Lai for rallying support for the military in the war against insurgency, yet it is on record that this military, which has been given a new lease of life by President Muhammadu Buhari, has

successfully degraded the capacity of the Boko Haram insurgents to take over any part of the nation’s territory as against what was witnessed during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Also, it is common knowledge that the insurgents, who at one time controlled territories in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, have now been dislodged from their strongholds and sent fleeing.

Those who still believe in Nigeria and the ability of the present government to overcome the huge challenges facing the nation must not cede the space to the naysayers. They must tackle them the same way they did in the run-up to the elections that gave the APC victory. They must join hands with the Minister of Information and Culture to continuously work to bridge the information gap between the government and the citizenry, in the overall interest of the corporate existence of the country.

•Adamu is resident in Abuja.

Okowa’s Appeal Court victory- The truth of the matter Victory would have been highly unpredictable if a fire brigade approach had been adopted in electoral matters. Elections are never won in one day. Okowa has been in the game for a very long time. He was one-time the Secretary of Ika Local Government Council and later the Chairman of Ika North East Local Government Council. This time, former Gov. James Ibori’s era had not commenced.

Okowa later became a Commissioner, served as Secretary to the State Government and later as DG, Campaign Organization of former Governor Uduaghan. He was a notable pillar in Hon. Sam Obi’s short administration and a senator,

Pa Igbare turns 85 VIEWPOINT

Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), Radio and Television Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU) and civil society organisations.

It is also remarkable that unlike the norm in this clime, the Minister has directed governmentcontrolled media not to deny the opposition the opportunity to be heard. This is impressive, considering what some of these media establishments did to his party in its days in opposition.

Despite the daily attacks on the person of Mohammed, the good news is that Nigerians are so discerning that no one can deceive them. Much as they attempted to demonise the man before and during the last general elections, Nigerians sided with him by rewarding his party with their votes, which in turn propelled the party to power.

Page 43

Meanwhile, Eng. Greg Ighere, one of papa’s sons, in his congratulatory message, described his dad as a loving, caring, passionate and Godfearing, saying he did everything possible to create happiness for his children. He said papa attached great value to education which informed the reason while he has so many graduates.

Greg maintained that his father is healthy and strong, noting that he is very happy to th witness his father ’s 85 birthday celebration and prayed to God to grant him many more years.

Another of papa’s sons, Rt. Hon.(Ugo) Richard Ighere, a member of Ethiope West Legislative Council, described his father as a ‘ a jewel of inestimable value who sacrifices everything to create a united and happy family.

In a related development, Mr. Sunday Otemu (papa’s brother), in his congratulatory message, described Ighere as a true brother and a kind hearted man whose entire private and public life

before contesting and winning the governorship seat in 2015.

In this political journey, he fraternized with political colleagues, building bridges, embarking on the empowerment of people and the empowerment was not restricted to a particle area or region.

In addition, PDP has been on ground and in power in Delta for the past 16 years and there has never been any serious opposition to the party’s political hegemony in the state.

PDP has its structure in every nook and cranny of the state, making its presence formidable and undeniable. Even when there is friction and misunderstanding, party members tend to come epitomizes love, kindness, humility, courage and integrity.

A former Vice Chairman of Ethipe West Local Government Council, Rt. Hon. Vincent Atumah, said the octogenarian is a pragmatic leader who held the traditional title of ‘Olotu’ for 23 years and another 23 years as ‘Olorogun’ who ruled Oghara with his royal majesty Orefe 111.

Other children of papa include Dr. Jacob Ighare, Director of Weekend Programme, Delta State Polytechnic, OtefeOghara.

together once there is a common interest. This explains why all the candidates that contested the primary with Okowa, rallied round him during the governorship election.

Given this scenario, it would have been impossible for Okowa to lose the election and, for this reason, the judiciary must be commended for upholding the Delta governorship election result.

Our brothers seeking to upturn the results through the judiciary should let go, bury their hatchet and conserve their energy for the next election. Vibrant opposition should not begin and end in the court premises and with favourable court ruling. It should be channeled towards constructive

criticism which, in the long run, would usher good governance and yield democratic dividends.

This political octopus , Okowa, would definitely be the man to beat in the next governorship election come 2019. His track records have already started speaking for him.

All that is needed is patience and cooperation from all Deltans because of the present economic downturn in Nigeria.

This writer is not a politicians, neither is he aspiring to be one. I am an observer and a businessman, who is just trying to make common and acceptable sense. *Egun lives in Asaba, Delta State capital.

•Chief Isaac Ighare (2nd left) and family members at the ceremony.

PARTNERSHIP PACT: Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel (middle), Secretary to the State Government, Sir Ettekamba Umoren, Commissioner for Investment, Commerce & Industry, Mr Emmanuel Enoidem, Information Commissioner Mr Aniekan Umana (right), Directors of H. O. OIL Consulting Limited,(left) during the signing of Partnership Agreement for the take-off of Coconut Refinery Project, at Government House, Uyo.

PAGE 44—SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

By JAPHET ALAKAM LITERATURE

A

fter a rigorous search by the esteemed panel of judges of the 2015 edition of the Etisalat Prize for Literature, made up of Professor Ato Quayson, Molara Wood and Zukiswa Wanner Africa, the men were finally separated from the boys in the chase for one of Africa’s most prestigious literary prizes.

The shortlist from where the likely winner will emerge are: Democratic Republic of Congo’s Fiston Mwanza Mujila with his book, Tram 83 and the South African duo of Penny Busetto The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself, and Rehana Rossouw, What Will People Say? Of the three, many African literary experts will be happy with the selection of Mujila’s book, for this is the first time a translated fiction will ever be included in the longlist or shortlist of the pan-African prize. Maybe next time, we might have a book in Arabic on the list.

Commenting on the Shortlist, Chair of the judging panel, Professor Ato Quayson, Professor of English and inaugural Director of the Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Toronto said the variety of styles and subject matter of the books on this year’s Etisalat Prize for Literature shortlist reveal the vitality of contemporary African literature.

“They contribute to our understanding of what it is to love, to laugh, to improvise, sometimes to despair, to know and yet be fooled by the assurance of such knowledge, to work for

How men were separated from boys in 2015 Etisalat Prize for Lit our ablution in the fate of another ’s suffering, and ultimately to embrace life in all its bewildering complexities,” he said.

On her part, Zukiswa Wanner Wanner author of Men of the South and London Cape Town Jo’ burg said that this year’s shortlist showcases the varied voices emerging on the African literary scene, bringing something beautiful and unique to the reading experience.

Another member of the panel, Molara Wood pointed out that the shortlisted books challenge ready notions about new writing from Africa. “They expand the field of literary engagement with themes of nationhood and the self. These are highly original voices whose works will charm and astonish new readers, through the Etisalat Prize for Literature, and deservedly so,” she concluded.

As we draw closer and closer to the announcement of the winner, one can’t help but observe the domination of the elite pan-

This year’s shortlist showcases the varied voices emerging on the African literary scene, bringing something beautiful and unique to the reading experience

Rainbow of Life in Artistic romance with Oaks Garden

By PRISCA SAM-DURU VISUAL

O

aks Garden Cultural Centre is no doubt, a cultural space in all ramification.

Uniquely sited at No 1 Jemi Alade street, Isheri Idimu area of Alimosho, Lagos, the centre which is designed as a multipurpose space for all cultural events for the purposes of promoting and preserving the rich cultural heritage of not just Lagos State but every other part of Nigeria, is fast growing into the cultural hub of Nigeria.

In a bid to reinvigorate the centre, the proprietor, a culture and tourism promoter, Mr Ladi Jemi-Alade, organised the Alimosho Art Workshop and Exhibition with theme, ‘Rainbow of Life: Sharing Experiences’.

The exhibition of paintings with diverse medium which held last week at the Centre, featured established artists resident in Alimosho Local Government Area who brought the centre alive with stunning art pieces. They were first engaged in an interactive and inspiring week long workshop prior to the exhibition proper.

The exhibition featured array of works such as Traders Bliss by Ankeli Christopher, Back To School by Uwagboe Bob-Nosa, Ada Godspower ’s Girls and others by Babalola Dare Lawson, Agbezin George, Ahmed

Abdulrazaq Ogbemi Heymann and Olumide Onadipe, To spice up the show as well as showcase its determination to accommodate every form of creativity, the grand opening held on Saturday 12th featured readings from existing works by some Members of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Lagos; drama sketches and a live band.

Jemi-Alade hinted that it was with the view to ensure the centre becomes cultural home for every gifted individual to showcase his or her talent, that the official opening of the exhibition incorporated other forms of creativity.

He further disclosed that as time goes on, the centre will incorporate talent discovery shows, Nollywood and much later, traditional musicians who are already endangered species due to infiltration of western

It featured like minded artists who came together to create awareness and bring culture and ethnic qualities to people

African prize by South A f r i c a n writers, with six of them making the Longlist.

They include The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself by P e n n y Busetto; What About Meera by Z P Dala; By Any Means by Kurt Ellis, • The last three standing Shadow Self written by the 29-year old

by Paula Marais, The Reactive by Obioma, an Assistant Professor Masande Ntshanga, and What Will of literature and creative writing People Say? by Rehana at the University of NebraskaRossouwand. This is a major Lincoln, who has been described improvement from the last edition as the next Chinua Achebe. when the country had three writers, With the announcement of the where one of them Davids, made winner coming up early next the shortlist. year, it is tough reading the minds Like South Africa, Nigeria also of the eminent judges, but that had three of its young writers in only heightens the excitement. the 2014 longlist, with Okparanta They must be scratching their in the shortlist, but it was no so this heads at the moment, for the year as no Nigerian author made books on the shortlist are indeed the shortlist this time, as only two great works of literature. of them managed to make the For instance, Fiston Mwanza longlist.

Mujila’s novel, Tram 83, was a Though no Nigerian has won the French Voices 2014 grant prize, there were high hopes that recipient and won the Grand Prix one of the Nigerians, 29-year old du Premier Roman des SGDL. It Obioma’s The Fishermen would was also shortlisted for numerous at least make the shortlist. Such other awards, including the Prix hopes, tinged with patriotic du Monde. Tram 83 has drawn fevours, were hinged on the rave comparisons to Fitzgerald, reviews received by The Fishermen Céline, García Márquez, Hunter environ with the aim of promoting arts and culture as well as ethnic qualities.

Lawani also disclosed that the reason for the show was that most of the creative works are not available in other parts of the state besides, there is over dependence on Victoria Island which makes it difficult for people resident outside the area to access art. So the centre and the exhibition which also encouraged school children to see the artists at work she said, provides an i m p r e s s i v e • Back To School by Nosa displayed during alternative for art lovers. the exhibition One of the artists, Uwagboe music into the Nigerian music Bob-Nosa who does more of space. He noted that the theme, protest art said that the entire ‘Rainbow of Life: Sharing “Show was the idea of Mr JemiExperiences’ explains why the Alade and I looked at it and exhibition is full of colours with discovered that this is exactly one artists showcasing variety of of the things we need to boost works with diverse sub-themes tourism and culture. He is an while sharing their personal expert in that field so I decided experiences. to be part of it because I am sure The coordinator of the workshop his vision is good for the sector.” and exhibition, who herself is an With some of his works on art collector and promoter, Mrs display, speaking to issues Dupe Lawani said the exhibition regarding education in the which ended on Sunday 20th, country, Bob Nosa believes that featured like-minded artists who the exhibition will go a long way came together to create awareness in creating awareness that there and bring culture and ethnic are fine artists resident in qualities to people within the Alimosho.

S. Thompson and even a painting by Hyeronimous Bosch or a piece by Coltrane.

Tram 83 is the story of Requiem, a gangster rapidly gaining power and influence in a fictional, dystopian African city and his friend, Lucien, a writer who visits him and is sucked into Requiem’s corrupt empire and the city’s outrageously extravagant, filthyglamorous nightlife. The title refers to Tram 83, a nightclub where wealthy tourists, gangsters, miners, and prostitutes (ranging in age from 12 to “ageless”) go every night, all night.

Born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1981, Mujila studied Literature and Human Sciences at Lubumbashi University. He now lives in Graz, Austria and is pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages.

The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself by Penny Busetto is set principally on the island of Ponza, off the Italian mainland, but has a haunting South African backstory that edges into the narrative about a fifth of the way in. The fictional novel won the 2013 European Union Literary Award as well as the 2014 University of Johannesburg Debut Prize.

Born in Durban, South Africa, Busetto grew up in Cape Town, but moved to Italy when she was 17, where she studied and married. Last, but not least on the Shortlist is Rehana Rossouw ’s What Will People Say?, a story of the Fourie family, residents of Hanover Park in the Cape Flats during the height of the struggle era.

Established in 2013 to celebrate contemporary African fiction, the Etisalat Prize for Literature awards £15,000 prize money to the best debut fiction writer. This year ’s shortlisted writers will be rewarded with a sponsored multi-city book tour and will also have 1,000 copies of their books purchased by Etisalat for distribution to schools, libraries and book clubs across the Continent.

The winner of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature will be announced in March and will also receive an engraved Montblanc Meisterstück pen.

The Prize also includes an Etisalat sponsored fellowship at the University of East Anglia, mentored by Professor Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland.

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016 —45

CHAN: Eagles form worries coaches S

UPER Eagles assistant coach Jean Losciuto has admitted that the physical condition of Nigerian players for the CAF African Nations Championship is far from being satisfactory.

Belgian-born Losciuto who was speaking in Lagos before the team left for South Africa said the coaches will use their brief stay in Pretoria to whip the boys into competition mood before they hit Rwanda, where they will play their group opener against Niger Republic on January 18.

“The physical condition of the players is yet to reach maximum level and

this is not satisfactory.

“The altitude here in Abuja is not the same with the one we will experience in Rwanda, that was the reason we picked Pretoria as our pre-tournament camp site.

“As soon as we hit Pretoria, we will reach high altitude the same as in Rwanda. This will be good for the players and the training. I believe the problem of physical condition will be solved,” Losciuto told Brila FM. The team will play against Angola on January 6, and then against Cote d’ Ivoire on January 11 before moving to Rwanda to start their CHAN campaign. The Eagles are the same group with Niger, Tunisia and Guinea.

‘Missing’ Ivorian player dies in Germany

F

•Ighalo..Staying put at Watford

ORMER Wigan defender Steve Gohouri has been found dead in Germany two weeks after going missing.

The 34-year-old was expected to join his family in Paris for Christmas, but hasn’t been seen since attending his TSV Steinbach team’s festive party on December 11.

After 22 days of searching for the defender, his body has now been found in the River Rhine.

It’s so far not been disclosed the circumstances surrounding his death.

Gohouri spent three seasons with Wigan in the Premier League from 2009 to 2012 and made 44 appearances in all competitions.

I’m going no where, says Ighalo N

I G E R I A international Odion Ighalo has ruled out the possibility of departing Watford in the January transfer window.

•Yusuf

Ex-Enyimba continued from B/P goalkeeper died few hours into the New Year, giving up the ghost after a long battle to keep his life. Agwu who was also former Kaduna United goalkeeper is the second player to have died in less than five days after the death of former Nasarawa United

captain, Baba Idris.

Late Agwu was a great penalty kick stopper as second choice goalkeeper, when Kaduna United upset Enyimba in a penalty shootout to win the Federation Cup in 2010, which later earned him a call-up to the Super Eagles same year.

squad continued from B/P international goalkeeper Femi Thomas, Shooting Stars’ central defender Jamiu Alimi and former Supersand Eagles’ ace Bartholomew Ibenegbu have also been included.

The Eagles B team, alongside technical and backroom staff, flew out of the country on Saturday afternoon to Cape Town, South Africa, where a 10 –day preChampionship training camp has been arranged, alongside two friendly games against fellow Rwanda –bound Angola and Cote d’Ivoire on C M Y K

January 6 and 11 respectively. Oliseh arrived South Africa ahead of the delegation.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles B finished third at the 3rd African Nations Championship held in South Africa in 2014, and Sunday Oliseh’s invigorated squad aims to win the Cup in Rwanda on February 7.

The Eagles B will campaign in Group C of this year’s championship alongside 2011 winners Tunisia, Niger Republic and Guinea, with matches to be played at the Stade Regional Nyamirambo, Kigali.

The 26-year-old has been in fine fettle this season, bagging 14 goals and two assists in 19 Premier League appearances for the Hornets.

His form has most certainly not gone unnoticed, with reports in the English media suggesting that Atletico Madrid are keeping tabs on the former Udinese frontman.

However, Ighalo is fully focused on the task at hand, and insists he is committed to the Watford cause.

“I want to finish the season strongly with Watford and prove that we have a good bunch of players here,” he told BBC Sport. “When the focus is on a strong finish, transfer talk will not get to you.

“Watford are doing well at the moment because we have a fantastic team and not because of one particular player.

“We didn’t get the result we deserved

against Tottenham but we want to put that right against Man City - that’s what is in front of me right now.

“It’s a new year in front of our fans, I want to keep scoring for my team and fight hard alongside my team-mates.”

Ighalo is currently third in the Premier League top scorers table, and will have the chance to claim top spot, depending on results elsewhere, when the Hornets face title hopefuls Manchester City on Saturday.

The Nigerian insists he does not pay any heed to the statistics, saying he is only focused on improving.

“I haven’t really bothered myself about statistics because I’ve always had my feet on the ground and I never forget where I come from,” Ighalo added.

“I am just focused on getting better, doing things right on the pitch and being myself on the pitch.”

Ighalo continued from B/P including games against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham.

This is a very remarkable feat.”

Adelakun went on to confirm that in the short

lifespan of the New African Soccer awards, Ighalo becomes the first player who has won the monthly award twice in a season.

It will be recalled that he also won the October award.

•Steve Gohouri He also includes Borussia Monchengladbach, Young Boys and Maccabi Tel Aviv in his previous teams and most recently moved to German minnows TSV Steinbach.

Gohouri, who had 13 caps for Cote d’ Ivoire, attended the Christmas party of his German club TSV Steinbach before heading to see his family in Paris, but he never arrived.

•Action during a match between Pavillion FC and Anthony Team B FC organized by Applesoft and Anthony Youth Football Fiesta 2015 at Anthony Recreation Centre,Anthony Village, Thursday 31st of December 2015 in Lagos. Team B won with 2-0.

PHOTO: AKEEM SALAU

Arsenal continued from B/P beyond goalkeeper David De Gea. United hit back thanks to fine work by Martial who found Rooney, with the striker ’s smart flick beating goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Arsenal opened up a two-point lead at the top of the table as they claimed an unconvincing 1-0 win over Newcastle United at Emirates Stadium.

Petr Cech made some vital saves for Arsene

Wenger ’s side, with Newcastle’s Georginio Wijnaldum frustrated by the goalkeeper.

The Gunners took the lead against the run of play when Laurent Koscielny bundled in from close range after Olivier Giroud won a header in the penalty area.

Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll scored headed goals as West Ham United defeated Liverpool 2-0 at Upton Park in the day’s early kickoff.

UNDAY Vanguard 46 — S SUNDAY Vanguard,, JANUAYR 3 , 2016

McClaren rues Arsenal defeat S

TEVE McClaren says Newcastle “can’t believe” they were beaten at Arsenal but has bemoaned his side’s poor defending for the hosts’ winner.

Newcastle were the better

McClaren

side for large periods at the Emirates, creating numerous chances, but were beaten 10 as Ayoze Perez switched off at a late corner to allow Laurent Koscielny a tap-in.

The defeat was the Magpies’ third-consecutive late loss over the festive period, leaving the club in the Premier League relegation zone.

“The players can’t believe it, we controlled and dominated the game after the first 10 minutes,” McClaren said.

“We asked for a performance and the players gave it, but we conceded one soft goal and lost the game. You can’t fault the performance, we just have to be more ruthless at both ends.

“We caused them so many problems and controlled them at the back and we’re bewildered how we have not got anything.

“In the last three games we have lost 1-0 against Everton in the last minute, 1-0 to West Brom in the last 10 minutes and this one. The spirit is tremendous and I can’t fault them, I’m just really disappointed.”

Newcastle are 18th in the table but are crucially only two points behind Swansea City.

IN VAIN . . . Arsenal’s midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (C) vies in vain with Newcastle United’s midfielder Jack Colback (2R) during their EPL match at the Emirates Stadium. Photo: AFP

Leicester players deserve popping champagne — Ranieri L EICESTER City manager Claudio Ranieri says his players deserve champagne after reaching 40 points with a 0-0 draw against 10-man AFC Bournemouth.

The Foxes fell two points behind leaders Arsenal at the top of the Premier League after a match that saw Jamie Vardy hit the post and Riyad Mahrez have a second-half penalty saved by Artur Boruc.

Leicester have not scored or won for three consecutive matches, but Ranieri was still in the mood for celebration having reached his 40-point target after just 20 matches.

He said: “A draw is not okay as it is only one point, but it is okay as we have 40 points which was the goal – it is champagne for my players!

“We knew it was a difficult match and we started playing

too late. Bournemouth moved the ball very quickly but in the second half we were much better.”

Ranieri admits certain tweaks are required after Leicester failed to score yet again, but insists he is not overly concerned because his team are at least creating the chances to score.

He continued: “We hit the post, we missed a penalty and had some good chances. The performance was good, a fantastic effort.

“We have not scored for three games but we have had chances.

Sometimes everything is right but now some things are wrong.”

Leicester next face Tottenham twice in back-toback FA Cup and Premier League matches at White Hart Lane.

Ranieri

Pogba takes lessons from Iniesta

P

Pogba C M Y K

AUL Pogba is taking inspi ration from Andres Iniesta as he learns to live with more responsibility at Juventus.

Juve sold experienced trio Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal over the closeseason, increasing the spotlight on France international Pogba.

Pogba, and Juve, have regained top form in recent weeks after a slow start to their

defence of the Scudetto and Pogba revealed he has been taking lessons from Barcelona star Iniesta.

He told La Stampa newspaper: “Obviously without Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez it is a different Juventus. There’s more responsibility on the other players and we have to focus more on working as a unit. The same is true for me.

Woodwork denies Messi, Suarez in derby stalemate

L

IONEL Messi and Luis Suarez both hit the woodwork as Barcelona were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by a spirited Espanyol side in yesterday’s Catalan derby.

Espanyol set their stall out from the off at Cornella El Prat, with their intensity and aggression proving an effective method of nullifying their illustrious neighbours’ wealth of attacking talent.

Barca were far from their best, but for all Espanyol’s hard work, the hosts still had to rely on the help of the frame of the goal to claim an unlikely point.

Messi was first to go close when his sublime 25-yard freekick shortly before half-time beat Espanyol goalkeeper Pau Lopez all ends up but struck the angle of post and crossbar.

Suarez had a goal disallowed for offside and then hit the post early in the second half when it appeared easier to score, as Luis Enrique’s team began 2016 with a point that means Atletico Madrid will go top of La Liga with a win over Levante later on Saturday.

Barca began the game in uncharacteristically sloppy fashion and struggled to get out of their own half early on thanks to Espanyol’s impressive attitude with and without the ball.

Suarez

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JANUARY 3, 2016, PAGE 47

C M Y K

SUNDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 3, 2016

Arsenal go clear, Rooney clinches Man U win as Liverpool go down

W

AYNE Rooney ’s 188th Premier League goal earned Manchester United a first win in nine attempts

CHAN 2016: Oliseh names squad

in all competitions as they beat Swansea 2-1 at Old Trafford.

After a goalless first half, United broke the deadlock two minutes into the second period when Anthony Martial headed in from Ashley Young’s cross.

Gylfi Sigurdsson made it 1-1 for Swansea when the midfielder connected with Modou Barrow’s cross to send the ball

continues on page 45 •Rooney

H

EAD Coach Sunday Oliseh has released the list of 23 players of the Super Eagles B squad who will seek to do Nigeria proud by winning the African Nations Championship title in Rwanda.

Goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, defenders Austin Oboroakpo and Chima Akas, Olympic Team midfielders Usman Mohammed and Yaro Bature and forward Chisom Chikatara headline a list that also includes Enyimba FC’s skillful winger Ezekiel Bassey, former junior international Ifeanyi Mathew and the Sunshine Stars’ trio of Paul Onobi, Prince Aggrey and Tunde Adeniji.

Former junior

Ighalo wins award

W

ATFORD striker Odion Ighalo has unanimously won the Premier League’s African Player award for the month of December.

In a release put out by award organisers, New African Soccer, Nigeria international Ighalo was so overwhelming in his performance and reviews that there was “very little need for a shortlist to be announced”.

Award director Tunde Adelakun said in the statement, “Ighalo spent December scoring goals for his team. He scored in all six games played in a packed December schedule of fixtures, continues on page 45

continues on page 45 •CONTEST: Super Eagles star, Chisom Chikatara attempts to outwit a Burkinable opponent during the CHAN qualifier in P.Harcourt. Nigeria won 2-0

Eagles meet Oliseh in SA T

•Oliseh

HE Super Eagles ‘B’ team arrived South Africa yesterday and met up with coach Sunday Oliseh in Cape Town, officials have disclosed.

Ailing Oliseh was not part of the Eagles training camp in Abuja, but has now arrived South Africa for the

final leg of the team’s buildup for the CHAN in Rwanda.

Twenty three players are in the training camp in South Africa and except for injury, all the players were named in the final squad for the tournament open only for those who are

CROSS WORD PUZZLE DOWN ACROSS 1. Sample (5) 1. Governor of Sokoto 2. Niger state town (4) State (8) 3. Observe (5) 5. Assistant (4) 4. Lecture (6) 7. Praise (5) 5. Everyone (3) 8. Upright (4) 6. Use (6) 9. Lantern (4) 10. Inquires (4) 11. Tradition (6) 13. Lagos masquerade (3) 12. Carpet (3) 14. Colour (6) 15. Exclamation (2) 15. Resistance unit (3) 16. Pig’s nose (5) 17. Coax (4) 18. Agent (3) 19. Rollicked (6) 20. Glitters (6) 21. Hatchet (3) 24. Forward (5) 22. Satisfied (4) 25. Nigerian state (6) 23. Nigerian state (3) 27. Boring tool (3) 26. Cry of derision (3) 29. Ghanaian fabric (5) 27 . African country (6) 31. Perform (2) Endure (4) 32. Oshiomhole’s state (3) 28.

29. Child (3) 34. U.S. currency (6) 30. Spoke (6) 36. Vow (4) 31. Adorn (5) 38. Musical quality (4) 33. Baking chambers 39. Inclination (5) (5) 40. Eager (4) 35. Asterisk (4) 41. Damages (8) 37. Possessed (3)

•Ighalo

based in their various home leagues. However, Lobi Stars defender Samson Gbadebo will only join up with the rest of the squad early next week as his entry visa is being processed.

All the 23 players will be making their CHAN debut in Rwanda.

Ex-Enyimba goalkeeper dies on New with the death of former protracted illness.

Year day Enyimba International Sahara Sport reports

N

IGERIAN football recorded another tragedy on New Year day

goalkeeper, Chinedu Agwu who was pronounced dead after a

that the 29-year-old

continues on page 45

PREMIER LEAGUE RESULTS

See solution on page 5

•Agwu

West Ham Arsenal Leicester Man Utd Norwich City Sunderland West Brom Waftord

2 1 0 2 1 3 2 1

Liverpool Newcastle Utd Bournemouth Swansea City Southampton Aston Villa Stoke City Man City

Today’s matches Crystal Pal Everton

v v

Chelsea Tottenham

0 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 2:30pm 5:00pm

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